To give credit where it’s due, there aren’t many shows who could take what was basically a 22-minute- well, it’s commonly referred to as a squabble between animals of the feline persuasion, but I don’t use the term – as entertaining as this was. Oshi no Ko can do trashy very well, and this ep was a shining example of that. It’s an odd mess of contradictions, this series. It seemingly works very well at either end of the dignity & seriousness spectrum (if such a thing existed) and stumbles whenever it tries to split the difference.

A fair bit of this episode actually focused on Melt (who could take anybody seriously with that name?). One can feel sort of sorry for him, as he’s just a half-bright, half-talented pretty boy who’s in over his head. Not a bad guy, just an insignificant one. If there’s anything that makes Melt sympathetic it’s that he’s self-aware enough to realize his own inadequacies and even wish to surmount them. But that presents a challenge for Akasaka, in fact. As with the too-neat resolution to every industry critique he floats, if Melt actually succeeds in “Tokyo Blade” that’s an implicit demeaning of acting both as a skill and a profession.

Melt does score some points here by trying to save Ruby (the narrative is desperate to find any way to make her relevant to this arc, and that’s a recurring theme) and her friend from the predatory Kamoshida-kun. But the main thrust is the open warfare between Kana and Akane. Kana is kind of taking Melt under her wing, too, but that’s really a sidebar. For the moment it seems as if Akane has the upper hand – in “Blade” terms at least, they’re on the same side of the battle – but Kana is still better at the art of verbal attack.

Melt and Aqua make an interesting contrast in their self-doubt, because Aqua’s comes from a much more informed place (largely thanks to Kana’s influence on him). I don’t frankly care that much about the battle itself but it’s kind of interesting to watch how he approaches it. Going to Gotanda for help is natural for Aqua, though one senses that as far as the acting part he’d more reflexively have turned to Kana if that were possible. Gotanda is also trying to help prevent an on-stage meltdown driven by PTSD, but obviously the reason Aqua supposedly can’t do emotional acting is because he’s running away from his emotions.

Akane remains a piece of work. She’s fine with the idea that Aqua is in this to kill someone – she’s basically  a yandere herself, after all. It’s only natural for the fanbase to be split on Akane vs. Kana, because that’s what fanbases do and in the final analysis, the elephant in the room is that this is really about pairing off Aqua with one or the other. I tend to favor Kana myself – they’re both seriously messed up in their own way, but I just find her the more endearing figure. I also get the sense that as mean as she can be (and is, here) she has a moral core that ultimately pulls her back from the cliff of outright depravity. And I don’t think Akane has that.

I strongly suspect “Tokyo Blade” is going to be a hit, because that’s just what Akasaka does. And of course nothing is going to be definitively decided in the Akane-Kana wars. So I think the drama is going to be more in the execution than the resolution, and in the impact all this ultimately has on Aqua’s psyche and his revenge quest. Again, credit where it’s due – Oshi no Ko is good at mining entertainment value out of stuff like this, which is normally not my bailiwick as a viewer. I can see why a lot of fans consider this arc the series at its best – it very clearly plays to its strengths.