A Sunday live-streamed program for the second Oshi no Ko anime season debuted the first main promotional video, a new main visual, and new character visuals for the season. The program and the video both revealed two more cast members, the opening theme song, and the July 3 premiere for the season. Sunday's program also announced a preview screening of the first two episodes at Anime Expo with guests.
The newly announced cast members are:
- Ayane Sakura (left in image above) as Abiko Samejima, the creator of the manga that inspired the 2.5D stage play Tokyo Blade
- Daisuke Ono (right) as GOA, the scriptwriter of the 2.5D stage play Tokyo Blade
The musical artist GEMN performs the second season's opening theme song "Fatale," as heard in the video above. The staff will announce more details about this artist in the future, although the artist's official website opens today.
The season will premiere on July 3 at 11:00 p.m. (10:00 a.m. EDT) on Tokyo MX and over 29 other channels throughout Japan. It will also stream simultaneously on the ABEMA service in Japan. The Marunouchi Piccadilly theater will host an advance screening (with live streaming to other theaters) of the first episode with the cast on June 30.
Anime Expo will host an advance screening of the second season's first two episodes (after screening the first season's first episode) with cast member Yurie Igoma (Ruby Hoshino) and producer Shimpei Yamash*ta at the Los Angeles Convention Center on July 6.
Sunday's program presented new character visuals for Aqua and Akane:
The second season's story will focus on a 2.5D stage play titled
. In the story, the play is an adaptation of a manga. In the play, Kana Arima (voiced by Megumi Han) will play Tsurugi, Akane Kurokawa (voiced by Manaka Iwami) will play Sayahime, Aqua Hoshino (voiced by Takeo Ōtsuka) will play Touki, and Melt Narushima (voiced by Seiji Maeda) will play Kizami.
The new cast for the second season includes Kōki Uchiyama as Taiki Himekawa (Blade in "Tokyo Blade") and Yūsuke Kobayashi as Sakuya Kamoshida (Monme in "Tokyo Blade").
HIDIVE previously confirmed at Anime Expo 2023 that it will stream the second season.
The first television anime of Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari's Oshi no Ko manga premiered in Japan in April 2023 with a 90-minute first episode. HIDIVE streamed the anime as it aired in Japan, and it is also streaming an English dub. The company stated that the anime became the streaming service's "#1 series launch in the streamer's history."
Daisuke Hiramaki (Selection Project) and Chao Nekotomi (Love is Like a co*cktail) directed the first season at Doga Kobo. Jin Tanaka (The Misfit of Demon King Academy) handled the series scripts. Kanna Hirayama (Rent-A-Girlfriend) designed the characters. YOASOBI performed the opening theme song "Idol." Queen Bee performed the ending theme song "Mephisto."
Akasaka (Kaguya-sama: Love is War) and Yokoyari (Scum's Wish) launched the manga in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine in April 2020. Shueisha's MANGA Plus service is releasing the manga in English digitally.
Yen Press licensed the manga, and it describes the story:
Gorou is a gynecologist and idol fan who's in shock after his favorite star, Ai, announces an impromptu hiatus. Little does Gorou realize that he's about to forge a bond with her that defies all common sense! Lies are an idol's greatest weapon in this outrageous manga from Aka Akasaka (Kaguya-sama: Love is War) and Mengo Yokoyari (Scum's Wish).
The manga won first place in the seventh "Next Manga Awards" (Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Taishō) in 2021, and also won in the Best General Manga category in the 46th annual Kodansha Manga awards in 2022. The series was nominated for the 26th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2022, and has also been nominated for the 14th and 15th Manga Taisho Awards. The manga ranked at #7 on the top 20 list of manga for male readers in the 2022 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! (This Manga Is Amazing!) guidebook. The manga has over 3 million copies in circulation.
The manga is also inspiring a live-action film and television series adaptation. Toei will release the film in theaters while the television series will exclusively stream on Amazon Prime Video worldwide in "winter 2024."
Update: Tomoyuki Shimura also joins the cast as Toshirō Kindaichi. Thanks, Eddy2.
Sources: Oshi no Ko 2nd season live stream, Press release
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
