The third season of the TV anime series "Oshi no Ko," based on the popular manga serialized in "Weekly Young Jump" (Shueisha), is currently airing on TOKYO MX and 36 other stations nationwide. This series depicts the light and dark sides of the entertainment industry, and the voice actress who plays Arima Kana, known as "the genius child actor who can make you cry in ten seconds," is Han Megumi, who has been active as a child actor since she was little and has outstanding acting skills. In the third season, Arima Kana finds herself in a difficult situation due to her own love life and a scandal. What were Han's thoughts as she approached the character of Arima Kana? We spoke to her about what went on behind the scenes of the recording.
◇ The moment of liberation for Kana Arima, who has been deprived of her "cuteness"
"Oshi no Ko" is a popular manga written by Akasaka Aka, the creator of "Kaguya-sama: Love is War," and Yokoyari Mengo, the creator of "Scum's Wish," and was serialized in "Weekly Young Jump" from April 2020 to November 2024. It tells the story of a twin brother and sister left behind by a genius idol named Ai, who suddenly dies.
Pan, who has been playing Arima Kana since the first season began airing in April 2023, said that from the beginning, she has been told during recordings, "Please don't play Arima Kana in a cute way."
"I think that's probably because I ended up expressing myself as cuter than I realized. When I wanted to show Kana's true nature, the nuance of cuteness was just a distraction. Arima Kana is like having a 'little old man' inside her stomach. There have been scenes where she's grumbling while eating dried squid, and her way of speaking is old-fashioned. As a child actor, I was surrounded by adults, so I have a very specific way of speaking and intonation. In that environment, when it comes to cuteness, I don't need to express it, just being there is cute. So I've been suppressing my cuteness in my acting."
That hidden cuteness was unleashed in the 2.5-dimensional stage version of the second season, when Arima Kana showed off her "star acting" by saying, "Look at me more."
"The direction I received on that stage was to 'show off my cuteness with all your might,' which left a strong impression on me. Up until then I had been performing for someone else, but now it was okay to let my ego out and assert myself, 'Aren't I cute? Look!' I felt like a part of my own expression that had been suppressed had been released."
Regarding Aqua, who gave Arima Kana the opportunity to "liberate" herself on the 2.5-dimensional stage, she feels that "he has been shining the spotlight on Arima Kana in both the first and second seasons."
"In the first season of "Kyouama" (the drama "Kyou wa Amakuchi de" starring Arima Kana), Aqua helped Kana do the acting she wanted to do, and she was in the spotlight, and in the Idol Edition, Aqua waved glow sticks at the live show. I interpreted each time as Kana being reborn many times. That's why I feel like I was reborn as Aqua again on stage."
While playing the role of Arima Kana, who is reborn many times, she says that the one thing she always values is "the compassionate part of always making choices for someone else."
"Arima Kana has a strong will to continue acting on her own, but on top of that, when it comes to making choices like 'becoming an idol', she has always done things that go against her own thoughts. That is for someone other than herself. However, becoming an idol and performing on stage have both been for her own benefit. She makes choices for others, but she is conscious of the 'cycle' that comes back to her. She says she has not lived her life just because she wants to stand out or act."
◇The third season was "Ahh... so painful" but MEMcho saved me
In the third season, Aqua, the girl Arima Kana has a crush on, and Kurokawa Akane start dating, and Pan, who plays Kana, said she felt "Ahh... so painful."
"As for Arima Kana, I think this is the turn where all of her 'not knowing' comes back to her like a boomerang. Ruby is a relative of Aqua and knows Ai, Akane is getting closer to the truth about Aqua with her amazing profiling skills, and MEMcho heard Aqua's true feelings in episode 25. But Kana is left out of the loop. It made me realize just how painful it is not knowing."
In the midst of all this, I was saved by the dialogue between me and MEMcho, played by Okubo Rumi.
"MEMcho was nearby and it was she who sensed that I was out of the loop and was thinking about me, so I thought, 'Thank you, MEMcho.' I wanted to cry and scream, but I couldn't tell anyone, but because MEMcho was listening, I was able to pour out my feelings. I thought it was great that after Ruby made her breakthrough, the two of them, who felt left behind in B Komachi, were able to have a moment to lean on each other, and it was very memorable when I was acting."
◇ Shocking "Scandal Edition" "I want to deliver something meaningful"
Despite MEMcho's support, Arima Kana is depressed by her broken heart and thinks that even Aqua herself hates her, so she begins to worry about continuing her idol activities. Then, at a drinking party she attends in the hopes of landing an acting job, she makes a connection with a famous film director, which develops into a major "scandal." When Ms. Pan read the original "Scandal Arc" of Arima Kana, she said, "It was painful, like it was my own child."
"The work was trending on social media even back then, and every time the names "[Oshi no Ko]" and "[Arima Kana]" came up I'd go 'Ugh...' In the story, everyone is trying to keep Arima Kana's scandal from becoming public. But to the readers, everything is already public, and it felt like all of Arima Kana's scandals had been exposed to the world, so it wasn't just someone else's problem. So I felt I had to take responsibility and deliver this to them. After all, you need to be prepared to deliver it. I wanted to deliver it not just as a scandal, but as something meaningful that wasn't in vain. I had time to build up that resolve until the recording, so it felt like I was undergoing training as a person as well."
Pan approached the recording session with the understanding that Kana Arima's state of mind in the "Scandal" episode was "a feeling of being at the brink of ultimate despair."
"It ties in with the idol arc of the first season, but there's a scene where Arima Kana, who is on stage as a new idol, mutters in a monologue, 'Someone, someone, tell me it's okay for me to be here,' and I think that's what she really wants deep down in her heart. It's like all of that has been completely denied. In 'Sign wa B' there's a line that says, 'Even if the world rejects me and I feel all alone, as long as you're on my side, there's nothing to be afraid of,' and I think that sometimes that all turns upside down."
In episode 30, when Kana mutters to herself that her current job "isn't right for me," she said, "When I do this job, there are times when I think the same thing. There are things I can't do well, and I wonder if things will be okay in the future. It was a moment that resonated with my real emotions. I decided to face that honestly. I acted hoping to pour all the emotions I have now, and all the good and bad parts of the experiences I've had so far, into that moment."
"When I watched Aqua and Ruby, I felt that both Ikoma (Yurie) and Otsuka (Takao), who played them, were throwing everything away and putting their lives on the line. I had always thought that if there was ever a scene where I could put my life on the line, I would have to do it, so I felt that now was the time."
Of all the scenes in the "Scandal" series, the one that made the biggest impression on Mr. Pan was the scene in episode 30 where Kana, after a long monologue, screams "Ahhh!!" in an empty park, finally letting go.
"This is the moment when Arima Kana stands up. I feel that Arima Kana was reborn here again. In the sense that she was able to recover thanks to Aqua, this is the scene where she was reborn thanks to Aqua. I think that this 'Ahh--!!' is her 'first cry.' It may have been the moment when I thought to myself, 'I will survive in this entertainment world as I am!' and decided to live for myself."
◇A place where you can feel love and want to give back love
When the series first began, Pan was worried about how the "Scandal Arc" would be portrayed in the anime, but he was impressed by the staff's consideration during the production process of the anime, including recording, and said, "I think people will feel that this "Scandal Arc" had meaning."
"The staff had their own ideas of 'I want to show it like this' and 'I don't want to show it like this', and even in the scenes that were added to the anime, they carefully depicted what 'this character originally wanted to do' by using pauses. Both the original author and the director were very flexible in their response to our acting. It was a set where we were allowed to change the images to suit the acting."
He says that the set of "Oshi no Ko" is "a place where you can feel the love" for the work and the characters, and "I really think it's a place where you want to give that back. It's the same with the relationship between idols and fans, fans also want to give back in return for what they have received. If your favorite idol gives you fan service, you think, 'This is my forever favorite!' I felt that through "Oshi no Ko" as well," he says, expressing his endless feelings for the work.
Going forward, "Oshi no Ko" will enter a period of dramatic development. It's not just shocking, but there is something even more that the series wants to convey, as can be seen from the visuals and the voice actors' performances. (Shiroinu/MANTANWEB)
