Mirza Aaqib Beg
In ‘Oshi no Ko’ episode 7 titled ‘Buzz,’ Miyako gets a call from the police station to inform her about Akane’s suicide attempt and Aqua’s heroic actions. Since Akane is not in the mental state to continue immediately, she takes an indefinite break. In the meantime, Aqua strategically plans to improve Kurokawa’s public image by compiling a video of her with the rest of the cast that shows a better side of her personality. However, when Akane eventually returns to the set to continue shooting for the dating show, he could have never imagined how strong Kurokawa’s return is going to be.
Akane Takes an Indefinite Break
Moments after Aqua saves Akane from taking her own life, he reveals that he learned from Mem-cho that she went outside despite the poor weather and did not return. He simply traced her path to the convenience store and luckily saw her on the foot-over bridge just in the nick of time. As the two of them sit there on the ground trying to come to terms with what just happened, a police officer rushes to check on them.
Meanwhile, Kana and Ruby are having a conversation about the mental health problems faced by actors under the age of 18 because of social media. Kana is quite aware of how painfully challenging things could be for Akane and the conversation soon turns towards suicide. Both of them are clueless about the fact that Akane tried to kill herself just a moment earlier and they get shocked when Miyako gets a phone call and learns what has happened.
At the police station, the entire crew of Love Now comes to meet Akane and share their concern. Aqua tells her that she now has to decide whether she stays on the show or quit. Despite the challenges she now has to face, Akane still wants to continue but is given a break until she feels better. Aqua strategically allows the news of Akane’s attempted suicide to leak into the media. Although the hate does not go away, it puts a lot of people on the fence.
In order to improve her public image, Aqua plans to show a different side of Akane using images and videos taken of her with the cast as he feels that she has been deliberately staged by the crew of the reality show to look evil. When he shares his plan with other actors, he receives overwhelming support. Since the video of Yuki hugging Akane after the slapping incident was actually shot on the set and never released, Aqua convinces the director to give him the footage so that people can see that Kurokawa is just another ordinary girl who happened to have made a mistake.
What is Aqua’s Plan to Relaunch Akane?
After Aqua convinces the director to give him the footage, he uses images and videos taken by other crew members of the Love Now show to compile a video that paints Akane in good light. Since the on-set video clearly shows that Akane was regretful of the accident and Yuki was also quite supportive of her, he is confident that the video release will help the audience see his friend in a new light. In order to make the video more passionate and nostalgic to appeal to people’s emotions, he takes Kengo’s help who is a professional musician to come up with a song to go with the footage.
With the support of Love Now’s cast, he gets to work and eventually edits a video that he and others feel will hopefully change people’s opinion of Akane. Mem-cho understands social media marketing better than anyone else, so she offers her insight on the timing and other factors that increase the probability of a tweet going viral. It works just as everyone behind the scene had expected and Akane starts receiving overwhelming support. Although the odd hate comments are still there, the support gives Akane enough confidence to announce that she will be returning to the show.
Aqua, Mem-cho, and Yuki come up with the idea that she should put on an on-screen as it will sort of become armor for her. When Mem-cho and Yuki seek Aqua’s advice on what an ideal woman for him is like, he basically describes what he likes about Ai. Mem-cho is smart enough to figure out that he is probably talking about Ai and this gives Akane a more clear picture of who she should be emulating on screen from now on. Later that evening, she does as much research as she possibly could about the late K-pop star and studies everything from her mannerism to her on-screen presence.
Meanwhile, Aqua learns from Kana that Akane is a gifted performer who is quite famous in the theatrical world. The following day, Akane returns to the screen with renewed energy. Aqua feels that it’s just another ordinary day, but when Akane starts speaking he could barely believe his eyes. As he turns around to look at her, Aqua is shocked to notice the resemblance between her and Ai of B-Komachi. So much so that he almost seems speechless. Although Aqua wanted Akane to have a better screen presence, he could have never imagined in his wildest dreams that her comeback would be so powerful just by changing her perspective and allowing her to express herself through acting.
