by The 18th episode of the summer anime “Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru” Season 2 will be broadcast at midnight on August 9th, entitled “I Will Do It With My Hands.” Before the broadcast, there were many comments online, such as “This is the episode I wanted to see the most in the school festival arc,” and “Today’s episode has the feeling it’s going to be amazing.”
“Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru” is a manga serialized by Shinichi Fukuda in Young Gangan. The original manga sadly concluded in March 2025, before the broadcast of Season 2 of the anime, but the anime returns with even more power than the previous season. It follows Wakana Gojo, a high school boy aspiring to become a head maker for Hina dolls, and Marin Kitagawa, a popular girl who is always the center of attention in her class, as they deepen their bond through cosplay after meeting one day. Due to the nature of this theme, the following text contains spoilers for those who have not yet seen the series. Please be careful when reading.
The opening puppet show segment of the previous episode, Episode 17, became a hot topic, and before the broadcast of Episode 18, Keiichiro Saito (director of “Bocchi the Rock!”), The puppet designer posted a rough sketch of the design on his social media.
The annotations are impressive. Both puppeteer Haruka Yamada and puppeteer Masako Shirota posted comments after the broadcast of Episode 17, and the common thread was their dedication to detail. CloverWorks animation producer Sho Someno shared a glimpse into the filming of the puppet show portion. Incidentally, the scene after the puppet show, in which Gojo borrows a key, showcases the attention to detail put into the design by Yogoinu, the project’s setting collaborator.
The key’s jagged edges, only briefly depicted in the main story, are actually. A countdown trailer for the school festival described in the series was released on the broadcast date of Episode 18. The episode began with Gojo making props for his cosplay ahead of the upcoming school festival. He was trying to make a handmade rainbow rose, the same one worn by Kitagawa’s cosplay as the student council president, Rei Kogami, from “The Student Council President is the No. 1 Host.”
When he tries to color it with spray paint, but it doesn’t work, his classmates Kawanishi Seira (voiced by Wakayama Shion) and Otsuka Karen (voiced by. (Yuasa Kaede). “I can make rainbow roses. Seriously. I know how to make them.” Naruran, who has a unique way of speaking and tends to draw out the ends of her sentences, decides to teach Gojo how to make them. And so begins Naruran’s recipe for rainbow roses. “You cut the stems. Dissolve the food coloring. Put the cut stems in…” Online, people are saying things like, “Naruran’s way of speaking is excellent,” “Naruran is so damn cute, I love her,” “I love the way Naruran speaks…” “Ahhh Naruran is so cute!!” and “Wakayama Shion’s acting is amazing,” and the excitement is great despite her limited screen time. And finally, it’s the day of the school festival, the beauty pageant.
“I’ll be wearing the costume that Gojo made for me with so much effort, and I’ll wear my makeup, so I’m sure I’ll come in first,” Kitagawa declares to Gojo. Gojo-kun heads to the clothing room to start putting on Kitagawa-san’s makeup, but is confused, saying, “Huh… I chose the clothing room because no one else would be there, so why?” The clothing room was supposed to be a place where he could concentrate and not lose his grip on his makeup, but his classmates came one after another to watch! “Cosplay makeup is different from regular makeup. I wanted to see how it’s done,” Gojo-kun says, confused by his classmates’ comments, and feeling the pressure, his hands start shaking, and he ends up dropping things.
“Everyone worked hard and aimed for first place. If we fail here, it’ll be my fault…” Kitagawa calls out to Gojo-kun, asking, “Are you okay?” “Here he comes… the coolest Gojo-kun in the history of Kise Koi…” “Haa haa… he’s coming… my favorite scene from Kise Koi…” “I wanted to see this scene in the Kise Koi anime.” “Gojo-kun is so cool.” “Gojo-kun, you’re the best.”
“The way Gojo-kun takes deep breaths was amazing.” Gojo-kun slaps himself on the cheek to get himself pumped and begins to do Kitagawa-san’s makeup. “I don’t mind being a supporting character if it means Kitagawa-san gets first place. I will, I will, with my own hands, get Kitagawa-san first place.” And then Kitagawa-san transforms into her Uruha form… “Gojo-kun was especially shining this week. I almost cried.” “Gojo-kun’s eyes were filled with the passion of a craftsman as he concentrated on his makeup, and his sense of tension was portrayed so carefully, which was great.” “These interjections can only come from the anime. You don’t find them in the Kise Koi manga.
The original anime is fantastic.” “Kise Koi is so amazing lol. Cheers!” “Today’s Kise Koi was amazing – they’re pumped.” From the scene where Gojo-kun puts makeup on Kitagawa-san, to the actual beauty pageant, and the amazing school festival, some online commentators commented, “This is the best episode of Kise Koi.” Also, when Sugaya Noha sang at karaoke with her classmates, there were reactions such as, “They played Jitterbug in Kise Koi,” “They were singing ELLEGARDEN’s Jitterbug!” and “Was that Jitterbug? Lol, it was so bad I honestly didn’t know what they were singing lol.” After the broadcast, Himena Naota, who plays Kitagawa, was thrilled, saying, “It’s already amazing!! My heart is overflowing!!! Marin is so handsome, and Gojo was so cool!! But they were both so cute at the end…”! Shoya Ishige, who played Gojo, who played a significant role, posted, “So everyone was amazing…!!!” Kaede Yuasa, who plays Karen Otsuka, apparently attended a CloverWorks viewing party with the production staff and original author Shinichi Fukuda. “It was such a happy time. It was like a school festival, I’ve relived my youth!” she said with delight! Mikiha, the vocalist of Spira Spica, who sings the opening theme “Ao to Kirameki”, also attended the viewing party.
“In the same space as everyone involved in and who loves KiseKoi… I’m so happy… It truly was my youth,” she wrote, along with a photo of her and Ishige. Yuka Amemiya, who plays Yahiro Daia, a classmate of Kitagawa and Gojo, was also delighted, saying, “The direction, animation, acting, and music were all so good, it felt like I’d just seen the movie… I’m so… satisfied…” After the broadcast, the official account posted a scene from Uruha with the words, “Marine is the best!” (Art by Jun Yamazaki).
Once again, there were many posts from the production staff after the broadcast! (Partial list) CloverWorks also puts a lot of effort into training new talent. Animators who joined the company as new graduates in recent years have also been involved in the project, creating many memorable scenes. And take a look at the illustration in the dubbing script for episode 18. Will there ever be a day when Kitagawa and Gojo can take a photo together? The next episode, episode 19, is titled “Let’s Carve Memories!” “Which part of the original is this???” “I can’t remember which scene it is.”
“Where’s that part that says ‘I’ll carve my memories!'” The title is puzzling even to those who have already read the original. “Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru” Season 2 will be broadcast every Saturday from midnight on TOKYO MX, BS 11, Gunma TV, Tochigi TV, Yomiuri TV, Me-Tele, and Hokkaido Broadcasting. AT-X will broadcast every Sunday from 10 pm, and Animax will broadcast every Saturday from 10 pm starting August 23rd. Streaming will begin at 12:30 am immediately after the TV broadcast on Prime Video, the fastest streaming service in Japan. It will also start to stream sequentially on each streaming site every Tuesday at noon.
TV anime “Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru” Season 2 Original work: Fukuda Shinichi (Young Gangan Comics, published by Square Enix) Director: Keisuke Shinohara. Series Composition: Yoriko Tomita Character Design & Chief Animation Director: Kazumasa Ishida Assistant Director: Yusuke Yamamoto Chief Animation Directors: Atsushi Yamazaki & Yohei Yaegashi Main Animator: Naoya Takahashi (the character for “high” is pronounced “hashigo-daka”) Costume Design: Erika Nishihara Prop Design: Ayumi Nagaki Color Design: Mai Yamaguchi Art Director: Hiroyuki Nemoto, Director of Photography: Ruri Sato Technical Director: Yuya Sakuma CG Director: Jie Ren Editor: Daisuke Hiraki Sound Director: Akiko Fujita Sound Effects: Hiroki Nozaki & Airi Kobayashi Music: Takeshi Nakatsuka Production: CloverWorks Cast: Marin Kitagawa: Himena Naota Nina Gojo: Shoya Ishige Sasu Inui: Atsumi Tanezaki (the character for “saki” is pronounced “tatsusaki”) Inui Shinju: Hitsujimiya Hina Gojo Kaoru: Ono Atsushi Himeno Amane: Murase Ayumu Sugaya Noha: Takeda Rarisa Tago Yahiro Ozora: Amemiya Yuka Yamauchi Rune: Sekine Akira Morita Kensei: Uchida Shuichi Kashiwagi Shiki: Komatsu Shohei (C) Fukuda Shinichi/SQUARE ENIX, Anime “Kise Koi” Production Committee
