Review of [Oshi No Ko]

I tried akasaka, I tried my best to love this new series of yours for which you so mercilessly murdered your already beloved kaguya sama love is war , I tried to love it like i loved love is war even joined the hype , but just like the idol Ai, it was completely a fabricated love that only got converted to indifference as the episodes went by. Since it's by all means just a …. A ONE EPISODE HIT WONDER, Which is very polarizing in its depiction of the film industry and is for the most part, just a revenge porn story since thatis the primary motivation of the main character and adds the illusion of meaning and motivation for us to follow this edgelord of an ‘adult’.

Oshi no ko the next big thing by akasaka sensei who had the credibility and popularity of kaguya sama behind them and the faith of the fans to produce yet another masterpiece. Kaguya sama, a loved series, rushed to completion so that akasaka could completely focus on this manga alone. Many anitubers or should i call them social media influencers with podcasts now ?praised it as the one true holy grail of immaculate writing and heartbreaking drama with a headspining mystery in the mix. And what came off of all this? a one episode shocker that set expectations but failed to meet any of them so far.

There was only ONE episode of oshi no ko that even deserves any of the attention the show has got till date, I am no hater , I completely agree that the first episode of oshi no ko WAS AN IMMACULATE masterpiece, but we are here for the review of the entire season are we not?
While the rest of the episodes are not bad by any means some of them are actually pretty good, but I can't help but feel that we go through a downward spiral from episode one onwards.

Plot (5/10)
The whole plot is kinda meh because of these three things
1)reincarnation seems pointless other than giving the MC and FMC an unfair edge.
2)The whole story is a convoluted excuse to gather sympathy for film industry workers because the story could literally be the same without the media industry gimmick. The whole show has a solemn and negative look only and it hardly EVER BOTHERS to show the positives of the film industry.
3) literally half of each episode past episode 1 is monologue heavy rants on why the industry is shit , and then the second half is usually showing it being shit.

The whole reincarnation aspect is just cardboard armor to give validity to the rage of aqua and also him not being able to let go. Just as spyder95 said in the forums it's to make it “different from being a fan and son to simply a son. his love for ai was insane and without that it wouldn't give him the true driving force he needed to seek revenge”. And not to mention the level of hypocrisy of the main character who actively hates the industry for having caused AI harm but then also proceeds to actively manipulate and maneuver people to achieve his less than ideal goal of revenge. Except for showing us any of the positives for many people here who could be aspiring actors, youtubers and whatnot , it tries to devolve more and more into the negative aspects of the film industry.

And what is the whole theme of the story? Actors and actresses have it hard because they are popular and pretty. So well do normal people not have stalkers? Are normal people not murdered? Do you think common people aren't used to negative attention and flaming in social media? The formula of oshi no ko is very clear to garner fake empathy for these stars and of course to utilize the under tapped idol otaku market. Of course they get all of the above in a bigger scale , but they make a much bigger impact so it's unavoidable. The film industry people who, more often than not, lead a much more fun and comfortable life than any of us are glorified for what purpose. I understand none of it. There is no description of the film industry here , only showing the dark side of it.

Yes there is some drawbacks and politics in this industry but that IS EVER PRESENT everywhere for every fucking job, so just going on and on about how manipulative and shitty this industry is they never ever explore any of the positives like how complicated acting is , how hard it is to learn to dance and sing to produce and direct and add VFX and SFX.the concept of talent in acting , facial expressions and the very complex art of costume design and cosmetics in this industry is all just a SKIP, they only ever concentrate on drama.

It's just the internet hates them sob sob , the industry manipulating them sob sob again. Where is the love and adoration of fans,pure wow moments of acting and productions, where is the bugatti and alcohol and posh life with free connections to the upper echelon of the world?

SO AKASAKA SENSEI are you really just gonna preach about HOW SHITTY IT IS TO work in the film Industry and there simply no reward for doing that? No love , recognition , fame , influence , wealth and satisfaction in working in this industry?

Oh sorry aka sensei you must think i am just an internet troll and definitely not worth your time.

Now to be completely fair , it does do what it set out to do perfectly well. The depiction of the struggles to make it big into the film/idol industry is depicted pretty well in the journey of kana but it does it in a much more negative spiral. The cons of working in the film industry the ironically two faced political nature of this industry and them even using up and coming stars who are still underaged teens or children even as pawns is sadly something that is a reality and more so in japan than one would like to believe , the deranged nature of the idol otaku fandom with the love for only 20 or below girls who show off their airhead cutesy nature while very clearly showing off body lines with the dance is depicted as well with a good amount of accuracy.it's no wonder that the most heinous and weird sort of crimes occur mostly with the fans of idol otaku involved, so the setting and what ends up happening in end of episode one have a very good amount of credibility.

Character (7/10)
The characters are made as miserable as possible with most of them having some sort of issue due to the industry. There is a big attempt at comedy as well , most of which falls short of what we know akasaka sensei to be capable of. The setting is mostly based on the MC POV of aqua, and he is the most boorish and annoying adult reincarnated as a kid who spent three years brute forcing a phone for revenge rather than enjoy his SECOND chance at life (even counting isekai here this is just pathetic) are we supposed to teach people who tragically lost their parents in a crime to YEAH BOI GO GET EM attitude? He has mostly depressive and monotonous dialogues on being cautious of the industry and it being very dangerous is completely fed to us at regular intervals by especially by him and sometimes kana and the adoptive mother.But we barely ever move on from this (just like aqua ig :3) are we seriously supposed to believe that the industry is not for positive and driven people at all? so sadly yeah this does tend to turn out more like a drama with a very selectively negative outlook. The MC is also a complete hypocrite who will blame and lash out on the industry for all he cares and still be manipulating the underage teenagers for his less than ideal objectives which is frankly also putting them in harm's way since he is looking for a literal criminal using these girls.

The girls in question tho are given much more attention than the MC which i am kinda thankful for due to his edgelord tendencies, the girls are a bit more enjoyable due to them still being able to add a bit of positivity and cuteness to this anime but they too get hit with some quite disturbing and depressing arcs at times.

The whole kana redemption arc from start to finish did establish who the main girl is , and if there is romance , I guess we know who is winning( first meet takes the meat :3). The subtle changes in her personality from a very confident and sassy little child, to a a confident front and sassy attitude which has a deeper defeatist mindset was honestly good writing and i was very satisfied with the kana character arc alone. The FMC and mem characters honestly felt like filler side characters so far. While this is fine for the obvious side, cutey MEM with a hidden cult just like hayasaka, this is unacceptable for ruby to be so much outshone by her brother and kana while showing not much character other than having a bad past life and being able to move on unlike her brother.

The mystery and the hunt for revenge is in a very early stage so its hard to comment there , also because the pseudo emo boy with dark past nature of Aqua (even tho he is supposed to be an adult and even the kid was able to let go and move forward) is kinda annoying so I tend to fast forward to those scenes.

Sound VA (9/10)
Ok make no mistake here that the sound and VA performance in this series is the best of the best , if it would have been carried by better characters and plot id easily give it a 10.the Voice actors are from the top and best of the industry since oshi no ko has a very big presence and is one of the biggest productions they all definitely gave their 100% and it shows . The most notable was obviously Hoshino AI who was able to convert the first episode into an absolute hit and a shocker. Adult FMC and MC also do a good job in their on screen moments. The side characters the most shining example is kana and the rest are memorable as well for the most part. The OST of shi no ko needs no introduction , the OP is a universally acclaimed banger and almost everyone who is an anime fan acknowledges this , the ED while being a bit overlooked flows in at the end of each episode perfectly and is able to add a bit of excitement for the next. The art in OP as I have been seeing a trend of lately is better than that of ED, the sound and VFX of the anime are able to add a good amount of effect in the scenes but most of the sad melodramatic things are kinda overshot IMO.the ed really helps bring out the best of the cliffhanger ends and adds that effect.

Art and animation ( 9/10 )
The art in this anime is actually flawless , the way they were able to represent and actually full show in the first episode with the hype tension and audience was really good,the dance and synced very well with the song and much of it is carried through to the later episodes , the stalker scene with aqua had very good art and animation as well . I have to also give a huge shout out to the beautiful way the Eyes are drawn in this anime and they do add a separate layer of immersion when they are on highlight.

Ok i still think it is a must watch anime. yeah sure that it was only a one episode hit wonder In my Opinion and those who really wanted an unbiased decent narrative may find themselves a bit disappointed , but overall I can say it was a good ride and I will still look forward to the next season and hope that it improves upon the flaws, and hopefully stops being a sad soap opera and show us the bright side of the picture. At Least give the first one a go. It's an one hour long episode which was actually really good.