Review of [Oshi No Ko]

Overhyped? In my opinion, yes. But just like with anything else, that doesn’t stop it from still being pretty good, right? The praises for this show, however, have already been sung to a great extent, so I’ll stick to a more negative, yet hopefully insightful critique, so as to not reiterate what has already been said. I feel like Oshi no Ko suffers from the same issue that many other titles do, namely that it’s trying to be something more than it actually is. It’s an enjoyable story about young and naive adolescents who desire nothing more than to fulfill their ambitious dreams and theirdifferent ways of doing so. But then the show also wants to be a dark, serious, and intricately written murder mystery, a plotline that obnoxiously clashes with the other ones. Granted, I might just feel like this because of my dislike for Aqua, a character who embodies an archetype that I am exceptionally unfond of. It’s a typical case of all of the characters other than the main one’s arcs being compelling, and I know I would’ve enjoyed the show more if it just stuck to one aspect of its story. However, that doesn’t mean the show isn’t allowed to be serious, Akane’s storyline was amongst the best ones after all and that shit hit surprisingly hard.

And yeah, the animation is pretty great. Too bad I can’t take it quite as seriously as it wants me to since every single character has these giant sparkly uwu eyes, no matter the scene or mood. It’s an idol show, let the characters shine on stage while toning the magic down in other scenes in which they simply struggle as normal people. If the show is so adamant about portraying the duality between your idol persona and your real life, why not go the extra length to illustrate that? It’s a visual medium, use it to your advantage.

6.5 / 10, high highs, low lows, nonetheless excited for season 2 though.