#TOKYO BLADE ARC

[gabbyp09]

[dreamstormdragon]

To anyone who does not want to deal with me mass reblogging Oshi no Ko stuff in the next few weeks...

Block the tag, because I'm not gonna be normal about season 2. LET'S FUCKIN GO TOKYO BLADE ARC!!!!!!!

[anika-kanroji16]

"Aqua don't smile at Akane"

Meanwhile Aqua with Akane [or the thought of her]

Plus him being happy with her on their second date

Him being childish around her

Playful with her

The reason why I add this fact is because it's a fact that Aqua only smiles at someone he likes and loves. And if that's the case then it's a fact that Aqua loves Akane.

I swear you guys are BLINDER THAN DORA

[redge]

【OSHI NO KO】 Season 2 Episode 17

I meant to post on Melt's development when I was rereading the manga (I'm not sure if it's because OnK chapters are short or it's an easy read but I've already read the whole manga twice already ) but I don't want to spoil anime-only fans. I was sure it would be animated and I was very hopeful of the Tokyo Blade arc animation ever since the 1st episode and based on the feedback, episode 17 did not disappoint! 😊

This panel is not part of episode 17 but I really love how Melt is so comfortable with Kana that he could just drag her like that 😅 (In an alternate universe, I hope these teenagers were just living normally as teenagers. Bickering, fighting over love interests, then having a picnic together after a long day 🤣)

The opening theme for Tokyo Blade is such an earworm! Also, I know that this is about Melt but since it showed again this Tokyo Blade introduction of characters, Touki in the manga is much more handsome than Aqua I mean would you look at Touki?!

ARIMA KANA! She's so good at what she's doing. She's so precious I love her so much. 😻Also, this part was sodetailed you can hear the harness as Kana flies to the ground what a production ♥

It's not as elaborate in the episode but look how worn out Melt's wooden sword is. He really worked hard to improve. Also, in the previous episode, he's one of the cast who goes home late because he rehearses by himself. Oh Melt, you hardworking you.

These mangacaps has been on my files for months already because I was really waiting for Melt's story to be shown to the world. Also, it's brave for Akasaka-sensei to show that anyone can be taken advantage of, regardless of the gender, regardless of age. What a cruel world.

This performance sparked so many things for all the actors involved that we still get to see bits of it every now and then. 🥰

The justice the animation gave to this panel oh my gosh it was so good!!! The manga arc is good but the anime brings it to a whole new different level! ♥

I love how the animation had slight differences from the manga. Everyone was really watching Melt's performance, including Kana and Aqua. and Melt did not disappoint. (I am out of words I mean this is Melt we are talking about, that Melt who delivered his lines awkwardly that Miyako had to shut down the laptop because they can't bear to watch the episode. And now we see that Melt who worked hard to deserve his spot in this entertainment industry. Who would not be proud of that?!)

This line here was a flashback from season 1 Episode 4 where Aqua told Melt that acting is all about putting your emotions into it. What a bizarre advice from someone who rekindles his trauma when he's doing emotional acting. If Aqua was using his emotions in I'll Go With Sweet Today, I wonder why he haven't had his panic attack? Sure Kana was not there to tell him "Aqua-kun, what would you do if your mother died?" but he's playing a stalker, someone similar to what really killed Ai, a scene so close to a real-life scenario...so why? It's curious...

The feedbacks and posts of people who watched this episode were true. This episode was really good! ♥

[timesskip]

hes like a sopping wet cat to me

[ambrosiaocto]

chapter 117 and episode 5 releasing on the same day and having the events of ch117 and ep5 be 2 years apart in canon is SO fucked up dude tjis chapter broke me

[haruhar-u]

HUH SEASON TWO IS COMING NEXT YEAR????

[staars4kiraa]

New episode's left me speechless once again.

[farahswife]

idk if anyone is reading the oshi no ko manga, so [SPOILER WARNING FOR CH120 ]

i am SO excited to see ruby dealing w her past and self-identity. imo she is the more interesting of the twins, aqua being an edge lord is okay i guess but not a character type that particularly interests me.

ruby taking more and more after ai, and learning the horrible truth that even those who claim to care are liars. it’s a cycle doomed to repeat itself- another young woman who experienced neglect being twisted by the entertainment industry into a razor sharp manipulator. the comparison is even more stark w/her taking on the role of ai. i’m so intrigued to see how she confronts her past as sarina in the next chap bc i’m so compelled by her arc

[renah]

Finally caught up with the Oshi no Ko manga and had a blast, it is really good, I just....... hope that...... I'm not misinterpreting the authors intentions nor Ruby's feelings in the most recent chapters..........

[brotherslayer]

AU where Ruby says no to incest and decides not to pursue Aqua romantically after she has learned that he is her first love reincarnated as her twin and instead she tries to start dating other men in order to forget about him, but her choice falls onto Taiki of all people

[gabbyp09]

[randomshipperhere]

I’ll make a post regarding my thoughts about the Oshi no Ko manga in the near future but I think safest things to say about each character:

Aqua needs something that hits harder than therapy.

Ruby needs to be utilized more in the story.

Kana should have a happy ending.

Akane is a really good character so long as Aqua isn’t around.

Ship wars: I’m on the fence on either but lean just a bit towards Kana and Aqua. My hesitance to ship can be traced to the fact that the manga gives mixed messaging about what they want Aqua’s future to be or even its genre…

[aihoshiino]

chapter 158 thoughts

i lied the hyperfixation took over and reanimated my body

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 15

Aqua Hoshigan Status: N/A

Usually when an OnK chapter ends on a bombshell like this one apparently does, I usually play a little coy as to my thoughts on it but I don't really see much point in doing that this time. This chapter basically is its final moment, with some swings taken at basically every other character on the way down so I don't see much point in separating it from the rest of the work. That said, my ultimate feelings on it will ultimately depend on how the story progresses past this moment so don't expect me to go too deeply into it for now. All I'll say at the top of the post is that I think this is deeply contrived and continues Akasaka's trend of seemingly beating every character with the dipshit stick in order to make a certain dramatic plot beat happen.

But it'll be pretty messy to follow if I get into the chapter's final scene right here and now, so let's rewind to the start and break down the rest of this chapter too. Don't worry, I have plenty of unpleasant things to say about it as well!!!!

Akane's here!! Actually in truth I had somehow forgotten that she'd cut her hair in the weeks since her last appearance so seeing her turn up with it so short kind of startled me for a second LOL

More AKKN yuribaiting… usually I eat up this kind of queerbait with a spoon because I am a simple creature but it doesn't really hit this time. I think it's because we're running through the Tokyo Blade arc in the anime right now and being reminded of how utterly electric their rivalry used to be makes the lack of meaningful follow-up and ultimate state of their relationship just kind of sad to me.

Seeing Akane and Ruby talking also feels kind of surreal given that it's almost 60 whole chapters since they've actually properly interacted onscreen… Like, obviously they were acting together in the Movie Arc and we can infer they had some offscreen chats then but… well, that's things we can infer, not something that's actually in the text of the story. Akane's involvement in the movie really was a total waste of potential, huh…

that said, wtf is akane even doing in miyazaki. girl who are you stalking this time.

Speaking of things that are weird, Ruby's hostile reaction to the idea of Akane getting a new boyfriend is… kind of bizarre, to the point where I literally have no idea where it's coming from?? Like, regardless of what this chapter tries to pretend, Ruby and Akane are absolutely not close enough for Ruby to feel upset at the prospect of Akane blowing her off in favour of boyfriend time. If anything, you'd think that having Aqua's ex-girlfriend definitively Out Of The Way would only be good on her eyes because it means one less obstacle between her and getting to shlonk her brother, but… apparently not???

The only way I can really make any sense of this is assuming this is the old and crusty "single girl getting jealous that her friend has a boyfriend at Christmas" joke, which I guess indirectly answers the question of whether or not anything AquRuby related has resolved in the Offscreen Dimension.

Anyway, Akane's chatter in this scene leads into something I've been kind of holding my tongue about in favour of waiting until it was addressed in the story and we're finally here - as previously predicted, this chapter starts on the note of attempting to assert that Ruby has 'become an idol who surpasses Ai' and you'll notice the way I phrased this because uh… no, she very much hasn't!

This idea of Ruby 'surpassing' Ai has been floating around in the story for a while now and as I've said before, unless OnK puts a huge amount of legwork into supporting that idea, I simply wouldn't believe it. It didn't, so I don't.

Not only is this assertion just half-heartedly plunked into the narrative - incredibly underwhelming for what should be a huge moment of triumph for Ruby - but the visual storytelling of the manga fails it as well. Like, compare this to similar moments from the very arc the anime is adapting this season - hell, in this very chapter, we see a panel of Kana's dazzling acting during Tokyo Blade. In comparison, the panels we see that supposedly show how Ruby has become an idol beyond compare… they just look like literally every other panel of any of the girls doing idol stuff. Hell, she looks distinctly less striking than some of Kana's performances as an idol and they certainly don't match or exceed the panels we've seen of Ai's spellbinding performances, which really undermines what the story is trying to say.

This is made even worse for the fact that the story has repeatedly pointed out that Ruby is the subject of incredible amounts of favoritism in the new B-Komachi - their boss is Literally Her Actual Mom who was explicitly called out by Ichigo for favoring work opportunities while leaving her fellow members out to dry. Members who, I feel the need to remind everyone, were scouted by her twin brother, not Ruby. Members whose careers as idols suffered during Ruby's clout chasing BH era because of her clout chasing and whose hurt feelings on this are framed as something Ruby is graciously forgiving about.

Like… I'm not saying it's impossible for Ruby to become an idol who outshines her mom, but this narrative as it's currently being presented in the manga falls flat for me because we never actually see Ruby face any kind of struggle on her road to doing this. Ai, Kana and Mem all face significant structural, social and industry-wide issues and toxicity that they must grapple with and overcome but Ruby just… does not?? Ever?? And given the way the narrative has framed Miyako's involvement in her career, the only conclusion I can draw is that Ruby is being shielded from all this by Miyako at the expense of the other girls. Especially because Ruby literally said so in 156!

Idk man. This whole chapter just sucks for basically every B-Komachi girl - that panel of the girls on stage where you literally can't even see Mem's face is so fucking miserable lmao. There was so much weight was placed on B-Komachi's togetherness as a trio of not just idols but friends who genuinely care for each other that seeing the story end up in this place of unironically indulging in all the same favoritism of Ruby and sidelining of her fellow members that Ichigo and Miyako did with the original B-Komachi is honestly just upsetting. Not only does it drag down Mem and Kana's stories, but it ends up making Ruby come off as a tremendously self-centered person in a way the narrative clearly does not understand and is uninterested in unpacking.

And like… bro, I don't want to be pissed off at Ruby!! Pre-BH Ruby is one of my favourite characters in the series!!! But the way she's been coddled by the narrative is deeply frustrating to read! It's frustrating to see everyone else's arcs compromised in favor of forcing this bizarre narrative about Ruby that doesn't even do any good for her either.

I can so easily see a better version of this story where Ruby surpasses Ai because she has so much support and faces none of the obstacles that Ai did, where the story is making a point of just how much further Ai could have gone and how much more she could've done if she hadn't been treated like such utter shit by everyone around her. But the point the story settles on seems to just be that Ruby is a better idol than Ai because she arbitrarily is not affected by societal and systemic oppression for no clearly articulated reason, I guess! You go, girl!

huffs. anyway.

Ruby's little monologue about the short-lived life of an idol also feels like the final nail in the coffin for the story being able to even pretend to do any meaningful industry commentary. Compared to how biting it was in the early arcs, it's a pretty standout representation with OnK's bizarre relationship with idol culture as of late, especially as pertains to Ruby's place in it. I can sort of get what I think Akasaka is going for here - it's part of the theme the story is leaning into lately of letting go of your past and moving towards a brighter future and this is how Ruby is coping with Kana's time in B-Komachi coming to an end. The point being made here is that change is inevitable no matter how you try to hold onto things and the only way to freeze yourself in stasis forever is to die.

But having this framed through the lens of Ruby talking so warmly about the impermanence of idols is just kind of… hello?? Ruby's framing here almost seems to treat the issue as some beautifully tragic but inevitable thing… and is very much is not! Idols age out of the industry because of its obsession with youth and beauty and the fetishization and commodification of virginial purity. Seeing Ruby frame it as this sad but natural thing when these fucked up purity standards literally killed her mom is just. What is going on here.

Speaking of baffling! Nino my girl, what are they doing to you…

I mentioned this in my chapter 155 thoughts that I felt extremely cold about the way the story was choosing to characterize Nino in the actual pages of the manga. I won't repeat myself too much but compared to the messed up but deeply human character we saw in 45510 and the RBKN conflict, this Nino honestly feels like a mean-spirited caricature, amped up to such dramatic extremes that she stops being a person and instead becomes a flat cartoon character used for moving the plot along. I loved Nino in 45510 and the Movie Arc so seeing her reduced to this psycho lesbian stereotype really stings.

also wtf is the manga trying to say with the 'since we killed ryosuke' bit. that was a whole ass suicide. this manga gives me such a headache sometimes.

Anyway. I can't talk around it anymore so. RIP Ruby, I guess. It was nice knowing you, but-

no but seriously, I'm holding my tongue on anything to do with this twist until next chapter because my actual thoughts will depend on how it plays out or if this is even really happening at all - which is NOT something i would even entertain as a possibility if oshi no ko was not the manga it currently is lol

But there's also the fact that, as others have pointed out, that panel of the stab is presented with faded colours and overly dramatic lighting in a way that is consistent with how OnK sometimes presents flashbacks or otherwise unreal visualizations. Given how incredibly dumb the entire cast - including Ruby - would have to be for this to actually, really happen, I'm withholding judgement until I see how this pans out.

That said. Man. I was really taken aback by how not just underwhelming but outright Not Good the actual panel of the stab is. The attempt to mine an emotional reaction out of the pre-existing iconic panel of Ai's murder just falls entirely flat because this version of it is worse in just about every regard. Ai's panel is composed beautifully, with the white petals and the motion of her body perfectly drawing the viewer's eye to the knife and the uncharacteristic expression of total shock on her face really hammers home the 'oh shit' moment. By contrast, Ruby's panel is flat with oceans of dead space despite being a much smaller panel and the actual stab has no weight to it, visually or otherwise. Ruby's body and face aren't reacting to it in the least - her expression is totally lifeless and she just looks like she's mid-stride, not that someone's just stabbed her in the gut. And to add insult to injury, the fucking layering on the killer's hand isn't even right. It's so obvious these two characters were drawn totally separately and pasted together afterwards and the entire moment falls flat as a result. Mengo, girl, what happened here!!!

and to add insult to injury. break next week. because why woudn't it be.

any of yall got ibuprofen

[redge]

【OSHI NO KO】 Season 2 Episode 18

(I am writing this while Episode 20 is already airing haha)

I will never stop wishing that this character keeps on smiling and finds happiness when this manga ends. Everyone deserves to be happy but I want this character to be happy even more. Please, Akasaka-sensei I beg you. 🙏

"actors who've been at it their whole lives" There's sadness in those lines. Arima Kana really clings to this harsh world of the entertainment industry. 💭

I will miss this Shinjuku faction when the Tokyo Blade ends (which is today's episode I think [episode20])

Look at these two watching each other's acts! They won't admit that the other is better than themselves but you know deep down they both acknowledge each other's talent for acting. (this is further proven after the Tokyo Blade play, I hope it will be animated in today's episode)

The voice acting in this script was spot on!

Tokyo Blade theme is so beautiful! I loved reading this arc but the music just really adds angst to the play. Even that Sayahime music was so good (Tumblr says I am only allowed to post one video so go watch the episode if you're curious haha) I hope they release these tracks officially 😁

"What is it she doesn't like about me so much?"

HAHAHAHA oh my gosh I don't remember Netflix having this sub but I remember so many accounts who don't like Kana to the extent of unhealthily hating on her like where are you all coming from what did she do to you 😅

I will never understand how some fans of Akane hate Kana when in fact in the manga, and now in this episode, it was so clear that Akane started her footing as an actress because of Kana. It was not the best experience but from that encounter, Akane started to study the psychology of other people which we see as a huge part of her personality. The actress that she is now is due to her hard work and talent but she wouldn't have even started if she hadn't seen Kana act. If her parents had not encouraged her to try acting, even persuaded her with "you might even become friends with Kana-chan.", we wouldn't have seen the actress that she is right now. In the OnK universe, Akane does not even hate Kana. I mean, do you actually hear an ounce of hate on the way Akane calls Kana "Kana-chan"? Because I don't. 🤷‍♀️ (It's because of hating on characters that I don't really enjoy interacting with people in this fandom. Some Akane fans hate Kana. Some Kana fans hate Akane and it's making the series less enjoyable. 💭)

Young Akane is so adorable! It was narratively satisfying to see the effect of the Bell Pepper Exercises on other kids, from a different perspective than Kana. Kana hated bell peppers but she was able to convince Akane to eat them. If that's not good acting, then I don't know what is. 😹

How can anyone hate these two when they're the characters who understand each other so well?! Remember how in season 1 episode 8, Kana talks about Akane saying "She thoroughly prepares for roles, displaying deep consideration and insight into the parts she's given. Her natural talent allows her to assume those roles with perfection. Though her personality might not be suited for reality shows, as an actress, she can only be called a genius.".

And this season, we get this from Akane. They both acknowledge each other's talent so really I don't get where the hate energy comes from. Maybe I'm too old for fan wars that I don't get them anymore. 😅

I just noticed that the hand guard of Sayahime's sword is crescent moons assembled together. Interesting detail.

These frames were so good! The symbolism of Sayahime turning into young Akane as she is inviting Kana to act with all she's got because that's what young Akane loved about little Kana-chan: her acting that devours everyone. What an adaptation. I hope Akasaka-sensei and Mengo-sensei feel the same as Kichijouji-sensei when they saw Melt's acting improvement, or as Abiko-sensei when she's watching this play. I hope they both feel the satisfaction of the anime adaptation of their manga because it's been really doing a great job this season. ♥

The way Kana sees herself is so pale in comparison to Aqua's "She shines brightest when her face screams "Look at me!". 😭 And it's so curious that most of those frames are just from normal conversations he's had with Kana and then the anime goes extra as to include frames from the Full Moon music video 😂 Even more curious that that first encounter as a child actor also comes to mind when Aqua remembers how he wanted to kill the arrogant child actor Kana 😂 Anime prod why are you doing this to me I love Kana enough no need to show these frames to me, please. Ah. I just want Kana Arima to be happy. T_T

The way these two believe in Kana while Kana does not even think of herself as someone who deserves anything. The relationship of Kana, Aqua, and Akane is so interesting. I don't hate anybody in this universe. 😁(except Himekawa Airi sorry Taiki)

This post got longer than expected 😂

[timesskip]

now that oshi no ko’s finally getting adapted into an anime & since sweet today is one fo the first arcs i hope they make melt narushima the ugliest silliest guy ever on screen i hope he is incredibly annoying i love him and this is what i want