#all the characters in oshi no ko feel so real somehow

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

EUGHHH just watched the new oshi no ko ep……. threw up blood it was so good i think all jjk fans should be forced to watch it btw 🙏🙏

[oddeyes588]

So, Oshi no Ko's ending... (spoilers, obviously)

What a fucking mess. How did we get here? How did we get from starting with such a high peak of storytelling and drop all the way down to hell?

I'm going to preface this by saying... regardless of how awful the ending is, Oshi no Ko will always hold a place in my heart. Hell, one look at my screen name should let at least some people know that bad endings have never been able to rid me of whatever brainworms I've accumulated for a series, and it certainly won't start now.

(CW: SUICIDE MENTIONS)

A certain someone infecting me with Ai Hoshino brainworms is also part of why. For better or worse, my hyperfixation with Oshi no Ko is set to last for a long while yet, even after it's ending.

So where to start in talking about this ending... well, let's start with the biggest thing. This is single handedly the most mind-boggling, absurd ending I have ever read, for all of the worst reasons.

Oshi no Ko, as a whole, has never exactly been subtle about its messages. The cruelty of the idol industry, of the entertainment industry as a whole. The self-destructive nature of revenge. Finding reasons to live for yourself, finding your own happiness... happiness for oneself. It was heavy-handed with these messages, and it's important that it was. Aka Akasaka seemed like an author who would not shy away from writing these criticisms, who had their main messages down pat, even if at times things got... questionable.

(Just look at the side materials that we got for Oshi no Ko. Things like Viewpoint B. Everything, if nothing else, remained at least somewhat consistent to what the story was trying to convey).

And yet somehow, for reasons I cannot begin to understand... at the end of Oshi no Ko, Aka spat on every single message his work has ever had.

Aquamarine Hoshino, a traumatized boy who views his life as worthless, ready to give it up and sacrifice himself if it means succeeding in his revenge, who has said outright that that he intends to die after his revenge is over... is faced with a chance for a new beginning, a chance for love, given a chance to life a life of real, genuine happiness... faced with SO MANY people who love him and want him in their lives...! And he chooses to die anyways, taking his father with him to the ocean depths in a murder suicide, all so that his sister wouldn't have to live with the stigma of having a murderer for a brother. Something he does without hesitation, because everyone will move on from him eventually.

And Ruby... oh Ruby. Oh how they character assassinated you... faced with the crying face of her own mother in her reflection, she conveyed the truth... the truth that Ai was always just an ordinary girl, an ordinary girl who had her real self beaten down by the desires of people, turned into a perfect and pure commodity, all for the ugly desires of the people... who was then KILLED for failing to live up to those desires... what does Ruby do?

She choses to surpass her mother as an idol... because sure, Ai may not have been perfect, but she won't be like Ai! She'll be her own idol! An even better idol!

And so she does. She effectively becomes Ai 2.0. Ai without all of those complicated hidden feelings, Ai but she really is pure this time.

And in the wake of her brother's death... Ai but without any happiness of her own. Without any happiness outside of her singular, sole purpose. Having lost everything that she held dear, she now truly is the Perfect Idol, and nothing else. A monument of praise towards the Idol Industry.

...Everything this manga had been building up to. Building up to convincing Aqua that he deserves happiness... hell, Ai's one and only wish, for her babies to grow up healthy, for them to be happy. Building up to Ruby finding her own happiness, finding her own real reason to be an idol.

With an ending that Aka has confirmed is what he'd wanted the entire time... everything is flushed down the proverbial toilet, never to be seen again.

Aqua dies pointlessly and in a way that goes against every message we've ever had concerning living for yourself. Hikaru never had nearly enough screentime, let alone an arc, to justify being irredeemably evil and needing to be killed. Kana never gets to confess her feelings, Ruby's feelings go forever unaddressed, Akane serves fundamentally no purpose, Ai's wishes go almost completely unfulfilled, and Ruby becomes a shell of herself with being an idol now the only thing she has... and yet all of this is framed as a good ending.

The idea that this is in any way a good ending is... completely baffling to me. I cannot understand what is going through Aka Akasaka's head. Not only is this narratively the worst possible ending, but even the ending itself feels so hollow... rushed, as though none of it really meant anything, least of all Aqua's death. All but proving him right.

His death, his sacrifice, his suicide was worth it. Because despite how many people were hurt by his passing, in the end, they all moved on just like he expected.

(WHICH, LET ME JUST SAY, IS AN EXTREMELY POOR, RECKLESS, AND IRRESPONSIBLE MESSAGE TO BE WRITING ABOUT FUCKING SUICIDE. ESPECIALLY TO A COUNTRY LIKE JAPAN, WHERE SUICIDE RATES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE ARE PAINFULLY HIGH!! IT WAS ONLY WHAT, 20-SOMETHING CHAPTERS AGO WHERE YOU HAD THE LITERAL MANGAKAS IN THE STORY GO ON FOR A WHOLE CHAPTER ABOUT HOW THEIR WRITING HAS AN INFLUENCE ON PEOPLE'S LIVES, HOW THEY HAVE TO BE READY TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT THEY WRITE, AND YOU WROTE AN ENDING THAT GLORIFIES A CHARACTER'S SUICIDE!? SAYING THAT ITS OKAY HE DIED BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS STRONG AND EVENTUALLY GOT OVER IT!?? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME—)

Sighs...

Ultimately, in the end, this ending was an utter mess of an execution. Ideas that Aka was clearly too committed to, never once seeing how fucked it was, and never changing course.

And honestly? The fact that he wrote such good shit before this, wrote what I would even describe as masterpieces... only serves to make this ending hurt that much more.

[metalandmagi]

The Real Anime Awards of 2024

Every year, I like to make my own anime awards, that focus on the things we really care about. Because who cares about "Anime of the Year" or "Best Animation" when we could have awards for "Most Unhinged Show of the Year" or "Prettiest Anime Boy"?

So here's my anime meme awards for 2024!

Biggest Chad

Sebastian (Black Butler Public School Arc)

Munseong (Viral Hit)

Red Keeper (Go Go Loser Ranger)

Shikanoko (My Deer Friend Nokotan)

Lewis Smith (Bang Brave Bang Bravern)

Yoshino Somei (Yakuza Fiancé)

Honorable mention:

Hajime Nagumo (Arifureta season 3) I don't watch it but he seems like a standard isekai chad.

Most Unhinged

My Deer Friend Nokotan

Vtuber Legend

Bucchigiri?!

Mayonaka Punch

Dandadan

Yakuza Fiancé

Weirdest Concept That Still Works Somehow (not to be confused with “Most Unhinged”)

Delico’s Nursery

Oshi no Ko (season 2)

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

If My Wife Becomes An Elementary School Student

Mayonaka Punch

Sasaki and Peeps

Show with the most drip

High Card (season 2)

Jellyfish Can’t Swim In The Night

Black Butler Public School Arc

Delico’s Nursery (bro even the kids in this show have the best outfits!)

Bucchigiri?!

Yakuza Fiancé

Most Insufferable Protagonist

Arajin (Bucchigiri?!)

Rudy (Mushoku Tensei season 2 part 2)

Atri (Atri: My Dear Moments)

Uryuu Kamihate (Tying the Knot With An Amagami Sister)

Ron *affectionate* (Kamonohashi Ron season 2)

Awayuki Kokorone (VTuber Legend)- My hot take of the year...

Best CANONICAL Couple

*Sorry Ranma and Akane...but they're still figuring out their relationship 😭*

Ine and Shouzou Saitou (Grandpa and Grandma Turned Young Again)

Masaki and Hiromu (Tadaima, Okaeri)

Adachi and Kurosawa (Cherry Magic)

Rika and Takuya (365 Days To The Wedding)- These two have kissed and they're engaged, so they count for me!

Kazehaya and Sawako (Kimi no Todoke season 3)

Takae and Keisuke (If My Wife Becomes An Elementary School Student) IT'S WHOLESOME, I PROMISE!!!

*That’s right, no Yuki and Itsuomi from A Sign of Affection, because my other hot take of the year is that I fucking hate Itsuomi and want Yuki to end up with Childhood Friend-kun.*

Biggest Disappointment

Blue Lock (season 2)

Uzumaki

Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc

The Elusive Samurai (good lord, just pick a tone)

Atri: My Dear Moments (sorry, I just don’t like wild left turns into lolicon territory)

That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime season 3 (how did this show turn into all the characters just sitting around a table talking for multiple episodes at a time?)

Biggest Trainwreck

(Not to be confused with Biggest Disappointment)

Uzumaki's entire production debacle

Blue Lock season 2's animation

Vampire Dormitory's concept of gender

The Crunchyroll Anime Awards

Kokorone Awayuki *affectionate* (Vtuber Legend)

Alya *affectionate* (Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian)

Gayest Anime That Isn’t A Certified Yaoi Or Yuri

How I Attended An All Guys Mixer

Bang Brave Bang Bravern

Bucchigiri?!

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio (I can't include a gif of the stuff they do to each other...just trust me)

Jellyfish Can’t Swim In The Night

Kamonohashi Ron season 2

Honorable mention: Mayonaka Punch...because I don't really know how to classify it, but they're definitely all gay. 😆

Biggest Surprise

Senpai Wa Otokonoko

Orb: About the Movements of the Earth

Delico’s Nursery

Sasaki and Peeps

Cherry Magic

If My Wife Becomes An Elementary Schooler

Prettiest Boy

Master Jinshi (Apothecary Diaries cour 2)

Khun (Tower of God season 2)

Gerhard Fra (Delico’s Nursery) 

Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler Public School Arc)

Masaki Fujiyoshi (Tadaima, Okaeri)

Hisashi Ootomo (Tasogare Out of Focus)

Well, there you have it. I definitely didn't get as much variety in here as I normally do 😅I guess that means I need to start watching more trash lol. I know I could have made this a poll or series of polls, but this is just something fun and silly I put together every year, so I didn't want anyone bitching about my choices or saying "you forgot ___!"

I'll be posting my legit nominations later, and at least that will have more variety.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 159 thoughts!

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 16

Aqua Hoshigan Status: White

Surprise! As predicted by literally everyone in the fandom, the stab was a fakeout! To the shock of perhaps three people, no, one of the titular Kos of Oshi No fame was not, in fact, dying in an unceremonious cliffhanger stabbing - the only real question was exactly what sort of fakeout it was going to be. I did see quite a few folks suggest 'Akane in a wig and a stabproof vest' even in jest so congrats on calling it! Admittedly this is kind of silly but I would take 'silly' over the character assassination massacre that last chapter's apparent twist would've been any day of the week.

I guess if anything about this reveal surprised me it's that Kana wasn't involved at all…? Unless this is a double fakeout and something's going to happen at her graduation (which is not impossible for reasons we'll get into). Whereas all the buildup for Ruby (seemingly) getting stabbed basically only came in the same chapter it happened in, we've been getting some pretty heavy handed hints that something might happen to Kana for over 60 chapters now if my mental math is right - her parallels to not just Ai and Yura (i.e, our two on-screen victims), language associating her with the "type" we see targeted and that huge "Kana Arima will always protect Ruby Hoshino" red flag dropped by Gotanda, among other things. Kana is also the character who has the most actual direct parallels with Ai, where Ruby is defined mostly in how she differs from Ai… Or at least she does when the story makes sense lol. But I guess we'll see.

Either way, I personally have mixed feelings on Akane's involvement here, in this moment. On the one hand, I like what it represents about Aqua's development - the reason he and Akane broke up was over her 'endangering herself' but really it was because of Aqua's mortal terror over the people he loves being hurt in association with him. Letting Akane get involved here is an expression of growth and trust on his part and I do like that.

On the other… this is super Akane just being treated like a convenient device for the plot, as has happened to her before. It really feels like Akasaka has realized he made her way too competent as a character so he only busts her out to use as a blunt force tool to patch up his story. Hate that shit! Akane deserves better.

THAT SAID… Ichigo's involvement here is something I do straightforwardly like even if the execution isn't perfect. Now we're past the fakeout, I can say that my worst case scenario for The Stabbening was the "Aqua uses his 1337 surg30n ski11z to save the stabbing victim and make up for not saving Ai" because people have been predicting that Literally since volume 2 and I'm gonna be real with you, I've fucking hated it no matter the configuration of characters or events involved lol. It would, even if only subtextually, frame Aqua's self-loathing and suicidal ideation in relation to the incident as justified and that he somehow needs to 'redeem' himself for his failure of not stopping a grown man with a knife from stabbing his mother to death when he was literally four years old.

Ichigo, by contrast, actually is at least partially responsible for Ai's death. He is a literal agent of the system that abused and exploited her, he failed to support her properly as both her manager and her father and it's ultimately his commodification of Ai and B-Komachi as a whole that created the kind of fan attitude that gives birth to a person like Ryosuke. He's the person who actually needs to make up for failing Ai, so having him literally reenact that failing and getting able to do it right this time for the purposes of protecting Ai's beloved children is a direction for his character that I really like.

^_^ However! I do not feel anywhere near as positively about this retcon to Ryosuke and Nino's characters!!!!

like. come on, man. do i even need to explain why this is bad. even outside of how utterly transparent a retcon this is, these kinds of 'everyone is connected!!!' surprise twists are really not suited to a story like Oshi no Ko. They make the world of the story feel much smaller

In addition… it really feels like lately, Akasaka has this problem where he tries to make things more dramatic and complex by adding twists and reveals about Secret Additional Context like this to a character's behaviour but ends up just flattening them by way of making them more cartoonish as a result. Ironically, Nino and Ryosuke are both victims of this with this new retconned in connection and it cheapens not only their own arcs but their relationships with Ai (and how her own arc is informed by her relationship with them in turn) as a result. It's a cascade failure that wrenches everything else down along with it.

The other big reason this retcon frustrates me as much as it does is not just because it entirely shatters the logic of Ryosuke as a character but because one additional picrosecond of thought put into his could not only have prevented it, but even added to the story in some really meaningful and interesting ways. As other people are surely going to point out, this is an insane level of hypocrisy, so - lean into it! Make that hypocrisy explicit and textual!

Parasociality is already inherently illogical and the types of misogynistic hostile masculinity Ryosuke expresses towards Ai are already internally contradictory ideologies. Idol fan culture, too, is built on hypocrisy, especially in a gachikoi group like gen 1 B-Komachi. The girls are expected to roleplay as being romantically (and implicitly, sexually) available to their fans while also being pure and virginal to the point of farce. None of this shit makes sense! So leaning into that by explicitly acknowledging Ryosuke as a hypocrite and acknowledging these contradictory expectations could only have done the story well.

As it stands, this retcon just doesn't work. Like, look at the Ryosuke we see in those flashbacks - happy, healthy and functional enough to be close to at least two B-Komachi members. Are we really expected to believe that Ai rizzed him so hard she mindbroke him into being a Phantom of the Opera tier basement dwelling incel? Or are we supposed to believe Ryosuke was Like That simultaneously with him dating Nino? Literally no direction you come at this from makes any sense whatsoever lol

Ichigo supposedly knowing about them dating at the time also raises approximately one hundred billion questions. Primarily: DID NO ONE THINK TO TELL THE COPS AT THE TIME??? The guy who brutally murdered Ai in her own home just happened to be banging one of her coworkers who was known to have a bad relationship with her and this just… never came up?? Even though the news report on the incident explicitly says the police were investigating the possibility of an accomplice being involved?? AGAIN, NO MATTER HOW YOU APPROACH THIS TWIST IT JUST DOESN'T WORK…

I will say. For all my complaints, that final exchange between Akane and Nino, about how badly Ai and Nino ultimately just wanted to be regular friends… that really hit. It felt like a little flash of the messed up but deeply, achingly human Nino from 45510 I'd been missing so much every since she was turned into this weird caricature of herself. I'm still incredibly dissatisfied with the majority of her handling after the Movie Arc but if this is the note she gets to go out on, I'll take that W.

Concert time! Congrats to AkaMengo for creating a concert scene that annoyed me even more than the last one!

This is the sort of thing I mean when I talk about the ways in which the narrative has excessively favoured Ruby makes her come off as excessively self-centered in a way that is clearly not intentional. Not only does the story frame her as seemingly taking over the concert but she's also portrayed as the center every time she's on panel - even though that's Kana's position, that she only took in the first place because Ruby pressured her into it. This isn't something that happens by accident - in-universe, this can only have happened because the Strawberry Productions staff pushed Ruby into the center AT KANA'S GRADUATION CONCERT and instead of saying "hey, this is KANA'S GRADUATION CONCERT maybe she should be center", Ruby just went along with it. This is not my girl!!! This is not the Ruby of the First Concert arc!!!

No wonder there are in-universe fans getting pissed off. B-Komachi isn't even real and I'm getting pissed off. Like, can you imagine going to your favourite idol's graduation and her nepo baby coworker who's already constantly upstaging her is hogging the spotlight at her last ever idol performance? I would be physically incapable of not starting to throw rocks.

To make matters worse, the story is continuing to try and push what it flopped out last chapter of Ruby supposedly surpassing Ai as an idol. Like I said last chapter, I didn't buy it then and I extra don't buy it now!

Not only is the story still failing to do the work necessary to believably sell this, but the only way it seems to be able to try is to lean so heavily on Ai associated imagery that the whole thing is at risk of buckling under the weight - the double hoshigans, her outfit and even her popping Ai's iconic volume 1 pose. Not only does this feel generally unearned, it also falls flat as a moment where Ruby is supposed to be strutting her stuff as an idol because she is literally, explicitly, just imitating her mom.

Like… Remember when Aqua and Ruby had that big moment of Aqua telling Ruby not to try and be like Ai anymore and to get out of her shadow? Remember when Ruby and Kana had that heart to heart where Ruby said she'd be a star in her own way and she wouldn't be like Ai? How does that remotely cohere with the story relying so heavily on these callbacks? How am I supposed to believe Ruby has surpassed Ai and is shining in her own way when the seemingly only measure of success in this regard is how much she resembles Ai in the process of doing so?

Ruby has been catching strays left and right pretty much the entire time I've been doing these chapter reviews so let me be clear: I think this sucks because I think this sucks for Ruby. It completely undermines everything the story has previously set up regarding Ruby finding her own way of being an idol and it also cheapens the relationship she previously had with Ai's memory. Instead of the love and reverence she once had for her mother's legacy and efforts, now it feels like Ai has been used as a stepping stone to prop up Ruby's success story. The narrative is fighting for its fucking life to sell us on the idea that Ruby has surpassed Ai, but the execution is so ham-fisted that it ends up doing the opposite. By relying so heavily the imagery of Ai's radiance and her idolhood, it’s clear that the story doesn’t trust Ruby to stand on her own merits.

Like… fuck, man. Maybe this is a lot to read into four splash pages with no dialogue and maybe there's more to come from this concert - Kamiki is watching a live broadcast, after all, so the show is still ongoing. Maybe there'll be something in the concert to come that resolves some of my frustrations here. But this is all so consistent with the way the story has framed B-Komachi for almost 100 chapters now that it's hard for me to imagine it even recognizing that this is an issue, let alone taking the steps necessary to fix it.

And speaking of Hikaru………. man, what even is there to say about that ending lol

Much like last chapter, anything I could say about it necessarily relies on context and info we don't have yet. This is such an obviously deliberately provocative cliffhanger like last chapters that I don't see the point in trying to speculate too much about what it could all mean when Aka has historically gone hard on fakeouts. All I'll say is that like with last chapter's apparent twist, if the story is straightforwardly going to follow through on what is being presented right now with no additional twist, it will be much worse off for it.

At leas we'll find out next week whether or not that's the case. I ain't gonna lie I fully expected us to be on break again…

[yuseirra]

I think what gets me about onk's ending is...I don't see the point of it having had to be this way.

IT DOES MATCH UP WITH THE MYTHS TO A SIGNIFICANT DEGREE THOUGH, so that's why I keep jumping back to those to understand how the plot came to be this way.

From what I made out, onk is indeed revolving around the myths of Amenouzume, the god of entertainment and the two myths that have to do with her.

Her having brought out the sun god, Amaterasu, to shine and illuminate the world again(Ai's relationship with Ruby)

And her having persuaded her to-be husband Sarutahiko to give up his place as the former sun god, the light god and have him become the guidance god, to send people's futures into the right paths. With herself becoming a being to bless love between human beings for she was wed to him and people celebrate their marriage. (Explains Ai's desire to love, her relationship with Hikaru, and everything weird about the guy including how he can manipulate and ruin people's future somehow)

Amaterasu's parents, Izanagi and Izanami, is famous for their story of Izanami having died for having Izanagi's child. He tried to bring her back from hell but fails. So I see that having been thrown into the batch too.

Sarutahiko has a legend that said he drowned, and Amaterasu has a sibling who governs over the storm and the sea, Susanoo. Susanoo was in bad terms with his father and is said to have cried and insisted he bring their mother back. So Aqua must have taken on the role of that god. Instead of having Sarutahiko(Hikaru) drown on his own, they have Aqua take action to cause it here "avenging" the death of his mother for "causing" her death.

With all that blended in, with Tsukuyomi thrown into the mix(Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo are triplets born at the same time) you DO get some sort of outline-ish idea for oshi no ko.

This is the only way the story and its ending makes some sort of sense to me, it clicks really well this way, but even so,

AQUA DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE!! Even if you follow those myths?? He's actually the one that's never there, a variable- and what does a variable do? It's there to CHANGE AND BRING ABOUT DIFFERENT RESULTS. I just don't see the point of him being killed except for having Ruby more "darkness" in her life she must face in order to shine more brightly or whatever but that really isn't executed in real depth if it's supposed to be so. Ai's incident already remained and held a significant impact throughout the story and many characters suffered from her loss, as if that wasn't "enough" to show Ruby can shine in thr cruelest situation.. Guess she had to have everything taken from her to be the next sun god huh? Besides, the story was so focused on Aqua so having him gone in this really abrupt manner(I say abrupt but that whole chain of events that led up to it was just a disastrous mess with so many holes) just makes the whole thing hollow. I don't see the point of all this. If I can see it(lining up and studying the myths was one effort for me to comprehend just what to make out of it) then I can understand and respect it, but I just don't. I keep feeling the artists were really cruel and that the story wasn't really good either, as well it being badly treating a lot of the characters. It's really harsh to the fans as well, I genuinely felt so distressed how they handled the scenes in 164 and 165 and I seriously can't buy the volume that'd contain those chapters in it, they didn't have to execute things that way. There are many ways to portray a scene and they had to come up with something that can haunt its readers. If this was a different genre, I may get it. I'm afraid to watch the third season of this anime because of those scenes, I don't think I would be able to bring myself to watch that executed out live and moving, colored with voices. Again, what is the point?? I really care about the meaning, it DIDN'T have to be this way. What I feel about this ending is confusion, disappointment and pain. Frustration and a bit of anger too maybe? Very far from satisfaction. They were so cruel... If there's a reason and a meaning to this cruelness, I can take it! I took media literacy classes! Do they want to tell us that the world is ugly?? That is such a biased and twisted way to take things as much as baseless optimism having its flaws. And it's not like the last chapter didn't have "baseless optimism" in it either. In fact, it was EXACTLY THAT. So Aqua died. But everyone can smile. Sure, but they just gloss away on how it all happened. The recovery and struggles. I knew none of it could be wrapped up in one single final chapter but geez. Trying to coat things to make it seem like it's somehow going to be okay and beautiful when you show so little about the effort it takes for it to reach that conclusion. What happened in the final chapter should have taken up a single volume's worth of chapter for it to be handled in a decent manner but they were lazy to do it. They don't want to deal with it after they inflict so much pain, everyone's okay and happy somehow, when Ai's death gave everyone a hard time throughout the story for years and had Aqua, our main protagonist barely begin coming to terms with it after a dozen's worth of volumes!! Wouldn't Aqua's death hold a stronger impact on everyone in the story!! He's the one we watched and cheered for the entire time as readers and formed major connections towards every character that's there. The author is a coward for not handling that in depth or maybe they thought the readers wouldn't want to see something like that, well then, if they're not going to handle it with the sufficiency it needs, why do it in the first place?? If you're going to tackle something, do it well!!

I'm frustrated because they ARE capable. They have the ability to handle it really well but they simply didn't do it for some reason. I don't know what and why that is, the writing fails to convince me that it ISN'T sloppy and just ditched. It's unfair to their own work they created!!;; That leaves me baffled!! After all they've done and this is what they come up with?? but if that's what they're satisfied with then I guess that marks what they deem as such. It's bad though. It IS bad!! Could have been miles better. This deserved to be a much better piece than how it ended up as. You know, it's not a bad thing to have standards and have expectations, I'm not saying this because I hate the writer. I'm writing this because I followed it with my heart and saw how good it could be. The work doesn't have to be the way I want it to be in order for it to be good, I have my own bias on things. I'm not that entitled of a fan and I know my place. However, you have to have some standards and set the bars somewhere??? Don't settle for less when things can be better!! I don't think people came here to see things so unresolved and half-baked and I wholeheartedly DOUBT like 99% of the readers came to see Aqua being dead in a funeral. How am I going to watch anime 3rd season knowing that will happen eventually?? If they can convince me that was for the best, I can take it, it was executed really bad and I felt 'what are they making me see' as they did though. So there.

Ai's dearest wishes didn't come true which really pains me, she cared for all those she loved...but I think she survived as a character. I actually really like the movie arc, that's my favorite part of this piece because that helped me learn about her in depth although she herself wasn't present in it. In the end, she's the most well-built/written character of this series and she was the backbone and key...

Can't forgive what they did to her man though?? Oh my god, so what was he supposed to be, I studied him so hard and I genuinely, most wholeheartedly, seriously believe he's a fallen god who got corrupted upon losing his godly wife thus did everything to give her tributes and bring her back. That's the conclusion I derived about that guy. It's the only way I could find a way to make sense of all the things he did and the weird turn of events that's been happening around Hikaru, I'm really believing this. The whole thing's over now. That god really loved his wife... I think the star eyes are there because.. There ARE gods who've been emitting and influencing people through it. It HAS to be Amenouzume and her husband the shinto gods responsible for the entertainment industry. THEY'RE the black and the white stars. The reason their kids had them. Hikaru's fallen, so that's how it's black you know??? Ai didn't so she remained white!! He wanted to become like her again once more so he collected the lights to fill himself again and feel Ai(love)!!! Why ARE the songs like that if that isn't so???? Huh??? HUHH?? WHY HAVE THE GUY GOIN AROUND ASKING ABOUT WISHES?? HE'S THE ONE RELATED TO THOSE!! How could they not explain this before they go-ugh! I'm right! I'm going to believe in this!! Not "going" to, I just got this going on for MONTHS.

It'd be hilarious if saltwater purifies that guy. Sarutahiko has to do with Misogi, a purification ritual that involves water. Dunk the fallen god in the water and who knows. He'll come back all good as new in the author's next series but just. Let the guy reunite with Ai!!! I swear!! It's ridiculous seeing two stars in the end, it's NOT funny, don't make AQUA be it, Aqua wanted to live!! The ending is just so wrong on many levels it's been making me burst out laughing several times on how weird it is, and angry too. I'm just. I just hope any further additions don't worsen this thing, I swear, if they add this weird conclusion that it was Aqua who was obsessed and mesmerized with Ai secretly the entire time but it was buried within his subconscience in the last volume addition or something, I would, seriously, be disgusted. In order for Mephisto and Fatal to be his song instead of his dad's it has to be that way. That he loved Ai as a girl. If that doesn't happen, I'd be so relieved. You see, when you have the worst of the worst possibilities popping in your head, you can be a bit grateful when it turns out to be not it. I really went that far regarding this piece~~... I can't believe how low my bars are getting. Oh they seriously shouldn't go that low~~~~ But I really appreciated and studied this piece a lot in many ways. I really did. I'm glad Ai exists and I like her loving nature. And I think I'll be much more accepting and lenient about whatever celebrities have going about their life after having read that piece so that's there too, I also learned a little more about Japanese mythology, I drew a whole lot and I think my art's been developing, learned/got insps on how to form stories more, I really like what hikaai is and what it could have been.

Oh...I've never TALKED about a piece this much(I wish I didn't have to because, if the experience is just peaceful and pleasant all the way I don't talk about it so much;;) glad it's over, still scared of what it could bring in the future but that won't be for awhile. Who knows, I ALWAYS find something to love. This piece will be, indeed, unforgettable.. But I hope one day it'll just fade away as a fun memory. The way a lot of my past fixations and fandoms are for me now.

[frostfires-blog]

Thanks for your reply to this ask of mine : https://www.tumblr.com/frostfires-blog/768942492027682816/hello-tgcf-lover-i-found-you-from-your-post-of-4?source=share

I have sent the MXTX Ask Game, sorry if the questions is a bit much. 😅

No, I don't think you're hypocritical. I totally get it and can relate to you. It's hard to suddenly love m/m ships from something that we love since young age, when what we love mostly are m/f ships from that series, right?

See, I watched anime since childhood and my first anime were One Piece and Detective Conan. Guess the most famous m/m ship from One Piece? ZoSan (Zoro/Sanji) and fyi that ship have inspired real life BL mangaka with that ship's dynamics (including one of my fav BL mangaka). From Conan, it's Kid/Shinichi (for me now, this series have too many het romance, I mean everybody end up with somebody?)

One of my moots asked, how come I don't ship them. And my answer is, sorry those series are my childhood's beloved series. At that time, I still love m/f ships only and don't read any BL/GL media or even ship any same sex characters. So, I just can't see them romantically.

Then as I grew up, I began to love more the dynamics of same sex characters (especially between male ones) compared to het ones.

For your top 3 favorite anime/manga : Naruto, Gintama, & Attack on Titan, I started them because of my friends who love their otps. So, I knew a few people who wrote fanfics and drew fanarts for those ships. They asked me to start those series and asked who are my fav ships. I did and I do have favorite otps from those series.

From Naruto : NaruSasu (one of my fav non-canon ship until now, my friend's no 1 otp), MinaKushi (yes, somehow I love this ship even when they're m/f bcs they're so good together), and HashiMada (old man yaoi, enough said).

From Gintama : GinHiji (love their dynamic, you can't imagine how many doujins they had, also my other friend's no 1 otp), I love Kagura so much, but I don't really ship her with anyone (sorry)

From AoT : Please don't hate me, especially now that I know you love Levi. My fav ship is Levi/Eren (love their dynamic, potential for fics and one of my friend's otp).

See, in BL a few of my fav tropes are age gap and height difference, and we have them both!

Sorry for this long ask. Feel free to ignore them. I hope you don't mind with me (BL lover & multishipper of m/m ships) as one of your fan/ follower. I really do learn a lot from your blog and I love when you wrote something that you're passionate with.

I know I've said I love non-canon m/m ships, but I do love BL media, too, with their canon ships. So, thanks for listed 4 canon m/m ones in your fav ships (HuaLian, WangXian, SasaMiya, MafuYama), it means a lot to me....

P.s. Akatsuki no Yona is also one of my all time fav series ever! So excited that you love them, too.... Oh from this series, I ship Jae Ha/Kija (sorry for this random ship)

Anime/manga recs!

- Haikyuu (amazing story, great characters, mostly male characters, some of the most awesome male duos ever)

- SK8 The Infinity (short and amazing story, great characters, mostly male characters, you must have at least 1 fav ship after finished this 12 episodes)

- Buddy Daddies (2 hitmen/ 2 room mates/ 2 guys have to take care of little girl, one of my all time fav series ever)

- Bungou Stray Dogs (guys with super power + mafia, mostly male characters, amazing story)

- Death Note (best tragedy ever, great story, can't help but love this doom ship)

- Moriarty the Patriot (one or the best Holmes adaptation ever, amazing cast, love the plot, mostly male characters)

- Idolish7 (great songs, amazing story, for me Idolish7 >>> Oshi no Ko, primarily male characters)

Sorry if you have knew these series and don't like them. Also, sorry again because mostly I love series with primarily male characters (that's where m/m shippers got their fuel)...

No problem! Hi once again! Thanks for your continued support. I posted my answers to the MXTX Ask Game yesterday. Sorry, it took so long; I've been dealing with a lot. I also wanted to apologise for it being so long—I rambled too much again. I hope that my answers met your expectations. Since every MXTX work is exceptional in its own way, it's difficult to compare them. I totally get where there's no unanimous standout in the fandom and everyone has their own favourite.

Yeah, I totally agree. As sad as it is, I'll never be able to ship M/M ships from the shows I watched in my childhood before I became conscious of BL/GL shipping. Thankfully, not many anime fit under that umbrella because most of my formative years were spent obsessing over Naruto and not giving any other anime a chance—embarrassing, I know. For me, Naruto, Bleach, Angel Beats, Charlotte, Ouran High School Host Club, Made In Abyss, and Attack on Titan fall into that bracket. It was actually BNHA that made me start shipping BL pairings. While I don't ship BL/GL ships in those aforementioned series, I can see value in some of the well-founded ones and know if I had started them today, then I would most likely have shipped those pairings wholeheartedly. P.S. I love MinaKushi too. They deserve more screentime! I started Gintama in late 2019/early 2020 as was in my BL phase at the time. So I do like GinHiji, I just slightly prefer the dynamics of GinTsu and GinTaka. I read a lot of GinHiji doujins too lol (they make up pretty much 90% of Gintama doujins available, lmao)... I totally get why people wouldn't ship Kagura with anyone; as for most of the series, she's still young and uninterested in romance. I'm just a fan of the enemies to lovers/rivals to lovers/friends to lovers trope. So I ship her with Sougo since I like their synergy. Though I don't condone people using OkiKagu to sexualise her character pre-time skip.

The great thing about Gintama is that it's quite self-aware; so, they throw bones to practically every group of shippers while they simultaneously avoid verifying anything. So the fandom is much more inclusive than any other shounen fandom. Levi and Eren are my favourite AoT characters, and I used to have a friend who was very into Levi/Eren so I get it. I almost had a phase myself since at first I wasn't a fan of EreMika. However, around late season 3, my best friend had gotten me sold on EreMika and they've really grown on me. I'd like to think that I've matured enough to be amicable about ships. So I wouldn't hate someone who had a different opinion from me so long as they didn't harass me about it. There have been times when my best friend and I have disagreed about ships, but it hasn't come in between our friendship.

Thanks once again for all of the asks you've sent. I'm glad you've been enjoying my posts, and I hope you continue to enjoy them. Admittedly, the content of my blog will gradually shift since Naruto, Gintama, and Attack on Titan are over—so there isn't much content to post about... I'm not artistically talented—so I can't contribute with fanart and animatics—therefore I rely on reposting, editing, and analysing canon content. I'll continue to do my best, though—especially in new fandoms that have currently captivated me. Wow, another Akatsuki no Yona fan! They need to give us season 2—I swear the manga is so good! I don't think Kija x Jaeha is that random. I could see it... I just honestly never put much thought into shipping other than Hak x Yona since I had a long-standing premonition the dragons would die somehow.

As for your recs, I've actually seen many of them lol... So I'll do a quick run-through of my thoughts and ships in each:

➜ Haikyuu is actually my 3rd favourite sports anime. I used to post about it and read a lot of fics back when season 4 was airing. I went to see the movie in cinemas last year too. While I like most of the fan-favourite pairs—KageHina, BokuAka, and KenHina were featured in a Valentine's Day Ship Post I made 3 years ago.

➜ I'm fond of SK8 The Infinity as well and am excited for the upcoming OVA. I ship both RenGa and MatchBlossom! (P.S. Matchblossom is such a good shipname.) The SK8 dub is one of the only anime dubs I like—it's so unhinged.

➜ I watched Buddy Daddies back when it aired. At first, I thought it was a simpler ripoff of SpyxFamily, but it really grew into its own thing towards the end—and I grew to like it more and more. I quite like how concise yet open-ended its ending was. Not everything needs to drag on, you know...

➜ I've seen BSD too... Though I have quite complex, contradicting feelings about it. While the powers and setting are cool, it's one of the only series that has ever consistently confused me. Like, what is the actual plot of the series? What are the characters trying to achieve? Its lack of consistency both intrigues and frustrates me. I feel like my lack of knowledge of classical literature doesn't help either. Since I'm not fond of the art stystyle, Idly don't fangirl over anyone from BSD. Ironically, my favourite ship/duo from the series would probably be Shin Soukoku.

➜ I've only seen half of Death Note. Sadly, my first introduction to the series was that awful live-action movie... So I didn't bother watching the anime for several years...When I finally did start the anime, it was decently good—but I stopped midway since an AoT fic I'd read years before came rushing back to me and had spoilt most of the upcoming plot points for me. So all the tension and stakes were ruined for me.

➜ Moriarty The Patriot is one of my favourite anime series. I really liked that it delved into deep topics like classism, morality, and social justice. Sherliam is one of my favourite BL ships. Hopefully, they'll continue the anime series someday. I don't think I've ever done any posts on the series... But I will if I ever think of something appropriate.

➜ A year or 2 ago, after finishing the Given manga, I was motivated to start a couple of music-centric anime... I typically try out a few episodes of 3-4 shows and then choose between them. I know I ended up going with Kono Oto Tomare and Uta No Prince-sama. So I think the one I ended up not going with might have been Idolish...Or no scratch that I think it might have been Ensemble Stars... I'd have to go watch episode 1 again and see. So I'll have to get back to you on this.

Thanks for all the recommendations though. Sorry, I've seen most of them already. If you were looking for recommendations yourself, then I'd recommend the following (based on what you've said and recommended):

⦁ Link Click/Shiguang Dailiren really toes the line between canon and non-canon well with its main duo—in part due to China's censorship laws. I don't want to spoil anything since it's very suspenseful, but the show falls into the mystery, drama, and time-travel genres. It's available in three languages, and the latest season has introduced even more intriguing characters. (P.S. The music in this show is absolutely amazing.)

⦁ Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions is something I'd recommend to all Moriarty The Patriot fans since its MC is a descendant of both the Holmes and Moriarty bloodlines. It's more episodic and lighter in tone than MTP but no less intriguing.

⦁ Tsurune is sports anime centred around Kyudo—a traditional Japanese form of archery. Just like with Haikyuu and Sk8, it focuses on a lot of M/M duos and rivalries. Its animation is stunning, and the themes it touches on are insightful.

⦁ Owari No Seraph/Seraph of the End is a shounen anime that heavily centres around the ambiguous bond between its two leads—Yuu and Mika. There is an array of other complex relationship dynamics between its other characters as well. Its post-apocalyptic setting, music, and action sequences are somewhat reminiscent of Attack on Titan's earlier seasons, given that both series were animated by Wit Studio.

⦁ Windbreaker is a shounen anime centred around a group of delinquents at an all-boys school that have banded together to protect their town and its people from nearby thugs. Its characters and their interactions with one another are really endearing. While the fights aren't as flashy as other battle shounen, the series covers various significant themes and has significant character depth. The character design and character interactions are my favourite part of the series.

Anyways, thanks once again for reading through all my ramblings...

[flameof]

I am going to be ranting about Oshi no Ko, a manga/anime series I have tried twice now to pick up, and dropped just as quickly each time, for a post now. I do not know when I will be done. If you love the series, that's all well and good, but I keep seeing it on facebook meme pages, and it has reached the point of annoying me more than Hazama angered me at the end of Blazblue Continuum Shift Extend. If you do not want to hear some nobody like me rag on one of your fav anime, then feel free to ignore me, I'm ranting for my own sake.

I'll start by opening with the fact that those facebook meme pages had basically spoiled everything before I so much as knew it was a show that was airing, so maybe that has something to do with my opinion, but whatever.

It also doesn't help that a lot of those memes boil down to 'Aquamarine has sex with character x', so that's certainly jaded my opinion.

My first real problem with it comes down to the premise. That is to say, the dark side of Japan's idol industry, and two reincarnators born as the children of their favourite idol. Starting with the first point, who in this day and age doesn't know that idol culture is a cesspool of scum and villainy? I know that idol fans are chaos incarnate; I've seen the shit that Vtuber fans get up to. So, already, I'm turn off by the fact that the show focuses on something I already know. Then there's the reincarnator thing... why do they need to be reincarnators? Like, really, why? Don't get me wrong, I like a good reincarnator. They make for some pretty decent isekai shows and manga (god knows I'm addicted to the villainess isekai sub-genre), but THIS is... just excessive. Why do Ruby and Aqua have to be reincarnators? Why can't they just be regular kids? From what I've seen, the only times when the reincarnator plotpoint is a thing is when it's just the two of them. And WHY, for the love of the Gods, are they trying to get into the industry that got their mother killed?

Which brings me to point two: the characters. Now, I'll admit, I only know the basic three characters from how far I got into the series, those being Ai, Aquamarine, and Ruby. The rest of the cast, I only know exist through those aforementioned facebook pages. I get that Ai's suppose to be the cliche 'dead anime mum', but how in the Gods' names does she manage to mix up her children's names? They look nothing alike. And like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, why are her kids trying to get into the industry? The same industry that, might I remind, KILLED THEIR SINGLE MOTHER?! It just makes no damn sense to me (but then again, here I am, bitching about an anime I've only grazed the surface of).

And finally, the last point I want to bring up: the artstyle. There's something... uncanny about it. I'm honestly not sure what it is, or whether it's deliberate on the artist's part, but I just... can't with it. Maybe that's the point, since one of the early lines is about how being an idol is 'living a lie', but when I look at any character, even Aqua in his previous life, I just cannot connect with them. I know the argument to that would be 'they're drawings, dude', but even in shows with such stylised styles (Madoka Magica, for instance), they use their artstyle well, and for shows like, say, the Fate/Stay Night movies by UFOtable, sure it looks 'realish' but there's enough fantasy and exaggerated style to offset that. Oshi no Ko, however, somehow feels like it exists in an anime equivalent to the uncanny valley, where the characters manage to look flat, while the eyes pop the most. Somehow, the characters just don't feel engaging.

Okay. Rant over. Only problem is that there's going to be a second season, and I'll have to deal with all this all over again.

[444lpblue]

Oshi No Ko #1 - Mother and Childern

Screenplay: Jin Tanaka Storyboard: Daisuke Hiramaki, Saori Tachibana, Asami Nakatani Episode Director: Daisuke Hiramaki, Saori Tachibana, Asami Nakatani, Ryota Ito, Chengmin Jin Chief Animation Director: Kanna Hirayama Animation Director: Kanna Hirayama, Shun Sawai, Masaaki Yamano, Takeshi Osame, Maho Yoshikawa, Shuuta Sato, Manato Onishi, Tomoko Uno, Tomoya Atsumi, Asami Hayakawa, TOMATO, Miki Matsumoto, Honoka Yokoyama, Honoka Hada

To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect from the show. I am not a big fan of idol culture in general, and I typically find it quite toxic based on what I've seen. Also, I had no knowledge of the plot of this series at all aside from that aspect. Plus, completely unrelated to my thoughts on idols, the sheer size of the first episode was quite intimidating for me. It's not extremely hard to find time for a 20-minute episode and write about it, yet I've already missed many episodes this season. Will I have time to watch a show like this and still have time to write about it? With all those thoughts floating around in my head, I decided to watch it.

And what are my thoughts? I actually loved it. It's definitely floating near the top of the season for me and I can say that as the first episode was equivalent to 4 episodes of most other shows.

Somehow, I managed to steer clear of most of the trailers, so this is my real first time seeing the character designs of Hirayama Kanna. Honestly, they are very pretty. I'm not familiar with the manga, but the faces of the characters are extremely expressive, and the eyes are gorgeous and very unique. There are literal stars in some of the character's eyes that on paper feel ridiculous but it's extremely charming. The idols they want you to fawn over, like Ai, look irresistible in terms of design.

The story itself is very hard to describe without just spoiling it in its entirety, but I think the story functions well due to the self-awareness of the toxicity that lies within the idol industry. Unlike shows like Heroines Run the Show, they don't try to convince us to like this industry or applaud the toxicity within idol culture.

There are a lot of lies, there are toxic fans, and people you like as idols might be forced to upkeep appearances, or they might not be telling their fans anything. How should fans react to lies? The show doesn't seem to tell us how; it simply shows how people might react to it. And I do appreciate that respect for the viewer's own mindset on idol culture.

The show is about two idol fans who are reincarnated as babies to the idol they adored. As babies, they are named Ruby and Aquamarine.

Is it weird? It's a bit weird, but this whole plot point was definitely the reason the show was 90 minutes for its first episode. It's a lot of things to set up, including introducing idol culture to those unfamiliar, introducing our characters in their past lives and their lives as babies, Ai's idol path, and Ruby and Aqua's own path. And I found it all very entertaining and became more engaged in the story as I watched. The hype for this show is very large, and at first, I wasn't completely buying it as it wasn't even really available to watch till yesterday. Yet, it already had a rating on MAL from the theatrical release in Japan, but I'm sold. So far this season, my top shows have been "Heavenly Delusion," "The Ancient Magus' Bride," "Skip and Loafers" and this is right up there with them. The one hour and thirty minutes never felt too long, and believe me, I watched this at a very inconvenient time for me. Right till the end the comedy hit me, the wholesome scenes hit me, and the emotional ones hit me. I had a great time.

We don't know who directed what part, as this is a movie-length production and there are multiple episode directors listed here, but the direction/storyboard took a noticeable improvement and I really enjoyed it. I'll leave off with some images from the 2nd half of the episode. There were some shots I wanted to include, but those ones are spoilers even at a glance.

[goldenharmony]

I’ll try to give some solace here (and to myself lol). @theultracharmingladynoire ​

The mangaka, Akasaka is a bit of a troll. Here’s a page out of an AU omake chapter of Kaguya-sama, where he makes fun of how other manga authors try to justify incest (Shirogane and Kei have a really normal sibling relationship in actual canon - I find it sad that I find this part refreshing in Kaguya-sama).

In chapter 180 of Kaguya-sama, Akasaka sets up the idea of the guys peeking into the girls’ bath.

But the following chapter, starts with a character pointing out that its a crime, and what the other boys were actually planning to do was just check out the girls as they came out of the bath because they thought wet hair looked hot.

There are other examples too, but you catch my drift on the author liking to troll its readers. Akasaka is also collaborating with Mengo Yokoyari, who while is only the artist, has been said to influence the story of Oshi no Ko in some areas. As someone who only watched 4 eps of Scum’s Wish, her influence is seen in stuff like Melt’s backstory, Kana’s scandal arc, and...this current situation with Ruby. She also seems to love taboo relationships so that’s not very re-assuring.

But let’s be real, the only girl Aqua has canonically shown interest in across the 2 years in-universe is Kana, even though he tried for a year to fall in love with Akane but wasn’t able to. I would just feel sorry for Akane at that point that someone as great as her wasn’t able to sway Aqua but his sister could. 

So yeah, incest ending is definitely not happening unless Akasaka really wanted to troll all readers into a shitty ending lol (Unless Aqua thinks it’ll somehow be useful for his revenge to lead Ruby on????? idk that’s the most I can come up with). The real thing to be concerned about is how long it will take for the resolution of Ruby’s situation to be resolved (not if but when, because I’m sure they will be resolved). Because the longer that it is delayed, the longer we have to sit in anxiety and be forced to see incest memes everywhere. 🤡 

I’m hoping for it to get resolved in the next few chapters rather than Ruby choosing to keep her feelings locked away and confess after the movie, because I want a phase in the manga where people are able to look at their relationship as just normal siblings without the paranoia/memes. Plus, Ruby and Aqua’s interactions on their own up till now have been very normal without any weird tension. I can’t say the same for certain other animes that try to do an incest angle, even if its unrequited. 

I also try to tell myself that the first few chapters of Oshi no Ko had that anime-weirdness to them, but when binging the manga or starting the anime, it hardly gets noticed since people move past it really fast and we have a really peak moment at the end of the prologue arc. So for now, I’m willing to cut a bit of slack as long as we HOPEFULLY resolve this awkwardness in a few chapters. 

Also, I’m certain Akasaka decided to go on a week hiatus after that chapter to be funny considering he already went on a week hiatus after chapter 121, and usually has his breaks more spread out based on the frequency for Kaguya-sama and Oshi no Ko up till now. 

ive got faith in the mangaka of oshi no ko not to turn this weird real quick but also I am getting terrible usagi drop flashbacks lmao

[idolish7rabbitchats]

Yaotome Gaku: Wonderful Octave Rabbit Chat Part 2

Tsumugi: Everyone, thank you for gathering! I was thinking that we could collect requests for Yaotome-san’s “RADIO STATION Twelve Hits!” here.

T: Continuing from Kujou-san’s turn, I’ll manage the chat. Please take care of it!

8: Thx. I’m looking forward to the requests.

Anesagi: Takanashi-san, thanks as always. Everyone, please take care of it.

10000: Us, the managers, will be attending too.

Okazaki: Please take care of me.

T: The requests gathered from everyone will be, like it has been up to this point, decided by a raffle pull in the show. I’m looking forward to what kind of requests will be chosen!

10: So it’s Gaku’s turn huh! I’m looking forward to what kind of requests will be collected.

8: Why are you looking forward to it? (lol)

10: Is it weird?! I’m always with Gaku and Tenn, so I might be exaggerating it, but you are like my family, so I’m interested. 

8: Ryuu...

9: I’m not interested much tho.

3: You are chilly huh, Kujou!

2: Friendly TRIGGER mode was totally severed huh. (lol)

10: But, Tenn was worried about having to decide on a request before this huh! Don’t you wonder what the others have come up with?

1: He was worried that other people could see it huh.

7: Tenn-nii, if you were worried you could’ve consulted with me though!

9: Ryuu, don’t exaggerate. 

100: Tsundere’s dere activated where you can’t see it~!

1000: He’s at a high level huh.

8: Geez, you’re not honest at all huh Tenn.

8: OUUUCH! He stepped on my foot!!!

9: Don’t smirk while Rabbit Chatting. 

9: I just won’t let TRIGGER’s leader do something weird. 

10: Because you worried a lot, maybe you came up with a nice request?

9: Don’t raise the hurdles Ryuu.

T: I’m also curious about the requests everyone thought of seriously..!

T: So then, I’ll ask for the requests now. This time we’ll also start from the youngest, Tamaki-san please!

4: K

4: Who’s Gakkun’s favorite in IDOLiSH7?

7: Ahh! I’m curious about that too!!

2: I definitely want to hear that (lol)

8: No no no, saying that now is embarrassing!

8: I mean, we are this close, there is no favorite and such.

3: What is that, don’t be embarrassed. lol

1: Who’s song you like or who’s dance you are attracted to or something, you would have it a little right.

8: Even if you say that, everyone has different strengths. Is it bad to say everyone?

4: Definitely bad!

5: But, it’s hard to pick one person. People become unit-oshi because they like the unit...

5: Of course they love each of the members but, the songs and atmosphere that they’ve created are special. The concept of being a unit-oshi is one of the goals that fans would reach at one point.

8: Ousaka, that’s deep (lol).

5: S-Sorry! I mean...

6: I only choose Kokona tho?

100: Single-oshi and unit-oshi’s problem is the hardest subject (＞д＜)

8: It’s difficult from the beginning, but I’ll casually think about it. 

4: Not casually, think seriously!!!

T: As the Manager of IDOLiSH7, I’m also curious about Yaotome-san’s favorite!

T: Next, Iori-san please!

1: From me it’s “Please tell me a project you would like to try with IDOLiSH7.”

1: We sometimes have opportunities of having lives and variety projects together. If Yaotome-san has a preference or request, I wanted to hear it. 

8: TRIGGER and IDOLiSH7 together?

1: Yes. But I also don’t mind if it’s just Yaotome-san.

8: If we’ll do it, I want to do it with TRIGGER. We can do anything.

10: That seems fun! How about an air hockey tournament?

9: That’s as expected of Ryuu who likes sports but, didn’t he want to ask about Gaku’s wish?

10: Right lol

1: No, Tsunashi-san’s opinion will also become an important reference.

8: Reference?

2: Meaning you wanted to study about the projects if you will be there right, Ichi?

1: That’s right.

8: When you said that, I realized that shoots don’t dragged on when I’m with Izumi-otouto. I’m always impressed by seeing you nicely adjust the schedule depending on the show’s progress.

1: Thank you. 

1: You don’t get confused even if any unexpected incidents happen during the show. I was also impressed by your courage to get over things without showing confusion.

8: Somehow it’s embarrassing to be praised by Izumi-otouto. (lol) I have to learn from you too.

3: My little brother’s amazing right!

100: I’m jealous over the younger people~! Let Re:vale join in (°ω°)ﾉｼ

1000: Elder people can be useful too.

100: Like a grandma’s recipes☆

1000: Like a walking dictionary in show business?

Anesagi: What are you guys saying while having baby smooth skin.

100: I got praised by Kaoru-chan. (ノ≧∀)/

T: It seems it would become a fun job with everyone huh!

T: Next is the request from Riku-san please! 

7: From me it’s “I want to see Yaotome-san do a comedy skit”!

8: Comedy skit?!

7: Yes! Yaotome-san is always cool and sexy so I can’t imagine you doing something comedic… I thought I wanted to try seeing it!

8: You are asking the most absurd request with excitement.

7: Waah! Was it bad?!

7: Yaotome-san, you’re a frank and funny person so I thought you’d be good at comedy...

7: I’m sorry!

1: Yaotome-san, there is no right of rejection in the request corner.

9: If you are a man, just give your consent.

8: I get it already! 

8: If I pull it, I’ll answer Nanase’s request.

7: Really?! Yay!

7: Thank you. I’m looking forward to it!

5: But, even if you say comedy, there are many kinds of comedy.

T: Certainly..! What kind of comedy Yaotome-san wants to try?

*T: Definitely a cross-talk comedy when you say comedy?

8: If I do it alone, will it be a comic chat? I’m not too good at talking but it seems it would become a good experience so I might want to try it. 

Anesagi: About the subject, I’ll carefully check it beforehand.

2: So it really does have to be checked by the manager huuh.

8: Eating really hot food seems fun. When I see it on TV, I somehow keep watching it.

Anesagi: Rejected!!!!

8: How about a hot bath?

Anesagi: Where do you plan on going…?

T: Yaotome-san’s new field, I’m interested about that as one of his fans!

T: So then, next can we hear a request from Kujou-san?

9: From me it’s “Heal the listeners with nice words.”

9: It’s seems Gaku’s radio might end up with him talking enthusiastically if I leave him, so I thought a refreshing request would be good.

8: Do I talk that much?

9: That’s something you wouldn’t understand about yourself huh.

7: Yaotome-san is nice!

8: THANK YOU!

100: Gaku, you seem happy. \’’(*´∀｀*)/

10: Gaku widely has a manly image so we want a lot of people to also know the gentle, friendly side of him.

10: Right, Tenn?

9: Well yeah.

9: It’s hard for Gaku’s kindness to come across so it’s important to show them intentionally.

8: So you requested it while thinking about that huh...

9: Not for Gaku’s sake, it’s also for TRIGGER’s sake tho.

8: Even so, I’m happy. Thanks!

T: That’s a wonderful request thinking about Gaku-san! I could feel TRIGGER-san’s bond...!

T: Next is Nagi-san please!

6: So finally it’s my turn huh. I thought of an exciting and very fun request.

6: From me it’s “Free talk from the vocabulary on a chosen card”!

8: What do you mean?

6: Here I have a bunch of cards I’ve written on. Yaotome-shi will pick a card and talk from the word written on it.

4: Amaziiing! Somehow it’s like a game!

2: Heeeh, even if you’re picking it yourself you don’t know what vocabulary will show up huh.

5: That’s seems full-scale and fun!

6: I choose special words. All words are amazing and worth talking about.

6: I’ll give you a hint. The first character is “Ko.”

6: Oops, to know more than this, looks forward to pulling the request. :-))))

3: It’s Kokona lol

100: Kokona huh!

10: Kokona-chan huh!

8: That’s too easy to understand.

6: You don’t though? It could be “Kokoyashi” though. [T/N: Kokoyashi means Japanese way to say Coconut]

8: Who wants to hear me talking about coconuts (lol)

6: ♪(´ε`)

T: I’m really interested in what follows the “ko” but we will move on to the next request! lol

T: Next is the request from Sougo-san please!

5: Yes. 

5: Um, about the request, this would be rude to you so, it’s fine only if you could do it so...

2: Somehow you are making long preliminary remarks (lol)

8: If you are that stiff, that makes me nervous (lol)

5: Right, I’m sorry! So then, allow me to suggest...

5: Would you teach me the knack of voice percussion?

8: You wanna know about voice percussion?

5: Yes. The other day, I heard that Mitsuki-san and Tamaki-kun were excited over doing voice percussion with you. 

5: I heard you were really skillful, so I wanted to aim to be the same level as Yaotome-san…!

8: Since you were so nervous I was wondering what you would ask but it’s just that huh. I did that for fun, it’s not like professional tho?

3: No no, Yaotome, it was seriously good though! Like you could master it if you practice it!

8: It was quite nice when the three of us did it huh?

4: With everyone we always just said underwear though.

5: While doing voice percussions ? Why underwear?

6: Tamaki… It’s because you forgot to wear it huh.

4: It’s nooot! If you say underwear underwear, it will turn into something like a voice percussion!

4: [Huffing Pudding Stamp]

2: Aaah, it became popular that one time huh. If you say the tongue twister, it turns into a voice percussion. 

2: Don’t you know the “Hattsuku Pantsu ka Hittsuku Pantsu ka Kuttsuku Pantsu ka Mukatsuku Pantsu ka” one? When you go drinking, there’s a person who does this one right.

1000: Yamato-kun, you participated in a flirty drinking party huh.

8: That’s so flirty (lol)

2: No no, I don’t want to be told that by you guys. Anyways, aren’t all drinking party like this?

10000: It was popular before huh. I’m quite good at it too.

1000: Ban is too flirty.

100: Flirty Ban-san is also handsome! 

7: Iori, let’s try it too!

1: I won’t do it. Do it yourself.

7: Eeeh!!

1: Shut up.

10: Hmmm, it’s difficult huh. I think I’m not good at it… I get stuck at the “Kuttsuku pantsu” part.

9: Ryuu you’re saying it too fast. It’s fine to slow down a little more. 

8: I’ve done it just for fun before this but I’ve gotten a request so I really need to practice huh...

8: I can’t just say pantsu if I pull the request. (lol)

Anesagi: You really hate losing huh.

5: Thank you..! I’m so grateful!

9: Sorry, can we take a quick break?

9: Ryuu bit his tongue so hard while doing the tongue twister.

8: It seems he’s not seriously hurt but his eyes are watering...

8: He’s saying his fine but it seems it hurts so much he can’t Rabbit Chat.

5: Tsunashi-san, I’m sorry! It’s because I did this kind of request that...

9: It’s not Ousaka Sougo’s fault, is what Ryuu said.

9: Probably.

8: His voice is gone so we can’t really understand though.

T: Let’s take a break! Tsunashi-san, even if you’re not hurt, please don’t push yourself too hard. ><

T: I’ll talk to everyone after the time has passed. It’s a short break but please spend it relaxedly.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 137 thoughts!

so sorry in advance for how long this chapter review is but anyone who has spoken to me for more than 5 seconds on the topic of oshi no ko probably saw this coming the instant they read the chapter

Picking up immediately where we left off, this chapter feels sort of like a pause to inhale and reiterate Themes and Ideas to really drill them into the readers' head. Technically, none of this is new information (especially as pertains to Ai) so I could see it being repetitive for people who are keyed into Ai as a character but like… I am STILL seeing people in discussions of the manga just flat out not understanding Ai even when the text lays it out so I kind of I can't blame Aka for just clobbering us around the skull with it at this point: There was no horrible dark secret or ZOMG SECRETLY EVIL AI reveal waiting in the wings. It was always just that Ai was a normal girl doing her utmost to live and find normal happiness in a deeply abnormally cruel and lonely life.

With that in mind, I can't help but wonder if the film crew's reactions to this Ruby adlib aren't, to some degree, a reflection of that willful ignorance in the text for the purpose of refuting it — similar to the way Tsukuyomi was used to shut down the "Reincarnator Ai" theories popping up in the wake of new fandom blood back in chapter 118.

Like, these are all people who knew what they were signing up for, who are aware that this is a movie about depicting the "real" Hoshino Ai and yet their reaction is alarm and even dismay - the same instinctive rejection of Ai's vulnerability we see mirrored in Nino and even Aqua to an extent. Even while filming a movie that's all about her pain, they still value and instinctively prioritize the clean and perfect image of the invincible idol, Ai.

By contrast, Gotanda won back a lot of my goodwill this chapter with the monologue that took up most of its first pages. As I've alluded to in some previous chapter reviews, I was having a lot of mixed feelings about Gotanda's role in the movie and 15YL as a whole, but this chapter has reframed things in a way I am tentatively on board with. In this new light, 15YL is about crafting a narrative of Ai's life that may not be literally the events that occurred - it may even take huge liberties with them - but is all in service of conveying a much more important series of emotional truths about the cruelty she was subjected to.

This is mirrored by the visuals that accompany Gotanda's words, a series of disconnected images that do not themselves portray a coherent series of events but paint an emotional narrative of the loneliness, abuse and abandonment that created Hoshino Ai. This honestly might be one of my all-time favourite sequences in OnK so far just on the strength of its imagery alone. Those final two pages especially are just breathtaking: the grotesquely detailed and toothy maw of a B-Komachi fan sandwiched between two pure, sanitized images of Ai, the sea of huge, grasping hands reaching out of the void, on the verge of swallowing her.

I especially want to highlight that final panel of Ai's eerie, perfect smile. I genuinely can't overstate what phenomenal fucking expression work this is from Mengo and once again, I think this might have jumped into my top 5 favourite panels in the series already. It's so frightening — there's nothing technically wrong with it, but it looks wrong, it feels wrong. Even in the confines of a still image, I still somehow got the impression of it being a mask, unnaturally frozen and fixed in place. It honestly jumpscared me a little bit when I first saw it. My friend Silvie (@relares) also pointed out that the panel is framed in such a way that Ai appears to be trapped — backed into the corner of a closed box, pressed up against a wall to cover her vitals like a caged animal. It's really genuinely unsettling.

On that note; scooting back a bit, something I was really gratified to see as a girlie who constantly reaches for this idea in writing for Ai elsewhere: referring to Ai as an animal brings into text something that had, prior to this, only really been a happy accident of associative imagery, where her role as B-Komachi's bunny brought to mind a timid, easily frightened and physically weak little domesticated animal. This chapter makes it very clear this is not accidental but an extremely intentional choice to further emphasize both her vulnerability and dehumanisation. Being a helpless prey animal, rolling over and showing her belly, is less scary than being human

The Japanese text of the chapter the text takes this dehumanisation a step further: Rather than the wasei-eigo term アイドル (aidoru), when calling her an idol, Gotanda uses the word 偶像 (guzou) - an idol by its original definition. It goes beyond just reducing her to an animal - it's objectification in the very literal sense. Ai is an idol, a ceremonial object of worship, an inanimate vessel for the dirty desires of the people around her. That's the nature of the "idolhood" that was inflicted on Ai and it was killing her long before Ryosuke ever picked up a knife

This is especially interesting to see in the wake of Ichibanboshi no Spica, which essentially depicts the moment that Ai starts down this road, committing herself to being an idol who will love and support everyone, even people who hate and scorn her. This is framed by the novel as being something of a breakthrough for her and being liberating for it but I came out of it feeling deeply unsettled in a way I don't think the novel wanted me to be. I couldn't quite articulate why at the time but I think this chapter has given me the language to do so: Spica depicts the moment that Ai goes from アイドル to 偶像 without seeming to realise that's what it's doing and thus does so in a way that is not just uncritical but wholly celebratory.

In a lot of ways, this makes sense - Spica, broadly speaking, is about the "oshi" part of Oshi no Ko: the emotional fulfillment of not just receiving support but in the act of giving support yourself, in cheering someone on and seeing them succeed. Spica depicts these sorts of relationships in a straightforwardly and uncritically positive light, even in cases of parasocial relationships between fans and celebrities but this chapter, by contrast, paints a much more honestly ugly picture, of oppressive expectations, fear and dehumanisation inflicted by the supporters on their "oshi'.

At least in terms of OnK's narrative as a whole, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle: the bad certainty outweighed the good in the end, but it does not erase the ways that Ai was able to find genuine joy and fulfillment in what she did as an idol. But as far as this chapter goes, this is as unflinchingly honest about idol and stan culture as OnK has been, honestly, since the LoveNow arc and maybe even the prologue. It decries it as ugly, visualizing it as grasping hands, drooling teeth and a quivering, terrified prey animal on the verge of being consumed.

This is why (if you'll forgive me for briefly jumping ahead) the RBKN talk at the end ultimately fell so flat for me, among other reasons: it felt extremely out of place to the point of being a little tone-deaf to go from a whole half a chapter so brutally tearing into celeb culture to Ruby brightly talking about her own celebrity ambitions. I don't need Ruby's arc to end with her giving up on being an idol or anything, but it nevertheless feels completely insane to go from the first have of this chapter to the second with absolutely no in-text acknowledgement of how incongruous these two perspectives are.

Given that this is paired with her declaring that she isn't going to be like Ai, I can only take this to mean that Ruby is declaring her intent to never cross the line of アイドル to 偶像 like Ai did but I think that ultimately just kind of misses the point. The only way I can make any sense of it is if the narrative itself is drawing a distinction between アイドル and 偶像 and trying to pretend that the former is something that can be purely good and wholesome.

This frames Ai's situation as being somehow unique to her and while it's true that Ai was a person pushed to extremes by many contributing factors, none of the pressures placed on her by idol culture were unique or unusual. Hell, I've even said before that the premise of Oshi no Ko is more or less the result of the friction of idol culture's obsession with purity and the fantasy it promises of an eternally virginial child-wife and the reality of Hoshino Ai as a dirty, messy human with adult desires and sexual autonomy. When you get down to it, what happened to Ai is really the logical end point of celebrity culture as a whole: dehumanisation, commodification and reduction of people to ceremonial objects of worship. Why else would we call them "idols"?

oh my god. i'm not even halfway through the chapter. i. sorry i';m like this. anyway.

This chapter also does a lot to reframe what 15YL even is as a movie, both through Gotanda's monologue and his take on Ruby's performance as Ai — rather than pure authenticity, it is a blend of Ruby's compassion for and understanding of her mother and her anger and disgust at the people who exploited her, an indictment of the public and all the people who were complicit in her suffering. The end note of the chapter even points out that aiming for "the real thing" is no longer the point of the movie if it ever was and this frees it, to an extent, of the hypocrisy of purporting itself to be a movie about "the real Ai" while dramatising and rewriting aspects of her life and identity to better suit its narrative

As good as this recontextualization of 15YL is, I do think its portrayal in this chapter feels a bit inconsistent with what has been leading up to it. Prior to this, there had been a lot of focus on contrasting the movie's supposed dedication to the authenticity of the real Ai with the number of changes and dramatizations it made of her life and character. This new framing of it is certainly not bad and honestly preferable to what came before, but it does still kind of feel like an overt overcorrection, as if someone finally pointed out to Akasaka what I've been saying this whole time about how fucking ghoulish this movie feels.

anyway. oh my god. moving on at last: wow! mid filming script rewrites!! historically always a great sign for the health of a production! … obviously, actors giving a character a different energy in their performance that contrasts the script and requires adjustment is not UNHEARD of and has resulted in solid movies but that Gotanda makes this decision so lightly and without consulting like… any of his cowriters does speak to Akasaka's comparative level of ignorance as to how movie making works Vs the much more real and in depth experience in TV and music production other parts of the manga reflect.

I do really like that the discussion here ends on a note of asking Ichigo for his thoughts because like… yeah, actually, of course Ichigo should have opinions about this! Even putting aside the That Is Her Dad of it all, Ichigo is the only person involved here who knew Ai before she became and idol and can properly speak to her early experiences. That said, Ichigo being involved here brings something else back up: BRO…. WHERE THE HELL IS MIYAKO!!!!

it is getting so beyond absurd at this point that she is not involved in things. I know people are probably so sick of hearing me harp on about this but her absence is so, so baffling and there really is no good excuse for it. Even if they just said some shit like "Miyako is busting her ass managing our other talents while we make the movie" I'd take that. But that it goes SO uncommented on when she was so involved in getting all this together and just had a whole chapter dedicated to her talking about how strongly she feels about the twins as their mother… it's so baffling!

This goes QUADRUPLE for the total absence of Aqua this chapter, despite him being right there and getting a dedicated reaction panel in 136. The lack of focus on him lately was something I was willing to buy into as an intentional choice that would make sense when viewing the arc in hindsight but at this point, his lack of engagement with the things going on around him is just getting ridiculous, regardless of its intentionality. This is the guy who spent over a month emotionally self harming to the point where images of Ai's face would give him a panic attack and now that he's at, arguably, the lowest emotional point he's been at in his life, we have no reaction to basically seeing her walking and talking in the flesh again?

Hell, given that this is Ruby of all people and this is coming so close on the heels of the GRSR reveal, I'd expect an even stronger reaction from Aqua than anyone else but… nope! Nothing. We've barely had any meaningful AQRB interactions and it all adds up to making that past life reveal and the tease of Ruby's feelings in the wake of it feel totally flaccid as a plot development because nothing is coming of it. I know we will inevitably have to circle back around to it given that the HKAI scenes are on the horizon but there were surely ways to weave this more organically into the ongoing conflict that didn't result in me feeling like I'm sat at a kantenzushi place and waiting for something to come back around on the belt. Gah!!

Speaking of conflict, I want to at last move onto the RBKN talk that makes up the back half of this chapter. As I alluded to earlier, this talk fell incredibly flat for me, both as a character beat for these two characters and as a conclusion to this chapter in particular. I already talked about why Ruby's resolution here didn't click with me but more broadly, I simply don't like this as the resolution to the RBKN conflict which is seems to be presented as.

To touch on the things I do like about it… thematically, I enjoy this as a continuation of the ongoing idea of the New B-Komachi learning from and correcting the mistakes of the group that came before them. In practice, though… have they actually done that? This talk doesn't meaningfully address or even really acknowledge all the ways New B-Komachi is repeating old mistakes or the way the group quite literally does exist purely for Ruby's sake and that her taking that for granted left both Kana and Mem feeling used, as if they were just accessories to decorate Ruby's idol career that her CEO mommy bought for her. Instead, they just touch on the very surface level issue of their staged argument and then move on as if things are resolved. There's obviously still room in the future for us to circle back to it with Kana's graduation concert set but as things stand now, it's an unsatisfying note to end this thread on.

Ruby is robbed of the opportunity to do any real introspection and we as readers don't even see the moment she realizes what Kana is doing and why, or get any real insight into her feelings on this fight outside of vouyeristically goggling at her in the immediate aftermath of her pain. There was some really great potential here for Ruby's behaviour during her Black Hoshigan arc to finally catch up to her and make her face the consequences of her poor treatment of Kana and Memcho. She could've had a chance to confront her own inner ugliness and her potential for buying into the same bullshit perpetuated by the rest of the industry that hurt her mom so badly. Instead, we get an endpoint in lieu of any real work necessary to get there without any indication that she has learned anything meaningful from this arc or that her relationship with Kana has changed at all.

Kana, too, is done exceptionally dirty here. We get a lot of great Kana introspection in this arc, digging into both her feelings of insecurity towards Ruby specifically and the sense of empathy she developed through playing Nino, who she saw as being in a similar position to her. Kana's jealousy towards Ruby and her sense of being Ruby's extra, an accessory, is something that's been brewing in the background honestly since the First Concert Arc and I initially found it incredibly cathartic to see her finally expressing that to Ruby and getting those feelings off her chest. I was looking forward to seeing how she would work through this and resolve it, confronting her inner demons and coming to have a healthier relationship with Ruby as a result. But again… it just doesn't happen. Kana gets no closure over the hurt she expressed in this arc — instead, she's once again used as a stepping stone to prop Ruby up and make her shine.

And like… what are we supposed to take away from this? That Kana — and Nino by extension — were correct? That Ruby is just The Most Special by default (never mind her CEO mommy explicitly favouring her for work and opportunities) and that the only way Kana can deal with it is by quitting as an idol altogether? I'm going to be totally frank: as both a Kana enjoyer and a Ruby enjoyer, I think this sucks shit as a resolution for both of them! It's not only unfair to Kana but it's also just so boring as a way of characterizing Ruby. I think there's a space in OnK for really interesting discussions about like, natural talent VS hard work and how much of someone's success is one or the other but this conflict absolutely is not that.

In general, this chapter just felt… uneven, I guess. The first half of it, as you can probably gather by my completely unhinged ramblings, was one of my favourites we'd gotten out of OnK in a long time but with the back half falling so flat for me, it just ends up feeling kind of jarring and a bit less than the sum of its parts. It's definitely not a BAD chapter by any stretch and it very clearly gave me a lot to chew on and think about. It's just kind of a let down that a chapter and a shared character arc I was otherwise enjoying so much ended on such an incredibly nothing note.