#tendouji sarina

[gabbyp09]

[airihoshino]

Ruby and Sarina 🤍💗✨<3

[oratokyosaigunda]

Oshi no Ko icons

[ahiijny]

family

[iplayvidya]

Wait, OnK fans been freaking out cuz they thought Ruby was speaking directly to Aqua at the end of 123? I totally thought (and still think) she was just talking out loud to herself, and now she's plotting to make something happen between them. I'm 100% certain that if Aqua knew exactly what Ruby's intentions were, he would shut that shit down right away because Gorou never felt that way towards Sarina.

[kurogamishiro-chan]

When many people said "eugh, Ruby need to get over her crush on Gorou who now is her own twin", I'm busy thinking about Gorou's, or, Aqua's own "crush".

Gorou, first of all, was not a fan of idol before he met Sarina. And later on he became Ai's biggest fan, especially after he lost Sarina. What I see the most from this is that Gorou is in his own way, a "people pleaser", especially to his precious people. It came with his job as a doctor and his loneliness. And it also can be his own brand of kindness. And maybe being Ai's biggest fan was his coping mechanism.

When he met Sarina, his world has changed bit by bit. He never thought of his own life as unfortunate, but then there was a little girl who lost her own self more and more so fast. And there was no one to support her. Yet she was so radiant that it left a big impression in Gorou's life. The way she still had the capacity to love her idol, Ai, as deep as that was so dazzling. And tho I don't doubt Gorou's grandma's love for him, Sarina might be the first to show and gave him love so straightforwardly. And being emotionally stunted man he was, didn't know what he felt for her but Sarina IS the biggest presence in his heart, even following onto the reincarnation.

Now, I know that Aqua loves Ai so deeply. But for what I see, when he was Gorou, he became a fan of Ai more for Sarina's sake, at first. To give her a friend who share the same interest and all. But later on he became a genuine fan. BUT, remember how he sometimes saw Sarina's shadow in Ruby?? It might be similar with that. He saw Sarina's shadow in Ai, and now vice versa. Even Director Gotanda saw Ai in Ruby.

And above all, Gorou/Aqua can't differ his own feeling of 'love' he doesn't know if he was 'in love' with Ai or not, and he take interest on Akane when she start to mimic Ai and can be used. And there's Kana, who he can banter easily but in the end he use her for his own purpose. That doesn't mean he doesn't care for them, it's the opposite. Despite how crass he used them, he does care deeply and doesn't want them to get hurt. Which fail spectacularly.

But Ruby, Ruby is that one existence he won't ever use for his purpose. And he will go to hell and back to keep her 'radiance'. It's the same with how he treated Sarina and Ai, like they're the precious goodness in this bleak world and have their own circle in his heart. He knew of their flaws, yet still treat them like they had no fault.

He laughed meanly at how naive Kana is, how easily she swayed by the boy she likes. But he tries so hard to preserve Ruby's innocence, or what left of it despite knowing how hard her life was/is. Even when he listen Ruby said of how broken she was, she's still the most radiant.

I do ship AquaRuby, but I won't said that Aqua doesn't have a "crush" on Ai, Akane, Kana. Like I said, Gorou/Aqua is emotionally stunted about his "love". He cares deeply, craves for love, but doesn't know how to receive and reciprocate. His "love" is of self-sacrifice kind of way. He was fucked up when still as Gorou, losing Sarina when she said her confession, and then losing Ai as Aqua in almost the same way. Rather than focusing on his own "love" and discovering it, he's more desperate on not losing anyone else. That said, he wants to finally have his happiness. But as long as the biggest threat (aka Kamiki Hikaru) still running around, his precious people is in a big potential danger, especially his sister Ruby, his idol's daughter who's so alike with their mother, and the reincarnated "Sarina-chan". He feels he owes them (Sarina-chan & Ai) for loving him.

Why he feels like he owe them? From my own experience and from what I know of Gorou, people like us need others (precious people) approval and love to feel like we have a living purpose. Even then, we felt that we need to do more to not lose them. Loneliness is a scary thing. Maybe that's why he attracts other lonely people (the girls). He show them the support they want, and sometimes show some empathy.

And for him, Sarina-chan is the loneliest. She suffered so greatly even without that loneliness. And then he met Tendouji Marina as Aqua, and once again reminded how much Sarina had suffered and abandoned. Even then she still waited for her mother, wished for her parents health, loving Ai and Gorou, smiling and dreaming, etc.

And well, yeah, thats why I think the one Gorou/Aqua loves the most is Sarina/Ruby. I don't know what kind of love it is, and don't know who will end up with Aqua, but for now Sarina/Ruby is his number one girl.

[midnightyy1]

Oshi no Ko my version✩ (rewriting series)

This is the part 2 of rewriting Oshi no Ko btw!! Hope you guys like it~

.・。.・゜✭・『••✎••』・✫・゜・。.

Back to rewriting oshi no ko again cuz I still can't believe Ruby's character get outshine by side characters despite her being the main character and supposedly the next Ai. Yeah, this time we're going to talk about the poor little Ruby that character only revolved around her brother and the fact she's still in love with her doctor are not it. I get it she's in love with Gorou when she's still Sarina but when Sarina already in Ruby's body which mean she's already growing up and change mindset, I just think she should've get that her feelings for Gorou is just a platonic love.

✬Hoshino Ruby (1) : The beginning of Sarina's true life

Honestly, I don't have much to change for Sarina character itself but I suppose I never make Sarina in love with Gorou. Knowing Gorou has a wife, Sarina often asked him about his wife since from the story Gorou has told her, she thinks his wife is a nice person (she is though). Gorou's wife would be in awe when she heard about Sarina's view of her from Gorou which makes her often consider visiting her and eventually finds out that both of them are fans of Hoshino Ai. If you guys wondering why I make Gorou has a wife, it's because I just don't like the idea of Gorou being a fan of Ai (even though I already know his reason but I still don't like it) and I promise his wife will be relevant in the future though she's already dead. Gorou's wife has many times asked Gorou to just adopt her but he has denied her request since Sarina— despite her family not caring about her— still apart of the family by the government's data, it'll be a risk if Sarina's family know about this and would report for some reason. Other reason Gorou denied his wife's request is that he can't promise anyone that he could save Sarina from her illness. Sarina died before Gorou and his wife, the death impact Gorou mostly since he couldn't do anything about her illness nor how her family handled her medication. Another failure and this time he failed to save an innocent child with a big dream.

The day Sarina woke up as Hoshino Ruby, instead of feeling confused, she's absolutely aware that she's reborn like in those mangas she read (yes I hc her to be a manga lover). She got her conscious at the same time Aqua got his conscious, but unlike Aqua, she wants to try as many as possible things in her new life especially after knowing who's their mother was. She loves her hair, although she wish she had the same hair as Ai but at least she got a beautiful pink eyes she always wanted. As a child, she's way too energetic like how Aqua always describe her. She's the type to thinks that twins always look alike and have same style or personality and gender so when knowing that Aqua is her twin brother, she started to learn more about twins and was weirded out by the fact Aqua's interest is so different from hers. However, she likes the fact that she has a twin brother, even if her twin brother already labeled as a genius. But it doesn't make her sees herself lowly than him and determined to be as shining as her mother does to balance herself with Aqua. Ruby often annoyed Aqua to make sure her twin brother doesn't overwork himself. Ruby always thought that both of them were adopted by Ai, makes her never thought of who's their father was, completely oblivious of how similar she is with Ai. Ruby never wondered whenever Aqua tries to style her (not knowing his real reason) and actually likes it because at least she knew that Aqua doesn't completely have a bad taste of styling.

Aqua has noticed that Ruby made a lot of lyrics and some melodies whenever she was alone at the room, it was surprisingly a good one for a child to make. Ruby wasn't an airhead, she's actually quite smart like her twin brother for a child (especially at music) but she tries to be an airhead because of her past. I would love to make Ruby as one of Aqua's source information accidentally because Ruby often eavesdropping the conversation between Miyako and Ichigo or one of them with Ai or Ai with the other members of B-komachi. Some information she gets really intrigued her and she always told that information to Aqua since she knows Aqua would listen to her rambling about everything. Despite Aqua seriousness, he's quite sweet to his twin sister. As I said before, in my version, Aqua's personality is the same as his previous life (understanding, caring, supportive, and empathetic) but in his new life he's more quiet than before when he was Gorou. Back to the topic, in elementary school Ruby was viewed as a young idol by her friends and she loves to be known as that. Even though sometimes some of the students would call her "Ai's wannabe" but she doesn't care anyway. In this life as Ruby, she learned many things about music and idol. She finally felt what is like to have a family, even if it's an unexplainable kind of family.

The days before dome concert, Aqua falls into a high fever that caused a concerned for both Ai and Ruby. Ai would take care of Aqua and Ruby would be the one accompany him. She talks about random things and how she felt sad knowing no matter if she talks all night long, Aqua has already fallen asleep. The D-day has come, Ruby helped Ai and her twin brother to prepared as she's afraid that Aqua will have an illness even though it's just a fever. When Ai about to open the door for the unknown guest, Ruby was too focused on packing things for her mother to care for whoever knocked on the door. She heard a sound of a knife and immediately looks at Aqua to make sure, but then Aqua told her to stay in there. She could heard the voice of a man yelling at Ai. From his rambles, Ruby knows that it was probably Ai's fan, she already heard about how idols having a crazy stalker everyday but she couldn't believe that this stalker will ruin the relationship they have built all this time. The only mother she had, is she getting stabbed? that's where the sound of the knife coming from, is it? Ruby grabs Ai's phone and immediately calls the emergency number as she talks through the phone with an overwhelmed feelings, slowly she spoke to the phone with identity, address, and what happened from what she gets. When the officer told her to not hang up the phone, she obeys what they said as she tries to hold back her tears then multiple times asked to Ai and Aqua, "What happened outside?" As her voice shaking. When Ai proceed to hugs Aqua, she tells Ruby her true feelings from the other side of the room. Telling her of how Ruby was truly her own kind of star and more shining than she is because Ruby knew what is love and her love for music is more than Ai's passion as an idol, she claims. All of those were heard by the officer from the phone call even if it's slightly distorted.

Knowing Ai died makes her whole idea of perfect life crushed one by one. All her imagination about Ai and Aqua watching her perform was crushed immediately. More than Aqua, Ruby was more devastated, making Aqua be the one who comforts her even though he himself felt as devastated as she is. The day after Ai's death, Ruby often asked Aqua on why many people were that delusional and desperate. Every question she asked, Aqua will try his best to answers it even though he knew that Ruby's questions only lead her to grows hatred for stalkers like those. While Aqua was searching for the unknown, Ruby was several times being taken to a therapist but none of them really makes her enthusiastic self back again not until Aqua confronts her about that. Knowing how much of potential Ruby has as an idol, he doesn't want Ruby to just throw away her dreams. He couldn't save Sarina, his wife, and Ai, but he have to save Ruby this time and her big dreams.

Over the time, Ruby finally became the energetic and enthusiastic self again, even though her hatred for stalkers remains the same and hopes she could make a revenge one day even if that Ai's stalker already died.

But that was just a start of her journey to become the idol she always wanted to be. Will she become the perfect idol like her mother? Or she would outshine her mother? Or even have more rotten secrets behind her cute mask? Let's just wait and tell me if you're interested for more!

Previous :

✫Hoshino Aquamarine (1) : The beginning of Gorou's new life

Next :

✫Hoshino Aquamarine (2): The genius doctor in entertainment industry

✬Hoshino Ruby (2): The new ambitious star in entertainment industry

✵Hoshino Ai: The truth about the perfect idol

✮Arima Kana

✭Kurokawa Akane

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

.

[thoughtspresso]

Am I reaching?

So when The Crow was narrating Sarina Tendouji’s life in Chapter 121, they mentioned that Ai and Gorou-sensei’s presence kept Sarina uplifted through her toughest times. But they also say this:

Which at first pass, I thought could have simply meant, because both Ai and Gorou would die.

However, Sarina does not technically lose Gorou -- since she dies before him.

Does The Crow mean that Ruby is still yet to lose Aqua soon?

We know that Aqua does intend to get himself into serious danger and possibly even death in his attempt to exact revenge upon his father.

We also know that Aqua is angry at The Crow and is trying his best to keep Ruby away from the plot as much as possible.

Could it be that his idea of self-sacrifice isn’t simply his own emo-boy delusions, but something he and The Crow had spoken about before was going to be necessary to take Kamiki down?

[up-loader]

[takizawakick]

[yuseirra]

a family bigger than 4! wedding part 4(final)

I finally did it!!!! I gave them their wedding!! I used this article as reference for the order of the ceremony

This marks the 180th page. The challenging parts are all over... I'll relax and complete this story with a calmer heart :) Thank you so much for following this series thus far if you have. We're almost nearing the end, I hope you'll enjoy it as it gets completed!

part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / side story 1 / part 5 / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9

side story 2-1 / 2-2 / 2-3 / 2-4

part 10 / part 11 / part 12 / part 13 / part 14 / part 15 / part 16 / part 17 / part 18 / part 19 / part 20 / part 21 / part 22 / part 23 / part 24 / part 25 / part 26 / part 27 / part 28 / part 29 / part 30 / part 31 / part 32 / part 33 / part 34

part 35(+side story 3 prologue) / side story 3-1 /3-2 / 3-3

Wedding 1 / 2 / illust 1 / illust 2 / 3

[gabbyp09]

[oratokyosaigunda]

oshinoko_comic

／／ コミックス完結記念 特別企画 【#推しの子】THE LAST STAGE in 東京ドームシティ 開催決定✨ ＼＼ 全アイドルの夢の舞台「東京ドーム」へ。 【推しの子】のキャラクターたちが 東京ドームシティをジャック⁉️ ▼詳細はこちら https://oshinoko-fan-arena.jp #推しの子完結

[hnnyoongs]

Ruby deserved better. So much potential, WASTED over stupid writing decisions.

[iplayvidya]

Actually crying rn

When I was going thru chemo, one of my teachers regularly checked in on me. We would email each other and she'd even send treats on occasion. I know all too well how important that presence is. So grateful I got to thank her before she passed. Miss you, Lynne.

[all-of-her-light]

Ruby and the Unplayed Role

(Warning: Long analysis post.)

In Chapter 115 of Oshi no Ko, as Ruby is preparing to take her turn in the interpersonal acting audition, she reflects on her relationship to acting itself – and describes it as running very deep.

And by "the whole time", she seems to mean the whole time. As Sarina, she "played the role" of a girl who faced her circumstances bravely and bore no grudge against her parents for their neglect, because rebelling against those miserable circumstances would have been futile. Upon her reincarnation, "Ai's daughter" too was a role she played, and after Ai's death, she acted as the bright, innocent, non-grieving idol that she believed Ai wanted her to grow up to be. At this point in the story, we've already seen black-starred Ruby hide her vengeful anger behind a smiling facade, but this monologue suggests broad artificiality in Sarina/Ruby's self-presentation even before her vengeance arc.

Notably, Ruby also wonders here whether Ai's bright persona was an act in the same way that hers was:

This helps set the stage for later story beats like the end of Chapter 134, where Ruby again deepens her insight into Ai by personally relating to her.

And then, as if to drive home the point about her own acting, Ruby's turn in the audition consists of her expressing raw, acute grief over Ai and Gorou's deaths...

...before putting on a bubbly mask and acting like the grief isn't real.

Later on, the scene in Chapter 123 where Ruby spills her guts to Aqua seems to elaborate on the nature of the act that she's been putting on:

Ruby has been burying all of her sadness and anger and frustration, seeking to "smile all the time" in order to be loved. She's been performing a sanitized, idealized version of herself out of fear that no one would love the real her. Just like Ai did. Which, again, gives Ruby a powerful avenue for understanding Ai.

But there's an issue with this analysis. If you look back at Ruby's behavior in the manga's early chapters – before she discovers Gorou's corpse, meets the Crow Girl, becomes vengeful and all that – you'll notice that she doesn't actually express unfailing cheer, optimism, kindness, confidence, or generally Ai-like behavior. She doesn't even seem to be trying, really. She's bright and cheerful sometimes, sure – but other times she's unapologetically not, for understandable human reasons.

For instance, there's that time in Chapter 19 when she begs Miyako to hurry in starting an idol group for her to join, openly expressing insecurity about fitting in with her celebrity peers:

Or that time in Chapter 37 when she approaches Kana to confide in her about her stage fright:

(It's hard to imagine Ai seeking out support from a groupmate like this, at least without them opening up to her first in the same conversation.)

Ruby is also not above being rude or hostile to people, even when it's against her own interests, as can be seen in her bickering with Kana in Volume 2:

And then there's Chapter 23, when Ruby gets on Aqua's case about neglecting family time in favor of LoveNow-related activities:

(This is also one of those things Sarina/Ruby does that takes on a new meaning once you learn about her relationship with her original parents.)

There are more examples of pre-vengeance Ruby expressing various negative emotions to others, but I won't belabor the point. In general, I think perceptions of pre-vengeance Ruby as acting consistently cheerful or positive come largely from exaggerating/simplifying the contrast between her and her gloomy brother, or between her and her "darker" future self. They don't reflect her actual behavior.

Now, speaking of Sarina/Ruby's relationship with her original parents, I think it makes sense that a badly neglected child like Sarina would develop a tendency to avoid behaving in any potentially unpleasant ways around her parents, implicitly hoping that they'll want to spend more time with her that way. I also think it makes sense that she would extend this strategy to other relationships, given the formative role of one's relationship with one's parents – especially in Sarina's case, due to her isolation.

Importantly, though, we don't see Sarina trying to perfectly sanitize herself in her interactions with Gorou. Indeed, they both seem quite comfortable teasing each other (in flashbacks both from earlier chapters and from more recent ones):

The fact that Sarina doesn't walk on eggshells with Gorou suggests that she's relatively secure in her relationship with him, rather than fearing that failure to get along with him flawlessly will drive him away. I think this means Ruby's characterization in the early chapters is compatible with Sarina's later-revealed backstory if we understand Sarina's relationship with Gorou as also having been formative, teaching her that she doesn't need to act perfect to be loved. I also think this interpretation helps elucidate why Gorou means so much to Sarina/Ruby: his robust, reliable love and care for her gave her a level of confidence and security in herself that she didn't have before.

Now, what about Ruby's grief over Ai's death? Don't Chapters 115 and 123 imply that to be the single most prominent feeling that pre-vengeance Ruby was burying beneath her acting? How do the early chapters portray the effect of Ai's death on Ruby? Is that portrayal compatible with 115 and 123 (interpreted the way I did earlier)?

I am again going to argue: not really, no. 115 and 123 have Ruby recall "[acting as if] overcoming my mother's death, becoming a bright and innocent idol" (115) while secretly thinking "it'd be easier if I could just forget about her" (123). They seem to portray Ruby's past coping strategy for Ai's death as avoidant in nature; she tried to avoid letting the tragedy affect her or ideally even thinking about it at all. However, the early chapters portray Ruby's coping strategy for Ai's death as distinctly un-avoidant. Allow me to explain.

Starting off, Chapter 10 shows us Ruby's behavior in the days following Ai's death. We first see her reading social media reactions to Ai's murder and expressing anger and distress at people saying she was asking for it if she had a secret relationship, while Aqua listens silently:

A while later, though, after Ai's funeral – in fact, starting in the very next panel – Ruby and Aqua have the following conversation:

This conversation is echoed in Chapter 12, after the post-prologue timeskip, when Ruby, Miyako, and Aqua talk about Ruby joining the underground idol group:

In both conversations, Ruby doesn't deny her family members' claims about the hardships of idolhood, but she expresses a desire to become an idol anyway, not wanting to let the hardships stop her. After all, Ai sparkled, and Ruby wants to be like her.

(To reiterate, by the way, pre-vengeance Ruby's desire to "be like Ai" does not seem to involve never showing any negativity in her personal life. And it's not even as if Ruby never saw any negativity from Ai to begin with; see e.g. Chapter 4.)

But what does this drive of Ruby's have to do with her grief over Ai's death? After all, Ruby has wanted to be an idol – and to be like Ai – since before she was Ruby. She didn't need Ai to die to want those things. And how would her idol ambitions even psychologically relate to processing her grief?

Well, I think we get a pretty good look at a relation between them later on, starting in Chapter 41. This chapter opens with Ruby talking in her thoughts to "Mama in heaven", telling her about developments in the twins' lives from the past few months (which also serves to fill in and recap for the reader). After the recap, Ruby reassures Ai that she's doing well, and then we get these panels:

Ruby believes that performing at a dome – the elite opportunity that Miyako in Chapter 8 told us was "everyone's fantasy" – was also Ai's fantasy. But Ai's dreams of soaring to maximum fame as an idol were dashed by her murder. And now Ruby has taken it upon herself to fulfill them in Ai's stead, giving her another major reason to pursue idolhood.

We see Ruby visiting Ai's grave again and giving her more updates a couple in-universe months later in Chapter 72. Ruby tells her about the upcoming trip to Miyazaki, Aqua having become more cheerful lately, and then:

All of this implies that Ruby has been visiting Ai's grave and connecting with her memory in this way every few months for who-knows-how-long, and she has no intention of stopping.

This is not the behavior of someone who is trying to avoid giving mental space to the death of a loved one. On the contrary, pre-vengeance Ruby repeatedly confronts herself with the concrete fact of Ai's death and responds to it with mental fight rather than flight. The dark side of the idol world may have killed Ai's body, but it hasn't killed her spirit. Ruby copes with the tragedy of Ai's death by turning it into motivation – to preserve Ai's memory, to take up her mantle, to defy the darkness to ensure that her spirit lives on.

So what should we make of these discrepancies in Ruby's characterization between the earlier and later chapters? Honestly, I'm not completely sure. Maybe there's some way in which all of this makes sense after all. Maybe something got lost in the translation from Japanese to English? Maybe some of Ruby's recollections in Chapters 115 and 123 that we've assessed are meant to apply specifically to her vengeful self, or to the times when she was making public appearances? Maybe Akasaka deliberately wrote some of those recollections to be wrong to show that Ruby's awful present mental state is distorting her memories and sense of self? It seemingly wouldn't be the only case of that happening; Ruby appears to claim in Chapter 122 that the reason she became an idol in the first place was to avenge Ai and Gorou, which we know isn't true (and which Aqua also refuses to believe).

However, I think we should also consider the possibility that Akasaka just changed his mind about how he wanted to write Ruby partway through the manga, and the discrepancies in her characterization are artifacts of that without a good in-story explanation. For instance, maybe Akasaka only nailed down the details of Ruby's role in the Movie arc relatively recently, and the things he wanted to do with her required her to be able to personally relate to Ai in ways that didn't line up with her established characterization. So Akasaka tried to reframe what he'd written before to make Ruby more similar to Ai in certain ways, without complete success.

If this hypothesis is true, then Ruby isn't one fully consistent character throughout the whole manga; we have to distinguish "Old Ruby" and "New Ruby" at a minimum. And that idea disappoints me; Ruby is one of my favorite OnK characters, and inconsistencies of this size in her character progression interfere with my ability to appreciate it as it continues into the future. I also just kinda like Old Ruby better than New Ruby; I think Old Ruby better distinguishes herself from Ai and contrasts her in an interesting way. Old Ruby (pre-vengeance) is a person who knows the feeling of loving and being loved, values living authentically, and largely succeeds at it from day to day, but is nevertheless building her life on a couple of big lies and misunderstandings. (Ai didn't dream of the dome; Ai didn't want her children to remain a secret forever; the Ai who Ruby has dedicated herself to honoring is not the real Ai.) I think a character like that is a valuable addition to a story like OnK, and I'm disappointed at the idea of Old Ruby's arc never getting a proper, non-retconning second half and conclusion.