#from oshi no ko: akane ruby

[zetsubobu]

In contrast to my previous post, what's a character that is very beloved in the fandom you're in that you just can't like?

[somethingsad]

Shipping aqukana would be so much better if there isn't a fucking bitch yapping in ur ear how it's bad

[redge]

If you take ONK ask:

What instrument do you think the cast would enjoy playing?

Interesting question 😁 Took me a long time to think of an answer though but here goes:

Aqua - drums

Melt - guitar

Taiki - keyboards

Kana - keyboards and guitar (she learned to play these because she released acoustic versions of her songs and performs them live with a piano or guitar // but also has the tendency to keyboard smash when she's thinking of the mean things she said for the day but don't actually mean it hahaha)

Memcho - bass guitar

Ruby - harmonica (like she has little parts in their concerts with her harmonica but it totally steals the show)

Akane - violin

Ai - keyboards (that she probably learned from Kamiki)

[uri59]

Oshi no Ko final episode reaction:

*Me watching "Aqua" kiss Akane*:

*Me watching Ruby going to a darker place*:

[randomshipperhere]

Dying inside. Spent one too many seconds on twt and started seeing the bad takes bye.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 166 thoughts

As of chapter 166, Oshi no Ko has finished a roughly four-and-a-half year run started back in 2020. While there's some speculation about an epilogue or some extra content in volume 16 when it drops, this is where the main story ends. And you know what that means!!!

OSHI NO KO HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED WITHOUT ADDRESSING OR ACKNOWLEDGING THE FACT THAT RUBY KISSED HER BROTHER IN CHAPTER 143

please understand that this is FUCKING BOGUS

I'll probably do a longer post on this subject specifically, but my main critique of 143 when the chapter dropped was that while I liked the individual beats in it and I was really glad to see Akasaka finally addressing this tension bubbling underneath Aqua and Ruby's relationship, the immediate swerve away from showing us the aftermath of that kiss felt to me like an admission that the story was going to needlessly draw this out even more. Now that the story has ended and we can see that moment had literally no impact on the plot or even the character dynamics, I'd like to revise that statement - it feels like an admission of compromise. It feels like crumbs thrown to AquRuby fans to tempt them to keep reading and to stir up the waters of the ship wars, so people would keep reading and stay invested in the manga right to the very end. But most of all, it feels deeply disrespectful to both Aqua and Ruby as characters. Rather than exploring their feelings and giving both of them interiority and complexity in relation to incest or even just fucking acknowledging that the kiss had happened and letting their dynamic evolve, the series just memory holes the entire event and asks that you do too. Rather than letting Ruby have any development whatsoever as pertains to that relationship or, god forbid, let a female character move on romantically from the male lead, the series ends with her feelings so up in the air that I literally could not tell you what she thinks of Aqua by the time he dies.

ANYWAY… FINAL CHAPTER. BREATHES OUT VERY HARD.

I really can't believe it's taken us until the final chapter to actually deal with Ruby's grief over Aqua lol. We got a snippet of it last chapter but it was so brief that it really just felt like a tease. I also just think it's kind of bizarre that we're spending this little time on Ruby having feelings about Aqua's death to the extent that I have no idea how or when she found out about it.

It's also kind of hard to feel particularly strongly about Ruby's grief when the chapter doesn't really bother to explore it all that much. It's just a montage of Ruby quite literally Screaming, Crying and Throwing Up while Akane dispassionately narrates it all. The art also doesn't really help in terms of connecting with the emotions at play - I usually really like Mengo's expression work and the way she depicts extreme emotions but this all just felt like of… I don't know how else to put it. Goofy??? Is that an insane thing to say about Ruby grieving her brother???

Idk, something about both the panelling and just the extreme on-the-noseness of Ruby, again, literally Screaming, Crying Throwing Up while she's wearing a Burning cosplay Just In Case You, The Audience, Didn't Get It only for her to abruptly be done crying with no exploration or insight as to what's going on in her head that allows her to move forward.

Honestly, this is kind of the issue with everyone in the cast. The resolution is just sort of "Aqua died and we were sad about it but then we stopped being sad". I know what the story is trying to go for here - it's trying to express that even when you're in pain, life goes on and so you have to find a way to go on with it. But the result is that we spend all this time oogling at their pain without spending equivalent or even meaningful time on their recovery process.

It feels both excessive and undercooked at the same time and I'm left with the same icky, voyeuristic feeling I got from Aqua's funeral last chapter. This should be the point in the story at which we empathize with Ruby the most, but she remains a frustratingly distant figure right to the final pages. Part of this is an unfortunate consequence of Akane's narration directing these final chapters meaning that we're hearing about Ruby from an outsider's perspective and thus don't really see what's going on in her head… but if I can be frank, this has been an issue of Aka's with Ruby in particular basically nonstop since chapter 123.

As others & myself have noted, despite the absolutely catastrophic downward spiral Ruby is in at that point, Aqua revealing himself as Gorou basically flips it all off like a switch. There's some mild lipservice paid to the idea that Ruby is just using her dependency on Gorou to prop herself up and it's pointed out that the issues that contributed to her breakdown haven't actually been resolved - but none of these issues are ever even acknowledged again, let alone resolved. So, functionally, that reveal does fix all Ruby's problems in the space of a single chapter and the result is, again, that we spend multiple chapters gourging on depictions of Ruby's absolute rock bottom only for her to ping back to normal like a lightswitch. As such, the depictions of her pain feel less like explorations of Ruby's interiority and more like voyeuristic oogling at Ruby's misery and trauma and the effect is that the resolution to it all is both unsatisfying and a little gross. The result is that it feels like Akasaka is just indulgently mining the imagery of cute girls suffering because it causes simple thoughts neuron activation but doesn't respect these girls enough as characters to build them back up.

It doesn't help that this is basically the in-universe excuse for Ruby's career further skyrocketing. Instead of Ruby becoming a star on her own merits as the story keeps insisting she was supposed to, she's artificially buoyed by the public's morbid fascination with her tragedy. If I was feeling charitable towards the story right now, I would say this is an avenue of intentional critique but… well, I don't feel super charitable about the story right now lol

I WILL say that the one part of this chapter I did just uncomplicatedly like was the beat of Mem trying to suspend activities (presumably in the wake of her grief for Aqua) only for Kana to basically immediately explode into her room and help her get back on her feet. It's a beat that would've been much more effective if we'd, you know, seen it, but I otherwise enjoyed it and I thought it was sweet.

But. pbbbbtttt. I guess I can't talk around it any longer… let's get into the Dome concert.

To start things off on the immediately worst note possible, Akane describes Ruby performing at the Dome as being 'everyone's dream', including Aqua's. I'm reminded once again of the strange turn the story took in insisting that um, actually, performing at the Dome was totes Ai's dream all along (even though she literally didn't give a shit even a week before she was due to perform there herself) so Ruby performing there is fulfilling that dream for her!!! and I can't help but wonder if this abrupt shift in focus is an attempt to make readers forget what Ai's actual dream was - to see her beloved children grow up happy and healthy. Hell, it wasn't even really Aqua's dream, until the story suddenly had to try and convince us that his entire purpose for existence was to kill himself so Ruby could be an idol for slightly longer than she would've otherwise. The only people whose dreams she's textually fulfilling are Ichigo and Miyako and Ruby herself, but…

Honestly, is this really Ruby's dream anymore?

Who is Hoshino Ruby? What does she want? Why does she want it? These should be the very least of what we can concretely say about not only a protagonist but a character who has become a central figure of the entire story as Ruby has, but with the way Oshi no Ko has warped and distorted her, I find myself increasingly unsure of what the story wants her to be or how I should answer those questions.What does Ruby feel about Aqua? Was she still in love with him? Had she moved on, romantically? Was she still waiting for a response to her confession? Did she finally realize it was probably kind of shitty to respond to her brother going "lowkey wanna kms" by sticking her tongue down his throat? I Guess We'll Never Know.

This extends to whatever the fuck Ruby's relationship with idols and being an idol is. Almost the entirety of Ruby's time in the story has been spent reiterating over and over that Ruby cannot just be an idol who imitates Ai and that to truly shine, she needs to step out of her mom's shadow and shine in her own way. Ruby even literally tells Kana in no uncertain terms in 137 - "I'll be a star in my own way. I won't be like Mama."

While this has always been the text of the story, as I've pointed out before, the actual art with which Ruby's idolhood depicts her basically just as Ai 2.0. It relies so heavily on mining the imagery of Ai's charisma and personality as an idol and using them as the measure of Ruby's success as an idol that Ruby essentially has no visual or conceptual identity of her own as an idol. She's just Ai, But Arbitrarily Better, For Reasons The Narrative Fails To Actually Establish But Hopes That You Just Accept Anyway. This was always kind of annoying, but now that friction seems to have been resolved by… just making her Ai 2.0, But Arbitrarily Better (etc, etc) in the text as well. The fact that we're given no further insight as to Ruby's feelings and continue to just have Akane Explain Ruby's Character Arc to the camera also doesn't help.

All this combines to make the Dome concert and the final few pages feel exceptionally cold in a way I really don't think was intended by Akasaka. Yes, that splash page was nice and flashy but… I just felt nothing. I have no idea if or why Ruby cares about this. And even though the Dome concert has been hyped up through the entire story as the peak of Ruby's achievements as an idol, I feel no sense of accomplishment in her finally being there - not just because her journey to it was basically sneezed at us across two panels, but because it just feels hollow as a victory lap for Ruby. Again, she feels so distant and abstracted as a character that I can't bring myself to feel very strongly about her good or bad.

I think the perfect encapsulation of this are the final four pages of the story. Ruby's words here are very clearly intended to be a callback to Ai's words to Gorou in chapter one but as @all-of-her-light pointed out in our initial discussions of the chapter, Ruby very much does not have an equivalent to Ai's conclusion that she nevertheless wants and values the opportunity to find personal happiness and fulfillment outside of being an idol. Are we supposed to believe that simply being an idol is all that Ruby needs to achieve a similar degree of happiness and fulfillment? Is there no more to her than that?

I've seen a lot of people interpret this ending as exceptionally bleak and, as usual, gleefully predicting Ruby's immanent suicide because her beloved oniichansensei isn't around but this is indulging in, if you'll allow me to be frank, some pretty transparently ship-motivated flanderization. Despite what certain sections of the fandom would like to believe, Aqua and Ruby's lives, past and current, have never revolved around each other to the exclusion of every other relationship in their life. Ruby has a massive support network of people who love and care for her and actively want her to get back on her feet. I can one hundred percent believe that she does not need Aqua in her life to be happy and content.

The issue is that we don't see enough of Ruby to understand that ourselves. Again, she has become such a distant figure with so little insight into what she's thinking and why that this ending is basically a Rorschach test in which you can interpret basically whatever the hell you want or assume because we have so little canon basis to support or debunk our assumptions.

and yes. don't think i didn't see them. it IS both grimly hilarious and weirdly tonally appropriate for this ending that ruby has a bunch of oshi goods of ai and aqua including their fucking autographs set up to say goodbye to every day.

AND…… WE'RE DONE!!! THAT'S OSHI NO KO, BABY!!!! well, technically, there's going to be a 20 page extra chapter in volume 16 but I don't see it being big or substantive enough to meaningfully change my feelings about the ending so… I guess we're leaving it here. Damn. Feels crazy to be done with it.

I'll probably do a bigger post down the line about my thoughts on the ending as a whole but in terms of just How This Chapter Made Me feel, I guess the word is just… meh! It's definitely not an ending I like and I think the execution is sloppy and rushed but I also just don't really have the energy to feel angry about it. Maybe that's sad in its own way but tbh… I still really love Oshi no Ko! I still find it engaging and I find the characters I enjoy rewarding to talk about. I like the artistry of the anime adaptation. I don't blame anybody else for being so turned off by this ending that they're done with the series but for me, I like what I like about OnK too much that this ending could retroactively ruin it for me. Whatever else happens with the OnK franchise, whatever directions the anime and live-action take, this will always be the series that gave me Ai and the Hoshino family and. look at me. look at what she's done to my brain. could I really ask for anything more than that?

That being said, I'm definitely not done with discussing the series! I have fics to write (including a VERY exciting large scale project lined up with some friends), my Ai analysis post to finish and I also want to do a re-read of the series and finish my anime rewatch. I'll be here to discuss Oshi no Ko as long as I have things to say about it and as long as you guys will have me! Despite how the series ended, I've had a genuinely wonderful experience in the fandom and I really don't want to let go of the little community we've built together just because the series is done. I'm Ai's fan for all eternity!!!

[phantomchick]

The ending of Oshi no Ko vs The beginning (chapter 166 vs 10)

So as you can see, there's clear evidence of intentional parallels happening here. This is the aftermath of Ai's death that mirrors the aftermath of Aqua's. Aka already claimed to have the ending planned well in advance months ago so it's not a big surprise that even the ending panels of the first (not counting the prologue) and last chapters match.

And yet Oshi no Ko still falls flat despite fulfilling its promise of a revenge-tragedy.

I think the biggest problem it has is the way the last chapter tells us instead of shows us as chapter 10 did.

Yes chapter 10 also used narrative text boxes a lot, but I argue that the effect then was much more immersive.

With them being used with precision to move us through a time skip with only the most necessary information about the fall out for the characters, even the distance had the effect of doing characterisation work with Aqua describing in a narrative text box how the policemen hid the scene from Ruby but Aqua felt his mother's body going cold beneath him as they arrived - this use of the text boxes casual tone over child Aqua sitting in his dead mother's lap gave a sense of disassociation and shock to the scene.

Even the textboxes turning black to mirror Aqua's dark emotions concerning his revenge as the star in his eye turned black showed how much attention was being paid to their use.

Ruby.

Ruby felt much more real in chapter 10, her rant about the internet's callous response to Ai's murder felt real and emotionally charged. In comparison, for all she's the main subject of the last chapter, she feels like a 2d cut out of herself, barely in there for all we see her struggling through Akane's observant gaze.

She expresses her motivation to be an idol despite hardship by acknowledging that Aqua's right about idolwork being difficult and cruel but reminding him that despite the darkside of the entertainment industry, their mother 'shone' very brightly. The talk about how Ruby shines more the darker things get and how this is a good thing because it reaches out to people trapped in darkness of their own (just like her when she was a terminally ill cancer patient) is clearly meant to echo this idea.

Frankly it fails.

Ruby feels hollow.

To the point where we barely get any insight into Ruby's real feelings at all or any emotional connection with her in comparison, by 166 it's genuinely unclear whether or not she's lying even to the portrait of her dead family when she's 'alone' on her way out the door.

We don't see a conversation between her and her adoptive mother about Aqua, we don't see her talking to Akane at all. We see her grief and her success from a deified distance, just like the fans do. And it alienates us from the character.

Lies are love and she has two stars in her eyes. Just like her mother did.

I think this more than anything condemns the idol industry, she has to keep lying even to herself about her job being fun because otherwise what was all that pain and suffering and loss for?

Aqua died in a murder-suicide (shout out to Taiki for experiencing a loved one doing this twice, poor guy) to give his little sister success in a job that she has to get up at 5.30 for, devote her entire youth to and will have to quit in less than a decade. It has to matter, that she provides escapism for people who are suffering like she did, but it doesn't change the grim reality of her exploitation.

I think the lack of dialogue in the final chapter and the loss of voice for Ruby in the last few arcs mirrors the loss of agency she experiences as she becomes the ultimate idol, everyone's star.

But that doesn't change the fact that from a reader perspective it's just bad writing. Aka failed to carry his audience with him to the finish line and his messages about the idol industry were blurred by the rushed plot after the movie arc began.

If it weren't for Mengo's art hard carrying the clumsily executed story, I can honestly say that I don't think many would have read this manga all the way to the end.

[uchihaslilgirl]

Ruby Hoshino, the selfish narcissist

Just seeing this manga frame disgusts me, how Ruby fucking Hoshino is so self-absorbed that she never once thinks from others' point of view except her own.

And the next one just proves my point, at how dismissive she was, of the issue, when Ruby apparently "forgave" Kana, as if it was all Kana's fault.

Ruby's the worst character in all of oshi no ko....Like, she's a narcissistic selfish nepo baby who takes full advantage of her connections (being ai's daughter, and manager miyako saitou's adoptive daughter), even when she claimed to be upset over her secret being revealed.

She stole kana's and memcho's idol careers, intentionally.

She stole kana's center position in the group, and was willing to jeopardise kana's role further by thoughtlessly inviting mimi. Even on kana's last concert, ruby callously stole the center position and all the spotlight.

She cruelly manipulated shun yoshizumi.

She didn't even care when kana got caught in the scandal.

She was extremely demeaning to akane while fighting aggressively like a wild animal for ai's role, a role only akane could've nailed.

And don't even get me started on the whole incest thing....she forced aqua into it...

See, thing is, all the other characters, though flawed, are self-aware, and have done things for others around them. Ruby, though...i never actually saw her do anything for anyone else. Even once she became white-star eyed again, she could've shifted the center position back to kana, as it was rightfully kana's to begin with. she could've shifted some of the spotlight to kana or mem, but she didn't....and these are just a few examples. Aqua still cared about people around him, akane was willing to die for aqua, miyako became a very loving mom, memcho was always there for kana when she was low, and kana always let others around her shine first. Ruby never did anything for anyone else.

[thoughtspresso]

Oshi No Ko was about Arima Kana all along.

And I think there’s a real possibility she may die at the end.

Or be placed in the way of grave danger.

I was reading some AquKane shippers say something about how they don’t understand AquaKana, and why the writers and directors keep clearly pushing Kana towards Aqua when they barely share any chemistry. Whereas, in their belief, his relationship with Akane is more honest, deeper, whatever. I’m not here to argue about that. But I get where they’re coming from. And the simple explanation is this:

It’s because this whole story was written for Arima Kana.

I’ve seen some Youtubers talk about how this whole story was meant to be fulfillment for Ruby/Sarina’s dream to become the next great Idol, something about Amaterasu favoring her.

And that’s near what I thought of it. But I really think if the God of Entertainment wanted to bless a child with cancer a second life as the world’s great idol, they’d also give her a great singing voice, y’know?

Spoilers for the manga, of course as we go along on this explanation. So anime onlies, get caught up before you start reading me ramble.

Here we go:

1. Arima Kana is the embodiment of Amaterasu, not Ruby.

Or at least, Amaterasu’s appointed representative, or her favorite daughter.

To give you a run-down of some of the core Shinto/Japanese Mythology that is important for the story, the Creator God Izanaki had three children:

Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun.

Tsukuyomi, the Moon.

Susanoo, the Storm.

The story goes that Amaterasu and Susanoo had a competition about who could create better gods. So Amaterasu took Susanoo’s Totsuka-no-Tsurugi* (longsword) and split it into three, from which she birthed the three Munakata goddesses.

And woncha knowit, there are three great actresses born in that year?

*A reminder that Kana plays the character Tsurugi, which literally just means Sword. And Akane’s character Saya-hime just literally means Sheath or Scabbard Princess.

In this bet, Amaterasu got clever with the rules and won on a technicality. Susanoo went on a rampage, destroyed Amaterasu’s ricefield, and flayed Amaterasu’s favorite divine horse*, and then threw its body at her loom.

*The name Arima is spelled with the Kanji of Horse & Exist/Live. 

Amaterasu, in her grief, flees into a cave, believed to be Amano Iwato cave, right in the town of Takachiho, Amamiya Gorou’s hometown, and the death place of  Tendouji Sarina.

The being that draws Amaterasu out of there was the Goddess of the Dawn, known also as the Goddess of the Revelry & Arts, a being that Aqua says he knows well, and believes there’s a grain of truth to:

And how does Ame-no-Uzume draw Amaterasu out of her grief?

By throwing an absolute rager, and dancing really wildly that it catches her attention and makes all the gods around them laugh so hard. Just like:

Ame-no-Uzume will later on marry a diety who tried to block her passage before, Sarutohiko, who in Ise is worshipped as the god who illuminates the world.

That’s some divinity-level AquaKana shipping right there.

Just like how Aka Akasaka wrote the story of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War about two lovers who couldn’t be together just like in the myth of Kaguya, but having his characters overcome all odds to defy divine fate, I do believe that apart from the parallels to the mythology like he did in Kaguya-sama, there is very literal divine intervention this time in Oshi No Ko.

I think what’s happening is that the gods, particularly Amaterasu and Susanoo are quarelling again about who could create better gods, just like before, but now more of whose favored child will shine the brightest and be worshipped by the most humans. But just like last time, Susanoo may have been enraged, especially at the sexual assault of his chosen Hikaru Kamiki, that he possessed him with a corrupting force that urges him to destroy shining stars before they reach their peak, hence the murders of Himekawa Airi, Hoshino Ai**, and Katayose Yura.

Which by the way, the name Hikaru means Radiant Light!

And Hoshino means Field of Stars!

Whether it’s because Amaterasu is angry that every daughter she sends to earth is slaughtered by Susanoo’s chosen, or just because she wants to win their competition, she appoints Ame-no-Uzume to assist in safeguarding her new favored one from Kamiki’s clutches. Her new favored one being Arima Kana.

And therefore, Ame-no-Uzume takes the souls of two motherless humans who had passed before they could shine and sent them to become Hoshino Ai’s twin children. It was all anyway happening in her territory of Takachiho at the most opportune time.

Ame-no-Uzume is also known as The Goddess of Dance, as well as The Great Pursuader. And wouldn’t you know, that’s exactly the gifts that the Hoshino Twins received.

An energetic performer who takes the stage with dance:

And a deceptive, persuasive, extremely believable actor, who:

fooled his own sister into believing she had been rejected from an audition

pretended to scout an idol from a competing agency to research them

get Director Gotanda to raise him and train him

make Akane not just date him, but follow him down a destructive path

convince Kana and Mem to join IchigoPro

impersonate Pieyon for several days straight

Anyway, I truly, truly believe that unbeknownst to Aqua, his true mission is just to keep drawing Kana out of her darkness until she shines the brightest. Which is what he keeps doing anyway:

2. The Timing of the whole Oshi No Ko plot is aligned with Arima Kana’s rise to unprecedented stardom.

The story of Ai Hoshino’s pregnancy and meeting of Gorou Amamiya in a quaint hospital occurs at the beginning of Arima Kana’s life, just after she is born.

She meets Aqua Hoshino around age 4, already talented, and already extremely arrogant which could have easily been the demise of her career. But meeting Aqua and seeing his acting was a necessary wake-up call for her, that it brings her to tears. She never forgets this experience that she brought that lesson with her to her adulthood: that she can’t be satisfied and keep working harder, and to be a better communicator with her colleagues. At their first point of contact, Aqua already becomes the reason why Arima Kana’s acting career survives the slump.

They meet again in high school, when Arima Kana has one acting job in a lackluster production of Sweet Today. The ratings had plummeted, if not for the fact that Aqua came onto the set to draw out the best acting Arima Kana could deliver. After this, Arima receives much more respect and recognition from her colleagues in the industry beyond just being cast to bring some legitimacy to their production.

It’s because of Aqua and Ruby that Kana joins IchigoPro’s Idol Division, and her career is reborn anew. Such that, even after quitting B-Komachi, Arima states she never regretted the decision to join, because otherwise the career of Arima Kana would have been already over. 

It’s because of Aqua’s presence that Arima trains to become better and better as an idol. Aqua kept drawing out the light from Kana’s eyes, to the point that it catches the attention of the crowd who previously had no interest in her.

It’s because of her experience as an idol that she regains the confidence and sense of greed necessary to grab the attention of the audience when on stage, such that even Akane recognizes this change in her when Arima takes the stage as Tsurugi for the 2.5 Adadptation of Tokyo Blade.

And it’s because of all of these that she captures the attention of award-winning Director Masanori Shima, who lines up some roles for her when her acting schedule had dried up. It’s once again because of Kana’s dedication towards Aqua that Shima D finds her so interesting that he was most willing to promise her the best role possible.

It was as if Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto appointed Aqua and Ruby to come draw Arima Kana out of her Cave, and bring the Sun out again, just like how the deity drew out Amaterasu.

If you think about the title of the show, Oshi No Ko, it literally means The Favorite Child. God’s favored child. Arima Kana had been born chosen by Amaterasu from the very beginning. And Ame-no-Uzume is sending Aqua and Ruby to aid on this quest.

Which explains why it seems like there had been a mission communicated to Aqua from the very beginning. And why Ai was never going to be reincarnated at all.

You would think that if The Crow Girl, which we assume is the divine guide Yatagarasu, was communicating with Aqua about his revenge plan or helping him find Kamiki, that Aqua would hold a more favorable relationship with The Crow whenever it appears to give advice, no?

But it’s exactly the opposite. Because The Crow is guiding him into something that is different from his personal goal that Aqua doesn’t understand.

And this is where I think Arima Kana could be put in danger.

3. Arima Kana is Hikaru Kamiki’s next target.

There were earlier theories that thought Kurokawa Akane was the one to die next, because of what people have now learned of Kamiki’s serial murderer profile targeting big celebrities before their peak, and because Akane had received a bouquet of white roses from him when she won an award.

The chapter when it was expected to happen was a fake-out from Aka Akasaka, and some people think it’s still possible that she’s the target. In fact, I keep seeing recent theory videos who discount Kana and say she’s “the safest”. Hah! If only!

The scenes with Shima D weren’t just a mere plot point to bring scandal to Arima’s name, and threaten her career and life enough that it pushes Aqua to reveal his mother’s secret in exchange. But it’s there because this is the upward path for Arima Kana. So far, the only people who have witnessed her dazzling star power have been fans of the Sweet Today manga, idol otakus, and people who attended Tokyo Blade. That’s not really masterpiece-of-the-century, performing-at-the-dome level. None of these gigs have placed her center stage in what could be Film of the Year, and a Best Actress spot. Now, the chance is here, and it’s real:

I think, The 15-Year-Lie will attempt to draw out Hikaru Kamiki, or that Aqua intends to reveal himself in the movie looking like him, and reveal the identity of his father.

But I also think what would happen is that they would be unsuccessful at taking him down completely. Instead, from the movie, he would be interested in Arima Kana, and target her through the course of her Shima D movie, and plan to kill her before an important awards night.

Alternatively, now that Kana is changing her focus to film, she may consider moving agencies, and ask Frill Shiranui about her agent. And if we’re right, she is likely represented by Kamiki Productions.

Either way, Kamiki will pay attention to her and try to kill her just before she reaches her highest.

But I don’t think Arima Kana will die. I think instead of being saved by Aqua, it’ll be Kana who takes Kamiki down. Echoing back to her getting mad at Aqua for thinking that avoiding her was protecting her, and Aqua believing that Kana doesn’t need help since she’s strong enough to take care of herself.

And then maybe, it’s Arima Kana who draws Aqua out of the darkness too.

And, just like with Kaguya and Shirogane Miyuki, Aka Akasaka is once again writing a story about two people who will defy a fate of divine tragedy, and come out of it being more truthful with each other than they’ve been with themselves all along.

[sereneisstillhere]

Daughter of Ai and Gorou...!? [Fem!Reader x Oshi no Ko]

A/N : Oh my God I'm so sorry if my principle is bothersome to someone out there😭🙏🏻 I just have the same views like J. K. Rowling regarding LGBTQ+, but let's not talk about that rn. I made the whole story and somehow Tumblr decided to do shts and it's gone from my draft😭💢 FU Tumblr- anyways, please interpret the story to your liking, this is rewrite since the shts Tumblr decided to do, and I hope you enjoy it!!🫶🏻

Request by : @the-letter-horror-lover (sorry if I make you uncomfortable🙏🏻🧸)

Warning!! : angst, major character death (Ai, Aqua, Gorou & Reader [before reincarnation]), slight depression (Akane part), AU where Ai and Hikaru are married but divorced after 4 months only, fluff, please interpret the story as you like it, spoilers for manga tho it's ended, if I miss anything just reblog and tag. Thanks🫶🏻🍫

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You and Gorou were left behind by your mother for some stupid guy. Gorou takes great care of you and never talk about your mother ever since that. What you know is that they're divorced when you're 6.

The life Gorou gives you isn't that luxury, but it's still comfortable and you're not starving. That's what matters. Your study and academics are also great, thanks to Gorou's dedication on teaching you.

But, even the purest swan will meet its doom.

When you're 14, your friends asked you to go on hiking, so you agree. At first, everything seemed alright and goes just fine. Until one of your friends was stung by a wasp and accidentally push you over the cliff. As ridiculous as it sounds, it's actually very fatal.

Not only you who fell, but your friend who got stung by the wasp also fell. The two of you suffer lethal injuries, but your friend survives. It's you, however...

...blood spills everywhere, you couldn't move a muscle, your mind's going haywire, your heart beats faster before it slows down...

...and before you know it, you're gone.

This incident caused a deep pain to Gorou. Not that he lost his wife to another guy, he also lost his only daughter to the death. It left him devastated, depressed, and he even thinks of suicide.

But he remembers that you won't like it. You won't like your father kill himself for blaming everything to him, right? He knows it, so he canceled the plan.

Well, he's going to die anyway, pushed by Ai's deranged fan off the cliff and reincarnated as Ai's son.

It's not that complex, just a world full of lies and deception, and the former is known as the weapon in this entertainment industry...

Ai and you had the wholesome mother and daughter relationship.

Not only that, but if Ai's being honest which she clearly doesn't, you are her favorite out of Ruby and Aqua. But no, she had to be fair with her children, so she keeps it to herself.

When you and Ai are practicing to dance, you're a very talented girl and she immediately knows it.

Will teach you and Ruby how to be an idol at the age 3.

When Aqua is filming the movie he and Ai starred, she will bring you no matter what. With an excuse that you're her niece.

Why does she reasons like that?

Your hair is purple, like hers. Not to mention your eyes are literally Hikaru's. So yep, you're her niece in the public's eyes.

When you feel down or sad, just remember her. She will always catch you if you fall. <3

Even after her death, her influence over you is still prominent.

The way you behave and speak is her exact copy, except that you're the nicest and purest kid in the world, unlike Ai who views herself as sneaky and dirty.

When you witnessed Ai's death in front of your eyes, your whole body couldn't move, and just like Aqua, you got a severe PTSD.

But fret not, when you're asleep, Ai will always come to you, saying how sorry she is to leave you, and how sorry she is to never got the chance to tell you who's your father.

Ai will always love her children, but when it comes to you... she will never leave your side.

"[Y/N]... you're my sunshine, my world. I love you..."

Oh and btw, why is your name the same with your previous life's? Because the moment Ai knew that Gorou had a daughter who died at the age of 14, she immediately vowed to the stars that she'll name her daughter the same as her, [Y/N].

When Aqua found out that you're his daughter in the previous life, he'll go to super duper siscon mode.

He knew you so well after all. Your mannerism, your behavior, your tone, and your way of thinking. He knows it all.

Even if you don't realize that he's Gorou, he'll still control your life like how he was when he's your father.

The moment he found out that Hikaru is your father and that he takes interest in you, Aqua won't ever leave your side. Like, ever.

Hikaru got his eyes on you due to your beauty, talent, and definitely charisma that even Ai couldn't rival.

Had Ai and Hikaru are together, Aqua will never let Hikaru get close to you, even when he's just a father who's curious about his daughter.

He'll be like 'excuse me man, but I'm her father in the previous life and her soul is my daughter so don't even think that you can be her father' kind of person whenever he saw Hikaru.

And he'll definitely snatch your phone the moment you set your eyes on someone.

His daughter- I mean sister, is about to date?!! No, no. As a good father, he should be the one who pick your boyfriend. You never knew if that guy is good or bad!

When he died, people believed that Hikaru killed him, but you don't. You knew that Aqua would risk everything just to ensure you and Ruby alive. Even if that means he'll stab himself and push Hikaru to the ocean as a disguise of Hikaru killing him, so be it.

No need to cry now, my little dove. He will always watch over the two of you. This is his choice, and even he's starting to regret to never see you again, at least... he won't lose you for the second time.

"[Y/N], you're always been my guiding light. I never thought I'll see you again, but now you're here as my sister. No matter what, I'll always be your father, got it?"

Ruby Hoshino... now, I won't say that she's not jealous of you.

She envied how fluid and graceful your movements are, how talented you are, and that you got the natural charm.

But she welcomes it as a part of being human.

Jealousy, envy, insecurity... she feels it.

Ruby is not the person to be that envious and act on her feelings alone.

She knows that you'll never flex your abilities in front of her, not when all you do is helping her to be an idol like her dream.

You're not a threat to Ruby, she views you as someone she relies on, she could believe, and she had no mind when you outshine her.

She thinks you deserve it, but the feeling of envy is still there.

Regardless, she won't ever and I mean it, ever try to bring you down.

Ruby imagines how kind you are and how sweet you are to everyone, especially to her.

She often laughs and giggles whenever the two of you around. She loves you just like how you adore her.

When she found out that you and Aqua were daughter and father in the previous life... all I could imagine is her face like this ':O'.

Will definitely call you "Aqua's baby girl" and "Sweetheart" just to tease you.

When Aqua dies, she comforts you despite her own sadness.

Will help you out of your depression as she knows that you're the most affected (and not dramatic like Kana is when she's no one to Aqua- oops🫢)

When she reaches the stardom with you and Mem-CHO at Tokyo Dome, she'll always be by your side, knowing that you and her are the only ones left on the Hoshino legacy.

"Aqua's baby girl~...- ow, ow, alright, alright! [Y/N], I'm so lucky to be your sister. We're in everything together, right?"

You met her when Aqua brings you and Ruby to a dinner with his friends.

Immediately likes you due to your kind nature and soft spoken manner.

Akane feels comfortable around you, and she immediately forgets Aqua as she knows how protective you are to him. She'll do anything for you. <3

When she finally connect the dots that you, Ruby, and Aqua are Ai's children, she'll be more affectionate and kind to you, being mature and always try to console you from your PTSD.

You're just like Ai... except that you're not manipulative and good at deception like your late mother. Or so Akane thought.

But you've proven her that your angel heart and doll face can be a very weapon to manipulate those around you.

When she's bullied by netizen, you always ask her conditions, often offering poor Akane advice and shoulder to lean on.

Even as she's about to jump from the bridge, she keeps getting reminded of you. How you'll react when she died...

...she almost stop, but then she imagines your disgust face when you fully understand what she did to Yuki...

Aqua managed to save her just in time, and you waste no time to visit Akane right away. Ruby stayed at home to take care of Miyako's unfinished work.

The moment Yuki is about to slap Akane on the face, you slap her first in a very harsh way.

The anger in your eyes is palpable as you yell at the black-haired girl, "Are you out of your mind?! Akane almost commit suicide, and the first thing you do is slapping her?!!"

It took Aqua and Akane herself to calm you down from beating Yuki's arse off.

Since then, you and her are close, often hand to hand as she fears that you maybe lost due to your childish nature around her.

But she believes that you're old enough to not lost on a crowd, so she sometimes let you wander, but not too far. She's worried for you.

When Aqua died, she's so worry about you. She hadn't hear about you for days, only cryptic answers from Miyako and that is.

But you hug her and cry on her shoulder after persuaded to come out of your room.

She watches as you, Ruby, and Mem-CHO reached your stardom at Tokyo Dome with proud eyes and happy smile.

"I knew that you could face everything, [Y/N]. You're stronger than anyone I've ever met."

Oh... and this redhair...

You don't like her very much as she used to insult Ai in front of you.

When Ruby is asking her to be an idol with her and you, the stars in your eyes are black. Both of them.

So you're officially the first Hoshino sibling to shown dark star eyes! <3

She sees you as someone who'll take all attention away from her, but come to realize that you deserve it more than her in a harsh way.

Kana will always act a bit too close to Aqua, and it irked you a lot.

Got into fights with you is nothing new to Kana.

When she's confident in her acting skills, the way you can do it better, charming, and even attractive than her and Akane combined makes her question herself even more.

Kana also thinks that you're being overprotective to Aqua, shown when you always hold his arm whenever Kana is near, or the two of you always hold hands.

She's jealous that you and Aqua had a better relationship than she'll ever be.

But the moment Kana realized that you're Ai's daughter, she tries her best not to speak so badly about Ai, or at least not talking about her.

When Aqua died, you slap her for slapping Aqua's dead body. Girl, who'd slap a corpse of someone?😭

The two of you mend things again after a few weeks since his death.

She watches as you, Ruby, and Mem-CHO reached your stardom by performing in Tokyo Dome. She knew it's Ai's dream, and she finally learns to support you wholeheartedly.

"You're annoying, Hoshino. But even so, I'll always support you, as your senior, of course."

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[aspoonofsugar]

can I ask your thoughts on the direction oshi no ko has gone?

Hi!

I personally dislike it. It feels like tragedy for the sake of gloom rather than catharsis. It is an ending that de-powers everyone's arc really.

Aqua is the only one who gets a complete arc, even if negative. He has a tragic arc and fails to have a positive development. He literally dies idolizing Ruby in juxtaposition to Kamiki, who dies idolizing Ai. Narratively, it makes sense for him to die, as he kills his shadow (Kamiki), but I would argue it does not really work for the story as a whole. And that is because the overall themes and the other protagonists' character arcs are all sacrificed for this negative outcome.

Ruby does not get to solve her feelings for Sensei/Aqua and is stuck in yet another tragedy. I don't know how her arc will be solved. Probably in a bittersweet and yet positive way, but here comes the thing. I don't think it is believable psychologically speaking. Ruby grew a lot, but she is still defined by the loss of sensei and AI. Nothing in the narrative happened to make me believe she would not react very very badly to Aqua's death tbh. We'll see.

Akane failed her objective to help Aqua and repay him. As a result, her development up until this point does not get any catharsis nor resolution. It literally goes nowhere.

Kana is worse than ever. She did not get to properly convey her feelings for Aqua and she went from being the tritagonist to being a character, who quietly disappears in the background, in what is ironically an echo of her acting career.

Finally, Ai's death finds no thematic resolution and her two final wishes are not fulfilled. Not only her children do not manage to save Hikaru, but one of them even dies himself.

All in all it feels like the story set up a plot with specific roles for each character to fulfill and then decided not to have them fulfill them for the sake of drama, rather than theme. I also personally disliked we spent so much time in Aqua's head as he arrived about a self-realization about his identity and that the climax was all about it... That was never truly the point of his character nor the series. The focus of the story isn't if Aqua and Ruby are Aqua and Ruby or Goro and Sarina. The point is that they get a second chance at living, so they can solve their complexes. Aqua even lampshades this, before the climax.

Now, I like well written tragedies, but I don't think the series is written as a tragedy really. The structure sets up positive arcs until the end of the movie arc, where you can see the author started changing the order of things, so that it could end in tragedy. So, there was the fake good ending, which was positive, but very weak. And then, there was a twist, so that a more powerful, but negative ending could be delivered. Except, I would have preferred the positive ending with the struggle of the tragic one :''') Especially because I really think it would have been the most powerful one possible for this series.

Anyway, there are still a couple of chapters left, I think. So, we will see the denouement. That said, I think the series lost its power in the final arc, which is a pity cause up until that point it was excellent. Like, the Dark Ruby's arc is one of my favorite arcs ever. I reread it some weeks ago and I cried a lot. That is the kind of power I was expecting in the finale, but instead we got a theme attached on the story at the last minute and a forced twist. It isn't one of the worst ending ever (especially if you read the series and the chapters all together probably), but it is definitely below the level of writing this story had. These are just my two cents of course :)

[hamliet]

Oshi no Ko's Angel of Light: Kamiki Hikaru

So, I wrote a review of Oshi no Ko previously, just not on this blog. I talked there about the meaning of Hoshino Ai as a name (it's literally hoshi no eye, Ai spelled in katakana to reinforce that it's a loanword, meaning starry eye, and of course, eye/ai is a homonym for love) and how Oshi no Ko uses wordplay and puns to introduce its themes.

Naturally, I wanted to talk about the other parent, whose name is just as significant.

Kamiki Hikaru is literally "god of light/shining god." Well, okay, sort of. It's technically "kami of light," and kami doesn't translate super well into English. It's often referred to as a god in Shintoism, but it's not quite the western perception of a god. Spirit is another popular translation.

Of course, this references the supernatural themes of the story, as well as Hikaru's role. See, "angel of light" is what the Christian Bible calls Lucifer, the Christian devil. Pretty fitting for Hikaru's role in the story as the main villain.

But wait! There's more! Lucifer itself, as a name, refers to the planet Venus, known as the morning star. Which, of course, is the "star" we see in the story associated with Ai.

(Yes, the story is very much using distinctly Christian allusions alongside Shinto ones.)

Hikaru, like Lucifer, is known to, well, want everything for himself. That doesn't mean he wants all the worship of the world like Lucifer literally did according to mythology. No, instead it's far more insidious but no less disturbing: he sees himself as entitled to dictate how the world runs. He decides whose life is worth living, and makes others pay for mistakes of people they don't even know. He's playing God, in other words--exactly what Lucifer did to fall from heaven in Christian mythology (it's not actually super biblical hence why I'm using "mythology").

Lucifer is also called "Satan" obviously, which literally means "accuser" in Hebrew. That's kind of the perfect summary for what Hikaru sees himself as: he's visiting his hatred of an abuser he has every right to hate on everyone and everything that remotely reminds him of her.

The thing is, as said above, Hikaru does have the right to hate Airi, just like Aqua has the right to hate him. But following the path of revenge is Not The Way.

So, is Hikaru Satan?

No. He's a person.

The Path To Hikaru

Hikaru is not all that different from the other characters we know and love--Ai, Ruby, Kana, Akane, and especially Aqua. Fitting since they're all idols of sorts (yes, Akasaka is constantly using religious references to add social commentary to the idea of an "idol" as a false god/object of worship). They're also all actors.

Hikaru is what Aqua risks becoming. No, seriously. Hikaru was traumatized as a child via rape that led to the creation of a life.

As a result he's pretty anti-life as a whole, and especially anti-woman. He's constantly seeking revenge on women, hence his murder-happy spree. The problem is that he's not seeing these women as individuals: he sees everyone and everything as a representation of Airi, the person who assaulted him.

Also, society as a whole's attitude towards male victims of sexual assault, especially male victims of attractive women, means that Hikaru would not be seen as a victim. One of OnK's major themes is how messed up society is and how it dehumanizes people via fitting them into roles, and this is a perfect example of the harm that can come from it. Hikaru would be seen as a boy, and all boys clearly want sex. A famous actress slept with him? Lucky him! Even though this never came out publicly, Hikaru absolutely knew this was the case and it certainly plays a role in his grudge against the world.

Even though Airi is dead (probably as a result of him provoking her husband by revealing that he wasn't the father), he still isn't satisfied. No, Airi is still everywhere. Killing the perpetrator, making them pay, did not erase his trauma.

If Aqua kills Hikaru, his trauma will likewise not be erased. Not his trauma as Gorou, not his trauma as Aqua. Hikaru's death will fix absolutely nothing in his life besides stopping more murders, but there are ways to do that that, y'know, don't involve killing. If Aqua kills Hikaru, he will lose the best part of Gorou (valuing life) and the best part of Aqua (the future Ai wanted for him, a future with Kana and Ruby).

Aqua, You are Your Father

Aqua, you are your father. It's almost like the entire series has been trying to give you this message and you keep ignoring it. (By the way, because I know I'm going to get asks about this, I am NOT saying Aqua and Hikaru are moral equivalents. Not at all. I'm just saying that Aqua is walking a path that will end with him being just like Hikaru if he doesn't get shoved off said path.)

From being the violent stalker who attacks someone who has never felt loved in his first acting job after Ai's death to scenes like this:

The story is asking Aqua to take a good long look at himself, and he's trying desperately to avoid doing this. Why? Because he's also playing God, same as his father, same as Satan in Christianity. He thinks he is responsible for everything; a natural, childish attitude that people grow out of as they age.

Of course, Aqua is not nearly as toxic in this as Hikaru--he's not attacking innocent people--but the root of this is still a belief that he somehow controls what happens, when he doesn't. He doesn't at all.

Aqua, too, is just a person.

But Aqua struggles to understand what it means to be a person, to be Hoshino Aquamarine.

He struggles to see other people as people, too. This ranges from sabotaging Ruby's auditions to how he treats Akane to his protecting Kana without considering what she wants. It's been brought up multiple times in the story so far:

Aqua also fundamentally does not see Ai as a human being, either. Unlike Ruby, who calls Ai "Mama," Aqua only ever calls her "Ai," her persona. Aqua and Ai are foils to Kana and her own mother, in that Kana's mom lived through Kana only to abandon her, and Aqua is living through his mom... but ignoring what she would actually want.

(Ruby isn't flawless or perfectly healthy, and the story certainly doesn't frame them as good twin bad twin, but Ruby's overall worldview is absolutely more in line with what the story wants to endorse.) That's why we have lines like this, where Ruby reveals that she has a healthier view of their mother than Aqua does. She knows Ai was flawed.

This is extra notable because he has 0 problems calling Hikaru his father. It's almost like Aqua is drowning in self-hatred, in feeling unloved, in the idea that he brings bad luck just by existing.

He'll call out Ruby for her negative traits, but Aqua thinks he deserves them. Aqua dehumanizes himself, the same way he dehumanizes Ai, and he has to see both his mother and himself people before he can step off this path.

Essentially, what he tells Ruby here is exactly what he needs to realize, but he has not done so.

The root of Aqua's God complex is that he cannot move past his trauma. It's actually psychologically realistic that a child who experienced such an event would be stuck in a childish mindset wherein they feel guilt for not being able to save their mother.

But it's not just Ai that Aqua couldn't save. It's Sarina, too. She is the one who introduced him to Ai, after all. He didn't move on from her death in his past life, either, which can probably be traced back to his own tragic birth circumstances--the idea that he only brings death, because his mother died giving birth to him. Gorou even states that he became a doctor to help people like his mother, but the point is also that he wanted to bring life, not death.

Except, he isn't God. Neither Gorou nor Aqua are. He can't save Sarina, and that isn't his fault. But Sarina ends up okay as Ruby, not through his own intervention. Aqua couldn't save Ai, but that's not his fault.

The point I'm making here is that Aqua needs to heal the hurting child within him. The story has also brought up the theme of children suffering at the hands of the entertainment industry numerous times:

His path towards healing would involve taking a long look not just at the hurting child in himself, but the hurting child in Hikaru, too. Which is not the same as excusing. After all, we already saw what happened with Aqua thought his dad was dead: despite the supposed justice and his proclamations about being free, he was still every inch the trapped, terrified, traumatized child afraid to live. Killing Hikaru won't be any different.

Becoming Human

So, is there hope for Aqua?

Yeah. A ton of it.

Despite the tragedy of Ai's story, every other arc has ended optimistically. The story's optimism, also, is fundamentally rooted in humanity. Every character, even the ones who seem like exploitative jerks like the producers who edited Akane to look bad and the self-centered mangakas, end up having their thoughts and motives explored, and we see where they are coming from. Not only that, but they have the best of intentions.

Frankly, this is true to life as well. Precious few people see themselves as the villain. Almost everyone thinks they're doing the right thing. It's very human.

The end of the reality dating show arc is kind of what I expect in the end here. There, all contestants came together and pooled their unique individual talents to exonerate Akane. I would expect Ruby, Miyako, Kana, and Akane (who herself has finally realized that she can step into her own personhood instead of trying to be Ai/whatever Aqua needs and vowed to stop him) to come together to save Aqua from himself.

Aqua is incredibly loved, and he doesn't seem to understand this. Love is what enabled Ai to die smiling. A lack of love, feeling undeserving of love, is what torments Sarina/Ruby, Aqua, Kana, and more. The bastardization of love is what torments Hikaru.

Love allows someone to be themselves, truly, to individuate. This is what Aqua needs to learn:

He also doesn't need to earn the love of those around him, nor the love of Ai. She loved him just because he was her son, and all she wanted was for him to be happy and to live.

Imo, it's pretty unlikely Akasaka plans to end the series with Aqua becoming Hikaru 2.0. My guess is that Hikaru will be stopped because of Aqua, and he'll even likely die, but not at Aqua's hand. I suspect Akane, Ruby, and especially Kana (the one person Aqua has consistently placed above Ai) will help save Aqua from himself.

[redge]

Things I read on the internet that's a declaration of hate for Kana and my reaction (hoping I feel better after typing them all out)

"Kana makes everything about herself"

Did she want to be an idol? Did she want to be a center girl? (Girlie don't even know what a center girl is hahahaha). In Tokyo Blade, did she want the spotlight? That one time Kana wanted anything for herself is when she told Aqua her new dream. She did not even have a graduation concert. She did not have that movie that director told her about. In 137, she was praised for being a handy actor that can uplift others and improve herself and was described as "lacks opportunity" and many chapters after that, she still did not have an opportunity for herself. Kaburagi said they'd sell her as genius actor but that was not addressed anymore. So where is that she makes everything about herself when nothing was sbout her anyway? Not the idol career. Not as an actress. Not as a human loved back by the one she loves. She did not become anything she ever wanted so really how was this all about her? No I really want to know, how did Kana make everything about herself? Like I am really curious where this is coming from ah why do you hate Kana so much? 🥺

"___ best girl compared to Kana who only cries all the time"

Why can't we just go with the "____ best girl." period. Why do you need to put down a character to praise another character I am genuinely curious. I mean my favourite character has always been Kana but not ever did I hate on Akane or Ruby or anyone because why would I when all these characters have different stories of their own? And why do these girls need to compete with each other anyway?! Who's giving out the crown and sash? What's the point??? Your favourite is the best girl for you. Okay! Other's favourite is best girl for them. Okay, too! That's perfectly normal so why are you fighting each other I do not understand 😭

"despicable for slapping a corpse"

Kana slapping Aqua was something that belonged to them. No one knows that conversation except Aqua and Kana (and us, the readers). Miyako's reaction was very valid because she does not know anything about that conversation. Which is why when Kana told that to the dead Aqua, Miyako's reaction wasn't angry anymore. Miyako was in tears. I honestly would have killed Aqua twice if I were Kana really so a slap is nothing compared to the emotional wreck being in their lives brought her. Kana deserves to be slapped for hurting a corpse yes I agree but Aqua deserves that slap too for thinking that him dying is the great solution to whatever problem they're trying to solve.

"Kana is useless"

And what a heartbreak that is. Kana is perservering, patiently working on all the things she want to happen and absolutely nothing went her way. Kana is a representation of someone that tried and tried patiently but everything she did just made her feel useless. She grabs every opportunity, creates opportunity for herself but she is never enough. If killing one's self was a contest, I'd definitely compete Arima Kana as candidate. I would even forgive her if she just goes feral all of a sudden with all of the things that happened to her. She's useless, you say, but was that her fault?

"Kana does not deserve to be happy"

and why not? I say everyone in Oshi no Ko deserves to be happy. So why deny that to Kana?

But really. Why is she getting so much hate?

[ashsirens]

Now that Oshi No Ko is over and the fandom is slowly starting to die down, here are three of my controversial opinions:

Aqua's ending is no surprise.

I know many were disappointed with Aqua's ending, but honestly it didn't really surprise me. I've seen a lot of revenge plots in the media, so when Aqua said he wanted to avenge Ai in episode 1, I immediately understood how this story was going to end.

Also, there were some foreshadowings in the season 1 ending and in some manga panels that showed how Aqua would end up. Of course, that doesn't mean the ending is well written, I just mean that the ending wasn't completely unexpected.

However, it remains cliché with the sadness pushed to the extreme that it is difficult to feel bad for the characters.

Kana's stans ruined her character for me.

Long story short, I knew a bit about ONK's plot before watching the anime via TikTok edits. I knew there was a love triangle and that Kana was the most popular character, but when I looked at edits about the other girls, especially Akane and Ruby's edits, there wasn't a single comment that said "Kana is better".

Then I watched season 1 and honestly her character didn't really appeal to me. Even after finishing the entire series, I never understood what was so great about her, other than the fact that her abandonment issues and insecurities were relatable.

The more I looked at the fandom, the more I felt like this Kana hype was cult-like. In fact, Kana fans on Twitter and TikTok are the biggest condescending gaslighters I've ever seen.

Always saying: "I feel like I'm the only one who likes Kana", "Kana is underrated", "She doesn't deserve all this hate", "Kana haters don't understand the story"... WHILE ABSOLUTELY NOBODY HATES KANA! On the contrary, you say a single wrong word about the best girl in ONK and you get blasted by @kanasolourfav who will write you paving stones about why you are wrong, how much he understood the story unlike you and how much Aqua loves Kana (when that is not even the subject).

This kind of behavior made me end up liking all the girls in the series except Kana. Plus, I absolutely hated how the fandom excused or even admired her despicable behavior at times.

I understand that her bitchy attitude is part of her charm, it made me laugh sometimes, but there are still times when Kana was really a bitch with a capital B for nothing.

Like that scene where she makes fun of Akane in front of the entire theater troupe. As someone who has already experienced public humiliation in front of my class, I really found that moment disgusting on Kana's part.

What I also find ironic is that Kana fans have often called Akane a pick me for imitating Ai, yet the time Kana made fun of Akane in front of everyone and bragged to Aqua that her relationship with him is special while reducing Akane's worth, is much more pick me behavior than simply imitating someone to survive on a reality show.

Because yes, today we use the term pick me to designate a woman we don't like, but the real definition of a pick me is a woman who pulls other women down so that men understand that she's better.

(if that's not pick me behavior, then I don't know what is)

In short, aside from the fact that her attitude is sometimes borderline, objectively Kana's character is interesting and relatable, but this girl really deserved a better fanbase.

In Ruby’s defense.

I know that after the reveal between Aqua and Ruby that they are Goro and Sarina, there was a massive surge of hatred for Ruby's character as she started to see Aqua in a more romantic light.

But I think many have forgotten that in her first life, Ruby died at the age of 12. Which is very young, and it is reflected in her attitude throughout the series. For example Aqua read complex books while he was still in kindergarten because he was an adult in his old life, so he has the mentality of an adult. Same thing for Ruby, need I remind you that she literally rolled around on the floor stamping her feet so that Miyako would pressure the music producer to give them a song.

Because that's what Ruby is: a child.

Also, since she was seriously ill to the point of not being able to move, her former family literally abandoned her and she found herself isolated with no one. Isolation causes great mental damage, so imagine in someone young.

With Goro being the only person who cared about her at the time, hinting that she might have a chance with him when she's 16, and promising her that he'll be her #1 supporter when she's an idol, I understand why Ruby changed her attitude when she realized that Goro was still alive through Aqua.

Ruby, in both of her lives, never grew out of childhood. Childish immaturity combined with Ai's death must not have helped her be reasonable about her feelings towards Aqua.

There's also this: a lot of people underestimated the impact Ai's death had on Ruby. Now, it's understandable because the show didn't explore Ruby's trauma as much as Aqua's, but Ruby also hadn't moved on from Ai, hence her obsession with becoming an idol. Also, Ai was the only person who gave Ruby some joy when she was lying in her hospital bed, she gave her a purpose to accomplish in life, gave her love and affection by being her daughter, she helped her surpass herself (the scene where Ai and Ruby dance together). Ruby lost all of that.

Imagine: your family abandoned you because you were sick, you died at 12 without having been able to realize your dreams, you reincarnate in the child of the idol who gave you hope when you were at your lowest but who ends up dying before your eyes, you try to find the only person who gave you affection in your life but you learned he is dead, but in fact no he is not dead he was your twin brother from the beginning, who ends up sacrificing himself to save you from your psychopathic father who wanted to kill you.

So yes it's true, we can blame Ruby for a lot of things, but I don't think she deserves so much hate, because in the end she's the one who suffered the most in this story.

[skania]

OnK Chapter 151

Me two weeks ago:

Me reading this chapter:

The fact that Aka did parallel Chapter 30 makes me feel like we're definitely going to see some Tokyo Blade & Private parallels as the anime covers those arcs. For the better or for the worse.

But we'll get there in due time. For now, time to laugh at the writing again 😂

I have to hand it to Aka. I mentioned that last chapter highlighted like half the reasons why I find romantic Aqua/Kana so poorly written, and this chapter right here did a fine job at highlighting the rest 😂

I want to be an actress! Well... Aqua wants me to be an idol and it may not be so bad actually, I want to be Aqua's Oshi no Ko! Aqua is ignoring me! Being an idol sucks, I quit! I'm going to be a great actress! I may have a chance with Aqua actually. I just want to be his Oshi no Ko!

It's wild to me that Aka had Kana say that her current dream is just to be Aqua's Oshi no Ko. Absolutely wild. This girl was so desperate to become a well-known actress that she was willing to be casting-couched for it, yet suddenly now it's actually it's fine that I peaked when I was five tee hee!

She's obviously lying to herself and settling for the level she is in now because she thinks that reaching that level of notoriety is out of her reach, but...

Not gonna lie, as someone who has seen Akane be called everything from obsessed to emotionally dependant to simp, it is hilarious to witness Kana's writing right now.

But I guess it couldn't have been any other way, because what Kana asks out of Aqua this chapter is a reflection of what she has wanted all along:

I mentioned it before that Kana started fixating on Aqua as being that person for her, and this chapter shows that's still the case. There's nothing inherently wrong with that IMO, in fact it could be empowering to know that as long as this one person is in your corner, you can take on the world.

The problem is that so far, Aka hasn't quite written it that way. The secret behind Kana's acting is that she wants people to look at her, she wants people to acknowledge her, to love her. But when that desire is centered on Aqua and Aqua alone, she gets so hung-up on him that it's debilitating. She literally became a shell of herself during that year Aqua was no longer a part of her life.

Last time I felt Kana was acting pathetic, Aka confirmed that she was indeed meant to be perceived that way, and Kana gave herself a reality-check:

I thought Kana's moment of self-awareness was going to lead her to be emotionally independent from Aqua, but it seems that the fact that Aqua wound up saving her either way undid that progress. Now that she has hope that he may date her if she makes a move, she's taking it so far that she's ranking her romance with him over her lifelong dreams.

All this to say that since Aka once deliberately wrote Kana being overly dependant on Aqua to show that it's not how she is meant to be, I can't help but hope we may see something similar later.

Granted, Kana being written like a shounen love-interest whose entire purpose is just to get with the MC has always been a risk, so I guess this is par for that course lol

As for Aqua, I mentioned before that I believe Kana is everything he liked about both, Ai and Sarina and thus, the perfect Oshi... and this chapter has Kana declaring out-loud that she wants to be his one true Oshi No Ko.

Moreover, this is happening right after Ruby told Aqua this:

And while Sarina is undoubtedly Goro's Oshi, Kana wants to be Aqua's. The issue with that however... is that Kana wants to be the only person Aqua looks at, his Number One.

Meanwhile, Aqua kind of has his hand full in that regard already, so it's no wonder that through his shock, he isn't able to "catch" the ball symbolizing that particular part of Kana's dream 😂

There's his eyes, too. Last chapter I said that Aka seems to want us to compare the Aqua-Ruby chapters we got in this volume with Kana's, and the way Kana's confession was structured seems to confirm this is the case. So following that comparison, it stands out to me that Ruby's words brought out Aqua's white star and Kana's didn't. Especially because just a few chapters ago we saw Kana bring out Aqua's white star just by being Kana:

In this chapter Kana praises him, validates him, confirms that she is into him (which he has likely known since, coincidentally, at least Chapter 30), yet Aqua’s star remains black all throughout.

Why is that? Is it just his self-hatred and his guilt-complex keeping him from accepting that he’s the object of Kana’s straight gaze?

Or could Aka be hinting at something else?

Aqua has a lot of issues. Some have been with him since he was Goro, and others he has developed during his current life. We saw that Ruby's words pacified the "Goro" within him, but Aqua dismissed Ruby's affection as being aimed at him because he once was Goro. It's not something he feels he has earned in his current life. Kana is the other side of that complex equation. Everything she knows about him are things he has been willing to show her, but what about everything else? What about his trauma and his dark impulses? What about his past? Aqua likely thinks her view of him is skewed, and he is not wrong in that regard. But I'll stop there before I bring Akane into the mess lmao

All in all, for the time being, I feel like what we saw this chapter tracks with my thoughts here:

Aqua, Kana, Ai and Aka's concept of Oshi

Kana is the Ultimate Oshi (parallels to Sarina and Ai) + 1

Even more parallels and a theory about their purpose

Considering how lousy Aka's writing has been lately, I feel like this is still the most interesting route he could take. After all, if we abide by the values he preached in Kaguya, then Oshi is meant to be a platonic concept. So following Aka's logic, for Aqua and Kana to end up together, Aqua would need to tell her that he doesn't want her to be his Oshi, but his lover.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Aka is going to walk back on all of that. Oshi no Ko is supposed to be its own manga, after all. Maybe it's his attempt at writing tropes in the most straight-forward way possible and Aka's new idea of a big love declaration is Aqua finally waving the white lightstick at Kana's graduation concert.

If the curtains truly are just blue, I hope the writing will remain as hilarious as it has been these past few chapters 😂

In the meantime, the other thing that stood out to me this chapter was Aqua himself. We all know that being a surgeon was Goro's dream, so it makes sense for Goro to chase that dream in this new life as Aqua. I was even happy for him when he first brought it up because this life is his chance to do everything he wanted but couldn't in his first life!

But last chapter we had a big showing of "Goro" telling "Aqua" that he is free to live his own life now. In other words, instead of trying to do what Goro would have done if he had a second chance, he can focus on doing the things that he wants to do as the individual he has become during his life as Aqua Hoshino.

So, I feel like this begs the question: is being a surgeon truly Aqua Hoshino's dream? Like not even something he wants to do alongside other things, but his outright dream?

I can't help but wonder. Particularly because, in my opinion, the TB arc did a good job at foreshadowing that Aqua Hoshino is made to be an actor.

In this chapter Kana seems to be fooling herself into giving up on her childhood dream because she thinks it's out of her reach. It would fit, then, for the Aqua in this chapter to be fooling himself as well.

If we entertain the thought of wanting to be a surgeon being a vestige of his old life rather than something Aqua truly dreams of in his current life, then his reaction in these pages becomes more interesting:

Kana assumes Aqua is just embarrassed, but these panels to me read like something more than that - for more reasons than one.

Just like Goro guided him to Kana last chapter possibly based on his own wants, in this chapter Kana unknowingly guides him to Goro's.

She is completely right. Every word she says rings true.

But I'd argue that everything she said was already accomplished by Goro in his previous life. He did save lives (although not as many as he would've wanted, and not the ones that counted the most for him), he was a light to Sarina, etc. etc. He was a good doctor.

Everything Kana says about Aqua was already true of Goro. On the other hand, Kana's description of Aqua paints nothing but virtues, and we know for a fact Aqua isn't only just light. More than that, we know for a fact that Aqua doesn't see himself that way.

Much like how in Chapter 149 we got Kana giving a very positive but very one-sided description of Akane that leaves out her negative traits, Kana more or less does the same thing with Aqua here.

In Chapter 149, Akane first got flustered (her idol Kana-chan was praising her, after all) and then sobered up; possibly because for her it's the opposite (she isn't a goody-two-shoes nor normal nor decent, and men would prefer women who are - like Kana).

I feel like in this Chapter, we may or may not have seen a repeat of this with Aqua. It's his Oshi no Kana praising him, but does he really believe the things she's saying of him? Or are they just a reminder of what he is not (according to himself)?

I can't help but wonder, because last time we saw Aqua blushing to the point that he had to hide his face, Mengo and Aka made sure we could see his blush.

The way he is drawn here is very obviously meant to be paralleled to this chapter, he shields his face in the same way and all. So why not simply show his blush, just like they did in Chapter 29?

Granted, this is just me naturally going for the most interesting possibility lol It is entirely possible and even likely that this is all as simple as it seems. But to be fair, in Chapter 30 he throws the ball at Kana in the same way and it wasn't because Kana was right. At the contrary: it was because he was having a moment and Kana drew the most basic conclusion out of it, one that embarrassed him lmao

Geez it's kind of sad how this manga lends itself to two completely different readings and the most basic one is the one with the highest chances of being true 😂

[kyrieeleisonelise]

Oshi-No-Ko Plot points that I think would of been more interesting than the finale we got.

Major spoilers!!! This is just for fun.

Some more development on wtf was going on with Ruby and Aqua in that last arc. There was all this build up to a super toxic/codependent/taboo relationship and it was just never explained or explored adequately. Like it feels wrong that Aqua died with Ruby still seeing him as Goro.

Maybe Aqua and Ruby coming to more of a solid understanding about their relationship to their past lives. I felt like towards the end the two of them where starting to retreat into their last identities more to hide from the trauma/stress of making the movie, I wish this was explored more.  

Just knowing anything about Aqua’s feelings towards Ruby seeing him as Gorro and a love interest would be great. His feelings on it where never really addressed.

Kana and Akane finding out about what was happening between Ruby and Aqua and helping them realising it was unhealthy, especially Ruby.

I think Akane should of worked out that Aqua and Ruby had a past life. It makes me sad that she almost fully understood them but not quite. 

Speaking of past lives. I didn’t like the crow girl backstory. I personally think Ruby and Aqua should of had a purpose to being reborn, and it could of tied in more with the story.

Idk it seems like a waste that absolutely nobody figured out about the past life thing. 

Kamiki pretending to be good lasted about 2 chapters. I would of preferred if it had of gone on for longer. I think he should of manipulated Ruby and started to build a genuine father daughter bond with her (I feel like she see’s the good in people/may accept that he got Ai killed by accident). This could be a chance to develop Kamiki more, make the reader’s trust him more, and make his ultimate betrayal of Ruby/attempt to kill her more shocking and meaningful. 

This could be a chance for Kamiki to share parts of his backstory from his own POV. 

I know Kamiki’s whole thing is manipulating others to kill, but maybe, in this instance, he could decide to do it himself. 

In the final act, I think it would of been more dramatic tension if Kamiki initially outmanoeuvred them. Ie, maybe Nino still stabbed a decoy but he went after Ruby himself, which they wouldn’t expect. It would make the stakes higher and make him seem more of a threat.

Maybe Aqua genuinely planning to kill/torture Kamiki and having to be convinced out of it by Ruby/Kana/Akane. This also could of been a chance for characters to challenge him on his belief that his purpose is to get revenge.

Honestly, just any sort of reaction from Ruby about finding her Dad and half-Brother would be great. 

Conversely, maybe Ruby not agreeing with Aqua’s plan to kill Kamiki socially, and actually trying to kill him herself. This could still work with the storyline where he eventually manipulates her into building a bond with him. 

Maybe Aqua is uncomfortable with Ruby’s feelings for him, and she takes this as rejection and it pushes her further under Kamiki’s influence. 

I kind of hate that Kana’s goodbye concert was so overshadowed by everything else. Maybe that could of been its own thing. 

Completely left-field, but maybe Kana could of been manipulated by Kamiki in some way. It just felt like after the argument with Ruby she had nothing else to do until the end of the story. She always felt removed from the Kamiki/revenge stuff.

Just a more exciting climax in general. Even something that was melodramatic or slightly unrealistic would of been better.

If Aqua had to die, I think it would of been better if the danger towards Ruby, or even one of the other girls was more immediate. Him dying not to protect Ruby’s life, but to protect her reputation as an idol just felt like such a waste of a life. If Ruby was given the choice herself, I’m sure she would chose Aqua living over working as an idol in an instant, without any second thoughts.

Aqua not dying, honestly. It’s not even that I hate tragedy, it just felt so unearned.