Oshi no Ko, episode 11: " Idol"
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> Episode 11 <
As a whole, this anime has been incredibly faithful to the manga. I can basically hold up my book next to the screen and it’s more or less panel-for-panel, sentence-for-sentence. I loved being along for the ride. I don’t watch a lot of weekly anime but since I have been reading Oshi no Ko weekly since the day the first chapter dropped, I thought I ought to give it a watch.
One of my favorite panels so far was included in this episode:
And in the manga:
On screen for a full 24 frames! Kana bros taking the W this time.
There is also the title drop by Arima Kana in this episode - “アンタの推しの子になってやる！” in response to seeing Aqua waving all three cyalume colors. “hako-oshi”, or “box pushing”; not picking a favorite, supporting the entire group.
I do think that Oshi no Ko feeds a lot on weekly hype. This was definitely true for the manga, Aka constantly leaving on a cliffhanger, often times with not a lot of actual plot progressing, but further insight into the thoughts of the characters, backstory, or just straight up lecture on some aspect of modern artist work culture. For sure there are going to be many people who rightfully believe that Oshi no Ko does not live up to the hype, but for me, it just gets better and better the more I re-read and re-watch it. There is some quality that makes me want to go back through and scrutinize every detail again and again.
I definitely enjoyed the anime because I enjoyed the source material. But on top of that, the animation is strong in its own right, bringing a lot of spectacle and impact to the key scenes. In this episode, I really enjoyed the dance choreography as well as Aqua’s wotage.
E: Spoiler tag didn’t work on mobile so I deleted it all.
Oh Oshi no Ko, you’ll definitely be missed. Not to worry since S2 is announced along with New manga chapter and a banger finale. Massive W for OnK fans today.
THE DEVIL DISGUISES ITSELF AS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT.
But for real though, Akane’s so cute. I might’ve shipped her and Aqua if I didn’t know the only valid ship was Aqua x Therapy
Didn’t really feel like a Season finale…also based on the intro and outro there’s some supernatural stuff going on with the eyes….
…… too bad it’s completely ignored
There is just something magical about crazy good story telling. Crazy good animation. Crazy good emotions. Crazy good characters. I didn’t like the music, I like jazz. But for sure they were quite catchy.Honestly a little underwhelmed by this season. I didn’t get caught with the initial hype wave and only ended up binging it in the last few days. First episode showed a lot of promise, but the rest of the show was like shirabako but for the entertainment industry. The idol stuff especially I found not really interesting. I guess I’m not the target audience.
I really enjoyed it, but I do think there’s some inconsistency of tone that makes me kind of wonder what the show is trying to say. At some points (Ai’s fate, Kana’s difficulty finding work as a former child actress, Akane’s experience with cyberbullying), it feels like the show is trying to expose the dark side of the entertainment industry in almost a Black Mirror episodic kind of fashion. Then the long arc of Aqua’s revenge and finding out what really happened to his mother - maybe even looping in Akane’s almost preternatural understanding of Ai - is another thread that’s really interesting.
These threads are much more interesting to me than the story of Ruby starting an idol group, but it seems like the serious and interesting subject matter takes a back seat to a side of the show that’s fun, but sort of frivolous. I think you could do a show about the hardships young performers face in the entertainment industry, or a supernatural murder mystery about Aqua finding what happened to his mother, or even both put together with episodic bits within a series arc. But doing both of those and an idol show all at the same time makes it feel a little bit unfocused, or even like the idol portion is a little bit undermining the seriousness of the first two topics.
I’ll still watch the second season and I’m interested to see where it goes from here - but in 11 episodes, it felt like there wasn’t as much progress I’d hoped on the more interesting sides of the story.
I think you’re right, if they had just cut out most of the frivolous idol stuff I would have found it much more engaging. I did find the behind the industry curtain stuff interesting and that would have for well with the revenge story. The tonal whiplash of the idol stuff was too much.
