DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA ComedyKaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensaitachi no Renai Zunousen
ANIME Drama[Oshi no Ko]
ONE SHOT Comedy[Oshi no Ko]: Tokubetsu-hen
MANGA ComedyRenai Daikou
ANIME Drama[Oshi no Ko] 2nd Season
MANGA Drama[Oshi no Ko]: interlude
NOVEL Drama[Oshi no Ko]: Ichibanboshi no Spica
ANIME Drama[Oshi no Ko] 3rd Season

REVIEWS

• 

  saulgoodman

  80/100
  A lie is an exceptional form of love

  Idols are often thought of as manufactured and superficial. What we see in concerts, interviews, variety comedy shows, and their other media appearances may simply be a conditioned persona appealing to their fans. Is there a hint of genuine love? Or is it all manufactured? Kaguya-sama's Aka Akasaka and Scum's Wish's Mengo Yokoyari deliver a psychological and supernatural story imbued with a plot, characters and messages regarding the dark, despairing and dichotomous nature of genuine and manufactured in stardom.

  Spoilers Ahead. Skip to the end for a short, spoiler-free review

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  Ai-sama: Love is Fake

  Having started both Oshi no Ko and Kaguya-sama: Love is War at the same time last week and have caught up now, I've noticed more striking differences than similarities between both of Aka's works. Oshi no Ko is severely darker than its overwhelmingly popular sibling series. Whereas Kaguya-sama was initially and heavily comedy-oriented, sprinkled with hints of drama undertones, and was steadily riddled with multiple character conflicts as the story progressed; Oshi no Ko emanated nothing but dread and drama from the get-go. Murder, suicide, stalkers, gossip; Aka definitely portrays the entertainment industry in a much more hardboiled manner than his portrayal of romance in Kaguya-sama. But there are definitely amusing bits of comedy thrown in every now and then.

  

  And of course, there's the supernatural aspect of this series. However, don't let the reincarnation subplot sway you into believing this series is nothing but fictitious. Aka's depiction of the entertainment industry is sanctioned in reality, or at least Aka's personal experience, and is largely the focus of the series. He often sprinkles in explanations of the technicalities and mechanics behind entertainment operations, comparatively more informative and contextual than Kaguya-sama's comedic romantic expositions.

  Breaking away from comparisons, I find the chapter narrative structure of Oshi no Ko enjoyably foreboding and mystifying, primarily with the one-page interviews at the start of every chapter. They feature both important and random characters commenting on the twins, Ai and other relevant topics to the story. They do little more than provide vague context to present and future events, making for subtle foreshadowing and interesting context. It's a seemingly insubstantial detail, but nonetheless a narrative detail I found deserving to be noted.

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  "Ai" means "Love"

  Hoshino Ai's character embodies the duality of genuine and superficial that idols are often questioned of and perceived to possess. Aka's familiar use of personas is utilized in her characterization. Just as how Kaguya and Miyuki possess carefully crafted personas to maintain a perfect image in front of others, Ai possesses a persona appealing to her diehard fans, with her bubbly personality, gruelingly practiced smile and loving nature. The difference is, however, that Ai only has that one, single persona. One lying about love to show and learn about love. In front of her fans, manager and her own children, Ai has not once genuinely proclaimed "I love you". That is, up until her tragic end.

  The only clue towards her present inclinations stem from her dark narration of her past. If not for her frequent monologues musing over her lies and lack of love, Ai would be shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. Perhaps the one genuine thing about Ai is her desire for love. Regardless of if everything she says and does is superficial and deceitful, Ai hoped that genuine love would flourish one day. And eventually, the fruits of her labor indeed presented themselves at the last minute.

  Yet another tragic part of Ai's character was her failure to see the genuineness in lies. While social media attacks on her superficiality only strengthened her deceitful persona and caused her to see the murkiness of the entertainment industry, her shows also gave hope and light to many fans, such as Serena. Her dedication to her fans wasn't fake, either. Her hard work in her deceit shows, as she remembers individual fans in handshake events and how she wants to raise her children well.

  The initial focus on Ai provides occasional explanations of how the idol industry operates and works with idols. Such as the low salaries of many idols, often reduced for stage costume costs, royalties and tv performance fees split among group members, the importance of merch concert sales, the high difficulty of group members going solo, etc.

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  Have you wondered what it would have been like if you were the child of a celebrity?

  After Ai's tragic end, the story's protagonists shift towards the children, Ruby and Aquamarine, and the contemplative themes covers the broader scope of the entertainment industry. As of now, the story's been situated on Aqua's venture in and the tenors of entertainment, roasting the overarching mystery and supernatural plot over a slow burn for now.

  After reuniting with Kana Arima, an actress acquaintance he briefly worked with as kids, Aqua manages to land a minor role in an adaptation of a popular shoujo manga. However, the bitter reality is that the adaptation is merely a lazy ploy to boost the careers of attractive, inexperienced models, and has received disappointed criticisms from fans and low ratings. This brief arc paints the profit-driven, creativity-forgoing nature of entertainment. Of course, the entertainment industry is ultimately an industry, so the capitalist drive shouldn't warrant shock or feelings of betrayal. However, the arc does more than present greedy directors and snobby actors to illustrate this message, peering into the BTS mechanics of on-set acting and Kana's character as a once-popular child actress and currently desperate actress.

  Despite her adolescent fame as a child actress, Kana has become obscure and even mocked online. Her only saving grace seems to be this adaptation of Sweet Today, despite its obvious mediocre quality. Compared to her haughty and smug aura years ago, Kana acknowledged the superior abilities of others and rather than boast her skills, she has to adapt to the situation. And in this case, adapting to the mediocre quality of her inexperienced peers. Aware that the show's motive is simply profit and that acting at her full potential would only make her peers' poor acting more transparent, Kana meekly accepts her mediocre role. But even then, she's the only one holding onto the hope of creating a good show, by inviting Aqua to act with her.

  Kana's character highlights the impudence of the individual and creativity in the entertainment industry, within this arc depicting the primary capitalist drive of entertainment. Despite this, Kana and Aqua manage to pull of an impressive conclusion to the show, ending the arc on a rather happy note.

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  Cyber Bullying

  The next and recently concluded arc shifts the focus onto reality television and social media, particularly cyber bullying and cancel culture. This is an especially heavy and dark arc.

  Though the plot focus is again on television, reality television warrants different analysis and nuances than regular television shows, which Aka provides. As someone completely unfamiliar and disinterested in reality television, I can only the describe its depiction here not as authentic, but interesting. However, the importance of reality television is secondary to Aka's primary intent of illustrating its consequential mishaps in the broader scope of social pressure following stardom.

  The purpose of reality television in the story is to illustrate the conflict between genuine personality and the manufactured nature of entertainment. Or in simpler terms, that actors and actresses are humans. This is primarily illustrated through Akane, a minor character and participant of the show.

  Though everyone is having an otherwise good time on the show, Akane struggles to garner any popularity and becomes increasingly pressured by her agency and her own insecurities to strengthen her presence. Though she becomes more aggressive in courting the most popular guy, she still leaves a lackluster trail and becomes even more agitated and desperate. Ultimately, she snaps and causes an accident. Though the tense situation is quickly resolved on set, the Internet does not forgive.

  Aka's writing and Mengo's art outshone themselves as the conflict reached its climax in this arc. Following the incident, Akane is barraged with angry and upset fans of the show mocking, sneering, and even wishing death upon her. The blacked-out text boxes, gradience of the panels and chaotic blotches of black elucidated Akane's mental downward spiral as she read more tweets attacking her. Interactive dialogue was limited, instead filling pages with Akane's bleak monologues, progressively darker and depressive, upon hearing wave after wave of snide and sharp remarks directed at her.

  Though the manufactured nature of entertainment is something comprehendible to many, they still perceive it as the genuine thing. And ironically, forget to see the humanity of its participants and base their entire character on their fabricated personas. This arc brought my attention to a recent, similar, and real-life tragedy that Aka very likely intended to draw a parallel to, the Hana Kimura/Terrace House incident in late May 2020. This is where the bleakness of this series became much more authentic for me.

  And again, even though this despairing situation is resolved at the end, this arc illustrates the conflict of genuine and fake, with a bleak narrative commenting on how lies are a favorable and convenient tool to maintain one's status and reputation. In conclusion, I believe Aka simply wanted to convey that there's a human behind every screen and camera.

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  Fitting Art

  Though I wouldn't have at all minded if Aka assumed a double role as the artist, Mengo has proved to be an excellent choice as the artist. Her strengths in beautiful character design works extremely well with the psychological and dark undertones of this series. Her character design can be best described as delicate, notably with detailed volume and structure of hair and the mesmerizing eyes. These in turn reciprocate the deceitful personality of the series, as its contrasts the innocent, bubbly appearances of many of its attractive characters with their dark, ugly thoughts and secrets. Other than character design, the art warrants some approving nods in other areas. As briefly mentioned before, the paneling can add a lot to the dark undertones and narrative of specific scenes, as gradience and black is often creatively used to highlight a character's mental imbalance or tenseness.

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  Conclusion

  Oshi no Ko is steadily developing to be another fantastic psychological manga from Kaguya-sama: Love is War's author. However, those with light hearts, take caution. Whereas its sibling series is much more comedic-oriented, Oshi no Ko strives to draw open the grandiose curtains of the entertainment industry and bare its murky colors. And in its pursuit, Aka depicts topics such as suicide, social pressure and bullying in an unapologetically pessimistic manner. In conjunction with a supernatural subplot, the story only becomes more dramatic, darker, and intoxicating. Regardless of if his information is truly accurate or not down to the last detail, Aka depicts an interestingly dark world that many of us are unaware of.

  In its current serialization span of roughly 8 months and 30 chapters, the story has yet to fully tap into its full potential. But these past 2 arcs have served as great samples as to what you can expect from this series. Strong side characters, thickening plots and bold themes. As of now, the story is one-sidedly focused on Aqua's entertainment ventures, pushing Ruby's idol endeavors to the sidelines momentarily, and slow burning the overarching supernatural, revenge plot.

  The side characters have thus far been the central focus of each arc, serving as damsels-in-distress for Aqua to save and carries into entertainment industry commentary. I can only hope these side characters aren't sidelined after time has passed, since the two presented considerable potential for development and enjoyable dynamics with the protagonists. I can't say I especially like or dislike the protagonists yet, though.

  Mengo's art has been nothing short of impressive. Her delicate character design works strongly in Oshi no Ko's favor, nourishing the dichotomous nature between the seemingly perfect appearances of its celebrity characters and their murky thoughts. The paneling and blotchy use of black often adds immensely to the dark undertones and narrative, as well.

  At this point, it's expectantly unclear if and how the story direction will change or if its quality will fluctuate. Its measly two arcs have been interesting hooks into what one can expect, but insufficient in foretelling future consistency and direction. I have trust in Aka that he'll continue expanding upon everything and I commend him for creating something boldly contrastive to Kaguya-sama: Love is War. In short, Oshi no Ko has an interesting supernatural and dramatic hook, with an unclear outlook, but nonetheless an intriguing read with its contemplative commentary of the entertainment industry and dark subplots.

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• 

  Robiracer

  100/100
  [Oshi No Ko]: More than a masterpiece.

  

  Everyone who supported and loved Act - Age, doesn’t have good memories of the 8th August 2020: Tatsuya Matsuki got arrested for committing an indecent act on a female middle school student (received a 18-month prison sentence without suspension). The effect was huge: Act - Age got cancelled after 123 Chapters. Since then I always wished that Tatsuya didn’t commit the crime for more amazing Act - Age content. But life goes on and after many months I found [Oshi No Ko] somewhere on Anilist. I was curious and started reading it. After 40 chapters it’s already a masterpiece, which Act - Age also could have become. Hello I’m Robert and welcome to my review of Oshi No Ko, the most interesting manga.

  Oshi No Ko is a japanese manga series written by Aka Aksaka (author of Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen) and drawn by Mengo Yokoyari. It’s been serialized since April 2020 in the Weekly Jounen Jump (Shueisha). There are currently 3 Volumes available in Japan. Indonesia (m&c) and Germany (aniverse) have obtained the license for publishing the manga physically in their own language. As mentioned before, the 40th chapter Oshi No Ko has recently been published and this amount already describes perfectly contemporary the circumstances, the characters and the future in the world of acting and idols.

  

  

  You can divide Oshi No Ko in two parts. The first part is the first volume, which gives you a very good prologue to the whole story. It describes the pre-life of Aqua (Goro being a doctor in the north-west of the Miyazaki Prefecture) and Ruby (Serena, a patient in the hospital having Anaplastic Astrocytoma). They both are huge fans of Ai and Goro is even watching a concert in the patient room with the patient inside. After some moments he learnt that Ai will have a break from being an idol because of health circumstances. Serena dies after some days in the hospital at the age of 12 and some time later Goro meeting Ai with her guardian because she got pregnant. She doesn’t reveal any information about the father. After a checkout the results were that Ai is expecting two twins. She wants to give birth and have a double life as a mother and as an idol, because her and the guardian’s career might be over when the pregnancy will be revealed. Some days before the expected birth Goro gets killed. Some moments later he realized that he was reincarnated as a child of Ai. They are living a wonderful life as a family and Ai being successful as an Idol. In 4 years, both Ai and the twins got much more famous. Aqua and Ruby had gone viral on twitter because they made the same move with their light stick like Ai. Some time later Aqua played a small role in a scene for a movie, where he met another girl (Arima). Ai in general got much more job offers and currently she’s a rising star being an idol. On her 20th birthday, someone is knocking on the door. There was an adult wearing a black jacket, holding a flower bouquet, asking how the twins are and stabbing her with a knife in the belly. He is insulting her for betraying her fans for having kids. She’s imagining a future with their kids and they could achieve and experience. Ai is dying from her injuries. Aqua is seeking revenge and being an actor, while Ruby is seeking to be an Idol like her mother used to be. The second part is basically everything what's happening after the death of Ai. Ruby became an idol with other two girls (Kana Arima which I'll analyse later and Mem-cho who used to be an YouTuber) in the reformed B-Komachii and Aqua is becoming a potential actor while getting more information about Ai. I'm a huge fan of Akasaka's storytelling which was in Kaguya-sama already on a high level. Starting with the whole first volume and then deciding to"reuse" the protagonists in another role connecting it with a plot twist which nobody wouldn't accept. Building surprising plot twists is a trademark of him which you can especially experience in Kaguya-sama. He's not overusing them but knows the right moment and the current amount of surprising moments is very well fitting to the whole manga. At the same time Akasaka is truly showing off how to build in characters and showing their own individual characteristic. Everyone can identify with one of the characters and also give side characters an important role in the progressing story. Once again I'm comparing Kaguya-sama with the Kashiwagi X Tsubasa couple. Even though they aren't the protagonist or even not much integrated in the whole series, they gave a huge impact on the progressing story (especially between Kaguya and Shirogane). I'm pretty sure Akasaka will use the same method in Oshi No Ko.

  

  
  

  

  Starting with talking about the protagonists, we have Ruby Hoshino. She's like Aquamarine reincarnated as a child of Ai Hoshino (I'll talk about Ai in the end). In her previous life, Serene (her name) used to be a patient in a hospital located in the north-west of the Miyazaki prefecture. She had Anaplastic Astrocytoma (Specific type of cancer in the brain, for further information visit this website https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/anaplastic-astrocytoma/) and had a good relationship with Goro. She was a huge fan of Ai and tried to imitate her choreographies, but she always failed due to her cancer. Her only "friend" was Goro, who also was a huge fan of Ai. Serene died when she was 12 years old and reincarnated as Ai's daughter (Ruby). Ruby's dream is being as amazing as her mother so she's seeking to be an idol. She joined B- Komachii (in which Ai was before) and already made huge success with the other two members (Mem-cho and Kana) by getting much attention on social media and giving their debut concert in the Tokyo Idol Festival. She's like Ai: purposefully, fun-loving and optimistic. She has one goal and that's being an Idol and she's giving everything to it to fulfill her dream.

  

  Aquamarine is also reincarnated as a child of Ai. In his previous life he used to be a doctor in the same hospital as Serena is located. As mentioned before, he's also a huge fan of Ai (he even watched in a patient room a DVD of an idol concert with Ai participating) and loved to talk with Serena about her. One day before Ai's birth, he got killed by a suspicious man, who also might have killed Ai. Compared to Ruby, Aqua is more serious and caring. Especially when he heard about Ruby's dream of being an idol like their mother, he was against it because he doesn't want to lose someone a third time. His caring character is especially recognized when he impersonates himself as Pieyon (a famous Youtuber) to help B - Komachii for their first "debut concert". His main goal is specifially finding the murder of Ai, but while he's getting more informations from Ai, he's working more and more as an actress. Assuming from his character, his dream is also being a successful actress.

  

  One other important protagonist is Kana Arima. Her first appearance as a young girl is already showing off her character. She's a beautiful small girl showing off her cuteness. Her dream is being a successful actress but after meeting Aqua and Ruby several years later again, she decided to join B - Komachii and starting a career as an idol, even though she was more forced joining them, Kana is enjoying her time being there and already had with the group a successful concert. Simultaneously she wants to be a perfect example for everyone and gets nervous in difficult situations connected with the pressure being the reason for failing. She isn't showing off her weaknesses at all and also her feelings towards Aqua. She's acting like hating or disliking him but she got flattered when he showed his support for her in the concert at the TIF. I'd say she has the same characteristics as Kasumi Nakasu (Love Live! Nijigasaki) by both having a cute side but also the determination for achieving her own goals by not showing weaknesses. I think Akasaka had a lot of inspiration from the Love Live! franchise because in my opinion he did a good job forming characters both acting as an idol but also a realistic and normal character with a depth of character. This aspect is also relevant for Ruby and Ai, which is a good transition to the last "relevant" person who actually started the whole thing.

  

  The last person I want to talk about is Ai Hoshino, who died in the end of the first volume. But let's start from the beginning. Ai was a famous idol in the idol-group B-Komachii. Both Aqua and Ruby were a huge fan of her and Goro was surprised when she arrived at the hospital being pregnant with two babies. Ai was an open-minded girl who lives her life freely and doesn't get out of control when something shocking happened. I'm referring to her pregancy and her sudden death being murdered by a stalker. Ruby always looked up on Ai and in her current life she wants to be a famous idol like her mother used to be. Ai made a good job living a double life both as a mother and as an idol. She worked hard for her mother role and even though she hadn't much time with her kids and couldn't live a normal family life, she made a great job being a good mother for her kids and for sure she'll receive the same amount of love and appreciation by taking revenge to the murder and being an honorable successor. Sadly we currently don’t know that much about her but she’s an interesting person to interpret and we’ll definitely get much moredetailed and important information.

  Compared to Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen, Aka Akasaka decided not taking the double role but only focus on the story. Mengo Yokoyari is focusing on the art and in my opinion it's a good decision. I don't dislike Akasaka's drawing, but if you compare Kaguya-samas and [Oshi no Ko']'s art you can recognize there are worlds between. One attitude on Ai's and Ruby's Eyes is a Star as their pupil which is showing the ancestry of Ai. You also can recognize much more details and I have the feeling that the amazing and detailed artstyle is trying to portrait the good and beautiful side of acting and being an idol. But compared to the "actual" story it's the completely opposite. as I mentioned before, the artstyle is very much detailed and the characterdesign is on another level. Especially when I'm having a look at Kana I'm getting so impressed because it feels like being a real person or a screenshot from an anime. I'd say the artstyle is fitting like butter on toast and I'm glad that Akasaka found a very detailed draftwress illustrating an amazing story.

  _Disclaimer: Mostly there is no content from the manga but my personal theories or opinions. I'm trying to create parallelism to the real word because there are topics which I'm absolutely interested in . So if u don't care about it, you can skip that part and you'll get directed to the art of Oshi No Ko._

  As I mentioned before, there is a parallelism to real life. I want to start with the death of Ai. She got killed because a stalker had sensitive information about her living and might know more information about her. I see two "problems'' in it. Being a star or whatever has many advantages but also many advantages. For example you don't have much privacy because everyone is recognizing you and wants to hang out. Also you have to create content of your daily life and be a perfect idol for someone. This means u cant tell your political opinion, always being positive and being in touch with your fans. Otherwise you'll lose interest which has bad consequences for cooperation with companies because they would search for another celebrity to make money instead with you. In the case of Ai, she might have somewhere leaked or trusted the wrong person about having 2 kids and still being an idol. That's speculation, maybe we'll know it in the manga soon but that's for now, otherwise it'll be too off-topic. Of course I'm not blaming her if she did it. I mean it's natural trusting people and telling something, but in this case it was a huge mistake for her. The second much bigger problem are stalkers. Before I'll go further: What is actually a stalker? "A person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention" In other words, people are following you and wanting to know more stuff about your private life to make some money by creating a scandal or big news. In most cases the star/ victim won't get killed (ofc there are cases like Rebecca Schaefer) but they might ruin your career like I said before. In the case of Ai, the stalker had sensible information about her having kids, which an ideal Idol wouldn't have. He also blames her for lying to her fans and letting them suffer. For that she had to die. Imo it's good that Akasaka built it in because stalking and harassment against celebrities is not talked about enough in the society. I'd say 90% (me included) wasn't aware about stalking and the impact. Of course I knew stalking exists like other "social problems", but it's not talked about enough in the society. Not everyone is strong enough to tell them that they should stop it. If there's a bigger impact from society, it might be possible to stop or at least reduce stalking.

  The second topic I want to analyze is the whole thing about Akane Kurokawa. She participated in the show "my love with a star ♡ begins now", but doesn't have much screen time at all. Also she got under pressure because the chef of her agency of the show was angry for barely having screen time in the show. Her manager tries to protect her from him and saying she doesn't have to worry about it at all and that she have her best in the show. She isn't satisfied with it but being down and having bad thoughts. In the social media the fans of the show don't like her either or saying that the producers can cut her off completely because she doesn't appear in the series at all. Of course she was feeling sad and disappointed, so she wants to do smth extremely for both showing her manager that she's actually capable of something and showing her "haters” that she's not only a background character. She had a small talk about Yuki who understood the situation of Akane but saying in the same way that Yuki will keep the spotlight of the show. Some moments later she understood it won't be easy at all. So she had to accept the fight and did it: She came in infront of Yuki and scratched her face with her nails made by her in the right side of her face. The mood in the room after the incident was already shocking and kind of negative. But that's nothing compared to Twitter... The whole situation got much worse for her. The "hate-comments" developed to harassment and bullying/cyberbullying. Akane's got mentally in a very bad condition; she couldn't eat properly at all, not saying to her mother what actually happened and in the end she tried to commit suicide. But Aqua rescued her and in the end she had another method getting more attention in the show. What Akasaka/ Oshi No Ko is trying to tell us is that harassment and mobbing in social media (especially twitter) can have a big impact on the victim. In my opinion it got perfectly portraied from the current sutuation of Akane till the huge impact of comitting suicide. And the "reason" for that were people who are hiding themselves in the internet and harassing people without actually showing any respect. In this case the situation is a special one, but it actually doesn't need a big reason for getting bullied. It's already enough being "weird" or/and having an opinion which people can't accept and instead of arguing or ignoring it they are starting to write insults towards the person. And the worst problem is that companies like Facebook or Google doesn't care about it at all. They aren't deleting comments nor sharing those problems to the government (I'm not sure if they have to address it to the USA or in the country of the victim). Bullying in general a topic which doesn't get much attention compared to other problems. It's already starting to elemnatary school and the consequences are huge; not everyone is strong enough talking with the teachers or with the family about their problems which eventually can a human more broken and in the worst case getting diagnosied with depression and in the worst case scenario comitting suicide. The impact in the internet is on another level. As I said before, people are hiding themselves under an IP - Address and the companies don't even try to solve it. There's definitely a need for Enlightenment and companies should work together with the government, because the impacts are underestimated.

  Oshi no Ko is an interesting manga combining real problems in society and at the same time creating a well-written story about being an idol and an actress. The art created by Mengo Yokoyari is on a top level and could be easily in the top 10 manga with the best artstyle. Akasaka is in a very good way creating another masterpiece which is already a respectable replacement of Act - Age and even getting more popular than Kaguya-sama. If you like reading a psychological story with amazing characters with not only showing the good sides being both an actress and idol.

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• 

  luhn

  95/100
  A so-far great balance between addictingly entertaining and unrelentingly gritty

  TL;DR With Akasaka Aka's on-point dialogue and character dynamics/interactions as well as Yokoyari Mengo's (almost) consistently captivating art, Oshi no Ko delivers a visually and conceptually entertaining, promising narrative that touches upon the entertainment industry, especially that of Japan's, while still providing a great amount of comedic entertainment that hits so well.

  While the shifts from the lighthearted, slice of life, romcom moments to the grander scheme of things (that is, delving deeper into scrutinizing the industry) and vice versa may be jarring to some, it allows for sufficient pacing that makes you enjoy both aspects of the manga—no less thanks to its colorful cast that gets fleshed out either way, with apt dialogue to boot. Overall, I highly look forward to how this manga will continue to deliver (or subvert) expectations as the plot continues on. It is that promising of a manga.

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  Right from the get-go, the premise of Oshi no Ko manages to elicit a whirlwind of emotions, and understandably so when it is a mishmash of lighthearted and serious genres: (bits of) romance, comedy, slice of life (I think), drama, mystery.

  Just as much as its comedic beats hit so well, the serious aspects of it—basically allegories to the facets and realities, both good and bad, of the entertainment industry—keep you intrigued and wanting for more. Oshi no Ko is a good, equal divide between slice of life and romantic comedy as well as the drama and mystery; it is both plot-driven just as much as it is character-driven.

  After establishing quite a loaded introduction and much foreshadowing through initial flashforwards, the manga takes a turn to a wholesome lens into the personal life of Ai, an idol, as well as a serious lens into prevalent issues the entertainment industry faces, such as but not limited to stalkers and the toxicity and mob-mindset of social media. We see glimpses of the inner workings of the industry, such as the nepotistic nature of behind-the-scenes, give-and-take favors conducted by entertainment figures.

  It becomes a story of grander scale as it further dabbles with scrutinizing the industry, alongside Aqua and Ruby who face and experience that industry with us readers for the first time. Entering the industry depicted in the manga comes with various realizations that can be aptly summarized as harsh, unforgiving, ever-changing, and interconnected. We see these manifest in certain characters who've long worn facades, and we also see these juxtaposed in starry-eyed, idealistic, honest characters.

  The main characters enter the industry for vastly different reasons, and it's precisely that contrast, in its subsequent sub-plots, that drives both of their respective stories. And we, as the readers, are carefully immersed into this discovery/mystery alongside the twins.

  Of course, as mentioned, the manga knows when to shift to its more chill, lighthearted aspects. Some may find fault in that, some don't; I'm personally the latter.

  With that said, Oshi no Ko shines with its hilarious dialogue—no less thanks to the well-done transitions from one panel to another—and character dynamics, and it's nice how they don't take precedence nor a backseat to the overall plot. The manga is, again, equally plot-driven and character-driven, so such moments are also necessary in fleshing out the characters. Of course, the manga does this well.

  The main characters have thus far been written to be quite endearing with their backstories, quirks, and interactions with others: both in their childhood and adolescence. Thanks to how well dialogue is written, their different personalities manage to mesh so well together that conversations flow quite naturally. If comedic in nature, dialogue knows how to have hilarity ensue. If a bit depressing in nature, monologue knows how to tug your heartstrings and make you empathize with their struggles.

  Meanwhile, most supporting characters have also been handled well, as they are given ample time to develop a (usually intriguing) dynamic with the main characters, without sidelining them too much to the point of non-necessity.

  Despite most of them being entertainment figures, they manage to seem so human and grounded in reality that you forget this is a manga that allegorizes the industry. While the realities of entertainment often seem dark (and the manga does not shy in showing that even in subtle dialogue), it still provides characters that represent some form of mild, youthful hope within the industry. (As for how realistic that is would be up to your discretion.)

  As we find the characters entangle themselves further in the industry, we can only look forward to how the story will go in relation to its ongoing, overarching mystery and hope it remains coherent throughout. While I do find pacing to be just right, I also do criticize the unequal attention given to Ruby. She does get her moments, yes, but not to the same amount as Aqua or Kana.

  Nevertheless, the ongoing romantic and current tensions are sufficient (or daresay addicting) hooks that give much hype and interest for you to be heavily invested in the story, and it's exactly why I can somewhat confidently give Oshi no Ko a 9/10, where as of April 26, we've only had 41 chapters and I’ve admittedly found myself laughing way too much for the most part of the manga.

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  ComedyGi(a)rlish Number
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  ComedyIdrunk
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  ComedyBACK TO THE Kaa-san
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  Dramaact-age
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  ComedyKaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensaitachi no Renai Zunousen
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  DramaKuzu no Honkai
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  DramaHakoniwa no Soleil
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  DramaHaru no Noroi
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  DramaSayonara Miniskirt
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  DramaMr. Mallow Blue
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  DramaMayonaka no X Giten
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  DramaKasane