[Oshi no Ko]

I am giving this series an 8 purely out of respect for what it used to be. However, I do not recommend reading it for reasons I will explain. This review is spoiler-free and I'll attempt to keep it short/non-specific. Firstly, let me address the good. Oshi no Ko has some fantastic writing and characters. The series was started as an exposé of sorts on the entertainment industry, meant to pull back the curtain on how things really are for those in various parts of the industry (idols, producers, directors, actors, etc). It's under this direction that Oshi no Ko is at its best, building realisticand relatable characters with well-researched plots, and handling a lot of very real, serious issues with the industry and society with the respect they deserve. However, at a certain point, the series massively deviates from this. That isn't an inherently incorrect choice; the author has pivoted a series successfully before, with Love is War going from a fantastic romantic comedy to a more serious drama without any loss in quality. However, just the same as Love is War, he completely fumbles the ending and ruins everything that had been built up to that point. The final arc of Oshi no Ko is like a fanfiction written by someone who hates the series and is trying to create the worst ending physically possible. No, actually, I think someone who hates the series could write a better ending. Nothing that's happening makes any sense, with characters acting completely illogically in accordance with plans that they have no reason to believe will work, nor are good solutions to the situation they're in. On top of that, multiple extremely important plot points from as early as volume 1 get completely retconned in such a way that the entire plot of the manga post volume 1 should never have happened to begin with. The main antagonist of the entire manga, who barely appears prior to the ending arc and never actually involves himself in the plot post volume 1, finally shows up and is given some backstory. Then, he is replaced by a different antagonist who gets forced into the plot via a retcon that *completely ruins the first volume and every character motivation for Aqua/Ruby*. Then we go back to the main antagonist, then back to this new one, then back again all within the span of a few chapters. It is jarring and incredibly poorly planned/written. The characters, for the most part, get 1-2 panel endings in what basically amounts to a PowerPoint presentation of "where did they end up?". Only 1 character, Aqua, gets a proper ending, which sees all of his character development completely undone as he reverts back to being the exact same person he was at the end of volume 1. Effectively, the final arc of the manga makes reading the entire series up to that point useless, as most of the series' foundations are retconned away, most characters don't even get to pretend they had an ending, and the one character who does get an ending has all their character growth destroyed in one big "screw you" from Aka to the fans. Hopefully the anime gets an original ending if it makes it to the final volume. Do not read past Tokyo Blade.

Oshi No Ko is a manga with a very unique and original concept. The plot revolves around the entertainment industry, detailing and realistically portraying the world of show business in its various forms (television, music, theater, etc.), as well as the influence of social media. On top of that, it has incredible characters. They all have well-developed personalities, and their stories, ambitions, and insecurities are presented in a very interesting way that makes you empathize with them. This creates very emotional and well-executed dramatic moments. For me, the strongest points of Oshi no Ko are the drama and its characters. It also has a bit of romance thathelps us explore the characters further, and some very good comedic moments (to be expected from the author of Kaguya-sama). In addition to all this, there is a revenge subplot that becomes more relevant towards the end of the story. Conceptually, it's very good, although the development felt a bit rushed in the final parts compared to the previous arcs. However, the ending left me satisfied as it is consistent with what was shown throughout the story and was something I expected, although some people were surprised and not everyone liked it, so it can be considered a controversial ending. The art is one of the strong points of this manga; it is simply excellent. In conclusion: Oshi no Ko is an excellent manga, where its strongest points are the drama, the characters, and the art. It is without a doubt one of my favorite manga/anime. So I highly recommend it. PS: I adjusted the review a bit after being able to read the final parts of the manga more calmly and having been able to organize my thoughts better. My first review was a bit off.

Oshi no Ko. Where do I begin. If you look at my profile one of my all time favorite manga is Kaguya Sama Love Is War, also by Akasaka of course. Back when chapters for it were still releasing Aka sensei mentioned he wanted to write a darker and more tragic story so when Oshi no Ko was announced I was ecstatic for it. Sure enough it started out great with an interesting reincarnation plot, tragedy in the entertainment industry, and touching on bleak topics such as the storyline with Akane and I loved the idea of reading a manga about an idol group beingformed by the reincarnated Sarina and also seeing how the relationship around all of these characters would develop. Especially after the Aqua reveal to Ruby. Then the anime came out and with the banger of an Opening by Yoasobi and a great first episode the excitement was through the roof in the anime community. All was good. What went wrong? The issues I'm about to bring up really start about around the halfway point in the manga. It was after the Aqua reveal to Ruby and before Miyako reunited with Ichigo at a bar. I equate the problems that start surfacing at this point to one simple fact. Aka stopped caring about his own story. He took a long several month hiatus and did nothing but played Apex Legends. At the time I was not concerned and just anticipating chapter releases returning. But after he came back with each new chapter it became more worrying. Subplots were being ignored. Reveals that just happened were left in the dust and characters were no longer getting any development. Then the entire story sure enough was getting rushed to what was one of the worst endings of all time to surpass AoT, JJK, and MHA. It's not even just about the ending being bad, it's also how we got to the ending that was really bad. At least with the three aforementioned anime/manga there is some awesome action and there were character developments before they ended. Oshi no Ko just forgets all of its characters, has no development, no resolutions, and the most nonsensical reasoning for how it ended just to call itself a tragedy. Reminds me of those (I'm 14 and this is deep) memes. No amount of effort was put into it and it shows. It's honestly kind of a spit in the face of all the fans, myself included, who really loved this story. Aka didn't care anymore and just wanted to get the manga over with. Kaguya had its issues near the end as well but ultimately still ended satisfyingly enough. I can't say the same with Oshi no Ko and honestly it left such a bitter taste in my mouth I don't know if I will ever give one of Aka's stories a chance again. My recommendation to anyone that is thinking of reading the manga, don't. Maybe watch the anime if it decides it wants to take an entirely different route. Only disappointment waits.

Oshi no Ko is a prime example of how much the fate of a work depends on the soul of its author, and how he can either raise a manga to extraordinary heights through his passion and emotional investment, or destroy it by losing any interest and emotional connection to it. Some not-so-well-thought-out moments, obvious emotional manipulation of the reader, or controversial things were always present in this story. But for the most part, Oshi no Ko was still a pretty amazing story that combined a rather edgy but still realistically and interestingly depicted behind-the-scenes side of Japanese showbiz with a magically realistic thriller about rebirthand revenge. What made this especially work was that the characters were all quite interesting, charismatic, and also had some pretty strong bitter backstories that only made you empathize with them and become invested in the story even more. Don't get me wrong, Aka Akasaka is a very good writer when he really cares about the work and the characters. Kaguya also showed this, becoming, in my humble opinion, one of the best rom-com manga in history thanks to its incredibly interesting and funny characters, as well as its very smart and thoughtful satire of Japanese romance clichés and the Japanese youth romantic mentality. And in the case of Oshi no Ko, he only outdid himself, because the tragic and struggling characters were obviously more sympathetic and caring about their lives than good comedic archetypes. But then Aka...just stopped caring. and at some point the story and the overall quality of the manga simply began to go downhill. There are many different speculations about why this happened. Some blame the fact that Aka was simply tired of working on the manga and he completely transferred his attention to other work. Which is really characteristic of him and at one time crippled the aforementioned Kaguya when Aka began writing Oshi no Ko. Others say that Aka simply lost motivation after the publisher and editor flatly forbade him to choose the incest route. Still others generally criticize his burnout and loss of any interest in work. One way or another, there was a critical moment in the final arc, and the ending completely threw away all the development, messages and ideas of most of the manga before it, so that Aka could soullessly and lazily lead the story in a couple of chapters to the ending that he said he had planned for a long time. Not caring at all about the huge number of plot holes, logical errors on the part of both the characters and the author himself, as well as a very general ending expressed in a superficial montage a la “where are they now”. What really ruined this was that while all these years I, like most readers, expected the characters to finally rise up and get a happy payoff through their pain and trauma, that simply didn't happen. While the story at least somewhat tried to imply that it really wasn't a happy ending and Aka himself teased the ending for a month as being very controversial, in the end fans were simply treated to watching their favorite characters get very badly traumatized again and once again forced to suffer through emotional pain. That is, the work that you have been reading for several years for motivation and inspiration in difficult moments (both from the point of view of the manga itself and the goals pursued by its characters), simply made you even more sad and upset. And the fact that this was not some clever and well-staged bad ending, but the result of the author's writing errors, makes us sad and angry only more. Because this is all wrong and could have been avoided. Initially, I would like to give this manga 9 points as well as my favorite anime adaptation, but after the ending I’m not even sure that 7 would be a fairly fair assessment on my part. But I will not give in to the negative emotions that the ending of the manga threw me into and will still give it a 7 as a sign of my conflicting thoughts of gratitude, care, sadness and disappointment at the end of everything that I experienced with this work. As a result, we all ended up with a great piece of work that, at the very end, effectively destroyed itself within a couple of chapters, thereby making its audience regret that we had cared about it all these years and invested ourselves in what seemed sure to always be one of the best manga of recent years and will end on a loud chord. Of course, such a popular and high-quality manga could not help but be adapted into anime and live action, and it is obvious that having received such an ending long before their end, it also greatly affected the motivation of readers to follow all this. How many of us can continue to enjoy a great anime knowing that it will end up being rudely ruined? I can tell you with a pure heart that most of this manga is still one of the best stories I've read. And gave me one of my favorite anime in recent times. So I would really wants like to recommend this to you, but I just can't due to the fact that the ending makes the whole thing literally a waste of time and a way to make yourself feel upset and sad out of the blue. So, read and follow this at your own risk. Being a fan of this manga is like being a betrayed by partner who for several years seemed like the only true love in your life.