[Oshi no Ko]
a review by saulgoodman
a review by saulgoodman
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.
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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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