(L) Oshi no ko

[Twi]

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

Well I went into this blind thinking it would be some funny, weird, wish fulfillment, comedy anime after only the seeing the trailers (which fucking lies) only to receive an emotional soul crushing gut punch.

So if I were to keep going with this is it going to be nothing but straight tragedy after tragedy?

The fact that you went into this blind is a miracle in itself given how popular and well-known that twist is. I commend you for the sacrifices you made to keep away from all spoilers, but now you know the suffering that drives our boy.

[Kanon]

I've been reading the manga since chapter 1 came out so I know exactly where this was going, and yet Ai's death still hit me like a truck. I was on the verge of tears watching her death scene. Props to the anime staff and to Rie Takahashi for playing her to perfection.

I didn't realized how much I missed Ai until now. It was only (movie length) episode for anime watchers, but we followed her for weeks in the manga.

And I'll be checking out here. I like the manga just fine, but I'm not particularly interested in seeing what comes next animated. The manga peaked with the prologue.

[ars89]

I went into this blind as well. I knew the name and that it was hyped up but I haven't read anything or watched the trailers, thought it was something about idols, WTF did I watch!

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Twi

The fact that you went into this blind is a miracle in itself given how popular and well-known that twist is. I commend you for the sacrifices you made to keep away from all spoilers, but now you know the suffering that drives our boy.

Is it really that impressive going into this blind? Considering Dark Wing, me & ars made it into this prologue unspoiled despite being longtime anime fans sounds rather normal to me. We just need to not care/pay much attention to anything that's related to OnK before the anime dropped 🤷

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Is it really that impressive going into this blind? Considering Dark Wing, me & ars made it into this prologue unspoiled despite being longtime anime fans sounds rather normal to me. We just need to not care/pay much attention to anything that's related to OnK before the anime dropped 🤷

Well yea it wasn't too difficult since I don't even like idol series. the only one I've ever paid attention to was that AKB one because of the science fiction setting. But I can see where Twi is coming from.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

Yea there is a lot potential here, however I have to ask the question once again. Did we really need the isekai plot twist for this story? Will the story just end up just forgetting about it and this whole thing could've just been told through the eyes of normal kids?

Aqua does not think like a normal kid. Not in the way he acts, nor in how he managed to deduce that his mother's killer had an accomplice for him to find.

The story is about an adult in a child's body.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

Aqua does not think like a normal kid. Not in the way he acts, nor in how he managed to deduce that his mother's killer had an accomplice for him to find.

The story is about an adult in a child's body.

Yeah, he doesn't think and act like a normal kid, and he didn't even really see Ai as his mother, so I think that's what sets him apart and could only really be achieved the way they reincarnated him.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by stray

Finding time to watch an 80+ minute first episode is kinda hard when you're used to ~22 minutes. Pretty epic way to start the series regardless.

Yeah, that’s a real challenge especially this season.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep1:

I came in blind too. It actually isn't too hard. All I know is that this is the anime industry's "I want to sell this anime" of the season.
Well that, and this is written by Kaguya-sama's author, but considering how he lost interest towards his own manga near the end, I'm not gonna say that's a good thing

Anyways, it was definitely full of twist and turns. It looked like an idol story, then the protagonist magically gets reborn as a kid who can do pretty much anything he used to do except be a doctor when his mom is stabbed, his mom gets killed, and then he's gone Lelouch
I understand why they made this... almost a movie in length, but I do say such a long ep.1 sucks. Thankfully, there is something I had to do today, so I was able to watch it while completing a brainless chore

So yeah, as a first episode, I think it was fine. Outside the length.

[Jaden]

It's from the author of Kaguya-sama? Yeah, I can kinda see it. He seems to almost exclusively write characters with some kind of superhuman charisma, totally unrelatable but still somehow charming.

That's the kind of trick that works best in anime. You take the human features that people like the most and concentrate them. Turns out that it hits pretty hard when such characters are killed off. Ai died, and it's like a planet populated by idols got blown up.

Btw, twins went really fast from spooking their babysitter with the god act, to just talking with her casually. I'm guessing that this is just the anime director electing to rush through what are considered boring parts of the manga? It feels like there was supposed to be like 1000% more slice of life fluff in there, but it got cut.

[stray]

Originally Posted by Jaden

Btw, twins went really fast from spooking their babysitter with the god act, to just talking with her casually. I'm guessing that this is just the anime director electing to rush through what are considered boring parts of the manga? It feels like there was supposed to be like 1000% more slice of life fluff in there, but it got cut.

Nah this is how the prologue went in the manga. IIRC the only thing that really got cut was that it was framed as sort of a VH1 "Behind the Music" documentary years after the fact.

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by Jaden

It's from the author of Kaguya-sama? Yeah, I can kinda see it. He seems to almost exclusively write characters with some kind of superhuman charisma, totally unrelatable but still somehow charming.

It works especially well here because Ai has very strong sociopathic tendencies. She does get her redemption and fulfills her deepest wish right at the end, but she very openly admits that she has no idea what love is actually supposed to be, she fakes and fine tunes her "performance" both on the stage and daily life largely on feedback from others, speaks on reaction to what she knows people will be receptive toward, and was extremely detail-oriented (she recognized her own murderer to every detail he had ever shown her).

She was worried that the things she actually cares about, her children, would reject her the way her own mother did if she couldn't be genuine with them, so she just never risked revealing what she was to them. Only at the end when she wouldn't get another chance.

It's a perfectly composed character arc for someone unrelatable because of how inherently fake she was, but oozing charisma and interpersonal manipulation skills.

She's a great character because of all those flaws that she embraced, and the vulnerability she revealed toward the end.

[FlareKnight]

Glad I didn't get spoiled regarding Ai despite waiting a bit before checking out the episode.

What a ride. Basically was a prequel movie that set up the status quo. And it was intense in spots. The murder of Ai was fantastic in how painful it was. I didn't think she was going to die going into the episode much less a good part of the way through it. But once Aqua (the former doctor) was reacting like that it seemed a given that she wouldn't survive. Apparently that psycho stalker was quite the talented serial killer.

There's a lot of interesting points hidden away too. Like how the doctor's body was never found. Yeah, he died on the mountain and wasn't exactly famous, but I can't imagine there wasn't a search for him. Safe to presume the father of the twins was involved in hiding the body. Since no way that frantic lunatic was talented enough to cover up a murder.

Makes you wonder what kind of scumbag the father is. He's got to be someone big. So big that the scandal of impregnating an underage idol would ruin him. So he sent that psycho maybe to kill Ai at the hospital or at least cause a miscarriage. The result was the death of a doctor. But he kept that contact so when Ai contacted him again...he sent the lunatic in once more. Horrifically ironic that the killer went around attacking Ai for "betrayal" while presumably being directed by the guy she slept with.

Also for a former doctor, Aqua really lets his mind go to murder exceedingly fast. He was ready to murder the wife of the group's president when she was going to cause a scandal. Maybe it's a consequence of being murdered himself, but wow. It's really no shocked that the only thing keeping himself from suicide is the desire to murder the man responsible for Ai's death.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Also for a former doctor, Aqua really lets his mind go to murder exceedingly fast. He was ready to murder the wife of the group's president when she was going to cause a scandal. Maybe it's a consequence of being murdered himself, but wow. It's really no shocked that the only thing keeping himself from suicide is the desire to murder the man responsible for Ai's death.

I think it's an interesting contrast between Aqua and the fanatic fan.

Obviously Aqua isn't like the unreasonable and pathetic guy slavishly devoted to the "ideal" of an idol to the point of killing them when they don't live up to it, but the way he channeled getting revenge for her death into a will to live felt almost as obsessive.

I am kind of curious if forging through the industry in search of their father to get revenge for Ai's death will end up giving him more to live for and change him, given if he does succeed in his revenge what's left for him?

[blakstealth]

It's crazy that this is sitting at the #1 spot on MAL. I wonder how long it'll be there till things calm down a bit. I wonder how the rest of the show is gonna go. Is it gonna focus on the revenge plot or will it be more idol focused? Or both? At any rate, I'm invested. Excited to see how it plays out. shout out to raving babies

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by blakstealth

It's crazy that this is sitting at the #1 spot on MAL. I wonder how long it'll be there till things calm down a bit.

It was a very interesting prologue, but even for MAL that is absolutely bizarre.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I think it's an interesting contrast between Aqua and the fanatic fan.

Obviously Aqua isn't like the unreasonable and pathetic guy slavishly devoted to the "ideal" of an idol to the point of killing them when they don't live up to it, but the way he channeled getting revenge for her death into a will to live felt almost as obsessive.

I am kind of curious if forging through the industry in search of their father to get revenge for Ai's death will end up giving him more to live for and change him, given if he does succeed in his revenge what's left for him?

There certainly is that. The level of obsessiveness is through the roof on both. Of course so far Aqua hasn't killed anyone and in fact was already killed once himself. That kind of thing would reasonably mess someone up when both he and the person he idolized were killed by the same person. But yeah, there is definitely a contrast to note there.

It does seem like there will be a time of reckoning for Aqua as he makes his way through the entertainment industry. How will his own path through the industry affect him? Will the bonds he makes with people along the way give him a reason not to throw everything away for the sake of revenge? Heck, will potentially ruining Ruby's life and idol path cause him to take pause with getting revenge?

There is certainly the question of what is left after too. He seemed utterly empty before latching onto revenge as a reason to live. Might ironically further draw comparisons to the stalker if he turns to suicide after achieving his goal.

I can't imagine he'll actually kill anyone. Achieving that revenge would have such a high price for him and those around him that I can't see it being paid. But how close he gets to that revenge remains to be seen.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Makes you wonder what kind of scumbag the father is. He's got to be someone big. So big that the scandal of impregnating an underage idol would ruin him. So he sent that psycho maybe to kill Ai at the hospital or at least cause a miscarriage. The result was the death of a doctor. But he kept that contact so when Ai contacted him again...he sent the lunatic in once more. Horrifically ironic that the killer went around attacking Ai for "betrayal" while presumably being directed by the guy she slept with.

It's evil, but not particularly psychotic. From Ai's personality and attitude, we can say that there was no romance, she ensnared the man for the purpose of getting pregnant, and probably concealed those intentions until it became physically impossible.

Since Ai was underage, he had all the responsibility for the situation. And because he was big in the industry, he had more to lose. If Ai wanted to, she could've blackmailed the guy forever. It's a pretty clear and classic motive for murder. But the plot fails, and he goes silent.

Then three years later, he gets the call. "Btw, you want to see your children once?"

The way he would hear this is "Hey, just a reminder that I still own you".

After that, murder was back on the menu.

Actually, my prediction is that the father will be recontextualized in a later arc as a good person who was manipulated and corrupted by evil people in the industry. It could even be that he had a manager/mentor that orchestrated the killings without his knowledge. My predictions are almost always wrong, though.

[Mad Pierrot]

That was quite an episode. For a second I was reminded of Wolf's Children

[Twi]

Except the father was the one who died in that one.