GLAMOROUSLY REVEALING THE DARK SIDE OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
Oshi no Ko was written by Aka Akasaka, illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari and was published from 2020 to 2024.
FALLING FOR A LIE
Oshi no Ko is a manga that beckons you to judge it by its cover, a dazzling and now iconic image on an idol named Ai Hoshino who’s playful smile and absurdly flashy color scheme makes for a picture that dominates your attention. As your eye’s flutter down the page you’ll see another striking image, the name’s Aka Akasaka x Mengo Yokoyari and while admittedly I wasn’t familiar with Mengo and give the fact this is her most popular work you might not either the other name to many is a promise of quality the likes of which few mangaka dare compare to. Coming onto the scene in the spring of 2020 OnK was proudly presented as the next big thing by the author of the then still ongoing Kaguya sama Love is War, a modern masterpiece, the greatest romantic comedy of all time then and now so the name Aka Akasaka is about as strong of a selling point as the gorgeous idol that grabbed your attention in the first place. If you than did the logical thing of reading that first volume or alternatively watching the anime that understand the assignment so completely that it’s premiere was a movie length complete adaptation of said volume you’ll understand why this thing blew up from the get go. See that cover was a lie, the promise of Ai devastatingly so, and while everyone knows what happens within these pages so much that any shock value is lost completely the effect still works to this day, just make sure to buy into the promise of that cover. It’s easily the most captivating volume of manga Aka has ever written but the question remains now moreso than ever, was it worth it, is Oshi no Ko actually good?
The answer is complicated but clear, yes OnK is a good manga, one I’d recommend to practically everyone and hey it’s best material is 100% not that opening volume as every fan can agree.
SHINING A DIM LIGHT
So, what the heck is this manga actually about anyway? Well it’s a dark side of the entertainment industry revenge soap opera isekai done with that very Aka touch of authenticity, his commitment to portraying everything about the current media landscape easily standing as the pillar on which everything rests on. Authentically portraying the world of Japanese entertainment while writing a goshdarn silly melodrama with an inherently plus externally stupid isekai twist is a hard thing to pull of and while he didn’t achieve it in spades it certainly looked like he had when I started reading it back in the year of 2021 when about a third of the story had released. Onk is a clear example of a story that was striking and vibrant for the first half but gradually lost steam in the less focused back third, a timeline populated with controversy and growing negative sentiment that in many ways is/was deserved. It started taking itself less seriously, relying on trolling the audience for attention instead of it naturally coming from good storytelling and questionable choices became the norm, none moreso than the choice to end it with shocking speed which didn’t go down well, like whatsoever.
MIXED SIGNALS
Ai Hoshino was the selling point but the actual leads are her two children Aqua and Ruby, two people who uh died as fans of hers only to be reincarnated as her children and for the longest time with no idea about the other. Already this choice was weird because hey isn’t this supposed to be a serious examination of the industry, what’s up with the whole isekai thingy but in external terms this is an outright flaw because guess what the Akaverse is real. Yup OnK and Kaguya sama are in the same universe and so I as a LiW fanboy call absolute BS to any magical spirituality nonsense anywhere near my series so hey if you hate OnK you have the inherent right to call it noncanon because Aka messed up big-time. Questionable choice no.1 aside Aqua is a…mediocre character, sorry lads he never fell off he’s always been completely insufferable. Following the ahem loss of his mother he starts a quest for revenge that is actually rather interesting contextually, if you were given a new life would you really want to waste it like he does? Thankfully this is a consistent and effective plot thread, the push and pull of identity and potential driven into a corner by trauma makes him an interesting POV. But as a person yeah nope dude’s your cold brooding badass archetype(at least he is literally wiser than his age) and so his interactions with most of the cast ring hollow, yes that’s by intention, no that doesn’t excuse him being a vacuum of personality. I’ll just say this, you do not get into OnK for Aqua or dare I say any of its cast and if there’s one singular disappointment I have it’s that.
SERIOUS AND STUMBLING
Aka Akasaka is one of the greatest character writer’s of all time, any medium included, there’s just this honest humanity to his writing that when paired with a fundamental understanding of character comedy generally gives his cast’s a viciously engaging bite. With Oshi no Ko he tried something different, comedy was out of fashion I guess so this is a serious drama, prestige television in anime terms, all about the bitter truths people hide under the varnish of society. It work’s, OnK tackles darker themes than anything he’s ever done and with a lesser focus on comedy he has all the time to spare in building them wholly as people first, characters second and the problem is that it just doesn’t coalesce into robust shape. Akane Kurokawa is a good example, heck she’s most people’s favorite and for good reason, she absolutely dominates the scenery with her objectively superior screen presence and shocking intelligence, she see’s things before anyone else and that makes her dangerous. In a actually controversial move Aka took inspiration from a real life instance of social media bullying leading to suicide for her character arc. That was a harrowing sequence to behold, the anime even moreso, and after the pain falls away Akane Kurokawa is a changed woman. In that now she’s obsessed with Aqua and stays his one true confident throughout to the point that she says she’d kill for him. Akane and I’m sorry to say it stops working as a person the moment she single mindedly pursues Aqua, she is a enjoyable character but she becomes flat and fake, impossible to take seriously and without the comedy to take of the edge it really leaves me with a weird taste in my mouth.
QUEEN OF THE SOAP OPERA
This goes for most of the cast, intended for reality, written flatly and farcically instead and for what. The one character this never applies to coincidentally(not) is my favorite, one Kana Arima and that’s because she is an absolute joke from the get go. She’s this insufferable bitchy creature also known as a tsundere and I apply that label very intentionally because of its connotations, she was never a serious attempt at portraying a person no she’s an idea, a character from the start and thusly is consistently written. Aka can still get serious with her but it’s the level of serious he’s always excelled at, bringing the humanity to a inherent joke of a character and developing her that way. She doesn’t function like a OnK character and that’s why she remains the best one from beginning to well okay not the end cos’ my god Aka ya didn’t even try to close out her arc, what the hell man. It’s this failed push for dramatic intentions but flat execution that makes me call OnK a soap opera because I just can’t take this melodramatic and fake as hell cast of characters seriously, they lack the depth of his other works and the whole story suffers because of it. This is rendered complete by an ending that only gives Aqua and Ruby fitting conclusions with everyone else gets left in the lurch, seemingly unimportant and forgotten to time, a genuine disappointment.
THE INCEST EQUATION
Oh yeah, Ruby. Well Ruby’s great if you’re asking, maybe not the best but certainly better than her brother, with a past life that genuinely gives pathos to her current journey of following in her mothers footsteps as an idol. There’s just one problem, cue questionable choice no.2, incest or not? Well I’m happy to report that no sibling slip in sliding happens so no, not incest, OnK is definitely not a frigging incest manga thank god. Oh just ignore the one kiss…and Ruby’s attempts to jump her brothers bone…yeah ok Aka was trolling too hard and hit the sun with that one. Yup this was the plotline that seemingly broke OnK and while in the end it was just a authors trolling it still remains a stain that really has no justification, questionable choice is putting it lightly it was just bad. So, isekai BS, flat character writing, WTF levels of incest bait, why the hell do I still recommend Oshi no Ko without question, after those questions of course.
EARNED PRAISE
Well it’s the portrayal of the entertainment industry that stands tall, a clear curiosity and understanding of the arts by Aka and the glorious expression of said intention by Mengo that make this a prestige soap opera. From bottom to top the media landscape of the modern age is turned upside down and examined with a very in touch with the culture perspective, Aka understands this stuff as much as he understands teenagers which is a scary amount given his certified Unc status and his biting insights give way to punchy storytelling. I’m not just talking about idols either, everyone in the West knows about the moral depravity of that cultural powerhouse no its things that even I as an otaku(there I said it, ew) never knew about. From the struggles of a playwright adapting a manga to the stage, the stage being a modern moving 2.5D one with absolutely unbelievable production values, to a mangaka facing the pressure of a absolute catastrophe of a live action adaptation, to the absolute insanity of reality TV. Heck one of the best characters is a single minded expression of love for the arts, failed actor turned passionate performer on the stage Melt Narushima just brims with a passionate love for the craft. Aka Akasaka didn’t write OnK like his previous character focused work, no this time they were just pawns to be moved into place to explore a new artform and all of its challenges and by god from beginning to almost the end it was a joy to behold. He gets it, as an artist himself he can empathise from bottom to top and that is the part of this series that displays a fundamental understanding, a master of the craft working at the top of his game and I came away with a greater appreciation of all of what he was trying to sell.
GOD BLESS MENGO YOKOYARI
Of course telling is one thing but this time he wasn’t the one showing and that is another reason why OnK can still stand tall in the medium because Mengo Yokoyari can cook and with the lavish kitchen Aka provided she did just that. Famous for such work as Scums Wish and definitely not hentai You are Dirty, My Queen, Mengo is used to portraying grim things lavishly and here she just took that to a new level. Characters are otherworldly gorgeous with a distinctive eye star used to display passions both shining and dismal, paneling is fiercely punchy, colour pages that dazzle like nothing else, the effect overall is just chef’s kiss. She heightens the beauty of everything on display which in conjunction with the failure by Aka to truly tell a serious to the bone story ends up synthesising wonderfully, if anyone else had drawn it this manga simply wouldn’t be capable of the punches it throws. Even in the end when Aka had seemingly given up and rushed a conclusion Mengo carried it onward with a new level of grace and gravitas that covered up weak substance with style in spades. OnK didn’t go out with a bang but a whimper, concluding 2 characters stories a touch too quickly but better than the dozen other characters who got nothing but it still had that visual heft to it so I must say thank you Mengo, twas a pleasure.
TIS THE END
Oshi no Ko is complicated, full of unsatisfying threads and lesser than expected character writing but its world brims with passionate attention, both the artist and writer of this work gave it their best shot at portraying the highs and lows of a frustrating, cruel, hopeless, but still artistically motivated and beautiful media landscape. It succeeded, not in spades and not without question but nevertheless it is a story worth telling, worth experiencing, worth appreciating. It was a long 3 years Aka and Mengo but you bet it was worth it, I hope to see you two again soon. Also yes the anime is a superior adaptation(god bless Kappe) so maybe just watch that ok byyyyy!
FINAL RATING: 8/10
Oshi no Ko can be purchased from Yen Press as individual volumes whereas the anime can be streamed on HiDive.
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