Hey fam, and welcome back to Otaku Thursday. Bet you thought I’d be skipping this week since I’ve been bad about posting. Well HA. Nope, Luna here delivering some anime reviews as always. So, a little bit of housekeeping first–I’m sure anyone on the blog knows that both Star and I try to post weekly, however, Star is going to be taking a step back from posting so often. Not to say she won’t be posting at all (she’s still here!). She will mostly be making occasional blogs, popping in for holidays, and working on other exciting things for You Can’t Know IRL. Now, with that TL;DR, let’s get into today’s topic: Oshi no Ko.
I have one pet peeve in anime premieres: don’t make an hour-long premiere without good reason. I usually can’t stand it when it’s a normal ass anime episode that could’ve been 1 and 2 and is instead made into a lengthy episode. Oshi no Ko has an hour-long first episode. AND IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT. It’s a great example of a show that needs an hour-long first episode. The setup was so gripping that it felt like a movie and honestly felt like it went by so fast despite it being extra long. Now, here I’m going to put the content warning for spoilers ahead, because I’m going to go right into what made it so good. Now is your chance to click away from spoilers.
The first episode keeps us on our toes by starting out with our main character. He’s a doctor who follows and loves an idol called Ai Hoshino. A young terminal patient of his is also a huge fan of the idol. They bond over it, the patient dies, and the doctor begins feeling lost. And then one day Ai Hoshino herself shows up to the smalltime hospital he works out. The teen idol…is pregnant. In the strangest turn of events, this doctor ends up taking care of her through her pregnancy and they end up becoming close. Honestly a fever dream for any fan. Now, I appreciate that as they grow close–there’s never any romantic undertones to their relationship. It’s very clear that the doctor really just wants to protect Ai’s smile like a father or elder brother–someone who really respects her and loves her. But it’s of course their closeness, that ends up with a stalker of Ai’s killing the doctor. Yup. That happens maybe 10-15 minutes in. So the doctor dies…but is REBORN. Reborn as Ai Hoshino’s son. When he is reborn, he retains all his memories, which is interesting because now he has to act like a baby, but still draw lines with his ‘mom’ in order to respect her. And also it’s more complicated by the fact he has a twin sister. We watch as they grow up slowly–and then we find out the next plot twist. Homeboy’s twin sister is also someone who has been reborn and has retained her memory. What’s more? It’s the young terminal patient. Naturally, neither of them know who exactly the other is–they just feel like their twin reminds them of each other from their past lives. FUN FUN FUN! So by now, we’ve had like a few plot twists. We see the twins get older and our main character ends up in an acting role because a director from one of Ai’s shows takes a shining to him. Ai’s solo career completely blossoms in the most inspiring way. Then CUE the largest plot twist. At the very end of this first episode, the unthinkable happens. The stalker shows up again–the same stalker that killed our boy…and he kills Ai. Yup. Straight up kills her. She bleeds out while holding our main character–her son. It’s honestly a completely shocking and heartbreaking moment. The death is drawn out too. She tries to hold on but she can’t. It’s honestly so sad. As the main character deals with his grief, he makes the revelation that the stalker is the same person who killed him, and then understands that person was for hire. Somebody wanted Ai dead and succeeded. This, my friends, is where it becomes a revenge plot.
AND that is how the first episode ends. With homeboy as a teenager, ready to take on the world as he navigates show business to figure out who killed his mom/idol, while also protecting his twin sister from the same show business world that ruined their mum. Honestly, that was not at all where I thought the show was going. I think that’s what made Oshi no Ko’s first episode such a huge success. It felt like every time I thought I knew where the show was going and that it was settling into its plot, it’d throw a new twist at us. It was crazy. I honestly felt like I was on a rollercoaster because the storytelling was just that good. It also really helped that I walked into this show pretty blind. The description of it on myanimelist describes only the very beginning of the whole show–which makes sense because it doesn’t want to spoil it. But I honestly thought that this would be about him helping this pregnant teen idol the whole time. Everything else…was just wow. And it really WORKED. Like, it was even like it was grasping for plot or forcing things…it actually just worked well narratively as this is all build up to get to what this show is really about– revenge. I am just incredibly impressed (if you couldn’t tell).
The show also made the first episode feel like a movie by the way it was animated. Like, it was gorgeous. I thought the characters were so colorful and sharp. It was a real treat on the eyes. I’m no expert in animation, but I thought it was seamless. I really enjoyed it. The music was also really good. There wasn’t as much singing as I would’ve expected with their mom being an idol, but hey–at the end of the day–that’s not what this show is about. Opening and ending songs? Also fire. I didn’t see them until episode two but I really enjoyed them both. And speaking on episode two (and beyond)–the show really does continue to carry itself well. While homeboy still has his mission of finding out who killed Ai while also protecting his twin sister from the showbiz industry, we get a lot of good side plots that will fold into these two main issues. For one, we see his sister’s idol group begin with him pretty much handpicking the members, we see as our boy gets back into the show business to further his cause, and we explore other characters through these lenses. It’s so well done. It makes me excited to see how it all comes together for the main plot.
At the end of the day, my first impression of Oshi no Ko was extremely positive. Star also really loves this series. It’s really one of our favorites of the season, and I think a real frontrunner for the number one anime of Spring. It’s just been incredibly well done and I know its reception has been highly positive. I cannot recommend this anime enough for someone who hasn’t picked it up yet. It’s really REALLY worth the watch. But of course, that’s just my opinion. I’d love to know what others think of this series so far. Let me know! Until next time.
Stay Weebtastic,
AishteLOVEru,
Luna
We be bloggin' 