The 3rd season of Oshi no Ko is complete. The finale was extended and features some of the best moments ever in Anime.
I am not telling you anything new when I say how much I enjoyed Oshi no Ko in the past weeks. Each new episode was a highlight of the week for me, and among them was even the best anime episode I have ever seen.
But now, with Season 3 Episode 11, the finale of the current season, I have been completely thrown off. The execution is a masterpiece and will likely be regarded for years as a model of how to build an emotional series to its climax, giving characters the necessary space and not rushing.
Spoiler alert: This is about the finale of Season 3 of Oshi no Ko, so S3E11. There will be many spoilers.
By the end of season 3, Ruby and Aqua recognize each other
By the end of Season 3, the two main characters of Oshi no Ko are all in position to fuel the drama: Aqua has severed ties with everything he was once attached to. He has ended his relationship with Akane in a dramatic and irretrievable way and has developed a plan to avenge his mother Ai’s killer. A movie is supposed to be made about Ai’s life and death, and that is supposed to – in an as-yet-unclear manner – lure the murderer into a trap.
At the same time, Ruby is completely overwhelmed. Her daily schedule is meticulously planned. She has to jump between school, TV series, idol performances, and preparing for her movie shoot, threatening to break under this task.
Above all, the script of the movie weighs heavily on her and reminds her of her time in the hospital, before her rebirth, as Sarina: She always had the hope that her mother would love her. However, her mother visited her in the hospital less and less and didn’t even come when it was clear that she would die.
A moment that builds up over nearly 20 minutes (and 3 seasons, if we’re being honest) and then culminates in Ruby’s nervous breakdown:
Aqua realizes that Ruby is the rebirth of Sarina, whom he accompanied to her death many years ago as a doctor. He reveals to Ruby who he really is and emphasizes how much Sarina means to him and how much he wishes for Sarina to fulfill her second life and be happy, and not just exist for revenge.
Ruby then breaks down in tears and tells Aqua how much she has suffered in recent months and how she has increasingly distanced herself from who she is or wanted to be – someone like her mother Ai, who attracts everyone’s attention and shines brightly.
Aqua then tells her that she no longer has to imitate Ai – because in his time as a doctor, he saw that Sarina, with her passion and joy, even in the state of a terminal illness, shone brighter than Ai ever could.
I’m saying it like it is: This scene got to me. I sat there crying in front of the screen last night and had to pause the episode to fully comprehend what an absolutely perfect execution of a highly dramatic scene I was witnessing. A moment that has been built up over 3 seasons, and then they even take their time, giving the last episode an extended runtime.
The second half – a leap once more into the heart
Just when you think you have recovered from this scene, the story suddenly takes a completely different turn. Because now that Ruby knows who Aqua really is, some memories begin to resurface in her mind:
During her time in the hospital, Aqua had jokingly, as one does sometimes with children, agreed to marry her when she turns 16. Something he probably said at the time just to give dying Sarina a bit of strength and let her look forward to the future.
But what Aqua lightly said as a doctor was engraved in Sarina’s mind, beyond her death. She remembers this promise and realizes: In her current body, she is 16. The supposed promise could come true.
The fact that they are now sister and brother in their new lives does not seem to bother them at all – she only sees the doctor in Aqua.
My thoughts on this were somewhere between “Uh, spicy” and “Oh, heaven, please no”.
Ruby’s behavior towards Aqua then changes. She becomes much more clingy, seeking more physical contact. It’s so noticeable that even Kana and Mem take notice – but they brush it off as Ruby just being under pressure and needing some emotional anchor, like her brother.
Then the episode shifts again. Now the focus is on Miyako, Aqua and Ruby’s foster mother. She reunites with her husband, who left her hanging over a decade ago. During this, we finally get to see her backstory – as a young woman with a lot of charisma, she came to Tokyo and literally slept her way to the top in the industry.
She seduced men and describes her career path even like a video game. The men she wrapped around her finger were “monsters she had to defeat” and elegant clothing or beauty surgeries were “level-ups to conquer even greater enemies”.
Until the point where, in her early 20s, she was already considered “too old” and suddenly at the mercy of men who might still accept her as a mistress.
It’s all so cynical, bitter, yet understandable, that it hurts.
An episode that lingers long after
The whole episode is a feast. A cinematic masterpiece. One that is currently being recognized. Because if you look at the rating platform IMdB, the episode currently has a rating of 9.8 / 10 stars. All the comments below go in the direction of “Absolute Cinema” and I can only agree.
Everything comes together perfectly here. The animations, the voice acting, the soundtrack, every little detail is simply perfect.
After that, I even took the time to watch some reactions from streamers to the episode – seeing how everyone unanimously breaks down in tears, empathizes, and then rejoices was immensely satisfying and worth every sleepless night.
Oshi no Ko is a gem. An anime that we probably won’t see again in this form anytime soon. If you haven’t seen it yet, the current season is streaming on Crunchyroll. But of course, you should start with Season 1.
At the beginning of the third season, I was worried that Oshi no Ko might drag on, but that concern did not come to fruition. The character developments in this season are absolutely fantastic, and the last episode offers a finale that other anime series can only dream of.
Even though I’m sure the IMDb rating of 9.8 will decrease in the coming days because there are always a few trolls who simply click “1 star” – for me, Oshi no Ko delivered the best, most emotional finale there has ever been in an anime.
I will now take a look at some old classics to ground myself again. Because I really need that. And then I am eagerly waiting for Season 4.
