Three months ago, everyone was talking about the anime; now it’s over. How good was Oshi no Ko really?
A few months ago, the first episode of “Oshi No Ko” (“My Star”) premiered and caused a stir in the anime community. With the length of a feature film, the pilot episode took viewers on a pretty wild and emotional journey of the star “Ai Hoshino”, who secretly gives birth to children and has to keep it hidden in order to continue her career.
But that only serves as backstory, as the focus of the plot is actually on the two children, Ruby and Aqua, who only fully take on their roles as protagonists from episode 2 onward.
The hype in April was huge. In all anime forums, subreddits, and review platforms, everyone was only talking about Oshi no Ko. The story was grand, the animations and overall quality overwhelming, and with the accompanying soundtrack “Idol” by Yaosobi, a hit was even born that temporarily reached number 6 in the category “Most Popular Music Videos Worldwide”:
The success on YouTube was so great that later an English version was produced.
What happened next with the hype anime?
Could the expectations be met throughout the entire season? Or has the hype faded?
Both questions can probably be answered with “Yes” and “No” at the same time.
After the rather dramatic ending of the first episode, the anime floated a bit in the air, and viewers didn’t really know how the series would develop. Would it now be an exciting “Murder Mystery”? Would it be a brutal quest for revenge with a mad protagonist? Or would it be more of a harmless idol anime with a focus on music and cute girls?
The answer to that and at the same time the problem is: Yes, all of that and yet none of it permanently.
Oshi no Ko frequently changes its focus and the emphasis of the narrative:
- Sometimes it’s about “insider knowledge” from the entertainment industry: the true intentions behind TV productions like reality shows, TikTok stars, or YouTubers.
- Then again, it gets emotional with deep insights into the psyche of the different girls, their backgrounds, and personal traumas.
- From time to time, Aqua also comes into focus with his search for his father.
This makes the anime very varied, but at the same time, it means that “genre purists” are likely to be disappointed.
- If someone wants to see Aqua hunting for his father all the time, they will be dissatisfied when an episode only focuses on the feelings of the girls that gradually accumulate around Aqua in the best “harem anime” fashion.
- If someone liked the comedy aspects, they might grin at Pieyon’s appearance, but could be quite overwhelmed that two episodes delve into the psychological effects of cyberbullying, egosurfing, and suicidal thoughts.
However, Oshi no Ko has impressed from start to finish with pretty strong animations. Especially the eyes, which seemed “somewhat” exaggerated at first glance, have become the trademark of the series with quite deep meaning.
That the quality ultimately came at a cost was evident to fans at the latest when there was quite unexpectedly a “recap” episode that was inserted midway. A clear sign that there were delays in production, and otherwise, quality compromises would have had to be made.
How did Oshi no Ko fare?
The story loses momentum significantly after the first episode and takes more time to take a closer look at the now nearly adult characters and also introduce many new characters.
This reduces the tension a bit, and you can also see this in the assessment of the episodes, for example, on IMDb. While episode 1 still scores a fantastic 9.6 / 10 points, it “drops” in between to 7.6 / 10. However, especially episodes 6 and 7 with significantly more serious themes land again at 9.4 and 9.0.
Overall, Oshi No Ko is rated at 8.6 / 10 points and is thus still well above average.
On other review sites, such as myanimelist.net, Oshi No Ko was even briefly ranked number 1 after the first episode. However, after the series ended, it only made it to “only” number 25.
Oshi no Ko was also quite good at generating attention outside of the actual anime. This is partly due to the pretty strong songs and their performances, such as from the last episode:
On the other hand, the anime has also developed a quite strong fan base that naturally fully exploits the meme potential. A somewhat darker hit:
Particularly “famous” became a scene where the girls seek the help of the masked muscle YouTuber “Pieyon” to generate attention faster. They participate in a workout video that is also filmed in the series against a greenscreen. The anime creators apparently knew exactly what they were doing, as greenscreen is everywhere during the viewing – leading to many memes and videos on YouTube.
In fact, the scene was so popular that the creators of the series later recreated the video in real life – featuring a bodybuilder and Ruby’s voice actress:
Is Oshi no Ko worth it?
As a total work, Oshi no Ko remains a magnificent anime and continues to be a strong contender for several “Anime of the Year” categories, even if some expectations were not met.
Oshi no Ko started as a total hype and has remained strong, even if the high from episode 1 could not be maintained. Nevertheless, it remains one of the clear anime recommendations that can be heartily suggested to any fan of the medium.
If you haven’t seen Oshi no Ko yet, you should definitely give the series a chance, as it will be among the best things that anime will release this year. In Germany, you can watch the series on providers like HiDive or Akiba Pass TV.
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