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Nov 16, 2024
Oh boy, here we go.
For starters, Oshi no Ko claims to be about show business. It wants to be about the true side of show business and idol culture, and wants to show how ugly it can be. Unfortunately, it falls rather short.
The beginning of the manga was AMAZING. Ai's death, Akane's attempted suicide(and the cyberbullying around her), everything until the Stage Play arc was PHENOMENAL!
Not to say the Stage Play arc was terrible, but that's when it shifted from being about the dark side of show business to just... show business. I liked the Stage Play arc. It was great.
But then it leads
...
into... the Movie arc.
The Movie arc is fine. It's about picking up and remaking an unfinished film about Ai. Great, right? But as I said before, this manga wasn't supposed to be about show business like this. There are plenty of idol anime out there. This was supposed to show how ugly show business really is, and it doesn't do that. Instead, we waffle about for several chapters. Then, during the movie arc, we also have the incest subplot. This is where I started disliking the manga. The incest plot thankfully is not dragged out, and is resolved rather quickly, but the amount of people I saw clamoring for the incest is wincest trope is... awful. It made me rather disgusted, and I was confused on why Akasaka would add this in if it was just a nothing subplot. Even up to the final chapters, people were in comments begging for the incest(such as claiming Aqua would come back to life and marry Ruby or she would have his child or something). It was awful, and this all stemmed from a SINGLE MINOR PLOT POINT THAT WAS RESOLVED FAST.
And then we get into the climax/resolution. This is where I started seeing a slight glimmer of hope, when Aqua confronted Hikaru about what he had done to both him and Ruby, and by extension Ai and the other people they're surrounded by. I was worried they were going to let him off easy, and I'm pretty satisfied with how they went with it(the murder suicide). But... I don't think we needed 2-4 chapters just showing Aqua dying. We got the point. It's fine to show Hikaru dying, but we didn't need Tsukuyomi monologuing to him, Aqua regretting dying, all of that. Just kill off Hikaru, and tell us that he's dead with Akane's dialogue. The scenes of him dying just felt very filler. And speaking of Tsukuyomi, what even was her purpose? Why did she exist, other than to remind us this was a supernatural manga? Why didn't we use her more??
I'm fine with the character writing. I think a lot of the characters were written well, and I'm glad we showed that Ai is still an aspect of Aqua and Ruby's life after her death. I enjoyed seeing how Aqua's trauma over watching Ai die came back(albeit briefly), and how his past self blamed him for several things. I do wish Aqua and Ruby were written better, but I'm very satisfied with how everyone else was written, from the members of new B-Komachi, to Akane, and even minor characters who were just there(like Frill and Minami[whose name I had to look up because I genuinely forgot- she's another character who I wish was used more]). All in all, the characters are either great, okay, or were entirely forgettable.
But... as I said, this was supposed to be about the dark side of show business. And I didn't really see any of that after the First Concert arc(so, the first 4-5 volumes of Oshi no Ko... and ONLY them). This just feels like a disappointment.
In short, I had very high hopes for this manga, but in the end, it didn't even discuss in depth what it was supposed to be about.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 8, 2024
Chunnibyou is a masterpiece of an anime that shows growing up and getting over grief in a fun and comedic way.
The main character, Yuuta, is an ordinary boy who used to have grandiose dreams, but gave them up as he grew older because he felt embarrassed by his past. He plans to start a normal life as a normal boy... that is until he meets the neighbor upstairs and encounters her in class, who admires his past delusions. This is Rikka, who lives just above Yuuta with her older sister, Touka. As the series progresses, Yuuta learns to accept both his and Rikka's delusions, and
...
they fall in love.
Now, I want to talk about some of the other characters.
Sanae Dekomori is Rikka's second-in-command, who admires Rikka and another chunnibyou named "Mori-summer". She consistently butts heads with another character, Shinka Nibutani, but she is always fiercely loyal to Rikka... for better or for worse(such as her following Yuuta and Rikka around).
Shinka Nibutani is the class president and token pretty girl. While she seems innocent on the outside, Yuuta later learns that she used to be a chunnibyou as well... specifically Mori-summer(Sanae doesn't believe her, leading to their fights). Like Yuuta, Nibutani is embarrassed by her past, but unlike him(sometimes), she has no patience for Rikka or Dekomori's delusions.
Along with Kumin Tsuyuri, an avid napper(and my personal favorite character), Yuuta and Rikka form a club for them to hang out after school and search for the Invisible Boundary Lines, along with the willing Dekomori and the very unwilling Nibutani.
And there's also Touka. Touka is not a bad character per se, but I wasn't a fan of how she treated Rikka's delusions, especially from what we learn later in the series.
A little over halfway through the first season, we learn that Rikka developed her chuunibyou persona over the grief of suddenly losing her father. It's a coping mechanism for her, which is why she acts so strange. This is why I didn't like her too much, as she didn't seem to understand that the coping mechanism was necessary for her to overcome her grief. After Rikka and Yuuta start dating, Touka asks Yuuta to get Rikka to drop her chunnibyou persona to get along better with her mother, as Touka is about to leave for Italy. While it is important to recover from grief, Rikka clearly hasn't gotten to the acceptance part, and is still in the phase of denial, as she says she wants to find the Invisible Boundary Lines to see her father again. While Rikka reacts badly to Yuuta's demand of removing her eyepatch, she does temporarily drop the persona and acts normal, much to Dekomori's dismay. Things come to a head as Rikka leaves to go visit her father's grave, and ends up moving in with her grandparents, causing Yuuta to realize that he has made a mistake and leaves to get her back, being motivated by his guilt for causing Rikka to drop her persona, as well as Kumin revealing that he was the reason she developed her persona in the first place. With Dekomori's, Nibutani's, Kumin's, and another character by the name of Makoto Isshiki's help, Yuuta manages to find Rikka and take her from her grandparents' house, bringing her to the beach where an "Invisible Boundary Line" lays, allowing Rikka to finally accept her father's death and say goodbye. When they return home, Rikka still uses her chunnibyou persona, but it is now a part of her own personality, rather than a coping mechanism, which Yuuta accepts.
This show, while it has some downs, is really a heartwarming(and sometimes heartbreaking) tale of overcoming grief and moving on from your past. If you have the time, please check it out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 29, 2024
I just finished reading this- and it is such a beautiful story. Yui and Kyouko have such a cute relationship as friends and sibling-figures, and the mystery behind it all was captivating. While it was difficult for me to understand some of the methods used for the victims, it just showed to me that they were heavily thought out.
Yui's fate at the end and Kyouko's shift to block out any emotional connection so that she wouldn't be hurt again definitely affected me-I can see how she became our favorite stoic character now- but its heartbreaking to see that it did.
The story is amazing, the characters
...
are great, and its easy to get attached to certain characters and hope for them to be okay, only to watch as something happens to them. The mystery is also great. Since I wasn't heavily spoiled beforehand on how it turned out, it made certain aspects a lot more surprising for me.
Overall, definitely read it- you'll regret it if you don't.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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