hnnyoongs

[hnnyoongs]

Sweet Today is Foreshadowing (Kaguya-sama Ending Spoilers)

When fans watched Aqua’s performance on Sweet Today, there were some jokes about it foreshadowed Aqua sinking into darkness and becoming like his father, with how well he played the deranged stalker. I think its foreshadowing for the end of the manga, but not necessarily in that sense. 

Kaguya-sama: Akasaka’s Previous Work

Akasaka had the leads vaguely foreshadow the manga ending early on, using the original Kaguya tale. 

The two talk about The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter , with Kaguya mentioning how she hates the moon because it reminds her of how sadly the story ends with Princess Kaguya being separated from her lover, tying it to Kaguya’s own frustration over how the Shinomiya family controls her. However, Shirogane remarks that he would’ve realized Princess Kaguya was waiting to be rescued her when she gave her lover the immortality elixir rather than resigning to her fate of the 2 never being together again. 

The final arc has Shirogane keep his promise. When Kaguya is taken away from him, he takes the funds given to him by her brother (Kaguya-sama’s version of the elixir), and rescues her. 

Tokyo Blade

An instance of an in-universe story paralleling OnK’s real-world.

You have Akane, whose personality matches up with the losing heroine, while Kana has been implied to have a personality similar to Tsurugi, along with Tokyo Blade’s love triangle paralleling OnK’s:

Melt also related to his character:

It isn’t too farfetched to think that Sweet Today’s plot was outlined to have parallels to OnK’s story too. But instead of paralleling what was happening in the present, it was foreshadowing future events. 

Sweet Today

Aqua Falling into Darkness

This is foreshadowing for Aqua’s mental state, where everything that the stalker monologues to Sweet Today’s MC, is how Aqua will increasingly feel about himself.

“I’m not the kind of person you think I am.” 

Below, the stalker directly compares the MC to himself, is likely projecting his own feelings onto the MC and describing how Aqua feels when he finally reaches his lowest point. 

Kana is the Light

And yet, Kana will be the one to pull him out of his darkness, aligning with Akasaka’s tweet about how Kana will be one the one who brings Aqua back, as it is her character that sheds light in Sweet Today. 

Aqua is noticeably taken aback by the light emitting from Kana, before smiling to himself.

Furthermore, this scene in Sweet Today is hailed as being the most important scene of the manga, so that’s further evidence of Sweet Today’s real-world parallel being a climatic scene of OnK.

Aqua, being someone who thought that he didn’t have the right to love anyone, will finally take the first step towards his healing through Kana “bringing him back”.

With how Ruby had a huge emotional breakdown with lots of tears before she lost her dark stars, I think the reason why Akasaka didn’t have Aqua shed tears in that scene is because OnK will save them for the chapters when Aqua is finally saved.

[hnnyoongs]

Aqua/Kana and Hikaru/Ai parallels - OnK Spoilers

I really feel like Oshi no Ko is trying to parallel both dynamics against one another. 

1. Both of them have the same age gap of 1 year with the girl being a year older. 

This might not seem like much, but part of me didn’t get why OnK chose Hikaru to be 15 specifically when he was with Ai. Majority of anime ships either have the girl and guy be the same age or the guy be older. Additionally, it would be “easier” to explain Hikaru aiding a murder if he was a little older. Considering how a bunch of people thought it was possible that Ai was groomed by an older man, it came as a shock when it turned out that Hikaru was the one that was groomed at age 11. 

2.  Idol who fits the “ideal girl” criteria of Aqua’s who is B-Komachi’s center, and has feelings for the mentally unstable actor 

Many people have pointed out the similarities of Kana/Ai and people have also joked that Aqua is becoming like his father (a bit of stretch since the worst thing he did was put a tracker on his ex-gf), but combined with the fact that 2 sets of parallels are also involved in ships makes it feel like these relationships are meant to parallel one another. 

3. Hikaru eventually led to Ai’s demise, but maybe for OnK, Kana will pull Aqua out of his demise. 

Hikaru is the reason that Ai died, and Kana has had numerous hints to being the light of the series. I don’t think Aqua is going to lead to Kana’s ruin, but instead this ship might end up subverting what happened to his parents, with Kana pulling Aqua out of his downward spiral. 

[hnnyoongs]

Oshi No Ko was about Arima Kana all along.

And I think there’s a real possibility she may die at the end.

Or be placed in the way of grave danger.

I was reading some AquKane shippers say something about how they don’t understand AquaKana, and why the writers and directors keep clearly pushing Kana towards Aqua when they barely share any chemistry. Whereas, in their belief, his relationship with Akane is more honest, deeper, whatever. I’m not here to argue about that. But I get where they’re coming from. And the simple explanation is this:

It’s because this whole story was written for Arima Kana.

I’ve seen some Youtubers talk about how this whole story was meant to be fulfillment for Ruby/Sarina’s dream to become the next great Idol, something about Amaterasu favoring her.

And that’s near what I thought of it. But I really think if the God of Entertainment wanted to bless a child with cancer a second life as the world’s great idol, they’d also give her a great singing voice, y’know?

Spoilers for the manga, of course as we go along on this explanation. So anime onlies, get caught up before you start reading me ramble.

Here we go:

Keep reading

[hnnyoongs]

half formed and maybe incoherent thought honestly but akane puts it well: ayumi is simply a failed mother who was left alone due to her own terrible treatment of her daughter. she can blame no one but herself (and her ew fiance) but she _still_ ping pongs between victimizing herself and then blaming herself for ai's horrible treatment, as if trying to get rid of the weight of her own actions, while also putting herself at fault, but the blame runs hollow because its just so apparent she never thought of ai as her child as she continously shifts any culpability to ai

side note, about adultification of ai, she was twenty (close to it) when she died but she had been treated like she was twenty her whole life and thats. fuck.

have a good day!

"HAVE A GOOD DAY" SHE SAYS AFTER HITTING ME WITH AN EMOTIONAL GRENADE LIKE THIS </3

tbh I have mixed feelings on Akane's line there. on the one hand, I think @gallantblade's read of it is really good - Akane responding to Ayumi's renouncement of agency in her own abuse of Ai by putting that agency back in Ai's hand, empowering her and disempowering Ayumi. That's an interesting read but I also... don't know that it's Akane's call to make?

(Belatedly realized after typing all the below that this looks like I'm ragging on their take or analysis here which is absolutely not the case!! They drop baller Oshi no Ko takes and I love reading their thoughts, the below is my perspective on that line and its place in the scene in general and not gallantblade's reading of it)

Like, at the end of the day, Ayumi abandoned her daughter. That's unavoidable fact. That abandonment was deeply traumatic for Ai and I don't love the idea of Ai not going out of her way to contact a person who was violently physically abusive towards her and almost certainly emotionally abusive and neglectful in myriad other ways as Ai 'abandoning' her mother. Ai already clearly held a lot of guilt and self directed blame for the fallout of that relationship so I don't think making her at all culpable in their separation is the way to go. An abused child who was abandoned by their parent is not the one with the responsibility to reach back out to mend those fences, especially given that Ai believed – with very good reason!!! – that her mom hated her and did not want Ai in her life.

My most charitable reading of the line & the one I'm choosing to go with to not make my head explode is that Akane is talking about what Ayumi's perspective of the situation is – that Ayumi views herself as a mother who mistreated her daughter and ended up abandoned because of it. That certainly lines up with her, as you put it, ping ponging between self blame and flagellation and then still choosing to put blame on Ai's shoulders regardless.

Anyway, here's a fun note to end on: Do you ever think about how Ai was literally never allowed to be an actual adult in the public eye, in a very literal sense? The infantilization of idols is a process of preserving the illusion of them as eternally pure, eternally childlike, eternally juvenile, virginial and unthreatening and Ai was this as a minor to an absolute T.

The instant she became an adult – on her 20th birthday, just before her first public appearance as a legal adult – she was immediately killed and frozen in time as an eternal child who will never poison her virginial femininity by growing into an adult woman.

FROM COMEDY MANGA WRITER, AKA AKASAKA, EVERYBODY!!!

[hnnyoongs]

Mem-Cho's Realization about Aqua's Feelings: Unambiguous and Correct

I don't believe the chapter 83 conversation in Mem-Cho's apartment is as ambiguous as some people may believe, or that its incorrect. Yes, Mem-Cho is unaware of Aqua's trauma, but that doesn't change the fact regarding what she realized about Aqua's feelings. Additionally, Mem-Cho is also an idol so if Aqua's reasons for avoiding Kana were purely motivated by PTSD, then he should be avoiding Mem at all costs too, rather than going to her apartment at night.

Almost like a part of him does understand that being near Mem isn't going to immediately throw them both into a scandal but still takes extreme measures for Kana.

To me, this was the one of the 2 explicit confirmations (as of ch125) that Aqua had romantic feelings for Kana - the other being Akane's monologue in ch87. It's especially obvious when you realize it parallels with Mem-Cho's realization about Kana's Feelings for Aqua.

Mem-Cho with Kana's Feelings for Aqua

During the First Concert arc, Mem-Cho hasn't ever seen Kana and Aqua interact on a normal basis, so seeing Kana constantly put Aqua down makes her come to a logical assumption that Kana must hate him for some reason.

After the concert, Kana starts talking to Aqua again, but their interaction is still stiff since the misunderstanding about Akane isn't cleared yet, which further supports Mem-Cho's incorrect assessment.

But as soon as Kana starts being happy that Aqua isn't dating Akane, Mem-Cho immediately notices and realizes the truth.

Mem-Cho doesn't actually complete her thought below even if most, if not all translations, have her clearly think that Kana likes Aqua, since she cuts herself off and based on phrasing structures in Japanese, the verb isn't spoken.

The literal translation would actually be 'Arima-chan ____s Aqu-tan'.

But it's obvious on what Mem-Cho realized about Kana.

Going forward, Mem-Cho is usually the character used when Kana's feelings are brought up with another character.

Mem-Cho with Aqua's Feelings for Kana

In the Main Stage arc, Mem-Cho confronts Aqua regarding him avoiding Kana. She believes Aqua's unaware of how his behaviour towards Kana could be perceived, which may have contributed towards Kana's "obsession" over Aqua.

But Aqua rebutted this, and opens up about how he actually feels regarding the situation, revealing that he only is doing this to protect Kana even if it hurts both of them.

From this, Mem-Cho realizes that its not Kana who is obsessed between the two, but its Aqua.

Mem-Cho realizes that Aqua cares for Kana much more than she initially assumed, seeing that the idea of Kana being put in danger is making Aqua have a meltdown.

'For Aqu-tan, Kana-chan is...'. : The direct translation of this line from Japanese would be 'Aqu-tan is the one who ___s Kana-chan', and it's easy to fill in the verb based on the context.

After their conversation, we see Mem-Cho bring up Kana more often to Aqua, even teasing him about "Ah-kun".

Parallels

Both situations involve Mem-Cho initially misunderstanding the situation when one of the two act distant/cold towards the other. Not because Mem-Cho's bad at reading situations (she's actually great at it), but because she was working off of minimal information.

Once she saw Aqua/Kana let their true feelings slip out, she immediately pieced together that her initial assumption was incorrect and came to the correct conclusion: That the person in-question actually loved the other romantically.

In both situations, her thoughts are cut off from the audience:

'Arima-chan ____s Aqu-tan'

'Aqu-tan is the one who ___s Kana-chan'

Finally, this isn't the only example of Aqua and Kana paralleling one another during the First Concert/Main Stage arc, as another example are the scenes where they push one another away.

It would not make sense to parallel these scenes if they both weren't based off of romantic feelings.

[hnnyoongs]

Ai + Nino vs Ruby +Kana

The narrative is clearly drawing a parallel between Nino and Ai’s relationship compared to Kana and Ruby. Both involve a hardworking and talented girl (Nino and Kana) feeling growing resentment and bitterness when they are outshone by a newcomer who’s somewhat troubled, but has something ‘special’ about them, and gets favoured by others.  (Ai and Ruby). 

But how similar is the relationship? Is Ruby and Kana’s friendship just as doomed as Ai and Nino’s? 

While they are only meant to be playing roles, it’s clear that Kana does have genuine resentment and jealousy towards Ruby. The fall out between them is real. 

  It’s not touched on much, but it’s mentioned a few times that Ai was favoured by management- Ichigo saw her as a daughter. Similarly, Miyako is Ruby’s adoptive mother, so Ruby does get favoured in the group. 

We are shown just like Nino, Kana is completely outshone by Ruby as an idol. Ruby has more fans and gets more opportunities. Nino and Kana went from main-players to just backup for their more popular member . 

Nino is still fixated on Ai, feeling intensely jealous and hateful of her, but also greatly admiring her and putting her on a pedestal. Kana has been shown to relate to these feelings more and more. 

The latest chapter with Kana playing Nino and Ruby playing Ai shows how the original confrontation plays out.

Nino starts by expressing how lucky Ai is, and how much more popular she is. Nino isn’t initially overtly hostile, but is clearly upset. 

But Ai is very dismissive. It’s not clear if she’s being dense/doesn’t know how to handle the situation, but it comes across like she just doesn’t care. She doesn’t stop eating her ice cream even when Nino is clearly upset. 

Nino gets increasingly frustrated and escalated and says some awful things to Ai, but Ai seems almost completely unbothered, not even breaking her smile. When we saw current-Nino a few chapters back, this event and the following fallout has clearly still deeply impacted her. 

Nino simultaneously hates and is obsessed with Ai. 

Nino is resentful for what she feels Ai took from her, but the fact she was unable to move her emotions a little makes Nino interpret Ai as this almost superhuman infallible being. She puts her on a pedestal. 

Nino was never able to resolve her issues with Ai, because from her point of view, Nino hated and admired Ai to such an extreme degree, and Ai didn’t particularly care at all. She was just a detached being who was vaguely ‘trying to love her’ even if Nino was trying to hurt her. 

But did Ai really not care? Was she as unbreakable as Nino thought she was? Was she so detached from others that nobody could hurt her? 

Not according to Ruby’s interpretation of her reaction. 

With the latest chapter, we have the benefit of hearing Kana’s interpretation of Nino’s character. 

As Kana is playing Nino, she realises that Nino and Ai probably used to be friends. 

It could of just been an ordinary fight between girls, but because of Ai’s emotional walls the argument was never resolved and turned into a much, much bigger rift. Nino wouldn’t of been so upset with Ai if she didn’t originally think of her as a friend. This chapter seems to imply that Nino wasn’t just jealous of Ai, but also incredibly hurt when she felt she couldn’t reach her in any way. 

. 

Nino was deeply wounded by Ai’s seeming indifference to her suffering and to her vitriol. Not only does she continue to hate Ai for hurting her, she also admires her for her skill/talent and see’s her as untouchable and unmovable. 

I explored it a bit further in a previous post, but I think Ai’s handling on Nino’s emotions was due to her lack of social skills/minimising as a defence mechanism rather than indifference.

Will Kana and Ruby end the same way? 

I don’t think so. 

Although Kana is in a similar position to Nino in the recent arc and there have been a lot of parallels, she is a very different character. Nino was a rookie idol and probably much younger than Kana at the time of the argument (if she’s the same age as Ai, probably about 14?). 

Kana is a young adult whose spent decades in show biz and has more life experience than most people her age. Even though Kana has insecurities and can be impulsive/hot-headed she has   had to be resilient to last as long as she has in show biz. 

Ruby is by no means the first person Kana has had to compete against or felt jealous of. Show business is full of competition. Akane is Kana’s main rival for example. Akane has arguably more for Kana to be jealous of; she’s more successful as an actress and she was dating the boy Kana liked. 

Although she is jealous of Ruby, Kana has enough self-insight not to completely loose her mind to it like Nino. 

The only reason she originally expressed her resentment was to help Ruby act (although I believe this was a little extreme and misguided).

Kana’s maturity compared to Nino is evident throughout this chapter with her insightful analysis of Nino’s feelings/her relationship with Ai. 

 Nino doesn’t have the foresight to see how Ai’s background in a children’s home has lead to her developing maladaptive coping strategies. Kana is also able to recognise to an extent how Ruby’s difficult past impacts her behaviour, and has empathy for her. 

Importantly, it’s been established multiple times that Kana’s speciality is acting. Although she does feel jealous of Ruby, part of her knows that ultimately being an idol isn’t her dream. Being an actress is. Kana can never surpass Ruby as an idol, but I don’t think Kana’s true-calling is to be an idol. Even during her argument with Ruby, she specifies that she can’t surpass Ruby as an idol.

Compared to Ai and Nino, where Ai is portrayed as a ‘better’ version of Nino (At least of Nino’s ‘ condensed character-type’ she portrays as an idol).

And Ruby? Ruby is very different from Ai. I’ve mentioned it before in a previous post that Ruby does hide darker parts of herself to an extent, but Ruby is much more open emotionally than Ai.

Just compare their reactions to their friend telling them to die/disappear. 

Ruby does not hide that she is deeply, deeply hurt by Kana. Unlike Nino, Kana is never left feeling that Ruby never cared about their friendship in the first place. 

Ruby allows herself to be vulnerable more than Ai ever could. While Kana admires Ruby, she doesn’t put her on a pedestal, she knows she isn’t a the ‘ultimate invincible idol’. 

During Ruby’s black-star era/rise to fame she was so fixated on revenge that her friendship with Kana and Mem fell on the wayside, but it was clear she still cared about them.

The lead up to Ruby and Kana’s argument is complete different. Instead of being on completely opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, they’re both emphasising with each other; Ruby is worried how her performance will impact Kana’s career, and Kana understand Ruby’s desperation to do well in the movie.  

I don’t know if Kana and Ruby will make up in the next chapter or if this argument is going to continue on. Ruby doesn’t seem to be in the best mental state, so she may not be ready to make amends with Kana immediately. 

I have a feeling the emotions of the characters is going to continue to run parallel to the emotions of who they’re playing in the script. 

But ultimately, I don’t think Ruby and Kana are doomed to follow in Ai and Nino’s footsteps. They are both different people.

I also wonder if Nino and Ai’s relationship would of ended differently if Ai hadn’t been killed. I think Ai matured a lot from her argument with Nino (14) compared to when she had her babies (16). If she hadn’t died, maybe Ai could of matured enough to communicate with Nino and Nino could of matured enough to understand Ai.

This is pure speculation, but I think Ai’s death traumatised Nino to the extent she is frozen in time, unable to move past her childish view of Ai as the perfect idol. A former friend who you wished dead actually getting killed has to be pretty traumatic (and of course, there’s always the possibility of Nino being involved in Ai’s murder which is another can of worms/ ) 

[hnnyoongs]

Ruby and Akane: Parallels

In chapter 77, Ruby reveals her dark secret to Akane, similar to how Aqua revealed his dark secret in chapter 52. In both situations, Akane enables their obsessions, thinking that she is doing them a favor when she shouldn't be encouraging them.

In Ruby's case, Akane is unaware that Gorou would be nearing his 50s if he was still alive, which makes me wonder how she would've reacted if she knew the truth.

In my opinion, she would've still encouraged Ruby. Akane's already cool with murdering for Aqua's sake so I don't think ethics is a high priority for her.

Unhealthy Obsessions ≠ Genuine Love

The way Ruby feels about Gorou is how Akane feels about Aqua, being obsessed to an unhealthy and obsessive degree to the person they think they might be in love with. Their unhealthy feelings are targeted towards the same soul but different incarnations. Akane's yandere tendencies flare up whenever the situation involves Aqua.

And while Ruby also wanted revenge for Ai's murder, the main trigger for her to fall into darkness was seeing Gorou's corpse.

Gorou/Aqua - Providing the Will to Live

When describing Gorou, Ruby focuses on how he gave her the will to live, saving her from having self-destructive/suicidal thoughts during her lowest moments.

This is further supported by how Ruby was having suicidal thoughts in chapters 115 & 121 but the realization that Gorou = Aqua had saved her.

How does Akane understand? Because she went through the same experience in LoveNow. When she was at her limit and about to kill herself, Aqua saved her and worked with the other LoveNow members to save her image.

Thanks to Aqua, she got the strength to return to LoveNow and move forward. That moment had a significant impact on her, similar to how Ruby describes Gorou's impact on her.

Returning to Original Location

Ruby and Akane return to the places where their relationships began, reaffirming their feelings. Its a callback but could be seen as them trying to hold onto those relationships when they should just let go.

Delusional Era

Both Akane and Ruby go through a period where they think they will get what they want. Aqua and Akane started dating but Aqua only loves Kana. Akane knows this but she's convinced that as Aqua continuous to lie to himself about loving her, those lies will become the truth - which they never did.

She also believed that the 2 of them had an equal relationship, and that she was saving Aqua - both immediately proven false in the subsequent chapter.

For Ruby, she thinks that now that she has reunited with Gorou, they will get married, not realizing that:

A) Gorou never promised marriage. He said he'd think about it which was letting Sarina down easy because she was a dying child at the time.

b) She no longer sees Aqua as just himself, but is projecting Gorou onto him considering she keeps emphasizing "Sensei" unlike Aqua with Sarina-Ruby.

c) Ruby in a stable and healthy mindset thinks incest is gross lol

Plus Ruby's sus manga panels being over-the-top hammers down the point that she is being really delusional right now.

Conclusion

In the end, the 2 girls are really similar to where I'm sure that Akane would've still encouraged Ruby to pursue Gorou even after knowing he was way too old for her because she can relate to Ruby's feelings, believing that he couldn't be bad for Ruby if she believes he is a good person.

Meanwhile Kana's reaction if Ruby confided in her instead:

And if Mem-Cho tried to argue about the age gap, Ruby would probably say that its basically the same as Mem-Cho hanging out with the rest of them - killing Mem-Cho in an instant:

[hnnyoongs]

Ruby the Actress (major Manga spoilers!)

Ruby is probably my favourite character in Oshi No Ko. She’s someone who at first seems really simple and straightforward, but as the story progresses it becomes more clear she’s more complex than that.

In the current arc, a lot of parallels are being drawn between Ruby and Ai, Ai is central to Ruby. As Sarina, Ai was her escape and her idol. As Ruby, Ai was her mother (and still her favourite idol). Ruby both loves Ai, wants Ai to love her and wants to emulate Ai. Ruby is borderline fanatical about Ai. 

But how similar are they?

The narrative has portrayed Ruby both as one of the more honest/straightforward characters, but also asserted that she has been lying/acting this whole time, so what’s the truth?

Ruby isn’t a step-ford smiler and doesn’t have any issue with expressing negative emotions. Whether it’s her initial hostility towards Kana or her nerves before a big show or throwing a childish tantrum about a song. 

It’s hard to imagine Ai being comfortable being this emotionally open around someone. Even when Ai was insulted by a friend on B-Komachi she hardly had any outward emotion, compared to Ruby in the same situation.

Ruby also values honesty even to her own detriment, wanting to honestly do the work out YouTube challenge with Pieon, even though they could of just edited it. Compared to Ai, who felt that being a liar was intrinsic to being a good idol and felt unable to stop lying.

But if Ruby is a sweet, honest and straightforward person, how was she able to change so quickly into someone who was willing to manipulate those around her for the purpose of revenge? Is it a sudden character change or something that was building in her all along?

Even before she was Ruby, Sarina is shown to be a sweet and cheerful girl. I don’t think this was completely an act, but she felt she had to hide her more ‘ugly’ emotions in order to keep her parents love and affection. Even to Gorro she never showed the extent of her hurt and anger about being abandoned by her parents. Crucially, she also lied to herself, unable to face reality that her parents didn’t love her the way she wanted them to. She is unable to face this reality even as Ruby, until she can’t deny it any longer. 

Even though Ruby is ‘cute and honest’ the circumstances of her life necessitated her to lie about important parts of herself; She kept being reincarnated a secret from Ai and everyone around her. She even kept the details of her past life a secret from Aqua. When Ai was killed she had to keep it a secret from the world. This increased her reliance on lies, as in order to protect her own secret and Ai’s, she has to play a ‘role’ and continue to pattern of cutting off unwanted parts of herself. 

Although Ruby was able to overcome Ai’s death to an extent and is able to grieve in a more healthy way than Aqua, she’s obviously still traumatised and harbours a lot of rage and hate for the perpetrator in her heart. Which she keeps mostly hidden. 

Ruby has shown to cope well with Ai’s death, but the fact she is unable to speak to any of her friends about major traumas in her life (one mother abandoning her, another being murdered) probably limits her ability to come to terms with her feelings. The only person she can sort of speak to- Aqua- has his own stuff going on. 

One of the first things Ruby says post time-skip is that she has two big secrets, showing that hiding things have remained central to her life. Whether she wants to or not. 

  Ruby remains cheerful and straightforward post time-skip, and I really don’t think this is all an act. She builds genuine friendships with Mem and Kana, unlike Ai who struggled to make connections with her teammates. Ruby really enjoys being an idol. She wants to fulfil her own and her mother’s dream and be a pure-hearted idol. 

And for a while things are fine. 

Until they’re not and Ruby realises that the person behind her mother’s death is still out there, and they killed the doctor who supported her more than anyone in her previous life. 

It feels like a complete character change. But is it?. Ruby is someone who feels love very strongly, but she also feels hate too.

She begins to be motivated by hate instead of love. With the same single-mindedness she displayed aiming to be an idol, Ruby aims for revenge for both Ai and Gorro. Ruby has always felt incredibly strongly about those she loves; Ai goes without saying. For Gorro, Ruby wanted to become an idol partially to meet him again, even though that was completely improbable. She can be fanatical with things she loves.  

So she is able to cross her own morals in order for revenge. Ichigo agrees to introduce Ruby to Ai’s old contacts if she becomes famous. So motivated by vengeance, Ruby manipulates those around her to become more famous. She’s surprisingly adept at it, because she was already used to having to hide things and put on an act to an extent. She isn’t ‘made of lies’ like Ai felt she was, but Ruby has always been cutting off the uglier and more complicated parts of herself in order to fit the role she wants to play. 

 Ruby becomes super popular. Her personality starts to shift but it’s she hasn’t completely left behind her childish traits. Being a manipulator is another role for her, but there are hints she still isn’t as calculating and serious as she maybe wants to be.

The pedestal Ruby put the idol world on starts to crack, and she starts to confront the ugly part of show biz beneath the glittering veneer. She realises that Ai probably had to lie too to be successful. She starts to realise the truth about things she’s lied to herself about. Idols aren’t always pure and perfect and the world they live in is brutal. Ai was the ideal to Ruby/Sarina, she always tried to emulate her. She wanted to be a pure and innocent idol like she thought Ai was, now she thinks she needs to be a liar like Ai. 

The happy lies Ruby made into part of her identity start to crumble.

Then, Aqua tells the world Ai’s secret in order to save Kana. Ruby see’s this as the ultimate betrayal. She thinks Ai is no longer first in Aqua’s heart and she feels totally alone in the world. Even though she has others around her, Aqua is the only one who can understand the reincarnation and Ai’s death.

All her core beliefs have been squashed; The Idol world is cold and brutal and lead to her mother’s death, Ai wasn’t a perfect innocent idol and had to lie constantly, and now she thinks Aqua has stopped caring about Ai, and loses the bond with the only person who could really understand her. She also has to confront that as Sarina she wasn’t loved by her mother.

At this point she begins questioning her own identity and falling apart. She no longer enjoys being an Idol but feels she have to get revenge. Ruby doesn’t know who Ai is, so she doesn’t know who she is herself. The entanglement with her own identity and Ai’s gets more confusing as she’s playing her in a movie.

She can’t be the perfect innocent idol- nobody can- but she doesn’t enjoy being the liar and manipulator she feels she needs to be to avenge Ai and Gorro.

We see how fragile her sense of identity is; she’s able to convince herself she became an idol to avenge Ai, forgetting that it was her dream across two life times.

It’s only when Aqua reveals who he is and reminds Ruby of who she was prior to her path of vengeance that she’s able to start rebuilding her identity. Finding out Aqua is Gorro helps tether her and bridge the gap between Sarina and Ruby.

Crucially, he reminds Ruby that she is not Ai. She doesn’t have to be her, she’s her own person and she’s good enough a herself.

Ruby still has a lot of struggles to come in the movie arc, but hopefully she’ll continue down the path of becoming her own person; realising she can’t be perfect and she will have dark feelings, but that doesn’t mean her naturally cheerful upbeat personality is a lie either. 

Is Ruby like Ai? I don’t think so. But they both struggle with identity. Ai feels like she’s never been able to form or connect with an identity, Ruby has had so many thrust on her (Sarina, Ruby, ‘Ai’) that it’s confusing to her.

They’re their own people with completely different backgrounds, personalities and quirks. But I do think Ruby’s emotional journey will leave her best placed to understand Ai; Ruby is starting to realise that Ai neither a perfect ideal idol, nor a mysterious master manipulator. She’s more than her idol persona. Ai is a complicated human with her own motivations, fears and issues just like everyone else. 

[hnnyoongs]

Love, Lies, and Romance: The 3 Ships of Oshi no Ko and 3 Thematic Resolutions

Oshi no Ko is a series deeply concerned with what it means to love and be loved. Ai's wish to love is what starts off the series; her love for her children, and their love for her in return, form the emotional fulcrum upon which the whole manga turns.

Romantic love, too, is a type of love. Aqua's three possible romantic relationships each represent three different interpretations of how to love, and how those relationships are treated is a reflection of how the series views those kinds of love.

For organization's sake, I'll go down the list in order of what I judge as least to most likely to occur in the manga itself.

Ruby - Love is Lies

I've already written a longer meta about this, but to summarize the relevant parts: Ruby, as depicted in chapters 77 to 142, doesn't understand Aqua, nor Gorou. She instead loves him for the image she's constructed of him in her head, for the way he makes her feel - but this has very little to do with the man himself. Her view on Aqua is, in my opinion, a direct parallel to Aqua's view of Ai - she puts him on a pedestal, idolizes him, but that same impetus is what has her mentally keeping a distance from his real self. You can see this all the way back in chapter 77. When she thinks of him, she first thinks of how he made her feel:

Now, this isn't on it's own a red flag, but it is contrasted directly afterward: when asked to predict his own actions and feelings, she's hilariously off:

I think many readers kind of wrote this off as a joke at the time, but this kind of thing lines up perfectly with her behavior in the movie arc. Not only is she inventing a backstory for him (does Gorou ever show romantic interest at all? Why would she assume he was in trouble with girls?) but more importantly she interprets his kind rejection as a tease, and his care to a friend and patient as romantic intent.

A version of the story in which Ruby is Aqua's love interest would literally validate Ai's famous quote, that lies are love - that the person doesn't matter, only how they make them feel does. And that is directly contrasted by, uh. The whole rest of the manga. But to pick a specific scene, see C9:

The kind of love where one person projects on another, the manga has shown us again and again, the kind of love that is lies, results in this. It cannot end happily, for anybody. If Ruby and Aqua end up dating for real, my next bet is that the story ends in tragedy, because that's the only end for that kind of love in Oshi no Ko.

Akane - Love is Lying

To Akane, love is an act - a lie. But hear me out, this is markedly different from Ruby's position. Akane, I think, is actually the closest of the main characters to Ai's mindset. She doesn't feel that she understands love, but she wants it, so she actively cultivates an image of herself that can show love. We know this well, of course, given her actions at the end of LoveNow. She creates a persona of love in chapter 28, much like Ai describes in 4.

And believes that regardless of the artificiality of it, she can keep up the act forever: to earn love through the act is to earn it in reality.

So you may be asking: what is the difference between what Akane is doing, and what Ruby is doing? Well, the difference is in the intention. It is not the lies that are the important part, but the lying - neither Akane nor Ai felt they knew how to love, but their desire to love, their care for others, that was all real love. The performance they put on for others was not an impersonal pedestal, but an active effort done for another's sake. It may be lying, but it is an act of love nonetheless.

If Aqua/Akane was the endgame ship of Oshi no Ko, it would be a simultaneous validation and rejection of Ai's worldview. Yes, if you care enough, lying can be love, if you are willing to forge that connection. But, in this paradigm, Ai's mistake was lying one-sidedly, to a faceless crowd. The crowd cannot return your love, not in a way other than idolization, and we discussed how that turns out in Ruby's entry. Akane's relationship, on the other hand, is much less one-sided and unhealthy, because she lies for Aqua's sake alone, and doesn't hide that she's doing it. As such, her performance can be recognized and appreciated as such, and he can reach back and return her love.

As such, while the lying is a performance, their relationship isn't a lie. The two of them start to see each other's real selves. The dynamic of two people who don't really understand love or how to love, performing a relationship together until they can learn how to do it together, is a sweet one. I could actually totally see this as the main relationship of Oshi no Ko.

But the actions of the characters make clear what the issue is in this kind of love. The seeds of this breakdown are set in chapter 72, which is ironically one of the ones that sets the dynamic up - even as they are trying to create an equal relationship, Akane decides to lie to him for his own good. After all, their relationship has already been established on the basis of lies. To lie for someone else's sake is inherently a one sided choice, and while in chapter 28 we can see it as a cute start to a relationship, it comes back around in a much more harmful way here:

which pays off in their grand breakup in chapter 98. Akane is willing to one-sidedly make the choice to kill Hikaru for Aqua's sake. Aqua, in return, refuses to let her make that choice, tracking her position, then stopping her and cutting her off for her own safety. While Akane is the one who calls him out for this, neither of them are treating the other as someone with agency, and both are making choices for the other. As such, in Oshi no Ko, lying cannot be love - you cannot impose your love on another.

Kana - Love is Sincerity

Kana, differently than Ruby and Akane, is defined in her moments of honesty and sincerity. She is an actress, yes, but even her acting is a kind that emphasizes her true self. There's too many pages to post here, but chapters 60-63 talk all about this directly - her modern acting is about hiding herself in order to aid others, but her best acting is when she ignores everybody else and acts to her heart's desire.

This same sincerity is what forms the basis of the Aqua/Kana ship. Unlike the two above ships, which are on some level founded on artifice, many of the moments between Kana and Aqua are focused on moments where they are each acting as their truest selves. Chapters where they interact, like 30 and 117, show that they both have an easy rapport, acting thoughtlessly and honestly. Chapter 40 points this out directly: Kana has the ability to draw Aqua out of his depressed and overthinking mindset, letting him be his unrestrained self.

This is similar to Ai's own actions in chapter 4. Though she normally puts on a facade and acts out love for the cameras and crowds, the one moment that she is truly recognized as smiling is the moment she accidentally lets slip, and shows true love for her children:

As such, Aqua/Kana serves as a complete repudiation of Ai's mindset. She was wrong that one can lie to love. The only way to love is to be honest, the only time she was able to honestly express love was the moment she died, when she was able to tell her children she loved them. If you aren't sure how to love, you must reach out honestly and you will find it. No act or performance can be love, no matter how well meant.

If this is the ship the manga ends on, which it could be, the message would be that love is in baring oneself to others. Hiding from others with lies, even when well intentioned, like Aqua does to Kana before chapter 107, is a mistake, and to love truly you need to face up to your own feelings and see the other person directly.

Finale

So, what does this all mean? It means that the romantic love demonstrated in the three ships are unavoidably intertwined with the story's ideas about love as a whole. However, his isn't necessarily a foolproof prediction of what the author plans to do next, or what ship the story endorses. Though obviously I think some of these are much more supported by the series than others, until we reach the end it is still possible that things will change, and it could go with any of these, or none of them. This is merely the lens in which I interpret the romantic interactions in the text.

In fact, it's entirely possible that the series ends with no romantic resolution at all, rejecting all three above views on love. After all, while the romantic relationships are undeniably important to the narrative, the love that started this whole story was Ai's familial love for her children - thus, I wouldn't be surprised if platonic love between family and friends will be the most important in resolving it. In any case, the question of how to love is a key part of the series, and will have to be resolved by the story's end.

[hnnyoongs]

Oshi no Ko 143 Reaction

This was a fun chapter. Ruby getting aggressive finally forcing Aqua to stop ignoring the problems in their relationship that have been simmering for 20 chaps now and actually have a conversation that puts it all out in the open. They're mostly saying stuff I predicted in advance, but some of it took me by surprise.

One bit that made me stand up and !!! was this page:

I thought I was doing something interesting when I compared Ruby's feelings towards Gorou to Aqua's feelings about Ai in my last two analyses but she just came out and said it directly on page, haha. I feel pretty validated.

I still stand behind most of what I wrote last week after this chapter. Ruby is desperately trying to make this a romance, but her best pitch is "I care about you in the same way we cared about idols in our past lives. Parasocially and without regard for the actual person, because I need to put somebody on an idealized pedestal or else I'll kill myself. This is what romance is, right?" Girl with so so so many issues, I love her.

The one thing that did really take me by surprise was the bit where she listed off Aqua's flaws as a person. In the past I assumed that Ruby was intentionally ignoring these flaws and making up a version of Aqua that didn't exist in her head. The way in her mind he's drawn like a romance hero and how she makes excuses for all the things she took issue with before lead me to believe she was intentionally distancing "Gorou, her idol" from "Aqua, the person, her brother" in her head. I'm not sure how to square this knowledge with the way she is (textually, now!) putting him on a pedestal. If I had to guess, I would think she actually is aware of who Aqua is as a person - she was friends with him as Gorou before and siblings for 18 years, she should know him better than anybody - but is intentionally separating this knowledge from the figure she is idolizing, because she needs to keep ahold of something for her mental stability.

I'm reminded of an analysis post of OnK ep 1 I read on tumblr almost a year ago, I forget who posted it so I can't properly credit it but it's not my own thoughts. (if anybody else remembers it please let me know so I can link it!) They contrasted Gorou's parasocial fan relationship with Ai to Ryosuke, the stalker who killed him: both put were fans of Ai, the Idol, but when confronted with the reality that she was more than an idol, that she had relationships and would have children, Gorou decided that the health and happiness of Ai the person was more important than his image of Ai the Idol, and did his best as a doctor to help her, while Ryosuke's reaction to having his image of the Idol shattered was to try and destroy Ai the person. The analysis put forth the idea that this was contrasting healthy vs unhealthy methods of being a fan - that there's nothing wrong with being a fan of someone, necessarily, but you have to keep in mind that you aren't entitled to anything about them, and there's always a real person underneath the performance.

I didn't fully agree with it - in my post about how the series portrays different kinds of love I talked about how it came down very harshly on dishonest and idolizing love - but I did think it was very interesting (obviously as I still remember it almost a year later). Anyway Ruby's approach to Aqua this chapter made me think of that a lot. She makes a big deal out of how Aqua is her idol, their relationship is idol/fan, and she can ignore all his flaws - but at the same time she points out that she does actually know what those flaws are. It puts her in something of a strange position. What would she do if her image of The Doctor, Her Idol, no longer existed, and she was left with just Aqua? Would she care for the person, or be mad at losing the illusion? According to this chapter she fits into neither of those, she chooses to pretend that the illusion still exists even while staring directly at the reality. Ruby seems aware that she is essentially using the idea of the doctor as a coping mechanism, but doesn't want to admit that this desire is directly in tension with the idea about caring about Aqua as a person, romantically or otherwise.

As for Aqua, it's great that he's finally being a little honest with his emotions and feelings after so long, to the one person who is really able to understand the context.

However, I think he's still holding a lot back, especially in the latter half of the chapter, because there are things he doesn't feel that he can say to Ruby, specifically about their relationship. He seems hesitant to directly tell Ruby that he can't be her lover or her idol, he can only be himself - even when he tries to tell her that he can't be the person he was she just brushes it off - and I think with how Ruby's mental health is holding on by a thread he is unwilling to do anything to jeopardize it, even if it means accepting the spot on her pedestal.

My read of the relationship between Gorou and Sarina 22 years ago was that they were genuine friends at the time. Regardless of difference in age and position they were both socially isolated people who found one person they felt they could be honest and open with. This makes their current relationship even sadder - Ruby has twisted the memory of their old friendship into dreams of romance and idolatry to fuel the desire to live one more day. Aqua, who in his last life would have been willing to do almost anything to get her to keep living, is forced to cut away his own relationship to her, both last life friend and current life brother, because being dishonest - being an idol - is the only way he can see to keep her alive and healthy. Both have already cut away most of their other bonds for the sake of the revenge plan, and now they can't even be fully honest with each other. Very tragic stuff.

All in all I really really liked this chapter. The interactions between Ruby and Aqua has always been multiple layers of relationships and mindsets existing on top of one another, and that just makes it super interesting for me. I love it whenever that leads to character tension. They've been friends and siblings and idols and all of that has to coexist, its a very unique kind of character writing that Oshi no Ko does well and I don't see very often and makes me care for the series a lot. I think I have a much more positive view of this arc than most of the fandom because the trainwreck of their relationship is one of the series highlights to me, so chapters like this, where exactly how bad their mindsets have gotten are placed as the main focus, are some of my favorite story beats.

I know there's a lot of negativity about this chap but I'm having a good time over here in my corner. Not sure if it's because I've been letting my thoughts about the series out in posts a lot more recently or because I liked this specific chapter a lot but this is definitely most I've been invested in the series for a while now. I think I was letting the Discourse kind of sour things for me and now I have mentally exorcised it from my mind.

[hnnyoongs]

Three rules of Oshi no Ko analysis.

Ai is a liar, and you are not immune to the lies she tells.

Aqua is a liar, and there's nobody he lies to more than himself.

Ruby is a liar, even though she really doesn't want to be.

If someone has six-pointed stars in their eyes, they're putting on an act, and our three main characters are almost always acting.

[hnnyoongs]

Was talking about this in passing to my friend Isa (@astrabysm) the other day but the more I engage with Oshi no Ko & the side stories, the more I come away feeling like centering lies and lying as the driving core of Ai's character really misses the forest for the trees.

Lying is, of course, extremely important to Ai as a character but I think it functions more as a thematic umbrella which can be used to unify a lot of the disparate elements that inform her characterization - idol culture, purity culture, commodification and infantalization, etc. The themes of deception/masking/falsehood are important to understanding Ai bit infinitely more important - and imo, more core to her character - is WHY she feels she has to lie and what motivates it; her self hate and fear, her history of abuse and abandonment by people she should otherwise have been able to unconditionally rely on, her despairing loneliness and her absolutely desperate desire to form real, genuine connections and companionship with other human beings.

To paraphrase Isa more directly, because I think they really hit the nail on the head with this: "Ai is someone who tells lies but she's not A Liar". Deception in of itself is not her end goal in any respect; it's a survival tactic that she internalised at a formative age and never had the opportunity to unlearn - and even then, Ai is honest and sincere just as often as she lies.

Really, the biggest "lie" Ai is telling is the one people have demanded she tell: the illusion of an eternally pure and cheerful idol. But being an idol has become so forcibly entangled in Ai's personhood at the expense of allowing her to just be a human that of course she thinks of herself as a liar for being unable to live up to that image.

She wants to, though! Ai herself says it in Viewpoint B that her "Ai of B-Komachi" persona is just an idealised self that she desperately wants to become: a kind, invincible girl who loves other people. And the horrible irony of it is that Ai IS that girl already; she's so kind and warm and desperate to connect with other people; even though she struggles to understand them she fights with all her might to close that gap. When she falls short, it's HERSELF she blames for not being good enough. She has never once expressed any bitterness or anger towards the people who've mistreated her, however much they might deserve it.

The real "lie" of Hoshino Ai are these twin, opposing perceptions of her as a pure and perfect idol and a scheming, manipulative liar. They're both wrong. The unvarnished truth is simply that Ai was a normal girl doing everything she could to achieve normal happiness in the midst of an abnormally cruel and lonely life - and in the very end, she was even punished for that.

[hnnyoongs]

People in OnK fandom want incest for the forbidden romance thrill (which is NEVER going to actually happen mind you), as if we don't already have a beautifully forbidden romance that is sprinkled throughout the story. 😩

The "being in love with an idol". Idols aren't allowed to fall in love according to the public, and Aqua certainly won't pursue being in a romance with Kana as long as she's an idol, as he wouldn't want what happened to Ai to happen to Kana.

How Aqua throughout the story has clearly mentioned interest in romance, and Kana represents someone he could pursue happiness with if only he were to let go of his revenge. She's been associated with normalcy/light on multiple occasions. Until Aqua gets his act together, an ending with him and Kana is not possible.

[hnnyoongs]

Head-cannons about Ai’s relationship with her kids if she lived.

Ai and Ruby;

Not only was Ai a young mother anyway, but Ruby is born with memories of a past life, so they’re both near each other in maturity so they’re really close to each other. They’re more like sisters.

Because they’re at a similar maturity level they kind of grow up and mature together. 

They do all sorts of things together friends would do, like movies, shopping, cafe trips etc. 

Ruby idolises Ai, but as she grows older she starts to realise more of her flaws/human side.

Due to her abandonment issues with her last mother, Ruby can be quite clingy. 

Both of them bond over idols, talking about songs, costumes, camera choices.

When Ai is ready to graduate from being an idol she worries she is letting Ruby down (even though she probably has an acting job lined up).

Ai supports Ruby’s dream of being an idol, but worries about her a lot/is protective of her because the industry can be seedy. It’s only then that Ai realised how much pressure and lack of protection she had as a kid, and reflects on how bad her own childhood truly was. 

Ai initially worried Ruby would be friendless like she was, but is happy that Ruby can make friends easily.

Ai wonders how she could have a daughter who can love and make friends easily. 

Ai seemed to get targeted a lot by other girls/women out of jealousy over her looks growing up. She worries the same will happen to Ruby because they look so similar and is confused when it doesn’t. It contributes to Ai’s negative beliefs about herself that her personality brought on the bullying.

But also, Ai finally realised how fucked up her own mother is for being jealous over Ai’s looks instead of protective, which is how Ai feels about Ruby.  

Maybe when Ruby gets older she gets frustrated with Ai’s inability to have a serious conversation/tendency to make light of everything. but this is something they work through and understand each other better. 

When Ai tried to help Ruby with her homework, they both just end up choreographing a new routine and Aqua has to keep them on track.

Ruby feels bad for hiding her past-life memories from Ai, but worries that Ai will think she’s weird/lying if she tells her. 

From the age of 12, Ruby keeps trying to convince Ai to be an Idol duo with her, but Ai thinks she’s too old (at the ripe old age of like, 28).

They do perform on stage together at one point and it goes super viral. 

Aqua.

Given that Aqua has the memories of a 30-something, sometimes he acts more like the parent.

Since she didn’t die and he didn’t get his trauma, Aqua is a lighter character in general and his sarcastic sense of humour is more evident.

From the age of about 6, Aqua is in charge of budgeting for the household (they only get fancy ice cream if Ai had a lot of extra jobs that month!)

Definitely the voice of reason in the house.

Sometimes Ai feels guilty and that she relies on him too much for practical things.

Although Aqua has his adult memories, he’s still a kid in many ways, but gets embarrassed over wanting normal kid things like a hug off his mum. 

Instead of researching his mother’s killer, Aqua gets really into researching past-lives. 

Because he’s so much more mature than Ruby, he struggles making friends with kids his own age till highschool. Ai worries he’s going to be an antisocial loner like her, especially because he’s not super affectionate for a kid. 

Aqua gets on okay with other kids, but feels a bit alienated at times due to the maturity difference. He still spends a lot of the time with director and maybe would become good friends with Ichigo. 

He really gets into acting and enjoys it. Maybe gets a bit of fame. He probably ends up acting alongside Kana a few times through childhood. 

Ruby and Ai tease him for secretly being into idols (he says he only likes B Komachi, aka Ai). 

He’s protective over both Ai and Ruby, but not to the degree of the original time line. 

Generic; 

Ai worries that once Ruby and Aqua get old enough to understand her better they’ll stop loving her like everyone else does. 

Ai is a really good mother but tends to focus on her short-comings.

Ai introduces herself as the twin’s older sister or cousin to strangers. But she’s always really happy in circumstances she can openly call herself their mother. 

Being a mother makes Ai realise how terrible her own childhood really was. 

[hnnyoongs]

I love you Oshi no Ko fans who write pages worth of analysis on themes and characters psyche and behaviours.

I love you Oshi no Ko fans who try to find more meanings in the character's actions, dialogues, and even inner thoughts.

I love you Oshi no Ko fans who analyse the characters backstories and upbringings and how it shaped them and led them to make the decisions they did and took the actions they did at present time.

I love you Oshi no Ko fans who are aware that this story has 'lies' as its major themes and things aren't meant to be taken at face value.

[hnnyoongs]

Aqua didn’t know that Kana had a crush on him

Until Mem-cho pointed it out in chapter 102.

I’m serious, Aqua really didn’t know.

In chapter 20 when he scouted Arima Kana to join IchigoPro, he wasn’t aware at that time that Kana had a crush on him, and he wasn’t aware that she only joined because he called her cute.

Aqua’s understanding of it is just that Kana was just a person with a lot of empathy and would cave if you pleaded your case:

Aqua truly did not believe that he was the reason.

Until Mem-cho points it out to him in chapter 102, and it hits his conscience like a ton of bricks:

LOOK AT HIS FACE.

THAT IS THE FACE OF A MAN RECALCULATING HIS WHOLE LIFE.

[hnnyoongs]

Aqua/Kana’s Interest in Obscurity

A reoccurring thing throughout the manga is how both of them like obscure facts.

First: The weird book series that they both like.

Second: The little quiz at the start of chapter 108

Third: Aqua stating random facts to Kana in chapter 117 and her being impressed by them

It’s a funny shared interest that the 2 of them have, and I like seeing it pop up again in the recent chapters.