Oshi no Ko vols. 1-3

Much like “Bocchi the Rock,” this is another series that I decided to start reading after I watched the anime adaptation earlier this year.  The adaptation was much-hyped as it was based on the manga written by “Kaguya-sama’s” Aka Akasaka and was going to feature a 90-minute premiere.  While I was spoiled for the premiere’s big twists, which was both my own fault for wanting to know the basic premise of the series and that of reviewers who couldn’t find a way to talk around the other, it was entertaining overall in its warts-and-all depiction of the Japanese showbiz industry.

  

For anyone looking for a spoiler-free description of the series, consider this:  Aqua and Ruby are the son and daughter of legendary idol Ai Hoshino who have decided to enter into the industry for their own reasons.  Ruby’s is that she wants to shine as brightly as her mother.  Aqua, on the other hand, is in it for revenge, and these first three volumes follow their initial steps in both directions.  Ruby starts putting together an idol group while Aqua takes steps into acting and both find success and setbacks along the way.

If you’re worried that the rest of this review is just going to be “The Anime Was Better” rephrased a multitude of times, don’t be.  “Oshi no Ko” the manga and anime are roughly on the same level in terms of the quality of their storytelling and execution.  If the anime has any advantage over the manga it’s the quality of its character and art direction which have more zest to them than the generically appealing work from series artist Mengo Yokoyari.  Her work on this series isn’t bad per se, but it makes you wish Akasaka hadn’t burnt out on drawing manga while working on “Kaguya-sama.”

The other thing holding this series back, both in the manga and anime, is that it sure likes to tell you about all of the pitfalls of the Japanese showbiz industry.  While this has been praised in other circles for its frankness, nothing “Oshi no Ko” has to say is likely going to surprise anyone with even a surface level knowledge of such.  It also feels a little disingenuous to talk about all these issues like low pay and the politics played by various acting agencies when we know that everyone involved is going to overcome them at some point.

Granted, some of the execution on these parts does overcome that issue.  Aqua leaning into his inner bastard to force a good performance out of a no-talent model in the final episode of “Today I’ll Go With Sweet” was good.  I also appreciated the effort to turn the tide of online opinion in vol. 3, even if part of me was still a little suspicious if it would really work.  The mystery behind Aqua’s long-term goal is also quite interesting and it serves as a plausible hook to get him deeper into the industry despite his ostensible lack of interest in it.

It should be noted that you only get a taste of the series’ long-term ambitions with its first volume, which will also require a significant amount of suspension of disbelief to get into.  For all of the shenanigans on display to get us to the story that it wants to tell, “Oshi no Ko” does wind up being fairly diverting on its own terms.  So-so art with lots of obvious talk about the pitfalls of showbiz are countered by interesting characters, good humor, and a compelling mystery that Aqua is going to see through to the end.  I can find myself sticking around this series to see how it plays out even though my excitement for it feels pretty measured at this point.