I’d be happy to say that this has been the first season in a long time where I’ve been 100% happy with every show pick I made. I knew straightaway that Oshi no Ko was going to be the most talked about show of the season, and will continue to be talked about for the rest of the year. I was happy to see the dorks in Tonikawa carry on life as normal, and meeting new people too. And while I know not everything P.A Works makes turns out to be gold, Skip and Loafer became an incredibly wholesome and relatable little slice-of-life. There’s been plenty of other shows I’ve missed out on, and I’ll touch on them in a bit. But for the meantime, let’s wrap up Oshi no Ko.
Oshi no Ko Episode 11
Well just as this show ends, we get the announcement that…most of us were expecting anyway: a second season. No date on when, but seeing how this week ends, we can totally understand why Dogakobo would want to keep this story going. Oh, and the added fact that this might actually be their most successful show yet. A good thing possibly, because this final episode didn’t feel like a climax at all; more of a continuation of the current story. An ending of the new B Komachi arc and the prelude to the next arc, which we will see in season two whenever that starts (likely next year).
Back to this episode though, we could see that Kana was still struggling to keep it together, despite Ruby’s supportive words last week. In the crowd for their performance, she could see a sea of red and yellow glowsticks, showing support for Ruby and Mem-cho respectively. But while she did feel downtrodden by this, this was still something she saw coming. Kana has been working hard throughout her childhood to get noticed: by talent agencies, by producers, and by her family. As all that hard work came to little fruition, a real nonchalance has built up in her. Perhaps her now being in the new B Komachi will help her with this, or perhaps her new role in this stage play will too, now she learns that her old rival Akane is appearing in it too.
It is no surprise that these two would face-off. They both have taken jobs from each other and they both harbor feelings for Aqua. Right now, Akane appears to be in the lead as she has a work relationship with him to be his girlfriend after the Love Now dating show. So what exactly can Kana do to one-up her? Well I don’t really know what kind of story will feature in this stage adaptation of an anime that definitely isn’t Demon Slayer. But Aqua agrees to join the casting call since Akane’s theater group Lala Lai is part of the adaptation. To those who don’t remember, Kugarabi (producer of Love Now) told Aqua that Ai used to be associated with Lala Lai too, and was where she started to pay more attention to her appearance and her idol talent. What drove her to do it? And who did she meet there to influence her? These are questions Aqua need to know the answer for.
Will I be watching season two? Absolutely. Given how well this show was received, I would think that Dogakobo would want a sequel out as soon as they can. But doing that risks it being below-par compared to season one. For the summer season, Dogakobo are going back to their tried and tested ‘cute girls doing cute things’ genre, with an adaptation of the rom-com Saint Cecelia and Pastor Lawrence. If they want Oshi no Ko‘s second season to be as good as the first one (or even better), then I think they need to take their time on it. A good show that is delayed is way better than a mediocre show that is rushed.
Season Review
So Spring ends. Buzz around other shows like the latest incarnation of Demon Slayer and the second cour of The Witch From Mercury has dominated anime social media (alongside Oshi no Ko), and I was very surprised at how much people seemed to like Heavenly Delusion, a show that people are going to say will be stuck in ‘Disney jail’ (as Disney+ got the rights for it). But I still think that the other shows I chose to cover for Otaku Theater were ones I was happy with in the end.
P.A Works did a very good job in adapting Skip and Loafer. It gives us the tried-and-true story trope of opposites attract, with Mitsumi as the country bumpkin wanting to work hard and be a civil servant, and Shima as the laid-back Tokyo boy with skeletons in his closet. Mitsumi had been really paranoid about standing out too much in a city school with her naivety and her distinct country accent, and she made a great main protagonist we all wanted to cheer for. Shima, on the other hand, was someone it took me a long time to like. I initially didn’t like his overly-relaxed attitude of life, but as we find out, there is a reason for all that.
The bad memories he has of his child acting days are something he wants put behind him, and so I thought that if he really trusted Mitsumi and others like he says to them he does, that would surely be something he’d tell them about, right? The way I saw this, the longer it kept it secret and hidden away from them, the more distrust they would have in them when they find out.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” “I thought you trusted us.” “You could tell us anything.“
The show’s secondary cast were great additions as well. Egashira was someone who stood out for me in particular, but seeing Yuzuki and Makoto (two other polar opposites) become such close friends too was sweet to see. I do wish that we saw more of Shima’s old childhood friends though. People like Ririka and Chris (as well as Shima’s mom) meant a lot in his life, and have shaped him into the character he is now. So having them on screen only when they needed to be just didn’t feel right; more like they were ‘added appendages’ than an actual part of the secondary cast.
P.A Works aren’t really known to do sequel seasons (with the only real exception being The Eccentric Family). Seeing this turn into a series of OVAs or even a feature-length movie on the other hand…Well a know a lot of people would be sad if Mitsumi and Shima’s story ended here, as they really warmed to this sweet and wholesome little show.
Maybe Skip and Loafer will get the sequel season, but far in the future. It took a long time for Tonikawa‘s second season to come out, and while it was great to see them all again, it still felt a little odd. This was largely because of the large gap between seasons; many of us had almost forgotten what had happened. For example, did you remember that Nasa and Tsukasa were actually living rent-free in the back of Kaname’s bathhouse because Nasa’s apartment had burnt down? Because I certainly didn’t.
The thing with season one is that we got the chance to meet these characters and see them established well. Nasa was the selfless chad who helped everyone and adapted well to the role of husband. Tsukasa was the mysterious and sweet wife who wanted to live a normal life outside of the rich home she had known for so long. And Kaname was the horny kohai who loved both of them and wanted them to be more ‘involved’ with each other. And so when everyone came back for season two, it still felt more like just a continuation and not an expansion of the story. New characters were introduced, and Nasa and Tsukasa finally had a honeymoon (of sorts), but the show was more about the antics and not an actual story.
Then again, was that the point all along? Was I just overanalyzing this show and looking for a deep story that never existed? I have a tendency of doing that, especially in these kind of slice-of-life shows. It’s rare that I can just enjoy an antics show and just accept it for what it is. We will be getting some OVA episodes pretty soon, but I am choosing not to tune into them. As much as I have had fun watching this sequel season and seeing these dorks back on screen again, I think my time is up with this franchise.
But one franchise I am definitely not done with is Oshi no Ko. The final episode’s non-ending teased us with the next arc in the story: a stage adaptation of an anime that will have Aqua, Kana and Akane all in the cast. Not sure how Kana landed her role (I suppose that’s not so important though), and Akane landed her role due to being a key member of the Lala Lai theater group, but there’s a big reason Aqua decided to sign up. His crusade to bring Ai’s killer to justice hasn’t gone away, and hearing that Ai had a strong connection to Lala Lai will only motivate him even more. He was not designed to be a very likeable character, and yet he has been able to win over the viewers. In fact all of the characters have been able to shine, and that is just a part of Oshi no Ko‘s massive success.
Kana has a sharp tongue and yet also gets incredibly emotional. Her backstory is rather tragic though; a young child actor desperate for success and attention, and not really finding it anywhere (not even from her own family). Added to this was the very shocking yet very understandable story of Akane’s internet crucifixion. It was great to see Dogakobo go the extra mile with this, and not sugarcoat anything. Out of all the moments in the show, I think that will be the one that stands out for me the most. In the reality dating show she was a part of, she couldn’t find a way to get noticed by the viewers, largely because she is more of a theater actor than a TV one. Then when an accident happens on screen she is completely destroyed on social media and even attempts to take her own life.
If there is one thing I can criticize about Oshi no Ko, it would be that the pacing in the show didn’t always keep at a solid speed. The separate arcs of Kana’s web series, Aqua’s reality dating show, saving Akane, and reforming B Komachi…Having an extended opening episode was absolutely necessary, as it not only showed us how Aqua and Ruby came into the show, but showed us the most important character in the entire story: Ai herself. She may not be around to show them or guide them, but she is a part of all their lives. Aqua is hellbent on finding the person responsible for her death, Ruby wants to do all she can to become an idol just like her, and Akane uses the model Ai created and emulates it to build up her own self-confidence and onscreen presence. Added to this, the new incarnation of B Komachi will be something the old-school idol otakus will look twice at, as they will be looking for the new three (Kana, Ruby and Mem-cho) as worthy successors to Ai.
As an anime-only viewer, I don’t know where the story will go in the next arc, but I am very eager to find out. And as I stated earlier, I am absolutely fine with waiting. Dogakobo aren’t stupid, and they know that the public will want the second season to be on par with this one. And if it means that production lasts for more months, then so be it. I also want to add that I was very surprised that HIDIVE were able to snap up the rights for this. Then again, people may say it is better them than someone like Netflix or Disney+. I personally have no issue with either of them, but a lot in the anime community do. Having an amazing show like this be stuck in ‘Netflix jail’ or ‘Disney jail’ would be seen as criminal to them. But that’s a completely different topic that I could go on for a long time…
Some Final Words
And so this marks the end of this year’s Spring season. This also marks the end of my tenure here as writer of the Otaku Theater column. I’ve had to go through posts dating from 2014 to remember all the shows that I’ve covered here. When I began here, there was no real column per se; just me talking about episodes that I had picked out for that season, and I picked only one show. It was Justin’s idea to meld them all into one column though, and for me to start doing out-of-season shows too.
Rarely did I stray away from the genre of slice-of-life; it’s just the kind of genre I’ve gotten used to, as I never really was one for action shows. What was my favorite show to cover here? A tough question because I have covered a lot of shows I thoroughly enjoyed: Yuru Camp, Sound! Euphonium, Little Witch Academia, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Kaguya-sama: Love is War, A Lull In The Sea…and more. I didn’t expect to like the harem show We Never Learn as much as I did either. But I can definitely tell you the worst one: World’s End Harem, by a long shot. I genuinely believed at the time that beyond all the sex scenes, there would be a legitimate sci-fi story in there somewhere. Justin and the others all warned me not to cover it, but I was utterly convinced, and it was only a few episodes in where I realized they were right the whole time. I kept on watching it though, even when the studio itself stopped caring.
So what now for me? Well I still hope to write some anime pieces, but as personal and family life are beginning to catch up with me, I think keeping it all at an irregular pace might be the better way to go for me at the moment. I suppose I finally have a proper excuse to catch up on old shows; something I say to myself constantly I will do, but never actually get around to doing.
But this hasn’t meant I’ve left The OASG permanently however. I’m still going to be writing here and there for the site. Also, Justin tells me he wants to keep the column alive but in suspension; who will take my place though is up to him. But there’s still plenty of manga and LN reviews to catch here, not to mention the podcast. So I won’t be saying goodbye, as I will instead say ciao.