According to the producer Shimpei Yamashita, all the team members of the studio Doga Kobo happened to love the “Oshi no Ko” seinen manga written by Aka Akasaka and illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari. This shared passion became the foundation of a solid relationship and trust between the artists who worked at Doga Kobo’s in-house compositing team for roughly two and a half years in adapting Akasaka’s work. The first episode of the anime series came in the form of a feature-length film of 90 minutes during the Spring 2023 season, and it reconstructs the flow of the whole first volume of the comic book. The director, Daisuke Hiramaki, and the assistant director, Chao Nekotomi, enriched the animation and the storyline of the series with many artistic details and won the Drama Anime of the Year prize during the 10th Anime Trending Awards.
Buy This Title
by clicking on the image below
In the world of entertainment, where everything inconvenient tends to be hidden, lying is a subtle and effective weapon for professional survival. Ai Hoshino knows this well: she is the ace of the idol group B-Komachi and uses lies both to shine in showbiz and as a form of love towards her fans. Among these fans are Dr. Goro Amemiya and a terminally ill patient, a 12-year-old girl named Sarina Tendouji. It will be death that inextricably intertwines the fate of these three characters: in the same hospital where Goro works, Ai will give birth to twins, who are the reincarnation of the doctor and Sarina. The two newborns, Aquamarine and Ruby Hoshino, remember their past life and support the young idol, while Ai does her best to become a mother who distinguishes genuine feelings from lies. The moment Ai finds the courage to express her love will mark the beginning of a new life for her children, a life marked by trauma and the desire for revenge, but also by the wish to shine like a mother.
The series concentrates on a broad tapestry of characters and themes; moreover, it offers a realistic portrayal of Japanese idol culture, including the darker aspects of the showbiz, where often lies and personal interests are hidden behind a smile and art gives way to business. According to Aqua Hoshino, the best way to protect oneself is by constructing a fictional character. The series describes how, in this way, a person’s value no longer resides in their authenticity but in the likes and views they receive on social media: in fact, many characters conform their actions and words to what might please their followers and delude themselves into having value based on an approval that comes from people who are part of the same echo chamber.
Check also this video
In the central episodes, egosurfing in search of approval and validation is presented as an analytical tool but also as a practice that can become compulsive and degenerate into addiction. In the case of the flaming directed at Akane Kurokawa, the director’s criticism is clear: if we all have our flaws, people who use social media will always find a target to direct mortifying and violent words towards. But words can hurt, torment, and even kill, because they can alter people’s psychological state and perception to the point of making them think that life is over. Aqua and the other actors react to the social media bullying by helping Akane and stopping the shitstorm, but they struggle to find adults who can listen to them, as if showbiz and its users were a system that prevents listening to each other’s pain.
The synergy between Daisuke Hiramaki and Chao Nekotomi achieves numerous well-balanced comedic and intense moments through a slow pace, which helps in heightening psychological introspection of the characters, and a clever use of the camera angle and zooming in and out of scenes, which breaks the tension and facilitates the transition to comedic moments.
Despite the fact that turning a wotagei sequence into a cute and catchy animated scene is tough (see episode 1), the rich palette of shades shows that drawing the eyes of the main characters was the most challenging part of the art form. But the rich overall color scheme for the whole anime is not the only thing painstakingly refined! The series explores a variety of complex characters: to portray their psychology and conflicts, the character designer, Kanna Hirayama, and the color designer, Kei Ishiguro, embraced the color script style to shape specific scenes. Connecting with the emotions of characters comes easier to the audience with this method: for example, in the first episode, the scene when Ruby Hoshino finds out she can dance is elongated to 12 seconds compared to one page in the manga, and the color scheme is organized in a way that the viewers can feel Ruby’s joy and her hope for the future.
Another key factor that connects viewers with the characters’ feelings is the amazing performances of voice actors, especially Megumi Han, who wins with flying colors the challenge of expressing Kana Arima’s significant emotional transitions through great control of sound intensities and gradations. But also Takeo Otsuka, playing Aqua’s voice and the role of Pieyon (see episode 10), shows how to handle successfully a complex layer of acting.
The anime inherits Aka Akasaka’s research work on the technical language of the scenes where there are shooting sets, and it focuses on the details of the soundtrack and choreography of the B-Komachi: the differences in melodies, song arrangements, and showcase dances highlight the expressive differences between the two generations of idols. Furthermore, the duo Yoasobi composed the beautiful opening theme “Idol,” winner of the 2024 best anime song at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.
“Oshi no Ko” presents aspects of the entertainment industry in a clear way to outsiders without that industry knowledge or experience: watching it is important because the audience can appreciate the hard work necessary to make art and take care of the audience! Moreover, it encourages people to maintain a rational attitude towards social media through the critique of its darkest aspects.
