Note: this article contains spoilers for Season 1 of Oshi no Ko.

I almost never watched this.

Anime has many weird corners and you’d be a fool to think otherwise.  I’m not gonna be one to kink shame but I will think less of you if you enjoy the slog of isekai anime that has saturated, much less plagued the Anime Market over the past few years.  The moment the Anime Everyman did half a backflip, was transported to a FlyFF Server, and was able to sell millions in merch and figures and sales, it has been a full-on race to see what the lowest bar to get 3 seasons and a FREEing Bunny Girl Figure is.  Like, I’m sorry: you’re running out of ideas if the best we can do to be transported to a new world is to be a spider or a sword or a vending machine (I will never, ever live that down.  Jesus Christ y’all).  So with this, bear with me that when I initially looked at Oshi no Ko’s synopsis and, well:

“Goro Amemiya works as an OB-GYN in a small rural town and is a huge fan of upcoming idol Ai Hoshino. After an unexpected meeting, Goro ends up dying suddenly only to be reborn as one of Ai’s children; a boy named Aquamarine Hoshino (or Aqua for short). He and his twin sister Ruby then grows up as one of show-biz’s biggest secrets (from manga).”  – Anime News Network

…Y’all listen I’m not doing this-

But.  The Internet.  Blew.  The.  Fuck.  Up.  Video creators were all saying the same thing, “Watch the first episode, go in knowing nothing,” which, to be fair, I knew a little at least (see above).  So who am I to deny what everyone is saying is apparently amazing?  So alongside the anime I had initially planned on watching, I decided to give Oshi no Ko a try.  And what I watched was one of the best 90 minute openings to an anime I’ve seen in years.  So many twists and turns, the lead up to each character’s backstory, the crazy ending, what it all meant for the future of the characters going forward.  Y’all I was hooked.  I got my wife to watch it, she was hooked.  I was polishing off the Anime of the Year trophy for 2023 and getting it ready for this.

So why, after Season 1 has ended, I’ve put the trophy back in its case?  Because with Oshi no Ko’s enigmatic first season, this is what happens when you over-promise, under-provide, yet over-achieve.  Lemme tell you why.

First, let me gawk over what was done tremendously well because there’s a lot here that is to be applauded.  The art direction in this show is so, so good.  You can see when the team, both art and animation, ramped it big for the set pieces.  The close-up shots, especially with each character’s eyes, are oozing with detail.  Oshi no Ko is an absolute treat to look at.  This quality does not dip in any form between episodes, and the amount of personality, style, and emotion portrayed through the visual is a tremendous feat that does deserve its flowers.

The same can be said for the voice work.  While you do have a few characters who are limited in emotional range for the sake of their characters, you get sucked into each scene with the heart put into each role.  You have your typecast bubbly characters but the extra layers provided via the line of work they’re in (which we’ll go over later) give each character a sense of mystery and illusion that normally isn’t provided.  In most Slice of Life animes, the character is who they are at face value: bubbly and bright; solemn and introverted; the bro.  You get what you get because you know what you want.  Oshi no Ko will dangle the carrot in your face with the “Best Girl” mentality but with what you see going on in the background, it might cause you to take a step back.  This is good writing giving its time to shine and I love to see that for a show with such pull as this one does.

But if you’ve seen Season 1 in its entirety, and you’ve gone through all 11 episodes (and the movie that was episode 1), you might’ve had the same response I did.  Which brings me to my solemn disappointment within the season’s totality: the viewer gets rug-pulled immediately after episode 1 and this whole season is filler.

(Spoilers from here on, read at your own risk)

After episode 1’s shocking revelation of Ai’s murder from an insane assailant and the correlation that the murderer could’ve only known Ai’s location from an inside source close to her, you’re given this nice, juicy, delectable piece of murder mystery.  Hell yeah: we’ve got a whodunit premise so well done I can forgive the kind of…icky runaround with the idol fan who was obsessed with her becoming the idol’s kid who’s still obsessed with her and all his romantic palpitations come from people acting like her.  It’s not the best but fuck it, we’ve got a sick mystery ahead gang.  I’m wanting to see some clues!

But we get to episode 2.  And the pace slows down.  We get more insight on the “dreams” of Aqua and Ruby: for Ruby, to take up the reins of her mother and become a Top Idol like Ai once was.  For Aqua, to reveal the source of the killer and do whatever is necessary to retrieve any information.  Aqua’s best source of information comes from begrudgingly dipping his toes into the acting scene, in which we see his trials and tribulations in frequent episodes throughout the season.  This also brings together multiple characters that will intertwine with Ruby’s goal of reviving Ai’s old idol group, B Komachi.  Nicely done weaving plots together.

Episode 3.  Pace continues to slow.  We’re given more insight on the entertainment business as a whole.  The low return investments, the crammed inclusion of the business many wish to achieve greatness in, and the amount of soul-selling you have to do to gain and maintain a name within the literal thousands of other candidates dying to do the same.  It’s a very interesting plot point to show just how seedy and grimey the entertainment business, music and acting, can be from the inside, but the ranges people will go to achieve their dreams.  It’s heartless, depressing, but in a weird sense hopeful and assiduous as the amount of care and preparation to become something better than you were is shown in full-force here.

But in later episodes, we also dive full-force into the paper-thin bridge social media provides with mistakes and perception of one online.  One mistake against another, be it something said or something done, in this case accidentally scratching a model’s face during a reality show, can drive someone to pre-planned suicide.  Social Media can be described as one of the worst things to happen on the internet, but one of the best things for independent talent to make their name in the business outside of corporations exploiting talent for their gain.  So to see the highs and lows amongst characters we’ve spent a considerable amount of time with only heightens the amount of disdain you feel for the very real things that are happening on places like Twitter and Twitch on a daily basis for people who just want to entertain and act for a living.

But, and hear me out here: where the fuck did the Murder Mystery go?  Throughout this entire season, there are, I think, 3 episodes where the main plot of finding Ai’s killer was referenced to.  Two of these times are the 90 minute beginning and the last 15 minutes of Episode 11.  What you get in episodes 2-10 is character-introducing filler.  Is it necessary filler?  Sure.  Does it provide a very candid and raw look at a professional system loved by millions?  Absolutely, and well done in that manner!  But you cannot pull someone in with an impeccably paced and intriguing prologue during the first episode showing the foundations of what could be one of the most interesting murder mystery plots since Case Closed and then spend the next 3 hours of content doing absolutely nothing with it.

We get to know the characters of the game, we get to set the pieces on the board, we make our first moves, and then we cut to 3 hours of what Naruto and Bleach did best.  This is horrifying pace commitment.  I stuck through because the sub-plot of the industry trials and tribulations was an interesting pull to me, but my wife’s interest was gone completely by episode 3.  She told me to go ahead without her and to let her know if anything regarding the murder mystery comes back because, and I quote, “That was what I came here for.”

And she’s right.  Episode 1 pulled us in showing the chops of what could have easily swept Award shows across the board if they just kept with it.  But instead, we were given a 90 minute prologue to a murder mystery, and then a 10 episode prologue to a murder mystery.  This entire season can and will be wrapped up in some 10-20 minute Youtube video and I kid you not, you will not miss anything of important value.  I’ve been told Season 2 is when it gets “really good” but Oshi no Ko just dog-walked its viewers into nearly 5 hours of a show that wasn’t entirely sure what it wanted to be: engaging murder-mystery with a splash of isekai and idols to bring the heathens in, or a deep dive into the harsh and exploitative world of the entertainment business, so it tried to be both.  While both pieces are good in their own right, this season has potentially divided an audience who want one thing but may be forced to deal with another.  How am I to know we’re going to get anything more of what pulled me in in the first place or are we going to run through another interesting yet off-brand subplot?


Oshi no Ko just expects you to keep watching.  And for pure curiosity purposes, it may get what it wants.  Be entertained, whatever the cost may be.