Nowadays, Japanese animation and manga are popular subjects that always gather people’s attention. For example, the world favors animated series like Demon Slayer and One Piece, that trigger multiple controversies.The themes of manga and anime began to diversify as more and more people started experience them through the advent of internet. At first, the common themes of popular manga and anime were adventures and friendships, but now some various themes and topics reveal or reflect things in reality just like literature. Recently, an animation called Oshi no Ko has aroused massive awareness from people worldwide because of its astonishing beginning. Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari created the manga of Oshi no Ko. After the manga had received a good evaluation, the manga turned into an animation by Daisuke Hiramaki in 2023.  Since animation can gain more interest from the public by exposing it to a more extensive range of viewers, the novel themes and surprising beginning of Oshi no Ko gather many audiences. Also, it stimulates arguments and conversations on social media and offline communication. In my opinion, Oshi no Ko is a wonderful story that reveals many intentions and reflects the social situation of entertainment circles and actors.

Ai Hoshino, one main character in the anime, has stated, “In the world of entertainment, lies are weapons." The first episode of Oshi no Ko, shockingly one hour (one episode for anime is usually 20 minutes), talks about the story between Doctor Gorou Amamiya and idol Ai Hoshino from B-Komachi (Idol group). Gorou Amamiya is a fan of the idol Ai because of the impact of his patience with Sarina. One day, Gorou meets Ai at the hospital, who is now pregnant, and overhears a conversation about the father of her children and the birth of her children being a secret AI’s infatuated fan murders Gorou and later discovers he has been reincarnated as one of Ai's twins, named Aqua. After birth, Aqua and Ruby (the other twin also reincarnated) grow up with Ai, and Aqua plans to find out how and why he was reborn while enjoying Ai’s love. However, tragedy strikes when Ai is also killed by a man upset with Ai's lies. Since Aqua and Ruby’s father is the one who leaked information about Ai to the infatuated fan, Aqua vows to seek revenge on his father. The following story is then about vengeance and the entertainment circle’s career of Ruby and Aqua.

One reason that I consider Oshi no Ko a good animation is that it has well character shaping. For instance, Ai Hoshino, the character who only appears in episode one, received vigorous loving from the audience because of the good characterization. In the anime, Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari designed the character Ai in an unusual but dazzling way. First, Ai is pretty and has unique eyes with gradient-colored eyes from purple to pink and a six-pointed star in them. In anime, many pictures about Ai are full of tension, which vividly showing the adorable, feminine Ai as both an idol and mother. A beautiful appearance attracts some love from the audience.

Moreover, the story starts with the pregnancy of the idol Ai, a stunning setting that will catch the audience’s attention. The idol is a career that uses a beautiful appearance to gather fans and resources to earn a profit  so that many people will assume the idol as their partner. Hence, the idol is not allowed to be in a relationship with others, or their fans will decrease. Ai, a famous idol that is only 16 years old, is pregnant and has an unknown lover. On the one hand, many people do not accept pregnancy at 16 years old, and in some countries, it is illegal.  The idols will be publicly resisted as the public’s perfect perception of idols will break, which is a loss of professionals’ ethics. If this information is exposed to the public, Ai’s career will experience failure, and she will probably be attacked online or offline. But Ai chooses to continue her career and conceals these facts. She is not afraid of serious consequences of lying and states that “a lie is an exceptional form of love” with explaining the essence of an idol. Ai claims that she is greedy and wants both the happiness of being an idol and the happiness of being a mother. These statements cause many debates over the character Ai Hoshino, and many people have claimed that they can’t accept this kind of action and they dislike this character. Through these reactions, we can see that the authors had achieved their goal of shaping a unique and controversial character and gaining attention. Later, the anime tells more stories about AI’s life, and these stories enrich Ai’s characteristics. For example, Ai has not really experienced “love”, whether loving others, or love by others since she has been living in an orphanage for a long time. This sets the prerequisites of Ai’s wish of having a family while being an idol and that she must lie to love as she doesn’t know what love is.

Further in the anime, there are more life experiences of Ai that enrich the characteristics of Ai. Lastly, the death of Ai after a good time when the whole family finally experiences love from each other shocks the audience and leaves them with a deep impression of the character Ai. The scene where Ai is dying after being stabbed by her infatuated fan is expressive. Ai’s testament is even more touchy when she finally realizes what love is and expresses her love to her children in words for the first time. With Ai’s unique appearance and regrettable ending, Ai becomes the most memorable character even though she no longer appears in the anime. Ai’s popularity shows Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari’s well characterization. Not only is Ai well shaped, but other main characters are also special and catchy, making Oshi no Ko an exciting anime.
Most essentially, Oshi no Ko is thought-provoking and full of connotations. It reflects the dark side of the entertainment cycle and deeply analyzes the topic of “lies” and “love.” In the beginning, the authors introduce the topic of “lie” and “love” by the character Ai, which is concerned about how to love. Because she doesn’t know what love is she needs to lie to her audience to offer satisfaction and happiness. “Telling lie after lie,” Ai claims, “No matter how tough life may get, on the stage, we sing like the happiest of people. That’s what it means to be an idol.” These sentences induce my musing. I have been a fan of some idols and love them endlessly.  Before I saw this animation, I thought idol was perfect: they were well-being, friendly, and good-looking. However, after I stopped obsessing with idols, I realized that all their image could be fake and things that display on screen can not be trusted. Oshi no Ko has well explained this ideal through the Ai and the relationship between Aqua and Kurokawa Akane (an actress), which all that you “assumed” can be unreal and pretended. In real life, these examples are countless, and idols sensationalize themselves to catch attention.

The topic “love” is also shown in the anime. Love is shaped differently by telling the story of Ai, Aqua, and Ruby.  Ai displays a mother’s love for children and loves from idol to follower. Aqua and Ruby, on the other hand, show children’s love for their mother and idol. In the anime, when Ai is alive, she is concerned about expressing love. After she owns a twin, she finally realizes what love is; however, she only expresses her love before her death, and the action that she is still preserving her children before dying remarkably unfolds the love from mother to child, which is granted and selfless. Aqua and Ruby show their love by revenge for their mother and fulfill their mother’s wishes (Aqua is going to be an actor and Ruby is going to be an idol). Love is complicated when you try to explain it, but in the anime, the authors successfully imagine love. Lastly, the dark side of the entertainment cycle is manifest in Oshi no Ko. The lies that idols make to get grand subscription is one type. Another type can be the latent rule, which is shown in the animation when Arima Kana is trying to compete for resources.

Overall, Oshi no Ko is a work that I highly recommend reading, not only because the revenge story is interesting but also because it provides different aspects of the world and reveals critical themes.