Oshi no Ko Season 3

Episodes 1-2

I can't believe it only took two episodes of Oshi no Ko Season 3 for me to gaslight myself into believing the manga's disastrous ending never happened. I mean, look at this beautiful, nuanced show! Surely something this great is destined to stay great right up until the end… right? It's the elephant in the room: between the time that I was reviewing Oshi no Ko Season 2 and now, the manga wrapped up and I didn't like the ending at all. But Oshi no Ko Season 3 is off to such a remarkable start that I'm ready to dream. An anime adaptation can be a do-over, smoothing over imperfections like, hypothetically, a widely disliked conclusion. It's far too soon to speculate about the final act, but in the here and now Studio Dōga Kōbō is proving it's more than up to the task.

I could write an entire review about the new OP and ED alone. Rather than attempt to one-up the catchiness of its record breaking first season OP (Yo Asobi's “Idol” is still on my gym playlist to this day), this season went with two slinky, jazzy numbers that play up the theatrics. There are so many fascinating details here: Aqua and Ruby's bunny masks that echo the stuffed toy Ai wore in her hair, the religious iconography featuring mother and children, Aqua snipping the red strings of fate with oversized scissors, Aqua and Ruby's elegant tango. Don't miss the Kana Gallery at timestamp 0:39, featuring the former child actress frozen in museum glass at every age of her life. I'm not sure what Ruby with a frog in her mouth is supposed to symbolize but I'm sure I'll find out (or remember) within the next 10 episodes. The OP and ED feel especially important to a series like Oshi no Ko, where the superficial nature of performance is inherently tied to its story as a whole. It's only secondary to note that they look and sound fantastic.

The flashy, dramatic style of the OP and ED reinforce the narrative themes of the episode they bookend—stories that depict pleasing TV-ready performances before exposing the darkness behind the scenes. Ruby breaks kayfabe almost immediately, the terrific black stars of her pupils boring holes into the side of Ichigo's face. She's tracked down Ai's old manager in a sunset-flooded scene that dyes both of their faces shocking pink. As Aqua is just beginning to suspect, this is the somebody who has been coaching Ruby to help her land a reporter role on Aqua's regular variety show. While Ruby plays a bimbo role on screen, her mind is working overtime backstage as she considers how she can help poor, downtrodden assistant director Yoshizumi (not out of kindness of course, but because Ichigo's reminder that one day Yoshizumi will be in charge—sooner rather than later, if the moronic director stays this sloppy). But Ruby's help turns out to be less than necessary because Yoshizumi has a too good to be true V-Tuber little sister who is ready to assist. I'm sure that when the manga came out, all this explanation about V-Tubing was necessary, but I'm certain that anyone watching this now is well informed!

The first episode featured Kana's misery after Aqua didn't choose her; the second featured Akane reveling in her false victory. Close-ups of Kana's liquid eyes are the window to her unhappiness; meanwhile Akane's eyes sit behind literal rose-colored glasses. She knows Aqua chose her for his own scheming purposes (episode two's title, “Calculating,” does not only refer to Ruby), but she thinks it'd be too “greedy” to want a boyfriend who isn't only attractive and attentive, but emotionally available as well. No honey, it's not. “Aqua-kun the liar is doing his best not to lie to me right now,” Akane thinks, and it's really something that this scene features both characters together, but only the most superficial of interactions with one another, while the real analysis of the situation takes place entirely inside Akane's head. It's another iteration of Oshi no Ko's central theme encapsulated: a picture-perfect performance for the world that hardly reflects reality. Nobody in this love triangle is actually happy.

The episode ends with a disaster about to happen. Despite the hard work of Yoshizumi, his sister, and Ruby, a lazy mistake by the director threatens to ruin everything. It's another of the recurring messages in Oshi no Ko at work: that the longer you're in showbiz, the worse you become—if it doesn't make you worse personally, like with the director, it just makes you feel worse, like Kana. Just like when Ruby's classmate Minami worries that the “dirty business world” has changed her, the director is an example of the rot at the industry's center; a corrupt, twisted industry that uses young people's beauty and tenacity as fuel before spitting them out. And it's impressive how every storyline in Oshi no Ko eventually comes back to this theme.

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Oshi no Ko Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE.

Lauren is a freelance journalist with a focus on anime fandom.