Oshi no Ko Season 3

Episode 11

This packed, double-length finale doesn't even make it to filming The 15 Year Lie. Its cast is way too busy achieving emotional catharsis. The past and present converge as two pairs of characters make amends and heal wounds that have been festering since Ai's heyday. I speculated that this season's conclusion would give us a hint about whether the anime would follow the manga toward its disastrous conclusion or move in a different direction, but with the movie still on the horizon it's still too soon to tell. What we do know is that this finale is a faithful adaptation, and in many cases an elevation, of some of the manga's most impactful scenes. Oshi no Ko is not without its flaws, but with Studio Dōga Kōbō it's clearly in capable hands.

Like so many Oshi no Ko episodes, this one includes a flashback to Ruby and Aqua's early childhood. It's still so strange to see that cheerful version of Aqua, so certain that the violent end of his former life is just a nightmare he woke up from. These rosy memories of the past are far from the true beginning of this story. I appreciated this nuanced portrayal of Sarina's mom Mrs. Tendouji, now in her 50s. When Aqua sees the photo of Mrs. Tenjouji's replacement children, he and the audience are in perfect sync in agreeing that she's irredeemable. But then Crow Girl's bird's eye view narrates a more balanced tale. When Mrs. Tendouji found out her young daughter was going to die, it crushed her. The only way out was to distance herself, because if she continued to love her daughter as fervently as before, the inevitable end would destroy her. It's horrible that Sarina died alone, that Mrs. Tendouji wasn't able to be the mother Sarina needed. But realizing she isn't evil makes the entire doomed narrative even more powerful.

Before Aqua and Ruby saw their life implode a second time, before they even got a second chance, their relationship already spanned many years. It's not fun to talk about Sensei and Sarina's first life in the hospital, wreathed in tragedy as it was—it's why it's so easy to see their glamorous new lives in showbiz as a reward for their suffering, even when we know about the industry's sharp edges glinting in the shadows. We the viewers have known Aqua and Ruby's former identities since the last time Oshi no Ko put out a double-length episode (its season one, episode one premiere), but until now the twins were in the dark about one another. A melancholy soundtrack emphasizes this moonlit scene, not simply a brother and sister finally making up after a fight, but a lifetime-spanning reunion.

All this time Ruby and Aqua both endured alone, it turned out the person they were searching for was there the whole time! And with textbook Oshi no Ko quirkiness, it's time to Make It Weird. Kana's face does hilarious contortions as it dawns on her that she has a new contender for Aqua's affections—and it's his biological sister! (Memcho, for her part, is fully on board with any incest as long as it raises their viewer numbers.) This episode felt like a chart with humor on the Y axis and drama on the X axis and a line zigzagging between the two for a full hour. It was either deeply moving or suddenly funny with no in between. What was completely absent from that chart: revenge. Though Ruby and Aqua discussed the movie as a revenge mechanism, and the supernatural Crow Girl waxed philosophical, there was no actual movement on that front—and I didn't notice its absence until after the episode was over.

Instead, the episode's B part starred an often sidelined character, Strawberry Productions' acting president, Miyako. Miyako was never able to make it in showbiz (as she explains through incongruent video-game parlance; she never struck me as a gamer), but she played the hand she was dealt the best she could, and it's easy to see how meeting Ichigo was a safe landing after a long, increasingly unstable career. Miyako's arc might have very well ended as a tragedy, with her picking up the pieces and never finding out what happened to Ichigo, if it weren't for Aqua's Parent Trap scheme. This enforced proximity finally gave Miyako the opportunity to confront Ichigo—and that high heel to the head shows just how much she's been waiting for this opportunity, playing it over in her brain imagining a chance to finally give Ichigo a piece of her mind. As a middle aged person, I really liked how this finale centered middle aged characters. They may be too old for starring roles, but their stories are far from over.

What to say about that post-credits cliffhanger! There sits Ai, babes in arms, about to drop some knowledge on her daughter across 15 years and a video screen. It was so abrupt that I had to double check that I didn't miss it. Guess I'll just have to wait for Oshi No Ko's just-announced fourth season—which will no doubt be its final season, though this is not confirmed. Even though I didn't like the way the manga ended, I'm confident I'll be watching this anime all the way to the end. Beautiful art that emphasizes cosmic eyes, fluid animation that expresses the characters' dynamic movement (I didn't even mention Akane and Kana's fantastic pirate commercial!), and a truly unskippable opening and ending song have made this season one of Winter 2026's best anime. I'm committed to seeing how else it will improve on the manga.

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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.