Oshi no Ko Season 3

Episode 7

It was so gratifying to see Kana become the heroine of her own story on Oshi no Ko last week. But in the end, it was still Aqua who came to her rescue. In “Breakdown,” Aqua moved fast and broke things in a series of actions that brought his thirst for revenge to the forefront yet again. Pushing two huge developments into one half hour made this a bombshell of an episode and did little to soften the blow of either. But beautiful cinematography and painterly imagery meant that no matter how bad things got, they always looked good.

“Help me, Aqua,” Kana murmured to herself in episode 6, unaware that Aqua was close enough to hear her. It made for such a triumphant moment when she pushed that moment of weakness aside and decided to handle her problems by herself. Even though it became clear during the conversation at Ichigo Productions that Kana had inadvertently stumbled into a building stakeout meant to implicate Director Shima and not Kana. Even though Kana's biggest crime was thinking she could trust Mako, a fellow actor she thought was her friend. Kana was ready to make apologies and play nice with the scummy “reporter” trying to tank her reputation. She was prepared to witness the scandal's news cycle, even though the visceral, flinch-inducing visual as she moved to turn on the TV remote was one of pointed shards poised to stab her face, her eyes. Even after that, Kana was ready to face the music. I really believe Kana was strong enough to weather this storm. But Aqua took it upon himself to rescue Kana, offering himself—and Ruby—as human sacrifices to the bloodthirsty media in her place.

It's obvious that Aqua sees himself as the only adult in the room. With a previous incarnation already behind him, he's convinced that he knows what's best for Kana, Akane, and Ruby—a belief that continues to make him look like a controlling jerk. How likely do you think it was that when Aqua asked Ruby if she would do anything to help Kana through the vaguest of implications, Ruby understood what Aqua was actually saying was, “Hey Sis, would you support me in singlehandedly deciding to deliver the secret we've guarded with our lives for the last 14 years on a silver platter to the scummiest paparazzo I can find?” I doubt she would have given him that soft, affectionate look with twin stars in her eyes: one white and one black. Later, when she overhears the talking heads on TV while she's out in public, she has a very different look, wide-eyed with two black stars shining over her privacy mask. I think Ruby was just as blindsided as anybody else as it dawned on her what her brother actually meant when he asked her if she'd do anything to help Kana. I don't think she realized “anything” included this. And this bartered scandal must have been acutely painful for her, and even for Aqua though he had time to prepare for it. To hear everyone and anyone sharing their opinion of your mom—and many of these opinions are downright negative, blaming her for the crime of having you. (It was still a funny Easter Egg to note that even in a world where the Ai scandal is dominating social media, Chainsaw Man is still the #3 trending topic.)

In finally making Ai's motherhood public, Aqua made a decision that wasn't entirely his to make. Ironically, when Akane did the same thing by deciding to take Aqua's revenge into her own hands, Aqua punished her harshly. It's almost comical how Aqua, who thinks he's smarter than everyone around him, doesn't realize that he and Akane made nearly identical decisions by acting without bothering to inform the people who would be affected by their choices. Sure, buddy, when Aqua acts on his own he's shouldering a burden so other people don't have to, but when Akane does it, she's going behind Aqua's back. The only surprise about this breakup is that it was Aqua who dumped Akane and not the other way around. After the insulting discovery that Aqua had her bugged, treating her like a “sniffer dog” instead of a human as she aptly noted, Akane had every right to dump him. But Aqua managed to Uno-reverse the situation so suavely I had to watch it twice. I think Akane saw expecting him to plead for her forgiveness, but instead Aqua's kind gesture was to “get out of [her] life.” The tension in this scene, which was conveyed simply and sparsely through close-ups of Akane and Aqua's faces, was incredibly done. Not to mention the visual parallel of Akane's weapon of choice: a knife concealed in a flower bouquet, echoing back to Ai's killer. Even when the characters behave in frustrating way, the theatrical quality of this show makes it a weekly highlight.

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