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aihoshiino · 2 months

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chapter 142 thoughts!

HEADS UP: In this review I discuss fictional depictions of sibling incest as well as a brief reference to both fictional and a real life suicide. As usual, feel free to skip if you're not in the right zone and I'll see you next time.

thank you for the kind words from everyone when i was still in the Slime Era of feeling sick lol. i'm like 80% back to full power now!

I'm gonna be totally up front and say I really think this is one of the worst chapters we've gotten in a while but here's the twist: it's not for the reasons you probably think!

We're following up basically right off the back of last chapter and immediately I am kind of mad at how shitty the series is continuing to do Miyako with regards to the movie arc. She was a total non-factor in the RBKN conflict and now that Aqua and Ruby are being pressured into doing something they have both verbalized that they don't want to do she's just like well gosh i feel complicated but what can i do :(. Having the setup almost 20 full chapters ago of Miyako expressing that she wants to step up and do more for Aqua and Ruby as their mother and then having her completely failing to intervene on their behalf here is just wild.

In general, the way everything is being set up to force this kiss feels so… well, forced. Even if Kaburagi (as the story says) insisted there be a kiss scene, there are a million ways to fake a kiss that doesn't involve actors actually kissing. Body doubles! Camera angles! Putting your thumbs in the way! Unless Kaburagi said "I want 20 full seconds of Kamiki sticking his tongue down Ai's throat center frame", there is absolutely no reason "a kiss scene" needs to mean "these two blood related twin sibling actors actually kiss". The whole thing is just so incredibly contrived.

And honestly? The fact that both Ruby and Aqua have expressed a 'no' and are being forced to do this anyway is the part of this chapter making me the most actively insane. It is absolutely mind boggling to have spent half of last chapter on a Miyako monologue about how immoral and unethical it is when people's ability to give informed and sincere consent is compromised by the entertainment industry and to then follow it with a whole chapter of basically every character we're supposed to like flaunting a total lack of respect for Aqua's comfort and consent in this regard, up to and including the completely insane scene of two adult women lecturing Aqua about how he isn't allowed to have boundaries. What the fuck is going on here!!!

This is especially frustrating because I actually really like a lot of things about the scene with Yoriko and Abiko… even if there's some stuff that really kind of broke me lol. Like uh, wasn't it a really huge plot point in Tokyo Blade that a mangaka couldn't be expected to turn out an entertaining theater script because those are two entirely different kinds of storytelling…??? But whatever.

Off the bat, I have really mixed-leaning-negative feelings about the reveal that the KamiAi romance scenes we'd gotten were entirely fictional. On the one hand, I actually feel pretty validated - I had guessed that the full-immersion-flashback presentation was a hint that we were being presented with a falsehood and it implicitly confirms something I've been saying from the start that 15 Year Lie's version of events has to be taken with a grain of salt, both because it contradicts known events and facts and because so many other people have interfered with it. Having that made textual and being able to confidently say it helps a lot in discussing what this means for the story.

But like… that means we wasted a whole bunch of time on shit that was made up and didn't matter! Like, thematically speaking, I think this is potentially interesting but I just keep getting stuck on the fact that we were given a super interesting scene finally fleshing out and giving us info about both a character and a relationship we've been absolutely starved for details about, only for the story to turn around not two chapters later and go "and my source? i made it the fuck up". It just totally dashes all the enthusiasm I was feeling and it also makes it way less rewarding to try and dig into what 15YL is doing when at any time, all of this potentially interesting character work could be revealed to be total piss in the wind.

Stepping back from that… in total isolation from everything else, I do think this talk with Abiko and Yoriko about what it means to write stories is interesting from a lot of angles. While I don't think these two are the 1-to-1 author avatars for Aka and Mengo fandom treats them as, they nevertheless clearly serve as reflections of the two's experiences and viewpoints about the manga industry and specific and the art of storytelling in general, allowing the story to play around in the quasi-metafictional space it does sometimes, where it uses in-universe fiction as a method of commenting on itself.

In that sense, I think Yoriko can be understood as speaking for Akasaka here and discussing some of his feelings as a storyteller of Oshi no Ko specifically. OnK has never made a secret of the fact that it's drawing on Akasaka's real experiences in the entertainment industry but perhaps less obvious to overseas fans is the inspiration it takes from real life issues in contemporary Japanese pop culture, too. Infamously, Akane's arc very transparent drew inspiration - if it wasn't reconstructed entirely - from the suicide of Hana Kimura, not even six full months after Kimura's death. When the anime aired, Kimura's surviving mother (imo, rightfully and deservedly) lambasted the series for using her daughter's death as the fodder for entertainment without consulting her surviving family. It wasn't even that she disagreed with what the series was saying - she just wanted someone to have some consideration.

This is what Yoriko means when she talks about the responsibility a writer has to their stories. When you write a piece of fiction as highly visible as Oshi no Ko currently is, it is your responsibility to consider the impact your words will have on the world. No, fiction does not directly impact the real world in a physical, tangible way but if we are careless with our stories, we can regurgitate and perpetuate dominant cultural narratives that very much do cause real, tangible harm to marginalized people. Hikaru Kamiki isn't a real person, but there are undoubtedly people in OnK's readerbase who see their experiences mirrored in him. Airi Himekawa isn't real, but people like her exist. Akane Kurokawa isn't real but Hana Kimura was.

This discussion also serves as an interesting warning to Aqua himself, though maybe not quite in the sense Yoriko intended. Aqua's revenge has always been something treated, in-universe, as a sort of fiction in of itself; Aqua calls it his 'revenge play' and his primary method of pursuing it is to become an actor. It's a retribution narrative about real people and Aqua is its author. But as Yoriko reminds him… stories can kill. Especially ones featuring real people. Aqua has been telling himself a comfortable lie for years that only he will be hurt by his own inevitable self destruction but Yoriko reminds him that he isn't the only person involved here and that he is inevitably going to cause great pain to the people he loves if her continues down this path.

That's why this chapter is so frustrating. This is all good, meaty character work with some great thematic overtones… and it's all in service of contriving this scenario where Aqua has no choice but to tongue his sister on camera and for some reason, nobody is pointing out the million and one alternatives to this deranged scenario.

But anyway. Enough beating around the bush: let's talk about That Scene. And despite what everything I've said this post might lead you to believe… I actually really like it.

I don't know exactly what activated to make her go sicko mode but Mengo has been really on fucking fire with her art on the series lately. It really jumped out to me in 137 but she's honestly been cooking since the very start of the movie arc. It stands out especially strongly in Aqua and Ruby's talk on the balcony in ways I really vibed with. The whole scene feels like Ruby's shoujo brainrot and the cold reality of what she's tiptoeing around suggesting to Aqua are battling out for dominance over the framing. Ruby's stubbornness is such a force to be reckoned with that it almost wins entirely but there are moments where the lens cracks and we see things as they are. Aqua's discomfort practically radiates off the page this entire conversation.

Not only that but… jesus christ, Ruby. Just look at how she's framed when she first enters the scene.

That oppressive silhouette, her shaded eyes and that sinister smile… I probably don't need to tell you that's NOT how you typically frame a romantic heroine. She honestly almost looks more like a villain.

But Ruby quickly reasserts control over the framing. Or rather, what she's suggesting is such a sugary shoujo fantasy, the framing has no other option but to comply. At last, Ruby steps out of the shallow channel of plausible deniability and puts into concrete words what she has been thinking and longing for these last twenty chapters: for her to retake her role as Sarina Tendoji and for Aqua, in turn, to play Gorou for her once again. More than that - she pushes him for a concrete response to her love at last, not as Ruby but as Sarina; not only does the paneling repeatedly cover the eye with her star but in the final panel where she unambiguously propositions Aqua, the star is completely gone. This is what Ruby is offering: to completely sever her connection to Ai and the new life she has built on that foundation and to return to being Sarina, if that is what the doctor she loves wants.

This is SUCH an incredibly effective scene. It's excellently done and the art is fantastic. It finally draws out and makes explicit the underlying disconcerting subtext that has been swimming under the twins' relationship since 123. It works fantastically well… in isolation. But when taken into the context of the rest of the story it just feels so… unearned.

For the last 20 chapters, we have had absolutely no serious insight into Ruby's feelings re: the reveal of Gorou's new identity as Aqua. We didn't see her grapple with it or have to adjust to it at all. It was like a switch flipped in her brain and she was suddenly a 2010s fanservice imouto splooging about her oniichan. Her interiority in this regard is completely absent. Whenever the subject is addressed at all, it is made into a joke with Ruby as the punchline. There has been no serious build up to this moment or any meaningful time spent on Ruby's feelings about Aqua and as such, being asked to take it seriously now feels so incredibly jarring.

I've said this over and over in other places but I'll make this clear here: the handling of Ruby's feelings is not bad because Incest Is Morally Bad or whatever. At the end of the day, OnK is fiction and fiction is a space that allows us to explore ideas and scenarios that would be unpleasant, dangerous or even downright immoral to try and interrogate in real life with real people. Not only that, but AQRB's situation is so far removed from anything any real person could experience there's very little risk of it acting as a harmful reflection of a real person's life. But because OnK had the space to do just about anything with this idea, I'm so incredibly baffled that it chose to do all of nothing. This is a plot point that has been cooking since the literal first chapter of the entire series and now, just under four years and over 140 chapters past our starting point… and this is the best Akasaka can do? Dated brocon humor that reduces Ruby to a shallow gag character, denying her the opportunity to have deeper, more complex and ugly feelings and denying her the respect of examining those feelings with honesty?

It sucks. This whole thing really sucks. As someone who loves Ruby so, so much… this really just feels like an insulting way to have handled what should have been one of the most interesting and engaging parts of her series long arc.

I do think this chapter is the beginning of the end of AquRuby's time in the endgame couple race, if it was ever seriously in the running to begin with. Ruby embracing Aqua with a proposition in those final two panels echoes Akane doing the same in chapter 72 and the fact that this cliffhanger ends on the proposition and not a kiss implies to me, structurally speaking, that we are heading for a rejection. On top of that, we're pretty far away from the manga's ending still and Kana's romantic resolution with Aqua hasn't gotten its time to shine. All those factors together makes me feel pretty certain that this is the final nail in the coffin and we're just waiting to see how Aka sticks the landing.

After all - Ruby is asking for his response as Sarina. And if this is Sarina asking for his love one last time… we already know how Gorou's going to respond.

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #onk spoilers #chapter reviews

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treuallahtreuvulieou · 1 year

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Kamiai Mieikigami Mortal Kombat

Kamiai Mieikigami Street Fighter

Mieikigami Kamiai

Sex Female

Mastery Linquay Ninjitsu

Martial Arts style Unknown

Origin A Corporate City Providence

- teams Professional occupational hobbies

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quealboroto · 3 years

Photo

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name-and-pronoun-validation · 3 years

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I saw someone else give names so I wanna too from my list

Tiko

Kasey

Grayson

Zero/zee

Riley

Kyrie

Miles

Chase

Flynn

Otis

Shae

Shiloh

Kohlson/kohl

Kamiay

Cameron

Hey, thanks for the names! These are cool

#name #names #naming #trans names #name brainstorming #ant-on-drugs

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ashxketchum · 4 years

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five things about me

I was tagged by @earlgreymon for this, and I tag anyone who likes this post 😏

1. After I started working, I couldn’t find time to prepare for JLPT as rigorously as before, so now I’m stuck with N2 but someday I will clear N1!

2. I spend a lot of time on YouTube watching Japanese voice actors interviews and events and stuff. Every Sunday Daisuke Ono and Hiroshi Kamiay host a radio show, the recording of which is usually posted on YouTube and I love falling asleep to listening to them just chat together. Side note: if Hiroshi Kamiya is in the cast list, you best believe I’ll be watching that anime.

3. I hate eating vegetables of any kind and it sucks because daily life Indian cuisine is basically just veggies in different formats so yeah I make a lot of faces and whine a lot during meal times even though I’m 25 now and maybe should grow up a little bit.

4. I’m sort of agnostic. Unfortunately, religion has always been an integral part of one’s identity in India, but my father raised us to always question and enquire and believe in what we think is right. Philosophy was my major in undergrad and well after I studied a lot of different schools, i came to believe in the existence of a force that drives the universe, but the minute we associate it with words/imagery it loses its essence.

5. And for the fifth thing, I’d like to include the meme @midnightstarr8 tagged me in: Rules: Tag 9 people you want to know better/catch up with and then answer these questions!

Last Song: Birthday by SOMI.

Last Movie: Palm Springs. I love Andy Samberg and the whole plot was insanely good and I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoyed About Time.

Currently Reading: Re-reading Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie because the trailer for the movie was HELLA GOOD! But I read it in middle school so kinda forgot the plot hehe. (side note: I’m A HUGE Christie-nerd. The Biggest.)

Currently Watching: Apart from the usual stuff, The Great Pretender and re-watching Malcolm in the Middle S7.

Currently Craving: Dunkin Donuts! 😭We don’t have one within a delivery-distance near our house. I did eat Krispy Kreme but it’s not the same!!!

#about me #thank you to Sky and Ashley for tagging me!#if you read this you gotta do this

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nakatanogyaku · 6 years

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Gesu no Kiwami Otome – Mou setsunai to wa iwasenai || もう切ないとは言わせない＊ゲスの極み乙女 || Lyrics 歌詞 - English - Romaji – Kana

youtube

English

Festivals are convenience Lovers are delta cruises Lazy we have forgotten something. The cycle of sweet engagements, has reduced the quarrels.

Insufficient things are increasing. Insufficiency has become pleasing. Ah it’s the worst, Ah it’s the worst like this.

That’s why right now compensate until it’s too much I wonder if it would be okay to try and take out all the feelings, I wonder...

More, if I just I started to like you a little bit more. I would no longer say it is painful. I will not speak ambiguously to an overflowing degree. Because for sure, I think certainly we will get to understand it. I would no longer say it is painful. Let’s become that “us” together!

That day, because I fell in that love… it for sure has died together with the liking. That day, I did fall in that love!

Romaji

shukusai wa KONBINIENSU koibito wa DERUTA KURUUZU namakeru boku-ra wa nan ka wo wasureta ama kamiai no SAIKURU wa igamiai wo herashita tarinai mono ga fuetette tarinai ga kokochiyoku natta aa saitei da, aa saitei da konna n ja

dakara ima oginatte amaru hodo kimochi toridashite mite mo ii ka na ii ka na

motto ato mou chotto kimi wo suki ni nattara, wa mou setsunai to wa iwasenai afureru tabi kotoba nigosanai kitto bokura kitto wakatteru to omou kara mou setsunai to wa iwasenai sono uchi issho ni narou yo

ano hi ano koi wo shita kara sa suki nan da to karashita ano hi ano koi wo shita n da yo

Kana

祝祭はコンビニエンス恋人はデルタクルーズ怠ける僕らは何かを忘れた甘噛み合いのサイクルはいがみ合いを減らした

足りないものが増えてって足りないが心地よくなったああ最低だ、ああ最低だこんなんじゃ

だから今補って余るほど気持ち取り出してみてもいいかないいかな

もっとあともうちょっと君を好きになったら、はもう切ないとは言わせない溢れるたび言葉濁さない

きっと僕らきっとわかってると思うからもう切ないとは言わせないそのうち一緒になろうよ

あの日あの恋をしたからさ好きなんだと枯らしたあの日あの恋をしたんだよ

もっとあともうちょっと君を好きになったら、はもう切ないとは言わせない溢れるたび言葉濁さないきっと僕らきっとわかってると思うからもう切ないとは言わせないそのうち一緒になろうよ

#gesu no kiwami otome #mou setsunai to wa iwasenai #もう切ないとは言わせない #ゲスの極み乙女 #English #translation #romaji #karaoke #kana #lyrics #歌詞

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jonrielsimon1998 · 3 years

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Panalangin sa Unang Araw ng Nobena Kay San Isidro Labrador

Katamis-tamisang pintakasi naming Amang San lsidro: ang iyong marilag na buhay ay umaakay sa amin sa paggawa ng dakilang kabanalan: ngunit sa pagpipilit ng mga demonyo na kami'y huwag makapanood sa Diyos, suson-susong tukso ang ibinabagabag sa amin; kaya kumakanlong kami sa iyong pagtatangkilik, at nang di mapipilan ang aming karupupukan at nagsusumamo sa iyo na kamiay papagkamtin mo sa Diyos ng masaganang grasyang ipagtitibay ng aming loob sa pakikipagbaka hanggang sa kamatayan, at nangkami'y marapat mapakisama sa iyo sa pagpupuri sa Diyos sa kaluwalhatian. Tuloy papagkamtin mo kami ng grasyang hinihingi namingbukod, kung ikapapakagaling ng aming kaluluwa. Amen

San Isidro Labrador, Ipanalanganin mo kami

San Juan Bautista De La Salle, Ipanalanganin mo kami

Hesus manahan ka sa aming mga puso, magpakailanman

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vashtijoy · 7 years

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Translation: “Kokoro to kokoro de”

Ha ha ha ha, and we thought the other song was painful.

Here's a (not particularly spoilery) translation of Kokoro to kokoro de, and now I'm going to lie down on my floor.

心と心で kokoro to kokoro de From both our hearts

何気なく過ごす　さりげない日々に nanigenaku sugosu, sarigenai hibi ni Our carefree days have slipped away,

こんな日が来ることだって　知っていたね konna hi ga kuru koto da tte, shitteita ne We knew this day would come, didn't we.

なにが変わっても　変わらないものが nani ga kawatte mo, kawaranai mono ga No matter what changes, we have things that don't change,

できたから　きっと迷わず　歩いてゆけるさ dekita kara, kitto moyowazu, aruite yukeru sa So we can keep walking on, never losing our way.

長い階段を下ったら振り向かないで nagai kaidan o kudattara, furimukanaide We go down the long staircase, never looking back,

新しい未来　一歩踏み出そう　愛を抱きしめ atarashii mirai, ippo fumidasou, ai o dakishime And as we step into our new future, we hold love in our arms.

心と（心と）心で（心で） kokoro to (kokoro to) kokoro de (kokoro de) 生まれた（生まれた）愛なら（愛なれば） umareta (umareta) ai nara (ai nareba)

If love was born (if love was born) From both our hearts (from both our hearts)

こんなにほら伝わってるよ konna ni hora tsutawatteru yo We want to pass all of it on to you,

だからその涙を拭い dakara sono namida o fuite So dry those tears.

大きく（大きく）大きく（大きく）未来は（未来は）広がる ookiku (ookiku) ookiku (ookiku) mirai wa (mirai wa) hirogaru A big (big), big (big) future will (future will) spread out.

ありがとうと手を振れたなら arigatou to te o fureta nara When we’ve said thank you and waved goodbye,

愛はまた広がってゆく ai wa mata hirogatte yuku Love will keep spreading out too.

なにもしなくても（いつも） nani mo shinakute mo (itsumo) Even though we did nothing (ever)

楽しいと思えた（いつでも） tanoshii to omoeta (itsudemo) We thought it was fun (always)

それは当たり前じゃないと　知らなかった sore wa atarimae ja nai to, shiranakatta If that wasn't obvious, we didn't know it.

違うとこばかり（なぜか） chigau toko bakari (naze ka) It's just different (somehow)

噛み合いもせずに（どうして） kamiai mosezu ni (doushite) And we can't engage (why?)

でも最高の仲間だと　胸を張れるんだ demo saikou no nakama da to, mune o hareru n da But as the best of friends, we can stand tall.

桜が舞う中　立ち止まったっていいのさ sakura ga mau naka, tachidomatta tte ii no sa In the dancing cherry blossoms, it's okay to pause,

今までの日々　大事に仕舞う　愛で包んで ima made no hibi, daiji ni shimau, ai de tsutsunde Close your days so far with care, and wrap them up in love.

笑顔と（笑顔と）笑顔で（笑顔で） egao to (egao to) egao de (egao de) 生まれた（生まれた）愛だよ（愛だから） umareta (umareta) ai da yo (ai dakara)

This is the love (because it's love) Born from our smiles (born from our smiles)

涙なんて似合わないのさ namida nante niawanai no sa Those tears don't suit it,

だからさあ笑顔を見せて dakara saa egao o misete So let us see your smile.

笑って（笑って）笑って（笑って） waratte (waratte) waratte (waratte) Let yourself laugh (laugh), let yourself laugh (laugh),

明日を（明日を）迎えよう ashita o (ashita o) mukaeyou Tomorrow (tomorrow) we'll meet again,

寂しいなんて思わないのさ sabishii nante omowanai no sa You won't think lonely thoughts,

愛でつながっているから ai de tsunagatteiru kara Because we're joined by love.

心と　心で　生まれた　愛なら kokoro to, kokoro de, umareta, ai nara If love was born from both our hearts,

こんなにほら伝わってるよ konna ni hora tsutawatteru yo We want to pass all of it on to you,

だからその涙を拭いて dakara sono namida o fuite So dry those tears.

大きく（大きく）大きく（大きく）　未来を（未来を）広げよう ookiku (ookiku) ookiku (ookiku) mirai o (mirai o) hirogeyou A big (big), big (big) future will (future will) spread out.

ありがとうと交わしあったら arigatou to kawashiattara When we’ve exchanged our thanks,

愛と共に歩き出そう ai to tomo ni arukidasou We'll walk on with love by our side.

#boueibu #boueibu music #things i translate

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ginoongkilay-blog · 5 years

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Nakalimutan kong kalimutan ka...

Sa mga nagdaang panahon ika'y hindi malilimutan sapagka't bahagi ka ng aming buhay, kapatid.

Buhay mo ay napakahalaga, nasa sinapupunan ka pa lamang ika'y alagang-alaga ng ating mahal na ina. Ngunit mabilis mo kaming nilisan sa murang taon pa lamang. Hindi mo tuloy naranasan ang mamuhay sa mundo. Marahil tama nalang ata yun upang hindi mo maranasan ang pasakit ng buhay at maging masaya na lamang sa langit kasama ang mga angel at ang ating panginoong maykapal.

Kung ikaw man sana ay nabuhay, siguradong mahal na mahal ka ng ating mga magulang. Ibibigay lahat ng iyong kailangan upang mabuhay ka nang walang hinanakit sa buhay. Sana'y masaya ka sa iyong paglalakbay sapagka't kamiay masaya rin at hinding hindi ka nalilimutan.

#letra-to #3

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aihoshiino · 2 months

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chapter 144 thoughts!

I don't think any other chapter of Oshi no Ko has ever baffled and confounded me quite like this one. Viewed solely in isolation this is a perfectly fine, functional chapter but as the followup to 143 and everything it contained, I actually feel like I'm losing my mind a bit. 143 might as well not have happened for all the weight it's given in this chapter. Ruby is not remotely acting like a girl who just tongued her crush of 18 years and in general, the total absence of any reference or cushioning of the shock of that event is just so loud and so jarring and so completely out of touch with how OnK has handled romantic developments in the past.

Both AquAka kisses had at least a scene or two in the chapter immediately following of characters reacting to and reflecting on both the event itself and the status quo change it represents in the relationship. Even 124 has that scene of Ruby clinging onto Aqua to let the viewer know what the new dynamic between them is going to be from now on. This chapter has nothing of the sort; I wasn't kidding when it says it feels like the kiss never even happened. The only thing I can point to is Ruby's little "we have sensei at home" exchange with Tsukuyomi but that's… kind of just exactly what she would've said even before the kiss. So if it has resulted in absolutely no change to their dynamic that we can see thus far, what was the point in ending the chapter on that note?

The part of me that is cynical and jaded can't help but suspect that this is intentionally hot button reaction bait paced specifically for the purposes of keeping OnK a trendy topic in the lead up to season 2 of the anime airing, But Who's To Say, Really.

I also had my worries about this last chapter, but unless we skip back in time to address it, it really looks like we've skipped over the remainder of the KamiAi romance and everything to do with the early stages of Ai's pregnancy. This is incredibly frustrating to me - they're parts of Ai's story I had been incredibly curious about and was excited to see her thoughts and feelings on, even filtered through fiction. In general, the way the Movie Arc has been increasingly dropping its focus on actually conveying Ai's story has been a real sore point for me. I fully acknowledge this rankles me more than perhaps it should because I am so deeply invested in Ai above any other character but… fuck, man! Once again, remember when this was supposed to be an arc about her? About her inner life, her pain and struggles and Aqua and Ruby working to a better understanding of her? I was excited for the Movie Arc specifically because I thought we were going to get peeks at parts of Ai's life we weren't privy to beforehand, but at this point it almost feels like Akasaka has just lost interest in following through.

Not only that but… uh, where's that KamiAi breakup scene, Akasaka? The one we were promised during the script reading? That huge I CAN'T LOVE YOU elephant that's been patiently sitting in the room? I can only assume that the 15YL version of this breakup happens after the twins are born or maybe even when Kamiki visited Ai at the hospital the night the kids were born but. What the fuck is even going on here anymore lol. The Oshi no Brainrot discord has been kicking around a joke theory that we were seeing the events of the Movie Arc out of their actual chronological order and it is becoming increasingly less of a joke in my brain because I can't make any sense of its progression otherwise.

oh my god i'm almost 1000 words in and i haven't started talking about the actual point of this chapter yet. god help me.

Anyway, MY SON IS HERE LET'S GO MELT!!!!!!

Ngl, I've always been a little disappointed that we didn't see much more of Melt in this arc, both just because I like him and because I think there's some really interesting potential in drawing on the parallels between Melt and Kamiki. I'm not the first to point out that Melt's experience with a dubiously consensual sexual encounter at the hands of an upperclassman - when he wasn't that much older than Hikaru was when Airi began abusing him - echoes at least in spirit Kamiki's experiences as a CSA victim; both were young boys, noted to be pretty and desirable, who were taken advantage of by older female figures. I think it would be extremely interesting and a great character moment for Melt to have some degree of engagement with that material and maybe to have some thoughts about it. It feels like a little bit of a missed opportunity to pass up on that, but I also acknowledge that Melt is ultimately not a huge mover and shaker in the overall story and I don't know how that would've fit into the Movie Arc as it stands, so I'll just have to make eyes at the AO3 tag and hope someone writes a fic about it.

Anyway as a lot of people predicted… here's Ruby being a jackass to Melt about his performance!!! Joking aside, I will admit it's a little jarring to see Ruby being so hostile to Melt over this…? Gorou is a sore spot for her, obviously and she would undoubtedly have high standards for his role in the movie. In addition, Ruby being snitty with people who rub her the wrong way definitely isn't new for her, but it still feels kind of odd both coming off her own struggles to connect with Ai through acting and her little "holy shit other people have feelings" breakthrough in the wake of the RBKN fight for her to be like this about it. I do think this is mostly just supposed to be just goofs and I'm overthinking it, it was just one of those things that kind of gave me pause as I was reading.

ruby's little little princess shirt is really good though, as is her referring to herself as a fan of the 'original work'. both of those got a solid sensible chuckle out of me.

Another thing that gave me pause for a very different reason was Melt and Ruby's exchange about his little merch pin. First and foremost, I think this is a really good Melt moment; while we saw him busting his ass to improve his acting in Tokyo Blade, that was very much when he had something to prove. Here, he really does seem to be going above and beyond for what is basically a bit part purely out of a desire to improve his craft and a passion for acting overall. It's nice to see the story double down in this being a lesson he did properly take away from Sweet Today and that he has committed to acting upon it (no pun intended) in the long term, not just when under outside pressure to do so.

The other thing that jumped out to me about this exchange is that… technically speaking, both Ruby and Melt are wrong, here? It's a very nice, flowery description of Gorou and it certainly lines up with his more positive traits but the idea of him not wearing his Ai merch in front of Ai herself is actually incorrect. Gorou is depicted (in the anime, anyway) as openly wearing the charm at what's implied to be all times, even in front of Ai herself. The manga also implies by way of where the charm is on his person when Ruby finds his body that this is also the case in that version of events, too. I don't think it's a retcon and may be an unimportant detail in the grand scheme of things but it did pique my interest.

There's a few ways to take this, I think; a more positive spin is that this is in line with what the story wants us to take away from 15 Year Lie as a production, where the literal granular facts of its events are sometimes less important than and can be bent in favour of supporting the emotional narrative it wants to convey. Melt may not literally be correct here, but he at least achieves the spirit of the right answer in his efforts. "Lies are love", after all.

However, given that Ruby enthusiastically endorses this interpretation - and is thus wrong alongside Melt - this could potentially be an indication of there being cracks in Ruby's rose-tinted view of Gorou. This strikes me as a fascinating idea and one I hope the series plays with; it would follow quite naturally from last chapter's framing of Gorou as Ruby's 'idol' that she's 'gachikoi' for. Oshi no Ko has pretty consistently portrayed the idol/fan relationship as inherently unequal, even when approached with the best of intentions and to truly know someone, you must let them off their pedestal first. She has sort of begun this process with Ai, just through empathizing with her during the 15YL production but we have yet to see anything similar happen with Gorou - if anything, we see the opposite here, where she asserts herself as the authority on Gorou's character as if she has the final say on who he was and what he felt and thought.

But the thing is, how well can Ruby really say that she knew him? They were only in each others' lives for a few months and in that time, she was only exposed to a very narrow slice of his life and his personality. Hell, you could even argue that Akane knows more about Gorou than Ruby does, given that we have no indication that Ruby or Sarina was ever privy to the details of his birth and his home life. Again, it's entirely possible that I'm reading too much into this, but now the idea is in my brain I'm simmering on it a bit. If nothing else, I hope the series takes the time to prod and poke at this angle, especially now it has made the fan/idol aspect of this dynamic explicit and textual.

Ruby and Melt's little senpai/kouhai dynamic has the potential to be really cute and I do hope the series actually spends some time on it. I've always thought a RBML friendship could be really fun to watch play out and seeing Melt gain some confidence in himself by teaching someone else could be really great. But with how unfocused the Movie Arc has been, it's really hard to get my hopes up that we'll be sticking with this even past this chapter lol

oh hey there crow girl we thought you were dead

Surprisingly, I don't have a lot to really say about her little lore drop here, since it's mostly mystery boxing and implications and, man. It's been 69 (nice) chapters since she first started showing up ominously muttering about supernatural things and while I don't mind her presence and I think she's evolved into a fun character, it's a little hard for me to get interested in these little supernatural tidbits until they resolve into something that feels meaningful for the characters.

This isn't helped by the fact that we don't really know what kami means in the context she uses it here. While 'god' and 'gods' are not strictly incorrect as translations, I think an English speaking viewer is primed to think of Abrahamic, capital G-Gods, which isn't necessarily correct. The term kami is a catchall that covers all manner of things from divinities to venerated earthbound humans, so kami can perhaps best be understood as being an umbrella term for something like 'an otherworldly being', which I think better lines up with Tsukuyomi's assertion that those who have memories of past lives are like kami in of themselves.

Ultimately though until we know what kami really means and amounts to in Oshi no Ko, it's hard to say what this means for the characters and I am ultimately only really interested in the characters. So until we know what this actually amounts to in-story, I'm just kind of nodding long with whatever Crow Girl says because sure. This might as well happen.

can we talk about how fucking funny her anime antagonist jump out of the tree was, by the way

break next week, or so i've heard... one of these days, we'll beat the allegations....

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #onk spoilers #chapter reviews

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treuallahtreuvulieou · 1 year

Text

Entraynopsis

A Rolls-Royce phantom arrives , a man in white steps out ..

You have my interest,

Mister Kamiai , walk with me .

Sure Dorston Right , ?

Yea so did my mom and alot of other people but hey it kind of sucks to be right.

Yes just not your average door step .

I like that about your Dorston.

Entraynopsis

I Grown rather fond of you rather quickly

Yea tell me about it, I have to chabungas and of loaf of fungus and I have to make it taste good.

Would you like some Coffee...?

Tea by fine , tea's great with me . You know it's an ETA on that but hey .

Estimated Time Arrival on that Tea ,

Coming right up sir

Your Tea Sir .

Would you like anything Sir ?

No I couldn't drink A glass water to hold down vomit, I feel like I have been hit by comet

Milk ..

Milk will be fine .

Entraynopsis

But anyway Mister Kamiai , What brings you around .

Well in the Neighborhood, I must have contact...

Well Ninja normally do..

I am much to old my friend !

Entraynopsis

Oh My daughter has had another relapse in book series

My Grand daughter fell in love with novel her mother went nuts over it .

Oh Eminery is All grown up .

Age 19

Aiiiiiii ?

Japanese sigh of relief and distress

What is it A problem ? The look of concern even ninja have body language my friend.

Entraynopsis

She Runs off into this world of mystery and myth chasing Forrest ghost and demons..

She's Nineteen she's A straight student , it's not boy's it ?

Most certainly not .

Then no worries!

Laughing with A tear in an eye ..

Forrest Geniuses ..

Entraynopsis

So these Forrest ghost and demons..

They must hang out in the Forrest alot .

Apparently so ,

You know people have Become ghost in forest .. not sure how many genius dwell in the Forrest these days.

Forrest People those Forrest Genius all you may find is ghost, the Forrest in modern day society seems like a lonely place

Hummph A pondering gesture .

Sure it's not one of those books

I wouldn't be so foolish think so .

Entraynopsis

Kamiai ... Shadaloo how are things with Shadaloo. ?

Shadaloo your Interest in Shadaloo are among top priority we all have much at stake .

Shadaloo is having limitless success Shadow law prevails countlessly

I only have as much as Investiment as you ..

Yea We are Shadaloo, aren't we .

But you Don't fathom your grand daughter interesting interest in Forrest demons and ghost.

Shadaloo is different the laws of Shadow exist with the shadow law !

Entraynopsis

The Linquay, The Lin Quay Translation Forrest Demons.. Forrest ghost..

The Lin Quay and Qi Dynasty if history of Pastology could grant me answers.

Answers I can get you answer's

I Don't know, 3000 years Killion years or so ..

A bit young Don't you say ....

Chinese imperial house mansion Shaolin monks.. they are definitely ninja normally gifted powerful ones .

Entraynopsis

So what is Shadaloo s interest in the Lin Quay.

I have much interest in the Lin Quay more than my own daughters involvement.

I see !

What are you up too , silent

I am Uncertain of what Shadaloo as an entity may have In the Lin Quay....

Have you heard of Mortal Kombat

Oh sh*t

Entraynopsis

Apparently It's this Sorcerer Shangtsung, and Some Realm outworld A Ruler Shao Khan some key names .

Elders God's Lord Raiden defender of earth realm ..

The Earth kingdom

Kamiai , I wouldn't say all this is bull sh*t , how could you not acknowledge one with out acknowledging the other exist. Shadaloo I mean.

Something to ponder my friend.

A pat on the shoulder as Kamiai returns to his rolls Royce phantom

Secured

Submission college then Professional occupational colleagues

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aihoshiino · 3 months

Note

Hi there! I recently found your blog and absolutely love your takes on Ai and OnK in general (I desperately cling on anything Ai related, too much of an Ai simp). I was wondering what do you think on the last line of 15 year lie movie "Sorry, I can't love you", do you think Ai genuinely loved Kamiki or tried to very hard? Because in the end they still broke up but we don't actually know why, I sometimes wonder if Ai would've went back together with Kamiki when she finally learns how to truly love someone (that one question about marriage in the Da Vinci interview made me think about KamiAi a lot). I'm still so torn up between hating Kamiki for killing Ai but also, he just looks so good, I can't blame Ai for falling for him…I'm so sorry for rambling lol

Hello anon!! I'm so sorry you had to wait so long for a response on this lol. But uh, this also means that I have more source text to draw on when answering this question so if you think about it, I'm the chessmaster here???

More seriously, I had chatted about this in a previous post before and my speculation there was that while the two of them did form a genuine bond and may have had serious feelings for each other, Ai simply wasn't in the right emotional space at the time to be able to say a sincere 'I love you' to him. This was neither of their faults - the unfortunate reality was that they were both deeply damaged kids trying to find solace in each other and I think even a perfectly healthy kid without Ai's particular hangups probably has some trouble articulating what the fuck love even is at that age, when you're just starting to experience big, scary adult feelings for the first time, all filtered through hormones and big upheavals in your life.

So I do think Ai did her very best to love Kamiki. It's possible that she did genuinely love him but had similar hangups to the ones that prevented her from expressing her feelings to the twins. It wasn't until literally the last seconds of her life that she was able to recognize her feelings as 'love' after all, so I can really easily see Ai expressing "I can't love you" to Kamiki as an apology and an admission of weakness - she can't give him love because she views herself as a person who cannot sincerely love other people without it being a lie, but she can still care for him, uplift and support him. She can essentially 'perform' love by choice even if it's not something she feels she can give him sincerely. Or at least that's my take on things right now, based on what we know about Ai as a person.

I'm not too sure about how that relationship might have changed or evolved in an Ai Lives AU but it's really fascinating to think about… it's hard to speculate too deeply given how little we know about the circumstances of their breakup and Kamiki's feelings about Ai in the time between that and the murder, but I don't know that Ai would have wanted to return to a relationship with him - she seems pretty firm about not wanting to get back with him when the possibility is floated during their call, but that of course takes place before she has that final moment of epiphany regarding love. So who's to say?

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #onk spoilers #ai hoshino #hikaru kamiki

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aihoshiino · 1 month

Note

I'm actually so glad you talked about the timeline issue in this chapter because now I've been wondering ever since reading the chapter, what did truly happen between kamiai???

At this point since they are still together even during the murder suicide...doesn't that mean Ai already has her twins? And that Hikaru had already gone to the hospital prior with Ryosuke? Did Hikaru accept the kids then? How did he even meet a deranged the fan Ryosuke, and why? When and how did Ai reveal her pregnancy, what was his reaction...my head hurts 😭😭

Also, the cut 162 with Ai's rejection already happened...so when are we ever seeing the "I can't love you" scene anymore...

Other than that, im glad we're finally getting a father-daughter talk (that we will never know the details of, like the dvd lol)

Kinda funny when we think that...Aqua got his mother's point of view (the dvd) and Ruby is getting her father...the parallels intensifies

EVERY TIME I THINK I'M FINALLY FIGURING IT OUT, SOME HORSEPISS LIKE THIS HAPPENS... AKASAKA YOU'RE GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF MEEEEEEEEEEEEE

My only hope at this point is that we're going to see some of these scenes in proper flashback from Kamiki or maybe even Ai herself via us FINALLY FINDING OUT WHAT'S ON THOSE DVDS AKASAKA I'LL KILL YOU and they didn't want to spend time building up versions of events that were going to hold on a second. Literally was midsentence about to justify that by saying 'they didn't want to portray these events then go jk it was fake' only to remember they literally already did that with the KamiAi romance scenes turning out to be shit Yoriko made up. So I quite licherally do not even know anymore. i am Giving Up !!

on a more positive note tho..... god I am SO fascinated by the arc's continued paralleling of the twins to the 'opposite' parent, so to speak and I'm tentatively hopeful that the RBHK meeting means that this is something intentional. At the very least, I think it's undeniable that in the ways AQRB are paralleling the HKAI relationship, Aqua is the one in Ai's role, as the savior that Hikaru/Ruby is relying on. 143 makes this pretty explicit with Ruby describing Gorou as her 'oshi' and thus placing Aqua on the pedestal that Ai had been forced to occupy.

It's honestly kind of... refreshing! Because of Kamiki's so transparently telegraphed similarities to Aqua and Ruby's narrative role in the story as the one following Ai's footsteps, it's a really clever subversion of expectations to have them kind of swap around like that. It's also a cool parallel to Tokyo Blade, where Akane and Kana were each unintentionally paralleling the others' role as opposed to their own.

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #onk asks #onk spoilers #onk anime spoilers

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