#onk 145
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Chapter 144 thoughts!
So they’re cutting ahead again, and I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, we’re still building on Ruby’s character arc regarding her feelings for Gorou, so it makes sense.
But on the other hand, the implication that they’re doing the entire movie chronologically means that Hikaru and Ai’s part of the movie together is over, which is ludicrous to me because Aqua’s “ultimate revenge play” fantasy that he’s been coming up with since childhood has ultimately just been “the Uwuification of Hikaru Kamiki”
I’m not too phased because I still think we’re going to return to it, Frill was confident from script alone that Aqua was trying to kill his father, and there was an emphasis placed on Ai denying Hikaru. I’m not sure why it hasn’t happened from a watsonian perspective (maybe hospital availability pushing those scenes up?) but from a doyalist perspective I could see it being the climax of Ruby’s character arc which she isn’t ready for.
It’s another one of those “I can’t really judge it until I’ve seen the rest of the arc” things so I’ll try to just judge it for what is is right now.
Melt looks so good as Gorou! I didn’t think much about the casting when it was announced but he’s really bringing the role to life.
Ruby chiming in to essentially go “no he wouldn’t fucking say that” is both funny and indicative to the entitled perception and attachment she feels to him. It specifically gives me a lighter version of Nino talking about Ai
I like how Melt talks about understanding Gorou here. He really is an understanding and empathic person and it shines through in his acting style. Him calling the role “cool” is cute to me.
Ruby really gets mean here in a way that almost comes off as out of character. It reads to me like her obsession is growing more toxic, or maybe some lingering cruelty from how she was behaving before, but it is a little jarring.
Melt’s interpretation of Gorou is spot on to me, he understands Gorou’s subtly and respect better than even Ruby does. (Though @aihoshiino pointed out to me that Gorou is implied by the anime and the chapter where his corpse is found to have had his keychain out the whole time in front of Ai. Still, in terms of his professionalism and hiding that he’s a fan Melt gets it)
It makes me wonder what his information is. He doesn’t know Gorou’s name (which makes sense since Gorou can’t legally consent to his name being used) but he knows his history with Sarina enough to guess she gave him the pin.
Also this dude! Glad to see him
The pin’s relevance to her turnaround feels very rooted in sentimentality. I really like the concept of it, but it feels a bit dangerously close to Comedy!Ruby from the Hikaru Ai scenes. I think I like it more here though, as it feels more in character and purposeful.
Crow girl in the tree like a creature is healing me tbh. I know a lot of people are skeptical of her and the supernatural element her presence enforces, but I’ve always found her so interesting and fun and I’m happy to see her again.
Thank you for asking about how she gets around, that’s been one of the goofy questions the server has been mulling over for a while now lol
Interesting that this location seems significant to her, considering her first appearance here, as well as the fact that her two reincarnation targets where here when they died. Her implying there may be more special people is interesting. I wonder if any more will come into the story, though part of me doubts it.
This might imply characters we’ve met have god attachments without even knowing it. Simple guess here would be Ai, there’s precedence for her to be connected to the “God of Entertainment.” Though even if she was, I’m sure what kind of relevancy that would have -if any- considering she is dead and confirmed never coming back, but it’s interesting to think about.
See? She’s such a goofball! Between this and Aqua bullying her into being an actor, she’s been a strong comedic pillar in this arc.
All in all, a pretty decent chapter, kinda annoying in its placement, but much better than having the skip week after last chapter.
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Oshi No Ko Chapter 145 - My Thoughts/Analysis
I have plenty of mixed feelings about this chapter, so I suppose I’ll just get on with it. Spoilers for Oshi No Ko Ch145 below.
We open up with…Crow Girl?? Her pretending to be Ruby for the movie is so adorable that I just want to pinch her cheek. And Ruby cringing at her performance despite it being completely accurate is such a mood. I bet if most people saw their child selves do something embarrassing they would internally cringe at the sight.
And Crow Girl basically serving the fact that she’s been watching Ruby and Aqua since they were kids to the reader on a silver platter. I’d wondered exactly when she took an interest in the twins, but to know that she was watching even then…Then again, she’d already appeared in the Spica novel for Goro, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Crow Girl narration?? Finally some internality from possibly one of the most mysterious characters in the series. I’d pay good money to see what she thinks for so much of the series in general. I can only imagine what she was thinking of the events that happened just a few chapters ago…
“She doesn’t have the slightest feelings of awe.” To be fair, she was reincarnated into her idol’s child, speedrun Aqua’s revenge arc because you led her on that road, and then found out that the doctor she’d fallen in love with also got reincarnated as her brother. I think Crow Girl needs to wow Ruby more with something a bit more overtly magical if she wants that kind of reaction. Or just, y’know. Stop talking so vaguely all the time and say what she actually means to say clearly. Then again, that’s par for the course with this manga, so I can’t be too critical about it.
And then this page… Crow Girl not seeing Ruby as Ai but instead seeing Sarina. And then her reactions after that…the implications…
We cut to the next day, and yet another timeskip. I don’t understand why they just couldn’t have said that these scenes all take place one after another during the same day. Once again I have to wave the flag that the movie arc should’ve been segregated into the background of multiple other arcs instead of dumping it down our throats all at once.
Now this is a familiar callback of one of the first chapters of the manga! Crow Girl as Aqua looks so fucking smug. That cheek pulling impulse returns with a vengeance.
Kana and Ruby’s reactions to Crow Girl as Aqua are also interesting. Kana is definitely looking at the past with rose colored glasses. More mysterious and cute? I don’t recall any of that when she first interacted with the twins at all. If anything, she was quite dismissive of the two and only respected Aqua because she got humbled by his “acting”. Really, the only reason that Kana’s saying this stuff in the first place is because of her ego and because she still holds a torch for Aqua. I doubt she'd care about the quality of the actor if Crow Girl was only playing Ruby herself.
“But you’re nothing compared to me when I was a child actor.” This is a very normal thing to say to what she thinks is a literal child. How insecure do you have to be to be threatened by the acting skills of a literal child? Of course, Crow Girl isn’t a child at all, but again, Kana doesn’t know that. Kana’s behavior when she was a child was shitty, but now that she’s an adult that is absolutely no way to act. And because she’s just supposed to be a “gag character” she’ll receive no consequences for this whatsoever. Get this bitch off my screen, this isn’t a bloody romcom.
Ruby fangirling over Crow Girl as baby Aqua is very precious. People tend to forget but she was just as much as a brocon toward Aqua as Aqua was a siscon over her.
Aqua appearance! And he has his white star eye!!! Pack it up, shippers, it’s so Oshi no Over. I’ll be cashing out my AquaRuby stonks to live off the rest of the manga in the Bahamas.
Memes aside, it’s good to see Aqua with a single white star eye again. With how Aqua was when he’d gained his dual black star eyes, it’s refreshing to see him freer than he has been during the start of the arc. The dual black star eyes Aqua wouldn’t be this open or be cracking these jokes. Side note: Him echoing the “child prodigy” line is incredibly funny. We were so robbed in the earlier manga for twins doing cute twin things. Would it have killed the manga to have a small mini arc for the twins as they were growing up to see their dynamic better?
Crow Girl flashback??????? WHAT IS GOING ON.
Sarina???? Crow Girl is an actual crow, who could’ve known. And Goro???? Oh, Goro fixed up the Crow and that’s why she’s watching them both now! I don’t know why but the panels of the crow watching them both are very cute, especially the image where it’s standing out of Sarina’s window with a leaf in its beak.
Oh. It was there when-–when Sarina died. That is—well. I think it’s become very clear by reading between the lines that the entire reason that Aqua reincarnated in the first place is because of Sarina’s wish. He wasn’t brought back for revenge, but rather for the girl that loved him so much that she wanted to see him in another life.
In hindsight, Aqua’s purpose in his new life not being vengeance also makes sense when one thinks about the circumstances of Ai’s death logically. All that stood between Hoshino Ai’s death was a single door chain. If that hadn’t happened, then the trajectory of his life would’ve completely changed and he wouldn’t have pursued revenge at all. If Ai was a bit more distracted that day and didn’t notice the doorbell ringing, if Aqua or Ruby were more clingy to Ai, if Ai had remembered the door chain, if Ichigo and Miyako had arrived early, if Ai didn’t mention her address to Hikaru, so many ifs. Ai’s death wasn’t absolute in the slightest. Him being reborn alongside Rubysarina was. The game was rigged from the start, so they say.
“To me, you guys have always been cheeky and cute children, after all.” Crow Girl = Ai real??? Much as I’d like to jump on that theory train, I doubt that it’s true considering we saw Crow Girl active while Ai was alive. But with magical beings thrown into the mix, causality’s more of a suggestion than an absolute rule, so what do I know.
Still, for someone that’s been watching them since they were born, it’s a very cute viewpoint on the twins. She’s almost like their guardian angel, though the comparison doesn’t quite work culturally since they’re Japanese.
This chapter gave me mixed feelings, if I’m behind honest. On one hand why oh why couldn’t this chapter be foreshadowed better? The Private Arc could’ve basically set this entire thing up so it didn’t feel like it came out of left field. Ditto with showing Crowl Girl more earlier in the manga—the Private arc’s pretty deep in the manga anyway, and Aqua and Crow Girl’s first meeting is bloody offscreen. Not exactly the best way to seed out crumbs for the supernatural so late in the game.
I did like this chapter because of what it implies, though. With Aqua’s white star eyes being present—and I suspect they’ll be present for the foreseeable future until he gets traumatized by something—as well as the fact that Crow Girl was present to hear Sarina’s final words…more and more ammunition for the shipping side of the fandom. I personally thought it was already set in stone even before the events of the previous chapters, but some people refuse to be convinced, even after the latest chapters.
But aside from shipping, it’s curious that this is the second chapter in a row we’re getting some more information on the supernatural side of things. It’s one of the few parts of Oshi No Ko that I think’s been very underutilized since the twins got reincarnated, which is a shame because I find that aspect so interesting. While I do think this chapter was kind of a cop out in giving us an explanation as to why they were reincarnated, it do believe it would’ve been better inserted within an earlier arc. Perhaps Ruby reminiscing about Goro’s kindness during the Private arc, or even earlier than that. We were so robbed of Ruby screentime so much during the earlier parts of the manga.
One final note: Now that it’s pretty established that Crow Girl was once, well, a crow, I find it strange that she now has a physical body. Her deal with her vessel being born, as well as the mention of a mother of all things…that’s going to be relevant, because why else mention a mother if it’s not going to be relevant at all—especially after we’re already giving spotlight to the supernatural bits of the series during this arc.
#oshi no ko#onk#oshi no ko analysis#my analysis#oshi no ko spoilers#onk 145#i am once again late to the party orz
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Oshi no Ko 145 Reaction
Live Crow Reaction
I debated if I even wanted to do a chapter react for this one, I did for the last two and this is a series I generally have a lot of thoughts about, but perhaps I was spoiled by how those chapters were deeply concerned with the character arcs for Ruby and Aqua, some of my favorite parts of the manga.
This one instead focuses on our mysterious crow girl, Tsukuyomi. Which is good, she has desperately needed some fleshing out, but....hmm. It feels very strange to go from essentially net zero information to having her whole backstory and thoughts about the other characters dropped on us all at once. The fact that the backstory is so completely out of left field just makes it worse. Like. Okay, so crow girl is....an actual crow? sure, let's go with that?
Would I be taking lethal amounts of copium to think this might be some kind of metaphor? I don't think it is because that would be too misleading for what OnK usually does but like. what is this development here.
I think the main reason this bothers me is because it feels incredibly one-sided. The hints that crow girl's previous life had a connection to the siblings was interesting, and spurred speculation on what the nature of that relationship was, but the actual answer here seems kind of...the least impactful way to go about it? It would have felt Weird and fanfic-y to suddenly introduce a random OC who was important to both Gorou and Sarina in their past lives, given that their isolation and loneliness were kind of key to their characters. But introducing a literal animal in the role feels kind of like a cop out. You want a character who could be seamlessly inserted into the character's backstories, without changing the trajectory of their arcs whatsoever? okay, she's the stray bird they met that time. In essence, it means Tsukuyomi gets to have a connection to Ruby and Aqua, but they don't have one with her. It's one sided.
Which, if I'm being charitable, could be the point - another way to explore the themes explored in previous chapters of people having different views of others. A crow viewing the pair from a distance without even being considered a peer could be an interesting counterpoint to previous thoughts on placing idols on pedestals - a god looking down at people condescendingly, even more so.
By the fact that she sees them as kids, even Gorou, who was in his thirties, it's clear that her view of them might be divine, but it sure isn't objective. But that's getting back into the supernatural elements of the series that I don't have any explanations or context to talk about.
I don't know, I can find explanations and ideas that make me think this could be cool when thinking optimistically but when speaking honestly I'm not super enthused by the execution in these few pages. And this is meant to be a reaction, not an analysis, so even if it isn't super professional of me I'll leave my conflicted thoughts up in the post.
This isn't a terrible revelation, I don't think this ruins the manga forever or anything, but it does feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity right now. makes me feel a little down about the chapter. But this is a serial, there's still time to make this all come together, in many different possible ways. Who knows, maybe in a few months after this arc wraps up I'll be talking about how crow girl is my new favorite character.
#very mixed and somewhat negative thoughts about this one. my apologies. possibly I'm letting personal biases color my opinion far too much.#but anyway -#“you guys have always been cute children to me” -> secret hint that this whole chapter is a lie#and the fan theory about crow being Ai's reincarnation is actually true??? NOT CLICKBAIT!!!!#maybe if i were able to convince myself to reject reality a little bit more lmfao#ah but really. when ruby and aqua learned each other's identities it changed the whole trajectory of their arcs#if they were to learn that tsukuyomi was that crow they helped one time. would they even blink?#oshi no ko#step.live#step.animanga#oshi no ko spoilers
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Chapter 145 thoughts!
Okay so! Another time jump. The rest of Gorou’s time with Ai has been cut, including his death. That makes me think Aqua is passing him off as a fictional character, though that clashes somewhat with their inability to use his name and refusal to use another name. It ultimately doesn’t really matter, but for a movie that’s supposed to murder Hikaru Kamiki, excluding a crime you could’ve linked to him is a weird choice.
Though truthfully I have no idea what Aqua is actually intending with this movie at this point, and I’m starting to lose faith that even HE knows. Too soon to tell though, I’m sure I’ll be saying this until the arc is over.
Anyway, onto the chapter itself! We open with our favorite god turned child actor reading Ruby for filth
The exchange here is interesting, their dynamic has become much more casual, much like CGs and Aqua’s. I have thoughts about Ruby being insecure about not seeming mature for her age, but there wasn’t enough focus there for me to say much more than speculation.
I actually really love this whole part. Kana chiming in with her perspective on young Aqua is so good, she had such a powerful reverence for him from so young, and her getting competitive with (what she perceives as) a modern child actor is equal parts funny and sad
This kind of confirms what a lot of people had been arguing about, the claim that Ruby NEVER saw Aqua as a brother. When they were younger, their relationship was much closer to normal, it seems. Her mourning not getting to know her brother better when they were younger is also an interesting sentiment, and Kana chiming in to try and insert herself is pretty cute.
There’s certainly a metaphor in Ruby then immediately discarding said child version of Aqua in favor of the one she feels romantically inclined towards.
Me too girl, me too.
The whole flashback with Crow Girl is very interesting. I don’t know much about Japanese mythology, but I know I’m plenty of others there are stories where people help disguised gods, and get blessings and favors in exchange. This gives Crow Girl a somewhat surprisingly fond perspective of them, which is interesting when looking at their present (and past) dynamics. It doesn’t really feel like it matches, and the implication that this was what earned them the reincarnation blessing feels inconsistent given Crow Girl’s previous dialogues.
I’m not going to jump too much to conclusions, we have some info but like I’ve been saying all arc, not really enough information to conclude anything
Anyway not too much to say about this chapter overall. Interesting insight into Crow Girl’s perspective, and it’s nice to see Aqua, Kana, and Ruby interacting more normally again. Glad we don’t have a break next week, because I’m really looking for something I can sink my teeth into a bit more.
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