I thought I was done with my spring lineup; however, there was a lot of attention surrounding another show this season so I decided to check out Oshi no Ko to see what all of the hype was about and… what the hell? NINETY MINUTES FOR THE FIRST EPISODE!? Hoo boy… guess I better strap in. Hopefully, the hype was worth devouring my evening for. Only one way to tell, right?
Let’s go!
First Episode Synopsis
Ai Hoshino is a 16-year-old idol that’s part of the group B-Komachi. The group suddenly goes on hiatus due to Hoshino’s “illness.” In other words, she’s going to be a teen mother! Not wanting the world to know about her pregnancy, she retreats to a rural town where she is treated by a doctor who happens to be her number one fan. He claims he’s only her fan because one of his patients loved her to death… but she passed away at age 12 due to a brain tumor so he felt it was his duty to carry on her fandom in her place (whatever makes you sleep at night, my dude.)
On the eve when she’s about to give birth, a stalker confronts the doctor outside of the hospital and he seems to know too much. The doctor chases him off but loses him in the woods. The stalker knocks the doctor over a cliff and he dies from the fall. Suddenly, the doctor wakes up and finds that he is reincarnated as one of Ai Hoshino’s twin babies, Aquamarine. The other is a girl named Ruby. Both of them have the same syndrome where they are reborn and have all of the memories of their past lives.
Ai’s manager, Ichigo, along with his wife Miyako split their duties with Ai. Ichigo gets her career back up and running while Miyako begrudgingly takes care of Ai’s kids and keeps them out of the public’s eye. She gets fed up and looks to blackmail Ai when Aqua and Ruby decide to reveal their secrets to Miyako and pretend that they are some deities sent from the god realm to spook her. Sadly, it works.
With the secret safe, Ai’s career takes a turn when she’s cast in a tv spot on a new show. Her part is small but the director mistakes Aqua for a super genius baby and casts him, along with Ai, in a low-budget film. The film is a success and Ai’s career takes off. She is able to move into a luxury apartment and her idol group is about to perform at its first dome show when there is a knock on the door. Oh, look… it’s the stalker and……. Stab.
Yes, sorry to spoil it but Ai does die but it’s necessary because Ai is NOT the focus of the show. The focus is Aqua swearing to find the person who leaked the information to Ryosuke… the stalker… and kill him with his own bare hands. The hunt begins!
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – Given the fandom this has received online, this MAYBE rating may actually shock you but, I am sorry to say that the first episode really wasn’t all that good.
I can’t understand how anyone could cry or be sad at Ai’s death. They blatantly made it obvious throughout the entire episode that her stalker was going to do something. When he stabbed her, I was like “Ah, there it is.” Then, she had “You talk too much” syndrome when she was dying. It’s like she read through the entire first chapter of a novel before biting the dust. It got to the point where I was going to wonder when the hell she would shut up and die.
It wasn’t shocking. It was predictable.
Also… I love how they do a time skip to when Aqua and Ruby are teenagers after Aqua, at such a young age, vowed to find the person who leaked the info to the stalker. He was what… 4 when he vowed that? Now, I assume he’s 16? That guy could have skipped town, died, etc by now. That’s a really really weird time skip and a massive plot hole.
Not to mention that Aqua (the doctor) had a huge suspicion of who Ruby was and simply just took her word for it when she lied. Ruby also had the same suspicion about Aqua and never thought to question it. Now, with the time skip, am I to believe they grew up together without realizing who each other is, despite knowing they are reborn and having memories of their previous life? That throughout all that time neither one of them slipped up? Maybe there is room for flashbacks in future episodes but… the first episode just seemed like really shoddy writing from beginning to end.
I’ll give this show a chance but the first episode wasn’t really as impressive as everyone is making it out to be. That’s just how I feel.
