Oshi no Ko getting a 4th (and final) season is one of the least surprising announcements of the year. It was obviously only a question of when. And the answer, I would imagine, is pretty soon. The manga’s done so it really comes down to the schedule of the talent and what the production committee deems to be the optimum time. It might even hit in Fall of this year, but no way will it air any later than 2027.

If pressed, I would say the second season has been my favorite (though the prequel was certainly the overall high-water mark). S3 was a decidedly mixed bag for me. We had flat-out trough episodes, but only one or two. Mostly it just didn’t resonate with me as much as last season. And now we’ve fully embraced the madness of the final act, which is itself a mixed bag in my view. OnK is good at that trashy thriller vibe but it can get overwrought pretty fast, as this two-part finale showed. And all the angles where Akasaka is trying to have it both ways are really coming home to roost.

As I was reminded in the comments last week, “Tendouji” was Sarina’s last name so that explains who the marketing exec we met last week was. It’s been a long time since the prologue but Sensei certainly remembers those events in detail. As such meeting Tendouji Marina is highly stressful for him. Especially when she shows off her happy family – with two kids – not that she passes on drinking parties out of concern for them. What happened to Sarina was pretty awful, above and beyond her health. Obviously, when a mother declines to spend time with their terminally ill child the first instinct is not to look for extenuating circumstances. But we don’t know the whole story, and neither does Aqua.

He does manage to avoid wigging out on her right there in the bar, at least. And warns Miyako to keep Marina the hell away from Ruby. Miyako herself is in rough shape, as the second episode will focus on. It’s obvious enough to me that she’s making bad decisions with Ruby, so even if she’s not the industry whiz her husband was it feels like she really should know better. Especially as her adoptive parent. But Ruby is in over her head with this movie and Miyako just keeps digging her deeper.

I’m sure a lot of folks will have found the whole reckoning with Sensei and Sarina to be emotionally powerful. And I imagine if one was more bought into the story than me it probably worked. I just kind of found it over the top, to be honest. It’s very much have the cake and eat it too stuff as well. It’s not that Oshi no Ko isn’t capable of hitting big dramatic highs, but they generally come from tragedy or shock. Heartwarming not so much – that’s not the series’ strength. Neither is humor, which is another issue I have with this episode (which has a lot of it).

In any event it’s all on the table now – Sarina knows Aqua is Gorou. Yeah, he probably should have come clean sooner and no, he’s not wrong about her reasons for becoming an idol in the first place. But sincerity is not a good look for OnK – it spends all its time being irreverent and provocative, and it’s not authentic to just flip the switch like this. Also, the whole “marry me” thing is just icky. It would be even if Ruby and Aqua weren’t biological siblings (twins at that). I would like to think Gorou was just saying something he thought a dying little girl wanted to hear, but either way this is gross. Either it’s going to played seriously or treated as a running gag, and either one is going to be a shame.

As for the Miyako drama, it’s sort of fine but I’m kind of in the “who cares” category with it. I don’t find the whole “light up Tokyo Dome with glow sticks” dream to be inspirational in any way (obviously), which is part of where my disconnect with the whole premise comes in. And again, while I empathize with her situation Miyako really should have known that selling Ruby out to every bidder and running her into the ground was a bad idea. Aqua, the ultimate manipulator, saves the day as usual, setting up Miyako and Ichigo to run into each other at a dive bar at 3 AM.

Miyako has every right to be pissed, but is this stuff really funny? Eye of the beholder I guess. In any event Ichigo is back because when Aqua plots, he always wins. And Ichigo does have a better grasp on things with Ruby than Miyako does. The movie is the priority, and it’s full-steam ahead except for the child actors (unlike in anime, casting adults to play them is problematic). And as soon as Tsukoyomi showed up for another meeting of the cheat codes, I knew Aqua was going to rope her into playing young Ruby (if there’s an obvious angle for young Aqua, it doesn’t immediately spring to mind).

I don’t really care that manga readers seem to broadly hate the ending – I can decide for myself (assuming I can continue to dodge spoiler mines). That doesn’t mean I’m optimistic about where all this is going – every alarm bell I have is telling me we’re headed for a dumpster fire that largely misses the mark for me. As usual, though, I’m invested enough to be curious. There’s often been a lot to admire about Oshi no Ko – it does many things very well and it’s a kaijuu for a reason. I even like it considerably more than most of those – not the highest bar there is, but one that makes me sincerely hope this show and I can part on good terms.