That was a rather ominous episode of Oshi no Ko for me.  Not because it was pretty boring (though it was) but for the overall evolution of the series.  I had two big reasons to worry about this show’s staying power for me, the first being the way that Akasaka’s writing pretty quickly turned me off with Kaguya-sama.  The second being the almost unerring tendency for idol series to settle into comfortable, bland apologism no matter how edgy they might seem at the start.  You can probably guess which one was setting off the red flags this week.

Even for me it’s pretty clear that Akasaka is a writer with certain gifts.  He can be clever, he can be pretty ruthless when he wants to be.  The problem is that I don’t see the world the same way he does, and the things that he thinks are funny rarely seem that way for me.  But the jury is still out on that with Oshi no Ko.  The idol thing is the bigger problem, and this episode was pretty much a generic idol episode that could have been part of any of twenty earlier anime and not seemed out of place.  If you’re a person who likes idol anime and/or doesn’t find the idol industry and its infiltration of anime unsavory, that’s not going to be a problem.  But I’m neither of those things.

The question for me is, why does this invariably (and I do think that’s the correct word) happen?  Is it because the idol mafia is so financially crucial to the anime industry that any real criticism is nipped in the bud?  Is it because at their hearts, the people who write these series are all fans and apologists?  I guess it can be any or all of the above, but with Oshi no Ko I’ve always had the sense that Akasaka was basically a fan.  He doesn’t really want to criticize the Japanese entertainment industry generally or idolatry specifically – he wants them to love him the way he loves them.

A while back I noted that with OnK Akasaka doesn’t come off like a hater out to cause as much damage to the institutions as possible, but rather like a lover who’s been jilted and wants to express his outrage over the way things turned out.  That feels as right as ever to me, and we’re definitely trending in that direction more and more.  The whole B-Komachi thing smacks of it, and frankly none of it was really of any interest to me.  It’s been done a million times, and whether it’s been done better or not is basically irrelevant.  Kana hiding her singing ability was very much in character, and so was MEM lying about her age.

The Aqua revenge storyline has more traction for me, not because it’s not disturbing in its own way but because that has kind of a rubbernecking appeal (and at least it’s not idol faff).  The producer is as good as his word, and tells Aqua that Ai fell in love while attending a Lala Lai (Akane’s theatrical  company) seminar.  He doesn’t know with who but figures the head of Lala Lai does, and offers to connect Aqua with him.  Why?  To gain future leverage over a kid he thinks has a chance to be a big money-maker in the future, and maybe even gain an in on the ground floor of the new B-Komachi.  On that score at least the picture Oshi no Ko paints is fairly realistic.