The equation with Oshi no Ko is different than it is with most bubble series for me (where it feels like OnK has been on and off forever). It’s not a matter of holding my interest, or indifference. It always feels like it’s going to come down to the question of whether, at some point, I’ll just be so pissed off that I can’t take any more. I’ve been close – damn close – a couple times. I am right now. Every time so far I’ve decided on reflection it was worth soldiering on (or at least that I was pot-committed). So far. If manga readers are anything to go on, the coming trials would put Hercules’ to shame.

Is it worse for an author to not recognize bad behavior, or to see it and choose not to condemn it? Certainly the latter is more interesting than the former. But there’s a price to be paid for that (see above). I mean, Akasaka clearly sees the revolting sewer the world he depicts actually is. He actually has characters come right out and say directly that it preys on young people, exploits them. But then he turns around and acts like it’s all worth it, that everything is OK in the end. That’s one of the hardest things for me to accept – his view that the price the industry’s victims pay is justified because people like him get off (and in his case, rich) on the whole thing. I’d say he should know better but he does – that’s obvious. He just doesn’t care.

Yeah, that’s a big problem. I also have a big problem with the way the whole Aqua-Kana thing has played out. Mem is right, first of all – she’s in this mess because he pretty much dragged her into it. I just hate the fact that Kana is portrayed as so dependent on a guy who treats her like crap. Kana is smart, talented, she’s older (as far as she knows) than Aqua. Why is her happiness contingent on his affection and approval? Fuck him, honestly. And she desperately needs to get out of the idol trade altogether, because it’s obviously giving her no satisfaction in life. But no, it can’t be that simple – we can’t just have a character decide flat-out that being an idol sucks and isn’t worth it, because that would undercut Akasaka’s Raison d’être.

So what we get is a manufactured inspirational ending where Kana heroically decides she’s going to fight to stay in the disgusting business she loathes, because in the end it’s the bestest thing in the world. Screw that – if she wants to be an actor (and for young women in Japan even that’s bad enough) she should hit the eject button immediately. The one thing this episode sort of gets right – even if the way it plays out feels unsavory as hell – is that Kana at least decides she’s not going to wait for Aqua to ride in and save her. Because where the hell does he get off trying to be a knight in shining armor after the way he’s treated her? He has no right to any role at all in Kana’s life at this point.

In sum, then, it’s all a giant ball of intense irritation for me at this point. Ad nauseam I will say, again, that’s not the death knell for a show – indifference is. If I still care enough about Oshi no Ko to be pissed at it there’s still incentive, on some level, to keep going. But also ad nauseam, there are limits to that. There is a certain satisfaction in feeling something after watching a series, and that – along with a stubborn compulsion not to leave it unfinished – is what’s keeping me going.