Forum - View topic

This Week in Anime - Oshi no Ko and the Idol Industry's Dirty Secret

Isn't it just trying to scandalize peoples (for free publicity)? Reading the synopsis, I though it was just being a dumbster fire for fun and ridicule, but instead it just play it straight. Sure, they do it well, but did they need the main character to be a gyno just so he can see his idol vagina? Did they need scene where he's happy he get to suck her tits? It sounds incredibly crude when written like that, but that's the show, that's the premise, that's how they literally sold it. It just feel like someone going "Oh yeah I buy every playboy, but just for the article, I don't look at the pinups". Here's an easy re write, the main character is just a nurse and you skip all the scene of baby going "Ooga, boobs!", would that have ruined the whole show?

Even the whole "dark side of the industry" has been done a couple of time before. But of course it didn't involve fan being creepily involved with the idol privates, so they didn't get that popular. The story just start with something outrageous to lure people in, then switch track to something serious to legitimize the previous creep, so people can say "yeah I know it sounds awful, but its actually really serious".

As far as the fan overreaction, you can look at pretty much any sort of industry and find that there's always a tiny number of people who take things way to extreme. You might think idol is bad, but look up the history of pretty much any popular sports and you'll find so much worse things. We just have to accept as a society that something like 1-5% of the population just has a broken brain and cannot function properly and there's not much we can do about it without without going to extreme orwellian means.

Typing that out also has me questioning my life choices.

Isn't it just trying to scandalize peoples (for free publicity)? Reading the synopsis, I though it was just being a dumbster fire for fun and ridicule, but instead it just play it straight. Sure, they do it well, but did they need the main character to be a gyno just so he can see his idol vagina? Did they need scene where he's happy he get to suck her tits? It sounds incredibly crude when written like that, but that's the show, that's the premise, that's how they literally sold it. It just feel like someone going "Oh yeah I buy every playboy, but just for the article, I don't look at the pinups". Here's an easy re write, the main character is just a nurse and you skip all the scene of baby going "Ooga, boobs!", would that have ruined the whole show?

Even the whole "dark side of the industry" has been done a couple of time before. But of course it didn't involve fan being creepily involved with the idol privates, so they didn't get that popular. The story just start with something outrageous to lure people in, then switch track to something serious to legitimize the previous creep, so people can say "yeah I know it sounds awful, but its actually really serious".

As far as the fan overreaction, you can look at pretty much any sort of industry and find that there's always a tiny number of people who take things way to extreme. You might think idol is bad, but look up the history of pretty much any popular sports and you'll find so much worse things. We just have to accept as a society that something like 1-5% of the population just has a broken brain and cannot function properly and there's not much we can do about it without without going to extreme orwellian means.

ANN_Lynzee wrote:

Typing that out also has me questioning my life choices.

Ah, the trials and tribulations of being an anime fan!

Anyway, I whined about this in the Oshi no Ko series discussion thread in the series discussion forum (duh), but as interesting as I find the show's dissection of Japan's entertainment industry (with particular focus on the idol and acting realms), I wish it was a bit more elegant in how it presents its material.

I feel like the story (i.e. Aqua's search for the person who orchestrated Ai's murder) and the characters are just obligatory props to hang what the show REALLY cares about, which is exposing the dark underbelly of idoling and acting. I find that topic interesting, but the show sometimes feels like a documentary as opposed to a compelling, emotional narrative experience inviting me to be immersed in its world.

Matters aren't helped by the fact that our main protag, Aqua, is a joyless cold fish who has only two interests: finding Ai's other murderer and preventing his twin from fulfilling her passionate desire to be an idol. There is some comedy in the show but WAY less than I would have hoped for considering that one of co-creators of the manga was also the creator of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, one of the laugh out loudiest comedy franchises of the past few years.

Don't misunderstand: I like the show and will watch to the end. But I have to admit its not as succulent as I had hoped (haven't read the manga, and had no knowledge of the material before I started watching the anime, so had no preconceived ideas).

And in its heart, I don't think Oshi no Ko's intention isn't just to criticize or scandalize the harmful elements of a thing people love to ruin it for everyone or for shock value.

whereas Ruby had no such compunction as she was both female and pre-pubescent (I think) when she died in her past life so had never experienced those kind "impure" thoughts. Ruby certainly reveled in breastfeeding but I don't think it was in anyway sexual even if it wasn't entirely pure.

The documentary feel is what makes the anime good (outside of the animation), it's a story that needed to be told and at the right time as well, see all of the Vtuber drama; which mimics irl idol drama in many cases making it super topical pretty much everywhere idol culture has touched.

The doctor actually refuses to breastfeed. He attempts to cover her up at one point. I feel like you're mixing up Mushoku Tensei's breastfeeding scene and this one.

Typing that out also has me questioning my life choices.

ANN_Lynzee wrote:

The doctor actually refuses to breastfeed. He attempts to cover her up at one point. I feel like you're mixing up Mushoku Tensei's breastfeeding scene and this one. Typing that out also has me questioning my life choices.

When did I say he did?

Did they need scene where he's happy he get to suck her tits?

but did they need the main character to be a gyno just so he can see his idol vagina?

Did they need scene where he's happy he get to suck her tits?

Even the whole "dark side of the industry" has been done a couple of time before. But of course it didn't involve fan being creepily involved with the idol privates, so they didn't get that popular.

It's like those harem show where the main character accidentally walk in on the girl changing her cloth, just so fan can go "well he didn't want to walk in on her, so its not inappropriate"

oshi no ko has a scene where the main character consider breastfeeding but doesn't.

One could argue that the reincarnation bit is evidence that the storyteller is not confident enough (ironic) in their story that they have to put in an extra bit to capture the zeitgeist and create extra dots to connect. I find it hard to believe that Aqua and Ruby can't be who they are as kids on their first life. Of course, if it turns out that spoiler[the killer was also reincarnated and this is actually just some very Buddhist musings on the entertainment industry] or something like that, then that's a different conversation.

I'm somewhat curious if it will end up devolving into spectacle porn (i.e. one crazy contrivance after another, each crazier and more contrived than the last, all of them only being done for it's own sake) but it sounds like it won't just yet.

Matters aren't helped by the fact that our main protag, Aqua, is a joyless cold fish who has only two interests: finding Ai's other murderer and preventing his twin from fulfilling her passionate desire to be an idol.