Oshi no Ko (2021)

[推しの子]

Volume 3

Author: Aka Akasaka
Artist: Mengo Yokoyari
Publisher: Young Jump Comics

Synopsis:
As part of his deal with Kaburagi, Aqua joins a teen romance reality show.

Story/Characters:
We get our first view of the reality show Aqua stars in from the perspective of Ruby and Kana, who are watching from the office. Needless to say, they don't recognize the bubbly extrovert he's playing. After all, the "reality" in reality TV belongs in quotation marks. The male participants aren't all that interesting, but the females have more going on. We've got the flirty model Yuki, the withdrawn stage actress Akane, and the quirky Youtuber Memcho. Aqua isn't the only savvy member of the cast either, as several of his castmates are doing their bit to, shall we say, enhance reality to make a more entertaining show. Meanwhile, Miyako is redirecting Ruby and Kana's attention to promotional work to build hype leading up to the launch of their idol unit. As Ichigo Pro has been doing a lot of net-based work since the days of B-Komachi, Miyako intends to leverage the strength of a company's web talent to boost the newbies. To this end, she calls on Pieyon, a muscleman in a cute birdie mask who's a big hit with the kiddos. (I like the sharp contrast of Kana's reaction to him compared to Ruby's.) The girls get to mask up for guest spots on his show, which involve rather intensive workout routines. As ridiculous as Pieyon appears, he's serious about his craft and collaborating with him is doing more than just priming the audience for their debut.

Back to ImaGachi, Yuki is talking about quitting the show due to teasing from classmates, but this is just a smokescreen to inject some drama. However, this leads into real trouble. You see, Akane hasn't really been standing out and her manager is getting pressured from above. With some nudging from the crew, she decides to take on the role of a rival character to Yuki, but because the average viewer of reality TV is a moron, they take it for real and are total f-wits on social media. Akane goes too far and the dirtbag showrunners deliberately frame it to make her look even worse than she is. (Yuki, to her credit, sees through Akane's act and immediately tries to cool her down.) Though there's peace among the cast, the fires are lit on the web and Akane is one of those poor schmucks who reads the comments and takes them to heart. After days of holing up as her mind collapses, she finds herself on a bridge in the rain and gets the temptation to take a dive. Good thing our boy Aqua shows up just in the nick of time. Turns out her castmates were out looking for her and Aqua was the one to get to her first. Once they get together, they have a little pow-wow about what to do next. The others are willing to support her in whatever she wants to do. She decides she doesn't want things to end like this, so they get to work on a sort of guerrilla campaign that leverages their talents (especially Aqua's video editing skills and Memcho's influence) to manipulate public opinion and redirect the fire from Akane to the showrunners. The gambit works and Akane's ready to get back into action, but she needs a new character. When Aqua is asked about his type, and as he gives his description, Memcho cottons onto the fact that he's talking about Ai. Akane decides to make this her goal and this is the point where she totally wins me over. Up until now, we've seen her going around talking with the crew, studiously taking notes, but at this point, when she turns her focus on Ai to model her character after her, we see her dive into obsessive detail, working like a criminal profiler, all leading up to the big payoff, where she basically becomes Ai, a performance so real that it manages to shake even Aqua. (This was my favorite moment of S1 of the anime, by the way.)

Akane plays Ai so convincingly that a budding romance between her and Aqua seems pretty daggone real, much to the annoyance of Kana. However, when he invites her to play hooky with him and he reveals that she's about the only person he feels he can be himself around, this buoys her mood quite a bit. This doesn't last too long, though, as Akane's intensive study into Ai has led her to conclude that Ai might have had a child in secret. Her capacity to get into Ai's headspace proves to be too much of an asset for Aqua to let go, and if it takes him stringing her along romantically to keep her in his orbit, that's what he'll do. A big kiss to cap off the show is great for ratings, but it sure isn't great for a tsundere would-be love interest's poor maiden heart. Sorry, Kana-chan. You're suffering is only just beginning.

Art:
Pretty much anything involving Pieyon is amusing. The reaction shots of Kana in particular are great. There are some really nice emotion shots, especially of Akane as things go south for her. The framing of her suicide attempt is suitably dramatic, and her rebirth as an Ai clone is neat. And of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the lovely two-page spread for that kiss. I'm an Aqua-Kana man myself, but Aqua-Akane is a close second, so if you're in that camp, you've got quite the treat.

Other:
We get a two-page bonus comment of Yuki doing Akane's nails and then her reaction after the flame war begins.

Conclusion:
I'm not a fan of reality TV, but there's something to exposing the foul underbelly, tied to the larger goal of showing the dark side of the entertainment industry. I do like how Akasaka is able to take a seemingly inconsequential character like Akane and building her up to the point where she became one of my favorite characters in a relatively short amount of time. However, apparently Akasaka used a ripped-from-the-headlines approach, which earned the ire of the family of the real-life tragedy. Anyway, while the Ruby storyline is less impact, there are some clever ways it progresses in parallel with Aqua's story. There's plenty of good stuff to be had and this volume is well worth adding to your collection.

Rating:
Own It