Oshi no Ko has ended. But the ending itself is...

spoilers ahead, you've been warned.

As someone who avoided Oshi no Ko like the plague for a while during it's initial hype, I eventually found myself giving in and reading it a few months ago, and I was truly hooked. The themes, as flawed as they are, are themes that I gravitate towards in media. I love liar characters, and the consequences that come with the lies they've told and the people they've manipulated. I found it a bonus that the art was done by Yokoyari Mengo, who I found through Kuzu no Honkai and became a fan of her work through it.

Oshi no Ko, unfortunately, has not always hit the head with these tropes and I found myself incredibly disappointed with the ending.

A series that revolves itself around the toxicity of mainstream media and the entertainment industry, Oshi no Ko fails to deliver the seriousness it continuously hinted at and the corruption within these industries. I don't expect documentary style levels of journalism, it's a manga after all, some belief should be suspended - but my problem is, we're never given anything that this series wants us to think about.

Akane's arc was decent, but every arc following felt like a puddle of water compared. How can we see the industry for what it is, when almost every producer and filmmaker the main characters work with seem to always been on the "good" side, or are easily swayed by the determination of these 18 year olds? I did say manga doesn't have to be realistic, but it does make me raise an eyebrow when there are other series out there who have similar themes and are able to execute them much better than what Oshi no Ko did.

Now, let's talk about the recent chapters. If I'm being honest, these chapters - or even the entire series - if put into the hands of a more competent writer, they would have thrown out something seriously worth reading. Akasaka threw out too many plotlines which evolved into plot holes, he had a story in mind but wherever he intended to go with it, it did not make it to the end goal. I disagree about pressure from shippers was what pushed him to end the series as it did, but that's not the topic I'll be focusing on.

Instead, I'll ask the question - why did Ai ask Aqua to help Hikaru?

No, really. What kind of premonition did she have where she knew her son - who was a child during that recording (cmiiw) - would be able to help her ex-boyfriend whom she knew was already off his rocker? What went through her mind during this recording, what even pushed her to make it in the first place?

The Kamiki arc, to be honest, was terrible. Chalking up all of his crimes to be "oopsie, I didn't know! teehee!" was such a ridiculous reveal. It did tug at me, knowing his revenge on Ai was all for nothing, but even then I question the turn out of this. Ai's character is all about how she doesn't know how to love, that she struggles with love. How can we go from her most genuine confession of love for her children to her revealing she loved Hikaru? Again, I get that she said she doesn't know what love is or how to love, but that's why her death was so impactful, that her last words were to her children and how she truly, genuinely loved them. Following up this reveal that Hikaru didn't even feel anything from this confession made it even worse. Hikaru Kamiki is truly a tragic character, but he suffers from being in a manga written by someone who cannot write tragic characters such as him.

I could go more into my grievances with the entire series, but I want to focus on the ending. Oh the ending. I absolutely despise what Akasaka made here.

Regardless on how you might feel about Aqua as a character, killing him off did absolutely nothing. It did not better the manga at all. It made agony for the sake of agony. We already knew Aqua intended to kill his father from the beginning, but why did he have to suddenly kill himself to go along with it? His plan to pin the blame onto Hikaru feels like a cop-out, there could've been so many other options and yet we go with the most ridiculous one.

Sprinkling in a little Aquakana at the end does not save face, either. It's a slap in the face, actually. I know I said I wouldn't talk about the ships or whatever pandering there was but Kana's anguished confession to a dead Aqua has got to be worse than Akasaka just coming up and laughing in your face.

Nothing felt resolved, nothing felt improved. You cannot tell me that this tragic event transformed into something good for Ruby. I truly do not believe she was happy at the final chapter. It tried to give us a happy ending, but instead they just tried to put flex tape on the unbroken part of a spout and the water still kept coming out in the actual broken part. Closure? We don't get that in Oshi no Ko! We get closure from Temu in this series!

I truly love Oshi no Ko. Ai is a character I heavily relate to and I love the main cast with all my heart. But this ending is absolutely terrible. The flaws could've been overlooked if it weren't for Akasaka constantly switching up his own plots and not being able to portray whatever he set out to show. I don't want to harp on him anymore than I already did, but I can't help but wonder what the story would've been like if someone else wrote it.

The ending leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I don't feel satisfied, and I know many other fans feel the same as well. It's extremely disappointing that this series could have been so good and the ending could have been amazing, but instead we were given this... I can't even call it an ending when it doesn't even feel like one.