For me personally, the ugly and unpleasant can make for great content even if not the most enjoyable, and I found this to be outright one of the best episodes of Oshi no Ko after the appalling episode from last week. This episode shows very well how the death of a character can ruin the dynamics between a family due to the ensuing trauma and how one’s pursuit of revenge can negatively affect those around you.
Ichigo basically abandoned his wife and Strawberry Productions due to being heartbroken over Ai’s murder, and given he considered Ai his daughter of sorts, he probably blamed himself on some level for not preparing Ai for something like that given his knowledge of the industry. Now, he’s using Ruby as a foot soldier for his revenge even though it keeps her on a bad path, the daughter of the one he considered a daughter to him. Ichigo was fucked up by Ai’s murder just as much as anybody else, and seeing his nonchalant telling to Aqua that it was just a theory and nothing confirmed after Aqua started having a panic attack while he continues fishing, doing nothing meaningful to calm Aqua, the son of the one he considered his daughter, shows just how much he has changed with him not caring about his wife, Miyako, and showing zero care for the well-being of Ai’s children.
Aqua’s pursuit of revenge himself was what kickstarted Ruby going off the deep end since she realized that the reason Aqua had gotten back into the industry despite for years saying he had no further interest in acting was so that he could find Ai’s murderer after her realization that Gorou had also been murdered just as Ai was and that it was orchestrated by the same person. Viewers should recall that Gorou was the person most important to Sarina before she reincarnated as Ruby as he spent the most meaningful time with her with her parents not even bothering to visit her, so Aqua being on the path of revenge directly led to Ruby going on this path, and she doesn’t care who she has to hurt to get her revenge whereas Aqua had more apparent limits to the lengths he would go. I can even understand why Ruby reacted the way she has given she lost both Ai and Gorou, but Gorou’s death was truly painful for her given she had wondered for so long what had happened to him with Gorou being the biggest thing tying her to this world.
In turn this came back to hurt Aqua himself seeing Ruby become the way she is after he did so much to protect her innocence and how Ruby’s pursuit of revenge led to him encountering Ichigo again, which shattered his illusion about him no longer having to kill his father, who was revealed to be Hikaru in Episode 28. And of course, Aqua had a one-track mind for revenge since he was 4 until recently after Taiki wrongly concluded that their father had already killed himself.
As for Kana, I’m somewhat miffed that she’s getting major flack for not being in-tune with Aqua’s emotional state when he was unresponsive to her due to him spiraling. I’m tired of so many people only watching anime so that they can self-insert into the protagonist’s shoes due to watching anime mainly as an escape. Despite Aqua having a ton of trauma, Kana herself has major trauma from her mother abandoning her when her career stalled, making her develop an inferiority complex and an intense fear of abandonment, making her deeply crave validation even though she goes out of her way not to stand out due to realizing that raw talent is less important than people skills in the industry, which is being triggered by Aqua’s treatment of her, so I believe it’s ridiculous that people are bashing Kana despite Aqua deliberately avoiding her for months and then physically hitting her upon their first meeting in a long while. Kana, with her own trauma, of course reacted in the way she did since the way Aqua is outwardly presenting himself as not wanting anything to do with her, and flaming Kana ’cause she isn’t perfectly in-tune with Aqua’s emotions like Akane is is a failure in media literacy as Kana being a self-absorbed girl is not the takeaway Akasaka wanted viewers to have from that scene. Kana does not and has never known about Aqua’s issues, and she cannot read minds. Not everyone is into psychologically profiling people like Akane is as that’s actually quite rare. The main takeaway Akasaka wanted viewers to get from this is Aqua’s spiraling and how the pursuit of revenge is not a healthy way to live since it pushes people away, much like how he never really got all the close to Ruby since he was 4 all the way up until now, which is probably one reason Ruby even decided to go on the path of revenge ’cause she never developed a relationship with anybody as meaningful as the one she had with Gorou.
I’ll explain it another way if I wasn’t being clear enough. Many people who have trauma have a hyperfixation on their own thoughts, actions, and behaviours due to how they’re scared to relive their trauma again. In the case of Kana, her mother emotionally abused Kana and abandoned her after her popularity decreased as a child actress, which led to her having an inferiority complex and having a fear of abandonment, a reason for her intense desire for validation and feeling needed, which Aqua exploited by roping Kana into joining his sister’s idol group.
Aqua imprinted on Kana since they were kids ’cause he knocked her off her high horse when she had an overinflated ego, and that moment led to her on some level viewing Aqua as this amazing guy since it was a good learning experience for her that changed her life, and she rightfully realized she needed to improve given her self-esteem was tied to her acting ability. Then Aqua did all he did in the Sweet Today arc just to make her shine, and she became obsessed him and made him the one she would work to have her feelings of validation and of being needed be realized, which is why she was so easily pressured into joining B-Komachi. Kana basically replaced her desire for her mother’s validation for her desire for Aqua’s validation.
And so Aqua avoiding Kana despite her doing what she’s doing for Ruby to seek validation from Aqua led to a serious decline in her mental state as she is someone who seriously needs therapy. In Episode 28, Aqua doesn’t respond verbally to Kana, who is looking for his validation, and he physically injures her too, knocking her to the ground. It actually makes 100% complete sense why Kana acted the way she did since she made it her life to seek Aqua’s validation, and him telling her to shut up and strike her is basically seen by her as Aqua reproaching her, triggering her heavily in the process. As she was basically reliving her trauma all over again, you can’t expect her to be in-tune with Aqua’s distress and react accordingly. When one engages with animanga, one should try seeing the behaviour of the characters from their own viewpointa and not just that of the protagonist that you’ve grown attached to. Kana did nothing wrong in the way she handled the situation, and it was the best she could given how serious her issues are. All of this shows that Akasaka understands trauma very well in how he has written his characters, and Kana should really not be getting any flack by people self-inserting themselves into Aqua’s shoes.
As far as the implications for Oshi no Ko’s story, after I had watched Season 2, I thought that Oshi no Ko would have a happy ending, but I believe Episode 28 dramatically increased the chances of the story having a dark ending with the reason I believe this being ’cause Ichigo didn’t also need to be looped into the revenge story, and since he was, what Akasaka may be going for is showing how people get fucked over by something such as Ai’s death, first shown through Aqua, and then Ruby, and now Ichigo too. Another reason I believe this is that I think if Aqua hadn’t lashed out at Kana, she of all people might’ve been able to calm him down since she is the one he fancies, but maybe Akasaka’s deliberately keeping Kana out of the revenge plot to ensure that Aqua completes his revenge against his Hikaru after all with the only one who could talk him out of it never being looped into things. Akasaka was perhaps friends with an idol who was murdered and knew somewhat of the fallout of that girl’s murder and wants to preach about how a life in pursuit of revenge ends up ruining many people’s lives. This would make sense for a mangaka since Japan has a significant mental health crisis, and someone actively working in the industry like Aka does would be in a position to highlight how this is perhaps magnified for fans of and those working in the in the Japanese entertainment industry with how many fans latch onto idols due to something they lack in their own lives and considering the pressures those working in that industry face. In any case, it was an outstanding episode despite the ugliness of what it depicted. I don’t know Oshi no Ko’s ending, but I know western anime fans hated it, and this could possibly be a case of media illiteracy or a lack of understanding on a serious issue in Japanese culture.