Oshi no Ko Review

The premise sounds like a gimmick and the first episode disposes of that worry by running past eighty minutes and treating Ai Hoshino as a full person before it uses her. What follows is less a reincarnation fantasy than a procedural about how the entertainment business consumes people, moving through reality television, a stage adaptation, and a film production, each arc built around a specific mechanic of the industry. Aqua's revenge plot is the engine and Ruby's ambition is the counterweight, and the show is smart enough to let them disagree.

Doga Kobo delivers its most controlled work, with performance scenes staged like real broadcasts and a color sense that shifts as the twins move from stage light to fluorescent office. The anger is what distinguishes it. The series has specific things to say about parasocial attachment, about how a fandom turns on the person it claimed to love, and about producers who cast a teenager and then blame her for the result. It stumbles when the mystery machinery gets loud, and it recovers quickly. The first season is the best of it.