Sorry for the late upload! We had some trouble editing this one. EPISODE 2 is on Patreon if you want to see the uncut now! Otherwise, you can wait until tomorrow morning for Eps 2 & 3 here on YT! This show has blown our expectations away. it's so well made and great, and we can't wait to see where the season goes!

"They were almost like an aunt and uncle or like, Ai's parents". That's exactly it. When Ai sees her life flash before her eyes, she doesn't see her time in the idol industry. It's filled with moments she spent with her children and what became her adoptive parents, the things she really cared about, and the only people she could say she's ever loved. The Saitous fulfilled that role for her, and as grandparents for the kids, even if they weren't all fully aware of it.

The most brutal part is that if you rewatch this episode you will see moment where they show scenes of the star sand and the white flower earlier in the episode.

Fun Fact, you praised the VA work in this show and of Ruby's in particular, but this is her first ever VA job.

*Doc being pushed* Everyone: What??? Big brain Lindsay knowing what will happen: Oh BIRDS!

Despite never saying it, all of Ai's actions definitely show how much she loves her kids.

fun fact! "love is war" is actually outside the author genre. Most off Aka Akasaka works feature more dark themes and supernatural. One of the weekeness of his previous works at least on my opinion is lack of charisma to the characters and chemistry to the interactions.I believe that "loves is war" started as some sort of training to overcome this. (short strips, just two or three character interacting, always in the same room, even after being serialized stayed on this formula for the first few releases)

Been looking forward to this anime for a long time and as a manga reader, this two episodes have been a blast, anime captures the shine and darkness of entertainment industry perfectly imo

In one of the series Aka did before Kaguya, he had an author comment where he said “I love unfortunate girls”, and I think that love is at it’s most obvious with Oshi no Ko

Oshi no Ko: Emotional Damage Speedrun The Idol Industry is brutal! And so is their fanbase. The amount of suicides alone from the Idol industry is unreal.

who knew Aqua was a fan of Lelouch. One special eye, hates his daddy, wants to find his mothers killer, wants to protect his sister, emo af, smart af

This show really came out of nowhere and blew every one away Edit: for the people saying "um actually it's a pretty popular manga and it was most anticipated anime of the season 🤓" keep in mind that people have lives and aren't constantly in the loop about what's going on so for them, including me, had this show really come out of nowhere

What's crazy to me is that this show really could've just been a story about Ai coming up in the industry while juggling the responsibility of being a mother and her kids getting into the industry with wacky hijinks (that Kaguya's author is incredible at writing) and I would've been fully invested. But instead Author goes....Nahhhhh I can do you one better }:)

The Aqua book reading scene means more than just a kid reading a thick book. Japanese has these Kanji letters that is earned years in education stages. Surely a mere preschooler will not be able to read Kanji words taught for High Schooler, right. Otherwise, he is a Genius, or have memory from previous live.

Since you talked about it @11:25 about the Ai name signification, it's actually a bit more clever than just using the word for love because it's always written in katakana (which is the alphabet used for loaned words in short), as a diminutive of the loan word Aidoru (Idol), so it's kind of a play on word between Love/Idol. Her name also add to that, because Hoshino while her name is composed of both the kanji for star (hoshi) and field/plain (no), in japanese no is used as the particule for possessive, which would then translate her full name into either "the love of the star" or "the idol of the star"

theres so much praise for akasaka sensei which is good, but give some love too to yokoyari mengo, theres a lot of clear edits and extra bits she has pushed in to the story, plus her art is 100/100, in the manga you can absolutely distinguish ai's spark so easily

some really fascinating thoughts from both of y'all! I appreciate how y'all tried relating what you didn't know about to roughly similar situations you extrapolated upon. supplementary notes: - spot on that an idol has to put on something like a parent's facade - much like any sort of space that entertainers create, idols also create a space for fans to get away from the world. - in terms of the old japanese idol stereotypes, very correct that there certainly was a standard of purity when it comes to japanese idols, but i think that's more a thing of them being an "untouched" type of pure. there's certainly a variety of ways that they may present themselves. - that said, while japanese idols have been a thing since the 80s, the idea of them being "farmed," of there always being someone better, fighting to stand out, and feeling disposable, that's particularly true of AKB48 and others big name groups where there's literally dozens upon dozens of active members in each. former idols of theirs noted that earlier members were more about stronger, distinct (read: weird and funny) personalities, while modern members try to stand out in terms of singing or dancing. overall, with japanese idols, they try to appeal on themselves being likeable, or whatever particular theme the group has making enjoyable music. this really came to light with that "produce 48" show, where the japanese idols (right out of AKB48 and its sister groups) realized how different their respective industries were in terms of debut standards - kpop trainees may take years and years having high quality skills in singing and dancing before debut, while the focus for the jpop idols is on them having fun and making the fans happy. japanese idols do have some bar for their quality of singing and dancing, but the appeal is in the journey. where kpop idols debut with high quality performances, jpop idols debut so that we see them grow into making high quality performances. - regarding the voice actresses, off the top of my head, she has worked as a singer, but most most i could find was that she was part of a unit - FURIL', an early seiyuu unit. techinically a seiyuu idol unit, but like most seiyuu idols, not the same thing as idols. now her costar, megumi hayashibara, was effectively the ur example of a seiyuu idol (she herself doesn't believe she suits the term), the iconic seiyuu who inspired so many female seiyuu (since seiyuu idols weren't a common thing) - more due to the fact that voice acting even then wasn't a public-facing job, and she was one of the most famous for being a known face who was also a singer, and also did photoshoots (like standard photoshoots for CDs or promo interviews). where there was a rise in the popularity of idols thanks to morning musume, "seiyuu idols" as a term was used to ride that trend (for seiyuu like nana mizuki, yukari tamura). - i haven't watched "welcome to the NHK" just yet if that was you were referencing, but if you meant misaki's voice actress is an idol, yui makino isn't an idol either, though she is also a seiyuu idol being involved with some projects (one she's part of that's still active is idolm@ster cinderella girls, where she voices an idol, and she herself may still take part in concerts). on the topic of seiyuu idols, it's more that they're seiyuu who might form a temporary group for a project in the anime/manga/game industry. aside from idol companies that make such projects, or who specifically market their idols as seiyuu, there's no purity shlock or dating bans they have to worry about, short of typical good manners for standard PR. - i feel like your impressions of an idol industry constantly farming and churning out idols comes from your impressions of kpop idols, but the biggest boom in idol groups would have to be around 2010 onward where it was called "the warring idols era." strong chance that if you did hear any japanese idol groups, they might've been from this era. - what the babies were doing is wotagei - calls and chants, mixes, and moves (waza). it's basically fans doing their part to return the energy from the idols and increase the hype, like a feedback loop of fun. that "oi! oi! oi! oi!" from the other fans is the typical call that's done to the beat - there's other calls that are also used depending on song structure and the specific song. kpop has something similar with fans supporting their idols with details calls. mixes would be chants used during the intro or the instrumental break. one part of idol fan culture is that, while the calls are mostly whatever fits the rhythm, fans may organize and customize the calls for each song, and what mixes may be used (one might say the "babu babu babu babu" is the twins' "babu" mix lol). the waza, the moves that the twins were doing, are its whole entire thing. mainstream venues may only allow calls, chants, and mixes, but no waza. uchishi, those who are actively into wotagei, maybe even as its own dance subculture, would have their own groups (some are active on youtube, tik tok, and so on). technically you can theoretically apply wotagei to any song, and uchishi have their own fun making their own art of it. - what the twins were waving around were UOs. ultra oranges, aka UOs, are super bright glowsticks. UOs get _very_ bright lol. they stay bright for only a few minutes, so you usually snap them right at the part of the song that gets you most hyped. if you look at the other fans, they have penlights, battery-powered lightsticks, noticable because of the handles. kpop also has lightsticks as standard merchandise. back to what i do know about japanese idols, some may sell depending on a specific idol's color. but there's general penlights that can swap between several colors. - "he's a doctor, right?" it probably became evident to y'all, but that he recognized that it was the abdominal aorta, he realized that she was bleeding out quickly and likely beyond his help.

Idk If anyone else noticed it but Ai in Japanese means Love.

Loved your reactions and analysis! I found you guys through Kaguya so it’s really cool to see you enjoying his other work as well. The drama in this series is fantastic so I can’t wait to see what you think about it all.

This show is an emotional roller-coaster couldn't wait for yalls reaction expected nothing less from the goated Kaguya author.

Just to punch things harder, you can actually see the stalker in the audience before the twins did the otaku dance

This has been no.1 anime of all time on MAL for 2 weeks straight now Btw, Hoshino means “star” so Hoshino Ai would mean star of love or star love Also, kagura’s-sama shares the same universe as this

Fun fact, oshi no ko wasn't the genre out of the author's comfort zone but instead kaguya sama is. I haven't read instant bullet but it got cancelled and he was advised to try out comedy and ended up on kaguya sama

I am really happy whenever you post a new show❤

Ai's death is quite shocking when i first red the manga, seeing it animated really made me tear up. It reminds me of what happened to Christina Grimmie 😥

As a long time consumer of idol culture in general, as a western fan I always found the prying nature of the industry and it's gross obsession with purity disturbing. I'm glad that someone made this show to highlight the darkness and things I wish could change in the entertainment industry in general. Idols are people too, they aren't your wife or girlfriend and they don't have to be. If they respected idols as they seem to think, they would respect them having their own lives and celebrate when they find love or start a family. I'm glad you guys are reacting to this, it's incredibly real.

So in addition to the meaning of “Ai”, there are actually multiple meanings : 1. アイ from アイドル (Aidoru / Idol) 2. アイ from 愛 (Love) 3. アイ from 虚数 (Kyosu) - This one doesn’t pronounce “Ai” but one of its kanji can be pronounced as “Ai” on its own if I understood the explanation correctly. This word means something along the lines of “imaginary” which can also be seen as “Lies”

After watching it a few times, when I cry I smile. It was a celebration, she finally got what she wanted..Love ❤️

The author really went from making a nice feel good slice of life romantic comedy to a murder mystery. Talk about a 180

As a kpop fan, this episode hits close to home. They have all these restrictions and constantly have to put up a front to keep mostly their korean/japanese fans happy. Fuck that. Let them be themselves in public! Let them do whatever they want! It's their body and their life! This is the reason why I'm only into like 4 groups. I can only get into a group when the idols seem to genuinely be enjoying themselves, having fun and being honest and not holding back in a lot of areas (they also do their own music or at least participate in the creation of it). I swear the kpop industry would get a lot more from me if they didn't pressure idols, and right from the training process too. The current kpop generation seems to be breaking this tho! Every day I can see more and more idols being unapologetic, that's what we are here for 💜 I'm talking about kpop cause I'm not into jpop, but it's basically the same thing. The east asian fans are INTENSE to say the least, they "want to be skillfully lied to" fr.

very good decision to make the first episode that long, They let you get attached to Ai so you can emphatize with Aqua and Ruby at the end, makes you care about the characters and understand their motivation in the series. Unlike other anime where the main protag will just tell you they want to be a Hokage or something with shallow reasons and just revealing the real reason on a flash back in the middle of the series.

Funny you guys mention that 18:26 Take this with a grain of salt, I don't remember where I got this info. The reason why a lot of artist from Japan, especially girls, have done idol gig at some point is because being an idol is considered the easiest and often time first step for you to get in to the Japanese entertainment industry.

32:50 I’d probably freak out if a baby spoke let alone spoke adult Japanese 😂

Thanks for the reaction! Glad you enjoyed the show so far, definitely one of the strongest starts to an anime as far as I can remember.

Very emotional episode and it's just the first 😢

Fun little fact for ya this is actually set in the same exact universe as kayuga sama love is war.

The first time I heard about Oshi no Ko's manga I was also like "Huh? What the hell is with this synopsis...". But I heard it was really good and that it was Akasaka Aka (I just happen to be an early manga reader of Kaguya as well kk) so I started reading it and *god damn it was good!* I was so happy with how well they adapted the prologue since that was what I was most worried about due to it being *10 chapters long!* Thankfully they went the super extended episode route and adapted all 10 masterfully. Can't overstate how happy I was to watching it kk :D

I went into this show INSANELY hesitant after hearing the premise in the initial few minutes of the episode as is HATE idol culture and think its insanely toxic. I was very surprised about its commentary on it and how it handles its characters. Glad i gave it a chance and continued through with it.

AMA Networks, which is HIDIVEs parent company, signed an exclusivity deal with Japanese broadcasting network MBS. I’m sure that’s why HIDIVE ended up with a major show like Oshi no Ko.

I assumed that HiDive picked it up as they gambled it might hit big. The manga is very popular in Japan and readers in the United States were very excited for it. It worked out for them since this caused the most subs for their service yet.

"what a show this has been, huh?" - "captain, it's only been the first episode."

i can cry in 5 seconds flat i just protend to sneeze then stop then water comes out of my eyes finished with expression to seal the deal

Welcome to Aka-Sensei's wild ride.

Fun Fact: The VA for the stalker-murderer in this show is the same VA as Ishigami in Kaguya-sama.

On your latter talk about how the HiDive deal happened, HiDive has been a lot more flexible on what goes on their platform than most other streaming services. This is a double edged sword because you get a lot less popular shows here, but you also get shows that take more risks. As a Made in Abyss fan (that's also being streamed here), I know this as a fact that many streaming services are hesitant to air certain shows of certain themes... especially seinen works. I imagine crunchy roll or funimation taking a step back from this one after reading the synopsis and knowing the first episode is an hour and a half long... everything was working against this show from being aired. Yet out of all that, whether it be the synopsis or the hour long episode, or the fact that it's on HiDive, somehow it broke charts and that's wild.

50:58 “But I’m a doctor!” … I just play an actor on TV. ^_^

When the doctor says he will consider sarina wish when she is 16 was probably to motivate to live

how do yall upload the entire episode and not get copyright striked

yes, it is anime of the year 2024. and i think season 2 also has high chance to be AOTY again in next year anime of the year awards.

No, the Entertainment Industry here in America was never as bad as Japan's Idol Industry, and nothing has changed about either. Celebrity culture is just as it was then as it is now.

20:40 i thought the same thing but then i realised that he can't call the cops since Ai pregnancy is a secret, cops or the stalker would reveal the situation.

One thing to note, the translation at the end was a little off. Aqua doesn't want the director to adopt him, he wants the director to mentor him.

Honestly, the 9+ IMDB rating kept me watching, and am I glad that I did.

Tailor Swift would lose all her fans if she have a kid at 16 :P

"He's gonna Light Yagami his father" 💀💀💀💀

No hurry but when will you upload heavenly delusion?

Alternate Title: Redo of Healer

I feel so bad for their past live parents 😭 Imagine having your kid in hospital her whole life and she dies there......and dang she's reborn and happily accepted a new mother 😢

Come without expectation,...... After watching : 😭😭🤧🤧 i can't wait to see next week 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

It's been a while since I cried for an anime character

Biggest anime of the season is Oshi no Ko, second Aot, third is Vinland Saga season 2 and fourth is Demon Slayer. According to MAL at least. I excluded One Piece, because then Demon Slayer would be fifth

Fun fact this series takes place in the same universe as Kaguya canonically

They can't just hire a babysitter for Aqua and Ruby. That would risk the truth getting out. You see, female Japanese idols aren't allowed to have boyfriends let alone have children. If word got out that Ai had kids, it would ruin her entire career. The reason for this is because male fans have this fantasy that idol love songs are written for and about them. If a female idol gets a boyfriend, it it's revealed they had kids, it would break the illusion. It happened before with a member of AKB48 when a member got kicked out for dating a male idol. Even the seiyuu for Levi from Attack on Titan was forced to apologize because he had a son because the fan girls of Levi were pissed.

Literally everybody: "I love her design" Oshi no Ko: Yeah I know right? Would be a real shame if she'd be killed of in the first episode right?? :D

Ref the Doctor's body ... Look closely, you can see the stalker show up right as the Doctor is fading out. You can assume the stalker moved the body. ---------- Also... not a spoiler - I haven't read the manga. What if the doctor *isn't* *dead* ? "Of course he's dead. He got reincarnated!" You mean his soul and mind were moved to the baby? What if his soul and mind were *COPIED* to the baby? We don't know how reincarnation works! I doubt this happened but this is a wild show. I don't rule out anything.

And this is why episode 1 needed to be 90 minutes long, people would've jus dropped the show if it wasn't. The manga only worked because the author (and the artist, it's written by the author of Kaguya-sama but is drawn by the author of Kusu no Honkai) already had a loyal fanbase that trusted him enough to push through the weird stuff at the beginning, which was necessary to make the plot work. The premise itself would have been doomed to failure if the author wasn't already famous in the first place, that's one of the reasons this series is so crazy.

Damn you...! DAMN YOU!!! Damn you for making me cry!! 😭😭

愛(love)アイ(eye)逢(meet)哀(sorrow)

Aka Akasaka doesn't miss!

now watch the MV from yoasobi - idol. its really really good!

Nice reactions so far from both of you and I am loving it. One thing I've noticed is that Carson sometimes gives out a slight closed laugh even though the scene is not even funny(take this as a slight criticism) while Lindsay sometimes talks over when Carson is giving out his viewpoint of certain scenes. On the other spectrum, your positive point is that you really understand the story and read the characters dialogue better than other reactors I've seen so far. I'll follow your Oshi no ko journey and maybe some other series you will watch that I am also following ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

That's a nice berserk shirt man ❤️

This reaction is awesoome 🗻🗻

I remember when a show called Madoka Magica came out, it didn’t have that much impact, until a few episodes in where it pulled a 180 instantly gave it a 9.00 score on MyAnimeList then decreased to like 8.40 now. I have a bad feeling because the show’s score has been continuously dropping for that the first episode set too high of a standard that might harm the remaining run of the 11 episodes 😅.

i was waiting for your reaction!😭 a w as always 💯

Good reaction guys! Also,Mushoko Tensei has caught soooo many strays since this first episode dropped it’s fckn hilarious 🤣🤣

Linsay is a swiftie!

The anime is pretty cool i see.

Well I'm here lol😅

i want to be reborn as Adele's son/daughter

Bro this Ending felt like Someone punched me in the stomach

やっぱ泣くよね😢

AOTWUH (anime of the whole universe history)

I think what's even worse is that this barely scrapes the surface of how terrible the idol industry really is which is imo even more disturbing

*Doki! Doki!*

Their dad who would have to answer why he had a relationship with a 16-year-old girl

Hmm, I had watched some of your reactions before, but hadnt lately. But damn, out of the dozen or two reactions of the series, you guys utterly killed it.

20:37 CALL THE COPS and destory the whole life of AI.................

Many people don't understand why Dad wants to kill AI. No matter how high his status is in this industry. Imagine you get caught by society and you impregnate a 16 year old girl? Surely you will understand.

Sometimes i am so sad i cannot put double or tripple likes to videos, this one really deserved a bunch at least for my part HAHAHA

Aqua psycho check 🫣

at the end, some say that what she said to the stalker, was to guilt trip him to leave without hurting the children.

did you end up watching the post credit for this at all? Don't recall seeing it on the reaction part. nothing too important but still.

I would say it's a rly good show but not aoty level after the first ep it's gonna be pretty hard for it to maintain that level the show will still remain good but it's only the first episode that makes it special so yea i personally think heavenly delusion has a way more better premise but sadly it has failed to recieve a big audience

Maybe not AOTY but I can see this being AOTS.

Peak fiction

1:08:33, same shit happened to me, when it came out i thought it was going to be something like zombieland saga where its all happy, rising stars and singing. I waited up to the point where i had nothing else to watch and since i had put watching it aside for so long i decided to watch it thinking it was gonna be boring and trash. But holy was i wrong. That shit hit hard and am now a lifelong fan.

as manga reader i find it the 1st anime with insane art work

They will prolly adapt upto the Dating Show or the First Idol show arc so its still hard to say

"remember when "not Emilia" said "aishiteru"?" "Not Emilia"? Emilia is from Re:Zero right? No idea who you're talking about, Emilia was the only romantic interest from that show, the only other main girls were like, Ram and Beatrice. I don't *remember* who is this "not Emilia" girl you're talking about, sure you didn't mix something up?