Oshi no Ko – 09

「B小町」 (B Komachi)
“B Komachi”

A dark cloud was cast over Oshi no Ko for the past few weeks, but this week, those clouds seemed to have cleared in the anime as we change trajectory towards the latest arc where the newly reformed B Komachi is set to make their grand on-stage debut.

THE IDOL

While it became all too apparent that reality shows were out of Oshi no Ko’s element, perhaps returning to the idol industry would be more this show’s speed. And for all intents and purposes, the beginning of this current arc isn’t a bad way to start considering how it gives us a better idea of where B Komachi is at the moment.

With MEM showing up in the group, they finally have a sense of focus and an uptick of popularity given her appearance on Love Now. It also allows for them to be more strategic about their course of action as they begin to think more about who should be the center, who should have singing as their main talent, and how they should coordinate their moves.

The only odd thing about all of this is how MEM faked her age to qualify for Love Now. I understand that it’s to address how trivial it is that the entertainment industry tends to put an expiration date for young girls in acting or music. Especially in MEM’s case when her dreams could only be pursued by the time she was financially stable around the age of 23.

At the same time, as a 25-year-old, perhaps it’d be crucial NOT to appear on a show where you date teenagers. As a popular YouTuber, you don’t need your breakthrough on television to be pretending you’re a teenager so that you could get away with dating minors. She didn’t get as hot and heavy on the show compared to the other girls, but it adds to the already present skeeviness that the anime thinks is comedy that the first thought in her mind wasn’t that she shouldn’t be dating high school kids.

LET THE RAIN FALL DOWN AND WAKE MY DREAMS

But now that the new arc has begun, a huge highlight of this is that B Komachi is now invited to Japan Idol Festival due to Aqua’s connections. This kickstarts the girls’ search for their center, but it feels like an odd conflict. Like MEM and Ruby both want it very badly, but because they’re obligated to include Kana, they table their own desires to pressure Kana into the role.

Kana’s been pretty insufferable since the Love Now arc, and it doesn’t get much better with her self-deprication and hatred for Aqua in high gear. Aqua tries to get her to tone down her disdain for him, but his Light Yagami nonsense doesn’t make him the voice of reason when he’s equally obnoxious about feeling entitled to Kana’s politeness.

The universe also has to forget about Kana having a genuine music career because the only song MEM and Ruby remember from her is “The Bell Pepper Song” that was huge when they were kids. But Ruby’s been in a band with Kana for a while. You’d think she’d cross-reference her musical career to see if she’d even have the chops to carry a band.

They made it seem like Kana was a charity case as a former child actress with not much going for her. But the karaoke scene revealed she had a whole catalog of songs that they even made music videos for. Would they have any of these songs in the karaoke machine if Kana’s music career was irrelevant enough to take Ruby and MEM by shock?

You’re telling me a 25-year-old girl on YouTube would never have stumbled across a “Where are they now?” clickbait article or video essay about a child star’s rise and fall? There’s suspension of disbelief, and then there’s “Lindsay Lohan has been in my girl group for a month, and I never knew she actually made music.” You are all in the entertainment industry, and no one has bothered to even look into the filmography and discography of any of your friends, peers, and mentors!?