Oshi No Ko season 1 has come to a fantastic conclusion, but I'm sure there's a few little details in there that you might have missed, so I've scrubbed back through and found as many as I can, starting with this one. Did you know that Aqua's hair actually changes through the show? Here it is in episode 2, where it's smooth and long on both sides, and here it is in the final episode, where you can see that it's significantly shorter on the left side. And it isn't just an animation thing either, this is consistent across the entire show. You can see that the change happens somewhere in episode 4, where his hair starts like this, and then ends like this. I would love to hear what you think the reason is, but here's what I'm thinking is going on. You can see that the hair is very similar to Aqua as an adult. The big thing about Aqua is that he is two people, he is the doctor that he used to live as, and now he is the actor that he is now. Aqua is consistently being given these new opportunities in his life that he could take and run with, but he's consistently trapped by this vengeance of the past that is holding on to him. And it's not just me saying this, Aqua himself says this when he's playing baseball with Kana. And in this moment He talks about how he's getting lost between the two versions of himself, the old one and the new one, and how they're combining into this single figure. He has a vengeful past and a hopeful future, and his entire conflict is going to revolve around which side he decides to progress on. Did you know that Ruby? Uh, you know what, we'll get back to that one. Did you recognise that the Ai-fan in the last episode is actually the same person who was in episode 1? In the director's room we can see some parody movie posters, including Truck Driver, which is actually Taxi Driver, and Foam Club, which is actually Fight Club. I couldn't tell what these other two are, but this one over here is definitely Memento. In episode 9 we find out that Mem's age is actually 25, and not the 18 that she's been telling people. In episode 6 they actually showed the ages of each of the cast members, but for Mem specifically they put a question mark. Just in the same way that Ruby, uh, you know what, Kana, we've seen that Kana has knowledge of the other actors in her field, including Akane who she has a rivalry with. But beyond that, Kana clearly aims to learn from these other actors, when we can see that in episode 5 when she's reading a book about Frillneck Lizards. But what does Frillneck Lizards have to do with anything? Well, Frill is the name of this girl here, who is one of the most successful actors at their school. Of course it could mean Iron Frill, the idol band from Zombie Land Saga as well. But there's a further mystery here that we can look into. You see, Kana also read another book in this series, one entitled Internet Sea Slugs. Also Aqua also read this one for some reason. Now I had never heard of Internet Sea Slugs before so I decided to google it, and I wasn't able to dig up too much but I did find this one flicker post where someone took a photo of an Internet Sea Slug and then titled it Internet Sea Slug. And down in the comments they provided the Japanese name that you can google to find out more information. So I did. And here I found an article that talked about Internet Sea Slugs and what they are and what they do and it was interesting but didn't really help me so I kept looking and I found another article and this one down the very bottom we found: "In fact, this Internet Sea Slug has appeared in a part of the 9th episode of Oshi No Ko" I've googled myself into a corner here. What does it mean? What does it mean? Did you know that Ruby? Uhh, yes, yes! Aqua and Ruby's shirts, yes. Aqua and Ruby love to wear the same shirts. In this one we can see that they are wearing twinsies shirts which is very cute but this one over here is a little bit different. While they both have a fish shape on them, Aqua's one just says Aqua, it's just his name. Now Ruby's actually says Taiyaki which at first doesn't seem like it should match. However, if you look a little deeper, Taiyaki actually means a fish shaped red bean cake which is delicious by the way. So they are perfectly matched. Just in the same way that Ruby, uh, you know what? Did you know in the first episode the star sand is actually shown in an earlier scene? In episode 5 you can see what looks to be Maxwell the cat. Here are all of Kana's hats. Okay, okay, okay. Okay. We need to talk about Ruby. Ruby has been really interesting this season. Despite being one of the main characters and despite being in every episode, she's had very little character moments. We haven't seen much growth from her, we haven't seen much introspection, we've seen very little of what she is and who she is and what she's thinking. And I thought that was really really strange and it's only made stranger by the fact that next season it looks like we're going to be focusing more on Aqua. And so I said, that can't be it. There has to be more. And so I had a look and there is. And it all starts with this shot right here in the ED. You can see that Ruby is sitting in Sarina's old room. And it really hit me that Ruby is older than Sarina ever was. This is no longer Sarina with a bit of Ruby, this is Ruby with a bit of Sarina. We've already seen the kind of effect that this is having on Aqua. I can't imagine the type of effect it's had on Ruby. And what makes it worse is that just a few frames later we can see her looking through the window and in the reflection we can see her wearing the hood. Now this hoodie has been a consistent symbol of the past. It is the symbol of the trauma that they both experienced. And while Aqua is really absorbed in this, it really feels like Ruby has just kind of gone on with her life. I mean every episode it seems like she's so bouncy and happy and just wants to be an idol. And she's becoming really good at it. So good in fact that people are starting to recognize Ai in her. And that knowledge didn't come from anywhere. That knowledge came from hours and hours and days and days and weeks and months and years of watching Ai on that TV. Ai taught her everything. How to act, how to dance, how to be an idol, how to lie. Lying is one of the core themes of this show. Everybody lies. And yet Ruby has been so consistently against it even within the group. But I refuse to believe that someone who has spent so much time watching their favorite idol would genuinely believe that lying is not part of the job. In fact I'm going to say this now. Ruby is lying about everything. Ruby is being the perfect idol by lying about everything. And she is presenting to us a version of herself that is exactly what we want to see. Every time she succeeds we cheer. Every time she moves forward with her goal we cheer. She seems so perfect and without fault and she doesn't worry about anything. But all of it is fake. And that is why she is the perfect idol. That is why she is the perfect Ai. Have you ever noticed that coffee and anime is always the same, like it's always drip coffee? Well if you have then I made a video discussing that right here.
