Forum - View topicOshi no Ko (TV) (w/ index).
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ACｘS
 Posts: 903 |
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6:
Goddammit, just when I mentioned how I don't want to discuss "don't we all put on a show even in our daily lives", Aqua had to make this passing remark. Nope, not gonna say anything about this Jungian persona stuff. Online bullying! YES! The topical subject that we know so much, but never really discuss it openly. But to be fair, discussing bullying in general is becoming much more mainstream now than before, with the likes of A Silent Voice and March Comes Like a Lion (the latter is particularly stellar at discussing it). But online bullying? I think this show has done a brilliant job. Online bullying is particularly insidious because of the online anonymity involved, so if you don't get caught doing something bad, people tend to go apeshit. I feel that Akane's story is showing an extremely bleak and cynical portrayal of what online bullying looks like for celebs, but it certainly isn't all false; there's a lot of truth in it. What I love the most is how the episode segues from the light-hearted "personal branding is everything" to the miserable "this is how personal branding got you screwed". The other thing I love about this episode? Amplification: the irony of how the entertainment industry loves to play things up (see Yuki's "exaggeration" moment... foreshadowing, much), and now the online hate for Akane is catapulted too. The internet is basically an echo chamber and anything that happens on TV (especially reality TV) gets amplified. More so when social media LOVES to tell you more of what you want to know, including (and especially) hate comments. It's just tragic just how Akane had to learn this hardest way, and like it or not, hate comments are the ones that will eat you up bit by bit. That's why it is particularly insidious: it chips away at you bit by bit, slowly but surely. And no, telling Akane to stay positive is probably the worst thing you can do in this case. Just to wrap this topic up: spoiler[Yes, of course this episode is making reference to Terrace House and Hana Kimura. You can't tell me otherwise.] A small observation I made: that bit where Aqua loves being able to eat unhealthy stuff without feeling sick. Aqua still makes internal monologue concerning Current Life VS Past Life. Ruby? Not much. In fact, not anymore. I think it's because Ruby has "outlived" Sarina in sheer duration. Sarina died when she was 12, but she has lived as Ruby to the current age of 16, so naturally she wouldn't refer to her past life as if it's her "main" life. Aqua? Also 16, but he lived longer as Amamiya since he died probably when he was already in his 30s. I find this bit strangely allegorical, especially how Ruby has somewhat moved on with her new/current life, but Aqua still hasn't gotten over his past life. Can't blame him; Ruby accepted her death due to illness, while Aqua was basically killed.
I don't think this is cancel culture, which sometimes can even have a political undertone. The common (not always, but common) pattern is how a celeb says or does something offensive or controversial (e.g. a hot take), and people are offended by it so that celeb is basically ostracized, shunned, or just censored, especially if they don't seem to be rightfully "punished". To "cancel" someone is a form of justice... in many occasions, mob justice. Cancel culture can actually be debated on whether it is okay or not, although personally I am not for it. To me, Akane's case is straight-up online bullying. There's no room to debate about it; it's simply bad and wrong, and nobody says that online bullying is otherwise. The public discourse is always about to openly discuss it and how to solve it (hopefully). I think this show is bold at making an example of it, and I hope more shows are gutsy enough to do something similar. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Oh this is absolutely mirroring Hana Kimura's case No doubt about it. Manga fans also thought this too....which is how I learned about it in the first place.
Eh, this is very much that. Akane's 'controversial act': Slap Yuki and hurt her face. WE as the audience know it was an accident and Akane feels terrible about it. But the public doesn't and now they are outraged that Akane wasn't fired off the set for this. Cancel Culture is also not okay to me...unless the person did something REALLY terrible but even if they did, I wouldn't Tweet abusively at them....because that's just not my personality. |
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ACｘS
Posts: 903 |
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There is one critical difference in Akane's case: people have been shitting on her not just during the show, but even before the incident and in fact, all her life. The incident was only the straw that broke the camel's back. That's why her childhood flashback was actually critical in this case to show that it's clearly not any form of justice; it's just pure malice. The take-home message was set in stone: "When Akane did something bad, people shat on her. But when she did nothing absolutely nothing wrong—just trying her best and working to make everyone happy—people still shat on her." It's this state of helplessness bully victims go through that makes bullying particularly destructive. She could simply shut off from social media—something celebs are publicly announcing these days to counter the detrimental effects of social media—but too bad: her career centers around public perception, she was desperate to improve her public image and help her manager, and most importantly, the public perception is tied to her self-worth by then. spoiler[But I love how the show vividly lays out the build-up to Akane's psychological state before scratching Yuki's face by accident. If the incident is a reference to Hana Kimura, the build-up offers a close look at Hana's state of mind before her lash-out during the show. As depressing as it may be, the online berating was very probably what Hana experienced too.] |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Well, that part is definitely true yes. She was getting crap even before the accident.
I think this is a case of cyberbullying and Cancel Culture. Or one escalated into the other. I've always felt the latter is a more extreme situation...because it affects the person beyond social media. With cyberbullying, you can choose to avoid social media and lay low and it will be forgotten quickly. Cancel Culture can ruin someone's life outside of their room and that is the intention. |
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ACｘS
Posts: 903 |
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I agree that simply switching off is a way to not let hate comments get to you. That's Aqua's "strat": just lay low, don't rock the boat and just live your life (then again, Aqua just never cares about what others think in general, anyway).
But I really feel for Akane's situation, which is vastly different from Aqua's. She has an agency that is desperate for her to improve public image, and she had to see her manager getting grilled over her shortcoming. She can't switch off; her career essentially depends on public image. Akane has always been bullied her whole life, so it's basically bullying, with cyberbullying as a subset. Unlike Aqua who is basically an adult living in a kid's body, Akane is still a kid whose self-esteem and self-worth are still at a very vulnerable stage. Someone her age would either lash out or take it when someone says she sucks, but when you grow up, you learn to not care about what others think. This show is about the entertainment industry, which lives on public perception, and how unforgiving it can be (especially for Japanese entertainment... Korean too, imho). Akane got the really short end of the stick, and I'm curious to know how Aqua plans to turn her life around. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15505 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I saw it coming that she had an eating disorder when at the party she claimed to be a vegetarian, and then refused to give up the tongues, because it probably would have been more obvious that she wasn't eating anything if someone else was doing it. Hopefully Aqua picked it up then. Which thinking about, he was a doctor in his past life, I wonder if that is the sort of thing he can pick up on?
Bullying can really destroy your mind, and it is so much worse for someone where it is so public. |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11311 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 06: Egosurfing
Summary: Pending Comments: Pending Screen Caps:  
 
 
 
 
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Episode 07
So as you can see, Akane has been set up as the Second Girl for Aqua. I'm not in favor of this pairing...mostly because they're both rather unstable. Kana can at least keep him grounded. AkanexAqua just seems very unhealthy to me. (not that I ONLY like 'healthy pairings' cause you guys should know by now that isn't true) 
But Akane imitating a dead girl that Aqua can't let go of is a very bad idea. Not the first romantic plot I've seen doing this...and I don't like it every time it happens. Because it's fake, it will never be the real one and it's going to hurt both characters very much. (this isn't a spoiler; these are my personal feelings on how it will go when the author is wise lol like I said, I've seen this tragedy unfold several times in other works) |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23858 |
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I find it hard to get excited about any pairing involving Aqua. Except for his dead "mother", he seems to have zero interest in the opposite sex. Having Akane attempting to become a surrogate for Ai is an interesting idea, however. I was chuckling when she basically turned into an FBI profiler in putting together Ai's mindset.
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ACｘS
Posts: 903 |
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7:
So basically, Aqua's master plan is to simply counter Akane's negative PR with positive PR. Of course, the PR must be authentic, or at least come off feeling as authentic as possible. Aqua (and the show as a whole, essentially) is fully aware that such a strategy doesn't always work (even IRL), and is simply taking a huge risk at a shot. That's what Miyako meant when she said that reality isn't poker, where you can at least calculate your chances and back down from a shot. But real talk: if you want to extrapolate this scenario with one IRL spoiler[(Hana Kimura's case in Terrace House)], you have to admit that there's quite a lot of conveniences at this show's disposal that made Akane's positive PR "campaign" a success: - Aqua with his good video editing skills - Mem-cho with her PR skills and experiences - Yuki with her amazing spatial and self-awareness - Kengo and his musical talent - Even the *director and, despite his cynical motives and self-interests, his moral values Like it or not, even if Akane drew a whole lot of flak from the public, she basically has an entire PR team by her side already. With all of their help and their support for Akane, they managed to turn her life around for the better and help her back on her feet. Man, if only bullying victims IRL has such a PR team by their side, ammarite! See, that's the sad reality: most victims don't have that kind of support by their side either. Akane's life would have been a whole lot worse if Yuki's, the unintended main subject in Akane's bullying, had been a bitch instead. The show does clearly acknowledge that the online bullying will still continue sporadically, so it's clearly not naive and I will give kudos for that. But what surprisingly caught my attention more eventually is Akane looking up Ai. Not just "looking up", but basically researching her nearly to the point of obsession. That bit made me learn more about Akane: 1) she's a perfectionist, 2) she's also a method actor. I just wonder how the public would perceive Akane's new persona: will they think it's too fake, given how drastic her character will be before the fallout and after her comeback? Given how scrutinizing the public is, I don't think they would accept her new persona just like that without any plausible explanation. *Uncanny how the director's age is 35, which is probably around the same age Gorou/Aqua died. Aqua and Akane are basically half the director's age, yet Aqua talks to him like an adult would because, well, he really is an adult (even around 35) on the inside. Let that sink in. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Oh, doesn't have to. I think the series does very well at establishing this plot point and not allowing us to forget it. Particularly with this gem of a scene that was so good that I had to Tweet about it. lol 
This is a very serious moment and everything about the frame and the dialogue emphasizes this. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15505 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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My thoughts about what can make the whole Akane acting like Ai as being fake, is kind of on a feedback loop that Ai already kind of said that her persona was fake in the first place. We saw that Ai had a big insecurity that everything about her was fake, and things like her ability to feel love and stuff would also be fake. In general the whole fake vs authentic thing kind of feels like something that can go down pretty deep.
Even going outside of just something like the entertainment industry, people putting on persona, I would say is a very human experience. And the questions are for when does something that may have a good deal of manufactured character, become something appreciated. Arguably a questions about entertainment itself. And probably something that has deeper subjects about things like parasocial relationships, and what other impacts there can be. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Oh true, but I was talking about how if Aqua started liking Akane for acting like Ai, (even fake Ai) it'd only be for that reason and I don't think a relationship like that would be good for either of them or last long. It's the oldest rule in the book; want someone to love you; be yourself. Don't copy others. Don't be insincere. Or they won't love you for who you truly are. And that's not love. Ai's on-stage persona might be fake...but I think Aqua and Ruby saw the true Ai during their brief years together. 
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11311 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 07: Buzz
Summary: Pending Comments: Pending Screen Caps:  
 
 
 
 
Last edited by Tony K. on Thu Jun 15, 2023 10:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Episode 08
Ugh, I feel bad for Kana. Nothing worse than spoiler[seeing the guy you like kiss another girl]
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