Oshi no Ko: Why Japanese Fans Are Still Furious About the Ending (Manga Spoilers) — "Please, Just Give Us an Anime-Original Ending… I'm Begging You"
【推しの子】最終回が日本で炎上した理由、日本のファンの本音（結末ネタバレ）
“Please, just give us an anime-original ending… I'm begging you…”
アニメオリジナルの結末を作って欲しい……お願いだ…
Oshi no Ko's manga ending is, with Season 3 of the anime now adapting it, the single most divisive finale in recent shonen — and a Japanese commentary video titled "Why Oshi no Ko's Final Chapter Got Flamed" pulled out exactly the arguments English fans keep asking about. The most-liked Japanese reactions split hard. The recurring complaint isn't really the bittersweet outcome itself — it's two things: Kana Arima slapping Aqua's corpse at his funeral (defenders insist it pays off an earlier "slap my body and curse me out like always" line; detractors call that the flimsiest payoff imaginable), and Ruby — a co-protagonist the whole reincarnation premise was built on — getting her recovery compressed into a rushed digest while pages were "wasted" on side characters. Threading through it all is the verdict that creator Aka Akasaka is "brilliant at opening a story and worse than mediocre at closing one," which is why the most-upvoted plea is for the anime studio to simply rewrite the finale. But not everyone's angry, and the defense that lands hardest comes from the readers telling everyone else to calm down.
Scroll while you watch
Japanese fan reactions (excerpted from 408)
- @Rinの三枚おろし👍 203
Setting the actual content aside — the sense that it was force-marched to a close, with way too many dangling plot threads left unresolved, was genuinely hard to take.
内容はおいといて無理矢理終わらせた感じと伏線の未回収が多すぎて無理ってのはちょっと思った
- @meme_4716👍 38
Someone said Akasaka is "exceptional at unfurling a story but below mediocre at folding it back up," and honestly that's exactly it. I think he just got bored.
「風呂敷を広げるのは卓越して上手いが畳むことに関しては凡俗未満」って言われてたけどマジでその通りだと思う。普通に飽きちゃったんだろうね
- @ダメなあの人👍 29
Akasaka is incredible at the hook of a story, but the way he wraps up the back half is so sloppy. Maybe it's less that he's bad and more that he's hiding a weakness — does he just lose interest partway through?
赤坂先生は物語のつかみを作るのがすごくうまいけど 後半畳むのすっごい雑よな 下手さっていうか苦手を誤魔化すためかもしれんけど 途中まで書いて飽きちゃうのかね
- @七-TM👍 90
For me the hardest parts were that the artist Mengo was visibly confused and tweeting about it even before the final chapter dropped — and that Akasaka himself apparently thinks this proves he's good at mystery.
個人的にはこの感じだったせいで最終話公開前にメンゴ先生がめっちゃ困惑してツイートしてたりしたのと、赤坂自身はこれでミステリー上手いと思ってるのが1番キツかった
- @こば-s6d👍 311
There's an earlier line — "slap my corpse and cuss me out like you always do" — so I thought, this is just paying that setup off! Putting real-world ethics aside, structurally it's the right call.
「死体にビンタしていつもみたいに口汚く罵って」ってセリフあるからそれの伏線回収じゃん！って思ってた。 現実での倫理観は置いておいて、お話の構成としては正解ではある。
- @一年前二年前三年前👍 19
Even in a story, you don't actually expect her to do it — I read that line as a light joke between friends (lovers?). She just came off as a woman acting out on selfish emotion. If she'd at least clung to him sobbing and weakly pounded on his chest, it never would've blown up like this. And calling THAT a payoff is honestly too feeble.
例え物語だとしてもやるとは思わないじゃん、普通に友人(恋人？)同士の軽いお巫山戯みたいな感じで言ったんだと思ってたわ 自己中心的な感情で暴走してる女にしか見えんかった。せめて縋りついて泣きながらぽかぽか叩く程度であればあそこまで炎上はしなかったと思う というか、あれを伏線回収っていうのはさすがにショボすぎる
- @Ryo-tl9cr👍 1
Kana Arima punching Aqua's dead body just isn't a thing I can picture… "Aqua… I loved you this whole time, don't disappear before I even got to confess…" — THAT was the right final line. What a letdown. 💧
有馬かなちゃんが亡くなったｱｸｱを殴るって発想ないわ…『ｱｸｱ…私あなたの事をずっと思ってたのに告白しないうちに居なくならないでよ…』が最後のｾﾘﾌの正解でしょ💧ｶﾞｯｶﾘする展開
- @おもちomo_chi👍 1,290
MEM-cho… yeah, turns out she's the one with common sense after all…
MEMちょ、、やっぱ常識人なんだな、、
- @tottexi-8👍 10
Ruby once misheard Kana Arima's nickname "the genius child actor who can cry in ten seconds" as "the genius child actor who licks baking soda," it became a meme, and that's how Kana Arima turned into "Baking Soda (-chan)."
（…）ルビーが有馬かなの二つ名である10秒で泣ける天才子役を重曹を舐める天才子役と聞き間違えた事がミームになり有馬かな＝重曹（ちゃん）となった
- @user-gl9mr7mi9q👍 257
Ruby was a protagonist too, yet she gives up on the revenge, gets subbed out by Akane as a stand-in, and is treated as an afterthought at the very end — I couldn't even tell what the whole reincarnation premise was for.
ルビーは主人公でもあったのに復讐は諦めあかねに代役を代わられラストも適当に扱われて何の為の転生設定なのか分からなかった
- @bbblack6533👍 842
In the end they spend a full eight pages on Baking Soda (Kana) airing her feelings, and as a result the whole process of Ruby — a load-bearing character — picking herself back up from heartbreak gets handled in an Akane monologue. That's the worst look of all.
結局重曹のお気持ち表明に８ページも尺割いた結果、 ルビー（重要枠）が傷心から立ち上がる過程をあかねモノローグで処理してるのが一番心象悪い
- @piyoko6003👍 36
Given how this story both opens and closes, I wanted Ruby — arguably a co-lead — drawn far more front-and-center. Kana could've stayed at MEM-cho's level of importance, the rom-com stuff with Aqua really wasn't needed, and I'd rather have seen Gorou and Sarina's story worked into the main plot.
このストーリーの始まり的にも、 終わり的にも、 W主人公ともいえるルビーをもっとメインに描いて欲しかった。 かなちゃんはMEMちょくらいの立ち位置でよかったと思うし、アクアとのラブコメとか本当いらないからゴローとさりなのお話を本編に入れて欲しかった。
- @赤樹-i8w👍 1
What hurt me was that Ruby's life after losing Aqua got wrapped up in digest form. I always thought Oshi no Ko was a dual-protagonist story about Aqua AND Ruby, so once Aqua's revenge arc ended, her life got closed out like boilerplate — her inner conflict, her growth, all of it left abstract and undrawn, treated like a bit-part to Aqua. It left a knot in my chest.
個人的にはルビーのアクア喪失からのその後がダイジェスト形式で終わったのが辛かった。 推しの子ってアクアとルビーのダブル主人公だと思っていたから、アクアの復讐劇が終わってその後はルビーの人生がテンプレのように締めくくられて、彼女の心の葛藤とか成長とかが抽象的で何も描かれず、アクアの脇役のように扱われたことが当時もやっと感じてしまった。
- @りった-y5s👍 2
(…) Kana — so beloved by the author that her actual growth scenes barely got drawn. Akane — liked too little, used as a convenient plot device to push the story along. And Ruby — so neglected she faded into the background while her most important beats got rushed through in digest. No matter who you stan, you go unrewarded. It's genuinely painful.
（…）作者に好かれてしまった結果成長シーンをろくに描写されなかったかなちゃん。作者にあまり好かれなかった結果話を進めるための便利な舞台装置として扱われたあかねちゃん。 作者から無関心で空気化し肝心なところはダイジェストで済ませられたルビー。 誰を推しても報われることがないの本当辛い。
- @樋-f7o👍 12
Honestly, even from early on the link between what they're doing and their goal never felt convincing, and I'd catch myself going "wait, what is this manga even about?" Just be a straight showbiz manga. Partway through, even the motivations felt incredibly thin.
そもそもが序盤からしてやってる事と目的のリンクの納得感が薄くてなんだっけこの漫画ってなってた ただの芸能界漫画でいいじゃんっていう 途中から理由も物凄い希薄にしか感じられなかったし
- @moom4969👍 39
It wasn't the small details — it was the slapdash payoffs, the way you could see right through to a "yeah yeah, wrap it up, wrap it up, now what'll I write next~" attitude. Like neither the world nor the characters were being treasured.
そういう細かいところじゃなくて雑な回収で「ハイハイ終わり終わり次何書こうかな〜」って透けて見える適当さが無理だった 世界観もキャラクターも大事にしてない感じが
- @全楽👍 5
Like… was this really good enough? Couldn't they have put out a whole extra volume drawing out where everyone ends up…?
なんか…これで本当に良かったのか？其々のその後を描いた１巻分くらいは出せたんでないか…？
- @tuka-saikou👍 1
"What a waste" was the single biggest feeling I walked away with.
勿体ないっていう感情が一番デカかったな
- @mi_ka_n_28👍 1
An everyone-ends-up-unhappy type of finale is obviously going to be a hard sell…
誰も幸せにならないパターンの最終回はそりゃ受け入れられないよ…
- @Nukomimisan👍 41
If it's flamed THIS hard, I really want the anime team to put in the work and go original with it.
ここまで炎上したらアニメ屋さんにはがんばってオリジナルして戴きたい
- @effiymz8332👍 0
Season 3's episode structure has been higher-resolution than the manga, so I'm selfishly hoping they'll polish this ending up far beyond the original too.
3期は番組の構成が原作より解像度高かったから、この結末も原作よりずっとブラッシュアップしてくれるものだと勝手に期待してます
- @あっまずいやめべひん👍 68
"I'll become your oshi no ko" ← however you slice it, THIS is the line they should've paid off.
「あんたの推しの子になってやる」←どう考えてもこっちの方回収べきだった
- @user-Illuminati👍 37
Honestly, I totally get the feelings, but… piling on a work someone made until it's a flame war is kind of sad. I loved Akasaka and Mengo's work. Have you tried Mengo's earlier stuff? This ending might sit a little better — if anything it's been made fairly fan-pleasing. They ARE meeting the reader halfway. And besides — wouldn't YOU hate hearing that said about something you made? 😢
正直、気持ちはめっちゃわかるけども。 人が作った作品にあーだこーだ言って 炎上だとかなんか悲しいな。 赤坂メンゴすごい俺は好きだった。 メンゴさんの過去作ご覧になってみては、？ 今回の結末も少しは腑に落ちると言うか、かなりミーハー寄りにしてもらってるというか。 読者に寄り添ってますよ。 そもそも、自分が作ったものそう言われるの君は嫌じゃないのかい？😢
- @Lenbu44👍 17
Most of the defenses in these comments are some version of "it's just a manga, just fiction, don't take it so seriously" — and I feel like that, indirectly, sneers at fiction even harder than most of the actual criticism does.
ここのコメ欄の擁護意見の大半が所詮漫画、所詮フィクション、マジになるな、みたいな内容のものばかりで、間接的には多くの批判意見以上にフィクションを冷笑していないだろうかと感じた
- @Yossi_x👍 1
I'd heard the ending was bad enough to start a massive flame war, so I braced myself — and then it was an anticlimax. Personally I thought it was a perfectly good ending. I made my peace with Kana's funeral behavior as just "that's the kind of character she is." But I do slightly get the criticism that Ruby's trigger to pick herself back up was drawn at an insane pace.
大炎上するほどラストが酷いって聞いてたから身構えてたけど拍子抜けだった。個人的には全然良いラストだったと思う。有馬かなの葬儀での行動に関しては「そういうキャラ」だから仕方ないって割り切れた。でもルビーが立ち上がるきっかけが異常なテンポで描かれたのが批判されるのは少しわかる
- @hinata_hoshifuru👍 16
The ending was genuinely just too awful.
最後はマジで酷すぎた。
- @いろは-l1e👍 9
The author wrote the parts the author wanted to write. That's all it was.
作者が書きたいところを書いた。ただそれだけ
- @ガイアアース👍 108
It also got proven that without Aqua as the object of her dependence, even Akane's words turn out childish, wishy-washy, and shallow.
あかねも、アクアという依存の対象がなければ、語ることも稚拙かつフワッフワの浅ましいものだと証明された
- @666-bbb👍 486
She goes to hit him, but even then she can't, and just rests her hand on Aqua's cheek instead — THAT would've been enough. That's all it ever needed to be.
叩こうとするけどそれでも叩けなくてアクアのほほに手を添える、とかでよかったんだよ
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