[Oshi no Ko] 3rd Season

Satisfied with his investigation of Lala Lai Theatrical Company, Aquamarine "Aqua" Hoshino shifts his focus from revenge to career growth and becomes a regular on the variety show Dig Deep! Chase the Impawsible. With memories of his mother still lingering in his mind, Aqua cuts contact with Kana Arima, leaving her unable to enjoy the surging popularity of her idol group, B-Komachi.

Meanwhile, following the bone-chilling discovery during B-Komachi's recent music video shoot, Aqua's sister, Ruby, resolves to solve the murders of those dearest to her. With the help of another soul still weighed down by Ai Hoshino's untimely demise, Ruby rises through the ranks, using any means necessary to get her way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arima, Kana Main

Han, Megumi Japanese

Kurokawa, Akane Main

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Hoshino, Aquamarine Main

Ootsuka, Takeo Japanese

Hoshino, Ruby Main

Igoma, Yurie Japanese

Hoshino, Ai Supporting

Takahashi, Rie Japanese

Mem-Cho Supporting

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Saitou, Miyako Supporting

Lynn Japanese

Gotanda, Taishi Supporting

Kase, Yasuyuki Japanese

Amamiya, Gorou Supporting

Itou, Kent Japanese

Tendouji, Sarina Supporting

Takayanagi, Tomoyo Japanese

Yamashita, Shinpei Producer

Kobayashi, Ryou Producer

Yoshioka, Takuya Producer

Saitou, Shingo Producer

Reviews

Mar 25, 2026

emberreviews

Recommended

Oshi no Ko season 3 continues to take our central cast of aspiring entertainers deeper into both the more unsettling realms of the industry and the final stages of Aqua’s revenge plan against Ai’s killer. Be it social media flame wars, idol scandals, or the fundamentals of pitching a film to producers and investors, this show’s penchant for covering an excessive amount of ground in excruciating detail leaves me captivated for nearly every second, with excellent pacing and smartly-composed dialogue to keep the hook in me every step of the way. It also continues to be one of the best “soapboxing” anime I’ve seen, a ... term I normally use pejoratively to describe manga authors using their characters to go on rants about things they don’t like and how much smarter they are for being correct, but feels much more naturally implemented here, with the constant gripes about an industry’s practices stifling creativity or progress stemming from a genuine yearning for something better while still begrudgingly participating in the system at it stands instead of whining about how much better they are for seeing its faults.
This sense of being trapped in an imperfect system nicely parallels several of our core characters’ arcs in this particular stretch of the story, be it Aqua and Ruby’s stubborn commitment to their varied approaches in how to take revenge for their mother, eventually driving their relationship to the most strained it has ever been due to their further perpetuation of lies and cunning schemes, or Kana’s growing malaise and stagnation as she desperately seeks out stronger acting roles and nearly getting crushed by the unforgiving nature of public opinion as a result. There is a profound complexity at play that keeps me coming back for more, even when the few bits of supernatural elements seem mostly unnecessary or a certain reveal in the finale bears potential to send the entire story spiraling into an unimaginable trainwreck.
And, as usual, Doga Kobo continues to present an unbelievably gorgeous production to convey all of this. It cannot be overstated how immensely beautiful these character designs are, with so much detail in their linework, facial expressions, and character acting that I’m simply blown away. The few compositing issues I noticed from last season seem to have vanished entirely, the intensity of the framing, especially with close-ups, leaves insane levels of impact, and the deep saturation of the color design is both alluring and threatening. Though I have a few concerns about where this is all heading and I occasionally wish it went a bit beyond its PG-13 nature, if this story manages to stick the landing, we could be looking at one of the best thrillers of the decade.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 25, 2026

Marinate1016

Mixed Feelings

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Objectively, Oshi no Ko season 3 is the best the show has ever been narratively. Subjectively, this is by far the worst season of the show for anyone who likes Akane. Doga Kobo consistently disrespected she and her fans by butchering and reshuffling her big moments, not drawing her with the level of attention and detail other characters(Kana) get and even the way the social media team handled this season showed an utter lack of respect for a huge portion of the fanbase. More on that later. If you are one of those weirdos who are somehow not invested in any of the girls, don’t ... care for stan wars or just want to watch the story play out, well congratulations, you’re in for a treat. The stakes, drama and tension are at an all time high in this season and that magic from season 1 that made the series so popular has returned. Doga Kobo do put in some of their best work ever in this season in the terms of direction and storyboarding. I just personally cannot overlook how one of my favorite characters of all time was done. Your mileage may vary.

What made Oshi no Ko so special in the first place was 1: Aqua’s revenge plot and quest for Ai’s killer. 2: The critical examination of the Japanese entrainment industry. This season nails both of those. Whether it’s showing how directors take advantage of up and coming idols, idols covering up relationships and hickeys, etc., I think this season hit a lot of this stuff on the head. It’s so messed up how constrained Japanese entertainers have to live. The idea of living purely to please others while you’re deeply unhappy and suffering on the inside is horrible. There’s so many toxic and unhealthy practices normalized within this industry and even though it’s an anime, Oshi no Ko does a halfway decent job shedding light on them. Is it going to change anytime soon? No, it’s an industry that thrives on parasocial behavior and the same sort of toxicity that hurts idols, keeps them employed. It’s a brutal cycle that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Compound that with the fact that most of these idols haven’t even finished high school and are pretty ignorant of the real world and you have a recipe for disaster as we see during Kana’s arc in the first half of the show. Aqua is such a difficult character to talk about because on the one hand, he’s an incredibly talented actor and supremely intelligent.. on the other hand he’s a manipulative egotistical emo dweeb who makes awful decisions because of his guilt. If you’re a fan of his, you’ll love what he gets up to this season, pulling strings from the shadows, trying to keep his family from falling apart, etc. If you didn’t like him from the first two seasons, well, he’s not gonna do many favors here. He’s a particular flavor of character that’s not for everyone. My personal thoughts on him this season are.. well, I stand with Ruby. I just cannot stand Aqua as a character. His obsession with revenge has blinded him to so much around him, including best girl who was literally willing to die for him? Not to mention betraying his sister’s trust in a huge way this season. Watching him is like watching someone slowly descending into madness and you know there’s only one way it could ever end. Again, if you like that, more power to you. This season is basically season 1 aqua on steroids.

As a loyal Akane fan from day 1, this season hurts. Aka’s writing sucks, but for the studio to deliberately butcher her big moments and show so much bias towards Kana is just crazy to me. I don’t think I have ever seen a studio be more shameless about something like this? We have all joked before about studios preferring certain characters in shows, but it was usually over minor stuff and us just joking around. In Oshi no Ko, Doga kobo decided to change chapters around which lessened the impact of Akane’s big moments, they cut certain scenes and then when they did partially adapt stuff, the way they animated Akane took away all her ferocity and personality that make her unique as a character. If you want objective proof of this bias, simply take a look at the Oshi no Ko social media pages that immediately posted Kana’s big moments the day of or the day after at the latest, while Akane’s scenes were posted a week later if ever. Multiple staff members are on record saying they prefer Kana and I don’t mind that, but it shouldn’t come through so blatantly in your work. It’s a disservice to the story and to fans of a character. I know this isn’t a big deal to a lot of people, but again, I’m a huge Akane stan and she’s already been shafted so many times by the author himself, so I wanted to at least see her get the respect she deserved in the adaptation.. that didn’t even happen. Gross.

This is without a doubt some of the best direction Doga Kobo have done. I think Ruby and Aqua’s been bust up after the events of the Kana arc is one of the best scenes in the entire series. Akane and Aqua’s bridge conversation and the hour long finale.. all incredibly cinematic moments that ooze quality. There’s no doubt this staff are supremely talented, it’s just an issue of what they choose to spend that talent on that doesn’t sit right with me.

Alright, I yapped way more than I intended to on this season. I really only reviewed this because I felt this season was an injustice and disrespectful to longtime fans and needed to vent on it. Casuals will love it, people with no skin in the best girl war will love it and fair play to them, I wish I could go through shows and not get attached to characters. Sadly, I’m a romantic and can’t help but fall in love with characters as I watch shows. A blessing and a curse.

Oshi no Ko season 3 gets 5 stars out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 25, 2026

bacd1990

Not Recommended

Funny

Episodes 1-10 of this anime were really executed fantastically. Top notch art style quality, really good acting, and the anime even outshined its original manga source material. Song animations are especially the best aspect of this anime. Ranking the 10 episodes alone of the season I would probably give it a score of 8-9.


However this is where the good part ends, and we enter episode 11 that undermines the entire massage of how bad the idol industry is in Japan, and transforms it into a meme with forbitten sister brother relations plotline. I was hoping that anime adaptation would avoid this plotline, and change ... it into more anime original one, but it looks like they are going to stick faithfully to the manga version that was really controversial in the fandom.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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