Oshi no Ko - Episode 9 Discussion

This discussion post probably isn't going to be gaining any amount of traction, but I figured I'd make it anyway for the sake of it.

Well, there's definitely not going to be discussion if no one creates a thread, so thank you for the proactiveness!
Thanks for posting I love coming to check out the discussion. This has been my favorite show this season.
Thank you for doing it, I love seeing what others say after watching an episode!

The shirts in this show continue to be great

The small things are lifting the show up and it shows how the team cares about it.
Lmao at Kana's "baking soda" shirt
Book titles too! Kana is always reading something weird.
- Aqua was reading it earlier in the episode.

This episode really make Kana shines even brighter than before Arima Kana

I'm starting to think Kana is the actual MC
My thoughts exactly she might be my favorite in the show now from this episode.
"I want to be the bright white light that captures your heart"

...is how I interpreted the last line of her song (don't have English subs, so my guess could be wrong - is there a translation somewhere?).

Another amazing episode as always. And we finally get to Memcho's real age. She was lying about it this whole time. But Ruby doesn't care about it one bit. And with her they can finally start their idol story. Apparently even Shiranui Frill enjoys reality TV. Kana wears "Baking Soda" t-shirt this is perfect. Aqua finally gets to talk to the producer about Ai. She met her future murderer at LaLaLai it seems like. Producer seems nice, offering a chance at JIF. The group decides to go to karaoke to choose the center but Kana seems like the obvious winner even if she doesn't want it. Can't wait for the next episode.

As an anime-only I have absolutely loved this series. I managed to go in completely blind and have been blown away. I am fully prepared to binge the manga as soon as this season is over.
Is the baking soda T-shirt non-canon, as in just a nod from the author/director to the reader/viewer? I don't see how it would make sense plot-wise, Kana putting it on would be a sign of wholesomeness and friendship with Ruby which really doesn't fit when Kana recently threatened to punch Ruby in the jaw, and is herself feeling down for Aquatic reasons.

As an anime-only, I'm kind of worried how OnK will finish considering we only have two more episodes left. Will we be left with a cliffhanger and an eternal 2nd season limbo? I can imagine that B Komachi wouls perform and Aqua may get a good lead regarding Ai's killer in the final episodes.

I may just grab the manga afterwards to see how it continues.

The anime is only going to get to around chapter 40 while the manga is up to 121 so yeah the story is not even close to being finished unfortunately. But it's definitely doing well enough to get a season 2 and beyond.

Kana having a hard time dealing with the Aqua x Akane situation. I wonder how things are going to continue between her and Aqua - especially with Aqua's investigation seemingly bringing him closer to Akane due to the LaLaLai connection.

The juicy gossip that producer guy had was..."one time, AI had a crush"? That's it, really dude?

free sushi doe.

but for real.. at least he mentioned the theater group so that narrows it down.
- Probably why he rolled out the Y40000 sushi tbh
I thought the main focus of that one was that the answer to what Aqua was looking for was probably at Lala Lai

One of my favorite manga faces came from the chapter covered this episode:

Today we got episode focused on Ruby and B komachi 2.0. I really enjoy that the characters aren't just AI with puppets but actual human being with emotions and variable amount of EQ. The love is romance is braving underneath and every character has different emotional response.

A lot of musical bits were included in the episode:

A training montage:
Girls training

A comedy bit:
Kana in pepper costume

And an clip from music video:
Kana with the moon

I am not the huge fan of musicals but as a plot device it was really cool. In the background we see Aqua scheming, captivating and making strong connections.

With how much attention Kana is given, I wonder if she is setup to be Aqua's actual love interest down the line. Their personaalities do match the best, bar maybe Shiranui.

I am excited to for more episodes and already looking forward to the second season.

I have been watching the night of each release with a friend so it has been a fun communal experience too.

I think Kana is going to be the center after what the last scene showed us in this episode. Although I was rooting for ruby before that though.

One of the weird things I’ve been dealing with the last few years is being out of high school and out of college, I notice less and less anime/manga focusing on my age group. There are some out there, but a majority of them focus on high schoolers. So to find out a main character is my age was honestly kinda refreshing for me. I’m definitely going to be rooting for her!

Can we all appreciate the fact that they made an entire 90 sec music and dance choreography for what is just 9 secs of clip in the anime. The amount of production that goes above and beyond the manga for this show is insane.

Bonus 90 secs of Bell Pepper dance

Always over too soon! Not sure how they're going to leave the season hanging at this rate...