Mirza Aaqib Beg
In ‘Oshi no Ko’ episode 6 titled ‘Egosurfing,’ Aqua continues to work on the reality dating show and gets to know her colleagues. One of the actors named Akane is struggling to get into the limelight and is under immense pressure to establish a career in the industry. In order to be more visible to the viewers, she decides to get closer to one of the contestants named Kengo. But when Yuki tries to steal her limelight, she decides to fight back. Unfortunately, in a moment’s haste, Akane ends up doing something that makes her seem like the villain and viewers do not let it slide.
Akane Takes the Wrong Path to Limelight
While Ruby and Kana are working hard to establish their idol group, Aqua continues to work on the reality dating show that has become quite popular. Yuki understands what the viewers want better than anyone else and masterfully exaggerates her own emotional problems to gain sympathy. This works in her favor and she manages to garner a decent following. But it is not only the viewers who are impressed, even the actors on the show working with her are in awe of her emotional intelligence and ability to ingeniously use her emotional inner conflicts as a tool to garner support.
Aqua continues to observe everyone closely and slowly learns what they are like. Among the actors, Akane is the most overwhelmed and has failed to leave any impact. In fact, most viewers don’t even notice her. Slowly the entire focus of the dating reality series tilts to the relationship between Yuki and Nobuyuki. Both of them are very smart in front of the camera and know how to carry themselves. This allows them to become popular with each day and Akane feels that she is getting left behind.
Meanwhile, her father is not at all happy with her career progression and she overhears him complaining to his manager. She already works hard and doesn’t know what else she could possibly do. In order to get some attention on the show, she starts getting closer to Kengo. One day when she is hanging out with him, Yuki asks Kengo to come with her as she naturally feels the need to be at the center of attention at all times. This pushes Akane over the edge who has felt invisible so far. She decides to stop Yuki but as she rushes towards her to grab Kengo’s arm, she accidentally cuts Yuki’s face with her fingernail.
Is Akane Dead?
Once the episode is released and the viewers learn that Akane accidentally cut Yuki’s face, they see this as the expression of hate and insecurity in the former. The comments on social media are therefore really hateful. Naturally, Akane reads as many as she can and is really affected by all the hate projected at her. She feels guilty about the incident and decides that she should apologize publically as this is probably the only way she could make things better.
When Akane posts a very public apology on social media, the hate only gets more intense and the comments are then even worse. The following day, Mem-cho explains to her that whenever someone apologizes people see this as an admission of guilt which in turn is then used by them to justify their own hateful behavior. Things continue to get worse every day and Akane tries to ignore everything as much as possible.
Unfortunately, when Akane goes to school, she realizes that the students there are also talking behind her back and they seem to think that she is arrogant. Furthermore, some even argue that she used her career as an excuse to skip classes. Meanwhile, she is told to lay low for now until people forget about the incident and move on. But Akane struggles to keep her mind off all the online hate that she is getting.
Even when she is home, Akane constantly checks her phone and the comments about her are naturally not good. Eventually, it appears to her that this entire episode will affect her career as an actress and could potentially ruin everything she has worked for all these years. Akane feels defeated but the fellow actors on the dating show continue to shower all their support. Unfortunately, Akane does not feel that she can carry on like this any longer.
From a very young age, she has put too much pressure on herself and everything now appears to be sliding out of her hand. One night, she walks outside in the rain and gets to a foot-over bridge. She climbs on the railing and decides to end her life. When she jumps, Aqua appears out of nowhere to pull her back. If it weren’t for him, she would have died since the foot-over bridge was built over a busy highway. Luckily, Aqua sensed what was about the happen and saved her life.
