推しの子

Description / Comments

The prtogonist is a doctor in a hospital out in the sticks who somewhat regularly slacks off to visit the various longterm patients that get little to no visitors to help bring a little joy into their life, especially one girl in particular who was all but abandoned by her parents. After many years of getting to know each other her love for Idols starts to rub off on him, especially the underground idol Ai from B-Komachi. However through a twist of fate that Ai ends up going to this small town hospital since it turns out she is Pregnant at a very young age, and the protagonist is assigned to be her Doctor, who does everything to make sure she has a successful delivery since she always wanted a Family. However shortly before she gives birth a crazy fan finds out, murders the doctor and hides his body, and apparently both him and the girl he was taking care of reincarnate as the babies of Ai with their memories intact.

This is a melodramatic work that lightly touches upon various aspects of showbiz through the lens of a simple “revenge” plot, the coming of age of 2 reincarnators, and the friends they meet/use along the way. The author had a clear story they wanted to tell from the start and every aspect of the work slowly builds up on the themes and relationships until it finally executes it. However this work has a very polarizing ending; You either see what the author was cooking and enjoy the dish for what it is, or become gordon ramsey call the author a stupid donkey even if you enjoyed it a lot up until the very end.

I am one of the people that can accept and enjoy the ending for what it is. I can understand the feeling of wishing it did more, or it could’ve handled it “this way” or “that way” or gone off on an epic to make some super epic happy ending where everything is perfect and the exact way I wanted it done, but I don’t really think that was the point. There is no correct answer, life isn’t that convenient, and the ending is somewhat realistic for how much of a headcase the “main” protagonist is.

I feel like the rest of the work is enjoyable and engaging enough that it is totally worth reading and experiencing even if you end up retroactively condemning the work over the ending for whatever reason. At the very least something that can cause this much vitriol over it simply by existinc is “Art” in my opinion. The girls are cute, the romance segments are nice, the glimpses into stardom are enjoyable if not slightly superficial and simplistic, and it’s simply a really fun work to read through. I’m particularly fond of the “flashforward/flashback” pages at the start of the early chapters that flesh out the characters/world before you even get to know them, which carries throughout the entire work and sets the ending up from the beginning.

I originally rated this as “S” for recommendability before the anime came out since I thought it would be a massive hit, and it was and still is. It has massive universal appeal with engaging pacing and enjoyable writing. I will keep it as an “S” since as mentioned above I do think it’s worth experiencing regardless, and everybody should enjoy it until the inevitable split of the ending. You should read it, if only to know where you stand on the “ending divide”.