Oshi no Ko, despite its dark content, has found many moments for levity within its narrative. Some of these moments have even gone on to become memes among the fandom and the anime community as a whole. One such meme involves Kana Arima, a fellow child star of Ruby and Aquamarine Hoshino.
Due to a mistake on the part of Ruby, Kana is now known almost exclusively as Baking Soda-chan (重曹ちゃん, Jūsō chan). The popularity of the anime has brought more attention to this joke and caused it to develop in all sorts of ways. Foreign fans have gotten in on the joke, but it’s in Japan that Baking Soda-chan has realized her full potential as a meme.
Why Is Kana Arima Known As Baking Soda-Chan?
Within the world of Oshi no Ko, Kana was known as a genius child actress who can make herself cry in 10 seconds (10秒で泣ける天才子役, Jūbyō de nakeru tensai koyaku). Unfortunately for Kana, Ruby only remembers her as a genius child actress who licks baking soda (重曹を舐める天才子役, Jūsō o nameru tensai koyaku); in Ruby’s defense, the two phrases sound a lot alike in Japanese. To make matters worse for Kana, however, Ruby Hoshino made this mistake a second time, thus cementing her reputation as a baking soda-licking freak of a genius child actress among the fandom. Thus, Japanese fans took to calling her “Baking Soda-chan.”
This change to Kana’s resume was made even worse when it was animated. The anime took the acorn and presented it in ways that were never shown in the original manga. One showed a young Kana licking a spoonful of baking soda with a bucket of it next to her. The fact that she’s peering out from behind a corner accentuates how unorthodox and weird the concept is.
However, the viewers have been really hooked on Ruby’s second mistake where she envisioned a young kana licking the baking soda off the floor like some kind of Roomba or an akaname; this particular scene has become the subject of various video edits. With this, Whatever was left of Kana’s dignity effectively died by this point in the narrative.
The worst thing for Kana is that her reputation was ruined before the anime even started. On April Fools’ Day, an official Tweet went out that featured Kana as the spokesperson for the Kaneyo Baking Soda brand. The fact that Kana was featured in this ad before the anime ever came out shows just how much fans know her as Baking Soda-chan.
Whatever dark route the Oshi no Ko narrative takes, fans can always look back on lighter moments in the story like the ones Baking Soda-chan brings. Her presumed willingness to lick up dangerous amounts of this chemical compound off the floor should be enough to brighten up anybody’s day. As long as nobody tries to emulate this dangerous habit, they can get all sorts of entertainment value out of it.