BUT JUST WHAT IS OSHI NO KO?

Imagine this: you’re in a lovely restaurant with your friend and you’re getting ready to order. You’ve never eaten here before, so you ask them what would I recommend you try out. They’re like, oh, the specialty pasta is delicious, you NEED to try it. You’ve never heard of this pasta before, so you read the description on the menu, and - eww, are those SNAILS? Who eats snails on purpose, and LIKES it? So you tell them no way in hell are you touching that pasta.

“No dude, I swear, the snails are actually so good, I promise, at least try it,” they tell you, "I love the snail pasta so much but everyone freaks out when they hear about the snails." To appease them, and also out of a bit of curiosity, you agree to order the snail pasta.

“If I don’t like it after 3 bites then I’m sending it back though,” you say, and they start begging and crying again. “No, no, this is a 10 bite pasta at least! The first 10 bites are mid at first, but after that it’s nothing at ALL like what you’re expecting!”

What the hell? If you don’t like it after 3 bites, then how is 10 bites going to change that? It’s SNAIL. PASTA. Snail pasta doesn’t change tastes midway through. Either your friend is insane or this is just an elaborate prank.

So you order your snail pasta, and when it finally arrives you take your first bite. It… well, it isn’t the worst thing you’ve put in your mouth, but there is just a hint of something that makes you kind of start to regret this already. The texture is… well, it’s slime. Snail slime. Across the table your friend is tearing into their own snail pasta, so you suck it up and keep eating. 2 bites, 3 bites, 4 bites… again, it’s not the best, and it doesn’t taste as bad as you thought, but it’s snail pasta. At this point you feel kind of done; the taste and texture are still as cold and slimy as they were on your first bite. On the 10th bite, which you intend to be your last, you stick the fork in your mouth… and suddenly, it’s SPICY?

You take another bite just to be sure, and - yep, that’s spice! And it’s not cold or slimy anymore! You couldn’t even tell that there were snails in this dish, it tastes completely different! Holy shit! You take another bite, and then another. It would’ve already tasted fine on its own, but after the first 10 bites, it feels like ambrosia melting in your mouth. And there’s still 9/10ths of this thing left!!

That is the Oshi no Ko experience.