Oshi no Ko is an anime series that aired on April 12, 2023. Itโs based on a manga of the same name written by Aka Akasaka and illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari. The manga is a seinen series first published by Shueishaโs Weekly Young Jump on April 23, 2020, and later collected into volumes. There are currently three volumes of the Oshi no Ko manga available.
What Is Oshi no Ko About?
Oshi no Ko is a manga and anime series about a doctor (Dr. Garou) and his patient (Sarina) being reincarnated as the twin children of their favorite pop idol. The two are reborn with memories from their past life as well as a natural affection for their new mother, Ai Hoshino. Now living as Ruby and Aqua, the twins live a relatively quiet life out of the public eye to ensure that their mother can continue her idol career without anyone knowing she had kids at 16 years old.
This all comes to a screeching halt when Ai Hoshino is murdered by a disgruntled fan, leaving Ruby and Aqua to try and live out their lives without a guardian. A bitter Aqua decides itโs his job to find the real mastermind behind Aiโs death and kill that person.
Oshi no Koโs Title Hides a Double Meaning
Japanese is written in three types of scripts, one of them being kanji, a writing system composed of Chinese characters. This lets Japanese convey a lot of meaning in a short phrase and even hide double meanings in the same phrase. In the case of โOshi no Ko,โ itโs written as โๆจใใฎๅญโ which, according to the author, can be read as โsuki na aidoru wo osu,โ meaning โsupporting your favorite idolโ or โoshiteiru aidoru no kodomoโ meaning โchildren of the idol you support.โ Depending on how the title is interpreted, it can refer to either the twins or their mother.
Oshi no Koโs Story So Far
Oshi no Koโs latest arc starts after Aqua reveals his and Rubyโs true identities as Ai Hoshinoโs children to a reporter in exchange for the scandal about Kana Arima and Masanori Shimato not being published. This causes a fight between Aqua and Ruby and a movie about Ai Hoshinoโs life entering production starring many of the showโs characters. The story continues to ramp up even more as the manga reveals the true identity of Aqua and Rubyโs father and the mastermind behind Aiโs death.
Aqua and Rubyโs father
While thereโs still no confirmation about who Aqua and Rubyโs father is, itโs heavily implied that the twinsโ father is Hikaru Kamiki.
In chapter 96, Akane Kurokawa finds flowers gifted to her for winning the New Actor award from Hikaru Kamiki, one of Lalalieโs best performers. Later, while reviewing Hikaruโs performance tapes, Akane notices an uncanny similarity between Hikaru and Aqua.
In the following two chapters, Akane attempts to track down and kill off Hikaru behind Aquaโs back. Later on in chapter 98, after her call with Aqua, Akane gets startled by a random passerby and falls down the stairs of the footbridge sheโs on. Aqua catches her and then reveals that he was following her with a GPS tracker. After a fight between the two, Aquaโs mission to take revenge for Ai continues again as he sets his eyes on Hikaru Kamiki.
Ai Hoshinoโs Killer
Ai Hoshino may have been killed in a stabbing incident by a fan named Ryosuke, but the real brains behind her murder is none other than her childrenโs father, Hikaru Kamiki.
Hikaru Kamiki is properly introduced in Chapter 109, where we see him accompanying Yura Katayose, who is the top nominee for the role of Ai in the โ15 Year Lieโ movie. Later on in the chapter, Hikaru kills Yura during her hiking trip. There havenโt been any more appearances from him in the manga throughout chapters 109 to 119.
Where to Read the Oshi no Ko Manga
There is a website dedicated to translations of the Oshi no Ko manga where you can currently read the series from the beginning all the way to Oshi no Koโs most recent chapter, chapter 119.
Where to Watch the Oshi no Ko Anime
Oshi no Ko is currently streaming on Netflix, which may be confusing to fans who expect Crunchyroll to have the anime show available. Though Crunchyroll specializes in anime shows, the streaming platform wasnโt able to get the streaming rights for Oshi no Ko.