Oshi no Ko

• 1. Introduction

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  Oshi no Ko opens with a murder. On the night obstetrician-gynecologist Gorou Amamiya secretly delivers pop idol Ai Hoshino's twins, an obsessive fan kills him. He wakes up reborn as one of those twins, all memories of his previous life intact. His new name is Aquamarine Hoshino. His recently deceased patient, Sarina Tendoji, was reborn as the twin sister, Ruby. Four years later, both children watch Ai murdered by that same fan.

  Written by Aka Akasaka and illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari, the manga ran in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump. It debuted on the 23rd of April 2020, and concluded on the 14th of November 2024, filling sixteen collected volumes. Beneath the premise of revenge and reincarnation, the series pursues harder questions about fame in Japan. What does the entertainment industry demand from the people it builds up? What happens when an audience's devotion curdles into obsession? Before Akasaka wrote a single chapter, he had already decided how the story would end.

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• 2. Behind the Idol's Smile

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  'I want people to know how young talents are being hurt, exploited, and suffering.' Aka Akasaka made that statement after years of direct research into Japan's entertainment world. He spoke with idols, managers, and YouTubers across the industry. In an interview with Anime News Network, he pointed to a concrete difference between the Japanese and American industries: the absence of labor unions.

  An entertainer Akasaka befriended had been attacked by a fan, and that friendship changed what Oshi no Ko would become. In public, that person came across as tough. In private, they confessed to Akasaka that the encounter had hurt them badly. Akasaka understood from this that entertainers routinely concealed their true feelings from audiences.

  Akasaka took his central premise from a well-known internet joke in Japan. That joke circulates when a popular idol is reported to have married. He decided to treat the premise as serious dramatic material. He was also absorbing industry complaints while working on the live-action film adaptation of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, his earlier manga, where insiders spoke to him directly.

  Akasaka observed that entertainment manga had traditionally focused on films, dramas, and plays. He saw an industry transformed by the internet, one that had produced YouTubers and new celebrity forms alongside the established idol world. He built Oshi no Ko to reflect that contemporary reality. He had already identified his illustrator: Mengo Yokoyari, whom he contacted as soon as the concept had formed.

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• 3. A Long-Awaited Collaboration

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  Mengo Yokoyari had already explored the entertainment world in her one-shot manga Kawaii before Akasaka approached her. That prior familiarity was part of why he contacted her the moment the concept took shape. The two had been long acquainted. They had simply never worked together before Oshi no Ko.

  In their working process, Akasaka typically sent rough character sketches to the storyboard artist. He sometimes gave Yokoyari the freedom to draw character designs as she pleased. The team revised a completed design only once. That instance arose when a character looked too closely like the real-life person they had been modeled after.

  Akasaka has said his instinctive writing voice is closer to Oshi no Ko than to Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. The humor in Kaguya-sama originated as a request from his editorial department. He included similar comedy in Oshi no Ko anyway, finding it made the series more readable. He also developed genuine fondness for certain characters as the story progressed, expanding their roles accordingly; Mem-cho's growing presence in the plot was one such result. Shueisha began publishing Oshi no Ko in English on the Manga Plus platform in April 2022.

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• 4. From Page to Screen

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  Doga Kobo produced the anime adaptation, which aired its first eleven episodes from April 12 to the 28th of June 2023, on Tokyo MX and other networks. The second season ran from July 3 to the 6th of October 2024, and comprised thirteen episodes. A third season aired from January 14 to the 25th of March 2026.

  Hajime Tanaka wrote a spin-off novel released on the 17th of November 2023, focused on the story's prologue with Ai as the central character. A second Tanaka novel arrived on the 18th of December 2024, covering the past and futures of actresses Kana and Akane. Yen Press licensed the manga for English publication, announcing the deal at Anime Expo in July 2022. The first English manga volume was released on the 17th of January 2023. Yen Press later licensed both novels as well.

  In January 2024, a live-action adaptation was announced in two separate formats. A television drama would be distributed exclusively worldwide by Amazon Prime Video; a theatrical film would go to Toei. Scripts were written by Ayako Kitagawa. The drama's first six episodes premiered on the 28th of November 2024, with episodes seven and eight following on December 5. Each episode featured a different theme song. Among the artists were My First Story for episode one, Da-ice for episode three, and Wednesday Campanella for episode seven.

  The film, Oshi no Ko: The Final Act, was directed by Smith and premiered on the 20th of December 2024. Its ending theme was 'Shining Song' by B-Komachi. A fan premiere in Australia was held on the 28th of January 2025, with theatrical release on January 30. Amazon Prime Video added the film to its United States catalog in June 2025. Within its first thirty days, the live-action drama set a viewership record among Amazon Prime originals in Japan.

  A smartphone puzzle game titled Oshi no Ko: Match Star was announced on the 2nd of February 2025. Developed by NHN Corporation in partnership with Kadokawa Corporation, it launched for iOS and Android in Japan on the 25th of February 2026. In North America, Oshi no Ko was Yen Press's third best-selling manga overall and first among titles that debuted in the same year.

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• 5. Acclaim, Sales, and a Contested Ending

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  By April 2021, Oshi no Ko had over one million copies in circulation. Three million had been reached by October 2022, five million by March 2023, and twelve million by July of that year. Fourteen million copies were in circulation by October 2023 and twenty million by November 2024. By December 2025, the total had surpassed twenty-five million. Volume thirteen had a first print run of 500,000 copies; volume sixteen's initial printing reached 550,000.

  Oshi no Ko ranked eleventh on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga for male readers in 2021. It rose to seventh place on the 2022 list. In August 2021, it won the Next Manga Award in the print category. At the 14th Manga Taisho in 2021, it placed fifth with 59 points. The manga was also nominated for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2022, 2024, and 2025. Nominations also came from the Kodansha Manga Award in 2022 and 2024.

  A Benesse survey in 2023 asked 18,802 Japanese children in grades three through six to name people they most admired. Among their top ten responses, fictional idol Ai Hoshino ranked third, below only 'friend' and 'mother.' The children cited her singing, dancing ability, and compassion as their reasons.

  Akasaka warned readers approximately one month before the final chapters that the conclusion might provoke strong reactions. When the ending appeared, many fans described it as rushed. Some said the final chapters rejected the characters' earlier development, with some calling the handling excessive and poorly written. Game Rant's Stormie McNeal found the ending flawed but noted that protagonist Aqua had still reached a meaningful resolution. Screen Rant's Joshua Fox pointed to the anti-climactic finale and the lack of resolution in several subplots. He also identified what he saw as contradictions with the story's central themes.

  The fourth and final anime season was announced after the eleventh episode of the third season aired.

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