Characters / Oshi no Ko

The Hoshino Family

The Twins

General

Ai Hoshino's children, Ruby and Aqua. Both were fans of Ai's before they died and for an unknown reason reincarnated as her children with their memories intact.

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• Anti-Hero: Aqua has a nasty manipulative and opportunistic streak in order to get what he wants. When she decides she wants revenge, Ruby is somehow even worse, as she lacks even the Pet the Dog traits her brother had.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite constantly being at each other's throats regarding their goals and personal lives, Aqua and Ruby will still stick up for each other when the time arises, a feeling which intensifies after they discover each other's true nature as reincarnations of a shared past.
• Brother–Sister Team: The very first scene in the manga shows that Aqua and Ruby will work together in the business in the future. Chapter 2 and 6 further reveal that they act together.
• Celebrity Resemblance: It's frequently pointed out how much Aqua and Ruby resemble Ai. Of course no one knows they resemble her because they are her children.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Both to Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane, the main lead duo of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (another manga made by Akasaka), they are heavily different in terms of character. While Kaguya and Shirogane were both living humans and are both unrelated, Aqua and Ruby are both reincarnates of Goro Amamiya and Sarina Tendouji, respectively, who later became the twins to their late mother Ai Hoshino. Also, both Kaguya and Shirogane act at their own age group, while Aqua and Ruby, due to their Past-Life Memories, act as an adult (as Goro was in his 30s) and a 12-year-old teenage girl respectively (the age where Sarina died in the past).
• Creepy Twins: Downplayed, but they have their moments. Aqua tends to display this more on a regular basis, but Ruby makes up for her shorter duration with higher intensity.
• Disowned Sibling: Ruby disowns Aqua in Chapter 106 for revealing that they're Ai's children, since she's convinced Aqua doesn't care about Ai anymore if he's willing to spill her darkest secret. It takes Aqua revealing himself as a reincarnated Goro during one of her despair sessions for her to forgive him.
• Endearingly Dorky: Chapter 4 shows the twins as babies going to an event B-Komachi are participating in. They instantly draw attention after, out of excitement, they start doing glow stick dances to cheer on Ai.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Like Ai, Aqua and Ruby have stars in their eyes, matching the punny family name. However, they only inherited this in one eye each with Aqua's star being in his right eye, while Ruby's star is in her left eye. They each get stars in both of their eyes later on, but their irises are black instead of white, symbolizing that they're motivated by hatred rather than love like Ai was. It turns out their father has those black irises too, giving a new meaning to Aqua and Ruby possessing them.
• Extremely Protective Child: Neither of them tolerates any potshots taken at Ai's expense. AT ALL. Things worsen significantly upon her death.
• Eye Color Change:
  • The star in Aqua's right eye turns black when he has something sinister or mischievous in mind. Chapter 98 has both his eyes gain black stars, like Ruby, once he reaffirms his resolve to kill his father after breaking up with Akane.
  • Like her brother, the star in Ruby's eye also changes to black when she's feeling strong negative emotions. Once she resolves to find and kill the second culprit involved in Goro's and Ai's death, black stars appear in both her eyes.
  • Both Aqua and Ruby’s starry eye will disappear whenever their past souls either dominates their bodies, or made peace with their present selves.
    • Aqua’s star went out since the night he found Goro’s corpse, through his love confession to Akane, and through his showbiz career following New B-Komachi’s MV shoot. His stars glows back dark the moment he dumps Akane to officially go back to his path of vengeance upon noticing his biological father is still alive and walking the earth.
    • For Ruby’s case, her star went out for a brief moment as she was stuck in interpreting her role of portraying Ai for the movie, 15 Year Lie; as “Sarina” and “Ruby” are conflicted with their issue of Parental Abandonment. Then her stars went out again in the split moment when she truly realized Aqua’s past life identity to be of her beloved doctor, with him counseling Ruby to live her life to who “Sarina/Ruby” truly wants to be rather than going with Ai’s values and behaviors.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Aqua is the responsible sibling compared to Ruby's foolish one. This isn't very surprising considering Aqua's mental age compared to Ruby. Aqua is already an adult, while Ruby's past self died when she hadn't even fully gone through puberty, so she is far more naive and childish.
• Half-Identical Twins: Downplayed. Being fraternal twins, the siblings are born into different sexes with different eye colors. However, the two do share some similarities, such as having the same hair color. This trope is utilized in-universe so the same child can play both in 15-Year Lie.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Zigzagged; both twins have brightly colored blonde hair, but despite their selfish quirks they will do anything to make others happy if they can.
• Hates Their Parent: Aqua has a murderous hatred of his birth father since he believes he was the one who orchestrated Ai's murder. Ruby follows suit not long after she discovers Goro's body.
• Hellish Pupils: If the stars in their eyes turn black and show up in both eyes, it's a sign that you should not mess with them.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Though manifested years apart, the two siblings will gain the same black star pupils that their biological father has, symbolizing that by obsessing over avenging Ai, they're becoming not so different from the man they're hunting.
• Heroic Bastard: Their reincarnated selves count as this. Considering that Ai conceived them through Teen Pregnancy and out of wedlock, the twins are in fact the story's protagonists, but the "heroic" part is also Zigzagged for the both of them at different periods of their time.
• Hollywood Genetics: The brunette Ai giving birth to a pair of blonde twins isn't too far-fetched — She could have a recessive blonde gene that mixed with their father's. The unlikelihood sets in when Ai somehow gave birth to twins who not only have different eye colors, a rarity to begin with, but are also different from Ai's eye color, leaving one to wonder where the twins' red or blue iris genes came from.
• Identity Breakdown:
  • The identity struggles between "Goro" and "Aqua" is the core to Aqua's mental illness. Goro is reluctant to accept his state of reincarnation since he doesn't have any means to wish for a new life. While he buys it in mind that at least having Ai as a family member is not bad, her death renders Goro's reincarnation purpose meaningless, thus he lives his life as Aqua as a breathing zombie with the sole purpose to avenge Ai's death. Until "Goro" believes this task is done, "Aqua" can never move on for himself.
  • While Sarina has made peace with the fact that her previous life is behind her and has settled comfortably into her new life as Ruby, the linkage of "family" is what chains "Sarina" and "Ruby" together. Once any of her key family members are rendered lost or betrayed, her two identities will break into conflict in search for her sense of purpose and belonging.
• Informed Attractiveness: As they have inherited Ai's looks, they are often praised for their beauty, even though they're no more or less attractive than most other characters in regards to their designs.
• Like Father, Like Son: Zig-zagged. Ruby and Aqua resemble Ai in certain aspects, yet they are fundamentally different. Aqua lies naturally like Ai, but Ruby is known for having Brutal Honesty. Ruby has Ai's natural charm, though, which Aqua lacks. Ai does not know love, Aqua doesn't want to love anyone but Ai and Ruby can easily love other people. Chapter 115 reveals that Ruby parallels Ai's facade of being a cheerful girl while hiding all of her fears and resentment through lies.
• Meaningful Name: Ai seemingly named her children after their eye color. Aqua has blue eyes, while Ruby's eyes are light red/purple. This is reflected by their personalities as well.
• Momma's Boy: Positive example. They love their mother dearly and Ai's death massively impacted their lives as teenagers. But this also caused their values to part ways once Ruby assumed Aqua sold off their mother's personal decision of keeping their family relationship a secret over safe-keeping both of their own showbiz relations.
• New Body, Old Abilities: Being reincarnated from adults gave Aqua and Ruby far more dexterity than a newborn would be capable of in real life. They can stand, talk, and surf the internet on their mother's cell phone.
• Otaku: Both were idol otakus in their past life. More specifically, Ruby is one to celebrities in general, while Aqua is one solely to Ai.
• Parental Abandonment: Both in their past and present lives.
  • Goro’s mother lost her life from giving birth to him with no presence of his father’s involvement. Goro’s grandfather was also distant from him due to the loss of Goro’s mother, leaving his grandmother to raise him. As Goro’s grandparents naturally dies of old age, Goro was left with no close family to live for.
  • Sarina was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age, leaving her mother in distress. To safeguard her mother’s mentality from breaking down, Sarina’s father chose to leave their caretaking duties to hospital staff and avoid paying Sarina any visits. By the time Sarina is on her last breaths, her parents were already in a state of abandonment and didn’t show up in time to send her off.
  • Aqua and Ruby are raised without a father. Their mother, Ai, never revealed the identity of their father, and she is later murdered by a stalker.
• Past-Life Memories: Aqua and Ruby both remember their past lives. While this isn't as significant for Ruby, as she died when she was 12 and spent most of her life confined in a hospital, it gives Aqua a serious advantage, as he was already an adult and a trained doctor.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Happens in Chapter 106, as Ruby confronts Aqua over revealing their parentage. Ruby was convinced that Aqua doesn't care about Ai anymore, and disowns him. The two haven't spoken a word to each other since. Aqua is fine with this since he wants Ruby to be happy when he's gone, and if that means no tears are shed when he's arrested for his father's murder, so be it. He only makes an effort to change things when he realizes Ruby is spiraling afterwards.
• Polar Opposite Twins: They may look alike, but Ruby and Aqua are very different in nature. Ruby is a cheerful, naïve, and innocent girl, and Aqua is a jaded, gloomy, and brooding man. Ruby is also honest to a fault, while Aqua is a Consummate Liar.
• Poor Communication Kills: Both of them are insistent on keeping the other out of the loop on their individual revenge schemes, which causes their relationship to turn sour when they can no longer understand each other's actions, having to wait until they already have some idea of what the other is planning before finally bringing it up.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Befitting their eye colors; Ruby is a friendly and excitable girl who says and does things without really thinking. Aquamarine is calculating and brooding. It becomes a factor in their fall-out, as Ruby takes Aqua's cooler, more pragmatic approach towards solving problems as a sign that he doesn't care for Ai in the same way she does.
• Reincarnation: They were reborn in the same hospital they died near with full Past-Life Memories; four years after Sarina's death, but the same day as Goro's. According to Crow Girl, people don't normally reincarnate at all because dying destroys their souls, and she implies their situation is more like Possessing a Dead Body than traditional reincarnation. She says the bodies of Ai's children were "soulless" before Sarina and Goro were put into them, which is most commonly interpreted to mean they'd be stillbirths otherwise.
• Revenge:
  • The twins both want to find Ai's killer and make him pay.
  • Doubly so for Ruby, as she lost both Ai and her crush/father figure Goro to the same culprit. Aqua managed to step in to stop Ruby from warping her approach to showbiz in pursuing revenge for Goro's sake; since that is by all accounts unnecessary in Aqua's point-of-view, and promptly comes clean to Ruby.
• Rock Theme Naming: Both Ruby and Aquamarine are gemstone names.
• Strong Family Resemblance: As twins, they naturally resemble each other, and both inherited their beauty from their mother. They also share Family Eye Resemblance as Aqua has a star in his right eye, while Ruby has a star in her left eye. In her teenage years, Ruby has started to resemble their mother more, albeit with blonde hair, and even looks exactly like her with the wig on at the end of Chapter 128, to Akane's chagrin.
• Theme Twin Naming: Not only are they named after gemstones, but their names also both qualify as "kira kira names"—a trend in Japan of giving children decidedly non-traditional names derived from combining kanji in unusual ways. Aqua considers his own first name rather embarrassing, due to how much of a mouthful it is and the fanciful way it's written.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • Due to Past-Life Memories, Aqua and Ruby do not display the typical behavior of their age. While Ruby turns into the typical teenager after 12 years old, since her past self died at 12, Aqua became even more mature since his past self was already a working adult.
  • In spite of what was said about Ruby’s situation, Ruby somehow has an idea of what sex is while she was still in her babyhood despite being 12 when she died in her previous life, given the unlikelihood that her parents ever bothered to give her The Talk. Though this can be justified, as East Asian education does give 6th graders, who are under elementary school level, proper entry-level sex education.

Aquamarine "Aqua" Hoshino

Aquamarine "Aqua" Hoshino (Goro Amamiya)

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Aqua voiced by: Takeo Ōtsuka (teenager), Yumi Uchiyama (young) (Japanese), Jack Stansbury (teenager), Chaney Moore (young) (English)
Goro voiced by: Kent Itou (Japanese), Jeremy Gee (English)

^{Click here to see Goro}

"I don't care what you think of me. For me, acting is my form of revenge."

The elder one of Ai's twins. In Aqua's past life, he was a man named Goro Amamiya―an obstetrician in his 30s. He received the shock of his life when his favorite idol, Ai Hoshino, appeared before him while pregnant with twins.

Right before Ai gave birth, Goro followed up and confronted a stalker of Ai and was killed during the confrontation. When he opened his eyes again, he was already reborn as Ai's son.

Aqua later enters the entertainment industry in search of his biological father, who he suspects to be responsible for his mother's death.

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• Affectionate Nickname:
  • "Aqua" is the shortened variation of his given name, and has been called by this nickname since birth; with this nickname also being used as his Stage Name. Since Aqua entered showbiz when he was a toddler child actor, all of his acquaintances simply calls him by this name, to the point that it's easy for the audience who are consuming this very work to forget that his full given name is Aquamarine.
  • Several characters shorten his name further with an honorific attached to it. MEMcho calls him "Aqu-tan", while Kana uses "Ah-kun".
• Amicable Exes: Despite the rocky breakup after discovering her intent to kill his father, Aqua and Akane remain on relatively good working terms. Aqua, for his part, is more than willing to entertain Akane's goal of "saving his heart", and his reaction is nothing more than an amused smirk and an open invitation.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Aqua concluded that his biological father must have been responsible for Ai's, and by extension, Goro's death, so Aqua is set to find him and make him pay.
• Becoming the Mask: Despite understanding Ruby is a reincarnated person with an undisclosed past, as well as admitting to himself that he never properly viewed Ai as his mother, Aqua does come to love Ruby as his blood sibling in this new life with earnest Big Brother Instinct, and the common interest with her as fans of Ai; making Ruby his Morality Pet even as he slinks further and further into his obsession for revenge. After discovering who she reincarnated from, Aqua only grows closer to his sister.
• Big Brother Instinct: Of a Caretaker variant with subtle Tough Love execution. People around Aqua tend to accuse him of having a sister complex, as he acts overprotective towards Ruby.
  • One of the main reasons for Aqua's overprotectiveness of Ruby is her optimistic outlook on showbiz, and her ignorance in the morally gray aspects of interpersonal relations in general working society. As much as Aqua does his part to warn Ruby of the risks throughout their years growing up together, Ruby is determined to enter showbiz. Therefore, Aqua used all means to postpone Ruby's entrance into showbiz until he could no longer stop her.
    • Aqua sabotages Ruby's showbiz applications by posing as an agency notification staff to reject her admission over the phone, and made sure her side of the contact is turned down as well via using her phone to decline admission to any agencies Ruby has applied.
    • Even though he is not interested in showbiz and is academically overqualified for the school, Aqua willingly attends the same performing arts high school as Ruby just so he can keep a close eye on his sister's social environment.
  • The other aspect for Aqua’s overprotectiveness towards Ruby is that Aqua, under “Goro’s” lenses, sees Ruby like “Sarina;” as in an innocent young girl who wants to dream big, to which triggers Aqua/Goro’s caretaking instincts. Aqua later confirms Ruby’s past identity as Sarina to be true, and proceeds to carry on his caretaking manners. Only from this point on, Aqua allows Ruby to approach him with her childlike affection.
• Brutal Honesty: When he's not acting a role or trying to deceive someone, he's very blunt. For instance, in Chapter 43, he flat-out tells his "girlfriend" Akane, that she will stand no chance against Kana in the stage play if something doesn't change.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: Aqua does this to his closest female friends to push them away from the harm they may have to deal with, regardless of the mental damage all parties would get.
  • With Kana: Aqua purposefully avoids close interactions with Kana since she became a professional idol. First and foremost is their culture’s Contractual Purity on idols, and he's afraid Kana would meet the same ill fate as Ai if the two of them are seen together in public too often. Aqua understands full well the mental damage Kana will have since the two of them have good friendship chemistry with each other, but he can't afford to think of any alternatives to secure their showbiz careers.
  • With Akane: Aqua breaks up with her once she denotes who his potential biological father is and catches her trying to confront the man with a hidden knife. In his own words, he doesn't want Akane to destroy her career and accompany him to hell for the sake of his revenge.
  • With Ruby: Aqua released his and Ruby's parentage to the public in order to take the press attention away from Kana's scandal. While Ruby understands this reveal serves the greatest career boost for the both of them, she ultimately believes this move is selfish, and outright disowns Aqua out of fury.
• Byronic Hero: Aqua is an attractive, intelligent, dark, brooding, and very cynical Anti-Hero, whose main goal is to find his father and kill him. This is all to avenge his mother, while he is trying his best to protect his sister.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: One of the notable differences between Aqua and Ruby is that Aqua calls Ai by her name. This has largely to do with the fact that, by having a soul of a full-grown adult, he doesn’t recognize Ai as his mother, but rather more like the idol he loves since his past life.
• Celibate Hero: Aqua isn't interested in romance after Ai, the person he invested his love and support, was murdered. He makes this point clear in a Flash Forward in Chapter 9. Though Aqua admitted a few times to Kana and Akane respectively that he still has an interest in women around his age, and has sexual desires like everyone else; it’s just that romance is not one of his top priorities.
  Aqua: I won't love anyone, and even if someone loves me, I wouldn't be able to reciprocate.
• Chuunibyou: Accused to be one by Kana in Chapter 30. To be fair, he is very brooding and says some things that sound really delusional to anyone that isn't aware that he was reincarnated and is seeking revenge.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: He's The Social Expert, but he completely fails to read the nature of his relationship with Ruby, believing that she could easily move on with her life after he intentionally estranged himself from her for her own protection when in reality, he was basically her Morality Pet, keeping her from going down her own self-destructive path of revenge. To be fair to him, Ruby had subconsciously suppressed her trauma over Ai's death.
• The Comically Serious: The poker and the frown are Aqua’s trademark faces in private. Therefore, whenever Aqua performs something that doesn’t match his character, everyone around him ends up trying not to laugh at the absurdity; a prime example is the Hotblooded glow stick dance he did to cheer for new B-Komachi’s live debut with his poker face, which had all of the group members barely containing their laughter while on stage.
• Consummate Liar: Lies have become a tool for Aqua to protect the people he cares about and get far in showbiz. This is one thing he has in common with Ai. His family and coworkers are aware that there is a layer of lies where he hides his real self, which he states is like armor that protects him. He recommends Akane do the same, as exposing her real self to the public and being harshly criticized for it almost led to her killing herself.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The opposite to Miyuki Shirogane from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, who are both blond-haired teenage boys but they have a lot of differences in their character.
  • While they both have issues with one of their parents and are liking the other parent, they are both mirrored. For Shirogane, he has antagonism towards his mother as many of their family's problems all trace back to her, while he is in good relations with his father. Aqua, on the other hand, loves his mother Ai, but has a more extreme antagonism towards his father since he's responsible for Ai's death and plans to kill him to avenge her.
  • Both are high-school aged teenagers, but how they act is different. Whereas in Shirogane's case who is a chronological teenager behaving exactly at his age, Aqua is a teenager but is a reincarnate of Goro, who was 30 at the time of his death, who is mentally older than Shirogane and acts more adult-like due to his Past-Life Memories.
  • Their relationship to their sisters also heavily contrast. Shirogane often gets the brunt of Kei's teenage rebellion, while Aqua resorts to much more questionable methods and has no qualms of showing his controlling nature towards Ruby.
• Control Freak: Aqua has developed a control complex over the years after Ai's death. For instance, he constantly sabotages Ruby's idol auditions until he can no longer completely control her, at which point he at least makes Miyako manage Ruby to keep an eye on her.
• Cool Big Bro: Aqua is both physically and mentally the elder brother of the twins. While Aqua's past self died when he was already a full-grown adult, Ruby's past self never lived to start puberty. Although Aqua is prone to overprotecting his sister, Ruby genuinely sees Aqua as a wonderful brother.
• Creepy Child: In his toddler period, Aqua accidentally presented himself like a typical adult on reflex in front of Director Gotanda as his introduction, which creeped the heck out of Gotanda. This led to Gotanda wanting to cast Aqua for his movie, and gives Aqua his first acting gig; to which Aqua was asked to act “like a creepy child.” On the set, Aqua was quick to interpret that he doesn't need to “act,” but simply present himself in his normal way of talking to move the scene, because Director Gotanda already finds his intellect and mental maturity “creepy” enough.
• Deadpan Snarker: Due to his internal experience of having a mature soul reliving a new life starting from babyhood, Aqua naturally manifested a snarky attitude, with his sister being the most frequent victim of his snarks. Aqua is also savvy with this “humor” of his, and deliberately cranks it up to play The Snark Knight commentator on the variety talk show, Dig Deep! One Chance!
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Aqua's past life as Goro wasn't, in his logical acknowledgment, all that bad nor unfulfilling. Therefore, Goro never understands the reasons for his soul to be reincarnated into the identity he holds in the present. But given the circumstances of needing to figure out the reasons behind Ai's murder, and ensuring the safety and happiness for his sister, Ruby, as much as he is aware of how the act of murder will ruin his life, Aqua has no other means of reliving a new life that he did not intentionally wished for, and feels compelled to kill the man he believes to be behind Ai's death. Otherwise, Goro/Aqua can't think of any alternatives to get any peace of mind.
• Determinator: A dark version of it. Aqua is hellbent on revenge.
  • The sole reason Aqua enters the entertainment business for himself is to find his father and murder him.
  • Aqua spent four years of his childhood in wherever time-space he has inputting password probabilities key-by-key from 0-to-9 up to five digits in order to unlock Ai's private phone.
  • Aside from showbiz and school, Aqua secretly took on various part-time jobs in order to earn enough income that can be spent solely on the vast amount of DNA testing between him and his acquaintances; just so Aqua can narrow down to the key people to seek the information he wants.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: He managed to manipulate Crow Girl, a blatantly supernatural being, into playing a part in Ai's movie.
• Embarrassing First Name: "Aquamarine" as a given name itself is already a mouthful. This is why all of his loved ones at least shorten his name to "Aqua." However, the kanji used to write it are even worse, as 愛久愛海 (Aku-Amarin) literally means "Long-lasting Love, Love The Sea". Aqua himself often cynically remarks how "Awesome McCoolname" the name is in all kinds of aspects.
  Aqua: "If there’s any reason a facility would give to reject my admission applications, then it has to be something about my given name."
• Emotion Suppression: The main reason for Aqua's resort to stoicism and stonewalling his companions from in-depth communication with him comes from the combination of his past life experience, mental age, and present life background; to which nearly every issue cannot be consoled to outside sources for his own therapeutic needs. Akane secretly understands his parental issues the most and has tried her best to call him out to at least try to trust people with his feelings. But unfortunately, Aqua won't budge for her since she never got into his issues of being a reincarnated individual.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Given Aqua's past life as a mature adult who runs primarily on fair logic, his moral codes and social standings towards people in general, including how he treats his sister, are fairly objective. In Aqua’s rule book, he would take in all aspects, including the weight of his own needs, his own motives, external circumstances, and the needs of individuals who approach him into consideration before making any judgments. Once he makes a decision, Aqua would then tailor his actions, and or responses between him and the individual according to both of their mutual needs.
  • Later in Chapter 142, when Ruby told him about filming their upcoming kissing scene, Aqua is clearly seen sweating bullets, heavily implying that he feels uncomfortable with kissing his own sister. Not helped by the fact that she was planning to marry him once she's past 15 back when she was Sarina.
• Excellent Judge of Character: In stark contrast to Ruby, Aqua is very much able to judge someone's personality through experience and keen observation, and rarely takes things at face value. Ironically, however, the only thing he didn't know about MEMcho was her actual age, only learning about it after she personally revealed it. This gets a less comedic turn after learning Ruby, for all of her optimistic ways, was just as broken as he was about Ai, and that her cheerful personality was a very large coping mechanism.
• Expository Pronoun: As Goro, he uses boku to refer to himself, which is mature and professional for his career. After reincarnated as Aqua, he uses ore, which is more masculine and commonly used by teenage boys. In monologues however, he occasionally switches back to boku, when he's having trouble about his identity, or when his thoughts towards Ai are from the viewpoint of "Goro", not "Aqua". Another switch is when Aqua confronts Ruby about their past lives, in which the latter takes notice.
• Family Man:
  • As to how Aqua describes Goro to Akane in Chapter 75, Goro is a considerate man whose "only good traits were to bend himself backward for the happiness of others."
  • Being Raised by Grandparents due to his mother's Death by Childbirth, Goro's grandmother assumed he was striving to become an obstetrician in order to bring a form of closure towards his family's loss. Although Goro's original dream was to become a surgeon, he chose to go through becoming an obstetrician with obedience and filial piety towards his grandmother to make her happy.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: For all intents and purposes, Aqua acts a lot like a father-figure to Ruby. He also tells her how dreaming about idols is fine, but becoming an idol is full of hardships that endanger her future, so she should focus on her education. He eventually realizes that with Ruby's talent and looks, and him not being able to watch her all the time, she would eventually be picked up by someone, so he concedes and at least lets her get managed by their foster mother and her agency.
• First Love: Ruby slightly hinted to Kana that she had a first love who is willing to become her fanboy once she becomes an idol. To which the audience of this work understood the individual to be Aqua's past self, Goro.
• Friendless Background:
  • Despite being perfectly able to communicate with others, Aqua is conservative to the point of being cold, and emotionless, which makes it challenging for his peers to approach him.
  • Aqua's in-school social circle is generally limited to small talks between classmates. To stop Ruby from pushing himself to randomly befriend people on his first day in high school, Aqua gave Ruby a list as to why it's not his fault that he couldn't find friends.
  • Goro's backstory revealed he was able to socialize well, but the loss of his grandmother and Sarina led him to lose any will to form deep attachments to any of his acquaintances, a trait which is carried over in his present life as Aqua.
• Gender-Blender Name: Aqua is typically a girl's name.
• Guile Hero: Goro was a certified doctor, so Aqua is naturally smart. He excels in school and uses his scientific knowledge to acquire the evidence he needs to find his father.
• Guilt Complex: Goro/Aqua completely blames himself for being unable to save Ai after she was killed by her stalker.
• Heroic BSoD: He suffers one whenever he is reminded of Ai's death, plagued by his Guilt Complex and desire for revenge. He thus feels liberated when he thinks his revenge is over. However, after Ichigo points out that Ai's killer is still out there, Aqua is left to panic that there had to be a flaw in that argument otherwise he'd have to keep pursuing his revenge at the expense of the chance of happiness. By the end, he ultimately decides to pursue his revenge and breaks things off with Akane so that her career wouldn’t be affected by his actions.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation:
  • Aqua doesn't think he's a good actor. This largely stems from his idolizing and comparing himself to Ai, who in his opinion was a genius who could draw in an audience with her natural charisma. In Gotanda’s opinion, Aqua is way too young to give up on becoming an actor, and he shouldn't compare himself to Ai; as he has his intellect and knowledge in film production to wield to his advantage.
  • He also admitted to Ruby in Chapter 143 that he feels guilty for simply existing and is hurting inside despite being a Manipulative Bastard: He caused pain and lied to so many people as part of his selfish quest for vengeance, and couldn't bring himself to smile or act like his past self because of that, especially after Ai's murder. Fortunately for him though, Ruby manages to snap him out of his fourteen-year depression with a Love Confession and a surprise kiss.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Aqua's left eye is often covered by his bangs. He himself is rather introverted, and while he can perfectly socialize with others, he prefers to avoid people and appears very cold.
• History Repeats: In his first life as Goro, he lost his mother from childbirth and never had any knowledge of his parents. Then when he becomes Aqua, he lost his mother at a young age, and yet again with no knowledge of his father. Needless to say, this took a heavy toll on his heart.
• Hope Spot: He originally believes that his father was Himekawa's and died, which meant he could move on from his revenge. But Ichigo points out the number of ways that was flawed and that Aqua himself should have noticed, unintentionally robbing him of the chance to move on and pursue happiness.
• Hypocrite: Aqua's presentation of hypocrisy is generally played for drama; with his usual pattern of communication goes by the formula of offering reasonable advice to people in hopes they would not commit the sins as he would do.
• Icy Blue Eyes: His cold demeanor, desire for revenge, and creepy atmosphere make his blue eyes fall under the occult, icy, and (suitably) creepy category.
• Idiot Hair: The anime gives his teenage self a single lock of hair on the top of his head that doesn't lie flat. He lacks it in the manga, though.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • While initially shocked to see Ai become pregnant, Goro quickly resolved to help Ai deliver her babies.
  • As Goro reincarnates into Aqua, he honestly feels bad that instead of having normal kids, Ai is stuck with two reincarnated obsessive fans of hers.
  • Downplayed with his sister along with Kana and Akane; while he wants all of them to have a happy life, Aqua's more than willing to make decisions that will hurt their feelings in the name of that goal.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he appears brooding and cares only about finding his birth father, Aqua would not hesitate to reach out to others in trouble. Saving Akane from suicide and being the first to come up with the idea of vindicating her reputation online is perhaps one of his biggest charitable act even if he obtains no real benefit from it.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He views the world through Jade-Colored Glasses in contrast to his very idealistic sister. However, he will still interfere and try to help out troubled people like Kana or Akane when he sees it, even if he isn't directly involved.
• Likes Older Women: Due to having the soul of a full-grown adult, Aqua naturally prefers to be in relationships with women who share his level of values and communication.
• Living Emotional Crutch: He serves as one to Kana and Akane, both encouraging them to come out of their shells and directly intervening should things start taking a bad turn. To a degree, he is aware of their emotional dependence on him, which is why he attempts to push them away to keep them from wandering into harm for his sake.
• Manipulative Bastard: Aqua, a person with a past life as a doctor who served and interacted with colleagues and patients of all ages, gives the advantage of smooth communication with people, observing people’s needs, and reading people’s intents with accuracy. His discipline in acting from a young age served as the last drop of sweet water to fully blossom his Social Engineering skills that enabled him to control the behaviors of his target persons of interest.
  • As all savvy actors would do, depending on the character he is cast to portray if needed, Aqua would improvise his act that would trigger a ripple effect between his cast mates to bring out the performance the audience would want to see best. See Inspirational Insult on the main page for the times Aqua applies insults to get the performance rolling.
  • In Chapter 12, he baits an underground idol into giving him information about her contract to investigate whether her agency is suitable for Ruby by pretending to be a talent scout for Strawberry Productions. Miyako is outright scared and calls Aqua a "nasty nightmare" for being such a skilled liar. After seeing what Ruby's potential new management is like, he intends to hire a detective and spread rumors about how they mistreat their idols.
  • For the web drama adaptation of Sweet Today, given Aqua is a fan of the original work and understood what his scene needs to narrate, Aqua boldly took the lead in staging the scene by utilizing his environment and fully improvising his performance to bring out Kana and Melt’s characters.
  • In Chapter 30, Aqua learns that Akane is a valuable talent who can accurately analyze Ai. In order to secure their connections out of showbiz without obstacles, Aqua made the move to set Akane and himself up as a publicly accepted couple in a romantic relationship.
  • In the new B-Komachi’s debut performance, Aqua observed through B-Komachi’s first song and understood their audience was made up of mostly MEMcho supporters, a few Ruby supporters, and zero Kana supporters. Aqua proceeds to go out glow stick dancing on their second song with all three of their color code sticks to kick group leader Kana out of deterioration so that Kana could light up more and save their performance.
  • Aqua denotes very early on in their friendship that Kana is the easiest individual for himself to manipulate given her young age, attachment issues, and her ignorance of him for being a full-grown adult in spirit.
    • To convince a resisting Kana to sign up with Strawberry Productions and join Ruby's new idol group, Aqua simply and straightforwardly smudges her with flattery and insistence to get the job done.
    • Whenever Kana feels insecure, Aqua swiftly puts out words that would mark Kana as “important,” “reliable,” and “trustworthy” to boost her confidence. If Aqua understands Kana is seeking him for emotional attachments, he would further place the keywords that are of high value for Kana, such as how “'Kana' is important to 'Aqua' himself,” to comfort Kana. Aqua scoffs to himself at how distorted their relationship is and secretly mocks Kana that her ignorance would send her into great danger if she doesn’t grow to realize it soon enough. Considering he's well aware of the deeper, riskier, and more unsavory parts of show business, he's got a very good reason to worry.
  • Ichigo's return to Strawberry Pro as a part-timer is also the result of Aqua's scheming, since Ichigo revealed to Ruby in Chapter 126 that Aqua invited him to his favorite bar, only to end up meeting Miyako again and get called out by her instead.
  • Aqua is also not above exploiting and recruiting Crow Girl as part of his movie scheme in Chapter 127 by simply questioning her acting skills. His words infuriate Crow Girl enough that she reluctantly agreed to participate in the movie just to prove herself that she can act. That said, this move was done out of Director Gotanda’s need of a child actor who is mature enough for the movie, and Aqua’s full understanding of her action patterns. Aqua figured she would show up in front of himself whenever he’s alone at certain locations, hence, he used the least amount of scouting time by manipulating her into signing up with the production in hours time.
• Master Actor:
  • Despite viewing himself as inferior to Ai, Aqua is actually a far better actor than he gives himself credit for. He has over 10 years of acting experience and he can read and communicate with the crew perfectly, allowing him to execute a scene just as they envision it.
  • Aqua’s disguise as Pieyon was convincing enough that he fooled Ruby and the professional actress Kana without any doubts despite his body build and stature being a far cry from the real Pieyon; this is enhanced with Aqua’s Japanese voice actor mimicking Pieyon’s stage voice perfectly to the tee.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: In Chapter 30, Aqua notes that the mechanisms of his body have a definite influence on his soul. Like all humans, Aqua can't remember his days as a baby very well as he ages, and yet his mind becomes even more distant from his peers due to his intelligence and mental age gap coming from "Goro." Also, as Aqua physically ages, his sense of identity as “Aqua” and or “Goro” blurs out, with “Goro” disappearing and “Aqua” becoming dominant. As of current, “Goro” would only come out to daunt “Aqua” with his sense of guilt, anger, and fear whenever “Aqua” has the mindset to move on for himself, triggering Aqua's physical PTSD.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: Played for Laughs. In Chapter 1, Goro tells a heartrending story about how he came to support 16-year-old Ai, and how a young patient, Sarina, (who had a Precocious Crush on him) died of cancer before she could fulfill her dream to become an idol and maybe propose to Goro once she came of age. His assistant nurse quickly accuses him of being a lolicon who is using Sarina as an excuse to lust after Ai. While he firmly states that his feelings are pure, he remains silent when asked whether he would date Ai if she asked him out.
• Morality Pet: For Ruby; but Aqua himself never realized the state of moral strength he has over Ruby. Aqua’s move to release their parentage was done on the assumption that Ruby was mentally strong and stable enough to handle the impact. After realizing what Ruby was spiraling down to, Aqua makes it clear to Ruby that revenge is the last thing he wants her to pursue, getting desperate enough to save her by revealing himself as Goro's reincarnation.
• The Mourning After: As Aqua was the only person to get a firsthand look at Ai's murder, suffice to say that he was traumatized by it so much that it turned him into the person he is today, shaping his mentality to never invest deep interest for any girl he meets in the future; forcing himself to be a Celibate Hero.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: In My Love with a Star Begins Now, Aqua plays a very sweet and friendly version of himself who even blushes when another member makes a pass at him. This adorable persona is downright off-putting to Kana and Ruby, who are used to him being cold and aloof in real life.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Aqua’s decision to intentionally estrange himself from Ruby for her safety ends up not going the way he anticipated, as he underestimated Ruby’s mental health from Ai's death due to her subconscious suppression of the event and strong coping mechanisms. Thus, his decision to make himself look like a callous opportunist had unknowingly unleashed himself from the Morality Pet status that had kept Ruby on her feet, causing her to descend down her own self-destructive spiral for revenge.
• Not Afraid to Die: Aqua has no intentions of escaping the consequences for murdering his father if he ever succeeds.
• invokedOld Shame: There is a lot of older film material of him, but he forbids Director Gotanda from showing this to anyone, as he finds his acting lacking and embarrassing.
• Only Known By His Nickname: Downplayed and justified. "Aqua" is his Affectionate Nickname since birth due to the uncomfortable length and usage of his given name, "Aquamarine" around Japanese society. And since Aqua prefers his nickname over his full given name, he simply uses this nickname as his Stage Name; hence no one within the entertainment business knows his full given name. It wasn't until Aqua outed his relations with Ai that his full true name became known to the public.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Considering how high of a pedestal he places her on, the fact that Aqua considered Sarina's deathbed smile more radiant than Ai is given a very deep meaning when he admits it to her reincarnation as his sister.
• Parental Incest: Averted. Aqua does not have an Oedipus Complex, although at least the Patricide part is true. Being with Ai is a no-go, as while he may have had the desire to date her in his past life, becoming her son has made this impossible. He can't even look at her naked body and refuses to get breastfed.
• Pretty Boy: Aqua has the looks required to enter the entertainment industry, and if needed can even pull off Bishie Sparkles to manipulate people.
• Raised by Grandparents: In his previous life, Goro's mother died giving birth to him, and so his grandparents on his mother’s side were the ones who raised him.
• The Reliable One: Chapter 121 reveals some of his Hidden Depths in his past life. He wasn't really slacking off in other patients' rooms, he visited the patients who never got any visitors and talked to them.
• Revenge Before Reason: He's fully aware that taking revenge on his father won't actually accomplish anything beyond ruining his own life once he has to face the legal consequences of it, but has made it clear that Ai mattered more to him than that. Once he becomes convinced that his father is dead, he tries to brush off the signs that he's mistaken since he just wants to move on with his life already and feels as though getting revenge is something he must do rather than something he actually wants to do.
• Rotten Reincarnation: While initially pleased to be reborn as Ai's son, the spirit of “Goro” quickly realizes the more awkward aspects of this arrangement. Namely, that the idol that he was infatuated with is suddenly his mother, which complicates his feelings towards her quite a bit; “Goro” can't allow Aqua’s infant body to be breastfed, as “Goro’s” a grown man and finds doing so extremely creepy. As the body and identity of Aqua grow up, the spirit of “Goro” naturally matures his mindset into a man in his late 40s by the time Aqua is a teenager, which wrecks his romantic prospects since he can't help but feel the mental age gap despite also being a teenager physically.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Aqua seems to be "Ai-sexual". Despite declaring his love for Ai, he refuses to be breastfed by her or even look at her naked body when they bathe, even though as a former obstetrician he must have seen a woman's naked body many times already. Ai's murder affects him deeply. While he can still acknowledge a woman's beauty and may even develop feelings for them (like Kana), he already stated that he will not love anyone anymore. Aqua gets very confused in Chapters 29 and 30 when Akane starts imitating Ai. However, after a talk with Kana he reaffirms that he doesn't have any romantic feelings for Akane and merely was taken aback by her remarkable acting of his favorite idol.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Goro wore glasses and was a certified doctor. As Aqua, he is no longer wearing any, outside disguises.
• The Social Expert: Due to his experience as a doctor, Aqua can communicate with people perfectly. He uses this ability to read a director's intention and act as they intend it to happen, which in Director Gotanda's eyes makes him an ideal actor. He also has a better understanding of how Ai thinks than Ruby does, as when she furiously asks him how she would've felt about him "betraying" her, he counters that she would've been pretty indifferent to the world finding out about them. Given that Ai would've been in her 30s if she were still alive — well past retirement age for an Idol Singer anyway — and her reaction to seeing her kids cheering her on in a crowd was to squee over how adorable they were rather than get angry about the risk of being discovered, he's probably right.
• Stage Name: Aquamarine uses his Affectionate Nickname—Aqua for showbiz.
• Stalker without a Crush: He's actually known to stalk other people to find out things. For example, he stalked Ruby in order to find out she was still in contact with Ichigo and placed a GPS tracker on Akane specifically to keep track of her.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Downplayed and Played for Laughs. Aqua can handle a phone just fine, but he doesn't get social media or influencers, making a co-actress wonder how old he is.
• Therapy Is for the Weak: Aqua was put in therapy for post-traumatic stress as a child, but faked recovery so he wouldn't feel like he was worrying his family.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. He was sent to a child therapist after Ai's murder for PTSD but Aqua used his acting skills to pretend he recovered to get out of it. He actively refuses to go to therapy in the present day for fear that getting over his issues might make him lose his drive for revenge, much to the concern of those who know about his condition.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Ai's death was the Cynicism Catalyst. Ever since then, Ruby notes that her brother seems to have lost all joy in life.
• Tranquil Fury: When he meets Sarina's mother again as Aqua, he's already livid with her for abandoning her daughter to die alone of cancer. Then when he finds out that she's effectively Unpersoned Sarina from her family's memory, he's only barely able to restrain himself.
• Trauma Button: Anything that reminds Aqua of Ai's death will trigger his Guilt Complex and leave him panicked. He is thus for a long time not able to perform emotional acting because he can't draw on his negative emotions without freezing up.
• Tsundere: Emphasis on tsun. Aqua does indeed care for his colleagues and sister, but the trauma of witnessing Ai's demise up close and personal makes him unwilling to communicate it directly. This only adds to his reputation as The Stoic.
• Typecasting: He's almost always playing the villain, and if he isn't, he's just being creepy instead. The Irony is not lost on him that he's played a stalker twice, the latter case being both Ai's killer and his own.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Aqua actually wants to believe that his father is dead since he feels getting revenge for Ai's death is something he's obligated to do rather than something he truly wants to, and knows that if he goes through with “Goro’s” revenge, he'll be going down with his father. This is why he dumps Akane and allows Ruby to hate him, as he refuses to let anyone but himself suffer for his vendetta. Not even if Ruby is pursuing it herself.
• When She Smiles: Ruby and Kana were astonished to view Aqua putting out an adorable persona as his act for the My Love with a Star Begins Now reality show in stark contrast to his regular personality. This promptly pulls out the jealous sides of both Ruby and Kana in interesting ways, as they do find Aqua very attractive when he smiles, and subconsciously wish he could have genuine happy expressions in everyday life with them.
• Whodunnit to Me?: Aqua assumes that whoever killed Goro, his past life identity, is responsible for Ai's death as well.
• You Killed My Father: Aqua doesn't intentionally want to fulfill his mother's last wish for him to become an actor. Aqua only does it to find his biological father and kill him, as he was very likely the person who leaked information about Ai's circumstances to a crazed stalker who ended up killing Ai.

Ruby Hoshino

Ruby Hoshino (Sarina Tendouji)

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Ruby voiced by: Yurie Igoma (Japanese), Alyssa Marek (English)
Sarina voiced by: Tomoyo Takayanagi (Japanese), Savanna Menzel (English)

^{Click here to see Sarina}

"I really love idols. Not only are they as pretty and cute as flowers, their existence makes my heart race. They're the ultimate existence. They give me life and energy."

The younger one of Ai's twins. Ruby is the reincarnation of a girl named Sarina Tendouji—a 12-year-old girl who died of cancer.

Over the course of Sarina's final months in life, Sarina introduced her hobbies of fangirling over Idol Singer Ai Hoshino to her friend Goro and attempted many times to confess her budding romantic interest towards him as well. Despite Goro's promise to think it over when Sarina became old enough and support her when she became an idol, Sarina succumbed to her cancer. The next time Sarina opened her eyes, she became Ai's daughter.

Now overwhelmed with joy as Ruby Hoshino, Ruby gave herself the goal to become an idol singer, not just to follow in her mother’s footsteps, but to also fulfill her promise to Goro. Unbeknownst to Ruby, Goro has died and reincarnated as her very own twin brother.

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• Advertised Extra: Played with and then subverted; Ruby, despite receiving billing as a main character, got very little focus during much of the series' earlier arcs. After she discovers Goro's fate, she becomes far more prominent.
• Audience Surrogate: Ruby's character comes from the point-of-view of preteen-to-teenagers who are ignorant to the complexity of society outside of school and family, especially those aspiring to become entertainers. All of Ruby's questions and responses to the issues her brother and her brother's colleagues deal with are very much likely to what the audience would have reacted, and it would be those who have more experience in the workforce, such as Kana and Miyako, to step in to educate her.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: She immediately pieces out that Aqua also wanted revenge against their mother's killer when Akane confirms that Aqua started acting because "there's someone he wants to meet in show business" despite Akane's vague and elusive wording.
• Baldness Means Sickness: As Sarina, she's bald underneath her hat as part of her cancer treatment.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Ruby reveres her mother Ai and wishes to follow in her footsteps by becoming an idol herself. However, Ai's murder would distort Ruby's perception of those around her from an early age, to the point that even with Aqua the only familial connection she felt with him was their shared love for Ai. Discovering that her crush from her past life, Goro, is dead and that her father set Ai up to die further corrupted her. Despite the ruthlessness in pursuing her goals both old and new that not even her own brother is safe from, she continues to insist that she's doing it in Ai's name, apparently not realizing that by giving into hatred so completely, she's become the polar opposite of what Ai actually stood for. By Chapter 106, she's taken to calling everyone else liars, when Ai herself had said that idols are people who lie to their fans, further signifying how far she's deviated from the woman she's dedicated her entire life to. Chapter 122 has her acknowledge this by admitting how it felt like every lie she told led her to a different path than the one she wanted to take.
• Berserk Button:
  • She gets really disgusted by the thought of Aqua having sex with any young female talent. On the surface, it looks like brother-complex tendencies, but it's clear Ruby took note of the abnormal relationship between her birth parents, and her brother being possibly a mature man in his past life to heart.
  • Ruby loathes liars. This is pretty ironic because the idols and their deification by fans are all based on a pile of lies.
  • While it's a trait shared with her brother, insulting Ai is one of the easiest ways to have Ruby out for your blood, though the twins' dynamics mean that she is far more likely to show any significant reaction to it.
• Big Brother Worship: Ruby deeply trusts her brother, Aqua, who always looks out for her. Discovering his past life only deepens these feelings, and ends up evolving into Big Brother Attraction.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: After her darker turn in the manga for the sake of her own revenge, Ruby's adopted quite the two-faced attitude towards others whenever she sees that she could benefit from them in the long run:
  • She acts friendly and affable with Meiya, but secretly disdains her despite being shown to get along well with her.
  • She also made sure that she has Urushibara under her thumb during the Dig Deep arc by pretending to save him and his job through a scandal she herself had caused in secret for her own benefit.
  • While it's ambiguous if she truly cares for or at least sympathizes with Shun deep down, her being nice to him is mainly so she can use him as an investment for her career as per Ichigo's advice.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Overlapping with Beware the Nice Ones. Ruby is a lighthearted and optimistic goofball compared to her brooding twin brother Aqua, but after stumbling upon Goro's corpse and learning that his and Ai's murders correlate with each other, her drive for revenge becomes a lot more intense and comparatively more aggressive, albeit stealthily so, than even Aqua's.
• Birds of a Feather: She gets along well with MEMcho who is very similarly cheerful and lively.
• Break the Cutie: Finding Goro's corpse. She is noticeably more subdued afterward and when she learns that he was killed by the same person who killed Ai, she acts eerily similar to her brother and vows to hunt down and kill the murderer's accomplice.
• Broken Bird: Turns out she has been broken since her previous life, her sickness as Sarina and her parents' neglectful treatment having already given her a plethora of issues that only got more obvious after Ai's death and the discovery of Goro's corpse.
• Broken Pedestal: Ruby adores and appreciates her brother’s hard work and support to help her pave the way into showbiz, but broke down once he reveals Ai’s most valued secrets to the world; Ruby simply cannot understand why Aqua would betray their familial bond and their mother’s legacy for the sake of their own showbiz profit. It takes Aqua revealing his past life to her to install the Rebuilt Pedestal.
• Brutal Honesty: She is honest to a fault. When she doesn't like something, she will say it, as she hates lies.
• Cheery Pink: While she is affiliated with the color pink, Ruby's supposedly innocent cheeriness ends up being revealed to be a very large coping mechanism to deal with her feelings of loneliness and low self-worth.
• The Chessmaster: She shows a terrifying talent for being one during the Dig Deep arc, having deliberately invited Meiya, a personality known for causing drama through her leaks on Twitter whenever she felt she was wronged, as a guest in the show with the knowledge that she'd cause an uproar because of Director Urushibara's history of conducting problematic interviews. She also nudged Assistant Director Shun into submitting her proposal to the execs as a means of making it look like she would "save" the show's reputation through it. The result was that Ruby got everything that she wanted out of the scandal she herself caused: her winning the favor of the staff as well as getting more jobs in the industry as a result of Urushibara owing her one after she "saved" his and the show's reputations, Minami getting more jobs by proxy due to Ruby's invitation, Meiya and Urushibara peacefully burying the hatchet on live TV, boosting Dig Deep's ratings and Ruby gaining the favor of both people, and Ruby gaining Shun as her personal manager as revealed in later chapters. Mind you, this was all her plan, she had been instructed to simply befriend Shun as he would become a director in the future, she was the one to come up with a scheme to fast-forward by making both him and the current director owe her favors.
• Children Are Innocent: Unlike Aqua, Ruby doesn't seem as traumatized by Ai's death. Aqua is aware of this, which is why he tries his best to keep Ruby away from the entertainment world. However, she's not as innocent as the narrative makes her out to be. When Minami suggests that Aqua might be secretly having sex with Akane, Ruby suddenly turns cold, saying that her brother taking advantage of a teen entertainer or simply just having reckless sex would be unforgivable, since her gut feeling knew that her brother was, at the very least, a mature man in his past life.
• Clingy Child: To Aqua, especially since the two patched up from their relation breakup in revelation of their past identities with each other. While Ruby comes from a Desperately Craves Affection-bordering-Love Hungry perspective, Aqua takes Ruby on in a decent Big Brother Instinct manner.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Familial version. Ruby turned out to be jealous of Aqua as he chose to spend his weekends with his reality dating show cast members instead of eating at home with her, and even resolves to choose the girl who Aqua should date, to which Aqua carefully brushes Ruby off with an Anti-Smother Love Talk. After the events of Chapter 123, familial might not be the right term for it anymore.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Kaguya Shinomiya from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Ruby is set up to be different to her previous predecessor in many ways.
  • To Ruby's past life as Sarina:
    • Both suffered from Parental Abandonment in their past lives, but in terms of how it went, their circumstances are wildly different. Kaguya was born as a Heroic Bastard, whose father Gan'an had an affair with her mother Nayotake, while Sarina was born through her legitimate parents, but suffered serious neglect when she was dying from cancer at the age of 12 and only saw Goro as her Hope Spot.
    • Even more so, Kaguya admired her late mother and would go at lengths to call anyone out who used her mother's name on bad faith, while Sarina eventually became a victim of her parent's neglect and instead treated Ai and Goro as the closest that is to a parental figure, especially considering the significance of their presence before succumbing to cancer.
    • While Kaguya had someone close to her, that being her former maid and childhood friend Ai Hayasaka, Sarina suffered from loneliness until her death and she had no one close to her but Ai Hoshino and Goro, of which happened in her final moments before her death; adding insult to the injury is that both of them were murdered.
  • To her present life as Ruby:
    • When it comes to personality, Ruby is different to Kaguya. Kaguya, at first, is seen as cold and calculating on the outside, but in reality she is actually a kind and innocent-minded teenage girl. Ruby, on the other hand, starts off as an innocent teenage girl until it is eventually revealed to be two-faced who is not above on manipulating others and is now bent on finding the murderer responsible for Goro and Ai's death; where she eventually becomes like her own brother Aqua.
    • Both are also antagonistic to their own fathers in line due to their hostile treatment. In Kaguya's case, her upbringing and her hostility to her father Gan'an was resulted of his cold, neglectful nature who has high expectations for her, which was what resulted in her cluelessness in the outside world. In Ruby's case, after encountering Goro's corpse, she goes from an innocent teenage girl into an embittered, two-faced girl who uses others for her own gain, eventually following her brother's vengeance of hunting down their own father to avenge the death of their mother, thus she eventually becomes the complete antithesis to her.
• Creepy Child: Only when it involves Ai though. Ruby acts like a very creepy otaku, furiously fights back against internet hatred directed at Ai, and loves being breastfed by her. When she learns that Ai isn't making enough money, she suggests asking Ai's fans to donate their organs and send the money to her mother.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Sarina was a lonely girl, who was abandoned by her parents, who couldn't deal with the pain of their child slowly dying of cancer with next to no chance of survival. The only sources of solace she had were Ai, who she admired, and Goro, the only person willing to spend time with her. Ai and Goro were Ruby's Hope Spots, which is why she snaps when she learns that both died. This same fact is also the reason that she immediately feels better after Aqua reveals his past identity.
• Death of a Child: As Sarina, she suffered from anaplastic astrocytoma, a very aggressive brain tumor, which killed her when she was 12 years old. Having died young, she is significantly less mature than her older brother and far more naive.
• Delicate and Sickly: Sarina may have been a Littlest Cancer Patient and ended up bald as a result, but it doesn't detract from her cuteness in the slightest.
• Delusions of Parental Love: Sarina's parents had basically abandoned her, never visiting their sick daughter while she was in the hospital and ultimately leaving her to die alone. Despite this, Sarina continues to believe that her mother loves her and is just too busy to visit. This causes problems when she was cast to play Ai in the documentary, because Ai was similarly unloved by her mother, and Ruby's denial that Sarina's mother did not love her prevents her from being able to fully embrace her role. After finally seeing her past life's family in the present day, Ruby's last strings of hope snap, and she falls into a well of depression once she fully absorbs the facts.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • With the revelation of Goro’s death and knowing there is an accomplice related to Goro and Ai's murder, the knowledge hit Ruby/Sarina with the realization that both her idol and love interest have been permanently robbed from her life and that she is powerless to do anything to bring them back. Since Ruby acknowledged she has the strong will to live on for herself in this present life, she chooses to carve out a path of vengeance to get revenge for her loved ones as a resort.
  • As to how she hinted with the method act she performed in front of Frill and Akane in Chapter 115, to interpret the expression of “lying,” Ruby tapped into her most depressed thought of wanting to “simply die” just so she can be with her two loved ones, but bounced back with a typical “just joking” humor.
  • In Chapter 121, Ruby visits her past life's house, where her family still lives. Seeing Sarina's mother, who abandoned Sarina at the hospital, live her life happily with her children, only reinforces Ruby's belief that she is a Doom Magnet who only brings misfortune to the people close to her. It takes Aqua revealing himself as Goro's reincarnation to bring her out of this.
• Dreadful Musician: In Chapter 11, Ruby's friends point out that while she has the looks, the charisma, and can dance well, her singing needs improving (which she wasn't aware of). She doesn't seem to have taken the advice to heart, as she still is pretty bad in Chapter 34.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Ruby originally had blue eyes based on this teaser image featuring her when Oshi no Ko's manga was originally announced. In the series proper, she has ruby-colored eyes instead to contrast her with her brother.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Despite her Hidden Disdain Reveal, she admits to Aqua that she actually finds Meiya's negative feelings towards Urushibara's disrespect towards her and her craft during the Dig Deep arc completely valid, showing that she understands why Meiya reacted the way she did at the time even if Ruby finds her and her methods disagreeable.
  • Ruby has a bad habit of insensitively saying whatever's on her mind first without thinking, but even she feels awkward around Akane after Aqua broke up with the latter recently, to the point that when they meet again after a while, she tries her best to make sure she doesn't bring up the topic in front of her.
• Fangirl: Sarina adored idols, and this hasn't changed after reincarnating as the child of her favorite idol, Ai.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Downplayed, but after discovering Goro's corpse, she becomes far more ruthless and unscrupulous.
• Happily Adopted: While sad about Ai's death, she is not unhappy about Miyako adopting and raising her.
• Hypocrite: Ruby claims to hate liars, despite being a massive one herself:
  • After Aqua reveals his and Ruby's parentage to the world, Ruby rants to him about how he's changed for the worse since Ai died and accuses him of not caring about Ai anymore, and when he denies the latter, she angrily declares that "everyone is a liar", including him. However, Ruby herself changed in a similar way to Aqua when she learned about the second culprit behind Goro and Ai's deaths, and she's the one who was dead-set on maintaining Ai's big lie forever.
  • Wanting to avoid any awkwardness during the private audition, she lies to Akane that Aqua is doing well despite refusing to even see him since their falling-out.
  • For someone who hates liars so much, Ruby is pretty good at acting. In Chapter 115, she realizes that acting could be seen as a form of lying. That doesn't change her stance on liars, though.
  • And of course, she worships the ground Ai walks on despite her philosophy that idols as a whole revolve their career around lying to their fans.
  • Despite openly joking about Aqua having a sister complex, Ruby herself turns out to have a much bigger brother complex for her big brother.
• Idol Singer: She was a huge fan of idols in her past life as Sarina and she's dead set on becoming one herself; flash Forwards reveal that this will eventually happen. However, Aqua has been intervening in her efforts to become an idol since he knows how harsh the industry can be and he worries about her. Miyako still notices she is such a talented girl that she will eventually be scouted, so they decide to take control and start a new iteration of B-Komachi (Ai's old idol group) under Strawberry Productions.
• Ignored Epiphany: She's thrown for a loop when Frill reveals that the 15 Year Lie movie is a revenge scheme orchestrated by Aqua and Gotanda against their father, thus debunking her prior claim that Aqua didn't care about Ai, as well as Akane claiming that the actress who plays Ai must understand what her intentions were to make the stalker and his accomplice all the more hatable, which similarly gets Ruby questioning herself... Right up until Akane insists that she's the most suitable person for the role in such a case, prompting Ruby to double down and claim that she understood Ai better than anyone, and it must be her that gets revenge, not Aqua. Not that it stops Aqua from telling her the real reason he doesn't want her to in a way that gets the point across.
• I Have No Son!: Ruby disowns Aqua in Chapter 106 for revealing that they're Ai's children, since she's convinced Aqua doesn't care about Ai anymore if he's willing to spill her darkest secret. It takes Aqua revealing himself as a reincarnated Goro during one of her despair sessions for her to forgive him.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Sarina harbored the wish to be loved by her mother, which is why Ruby sought out Ai's and Goro's love. Wishing for Ai's love to substitute for the love she wasn't given by Marina contributes to Ruby's depression when she learns that Sarina's mother happily moved on after her daughter's death. This reason also means that she immediately cheers up when Aqua reveals who he was in his past life.
• I Will Find You: Ruby’s original goal as a reincarnated individual was to get famous enough for Goro to notice her and “become a fanboy of Ruby Hoshino.” Unfortunately, she's unaware Goro has been killed and his soul reincarnated into her twin brother. Once she comes across Goro's decayed body, she changes her resolve to find and kill the second culprit involved in Goro's and Ai's deaths. Later on, Aqua tries to talk her out of it by finally revealing that he's Goro's reincarnation.
• Innocently Insensitive: Comes off as this, due to her limited social skills and Brutal Honesty. For instance:
  • After meeting a girl in school, the first thing Ruby does is look her up on the internet and comment on her rather sensual photos for work. Right in front of her.
  • She unintentionally tears MEMcho down by constantly bringing up her age and frankly calling her old.
  • While it's unclear if she knows about Kana's crush on her brother, happily propping up Akane as her sister-in-law when they meet for the first time in front of Kana depresses and annoys Kana simultaneously.
• It's All About Me: While Aqua refuses to allow others to get involved in his revenge scheme since he wants to be the only one to suffer the consequences for it, Ruby does it because she's convinced that she understood Ai better than anybody and ergo it must be her that gets revenge, not just for her sake, but for Goro as well. Prior to their identity revalation, Ruby initially goes along with Aqua's plan with the film adaptation because she wants to Kill Steal the culprit from Aqua when the moment comes.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Like her brother, she's rude and frank, if unintentionally so, but ultimately cares for her friends and family around her. Even after donning a darker persona following her discovery of Goro's corpse, she nonetheless refuses to abandon Kana (and Mem by proxy) or even blame her when Kana ends up getting caught in a scandal that could potentially jeopardize B-Komachi, as she's fully willing to come up with a plan with Aqua to help save her from the ensuing backlash should news get out. She changes her tune after realizing too late what Aqua's plan actually was, but even then, she never blames or resents Kana for it despite being the cause of Aqua having to resort to what he had to do to save Kana from her potential scandal.
• Meaningful Name: Ruby's name in kanji is written as 瑠美衣, which literally means "Veluriyam Beautiful Clothes." Aqua personally agrees her name in both pronunciation and kanji writing is very lovely, "normal, and fitting" to Japanese cultural standards in comparison to his given name.
• Morality Pet: One of the few things keeping Aqua from plunging too far into the deep end is his desire to keep Ruby safe.
• Naïve Newcomer: Ruby has talent, but is as naïve as one would expect from a teenager who never worked in the entertainment industry. Miyako, Aqua, and Kana, who have more experience in life and showbiz, make sure she doesn't do anything stupid.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Ichigo advised Ruby to set her persona up as The Ditzy Fool as she works with Aqua on talk shows to contrast Aqua’s persona as The Snark Knight Straight Man.
• Out of Focus: Despite being established as one of the co-protagonists alongside her brother Aqua and the de-facto main heroine of the series, Ruby's involvement and focus in the plot after Ai's death has been minimal at best, as she only gets a few chapters dedicated to herself compared to the huge amount of focus Aqua and Kana get in the manga. She finally comes back in the limelight again many chapters later after she discovers Goro's decayed corpse with Akane while Aqua himself takes a backseat in the arc that follows.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Played for Laughs in Chapter 8. Ruby's gravely insistent that she and Aqua were a virgin birth. Her idol-turned-mother Ai having sex is not an image she can accept.
• Plucky Girl: Ruby is a shining beacon of positivity and values in a world full of liars and predators. Ai's death does not deter her from becoming an idol. Aqua constantly acts as a foil to her and reminds her about how the real world works to keep her grounded in her expectations. She also earns Kana's and Pieyon's respect after managing to keep up with his training session for one hour.
• Posthumous Character: As Sarina, who had died long before the start of the story. Her memory is still fresh in Goro's mind, as he has a photo of Sarina as his phone wallpaper by the time he meets Ai.
• Precocious Crush: Sarina had one on Goro, as he wholeheartedly wanted to support her if she ever tried to become an idol. He and Ai are a major motivation for Ruby to live her dream. This is a major reason why she immediately cheers up after discovering Aqua is his reincarnation.
• Pursuing Parental Perils: Ruby is set to become an idol and actress. Ai's death did not deter her, especially as Ai wished for Ruby to become an idol eventually.
• Psycho Pink: Ruby is closely associated with pink in her clothing (which matches her eyes), but her ruthless behavior when prompted can make her much more unhinged than even Aqua, whose entire career was built over how others find him creepy.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her bright pink eyes fall towards the red side of the spectrum, and (especially in later chapters) she is not someone to take lightly.
• Shipper on Deck: Ruby can't believe Aqua actually got together with such a nice girl like Akane and wonders if her brother got dirt on Akane somehow. However, she happily calls Akane her sister-in-law and asks when the two are going to marry. That being said, she wasn't against having Kana hang around him either and actually appreciates the fact that Aqua is much more relaxed around her... to a certain extent, at least. After learning about his true identity as Goro's incarnation, however, Ruby changes gears and is hell-bent on keeping Aqua for herself.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Sarina's desire to marry Goro carried over into her new life. One of Ruby's main motivations for becoming an idol was to hopefully reunite with him. This was in spite of the fact that Goro would've been biologically at least several decades older than her by that point if he hadn't been murdered. Her feelings for Goro transfers over to Aqua once she finds out he's Goro's reincarnation, despite the fact that they are now siblings in their new lives.
• Smarter Than You Look: She may lack tact and can be naïve, but she's far from stupid. Though she doesn't get to show it as often as her brother does, Ruby's intuition can be incredibly sharp when needed, like when she called out Kana for putting on a brave front when she was really nervous before their first performance by tricking her into letting her feel her cold hands (indicating that Kana was nervous) with hers, confirming Ruby's suspicions, and having a very strong hunch that Aqua's possibly manipulating Akane for his own ends after seeing her act as Ai on TV.
• Stepford Smiler: She does a pretty good job of hiding her anger, ruthlessness, and other dark emotions from her family and friends after she discovered Goro's corpse by pretending to act like her usual chipper self in front of them. She eventually reveals to Aqua that she's never been as optimistic or unconditionally loving as she previously presented herself as, with a later chapter going into detail about how she's still bitter about how her parents in her previous life barely gave her the time of day even as her illness was slowly killing her.
• Teen Genius: Ruby lacks training for her skills, but it's easy for others to notice that she is a diamond in the rough and has that special something that it takes to become a star like her mother.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Much like Aqua after Ai's death, discovering Goro's body has made Ruby a much more somber, cynical, and emotionally distant person.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: To some degree, though she keeps it subtle so as not to tip off her loved ones. Following her discovery of Goro's corpse and her meeting with the mysterious crow girl after, Ruby becomes a bit more sullen (though only privately), even manipulative and ruthless, all for the sake of finding the 2nd culprit responsible for Ai and Goro's deaths and wanting to kill them herself. Her recent change in demeanor has also caused her to distance herself from both Kana and MEMcho, though it's unclear if she's consciously doing so or not.
• Traumatic Haircut: According to interlude chapter 4, Sarina once tried to grow her hair out to resemble Ai's, but her mother made her cut it short again on the grounds that taking care of long hair while hospitalized would be a burden. Ruby is still bitter about this, to the point that when Aqua says it's a nuisance for her to leave her long hair loose at home and she should tie it back, she yells at him and storms off.
• Twincest: As Sarina, she was in love with Goro and made him promise to marry her when she turned 16. Discovering Goro reincarnated as her twin brother does not deter her. She even had a small euphoric expression when Frill told her about the upcoming kissing scene with Aqua.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl:
  • Prior to her cancer diagnosis, Sarina initially aspired to follow in her mother's footsteps to become a professional figure skater.
  • One of Ruby's motivations for becoming an Idol Singer is that Ai, as she dies, commented to Ruby about her potential to pursue the path.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She has given this speech multiple times to MEM-cho and especially Kana in their idol careers, though after finding out about Aqua's true identity she ends up receiving one from him.

The Mother

Ai Hoshino

Ai Hoshino

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Rie Takahashi (Japanese), Donna Bella Litton (English)

Ai is a 16-year-old idol and the leader of the idol group B-Komachi. She temporarily takes a break from work because she is pregnant with twins, Aqua and Ruby.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Due to Teen Pregnancy, Ai became a mother when she was 16.
• Accidental Misnaming: Ai is bad with names and faces and often forgets or mispronounces the names of people around her. The sidestories "45510" and "Viewpoint B" imply that she may be legitimately faceblind on top of struggling to read names written in kanji due to her low level of formal education.
• Advertised Extra: Even though her children are the actual protagonists of the series and she dies early on in the story, Ai continues to be the face of the series in promotional material related to Oshi no Ko and is even featured in the cover◊ of Weekly Young Jump as the manga's representative in a collaboration with the idol group Hello! Project instead of either Aqua or Ruby.
• All-Loving Hero: An interesting example. She herself believes she doesn't know how to love, even though she's doing her best, to the point where she's afraid she might not love her own children. However, in effect, it's hard not to describe her wanting to love everyone as itself a form of love. Even her murderer is not excluded, as minutes before death, she expresses her desire to love him too, remembering who he is and how they met.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite belonging to an idol group and working together with them for years, Ai wasn't particularly close to any of the other members of the original B-Komachi thanks to her own issues combined with the others' envy of her meteoric rise to fame, though it's shown that she at least had a somewhat cordial, if still distant, relationship with some of them. The official short novel "45510" eventually reveals that Ai did care for the other girls, or at least, her fellow founding members, as the password to her third phone that took Aqua years to decipher was based on the initials of the first four members of B-Komachi including her when you flick type on a Japanese numeric keypad: "Takamine" (4) "Nino" (55) "Ai" (1) "Watanabe" (0). She even left a posthumous blog letter addressed to them that has her admitting that she cherishes the friendship all four of them initially shared and apologizes for not being a better friend to them. Meanwhile, at least three members of B-Komachi were shown mourning Ai during her wake, showing they at least still cared for her in spite of their rocky relationship with her. The narrator of "45510", heavily implied to be one of the three girls mentioned, even admits that she both hated and loved Ai all the same. The other short story, Viewpoint B, takes it further. Ai considered the narrator of that particular story to be the one person she truly considered as her closest friend.
• Becoming the Mask: Incapable of loving someone, President Saitou suggested that by becoming an idol and showering her fans with love, Ai would be able to attain love eventually, too.
• Beneath the Mask: Despite her charismatic and seemingly cheerful personality that she presents to the public, Ai is deeply haunted by the idea that she's unable to truly love anyone, including her own children, due to her role as a Consummate Liar.
• Birds of a Feather: As seen via the 15 Year Lie movie scenes, Ai was attracted to Kamiki because she could tell that like her, he's a broken individual who uses lies to "deceive others around them" in an effort to be loved.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Her mother was abusive, treated her as an unwanted existence, and implied to have tried to kill her by putting a shard of glass in her rice bowl before ultimately abandoning her. Ai's own treatment of her children Aqua and Ruby is very nurturing and attentive, even though she's secretly afraid that she doesn't truly love them.
• Broken Ace: Ai is an unparalleled gem of an idol, and is considered head and shoulders above her peers in the same profession. Her beauty, talents, and natural charisma have won her over many jobs and fans in the industry. However, underneath the perfect idol façade she puts up in public is a troubled young girl who desires to genuinely love and be loved but feels unable to do either thanks to her abusive background and the unstable environment she grew up in. Her status as the "perfect idol Ai" made her fellow B-Komachi members envious and resentful of her meteoric rise to fame, preventing her from forming close relationships with them despite her desire to become friends with her co-workers. Because of her warped upbringing, she has a very negative perception of herself despite the confident aura she puts up and her hesitance to tell her kids "I love you" is due to her fear that even her love for them could be a lie.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: While Ai comes across as a bit of an airhead, her looks coupled with her charisma and captivating aura make her an outstanding talent that fascinates people in the whole country. Her being a little Book Dumb is also justified, because she didn't have a stable environment in her childhood and focused on her idol career after Saitou scouted her when she was 12.
• Cessation of Existence: According to Crow Girl, this is Ai's ultimate fate after dying. As her soul is ultimately broken down and moved on from the world through the sea of stars.
• Consummate Liar: Idols are cynically called liars who portray an illusion to their fans. Ai is said to be an extremely talented liar.
  Ichigo Saitou: In the entertainment world, behind every smile, there's a calculated lie. [...] Everyone lies. Even if they don't want to. We'll take on the challenge... So bring it on! Our Ai up there is a magnificent liar.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Nayotake Shimizu, Kaguya's mother, from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Ai has some similarities to Nayotake, being that they are the out-of-wedlock mothers to the main protagonists and both died under tragic circumstances, though they are different to each other in many ways. Nayotake is a middle-aged woman with black hair, while Ai is a much younger girl who was only 20 before her death. Nayotake was a High-Class Call Girl who worked as a prostitute in a red light district, while Ai hailed from a rural upbringing who only became a famous idol during her teenage years. Nayotake died under natural causes, while Ai was murdered by an accomplice of Hikaru.
• Curtains Match the Window: While her hair is a comparatively darker shade, both it and her eyes are a vibrant purple.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Ai suffered from an unstable environment, growing up with an abusive mother and without a father. She was placed in an orphanage after her mother was arrested, after which she never saw her mother again. She was picked up by Saitou when she was twelve, which somewhat improved her life, but due to a desire to love and being loved back she indulged in somewhat destructive behavior. Producer Kaburagi indicates Ai dated several men during her puberty and Akane figures that Ai's emotional instability is typical for kids who had sex during puberty, though as Akane continued her research into Ai, what she found indicates that Ai calmed down at around the age of 15. It is later revealed in Chapter 131 that not only was her mother abusive towards her, but her mother's boyfriend also harbored inappropriate sexual feelings for Ai, who was a child at the time — which she is implied to have been aware of.
• Deader than Dead: According to Crow Girl, Ai's soul has completely moved on from this world. No reincarnation for her.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: She was so dear to Aqua and Ruby that both of them swear vengeance on their biological father when they become convinced that he set her up to die, with Aqua having basically dedicated his entire life to avenging her.
• Decoy Protagonist: Despite being prominently featured on the cover of the first volume of the manga and in promotional materials for the anime, Ai dies early on, being murdered at the end of Chapter 9/Episode 1. While the story was always told from Aqua's point-of-view, Ai's death is merely the ending of the prologue of the story as Aqua and Ruby's entries into the entertainment world take center stage.
• Died Happily Ever After: Compared to Sarina and Goro's untimely deaths, Ai had little regrets before dying as she was finally able to tell her children that she loves them without those words being a lie. Because Ai was ultimately content at the end of her life despite being cruelly murdered, it's implied that it plays a role in why her soul moved on from the world and thus, is unable to reincarnate.
• Died on Their Birthday: On both her 20th birthday and the day she was to perform at Tokyo Dome, she was fatally stabbed by a Loony Fan.
• Disappeared Dad: Ai's mother is mentioned a good number of times in the series before she eventually appears in person much later but little is known about Ai's father and why he was no longer around in her life when her mother began abusing her in their home. What little we do know about the man can be found in an in-universe interview with Ai from the real life literary magazine Da Vinci, where she talks about him a bit. Apparently, she has fonder memories of her father in contrast with the ones she has of her mother, implying that he was a good parent to her before his yet to be explained absence from her life prior to Ai being sheltered by an orphanage.
• Does Not Like Spam: The 45510 short novel reveals that Ai dislikes white rice due to an incident in which her mother snuck shattered glass into it when she was younger.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Ai is finally able to genuinely tell Aqua and Ruby that she loves them as she's dying from her stab wound, and she dies happy that she was able to do so.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Ai has six-pointed stars in her eyes, matching her punny family name. They're a visual shorthand for her particular mystique, and they aren't actually visible to anyone in-universe. Akane imitating her personality well enough makes her eyes change to look the same. They disappear when she dies.
  • Eventually, Ai herself reveals the meaning behind these eyes in the romanization of her befriending Hikaru Kamiki depicted in Chapter 140: these are the eyes of an exceptionally good liar. She sports black pupils as she is revealing this, with the possible meaning that the pupils appear black whenever the liar is revealing the inner darkness they normally keep hidden within themselves.
• Eye Lights Out: Ai's Exotic Eye Designs slowly fade away as she succumbs to her wound. When she finally dies, the stars completely disappear from her eyes.
• First-Name Basis: Aqua almost exclusively refers to her as "Ai" even after reincarnating as her son, which serves to indicate that, unlike Ruby, he doesn't really see Ai as his mother, especially since she was only in his life for four years.
• Friendless Background: According to Aqua and Akane, Ai has had no social circle in her entire life, and even though she worked in an idol unit, she has no special attachment to its members. The side stories 45510 and Viewpoint B however, reveal that while her relationship with the original B-Komachi members was actually a tad bit more complex than what the manga showed, there was at least one member that she considered as the closest thing she had to a best friend and a (somewhat) close confidante: the unnamed narrator of Viewpoint B.
• Good Parents: Despite her own abusive upbringing, the unfortunate circumstances behind their birth, and the huge risks that come with keeping them, Ai loves Aqua and Ruby dearly, taking on numerous jobs just so they can grow up comfortably. She's not even mad when she finds out Miyako brought them to one of her concerts, as she's too focused on how cute they look cheering her on. Even in her final moments, her only thoughts are of comforting them.
• Hidden Depths:
  • She comes off as goofy and a bit of a klutz, but her charisma and ability come from hard work.
  • Despite recounting her own mother's abuse and subsequent abandonment, and even admitting that she never received any familial love from her, it's implied that Ai still deeply misses her mother and wished they had a better relationship.
  • Ai's formal education is lacking and she genuinely is a bit of a ditz, but Aqua realized later that she was far smarter than she appeared.
• Hypnotic Eyes: Her eyes probably aren't literally hypnotic, but the way they're drawn represents the hold she has over everyone that looks into them.
  You'll find people with those eyes once in a while. Deceptive eyes have the power to make lies look like truths. It's the best quality for an actor.
• invokedIdol Singer: She is the leader of the idol group B-Komachi, and she's been performing as an idol since she was 12 years old. Her pregnancy and giving birth to twins have to be kept tightly under wraps since it breaks the very strict Contractual Purity idols are subjected to.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Ai initially became an idol because she didn't receive any parental love, and thus couldn't love anyone either.
• Image Song: The theme song "Idol"'s lyrics are in Ai's perspective as she tries to understand what love is while being an idol in hopes she can understand it someday.
• Informed Attractiveness: She is described to be so cute that she was edited out of her first role as an actress because she was cuter than the lead actress who was advertised as being "overwhelmingly cute". Despite this, she doesn't look any different from most other female characters in the series, aside from her star-shaped pupils which represent her incredible charisma.
• Killed Off for Real: For all intent and purposes in the story after Chapter 9/Episode 1, and according to Crow Girl, Ai won't be reincarnating like Aqua and Ruby as her soul has moved on from the world.
• Like Mother, Unlike Daughter: While we don't see or know much about Ai's mother, the series and the '45510' side story paint a very clear picture of her being both physically and verbally abusive to Ai, possibly trying to kill her by tampering with her food, and then subsequently abandoned her. Then Ai became a mother after giving birth to both Aqua and Ruby and she does her best to be a good mother to them, even up to the moment of her death, Ai's final moments only consist of comforting her children with little thought to herself.
• The Lost Lenore: After her death, Aqua carries her memory around his neck, never forgetting or moving on from her, and straight-up stating that he will never love another woman again. The same is also true for Ruby, who can't easily let her mother go and struggles to live with the fact that she has to hide her parentage.
• Lonely at the Top: Due to having a troubled home life, she decided to become an idol in the hopes of obtaining love. Unfortunately, despite her meteoric rise to fame, she doesn't have any real friends and isn't even particularly close with the other members of B-Komachi.
• Meaningful Name: Her first name is only given in katakana. Ai can either be written as 愛 (love) or 哀 (sorrow), which are both fitting. The former also counts as an Ironic Name, because Ai never received love and didn't think she is capable of loving someone.
  • This adds an extra layer to her repeated motto "uso wa ai" - translated as "lies are love" (though "lies are sorrow" works just as well), but interpreting Ai as her name renders the meaning "lies are [who] Ai [is]".
  • Her family name, Hoshino, adds more depth. Hoshi (spelled with the kanji in Ai's name) means "star", so reading her family name as hoshi no Ai is either "Ai [with the] stars" (a literal description of her Exotic Eye Designs) or more metaphorically as "Ai the star" (appropriate for her role as an idol; the metaphor of star-as-famous-entertainer is familiar in Japanese).
  • Breaking from the kanji used in her family name and reading hoshi as the near-homophone hoshii "longed for, desired" gives us hoshii no ai "longed-for love" (appropriate to Ai's own character) or hoshii no Ai "longed-for Ai" (appropriate to her relationship with both pre- and post-reincarnation Aqua and Ruby).
  • Interpreting ai as "sorrow" also gives us "sorrow of a star" and "sorrow of longing/desire" as well.
• Money, Dear Boy: In-Universe. After having Aqua and Ruby, Ai becomes a lot more concerned with her financial situation and realizes that just Doing It for the Art won't cut it anymore if she wants them to grow up happy.
• Ms. Fanservice: She wears a loose top when at home with the twins to make it easier to breastfeed them, which the anime is happy to demonstrate, and she's shown in a few flattering outfits as part of her modeling job as well.
• Nice Girl: In spite of her many issues, understandable distrustfulness, and several difficulties, Ai proves to be a kind, caring and loving individual. Too bad she gets killed when she realizes how capable of love she is.
• Only One Name: Ai only uses her first name as her stage name, which is how her children’s identity is protected from the public. This is also the reason why Akane was able to piece the relation between Aqua and Ai together, as the Japanese foster system allows the adopted children go by their birth parents’ surname and not their foster parents’ surname.
• Parental Abandonment: Nothing is known about Ai's father. She initially grew up with her mother, who was abusive, so she ended up in an orphanage after her mother was arrested for theft and when she got out she chose not to reclaim her. When Saitou scouted her, he legally became her guardian.
  • The side story Viewpoint B expands on this. Ai once told the narrator of that story that after her mother abandoned her, she was supposed to be taken in by her maternal relatives, but upon meeting her in person, they rejected her.
• The Perfectionist: According to Akane, Ai spent hours to days in perfecting her public act.
• Perpetual Smiler: Played for Drama. She's nearly always seen with a smile on her face, even before becoming an idol. Given her Dark and Troubled Past, her constant smiling might be a way to cope with her love-deprived issues.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Her murder is the inciting incident for everything after the prologue.
• Posthumous Character: She's been dead for a decade by the time of the present-day plot, with Aqua's revenge quest against his father, the man whom he believes to have set up her murder, being the driving force of the plot.
• Punny Name: Ai is an idol with very distinct eyes. Her family name also contains the kanji for star (星). "Hoshi" also suspiciously sounds a lot like "oshi", the word for "bias/someone (the idol) you support". Phonetically, her name can be read as "Love/Sorrow of a Star".
• Small Role, Big Impact: Ai is only around for the first volume of the manga, as she's murdered nine chapters into the story; in the anime, she dies at the end of the first episode. However, her presence still hangs over the rest of the narrative, and finding the man who organized her death is Aqua's primary motivation.
• Smarter Than You Look: Aqua later learns that despite being Book Dumb due to her upbringing and coming across as a bit ditzy, Ai is not as stupid as she might seem. She's very careful about who she communicates with to the point of having three separate phones with complicated passcodes and went to many lengths to make sure no one will ever find out that she gave birth to two children.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Played for Drama. Ai is so monumentally beautiful that it's both her greatest strength and the source of basically every problem in her life. First, her mother's boyfriend started leering at her when she was just a child, which kickstarted her mother's abuse towards her and led to her mother eventually abandoning her. She was eventually discovered by Ichigo, who recruited her into B-Komachi, but she soon overtook the older members in popularity and caused many of them, especially Nino, to become jealous of her. Naturally, the crazier side of the idol fandom would be drawn to her as well. After giving birth to the twins, she tried to take an acting job but got edited out of the final product because the executives thought she was cuter than the girl they were actually trying to promote. Men lust after her, women are jealous of her, and eventually, her beauty ends up being the death of her when Ryosuke finds her again.
• Stage Name: To the public, Ai is only known by her first name, written in katakana. Very few people know her family name.
• Stepford Smiler: After becoming an idol, Ai is perpetually cheerful. However, not all of it is genuine, and she repeatedly says her performance is a lie she sells to her fans. Her internal monologue shows a much more troubled and conflicted individual than the one she shows the world.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Ai's children's looks definitely come from her.
• Talented, but Trained: Ai's naturally talented, but she didn't get to where she is without extensive training.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Upon eavesdropping her children having weird curiosity conversations about their father, Ai called up the kids' father to give him her home address to invite him over to meet their children, not knowing a psychotic fan would show up to take her life.
• Walking Spoiler: It's very difficult to talk about Ai and the series overall without giving away the First-Episode Spoiler; that she is murdered by a psychotic fan in an attack likely arranged by the twins' biological father.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Doesn't even make it past the premiere of the anime, which adapts all of the first volume.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: While her star-shaped pupils are largely for stylistic effect and aren't actually noticed by anyone in-universe, it's often noted that Ai's eyes look stunning and draw people in.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Despite her name meaning love, Ai doesn't actually know what the feeling of love is. Her wish to have children and a family stems from not receiving any love from her parents. She finally learns what it means to love as she is dying.
• When She Smiles: Despite usually being a Stepford Smiler, the few times Ai does genuinely smile are the sight of Ruby and Aqua.

Strawberry Productions

Ichigo Saitou

Ichigo Saitou

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Hisao Egawa (Japanese), Brandon Hearnsberger (English)

The president of Strawberry Productions, a man who took Ai under his wing and treated her as his own daughter.

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• The Bus Came Back: After disappearing at the end of the prologue with a flashfoward telling us he ran away from the entertainment industry after Ai died, he returns in chapter 84 as the person giving Ruby advice on advancing her idol career and finding Ai's true killer.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Ai's death takes a toll on him. He is too struck with grief to even attend her funeral and instead goes to a bar to drink. He eventually abandons both his company and family.
• Grief-Induced Split: Ai's murder results in Ichigo abandoning his family and his company out of overwhelming grief. It's later revealed that he didn't want to drag Miyako into his own desire to get revenge, which is why he doesn't go back.
• Meaningful Name: Ichigo (壱護) is written with the kanji for "one" and "guardian", which is exactly what he is to Ai. It's also a homonym for 苺, which means strawberry. He basically named his company after himself and used the strawberry as its symbol.
• The Mentor: Served as one to Ai. And does the same to Ruby after she tracks him down, instructing her on how to get into the industry.
• Papa Wolf: He was the closest thing Ai had to a father figure. When Ruby tracks him down and asks him if he knew who her and Aqua's father was, he tells her he doesn't...but adds that if he had, he would've killed him himself a long time ago. Even now he still intends to find the person responsible.
• Parental Substitute: He acts as both Ai's manager and legal guardian. After Ai's death, Aqua and Ruby are moved to his family registry to protect them from the media, but he then leaves his family.
• Put on a Bus: He leaves his family and company to his wife, Miyako, and is not seen again after Ai was murdered. A Flash Forward in Chapter 8 shows someone tracked him down to interview him about Ai, but he refuses to talk about her.
• Revenge: Like Aqua, and eventually Ruby, he's also out for blood against whoever instigated Ai's death. It's one half of the reason he left his family sometime after Ai's death, the other half is due to guilt and grief over the incident.
• Secret-Keeper: As her guardian and manager, he naturally is aware that Ai got pregnant with twins. He ensures no one will find out the truth to protect both Ai and his company.
• Walking Spoiler: Ichigo is difficult to talk about to new readers since he gets Put on a Bus after Ai's death, and his character when he eventually comes back almost entirely revolves around that event.

Miyako Saitou

Miyako Saitou

Debut: Chapter 2 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Lynn (Japanese), Christina Kelly (English)

Ichigo Saitou's wife. After Ai resumes her work, Miyako acts as her manager and babysitter for her children. She also poses as Ruby and Aqua's mother. She eventually takes over as president of Strawberry Productions after her husband abandons their company.

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• Becoming the Mask: She originally only takes care of the twins out of obligation (and after they scare her when she tried to sell information about them), but she genuinely grows to love them, even taking them in after Ai's death.
• Character Development: She went from an irresponsible woman who only married for money to a responsible mother and head of a company.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Mother: Averted. She admits to having similar feelings as Aqua on the aspect of not wanting Ruby to become an idol. But unlike Aqua, she respects Ruby pursuing her dreams. To safeguard Ruby from shady agencies, Miyako agreed with Aqua’s plan of employing Ruby under their own agency and reviving their company’s idol production.
• Glamorous Single Mother: After Ai's death, her husband basically disappears from the story, leaving her to manage Strawberry Productions on her own. Not only does she seem to do a good job of running the company, she also adopted the twins and appears to be having a very good relationship with them at the same time.
• Gold Digger: She admits to herself in Chapter 3 that she only married Ichigo because she was promised to get to work with hot guys in the business. Playing babysitter does not amuse her.
• Good Parents: Ironically for someone who saw the twins as little more than a burden at first, when push comes to shove, she's always there for them, adopting the twins after their mother's death when her husband seemingly disappeared from their life altogether. Years later, even though she remains practically a single mother who had to take over her husband's company, she remains a good parent to both Aqua and Ruby, understanding them and looking out for their interests.
• Heel–Face Turn: Initially Miyako was Only in It for the Money and has tried to leak the info on Ai's kids for profit, potentially ruining her life. The twins scare her to become their guardian instead.
• Mama Bear: She doesn't want Ruby to become an idol just as much as Aqua does. However, she eventually admits that she cannot convince Ruby to quit her dream, so she decides to take Ruby into her own agency where she can keep a better eye on Ruby.
• Morality Pet: The well-beings of The Hoshino Twins, especially Ruby, became Miyako’s primary goal and psychological comfort after Ai's death, and Ichigo’s abandonment. Miyako makes it a point in the modern day to ensure that both twins stay on the right path and grow up into healthy adults.
• Parental Substitute: Miyako acts as the twins' mother while outside, so Ai won't be revealed to have gotten pregnant. She adopts Ruby and Aqua after Ai's murder and raises Ruby like her own daughter.
• Secret-Keeper: She is one of the few people who know about Ai's secret children. She is also the first adult to learn that Ruby and Aqua can talk despite still being babies. They win her over by claiming to be sent from the heavens to support Ai, and if she doesn't comply she may receive divine punishment.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Her initial appearance shows wearing extravagant clothing to represent her vain and Gold Digger mindset. After becoming more mature and kinder, she's always shown wearing casual clothing to reflect her new motherly and work-driven self.
• You Are in Command Now: Miyako takes over Strawberry Productions after her husband abandons their company due to Ai's death.

New B-Komachi

General

The successor to the legendary idol group of the same name led by Ai, the new B-Komachi is composed of a trio of newbie idols who all have the potential to be big stars in the making. Its current members are the rookie idol Ruby Hoshino, the social media influencer MEMcho, and their center, the former child actress, Kana Arima.

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• Freudian Trio:
  • Ruby is the Id, being an Ascended Fangirl and fresh face to the Idol industry whose excitement at the prospect of becoming like Ai and aversion to lies, which is what most in the industry rely on, causes her to throw out emotion-driven and optimistic ideas.
  • Kana is the Superego, with her experience as a Former Child Star meaning she knows a lot about the industry and the many hurdles that it throws at entertainers, and she finds herself trying to be pragmatic on the group's actions.
  • Memcho is the Ego, being similarly excited at the prospect of becoming an Idol Singer like Ruby and having a matching Genki Girl personality, but also has experience as an entertainer thanks to her YouTube career that allows her compromise between Ruby's excitement and Kana's realism.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The group consists of an Idol Singer Otaku who's secretly the reincarnation of a terminally ill girl, a Tsundere Former Child Star with self-esteem issues over her former career and foul mouth, and a YouTuber who's secretly 25 years old.

Kana Arima

Kana Arima

Debut: Chapter 6 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Megumi Han (Japanese), Natalie Rial (English)

Initially introduced as a haughty child actress with a sharp tongue who was left to tears after seeing Aqua's performance, she meets Ruby and Aqua again when the two of them apply to Yoto High, a high school with a performing arts program specifically for young entertainers. She has since become a lot kinder, although her rude manner of speech still shows up when she feels an intense wave of emotion.

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• Always Someone Better: As revealed in Chapter 40, Kana had a long-standing rivalry with Akane since their childhood in the acting field. As a child prodigy, Kana used to surpass Akane and hogged a lot of roles that the latter always wanted. That is until they reached their teenage years and their roles had been reversed.
• Artists Are Attractive: She begins to fall for Aqua after witnessing his acting and how he manages to affect his co-actors too, which allows her to use her actual talent and give a performance she can be proud of.
• Becoming the Mask: In a risky gambit to help Ruby understand Ai better, she deliberately begins acting like Nino towards Ruby, suddenly telling Ruby in a tirade that she always hated her out of envy. In the process, Kana herself begins to empathize with the resentful Nino, even admitting to MEMcho that her cruel words were genuine. However, Chapter 136 subverts this and confirms that Kana still loves Ruby above all else in spite of everything, and hasn't forgotten that ultimately, she's still doing this for Ruby's sake, even silently congratulating Ruby for a job well done for her performance as Ai.
• Big Sister Instinct: Eventually develops this for Ruby as time goes on. When Ruby exchanges numbers with one of the actors from the Tokyo Blade play (implied to be Kamoshida), Kana immediately takes action by blocking his number from her phone and prohibiting Ruby from ever meeting him again if he asks her out to protect Ruby from being picked up and taken advantage of.
• Break the Haughty: Kana is forced to eat several Humble Pies, as the praise she received as a Child Prodigy went to her head. The first time her ego is bruised is when she witnesses a young Aqua out-acting her in the first movie they work together, which teaches her that there will always be someone better than her. After grade school, she stopped getting job offers, as she couldn't communicate properly with her coworkers. Her career effectively ended after grade school and the only reason she is given the lead role of Sweet Today is because she is cheap and brings attention to a series that is mostly used to promote the male actors.
• Broken Pedestal: Akane was her biggest fan when they were younger, as it was Kana who inspired her to get into acting as a child. Then she meets a depressed Kana who lashes out at her unwarranted, telling her that she hates her and that she doesn't care about acting. However, this is not the true reason she's disappointed in Kana: she hates how the formerly bright, selfish, and radiant genius child actress Kana had reduced herself to simply "illuminating the stars" by making sure she herself doesn't stand out among her fellow actors.
• Brutal Honesty: She doesn't seem to have a filter when she talks to someone she doesn't particularly like (Ruby).
• Career Resurrection: In-universe example. Kana has become largely unnoticed after her acting career went downhill after grade school. She is elated when she is picked for the lead role of Sweet Today, but she can't give it her all because her co-actors are terrible. Aqua manages to save the finale with his performance, though, and Kana later joins Strawberry Productions and Ruby's newly formed idol group.
• Cannot Spit It Out: A prominent trait for being a Tsundere, Kana has trouble expressing her growing feelings for Aqua. She becomes increasingly mad at him after he kissed Akane in the reality TV show and keeps the reason to herself despite Aqua's concern.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Downplayed. She doesn't do anything extreme, but she still is very upset and angry when she sees Aqua acting in a reality dating show and getting close with the female cast members, specifically Akane, whom she views as both a business and love rival. This is because the two had known each other and their rivalry can be traced as early as their childhood in the acting field.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Kana deliberately begins acting like the envious Nino towards Ruby, throwing hurtful, cruel words at her that had also genuinely come from part of Kana's inner negative feelings that she kept buried all this time. However, Kana does all of this is to help Ruby better get into Ai's headspace so she can finally succeed in giving Ai the best portrayal she deserves after hearing Ruby's actual motivations for wanting to act as Ai. While it comes at a heavy price, to Kana, hurting Ruby for this instance so she can start understanding Ai better at the risk of their precious friendship is much more preferable than to see Ruby continually waste away from miserably trying and failing to get Ai right and suffering daily from the agony of doing so.
• Curtains Match the Window: Both her eyes and hair are a deep crimson red.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not as much as Aqua, but trying to talk to Kana without her sniping at you at least once is borderline impossible.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Her mother and others giving up on her quickly cause her to fall into this trap, which intensifies when she develops feelings for Aqua.
• Determinator: Despite not getting a job after grade school anymore, Kana has never given up on her dream to be an actress and has kept working hard to finally secure another role, which is why she is extremely motivated to participate in Sweet Today. In an act of desperation to at least get one other decent actor on the show, she asks Aqua for help and tries to convince him as soon as she realizes that he is attending her school.
• Deuteragonist: Kana's story has been closely intertwined with the twins' since their childhoods and she gets the most amount of focus in the manga next to Aqua and Ruby after they encounter her again in high school. Notably, her self-esteem issues and her journey to pick herself up again as a gifted actress after her days as a child star are over are given just as much importance as Aqua and Ruby's storylines of entering the entertainment world.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite the emotional turmoil Kana put Ruby through during the Movie Arc to help get Ruby into the role of Ai, Ruby is quick to mend bridges with Kana after Ruby figures out what Kana was doing. Ruby does make it clear though that she was legitimately angry at her for it but immediately adds that she won't give up on her friendship with Kana just because of it.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Ruby gives her several, which she is not amused about. Due to her stature and face, Ruby sometimes calls her "Loli-senpai". Another nickname is, due to Accidental Misnaming from Ruby, "snitch licker", based on accidentally calling Kana "the child genius who will lick a lying snitch". ^note In Japanese, Ruby calls her "the child genius who will lick baking soda", which is why her nickname is "baking soda".
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • While Kana did talk smack about Ai in her youth, it's immediately clear that despite her original opinions she did respect her to a certain degree, primarily once she learned of Aqua and Ruby's relation to her. She is also much more in control of her negative feelings about Ai, and is left openly disturbed after meeting up with Nino, a former member of Ai's idol group.
  • When Frill mentioned the upcoming kissing scene between Ruby and Aqua at the end of Chapter 141, Kana is immediately grossed out at the thought of it.
• Fiery Redhead: Downplayed; Kana has crimson red hair and on the whole is quiet and reserved (if not occasionally plucky and deadpan), but pushing the right buttons will make her lunge at you with almost killing intentions.
• Foil: In several ways, Kana is this to Nino. Both are idols of B-Komachi who bear jealousy towards a Hoshino. However, while Nino hides her entitled and unpleasant attitude with a meek facade, Kana is a good person at heart underneath her insufferable and mean-spirited demeanor. Additionally, Nino doesn't bother concealing her petty hatred towards Ai, while Kana cares for Ruby despite her inner jealousy towards the latter and is willing to help her succeed even if it means putting their friendship on the line.
• Former Child Star: Hailed as a Child Prodigy, Kana's career went downhill after grade school, which she is still very sensitive about. She has become better at communicating, though this has turned her a bit into a pushover. She desperately tries to give it her all while playing the female lead in Sweet Today, but, due to the Bad "Bad Acting" from her co-actors, has to give a worse performance. The only reason she was hired was actually because of the fame she brings to the show.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She admits to herself that she carries some resentment against Ruby for her rapid rise to stardom than even she initially seemed to be aware of. She intentionally weaponizes these negative feelings during the Movie Arc as part of a very risky gambit to better help Ruby get into Ai's shoes, exaggerating parts of said negativity so that Ruby learns firsthand exactly how Ai felt when she was on the receiving end of Nino's envy. While it does pay off, it has the rather harmful side effect of inflicting emotional and psychological damage to Ruby in the process.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Kana is the least motivated of all group members because she suffers from huge confidence issues. She doesn't want to stand in the center of the group, despite clearly being the best singer of them, because she never accomplished much in the past. Her stint as a singer turned out to be a one-hit wonder and her new works as an actress don't give her the recognition she desperately craves.
• Hopeless Suitor: She has feelings for Aqua, who can't get over his love for Ai and otherwise wants to stay a Celibate Hero. Then in Chapter 78 he gets together with Akane, seemingly sinking her chances for good. However, they break up 20 chapters later, with Aqua's willingness to date her suggesting that Kana is no longer out of the question either.
• Humble Heroine: A Flash Forward in Chapter 6 shows that she has become much more humble and doesn't view herself as a prodigy anymore, though this doesn't stop her from trying to live up to these expectations.
• Hypocrite: In Chapter 36, she complains about how everyone just views her as a Former Child Star, not looking at her present self. She also doesn't like how Ruby and Aqua aren't respecting her much despite being younger. Never mind that Kana isn't very respectful towards MEMcho either and that she hates how much Aqua has changed over the last 13 years.
• Idol Singer: She's convinced to join Ruby's idol group after Aqua and Ruby are enrolled in Yoto High. Apart from some pressure from Aqua to do so, Kana also notices that Ruby has a special something similar to Ai and the makings of a star. After a number of performances, however, Kana later leaves the group to focus on her acting career.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Despite insulting him as much as she does anyone else, Kana is far nicer to Aqua than any other person, and the main reason she follows along with Ruby's new idol group is mainly due to Aqua prompting and encouraging her. Hilariously, a number of these are done against her better judgment, which she is very much aware of.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Kana feels underappreciated for the efforts she puts in. Whether it's the media, her parents, or her fans, she just seeks approval and love from the people around her, and being treated like a Former Child Star has given her confidence issues.
• Informed Attractiveness: She's acknowledged by both Ruby and Aqua to be very cute, and the reason she was hired by Producer Kaburagi in the past was that she had a cute face. However, her face is drawn similarly to most other female characters in the series.
• Innocently Insensitive: Kana has the tendency to just say directly what comes to her mind when she's agitated. Thus people who get to know her for a longer time are put off by her foul mouth.
  • When visiting Director Gotanda, she notices that he still lives in his parents' house. She openly calls him a parasite.
  • In the Tokyo Blade arc, in order to help Aqua properly embody Touki's emotions in a scene where he's supposed to be filled with elation at the sight of Sayahime turning out alright after being mortally wounded, she asks him what he would do if his mother died. As she's unaware that Ai is actually Aqua's real mother and that Aqua was very traumatized at having to watch her die right in front of him, Kana accidentally steps on a sensitive landmine that causes Aqua to mentally and physically collapse from a bad mix of heavy guilt and PTSD when he flashes back to the moment when Ai was killed.
• Insufferable Genius: She was quite haughty when initially introduced as a child due to her popularity. Meeting Aqua and seeing his subsequent performance made her realize that there's always going to be someone better than her. After the job offers stopped coming, she realized she was terrible at communicating and her arrogant behavior drove people off.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kana can be foul-mouthed, sharp-tongued, and incredibly blunt to the point of insensitivity, yet despite all this and her initial annoyance at Ruby, she goes out of her way to look after Ruby and makes sure she doesn't do anything dumb like an older sister does, sincerely compliments Aqua's acting during their shoot for Sweet Today's adaptation, and even before all that, was trying to salvage whatever she could of said adaptation with her acting because she was heartbroken at seeing Yoriko's sad look of disappointment upon seeing how her manga was being adapted.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Kana is not aware of Ruby and Aqua's relation to Ai (at least, until Aqua reveals this to the public, that is). She also has no idea why Aqua actually is acting in the entertainment industry.
• Master Actress: She was already good when she was a little girl and was hailed as a prodigy. However, her lack of social skills led to her not being offered any jobs anymore, and in her first role in a while, she had to work with wooden talents who were mostly hired for their looks and to promote their careers, which forced her into Bad "Bad Acting". She gets to show her true capabilities in the final episode thanks to Aqua supporting her and her co-actor.
• Minor Living Alone: Kana is still in school, but lives alone, as her parents have retired to the countryside. She doesn't cook though and always orders food, which isn't a big deal for her, as she has earned enough money during her first few acting years that she doesn't have to worry about it anymore.
• Misery Trigger: Don't mention that you haven't seen her in a while. She will interpret it as "I haven't seen you on TV lately, have I?", which will remind her that her career effectively ended after grade school.
• Morality Pet: To both Hoshino Twins:
  • While Aqua has manipulated her into unknowingly helping with his and Ruby's showbiz success, he tries to get Kana to give her all during the first new B-Komachi concert by impersonating Pieyon. He also avoids Kana after the events of the Private Arc, under the assumption that getting too close to her would risk a scandal.
  • Ruby cares for Kana just as much despite initially starting off on the wrong foot with her. While she'll still snark at her, Ruby always tries to encourage and comfort Kana whenever she notices that her confidence is shaken, respects and readily listens to Kana whenever she gives her helpful advice, and went as far as try to save her when Kana was almost caught in a potential scandal. Ruby's sincerity in the last one is highlighted when one of her eyes, now turned black after deciding to pursue revenge, briefly turns white again when she expresses her desire to do whatever it takes to save Kana to Aqua, who is in agreement.
• Never Bareheaded: Downplayed. Kana often wears a beret when she's in casual or school outfits.
• Never My Fault: During the Movie Arc, she gets called out for her mistreatment of Ruby by MEMcho, only to refute her argument by claiming that MEMcho never let out her feelings of jealousy and hatred towards Ruby. However, despite saying all those things and airing out that she wanted to say those hurtful words to Ruby in the same conversation between her and MEMcho, it's very clear from Kana's expression that she does not enjoy what she's doing to Ruby at all.
• No Social Skills: The reason why she didn't get any job offers anymore was that her talent alone did not justify hiring her anymore, as she was terrible at communicating with others and constantly acted like an arrogant brat. While she has worked on that, she still tends to say a lot of things That Came Out Wrong, like when she tries to initiate small talk with Aqua, but then sounds like a delinquent looking for a fight, or when she wishes for Ruby to shut up and die after she criticized Kana's lame acting.
• Older Than They Look: Kana is relatively small (she's shorter than the average for most Japanese girls her age) and is described as having a child-like face, which attracts men and women alike. This leads to Ruby giving her the much-despised moniker of "Loli-Sempai".
• Proud Beauty: She doesn't openly admit it, but she is well aware that one of the reasons she's hired is because she has a pretty face. Aqua can partially twist her around his finger by calling her cute.
  Aqua: Are there no actors at all who aren't self-confident...?
• Red Baron: She is known as "Kana Arima, the child genius who will flick a crying switch". ^note In Japanese her title literally means "the genius child actor who can cry in 10 seconds".
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Akane's blue, befitting their hair and eye colors. Kana is much bolder and has more experience, though she is also very sarcastic and blunt with very poor communication skills. The few things they have in common with each other often result in them being more likely to argue, particularly when it comes to Aqua's affections.
• Self-Deprecation: After losing her popularity after growing up she tries to embrace and shrug off the dwindling of her career. Despite how obviously it still bothers her, she is shown to be an expert at playing down her own talents and trying to blend in, having come to believe that she isn't suited for the spotlight.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Akane. The two of them barely tolerate the other's presence when together, and putting them in the same room only gets virulent insults hurled at each other based on their careers. The fact that they share a love interest does not help matters.
• Sour Supporter: Kana initially refuses Ruby's offer to start an idol group with her because she doesn't think it benefits her. Once Aqua convinces her, she still stays unmotivated despite seriously working hard to improve her fitness and study dances. She also reluctantly accepts to become the center of the group for their first concert, as she is by far the best singer amongst them and has stage experience. She eventually reveals to Aqua that she plans to quit the group once they reach the peak of their popularity, as being an actress was always her priority.
• Stage Mom: Her mother is revealed to be one. When Kana was still a kid, her mother used her as a means to fulfill her own dreams as an actress and lived vicariously through Kana's success as a child star. All seemed well and happy until Kana's fame eventually dwindled over the years. She became pushy and overbearing, and her actions soon devolved into abusive treatment towards Kana as a result. A lot of Kana's issues around acting and her showbiz life can be pinned squarely on her mother's behavior in her early life.
• Sympathy for the Devil: She has a more sympathetic view of Nino's obsessive jealousy towards Ai, feeling some connection with her due to her own envy towards Ruby for immediately claiming the spotlight just like Ai did. From Kana's perspective, Nino must have been in agony holding such resentment towards someone she simultaneously considered a friend, something Kana channeled into her own performance on and off set in order for Ruby to understand her role as Ai.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Upon her reunion with the twins years later, she's become significantly kinder and has learned to work with others, which impresses Aqua, who like his sister was far from pleased with her past attitude.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Invoked and ultimately Subverted. Kana deliberately and cruelly denies her friendship with Ruby and told her that she always hated her and wanted her to disappear to Ruby's face, reenacting a past heated confrontation between Nino and Ai in a risky bid to forcefully help Ruby understand the emotions Ai went through at the time to help Ruby finally perfect her portrayal of Ai after so many failed takes involving her. While many of Kana's hateful words weren't an act and that she continues to act coldly towards Ruby afterwards, it's made abundantly clear that Kana wants Ruby to succeed and has faith that she will, and in spite of everything, Kana's monologues in Chapter 136 confirm her friendship with Ruby, alongside her own very positive interpretation of Ai and Nino's tumultuous dynamic to go with it as a comparison.
• Tsundere: While Kana does have genuine feelings for Aqua, most of their conversations tend to end with her openly insulting or criticizing him. The only times she says anything positive about him is when she's completely alone or via an Internal Monologue. It's pretty much the same deal in a more platonic sense with Ruby, with Kana refusing to admit she cares about her even as she looks after her. This is taken to its logical conclusion in the Movie Arc, where she really plays up her negativity in order to get Ruby into Ai's headspace to the extent that it seriously looks like Kana legitimately hates her, only for it to be revealed in an Internal Monologue that Kana still considers Ruby her best friend but was willing to risk their friendship so that Ruby could succeed in the role.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Ruby may annoy her every now and then, but Kana still looks out for her and genuinely grows to care for and even respect her as time goes on. Additionally, despite being absolutely vicious in their rivalry, Kana and Akane still help each other when they feel the need, one of the few times they are even remotely amicable towards one another.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Though Kana's Zero-Approval Gambit worked out in the end and there are no hard feelings between her and Ruby at the end of Chapter 137, she still gets a small earful from the latter for pulling that stunt.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Kana puts Aqua’s Inspirational Insult acting method to good use in Chapter 133, by giving Ruby a statement using the same pattern of hate speech Nino said to Ai in order to help Ruby better understand Ai's true feelings upon being on the receiving end of Nino's tirade. Kana even mixes in her own genuine hidden feelings of jealousy towards Ruby to make it seem more believable to Ruby that she hated her, when in reality, despite said feelings, Kana loves her just as much, if not more, and truly considers her her best friend. This carries the risk of permanently damaging their relationship on top of her hurting Ruby, but for Ruby's sake, it was a risk that Kana knew all too well she had to take if Ruby were to succeed in portraying Ai the right way.

MEMcho

MEMcho

Debut: Chapter 20 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Rumi Ōkubo (Japanese), Juliet Simmons (English)

"I've come this far by marketing and promoting myself online. I am literally a professional at making things go viral."

A self-proclaimed high school senior Social Media Influencer who predominately uses YouTube as her main source of income. MEMcho is selected to participate in the reality dating show, My Love with a Star Begin Now with the intent of using the buzz to farm subscribers to her social platforms.

Taking note of MEMcho's unfulfilled dream of idol singing, Aqua invites her to sign-up with Strawberry Productions and join Ruby's new B-Komachi.

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• Birds of a Feather: She gets along very well with the very energetic and excited Ruby.
• Brainy Brunette: Her natural hair color is brown (it only appears as blonde because she dyed it), and she is very well-versed in making a living off social media.
• Character Blog: The official Oshi No Ko YouTube account hosts videos and shorts done by MEMcho, who is a YouTuber in-universe. Revealed in their YouTube radio interview, MEMcho's Vtuber model is controlled by her actual Japanese voice actress.
• Cool Big Sis: MEMcho is the oldest cast member in the show (excluding Aqua). She looks after her younger coworkers, treats them to food, and gives Akane tips on how to deal with internet criticism. Her worrying about Akane and looking for her is what contributes to Aqua saving Akane's life from a suicide attempt just in time. She also actually is one in the literal sense, dropping out of school to take on part-time jobs in order to provide for her mother and younger siblings.
• Conflicting Loyalty: As colleagues and coworkers with both Akane (through their dating show stint) and Kana (through their new idol stint), MEMcho is devotedly loyal to both of them. Unfortunately, this takes a stressful turn when she finds out that both of them have feelings for Aqua, making her unsure of who to support more.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Chapter 32 reveals that MEMcho had a Tragic Dream to become an Idol Singer, but had to give up said dream despite successfully auditioning because her single mother collapsed from overwork and was hospitalized. MEMcho dropped out of the audition and high school to earn money with part-time jobs. She had to earn money to provide for her mother and two younger brothers. When things stabilized, she was already 23, which is a bit too late to become an idol.
• Dreadful Musician: As shown in Chapter 34, MEMcho is almost as bad at singing as Ruby, which is why she isn't a good choice for being the center of the group.
• Eye Take: When being offered a chance to become an idol by Aqua's suggestion in the new B-Komachi, the scene shows MEMcho giving this expression, with her eyes lighting up a galaxy, as her once Tragic Dream becomes a reality. She has another comedic one after realizing Kana also has feelings for Aqua, putting herself into inner conflict about who she should support.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Although it is dyed (flashbacks show she had dark brown hair growing up and the top of her head shows her natural hair color showing), MEMcho's hair is blonde-colored, and she is very much a sweet person both onscreen and in real life.
• Idol Singer: Having always dreamed of becoming an idol, she joins Ruby's B-Komachi at the end of the reality dating show arc.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: MEMcho has vividly cyan-colored irises, and unlike Aqua (and eventually Akane) she plays this trope completely straight; she has no malicious intent and will always help someone in need.
• Karmic Jackpot: By supporting her family in their time of need and sacrificing her dream to become an idol, as well as being supportive figure for her younger coworkers, which results in Akane's survival, MEMcho gets the golden opportunity to fulfill her dream by Aqua's inviation to join the new B-Komachi.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: MEMcho plays the happy-go-lucky and airheaded teenager in the show. She is actually far smarter and has a teasing nature.
• Older Than They Look: She's a third-year in high school, so she should be 17-18 years old, but when her age is listed, it's only marked as "18(?)". That's because she's actually 25 years old. She is technically not lying that she's a third-year high schooler, since she never finished high school. While pretending to be younger is nothing new in the industry, Miyako points out that MEMcho is faking it a bit too much.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is unknown. Everyone only calls her by her Stage Name.
• Out of Focus: Despite being a constant part of the main cast, MEMcho doesn't have a lot of plot significance. Her backstory isn't explored much further than her initial joining of B-Komachi and she doesn't have any deep rooted issues, other than some insecurities over her age, to resolve.
• Promotion to Parent: She has two younger brothers that she is taking care of.
• Self-Made Woman: Initially starting on TikTok, she is also an experienced YouTube and Twitter user with over 370,000 YouTube subscribers and 638,000 followers. She is an equal business partner with her agency, which means that they split revenues evenly, which is very different compared to Akane, who only gets 20%. This becomes even more impressive when it's revealed in Chapter 32 that she had to quit school to earn money for her family.
• Shipper on Deck: Together with Yuki. When she learns that Akane has a legitimate crush on Aqua, she's wholeheartedly supportive of her. Several chapters later, she learns that Kana also has a crush on Aqua. Since both Akane and Kana are her good friends, she now has no idea who she should support more between the two of them and always ends up having an Inner Monologue battle with herself over this issue.
  MEMcho's Inner Monologue: "(Akane or Kana,) WHO SHOULD I SUPPORT!!!?"
• Signature Headgear: MEMcho often wears devil's horns and the artist adds a tail and wings when she has something mischievous in mind.
• The Social Expert: MEMcho has made a name for herself in social media and knows exactly how to behave to gain more subscribers and how to not behave when faced with criticism. When Aqua tries to make a video that portrays Akane in a positive light, she handles the uploading as she proudly boasts about how she can make it go viral.
• Vague Age: Subverted. Chapter 23 only mentioned MEMcho is "18(?)", based on the fact that she is apparently a third-year high schooler. However, as is revealed in Chapter 32, MEMcho is actually 25 years-old, yet she was truthful as to not having finished high school.

Other Talents

Pieyon

Pieyon

Debut: Chapter 22 (Manga), Episode 5 (Anime)

Voiced by: Taishi Murata (Japanese), Andrew Love (English)

A fitness YouTuber and Strawberry Production's top earner. He is asked by Miyako to teach Kana and Ruby how to garner attention and fans on the internet.

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's walking around with a ridiculous chicken mask that hides his face and his training involves weird maneuvers like the "egg-hatching pose". Nevertheless, his physical training videos on YouTube are extremely popular among elementary and middle schoolers and he earns 100 million yen a year.
• The Faceless: His face is never seen, as he almost always wears his chicken mask. The one time he is seen with the mask off, his back is turned towards the viewer.
• Mr. Fanservice: Even at Strawberry Productions he wears nothing but underwear and a round chicken mask that hides his face. As a fitness trainer, he provides a lot of Workout Fanservice.
• Nice Guy: He does not seem eager to help Kana and Ruby at first, but after seeing them earnestly working hard, he takes a liking to them. Before their first concert, he also helps B-Komachi work on their fitness and dance choreography despite being a very busy man. The Pieyon talking to them turns out to be Aqua in disguise, but Pieyon actually is instructing Aqua on what to do and gives advice. He's doing that while on vacation.
• The Social Expert: Pieyon is an experienced internet celebrity who knows exactly how to attract viewers, which is why he suggests collaborating with the newly formed B-Komachi and making them appear on his channel.
• Vocal Dissonance: When in character, he talks in an extremely high-pitched voice. He talks normally when speaking to Aqua over a phone call.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Not only that, but his legs are also fully exposed.

Reality Show—"My Love with a Star Begins Now" Cast

General

A group of six young high school entertainers, three boys and three girls, who are cast as part of a reality show meant to see them falling in love with each other. Aqua is made to participate in exchange for information from the current producer, Kaburagi.

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• The Beautiful Elite: As with all of Kaburagi's productions, looks come first. All of the participants are beautiful talented people in show business.
• Fake Relationship: Zig-zagged. Half the cast views the show as a job, while the other half uses this opportunity to both stand out and find a partner or at least begin a fake relationship that could end with a Romantic Fake–Real Turn.
• Glory Seeker: All participants are meant to use this show as an opportunity to gain more fame and fans. Aqua is kind of an exception here, he only is part of the show because of a deal he made with Producer Kaburagi.
• Love Triangle: Invoked. In order to raise ratings, the cast has forced a few love triangles in the story, with one being Yuki, Nobuyuki, and Kengo, while the second one, started by Akane, is between her, Yuki, and Nobuyuki.
• Nice Guy: All participants are essentially good people. None of them mean any of their coworkers harm and they care and worry about each other, which surprises Miyako after meeting them.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The manga originally showcased a fourth girl in the promo image of the show prior to the show’s first episode release, but the girl was never seen throughout the show, and was even completely dropped in the anime adaptation. Given the nature of talents dropping out of showbiz cases for various reasons, it wouldn’t be surprising for a show to write off its cast. There's also an eighth cast member who is barely visible when the promo image is seen. They too did not make any appearances and were also omitted from the anime adaptation.

Yuki Sumi

Yuki Sumi

Debut: Chapter 20 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Saori Oonishi (Japanese), Olivia Swasey (English)

"I'm gonna fight to get all the attention to myself. I hope you won't hold that against me."

A high school first-year fashion model. Yuki looks very sweet and innocent, but she's smarter than she looks and is very versed in how to play up things for the camera to get popularity.

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• Anger Born of Worry: While Yuki does give Akane a Bitch Slap after the face-scratching incident, it's made immediately clear that she was more upset that Akane chose not to tell anyone about her tidal wave of harassment and attempted suicide than the injuries she gave her.
• Attention Whore: Yuki is fond of stealing the spotlight of the show and is interested in keeping it, declaring so when she realizes Akane is starting to become desperate and willing to do anything for the attention too.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Subverted. Yuki has a sweet and innocent look and projects a Stock Shoujo Heroine persona when on-screen, but has a hidden manipulative streak that allows her to use her charms to milk attention and favor from the other cast members and the audience. Despite this, she's a nice person, just ambitious about making the most out of the show, easily forgiving Akane when the latter accidentally injures her face and helps with the plan to redeem Akane's reputation from hostile internet viewers.
• Breakout Character: In-Universe, she becomes essentially the main character of the show as her popularity grows, when she learns to properly manipulate the show plotlines to focus on her and the show focus shifts to her romance with Nobuyuki Kumano.
• Couple Theme Naming: On the show, Yuki gets a lot of Ship Tease with Nobuyuki, and their in-universe Portmanteau Couple Name given by the show's fans is YukiYuki. While she turns him down on camera, they actually start dating for real.
• It's All My Fault: She blames herself for egging on Akane in order to get her to stand out more and giving her some nail accessories. This results in Akane accidentally scratching her face, leading to a severe internet outrage that nearly culminates in Akane's suicide.
• Manipulative Bitch: Yuki can manipulate the cameras and audience in a way to make everyone sympathize with her. She shows her skill in using the camera to her advantage multiple times. Thus, she was aware of the fixed cameras' positions and they were still rolling after Akane accidentally cut Yuki's face. She tried to make herself appear like a good person by hugging and crying for Akane's sake, in the hope that the production would use the footage to her advantage. She passes this info to Aqua, who pressures the director into giving him the footage to redeem Akane's reputation.
• Nice Girl: Manipulative tendencies aside, she really is not faking her niceness, claiming to only exaggerate her feelings and personality for the audience. Off-camera, she cares a lot about her peers, being more concerned about Akane than herself when the former accidentally hit her face. The point is furthered after she finally learns about Akane's harassment issues, and she gets worried sick to the point of crying.
• Secret Relationship: On-camera, she breaks up with Yuki at the end of the show, but in real life, that was a misdirection from the general public so they can actually start a real relationship away from the eyes of the public.
• Shipper on Deck: When she and MEMcho learn that Akane has a crush on Aqua, they support and cheer her on in her endeavors.
• Spirited Competitor: She takes Akane up on the challenge when she notices that Akane is trying to steal some of the attention for herself.
• The Tease: She's not as innocent as she pretends to be. Aqua notices this after she teasingly brings up the possibility that she might kiss him, and the reason she steals the show is because of her devilish antics which excite the audience.

Akane Kurokawa

Akane Kurokawa

Debut: Chapter 20 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Manaka Iwami (Japanese), Kristen McGuire (English)

"I need to find a way to get people to notice me and have something to show for after all of this."

A high school second-year actress, Akane is a rising ace actress in theatrical plays affiliated with the Lala Lai Theatrical Company. Shy, awkward, and uncertain about how showbiz works outside of the theater in real-life, Akane struggles to leave a good impression on the crew on the reality show.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: She genuinely seems to be in love with Aqua, but he only sees her as a friend at best, and a pawn in his revenge at worst.
• All of the Other Reindeer: She accidentally injures Yuki during a scene they are acting out, which the producers deliberately leave in to end an episode dramatically. The consequence is Akane becoming the target of heavy bullying, both on social media and in school, where people isolate her, start harassing her with toxic and vitriolic comments, and badmouth her however they can. The harassment eventually becomes too much for her and she attempts to kill herself.
• Always Second Best: Akane is Kana's rival in the acting field, dating as far as their childhood years. Then-child prodigy Kana constantly hogged most of the roles Akane had wanted and by the time they reached their teenage years, Akane had built quite a reputation after Kana's popularity declined as an actress.
• Amateur Sleuth: Akane is exceptional in gathering information and formulating sound hypotheses based on her findings. Akane even comments at one point that this kind of work might suit her better than being an actress. Aqua counts on her skill to find clues about his father and later Goro Amamiya's corpse when they visit Takachiho.
• Amicable Exes: Even after their breakup Akane still cares about Aqua, and becomes dead set on keeping him from going off the rails. Aqua continually respects her for this, and openly invites her to do so with an amused smirk.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: After realizing Aqua likes girls like the "legendary idol Ai", she decides to analyze Ai's career so she can better play the role of a love interest to Aqua. By studying things like her stride, her expression, or her smile, she correctly deduces details of Ai's private life (like her abandonment issues, her bad childhood, or her early sexual experience). When Akane returns to the reality show, her charisma and aura are so similar to Ai's that even the normally unflappable Aqua is at a loss for words.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Akane is more than happy to work alongside Aqua whenever she is given the chance, due to his actions in preventing her suicide and vindicating her reputation online without expecting any reward in return.
• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Kana's Veronica and Aqua's Archie. Akane contrasted Kana's Tsundere by being open to her feelings for Aqua despite his zero interest in romance.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Akane is normally a nice, if somewhat timid, girl around most people, especially her friends. However, her personality does a quick 180 whenever she's around Kana, who she bitterly views as a rival in the acting industry, and she becomes more vitriolic and antagonistic when she's with her and only her. Chapter 98 also shows that she was prepared to kill Aqua and Ruby's father at his production company so Aqua wouldn't have to.
• Break the Cutie: She gets horribly cyberbullied after the incident with Yuki and the traumatic emotional turmoil she was forced to go through because of it results in her attempting to commit suicide. She thankfully gets better after Aqua saves her and the rest of the Love Now cast gently supporting her and helping her out.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Very downplayed. Akane is slightly put off by Aqua's attempts to help Kana, but she is very much understanding and accepting of him as a whole. Additionally, any aggression she has towards Kana is more due to their career rivalries than anything about Aqua's love.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: She is different to Kobachi Osaragi from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Both are timid, quiet teenagers who suffered from bullying and they were shunned by their own peers due to an unfortunate incident, as well as them being celebrities. Osaragi was shunned by her peers because of a scandal that hit her family and had to keep a low profile ever since the incident. Akane was cyberbullied and also shunned, like Osaragi, because of a particular incident with her accidentally scratching Yuki on live television. While Osaragi was a Former Child Star who has distanced herself from the world of celebrities because of the incident regarding her mother's affair, Akane has a Career Resurrection where she comes back to being a celebrity after Aqua saves her from committing suicide due to the cyberbullying she had to endure.
• Curtains Match the Window: Akane's eyes are a dark shade of blue, which are a close match to her hair.
• Death Glare: Gives one to Kamiki in Chapter 147 after picking up Ruby, who is seemingly oblivious that she's talking to the man who (apparently) orchestrated the assassination of Ai.
• Didn't Think This Through: For their friends-only private audition between Frill, Ruby, and Akane herself, Akane, on reflex, went out of her way to spur Ruby to challenge her in acting. But hilariously, Akane realizes just a little too late that it probably wasn't a good idea to declare that she knows the deceased Ai much better than anyone and is thus best suited for the role of playing as her, in front of Ai's own daughter, who's still reeling from her tragic loss more than a decade ago. Naturally, Ruby reacts as well as you'd expect, and Akane even mentally chides herself for stepping on that sensitive landmine.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Following the conclusion of the Love Now arc, Akane has started growing her previously short hair out so that it somewhat resembles the length Ai's hair used to have, symbolizing how she's started emulating Ai both as an inspiration for her acting and as a means to grow closer to Aqua.
• Extreme Doormat: Akane is a shy and quiet person, who doesn't stand out in the show, where it's required to Be Yourself. Her attempts to be more in the spotlight, therefore, fall flat, and seeing how her manager is criticized because she doesn't garner much attention leads to her taking extreme measures that escalate things. She causes an accident that is dramatized in the show, which is met with heavy toxic criticism. MEMcho advises her to not apologize, which Akane is prone to do so, as this would be like an admission of guilt, but Akane does the next worst thing and responds to the bullying without being able to go into detail, which only makes viewers angrier.
• Fame Through Infamy: By accident. Akane seeks to bring more attention to herself by competing against Yuki, but she accidentally injures Yuki's face, which results in very harsh criticism from social media. She's got the attention she wanted, but it's only negative PR and does the opposite of what she wanted to accomplish.
• Fangirl: Akane was probably Kana's biggest fan when the latter was at her peak as a child actress, which is why they bicker so much in the present: Akane is disappointed with how the current Kana is allowing others to outshine her on stage. When the Kana she admired as a child makes a glorious return after Aqua gives her a metaphorical nudge during their stage performance of Tokyo Blade, Akane couldn't have been happier.
• Fatal Flaw: Akane is a timid, earnest, and hard-working person who is very insecure, has a strong sense of responsibility, and takes things too seriously. Also, she is really bad at doing impromptu things. She is therefore not suitable in a world full of lies, where one needs to be assertive to stand out, and when she sees something, she takes it at face value. As the reality dating show largely works without a script, it requires the cast members to be more like themselves and show their best side, which Yuki can pull off remarkably, but Akane can't. The toxic criticism and death wishes Akane receives on social media especially hurt her, which culminates in a suicide attempt that is barely foiled by Aqua. This is later mitigated because Akane can rely on using Ai as a persona to act the liar.
• Hopeless Suitor: While initially shaken by Akane's impersonation of Ai, Aqua reaffirms in Chapter 30 that he has no romantic feelings for Akane whatsoever. He romances her on the dating show, but she is aware that this is for work and not because he views her actual self as a romantic interest. Even when their relationship continues for more than half a year, she acknowledges that Aqua is smitten with Kana, but still notes he's trying to be a suitable boyfriend for her.
• Hyper-Awareness: Akane is very good at reading people and picks up more subtle things about a person, which helps with her work to play a role. She thus is aware that Yuki and Nobu are actually dating despite what they show in the dating show, and that Aqua isn't interested in her romantically.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: While Akane plays this trope much straighter than Aqua, it's made very clear that she is nowhere near as innocent as she seems; the fact that Aqua caught her trying to murder his father tells a good deal of her intentions, especially since she was using the same method as Ai's murderer.
• Jerkass to One: Akane's sweetness completely vanishes whenever Kana shows up, and she insults her and her career virulently whenever it happens. While it has gotten better over the years, the two of them still argue whenever they end up in the same room as each other.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Due to getting Put on a Bus for the Scandal arc, the next time she and Ruby meet she asks her how Aqua is doing, oblivious to the fact that the two have become estranged.
• Master Actress: There are a lot of prizes Akane won shown in Chapter 25. Kana mentions in Chapter 28 that Akane is actually a prodigy theater actress, who she considers more talented than herself. Akane researches Aqua's "ideal girl" (Ai) for her Method Acting and manages to pull off her act so well that the artist gives her Ai's star pupils, which takes Aqua aback.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor:invoked Akane grows desperate for attention and to stand out on the show once she overhears how disappointed her boss is because she's been in an episode for less than 10 minutes, leading her to decide to play a bad girl that is trying to steal the man Yuki is interested in. Despite this, Akane herself is shy and dedicated to a fault.
• Morality Pet: Even though she is merely another pawn for Aqua's revenge scheme, Akane is still protected under his personal principles; he is quick to shoot down any tactic that would bring her professional life to a grinding halt, which is intensified by her failed suicide attempt and their short-lived relationship. That being said, he is still willing to break her heart if it comes down to it, breaking up with her after catching her attempt to kill his biological father the same way Ai met her end.
• Nice Girl: For all her issues, and her shy and melancholic personality, Akane is all in all a very kind, sweet, pleasant, and good-hearted girl.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: While Yuki may have Easily Forgiven Akane for injuring her face accidentally, the producers of the show fully exploit the drama to stir up the audience. The narration at the end of Chapter 24 even points out that "the internet does not forgive" and Akane fears that the hateful comments will follow her as long as she stays in showbiz.
• Poor Communication Kills: Akane isn't mentally strong enough to withstand the vitriol she receives in school and from the internet after causing an incident in the show. The problem is that she can't speak about what happens behind the scenes because of a non-disclosure agreement she signed, and she can't just ignore the criticism like MEMcho suggests to her. She also doesn't confide her mental issues to anyone, neither her manager, nor her mother or coworkers. The stress eventually becomes too much for her and she is (unsuccessfully) Driven to Suicide in a Moment of Weakness. After Aqua saves her, her coworkers and family learn about how pressured and depressed she is and offer her their support.
• Put on a Bus: Disappears from the plot after Aqua breaks up with her, but comes back in Chapter 113 upon being called-in by Frill Shiranui for a private friend-circle-only audition between Frill and Ruby to compete on who should officially audition for the role that is planned to be inspired by the late Idol, Ai Hoshino.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Kana's red, befitting their hair and eye colors. Akane is a Shrinking Violet who's borderline useless unless she has clear directions, though on the flipside she is gentle, diplomatic, and far better at communicating with others. The few things they have in common with each other often result in them being more likely to argue, particularly when it comes to Aqua's affections.
• Rescue Romance: After being rescued by Aqua from an attempted suicide and receiving his Cooldown Hug, Akane goes to great lengths to study Ai's character to imitate her, hoping that it will catch Aqua's attention as his ideal girl. While she is aware that Aqua doesn't like her romantically, she is nonetheless happy that he acknowledges her work as an actress.
• Second Episode Introduction: Akane is a fairly important character for the story overall, but she isn't introduced until the third arc of the story (episode 5 of the anime and volume 3 of the manga), despite appearing in the opening of the anime from the get-go.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: In Chapter 51 she hears Aqua murmur Ai's name and puts the hints that she picked up together to correctly deduce that Aqua and Ruby are Ai's children, which explains Aqua's PTSD and panic attacks. When Aqua asks her why she's crying, she avoids telling him that she knows.
• Sherlock Scan:
  • Chapter 28 reveals how she works when she needs to study a character to imitate them. She deduces many of Ai's characteristics based on her appearances on TV including that Ai had sex during puberty.
  • In Chapter 51, when Aqua whispers "Ai" while unconscious, she immediately realizes the relationship between him and Ai and the reason for his PTSD using the very limited information she has at the time.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: An almost textbook example, despite her hair color being much darker than the standard. That being said, she is growing out of her shell.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Kana. The two of them barely tolerate the other's presence when together, and putting them in the same room only gets virulent insults hurled at each other based on their careers. The fact that they share a love interest does not help matters.
• Teen Genius: Her prodigious talent in acting aside, a bonus chapter drawn by Aka Akasaka himself in the 6th volume reveals that Akane got a whooping standardized rank score of 78, which is higher than what Aqua, who was a doctor in his previous life and whose knowledge was carried over in his current one, scored in his exams. She also has the makings of a great sleuth thanks to her own analytical skills.
• True Blue Femininity: Akane's signature color is a deep shade of blue, and she is very much one of the most feminine characters in the series.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Despite being absolutely vicious in their rivalry, Kana and Akane still help each other when they feel the need, one of the few times they are even remotely amicable towards one another.
• Yandere: Downplayed and a heroic example. She is genuinely a good girl and jokes that she'd kill Aqua to herself if he cheated on her in Chapter 87, but she did tell him that she'd help him kill someone if he wanted. And in Chapter 98 she attempts to kill Aqua's father so that he wouldn't have to do it himself, with the only reason she was stopped being Aqua himself intercepting her.

Nobuyuki Kumano and Kengo Morimoto

Nobuyuki Kumano and Kengo Morimoto

Debut: Chapter 20 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Nobuyuki Voiced by: Tomohiro Ohno (Japanese)
Kengo Voiced by: Taito Ban (Japanese), Adam Gibbs (English)

The two other boys who were cast alongside Aqua to participate in the reality show. Nobuyuki is a high school second-year dancer, while Kengo is a high school senior who's part of a music band.

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Stage Play—"Tokyo Blade" Staff and Cast

General

The original in-universe animation adaptation promo poster of Tokyo Blade: Shibuya Conflict Arc

Tokyo Blade is a popular Shōnen Fighting manga that is produced into a stage adaptation with Aqua reuniting with Kana, Akane, and Melt as part of the cast.

The story takes place in an Anachronism Stew Japan, where the Hero Protagonist stumbles upon a magical sword that is commonly known as "Oath Swords." A young kunoichi by the name of Tsurugi appears before the hero in an attempt to forcibly take the sword away from the hero but failed. After several Defeat Means Friendship moments, the hero gains allegiance to Tsurugi and Kizami, and formed The Shinjuku Cluster; starting their adventure to conquer the nation.

The stage play adapts the manga's "Shibuya Conflict Arc," where The Shinjuku Cluster encounters The Shibuya Cluster. The cast is comprised of Taiki Himekawa portraying Blade the protagonist, Kana as the hero's lancer, Tsurugi, with Melt as fellow Shinjuku member, Kizami.

On the opposition side, The Shibuya Cluster is led by Princess Saya (portrayed by Akane) with her fiancé, Touki (portrayed by Aqua) as second-in-command.

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• Anachronism Stew: The setting has its characters in either ancient, traditional, or mythological Japanese wardrobe walking on modern metropolitan Japanese locations. Somewhat like a reverse Naruto scenery.
• Brainless Beauty: Both Taiki and Melt are revealed to be academically undereducated actors in the business. While Taiki already achieved success as an award-winning actor, he’s shown to be uncultured. Melt doubles down as a New Meat on the grill, not only did Melt underperform badly with Sweet Today as the male lead with Bad "Bad Acting", but also struggles to properly articulate and understand his lines for Tokyo Blade; which earns him one good heck of a lecture from Kana. Both Taiki and Melt are character examples representing real-life undereducated entertainers who testifies the importance of academic education.
• Last Episode, New Character: Several of the members involved in the play appear in the final moments of season 1, albeit none but Raida are named, and Abiko is only seen looking at her computer from behind.
• Out of Focus: In the initial version of their script, Akane noticed her character, Princess Saya was pushed out of focus because Tsurugi was trending to become popular in the future arcs of the manga. Instead of the considerate person Saya was in the manga, she was written like a bloodthirsty psycho in the stage play. Aqua stepped in to help Akane voice her concern to their director and scriptwriter on first notice, but Akane went to consensus as the stage time was far too short to place action-only performances for her role. It wasn't until the manga author intercepted the production that Saya's character was able to be rewritten.

Sumiaki Raida

Sumiaki Raida

Debut: Chapter 40 (Manga)

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (Japanese), Alejandro Saab (English)

Lead Producer for the stage adaptation of Tokyo Blade.

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• Establishing Character Moment: In the proposal stages of Tokyo Blade’s production, Raida seeks Masaya Kaburagi for talents. As their deal is sealed, Raida manages to weasel his words into making it look like he's the one doing Kaburagi the favor of providing his platform to give Kaburagi’s referred talents their chances to improve their performances in order to prevent Kaburagi in taking the full credit for providing the pack of good-looking young actors that were much needed for their work. Given the high cost in theatre production, while Kaburagi understood Raida was only pulling this move to avoid being indebted to him and present the best plan to please his sponsors, Kaburagi simply can't publicly poke fun at Raida for this, proving Raida, while still young, is a competent producer within the production circle.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: As someone who makes adaptations of manga into stage plays, Raida has the arduous job of presenting a slick plan that can attract his target sponsors, negotiating with several different agencies to obtain acting talent, maintaining good relationships with publishers, placating the unreasonable demands of the original creators, and actually putting on a play that's any good. As he himself puts it, he holds a very weak position, but tries to get the best result despite everything.
  Raida: Over a hundred people's jobs are riding on me right now. I'm even willing to suck an old man's dick or two if that's what it takes.

GOA

GOA

The scriptwritter for the in-universe released Smash Heaven stage play, and recruited to contribute his writings for Tokyo Blade's stage play.

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• Misblamed: In-Universe. Abiko blames GOA for the underwhelming script when he was just following the rest of the production crew's miscommunicated directions. They find it more effective to cut out the middlemen and directly work together on the revised script.

Taiki Himekawa

Taiki Himekawa

Debut: Chapter 41 (Manga)

Voiced by: Kōki Uchiyama (Japanese)

An award-winning famous stage actor affiliated with the Lala Lai Theatrical Company and Akane's upperclassman within the troupe. In Tokyo Blade, Himekawa is cast as Blade, the Hero Protagonist of the story.

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• The Ace: When it comes to acting, there are few who can hold a candle to him. It's notable that Kana with her habit of matching the acting abilities of those around her is able to act to her full capabilities with him around.
• Blind Without 'Em: Himekawa wears glasses with heavy near-sightedness. Kana found out right in the middle of their stage premiere that Himekawa didn't wear contacts for his role and was performing with them on stage completely blind. Himekawa revealed to Kana that he was never interested in wearing contacts, and that the blurriness surrounding him allows himself to fully submerge within his role and focus his communication with his body language.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a very gifted actor no doubt, but off-stage, he's rather kooky and is prone to having flighty thoughts that weird out his castmates.
• The Casanova: By Himekawa's own admission, he's a womanizer who loves playing around and hooking up with cute women, but Himekawa holds more codes of conduct in comparison to Kamoshida. While Kamoshida goes all out preying on underage girls on public grounds, Himekawa only mingles with age-appropriate women who work in strict membership-only hangout facilities that are concealed from the eyes of the press and public.
• Child by Rape: Genetic testing shows Himekawa shares a biological father with the Hoshino twins, who Himekawa believes is his legal father. It wasn’t until later that Ichigo Saitou pointed out to Aqua that Himekawa's mother could well have conceived a child with someone else—and the most likely person was only twelve years old at the time.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Himekawa hides it well with the stoic front, but he's an odd duck to say the least.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His father committed murder-suicide against his mother, leaving him an orphan since then.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite being a self-admitted womanizer, Himekawa confesses that he's not exactly proud of his womanizing ways as it makes him similar to his father, whom he hates. He also calls out Aqua for "toying around" with Kana and Akane's feelings and prompts him to be more decisive about them now before it's too late.
• Long-Lost Relative: He is the twins' half-brother on their biological father's side.
• Reused Character Design: Himekawa resembles a younger Goro, especially with his glasses on.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Himekawa normally comes in and out of rehearsals with a sloppy look; exhausted with unkept hair and unshaven stubble. But when the time comes to go on stage in costume, his primmed-up appearance is proven to be very handsome and charismatic.
• The Stoic: He's very passionate when he's on the stage, but outside of his acting job, he's a rather solitary figure who keeps to himself a lot.
• Triple Shifter: In rehearsal stages, whenever Himekawa stops acting, he immediately falls into drowsiness or downright takes advantage of his break to conk out, because he is extremely sleep deprived from taking on multiple performance cases with little to no breaks. Himekawa’s overworked multi-role juggling situation has gotten bad to the point where Himekawa can’t remember the names of his given roles.

Melt Narushima

Melt Narushima

Debut: Chapter 15 (Manga), Episode 3 (Anime)

Voiced by: Seiji Maeda (Japanese), Bryson Baugus (English)

A young model and actor affiliated with Sonic Stage Productions. Initially appeared as the male lead in Sweet Today and later cast as Kizami, a supporting role on the protagonist team in Tokyo Blade.

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• Bad "Bad Acting": Had a bad case of this during Sweet Today where his acting was so stilted and forced that it dragged down the entire production. Even Kana who is well-known as an acting genius couldn't salvage his performance beyond trying to not outshine him.
• The Fettered: Melt upholds the showbiz code of honor to not carelessly throw himself out to flirt with women who are in close relations with his direct colleagues. When Ruby and Minami came to visit the rehearsal studio of Tokyo Blade to check up on Aqua, they were welcomed by Kamoshida asking for their contact info. Melt noticed the warning flags and quickly redirected Kamoshida away from the girls.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Melt is not respected by his colleagues given his lack of social etiquette and skills for his job. Kana and the author of Sweet Today both consider him the reason why the show ended up as mediocre as it did. Melt finally gains some entry-level of respect after his first performance in Tokyo Blade; as he proved himself to the public that he has improved on his acting and went further in performing his own action stunts.
• Humble Pie: The moment Melt took the heat of experiencing Aqua and Kana’s proficient performance head-on for the first time, and received disapproval from the manga author of Sweet Today, he realized just how conceited he was and how much he pulled the production down with his lack of skill. To atone for his failings, he uses that experience as motivation to improve himself as an actor and turns into a much humbler and understanding person; even went as far as humbly taking in all of Kana’s rigorous lessons, Aqua’s advice, and quietly weathering the scorns from most of his cast mates.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Melt was introduced as a haughty snob on the set of Sweet Today, ignoring Aqua's introduction greeting due to Melt letting the popularity of his good looks get in his head. That being said, Melt is not overtly mean enough to actually want to hurt Aqua intentionally, as after filming was done, Melt immediately approaches Aqua to apologize for his harsh reactions to Aqua's act. By the time he reunites with Aqua and Kana for Tokyo Blade's stage production, Melt has been thoroughly humbled with his "jerk" part gone save for some uncultured mannerisms and choice of words that can be easily read as "unkind" by those who don't know him.
• Old Shame: In retrospect and after having experienced how good Aqua and Kana actually are at acting, he feels ashamed of his lackadaisical attitude and performance. He vows to do better by the time he works with these two again in the Tokyo Blade stage play.
• Rape as Backstory: He recounts being taken advantage of by an older girl when he just started middle school, clearly not having enjoyed himself.
• Reformed Bully: Melt admits in Chapter 57, that the effortless success he got simply from his looks went way too deep into his head and made him into the jerk he acknowledged. Working with Aqua and Kana has thoroughly humbled him, and he is now nicer and much better at communicating with others.
• Pretty Boy: Melt is mentioned to be an exceptionally beautiful guy. That alone allowed him to become very popular and join the entertainment industry as a model, which is why a lot of people resent him, because he otherwise is lackadaisical, arrogant, and lazy and thus makes life harder for his co-workers.
• Small Name, Big Ego: During Sweet Today. Despite being a model that just started out he is conceited enough to demand filming to be postponed because the rain is making his hair go frizzy. Thankfully he grows out of it and Took a Level in Kindness.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Melt's good looks get him work to do, but they don't get him the respect of his coworkers, the producers promoting him, or fans who aren't charmed by him. They also attracted unwanted sexual advances onto him since he was barely a teenager, which he sardonically notes as a sign of being "popular". His interlude chapter shows that his agency has him act flirty with female fans to gain popularity, and even once he begins working hard to hone his acting skills, he finds that many fans still perceive him as coasting through life solely on his looks. Eventually, he accepts the "flirty pretty boy" image, thinking of it as his "calling".
• Took a Level in Kindness: Started out fairly conceited after letting his popularity get to his head, but ended up much humbler and well-rounded after he started improving himself as a person and as an actor.

Sakuya Kamoshida

Sakuya Kamoshida

Debut: Chapter 41 (Manga)

Voiced by: Yūsuke Kobayashi (Japanese)

A popular stage actor who frequently gets cast in stage adaptations of ACG ^note Animation, Comics, and Games. related works. In Tokyo Blade, Kamoshida is cast as Shibuya Cluster member, Monme.

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• The Casanova: For all of his good looks and great skills in acting, Kamoshida is notorious for utilizing his talents for his private lifestyle as a predator of innocent attractive young women. As Ruby and Minami come over to visit the rehearsal studio of Tokyo Blade, Kamoshida swiftly approaches them to befriend them and attempts to ask Minami for more opportunities to hang out, which makes Minami very uncomfortable. Melt saw the flags and quickly redirected Kamoshida away from the girls, only to be treated with threats from Kamoshida as they brushed paths. Kana is also aware of Kamoshida’s records. Once Kana found out Ruby had traded contact info with Kamoshida, she immediately grabbed Ruby’s phone to delete Kamoshida’s info and place him on black list to prevent Ruby from getting any calls from him.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: While his castmates tolerate his acting well enough, his despicable and repulsive behavior off-set means that they have little-to-no patience for his antics. Kana and Melt are particularly critical of him, while Minami finds him too uncomfortable to be considered safe.
• Kick the Dog: He insults Melt for being a talentless hack, telling him that he's the worst actor in the cast and that he's dragging down the whole play with his shoddy acting. While Kamoshida isn't completely wrong about his assessment of Melt's lack of talent, his tirade comes right after Melt rebukes him for trying to prey on a visiting Minami and Ruby, meaning he's offended that a wannabe actor like Melt thwarted him from his attempts to "play" with the two girls and would even lecture a veteran actor like him about it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives a scathing one to Melt after the latter thwarts his attempts at picking Minami up, which the boy sadly takes to heart.
  Kamoshida: Coming from a no-talent wannabe like you, that's pretty funny. You're just living the easy life of a model. Sometimes you get a TV role, sometimes you use your connections to get a stage role. I really hope you realize that you're the worst actor here. You're dragging down the whole play.
• Serious Business: Kamoshida takes acting very seriously. One of the reasons for his dislike of Melt is rooted in the fact that he believes Melt doesn't take acting seriously and comes to respect him when he proves he does.

Variety Talk Show—"Dig Deep! One Chance!" Staff and Guests

General

Dig Deep! One Chance! is a long-running, high-rating talk show with the focus of investigating persons of peculiar interests and industries. Aqua became the show’s staple commentator, with Ruby joining much later as the show’s reporter.

For Ruby’s debut project, the show dives into the topic of cosplay culture in Japan, with an additional segment of Kana being sent to interview manga author, Abiko Samejima to discuss how authors feel about their characters being second-handled by fans.

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Shun Yoshizumi

Shun Yoshizumi

Debut: Chapter 85 (Manga)

The beleaguered Assistant Director of the show.

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• Beleaguered Assistant: Is constantly taking verbal abuse from Urushibara.

Urushibara

Urushibara

Debut: Chapter 86 (Manga)

A director mostly known for his bad behavior. He is the main director of Dig Deep .

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• Bad Boss: Is verbally abusive to his assistant director and makes quite unreasonable demands. Aqua even notes that Urushibara used to work for a flagship broadcasting company but caused so many problems he got fired, hence why he now works for a production company.

Meiya

Meiya

Debut: Chapter 89 (Manga)

A cosplayer who is invited as a guest to the show.

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Movie—"15 Year Lie" Staff

Taishi Gotanda

Taishi Gotanda

Debut: Chapter 5 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Yasuyuki Kase (Japanese), Ty Mahany (English)

A film director that takes an interest in Aqua after noticing he is a prodigy in acting due to his capacity of communicating. He eventually takes Aqua on as an apprentice.

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• Always Second Best: In Chapter 5, he mentions in a Flash Forward that he has been nominated for a director's award several times already and has been invokedAward Snubbed every time to the point that he feels like this has become a meme online and wishes they'd just give one to him already.
• Basement-Dweller: He is still living with his mother and is mocked for it by Aqua and Kana. He says it's for financial reasons, but it's treated as an excuse.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Everyone simply calls him "Director".
• Mentor Archetype: He acts as Aqua's mentor and has mentored him both in acting and backstage jobs.
• Momma's Boy: He is already in his 40s when Aqua starts attending high school, yet he still lives with his parents in their house, and his embarrassing mother still cleans up and cooks for him.
• Parental Substitute: He is the closest person that Aqua could ever get to a father figure, as he serves as Aqua's mentor and looks after him.
• Perpetual Poverty: Despite being a skilled director with many years of experience, he still lives in his parents' house (which he claims is for financial reasons), which also serves as his film studio. Hearing Kana talk about not having any trouble with money irritates him slightly.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He is surprisingly understanding of a two-year-old Aqua and takes him seriously. When Aqua complains that Ai was underutilized, Gotanda agrees and instead offers her a new and bigger role... provided Aqua also plays in said movie.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • It's implied he knows Aqua's relation to Ai. Later confirmed to be true.
  • He knows Aqua is not mentally healthy and still requires therapy. He tells Akane about it because she is Aqua's girlfriend.
• Stealth Mentor: In Chapter 6, Gotanda notes that an actor's most valuable skill is communication, and those who cannot communicate with their coworkers and become conceited will quickly become irrelevant. Aqua suspects that he was paired with Kana to teach her a lesson about humility, although Gotanda dismisses this.

Masaya Kaburagi

Masaya Kaburagi

Debut: Chapter 2 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Masaki Terasoma (Japanese), Justin Doran (English)

A freelance producer who employs actors by their looks regardless of their acting talent. After completing the TV drama for Today Will Be Sweet, he agrees to share compromising information about Ai with Aqua in exchange for his appearance in My Love with a Star Begins Now . For Tokyo Blade, Kaburagi refers the casting of Aqua, Kana, Melt, and Kamoshida to the production. Afterwards, Director Gotanda and Aqua approach Kaburagi to be the movie producer for 15 Year Lie.

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• Ambiguously Evil: Besides sleazy business practices, Kaburagi accepts funding for 15 Year Lie from Hikaru Kamiki. From their tone discussing the film's subject matter, Kaburagi may not even care if Hikaru actually was behind Ai's murder.
• Beauty Is Best: Kaburagi and his co-staff prioritize the actors' good looks on-screen rather than their acting value. The viewer ratings of Today Will Be Sweet drop rapidly because it is mostly used to promote the actors. Aqua and Kana at least manage to make the final episode more watchable with their acting, which is more faithful to the source.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Downplayed and Justified.
  • Kaburagi often resorts to Nepotism, does and demands favors as a quid pro quo, uses people like Kana like useful tools, and mostly cares about profit above all, but he is very successful in return.
  • When Kaburagi sees potential in certain talents, he would most likely invest them with personal aid and help them secure showbiz opportunities. This is why Kaburagi agreed to take Kana’s referral of casting Aqua for Sweet Today, agreed to provide Aqua the information on Ai after reviewing Aqua's performances in Sweet Today and LoveNow, help secure new B-Komachi a performance slot at the Japan Idol Festival due to MEMcho proactively reaching out to him in seeking performance opportunities, and bundle-referred Melt with Kana, Aqua, and Kamoshida for Tokyo Blade due to seeing Melt displaying a budding attribute in perseverance for acting.
• Hidden Depths: Despite his speeches about how money is the only thing that matters to him, Gotanda suspects he is not being completely honest with himself and others, as nobody could do what he does without at least some passion for the work he does.
• I Gave My Word: In addition to Aqua's assistance with filming the reality show My Love with a Star Begins Now, he agreed to give the boy compromising information about Ai.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He may be a ruthless businessman, but he genuinely seemed to like Ai. He took pity on her when he saw her running around in cheap clothes with an unprofessional and lackadaisical attitude. He referred her to the Lala Lai Theatrical Company, where Ai apparently fell in love with someone and started maturing. He also told her about some good restaurants and other places where she could go on secret dates with her boyfriend. Ai's death and the reveal that Aqua is her son also motivates him later to assist Gotanda and Aqua in their planned movie about Ai. The anime also shows him attending Ai's funeral and mourning her.
  • Kaburagi has a soft spot for Melt. People like Raida question why Kaburagi keeps giving Melt roles despite him clearly being an inferior actor. Kaburagi's Gut Feeling tells him that Melt has a lot of potential and he is here to support it.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He approves Aqua's invokedMethod Acting in the filming of Today Will Be Sweet in order to make the other cast members' acting appear more convincing. In addition, he also manages to negotiate with the executives of LoveNow regarding Aqua's use of behind-the-scenes footage to vindicate Akane's damaged reputation online because it all worked out in their favor and technically Aqua didn't violate his contract. Instead, he is very impressed and praises Aqua for his shrewdness.
• Secret-Keeper: He was aware that Ai was going out with someone, as she asked him for good places to eat discreetly. He didn't know who Ai was dating, but judging from when Ai started to change, he surmised that that person must have been from the Lala Lai Theatrical Company.
• Small Role, Big Impact: In addition to getting Ai rising into a popular idol, his involvement in covering her Secret Relationship with an unknown man resulted in the birth of Aqua and Ruby. However, said coverup eventually led to her death by a stalker.
• Will Talk for a Price: Producer Kaburagi used to work together with Ai and was also privy to Ai meeting with other men. Kaburagi is willing to tell Aqua more about his knowledge of Ai as long as Aqua agrees to accept his job offerings.

Manga Authors

Yoriko Kichijouji

Yoriko Kichijouji

Debut: Chapter 15 (Manga), Episode 3 (Anime)

Voiced by: Shizuka Itō (Japanese), Kelly Greenshield (English)

The author of the popular romance drama manga, Today Will Be Sweet^{localized translation}I'll Go With Sweet Today or Sweet Today for short. An experienced mangaka in the industry, she can tell much about a fellow mangaka's psyche just by reading the kind of stories they make. She was Abiko's mentor in the past.

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• Awesomeness by Analysis: She's been in the manga industry for so long that she recognizes the kind of person a mangaka is by simply reading through their work.
• Extreme Doormat: In stark contrast to Abiko's willingness to challenge others when the entertainment industry is producing adaptations of her work, Yoriko takes the liberal approach in allowing production to have complete creative freedom in adapting her works; mostly out of sincere trust with fellow artists, and to decrease worker conflict in order to maximize time management for a smooth production flow. Her combination of actions, while meant well, are presented as flawed approaches to overall production results; as the live-action adaptation of Sweet Today ended up terrible when she could have stepped in and demanded a better quality for the show.
• Jerkass to One: She's normally friendly and accommodating towards people, but treats Melt, and only Melt, with negative responses thanks to his terrible acting ruining the live-action adaptation of her manga.
• The Mentor: To Abiko. Abiko used to be her assistant and treasures Yoriko's teaching, going to her for advice well after she became a mangaka with a bigger hit under her belt. Yuriko also attempts to intervene when Abiko's perfectionist nature gets out of control to the point where she fired all her assistants to work on a weekly manga alone beside the multitude of other tasks she has as the creator.
• Morality Pet: Abiko has a tendency to be blunt if not mean to most people, but she respects and adores Yoriko as her mentor and someone whom she looks for when in need of advice. She is only nasty to her when she is nearing a breakdown and even apologizes afterwards.

Abiko Samejima

Abiko Samejima

Debut: Chapter 43 (Manga)

The author of the popular manga Tokyo Blade. She is an extreme perfectionist and very hands-on with her IP, which causes a lot of problems for people seeking to work with it. She used to work under Yoriko as her assistant before going independent.

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• Acquired Situational Narcissism: She got a really inflated ego from her very first work being a huge hit, which caused her to become increasingly protective of her work and shun everyone who doesn't live up to her standards.
• Berserk Button: She hates when works disrespect her characters. The entire kerfuffle in the play was caused by her feeling the script didn't do her characters justice. When she briefly returns for an interview, she also is mad at people who make fanart of things they don't love to sell porn of it (though, specifically rape porn, which may indicate she finds that particularly tasteless).
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's a talented mangaka whose first official work was a breakout hit. She also happens to be a very socially awkward young woman in person who brushes her teeth with two toothbrushes because she thinks "double brushing" would clean her teeth a lot faster than with just one.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns in Chapter 91, to be interviewed by Kana on the Dig Deep show to comment on the scandal regarding Meiya's treatment, since the show not getting permission to use her IP is one of the central causes of the problem.
• Character Development: Abiko eventually comes to understand that being so protective of her work will just burn her out and ruin her reputation once stories of how she's been mistreating her colleagues start circulating, and learns to have more faith in those adapting her work without trying to wrestle creative control away from them when she isn't pleased with the initial results.
• I Work Alone: Since Abiko has issues with others messing with her work, she often tries to do things alone. Yoriko, her friend and mentor, is one of the few people that she allows to assist her. Part of Abiko's character development is to make her work together with others.
• Kick the Dog: Her perfectionism and lack of social skills combine to often lead her to treat people who fail to meet her standards cruelly.
  • Caps off her blistering rant about how awful the play's script is by yelling at GOA that he has no talent and demands he gets fired from the production.
  • She fired her most recent background artist just because she wasn't satisfied with their latest work. Comments from Yoriko suggest that this isn't the first time she's done something like this.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Abiko is without a doubt, a talented manga author. But she knows nothing about theatre and decides to write the stage script herself after being dissatisfied with the initial draft. With zero knowledge of how writing scripts for a stage production actually works and no time for the cast to learn an entirely different script, the production team fears that Abiko's version of the play will be just as bad, if not worse. In an effort to keep scriptwriter GOA from being booted from Tokyo Blade's production, Aqua came up with the quick idea to take Kana, Akane, and Melt with him to appeal and provide author Yoriko with theatre tickets to invite Abiko to view a released stage play that was written by GOA so that Abiko can experience an actual product made from GOA's expertise, and learn the intricacies of theatre herself.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Abiko is an extremely shy perfectionist who is always wary of letting people mess with her creations, which prompts her to be very unprofessional with those she works with. Even outside of that, she tends to be shy and can't proficiently communicate with people she doesn't know.
  • The stage play adaptation of Tokyo Blade is suddenly thrown into chaos 20 days before the premiere, as Abiko was extremely angry with the script because, in her opinion, all of her characters went through Adaptation Personality Changes that make her characters look like idiots. She has voiced her complaints multiple times, but her intent was misunderstood by all personnel in-between. It was pushed to the point where Abiko views the initial theater script as garbage and threatens to withdraw her rights from the stage adaptation if she isn't allowed to completely rewrite the script.
• Rage Breaking Point: While Abiko seems a bit eccentric, she normally appears to be a calm individual. But when it comes to her manga works, she would become very protective. As her mentor, Yoriko Kichijouji, says, Abiko's editors are more than likely to misunderstand her, add the message relays through the production line, and any adaptations of her work would only make her angrier. By the time her intent reaches stage scriptwriter GOA, Abiko burst her flames on GOA for having no idea about her work and changed her characters so much that she calls GOA "talentless," and wants him out of the project.
• Surpassed the Teacher: She was once Yoriko's assistant mangaka and student, but Abiko's Tokyo Blade manga was a bigger smash hit than even Yoriko's already popular Sweet Today series.

Yoto High School

Frill Shiranui

Frill Shiranui

Debut: Chapter 19 (Manga), Episode 4 (Anime)

Voiced by: Asami Seto (Japanese), Annie Wild (English)

A first-year student and classmate of Ruby's. Frill is a multi-talented artist who immediately becomes one of the most revered students in school. She is the younger sister of Koromo Shiranui from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War.

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• The Ace: Be it singing, dancing, or acting, she can do it all.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Dark-haired, beautiful, popular, and very composed. She isn't very aloof though, as she quickly engages in small talk with Minami and Aqua and acknowledges their work.
• The Comically Serious: Despite her stoic and serious demeanor, she's capable of saying pretty odd and hilarious lines every now and then all while keeping the same deadpan expression. In Chapter 33, she mentions that the cast of LoveNow are all "real eye candy" and that her eyesight got "half a degree better" from watching all of them onscreen. Ruby and Minami's reactions say it all.
  Ruby and Minami: She's actually pretty funny!
• Covert Pervert: In Chapter 33, she outs herself as a big LoveNow fan and gushes about how hot everyone looked, especially showing interest in MEMcho.
• Curtains Match the Window: Both her eyes and hair are green, though the shading is vastly different between the two.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Ruby is very much starstruck upon meeting her in person, and Minami's very much the same if not a little quieter about it.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Frill's pupils are much smaller than most of the other characters, and they are elongated similarly to a cat's.
• Expy: Her appearance is explicitly based on the manga's artist Mengo Yokoyari's favorite Chainsaw Man character, Doll Woman.
• Family Theme Naming: She and her older sister, Koromo, have fashion-themed names.
• Informed Attractiveness: According to Ruby, when one thinks of "pretty girl", Frill is the first one that comes to mind for most people. Similarly to Ai, she doesn't actually look very different from other female characters in terms of design aside from her distinctive eyes and her moles.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: Frill is one of the most consistently-positive and kind actresses in the cast. In 15 Year Lie, she plays Taiki's mother Airi, who is a child molester.
• Mythology Gag: She shares similarities with Kaguya-sama: Love Is War character Koromo Shiranui, as their names are both clothes-related and they are both beautiful first-year School Idols. They are also introduced in a similar way when they enter the classroom. The similarities make sense given that the two are confirmed to be sisters by Aka Akasaka.
• Practically Different Generations: Given the amount of time that had passed between the events of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and Oshi no Ko, it's safe to say that there's a good age gap between Frill and her older sister Koromo.
• School Idol: She just entered school, but has already won the admiration of the people around her due to her fame and celebrity status. Despite being classmates, Ruby and Minami are fans of hers. It must run in the family, as her older sister, Koromo, had a reputation for being one of her school's most popular girls as well in her own home series.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Frill won't bat an eyelid when it comes to performing in a more "adult" role, and both can and will walk around scantily dressed in nothing but pasties and a borderline-transparent skimpy gown, which leaves a predictable reaction when Kana and Ruby see her in such a state.
• Shared Family Quirks: If you've already seen how Koromo acts in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, then Frill also shows similar traits.

Minami Kotobuki

Minami Kotobuki

Debut: Chapter 19 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Hina Yomiya (Japanese), Brittany Lauda (English)

A first-year student and one of Ruby's classmates and friends in school. She's a beautiful girl who works part-time as a gravure model in the showbiz industry.

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• Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a sizable chest (noted by Ruby to be a size G), which Ruby describes as "amazing".
• Cheery Pink: She's quieter and wiser than Ruby, but not any less optimistic and cheerful.
• Curtains Match the Window: Has both pink hair and eyes.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Ruby can't help but ogle at her in their first meeting together.
• The Idiot from Osaka: Subverted. Minami appears to be a bit airheaded and she speaks in a Kansai regional dialect. However, she's actually not from the Kansai region and admits to Ruby that she plays it up to go with the flow.
  Ruby: It was a fake accent?!
• Ms. Fanservice: She has a cute face and a curvaceous body befitting a model like her.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Matching her pink hair and eyes, Minami is a genuinely friendly and social person who gets along well with Ruby and Frill.

Other Characters (MAJOR UNMARKED SPOILERS)

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Walking Spoiler Warning: All characters listed within this section contribute major spoilers to the plot which cannot be hidden. Please proceed with caution.

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Editorial Note: To editors, please be careful to not give in to Speculative Troping. Any content that is uncertain should be hidden until confirmed in story.

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The "Culprit"

Hikaru Kamiki

Debut: Chapter 72 (Manga)

Hikaru Kamiki in the present

A former troupe member for the Lala Lai Theatrical Company, Akane Kurokawa took note of his looks to be stunningly similar to Aqua.

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• Absurdly Youthful Father: He looks more like the twins' older brother rather than their father. Which is to be expected when he conceived them when he was 15—after fathering Himekawa when he was 12.
• Ambiguous Situation: The series is fairly mum on his actual involvement in Ai's death and whether or not he actually had a hand in it. Aqua accuses him of having orchestrated Ai's death, but the story long intentionally avoided showing the veracity of that or other accused misdeeds. Chapter 109 reveals he does target certain people to murder, as he accompanies an up-and-coming star with the same eyes as Ai and kills her while mountain hiking, but his role in Ai's murder has yet to be confirmed.
• Anonymous Ringer: In-universe, 15 Year Lie only refers to Ai's tutor in Lala Lai as "Boy A", although he's played by Hikaru's near-identical son (as is the man who directly murders Ai). This gives the studio a figleaf of anonymizing his role, though the whole point of the movie is to get the public to associate Hikaru with Ai's murder. What Aqua may or may not know is that Hikaru secretly approved it anyway.
• Archnemesis Dad: Aqua strongly believes that he caused Ai's murder, so he hates him enough to want to kill him himself. Possibly one to Ruby as well since she initially wanted to know his identity from Saitou, who was similarly clueless about it.
• Big Bad: Has been set up as one, as he has been accused by Aqua as the one responsible for Ai's death. However neither the readers nor Aqua know how involved he was in her murder.
• Disappeared Dad: He's not an active presence in his children's lives and his identity is a mystery even to them. He notably didn't come to visit Ai and their kids even once despite Ai asking him to and didn't show up at her funeral at all, even though he was shown paying his respects to her grave a decade later. He's also absent in Himekawa's whole life.
• Establishing Character Moment: In the first chapter to properly focus on him, he poses as a rising star actress's drinking buddy, then murders her during a mountain climbing trip and makes it look like an accident.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Regardless of whether he ordered the hit or not, he seems to think of Ai fondly and in his first appearance is shown speaking affectionately to her at her grave.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Hikaru has six-pointed stars on both of his eyes just like Ai and their biological children, Aqua and Ruby.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Hikaru's proper introduction notes his appearance to heavily resemble Aqua, and gloating over having murdered a young actress named Yura.
• Flower Motif: White roses. His company seems to be motifed after it and therefore is associated with it. He is noted to gift white roses to Akane as a professional courtesy.
• Freudian Excuse: It's heavily implied that he was raped by a much older woman at the age of 11, which would go a long way towards explaining why he's so screwed up in the present.
• Given Name Reveal: Akane learns that his name was Hikaru Kamiki in Chapter 96.
• Manipulative Bastard: Aqua believes he killed Goro and Ai by using the latter's Loony Fan as a proxy, even getting him to kill himself to clean up loose ends.
• Mysterious Backer: Despite knowing 15 Year Lie is being made to expose his crimes, Hikaru contributes funding to it. All he says is that he's "indebted" to Kaburagi.
• Pretty Boy: Hikaru has looks befitting one who belongs to the entertainment industry, being a blond, long-haired pretty boy who's definitely easy on the eyes.
• Rape as Backstory: Readers were long led to believe Ai's children were fathered by a powerful executive who took advantage of his minor employee. In fact, the actual father was Ai's same-aged peer, who was himself raped by an adult woman three years earlier.
• Serial Killer: Readers are introduced to Hikaru as a Master Actor who targets the lives of young talents whose eyes are similar to Ai's.
• Resemblance Reveal: For the majority of Chapter 109 he has Eyes Always Shut and the hair tied up. At the end of the chapter he unties his hair and opens his eyes, showing to resemble Aqua a lot.
• Strong Family Resemblance: The twins got their hair color from him. From what little we see of him from his first physical appearance in Chapter 72, he looks exactly like Aqua albeit slightly older. As shown in his old archive videos from his time in Lala Lai, he was the spitting image of his son back when he was still a teenager.
• Teens Are Monsters: Hikaru is suspected of, at the age of fifteen, manipulating a grown man into murdering Goro.
• Teen Genius: He was a genius in acting back in his teen years and was the one who taught Ai what she knows about the craft. He was also touted as one of Lala Lai's best performers before he struck out on his own and formed his own agency.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Though probably a speculative characterization in-universe, "15 Year Lie'' shows him as an idealistic young man not only with talent, but also a hard worker in the acting field. He also had a few shades of a Shrinking Violet, stuttering when meeting Ai for the first time. Things began to go downhill after A Deadly Affair of Airi and what she did to him.
• The Unseen: Up until Chapter 72 where he makes his first physical debut.
• Visible Victimology: All his victims share the star-shaped patterns in their eyes that Ai did and were also rising stars like Ai was. Ai herself is implied to be one of his victims.

The Stalker

Ryosuke Kaihara

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru (Japanese), Gabriel Regojo (English)

An idol otaku who is obsessed with Ai.

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• Corruption by a Minor: Ryosuke was manipulated into becoming a murderous pawn by Hikaru when the latter was all of fifteen years old.
• Driven to Suicide: He commits suicide shortly after murdering Ai, presumably out of guilt because he found out that, unlike what he initially believed, Ai actually remembered him.
• Evil Counterpart: He represents the crazy idol fans who are too obsessed with their bias, in sharp contrast to Goro. When Goro learned that his beloved idol had a lover and got pregnant, while also initially shocked, he decided to keep supporting her and make her happy. Ryosuke on the other hand grew hateful and murderous.
• Fan Disillusionment: Finding out that Ai got pregnant makes him furious.
• Hate Sink: Ryosuke is a Loony Fan who treats idols as figures of obsession and kills any men who try to get close to her (barring her manager that is), killing Goro simply because he's the doctor who looked after the pregnant Ai. He also kills Ai not only because of her giving birth, but under the assumption that she never bothered to remember her fans, uncaring if her children would suffer the consequences. Last but not least, his apparent suicide resulted from being proven wrong (when Ai did remember him and kept his present) instead of the guilt of committing a murder. The saddest thing about this is that Ryosuke's behavior is very similar to other real life Loony Fans who react violently if their idol breaches invokedContractual Purity. Despite his minor role, it's very clear that Ryosuke is the very source of what went wrong in the story, even if he was possibly manipulated and his actions amounted to nothing else for him.
• If I Can't Have You…: He loved Ai so much that learning of her pregnancy makes him snap. He tracks her down two times. The first time, he lures Dr. Goro out and murders him. The second time, he stabs Ai fatally in the abdomen.
• It's All About Me: Ryosuke cares about no one but himself. He killed Goro because he treated the pregnant Ai and then he killed Ai four years after that, uncaring if her children were left orphaned as a result.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He thinks Ai lied to him and her fans, when she claimed that she loved every one of them, probably not even remembering him, when she was in truth with someone else and got pregnant with his children. When he realizes that Ai does remember him, he gets confused and runs away screaming. The police later find him dead at his home, presumably Driven to Suicide.
• Otaku: Ryosuke is a crazed idol fan, his object of obsession being Ai.
• Posthumous Character: He committed suicide shortly after murdering Ai, with his death being why Aqua (and later Ruby) choose to take revenge on their father instead.
• Shadow Archetype: His reaction to discovering Ai's pregnancy is contrasted with Goro's, who is shocked and slightly disheartened at first, but decides to put his job as a doctor first.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He appears for four chapters, but he murders two important characters, which turns the story into a revenge-driven tragedy.
• Stalker with a Crush: Technically, he started stalking Ai after his crush on her turned to hatred.
• Straw Fan: Ryosuke is representative of a selfish and rabid fanbase, which can't accept that celebrities are humans, too, and have their own private lives.
• Unwitting Pawn: Aqua suspects that he was just a tool that was used by his biological father to get rid of Ai. Ryosuke was an unremarkable student, who didn't seem smart enough to find Ai, so he must have gotten the info from someone else. It's awfully convenient that after killing Ai he killed himself.
• Villainous Breakdown: Not that Ryosuke was the most composed individual to begin with, but after fatally stabbing Ai, he taunts her saying that she probably doesn't even remember his name. Ai immediately responds with his given name, recalling how often he showed up at handshake events. From the distraught look on his face, it's clear this was not at all something he expected to hear. Realizing what he's done, he runs away and it's later reported that he committed suicide.
• Yandere: His entire character is built upon this trope, as a fan whose obsession with an idol crosses to the bloodshed territory.

The Jealous Idol

Nino/Fuyuko Niino

Debut: Chapter 2 (Manga)

^{Click here to see Nino in the present}

One of the first generation B-Komachi members who visited the set of the 15 Year Lie production; to which her character is portrayed by Kana for the film. Based on what Kana sensed after her brief interview with Nino on the set, Nino holds both a burning resentment towards Ai, as well as an unhealthy obsession for her.

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• Ascended Extra: Like the rest of the B-Komachi girls Ai worked with, she was originally nameless and faceless. The anime and the short story 45510 finally gave her a proper design and a name respectively, though it's not until Kana was casted as her as well as her appearing in person in Chapter 132 alongside Takamine that it's confirmed that the green idol and Nino are one and the same.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Nino may appear airheaded and submissive to other people but she is, or at least, was, passionately resentful towards Ai and makes it no secret that she hated her.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Nino was first mentioned by name in the official short story, 45510 alongside Takamine and Watanabe as Ai's fellow founding members of the original B-Komachi and one of the names that comprised the titular 45510 password. Nino is also heavily implied, if not outright confirmed, to be the nameless narrator of the aforementioned short story as the story's closing lines are eerily similar to her description of Ai when she appears in the present day to Ruby in Chapter 132.
• Evil Is Petty: It's not entirely clear if Nino is involved in the orchestrated murder of Ai but she's confirmed to have a petty grudge on Ai for usurping her position as B-Komachi's center as well as being too popular.
• Foil: As the narrator of 45510, she's this to her fellow B-Komachi member: the narrator of Viewpoint B whose identity is heavily implied, though not yet stated, to be Kyunpan. Nino was one of four founding members of their idol group, whereas Viewpoint B's narrator joined later. Nino hated and envied Ai yet eventually came to worship her perfect idol image, the feelings of which remained even after she became an adult, while Viewpoint B's narrator neither hated nor envied Ai (though she mentions having resented the agency for their blatant favoritism towards Ai at the rest of the members' expense), and eventually came to see her as an ordinary girl and a friend by the end of her short story. Whereas Nino's relationship with Ai when the group first started out was initially warm before Nino's envy and Ai's difficultly in opening up her true feelings soured their relationship, Viewpoint B's initial relationship with Ai started out neutral before they eventually grew a bit closer to the point that Ai considered her to be her closest friend in an official interview with her.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Despised Ai due to being more popular than her. Fittingly, her eyes and idol outfit were green.
• Jerkass: Not only did she despise Ai during her career, but at the same time, she even told her to "go to hell", to which Ai simply ignored the comment and smiled at her.
• Jerkass Realization: Had some of this due to Ai's death, resulting in her obsession with her after her death. The authenticity of her remorse is left ambiguous.
• Loving a Shadow: She is obsessed with Ai's façade as "the invincible idol queen" and refuses to accept that the real Ai as a person was just as flawed as everyone else was. She even deletes Ai's posthumous final video message to the founding members in 45510 even though Nino acknowledges that Ai's apology video was Ai's last SOS to them, as Nino wants to preserve Ai's image as the perfect, invincible idol despite Ai wanting to be loved for the real her.
• Only One Name: Like the rest of the original B-Komachi, Nino only goes by one name and is referred to as such. Eventually, it's later revealed by Kana that Nino's real name is actually "Fuyuko Niino", confirming that "Nino" is her stage name.
• The Resenter: When she was younger, she hated and resented Ai for her eclipsing popularity and unparalleled talent but with the twist of Nino being obsessed with Ai's "invincible idol" image as well.
• Sanity Slippage: Ai's death doesn't do any favors to her mental health.
• We Used to Be Friends: As the narrator of 45510, she recalls a time when the four starting members of B-Komachi, Ai included, were still close and tightly-knit, and that they were close to being friends before Ai's popularity started eclipsing everyone, eventually leading B-Komachi to have tense relations as a group despite appearances, a situation Ai regretted back when she was still alive as she truly did see them as her friends.
  Back when B-Komachi was first formed, when everyone still got along, we talked about creating a joint blog account. Inside of a fast food restaurant, we four kids, innocently dreaming of a bright future.
• Yandere: Strongly implied as she told Hikaru that they could never forgive anyone who outshines Ai, indicating that she would have them murdered if they did, Ai's children included. Kana got spooked out by Nino's creepy obsession with Ai, even telling Ruby that her emotions were all over the place. With such an obsession with Ai, is her hatred towards her any more obvious?

Airi Himekawa

Airi Himekawa

Debut: Chapter 41 (Manga)

Taiki's late mother, a morning drama actress who was part of the Lala Lai troupe. In 15 Year Lie, she is played by Frill Shiranui.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Outwardly she appeared to be a loving wife and mother, but privately was a vain sexual abuser.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: 15 Year Lie portrays Airi as reluctant to let Hikaru tutor Ai, even feeling him up basically as a warning against liking Ai more than her.
• A Deadly Affair: She cheated on her husband with an 11-year old child, which resulted in the birth of Taiki. When her husband discovers that their child isn't biologically his, he killed her before committing suicide.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Despite a tragic past that implies that whatever she did to Hikaru was actually better than what was done to her, characters are still unwilling to take it easy on someone who is a child molester regardless of whether she's been molested as well.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Is implied to have raped Hikaru when he was around 11 years old, which is likely relevant to Hikaru becoming a serial killer targeting female celebrities.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: A non-twist variant. Although we see a photograph of the real Airi, she is characterized more by Frill playing her in an in-series dramatization. Some of the details (like Airi still hounding Hikaru by the time he meets Ai) would almost certainly be speculation on part of the film's crew, given the lack of primary sources.
• Karmic Death: Because she cheated on her husband with Hikaru, her husband would later kill her before doing the same to himself.
• Pædo Hunt: She is all but known to have raped one of her troupe's juniors when he was only eleven. "15 Year Lie" portrays Airi as still preying on Hikaru years later.
• Posthumous Character: Is no longer around by the start of the manga series.
• Troubled Abuser: She had been as much a victim of sexual abuse as she is a perpetrator. Miyako mentions that for victims of sexual abuse, they may think that dignity lost through sex may be gained back through it as well. In the 15 Years Lie, when Ai pushes back against her, she is clearly mentally troubled and in a mix of denial and regret over the wrongness of her actions.

Marina Tendouji

Marina Tendouji

Debut: Chapter 118 (Manga)

The mother of the late Sarina Tendouji, who unexpectedly enters the lives of the twins during the production of 15 Year Lie as part of the work's advertisement personnel.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Comes across as a friendly woman and loving mother to most people, but was fully willing to abandon her first daughter due to her terminal illness and doesn't even mention or carry any mementos of Sarina in the present. However, it later turns out that she didn't visit Sarina because she couldn't bear the sight of watching her daughter waste away, and she refused to carry any mementos because she didn't want any reminders that her first daughter was gone. She did care about Sarina, but she went about coping with her grief in a very damaging and selfish way.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She's known for being a hard drinker during parties and her own children even tell her not to get too drunk all the time for her birthday party.
• Parental Neglect: To the point that it might as well count as Parental Abandonment. She didn't visit her cancer-afflicted daughter and left her at a rural hospital, not even bothering to visit her on her deathbed.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Were it not for her abandonment of Sarina in Miyazaki, Sarina would have never met and befriended Goro, who in turn would have never become a fan of Ai due to her influence. Even her return leads to Ruby and Aqua confirming to each other that they are Sarina and Goro.

The Elder Hoshino

Ayumi Hoshino

Debut: Chapter 131 (Manga)

The mother of Ai Hoshino, and by extension, the grandmother of the Hoshino twins.

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• Abusive Parents: Ai tells Saitou that Ayumi used to beat her on a daily basis growing up and one of the B-Komachi girls recalls hearing Ai say that Ayumi once put a shard of glass in her rice as a child in the 45510 side story. When Aqua went to Ayumi's home in Chapter 131, the latter openly admitted to him that she wasn't always like this to Ai.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Ayumi admits that after realizing just what she was doing to her daughter, she became too scared of piling more abuse onto her to take her back from the orphanage. She's also just as devastated as her daughter's associates and children after her murder and admits that she regrets her past treatment of Ai.
• Everyone Has Standards: In spite of her treatment towards Ai, even she found Ai's death to be very shocking.
• I Hate Past Me: She doesn't think too highly of her past treatment of Ai, and admits to Aqua that Ai's murder still haunts her to this day.
• Jealous Parent: Her boyfriend, who she was planning to marry, had become attracted to Ai. This made her jealous of her daughter, which made her abusive to Ai.
• Jerkass Realization: After getting sent to prison, Ayumi realizes how cruel she was towards Ai, and as a way to make amends with her, leaves her at the orphanage in hopes that she would have a better life there. This would end BADLY for both sides, however.
• My Greatest Failure: Ayumi still regrets leaving her daughter alone to die to this day, and is clearly still reeling from Ai's demise.
• Outliving One's Offspring: As revealed in chapter 131, Ayumi is still living in the present while her daughter is long dead.
• Parental Abandonment: Realistically played straight and taken to tragic levels. Ayumi didn't pick up Ai at the orphanage, fearing that she might hurt her again. Not helped by the fact that she tried to kill Ai out of petty jealousy (via a glass shard in Ai's rice meal) and got a criminal record at some point. This act would later bite Ayumi in the ass when Ai is killed off several years later.
• Parents as People: Abandoning Ai may be a dick move on her part but she made a valid point to Aqua that she still loves her daughter deep down despite the circumstances that drove her insane. In other words, she had to protect Ai from herself by leaving her behind.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Had she not been so abusive to her daughter, Ai would not have become desperate to find out what love is.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her decision to not pick up Ai (who was in the orphanage at that time) out of shame for being a horrible mother and mend their relationship sets up a chain of events that ultimately leads to a stalker murdering her daughter.

The Crow Girl

Crow Girl/"Tsukuyomi"

Debut: Chapter 75 (Manga)

A mysterious, clearly supernatural girl who is aware of the twins' circumstances as reincarnates and acts as a guide for their revenge plans.

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• Acting for Two: She plays both Aqua and Ruby in the movie. Doubles as a Cross-Cast Role in the case of Aqua.
• Already Met Everyone: She apparently spoke to Aqua and shot down his hopes that Ai would reincarnate like him and Ruby sometime prior to her first appearance.
• Animal Motif: Crows, obviously, given how a swarm of them appear around her.
• Berserk Button:
  • She would fly into a furious but cute tirade whenever someone belittles her, intentionally or not.
  • She would also get annoyed when someone treats her like a cute kid. She even finds Ruby cuddling her "disgusting".
• Brutal Honesty: Doesn't mince her words at all whenever she has something to say, whether it be telling Ruby about how two people were involved in the deaths of Goro and Ai, or informing Aqua that Ai is dead forever and won't reincarnate.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: As a crow at least, since Sarina mentioned that she's "gluttonous and clumsy". Not so much in the present.
• God in Human Form: Maybe. She shares a number of motifs with the Japanese god Yatagarasu such as an affinity for crows (Yatagarasu is known as the "eight-layered crow", and the girl always has eight crows around her) as well as her status as a guide for the protagonists but her true identity is currently unknown. She also introduces herself as "Tsukuyomi" (which is not her real name) after being dragged into Aqua's movie scheme. Chapter 145 later reveals that in her past life, she was a literal crow, later reincarnating like Goro and Sarina into a human girl after her death.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: She acts ominous and brash to Ruby and Aqua, but has actually known and been fond of them since their previous lives.
• Humanity Ensues: Via Reincarnation. She was originally a crow that was taken care of by Goro and Sarina, and like them, she reincarnated as a human after her death.
• Meaningful Name: Her stage name in Chapter 128, "Tsukuyomi", refers to the Shinto moon god of the same name.
• Mysterious Watcher: Is observing Aqua and Ruby's revenge quests for reasons only known to herself. Turns out that she met Sarina and Goro back when she was a crow and has been watching them ever since, though the reason seem to be simply "because she likes them".
• Not So Stoic: Despite her generally enigmatic and smug attitude, she feels offended when Aqua makes a mockery of her acting skills in Chapter 127.
• Pals with Jesus: She's some sort of supernatural entity, but despite first appearance is very personally attached to Aqua and Ruby.
• Smug Snake: As Aqua points out, for as much as Crow Girl likes to act like she knows everything, offering cryptic advice is all she can really do. In fact, she's so sure of herself that when Aqua attacks her pride, she proves no more difficult to manipulate than any of the other people he knows.
• Troll: Shows some shades of this. The girl dramatically talks about how Ai is watching Aqua from a better place while making gestures and with a smile on her face, after informing Aqua before about how Ai didn't reincarnate like the twins and has ceased to exist.
• Tsundere: Usually blunt, mean-spirited, and insufferable. To her dismay, she quickly comes to enjoy Ruby's affection.

The Photographer

Kaguya Shirogane (née Shinomiya)

Debut: Chapter 90.1 (Manga)

Kaguya's "dream" has become a reality. And the two of them are...

See the Kaguya-sama: Love Is War page for details on her high school years.

A nice photographer who works with Ruby.

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• The Cameo: She's only seen through a photograph in the special chapter. When she was shown speaking to Ruby in a flashback, her back is turned from the reader's view.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: As seen in the ending tagline for the special chapter.
• Happily Married: And guess who the lucky man is?
• Hero of Another Story: She was a lead character in her own series.
• Minor Major Character: The titular protagonist and one of the two main focal characters in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, who only made a small cameo appearance in a special chapter.
• Nice Girl: The genuinely kind young woman that Kaguya has revealed to be through her development in her story.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Her one photograph showing her appearance in this series is drawn in the same art style as her home series instead of Oshi No Ko's.
• Refreshingly Normal Life-Choice: Out of all the potentially extravagant options afforded to her thanks to her family's wealth as well as her intellectual genius and talents, she chose to simply settle down with her high school sweetheart and pursue a career as a photographer.
• Shed the Family Name: If her surname is of any indication, Kaguya successfully shed her previous one after marriage.
• She Is All Grown Up: Downplayed. While Kaguya doesn't look notably different compared to her high school years, she's definitely grown into a beautiful woman.
• Walking Spoiler: Reading this entry will spoil the fact that this manga is a Stealth Sequel to Kaguya-sama: Love Is War.

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