Manga / Oshi no Ko

---

Spoiler Warning: Due to the work's heavy First-Episode Twist on its establishment, it is highly recommended that you have at least read the first 10 chapters of the manga and/or watched the first episode of the anime adaptation of Oshi no Ko before proceeding to read this page. You Have Been Warned.

---

In the world of entertainment, lies are weapons.^note  The series is not as bright as this.

Couldn't beat her smile, it stirred up all the MEDIA.
Secret side, I wanna know it, so MYSTERIOUS.
Even that elusive side, part of her controlled AREA.
Complete and perfect, all you say is a bunch of lies!
Dear Miss Genius IDOL, unmatched!

— "Idol" by YOASOBI (the anime's first opening theme)

Oshi no Ko^note The common way to read it is "The girl (idol) I support", but it also can be read as "The children of the girl I support". (【推しの子】), also known as My Star, is a seinen manga written by Aka Akasaka (Kaguya-sama: Love Is War) and illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari (Kimi wa Midara na Boku no Joou, Scum's Wish). Since April 2020, it is published in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump. The manga has been published in English by Yen Press since 2023.

In the rural town of Takachiho, in Japan's Miyazaki prefecture, a man named Goro works as an obstetrician in a hospital. His life changes dramatically when the 16-year-old Idol Singer he admires, Ai Hoshino, suddenly takes a break from work and appears before him because she is pregnant with twins. Right before Ai bears her children, though, Goro is killed by an unknown man. Moments later, he wakes up in the arms of his idol, reincarnated as one of her children.

Now living his second life as Ai's son, Aquamarine, and with his memories intact, with his twin sister Ruby unaware of it, he wishes to watch over the life of his idol in the entertainment world. Unbeknownst to him, as it turns out, his twin sister is actually reincarnated just like him, more specifically from her past life as one of Goro's patients, Sarina.

As if fate plays a different story, things suddenly went off the script, to put it mildly...

While the author's signature style of humor and storytelling remains intact, Oshi no Ko not only presents a different semi-realistic take on the contemporary Reincarnation story, but also allowing Aka Akasaka, owning to his experience in working during the production of the live-action adaptation of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, to tackle and shedding light on the ups and downs of the entertainment industry, both its positive impact... and all of its darker undertones.

The manga has an anime adaptation produced by Studio Dogakobo. The first season first aired from April to June 2023, featuring an industry first 90-minute long first episode prologue, with a total of 11 episodes. A second season is confirmed to be in production, and will be released in July 2024.

A live-action TV drama adaptation is also announced which will be aired on Amazon Prime worldwide along with a live-action film adaptation which will be distributed by Toei.

---

Oshi no Ko contains examples of:

A - E

• Aborted Arc: In the first arc, baby Aqua and Ruby have to hide the fact that they have intellects beyond their age and can talk. They also trick Miyako into thinking that protecting them is a Mission from God. With the prologue ending on a Time Skip, these stop being relevant.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: The Tokyo Blade characters, not the cast playing them, but the actual characters in the in-universe manga, Blade, Sayahime, and Toki are depicted with different hair colors in the anime adaptation's visual of them from the manga. For example, Blade and Sayahime originally both had dark hair in the manga but are given red and white hair respectively in the anime, whereas Toki has teal hair in the anime but has blonde or platinum hair in the manga.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • In Episode 1, two My Life Flashed Before My Eyes moments were added for Goro's and Ai's death scenes respectively.
  • The training session with Pieyon in Episode 5 was greatly expanded and Pieyon's voice actor delivers a full song.
  • Episode 6 expands on the vitriol Akane receives online, while showing scenes that prove the opposite of what is gossiped about, including flashbacks of how she started out as an actress.
  • In Episode 8, Kana's songs, "Bell Pepper Exercises" and "Full moon...!", were given music videos, sung in full by her voice actress Megumi Han.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The anime adaptation uses group shots of characters to inform the audience of upcoming arcs.
  • Reality show My Love with a Star Begins Now cast members—Yuki, Nobuyuki, Akane, MEMcho, and Kengo, as well as Ruby’s high school classmate, Minami all appear separately near the end of the first episode of Season One.
  • Taiki Himekawa can be seen in a photograph Akane has in her room in Episode 6.
  • The main cast and production members for Tokyo Blade— Melt, Sakuya Kamoshida, Taiki Himekawa, Director Toshiro Kindaichi, scriptwriter GOA, and manga author Abiko Samejima all have camera shots at the ending of Season One Episode 11.
  • Downplayed with the Crow Girl; she herself does not appear at any point in Season 1, but the crows that she is associated with show up when Ryosuke shoves Goro to his death, during the opening intro, and the ending montage of Episode 11.
• Adapted Out:
  • The Flash Forward interviews that occur before each chapter in Volume 1 were omitted in the anime adaptation. Only the Video Will seen before Chapter 10 was adapted.
  • Season One Episode 11 skips over Mana's role in the manga, only retaining her appearances in the intro and during the concert.
  • In-Universe example. Of the seven members of the original B-Komachi group, only four, Ai included, are accounted for in the 15 Years of Lies movie. While this is primarily because this was how the group was originally numbered before it expanded its membership in the years that followed, Watanabe, one of the founders mentioned in the 45510 short story, is absent and noticeably replaced by Meimei in the movie.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Aqua asks one to the director of My Love with a Star Begins Now, after the director tries to shift the blame of the social backlash on Akane, since she's a professional.
  Aqua: It doesn't matter if she's a professional or not... A 17-year-old is just a brat who makes lots of bad life decisions. What good are adults if they don't protect the kids?
• Ascended Extra: Downplayed. Even though none of them showed up in the main story to properly introduce themselves, Ai's fellow B-Komachi members are given more prominence in the anime adaptation. Not only are they given more distinct designs in the anime when they were originally mostly faceless and/or indistinguishable in the manga, two of them become the main protagonists and narrators of the two short stories released in tandem with the anime's airing, which detail how they each saw Ai during B-Komachi's rise in fame, its glory days, and what happened to them following their disbandment after Ai's death: 45510 and Viewpoint B.
• Bad "Bad Acting": All of the actors of Sweet Today are just terrible and act without emotion, because they are inexperienced and have no training. They were mostly hired for their good looks and the drama is produced to promote these actors. Kana is the only experienced actress that was hired, but she willingly performs worse to not bizarrely stand out. Ruby is rather taken aback when she sees Kana's performance and wonders why Kana got worse over the years.
• Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 13 is all about Aqua talking to Director Gotanda about his prospects as an actor. Aqua is depressed, as he does not view himself as a good actor and constantly compares himself to his charming mother, Ai, which is why unlike Ruby he will take the general education program of a school that offers a performing arts education program. When Gotanda tells him You Are Better Than You Think You Are and that he is way too young to give up on acting already, Aqua seemingly is about to tell Gotanda that he changed his mind before being interrupted by Gotanda's mother. The chapter ends with Kana Arima meeting Aqua again and asking him if he will also be in the performing arts department. To the shock of Kana, he denies it, making all the pep talk Gotanda gave him earlier for naught.
• Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: A variant in Chapter 38. When Kana feels depressed that apparently no one is cheering for her (indicated by the color of the glowsticks the fans choose), Aqua pulls out a white glowstick, Kana's chosen color, which gets her attention. However, she then notices that he actually cheers and dances for the whole group, as he carries all three colors that present Ruby, Kana, and MEMcho. This frustrates Kana a bit, since she wants him to only support her alone.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Ruby's plan during the Dig Deep arc relies on two people repeating patterns of behavior she had already noticed, namely: Director Urushibara being incompetent at his job and inappropriate to female guests; and Meiya being loose-lipped enough to leak whatever errors he makes to the public.
  • Aqua knew of Akane's ability to thoroughly understand a person down to the littlest details, and also that she wanted to protect him from the destructive path of vengeance he was treading. He secretly planted a tracker on her, counting on her to deduce the identity of Ai's killer and to go there to kill him herself.
• Be Yourself: The cast members of My Love with a Star Begins Now are encouraged to do so to promote themselves and show their best side to the audience without really acting, as there is no real script to follow. Aqua thinks this is dangerous, and he is later proven to be right, as Akane's real self is shy and timid. She tries to go out of her way to be someone she really isn't which leads to an accident that is dramatized by the production and causes heavy cyberbullying against Akane.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Chapter 25, Akane attempts to jump off a bridge to kill herself. Aqua appears in time to stop her.
• The Big Damn Kiss:
  • Invoked in Chapter 30 when Aqua ends the current LoveNow show with a Hollywood Kiss to establish him and Akane as a couple.
  • In Chapter 78, After finding his (Goro's) corpse, Aqua and Akane kiss after he gives her a Declaration of Protection.
  • Chapter 143 does it again with Ruby, who took the initative of kissing her own brother through the lips. To be fair for both of them though, this was done as part of the movie's upcoming kissing scene, and Ruby doesn't see herself and Aqua as siblings anyomore, but as Sarina and her "sensei". Kana is immediately and understandably baffled when they're doing it officially for the film on the next day.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Sarina dies in a flashback, and Goro is killed in Chapter 1. Both are reincarnated at the end of the chapter as Ai's children.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • YouTube is actually mentioned by name, but when images in the manga are shown it's called "Youlobe". The same goes to other platforms like TikTak, Gugule, Woyback Wochine or Twit. The anime made the Product Placement straight with the brands listed below.
  • Japanese energy drink, Monster Energy, while was straight out listed in manga, turned bland-name into "Berserk (Energy)" for the anime adaptation.
• Blatant Lies:
  • In Chapter 5, Aqua meets Director Gotanda for the first time. However, Gotanda is impressed a two-year-old like Aqua can already talk so eloquently, which Aqua explains by supposedly watching a lot of YouTube. For some reason, the Director instantly believes this and is impressed by the "progressive era [they] live in".
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The official English localization of Chapter 120 erroneously translated Kana's description of the role she was playing as in one of Shima's productions. In the original Japanese release, Kana wasn't creeped out by the character of the obsessed girl just because she "wears her crush's hairstyle" and "cooks and eats his favorite food" as relayed by the official translation. She was put off because said character cooks and eats her crush's hair and likes it.
• Blood from the Mouth: Ai immediately starts to bleed from the mouth after being fatally stabbed.
• Bluebird of Happiness: As Ruby found herself stuck from her Parental Abandonment issues from her past life, she comes to understand that she needs to face her past by sending herself on the quest to check up on Sarina’s family. Upon believing Sarina’s family has moved on without her existence, as well as losing Ruby/Sarina’s only supporter, Goro from murder, Ruby comes to realize she has lost all purposes for her present life. But by her uncontrollable outward cry of despair, Aqua was able to overhear, and confirm Ruby’s past life to be of Sarina, and comes clean with Ruby without hesitation in revealing his past life identity to be of the very person she has been searching for. Thus the two souls recognized and reunited in heartfelt happiness with each other.
• Bluff Worked Too Well: In Chapter 107, Kana learns that Aqua doesn't hate her and is just worried about people mistaking them for lovers, which could potentially ruin her career and put her in danger. She tells Aqua that she'd never fall in love with him and just wants to be good friends with him, to which he agrees. Then she notes that she is not into stealing other people's (Akane's) boyfriends, to which Aqua responds that he and Akane already broke up, making her immediately regret what she just said because she friendzoned herself.
• Bookends: For Season One of the anime:
  • Episode 1’s baby Aqua and Ruby cheering for Ai with a glow stick dance uplifted Ai’s spirit. Fast forward to the season’s ending of Episode 11, Aqua showed up for new B-Komachi’s live debut performing a hardcore glow stick dance to cheer on all three girls, with Kana gaining the praise she longed wish for.
  • Also, Episode 1 starts with B Komachi performing STAR * T * RAIN; Episode 11 starts with New B Komachi performing their arrangement of STAR * T * RAIN.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In the conflict between Abiko and Yoriko's means of dealing with their works being adapted, showing that one was too hands-on, but the other was too hands-off.
  • As Abiko mentions, Yoriko is an Extreme Doormat that will let people step all over her work to avoid conflict. The final product of the live-action adaptation of Sweet Today was, as a result, terrible up until the final episode, only because of the intervetion of Aqua and Kana for personal reasons, rather than just making better of her work, and even after that, they only managed to make the series less terrible.
  • However, Abiko is not free of guilt. Her blunt and perfectionist approach causes herself to be overloaded with work as she keeps firing people and taking on stuff outside her job whenever someone doesn't meet her impossibly high standards, not only putting her own health and the health of her work at risk, but also getting dangerously close to burning professional bridges for herself and the company she works for. While her willingness to go the extra mile for her work is made to be commendable, she lacks professional tact when dealing with others and her work-life balance is unsustainable.
• Bottled Heroic Resolve: In the Love Now arc, Aqua can be seen drinking energy drinks through intense nights of video editing. Then by new B-Komachi's kickstart period, consumes energy drinks again as he voluntarily substitutes Pieyon as B-Komachi's coach.
• Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: The relationship journey between The Hoshino Twins starts off from their past lives as Goro Amamiya and Sarina Tendouji. The two grew close with each other as an intern physician supporting a bedridden cancer patient. They were special to each other, and affected each other in ways that affected them even in their next lives. Their souls then part ways as Sarina lost her fight to cancer, and Goro was murdered by Ai's stalker. The two then reincarnated as twin siblings born to Ai as their mother. As the two lived a new life together, their identities were a topic that they avoided. After Aqua had revealed their shared parentage to the world, their relationship fractured shortly after, with Ruby not wanting anything to do with Aqua after the fact and Aqua trying to make Ruby hate him due to wanting her to live without him. But during the events of Chapter 123, with the reveal of their mutual identities to each other, they eventually reconciled and repaired their relationship, growing closer as a result.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Deconstructed. Fans expecting their idols to be infallible is shown to be heavily taxing on the minds of both parties, with fans often treating people they thought the world of one day like scum of the earth the next if they err even slightly, and can turn murderous if the pedestal is placed too high when their impossible standards inevitably aren't met.
  • One of the first episode premiere bonus stories shows this even happened with the first B-Komachi. In it, one of the original four members finds both a portion of an old stream of Ai and the group's abandoned shared blog. While the member reminisced on how much B-Komachi changed from a group of friends to bitter girls jealous that they became Demoted to Extra, she nevertheless recalled Ai just as the fans did and was shocked to see hints of guilt, regret, and vulnerability on the two digital archives. And just like the fans, she could never reconcile this with the "perfect" and mysterious Ai she knew, and deleted them so the illusion wouldn't have to be broken for anyone else.
• Call-Back: Aqua brings up in Chapter 31 how unusual it was that MEMcho immediately came up with Ai, when he vaguely described his ideal woman in Chapter 28. MEMcho then tells him that before she became a YouTuber her dream was to become an Idol Singer and that she admired the old B-Komachi. Aqua then brings up the possibility to join the newly formed B-Komachi.
• Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality:
  • Since the cast members of My Love with a Star Begins Now are supposed to act like their real selves, the audience is led to believe that everything they see is how things really are, not knowing the cast simply exaggerate their interactions with each other on camera.
  • The production of My Love with a Star Begins Now also builds up a narrative through Manipulative Editing to make Akane look like a villainous and violent Clingy Jealous Girl. Not knowing that this was dramatized, nor understand Akane and Yuki don't actually hate each other, the audience of the show bashed Akane hard to the point of driving her to suicide.
• Career Not Taken: Mem-Cho, like several other cast members, wanted to be an Idol Singer as a teenager and managed to get pretty far into an audition process. Unfortunately, at that point her Struggling Single Mother ended up in the hospital from exhaustion, so Mem dropped out of high school and started working, managing to put her brothers through college. By the time she came up for air, she was 23, making her "over the hill" by idol standards, and ended up becoming a popular livestreamer instead. During the fourth Story Arc, she gets a second chance at an idol career when Ruby ropes her into helping her revive B Komachi.
• Cassandra Truth: None of the cast members of LoveNow believe Yuki has never dated anyone before entering the reality show. By the show's wrap-up party, Akane concluded Yuki being virtuous is true, and Nobuyuki really is Yuki's very first boyfriend.
• Central Theme:
  • Lies. The nature of them, why people use them, what the definition of a lie even is, and how people react when lies are exposed.
  • Love. Like Akasaka's previous work, Oshi no Ko explores the love between people, most notably idols and fans. However, in contrast to Kaguya-Sama, the manga explores impure expressions of love as shown with the previous theme, which leads to...
  • Hatred, which the manga does not examine until the First-Episode Twist. The manga explores the overly hateful world of entertainment and how people can be turned and influenced into monsters by what they see on their screens.
• Cerebus Syndrome:
  • Ai's death has caused the series to have a darker undertone. Prior to that, there have already been hints of it in the Flash Forward interviews.
  • It gets even darker after Goro's body is finally discovered, with Ruby swearing revenge in much the same way as Aqua. Then once Aqua and Ruby have their falling out, the humor is almost completely gone.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In Chapter 16, Aqua overhears the conversation between production staff indicating Kana is a talent that is easy to use because she has become a freelancer. Three chapters later, Aqua remembers this and recommends Ruby to recruit Kana for her new idol group, as Miyako will not start auditions, nor does not want to meddle with girls who are already affiliated with an agency.
  • In Chapter 75, during a flashback to Sarina's final moments on Earth, she gifts Goro a keychain that she had purchased from a B-Komachi concert back from her early days in hospitalization before she was completely bedridden. In Chapter 77, Ruby and Akane come across skeletal remains in a cave hidden behind a shrine near the hospital where she and Aqua were born. Ruby is able to quickly identify the remains as that of Goro, as one of the few items that hadn't decayed away in the past dozen years was said keychain.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In Chapter 5, Director Gotanda explains to Aqua the three types of actresses in a project: the famous actress that brings in the audience, the Master Actress maintaining the quality of the show, and the newbie from whom no one expects anything who are getting promoted. In Chapter 17, it's noted that Kana was hired as the female lead of Sweet Today mainly because she is famous, not because of her ability. She is there to promote all her good-looking co-actors, who have no experience in acting, and no one cares about the quality of the show. This is again brought up many arcs later when Kaburagi proposes to give the lead acting role of the movie Aqua and Gotanda plan to film to Frill Shiranui, as the previous rising actress he had in mind went missing. Kaburagi argues that they need an audience magnet like Frill to make sure it will be a financial success. Gotanda on the other hand is interested in giving Ruby the role, despite her being a complete newbie in acting.
  • In Chapter 31, after the show is wrapped up, the director of My Love with a Star Begins Now warns the actors that the entertainment industry is full of "bad adults" who may abuse their talents and then discard them. He speaks from experience, as he is also one of the "bad adults", and actually tried to do the same with Akane. Aqua calling the director out in Chapter 27 as an adult who neglected his duties to protect the children around him still has a lasting effect.
  • In Chapter 20, before recruiting Kana, Ruby thinks that Kana is the kind of person otaku would like. At the end of Chapter 38, one of the idol otakus present says exactly the same thing.
• invokedContractual Purity: Idols are meant to stay single, as selling the image of a "pure" single woman who could possibly date you, her fan, is necessary for business. Ai clearly breaks this rule by getting pregnant with twins, and while her manager/guardian does not want Ai to give birth, he eventually gives in, but makes sure that the world never learns of this, as Ai would be declared Defiled Forever, which would be the end of both his and Ai's careers. Unfortunately, a fan still learns of this and in his jealous rage, kills not only Dr. Goro but also Ai. In the aftermath, some fans think that "it can't be helped" or that Ai even deserved this, which infuriates Ruby.
• Cooldown Hug:
  • In Chapter 24, Yuki hugs Akane to calm her down, seeing that she is about to panic from everyone's accusatory talk about her.
  • In Chapter 25, Aqua saves Akane Kurokawa from her suicide attempt and wraps her around his arms to calm her down.
• Curtains Match the Window: A large number of named female characters in the main cast's age group have their eye color match their hair, though the shading is occasionally different.
• Cute Little Fangs: The anime emphasizes these on the female characters whenever they show emotion, although it's very noticeable on Ai and Ruby themselves.
• Cynicism Catalyst:
  • Ai's death greatly affects Aqua, who loved her. He becomes broody and obsessed with revenge.
  • Ai's death did not deter Ruby's ambition to become an idol, because she wanted to meet Goro again. When she learns of his death, she is devastated and becomes much more jaded after learning that the mastermind behind the deaths of both Ai and Goro is still out there.
• Darker and Edgier: To Kaguya-Sama, Love is War, surprisingly. Both mangas deal with the concept of love, but while Kaguya-Sama has it mostly Played for Laughs, Oshi no Ko horribly deconstructs it and is mostly Played for Drama.
• Dead Star Walking: Ai dies in the first episode and Chapter 9, yet continues to be an Advertised Extra. In the anime, she is voiced by Rie Takahashi, who shot into great popularity in the decade following the anime's release.
• Death by Childbirth: Chapter 75 reveals that Goro's mother, desperate to hide her pregnancy from her parents, tried to deliver him on her own in her house. She ended up dying of an obstetric hemorrhage.
• Death by Irony:
  • In Chapter 9, Ai is killed on her 20th birthday at the peak of her popularity by a crazed fan.
  • As revealed in Chapter 75, Goro's teenaged mother died giving birth to him. The next time he encounters a Teen Pregnancy, he's the one to die during the delivery.
• Death Is Dramatic: Ai, the Decoy Protagonist, who is stabbed at the end of Chapter 8, gives a Dying Declaration of Love to her children in the next chapter. Her death dramatically changes the lives of her children and their future.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: In Chapter 127 the Crow Girl nearly spells out that she's at least a divine being of some kind, yet Aqua keeps interrupting her threatening monologues and tricks her into starring in his movie.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Inverted. In Chapter 9, Ai dies while hugging Aqua.
• Dies Wide Open: How Ai died. We see her six-pointed eyes irises disappear.
• Dismissing a Compliment: Aqua dismisses any compliment that he receives about his acting. This has largely to do with him comparing himself to Ai, the woman he idolizes, and him realizing that he lacks her natural charm.
• Double-Meaning Title: "Oshi no Ko" has multiple meanings. The common way to read it is "The girl (idol) I support", referring to Ai. However, at the end of the first chapter, it's clear that the other intended reading is "The children of the girl I support", referring to Aqua and Ruby.
  • A more literal translation of "Oshi", besides the metaphorical "Support", is "Push," alluding to Aqua's past life as the doctor who was meant to help Ai give birth to her twins, and of course his and Ruby's current lives as the children Ai literally Pushed (gave birth) into this world.
  • The Indonesian release of the Oshi no Ko manga has the subtitle "Anak Idola", which can be translated as either "Child Idol" (referring to Ai, who was 16 at the beginning of the story), or "Child(ren) of the Idol" (referring to Aqua and Ruby).
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Darkly subverted. Aqua theorizes that his suspected biological father, Hikaru Kamiki, was raped by an older woman when he was 12, which resulted in Himekawa's birth. The potential backstory only adds to Aqua's theory that Hikaru murdered Ai, as the event would likely scar anyone his purported age.
• Dramatic Irony: To rescue Kana out of a scandal, Aqua presents Ruby a simple selection between “a painful method to rescue a friend in need,” versus “inaction.” Ruby agreed with Aqua on the former, only to see Aqua reveal their identities as Ai’s children born out of wedlock and Teenage Pregnancy to the public; while the friend is indeed saved, the siblings’ own relationship deteriorates. For Aqua, this action is the best move to secure the siblings and Kana’s showbiz careers, but for Ruby, all she saw was her brother’s betrayal of familial loyalty for selfish gain. As for the audience reading this work from the fourth wall, opinions goes different ways depending on the character point-of-view the audience follows. While Aqua’s actions was valid for all parties involved, his procedure can also be deemed as immoral, as he didn’t inform Ruby of this full plan nor ask for her full consent as to whether or not this plan was worth to trade Kana out from her scandal.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • At the end of Chapter 9, Ai's stalker and murderer, Ryosuke, seemingly commits suicide.
  • In Akane's case an Interrupted Suicide. She tries to jump off a bridge at the end of Chapter 25, not being able to handle the harassment she and her family receive, but Aqua saves her Just in Time.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Ruby sports them in Chapter 119 after an unexpected encounter with Sarina's mother, looking chillingly similar to Ai at the moment of her death.
• Dying Declaration of Love: In Chapter 9, Ai tells her children how much she truly loves them before bleeding out.
• Exact Words:
  • By contract, Aqua is not allowed to publish any raw footage of Love Now, even when those footage serves as crucial proof that can redeem Akane's reputation. However, Aqua found a loophole in his contract that allows him to upload material of the show as long as it's through the official channels, so he does just that and can't be sued because he followed the contract to the letter.
  • In Chapter 31, when MEMcho thinks that Yuki must have gone out with several people already, Yuki protests, stating that she prioritizes work and has never had a boyfriend until now. Akane later tells Aqua that Yuki and Nobuyuki, despite Yuki apparently dumping Nobuyuki in the show, are actually dating for real.
• Extra-Long Episode: Season One of the anime adaptation was an industry first in executing their first episode as an extra long episode prologue.

F - N

• Fan Disillusionment: Just as someone may like a celebrity, they can just as quickly abandon them when they feel their bias did something wrong.
  • Ai's pregnancy must never be revealed to the public, as this would ruin invokedher image as a pure idol who loves her fans. Ai's death was caused by a fan who found out the truth.
  • Some of Akane's supposed fans who liked her earlier works feel disappointed and vow to not support her anymore after she accidentally hurt Yuki Sumi, the star of the show they are participating in. Since Akane reads this, this just makes her depression and feeling of insecurity worse.
• First-Episode Twist:
  • The first chapter ends with Goro being killed and reincarnated as Aqua, with his memories fully intact.
  • The first volume as a whole, and the first episode of the anime, ends with Ai's death, and Aqua being hellbent on revenge.
• Flash Forward: The first volume's chapters begin with cuts in the future, when Ruby and Aqua are already established figures in the entertainment industry. Starting with Chapter 2, several characters are interviewed for what looks like a documentary about Ai and/or Aqua and Ruby. Except for the last chapter of Volume 1 (Chapter 10), as it was a recording of Ai wanting to see her children become stars once they grew up and was meant to be watched when they were older.
• Foil:
  • Ai vs. Ruby: Ai is a proud Consummate Liar who assumes people wear different personas for different occasions, and tell lies of different scales are the norm for human survival. While Ruby is an avid supporter for telling the truth, with the belief that whatever actions she performs should not be done out of deception.
  • Kana vs. Akane:
    • Kana's and Akane's careers as actresses are mirror-inverted like an Hourglass Plot. Kana's career started very successfully, but she almost faded into obscurity in the present. Akane's career started more modestly, but she is rapidly coming to fame in the present.
    • Akane can actually cook pretty well, while Kana can't cook at all and always orders food. Also, Kana likes eating meat, while Akane is vegetarian.
    • Kana already went through a rough period of harsh criticism due to her acting like The Primadonna in the past, then being seen as a Former Child Star. However, this has given her much more experience in regards to social media and she is already hardened, which is why she can take criticism relatively well. Akane on the other hand is very inexperienced with social media, which is why she takes cyberbullying not well at all and reacts very poorly.
    • Both girls show romantic interest in Aqua, but Akane is the one who ends up dating him for a prolonged time. Aqua also treats them differently. For instance, he refuses to show anyone (including Kana) his past movies due to invokedhow bad his acting was, but he allows Gotanda to show them to Akane. There is also the fact that Kana is Locked Out of the Loop about Aqua's past and plans, while Akane manages to figure things out on her own.
    • Their acting styles, at least in the present, are deliberately contrasted. Kana, after realizing her poor attitude in the past had cost her growth in her showbiz career, and now had to bend over backwards sacrificing her proficiency in acting to support the work as a whole; further sabotaging her own reputation as a result to improve the quality of the production overall. Akane, on the other hand, prioritizes getting deep into the mind of the character she's playing above all else, bringing out subtleties and nuances in her performance as a result. Kana thinks Akane's style is arrogant, and Akane hates Kana's current acting method. Ironically, by the end of the Tokyo Blade arc, each of them considers the other to be the superior actor.
  • Taishi Gotanda vs. Ichigo Saitou:
    • Aqua proactively seeks Director Gotanda as his mentor to learn the ropes of showbiz since his childhood, while Ruby seeks Ichigo as her mentor to learn how to catch up to Aqua and reach deeper into showbiz.
    • Gotanda holds important evidence that can speak on behalf of Ai's intent prior to her death, yet tries hard to talk Aqua out of his urge for revenge and live his life for himself. Ichigo on the other hand, has no lead to who or what led to the death of Ai, and is thirsting for the opportunity to revenge; and is more than happy to see and encourage Ruby to join the bandwagon.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The Flash Forwards in the first volume heavily hint about Ai's death.
    • Chapter 5 begins with Director Gotanda releasing a film that he melancholically dedicates to Ai. Dedications are usually given to deceased people.
    • In Chapter 6, Kana notes in an interview that "even an unrivaled prodigy would die if you stabbed them". Then she gets embarrassed and wants the interviewer to edit that part out, as A(qua)-kun will get mad if he hears this. This also hints at Kana knowing the true relationship between Aqua and Ai.
    • In Chapter 7, Aqua mentions that his body still wasn't found yet. Considering the stalker went as far as to kill people and was looking for Ai, this was a red flag Aqua should have noticed, as the murderer was still on the run.
    • In Chapter 8, Ichigo Saitou is shown to have run away. He became a lone fisherman after a certain event made him quit the showbiz entirely. When asked about Ai, he tells the interviewer to leave him alone, indicating that he finds that topic sensitive.
  • Aqua has a hard time separating his feelings for Ai as a fan in his previous life, and his feelings towards her as his mother in his current life. Ruby appears to encounter a similar issue when she finally learns that her crush as Sarina reincarnated as her twin brother as Ruby. Unlike Aqua, Ruby gives a decisive answer to this conundrum; having ideas how it could still work.
  • Aqua has a habit of blowing off any praise his acting skills might receive, insisting that Ruby is better at it than him like in Chapter 6. He's right.
  • An anime-exclusive case. During the flashback where Ichigo first recruits Ai for B-Komachi, Ai's signature star-shaped irises are black, but turn their usual white after Ichigo gives her hope that she'll find love in the world after all. At the end of the episode, the inverse occurs for Aqua as he swears vengeance on his father for orchestrating Ai's murder.
  • Aqua's protectiveness of Ruby often leads to people, Ruby herself included, accusing him of having a sister complex. Irony sets in when Ruby develops a brother complex after learning that Aqua is Goro's reincarnation.
  • Another anime-exclusive case. In Episode 5 (which covers Chapter 19-22), when the cast of My Love with a Star Begins Now is introduced, Kana reacts notably differently when she sees Akane. That's because they have a history together and view each other as rivals.
  • Chapter 23 begins with Yuki crying and expressing her desire to quit the show, because she is being teased at school and she feels stressed and upset for being the focus of attention. It turns out she's exaggerating things though (and it's not like she can just quit anyway because of her contract). Akane being the focus of attention is truly not good for her though because it leads to her being badmouthed both online and in school. In a moment of weakness, she is about to end her life at the end of Chapter 25 and almost succeeds if not for Aqua's intervention.
  • Also in Chapter 23, the actors of the reality dating show Aqua is participating in go out eating barbecue. Akane is the only one who doesn't eat, though, as she is a vegetarian, but she still nonetheless engages in the activity to blend in. She recounts how she used to upset people by burning the meat initially, but she's gotten better at it and now never lets go of the tongs. As MEMcho points out, things in the show become much more extreme. Akane doesn't fit in and her desperate attempt to do so ends with her causing an accident (just like she used to burn the meat). However, instead of some people being a bit upset about it, the audience reaction is much harsher. Just as she can't let go of the tongs, she cannot ignore the abuse she receives, which tires her out and makes her want to kill herself.
  • In Chapter 23, when the cast members of My Love with a Star Begins Now are asked how committed they are to the romance, Yuki and Nobuyuki point out that they are taking it seriously, though Yuki quickly wants to wrap up the show, as she doesn't like the fans watching them the whole time. Yuki seemingly rejects Nobuyuki's confession at the end of the show in Chapter 30, but Akane one chapter later points out that they actually are dating and the rejection was just for the show.
  • There are a few hints that MEMcho is Older Than They Look. In Chapter 23, when the ages of the dating show cast members are shown, hers is the only one with a question mark. She also instantly thinks of Ai, when Aqua describes his ideal girl in Chapter 28, despite Ai's death being over 12 years ago, meaning that MEMcho should be a bit too young to remember an aspiring idol. As it turns out in Chapter 32, MEMcho is actually 25 years old and she has always wanted to become an idol.
  • Kana's badmouthing of Akane (including her tactless remark after the latter had an Interrupted Suicide) in Chapter 28 was seen as petty by Aqua, until it was revealed in Chapter 40 that the two know each other since childhood and have been bitter rivals since then.
  • In the fallout of Ai's death, Ruby rages at the insensitive comments about it while Aqua is relatively calm. This hints at who the more vindictive and emotionally unstable of the two actually is.
  • The twins' suspected biological father's full name was foreshadowed as early as Chapter 12, when Aqua borrows the name of a staff member from his agency, "Hikaru Kanzaki" to pose as a recruitment agent of Strawberry Productions. While their suspect's name, Hikaru Kamiki, is entirely written in katakana in the original Japanese release, one of the possible ways to write the first character in his surname "Kami" in kanji is "神", which is one of the characters used to write the "Kan" in "Kanzaki".
  • While going over the script for the 15-Years of Lies with Akane and Ruby, Frill states that the audience's perception of the film depends on whether or not Ai (Ruby) can forgive Ryosuke (Aqua).
• Genre Shift: The first volume of the manga is a high-concept, but still straightforward Slice of Life about a pair of siblings with the hint being that it would follow their rise to fame. Then, with Ai's death, the story shifts towards a much somber murder mystery where a Byronic Hero attempts to find and take revenge on his father and delves deeply into the dark side of the Japanese entertainment industry.
• Gilligan Cut: In Chapter 20, Aqua tries to convince Kana to join his sister's idol group. He turns on the charms to do so, yet Kana insists that no matter what he says, she will never agree to it. Cue the next panel showing that Kana signed the contract.
• Giving Up on Logic: Being a doctor in his past life, Aqua is naturally confused to discover that reincarnation is indeed possible. He opts not to question it and instead enjoy his life as Ai's baby.
• Gone Horribly Right: Akane Kurokawa wishes to stand out more in My Love with a Star Begins Now, so she goes out of her way to be more aggressive, which leads to a dramatic accident on the set. The scene is aired on TV later and Akane manages to stand out more, but not as she would have liked. She gets mercilessly criticized on social media, which she takes very seriously, culminating in an attempted suicide because she can't take the vitriol directed at her and her family anymore.
• Gone Horribly Wrong:
  • Overhearing Aqua and Ruby discussing their father, Ai calls up the children’s father in an effort to invite him over to properly introduce him to their kids. Unfortunately, in the few days after she provides him her current address, the person who shows up at her door had different intentions for her.
  • A bonus comic in Volume 3 tells parts of Chapter 24 from Yuki's perspective. Yuki wants to help Akane, whom she respects as an earnest and cute co-worker, stand out, so she gives Akane sharp nail accessories and riles her up to get a more drastic reaction from her. Yuki accomplishes exactly that, but the reactions to Akane injuring Yuki's face are, due to manipulative editing, far more negative than Yuki expected, and Akane gets mercilessly bullied by everyone. Having not foreseen such an outcome (which eventually led to Akane's suicide attempt), she cries off-camera and blames herself for what happened.
• Go Out with a Smile: Ai dies smiling, glad that she could at least tell her children that she truly loved them before she bled out. The sight of it looks rather disturbing though.
• Grief-Induced Split: After Ai Hoshino is brutally murdered in her own home, her grief-stricken manager and Parental Substitute Ichigo abandons his family, forcing his wife to take over his company and raise Ai's twin children on her own.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Despite being shown to get along well with Meiya, Chapter 93 reveals that Ruby actually secretly disdains her for being a loose-lipped leaker and getting her fans up in arms online against anybody who offends her. Ironically, Ruby uses this very trait of Meiya's that she hates to her advantage during the Dig Deep arc as part of her gambit to reach the top of the showbiz industry so she can get her hands on the culprit who arranged Ai's and Goro's deaths.
• Horrible Hollywood: The story explores the darker side of the entertainment business. Many talents are run into the ground to make money, the internet can be brutal and unforgiving, and invokedContractual Purity is often taken too far.
• Hostility on the Set: In-Universe, the most glaring example was the out and out fight on the "Tokyo Blade" stage adaptation between writer GOA and manga author and IP owner Abiko Samejima. After several negative comments about his writing being lost through the middle men between them, by the time they meet in person, Abiko trashes GOA’s script in front of the entire production and demands he be removed from the project.
• Hourglass Plot:
  • Kana and Akane's careers as actors are mirror-inverted. Kana started as a child genius actress, but her career came to a halt after elementary school, while Akane early on started more modestly and starts to gain country-wide fame in her late teens.
  • The story starts with Aqua being cold, aloof, anti-social, and hellbent on revenge at the expense of everything else, while Ruby is exuberant, outgoing, and having mostly made peace with Ai's death. Or so she seems. By the time she finds Goro's body, she comes to the same conclusion Aqua did about who set Ai up to die, while Aqua is led to believe that his birth father is already dead, causing Ruby to become the vengeance-seeker while Aqua decides to move on. Even when Aqua learns this is not the case and returns to his ways, he's still more composed about it and doesn't dismiss other peoples' issues, while Ruby has gained a nasty temper and doesn't think revealing Ai's secret is worth protecting Kana. This reaches the point where Aqua ends up being the one to tell Ruby not to pursue revenge, since that's what he's already doing and she shouldn't have to throw herself into the mess, going as far as to reveal that he is Goro reincarnated.
• Hypocrite: In Chapter 10, After Ai's death, Ruby sees some people trash talking her on a fan forum over the possibility that she was killed because she had a boyfriend and proceeds to go on an angry, grief-filled rant about how they're selfish for turning to Idol Singers and other such figures to feel like they're loved, but are quick to lash out at said celebrities when they seek out love themselves.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In Chapter 3, Ruby is grossed out in a flashback that baby Aqua can talk. Aqua quickly notes that she's one to talk. She also pities Ai, since she is stuck with a creepy idol otaku for a son. Never mind that she herself enjoys being breastfed by Ai and is just as much (if not even more of) an idol otaku.
  • Kana complains about the twins not respecting her as their senior by a year when she herself isn't polite nor can be considered respectful towards MEMcho, who is definitely older than she is. MEMcho even makes a mental note on that one.
• "I Am" Song: The anime adaptation's first opening song, "Idol" by YOASOBI, describes Ai from the points of view of the media and fans (mysterious and perfect idol), her B-Komachi groupmates (jealousy yet respect for her for being the one member who put the group on the map) and herself (secretly a mother of two who wishes to be able to genuinely express love someday, as she has only been pretending to her whole life). It also summarizes the series premiere plot.
• Improvisational Ingenuity:
  • Chapter 15 shows how bad the actors that were hired for Sweet Today actually are. What makes the drama still somewhat passable is the backstage and editing crew, as they can improvise to get the best out of the limited talent. Aqua makes use of that in Chapter 17 when he starts going off the script and is ad-libbing lines that manage to make everything look more real while still fitting the scene they are acting.
  • The reality dating show largely works without a script, which means that the cast members need to think on the fly, which encourages them to be more like themselves. Yuki especially thrives in this, as she just needs to exaggerate her normal personality and quickly becomes the most popular character on the show, while Akane is out of her element, as her actual self is very shy and serious and thus not very appealing to the audience.
• Incest Subtext: Aqua and Ruby's interactions throughout the series can be a bit suspect.
  • Ruby called Aqua a "brocon" to Kana's face, which he seemed to have accepted as he did not correct Ruby on that fact. Not to mention Ruby acting like a Clingy Jealous Girl after Aqua spent his weekend with the Love Now cast members instead of eating with her as per their previous routine. Her reaction upon seeing Aqua kissing Akane is also strange, saying that "it was five times as awkward as seeing siblings kiss on TV". The implication of seeing her brother kissing a girl being more stomach-churning than seeing two siblings kiss is obvious. And again during the Tokyo Blade arc, when Minami suggests that Aqua and Akane are having intercourse, Ruby reacts especially out of character at the prospect of Aqua getting a high school girl pregnant. And immediately after reaffirming her faith in Aqua, she quickly finds a restroom to presumably collect herself, as Minami was able sense Ruby's distress at the prospect. Even at the end of the arc, after Aqua had returned from his conversation with Himekawa, Ruby slept on the couch in order to sense when Aqua had returned home. Not quite behaviors that a typical sibling would perform, reincarnated or not.
  • Aqua is no less guilty of this. His attempts to protect Ruby from the worst of the idol industry start to venture into territory that cannot be justified by his prior trauma alone. From foiling Ruby's plans to audition as an underground idol, to enrolling in the same school as his sister just to keep an eye on her, and again to acquire Ruby's phone in order to block a man's contact details as Ruby had given them out to him shortly prior.
  • After Chapter 123 the subtext starts to venture into "text". Not one chapter later we see a Ruby laying down in Aqua's lap, exhibiting a degree of skinship that any all of Aqua's other love interests have been lacking so far. Another chapter shows Ruby fantasizing and imagining Aqua's motives after correctly deducing that he had pulled the strings to get Ichigo back into the Strawberry Productions' fold.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Goro's surname 雨宮 can both be read as Amemiya and Amamiya. The text in Chapter 75 says his name is to be pronounced Amemiya, but in Chapter 78 it's Amamiya. The translation team working for MANGA Plus eventually contacted Shueisha, who confirmed that the pronunciation is supposed to be Amamiya.
• Informed Attractiveness: Due to Yokoyari's art-style and Hollywood Beauty Standards being applied across the board for most characters, all characters look very beautiful and attractive, and because of that, certain characters that are described as particularly cute and/or beautiful like Ai, Aqua, Ruby or Kana don't actually come off as dazzling as they're described by the others.
• Inspirational Insult:
  • In Sweet Today, Aqua riles up Melt by insulting him. This gets an angry reaction from Melt which makes the scene they are playing out much more authentic and genuine.
  • Aqua does it again on Kana in Tokyo Blade, ad-libbing the trending Ship Tease between his character, Touki and Kana's character Tsurugi based on the manga original's upcoming arc to get Kana react more abruptly so that the audience would land their attention to her character.
  • During the filming of 15 Years of Lies, Director Gotanda has Ruby (playing Ai) reshoot one line over and over again. When Ruby asks what the director wants, he says that Ai was dumber and didn't think too much. This riles Ruby up, thinking the director didn't understand Ai at all. As it turns out, Gotanda intentionally did all this to add the missing emotion to the scene, anger.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: In Chapter 4, Aqua and Ruby embarrass themselves as babies as they get caught performing glow stick dances to cheer on their mother who reacts with delight. While this act was already embarrassing enough to the twins on a personal level, a spectator recorded the full event and uploaded the clip to social media, which leads to Miyako getting scolded by Ichigo.
• Internal Reveal: With lies and secrets being prominent themes, many happen over the course of the story.
  • After hearing Aqua say Ai's name in his sleep, Akane realises that he and Ruby are Ai's children.
  • Soon after Ruby finds Dr. Goro's corpse, the Crow Girl tells her that he was killed by the same college student who later killed Ai and that another person was involved.
  • In chapter 95, Ichigo Saitou tells Aqua that the man responsible for Ai's death is likely still alive.
  • In chapter 121, Aqua hears Ruby speak to herself about details of her past life which identify her as his former patient Sarina Tendouji (having originally suspected it to be possible).
  • In the very next chapter, Aqua reveals to Ruby that he's the reincarnation of Goro Amamiya.
• Ironic Echo: Chapter 30 begins with Kana exclaiming how she and Aqua are "the worst" for skipping class together, but she clearly is ironic, seeing as she gets to spend time with the guy she is in love with. The chapter ends with Kana in her room crying and saying the exact thing, but this time she really means it, as she just saw Aqua kissing Akane on TV.
• Irony:
  • The irony isn't lost on Aqua when he learns that he has to play a crazed, violent stalker on Sweet Today. In fact, in Chapter 110, Aqua has casts himself for the movie he has written with Director Gotanda as the stalker that killed Ai.
  • The lack of a script in a reality show and dependence on improvising to show one's real self is what Akane can't really deal with, as she is actually very introverted and can't improvise well. If she knew exactly what role she has to play, she could easily do so, as she is a meticulous method actress. As shown in Chapter 28, she doesn't need much time to research and imitate Ai, which she does so well that it takes Aqua aback.
  • Chapter 28 has Kana badmouthing Akane to the point that even Aqua calls her out on it. However, she admits that Akane is a genius who is a better actress than herself. Chapter 40 shows that Akane feels the same way about Kana, calling Kana a genius and resenting her for taking all the roles back when they were children. In an ironic Hourglass Plot, Akane became the genius actress of the present who is on the rise, while Kana was known as a genius child actress and now struggles getting gigs.
• Japanese Politeness: While it's common for Japanese people to apologize a lot, MEMcho warns Akane to not do so in Chapter 25, after the latest episode of the reality dating show was met with harsh criticism due to the accident Akane caused.
  MEMcho: An apology is as good as an admission of guilt, isn't it? Apologizing is like common sense to Japanese people. But as a countermeasure to getting canceled, it's the worst thing you can do.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Miyako doesn't speak well of Ai initially and is very angry that she has to babysit the children of a 16-year-old girl who won't even disclose who the father is, calling it shady. While Ruby does not approve of this, Aqua finds Miyako's dissatisfaction quite reasonable.
  • Although Kaburagi is a shoddy producer for upholding the Beauty Is Best motto and hiring actors based on their appearances, he is proven right because his productions are almost always hits.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The first half of Chapter 39 is told from the perspective of Mana Suzuhiro, an idol in her mid-twenties who witnesses Ruby's performance at the Japan Idol Festival. Mana had a decently successful career, but eventually hit the ceiling and her fame and relevance started to fade and she stagnated. Seeing how outstanding and mesmerizing Ruby is, she decides to quit her career. After six years in the entertainment industry, Mana leaves with a satisfied outlook, finds a job at a popular clothing brand and disappears from the public view.
• Loophole Abuse: In Chapter 31, Kaburagi tells Aqua that some notable people above were not happy that he broke a taboo when he posted behind-the-scenes material of the reality dating show and even demanded compensation for seemingly breaching contract. Aqua notes that he expected that and used a loophole in the contract that allows him to post material as long as it's posted on the show's official social media channels.
• Magic Realism: The main characters are Reincarnations with Past-Life Memories. Other than that, the story is grounded in reality about the main characters becoming an idol and an actor respectively.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Ai after being fatally stabbed in the abdomen by her stalker. She first speaks with said stalker candidly about her hoping that her lies of love to her fans would eventually become true, until he flees the scene in remorse. She spends her last moments with Aqua and Ruby nearly as lackadaisical as ever, declaring her love for them and passing away soon after in a serene calm.
• Manipulative Editing: The reality dating show mostly just shows the cast members the way they are in an exaggerated way, but the production staff still build their own narrative through cuts and only use the material they deem interesting. Thus, Akane gets next to no screentime and when she decides to become more prominent, she causes a minor accident, which the production heavily exploit to dramatize things to the point that Akane receives heavy bullying in school and on social media. In Chapter 27, Aqua decides to counter this by building his own narrative with his own edited video, showing scenes the production left out to portray Akane in a better light and make more people sympathize with her.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: It's heavily implied to be the case with Goro's grandparents after his mother suffered a Death by Childbirth. While Aqua didn't explain further about Goro's relationship with his grandfather, the fact that he's nowhere to be seen in the photos with him as he grew up says a lot. Even his grandmother isn't above contempt despite being closer to Goro, if her words to him about her always knowing he was a "good boy" as he was going to medical school to become an obstetrician in her So Proud of You speech of any indication.
• Method Actinginvoked: In Chapter 28, Akane sets out to act like Aqua's ideal girl, which she later learns is Ai. She does an extensive research of Ai and at the end of the chapter acts so well that she is given Ai's iconic star pupils, proving that she truly is a Master Actress.
• Mirror Character: Ruby and Ai are shadow-light reflections of each other on Parental Abandonment issues, with "coincidental" Generation Xerox.
  • If Ai never got over her abandonment issues, feelings of loneliness, with no purposes in life, she would go through similar negative psychological issues as Ruby. Vice versa, if Ruby possess a positive support network from the people who she trusts, especially from direct family members, Ruby's mentality will improve in a similar manner as to how Ai achieved from motherhood.
  • Ai did not receive parental love from her birth mother and was abandoned, which is why she sought to become an Idol Singer in order to "experience, and learn" about the concept of love. Ruby on the other hand, even though she was abandoned by her parents in her past life, and was abandoned again in her present life, Ruby understands the kinds of affections she wants, thus seeks to become an idol in order to "honor the love" she receives from Ai, and to "actively obtain love" by using her job to search for her target love-interest.
• Mistaken for Gay: In Chapter 14, Aqua accepts a job offer when Kana mentions the lead actor is a cute boy with a girlish face. Although he accepted for different reasons, Kana assumes he might be interested in said boy at first.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Akane Kurokawa attempts to be more aggressive to stand out in the show My Love With a Star Begins Now, which leads to her accidentally cutting Yuki's cheek with her fingernail. She immediately regrets it.
  • After learning that her daughter has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, Marina left Sarina in a rural hospital and barely gave her any visits so that she wouldn't have to face the pain of knowing that her daughter will die soon. But after reciving news that her daughter had passed away, Marina began to regret her actions.
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes:
  • In Episode 1 of the anime, moments before Goro's death, snippets of his life are shown like his grandparents or the Friendship Trinket Sarina gifted to him.
  • Also in Episode 1, right before Ai is stabbed, moments of her life with the twins and the Saitous are shown.
• My Secret Pregnancy: Ai becomes pregnant at 16, which is a career-ender for an idol. She takes a break from work and hides out in a small town under an assumed name until she gives birth. Only a few people know she has kids and the cover is that they belong to someone else. Even after her death, her relasonship with Aqua and Ruby is covered up.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In one arc Aqua plays a role in the Live-Action Adaptation of the shoujo manga Sweet Today. Yes, the very same manga that induced a shoujo fever in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, which is written by the same author. However, the trope is played with. In Kaguya-sama it serves as a joke for two chapters and then never spoken of again. Meanwhile, in Oshi no Ko, producing the adaptation for Sweet Today is the focus of an entire arc and played seriously.
  • In Chapter 62, when Kana asks Himekawa why he couldn't just wear contacts in place of his normal glasses during their Tokyo Blade performance given his bad eyesight, he gives her the same response Shirogane did when Hayasaka suggested the same thing back in Chapter 237 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: he thinks contact lenses are scary to put on.
• Nepotism: Cronyism in most cases.
  • Aqua gets his first role and Ai's second role because Aqua befriended the film director Taishi Gotanda. The first role Aqua involuntarily takes is in Chapter 6 in a low-budget movie Director Gotanda is filming in exchange for giving Ai a supporting role in the same film. Said film was the kickstarter for Ai's acting career and raised her popularity.
  • In Chapter 14, Kana convinces Producer Kaburagi to give Aqua a role in Sweet Today. As it turns out, she also got the lead role because the producer likes using her. Aqua later finds out it's because she is cheap and brings attention to the series as a Former Child Star, not because of her acting and communication skills.
  • Kaburagi takes great interest in the newly formed B-Komachi. As Aqua is related to them, he uses a favor to let the new idol group perform at a big idol festival for their first concert. Kana is a bit concerned because of the blatant cronyism, but begrudgingly accepts because it's an opportunity they have to take.
  • Ruby was able to join the Dig Deep production as the show's reporter thanks to Aqua for becoming the show's staple commentator; as the production views their twin sibling relationship to be a valuable showbiz gimmick.
• Never My Fault: When Aqua tries to acquire footage that wasn't used in the reality dating show to help Akane, the director initially refuses. Aqua reminds him that he and his staff are responsible for this mess that almost ended with Akane's suicide, but the director retorts that he is just doing his job and Akane is a pro, who always could have objected if she was against it. Aqua calls him out for dodging responsibility and reminds him that Akane is only a 17-year-old child and thus needs to be protected by the adults, which he failed to do so.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The anime trailer makes it seem like a standard idol anime. This inevitably led to many manga readers commenting about how "wholesome" the anime will be.
• Next Sunday A.D.: The plot after the Time Skip is set in the mid-2020s, considering Kaguya appears as an adult when she cameos in a bonus chapter. Technology doesn't seem to have advanced much compared to the present.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Chapter 11 reveals that Aqua sabotages Ruby's idol auditions to protect her. However, instead of letting her work with a major agency, she grows desperate and is scouted in the next chapter by a scummy underground idol agency. Realizing that he can't keep Ruby away from show business, Aqua reaches a compromise with Miyako—Ruby gets to become an idol under Miyako's management, which allows Aqua and Miyako to monitor Ruby's activities and keep an eye on her.
• Not Bad: Pieyon claims to not have reacted happily initially when Miyako asked him to help with her newly established idol group. However, after an intensive training session he points out that he could have just made it look like Ruby and Kana danced for one hour through clever editing, but he is impressed when Kana and Ruby actually managed to last the whole hour (while wearing masks that made it difficult to breathe). Pieyon says that while this is not something the viewers will realize, the people on the set do take notice when someone is working their hardest.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Goro was killed when Ryosuke shoved him off a cliff, where he hit his head on the rocks below.

O - Z

• Painting the Medium: Ai's name is written in katakana, while other names like Kana or Akane are written in hiragana. Thus, in Chapter 29 it can be seen in the original Japanese that a shocked Aqua actually wanted to call Akane "Ai" at first because she managed to copy Ai's mannerisms perfectly.
• Parental Abandonment: A common theme among some of the major characters.
  • Goro's mother suffered a post-partum hemorrhage giving birth to him and bled out before emergency services arrived. His father was completely MIA so his maternal grandparents took custody of him.
  • Ai was sent to an orphanage after her mother was arrested and charged with theft, as her father was also MIA.
  • Goro's idealism leads him to think this is the case with Sarina, whose parents were no-shows during what would turn out to be Sarina's final moments among the living. When Sarina's mother shows up in Chapter 119, she does not have any mementos of Sarina and you would think she would be a terrible parent, but it shows her two healthy children who she seems to love, showing she abandoned and forgot her sick daughter.
  • Both Goro and Sarina would get hit with this a second time, this time as their reincarnations Aqua and Ruby, respectively, when Ai's stalker, who had murdered Goro 4 years prior, tracks Ai to her residence and kills her.
• Plot-Triggering Death:
  • Goro's death at the end of Chapter 1 is what permanently connects him to Ai and show business.
  • Ai's death, his thirst for vengeance, and his wish to keep his sister safe, is what motivates Aqua to become an actor to find and kill his biological father.
• Poor Communication Kills: Showcased with the example of the Tokyo Blade's adaptation preparation, as any author of the original material relayed the intent of their work between production staff, be it author to editors, editors to adaptation producers, producers to directors and scriptwriters, misunderstandings will grow and if anyone in the production line doesn't commmunicate with each other well enough to the toughest of details, their whole project will turn sour.
• P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: While both Ruby and Aqua have been featured on color images, with Ruby getting most of the screen time on pre-release materials, the actual protagonist is Aqua. Ruby maintains some relevancy due to her development as an idol, but Aqua's journey up the entertainment industry takes more importance.
• The Power of Friendship: Chapter 26 shows the cast members of My Love with a Star Begins Now working together to create a video that will help portray Akane in a better light. Kengo made the music, Yuki gave Aqua ideas on what footage they should use, Aqua acquired the raw footage, did the video editing and rendering, and MEMcho provided additional material and handled the publishing to make the video go viral. Nobuyuki tried to act like The Leader, but everyone quickly mentions that he helped the least.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: An in-universe example. Scriptwriter Goa makes some significant changes to the stage play adaptation of Tokyo Blade. After reading their initial script, Akane has concerns on how her character was dumbed down, and Abiko later complains about how it ruined her characters. However, as Goa explains, the changes were made for practical reasons, as the medium of stage play is much different from that of a manga, and despite being a fan who was reluctant to make changes, he sees it as dirty work that needs to be done for the benefit of the play, whether he likes it or not. Those who understands stage play including Akane herself agree with his reasoning. Author Abiko takes this more offensively, but she eventually recognizes his talent as a writer in his medium, and when she actually sits down with him to write the script together she's fully willing to make changes for the adaptation, so long that the characters remain true to themselves.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • In Chapter 17, Aqua says one after he learns that the production doesn't care about the acting and doesn't value Kana's acting skills.
    Aqua: I've gotten what I came for. But... since I'm already here, let me go all out before I go home.
  • At the end of Chapter 26, after Aqua leaked to the press that Akane tried to kill herself and later states that she wants to keep working, he tells Miyako, in reference to the title of the show:
    Aqua: I don't know if this will turn out well, but either way... The true reality show begins now.
• Precision F-Strike: One courtesy of Ryosuke in the English dub, after he stabs Ai:
  Ryosuke: Does that hurt?! My pain is worse, you BITCH!! You went and had kids even though you're a FUCKING IDOL!!
• The Primadonna: Deconstructed. Director Gotanda states that the most important skill anyone in the set could have is communication, in order to work properly with the huge amount of people that go behind the scenes, and Kana realizing she needed to learn to communicate and respect the people who aren't talented actors like her is a major stepping stone in order for her to become more successful in the industry. Nobody would really want to work with a Primadonna if they could, and this self-important attitude is likely to lose them job opportunities, so the sooner someone sheds this trait away, the better for their careers.
• Product Placement:
  • Social media sites YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter are all out in the open within the story setting.
  • In the manga original, the energy drink Aqua consumes while pulling night hours video editing a clip to save Akane’s reputation from cyber bullies is the Japanese brand, Monster Energy. The brand turned bland-name in the anime.
    • The Apple logo can also be seen on devices that appear to be iPhones and Macs.
• Prolonged Prologue: The first 9 chapters turn out to be the prologue to the main story, which starts in Chapter 10.
• Reality Show: Deconstructed. My Love with a Star Begins Now is a reality dating show which is largely working without a script outside of activities that are planned. The performers are mostly acting like themselves in an exaggerated way to show their good side to the audience and gain fame. However, the production still constructs a narrative through clever editing and commentary, which makes the audience root for or condemn someone. Being less scripted is in Aqua's opinion very dangerous, as lies are an effective way to protect oneself. The audience is led to believe the narrative they are shown (and the participants have signed non-disclosure agreements, so they can't talk about it), which leads to Akane receiving heavy verbal abuse and harassment, as she is depicted as a heinous and violent woman. Tired of the abuse, she tries to kill herself at the end of Chapter 25.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In Chapter 27 Aqua delivers one to the director of My Love with a Star Begins Now, after he calls the production out for making Akane appear like a villainous person. The director initially tries to pass this off as "just doing his job" and that Akane could have objected to using the footage and as a professional knew what she got into. After Aqua points out that Akane is too responsible to say anything and that she is still a minor who needs to be protected by the adults, the director has to concede Aqua's right and hands over the footage Aqua needs to help restore Akane's reputation.
• Reincarnation: Aqua is the reincarnation of an adult doctor, while Ruby is the reincarnation of a girl who was Aqua's patient both with their Past-Life Memories intact.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: In Chapter 6, a young Kana Arima accuses Aqua and Ai of Nepotism, as their roles originally didn't have any lines and were hastily added by Director Gotanda. She concludes since Ai in her previous work with Gotanda didn't get any screen time, she must have sucked up to the higher authorities to get the role. She is right that Ai got the role because of connections, but it's because Aqua was the one who impressed Gotanda so much that he wanted him in a project. Ai was actually playing well in her first acting role, she simply was too cute compared to the lead actress to appear on screen.
• Shared Universe: The author confirms that the series is set several years after Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Kaguya herself even makes a cameo appearance in a bonus chapter... and her name is given as Kaguya Shirogane.
• Shout-Out:
  • Frill Shiranui is a visual reference to the artist's favorite Chainsaw Man character, Santa, aka Doll Woman.
  • In Chapter 19, Ruby makes a Doraemon reference, asking Miyako (Miyaemon) to help her become an idol quickly.
  • In Chapter 22, a half-naked fitness trainer on YouTube named Pieyon appears, who wears a round chicken mask. Pieyon is a reference to PIEN, a Japanese horror game involving humanoid emojis, which many Japanese VTubers played. His job as a fitness trainer on YouTube with added music that kind of sounds like Bon Jovi is very likely a reference to bodybuilder, comedian, and YouTuber Nakayama Kinnikun.
  • In Chapter 28, some of the Twitter user names are Teemo and Neeko.
  • In Chapter 36, when Kana advises Ruby to get some good sleep, she mentions that this is what DaiGo recommends.
  • In Chapter 40, Aqua wears a Daisuki shirt.
  • A BEMANI reference appears in Chapter 81 in the form of MEMcho's "He is my husband" shirt.
  • Akane, Aqua, Kana, and Melt are cast in the stage adaptation of a manga called Tokyo Blade, a work that mix strong references to the following titles:
    • Arata: The Legend—Swords of various magical powers of which loyalties can be transferred between characters and are MacGuffins to the story plot.
    • Tokyo Revengers—Factions formed by districts of Tokyo, along with tight knit leader-lancer relationships.
    • Touken Ranbu—Character naming based on various sword motifs or terminologies, with costume designs based on traditional/mythological Japanese style of clothing.
    • One Piece—Hero Protagonist “vows to become 'King of Japan'”.
  • Smash Heaven , the stage play Akane invites Aqua to watch is practically The Prince of Tennis—in "table tennis" style.
• Show Within a Show: Oshi no Ko divides story arcs by the showbiz cases Aqua and or Ruby takes as they work through the business. Basically, any entertainment programs that the cast works on and goes on air all counts. But the work that takes the cake is Tokyo Blade, where the story establishment is solid enough for the reader/viewers to fully invest in the story, and take interest on how the cast would perform their given roles on the stage.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Goro in a flashback is livid that Sarina's parents aren't coming for her in what's likely her final hours. Before he gets into a tirade about what a parent should act like, another older doctor shuts him down instantly, coldly (and with some familiarity) stating that parents like them are everywhere, unlike the fictional ideal parents.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: On the one hand, the series has witty and snarky dialogues and features masked fitness trainers who train with idols-in-training to get some publicity. On the other hand, it shows the darker side of the entertainment industry full of lying, profit-oriented and manipulating people, which may lead to bullying, murder, and suicide. The silliness is mostly shown while Ruby is around, while the darker side is explored by Aqua.
• Social Media Is Bad: Zig-zagged. Social media is portrayed as a useful tool to increase one's stardom and popularity, yet it can bring out the worst of the people using them, as shown with Akane after she causes an unfortunate accident and subsequently is getting cyberbullied for weeks, which makes Aqua furious.
• So Proud of You:
  • Sweet Today's author initially was disappointed in the tv drama adaptation, invokedalmost disowning it, but the final episode, in which Aqua manages to bring out Kana's true acting talent, moves her to tears. She later personally thanks Kana for her performance.
  • In Chapter 26, Miyako states how proud she is of Aqua and pats his head after she learns that he just saved Akane's life.
• Spit Take: During Ai's interview after she returned from her hiatus, Ai accidentally talks about her baby. Aqua, who was watching the televised interview, spits out the milk he was drinking in reaction.
• Spoiler Opening: The first opening of the anime both foreshadows upcoming events and blatantly spoils other things.
  • Besides Ruby, Aqua and Kana, MEMcho and Akane are given significantly more screentime (more than Miyako or Gotanda), which means they will play an important role in some way.
  • It's clearly shown near the end that Ruby, Kana and MEMcho will perform together as idols with Kana in the center.
  • Other things that are foreshadowed are for instance Ai's password "45510", the Sweet Today arc with Kana in that industrial building, Akane being cyberbullied and suffering in the rain, Akane researching Ai, and Pieyon, or more specifically, Aqua disguising himself as Pieyon.
• Spotting the Thread: In Chapter 10, after Ai's funeral ends and Aqua has the chance to gather his thoughts, he is quick to realise that the stalker that killed him in his past life and the one who murdered Ai were one and the same. From there, he realizes that said stalker lacked any skills that should have allowed him to learn which hospital Ai was giving birth in, where she recently moved to for her dome concert, or even her having kids at all. Therefore, someone in the entertainment industry must have informed him of both, and after crossing off those with too much monetary or emotional attachment to Ai and those who were Locked Out of the Loop about her having children, Aqua realizes that the only possible culprit was his and Ruby's father.
• Stealth Sequel: To Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. A live-action adapation of Today Will Be Sweet is introduced early on, and a bonus chapter features an adult Kaguya working as a photographer, definitively establishing that Oshi no Ko takes place several years after its predecessor's story. It is Downplayed in that Oshi no Ko does not play an important story for the former.
• Stepping Out to React: Dr. Amamiya, upon discovering that his favorite idol is at his hospital and is pregnant, calmly leaves the patient lobby and retreats to the doctor's hall, where he proceeds to Freak Out as he tries to process the transpiring events. He manages to calm down in time to eavesdrop on the idol's manager demanding to know who the father is.
• The Stinger: Episode 1 has a post-credits scene that depicts the recording Ai made for her children in Chapter 10. Of all the recordings shown at the beginning of the first volume, it is the only recording that is adapted in that episode.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In Chapter 1, Goro claims that looking at beautiful things is good for one's eyes. Sixteen years later, Frill Shiranui says that her eyesight got better after watching a show with only hot guys and girls.
• Take That!:
  • The series as a whole is a very unsubtle critique on the Idol and entertainment industry, but more then anything it blasts the culture around the industry as dehumanizing for the Idols themselves. Pointing out how little care is given to the physical and mental health of the people behind the music and shows, that any sign of "weakness" is just an invitation to be attacked with ridicule and scorn, any attempt at a normal life is a betrayal to your fans, showing anything less than a perfect persona means you don't appreciate the people who support you.
  • One blink-and-you'll-miss-it detail during the Reality Show arc features a dig at YouTube, more specifically, YouTubers that use video essays to haze people they don't like rather than actually spread information.
• Take That, Audience!: The series pulls no punches in showing that fans are as much, if not more, of a problem for the idol industry than the industry itself. That their impossible expectations place unreasonable burdens on the people they claim to love. That some fans become deluded into thinking of the idols not as people with lives but as their own property to do with as they please.
• Taught by Television: Played with. Aqua explains his Troubling Unchildlike Behavior by claiming that he learned all of this by watching YouTube.
• Teen Pregnancy:
  • Ai was 16 when she gives birth to Ruby and Aqua.
  • It's implied that Goro's mother was also a teenager when she became pregnant with him, given her desire to hide it from her parents. Unfortunately, this led to her trying to deliver it on her own at home, resulting in her death. Then 16-year old Ai showed up at his clinic twenty weeks pregnant.
• Tempting Fate: In Chapter 28, Aqua suggests to Akane to find a role she can assume to protect herself from future attacks in reality shows. MEMcho suggests Ai based on Aqua's vague preferences and Akane is determined to do some research to play Ai. Aqua scoffs at this, thinking that imitating Ai isn't possible because she had natural talent. What he doesn't know is that Akane is a meticulous method actress prodigy who Kana acknowledges is more talented than her. After studying Ai thoroughly based on archived footage, Akane returns to the set. When the filming begins, she starts to imitate Ai, which she does so well that the artist even gives her Ai's star pupils.
• This Is a Work of Fiction: Played with. The story opens with a narration stating "This is a work of fiction." The following sentences make clear that the "fiction" disclaimer also refers to the idol industry at large, being highly exaggerated and embellished to cater for its fans.
• Time Skip: Frequently in Volume 1. Between Chapter 1 and Chapter 9, 4 years pass, and another 10 years are skipped at the start of Volume 2.
• Title Drop: In Chapter 38, Kana silently declares to Aqua that she will become his star (Oshi no Ko).
• Troubled Production: In-Universe.
  • The live action adaptation of Sweet Today was made as a rush job, meant primarily to promote young male models to a mostly female audience and adapting 14 volumes worth of story into a 6 episode mini-series. Despite their best intentions and competent people behind the scenes, there's only so much that the young, inexperienced actors can deliver outside their field, and the best actor on the show, Kana, can't act to the best of her skills since she would stand out and make the bad actors look even worse. The final episode was even more rushed as the villain had to be quickly recast when the previous actor quit abruptly.
  • The stage adaptation of Tokyo Blade. Although it was mostly going well, the manga author, who is also the IP owner of the series, decides to demand a rewrite made by herself and trash the scriptwriter's previous script. Between her own busy schedule as a weekly manga artist/writer and lack of experience with the medium of plays, it would take her less than 20 days before the stage premiere for her script to get into the hands of the actors, giving them pretty much no time to practice. Thankfully, the author agreed to collaborate with the original stage scriptwriter to rewrite the script in one night. Although the damage to the production schedule was minimized thanks to intervention and mediation by others involved, the script ended up omitting most Info Dump and stressing improvisations and martial art actions to the actors; making the actors take in all the responsibility for the success of the stage play.
  • The film 15-Years of Lies encountered many obstacles durings its production. Gotanda and Kaburagi attempted to pitch the script to various movie industry sponsors, but they face rejection after rejection, since the content matter is too sensitive. This is understandable since the movie is, after all, a dramatization of a real life, high-profile murder case that just got renewed attention with the revelation that the victim had two secret children who have become up-and-coming entertainers.
• Verbal Backspace:
  • In Ai's interview after she returned from her hiatus, she accidentally mentions her baby, prompting concerned looks from everyone around her. She quickly "corrects" herself and stated that she got a pet during her break.
  • In Chapter 22, as Kana and Ruby plans to collaborate with YouTube celebrity Pieyon. Kana was very disrespectful and looks down on him, until he mentions that he earns 100 million yen a year, immediately making her regret her choice of words.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story:
  • The attacks and harassment young celebrities have to suffer are loosely based on real events. For instance, there are references in Chapter 25 indicating that Akane's case is broadly based on what happened to Hana Kimura in 2020. Kimura, tragically, did not survive.
  • In Chapter 39, the idol, Mana Suzuhiro decides to quit her job and finds work at a clothing brand after witnessing Ruby's performance. Her story seems to be loosely based on former idol Mai Endou, whose story was published roughly one month before Chapter 39 was released.
• Very Special Episode: Chapter 141 spends a good chunk of time with the characters having a very frank discussion on the sexual exploitation, and often outright sexual abuse, rampant in the entertainment industry.
• Violence Is Disturbing: Oshi no Ko places emphasis over the notion that violence in general is not pretty and should not be celebrated.
  • Goro is ruthlessly killed at the end of Chapter 1.
  • Ai bleeds out at the end of Chapter 9. Her dying while smiling with lifeless eyes is not pretty and may be one more reason why Aqua is far more traumatized by her death than Ruby, whose view was blocked by Aqua and the police.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 8 and 9 ends with Ai getting stabbed and bleeding to death. It changes the narrative to a revenge-driven tragedy, where the main reason Aqua enters the entertainment world is to find his biological father and kill him.
  • Chapter 67 ends with Aqua revealing to Himekawa that their DNA test show the two share the same father, meaning they're half-siblings and he's one step closer to his revenge.
  • Chapter 72 has Aqua revealing his goal to Akane now that he believes his father is dead, only for her to realize that his father was likely still alive but he was intentionally ignoring the obvious clues because he was tired of being revenge-driven and wanted to move on. However, at the end of the chapter we see the father visiting Ai's grave as Ruby leaves, knowing full well that she was his daughter.
  • Chapter 77 has Ruby and Akane find a dead body hidden in a cave behind a shrine when they return to the place where she and Aqua were born. And because the body still has the ID tag and the keychain Ruby gifted to him in her past life, Ruby recognizes it as Goro.
  • Chapter 79 has Ruby learn that there were two individuals behind Goro's murder, with one being the person who killed Ai. Knowing that the second killer is still out there, she swears to kill them as both her eyes take on the dark stars similar to how Aqua's did.
  • Chapter 105 ends with Aqua revealing to the world that he and Ruby are Ai's children.
  • Chapter 109: The twins father fully appears and is hinted to have become a Serial Killer who is targetting up-and-coming women that share similarities to Ai.
  • Chapter 118 throws a completely unexpected curveball with the arrival of Sarina's mother, who is part of the advertising agency working with the production of 15 Years of Lies.
  • Chapter 122 has Aqua revealing himself as Goro to Ruby after confirming her as Sarina in the previous chapter.
• Wham Line: Right before heading out for the Tokyo Dome concert, Ai hears someone ring the doorbell and answers the door. She meets a visitor holding a bouquet of white roses.
  Ryosuke: Congradulations on your stadium concert. How are your twins?
• Wham Shot:
  • Chapter 108 showing a shot of Gotanda writing in a file, 15 Years of Lies; the title of the movie he is revealed to have written during the prologue.
  • Chapter 121 mostly revolves around Ruby's despair over her previous family seems so much happier pretending she never existed, all the while spilling details about her past life's identity outloud. Then the final panel reveals that Aqua is right there watching her.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In Chapter 27, Miyako is upset that Aqua leaked to the press that Akane attempted suicide. This didn't make things better and only drew more attention. Aqua counters that he can use that attention to turn things around and compares it to a game of poker where he is raising the stakes and still has an ace. Miyako however is not impressed and admonishes him for treating real life like a game of poker.
  • Even Aqua, who is used to Kana's foul mouth, is appalled when he hears in Chapter 28 how she wishes Akane had retired after what happened to her. She quickly elaborates that she meant it as jealousy towards an acting rival, but Aqua still calls her out for going too far.
  • Downplayed in Chapter 83. MEMcho lightly calls Aqua out for leading Kana on and then avoiding her. Aqua makes it clear that he's avoiding Kana for her sake, as if they are seen together, he might make her fans get mad (not unlike what did happen with Ai).
  • In Chapter 98, Aqua deliberately reveals that he found Akane because he kept a tracker on her ever since they got together. Akane calls him out for not trusting her and not treating her like an equal.
  • In Chapter 106 and Chapter 108, Aqua is on the receiving end of this after he reveals Ai's secret to the world in order to save Kana from being the prime target of a scandal, a move both Ruby and Ichigo angrily condemn him for separately. At least Ichigo calms down very quickly after being let in on Aqua's plan for revenge, but Ruby is inconsolable.
• invokedWin Back the Crowd: In-Universe example. After an initial poor reception, the final episode of Sweet Today was well received, as Aqua provokes the principal actor to genuinely react emotionally, while Kana is allowed to show her true talent for once.
• Wingding Eyes: Sarina/Ruby displays hearts in her pupils when she talks about her bias.
• You Are Not Alone:
  • After Aqua saves Akane from her suicide attempt, Akane receives the full support from her castmates and became close friends with them.
  • In Chapter 51, Akane deduces that Aqua is Ai's son. When Aqua wakes up, she hugs him and promises that she will always be on his side.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • In Chapter 13, Director Gotanda tells Aqua that he shouldn't constantly try to compare himself to Ai and look down on himself. Ai might have had the talent, but she didn't have as much experience in acting as he does.
  • Kana doesn't want to be the center of the idol group, because her success as a singer, despite the effort she put in and despite being a decent singer, was short-lived, which is the cause for her confidence issues. In Chapter 35, Pieyon, who is Aqua in disguise, cheers her up and lists her strengths, which makes Kana happy, as what she wants the most is getting recognition for her hard work.

---

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like if you were born as the child of a celebrity?