Sixteen-year-old Ai Hoshino is a talented and beautiful idol who is adored by her fans. She is the personification of a pure, young maiden. But all that glitters is not gold.
Gorou Amemiya is a countryside gynecologist and a big fan of Ai. So when the pregnant idol shows up at his hospital, he is beyond bewildered. Gorou promises her a safe delivery. Little does he know, an encounter with a mysterious figure would result in his untimely death—or so he thought.
Opening his eyes in the lap of his beloved idol, Gorou finds that he has been reborn as Aquamarine Hoshino—Ai’s newborn son! With his world turned upside down, Gorou soon learns that the world of showbiz is paved with thorns, where talent does not always beget success. Will he manage to protect Ai’s smile that he loves so much with the help of an eccentric and unexpected ally?
Completely not what I was expecting.
I always hesitate to read idol/celebrity stories since they’re really not my jam, but I’ve seen a bunch of buzz about [Oshi no Ko] so… I went ahead and cracked it open.
The first volume sets you up and knocks your feet out from under you. There’s the whimsical and the funny and then the absolutely fucked up murders. Not “fucked up” as in crushed by a bag of hammers cartoon shit, I mean fucked up because the authors make you really feel and empathize deeply with the characters. When you sit and absorb the end, you find yourself crying out, “This must be a mistake!!”
And then the story keeps going. The two main characters, although they were reincarnated from fans of Ai Hoshino, are fundamentally changed by Ai’s murder. They do everything with their mother on their mind, never letting go, never moving forward without her. Ruby clings to the memory and wants to live her mother’s dream… and Aqua swears revenge. His world is utterly rocked by being unable to be there for Ai twice, watching what happened, fear and anger consuming him.
The benefit of their reincarnation shows with their prior skills combined with their new connections. The experience that Aqua has from a long career beforehand and the ways he interacted with people as a gyno forms his base. He is already smart and he was good at his job. His new, darker personality weaponizes two lifetimes of learning and dogged persistence. Ruby, who died young and sick, has the utter joy of being wholly alive and healthy and has the obsession and ability to utilize it. She’s passionate.
And I’m watching them and kicking and screaming because they also point out the fact that being mentally aged past their bodies is only amazing when they’re young; not only that, but growing up all over again and becoming new people blurs these lines between “then” and “now”. I always think about this when I read tensei stories. So many stories draw this hard line between who the character was and who they currently are, so it’s the “was” always consistently being the “now”. I like watching the old identity become the person they are. People change, influenced by the past, yes, but they can become something new.
Anyway, this is also (shocking!) a murder mystery. I’m fucking dyiiiing.
Also, props to whoever adapted the cover design?
Using の as the O for the romanized version is a fantastic move and the adaptation of the autograph fits really nicely.
