No wonder Oshi No Ko has skyrocketed to the top of the ranking charts with just the premiere alone. Idols, reincarnation and a murder mystery afoot makes it one of the most intriguing anime out right now. However, with frontrunner Ai Hoshino, you expected something much more wholesome and quirky. But now she’s dead and Ai’s murderer is the biggest secret of the anime world. Or is it? Well, not for manga fans, it isn’t! Ai’s murderer has finally been revealed! 

Who is Ai’s murderer, you ask? It’s none other than Hikaru Kamiki, who was Ai Hoshino’s ex boyfriend and the father of her twin children, Aquamarine and Ruby Hoshino. It was revealed in Chapter 72 that Aquamarine’s biological father is the one responsible for his mother’s death, though she did not die by his own hands. But Ai wasn’t even his first victim, and neither is she going to be the last. And Hikaru has no regrets over what happened.

But now that the secret is out, we have a clearer idea of what’s going on. After all, after seeing his mother die so tragically in front of him was the catalyst for Aqua’s thirst for vengeance. This was supposed to be his second chance at a happy life, being close to the idol he so adored back when he was Dr Gojou Amemiya. Instead, that happiness was taken from him by his own father. And it wasn’t even a one off incident, considering everything we’ve learned so far about how Hikaru Kamiki functions. 

So, why did Hikaru take such a tragic step? And how did he commit a murder without it being traced back to him? Well, his personality and profession explains a lot of it. His motives are the driving force behind the plot of Oshi No Ko, because they feed into Aqua’s paranoia about the future. His need to catch the killer has been his life goal for so long, and now that Ai’s murderer is revealed? Well, let’s discuss what that entails in another segment of Lore Analysis!

Ai Hoshino: A Star Gone Too Soon

Perhaps the biggest reason Ai’s death hits as hard as it does is because of how well she was doing for herself when it happened. I mean, Ai’s entire backstory is pretty disheartening. As an abandoned child who grew up in a children’s home, she wasn’t a very well adjusted person. For her, love was never a concept she understood.

So, when she was approached by Ichigo Satou to be an idol trainee at his company, Strawberry Productions, she was pretty confused. Because aren’t idols supposed to be extremely loving towards their fans and showcase it with grand gestures? But like Ichigo said, everyone has their own way of expressing love. And if Ai thinks her way is hypocritical, because she is just acting that way, then that’s perfectly fine. Because just pretending is still putting in the effort. And while that sounds slightly skewed, it made sense to Ai.

And so Ai became a part of B-Komachi, a nugu idol group. But it was in the same media industry that she came across Hikaru Kamiki, who was an up-and-coming actor at the time. The two presumably hit it off and entered a relationship.  But it must’ve not led anywhere, because they mutually broke things off. However, by then, Ai was already pregnant. And instead of terminating it, she went to Miyazaki Prefecture and delivered her babies in secret.

From there, it was a matter of her balancing her public idol persona with the secret one of being a single mother to twins. And she was doing great, finding her motivation through her precious children. B-Komachi started gaining a lot of attention, but not all of it was good. And things came to a head when an obsessive stalker discovered Ai’s secret, and appeared at her home disgruntled. 

After being stabbed by him, Ai was left to die in front of Aqua. But even in her death she smiled, because she finally knew that she did love her children. 

Hikaru Kamiki: Wolf In Sheep’s Skin

So, how does Hikaru Kamiki fit into being Ai’s murderer? Well, he might not have been the one to twist the knife, but he was certainly the one who pre-mediated it. And you can see the hints of Hikaru being the mastermind behind it all, all through the premiere. 

When asked about the father of her children, Ai said it was a secret. But we could see her giving someone updates by contacting them through independent sources such as pay phones and the lot. And she clearly trusted them enough to reveal her location while she was pregnant. You know, the thing that was supposed to be extremely hidden considering no one could find out about her pregnancy, lest she risk being shunned by the entertainment industry? 

And yet, someone traced her all the way back to Miyazaki Prefecture, where was placed under Dr Gojou’s care. Someone knew the exact date she’d be due, and was scoping out the hospital. And this was where Dr Gojou met his own demise, while trying to capture the suspicious figure. And then later on, when Ai and the twins finally settled into a normal routine and were able to move out of their old home, Ai had told their father exactly where they would be moving to, in a way to get him to be a part of their children’s life. 

But it would’ve been better if Ai had cut him out completely from her life, because the truth of Hikaru is that he is a sadistic psychopath who preys on his romantic partners. Sure, he isn’t the one who kills them directly, but he is a serial killer that enjoys manipulating people around him to do the deed for him. Why? Truth be told, no one really knows. The only thing we can go by is the fact that he is aware of the fact that he can get people to trust him, thanks to his superb acting skills, and then later hurt them as he pleases. Sadly, Ai is just another woman who found herself involved with the wrong person, who took advantage of her trust and killed her for his own amusement. There is no giant plot twist here.

What This Reveal Means For Aqua

So, what does this mean for Aqua and Ruby? Well, Aqua pretty much spent his entire second life trying to find Hikaru or clues to his identity, just so he could get revenge. But by the time he reached the truth, apparently Hikaru had already killed himself. So, there wasn’t anything left for him to project his vengeance on. 

Devoting your entire childhood and adolescence to something that doesn’t pay off in the way you thought it would is, to put it mildly, brutal. Aqua trained as an actor, lived through an entire second puberty and had to see his own sister go through a system that killed his mother. And all of his planning and scheming didn’t do much, in the end. So, it must be mind numbing to see your own father be the root of all your despair, and he didn’t even feel sorry about it. 

In the end, Aqua has to let go of the past that holds him back. Yes, it was tragic and brutal what he had to go through in both of his lives. But repeating a cycle and hoping for divine retribution just does not work when the devil you seek is already dead. The reveal of Hikaru Kamiki, Aqua’s father, being Ai’s murder is horrifying and shocking, but it’s not like fans didn’t see it coming from a mile away.

In the end, Ai is still dead. But Ruby and Aqua are alive and well. The mystery is solved, but will it drag the twins further into the abyss? Only time will tell!