Oshi No Ko Episode 8 Ending Explained: What Does Ai Mean to Aqua?

Oshi no ko is a brutal look into the world of the glamorized idol industry in Japan. The story revolves around a gynaecologist named Gorou Amemiya, who is a massive fan of the skilled and gorgeous idol Ai Hoshino.

He is, therefore, completely perplexed when the pregnant Ai shows up at his hospital. She is guaranteed a safe birth by Gorou, but he had no idea that a chance encounter with this enigmatic individual would lead to his untimely demise.

Gorou gets murdered by an ardent fan of Ai the night before Ai gives birth, and he is reincarnated as Aquamarine Hoshino, Ai’s son, keeping his memories of his previous life.

Four years after the delivery, Ai is also killed by the same fan who killed the doctor, who then commits suicide. Twelve years later, Aqua decides to join the idol industry in hopes of finding the accomplice involved in the murder, whom he deduces must be his and Ruby’s father.

Oshi No Ko Episode 8 Recap

Oshi no ko episode eight opens with Arima Kana chatting with Hoshino Ruby about Kurokawa Akane’s magnificent talent as an actor.

Despite having a hard time showcasing her true personality in a reality TV show, Akane is a young talent from the Lala Lai Theatre Company, which only features top-level actors.

Her thorough preparation for a role and her ability to portray any character by adopting their character traits make her a true genius.

Everybody is relieved to see Akane back on the set, but they are also shocked to see the changes in her behaviour.

She is much more casual and nonchalant about the backlash she received on the internet compared to her previous reaction.

But more than that, she is not acting like herself at all. Yuki even says that she seems different somehow. But she is still well-received by the cast, and everyone seems to enjoy her new personality much more.

Her relentless efforts to understand and incorporate Hoshino Ai’s characteristics into her own personality in episode seven seem to have paid off. In an instant, she managed to draw everyone in with her magnanimous charm.

Even Aqua was amazed at her talent to act so much like Ai because he had initially thought that it was impossible to imitate Ai’s natural ability to mesmerize people.

Aqua’s behavior began to change when he was with Akane because she was reminding him so much of Ai, to the point where the other cast members started to notice it as well.

This behaviour change fanned the imaginations of these teenagers, and they began to speculate that Aqua might be falling for Akane.

Mem-cho and Yuki begin to tease Aqua after realizing that he is only paying attention to Akane now that she is acting differently. After being asked whether he likes the new Akane, Aqua begins to blush from awkwardness and storms out of the room.

Afterwards, the two girls ask Akane whether she would be interested in a serious relationship with Aqua. Akane is confused about the recent developments and doesn’t know what to do, but she confesses that she is not opposed to the idea.

Back at the Hoshino household, Arima is criticizing the show for how dull and uninteresting it is but you can also feel a tiny amount of jealousy towards Akane in her statement, whereas Ruby has also started to see Ai’s image in Akane, highlighting her talent as an actor even more.

Seeing Akane act as Ai has brought a kind of revelation in Aqua. He feels that despite having spent some years with Ai in his early childhood, he still doesn’t know anything about her.

He wonders what Ai means to him. Is he just her fan? Is she a mother to him? or is she something more than that?

Perplexed by his complex feelings, he asks Arima to skip school and hang out with him.

Overjoyed by his proposal, Arima Kana immediately agrees. But compared to her grand fantasies about going to the Tokyo Desny or the Tokyo Tower, he asks her to play catch with him.

Although she may be disappointed, she is still happy to spend time with him. Arima is confused about why he picked her to play with him instead of someone from Love Now. To which Aqua explains that he doesn’t have that kind of relationship with them and feels that he has to keep up some kind of facade in front of them, but he doesn’t have to care about that in front of Arima.

Arima asks him about the kind of girl he is into, and she is delighted to hear that she is into somewhat older girls because she is also a year older than him, but her delight immediately turns to worry and jealousy when she realizes that Akane is also a year older than him.

His interaction with Arima helps him clear his mind, and he comes to the conclusion that his feelings for Akane are not of a romantic nature. He realizes that his feelings for Akane are simply a byproduct of seeing the image of Ai in her.

After that, the scene cuts to the shooting of Love Now. Akane is talking with Aqua about her melancholy at the end of the show. To cheer her on, Aqua compliments her acting and asks her how she managed to portray Ai so accurately.

Akane answers that she has always been good at doing research and profiling. When she can’t find sufficient data on a person, she makes educated assumptions to fill in the blanks so that she can find coherency in their behaviour.

She mentions that she has pretty much figured out Ai, from what kind of life she led to what kind of guy she was into. She also mentions that Ai might have had a secret pregnancy.

This comes as a shock to Aqua because, apart from a few people, nobody knew about Ai’s pregnancy. Aqua thinks that she might be useful in finding out who his father is, so he decides to get into a relationship with Akane so that he can make use of her talent.

After the show ends, Aqua decides to meet up with Masaya Kaburagi, the man who promised to tell him about Ai’s past relationships if he joined the Love Now show.

To fulfil his promise, the man sets up a date for them to meet up and have a conversation about it.

Afterwards, Aqua rejoins the wrap-up party. He and Akane are discussing what to do for their future. Are they going to seriously pursue this relationship, or is it purely for work?

Aqua stumbles with his words because he doesn’t want to hurt Akane’s feelings, but she understands his sentiment and says that she is fine with a working relationship.

Everybody leaves the party with a smile on their faces. Aqua and Mem-cho are walking in the same direction. That’s when Mem-cho mentions that she was a big fan of B Komachi and wanted to be an Idol herself.

But things didn’t work out for her, and she decided to be a YouTuber instead. But to her surprise, Aqua asks her whether she would be interested in joining their agency and becoming a part of the new B Komachi.

Oshi No Ko Episode 8 Ending Explained: What Does Ai Mean to Aqua?

As fans, we got to see some of the darker sides of Aqua’s character in this episode, with him using underhanded tactics and manipulating Akane to try to take advantage of her. But things still worked out in her favour, and it was good to see her genuinely smile after all she had been through in episode seven.

Although many fans were disappointed to see that the relationship between her and Aqua didn’t work out, at least there was one couple who had a happy ending in Love Now.

Yuki and Nobuyuki seem to be working towards a successful relationship, despite Yuki rejecting Nobuyuki in the reality show.

The story also seems to be developing towards a love triangle between Aqua, Akane, and Arima based on her reaction to seeing Aqua kiss Akane at the end of Love Now.

As for the sudden proposal to join B Komachi to Mem-cho things are looking kinda interesting. Based on her reaction, it seems that Mem-cho is going to accept the proposal.

But the most interesting part, by far, is the anticipation for what kind of information Kubaragi is going to unravel about Ai in the coming episodes.