Ai Hoshino

"Ruby, Aqua, I love you. Ah, I was finally able to say it. I'm sorry, it took so long for me to say it. Ah, I'm so glad. Those words were definitely not lies."

Ai Hoshino (アイ) is a titular character in the Oshi no Ko manga series. She is the series' poster child and was the lead idol of the now-defunct former B-Komachi. Originally hailing from an abusive and solemn past, Ai was a bumpkin with no professionalism and didn't try to fit in. Over time, through the help of Masaya Kaburagi, a producer with many connections, she got into the Lalalie Theatrical Company. From there, she focused on herself and even found herself in love. These events are then what enabled her to become an idol for B-Komachi.

Ai Hoshino's life took a turn when, through an undetermined amount of time, she became pregnant with twins. Not wanting to squander her reputation, the final decision by Ai and her company, Strawberry Production, came -- to hide the fact; Ai needed to play the role of idol and mother. All this and more would pile into a life of lies and deceit. Her work, personality, and life, in general, are but a facade to hide the ugly truths beneath, both directly and indirectly. It would be the case for her for many years, at least until her final moments -- it being the realization that the love she had for her children was real and not a lie.

The lives she had, both natural and curated and the legacy she left behind would become the driving force for many of the events in the series. Many people are sympathetic to the plight of those left behind to clean up the mess, and Ai Hoshino's children be left motivated to create a world where her image and legacy aren't sullied and, to Ruby, make bygone dreams a reality.

Appearance
Ai Hoshino is a beautiful girl with a star in each of her eyes. She is shown to have brownish-red hair on first chapter cover but is shown to have more of a blue-purplish hair color on the volume cover.

Her idol outfit is adorned in a pink aesthetic of varying degrees of lighter and darker shades. The outfit's design is an overall ruffled appearance. A black belt is located on her waist, and other miscellaneous accessories are present throughout the design -- Three blue stars located on her chest, a heart-shaped necklace on her neck, and a bunny hairpin accentuated by two gold stars and a pink ribbon.

Personality
Ai is shown to be quite joyful and always smiling even as she died. Despite this, she always had doubts about her actions and words; used lies to hide her true self. She claims that it's a form of love but she didn't want to bring that darker side of her to her children about loving them and was happy when she said it without lying. It was unfortunately the cause of her demise: her lies about not having children. She is stated to have an open-minded personality (as stated by Gorou, now as Aqua in his new life in chapter 1).

Etymology

 * The name Ai (1) is written in katakana (アイ), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (愛 or 藍), it could possibly mean:
 * 愛 - "love, affection".
 * 藍 - "indigo".
 * Ai's surname Hoshino means "star" (星) (hoshi) and "field, wilderness" (野) (no).

Trivia

 * Ai has two stars in her eyes compared to her children who only have one each (Aqua has one in his right eye and Ruby has one in her left).