#HikaAi

[yuseirra]

memories

[yuseirra]

I've a feeling that Mr Akasaka believes they're really clever and they think they’ve given us all the necessary hints already but no one gets it

If you search for "Aratate Shrine," it's an information that comes up right away!

I opened the volumes again after a long time for reference, since I was planning to draw a fan comic.

At the end of Volume 8? Or the last part of Chapter 80? When all the characters went to make their wishes? Page 189??

There’s a narration there that says, "Was it because their prayers were answered, or was it someone’s guidance?"

And on page 186, it even confirms that the location is Aratate Shrine!!!

Now, look at the description on the tourist guide website! It says this:

A shrine that is often visited by celebrities, Aratate shrine is said to bring good fortune in show business and marriage. This shrine is dedicated to Sarutahikono-mikoto and his wife Amenouzume no-mikoto who gave directions to Ninigino-mikoto the grandson of the sun goddess(Amaterasu) upon his descension from the heavens. While walking through the grounds of the shrine, you will see ancient trees called sakagi which are said to grant wishes. One of these trees called Shichi-fukutoku-jyubangi is said to grant 7 wishes to those who hit the tree 7 times. Take your best shot and stock up on good fortune!

I feel like I already brought this up a long time ago when I was researching and linked it back then!!!!

Kamiki, that guy, is a guiding deity!!!! Sarutahiko is a god of guidance and also a god of light!!! That’s his identity!!!

The one who granted the wishes there was him!!!! If there's ANYONE in this comic who is that Sarutahiko god, it's Kamiki!! He helped Ruby’s career, later granted the twins’ wishes, and even helped them find him. The hint is in the "Mephisto" lyrics—it’s like he’s saying, "Come find me." He granted their wish to come to him and kept supporting the twins. In his own way, he thinks of himself as their father. Even near the end, there’s a mention of wishes again, right? It seemed like he wanted to grant them. It’s like he wanted to do something for them.

He’s a god who guides the way and leads people’s futures in a good direction!!! He’s the black star, and Ai is the white star.

Right now, all the wishes have been fulfilled in strange, distorted ways, haven’t they? That’s because this guiding god’s power has been corrupted and is now malfunctioning... It’s Kamiki’s fault. He's the selfish giant star that's been ruining people's lives as said in the song Fatal. But I’m not sure if this is something intentional or not.

For wishes to be properly fulfilled, Ai has to be with him. The two of them need to be together to make it happen. The wishes end up being granted with flaws because he's incomplete without his wife regarding that ability!!! He's wishing upon a star in Mephisto to have Ai come back to life, isn't he? He needs her to complete him and function! That's why he'a been looking for her and her love ever since she passed!!!

I don’t really check Japanese fandoms or other people’s reactions, but is there no talk about this in Japan??? This is the answer, isn’t it???? Has no one figured it out? I’ve been talking about this since July or August, but people won’t believe me. Then I just casually opened the volumes to reference the art, and I saw that. Now I have a headache. This is correct. If this isn’t right, then what is it? What’s the explanation? The story doesn’t make sense otherwise.

Why else would his name include references to a god and light? And I’m telling you, Ame-no-Uzume is Ai!! After Ame-no-Uzume married her husband, she started blessing love too. It’s said she’s the reincarnation of the morning star!!! Seriously!!!

Kamiki is a god, but it seems like his power has been distorted somehow, and it doesn’t even seem to be entirely intentional.

If you analyze the lyrics, they mention a flaw arising. That flaw came after he lost Ai (love).

His ability to guide the future got all twisted, and as a result, everyone around him started becoming miserable and dying.

Why isn’t this addressed properly in the story??? Because it’s not mentioned, no one gets it, but I’ve been saying for months that this must be it~~ This must be it~~ It’s so frustrating!! But since this is what's beyond logic and too fantasy, even if I think it is, it just isn't convincing, is it?; I understand, I feel stupid myself too but,

There are way too many traits of Kamiki that align perfectly with that god for this to be a coincidence. And why else would there be references to him being noble, or him drowning??? Ugh!!! Seriously!!

Isn’t it possible that things just didn’t work out the way he wanted them to? He probably never wanted anyone to get hurt, at least not until Ai’s death. This person seems to have the ability to influence the future, but if everything had gone the way he wanted, would his life have ended up like this? The fact that both Aqua and this person ended up drowning is proof of it—they can make wishes come true, but everything gets twisted in the process.

What if this person fell apart because of it? What if even he didn’t want these results? At the very least, some of the things that happened don’t seem like they were his intention. Ai’s death, for instance—there’s no way he wanted that. He probably really just meant to send her flowers. But because of the darkness in the entertainment industry or whatever, everything about him was already so broken that it unintentionally spiraled into the worst outcome due to his broken powers.

That’s why he completely lost it… He’s searching for Ai (Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto), isn’t he? There’s even that line about him wandering in search of love (Ai). I think it’s from Chapter 160 or so. He wants to get his wife back. Collecting the white stars probably had a real connection to that goal—it seems like it actually worked in some way.

Then what about all the other incidents? The deaths of so many people? After he "died" (?), didn’t people start acting like they were breaking out of some kind of trance, with a bunch of them suddenly confessing and turning themselves in? This isn’t something a normal human could do. Is it that he passively exerts influence just by existing, or did he actively use his abilities to make all that happen later on?

Anyway, he is a god!!! But what if he really meant it when he said he never intended to hurt anyone? What if that’s true? No way, right? Isn’t this all just him spiraling out of control in his desperation to bring his late wife back?

I really think this interpretation is correct, but shouldn’t the story have addressed this explicitly?!

If you’re Japanese, is this something you would’ve known? Do people get it? Is it common sense?; Do they understand what’s happening in this story? Does everyone know? Shouldn’t this have been explained? Without researching separately, you might get the feeling that something’s off, but there’s no way to uncover the full story just from the work itself. And yet, these kinds of clues exist, don’t they? I’m telling you, my interpretation is correct. Why don’t they clarify this? For a story to work, you need to at least tell us what it’s about.

I really think this is the answer… No matter how much I think about it, there’s no other coherent way to interpret it.

That’s why it’s so frustrating. No one takes it seriously and I get that because even I feel ridiculous insisting that a character is a god!! but there’s no other explanation for it, right? I thought the story would address this before it ended. Isn’t this such an irresponsible piece of work? At the very least, they should’ve wrapped it up so that we could understand what was happening. Why didn’t they?

I’ve never tried to feel something intentionally.

But what this character feels... it’s just too overwhelming. The emotions of suffering are so vivid that I can’t help but think there’s something more to it, and it keeps bothering me.

For a character accused of being a psychopathic serial killer who supposedly murdered his girlfriend, I couldn’t help but think, he doesn’t seem like someone who’d do that. That thought bothered me so much my head hurt.

But in this case, isn’t he grieving? The song conveys sorrow and pain, doesn’t it?

This kind of emotion doesn’t feel like something someone who hurt their loved one would express. It’s grief, longing, and an unbearable desire to see them again. And it’s not entirely one-sided—it feels like it stems from a mutual bond that once existed. The more I look at it, the clearer this becomes. If I couldn’t see it, I wouldn’t bother putting my heart into this. But once I do see it, there’s no way to ignore it.

It feels like the emotions are so strong because there was a time when they loved each other deeply, got along so well, and were happy together.

Am I the only one who feels this way? I don’t think so.

I don't think he ever wanted nor attempted on things to turn out this way. There IS something about the guy that influences those around him into disaster.

This darn manga… It hits so hard, and yet, look at what it’s become. But it seems to follow mythology, so I can sort of understand why it turned out this way, and that makes it slightly forgivable. But do people get this? Do they know why it happened like this? No way. You can’t know unless you look up the mythology. If you’re going to incorporate mythology into the manga, at least explain it! This manga isn’t entirely grounded in reality anyway—there are gods, reincarnation, wishes, star eyes, and some kind of mission or destiny!

I'm not trying to defend Kamiki, either way he seems to have become a hazard of some sort.

And before that, Ai passed because Kamiki is guiding god whose powers-the power of Michihiraki-which brings out the best in people-, got distorted into being the opposite of what it was meant to be due to the darkness of the industry?

So people like Ryosuke had their worst sides coming out and that influenced him to murder Ai. In that case, Kamiki would feel a sense of responsibility for it and try to reverse it (if he's figured out his destiny-or what he is-)because even if it were to be unintentional, it'd still be his fault in a sense. That's why he has this bizzare behavior of blaming himself continuously for things.

I'm not sure if everything about this is solely what he's brought upon himself. If he has those kinds of powers, maybe people just die and end up misforunate from him wishing to feel Ai?

(Yeah then we had him thinking killing Ruby would have helped him to feel her. But he didn't do it. Was it only because Aqua tried to stop him? What is going on?)

Well, when someone dies, they’re no longer by your side, so their presence begins to fade.

I think this person… just couldn’t bear that. If you look at the lyrics of the songs, they convey those types of emotions.

From what I feel, his feelings towards Ai isn’t about worship either—it’s just pure longing towards what he regarded as his other half. But I bet a lot of people won’t see it that way. The story doesn’t make it easy to interpret it like that, does it? Ha… it’s frustrating.

Sure, a character who’s a clingy psychopath has its own charm. But if someone who isn’t like that is written to look that way, shouldn’t the story take responsibility for it? Either say it isn’t true, or confirm that it is. Why do I feel like I’ve figured out the answer, only to constantly doubt myself, wondering if I’m spouting nonsense?

The narrative and abilities of the god of entertainment couple align way too closely with Ai and Kamiki. Not just on a similar level—it feels like they are them. Was that not important? I think it’s an essential element for explaining why the story unfolded the way it did. They SHOULD have touched this before they go.

You know, I wonder if there's a way to tie up Hikaru's characterization between 155 and post 160.

Like in another version of onk where there's more time and effort put into it. The end result is Aqua and Hikaru falling into the ocean but the process is different, do you think it's possible to do that with the same amount of chapters?

I think I said this ... ? somewhere ?? in my tag previously but I think a really low effort easy way to make this make even a moderate amount of sense is just to alter Tsukuyomi's little monologue at the start of 161 and have her state that the Jokerfied Kamiki of post-160 is the direct result of having his worldview shattered by realizing that Ai had loved him all along and that he killed her for nothing. Like, as an exercise to prove this, I bullshitted this together in a few minutes;

please be nice about this dialogue i came up with it in 10 seconds

Is this good? Eeeeeeeeehhhhh. I think having Kamiki be the final boss after 154 is just so mid and such a boring way to end his arc, but I do think something like this would be an improvement. At the very least, it makes the sudden, jarring shift between the seemingly defeated and remorseful Hikaru of 154-5 and the Anime Supervillain Hikaru of 160+ actually motivated by something in-story other than "GO CRAZY GO STUPID" but I also think it makes the bitter tragedy of Aqua's death hit a lot harder. Now it's not just Kamiki being arbitrarily ontologically evil in the way that most conveniently puts him in conflict with Aqua - this is now a tragedy that Aqua brought on himself by continuing to pursue getting revenge on Kamiki and rubbing his nose in his mistakes.

Obviously this is still messy as hell and it doesn't solve all the dumb shit with Aqua's ""reason for existing"", but I do think the Kamiki we get on page in OnK is not unsalvageable as a character and it legit would've taken very little to make him internally consistent in a way that was engaging.

Oh uh, we're cutting the serial killer cult bullshit though. That's just dumb.

[deathberi]

HOSHINO RUBY... YOU'VE GROWN TO BE A REAL BEAUTY. I'D EXPECT NO LESS... SINCE SHE'S OUR CHILD.

[myaatwins]

shout-out to hikaru kamiki. certainly one of the antagonists of all time

[oshinohoshi]

Regarding Hikaru's culpability in Ai's death

The question of whether Hikaru meant to hurt Ai is still up in the air but in this post I'm going to make an extremely messy argument that Hikaru loved Ai and didn't mean to kill her!

Above: Hikaru said Ai had selfish and cruel sides (more like extremely avoidant tendencies but I digress) but there's no menace to his tone. He believed it was only natural for her to leave him.

I will say that Hikaru's below statement from ch 160 is pretty weird, especially after just learning that Ai loved him. Is that how he saw Ai? As a woman who deceived him and tried to make him obey her?

It does kind of align with the below Fatal lyrics which I can't see as anything other than a Hikaru song:

You have given me a fatal flaw Selfish giant star, ruined lives

I think both things can be true. He didn't hate Ai. He loved her more than anything. But he was bitter because he thought she didn't care about him.

He created a warped view of their relationship in which he was never loved or needed. But that bitterness, even anger at times, never appears to have devolved into murderous intent. Not when he was still so soft on her despite some of his more accusatory statements.

OK you're saying he didn't mean to kill her. But what about this?

I don't know, man. I just don't know. It's so antithetical to everything we know about him. It's one thing to lash out in a moment of pain but a slow burn manipulation like this requires intention. There's two explanations I can come up with.

He was twisting the screws for another reason. Maybe he wanted to exert control because he felt so powerless over the situation with Ai. Or perhaps he wanted a fellow Ai fanatic. Someone who would understand her significance.

Aqua is wrong.

But why did he change his story from stating he wanted Ryosuke to scare Ai (you fucking idiot, Hikaru) to just giving her a bouquet?

I'm a bit stumped here too. This guy is supposedly a master manipulator yet he couldn't keep his story straight?

Perhaps both of these were his motives but I don't know why he didn't say that from the start. I just don't think this is proof that he lied because it's not hard to keep such a basic story straight.

The best explanation I can come up with is that he told Ryosuke the address in a fit of anger and despair. He thought Ryosuke would scare her. He then gave him the bouquet. It was an "I love you/I want you to feel my pain" message for Ai.

OK, but if Aqua was right about Hikaru manipulating Ryosuke, then he knew Ryosuke was an Ai fanatic who could go off the rails in an instant. Especially if he learned that Ryosuke killed Gorou. And anyway, what the hell did he think he was going to do to scare her?

Augh. I'm just going to hope that Nino filled Hikaru in on Gorou's murder after Ryosuke died and therefore he didn't realize that Ryosuke was dangerous. As for what he thought Rysouke would do... I dunno. Give her the bouquet and glower at her? Tell her he knew about her kids?

My man was an idiot but I don't think that makes him a killer in this case. I mean, it would be scary enough for a fan to show up at your door with flowers from your ex.

My last piece of evidence that Hikaru didn't want to hurt Ai is that he was desperate to ensure nobody would surpass her, he wanted to feel her presence, and imo he was trying to preserve her memory.

Offing Ai is the opposite of all those things. He said that he killed Ai out of spite but I don't think that we're meant to take that literally.

Those panels at the top of my post and his obsessive adoration of Ai make it hard for me to believe he would try to harm her. Instead, he blamed himself - rightfully so - for sending Ryosuke to Ai's apartment and that's what he meant by killing her out of spite.

But this goddamn back and forth is why I'm so frustrated with Hikaru's characterization.

Is he a man who loved Ai, inadvertently caused her to die, and then spiraled into madness fueled by grief and guilt? Or is he a man who loved Ai, used Ryosuke to kill her, and then spiraled into madness because he regretted his actions?

Well, aside from all the reasons presented above, the story never explicitly tells us that he tried to kill Ai. Given that Crow Girl walks around spouting monologues about who is doing what and why, and Hikaru never thought about how he tried to murder Ai in his final moments, I've settled on: Hikaru is by no means an innocent man but he never wanted Ai dead.

I rest my case. It was shaky but I did my best.

[hikaru-kamiki-truther]

What the latest chapter felt like basically :

[blueskykitten]

IS THAT HIKARU BEHIND YOUNGER AI?? Are we getting the 15 year lie + hikaai in the live action movie?? I’m so happy 😭 more things for hikaai… (this is from the trailer for the live action movie for Oshi no ko!! “The Final Act”)

[cori-randomstuff]

I think the difference in how Nino and Hikaru react to Ai confessing the truth (via the blog post and dvd) is deeply interesting.

While Nino doubles down on her deification of Ai and erase every trace of Ai's heart-felt confession. Hikaru accepts them and even states that Ai was a normal girl. (chp160 throws a wrench into things and now that I think about, we don't know how Hikaru feels about the dvd at all, but we are going to pretend like onk ended at 157 for the sake of my sanity.)

They are both clearly obsess with Ai, yet the difference is that Nino does not accept Ai's vulnerability while Hikaru does accept them, revels in them even.

I think a ninoai relationship would crash and burn way way faster, it would be a consistently miserable affair for everyone involved. (Which is why they should fuck) While hikaai would be more varied, the highs are higher and the lows are lower.

[dallina17]

My new reason for crying is that Ai's color palette is more purple and Hikaru is yellow (for me he has golden eyes fight me). And purple and yellow are complementary colors.

I am going to die now.

[futuristicmiraclenightmare]

And some Akane/Aqua and Ai/Hikaru parallels(google translate was a bit wonky)

This one below was figured out by @usagiakane on twitter so I can't take credit for that

I feel like Ai and Hikaru have more in common with Akane and Aqua rather than him with Kana if I were being completely honest, but again these are very different dynamics but in a weird way past Hikaru reminds me of Akane like they even the same flustered sweat drops when they talk to their crushes.

And the scene where Ai said she understood he was lying,and the scene Akane said she'd go to hell with Aqua if that'd make him happy those are very different scenes but the meaning of understanding the other was more of less the same and Aqua and Hikaru had a similar shocked expression as well.

Plus the casual age jokes 🤣

[yuseirra]

I’m lost, where should I do? A small alleyway split into twelve ways Where can I go to meet you again?

If it’s my destiny, if I can choose my destiny Even if I close my eyes and walk, I will choose the right path

The disappeared summer time The summer time that your eyes shone upon me I’m not just waiting, I’m walking to find you

The summer time will come back to me When the cold wind blows, I will close my eyes What’s the time? Summer time I’m not sad, I will dance Again, again

They say you can go to better places if you wear better shoes So I won’t stop until I find you

My lost summer time Will I find you after wandering through strange times? Is it still far ahead? When I get scared, I smile for no reason

Have you forgotten me? I hope your time has stopped in mine Slow the time, stop the time

I will run a bit faster Again, again, again, again

[aihoshiino]

the anime has been doing a lot of interesting, anime-original work to build up to both the HKAI dynamic in general and Hikaru himself specifically and this visualization of them in S2E10 is probably the most fascinating so far.

on a first/unspoiled viewing, it reflects Aqua (& Akane's) interpretation of Ai as a victim of a catastrophe, unwittingly consumed and torn apart by a monstrous inhuman force that invaded her life.

But with the knowledge of how that relationship actually played out, several details come into much sharper focus - Ai's total absence of fear or hesitation and the tenderness with which she embraces what looks to the viewer to be a terrifying monster. It is, abstracted into pure visual symbolism, the reality of the HKAI dynamic - someone warped into monstrousness by self loathing and drawn to Ai's radiance, who takes in that pain and, through her compassion, purifies it into uncompromising love.

[deathberi]

[isara0408]

What would have happened if Hikaru was the one who was killed by the stalker?

_______

Hikaru Kamiki, a famous and talented actor, was murdered by a stalker who was a fan of the B-Komachi. With having his last moments with his twins, Ruby and Aqua, before passing, Aqua and Ruby were able to get clues to the person who could be their mother/their father's killer, find the stalker and the lies that their father left behind.

The song "Fatal" by GEMN gave me this book idea, especially making Melt, Taiki, and Aqua idols.

Yes, Fatal will be one of their songs :D

I hope you enjoy.

I might post my other books that I have in Ao3 over here, but I'm not sure if I should. 🤔

We'll see how things go lol.

[oshinohoshi]

Let's talk about Ai's decision in Ch 154

This is a reaction to some people saying that Ai was stupid in this chapter or that they dislike what this did to her character. I'd like to dig deeper for the sake of organizing my own thoughts on the matter.

This post is long so just skip to the TLDR if you want!

Ch 154's big reveal was that Ai wanted to love Hikaru. She wanted to raise a family with Hikaru but felt that it would be too much of a burden on him because "he was being crushed by the weight of his life" and was "on the verge of breaking." She also acknowledged that he was dependent on her. So she broke up with him in a harsh manner, believing he would be okay once she and her kids were gone.

Let's break this down.

Was Ai stupid for this?

No. Could Hikaru have handled fatherhood at such a young age when he was already suffering from so many emotional wounds? Probably not. It's not inconceivable that starting a family with the girl he loved could be healing, but he couldn't even take care of himself, much less two kids. This was a recipe for disaster.

We could say that the way Ai did it was stupid but I would like to be more generous than that and I'll elaborate below.

Was it unfair of Ai?

I think it was unfair to take the decision of whether he could handle the pregnancy out of Hikaru's hands. That said, if we read this as Ai also recognizing how unhealthy their relationship dynamic was, it's not unfair to end things in part because of that.

Was the way she broke up with him cruel?

Yes, and I'm sure this is why some people feel so negatively about Ai in this chapter. Ai claiming that the product of Hikaru's rape was too much for her led to Hikaru framing Taiki's birth as "something I had done" and stating that Ai leaving him was "only natural."

Still, Ai was not a cruel person. She was gentle and loving but she was also timid. Her coping mechanisms for handling confrontation were to bury her true feelings and put on a suffocating smile. She shouldn't have said what she did, but it was an effective way to make him hate her. She wanted a clean break to free Hikaru from herself and the twins, who she felt were a burden to him. She just didn't have the emotional skillset to handle this correctly.

And she was just a teenager!

As Oscar Wilde wrote, "It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done." Ai's intentions were kind. Her delivery was almost comically bad.

But why didn't Ai try to get back with Hikaru when she called him or at least try to make amends?

Ai was confused about what love felt like and how to express it. We also don't know how she felt about him almost 4 years later. My take is that by the time she called Hikaru she had moved on from the idea of a romantic relationship but still cared deeply for him.

As for why she never reached out to make amends, Ai does avoidance like she's training to be the avoidance champ of the world. Just look at the short story 45510 where she explains her feelings to her fellow B Komachi members in an unpublished post on their defunct blog. There is also a manga panel showing that Ai had over a hundred unsent text messages. At the time I assumed they were all to the B Komachi girls but some could have been intended for Hikaru.

Ai's regret

Finally, Ai regretted this. Yes, trying to fix it 15 years after the fact is absurdly late, but her heart was in the right place.

TLDR: Ai was just a normal person, as flawed as the rest of us, who experienced hurt, anger, loneliness, and uncertainty. She was misunderstood by everyone around her and commodified by the entertainment industry.

She hurt someone who loved her but it was not out of malice. The extremely poor delivery of the breakup was inevitable given Ai's avoidant tendencies and that she was a teenager. Criticizing Ai without acknowledging everything that led to this point just doesn't sit right with me.

And finally, this panel broke me and I will be suing Akasaka and Mengo for damage to my heart.

[hikaru-kamiki-truther]

Just saw someone say that Hikaru is a violent misogynist who weaponized misogyny to kill Ai and hikaai shippers are delusional and dumb and I'm just like...

What manga did you read bro?? Did your local barnes and nobles accidently title death note as oshi no ko? At first I gave them the benefit of doubt and thought about it for a moment since I am tumblr user hikaru-kamiki-truther but NO! That argument is absolutely stupid and a bag of bolognea.

The person also called people making Ai a "manic pixie dream girl" and GOD can we lock that term away in a box until people know how to use it?? Also called him a 4channer and said he'd kill the whole family if he and Ai stayed together so I think we're talking about a person infected with some deadly brainrot here.