Ai's Accessories Hit the Gift Shop
The upcoming "Manga Oshi no Ko Exhibition: Hoshi no Kiseki" has revealed its merchandise lineup, and the standout items lean hard into character nostalgia. Fans can pick up a plush hair badge modeled after Ai's signature hair accessory, a cap recreating her look (with two bonus badges), and — in possibly the exhibition's most niche deep cut — a Green Pepper Exercise apron inspired by the series' early daycare scenes, complete with an Arima Kana badge.
The merch roster also includes a mosaic art puzzle, oversized acrylic key-visual figures, mini stage-style acrylic figure blind boxes (nine types), a "MEMORIES" badge collection (ten types), jewelry stickers, a postcard set featuring Arima Kana, an aurora pouch, and a shopping bag. Pricing for the exhibition itself runs from ¥800 for elementary and junior-high students to ¥2,000 for general admission, with a limited-quantity goods-inclusive ticket at ¥4,000.
Three Cities, Six Months
The exhibition opens at Matsuya Ginza's 8th-floor Event Square in Tokyo from July 22 to August 11, 2026. It then moves to the Daimaru Kobe Museum in Hyogo for a shorter run from September 16 to 28, before landing at the Kakuix Exchange Center in Kagoshima for an extended stint from November 7, 2026, through January 11, 2027.
The Kagoshima venue will close on Mondays and over the New Year period (December 29 through January 3). Tokyo hours are 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. with earlier closings on select Sundays.
Creators Pull Back the Curtain
Alongside the exhibition rollout, the official social media accounts have begun publishing a behind-the-scenes interview series featuring writer Aka Akasaka and artist Yokoyari Mengo discussing how they built Oshi no Ko. The first installment covers their approach to drawing the characters' signature star-shaped eye reflections — one of the manga's most distinctive visual motifs.
Eleven total installments are planned, with topics ranging from key-visual design and catchcopy creation (June 5) to the hardest parts of the production process (June 12), differences between the anime and original manga art (June 13), how they chose character names (June 19), and the theme of love as a narrative subject (June 20). For a series that wrapped its anime adaptation in early 2026, this kind of retrospective offers a rare window into the creative partnership that powered one of the decade's biggest manga hits.
Free Chapters and Looking Ahead
To coincide with the exhibition campaign, Comic Natalie reports that four volumes of Oshi no Ko are now available to read free on Shueisha's Yanjump+ and Shonen Jump+ apps, running from June 3 through August 11.
The manga, written by Aka Akasaka and illustrated by Yokoyari Mengo, is published in English by Viz Media for readers outside Japan. No international touring dates for the exhibition have been announced, so for now the three Japanese venues are the only way to see it in person. Fans heading to Tokyo, Kobe, or Kagoshima between July and January have a six-month window to catch the show.