The protagonist of this novella is 16-year-old Akari, whose only purpose in life is to support her “oshi”, (her favourite idol) Masaki Ueno, a member of the popular J-Pop group Maza Maza.
Akari devotes herself to being loyal and endorsing her idol in all his activities, whether it is buying at least 3 copies of every album, watching on repeat his performances from when he was a child actor, and making sure to promote him on her blog, which has its fair share of followers.
One day, Akari wakes up to the news that Masaki has allegedly hit a female fan (for unknown reasons) and her world starts shattering: she cannot believe he would do something like that and even after Masaki himself admits he indeed hit a fan Akari still tries to find a reason to this behavior. In a spiral of frantic internet searches to dig for more information and theories, Akari forgets her real life and cannot concentrate on her family, school, and her part-time job: her time and effort have to be used to restore Masaki’s image on her blog and calm other fans, all too eager to hate on him.
Akari understands that what he did was wrong, but she’s a sensitive young girl and Masaki helped her when she was younger and struggling with her mental health, so she believes it’s her duty as a fan to support him no matter what…
👍👎My Thoughts
I read this novella as I wanted to explore the "world" of fandoms: I too have singers and actors/actresses I like and follow, but I've never been a devoted fan, whose whole life revolves around an artist. Hence, I'm always baffled whenever I read articles about K-pop fans (not all the fandom tho) trying to "cancel" an idol for whatever reason (the most common and, frankly ridiculous, reason would be because it was revealed the idol is dating).
In "Idol, Burning" the reason is a serious one: an idol punched a female fan and he also admits it, and it seems he's not even regretting it...yet, Akari is able to emphasize with Masaki's cold attitude and rude behavior; she has been moved and comforted by his theatrical performance as Peter Pan when he was a child actor and has been a fan ever since. While reading interviews in magazines and scanning every angle of the internet for news about him, she has been able over the years to understand the sacrifices and pressure her idol has been under to such a deep level that she still supports him, even tho she knows that what he did was wrong.
Through this book I hoped to understand how and why devoted (and sometimes maniacal) fans become such, but that's not what the story is about: Akari is lost, doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, and isn't able to express her true feeling to her family and friends.
Her devotion reaches a point where it almost alienates her and this spiraling seems to never reach the bottom. There are some parts where this behavior is almost comical, for example, when Akari gets the best score in her class on a Russian history test, only because her oshi acted in a theatrical piece based on a Russian play and so she researched the background of it.
The sad and tragic part is when she tells the reader that she checks her oshi's horoscope but not her own because "it's not important" or that pushing her oshi makes her feel alive and so on.
This story is profoundly gloomy and it's hard to witness Akari losing herself while making her oshi the center of her world. What saddened me the most was that Akari was not even happy while doing it, but consistently forced herself to keep track of the news, the shows, the music, and everything concerning Masaki.
Rin Usami was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for this novella and, even if I liked it, I don't necessarily recommend you to read it. Apparently, it was considered the Japanese take on "Catcher in the Rye" but I think it's a bit of a stretch as a statement.
Is it a good short, coming-of-age story about a teenage girl who struggles to find a place in the world? Yes, definitely
Is it a masterpiece that everyone should read? I don't think so.
My vote: 5/10
Ph: goodreads.com
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