Idol, Burning

Product Information

The one place she finds meaning and fulfilment is in her obsession with her oshi -- while also remaining at least somewhat self-aware: Oshi, Moyu/Idol, Burning was the winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2020 and has become a phenomenon in Japan, with sales of more than 500,000 copies, according to the publisher. It has already won praise from Sayaka Murata, Toshiyuki Horie and Yoko Ogawa. A vivid depiction of the joys and despairs of teenage fan culture, Idol, Burning is urgent and all-consuming . . . In this passionate and compassionate novel, the voice of teenage desperation sings out’ At the end of the book, I wasn't even surprised why this book won the Akutagawa Award in 2020, because it definitely deserved that title.

Haunting and sincere, Idol, Burningsubverts and astonishes.Rin Usami balances humor, obsession, heartbreak, and sacrifice in her English debut, crafting a story that's both enveloping and expansive. Usami's writing is thrilling and deft, and her novel illuminates the shadows cloaking our digital lives, leaving us with honesty and grace in equal measures. Idol, Burningis a barnburner and a prayer and a testament to the lengths that we'll go to reach for our dreams.”— Bryan Washington, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot But the organized, knowledgeable persona Akari presents online is totally different from the socially awkward, unfocused teenager she is in real life. As Masaki's situation spirals, his troubles threaten to tear apart her life too. Instead of finding a way to break free to save herself, Akari becomes even more fanatical about Masaki, still believing her idol is the only person who understands her. There were other parts of the English that created Akari’s unique voice, but this stood out to me in particular. But the choice to keep oshi in almost every instance of it appearing resulted in some weird sentence structures. Such as, “ Every fan sat along with their oshi in the chair their oshi was allocated.”

Advance Praise

The announcement of the break-up of the group and Masaki's retirement is, of course, devastating, threatening to pull away this one thing she had been able to cling to. Very shortly after the “lightly salted” phrase we get, “ It was the reverse of that saying “Hate the monk, hate his robes.” If you fell in love with the monk, even the frays in his robe become loveable.”

Rin Usami's novella is a study of obsession. The protagonist, a secondary school student, Akari, worships a J-pop group member, Masaki Ueno, who is a modern version of Peter Pan. Out of a sudden, she has to confront her idealistic notions about her idol with the reality that disappoints. Who is Masaki? A real person with shortcomings and weaknesses? A spotless fictional character Akari and other fans created? A “salt face” is someone with a thin, pale face, often with double eyelids, a high bridged nose and sharp features–basically, a Japanese man who has fairly “Western” features. (This is opposed to a しょうゆ顔 ( shoyugao), someone with “Japanese-looking” features.) The entertainment industry and way Japanese people view and interact with idol culture is different from the West’s, so keeping the term “oshi” makes it obvious to the reader that this is a Japanese story and that oshi are different from idols. A book that reminded me a bit of Convenience Store Woman, but then fully immersed in otaku culture and a bit less visceral than Sayaka Murata her writing. With powerful language, Usami reveals a terrifying world of teenage fan obsession—and may provide a healing corrective just as current social media companies work to bury us deeper in these illusions.”

Haunting and sincere, Idol, Burning subverts and astonishes. Rin Usami balances humor, obsession, heartbreak, and sacrifice in her debut, crafting a story that's both enveloping and expansive. Usami's writing is thrilling and deft, and her novel illuminates the shadows cloaking our digital lives, leaving us with honesty and grace in equal measures. Idol, Burning is a barnburner and a prayer and a testament to the lengths that we'll go to reach for our dreams.”—Bryan Washington, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot Idol, Burning is a bleak portrayal of aching loneliness. Participating in fandom activities and following its rituals turns out to be a substitute for love, meaningful relationships in real life, even religion. Little wonder being a fan is so tempting for young people. It gives Akari's life a clear structure and purpose. It is a journey of self-discovery also: Through getting to know his existence, I tried to sense my own. It helps her to distance herself from dull reality: Only through chasing my oshi could I escape the heaviness just for a moment. Too bad the cure turns out to be poison: apparently, Akari is lonely despite her constant participation in group activities online.

When the novel starts, Masaki, the singer, has gotten into an altercation with a fan, and he "blows up", becoming a target of public criticism. When he retires, she is lost, having no idea how to move ahead with her life. She frequently talks about him as her “spine”, she has centered her world around him, and allowed the rest of her world to atrophy and flake away. But it is not a spine that will actually allow her to live a fulfilled, happy life. Idol, Burning is a peculiar little book, even by the arguably odder-than-average standards of translated novellas. We follow a period in the life of Akari, a young woman in the grip of an all-consuming obsession with a singer and actor, Masaki: as she puts it, ‘believing in him was how I lived’. When her idol (or oshi, as she usually calls him) punches a fan, it ignites a scandal. Akari goes into a tailspin; her immersion in the fandom threatens to engulf the rest of her life. Yet this description makes the story sound much more plot-driven than it actually is. It’s strangely formless, even loose, for such a brief tale.When the spine disappears, she is desperate. After traveling to see where the idol lives, she hits the bottom of her sadness. Then she starts cleaning her messy, lonely house, crawling on the floor. That is a start. For a while she will only be able to crawl, not walk, in her life. She is taking the first steps to build a new spine. Akari, a high school junior in Japan, wakes up one morning to the dreadful rumor that Masaki Ueno has assaulted a female fan. She is devastated: To her, Masaki is not simply a member of the popular group Maza Maza, he is her oshi, in whom she finds meaning and around whom she organizes her life. Akari has always had difficulty with her schoolwork, her family situation is tense, and she gets easily overwhelmed by the responsibilities of her job at a restaurant. When it comes to Masaki, however, she is dedicated and organized: She copies down every word he utters in public in binders, interacts with other superfans through her popular blog, and spends most of her earnings on band merch and memorabilia. Other people ridicule Akari’s dedication to this one-sided relationship, but she insists that she doesn’t see anything wrong with it because she doesn’t expect anything in return. Akari is content to devote herself to Masaki from a distance, wanting to understand him fully and “to see the world through his eyes.” As the assault threatens Masaki’s future in the band and as a celebrity, Akari becomes further unmoored; she feels as though her future and well-being are inextricably tied to Masaki’s own:“ I need to give him everything, I thought. It's all I have. It was my cross to bear. Believing in him was how I lived.” Akari’s obsession is fatalistic and intense, and Usami’s prose (translated by Yoneda) renders it and the hold it has on her tenuous life ably and affectingly. While the intensity of the fandom and what it entails may seem outlandish to some, it will especially resonate with readers familiar with real-life superfandoms such as One Direction's at the height of its fame, down to details such as sought-after exclusive merch and hateful online comments sections. Idol, Burning is a short read that dives into the Idol Culture in Japan. My first work from Rin Usami and my second work from Asa Yoneda, Idol, Burning not only talks about dependancy of humans to something as a coping mechanism, it delves into the toxic culture of the internet, the effects that it has on various people, and mostly, on being constricted to the societal standards of normal. Its a book that may not be for everyone, but its one that I do have a deep understanding for and I loved the message that the author was trying to bring.