Her second novel Oshi, Moyu / Idol, Burning won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2020 and has become a phenomenon, selling over 500,000 copies in Japan alone.

Rin Usami captures the insularity and obsessive nature of "stan culture" with aplomb, and if you've spent time in any sort of online fandom over the years, there's a lot you'll recognize in here. The prose is distant and restrained, and while I usually like this type of style, here it just compounded my disinterest. Personally, I can relate to that on how obsessed I can be with books and some comfort animes that I took pleasure watching day by day. A few weeks ago, I read Sheena Patel's novel I'm a Fan and the digressions on philosophical aspects of fandom intrigued me. In a way, this is a book about an abused man and a woman with severe mental health issues, both of them struggling to gain agency over their own lives: In the subtext, the de-humanizing system of idol culture and how it affects Masaki are revealed; Akari is both exploited financially by the entertainment company that employs Masaki and she contributes to his exploitation as a projection surface.We never learn if the assault took place - or indeed if it took place at all - imbuing the narrative with the same feeling you get when you're 30 pages into a rumor filled subreddit. Akari’s dedication to her oshi consumes her days completely – until he disgraces himself and Akari’s world goes into a tailspin. Alles was man sich beim lesen denkt, wird dann auch gedacht, verbalisiert und nochmal durch das Außen gespiegelt und eingeordnet. From the sociological point of view, Idol, Burning (2020) is a valuable source of information on oshi culture and fandom in general. Idol, Burning reminded me a bit of a documentary that aired 10-ish years ago about fans of One Direction, with the focus on unhealthy levels of obsession and parasocial relationships.

I must confess I liked Sheena Patel's book more albeit there are things I enjoyed in Idol, Burning a lot: its subtlety, the melancholy atmosphere, the symbol of fire, the portrayal of Akari, the original subject matter.

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. This short novel turned Usami, born in 1999, into one of the youngest Akutagawa winners ever, and while the story and the language are deceptively simple, the first-person narrative does a great job evoking truths about the protagonist that she herself has not consciously realized. What's impressive about this novel is the author's ability to empathize with Akari's all-consuming love for Masaki while showing just how damaging this relationship is to Akari and everyone around her. Das alles wird ohne große literarische Raffinesse erzählt und ist leider schon in vielen Coming-of-age-Romanen erzählt worden und in vielen sehr viel besser.

The online fan community gives Akari a chance to excel, but excel at something that could end and become irrelevant with the idol's retirement. It's short and it's worth reading and Rin Usami is one to watch for sure, but I ultimately did want more from this. A voice crying out in darkness - captures the loneliness, the fervor and the all-consuming escapism of idol fan culture and how it provides comfort and fuel for youth struggling in every other part of their daily lives. Overall it reads easily enough, but only due to the heartfelt afterword of the author I am rounding up to three stars.High-school student Akari suffers from learning disabilities and has been diagnosed with a mental illness (seems like depression and/or ADHS), she feels left out by her family and social environment. cũng đã ghi nhớ mãi trong lòng Akari; đó cũng là ẩn dụ về chính bản thân Akari sau này, cô bé chẳng thể đối mặt với cuộc sống thực tế tàn khốc hơn bao giờ, thậm chí những người đồng nghiệp ở nơi làm thêm cũng mong Akari đừng quá mộng tưởng về thần tượng. A vivid depiction of the joys and despairs of teenage fan culture, Idol, Burning is urgent and all-consuming . To access you ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose. Akari, a high school student, is an author of a popular blog about Masaki Ueno, a member of the J-Pop band Maza Maza.

With unflinching clarity, Usami expertly transforms Akari's devotion into debilitating disconnection. Thus, in the end, you don't get closure, especially since the relationship between her mental struggles and her obsession with her idol was awkward and not well fleshed. Dần sau đó, người đọc được biết cách Akari lần đầu nhìn thấy thần tượng của cô bé, cách cô bé đã ngưỡng mộ thần tượng thế nào, cách mà thần tượng đã cho Akari điểm tựa trong cuộc sống này. While I liked elements of Akari’s characterisation, the story didn’t say anything about the nature of stan culture that wasn’t articulated more effectively in Everything I Need I Get From You, a non-fiction book about fandom I read recently. in " The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly " Publishing This Week" newsletter.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Czytając kilka recenzji moich znajomych zauważyłam jak różne emocje i wnioski wywołała w nas ta lektura.