It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. It's about someone in the public eye who commits a misdeed or makes an improper remark, and becomes the target of criticism, is scrutinised from every angle, and loses their influence. She grows obsessed and spends all her time and money on following him, blogging about him and going to concerts. I don't think it's ever outright stated but I read her as a neurodivergent (dyslexic for sure) teen who never got the accommodations she needed to properly function in school or in life in general even though she was loved. Her devotion never wavers, but Usami nevertheless paints a compelling picture of a huge celebrity becoming cancelled by the wider world; Akari is the exception to this rule, her Devotion never wavering.

It was reassuring to sense someone's presence at a certain remove so that the space couldn't be destroyed by interacting directly, or the relationship ruined by anything I did. This is certainly the case with the novella Idol, Burning by Rin Usami, now available in an English translation by Asa Yoneda. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

The book also vaguely gestures towards Akari’s mental health and possible neurodivergence, but never properly discusses it, which I found frustrating. BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. But Dazai’s novella’s from 1939, whereas Akari inhabits a world in which fandom and social media offer different possibilities. Akari, a high school student, is an author of a popular blog about Masaki Ueno, a member of the J-Pop band Maza Maza.

In some ways, I love that the message that Usami was trying to portray is that, there are no faults to them being born in that way, but its the faults of society that judges you harshly if you're slightly different from what the society standards of 'normal' is. 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. Idol, Burning is a barnburner and a prayer and a testament to the lengths that we'll go to reach for our dreams. Idol, Burning is a tale of a young woman who becomes fixated on a boy group idol, but it's also an examination of mental health and a critique of the Japanese educational system. She runs a blog devoted to her 'oshi' which garners her a decent following of Maza Maza fans, and so her online life is much richer than her real one.In einem sozialen System, das die Philosophie des Sollen's/Müssen's repräsentiert, haben es besondere Menschen, die nicht können, schwer.

The main character definitely is in a parasocial relationship with her idol and is so deep in the fandom to the point that she doesn't know who she is without him.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. Mặc dù tôi cũng sẽ tham dự các buổi biểu diễn offline, nhưng nếu phải lựa chọn, tôi vẫn muốn trở thành một người hâm mộ chìm trong đám đông.