Idol, burning

Akari, a high school student, has, like thousands of other Japanese, her own oshi. For their fans oshis are not mere idols, they are objects of worship and meaning of life. Akari writes a blog about Masaki Ueno, a member of the pop group Maza Maza. She goes to concerts, recaps interviews, buys band’s merchandise, she even has a small library with all Masaki’s statements. When Masaki is lynched by the media for phisically assaulting a woman, Akari’s life begins to fall apart. Despite his decline in popularity, Akari still clings blindly to her oshi, her love for him permeates every pore of her life. At the same time, her insecurities about herself and her dissatisfaction with her own body and life are revealed. Rin Usami is a young japanese author who herself has her own oshi as well. With her novel Idol, burning she wanted to show the world how misunderstood the oshi phenomenon is. . For the novel she won the Akutagawa Prize for up-and-coming young Japanese writers. (EZ)