Idol, Burning
 by Rin Usami

Winner of the 164th (2021) Akutagawa Prize

Akari is a high school student with learning difficulties. She has only one passion in her life: her 'oshi', namely her idol. His name is Masaki Ueno, and he is a member of Maza Maza, a five-person Japanese idol band. Akari’s devotion to her oshi consumes her days completely. She keeps a blog entirely devoted to her oshi, piously chronicling and analysing all the events Masaki attends. She describes him as the spine of her life, someone she cannot survive without. Yet, when Masaki is rumoured to have assaulted a female fan and facing waves of social media backlash, hence 'moyu' (a word literally meaning burning), Akari's world falls apart . . .

​

Written in an unusually mature style, Oshi, Moyu offers a fascinating insight into the otaku culture in Japan, and more universally, into fandom and adolescence. Usami brings us into Akari's world, into her passions, anxieties, struggles, and despair. Akari reminds us of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, yet her painful coming of age, her loneliness and alienation from the world, brings her closer to J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield. A 21st century Catcher in the Rye, and 'a masterpiece that brilliantly captures our times and should be preserved for future archaeologists' (Ryo Asai, 2013 Naoki Prize winner). 

​