Content Warning: Violence, female masturbation, obsession, torture, gore, misogyny, gender bending fetish, and creepy idol fans
Oh boy, here we go. This book is actually a collection of short stories that are disconnected not only from the original work but from each other as well. The only common thread connected them is that they all feature pop idols and creepy fans. Let’s get started
Wake Me From This Dream:
The first story is the shortest and the weirdest. We’re introduced to Toshihiko, a lazy man and idol fan. We just follow him around in his crappy apartment and learn little bits about him. And then things get weird when he sudden transforms into his idol, Asaka Ai. He starts out shocked and then, well, he “explores” this new body, shall we say? However, he’s being stalked by someone. That someone turns out to be his original body. And they’ve come to kill him. Or her? It’s a real weird one, as it’s Ai’s body but Toshihiko’s mind and apartment. Like I said, it’s a weird one.
Cry Your Tears:
This one starts one with yet another unnamed creepy fan who is obsessed with Kawasaki Yuma, an idol that is just starting out her career. She’s a relatively normal girl, who gets bonus points from me for being introduced wearing a Milky Momo vs Godzilla t-shirt. She’s done a single or two and TV performances but gets a job doing commercials for an appliance company that forces her to dress up like a younger girl. Yeah, I know. She also has a boyfriend who’s an up and coming actor but it keeps them apart sometimes. Once again, everyone ignores the creepy letters and things and they really shouldn’t. Because our creepy stalker this time is all about Yuma and carries around a box cutter. He stalks her and even turns up at a meet and greet for her fans. Yuma picks up on his weirdness but no one else cares.
Before too long, Yuma is spotted by a photographer with her boyfriend and it hits the newsstands. I really love how Yuma stands up for herself and her boyfriend when the news hits her office. She’s one of the best idols we’ve seen so far and we’re not even to her best part. After getting home and feeling that something is wrong, she calls her boyfriend and asks him to come over. When there’s a knock and she opens it, it isn’t him, it’s the stalker. He binds her with tape and then starts to assault her. In many ways but doesn’t penetrate. Thank goodness. To stop her from trying to escape, he cuts the bottoms of her feet. Yeah. This stuff is bad. And just when you think she might be saved, when her boyfriend finally turns up, the stalker slits his throat. This gets worse as the stalker gets ready to assault her again but she turns the tables and fights back. It actually works out as she’s able to stab him a few times and even cuts his Achilles tendon. She tries to escape, making it slowly out of her apartment and starts trying to go down the stairs, in a slow speed chase. He wins and drags her back into the apartment. He tricks him and says she’ll sing for him. What song? Why her number one hit, Lariat Of Love. I’m betting you can figure out what she does when he gives her the microphone with a cable attached…
Even When I Embrace You:
Our final story is about Yukiko and her stalker. This one is different as she has a female manager and her stalker wears a bunny mascot suit. One that has been partially burned. And he is just as dangerous as the others.
Yukiko first sees him in an empty display of her that’s been set up for her next big performance in a mall, caressing her wax statue the venue has commissioned. It freaks her the fuck out, like most of us would. This guy must have super powers as he keeps managing to disappear several times in the story. Yukiko knows this creep is after her but no one else seems to believe her, even her manager.
The rabbit appears several more times, stalking her at her events and when traveling home. He finally lets himself be seen during her appearance at a TV studio but vanishes yet again. Her manager mobilizes her fan club to walk patrols around her home. And one of them is killed by the rabbit, showing just dangerous he is. Of course, he is smart enough to vanish with the body, so no one knows exactly what happens. It does make them increase security and get police protection at her next event, the one with the display in the mall.
Just as she’s getting ready to preform, two things happen: Someone starts a rumor that Yukiko is going to be on the roof and the officer watching the freight elevator lets the rabbit walk past him because no one told him to look out for him specifically. With all this going on, Yukiko is on her own and has to flee from the rabbit. They end up on the roof and, with equal measures of intelligence, luck, and skill, Yukiko is able to get away from the rabbit. Of course, since this is pretty much a slasher movie, the rabbit’s body vanishes at the end.
And that’s all of the stories. I don’t think I liked this one as much as I liked the last book. The first story wasn’t engaging to me and felt like fetish fuel. The next two were pretty good but were either too gory or relied on old horror tropes that I dislike. The author just makes these obsessive fans but rarely gives them names or personalities of note. They exist to stalk and hurt the idols. On the flip side, I actually do like the idols and their personalities. They good people and don’t deserve what’s happening to them. Which I think is the point of all this. However, if it were me, I would never ever get involved in this world because of these freaks and weirdos. I am by no means perfect, and I do follow and interact with a few idols online, but I try to be polite and not weird. Just, normal I guess. But I hesitate to talk with them because I see how creepy their fans get. And I don’t want to be seen the same way.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Suggestion: Read it if
you like thrillers or really liked the first book, as it’s just
more of the same.
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