While shojo manga still largely falls under the radar for most manga readers, this year saw one of the most interesting slate of shojo licenses yet, including this one.
NOT YOUR IDOL (Sayonara Miniskirt!), by Aoi Makino. First published in 2018 and first published in North America in 2020.
PLOT:
Until recently, Nina Kamiyama had been the star of the idol group Pure Club. Then she suffered a terrible attack at a fan meet-up. Now she is both physically and mentally scarred, to the point where she leaves the group, adopts an alias, and rejects all things feminine and cute. Her new classmates regard her as either a curiosity or a freak, but Hikaru Horiuchi sympathizes with her even before he figures out her true identity. Nina isn't sure what to do about Hikaru. She wants to trust him with her secret (and maybe more), but her attacker is still on the loose. One of the few things known about him is that he's good at judo and has a ear affliction common to the sport...just like Hikaru.
STORY:
If you're looking to this book to deliver the sugar-sweet rainbow-colored highs that one normally expects from idol anime, you might need to look elsewhere. This series has more in common with the likes of Perfect Blue than Love Live!.
Admittedly, it's not as intense or adult as Perfect Blue. Not Your Idol's target of critique isn't the grind and dangers of the idol industry but something more relevant to its young audience: the double standards that comes with being a cis teen girl.
All around Nina, her classmates are making judgments about the girls around them. They talk about who is considered cute, and who is not. When someone starts sexually harassing girls on campus, the kids are just as ready to sympathize with the victims as they are ready to mock less popular girls for being 'too ugly' to get such a treatment. When Nina and Hikaru help save a classmate from a train groper, there are just as many people ready to harass her for making a fuss as there are those willing to defend her. The manga has no set answers for any of these issues or inspiring speeches that change the minds of the shittier kids. What few positive changes can be made are short-term at best. It's surprisingly heavy content for a shojo series, and I have to praise Makino for handling it well.
I'm also impressed with the level of sympathy that's extended to Nina. While it's made clear that Nina's choice to reject femininity and run away from old life is an overreaction, Makino clearly has a lot of sympathy for the trauma, panic, and frustration that fueled this choice. Nina's moments of rage and sadness are almost visceral in their intensity. When combined with the other heavy subject matters, it definitely makes Not Your Idol a series that's a bit too intense for younger readers and anyone who might be triggered by violence against women.
That's why it's so nice that Nina is slowly but surely getting paired off with Hikaru, who might just be the most mellow shojo love interest I've seen in a good long while. His gentle demeanor and support after he discovers Nina's true identity is something she clearly needs, even if his attempts to remind her about the positive effect of idols upon others feels like a conversation that's happening way too early for her to really handle.
The only plot thread that feels off is the mystery around Nina's attacker. Makino veers into sheer melodrama here, dragging out the obvious red herring of Hikaru being Nina's attacker long past the point of plausibility. This first volume is dealing with too much serious, substantial matters to deal with something so silly. It's not enough to wreck this first volume, but it's absolutely something that should have been pushed out to a cliffhanger, if not the next volume.
ART:
The story of Not Your Idol may be intense at points, but the art is as precious as anything else that runs alongside it in Ribon. Makino makes it about as gritty as most modern shojo manga are willing to go. The uniforms, hairstyles, and backgrounds are all very ordinary (if very well-rendered) and there's a minimum of the usual stylistic flourishes of sparkles, bubbles and wacky screentones. Yet every character has the same sort of baby-faced look, their small features dwarfed by their dark, round, doll-like eyes. It's hard to miss them because Makino uses so many close-ups, which also helps to enhance the tension of the more serious moments.
RATING:
If you've been looking for a shojo series with a more serious bent, then Not Your Idol may work for you. Time will tell if it's able to follow through on its feminist themes and emotional sensitivity, but I'm more than willing to give it a chance to do so.
This series is published by Viz. This series is ongoing in Japan with 2 volumes available. Both volumes have been published and are currently in print.
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