The Fall 2020 Manga Guide

Ossan Idol

What's It About? 

Miroku Osaki is 36 years old, unemployed, and unhappy. Having been bullied in his childhood and even into his adult life, he became a shut-in after being unfairly laid off. For a long time, the only thing that brought him joy was online gaming. Then, he tried the popular idol game called "Let's Try Dancing". Inspired by the game, Miroku decides to turn his life around. He begins singing karaoke and going to the gym, where he meets Yoichi, the director of an entertainment company who encourages Miroku to pursue his dreams. Miroku only wanted to be good at the game he loves, but when he accidentally uploads a clip of himself singing and dancing, it goes viral.

Ossan Idol! is illustrated by Ichika Kino and adapts the light novels of the same name by Mochiko Mochida and Mizuki Sakakibara. Shufu to Seikatsu Sha began releasing the series in compiled book volumes with Sakakibara's illustrations in June 2017, and Kino's manga adaptation launched on Shufu to Seikatsu Sha's Comic PASH! manga website in July 2018. Tokyopop has licensed the manga for release this year.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

They're idols – but they're old! That's basically the tagline for Ossan Idol!, although for a lot of readers a lead character who's thirty-six is hardly one pushing decrepitude. It is, however, undeniably older than the idols in 99% of idol manga, anime, and light novels, and that's almost enough of a hook here, because it is nice to see a story about someone's life really taking off when they're well-beyond high school. That's true for all three of the protagonists in this story – Miroku, the main lead, is just recovering from having been mistreated for being overweight, so he's arguably just starting out in life for real, but Yoichi runs two moderately successful businesses and Shiju is on his second career. They're both probably closer to forty than Miroku is, but that makes the story that much more striking, because it's not like Miroku is trying to blend in with the kiddies.

He could, of course – no one quite believes that he's in the latter half of his third decade – but that's really just a foot in the door here. What's more important for the story is that his sweet personality is finally being noticed, although most people are taken in by his newly impressive looks now that he's lost weight. But it's the personality that keeps them interested, because without it Miroku would just be any other handsome man; people initially want to work with him because of his looks, but it's his kindness that seals the deal, as we see repeatedly throughout the volume. Sometimes that lands him in some kind of creepy situations, such as when a producer who's just this side of being a predatory gay stereotype asks Miroku to sit on his lap. He's surprised when Miroku does and when he explains his reasons for doing it, which basically amounts to “no skin off my back, besides, I can brag to my family.” The producer clearly wasn't expecting such a wholesome response, but that's just who Miroku is – a nice guy who'd rather help out than not, even though he's spent most of his life being bullied for his appearance.

It's always a very slippery slope when major weight loss features in a story about someone's second chance, and while I'd hesitate to say that Ossan Idol! does it brilliantly, it does err more on the side of caution, with Miroku's change in weight being a fairly gradual process. Mind you, “coherent passage of time” isn't a strength of the volume, but in this case it works out, and it's much better than, for example, the three men rehearsing for the dance contest that lands them an idol contract, which doesn't have any appreciable sense of time passing. We also never see any actual dancing from anyone, which is a definite issue when his singing and dancing in an accidentally uploaded video is what netted Miroku attention in the first place, and Shiju's first career was as a dancer. The art, frankly, might not have been up to it, because while it's fine aesthetically, it has some issues with perspective that definitely take a toll.

On the whole, however, this is decent fun. It's certainly a different concept for an idol series, and if you're looking for a new role for older characters, that alone makes it worth giving a chance.

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Caitlin Moore

Rating:

For some reason, Tokyopop didn't see fit to translate the word “ossan” for their release of Ossan Idol!, so if you're not up on your Japanese, I'll translate for you. “Ossan” is a slurring of the word “ojisan,” meaning, “middle-aged man” or “uncle”. Miroku, Yoichi, and Fumi, the titular ossan idols, are all in their 30s. So already Ossan Idol! is getting off on the wrong foot calling men just a couple years older than me “middle-aged.” I mean, in the afterword the author talks about how people objected to the categorization, but still!

It's a silly thing to complain about, but Ossan Idol! is a pretty silly manga. After all, it's about three fully grown adult men who stumble ass-backwards into becoming idols after a video of one of them singing and dancing at karaoke goes viral. It has most of the standard plot beats of stories about homegrown idols – they get together, a lot of lines about how idols are so great because they make people happy, they almost disband, and by the end of the volume, the path to their official debut has opened up.

It's nice enough, and more grounded than certain other idol series I've seen. It helps that I've absolutely developed a fondness for “ossan”-type characters over the years, thanks to the charms of Tiger and Bunny's Kotetsu Kaburagi. Still, while the character designs are certainly attractive, I kind of feel like the characters in this lack a certain something that really makes up the appeal. I need more, I don't know, complaints about back pain. A greater sense of the weight of the years. Maybe one of them has a kid. Miroku is barely distinguishable from a starry-eyed twenty-one-year-old.

I also have to point out their manager, Lavender Kamo, who is unfortunately the manga stereotype of an effeminate gay man. Just the name alone boggles the mind. One of his first panels is him putting on lipstick, and he has Miroku sit on his lap at their first meeting. Somehow, Miroku accepting this blatant sexual harassment is proof that he's pure-hearted and therefore will make a good idol. He's not as bad as he could be but I'm just. So. Tired.