Hey!! I just finished up reading the ~new~ manga Idol Dreams and it was gooooooood. It’s about a 31-year-old woman who thinks she’s lived life all wrong – so she takes an experimental drug every day that turns her into a 15 year old. Random events after that cause her to become a new teen idol. Basically it’s a magical girl story for adults. And I love it.Spoilers!
Okay so I have to admit, the experimental drug turning her into a 15 year old is a little unbelievable, but I was willing to suspend disbelief to enjoy the book. Her teeth magically got whiter? Her hair longer?? Instantly? Only lasts 5 hours at a time? Convenient friend who secretly loves her has experimental drugs?? Okaaaaay, so it’s a stretch. But if you can get past all that, it’s pretty good.
It starts out with the main character Chikage Deguchi’s life just sucking. Her life was just terrible. So she attempts suicide, but is saved by a friend from high school. He takes her back to his house and tells her he can help her start over with his experimental drug that the government stopped him from researching (…okay). She doesn’t care, tells him she’ll take it and if she dies there’s a suicide note in her purse. Everything’s all good, she takes the pill, she turns young and cute. HOW DOES HER HAIR GET LONGER?? HER TEETH GET WHITER?? ALL THIS IS INSTANT FROM A PILL?? Okay. Oooohkay. Anyway, she RUNS out of his house to go live her life, bumps into a guy, he thinks she’s a model, she’s not but she stands in for the model. The guy they want her to film a commercial with looks like her high school crush, so she’s into it. That’s how she got into stardom. She didn’t want to though, because she’s still Plain Normal Her on the inside, so she gives them a fake name and doesn’t sign with them after the one commercial. Deguchi gets her first kiss in this scene, which is strange because she’s secretly 31 and it was from a 15 year old boy. Weeeird. But okay. I guess the drug makes her young, idk.
She meets up with Tokita, her friend from earlier with the experimental drug. He saw the advertisement she was in and is mad at first but then he talks her into going back and signing with them. That was a quick change of heart. Then, in an effort to feel comfortable with her new life, Deguchi drinks one WHOLE beer and gets suuuuuper drunk. Tokita takes her home, gets her comfy, takes off her glasses, gets reeeeal close to kissing her and then leaves. Tokita is secretly in love with her but he has a girlfriend. Seems like something he would have mentioned to her earlier when she was committing suicide, hmm.
BACK to Deguchi. She takes her magic pill and turns into a wee 15 year old and goes and signs up to be an idol with the cute boy that looks like her high school crush. By the way, his name is Hibiki. Hibiki is the biggest idol right now – and she has no idea who he is. But she dances and sings with him, things she’d never done before. She is obviously starting to care for this Hibiki because she takes special notice of how talented he is and she cares about people leaving him. Aww. But chill, he 15.
Anyway, it was really good, my prediction is she gets with Tokita but it could really go any way. IT’S ONLY BOOK ONE. I really enjoyed the book, it was very girly and yet adult, so pretty refreshing. Nice.
TCG fairy 