Phantom of the Idol, Vol. 1 by Hijiki Isoflavone

Phantom of the Idol, Vol. 1 by Hijiki Isoflavone

My Rating: ★★★

I received a copy from Kodansha Comics through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yuya Niyodo is one of the grumpiest and laziest idols to ever exist. He’s phoning it in. Hard. He’s totally out if it means he has to put any effort in. Meanwhile, his musical partner, Kazuki Yoshino, is extremely popular with their fans. He’s giving it all, but he can never go solo with his intense stage fright. Everything changes when Niyodo meets the ghost of a former idol who passed away in a traffic accident. She wants nothing more than to be on the big stage again while he can’t wait to get off of it. When it turns out she can possess him, they strike a deal: she can possess him for his idol performances. He gets to keep his job while she gets to live the idol life!

This turned out to be as funny as I thought it would! I wasn’t really into it for around the first 25% of it. There were some things that didn’t make sense, and others that were just hard to believe, on top of Niyodo being an unlikable character. I found it hard to believe that Asahi Mogami would skip moving on to continue idol life, especially when it wasn’t like she and Niyodo had become friends. Then the story started picking up and became enjoyable.

It was ultimately a fun read. I really liked Mogami and Yoshino, but Mogami really carries the story. There wasn’t a whole lot of character building, but I appreciate that sacrifice in the name of setting up the series. There’s a lot bubbling under the surface of each of the characters, so it’ll be fun to see them develop throughout the series. We already started seeing more of the character development by the end of the book, so I’m looking forward to this.

All in all, it was mostly hilarious. I really enjoyed the artwork and how it lends itself to the humorous plot points. The entire opening had me thinking this wasn’t a series I was going to get into, so I’m really glad it quickly picked up and showed a lot of potential. It’ll be fun to see where this goes as well as how that ending pans out!