Rascal Does Not Dream Of Siscon Idol - light novel

    Rascal Does Not Dream Of Siscon Idol (青春ブタ野郎はシスコンアイドルの夢を見ない) is a the fourth volume of the Rascal Does Not Dream light novels written by Kamoshida Hajime featuring artwork by Mizogushi Keeji.  The fourth volume was originally release in 2015 and in English in 2021.

      The following synopsis may spoil some aspects of the first three novels in the Rascal Does Not Dream series, if you do not want to ruin those stories stop reading until you have. 

Book Three: Rascal Does Not Dream Of Logical Witch review here!

 

    Sakuta thought that the biggest obstacle in his love like with celebrity actor Mai was her management team until he meets her sister.  Half-sister to be more exact, up and coming idol Toyohama Nodoka, who is barely younger than her famous sibling.  Mai's father left her mother even before she was born, marrying another woman and quickly having another child with her, Nodoka.  Mai's mother forced her daughter into the spot light as a way of getting back at her ex-husband.  After Mai's meteoric rise to stardom, Nodoka's mother attempted the same thing, seeing this as a challenge of which daughter was best.  Unfortunately, success has been hard for the younger girl to obtain, causing a wide range of emotions regarding Mai and her own mother.  In a moment of desperation Nodoka runs away from home, seeking shelter with her sibling, only to trigger 'adolescent syndrome'.  Nodoka's life has been focused on trying to become her older sister, pushed on by her mother, who only wants to taste the success her husbands ex-wife has tasted.  These feelings of idolization mixed with resentment causes the girls to switch bodies.  And just when Sakuta was hoping to have a normal high school romance with the love of his life.

    Since this is the fourth event Mai had experienced, she is pretty quick to recognize whats going on but isn't hopeful that a solution will be found any time soon.  The consummate professional, she sets up a plan for each girl to assume the role of their bodies as quickly as possible, not wanting to jeopardize either career.  Tensions flare quickly with both sisters professing a hatred for the other, leading them to refuse to interact on any level.  This forces Sakuta to act as intermediary, ensuring Nodoka, in Mai's body maintains her presence in school and to pass along any 'messages' between them.  Mai immediately goes to work learning all of Nodoka's songs and dance routines, while also assuming her roll in normal life as well.  Nodoka quickly realizes her ambitions are greater than she is ready to take on.  On her first job as Mai, shooting a commercial, the overwhelming expectation and pressure, internal and external, causes her to collapse and have the shoot cancelled.  Her mood darkens even more when she realized that Mai is doing a far better job at being her than she does.  Sakuta is desperate to rerturn things to normal but doesn't know what it will take to break the spell of despair and resentment of both girls.  Maybe he will never be able to have Mai all to himself at this rate!

     To be honest, this was an arc in the anime that I didn't enjoy going through and was not looking forward to revisiting in the light novel.  But it was a really enjoyable story in the end.  We get to see a deep dive into Mai's life and personality, even if much of it is from her half-sisters perspective.  Sakuta is quite receptive of both girls parental problems, given his own conflicts.  With each 'adolescent syndrome' incident we see Sakuta putting most of his effort into a solution, but we really get to see how far he is willing to go for Mai in particular.  He doesn't even bother to consult the ever pragmatic Futaba Rio until the end when he gives her a synopsis of the occurrence.  He really threw himself fully into solving this, much like he did in the first book.  His and Mai's emotional connection really does come through in the story.  And as is the case, we add another member to the pool of teenagers struggling with significant emotional anguish who happen to be rescued by our hero.  How much more can this guy do?  Moving into this story and the next we have a less than obvious candidate for the next 'adolescent syndrome' sufferer.

    Stepping back a bit, one thing that I thought about a lot in this volume is the hidden impact translation and localization have on a text.  You trust that the people doing that work are doing a good job in translating the personality of the story as well as they are translating the actual text, but its hard to tell in the end.  I think about that anytime I read books by Murakami Haruki and wish that my reading comprehension in Japanese is better than it is.  Need to really brush up on my kanji.  Anyway, the dialogue and writing in general in this volume felt better than anything that has come before.  If flowed easily and worked well to get you into the headspace of the characters.  It made me realize that some of my praise for the writing is obviously on the translation and localization efforts of Yen Press and the work those people have done, on top of the work that the original author has done.  It truly is an enjoyable story with quality narration.  I was a fan of the story from the first episode of the anime and I am excited to be close to moving into uncharted territory as I make my way through the original source material.  Its nice to recognize the efforts put in by everyone responsible for what I hold in my hands, and I just wanted to express my gratitude for everyone's efforts.  This truly is a well done story, even if the books are super easy to read.  I feel there's too much stigma still regarding manga, comics and light novels as being les than respectable literary creations.  I read a lot of deep thick novels as well, but there is something to be respected about a story that is created as deftly as this one in as minimal a format as possible.  On to volume 5!!

 Book Five: Rascal Does Not Dream Of A Sister At Home review here!