スター

by Ryo Asai

国民的スターって、今、いないよな。
…… いや、もう、いらないのかも。

誰もが発信者となった今、プロとアマチュアの境界線は消えた。
新時代の「スター」は誰だ。


作家生活10周年記念作品〔白版〕


「どっちが先に有名監督になるか、勝負だな」

新人の登竜門となる映画祭でグランプリを受賞した
立原尚吾と大土井紘。ふたりは大学卒業後、
名監督への弟子入りとYouTubeでの発信という真逆の道を選ぶ。

受賞歴、再生回数、完成度、利益、受け手の反応――
作品の質や価値は何をもって測られるのか。
私たちはこの世界に、どの物差しを添えるのか。

朝日新聞連載、デビュー10年にして放つ新世代の長編小説。

Genres: Japanese Literature

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 7, 2020

About the author

Ryo Asai (朝井リョウ ) began creating picture books at the age of six and writing stories while still in grade school; soon he was submitting manuscripts to new-writer contests as he dreamed of publishing a book of his own. He made his literary debut as a student at Waseda University, when his novel Kirishima, bukatsu yamerutte yo (Kirishima Says He's Quitting the Team) took the 2009 Shosetsu Subaru New Writers' Award. He has kept up a constant stream of publications since his debut. When his novel Nanimono (Somebody) was awarded the Naoki Prize for the second half of 2012, he was only 23, making him the youngest male author to have ever won the award. His other works include Chia danshi!! (Guy Cheerleaders!!), Mo ichido umareru (To Be Born Over), and Shojo wa sotsugyo shinai (Girls Don't Graduate).

source：http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/authors/...

Reviews

[Katie (inactive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star is the story of two friendly (?) rival directors, Kou and Shougo, on their way to fame. Some time before the story takes place, they collaborated on a movie together and won a film festival's grand prize. Needless to say, expectations for them both are very high, with others around them commenting, "It's a competition between the two of them of who is gonna be famous first". Shougo takes the more traditional route towards fame, becoming an apprentice for a famous director. Kou on the other hand takes the more modern approach--he becomes an editor for a YouTuber.

I appreciated a lot of the conversation in this book. There is a lot of talk of what makes art "good", of following or betraying expectations, of keeping to tradition or adapting modern approaches and which is "better", what has value and merit, etc. I especially found Kou's storyline and Chisa (Shougo's girlfriend)'s storyline interesting. This is a book filled with value and character in a world that is constantly tripping over itself trying to keep up with the digital age. The main message of the book it's better not to compare yourself to others is something many people need to hear in this age of social media. Star is a thought-provoking read. It's easy to understand why it's rated so highly.

For me, it's about a 3.5~ star rating. I loved the conversation in Star. But this might have been a case of expectations vs reality--when I read the tagline, I thought this would be a fast-paced story of two rivals constantly trying to one-up each other, and it's not. It's a very real story, which also means it's slow-moving and not a lot happens... like, at all. Almost all of the big plot progression points are told after the fact, like Shougo getting to work on the celebrity's movie or Kou's Road to Last Fight YouTube documentary going viral. This is not actually about Kou and Shougo's work, but about them as people. I would recommend it if you are interested in a slow-paced read that makes you think. I'm interested in picking up more by Asai in the future.

[Emi · Rating 4 out of 5]

今の時代のリアル。すごく読み応えがあった。未来の人にこの時代ってどんなだったの？って聞かれたらとりあえずは朝井リョウの本を勧めとけばいい気がする笑。