DANMEI Reading List (RAW) Pt. 2

244. The Idol Group and the Crown

Translator: Foxaholic

Chapters: 196 + 4 Extras

Tags: HARDWORKING MC, CHARACTER GROWTH, entertainment circle, likeable characters, slowburn romance, side CP

Synopsis:

The high school entrance examination's top scorer owed 800,000 yuan in debt and had to sleep in an underground parking lot like a stray dog.

Because of a trainee recruitment plan, his life was completely reversed. From then on, he went away from the darkness, towards an endless light.

Impressions: Definitely one of my favorite entertainment circle novels. This has no rebirth, transmigration, our hardworking MC got to where he is, step by step. This reminds me of  The Transmigrated Li Jin's Daily Farming Life, hardworking MC, and the novel focuses on our MC's 'career' rather than romance, plus being super detailed and informative.

Our  poor MC has an addicted-to-gambling-scum dad who owed a lot of debts. MC has an eidetic/photographic memory, got first place in the highschool examination so the loansharks are after him, wanting him to join them to make money for them. Just in time, MC catches an idol recruitment ad, there is salary and you'll be living in a closed off environment during training so our little MC goes to apply, thinking he can hide from the loan sharks and earn money at the same time. He has no singing/dancing foundation, but our ML (yes! spoiler) thinks  that he has ambition so he  let him pass. Then begins our MC's idol training life. He meets his (future) teammates one by one who are all interesting characters and good cubs! The recruitment is actually to choose six members for the company's idol group whose goal is to get the CROWN music award. Our MC learns from scratch from physical training (our MC is malnourish ;((), to playing instrument, to singing, dancing, musical arrangement. He is willing to work hard and his friends are willing to teach him more because of this attitude. He knows that he's behind compared to everyone so absorbs everything and just practice and practice so he can catch up. (I LOVE hardworking MCs!). Laters, our MC did get chosen and they train for a couple more years (ahh!! the life of the six cubs are soo good and fluffy) then make their debut. Then they are busy making songs, preparing for concerts etc. etc. 

As they get more and more famous, they are targeted one by one with various rumors etc. etc. This is actually set in 2009 (to 2019, 10 years!) when Weibo was just beginning to get famous so our MC's company (and other rival companies) are only starting to learn how to utilize it, how to buy hot search, or hire water armies, the public still doesn't know that there is such things as controlling public opinion and using netizens as guns and knives. Every year, our MC's group improve their works so they also become the #1 idol group and other companies all want to throw them off their throne. The main villain here is also one of those. He is the owner of a rival company who launched their own idol group, he is rich so he uses money to buy 'data', like hot search or number of sales etc. but he still can't compare to MC's team. This is actually really disgusting for me cos instead of spending money to improve his own idol group, he spends it instead on how to dismantle MC's team, like accusing of plagiarism or being unfilial, or being promiscuous, really rampant cyber bullying. One of our MC team members is a sensitive child, he is the 'cotton-jacket' of their team, when the other members where being bullied/had problems, he was there to comfort them. He was particularly hit by the bullying that he develop depression, laters, the villain found a way to stimulate him even more until #SPOILER he committed suicide.

Our MC collapse. He is their group's leader and feels like this was his fault cos he did not do well enough. Actually, he already developed anxiety cos they are constantly under pressure to stay as #1, improve more and more and win the Crown award. Now, because of this, he also developed depression and their idol group had to disband. This is where our ML comes in, during MC's idol years, he was MC's mentor and he and MC are actually in mutual love but they dare not tell each other, because ML thinks MC is young and promising and he can wait  after MC retires as an idol before chasing him, and MC thinks he doesn't deserve ML cos their identities are still far away from each other plus idols are not allowed to fall inlove. They have to stay perfect for their fans. Anyways, our ML accompanies MC and helped him walked out of depression. Laters, our MC made his comeback (solo this time) and worked together with ML and other team members (behind-the-scenes) to expose the villain who planned all those targeted attacks and get justice for their little sunshine. 

Laters, our MC team all reunite again, and holds a farewell concert and MC stops being an 'entertainer' studying abroad, getting married with ML etc. Extras is about the side CP and also MC's after marriage life.

This is my second idol novel, first one is For My Healing Life, but the translated chapters were few and the MC there is too tangled about his emotional problems after rebirth, that being in an idol group didn't really made an impression. But this is very detailed, the goods and bads of being an idol, the no oil, salt or sweets to control the weight,, NO ROMANCE outside or inside the team, no expression of their own opinions online, EXPRESSION MANAGEMENT ALL THE TIME, the mental health problems they could get due to what they experience etc. etc. Life is not as good as ordinary people, they can't even go outside, they're usually at their home (they all live together) and almost never goes out except for official activity. Our MC group doesn't act, they only sing and dance and hold concerts so its a different from the entertainment circles I've read. Even the romance, in the other entertainment circles, it was all sweet and fluffy but here it is bittersweet, like not being allowed to fall inlove with their own teammates (the side CP was particularly angsty). Also, when they encounter the targeted attack from the villain, most of the time, it is the companies who are battling it out, our MC group can only give unconditional support to each other like falling asleep all together in the living room or their little sunshine (huhu T_T) singing a song to comfort them. They're actually very passive on this, they can only bear it. 

I love ALL the team members, they're all very interesting and since this is about MC's career, you get to attach to  everyone and see them grow up little by little after every ''storm'. I love their team dynamics and mutual support/being a family. You can see how their thinking change, from just wanting to debut, to wanting to win the award, then start thinking about their future when they retire. (They all want to live together and pursue whatever career they want. Huhu... So precious) I also like  author-sama's foreshadowing, like something mentioned early on will be relevant in the later arcs, like mentioning a senior's suicide (they saw it when they just debuted), or about where is the most painful part to get a tattoo, or to NOT LOOK BACK, the Greek myth about Orpheus and the bible story about Sodom and Gomorrah were all previously mentioned) Really really clever. Plus author-sama is very descriptive; the music, the dance moves, even the light and sound effects, it makes it easy to imagine what their dance routine or concert is like. This got some heavy parts for me, not the all-FLUFF I was used to reading. But also very satisfying to read our MC's journey.

Read this if you like hardworking MCs, CHARACTER GROWTH, or a very realistic idol novel (You can check out the reviews on NU before diving in, its only 200 chaps but each chapter is pretty long). Aside from The Transmigrated Li Jin's Daily Farming Life, this also reminds me of Great at Acting, Now I'm Reborn, with a silently supportive ML and being very informative about the entertainment circle~ Although it's HE, am still gonna need my dose of fluff after this.