Jul 23, 2026
I found this story maybe an hour ago, and it hit me like a truck. Or maybe that was me as the truck considering how fast I read it?
Awesome story. You made me really care about these characters in record time. It was easy to picture both the anime scenes and IRL scenes. I also liked all the references to Perfect Blue and Higurashi. And how, in the end, how much of what happened was real? Did the power of fanaticism and possibly-cursed dolls create a subreality of the show, keeping the characters in purgatory? (Or development hell, as one commentor put it.) Was it all delusion? Does it matter?
The bits of horror fiction that tend to stick with me the most, aside from the gruesome mental images, is when things almost go ok. When there's the light, and it can get better, and nope, it's a train (sorry, PuchiBro). At the end? When PuchiBro does get to meet his idol, and Micchan gets to meet her fan, and they really could have related to each other as people and come out the better for it... but no. That didn't happen. Now they're both in their own personal hell forever. I'm feeling a lot of feelings, now. Thanks for the catharsis. I hope you win the contest.
