[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4f1bc46b78bc64cbb3fc1b47dcbe4cc6.jpg]]
''Idoru'' is a {{Cyberpunk}}/PostCyberpunk SpeculativeFiction novel by Creator/WilliamGibson. Set in [[TokyoistheCenteroftheUniverse Tokyo]], it is the second book of the ''Literature/BridgeTrilogy''.

Rez of the Lo/Rez band has announced he is going to marry Rei Toei, a Japanese digital celebrity -- a.k.a. [[TitleDrop "idoru"]]. Lo/Rez's FanGirl Chia Pet [=McKenzie=] travels to Tokyo to find out the truth. Laney, an ex-analyst, is hired by Rez's security to find out what's wrong with him. Meanwhile, the [[TheMafiya Russian Kombinat]] execute their own scheme and are not letting those two get in their way.

In 2006, [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2006-04-24/idoru-anime an anime film version]] was announced, but to date, [[DevelopmentHell nothing has come of it]].
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!!!Tropes Used:

* AdvertisedExtra: While Rei Toei is the instigating factor behind this novel's plot, she does not appear until after its halfway point and has overall fewer interactions with other characters than even in the next book, which wasn't named after her.
* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: The Japanese loanword for "idol" should technically be romanized as ''aidoru'', not ''idoru''. This mostly an odd case of RecursiveTranslation between writing systems changing the "proper" spelling of a word, however: Depending on one's accent, the "i" in both "idol" and "idoru" would be pronounced "ai" already. [[note]] Indeed in at least one extant audiobook recording the narrator pronounces the book's title as "aidoru." [[/note]], hence the loanword's initial vowel in Japanese.
* AuthorAvatar: Colin Laney to William Gibson, in a way. Laney's talent for identifying nodal points was meant to be a metaphor for Gibson's own much noted knack for identifing bits of the future in present-day.
* BeigeProse: Like other William Gibson novels, played straight. Sentence fragments. Everywhere.
* BerserkButton: Zona Rosa really hates it when anyone insults her toughness.
* CityNoir: Tokyo
* CorporateSamurai: Blackwell is a typical Gibson example of such and is introduced in such a way that you think he'll be a bad guy, but turns out to be a rare positive example and one of the most reliably trustworthy characters in the book.
* CrapsackWorld: Tokyo’s Western World.
* CyberPunk[=/=]PostCyberPunk: Can be classified as one or the other, depending on who you ask.
* [[CyberpunkwithAChanceofRain Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain]]
* {{Cyberspace}}: Chia’s chapters with her Sandbender computer loves this trope.
* DoAndroidsDream: Rei Toei. [[spoiler:In fact, her dreams are literally the music videos.]]
* EverythingIsOnline: Laney uses information online, including music likes, to track down and analyze specific aspects of the person he’s tracking.
* FanGirl: Chia, Mitsuko, Hiromi and tons of other unnamed girls.
* FatBastard: Chia believes Hiromi is one. [[spoiler:She's proven right in the end.]]
* FemmeFatale: Rei Toei
* LeFilmArtistique: The first of the two documentaries for Lo/Rez. Lampshaded when Laney thought it was hard to follow at times. [[spoiler:However, the documentary shows the band being disconnected from the world through stress and travel, a major reason why Rez is marrying the idoru, who is ''always'' connected to the world by virtue of only existing in cyberspace.]]
* {{Flashback}}: Mostly in Laney’s chapters. He often remembers his old work while analyzing the nodal points.
* GratuitousEnglish: Used intentionally, found in descriptions of Japanese advertisements, clothing, drinks, and instruction labels.
* HackerCollective: Masahiko belongs to a hacker collective known as Walled City.
* {{Hikikomori}}: Masahiko.
* {{Hologram}}: Rei Toei, the idoru herself.
* IdolSinger: Lo/Rez and Rei Toei.
* IndustrialGhetto: Tokyo’s Western World. [[spoiler:It is basically Tokyo’s old remains left untouched after the earthquake.]]
* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Not nearly as blatant as in the Literature/SprawlTrilogy, but Japan has definitely fared much better than the U.S. or Russia since the global economic crash.
* JerkAss: Hiromi Ogawa.
* IAmLegion: [[spoiler: Rei Toei is not just one, but many idorus.]]
* TheMafiya: In Japan, the Russian Kombinat (or Combine) are setting up a shady business deal. [[spoiler: They want to acquire a programming unit for nanotech assemblers, which are banned technology in Russia.]]
* MatrixRainingCode: Laney sometimes sees this while he is analyzing nodal points. So does Chia when she is using her sandbender program.
* MeaningfulName:
** Chia Pets are toys.
** The Walled City, the hacker community, is named after the Kowloon Walled City.
** Slitscan is an animation that’s created by image by image.
** Zona Rosa is a neighbourhood in Mexico City. [[spoiler:In a brilliant combination of GeniusBonus and {{Foreshadowing}}, the Zona Rosa is a very expensive and trendy area...]]
** Rei Toei’s name and personality are inspired by the Toei company which includes Creator/ToeiAnimation.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: (Semi) In-universe. The avatar for Chia's Venice program is an [[{{Bishounen}} effeminate]] pop-star looking man with an impressive coat. It is mentioned that in order to avoid litigation, they had to change [[Music/DavidBowie one of his eyes]] ([[LampshadeHanging but why just one, Chia wonders?]])
* NotDisabledInVR: Zona Rose, the supposed leader of a ''Chilanga'' girl gang, [[spoiler: is ultimately revealed to be the severely disabled daughter of a lawyer.]]
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Blackwell to [[spoiler: Kathy Torrance.]]
* {{Otaku}}: Masahiko is a computer otaku.
* PlayfulHacker: Zona Rosa. [[spoiler: In the end, she saves everyone, by hacking the central fan community, sacrificing her identity, and webspace in the process, announcing that Rez died at the love hotel. The fans immediately converge there for a mass vigil, and the crowds really slow down the baddies.]]
* ProductPlacement: Pocari Sweat of all things, though obscure references like this, are one of Gibson's trademarks.
* ProjectedMan: Rei Toei, the Idoru.
* RecursiveReality: The Walled City [[spoiler: is basically Tokyo itself, managed in the style of VideoGame/SecondLife.]]
* {{Revenge}}: Kathy Torrance hates Laney a lot.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Rei Toei.
* RoboticSpouse: The premise.
* {{Robosexual}}: The premise, again.
* SceneryPorn: It perfectly describes Tokyo, especially to anyone who has visited or lived there.
* SceneryGorn: When it isn't Scenery Porn.
* SpeculativeFiction
* TechnoBabble: Gibson doesn't spell out exactly, how things work in any of his novels.
* TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse
* TranslatorMicrobes: Chia uses translator software that lets her converse in real time with Mitsuko, who speaks little English. Some of the problems of using software are noted:
-->"Masahiko is seventeen," Mitsuko said. "He is a 'pathological-techno-fetishist-with-social-deficit,'" this last all strung together like one word, indicating a concept that taxed the lexicon of the ear-clips...
-->"A what?"
-->"Otaku," Mitsuko said carefully in Japanese. The translation burped its clumsy word string again.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* UnusualPopCultureName: Chia Pet [=McKenzie=] was named after the terracotta figurines. Her mother was an immigrant, did not speak English, did not understand the commercial and just liked the sound of "Chia Pet", so it was not intentional.
* TheVerse: Part of the Bridge Trilogy.
* VirtualCelebrity
* WeaponForIntimidation: Maryalice uses her handgun shaped cigarette lighter for this, near the end of the book. [[spoiler: The illusion collapses when she pulls the trigger.]]
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