Yuya Niyodo is a failing up and coming idol, part of the duo ZINGS, alongside his group mate Kazuki Yoshino. Niyodo only decided to become an idol for the easy money, not realizing that it actually took effort. About to be fired, everything changes when he meets the ghost of former top idol Asahi Mogami who despite being dead still wants to be an idol. The two strike up a deal: Niyodo will allow Asahi to possess him so she can still be an idol in his steed.
Phantom of the Idol (神クズ☆アイドル, Kami Kuzu Idol) is a josei manga written and illustrated by Hijiki Isoflavone, which began serialization in Monthly Comic Zero Sum on December 28, 2017. The manga was later adapted into an anime, directed by Daisei Fukuoka for Studio Gokumi, which began airing in July 2022.
Tropes present in the series include:
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime heavily expands on the role of ZINGS fans and what they do behind the scenes, and introduces Kasenjiki's group much earlier than they appear in the manga.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: While Asahi does identify as female, she also identifies with being the male idol Niyodo Yuya due to Sharing a Body, and acts as a man whenever she has control of the body. This discrepancy in gender and gender presentation doesn’t bother her, as she only wants to be an idol regardless of gender.
- Audience Surrogate: Kasenjiki's group act as a perspective for idol fans in the audience, however when they get too extreme sometimes newer fans of ZINGS act as an audience surrogate to them.
- Blonde Brunette Red Head: The members of ZINGS are: Yoshino a blond, Niyodo a brunette, and Asahi a red head.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite putting as little effort as possible into being an idol, Niyodo memorizes his group's song and dance numbers with ease, even if Asahi is the one in control of the body when learning the routine.
- Chuunibyou: Asahi is implied to either have been one or interested in the subculture, her ideas of "what's cool" direct right back to the chuunibyou subculture, with things like: special powers, eyepatches, and flowery catchphrases. When crafting a new persona for both herself and Niyodo she made them into both a combination of a chuunibyou and Visual Kei caricature.
- Cute Ghost Girl: The idol Mogami Asahi died in a tragic traffic accident and has been trapped in the mortal plane due to still wanting to continue her idol activities.
- Damned by Faint Praise: Niyodo is regularly on the receiving end of this, with his fans praising him for doing things such as: "exisisting" and "staying awake".
- Even the Guys Want Him: Niyodo and ZINGS as a whole are shown to have male fans attend their concerts, the most notable male fan being Setouchi.
- Freudian Trio: ZINGS form one with Niyodo as the Id, Asahi as the Ego, and Yoshino as the Superego.
- Friendly Ghost: Asahi is an energetic former idol who is now haunting Niyodo as a ghost, and is very friendly towards him.
- Gender Bender: The female idol Asahi inhabits Niyodo's male body via possession, the gender difference doesn't seem to bother her, in fact she's ecstatic to use his larger form to perform as she sees it as a challenge.
- Hikikomori: Setouchi used to be one until he found Asahi's music which gave him the courage to go outside again.
- Grand Theft Me: Occasionally Asahi will steal Niyodo's body without his consent to do something frivolous, such as eating a huge parfait.
- Identical Stranger: ZINGS manager and a member of Kasenjiki's group named Tsugiko look like twins, however they don't seem to have any relation.
- Last-Name Basis: Even before sharing a body, Asahi and Niyodo refer to others in the exact same way: for guys its their last name and “-kun” and first name plus “-chan” for girls.
- Loony Fan: Setouchi is one to Asahi, and constantly stalks Niyodo’s every action to try and prove that he’s disgracing Asahi’s name on his blog. During this process he inadvertently becomes a loony fan of Niyodo as well.
- Loss of Identity: Asahi worries that Niyodo is losing his sense of individuality due to her sharing his body, Niyodo assures her that this isn’t the case as he’s just grateful to have someone to shirk work onto.
- Manly Man and Sensitive Guy: Niyodo and Yoshino have this dynamic with Niyodo being the aloof and stoic manly man, and Yoshino being the shy and caring sensitive guy.
- Mind Hive: What Niyodo functionally is with Asahi possessing and haunting him, it's more straight forward when he's possessed but even when he's not he tends to act on Asahi's will, and will parrot Asahi's thoughts to be heard by others.
- Mundane Utility: Niyodo uses ghost possession to have someone else do his job for him.
- Odd Couple: The lazy money grubbing Niyodo, and the energetic passionate Asahi form one, taken even further given that they share a body.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Asahi and Niyodo’s relationship is strictly platonic, they discuss that the two could easily do common Rom Com tropes but show little interest in it as they aren’t attracted to each other romantically.
- Punny Name: The members of ZINGS given names when combined can mean "Night and Day" with Yuuya being regularly written with the kanji for "night", Kazuki can be written with the kanji "addition or and" and Asahi can be written with the kanji "day".
- Running Gag: In the manga ZINGS fans are constantly treating Niyodo like a gacha mechanic, betting on which Niyodo (the original or Asahi) they’ll pull for the day.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Niyodo and Asahi form this sort of dynamic.
- Sharing a Body: Niyodo willingly shares his body with the ghost of Asahi, he's pretty relaxed about it, but gets angry if she overexerts their body or spends too much of his money. They split up who does the idol work for the day like a chore chart.
- Something Only They Would Say: What tips Setouchi off on Niyodo and Asahi having some sort of connection is that during the Rock Paper Scissors fan meet Asahi (as Niyodo) says the exact same speech she did at one of her concerts when she was alive.
- Spirit Advisor: Asahi acts as one to Niyodo who she wants to help become a top idol.
- Split Personality: ZINGS fans are under the impression that Niyodo has one that they calls his "God Mode", which in reality is just Asahi possessing him.
- Split-Personality Makeover: Whenever Asahi posses Niyodo his usual Black Dot Pupils become larger and show his true eye color which is pinkish brown, and is usually blushing.
- Split-Personality Team: Zigzagged, while Niyodo and Asahi were originally separate entities, Sharing a Body they both have come to identify with being the idol Niyodo Yuya, and work as a team to be the best singular idol they can, and split up tasks in order to accomplish it.
- Switching P.O.V.: In the anime the story regularly swaps between Niyodo's point of view and his super fan Kasenjiki's perspective.
- Talking to Themself: When Niyodo talks to Asahi in public he usually gets called out by people walking by on doing this.
- Two Guys and a Girl: ZINGS is composed this way, although only Niyodo and Asahi are aware of it, to everyone else it seems like a male idol duo.
- Vague Age: While Asahi’s age is stated in story as 17 at death. Niyodo, Yoshino, and Setouchi’s ages are never stated, but are heavily implied to be around the same age as Asahi if she were alive: 18. The latter three were all scouted to become idols while in high school but it's unclear if any of them still attend.
- Visual Kei: When Asahi tries to give Niyodo (and by extension, herself) a new image she comes up with an elaborate visual kei esque parody persona, complete with an eyepatch and a fake wing. She was the only person that liked this new persona, everyone else thought it was ridiculous.
- Voices Are Not Mental: When Asahi posses Niyodo he still retains his original voice, just in a higher pitch and energetic tone.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Niyodo's Visual Kei parody outfit has him mostly shirtless with torn scraps of a shirt on and a tattered long coat. Amusingly Asahi was the one to put together and wear this outfit (as Niyodo), not for fanservice but because she thought it looked cool.
- "Which Restroom?" Dilemma: Averted and discussed in the bonus chapters, although Asahi can easily just stop possessing Niyodo if he needs to shower or use the restroom, she claims that if it weren't the case she wouldn't mind doing it since she only cares about being an idol.
- Willing Channeler: Niyodo willingly allows Asahi to posses him to do his job as an idol.
