The Idoru from the Isle of Man

So there's this teenage girl from the Isle of Man who discovers anime and starts dancing to Japanese pop songs in manga garb in her bedroom and uploading videos to YouTube, and she gets loads of hits and ends up an idol in Japan.

The story of 14-year-old Rebecca Flint aka Beckii Cruel makes for a fascinating documentary. And mundane reality finds its own uses for things, to paraphrase William Gibson, as an idoru comes into being in a kid's bedroom in British suburbia. Fantastic.

August 12, 2010 | 11:38 PM