At age 16, Kirara Nakazono dreams of becoming an Idol Singer, despite her utter bad luck at getting roles or auditions. She thinks that she'd do whatever it took to fulfill her dreams, but then her life puts such beliefs to the test.
One day, her manager Hanamaki tells her to attend a supposedly very promising and hard audition and she decides to go... but much to her shock and horror, it's one set in a hotel where the girls actually offer to have sex with the producers in exchange for roles! Kirara panics and tries to escape, but one of the guys tries to rape her. Then she's rescued by a man who turns out to be Ginzou "Gin" Fujiwara, one of the most famous and influential executives of the whole Japan. He listens to Kirara's plight and promises to take her under his wing, but with one condition: she should give him her virginity.
Kirara leaves the party few afterwards, still a virgin and with a note including Gin's phone number... and yet, few later, she's getting several prospect contracts and quite a bit of fame? What did Gin do, and what does he really want from her?! Then starts the fight for Kirara's heart, parallel to her struggles to become a star.
Again, here we have a Mayu Shinjo manga with all it implies, released in 2004. It also has some cameos from other charas by Shinjo, namely Sakuya from Sensual Phrase and Hakuron of Haou Airen.
Love Celeb has the following tropes:
- All Men Are Perverts: And how. Gin is actually nicknamed the "Virgin Killer" due to this.
- Blue Blood: Gin's family has lots of links to higher-ups. His grandfather is an ex-Prime Minister, his dad is a successful businessman and politician.
- Casting Couch: The plot is kickstarted when Kirara refuses to do this, which leads to her being almost raped by a producer and then to be saved by Gin.
- Domestic Abuser:
- Hanamaki is very manipulative and gaslights his partners a lot.
- Gin is a shameless, promiscuous pervert who struggles to acknowledge (let alone communicate in a healthy way) his romantic feelings.
- Gin's Big Brother Mentor, Sakuya, was once terrible and toxic before Character Development.
- Genki Girl: The usual Shinjo female leads tend to be meek and shy nice girls. Kirara... isn't.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Gin, simply doesn't understand why he can't let go of his attraction to Kirara.
