>>76205525This is just my mental image, but idols are a combination of inspiration, daughterfagging and (romantic) attraction/love. Because you like your idol, you want to cheer them on in their endeavors, traditionally singing and dancing, which also boost their attractiveness. By watching them develop in terms of skills and success while struggling through obstacles, you are supposed to be happy for their achievements in a daughterfag way and also be inspired by them showing that with hard work and persistence you can do anything.
A good idol brainwashes you with sunshine and rainbows -like optimism and love (not necessarily romantic, but childish "pure" love) until you actually believe it, drowning out darkness and negativity in your life.
With idols there's often a sense of vanity and meaninglessness, like, it's all fake and plastic, in the end, what's the point of singing and dancing? Well, the word "idol" has a definition as "false god". eg. an idol is someone you purposefully look up to, someone you put your faith in, letting them be your savior and guiding light you. The purpose of a god is to fill an ultimately meaningless life with meaning and have you immerse yourself in it as if it was real.
Also, being an idol doesn't necessarily have to mean singing and dancing. Sports athletes and politicians often get an idol-like status too. Though I believe things like music, dancing and love are good because they are a very primal, universal positive forces without baggage attached to other areas of life. I would even say that an idol in its purest form, stays away from real life issues as much as possible. An idol is not supposed to literally fix your life problems, but to inspire and improve your mentality in general.
Why western people don't understand Japanese idols is because modern western culture promotes "realness" above else. Western people are bad at immersing themselves, they doubt and criticize everything and look down on everything that's not real, laughing at your silly hopes and dreams with a crab mentality. However, this only leads to nihilism and depression. Immersing yourself in things that make you happy is a good idea.
