The obligatory ranking post?

So it’s out. I’m officially a Johnny’s fan. (Those of you existing ones who read this blog, let me know if there’s an organization I’m supposed to register with or something. Because being in Johnny’s fandom is equivalent to being a mutant. [/end bad geek references])

In light of this, I need to do a ranking post. This is indeed a necessity, no arguments will be brooked. You see them all the time for Hello!Project’s many girls, and yet the only places I’ve seen Johnny’s rankings – with the exception of Ray on American Wota, but he’s an exception amongst overseas Johnny’s fans as it is – are on personal fangirling-filled journals. THIS CANNOT BE ACCEPTED. LET US START A REVOLUTION, MY FELLOW FANGIRLS. And while I’m at it, start some non-personal blogs too, huh? …though half the time what I write in here seems personal anyways.

Because there are just so many Johnny’s, it wouldn’t be fair for me to list them individually being as new to the fandom as I am. You just know a third of them will be left out. Conveniently, that’s what ranking tests are for.

JPTV Winter 2008 Season

I don’t think I even have the right to be making this post, because there’s so much from 2007 that I have yet to finish watching (or start, even). But, whatever, forging on ahead because this post has been sitting on the back burner, but it’ll be overcooked if I leave it too long. (Yes, the lack of food dramas this season has gotten to me.) Here are the highlights of the current winter 2008 season of Japanese dramas and anime for me.

There were just Two many puns for One.

Yes, I know, I’m behind schedule on the Arashi album reviews. (I wasn’t even aware that I had a schedule.) But if there’s anything that the guys at Rockstar Games have taught us, it’s that there’s got to be better ammo out there to use against me. What is this you’re hitting me with, a suction cup foam dart? C’mon, you guys can do better than tha- ow. A shotshell? Okay, fine, you win.

Next stop on our ever-descending journey into Arashi music – no, you can’t get off while the train is moving, sir, please stay in your seat until we come to a full stop, and have we mentioned that the engineers love cries of personal torture? – is their One album, and the first to contain solos from the 5 members.

Dispersing the MIRAGE.

It has come to my attention that I don’t get to continue calling myself an AAA fan unless I review the MIRAGE single. I assure you the perpetrator was swiftly dealt with, including techniques that involved (but were not limited to) setting rabid dogs after him into a maze of barbed wire and motion-activated flamethrowers. But you know, bodies are pretty incriminating, and I don’t have enough vats of acid to dump them all in, so I decided that I’d have to review the single anyways to shush any further naysayers.

And so, here we are. None of you are going to contest my claim as an AAA fan, yes? Good. On a slightly unrelated note, wow, it’s been a full month since I’ve done a review of any musical release on this blog. I guess I managed to uphold the “ramblings” part of the subtitle.

Kimi will self-destruct in 4…

…this took way too long. Now I remember why I never tried to make a post on Kouhaku last year.

In light of the New Year, and the sudden turn my listening habits took for the few months prior to the New Year, I decided to switch up my Year-End programming and do what would’ve been unthinkable just a year ago.

Rather than Kouhaku Utagassen, I went for the Johnny’s Countdown.

This really isn’t a big deal, not like being a diehard Ayu fan but ignoring her own Countdown in favor of watching… I dunno, an Amuro Namie concert on DVD. But though I have a general knowledge of the pretty boy jimusho, the only Johnny’s groups whose songs I know are KinKi Kids, Arashi, and NEWS – and Arashi’s only up to their One album (from Happiness going backwards in their discography, of course) while KinKi is more of a “barely know”.

And so I can only blame my watching this on the fact that Arashi was hosting this year (the 10th anniversary, apparently). Readers take note – when I find a new obsession, I fall into it deeply (this is amusing in contrast to my normal lack of attention towards everything else). Please refrain from recommending things to me unless you’re a bitch like Raid (and will put up with my griping for months on end) or willing to take responsibility for my sudden lack of a life.

In the meanwhile, thanks to the countdown, Johnny’s has pretty much completely won me over. Raid’s never going to be forgiven for this.

Welcome to Fandom High.

If there’s one thing you should know about me as a person, it’s that I don’t like to get involved. I would much rather be an impartial bystander of a stranger than have people know me and be deeply involved in the fray. I might still not get the whole story (or even any of the story), but it does give me an interesting perspective.

And that perspective is – if there’s one thing you can liken fandom to, it’s the stereotypical high school of movies.

Any fandom, really. You can take it on a large scale – fandom in general, regardless of what it’s for (Harry Potter or the Saw films or anime pop) – or bring it down into a specific group of fans (for example: J-Pop -> Johnny’s boybands -> Arashi -> fansubbers -> the community of STORMY team fansubs. Not that I mean to be calling that group out on anything, I just happened to join the Aibakaland forums last month under the name of Coquelicot so they were the first that came to mind.) You will have the cliques, you will have the groupies, you will have the nerds, the jocks, the bullies, and the “cool” people (these would be the Big Name Fans), and the wannabes (who want to be the Big Name Fans). You will also undeniably have the drama, the wank, and the amusement that comes with the drama and wank.

My own high school experience was devoid of such a thing, but if you were to typecast me I’d probably still be an outsider. (Considering my high school was a “geek” high school, yes.) Not on the Honor Roll, nor on any Sports Team, and in my second term of sophomore year, despite joining multiple clubs in freshman year and helping start one in the first term of sophomore, I officially signed up for the Going Home club. That didn’t actually exist, but work with me.

And so individual fandoms have their cliques. Sure, they’re not necessarily intentional, and you’ll have people who spill across the boundary lines, but you can separate people by their specific preferences in that particular area of interest (such as that ridiculous Utada vs. Koda “battle” two years ago, or the one-sided wFL vs. Johnny’s one that’s been going on since w-inds. popped up on the music scene and the odd little Urata vs. Nissy fight that Raid’s always trying to wage) or what they contribute. The bloggers. The reviewers (who aren’t always the same as the bloggers). The media sharers. The translators (who are usually friends with…) The subbers/scanslators. The fanfic writers. The graphic designers. In the J-Pop fandoms, the lucky people who can actually go to the concerts/events being done. Then you have the people who try to do everything… and the people who sit back and enjoy it all or envying those who can do what they do.

Perhaps it’s just me and my own self-deprecating loner complex, but sometimes it becomes hard to join a fandom because it’s just so distant. Joining a new fandom can be akin to starting your first day in a new school – right before midterms.

That’s not to say that fandoms aren’t welcoming – you have the elitists and the bitches, but it’s generally not hard to find those people genuinely excited about welcoming a new cultist to the fold. But everyone who contributes something other than blind adoration to a fandom not only knows each other and but also knows the fandom better than anyone else. If you want to find out more about something, of course you should ask the people who know. But then it gets slightly discouraging, because everyone who’s not a douchebag wants to make a good impression, and looking like you’re trying to become a complete stranger’s friend because it’ll help you get ahead (and maybe get you special things from them too) is not “a good impression”. (Douchebags don’t care, but that’s why they’re called douchebags.)

As always, to get to know people, you have to participate. The people who will get to know you come naturally when you do. But there comes a point in every fandom where there’s nothing you can contribute that isn’t already there. If it’s something old, longer fans will dismiss it casually. If it’s something new, then it becomes a competition. If it’s something borrowed (and especially without credit), the anger (rightfully) erupts. And something blue… wait, where am I going with this?

Um. So. Two sorts of bad people in fandom – the overenthusiastic ones and the competitive ones. The overenthusiastic ones may or may not add anything more to the collective fandom than their blind devotion – but they’ll shove the blind devotion in your face until you’re blinded by it too – or just want to punch their lights out. The competitive people will make or share things, whether it’s videos, magazines scans, translations, news, or gossip – and fight to stand out more. They’ll make a battle of it even if the other side just doesn’t care.

Therein begins the drama and the wank… and then suddenly the fandom doesn’t seem so appealing anymore. Because unlike movie high schools, fandom’s supposed to be a concept where people with a similar liking for a certain thing can get together, have fun, and revel in said thing. Not a place you’re stuck in just because you somehow ended there and you want to get out as soon as possible in one piece.

Unfortunately, people aren’t going to change anytime soon, and it’s people that make up fandom of any sort. Some areas will always be daunting to head into, whether it’s because of the ridiculous amount of activity or because it’s just dead. (Why do they always have to be the fandoms that I fall into?) But if the world would work the way it was supposed to, things would be a lot less interesting.

Flying Solo

Being in a group is one of the greatest boons and biggest hindrances in a Japanese idol’s music career.

Being in a group means you have people to back you up, people who will divert the audience’s attention away from your bad points, people with whom you’re working towards the same dream so even if things seem tough, you know it’s not just you who’s suffering under the burden of all the hard work. It’s the stuff and fluff we see in movies about this particular world; where girls cry and laugh and sing and dance and form irreplacable friendships.

Being in a group also means you’re not always the star. Sometimes you’re never the star. Or maybe you were once a star and then got shunted aside. And in fact, that time when you’ll shine and dazzlingly so seems a long way off.

We all have our own impressions of idols and their reasons for joining the industry, but there’s one thing that’s pretty much irrefutable. People in the idol industry are all being groomed towards an eventual solo path. Everyone is told to stand out as much as they can. The reason why a person is taken in to begin with is because producers see a potential star, a person who can win even a small audience. Whether that quality is already jutting out or buried under tons of sand and hard rock of normalness makes no difference to both the people in charge and this article – it’s the producer’s job to unearth the gem, and this post isn’t about the producers. It’s about the act of putting this same potential bundled in a human package in a group.

And marketing a person in a group just happens to kill two birds with one stone. You get actual onstage practice, you learn to become used to the limelight, and you learn to develop a public image and presence with less scrutiny than you would if you were going at it by yourself. Any personality flaws can show through and it’ll be fine – it only becomes endearing because despite being an idol, you’re only human, and the producers built the group with balancing everyone’s individual elements in mind so there will be someone to offset you. You can focus on improving your vocals, your acting, whatever it is that you bring to the group, and when you stand on your own, there’s the pride that it’s your own hard work.

But the years during which an idol is in a group can also force the idol – male or female – to become reliant on the group, whether or not they realize it. Some idols overcome their shortcomings through sheer popularity and natural improvement will do the rest – practice makes perfect, after all. Some know early on they’re getting cut off from the flanks, and eventually develop their own style, eventually rising out of the “idol” moniker. Most will hang onto the group, though, whether they continue their solo activities within the group or use the group’s name as a way to stand out from every other fledgling starlet. The group becomes a safety zone, even when you want to get out – because once you’re finally out you can never go back. It’s never until things are gone that you realize how much you miss them.

And to that extent, solo songs for a group’s member is great. It feeds the fans’ desire for their favorite member to shine. It lets the members themselves show what they can do without the other person(s). Perhaps their voice is better suited for a music style that just doesn’t sit with the group’s image, or maybe they can do something else in the context of the song - show some operatic or acrobatic ability, joke around, ooze sex, whatever. But it’s a taste of the individual fame that they’ve been geared for, and it’s always interesting to see how they do when given the light to themselves. The marketing focus of a group is the group, of course, and producers’ goals be damned – but it’s the fans’ fondness for the idols that make us appreciate the solos when we get them. And if not every person gets a solo released on an album, we can clearly see who’s getting somewhere fast, and who may be left in the dust. (I still think every NEWS member should have had the chance for a CD-released solo. Clearly.)

It also makes it stand out that much more when the group disbands, but no one (or only one person) continues on in the business. Folder5, SweetS, BeForU – I’m looking at you. AKINA, Aya, Haruna, and Riyu were clearly the lead vocalists of their respective groups, but thanks to the solos, we know the other girls had the capability too. (Please don’t ask me to name all of them. 12 name drops is a bit much.) 3-nin dream’s Mai graduated from the group and attempted to pursue a solo career – if she ever made it anywhere, she’d have some gorgeous soft songs thanks to her lyrics and vocals, from the solo we did get back on Process. It certainly would’ve been better than where Kana and Yu are stuck now, but we also know Kana had vocal ability from her own solo. And not a day doesn’t go by where I wish she’d graduate from DRM and show up Yu with her own solo career.

HINOI TEAM’s other three girls – Hikaru, Rina, Keika – never got solos. They didn’t have enough of a career to ever manage that, plus the fact that it was, indeed, Hinoi Asuka’s team. But if they had, would we be looking even more fondly at what might have been for H, R, and K? On the guys’s side – w-inds.’ Tachibana Keita has his acoustic pop solo career concurrent with w-inds.’ continued releases, but we’ve had solos from Ryuichi and Ryohei that prove they might be able to get somewhere in pop-rock and R&B/Hip-hop respectively if given the chance to polish and shine. Not a peep from PONY CANYON or VISION FACTORY on that, though.

A group member’s solo speaks about potential, the future, and hopes. Fans’ hopes, the individual’s hopes, the producer’s hopes… it just has more of an exciting, if uncertain, feeling lying behind the lines because it comes from someone in a group.

On that note, 2008 is going to be all about listening to groups for me. As far as my posts here have been concerned, it’s already been pretty group-centered, with a smattering of solo works. But seeing as my attention has been drifting away from solo artists and focusing on the group dynamics of pop idols, and the fact that I’ve been skipping over solo artists I loved just a year ago in favor of groups, it seems fitting to declare such.

Except maybe I’ve Sound and contemode. Can we count production labels as groups too? No? The music dictionary doesn’t allow it? …we need to have a talk.