Pardon the dust, we’re not actually revamping.

Since resurfacing at the tail end of 2008, after being missing for much of the aforementioned year, you may or may not have noticed that I’ve been trying to keep at least a weekly schedule, even if the update days are as random as a PMSing woman’s mood swings.

Alas, this week the PMSing woman decided to go off on a spree. Shopping spree, killing spree, I’m not actually sure what. She may have just decided to kick back in a comfy armchair with a Fuzzy Navel or five and watch a marathon of Nathan Fillion shows. (Castle is rather prone to reruns on her screen.)

So in her stead, here is an apology from her browbeaten husband to those of you who – for whatever insane reason – do enjoy my writing. He offers you my two recent articles on Pleasure Principled, Ray’s latest project in the Japanese music blogging world. You can choose from my dislike of pairings – with a nod to the Nissy x Misako pairing in particular – or my perhaps-more-than like of Saitou Ryuusei – though I’ve yet to completely understand the appeal of Hey! Say! VOLTRON JUMP.

And while you’re there, you may find you like the works of the other contributors too. So much that you may forget about the PMSing woman and leave her for less angry pastures – but please don’t. We’ll be back next week. Hopefully.

Happy Nino Year! :3

Because “Happy Naoya Year!” doesn’t have the same feel.

Also, Ninoface agrees with this completely.

To a more active 2009 for me, and a happy one for you guys! (The girls? They’ve always got Nino’s abs to fall back on.)

Consider yourself warned.

After a full year being a Johnny’s fan, I have discovered something. I hate this fandom.

More specifically, I hate the incessant floods of fanfiction (and to some effect, role playing). I don’t like pairings (whether hetero or homo, real or fictional, unless they are explicitly stated to be true), I don’t like romance, and I don’t like real people being used in fanfiction with a few exceptions (Alternate Universe or just-so-crack that it’s never likely to happen being the exceptions) because it feels weird to write stories about real people, like you’re playing puppetmaster. I mean, you wouldn’t write a fanfic about George W. Bush or one of your teachers, would you?

Unfortunately, it’s all rampant in the Johnny’s fandom (in particular, NEWS, which seems to be dominated by hormonal teenagers who really, really, really like their gay, and even more so where none is to be found), and so for the most part I find myself avoiding fans.

Okay, that’s over. Now to part two of this post. I hate Raid.

長谷部優の卒業の調べ

Most of you who read this blog probably don’t care. Those of you who do care probably already know.

Basically, today on Friday, August 1st, DRM officially became dream – no, wait, Dream – again. (Really, avex, what’s with the name changes anyways?) Obviously, we don’t get out of it unscathed, because with the capital letter we lose Hasebe Yu. (To be honest though, she was never my favorite member of the group, and only got anywhere on member rankings because I couldn’t distinguish – and still can’t – between 8/7-nin dream’s individual girls.)

This doesn’t really hurt me, as if you couldn’t tell from that in-parentheses aside up there, other than having me wonder when Tachibana Kana will finally debut with a breakout hit that will have avex executives ruing the day they left her to rot in futsal, but I figured it provided a good excuse to finally review their last non-digital single for the past three years, as well as the single that stuck me with some small interest in the dream expansion pack (that is, the other 5 members), そよ風の調べ/STORY.

The post that was supposed to go somewhere but didn’t.

So SuuDesu/Sakura RABU…, trailing over to my tiny little blog somehow some way, left a not entirely unwarranted comment on my About page. For those of you too lazy to click, here it is:

I’m a little curious, if you’re american/chinese, then how come you don’t write anything (seemingly) about C-music? Not that it’s required just ’cause you’re half chinese or anything, I just happen to like both japanese and chinese music. And there are some pretty chinese equivalents to the johnny boys as well! ^-^ Personally, I think 吳吉尊 is cute ^^

So, first a couple of nonsensical comments that you all could really do without. I’m seemingly full-blooded Chinese (the jury’s out on that one because I looked mixed, and to be honest I don’t know my Asian-looking father’s ethnicity.), though my friends have joked that I could be half-Japanese, half-Chinese. (Based on the half-J/C people I do know, I can say I’d much rather not.) I don’t deny that I do find some Chinese males attractive – generally my taste in males runs on the East Asian side of the spectrum anyways - but looks aren’t the only reason I have grown to adore Johnny’s. (Maybe a third of the time I still think Arashi looks pretty – that is, pretty ugly. Another third they look plain, and the final third is just pretty. And when I first started knowing of them, I thought they were all plain.) Lastly, I had to look up 吳吉尊 – or for your convenience, Wu Zun of the Chinese boyband Fahrenheit. The looks of any person depends on many details, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder – and Wu Zun tends to look on the plainer side in my opinion. Though his profile picture on their official Japanese site gets a pass from me, and that’s what we’ll head into now.

Things you never cared to read about.

What is this, a month belated? No one cares? Too bad. I don’t care about you. No, really I do, please stay and read some more.

A month ago, probably more - I honestly can’t be bothered to find the exact post – broomhead of True Life Seek posted a survey for bloggers to fill out. You may notice that though he has me linked on his blogroll, I haven’t really reciprocated the favor. Yet. I probably ought to update that sidebar sometime. (Though there is more than a slight suspicion that I’m on there only because I’m linked on iWota. Yes, I went there.) I wasn’t originally planning on responding to it, though it popped up around the same time I returned to this blog, but it makes for a quick filler when I’m still trying to adapt my mind to the fact that yes, I will be sludging through a KAT-TUN single. Also, I’m filling this out at 3AM in the morning after 5 hours of laser tag, not that it was necessary information, but I used Nino’s Gimmick Game to help pace me through. I also failed spectacularly.

Goals:

* Why do you blog?
I think it started as a response to a bunch of other blogs around at the time. Before International Wota, just around the start of the Sunday Blog Roundup. I watched the video for w-inds.’ BOOGIE WOOGIE 66 and hated it – and thought the world should know. I also wanted to promote AAA as much as possible, likely most successfully in the form of a download blog. And so let it beat! was started in September 2006 as an outlet for both these desires – a download blog with as full-fleshed reviews and I could possibly pull out of my butt. Not that anything was written until November of that same year.

Somewhere along the way, I realized there was a bunch more I wanted to write about, and did. Also somewhere along the way, probably after that first somewhere, Ray decided he liked my writing, and began to link to it. After let it beat! died because of its download status, I’d started this one to continue spreading my so-called gospel. Things happened, and now this feels like more of an obligation, I admit.

* What long-term goals do you hope to accomplish, if any at all?
Perhaps the spreading of whatever my major fandoms are at whatever periods I’m writing about them. In the case of Arashi, it’s an attempt at reviewing and enjoying their music without letting my love for their personalities fog up the facts – a way of showing that not all fangirls are heavily biased and unintelligent though I may stray in that direction. In the case of AAA, it’s perhaps a peacock performance – I’ve been a fan of the group since 2005, and this is a sad attempt to establish my place in the fandom. And overall, this blog has always been a way to get me to listen to music and perhaps become a potential job doing what I love.

* Where does your blog fail to meet your goals?
I have been getting considerably less objective towards Arashi. Perhaps the only reason why anyone recognizes me as an AAA fan is my 3-part report on their presence at Otakon. And there are times when I put off listening to/watching things just because I know if/when I do, I will want to review it here.

* If you do have goals, what will accomplishing them do for yourself?
Short of an ego boost, and perhaps a wider knowledge of Japanese pop, absolutely nothing. Perhaps they’ll help me in some obscure manner that occurs as I go through the process of achieving them, but the goals themselves are happily useless.

* What do you want to gain out of blogging? A creative outlet? Praise from others? Personal satisfaction? Money?
Praise from others is nice. (Though I shoot it down just as quickly.) Money would make me amazingly happy, and be an even better motivator. Also see: Free stuff from specific companies, fame, potential possibilities to meet beloved celebrities, maybe even a chance to become an idol. But in the end I blog for the same reason I always have – because there’s no way you can put me in front of a keyboard and not have me ramble somewhere. (I guess you might interpret it as both a creative outlet and personal satisfaction.)

* Do you feel that your blog should meet a requirement for amount of entries? Do you feel any particular entry should be a certain length?
Because I sit and type and type and type and then type some more, though sometimes with day-long breaks in between periods of typing, I feel like a post should be long or else it doesn’t seem very Kimitsu-like. I feel like I should have to scroll through an entry of mine, even if it’s only a quarter of the page more. (More often than not, I deliberately use screencaps to help me lengthen an entry.) And perhaps there’s a subconcious thought that any post should contain at least three paragraphs (regardless of paragraph length), thanks to the essay formats beaten into me throughout elementary and middle school.

* For any particular entry, what motivates you to start and finish blog posts?
The stupidest things can motivate me to start blog posts. A minute of a song on an album, a second-long observation and comparison between my sister and I, the absolute basic concept of a game, an intended response to another post. The unfortunate downside is that I lack motivation to finish – and my low attention span isn’t any better at helping the situation. (All of the aforementioned post topics have been sitting on a back burner for a year now.)

* Do you actively consider long term goals for each individual post?
Perhaps again because of my low attention span, the point of each post becomes my feelings, my thoughts at that individual moment. There are many times when I go back and wonder what I was thinking as I wrote what I did, but long term just doesn’t matter to me, even when I’m making a post asking for change.

Subject Material:

* What do you blog about?
Japanese pop culture as a whole was my original plan – and it’s still my plan. Music is just the easiest subject, followed by dramas and movies, but variety shows, books, games, and food are all still in my ideas for post topics. Within the realm of music, it tends to be whatever I like and am listening to – because there’s just no fun in posting “I hate this” over and over about anything or forcing myself to listening to something I don’t enjoy. As of 5 months ago, that has steadily become a lot of things that fall under the “Johnny’s” categoru.

* Would you be keeping a blog even if it wasn’t about the subjects you tend to cover?
You mean, not Johnny’s? Not music? Perhaps. I think of a blog as a way of sharing opinions – though I don’t have especially strong ones on anything. Sometimes fun anecdotes happen to me and I want to share them, and that’s probably the only reason I still have a personal blog somewhere (that gets updated… once every three months). If we had me focusing on snacks or videogames, both subjects I don’t tend to cover here, I might still continue. But if we switched the topic to politics and hardcore technology, there would be no point in me running my mouth.

* Do you write about the material to promote it to others?
Yes and no. It depends on the creator/performer and how much I like the material in question. More often than not, a thought springs to mind regarding the material and the post is built around showcasing that thought.

Readership:

* How much do you care about readership?
I want to say “a lot”. But if I did I’d probably be posting regularly again, wouldn’t I? Readers are important to me in that I think it’d be pointless at this stage for me to blog if no one was reading. By knowing I have readers, I know I have an audience and when I have an audience, the automatic reaction is to satisfy.

* Does it satisfy you to know people are reading, even if they don’t comment?
Not so much. I know people are stopping by this blog daily, but because I also have things like lyrics on here, I know they’re here to use me as a reference rather than as a source of entertainment. Even if I don’t get constant comments, though, the occasional comment here and there does satisfy me.

* What effect does receiving a comment have on you?
I brighten up. Though not literally. It’s always nice to know that what I wrote provoked a response, whether agreeing or dissenting. I usually fail to reply to comments, but they give me an idea of how some of my readers think about what I’m writing, and I sometimes adjust to reflect that.

* Do you write with a particular audience in mind or an unspecified general audience? Why?
I always mentally acknowledge that there are certain people who have my blog in their feeds, or that I may get linked on International Wota, and make note of that within the post. For the most part, I write so that anyone interested in the subject of my blog can stumble upon and enjoy it. So in a way, the specifics is based on the subject.

* If you write for a particular audience, is it International Wota? If yes, why?
No. Because, frankly, I continue to see International Wota as an H!P crowd – even if more regular pop and Perfume fans are popping out of the woodwork daily – and that continues to make up the greatest percentage of their readers along with being the main subjects of a greater percentage of linked blogs. I’ll acknowledge that probably most of my readers have hopped over from there, but I don’t expect them to be my main audience.

Community: (The International Wota section)

* If International Wota didn’t exist, would you blog?
Since I started blogging before iWota, Feed of Pop, and even the regular installents of Sunday Blog Roundup… yes. To a great extent though, the desire to blog was inspired by people like Santos (or the blogger formerly known as him), pengie, Thea, and of course, Ray.

* When IW covers an entry of yours, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
Neither. It is an honor, in its way, that my entry is considered interesting enough to be mentioned. Since I think most of my IW readers are people who’d check my blog anyways – being the contributors – it doesn’t have much of an impact on me.

* When IW does not cover an entry, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
Again, neither. If I think it’s an especially good entry (such as with my review of m-flo’s COSMICOLOR album), then I’ll be curious as to why, but it doesn’t effect my own blogging schedule.

* How often do you read other blogs?
It used to be daily, dropped to once a week, then once a month, and now it’s around twice a week if I’m actively blogging. This only refers to blogs on Japanese music/dramas/what have you, of course. If we talk about food blogs, that’s daily.

* How often do you comment on other blogs?
Only when I feel I have something I absolutely must say, or as a courtesy if they’re responding to something I wrote about. Which, of course, isn’t the best way to make myself known or noticed, but for the same reason I don’t especially expect comments on my own blog.

* If another blog covers a topic that you wanted or wished to cover, do you still blog about that specific topic? Why or why not?
Usually yes, especially if I feel that I have my own specific take on the subject. Since I do believe I write the most out of any blog that covers the topics I tend to cover, there’s always at least a cent of my own to add to the fray.

Commitment:

* How serious is your attitude towards blogging? Do you consider it just as something to do for fun?
It has always been something I want to do for fun. When it stops being fun, I lose the will to do it – and when this blog started becoming an obligation, I put it at a lower priority than my other obligations. But no matter what I want to at least keep this going, even if on heavy life support.

* How often do you blog? How often would you like to blog?
I started out multiple times a week, and gradually dropped to bi-weekly for various reasons. But ideally I’d like to post at least once a week.

* What priorities do you or have you put aside in order to blog? Why?
My priorities are generally screwed up – so it depends on what I want to do more. And since I never want to do homework, blogging gets done during those periods. But if I want to play games or perhaps watch a variety show, that inevitably occurs first.

* Do you see yourself blogging in 6 months? Why or why not?
Hey, I’ve kept this going for a year and a half already, who’s to say I can’t see let it beat! celebrate its second birthday? I also think that I’m never going to be able to virtually shut up so long as I have a keyboard and an outlet.

Personal:

* Would you say you blog for yourself?
Yes and no – I blog for other people to read what I want them to read. Figure that one out because I can’t.

* What is your feeling after posting an entry? Is it relative to the time and effort you put in an entry?
A slight sense of achievement, followed by a slight relief that there is time until the next entry should be posted given my current feelings. Regardless of the time and effort, as long as the entry is posted there is the snese of “It’s done”, though I may be prouder of an entry where I liked the contents even if I spent 20 minutes half-assing it.

* What needs does blogging fulfill?
None, as far as I’m concerned. It doesn’t generate enough attention to satisfy my ego (though I wouldn’t want that for something I think I’m bad at), it doesn’t provide any release from whatever I need to be freed of, and I certainly don’t need to blog to get my fingers tired of typing complete BS. (Yay for college papers.)

* Do you consider yourself a writer?
I want to, if only for the sole reason that I want people to enjoy what I’ve produced, or at least come away with something even if not some sense of amusement.

* Do you consider yourself good at writing? Good at blogging?
No and no. The former because I have self-esteem problems and don’t write so much as I ramble; the latter because we’ve seen the schedule I keep for this blog and it is not pretty.

* How much of your personal life do you share on your blog? If none, why do you leave this out?
I want to think “only as much as necessary”, but it seems I share quite a bit. Always for a purpose, of course – usually to give the reader a way to relate to me as a person, but sometimes because what happens in truth is much more interesting than fiction. And in that case, who am I to keep it from you?

In which the Japanese entertainment industry is a science experiment. …Not.

Bear with me, I’m slowly getting back into the swing of blogging after being on that extended hiatus. It’s certainly not as though I have a shortage of topics (Oh, Arashi/AAA. You and your releases.), but more of a question of how to reallocate the time I once set for blogging again. Ah, but this post isn’t supposed to be about bloggging as a topic in itself, so that’s one hell of a tangent I’ve gone on right there.

Since I’ve had so much free time – what with not blogging and all – I’ve mostly been spending it watching variety shows. (Translation: I’ve been sucked nearly completely into Johnny’s fandom. I’ve even developed a slight appreciation for the pedophilia that is Hey!Say!JUMP. The only ones left are KAT-TUN… but that’s a whole different post.) Mostly of the Johnny’s sort, of course – whether it’s one of Arashi’s crazy stockpile, V6’s Gakkou e Ikou! (MAX), KinKi Kids’ Domoto Kyoudai (and Tsuyoshi’s Shoujiki Shindoi), SMAPxSMAP (no prizes for guessing who hosts that one), any Johnny’s appearance on a show like Utaban or HEY!x3, much older shows like Ya-ya-yah!, or even those two episodes of CARTOON KAT-TUN that somehow slipped into my viewing playlist. Perhaps someday I’ll slip in that Berryz show or Haromoni or something. A very distant someday.

But I’ve managed to come to a distinct realization. Obvious, really, but hindsight is 20/20 and the best hiding places are always in plain sight. (Trust me on this – I’m a champion at losing stuff in plain sight.)

We of the Western and/or overseas blogosphere have done this outcry far too often in response to Japanese celebrity scandals. “Punishing them for that is stupid.” Especially in the case of Hello! Project – in fact, I’m sick of H!P-scandals, and I’m not in the fandom to look it up as much as everyone else seems to. Miyabi of Berryz is dating someone? Great for her. STOP SHOVING IT IN MY FACE, PLEASE. Oh, and of course, Johnny’s – “OMG _______ and _______ went drinking in Harajuku with a whole bunch of girls.” “Aibu Saki’s got a new Johnny’s of the week?” That’s great for them. It’s a world away from me, and frankly I care more about the image they show in the variety shows and live performances than the candid camera view the paparazzi bring to us. That’s what I’m paying for, after all.

Unfortunately, it’s there. Japanese leap on scandals of their celebrities with as much ferocity as half the people in this nation leap on news of Britney Spears’ latest panty flash. Why? Because it’s unnecessary.

Part of the equation for an idol is to have some lacking characteristic. Whether you’re scared of something like fish, or a bit antisocial, or maybe your teeth is absolutely horrible… it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re not 100% perfect. The Japanese have ideals, and idols embody those ideals, but if they were too perfect you’d begin to hate them. That’s why perfection only (and rarely) exists in anime and manga.

Variety shows exist to show negative characteristics, or heighten positive ones in negative situations. For example, in Tunnels no Minasan Okage Deshita (probably most famous for the Human Tetris clip running wild on YouTube), there’s a segment where two geinou are to eat four dishes, and one of them will be one they hate (obviously, there is much lying and poker facing). The opponent has to figure out which dish is the badone based on reactions and body language. And every so often, Tunnels (or rather, Taka-san as Nori-san sits back amusedly) will assign punishment. When you succeed in a game that promotes lying and mind-trickery, it’s not the best image to add. Or, of course, you could look like a complete fool like Eiji Wentz did in that Human Tetris game. You also have Nakai, who becomes quite cartoon-ishly angry when it comes to his kouhai Ohno on Utaban; or all the various silliness that goes on in Shikatte, Blond-sensei!, where you have blond women (not always gaijin) waving mallets at the poor male guests and regulars as they get schooled in English after being pranked into a situation where they can only use English. When Sho, Jun, Jin, and the ilk show their temper in their respective shows, or Inohara starts bullying regulars and schoolgirls on Gakkou e Ikou!, it’s not as though that’s a good thing. What about that infamous clip of the Morning Musume girls freaking out at having their head stuck in a case with a rampaging lizard? Natural human actions and reactions in a given situation. (I’m fairly certain that for all that the Nakai-Ohno fights are scripted, Ohno’s really cowering in fear and reacting annoyedly when Nakai continues to provoke him.)

The bonus of this is that it’s all in a controlled environment. If anything too negative shows up, the TV crews can cut it. No one will be any wiser except for the studio audience (who are under a contract to not speak about the events of the show) and the geinou present – and celebrities are apparently gossipmongers anyways. With the paparazzi, all of that goes flying out the window.

In America, we don’t have anything of the sort. (It’s proven just by how marketers think the sheer novelty of a Japanese game show is worth starting a series about – I Survived A Japanese Game Show – and I swear I kid you not.) The closest we get is celebrity reality shows like Celebrity Mole* or Dancing with the Stars, but for the most part these are B-list people who we care much less about. Celebrity-centered shows like The Simple Life or whatever series was based on Jessica Simpson/Nick Lachey and the Carter brothers aren’t much better, usually crashing because of the stars’ stupidity. The reality shows have become a way to catapult people into the role of the ones we love to hate (case in point: The Hills), but that’s a far cry from the… well, sanitized sanity of a Japanese show meant to endear the celebrity to us.

Because of that, Americans leap on drug charges, DUIs, and the stupidest spats with glee. And as much as Japan’s everyday citizens (especially schoolgirls and housewives) might deny it, they’ll leap on dating idols, slips of the tongue, and the stupidest old news with glee. Underage drinking/smoking? Fine. Against the law. But dating? Honestly now. Humans are very jealous creatures. I don’t deny that I’m jealous of Koizumi Kyoko/Nagasawa Masami/Ohno Satoshi/whoever Nino’s bedtime companion is now, but because I don’t care about getting into that sort of thing with anyone, I care significantly less about his romantic rumors. In the same way, there’s many a blogger and amateur singer (which seems to be my main two internet communities of late) who would all but kill to get into the shoes and job of their same favorite idols.

But while American management could seemingly care less (Britney Spears seems to be the exception), the Japanese companies are far from happy when such a thing pops up. Little wonder, considering they’ve already gone to lengths to show off the worser qualities of their products (yes, products) in a manner that can only help boost sales. These additional scandals and candid images, out of their control, are as bad as summer mosquitos in Florida. And I don’t doubt that’s what gets drilled into Johnny’s juniors, especially with the somewhat infamous “no extraneous photographs” rule.

Of course, there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. What, would you start an online petition asking them to ease up on the girls and boys in the spotlight? It’s just another factor of the Japanese entertainment industry that we find ourselves enthralled with, and basically I’d really like it if you’d all stop complaining about it now.

*By the way, I would kill to see The Mole starring Japanese music idols. Whether it’s H!P or Johnny’s or PONY CANYON or avex’s empire, I don’t care. It would just be one of the most amusing things ever.

The post where I get to be a hypocrite.

How long has it been since I logged into this poor blog of mine? A month? Over? Hmm. Oops.

But thank heavens! Testing period is over and I have survived! (Take that back, I’m signed up for summer classes and those start on Tuesday.) Actually, I wish I could say that was all, but it just so happens that when I came back from Canada, Arashi’s Dream “A”live was officially released. After being unable to find it (both limited and regular editions) in any store (only to, of course, have a friend pick it up in one of those stores last weekend not two days after I’d checked it again), I ended up purchasing Persona 3:FES. And that, my dear friends, is where my time has gone. (Four months into the game, not counting my accidental reset. Oh, I cry for those lost days.) Yes, I am a gamer. And I will gladly admit that game is too addictive for my own damn good. Not that it stops me from playing it – oh, hey, loading screen’s gone.

Before you reach out with your collective mental powers to shut off my PS2 for good… where was I? Oh, that’s right. I was hunting down Dream “A”live. I’m honestly beginning to think there’s some force up there trying to prevent me from ever putting hands on an LE Arashi album, never mind the forces nearby, but for the moment I shall be shut up because my ATTACK ALL AROUND set finally arrived. Oh, the distractions of fangirling.

There is, however, one thing you really can’t avoid when you’re buying Japanese CDs or DVDs – bootlegs. Fakes, copies, whatever negative term you want to refer to it by with a superior smirk on your mental face. Most of these tend to come from either mainland China or Taiwan, and they exist for media of non-Japanese origin too, but since this is a blog that doesn’t care about non-Japanese entertainment (perhaps with the sole exceptions of Monk and Psych), we’ll toss those to the side.

If you haven’t heard the news by now (Where’ve you been? It’s been on my About page since the first incarnation of this blog), I’m East Asian by ethnicity. Chinese, to be exact. (Presumably full-blooded, but when I understand Japanese better than Mandarin, it’s kind of embarassing to admit.) We’re reknowned for being cheap, and I don’t even know what to say when my mother remarks on my J-Pop buying habits “It’s expensive.”

For example, a few months back Raid suggested I pick up some version of Tackey & Tsubasa’s BEST album, and while in Toronto’s Pacific Mall last month, I came across the overseas versions of all three. Ready to indulge in the spirit of vacation spending, my mother followed along with me as my siblings ran amok in the bootleg DVD shops. I bounced back and forth between the Green and Blue versions, unable to remember which color he’d repeatedly followed with the words “GO. GET.” My dearest mother, alas, eventually decided she had to help and took a look at the albums as well.

The first thing she hunted for, of course, was the price tag.

And seeing it at a steady $40 each, while my siblings pounced on bootleg movie DVDs going 7 for $10 or some deal to that extent, she immediately made the above proclamation (“It’s expensive.”), and led me off to join the siblings in bootleg-hunting mayhem. Eventually my sister distracted me with a bootleg version of Heat Island, and so we have not spoken of the lost Takkitsu Best album since.

So, bootlegs. They were prevalent in the early days of spreading Japanese music (even more so since most of it was of the Hayashibara Megumi variety), and most especially in the case of anime soundtracks. I know I’ve got a bunch of Son May-produced Initial D discs lying about somewhere. We wanted our music, we wanted it cheaper than importing could get it for us, and my excuse is that they were birthday/Christmas gifts from high school friends.

But in the age of downloading, where does that leave us? The bootleg industry is still slamming out the copies, clearly. I’ve got a number of shots from my forays around Wan Chai in August last year and a few from this past trip to Canada to prove it. Fansubs have it all over their releases “This is a FREE FANSUB. If you paid for this, you’re a sucker you were scammed. Blah blah blah.” Society in general is cheap – if you can get something for free, go for it! And with so many JPop listeners taking this path (and thanking JPOPSUKI, apparently. I feel older and geekier for remembering ThePPN tracker and the early JPop sharing sites.), the question becomes “Who are their targets now?”

Is it the average gaijin JPop fan, knowing little, caring even less, and soothing their consciences by thinking “I’ve bought the album, I’ve supported the artist” – though the album apparently gained an extra disc with tracks from early on in the artist’s career? (In Bootleg Land, Amuro Namie’s WANT ME WANT ME became a full-fledged album. And then some. Hirai Ken’s FAKIN’ POP is, well, apparently also UtaBAKA) Is it just the really cheap Chinese and the younger crowd appeasing that stupid friend who wants the album but insists on having the actual thing? Perhaps it’s some poor sucker who mistook the bootleg for an overseas version. There’s a reason why there are still stores that stock these things, though unfortunately I’ll probably never find out. (From my own laziness. Of course.)

On that same subject, though, what is the appeal of buying the originals on CDs, rather than as digital singles? (Other than the obvious “digital singles have a pretty high chance of being lost”, that is.) I’d like to think I have a pretty decent collection of CDs. I also think I haven’t listened to any of them since junior year. Of high school. When I still had a CD player. That was 4 years ago and I still buy CDs, but rather than ripping MP3s from my own copies I download off that handy tool – the Internet. I look at the booklets maybe twice – once to look at the pictures, once to romanize lyrics – and I can’t deny it was nice to have actual stuff for AAA to sign (and Seki Tomokazu too… if I had gotten to his autograph session. DAMMIT.), but they really just sit there. Yes, those autographs, too.

It’s not hard to justify buying oneself a bootlegged copy of, well, anything. Whether your excuse is one of impatience or rarity or plain “I don’t care/I’ve already spent the money, oh well.” But it’s still an interesting subject to touch on – who wants to admit to buying a bootleg in a community where status seems to be granted by the amount you have, after all? Oh, wait, I’ve already done that.

As for the aforementioned Heat Island… Sadly, there is not a happy ending to my bootlegging story – it was purchased, the trip was a month ago, but I’ve yet to see cover or spine of the DVD case (and of course, DVD within) since. C’est la vie.

A Theory on Idol Attraction?

My sister is, in some ways, a NEWS fan. She enjoys their music, their looks, the occasional dancing. (I think a number of NEWS fans will kill me, but frankly. NEWS. Cannot. Dance. It’s like KAT-TUN, Kanjani8, and NEWS all balance each other out by being in the same “generation” of JE bands, but that’s another post.)

When I started writing this, though, it might have been more accurate to say that she was a fan of Sakurakouji Jun, Kusano Akira, Inoue Kouta, Nakahara Shouta, and the two boys who do CHIRARIZUMU. (Still somewhat accurate, really.)

Oh, and I guess she’s also a fan of Utsugi Minoru, Kurosaki, and whatever random characters she’s seen Koyama as (though highly unfortunate that she roots for him to die almost everytime).

She doesn’t identify the individual members of NEWS for who they are, but what she’s seen them do. It was a wonder that she knew Ryo’s name, because she’s only ever seen him as Shouta. Koyama and Shige, she’s seen in dramas, but the dance of CHIRARIZUMU seems to have left the greatest impression upon her. Tegoshi and Yamapi she knew because she’s seen them in two dramas, but even now only by those same terms – if I say “Yuya” or “Tomohisa” or even just “Pi”, she’ll give me a blank stare. (Apparently, that was the minimum requirement because sometimes she referred to Massu as “the other buttsex boy”, and the other times, “Who’s the one that smiles a lot?” Now she knows him as “Massu”, but because of his grin.) She barely knows Uchi, and knows of Kusano as “the guy with the pants” (from their Fiesta/Wonderful World performance on Shounen Club. This disappoints me because I’ve made no secret about my support for Kusano.) – but they are both the idiots who got drunk underage. Someone forbid I ever bring up Moriuchi Takahiro around her.

But in all her overreacting unglory (can we call that a word for the sake of this post?), she squeals over them, drools at them (I’ve jokingly talked about unleashing floods of saliva over a certain member of AAA, but never literally. This girl is unfortunately literal.), hunts down pictures and videos, and causes me much bodily harm to get at what she can’t get herself.

Granted, I don’t know if this applies to even an eighth of the drama-watching pretty boy fandom. I mean, for one thing my sister’s pretty spoiled. The only way of getting Japanese entertainment she bothers with is mostly streaming performances because I can download anything else she’d be interested in. And actually, she’s somewhat limited to what I do show her.

But she shares something in common with the rest of the fandom, and that is an adoration for the idols’ achievements. (It should be noted that much as I use the word “achievement” in this post – not all of the actions are positive. Scandals are considered as much of an “achievement” as starting a trend or getting an award.) Because much as any idol fan likes to delude themselves that they’re in love with the idols in question for who they are… it’s really what they do. Regardless of the idol’s gender, company affiliation, or actual abilities, we come across them because they are put in the spotlight and do something to catch our eye.

Take me for instance. Way back when AAA debuted (really not all that long ago, sad to think of it), the one who immediately caught my eye was Urata. But unfortunately, really, not due to his looks or his dancing, but because he was one of the three lead singers. You had the rapper, the girl, the girly-guy, and the not-so-girly guy. (Really not hard to identify who’s who with that.) Everyone else in AAA would take me at least another two months to identify. (Even Shuuta and Yukari, yes. The former of which really didn’t catch my eye until his part of the Dance Corner in the 1st ATTACK concert; the latter when she shoved her boobs at the camera for DRAGON FIRE’s PV. Again, what they do.)

Or more recently – I’ve all but declared myself ready to marry Nino at the drop of a hat (wait, no, I said that too), but not even a year ago I shunned Arashi like a plague. It was after Yamada Taro Monogatari (in which Nino starred with Sho), after hearing his vocals in Niji and CARAMEL SONG, after seeing him cook on Mago Mago Arashi (because food is such an easy way to my heart), and after discovering his capabilities with various musical instruments that I found myself increasingly admiring the person. But there is nothing to prove that the Nino who exists in my head is really the same as the real person, and isn’t that the case for everyone? And no, Raid, I got over any idol relationship scandals way back in my wFL fandom when I thought the Ayaya hate was plain silly. My heart will not break over Nino getting some. In fact, if he didn’t get any I might really think he was a girl. Though that wouldn’t be such an odd relationship either.

No matter how much we learn about their personalities, we can never completely tell how much is real and how much is just marketing. Of course, it’d be great to say that they’re all amazing actors if what we see is completely made up, but once we do get to know the actual person and know for certain that it is them, we’ve crossed the intangible line that separates a fan and friend. (You can be a friend and a fan; but not a fan and a friend, if that makes any sense.) But with the high level of exposure idols get doing what they do, it’s all to easy to imagine that we’ve crossed that line.

If we throw the personality out, what does that leave us? With looks and actions? But standards of beauty are different for everyone, and it’s much easier to say a person is unattractive when you don’t know who they are. Really, as much as the idol world is heavily based on appearances, looks don’t count for anything. (Or didn’t count so much before, in Johnny’s.) And we’re back to my original point, that idols matter to us because of what they do.

So (going back to NEWS) Kato Shigeaki can’t sing around the release of NEWS’ first album touch. Couldn’t sing. Whatever. We knew that, he knew that. And sure, he was a pretty decent looking kid and that could help a bit, but he was also quiet. I couldn’t identify him until recently when NEWS was decidedly shunted down to 6 members, really, and I knew of NEWS since CHERISH. But he took vocal lessons, improved, and it is that improvement that helped me take notice of him. (Then came the studying law in college and mentions of wanting a live poisonous jellyfish or something of that sort.)

Switching to KAT-TUN. My sister only identifies Ueda by process of elimination. (I identify him by his lips and somewhat expressionless face.) Because we don’t listen to KAT-TUN, don’t watch their performances, and Ueda is the only member of KAT-TUN we haven’t seen in a drama. (In contrast: Kame ranks at two with Nobuta. wo Produce and 1 Pound no Fukuin, Jin and Junno at one with Yukan Club – but Jin has an edge thanks to his solo “ha-ha” back in the days of Utawara and his English, Koki also at one with My Boss, My Hero, and Nakamaru again at one with Sushi Oji! – but the latter two also have an up what with their roles (Rapper and beatboxer respectively) in the group.) With nothing to base our impressions of Ueda on, he becomes nearly nonexistent.

Let us move on to Kanjani8. Even after watching their two appearances on Utaban, my sister and I remembered only an additional three members in addition to Yoko and Ryo – Subaru (whose “Pierrot”/”Jyanni Depp” nickname amused), Yasuda (who was teased for acting gay), and Hina (Murakami Shingo – who just talked a lot.) After watching the Neoki Dokkiri/Surprise Wake-up special we can identify them all. But my sister? Does it by their Eito Ranger colors. (I talk about Shingo, she goes “Who?”. I say “Purple/Eggplant Ranger”, a look of dawning comprehension comes across her face. Ohkura is identified as the idiot who suggested the idea, and Maru suffers from being the process of elimination guy. Or being the Orange Ranger. Your choice.)

Even in Morning Musume, I’m surprised I remember who’s who throughout the generations despite not being a fan. But after some not-so-deep reflection, it is again an association of their images wwith their achievements. Yaguchi Mari has three things linked to her – MiniMoni, Sexy Beam, Oguri Shun scandal. Fukuda Asuka has one – first one to graduate from group. Ishiguro Aya – first Morning Mommy. Ishii Sayaka – started her own band. Abe Natsumi – plagiarism and turtle scandals. Ishikawa Rika – former head of Biyuden/VUden/however the hell you want to spell it, general beauty queen admired by Sayumi, and called the fans kimoi. (I could be wrong about that last one, I’m really not double-checking any of these.) Kusumi Koharu – in Kirarin Revolution and sole winner of 7th gen auditions (in the second round). And so on, and so forth.

In contrast to the high exposure of Johnny’s and scandals of Hello!Project, I look at an idol group like HINOI TEAM and think of how I identify the four members. Asuka is clearly lead vocals. Hikaru is the other lead vocal who happens to be taller. And I realize I can’t differentiate between Keika and Rina at all unless I’m watching the video for PLAY WITH THE NUMBERS. In dream, though I do love their music, I can only identify Kana and Yu because they were in the original trio. In PONY CANYON’s boyband trifecta, I can identify the individual members because I’ve spent so much time in the fandom – but there is still the “Hiroki, Lead no leader“, “Ryuichi, rapper/rocker of w-inds.”, or “Seigo, the new guy in FLAME”.

Perhaps I (and my sister) are unique in our idol fandoms. She takes hers rather shallowly, and I (for all that I make as much of an effort to get to know the idol as much as the next fan) am willing to disregard everything I’ve been given. But idols themselves are characters, as much as the ones in a game or a movie or a cartoon, and while it’s a bit wrong to associate them with the roles they play, it is as much a part of them as anything else we’re shown. And maybe it’s these things that draw us the most.

What’s in a review? That which by any other words would sound as sweet…

So, for the past week, my Internet decided to cop out on me. Also, WordPress ate this post several times over.

Okay, excuse for not posting over.

That doesn’t mean I’ve been entirely unproductive, though. (Insert kaomoji of any sort.) I have completed four decks for the 5×5 Arashi TCG. I have mixed 12 voices into a karaoke track mercilessly (though to no actual result) and attempted to record as many songs sung in a range too high. I have grinded my way through a number of casual games and leveled my characters’ jobs in Final Fantasy III after a long hiatus (no word on time for continuing NAMCOxCAPCOM or money for Persona 3: FES, unfortunately). I have been laughed at for failing to recognize a KinKi Kids song immediately (though it was warranted, seeing as I did buy the single). I have paid back a friend for ordering AAA’s ridiculous waste of money ATTACK ALL AROUND set, and am now currently hounding for Dream “A”live (If you don’t know, so much better for you, yes.) I have gone to see Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibit at the Guggenheim and become facinated with the indoor river exhibit.

Oh, and I wrote a review or two, too.

But lately I’ve begun to wonder what’s the point of having them? Everyone’s going to have their own opinions on music, and they may not necessarily agree. (For example, there are certain virtues I could speak of on Matsumoto Jun’s Yabai-Yabai-Yabai – which, despite failing greatly as an example of good singing, still makes for a good cheer-up song. And an even better alarm when I’m late for class. YABAI. But his fans would probably kill me for even beginning to expound on that thought.) That’s a good thing – actually, no. That’s a great thing. Who cares if Raid doesn’t share tastes in mainstream pop with most people he comes across (actually, he does), or that some of my closest friends adore visual kei as much as or even more than I abhor it? (Really. I can only handle roars of “ONE DAY I WILL FUCK YOUR PARENTS” into my face at karaoke for so long. You try it, dear reader, and then you’ll see why I insist on my boyband pop more and more. It’s a self-defense mechanism.)

The variety in tastes is what gives us the variety in the music market. And really, no one should tell anyone else what to listen to unless the opinion is deliberately asked for. Which brings me to my point, I suppose. What’s the point of a review blog?

This isn’t to criticize such blogs – I enjoy reading review blogs, and in fact, I’ve joined various music communities on LiveJournal for the sole purpose of reading uploaders’ reviews, rather than pouncing on the downloads. If I listen as I read the review, sometimes I’ll come across elements that I’d skipped over or develop a newfound appreciation for a track because I’ve had the chance to see the other person’s opinion. And there’s the undeniable fact that they make for spectacular filler when I don’t post ramblings like this one.

But while it may seem like I’ve answered my own question, I haven’t. Or at least, not as far as I’m concerned. To me, a blog is for sharing information and ideas, to toss them up for discussion. It’s like a forum but with a focus on one person’s thoughts. Reviews consist mainly of opinions, and on top of that, there’s really no point on discussing them. You either agree or you don’t, whether by a lot or a little, and that’s all there is to it. By their very nature, they’re final – and while a person’s opinion can certainly change over time, you don’t edit a review. You just write a new one with the new opinion or you forget about it. Usually the latter. People are lazy, let it slide.

Or perhaps a better explanation – people just don’t care.

I mean, take a look at the focus of our blogosphere. Music – and Japanese, not the first language for most, if not all of us at that. While we have a variety of interesting writers who work reviews into their repertoire of posts in addition to blogs that focus solely on reviewing music – there’s little we can really type that isn’t a review – whether it’s criticism or praise; whether it’s about the composition, image, clothes, personality, marketing style – it’s usually going to be a look at some aspect of someone’s career and our opinion of it. As a potential market that just isn’t being paid attention to, we have little chance of actually affecting what’s being done or used. All we can offer is what we think. The Japanese companies, while keeping an eye out for download blogs with their copyrighted pieces of data, don’t give a damn about the content. (Though it’s rather nice to say avex is stalking blogs and just obstinately wearing down vocal fans into mindless money machines.) We’re not their intended market nor audience, though we have a chance at taking away their chances to earn money from said market and audience. But they’re not our intended audience for our reviews either. (Or so I’d hope.) Who is?

So to the… 8 readers total I have on this blog. (I guess we can up that number to 12 if I mention Arashi. Hi guys, 5×5 review will be coming soon eventually.) And anyone else who stops by from anywhere, regardless of the linking page. What do reviews do for you? Whether it’s over something that millions of bloggers will touch upon regardless of who cares or doesn’t (*ahem*Hello!ProjectorHamasakiAyumi*ahem* – thanks for offering, but I’ve got my own cough drops) or a review on something no one else seems to care about… do they actually affect you as the reader in any way? Or do you just get a personal ego kick in knowing someone has the same opinion and move on?

To the bloggers; why post a review? Is it just to get your words out, to make a name in what’s fast becoming a popular blogosphere? (Well, mostly H!P blogs.) To spite all those writers whose opinions you disagree with, or perhaps in spite of the fact that there are no opinions over the subject of your review? Perhaps to spread the name of an artist, or defame them. Do you just post because you want to? Do the same “what’s the point?” questions plaguing my mind ever bounce across yours?

Lastly, to those of you who think this post is a way to get out of posting yet another trite review as I return to fangirling without the analytical bullshit pretense I use here… you’re totally right we’ll pretend there’s not an ounce of truth to that statement.