I’ve listened to Japanese music for probably 9/10 years now. They didn’t get the brainwashing in too early, but it’s there all the same.
I’ve actively considered myself a fan of various artists for 6/7 years. It’s a bit of a scary thought.
But there are still some things I can’t wrap my head around.
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.
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.
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.
Okay, so in retrospect, it’s only fair that I answer my own questions on the Johnny’s ranking post I made last week. Tell you what, I’ll throw in some eye-candy too. You know you like eye-candy.
This time, let’s go in-depth. Why are my top 10 9 where they are? How much do the questions I posed (“Are the Johnny’s who are my favorites there because they have traits I’m looking for in guys? Or are they there because I’ve exposed myself to them to the point where they feel like close friends?“) apply to them?
In other words, this post is an excuse for me to hypothetically say ”Yes, I would date you,” or “Let’s stay friends,” or even “YOU, we register to get married. NOW.” [/mandatory Johnny Kitagawa imitation] Ahem. Ah, the benefits of being in the age range or younger than the ones I fangirl over. For all that it’d be fun to imitate Kitagawa, I’m not ready to handle pedophilia charges yet.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My sister and I watch a bunch of Johnny’s dramas. (Rather, I watch, and she tags along.) By Johnny’s dramas, I refer to ones specifically intended to market the pretty boys, where the story’s got little drive (each episode is only linked by a common theme and the characters) and the selling point is undeniably the actors’ day jobs, their musical careers. Stuff I’ve watched that I would shuffle into this category: Yukan Club, Sushi Oji!, Yamada Taro Monogatari, Kuitan, Remote. Sure, you can argue that some of them had a decent story and better acting, but at the end of the day, what was supposed to sell the drama was the lead actors’ faces.
Lately I’ve come to the conclusion that a Johnny’s drama just wouldn’t be complete without the butchering of another language in some way. Luckily for the two of us and our American upbringing, that language is usually English. (We get bonus points if the language being mutilated is Chinese, though. Oh, Kuitan. I will never be able to thank you enough )
So we were watching Yukan Club’s episode 7 and I was being amused at Mike He’s accent when speaking Japanese… and then the antagonists of the episode spoke. It was clear that for all their foreign looks, English was not the first language for all but one of them, or even one that they were used to. And then Akanishi Jin’s character slid in and had three lines of English roll off his tongue with more vocal fluency than the ones who were supposed to speak English, and my sister and I died.
Clearly that time in America wasn’t completely wasted partying his drunk ass off.
Not to sideline Kashii Yu, either, who had the perfect tone of a newscaster and only stumbled a bit during her “translation” part. I wanted to get in some giggles at Taguchi Junnosuke, who said “Friends” with too much of a Japanese accent in contrast to his son-of-the-Swedish-ambassador character, but just seeing him blond and blue-eyed makes me want to snort in ridicule so I think we’re even.
(And then hereon, we’ll be ignoring the fact that Yukan Club’s ratings were pretty low because quite frankly – even Kaga Takeshi couldn’t save it from the ridiculous suckage that it became. Also it never comes up in this post again.)
English and other languages are sneaking in more and more into Japanese pop culture. At the same time, that whole expansion through East Asia thing is going on in the music industry as well – and the US has always been a fairly popular destination. There are a lot more artists who are fluent in English, or have a decent grasp of the language, and a lot more traveling overseas is occurring.
When Crystal Kay first broke the market, despite some powerful vocals and obviously good English, along with one of Japan’s better composers (Kanno Yoko) backing her, she didn’t get anywhere. Now there’s a lot more vocalists in the Japanese music industry like her (melody., Arashiro Beni, Ito Yuna, Rie fu, EMYLI, MONKEY MAJIK, etc.) – and actually, they’re scattered around the market. H!P’s Coconuts Musume got pretty much nowhere – but Ayaka and Mika managed to brighten their respective careers in the fold by exploiting their English capabilities because it was a novelty gimmick. BoA’s English versions of her single tracks died out after Every Heart – back in 2001. Sure, Utada Hikaru’s EXODUS album hit highs in Japan, but she had to start out attracting with her Japanese lyrics as well. Her speaking English only made her more accessible in the States, really. English hasn’t had a very good run in Japan in the past – and now it’s become the boom.
So are the leaders of Japan’s entertainment world attempting to ease out? (Which leads to – is the entire industry a giant conspiracy where they buy high-end champagne with overseas fans’ rapid ridiculous spending in our attempts to get notice?) Is this the influence of groups like m-flo, who’ve worked artists who do have more of a Western sound, and the general American music craze in Japan?
Should Kimi stop typing up posts at 1:52 AM after a fairly disappointing day? (I bought a duplicate issue of Myojo at full price WHY? D: Dammit, there must be someone up there working against the idea of my buying two Japanese pretty boy magazines in a week.) Tune in tomorrow to find out. (You all know that’s a lie.)
Also – I really ought to come up with better year-end (for me) posts. See you guys in 2008.
