
I want to say that I am still, 100%, an Arashi fan.
I think, in all likelihood, I probably am.
It still doesn’t mean One Love is going to get it easy from me.

I want to say that I am still, 100%, an Arashi fan.
I think, in all likelihood, I probably am.
It still doesn’t mean One Love is going to get it easy from me.

No excuses this time. Fact is, lately blogging hasn’t appealed as much to me. (Probably because I’ve been using up my weekly allotment of bullshitting on English homework.) Which is sad, because as of two (almost three!) Sundays ago, this blog became a year old. A year ago, we opened with a post on AAA’s then-latest PV, Get CHU!. It’s rather belated now (it always is with me), but let’s kick the next year for this blog off with a post on a not-so-recent release that also marks another transition for me.
Welcome back to the Arashi section of Kimitsu’s brain. I know it hasn’t been that long since we came here - in fact, I think we make a trip about every other week. I hope you’re getting comfy - is that seat cushion actually conforming itself to your butt?
With one barrier passed (Step and Go), time to tackle the other one! SAKURA Sake was the first Arashi song I’d ever heard that stuck with me, and so it’s become something of a starting point for me whenever I mentally deal with Arashi. Except now I have to go past that, and tackle what will probably be coming up again soon anyways - a best of/single collection album. In this case, 5×5: THE BEST SELECTION OF 2002←2004.

Since officially giving myself up to the lovefest that is Arashi on this blog, I’ve done a number of reviews on their releases - a grand total of three, actually, but work with me here. Though I got into Arashi around the release of Happiness, I never actually did a PV/single review here. (Perhaps someday. It’s another one of the fun, busy sort that Johnny’s should really make more of.) And come to think of it, I haven’t reviewed a single new thing of Arashi’s at all. So with the release of Step and Go, what better way to officially mark my somewhat-new fandom obsession of 2008?
Basically, if you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been reading this blog lately, have you? Though I can’t say I blame you. (In retrospect, I could’ve totally used the title for a post on Hamasaki Ayumi’s MY STORY. Damn.)
Today… well, today I says to myself, “Kimi, what is it about media blogs?” I hate them and yet I admire them. I don’t mean the download-sharing kind, of course, but the ones that get by solely on posting pictures and YouTube/Dailymotion/Veoh/imeem/what have you links.
I hate that all their content is mostly based off what they’ve probably leeched from the Internet. (But if it comes from their own wallet, all the more power to them.) I hate that there is little actual thought behind the decision other than “I like this, people might like this, so here you go”. Insert smiley or one-liner on the media in question, press “Publish/Post”, watch the comment and hit counts fly.
Perhaps a great deal of it is because while I value a pretty face and watching choreography, a good deal of my music fandoms are not visually based. I’ve never found much merit in photobooks, partially stemming from some disappointment with my collection of artbooks that sit gathering dust on my bookshelf and the fact that I’d rather have them sit pretty than do anything to them. Trading cards, too, are considered more as a collectible item (going back to my days in high school where I amassed over 300 booster packs of Japanese Yu+Gi+Oh! cards for the sole purpose of having the collection). And while I like looking at pictures, I am not the person with several gigs in pictures of their favorite artist(s).
No, my music fandoms develop because of that same music, and rarely go further. I’m perfectly content to listen to people like Younha or Gackt or even, say, AAA without wondering what sort of person they are, or being obsessive about how they look. (Sure, Shuuta being hot helps. Urata’s body helps even more. But I got into them because I liked their music and I liked their dancing. Not how they looked. Thankfully, because they looked pretty bland early on.) Only recently has this changed, as my purchases of Japanese magazines increase, but I’m still fairly selective about the magazines I buy, preferring to preview the photoshoot before deciding on any actual purchase. (But we chalk this up to how expensive buying said magazines in this country is. My poor wallet.)
And I suppose to some extent, the download blog earns my ire as well. I’m grateful, sure, because they widen the ways to get your Japanese media. But when I know that they get over hundreds of hits solely for the downloads, it kind of hurts. Especially because this little blog, no matter how much I pour into it, barely averages about 100 hits overall a day, but half of them for nonsensical google searches or what lyrics I’ve color-coded for my amusement. I say this with a sad confidence, you know - let it beat! was a download blog too and it averaged 100 hits for whatever my latest post was… until the next one came along.
But I feel justified - even the teeniest bit - in knowing that I fleshed out those same downloads with hopefully interesting text. Whether or not people read it was up to them, but at least I wasn’t completely relying on the allure of Koda Kumi’s pumping hips, Domoto Koichi’s angsty face, or AAA’s way-too-many releases to draw people in. I had my own opinions and ideas to share, at least.
For that same reason, I admire them. I admire the gall those same media blogs have in doing that. And of course, their success. Because not only do I think I could ever do that, just post a picture or a video link, but my head might possibly explode if you ever put me in front of a keyboard and blogging program and told me I wasn’t allowed to type under pain of everyone in the world collectively crying “Bullshit!” and stoning me to death. Actually, I’m a bit surprised it hasn’t happened yet - the latter part, that is.
…it might be hard to tell, but this post wasn’t supposed to be a criticism of media blogs. Oops.
No, this post, with great pains, sends me temporarily joining the legions of media-sharing blogs once more. With your weekly dose of fangirl rambling, of course.

Yes, I know, I’m behind schedule on the Arashi album reviews. (I wasn’t even aware that I had a schedule.) But if there’s anything that the guys at Rockstar Games have taught us, it’s that there’s got to be better ammo out there to use against me. What is this you’re hitting me with, a suction cup foam dart? C’mon, you guys can do better than tha- ow. A shotshell? Okay, fine, you win.
Next stop on our ever-descending journey into Arashi music - no, you can’t get off while the train is moving, sir, please stay in your seat until we come to a full stop, and have we mentioned that the engineers love cries of personal torture? - is their One album, and the first to contain solos from the 5 members.