The show returns for its eighth episode, with special guest Oroboras, for more Idol news and discussion.
A New Captainist Era of Hello! Project?
Is Captain the new leader of Hello! Project?
Idol Collections
It's a strange topic. Kurisu from Mexican idol blog Hello!Wota once said that "Americans are not wota. Americans are collectors." Is that true?
Berryz to attend AnimeNEXT
Seriously? I can't believe it. Mere hours after I wrote "I'm still holding out for Berryz to get invited to Japan Expo" in my previous entry about Buono's concert in Paris this February, news broke that they have been invited to a tiny convention on the US' east coast by the name of AnimeNEXT.
Buono! Concert in Europe... again!
It has been 2 years now since Buono! announced their ill-fated trip to Stockholm to perform at the Japan Expo. Now, in early 2012, they're planning to make a second attempt at performing in Europe.
Expanding Horizons?
This week the Daily Yomiuri featured an article about the potential for overseas expansion of Japanese pop culture, including a few comments from Takahashi Ai.
Ex-Musume Tsuji Nozomi announced on Wednesday her second pregnancy.
We all remember the news the first time around. Tsuji was several months pregnant, and was getting married to Taiyo Sugiura, an actor famous for playing the titular character in children's TV show Ultraman. Shocking news, to say the least, and it caused her to leave Hello!Project on maternity leave at a time when she was caught in a long period of inactivity after fellow W (Double You) member Kago Ai was suspended after her underage smoking scandal (and then her contract finally ended a year later after a repeat scandal). This inactivity on Tsuji's part due to Kago Ai's scandal and her own scandalous pregnancy lasted right up until her official graduation in February 2009 where she appeared for her last time on stage as a Hello!Project member alongside her fellow Elder Club members who were also graduating, and the Wonderful Hearts members that make up Hello!Project today.
Tsuji attended a public event on Tuesday, Tokyograph reports, and had been feeling strange for several weeks. She underwent a medical examination the following day, where she was informed that she was seven weeks pregnant.
This is shocking news for me, I can only imagine how shocked Tsuji and her husband Taiyo were. Once again, we should continue to support Tsuji, and look forward to the inevitable pictures of random baby limbs that were such a common sight on her blog after her first child, Noa, was born.
If there is an Idol out there who has really been catching my interest lately, it's that 14 year old Manx girl, Beckii Cruel.
We on the internet are oft accused of being assholes with nothing better to do than troll. And when this girl got her big break after a video of her dancing to Danjo, a 2ch meme, went viral on the aforementioned BBS, I was shocked to see the news begin to bring out the worst in H!P fans and non-fans alike.
Mudslinging comments about her surfaced almost immediately, calling her anything from ugly to untalented and everything in between. One Hello!Online user described her as being "fake". How does one become a fake Idol anyhow? Even more surprising, however, is how kindly 2ch seems to have reacted to her by comparison.
2ch, a notorious haven for xenophobia and outright racism, managed to find the appeal in her videos dancing to their memes. So when a forum of racist Japanese nationalists can, why can't the west? Well, we have a habit of thinking of ourselves as more accepting of different cultures here in the west than in Asia, but it seems to me that this is just ignorance. I can think of many reasons why people hate her...
Simple racist dislike to anything non-Japanese? It's not as ridiculous as it sounds. I've heard it before, I'm sure you have too.
Perhaps it is jealousy. This girl has been given alot for people to get jealous about. A career as an Idol in Japan (for however long it lasts), the chance to meet celebrities and Idols - notably Sayumi Michishige, whom she seems to have developed some kind of affinity with. "True, but I'm not jealous of her!" I hear you say. Well, perhaps not, but that's the feeling I get when people say "She's not even that great at dancing!" or "Why did they pick her? XXXX is so much better at dancing!"
Or maybe people simply dislike her. Not everyone can, and if she isn't your cup of proverbial tea, then that's fine. Though often it's hard to tell these people apart from the ones above with troll-mentalities.
I, however, come from the camp of people who actually like her. Despite what people say, she is actually cute. She is also very talented. And most importantly, she is having fun and fulfulling some kind of dream. Seriously, how many of us get to reach our dreams in our lifetimes?
I said before on H!O that perhaps one of the reasons that I like her is also because she is Manx, and being Scottish myself, means we both belong to Celtic ethnicities. Not the same ethnic group, but the Irish, Scots and Manx are all descended from the same ancestry. Anyway, I was joking when I said it, but actually having an Idol that speaks in the same language as you always makes life easier for the fan. I can follow her on FaceBook or converse with her on NicoNico Live, something I probably couldn't do even if I tried with Maasa.
Language barrier is one of the most frustrating things for us non-Japanese fans, so it's nice to get past that.
But I think I'll cut this entry short. I've been without internet for days, and am stuck at the moment on an unstable 3G connection.
So I shall leave you with one last comment....
Danjo is the catchiest song in the world. Danjo Dan Danjo Danjo (woop woop)
12:53
Dran
