An English-Language Look at Wotagei

I've always had an interest in wota and wotagei. From those early days of my idol "fandom" I had a deep respect and love for the wota where others around me looked down on them as plain creepy. I respect them for the way they other members of society, both in Japan and abroad, treat them as though they are obsessed stalker-type fans. But despite this image they continue to do all they can to support their idols and to show that support. What better way to let your idols know that support them than to shout and dance like madmen, right? For a long time I've wanted to be a wota. I was a fan, and I'd consider myself a pretty big fan too, but that just isn't enough for me. The biggest trouble was, although I'm sure I'm not alone, there were...

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Fujimoto Miki getting married!

That's right. It's been reported that former Morning Musume member and comedian Shouji Tomoharu will be married this summer. Back in 2007, tabloid Friday! Magazine caught pictures of the two together supposedly dating. Normally Up-Front have managed to keep these scandals under wraps and either deny them or just ignore them. Seems it wouldn't work this time as Miki decided it would be best if she admitted to what she had done and resign from Morning Musume as a member, making her the shortest-serving leader in Morning Musume's history with only 3 weeks holding that title. It's a shame. She had proven in the past that she had what it takes to be a solo artist, and even during her time in Morning Musume she had arguably the biggest fanbase...

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Happy IW Cake Day, from Berryz Kyuuden!

Well, International Wota is now two years old, right? And that means it's the second Cake Day today. So this post is just to offer my congratulations to IW and the staff who make it such a great community to be part of. It's regrettable that I didn't have ingredients to make a cake myself, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my cake to share, to any cake to eat. There's always next year. That doesn't mean I'm not gonna keep with the cake day theme here though, as here I post a video of Tsuji Nozomi enjoying her Birthday cake during a concert. Now IW can eat it's cakes with Nono too! And a big thank you to CK at Internationl Wota for regularly featuring my blogs, as well as a big thank you to the readers who visit my blog from...

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Buono! at the Stockholm Japan Expo!

Well, I'm sure everyone and their grandmother knows about this now. But I've been a little pre-occupied with college, and with Maasa's photobook news lately. And I wanted to talk about it myself. So, it's been confirmed that everyone's favourite 3-nin Hello!Project group will be paying us Europe fans a little visit in May at the Stockholm Japan Expo. This will be the first time a Hello!Project group has performed in Europe. It'll also be the first time a Hello!Project group has performed in the west. Sure, there have been fanclub concerts in Hawaii by Morning Musume and Ayaya, but as those were fanclub-only (and you can't join the fanclub without a Japanese address) they don't count. I was a tad annoyed when I heard Morning Musume would...

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Jisatsu CIRCLE: Are you connected?

I don't often write about things that have nothing to do with Hello!Project, but here I am, documenting my latest foray into the world of Japanese cinema. Suicide Circle (known in the US as Suicide Club) is a japanese horror/gore movie which seems comparable with several other japanese cult classics and yet at the same time is unlike anything I've ever seen before. After 54 people all with no apparent connection to one another commit suicide at Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, the police start to take an interest when two bags turn up after suicide incidents both containing an unlikely items - two identical rolls of human skin. Police Investigator Kuroda insists that there is a case to be solved, despite scepticism from some of the other officers....

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