The Happy Idol Family

Imagine a world where all Idols co-exist in peace. Where AKB and H!P fans are united by a common love of Japanese Idols and the billion-dollar industry that they live and work in. It's a peculiar idea, but it's one that seems to come in waves. I'm not even one hundred percent sure why this idea persists so much, perhaps just out of naiveté and wishful thinking. But perhaps even more naive and wishful is the idea that the industry already works like this. And this idea is even more perplexing. It would be all too easy to say that this is purely a thought of the new fan, the DD who thinks that liking one member or group in Hello! Project also means you should be a fan of all of H!P. That's a state of thinking I'm sure we've all been in at some point - I know, at least, that my own attitude...

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Wota-kai!? Episode 8

We're back after having to postpone the show for a couple weeks. Our guest, Oroboras, has a somewhat busy work schedule, so the only day we could feasibly record on was a Thursday. And when a thunderstorm caused Ren to lose all internet access a couple hours before we were about to record, it was decided that we'd have to postpone. This is episode 8, and the second episode featuring Ren as host. Oroboras, a regular on Konya mo TKMR, happily agreed to appear on the show, and is the second TKMR member to do so. My top-secret plan is to get enough of them on the show that the two become some form of affiliated shows! Okay, not really. But it'd be interesting. At any rate, I've known him for a few years and is probably one of the...

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Wota-kai!? Episode 7

Last night we released the 7th episode of Wota-kai!? It comes as we pass the middle of the first season, and Sazaki Ren takes up the reins as host for the coming few episodes, while I myself am relegated to co-host for the duration - though my work behind the scenes hasn't lessened by very much. This episode proved to be the most difficult yet, that much is certain. The internet troubles and poor Skype quality that have so plagued us in previous episodes reached a new low this episode, and there were several times when at least one of us simply couldn't hear what the others were saying as the audio stream cut out. We made do and pieced sentences together with whatever words were picked up, or we waited until the call stabilised a bit...

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Wota-kai!? Episode 6

Earlier today we released the sixth episode of Wota-kai!?, the Hello! Project news and discussion podcast hosted by myself and Sazaki Ren. This week the special guest was alita87. It's actually the first time talking to a user whom I didn't know prior to the recording, which, as I pointed out last week, was probably the challenge I was most looking forward to having a crack at with this show. All the previous guests I've either spoken to often enough,  as with Liamers who I have known and been good friends with since 2007, and guests like sanrio, who I hadn't actually spoken to all that much, but was still somewhat used to seeing him around the same chatrooms and on STD. Alita, however, is a guest I had only ever really...

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Wota-kai!? Episode 5

Wota-kai!? is back for its fifth episode. Making this episode turned out to be more complicated than any other episode we've done thus far, as on the initial recording day we were plagued by technical problems and Skype was simply not stable enough for recording a podcast to be viable. Much of these problems persisted throughout the week and, though we managed to successfully record the following day, even that wasn't without its problems as mid-way through the show, Ren's internet suddenly imploded and we were left unsure as to whether he would return or if we'd have to simply finish the show without him for the better part of half an hour. Anyway, without going into any more detail than I already have, for the rest of the week,...

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Wota-kai!? Episode 4

It has been 9 weeks since we released the pilot episode. Now we're releasing the 4th. With each passing episode I feel more and more at ease with this show. I don't think anything will ever help me get over my hatred towards the sound of my own voice, and indeed, the editing process, which often lasts several times the length of the podcast itself, is something of an exercise in trying to not delete all of my own dialogue that makes me cringe. This episode was no different. Over two and a half hours of audio was recorded, and both trying to clean up the audio and cut it down so it more closely resembles the imaginary 90-minute run-time I have in my head meant that I was still editing this 12 hours after I had started. But despite...

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Wota-kai!? Episode 3

So the show returns for its third episode. The support from you guys, however vocal or silent, has been a huge boon to us, and I thank you. In some ways, Aika's graduation was something of a godsend. Definitely a shocking turn of events, and tragic for her fans, and of course the dejected Gaki fans who feel that they have had something stolen from them, but with regards to this podcast, it couldn't have come at a better time.  Last week was effectively the dictionary definition of a "slow news week", and so, right up until the day before we were due to start recording, I honestly had no idea how we were going to fill out the news corner. In the end a combination of Berryz' USB concert and the Aika graduation allowed us a pretty...

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Wota-kai!? Episode 2

The show has returned after the pilot proved more successful than we could have ever imagined! Some scheduling issues got in the way last week. We had hoped to record and have it released by Monday last week, but Ren proved to be too busy on the recording day,  and following attempts to postpone the recording by a day or two proved to be unworkable. So we had to cede defeat and resume as normal the following weekend. We are now starting to get the hang of it though, and we hope to gradually change the format and the way things work over the next few episodes to make this into the show we had in our minds when we created it. The biggest such change right now is the introduction of a third member to the podcast. This member...

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Wota-kai!? Episode 1

This is something that we have both been thinking of doing for quite some time. But a recent conversation with Sazaki Ren proved to be the catalyst for turning it into reality. For whatever reason, the conversation turned to a few ideas I had floating around in my head, including a few upgrades to this blog. And I told him about my idea for a regular H!P podcast. The reply was almost instantaneous. "Lets do it." What? That was fast. "I've been wanting to do something like this for a while myself." And so an idea which I had been rolling around in my head for weeks, but lacked the drive to actually start, suddenly started. We decided on the format, the name, the recording date. And then suddenly it was Sunday, 1st of April, and I...

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A New Captainist Era of Hello! Project?

It was announced a while ago that Niigaki Risa would be graduating from Hello! Project. Naturally this announcement was met by all the usual reactions from her fans. Though, and don't hold me too accountable for this, as I didn't give it too much attention, I don't think anyone found the news as shocking as other recent graduations. In fact, the shocking part was that it took so long for her to graduate. She is currently the longest-serving member in Morning Musume history, having shared that title with fellow 5th Gen member Takahashi Ai up until Ai's graduation last year. The gokkies have always been close. Especially Ai-chan and Gaki. During the last few years, the fact that they had become the two oldest, longest-serving members...

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