Wings of My Heart 3.0

One of my favourite members of the current crop of AKB48 kenkyuusei, Katoono Mizuho, has graduated. Now, there is only so much room for bitterness here, as she wasn’t kicked out because of the new auditions; she has cited health problems as her reason for graduating. She says that she wants to recover and be able to keep singing, because she loves to sing, and that she wants to stand before us again as a solo singer one day.  But then she also mentioned continuing with her studies, so who knows how much of that is true? All I know is that she was one of my favourites and I bought PICTURES of her, for crying out loud, so instead of trying to forget about her so as to be less angry, I am going to hold onto those pictures, keep spamming people with them, and hope that she does, indeed, debut one day in the future.

I had this feeling that she was going to graduate ever since it was speculated that more girls were going to be leaving the kenkyuusei fold. I HATE that I was right. I’ll be spending my AKB time on Nacchan and Myao for now, and trying to avoid the drama that goes on with every single or concert or graduation in this fandom. I just want my cracky, cute girls. None of this other crap. I come to my idols for sparkly cake with pink frosting and whipped cream and cute flowery designs, not drama! So please, drama, leave me alone now. I’m ready to be done with you.

And I’m not ready to be done with Miitan, so I hope that you have a full recovery and can return to the entertainment industry as a singer one day. Until that day, I will hold on to your BLTs that I bought and remind others that you’re out there.

Berryz Koubou’s brand new double A-side single happens to be the first Berryz single I have truly enjoyed in a long time. This is exciting for me, because Berryz were always my number one before their singles started sucking (to me). My displeasure with the music got to the point that it made me stop caring about the girls themselves, which is pretty surprising looking at my Berryz fandom track record. So now that I’m warming up to them again and genuinely enjoying both of their new songs and PVs, I say it’s time for a little comparison! Which of their two new A-sides will come out on top?

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First and foremost, I have to shout it: LINLIN!

I know that everybody had been rooting for her to make it into the new Mini Moni as the “token foreign girl,” but the fact that it’s actually happening still feels kind of amazing. She and JunJun have really needed more to do in H!P for a long time now, in my opinion, and I’m so glad that she’s getting something as cool as this. She somehow looks very Mini Moni; how did I never notice that before? She’s also a terrific singer, but with a voice that can sound a bit quirky. And she’s short, so she’s basically perfect for Mini Moni in every way. And she’s going to be the LEADER! That is the most epic thing that could have possibly happened to this girl. Yay!
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Last fall I stopped mediaspamming over at my Vox, coinlockersbaby, and moved to angel in the night at Blogger, because Vox had become impossible for my computer to handle. Needless to say, it was never quite the same. Hello! Island’s wonderful picspamming got to me today, so I have finally moved back to coinlockersbaby. Vox seems to be agreeing with my computer again, so fingers crossed that that continues. Regardless, coinlockersbaby remains the only true home for my mediaspamming, period. So, enjoy! I’ve already spammed four times today, both girls and boys. It feels good to be spazzing over Heechul pictures and making unashamedly idol-lovestruck posts about them, again.

http://coinlockersbaby.vox.com GO GO GO, GO GO GO (YEAH)!

jyoru of S.P.A.K.A. has made a great post about hating on idols (and why it doesn’t make sense), and I think it was a point that needed to be made. It also got me thinking about the one thing that bugs me the most in idol fandoms, along the same lines: people calling idols ugly.

I will admit that I have done it before, myself; there was one member of Kirots who I insisted upon calling ugly, and I justified it with the point that the entire package of that group was just so, so bad. I stand by my view that Kirots need to be put the hell out of their misery already, but I take back calling that one member of the group ugly. And now that’s out of the way.

I really cannot stand it when I see somebody calling an idol ugly. Yes, most of us judge people’s appearances every day, and there’s no point in feeling guilty for thinking that somebody is “ugly” upon seeing them. That just means that they don’t fit into your definition of beauty, and there is no reason for you to find everybody in the world attractive. To each his own. That said, I have a real problem with voicing that you find someone ugly, even if you don’t say it to their face. I think it’s unnecessary, hurtful, and malicious. When I was watching Canada’s Next Top Model recently and my mom came in and called a girl ugly, it made me really upset, because what right does she have to judge a person like that? At the same time, I know I can’t get mad at my mom for that, because everybody makes comments like this without thinking anything of it. And that’s why eating disorders exist, folks.

It frustrates me to no end when I see this happening in idol fandoms online. The first example that comes to mind is Misa talking about certain members of Hello! Project. I know that Misa doesn’t mean any harm when she calls an idol ugly, but the way she states it so boldly and unapologetically really tends to bother me - I just don’t say anything about it, because I don’t want to be the annoying complainer. A given idol may not be what I envision when I think of an attractive female, but does that mean that she’s ugly? Not by a long shot, and I do not view her as such.

That said, it’s the completely offhanded comments that aren’t even being made to be funny that really get to me. Recently, the newly chosen members of the second team of SKE48, Team K II, were announced, and a video of each of them briefly talking popped up. A number of posts in response to this on Stage 48 made comments about this girl or that girl being “ugly,” and I felt mad. These are a bunch of young girls with big dreams hoping to see them come true, about to embark on a journey into a whole new life, and you’re going to sit there and write on the internet, for all to see, that they’re “ugly”? Being friends with everybody on Stage 48, tried to be polite, but the only thing I honestly wanted to say was, “Shut the fuck up.”

And just so we’re clear, I don’t think that it’s wrong to say that you think, say, a certain idol’s eyebrows need waxing. At the end of the day, I think that that can be seen as constructive criticism, just like commenting that braces might serve some idol well. Going into that bushy eyebrowed or crooked toothed girl’s thread on a forum and saying, “What an ugly cow!” is a totally different story, in my opinion. I suppose this may sound like I’m being hypocritical, but I think it’s valid to view comments like the examples I made as constructive criticism, but the others as being a lot more cruel.

It is not funny to call an idol ugly, and it’s not right to express that as a sincere opinion, either. Eating disorders are caused this way. Selt esteem is damaged. People become miserable based on the comments made about them by others. So the next time you feel the urge to yell out that you think some member of an idol group whom you’ve never met before is “ugly,” please do the world a favour and keep it to yourself. There’s just no reason for you to say something hurtful about a person who’s never even done anything to you. Period.

AKB48 who?

In March, Super Junior released their third album, hitting things off with the single “SORRY, SORRY”. There’s no denying that it was a huge success; the song is crazy catchy and the video’s pretty slick, if a little plain. SM Entertainment knows what they’re doing, and every new release by any of their artists is a clear indication of that. The fans knew that there would be a repackaged version of the album released within a few months, to coincide with the second single off the album, and I, for one, expected nothing less than awesomeness. What I didn’t expect was that they would go so far above and beyond my expectations, and bring us this.

Fangirl reawakening in three, two, one…

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It’s a concept that’s been hotly debated in the H!P fandom, and recently it’s become a reality: international fans of Japanese and Korean musical acts are being better recognized than in the past, and their management are acknowledging and rewarding us with shows outside of the group’s homelands. Just for the sake of getting a clear look at the big picture, I thought I’d go over the artists I’m familiar with who have recently or soon will be travelling outside of their respective domains to perform for fans who’ve been deprived until now. From teenage Jpop idols to Korean rappers, everyone seems to be expanding their horizons and travelling the world, and the statement this is making is loud and clear.

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Because that’s what her last name translates to. Melon shop. Go figure.

Uriya Akane was one of the original AKB48 SEEDs, and up until now she remained a kenkyuusei. She was one of only two of the original SEEDs left on Team Kenkyuusei, as the others who still had not been added to a team were given the boot after the Team Kenkyuusei auditions, in favour of newer girls. (As for the other original SEEDs, I still don’t know why they all graduated at once fairly soon after joining the group. Watanabe Marie was obviously of questionable character - for an idol, anyway - but what was wrong with the other ones?) In the first of three AKB concerts taking place over the course of this weekend, Uryaa announced her graduation from the group. They apparently played a long video featuring clips of her, giving her a fitting send-off, but that doesn’t take away my right to be bitter about this!

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It’s an idea that pops into every wota’s head at some point, and something that many of us will do or have done: buying multiple copies of the same single or album. Sometimes, one simply wants to help their idols achieve a high Oricon ranking, and buys more than one copy of a new release in the hopes of pushing it to the top. Other times, it’s difficult to choose between the regular and limited editions - you want the bonus DVD, but the regular edition has a better cover - so you just get both instead. And some fans no doubt collect every version of every release by their favourite artist just for the sake of having a complete collection. It’s the way of fandom; some buy loads of CDs, some download everything, and everyone enjoys whatever their favourite artists put out. As long as no one’s getting themselves into debt with their spending habits, there’s no problem with it - until the companies backing our artists take advantage of it.

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