パン大好き
Oh, Minami, why must you be so kawaii.
Hoshino Minami not liking her dad’s catch phrase for her.
Slaying at the Center
Holy! Let me tell you the godliness going on here. First, the song is Keyakizaki46 breakout first single, “Silent Majority.” Everyone and their oji-san loves it. Second, it looks like the Kami-7 of AKB48 plus a few of their senbatsu sousekyou members. Third, Nogizak46 and their most popular members. Fourth, Keyaki-chan represented by their most popular members as well. And finally, Ikoma Rina from Nogizaka46 killing as center.
Now, this makes me believe that anyone can slay at the center of this song.
Link of the Day [5.13.16]
Fuck yeah! Pardon my Japanese. It’s on! Once more. Here we go again!
You’ll know where to find me that weekend: on my couch, logged into Showroom Live, Tweeting up a storm.
I’m gonna love this.
Fukagawa
Fukagawa Mai announced her graduation from Nogizaka46 today. I am sad again.
But it’s not like she’s one of my favorites. I love ’em all. If forced to order, MaiMai would not make my top 10. From reading others, she is beloved by the fans, therefore she’s beloved by me.
She is the oldest currently of the group. It was expected that she would want to graduate soon. I wasn’t expecting anyone from the group to announce so soon after their triumph at Kouhaku. Yet, it had to happen.
The olds are leaving and the news must rise to the challenge. Will Nogizaka46 be the same?
Link of the Day [12.16.15]
Need to save this link, because it is awesome and may be gone soon.
Perfect Blue
Perfect Blue has been out of print on DVD/BluRay for the longest time, so imagine my surprise to see that The Charles had it playing during their Anime Night programming. It’s the only film of Satoshi Kon’s that I had not seen, and I planned to catch it no matter what.
Being his first film, it is rough around the edges. It has a very 90s anime feel to it, and it didn’t help that the Charles had what seemed to be a bootleg — it looked like the aspect ratio was wrong as the faces were somewhat distorted. I’ve seen other images on the web from this movie. They looked better. Also, the sound was slightly too loud. I’m not sure that the Charles did a good presentation of the film, but I was glad to catch it. At least, they fixed the crack in the screen wall of the theatre such as not to distract from the film.
Perfect Blue is about a Japanese idol who decides to graduate from her group and become an actress. She wants to move past her idol persona and became her own person as an actress. Her fans may not approve. Lots of the film bounces between those two worlds — the idol and the actress. You see her shed that innocent idol image by taking up adult roles and doing sexy gravure shots. Her fans may not approve.
Kon displays his trademark switching between scenes. They focused on Mima’s life as an idol or as an actress. They switched back and forth morphing reality with scenes she plays in a movie or scenes of the movie. She tries to find her real self — the idol or the actress. She gets involved in murders because her fans may not approve of her choice. In the end, it became a mystery to solve for her.
Imagine all the idol watching I’ve done in the last 6 months. Now imagine all of that – about the fans approval – coming around in this movie. Do we, idol fans, like them for who they are or who we think they are? Are we complicit in their act? Are we complicit in the happiness, or unhappiness, of their lives? I am not too sure; I’ve wrestled with it for the last 6 months myself. Idols are idols and they are who they are. I’m just here to support them in their line of business.
4 of 5 stars.
“If anyone here is a witch, it’s Beth. Look at how she dresses. Case closed.”
I had this NewsRadio quote queued up as a draft. I can’t let it go to waste. Now what should I write about…
IDOLS!
Those cute, gorgeous, talented girls from Japan. I haven’t written about them here, hunh? No? Then let’s get on with it.
I said that one of these days I would explain my fascination with them. But really there isn’t too much to say. It’s like why I love slice of life anime featuring Japanese school girls playing in a band. I just want to cheer them on with their endeavors. It’s the same for Idols. I want to cheer them on.
They work hard in order to bring us kawaii. I can’t let there effort go to waste. I want all of them to succeed. I want them to achieve their dreams. I want them to make me happy that they are who they are.
I believe that is moe, a feeling of affection towards them. I don’t just like one girl. I support them all.
It’s tough to think about. It just is for me at the moment. I am an idol otaku.
“So, I guess it’s business as usual for you. To you, it must have been like stepping on a bug, except this bug had friends and a personality. And it wasn’t so much a bug as a rat.”
I’ve always been meaning to write about why I embraced Japanese idols so quickly, but never really gotten around to it. I’ll attempt to rectify that with today’s link. The author writes about idols represented in anime, but he could’ve been talking about 3D idols as well.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2015-09-23/the-intoxicating-lure-of-idol-anime/.93232