Pleasure Principled

Revealingly Articulate Idol Worship

I’m still kind of embarrassed about becoming a fan of Johnny’s Entertainment, though my thinking has certainly changed since a year ago. I guess there’s not really any shame in being a Johnny’s Entertainment fan, considering everyone does it. If you like another group like Hello! Project, the general Japanese music-listening population would treat you insignificant, because H!P is a big wotaku group. Johnny’s Entertainment is dominating the charts with every song they can come out with, so they’re obviously not as frowned-upon. However, I found it easier to watch 13 year old girls dance around in miniskirts, but it took me longer to get used to full grown men singing this kind of music and acting the way that they do. 

NEWS was the first group I got into. There are six members, including Yamashita Tomohisa (the leader), Masuda Takahisa, Tegoshi Yuya, Nishikido Ryo, Kato Shigeaki and Koyama Keiichiro. I found it pretty easy to get into them, actually: their songs were catchy and the videos were really cool. I can’t really say that I found them attractive, because I didn’t. The only one I thought was remotely good looking was Massu, and I had been a fan of him for a long time before I started looking up his music.

Eventually, I gave in to their goofy appeal and now can see the attractive qualities in all of them - except maybe Koyama, who can look like one of those ugly hound dogs, but his personality makes up for that. I’m still wondering how I didn’t notice at that time how hot Yamapi is. I guess we all make mistakes at some point, right? He’s the most popular member of the group; the many drama’s he’s been the lead in are the base for most of NEWS’ popularity.

I think the reason it was so easy to get into NEWS, yet so hard to get into any other group, is because of their similarities with H!P. When it comes to PVs, their format is basically the same: close up, story shot, dance shot. If you take “Taiyou no Namida” by NEWS, and “Naichau Kamo” by Morning Musume, the mood of each song is pretty similar, and so are the PVs. They both have a dance shot, and they both have two different kind of close ups, and one shot from each PV involves getting wet somehow.

Songs like “STARDUST” from NEWS’ Color album sounds like it could be sung by Buono!, and songs like “Tokaikko Junjou” (minus the obvious female references) could totally be pulled off by NEWS. It was these similarities that opened me up and made me feel more comfortable with being a fan of NEWS, because I wasn’t straying too far out of the bubble H!P had created for me.

The one group I am most embarrassed about enjoying is Hey! Say! JUMP. Sure, half of them are my age and pretty, but the rest of them are dirty little boys. Except I don’t think that way anymore. Guiltily, I’m starting to really enjoy their personalities. I’m not attracted to them or anything, but they’re so cute that they’re addicting. I have the random horrible “Yamada Ryosuke’s really hot for a 15 year old” thought, but this is the first time I’ll admit it to anyone. My favourite member is Yaotome Hikaru, who many have claimed to be one of the least attractive in the group. I think it’s okay to like him though; I’m not very good looking myself, so we fit together perfectly. I kind of feel sorry for what our children may look like, though.

Groups like Arashi and Kinki Kids are still a bit iffy for me. Kinki Kids is amazing, simply because Domoto Koichi is the world’s prettiest old man, but their music style is way too old for my liking. They debuted around the same time as Morning Musume, 1997. Their style reminds me of 80s English pop music and that’s nothing I’ve ever had a passion for. Arashi is the current popular group in the world of Johnny’s: 3 of their singles made it to the top ten of the year 2008, which is pretty impressive in my eyes. 

However, I just can’t get into their music. Their style bores me, and the few songs that I’ve heard that stuck out (”truth”, “Happiness”) have become dry pretty fast. I think, shallowly, I don’t like Arashi much because they don’t stand out much when it comes to appearance. If you don’t know Matsujun, he’s pretty much the Johnny’s king of drama, and every girl I know completely obsesses over him, but I definitely do not see his appeal at all. I guess I find it hard to like him because I don’t like seeing someone I hate that much being shoved in my face all the time.

It’s hard to be a fan of something if you have no one to flail with. I don’t think my fandom would have developed this much if it hadn’t been for my various friends at school, some of whom I had convinced to become fans too. It is really hard to be a fan of Johnny’s by yourself. It seems much easier for a wota to like an idol privately, but I don’t think it would be easy to fan-obsess over a guy with no one to squeal to.

It makes it a lot easier to be a fan of JE because of their popularity, there is so many people around you to be friends with and to talk about it with. Even if your friends at school don’t like it, it’s really easy to find fans over the internet. I’ve even come across people in real life situations that see my binder’s or my ipod and say “Hey, that’s Yamapi! You like NEWS?” and I’ve made friends that way. 

Getting into Johnny’s was possibly a very good idea for me. It opened up a lot more windows when it comes to other kinds of Jpop; more recently I have developed a liking for some Korean boy bands, something I was unable to do before I started liking NEWS. I felt comfortable getting into Hello! Project because they were a bunch of girls around my age that I could relate to, and JE is a bunch of guys, generally older than me, that portray an image that is definitely not portrayed over here. I mean, what kind of guy will give off that they are a virgin at 22 in America? It seems more normal for female idols to do that, but not male idols.

One thing that I found that really annoys me is the big barrier that is settled right in between Hello! Project and Johnny’s Entertainment. I’ve gotten into many arguments about it before, and as both an H!P and JE fan I’ve come to a definite conclusio: there is no difference between the two agencies other than their budget and the anatomies of each star. When it comes to the budget, I believe that the fandom is at fault.

If more fans of Johnny’s would stop disliking Hello! Project because of their fandom, and start taking their music and the actual girls into consideration, maybe H!P would be floating to the number one spots again. The girls work just as hard as Johnny’s males, and they deserve to be given just as much. Hello! Project fans aren’t much better though; they look at Johnny’s as if they are undeserving of their number 1 spots because they are sour that their favourite idols haven’t been there in a while.

In any case, I’m happy with what becoming a fan has done for me. One major plus is that it confirmed the fact that I am not a lesbian; not that there’s anything wrong with being one. I was starting to get a little confused with H!P and all, but after finally seeing so many men I’ve decided which direction to go in. Unless another killer picture of Maimi comes out, because then I might just turn back.

More seriously, it has opened me up when it comes to other groups in Jpop. I’m no longer biased about which kind of music I listen to; I’m more open to new artists. Since becoming a fan, I have become a part of livejournal communities, which are a bunch of people that all share interests with me. It makes it easier to make friends that I know I can relate to and talk about JE with. I hope that I can at least be able to open the eyes of fans of all kinds of jpop, and prove to everyone that there are benefits to liking both H!P and JE, such as a variety in style and vocal ranges. If I can do that, more people would have more things in common and they’d be able to be friends with each other, and not just me.