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Pleasure Principled
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Think about it: when is the last time you watched a Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, AKB48, or Perfume video with a male in it? (Don’t answer that yet.) Stretching it even further, out to the less mainstream idol groups, most of which have ceased to exist – when did a male ever enter a PV for, say, Whiteberry? The answer isn’t “never,” but “almost never,” which is close enough.
pengie considers where the boys aren’t in the no man’s land of idol promotional videos.
Maybe the people behind SweetS were taking a cue from the 2000 European single “Moi… Lolita” by Alizée – if Super Euro Beat works in Japan, why not a Super Pedo Beat? Or maybe they were looking around for an untapped market of music listeners and felt that fans of rorikon – that is, Lolita Complex – were in need of their own anthem.
After downloading the video, I watched it – and it scared the shit out of me. By that I mean I opened up the file, saw how young the girls were, and there was something about them that seemed… wrong. Like, jailbait wrong.
Fandom’s a funny thing, really. It’s like politics. The things you can say and can’t, the alliances and pandering and insult-lobbying, the image you need to keep up if you’re known for any sort of reason… it’s all there. That last one in particular.
Kimitsu considers the lure of actor Saitou Ryuusei and how he changed her perspective on younger idols.
I don’t blame these people for being initially wary of SweetS or Hello! Project. As is too often the rub with popular music, image comes before sound, and few can get past the “pedophilia parade”.
Vee discusses her personal experiences in promoting the joys of wota-dom to an otaku crowd.
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