As you may have noticed I didn't write anything on this blog since January. Why? you ask.. Well, I have been quite busy with my life as university, family and friends are important to me. I'm having fun studying and meeting with the people I love, I'm having quite a balanced lifestyle and I'm happy.
Of course, I still love Idols a lot! I still listen to their music, and I'm following them on twitter, instagram etc.
So the bigger question is, why am I writing a post again now? What happened?
Actually, nothing really happened.. I just really wanted to write again. Use English, talk about the things I love.. I missed that. But there have been two turning points and I want to talk about them now.
1. Feeling nostalgic (a.k.a How did I become an Idol fan?)
First of all you need to know that I have one close friend that also likes Idols. I have been spending more time with her lately (as we are also studying for an exam together) and we were talking about Idols. She has been a very very big Berryz Kobou fan, but she also likes other H!P groups. We were mostly talking about the Hello Project Kids though, but that is nice enough for me. Especially since I don't know a lot of people that like Japanese music and Japanese Idols (and don't make fun of it). So we were watching old videos and getting really, really nostalgic. It reminded me of how I became an idol fan 6 year ago. Coincidentally my friend and I became fans around the same time (we didn't know each other back then). I don't remember the exact time when I became a fan, but it was somtime in 2012. It must have been around June or July but it took me some time to catch up with current music. I was mostly listening to old Morning Musume (and H!P) songs and my second stage on becoming a fan must've been with me catching up on the current line-ups and also starting to listen to AKB48. Maybe that was aroung September/ October 2012? I remember really hyping UZA and Wakuteka Take a Chance, so around that time.
So imagine a 15 year old girl jamming to Morning Musume's Nanchatte Ren'ai or Berryz Koubo's Special Generation. I even watched YouTube videos when I went on Holidays abroad, because Germany still had most foreign music videos blocked back then (GEMA T-T). I was depending a lot on Jpopsuki.tv in the beginning, but YouTube has always been the beginning of everything. I'm so happy I can watch olmost any video now though. :) (even Sakamichi videos are uploaded on internationel channels nowadays, wtf)
Even though at first I mostly just fell in love with the songs, I started to appreciate the actual Idols more and more. I fell in love with Takahashi Ai and Oshima Yuko and I feel like they really marked a change in me turning into an Idol fan. I was watching all these funny game shows, behind the scenes videos and of course all their music videos. I was actually liking most Idols that I encountered but I had a few favourites over the years. Members graduated, new members joined groups but my love for Idols was unchanging. The two girls that had the biggest impact on me were obviously Matsui Jurina and Kudo Haruka. I instantly followed Jurina when I saw her in UZA and I just really liked her personality and performance. She is always giving her best, even now that she is as busy as ever.. I do wonder until when she is going to be an Idol since she has been doing it half of her life. More about her later. I needed a bit more time with Kudo Haruka, she only became my favourite Momusu member in the beginning of 2014. She gradually started to impress me more and more and she is just the funniest and talented young lady. Sadly, she graduated from Momusu last year which is still weird to me and maybe one of the reasons I didn't write on this blog. She's still active as an actress and I'm so so happy for her. I also love following her on Instagram!
Over the years I started to have a few favourite members but these two always stayed the same. (I still remember when my favourite 48girls were in this order Matsui Jurina, Miyazawa Sae, Oshima Yuko, Akimoto Sayaka and Matsui Rena)
Nowadays it's a bit harder for me to find new favoruite Idols, for example I still don't have a favourite Morning Musume member right now. But I don't need one to follow the group right xD
There are a lot of things I didn't talk about yet and I guess to some extent it was random to find Idol videos, I just randomly wanted to listen to music. I randomly started watching Idol shows. I was in love with the country Japan, I love the language and I even decided to study it. Through the years of course I changed and was growing up, some tastes are different now. The way I love Idols compared to how I did before I went to Japan, in Japan and now is totally different, yet somehow still the same. I guess that could be hard to understand. But finally meeting your favourite Idols feels like you accomplished a goal. At the same time, there is so much more to explore in this weird world of Japanese Idols and I'm happy about that! With this written down I will now proceed to the second part of why I am writing this post.
2. Produce48 (and how seeing Korean and Japanese girls interact warms my heart)
Of course some recent events and activities made me want to write about them. The korean talent show Produce101 teamed up with the 48group to have a show called PRODUCE48. In this show Korean AND Japanese (from 48groups) girls are able to compete. Just like the two Produce101 seasons before that it's like a talent show with the goal to survive in the competition and to form a group in the end. The concept is interesting, even though I was quite sceptic at first. Japanese Idol Pop and K-Pop are two different worlds and even though I enjoy both, it is kind of weird seeing them mixed up.. Especially since Korea's and Japan's Idol system is quite different. Adding to that, the two countries aren't actually best friends and there are still some political disputes going on. I also don't like seeing haters on either part, and fans can get quite overprotective of their favourite Idols.
But what I'm seeing right know is actually quite positive. As the first activities passed you could see the Korean and Japanese girls interacting normally and it just simply warms my heart seeing them all together, trying to communicate etc.. Seriously, it's the best thing ever! Adding to that, fans on both sides have been quite curious about the other part and I didn't find too many hate comments yet, even though Miyawaki Sakura gets pushed as center (And Jurina looks so tiny amongst Koreans XD). Am I being too positive now?
There is one negative point to make. Apparently the Japanese girls participating in this show are really stressed over it. They have to work even harder in Korea and they also have some upcoming events in Japan (like Sousenkyo getting closer). I feel like it's a lot for them and with Jurina's history of getting ill and overworking herself I am especially worried for her. But I just hope they can find a balance and not go over their limit.. We will see how this show turns out and even though I don't plan to invest too much time into it, I'm a bit excited about it now.
That's it with this post. I hope it wasn't too confusing, as I just wanted to write about my thoughts on the Idol world. I feel like I'm always busy but I enjoyed writing this post a lot, so I don't think it will take me another 4 months to write again..
I'm really proud of you if you patiently read until the end, so let's finish this post with some beautiful pictures. See you next time :)
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