~Beyond the Border~ > Daiyousei's Cold Storage

Time To Atone For Your Sins, MotK

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Edible:
Forgive me, Yama, for I have sinned.  I have locked an old as fuck topic so only mods and janitors and stuff can post in it.

helvetica:
I'm not capable of sinning, just capable of being awesome

Tengukami:
What is sin, really, anyway?

*takes long draw off of pipe, looking out the window pensively*

Rin Kagamine:
Sup doods?

PX:
Forgive me, for I have unlocked the thread to respond to a task given to me 3 months ago.


--- Quote from: Tengukami on December 01, 2012, 08:13:57 PM ---The Yama can appreciate female entertainers, and even female entertainers who are sold to their fanbase strictly for their sex appeal, but you must know that AKB48 takes this to a whole new level. For your penance, you must read this article and post a cogent response, whether you agree or disagree.
--- End quote ---

First off, this article. For starters, this quote

--- Quote ---I believe this is imperative that somebody wrote about them in the intellectual arena so as to keep the dialogues and discussions alive.
--- End quote ---
just gives off the air of him being a pompous ass who believes that he is greater than us for we are babbling idiots. Second, looking through his website, he has written multiple articles about AKB48, coming off as pure blind hate at this point. Third, this article is full of both poor research and constant cherry picking for the sake of trying to make his point. And lastly, the article in question goes off in so many blind tangents that I lost track of what it was trying to say, so I don't know where to start.

So where to start? I'll just start off with AKB48. What is Akihabara48? First off, to understand it, you should read up on this brilliantly written article on Japanese Idols, as it's very informative and subjective. Now then, here's where the article goes wrong. Right off the bat, it presents them as a "singer group", when they are in fact, an Idol group. So let's start over, what IS AKB48? It's an Idol group that was created back in 2005 by Akimoto Yasushi, a very renowned person in the Japanese entertainment industry. Contrary to it's name, it currently has 88 members, but when combined with the research students and sister groups around the country and in other countries in Asia, the tally totals over THREE HUNDRED. The group began back in 2005 with the idea of a group that regularly performed in their own theater instead of occasionally appearing in concerts and television, allowing fans to go see the girls live. The article states that the achievement of the group belongs to only Aki-P, with none of it going to the girls. Well this is just shitting on the efforts and hardships the girls went through. In it's first auditions, there were nearly 8000 applications, of which only 45 of them were accepted to auditions, of which only Twenty Four girls passed. You'd think that since they're a group that only consists of "cute, young girls", it'd be popular, however, after a month of rigorous training, the girls had their opening performance.... to a crowd of SEVEN customers. Yet despite this, they went through the concert with smiles on their faces, and fter the concert, the girls went on to the streets and handed out flyers themselves. Most people expected the group to fail immediately.

On to the next paragraph.

--- Quote ---The reasons for its popularity may be dependent on many elements, however, as is always the case with Japanese pop singers, its primary reasons may be that the group only consists of ?cute, young girls? and that the promotion videos and lyrics of the songs are flirtatious at best. The reason why they have sold so many CDs thus contributing to its gaining popularity is primarily because when you buy a CD they give you a voting ticket.
--- End quote ---

This is completely false. First off, on the point that they consist of only "cute, young girls", then why did they accept Ohori Megumi, who passed auditions at the age of TWENTY TWO, well past the prime of a "cute, young" idol. The fans asked Aki-P to allow Shinoda Mariko into the group, and he did on the condition that she learned all the dances in four days. Mariko, who had failed the first audition, has always been in the top 5 in terms of popularity for all of AKB. The previous "face of AKB", Maeda Atsuko, was passed not because she was cute, or had talent, but because "she had a good smile." The General Director of AKB48 and all sister groups, Takahashi Minami, was in the final 15 of the 30th HoriPro Talent Contest, out of 52,547 contestants, and yet the only reason she passed the first auditions was simply "because her birthday and height have 48 in it."

"Promotion videos and lyrics flirtatious at best?" Ha! More on this later.

As for the voting ticket, that is only for ONE SINGLE PER YEAR, not year round. Only one single is determined by the fans. As for the handshake events, it's so that the fans who can't attend the concerts and lives are given a chance to not only see their idols up close, but to meet them and exchange words. It allows the fans to get to know the girls. Also, the 5500 cd guy was found to be a hoax, as the guy was actually a Chinese retailer.


--- Quote ---Their songs and lyrics are no better ? any messages? No, not at all. The only messages those songs may contain are sexual appeal and flirtations.
--- End quote ---
Absolute bollocks. Amazing, is how he goes all the way back to their fourth single to try and get his point while completely ignoring all the other songs. All 200+ of them. He brings up Everyday, Katyusha's music video, containing girls dancing on the beach in bikinis. It's a SUMMER SONG. The song and video are completely in tune with the theme and time. Seifuku ga jama wo suru? Aki-P has stated that his lyrics are meant to "depict reality" and to provoke listeners to think about difficult issues. Heavy Rotation's music video? Straight from wikipedia:

--- Quote ---The director of the music video Mika Ninagawa explained she wanted to appeal to both men and women by creating a creative and fun video, due to the group's rising popularity among girls.[115][116]
--- End quote ---
While we're on the topic, you'd think the fans of AKB are mostly middle aged men? Well, think again.

The demographic of AKB48 is... everybody.
As for their songs having no message, off the top of my head I can name plenty more than he listed. Ignoring songs that came out after the article:
* AKB Sanjou!
* Beginner
* Chance no Junban
* Dareka no tame ni
* Namida surprise
* Pioneer
* River (Their first song to reach the top of the Oricon charts)
* Sakura no Hanabiratachi (Their first single, which was decided upon by asking the fans which song they liked the most)
* Sasae
* Shonichi
* Shoujotachi yo
Now, for the rules about love. First off, you have to understand. Idols are PRODUCTS, and there are standards for them in the Japanese society. Idols are not allowed to date, drink, smoke, etc. They are being sold as an image, and they need to uphold that image. In terms of the rules against love, ALL IDOLS HAVE THIS RULE, not just AKB. In fact, AKB is far more lenient on these rules than most others. I, myself, find the rules stupid, but I can understand why it stands and accept it. I compare it towards the World Wrestling Entertainment company. For the WWE, you are given a character, and one of the biggest rules is to not break kayfabe. No matter what, you can never break character. If the WWE says that you can't drink, then you can't drink. Period. Doing so will get you fired instantly, and you are replaceable. The same things apply to idols, and while it's a sad truth, it's still business.


--- Quote ---All of this reminds me exactly of politics. It doesn?t matter if you have talent or ability, what matters is solely and purely PR. As far as I am concerned, this group does not have to present themselves as singers, but farmers or even jugglers. It would make the least difference. Besides, what proper production management in artists decide who is to sing on stage by fans? votes, completely ignoring the individual?s ability to sing? What is more surprising is the fact that last year, in 2010, they once ignored the voting system and decided who to sing on record by ?rock-paper-scissors.?
--- End quote ---
Nonsense, absolute nonsense. Otherwise, why aren't farmers around the country getting world wide recognition? As for not having talent or ability, idols are still incomplete. They are always in training, striving to get to the point where they can graduate from being idols into the entertainment industry. Being an idol is meant to be a stepping stone into your dreams. And the rock-paper-scissors tournament is a genius idea, since their singles would only lead to having the same 16 girls all the time, the janken tournament allows all girls a chance to make a name for themselves and get more fans. As for signing their rights away, that is all false. They are not forced to do everything they do. They can just simply walk away from the group. Many girls from AKB have done it and continued to have successful careers, it's as simple as walking out.

How did I get into AKB? It all started when I decided to watch AKB0048, expecting it to be shit. I fell in love. I actually liked the music in the anime. After lurking some /a/ threads, I decided to learn more about the group, so I started watching past episodes of their show AKBINGO!. I got to learn about the girls, their personalities, their quirks, and the stuff they went through. Many of these girls went through hardships. One I spoke of earlier, Ohori Megumi, had a solo release on the condition that if she didn't sell 10,000 CDs in a month, then she would be forced to leave the group. She spent the next two months going around the country advertising her CD herself, with almost no budget at all, immediately after the only person who supported her, her grandmother, died. In the span of those two months, her parents actually disowned her. All her friends from AKB helped supported her, and on the last day of the deadline had managed to sell over 2,000 CDs to barely break the goal of 10k CDs and stay in AKB. I started to care for the girls, for they had passion and endured things just to be able to move towards their dreams. To be honest, I couldn't give less of a crap about the newer girls, for they never had to go through any hardships to achieve fame.

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