Alice Project

Let me put in my thoughts (in the usual all over the place style) about KamenJoshi and foreign popularity and the problems it is facing:

The biggest problem currently facing ANY Japanese group is the popularity of K-pop. Even though (personal opinion ahead) the K-pop industry is probably one of the worst, westernised, most fake and over engineered things in the world we can´t deny that the method they employ works creating stiff competition that is very hard to compete with as long as it stays trending.

Japan´s reputation. We here, as people who have traveled to/lived or are living in Japan know that Japan isn´t the overly weird and crazy country that many people think it is. This seriously hurts any chances of being taken seriously.

Japanese idols focus on cuteness instead of beauty, atleast here in Europe, and probably in the USA to, beauty is given far more priority then cuteness, while in Japan it is the other way around (cute before beauty). Cuteness here is far more seen as something for kids. Which makes me to combine this with another point: Age of members, or better yet, perceived age of members. Let´s face it, Idols are young, sometimes very young and if the aren´t then they can look very young (most of my friends who I show a picture of Saria think she is 15/16 years old). Although not seen as bad per se, it certainly is a barrier. The difference in age, be it for music groups or romantic relations, is here taken far more seriously.

Oversexualization: This goes hand in hand with the thing above about cuteness, what in Japan is considered a cute idol costume here it can be fairly fast be seen as sexualization. Current woke culture also isn´t helping much. (for the record, I despise the woke culture)

The Minami Minegishi shaving video: This is probably one of most damaging things to ever happen. Their is virtually no western article about the idol industry that doesn´t mentions this (fact, these usually are written by people with very little real knowledge). Even though she shaved her head herself, many journalists have written their articles (and continu to do so) in such a way to make it look she was forced to do it and even worse, that it happens more often.



These are some of the problems I see, not just for KamenJoshi, but any Japanese group trying to get international succes. There are plenty of groups that by all means SHOULD be succesfull outside of Japan but aren´t. Groups like AKB, Nogizaka, Hinatazaka or hell, even normal groups that even sing in English like Man with a mission all make very good quality stuff. But without going viral (like Babymetal) they don´t stand a chance to break through the somewhat narrow view here in the west of ¨Japan is nice but weird΅ .

What @blurryeyes has mentioned could help but I don´t think it will ever be enough for a real breakthrough. Let´s take Momoiro Clover Z as an example, they tried to get into the west and do everything correct, they sing live, have a band, great show and even got the dudes from Kiss onboard but still it wasn´t enough.

And about trying to get into conventions: This is hard to do multiple times. I know there are many conventions that have a sort of unofficial rule to never invite the same group twice so I wonder if it even has use. Also the problem is not so much that KamenJoshi can´t afford it but the conventions can´t afford it.
8 - 10 members plus lets´s say 3 staff is going to be a very costly affair. For a trip to Europe we are looking at 13000 euros already just for the costs of tickets.
Also can a group like KamenJoshi really afford to lose 8 - 10 of it´s best members for a week? maybe even a few times? No, I don´t think they can, not right now. It would be different if they didn´t perform 4/5 days a week in p.a.r.m.s.

I know this all sounds negative but it isn´t just doom, it is just that Idol in general is something completly alien here in the west. Idol culture is something unique to Japan (and the whole tarento thing to btw) and maybe that is just where it belongs. This doesn´t mean that KamenJoshi shouldn´t try to appeal to a western audience. From time to time there will be people like us who will fall down the rabbithole and turn into pretty fanatic fans.

What also would help is that they produce some actual English flyers to hand out to tourists combined with some English explanations inside p.a.r.m.s. (I mean, how hard can it be to also have some English words of the ticket vending machines?)

As to the question of @FruitPunchSamurai about the English translation of the fanfare MV.
If Moa-san does a Liveone this weekend I will try to ask her. I might even try to figure out what the whole deal with all this sudden English content on the MV and Facebook is.

 

Here's a western view of idols - and not just any idols but Kamen Joshi themselves! I don't know if it's been posted before in this thread, it's from 2016 - it's from a British TV series called 'Joanna Lumley's Japan'. To me it does give a generally favourable view of the group although it does point out that many of the audience members are single men.

 

This was quite interesting. I've noticed that many of the fans that were shown in the video are still here today in some form.

It is not a lie that many of the fans are single men, although there plenty that are married, and there are more female fans than ever. I'm glad that this is not really biased in its presentation of the facts, unlike some Japanese TV shows who give sort of "laughing at the fans" angle sometimes.

 

KamenJoshi @ Girl's Bomb!! January 16 2021:

if the video does not show watch the video here
8 hours stream!
I'm glad it's the nuclear winter pandemic and you have all this time at hand.
If you're a nurse or a doctor between 2 super busy shift skip to 5:35:25 for KJ start.
Set:
1. Dai Gyaku Ten
2. Personia
3. Story
4. Fanfare

The red mask is inactive this weekend.

 

Nanaka center and Nanaka's last outside live. A close relative of Maopi was positive for corona so she had to take a test at the last minute and sit out. Still waiting on results. If she's negative, then it's okay, but if she tests positive, then I think all members have to test again since Mao did a TV recording for kiraboshi with Seri and Yuuri, and there likely was no corona countermeasures during it.

 

I am hoping for the best results for Maopi & associated members.

 

It took a while for the test result, but fortunately Maopi came back with negative. It's unfortunate all Easter Girls members came down with it (they are all doing fine and have recovered).

A few days ago on 1/25, Shihori turned 30, setting a new record for oldest idol in a group with their own venue. The night before, she said she would do a countdown Live one birthday stream from 11:30pm to 1:30am. She prepared a cake, champagne, bought a special blue dress which was really cute, and put up some decorations in her brother's room since it's not used a lot anymore. For that day only, she got permission from staff to drink alcohol on stream. I joined in with maybe 25 minutes to go, and she was still getting a little prepared. She wanted to put 30 candles in her cake and blow them all out, but she didn't start setting it up until maybe 10 minutes before the date changed, and so she was rushing and just barely finished lighting all the candles with 30 seconds left to spare. In the period of 5 minutes before and after the date changed a lot of people joined her live one and gave presents so much that she couldn't read them all, as well as she was unable to read comments for a bit.

After blowing out all the candles, she popped open the champagne, and immediately started drinking since she really likes alcohol. The producer, Nagata, also sent her birthday videos from all the members, and so she decided to go through all of them on stream. All members sent a video, but some of Easter Girls and Armor Girls took theirs together since they were doing a live that day. The funniest was probably Harumi or Yurie; Harumi put the "Alien" filter on, with a high pitched voice the whole time, and Yurie covered her face with an emoji cushion with a really simple and short message. This actually look much longer than everyone expected, about 40 minutes but it was pretty fun to watch the members videos and Shihori's reaction. The best was when she went to raise her hands up during Riru's message, she threw a bunch of champagne in the glass and it spilled everywhere. She just laughed it off since it was her brother's room, but apparently her brother was outside just in case she needed help and stuff.

I'm not really sure what else I should say other than she finished the entire bottle of champagne, and she was pretty clearly drunk. She said that her friends always said she was more fun drunk, so she always got invited and went to drinking parties. She gets really, really talky when she drinks, so I understand what her friends were saying. I had a lot of fun, and she was really cute when drunk but the stream ended up lasting until 3am, at which point she said she wanted to end the stream for a sec, thank her brother and her brother's fiancee for being there and helping out off-camera, and then start the stream again, but she didn't end up streaming again (apparently she passed out clutching the champagne bottle, haha).

Even though I had lots of fun, and I am happy that she's loved by so many people, but a part of me wishes that it could've been held at PARMS. She's not doing a birthday festival, and the next time she's going to be the main part, it'll be her graduation, so I find it kind of "unfair" (I realize it isn't a matter of what's "fair" or not).

 

@FruitPunchSamurai
Looks like you should invite Shihori out for a drink after she has graduated.

Asian Boss has published an interview with Igari-san:


if the video does not show watch the video here

I found it a pretty good interview and I am happy for her that she is able to show her positivity and spread her message.

 

The Kiraboshi MV has been released:


if the video does not show watch the video here

I really like the mv, it has an atmosphere that fits well with the song. Only critisism is that I sometimes I have the feeling that the part they are singing in the video doesn't seem to match what is being sung in the sound.

They should release songs like this (and fanfare to) as true singles, I think they would sell pretty good.

 

Since PARMS re-opening got postponed to next month, I decided to go see former Armor Girls Misa and Hinako's live that they held yesterday. They held 2 performances, one at 13:00 and another at 17:00, but I only went to the first one because of time and because it was a little more expensive than usual (5000 yen). It's been about a year since I last saw Misa, and she's changed a little bit in that she's a bit less skinny and has, uh, more fat in the right places. I've only ever seen Hinako on Junketsu Youtube, but I've always thought she's pretty cute, and she seems to have lost weight since her idol days. I debated on whether I would go since I wasn't really planning on going, but I did want to see Misa and especially Hinako since I've never met her, and they're not planning on doing another live again, so I thought in the end I should go.

The venue they took was a little small, and there were not much places to sit since there needed to be spaces between people; I came a bit later so I didn't get that good of a seat but it was fine. They would play 2-3 songs before doing a short MC portion, for a total of 12? songs. There were also 4 or so original songs made just for that day which they don't plan on releasing anywhere, which is kind of sad. Armor Girls were never the best dancers, but there was once song where they both moved really well. The funniest part was that Misa being terrible at singing during her Alice Project days was no lie or joke; she definitely practiced a lot for today and sang better than she ever did, but she forgot the lyrics to one song, and sang off tune at times. I'm sad that they couldn't do any Armor Girls songs, but that's likely due to Misa being part of a new agency and copyright problems and such.



Aside from chekis, they also had a cameraman do a photoshoot and took some printed out photos which looked really cute. My biggest issue though, was that chekis were 2000 yen for 1, and if you wanted a signed cheki, you needed to get 3 chekis for only one of either Hinako or Misa and only one cheki would get signed (if you bought 3 and 3 for Misa and Hinako each then you could get both of them to sign). The chekis were also clearly taken by people not very experienced with taking them, but I still got enough talk time to say what I wanted to both of them though. I'm glad Misa remembered me (although thinking about it I can't see why she would forget), and she definitely knows I'm supporting Shihori now. I let Hinako pick the pose and she said to do the heart pose in a way that makes you think she's still an idol. Even though Misa is fully an actress and Hinako is just a regular person, aside from slight appearance changes, it's like they had the same energy as currently active idols.

 

Thanks for the awesome report FruitPunch ...loved reading that! I saw pics that included Sora Kurumi, Mayu, etc. I am guessing they were there as special guests/audience member/back stage VIP ex-amaga?
https://twitter.com/sorakurumi0605/status/1358376555945205760

Speaking of our beloved Miishan, I decided to pick up her 2018 movie "Basement" & got it in with my usual pile of Japanese import movies yesterday.
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/ALBSD-2176
It's not good but Miishan is cute in it... only recommended for Misa-completionists!

 

It's been very quiet in here lol...
My darling Maopi was feeling nostalgic for her 2019 birthday festival today, the one I was at...
https://twitter.com/morishitamao/status/1364962714255298560

 

I was able to find myself in that image. It's too bad she had to put her birthday festival on hold because of corona.

Today was the first Steam Girls live for February (and the first live for Shihori and Harumi as 30 years old, and 21 years old respectively), along with the showing of the kiraboshi documentary starring Maopi, Yuuri, and Seri. I have to say without the Junketsu videos, we no longer get any idea how members feel about their jobs and stuff, but the kiraboshi documentary was over an hour of Mao, Seri, and Yuuri going through the rough process of being the founding members of a new unit. We got to see another side of them stating how they felt for the past couple years being completely honest about their positions in Kamen Joshi.

I actually have a surprise for you guys in terms of content coming up hopefully in the next few days, so stay tuned.

 

^^ Yes there is 2 images & I can spot myself easily in both! The 2nd image (that a fan posted from the stage) has been my desktop wallpaper since it was upped back in 2019!

I'd love to hear more about the kiraboshi documentary, as that Maopi documentary (Red Mask from before) BD never made it to the store & I wanted to buy it. And you are right, it has been increasingly hard to latch on to the newer members since Junketsu has been (mostly) cancelled - which is one of the many cuts I think we experienced since Cerisier was formed.

***CAN'T WAIT to see what the surprise is FruitPunch!***

 

This is a curiosity question for FruitPunch, but how often would you see (noticeable) foreigners at Kamen Joshi shows pre-pandemic?
I know in the past when I would go & see foreigners (& sometimes they were there because they got free tickets) they often would stay for the show, but not attend buppan... (either low interest in keepsakes, language barrier, or lack of buppan understanding ...as it is more complex than most chika idol buppans standards.)

 

An interesting question Blurryeyes.

If you don´t mind me inserting my own thoughts and observations.

I have asked other foreigners that visited Kamen Joshi what they thought of the show and in general they find it awesome.
However when it comes to buppan they most of the time seem just a bit shy. I have also met people who felt that, if they were to go for a photo, they would get into a space they felt/thought was reserved for the actual fans.
Some found it expensive (and let´s be honest, for most tourists 2000 yen for a picture per person is quite a lot of money).

 

Steam Girls... Kamen Joshi's song "STORY ☆ (Steam Girls version)! This is a video message to new adults in Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture! (Steam Girls start @ 5:53)
[Kashiwazaki City New Adult Festival 2020] Ale from Citizens Part1

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

I am curious (& I am guessing everything [promotions] are on hold as of right now), but did they name a new Kamen Joshi leader yet? Or is their a temp leader since Mayu left?

 

There does not seem to be a new leader yet, but the people that speak and introduce the group when Mayu used to do it are Shihori and local jellyfish Saki.

I'm still at Shihori's final photoshoot but here's some quick info I overheard while there:
Anna Tachibana has a new twitter, and she'll be streaming on Pokocha.

https://twitter.com/KxQr5?s=09

She is now a mother as well, I'm willing to bet she held off social media due to getting married and giving birth. She was set to be a part of Reika's retirement ceremony and dance on stage last year on 3/25 but that got cancelled.

Didn't notice the question above, I'll try and give my answer in a bit.

 

^^^ As a hardcore An-chan fan, I very much appreciate that information FruitPunch, thank you...