Since this style has been gaining some popularity in j-fashion communities, I wanted to do a small lesson on how to refer to different styles of girly-kei. I've noticed some strange names being assigned to this style, and I want to clear up any misunderstandings people may have about these terms.
There are many labels people put on this fashion style, but for some reason it's anything but girly. It's understandable how some terms could be mistaken for the name of the fashion, especially since some stereotypes associated with these styles have heavily contributed to the wrong terminology being used. Examples of terms that have been associated with girly-kei are...
Ryousangata: (meaning a "mass-produced" type of person, who's heavily involved in wota culture)
J*rai-kei: (a stereotype referring to an emotionally unstable person who "explodes like a landmine".)
Subcul: (It used to have the meaning of "poser" in Japan, but nowadays it is used to refer to any type of alternative fashion. While this one is more harmless, it doesn't do any good to refer to a style that already has a name as just "subcul fashion")
In the girly-kei community, we label these colour combos a bit similarly to lolita substyles. So, let's name some some girly styles that have been getting popular!
Sweet Girly: This style consists of sweeter elements, such as ruffles, bows, hearts, and cute prints. Sometimes, you can find sweet girly sweaters with plushie embroidery! Bijou details are also popular with this style, as the jewels seem to compliment the overall cuteness of these outfits!
Dark Girly: This style focuses on more darker/edgier elements, and these outfits seem to have a more gothic look to it. Characteristics such as chains, leather, and religious imagery can be found in this substyle. Despite the name of this substyle, the clothes don't need to have a dark colour palette. Just as long as they fit the criteria!
French Girly: This style is meant to resemble a more European style of fashion! This elegant style also maintains a sense of simplicity, as their silhouettes and designs tend to be neat. As you can see, berets are especially popular in this substyle, but other accessories such as pearls, gold jewelry, and hairbands are also used in these outfits.
I find that among girly discourse, some argue that "girly-kei" is way too broad of a term, but that's where you can have fun with your outfits! It's not a requirement to specifically adhere to a certain substyle when wearing girly-kei fashion, and honestly just wear what makes you happy! A lot of these substyles can overlap as a result, which can create pretty cool outfits!
Referring to these substyles by their proper name not only sounds nicer, but it can help erase stigma around wearing girly fashion as a whole.
If you wish to read about more substyles such as otona girly, retro girly, himekaji (yes, even the gyaru substyle can be considered girly!) and casual girly, there is a more detailed list of all the different substyles in their aesthetics section! Thank you for reading <3
Do you have a list of all the people who’ve done the animations for MVs? To my knowledge they’re mostly omu but I’m wondering who else there may be regularly producing MVs
I spent all day putting the credits for every MV into a spreadsheet. stats time
omu has done the motion graphics for the most 2DMVs, with a total of 43 as of posting. This includes 33 event songs that were originally released as a 2DMV (only missing Glory Steady Go!, Tricologe, Metamo Re:born, Parasol Cider, CRaZY, and Purpose), 3 other commissions (Keitai Renwa, Aoiro Enogu, and Hurray), 1 Virtual Singer MV (Just Be Friends), and 6 covers (Inochi ni Kirawarete iru., the Kanade alt vocal MV for that song, Viva Happy, Miracle Paint, Jishou Mushoku and Hello,world!)
It seems they're entirely reserved for event commissions nowadays
The second most frequent animator is OTOIRO, who has done the motion graphics on 18 2DMVs. Their first MV was Otome Kaibou, and some of their other MVs include TONDEMO-WONDERZ, Salamander, PaIII.SENSATION, and three of the 2022 April Fools MVS.
Interestingly every MV they've worked on has had a director and they're usually the animator on MVs with a bigger production team (aside from the traditionally animated ones like Gunjou Sanka and NEO which don't have motion graphics, and also Tokugawa Cup Noodle Kinshirei)
Next would be Lye, who has worked on 11 MVs. The first MV they worked on was Jackpot Sad Girl, but their other works include Traffic Jam, STAGE OF SEKAI, and Twilight Light.
There's multiple MVs made by motion graphics artists from a group called THINGS. One of these animators is Akito Nakayama, who has worked on 6 MVs, the 4th most out of anyone. Some of the MVs he worked on were Shoujorei, IDSMILE, and the April Fools Venom cover
Another member of THINGS has started working on MVs recently, and I've seen a lot of people say they're one of the best editors we've had. That would be NUL, who did the animations for Darling Dance, purpose, and DAYBREAK FRONTLINE
3 other members of THINGS have worked on MVs. Takumi Osera worked on the April Fools MV for Positive☆Dance Time and the vsinger MV for potato ni Natte iku, ZIIEK worked on Amanojaku, and Hano worked on Cutlery
Another editor that's popped up recently is Aoespring, who did the Villain and Fixer MVs. (on Fixer they're credited with (STUDIO KAIBA) which I'm assuming is a studio they belong to, not sure why it's only listed on one of their MVs though)
The only other editors to have done more than one MV are Ikumi (magic number, ray, Doctor=Funk Beat, Phony), Norainu (Glory Steady Go!, Cosmospice, Parasol Cider), Mizuki (Time Machine, Cinema, Chururira) and Guu (Warera Stain Busters!, CRaZY)
There are actually 10 MVs that don't credit an animator. These are Fragile (Bad Dogs cover), Hibana -Reloaded-, Happy Synthesizer (MMJ cover), Bocca della Verità, Sweet Magic (WxS cover), Roku-chou nen to Ichiya Monogatari, Chikyuu Saigo no Kokuhaku o, Positive☆Dance Time (WxS cover), Ren'ai Saiban, and Aishite Aishite Aishite. The last one does credit a text animator and compositor though so I guess one of them edited the rest of the video (the compositor probably would've done it)
The most frustrating part of engaging in any of this discourse with pro-Israel people is that they claim there's just something ineffable about "seeing and understanding" how supporting Palestinian liberation is directly calling for the eradication of Jewish people (as if that type of rhetoric isn't exactly how actual antisemitism often manifests in online spaces but that's a topic for another day)
They get through people debunking the "the land belongs to the people of Israel anyway" argument and the "LGBTQ Palestinians are safe in Israel" argument and the "Genocide isn't what's happening here so you should educate yourself" argument and when all of those points are meticulously disproven over and over they still stand with "Well, myself and your Jewish friends see the hate you have in your heart for us" and it truly doesn't matter what you say at that point because even if you yourself are Jewish they will claim that refusing to support the state, government and military of Israel is inherently hateful and bigoted, as if a religious ethnostate is some inherent human right that is being taken away from them. I know many of them are blinded by the relentless propaganda that's been around their whole lives and how hard it is to break free from a belief system that is so tied to your core identity as a human being but it is so frustrating watching people being led straight to the point over and over again and just turning around and refusing to see it.
It's also so frustrating to see people using the momentum of this movement to casually tack on actual antisemitism to these discussions, as if having Jewish people in positions of power is why the US bends over backwards to excuse the actions of Israel and not, yknow, the fact that our government directly benefits from having a military stronghold in the middle east. I've talked to some well-meaning pro-Palestine friends irl who casually use antisemetic talking points because they've ALSO bought into the narrative that Israeli = Jewish and so they blame the actions of Israel and the IDF on Jewish people's "religious values" and ignore the fact that this conflict really has almost nothing to do with religion itself and everything to do with capitalism, imperialism and maintaining the US's status as a so-called "global power".
My middie Hyur looks mostly the same so I dont really have many complaints (will be using the 7.0 fantasia to make changes I've been thinking about for years)
My Viera on the other hand...... I now see what everyone was talking about. Why is everything so weirdly smooth now, like they all over-moisturized. Her cute nose also looks a lil nerfed.
She did end up looking much better in the actual benchmark though; so I assume its just the terrible character creation lighting ruining everything as per usual.
I still love the opening to Black Widow so much. It's so powerful and it does such a good job of conveying the trauma Natasha endured while she was exploited into being a child soldier. It's heartbreaking, and the use of the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" cover was a fucking brilliant commentary on the MCU fandom at large and of modern day parenting--
youtube
There are worse things than your kids seeing a sex scene or a man in a dress or seeing fake bloodshed in a superhero movie. That is what it is saying. It's hauntingly beautiful and brutally honest, and that's why I just laugh whenever some movie snob says Marvel movies have no point.
Because Marvel movies do have a point -- you're just too busy being pretentious to pick up on it.