#but like not to the scale and extent of japanese idols

[brbgensokyo]

i know its the mark of a good story to be able to bring people to where you want to meet them but ideally if i were going to run my idol industry based shadowrun campaign ive got plotted out id need at least one over sicko who knows the ropes

[moxiepoints]

So, Honey Popcorn has debuted and it is...competent.

For those of you who are unaware, Honey Popcorn is a K-pop group comprised of a trio Japanese former pop stars and AV (adult video) actresses. They have recently debuted with their mini album and title track of the same name “Bibidi Babidi Boo.”

There are multiple bilingual comments on youtube from Koreans dismissing the act and ending with simplified English sentiments for the international audience, usually something like “This is not K-pop.” This opposition could easily be read as a result of tensions that still stand as a result of Japan’s occupation of Korea or even from Japan’s influence on global pop culture which rivals, and in many ways usurps, Korea’s recent Hallyu Wave of popular culture. Yet, comments like these are not scattered in the comment section of K-pop groups with Japanese members like Twice or JBJ. The comments are part xenophobia but the larger part comes from having one pop group call into question Korea’s sexual mores in relation to Japan’s pornography industry and the dual sexualization and infantilization of female idols (and to a lesser extent, male idols, but that is a tale for another day).

So, what does Honey Popcorn do with this strange intersection of attention, taboo, international relations, and sexual politics? Very little. The song itself is safe and bland. It tells of wanting to cast a spell to make your crush like you back. The costumes could be worn by any other girl group today, and I agree with the (less vitriolic) comments that claim the group is basically like a small-scale WSJN. With a group this small, every member really needs to shine and bring something to the table. All of the girls seems like competent performers and at least know their strengths enough to not overstretch themselves vocally or choreography-wise. However, the line distribution and screen time is heavily tilted in Yua’s favor. She introduces herself as the leader and seems to be the main vocalist, but she doesn’t seem to have the pipes to carry this group on her back. The album’s production credits don’t seem to contain any Korean songwriters or producers, but the album sounds like any filler tracks from the likes of Cosmic Girls or a less-tightly-produced track from Gfriend or Lovelyz. The entire project is middle-of-the-road.

Playing it safe only serves to prove how overly aggressive naysayers are. The outrage would be warranted if these women attacked the K-pop world like Madonna attacked the American pop world in the 1990s, intent on pushing the envelope and shocking the world with measured sexuality. Honey Popcorn doesn’t want to do that. From what I’ve read, (but can not seem to confirm) the members even invested their own money to make this debut happen. That means that these women took money from the sex industry and used it to perpetuate a shiny fantasy in which they sing and dance around in cute dresses and pine about wanting to hold a guy’s hand. Is this the bastion of moral degeneracy that people think it is?

With that said, the song and video are decent. If no one knew who they were, and the members debuted this same song and concept with 5 Korean girls, no one would bat and eye or care. The quality is a bit nicer than I anticipated. The video isn’t up to the production value of the big companies, but when you have acts like Six Bomb wearing cheap ice skating dresses and filming in about three different rooms, Honey Popcorn starts to look quite expensive by comparison.  I hope they find an audience to appreciate their particular brand of unoffensive pop. And, I hope people upset over their debut examine the perception of female idols as ~pure angels and realize that Honey Popcorn’s members aren’t attempting to shake up the industry; they just want to assimilate and be a part of it for a while. 

[thisiskylel]

Zen of Japanese Streetwear.

The 90’s are a great time for streetwear in general. With subcultures like hip-hop, surf and skate coming up with their fashion to create their own identity so did the designers from the Far East. Early Japanese streetwear is hard to define but mostly came from a few shops with a distinct flavor from the rest of Japanese fashion trends at that moment. 

Inspired by the west, they began to import sportswear from U.S and U.K. The insight from the clothes they have imported provided just enough to spark creativity in a few people that would create some of the most iconic Japanese streetwear brands. Names like Undercover, WTAPS, BAPE, and Neighborhood are heavyweights for a long time now but they owe their success to likes Jun Takahashi, Shinsuke Takizawa, Hiroshi Fujiwara and Nigo. 

That’s a little about the history of Japanese street fashion, but today I want to talk about how they infuse more zen into their style and how is it different from western street fashion. If you are a fashion enthusiast, you will notice that trends in the west are usually promoted by those with celebrity status. The obsession with celebrity culture in the U.S and U.K creates a spotlight on everything they do, including the way they dress. People with huge star power like Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, and Justin Bieber have so much star power that when they wear something, it instantly becomes a trend.

The most apparent case of this would look into Kanye West’s massively successful Yeezy fashion line as well as his sneaker collaboration with Adidas. He and few others seem to be able to create a magnetic attraction to every product that they either create or wear it themselves. An example of a product that has been hyped to the scale of epic proportions by Kanye West is the Adidas Ultra Boost. Originally marketed as a running shoe, it did not get much attention until Kanye West wore the triple white version of the Ultra Boost at a concert. 

The shoe sold out within an hour after his performance and since then Adidas has created a number of sneakers using the Boost material to capitalize on the initial success. The Ultra Boost series is still popular till now. In Japan, however, that’s not the case. 

There will be celebrities of course, but they are viewed as entertainers and are usually dominated by the agencies they are tied with which controls almost every aspect of their public persona, including the way they dress. Trends are still there, but it’s different in a sense that Japanese street fashion changes from brand to brand and they are influenced by the deep history of traditional garments that they take pride in. It’s about redefining the classics that have influenced them. 

Finding and sourcing the best fabrics to use in the pieces and assembling it themselves. The main goal of a brand in the west is exposure thus generating sales but the Japanese brands intend to garner the support of a niche demographic (i.e longtime fans and connoisseurs) that aligns with their philosophy and lifestyle, hence the sky-high premium price of their clothing. Fashion experimentation is also more accepted and celebrated than the West. 

Western streetwear is open to experimentation but only to an extent to make you look good and most importantly being seen as fashionable. They focus too much emphasis on being cool and familiar, like the celebrity that they idolized. However, in Japan, the love is focused on the quality and craftsmanship of the product. 

The fit, form, and details are very important to them. Brands like White Mountaineering combines functional, utilitarian form of their clothing and unique fabric blends to create a stunning minimalist design. Their love of quality craftsmanship has let western brands like Levi’s and New Balance to make high-quality products that are sold exclusively in Japan.

[idolapps]

mizuhara natsuko, "blood sweat & tears"

OOC INFO

NAME/ALIAS, PRONOUNS, TIMEZONE: sacha, she/her, gmt+10.

RESERVATION: bubblegum.

MEMBER PROFILE

FACECLAIM: minatozaki sana, member of twice.

NAME/STAGENAME: mizuhara natsuko, natsuko.

BIRTHDATE/AGE: march 2nd, 1998. eighteen.

COMPANY/POSITION:

idol, member of sweetheart @ crystal media. main dancer, sub-vocalist & visual.

HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 168cm, 49kg.

TRAINING PERIOD/JOINING YEAR: three years.

INTERESTING FACTS: 

She was a J-pop trainee from 2010-2012.

Natsuko loves horror movies, games and television shows.

She would of become an animator if she wasn't an idol.

Her hobbies include dancing, sleeping, drawing and writing.

STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES:

( &. strengths )

DANCING, one of natsuko's most obvious strengths is her dancing ability. she's been dancing since she was three years old, and throughout the years has had the opportunity to learn a variety of dance styles which in return, helped her build her own dancing presence. as a teenager, she commonly filmed dance covers with her friends of both j-pop and k-pop songs, before uploading them to youtube. her biggest triumph, as a dancer, was dancing as a back up dancer for prominent japanese idol groups as a trainee back in 2010 to 2012, upon leaving to join crystal clear. she has a lot of confidence in her dancing, and has no problem picking up complicated choreography and learning it ( she enjoys the challenge, even if she gets frustrated ). it also brings her joy to help others with dancing, she likes to teach and instruct.

JAPANESE, a rather obvious strength, along with dancing, is japanese. it's something that will obviously come in use if sweetheart, or even the company, do a japanese project and are in need of a spokesperson. naturally, natsuko is confident when speaking japanese, as it's her mother tongue; she also feels an immense amount of pride and patriotism for her home country. having a second language as an idol is almost compulsory, and if not that; it's really appreciated. natsuko hopes her language skills will permit for her to represent her group overseas someday. 

SINGING, despite only being the sub-vocalist of her group, singing is a definite strength of hers, only just now, becoming more of a strength than something that sits between the good and the bad. from not being able to sing in her native tongue, to singing parts on sweetheart's album, is something huge to her. while her voice isn't immensely powerful, she is able to harmonize, sing live and also sing while dancing; to some extent. prior to becoming a trainee in south korea, singing was never really something natsuko ever thought about trying out, and if she had of gone there; she would of been bad; so it is thanks to crystal media that she's where she is now. as for the future, natsuko isn't looking towards improving her vocals to become a lead or main vocalist. she just hopes she can maintain her vocals and focus on her singing.

( &. weaknesses )

KOREAN, while it is probably not her biggest weakness as of now, it's still a weakness; one she's working very hard to overcome. natsuko more or less faked it with her korean until she made it, however, she's not really there yet. while usually coming across as very confident, bright and rather extroverted, she definitely struggled during her early trainee years due to her inablity to pick up korea at the rate which other foreign trainees were. so for a good while, she came across as very shy and timid, until she finally decided to stop seeking perfection in something she knew she'd never be perfect at. these days, she's a little quicker with forming sentences, and is a little more confident to speak when spoken to ( public wise, she's content with speaking among her members ). but, you'll still catch her looking around hoping her members will give her some guidance. she hopes that in the coming year or so that her korean will improve, so she's dedicating time to study so she can meet with her fans confidently and comfortably.

ACTING, natsuko is very transparent, and she finds it difficult to put herself in the shoes of another because she is entirely herself and her own person. despite this, she finds no trouble in creating and building her own characters in stories and comics she creates. she has heard comments regarding her acting in music videos, most of which haven't been story driving; and with negative comments comes negative energy. while natsuko would love to star in an acting role, either in a music video, a television show or a film; she knows it's not likely ( due to her ethnicity, but also her acting ability ), although it's something she'd like to get better at, as she feels it would open a lot of doors for her in the future.

RAPPING, rapping is definitely not within natsuko's skill set, regardless as to whether it's in japanese or korean. she struggles enough with singing as it is, despite her ability sing rather well for a sub-vocalist. she lacks flow, along with the rapping charisma that all rappers seem to have, and she doesn't really have an interest in hip-hop or hip-hop culture, it's not going to be something she pursues in the future. unless people want her to go out and make a fool of herself for a skit; then yeah, that is likely.

ENGLISH, natsuko learnt english in high school as a second language, however it's beyond her now. she's struggling enough with korean at the moment, so her chances of representing sweetheart in an english speaking country aren;t that high. while she knows a few obvious phrases like hello, how are you and i love you, among other things, such as random phrases in their songs, she's clueless as to how she'd even begin learning english. this is disheartening for her, as she wants to meet with english fans and speak with them, but it's hard due the obvious language barrier. this is a weakness she hopes to overcome, with time, some good time after korean, that takes definite priority.

BIO/PERSONALITY:

( &. biography ) she was born in the spring of april, 1998; amongst the falling cherry blossoms of tokyo, japan to a humble, working class family of four. her name was mizuhara natsuko. mizuhara natsuko grew up humble and content with her surroundings; and was taught from day dot that if one truly desires something, then they must work hard and earn it. those words were the foundations that natsuko built herself around, regardless of the area of her life to which she built on. their small home more or less forced a bond upon natsuko and her older sisters, two years between each, satomi and minako. the mizuharas were what one may call close knit, known for being very kind and hardworking, and were charitable when they could be. small beginnings for a small family in their small abode, they had eachother.

natsuko wasn't studious, she'd rather put her efforts into things that were considered less practical, like dance and art. thankfully, from a young age, she and her sisters had been told that they were welcome to follow whatever path they may choose. that helped when natsuko moved into adolescence. natsuko was good at building back up plans, believing that you always needed an escape route if you plan a wasn't going to work out, so forging the dream of stardom needed several. at age three, she began to dance; nothing serious of course, she wasn't destined to end up in an academy; but wasn't it most little girl's dream to become a ballerina. as she grew, she took on more styles; at first ballet, followed by jazz and tap, then hip-hop and contemporary. by age fourteen, natsuko more or less thought she'd hit the limits, although she never made it onto point, for an opportunity arose that one may or may not want to let slip through their fingers. 

stardom, becoming an idol. she'd always admired idols, everyone idolized someone, somehow; you had to have a figure you looked up to as a beacon of hope, or inspiration. in 2010, natsuko attended an audition for a rather, prominent japanese entertainment company, with hopes of perhaps gaining trainee status, even despite her age, twelve. somehow, natsuko succeeded, showing off her natural cute charms and dance skills; she suddenly became a trainee at a company, with a newfound dream of becoming a j-pop idol. j-pop trainees, they get the opportunity to perform as back up dancers now and then, and it's a perfect opportunity for natsuko to dip her toes in the water. she likes it. she likes moving, learning the choreography, performing with a wide grin on her face. but all dreams are some how short lived, or perhaps, better things arise. 

in 2012, natsuko was approached by a korean entertainment company, only hours after performing at a small scale event as a back-up dancer; the company being crystal media, one of three, prominent, rising entertainment companies in korean entertainment. k-pop. sure, she knew of some k-pop idols, but it was a dangerous stretch for a girl so young. confronting her parents, natsuko hoped to gain some guidance or wisdom; to which she heard what she'd always heard. something along the lines of always working hard and following it, if her heart was in it. and so she went with her heart, but also her head and her gut; it was a leap of faith, of dreams and fantasies, but somehow she crossed the oceans, auditioned properly and earned trainee status in south korea. leaving behind japan, her country of birth; and the place she was beginning to grow in, was hard. friends, people she saw everyday, people she could confine in and grow with, goodbyes were hard, but necessary. 

when her parents and sisters come to visit in the winter of 2012, they're quick to notice how quiet and reserved natsuko has become; her inability to pick up korean quickly like the other foreign trainees is somewhat disheartening, and she feels stupid. she is quick to question what her back up plans are, but she doesn't really have any right now. she perseveres, keeping her head down, working hard. somehow, natsuko finds the courage to be brave, and reach out; to ask for help to improve her korean, and she givees back, helping out others with their japanese or with their dancing. she somehow learns that her future is bright, and is very much ahead of her, crystal media is a family, and crystal media is slowly becoming her family away from home. she meets her future group members soon enough, and it seems like a debut is closer than they all had of thought. who knew that a girl like her, mizuhara natsuko could go from j-pop idol wannabe to k-pop girl group rookie within a year or two.

sweetheart debut in the winter of 2015, with their debut song glass bead, and natsuko is so thankful for the concept of the group. fun, youthful with complicated choreography to keep her on her toes. natsuko is titled as sweetheart's main dancer, sub-vocalist and visual; and she's not entirely sure she agrees with the whole visual part but she accepts it. she accepts everything, this is more or less her fate, what she'd worked for, what she'd earned; her reward. 

( &. personality ) 

natsuko is renowned for her energetic, bubbly and friendly personality. she's appears charismatic both on and off stage, and is always one to make others smile or laugh. she's talkative, and loves initiating conversation; which makes making friends really easy for her. despite being young, she loves to help overs; be it giving advice or being a form of support; a shoulder to cry on, someone to vent to. her upbringing has turned her into a very charitable, humble young woman, she isn't super materialistic, and any of her bigger purchases are all brought by her, rather than say, gifts. she can come across as being quirky or peculiar at times, which has also been misunderstood at childish; although she's corrected assumptions by saying she's playful. despite her poor short term memory, natsuko is rather intelligent, having a strong interest in humanities subjects like world history ( along with music and art ). confidence is natsuko's middle name, a trait she's willing to give herself. she's quick to put her hand up to do weird or scary stuff, perhaps she's a bit fearless, or maybe natsuko enjoys the spotlight; either way, she's genuine about it. above all, she's very passionate, very driven and very hardworking; it's hard to deter natsuko from what she likes doing; that goes for her dream. she often projects her passion onto others with hopes that they'll go forth with their own interests passionately.

she is rather naive, perhaps a little sheltered, having had the support of her family her entire life. this can come across as strange when she wants to provide advice or support to people, who's issues may be a little more serious or adult like. her positivity and thankfulness for things can be a little overwhelming at times, as natsuko is always trying to look for the positives, she's definitely not a realist. she's quick to see the good in people before the bad, and in the pass, she's most definitely had people use her and take advantage of the kindness and help she always offers. natsuko is a bit of an overachiever, and can often fall into states where it's difficult to shake her out of a habit or hobby, it's almost like obsession or compulsion. she has no confidence in herself when it comes to languages, or at least she didn't; especially korean. this caused natsuko to be very sad, quiet and reserved in her early trainee years at crystal media, hence the surprise that came about when she finally let go of the need to be perfect with something that was indeed foreign to her. natsuko is an obvious pacifist, through and through.