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Gacharic Spin & DOLL$BOXX Information Masterpost 2018

Warning: this is quite a long post, if you’re just looking for videos and song recommendations you can just scroll straight to the end

Gacharic Spin is an all-female rock band based in Tokyo, Japan, formed in 2009 by two friends and former high school classmates, F Chopper KOGA and Hana. Their sound varies wildly, from hard rock to dance pop to funk, but usually settles somewhere around the range of energetic electro-influenced pop rock. Their signature assets according to fans include their talented musical skill (particularly the technical slap-bass of F Chopper KOGA), complex songwriting, wild visual aesthetics, and an unforgettable live concert experience.

In terms of their marketing strategy, you might think of Gachapin (the band’s nickname) as a rock band that leans on some of the tactics of the grassroots idol scene. Members have a designated color, and you can guarantee that at any live show you’ll see a sea of fans decked out in their favorite member’s color. They’re very active on social media and take several opportunities throughout the year to interact with their fans, at in-store meet and greets and photo op events, at the merch booth at their shows, at fanclub-exclusive casual gatherings, etc. The band takes their touring schedule very seriously, performing upwards of 100 shows per year throughout the country, and each show is a spectacle, rife with penlights, costumes, props, choreography, and fan chants. Performer Mai, the band’s own hype-woman, leads the crowd in these interactive elements of the shows, and the fans dance and chant in sync in harmony with the band--a far cry from the usual fist-pump-head-bob of your typical rock concert and more in line with what you’d expect to find at an idol show. But don’t let their appearance fool you: the members of Gacharic Spin are some of the most technically proficient female musicians active in the scene today.

DOLL$BOXX is a side project of Gacharic Spin and their friend and vocalist, Fuki. They are a more traditional rock band and more familiar to overseas audiences, with their music video Take My Chance practically viral on Youtube with 2.5 million views. More on them later in the side projects section, but if you found this article through your exposure to DOLL$BOXX, welcome! You’re lucky enough to have stumbled upon not just one but two amazing bands and I hope you’ll give your support to both of them.

Gacharic Spin Members

(left photo is in Gacharic Spin, right photo is DOLL$BOXX - except Mai)

F Chopper KOGA (2009 - present)

Position: Bass, Leader

Real Name: Koga Michiko

Color: Yellow (Green in DOLL$BOXX)

The leader and founding member of the band, F Chopper KOGA (interchangeably called Chopper or KOGA for short) is the emotional core of Gacharic Spin. She is the spokesperson for the band, appearing in radio interviews and leading the MC’s during concerts. Toward the end of the larger concerts, she is known to give a heartful, tear-filled speech of appreciation to the fans and her fellow members. Her bass skills are no less than virtuosic; she plays a slap-bass style inspired by Les Claypool. She has released two instructional bass DVD’s and was named in the top 20 bass players alive in a Japanese magazine ranking (the only female to make the cut for ANY instrument in that article). She is also influenced by KISS and especially Gene Simmons, whom she credits as the inspiration for Gacharic Spin’s gregarious performance style.

KOGA is often teased by her bandmates for her tone-deaf singing (she’s the only current member without any lead vocal credits) and for occasionally stumbling over her rapid-fire words, for which she’s been given the nickname Kami-sama (written 噛み様, a pun on the verb 噛む “to fumble one’s words”). Outside of the band, she’s devoted to her dog Suku, who is an unofficial mascot of the band. She’s also interested in radio work and hosted her own regular radio show for about a year.

Hana (2009-present)

Position: Drums, Vocals

Real Name: Sano Hana

Color: Blue

In addition to her full plate as the band’s drummer and one of the two lead vocalists, Hana, described as a “musical otaku” by her bandmates, is also the musical leader and main songwriter of Gachapin. In her career she’s something of a perfectionist and spends long hours in the studio practicing and writing, even without the other members present. Hana is a long time veteran of the music world. Growing up, she lacked any real hobbies and enrolled in some dance classes for something to do, and ended up auditioning for some idol groups at her musician parents’ encouragement. She joined the youth idol group PRECOCI and later joined the kids’ band 12.Hitoe as a vocalist, but it wasn’t until high school that she started to experiment with playing instruments. Today, she can play at least ten instruments, and in past bands has been a bassist and a guitarist. You can even see her on rhythm guitar in Gacharic Spin’s song “Boku Dake no Cinderella.”

Despite her serious demeanor towards her work, Hana is just as goofy as her bandmates. During her drum solos at concerts she’s known to don a yellow helmet with cowbells and jingle bells duct taped to it. She was also named the “Bakadan Leader,” the biggest idiot in the group, after a quiz event. She’s also the most prone to getting pranked by her bandmates; she’s had her drumsticks swapped out for chopsticks, she showed up to her birthday event to find her bandmates all dressed in her stage costumes from throughout the years, and she got slapped with the unwanted nickname “King” that’s haunted her ever since. Outside the band, she’s into fitness (just take a look at her biceps sometime), currently learning boxing and practicing to climb Mt. Fuji. She also has a fondness for birds.

TOMO-ZO (2010-present)

Position: Guitar

Real Name: Midorikawa Tomoko

Color: Pink

TOMO-ZO is the self-described “idol-type” of the group. Wherever she wanders, you’re sure to see an absurd amount of pink, glitter, bubbles, and toothy smiles. In the early years of the band, her gimmick was that she was an eternally 14 year old magical girl, and during MC’s she would hit the audience with a magic spell that would knock them back into their seats. In 2014, she came out to put the record straight: she was not actually a magical girl, but in fact an ancient alien from Nicorin Planet who is currently 400,000,014 years old, and now she hits the audience with her “TOMO-ZO Beam” which blasts them with her alien...psionic powers or something. I don’t know. Her sweet personality is also a little shady; during oneman concerts she gets her own MC section where she “introduces” each of her bandmates by telling an embarrassing story about them, and then introduces herself by saying something like, “I’m sorry that I’m so cute!”

As the only guitarist of the group, TOMO-ZO has a lot of responsibility in delivering Gachapin’s melody while Hana and KOGA drive the rhythm. And even though she isn’t officially listed as a vocalist, she always gets at least one lead vocal song in each album. They’re usually ridiculous. She’s also the only member to have performed a solo tour outside of the group. Additionally, she is responsible for designing all of Gachapin’s merchandise. TOMO-ZO is known both for her sweet tooth (she’s known to carry around lots of sweet treats and once said that her dream was to have a house made of candy) as well as for discreetly being a big carnivore. Hilariously, TOMO-ZO is the leader of the strait-laced, dark color schemed, super serious DOLL$BOXX.

Oreo Reona (2012 - present)

Position: Keyboard, Vocals

Real Name: Suzuki Reona

Color: Purple (with white as a secondary color)

On paper, Oreo Reona (also called Oreo or Oreo-sama) is the keyboardist and one of two lead vocals, but in practice, she’s...so many things. Something like Gachapin’s trump card, during a live performance you’re likely to see her all over the place, rushing out to the front of the stage to join Mai as one of the dancers, jamming on the keytar or even playing acoustic guitar on certain songs, and of course, standing upright on her keyboard during climactic moments of the show. She’s the self-proclaimed “sexy member,” with lots of moans and suggestive motions, but she’s just as much the band’s comic relief. Sometimes you’ll see her sporting tiny shorts, fishnets, and a light-up bra harness that shoots out fog. Sometimes she snatches off her own wig mid-concert and waves it around in midair. Sometimes she’s a hamburger. It’s a beautiful mess. She’s often the victim of slapstick in the group - getting pans dropped on her or smacked in the back of a head with a shoe; forced to bungee jump as she shrieks at the top of her lungs; getting her face crushed into her own birthday cake. And sometimes she’s her own victim and takes a faceplant onstage. It’s OK. She’s sturdy.

Oreo is usually teased for her laziness behind the stage and for her big appetite. Whenever the band goes overseas, you’re guaranteed to see a social media post about Oreo gushing over the food. Another running gag is her ongoing, unsuccessful struggle to find a good man, which was the theme of an entire tour in 2016. Oreo studied ballet as a kid, and subsequently became Gachadan’s dance coach when they became part of the lineup. She adores pandas, especially after Gachapin visited China in 2013 and she drew the short stick to get to hold a baby panda. Lately, she’s also taken an interest in Mexico (mostly because of the food). Despite her constant antics, the members seem to think highly of Oreo’s intellect, as she was ranked the #1 most likely to pass a general knowledge quiz.

Mai (2013 - present)

Position: Performer #1

Real Name: Morishita Mai

Color: Light Blue

Mai is currently the sole member of Gacha Gacha Dancers (Gachadan for short). Rather than playing an instrument, Gachadan is responsible for standing center stage and leading the choreography and getting the crowd pumped up and playing along. Mai has one lead vocalist credit to her name (Tokenai Candy, which was released as Gacha Gacha Dancers together with Arisa). Mai is in charge of creating choreography for the whole band, and after Nenne’s departure in 2017, she started to take on even more responsibilities. She’s started to learn guitar under TOMO-ZO’s tutelage and now plays guitar occasionally during Gachapin’s lives, and has a guitar line and rap verses in the lead track from the G-litter album, “Redline.” She’s also been responsible for coaching Gachadan Jr. On top of all that, Gachadan used to promote independently as an idol unit outside of Gachapin, with their own concerts, but that has stopped since Nenne’s departure. Mai is not a member of DOLL$BOXX, but she did make a cameo in their “Hero” music video.

Despite her slim body, Mai is well known for her big appetite. She’s often posting on her blog about different ice cream flavors she’s tried and asking for recommendations; she’s also a fan of REALLY spicy food. She likes South Korean culture and music. She’s often called “Sweet Devil” because, according to her bandmates, her innocent face is just a cover to hide her true nature. She’s also Hana’s #1 workout buddy. Outside of Gachapin she has a prolific gravure idol career as part of the Chu-Boh idol circle, but she hasn’t been active in gravure since graduating high school a couple years back.

Gachadan Jr. (2017 - present)

Gachadan Jr. aren’t really true members of Gachapin, but rather are a rotating stable of performers that back up Mai onstage. In 2017, Performer #3 Nenne took a hiatus due to medical reasons, but much of Gachapin’s choreography relied on having 2 bodies at center stage, so Gachapin recruited about 20 young girls to participate in one of their big concerts. Nenne left the group permanently, and instead of hiring a full-time replacement for her, the Gachadan Jr. lineup was pared down to three girls who rotate to appear in certain live performances: Misaki, Anna, and Hazuki.

Former Members

Eita (2009)

Position: Guitar

Eita was the original guitarist of Gacharic Spin, but left due to creative differences before any CDs were released and was soon replaced by TOMO-ZO. Years later, Eita formed a band with Armmy called TAKAEITA.

Armmy (2009-2012)

Position: Vocals

Real Name: Ashitomi Takae

At the start of Gachapin’s existence, the band only had one dedicated vocalist, with Hana solely listed as the drummer. Like Oreo, Armmy’s character was based on over-the-top sexiness that sometimes eked into comic territory. Armmy left the group after an extended period of absence in 2011 due to poor health. She was off the music scene for a while but then formed a band with EITA, but unfortunately she passed away suddenly in 2015.

Arisa (2013-2015)

Position: Performer #2

Real Name: Kamiki Arisa

Color: Green

Arisa was hired alongside Mai as the first generation of Gacha Gacha Dancers in 2013. She was adored by her fans for her “genki,” “baka,” goofy personality. Despite that, she also had an occasional friendly rivalry with Oreo about who was the sexiest member. Just after Gachapin’s major debut in 2015, Arisa decided to leave the group to focus on her last year of high school. She hasn’t been seen on the entertainment scene since then.

Nenne (2015-2017)

Position: Performer #3

Real Name: Konishi Nene

Color: Orange

Nenne was an underclassman at Mai’s school who attended the same dance classes as her, so Mai invited her to come see some of Gachapin’s live shows and got to know the members. When Arisa announced her intention to graduate, Nenne became a natural candidate to replace her, as she had been a member of two idol groups in the past and could also play piano. They began to train Nenne behind the scenes before Arisa’s departure, so Nenne was ready to go iimmediately after Arisa left. Nenne was the first to push the envelope of the Gachadan position as she also acted as a backup keyboardist/pianist to Oreo. This granted flexibility to the band, letting Oreo come out front as more of a lead vocalist while Nenne took her station at the back of the stage. You can hear Nenne’s work throughout the Music Battler album, including the twin piano duel at the start of Nostalgic Blue. Nenne went on hiatus from the group in 2017 due to hearing damage. She spent several months in recovery, and while the condition did improve, but she decided to fully withdraw from the group to prevent any future damage. She remains in contact with the members and attends some of their lives, and she also remains active on Instagram and Twitter.

History

Ultimately, the story of Gacharic Spin is the story of KOGA, so it’s worthwhile to take a few paragraphs to tell her story. Born and raised in Nagoya, KOGA set off on her own at age 14 to move to Tokyo to get her foot into the entertainment industry with a dream to become a TV announcer or producer. She soon met a producer named Kihara Michiko, the president of the briskcrew talent agency, who signed KOGA on to her agency as a gravure idol (think racy swimsuit modelling). One day, briskcrew decided that the idols on its roster were going to hold a fanclub event, and encouraged the idols to come up with fun ideas for the fans. Some of KOGA’s seniors approached her about their idea to form a one-time band for the event, and since the other members had already chosen the other instruments, KOGA was left with being the bassist, despite never playing one before. The fan event was such a success that briskcrew decided to make the band a permanent fixture, and the punk-pop group The Pink Panda was formed.

At the same time, KOGA was working part time at a recording studio, which gave her a chance to broaden her horizons and learn about different rock bands that she heard the studio musicians covering. Her two biggest influences were Primus, which lead to her adopting her signature slap-bass style that became the basis for her nickname, and KISS, whose theatrical, over the top performance style she wanted to emulate.

Pink Panda grew in popularity and started to get scouted by major labels. What happened next is subject for debate, but KOGA’s side of the story is something like this: the record label wanted Pink Panda to tone down their boisterous style and try to go more mainstream, and specifically they noted that they’d never had a female slap bassist sell well. Rather than kick their friend out of the group, Pink Panda decided to split amicably with a full breakup. The remaining members, minus KOGA, went on to form another band called Blistar.

Short on cash, KOGA was ready to throw in the towel and move back to Nagoya, but her producer, Kihara, seeing the talent KOGA had, pleaded with her to stay. If KOGA would give it one more chance and form another band, she’d have the full support of briskcrew behind her all the way to the end. KOGA agreed but with conditions: this would be her last band, and she would only do it if one other person agreed to join: her high school classmate (and onetime bandmate in a jam band she was temporarily in during the Pink Panda days), Sano Hana. Hana was already in a band of her own at the time, so KOGA was surprised when Hana immediately agreed. Originally the plan was for Hana to continue working in her old band concurrently, but since she was a bassist in that band and KOGA wanted her to be the drummer in the new band, she decided to give one up and give her full attention to just one instrument.

The two founding members named the band Gacharic Spin. Orginally it was a bacronym because they liked the word “Gachapin” and wanted something they could shorten to that. Now, they explain it as a combination of “Gachagacha,” the onomatopoeia for the clattering sounds that a gachapon capsule machine makes, and “Spin,” mixing things together. Therefore, Gacharic Spin is mixing together several clattering, clashing elements.

The band recruited Armmy on vocals and Eita on guitar through an audition process, and the group started to perform in clubs. The group got an early boost in popularity from old Pink Panda fans, but in the back of her mind KOGA had anxiety that those fans could wander off at any time. So the band pursued an active touring schedule to try and get as many new fans as possible. Only a few months in to the band’s formation, Eita left the band due to creative differences, and they held another auditon, where they found TOMO-ZO, from the recently disbanded girl band EU-PHORIA (whom KOGA had shared the stage with before as Pink Panda). Apparently, they hit it off great with TOMO-ZO, and took a liking to her the moment she entered the room. With their permanent guitarist now onboard, they entered the “Gachapin 2.0” formation, and the group hit the studio and recorded their first two singles, Lock On!! and Hunting Summer all at once.

2011 brought Gachapin their first mini-album release and their first overseas appearance in Houston, TX. Toward the end of the year they also started to perform with a support keyboardist on tour, TOMO-ZO’s former bandmade in EU-PHORIA, Oreo Reona.

In 2012 the band reached its biggest crisis to date, a period they call the “Gachapinch” era. Armmy was repeatedly absent due to chronic health issues. The band had to cancel several co-headlining shows as a result, but they still had a headline tour of their own coming up. They recruited several of their acquaintances from different bands to act as guest vocalists throughout the tour. Two of these guest vocalists turned out to be very important: their own support keyboardist Oreo Reona, and Fuki, the lead singer of the power metal band Light Bringer.

After the tour, there was still no indication that Armmy’s condition was improving, and the band was finding it difficult to contact her at all. They made the decision to remove her from the band, with the intention to recruit a new permanent vocalist. Around the same time, Oreo was hired as a permanent keyboardist. However, the band had a tour in France already lined up for that same year, and it was too late to back out. The band decided to move forward with the France tour, with Hana and Oreo splitting lead vocal duties. The dynamic worked better than expected, and when they returned to Japan they decided to keep the four member lineup, which became known as “Gachapin 2.5.” This formation released the single “Nudierhythm” together.

For the rest of 2012, Gachapin went on the backburner a bit while the members started to work on another project. During the Gachapinch period, they developed a rapport with Fuki from Light Bringer, and the two parties had casual talks about doing a collaboration together. The talks escalated until Fuki and Gachapin decided to form a side group together called DOLL$BOXX. Their debut album, “Dolls Apartment,” was released in 2012 under the major label King Records.

After Dolls Apartment’s promotional cycle ended and DOLL$BOXX went back on the shelf, it was time for Gacharic Spin to resume its activities in earnest. However, the members decided that the 2.5 formation was lacking something. Oreo and Hana were the main vocalists, but both of them were at the back of the stage. Koga and TOMO-ZO stood out front but were mostly occupied with their own instruments. This led to a void, no front woman standing at center stage to get the crowd hyped up. The solution they found was to hire two dancers as support members. Through her connections in the idol industry, Kihara recruited Mai and Arisa, who became the first generation of “Gacha Gacha Dancers,” Gachapin’s support dancers. The new formation was dubbed “Gacharic Spin 2013 style.”

All of these changes in such a small period of time--cancelling shows, losing their vocalist, and then completely relaunching the band with a totally different lineup and performance style, were a big gamble, and the members worried about losing their fans--but, to their amazement, the fans largely stayed with them, embraced the dancers, and the band’s future was secured. In 2014, the Gacha Gacha Dancers became full-fledged, permanent members, and later the same year, after all these struggles, the band signed a major label deal with Victor Records, releasing their major debut Sekira Liar / Tokenai Candy in 2015.

Since going major, the band has continued to have some ups and downs--the loss of Arisa, and then later gaining and subsequently losing their third dancer Nenne--but nothing compared to the troubles they’ve overcome so far; they are continuing to barrel forward as they always have, with an insane touring schedule, regular CD releases, and a loyal army of Gachaman & Gachapinko (male and female Gachapin fans, respectively) cheering them on every step of the way as we inch ever toward their 10th anniversary next year. Their biggest milestones since going major have included recording an ending theme for the Dragon Ball Kai anime (their 2nd major single Don’t Let Me Down) in 2015; performing a oneman live at the legendary Hibiya Outdoor Amphitheater in 2017; more overseas shows in the United States (San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago), South Korea, Taiwan, and China; and completing a 23-show oneman nationwide tour culminating in a double oneman show (Gacharic Spin and DOLL$BOXX both performing separate, full-length headline sets on the same day) at Tokyo Dome City Hall in 2018.

Discography

Singles

Indies 1st: Lock On!! (2010)

Indies 2nd: Hunting Summer (2010)

Indies 3rd: Setsunaku Melody (2010)

Indies 4th: Nudierhythm (2012)

Indies 5th: Boku Dake no Cinderella (2014)

Major 1st: Sekira Liar / Tokenai Candy (2015) (available on Spotify)

Major 2nd: Don’t Let Me Down (2015) (available on Spotify)

Major 3rd: Shakishaki Shite!! / Aru Busu no Shoujo (2016) (available on Spotify)

Major 4th: Generation Gap (2017) (available on Spotify)

Albums

Indies Mini-Album: Virgin-A (2011)

Indies 1st: Delicious (2013)

Indies 2nd: WINNER (2014)

Major Best: Gachatto Best ~2010-2014~ (2014) (available on Spotify)

Major 1st: MUSIC BATTLER (2015) (available on Spotify)

Major 2nd: Kakujitsu Hendou -KAKUHEN- (2016) (available on Spotify)

Major 3rd: G-litter (2018) (available on Spotify)

Side Projects

Never content with the status quo, Gachapin has participated in a number of side projects and collaborations over the years.

DOLL$BOXX

DOLL$BOXX (called Dorubako by fans) is a band formed by the instrument players of Gacharic Spin and Fuki, a vocalist previously from the bands Light Bringer and Unlucky Morpheus. The project arose out of the chemistry between the two acts when Fuki was a guest vocalist on the Gachapinch tour. Their debut album Dolls Apartment released under King Records in 2012 (technically, it was Gacharic Spin’s major label debut as they did not sign to Victor Entertainment until 2015). DOLL$BOXX toured through the end of 2012 in support of the album, but disappeared into the shadows for several years.

They reconvened briefly in 2014 to support a music video collection DVD, but for the most part DOLL$BOXX went completely radio silent, leading many to believe it was just a one time collaboration. However, in 2016, Fuki signed to Victor Entertainment as well, and with all five musicians on the same label finally, a path forward appeared. Hints of a DOLL$BOXX reunion swirled, with a one-off reunion show performed in February 2017. Then, Fuki appeared as a guest performer at Gachapin’s Hibiya Yaon concert in June and confirmed the suspicions: DOLL$BOXX was back, and a new mini-album was in the works, released late in 2017. DOLL$BOXX has remained active since then, with two tours and hosting their first music festival, DOLL$FESTA, in 2018.

DOLL$BOXX sports a heavier hard rock and less electro-influenced sound than Gachapin. Fuki’s swooping vocals are complemented by Hana’s backing growls, a talent of hers seldom showcased in Gachapin. Their music video Take My Chance has over 2.5 million views on Youtube and has spread outside of Japan due to their tongue-in-cheek parody of idol culture juxtaposed with their aggressive sound. Onstage and in interviews, DOLL$BOXX has a much more serious demeanor than Gachapin, but it’s immediately apparent that this is tongue in cheek as well, and that behind the serious faces and dark clothing, they’re having a blast and trying their best not to laugh and stay in character.

Members

TOMO-ZO (leader)

F Chopper KOGA

Hana

Oreo Reona

Fuki

Position: Vocals

Real Name: Tenge Fuyuki

Color: Orange

Fuki is a very prolific singer in the Japanese hard rock/heavy metal scene. She gained notoriety as the lead singer of Light Bringer, and was a member of that band when she first met Gacharic Spin on tour. She volunteered as one of Gacharic Spin’s guest vocalists during the Gachapinch tour, and the collaboration was so successful that the two sides decided to team up and form the side project DOLL$BOXX while each remaining in their original bands. During DOLL$BOXX’s hiatus, she also participated in the recording of Gacharic Spin’s major debut best-of album, singing guest vocals on Black Survival (a song originally recorded by Armmy, but it became deeply associated to Fuki during the Gachapinch tour). Light Bringer has since disbanded, but Fuki is currently active in three different groups: DOLL$BOXX, Unlucky Morpheus, and her own solo project Fuki Commune. She’s also participated in a myriad of collaborations and side projects, including Sound Horizon, Nozomu Wakai’s Destinia, Carbonic Acid and Dragon Guardian. Her solo career has included many video game and anime soundtrack contributions including Terraformars, Kaitou Joker, and the Hyperdimension Neptunia series.

Fuki is well-respected in the scene due to her powerful, pitch-perfect, metal-influenced technique, as well her signature “high-tone” vocal style, but despite her power metal background she’s proven herself equally proficient at pop music and ballads. Fans also know her for her geeky side; she loves anime, games, and Sanrio characters (her favorite is Cinnamoroll), is frequently seen cosplaying on her social media pages, and is a founding member of Unlucky Morpheus, which started as a doujin metal circle performing rearranged covers of songs from the Touhou Project video game series and selling their work at Comiket.

DOLL$BOXX Discography

1st album: Dolls Apartment (2012)

Mini-album: high $pec (2017) (available on Spotify)

Metallic Spin

Metallic Spin is a European metal band that has gained popularity while touring in Japan, covering songs by western metal acts. Despite the similarities in names, and the fact that the bands have performed together often, they have no relation to Gacharic Spin.

**yes, but seriously, they are just Gachapin in wigs and makeup. The running gag is that they’re a totally different set of people, and it’s taboo to suggest otherwise. The original vocalist of Metallic Spin was Fuki/”Ki-fu Richards,” but now the vocalist is a guy from Saber Tiger.

Members

Kawai Tomozo (Guitar)

Nose (Drums)

Anarchy Stocking (Keyboard)

Chopako Gaefu (Bass)

Gezan Satsuporo (Vocals)

Gacha Gacha Dancers

Gacha Gacha Dancers (Gachadan for short) is the collective unit name for Gachapin’s performers. Therefore, the 1st generation of Gachadan was Mai and Arisa, and the second generation was Mai and Nenne. In 2015, Gacharic Spin released a double A-side single, Sekira Liar / Tokenai Candy. Tokenai Candy was credited to Gacha Gacha Dancers, was entirely sung by Mai and Arisa, and had its own music video. The single was released in two limited edition types, one cover featured the instrument team and the other cover featured the Gachadan team, and they had a contest to see which version would sell more copies. If Gachadan sold more, they would get their own solo CD debut. In the end, Gachadan fell short, but they still occasionally got to work outside the group attending some idol concert events as a separate unit. After Nenne’s departure, Gachadan’s outside activities have ceased so far. Gachadan has at least one unreleased original song called Banban.

Unofficial Local Idol Group Project

In 2014, someone thought it would be a good idea to create a fake idol group out of Gachapin’s members to be their opening act at a show in Atsugi. TOMO-ZO was the producer, and Hana, KOGA, and Oreo became the members in this masterpiece of a group called USUGI.

The show happened, USUGI released a demo CD, and someone had the even more brilliant idea to keep running with it, so Gachapin launched a full “unofficial local idol group” project in which they created a separate fake idol group for each city in their spring tour. Each unit had a different mix of Gachapin members, was themed around a certain part of that city’s culture, and lampooned a range of musical styles from classic Showa-style bubblegum pop to modern kawaii metal. At the end of the tour, they put on a battle of the bands event between all of the different idol groups, and they repeated the process again in 2016 with a new roster of idol groups to integrate their new member Nenne into the fold.

Hilarity ensued all around.

Teradaric Spin

Gachapin’s latest side project is a collaboration between the 4 instrument players and Terada Keiko, the lead singer of the long-running all-female band SHOW-YA. Gachapin has looked up to SHOW-YA as their “older sister band” for years, and they are a perennial participant at the SHOW-YA hosted music festival NAON no YAON. In 2018, Gachapin and Terada got together to form a side project together; they embarked on a mini-tour and also performed at DOLL$BOXX’s DOLL$FESTA event. Gachapin posted a survey on Twitter asking fans what Gachapin and SHOW-YA songs they would like to see covered, and they built the setlists for the tour based on those responses.

Links & Resources

Official Pages

Gacharic Spin Official Website

YouTube

LINE Blog (updated by all members on a daily schedule)

Twitter (TOMO-ZO)

Facebook (Hana)

Instagram (Oreo)

Instagram (Mai)

Ameblo (KOGA)

DOLL$BOXX Official Website

Twitter (Official)

Twitter (Fuki)

Ameblo (Fuki)

Music Videos

Listed in chronological order by CD release for each band. Bold links represents videos I recommend watching first for newcomers. A lot of their later videos only have short versions posted on Youtube, so I provided links for both the short, official version (higher quality + give them more hits) plus a link to the full version on another site whenever possible.

Gacharic Spin

Lock On!!

BROKEN LOVER

Setsunaku Melody

LosT AngeL

Juicy Beats

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rocknrollcola · 3 years

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itsfinancethings · 4 years

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New story in Politics from Time: America Really Does Have a Space Force. We Went Inside to See What It Does

American intelligence analysts have been watching a pair of Russian satellites, identified as Cosmos 2542 and 2543, for months. Or rather, they have been watching them since they were one satellite, deployed by a Soyuz rocket that took off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Nov. 26, 2019. It was 11 days after that launch that the first satellite split in two, the second somehow “birthed” from the other, and no one in the U.S. military was happy about the new arrival. By mid-January, both Russian satellites had floated near a multibillion–dollar spacecraft known as KH-11, one of the U.S. military’s most powerful spy tools, part of a reconnaissance constellation code-named Keyhole/-CRYSTAL. It wasn’t clear whether the Cosmos satellites were threatening or surveilling the KH-11, which is said to have the resolving power of the Hubble Space Telescope, but it turned out that was only the start of the twins’ surprises.

After the U.S. expressed concern to Moscow through diplomatic channels early this year, the pair pulled away from the KH-11 and whizzed around the Earth at more than 17,000 m.p.h. Then, on July 15, with the U.S. analysts still tracking them, the “birthed” Russian satellite, Cosmos 2543, fired a projectile into outer space, General John “Jay” Raymond, the top general of the newly created U.S. Space Force, told TIME. It was the first time the U.S. military has publicly alleged an instance of a space-based antisatellite weapons test, a troubling new development in the emerging theater of orbital warfare.

To Raymond and supporters of Space Force, which is the first new branch of the U.S. military in 72 years, Moscow’s “nesting doll” satellites, as the military has labeled the Cosmos triplets, represent a threat not just to one really expensive piece of American spy hardware but to the basic functioning of modern America itself. “Russia is developing on-orbit capabilities that seek to exploit our reliance on space-based systems,” Raymond says.

Whatever the Russian crafts’ -mission—and Moscow says it is purely peaceful—Raymond’s not wrong that Americans have come to rely on satellites in ways they hardly begin to appreciate. Even as the Cosmos 2543 was launching its projectile, Air Force satellites were performing a host of civilian tasks back home in the U.S. Streetlamps timed to global positioning system (GPS) spacecraft were turning on across the country, and businesses were relying on GPS to time-stamp credit-card purchases. Weather satellites were transmitting information for nightly forecasts. Many of the around 650,000 calls made to 911 every day in the U.S. depend on satellites overhead.

But for all the ways that civilians and the military rely on it, America’s network of roughly 1,000 satellites is virtually unprotected. And just as lightly defended access to deep-water ports or natural resources was a source of war in the past, leaders and strategists worry that -America’s vulnerable satellite network is an invitation to conflict in our times. Raymond tells TIME that Russia executed a previous, unreported projectile launch in February 2017. China has started training specialized units with weapons that can blast apart objects in orbit. Both countries have deployed ground-based laser and communications–jamming equipment that can disable satellites.

In short, an arms race for space has begun. This is the story of America’s effort to keep ahead.

Spencer Lowell for TIME

The mission of protecting America’s vulnerable orbital networks falls to U.S. Space Command and Space Force, which since December has the same status as the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The Pentagon has decades of experience building and deploying satellites, the military operates many of the most important ones, and it has arguably the best strategic planning skills of any organization on the planet. It also already employs 20,000 people whose jobs are to oversee and manage America’s space-based GPS, communications, weather and ballistic-missile-warning systems.

But less than eight months after its launch, Space Force is already trying to justify its existence. Some critics say diplomacy and a new international treaty, not increased military muscle, is the best way to secure space. Others point out that the Pentagon famously overstated the danger of Russian and Chinese weapons systems in the Cold War. And few institutions have the history of waste, fraud and abuse that the Pentagon does: watchdogs note that the Space Force budget for 2021 is $15.4 billion, with a projected increase of $2.6 billion over the next five years, most of it driven by classified programs.

Although the cost represents just a fraction of the Pentagon’s $740 billion total budget, convincing Americans that a new service can be trusted to protect our satellites and not just grow a vast new expensive wing on the military–industrial complex will take some doing. It doesn’t help that things have gotten off to a somewhat comedic start: the popular culture has dubbed the new command “Space Farce,” thanks in part to its biggest advocate, President Donald Trump. He’s made it a part of his re-election pitch, and his campaign sells Space Force merch. Trump even personally signed off on the Space Force official seal and made recommendations for styling its uniforms, four U.S. officials tell TIME. When word of Trump’s superficial interest in the complex, high-stakes military undertaking got out, it -fueled endless memes and late-night comedy routines. In May, Netflix released a Steve Carell satirical series based on the service’s launch, including uniforms designed to provide camouflage on the moon.

Spencer Lowell for TIMEGeneral John “Jay” Raymond, Space Force’s first commanding general, says space-based systems form the backbone of modern life.

For more than nine months, TIME conducted a series of interviews with Raymond and other Space Command leaders, analysts and operations experts in Washington, D.C., and Colorado, documenting the birth of this new branch of the U.S. military. The picture that emerges is mixed. Space Force comprises dedicated professionals attempting to mitigate real threats. But it has work to do convincing Americans it is undertaking an operation critical to their safety and way of life, and not just an overpriced, militarized vanity project.

The American troops had just minutes to get to safety, and they didn’t even know it yet. At around 1 a.m. local time on Jan. 8, more than a dozen Qiam-1 and Fateh-313 ballistic missiles tore from their launch sites at three bases in western Iran. Within seconds, infrared sensors on U.S. satellites orbiting 22,000 miles overhead registered the missiles’ heat signatures against Earth’s background and beamed the data back to the 460th Operations Group at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colo. Three immense screens on the Buckley operations floor registered the missiles’ details in real time as row upon row of intelligence analysts, bathed in the bluish glow of computer monitors, triangulated their launch points and trajectories.

With the clock ticking, word went out over another set of U.S. military communications satellites to two Iraqi bases, Al Asad and Erbil, where hundreds of Americans were stationed. The first missiles hit at 1:34 a.m., their 1,400-lb. warheads turning buildings, aircraft and living quarters into smoldering rubble. Concussions from the blasts injured 109 American troops, but most had managed to shelter in underground bunkers and trenches. No one died.

Spencer Lowell for TIMEThe 460th Operations Group controls a space-based warning system that can detect a rocket or missile launch within seconds.

The foiled Iranian attack was a validation of the 50-year U.S. strategy of placing satellites into space to provide tactical advantage in conflict. But in recent decades, the contest has changed: it is about more than missiles, there are more players, and everyone is building constellations of more advanced spacecraft. Since October 2014, a Russian satellite called Luch has “visited” 15 different communications satellites, including a French and Italian military one, according to Bob Hall, a former Lockheed Martin satellite operator who now works as technical director at Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI), of Exton, Pa. That incident prompted French Defense Minister Florence Parly to announce last year that France will develop “bodyguard” satellites armed with laser weapons. “If our satellites are threatened, we intend to blind those of our adversaries,” she said. The Chinese have also entered the game, deploying in 2016 the Shiyan-17 (SY-17) satellite to execute a “rendezvous” with at least four other -satellites—all of them Chinese, AGI found. “They perform this orbital dance where they fly around a satellite very closely,” Hall says.

Both China and Russia reorganized their militaries in 2015, emphasizing the importance of space operations, according to a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment published last year. “They view space as important to modern warfare and view counterspace capabilities as a means to reduce U.S. and allied military effectiveness,” it said, adding that America’s dependence on space is perceived by adversaries as the “Achilles heel” of U.S. military power.

The U.S. government has responded with its own novel space technologies, many of which are top secret. One that is partly declassified is the X-37B space drone, which resembles a miniature space shuttle. The X-37B is in the midst of its sixth mission to test “capabilities necessary to maintain superiority in the space domain,” the military says. The most recent completed mission was a 780-day flight that ended in October.

Spencer Lowell for TIMESquadron emblem patches at 527th Space Aggressors Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The threats to space-based systems originate on Earth as well. On April 15, Russia tested an antisatellite missile, and in December the Russian military deployed a new laser system designed to blind spy satellites overhead. GPS users in northern Scandinavia since 2017 have reported signal disruptions whenever Russian military exercises are conducted in the region; the Norwegian government says the Russians are jamming the signals. China is developing jammers to target satellite communications over a range of frequency bands, including military–protected extremely high–frequency communications. And China demonstrated its own antisatellite–missile capability in 2007 when it blasted one of its old weather satellites apart, creating a cloud of more than 3,000 pieces of space -debris—a tipping point that arguably started the space arms race unfolding today.

Behind two tiers of razor-wire-topped chain-link fencing inside Schriever Air Force Base, east of Colorado Springs, sits Building 400, one of the most restricted facilities in Space Command. On each floor, space-operations squadrons work in temperature–controlled rooms behind vaultlike doors to ensure that 190 Defense Department satellites, which they call birds, operate without a hitch. These days, when something goes wrong, the operators no longer assume they’re dealing with a technical glitch. “A problem you encounter may be because an adversary created it for you,” says Lieut. -Colonel Michael Schriever, director of GPS operations, whose grand-father lent his name to the base. “Space is no longer a benign environment.”

This new mentality, which is referred to as orbital warfare, is a prime driver behind the creation of Space Force. Until recently, space was seen as a peaceful domain: satellites like GPS were thought to be too far away and too costly to target. Not anymore. The Navy has restarted astro-nomical–navigation training for its officers after concluding their recent reliance on GPS left them vulnerable to space-based attacks. The Army has granted contracts for miniaturized inertial navigation systems that can be strapped to soldiers’ boots to keep track of them if satellites go down. “Our space systems are vulnerable,” says Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “That’s why it’s time for a separate uniformed service.”

Spencer Lowell for TIME460th Space Wing mission brief at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado.

Another reason for Space Force’s creation is that national satellites are currently controlled by multiple services and agencies, which can lead to excessive secrecy and the lack of information sharing known in the intelligence world as hypercompartmentalization. During the Obama Administration, it once took officials four months to assemble a briefing on U.S. space capabilities for then Vice President Joe Biden because information was scattered among so many top-secret classifications and few officials had access to all of them, recalls Robert Cardillo, former director of the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

But reorganization presents its own challenges. Inside a lower ground-floor office at the Pentagon, behind an unmarked, key-card–accessed door off Corridor 8, is where military planners mapped the future of the military’s -newest branch. Step in and look to the right, where the blueprints for the organization are tacked to the wall. At the top of the military hierarchy is General Raymond, currently one of only 88 official Space Force members. Below him is Chief Master Sergeant Roger Towberman, the first senior enlisted adviser, and then cascading tiers and rows of mostly empty rectangles signifying commanders, deputies and other positions.

Some of the work of standing up Space Force is superficial, like what to call its members. If you’re in the Army, you’re a soldier. The Navy? Sailor. Marine Corps? Marine. Air Force? Airman. But the Space Force? Are you … a spaceman? (The Pentagon sent out surveys to service members for their input.) But other aspects are more complicated. The backbone of what will be the Space Force is about 16,000 uniformed and civilian Air Force personnel. On July 16, the new service announced it had selected 2,410 airmen out of more than 8,500 active-duty volunteers to transfer beginning Sept. 1. All will need to transfer contracts, pay and benefits to the newly created bureaucracy of space.

Spencer Lowell for TIMEThe U.S. military’s operations in space are among the most highly technical and classified secrets in government possession.

If that sounds potentially expensive to you, you’re not alone. In a rare act of budget prudence, the Hill restricted Space Force from adding any new military positions—-they must instead be transferred from other services. Nonetheless, the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost up to $3 -billion in one-time expenses over the next five years to set up the force, plus an additional $1 billion or so to pay for new management and administrative positions. Government watchdogs have little doubt that a whole new bureaucracy will result in increased federal military funding. “The initial costs of setting up the Space Force are likely a small down payment on an under-taking that could cost tens of billions of dollars in the years to come,” says William Hartung of the Center for International Policy.

The prospect of Space Force has stimulated the enthusiasm of the aerospace industry, which relies on big-ticket defense contracts, and high-tech research institutions and think tanks, which depend on government funding to lend expertise. That in turn creates opportunities for traditional forms of Pentagon waste, fraud and abuse. The U.S. -Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s watchdog, has warned the creation of Space Force risks exacerbating fragmentation and ineffective management and complicating oversight when it comes to buying new satellite systems. That’s a big concern considering space projects are routinely billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule, the GAO said. Deborah Lee James, Air Force Secretary under President Obama, -concluded when she was at the Pentagon that Space Force made little sense. “Inherent in all reorganization is bureaucratic thrashing,” she says. “To me, this is just an extra thing out there that’s going to take away time and attention and money.” Convincing Americans otherwise is proving difficult.

It was an abnormally balmy day in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 15 when General Raymond arrived at the White House for a briefing with President Trump. The visit, which was described to TIME by four U.S. officials, was more than just business for Trump. Over the past two years, Space Force has become tied up with his political prospects. Mentions of Space Force are a routine applause line at political rallies. Supporters purchase Space Force hats, T-shirts and bumper stickers on his official 2020 campaign site, putting it on par with “Build the wall” and “Make America great again” as a rallying cry for his re-election push. Trump, a businessman who regularly flipped through fabric swatches for his multibillion–dollar construction projects, has made clear to Pentagon leadership that he wants to have a personal hand in decisions on everything from uniforms and logos to the service anthem and names of ranks.

Spencer Lowell for TIMEHelical antenna used to scramble adversaries GPS signals in combat.

So, after being ushered into the Oval Office to sit in a semicircle before the Resolute desk, Raymond and other military leaders, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, presented Trump with the first of what will be a long list of Space Force decisions: What will be the official seal? Four options, products of monthslong deliberations with advertising agencies and Air Force brass, were printed on foam-core posters and arrayed in front of the President. Trump studied each one -before -settling on one featuring a silver delta symbol circled by a white orbiting spacecraft surmounting a blue globe. To make it official, Trump pulled out a black Sharpie marker, drew an arrow pointed at the seal and scratched out his signature above it. Before the brass left, the President offered a suggestion: perhaps First Lady and former model Melania Trump should help design Space Force uniforms because of her impeccable fashion sense. The incident later served as the comedic tension at the heart of an episode of the eponymous and fictional Netflix series.

Nine days after that meeting, without warning the Pentagon, Trump took to Twitter to post his decision on the new seal, which he erroneously called a “logo.” It drew instant ridicule. Thousands of users pointed to the seal’s noticeable resemblance to Star Trek’s emblem for the fictional space organization Starfleet. Executives from Paramount Pictures later requested a conference call with the Pentagon to ensure their trademarks weren’t infringed, U.S. officials tell TIME. The U.S. military fired off a prewritten statement to tamp down the criticism, which said the main elements of the seal date back to the 1940s and serve to honor the Air Force’s “proud history and long-standing record of providing the best space capabilities in the world.”

The dustup underscores what may be the main challenge confronted by the Pentagon in the early phases of rolling out the new service: Space Force is still seen as a joke by many Americans. Raymond insists that any news is good news and that the mockery will only raise the profile of the mission. “We have a pop–culture intrigue that we need to capitalize on,” he says. Privately, military officials say, he’s even considered making a guest appearance on the Netflix series. “We’ve got some education to do for the average Americans on just how reliant their lives are on space capabilities,” Raymond says.

Spencer Lowell for TIMEThe 50th Space Wing operates military satellites, including the GPS network, at Schriever Air Force Base.

Behind the humor are serious concerns about war: the mix of vulnerable satellites and Russian and Chinese competition has even doves worried about where things are headed. The Trump Administration, and the majority of House Democrats who voted in December to create and fund Space Force, agree that to limit the danger of a 21st century war in space, the U.S. must deter nations by -expanding American military capabilities.

Russia and China say it is the U.S. that is militarizing space. Both have lashed out about the creation of the Space Force as a violation of the international consensus on the peaceful use of outer space, which they say undermines global strategic balance and stability. On the same day of the July 15 Russian space-launched weapons test, Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia’s space program, delivered a speech to counterparts in Brazil, India, China and South Africa via videoconference in which he called for “space free of weapons of any type, to keep it fit for long-term and sustainable use as it is today.”

Regardless of the seemingly contradictory Russian positions, some U.S. critics and arms–control analysts say the creation of Space Force makes conflict more likely. A new orbital arms race has turned space into a “war-fighting domain,” like air, land and sea, and will funnel billions of dollars to newfangled technology that increases the possibility of war, both up there and down here. A separate branch of the armed forces for space, these critics fear, risks militarizing U.S. space policy and promoting weapons in space. On June 17, the Pentagon unveiled a Defense Space Strategy that made clear the U.S. will counter Russian and Chinese space weapons, coordinate with allies and prepare for war in space.

Those looking for a less martial alternative point to Cold War treaties that reduced the chances of conflict with the USSR. Despite the advancements of space weapons, there are no enforceable rules for military action in space. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids countries from deploying “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in space. But that language is broad, arms–control analysts say, and could not foresee the rapid pace of technology now in development. “In the absence of any international agreements about protecting satellites and the outer-space environment, more countries are developing weapons that can destroy satellites in orbit,” says Laura Grego of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Spencer Lowell for TIMEInterior of a radome at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado.

A treaty for space brings its own challenges. There are ongoing U.S. military and diplomatic discussions about bringing more allies and partners together to ensure space remains safe, but the White House says it isn’t interested in forging new treaties on space-based weaponry. A U.S. State Department official tells TIME that defining a “space weapon” is difficult and verifying that it isn’t a weapon is an even harder problem. “It’s not like you can go up there and inspect it—a satellite is going to look like a satellite,” the official says. “For all of those reasons, we don’t support arms control” in space.

Treaty advocates say the problem will get harder as time passes. The U.N. recognizes 90 space-faring nations. In March 2019, India tested its antisatellite system, obliterating its own spacecraft. It proudly proclaimed that it had joined the “elite club of space powers.” Other nations such as Iran, North Korea and Pakistan have demonstrated space-weapon capabilities or a desire to expand them.

One way or another, hawks and doves agree that something must be done to shift the new space arms race off its current trajectory. It is a historical truth, after all, that wherever humans have ventured, violence has followed.

—With reporting by Julia Zorthian

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mostlysignssomeportents · 7 years

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Donald Trump sources $6M worth of campaign expenditures from companies he and his family own #1yrago

When billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and Steve Forbes get into politics, they firewall their own companies off from their campaigns, demonstrating a basic care about the appearance of conflict of interest -- not so Donald Trump, who rents himself office space, sells himself private jet time, and supplies water, booze, and country club ballrooms.

All in all, over $6,000,000 in campaign expenditures so far have been made to Trump companies, and more have been made with companies entangled with his immediate family (for example, he bought $4.7M worth of made-in-China "Make America Great" merch from Ace Specialties, a company owned by a board member of his son's "charitable foundation").

With the Trump campaign almost out of money, he's starting to beg his faithful for cash, which will doubtless funnel back into his own pockets. In addition, he's loaned his campaign $46M, which he is permitted to pay back with donor funds (though he claims he won't do this).

https://boingboing.net/2016/06/22/donald-trump-sources-6m-worth.html

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savetopnow · 7 years

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2018-03-27 02 BUSINESS now

BUSINESS

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narcisbolgor-blog · 7 years

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The 20-Year-Old Making Unholy Amounts of Cash on Meme Bibles

When Jason Wong moved to the U.S. from China a little over a decade ago, he learned English and adopted American culture largely, he says, through memes.

Eleven years later, Wong is in the midst of building an entire ecommerce empireplus a product innovation labbecause he helped write the Bible on it.

His business, called Dank Tank, sells meme-themed merch like fidget spinner-shaped bath bombs and meme-themed candles while simultaneously acting as a meme-consulting shop for large corporate clients and venture-backed startups.

Its most buzzed about product, the Holy Meme Bible, which is an activity book featuring the year's most notable memes, was something Wong launched on a whim last year after coming up with the idea over Thanksgiving dinner. He ordered mockups online while sitting at the dinner table, set up a store on Shopify, then proceeded to market the product via Tumblr where he had over 1.2M followers.

The cash began flowing in immediately. Wong was raking in thousands of dollars by the day. The Holy Meme Bible ended up making Wong $300,000 in just over a month and this November he launched its sequel: The Holy Meme Bible: The New Testament. The updated book features 70 pages of meme-themed activities like crosswords, guessing games, connect the dots, and more.

"People love meme products," Wong said. "They're already familiar with memes digitally, of course, but once they see something meme-related in real life it makes them want it more."

Wong is not the first person to sell products based on memes and online fads. This has basically been the backbone of Urban Outfitters merchandising strategy for years. Recently, big time social media influencers have begun to partner with manufacturers to sell viral internet-themed merch.

Just last year, The Fat Jew introduced his controversial White Girl Rose ecommerce store and app, which he promotes heavily on his social channels. Erin Yogasundram, a young fashion influencer on Instagram, made a name for herself because of her online store Shop Jeen, which sells clothing and accessories made for kids who grew up on the internet. Some current Shop Jeen products include a tee shirt emblazoned with text message bubbles, emoji-covered iPhone cases, and sweatshirts that read "internet mom", "internet dad," and "text me back."

But Wong says he doesn't want Dank Tank to be just another trashy online store built on fads.

"What I want to make is a destination for meme products, but sophisticated meme products, he said.

Wong believes there are plenty of meme products out there for so-called normies, or non-web obsessives, but "I think the market is still lacking" for the more advanced meme consumers.

"The whole idea for Dank Tank is to integrate memes into products that haven't traditionally had memes. We are trying to tap into products that aren't typically memeable. Tee shirts and things are not unique," she said.

In other words, anyone can get Netflix and Chill screen printed onto a pair of sweatpants, but it takes a lot more time and creative energy to produce the types of products Dank Tank hopes to launch, Wong argues.

Some products the company is currently exploring include a meme encyclopedia set that looks similar to an old-school Encyclopedia Britannica, giant meme pool floaties, a meme makeup palette, and a meme cookbook. For the cookbook, Dank Tank collaborated with notable chefs to produce a slew of meme-themed recipes. Some foods featured are the "Netflix and chili", a the "floor is lava" cake, a "Trump executive order"which is really just an orange chickenand the famous Fyre festival sandwich recipe.

Many of Wong's products allude to memes and internet jokes with a little more subtlety. There's a popular joke on the internet that packets of ramen seasoning look like condom packets. Dank Tank, oc course, introduced a line of Ramen condoms. Wong says he hopes to sell a lot of these around Valentine's day.

Currently, the business is made up of just two other full-time and seven contract employees. Wong runs the company out of his apartment in Irvine, Calif., but travels to China to meet with factories and production managers.

"Every day I wake up, go upstairs to check email, talk to my team, and take care of day to day business," he said. He says his day usually starts late because he often speaks to his suppliers in Asia via phone overnight. Not because hes 20.

"The price you get from suppliers for speaking Mandarin versus speaking English is radically different. Being able to speak Chinese gets you access to a whole different price list," which Wong, who speaks Mandarin himself, says has significantly helped him.

Dank Tank is on track to make $1 million in revenue by the end of the year and Wong hopes to expand the business beyond mainly ecommerce and consulting in years to come.

"The name Dank Tank came from the idea of a think tank. This will be the world's first meme-focused think tank," he said.

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marktuanlogy-blog · 8 years

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RECAP OF GOT7 FANMEET 1/29/2017

RECAP OF GOT7 FANMEET/CONCERT Sorry I'm still a bit hyped and excuse my language OMG HOW DO I EVEN START ON THIS SMH. GOT7 WAS SO FREAKING PERFECT UP ON STAGE ;-; WE CHEERED AND SCREAMED FOR EVERY THING THEY SAID CUS WHY NOT ... RETURN MY SOUL, LIFE, AND VOICE NOW .-. i recorded the entire 2hour thing with one arm smh give me my arm back too got7 First of all, we went to go get our merch (poster, jacket, shirt, and light stick) and got to our seats and all... and then we were just waiting for GOT7. Mark's family came exactly 16 minutes before the fanmeet started and we all went wild for a good 3 minutes. So I just went crazy on my Snapchat story and uh spammed it :O THEN it was 7pm and HARD CARRY started playing and we all were just screaming got7 got7 got7 got7 got7 GOT7 CAME OUT LIKE WTFWTFWT I WAS NOT READY i screamed so much with this girl next to me haha she's a jackson bias <3 IT GOT LIT AF. So they sang Let Me I SWEAR THEIR VOCALS ARE BETTER IN REAL LIFE OMG MY EARS GOT BLESSED MARKS RAPPING WAS SO FREAKING PURIFYING OHHHHHHHHHH YOUNGJAES VOCAL BLESSED MY LIFE LIKE WTF MAN They were sitting in the chairs from left to right: Jackson, Jinyoung, Mark, Jaebum, Youngjae, Bambam, and then Yugyeom. THEN THEY SANG Prove It I SWEAR JAEBUMMIES VOICE IS SO SEXYYY AND CHICCCCC X1000000 I LOVE BAMBAMS RAPS IN THIS SONG IDK WHY I JUST DO OK. AND MARKS OMG THOSE DEEP VOICES ARE JUST SE(ductive)XY AF. (NEW FAVORITE SONG IN TURBULENCE) hey all did self introductions (ALL IN ENGRISH YUS IM SO PROUD) and all seemed pretty shy at first OMG HOW COULD U BE SO CUTEEEEE Bambam (ATTEMPTED TO) get us lit but then it got awkward af. Like he told us to say Got7 everytime he says Ay and the third time he didnt even realize we said GOT7 and he just kept looking at us like SMH BOI SMH. idk their host was annoying af BUT I MEAN HE WAS THE ONE THAT ENCOURAGED THE SEXY DANCE FROM THE MEMBERS SO NO COMPLAINTS THERE. Q&A started .... Jackson's Question: What's your ideal type? Yugyeom: Sexy cutie IGOT7 (I swear I heard someone from the back saying ILL BE SEXY AND CUTIE FOR YOU YUGYEOM) it was super cute when the host was like raise your hand if your a sexy cutie IGOT7 :3 WE ALL RAISED OUR HANDS haha and yugyeom was like "so many heh *nervous laugh*" Bambam: a girl who is cute, but when you get to know her, she's sexy. I'd like a girl with a sexy side. BOI U NEED A GIRL TO DAB WITH U EVERY MORNING. Youngjae: ummm.. ummmm...... OKAY YOU *points to girl* *breaks everyone else's hearts in the crowd* "BECAUSE YOU ARE AN AHGASE" *HYPES UP CROWD MORE SCREAMING* -everyone else starts saying IGOT7/Ahgases- *Bambam trying to calm us down lmao no it didn't work because Youngjae basically just told us he loves us all* Jaebum: I don't really have an ideal type... (he was nervous af) Host: So you like all AHGASES? Jaebum: yeahhhh.... Host: YEAHHHHH... * I THINK I ACCIDENTALLY STOPPED RECORDING HERE OOPS * MARK: (MINDY IS MY IDEAL TYPE) YOU... I love all AHGASES (boi) Jinyoung: I love IGOT7s <3 Jackson: I love everyone, I love you, I love IGOT7 (love me jackson) Next question: Can the members do a sexy dance? Jackson: Yugyeom Yugyeom you first <3 Yugyeom does sexy dance to Prove It (inappropriate content pm me for those details :3) i will never think of that song the same way again. nope nope nope yugyeomie yah. Mark turns around like no i aint seeing this shit again (even though ur hyung man) Jackson looks down at Yugyeom doing his uh-sexy dance- and is very proud of his work. After Yugyeom was done with the sexy dance Jaebum reached out his hand and took it back and made Yugyeom fall again (savageee) but yes, he did help him up afterwards Yugyeoms face was like why am i even living rn Question: What inspires you in writing a song? Jaebum's: Experience and imagination (DEEP) Host: OH AND JAEBUM READS A LOT (JAEBUMBUMBUMBUM) and watches lots of movies... what kind of movies? -Jaebum's face: wtf is he saying...- Jaebum gets translation: La la land (what is that...) -sings a song from that movie SEXY AF VOICE- Question: What do you like the most of the MV music? Youngjae: i like the small parts and the really strong beat and you can bounce around to the music Question: You (meaning Bambam) and Yugyeom.. can you dance to (???some lit af american music which i clearly dont know of since i got into kpop but it was lit i mean yehhhhh...) music Bambam: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASYYYYYYYYYYY *Insert note: YUGYEOM IS SUCH A CUTE BABY OMG I WANNA ADOPT HIM* Question: If you were an American artist who would you be? Yugyeom: *asks crowd* Yugyeom: Kendrick Lamar? someone from crowd: DONALD TRUMP DONALD TRUMP Bambam: oh? what are u guys saying *laughs* Bambam getting ready for a dab like its his routine DABDAB dabs* crowd goes wild* DABDAB IS VERY PROUD OF SELF* MOMMA JINYOUNG SHAKES HEAD* bambam ur ded. BOOM BOOM BOOM (BOOMX3) PLAYS* G7 TURN UP <33333333333 *me singing to the song but rly i probably pronounced everything WRONG BUT NO REGRETS) HIP THRUST DURING BOOM BOOM BOOM PART YUGYEOM AND BAMBAM CALM DOWNNNNNN When bambam sang "turn all the lights on" MARK LOOKED AT HIM AND NODDED AND WINKED WTF YO I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW GOOD THEIR VOICES ARE IT JUST SOUNDS SO GOOD LIKE UGHHHHHHHHHHAAAHHHHHH PARK JINYOUNG IS LIKE A FREAKING PRINCE IN THAT BLACK JACKET WITH SILVER LINING AND RED UNDERSHIRT OMG HE IS A TRUE PRINCE HIS PERM IS JUST HUKUHKHUHKUH then... JUST RIGHT PLAYS CROWD GOES CRAYCRAY AGAIN *MINDY'S NONSTOP SHAKING YO* THIS ENTIRE SONG IS SO WARMING I LOVE THE WORLD NOW lol thats funny. YOUNGJAE SWITCHING UP THOSE VOCALS MADE US DRUNK AF BAMBAM IS BEING EXTRA AF LET ME TELL U WITH THOSE LONG LEGS HE LOOKED LIKE HE WAS READY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD (JACKSON). IN HIS RAPPING PART JACKSON WAS very inappropro lets make this less inappropro and just say he was like "SAY OHHHH YEAHHH.... SAY OHHHHH YEAHHHHHHH... SAY OHHHHHH YEAHHHHHH. SAY OHHHHHH YEAHHHHH." BAMBAM: "SAY OHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (voice cracks* smh boi) SAY OHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHH (voice cracks again*) SAY OHHHHHHH YEAHHHHH (now imagine this in a deep deep voice) SAY OHHHHH YEAHHHHH (this was even deeper) ++++++++++++++++++++++++ GAMES ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Game #1: Guess the Song Game #2: Hacky Sack (each member from GOT7 plays with someone from the audience) Everyone chooses who they partner with MINDY WAS 2 NUMBERS AWAY FROM MARKS NUMBER SMH MARK MARK MARK IF YOU ONLY ADDED 2 TO THAT LAST DIGIT I WOULDVE GONE UP .-. you wouldve hugged meh <3 (that's for lataaa) mindy's heart breaks NO BUT I FEEL HAPPY FOR THOSE IGOT7 WHO WENT UP STAGE MAN NONE CRIED??? I WOULDVE FLIPPED HELL (sorry sab's natural habitat) GOT7'S COMPETITIVENESS IS CRAZY EVERY ONE WAS SCREAMING AND DYING AND KILLING EACHOTHER TO GET THE RIGHT ANSWER OMG But overall, Youngjae won the first round after guessing the most amount of songs correct <3 He even went on his knees for "Beggin' on My Knees" *lowkey feels like Jinyoung, Yugyeom, and Mark were pretty ignored... almost never got called on...* Game #2 begins and the people who were chosen gets up stage :D Every IGOT7 does their self introduction Yugyeom's partner: Amy, favorite GOT7 song is Fly Bambam's partner: Molly, 24 years old *PAUSE HERE FOR A SEC* Bambam: ohhh.... NOONA *continue* Bambam's partner: favorite GOT7 song is If You Do Youngjae's partner: Arianna Youngjae: Arianna, ah, yea, WOAWWWW Youngjae: How old are you? Arianna: Who's that Youngjae: I asked how old are you. Who I am? I'm Youngjae HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH Youngjae: What's your favorite song? Arianna: Who's That Youngjae: You don't like Home Run? Jaebum's partner: C(K?)at Jaebum: Cat? Oh wow oh oh uhhhhh okay What's your favorite song? Cat: Just Tonight Mark's partner: (mindy ;-; jk) Serena, favorite song is Fly Jinyoung's partner: Vivian, favorite song is Mayday Jackson: Sussy, from China, favorite GOT7 song is IDK because she doesn't understand engrish. and her favorite member is Jinyoung (BETRAYALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL) Jackson: Can you be more confident? *HUGS* (i need a man like jackson ;-;) JACKSON SAYS HIS PARTNER IS PRO AND WEARS HER COAT SO SHE CAN KICK THE THINGY JACKSON YOOOO GIRL WANNA TRADE (wait but mark) Scores for the second game: Youngjae team: 5 Jaebum team: *Jaebum trying to be calm but almost trips smh* 3 Bambam team: *STARTS MAKING SHIPS OF HIM AND HIS PARTNER* "Holly, Bambam... Hollybam.... Bamlly. Bamlly you go first" 4 Jinyoung team: *JINYOUNG IS SUPER GOOD AT THIS* 15 (Jinyoung made like 12 im so proud of this mother) MARK TEAM: (mark im so proud) gets 16 ---- PRAISES THE KICKY THINGY hugs the girl up in the air .... mindy is reminded that her last digit was only 2 numbers away sad face XD Yugyeom team: *hits his partner and she fake dies lol* 8 Jackson team: "She's pro" *CONFIDENT HES GONNA WIN* *TAKES OFF HER JACKET AND HOLDS IT FOR HER* *AFTER HIS PARTNER IS DONE PUTS JACKET BACK ON HER* 5 WINNER IS TEAM MARKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK the girl gets marks jacket LUCKYYYYYYYYY WE GOT TO SEE THE "SECRET" BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE MAKING OF HARD CARRY'S MV THEY ARE SO SEXY IN THEM. THEY START PERFORMING FLY JB IS BACK TO HIS EXTRA SELF AND THIS TIME ALSO BRINGS IN YUGYEOM SMH. MARKS RAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP HOW CAN MY HEART TAKE THIS LOL NO I DIDNT I DIED. JINYOUNG'S VOICE IS SO SOFT WTF MANNN even mark screaming at the end was sexy af everything got7 does is sexy af SMIRK FACE INSERTED NEXT THEY PERFORMED IF YOU DO THEIR PERFORMANCES ARE SO GOOD I FEEL LIKE IM REPEATING SO MUCH BUT ITS RLY RLY AMAZING IM SO PROUD OF THEM GAWD GOT7 IS SO AMOOZHING GOT7 say their thank yous and YUGYEOM WIPES HIS SWEAT uughgghhghghg and its sexy af THEY SAID THEY WILL COME BACK JINYOUNG SAID THEY WILL COME BACK THIS YEAR. JINYOUNG SAYS KCON JINYOUNG SAYS SO. *MINDY STARTS SAVING NEW YEARS MONEY THEY START PERFORMING HARD CARRY HARD CARRY HEH WOH HARD CARRY HEH *no jackson did not lift up his shirt like i expected* Jaebum wraps HIMSELF IN A HOODIE AND IT LOOKS SO DARK BUT SO CUTEEEEEE THEN THEY PERFORMED HOME RUN ONE OF MY FAVS <3 JINYOUNG AND HIS SASS OMG JINYOUNGGGGGGGGG BAMBAM TAKES SOMEONES PHONE AND RECORDS HIMSELF BAMBAM KNOWS HOW TO KILL FANS. BEWARE OF THE BAMBAM.. SO DOES JINYOUNG. BEWARE OF BOTH JINYOUNG AND BAMBAM. THEY SAID THEIR GOODBYES AND LEFT </3 -------------------------------------- overall this fanmeeting was a very very very amazing experience and I got to see GOT7 in real life, not through the screen bUT IN REAL LIFE ive been crying since 11 smh i need help it's so surreal I can't even believe it's already over like. HUKKKK. Got7 is probably at Mark's house right now and Mark finally gets to reunite with his parents that he hasn't seen since summer. got7 is probably resting up for their next comeback

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