1936 replies to this topic

[ItsudemoAibon]

Well, I'm not sold on them. AKB started really pushing them as a marketing tool (interactions with fans vs. REAL talent development) and H!P followed suit because, well, it works AND makes money. Which means they're prostituting the girls and making them do things other than singing, dancing, modelling or entertaining. I understand the company needs to make money though.

[Greyface]

^
The mistaken assumption is that idols are, or are supposed to be, entertainers first and whatever-else second.

When idol was a term applied to singers, they were singers first.

But now that idol is a particular occupation... *shrug* The goal is specifically to touch fan's feelings, and the method varies.

Personally, what I want out of idols more than anything else is song and dance, but that doesn't mean that they're being exploited or mistreated by participating in what are, by now, the most standard of idol activities. Prostituting as a verb is pejorative and in this case incorrect.

Morning Musume earned their debut by doing face-to-face events, putting CDs in people's hands. That personal connection has never been unimportant to the Hello Project even if relative density as an activity and depth have varied.

[ItsudemoAibon]

After the initial PR stunt that created Momusu, the girls went years without such sorts of engagements, in fact, they cultivated the "idol" persona in which the girls were put on pedestals to be admired from afar.

Meanwhile, Miyabi is now following Uta, as well as Saki Yagi from Lovelies.

More pics, she's cut her hair.

Attached Files

•  Instagram_uta_0624_40454107_1068332443331225_6506557846975796629_n.jpg   510.73K   131 downloads
•  Instagram_uta_0624_40676522_226721344862490_3579829355082960607_n.jpg   523.05K   146 downloads
•  Instagram_uta_0624_40294350_274314066519936_5332833903201878739_n.jpg   1.57MB   129 downloads

[Muyim Pimoup]

^ her eyes, so beautiful,, 

[Greyface]

[...]in fact, they cultivated the "idol" persona in which the girls were put on pedestals to be admired from afar.

 johnson.jpg   17.64K   49 downloads
Yeah... I'm gonna have to take a pass on this line of reasoning.

Tsunku specifically names the group to be members of the family to make them feel close to home. There's no agency pushback to utterly embarrassing members. The production notes for choreography are to make the dances deliberately uncool, but easy to imitate...

[chisafan]

 

[...]in fact, they cultivated the "idol" persona in which the girls were put on pedestals to be admired from afar.

johnson.jpg
Yeah... I'm gonna have to take a pass on this line of reasoning.

Tsunku specifically names the group to be members of the family to make them feel close to home. There's no agency pushback to utterly embarrassing members. The production notes for choreography are to make the dances deliberately uncool, but easy to imitate...

 

 

Care to elaborate?

 

What do you mean about Tsunku's picks?

 

I agree somewhat about "embarrassing members" - Zukki probably should have been canned. But then a significant portion of the female-half of the fandom probably disagrees with me. Shoganai.

 

 

Utachan looks like Chiichan. Dem round eyes be watchin' you, weighing your soul.     

[ItsudemoAibon]

Let me remind everyone that when Utachan was on the scene hardly anyone noticed Ozeki, Manakan and Chii. All of whom have turned out to be awesome.

[Greyface]

Care to elaborate?
 
What do you mean about Tsunku's picks?

I'm not 100% sure I understood what you're asking about, but my sentence is pretty hard to read...
so, I was trying to say that Tsunku picked the name "Musume" (daughter) because he wanted the audience to feel the warmth and closeness of family towards the young ladies in the group. He wanted them to be all-of-Japan's daughter. (The Morning part was also about casual-closeness, but it's a little weirder, since it's derived from how cafes offer discounted light breakfast called "morning set" or "morning service") Does that fill in the details?
https://youtu.be/_Zk3wwU3GDQ?t=7m53s

[ItsudemoAibon]

Utachan is up to 20k followers on Instagram.

Attached Files

•  Screenshot_20180918-092400.png   787.65K   62 downloads

[ItsudemoAibon]

At 10:00am EST (New York), or in about four hours, Utachan will be live on Instagram!

[core2quad]

InstaLive

[ItsudemoAibon]

Wow! Thanks to whoever captured that! She started crying over the comments.....

[Kinjiru]

Watched the whole thing, there was a lot of nice info in there and she plans on doing this more often.

[Laharle]

Did she say if she had some kind of aim? Like acting,modeling or something? Or more like internet celeb?

[Kinjiru]

The question on what she wants to do in the future was asked, and before confirming anything she turned to her mom and was kind of asking for input. This to me seems like there was something she can not mention or she's not sure if it's good to mention. She turned back and slowly said "At the moment I'd like to work at a beauty salon/beautician". It felt to me, also because she has no intention to go to university and will soon grad from high school, that she might be considering becoming famous again (her mom does kind of seem like the 'producing her daughter' type). Later on she was asked if she had any intention to go back to the entertainment world and she said at the moment no, but it might be because she had already confirmed to say no with her mom at that point. Upon suggestions of becoming a Youtuber she seemed a bit interested but wouldn't do so because she doesn't have the fame for it and it kind of seems like she's being a tryhard. In general I get the feeling that she might be exploring her possibilities a bit and although her coming on stream would help her gather a following, she herself seemed very genuine and kind throughout it. I don't think she has any intention of 'using' the stream in that way (dunno what her mom wants tho, lol). She seems very nice.

Other things:

-Reason for quitting was stated as "Poor physical condition and school", which is bullshit as after reading the question she turned to her mom and she answered for her. It seems like they came up with a reason beforehand for when the question was asked and Uta forgot the reply/wanted to confirm it with her mom how she should answer. She seems to get along with her mom a lot, but it seems clear she can't provide full disclosure on things. It felt very fake and I doubt she'd share it if it was something in the trend of "Mom wanted more money".

-She is still in contact with Country Girls members and they send BD messages to each other still. Said that everyone is very kind for still staying in contact after she left. Talks with Ozeki occasionally. Says she's their biggest fan. Does not know YanaFuna's contact info.

-The day before she was lined by Miyabi if she wanted to hang out sometime. Also, Miyabi was watching the stream I think, since I read she tweeted something in relation to it.

-She works at a Family Mart as a part time job. She's gained 2kg since working there because she eats too much, lol.

-Her friends were watching the stream

-Not dating anyone at the moment (it is very likely she broke up with her BF because he deleted all his pics with her from his twitter/insta and she isn't following him. Also, she gave a non-answer to the question if she has an ex "Do I?")

-She did the gomen na sai ne~ pose

-Said she was going to sing next time

-Intends to do this more often. Also, she had no idea there was a 1 hour time limit on instalive which disappointed her greatly so she'll likely switch to a different platform. Maybe Showroom~? She'd draw pleeeenty of viewers and make money on top of that.

-Her voice did not change. Honestly, other than that she grew more confident in talking she seems similar to her old self. Also quite modest and polite. Just a very nice person, really.

-She confirmed something I suspected aaaaages ago ever since I saw her beat that mobile game easily compared to all the other members at Satoyama. She likes games Yaaay~

[Muyim Pimoup]

oh, wow, nice to hear she still in contact with her former peers,, i always like ChiiUta pair,,

and she doing gomen ne pose? 

[Juandalyn]

^^ Thank you for giving some translations/details! It's nice to see Uta doing well.

[Arche-JoIyO]

I'm so grateful for her instalive...

 

The illness part was really confusing: i took it as a lie at the beginning but it'd also mean she had some kind of illness she doesn't want to talk about, so she just mentioned it was a stamina issue. I wouldn't go trashing her mom though. They seemed close. Either way I never thought the whole "Utachan's mom is an evil witch who wanted all the money possible from her daughter" tale.

[core2quad]

Thanks for the transaltions, Kinjiru

I got excited when she talked about she is still keep in touch with CG members and CG members send her birthday messages and she did the gomen na sai ne pose more than once during the live
I remembered she answered a question saying Chii is Kawaii. I hope she will hang out with Chii or some other CG members in the future   

The sad thing is that her mother is still controlling her too much 

[davidguy3237]

I'll just say, Manakan was able to come back    

Then again, if it was contract issues the first time, I doubt things would be much different this time around

 

EDIT:

The reason she said for why she left seems kinda weird. If her reason for leaving was due to her health and schooling, surely Up-Front would have said so in their statement right?

For both Manakan and Maho, it was made pretty clear it was due to their health. But even before they left, H!P put them on hiatus to see if they could get better. 

The statement they left for Uta kinda beats around the bush and basically just says something along the lines of, they just couldn't reach an agreement with the family.