Hello there Dear Readers,

First I wish to welcome another Reader of Yuri-Goggles Jennifer. Not only is she new here but it seems she just got into JPOP and Asian media. Jennifer had the chance to watch the First Love video and had a good few important questions that she wanted answers to so she asked for help. Sensing the good girl she is, (well those lovely words did do wonders for me. I love me some compliments too from time to time) I figured that I had to answer those questions for her. Besides, there may be other new members to the fandom that have similar questions so why not take care if that now.

To answer Jennifer’s questions, I am going to use my video – First Love to answer them for her, in that most of them were related to that video.

For a more depth take on JPOP or Asian POP really and other stuff not specifically related to the 48Family, there are good reviews out there for you. Just use the right keywords in your search engine of choice and you won’t go wrong. Asian Media has really grown in the last decade so there is lots of information about that sector all over the internet.

Here I am going to try and explain related things about JPOP, more specifically, the content of First Love.

Let’s begin with the biggest quandary…

What is this? What are these? Are they movies? What?

In other words, a little intro to Idols, PVs and the major groups is in order…

Okay, we all know what a Music Video is, in regards to the English TV and mostly in reference to Music Channels like MTV, KISS, etc…Right? Well, the source of First Love clips is essentially this but where JPOP is concerned, we call it a Promotional Video or PV for short. Unlike the Western world, in Asia these videos are still being used for their original purpose and that is to promote the new singles (songs) released by a particular artist or group of artists.

For example AKB48 might release a single with a couple of songs on it. The masses need to know that it is available and they an incentive to buy it. While ages ago we only used to go line-up for CDs after hearing a song on the radio, these days with the visual tech on the roll, why not steal people’s hearts with visual candy, like say, create a video for the primary song on the new single which shows a bunch of girls in lingerie feeding each other cake. Then sit back and enjoy the green paper produce!

The PVs work most where Asian entertainment is concerned because while the West is all about Fame and Fortune, and most music artists have singing skills that would make the Fallen Angel’s heart melt, JPOP is more about the audience than anything else.

Yes, they are still businesses and thus profit is a part of the equation but when it comes down to it, JPOP, which is actually mostly ruled by Idols, needs to please the fans who will then buy the product but not for the fan’s sakes but more for the support of the artists involved which puts the fans at the top of the power chain actually in the Idol world.

These PVs are actually the best way to feed the fans when they get to see their favorite girl appear before them and they will do anything for that to happen like buying lots of votes so that their girl will appear more in the next PV. You see, Idol are different from musicians, professional musicians, in that they don’t have to be talented to be successful. I find myself rolling eyes a lot when I read about how Idol singles suck and wonders as to why they sell as such because, hello! The Idol business is more than simply being talented.

Take a look at AKB48, if we were to actually rank the girls in order of talent, that senbatsu list would be all kinds of mad different. Let’s take Acchan for example. Maeda Atsuko, now graduated from AKB48, has been the center of attention since AKB48 was just a single baby. She came from simply being the management favorite (Being placed as Face since the very beginning) and turned into a real Ace voted for by the most fans. But was she this successful and loved by most because of her talents? Was she the best singer in AKB? Was she the best dance? Was she the most beautiful? Is she a great actress?

Hell No!

If I were to rank her in levels of ‘God Tier’, ‘Top Tier’, ‘Middle Tier’ and ‘Meh Tier’;

§ Voice – Middle Tier

§ Dance Skills – Top Tier

§ Beauty – Top Tier

§ Acting Skills – Meh at first (But with all the experience, surely she is in Middle now, surely)

§ FanBase – Ultra-Mega-Giga God Tier!

Such is the Idol Industry and so you might see why PV are important in the equation of things. Of course not the say that professional artists aren’t much loved. The likes of Hamasaki Ayumi, Utada Hikaru, Koda Kumi and many others sell millions of their releases, though arguably, they are usually in the album cat where there is lots of new songs from said artists. In contrast, the Idol albums rarely contain few songs as they are usually a containment of the previously released singles.

And so Idols are aimed at the fans first before they are the bank account. Which is where the terms of ‘Oshii’ ‘Kami-Oshii’ and all that come it.

Before we get to that, it is very rare finding the word Idol plastered on a single artist. Many Idol artists are in a group of more than 1 people, for, surely you need divergence in order to lure in a lot of fans, which are the resources to the growth of your Account Tree. And with this diversity, in comes fans who love some girls and not so much the others. Sometimes fans only one favorite member in the group (Oshii) and sometimes they have more than one but not all where they must have a favorite even among those they love. The one who comes first above everyone else, this is the Kami-Oshi. Then there is those that are on the best track in life who simply love everyone and here in comes another term ‘DD’. This is short for ‘Dare demo Daisuki’.

In case of yours truly;

I. Kami – Kashiwagi Yuki (Yukirin)

II. SKE48 Oshii – Matsui Rena (Rena)

III. NMB48 Oshii – Ogasawara Mayu (Maachun)

IV. HKT48 Oshii – Miyawaki Sakura (Sakura)

The Idol Industry is big business and is currently on the boom which is why everyone is dishing out Idols left and right. There are enough Idol groups with more girls than your dream harems combined than you can handle. But it is virtually impossible to follow all of them or better yet be a fan of all. Surely there are delusional fans that think they know all and love all idol groups but there is this thing about the Human psyche that sees to the impossibility of that. Surely you can convince yourself that you love all but your heart will say otherwise when your Oshii is involved let’s say in a competition with this other group that you said you liked, then your Oshii team starts losing then you will see.

I myself am taking things very slow because if you just jump into and love just anyone, you lose the basic feeling of being an idol fan and stop actually supporting them but rather, just simply following them. I like to get to know a group over time, connect with the members and feel that I am indeed being empowered by them and feel the confidence to support them back in return before I expand the horizon. This is proving to be hard because after 4 or something years, I have only managed to cover five Idol groups. If you must know these are;

· H!P (M!M, Berryz and °C-ute)

· Family48 (AKB, SKE and NMB…haven’t really gotten into HKT yet)

· Fairies フェアリーズ

· Tokyo Girls’ Style 東京女子流

· T-ara (KPOP)

That’s like not even 2% of what’s out there!

First Love contains clips from PV of singles by AKB48, SKE48, NMB48 and TGS (Tokyo Girls Style). These singles are;

· AKB48 (Love Jump)

· SKE48 (Kataomoi FINALLY!, Kiss date Hidarikiki)

· NMB48 (Virginity)

· TGS (Love Like Candy Floss, Tsuioku, Kirari)

These PV can be found on the internet as rips from the TV music channels in Japan or they come on DVDs too that accompany the Audio CD. There are a lot of Japanese International internet shops like; CD Japan, HMV Japan, Rakuten, YesAsia and many more. You can order all kinds of Asian things from these sites and they will be shipped internationally.

This answers the question of where to get and what the source of the clips are.

Now then, moving on…

As mentioned before, the Idol world is aimed firstly at the fans. Not only that but there is a thing about Idols, as the name suggests, that they are role models to other people, are very much looked upon for guidance by their fans, have the most obligation of making their fans happy or something on those lines. Please look out for more critically balanced articles for more on this. And so the fans enter a fan base expecting best of all the Idols to be flawless!

No one gives a tick if the image they see is made up as long as it isn’t proven wrong. This is seen by the way members of Family48 were fired right away when dirt was revealed about their private lives that destroyed the image of a ‘Pure Idol’. I mean how would anyone feel if they knew their Oshii, better yet Kami-Oshii, pleasures men in their spare time?! For crying out loud, many people don’t have relationships even without it being some kind of rule but these Idols have rules, they sign the damn rule form!

As such, I think it is a general rule now that Idols aren’t supposed to have relationships. But if this is the case, then surely a world as stagnant as that with no heart-games is destined to fail! So how do we go around this?

SHIPS!

“My Oshii can’t be seen with some Dude or even a spitting distance within said Dude. No one is worthy of her. Not even me.”

But!

“Well, since they are of the same status, she can play around with the other members and they can go and marry and have kids for all I care, if the other party member is a favorite of mine too.”

And so, you will see Mayuyu and Yukirin doing it like rabbits in heat every time they appear and only the cheering furks would be given! In fact we love them so much together that we give them a name too –

“How about combining their names to get a Ship name? MaYuki? Mayuki it is then!”

So while the members can’t have romantic adventures with men outside, and fans can’t have their way with the girls of their dreams, the solution is for the members to release the tension with the help of the other and the fans to get off on that (Well, we do, don’t we?).

Which brings me to the ships in First Love. In there we have;

 

SayaMilky (Yamamoto Sayaka x Watanabe Miyuki – NMB Team N)

I actually don’t ship these two (I am a Sayacchu-Sayaka x Maachun shipper) but it had to be done…

 

WMatsui AKA Double Matsui (Matsui Rena x Matsui Jurina – SKE48 Team S)

 

 MaYuki (Watanabe Mayu x Kashiwagi Yuki – AKB48 Team B…for now)

 

HitoMiyu (Arai Hitomi x Yamabe Miyu – TGS Centre and Leader res)

 

MeiYuri (Shyoji Mei x Nakae Yuri – TGS)

Okay, I am getting way off course here so I will stop it there.

So I am pretty sure I answered all Jennifer’s questions with this and hopefully similar questions for the future.

To recap,

The clips in that First Love MV are gotten from PVs for the groups’ individual singles which you can buy as are released on DVDs that accompany the CDs (You buy the CD but get a DVD as well. 2 for 1) and the online shops are listed farther back.

The WMatsui clips in particular, are from their 8^th and 10^th singles – ‘Kataomi FINALLY!’ and ‘Kiss Datte Hidarikiki’ respectively.

Those were your questions in addition to what the actually sources were, right?

I hope this answered you well enough and I once again welcome you to the fandom!

Have a great ride, I know you will!