Things Change

When I started this blog all that time ago, my fandom for AKB48 was likely at its highest point. At that time, I had been a fan for about a year or so I believe, and really, I felt like that I would be a huge fan for as long as the group was around.

Oh, how things change.

I now find myself and a point where, to put it bluntly, I just don’t give a frak about AKB48 anymore. Why you ask? Well, its a myriad of reasons really.

First up is the fact that the groups management seem unwilling to change whatsoever. The PV for the most recent single, Namida Suprise, was released recently, and while I haven’t watched it (and have no plans to whatsoever), I have seen some screens of it and read what fans have had to say about it. Its the same as every other AKB PV over the last little while, in that it focuses pretty much entirely on Maeda Atsuko, and is just plain uninteresting overall. This is one reason why I can no longer stand being a fan of AKB48, and its this constant need to feather Maeda in frakking EVERYTHING. Seriously, if this is the way every future PV is going to be, than that shows a complete unwillingness to change or even have some frakking variety in their group. Whats the point of having around 48 girls if your only ever going to prominently feature 1 of them? Its bullshit, thats what it is. And its not fair to the fans of other members as well. Also, I will never understand whats so damn interesting about Maeda Atusko. She’s not the best singer, she has a negative stage presence (not one where she stands out because of her abilities, but where she stands out because she always looks so fake and uninterested on stage) and its just not fair that those with far more talent that she is always pushed to the front while they are pushed far into the back. But it comes back to the whole variety thing. AKB48 would be a whole lot more interesting if they just focused on more girls, or switched it up for every PV or something. I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is that until this changes, it doesn’t matter if they sell massive amounts of CD’s or whatever, I won’t be coming back.

This also brings me to my second point; AKB48’s merchandising. Just a little while before I became a fan, pretty much everything AKb had to offer was released as normally as it should have been. You could buy their singles and DVD’s on the internet or in stores in Japan, just as you would expect. After the release of the H1 DVD, things changed for the worst. Now, the only thing AKb related you can buy regularily are their singles. The DVD’s are now really only released at the theater itself. Thats just bad marketing if you ask me. Now, only those who actually go to the theater can buy the DVD’s. It’s Not fair to those of us not in Japan, or even those in Japan who may not be able to get to the theater on a regular basis. The other thing that irks me is the fact that it now seems we’ll never get proper audio CD releases of AKB’s stages. Awhile back, they released the CD’s for Team A and K’s first 3 stages, and thats all we’ve gotten so far. Between then and now, we’ve gotten A4 and A5, K4 and K5, and B3 and B4, along with H1 and H2. So where the frak are the audio CD’s for these stages? Hell if I know. All I do know is, I don’t think they are ever going to be released.

The final reason would be that I am simply not liking much of their music much anymore. I just find their music lacking a certain something nowadays. Its just all getting kind of bland. I think I realized this after the dissapointment that was K5.

And don’t get me started on SKE48 or any of the other groups they may form int he future. They are a waste of time, and are getting WAY to much attention. I also don’t care for SKE invading AKb singles. Its about time they get their own so we don’t have to see that annoying little Jurina Matsui freaking everywhere AKB48 is. Seriously, I can’t stand her.

So that pretty much sums it up. As far as I am concerned, AKB48 is dead to me. Unless they come out with something that is just utterly fantastic, or they ditch Team’s A and K and just use Team B for everything, then I am officially done with them.

This does not mean the end of this blog though. Not by a longshot. I recent;y rekindled my love for the various Hello Project groups, especially Morning Musume. Their recent stuff has absolutely blown me away, especially their latest album. I’d like to do a review of that, so look forward to that. And of course there will likely be some new Gundam model reviews (and maybe some non-gundam models as well). Heck, I also might do some posts about my other addiction/pastime; World of Warcraft. There’s always some good stories to be told playing that game.

So I’m back, and I’m taking this blog in a new direction…sort of.

J-Pop and K-Pop – A difference in Quality Control

This post is about something I’ve mulled about for some time know.

Now, everyone who visits here will know how much I love AKB48, and J-Pop in general, but most people don’t know that I have an equally strong like of K-Pop as well. That started about a little over a year ago, when I found out about the K-Pop group Girls Generation, which has now become quite the phenomenon. When I was getting into K-Pop was also around the time I was getting into AKB48, so I’ve liked both for an equal amount of time. Now, I love both J and K Pop just as equally, but I have begun to notice just how much more goes into making music in Korea.

Lets take a look into how groups are formed. AKB48, for instance has occasional auditions to find new Research Students, who will eventually have a chance at being put into one of the teams. Now, as far as I know, these auditions are open to anyone in Japan (as long as your a girl, obviously) and essentially if your chosen, you begin performing almost immediately, though obviously not on the same level as actual members. The RS’s backdance and do fill in for other members on occasion. Now, one thing I am unsure of is what training comes with being an RS, or even a full member, but as is apparent, you don’t have to have any formal training to audition. I expect they get some pretty lousy people audition, which brings to mind all those hilarious auditions you see every season in American Idol.

Now, what I’ve seen in the Korean music industry is quite different. Auditions are still present, but the training seems to be far more intense, almost to the point where it seems like a boot camp for the music industry. Lets take a look at SNSD (Girls Generation), before any of those girls actually debuted, they went through YEARS of training. Years. Some more so than others, but the one thing that is for sure is that these girls didn’t audition and then immediately start performing or pumping out singles and what not. For example, one of SNSD’s lead singers, Jessica, trained for over 7 years before debuting with the group. That’s devotion if you ask me. I don’t think any of the girls of AKB48 or Morning Musume can attest to that.

Now, of course, I still love AKB48, regardless of whether these girls had proper musical training. One thing that seems to seperate these 2 groups is simply why they were made in the first place. AKB48 is an idol group, and more of its focus is on the girls themselves, not actual talent. That’s not to say AKB48 doesn’t have its share of tremendous talent. It does for sure. It just seems to me that K-Pop groups seems to have a better focus on the musical talent of its performers.In SNSD’s case, not one of them are a bad singer in any way. They all have fantastic voices.

There are times when listening to AKB48 when I wonder how some members actually passed their audtions, and it becomes obvious image is the key factor here. All I am saying is why can’t the idol world of J-Pop be more like the Korean music industry, where image AND musical talent are both valued just as equally.

A quick update

Normally, I would have the summary/review for the latest Gundam 00 episode up by now, but my weekend has been somewhat busier than usual, so the post will be up late Monday, or early Tuesday at the latest.

Also, since the new opening aired with this weeks episode, I decided to dedicate a serparate post entirely for that. That should be up before the episode 14 post.

I’m not dead yet…

Ok, as many of you have been noticing, I haven’t been blogging as much lately. Don’t worry though, because this is not a sign of me preparing to stop blogging; I’ve just been a bit busy lately.

I will have posts on the recent episodes of Macross Frontier and Code GEASS both done hopefully by tomorrow. And also, for those interested, there will be no episode of Macross this week, due to some sports thing…or something, I forget the exact details.

Just a little heads up

Unfortunately, there will not be any blog posts on this weeks episodes of Macross Frontier or Code GEASS. I ended up being quite busy this week end, and I’ve got a busy week ahead of me, so I just don’t have the time unfortunately. Reviews will resume in time for next weeks episodes however, so don’t worry. If I can find the time, I may come back and do this weeks episodes, but I’ll have to wait and see before anything can become definite.

Ok scratch that, I managed to find some time today to watch the episodes, so I should be able to do some reviews by at least tomorrow.

Hey Everybody!

So this is the start of my blog. Here, I’ll primarily blog about my favourite Japanese pop group, AKB48 ( Akihabara 48 ) as well as any anime I’m watching at the time, which for now will be Code GEASS R2 and Macross Frontier.