You guys are crazy. Absolutely crazy. And not just the regular group of weirdos — who are the hundreds of people who swooped in over the last couple of weeks to vote for their favorite songs and artists? Amazing. I’m literally touched.
As we learned, Kamen Joshi was just too much for anybody to handle; once the Mask Girls themselves got involved and asked their legions of loyal fans to intervene, their victory was basically ensured. BiSH, who are rapidly approaching untouchable status in their home country, probably won the Western portion of the vote, but their management didn’t provide the same kind of support as others, and they fell.
In our make-up consolation round, The Spunky made an effort to get the fans out, and they were able to turn the tide against Screaming Sixties, who I think won the vote among site regulars but definitely got a nice boost from some of them, too — catchy is catchy, kids.
And to think that we got there when a single fan of a presumed finalist, Deathrabbits, took it upon himself (yes, he’s been ID’ed by now) to do a bit of auto-voting. Contrary to both the spirit and the rules of the Corenament as that was, it got the death pop bunnies eliminated, and they took Babymetal down with them. Of course, the Kitsune Warriors were already well on their way to losing to Kamen Joshi fair and square; the DQ was just a formality.
The Champs
I think most people know Kamen Joshi on the strength of their 2014/15 work, before the big roster overhaul but while they were starting to blow up. That music is nice, whether by the mothership or Alice Juban / Steamgirls / Armor Girls on their own (I personally love Armor Girls). But then they started to step up their game, and the horrorcore vibe is strong with these ones.
Truth be told, their victory was a slowly developing round-by-round shellacking of all that stood in their way; by the time they got to BiSH, only a herculean effort from the idolcore runners-up was going to stand a chance. “SOUL” proved to be popular on its own, and the way that their fans talked about them (in bulk!) in the comments during the final wrinkle of the final made a very compelling case for everybody to explore more of the Mask Girls’ music and think about a visit to the PARMS Theater.
The Runners-up
BiSH fought every inch of the way, literally; they were actually beaten by PassCode in the entry round and had to wild-card their way through some serious heavies to get to the semifinals, where they made a good match against Deathrabbits until the cheating started.
Oddly, BiSH was probably going to be the runner-up to whoever they matched against. The BiS family hasn’t seemed to have caught on in the West nearly as well as some others. It’s like people can respect them and yeah, I guess that’s a pretty good song, but they aren’t clamoring to buy their stuff. Which, given the remove from the BiS/H cultural context by dint of living not in Japan, probably has something to do with it.
The Honorable Mention
The Spunky were the Corenament’s breakouts. Not a small percentage of people commented that they’d never even heard of them until we started, and then they couldn’t get THAT DAMN SONG out of their heads. Folks, you wonder why I usually stay away from pop punk.
This isn’t to diminish The Spunky at all, or how their management and fans embraced the Corenament as a way to build exposure. If anything, they’re a lesson to others: People will pay attention to what you’re doing and selling if you give them something to pay attention to.
Anyway, it’s third place this year, but goodness knows what the future might hold.
The Disappointment
We all know deep down that a switch thrown to turn on the Babymetal corner of the Internet would have ended this competition in a heartbeat. The Reddit community alone thrives on destroying polls. So I didn’t make any effort to reach out to Reddit or Newswire, and even deliberately obscured what this was so one of the biggest bands in the world right now would have to stand on their own six feet while going toe to toe with a diverse range of idol groups.
Now, strategy and alliances and the like notwithstanding, the fact that Babymetal probably wasn’t going to get out of the semifinal can’t be looked at as anything other than a disappointment. Of course, they’ll be back next year, ready to tear this thing apart.
The Upstart
I guarantee that nobody gave Deathrabbits much of a chance at any point. Even a lot of their self-professed fans find the whole thing a little ridiculous. But that’s what made it interesting when they crushed Ladybaby in the DEATH POP DEATHMATCH, then fought tooth-and-nail, round-by-round, until they ran into a very game BiSH in the semifinals. They too may have won that match and then had a puncher’s chance in the final, but That Naughty Fan ruined it for everybody.
Deathrabbits have new music coming soon. The Deathrabbits Army may prove to be impossible to shake.
The MVP
It was looking like a pretty boring, predictable end to the Corenament until Twitter user @char_tee_saki noticed the game and, long story short, told Kamen Joshi’s leading members about it. Before anybody knew what was happening, there were enough custom tweets and retweets and mentions to fill a middle school science class. All of a sudden, at the urging of the Mask Girls themselves, we had ourselves a competition.
Why a fan? Because the site is about the music, but it’s ultimately all about us, what we like and share and tell each other about. @char_tee_saki did exactly what everybody should do and let their friends and followers know that cool things are happening, and here’s a place to learn about it.
Also earning votes: Phillter for translating some important stuff; my wife for going out of town and giving me free time to manage the last weekend.
Wait Til Next Year
I don’t think anybody expected the #13 seed to win it all, and that’s fine. What it means, though, is that Kamen Joshi’s going to have their hands full with fighting off contenders all year.
The odds-on favorite again has to be Babymetal. They’re going to spend the year playing massive shows, winning awards and making tons of money and fans.
But we’ve seen that PassCode is right on that cusp, too. BiSH is blowing up. The Codomomental sister groups, Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da and Yukueshirezutsurezure, both made big moves already this year and could add a very creepy, heroin-addicted kind of vibe to next year’s podium. The Spunky are developing a nice thing for themselves and fear no one. Screaming Sixties could well be about to release the idol version of London Calling. Groups we’re just getting to know, like petit pas!, could be incredibly tough outs. Groups that don’t even exist yet could be major spoilers.
Some of the rules for next year’s Corenament will be different, and some of the mistakes made this year will help me make better decisions about what to design and how to design it. If you’re curious, just ask.
But congratulations to the winners and near winners, shame unto those who try to cheat, and thank you to all for taking part!
vote again in this page?
no, never , bye
Okay, bye!
Hm, I wonder who the fan was?
My most likely candidate is a young man in (I believe) Colombia who went on a bit of a Twitter tirade.
OR ARE YOU ADMITTING TO SOMETHING, PETER?
OH MAN YOU GOT ME!
Seriously though, I didn’t even know they had fans there! haha
If all of this has taught me anything, it’s that the Deathrabbits Army is one of the most unique and diffuse groups of people, and idol managers should maybe start thinking about South America as a long-range opportunity.
But that poor guy, I feel a little bit badly in retrospect because his reaction wasn’t like “I can’t believe that SOB” but “no, I love them so much and now this and it’s not fair.” Sad.
Oh, I’m one of the main admins for DEATHRABBITS Fan Club, so I’m well aware of how many fans they have and where. I just didn’t realise they had a fan in Colombia.
Me and my Wife interviewed them on behalf of DRFC at their first ONEMAN last May, and let them know how many countries they had fans in, and the girls were shocked.
This is awesome. Like completely awesome. I’m not always buying what they’re selling, but I do root for the little bunnies to succeed, and I love when fans can connect.
Don’t be so shocked Peter, this whole genre is going global. Take a look at the comments on Ladybaby videos, most of it’s in Spanish or Portuguese.
Haha, as explained above I’m well aware of their reach, I just didn’t realise they had a fan there.
I’m an admin for DEATHRABBITS Fan Club, so I see all kinds of people, and I own LADYBABY Fan Club, so I’m well aware of their Spanish speaking fans. 😛
Weebs
Someone in japan would think that this is legit 😀 i can see those winners will put this on their website and social account, while this is only a joke made by some weebs
That’s a bit unfair don’t you think, saying that BM had to stand on their own feet while trying to hide the competition from all of their fans. I mean, if you do like BM you’re a lot more likely to hang out somewhere else besides here. It shouldn’t be a surprise this audience would vote for somewhere else over them. But now that you mentioned it, don’t worry, we’ll keep you in mind for next year :p
I’m fairly certain that not only is Babymetal the most popular group on here, they’re the runaway favorites. As owner, I have to abide by a strict personal policy of control lest it become Babyblog; this isn’t a fansite so much as it has an objective (see: About). Babymetal, though, as the majority favorite and the biggest among Western audiences, is the runaway #1 subject on here.
I have two reasons to avoid the Babymetal community, and they both have to do with that community’s responses.
1. I don’t try to hold “most fans” polls, but objective things that make people listen to other artists. Babymetal’s redditors have no such intent and have proven so on this very site. I can’t stop anybody from linking wherever they want to, but I do refrain. It also removes potential administrative favoritism from the mix.
2. There’s a rule against self-promotion that I choose to honor, but more important in that is how the community operates with a collective chip on its shoulder. I like my Reddit karma and don’t care to be downvoted by people who’ve been fans for a few weeks just because I ask if anybody’s seen a negative review or, my favorite, get harassed by people who correctly associate my two personas.
There’s also 3, I use this site to test out and/or use promotional strategies that I don’t always get space to do professionally, but that’s less important.
I can only speak for myself of course, but I completely agree with you on how irrational the reddit community can be regarding certain topics. I like the community but their devotion sometimes crosses the line into fanaticism. I also completely understand why you did it. The only thing I don’t agree with is calling it disappointing that BM didn’t get that far.
I have to confess I’m not an idol fan, I’m a music fan. I have listened to some of the other groups in this contest (I quite like Bellring Girls Heart actually), but it doesn’t quite resonate with me the way it might with an idol fan. As such I can imagine that, if you judge BM on those standards rather than the ones I would use, they fall short. In other words: their music is great, but as idols they might be kind of shit. So I’m not surprised this kind of community doesn’t like them as much as I do.
“There’s a rule against self-promotion that I choose to honor”
You mean groups who call in their fans to vote? Not in this case apparently.
So that was you asking for negative reviews. And, did you find any?
All of this, much appreciated.
I did finally find one less-positive review, and the writer and I had a good time going back and forth over why we were wrong. I’m doing this by phone, but check out the “I Get into Arguments” post. Appreciate the upvote, too.
Re: the community rules, I was speaking to the subreddit’s. I had gone around/toward it obliquely a few times in the past, but then put myself into the mods’ shoes and decided to stop. If folks want to share something on their own, as happens, that’s fine, but Spiffy’s got his hands full and doesn’t need extra drama for no reason.
But man, I do love when the idols themselves find out about this digital hole in the wall and show excitement. I probably could have done without the level of Kamen Joshi’s latest foray, but it was cool that they wanted to engage; Babymetal, alas, remains the truest holdout, but the last thing they need at this point is this little site.
So far, so good in the end. I made this to connect cool music with people open to it, and we’re growing. Most have favorites and sub-favorites, though our actual number of wota is small, I think. I’m like you; I like music first, and I got really excited about what’s happening in Japan right now because it’s so different. The handful of “I saw this here and bought their CD” messages make it worth it.
I didn’t even know about that no self promotion rule. I kinda sorta break it myself every once in a while even.
You’ve mentioned the reaction of young idols when they find out they have overseas fans before. I imagine that must be an absolutely awesome thing to witness. Have you’ve shared some stories about that anywhere on this blog?
I almost lost track of this! Yessir, this is the best example of idol-to-us direct communication, courtesy of our original Adopt-An-Idol group: https://www.homicidols.com/adoptanidol-update-they-reached-out/
A lot of the other good stuff happens/ed on Twitter. When Kamiya Erina is exhorting her army of followers to go to your website so they can support Kamen Joshi, that’s a neat feeling (albeit a hard one to deal with; there are many of them!).
P.S.: About the reddit karma thing, yeah that sucks too. I regularly upvote threads just because I don’t think people deserve to loose karma over it. Did the same thing with your thread in fact.
But FWIW, don’t bother waiting until next year; there’s a much more interesting game coming up in a few months.
Looking forward to it 😉
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