So last week I received a message from a Japanese friend of mine, known on Twitter as “☜ЯЯ۩RR☞”. He’s a very cool and friendly guy I met at an Avandoned/Hijokadian show a little more than a year ago. Aside from idols, we’ve got a mutual love of shoegaze, post-rock and experimental music. ЯЯ naturally happens to be a big fan of the mysterious enigma that is “. . . . . . . . .” as well, and he enthusiastically offered to help me put together more pieces to the Dots puzzle. Over the course of an afternoon, he filled me in on a motherlode of intensive and valuable information, and now I’m going to pay his kindness forward and pass this mind-bending knowledge on to you. And be warned, it gets pretty esoteric.

So let’s talk Dots…

First things first, there are currently six Dots. In the beginning they were nine, but four withdrew. Recently, a new, sixth ” . “ has joined them.

Each individual Dot’s official name is indeed ” . “, all six of them. You may also call an individual Dot “. chan”. For the sake of making them more individually relatable to mortal people, they are also given rotating nicknames. More on that later.

Another important concept ЯЯ shared with me: It’s a common human fallacy to think to yourself “I can’t see . chan’s true face because she wears sunglasses.” But I learned that this is not a correct perception. The truth is that the sunglasses make it possible for us to be able to observe the manifestation of “. chan”. In other words, the glasses they wear allow them to appear in human form as idols. My friend explained it with the following bit of cryptic lore:

・. human (a state called an idol wearing sunglasses) → symbols / shapes → characters / words → vibration → thing (Odor · taste · inorganic matter · clothing · vehicle etc.) → gas / liquid → two dimensions → (fictional) character → light, sound, voice → human.

All of these morphological changes are merely various shapes of ・, and there is no superiority or inferiority. It is not that idol changes into various shapes, but ・ is observed as various shapes, phenomena and that one form is idol. In Dots’ expression, smell, taste, vibration, updating Twitter and video, etc. are as important as the show.

It took me a while to wrap my head around that. I mentioned above that four early members withdrew. Technically speaking, in keeping with the group’s mythology, Dots do not “withdraw”. Those Dots are simply no longer taking up human idol form. Is your mind blown yet?

I alluded earlier that the Dots all have nicknames to make it easier for us to connect with them. But since nothing with Dots is easy, the nicknames are rotated out every so often and replaced with new ones. (Maniac mentioned this in a previous article.)

As of this writing, the naming conventions have gone through the following cycles: Animals, Vegetables, Drinks, Flowers, and most recently, four-character idioms.

Now finally, let’s meet some Dots!

(The numbers I used are just assigned for clarity, they are not officially numbered.)

FIRST DOT

Bear → Cherry Tomato → Pocari Sweat (A Japanese sports drink.) → Houttuynia cordata → 永永無窮 (ei ei mukyuu) means “It continues forever forever without end”

 

SECOND DOT

Unicorn → Eggplant → Calpis (Japanese milk-based soft drink, “Calpico” in US) → Tulip → 唯一無二 (yui itsu mu ni) means “One and only”

 

THIRD DOT

Rabbit → Carrot → Milk Tea → Gerbera → 万里一空 means “Keep trying hard without losing sight of purpose and goal and what to do”

 

FOURTH DOT

Wooper Looper (Axoloti) → Enoki (Enokitake) → Water → Water Lily → 極楽浄土 (goku raku jou do) means “Paradise”

 

 

FIFTH DOT

This Dot joined later, so she does not have the full range of nicknames. Margaret → 千射万箭 (sen sya ban sen) means “Do not lazy every thing”

 

 

SIXTH DOT

Frog → Cabbage → Melon Soda → Dandelion → 五里霧中 (go ri mu chuu) means “Be in a fog”

 

 
…and there’s your Dots! 

Perhaps some of you are thinking, “Yeah, but this is a bunch of strange fictional stuff. Who are these girls really? Are we ever going to know?” ЯЯ let me in on a little insight to this as well. It does indeed turn out that Dots management may one day reveal the actual members to the world when they believe the time has come. There is a longer term plan in motion for this group and they are certainly not a quirky novelty act for the hipster wota set. In fact, there are clues out there right now, and it’s believed that the management is encouraging fans who do their homework to learn more about the actual girls.

I’m going to tell one more thing. Two of the girls have activities outside the group that are not hidden, and if you pay attention, you may figure it out. A few fans already have. After some deliberation, I’ve decided to not be a spoiler and reveal them myself. I will give you a hint: If you look at certain recent idol events very carefully, you may be able to ID them.

[Maniac: If there were Dots in the WACK auditions, I swear to bob …]

My friend ЯЯ also filled me in on a sizable amount of producer and collaborator information, so perhaps I’ll dig into that at another time. It appears that the experimental nature of Dots is attracting a lot of interesting talent to work with the group. With this continued trend, I believe that Dots may indeed achieve a wider success than what we may have originally considered possible. This upcoming release by the group is going to be a game changer, so watch out for it. I’ve already ordered my copy, and I can’t wait to hear it and share my thoughts! Please share yours!

And big big, cosmic thanks to my friend “ЯЯ “! Japanese music fans rule. He posts a lot of cool music on his Twitter, so check it out sometime!