Best Of

The Team Homicidols Best of 2019

/ Homicidol Maniac

I hope you all got a good kick out of seeing the community’s Best of 2019 yesterday — now we get extremely heavy-handed and drop the absolute knowledge bombs that are the Team Homicidols picks, which is way more interesting than when I used to just rag on you all. As you have no doubt figured out, we are people of eclectic tastes, both relative to the community and to each other, so while there are a few things (Kai) that we all mostly agree on (Dots/RAY), we are among ourselves really all over the map. That hipster comment yesterday? Pertains!

Anyway, here are the staff picks for 2019, preserved for eternity. Continue reading →

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Your Homicidols Best of 2019

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Well, folks, you did it: After a nice fuckton of feedback and then three rolling rounds of voting, we got down to your collective community picks for the Best of 2019. There are loads of differences between the first time I did this and now, not the least of which being the level of sophistication and organization in the process, but it all comes back to the whole purpose of this site: To build a community that gives people who aren’t Japanese an easier way into the idol world and a quicker route to understanding — and supporting — these incredible performers. This year’s award winners really sum up that last part, too, I think, because while 2019 isn’t going to be remembered all that fondly by most folks, it was in fact full of great work, memorable people and big developments in this world we love in common.

Without further ado! Continue reading →

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Your Homicidols Best of 2019 Ballot #3

/ Homicidol Maniac

Thank you all who voted so far in the Best of 2019 — we have one final ballot to release. Folks are showing up left and right to support their favorites, very literally one of the most gratifying things I’ve seen all year. You all love your idols without a doubt, as it should be.

Ballot #1 is now closed, #2 closes at midnight or thereabouts, and this one will close after tomorrow. We saved some of the best hardware for last, so flex those voting muscles and call your friends and tell them to get in here! Continue reading →

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Your Homicidols Best of 2019 Ballot #2

/ Homicidol Maniac / 3 Comments

Dang, you guys are really cracking at these ballots! After just one day on Ballot #1, we’re already well on a pace to break the all-time participation record in the Best Of, and I don’t even have door prizes to give out this year! Same situation today as yesterday: Vote, do it honorably, and gnash your teeth over those who just barely didn’t make the cut as finalists.

#1 closes after today, and this one will close after tomorrow, which is also when #3 goes live for its two days in the sun. Who’s going to shock the world and take home hardware that nobody would have expected? Probably nobody because this is a popularity contest! Continue reading →

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Your Homicidols Best of 2019 Ballot #1

/ Homicidol Maniac

Here we go! Ballot #1 up and ready for action. The community votes are what make up the official Best Of, so take this entirely too seriously and get your friends involved. Rules? There are no rules! Actually just kidding: The prevailing “respect other people” vibe that goes into The Rules around here pertains, of course, and as a result ballot-stuffing will result in things being invalidated. We have our ways of knowing!  Continue reading →

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Your Homicidols Best of 2019 Voting Primer

/ Homicidol Maniac

Hell yeah, it’s everybody’s least favorite part of the year again! That’s right — it’s time for community voting in the Homicidols Best Of 2019! Or, more accurately, right now it’s not yet time to vote: It’s time for Maniac to ponderously explain the convoluted process by which you will vote, dampening both your enthusiasm and expectations! Continue reading →

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Homicidols Best Of 2019 Reader Submissions

/ Kerrie

Well, ya goofs, it’s that time of year again. Yes, of course, to lustily disagree with the very plainly marked-as-personal personal opinions of Team while eschewing participation in the very publicly advertised Fan Choice portion of the annual Homicidols Best Of, and also to tell us what the heck you think should be nominees.

This is Kerrie’s bag now, but she made the frightful mistake of asking me to write up this intro post, so … well, she has a design for this process and goodness knows that Team has been working with her on selecting our favorites in each category for a little while, but even for all of that there’s a better than negative chance that I’ll somehow screw this up, Kerrie will have to correct that while admonishing me publicly, and nobody’s favorite anything will actually win. Exciting? You bet. Continue reading →

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The 2018 Year in Review in Review

/ Homicidol Maniac

Whew! You guys, rather than belabor a ton of stuff, I think I can sum up 2018 as “whew.” It was exhausting!

I remember spending a good bit of 2017 wondering if the loudol ship had sailed, if chika was bending in other directions, if idol hadn’t been exhausted of creative possibilities, if a new trend would emerge and whether I should start to wind things down over here. After all, idols who were loud but also were not Babymetal had come to the West, and I personally met NECRONOMIDOL at the end of the year. What else was there to do, really, especially if the focus would narrow and the excitement would keep waning?

Then 2018 went and took a big ol’ poop on that defeatist attitude. Technically, it was 2017’s strong close that woke me up, but the ridiculous run of debuts didn’t really begin until 2018 turned, and running parallel to that plenty of hope — in the form of releases great and small — that the mainstays were still mainstaying, and that new faces were emerging into something closer to the mainstream. There were, of course, tragedies, from an idol being paralyzed in a freak accident to another girl taking her own life, not to mention the obligatory broad-brush hit pieces that fail to explore the nuances and diversity endemic to idol. That idol, chika or not, loud or sweet and even both, can churn along despite (arguably, even because of) the scrutiny says a lot about its cultural weight, for good and/or ill.

This year also brought us the biggest and busiest year yet in terms of idols venturing to our shores: Necroma of course, but also Yanakoto Sotto Mute, Hanako-san, 2&, Screaming Sixties, Maison book girl, Candye Syrup, SENANAN and TORIENA and Oyasumi Hologram and Kouteca3. It was pretty great.

Where do we go from here? That’s for another post, but if there was a message to be read into how the community selected its Best Of, and then how Team did, it should be one of optimism. The scene is strong and healthy and poised for great things. More idols are on the way for a visit. Things are in good shape.

And now the rest of In Review! Continue reading →

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The Team Homicidols Best of 2018

/ Kerrie

Aw, come on Maniac, you can’t possibly make me write my own Best-Of List when my opinions are about as relevant as Peter Andre’s bathwater? Oh, fine.

So, what would the best list look like if I took complete control over Best Of? Probably something like this:

/record scratch

Hold on! Kerrie, I love and value you, but there’s a whole lot of Team! Let’s see what kinds of wildness we can conjure up by seeing where everybody lands. For instance, what about Daemon?

It may be because life just seems more precious after surviving an interview with Hanako-san but, looking back, I’ve had a pretty stellar 2018.  I got to debrief Candye Syrup (version1.0) after their last live, talk to NECRONOMIDOL on their second conquest of the States, spend some joyous moments with a caffeine-fueled SENANAN, and converse with an incarnation of perfection in Yanakoto Sotto Mute.

I was also fortunate enough to see some stellar live shows including East Meets West Fest, a Yui-less BABYMETAL, the BiSH PiL tour, some 2018 favorites like Kaqriyo Terror Architect and Minna Kodomo-chan, and newcomers NaNoMoRaL and GUGU LuLu.

My favorite idol-live moment of the year though  BY FAR goes to Zero-chan pulling me into the pit at Burst Girl. I would believe it only happened in a dream if it hadn’t been caught on video.

NOW WHAT ABOUT SOME PICKS! Continue reading →

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Your Homicidols Best of 2018

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

Wrapping up the year’s best always comes with a strong exhalation. Relief. It’s a lot of work to get all of the gears moving, and I’m really just an administrator in the whole thing — poor Kerrie, for instance, even in prior years when she was “just” handling the art and stuff, really has the brunt of it fall on her. This year, she really took over, and Team got uniquely involved, and let’s crib a little bit from Kerrie’s own personal take on the year to explain:

In a vain attempt to keep everything in order and slightly less chaotic than previous years (although lets be honest, Best-Of season is always chaotic) I operated a special record for all Homicidols contributors and friends to add whatever happenings in alt-idol they pleased throughout the year, to make sure nothing got forgotten. Then at the end of the year, we got you, readers, to help us fill any missing gaps! Thankfully, most of your contributions were already in the shortlist, so there probably wasn’t too many hiccups. And what resulted was more varied nominations, a more efficiently managed Best Of list than ever, all with the exact same amount of reader salt over “But why isn’t ____ here!?”

Well done, you goofy weeb

But you don’t care about process — you’re here for winners. And I’m going to give them to you! Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing Team’s takes, which it may or may not surprise you both overlap and hilariously deviate from what you’re about to see, which are the official winners. This is a community effort, and these are the community results: Continue reading →

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