Let’s Crowdfund Like Hell for FRUITPOCHETTE!

If you Weekender, you know that I keep up with Azuma Shiori fairly often (even if I don’t really understand it), ex and current and nominal leader of metal-as-hell Ehime-based duo FRUITPOCHETTE; what I’d be doing instead in a just world is dedicating that energy to the actual project that she co-fronts, except that FRUITPOCHETTE, despite coming back to life and filling me with glee about it, has been pretty quiet since the re-launch, and I thought that they were probably taking the whole “this is part-time” thing extra seriously — maybe you could catch them playing the old hits on a weekend, or at a festival or something.

And maybe that was true until a couple of days ago, when — bam! — out comes the crowdfunding effort that you and I and everybody we know absolutely must get behind:

Basically, in honor of their first anniversary since reunification, the idea is to fund a new single, an MV for that single, and a nationwide release tour. It opens on Sunday. Let’s give them all of the money! Continue reading

Kodomochan’s Crowdfunding Success Means We all Win

With a strong closing week to their Campfire campaign, 2018 Corenament defending champion Minna no Kodomochan hit 100% of their all-or-nothing fundraising goal with just two-and-a-half days to go.  This means that Everyone’s Children will now bless us all with a new song for each of the next five months and follow that up with a 15-date, Japan-wide tour. 

They immediately celebrated their campaign’s success by releasing a dance MV for “Shoujo A”.

Is this donation tax deductible?

Continue reading

Kodomo-chan Goes Crowdfunding Again

So I got a little irrationally excited when 2018 Corenament winners Minna No Kodomo-chan announced that they would be launching a new and “very important” crowdfunding project. I mean, the product of Kodomo-chan’s last crowdfunding campaign was their Album of the Year-nominated World Without Walls and a promise to fly to one fan’s house anywhere in the world to perform a live, personal concert.

While we await the announcement of whether or not our living rooms will be blessed by the presence of Honoka, Cinnamon and their hyper math-punk and doom metal drops, the objectives of their second crowdfunding campaign have now been announced.

This time, if they meet their goal, Everyone’s Children will release one new song per month for five months starting in April 2018. Then, after the release of the fifth song in August, they will embark on a nation-wide tour (“Japan” being the nation; since Oyasumi Hologram crowdfunded their U.S. tour, I guess we need to be specific). Continue reading

Sweet Holy Crap, Oyasumi Hologram Is Going for It

Well my Sunday just got a lot more interesting!

What follows below is the MV and initial draft reaction to Oyasumi Hologram’s release of their “ghost rider” MV the other day, which I was very enthusiastically going on about and, well, you’ll see the punchline at the end. I called the post “Everything That Oyasumi Hologram Does Is Perfect, Isn’t It?” Nonetheless:

I sure am glad that I woke up late! Continue reading

Let’s Crowdfund BURST GIRL!

I love a good idol crowdfunding campaign! And who better than hyper-indie darlings Guso Drop BURST GIRL?

“Yes, fine, but what does it all mean?” Continue reading

HAMIDASYSTEM Are Truly Multimedia Now

This is one of my very favorite things in a while, you guys, and I’m not just being hyperbolic for the sake of it. Before I became the excellent, handsome Maniac that I am today, I got one of those fancy writing degrees and, if not for some twists of fate, might be doing significantly more creative work than writing about Japanese people on the Internet. Well, Homicidols.com is what you get!

The point is that I love creative storytelling, and I love multimedia, and I love projects that are way too good to be true and nonetheless are. Working in reverse order, that’s HAMIDASYSTEM, all of their audio and video to date, and … this thing that I started randomly following a few days ago and then bore fruit yesterday:

The very first thing that you need to do, if you aren’t already familiar with HAMIDASYSTEM and their wow-that’s-amazing-but-Maniac-why-on-this-site-shut-up-that’s-what-I-use-Sundays-for-but-it’s-actually-Tuesday-I-said-shut-up body of work, is to go get acquainted with it. This is HTML; it is timeless. Now are you ready? Great.

Next step, or the first step if you’re already one of the intelligent people on the HAMIDASYSTEM bandwagon, is to go look at this incredible thing. You see, HAMIDASYSTEM has decided to go beyond the simplistic temporal existence that is doing idol stuff on stages, and to step into the world of fiction. Or, more specifically, blending fiction and non- to tell an all-encompassing story:

Four people, Mitsui, Yoshida, Hasegawa, and Koyama who go to high school in Tokyo, are living with their daily lives while not being able to enter the circle of people. On the evening of the Cultural Festival, for four people gathered in the live performance of “a certain idol group” from hype.
Machine translation because I’m being lazy

The first episode is ready for you! Four others will follow, a month apart each, interspersed with live performances at “sacred” venues, all culminating in … well, we don’t know yet. Whatever it is (for instance, possibly something to do with September’s one-man), they’re actively crowdfunding for it, and you should chip in a few ducats as a show of support for what might be the most creatively ambitious thing I’ve seen in idol, period.

In the meantime, while you digest everything that’s coming out of there, take in yet another spellbinding track (no doubt part of the project) from the best idols named after random food and drink:


Thank you as always, @Eyex1st!

Let’s Help Bakuon Dolls Syndrome 0 Make an Album

What the heck was I even doing yesterday when I took a swing past Bakuon Dolls Syndrome’s Twitter? I mean it — I can’t remember why I was looking. But, as luck would have it, I stumbled right into the middle of some big ol’ changes. For one, now they’re Bakuon Dolls Syndrome 0; for another, they want your help with crowdfunding a self-produced record:


That’s the live version, natch

Continue reading

The Most Terrifying Idol to Ever Live Did Not Stay Dead for Long

In which Kerrie takes advantage of Maniac’s longstanding blood fear of the Idol Most Likely to Be Bit By Dogs and Then Bite Back

Don’t worry, I can fix this!

Continue reading

Let’s Crowdfund Some Stuff

Did you know that Bitcoin, which is not actually money but nonetheless something that people have invested in, and which has skyrocketed in value faster than a Dutch tulip over the past couple of months (in particular), is currently continuing to skyrocket in value because it’s open to futures trading for the first time, and capitalism loves wild speculation even more than I do?

I bring this up not because I’m encouraging anybody to put money into cryptocurrencies (I am not!), but because you could use the money that you aren’t throwing into the void to fund some worthwhile idol-associated projects that will leave us, the fans, as the greatest beneficiaries after all.

First up! I mentioned the boans project a couple of weeks ago, and it still needs some cash:

I WANT THOSE SUBS, PEOPLE! Continue reading

It’s a Beautiful World When Yurimaru’s Making Stuff

Here’s a nice way to kick off Friday — Yurimaru, only like the bubbliest little solo rock idol when she feels like it and also does lots of other stuff, has a DVD coming out at the end of the month.

The trailer:


Good catch, Jordan!

Continue reading