When you’ve become fully ingrained into idol fandom, there’s certain inveitable events that you learn to anticipate and mentally prepare for, such as when a twitter account belonging to a group you love posts an image containing a stark few blocks of text. Yeah, you know the type of post I mean…
This is idol, and this is the world we’ve put ourselves into, but it’s a little different when it’s a group that’s particularly dear to you. It’s more personal, more emotional, it’s something you feel inside your stomach. It’s understandable and okay. Continue reading →
Before dashing off this article too briskly, I took in the last evening to ponder yesterday’s announcement that the dot-chans have scheduled what will be their final live, do a little research to understand what I could, and also to reflect on where we go in a world without the beloved shoegaze idols we’ve come to know.
【ラストワンマン】 ・・・・・・・・・ 第9回ワンマンライブ 「Tokyo in Natural Machine」
I know that most all of you who follow the group are already aware of the impending closure, because I heard from a number of you about it, some in personal messages, and others from reading your reactions online. It speaks to the unique specialness of this group in the way many of you expressed your thoughts with a feeling of personal loss and perhaps a sense of disappointment. Oshi-loss, as Kerrie refers to it, is a very real emotional reaction when you’ve connected to an idol who’s graduating or a group that’s dissolving. And although these dot-chans have largely maintained a sort of aloof anonymity, they still touched a part of each of us fans. It’s also very notable to point out, as this article from Matt Bedford of Muso Japan demonstrates, that the group succeeded in gaining followers outside of idol circles.
I did reach out to Japanese fans, and I also read the group’s blog entry containing the chan’s statements. I can tell you that amongst the fans, the announcement was a surprise, and there is no obvious tangible reason for the dissolution that’s been given. I can also tell you that the dot girls of Tokyo are going to remain just as mysterious as they’ve been right up to the end. Everyone is very much remaining in character, and I not only appreciate that, but I love that that’s how they’re going out. The more I think about it, I’m less interested in finding out the “why”, and more interested in celebrating what we knew. In their blog statements, the members of the group seem to be upbeat and positive to travel into their futures. I get no sense of sadness.
The group’s primary manager/producer/visionary also kept the mythology going, explaining that the ethereal manifestations that took the shape of girls will inhabit those forms for only a limited amount of remaining time, and then the end of that time on Earth is here. The dot-chans were always meant to be impermanent, and so they move on to new planes of existence.
If you really want my non-mythology theory, I believe the dots are disbanding for the very best of reasons: Because they’ve largely achieved what they set out to do. Now they can go explore new things in their lives which may or may not include obsessive fans and metaphysical concepts. (There’s also the matter of this being a nearly no-profit industry, but I think that’s a given with most art-driven projects.) Some time ago, it was hinted that there was a new project underway that I thought was going to be a sister-group to the Dot-chans. That project is still happening. So far, almost nothing has been revealed about it except that it’s continuing the innovative high art concepts that Dots have broken ground with. I believe a torch is being passed, and it’ll be exciting to see what’s coming as this new project takes a tangible shape.
I want to tell you dear people reading this: Do not anticipate this event with despair, but rather look forward to the new things to come. Don’t miss the Dots with sadness, but remember them fondly with affection. This is the way of things, and like a passing satellite in the sky, it’s something you should cherish for simply having seen it.
The dot-chans will have their final live on March 24. They will also have additional activities building up to the last show. And since they still have unreleased recorded material and more songs, including another great tune written by Azusa Suga of For Tracy Hyde, (The video posted above!) I also suspect that they’ll have some more musical output to be consumed as well. I know the fans will support the group to the fullest and send them off in celebratory style, because they deserve it.
Now let’s thank Dots for what they gave us and wish them the very best.
To Fans in the States.🍭 Unfortunately, Ichigo had to quit Candye Syrup for her personal issues. But the remaining 4 of us are going to perform in Saboten this Summer. See you in 2 months!
This is a dumb post about mistress, you guys. It was originally going to be a review-cum-celebration of the second annual mistFES, and was in fact originally titled “How the Hell Does mistress Do It?” because I could never get my head around just how a (frankly) mid-tier idol project was able to get like half of everybody even remotely interesting to the same place/s at the same time/s, pay for all of that and make it an experience that people were into. Like, look at this lineup and tell me that you wouldn’t prefer that to TIF or @JAM:
Frick and frack, you guys. I’ve largely been spared the personal worst of disbandments so far, but along comes the demise of one of my favorite Osaka groups. PiGU, one of the neatest of rock idols (regardless of the flavor they embraced at any moment), are being brought to an end by POP iD:
The other night, while chatting with various friends whose names end in Y sounds (and also John) during the WACK auditions, out came this rather ominous tweet from ICE CREAM SUICIDE:
I wasn’t wild about this news, sharing it, posting it, whatever, but it does build on this earlier business about ANFORT, the company behind ICE CREAM SUICIDE and DEVIL GUN, neither of which has amounted to a hill of beans so far, and I’m chalking that up to This Is Not How It’s Done on the part of management.
Basically, the fate of each member in the post-Anna era (remember, she was lawyering up to get out of her contract) was/is going to have her fate decided separately (or has/will decide her fate, I can’t tell), and then the future of the project will come to pass. Continue reading →
Pretty much as soon as you start to follow idols, you start to make friends with other people who follow idols. I think of you guys as friends, for instance! I’ve also been fortunate to connect with the man behind Pure Idol Heart, and he’s kind enough to throw new songs and videos and idols my way. The trouble is, I do get busy with things besides Homicidols.com, and I’m sometimes not able to follow up all that quickly, and sometimes things get lost in the wash.
For instance, this news from yesterday about Phantom Voice that I skipped right over twice:
