Confession: When YouTube was all, hey guy, there’s this SPARK SPEAKER thing, my first and overwhelming thought was, I wonder how much heavier they can take this. Instead, it’s more like Classic SPARK SPEAKER!
Of course, there’s no way to actually purchase the thing yet, but keep paying attention to SPARK SPEAKER and you’ll find out.
No lede necessary: Let’s drop the pretense and just get right down to it. Toricago, one of the definitive debuts of this glorious 2018, dropped a couple of clips from their live DVD that won’t be out until December but who cares, these are here now:
You haven’t seen me reference her all that much in a good long while, but long-time (or at least astute) readers may know that I hold solo super-chika Osaka-based idol Ophelia 20mg in a special place in my heart. I love the way she grinds away in the scene, making what I presume is a nice backup living, and clearly having a great time at it. She’s also a really snappy dresser who can get away with wearing whatever she wants because, like, there’s nobody else in a group of one to coordinate outfits with.
All of that being said, ever since her nice run of MVs to celebrate her album release last year, it’s been quiet in the ongoing unrequited relationship between Ophetan and Homicidols.com. I do check in sometimes (she’s my solo super-chika Osaka idol oshi, after all), though not as often as I used to. Sad.
But here’s what’s really sad! I felt like Sunday evening was going to be a good time to see what she was up to, and to the Twitter machine I went, and there I looked … only to discover that my girl had released a new song! With an MV! And apparently a DVD! A while ago! Like, this was released back in April: Continue reading
This started off as a Weekender joint, but I had one of those moments where you realize that you’ve been forgetting about idols that you really like simply because there’s too much dang idol and other stuff, and they’ve been a little off to the side of the radar, and whose fault is that but your own? Exactly.
Under Beasty, The Super-Indie Idols Who Could, one of those groups that I’ve pretty much always and pretty much always will champion if for no greater reason than their ability to prove that even the totally self-produced can make this wild game work, have had a pretty good ride of things over the years. They’re not even super-indie anymore, having hooked up with actual management along the way and gotten a strong enough budget to release stuff like this and put on decently sized one-mans.
So consider this a celebration of them, in a way, because this right here is what I wanted to Weekender:
アンダービースティー四周年公演ありがとうございました！！ https://t.co/CSvFDbZ6OB
— 公式⭐︎アンダービースティー (@underbeasty) May 22, 2018
5/22 アンダービースティー４周年記念単独公演 in 渋谷WOMB
平日にもかかわらず300人を超える方にお越し頂き、素敵な景色を本当にありがとうございました！
メンバー、スタッフ共に楽曲やLIVEにこだわりをもって５年目も頑張っていくので、応援よろしくお願い致します！！#アンビス４周年 pic.twitter.com/BEhg8ueTiL— 公式⭐︎アンダービースティー (@underbeasty) May 22, 2018
But there’s more going on, and they deserve a fuller post. Continue reading
Ah, REGiNA KiSS, the idols that I can never get anybody to pay attention to half as much as they deserve to be paid attention to. I don’t get it! Of those who have looked, the reviews are almost always positive. “Yes, Maniac, you are right, they are good” is the stock reply, in fact. Granted, I hear that all the time because my taste is impeccable, but let’s not digress!
REGiNA KiSS, originally a more full-on, explicitly idol project, made the move a little while back to be one of those idol+band hybrids. That could have gone any of a number of ways, honestly; it’s like how throwing a pass in football has three potential outcomes, and only one of them is good. I think it’s safe to say that it worked out in this case:
I’ve already given away to whom I’m referring here, but let me just say that some casual what-are-they-doing Twitter cruising a little while back turned out a result that for one sweet second made me think that Hauptharmonie still lived, and that I might know true joy again.
Alas! It was Candy GO!GO! and the short-version PV for their new single!
I mean, it’s called “HONEY TRAP” ffs
This is their umpteenth single, releasing the day before this live DVD celebrating the group’s seventh(!) anniversary:
ＧＩＧＳ～７ｔｈ ＡＮＮＩＶＥＲＳＡＲＹ－ＢＯＲＤＥＲＬＥＳＳ－
ＣＡＮＤＹ ＧＯ！ＧＯ！https://t.co/90pS4qbmp4— CANDY GO!GO！公式 (@candygo2010) April 4, 2018
I’ll just go ahead and admit that I didn’t see this one coming:
REGiNAKiSS Youtubeチャンネル
登録してねっ(^ω^*)https://t.co/N1wGaBNbaA— REGiNA KiSS（レジーナキス） (@REGiNAKiSS3) January 22, 2018
Huh. Well, okay, super-underappreciated former-idol-trio-turned-duo REGiNA KiSS, whose inability to garner even very many page views briefly made them my favorite idol thing to write about, are … well, they’re a band! Like, not Idols in Front of a Band, but, hell, are they even really idols anymore? Between the gravure and stuff, one might think so, but there are few guarantees in the underground anymore. They sometimes appear as the whole unit thing, or sometimes isn’t just the idols, but. Continue reading
One of the most intense reactions I ever feel to somebody else’s creative work is that of unrequited blown-away. Like, you know when you see that so-and-so did such-and-such, and your entire body loads your anticipated mind-blowingedness like a spring … and then it’s just fine? Or worse? I hate that feeling.
And, frankly, it happens a lot in idol. A performance medium in which so much of the performance that matters happens away from the most-held-up product, and that product’s deepest charms often relying on how imperfect it is, is going to tend to never quite reach the tippy-tops of emotional catharsis for all but the most devoted fans of each particular project. Lives are a particularly challenging environment for this, as so much can go wrong — the crowd is off, a singer can’t find her key, the acoustics are terrible, everybody had the fish for dinner — and a live band only adds more variables to what can be a volatile environment. Continue reading
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
Hey, who else wants to get all of the cool idol DVDs, but balks because … well, unless your Japanese is at a pretty solid level, you’re going to be relying (at best!) on the vocabulary you do know and sweet, sweet context. That’s no way to live!
Our old pal boans agrees. You might remember boans as a Know Your BiStory contributor; he’s also ringleader of a band of merry translators and subtitlers who are all only too happy to hook up the English-speaking world with translations of prominent-and-actually-interesting idol films and the like. We’ve actually rounded up luchre for boans projects before! And now it’s time to do it again.
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