I was hoping that BiS’s announced announcement this morning was going to be an MV or update on the new single or whatever, but it’s not one of those at all:
【新メンバーオーディション開催決定!!】
BiSの新メンバーオーディションを開催します!!
応募資格等の詳細はHPをご確認ください!!締切：2017年9月30日https://t.co/bvkyBknOua pic.twitter.com/jwtuKEKSux
— BiS−新生アイドル研究会-オフィシャル (@BiSidol) September 19, 2017
Auditions.
You know that I played with the Peri Ubu situation for a minute, speculating that WACK might be using her health as a screen to change up some things; what I left completely alone except for a throwaway joke in the Weekender was Pour Lui’s suspension for failing at DiET OR DiE.
Why leave it alone? Because Pour Lui’s BiS career doesn’t end without fanfare (at least not without her complete consent).
So then why auditions? Because Ubu maybe. Because trolling maybe. Because Watanabe woke up one morning and decided that there wasn’t enough news churn around his company, or that there wasn’t enough reaction to the Pour Lui thing, or that the single needed more lead in the media, or whatever.
It’s Watanabe. He’s managed to make everybody hate-love him, and he knows it, and he knows that tongues will wag the second he implies that something will happen, or that there will be consequences, and so much of what comes out of the various stunts is nothing more than a cartoonish Faustian outcome that takes words particularly literally.
Dude plays the fans like a fiddle, and all we do is reward him for it. It’s diabolically brilliant.
I still lean towards kayfabe on all this stuff. We always compare idols to wrasslin’, but the “evil group manager” is also a classic music movie trope as well as an industry standard throughout music history. (Kim Fowley, Phil “Killa” Spector, heck, even AKB-Aki-P) I think Watanabe is a highly self-aware guy and I imagine him loving playing a public villian.
The upshot of this is some fans may support the girls almost to spite him. The other side of this though: Even if it’s contrived, it’s still a horrible example to girls out there who look up to idols of all kinds.
And lastly, has he completely overplayed this? Empire doesn’t seem to exciting many people terribly much (That could be just my perception, plus maybe it’ll pick up when there’s music to hear.) and I feel like the brand is wearing thin. Gang Parade still kicks my butt though.
My only concern is the age range (14-27) and I wonder if that is part of Watanabe’s plan to shock.
BiS doesn’t seem like a group than anyone under 18 at a minimum should belong to.
I agree about Empire although I think this has to do with the face reveal gimmick backfiring a bit, one to many times to well on that trick, and the fact that we have no music or performances from them. If the music is good all will be forgiven.
But.
I can’t help but compare the Empire roll out to that of Codomomental’s new group which has already released an example of their music and had a couple of live performances with another in about a week.
I can’t speak to anything but my own reaction to both, but I’m far more intrigued by and interested in Terror Architect and not just because the first item is a sketch about architects.