Comments by "redfish337" (@redfish337) on "Japan’s Schoolgirl Pin-Ups| Unreported World" video.

  1. They probably sat her down for a 10-30 minute interview and everything is cut besides the couple of soundbites they wanted for their story.
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  2. As is the audience of basically all Japanese female idols, regardless of age of the performers or concept. Especially in the underground. That includes 30+ year old idols and screamo idols. So it actually doesn't tell you anything.
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  3.  @weneedmoreconsideratepeopl4006  There are almost certainly predators. That's nothing new for anyone in the limelight. It's still a fallacy though. The people who ATTEND underground idols festivals are predominantly men. As a general genre. There are lots of reasons for that, including the fact that any girls who like idols... can, without any experience, just go join a group. It can be 20-35 year old idols with stage diving and middle fingers and heavy metal, or cutesy stuff- doesn't matter, audience is men. The only underground idol groups that seem to pull a female audience are ones that form based around youtubers or models... or I suppose those that dress as men. So that's why you shouldn't be quick to judge. But I looked up this particular show. It was a 9 hour festival with 11 different groups on the ticket, including a 2 hour singing highlight of 21 of them doing solo songs. This is the problem with judging the audience- most people in the audience are not there to see just her... they might not even know her at all. However, this show was actually angled toward younger idols, so this stands out as the only one of these hit job pieces that actually picks a good show to show their point. Nevertheless, the main event, right after this girl, was a 17 year old which is young but is no different than Western or Korean standards for pop stars.
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  4. Idols don't always list it. But Yune is still a model. In any case, the fact that blood type is listed should be a big reminder to you that your cultural dispositions on all these stats are NOT the same. A, B, AB, O probably means nothing to you. It's basically zodiac mumbo jumbo for them, but with only four available, they're all familiar with the personality types that are stereotypically associated with each. So it's kind of reminiscent of the "four temperaments" so the blood type is sort of like spamming sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic on everyone's bio... or perhaps like a sorting hat house of Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. They don't take it suppper seriously... but they take it surprisingly seriously. But it was probably just a letter you glanced over to look at the three size.
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  5.  @weneedmoreconsideratepeopl4006  Your reasoning is the fallacy. "Else there would be female and same-aged fans there too" That doesn't prove anything. It's a male dominated genre, and it gets ever more male the more niche you go. A few specialist groups soak up most of the few female fans past the mainstream. There are a lot of things in play that cause this. Fans of 28 year old rock idols are also basically all male. Fans of darkwave idols are basically all male. The fans of niche idols are almost all male. Female fans basically go as far as they have critical mass. If a group or performer is too indie to have a critical mass of female fans to make friends with at shows they flake off quickly. Groups tend to cover up their scandals as much as possible. But some groups who used to allow girls some leeway have switched to "no contact, even if you're female". You think that came out of nowhere? Some of those female fans get touchy and I think the leash is as long as it is more because they don't realize the sexual harassment from the young woman is harassment as fast as they do when it's some ugly guy.
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  6. I went to an event here in the United States. A bunch of groups from Japan performed- this was the headliner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlpQZ2Ln-Xs I think they're fairly reasonable- something like $10-15 for a polaroid. Most of these indie style groups in Japan are $15-20, with borderline famous groups usually only offering when they are selling singles, pricing them at $20-30 for a polaroid. Anyway, there is apparently a studio where some people in the US who are into idols made a few groups just like Japanese idols and a group and a soloist or two performed at the same festival. Because it was a big show, they invited a lot of their friends. They were selling polaroids for $5 each. Even at that price point, their school friends BOUGHT &%$^ING NOTHING. I bought one to support what they're doing... not quite pity, more like, good job, and I want you to know it even though no one is buying anything. To be clear, this was high school or college age and still too poor to buy anything to support their friends. This is just reality. If you're indie and want to actually be solvent, you need fans who will buy your stuff. If you're a huge ass company like Disney then you can promote to kids. But at Yune's level she would pretty much need 100 kid fans to equal 1 "uncle" fan, and when you're not running a huge profit margin, you can't promote that stupidly. If she ever joins a famous group the young fans will come naturally.
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  7. It's a (paid) public event. Anyone can watch who can get to the venue and pay the entry cost. But since she is super indie, she can't really advertise. It's word of mouth, and while idol fans are something like 70% male, it is usually +90% at these niche super indie events. They invite their friends- or rather, the people they're acquaintances with at other idol events and the ratio gets high enough it starts to be uncomfortable even if others want to be fans. You know what would have been really nice? If a foreign news team came in and promoted Yune to a wider audience. I mean, how does this video get made in the first place? They obviously misled about their intentions when talking to Yune's manager to get permission to film. There's no way they were straight with them. Yune could have talked about how she started doing videos after watching other kids' videos and that she hopes one day many of the kids watching her tik-tok videos will be able to come in person sometime. Manager or mom could have talked about hoping for a wider audience but it's hard to break stereotypes that the media has set up for decades. And someone could have asked that everyone who watch this go send a nice message to Yune on twitter. Which you can do now since you're here: https://twitter.com/yune_yune_go_go You can just send this: "Your music is super good and absolutely amazing!! You are super talented." so she can actually receive the compliment. In the end, this production team stabbed Yune in the back for money.
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  8. New Year's greetings from Yune, now 15 months after filming of this: "This year with covid has been one with many cancellations and postponements but surely later when we look back we'll understand the meaning of the many things that happened. Sad things and heartbreaking things as well, everything is related to make you the person you are. Because of covid, I've thought a lot about what we can be doing. In 2021, I want to do my best to be a little better singer than I was in 2020, and to deliver a good performance. From now on as well, with you the ChocoMints (fans), it would be good if we could make many fun memories together. Thank you for many smiles and much support in 2020. Let's have lots of fun in 2021." https://twitter.com/yune_yune_go_go/status/1344650166934982656
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  9. Why would you use a shittier camera than you have available? It's not much different than most lives I see in the USA, except here in the USA everyone holds smartphones above their head, or god-forbid ^$%%ing tablets. The photos basically never turn out. The video can be okay if they took it from the front row or blocked everyone behind them to take it, but even then the audio is often shit. People do it anyway. Those cameras will actually record the audio properly.
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  10. Even if some of those people are suspect and quit following her with age the actually popular part of the idol scene is ~14-27 year olds anyway so she'll far exceed replacement without issue.
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  11. ​ @Scallycowell  Sex under 16 is illegal. If you're not married it's 18... and you need parental permission to marry under age 20. So de facto it's usually going to be 18. Age of consent isn't just about sex. It's about competency to understand repercussions and therefore culpability. They mulled over raising it but decided it would hamper prosecution of other crimes by juveniles, including murders. Basically, the law says that you're mentally competent of making informed decisions for yourself by age 13... but the state still doesn't want you have sex yet so it's still illegal.
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  12.  @joestrr4772  She wears different stuff every time. Considering the camera crew was there on the day she had that particular outfit, I strongly suspect that they framed it along the lines of "Japanese girl wants to be next Ariana Grande" when they approached them about filming. She dressed the part to give off more of a Western pop stop look. They did seem to film this after the interview at the apartment (I didn't check the date on that to be absolutely sure though- other things are out of order). But it's not like they only asked mom two questions. If they had outed themselves as a hostile crew then they could have gone super conservative at the venue when choosing her outfit- just plain switched with the outfit she performed in 2 hours earlier in the day, or just denied access. So even then, I figure they sat mom down for a 20-40 minute interview about all sorts of innocuous topics with no intention of actually including it. 90-99% cut rate is typical in documentaries and "reality" TV- be wary of them. Again, they choose a particular outfit for each time. The only way this video gets made is if they acted far more buddy buddy with them when they made it. And so I can't even trust that some of this stuff wasn't just plain induced.
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  13.  @nessyness5447  Everyone has their own array of reasons. Assuming the worst of everyone is pretty ridiculous. Two months ago (before this was posted), I posted on a video uploaded of her. "I have zero interest in elementary school idols, but she's really good, huh?" Anyone who posts videos of groups I like I follow and that gives a constant supply of new groups. Most of the ones I haven't heard of are junk but I give them a chance. And I usually skip over even the junior high idols because they're usually garbage until they get some more experience. And the ones who haven't even got through puberty sound horrid. Yune is actually good. And so she joined Accent (a band, all 13 now) as the only young people I follow. Because I thought they are quality and therefore have good prospects and I'm excited to see if they'll do well. I doubt I'd ever go to her show specifically because I don't really like solo idols. But she's also played on tickets with the rock idols I do like. And if that happens again, I'd watch her show. Because she's talented.
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  14.  @sarahdore7884  "some or most" If you aren't able to accept that for some people it may simply be innocent, then the jury has decided before the trial. It's probably a few wolves in sheep's clothing and the sheep will beat the shit out of any wolf that outs himself, not an actual den of wolves. Frankly the people who were willing to be filmed are probably sheep even if sort of creepy ones. Should she still do what she does on account of the few wolves? Well, I wouldn't have her do all that she does. But it's a bit of a shame to say that girls can't do gymnastics or figure skating or ballet or do sports or going out in public without a burka because someone will look at them the wrong way. Because people will. It's risk management and risk is relatively low in Japan so what may seem extremely risky for where you are is of a bit milder risk in Japan.
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  15. This is indie AF. They need maybe 10-20 or so dedicated fans to stay in business. Because they're working men with spare money to burn. Women and younger fans are basically worth no money. You'd probably need 50-200 of them to stay in business. So, first of all, they seek a few male benefactor fans that can keep them in business. But that essentially poisons the fanbase...women expect it to be something like 100% male and that scares them away. If a performer pr group ever gets somewhat financially stable then they can make a push for female fans... but at that point it's a very uphill battle. The recent trend in the upper underground... say 3 or tiers above this... is to hire a youtuber or other sort of influencer. Pre-set fanbase, INCLUDING female fans. If a group can start with 20% female fans, then potential new ones aren't immediately scared away. But that's a privilege of the upper underground- companies with a decent amount of capital to invest.
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  16.  @sarahdore7884  Hi, I'll try to explain. I like bands, I like artists, but I also like idols. Not these super young ones, but idols nonetheless. Now if you know anything about Japanese idols you'd know that often the singing and dancing quality can be quite bad. So when others look in, particularly Westerners, they wonder how could anyone like the music when they're "bad"? And the conclusion they tend to go with is something like "no one could actually like this so it must just be sexual". And I know that to be false. Not that it's not sexual to anyone, just that it's probably a lot less important than the Westerner tends to assume. People can actually just like it. The music. The atmosphere. The fun. I've talked to fans and they've given a wide variety of reasons why they go. Even when visual is a factor it doesn't have to be sexual. So when I look at this group I feel like it's necessary to give them the same benefit. I'd say its extremely likely that there are pedophiles going... very unlikely that they'll actually ever do anything, and most of the people are probably quite all right. Which is probably no different from a lot of gymnastics meets, despite the families in attendance giving it better optics.
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  17.  @nessyness5447  That they're older men tells you nothing. That's typical for female idol shows at the indie level pretty much regardless of concept. It would be good for her to start doing more events with more groups that don't allow filming, even if she personally still does.
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  18. She just performed an extended set there 10 days ago. You can of course watch the whole thing from multiple angles as they allow recording and several of her fans diligently upload. "櫻井佑音･定期公演~Best of アイドル劇場2021~東京アイドル劇場@YMCAスペースYホール 2021年12月19日" She also got the part of Luna in a Sailor Moon stage play. This of course limits her ability to do lives, but she still does them. If you saw the karaoke battle you may have perhaps seen what a video like this that is shot with positive spin looks like. This is what a hostile stab Yune in the back video looks like.
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  19.  Mitch 1066  Whatever each individual's purposes, good or bad, they are nevertheless aware of the general public opinion.
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  20.  @infpisland9295  I don't agree with all they do. I'm only playing devil's advocate because the lynch mob's response is moronic, as a lynch mob is prone to be. I wish things were different but they are the way they are for many reasons and it's not just because they're all pedophiles. That's a lazy answer. Things are changing for the better. It hasn't reached this far down yet, but they are changing as groups are getting more successful at attracting younger fans and female fans. Because the media hasn't demonized the scene as badly as before. What's the play here? What's the advantage? What good is it going to do? This sort of thing SLOWS reform.
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  21. ​ @gabbypatino7303  We have a word that means basically the same thing as he means. It's normie. For example, a normie might think you're weird AF for having an ASMR playlist. Here on the Internet it's more or less gained a degree of acceptability. But out there in normie land- like say, my parents or their friends, pretty sure they'd still think it's weird AF.
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  22.  @zephirothia  Do you have an argument? Here, I think I'm just picking at the logical fallacy. Here, I'll give an example: In 1970, 93% of gynecologists in the USA were MEN. Why so many perverted doctors? Well, in 1970, only about 10% of medical students were female, and that was a big uptick from the 50s and 60s too! Girls hardly ever became doctors, so it's no wonder at all that they ALSO hardly ever became gynecologists. That is the argument here. Idol fans in the indie scene have been predominantly male, and so that Yune's fans are predominantly male is of no real interest. It'd be interesting if it was DIFFERENT, that it's just the same as everybody else isn't telling.
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  23. ​ @AllfatherBlack  Why do you believe everything the white people say and not what the Asian people say? These white guys are going to another country to try to make money by trying to make that other country look bad. They're the ones who get to translate it and cut it to their advantage, or take an interview in English on a prickly issue when it's not even the interviewee's first language and they're clearly struggling. Why do you support that sort of cultural imperialism that attempts to whitewash their own issues to try to make themselves feel better about themselves by going to other countries and painting them in a bad light? As if Prince Andrew wasn't on the manifest to Epstein Island. Don't you understand how bias presented as fact like in this video perpetuates racism and violence against Asians? Oh, and please answer in Japanese. Or I'll translate for you. I don't know if you're actually a racist, but talk long enough and it's just a matter of cuts to make you appear like one. Guy should have been told to just speak Japanese and we'll translate for you. That would at least provide proof of his actual words as he meant them.
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  24.  @controversialgaming1364  More like 30. And even then there's leeway to 35 or so. After that they've pretty much all transitioned out to something else.
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  25. Sounds like libel. Why are you libeling a 13 year old? Gross.
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  26.  Slasher Kitten  Pretty sure I'm not doing that at all. I'm trying to get people to think critically rather than come to snap judgements based on this somewhat biased video. If someone says the video disturbed them or whatever, I try to leave those comments alone. That has to do with feelings, and my own feelings are they should be more selective in where they have her perform and should ban photography from at least most in attendance during her shows. I pick at it when someone says something that doesn't hold up logically. If you say you disagree with something and use a bullshit argument to try to support it what good are you doing? Maybe it IS something disagreeable, but you still need to come up with an argument that holds up.
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  27. Going to watch some of the stream to see what people post.
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  28. Results: First 10 minutes mostly just telling people good evening. Actually that was a lot of the whole thing. Over the top cheerful... maybe a bit forced. Thanked people for watching the karaoke battle she was on on TV. Talked a little bit about an upcoming live event in February with the birthday girl of this video. Talked about growing a few cm over some period, a slower rate than the previous period. She said her weight was the same, and gave it. Someone wrote "memo" which I suppose could be construed to be the creepiest thing posted over the whole time. But someone wrote "memo" for other mundane facts. They joked that that will soon be secret information not so easy to get. A few seconds for taking screenshots... literally like 8-10 seconds total for 3-5 poses. Quick mention of all the special days for the particular day. And that's it. Mom is present- literally in voice range and you can hear her talk on occasion to answer Yune's questions and helps fill in facts such as dates. Seem to be some girls in chat. Probably still mostly male though. Father exists and they know who he is and they know him enough to know how old he is. No confirmation from the video if he is still around though. (Some people were asking in the comments here- only a partial answer for now).
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  29. These super young ones perform once a week at the same venue which I've never been to. It's relatively expensive because they can usually only perform once a week so they basically try to get almost 1 and a half shows worth of money out of their fans. Unless your friend has some sort of reason why they really want to go see the super young idols, I'd recommend they go see some other groups instead which can usually be done for significantly cheaper. Although few are actually as good at singing as Yune, the older style focus more on performance. Even under covid there are probably 10+ options every weekend. Best to find some groups they like on youtube... follow them on twitter to see their schedule... and then make a reservation with that group. If they have absolutely no idea where to start, they can search Fes*tive, 神宿, NEO JAPONISM or アンダービースティー. Any festival they're playing is probably halfway decent.
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  30. It's her (or her persona's) favorite food. She posts pictures of stuff like banana cookies and parfaits and her catchphrase is something about sunflowers and bananas. So her fans bought her a banana cake. She thanked them for it. End of story in actual reality. Is your mind always dirty, or was it because the "documentary" here framed it in such a way as to make it dirty?
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  31.  @hawraalshakarshi3186  Japan has the same.
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  32. Even if they treat 13 as aoc, it's still illegal until at least 16. 18, there in Tokyo. Again, the number there in Tokyo is 18. Stop advetising Japan as weird because it has an aoc of 13. It's still illegal there in Tokyo until 18. Legality and consent are different things. Before aoc consent is impossible and it's therefore assault. After aoc consent can be given, but the act itself can still be illegal.
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  33. Junior idols were traditionally by and large models. A lot would go into gravure when they could. And this is where the sketchiness comes from. Singing might have been an option for someone like Yune who would likely have been fine, but not so much for those without talent. Here we have a clash between the underground idol scene which really is mostly about cheering for a person and to some extent the music, and the junior idol modeling scene, which is cleaned up to some extent but is still pretty suspect. Basically, a lot of stuff transitioned around 2010 as singing idols got muuuuuch more popular and started to have a much lower talent requirement. So anyone who started as a junior idol post-2010 wouldn't have actually aged out of the regular idol scene yet (though could have moved on for whatever reason).
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  34. Not at all. He's just the narrator so he gets to make himself look good and lead the viewer through his predetermined narrative. She's a paycheck to him. Maybe he sort of cares while he's there... but if so, what has he done in the last year and a half? Koji would probably give her a kidney.
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  35. Daughters are pampered. Sons need to perform. That role is by and large filled by athletes.
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  36. Looks like you watched too many videos. Watch too many videos and you'll start having an unrealistically bad.... or good, image of a place. Reality is nuanced. I remember I was watching videos on Japan around 2013. Oh, Japan is so xenophobic, they mistreat foreigners, bullying, suicide, overwork, oh it's so terrible. Man, it sounds so bad! And then I remembered! "Hey, you lived there two years, WTF are you giving undue weight to this random youtube guy?!" And after giving myself such a pep talk, I decided to go visit Japan again. And lo and behold, it was still pretty much how I remembered it.
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  37. ​ @jeans4484  I don't think many people are actually in it to see them become famous. Most won't. And most fans know it. And most of the idols do too. There are plenty of much more obtainable goals that idols and fans strive for together.
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  38. When a fan took a video of the birthday event, the cameraman for this documentary's face was hidden behind a mosaic. Why? Does that tell you everything!? All it tells you is that's how they do things in Japan. You have portrait rights. It's OPT IN. If they want to show people in a private venue, then they need to get their permission. Even the Japanese fan bothered to edit out this cameraman's face in his fan video because he didn't ask for permission to show it. BTW, to be clear, it's a private venue, not a private event. Anyone with $10-20 or whatever could enter the venue and watch the performance. If they have a mosaic that means they didn't get their permission, not that they refused. But anyone with any sense refused. You only get to see the fans who don't have any sense. What's in it for them to explicitly give permission? The UK doesn't have a good track record on this. The fans with sense would know the crew would cut and frame their comments a certain way to paint them as things, whether they are or not. So why give permission? Why would you give someone permission to try to make you out to be a racist or sexist? They're going to spend 9 months editing hours of footage down to 24 minutes. They can get it to say whatever they want to say. Declining is smart.
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  39.  @riturajhalder6665  No one is filth for enjoying her talent. But you're judging them as human filth without knowing their intentions. They say they're there for non-sexual stuff. But you disagree and call them human filth. And just like some of them you say you're listening to her for her talent. So why should you get the pass you won't offer to them?
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  40. If the "documentary" had more journalistic integrity then people would come to a more nuanced conclusion. Since it uses a lot of weaselly techniques to provoke outrage, I can only hope a little apologetics will at least get people to remember that this guy is neither your buddy nor an authority figure but rather just someone trying to provoke clicks and comments.
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  41.  @justaguyinwonderland  I lived in Japan. I've been to 100+ concerts there of most types, including 50+ idol shows and even "accidently" something quite like this. It was an opening act on the same ticket as a group I wanted to see . So I've actually been to something like this in person feeling awkward. I've seen shows where it's all guys in attendance. And I've seen how many actually have quite a few girls. And I can draw some conclusions on why some have few and some have many. Again, only been to that one event (well, it was a two parter I think), so I'm not an expert on the kiddie shows. But I've at least seen it and seen how the people there act. One group I follow (much older than here... I think oldest is 26) decided to push for female fans- female ONLY events, either free or very cheap. You know why they pushed? One of the girls wanted to do some female only lives before she quit, and the manager was willing to waste money on it as a parting gift of sorts. And guess what? They could get them. You see, many of the girls who went LIKED IT, especially without that big crowd of guys there who they tend to find intimidating. And some of them even started going to the regular events with the crowd of guys when they decided they liked it enough to put up with the guys there. So if it works, why don't more do it? Well, when you're barely making ends meet in a competitive market, how can you rent a venue for $1500-2000, pay your other expenses and stuff and probably run $3000 in total expenses, and not charge money, to maybe get a few new fans? These sorts of guys are going to an event no matter what- all you gotta do is get them to choose your event instead of someone else's. If you want girls or kids to come you need to throw a lot of money at them and a lot of people this far into the indies aren't in position to be able to do that.
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  42.  @justaguyinwonderland  This video demonizes it. Moreover, the comments suggest that it is "normalizing" it. My position is that (most of this) is normal and the problems that aren't are in large part because it's long been demonized. Basically, I find the video to the counterproductive. What was it aiming to do besides give the guy a paycheck and earn this channel some clicks? What is Yune actually doing? One or twice a week on weekends or holidays she performs for 20-30 minutes, mostly singing cover songs in outfits inspired by the artists she covers. Afterwards she talks with fans. This is normal stuff. It's not significantly different from gymnastics or youth theater or figure skating or sports. And especially no different from a young band member. The core of this is legal, supervised, and all sorts of people appreciate her talent and enjoy her performance (in other words, it's POSSIBLE to like it for positive reasons). She goes to school like a regular kid and then does this extracurricular like all the gymnasts and figure skaters and 12yo bassists. While some things are a little sketchy, the basics of what she does is normal. It's not normalizing fetishes, it's just normal. If she was performing in front of 12 year olds no one would care. Even most of the weird stuff here, if it was 12 year olds, no one really cares. Quirky little thing at most. The issue is the audience. And the audience is what it is because of demonization. In recent years the media has pulled back from demonizing nerds and regular idol fans so much and the result is more young fans and more female fans. Higher up, it's not so monolithic anymore. But it hasn't transferred down this far yet. This stuff should be normalized. You normalize it and younger people and kids will show up. The cameras will get put away. Everything will sterilize. Demonization keeps this as a fringe element. Now obviously you can't normalize everything if the core of what they do is sketchy like fetish modeling or something. But the core of what a young idol does is no different from a young band member so the key is to get girls and kids and everyone else to believe that it's okay to go to something like that. Girls show up and THEY'LL CATER TO THEM. They'll sell makeup cases and phone straps and crap like that instead. This guy had opportunity to push it in that direction. If just 1/1000 girls who watched this video went and posted something positive on her twitter, you'd flood out the guys and could actually promote change for the better. That was lost by making this a hit job.
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  43. In short. For various reasons, it's not a mixed crowd- but I think it could be and wish it was. And I find this sort of video to be counterproductive in the pursuit of making that sort of mixed audience a reality.
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  44. BTW, as far as I know, Japan is still closed off to most if not all foreign tourism. So they have lots of time to find a group or band or whatever they want to see. Going to some show or another is certainly a recommended experience... especially once their livehouse restrictions are removed. In the meantime, quite a lot is being uploaded and streamed.
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  45. Uhh... weekdays? This was a Saturday and Sunday. But that's mostly a matter of restrictions on when Yune can perform. She's limited to around 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week... but that INCLUDES SCHOOL. So weekday performances when school is in session are basically out since it really only leaves about an hour left over after school hours are taken out, and the weekend performances also have to be kept in check to keep it all under 40 hours for the week. Usually it'd just be one performance in a week but I figure they made it work so she could perform at her friend's birthday event. For older idols of normal working age without such restrictions, they tend to perform 3-6 times a week, leaning towards weekends, with the amount depending on if it's still a bit of a part time job with school, or if it's their full time job. Some fans basically go to all of them- sometimes 30+ lives a month if they like multiple groups. And as that basically costs $150 a week just as a baseline, that requires a job that provides significant expendable money. Most weekday shows don't start until 6pm or so. They go to a show on the way home from work.
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  46. Korea's domestic numbers were small so they pushed internationally. Often bothering to learn some Japanese just to be able to stop off in Japan to earn the big money. Japan's domestic numbers are so good they never had to push internationally. So a lot of people abroad don't know much about them. Sure, K-pop has managed to sell a lot internationally so the amount of money they pull in is getting to be comparable. But as a domestic market, it is much smaller. When hallyu was getting going and the yen was strong around ~2012, the Japanese market was about 30 times bigger than Korea's. In other words, if Korea could debut groups in Japan and manage to create about a 3% niche, it could DOUBLE revenue from what they could get just in Korea. On the other hand, if Japan launched groups into Korea and miraculously managed to get 30% of market share... it'd only be a 1% boost of domestic income. Which is why Korea constantly debuts groups in Japan but Japan doesn't bother to debut anything in Korea.
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  47.  @lilcomment  Why is the reporter paraphrasing for someone he interviewed? Let them talk for themselves.
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  48. ​ @BashaerB-h2c  She has different outfits basically every time. They use FOMO to sell the photo sessions. You miss one show you might have missed your one and only chance for that exact outfit, so make sure to come to every show, and make sure to do your photo session, now or never, buy it or miss out. She even wore a different outfit that day. How they choose them, I don't know exactly, though Yune has input. As Yune is actually mostly a cover artist, it's quite common for her outfits to line up with the image of one of the artists she is covering that day. As she is an Ariana Grande fan, she's probably covered Ariana Grande before, and so already had that sort of outfit available. It's seriously one of the most racy outfits she's worn. So why would she wear that on the day that this film crew is coming to frame her as a pin-up? IMO, because that's not what they said. They probably told Yune's management the story was about a young Japanese girl who wants to be the next Ariana Grande. They might have even encouraged her to dress the part. So that's a bit of a problem we have here... they're reporting on something, that they seem to have actually influenced themselves. It's not a true nun outfit, but you know, it's pretty covered. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6TxDu2RGNI How about this outfit? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmhhGVBqCYU
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  49. It's neither. It's a real place with real people.
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  50. It's funny that some people get caught up on that. She has like 4-6 shows a month. If you're a fan of typical underground idol groups without the pesky red tape limiting the work hours of kids, 4-6 shows is called a weekend. Koji's got it easy.
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  51. The banana thing is manufactured by the video team. That's just pure propaganda. Yune's catchphrase is about chocolate and left-handedness. That girl's is about bananas and sunflowers. There's also a cut at that point that makes it into a "joke" that never existed in reality- the "joke" was made in video editing software long after the fact. Banana is her (or her persona's) favorite food, so her fans got her a cake with sliced bananas, and she thanked them for caring. That's reality. The video crew, and you, sexualized it after the fact.
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  52. Possession. It was otherwise illegal to produce, sell, etc. And possession laws are a can of worms. It increases opportunity for uneven enforcement, blackmail, and coercion. And it's ridiculously simple to plant. Moreover stuff that might have been legal may have become illegal. For example, if your jurisdiction declared eligibility for to be from 21 instead of 18, a very large number of people will suddenly have contraband that they might not even know about. Normally, so long as everything else is banned the supply should dwindle over time. However, previous laws that should have prevented production weren't being properly enforced. Along with the possession law came a crackdown on the production side which did far more good.
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  53. The guy clearly pulls them out of a box of what are presumably cheap costume props for Halloween. You're probably supposed to take a funny picture. To choose that specifically out of the box and then not take a funny picture is.... weird. But he doesn't seem to have brought them with him.
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  54. I know it dates you, but may I ask when this was apx? Momusu has been around for 25 years afterall.
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  55. But this is a bit of a special case because she's so young that there is extra red tape. TYPICAL underground idols often perform more around 4-6 times a week and the day off is often Monday and another random weekday. So how do those idol fans do it? They just go to whatever they can. Some do go to pretty much all of them. They're already in town. They just go to the show on the way home from work.. typically in lieu of going out drinking with the boss and coworkers to brown nose. Which would also probably cost about $20-30. So all they're really losing is that brown nosing, especially if they don't take very many polaroids. It's an expensive hobby. Which is why it's a lot of salarymen there. If there are younger fans, they just go once or twice a week. The salarymen with money to burn can afford to go to them all and it's just a matter of getting off work in time. The result is a group may HAVE 30 salarymen fans and 30 college age fans but at a typical weekday show it'd be something like 5 college age and 25 salarymen.
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  56.  @demef758  No they won't. Most of the ones with relatively good motives likely already graduated from AKB or some other mainstream group and settled on the underground- preferring to support idols before they're mainstream. They'll by and large stick with supporting this age group. They'll still passively support Yune or whatever, but the focus will still be on this age group. Some will be fans of a single idol, but they're likely a small minority there. It's like a college sports fan- they're college sports fans. They'll support their favorite players when they go pro but in the end they're college sports fans with not very many just being fans of one player. Same here. AKB is over 15 years old. Girl fans mostly moved on to Keyakizaka (not sure now, post Yurina) and back to H!P. And boy groups and K-pop in general. So yeah, it's mostly male fans- and the ones who were loyal to not move on to Nogizaka. New idols fans went to Nogizaka and Keyakizaka- AKB fans mostly just got 14 years older. But they just had a female only live at the theater on September 2nd so it's not like they don't have any female fans. That they have these female only events suggests that the female fans are to some extent intimidated by the male fans- by actual fault or prejudice, and this ends up exasperating the gender ratio at events.
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  57. Yeah. It's nice they can be TikTok and youtube fans or whatever nowadays though. And she says herself she got into this by watching other kids' karaoke videos. But I doubt that resulted in her being a fan of anyone and going to lots of their shows. Her response to seeing those videos online wasn't to stan them... it was to make her own videos.
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  58. Besides likely cutting about 99% of the interview, the translation is bad.
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  59. And still illegal until 16/18.
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  60. This is very indie, so they're taking advantage of preset fandoms they can reach without having to pay to advertise. So most people won't even know she exists. Many indie idol fans go to events almost every day and it's just a matter of getting them to go to yours. Camera geeks takes photos and record all of the frankly, very few events that you can actually record. And probably there are some undesirables there who looked for this exact thing specifically for the wrong reasons. Women in Japan have long been told they aren't supposed to like female idols. By poll, some of the more popular groups actually have 20-40% female fandom, but it's hard to convince many of them to actually go to shows. And as the male % at shows increases, the women feel more awkward and it makes it even harder to convince women fans to go or stay, and they will tend to congregate as fans of a few specific groups where they are able to maintain a decent minority, meaning many other groups will basically have 0. Personally, I really liked the Backstreet Boys back in the day but I wouldn't have been caught dead at one of their concerts. Lots of guys liked it, you just couldn't say it too loudly. It wasn't cool. Even though I liked them and should have liked all sorts of indie style groups like them, I didn't bother looking into it. Heck, I didn't even really look into indie stuff in the first place until late high school. The multi-national corporations mostly told me what music I thought I liked before then. Which is part of why there aren't kids there. If she gets more popular, both will come naturally. Forcing it is extremely expensive.
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  61. When was the first time you spent over 200 USD in support of a musician no one has heard of?
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  62. Well, I guess it immediately reminds you. Though it's not like people talking about movies stars immediately think of "balls of gas burning billions of miles away" or frankly even a 5-pointed shape most of the time. It's mostly just a word. And in Japanese it's a lone word so it's not even all that connected to the original meaning. It doesn't really even mean pop star over there anymore but a particular kind of entertainer which is why these super indie performers count as アイドル, and it's a word that some other sorts of entertainers purposefully avoid, calling themselves stuff like "dance and vocal group" or "artist". For example, the pop trio of Perfume, who more or less threw off the term idol around 2008. They stopped doing a lot of "idol" activities. And IMHO, actually became more of an idol in the original meaning AFTER moving from idol to artist as they basically backingtracked their voices into oblivion and focused on polish, image and visuals.
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  63. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/18/national/blind-mans-death-subway-station-reignites-call-safety-barriers/
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  64. If your goal is to actually avoid jail and not just get a lighter sentence, then that would be 18.
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  65. AKB past their prime still has audition pass rates of something like 0.3%. Sakamichi is down around 0.1%. And neither really give you much credit for singing ability so she'd be better off going for H!P anyway... and Momusu is down at something like 0.02%. There are something like 1000 idol groups at any given time... popping into a top tier one right away is hardly a guarantee. All the practice and experience makes her a standout candidate rather than just another girl out of 5000 applications.
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  66. Retroactive bans (possession) are a can of worms. I don't think it actually did much of anything in practice except be a virtue signal though. What's the problem with possession laws? I'll even say something totally innocent in case you're someone who has never had any porn. Let's say if the government said you could no longer own pictures of people under age 18 no matter how clothed or innocent the picture to try to be absolutely sure no CP is being created. Now maybe you've got 10000 photos- as you go through all your old photos, are you going to be 100% effective at weeding out the people under 18? If not, you'd be in possession. Usually they have to show intent, but they could still charge you and get you judged in the court of public opinion- or threaten you if you don't plead guilty to something else. Moreover, while I can sympathize with getting rid of all the CP, this law that I've proposed right here seems to really overstep bounds- lots of totally innocent stuff would be banned. And instead of just banning the taking of the pictures until someone with more sense comes in to repeal the law, the law tries to delete all such pictures since the beginning of time. Again, I can sympathize with trying to get rid of all the CP- but possession laws judges the whole past by the present without opportunity to appeal, so I would prefer the government not be given such power at all and stick to focusing on production and sales. Which I think is what they actually do in practice. BTW, the UK law for appearing in porn was only changed from 16 to 18 in something like 2003. That's not all that long ago either...
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  67.  @zvautobuild8832  It doesn't mean that for Japan. I'm just giving an exaggerated example of why possession laws are bad. A government that can evenly enforce a no possession law is extraordinarily powerful. As much as I would prefer the CP to be gone, I think evenly enforced possession laws are beyond the scope of a reasonable government. It will either be a mere virtue signal, or will be used unevenly or corruptly... or by a government of excessive power. So to not have such a law is not a problem to me. As is, in the case of Japan, it seems to just be a virtue signal. I want them to focus against production and sales.
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  68. Because on closer inspection it's a biased sensationalist video. So it's like judging based on the prosecution. Prosecution rests, jury, make your decision! Uhh... isn't there supposed to be a defense? Just more proof you shouldn't trust the media with anything unless you have final cut privilege or at least a way to guarantee cooperation or penalize backstabbing. I definitely don't mean to say everything is definitely great about it. Just that this isn't giving you the proper information to actually make a proper judgement. It's clearly biased. Take everything with a big helping of salt.
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  69. It is typical for Japanese idols to not show their family... at all. When they post pictures of them it's usually with a mosaic or sticker over their face. There are exceptions, but that's the norm. Yune is young so she needs a chaperone for everything, and that's mom. Keeping her anonymous is basically impossible, so they don't bother. She also has an older brother who isn't mentioned here at all IIRC. A 24 minute documentary is hardly going to be comprehensive. This isn't to say they they're necessarily still together. Information is spare ON PURPOSE. But they know who he is, and he was part of her life for at least part of the time she's been doing this. And considering the economics of what she does and where she lives, he's almost certainly supporting them significantly whether or not they're separated. (high school and college girls do ~4-5 idol shows a week as a part time job... Yune's ~1 show a week isn't going to support 2 people)
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  70. Japan isolated itself from about 1630-1850. Basically it was minding it's own business for centuries, Westerners forced their way in with warships, and then fought on both sides of a civil war that ended with the centuries old military dictatorship deposed and replaced with an emperor. When it went to war in Asia, much of the continent was colonized or subjugated by Western countries. The countries in those days were things like Dutch East Indies and French Indochina. Unable to no longer keep Western countries out, Japan quickly modernized (creating extreme social tension), then decided it needed natural resources and a buffer zone, then decided it would depose of the Westerners and be head of a defense sphere, led by Japan of course, called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, meant to maintain independence from Western powers. The built up social tension ran into economic issues and precipitated radicalization and racism and it basically became the monster it feared. I know Hollywood and even our history books like to present it as one big revenge story for Pearl Harbor resulting in unconditional surrender. But it's kinda another one of those creating the very monsters you'll have to fight later things the US seems to have a knack for.
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  71.  @ghodge82  The world hasn't moved on. It's virtue signaling, not virtue. It's why a lot of these videos exist in the first place. Oh, look, British or American citizens, the rest of the world is backwards and you're better than them, feel better about yourselves. Don't think too closely about the Olympic gymnastics team or Penn State or Weinstein or Hollywood in general or that guy with a sex island who can't be named because of all the powerful people connected. And we know we have Disney stars and child pageants and all that stuff and you guys definitely followed Emma Watson carefully as she grew up, but watch this video where we film and edit everything to try to make it as seedy as possible so you can feel superior because you definitely don't have anything like that in your own country.
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  72.  @jaijai5250  She wants to be a singer. Stop sexualizing her.
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  73. Both events were in the day, though first was an all day event. The event on Saturday started at 10am. The last performance ended at 730pm, so last performer would probably be finished with goods around 830pm. Yune performed once sometime between 1245pm and 245pm for about 5 minutes as part of a solo singer showcase. Yune's main performance was from 535pm until 6pm. Not worth having them come for 5 minutes. The narrator got to the venue around 3pm. Sundown in Tokyo ~October 20th is about 5pm, so if she finished goods and cleanup by 7pm it would already be quite dark when leaving. That's still JUST 7PM though. That's a regular dinner time. The birthday party on Sunday started from 1pm and would likely have been over by 3-4pm.
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  74. The venue was SHIDAX Culture Hall. Shidax is a food company that mostly provides for cafeterias in schools and hospitals, etc. It also owns a karaoke chain. All the seating tells you that it most definitely is NOT a nightclub. The seats have little side desks like a lecture hall, meaning it's equipped for seminars and stuff like that. There are about 100 seedier venues within a 20 minute walk. Not even to say that many of those are seedy. But this one is quite frankly sterile. Many of the other ones do idol lives or concerts in the evening, and then open as actual nightclubs. This one is having seminars and orientation/entrance ceremonies on days it doesn't have concerts. This one is sterile. If you got nightclub vibes that's because this video is trying to get you to see everything with a dirty mind. The birthday party they just rented a room at a place that rented out rooms.
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  75. Heh... you don't seem to understand how low of a bar that is. Yune only performs once a week except for special occasions like that birthday party. That's about 5 events a month. That's easy mode. If he's not a fan of any other performers or groups that's actually pretty weaksauce for idol fan standards. Once they're over 15 or 16 or something like that their school hours aren't calculated in their allowed work week anymore so those regular underground idol groups perform more around 10-20 times a month. And once it's pretty much full-time idols, it can be around 20-25 a month. Yes, the big fans of those still go to basically all 25, or at least as many as their work will allow. 5 a month is easy. Lots of people do 5 in a weekend.
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  76. Subtitles: "I think for Yune people come for her singing voice". Closer to what she actually said: "In the case of Yune, well, her voice, her singing voice, stuff like that- that part of it... the people who come for that are many." The translation is there for you to follow the general gist. It cut out MOST of the words so you can follow along, not dissect the meaning. The position of the mom and manager and the fan at the cafe is most fans are just that. Fans. But some in the crowd are "obstacles" to overcome. Basically, that she's the same as any other performer. It's not a den of wolves. It's a hall of white knights... and some wolves. You can disagree with her assessment. I think it's right. You can disagree with letting Yune do this at this age considering her assessment. And I'd probably agree with you there. But she's not lying.
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  77. In this particular case the lies may be more bitter than the truth. For example, her self-introduction is" "Energy max max! Loving bananas, Lively and cheerfully like a sunflower, I'm Aimi." It's all energetic yellow imagery. And she just outright says she loves bananas. By comparison, Yune says she's left-handed, loves chocolate and her birth flower is the cherry blossom. But perhaps the more important point. Watch it again. 22:48 Mom? Gives her the cake. Comment about banana. 22:51 Laughing... and mom? is now in the background, in the back of the room, laughing. That was fast mom. Must have teleported. There was no joke. The "documentary" team manufactured the joke by editing two scenes together.
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  78. Do K-pop fans collect pictures of idols so they can do inappropriate things?
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  79. So why are they filth and not you?
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  80.  @riturajhalder6665  So maybe THAT ONE GUY is human filth? Why didn't you say so?! Still, the fact that he willingly allows his face to be shown (he has to explicitly give permission) makes me a bit unsure what to make of him. A bit of a weird guy in any case. The other guys are taking pictures of a show. Pretty sure most shows I've been to here in my country are a sea of cell phones taking video and pictures. Occasionally even some asshole with a tablet. So getting to use a DSLR instead of a shitty camera phone makes someone human filth?
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  81.  @Vanessabobessa10  I won't say that everything here is 100% good or 100% without risk, but the way the video is filmed conditions viewers to assume the worst. It's not the only thing like that in this video. The guy is being paid for a negative story. Just please be aware when watching.
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  82.  @silasleleco9659  Christmas is coming up. You can understand the difference between December 24th-25th and December 15th, right? The ACTUAL holiday is important, and family might be upset if you're not around because they're supposed to have priority on the actual holiday. 10 days earlier is just a day.
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  83. If that's what she was wearing there would be people complaining about that very point all the same. I don't think there's a way to win in terms of outfits. I also think in context it's more dangerous. You see, for Japanese idols they use the concepts of "on" and "off". Someone puts on a costume, goes on stage, does fan meetings acting the part of an idol. Then they put on their civvies and go home. And everyone understands that she is then NOT TO BE BOTHERED. If you have her run around in regular clothes you blur this. That said, I'd prefer that she went with a regular idol costume. But she still has a foot in the Junior Idol modeling culture where it's valuable to use a different outfit each performance, and her own interests are Ariana Grande and such so this sort of style of stuff makes an appearance.
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  84. No father figure is you filling in a blank just because they didn't show something in 24 minutes. There's a father. Or to be clear, at least was for part of the time she's been doing this. Not sure of the exact current situation, but even if they're separated he's been involved and almost certainly needs to still be involved for them to be able to afford that housing. And an older brother. Who also wasn't mentioned. You see what they wanted to show you. It's framing. And it's a bit questionably done here.
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  85. "Beautiful" doesn't translate from Japanese very well... the directly translation word is much rarer in Japanese than beautiful is in English. It is much more likely that the word used was kawaii, which everyone knows just means cute. Unfortunately they don't actually show us the message to be able to see for ourselves.
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  86. Other cultures can certainly judge other cultures. There's some stuff to judge here. The issue is: A 24 minute documentary made by a biased and self-serving source is not making experts. It makes indoctrinated. Of course there's some "log and speck" hypocrisy here if you take everyone in a country to be responsible for everything that happens in their country. But it's fair for people to judge other countries, so long as they judge their own with the same rules, and understand that some underlying factors may require a little bit more research to understand because you didn't grow up there to be able to understand naturally. Again, the problem isn't that non-Japanese can't judge this. The problem is someone who's just watched this video can't judge this. They've basically gone into a trial, heard the prosecution make its case, and decide it's time to reach a verdict.
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  87. Grow up and have some respect.
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  88. ​@SanBernardino Strait A joke is a joke. A joke in bad taste is still just a joke. The same "joke" in bad taste repeated over and over ad nauseum so that any humor has long been drained from it s just in bad taste.
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  89. Jojo Siwa got popular through TV- heck, TV targeted toward kids and moms. The show regularly got about 1,000,000 views. She took that popularity and branched off to music. I don't know how involved she was with the music, but her original popularity came from that TV show... which if you follow the money back up, is basically a Disney-joint venture platform. Maybe Disney wasn't pushing her in particular, but they were invested in the success of her show and that show gave her massive exposure. Compare to this girl, who is starting from zero. How many kids are already listening to stuff outside the mainstream? Their favorite music is mainstream stuff or stuff that gets play on their favorite anime or TV shows, etc. She'd need to do an anime theme song or something to get wide exposure, but you're not going to get that job as a nobody. Until she makes a big enough name for herself to get signed to a national focused company (IMHO she'd already be signed if not for covid but I digress), she's stuck fighting it out in the live houses. I personally think the cameras give a bad feeling- but most established artists in Japan don't let you film at all. I kinda think those ones are more camera geeks than anything. You know one guy with video of Yune's performance... you know what else is up on his channel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtF2fG7YlQY Oh, and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWmi2c1m8Ho They're just going around to whatever shows allow filming. When they post the description of the performance... they also list the camera and microphone type used... who does that besides a camera geek? While there's opportunity for predators... it's complicated and even at this sort of event which would be prime for pedophiles, I'd still say that at least a majority of them have good motives. I would think it would be better to keep away from events that focus on younger idols... but it's hard to say. Maybe SHE likes those ones better because those are the ones her friends perform at. And there's also the idea that older idol fans may look creepy, but it's the younger ones that DO creepy so in the end it might actually be safer.
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  90. It's just a maid cafe. To accuse it of otherwise makes you sound ridiculous. There are sketchy establishments available if people want something actually sketchy.
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  91.  @sonnycorleone4964  Everything in this video is legal and more or less filmed in the worst light possible, considering the channel. Some of it is probably a bit too far, but if you can't understand how it COULD be innocent, then you're not really in the proper mindset to be able to judge and you probably need to come in from closer to the mainstream... likely the way most people actually became fans, rather than start at the fringe. Other videos have actually touched on some illegal stuff, but generally have a problem of conflating everything together. Most of the people that will actually talk to them and invite them in are above board, and despite being BBC or Vice or whatever, they don't bother to actually focus fire on the illegal stuff as they should.
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  92. She likes banana flavor. You made it dirty in your head. No thanks to the "documentary" team, but ultimately, your own dirty mind.
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  93. I never played Yakuza 5 to tell you how accurate it is. I would assume exaggerated reality is the right assessment. In general, these girls, and the much more common groups of mostly high school and college age girls, performed on "battle of the band" style festivals, where each group gets a ~20 minute timeslot. Right after they finish, that group goes on to do sales while 2-3 other groups perform. The groups essentially make their money by convincing people to come out and buy goods from them INSTEAD of watching some other group perform. So if you're a no name group- or a well-known group but your 1 hour sales time is with big names that you know people will want to watch instead of come wait in line to buy polaroids from you, then the groups try to sweeten the deal. And giving out something like a free high-five or handshake at the start of polaroid sales if you don't actually have enough customers to fill your whole polaroid sale time doesn't actually cost anything to give out, and is done in the hopes this draws some more people out of the main hall and they buy a polaroid while they're already out. I don't find them awkward but I also never went to the kiddie events. The filmed version "examples" do tend to be over the top compared to normal. The typical greeting line didn't seem any different from family friendly dinner theater sort of shows I've been taken to outside Japan where they basically do the same thing at the end.
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  94. Internet sure loves a good lynching. A reminder that this is one side of the story. You don't get to hear the defense. You may have concerns, but the rather questionable way this is framed, filmed and cut should leave you hesitant to rush to conclusions without hearing the other side of the story.
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  95. But I'll give you all a break because he conditions you so badly when making the video. As a discerning reader would note, I already agreed that there are very likely predators there from at least the second reply. My issue is in how the "red flag" mentioned here is useless.
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  96. ​ @BakedBuddy  The songs she sings and outfits she wears are mostly outside of what would be considered stereotypical idol music. Musically speaking, her song choices are from the mainstream generally rather than the idol niche particularly. She's mostly a cover artist. The outfit greatly varies, sometimes aligning with what she's covering. Actually, she wore something more covered up that very same day but why would this reporter show footage of that when he could show this outfit instead? It's more designed to sell "today ONLY" every single day to remove money from the "uncle" fans that she already has rather than be particularly good at picking up new idol fans. Her song choices seem to be what they are because that's what she wants to sing. She does the setlists herself at least sometimes.
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  97. Maybe the camera crew shouldn't have suggested that Western audiences would like if she tried to dress like Ariana Grande? You can complain about the outfit all you want but the outfit is what it is because the camera crew convinced them that this is what Western audiences want to see knowing full well that having her dress that way would drive engagement. Whole video is entrapment.
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  98. This is the border between the junior idol (mostly modeling) industry and the underground (live performance) idol industry. Their positions will depend a lot on which side they're coming from.
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  99. The 13 you've seen posted somewhere converts the misdemeanor with jailtime into a felony with more jailtime. By Western standards of what that means, the age there in Tokyo is 18. They just choose to list the age when it switches over from statutory to assault, whereas Western countries typically list the age between statutory and legal.
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  100. At least they actually realize the reporter is mostly in it for the money / portfolio too. People trust narrators too much when they spent over 9 months editing a 24 minute video just so. Anyway, this sort of thing doesn't really make money. Doing 4-6 lives a week is about equal to a low end full time job... less than that you probably need another part time job to actually make ends meet. Yune can usually only do 1. Birthday party was special and so there were 2. College to 20 something girls scrape by on 5 lives a week. So 1 live a week is supposed to support 2 people? Dad has a real job and pays the actual bills. It's a chance for mom to spend time on a common goal with Yune. If this makes any money at all it can be invested in her future.
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  101. Just go watch her actual performance. "櫻井佑音／紅蓮華" is pretty good. Just search for that. I tried to provided the video code but youtube is becoming a censuring hellhole. No audience in frame. No news crew telling you what to think. Decide for yourself if she is good or not. If she's good, the question shouldn't be about who's there, but why other people aren't.
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  102. There is definitely clapping and cheering. You can watch that full live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R2fSUn_YlA Not sure what the venue rules are but if it's seated that generally tends to keep things relatively subdued. Since everyone is sort of paying for a seat, the don't bother people around you rule tends to be much more strictly enforced compared to all-standing events. So sure, they don't seem to be going crazy. But there's plenty of cheering and encouragement and clapping and response. Frankly, more than most non-idol/seiyuu J-pop concerts I've attended. Remember that this is a hit job so making it look like everyone is just silently taking photos and no one is enjoying the show is part of that.
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  103. It's a hit job video. They take hours of interviews and footage and pick and choose to tell their predetermined story. Fortunately we can just look on twitter to see what people actually say: "や、本当まじ上手すぎない？？？ いつか生で聴きたいな…" This is really good! I want to hear it live sometime! "うまっ！！！！" Great "さすが歌柱、アカペラもいいね！佑音ちゃんの歌声に癒やされる" As expected.... a cappella is great huh? Your voice relaxes me. "さすがゆうねちゃん 最高(◍˃̶ᗜ˂̶◍)ﾉ" As expected Yune! It's the best! "佑音映ってなかたら大人が歌ってる感じがした(*´∇｀*)" When you aren't being filmed, it has the feeling of being sung by an adult! "綺麗な声だね ガンバ" Isn't it such a pretty voice? Do your best. "オレはゆうねが歌う方が好きだ！" I like the way that you sing. "もしかして！？お風呂場かな" 映画めっちゃボロ泣きしたよ 佑音ちゃんの上手な歌聴きながらまた(emoji) Ehhh... are you singing in the bath? When I hear Yune's pretty voice I want to cry. "映画感動した 佑音ちゃんが主題歌歌っちゃえば" I was moved by the video. Wouldn't it be great if Yune could sing a theme song? "上手だね♫" You're good, huh! "ホントに綺麗な声ですね 凄く上手で聞き惚れました これからも応援しているので、がんばってください" Truly a beautiful voice. Extremely skilled, I greatly enjoyed listening. Please do your best! "すてき∩^ω^∩" Amazing!
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  104. They rely on people who can pay the $3000 venue rental fee, the sound guy, ticketing and any other assorted costs... every week. They can have a nice sterile seminar hall. Or they could pay $800 for the cigarette smoke-encrusted smells like smoke, vomit and piss basement 4 live house in the red light district and make it easier for people who can't pay so much. Like kids. And people who can't hold down a job. And there's our conundrum.
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  105. It could still be judged even if it's not as bad as other things. My issue is it seems the story was written before he even stepped foot in Japan.
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  106. She really likes bananas. To the point it was even in her catchphrase. Yune's is something like "I'm left-handed and I like chocolate and mint" That other girl's is something about sunflowers and bananas. There was a sneaky splicing at that point to try to make it seem bad. If you'll notice, the mom hands her the cake, and then she's suddenly in the back of the room. It wasn't bad. That was the filming team trying to make you jump to conclusions about it being dirty.
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  107. We don't see the actual comment. It's telephone. The guy posts the comment. The comment is interpreted by someone, translated, and told to the reporter. The reporter comprehends, then rephrases to suit his documentary. No ones says "beautiful" in Japanese. "Beautiful" is translated as "utsukushii", which they hardly ever actually use. So she was probably just called "kawaii" and everyone knows that should usually be translated as cute.
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  108.  @pjduker05  Westerners have accepted gymnastics, figure skating, ballet that 12 year old drummer (as if no one has jeans fetishes- "About 2,510,000 results (0.54 seconds)"), Emma Watson, Hit Girl, that olympic gold medalist skater, etc, right? What's your hang-up with idols in particular? The way this was filmed? Sure, there may be some issues here I don't agree with, but "USA_Gymnastics_sex_abuse_scandal" happened and yet people still watched it in 2021. You could make an argument that everyone who supports it is somehow complicit, but of course everyone watching it has their own reasons, of which serious sexual attraction to the gymnasts is probably not even on the radar as a possibility for most people watching.
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  109. When asked what he likes about Yune: "Her skill is crazy high" 11:15 That's what he led with. And then at 12:19, "we enjoy her performance in a gentleman's way", which considering his English level, must be interpreted literally and not with whatever baggage you might place on it. Of course all he says (or makes the cut of the video) isn't all he necessarily thinks- there could be good and bad reasons, and if you could mind read the whole audience you'd probably find the full gamut of good and evil reasons. But from what he actually says, it sounds like he's saying that the general idol fandom is about supporting their growth and improvement, and he's found someone he thinks already has crazy high skill. Whether or not you believe it for his case or others, it's something that some people do enjoy doing. Like even if you don't like a sport you still might like filling out a bracket. But for this it's like you get to actually go give your favored team on your bracket a pep talk yourself to try to influence results. I still think for a very large % of idol fans the appeal is very similar to the appeal of sports. Some people really care about the draft and farm aspects. Most people don't.
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  110. lol... because the idealized son and daughter are different. Shouhei Ohtani is due 700 million over the next 10 years. Perhaps the most popular sporting event in Japan is the high school baseball tournament- millions have been following him since he was a kid. Some likely even before high school. He's the pinnacle of vicarious sonship and pretty much the whole of Japan feels pride at his continued success. Now when looking for a vicarious daughter, someone super rich and famous is possibly a negative, because you can't probably dote on someone who already has everything. Those who feel that way can dote on an indie performer like this. I mean, I don't totally buy their explanation. But athletes pretty much cover the needs for vicarious sons for guys.
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  111.  @fallenlegend8888  This wasn't expose style stuff with hidden cameras. And yet the video exists. Which means they got permission to film. Which means that what they told them they were filming and what came out of editing were not the same thing. There's plenty of dirt to find in Japan. But digging could actually be dangerous. So we get stuff like this.
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  112. Almost no one in Japan uses what is translated as "beautiful". It's a textbook word- very uncommon in practice. I looked her up on twitter and searched for the Japanese word for beautiful replying to her. There are maybe 70 and IT"S ALMOST ALL FOREIGNERS. (including females) So what did the guy actually say? We don't know because he typed something, it was interpreted, then translated, then told to the reporter. The reporter then comprehended, and used his own words to speak for them. Which is shitty reporting. It is most likely that the word used was kawaii- as that's the word be uses later, which everyone knows just means cute.
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  113. It's not. It's just the video producers editing it to take advantage of your dirty mind. There's even a splice in the editing there where they manufacture a joke. Her introductions are something like "I like sunflowers, bananas, and Pretty Cure (kind of like Sailor Moon) "... ....so they gave her a banana cake. That's all there is to it. She likes banana flavored food and posts pictures of banana crepes, banana ice cream, banana cupcakes, etc.. Her fans bought a cake with some sliced bananas on it. She thanked them for caring. And your mind is in the gutter.
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  114. Just a clarification... the suicide rate in Japan is not particularly high. It's not particularly low either. It's actually better than the USA and on par with Scandinavian countries. The stereotype might have been true before but it's been steadily decreasing since about 2010.
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  115. It was Halloween. Or rather, about October 20th. It was a Halloween theme birthday party. Fom the idol and maid side, they are already celebrating with costumes and decorations and props. But most people aren't in the mood that early. So only a few people have costumes.
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  116. Because the fans buy stuff. Including physical. The bigger fans will buy a really nice $40 album rather than download. They go to lots of concerts. K-pop idols with their global reach.... still learn Japanese just so that can promote in ONE country. Getting even a small share of the Japanese music industry is huge.
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  117.  @saintnicole3209  During morning rush hour, it's basically what amounts to a packed concert. You almost feel like if you jumped up... you'd just get stuck on people and not actually land back on the ground. Maybe not true, but it feels like it. It can be that crowded. You're basically all up in everyone's business just as a matter of course. Nobody has to actually be groping people- you're basically getting frottage just by riding the train like normal. Which is part of why everyone carries bags- your bag and everyone else's bag ends up as a little buffer zone between you and everyone else so you just get pressed up against the bag instead. The women only cars are a courtesy on some lines in the morning when continual contact with others is a matter of course.
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  118. All these sorts of things WANT FEMALE FANS. Some stuff will even offer discounts and such to girls. The issue is it's literally decades of media demonization. Which causes a feedback loop. The main maid cafes in Akihabara are chains with multiple locations. In normal times they take a lot of foreign tourist clientele. And I think that leans female.. because that's probably who actually would like maid cafes more if girls in Japan weren't being told that they're not supposed to like that sort of thing. Idol groups, of which probably +99% are older than the super young idols shown here, have to aggressively market to build up a female fanbase. The male ones come automatically. The female ones have to be bribed to get them in the door and to get them to realize they actually like it. And most groups can't actually afford to do that. But, again, the idols would be extremely happy to see more girls in attendance. And the fans actually generally will be too.
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  119. Talent programs usually have extremely exploitative terms. For example, AGT contestants consent to 24/7 cameras and audio. Including hidden cameras. Including in bathrooms and dressing rooms. Yes, the contract says this. There's also a non-compete clause for 1 year where they don't let you go on other reality shows. Or they can pay you $8500 to be able to preempt any other offers for a year. You have to ask permission for everything for a year. Oh, and of course a pretty long segment on how you give permission for them to make fun of you or make shit up about you if they feel like it and it's not libel. Is that supposed to be better?
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  120. UK has sent a lot of reporters to Japan to cover this sort of stuff. They're ALL basically hitjobs with a predetermined narrative and conclusion. UK media apparently loves sending people abroad to try to make their people feel better about themselves by painting foreigners in a bad light. So the wise decision is to refuse permission to appear. Even if they're fans just there for fun they know that the UK documentary guy is going to try to paint them as p*********. So why would you appear? No matter what you say they'll just cut your comments until you are what they want you to be. In the end this guy sent to make a hitjob video couldn't even find anything too egregious so is conclusion is pretty much that he thinks it's bad because he thinks that there are people thinking bad things. So they basically got two people to appear. One who is a huge fan and speaks quite seriously about why he is a fan.. and the other guy who is questionable and is clearly a bit what they would have called KY. Maybe that's a bit of outdated slang in Japan now, but it means ignorant of the atmosphere. That's why he's handcuff guy when the cameras are rolling. Even if it could be spun to be innocuous, he should know they're going to spin it to be bad because that's what all the UK camera crews do. But he's KY. And that's why he doesn't mind showing his face (default is mosaic- you must explicitly give permission in Japan) as he does whatever. He doesn't think it's bad.
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  121. Well, what kind of kids do guys want? Like if you asked a guy, you can only have one kid, boy or girl, which would you choose it? In that case they would be choosing based on a strong gender dichotomy. People would generally want happy, graceful, and kind girls who they can pamper and will pretend to listen and care... or a tough competitive boy who can impress with his skill. So the trend is toward idols for girls. Boys? More toward sports. The premier amateur sports event in Japan is the high school baseball championship. The concept of the little singing boy would be like a little ballet boy or whatever... there's probably a small market for that among older women. And if a guy had a son who decided to really be into ballet I'd hope he would support him... but that's not likely to have been his idea of an ideal son.
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  122.  @amethyst1826  Your longer responses only show up as previews so I can't see the whole thing. Your last message as well but it was short enough to not get cut. Anyway, I'd be happy enough with a healthy child doesn't answer the question. If you're going to bother to have kids, your answer better be at least that good because having kids is a crapshoot. I was just asking you to consider the hypothetical. Some of these guys are likely to be married. While this group is probably worse than the whole otaku cohort, the married % is about 1/3rd, including the younger fans who are still below average marrying age. They might have kids... heck, they might have 3 sons and wanted a daughter and gave up. Not a likely situation, but I'd say it's likely SOMEONE is in that situation. Everyone has their own reasons.
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  123. Going back to the original, while it's possible she's a single mother, considering the economics of this I'd consider it very unlikely. A college age girl can get by with the money but Yune can't even perform very often- so if it was a single mother she'd be essentially working full time + doing all this stuff for Yune. Considering the low % of single mothers in Japan, it's likely there's a father. The father minds his own business, for any number of reasons. One important reason is if he's working somewhere and is recognized, he'll have a real name attached to him and be pretty traceable. Yune is likely under a stage name. Showing the father greatly increases the change of self-doxing.
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  124.  @amethyst1826  Perhaps just my end... youtube has hiccups sometimes. Also sometimes stuff gets flagged and it hides it to everyone else but lets you keep seeing it so that you don't try to fix it with a repost. 3rd party would have to come and confirm they can see it to rule that out. Youtube is being run by robots more than usual in recent months so the flagging has been stupider than normal.
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  125. At her age, there is still a lot of red tape involved. She performs once or twice a week on weekends and holidays. To help compensate for few performances allowed, they charge a relatively high entry fee for each one. To help justify the entry fee, they often allow photography. This affects the demographics of who can and does show up. Some of which will just be amateur photographers who just want to try out their stuff out at, for them, a halfway decent price point compared to a real model. But it means younger people who can't splash so much cash will have trouble going. Some events have youth discount tickets- but I don't think this was one of them, so even if there were any younger fans, they skipped this one.
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  126. Typically, idol parents don't show themselves. And you mention dad, but did you notice that there's also older brother? Even of those shown in uploaded pictures or whatever, the majority to family choose to keep a mosaic over their face- perhaps for their own privacy or because it's policy of their work or school or just to try to keep Yune anonymous. However, at Yune's age she needs a guardian, so mom already has to chaperone and be so involved in everything so there's no real point in hiding. Basically, that he isn't shown is the normal. That a parent is shown at all is only normal because of her age. Additionally, their apparent economic situation from looking at their apartment means it's VEEEERY likely that dad is the one paying the actual bills. Full time indie idols still make significantly less money than people with a salary position- they perform about 4-5 days a week and make enough money to support themselves. Yune can usually perform 1-2 times a week. In order to actually see how they are without any potential bias of this video, I watched one of her streams. Dad was mentioned, and they know who he is, they know how old he is- IIRC it was given, but I don't remember it at all though it's not clear if he's still an everyday part of the family or not. However, to me the stream is "boring" (it's about 25% her telling each person good evening), and while staying up until 3am or something to watch it to make sure it was clean and how it's administered was fine, I'm not going to be a regular. He's mentioned on her twitter or blog on rare occasion. One day she went to his work. One day they picked him up at the station. One day he and her brother were watching a soccer game on TV together. Nothing really recent though. If you actually went to her meet and greet it's likely you could ask around the subject (eg, what sports does your family like) and you'd get a better feeling for her family than is typically mentioned on SNS. You probably could ask around it on SNS too but it'd be a little bit harder, as they're aware all of that is visible to every Joe Shmoe on the Internet. If you actually appear at an event, you are slightly vetted, and that increases as you go to more. (eg, once you appear at her show and meet her, if you are recognized in her hometown, that's sus, a vulnerability the Internet stalker doesn't have). tl;dr Idol family members usually choose to remain anonymous so info is rare, but it seems at the very least he's been involved in her life for at least part of the time she's spent as an idol.
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  127. It's a grab bag of cheap costume props for Halloween. You're supposed to take a funny picture, like they do at the photobooths at the company Halloween party or whatever. To take the handcuffs in particular and then NOT take a funny picture is weird. Probably manager was hesitant to make a scene in front of the camera, but guy probably red flagged himself with that.
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  128. I thought the LGB crowd were trying harder to appear to not be abiding of stuff concerning minors, considering recent backlash. The general anti-LGB feeling up through the '90s or maybe some of the '00s or so became by and large acceptance though middle '10s and the recent backlash concerns compliance (ie, when you make non-LGBT into stakeholders in the matter by making them swear fealty or face a penalty), or issues concerning kids, where they are still stakeholders on account of their kids. I've mostly played devil's advocate on this video because I think it is insidiously biased for the sake of gaining clicks and leads people to too extreme of an opinion that isn't inline with the actual safety concerns- where she's frankly probably safer doing this than most people's kids are just existing on account of where they live. Moreover, I think the "actually a fan" opinion is the prevailing one, with the degenerates being a minority and not the 99% that the comment section suggests. But I really don't think she should be doing this at her age on account of the degenerates that are there. Nevertheless, as I think it's by and large safe so long as mom is chaperoning and I think most people are just there to enjoy an innocent performance, I would only go so far as to recommend parents not have their kids do it. And that's it. It's not even dangerous to the extent that I judge the mom for letting her do it- only if she forced her to do it. The recent LGBT controversy has to do with strong-armed promotion of stuff in front of everyone, particularly the kids. Of course there will be backlash. Kids won't even know this girl exists unless they see her on tiktok or whatever, let alone are they being encouraged to be like her- that's why she has to promote to these older guys, who will actually come and pay for a ticket at a venue. It's a gray zone, but it avoids backlash because it keeps to itself. The commercial virtue signaling for LGBT has put it in front of everyone and makes them stakeholders. This drives backlash.
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  129. If a woman wants a no strings attached daughter, what does she need to do? If a man wants a no strings attached daughter, what does he need to do? If she has a way to support a kid, the father need not even know that he's a father. He on the other hand needs to be able to support the kid... and the mother, because if mother isn't happy she'll just disappear with the kid and the courts will almost always be on her side in doing so. Look, I don't totally buy the excuse either. But the situations are not the same.
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  130. "Are you ready? I'm ready!!" Seems to be her own song.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D9qcE6eekI
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  131. 紅蓮華 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gLv0Er5IaM
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  132. One of the first things my company taught us when I was working abroad is to unabashedly and uncompromisingly use English when talking with the police, lawyers, or anything else like that. Even if you study for hours and hours and think you're fluent- use English. That guy isn't fluent. They should have told him to speak Japanese and they'll translate it later. Of course the problem is if you speak your native language you leave it up to them to put words in your mouth. But that's still almost always better than trying to explain a complicated topic well when you're not really fluent.
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  133. It's a different outfit basically every time. She's mostly a cover artist, so the outfit often reflects the covered song. The outfit you see says more about what the camera crew led them to believe the audience of this video would like than anything. Edit: Oh, and frankly, I think this is a silly point to argue about because people will find an excuse to complain about any outfit. And if you don't just mean cutesy outfits fit for kids and actually mean she should just wear regular clothes- THAT'S ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS OUTFITS SHE COULD WEAR. Almost all Japanese idol fans will leave them alone when they appear to be "off"... one of the worst things you can do is blur "on" and "off" because then you lose a lot of the protection that the ability to be "off" gave you.
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  134. On the contrary, she'd be more popular if she were older. It might not be the same people... but I'm sure at least some of them would still be fans. Basically, at her age, there is some red tape involved. It's very difficult to perform any other days except weekends or holidays which, at least in non- covid times, puts her at a huge disadvantage compared to those who can perform 4-6 days a week. In a sense, it may even be part of the cause of this situation- she can't perform often, so she is in particular need of high paying fans.
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  135. He didn't. At 10:55 he clearly pulls it out of the bag of costume props they seem to have set up there for Halloween. You can still make a judgement call seeing as how he chose that over other items, but please ground your judgement on a closer review of the video.
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  136. This was filmed on or around October 20th. As you can see by the decorations, Halloween events were in full swing. You can still think it's creepy of course. But keep it in context- even the handcuffs looked to be part of a box of costume props available as a Halloween special. Filming that close to Halloween made things extra weird... because Halloween is weird.
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  137. I'm not going to try to get into the ethics as I don't have all the details. But to be clear, her actual birthday is October 30th, and that birthday event was on October 20th. Not even the same week.
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  138.  @qjitsu  Of course the date matters. If I celebrate Christmas on December 25th with my family and on the 24th with family friends and the 21st with friends and the 19th with coworkers it says a lot about priorities. Am I not allowed to celebrate on 19th with coworkers? I think it would be bad to celebrate on 25th with coworkers and ignore family. But on 19th? Who gives a crap? It's not like she's not having a birthday party with her friends and family. She's just ALSO having this other party with her fans.
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  139. Anyone who can read the atmosphere wouldn't ask for them in the first place so I doubt the camera made a difference.
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  140. Because the actual translation is more like: "In the case of Yune, the people who come for her voice, the singing voice, and such... the people who come for that point are many." Which was translated as "I think for Yune people come for her singing voice." Which is an okay enough translation if you weren't trying to read too deeply into every word. And in all likelihood they didn't sit her down for a 1 minute interview. It is likely that 90-99% of her words have been cut and framed, as is the typical cut rate for documentaries, so I won't even try to read too much into the long translation I gave. If you get a 99% cut rate you can make any narrative the truth. It's a dodge, but she's obviously aware that some people are there for the wrong reasons. She mentions them later as a bother that must be overcome. However, she's trying to explain to him, and I guess also to people like you, that many if not most people there really are just good fans. And in the grand scheme of her activities- not this 24 minute video, but supporting and moderating the livestreams, and reading hundreds of comments on twitter or other SNS praising her voice specifically, she's not without evidence. Mom actually gave a measured response. She said some are good and some are not. You accuse them all. Which is a pretty ridiculous position. I'd say it's even less likely that it's all of them than that it's none of them. She plays "regular" events too- not just with the young idols... there's opportunity for her to pick up "regular" fans. Anyway, one more important point: Yune wears a different outfit every performance. In fact, she had a short 5 minute performance earlier in the day which used a different more conservative outfit. This outfit wasn't beyond what she's done before, but it's one of the raciest things she's ever worn. THEY KNEW THE CAMERA CREW WAS COMING. The outfit was chosen for that day in particular. WHY? Why wear the raciest thing in your wardrobe for a camera crew trying to sexualize you? Mom could have even just flipped with the dress she wore early in the day. Pretty sure this was a setup- a bait and switch. They acted friendly with them while taping, encouraging her to wear something that would appeal to Western audiences and fans of pop stars like Ariana Grande, and then 9 months of editing later it's "pin-ups".
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  141. It is not legal. They finally banned possession not too long ago- they list the year in the video I think. Everything else concerning it was already banned for many years. As you may know concerning drug laws, possession laws are a can of worms. It's extremely easy to plant and it's not usually actually prosecuted without some sort of ulterior motive. Law enforcement is usually busy enough dealing with supply side.
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  142. I'm sure Yune is a bigger expert on the exact situation than most of the people watching this. A fairly biased 24 minute documentary isn't making experts.
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  143. Young boys are supported in baseball.
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  144.  @83croissant  I'm saying "idol" isn't the sort of ideal son for guys. Now women, sure, and I'm sure you can find something similar, if possibly less common, for women who want to support young idol boys. But that's not the image of a son that most guys want. And you know, daughter gets money just because, son is told to go get a job. Actual real families. They want to pamper a daughter, they want the son to be self sufficient. So would it transfer to guys? Probably not so easily. But Koushien, the high school baseball championship tournament is pretty much the premier sports event in Japan.
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  145. It's literally filmed October 20th or something. Don't you see all the Halloween shit all over? A lot of this stuff is extra weird because.... Halloween is weird. Some of the guys are wearing costumes because it's Halloween. They had a grab bag of costume props including the handcuffs because it's Halloween. The girls themselves dressed up in costumes because it's Halloween. They're just having fun for Halloween. That stuff isn't year round.
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  146.  @a87nomsirrah35  It's a birthday party held in late October. The decorations are Halloween themed- probably mostly because that's what was most available that time of year. At least a few people dressed up. Is EVERYONE in the mood for Halloween yet on October ~20th? No. But Halloween events and promotions are already in motion. I had a buddy who literally as soon as it became December, starts wearing a Santa Hat everywhere. You don't begrudge him for being more festive, even if you are a grinch like me who doesn't even want to hear Christmas carols until the 24th or so. As far as I can tell, guy in the wig literally has a little jack-o-lantern pin on. He's in the mood for Halloween. Whatever.
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  147.  @a87nomsirrah35  You're the one who cares about the wig. The wig is because it's Halloween. End of story. You want to pick on motives, degeneracy, fine. My parents would say anyone dressing up for Halloween after age 12 is degenerate. Quite chill over here. Probably wouldn't have replied again but "I have the final say nyah-hah-hah.'" people are really annoying.
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  148. This was filmed in late October (2019). It's before Halloween. It was even advertised as "Aimi's Halloween Birthday Party" But it was still only about the 20th or something. So the idols are already promoting Halloween season heavily but only a few of the fans took it to heart enough to dress up. Anyway, at events this small basically everyone knows everyone. Fairly quickly a person will at least be associated with an SNS account, if not a real name and credit card. They aren't particularly concerned about these people. If they come often and break any rules- including the catch-all "make her feel uncomfortable in any way" , everyone knows who they are and will help enforce the entry ban. If they're new and show up, the regulars will be watching them carefully. The biggest risk is that someone who's never actually gone to any shows and watches stuff on the Internet- or maybe is say one of those camera guys at a large show but hasn't met her personally, stalks her in her hometown where she likely walks around by herself a decent amount of the time. That's why mom's biggest concern is that they don't show where they live. A concern that seems to have been sloppily heeded by the reporter.
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  149. It was obviously filmed in October.
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  150. In Japan you're supposed to mosaic by default, unless you have express permission. Big companies in Japan usually mosaic the crap out of everything for safety. Youtubers and random people don't expect more than a takedown request so they're often lazy. Businesses protect the portrait rights of their clientele- mosaicing was likely a stipulation when giving permission to film there. They probably didn't say they didn't want to be shown- that was just the default for filming in a venue.
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  151. The clothing is what it is because of the film crew, not because of the fans. It's either by direct request of the film crew, or was what they thought a Western film crew or audience wanted to see.
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  152. You were 100% fluent and not missing any key words in the report there? Not even to defend Japan there- probably 80% under some specification is true. More like saying that Japan having produced 200 times the amount of the rest of the world per capita doesn't seem to match up with the reality of the rest of the world- no matter how much Japan could produce, it doesn't seem like the rest of the world could be that clean.
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  153.  @youyouulf  This was filmed around October 20th. Keep that in mind when considering the box of costume props.
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  154.  @FCBarcelonaXMI  Nah. He's not creepy. Well, except for the part where he probably sweet-talked Yune to her face and then turned around and stabbed her in the back when filming and editing this. That's pretty creepy. I don't really think he's perving here. Just lacking in journalistic integrity.
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  155. Most of us can agree we'd like to totally obliterate CP, but I'm against basically all possession laws. It's a weapon the government isn't responsible enough to wield.
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  156. What part will you make illegal?
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  157. When you watch something like this, you always have to remember that they have hours and hours of interviews and footage and you get to see the 24 minutes that tell the story they've been paid to tell. Basically, omission tells you nothing. You can find lots of comments complimenting her singing on twitter.
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  158. If he's the same Koji (I suppose it's a mildly common name) he literally uploads them, hashtag her name and linked to her official accounts, with the note on his profile that the person in the photo and their companies can use them freely. Yes, he's PAYING to be an unofficial photographer for her. Not a bad deal for her.
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  159. Basically the outfit was FOR YOU, Western audience. Sorry you didn't like it. But it was for you. She wore another costume that day. It was a plain dress. This outfit was for the taping because they thought, or were led to believe by the camera crew, that it's what you and the Western audience wanted to see. And it's of course exactly what the camera crew wanted to show you. Would have totally ruined the narrative if she came out in pants and a long sleeve T-shirt. Which would indeed be rare- but she's done it before and it'd sure hurt the narrative. Rare, but why do it EVER if they were just trying to sell to degenerate fans?
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  160.  @lornam1142  Because there are likely fewer than 100 people in the room but this video for a Westerner audience has 4,800,000 views. They had about 1 million subscribers so even if the video got no traction at all it'd still get maybe 30000 views. Which is still 300 people watching online for every 1 person there. And of course as is with 4,800,000 views there's basically a stadium full of people watching online for every 1 person there in person.
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  161. ​ @lornam1142  She would have performed anyway. The outfit is what it is because of the film crew though.
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  162.  @lornam1142  Because that's common sense. So do you have any evidence that common sense was ignored? If you know a news crew is showing up to your performance you're really just going to wear whatever?! That makes no sense. People record every show and post it online. You can go look at every outfit ever. I won't say that I agree with every one of them, but I will say the style of this one stands out. Yune+mom put together the outfits and this is probably the most Western pop star outfit she's ever worn. On that particular day with the Western news crew. She doesn't have to explicitly say that she wore it for Westerners- it is obvious.
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  163. They take a picture of it with their dinner. Yeah, it's like instagram food pics but it also has the polaroid. Here's an example of another (older) idol: https://twitter.com/vnyazaki1/status/1301554048164798464/photo/1 https://twitter.com/sasayan758/status/1097018946673233921/photo/1 https://twitter.com/shin5runner/status/1058731117421817856 https://twitter.com/mmbis_07/status/1200745896515780608/photo/1 All you gotta do is search for random girl names and random Japanese food and the word for polaroid. Oh, and they also pile them or spread them out to show their strong devotion while lamenting their spending. What were you thinking they do with them?
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  164. The biggest danger to Yune was the one her mother cared about. The people making the video while wagging their fingers at it didn't give a shit though. She's basically safe at the venue. They should have shown absolutely nothing on the way to or from her house.
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  165. Yeah, and that's frankly one of the main points of Japanese idols. You see, if you play it as a character, you get to TAKE A BREAK. You think her name is actually Yune Sakurai? I mean, it's POSSIBLE. I know of one idol who seems to actually have used both a real first and last name. But 9/10 at least part of it is fake. And more than likely even the first name is fake. They go to the venue in street clothes. Everyone knows to leave them the F alone. They put on your performance clothes, indicating that they are now performing in their role as idol, and so contact is dictated by their performer/venue rules. Then they take them off, put their street clothes back on, and everyone knows they're now supposed to leave them the F alone again. Japan doesn't have the sasaeng problem to anywhere near the same degree. Some troublemakers still ignore it, but most fans understand not to bother idols while they're "off". "On" and "off" is ingrained into the basic idol culture.
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  166. There are a lot of people with masks. Don't you see all their masks? Considering this was filmed in 2019 they're wearing lots of masks.
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  167. Let's switch the topic. Go look at a concert for NSYNC and let me know about the gender ratio of fans. It's high pitched squeals. But let's be clear... lots of guys LIKED some of those songs. I remember "Bye bye bye" was a karaoke favorite. Cuz people were goofing around. What guy would actually admit to really liking them? Like, really really liking them? To the point of going to a show? Nah, a lot of guys wouldn't be caught dead at such a show... again, even if they liked some songs. It really only goes the one way... girls like boy groups, boys aren't supposed to like pop groups, so girl groups need girl power or girl crush to have enough fandom. In essence, in the West, both boy and girl groups depend on girl fans. In Japan, it actually goes both ways. Girls follow boy groups. Guys follow girl groups. Again, basically to the point that if you go against the grain and like the same gender group too seriously, you're weird. You can like them a little bit, but not enough to go to shows. So girl crush is fairly irrelevant in Japan, and girl groups instead focus on stuff like cuteness and rock/metal to appeal to the male audience that is expected to follow girl groups. As this is very fringe in Japan... that push is even stronger. A girl walks around town or watches TV, she'll hear and see Nogizaka46, maybe becomes a fan. But to actually GO to a venue and CHOOSE to see girl performers no one has heard of? That'd be strange in Japan, and in conformist Japan, it would take a lot of bravery. So in general, there are few girls in the scene, especially at this indie of a level. And they tend to congregate as fans of the same few groups for morale support.
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  168. Your statement: "I think they're coming for her voice" The official translation given: "I think for Yune people come for her singing voice." Closer to what she ACTUALLY said: "In the case of Yune, the people who come for her voice, her singing voice, are many." I don't think the translation was intentionally malicious. It's straightforward and to the point, removing the nuance, which shouldn't usually be needed. Sufficient for most purposes. However since the whole video is a hitjob, causing people to scrutinize each word- I'll simply say the translation doesn't hold up to that degree of scrutiny.
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  169. Yes. Is everything legal? No. Are they going to bother to go report on the illegal stuff? Apparently not. That might actually be dangerous.
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  170. Sex? It's singing and dancing.
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  171. Frankly, probably working. It's possible that this is a single mother but all things considered I'd put that at about a 1/10 chance.
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  172. It's 13. But it just means consent. It's not actually LEGAL until 16 or 18, and 18 there in Tokyo. This shouldn't be a hard concept to understand. But it's unfortunate that whoever compiles this stuff just pulls the number without regard to the actual definitions being used by the country.
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  173.  @uyhgar369  If you couldn't manage to watch Harry Potter without getting excited, that might just be you and you might want to get help. You don't have to speak for everyone else.
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  174. ​ @uyhgar369  Sexualized dance moves? Where?
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  175. “We used to have a gachapon machine that sold new panties, but the sign said ‘used.’ There was a disclaimer at the bottom saying they they weren’t really used – but it was written in Japanese, so maybe they took the sign literally.” "Is someone, somewhere in Japan selling used panties out of a vending machine? I wish I could tell you that the answer is no, but the honest truth is, well, maybe. One thing is for sure, though – the urban legend is certainly more popular than the machines ever were." And it goes into the truth of the matter. Of course this stuff- and worse... is for sale. Online. Just like it is everywhere else. Including your country. That it may have at one point been sold in capsule machines just shows their particular love of capsule machines. But perversion is a bit more of a global thing.
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  176. You were good until you got to 99.9%.
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  177. It's why my company told us to never speak Japanese to police, government officials, etc. No matter how good we thought we were, we were to only use English. Some people forget that when you're talking to someone who isn't fluent, that they aren't fluent. I can almost guarantee you that this was a "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" type of question.
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  178. Their ideal son is different from their ideal daughter. Koshien is the most popular amateur sports event in Japan.
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  179. This is indie. It's not really advertised. It's expensive. There's little opportunity for kids to know she exists. Even if they do, kids are still more interested in mainstream stuff since they are more influenced by advertising and peer pressure than even adults. And the mainstream companies view them as fresh mea and advertise at them aggressively. It's expensive and they don't have the means. For Yune in particular, she can't perform very often, so the events she does do often have a high price point. If you're not really interested in the scene in general but just a single performer, at the indie level it's going to just be a 15-30 minute set at this sort of thing. Even if it's really a parent paying, it's a lot harder for a parent to pay for two people than for a single 30-40 something with money to burn to just pay for himself. That said, there are young fans, at least of idols in general- which Yune should be able to move into with the next year or two if she likes. But you generally have to go to at least slightly more mainstream stuff, and then, only the bigger events, if you want to see them. Occasionally you'll see a dad with a daughter who is obviously the fan rather than him at a smaller show, but it's much less common than when a group or performer is holding a one-man concert and you'll get 1-3 hours to justify the trip.
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  180. Oh, that's easy. Huge multinational multibillion dollar companies invest hundreds of millions of dollars to tell the kiddies what they're supposed to like. Yune is indie. The hundred million to billion dollar companies are promoting their assets to the kiddies. The people who know Yune exists are the people who stopped caring so much about the mainstream and spend their time watching indie shows in small live houses, or perhaps people who watch her on TikTok or such. And she might have some young fans from TikTok- Yune got into this by watching other kids' videos online. But getting those Internet fans into seats is hard. Renting live houses is expensive and the amount they have to charge prices a lot of people out. Especially for something like this where each a bunch of acts each only gets 20-30 minutes. Many idols can draw more of a mixed crowd for a one-man concert.
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  181. This is Tokyo, so the number is 18. If you do intimate acts with someone under 18 in Japan while over 18 and are caught and convicted, you will go to jail. If they are under 13, it can automatically be treated as assault without having to prove anything else since consent isn't possible. If they are 13 or higher then you have to actually prove that it wasn't consensual to get the assault charge, but would still be guilty of the corrupting minors charge, which is still jailtime.
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  182. They can't really advertise. Buying ad space basically does nothing if no one knows who she is. Paying for advertising with sound costs in the order of $10000. Paying for TV exposure would burn through her annual earnings in about 3 minutes. It's the natural fandom they can get through word of mouth. Kids like what the mainstream companies tell them they like until they get old enough to break free. One thing they could do is lower the price. But that would mean they couldn't afford the nice and sterile $3000-4000 seminar hall and would probably have to go with something more along the lines of a vomit encrusted livehouse in the red light district. Yeah, probably not going to get parents taking kids there either. The older idols play a lot of those venues. It means they can charge $25-30 or so, whereas Yune charges $50. Lowering the price would attract more younger fans. But the management is well aware the dangerous fans are almost all around age 26 and NOT the older guys. The high price gatekeeps against kids and such, but it also gatekeeps against the biggest of creeps.
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  183. As an aside, they were probably really glad to get this documentary crew. They probably told her company all sorts of nice things about how they would be able to be able to show millions of people around the world how talented she is. Free advertising, a real chance to expand her fandom out without having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising. And then they went and stabbed her in the back by turning it into a hitjob, carefully editing everything to appear as bad as possible. There went her chance for a bigger variety of fans. Just fortified it in place all the more.
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  184. Well, it's probably fun if you get to hop on before the hype train leaves the station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKkjoXweyrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO7Y8NsnkRg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3nV93CQ3KY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6T0wOMsNrI
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  185. BABYMETAL is a decade old already.
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  186. So, where I went to college in the USA, there was this dance studio with one wall just being a big window open to a shopping district. My first thought- Those poor little girls- I'd be horrified to practice in front of people. That's because I don't like performing anything without practice, and by having windows, it sort of makes the practice a performance for anyone walking or sitting nearby, of which there were maybe hundreds per hour. A later thought- some people are going to be in to that. So I definitely wouldn't want to practice in front of people. But the logical conclusion is... some people are into that, and they're stiiiiill going to be into that even if you make the NY Ballet or whatever or are a gymnast and make the Olympics. So, what do you want to do about it? What sort of rule can you make that would fairly differentiate the ballet dancer from the idol?
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  187. ​ @demef758  It doesn't add zero additional information. But it's understandably cut. They likely have at least 24 hours of footage that they've cut down to 24 minutes. Every interview with a couple juicy snippets taken was likely from a full interview with many innocuous questions filmed merely to get to the point where they could sneak in the couple questions they really wanted to ask. And there's plenty of stuff that they'd rather show that they cut than spend time showing the translation process. But it's not zero additional information. Showing the whole translation process lets bilingual people audit their process. I'm impressed by the skill of interpreters but languages aren't one to one and they have to decide on the fly what to omit or embellish.
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  188. Showroom chat is very clean in general.
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  189. It also has an extremely aggressive filter that causes false positives, but it's not just that. It's clean anyway.
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  190. lol Yeah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icLMejRgOoE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BHtv-XNar4
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  191. 1 minute in there was nothing to be seen. First 2 minutes was just the reporter conditioning you to think a certain way. And there's plenty of it all along the way.
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  192. She has a different outfit for basically every show. They choose it together. As she's mostly a cover artist it often goes along with what she's covering that day. There were actually two outfits that day- where's the other more conservative one in this video? And even that one isn't as covered as a lot of her outfits. Plenty of them are quite covered up with pretty much only her face and hands showing. I don't have the setlist for this day so I don't know if that may have caused it. If she knew this was a hitjob video maybe they would have gone with something super covered to throw a wrench in it. But she's an Ariana Grande fan. Maybe they thought that this sort of thing is what Westerners like.
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  193. 62? I dunno. 44 still does fine though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmK75d29KoQ And it's not like weird idol concepts haven't done well before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zWwd8n2JVI
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  194. Last October. 2019. A week or two before Halloween, so a lot of this stuff is Halloween themed. And I think your comment is quite funny because it's normally "why are all those Japanese people wearing masks?" I guess that's dead. The new thing will be people wondering why they're still wearing masks when the pandemic is over. They already used them for all sorts of reasons.
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  195. It inflected in 1972. Although that's not actually the drop yet, the inflection point is basically the point in which the social benefit pyramid scheme begins to fail, though it isn't readily apparent for a while. In other words, a lot of this sort of stuff is more symptom than cause.
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  196. It is where I'm from. California. And in this very state they've made hundreds if not thousands of movies glorifying teenage sex. And there are so many abortions they stopped reporting the number. And as far as I know, parents don't need to be informed of the abortion. SO WTF does that age of consent thing do besides make it so that of the 2 million or so sexually active minors here, they can selectively prosecute the few people they don't like or selectively NOT prosecute people who will pat their back in return? That's what happens when your law doesn't reflect reality. Nevertheless, in most cases it's illegal in Japan until age 18 and parents might even be able to press charges until age 20. You just get a lesser charge above 13. Does it work? I don't really think so. It's selectively prosecuted there as well. The concept is that a 13 year old is sufficiently mature to understand the ramifications- but it's still bad for society before 18 and so it's still illegal.
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  197. He didn't. It was in a grab bag full of cheap Halloween props provided by Yune's staff. You were supposed to take a funny picture like you would at a photo booth or whatever. No dad has ever taken a funny picture with himself as a criminal handcuffed with his daughter in a police costume? It's certainly been done thousands of times. I'm not going to defend choosing that one thing out of however many options and then not actually taking a funny picture... nor will I defend including a potentially questionable item in the grab bag when you as Yune's staff know some debatable % of her fans are creepers... but it's important to state the reality properly.
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  198. Look at the way the woman/mom? giving her the cake teleports into the back of the room for the laugh. This "joke" was manufactured by the people filming this.
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  199. Most idols suck at singing. Because as you know, the main facet of being an idol fan is supporting development. Even when they form into groups only 1-3 or so per group have to carry the singing. (There are groups where no one can sing but they tend to fare far worse) Yune is actually good for her age. And even though this scene isn't very popular, she seems to have a relatively large amount of popularity for the scene. So it's easy enough for the mom to draw the conclusion that the difference in popularity is because she can sing well. And if you actually look at her twitter, it's really no issue to find hundreds of comments praising her singing. Additionally, I doubt they sat her down for a 40-60 second interview- I don't think it's unfair to assume 90% of what she said is cut by the video compiler. Obviously they're not supporting the best singer in the world. They're supporting someone who still takes the time to be grateful on a one to one basis.
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  200. Yes, staff is watching everyone. Good job breaking the rules in about 2 seconds.
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  201. All doom and gloom huh? The U-16 gravure side of things is certainly sketchy. That's often/usually what they mean by Junior Idols. Heck, the whole gravure thing is sketchy regardless of age. But she's focusing on the singing side and has talent. So long as she switches to the regular idol scene she can find work there through at least 30... and fans are quite loyal, as least so long as she stays in the same group. If she wants to sing she should work on transitioning out by 25. If she's good enough she can be a singer. Competition is stiff, but it's at least enough to earn a living. It's not like AKB hires a bunch of singers. Not many of them actually have potential to sing and they know it. They're AIMING for B list actress or stage actress or bangumi tarento or model. Or just plain out expect to leave the entertainment industry once they finish school. There are certainly pitfalls. But there's a path forward too.
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  202.  @63annushka  She's gotten some attention. She'll be fine if they don't blow it. https://twitter.com/tsunkuboy/status/1302785168432742401 As for momoclo, they also started from almost nothing, so I figured there would be stuff if I looked: https://aikru.com/archives/556 Once they got pretty popular then their fandom could expand to almost 50/50. But it's still mostly guys at the shows? Yeah, that's how it works. Plenty of idols are over 25. Kashiwagi Yuki remains one of the most popular AKB members. Some are even over 30. Mirin is 32-34, married, and still doing fine. It's considered bad form in the fandom to switch favorites within a group. Popular ones would have no problem drawing it out to 35, maybe even 40. But it's a dead end so it's better to jump ship to something that can actually be a career to age 60+ before then.
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  203. Japanese idols use constructed personas. Everyone expects as much. The degree varies of course. Yune may be playing it fairly straight.
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  204. Possession. It was already illegal to produce, distribute, sell, etc. And the more important thing that happened was putting pressure on producers. Possession laws (for anything) are beyond the scope of what the government can handle responsibly. They should not be allowed that power.
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  205. Oh they could just be related... like brothers or something.
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  206. Filmed out of order for convenience and then compiled this way to tell their narrative. The first show was Oct 19th at 6pm. When they left, it was dark. Then he goes to meet Koji and it's light. Then he goes to see the professor. Dark again. The birthday show was on Oct 20th at 1pm. There's no date visible during the short meeting with him at the cafe/restaurant so it can't easily be confirmed when exactly it was filmed. However the video is clearly out of chronological order.
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  207. Pretty sure they didn't do anything. For various reasons that would make this tl;dr, it usually seems to be on youtube's side. You just typed some keyword or another that flagged the attention of youtube's censorship police which automatically deleted it for you. It's been pretty rampant for the last 12-18 months or so. You really need to copy and paste everything and let it sit for a few minutes to make sure it sticks as they don't bother to tell you it's been deleted.
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  208. It's a different outfit basically every time. They knew the film crew was coming. Why wear that particular outfit that time? She even had two outfits that day and could have easily switched them to use the more conservative one for the film crew. Seems to me that she was encouraged to wear something like that (eg, wear something like Ariana Grande would wear, Western people love Ariana Grande, they'll love it), and then turned around and made this a hit job video in post-production. There's no way this video gets made in the first place if they told them what kind of video they were actually filming.
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  209.  @gemelwalters2942  What clothing would you suggest?
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  210. Rosebud
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  211. Many of them take trains to school by themselves by 1st grade.
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  212. Best to go to Hiroshima's Hall of Remembrance so you can learn to have some respect.
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  213. How do you know she's a single mom? Did it ever say that? I can't find information one way or the other about their exact current relationship status, but in any case, dad has been involved through at least most of her life, and seems to have a relatively good job. There's also an older brother. Anyway, a reminder... this "documentary" gets money by baiting clicks. It baits comments by making it look as bad as possible. Make sure you extricate the profit motive of the camera crew from what you're actually seeing before making a judgement, remembering that you're only getting one side of the story even then.
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  214. That isn't the most disturbing thing as it's totally irrelevant. This is super niche- the actually popular part of this centers around 16-22 (ie, high school + college). Those who just prefer junior idols for whatever good or bad reasons and stop following her when she stops playing those events and moves on will each be replaced by dozens of others. Though it's possible she'll just go into stage theater or whatever instead which has less of a chance for gaining fans but more career potential.
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  215. So I presume you are 20-26 or so?
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  216.  @satoya.a  So why does she have restrictions you don't put on BTS?
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  217. Also, how are the girls your age supposed to have fans their own age when you're caught up following 23 year old guys?
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  218.  @satoya.a  Why shouldn't BTS be singing to people their own age?
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  219.  @satoya.a  The issue is you don't hold BTS to the same standard that you hold Yune to. You're happily following them as a teenager despite their being 23-27 but you tell her she has to have fans her own age.
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  220. ​ @lunajack9947  K-pop fans will post that BTS has something like 40% male fans. And the male fans actually at a show will post that they're extreme minorities there. I haven't actually been to BTS so I can't attest to it, but it seems like there's a difference between casuals and the fans. One thing I will say though is if BTS played shows like she did, how long until the pre-teen and even young teen audience gets priced out? How many parents will pay $100 a week ($50 x 2), every week, to take her to a show? (oh, and add transportation costs...) This is what causes the middle-aged illusion of idol groups. (the gender split is pretty common in all sorts of idols in Japan and is plenty true of indie AF boy groups who don't promote broadly too) But back to that... Yune is young so she can only perform 1-2 times a week in most cases, though charges higher for each to try to compensate. Many underground idols can perform about 5 times a week. Which runs about $7000 a year, not including transportation, just to go to all the shows. College kids with no income or part time income can't afford that. So they go to five shows a month or something, which after transportation and such, is still probably around $2000 a year. Well, if a group has 50 college-age fans and 50 40+ fans... well, once you account for who can actually pay for it, maybe 40 of those 40+ fans show up at a particular event and only 10 of the college age fans. And of course it's a bit of a feedback mechanism on top of that because fans will be more comfortable around similar fans. Idols themselves often advertise that a show is "free" you just have to pay the drink charge ($5-6, or sometimes $10-12). It's their job to spin it as just a little extra even when it's paid. But I remember one who graduated going to some event commenting something like oh, that drink charge is quite painful huh!? Indeed- big fans might put down $1500 a year on the BS forced drink charge. That's the scale we're looking at here. Which is why when he gets asked about promoting to younger fans at 14:16, the manager gives a look of "nice fantasyland you've got over there in your head but here in the real world 11 year olds don't have $2000 a year to waste on this."
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  221. They're into makeup and fashion stuff. As they get older they're into dramas. Besides the usual: trips, food, movies, books, comics/manga, music This is hardly mainstream anyway. At the mainstream level girls are into their Johnny's groups and K-pop. The most popular stuff in recent years has actually been the male soloists, which have dominant female support, and male bands, which have mixed support. And the indie boy groups exist too. There was one event that was all girl groups + one boy group. The girl fans got a bad deal since they paid full price to basically just watch one set- that's why they usually just have girl groups or boy groups perform at a particular event. It targets a particular audience... as it has to because there are dozens of events in Tokyo on a weekend. Even though I'm running devil's advocate for these guys, there are better options available that week if they were just into idols generally so they would have had some reasons to go to those particular events. If there were female, female idol fans, on a day like that they would have gone to see the H!P groups that were performing. Zenkimi was also performing that weekend. Not saying they would have come to this show instead- just that there's something available that's more to their interest.
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  222. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAToVdg446A at 1 minute and 7 seconds... the female/kids only area in addition to many people visible mixed into the crowd visible at other points.
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  223. Documentary translation subs of the part you mention: "I think for Yune people come for her voice." My half-assed not fluent translation: "In the case of Yune, well, the voice, the singing voice... that part... the people who come for that are many." Which is a dodge of course. But it's still a different answer than the one they wrote for her. She's not head in the sand suggesting everyone is just there for her voice. She's not defending everyone- she's just saying that people do indeed come for her voice (and she frankly has plenty of evidence to suggest as much). She later says that the others who aren't there are her voice are obstacles to overcome. His point is look at the demographics. Her response is basically, regardless of the demographics, most of these are good fans, and some are not.
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  224. Because the creepiness factor is a lot lower if you just tell the story neutrally.
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  225. ​ @gellotion If it's so bad, why so much spin?
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  226. Yeah... that means they are determined to be intellectually capable of consent at 13.... and will consent to a crime because it's still illegal to have sex under 16 or 18 depending on jurisdiction. Oh, and if they are actually under 13 then it upgrades from jail to LOTS of jail.
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  227. The issue is more money, means and opportunity.... she can only perform on weekends anyway.
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  228. While she mostly does covers, that's one of her own songs, "Are you ready? I'm ready!!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D9qcE6eekI While she has a few songs available for purchase from abroad, I don' think that one has been released yet.
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  229. The problem with this video is it drops you in without explaining idol culture. I know they're trying to be brief... and frankly considering the channel, be a hitjob, but if you're showing something people aren't familiar with to begin with then it needs to give an explanation of the whole thing before focusing in on the fringe. The long and the short is the 60/40 fan rate at the mainstream for J-idol, drops down to 95/5 or so by the time it gets this far indie, no matter the performer. Longer: This is like basement 4-5 or so of the underground, girls really only have critical mass to be able to make other female friends at shows and therefore want to stick around until about B-1 or B-2 so of the underground. It's a social event. A lot of these guys after the show are going to go eat dinner and have a beer together. They're doing this rather than go drinking with their boss. That makes the girls feel more and more out of place when there's just one or two of them at a time and they tend to flake off easily without forming a critical mass. Pretty much no matter what the group is. And it's mostly explainable with economics and group dynamics. Getting female fans this far out in the fringe is expensive. And I'm pretty sure they bring in less money on average. Same for kids, but even worse. If they get close enough to the mainstream they'll pick them up naturally, or are at least in position to throw money at it and make and keep female fans. Throwing money at it at this point doesn't guarantee they'll get enough for critical mass.
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  230. It looks like he took it out of the grab bag of random Halloween props. But I dunno.
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  231. Ban what exactly? Taken as a whole, it's uncomfortable... but what could you actually call illegal without having unintended consequences elsewhere?
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  232. Yune's self-introduction is something like: Birthday flower is cherry blossom, I love chocolate! I'm left-handed 6th grader Yune! The other girl's is something like: Super-energetic, I love bananas! I want to shine like a sunflower! I'm Aimi! 6th grade, 12yo. So don't read too much into them getting her a cake with bananas.
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  233. You can argue if this is bad, or about what's wrong with it, or to try to fix part of it or try to get rid of certain people or try to get some other kind of fans and.... maybe you can get somewhere. But if you really think that none of them have any innocent intentions then you will simply be wrong. And anyone who can't get over that prejudice will get nowhere.
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  234. Watch about 30 seconds of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIIsrN7v5bQ Notice anything? Mosaic is the default. If you don't mosaic, you risk being sued. BBC guy says oh we can't show so and so in the UK.... while breaking Japanese laws about filming. Of course they probably won't actually be sued. Even Japanese youtubers are usually quite lazy about it. But companies have money to be sued away. And so the venues will of course require it to avoid legal repercussions. Anyone in the venues there who are shown were specifically asked permission to upload their likeness, and explicitly gave permission. If they are mosaiced, they did not get permission. It could have been refused, or they could have simply not asked for it. And there's really nothing in it for them to give permission to a random stranger.
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  235. ​ @YashBudhiraja  There's that thing about waiting to remove the speck from the neighbor's eye until you take the log out of your own eye. UK has a log. US has a log. Japan has a log. And so the UK reporter goes to Japan and reports on this speck. Not even picking on Japan's log... he picks on the speck. A splinter at most. And then you get the air of superiority in this video. And even worse in the comments with lowkey racist comments about how their country would never allow this... while certainly plagued with worse stuff than this. Nah, ya'll got logs. And so the white savior going in to pick at the splinter...
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  236. How old were you when you first spent at least 10 USD/EUR on a musician/band that basically no one has heard of?
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  237. Frankly? She's too interested in Western pop culture idols like Ariana Grande. Most of the guys would be perfectly fine with a standard idol costume, but most of those require special orders rather than just coordinating an outfit. But having a different outfit basically every day probably helps photoshoot sales since it's basically today or never with every outfit. At the older idol events that I've gone to, standard costume gets decent traction but they get a massive uptick in polaroid sales if they do something as simple as swap costumes with another group for a day. Now or never opportunity, so people buy.
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  238. lol... look up what "adult performer" means.
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  239. Consent isn't the same thing as legality.
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  240. ​ @fubartotale3389 It is not. It is the age in which they are deemed to be intellectually capable of understanding the situation and therefore the age in which consent is no longer assault. Under age: I consent = NO CONSENT (assault) Yes = NO CONSENT (assault) No = NO CONSENT (assault) Please = NO CONSENT (assault) Above age: I consent = I consent (to this crime) Yes = Yes (even though it's a crime) No = No (assault) Please = Please (even though it's a crime) I consent, yes and please no longer count as assault because it's over the age of consent. But it's still a crime with jail time (corrupting minors)
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  241.  @fubartotale3389  If you're over 18, having intimate relations with a girl in Japan under age 13 is a felony, between 16, or 18... depending on jurisdiction a misdemeanor. Age of consent is 13... legality is 16 or 18, depending on jurisdiction (and a case can be made that you're not actually safe from the law until she's TWENTY or you're married to her because parents can still take legal action on her behalf until one of those is true). Between 13 and 16 she can legally consent, and then you can try to explain how you read somewhere on the internet that it was 13 while you sit in jail while they draw up charges. When I read it was 13, I thought- that can't be true! And looked into it. By the word of the law it's "true" but again, there are other laws still in place covering 13-18.
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  242.  @fubartotale3389  I wouldn't say purposefully ambiguous. More of an interaction between different levels of jurisdiction, over a hundred years of law and tradition, and a general trend toward adopting international standards. And as stupid as the laws often are, I still view it as preferable to the Western versions which I consider to just be virtue signaling. (eg, aoc is 18, but mean age of first experience in USA is something like 17) I think it's extremely likely they'll eventually also adopt the 18 year aoc to match up with Western (lack of) standards. And it will also be a meaningless virtue signal.
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  243. There are 1000s of idol groups in Japan. Are some being promoted to a younger audience? Sure. Most are 16-26 year olds or so, aiming for the 14-40 demographic or so though. Lots of songs about high school, graduations, fun on the beach, etc. Some of the slightly more major ones maybe get some anime theme songs which would be known by a wider audience. One of the most famous groups, Momoiro Clover actually did a morning kids' show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhmNurdsIeY One group I like, LinQ, which a regional group of medium popularity. But they got a job for some Yokai Watch material. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trNLdKQhnEY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCyW8M-iiX0 Who goes to their theater shows? Mostly men, as that's par for the course with this level of idols in terms of day to day shows. What about major concerts? Well, then it's up to maybe 20-30% female audience. And as regional idols, they often perform at public music festivals and such, and since kids are passively watching, they almost always perform their Yokai Watch songs there. But by and large kids aren't really the actual paying customers- aside for the initial payment for doing the Yokai Watch stuff, they aren't supporting the group's survival. If they relied on them they'd have broken up already. Yune is performing in the underground. Maybe about 2-3 tiers lower than LinQ. She probably has more talent than them, but there's no mainstream appeal for super young girls, so she's still in the deep underground. That probably means no media deals, so you do have to rely on fans to pay the bills, and one salaryman is probably worth 10 college students or 30 kids. And that's probably being generous. These are underground live idols. A salaryman can just go to a show after work in lieu of going drinking with his boss. It's easy to go often. A young child is probably out of the city center... so a parent has to actually take them into the city and bring them home. It's a family affair to get a kid to one of these shows- a salaryman just drops by on the way home after work. So the idols that young people like are the mainstream ones they see on TV, not the ones performing in little holes in the wall downtown. But she's good and has exposure so she'll have opportunities once she gets old enough to gain mainstream appeal. LASTLY, despite whatever assumptions you come up with from appearances.... crap idol fans are called "pink ticket" fans... or youth discount despite age, due to the high rate of troublemakers among the youth. And the people who actually get banned or arrested are almost all 18-32 or so, focused around 26. Do the older people look creepy? Well, then you're not looking in the right place to help defend her. The staff will be eagle-eyed on the younger fans who are muuuuuch more likely to DO creepy.
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  244. Voice is good for her age. And it really doesn't even have to be amazing if she wants to progress through the idol system first. The goal there is more to put on a fun show than anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOoBG3u0whg And maybe you progress to solo artist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrDV2Obi8qE
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  245. Because the fans of almost all idol groups in the indie scene are men regardless of the group age or concept and it's all the more true the more indie you go. And it's basically explainable just with economics and social dynamics. It's awkward when they're this young, but it's by no means unique to her. Groups with a more lively show have more younger guys who want to crowd surf and mosh while the ones where people sit or take pictures without risk of getting kicked in the head attracts more older guys while the ones with mostly lights sticks attracts a mix.
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  246. Where does she mention money?
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  247. Yes, the tickets are expensive. But what would you have them do? They rent out a nice sterile seminar hall for $3000. However dark and dreary they try to make it look, it's a seminar hall meant for stuff like company orientation ceremonies. It has a seating capacity of 127. So even to just pay for the rental fee on the venue, they have to charge about $24. Assuming they sell out, which doesn't seem to be the case. It's very likely that the $50 entry fee almost completely goes to paying for the venue, and then paying for amenities, staff, sound, ticketing, etc... with the performers themselves mostly relying on photo and goods sales to actually make money. The fans understand this. Not only does it take $50 to show up, you then actually have to buy something for money to actually go to Yune and not just cover the venue expenses. And management understands it too- fans who pay for a ticket and don't actually buy anything extra are likely almost useless in terms of making any money. Of course, they could just rent out a B2 livehouse in the red light district reeking of piss, vomit and most definitely cigarette smoke. The smoke permeating the walls. And then maybe that'd just be $1000-1500 for the day and they could charge a lot less. But yeah, then you're making everyone go to the red light districts and perform in a venue that smells like smoke and piss- even better for picking up young fans, huh? Also, while it does price out kids, it also prices out people without real jobs. Go to a free idol show if you want to see the real creeps come out of the woodwork. Anyway, kids mostly don't have a way to know she exists. And even if they do, they don't have a way to get to and pay for the ticket. But there are multi-billion dollar companies telling them what to like, in addition to lots of peer pressure. It'll be a while before they realize there's other stuff out there. As for the women, the powers that be have long pushed men to like girl groups and women to like boy groups. It's already very strong at the mainstream level, and it's all the worse at the indie level. And this is super niche even for indie because it's basically the people who are interested in the up and comers. It's like how guys aren't going to even admit to liking Backstreet Boys or One Direction or whatever, let alone go to shows... let alone then start researching indie groups that sound like them... let alone then start actually going to those indie groups. I was already peer-pressured against openly admitting to liking BSB, no way I would be caught at some indie show. It's shaky linking anything on youtube these days, but just search for "メンズ地下アイドル ライブ" here. That is "men's underground idol live". The fandom is basically 99% female.
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  248. It's still illegal until 16 or 18. Like you know, here in the USA we call people adults at age 18. Age of adulthood. Vote. Go to war and drop bombs and shoot people. Do adult entertainment. Stricter penalties for lawbreaking. But God forbid you take a drink of alcohol though- that's for advanced adults who are over 21! In this case of drinking I'd on the contrary consider it to be quite ridiculous because that's a ridiculously high age for drinking. But the point is the same. The state says you're supposed to be a capable and responsible adult at age 18. But also can't drink because that's the law. If the store asks you if you're old enough to legally drink in the USA you don't say "I'm an adult!" because no one cares that you're an adult. They care if you're 21. Similarly "age of consent" doesn't matter in Japan- it's still illegal until 16 or 18 depending on jurisdiction.
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  249. Research suggests that she just really likes bananas and you read it as dirty humor yourself.
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  250. Lol, people in the USA were just demonstrating a month ago because a minor shot and killed a p*dophile in self-defense. To be clear, they were demonstrating in defense of the p*dophile. The USA is well-known for being riled up into demonstrating for stupid stuff. Oh, and of course the child s*x trial is ongoing, is it not? All those Hollywood and political elites tied up in that and will likely get a pass- legally almost certainly and still to an extent in the court of public opinion. This is a hitjob for views and clicks. It's somewhere around the exploitation level of child actors like Emma Watson used to be, child Olympic athletes and toddlers in tiaras sorts of stuff. Some things are better, some things are worse. But that's the general level. The people in the USA turn a blind eye to some of that- or just outright don't think it's wrong. It's certainly debatable where the line is. Though in a sense, it's not terribly relevant because while the populace debates things about a 2 or 3 out of 10 on the exploitation scale, most turn a blind eye to the elites trafficking minors to their s*x islands.
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  251.  @mysakadang  American here. Still one of the best countries in the world if for nothing more than the principles it is founded upon. It's not whataboutism. Whataboutism is when someone says so and so country is bad, and someone else says well, what about that thing in that other country. I try not to do that. Randall brought up the shining example of the USA himself. If you don't think far worse happens in your own country, let alone the USA where it's actually occasionally publicized, then you're ^$%%$ing kidding yourself. That includes Japan. As I said, I consider this about a 2-3, in the range of stuff many people think is fine if presented more objectively and not even crossing the border into illegality until around a 6. There's a video about stuff in Japan up there around a 7 on youtube. It stupidly includes something that's about a 1-2 in the same video which lowers its credibility, but it at least includes the 7. Pretty sure the whole gamut exists in Japan to some extent. But it certainly does in the USA. And it's usually crickets here about it too.
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  252. ​ @isabella7131  Minzy? But anyway, maybe I gave the K-pop crowd too much credit. The point I was actually going for was that NO, K-pop who collect shit are NOT doing it for nefarious reasons and you should give other fans the same leeway. They are just fans. As fans, they are collecting for the sake of collection. There are always wackos, but what can you really say? THIS VIDEO has exposed her to more wackos than anything she does in her regular activities.
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  253. Yune is not a cash cow. She's a step above garage band. She can only perform 1-2 times a week. Idol groups of high school to college girls who can actually perform 5-6 times a week still usually fail within the first two years. Competition is tough. This is super indie level stuff. He probably sees a lot of red ink even with it being a lot of these older guys. So when the foreigner comes and says why don't you sell to 10 year olds with no money instead of these older guys with expendable money... it sounds really really ignorant of reality. You think they wouldn't like to see Yune's tiktok fans come to her shows? But young fans are hard to get to the shows and don't even pay the bills once they come. Having young fans and female fans is a privilege of groups with money.
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  254. Marcel Theroux is actually the older one so it's a bit hard to say who copied who.
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  255. Wait, where was that guy who didn't kill himself who had the underage sex island for all your pop culture and government figures from again? What country was that island in again?
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  256.  @igothackedbyrussians2584  Same tired joke about killing hundreds of thousands of people.
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  257.  @igothackedbyrussians2584  No.
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  258. Junior idols are usually mostly models, sometimes doing fairly sketchy shoots, though it's been limited somewhat in recent years. It's hard to be a super young singer because a lot of the red tape meant to protect kids in entertainment from working too much makes it a lot easier to do stuff like photoshoots rather than live performances. So a bit ironically it actually pushes them towards sketchier stuff. But since she's actually skilled they're pushing the singing side despite the challenges at her age and it looks like it will pay off since Tsunku gave her a good review.
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  259. When you watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, what were you thinking about Hermoine?
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  260. Or maybe you watched the Avatar series? How about Toph and Aang?
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  261. @brooke h If you're like me and almost every other normal person out there, we just watched it normally. But my father thinks it is weird that any grown adult would go watch a show about little kids unless they had some sort of ulterior motives. That's his view of the world. His view is that it's been normalized. So why is his view too strict? Maybe she wasn't sexualized in the show, but how many of the 100,000,000+ tickets sold were BECAUSE of 11 year old Emma Watson? Maybe the ratio is a lot lower, but by sheer force of numbers, she exposed herself to the dirty thoughts of far more people. I would assume rule 34 applies.
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  262. Starlets rely on the good favor and influence of multi-billion dollar companies that act as gatekeepers. In other words, it's a hashtagmetoo mine field. In the end did so and so survive? Good. But I'm not so sure that the mainstream option is actually any more safe than the indie option.
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  263. Hermione.... Hit Girl (12).... Arya Stark... Avatar's Toph (12)....
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  264.  @floopk8036  The first three are all played by real people. Maisie was a 13-14 year old playing an 11 year old. Japanese idols use fake names and what amounts to professional wrestling personas while working so they aren't exactly real people either. Hit Girl and Toph are played as badasses from the beginning which is cool. But the fun in following a younger idol is the same as seeing Hermione or Arya progress through 8 movies / 8 seasons.
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  265. Mom has the cake. She says those comments right in front of her mom.... because it wasn't a dirty joke. This video conditions you to assume the worst about everything. She just really likes bananas and everyone there knows it because she says so herself all the time. Here's her twitter profile: 向日葵のように元気で明るい『あいみ』です✩アイドル フリーで活動中 プリキュア♡ バナナ♡ℓσνє お仕事依頼はDMまで I want to shine like a sunflower. I'm Aimi. Idol. Freelance. Purikura (photo sticker booth) <3 Banana <3 DM for gig inquiries. https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1230624810809446400/photo/1 https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1161416155795353600/photo/2 https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1183699565112745984/photo/1 https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1241217403159072768 The cake in question: https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1186930065277251584/photo/3 Everyone else there understood what she meant. The reporter didn't ask and assumed the worst or put it in any way to try to make it look bad. In any case he led you astray.
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  266. Yune's self-introduction is something like: Birthday flower is cherry blossom, I love chocolate! I'm left-handed 6th grader Yune! The other girl's is something like: Super-energetic, I love bananas! I want to shine like a sunflower! I'm Aimi! 6th grade, 12yo. So don't read too much into them getting her a cake with bananas.
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  267. Why'd you assume "instead"? Event was 10 days before her actual birthday.
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  268.  @silasleleco9659  Why do you trust your assumptions on their motivations and thoughts? The first assumption was on something that could be factually proven wrong.
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  269.  @silasleleco9659  I'm complaining at you for saying it was her birthday when it wasn't. You're arguing motivations when you don't even have the facts right. Get your facts in order first so your arguments about thoughts and motivations are based on actual reality.
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  270.  @silasleleco9659  Uhh... if you didn't understand... these are like the same 30-50 guys or however many basically every week. She actually has to pay careful attention for newcomers because the basic Japanese greeting is either "good to meet you" or "it's been a long time" and it's really bad to screw up and say the wrong one. She likely knows them all by name, and considering they likely talk to each other almost every week, she may know a surprising amount about most of them. THAT SAID, despite the calls for fear of stranger danger, this sort of acquaintance level is statistically MORE dangerous. That she knows them is all the more reason to be careful.
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  271. I don't like super young idols. The youngest performers I like in Japan are a band. And personally, like a lot of Westerners, I APPLAUD those band members and really don't pay much mind to their age. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXvRczQKU2A 10, 11, 11 at the time. (2 years ago) So why the old guys? I wouldn't doubt that some are bad people. That goes with the territory. So what about that band above? Or gymnasts or figure skaters? They're all going to get a certain % of lowlifes at their events. Westerners generally give all that a free pass but stumble when it comes to idols, which don't have as direct of an equivalent. For the most part... I consider these sorts of fans specialist geeks. Music is mainstream. Idols in general are kinda mainstream in a geeky way... like say, Star Trek. Then you've got the underground with people who like random sci-fi no one has heard of. And this sort of thing is the tip of obscurity- a group of people who like to read science fiction fan fiction or something like that. It's their little club geeking over their obscure topic.
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  272. It's literally part of her introduction... sunflowers and bananas. Yune talks about being left-handed and liking chocolate. They say it every performance. So don't read too much into it.
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  273. It's open to the public. Anyone can buy a ticket and go. Yune's event is too rich for even my blood though. So yeah, I wonder why the kids don't go... It's not like they can lower the price if they want to keep playing that venue though- just the basic hall rental for a Saturday is ~$3100... add sound+equipment+ticketing staff+etc. 127 seats,... I'll do the math for you. If seats were sold-out (and they aren't), just to pay for the hall rental means charging about $25 per seat. One event a week... so being a serious fan would cost a kid about $1300 a year + transportation. Just to pay off the hall rental. Of course that's not the actual price... after other expenses they end up having to actually charge people $45-50 a seat so it's actually about $2600 to be a serious fan who attends all events. Plus transportation... maybe another $500. So if you're a parent taking a kid to one of these shows every week, maybe it runs $6000 for the year. Kids can talk their parents into tossing $500 a month into a fandom? Yeah... I think they'll just watch her tiktok videos for now and beg for a new iphone instead. Actually, I found a funny event of hers when doing a search. Normally she's just with the other kid idols, but I found an event she did with some mostly idol groups. 【新宿系ガールズミーティング 夏休みスペシャル！全員集合！】 This was the lineup: ／NECRONOMIDOL／鶯籠／NEO BREAK／Si☆4(シーフォー) from Si☆Stella／xoxo(Kiss&Hug) EXTREME／櫻井佑音／Tokyo Girls Project／ミラクルキャンディーベリー+／SPARK SPEAKER／969／NaNoMoRaL／れ音／Dan te Lion／爆裂女子-BURST GIRL-／Carya／OrderDoll These probably mean nothing to you, but I just gotta laugh. Burst Girl. Necronomidol. They're actually probably as much if not more famous abroad than in Japan. Punk rock idol group. Black metal idol group. Yune. But that's how you have to get your name out there when you can't really advertise. You perform for whoever shows up to your show- you perform at whatever gigs you can get. Lots of people will follow or watch on youtube or tiktok. It's hard to get people to actually show up. Especially if the ticket price is $50.
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  274. As are the fandoms of people who GO to the everyday shows of basically all female groups and idols this far into the indie scene. There are a lot of reasons for that, and it can mostly be explained with economics and social dynamics. Maybe that makes you uncomfortable because she's younger... but it's nothing strange for idols in general. Female fans are more expensive to get, harder to keep AND spend less money so having them is the privilege of more established singers and groups.
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  275. Biggest exploiter here is the narrator and film crew. He's neither an expert nor your buddy. Just someone trying to gain enough clicks to satisfy those paying the production costs and perhaps gain some clout to boost his portfolio. This only gets filmed in the first place if they intentionally misrepresented the purpose. This is a betrayal.
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  276.  @jordanlilymay1363  I didn't even get into what Yune does. Hold your news (and documentary) crews to a higher standard.
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  277. Who said they just come for her voice? I'm sure they all have an array of reasons. Some of those reasons for some of them may be bad. But probably you could come up with 100 different reasons on why they support her. One of my favorite idols is still popular. Want to know what her last twitter post is? A link to her blog celebrating 100 days since she gave birth. Married. Kid. Still an idol. Still 200,000 followers. She joined a company where you can date. At least above a certain age... I dunno what their actual rules are, but obviously she could date at her point of 30+. That's the understanding that fans had. Basically everyone gave their congratulations. If you join a company that doesn't want people dating, then that's the expectation. And it is a safety issue. It's safer to try to keep them from dating, especially when you're a group with minors. Liberty versus security. A debate for the ages... I overall lean toward liberty, but if you purposefully join a group that decides to give up certain liberties for the safe of security... and then go after those liberties anyway... I think people are right to be upset. Just join the group that favors liberty in the first place.
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  278. Quite simply, too indie. You know who targets people her age? All the multi-hundred million / billion dollar companies who are looking for fans not yet attached to anybody yet. That's why she's into Ariana Grande, etc. Pretty much everyone is into what the mainstream feeds them when they're 10-12... until one day they have an awakening that there is other stuff out there. Some of these guys are perhaps sick of the attitude of actual stars and started supporting nobodies who are more down to earth. As for the outfit. It's a different outfit every day. It probably was what it was because of her love of Ariana Grande though... so... what can you say? No, that's not what normal Japanese kids wear. But nor is it what normal Japanese idols wear. (There are a few different types, but here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkTcA3L1P7w&t=1430s ) As an under-14, she is very limited in how much she can perform. She pushes more photo session sales by using a different outfit every time so basically every performance is one-chance-only, and with only 1-2 performances a week, it's fairly manageable, compared to groups with 4-6 per week and need to have set costumes for simplicity. Here is a recent one: https://twitter.com/naohira_kase_8g/status/1328186736858386432/photo/4 Looks quite covered up, don't you think? Also, idols don't often wear "normal cloths".... You see, part of idol culture is the concept of "on" and "off" and using costumes helps enforce that. They go on stage, perform with their costume, and change into civilian clothes... and then are NOT TO BE BOTHERED. Letting her perform in truly regular clothes breaks down this divide and is considered dangerous.
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  279.  @eviexiong7985  Kids through high school are in uniforms 5-6 days a week. So they are actually quite conscious about their outfits when they actually get to choose. Though perhaps more from next year when she's in middle school. In any case, "revealing" isn't really ever in in Japan, even though what that means exactly is probably different than where you're from. Fashion is layered and heavily accessorized there. She apparently has input in her outfits. And as mostly a cover artist, tends to wear stuff that goes with something she's singing. I don't know the setlist that day, but you see where it's going... she likes Ariana Grande... she's covered her before... so she has stuff in her wardrobe to go with that image for when she sings those sorts of songs. And this is where I say- there's no way to win on outfit. If she was wearing cutesy stuff, people would complain all the same. And I already said why she shouldn't wear regular clothes. It'll be nice when she doesn't have to rely on the Junior Idol (modeling) side anymore.
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  280. It's a red herring anyway. It's 18 here. It's not enforced. Only if over 18 is with under 18. That means two people who CANNOT consent aren't actually bothered by the government. But it's sexual assault. Heck, the entertainment industry glorifies it to the chagrin of many parents. It's sexual assault. So, de facto, age of consent isn't actually 18. But since that's the law, it's sexual assault. They can write 18 as a consent law so they look better, but it's not 18 because they don't enforce on all the under 18 people being intimate with under 18s who can't consent. Because consent is a status of a person- you can or you can't. It doesn't matter how old the other person actually is. Whatever age the other person is, it's sexual assault because there's no way to consent. If you're not actually going to enforce consent, just protect minors from adults, you're just doing what Japan does anyway. "Consent" is 13, but it's still illegal until 16 or 18 (depending on jurisdiction). So under 13 is sexual assault because consent is not possible. Between 13-16/18 is not necessarily anything unless one of them is an adult taking advantage of a minor, which is then prosecuted as adult corruption of a minor. So, Japan's is "13" and California's is "18". What's the actual difference? Japan's looks worse if you just look at the number without understanding anything. But the laws are more aligned with how it's actually enforced while California just looks the other way at literally millions of under 18 sexual assaults. Which again, is what they are since consent is supposedly 18. Which no one de facto actually believes. I'd be okay with it though. Cuz I'm a prude.
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  281. If she was promoted by a major company at the mainstream. Also, there's a bit of an ironic factor here. As she is under 13? (I think that's the first main tier, there's another at 16 and then 18 iirc), there is lots of red tape involved. I think there may be some wiggle room in terms of borrowing time that has to be paid back later (eg, more hours one week means less hours another week within a month), but basically her school hours are still counted as part of her work day and work week calculations, which means she can usually only perform on weekends and holidays and usually just once per week. So since the time she is allowed to perform is at such a premium, the events for young idols COST MORE, which makes it even harder for audiences with less money to see her. Since older groups can perform every day, they don't have to have profit so much from just one event. So their events are more around $25-30 for the day while Yune's events are $50. There is the advantage that you can just buy Yune's set for $15, but that's a lot of time and money spent to come into the city for a 20-30 minute set.
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  282. ​ @jeans4484  I linked with a lot of info, but youtube is a bit of a censuring hellhole if you put any links now so it doesn't seem to have posted. I'm using shorthand 100 yen to 1 USD, which isn't actually accurate right now but it's fair enough. When this was made: $10 for Yune's set $45 for full day Recent price: $15 for Yune's set $30 for PRIORITY seating for Yune's set $50 for full day Regular idols: ~$20-30 + $6 drink fee for all day (also usually get a free polaroid fan meeting included) Major festivals at say Studio Coast where they have 50 groups across 3-4 stages may pull a higher price in the $40-50 range. Minor one-man events may just be $6 drink fee. Major one-man events (with special merch, etc) are often relatively expensive around $20-30 + $6 for about an hour. If a festival has a bunch of fairly high end indie groups that promote nationally like Maneki Kecak or Nijicon, it may pull the festival price up to $40-60. If it's a very major event such as the summer festivals or the new years events then it may run over $100. So some stuff does run higher if you take popular groups. But the junior idols are priced high for how popular they are and what they are offering.
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  283. @UCgmSxt9aiCQ1RxPjNAs_TgA Here is schedule of a large event going on today: https://twitter.com/SugimotoyaSeika/status/1406400683830509573 This is multistage, so it is indeed ~$50 as I said may happen for very large events. Main stage has 28 acts, mostly 20 minutes each. So it starts at 1030am and ends at 810pm, with the last goods sales ending at 850 pm. So you probably get up at 8am to get there by 10am, and you get home at 10-11pm. That one actually has two other stages so most people will have something to watch for the whole time. But after they perform they have about an hour at a table selling goods/meet and greets- mostly polaroids. So there's not really much to it. Just a whole bunch of different acts and you watch the ones you like, use your free meet and greet if applicable, buy more if you have money to burn, and turn in your forced $6 drink ticket for a drink sometime along the way. If you like a lot of the groups you'll be pretty busy the whole time. If you go to an event with just one stage then there may be a bit of a lull. Some people go and get lunch/dinner then, but many of the venues are evil and charge you the $6 drink fee again if you leave and come back. Alternatively, some people with lots of $$$ look at all the festivals over the course of the day, and might pay for one with a good early day lineup and then go pay for another one with a better night lineup. Yes, many people do do this.
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  284. The banana thing is your own dirty mind. I mean, shame on the editing crew for trying to trick you into thinking it's dirty. But it's your own dirty mind.
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  285. Where did you hear that? It's still illegal until 16 or 18. In some cases even potentially 20, though I think they removed that in the past year or two as they've shifted adulthood down from 20 to 18. In practice, it's quite similar to where I am, where the aoc is 18. The difference is California lists 18 as aoc, and then gives a bunch of exceptions that are allowed at younger ages down through about 13, under which everything is illegal. Japan lists it as 13, saying basically everything under it is illegal, and then saying it's STILL illegal, but you can potentially get leniency up through about 18, after which it's basically all legal. It's... basically the same thing.
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  286. Good. They always appreciate having girls there. It's just not reasonable to advertise to you- they don't really even pay to advertise to anyone, this is just who shows up by word of mouth and their free advertising. That's part of why they were willing to do the interview with this guy even though he would spin it negatively. It gets her name out to people who they wouldn't be able to reach otherwise. Well, maybe you can't go in the foreseeable future. If you have a twitter, go send her a nice message. @yune_yune_go_go Even if she doesn't answer she'll at least read it. As you see, she's really good so maybe by the time you can manage to visit Japan she'll be in a major group.
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  287. Her potential fans her own age are at home, being fans of the mainstream groups. Mostly boy groups, because that's how it works- particularly in Japan. But even if they're into female groups it's the mainstream stuff that gets TV play or have classic songs. Because that's what they see. Girls like this are pretty much complete unknowns. These sorts of guys go to shows on the way home for work. They watch a bunch of different groups and soloists. Maybe 10+ on weekdays, +25 on weekends. They went to see someone else, but hey, she's really good. So then they go to her show specifically. Young girls aren't in the city, going to random live houses to even be able to figure out that such a performer even exists. And since the fandom builds up around this, and it is well known to be the case, there isn't a critical mass of female or very young fans for these sorts of performers, so they have a high chance of shedding quickly.
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  288. What should it be?
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  289.  @Rosyln  My expertise is more in the regular underground idols- I looked up this stuff on Yune because people are shooting from the hip. Idol fans have traditionally been an easy target for wide generalizations. They're people. Everyone has their own array of motives. I'm not interested in younger idols and I think there's higher risk and a larger % of creepers there, but considering the array of reasons that people show up for regular idol shows despite low "skill", I have to give that same benefit to those who go to the younger idol shows. Personally, I just think it's fun. I don't think I've ever seen Yune before, but she's played on the same ticket as some of the heavy rock idols I like so it's possible I'll see her in the future. She's good. I'm not going to her show specifically but I'm also not walking out on her show if I'm already there. Yes, please remember that it's essentially a non-story if they don't make it a hit job. They all go and pick on this gray area stuff that will suffer the indignity of a slanted video for the sake of some publicity. No one goes and kicks the actual hornets' nests. Please watch the Japanese TV version from last week. It's all Japanese, sorry... but it gives a different aura doesn't it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhAewpQCWBQ And look at her shirt quotes.
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  290. "Sons" are athletes.
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  291.  @comicipedia  Go look up the top DSLR cameras for 2023. Heck, I'll do it for you. By one website's listing: 1) Nikon D850 2) Canon EOS-1D X Mark III 3) Pentax KF 4) Nikon D780 5) Pentax LK-1 Mark II 6) Canon EOS Rebel SL3 / EOS 250D 7) Canon EOS 90D 8) Nikon D7500 9) Canon EOS 6D Mark II 10) Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 11) Pentax K-70 Three companies. You know what those 3 companies have in common? Very rarely some other company will slip into someone's listing but just as often it's some other Japanese company. The high tech personal camera wars are in Japan. Fed by camera otaku. A lot of them are more obsessed with their cameras than the idols. And as someone above said, just about any public event that allows photography will have a hoard of camera otaku with high tech cameras and special lenses that cost as much as those cameras. Probably part of why a lot of events ban all photography.
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  292. Also, I'm not really with it in terms of cameras, so I wasn't aware mirrorless may have overtaken DSLR at this point. It doesn't change things though.... the first top mirrorless listing I see adds fujifilm and olympus and sony... have to go all the way to number 15 for a Swedish camera to make it in.
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  293. Why would anyone want to watch Harry Potter when there's Lord of the Rings anyway?
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  294. AKB has been active for 15 years. It's fandom is getting older. Even if the generation system means younger girls replace graduating girls, the fandom itself gets older because younger fans follow newer groups at a higher ratio. I think AKB fandom is something around 60/40... almost certainly not worse than 70/30. But it's far worse at shows, where it's more dedicated fans. And the concert tickets are sold by lottery, with the first rounds usually only offered to fan club. Girls are more likely to be casual fans, so the front has more of the obsessed guya wota who would be fanclub members, and towards the back it's a bit more mixed. If you look at videos of the FANS at the handshake events, back in their heyday, you'll find a significant % of younger and female fans. Who knows what they'll do now. I had thought they would use them to seed a theater in Seoul, but especially with the influence of covid, a lot of international efforts have been shelved for the time being.
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  295. You don't make it to 50+ in the idol scene if you DO creepy. The ~20-32 crowd is considered the most dangerous, especially those around ~26. She'll have supervision on the way and at venues. But that may not be the case in her hometown where she probably walks around on her own quite a bit. Because it's Japan. If she gets doxed she'll need supervision when around her home too and that's a pain in the ass.
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  296. "Instead of taking advantage of this existing group of people with money to burn to get you through the early phases while you're probably still losing money, wouldn't it be great if you spent $200,000 to get some young fans who bring in 1/10th as much income on average?" Yeah, he pays the bills which are probably still in red inks until she turns 14 and can more easily promote more widely, and so the eyes roll. I'm sure he wishes that her young TikTok fans or whatever would come to shows too. But that's not a realistic expectation at her level..
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  297. She would reply nicely of course. An ex-idol with no contractual obligation to be nice responded to somebody with something along the lines of: "Shut up, the possibility is obvious. Do you think I didn't think of it when I made my decision? Do you think I'm an idiot?! The people who say such things are a pain in the ass."
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  298. You know you can omit what they say just with editing, right? Fortunately we can just go on twitter and pick out comments: 初めましてです。 めちゃんこ歌が上手くてびっくりしました。 お顔も整っているし歌も上手いしで、これからが楽しみな方ですね。 佑音ちゃんの歌とっても良かったです！また観に行きますね！！ お見事な歌声でした パチパチパチ(*’ω’ﾉﾉﾞ☆ﾊﾟﾁﾊﾟﾁ 素晴らしい歌声の連続 動画アップ、ありがとうm(_ _)m やっぱゆうねお嬢様の歌声最高でした いくらか前のアイドル劇場で見たときは、そこそこ歌の上手いおこちゃまやな～って印象でした。 久しぶりに見たら身長も伸びててよりレディになってて驚きました。 そして歌は相変わらずダントツの歌唱力。さすがでした～。 久しぶりのゆうねちゃんの生の歌はやっぱり最高でした 久しぶりのライブ、楽しんでるね 声も磨きがかかってるしグッド やっぱ、生で歌うのはサイコーだね 衣装はヌマさん手作りかい いや歌上手すぎません 久しぶりに、歌っている姿が観られて、感動 おはゆうね(*^^*) ゆうねの歌声最高 歌声とっても好い 歌うますぎる歌うの楽しいね 嬉しいね As for the people at the show, it's pretty common among idol groups in general no matter what age they are, especially at a relatively expensive event like the one they filmed at. To be clear, I'm not 100% behind everything they do. I just want to be fair.
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  299.  @Yesmanf  These videos normally make $500-1000 in ad revenue if they get the going rate. This one got upwards of $10,000 by having particularly good click-bait. That they likely pocketed an extra $12,000 by being spicy should be your reminder to beware of documentaries, particularly on platforms like youtube where clickbait is immediately rewarded. Besides the fact that they had a profit motive and "the defense" would all be pro bono, a proper defense would of course have access to all the people interviewed in this video and potentially even all the footage they took but did not make the final cut. I do not have access. I have lots and lots and lots of questions. Those questions without answers leave me skeptical. Be more skeptical. They probably made $12,000 from this.
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  300. Girl sings and dances to pop songs on the weekend in a venue open to the general public. Afterwards she takes pictures and chats with fans. What should be illegal? Should young people not be able to work in entertainment? Well, there go any non-animated stories about kids- Harry Potter, etc. I've seen a stage performance of Peter Pan before... also one of Mary Poppins. You going to make a law to throw that stuff away? Reminds me of how women weren't allowed to be actors so men played the part... oh, and how white actors painted their faces black so they could portray blacks as idiots. Should kids not be allowed to be in the limelight? How about competitive gymnastics, figure-skating, dance and ballet? Are you trying to protect them by erasing them? Or should they dictate by law the demographics of the audience? Oh man, that's the biggest can of worms of all. Nothing here is illegal or should be. It might be uncomfortable or in bad taste. But there's nothing here you can target without severe collateral damage.
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  301.  @nickolaskerria2963  Hollywood is safe? hahahahahahahahaha No. It's not. The billion dollars is just a power gradient to be exploited.
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  302.  @nickolaskerria2963  And no, this isn't THAT part of things either. Go watch the other one by Vice News. It's wrong in lumping things all together, but it at least bothers to investigate the illegal stuff a little bit. Not much, but a little bit. That's where there's issue. And that's also why Japan doesn't have an open visa agreement with the Philippines. Sex trade is at sketchy establishments of which there are many. Everyone knows it. This is clearly separate. All of this is legal and should be and you can't tell me why it shouldn't be without basically saying that we can't have kids in movies or plays or in bands or at the Olympics or whatever anymore. And we KNOW for a fact the Olympic gymnasts were being abused. It's here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Gymnastics_sex_abuse_scandal So cancel gymnastics? It obviously wasn't safe. Or maybe since as the intended base activity is innocent, it's better to try to make it as safe as possible.
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  303.  @nickolaskerria2963  I haven't seen. I have no interest. I also have no interest in Junior idols and no real interest in Yune. That's not why I'm here. I'm here because I object to this sort of video. White guy goes to Asian country to white knight- who stops giving a shit as soon as he gets his paycheck, proving he never really gave a shit in the first place... using all the editing techniques to portray the locals as degenerates and his country as morally superior. He conducts interviews, but he makes himself the main character and might even speak for them more than he let's them speak for themselves. This sort of journalism is dirty and yet people believe him at face value. Oh, it should be illegal? Why isn't your shit illegal then? Oh, because your culture is used to that so you give it the benefit of the doubt and assume the worst for them. As if Emma Watson didn't get, extreme lowball, 1000 times the wrong kind of exposure by showing up in a Hollywood movie at age 11 in an innocent but frankly too easy to rule 34 sort of role. All I ask for is consistency. So, lawmaker- what is the law that can be applied across the board- to theater, to sports, to the Olympics, to dance, to everything- that will make this illegal? You can either come up with something that applies broadly and yet only really affects this- which could show this is innately wrong compared to all that other stuff. Or you come up with something that bans more stuff out of an abundance of caution. You have a suggestion? All I ask for is consistency.
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  304. Or regardless of what they think about it themselves, they know people will harass them over it.
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  305. Also, Japan is opt in. A mosaic means they failed to get permission not that it was declined.
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  306.  @leonie8525  Maybe he should have bribed them with a free polaroid if he really wanted their input. They have no incentive to provide permission. While a number of different documentaries have been made with varying slant, as far as I know all the British ones have negative spin. Same as this one turned out. So the smart move is to decline permission.
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  307.  @PrakashKumar-kw7ey  You have an intelligent response? Or were you trying to summon me back? I got busy for a few days and by the time I got back the conversation shifted and wasn't worth my time anymore.
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  308. ​ @MeowMelodyy  How about them? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPCiMasjF1U
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  309.  @xxilysunxx  Smelt it, dealt it.
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  310.  @パフ-d6b  I haven't commented here in over 4 months and it's an 8 month old topic so I don't really know what you're talking about. Care to elaborate? A group like AKB can have a big age range. Something like 15-26. Usually people are more concerned when the 15 year olds have to do something more appropriate for a 22 year old. Your probablem is when the 24 year old has to do something more appropriate for a 15 year old? This is a consequence of the age range. Sometimes it's awkward. But it gives the groups more stability and allows senior/junior relationships. And they still do aim to have older ones do mature songs and younger ones do cute songs. But everyone's still part of the group so sometimes it doesn't work out perfectly. If you're concerned about the seifuku- it's common for super large groups, and budget groups. And ESPECIALLY super large budget groups. Because it's the budget option. Real custom idol costumes are in the order of 1000+ USD each.
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  311. It's been 16+ everywhere. And 18 there in Tokyo. It was just handled at the prefectural level unless the case was egregious (ie, < 13) in which case the "federal" government handled it. 13-16 still meant jail time if convicted. So saying it was 13 is a bit dishonest. Here in California it's ostensibly 18... and then gives a bunch of exceptions where it's still okay at a younger age. In Japan it instead listed the age of no more exceptions as their number. In California I think this is also something like 13. It was basically handled the same in practice, just one technically counted as 13 and the other 18 on wikipedia or whatever. It didn't really matter but they kept getting enough flak for it so they eventually changed it. Doesn't really do anything though.
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  312. Having fun for Halloween.
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  313. Personally, I like a few certain kinds of idol music- mostly rock and electronic. Which Yune doesn't really actually sing (she's mostly a cover artist of mainstream J-pop). But most of the people in the groups I most like suck at singing. So why don't I listen to so and so who is good at singing? Because good at singing isn't the most important thing to me- it's the genre of the music. Having a good singer is helpful, but good singers mostly go to popular genres, not niches. And so the niches get a lot more crappy singers cuz that's the best they can do. And I rather listen to my niche music with crappy singers than the mainstream crap with better singers. So when someone comes along who is good for the niche of music I like, I'm much more prone to support her, even if by global worldwide standards she's nothing all that amazing. So these guys watching super indie idols even more indie than what I watch... most of the girls can't sing for shit. And then Yune comes along who actually has some singing ability and longterm potential. So that they are drawn to Yune versus any of the dozens or hundreds of others probably does indeed have to do in at least part by singing ability.
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  314. That would be nice. But advertising isn't free. It's not just not free, it's exceptionally expensive. (Disney spends $3,000,000,000 a year) And to make matters worse, the established groups often get free publicity. That's the competition. It takes quite a while for people to realize there's stuff out there besides what the multi-national hundred billion dollar conglomerates tell you you're supposed to like. There's always a chance for some free publicity though. Why do you think they even accepted this? Probably told them how they would be able to let hundreds of thousands of people know how great Yune is by giving her exposure on an internationally popular youtube channel. Look, it's not hard. 3,000,000 people watched this. It only takes 1/10000 viewers who watch this to become a fan they'd ALREADY be the majority of fans and they could change the trajectory of her promotion. But apparently the "documentary" team was too concerned with lining their own pockets and betrayed Yune for some more clicks.
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  315. This is just a repost from a couple comments down: Mom has the cake. She says those comments right in front of her mom.... because it wasn't a dirty joke. This video conditions you to assume the worst about everything. She just really likes bananas and everyone there knows it because she says so herself all the time. Here's her twitter profile: 向日葵のように元気で明るい『あいみ』です✩アイドル フリーで活動中 プリキュア♡ バナナ♡ℓσνє お仕事依頼はDMまで I want to shine like a sunflower. I'm Aimi. Idol. Freelance. Purikura (photo sticker booth) <3 Banana <3 DM for gig inquiries. https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1230624810809446400/photo/1 https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1161416155795353600/photo/2 https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1183699565112745984/photo/1 https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1241217403159072768 The cake in question: https://twitter.com/aimin_1030/status/1186930065277251584/photo/3 Everyone else there understood what she meant. The reporter didn't ask and assumed the worst or put it in any way to try to make it look bad. In any case he led you astray.
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  316. Why? Because the interviewer said something that some guy posted and then someone else interpreted and translated and told him and that he then interpreted those words to tell you what he thinks that guy on the Internet meant in English words that totally mean the exact same thing as he meant in Japanese? Basically no one uses the Japanese word for "beautiful" which is utsukushii. Go search her twitter for 美しい and see what you find. It's mostly FOREIGNERS. We can even look up the apparent Koji's tweets to Yune. ”No results for "美しい (from:x10a_koji) (to:yune_yune_go_go)" So what did the guy REALLY type? We don't get to know that information because the documentary guys decided to interpret for you without showing you the original. I would suggest it was likely "kawaii" (which will get you about 50-60 tweets from him to her) which everyone knows just means cute. He has called her "kirei" a handful of times, which means something like "pretty" but neither of these really have deep emotional meaning.
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  317. They post them to twitter, hashtag Yune, or whoever. They post them on their blog, explaining their reaction to the setlist. They post the videos to youtube- there are usually several angles posted of every performance. Some of these are by people who don't just do idols, but have video archives of all sorts of things. Some of them are just camera nerds. Some of them just take videos because that's what lots of you do when you go to concerts too just they're actually using good cameras and not blocking anyone's view while you use shitty camera phones or god forbid hold up a ^%$%ing tablet and record the whole show- I've seen that asshole a couple times here in the USA. They take pictures of the polaroids with their food, a reminder of a fun day. They post their numbers and stacks of polaroids as a sort of embarrassed flex. Sure, this doesn't account for every picture taken, but it's plenty of probable innocuous purposes. I'm not a fan of the younger idols, but my stack of polaroids with my favorite groups are in a drawer. I look at them the same way I look at vacation photos or pictures meeting up with old friends. Reminiscing about fun times. That melancholic happiness called nostalgia.
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  318. The boy band craze is the same thing just in reverse? It's still underage girls. Obsessed with older male performers. The older male performers MARKET to the tweens rather than the tweens marketing to older male performers. Of course occasionally a super young guy comes along who attracts aunties. What do 12 year olds have anything in common with 26-28 year old BTS members any more than 30 something guys have stuff in common with Yune? So if young Justin Bieber can't have old fans, and older Justin Bieber can't have young fans without it being weird.... then... wait, why the hell does it matter who his fans are? And since you went to Justin Bieber, no doubt you noticed the hoards of fanboys, right? Even if some guys liked him, how many would get caught dead there? And that's the same for female idols in Japan.
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  319. The porn appearance age for the UK was 16 until something like 2000. That's not that long ago either. CP production was already banned. It just wasn't properly enforced. I am philosophically against possession laws, so I don't hold it against them for not having a possession law until ~2014. I hold it against them for not properly enforcing their bans on production and distribution though.
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  320. So what's the math on Arin?
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  321. Gahh, why does this keep getting thrown around? Who taught you that? It's still illegal after their age of consent. In actual practice, it's quite similarly enforced to where I'm from... where the aoc is ostensibly 18. One lists the aoc at age 18 as the point where you can start getting penalties, giving legal exceptions down to age 13 or so below which everything is illegal. The other lists it at 13 and then gives exceptions that can reduce the severity of charges up through 18 or so, after which it's all legal. In practice it's almost the same thing...
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  322. It's basically a new outfit every time. There were actually at least two that day but I guess the other one wouldn't help their narrative as much. Yune and the mom decide together, based on her setlist as mostly a cover artist. Since they knew about the UK guy there filming, probably they purposefully went with something that seemed like it would appeal to Westerners and then instead of reporting it as something like "young Japanese girl seeks to be next Ariana Grande" or whatever like they probably sweet-talked them with when they asked them to appear in the documentary you get "Schoolgirl Pin-Ups" as the actual headline.
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  323. It's different every time. And considering that, it seems like as fan of Ariana Grande she wore something she thought Westerners would like. Maybe at the direction of the "documentary" team, or maybe just of her own volition on the mistaken belief that the crew was there to tell a human interest story, not a hitjob. Also, BTW, what would you prefer?
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  324. In J-pop, the fans lean slightly female, but it's pretty mixed depending on performer. Maybe 60/40 overall. In "J-rock" the fans leans slightly male, but it's pretty mixed depending on band. Maybe 60/40 overall. But when you move onto IDOLS: For girl groups, the fans lean heavily male and actually at the shows, it leans all the more. For boy groups, the fans lean heavily female, and actually at the shows, it leans all the more. Maybe 70/30 in terms of fans, and 85/15 when it comes to actual attendance. This really shouldn't be terribly surprising. As a guy I liked a lot of old boy group songs, but there was already pressure against liking pop to begin with. I wouldn't admit to actually liking a boy group song, let alone a boy group, and I sure as hell wouldn't be caught dead at one of their shows. Even though I DID like it. Japan has very strong "fit in" culture and I hear it's even stronger among girls, so I expect it would take them even longer on average for them to not care what other people think about their musical tastes. And once you're into the indie scene- and this is the fringe of even that... it's just all the stronger. And once the ratio has tilted it's really hard to bring it back because they aren't really advertising so a lot of it is word of mouth, and if the ratio is too tilted then potential fans look at the fanbase and ditch out. OR, even if they don't mind the ratio, they're still less likely to stay because it's harder for them to make friends with the other fans. The boy groups have about 100% female fans as well.
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  325. It's an escape from whatever current hardship. Which is all? entertainment, right? Idol fandom is fairly close to SPORTS fandom- picking allegiance to a player or team, not even necessarily because you think they're the best. In their case, it's perhaps an escape to simpler times, which is why some consider it innocent enough to expressly given permission to show their face.
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  326. People like you are why my company told us to unwaveringly speak English for interactions with banks, most government officials and particularly law enforcement, no matter how good we ever thought we were at the local language. He's far from fluent.
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  327. I really wouldn't expect any better anywhere else considering how tightly packed the trains can get. So while they have a problem, I don't think it's particularly bad all things considered. They just don't have so much of a problem with pickpockets, fare dodgers, brawls, etc... but the chikan issue is one they can't figure out how to get rid of (without losing lots of money). So they put up signs to try to remind the women to be defensive and try to scare the potential predators and feign due diligence because in the end, groping in a packed train is basically anonymous and a certain % of people, everywhere, will do wrong if they're fairly sure they'll get away with it.
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  328. Possible but very unlikely. I'd estimate it at ~8% or so. The economics of this seem to require that dad be supporting them significantly.
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  329. If you watch videos like this then you will get an unhealthy view of what Japan is really like too. Look, boring stuff doesn't make it to videos unless you follow a slice of life vlogger or something like that. Most videos are clickbaiting you. 99.99X% of Japanese people will never go to a show like this. It's just a thing that exists, not even something most Japanese are aware of. Far worse stuff happens all around the globe anyway. Like at the Burning Sun.
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  330. When you lose you get all your shit exposed. When you win, nothing happened I guess?
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  331. Guys support female idols. Girls support male idols. And this is particular true here in the underground where aside for promoting your later events at events you perform it, it's basically all promoted by word of mouth among fans.
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  332. The money to make it came from somewhere.
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  333. Yes, just like the age of adulthood is 18 in the USA but you can't actually drink legally until 21. How does this factoid get around so much? The factoid needs an asterisk. Read the fine print. It's still illegal to have intimate relations with someone under 16 or 18, depending on jurisdiction. 18 there in Tokyo. 13-18 is jail time. Under 13, you get MORE jail time. From 13-18 she consents to a crime, under 13 you get hit for both the crime itself and that she can't consent.
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  334.  @thewanderingartists  I'm not sure of all the rules. The 13 thing just sounded fishy so I actually sort of looked into it. Moreover, I believe the law concerning parents just changed in the past year or so, so I figure most info available will be outdated now. Last I heard, men have to be 18 to marry, and girls have to be 16. This is, like many places, the "loophole" where even the places in Japan where there are laws against relations up to age 18 rather than 16, that just 16 would be okay. Marriage. But they had required parental consent for marriage all the way up to 20... so in most cases good luck getting approval. But I think that was what was removed, but it might have just gotten pushed down to 18 rather than be totally removed. There had been this sort of thing where no one would look past 18, but the parents still had a right to sue someone for having relations with their daughter from 18-20. Obviously if the parents are actually involved then there's someone there to pressure. A 15 year old runaway that gets herself involved with things by her connivance or exploitation may not be easily found out by authorities.
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  335. ​ @nasib2262  Ahh yes, the great imposition of going to a ~one hour show ~once a week. When you don't even understand what a fan is, how can you tell if he is or isn't one? When I see Japanese bands or groups in the US I always meet people that have flown in to watch the show... and will then follow them around to every other place on the tour. That's the sort of standard Japanese fans are using for "never misses a show". Going to 300+ shows a year is "never misses a show". The amount he does is only worth about 3rd or 4th tier fandom to those bands/groups. It's really nothing special for a Japanese fan. It's all he can do because it's all Yune offers, but if you understand the extent and expense Japanese fans will go to to support their favorites, Koji's efforts aren't anything abnormal or special.
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  336.  @greenpunch393  Well, I don't know for sure since I've never been to this particular venue or seen her. I just know how things usually are. Actually, because this was posted August 9th, your first inclination should have been covid restrictions. But then if you noticed all the Halloween decorations you'd realize it was October 2019. (Which would mean they would have had 9+ months to edit everything exactly like they wanted it...). So everyone would have indeed just been under normal rules and I think you can hear a decent amount of stuff on the fan cam. But if you watch anything that's actually from about March 2020 to present you should understand they are only allowed to clap now. Even when they ask something like "how's everyone doing tonight?" the audience can't respond.
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  337. @Agent Orange Halloween-ish party, so whatever. (I hate costumes)
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  338.  @almezamorra1021  Well it won't get anywhere near the number of views if it was neutral or positively spun- you need to be a true youtuber to be able to actually do well with a positive story. And it's important to have a good storyline. So I don't want to say he's being totally dishonest. But there are still definitely some shenanigans being pulled here. For example, his more or less opening monologue which conditions people to view things a certain way before they even get to see anything or see them talk for themselves. It's not like it was a basic introductory- it unduly brings child p**n into this before it even gets started.
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  339. Underground idols scrape by paying their own bills on 3-5 lives a week. Yune usually does 1. This won't support 2 people. It probably doesn't even support 1. Dad has a real job and pays the actual bills. If this makes any money at all after expenses it's just bonus money.
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  340. Her outfit imitates Western idols. =P Not to say Namie Amuro or someone wouldn't have worn it. But it's not at all like a typical idol outfit. Frankly, I think the audience would as a whole prefer a Japanese idol style outfit. The outrage mob would probably hate a regular idol outfit as well and just cite different reasons... I don't think she can really win no matter what she chooses if people want to view it negatively.
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  341. Not it wouldn't. Kids aren't paying the $50 ticket fee one way or the other. At least not without Disney or something like that telling kids they're supposed to like her. Idols wear fancy outfits. Typical idols (ie, the 14-28 age range) frankly wear outfits that covers more skin on average than random girls in their age group walking around Shibuya or whatever. They're just walking around. You can gawk for free. You go watch idols you're paying money to watch girls wearing MORE clothes. So obviously that's not what people are actually paying for. As for Yune, she wears something different every time. In this case she seems to have worn something she thought would be popular to Western audiences- either being set up by the documentary team who directly told her to do so, or of her own volition under the wrong understanding that they were making a video that was trying to show her in a good light. Pretty much the most dangerous thing an idol can wear is normal clothes. It's not bad if it's announced as a special event every now and then- even in that case they're often stylized. But it absolutely should NOT be used as your regular performance clothes.
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  342. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbz1bCGb19g You can start from 2 minutes in. Notice anything? Regular youtubers often don't give a crap editing because you probably won't be sued... But you could be. That girl, however, is attached to a major company with money to be sued away, so her management mosaics the crap out of everything. The shots in this video about Yune here out in public with identifiable faces are suspect- in most cases you need to explicitly give permission for pictures of you to be uploaded. Those shots are probably illegal (to upload). No one's really enforcing it though. However, once they went into the VENUE, then the venue will enforce it- it they wanted to film there they likely had to mosaic everyone by default.
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  343. What about who?
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  344. Of course not. They're priced out. She can only perform 1-2 times per week and that means doing relatively expensive events. They allow photography to try to justify the higher price and to try to attract some photographer types who will see it as a deal compared to shooting a real model, rather than as an overpriced idol event. I suppose if you just wanted to see her short performance it's not too bad... but when you add up train costs, etc, it's still expensive to pay $10-15 for a 20-30 minute show. It's something like $45-50 for the whole day's performances. You can find something similar as a no-photography all day event for $20-25.
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  345. Dressing how an 11 year old dresses is quite possibly the worst thing to wear. It's far more dangerous. Why do you want her to be in greater danger?
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  346. Age of consent in Japan is 13 and then it's still illegal until 16/18... 18 there in Tokyo. It is still misdemeanor jail time between 13-18. Listing the low number of a two tier system is misleading. Age of consent here in California is 18 but they only seem to actually care and do anything about it when it's over and under the age of consent by multiple years, not when under 18s do it with under 18s. Overall these two sets of policies do something quite similar. You just get to say the aoc for one is 13 and the one for the other is 18. So the actual number doesn't mean much- only how it's actually enforced.
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  347. A bit thankless. BAND-MAID has extensive idol roots. BAND-MAID was formed with idol money on an idol production company, with many if not most of the initial BAND-MAID fans being idol fans. Several of their early gigs were as opening acts and backing bands at idol events. And certainly if you go look at BAND-MAID's old twitter posts from back around 2013-2014 they themselves are not thankless and say quite a few nice things about the groups in their company. Besides, Miku/Mika was an idol before.
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  348.  @philproffitt8363  That's not what your argument was in the first post... You were saying girls like Yune should follow good role-models like BAND-MAID and not take the idol route. You didn't mention anything about age. You took a shot at idols in passing. If you think kids shouldn't join the entertainment industry until so and so age, fine enough. That's not what you said though. I'd argue that it's safer for her to start involvement while her mom is still legally obligated tp keep a close eye on everything, but I think that's still the case for quite a while older than she actually is. Mika/Miku did idol stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qRgelZASwQ This group would be from when she was about 20. I'm not sure if there's anything earlier. Whatever her purpose in joining, it did give her experience and practice with stage presence, forming a persona, etc. which could eventually be used to improve the quality of her band.
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  349. That was the '80s before Japanese pop was even called J-pop and some of her stuff is still listed as kayoukyoku. That's two eras ago. It's like studying Atari when considering how to become an indie game developer in 2021. Some concepts transfer but it's a different world.
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  350. So what outfit would be appropriate?
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  351. Her profile says she loves bananas and purikura and wants to be cheerful as a sunflower. You sexualized it yourself, though it's probably in part because this guy and his documentary use a lot of sneaky tactics to try to get people to assume the worst about everything.
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  352. Oh, that's great... upgrade from "uncle" fans who pay you and then leave you alone while you're off the job to sasaeng fans.
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  353. Acting like she's a superstar. It's about a 100 seat venue. It's indie AF. Are all the indie AF bands no one has heard of rolling in the cash?
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  354. It doesn't prove anything. The reporter had made up his mind before even arriving what the story was. While he may appear polite, his purpose in being there was to try to frame this as a dangerous environment. He is not a neutral party- he is an enemy. An enemy to anyone there who is doing something wrong... but also an enemy to anyone there who isn't. Because the reporter isn't really interested in rooting out the troublemakers- he's interested in making a juicy story. And he has the benefit of getting to cut and even translate anything you say without you being able to object. And this isn't the first time a Western reporter has done this sort of thing in Japan. The smart move is to deny permission.
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  355.  @PoojaKumari-ty6sh  Yeah, you're making your own decision. Fine. But reporter's job here is to make these guys look like p*dos. So if you are one of those guys, wtf would you show your face? Whether or not you are one, why would you give permission? If some reporter came up to me and asked leading questions to try to make me appear racist I'm not going to talk to him or give any permission. I have nuanced positions on LGBT... I think they're fair but I'm not going to give permission to someone who's TRYING to make me appear phobic cut my words where he wants and translate for me. If they're out to get you, don't talk to them. Obviously some of the people in this video misjudged. Including Yune's manager. Reporting crew was out to get them... but you think they reached out to Yune and told them that? No, they probably said they were looking on making a documentary about a Japanese girl who hoped to be the next Ariana Grande or whatever. That's how they got the interviews. And that was not at all their intent.
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  356.  @PoojaKumari-ty6sh  I don't know if my last comment went through. But I take issue with this sort of thinking because it's guilty until proven innocent thinking.
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  357. That's because you read the translation written by the documentary instead of hearing what she actually said. And we don't even get to know what she really said because the editing team had an agenda and probably cut down a 15-30 minute interview to a few soundbites they wanted. Which, again, they then got to translate as they wanted. A proper translation is more along the lines of "The people who come for her voice are many" which is in response to his prompt. The interviewer setting it up that since they're mostly middle-aged she must be concerned, presumably because they must be coming for some sexual reason. Her answer is nahh, most of the fans are fans who enjoy the singing. And the ones that aren't, which she acknowledges later, are "obstacles" that they're watching out for. She's not denying it. They ban people. Why would she subject her daughter to even those "obstacles"? Well, maybe she thinks that building up a portfolio will land Yune a proper career (which, 3 years later, seems to be the case) and if mom wasn't supportive starry-eyed Yune would just go off and join some group as soon as she could anyway. Which, without the portfolio and parent to back her up would likely result in being some abusive slave contract sort of thing. Which would actually make this route safer even if it's not 100% safe either.
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  358. ​ @stephen25uk  Perhaps because you're expected 1/10000000 level nationally famous stars with a bit of editing to help them out? I dunno. People are fans of THOUSANDS of worse sounding pop stars. Whether or not you think she can sing she is already better than at least 90% of them. She is playing events with people her age who do sound a lot worse. And you can look at THOSE fans and give a big "hmmmm....." But that, AFAIK, Yune is more popular than the ones that can't sing would lend some credence to mom's opinion that a lot of people are there for her voice. I'll put it this way... why choose Yune for this? Whatever your opinion she's already better than hundreds of people with record deals. There are plenty of these young singers that sound like shit so why not focus on one of them where it's a bit harder to explain away?
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  359. ​ @stephen25uk  ​ Who said that? I said perhaps your problem is you only listen to nationally famous recording artists with some editing help... and therefore your standard of "can't sing" is unreasonably harsh. If you go to livehouses and stuff you'll find that a lot of front men or whatever can't sing for shit. And.... that's fine. It's nice that more than the 1/10000000 level star gets to perform and express themselves. In Japan there's stuff like AKB48. Hundreds of girls and maybe 5 of them can sing... probably still worse than this girl, and they don't even get much attention. They've sold millions. That's the sort of style Yune is competing against- with a decent % of her fandom likely having peeled off from being a fan of one of those kinds of groups. And by comparison she sings extremely well.
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  360. Young kids watch and follow what the multibillion dollar companies want them to. They just have to watch TV and movies afterall. They're not really supposed to be on the internet without supervision. But let's say they go on TikTok and find her. Fine. But how are you going to get those TikTok followers into the venue? A lot of these guys go to some sort of event ON A DAILY BASIS. It's just a matter of choosing the event. A lot of the camera guys... are actually just camera nerds. They'll be at some totally different kind of event tomorrow. Some of the guys are just idol geeks... they go to some rock idol tomorrow and electronic idol the day after. Then there's the group who are actually going for the younger models/performers because they're young, for all sorts of good and bad reasons. The basic point is there are these sub-cultures of guys that are basically committed to going to an event several times a week and it's just a matter of hearing about it and choosing to go. They're going to something, so they choose Yune. This culture exists already. This is in comparison with a 10 year old trying to talk her parents into taking her an hour into the city to pay a bunch of money to watch someone she's seen on TikTok that she wasn't actually supposed to to be using.
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  361. I won't get into the first part. But what would you have her wear?
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  362.  @theBallisticMystic  It's not obvious. Because many people give one of the worst answers when I ask this. ("normal" clothes) Anyway, because Yune only performs about once a week she changes outfits pretty much every time. She actually had two different outfits on the first day. Where's the film of the other one? Not that this isn't in the range of stuff she wears. But it is pretty far onto the risque end of it. So, knowing this guy was coming, why would they choose one of the most risque outfits she's ever worn considering they choose a specific outfit for each event? IMHO, this whole video was a bait and switch- frankly it's probably the only way such a video gets made. So they say they're looking to tell a story of a Japanese girl who wants to be the next Ariana Grande, and so Yune dresses the part. Instead it's "pin-ups".
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  363.  @theBallisticMystic  I had an acquaintance who was on some sort of reality TV show. Obviously "reality" shows really aren't, but it was only after that that I realized they are basically pure fiction. When you take probably 40 hours of film and compress it down to 20 minutes you can pretty much tell any story you want. So I consider them entirely untrustworthy. I mean, I have some issues with this myself. But people watching this and dogpiling on things when we should know a bit better how these things work by now. For example, pointing out what mom didn't say. As if they sat her down for just a 1-2 minute interview and then showed every second of footage they took of it.
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  364. To touch on the original comment: I, like many others, like older idols for non-visual reasons, let alone sexual reasons. And so I extend that to fans of young idols too. Of course I've also seen some unsavory types so I figure the young ones have bad fans too. So I wouldn't mind if they increased their restrictions for Yune. Idols are a bit of an acquired taste so it might not ever be your thing. But if you've actually gone and enjoyed a show the concept of it only being for unsavory reasons quickly falls apart. Even if it's not for you, it should be clear lots of people are having a fun time dancing around or whatever.
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  365. Quick research, so no guarantee of 100% accuracy. She did some sort of support or voice acting for a game application based on a manga. So while the words could indeed be bondage + girlfriend, the application doesn't seem to be about a bondage loving girlfriend, but rather an extremely needy/clingy one. It's kinda like tamagotchi but you're managing a girlfriend who's usually in a bad mood. Again, I didn't spend forever researching so no guarantee on accuracy, nor do I know if the lines are all innocent or go too far.
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  366. Oh, this is so disturbing, let me make a joke about killing 200,000 civilians.
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  367. I'd be surprised if she makes more than 30000 USD/year. Frankly, the appearance are probably worth about 5000 USD/year, supplemented with another 10-15K USD profit from fan meetings. Likely high 1XXXX to low 2XXXX, unless her company is currently overpaying her in hopes she makes it big. Regular idols perform 4-5 times a week and it's still considered bad full time pay. Yune can usually only perform 1-2 times due to her age. Usually 1, but as in the video, they can shuffle the schedule around a little to get 2 on occasion. If she could do it full time it could support herself. With the restrictions, it's unlikely she could support herself, let alone support her mom or brother. Her dad has a real job.
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  368. She wears something different every time- including in an earlier performance that very day. As mostly a cover artist, she often wears something related to one of the songs she is covering. She likes Ariana Grande, so she's probably performed Ariana Grande songs and put together such an outfit before. FYI, Japanese idol fans don't give a crap about Ariana Grande- performing such a song in the first place would be Yune's choice by her own preference, not something the fans actually want to see. But it is one of the most risque outfits she's ever used... because it's copying a Western star. Why would she wear one of the most risque outfits she's ever used in front of this Western camera-crew talking about pin-ups? Obviously because when they filmed it it wasn't about pin-ups. At the very least, when Yune and mom chose the outfit, they picked something they thought Westerners would like because they thought the video crew was there for a positive human interest story not a hitjob. At worst, the sort of outfit was outright requested by the camera crew. BTW, regular clothes are considered to be the most dangerous outfit. Japanese fans by and large understand and respect the concept of on and off. If they're just in street clothes, everyone understands that they are to be left the f alone. Then they go the venue, change into their costume, and then their official rules and venue rules apply considering pictures, talking and touching. Then they change back to street clothes, and everyone understands they are to be left the f alone. So when you advocate for normal clothes, you're advocating for breaking down this barrier that keeps most people from making contact while they're off the job.
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  369. If it's all about the view, how would this outfit make the cut? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpMEoLxNHvk
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  370.  @pjduker05  So do you not have any issues with the way the documentary was filmed?
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  371. ​ @pjduker05  My issue is you think it's shining light on the situation, when it's goal is to paint darkness on it. Trying to make it as sexual as possible. The "documentary" is hypersexualizing it. You don't think that's abusive in its own right to frame and cut innocent words they say to make them sound sexual?
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  372. It's a festival with a bunch of performers. Lots of people there aren't even there to see her. Reality check to you shooting from the hip.
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  373.  @Allykitts25  Maybe the 17 year old main event next on the schedule? You can still think that's young, but it's no different than Western or K-pop standards. This particular event leaned toward younger performers... but did you know that when you went in internet guns blazing? It's not true of all her events! Again, often 12+ different performers on the same ticket. In this case maybe they like young idols. But she's played on the same ticket as this group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNLtR19g_uA Also this group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im5gCUEFI3c which has posted ages of: 24, 26, 28, 29, 29
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  374. The default in Japan is you must mosaic identifiable people without express permission, except for a few exceptions. This video likely breaks laws and would be at risk of being sued if they were a Japanese company. While it's not very likely for anyone to bring a lawsuit, the venues that allowed them to film likely had it as a stipulation. Since the default is that you must mosaic, it's fairly common to be waved away without permission no matter the context. What advantage is it to them? And in any case, your argument doesn't make sense. Regardless of their intentions, you already judged them right? See, no matter what they think about it themselves, they know what conclusions some people will jump to. So they may prefer to not share that with 2 million people. Maybe a competing coworker would anonymously send it to their boss to try to get them fired.
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  375. If they're actually into idols... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0wbnQw89J0 And let the 40,000,000 views versus 4,000 for Yune let you understand how indie this is.
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  376.  @kittenmimi5326  Japanese idols use constructed personas, not unlike say a WWE star. Related to this is the concept of "on" and "off"- the idea that idols, once they step off stage and change into street clothes, are just regular people who should be left alone.
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  377. He's not. He's just the narrator so he gets to frame it. That man knows exactly what he's doing, he knows what gets clicks and he's exploiting an 11 year old girl for some money.
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  378. ​ @ninitya9768  It's propaganda for clicks and clout. What they show you isn't reality. It's a carefully crafted misrepresentation. This doesn't mean I agree with every thing Yune, etc. do. But the filming method is wrong. It's borderline yellow journalism. It should not be praised.
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  379. So what counts? People can't do sports either? You only hire 18+ to play kids in movies?
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  380.  @Grace-qu8bw  And ballet? Gymnastics? Figure skating? Little League?
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  381. The mainstream companies have audition pass rates of about 0.05% - 0.4%. While they have a lot more female fans, the people who actually show up at the shows are still mostly male. And frankly 20% of 100 is less than 2% of 100,000. That is to say, even if her current audience has a much higher % of creepers than a mainstream idol, the total exposure is much much higher as a popular idol.
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  382. Heh, it was funny but only because of how forced it sounded. Yune performs about 4-6 times a month. She had the extra event for her friend's birthday, so two that particular week. They try to make it sound like he's a mega obsessed fan because he goes to every show.... when in the case of Yune, this is such an utterly low bar. Many idol groups perform about 20-30 times a month with fans that go to every show. Koji's got it easy. No matter how obsessed he gets there's only about 1/5th as much stuff to go to as would be the case for an older group.
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  383. Outfit is different every time. Also, while it's hardly a rule, since she's mostly a cover artist, the outfit of the week seems to be meant to go with whatever she's covering that week. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFyfV04kxI0 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcoGdE-vhn4
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  384. So are you going to delete the people off your playlists that aren't the same age and gender as you?
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  385. ​ @BakedBuddy  You can hope for a greater variety. You can object to certain parts of this. But in the end why do you place fandom expectations on her and not anyone else? Where are all the little girl fans? Mostly following 20-40 year old boy groups. Here's the 2018 middle school ranking: 1) Arashi these are 37-40 year old guys in this boy group 2) Nogizaka 3) Keyakizaka These are girl groups- despite decent appeal to girls- even strong appeal in the case of Keyakizaka, when it comes to who goes to events, it's still mostly guys, because that's stereotypical girl idol group culture. 4) Kis-My-Ft2 29-35 year old guys 5) Hey! Say! Jump! 27-30 year old guys 6) TWICE 7) Kanjani 35-39 year old guys 8) Perfume 9) Johnny's West 24-33 year old guys 10) Sandaime 31-37 year old guys 11) BTS 23-28 year old guys 12) SHINee 27-31 year old guys 13) Nishino Kana 14) Yonezu Kenshi 15) AAA 16) Back Number 17) AKB 18) Sexy Zone 19) Radwimps 20) Daoko Young people don't support their peers. Young girls support older people... mostly older guys.
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  386. ​ @lacunarikain2 There is nothing wrong with " an older man spending his time following what a little girl does". And you already know this because no one really gives a shit about older men spending time following what little girls do when there is the cover of other demographics in the audience. Everyone watching the Olympic gymnastics isn't a predator. Even the older men watching. They could just plain like seeing their little girls beating little girls from China and Russia so that they can feel better about themselves without having to start a proxy war. The issue is what he, himself- that guy right there, says and does. I saw the earlier scene. I'm not trying to get him off the hook. I'm just trying to get him down from the tree and into the courthouse.
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  387. With a lot of luck... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEsOaMbNFww
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  388. You really think they sat her down for a 1 minute interview? This is the 1-10% they decided to show you. And while the translation is okay to understand the basic points, it's not a translation that would stand up in the courts. Or should be used seriously in the court of public opinion. It's just so you can understand the gist- not the nuance. And of course she's careful. If I asked you, in person, on camera, why you came and watched this racist video that intentionally hypersexualizes these girls for views and clicks, you'd watch your words too. And you might come across as particularly guarded if we've probably already had 10 minutes where I asked you a bunch of softball questions before I pulled out the uncomfortable ones. If you're not very careful it'd be pretty easy to cut what you say and put you in a video that paints you as racist, or at least perpetuating racism. And that would be the result when I get to cut out 99% of what you say and keep the juicy bits. And therefore, beware of documentaries. They did not go to Japan to film 24 minutes. It took them 9 months from the time of filming to edit all of their hours of footage down just so and release this.
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  389. Yes, they're only people. Welcome to underground Japanese idol fandom. If you're saying "huh...?" That's kind of the point here. It's not about stars. They're average people. The average person on the street is AS interesting as them on average. Cuz they're average.
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  390. If you have this thing called evidence they will sort it out for you. I know it's always guilty until proven innocent with sex crimes. That's why everyone is supposed to read "To Kill a Mockingbird" so that when the white girl falsely accuses the black man of r** and then he is almost lynched and then is convicted and eventually shot we can understand that to be racist bullshit.
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  391. As the actual perpetrators of stalking, death threats and assaults on idols are almost invariably under 30, it's not so bad as you think.
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  392. It was a couple weeks or so before Halloween. Seems it's a grab bag of cheap costume props. Also why a few people, but not a lot of people, are dressed up in costumes. You can debate back and forth over if they should have been available, if they're necessarily bad or could have been used for some cute innocent photo ops. I mean, I think they could be used for some cute photo ops. But as fun as a grab bag is, if someone doesn't standardize their photo-op procedure and allows fans to get creative, they will, for better and worse and that might be time for the staff to step in in some way.
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  393. She wore that for the Western camera crew, who likely suggested in some way that that's what they wanted to see for their video. It's not her typical style of outfit.
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  394. I won't deny a potential pedophile angle for some of them. But I'll try to explain it otherwise. In Japan there is a general trend to support opposite gender in terms of pop groups. So a girl group may have 60/40 male/female general fandom. But because it's cultural that you are supposed to like the opposite gender for pop stars, it's awkward to actually go to a show, so at the mainstream level it's more around 85/15 at a major show. (You can see this in the West as guys may sort of actually like a Backstreet Boys or Justin Bieber or One Direction song or two, but few would admit liking it too much, and fewer still would actually go to a show). This is the underground... the indie scene, groups and soloists almost no one has heard of. So most people who get here would have STARTED by following a mainstream group for years, and eventually found out that this scene exists. These are generally not casual idol fans who like it because they heard a song on TV or around town- they had to research. To be a major fan at this level is extremely expensive, and while not for Yune in particular who can't really work weekdays, many would have gotten into idols by going to shows on the way home from work. So all this combined drops it down to maybe 94/6. Then you figure that at that ratio, it's awkward for a lot of girls who would want to go and so they don't, and so actually at a show it ends up being more like 98/2 with most of that 2% gathered as fans of a handful of groups where they have big enough numbers to not feel awkward. Again, at a casual level, it's something like 60/40. But since girls aren't really supposed to like this stuff too seriously, this far into the underground if you show up there's no denying you're a major idol geek, and in conformist Japan, few girls are willing to accept that. As for why they're older- again, it's expensive, as each performer or group really isn't being supported by all that many people so younger fans can't go to as many shows in general, and are more likely to skip this show, which had a fairly high entry fee. Again, there may be a pedophile angle involved. But at this level of the indie scene you'll fine they're almost all men no matter the group concept.
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  395. Major companies audition around 11-12 until 20-22. Minor companies audition around 14-16 until 22-28. So she'd be looking to make moves around now. Of course there's covid.... so... But if you want to work on stuff before then to get some experience, you need to work in the junior idol scene... preferably heavily on the singing side rather than the more sketchy modeling side. If you want to be an idol, singing isn't everything. So all this other stuff is good practice. Despite looking creepy, it's probably safer than a mainstream group.
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  396. The same reason why sports fans are fans of young men. The idols/players move on, but the fans are still fans. The first idols I followed were OLDER than me. But they quit. Then they were about the same age as me. But they quit. So now they are younger... because that's the age of people who are actually idols. (~15-27, with outliers) For sports it happens to be more like 22-38, with outliers.. but it's pretty much the same thing. When I started watching sports they were all OLDER than me. And they quit. Now they're about 80% younger than me. In 10 more years I'll be older than almost all professional athletes, and I don't intend to quit following sports just because of my age.
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  397. Whether true or not for them, the reasoning doesn't work. Not cheering much before a performance is pretty common there, especially at this sort of festival where she was just one of a dozen performers that day.
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  398. While it could possibly still be creepy, please be aware this was filmed on October 20th and that appears to be a box of costume props on account of Halloween. A lot of stuff in this video is extra weird because of when they decided to film... because Halloween is weird to begin with.
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  399.  @chamorealtea3294  There are 21 girls in the music video and only ~12 in non-dance scenes. 9 of them are there all day just to have a couple seconds in frame during the dance shots. "If you don't want to do it, Akicha can do it instead" is hardly coercion. As if the director gives a shit who does it. She didn't get to pick the members, they were ordered by vote total. You take the opportunity or don't. The vote ranking still ensures you have your forward placement in the dance formation.
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  400. Oh, is anime that mainstream already? You never got any pushback for watching it? I was never enough into anime to care much about the slander it got. But I played plenty of video games and the media's take on video games for years was facepalming, eyerolling, cringeworthy bullshit. Even recently the news anchors are like.... "I can't believe people actually watch people play video games when you could play them yourselves... and here's Carlos with sports!" Anyway, I'd just think you'd be a bit more skeptical of this sort of hitjob video. And it is a hitjob. Not to say that everything about it is perfect. Anime isn't perfect. Video games aren't perfect. But it's still a hitjob.
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  401. It was filmed in October 2019. ie, pre-covid Most people wear it some of the time. And so it wasn't a political statement.
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  402. It's mostly 16. It'd kind of be like if the age was 13 in the United States and then if you actually went state by state, DC, Puerto Rico and every other territory with people on it, EVERY SINGLE ONE was 16 or 18. The difference is if you break the state law then you go to jail and if you break the national law you get to go to more jail.
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  403. This is complicated, but normal: A 2022 BTS fansite poll with over 500,000 answering returned 96% female and more responding as non-binary than male. As a boy band, they would naturally be more appealing to girls. And everyone knows this... so if you're a guy fan of a boy group, you know it's going to be a crowd of screaming girls at the show and that's dissuading. But the ratio was so oppressive that a lot of the guy fans they did have seemed to have dropped out in recent years making it even more female than before. But there are still 7500 of them- globally they could still fill a huge hall full of male fans. Scale it down to the size of Yune's fandom... and 1.5% is like 1-2 people (including all followers, maybe 200, but 99% of sns followers aren't going to shows..). If a new female fan shows up at the show... it's literally no one. It's not just oppressively opposite gender there- there's literally no one. No one to go have drinks with after the show or whatever. So they easily peal off, so instead of it being a probably more natural 80/20 for a girl pop act, it's basically 100/0. For Japanese female pop idols in general, it's about 70/30 at the mainstream level, 80/20 for people who actually go to shows, 90/10 at the underground level... often close to 100/0 for "random Tuesday night" shows, with many of the female fans who do exist at that level congregating as large minorities for a small number of groups where they can more easily make friends with others in the fandom. This is a sort of "betrayal" video... I doubt she sees it. I'm sure she'd appreciate if you left a nice comment on her actual youtube channel (ゆうねるーみんぐ) or an sns account.
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  404.  @lornam1142  Japan isn't very honest about statistics. Same as everyone else. But wtf would they do that? Police look like they're doing their job if there are fewer homicides and more suicides. Suicides isn't a police problem. Government looks bad whether its suicides or homicides but looks worse if it's homicides- overarching issues like bullying and overwork could be fixed by government intervention but they are considered much more responsible for safety and security. Moreover, homicide rate seems stable. Whether more suicides are being labeled as ACCIDENTS, I couldn't say. Korea has seen an epidemic of elderly suicides and Japan may be suppressing this number. But that's a different social issue from businessmen and school kids.
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  405. Everyone does meet and greet sort of stuff. Beyonce sells meet and greets for something like $1000-5000 each. So the huge, rich fan who puts down MAJOR cash can have a little special time with her that's hopefully worth it to them. The idol group AKB48 popularized a system where EVERYONE who so much as buys a CD can go and get a handshake, say hello, and get a thank you. Of course, people enjoyed that enough they bought EXTRA CDs so that they could go stand in line and do it again! And the groups that aren't trying to get onto national rankings realized that you don't even need to sell a CD to get a meet and greet- you can just sell the meet and greet. And this is extremely important for these groups because unlike music or other merch which may be enjoyed for a long time but is only bought once, meet and greets can be sold over and over again. So while a hugeass company may be able to have staff on hand to design an endless supply of merch for fans to buy, these no-name idols where it's pretty much just them and the manager are largely supported by this meet and greet money.
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  406.  @lingeringquestions519  I don't quite know what to make of that guy. As he has to explicitly give permission for him to appear without a mosaic. In a country where people are generally hesitant to give permission even for innocuous stuff. But without his part there there's not much to complain about in the rest of the video. I will at least say that he seems to have taken it out of a box of props that were there on account of Halloween. Handcuffs are a weird choice though, especially if there's not a gun / police hat or whatever available to really paint a scene for a funny picture. So in the end... I don't know what to make of that guy. If you're awake and have time, older idol group I like who can't sing as well as her on in 3 minutes over at youtube video code 00kLNlbeuq4 People watch cuz fun. Not saying there's not anymore more to it for some people. Just that sometimes people don't value that others can actually just enjoy the performance and then want to support them by buying stuff.
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  407. Well if BLACKPINK's age 13 is your standard, that's in.... 2 months for Yune?
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  408. It outlawed possession. It was already illegal to produce, distribute, etc. As an example, please understand that the age of adulthood is 20 in Japan. Due to Western influence, some things have been dropped to 18. Let's say on the other hand that Japan was the one that won the culture war and it was raised to 20 globally. I'm okay with that... 18 and 19 can still be in high school, so better to not have them from now on if you ask me. But okay, hundreds of millions if not billions of people with porn on their computers.... uhh... what now? The pictures and videos don't have 18 and 19 written on their foreheads so you know what you have to delete. It's all just mixed together because when it was made it was all legal so no one cared if they were 18 or 19 or 20. This is the problem when laws get made after the fact. Basically no one is actually going to delete everything to be on the safe side nor is anyone actually going to go through everything and contact companies to receive the records... they'll just stay in possession and hope no one gives a shit. And probably no one will give a shit unless you get arrested for something else, and then they'll threaten to charge you with it if you don't plead guilty to their other thing. So basically it does nothing but allow the police to coerce you for other stuff. Maybe some sort of bans on possession could be reasonable, but generally I think it's a big can of worms that can be easily abused. Focus on stopping production. Which is actually the more important thing they did in 2014... increasing enforcement of laws they already had.
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  409. Casually watching on TikTok and not putting down the big cash to go to shows.
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  410. BTW, female idols are by and large considered to be a male hobby in Japan. And this isn't mainstream where you can pick up some casuals. It's extremely indie. So that makes the gender gap all the stronger. Girls who like idols basically all fall off before getting this deep into the indies. At this level any girl who likes idols... can become one. Also, I will note that that stereotype is breaking now, so more girls are willing to get into the scene. They even had a drama about it recently. (だから私は推しました) But it's not this far into the indies yet. It goes about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNrq_gAeQmI far, and they tend to congregate into a few fandoms where they have numbers:
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  411. Ahh, look, someone with an open mind. Good. What do you think about figure skaters? At the Olympic level, they are 15+. They didn't get to the Olympic level overnight, the big up and comers are well known long in advance and qualify based on previous performances. Female freeskate is the most popular category, despite men being able to do about half an extra spin per jump. Surely if 5,000,000 people watch the Olympics.... there are probably dozens of people doing inappropriate stuff during their performances. But what about everyone else? Is everyone a deviant for watching 15 year olds spin around in leotards? You could easily come up with a dozen reasons to watch figure-skating. Some of these guys are likely deviants, but as a group they still deserve the same benefit- there are plenty of other reasons to be at the show.
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  412. At the mainstream level, female idol fans are something like 60/40 majority men... but in terms of who goes to the shows, it's more like 84/16. And as you go into the underground, you keep performing the same calculation 2-3 more times and it's something like 98/2 for people who are fans of underground idols AND actually go to shows regularly. There are 1000s of female fans of female idols. They're call idols.
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  413. While bad motives may apply to some of them, it's mostly explainable by economics and social dynamics. Female idol fandom is stereotypically a nerdy male pastime. So even if according to polls, 30-40% of fans of major female idol groups are female, at the actual shows they run more around 10-20%. Yune is super indie- the capacity at that venue is something around 100-200, and as it said, it was a festival of sorts with something like 20 performers. Not that many people were there just to see her. So if you have 30 fans coming to your shows for you, and 10% are female just as a matter of the demographics of idol fandom... that's about 3. If you're a guy, and there are 29 other guys there, it's easy to find friends- they probably go out drinking and for noodles after a typical show. If there's 1-2 other girls there... maybe you don't like them. So it's not even 10-15%... there's not enough fans for a critical mass of female fans, they shed off easily and go support groups with a larger female fan base, and so at this indie of a level it's approximately zero at shows. Economically speaking, Yune is only allowed to perform about 1-2 times a week. And that means charging more for each event... which pretty much prices people out. Somewhat ironically, efforts to protect younger performers means it makes it harder for them to get younger fans. She uploads to tiktok. I'm sure it's not all middle-aged fans there. But again, it's a stereotypically nerdy male pastime, so it's hard to get people outside of that demographic to come to a show.
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  414. As your main concern is the outfit... the outfit changes constantly. She is not a regular performing idol with a set outfit. She's about 50/50 a cover artist, and the outfit often matches the song she is covering. So knowing that your question should be- why this particular outfit on this particular day? Her performance earlier in the day was a more modest dress. So why this particular outfit for this particular performance when the foreign film crew was present? This isn't an outfit to wear in front of a film crew that is trying to paint your fans as predators. This is the outfit to wear when the film crew tells you they're making a documentary about a Japanese girl who wants to be the next Ariana Grande. The outfit is what it is because the Western film crew wanted- knowing full well Westerners would NOT like it but that it would drive engagement on this video and earn them money.
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  415.  @Bess1201  So when did you get set in your ways and stop asking questions? You say you know what questions you want to make- so why aren't you properly questioning? Don't mistake absolutely hating disingenuous videos with agreeing with the subject matter. That's two separate things. If you have a high bar for outfits, fine. Japanese idol costumes are more sailor moon than "h 00 ker"- that's more a Western pop and K-pop thing, but I'm not happy with all of them myself, including hers. If you searched you've no doubt also seen the ones where she's pretty much totally covered up? If it's only about selling sexuality, why even do that, ever? If she's selling sensuality, isn't buying an outfit that covers up more just spending money to be able to earn less money? Possibly her worst outfit ever was worn for this particular event, which seems like it would absolutely not be what she'd wear if the camera crew wasn't lying to them. Yet you refuse to question why. The sneaky cuts and framing and "translations" throughout make me inclined to believe a lot of what they found they instigated. Maybe they could find a bunch of material if they hung around for a while. But they only had a few hours over a few days to make a juicy story justifying their travel costs, and so they seemed to have manufactured all that they could. As actually researching and digging up some real dirt in Japan could be dangerous we just get tourist journalism videos like this. The tourist journalism should be called out. That's all.
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  416. Hates money. Yet fails to realize that this documentary worked hard to make everything look as bad as possible to make more money.
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  417. "Young" people still go to a lot. I mean people with freedom.. 18-30. To some extent high school too, but you know. It's just different stuff. And of course the younger they are the less likely they are to have the budget to go to hundreds of shows a year so that Tuesday night show probably leans heavily toward office workers. Also, if they're working or going to university it's likely they'll already be in town and can easily go to a show as part of their normal routine and potentially already paid for season train pass or whatever. Aside for the few living in central Tokyo proper, high schoolers and whatnot would have to commute in for the show specifically, which adds up fast. But a lot of them will blow what money they do have going to as many as possible. If you aren't seeing them you aren't going to the shows they're going to.
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  418. She can't wait to eat the cake. The cake has many different fruit on it, including (as far as I can tell, sliced) banana. Banana is her favorite, and everyone there except the reporter know it because she says so all the time. Banana smoothie, banana parfait, banana churro... she's tried them all. It's kinda gross that the "documentary" tries to sexualize an innocent statement of thanks.
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  419. ​ @ilovelamp521  It's not trying? You're the one talking about bananas. What led you to that conclusion? At 22:44, she takes the cake from her mom. Then she makes her comment. Then, jump cut to the back of the room and everyone is laughing except sour-faced Marcel. Oh, including mom. She teleported. They just spliced two scenes together on you and acted like that's what happened in reality. Did you notice? And of course during this whole section he's monologuing about sexualization. Manufactured joke. Manufactured outrage. Again, not to say that everything is great about everything here. Just that what you actually decided to comment on was manufactured by the documentary team to tug at your emotions.
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  420. Yune can really only perform on weekends. If someone is just a fan of Yune it's not anywhere near as demanding as being a "regular" indie idol fan, as those perform 4-8 times a week including weekdays. Twitter stalking suggests he has a job, though Koji is a very common name. Both of his hobbies are extremely expensive. This event was expensive. People talk about wishing more people her age came, and that'd be nice. But it'd probably mean basically having free events. And if you want to see the REAL creepers come out of the woodwork you have free events. The high price point keeps kids and casuals out, as well as most of the people who no one will hire.
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  421. Nah, this is what we call a gray area. Better to not be in the gray area, but that's still just all it is. Humanity goes far, far, far worse.
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  422. Everyone has to work late and go drinking with the boss.
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  423. Idol fandom is pretty well split by gender to begin with. And it's all the more true in the underground. Actually, I just saw a post on twitter about a BAND (I think all or mostly male band members) that had a male-only live in Japan, and only SIX people showed up. So obviously the fandom is basically all female. This sort of demographic conformity plagues the underground scenes- and even moreso it's Japan afterall, where they emphasize conformity. Anyway, there's really just one key point to all of this. No one at this level advertises significantly. It's word of mouth, or advertising at venues or just by performing at venues. There is no broad advertisement. There's basically no way for anyway at this level to reach the mainstream. Very few people her age know she exists. However, she did just perform as Luna in a Sailor Moon stage play, which gave her some exposure in her age group. They mostly won't be able to afford to actually go see Yune, but they at least know she exists now. Still, up at the mainstream it's something like 60/40 male/female for female idol groups, but even then the rate who go to lives is much more heavily toward males. They've kind of built up a certain culture of cheers and chants and stuff and most of the girl fans don't want to join in on that. Considering the proximity of people in the trains, I'm not convinced it's even particularly bad there. Sure, it's a problem they can't manage to fix, but I don't really think any other nationality would do any better in a similarly packed train. The crowd makes it impossible to see, so the typical Japanese crime-prevention method of social pressure doesn't apply. So it just reverts to evil human nature... same as everywhere else.
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  424. It's a different outfit every time, chosen by Yune and her mom. She actually wore 2 different outfits that day and so either would have been available for the filming. They KNEW the film crew was coming for the second part. They chose the outfit knowing the film crew was coming. Do you understand? The film crew is in at least some sense, the instigator. That outfit was chosen because it seemed like what the film crew wanted. How does this video get filmed in the first place? They would have had to lie to Yune's manager about their purposes- for example, if they said they were trying to show a young Japanese talent trying to be the next Ariana Grande, then they would induce clothes with that image. It makes it really hard to trust what they're showing. They aren't just showing us what's happening- they're affecting it.
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  425. What's yucky? That the "documentary" intentionally led you to believe an innocent comment was sexual to boost the video's traction and earn money? Yeah, that is yucky. That girl loves bananas, or at least that's the character she is projecting. Her SNS has pictures of a banana parfait, banana cookies, banana drink, etc. BTW, there's also a picture of that cake up close if you want to see it. Just seems like an innocent fruit cake with some sliced bananas. She even says she loves them in her self-introduction where she mentions bananas and sunflowers and is seemingly trying to have a genki (energetic) image. All of her fans know she loves banana flavor. So they got her a cake with some bananas on it. She thanks them for getting her the flavor she likes. End of reality. There in documentary dreamland, oh, playing with fire, gratifying desires that would be criminal. Oh, and then of course there's the jumpcut at 22:50 that makes a joke out of her comment. Mom, giving her the cake, magically teleports to the back of the room. That didn't happen as they show it. It wasn't a joke. The joke was manufactured. It was a lie. It's a bullshit narrative. That doesn't mean everything about the industry is great. But it's impossible to actually judge it from this video because of how yucky the reporting it.
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  426. Children, pets, wives... you have to take care of these things 24/7, 365 days of the year. This is very hard to do well. I'm not saying that "renting" one is a good thing. But having one that you really aren't in position to take care of isn't good either.
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  427. You've been groomed yourself here. This guy in the video acted like your friend in order to get you to believe his narrative and assume the worst rather than give anything any benefit of the doubt. The girl just really likes bananas. This is easy enough to find information. It's like getting a pizza for the Ninja Turtles. If you read anything more into it, that's pretty much on you. Though it's also on him for misleading you, but when you see a video with such obvious slant you really should fact check everything (or move on if it's not important to you, taking everything with more than a few grains of salt)
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  428. ​ @davewilson9738  Everyone there knew what she meant besides the guy who was so shocked he had to put it in this video. Innuendo requires intent. Oh, all that loud laughing? That's a jump cut. You can see the (as far as I can tell) mom handing her the cake and then it jumps to loud laughing and then mom is in the back of the room. It acts like that is a laugh connected to her telling the joke/innuendo. No, that is manufactured by the person who compiled this video.
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  429. You have portrait rights in Japan. You can just batsu sign them.
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  430.  @Tokyodriving  Lots of tourists go and sneak pictures of their preschoolers and grade schoolers. So you can't really assume anything anyway since they probably think they can't communicate permission or are just plain scared of talking to foreigners. I saw some people sneak photos of tattoos for example, when they would probably request permission if it had been a Japanese person.
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  431. ​ @Tokyodriving  What are you talking about? I'm not defending them. I already told you to batsu them. They should ask permission. I was just trying to say that they probably were taking the picture because she's a rare sight in their experience and not for nefarious reasons. I was trying to reassure you. Because if they were actually pedophiles and you failed to do anything about it then a lot of that is on you.
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  432.  @Tokyodriving  Fight? Why would you do that? I lived there for 2-3 years. I didn't have kids to watch out for. One time when I was with a female coworker some guy was looking around too intently. Likely a groper, but it wasn't crowded enough to "certainly" get away with something. All I had to do was give him a look. He quickly looked away and got off at the next station mumbling under his breath. It wasn't Shinjuku or anything... it was some nowhere station that no one gets off at. Was I supposed to punch him? I didn't even have to say anything and he ran away shamed.
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  433. Attacked? I am aware of three incidents. 1) The Iwate Saw Incident, which was not by a fan. 2) The Mayu Tomita incident, who is a singer/songwriter, not an idol. 3) The NGT incident, which applies, but was likely caused by lax enforcement of rules that Westerners usually don't like. There are a number of other people arrested for stalking or death threats. But here's the thing.... there are literally 10000 or so such idols. Incidence of actual violence is very low. Additionally, almost all of those attackers and stalkers and death threat makers have something in common. They're about 24-28. It's pretty much never these "middle-aged men" that everyone looks at as creepy. It's discontented men who couldn't get a good job and therefore have bad real-life prospects and build up an illusion. So when this guy comes and looks at them he sees them all as a threat and questions the manager guy. But manager guy knows- there are threats, but it's not usually going to be the ones that this reporter thinks.
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  434. It was filmed October 20th. Everyone was already full swing into Halloween season in the idol scene. You can still think it's weird. Just make sure you understand the context. Everybody in this video is in Halloween mode. The outfits are that way because of Halloween. It's very likely that the thing that most people object to, the handcuffs, was just one of many costume props available for use for a few shows leading up to Halloween. By filming then, it makes everything even more weird. Because Halloween is weird.
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  435. Of course, he could add in the preachy and judgmental parts as a frame once they're no longer there.
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  436.  @fodicky4  He's getting everything translated for him which means it's playing "telephone". And in the one case he isn't, he should be, since that guy is obviously not qualified to handle such a topic in English.
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  437. Furukawa Mirin
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  438. That's because this is a hit job video and they pick the parts they want. (They still showed one guy saying she's funny/interesting and I think someone said something else about character). Anyway, I don't remember what the video shows exactly. Because it doesn't really matter. If you actually go to her twitter there are probably hundreds of tweets praising her singing.
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  439. Dressing her like a normal kid is more dangerous.
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  440. So, the K-pop system where they rack up tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and then have to work for years to try to break even? Practice for years without performing- don't even get to see if it's really the job for them until they're invested for the long haul. In J-idol they start making money back almost immediately. As far as I know, there's no debt to the company once they've been hired. A lot of them wash out in a few months, with usually no debt, at least so long as they gave proper notice. They get to experience the Japanese version of "sasaeng" fans fairly quickly and decide if that's a lifestyle they're okay with.
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  441. Entertainment industry always gets exceptions for children. .She's limited to 7 hour days and a 40 hour week, INCLUDING SCHOOL. There is also an 8pm curfew. Somewhat ironically, these restrictions seem to make it so that live performances can not generate enough income alone, so they remain reliant on the Junior Idol modelling system which has a much more suspect customer base.
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  442. Which would still probably make that a correct assessment. =P
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  443. So what would appropriate be?
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  444.  @natalia.a020  The bottom line is de facto, after considering ALL the laws, actual enforcement and exceptions... the actual state of it in Japan has long been quite similar to places that boast a legal age of 16-18. I live in California where it's "18" and they make hundreds of movies glorifying high school intimacy and allow abortions without the consent of parents. I don't know the % but some massive % of kids were intimate before 18 even back when I was in high school. Where are all the assault prosecutions since they obviously can't have given consent since they are below the age they can give it? They only prosecute when it's egregious or to stack on charges. So 18 is a lie. Japan just changed their law nationally so they can LOOK the same as the Western countries when people are glancing down the list looking for low numbers. But the higher the number the bigger the lie.
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  445. That is a cold case. No one ever figured it out. The parents were rich, there was a ransom note, and evidence of **** assault was little. Since there was never any link between her activities and her death, it is a red herring here. Of course people desire the positives of things without the responsibilities. But kids are a tricky one. Because even if someone wants to be responsible with a child, the child comes with baggage. Men can't have kids. Maybe they want a kid and they just don't want a wife. Like if your wife said you can only get a dog if you first have 5 kids. You don't want 5 kids. You want a dog. So you just go to the dog park and enjoy the other dogs because as much as you want a dog you decide it's not worth it.
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  446. BTW, I don't actually agree with the professor. I don't think that that's all that big of a factor in this. But that's one way it would play out when it is a factor.
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  447. It's not about sex.
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  448. It's called sports.
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  449. ​ @dragonananso And sons don't sing and dance? What kind of kid do guys want? Boy, masculine Girl, feminine Girl, tomboy Boy, effeminate And... that's pretty much the order. So guys support masculine boys in sports (and also bands). Then they support feminine girls in stuff like this. Then occasionally they support tomboys like the Nadeshiko. Then far far down on the bottom of the totem pole would be boys doing stuff like this.
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  450. Your response has been deleted so unfortunately I am not able to properly respond to it.
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  451. It's hard to watch it with an open mind because they did not actually make this with an open mind. So instead of being able to make up your own mind you're really being led to think a certain way. If you went to a show yourself and could ask them your own questions THEN you could take it all in with an open mind. But you're seeing it through a lens. And with that being the case, you need to watch it very critically, as documentaries can have an hour of footage taken for every minute that makes the final cut, so this is the 1-10% of the footage that tells the story they thought would get them the views, comments and exposure to justify production costs.
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  452. They just used different terminology and a different system that de facto worked quite similarly to places with an aoc of 18. That's because the law was already 16-18...handled at the "state" level where every one passed a law making it at least 16. The "federal" government lists 13- a relic of a bygone era. De facto in modern times it meant that it handled the more egregious cases when someone was under 13 and was capable of giving much stiffer penalties. But the "state" level penalties are still jail time. Of course the main problem in Japan and elsewhere is that most cases just don't get enforced. But they were still at least threatening a year of jail for 13-16 so saying aoc is 13 is disingenuous.
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  453. I think the professor is full of crap, but that's because he's an "expert" who's doing what amounts to trying to find a Freudian/Jungian answer to everything. Which may have some truth to it but it's not what the people actually there are thinking about. To me this is like saying people go to basketball games to see people who are allowed to exert alpha masculine sexual energy on others. And there might be something to that if you're a psychologist. But pretty sure you ask the people at the game will say something more along the lines of the game being fun and they want to cheer for their guys, boo the other guys, drink beer and watch their team (which they have emotionally invested in) show their skills to whoop the other side.
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  454. I didn't think that's the story. But I've only seen summaries. So if someone thinks this is wrong, please correct me. Basically, a pop star decides that she wants to go into acting. As part of that transition to further her career, she PLAYS A PART where the character is raped. Again, just a part in a movie or show. The issue is people who had followed her as an idol thought of her a certain way and the vast break from her previous pure image caused them to no longer accept the idol turned actress as the real thing. I will remind everything that Perfect Blue is a story from the... early '90s? I think. While some problems remain and some are essentially timeless since the beginning of humanity... the Japanese female idol system has basically crashed twice since then and the current iteration is far from what existed when Perfect Blue was made.
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  455.  @gothxSpice  As far as I know, the main idol nevercracks- she becomes a successful actress. Well, to edit it seems like she has a lot of mental troubles but seems to be able to overcome them. They don't seem to be from her idol work. The person who totally cracks is the one who isn't just disappointed by the career change but doesn't even accept the main idol as they real thing anymore, trying to kill her in an attempt to save the "real" one.
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  456. Anyway, I'm sure there's a load of commentary on it because by nature it doesn't guarantee that anything it shows you is reliable. The discussion on that would stretch to show business in general, rather than the idol scene in particular. The only thing that really seems to draw from the idol side is the plotline that someone doesn't accept that Hannah Montana would be near naked on a wrecking ball and needs to kill that imposter off to save Hannah Montana.
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  457. Maybe 2040. A billion people have an expiration date earlier than that. Plenty of time to transition out. She's already working in theater.
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  458. People wear masks culturally, it tells you absolutely nothing. If you mean the costume masks, this was obviously shot ahead of Halloween (apparently ~20th) so they're just getting into it. Kids won't stan her because it's about $3000 a year to go to all her shows. A lot of it is frankly economics and group dynamics. A salaryman can go to every show. A young kid could maybe talk their parents into going once every few months. So how many young kid fans do you need to make it not awkward for young fans who actually show up? I think it's something like 10 kid fans to 1 salaryman to even get parity at an event. And it's EVEN WORSE a little bit higher up, because above 14 or so the work restriction is mostly lifted (still a curfew), so weekday shows become a lot more doable. The stans at that level might spend $5000 a year to go to all the shows. Her outfit isn't magical girl style or anything. She doesn't have a regular outfit, she doesn't really perform that often... maybe once a week. So part of that is trying different outfits... frankly, as she is mostly a cover artist, they seem to be styled after one of the songs she intends to cover that day... she wore long sleeves and what looks like warmups when covering One OK Rock. If she transitions into the "normal" underground idol scene (still has done shows there), then she may have to get a regular costume.
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