faded_lace | あけおめ

Okay, so I promise I'll post a real Countdown reflection (I hesitate to call it report because especially since I don't know half the groups I won't remember the song names or what was performed in what order, but I'll write up the highlights according to me, as usual), but I do have to say one thing:

2014 has barely started and I can cross one thing off my bucket list: being in the arena for a Johnny's group debut announcement. In case you haven't already heard, "Johnny's West 4" (ジャニーズWEST4) is now a group, consisting of Kiriyama Akito, Nakama Junta, Shigeoka Daiki, and Kotaki Nozomu.

Cons(?):
♞ It wasn't the people I wanted to debut
♞ What about Fujii and Kamiyama...?? And Hama-chan...?
♞ Name is super uncatchy...??
♞ I have absolutely no interest in them
♞ Johnny has officially gone senile and debuted a four-member unit that wasn't a Junior group, which is unprecedented for a non-volleyball group debut post-golden age.

Pros(?):
♘ It wasn't the people I wanted to debut who got broken up and shafted!
♘ I will be so rich with the money I don't spend on their debut
♘ I was there when it was announced
♘ Lower likelihood of Kansai being involved in the 2015 volleyball debut (maybe?)

So there you have it! I'm actually pretty apathetic about the whole thing, but I wanted to post about it as soon as possible since I was there in the flesh when it happened! I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts, especially people who are Kansai Junior fans!

And happy 2014 from the future!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, they might not care much about sparing others' feelings, but I think they at least want to give them enough prep to get them to put a happy face on for tv. ^^;

Sorry that it wasn't clear in that when I was talking about balance and identity I meant more in the 40+ members category. But yeah, I see what you mean about more members being able to buffer drama.

I agree that the overall response to the debut announcement seems oddly skewed towards the positive side all things considered. But I guess time will tell with this group, both in whether the negative feelings might come out later, and how everything goes for them with debut.

I think I stick with lj even though so many other social media sites are out there partially for the wordiness and the conversations like these. On a lot of other platforms, this depth of conversation isn't really possible either because of the platform limiting how much you can say (e.g. twitter) or the culture kind of discouraging it (e.g. tumblr). So I'm really glad when people are active on lj and open to these kinds of discussions.

Fair enough XDD

Ah okay, yeah. I mean, I think it's valid to say it's hard for, say, a 15 member group or something to have as much identity and balance as a 5 or 6 member one, so I wasn't doubting that XD Just that I think JUMP is pretty okay, too. And in terms of balance, a lot of time it's a management marketing choice rather than that they can't give everyone screen time.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I also wonder if the feeling of desperation for a Kansai debut, like you mentioned earlier, might also have something to do with it. But... only time will tell what will happen, I guess.

I basically agree with you 100%, and I'm happy to hear you say that! I hate tumblr and twitter and essentially don't use them for that reason, and it really bothers me that so much of fandom seems to have shifted from wanting to put any thought or feeling into what they do anymore. So I'm also really glad when people are active on LJ and want to have these kinds of lengthy discussions! ♥

Yeah, I totally agree that it's often management more than numbers that affect balance, since I've known groups with the same or more members that give each member screen time better than some mid-size groups, and some small-size groups with only like one member who gets any attention.

I still use twitter because it's often useful for getting information fast and for short, quick interactions, but I used tumblr for like a year and then got totally bored with it because the level of interaction amongst users seemed so super low. And it felt really disorganized sometimes too. On lj, it's so much easier to actually get to know a person (if they're at least somewhat active).

Twitter stresses me out too much, because everything is so real-time, and if you miss a conversation or something, you just miss it. On LJ, if you don't have time to respond to a comment, or want to think first, it's okay to wait. But yeah, I really feel the same way about tumblr. It also is a really easy way to steal things by reblogging parts of translations or out-of-context images without any credit or linking back to the original. I feel like actually, when a few lines of a translation get reblogged, sometimes people who don't speak Japanese and don't really understand the situation get the wrong idea, and then things get complicated. And I definitely agree that it's much easier to get to know someone on LJ, especially when a lot of people on tumblr use tumblr to get out of any accountability for their actions.

I know what you mean. There are a lot of times when I think about replying to a tweet I've seen, but decide not to because it's from several hours before. Or if I tweet when none of my followers are on, I don't get any feedback.

In the end, I think I couldn't identify with the culture of tumblr as a whole. The way I want to do fandom and interact with people on the internet is not the way fandom works on tumblr or the way people interact (when they interact at all) on tumblr.

Yup, I feel exactly the same way about tumblr. So I'm really glad there's more people who feel that way out there! Nothing annoys me more than when people scoff at me and tell me "fandom's all on tumblr" like I'm stupid for staying on LJ. Sigh.

あけおめ

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