Japan frequently -- hell, basically always -- pushed the boundaries and definitions of what is expected and accepted.
We think of AKB48 and we think of cubby otaku geek men who can't get a girlfriend, jacking off and then heading to the meet-and-greet scrums with the stars, the spunk still dripping from their hands. (Seriously, there are stories like this.)
Think again. AKB is also popular with cross-dressers! Yes, there are guys who find it erotic to dress up as one of the diminutive Akihabara idols and imitate their skimpy, sexy skirts and uniforms.
For precisely these chaps ...
Only yesterday we were lamenting the victory of K-Pop over Japanese rivals.
And now we see news that kind of confirms how stranger and strange local pop music is getting. As if the boy band Sexy Zone (comprised of kids only just into their teens) or the army of AKB48 (not as young as they look, but looks are everything), now comes a new group with a much-trumpeted average age of just 13.7.
Formed by an agency to appear in TV dramas and sing terrible songs, Her Best is made up of 14 girls. There were over ten thousand applications to audition, leading to the name Her Best (sounds ...
Take a beautiful Japanese female artist and it's always going to be a fun day out.
Then she starts to make a series of beguiling, sensual images of hot Japanese female models, actresses and celebrities for magazines, adverts and exhibitions, and you have a truly great combination, popular with men and women alike.
That's what Asami Kiyokawa does, working with the likes of AKB48's Atsuko Maeda and Yuko Oshima, and Yoko Maki, Masami Nagasawa and Asami Mizukawa.
A lot of CG work goes into the final images, transforming the beautiful women into peacocks, forest settings, or ...
Tokyo's AKB48 has already spawned NKE48 (Nagoya), NMB48 (Namba, Osaka), HKT48 (Hakata, or Fukuoka) and SDN48 (adult version)...Now comes JKT48 for, er, Jakarta!
JKT48 is a new overseas experiment from the makers of Japan's top idol groups. If it's a hit perhaps we'll see other bands forming in Singapore, Paris and elsewhere? I'm just surprised that they didn't try Seoul first, given the great similarities between Korea and Japan, but perhaps all the K-Pop gals were too scary to compete with!
To start with they have announced an open call for auditions in Indonesia, with results to ...
Top idols AKB48 have been promoting almost every product in Japan recently and prominent among the campaigns has been the one for travel agency H.I.S.
Though you sadly can't actually book a trip with any of the lovely ladies, you can go some of the way there with the latest addition to the marketing smorgasbord: An AKB48 augmented reality app for smartphones!
From August 22 to September 30, guys up and down the land are going to be occupied with oen thing only -- the AKB48 Augmented Reality Stamp Rally. After downloading the free app, uou have to go to branches of H.I.S. and read the AR ...
After generating uproar and surprise when they faked a new CGI member for an ice cream commercial, AKB48 have trumped us again by introducing the "real" Aimi Eguchi.
In front of 90,000 fans during a major concert, "Eguchi" joined the regular gals on stage for an encore!
It later emerged that we had been fooled again by those dastardly ladies! The performer was in fact 15-year-old Yukari Sasaki, who had been the voice behind the Glico Aimi Eguchi commercial, and was wearing special make-up to make her appear like the idol.
That's a tough thing to attempt since Aimi is famously formed of ...
She might have been losing some ground with the public of late if those Senbatsu Election results are anything to go by, but you'd be a fool to count the achingly cute Tomomi Itano out just yet, especially when she's capable of producing material as pleasing to the eyes and ears as her new single 'Fui ni', released this week.
The song, available in Japanese retail outlets from the 13th, is the second physical single release from the 8th-placed AKB48 starlet, following last year's quite well-received 'Dear J'.
Cleverly (or should that be cynically?) coupling a pounding, ...
It might seem more than a tad cruel to publicly name and shame the least popular members of your group while vaulting others onto a pedestal to flaunt at the head of your column (at least until the next election rolls around).
Then again, with 48 members to keep track of, the marketing team over at AKB headquarters are probably grateful for any help at all in that department - hate to put a dud on the next single cover, after all. Thus, we have the results of the 3rd Senbatsu Election to mull over.
The divine Atsuko Maeda has, somewhat predictably, nabbed the top spot in this year's ...
Underage fans of overlarge idol groups rejoice - the long-standing ban on under-18s attending SDN48's theatre performances has been lifted at last, granting you access to the AKB girls' older, edgier counterparts in (almost) all their raunchy glory.
SDN, the brainchild of AKB48 producer Yasushi Akimoto, was conceived as an "adult idol" group, differentiated from AKB through sexier attire and their focus as a "Saturday Night"-style act (hence the name) aimed at a more mature audience. Having made their major label debut on Universal Music in November of last year with the single ...
AKB48's ever-lovely Atsuko Maeda is set to make a welcome return to our screens this July, playing the crossdressing lead character in a brand-new adaptation of Nakajo Hisaya's popular manga series Hanazakari no Kimitachi e.
Originally adapted as a TV series back in 2007, "Hana Kimi" is the story of Mizuki Ashiya, a Japanese high-schooler living in the USA, who, having fallen in love with troubled young sports' star Izumi Sano after seeing him on TV, moves to Japan and enrolls in his boys-only high school in order to get close to him. Fuji TV has announced that this will be a brand-new ...
