The problematic nature of Japanese Idol culture is acknowledged. I still thought this was heartwarming.
An important announcement regarding Seira Umegwa
Thank you all for your continued kind support of Idol Kyoshitsu New.
Seira Umegawa is currently in the sixth grade, and we are informing everyone that as of the time of this writing, November 25, 2024, she believes in Santa Claus.
We apologize for the suddenness of this, but following discussions between the other members of the group and Umegawa’s parents, we are requesting that fans conduct themselves, in words and actions, with the presumption that Santa Claus exists.
Problematic what? She’s in sixth grade. Its probably her last year or two for doing so. She’s a child. Let her be one.
It’s a Japanese pop idol at around 11 years old? Her entire life is currently a PR stunt, this included. Roll with it just in case, sure. It’s still probably bs, though. Rather good bit of free publicity for the group, though.
*edit: I wrote this way too late at night. I usually have better grammar.
I mean why not? Nothing to be gained by being a jerk about it.
And that’s how the the human species saw the rise and dominance of Clausism, the corruption leading to their eventual destruction after the Great Hallmark Wars.
Fuck it. It can’t be any worse than all this maga bullshit.
Make Arctic Great Again
I already know & understand that Santa Claus exists, silly.
Sixty-one years old and I still believe in Santa.
Since it’s sort of related and I love this story, I’m telling it.
My sister and her husband didn’t raise my (now 5yo) nephew with ‘Santa’ being real, but they also didn’t ever say he wasn’t. When he was 3, we were doing a Zoom call with the extended family and someone asked him if Santa was real. He said, “Santa’s pretend-real.”
Basically, no, he’s not, but the concept of Santa is real enough and so we talk about Santa as real.
My uncle then said, “Kind of like God!”
What could have been a dark turn for many families thankfully was just a hilarious moment for ours!
Still my favorite way to think about and describe both Santa and God, lol.
At least this shows that it’s the idol INDUSTRY & not the fans that are the problem. People are quick to throw fandoms under the bus, they wouldn’t behave in this manner if the INDUSTRY ITSELF didn’t cultivate them in this manner
I mean, I think the fans can be part of the problem and also show this girl a kindness on a large scale though the small choices of many
Personally I don’t see those things as being at all mutually exclusive
The fans can decide for themselves, they don’t owe the idol anything Also, the idols themselves hate their fans for no reason
The parasocial relationship between fans and idols is so intense it’s escalated to idols being attacked on a number of occasions 😅. Thats not a criticism of these fans choosing to allow this girl the belief in santa, which is very sweet, but it is a criticism of the culture. The Wikipedia article for Japanese idols has a list of occurences. And the critisisms section is incredibly dark, some of which reflects on not just agencies but idol culture as well.
A lot of the issues are with the agencies, but definitely not all.
Wow, this sent me down a fascinating rabbit hole on that site. I should pay attention to this site more often. Like, we don’t get a whole lot of Japanese news in the states, but some of this is fascinating (and depressing, like the Mt. Fuji Lawson’s thing).
I came across this though: https://soranews24.com/2018/03/20/lesbian-idols-confession-of-love-prompts-veteran-to-say-idol-romance-restrictions-are-shit/
I found it fascinating from the standpoint that idol companies are branching out into the LGBT community to find new themes. I don’t know how I feel about it; on the one hand, more representation is good, and if their public presence is authentic then it’d give LGBT Japanese people someone to look up to. On the other hand, it’s a company capitalizing on the LGBT community.
Tbh, that said, something that I’d actually be kinda into is a trans idol group, with both mtf and ftm members. The idea though, would be to appeal to other trans people (as opposed to non-trans people) by making songs that talk about the trans experience, or documenting their transitions. Maybe part of the requirement for joining the group would be that you have to be pre-hrt and then you stay in the group until you’re “passing” (or at their “final form” so to speak); so that, over time, you build up a wide array of experiences that gender-questioning people can draw from. Bonus points if the company doesn’t try to force them to conform to a specific appearance or sound, letting trans women sing with their “man voice” and vice versa.
That sounds a lot like RuPaul’s Drag Race.
There’s then the question of how they can keep their popularity after their transition journey ends. When they’d settle with the body they want, this story ends and another one should start, if we won’t softly switch to another group of early trans persons.
Ignoring the obvious.
I concur, letting the kid still have some innocence like that is nice.This kid is going to have trust issues forever.
I also believe in Santa Clause. As portrayed by David Harbour in “Violent Night”
She probably doesn’t… I suppose it’s all for fun.
