Land of the rising daughter
Oct. 9th, 2006 06:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusMomus is over. Please welcome ºC-ute, a packaged girlband whose members are all between ten and fifteen years old, and whose "degrees centigrade" name was devised by their management company, Hello Projects, to denote their "passionate nature".
By "Momus", of course, I don't mean the prim, dark electronic vaudevillian of Scotland. Like Miss Jean Brody, that Momus is "in his prime". No, I mean teen girl band Morning Musume, known familiarly in the land of the rising sun as "Momus" or "Momusu". How can they be over, I hear you ask, when their management company, Hello Projects, treats the group like a Takarazuka troupe or a college, "graduating" members when they advance too far into adulthood? Surely a group like that -- which essentially emulates nature itself, replenishing the generations by phasing out old individuals and bringing in new ones in their stead -- could last forever? And surely (I hear the mythologically-minded amongst you adding) there are implications in the name "Morning Daughter" that these girls are related to Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu herself, and are therefore destined to be as immortal as the Japanese imperial family?
Dear friends, Nature and Amaterasu do indeed have something in common with Hello Projects, who manage both ºC-ute and Momusu (Tsunku produces them both). What these entities share is a disdain for individuals. Nature uses us to choose a partner and reproduce, but kills the individuals off -- our DNA is the important bit. Amaterasu invests her divinity in various emperors and empresses, but their particularities as people are irrelevant. What matters is that they can perpetuate themselves, pass on the power. Hello Projects does the same. There's a poignant moment in the video for ºC-ute's second single Soku Dakishimete ("Hold Me Immediately") when the girls, playing together as a basketball team, overtake an unseen enemy team listed on the scoreboard only as "ENEMY". The score stands at ºC-ute 8, Enemy 9, but then ºC-ute score, equalize, pull ahead, and win. It's hard not to think of "Enemy" as Morning Musume; seeing that scoreboard change is like watching the girlband version of the Shōwa period ticking over into the Heisei. But of course it's the same imperial family, so don't sweat it.
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One of the compulsive pleasures of girl- or boy-bands is the tension between the individual and the group. They all wear the same costumes and do the same dance routines, but they aren't identical, and you're invited to choose your favourite member. Just as the uniformity of the group can somehow enhance the differences between members, so the manipulative injunction to love them all can be subverted by the viewer who decides, secretly, to love just one of them. Who's your favourite member of the ºC-ute team? Mine is taggle-toothed Airi Suzuki, who sings the lead vocal on their third, current and best single, Ooki na Ai de Motenashite ("Please Welcome Me With A Big Love").
I welcome this video with a big love. It just bursts with positivity. Here, morning is breaking in the world, everything is pink and social and girlish, full of squeaky clean optimism, collectivity and friendliness. The girls are human sakura, blossom budding on the tree of life. They're also, in a way, like a commercial, hyper-capitalist version of Balinese legong dancers, who retire at puberty. In a very Asian way, these girls represent good fortune, happiness, and social wealth. They're the ultimate pick-me-up; it's hard not to dance along, copying their moves. (And if you want to learn how to dance while hanging out your washing on the line, check out ºC-ute's debut single, Massara Blue Jeans.)
It's also fascinating to watch the various conventions and shopping centre appearances ºC-ute have made. In one they play recorders like a junior school band.
Another looks like a riot in a shopping centre, captured on a security camera. Here we see the bizarre sight of the tiny girls spinning like multi-coloured tops through their dance routine, as an audience of middle-aged otakus roar like frenzied gorillas from the stalls. It's easy to get the chilly vibes of a Perfect Blue scenario from this scene. But Hisae tells me that this is all fairly routine: these men are known as shineitai, the core group of otaku fans who follow idols, befriending other fans and forming a sort of guardian group. Their fierceness, like that of the red-painted statues you see outside Japanese temples (also inhabited by idols), is a friendly, protective fierceness, and has some of the character of a matsuri. I imagine them as the strong-man attendants carrying the Hoko floats at the Gion Matsuri.
Cutie Queen Volume 1, ºC-ute's first album, is released on October 25th. In the land of the rising daughter, morning has broken.
By "Momus", of course, I don't mean the prim, dark electronic vaudevillian of Scotland. Like Miss Jean Brody, that Momus is "in his prime". No, I mean teen girl band Morning Musume, known familiarly in the land of the rising sun as "Momus" or "Momusu". How can they be over, I hear you ask, when their management company, Hello Projects, treats the group like a Takarazuka troupe or a college, "graduating" members when they advance too far into adulthood? Surely a group like that -- which essentially emulates nature itself, replenishing the generations by phasing out old individuals and bringing in new ones in their stead -- could last forever? And surely (I hear the mythologically-minded amongst you adding) there are implications in the name "Morning Daughter" that these girls are related to Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu herself, and are therefore destined to be as immortal as the Japanese imperial family?
Dear friends, Nature and Amaterasu do indeed have something in common with Hello Projects, who manage both ºC-ute and Momusu (Tsunku produces them both). What these entities share is a disdain for individuals. Nature uses us to choose a partner and reproduce, but kills the individuals off -- our DNA is the important bit. Amaterasu invests her divinity in various emperors and empresses, but their particularities as people are irrelevant. What matters is that they can perpetuate themselves, pass on the power. Hello Projects does the same. There's a poignant moment in the video for ºC-ute's second single Soku Dakishimete ("Hold Me Immediately") when the girls, playing together as a basketball team, overtake an unseen enemy team listed on the scoreboard only as "ENEMY". The score stands at ºC-ute 8, Enemy 9, but then ºC-ute score, equalize, pull ahead, and win. It's hard not to think of "Enemy" as Morning Musume; seeing that scoreboard change is like watching the girlband version of the Shōwa period ticking over into the Heisei. But of course it's the same imperial family, so don't sweat it.
[Error: unknown template video]
One of the compulsive pleasures of girl- or boy-bands is the tension between the individual and the group. They all wear the same costumes and do the same dance routines, but they aren't identical, and you're invited to choose your favourite member. Just as the uniformity of the group can somehow enhance the differences between members, so the manipulative injunction to love them all can be subverted by the viewer who decides, secretly, to love just one of them. Who's your favourite member of the ºC-ute team? Mine is taggle-toothed Airi Suzuki, who sings the lead vocal on their third, current and best single, Ooki na Ai de Motenashite ("Please Welcome Me With A Big Love").
I welcome this video with a big love. It just bursts with positivity. Here, morning is breaking in the world, everything is pink and social and girlish, full of squeaky clean optimism, collectivity and friendliness. The girls are human sakura, blossom budding on the tree of life. They're also, in a way, like a commercial, hyper-capitalist version of Balinese legong dancers, who retire at puberty. In a very Asian way, these girls represent good fortune, happiness, and social wealth. They're the ultimate pick-me-up; it's hard not to dance along, copying their moves. (And if you want to learn how to dance while hanging out your washing on the line, check out ºC-ute's debut single, Massara Blue Jeans.)
It's also fascinating to watch the various conventions and shopping centre appearances ºC-ute have made. In one they play recorders like a junior school band.
Another looks like a riot in a shopping centre, captured on a security camera. Here we see the bizarre sight of the tiny girls spinning like multi-coloured tops through their dance routine, as an audience of middle-aged otakus roar like frenzied gorillas from the stalls. It's easy to get the chilly vibes of a Perfect Blue scenario from this scene. But Hisae tells me that this is all fairly routine: these men are known as shineitai, the core group of otaku fans who follow idols, befriending other fans and forming a sort of guardian group. Their fierceness, like that of the red-painted statues you see outside Japanese temples (also inhabited by idols), is a friendly, protective fierceness, and has some of the character of a matsuri. I imagine them as the strong-man attendants carrying the Hoko floats at the Gion Matsuri.
Cutie Queen Volume 1, ºC-ute's first album, is released on October 25th. In the land of the rising daughter, morning has broken.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 07:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 07:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 07:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 07:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 07:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 07:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 07:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 08:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 08:46 am (UTC)Just over the ocean, we find 7 Princess, a band of korean prebubescent girls whose looks certainly are more likely to induce paedophobia.
This is the very informative Milk Song, promoting korean schoolchildren to drink more milk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyUeVXA_vwI
I like it better, by the way :-)
boys keep singing
Date: 2006-10-09 08:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 09:10 am (UTC)Listening to these tunes is a bit like watching water pouring into cracks in the pavement, and wondering which path it's going to take.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 09:14 am (UTC)I think the spirit of Hello! will always be in my heart.
Amai Tiramisu?
Date: 2006-10-09 09:22 am (UTC)And I think their certainly is a creepy sexuality imposed on these girls. If not from Hello Projects directly, than definitely from the middle-aged men fan base. The sexuality isn't as explicit as say Britney Spears, but it there and those men that follow it aren't entirely "friendly and protective".
But male sexuality in Japan is such a strange thing, there are so many assexuls.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 12:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 02:09 pm (UTC)Besides the fact that Momus is saying nothing creepy about these girls at all, and is analyzing them as a cultural phenomenon, the term for teenager-fanciers is "Ephebophilia". Betcha didn't know that, sucka'.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 02:10 pm (UTC)Re: Amai Tiramisu?
Date: 2006-10-09 02:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 02:31 pm (UTC)But other then that and the lightly younger median age of this group, I'm not sure I understand the distinction between this group and other Hello Project outfits. "Optimism, collectivity and friendliness" seem to be their middle name. Oh, I guess they do also have ballads about heartbreak that are less peppy, but that doesn't change their overall shtick. In fact, I remember seeing on television performance of Morning Musume's were they were jumping around in basketball outfits much like the ones in the video. I think it was for "Go Girl! Koi no Victory!" And weren't groups like the now-defunct MiniMoni and Berryz Koubou already aimed at a younger set?
Again, I don't know all the ins and outs of H!P, but I just don't understand what makes this group in particular stand out to you. Except that they are new, maybe?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 02:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 03:12 pm (UTC)Wikipedia says there is (well, was, they don't seem to be very active now) an Ecomoni to promote environmental issues made of just two Morning Musume members.
They look very sprite-like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-YfUOcAdCY
Re: Amai Tiramisu?
Date: 2006-10-09 03:12 pm (UTC)I think it is silly that some here are insisting that the group is mainly for young girls and that there is nothing sexual about them, since their type of sexuality does not resemble that of Western pop princesses. Even just a few moments on 2ch or Hello Project threads will point the reader towards the other, uncomfortable conclusion.
It is important to see that these girl groups appeals in both ways. While Hello Project ideally markets itself as an innocent, family friendly idol group, there is something quite sinister about it all when 95% of concert goers are much older men and kiddie porn abounds in Japan. Not all otaku are raving paedophiles but, just try Googling "Shining Musume" for a start (a hentai parody comic book). And for that poster who suspiciously compared the "15+" girls to the "oh so scary" Korean version, the youngest age of a Morning Musume member was 12 and one of the C-ute girls was born in 1996 - so, a 10 year old.
Re: Amai Tiramisu?
Date: 2006-10-09 03:22 pm (UTC)All I'm saying was that Momus wasn't really discussing them in a sexual fashion, and if that's how it is from a Japanese cultural perspective, if no one's getting forced to do very pornographic things, I don't see the fuss.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 03:41 pm (UTC)just watching the video creeps me out. those girls with those plastic smiles grinning away at the camera, and some looking like lost unsure sheep. perfect fodder for paedophiles.
Re: Amai Tiramisu?
Date: 2006-10-09 03:54 pm (UTC)Momus wasn't discussing them in a sexual fashion -- but, since he has a tendency to idealize Japan in a silly way -- also refused to consider that others would view the girls in that way. Just consider the legion of bikini photobooks of the girls. The latest one is of the 13 year old newest member, priced and placed in the adult PB section so that the ONLY intended viewer and purchaser could be a male adult!
Many people would see the fuss though. Hello Project is not one of those scam idol agencies but refusing to acknowledge its uncritical presentation of slightly sexualized girlhood for adult male consumption under the banner of "Well thats just how Japan IS!" is putting on blinders.
Re: Amai Tiramisu?
Date: 2006-10-09 03:56 pm (UTC)