Make Believe Mailer Vol. 72: Quick Takes
Hello, and thanks for sticking around! Sorry for lack of newsletter last week, work got in the way. And once again it rears its ugly head before the ten-day Golden Week ("week") arrives to welcome Reiwa. So next week expect something longer (making promises...that has to work!). Let's get into it...
News And Views
Maho Yamaguchi announced she will "graduate" NGT48 during the last event before the group's "restart." Joining her are two other members close to her, and the whole thing serves as a kind of deflating moment in the whole scandal as NGT48 really hasn't been held accountable for everything they did (let alone AKS). Still, media attention remains high, so I don't think this will simply vanish.
AAA leader Naoya Urata was arrested this weekend for attacking a female convenience store employee. In a move that surely can't be used as a demonstration of one of the more obvious hypocrisies of the J-pop industry, he held a teary eyed press conference today blaming his drunken state on the incident and how he'll get better. Still, the news did force AAA to cancel a bunch of stuff...including an event originally set for today that was meant to promote some alcohol brand.
Perfume are wrapping up their international leg of support for last year's Future Pop, which has featured time to enjoy pizza and hang out with a Hiroshima Carp legend alongside performing. The centerpiece comes with their sets at Coachella's two weekends. The first sounds like it went really well, and landed them on Rolling Stone's "16 Best Things We Saw" list (complete with the detail that Bad Bunny checked them out which, hell yeah).
And then they played again last night, and it was streamed and it looked pretty sick. Honestly, still kind of catching up on it but I'm glad one of J-pop's best could have this moment!Hikaru Utada is going Netflix. She will release footage from her concert tour last year on the streaming service on June 26. While buying the DVD itself gets you more bonus footage and making-of shots, this remains a significant development coming from an artist who, up until now, hasn't made any of her new releases available immediately (key word there) on streaming music services. While this is different than an album, it still signifies a big shift from J-pop's upper echelon.
This week in music companies coming together: ticketing service Pia teamed up with promoters Udo in an effort to find new talent to develop for the Japanese market, while China's NetEase Cloud Music partnered with Japan's Nippon Columbia label (who have a bunch of artists making anime music and anime-adjacent music, which is an important detail).
And speaking of new crossovers — Hello Kitty is now on TikTok.
Norman Reedus hanging out with netlabel types? Oh hell yeah.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of April 8, 2019 To April 14, 2019
Absolutely zero surprises seeing HKT48's latest single — the one serving as Rino Sashihara's finale within the AKB48 universe — top Oricon this week. It's the rare event release in the 2010s tied to a significant happening, and goes to top accordingly. More surprisingly is looking further down the list to find a group called #Hashtag (no, really) occupying a space. And not even this Hashtag! It's pretty middle of the road male idol pop, but really can't get over the group name. It's like an accidental commentary on how J-pop has long approached the internet!
Perfume's GAME (33 1/3)
My entry in the 33 1/3 series is still out there! Get it at Amazon or Bloomsbury.
Look At Me!
Unrelated to music but...wrote a big feature about Rilakkuma, my favorite character in Japan and the fuzzy embodiment of everything the country wishes for.
Wrote about the legacy of producer Tetsuya Komuro for The Japan Times.
Virtual YouTubers -- new schtick, same old showbiz.
Opined about Produce 101 Japan, coming later this year, for The Japan Times. Pretty sure nobody said anything about this story!
(So this one seems to have picked up attention online from lots of angry J-pop idols fans because of the headline. I don't write the headlines, though I did see it in advance and didn't push back [because I thought it was alright] so I'm not off the hook here. Maybe should have spent more time thinking on it, though I'm still happy with the final story. Give that a full read!)Blog highlights: Wai Wai Music Resort, Paya, Okinawa Electric Girl And AX
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Make Believe Melodies / Twitter / Facebook