Weekly, well Fortnightly, Wordpress Wrap for 17/02/2013

[arcadiagt5]

angriest has recommended AKB0048, and now that it is on CrunchyRoll I may have to take a look at it. However this depends on my To Review pile being reduced from Leaning Tower of Pisa levels to something manageable. I did however manage to complete ef: a tale of melodies (spoiler free).

I've also started Thirty Days of Planetes with Outside the Atmosphere

Comments

[rallyfurre]

Picked up AKB0048 last year to look at, reminds me of the usual musically based shows with a couple cute twists. I'll get around to watching the whole thing sometime soon.

Problem I found was the recent media about the AKB48 group as a whole and their contract deals with the seiyuu themselves. I never even knew they were a real talent agency in Japan until I heard some music in a movie recently (Wreck-it Ralph).

There's a bit of a debacle over one girl who was found to have a boyfriend, in direct contravention of her contract that stated she was to be seen and remain single for the multitude of fans as were all the seiyuu in AKB48... and a video out showing her apologising greatly and showing her having cut her hair off (Japanese custom so we're lead to believe). It was more than a bit disturbing to see and read about, as she was very upset in the video. I guess it's probably reasonably common in Japan but it still sends mixed messages overseas.

[arcadiagt5]

The business with Minami Minegishi’s apology highlights just how deeply misogynistic the idol culture is.

I wrote about very briefly - see the previous wrapup for a link - but for an excellent unpacking of all the issues see these posts on Feministify This:

http://feministifythis.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/gender-relations-in-japan/

and

http://feministifythis.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/slut-shaming-in-the-japanese-music-industry/