| a little bit of this, a little bit of that |

[chelshock]

THE LAZY PEOPLE'S FRIENDING MEME
aka. rec a friend meme

MY THREAD
yes, yes, i just participated in a friending meme, but i do enjoy getting recs from my flist as well. community recs would be great, too! anything, really. XD

Comments

[inscrupulaties]

It's interesting you said that, because I introduced a friend to Arashi over the last couple months, but since she's seen mostly newer stuff so far, she has a different perception of Jun's character than I do. And this includes not getting the diva!jun vibe at all. So I totally agree on Jun's ~persona starting to change, and I love it also. Keeping things interesting :)

[chelshock]

oh, really? that's extremely interesting! what's her perception of him, anyway? are her perceptions of the other members different as well?

[floweranza]

Hmm. I agree! Maybe because the group is 'growing up' they're focusing on different areas of personalities now. But I don't think that Jun's changed much in this aspect from the past, really. He reads a lot (and not just bestsellers, either), he's pretty brainy, he can kick your ass at kanji in those knowledge-based variety shows. Occasionally the stuff he's posted as messages or blog posts has been downright philosophical. Everyone gave kids affected by the earthquake toys; Jun gave them gift cards to the book store.

I think they're just showing this part of him a lot more recently. And I am thoroughly enjoying it. :D

[chelshock]

ahh that's true. he's always been surprisingly thoughtful, hasn't he? and i totally forgot about the gift cards ♥ why is he so wonderful?

i think that's kind of the direction my brain was going - they're starting to loosen up on jun's ~idol persona~ and let him (and all of arashi, really) have more control over his public image. it's definitely more appealing to me than the old dos jun.

[ltgmars]

It's interesting what you said about its "not being in character" for Jun. Because the first thing I thought was that if anything, challenging himself to try new things (and ultimately kicking the crap out of them because he's both stubborn and persevering) is one of the most in-character thing I can think of for Jun. Though you're definitely right that the specific persona that he'd been playing up (that has been pushed upon him?) in the past doesn't quite gel with the roles and activities he's been taking on (given?) more recently.

I didn't really think of it as "growing up", though, because he's been an adult for a while now, but maybe just being less emphatic about his peculiarities and more open to trying new things or to expressing himself differently.

[chelshock]

ah, well. i guess i was focusing more on the artistic stuff as being not-quite-jun-like? but i completely agree that the drive to do something until he's more-than-decent at it has always been jun. but the persona/growing up business is definitely me talking more about how he's being... marketed, i guess? because obviously the man is nearing thirty so of course he's not a teenager anymore. XD

also, perhaps i'm putting too much weight on how much of a say johnny has in arashi's activities, but i always kind of think in the back of my head about what johnny - not the groups themselves - are trying to do with each new development. i've become cynical, haven't i?

[godsgirl7]

Yesssss ♥ It really irritates me when fandom brands him as "the DoS" or "the diva" or "princess" or whatever, because um, he's not always like that. Well, except during concerts maybe...but anyway. Ohno is 30 and the rest of the members are getting close. It's about time they grew up a bit.

[chelshock]

exactly! i'm assuming, of course, that they did their growing up a few years ago at least, but it's really nice to see that they're finally allowed to show that side of themselves. it's much more interesting than their old roles of fitting a band dynamic or something.