Non-EMF Members' Opinions
 

I don't know if this topic deserves a thread of its own, but I always find it interesting to hear what other people (who don't post here) say about Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen.

I'll start by saying that neither of my two friends who were foreign exchange students from Japan understood why I liked Shiina Ringo or Tokyo Jihen. However, when Adult was released, they both said that they liked it a lot, and one of them said that she got the impression that a lot of people in Japan really preferred the new style for Shiina Ringo (keep in mind that this is just her opinion based on her observations; it doesn't necessarily mean it's entirely true). Of course, this isn't saying that Adult is better or worse than anything else Shiina Ringo has done, but it definitely does show that there's a lot of appeal in it for a number of people.

Okay, that's one story. I also like to read people's impressions of the new Tokyo Jihen songs on Last.fm.

OSCA song comments:
"AWESOME"
"A TRIUMPHANT COMEBACK!"
"The last part of the song is love <3"
"This song makes me crazy. I'm so addict !!"
"OSCA sucks o_o"
"no (:, OSCA rocks so hard ^^"
"I wasn't so keen on this song at first... oddly enough, listening to it without watching the video made me really like it. now i just can't get enough xD"
"This song is so freaking amazing."


OSCA single comments:
"This is quite groovy stuff."
"OSCA is kinda not doing it for me. Though I can't resist them when they go all out at the end and just faff around."
"Uh. There're better songs than OSCA."
"me, kinda contradictive with OSCA songs.though OSCA is an attractive and got a great acceleration in it AND ukigumo (the song's writer) is one of my fav musician, i just dont like TJ do a cover of this songs and other songs already like *dynamite* and they put it on their album...oh nono....TJ wasn't a "so so" band who do play a cover..."
"OSCA failed to live up to my standards BUT it was a pretty entertaining song."
"As expected from them! OSCA is gorgeous; Pinocchio starts great; and Kaban no Nakami just made me tapped my feet... ^^"
"I agree! Kaban no Nakami sounds really nice :3"
"OSCA single is awesome!!!"
"The arrangement for OSCA towards the 2nd half is bloody brilliant"
"I like pinocchio better"
"Excellent single :3 Pinocchio is awsome."
"Yeah, much more than I expected. The single's just... awesome. As just about every Tokyo Jihen release is."
"I think hirama is a more pop rockish guitarist .. Ukigomo brings something new to the band. Can't really compare but I think Ukigomo is one of the main reasonds they have a new sound."
"The new single is really, really good! <3"


Of course, you don't get many hate messages on Last.fm since this is the page for the music that these people are listening to...


(and I just left that Ukigomo comment in there for kicks :b)

Hahaha, I said that!!

Everyone I know loves stoicism. And one girl I know likes Mayonaka wa junketsu, but that's all

My brother (who hates Asian music and so) really loves Mayonaka wa Junketsu :blink: and Kenka Joutou XD.

My brother likes Stoicism, and my mom doesn't think some of the songs on Adult and HF are bad because "my Japanese woman" doesn't "scream like she usually does."

One of my high school friends bought KZK, and i got in her car one day, and it was playing. I thought I was in the twilight zone.

Friend #1: Adult is disappointing. OSCA is disappointing. Pinokio and Kaban no Nakami however, are wonderful!
Friend #2: Uki doesn't deserve to be in the band.
Friend #3: (regarding OSCA) I'm going to have to turn this off if this song goes on and on and on and on and on like that.

What can I say, my friends have impeccable taste (like me :P).

I did a report on Shiina Ringo for my college music appreciation class two years ago, followed by a presentation of Shuukyou. After the song, much of the class looked dazed, but a few people spoke out and said that they really liked it. I gave a burnt copy of KSK to one of them, but I haven't seen him since.

I always wish some of those people on Last.fm/Jpopmusic.com forums/jpopsuki/Wikipedia would come join the forums already instead of being fans all on their own... especially cause they spread misunderstandings (i.e. someone romanizes a title wrong and makes a torrent; everyone who d/ls that torrent thinks that title is right. It's awful [well, to me >.>]).

I advertised our forum on last.fm and a few Jpop message boards about a month ago (probably against their rules). Dunno if it did anything or not..

I'm surrounded by hip-hop fans so Ringo does not get much love around these parts @_@. Although, my brother said that he likes TJ's music but he does not like the language not being english. He really likes OSCA though, I guess it has more mainstream appeal than their other songs.

I asked some people in the #MT IRC and they just said it was weird.. OSCA, that is.

Most of my friends came to like SR/TJ's stuff... or at least, now they can stand Shiina's voice and came to recognize, that there're some songs, that match their taste :D
One of them still is driven mad by that lovely singing...
But I haven't given up on convincing her to like AT LEAST one song =D (Baby Come on let's go has potential... she heard the original barbee boys-version in my car and she liked it - she's a little 80's-fan...)



ah, come to think of it... nobody ever liked Stoicism of the people I know XD

It's rough when you really enjoy something, but other people refuse to give it a chance. :-|
Ahh, c'est la vie!


Ooo, I almost forgot.

I had to drive my friend to pick up his car from the shop a couple years ago, and on the way he asked me what cds I had. He saw Shouso Strip and put it in. After laughing at me for listening to Japanese music, I could see by the way he was acting that he really enjoyed it. By the end of the ride, he had turned the volume up to DEAFENING, and we drove through a well-populated area blasting Honnou and Izonshou.

I copied the cd for this guy the next day, and a couple weeks later I asked him if he still listened to it. Apparently he listened to it a lot, but his sister (who majors in vocal performance) listened to it even more. I was amazed, because she was the first girl I knew of who actually enjoyed Shiina Ringo's music.

GOOD

'Her voice is irritating'
'I thought Shiina Ringo is a man! the kanji "Ringo" sounds so muscular!'
'What is Tokyo Jihen?'
'Oh I see.'
'Mm-hmm.'
'Her melons look juicy.'

Fuck.

"I can't keep listening to that voice!" /x_x\

Lover: "She sounds like Chip and Dale" T_________T
Mate: "ROOOOOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCKKKKKKK (why so pretty? why so talented...argh..and other tons of over-reactions) "
Brother: "A F*ckingly talented woman..I don't mind throw myself between her thighs
Self-claimed papa: "I'll bloody train myself very hard so one day I can play in her band and ffff her...don't mind if she's 40 or 50 then"
Rocker-wannabe: "Funky man! I like the keyboard *when listening to Kabuki*...wait! what language is she singing in again?"
Self-claimed brother: "You and all your Jap shit! Get lost...." *me, crying and growing moss in one corner of the room*


And here are my favourite quote I found online...about Izawa though

"Izawa, the keyboardist of Tokyo Jihen, he can just rape you and you wouldn't care because his skill is awesome"...something like that....

...sounds horny? but really...I think most people find SR/TJ kinda sexeiiii

I noticed a Shiina Topic popped up on Neogaf, a popular gaming forum today. Some choice quotes:

omfg, NeoGAF? Theres a Shiina thread on gaffe?
They're on the money this time.

Thats the SCARIEST pic of Shiina I've EVER seen, and I've never seen it before! WTH? She looks like a ghetto "south-side San Antonian" in that pic. One of those Asian-lookin mexicans. Even tho they buy nothing but name brand, expensive stuff, it still makes em look really cheap. I dunno, if thats an anology anyone but me gets, but it fits totally. It looks like beneath the frame are super long, fake, fingernailed hands gripping a bag of Hot Cheetos.

Ha, I think I know exactly what you mean. Didn't know you frequented gaf. I've just been lurking for about 2 years. I find it to be the fastest place to get gaming news... if something pops up on any gaming site, a thread will appear in seconds. And the off-topic is often hilarious. I applied to be a member about 8 months ago but they only let people through once or twice a year. Still haven't got my confirmation email yet :P

But yeah, I was shocked to see the Shiina topic. And even more so when it turned out to be some decent talk.

Some, a rather nice chap contacted me on Last.fm just to tell me he shared my taste in music, primarily SR and TJ (along with Radiohead and GO!GO!) so I thanked him, and told him about this place. The reply...

"some people told me this forum are full of rude people that dont't welcome new people quite well... so I have decided not to participate in discussions... because I haven't felt the need of... but who knows someday.."

I wish people didn't spread such crap (not this guy, but whoever informed him). Of course we can have some heated discussions; it's a discussion forum after all, and if you don't like em then stay away from those threads in particular. But when have we ever been unwelcoming? I think that -- particularly outside of Variety and Hirama vs Uki threads -- we're a nice bunch of folk :(

I'm a little surprised that we're noteworthy (+/-) to anyone but our userbase.

And I think we're receptive to everybody. So long as they don't come in thinking they know best or take things personally, we're hospitable.

Well, to be perfectly honest, we can be a little assholy sometimes. Like if we just know that our Romaji is correct and any deviation from that is completely wrong. Or if somebody doesn't introduce themselves in the New Members thread before posting their opinion or, oh...I don't know...requesting sheet music. Let's not forget that old Ringo > new Ringo and that Uki is like sandpaper + scrotum and that there's hope for Ringo yet and we know exactly what'll save her music. That kind of elitism might turn new members right around.

well, i always write the romaji wrong. I've never seen anyone shunned cuz they didn't introduce themselves in the new members thread. The only recent occassion was someone made a thread intro-ing themselves in the main board and they were politely directed to the new members thread. Requests are a diff matter entirely. You cant come in posing nothing but reqs -- off topic -- and expect a warm reception. If I'm a stranger and I go to your house and keep demanding OJ, wouldn't you be miffed?

The other matters are debates you see on any kind of forum, thats not elitism.

Haha, full of rude people. Well that might be true.
I believe people like Badtz and Catch5 (and maybe evil) left this place because everything was getting too heated and personal. (No doubt, I do take responsibility for some of the heat I contributed.) For while the stuff happening here was something like a reality TV show...

...Anyway, I think this place needs new blood though. Sadly people come here expecting free downloads, or sometimes request for stuff that none of us could possibly contribute... not to mention that everything SR/TJ related has been discussed to death.

It's unfortunate that people put us in a negative light. Maybe it is a little difficult to get cosy and stuff, but I think once you settle in, it's a pretty tight community.

Jihad, you know if you came to my house and asked for some OJ, I'd pour you a (shot) glass in a second. (Ten cool points for using the word "miffed," btw.)

I'd like to think this is a pretty tight community, but sometimes we go overboard and might trample on other people's opinions. I guess that happens everywhere, though, so there's not much that can be done about that.

I just wish people would stick around for long enough to realize that we're really just a cool bunch of weirdos. We need new people like I need my morning shot of Everclear (which is a lot), because, like riiingo-hiiime pointed out, we've pretty much talked about everything there is to talk about and need some fresh perspective every once in a while.

Here's my fresh perspective for you:

I write Kenshou Naoshi all the time and nobody gives a damn. The only problem with song names is when somebody writes in kanji/kana/whatev instead of romaji...

oh right. Write the friggin romaji newbs =p

/writes Kenshou too. Probly cuz Maou wrote it that way

As someone who wants this site to flourish, I can understand where the previous administration was coming from in how they felt the "haters" were tearing the community apart, even if I disagree with how the administration chose to deal with that.

I don't have a problem with either side of the Old vs. New conflict, as long as people on both sides are being constructive about it. I think what happens is the key advocates of each side have already spent so much time trying to make their criticisms or defense constructive, that they start slacking on the job of continuing to be constructive, because everything they've already said is 'established', so the debate plays out like television commercials where the longer (and informative versions) are shown first, then shortened versions keep getting replayed just to refresh your memory. But if you didn't catch what was going on before, then you feel all-the-more alienated.

It's become established to hate all over Ukigumo with little or no continued 'reason' at all, because "everything's already been said". In this kind of atmosphere, most of what the new members see is a whole lot more of "Uki sucks", than what it was ever based on. And if you ever try to revisit the reasons after newbies have already seen all the blunt hating, then you're "making excuses", and any attempt anyone feels they could make to challenge those 'excuses', will go through an increasingly 'personal' (and therefore 'pointless') battle of Hard Sell.

If this community is damned if we do, or damned if we don't (on silencing/banning the "haters"), then we might as well support Free Speech. It's a double-edged sword that's self-policing only when multiple sides actually have the motivation to be completely open and constructive, rather than dispirited members/lurkers talking to their buddies through other channels about how this community is eating itself.

I usually don't like groups of elitist people and/or forums.
And I'm still here. I guess this tells a lot.

But on an elitist tone, I remember when I was quite active at Utada-Online forums, you could count with your fingers the number of decent posts. And you needed to have a super-computer to count every single post that *only* said "Hikki rocks!" "Hikki is the best" "Hikki-sama, yet again you outsold every other artist. You're the best!".
Do we really need that kind of posts?

I like this community how it is, and if someone's not "strong" enough to be here, it's not like we're missing a great deal.
(but seriously, does anyone need to be strong to be here anyway?)

I mostly agree with that. It's why I don't spend time at other fan communities. It isn't that there's nothing to say, but that for other artists, more often the fans tend to say the same things.

I've been reluctant to give reviews, not because I'm afraid of my opinions being challenged, but because I don't have a consistent perspective of each song. What I think of a song when I first hear it, versus what I think of it in a year, can often be quite different, as you start to get a sense of which songs are overplayable, and which ones take more time to absorb. Then to make reviews even more obsolete, a new version of an old song could refresh the way you think of the old version.

These are concerns I've had for years, that I suspect a lot of other people have felt, but haven't consciously thought about. This could be a more influential posting factor than whether or not your opinion is the same as someone else's. I think we can escape this if we embrace the reality that our opinion could change, rather than fear the implications of having already said something that's no longer 'true'. We should get comfortable with the idea of reviewing the same thing more than once, since, after all, "haters" already attack the same thing more than once anyhow. You could have a hasty post of "This is what I think of the album upon my first listening". Then you revisit it in a year, whether or not it is established to hate all over that product, and you say "This is what I think now, versus what I thought back then". You could even revisit more than once, since a small handful of songs may even take multiple years to absorb.

That seems to be a more realistic goal than "I'm going to wait until I can post my super-thought-out review, once and for all". If we have realistic goals, then we can actually follow through on them, rather than procrastinate. I'm not placing myself on a pedestal here, and pretending I haven't been extremely guilty about it myself, ever since this community started. Most of the review threads are lonely, because people spend so much time arguing in a small handful of them. I'm not seeing a lot of song-by-song reviews in EMF - something that people were making a common effort to post in the later days of RJ, so I'm going to practice what I preach, and hopefully set an example here.

This is one of my problems. Most people here hate uki, but I have no idea why. If I knew why maybe I would hate him too. But as of right now I do not mind the guy... I can not defend uki because I do not know his weak points. But anyways it is not important. Could anyone give me a crash course in the various sucky attributes of good ole uki? Or point me to an old thread that discusses it? (I read a lot of the old threads before making my first post in here anyways, so I do not think any are here)

I'm having a bit of trouble finding that myself, but I can sum most of it up.

The notion is that how you hit a note, is at least as important what notes you're hitting. The problem people mostly have, isn't so much on the what, but instead focusing particularly strongly on the how. He's not a smooth operator like David Gilmore (from Pink Floyd), or an animal like Jimi Hendrix. Ukigumo has a very uniquely twitchy stacatto approach in most of his playing. Some people favor that automatically because it's different, and some people automatically hate it because it's different. As time goes on and we hear more performances, we're getting a more accurate sense of Ukigumo's 'flexibility' (or lack thereof) to truly project an array of variable attitudes that you would expect different songs to "call for".

Arguably if Hirama had stayed around all this time, then that's "the only fair means" we could truly measure whether or not he was the more appropriate guitarist for Tokyo Jihen, so there's "inequal opportunity criticism". But the Hirama supporters consider it a legitimate practice to include Hirama's solo-career albums into the comparisons, of "These are all the different things he can do, and if that isn't what you thought you were getting from his involvement with Tokyo Jihen, then it isn't what Shiina Ringo was asking him to deliver at the time". Electric Mole (the DVD) is also a very little-acknowledged example of Hirama doing most/all the things that strong Ukigumo supporters don't believe Hirama can do, but most of the "haters" are very late on paying particularly close attention to the nuances of everyone's performances in that DVD.

Killer Tune is considered at least somewhat refreshing, because Ukigumo finally used a different electric guitar (even if Ukigumo haters would argue that the solo in the middle was rather 'obtrusive'). Ukigumo has a particularly edgy and sterile sound that he usually likes to get out of his guitar/amplifer/effects combinations. The intro of Kaban no Nakami is another nice (and all-too-rare) example of a resonating performance, which arguably gets ruined by the ending of the song, where Ukigumo gets back to his usual edgy self. Arguably he was twitchy even at the intro, but that's alright because the tone/effects worked with that rather well. Normally everytime Ukigumo hits a note, it's like he's fencing... and the more fluidly he tries to sustain a passage, the more serrated his unique tone often sounds. Between that, and the occasions when Ukigumo is doing country-style twang - he's rarely exhibiting a more sensitive tone anywhere inbetween. There is the growing implication that the style of songs are being bent Ukigumo's way, rather than Ukigumo's playing is being individually flexed for different songs, so he is perceived as "an influence that holds the band back". Sometimes his style really works for a song, but for at least a third of the songs, the haters are in unison that Ukigumo's habits don't 'belong' there. However, Ukigumo's performances are universally well-received among Tokyo Jihen fans when he plays acoustic or when he's not the sole guitarist, but for other performances, Tokyo Jihen fans are more divided.

A common counter-offensive among Ukigumo supporters toward Hirama supporters is "You just want an overbearing rocker!", and... amongst a significant portion of Hirama supporters, that might very well be true. Yet there's a small (but growing) sect among Hirama supporters, who don't care so much about whether the guitar playing "rocks" or not - they just want someone "groovy", and that's what most people (Ukigumo haters included) think they're getting from Izawa's piano/organ playing, so most of the "haters" are not totally against Phase 2. The problem is that on a "grooviness" scale, Phase 1 fans feel like they lost more from Hirama than they gained with Izawa, and that's where a lot of the general Phase 2 hating comes from.

Shiina Ringo releasing Saito Neko arrangements of some of the same solo-career songs two or three times, doesn't exactly quell the fire either. The main deal that the "haters" take solace in nowadays, is "Well, at least Adult was mostly (previously unheard) Shiina Ringo compositions, plus Adult included some extra sounds or instruments instead of stuck to the same old band template".

I just don't like how motionless he is onstage, and how boring his personality seems. I'm not super musically inclined, so I honestly don't notice too much of a difference between his guitar playing and Hirama's and whoever else's, so that's not really part of my criticism of him. I just wish he was more interesting.

Wow, I really do not listen to tokyo jihen like that... I would not have noticed something like that. To me I can not tell a difference. But I only really started listening to "rock" when I listened to shiina. I am not a guitar kinda guy, so I do not pay attention. To me the jazz trio (piano, drums, and bass) are the only instruments I can really tell a diiference between playing. It just happens that guitar is the only one in jihen I am not used to listening to. I went back and listened to some phase 2 stuff, I kinda heard what you were talking about, but it does not annoy me, I guess because I know so little of guitars and their sounds. Well as of now, I do not mind uki, I will not stick my head out to defend him, but I do not dislike his music. I can not comment on his abilities as a composer, as I do not know which songs he composed. But the arguements of why uki is bad.. I do not know enough about them, but to address frecklegirls comment, I think that is a great reason to hate him, lol. Although I do not care if he sits there like a lawn gnome. I would not really care.
But it sucks uki is so boring... He raps, isn't that good enough? C'mon C'mon.. okay jigen vanish:ph43r:

Yeah, the main thing that bothers me about him is his terrible stage presence. He's just so awkward to watch.

Ugh, my sentiments exactly. Not trying to be a prick, but it seems that other forums never really engage in interesting thoughtful conversations. Most of our topics are actually interesting and add to the quality of the forum, not like other forums where people just create topics to ask for stuff or make inane and obvious statements.

Me thinks that Shiina's music just attracts the best elements of society :D

Actually there are different standards of Romaji so there really isn't a "correct" form. Most people use the Hepburn system, but there are two other systems that are widely used. But quite honestly, I think all Romaji is incorrect to some degree. There are certain characters that just have different sounds and it's almost impossible to use a practical form of translation. The best way to learn the language itself is to learn the characters of Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji and what sounds each characters make without using any romanization at all for reference. The only people that could possibly use Romaji and fully understand what sound is supposed to be made are fluent speakers (or people familiar with the language) because they can kind of link what characters are trying to be represented. Because mentally they are referencing back to the original language. This applies also when other countries learn English. But English is more confusing because there really isn't a proper set-up of sound. Some letters will make more than one sound, which to a Japanese person is confusing because each character in their own language makes a specific sound. And for some words in English, there really isn't a rule as to why it makes that sound, it just kind of does. I hear Japanese/Koreans mess up words all the time because they are simply following a "rule" of the English language which happens to not apply to the word they are using.

I do understand that for people new to a language, certain sounds are hard to duplicate because those sounds are simply not used in a person's native language. And I understand why Romaji is used, everyone is not going to learn Japanese. But if you really want to learn the language and learn it properly without butchering it in usage. Learning to write is pretty essential. Even if you just learned one of the three Japanese writing systems, it would help you to really understand Romaji and will greatly help speaking it too.

But to kind of get off my rant, technically there are several "correct" forms of Romaji.

When I'm listening to Uki play on any release that doesn't rhyme with Schmariety, I can tolerate him. But watching him play is just unbearable. He looks like an antisocial rooster with Downs Syndrome trying to scratch his crotch.

XD
fits perfectly
I love you!

And here's another place where other Ringo fans discuss us, including some forum members here! I believe the consensus is that we're all pretentious Hirama fans? XD

That place was discussed in a similar thread, "What they're saying about us."

Also, a non-non-EMF opinion is that we need more stickies.

MORE stickies?? I just made like 6 of them! Or are you saying you don't like those stickies and would rather other threads were stuck instead?

I was being sarcastic. I dont think we need nearly that many. "Ringo Trivia" and "Song's you've changed your opinion on" are really sticky worthy? More threads to ignore when seeing whats actually new.

You're right on "Songs you've changed your opinion on," it's maybe not that essential (I just thought it could be a good discussion-encouraging topic). But most of the rest are good basic threads that I would rather see renewed with each new poster than go ignored on page 10. And trivia IS sticky-worthy because lots of new members don't know all that stuff and think it's really cool to find it out.

I don't see a problem with any of the stickied topics. They're interesting topics and might encourage new people to join up and add their two cents.

Omg, I lurk on NeoGAF aswell, I just knew I saw your avatar somewhere before :lol:

Jihad or Whisper:

Why does everyone have these as avatars on gaf? XD


edit:
V--- Ahh that's hilarious, there's so many too xD

winner. ironically enough...

It started in the GTA trailer thread. I think one guy did it and everybody requested them. Lookie! Similar to Solid Snaking avatars (Putting an eyepatch, tash and cigar on a standard avatar as I'm sure you've noticed).

I would use that Avatar, but I'm still waiting for my account to be activated <_<

I came in from the cold and joined here and a group on Facebook.

Eleven year bump!!!!!

On Sandokushi: 2ch are calling it "3 meat special" and Ringo "Ramen Pack Buddhist".

We're way nicer than that lol

A couple of Brazilian friends I have, who (from what I remember) never disliked any of her releases, are finally having negative things to say about her music

Meanwhile, over at Arama...

Thomas is Ronald. Think about it. Never rely on confirmation bias to make your point either.


I also can't think of anything sadder than chasing numbers to inform your listening habits. Such a soulless, pointless manner in which to search for music which should be an emotional thing led by the heart and ears.



It's definitely backs to the wall when the Brazilians turn on you!! :lol: They are the pop bulwark which the city's defense rest upon!

I agree with this general point, but with the caveat that there's a worthy distinction between saying:

(1) Shiina Ringo's output in the last few years is not up to snuff
(2) Shiina Ringo is no longer relevant/famous/popular

Both of which I've seen here and there on various platforms. Ringo's quality allegedly going to shit doesn't mean she's irrelevant, and Ringo selling Gold doesn't mean her songs are necessarily good. They're just different conversations, and I think that's at least partially what Ronald was addressing (even if the rant as a whole was kinda defensive/reactionary).

Also @Lena-chan, I'd be interested to hear what specific critiques your Brazilian friends have to offer!

@Dead Grandma: I'm never going to remember the title correctly now. It'll always be "Three Meat Special" in my head, lol@

What is JPS?

I see where Ronald is coming from. I really do. But also, you can still do some pretty original stuff and still make it for a commercial or show title. Ringo has done it herself. I see a lot of the word "samey" thrown around but that's what the stuff is. I also think people would be less annoyed if the commercial stuff was relegated to it's own album and fleshed out while the newer stuff kept as an ep or it's own album. I'm not Ringo's keeper and I'm sure she's busy af but in a dream world...

Its obviously an individual thing, but I can't imagine finding the most exciting thing about a fave artist to be based on how much they are selling. Come on.

J Pop Suki, that torrent website
yes
YES
YES! AGREED!
Otherwise it would make much more sense for everybody to like Johnny's or AKB. And even Johnny's and AKB fans have the common sense of not liking them because of the fucking numbers.
You have no idea, people are coming for me on whatsapp group conversations, because everybody knows I'm her fan and now she did something shitty XDDD
It was nothing that deep
one posted a link to her performance with Sakurai Atsushi and said that was the definition of "When you like someone but you don't have chemistry together"
the other just commented he hasn't fully listened to the new album yet, but from what he listened to so far it was kinda lame