Happy Birthday, Acchan!
Since it's now midnight in Japan, I can wish Acchan a happy birthday. To celebrate, I'm only playing music related to her in some way, such as all T&C music, shuffles featuring her, and music featuring her background vocals. The only exception is I'm also adding both versions of Country Musume's "Happy Birthday" song.
A year ago, I would never have guessed that I would be this much a fan of Acchan. I think I had already discovered her by then. It all began innocently. I was browsing a picture thread at JPH!P when I noticed someone I never saw previously.
Atsuko with Ayaka and Mari
I was intrigued. Who was this person? I asked someone. "Atsuko Inaba" was the reply. I thought she was pretty, and started to search for more information of her. Then I discovered Taiyo & Ciscomoon, later T&C Bomber. At first, I would amuse Tama in the chatroom by randomly saying "I like Inaba." occasionally. Over time, I became more attracted to her, and was mesmerized by her voice as I discovered videos featuring her.
My attraction to her grew in December 2007. During that time, the forum held their annual JPH!P awards. Someone awarded me the title "Inaba's #1 fan". As a result, I began to ham it up. This caused me to actually like her very much. She quickly became one of my top favorite Hello! Project members. Now, I am slowly collecting anything related to her: music, videos, photocards, posters, etc. I also discovered her group prior to her H!P work: Osaka Performance Doll. I have seen one performance from that group, and I like it. I plan to try to obtain all of their cds.
Nowadays, she gets very little attention. She is mostly behind the scenes, performing background vocals for various Hello! Project songs. She has appeared on Uta Doki on occasionally. Because of her lack of exposure, not many people appreciate her. However, I do. Most of the time, my admiration is expressed in an "over the top" way. Perhaps I am a wota. However, I still treat her in a respectful manner. If I meet her in the future, however, she'll probably never realize how much I appreciate her. I wouldn't want to make her uncomfortable. I'll repress my wotaness and simply let her know I'm a fan and enjoy her work.
I will end this post with a few pictures of Acchan. Hopefully someone else will enjoy them. Here's to another year of Atsuko fandom.
Love, Charmy