Of Hans Christian Anderson and a can of worms ...

[paaanpanda]

An interesting thing happened on the weekend. After me banging on about how none of my friends understand my love for J-Pop in general and Kanjani8 in particular I took a leap of faith and inflicted both, in general and in particular, on one of my friends. This was a different person to those I went away with a few weekends ago. This person is far

Comments

[spacecadet1017]

I think it depends on the song! When they first started, they did a lot more enka-inspired songs, and Baru's voice really suits that style. In pop or rock it can be hit or miss. I think to some degree, though, the glamor factor can trick people. For example, before I ever knew Kanjani, I thought Ryo was a good actor. I mean, he has to be since he's that beautiful, right? But the more I got to know him, I started to realize maybe he wasn't as amazing as I thought. He's still good, sure (Last Friends gave me chills, and I *loved Chonmage Purin) but he's pretty crap at comedies because he can't control his face and always looks like he's a second away from an NG scene. It took a while for the glamor factor to wear off, but I'm happy it did. I can see him as a person now and not just be like "OMG! EVERYTHING HE DOES IS EPIC!" (I was that way for a looooooong time with Yamapi. So many Japanese people would give me the side-eye when I was like "He's a great actor, right?! :D" lol

[paaanpanda]

Yes, the style of song makes a big difference. The enka stuff does suit him but I’ve never been fond of that style. Don’t get me wrong there are many, many songs where Baru’s voice sounds amazing. My absolute favourite Eito song wander is an example of this, his voice is sublime. Yet there are others where I wish he would just keep his mouth shut. Omoidama for instance. Everyone else is sounding good and he just has to overdo it

[spacecadet1017]

I'm still trying to figure out KanJani musically. I go their Best of 8th Anniversary album as a starter and there were some songs I liked, but some I didn't like so much. I think it's just confusing for me since they don't stick to one genre. I like the rock songs, though. And sometimes fun pop ones like Maemuki Scream are nice. I've been randomly watching youtube performances of songs they performed on music shows to find other things to like, but they probably only do singles there. I also feel bad because I haven't identified all their voices in the songs yet! Baru & Ryo are easy because they're main. Yoko & Hina are easy because they're unique. Maru I think I heard on a rap. I think I heard Yasu do an intro and a rap once. But I feel terrible that I can't for the life of me identify Tacchon's voice. I think I might be mistakenly attributing some of his stuff to Ryo. I suppose it'd help if I stopped being lazy and watched their MVs. I've seen clips here and there, but never a full MV. I have no idea why. I guess

[paaanpanda]

I find I like Eito’s album songs and B-sides way more than their singles. There are some absolute gems tucked away and it’s worth the effort to track them down. Wander, Royal Milk Story, Brilliant Blue, Dream Train, Zou, Nanairo Parameter, Kagayakeru Butai e and Rurarira are some of my favourites. All quite different but all good. I don’t really mind what genre the song is as long as I like the sound

[umechan]

For what it's worth, I see where you're coming from with Subaru's voice. I do think though that it's more of a historical thing than anything else. From what I can tell, if you go back and watch early stuff of theirs, Subaru's voice back then really was the most stable (ie, least pitchy). And his voice quality was better back then also -- I don't know if it's because of the smoking or age or what, but his voice has definitely changed. He's hoarser, and the tone of his voice is less clear. If you go back and just listen to all the performances Naniwa Iroha Bushi starting from when it first came out to more recent ones, you'll see he can't quite hit the same notes he used to back then, when doing the repeating yodeling riff thing. (sorry, my knowledge of musical terms falls short here, but you know what I'm referring to right

[umechan]

Hina - He's gotten a lot better with pitchiness also, and his voice is unique. Of all the members I'd say he has the most unique voice. It's rough and manly. :D ...unfortunately his singing lacks musicality imho. he doesn't do vibrato, or much tone inflection. His singing is straight-forward sounding. which I guess is fitting with the personality

[umechan]

I forgot to ask - but how'd the kanjani8 pimping to your friend end up going? I think I would die happy to have people in RL to karaoke with or watch stuff with. I've been planning a kanjani8 all concert watching spree for a while, where you start at the beginning and then just watch them all sequentially. :P But that would be infinitely more fun to do with people. Here's to wishing you luck!

[paaanpanda]

I guess my dislike of shipping comes from the Arashi fandom where it’s kind of intense. It’s not just the boy/boy I find strange but the shipping with every actress they’ve starred in a drama with … ever. Probably the two most annoying things about shipping for me are 1) the fans who treat it like a competition and 2) what I call ‘forced’ ships.

I didn’t really expect to convert my friend into an Eighter. She’s very open minded but it’s not her thing. It was more an exercise in sharing something that’s important to me with someone I knew wasn’t going to mock me for it. Kind of like having a secret that you’re just busting to tell someone. She thought they were okay but I can’t see her sitting through a concert DVD with me. I would also love to have someone IRL to adore Eito with me but it’s just not going to happen. Which is why I’m happy I’ve found my ‘tribe’ on line.

I had a look in my tumblr account. The only blog I followed was something called Perving on K-pop. My bad? lol

[umechan]

Oh that's odd. I don't think I've seen that before - the intense shipping of them with actresses in dramas. I've only heard of people shipping MatsuJun and Inoue Mao, but I've not seen fervent shippers

[paaanpanda]

I do enjoy watching them be cute and nice to each other. I think it’s refreshing to see men with genuine friendships. Where I’m from, men are afraid to be close with each other for fear people will think they are gay.

Leading a second fannish life … don’t I know it. I had to make a second Facebook page just for my fangirling as my ‘friends’ made snide comments when I changed my cover picture to one of my J pop groups.

Perving on K-pop is anything but decent, but that’s what makes it good. hehehe