Ensemble Stars, my new idol hell

While I have not given up my other idol games I have finally been won over by Ensemble Stars. I had tried out the game in the past off and on but never stuck with it until now.

I put much of that on the fact there is a character that I outright love instead of just like, Mikejima Madara. It definitely helps that Madara has the same voice actor as my favorite Utapri boy, Aijima Cecil, is the big brother type that I like and has his birthday only a few days before mine. So Madara is just perfect and easily best boy for me.

That all said with the account I currently have, as I had of course had to start anew, everything seemed to fall into place. I got my second best boy, Sakuma Rei, as my starting 4 star without having to use the reroll button during the tutorial and my first pull I got my first 5 star. And I started in the middle of an event so while I could not even get up to the points I needed for the 4 star it dropped for me so I did not have to.

Then my second scout gave the entire Card Battler set, so I have been rather vocal cursed so far. The dance and performance 4 stars were very welcome additions to my teams so I could have something that was higher than a 3 star.

So Happy Elements has got me between debuting a character I love and really good luck for these first couple of pulls.

I have plenty more to say but unfortunately not the time today, but I will be showing off my journey into this new idol hell for me from now on here.

Dear Johnny's

This has probably been some time coming but I do not think I can really consider myself a Johnny's fangirl anymore. These days I find myself more frustrated with the agency and rarely feeling excited about what is going on with all the groups.

A part of it is just how hard it has become to keep up with groups from the agency. Even though Johnny's has gotten a little better about not being as controlling with the image of their idols it still feels like they are a decade or more behind the rest of the Japanese idol agencies. The fact that there is so little you can find media-wise without having to resort to piracy has become off putting, especially since the some of the sources that are out there are so protected you have to put in so much work just to look at magazine scans or a short video clip. And I am someone who does not mind paying for official products and releases, but that gets so expensive so quickly I have to limit myself to a few of the groups I really like. This means the chances of me being able to give other groups a try become slim to none. I feel guilty about that as there are so many groups that are hard working and talented that I am passing up on because of that.

Another part is that the whole drama from the factions within the upper management and how it all played out left a sour taste in my mouth. The whole thing did not help the agency as it created divides with groups when one of the big selling points to Johnny's for me was the fantasy it was all one big happy family. Then it got so messy when Iijima Michi ended up leaving and SMAP more or less getting the ax for wanting to support the manager who had been with them long before they became popular.

Honestly I wonder what the future for Johnny's is going to be as there are plenty of signs that the strangle hold they once had for the Japanese male idol industry is waning. K-pop may not be as big as it once was in Japan but it is easy for those groups to get past any blockages Johnny's might have thanks to the K-pop male idol groups that paved the way during the last Hallyu wave in Japan. EXILE and their related groups figured they could get around any issues by labeling themselves as a performance group rather than idols. Then there is the voice actors that are tied to idol-themed properties that have them perform as idols for special lives, as well as the fact that voice actors have always come across as a certain type of idol for some time. And I have recently noticed boy idol groups from other agencies, though I think it is mostly just Amuse, getting drama roles and commercial deals without having to pretend to be anything but idols. All of which are much easier to follow, especially for international fans.

In the end I got into Johnny's with NEWS and as long as that group continues on I will remain somewhat invested in the agency. If just as mostly a NEWS fan. I still do like Kis-My-Ft2 and TOKIO but I am more passive with following them than NEWS. And I do still await in hope that SixTONES debuts (Praying that Tanaka Koki's recent arrest is not going to ruin things for his brother Juri there). But outside of that no other group has maintained my interest, especially as I have been moving on to other fandoms. And it helps that those fandoms I do not have to jump through hoops just to enjoy.

My Life: A small update.

Between my new job and moving to another part of the house I really have not had the time I wanted to do any kind of proper updates on this blog and various other social media accounts I have. Instead I just keep building a backlog and worry if I waited too long to make a post about those things at this point. But on the other hand I really do not want to give up either.

In any case I do enjoy working at my new job and will be glad to have a nice steady income once more. A disposable income has been missed though having the money to cover what I need and have something left over to save at the same time is fantastic. Also I am hoping that I can use the experience I am getting from my current job to find work back in Washington State, as I still miss living there terribly.

And the move is something I have needed to do for a while as I now have room for more than bedroom furniture. It also gives me a good idea of how much room I will need when I move into an apartment, which is a goal of mine for this year.

I just need to figure out how to fit writing into all of this as I miss doing it. I am probably going to have to change up some of the things I am doing for my blogs so I can schedule posts once more and keep it from looking so dead. But that will probably have to wait until I finish moving all my stuff. I honestly did not realize I had so much until now. At least I am reaching the point where I feel like I have more of my things in the new area and out of my old room.

Duu to graduate and break all the hearts

This past week has been a flurry of events for me and I was so happy to have a day to relax and catch up on things. And I was just in time to see the announcement of Kudo Haruka's graduation from Morning Musume '17. She will be leaving the group after the autumn concert tour of this year.

This one really breaks my heart as Duu is one of my favorite members of the group. I get her reasoning though as if she wants to focus on acting it would be easy to worry about not really giving her all with the other aspects of being an idol. So I agree that if that is what she has set her heart on than it is probably the best way to go, especially if she has such worries.

That all said it does not lessen the heartbreak of hearing that she is leaving. Even though as a fan I am happy for her to be chasing her dreams I will still miss her as a member of Morning Musume. At least as an actor she should remain in the public eye so it will be easy to keep tabs on her as she continues her career in the entertainment industry, so there is a silver lining to hold on to. Momusu just is not going to be the same for me without being able to see her smiling face with the rest.

A reminder why soloyolos are bad.

This post is mostly for my benefit so if I have the impulse to soloyolo to come look at this to remember why soloyolos are a bad idea.

A few weeks ago I noticed that I was close to getting the five Blue Tickets I would need to do a pull from the BT SR box and decided to soloyolo my way to it. I was also hoping to get something from the solos.

The first solo is just what one would expect so no need to feel too disappointed. Have to go get some more gems though to do the next two.

And then we follow up with another R.

And the fourth and final pull gives me the kind of disappointment that I know I should expect from soloyoloing.

And my prize with the BT scout... the Initial Hanamaru SR.

I am not completely broken up about the BT scout as Hanamaru is my second best Aqours girl and her initial SR is really cute in both versions. It just is nothing close to the UR or SSR I was hoping for and there are plenty of other SRs I would have been happier to get. But still, this was a waste and I need to avoid the solo urge as it leads me to disappointment more often than not.