Last time I posted a transcript of my chat with a Manofure at Hello! Tribe. At the end of that article, I promised to go over my conversation with a former Berryz Koubou wota who I’ve known for a few years. So here we are.
A little background information before we get started. This wota is a former Kumaicho fan, from here on forward, he will be referred to as Enjoy-san. I first met him, along with a big group of Japanese Berryz wotas, at an after party dinner after Berryz Koubou’s concert at Sakura Con in 2011. We met again when Berryz went to New Jersey to perform at AnimeNEXT. Since then we have been keeping contact via twitter and we’d run into each other from time to time when I visit Japan. However, in my most recent trip to Japan, I was surprised to run into him at a Morning Musume event. Since New Jersey, he has given up on Kumaicho and moved on to following Oda-chan as his oshimen. We were at a Morning Musume Handshake/Autograph/Cheki event for TIKI BUN in Nagoya on 10/28. This was our conversation while we waited for the our sessions to begin.
turbos86: T
Enjoy-san: E
T: Long time no see!
E: Long time no see! It’s been a while. How long have you been in Japan this time?
T: I landed only a few days ago
E: Staying for how long?
T: About a month.
E: What do you have for today?
T: I had a few handshakes, waiting for cheki now, all with Iikubo-san, yourself?
E: Got an autograph next with Sakura-chan
T: How does the autograph here work?
E: Pretty much they just write your name and draw their autograph while you get to talk to them at the same time
T: That sounds a lot better than the handshakes (Handshake ticket = cost of 1 CD, Autograph or Cheki ticket = cost of 1 CD box set [6 CDs or so])
E: Yeah, it’s worth the price
T: At the handshake just now, staff asked me if I wanted to use a few tickets at once, so I used two together, the time didn’t feel that much longer than just using one ticket
E: Well, you still have the cheki
T: That’s true
T: Enjoy-san, are you here by yourself?
E: Nah, my friends are waiting over there (Points to the other end of the lobby)
T: Oh, my group is downstairs
E: I see, all Morning Musume fans?
T: Yeah, you’re one too now. When that did happen?
E: Um let’s see, you know I pay attention to the Kenshuusei too. After New Jersey, I began losing interest in Berryz and then Sakura-chan joined MM.
T: Ahhh, how about the others who were in the USA with us?
E: Most of them have moved on too. Of the 5, 6 guys you’ve met, I think only 1 is still a Berryz wota.
T: Ehh, what, really? Who are they supporting now?
E: A few switched to other H!P groups, while the rest ventured out to other idols, etc
T: Oh I see. How come everyone left Berryz?
E: They weren’t doing anything different in particular these last couple of years, so we slowly lost interest
T: I guess so
E: Well, we’re been following Berryz since their formation. So we’ve pretty much watched them grow up to be adults. It seemed like it’s time for us to let them go
T: Ahh, so that’s why. Are you going to see Berryz off?
E: They still have a few months, I’ll go see them when I can.
T: How do you and the others think about their hiatus?
E: It’s too bad they’re breaking up, but also feels like it’s about time they’ve done so
T: Oh?
E: They’ve been at it for so long, doing the same thing over and over. You could see the members weren’t enjoying it
T: Now that you mention it
E: It’s giving us a very complicated feeling. We’re sad since we’ve liked them for so long, but also relieved that it’s coming to an end
T: You’re not in gear today
E: I’m just doing autograph today, regular clothes is fine. I wear wota t-shirts to concerts
T: It’s so hard to get member colors t-shirts now, everything is Cool Hello!
E: Hahaha, yeah, everything is black
T: How are people here handling this?
E: A lot of guys now just print their own
T: DIY?
E: Some DIY, others order off t-shirt printing websites, just submit the design
T: Nice
E: Here, like these (Takes out phone, photos of custom t-shirts appears on the screen)
T: So many yellow shirts
E: You know, like the Kenshuusei ones with their surnames on it
T: Wow…..wait, that one says Kumai
E: Oh, you know, the Berryz Budokan concert
T: When they pretended to be Kenshuusei?
E: Yeah, it’s based on that
T: Printed on both side?
E: Yup, just like the official ones
T: That’s awesome
E: Here’s a good one (Scroll to a photo of two purple t-shirts)
T: Oda-chan’s?
E: Yeah, her birthday shirt
E: It’s the wrong purple
T: Yeah
E: So I had one made in the correct shade (points to lighter hue one in the photo)
T: Eh? How did you do that?
E: I scanned the design off the official shirt, inverted the colors, then had it printed on a lavender shirt
T: Wow, it looks just like the official one
E: Had it done the first few days after the shirt was released, then I wore it to show her. She was like, “Wow, you got this made so fast!”
T: OMG, that’s win
E: Yeah, everyone makes their own wota shirts now
T: I’m going to have to look into that myself, they don’t even sell member t-shirts for the current concert tour (GMML)
E: Right, I bet they didn’t even bother since no one was buying the black shirts
So there you have it. Although Enjoy-san’s views are not a complete representation of all wotas in Japan, it’s a good generalization of how fans there feel about what’s happening lately within Hello! Project. After years of no changes and stale releases, Berryz fans were abandoning the group since they’ve hit the ten years mark. Ten year is a long time to follow a group around, especially when these guys attend events almost every weekend. Can’t blame them for moving on, with all the fresh and new faces popping up everywhere. As for the t-shirts, it makes you wonder WTF are the higher-ups in Up-Front are thinking doesn’t it?
PS: I noticed there are some confusion when I mention “Cool Hello!” I’m not talking about the 2013 Hello! Project Summer concerts, what I’m referring to is the style that Hello! Project is doing now, especially for their t-shirts. Another Up-Front fxxk up, don’t use the same term for multiple things! To this company, apparently the color black = cool.
Not cool.
Jicchan 
Up-Front is not to be blamed everytime things go wrong. I used to be like that until they created UPUPGIRLS（仮）.
To me, UF proved they know how to do things right. So now if there is anyone to blame, I blame it on H!P’s management team. Just like how Sengoku does LOL.
I left Berryz went UUG was born. For me, UUG is now my Berryz. Everything I dreamed for Berryz to accomplished, UUG has achieved it in their own unique way and much much more.
Coincidently, by faith or by design, you can find similarities between Berryz and UUG. For example:
UUG’s twin towers = Akari and Morisaki.
Shortest leader = Sengoku.
Talkative member = Sekki, who wears Chii’s orange.
But there are differences too which gives UUG a positive, like…
Leader, Sengoku is center and she is not the main vocals.
Main vocals are Sekki and Akari. Sekki shares center with Sengoku but Akari doesn’t
2nd vocal, Ayanon shares center with Sengoku. Ayanon is UUG’s Miyabi.
UUG’s twin towers are lean mean fighting machines. Heck the whole group are like that >_<
I think I've said too much ^_^;;
The point is, UF is not the bad guy 🙂
LikeLike
You forgot to mention that Sengoku Minami once was a member of Berryz Kobo. 😉
LikeLike
????? H!P management team is a part of Up-Front, it’s all one company…..
If they’re not at fault, then who is?
LikeLike
If anyone knows who’s in charge of what I’d love to hear it. I imagine UF has to have specific teams in charge of different groups, considering that they have a lot of artistes and groups under them. I think what zam is trying to say is that perhaps we shouldn’t be blaming UF as a whole for certain decisions made. Me being a fellow UUG fan, I can attest that the ones currently in charge of marketing and promotions for UUG are doing quite a good job at it, and comparing it to some of the decisions taken for H!P recently, it doesn’t seem like the same people are behind the marketing decisions.
Just expressing my opinions on observations, your guess is as good as mine, probably.
LikeLike
Ah okay. That makes a lot more sense. Thanks!
For the purpose of writing, It’s much easier and visually logical to just say “Up-Front” as a whole than to type out “who ever is in charge of H!P”.
Anyway. I still say Up-Front, the company, is to be held responsible. True that different people within framework handle different aspect of operations. However, at the end, the decision makers up top still has to give the okay for direction pointing decision, such as turning the entire Hello! Project’s theme into Cool Hello! If not completely, they still have to take parts of the blame.
LikeLike
Sorry turbos for not being clear.
Thank you Nifster for making it clear.
I was trying to point out what Nifster said >_<
I want to add something. UUG is under Up-Front Create while H!P is under Up-Front Promotion. I would say UFP sucks at this business.
LikeLike
Personally, I always blame Naoki Yamazaki for everything bad. And praise Tsunku for everything good. 😉
LikeLike
Interesting. But it does not make much sense to me. Even if some of the “old guard” have left the fandom, I don’t see a decline in the overall popularity of the group. To the contrary, the sales of Berryz singles releases have been on an upswing for the last couple of years. They also have a lot more female fans now than they did in the past, as any regular concert-goer will confirm.
By the same token, one might argue that C-ute, whose members have been in the idol biz for just as long, haven’t changed much either. Their last major shake up was back in 2009(!) when Erika Umeda left the group, with no “fresh and new faces” added to their line-up either. And they are more popular than ever.
LikeLike
The point I was trying to get across with this article is that not because Berryz is boring now that their line up has remained unchanged after Maiha left, it’s how their early adapters is getting tired of them doing the same thing over and over. Also, I mentioned the fans noticed the Berryz members weren’t even enjoying their job. If you’re not having fun yourself, how are you suppose to entertain your followers.
You are right they have been getting an influx of new fans to join the ranks, but this holds true for the entire Hello! Project, not just Berryz. Also, when I went to the release event for Romance wo Katatte / Towa no Uta at Venus Fort last month, there were only about 10 older wotas while the rest were all teenagers and people in their 20s. The younger kids acted like idiots, so much that I wanted to leave. And that’s just how I feel after spending a few hours there, what do you think wotas of many years feels when they have to deal with this new unpleasantness added to how disappointed they already feel about the group itself. Idols are meant to give you enjoyment. When they can no longer provide the joy people are looking for, they take their money elsewhere.
As for judging popularity by CD sales, numbers can easily manipulated. Most of the time at CD release events, you’re limited to how many copies (usually 1 to 3) you can buy each time. If you want more, you’d have to line up all over again. Did you know this time for Berryz last single, they had no limits? I saw 1 guy buy over 100 CDs in one go, just so he could get a pile of handshake tickets.
Not trying to attack your points with an axe. What you said does have validity. I just want to say that there are a lot more going on than what we can see on the surface.
LikeLike
Well, the older wotas who left because of teenage troublemakers will have the same issue at any other idol group’s event, if said group is at least somewhat popular (I still remember ye olde “Konya mo Takamaruyo!” podcast discussing fisticuffs at S/mileage concerts, lol!). Although I saw an older wota being harrassed by teenage punks at an AsoBitGirls show, of all places.
As for CDs sold at release events, only 30% of those are counted by Oricon … unless of course, H!P circumvents it by selling them through Oricon-approved vendors, like Tower Records. If the latter is the case, that’s super lame! 😛
It would also mean that their other groups’ CD sales are bloated as well.
LikeLike
The teenager problem is just one example. Like I said above, many just find the group unappealing and saw the members not having fun themselves.
Release events are all done through CD vendors as far as I can tell. It’s lame, but every artist does this, not just idols. In other words, everyone is cheating the system, some does it worst than H!P, for example, taking pre-orders 4 months in advance. Oricon’s counting system is flawed, but there are no better rankings out there. I always take their results with a grain of salt.
LikeLike
“Idols are meant to give you enjoyment. When they can no longer provide the joy people are looking for, they take their money elsewhere.” – This! I could not have put it better myself.
LikeLike
turbos, what do you mean when you say that younger kids acted like idiots?
Also, I’m in my twenties and like Berryz because of that (same age group, etc), so I’m a (was) a minority? 😮
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let’s see.
Yelling during MCs, bumping into other fans, yelling random crap during songs (not chants), laughing at (not with) people, just to name a few.
To be fair, not all young fans act this way. It only takes a few bad apples ruins it for all.
LikeLike
Is there a way to share an image in here?
LikeLike
Post the link?
LikeLike
I’ll try that. If it works great, otherwise I apologize fof this post LOL…
UUG’s collab t-shirt with REVERSAL.
LikeLike
On the topic of Cool Hello! …. Don’t they ever make customer surveys?? I mean, they do have a fanclub like, say, Nintendo. I get polls from them from time to time …. I really can’t imagine they don’t have something like this. And if they really don’t, the decision maker must be some real business amateur with stubbornness and no will to learn on top of it …
Any idea how to get an old shirt outside of Japan? I’ve been hunting on Ebay but they are suuuuper rare there!
LikeLike
Japanese wota commonly refer to Up-Front as “the shit company” – I guess that should answer your first question. 😉
As for getting an old t-shirt outside of Japan, you can try your luck on Hello!Online, in the “Swap and Give away sub-forum” to be exact. Or the Idol!Swap group on Facebook.
There’s a bunch of old shirts up on Yahoo!Auctions but many (or most?) sellers won’t ship outside of Japan so you would need to use some kind of forwarding service, which will drive the cost up.
LikeLike
“E: You could see the members weren’t enjoying it”
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed this. I’ve gotten that impression since the first time I saw them live 2 years ago, while all other groups seem to enjoy themselves. Including c-ute who have been at it for just as long.
LikeLike