Arashi Fandom is in a Happy Place

I have been neglecting this blog. For that, I apologize. I guess the deeper I sink into this fandom, the less inclined I am to editorialize the actions and performances of our beloved five Arashi members. I've found that there are both good and bad things about fandom, and one of the bad things is that it's very easy to start getting swayed by the (often strong) opinions and conjectures of other fans, and the next thing you know, you're spending hours trying to refute something that probably didn't matter much to begin with while you could have been basking in the raucous laughter of a good old episode of Shiyagare instead.

So you know, I've just been trying to spend more time with the raw sources of my happiness, not on some carefully curated tumblr or twitter feed. And as a result, I've just felt like I'm in such a supremely happy place whenever I step into the online world these days.

Arashi Live Tour 2015 "Japonism" 12/17 in Fukuoka - The Concert Experience

Japonism was an album that was made with performance in mind (actually, come to think of it, what Arashi album isn't?), and this year, I had the immense fortune of hitting for amazing arena tickets that just bordered the moving stage's trajectory, so needless to say, I worked Fukuoka into my winter travel schedule, and paid my first ever visit to Yafuoku Dome.

Yafuoku! Dome, under some beautiful, forecast-defying weather on Dec. 17.

I'll skip all the pre-concert drivel, but in short, everything went by without a hitch. I went to the Dome around 3pm to avoid the early morning crowds and shop for my concert goods. It was nice and bright when I got there (see picture above), there was barely any line for the goods, plenty of the venue-limited masking tapes were still available (they hadn't even started limiting the number per person yet), and I got everything I wanted within 30 minutes.

SPOILER ALERT BELOW

Arashi x Pazudora - Fantastical Worlds

Whenever I hear of a new company engaging Arashi as endorsers of their products, my eyes go bright, and a brief dopamine surge kicks off in my brain as the anticipation buds. Over the years (and I've done a couple of posts on Arashi CMs here and here), the fab five have acted as endorsers for various products, from cars to potato chips (and even diapers, in MatsuJun's case), and even though I don't have the opportunity (or necessity, really) to purchase many of the things they endorse, I still hang on to every frame of their CMs because 1) they're beautiful; 2) they're action-packed; 3) they're humorous; and 4) they always have a happy ending. It's the plastic world of commercials, after all.

I've found that different companies tend to make use of Arashi's image in different ways. For example, Kirin likes to play the OT5 card a lot (perhaps, they feel the completeness of Arashi most keenly, since they were a company who didn't start out with all five members in their initial contract, and had to acquire Nino and Sho after the other three). Kirin's CM's also tend to be light and jovial, which is undoubtedly meant to evoke the frothy, fizzy feel of their beer. Nissan, on the other hand, tended more towards making Arashi look sleek and modern, which of course fit perfectly with the intended image of their sleek and modern cars. In contrast to most others, JAL likes to hover closer to reality, collaborating with Ohno on a jet design and often referencing Arashi's real-life duties as idols in their CM scripts. Hitachi, the other big corporation with all five under its name, places the heaviest emphasis on comedic elements and often casts Arashi in various domestic vignettes to showcase that.

Starting a couple of years ago (2013? 2014?), a new player signed on to deck itself out in the five-colored rainbow, and this was Gungho, the company that developed the popular smartphone game "Puzzles and Dragons" or "Pazudora" for short.

Random Soubusen Moments ❤

These are in no particular order. Just random notes I jotted down over the last few months of little moments that caught my interest =D

1. Nino's answer to "If you were a girl, which Arashi member would you date?"

From the 2009.04.25 episode of Ousama no Brunch.

If you watched this episode, you might recall that before announcing his answer, Nino indicated that the gap between the fourth and fifth places was huge, pulling the chair for the fifth place far out to the end of the stage. Then, he names poor Aiba as the member he would least want to date.

My Arashi Wish List

Chances are really low that anybody with any power over Arashi's projects will ever see this post, but I'll put it out there anyways. Here are some things I would really really want to see Arashi do, in no particular order (and I might keep adding to this list as I randomly think of more things).

* Do another plot-based PV (like the ones for アオゾラペダル"Aozora Pedalu" and マイガール"My Girl")

I thought it was really cute to see MatsuJun as the encouraging friend who was trying to get the girl to confess to Sho (and that moment when he realizes she's been rejected and he looks at Sho just sitting on the back of the truck; it was like a scene from a dorama, only better because it made my mind jiggle with all those precious Sakumoto fanfic moments...kyaaa!!). And I've always been a sucker for the concept of all five of them as brothers because in my mind, they are kind of like a special family to each other. 

お誕生日おめでとう, 大ち ゃ ん (Happy Birthday, Oh-chan)

This is going to more visual than textual, so I hope you enjoy seeing Riida's pouty face over and over again!

Ohno Satoshi turns 33 today (since it is already Nov 26 in Japan), and I'm sure the other members have prepared a surprise for him at the LOVE tour. I'm hoping it's a cute prank :-) like when they gave MatsuJun that sparkling jacket as a gift. Who knows?

Riida debuted when he was 18, and he's certainly grown up a lot from the awkwardly reticent, long-haired teenager on that Hawaiian cruise ship back in 1999. For 14 years, he has been a part of fans' lives, singing us through difficult times with his powerful voice and offering us the rare word of wisdom in an odd magazine interview every now and then. He may be the quietest in Arashi, but his presence is like a warm blanket that covers the sets and stages; it envelopes us and reassures us. Everything's going to be all right; Riida has got your back.

Yoshi! On to the pictures!

Matsumoto Jun - Takes Himself Seriously, Loves Arashi Selflessly

So before anything else, you need to just look at this guy. Get ready for electrifying paralysis of all body systems except your toki-toki hearts.

You're welcome, girls.

The intimidating and magnetic stare that Jun
is so famous for.  

Because I can't resist putting another
sexy-and-I-know-it Jun pic here...

I never skip over the Lucky Seven opening credits because
of, well, this. 

Here's a gentler Jun-gaze to ease us into the mecha-kakkoii
subject that is Matsumoto Jun.

Aaaand here it comes. Matsumoto Jun-sama. It was so difficult to condense his character into a little phrase for the title here. Certain words thrown around in the fandom came to mind: Princess, Diva, Stoic, Concertmaster, DoS, and of course, we have to keep in mind that Jun, unlike Aiba, Nino, or Ohno, changed quite a lot in both appearance and personality since Arashi's debut; he's grown from that cute spiky-haired kid with the idiotically wide smile to the sexy brooding gentleman who's always in demand for romantic lead roles in doramas. So what phrase could encompass all these sides of our beloved Jun? In the end, I settled for a title that is quite lame. But whatever, it sort of fits, as Jun is stoic to a fault when it comes to perfecting his art and takes himself very seriously. You don't see him chuckling at silly things as much as the others, especially after 2009 when he really matured. And he really does love Arashi like it's his soul, soul; the other members have all, at one time or another, pointed him out as the one who cares most about the group. He can be just as yasashii as Riida when you get past his intimidating superstar aura!