That club was wholesome af. This guy is extremely closed minded. Some people like something that you don't like. Big Whoop. It's not like the idols were being exploited or wearing revealing outfits, or anything. Does he think that you just stop liking everything except for smooth jazz once you hit 30 years old?
@@Jeremy_Fisher you have to have very good proof that youre not a creep to be allowed to "idolise" underage women as a 30+ man in my book. The girls did have some revealing outfits and i dont believe these people are there just cause they like that music.
The idol scene is MOSTLY safe. It's just a form of escapism for these dudes. But there's always stalkers and shit who take it too far. If you want to sea the darker side I would recommend Perfect Blue.
@Chris Ayala It's a great animated movie, probably one of the better old anime movies because of the creator being one of the most famous animator in the industry known for his creativity/imagination and also strive to get fluid animation, Satoshi (though sadly, he passed away). Many Hollywood film pull some of their inspiration from his works, one company even bought licensing rights to Perfect Blue to utilize one scene. As for the idol industry, it has its dark corners and just like KPop Idol industry, they're pretty much on the same level for the most part. Sometimes consists of pillow business, underground dealings since depending on the production company, some idols have to make due. The idol industry in general is a cash cow in the eyes of some company since idols comes and goes, where only a minute amount of them actually make it big. Majority of idols sometimes go *underground* to do performances, or forced to do shady deals just to try to make it big. I personally dislike the idol industry so it may seem as though I'm coming from a bias standpoint but academic studies has shown it has quite an impact on the psychological presence for the male audience. I could go on about the presence of idol having a negative impact. But idol industry also does have a positive impact (financially or inspirationally) as it's also something that can attract tourism.
@@Zzzinnn At least they are not assaulting, deceiving, kidnapping or taking advantage of these "lolis". These is the effect of their popculture (otaku).. In fact, most men there are still virgins (if having sex dolls and vr sex is ecluded).
Dude, they are attending a performance and having a sing and dance. It's not like they are going to some sex dungeon. To be honest that place looked really fun!
I just found the set up in this video to be creepy. They had a small concert in a small dark room and with all the guys waiting around quietly it seemed to be reminiscent to a strip club.
@@riripari2042 No, its for the fans. Most of them are too shy to get caught by public and people they know. So that's why it's quite far from the public, but the idol manager usually watches from backstage. For them its place to escape from overwork, pain, and the reality...
@@riripari2042 It's just a live house. This one's in Akihabara so it mostly if not completely does idol lives and associated stuff. Most live houses are in the shit areas of Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro and do punk rock one night and idols the next and dubstep and house the night after that. To get to a typical live house the idols have to go to the red light districts with bars and sex businesses and love hotels because those are the nightlife districts where most of the live houses have sprung up. Some are full live houses, but many are clubs and after the show finishes and people leave they'll open the doors to drink and grind debauchery. It's what you'd expect for an indie band. But the indie idols usually have to play the same venues. So this one in Akihabara is pretty nice.
I’m Japanese and I’m one of those idol. I’m happy that this guy introduced us. Thank you💗💗But I’m disappointed about how Japanese Otaku (witches *fans*) couldn’t understand English. I know that English is not easy to lean for Japanese but other Asian could speak English more than Japanese‼️ 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I wish I could be more famous and I wanna expand Japanese Idol culture🥺💞 I also wanna tell Otaku to study English and tell them it’s fun to communicate with foreign people 🌍 ❤️
He should have learned some japanese instead. It seems a bit silly to expect everyone to speak english when traveling. It's frustrating to see other americans be judgemental or refuse to learn the languages of places they visit. At least learning a few simple phrases would be nice. Japanese is a difficult language but if he wanted to do investigative video he should have gotten an interpreter 😓 the girls seemed really happy and sweet though
It is hard to learn to speak Japanese, too. I am not offended the least bit when they cannot speak English and delighted when they do. The young ladies are talented and it is nice to see people happy. Bringing joy and positivity to not only Japan but to others interested from around the World is a wonderful thing. As an American, seeing this is odd, but I get it. I would support it. Have fun in your quest!
It's a much more patriarchal working environment. Most women are looking to have 1-2 kids and be a homemaker rather than fight it out in the workplace where there's considered to be a bit of a glass ceiling. So most households are single income. Nevertheless, the women claim the purse strings. This results in a bit of a catch-22. In order to afford a wife and kids in the city, you probably need to be a salaryman. If you are a salaryman, you will have so much overtime that you will never see your wife and kids. So the result is working 60+ hour weeks for people you never see, who may hate you for never being around, and who won't even let you spend your hard earned money on what you want. Naturally, quite a lot of people can't afford the extra 30-50K a year to afford a family, and others opt out. Again, it'd be one thing if you could work hard and come home and see your family, enjoy dinner together, have weekends together. But in lots of cases they can't, and that means guys feel like it's a big investment with little payout. It's not just the guys. It's the whole societal/corporate system.
redfish337 not sure what he’s doing that is illegal but my point still stands. Donnie isn’t there because he’s a creepy dude obsessed with teenagers, he’s there to poke fun at the creepy dudes. Pretty big difference.
Idols need more female fans. I'm sure not all of these guys are creeps, but as a girl who loves idols I also get side eyes. Come on guys! It's just music. I should be able to normally enjoy something cute without being seen as creepy! I'm sure they wish more girls were interested in their awesome cute music and shows! And they have to go through so much BS, I'm sure they would love to connect with girl fans.
I used to like idols girls as a teen. Especially when I was 17-19 range. Then I music taste matured and I cared more about the lyrics and the story. I still listen to the boys because at least there are some that are 18+ so it is not as bad. Plus I like listening to male voices over female voices.
Some idols do have huge female fanbases (some even have more female fans than they do male fans), such as the legendary soloist singers Namie Amuro and Ayumi Hamasaki. However, a lot of the idols who have female fanbases tend to be more serious as singers in terms of their skills, charisma and overall style. A lot of idols aimed at men are not actually very good at singing but get away with it because they're less about being taken seriously as singers (or even aiming to last a long time in the scene) and more about being admired for their youth, cuteness, cheerfulness and idol-like nature.
They do have that as well. Idol culture is not just restricted to female idols. You can even look at host/hostess bars or even the geisha scene for examples of teenagers/young adults servicing older patrons (non sexually). Outside of their "appreciation" for youth, it's also got a bit to do with a kind of ranking system. Older servicers are generally more expensive as they are more experienced and have a greater dedication to the job so they are usually reserved out while younger ones take the open floor.
Next up: Why do teenage girls obsess over Korean middle-aged men? Edit: I am slowly regretting this now, so let me rephrase this. This is an OPINIONATED question . Ohh I know, scary right? Don't get so defensive. Also, why are we comparing this to anime- like I don't even watch that much anime the hell? 😂 Assume away, I guess.
@@nyleakhaireenreen4075 next up why did guys try to make excuses for someone sexulizing billie when she was a minor just because she was wearing a tank top
Faxxx. I signed up a family for gym memberships and legit didn't know which one was the mom and which ones were the daughters til she pulled out the credit card.
@@wakakabravo7998 Idols are mostly 16-22 (in other words, high school and college age). It then spread out once more to about 11-30. Then there are the fringes that are younger and older than that. Offhand, I could name 20 idols over age 25. With some research I could probably find 100+ without much effort.
@Just As I Thought. Trash. "Documentaries" are narratives with predetermined conclusions. And what you said is false. Here are the age of the 20 most popular 48 group members at the time of the last AKB sousenkyo in June 2018: Matsui Jurina 21 Suda Akari 26 Miyawaki Sakura 20 Ogino Yuka 19 Okada Nana 20 Yokoyama Yui 25 Muto Tomu 23 Oba Mina 26 Yabuki Nako 16 (2 days short of 17) Tanaka Miku 16 Souda Sarina 25 Takahashi Juri 20 Mukaichi Mion 20 Yoshida Akari 21 Furuhata Nao 21 Homma Hinata 18 Matsumura Kaori 28 Takayanagi Akane 26 Kojima Mako 21 Shiroma Miru 20 EVERYONE on this list moved at least $300,000 in sales just for that one single with Suda Akari up there in 2nd place at 26 years responsible for over $1,000,000 in sales. Lost her appeal? 2010 - Not Ranked (age 18) 2011 #36 (age 19) 2012 - #29 (age 20) 2013- #16 (age 21) 2014 - #10 (age 22) 2015 - #18 (age 23) 2016 - #7 (age 24) 2017 - #6 (age 25) 2018 - #2 (age 26) Looks like she was just going up and up and up! And look at that list of 20 of the highest sellers- how many are under 19? THREE. SEVENTEEN of the highest 20 sellers were 19 years or older. Yeah, if you make a documentary trying to make idols look bad and literally go ask a p********* he's going to tell you he loses appeal or whatever. But that doesn't actually line up with reality of the fandoms as most of the fandoms are not actually p********s and happily follow their idols as long as they stay in the business.
Although it is true that asians look a bit younger than they actually are, she doesn't look any older than 16 tbh. And I'm used to being around young looking asians
Kinda seems innocent to me? lol As long as no one is getting hurt or taken advantage of it seems fine? The girls also looked pretty comfortable in front of them all, even at the meet and greet thing. They probably are too the point of knowing each other as it does seem like a pretty small gathering.
You're probably a child because your thinking is very surface level. Its not normal for grown men to drool over little girls. Its a global norm in child protection and safety. You are not considering it from the best interests of the child as well which is the first thing that must be considered. Is there psychological harm caused to young girls being drooled over by grown men? Yes - its called grooming.
@@jn8922 Well, but they don’t really have that much contact with their fans beyond the meet & greets and handshake events. For the most part the agencies keep the girls safe. Particularly in Japan people praise and support the young talent since for them their childhood and teenage years is the only time they’re free from society rules, hence junior baseball leagues are extremely supported. I guess it can be creepy but I still don’t see anything wrong with it.
I think the guy is creeped out they’re listening to shitty music. If I were in that crowd, I’d be going “Play some Dimmu Borgir!” I think Norway has the better idol groups, just look at Mayhem, look at Emperor, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Dimmu Borgir, Carpathian Forest, 1349, all these guys kick ass.
I got invited to a gig in Japan by a girl who says she was a guitarist in a band, she said like 5 bands were gonna play that night, I thought it was gonna be a gig like here in the UK but when I got there it was all dudes from like 35-50 years old. And most of the bands were all female (a couple had male instrument players but never the singers). Nobody was drinking either, it was so different to a gig here in the UK. I feel like most people were there to just worship the girls rather than actually appreciate the music for its own sake. Which is sad because some of the bands were pretty good. The live music scene in Japan is really weird, it’s hard to find regular bands playing to regular crowds. Honestly i love Japan but it’s one of the only things I don’t like about the place.
Go to a underground male fronted band and it's often almost all girls in the audience. That's just how it is in Japan, particularly at the underground level. There are some exceptions, and it gets less that way as you approach the mainstream. As for drinks- you understand that a lot of these fans are going to 150-250 lives per year, right? It's 600 yen (3.5 GBP) every time for the forced drinking charge. Maybe 800 quid a year just for obligatory drink charges on top of entry. So no, they aren't buying many extra drinks at the venue because it's not a special night for them- it's basically something they do every night and they already have to pay for a drink to get in. Sometimes 2-3 per day on the weekend. If you want you can go drinking with other fans before or after the show.
In Japan, guys support girl groups, girls support boy groups. It's not absolute but it's pretty strong. To the point that it can keep away potential fans since they're so badly outnumbered. Not just the girl groups. The boy groups too. Even some bands. Why are they old? Because the groups at this level perform 200-300 times a year, at 15-40 USD a pop. We're talking ~8000 USD a year to go to all shows. The 30+ something unmarried salaryman has the time and spare money to go to pretty much all of them. The college age fans pinch yennies to be able to get to 5-10 a month. If you have a bigger event then their full fandom will come out and you can see what it actually looks like. Still mostly male, but a little more female, and a little bit younger. But on a random Tuesday at 6pm... it's gonna lean towards salarymen going to a show before heading home.
That’s so strange. Where I’m from, it would be seen as “girly” and “strange” for men to like female artists- Men here usually like male rappers, and occasionally a select few male singers. It’s mostly women who like female singers like Taylor swift, female rappers like Nicki, and male singers who cater to mostly women
@@hannie2122 Men near you only like male rappers because that's who they think they're supposed to like. Not all of them of course... but a lot of them. If people could actually just like what they like (and actually go learn what they actually like) they'd say rap... or jazz or metal or r&b or bubblegum pop or country or punk or alternative or trance or chiptune or whatever. If anything is actually in the majority, that's just social pressure... they don't want to be considered "girly" or "strange" so they just squelch their true feelings. I felt plenty of the pressure myself. I liked stuff like BSB and Britney and Spice Girls but I told no one. Better that people think I don't like music at all. I was really glad when punk pop got popular because then I realized it existed and I liked it and it was an acceptable answer. Maybe some people thought Green Day or Linkin Park were sellouts, but it was still acceptable. Definitely couldn't say BSB. There's pressure in Japan too. The guys who like idols are still "those guys" and somewhat discriminated against. But yeah, it's kinda just part of the mainstream more over there. But just like the US where I'm from, people are more inclined to go to more shows where they think they'll fit in. So the fandom at the shows ends up as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Yeah i was thinking that too. And the reason why the stage is under towns, basically they just don't want to be found out by people outside who they know. Its a place where they can be themselves.
I am aware of most of them are lonely men and despite some would just come and watch for the jerk or whatever fetish they may find, im pretty sure most of them treat as the daughter they could never have. A big part of the idol culture is actually seeing them grow from 12 till 20 when they graduate and dont perform anymore
No they don't seem them as "daughters". There is a reason these girls are usually banned from dating and made to wear sexy clothing and do lewd photoshoots such as in bikinis or in onsens despite their age.
You’re “not going to judge them”, but you are judging them. You think of yourself as above them based on your tone and how you present things. Humble up and have some empathy. Deflate your ego. Your sunglasses make you look really lame. And the girl you met was only being polite and playing her choreographed role/personality. you fell for getting your ego stroked.
You're really misinformed about idols. I can see why people may find the audiences odd, but idols are popular among people of different ages and men and women alike attend their shows. You're being narrow minded. There are a lot of seedier things out there in Japan, idols aren't even seedy in comparison.
I dont think its "idols" perse hes worried about but the teen and child ones and the intentions behind all the grown men going to see them and being obsessed
@@diannabrookes9258 Underground idols make crap money. It's often just a part-time job for them. Some stay for many years, but many just do it for a few years around high school or college age and then move on to something with hopefully better long term prospects. The fans stay around though. I've been a fan of idols for ~14 years. All of those first idols have moved on. This is easy to understand because there's something very mainstream that's quite similar to how these idol groups work. Sports. NOT ONE PLAYER from when I first started watching the NBA is still playing in the NBA today. It's had 100% turnover since I became a fan. 100%. The age range is a little higher, but it's getting to the point that basically everyone in the NBA will be younger than me from here on out- and why should I care? Just as I'm a fan to some degree of various current players, retired players, and teams... I'm a fan of some current idols, retired idols, and idol groups.
@@wakakabravo7998 Britney was doing the school girl uniform video when she was much older than a teenager. When she was a teenager she was on the Mickey Mouse Club, remember? These girls have a long way to go to get to that level.
@@LifeProducersofNewJerseyLLC Britney was 16 when she recorded Baby One More Time. Yuki, the girl he took the picture with in the video here was 18 at the time this was filmed.
I think YOU'RE the one who needs to calm down. Guy's just expressing his opinion. Holy shit, are opinions not allowed now? What is this? Orwell's Oceania?
He is basically calling them all perverts........and then what does he do? Go to the club with them and PAYS the girl for a picture and tells her he loves her. Yeah OK bro.
Well, if you want to do a report like this, make sure employ someone who can understand and speak their language. Asking an English speaking reporter who had no knowledge of Japanese language just does not make much sense.
its very easy to just label them all as "creeps". That gives no credit to the performers talent and entertainment value. They are making people happy and that must be a good thing. Is it any different from us being entertained by a Shirley Temple movie, Jackson 5 or Partridge Family. Also I heard many of these men are childless and it is like having your own daughter to go support her performance..
I mean those idols aren't even that young Japanese tend to have genes that makes them look younger other than that it's plastic surgeries and/or make up also clothes style n they aren't that tall so that makes them look younger as well
@No Name totally agree not because I like Japan (I honestly like their culture not only anime) but it's just that it's really awesome even my friends who aren't big fans of Japan agree to this ❤️❤️
No it's the clothing they put on these girls that make them look even more juvenile. Before we start the argument of "so what people can wear what they want" that's what makes people feel uncomfortable and saying they look young and even have small cute mannerisms that is usually attached to children behavior
At the underground level in particular, idols are heavily influenced by magical girl (Sailor Moon) and super sentai (Power Rangers) culture. It's superhero culture. Normal guy by day, hero by night. The fancy costumes show that they are "on". You know at this level, many groups hold off-kais (hang outs), with generally regular clothes. Obviously they still have to be somewhat guarded so they aren't truly 100% off, but if you hang out with them for a few hours having a BBQ or whatever it's pretty clear that they are regular people and the show is a show.
Honestly, I became a fan of idols since I went to Korea, but recently got into Akb48. However, although I think they're cute and charming, I'm just a fan but not a sicko perv weirdo. Most of the time, I just want to see them happy and perform because that was their dream, despite who their fans are.
It's fun. Just have to make do with online stuff recently though... I suggest the stuff about 1-2 levels up from this... and 1-2 or so levels down from AKB on the popularity side. That's kind of where the highest average skill level is, and some of them are still at the point where the meet and greets give you halfway decent time as well if you ever get a chance to go. It's a nice balance. Stuff like Kamiyado, Wasuta, Nijicon on the higher mid popularity end, and maybe NeoJaponism, DESURABBITS, and Kannagi Rabbits on the lower mid popularity. To name some of many.
Hey this is how japanese release all tension from hard working day by day. This is good society. Even the teenager working hard for own purpose. I bet you will feel alive in Japan. Please think positive. Don't judge me.
If you would "investigate" more, you would see how much more there is, than just watching girls on a stage. These guys (wotakus) are learning the performances to every song of the Idol-Bands they like. This takes a lot of time and effort. This is to connect to the band and other people in the club. This way they show respect and support and live the music. This is nothing like a beyonce concert at all... To get a little bit more into this scene, I can recommend the tv drama "Dakara Watashi wa Oshimashita" from 2019. Btw. there are also girls attending to these events, depending on the band.
@@Ooo-wv2ct Sorry, what don't you understand? Some idols are teens. Some aren't. Age is generally 16+. My point is... why does this matter? I talked about gymnastics cuz it's this year, but how about figure skating? It's probably a closer representation. They wear frilly stuff and even if visual isn't as important anymore in scoring, everyone knows that it's part of the appeal. The gold medal winner was 16. So, was everyone watching a pedophile or whatever? Heck, even if they aren't in it for the competition side but just want to see graceful spinning jumps set to music, that doesn't have to make it sexual.
I’m very into idol culture but i didn’t really take offense to this. It was very light-hearted. I just want you to know that Idol culture works a lot on respect for the idol. People often have an “Oshi (their favorite girl)” and support her by going to shows, cheki events (which is what you did in the video with the Polaroid), buying the groups singles/albums and talking to them on social media. A lot of us living out of Japan learn Japanese just to talk to the girls. It’s just fun.
Middle aged men fangirl of actresses and singers in the west all the time. I don’t see the problem. In fact I’m jealous of Japan’s awesome culture. Stuff like anime has only recently become acceptable to say you enjoy it out loud without being called weird. One day stuff like this will become popular in western culture as well
@skittles. uh is it not true? Ariana Grande, Cardi B, whatever other hot singer. People go to their concerts and get hyped. And a lot of them are hot, sooo..
Would it be more acceptable if the fans are younger than the idol members themselve by a generation or two?? For me, I started getting to the whole J-Idol ordeal at age 18 recently before turning 19 this month. A lot of popular Japanese Idol/Pop Stars are in their mid 20s-early 30s and I don't personally see an issue with me being a stans army fan of them, but knowing not to crazily obess over them like the older men would. Respect and definite understanding of them being human beings is a priority, even though there may be some J-Idol/Pop groups deliberately turn it into "something else", if you know what I mean. In the end, I think of a lot of famous J-Pop/Idol Groups/Artists as an older brother/sister type of age gap concept, since Gen Zers could have relatives-such as siblings, cousins, maybe aunts/uncles-who are Gen Y. Someone to look up to, knowing that they experienced the rise, falls, hardships, and successes in their career.
Furthermore in relation, K-Pop Stars/Idols are similar to J-Pop a bit, but don't have older men or women dominating the fan base. It is mostly my generation and some Gen Y that start Stans Armies for K-Pop Stars/Idols. I believe that are types of fans that go over the top and those like me where I don't purchase/investing money or time in them extremely. Maybe some research and stuff, but nothing over the top outrageous.
It's best not to be too concerned about age. You think most of them got into it at 40? You think most of them at 40+ started being an idol fan from the underground? Morning Musume has been around since 1997. You remember 1997? Well, some Morning Musume fans do. They were fans at 24 or whatever, and now they're 47, and still a fan. Mind you that while H!P auditions young now, when they were getting started that wasn't so true. Yuko Nakazawa joined at age 24. She is 47 now. All the original members have long since moved on. But when you're a fan of a group you're encouraged to latch on to newer members so that when the older ones graduate out, you still have someone to cheer for. Of course, sometimes people move on. Morning Musume isn't the same group it used to be- in addition to the constant shifting towards the future, they pretty much had a complete overhaul around 2011. This was aligned with the rise of AKB48 groups. H!P had been treading water through the mid-late 2000s as female idols had been out of style. When AKB brought them back stronger than ever, Morning Musume was reset for a long term change. Now AKB has been around since 2005. Do you remember 2005? You were actually around, but probably can't remember much. Some people have been fans since 2005. They're still fans. Maybe 25-30 then, 40-45 now. What about new fans? Couldn't they earn new fans over the years? Yeah, sort of, but Nogizaka became the cool group for younger people to follow as their first group. Then Keyakizaka. They pick up new fans, but the fandom shifts older, while the girls generally stay about the same average age since they graduate out and new members join.
And this is the underground. This is where people who had been fans of a mainstream group, fall off into. They got into Morning Musume or AKB or Nogizaka or Momoiro Clover, and eventually realized that there were a bunch of other groups available to follow. And some of them liked these more indie groups more. More time to get to know the members and for them to know you back. Closer knit among fans. But there are literally 1000+ groups. There are many events competing every single night. Younger underground idol fans go to different groups than this. Also, mind you this was a weekday, so it favors salarymen who are already in the city and going to a show on the way home. Younger people go to fewer, bigger, shows (or the teiki weekly regular show for a group they really like). It's super expensive to go to every single show, so the random weekday ones have more people with more money. Lastly, among Japan idol circles is the term pink ticket. This means youth discount fan. It also means shitty fan, despite age. While people looking in may see the old people as creepy, among the scene itself, the younger fans are the ones of bad reputation. Being 60 may make you look creepy, but you don't make it to age 60 without getting banned by everyone if you're actually a creeper. The ones who get banned, get arrested for stalking or death threats, etc, are almost invariably 19-33 or so, with the focus around ~26. Older people are just enjoying the scene. It's the younger ones who haven't quite figured it out yet.
@@redfish337 Thank you so much for this because you made significant points. For me, ever since the age of 8-9 probably(More than a decade), I really love that type of music along side others with similarities &/ connections to each other (i.e.- Eurodance, J-Pop, Bubblegum Dance, MMD, Vociods). As of now, I started to look into the genres/subcategories more in-depth. Being a new fan a Momoiro Clover (Z/ZZ) and other Japanese Artists, I primarily view the musical aspect(Sidenote- I have perfect pitch to know which notes they are playing and potentially rhythms to complement that ability), due to being a student musician aspiring to become pro after university. In the end, it is the behavior of the types of fans with age, individually viewing the paths they go. Personally, evaluating myself, I am not a crazed obsessed fan of any J-Pop Idols/Stars or Musicians with the major extreme factors at all due to understanding the hardships of being a performer/musician in the industry based on research and educational stories such as what you told me. It is mostly liking videos on YT and searching about who they are with finding hidden gems here and there.
@@peterlhawks And with any luck you'll still be a fan of some parts of the scene in 20+ years too. That's just how it goes. I'm not quite to the creepy stage yet, but I started around age 20 when a sizable proportion of them were older than me and I've just now finally reached the point where approximately 100% are younger, if only by a year or so. And I don't intend on quitting anytime soon- a lot of the recent idol music has been even more to my liking as they've continued to develop. Inherent to worrying about age is that it buys into the belief that people can't actually like this sort of music without some sort of sexual angle. You'll instead find that as vocaloid has decreased in popularity, a lot of creators have used idol groups as a medium, resulting in quite a lot of fun and experimentation in the music. Especially as you move away from the mainstream. (Momoclo essentially being an indie group that went super mainstream, and yet maintained some indie influence all the while). This sort of show would run a little indie even for me. I've long liked the idol group "Tears" though, which appears here.. I'm not sure of your tastes, but would recommend Neo Japonism, Wa-suta, LinQ, Kamiyado, the codomomental groups, Team Shachi (momoclo sister group), FesTive and the Dear Stage groups. I recommend Blue Forest groups too but a lot of their best stuff has been purged off the Internet.
Not gonna lie, I think shoving a camera in front of their faces defeats their sense of escapism and it makes sense that no one really wanted to talk... I also think the k-pop franchise is creepier than this
I think he was secretly filming with his creeper glasses. So he was the actual creeper in the room. Few groups allow filming of performances- and it's even rarer at live houses. And even if you can film performances, filming a fan meeting will get you banned from basically any group. Unless he was invited as actual media. In which case I would think the fan meeting would be on the house and he would have been able to make an actual interview.
This narrator sounds surprised and says “ okay nobody speaks english” hahaha, no fuckin shit. You’re in a different country. Lmao 😂 that shit had my dyin
We have these guys here too, Japan just provides to them. They almost all play games, watch anime, love j/k-pop and all want to travel to japan and joke about the age of consent in Japan. They are scared of women their own age. Not saying people who like these things are all like that, but a lot are. I'm 35, so I'm around men this age, I know for a fact that a lot of men like young girls, It's like they never really developed liking their childhood crushes to actual women. It's like being white and hearing what white people say about people of color behind closed doors, it's a lot more than people like to admit.
I saw this in a movie, and I too went on a mission in Akihabara to see this live. It was an experience! 2000 Yen for a show and two free drinks from the bar!
Quite sure that this is NOT the creepiest club in Japan.
bukkakke
Yep, you know, there are brothels in Japan too.
That club was wholesome af. This guy is extremely closed minded. Some people like something that you don't like. Big Whoop. It's not like the idols were being exploited or wearing revealing outfits, or anything. Does he think that you just stop liking everything except for smooth jazz once you hit 30 years old?
@@Jeremy_Fisher you have to have very good proof that youre not a creep to be allowed to "idolise" underage women as a 30+ man in my book. The girls did have some revealing outfits and i dont believe these people are there just cause they like that music.
@@Jeremy_Fisher You are naive.
The idol scene is MOSTLY safe. It's just a form of escapism for these dudes. But there's always stalkers and shit who take it too far. If you want to sea the darker side I would recommend Perfect Blue.
@Chris Ayala animated japanese film about an idol and how she got stalked and assaulted ect. decent film, kinda messed up. it's on youtube.
I fully forgot the name of this movie holy shit thanks.
@Chris Ayala It's a great animated movie, probably one of the better old anime movies because of the creator being one of the most famous animator in the industry known for his creativity/imagination and also strive to get fluid animation, Satoshi (though sadly, he passed away). Many Hollywood film pull some of their inspiration from his works, one company even bought licensing rights to Perfect Blue to utilize one scene.
As for the idol industry, it has its dark corners and just like KPop Idol industry, they're pretty much on the same level for the most part. Sometimes consists of pillow business, underground dealings since depending on the production company, some idols have to make due. The idol industry in general is a cash cow in the eyes of some company since idols comes and goes, where only a minute amount of them actually make it big. Majority of idols sometimes go *underground* to do performances, or forced to do shady deals just to try to make it big.
I personally dislike the idol industry so it may seem as though I'm coming from a bias standpoint but academic studies has shown it has quite an impact on the psychological presence for the male audience. I could go on about the presence of idol having a negative impact. But idol industry also does have a positive impact (financially or inspirationally) as it's also something that can attract tourism.
They’re just closet pedophiles just like weeb weirdos
@@Zzzinnn At least they are not assaulting, deceiving, kidnapping or taking advantage of these "lolis". These is the effect of their popculture (otaku).. In fact, most men there are still virgins (if having sex dolls and vr sex is ecluded).
"Look at that chick in the middle. She's got to be like 12 years old."
Dude, they're asian. Usually looks younger than the actual age.
Ya I've seen 40 y o Asians that look 17
Just closet pedophiles
Yeah she might look 12 but she is actually 13 so it's all good
Jessica Naomi
She's an idol, there are tons of underage ones
Michael Riddle WOO that was close
“plenty of people in the us have trouble holding relationships”
*shows barstool staff lol
This went over my head hahaha
Lol
Hahahahaha that’s awesome 👏🏻
LOL
Lol with everything happening with Hank and Marty it’s still relevant
"its not my culture to judge" he says after judging the culture anyways
It's America's culture to judge and force it's own culture on other countries.
The idol that loved the US was adorable.
Thats what they want you think
What was the girls name idk how to spell it
@@niggabatsilva2779 Think it was Yuki
Ew fucking cringe
The irony of calling her adorable in the context of this video..
Dude, they are attending a performance and having a sing and dance. It's not like they are going to some sex dungeon. To be honest that place looked really fun!
Uh huh... oooookkkaaaayyyyy. Awkwarddd
Am i the only one who respects this man's opinion?! I mean let them do what they wanna do!
@@BulkBogan not all -_-
@@BulkBogan Yo do you even know what pedophile even means?
It is a *DANCE* dungeon.
everyone calling them creepy, when they're actually just having fun and being young again by escaping reality
Yea that doesnt look like that homie
I just found the set up in this video to be creepy. They had a small concert in a small dark room and with all the guys waiting around quietly it seemed to be reminiscent to a strip club.
stan ab6ix be quite u Koop fuck
@@riripari2042 No, its for the fans. Most of them are too shy to get caught by public and people they know. So that's why it's quite far from the public, but the idol manager usually watches from backstage.
For them its place to escape from overwork, pain, and the reality...
@@riripari2042 It's just a live house. This one's in Akihabara so it mostly if not completely does idol lives and associated stuff. Most live houses are in the shit areas of Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro and do punk rock one night and idols the next and dubstep and house the night after that. To get to a typical live house the idols have to go to the red light districts with bars and sex businesses and love hotels because those are the nightlife districts where most of the live houses have sprung up. Some are full live houses, but many are clubs and after the show finishes and people leave they'll open the doors to drink and grind debauchery. It's what you'd expect for an indie band. But the indie idols usually have to play the same venues.
So this one in Akihabara is pretty nice.
I’m Japanese and I’m one of those idol. I’m happy that this guy introduced us. Thank you💗💗But I’m disappointed about how Japanese Otaku (witches *fans*) couldn’t understand English. I know that English is not easy to lean for Japanese but other Asian could speak English more than Japanese‼️ 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I wish I could be more famous and I wanna expand Japanese Idol culture🥺💞 I also wanna tell Otaku to study English and tell them it’s fun to communicate with foreign people 🌍 ❤️
He should have learned some japanese instead. It seems a bit silly to expect everyone to speak english when traveling. It's frustrating to see other americans be judgemental or refuse to learn the languages of places they visit. At least learning a few simple phrases would be nice. Japanese is a difficult language but if he wanted to do investigative video he should have gotten an interpreter 😓 the girls seemed really happy and sweet though
@@LoreEclectic he speaks fluent chinese. That was only his first day in Japan
It is hard to learn to speak Japanese, too. I am not offended the least bit when they cannot speak English and delighted when they do. The young ladies are talented and it is nice to see people happy. Bringing joy and positivity to not only Japan but to others interested from around the World is a wonderful thing. As an American, seeing this is odd, but I get it. I would support it. Have fun in your quest!
Has anyone ever stalked you?
I wish you luck in your career, but please...no for idol culture. Creepy.
“No one here speaks English”
Damn really makes you think 🤔
😂😂😂😂
Damn right English was made by the egypt. And english is a word suppose to be word that lets all country to communicat now its for USA
“They feel unfit for a wife so they obsess over idols” ok so they are replacing the ideas of wives with teenage girls is what I’m hearing that’s odd
Pedos, bruh.
@Bundy Baby1974 ofc they are. Boners for children is being a pedo. Now tuck your babybird in and get help.
It's a much more patriarchal working environment. Most women are looking to have 1-2 kids and be a homemaker rather than fight it out in the workplace where there's considered to be a bit of a glass ceiling. So most households are single income. Nevertheless, the women claim the purse strings.
This results in a bit of a catch-22.
In order to afford a wife and kids in the city, you probably need to be a salaryman.
If you are a salaryman, you will have so much overtime that you will never see your wife and kids.
So the result is working 60+ hour weeks for people you never see, who may hate you for never being around, and who won't even let you spend your hard earned money on what you want.
Naturally, quite a lot of people can't afford the extra 30-50K a year to afford a family, and others opt out. Again, it'd be one thing if you could work hard and come home and see your family, enjoy dinner together, have weekends together. But in lots of cases they can't, and that means guys feel like it's a big investment with little payout.
It's not just the guys. It's the whole societal/corporate system.
Its still 50 times better than the cheesiness of a strip club.
@@KhayJayArt you are one of them
Creepy guys but they had a mosh pit going 🤘
LOL!
They break the mosh pit.
Yeah! I liked that too
Hahahahahaha
I LAUGHED MYSELF OFF WHEN HE SAID NO ONE COULDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH LIKE NO SHIT DUDE? YOURE IN JAPAN
Yep, why didn't he try to speak Japanese ? :p
Thank you. If I didn't find someone else who had made this comment I was going to.
Been to conventions and talked to con goers in USA that are Japanese and Chinese and they speak English and some English
The guy documented it probably enjoying him self too.
of course, he did, who wouldn't?
of course he did! who wouldn't?
FlufftonTail if you think Donnie is even remotely the same as the weirdos in this video you’re an idiot
@@lamakicker69 Yeah, he's the only one doing something illegal in the video.
redfish337 not sure what he’s doing that is illegal but my point still stands. Donnie isn’t there because he’s a creepy dude obsessed with teenagers, he’s there to poke fun at the creepy dudes. Pretty big difference.
Idols need more female fans. I'm sure not all of these guys are creeps, but as a girl who loves idols I also get side eyes. Come on guys! It's just music. I should be able to normally enjoy something cute without being seen as creepy! I'm sure they wish more girls were interested in their awesome cute music and shows! And they have to go through so much BS, I'm sure they would love to connect with girl fans.
I used to like idols girls as a teen. Especially when I was 17-19 range. Then I music taste matured and I cared more about the lyrics and the story. I still listen to the boys because at least there are some that are 18+ so it is not as bad. Plus I like listening to male voices over female voices.
@@NoName-ip4si okay. Cool story.
@@not2quid lol
The men are more likely to give them money.
Some idols do have huge female fanbases (some even have more female fans than they do male fans), such as the legendary soloist singers Namie Amuro and Ayumi Hamasaki. However, a lot of the idols who have female fanbases tend to be more serious as singers in terms of their skills, charisma and overall style. A lot of idols aimed at men are not actually very good at singing but get away with it because they're less about being taken seriously as singers (or even aiming to last a long time in the scene) and more about being admired for their youth, cuteness, cheerfulness and idol-like nature.
If the girls were replaced by idol boys then I see myself in Japan among middle aged women after 15years
They do have that as well. Idol culture is not just restricted to female idols. You can even look at host/hostess bars or even the geisha scene for examples of teenagers/young adults servicing older patrons (non sexually).
Outside of their "appreciation" for youth, it's also got a bit to do with a kind of ranking system. Older servicers are generally more expensive as they are more experienced and have a greater dedication to the job so they are usually reserved out while younger ones take the open floor.
People would think it’s adorable a grandma aged woman is supporting them
For how many times he said he didn't want to be judgemental he was being pretty judgemental..
It's hard to do a video on grown ass men fawning over kids and NOT be judgemental.
@@KhayJayArt Girl he was talking to was 18. There's a 29 year old idol there. How $@^@$ing old they gotta be?
@@redfish337 that is still creepy 2
And this is why the left can’t meme. They don’t understand satire or sarcasm
@@KhayJayArt Fawning? They were literally doing the dance moves😂
This man just lived through every basic japanese salaryman's love fantasy by just one video. Just by getting a "I love you" from an idol. LOL
I've taken plenty of pictures with chicks
What happened to the women they married? Or did they even get married? 😬
@@Tsubahi probably not LOL
They are on the same level with those simps donating for a twitch streamer.
@@Arz2003 Same expect they were usually tied up in my trunk
Next up: Why do teenage girls obsess over Korean middle-aged men?
Edit: I am slowly regretting this now, so let me rephrase this. This is an OPINIONATED question . Ohh I know, scary right? Don't get so defensive. Also, why are we comparing this to anime- like I don't even watch that much anime the hell? 😂 Assume away, I guess.
I do not regret my decisions.
Next one why do people who like anime try to talk shit
@@jellyjellywowie
Next up , why do kpop girls stalk middle aged korean men .
@@nyleakhaireenreen4075 next up why did guys try to make excuses for someone sexulizing billie when she was a minor just because she was wearing a tank top
@@jellyjellywowie what does that have to do with this lol
Donnie is hands down the best content Barstool has. Keep up the good work brotha
Those girls doesn't look underaged at all we Asians just look younger.
Faxxx. I signed up a family for gym memberships and legit didn't know which one was the mom and which ones were the daughters til she pulled out the credit card.
Idol mostly from under age girl. Woman age 25 and higher is considered to old to be Idol.
@@wakakabravo7998 Idols are mostly 16-22 (in other words, high school and college age). It then spread out once more to about 11-30.
Then there are the fringes that are younger and older than that.
Offhand, I could name 20 idols over age 25. With some research I could probably find 100+ without much effort.
@Just As I Thought. Trash. "Documentaries" are narratives with predetermined conclusions. And what you said is false.
Here are the age of the 20 most popular 48 group members at the time of the last AKB sousenkyo in June 2018:
Matsui Jurina 21
Suda Akari 26
Miyawaki Sakura 20
Ogino Yuka 19
Okada Nana 20
Yokoyama Yui 25
Muto Tomu 23
Oba Mina 26
Yabuki Nako 16 (2 days short of 17)
Tanaka Miku 16
Souda Sarina 25
Takahashi Juri 20
Mukaichi Mion 20
Yoshida Akari 21
Furuhata Nao 21
Homma Hinata 18
Matsumura Kaori 28
Takayanagi Akane 26
Kojima Mako 21
Shiroma Miru 20
EVERYONE on this list moved at least $300,000 in sales just for that one single with Suda Akari up there in 2nd place at 26 years responsible for over $1,000,000 in sales.
Lost her appeal?
2010 - Not Ranked (age 18)
2011 #36 (age 19)
2012 - #29 (age 20)
2013- #16 (age 21)
2014 - #10 (age 22)
2015 - #18 (age 23)
2016 - #7 (age 24)
2017 - #6 (age 25)
2018 - #2 (age 26)
Looks like she was just going up and up and up!
And look at that list of 20 of the highest sellers- how many are under 19? THREE.
SEVENTEEN of the highest 20 sellers were 19 years or older.
Yeah, if you make a documentary trying to make idols look bad and literally go ask a p********* he's going to tell you he loses appeal or whatever. But that doesn't actually line up with reality of the fandoms as most of the fandoms are not actually p********s and happily follow their idols as long as they stay in the business.
Although it is true that asians look a bit younger than they actually are, she doesn't look any older than 16 tbh. And I'm used to being around young looking asians
Kinda seems innocent to me? lol As long as no one is getting hurt or taken advantage of it seems fine? The girls also looked pretty comfortable in front of them all, even at the meet and greet thing. They probably are too the point of knowing each other as it does seem like a pretty small gathering.
It's not creepy at all. People are just ignorant
You're probably a child because your thinking is very surface level. Its not normal for grown men to drool over little girls. Its a global norm in child protection and safety. You are not considering it from the best interests of the child as well which is the first thing that must be considered. Is there psychological harm caused to young girls being drooled over by grown men? Yes - its called grooming.
@@jn8922 bro they dont even know how much creepy shit goes on in japan lmao
@@jn8922 Well, but they don’t really have that much contact with their fans beyond the meet & greets and handshake events. For the most part the agencies keep the girls safe.
Particularly in Japan people praise and support the young talent since for them their childhood and teenage years is the only time they’re free from society rules, hence junior baseball leagues are extremely supported. I guess it can be creepy but I still don’t see anything wrong with it.
I think the guy is creeped out they’re listening to shitty music. If I were in that crowd, I’d be going “Play some Dimmu Borgir!”
I think Norway has the better idol groups, just look at Mayhem, look at Emperor, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Dimmu Borgir, Carpathian Forest, 1349, all these guys kick ass.
2:35 i couldn't help laughing at this bit 😂
it went pretty hard though
The average 1980s home movie is 2019s journalism
the journalism died since 2016
I got invited to a gig in Japan by a girl who says she was a guitarist in a band, she said like 5 bands were gonna play that night, I thought it was gonna be a gig like here in the UK but when I got there it was all dudes from like 35-50 years old. And most of the bands were all female (a couple had male instrument players but never the singers).
Nobody was drinking either, it was so different to a gig here in the UK. I feel like most people were there to just worship the girls rather than actually appreciate the music for its own sake. Which is sad because some of the bands were pretty good.
The live music scene in Japan is really weird, it’s hard to find regular bands playing to regular crowds. Honestly i love Japan but it’s one of the only things I don’t like about the place.
Go to a underground male fronted band and it's often almost all girls in the audience.
That's just how it is in Japan, particularly at the underground level.
There are some exceptions, and it gets less that way as you approach the mainstream.
As for drinks- you understand that a lot of these fans are going to 150-250 lives per year, right? It's 600 yen (3.5 GBP) every time for the forced drinking charge. Maybe 800 quid a year just for obligatory drink charges on top of entry. So no, they aren't buying many extra drinks at the venue because it's not a special night for them- it's basically something they do every night and they already have to pay for a drink to get in. Sometimes 2-3 per day on the weekend.
If you want you can go drinking with other fans before or after the show.
In Japan, guys support girl groups, girls support boy groups. It's not absolute but it's pretty strong. To the point that it can keep away potential fans since they're so badly outnumbered. Not just the girl groups. The boy groups too. Even some bands.
Why are they old?
Because the groups at this level perform 200-300 times a year, at 15-40 USD a pop. We're talking ~8000 USD a year to go to all shows.
The 30+ something unmarried salaryman has the time and spare money to go to pretty much all of them. The college age fans pinch yennies to be able to get to 5-10 a month.
If you have a bigger event then their full fandom will come out and you can see what it actually looks like. Still mostly male, but a little more female, and a little bit younger. But on a random Tuesday at 6pm... it's gonna lean towards salarymen going to a show before heading home.
That’s so strange.
Where I’m from, it would be seen as “girly” and “strange” for men to like female artists-
Men here usually like male rappers, and occasionally a select few male singers.
It’s mostly women who like female singers like Taylor swift, female rappers like Nicki, and male singers who cater to mostly women
@@hannie2122 Men near you only like male rappers because that's who they think they're supposed to like. Not all of them of course... but a lot of them. If people could actually just like what they like (and actually go learn what they actually like) they'd say rap... or jazz or metal or r&b or bubblegum pop or country or punk or alternative or trance or chiptune or whatever. If anything is actually in the majority, that's just social pressure... they don't want to be considered "girly" or "strange" so they just squelch their true feelings.
I felt plenty of the pressure myself. I liked stuff like BSB and Britney and Spice Girls but I told no one. Better that people think I don't like music at all. I was really glad when punk pop got popular because then I realized it existed and I liked it and it was an acceptable answer. Maybe some people thought Green Day or Linkin Park were sellouts, but it was still acceptable. Definitely couldn't say BSB.
There's pressure in Japan too. The guys who like idols are still "those guys" and somewhat discriminated against. But yeah, it's kinda just part of the mainstream more over there. But just like the US where I'm from, people are more inclined to go to more shows where they think they'll fit in. So the fandom at the shows ends up as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"I decided to cut some journalistic corners and....." - sums up this channel but I love it.
Trrevor Lewis hahahHha
What's weirder, a dude enjoying pop music and having fun, or a dude judging people having fun while participating in the same thing
Exactly
Yeah i was thinking that too. And the reason why the stage is under towns, basically they just don't want to be found out by people outside who they know. Its a place where they can be themselves.
The manager of the idol group is on the backstage just to make sure the idols safety tho
I find the lack of diversity in these groups disturbing. Where are all the young male Japanese pop stars?? Did they get drafted?
@@jaybrava2741 they have them but when middle age women ogle at young boys it's not creepy enough to be news worthy.
I am aware of most of them are lonely men and despite some would just come and watch for the jerk or whatever fetish they may find, im pretty sure most of them treat as the daughter they could never have. A big part of the idol culture is actually seeing them grow from 12 till 20 when they graduate and dont perform anymore
Nah they’re pedos stop trying to justify their actions
12?? 😭😭😭😭😭😭the fans r 30 wtf
@@shadowsenpaitheender5069 that's how shit be in the music industry in Japan honestly it's fucked up
So u need to be a certain age to support a certain idol group lmao. Ig older ladies aren’t allowed to support younger groups but y’all think it’s cute
No they don't seem them as "daughters". There is a reason these girls are usually banned from dating and made to wear sexy clothing and do lewd photoshoots such as in bikinis or in onsens despite their age.
You’re “not going to judge them”, but you are judging them. You think of yourself as above them based on your tone and how you present things. Humble up and have some empathy. Deflate your ego. Your sunglasses make you look really lame. And the girl you met was only being polite and playing her choreographed role/personality. you fell for getting your ego stroked.
You're really misinformed about idols. I can see why people may find the audiences odd, but idols are popular among people of different ages and men and women alike attend their shows. You're being narrow minded. There are a lot of seedier things out there in Japan, idols aren't even seedy in comparison.
I dont think its "idols" perse hes worried about but the teen and child ones and the intentions behind all the grown men going to see them and being obsessed
@@diannabrookes9258 Underground idols make crap money. It's often just a part-time job for them. Some stay for many years, but many just do it for a few years around high school or college age and then move on to something with hopefully better long term prospects.
The fans stay around though. I've been a fan of idols for ~14 years. All of those first idols have moved on.
This is easy to understand because there's something very mainstream that's quite similar to how these idol groups work.
Sports.
NOT ONE PLAYER from when I first started watching the NBA is still playing in the NBA today. It's had 100% turnover since I became a fan. 100%.
The age range is a little higher, but it's getting to the point that basically everyone in the NBA will be younger than me from here on out- and why should I care?
Just as I'm a fan to some degree of various current players, retired players, and teams... I'm a fan of some current idols, retired idols, and idol groups.
Says a white girl trying to be Japanese. Pedophilia in Japan is less restrictive than other countries. Look up junior idols.
@@lilliebobson3146 I have looked up junior idols and they only make a small percentage of idols.
Ho Le Fuk
Wiking 5th Sum Ting Wong
This thread bruh lmao I remember seeing this on the news
Bang ding ow
Tee Bloan dammit. I just commented this without seeing yours...
Chin gha tú ma dre!
Same thing here remember Britney when she was a teenager
Two wrongs dont make a right
But 3 lefts do 😎
Most Britney fan are teenageer btw.
@@wakakabravo7998 Britney was doing the school girl uniform video when she was much older than a teenager. When she was a teenager she was on the Mickey Mouse Club, remember? These girls have a long way to go to get to that level.
@@LifeProducersofNewJerseyLLC Britney was 16 when she recorded Baby One More Time.
Yuki, the girl he took the picture with in the video here was 18 at the time this was filmed.
"I'm in Japan to fucking judge these people."
Boo-hoo! 😢😢😭😭
They were all waiting for you to leave so they could get the bukkake party started, duh...
Yup that’s mean they running away from reality
They’re literally just enjoying themselves and having fun. Calm down.
Exactly
VZ Cinema yeah, nothing about the short skirts and suggestive dancing
@@TheJoshA they're not underage
I think YOU'RE the one who needs to calm down. Guy's just expressing his opinion.
Holy shit, are opinions not allowed now? What is this? Orwell's Oceania?
@@safs4929 A fellow Orwell fan? I tip my hat, one legend to another
I just love how it keeps escalating at 2:10. The ending was kinda wholesome.
i found love in a hopeless place LOL
when you comeback again to japan find yuki and ask her if she can still remember you
They don't even look creepy l
tbh true
nah, not at all. LOL.
He is basically calling them all perverts........and then what does he do? Go to the club with them and PAYS the girl for a picture and tells her he loves her. Yeah OK bro.
Exactly what he says at 4.15
Well, if you want to do a report like this, make sure employ someone who can understand and speak their language. Asking an English speaking reporter who had no knowledge of Japanese language just does not make much sense.
its very easy to just label them all as "creeps". That gives no credit to the performers talent and entertainment value. They are making people happy and that must be a good thing. Is it any different from us being entertained by a Shirley Temple movie, Jackson 5 or Partridge Family. Also I heard many of these men are childless and it is like having your own daughter to go support her performance..
the youtube recommended is fixed against you somehow MOST UNDERRATED OFTEN IMITATED NEVER REPLICATED
Whoa that's weird
Luke Gassaway really fucking weird
Holy fucking shit
that japanese say about the usa
I don't think this is creepy but there is some insane fans taking it too far
Your ending is priceless😂
I mean those idols aren't even that young Japanese tend to have genes that makes them look younger other than that it's plastic surgeries and/or make up also clothes style n they aren't that tall so that makes them look younger as well
ニキータニキータ Menhera Chan (^○^)
@@adorabella-p3h yes I love this character and her creator ❤️❤️
@No Name totally agree not because I like Japan (I honestly like their culture not only anime) but it's just that it's really awesome even my friends who aren't big fans of Japan agree to this ❤️❤️
No it's the clothing they put on these girls that make them look even more juvenile. Before we start the argument of "so what people can wear what they want" that's what makes people feel uncomfortable and saying they look young and even have small cute mannerisms that is usually attached to children behavior
At the underground level in particular, idols are heavily influenced by magical girl (Sailor Moon) and super sentai (Power Rangers) culture.
It's superhero culture. Normal guy by day, hero by night. The fancy costumes show that they are "on".
You know at this level, many groups hold off-kais (hang outs), with generally regular clothes. Obviously they still have to be somewhat guarded so they aren't truly 100% off, but if you hang out with them for a few hours having a BBQ or whatever it's pretty clear that they are regular people and the show is a show.
you failed to use google translate. worst adaptable reporter. ty though for this report
Honestly, I became a fan of idols since I went to Korea, but recently got into Akb48. However, although I think they're cute and charming, I'm just a fan but not a sicko perv weirdo. Most of the time, I just want to see them happy and perform because that was their dream, despite who their fans are.
It's fun. Just have to make do with online stuff recently though...
I suggest the stuff about 1-2 levels up from this... and 1-2 or so levels down from AKB on the popularity side. That's kind of where the highest average skill level is, and some of them are still at the point where the meet and greets give you halfway decent time as well if you ever get a chance to go. It's a nice balance.
Stuff like Kamiyado, Wasuta, Nijicon on the higher mid popularity end, and maybe NeoJaponism, DESURABBITS, and Kannagi Rabbits on the lower mid popularity. To name some of many.
They are all literally just vibeing dude it seems so fun.
Today I learned that it's not alright to enjoy music.
Hey this is how japanese release all tension from hard working day by day. This is good society. Even the teenager working hard for own purpose. I bet you will feel alive in Japan. Please think positive. Don't judge me.
BRUH THE ENDING 😭
I don't man I found you to be more weird tbh.
Ikr!
Lol true
Bunch of weebs haha
If you would "investigate" more, you would see how much more there is, than just watching girls on a stage. These guys (wotakus) are learning the performances to every song of the Idol-Bands they like. This takes a lot of time and effort. This is to connect to the band and other people in the club. This way they show respect and support and live the music. This is nothing like a beyonce concert at all...
To get a little bit more into this scene, I can recommend the tv drama "Dakara Watashi wa Oshimashita" from 2019.
Btw. there are also girls attending to these events, depending on the band.
"I was shocked, They were all dudes"
I mean... Whats so shocking about that? Men watching chicks dance? Seems pretty normal to me.
henry pendle agree with you, just some dudes enjoying some girls singing and dancing, nothings wrong with that
Their men watching TEEN GIRLS dance. If they were fully developed women, no one would have a problem.
Asian people look young than they actually are. So I highly doubt that they are teen children.
@@redfish337 I'm sorry. I don't understand what you mean. Can you please explain your response?
@@Ooo-wv2ct Sorry, what don't you understand?
Some idols are teens. Some aren't. Age is generally 16+.
My point is... why does this matter?
I talked about gymnastics cuz it's this year, but how about figure skating? It's probably a closer representation. They wear frilly stuff and even if visual isn't as important anymore in scoring, everyone knows that it's part of the appeal.
The gold medal winner was 16.
So, was everyone watching a pedophile or whatever? Heck, even if they aren't in it for the competition side but just want to see graceful spinning jumps set to music, that doesn't have to make it sexual.
hey bud, love the new channel. Thanks for all the great hours of laughs.
The timing in this video is really good. Great work
Glad you’re back on RUclips again Donnie! I had already watched all of your other channels videos so I needed my fix
This was really great journalism!
Barstool: 280k in 10 years very little growth on YT. Wonton Don: 300k in 2 years. Calling it now.
that ending line was perfect comedic timing. Loved the mini-doc.
This was funny/weird and
Yeah pretty awsome tho the way the men were party-ing
Dancing running in circles
" I found love in a hopeless place, but i wasnt here looking for love" hahahahahaa
These people go and judge Japan but they don't do anything for their country 😂 Same can be said for stripclub
lets not forget the age of consent in japan was just upd in 2023 to 16 years old. its been 14-15 for many years.
I’m very into idol culture but i didn’t really take offense to this. It was very light-hearted.
I just want you to know that Idol culture works a lot on respect for the idol. People often have an “Oshi (their favorite girl)” and support her by going to shows, cheki events (which is what you did in the video with the Polaroid), buying the groups singles/albums and talking to them on social media. A lot of us living out of Japan learn Japanese just to talk to the girls. It’s just fun.
Bruh..
Soooo how old is this girl your obsessed with…
@@thekilluvast458 23 years old.
@@bunnylove8989 you get a pass then
@@thekilluvast458 I like mature women. I think these men going gaga at 13-17 year old girls are gross.
Wow, nice youtube page! How did I end up here?
donnie made you end up here . with his weird shit.
Middle aged men fangirl of actresses and singers in the west all the time. I don’t see the problem. In fact I’m jealous of Japan’s awesome culture. Stuff like anime has only recently become acceptable to say you enjoy it out loud without being called weird. One day stuff like this will become popular in western culture as well
@skittles. uh is it not true? Ariana Grande, Cardi B, whatever other hot singer. People go to their concerts and get hyped. And a lot of them are hot, sooo..
@skittles. you’re assuming they’re minors though. They’re probably 18 and older.
That polaroid will make you remember you're one of us... one of us.
It may be harder to find a Japanese club that ISN"T weird and creepy.
This video was actually solid reporting, combined with great humor.
"How much SIMP ler life would be, if I stayed in Tokyo.."
“I found love in a hopeless place, it’s amazing” lol
ngl wanna go to one of these they seem lit
60 min HOSTED by the DON. What could be more perfecter !!
4:41 The creepy part of this video is when it describes me.
the 007 voice-over with the idol girls happy singing and dancing in the background just cracks me up
that is...definitely NOT the creepiest club you could find in Japan, and there’s even way creepier ones in Europe. Just saying.
Donnie.. You are in your element! You're an inspiration for a lot of things thanks for bringing the world your content!
they also have these cafes where middle aged men tip the waitresses to slap them
Thats tsundere cafe
I wonder if he got special permission to film? Cuz he's the only one there taking film of the girls with his creepy spy glasses.
No he doesn't have permission to film
Would it be more acceptable if the fans are younger than the idol members themselve by a generation or two?? For me, I started getting to the whole J-Idol ordeal at age 18 recently before turning 19 this month. A lot of popular Japanese Idol/Pop Stars are in their mid 20s-early 30s and I don't personally see an issue with me being a stans army fan of them, but knowing not to crazily obess over them like the older men would. Respect and definite understanding of them being human beings is a priority, even though there may be some J-Idol/Pop groups deliberately turn it into "something else", if you know what I mean.
In the end, I think of a lot of famous J-Pop/Idol Groups/Artists as an older brother/sister type of age gap concept, since Gen Zers could have relatives-such as siblings, cousins, maybe aunts/uncles-who are Gen Y. Someone to look up to, knowing that they experienced the rise, falls, hardships, and successes in their career.
Furthermore in relation, K-Pop Stars/Idols are similar to J-Pop a bit, but don't have older men or women dominating the fan base. It is mostly my generation and some Gen Y that start Stans Armies for K-Pop Stars/Idols. I believe that are types of fans that go over the top and those like me where I don't purchase/investing money or time in them extremely. Maybe some research and stuff, but nothing over the top outrageous.
It's best not to be too concerned about age.
You think most of them got into it at 40?
You think most of them at 40+ started being an idol fan from the underground?
Morning Musume has been around since 1997.
You remember 1997?
Well, some Morning Musume fans do.
They were fans at 24 or whatever, and now they're 47, and still a fan.
Mind you that while H!P auditions young now, when they were getting started that wasn't so true. Yuko Nakazawa joined at age 24. She is 47 now.
All the original members have long since moved on. But when you're a fan of a group you're encouraged to latch on to newer members so that when the older ones graduate out, you still have someone to cheer for.
Of course, sometimes people move on. Morning Musume isn't the same group it used to be- in addition to the constant shifting towards the future, they pretty much had a complete overhaul around 2011.
This was aligned with the rise of AKB48 groups. H!P had been treading water through the mid-late 2000s as female idols had been out of style. When AKB brought them back stronger than ever, Morning Musume was reset for a long term change.
Now AKB has been around since 2005. Do you remember 2005? You were actually around, but probably can't remember much. Some people have been fans since 2005. They're still fans. Maybe 25-30 then, 40-45 now.
What about new fans? Couldn't they earn new fans over the years?
Yeah, sort of, but Nogizaka became the cool group for younger people to follow as their first group. Then Keyakizaka.
They pick up new fans, but the fandom shifts older, while the girls generally stay about the same average age since they graduate out and new members join.
And this is the underground. This is where people who had been fans of a mainstream group, fall off into. They got into Morning Musume or AKB or Nogizaka or Momoiro Clover, and eventually realized that there were a bunch of other groups available to follow. And some of them liked these more indie groups more. More time to get to know the members and for them to know you back. Closer knit among fans.
But there are literally 1000+ groups. There are many events competing every single night.
Younger underground idol fans go to different groups than this. Also, mind you this was a weekday, so it favors salarymen who are already in the city and going to a show on the way home. Younger people go to fewer, bigger, shows (or the teiki weekly regular show for a group they really like). It's super expensive to go to every single show, so the random weekday ones have more people with more money.
Lastly, among Japan idol circles is the term pink ticket. This means youth discount fan. It also means shitty fan, despite age. While people looking in may see the old people as creepy, among the scene itself, the younger fans are the ones of bad reputation. Being 60 may make you look creepy, but you don't make it to age 60 without getting banned by everyone if you're actually a creeper. The ones who get banned, get arrested for stalking or death threats, etc, are almost invariably 19-33 or so, with the focus around ~26.
Older people are just enjoying the scene. It's the younger ones who haven't quite figured it out yet.
@@redfish337 Thank you so much for this because you made significant points. For me, ever since the age of 8-9 probably(More than a decade), I really love that type of music along side others with similarities &/ connections to each other (i.e.- Eurodance, J-Pop, Bubblegum Dance, MMD, Vociods). As of now, I started to look into the genres/subcategories more in-depth.
Being a new fan a Momoiro Clover (Z/ZZ) and other Japanese Artists, I primarily view the musical aspect(Sidenote- I have perfect pitch to know which notes they are playing and potentially rhythms to complement that ability), due to being a student musician aspiring to become pro after university. In the end, it is the behavior of the types of fans with age, individually viewing the paths they go. Personally, evaluating myself, I am not a crazed obsessed fan of any J-Pop Idols/Stars or Musicians with the major extreme factors at all due to understanding the hardships of being a performer/musician in the industry based on research and educational stories such as what you told me. It is mostly liking videos on YT and searching about who they are with finding hidden gems here and there.
@@peterlhawks And with any luck you'll still be a fan of some parts of the scene in 20+ years too. That's just how it goes. I'm not quite to the creepy stage yet, but I started around age 20 when a sizable proportion of them were older than me and I've just now finally reached the point where approximately 100% are younger, if only by a year or so. And I don't intend on quitting anytime soon- a lot of the recent idol music has been even more to my liking as they've continued to develop.
Inherent to worrying about age is that it buys into the belief that people can't actually like this sort of music without some sort of sexual angle. You'll instead find that as vocaloid has decreased in popularity, a lot of creators have used idol groups as a medium, resulting in quite a lot of fun and experimentation in the music. Especially as you move away from the mainstream. (Momoclo essentially being an indie group that went super mainstream, and yet maintained some indie influence all the while).
This sort of show would run a little indie even for me. I've long liked the idol group "Tears" though, which appears here.. I'm not sure of your tastes, but would recommend Neo Japonism, Wa-suta, LinQ, Kamiyado, the codomomental groups, Team Shachi (momoclo sister group), FesTive and the Dear Stage groups. I recommend Blue Forest groups too but a lot of their best stuff has been purged off the Internet.
Not everything is creepy. It’s like people expect you to stop doing anything after the age of 30 lol.
Not gonna lie, I think shoving a camera in front of their faces defeats their sense of escapism and it makes sense that no one really wanted to talk...
I also think the k-pop franchise is creepier than this
I think he was secretly filming with his creeper glasses. So he was the actual creeper in the room.
Few groups allow filming of performances- and it's even rarer at live houses. And even if you can film performances, filming a fan meeting will get you banned from basically any group.
Unless he was invited as actual media. In which case I would think the fan meeting would be on the house and he would have been able to make an actual interview.
Every single comment trying to explain this further and make it “innocent” just makes it creepier
You should go to cambodia
covered this so well Don
This country is kinda creepy
Then don't go there
Your ending statement was fantastic!!!
VR Chat in real life:
This narrator sounds surprised and says “ okay nobody speaks english” hahaha, no fuckin shit. You’re in a different country. Lmao 😂 that shit had my dyin
3:47
who is your favorite?
*ya*
who is your favorite?
*ya*
oh..
If he didn't look like such a creeper those normal businessmen may have tried to have a conversation.
My favorite moment in this video
We have these guys here too, Japan just provides to them. They almost all play games, watch anime, love j/k-pop and all want to travel to japan and joke about the age of consent in Japan. They are scared of women their own age. Not saying people who like these things are all like that, but a lot are. I'm 35, so I'm around men this age, I know for a fact that a lot of men like young girls, It's like they never really developed liking their childhood crushes to actual women. It's like being white and hearing what white people say about people of color behind closed doors, it's a lot more than people like to admit.
It's part of their culture. So, if you don't like it leave. Leave Japan
Keep Japanese culture far away from american influence 🙏
I saw this in a movie, and I too went on a mission in Akihabara to see this live. It was an experience! 2000 Yen for a show and two free drinks from the bar!
This is the same place I went to! 😂😂😂
now i know how 'back streets girls-Gokudols' feel like😂😂
(the show is on netflix)
roselife lane lol
The ending music is heartwarming.