"I Am Scared of Certain Types of Fans" - Chiima Confesses and Shares her Thoughts on Certain Types of Fans

Please, do not get offended by this post. I am not aiming it at specific people, but at a certain type of fan which honestly scares me, and makes me dislike a fandom even more.

I'm going to start this post off with this: I was, at first, trying to reason with myself exactly why I should make this blog post, because in all honesty - I am scared about what people will say. I mean, coming out about how I feel about AKB was a hard (and brave) thing to do for me, because I honestly get scared about what people will say to me. In the end, I tell myself that it is my opinion, and I am allowed to have said opinion and speak out about my feelings. So, in the end, that was the reasoning I gave myself for doing this post.

Oh, and I talked to my sister about it - because she's the one who is more sensible.

Anyway, this is basically about a certain incident that recently happened in Japan, and it includes certain Berryz members...

Yeah, you guessed right - the drama with the K-pop fans.

Now, this post won't be all about just this topic, more so, it concerns a topic that I have wanted to talk about a lot, but kind of wigged out on because of my fear of people hating on me - and that is my opinion on the fanbase of most groups. No, not just one, but most groups. And honestly? These fans scare me and make me feel somewhat ashamed of being a fan of a certain Jpop group. But, let me just say this: THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO ALL FANS!


Now, let's get back to the Berryz fiasco first - an article on Aramatheydidn't popped up concerning hate towards Momoko, Miyabi and Chinami - more so towards Momoko and Miyabi rather than Chinami, and it was all because of a scripted (read: scripted, meaning it was meant to happen) act that Momoko is well known for: Crashing in on someone else's gig and claiming how cute she is, and doing her usual annoying act on TV. Well, this didn't seem to go down too well with the fans of T-ara, who were also on the show, and they started to shout horrible things to Momo, like DIE and You're annoying, and even told Miyabi that she wasn't cute. My sister even dug up a little more info (from 2ch, no less) and found out that once Miyabi had gone off stage, Momoko started to yell, asking who had dared to say Miyabi wasn't cute at all.

If you want to read the article, you can find it HERE.

For a person who is pretty much on the fence with Berryz, but a Chinami and Miyabi fan, this was shocking, and it made me extremely angry. I mean, I don't really support Berryz - there are few songs of theirs I like, and I think it's pretty well known how much I dislike Momoko, but I do respect her as an Idol - and hearing this, it really just... riled me up. And it just makes me dislike the extreme fans even more - you know, the sort who go out of their way to defend an idol by telling you to go die, that their idol is the best, that your Idol sucks and that you are a shame to the fan community. You know - those fans.

Anyway, this, of course, annoyed a lot of aramatheydidn't writers - I mean, most of them are in love with Berryz and of course, they defended them - but honestly, some of these comments can be nasty. Which kind of proves my point with how I don't really like some fans of Jpop groups. And, I honestly have a feeling that at some point (actually, I am almost certain about this) that I was disliked greatly because I was a hater of AKB48. I won't deny it. Ever. However, I never wanted to wish death upon a person, fan or Idol, because that is far beneath me.

But, it's fans like this - who take everything one step too far by wishing death, or yelling it, at Idols or even other fans that make me ashamed of being in a fandom with people like this. I mean - how could they think, or say that? And, with these T-ara fans, it just makes me less and less interested in learning about T-ara, and it makes me even more disinterested in listening to Kpop turned Jpop. It really turns me off of the idea, because fans seem brutal and scary. And they said these words in real life - they are not hiding behind a computer screen, they really did tell Momo to die (it seems).

But, it's not just K-pop, as I stated - it's most fandoms. I mean, when I was dead-set against listening to AKB48, I thought that the Hello! Project fandom was one of the nicest, laid-back fandoms out there. Pfft, how wrong was I - I have actually found myself disliking the fandom a lot more now, because some people are just... well... horrible. So, when did I find this out?

During the release of PPU. During this time, the song (and costumes, more so) got a lot of hate - not just from AKB stans, but also from H!P stans. A lot of fans claimed to boycott MM because of how horrible the costumes were, or because of how different it was. It pissed me off, and I honestly wanted to bitch slap a lot of these people - one person even went as far to (stupidly) say PPU would have sounded better if the costumes were different. Yes, I am not kidding. Someone said that (on an MM confession blog, so they are anonymous - damnit!) - But it wasn't just PPU - it was stuff about the MM members, too.

I've come to realise that, whilst these girls are generally accepted in Japan, a lot of international fans don't like them - most notably, Eripon and Haruna. Two of my favourite members in MM, so of course I have quite an issue with those people. I've also come across the odd one or two Riho haters (who I have enjoyed fighting with), and honestly, I do respect her - I just don't care for her.

I had a (great) dislike for Riho during the period of Only You, as most of you would know, and I still don't care greatly for her - but when Only You came out, my main issue was the line distribution rather than Riho - and I bitched about it. A lot. On this blog, on a fourm I go to... and on that forum, I got a lot of hate from a few people that I knew quite well. These people were not happy with how a lot of us acted on the forum towards the single, and claimed that we weren't true fans of MM and that we didn't appreciate them or that we were all evil for hating on a little girl. Er, no - we were hating on the line distribution. But, because it was Riho who got the lines, obviously, these guys felt the need to turn it around and make it look like we were bitching on Riho. But, most of us were actually just explaining how we hated the line distribution, and how it was unfair that only Eripon, Fukuhikme and Zukki got no solo lines whilst Riho got a lot. We weren't exactly saying 'Riho should DIE'. We were just voicing our, gasp, opinions.

And this is an example of extreme fans - people who basically like to offend you, act mean towards you and try to make you feel bad about what you say. Even for the slightest criticism. And this is actually why I am on the verge of hating certain fans of music that I enjoy. Especially the fans who hate on members that I love - but that's a personal thing, because I obviously adore those members of a certain group, and I will want to defend them or cry for them.

I have actually seen people boycott MM or Jpop all together because of these fans - they hate the fan community, and how they act with certain members, and so they just stop listening. I doubt that I will go down that road, because I love MM, and I don't want to leave this fandom at all - I have met amazing people through blogging and listening to Jpop, but some people just go to the extreme lengths to hate on certain idols, or fans who are happy to like or dislike music or a video, but still be a fan.

The same goes for AKB48 when it comes to fans - as someone who once didn't like them, I am guilty of the odd few comments that talked about how bad their music was (and I still think it's meh, especially considering most are meant to be million sellers :/) as well as disliking certain members. But, even as a casual fan now, I still disagree with others about how amazing they are, and I still dislike Maeda Atsuko - but I will never ever go to extreme lengths to say that she should die. No, she should not. No Idol should. I may dislike Momoko and Maeda about the same, but they are Idols - they bring us entertainment (more so Momoko than Maeda) and they bring us music. They are both good singers, and they are Idols for a reason. They do not deserve to have death threats by fans or haters. That is wrong, and immoral on so many freakin' levels. It's downright nasty!

Honestly, these fans scare me. And I am scared that one day, I will turn away from Jpop because of these fans.

Ping!!! International Wota Recommended Reading: March 4th, 2012