People Must Think I'm Crazy

Today at school I was watching episodes of Dokyu in the lobby between classes, and since there were no seats along the wall, I ended up sitting with my back facing the entrance area where those who were going to or from classes could clearly see my screen. I don't know about anyone else, but if I wasn't familiar with H!P and saw a guy at school watching a video of a Japanese girl dressing a puppy up in little clothes on his laptop (kudos to those who know whose Dokyu episode I was watching)...I'd probably be a little weirded out. Which brings me to the point...what do people who are uninitiated to idols think of those wotas who are brave (or perhaps stupid?) enough to bring their fandom out into the world?

As an extreme example, let's take this friend of mine (who will go unnamed). As much as he doesn't like to be labeled (and as much as I hate labeling him), he's one of those straight-edge political punk types, and he can't stand Hello!Project. The second I got into Berryz Koubou, I knew he was a hopeless case because his immediate reaction was to declare me a pedo and get pissy with me whenever I so much as mentioned my favorite group of dancing, singing lolis. So, being a self-declared obnoxious wota, I bothered him with it as much as possible. Now, obviously, by doing this I'm not helping the wota image much...but I figure that anyone closed-minded enough to immediately disregard their friend's interests like that should probably get a little shit for it (please note that I don't hate this person...he just tends to be a little overzealous in his efforts to fix all of mankind's problems through his musical tastes). Plus, it can be pretty fun to mess with him every now and then. Here's a couple conversations pertaining to the matter, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

At the time of this conversation, he had already been at college for a few months, so we hadn't talked to each other in a while.
December 10th, 2007
MeatIsMurder: i feel like i haven't seen you fer realz in forev
CatchFiveBats: It's been a while, yeah.
CatchFiveBats: And so...to make up for lost time...
CatchFiveBats: OMGZZZZ LOLIS LOLIS J-POP OMGZZZZ BERRYZ KOUBOU C-UTE LOLZLZOLZOLZULZOLZ
MeatIsMurder: KILLBLOOD
CatchFiveBats: Alright, we're good.

And at a later date, in an exchange between Cal and myself:
December 13, 2008
CatchFiveBats: I got my Berryz poster.
CatchFiveBats: It's awesome.
pootyfrebbles: OooooOOOOoOOooh!?
CatchFiveBats: OAYWEOFIAHEF
CatchFiveBats: This poster brings me closer to my plan of making it impossible for [UNNAMED FRIEND] to enter my room.
CatchFiveBats: XD
pootyfrebbles: Hahaha, awesome

As light-hearted as those exchanges seem, he really does harbor a pretty strong hatred towards anything H!P. Now, since this person is pretty close to me (and has been for a long time), he doesn't really fit into the kind of demographic I want to discuss here. To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to talk about him. XD

ANYWAY, the type of person I'm talking about is more along the lines of a random person on the street. Maybe it's someone you work with, or who sees you singing and dancing along to Renai Revolution 21 in your car, or who, in my case, sees you watching Momusu TV appearances during the day at school. Basically, anything beyond an acquaintance wouldn't really qualify. Try, for a little bit, to put yourself in their shoes. Let's use the example of someone who lives in the same dorm as a hardcore H!P wota (we'll say this person even learns the dances, with their door partially open, to make this easy). I can guarantee you that this person will become known by the other people living on their floor as 'that crazy guy/girl who dances around to that weird Chinese music', or something similar, very quickly. And that's not entirely a bad thing. Even if most people think you're crazy, there will be those who find you to be interesting or, at the very least, entertaining. And those are the people that you drag down with you. But for the others, it's unreasonable to expect anything more than a humoring smile and a nod, or maybe a quick laugh, since most Westerners tend to view Japan as this wacky place where everybody buys used panties from vending machines and watches people beat the crap out of each other on live TV for fun. >.< [EDIT: As pointed out by someone in the comments, that last example is a little vague. The 'beat the crap out of each other on live TV' thing is about the ridiculous game shows that G4 and Spike TV have brought stateside, which obviously do nothing to improve Japan's image in the eyes of Westerners.]

I know that when I show someone my H!P collection, they just end up creeped out (needless to say, showing H!P Kids photobooks to people you just met is a terrible idea), with some rare exceptions. I mean, I could tweak the material I show people so as to make it more appealing, but if I did that I'd just be hiding a lot of what I like about H!P anyway. If I can't share all of what I love, I'd honestly rather not share it at all.

The point I'm trying to make here is to remember that Hello!Project tailors to a niche audience, and expecting people outside of that niche to like it is only going to end up in disappointment. As much as some of us may enjoy watching a girl that lives across the world talk to a camera about what food she likes, most people would probably find that to be pretty creepy, and that's something I've learned to accept. Personally, I like having a hobby that most of the people I encounter on a day-to-day basis will probably never fully understand (and, in some cases, may even take offense to), because that makes it uniquely mine. So when you say to someone, "Hey! Check out this sweet music video!", and they respond with "wtf wut r they like 12 gahd thats weird fuck that", just remember...it's all the more idol goodness for you.

- cfb