On J-pop fans and storm-chasers

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Berryz Kobo, circa April 2007, is just one of many ‘storms’ at Japan's Hello Project that have a huge and growing global following.

Just watching the brutal weather reports on CNN about tornadoes hitting the Midwest (a-gain) and, just like lightning, it struck me that the same adrenalin that fuels storm-chasers fuels idol music fans. To wit:

Remember the crazy film “Twister” (when Helen Hunt was still hot)? It vividly showed how the storm-chasing mentality can pretty much take over your life. The character played by Hunt is one obsessed by chasing down and solving the riddle of tornadoes, no matter what the cost.

Storm-causers, from left, include Sayu of Morning Musume, Hagiwara of °C-ute, Suzuki of °C-ute and Eri of Morning Musume, circa January 2006.

Well, take that mental state and superimpose it on otakus and wotas. The Hello Project company provides the tornadoes – Morning Musume, Berryz Kobo, °C-ute and the rest – and the fans provide the twisted Helen Hunts, only they’re male instead of female. The obsession, the “fever,” continues unabated as long as there are storms, a.k.a. singers, in good supply.

And with graduation, there will be no shortage of “storms” with Hello Project. Some of the top “storm-chasers” out there are bundled online with American Wota and International Wota, hub sites where experts with names like Jimhaku, Zush, Pengie, Wu-San, Jin, and Henkka reach around the globe covering the most interesting stormfronts possible.

Maeda, left, and Takahaski of AKB48, which generates nightly storms at the Don Quixote Hotel in Tokyo.

A similar dynamic goes with AKB48, the sensational all-girl act that performs nightly at the Don Quixote Hotel with an occasional concert in the Shibuya district of Tokyo and other locales.

There is a large plaque with 400 names on it of wotas who have attended 100 or more AKB48 live shows! That translates into 40,000 shows, at an average of $25 US each, so do the math! A cool $1 million!

Now that’s some kind of storm!

This wall-sized plaque at the AKB48 Theater in the Akihabara District of Tokyo reads: “They achieved the visit to the AKB48 theater of 100 times.” Indeed, the Hall of Fame for wotas.