Incendiary Hello! Project-to-U.S. topic is baaack!

Morning Musume in their U.S. debut July 3 at Anime Expo, Los Angeles.

Obviously, in the aftermath of Anime Expo 2009’s announcement of Morning Musume’s upcoming visit to the U.S. and July 3 concert at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the whole topic of whether such J-pop will ever catch on in a big way away from the shores of Japan will start to heat up once again.

I must say I have been proven wrong about this. After my first fact-finding mission to Japan in 2008 (where I just happened to attend five concerts featuring 15 different ensembles), I was convinced such a display as occurred at Yokohama Arena that year – the Hello! Project Winter 2008 concert – would never take place in America.

That conclusion, tapped out from a remote keyboard deep within the depths of Tokyo’s Akihabara District, enraged enough of J-pop pundits that I have since been banned from a number of sites, most notably – and painfully – the International Wota forum, on which I remain to this day blocked from posting any kind of direct comment. So be it. Blog and website owners are free to do this, though in my view it is counterproductive because it shuts off avenues of debate and is totally antisocial and even anti-American.

Too bad, because International Wota and its parent site, American Wota, are largely responsible for helping create the expanding market for J-pop and idol music in the U.S. They remain first-class sites, just a little intolerant and short-sighted. But, then again, we all are to some extent.

Want to censor people? Better find residence in Dubai or North Korea. You’ll feel more at home there.

Kamei, left, and Mako in Morning Musume's 'Iroppoi Jirettai,' January 2006, at Yokohama Arena.

In any event, before I went to the January 2008 concerts, I surfed into
this post from Paul Thomas of the always-quality Hello!Blog. My ensuing comment was as follows:

Comment by Radicalpatriot @ 01:42 AM on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008:

Excellent array of comments, and a superb anchor essay. Now consider these points:

*** For those who think that Morning Musume and related Asian groups would never be successful here, I have news for you: They already are. YesAsia's sales of Up-Front Works, Hachama and Zetima DVD titles – mostly Hello! Project and Morning Musume-related – have more than doubled each year since 2004, when the junior MM groups Berryz Kobo and °C-ute debuted. No, they can neither afford nor budget time and effort to launch a US tour (they are quite enough busy in Japan), but make no mistake, they are already a force to be reckoned with, being fueled by the proliferation of video Web sites which are equipped with the latest Asian digital technologies. US youth have also beaten Sony's silly game with making Asian DVDs unavailable in Region I (US) format, only Region 2, which can be played in Asia but not America. Solution? Download region-free DVD players in laptops from Canada, and buy region-free DVD players online from overseas sources. So much for the US music industiry's attempts to suppress Asian music sales in the States.

*** I have seen Puffy AmiYumi twice live in the US, the most recent opportunity Nov. 16, 2007, at The Key Club in Hollywood. Puffy went through the back door in the US market, securing an economic foothold through the "Hi! Hi! Puffy AmiYumi" cartoon series on cable TV. But since Sony owns Puffy, they permit this sensational music ensemble to tour only small clubs (to my enormous delight, since I have twice stood right in front of this dyanmic duo and their band colleagues). Puffy makes its cash through the cartoon-show royalties, and tours basically for the love of music and the amazing atmosphere created in smaller club venues by the Puffies. Puffy is the top club act in the world, in my view, but they are only allowed to fill arenas in Asia, not America.

But, just as in late 1963 when the Beatles broke through EMII's firewall only after a tidal wave of teen girls in the US "made it so," I forecast a mammoth breakthrough, and an inevitable huge concert in, say, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, by Morning Musume or maybe even the entire Hello! Project company. The UK seems to already have a larger per-capita fan base for J-pop than does the US, so a Morning Musume world tour would likely include both the UK and US in some capacity.

Everyone is underestimating the market pull of these sensational girls, age notwithstanding. If Americans embrace U-15 Hannah Montana, they might as well let youngsters from other parts of the world have a crack at it.

***

Here is the
same response only illustrated and couched elsewhere here.

***

Morning Musume, performing "Angel Hearts," January 2008 at Yokohama Arena.

Fast-forward to the present. At great financial peril, and with the dollar so devalued as to make such a journey a financial catastrophe, I went to Japan again this past Jan. 22-Feb. 2 to attend 10 concerts featuring 30 separate ensembles – including the historic Elder Club graduation concert Jan. 31-Feb. 1 at Yokohama Arena.

While there, I lobbied intensively on behalf of getting Hello! Project to the states in some form, most likely at an anime convention. Hangry & Angry, the duo of former Morning Musume and Elder Club members Yossie and Rika, had already announced in November 2008 a visit to Sakura Con in April of this year in Seattle (an event I will unfortunately miss because of finances and lack of any vacation days). So there was some hope.

Actually, I thought Kusumi would have the best shot at being invited to AX 2009, being a solo performer and, therefore, a cheaper option for convention organizers. Buono!, with only three members, would be a good second choice. As it turned out, Buono! has exploded and has earned a trip to Sweden as a result (Stockholm Japan Expo, May 24).

Buono! blows the roof of theaters all across Japan with 'Rottara, Rottara!,' January 2009.

I did try and
pitch Buono! for AX 2008. But Morning Musume to the U.S.? That was a pipe dream. Still, I made my pitches at every concert in January appealing to anyone who cared to listen at each event. I did not repeat the horrific misstep of January 2008 where I tried to visit, politely, UFA’s offices – and even those of Sony Music – in the Roppongi District. Doors were closed, security was alerted.

I am not saying that any of my incoherent, non-Japanese ramblings in Japan back in January had anything to do with the Morning Musume invite (and I won’t really believe they are coming until I actually see the group on stage on July 3), but the coincidence is interesting. More likely, the down economy – such things always seem worse overseas than here in the U.S. – has resulted in UFA branching out and fishing for more fans, even ... Americans.

Hope they catch their limit.

This is Rad signing off – for now.