Tokyo Idols

This is a good documentary movie. It really reflects the real life of an "average" idol in Japan.

However, there are much more to discuss about this "Idol Phenomenon" in Japan.

Unfortunately, this film didn't discuss much more beyond what other Japanese documentary has already covered. But for English speaking audience this may be their first time understanding a small part of this unique social event in Japan.

I did a bit studies in this phenomenon.

AKB48 is briefly mentioned in this film. As a milestone of idol industry, their new approach to audience and business model are already deeply discussed in many Japanese documentary movies. This is probably

There are also many "underground idols" struggle very hard to get more fans and publicity. They have to live a ghetto life because they aren't making enough money while they are chasing their dreams. A couple of Japanese documentary has revealed it.

Until now, there are only books but not yet a film discuss two new phenomenons in this industry.

The first one is the impact of the social network. It burst a huge change to this industry. And there are always new things changed every year. For example, SHOWROOM, which showed up during this movie, was a mainstream "idol-focus" live streaming website. It's the most important live streaming website for idol industry in year 2017.

The second one is how "local idols" start to really mean it. NGT48 was not the first idol group focus on local audience and work with local enterprise. But NGT48 was the first idol group actually boost up the GDP of the local area(Niigatta Prefecture in this case), acknowledged by local government, residents, and enterprise.

Japan is the only country that has so many idols and mascots that many festivals and conferences have audience and participants for more than 10,000 people, thus budget and income.

3/24/18. A disturbing look (there's no other way to put it) at the very popular Japanese cultural phenomenon -J-pop Idol Rio teen girl band. The band is not disturbing, but the fans sure are, made up mostly of mid-aged men ogling these young girls, an odd collection of male groupies who seemed to be too old for this kind of adoration. Oh, well, you have to watch this to believe it.

This documentary follows one up-and-coming performer's career as she starts to gain momentum in Tokyo. It focuses on her hardcore fanbase, and how the performer/biggest fans act and react around each other, and their motivations for doing what they do. As someone who views the culture with some distain it did a good job of presenting the fans fairly without holding them up in a cage on display. Some of them do seem to have genuinely innocent intentions and enjoy their lifestyles with this obsession in their lives. The documentary does touch on both the mainstream idols as well as the indie and even preteen idols - an area well known for controversy as to the morality behind it. However, it does not dwell deep into this as the people this documentary focuses on are all technically adults. One area I thought should have been covered was the people who actually make the majority of the profits from idols (i.e. the managers and record labels). Japan has not quite caught up yet (yes a massive generalisation) with gender balance and rights, which the film does touch on. In fact, many of the subjects of the film are aware of the outside view on the culture, and the cultural progression that this subculture seems to be working against. I'd recommend this documentary to anyone mildly curious about the mindset behind an idol's followers, or someone unaware of the idol/otaku subcultures.

Will spark jealousy in Western Karens and those stuck with Western Karens.

I bet people do not surmise that the director is likely a femcel who sports short hair. And I say this not even knowing her.

To hate on a whole class of talent and despise nature, natural attraction and love for the opposite sex takes some kind of a temerity and that kind of temerity manifests itself in the form of a so-called documentary here.

For the rest of us normal, natural and seeing people: The film depicts idols (Japanese pop stars) who are attractive, sport healthy body types and work on their talents and for their audiences 24x7.

The film tries on a line of attack. It fails. No montage can stand in the way of beauty.

"Tokyo Idols" is a documentary about the very young (10 to 18 or so, generally speaking) Japanese girls who become pop singers and cultural "icons" to a segment of Japanese society, in particular certain men aged about 30 to 50. These girls are pretty, cheerful, energetic and very much conditioned to want to please their fans. While this sounds creepy, and in some ways is creepy, the world of these idols is very controlled - the singers will have "handshake" meetings with their fans, for example, but the men are only allowed to shake the girls' hands and there are "minders" standing behind the men and forcing them to move from one idol to another after a set number of seconds has passed. So the girls are relatively safe in what could be a very dangerous situation. This film primarily follows Rio, a relative elder in the scene given that she's 19 as the film begins, 21 at the end of it. The filmmaker, Kyoko Miyake, is very gentle with all the characters; even when you think some of these men are terrible, she always treats them with respect and dignity and, in the end, the viewer is more likely to feel sorry for them than anything else (well, except the young man who is only interested in girls around the age of 10 - they "no longer interest" him when they get older than that). It's a really interesting glimpse into another Japanese phenomenon, complete with commentary from journalists, sociologists and others who have a stake in the culture; well done.