Future generations will look back on the current Era of Warring Idols (アイドル戦国時代) in pure wonderment and stark terror. Maybe there will even be memorial buildings and military museums filled with hundreds of bizarre and sparkly girl’s dresses hung up behind bulletproof glass, along with galleries of autographed relics, and interactive “survivor’s tales” from fans and performers alike.
The war’s inevitability will be one of the major study points for visiting students, and how, short of going back in time to prevent the invention of the microprocessor, there really could have been no way to stop it: the Rise of the B-Grade Idols.
The flashpoint occurred the moment that indie producers latched onto affordable tech which made it cheap and easy to create idol music, idol promo videos, and, of course, idol groups. AKB48’s and Perfume’s marches out from the otaku underground into the mainstream helped to map out a new world, and “Idol Units” became the coins of the realm.
It’s been this way for years now: every month, a new indie idol group comes down the line, buzzes up the Japanese net for a bit, and gets a shot at either becoming some kind of next big thing (Momoiro Clover Z occupying that spot now) or remains stuck in idol limbo with regular gigs and maybe -- if they are lucky -- a TV theme song or two.
Either way, the idol scene is now crazier than a cuckoo clock (neophytes would do well to investigate BABY METAL, Team Syachihoko, and 9nine for proof) and you either dig it, or you don’t.
I’ll be writing up a piece about idol audiences later on (with a particular emphasis on female fans, who have been totally ignored in the Western dismissal of idol culture) but to these eyes, it’s like pro wrestling: you can either hoot and holler at the dumb show biz spectacle or take great offense to it. The line is drawn, and for some doubly so after the recent AKB48 “apology video” scandal, but most "Japan pundits" probably stood on the sanctimonious side of disapproval already. Even so, I have a sneaking feeling that history will sort it all out for us and get the last laugh. Pop eats itself, and in 20 to 30 years, people will be “discovering” old indie idol gems much in the same way that people continue to “discover” obscure kayokyoku singles today. But seriously, why wait for an expiration date when Linda III Sei is happening right now?
Pardon the long preamble and background set-up on B-grade idols, but I think it is necessary to try and explain how something as spectacularly odd as the new idol unit known as Linda III Sei (リンダIII世) could even exist in the first place.
Let’s look at what we got here: Linda III Sei is five girls, ages 11-14, bound together by their background as third-generation Brazilian-Japanese living in Gunma Prefecture. As a bonus to their presumably working class backgrounds (Gunma is one of Japan’s major manufacturing centers, and has a large, decidedly non-prosperous, Brazilian populace), they were hand picked by the fickle finger of fate to be idols performing near the exit signs at electronic stores like Yamada Denki in Ota city (below).
Their official bio claims that their sound is “not K-pop, not J-pop”, but “B-pop” influenced by Brazil’s Baile Funk party scene. But in truth, the group’s first release, “Future Century eZ zoo” (未来世紀eZ zoo) is an ear bending Frankenstein monster of auto-tune settings, 8-bit sounds, some English and mangled Japanese, that bravely remembers to include a full-on samba interlude on the bridge. The result is something strange and shockingly new.
The song’s stylistic mash-up is the sonic equivalent of the inexplicable outfits the girls are forced to wear: steampunk tops, medieval torture straps, tattoo tights, and sneakers. Again, we are in the realm of indie producers, and the ones behind the scenes here are said to have worked on songs for Johnny’s boy band V6 and some anime themes. But everything goes out the window once you see the video for "Future Century eZ zoo", which first erupted two weeks ago.
Linda III Sei look like they put together hours before the video was shot; dance like the choreography was taught seconds before. The sheep and chickens probably just wandered into the frame. I get the same feeling I get from Wassup Rockers, Diane Arbus pics and early Harmony Korine films: “I am gazing at something that cannot possibly exist, but the world is so fucking weird that I guess it must”. The only major misstep in a work of otherwise synapse rattling chaos, randomness, and literal darkness are the zombies. Is there anything more plebian and ordinary than zombies at this point?
Lots of questions begin to whirl about, and the group is so new that there’s just not a lot of answers. But decoding names can turn up some clues. As mentioned before, the girls in the group are third-generation Brazilian-Japanese, hence the name “Linda the Third”. Also, the girls have said in interviews that “they want to steal fan’s hearts”, just like anime/manga anti-hero Lupin the Third, and their use of a familiar-looking retro font for their official logo seems to hint at this connection. And would you believe that Terry Gilliam is also part of this goulash? His 1985 film is known as “Future Century Brazil” in Japan (未来世紀ブラジル), a reference that bonkura fans will immediately pick up when considering the title of Linda III Sei’s first single.
Either way, identity politics and outsider status are the key to Linda III Sei’s gimmick and could effectively be mined by academics for days. For others, the Brazil-Japan connection will be about as culturally enlightening as a drunken night out to a Philippine Pub. The Japanese net is intrigued for now, and their facebook and YouTube pages are swarmed with comments in Portuguese. While it is unlikely that you will see them on NHK's Red and White Singing Contest anytime soon, seriously, how often do you see Brazilian-Japanese people in the spotlight, even one as wobbly as this?
Call it exploitation, call it trash, call it pre-apocalyptic performance art. It's a motherfuckin' ZOO and future history will call them IDOLS.
Linda III sei its because Linda means beautiful in portuguese and Sansei means third generation of japanese people the pv have influence in a British movie called Brazil (I'm not sure about this last info)
Posted by: Kirari | April 06, 2013 at 07:37 AM
Thanks, I just updated this article with some more info about names. I don't see any influence from the movie BRAZIL in the PV (I have watched that movie over and over and over and over again as recently as last week), but it is definitely an influence on the name of the song "Future Century eZ zoo"
Posted by: Patrick | April 06, 2013 at 07:42 AM