On "D Dream Girls"
Pachinko gaming is a massive, monster-sized industry in Japan. Sure, the average parlor may just look like brainless zombies chain smoking and playing with flashing lights and little steel balls, but THAT GAME also commands 40% of the leisure biz in Japan, keeps millions employed (and addicted), and according to the BBC, makes four times as much profit as the rest of the world’s legal gambling combined. Still, you can never get enough promotion or free publicity…
Thus, game manufacturer Daiichi has decided to form an official new unit known as the "D Dream Girls" to represent the timeless magic and allure of pachinko...
Like every “unit” out there, D Dream Girls needs a gimmick or several piled on top of each other, and Daiichi has hedged their bets by decking out all six girls -- each of whom weighs in with a near 90cm sized bust -- with glasses and thigh high stockings for a look that is being described in official press materials as “neo sexy” (it kind of just looks like girls in glasses and thigh highs to us, but who’s complaining…).
Also, for good measure, each girl, carefully selected from a presumably grueling application process, has been assigned a spot on a sliding scale from “cutie” to "beauty" to “sexy” (below).
The D Dream Girls were officially unveiled by Daiichi on 12/13 at the press event for the CR Fire Dynamite King machine amidst much hype (below).
What's next for the D Dream Girls? Pachinko promotion and gravure modeling seems very, very likely. Hopefully a terrible song and PV are in the making as well. But until such a day arises, you may now stalk them all electronically via their official homepage and blog.
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This article originally ran on Crunchyroll News
Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News. He also runs the Japanese Fashion Inferno tumblr blog. Follow him on twitter at @Patrick_Macias.
On the Event Horizon of Yun*chi
Chatter on the web tapped out in six letters plus asterisk, a phrase tapped out over social networks like a song hook or a sequence of Morse code, repeated repeating, the message saying….
Yun*chi…Yun*chi…Yun*chi
In a time of strife when Chinese patrol ships are
entering Japanese waters, and (more importantly) Aya Ueto went and married some
gorilla from EXILE, “Yun*chi” has become a top search on yahoo.jp.
It’s on the radar now, a developing cloud of stardust on the edge of the galaxy
that begs a question here in Earth Defense Headquarters, “Just who or what is Yun*chi?”
The short version: Yun*chi is a model turned
singer, signed to ASOBISYSTEM, the same agency that Kyary Pamyu Pamyu calls
home. Still in her teens, Yun*chi’s first mini-album is due to arrive this November 14th,
and the hype machine is now spinning in earnest well before any of the music itself has seen official release. So file under "almost famous".
In the last few days alone, Yun*chi has been profiled by numerous outlets in Japan, including the Hochi Shimbun and musicman-net, the latter piece including a ringing endorsement from agency mate Kyary who took the time out of her busy schedule furthering the illuminati agenda to say, “Yun*chi has a wonderfully odd view of the world, and I'm rooting for her with all my might."
Who else is rooting for Yun*chi? Well, here’s
where it gets interesting… A preliminary analysis of her DNA shows a genealogy
that is all over the place – from otaku cheesecake, to “Shibuhara” club kid, to
potential idol of millions – and the machinations of plans within plans.
I first became aware of Yun*chi about a year ago
when she appeared as a model in a series of photographs by Julie Watai, who
once did time in Akihabara as a gravure
idol named “Amano Ai”. After hanging up her pink bikini top, Julie became
instrumental in helping to forge a new kind of post-Akiba nerd culture based
not only in referencing 8-bit videogames like holy texts, but also
participating in events that played up the “cute + tech” angle (I will
now shamelessly name drop and tell you that I hung out with Julie long enough
to insist that she buy a copy of Gibson’s “Neruomancer” right after lunch).
Posed or not, Julie’s fetishistic vision of female otakudom was an act that could work in both AKB and in more rarified parts of town and the gang became the Hardware Girls: a loose knit group of artists, DJs, VJs, and singers – Yun*chi among them – that Julie could brand for “Hardware Girls Night” at talk shows and club gigs. Yun*chi’s roots in otaku culture are forever preserved in Julie’s pictures, baring skin and steaming up the showcases at Nakano Broadway....
The next thing you know, Yun*chi is backed by up-and-coming jimsho ASOBISYSTEM, who are mostly a model agency with a lot of Zipper and KERA magazine faces on their roster. They also have increasing pull in the Shibuya club scene for putting on regular nosebleed electro events like Yasutaka Nakata’s FLASH!!! and TAKENOKO!!! parties (he of Perfume infamy). ASOBISYSTEM’s collusion of magazine-ready fashion plus club music reaches its apex when Kyary Pamyu Pamyu strikes global YouTube gold with PONPONPON and her subsequent Nakata-penned songs and videos. Finally, here was a single act that could put a human face on the all “TOKYO KAWAII HARAJUKU GIRLS POP” marketing buzzwords being tossed around. Others had certainly tried before. Consider how long a heavy hitter like model-turned-singer Tsubasa tried to make good with her Milky Bunny persona and yet has failed to get much traction…
More shameless name dropping: I worked with ASOBISYSTEM briefly in getting Kyary to appear on my Otaku-Verse Zero web show in that split second just before she went supernova. Whereas most show biz agencies you’re likely to encounter tend to be old, demanding, and inhibiting, ASOBISYSTEM came off as young, accommodating, and permissive, although who knows how much has changed in the wake of Kyary’s subsequent ubiquity…It should now be noted that Yun*chi is only the second female act on the ASOBISYSTEM roster of musical acts, so there’s got to be some kind of play book now. And even though I don’t really want to see Yun*chi holding a giant KFC cup anytime soon, the joy of tie-up has already begun…
Whereas Kyary’s initial style and image came from colorful, eyepopping Harajuku shops like 6%DOKIDOKI and SPINNS, Yun*chi’s first fashion collaboration is with the monochromatic bad boys of VANQUISH: a brand that started off as a hilariously oversexed oniikei and host clothier from the MEN’S EGG school before settling down in recent years into something far more ordinary and kinda yankii. While Kyary music now functions as jingles for g.u. TV commercials (which is where people shop when UNIQLO is too expensive) Yun*chi’s mini-lp debut will be rolled out in tandem with a new line of VANQUISH VENUS items for the ladies and, lookie, there’s already a promo video for the line starring the new IT girl herself...
While it would be too early to say that Yun*chi will be angled like a sword point at Shibuya the same way that Kyary was to Harajuku, I’m willing to bet that she’s is likely to be plastered all over the 109-2 building as soon as her mini-lp drops. There's something about the amount of skin Yun*chi tends to show that fits the profile.
But oh yeah, music…I almost forgot about that. Up until about a week ago, Yun*chi was hosting what sounded like demos on her blog, which were taken down as the PR storm broke. It sounded like serviceable J-pop, and she has a nice voice for this sort of thing (she picked up singing from her mom), but yeah… I hope her upcoming disc remembers to contain some of the electro madness as found here in Yun*chi's old 2011 cover of a song from the Kare Kano anime...
Oh, and a great music video -- you know, something more than just a cover photo of Hardware Girl Ushijima Iiniku rotating in the background -- would be essential too to make this thing click with a few people beyond those prone to loitering around on Basketball Street. Or maybe, that's not even the point anymore.
In tossing around notes for this piece with W. David Marx, he said of spokesmodels and singers in a tone I would associate with the architect of the Matrix, “The way I see it, there is no actual audience for it, but there are advertisers/brands (that) need it.” Indeed, it’s practically a matter of principal and honor that any jimsho will pursue business opportunities over furthering a musical phenomenon, but so far practically everything ASOBISYSTEM has carried (Kyary'd?) a strong dose of the authentic about it.
At the edge of the center now stands Yun*chi herself, a cool beauty, unsmiling and still something of a cipher. It's like she's keeping a secret; about how her her bid for stardom is now a map of a fragmented, yet connected, youth culture in Japan…and also how easy it is for partners to make alliances now in points along the Akihabara-Harajuku-Shibuya axis.
Let's hope Yun*chi can hold the line.
UPDATE 10/23, in lieu of today's Tokyo Fashion linkage
Yun*chi wound up taking over the VANQUISH store at the Ikebukuro PARCO, a bit further up the Yamanote line than I initially predicted...
Also, I did not / do not want people to compare Yun*chi to Kyary. It's more like a new superhero has arrived in town from the pages of the same comics company. So if Kyary is a bright red and blue Superman, then Yun*chi can be...Batman?
Also, the promo video for "Reverb", the first of the new mini-lp songs, was released last week. You can read my impressions on it here and watch it below...
Mie Hama - International Sales Materials
Via guest contrib Janne Tervamäki
Eye-popping Robot Girls Restaurant Opens in Tokyo!
Dig Tokyo’s Shinjuku Kabukicho district: a naughty neon-lit Pleasure Island from Pinocchio filled with seedy adult entertainment ranging from hostess clubs, host clubs, strip clubs, massage parlors, all night gourmet eateries… you name it Mack, they got it.
In order to operate a successful business in this overheated hothouse environment, you need a SERIOUS GIMMICK to help separate yourself from the competition. Enter the latest contender on the block: the Shinjuku Kabukicho Robot Restaurant...
Built at a cost of 10 billion yen (they say...), the Robot Restaurant combines garish lighting, with female robots and flesh & blood cabaret girls for a hallucinatory experience that will hopefully do for the jaded, thrill-seeking salarymen of Japan what “Chuck E. Cheese” does for little kids.
For an entrance fee of around US$37.00, patrons and stare slack-jawed as enormous Cutey Honey-esque robots roll around controlled by comely “pilots”.
Army girls patrol the allies of smiles for enemy robots on armored vehicles that would shame anything in Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade!
They also zip around through technicolor LED landscapes on actual motorbikes!
There's even musical shows and revues performed by the girls, including Japanese taiko drumming and a marching band!
And should any of this phantasmagorical spectacle fail to entertain, you can always lose your mind on cheap whiskey and chain smoke like a chimney while staring at the otherworldly décor!
In truth, the joint is more like a kyabakura, or “cabaret club”, than an actual restaurant. Three measly food items in all are listed on the menu, a perfunctory measure probably because it's easier to get a license for food service than to apply for a “giant robots plus army girls and marching bands and motorcycles” license. Either way, here’s wishing the Shinjuku Kabukicho Robot Restaurant the very best of luck as it awkward rolls the human race one step closer to a well-deserved Robopocalypse.
Official website: Shinjuku Robot
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Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News. He also runs the Japanese Fashion Inferno tumblr blog. Follow him on twitter at @Patrick_Macias.
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