reviews

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082124 sakura in lesserafim
nobody in the world is probably as upset about this as i am. but i really dont know why people arent complaining about this more. so Sakura Miyawaki is a japanese singer and idol figure who is just bullied and hated almost to death by so many people online. and i dont think thats normal or good (crazy opinion there). so im gonna talk about why people hate her and why im pissed about it!!!!!!
Sakura has been in 3 prominent groups. AKB48, Izone and Lesserafim. so akb48 is a very popular jpop group while both izone and lessserafim are both kpop groups (both very popular as well). so jpop and kpop have a lot of differences for reasons obvious and less so, but the main one that people point out is the dancing/singing style.
heres an example of jpop singing and dancing - mostly rhythm based dancing and chorus style singing all as one voice and one step while sort of emphasizing the together-ness and syncronicity of the group as well as the sharpness of the dance. this isnt about all jpop groups obviously, but im using akb48 as the example because it relates to the treatment of sakura. link to jpop example here
and heres a comperable kpop group example. kpop dancing varies as widely as jpop does but this is the style that izone does most often which is a good comparison for that era of kura's idol-ship. the syncronicity is emphasized once again but its not the focus, for larger groups this is very important but in smaller groups not so much. i chose this wjsn song and dance because conecptually they are more similar than other groups rn. most kpop girl groups emphasize the dance breaks which are not big in jpop (to my knowledge). kpop example
and finally heres an example of lesserafim style of dancing which is sakura's current home group. i chose one of the newer newjeans songs bc theyve been setting the tone for kpop recently. this shows a 5 member girl group which is the same size as lsfm. newjeans example

heres sakura in akb48 - she leads the song here and is the one on the raised platform here heres sakura in izone - she is the member with the pink hair here and finally here is sakura in le sserafim - she is the member with the silver hair here
okay so this all adds up to sakura's treatment in lesserafim which is HORRIBLE. nothing actually bad but the fans of lesserafim are so mean to her all the time. there's a phrase in kpop rn called a "dozen" as in "dozen (doesn't) do anything". this was originally lobbed at lucas of nct because he has sexual assualt allegations and also did nothing for the group because he sucked at singing and dancing. which... not to have a crazy take or anything... doesn't remind me of sakura at all. she has a great stage presence and keeps up with the members of any group shes in! she was super popular in akb48 in japan because she was so cute (and like 14 lol) and she took her talent to korea to try and make it as a kpop idol. in 2018 she adapted and like trained for survival show produce 48 where she made the final lineup and placed SECOND. she then joined izone with current lesserafim member kim chaewon. most if not all survival show groups are temporary so in 2021 when izone disbanded she went back to akb48 (hkt48) and finally graduated from akb48 (a process that all members - i think- must go through, very cute here's a video of her final performance. after that she re-debuted with Le Sserafim with fearless. so okay now here she is like 11 years into her career in 2021 and people have continued to hate on her since akb48 through to the present day.
you might be saying why? why her? is she like evil or something? no! well not to my knowledge. but most people think her hate stems from her time on pd48. many japanese watchers and fans were upset that the korean girls seemed to be getting better or more special treatment/rigging in their favor on the show. most of this japanese hatred was lobbed at the very popular jang wonyoung. wonyoung's fanbase was huge in korea as she was most often teased at being the next iu or like nation's pride type idol. they began to resent the japanese fans and thus sakura herself. so these kfans of wonyoung's started to call sakura useless or whatever for the next millenia pretty much. wonyoung is still extremely popular in korea and worldwide while sakura is called a dozen and is hated on constantly.
one of the main reasons people explain their hatred of her is saying that she doesnt fit the concept of lesserafim because of her roots as a japanese idol. and like this, to me, seems weirdly racist. like japanese and "foreign" members of most kpop groups get hate from the korean fans because of korean history overall and more presently just strange racism (imo). another thing that pisses me off so bad is that people say she cant sing. and like whatever who cares. people have such a high standard for these girls and any girl in an idol group just so they can brag and show off to other fans of other groups and idols that their little pet can hit a high note in one song and can sing with no reverb or whatever proof that they can dig up. so theyre so quick to go from saying that everything about an idol is important and valued highly to saying "well at least ___ can sing, unlike ____ bc at the end of the day they are SINGERS". like yes obviously they sing as a PART of their job but thats not it! people love to praise idols for their visuals (looks / pretty-ness) and dancing ability above all else just to prove to others that they are superior as a fan of that idol. its ridiculous and insane.
a recent example of this is in Le Sserafim's concert documentary they did. theres a scene where sakura can't hit a high note or can't sing a certain part and she starts crying because of it. people on twitter and tiktok and instagram have absolutely no sympathy or empathy for her and start to say the usual things about her once again. like this qrt explains it well but the original tweet is so fucking evil . like people just cant see these idols as people anymore they just expect them to be perfect at everything. they have the same mindset as people who find suicide or depression cowardly. their whole "grow up and accept it" mindset is so insane like why does any of this matter that much???? i genuinely dont understand how people can act like this in service of their idol of choice. like the op is an aespa sh00ter so its not suprising as their fanbase is actually insane and chronically online (like most fans but yk what i mean). and yeah i dont know like the hatred on her specifically is genuinely coming from all sides. Le Sserafim fans want her out of the group because they act like shes pulling them down and like yeah for sure 98 million views on their latest mv is just sooo embarassing. like obviously hybe wanted sakura in their group because shes very loved by her japanese fanbase but that doesn't mean thats the ONLY reason they debuted her. but yeah most fans are chaewon stans and act like shes the second coming of christ, so they have to inevitably put down another popular member of the group in order to exalt her more.
here is the post that made me write this whole thing right here . so in the clip we see (from L to R) kazuha, eunchae and sakura performing akb48's song 夢でKISS ME. the comments on this one are outrageous. most of them are just blatently telling sakura to go back to japan and stay there. some of them are being performative and saying "well look how good she did at this random japanese idol song like you cant tell me that shes not MEANT to stay in japan forever". and the main problem with all of this is that this is literally her song. like shes singing it on the track. you can tell that the other members leanred the dance and song but sakura knew it already. like here she is performing it. this is the video that people looooveee to pass around and be like "Well shes sooo much better as a j-idol". its just so insane to me that people are treating this like she fits this so much better when this is just how she was trained originally and literally her song. like i dont know. i just dont understand these people who put down others and use sakura as a punching bag. thats just how stan culture is i guess. but i love sakura i think shes so beautiful. i wasn't an izone fan when they debuted and i dont really love le sserafim but i like their songs enough to say that theyre a group i like but i honestly cant engage with the fandom because of how fucking rotten it is to one of their own members!!! but yeah support sakura shes great and doing very well under the stress and circumstances that shes been thrown into.

062124 menus plaisirs - les troisgros
im currently watching this documentary, it is very long (3h59m) and im partially watching it out of spite which i find funny and worthy of writing about. one of my evil roommates (the more evil of the two, i genuinely dislike them to a point of hatred) is obsessed with the director/editor so i have to hear about it like near constantly. here is a scene that occured before the beginning of the end:
ER1 : omg [ER2's name] you GOTTA watch this documentary. its wiseman so its goated and it about the daily happenings of a restuaraunt. (this part they say like near constantly so this is pretty much a direct quote) wiseman just shoots a bunch of stuff and then creates this masterwork in the editing room, its a masterpiece.
ER2 : oh yeah. okay.
ER1 : yeah see i thought you would want to watch it because you like to cook and you like the tv show the bear.
ER2 : yeah we should watch it sometime.
ER1 : WE totally should. maybe while [my name] is at work? i know they wont be interested.
Me : i would watch it too! i think that stuff is very intere-
ER1 : oh. sure.
END SCENE.
as you can tell im a little annoyed by that conversation like it really was the beginning of the end with them like they really did just start doing everything without me (which is fine like i do not want to be around them). anyway. im about a half hour into the movie, ill update as i wish and write an actual review later. maybe.

061324 my millenial co-workers
they are so funny. just putting this here to remind me to write about them after work.

060424 K-Pop Random Play Dance Videos
this is a genre of video that i used to be more into last year and the year before, but ive fallen off as ive left the twitter kpop community / tiktok / playing games. I did most of this because i have no friends who are into it at all, so i just sort of feel like a loser for engaging. anyway. if youre not familiar ill explain all the moving parts here. so kpop as a whole is very focused on dancing / choreography and thus fans love to do cover dances of their favorite groups or whatever is popular to post on tiktok or instagram or whatever. people sometimes form cover groups to do multiple covers of various songs with different combinations of dancers and such and sometimes these cover groups get pretty popular. these are usually the people who put on the events in question or sometimes its like cultural appreciation societies, the actual groups themselves or dance influencers.
alright now that the background is established, lets get into it. the event itself is often in a public area like a town square, a park or a walking area near a mall or something. most of the time the floor is concrete and flat, every once in a while youll see a field but those look less fun to me. during the event, everyone participating forms two lines facing inwards on the right and left of a large open area in the middle. usually theres a line seperating the "Stage" from the outside as well as a marker in the front so dancers wont go too far forward. another phenomenon of the RPD is that these are all filmed, which is my favorite part.
for the RPD itself the coordinators will play songs from a playlist with about a 5 second countdown in between each track change. usually there is some leeway in the beginning of the song. oftentimes, the chorus is played in the song. this is usally the catchiest and most performed part of any given song, the same with most any song im guessing. the example im gonna use to illustrate this is probably the most overplayed kpop song of right this second while im writing this, Illit's Magnetic. So here is the dance practice video and at 31 seconds in is when the prechorus starts and thus when the countdown for the RPD would begin. the part immediately after "this time i want-" is the chorus part that literally everyone and their mom knows (including me, sorry it goes hard). but that section up until about 1:06 is what would be played at the RPD. but yeah they just repeat this process for like 40 or 50 songs. mostly these are newer songs (4th and 5th gen with the occasional 2nd and 3rd gen song - a tangent i cannot explain rn) that have been covered a lot by dancers online as well as other idols.
okay now i have the basics explained im going to talk about what i actually wanted to review which is the types of people who participate in these events. ill be ranking them here and giving examples, sorry to the people i point out for my least favorites LOL. (EDIT - im too tired to add examples rn, ill watch a new rpd soon and add some from there.
7th place - kids the two girls in the pink jackets in the front left are my example for kids. i hate when kids are in RPDs like please go home im so sorry like the industry is going to put you in the next YG group like go play outside stop wearing makeup and twerking like im scared!!!!!!
6th place - twinks who think theyre hot shit. sorry but oh my god please stop again. its always like them trying to do dally or some other pussy song like that and they go trying to break their backs and hips trying to show off their bones like i can always hear them rattling. and they always go straight to the front and then do worse than half the people behind them oh man get out of here!!!!!
that one person who does the second chorus choreo - the example is a very infamous girl who does this like every time oh my god. HATE. like you know damn well everyone is going to do the main chorus. the worst part is that theyre usually ALWAYS playing the first chorus anyway like im sorry but you are indeed wrong.
mega slayer girl (annoying) - the same as the twinks but its a girl so its a little better.
unassuming girl slaying bg songs - c-ntalicious diva dot com.
whole group sync - fire and hard to know if itll work.
partner dances done well the example of this is the blue haired girl and her partner like wow slayers okay!!!!! its better when they dont know each other and they just happen to do the opposite part but like its okay this slays i love gay people happy pride.
2nd / 3rd gen stans - representation.
mega slayer girl (positive). - no notes, usually incorporates all types of kpop, not just gg or bg but like everything.

050224 Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage
holy fuck i could never be a veagan in a million years i love jimmy dean breakfast sausage or just breakfast sausage in general. allegedly, theyre good because of the black pepper and sage content. god. give me a sausage egg and cheese sandwich right now. that might be my death row meal tbh. god i love you breakfast sausage.

041024 the A24 podcast with Julio Torres and Emma Stone

i thought this episode was great. I love Julio Torres, I think he's such an interesting artist. I find a lot of joy and amusement from his comedy special, specifically. I might rewatch it after this. I really love that he got to work with Tilda Swinton after talking about her in the special, too. I can't relate that much to him, as I am not under any sort of pressure with the government due to my nationality, but I find myself relating to a lot of the things that he finds interesting. I also don't drive and I felt very strong kinship there. Also of course I love Emma Stone. She's definitely in my S tier of actors right now. She finds herself in the company of other actors I find both sexy and talented (Mads Mikklesen, Tom Cruise, Tilda too, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, Cassavetes/Rowlands, etc). I loved her work on The Curse, even if I didn't really love the show as a whole. I think Benny Safdie soured it for me, I think I hate him. I really like Emma's attitude, ecspecially as an Oscar winner, she still seems to be like... normal. But who knows. She is an actor.