Musings of the Obsessive Kind

You know how I said I was giving up Veronica Mars? The widely polarizing reactions I've seen on my flist to last night's ep actually made me want to check it out for myself, if only to see what all the uproar was about. It's kinda sad, but a small mean part of me wants to watch it just so I can bust on it, which I know is irrational since I haven't even seen the damn thing.

I have also realized I've been neglecting Battlestar Galactica fandom shamelessly and haven't even done any write-ups post 3.02. So here are my quick thoughts on 3.03 ( Cut in case someone on my flist hasn't seen it yet but wants to remain unspoiled )

I still have long meta to write on My Girl and that reminds me. When I went in search of more MG pics on soompi, I went into Lee Dong-Wook thread (he played Gong-Chan) and I was really taken aback. It contained the usual sqeeing about his hotness, but besides that most of the topic (which went literally into hundreds of pages) from my cursory scanning was about people shipping him with Da Hae, the actress who played Yu-Rin. I am really taken aback and surprised by the huge amount of RPShipping going on in there. People were posting pictures of them at some event(s), analyzing their body language to support their theories, etc. Which is pretty bizarre. The only basis for thinking they are dating, as far as I could tell, was that they starred in MG together and had great chemistry (which they did). But they aren't Gong-Chan and Yu-Rin, they are real people with separate identities. That led me to wonder as to why RPShipping seems to be so much more prevalent in Asian fandoms. I haven't seen such levels of devotion to it as in LDW thread very often, but if you go into the Goong thread, people there are all about hooking up the actors who play the leads, and ditto for the DBY thread where people are into hooking up Mike He and Rainie Yang because they were good together in DBY.

Is the line between entertainment and reality thinner there? Do people have different norms? (In most non-Asian fandoms, RPF is regarded as a bastard cousin you never admit to the house, or if you do, it's at the dead of night). I can't even say that RPF is a fan continuation of canonically-supplied RPF (like with Japanese idols who work for JE and do canon RPF for fans) because as far as I am aware, that is not the case in Taiwan or Korea. I find RPF/S of any kind vaguely disturbing, firstly for privacy reasons (I wouldn't ship people I met on the street, ditto actors) but mainly because it seems to me to blur the line between reality and fiction and deny the realness of real people just because you don't know them in person.

Anyway, this was a digression.

This is going to be pretty random but I have a jpop related question.

I know very little of jpop except for what I've heard from winterspel and read on my flist (I have a number of JE and other jpop fans on my flist). I find it fascinating that JE (Johnny's Entertainment, an agency that runs most of the male jpop groups) seems to actually mix performance and officially-sanctioned RPF. In fact, it plays into RPF on purpose: there is deliberately created RPS fanservice and it's pretty in-your face if the Kat-Tun stuff I've seen is any example (no idea if other bands do it as well but winterspel indicated they do).

Now, I find it sociologically interesting and rather unique to Japan. My knowledge of Asian pop in general is pretty slim but I don't see anything like this in e.g. Taiwan. I mean, F4 is built around the premise 'we have four uber-hot guys' but not 'and they like to rip each other's clothes off off-stage' premise.

But that is not what my question is about. Since RPS seems to be so engraned and such a part of the style of the thing, how does it come into play when any of the JE boys actually end up with someone? Because I doubt all of them are gay, any more than all of them are straight. Does it wreck the fantasy and is it frowned upon? It can't be, at least dating-wise, because I know a lot of them are dating (women) but I wonder if that interferes with the image or do the fans completely appreciate this is a performance? And do all JE bands do this to a greater or lesser degree or just some and is KAT-TUN particularly a stand-out in that way?

And how about marriage? Is it a complete deal-breaker? Aka a kiss of death career-wise? Not just because of RPS/F but because that conclusively takes the idol in question out of the realm of possibility for fantasizing fans. Is it like earlier Bollywood, where if you wanted to be a leading man, you had to conceal if you were married? I know Kimura Takuya is married (and has kids!) but you know...he is Kimura Takuya (plus, I have no idea if SMAPxSMAP ever did RPS. But still, the marriage thing would be a problem on the Bollywood principle above). How about in general? Jpop seems to be so much more all-inclusive about image: it's not just singing ot videos or even acting but an all-round careful, complicated, all-encompassing image, so I wonder...

I am just so completely fascinated by the idea of public life as performance. Not to mention, official RPF fanservice.

Also, I don't feel like watching new doramas but instead am getting urge to rewatch Goong, one of my Top 10. My Top 10 in order are: 1. Mars 2. Pride 3. A Love to Kill 4. Meteor Garden 5. Goong 5. Full House (tie) 6. It Started with a Kiss 7. Forbidden Love 8. Silence (which would be way higher except it's so angsty it's making me want to slit my wrists). 9. Kurosagi 10. Tokyo Juliet. 10. Love Contract 10. Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake (tie, yes, I don't care that it adds to 12). Once I watch more episodes Tatta Hitotsu No Koi and Sang-Do, Let's Go to School might join them. I was going to watch Nobuta Wo Produce next but I think I've watched too many jdoramas in a row and am thinking of watching a twdrama next (there is nothing like a well-made twdrama) or maybe a kdrama because I have the most of those.

This is going to be pretty random but I have a jpop related question.

I know very little of jpop except for what I've heard from winterspel and read on my flist (I have a number of JE and other jpop fans on my flist). I find it fascinating that JE (Johnny's Entertainment, an agency that runs most of the male jpop groups) seems to actually mix performance and officially-sanctioned RPF. In fact, it plays into RPF on purpose: there is deliberately created RPS fanservice and it's pretty in-your face if the Kat-Tun stuff I've seen is any example (no idea if other bands do it as well but winterspel indicated they do).

Now, I find it sociologically interesting and rather unique to Japan. My knowledge of Asian pop in general is pretty slim but I don't see anything like this in e.g. Taiwan. I mean, F4 is built around the premise 'we have four uber-hot guys' but not 'and they like to rip each other's clothes off off-stage' premise.

But that is not what my question is about. Since RPS seems to be so engraned and such a part of the style of the thing, how does it come into play when any of the JE boys actually end up with someone? Because I doubt all of them are gay, any more than all of them are straight. Does it wreck the fantasy and is it frowned upon? It can't be, at least dating-wise, because I know a lot of them are dating (women) but I wonder if that interferes with the image or do the fans completely appreciate this is a performance? And do all JE bands do this to a greater or lesser degree or just some and is KAT-TUN particularly a stand-out in that way?

And how about marriage? Is it a complete deal-breaker? Aka a kiss of death career-wise? Not just because of RPS/F but because that conclusively takes the idol in question out of the realm of possibility for fantasizing fans. Is it like earlier Bollywood, where if you wanted to be a leading man, you had to conceal if you were married? I know Kimura Takuya is married (and has kids!) but you know...he is Kimura Takuya (plus, I have no idea if SMAPxSMAP ever did RPS. But still, the marriage thing would be a problem on the Bollywood principle above). How about in general? Jpop seems to be so much more all-inclusive about image: it's not just singing ot videos or even acting but an all-round careful, complicated, all-encompassing image, so I wonder...

I am just so completely fascinated by the idea of public life as performance. Not to mention, official RPF fanservice.

Also, I don't feel like watching new doramas but instead am getting urge to rewatch Goong, one of my Top 10. My Top 10 in order are: 1. Mars 2. Pride 3. A Love to Kill 4. Meteor Garden 5. Goong 5. Full House (tie) 6. It Started with a Kiss 7. Forbidden Love 8. Silence (which would be way higher except it's so angsty it's making me want to slit my wrists). 9. Kurosagi 10. Tokyo Juliet. 10. Love Contract 10. Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake (tie, yes, I don't care that it adds to 12). Once I watch more episodes Tatta Hitotsu No Koi and Sang-Do, Let's Go to School might join them. I was going to watch Nobuta Wo Produce next but I think I've watched too many jdoramas in a row and am thinking of watching a twdrama next (there is nothing like a well-made twdrama) or maybe a kdrama because I have the most of those.