Arashi5x15 + Rare Photos

Here's the thing, I've been an Arashi fan since 2006 due to Jun Matsumoto's Gokusen, I was soon-to-be a high school freshman then and Jun Matsumoto was my boyfriend. Now it's 2014, Arashi is already in their 30's and I've graduated from the university. Seeing all the updates on their Blast in Hawaii concert, this sums up what I feel:

HAHAHA! Seriously, I'm so jelly right now, but I'm so fucking happy for the boys that any negative emotions is washed away by the great love and support from all Arashi fans worldwide. Now as a celebration for Arashi's 15th anniversary in the enetertainment industry, I'll be sharing some of their rare photos!

Quick Update: An Interesting Tweet

I know I've been absent for a long time now, but here's a quick blog post. A certain tweet is circulating around twitter the past week. I don't know if it's true or what but it holds a juicy information for all Jun Matsumoto x Mao Inoue fans out there:

うちの後輩の前住んでた家が松潤の実家の近くで、毎年お正月頃に松潤が井上真央連れて実家帰って来るって言ってたぞ
— ナミキ◟̑◞̑≪横スタ両日 (@roooqd6o9) August 13, 2014

English Translation: "The house my kohai (junior coworker/student) used to live in is near MatsuJun's parents' place, and he was saying that every year around New Year's Eve, MatsuJun comes home with Mao Inoue."

I dug around OP's Twitter page and she doesnt seem to be an Arashi fangirl, which makes the tweet kinda believable. Still enjoyed hearing this tidbit though nyahaha

Analyzing Arashi Music Videos is Now an Academic Effort

Arashi fans are now excited for Arashi's new single "GUTS!", but in a surprising turn of events, another Arashi-related news is making its way around the online community. Apparently, Meiji University is offering a course focusing on one of Japan's biggest male group to date

The prestigious Meiji University, a private institution located in Tokyo, is offering a class on the boy band, Arashi. While this marks the first time the class will be devoted to Arashi, the class itself, a study in social psychology, has been offered for twenty years. Due to students' demands for a study on sexuality, the course has also previously discussed the band SMAP. This year's course comes at a good time—Arashi is celebrating their 15th anniversary, having debuted in 1999. 

According to the syllabus, the following topics will be covered:
Introduction - Arashi's Era
The Culture of Johnny's Entertainment
Before Arashi, focusing on SMAP
Changes in Arashi's PVs - Before the big break
Changes in Arashi's PVs - After the big break
A comparison of the members of Arashi
Arashi members as they appear on variety shows
Arashi in dramas
Arashi in concert
Arashi and J-Pop
Arashi and K-Pop
Johnny's Entertainment post-Arashi
Overview on the Era of Arashi
Test

This is one university course I am certain I'll definitely pass with flying colors.

SMAP vs Arashi?

Japanese idols are often depicted as lucky individuals who have made it big, they represent the public and has a close relationship with their audiences. In order to do so, they are not supposed to be seen as intimidating. What's the golden formula then? They must be good, but they must not be perfect. Nowadays, there are two big names in Johnny's, namely SMAP and Arashi. Despite having sempai/kohai relationship, people just love to compare one against the other.

Nino's in a bad mood~

From what I could understand, a few people were taking photos despite the ban on taking pics. Nino (and I'm not sure with this action) motioned for them to stop. They didn't and went on with the photography. This is the allegedly result: Nino looks pissed. 

Looks like the fans had thrown away whatever fan etiquette they know and it's sad.

Ohno's Head Gets Rounder

Kyou no Hi wa Sayonara' is a special drama for NTV's '24-Hour Television 36 Ai wa Chikyuu wo Sukuu' to be shown on August 24th.

Ohno will play Kouta, who is diagnosed with malignant lymphoma. With 3 months to live, he makes a resolve to accept his fate and face death bravely.  Naturally the role asks Ohno to be shaven/bald at some point in the drama to make the side effects of Kouta's illness and treatment be realistic. Ohno was said to be alright with the idea. However his agency kinda intervened and the Kaibutsu-kun makeup artist was called.

So this is the output? if it's true, well it sure looks real to me.

People Bowing to Arashi...WUT?

This week, photos of supposedly Arashi fans bowing to the posters of the boys are circulating around the Japanese social media. It is quite weird and very alarming. Here is Kotaku's aritcle about the situation:

Have you ever heard of Arashi? It's a Japanese boy band that's so popular, that a poster of the group is drawing crowds, cameras, and grovelling. You might not know Arashi, but perhaps you've seen Letters from Iwo Jima? One of the stars, Kazunari Ninomiya, is a member of Arashi. The group has also appeared in Nintendo commercials, most notably for the 3DS launch, so there's that

Copying off our Boys? Really?

Hi, I'm here for another Arashi post! I'll talk about people outside the group this time, these are the ones crawling over twitter and blogs because they are said to have done a bit of snooping and copying off the popular Japanese group. Weirdly the following allegations had nothing to do with their music or dance steps:

Arashi Fans Please be Aware

[News] Popular Boyband Arashi posts concert videos on Facebook, violates copyright laws

In an unprecedented move by Japanese national idols Arashi, videos of their latest Tokyo Dome concert were posted online onto a Facebook group website "iL0v3AraShI". Industry experts, fans and JE staff were flabbergasted; why would Arashi blatantly violate anti-piracy laws, especially when the music industry was already reporting losses in Japan?

To be able to understand more of this, read the rest HERE
To sum it up, it talks about the worsening problem of Arashi fans and a certain FB group irresponsibly sharing copyrighted materials, along with using files not crediting the original uploader in anyway whatsoever, plus sharing Popcorn DVD leak even before its release. 

Oh and also pretending they are Arashi guys themselves. 
also pretending they are Arashi 
pretending they are Arashi
Misleading new fans and saying thank yous and using "we, I, us" and shit
Ha, that's waaay below the belt.

Not all of the fans could get their hands on some Arashi concerts/singles, thus those who are kind enough to share what they have deserve all the respect we could give. Being a ninja in the LJ communities and posting them somewhere in a public page, taking all the credit, is idiotic AND endangers the whole online Arashi community.

Anyone Excited for Hidamari no Kanojo ?

Matsumoto Jun is finally paired up with Ueno Juri in a romance movie! So excited or this one. The film, which will open in October this year, is based on the popular romance novel of the same name by author Koshigaya Osamu. It’s said to be the number one love story girls want boys to read, such reputation, we could assume these readers might have high expectations for the film.

The story follows the romance of a salesman, Kosuke (Matsumoto) and childhood friend Mao (Ueno) and their decision to marry. However, Mao is keeping a secret... But for now, let us google at the photos of the two characters looking good together~

Arashi fashion

So many episodes, Arashi guys are quite busy with their shows, needless to say, they have nice tastes when it comes to fashion, or maybe it's their stylists. Either let us see a few of what they've worn

 

Our Laptop's Motherboard is Officially DEAD

I'll try to catch up with whatever blogging I should catch up with, here I am punching on somebody else's keyboard using somebody else's computer, waiting for some new desktop to fly itself into my room. I don't expect I'll be able to make long blogposts for weeks to come. Anyway I just found these two funny pics of Ohno and Nino, may this serve my blog well this week~

The Romantic Escapades of Ohno Satoshi

Ohno Satoshi, the fisherman, artist and everything else. Over the years, I've personally observed the increasing number of Ohno fans among Arashi stalkers. Which is kind of cool since he's also my favorite. But together with his ever changing hairstyle, Ohno also had his own number of girls as the years went by, some with fellow entertainers, others are girls we, as fans, would never get to know about. But of course we all know Ohno only shares his soul with Kazunari Nino, but I guess we still need to know who these girls were.

Let us see how Ohno tackled them~

The Romantic Escapades of Aiba Masaki

Aiba Masaki. This. Guy. Is. Sunshine incarnate. I only have two girls for Aiba though, so this only means that our Smiling dude has the fewest girlfriends? Don't know, but we may as well see who made it into his heart.

The Romantic Escapades of Sho Sakurai

As of this moment, Sakurai Sho is famous due to various elements. Sexy body, sexy raps, sexy news casting and  the capability to create amazing art pieces. His reputation when it comes to girls isn't as noisy as Jun's or Ohno's, nor as often, and instead had his share of tabloids through him being a chain smoker and allegedly bitchy attitude to fans (the events of which are all the fangirls' fault ).

But naturally he still had a few female issues in the past. Just a handful, but in a Japanese media's point of view when an idol dates a girl, we call it full blown scandals. 
Oh yeah, let us see some lucky faces

The Romantic Escapades of Ninomiya Kazunari

Ah the Forever Seventeen-year-old. Everyone's captivated by the epicness of Nino's immortal face. An Heir, Singer, Actor, Gamer, Host, Magician, Nino is also one of the JE idols whom the agency seemed to be lenient with. Throughout his career the guy was linked to a few girls but the seriousness of those relationships sounds real instead of just being a bunch of stories to spice up publicity.

Any fangirl would fall for that one

Guy-dates-girl is a normal type of gossip, but guy-dates-girl-and-is-serious-and-gives-gifts rumors are just too specific. Yet JE seems ok with it, as long as it's Nino? 
Maybe his cuteness could melt any of his seniors' hearts or maybe he is a truly obedient talent and understands the rules. If all else fails, plain favoritism. If I were to have a brother like him, I would be bias too anyway.

Nino's quite famous during his junior days, his bratty ways matured but remained playful and noisy. A number of girls were lucky enough to be able to know who he really is behind the camera.
So now let us look at the faces that had been placed beside Nino's in tabloids throughout the years.

Future Husband Ohno Satoshi in anan

Fucking GORGEOUS 31-year-old. When I'm bias, I am strictly favoring Ohno. I get excited when AnAn features Arashi members, I mean every time you Google Anan, you see Sho's abs and Jun is always present on the covers too, year in, year out. So when it's Ohno's turn once again. I just want to go on fangirling

Meet the Family

JE boys are notorious for having mysterious lives outside the entertainment industry. Mainly due to the agency's strict rules and regulations. Secrecy covers the family members. If I were an idol of course, I will not want to have my own loved ones stalked by fangirls.

But anyway, since we are normal fans,
I guess its alright to get to know them a little bit.

The Romantic Escapades of Matsumoto Jun

First let us read the following blind item urageinou2 wrote: "National idol group member M-J of A, is finally exposing his being a gay. This rumor has been circulated among the media lately."

Oh perfect, another gay rumor to add to the list. So far nothing has been revealed so Matsumoto is still and will always be officially a Male Man. Being one though needs the company of women, and Jun has been linked to a few gorgeous personalities through the years. So let us go down the memory lane and meet the females.

Arashi's Decline? Pulezzz

I remember this article by cyzo translated by Omoxi of Tumblr:

Since the mid-2000s, Arashi has sprung into the top artist seat, but since last year, their popularity has started to see gloom.

“In the 2000s, Arashi appearing in the media increased, and they acquired many new fans. However on the other hand, they’ve lost the power to attract core fans who shell out money, and their popularity foundation is dwindling. At the same time, however, groups like Kanjani8 or Hey! Say! JUMP have acquired this power, and even new groups like Kis-My-Ft2, Sexy Zone, or A.B.C.-Z have become a topic.”

“Each of Arashi’s members have some type of charm, but do not have the strong, influential personalities like Kimura Takuya or Nakai Masahiro that allows you to reign over the entertainment world for a long time. If they lose the age they can be called “cute”, Arashi’s members have lack of a personality to continue as the National Idol Group, or in other words, are too much this generation’s child.

Arashi’s bubble has reached its peak, and what comes next for them is now the real challenge. SMAP doesn’t have a member with higher education like Sakurai Sho, or a talented artist like Ohno Satoshi, but the question is can Arashi once more create their own era again? In any case, it looks like their real worth as an idol group can only be answered this year.”

So let us discuss: