My Wota Journey

Sooooooo I saw Ray's Post about the idol fandom on Idolminded then I saw Chiima's post (which is very similar to my encounter with idols), and then Morningtime's post so I figured, what the hell, I'm sick at home so I may as well blog!

So when I was a young child I watched a lot of cartoons, Scooby Doo being my number one favorite.  I loved cartoon network, and one Saturday morning on ABC.  I was flipping channels one day and I found the coolest show ever:

POKEMON.

Seriously, I watched one episode of this and I was hooked.  Every Saturday I plopped myself in front of the TV with a bowl of cereal to watch Pokemon.  I was obsessed.  I had the pokedex book, the pokemon gameboy color, pokemon yellow, a team rocket shirt (with which I coordinated a Team Rocket outfit, all red and black baby), and a big-ass binder full of cards.  Yeah, I was that kid.  Sometimes it would be on TV when I wasn't home, so my mom set up the VCR (woah) to tape it for me.

And she always set it to tape a few minutes before and after time so I wouldn't miss anything.  And it was then that I noticed that there were two other awesome shows I had to watch.  Before, Sailor Moon.  After, Card Captors.  Three of the most awesome cartoons EVER all in a row!  I thought I was the luckiest kid in the whole world!  I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something about these cartoons that made them different from Scooby Doo and the Smurfs.  The drawings looked different, the stories had me holding my breath with suspense!  I wanted to know where these cartoons came from!

It was when I turned eight years old that I found out what Japan was.  My school had all of the second grade participate in a "Japanese Fair."  We memorized the main islands of Japan, learned how to count to ten in Japanese, put on 'kimonos' (some kids wore bathrobes) and paraded around the hallways for the rest of the school.  We even tried Japanese candy and rice crackers!  I thought Japan was the coolest place ever!  It was so different, so cool!  I had that same feeling that I did when I watched Pokemon.  I had found something different and awesome, and I wanted to immerse myself in it!

But for some reason I didn't make the connection between those cartoons and the Japanese fair until I was fourteen.  I was in 8th grade Algebra one day and I saw my friend Anastasia reading a comic book backwards.  I asked her why and she told me it was a manga, and that manga came from Japan.  I'd never heard of it before!  She had the book finished by the end of the day so she let me take it home.

When I got home and opened my backpack, I saw this:

My mouth dropped open in surprise.  They look like the characters from Pokemon!  I rushed to my computer and lo and behold, both Marmalade Boy and Pokemon had come from Japan, as well as Sailor Moon and Cardcaptors (which I later learned was originally called Cardcaptor Sakura).  I dove into Marmalade Boy and finished that first volume very quickly.  The next day when I saw Anastasia I immediately asked her for more manga.  I read my way through Chobits, and started to watch anime series after anime series...

I continued on as an anime and manga fan for the next year and a half, and in the middle of my fall semester as a sophomore in high school (holy shit you guys that was four years ago), I decided to watch a series called Shugo Chara.  The storyline was super cute, the characters had little fairies with them, and I was super happy at the end of every episode because I got to hear this really awesome song!

This song was so happy!  So catchy!  I wanted to know who sang it.  After searching for a bit, I found the music video:

I was shocked.  "How could these great voices come from these teeny tiny awkward looking girls?  They look like they're about my age!"  But I thought their dancing was cute and I already loved the song so I favorited the video.  On the sidebar I noticed a bright pink looking video, so I clicked on that.

"OMG!  One of the Shugo Chara girls is in this video!  OMG so much pink!  The little one with the sunglasses is so funny!"  I immediately favorited this video, and clicked on another video next to it.

"...ARE THESE THE SAME GIRLS!?  WHAT HAPPENED!?"  I was so excited that I had found this group.  The dancing was kick ass, the song was dramatic...but where were the other two?  I saw one Shugo Chara girl, but the others were nowhere to be found.  I didn't know these other girls.  Who where they?  In the description box of the fan uploaded MV, I saw this group was "C-ute."  I favorited this video too and reminded myself to look for more "C-ute" later.

Going back to the Honto no Jibun music video, I saw that the other two were from "Berryz Koubou."  I scrolled down and found one of their videos in the sidebar.  *click*

"There they are!  I found them!"  This song was catchy too!  I favorited this video as well, and then clicked another related video which turned out to be Piriri to Yukou.  I put all of the songs I had found onto my iPod and danced around the house for a few days.  I was so happy, and a few days later I wanted to watch the music videos again.  I went back to Tokkaiko Junjou, and when that finished, I saw a video in the sidebar that had a pink background, and girls in red hats and overalls.

The title didn't have "C-ute" or "Berryz Koubou" in it, but instead "Mor..." The title was too long for the tiny thumbnail, and I was curious, so I clicked on it.

"This is cute!  OMG THERE'S SO MANY OF THEM!  Holy crap that's too many girls...but this video is fun."  I particularly liked the parts of the video where they're frozen in space.  That was cool.  "Morning Musume."  "Huh."  I thought they were good, but I was intimidated by the number of girls.  I favorited this, but noticed a darker video on the side with "Morning Musume" also in the title.  *click*

This, my friends, is when I went from casual listener, to totally hooked.

"SO FIERCE!"  These girls were so different than the girls in the previous video.  They were cool, mature, sexy even!  The song was so well composed, and their vocals had such power!  I needed to know who Morning Musume was and I needed to find all of their music right then and there!  I found lots of promotional videos for Pepper Keibu, since that had just been released, and from then on I was an idol fan.

Oh but then, OH BUT THEN.

I found the Winter 2008 Concert that had been done that past January.  I went MENTAL.  "Morning Musume, C-ute, Berryz Koubou, ALL ON ONE STAGE TOGETHER?!!?  WHAT IS THIS!?"

"Hello Project.  ...Hello Project.  I think I like Hello Project."

My life had changed forever.

I know it sounds schmaltzy, but it had!  I had this newfound confidence and happiness that I had never felt before!  Whatever these idols were, I liked 'em, and I've been happily liking them ever since.  :P


And since this post is already HELLA LONG, I'll save my favorite idols journey for next time! 8D

Thanks for reading!