Four months ago, I had wrote an article about the shuffling of Johnny’s entitled, ” The Great Johnny’s Exodus “. The article focused heavily on the state of NEWS and that I had a feeling Ryo Nishikido and Tomohisa Yamashita were gonna drop the group and run. It made sense considering how active Kanjani8 and Yamashita’s solo career were.
Well, I didn’t think I would be able to predict the future.
On October 8th, 2011, Ryo Nishikido and Tomohisa Yamashita called it quits. Or, more specifically, they left NEWS. I guess I did manage to predict the future.
Now, I’m not a NEWS fan. Never was and never will be. I remember watching them debut on that November 7th, 2003 Music Station episode with Morning Musume all those years back and wanting to slit my wrists. I remember the Junior Melodies with the guys and their batons and rollerskates and I remember when the 9 dropped down to 8 that dropped to 6 and now 4. I never was a NEWS fan. They simply never appealed to me.
I’m a Kanjani8 fan, have been for the past six years, and will continue to be one (as long as the group doesn’t fuck up to the point of no return). For me, this is actually great news because Ryo’s activities will no longer dictate what Kanjani8 can and can not do. If you’re not familiar with Kanjani8 fandom and the state it was in for a few years, once NEWS came back from the ashes, Kanjani8’s activities stopped.
Ceased. Tempered down. Quieted. Nothing. Silence.
This went on for a good two years while on the other hand NEWS was happily touring, staring in dramas, appearing on the front covers of magazines, releasing singles and popping out albums. Kanjani8 couldn’t do much of anything because Ryo was active in NEWS; Kanjani8 also was not as successful as NEWS during the band’s hiatus so it seemed logical from a business stand point to keep Ryo active in NEWS while coming in as a “support artist” for Kanjani8. It was pretty evident when news articles featuring Nishikido would have is name listed as “錦戸亮 (NEWS) [1]” rather than “錦戸亮 (NEWS/関ジャニ∞)”.
It also did not help, during that time, with the constant bickering between the two fandoms. Nishikido Ryo was in NEWS first so Kanjani8 fans have to deal with it, etc. Things were looking good for NEWS.
But then, suddenly, it all stopped.
Kanjani8 was picking up momentum. Musekinin Hero sold really well… so well in fact it was the 11th most sold single in 2008, four months into it’s release. NEWS’ Taiyou no Namida, on the other hand, managed to only rank 19 on the 2008 overall single charts. [2] Then, for some reason, Kanjani8 members start co-starring in dramas with ARASHI’s members, and.. then… for some reason Kanjani8’s activities started to flourish while NEWS’ activities began to dwindle. I do believe that, in some way, J&A purposely did this. They saw potential in Kanjani8 and decided to exploit it by throwing them in ARASHI-lead dramas. Ryuusei no Kizuna, Uta no Onii-san, The Quiz Show 2, My Girl, Freeter Ie wo Kau, etc. This new exposure would get them into more households, in return, boosting their popularity and turning them into a cash cow success.
It’s not irony that Kanjani8 happened to play second fiddle to ARASHI. It was done on purpose and for marketing reasons only.
This new found success only did one thing for NEWS and that was hold them back. Much like how NEWS held Kanjani8 back in 2007 – 2009, Kanjani8’s new found success and boost in activities was now holding NEWS back as a group. How can you successfully schedule two idol groups that both share the same band member? You’re going to have to sacrifice one group for the other. Which group will that be? Well, the weakest one of course. 2009’s single sales reflected this as well, with Kanjani8’s Kyuu Jyou Show!! selling 10k more than NEWS’ Koi no Abo [3]. In 2010, Kanjani8’s fourth album 8Uppers had ranked 26th over all with over 260k sales while NEWS landed in 34th place with only 185k units sold, a near 80k difference in album sales. [4]
This down time only served to allow J&A to play an experiment. Since Jin Akanishi’s solo career has not backfire with the fans, why not we try it on Tomoshisa Yamashita? It’s not like that this was the first time Yamashita has went “solo” or done a side project separate from NEWS. It was not a shock to see Yamashita, yet again, flying solo with NEWS acting as the doo-wop-wop-wop to his Daite Senorita-ing ways. When Akanishi quit KAT-TUN, I knew it was a matter of time before J&A decided to push Yamashita into the front. And let’s not forget Tegomass, the side unit between NEWS’ members Yuya Tegoshi and Takahisa Masuda, that has managed to sell 90k +, on average, on their own and grab the no. 1 spot [5]. It seems as if everyone does better outside of NEWS than in NEWS.
When the announcement finally came that Nishikido and Yamashita were leaving, it wasn’t a big shock.
It was more of, ” About time “.
No matter how bad the fans will want to look at it, NEWS was never North East West South, it was always about “Yamapi and his Backup Dancers, guest starring Ryo Nishikido as The Skipper.” There was no way that NEWS could exist, or Kanjani8 for that matter, with a member that’s actively participating in two groups with a significant role. Eventually, it was going to fall apart and it did. Yamashita is now solo and Ryo is finally, 100%, with Kanjani8. Neither one of them were in the group with 100% intention as the other members because neither one of them had anything to lose being in NEWS or being out of NEWS. It was rather the four needed them rather than they needed the four.
And is that fair?
It’s not.
It’s not fair that someone has to work double to appease a fucked up idea by some senile old man and satisfy the hearts thousands of fangirls. It’s not fair that someone is stuck singing music he probably does not want to sing and dance to songs he does not want to dance to. It’s not fair that four other individuals have to play as back up, be questioned about how useful they are to the group, or simply become forgettable shadows to the two bright lights that seem to have more to gain outside of the group than in the group.
It’s just not fair.
The situation has brought the worst out of some fans and probably because the fans truly do not understand that the situation is not for them but rather for the well being of the men they so call claim to love. How many dreams were crushed, opportunities were lost, and stress was gained because of this group? What about the Toma Ikutas that were swept aside for a crazy idea of sticking 9 boys in a group? Or how about the restless days of shuffling between two groups, acting like Nishikido Ryo the Bitch in one and Nishkido Ryo the Talkative Idiot in the other? How is it fair to sit around waiting to do something because your schedule conflicts with another group? How fair is that for fans to make letters of demand because of choices these men made on their own accord seem to have inconvenienced you?
Manipulated the fans? Misused their trust? Lied?
People need to stop thinking about themselves and really look at the situation. People make choices like this for a reason. These were business decisions, job related decisions, something that adults make everyday. This isn’t a joy ride for them — this is work. NEWS provided that it was not the best thing for them at this current point in their career and that’s something that should be respected. I’m sure they sat and discussed this for months; 8 years of their lives they put into this group, it wasn’t as if they walked away from it with a big fat Fuck You (unlike Akanishi Jin).
Fans should be glad that the group didn’t break up for good or that any of the members have passed away. There’s no reason to get sick over it, to miss school over it, or to even act ridiculous over it. Yeah, you can be mad or sad, but there’s no reason to get irate. There are fans out there that have to deal with the shock of a member passing away or a sudden break up… NEWS fans should be lucky that didn’t happen. Nearly two years ago the vocalist to one of my favorite bands, Fujifabric, suddenly passed away. I was sad but I didn’t let it affect me.
Why should it?
I didn’t know him personally.
I miss the music but that’s it.
Same with Nujabes, a big loss to the J-hip hop world.
But I’m not going cry over it. Skip work. Write angry letters or bake funeral cakes.
If Kanjani8 ceased activities, I’m not going to get mad. I’ve had so many bands disband or ceased recording that it would be the same thing all over again. I don’t emotionally invest myself in people I don’t personally know. People make decisions for their own personal reasons and that alone; I should not demand or question them.
Wake up fandom, it’s not about you. 90% of you don’t even buy their singles or their albums. You sit on your asses all day writing about how kawaii Massu looks or how kakkoi Shige is. That’s not being a fan. There’s more to a fan about demanding shit or writing nasty letters. I think that is what’s wrong with Johnny’s fandom and why idiocy like this is so prevalent. The signs were there people its not their fault or problem that you failed to notice it. It’s not their fault you decided to create this fantasy world of member love and rainbows and shipping and shit only to have it destroyed with real world decisions. You will still have your Yamapi albums and Ryo will still be singing in Kanjani8 and starring in those dramas.
This should be looked at as a positive.
Nothing of value was lost here.
Keep calm, carry on.
Sauce:
[1] http://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/110527/gng1105270503000-n1.htm
[2] http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/special/081211_01_01.html
[3] http://contents.oricon.co.jp/music/special/091218_01_01.html
[4] http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/special/2010/musicrank1220/index05.html
[5] http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/w/2008-06-30/