There was a time when what I wanted to be the most was to be someone involved in a television show production. Not somebody seen on cam, but one who remains behind the scene. But it has to be in a Japanese television network.
I didn't care what I'd be--a scriptwriter, a voice-over, a cameraman, a researcher of those weird ideas that make up Japanese variety shows, a production assistant, a proofreader for their English texts (I keep seeing their need for one), a gaffer--I didn't care. I just wanted to be there. It was the only way, I thought, that I could get as close to Arashi as possible.
For the past few days, this wish is being rekindled. After my preoccupations on various things such as graduating, pondering on the direction my life will take, the gloriousness of the West End musical theater, the epicness that is Middle-Earth, and the two seasons of the US television series Game of Thrones, it is Arashi that I came back to. Once again, I am grinning ear to ear and laughing along the almost always childish antics of Ohno Satoshi, Sakurai Sho, Aiba Masaki, Ninomiya Kazunari, and Matsumoto Jun.
I'd like to believe I'm not one to get enthused by pop and dance music, but this... this boyband... is the exemption I have to this rule.
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| Raw photo (c) 2006 Arashi/J-Strom Inc./Johnny and Associates/ "ARASHIC" Album Partners |
But then, it is more than their music that I've come to appreciate. Maybe it was their acting prowess in some of the series I've seen them in. Maybe it's Riida's exceptional dancing skills and awe-inspiring artworks, or his goofiness when surrounded by the other younger four's bullying. Maybe it's Nino's evident musical giftedness, be it on the guitar, on the piano, on songwriting, or maybe his stubbornness and bratiness that is oddly endearing. Maybe it's Aiba's humility despite his status, or his unfaltering sportiveness, and all the things that only he can do. Maybe it's Jun's Shin, Momo, and Domyouji that would always stick in my mind, or his unmistakable connection to the others disguised in cockiness. Maybe it's Sho-kun's eminent intelligence and his distinct manner of taking the lead, or his Sakurap. Or his chipmunk smile. Or his sloping shoulders.
Maybe it's their genuine friendship that resonates in the things they do, or the fact that unlike other groups, nobody in Arashi takes all the limelight while the others would fade into the background. Maybe the campiness of their performances serves as a break for me from the dreariness of life. (Their costumes are beyond belief, mind--some so baggy they're twice their body sizes, some so skimpy they make these males in their late 20's look like pubescent boys, while some glitter like there's no tomorrow, still others look like different scraps of cloth with odd prints sewn together. And don't get me started on their dance routines.)
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| Raw photos (c) 2010 Arashi/J-Storm Inc./Johnny and Associates/ "Boku no Miteiru Fuukei" Album Partners |
Maybe it's their unabashed display of their imperfections that gets to me. I don't think it's such a surprise if it became known that these squeaky clean "Faces of Japan" are not all the goody two-shoes they appear to be--what with smoking and anti-fan issues, and other scandals that pop here and there about them. Maybe what I know of them is merely what I see of them on-screen and what they and the bigshots behind them would want viewers to believe, but their unmistakable chemistry and personalities that complement one another speak otherwise. And if ever what they have been showing are simply facades just so people would continue being invested on them, then they would have my respect still. Twelve years is no joke and all those times they have strived to build up an image just so they could go on and entertain people even though they have to wear masks as they do so.
But then again, maybe I really don't need to justify why I like them at all. So until I have other reasons to outweigh that fact, I would keep supporting them, always taking the side of my imperfect and ridiculous boys who has never failed to make me laugh and brighten things up.
And maybe one day, hopefully soon enough, I would get to meet them and learn the reason that made them take me by storm. :3
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