18 comments on “Suddenly being a wota feels so meaningless to me

  1. Henkka, are you trying to come to terms with Sayu leaving? Feels that way with these recent threads.

    • Hehe. Nah, I don’t think so, not unless I’m doing so subconsciously. I’ve been a H!P fan long enough for any one graduation to bother me very much anymore. Besides, and this is probably obvious from the music appreciation threads I do, but I’m first and foremost a Tsunku oshi.

      • Denial is just the first step, Henkka. <3

        Come, lean on my shoulder and let it all out. Let the tears of anguish glisten softly as they roll through the untamed wilderness of your epic beard. You're not alone, as I'll be crying as well. These things take time, for all of us.

        /pat Henkka

        Oh, and you're never going to find a “I’m an H!P wota and my life is perfect in every possible way” thread, LOL

  2. If wota guys could understand that it’s just for fun, and their Idols are not sacred things, their lives would be happier, and I think even the Idols would be happier. You can be a supporter and have fun, being a fanatic is always bad.

  3. “I couldn’t care less about not having a girlfriend, but the fact that this one idol who’s the same age as me is so active in her work whereas I’m just a complete loser failure at life… She used to make me happy, but now she just makes me hate myself.”

    bring jelly is bad, yo. but dun let foxnews use that as an irrelevent excuse to tell you that you don’t need an education, jobs or socialised medicine like japan.

  4. 89: 名無し募集中。。。 2012/02/11(土) 15:36:24.21 ID:0
    Life without any hobbies is boring. All things in moderation.

    137: 名無し募集中。。。 2012/02/11(土) 18:33:03.04 ID:P
    Well, if you feel tired of the wota life, it’s fine to just take a break from it….

    Every once in a while, you find posts that actually speak sense, and it catches you off guard.

  5. I never had attended concerts or even saw them outside of TV or PC. Meh, sucks to live in this country haha

    The most wota-ness that I did besides getting the CDs (2nd hand from local Japanese surplus shop & mostly until when 4th Gen members are there) was do fansubs of H!P idol related videos (translate, time, typeset, etc). My Hello!Project wota-ness leveled down when my first oshi, Yaguchi, resigned & she’s not anymore in MoMusu (I highly respect Oguri Shun until now, so I was fine with the couple then). I still followed MoMusu since my 2nd fave, Yossy, was still there, but stopped entirely since there are no more 4th gen members. I honestly dunno any songs of the Platinum era honestly. (I got back to my original fandom that is all female bands (grew up as a single digit year old kid humming & headbanging to songs of PriPri – ima ossan da yo boku))

    Got interested again to MoMusu late last year when I noticed them more often because of consecutive #1 singles & they are getting a lot of attention again (though I only recognised Yayaomo in the group haha (Also LOL’d during the time when my fave SCANDAL member, the lead guitarist, Sasazaki Mami, is a Michishige fangirl & spazzed haha)) I’m still deciding my current fave member of MoMusu though :P But then again, Tsunku is a genius, so I think it does not matter, right?

    I have to agree that being a wota is just a hobby & there must be moderation (& moolah to support such hobbies). There are real life things to concentrate on especially as you grow older. Looking back, during my peak of being a wota, I had lots of fun (especially the times I converted a lot of offline friends, male & female, to H!P fandom). Henkka’s translations of such 2ch threads of our fandom is a level of being a wota already & I salute you for your wota-ness.

    PS: Heh, I suddenly miss Hello!Morning & wonder how will be the show if the current members are in their own variety show with Hello!Morning format :P

  6. It’s a form of entertainment. It’s not good make your life revolve around that. Be it idols, computers, hitting the gym, etc.

    I definitely probably blow too much on idol goods, but I’m also the type to make use of just about everything they sell. Minus the photos. I wear the bracelets, I use the MM glowsticks for light while working on the car, I wear the t-shirts on my days off, etc. I can’t be one of the ppl who buys the goods, leaves it in the plastic, and never do anything with it. It’s not like idol goods gain value over time.

  7. This whole idol wota thing is a little confusing sometimes and difficult to understand. Since I’m a woman who is a fan of female idols the concept of leaving and coming back doesn’t really make sense to me. It seems as though… the idea of being a idol means that you can jump in and pick a new girl to focus your attention on. So the allure of the idol isn’t the GIRL but the idea of the girl or the idol concept. Must be why AKB48 is so huge. You have dozens of girls that you can project your ideals and fantasies on and it’s never ending. 2014 you have a girl. 2020 you have a girl. 2025 you have a girl. You can pick a girl from the age group you like (maybe 15-18) then pick up another once she ages out. Maybe I’m thinking of my favorite girls in a maternal way. How can you abandon them? Can someone explain it to me a bit better? I think that as a heterosexual female, I have a different mindset about it.

    • I think there are many reasons one becomes an idol wota. Japanese idols have a concept, image and subculture that the fans themselves are their significant other. Not all wotas also makes expiration dates to their oshi. Some still attend events and fan meetings of older idols older than the popular age. Heck, some hosts of variety shows are still fans of their oshi even if married already, which their idol is from the Golden Age of idols, 1980s.

      Most female fans of Hamasaki Ayumi, especially during late 90s to early 2000s, look up to her as a role model. Through her lyrics, struggling young girls were given strength through her songs. Also her fashion sense then was a trendsetter that time.

      If ever you have time, try reading the manga I”s or watch the anime White Album 1 – both tells a story of someone secretly dating an idol. You’ll get to understand it more like it’s first hand experience of being a wota, I think.

    • A new girl for me means the addition to my list, not a replacement. I continue to support them even though they are out from their prime. But as i’m not the enthusiast as those Japanese wota are, adding one favourite girl doesn’t take up much more of my time, or money.

      This means , I’m more attached to the girls abilities more than the idol image of her or the culture itself. I admire them as a person, like an artist or performer. The differences from my favourite rock band would be that I also enjoy watching the girls grow.

      But there are people who like the Kawainess, or the innocent, the purity of the girls. Those things for human life change as you aged, as you are more experienced. So when one idol girl lost those quality that some wota looking for, they change their girl.

      • Ah, okay I see. For the Japanese wota is seems to go very deep and be a very important and unique relationship. It’s interesting how much wota can invest monetarily and emotionally in their favorite girl. I just still don’t completely understand what they get back from that but then again as a woman I think that I will always miss that part. :)

  8. In the end of the year 1st of my H!P fandom, I felt lonely like those wota in this thread too. The girls grew, got shined, full-fill her life, while I stuck here. Once I realized, I moved on. Wota world become things that in the last placed of my daily-routine.

    But no, I can’t quite. lol

  9. Live in HP fandom isn’t that bad to your personal life. Actually it will fired up your spirit. But in the other hand, people have to realize to live this life, for example, how to get a money, get a job, get a family, get a child..

  10. These kinds of “negative aspects” threads are fantastic, I think it’s what a lot of people need to be aware of in this industry. Keep up the good work!

  11. 59: 名無し募集中。。。 2012/02/11(土) 15:09:26.90 ID:0>>1It’s now come time for you to live for yourself. Invest in yourself. Show everyone and shine, shine like your oshi!

    This comment is so cute :3 but also an important thing to remember.

    When I was having a minor depression, being a h!p wota was a way of survival for me (following my favorite idol’s life so closely that it left little time to think about my own). It was only when I realised that I had to take care of myself too, and actually starting to, my mental health started to improve and I finally felt like a real person again, instead of just a shadow of one.

    I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s okay to be apart of a fandom and liking something a lot, but one should be careful to not let it consume too much of our lives. After all, you are the main character in your own life, not your oshi. Do things for yourself first, and your oshi second (as a maximum). Instead of just surviving, you’ve got to live a little too ;)

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