The current state of 2ch and its H!P board

Posted by Henkka on October 17, 2016
Posted in: 2ch, Wota. 27 comments

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Henkka: This thread is a bit more meta than what I usually cover on here, but please bear with me. The thread is in regards to the closing of one of the bigger H!P matome sites, Hello Pro Canvas — my personal favorite since I first discovered it. It leads to a wider discussion about why the site may have closed: was it just lack of motivation or financial gain? Or does it instead have more to do with the supposed decline in the quality of the H!P board of 2ch, or 2ch in general?

The reason I’m translating this thread is to give you an idea as to why updates on this site have become scarce as of late. Longtime readers are probably aware of my personal feelings towards post-Tsunku♂ Hello! Project… that is to say, a near-complete lack of interest. But really, that has nothing to do with my recent inactivity on this site.

Yes, when I “shut down” the site last year, I said it was because of my dwindling interest in H!P without Tsunku♂. When I came back a couple of months later, it wasn’t because I’d suddenly returned to the fandom. I came back because I realized: translating 2ch is still a joy to me. It’s just such a great deal of fun, even if I’m not a fan any more. Case in point: I don’t care very much about Tsubaki Factory. I listened to their songs once or twice just to give them a chance. Nothing about them caught my interest, so that’s that. But when I did those three Tsubaki threads, I did it because it was fun. It’s just fun to find out what the Japanese fans think, and it’s fun to try and translate their thoughts. It’s, quite literally, “Wota in Translation.” If it was up to me, I’d be banging out threads about Feelings, Tyrants, Metalheads, Turtles, Beethoven and the Universe every day.

The reason I don’t is because the material for me to translate just isn’t there. In my opinion, fun or interesting threads simply don’t seem to be appearing with the regularity they used to. Why not? Well, that’s what this thread is about. Since its inception, people on the H!P board of 2ch have always talked about how it was going to die “any day now.” So far, it obviously hasn’t. But this time, some of its users feel that it’s definitely changing for the worse.

This post is not me saying I’m quitting Wota in Translation — the last time I tried that, I was back at it after a couple of months. I’m not going to repeat the mistake, but I also don’t see an increase in activity coming anytime soon. So this is just me saying: the next time you wonder why you haven’t heard from me on here in a while, try to remember this thread. Cheers.

1: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 10:58:35.49 0.net
The declining population of this place made it so that Hello Pro Canvas couldn’t keep up the quality of his posts anymore.

@helloprocanvas
[Announcement] There will be no more updates after today. Additionally, I’m deleting the site on October 31st. Thank you up until now.

4: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 10:59:56.54 0.net
That sucks.

5: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:00:07.48 0.net
We’ve been abandoned.

8: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:00:22.20 0.net
One less H!P wota.

7: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:00:18.78 0.net
Iyashite is great because he had the good sense of changing to a Twitter matome site the first chance he got.

10: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:00:48.73 0.net
He’d already stopped updating once previously, right?

21: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:05:27.24 0.net
He stopped updating once when Sayashi graduated.

11: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:01:07.47 0.net
Time to switch to Hello Pro Matome+.

13: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:02:02.60 0.net
He’s closing the site? I wish he’d at least leave the archives up.

15: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:02:19.23 0.net
I want to make a Country Girls-specific matome site.

18: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:03:42.34 0.net
You wouldn’t have enough material to cover with a group-specific site. Especially so with Country.

19: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:03:53.34 0.net
Maybe he was a °C wota?

20: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:04:50.28 0.net
If that’s the case, he should’ve at least kept it up until they disband.

17: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:03:37.73 0.net
With less and less visitors to his site, I bet it wasn’t making him money any longer.

23: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:06:08.01 0.net
He’s on lots of antenna sites so I’m sure he had enough visitors. He clearly just lost the motivation.

25: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:06:49.37 0.net
Reading the replies he got on Twitter, it looks like wota really liked this site.

27: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:07:07.18 0.net
I really don’t get who even reads H!P-centric matome sites. (laughs)

30: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:07:47.01 0.net
I guess °C-ute-ha will be the next one to go.

29: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:07:14.89 0.net
Canvas was the most upright matome site out there. If anything, I wish LIFE would disappear.

44: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:12:50.55 0.net
I refuse to read °C-ute-ha and LIFE.

47: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:12:59.94 0.net
I really don’t understand why Hello Pro LIFE is popular at all.

57: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:14:26.67 0.net
You can really sense the malice the guy running LIFE has towards some members. I wish the site would die.

31: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:08:27.62 0.net
There are way too many H!P matome sites out there. One or two would be more than enough.

32: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:08:33.09 0.net
This was one of the top H!P matome sites… Just how much more depopulated and lacking in quality is this board going to become? (laughs)

35: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:09:10.40 0.net
I liked Canvas in the early days when he covered more joke threads.

36: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:09:14.22 0.net
This really symbolizes the decline of H!P as a whole.

40: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:11:36.56 0.net
My impression of Canvas was that it was very fair and impartial, so this sucks.

51: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:13:52.64 0.net
This place is so full of antis these days, there are no threads left to cover.

53: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:14:08.20 0.net
There are no wota left on here anyway. He should make a Twitter matome site.

54: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:14:12.47 0.net
I like sites with comment sections. It’s fun to laugh at the fights that go on in there.

62: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:14:58.95 0.net
Why would anyone run an H!P matome site? It’s not like it makes you any money.

64: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:15:34.86 0.net
Who needs matome sites? (laughs) Just read the board.

70: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:16:57.11 0.net
>>64
Only middle-aged men actually read the board.

67: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:16:02.21 0.net
I guess he couldn’t stand looking at all the gross-out pics that are posted in the Country threads.

88: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:19:33.75 0.net
Did Colorful Hello Pro die already?

98: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:21:22.82 0.net
I wish Ugyaa would post a bit more often.

102: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:22:05.26 0.net
AKB matome sites have been disappearing, too.

96: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:20:36.23 0.net
2ch made it against the rules to reprint their stuff, so why are there still matome sites out there anyway?

107: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:23:29.95 0.net
>>96
When the threads are posted on the sc mirror site, it becomes okay to reprint them. Plus, not many users of this board really hate matome sites. Most are just apathetic. Plus, what with Canvas going away, it’s obvious that you can’t make money doing it.

111: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:25:06.93 0.net
Honestly, if 中電-san (Chuuden) wasn’t posting stuff, there’d be nothing happening on this board anymore.

116: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:26:19.95 0.net
There’s nothing on here anymore besides anti threads, and the threads Chuuden makes.

121: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:27:21.47 0.net
But even Chuuden only makes threads about the announcements and bits from radio shows. It sucks that there are no more joke threads — and it’s because ever since Hashimoto started running things, there are more and more members with seemingly no personalities.

112: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:25:08.66 0.net
The long and short of it is that H!P matome sites hardly have readers anymore and they aren’t profitable. We’re a pretty niche audience.

115: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:26:00.86 0.net
Feels like the H!P bubble is going to burst any day now.

117: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:26:28.55 0.net
If 2ch is dead, people should just run Twitter matome sites. Why don’t they? (laughs)

122: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:27:24.08 0.net
Seems like operating a Twitter matome site would be a lot more work than a 2ch matome site.

126: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:28:12.11 0.net
While the country is flooded with idols, the population of Japan as a whole is going down, there are less young people, and the otaku are all getting older. Honestly, the idol culture might be on its way out.

132: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:29:46.94 0.net
Matome sites ought to all die.

138: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:30:38.81 0.net
There’s no purpose for this board anymore.

139: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:30:52.75 0.net
Hey, this board was a source of help for me when I bought a pair of binoculars.

142: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:31:23.96 0.net
I think matome sites are like YouTube: they’re important for attracting new fans.

151: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:33:17.24 0.net
There are pretty much no threads popping up on here these days that would attract new fans.

147: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:32:25.08 0.net
There are people who are too scared to actually read the board but who do read matome sites.

149: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:32:27.43 0.net
It’s not like Hello Pro Canvas is the only matome site out there. Nothing changes even if it does disappear.

158: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:33:58.85 0.net
That’s a bunch of lies about matome sites attracting new fans.

153: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:33:23.83 0.net
Matome sites are really helpful to new fans. It’s not like anyone could just dive straight into 2ch, and matome sites allow them to get the information they’re looking for quickly and easily. Plus, if you’re only a casual reader of this board, you’re going to miss out on a lot of stuff. With matome sites, they don’t miss anything.

155: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:33:32.26 0.net
Shame. Canvas was one of the better matome sites, even if I hadn’t actually looked at it in a while.

156: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:33:49.90 0.net
Damn. Nothing interesting is posted on the board these days so there’s nothing left for the matome sites to post about. (laughs) Chuuden-san is the only one who keeps things going.

157: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:33:55.52 0.net
Everyone’s going on about Twitter this and Twitter that, but I think it’s pretty obvious that even Twitter is now starting to lose steam. Or maybe it’s H!P…?

161: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:34:34.73 0.net
Twitter is shit, so I bet people will be happy when more matome sites are born so they don’t have to use it themselves.

159: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:34:13.87 0.net
Whatever happened to Hello Hello Time?

165: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:35:09.57 0.net
Probably half of all H!P wota are Musume fans, so every matome site has to focus on them if they want to make any money.

182: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:37:27.96 0.net
Nowadays all matome sites just post stuff like “wow, she’s great!” or “she’s really getting popular!” or “she’s really amazing!” It’s so boring. Both the creators and readers of those sites are going down the drain.

184: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:37:51.60 0.net
There are no more joke threads.

190: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:38:42.42 0.net
You guys going on about how there’s no value in posting any of the current stuff from this board on matome sites… (laughs) No one here is motivated to post by the possibility that their posts might end up on a matome site. You’re so arrogant. Matome sites have poisoned the way you think.

202: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:40:54.80 0.net
I kinda get it, seeing the current state of this board. Even when they do find the occasional decent thread to cover, they don’t even exceed 100 replies. (laughs)

203: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:40:57.51 0.net
Honestly, matome sites are all the same. I’m fine with just Matome+ and Witch Hunting.

208: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:41:47.22 0.net
Honestly, the stuff Unchi Hunting posts is so sleazy, it’s actually kind of funny.

205: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:41:14.81 0.net
Hashimoto is so bad, there’s nothing to talk about anymore. H!P is losing its H!P-ness by the day.

213: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:42:56.31 0.net
Think about what it means that this thread already has more replies than the usual one-off thread on here.

215: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:43:39.21 0.net
I don’t look at matome sites as of late, but when I did, I only read Canvas and Colorful.

217: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:44:08.54 0.net
More than it being an issue with this board, isn’t it just that these people can’t make money through affiliate links anymore?

218: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:44:15.64 0.net
I got so bored with LIFE’s obvious bias towards Makino, I stopped reading.

221: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:45:26.44 0.net
Even the anti threads have gotten so low-quality. It’s just haters repeating the same stuff over and over again like a mantra.

235: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:49:29.09 0.net
Maro’s not busy with anything. She ought to start a matome site. (laughs)

238: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:50:36.05 0.net
This board has so many crazy people these days.

264: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:01:26.47 0.net
I wonder if the people going “It’s just because affiliate blogs don’t make money anymore! This board is just as it has always been!” are alright in the head.

284: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:07:20.37 0.net
The timing of Canvas closing is so weird. It’s not like anyone is currently in trouble or that anyone is graduating anytime soon. There’s no persistent anti threads popping up either. It’s as calm here now as it’s ever been. I guess he just got tired. Well, good job for keeping at it for this long.

296: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:09:56.35 0.net
>>284
Nothing big is going on at the moment, so it must be because of Hashimoto. Honestly, H!P right now is in the worst Eclipse Era of its entire history.

289: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:08:42.42 0.net
This board is dying. The threads are all boring, and even the joke threads are all overtaken by trolls and haters, except for maybe like ANGERME threads. (I don’t know why ANGERME threads in particular aren’t that affected very much by trolls… maybe they just have such a pleasant atmosphere or something. /s)

302: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:11:03.62 0.net
It feels like most people who became fans around the 9th or 10th gen joining would find absolutely nothing about current H!P appealing to them.

309: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:13:13.23 0.net
There have always been threads about how this board has become boring, but this time it really has. Even the “hitori” threads and individual handshake event threads that were the only remaining solace are now full of trolls.

311: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:13:29.07 O.net
Ookami Matome no Me coming back recently really surprised me.

313: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:14:19.28 0.net
It’s strange how even though there was definitely a larger number of antis around back in the days, the board then was still functioning properly regardless.

320: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:16:30.70 0.net
>>313
That’s because the sane people around back then were just that much funnier than the trolls.

315: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:14:42.38 0.net
Now it’s nothing but boring threads with one boring post after the other.

322: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:17:12.89 0.net
Hello Pro Land hasn’t been updating recently either. I actually quite liked that site…

318: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:16:26.60 0.net
2ch was killed by these affiliate blogs.

325: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:17:34.55 0.net
Before the arrival of the akekasu, the idea of “antis” didn’t really exist. Everyone just ignored them. Nowadays everyone is all stupid about it and they make it into this huge deal.

354: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:29:49.87 0.net
Before, everyone used to ignore the haters.
Now, everyone goes into the threads to shout about how “hate threads aren’t welcome here!”
No matter which way you look at it, there are more stupid people around here these days.

358: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:32:07.38 0.net
It’s true that this board has become depopulated, but the biggest reason for its downfall is that there are just so many more crazy people in here these days.

670: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 14:01:09.81 0.net
Even the comment sections on Hello! Station videos are full of trolls now.

376: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 12:37:59.97 0.net
The reason there aren’t that many fun threads these days is because the current members are all skill-oriented. Whenever they open their mouths, they just go on about how great the Platinum Era was, or how they’re aiming to one day perform at this or that venue. There’s no group like Berryz anymore — a group that had both the skill as well as that half-assed, human-like quality about them.

488: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 13:12:13.05 0.net
Canvas was one of the better matome sites. He never posted lies or anti threads. He was honest. Those are always the kinds of sites to go first…

572: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 13:36:05.76 0.net
Canvas was once the biggest H!P matome site there was…

660: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 13:55:04.79 0.net
It’s not just H!P. AKB and Momoclo matome sites have been closing, too. There are less idols in general. The idol boom is ending.

771: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 14:48:08.33 0.net
Something like five AKB matome sites disappeared this year. It’s getting bad everywhere.

595: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 13:42:20.68 0.net
Momoclo Matomenofu → closed.
Hello Pro Canvas → to be closed at the end of the month.
AKB Matomember → no updates since January of this year.

Idols in general have begun to disappear.

597: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 13:42:23.91 0.net
Idol culture has entered a state of hibernation.

669: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 14:01:09.36 0.net
There’s no doubt that the quality of posts on this board has gone down. Yes, there were more crazy people back in the days, but there were even more sane, funny people.

797: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 15:19:35.97 0.net
Like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

12: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 11:01:36.92 0.net
The government should try to preserve H!P wota as an endangered species.

Source: http://hayabusa3.2ch.sc/test/read.cgi/morningcoffee/1475459915/

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27 comments on “The current state of 2ch and its H!P board”

  1. This year has been really slow and boring. This most recent in-between period was the worst I’ve seen.

    Can’t blame people for losing interest when things have been like this and there’s not much hope for positive change on the horizon.

    Reply

  2. Idolbiz in the last few years was like one big cake full of buttercream and fondabt. At some point you just want to eat something different.

    Reply

  3. The absolute height of Idoldom, in my opinion, was 2012-2013. The releases, across the board, H!P, and otherwise, from 48’s, to Stardust, to indie and smaller groups was , again imho, the APEX, creatively, of what Idols have to offer.

    Every year since has been going downhill in terms of quality, with very few exceptions. Tsunku leaving has been a major part of this, but so has the never ending glut of Idols. The market is beyond oversaturated and 2016 had been dull indeed. Maybe things need to die again. To be reborn some day in the future….IDOL IS DEAD LONG LIVE IDOL

    Reply

  4. While I do enjoy some of the members that have joined since 2014 or around the time Tsunku would have left, I do agree that things have lost their sparkle in H!P a bit without Tsunku’s presence on the producer side. Recently, the music seems a bit better to me actually compared to when the new writers first stepped in.

    But it does seem like things have slowed down and H!P as a whole doesn’t seem to be doing as many interesting things even though there’s so many groups and members? There’s probably not a lot to talk about because they stick to usual release events, concerts, plays, etc, and don’t seem to be having as many appearances on variety as 2 or 3 years ago. Not a lot of outside interaction? I don’t know.

    Anyway, it sucks that all these matome sites are going down no matter what the causes are. When Henkka posts a thread translation here, it’s always quality. And it’s going to be harder to find quality threads, or threads that interesting enough to take the time to translate them, so we’ll have to appreciate it even more than usual when Henkka finds something good to share. ^^
    Thanks, Henkka!

    Reply

  5. As much as I don’t like it I basically agree with the overall sentiment here about HP. It just doesn’t seem like they’re doing much these days. Country Girls is the only HP group I think is genuinely fun to watch right now. Even news of C-ute’s disbanding didn’t strike me as strongly as I would have thought.

    HP just doesn’t seem to put the same emphasis on quirky that they used to, or maybe the girls just aren’t getting the chance to show off.

    Reply

  6. VR will save the industry. Have you seen how Playstation is marketing it’s headset in Japan? The market for concert and music earning has long been saturated, but the potential for new media in the coming years is massive. People will always pay money to see pretty girls sing and dance.

    Reply

  7. the idol world is changing… and so are the fans and the media… younger wota don’t use websites, blogs or forums anymore… they use social media platforms that are new and interesting… and YouTube of course…

    H!P is getting less popular? not at all… the numbers don’t lie! the utakata saturday night MV got over 4 million hits… that’s huge! Anger Me and Kobushi Factory become more and more popular… all groups are very busy right now…

    Morning Musume is evolving the most… they’re changing genres and are always influenced by new stuff… I understand you guys when you say that you were bored… I miss the old days, too, where they could be seen in all kind of funny variety shows… but they are also evolving… TV isn’t as popular as it was 10-15 years ago… H!P is all over YouTube with Hello!Station, Upcoming and Girl’s Night Out… and they release the DVD Magazines because these are more successful than TV shows and I really enjoy them…

    H!P is trying to restructure the whole thing and they’re doing well compared to other groups like AKB… the AKB universe is depending on variety shows and handshake events… but these two things are dying with younger fans who don’t want that kind of stuff… the two important things are the music and the connectivity to the groups… they could easily risk the step to move from TV to YouTube or even YouTube Red but they won’t until they’ve reached a deadlock…

    so all in all I don’t share the negativity amongst the older fans although I’ve known H!P for so long… I enjoy the music, I enjoy the video content and I definitely enjoy discussions with other fans all over the world… sometimes these kind of topics drive me insane, though ^^ I’m not a guy for doom-mongering… cheers /)

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    • Pretty much agree. Things are changing and we see now A LOT more of the Idols we like but not on TV shows but on DVD’s or Social media.

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    • This.

      Whether or not idols are declining in popularity, the biggest change I’ve seen over the last few years is how the online landscape has changed. I’ve never believed in doom and gloom pessimism, especially when all of those opinions fly in the face of the numbers.

      It used to be that forums were almost the only way fans could communicate with each other. Fandoms of all kinds were centered around forum sites. Back then, the only way you’d find translations, event reports, video content, or original creations was by going to one of the big forums.

      These days, that is no longer the case. Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook, and other social media platforms have taken over. You no longer need to go interact with everyone on a forum when you can friend, follow, or subscribe to fans that share a perspective you like. Forums no longer monopolize the fan scheme. The fact that we’re having this discussion here instead of on a forum further underlines that fact.

      The fan landscape is far more fragmented and ephemeral than in when we all frequented the same forums. The agencies recognize and cater to this new reality. Content on TV shows like Hello! Morning hasn’t gone away. it’s been chopped up and expanded to things like weekly YouTube shows DVD Magazines. Instead of one time-slot that takes a lot of money to broadcast, they only have to pay for the production of the content and DVDs. Instead of paying a TV station to introduce the girls’ personalities to the public, they can do it themselves with more control on member blogs and twitter.

      While it feels like the online community is declining, it’s actually because it’s more dispersed into smaller cliques and social media groups. Instead of a unified fan space, what we’ve got now is more customized and on-demand. There’s actually a lot more content now, but it’s just that we only engage with a smaller portion of it.

      The online fan community isn’t declining, it’s just not as centralized and immediately visible anymore.

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      • Yes, well said.

        With the number of years I spent following Hello! Project (and still do, to a limited extent), I can’t put much weight into the comments in the thread discussing how the seeming change for the worse on 2ch is because of H!P itself. Some people like what they’re doing at the moment; others don’t. But setting aside my personal feelings towards H!P, if 2ch or the matome culture truly is dying, I think it’s exactly for the reasons you listed above.

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      • I don’t like discussing those things on social media, it’s much harder to track compared to traditional forums. It seems too disconnected and flooded to me. Also the issues with searching algorithms like twitter only displaying a fraction of images shown and having to rely on 3rd party sites to see beyond a handful. Even with tags it’s still a pain to pick out the interesting posts from the nonsense. Is there something for a person stuck in their old ways like me to do to adapt to this new way with current forums dying out?

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    • Out of curiosity how are DVDs successful than TV shows? Casual fans and the general public won’t know about them.

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      • TV shows are extremely expensive and you’ll never get the right to publish this show on your own… that’s the problem with – let’s say – the Hello!Morning show… you can find the episodes fragmented all over the internet… but H!P doesn’t have the rights to these videos… the TV station does…

        maybe less people see these DVDs… but they are cheap and easy to produce and H!P can do whatever they want to do with this footage…

        btw… Haro!Moni@ wasn’t popular at all… why? because it was broadcasted after midnight (the only profitable time slot) when Momusu lost popularity between 2007 and 2010… was is a bad concept? not at all! but the wrong media, wrong place and wrong time… now that Momusu gained a lot of popularity back we eager for a show like that on YouTube!

        so what I mean when I say “more successful” is, that it generates more money… in fact it is more profitable than the music itself…

        1. Concerts
        2. Merchandise
        3. DVD Magazines
        4. CD Sales
        5. YouTube Channel

        and this is the reason, why we won’t see official DVD material on YouTube… or a similar show as Haro!Moni@… it’s simply too expensive and the gain isn’t sufficient enough… but right now we’ve reached another crossroad… with projects like YouTube Red and the new VR technology we can have other experiences… but Red is limited to the US right now and VR is in the fledgling stage… but this is the future of our beloved Idols!

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    • (replying to old post like the nerd i am)

      Another aspect is that the management is indeed trying to keep a hold on its presentation (during this “evolution”). This would be fine and it’s plenty reasonable, but it DOES prevent the clearly-more-personality members from being able to present themselves whenever they’re in a medium they’d get a better response from.

      But idk, I think what H!P needs to do is hire more imaginative/creative folk. A lot of how it’s been running things is far more “business” as compared to “artistic” which would -really- make their current phase progress wonderfully. They have the talents at their disposal – they just need to get someone(s) who can actually take what’s happening in the idol industry, and be ready to try new things — and be ALLOWED to try, without fear of failure.

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  8. Karin-chan said all her fans are her boyfriends. So, as long as i have a chance with an Idol. I’m not giving up H!P yet !

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  9. H!P has lost a lot of steam lately. The MM only fans keep going Itakata this Utakata that bit 2013-2013 was the peak. Lately I hardly hear about Musume, all the wide shows are covering Teriyakizaka46 and BABYMETAL.

    I think next year will be a big shakeup for the 20th anniversary. Perfect timing.

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  10. I’m sick of the ’16 fans blocking out discussion of a plateau or even a decline. Morning Musume isn’t even on the list of speculated new acts for Kouhaku this year, making it the first year since 2012 that they haven’t been on it. That’s huge. Using their summer show appearances is also useless because FNS wanted to add 100 idols, even ANGERME got on, and Music Station Ultra FES had 12 hours and placed MM in the noonish spot, most people in Japan are at work at that time. UFA has grown complacent with maintaining when they should do the pushing themselves, the media isn’t doing it for them anymore.

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  12. I totally agree with Slack. The fanbase has many more options now than before and we use them as much as time will allow.

    As someone who recently had their account suspended 30 days at Hello!Online for arguing with a troll… (I lost my patience and used some “bad” words)….I have been a good “citizen” there, never caused trouble before… now one more slip-up and I am banned for life…. having other options is a very good thing!

    Pop music artists have such a short commercial life span. Things can’t help but change.

    Take °C-ute for example: I love °C-ute the way Henkka loves Tsunku. I am so glad they lasted as long as they did,, but now that they have announced their dis-bandment…………. I just feel hollow inside about idol music.

    Maybe I can get into UpUp Girls……….

    Henkka, thanks for your translations!

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  13. Honestly, ever since Zukki left things have just been more boring for me. There’s a slight glimmer of hope now that Sayu is coming back to life on her blog again, but it’s only been two tiny posts so far so we’ll see how it goes.

    Still, it’s sad when the only idols I’ve been following more lately are 2D …

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  16. Out of curiosity – and I’m sorry if this has been discussed here before – do sites like this exist for Japanese fans who are interested in reading about the opinions and thoughts of western/english-speaking fans? Also, how aware are they of the fact that their discussions are being saved and translated by foreigners? I’ve always wondered about these things

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