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A little bird told me that the other day on one of those social media platforms that has to do with Faces, Mr. Jake Cloudchair posted the following:
"In the first line of the email, I steeled myself with courage, and wrote the word 'Acchan-sama.'"
Those of you who've been reading Blog-Tick for a while may remember that a few years ago I wrote an entire article about why the name "Acchan-sama" is grammatically impossible in Japanese. This just goes to show that deliberately incorrect grammar is universally entertaining across linguistic boundaries. Wow very grammar! It also goes to show that far from dissipating the magic and sparkles, close proximity to the object of one's affection can actually serve to make the sparkles more intense.
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By the way, the same little bird also told me that some fangirls have been commenting on The Mortal's social media Face page thing, complaining that Mr. Sakurai should not stoop to the level of posting such phrases as:
"Right now we're conducting a share campaign on Facebook.
We hope you'll all check the page as often as you can (^_−)−☆"
or,
"Today, we had a release party with the band members and staff!
Nobody can stop talking about this album! Everyone's smiling!!"
(Redundant exclamation points and emoticons are faithfully transcribed from the original posts.)
The fangirls are complaining that posting such comments undermines Mr. Sakurai's artistic dignity and makes it sound like he's prostituting himself for his work.
Now, I realize that, for a lot of y'all, hearing Acchan-chan's name in the same sentence as the word "prostituting" is all kinds of titillating, so it is with great regret that I inform you that in fact, Mr. Sakurai does not write the text of The Mortal's Facebook posts. Sorry, fans. Delegation of that task is left up to The Mortal's promotional manager. The above emoticons are not the emoticons of Mr. Sakurai.
Sorry to crush your world like this, but just as Mr. Sakurai mentioned in his most recent appearance on the Dave Fromm show that according to a Japanese astrologer, in one of his past lives he was a Medieval European torturer and executioner, we too are sadistic and love to cause you pain.
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Oh, wow. I'm not really very active on that social media platform recently, but I did check out the page when I read this. I have to say, that it is very clear that the page was made and governed by a promotional team. It was kind of painful reading some of the comments though...
ReplyDeleteWow really? Why? Were they bad?
DeleteI wouldn't like to generalize since I have not read every single comment on the page. BUT I've read comments like asking Sakurai to make a personal video addressing the fans in exchange of thousand of shares then in return someone would reply and say something of the lines of "don't make Sakurai a clown since he put his soul in his music". Something like that.
DeleteSince I believe in keeping some integrity on the net and all, that second comment was mine ^^ Didn't quite say that and it wasn't even about Sakurai-san personally, rather that all such advertising is clown business and has little to do with making music. Guess that the first comment annoyed me a bit too much, hahah.
DeleteActually, I'm impressed with The Mortal's advertising campaign. It's a head and shoulders savvier than any promotional campaign Buck-Tick has launched to date - clearly, they finally have a marketing manager in touch with the modern era. The fact that Spirit reached number 11 on the charts in the week it was released, beating out Hotei's Strangers, is a testament to the success of the marketing thus far...as is everyone's desperation to share that clip of the Pain Drop PV. Etc. Sure, commercialism is distasteful and it would be great to live in a world that cared about more than money. But if Buck-Tick didn't make money, they wouldn't be able to continue doing what they do.
Delete[For those interested, Oricon rankings here: http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/w/2015-10-26/p/2/]
To clarify, I don't mind the sharing thing, and it's really nice having a page to follow for updates. It's when things are made forcedly personal that irks me, but I guess I should be getting used. If Sakurai-san were to infact write the posts and do a promotional video, I wouldn't think any less of him, just sympathize, but that may be my introversion speaking.
DeleteAnd awesome about Oricon, especially since all the higher-ranking albums seem to be full-lengths!
@crossparallel I'm sorry if my comment didn't quite do your comment some justice. ^^;
Delete@Cayce Though I'm not very particular with rankings, but Spirit reaching 11th in the week it was released is good news. The promotional campaign did well.
There's nothing "forced personal" about the Facebook status updates. They're typical Japanese hyper-perky marketing speak, as are the emoticons. Perhaps cultural differences can partly account for the fangirls' misinterpretation, but internet commenters are not generally renowned for their scintillating intelligence...
Delete@Mimi No ill feeling, writing that really was a knee-jerk reaction on my part ^^ I feel your pain about fan comments in general.
Delete@Cayce That about the cultural differences is quite true actually. Now I'm trying to imagine Acchan-sama doing (^_−)−☆. It is very amusing.
First rule of The Internet: NEVER READ THE COMMENTS.
ReplyDeleteBlog-Tick, of course, is the exception that proves the rule.
A Medieval European torturer and executioner - I can so see that. Hahaha.
ReplyDeleteAs for the promotional talk, yes, that's what promoters do. It's also entirely why we know The Mortal exists. Because promoters promoted it. *rolls eyes*
Wow, fangirls are never happy, are they? Just what do these people want for God's sake? Do they know what promotion is? They must know since they're supposedly his fans and also know how much he always sucked in doing this because he's just that kind of artist (there are tens of BT vids showing this). So what makes them think that he is doing this now? That he is "prostituting" himself now when he never did it? In the end why on earth would they think that his musical efforts need his "prostitution"? He and the other BT members have never cared about it, otherwise they would be on the top of the charts like their dear "colleagues". Then again no Sakurai or BT fan would make these sort of assumptions so even though they truly piss me off the moment I hear or see them, I tend to forget these comments soon, trivial as they are.
ReplyDeleteNobody actually used the word "prostituting," that was my own paraphrasing. But they did appear to be criticizing The Mortal's social media advertising campaign, mainly, it seems, because they believed that Mr. Sakurai was writing the posts himself and they believed that was beneath him.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I envy their ignorance of the necessary evils of capitalism. Music doesn't sell itself, especially these days, and much as every artist would love to do it for the love, artists and their cats have to eat, too, and eating requires that sordid thing - money.
Well even though they didn't use this word exactly, their comments amount to this. But once again I don't know if to be angry at them or be amazed because of how clueless they are of things. And why would they ever think that Sakurai was writing those, beats me.
DeleteI also think that the marketing has been pretty good for this campaign - it's largely in line with what I see regularly from many artists working independently of large corporations who, as anyone with a broad taste in music will have noticed, all use social media and the Internet to their best advantage because of its immediacy, reach and low cost.
ReplyDeleteIn this day and age, if you *don't* keep your band's name out there and plug away with teasers and snippets, you'll lose out to all the other musicians who *do*. It's a useful supplement to the magazine/radio/TV appearances, and keeps your name on people's lips between those more substantial efforts.
I think that whoever has coordinated The Mortal's online campaign has done a sterling job. They've even openly acknowledged awareness of non-Japanese fans to a degree, which is also a step forward.
The bottom line is, if you were going to buy the stuff and attend the gigs and buy all the merch regardless, then the marketing isn't aimed at you, so you can ignore it. It's aimed at the waverers and the potential new audiences, and the fans who can be tempted by extras and cool stuff but might not buy it unless they get to peek at it first.
All I can say to this is
ReplyDeleteA sack of rice just fell over in China.
Why would they think that a man like Sakurai would use cutesy emoticons on the internet?
ReplyDeleteDoes he even like parties of any kind?
Wasn't there a similar incident reported a few months ago about BUCK-TICK blogs impersonating the band members? (one language used in particular was Portugese)
Shouldn't there be a disclaimer saying that the posts aren't those of any member of The Mortal, or there is one and they didn't/couldn't read it?
Does Sakurai even use the internet?
I can attest that Mr. Sakurai likes parties under the right circumstances. I can also attest he loves cute things on the internet as he's generally too busy watching cat videos to answer any of my texts.
DeleteBut if you're the sort of person who really needs a disclaimer saying that Mr. Sakurai didn't write those emoticons himself, I'd say that rather than writing a disclaimer and smashing your dreams to dust, I'd rather let you keep on dreaming. Dream about Acchan-chan's emoticons all day.
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteI hope it's okay to write this here (since it's the most recent post). I was wondering about the full album - do you guys happen to know if Pain Drop on the album will be the same as on the one on the mini? I noticed that the title for the album one says 'PAIN DROP -It rains cats & dogs '...i guess the idea of them doing a little diff. arrangement and making the song diff. than the one on the mini isn't a complete impossibility so.. I just love the ending part of that song so much and would be crushed if it's not the same on the new album. I've already preordered the album and am wondering if I need to go ahead and add the mini to my cart as well (although the fact that i freakin love Shadow of Love is enough to tempt me anyway (and Cities in Dust is just lovely).. but i told myself i was crazy to buy both last night...since 2/5 will be on the full anyway (really love Yume, too..)... But just the fact that I'm supporting Acchan's project makes me happy/it worth it~ && it's my first sorta B-T purchase<3) ..Thanks everyone~ ..
~{{Hi Cayce! I e-mailed you recently about Buck-Tick concerts, anniversaries, etc. Even though I only lurk here as a fairly new reader, once again - I really appreciate your posts/updates/etc. Thank you! =))}}~
manda.
Usually a different subtitle on the song indicates a different mix. You can see this in action on B-T's work for songs like "Romance" vs. "Romance -Incubo," "Makka na Yoru" vs. "Makka na Yoru -bloody-" etc. However sometimes they do different versions, e.g. "Mienai Mono" (different lyrics), "Kuchizuke" (completely different synth arrangement), or "Dokudanjou Beauty" (practically completely different songs). So if you want to be on the safe side...buy the mini album as well!
ReplyDeleteBut if you want my real and true opinion...buy the mini-album. If you can't do it for Acchan-sama-chan, do it for David Vanian.
Yep, a question I should have known the answer to =p Thanks for your response =) I'm going to buy it lol.. I'd do it right now if I could, but I have to wait on my stupid bank to lift the annoying block on international purchases on my card again.. Will buy it tomorrow! Only because The Mortal is quality. (And maybe those like 106 seconds at the end of Pain Drop when Sakurai-san is laughing and breathing, which is possibly the most beautiful and heartbreaking sound in the world.)
ReplyDeletemanda.