Japan vs. Korea . . and me

It was an idle morning spent reading yet another hate meme in the JE fandom. It’s a mystery why so many people waste their time reading and responding to the various comments. I can never understand why people can be so nasty with so little to motivate them. Nor can I understand those who try to turn a hate meme into one full of love and good cheer. Fruitless. On both points. Extremely fruitless for me because I should have been working.

I know why I read though. It’s a vicarious thrill - an insight into the lives and thoughts of anonymous online individuals. Even more so because most people don’t realise how much of themselves they reveal through careless words and impulsive postings.

The debate (and I use this term loosely) this time round, seems to be developing on the great Japan-Korea divide: Japanese boybands (i.e. Johnny’s) versus Korean boybands (namely DBSK, Super Junior, F.T. Island, Big Bang, SS501, etc). I read with interest only because, for a while, I went over to the dark side too. Seduced by hilarious variety shows, interesting dramas and the sheer volume of pretty boys, I spent several months immersing myself in the world of SM Entertainment – home to DBSK and Super Junior – and the general Korean entertainment scene.

It’s interesting. In Korea, there is the fan and then there is the anti-fan. Simply put, a fan loves, an anti-fan hates. Insanely popular groups like DBSK have hundreds upon thousands of fans and other celebrities are deathly afraid of offending said fans. An offended fan can cause a landslide of vitriolic comments to spread across the Internet like wildfire, creating scandals - something to be avoided like the plague. It isn’t uncommon to see celebrities apologising (whether in truth or for a laugh) to fans for saying anything remotely unkind or unflattering about a member of a particular group.

There isn’t any doubt though (at least in my mind) that many of the Korean groups are far superior to our favourite Johnny’s boys in terms of singing ability. They can really sing. The best our boys can hope for is to not go out of tune.

All said, after the frenzied YouTubing, the many (and I cannot even begin to list how many) shows I managed to get hold of, the impression I was left with was that the Korean entertainment world is so much more harsh and cruel than the Japanese one. The shows are noisier, more risqué and many times, not much is held back. And, after watching one too many celebrities apologise for a perceived insult, my interest waned. I still enjoy watching the odd Korean variety show and drama and I went mad and ordered albums from various Korean artistes (so by that definition I'm still suppporting them) but I'm firmly back in the rainbow-clad, roller-skating camp. Bring on the feathers! Bring on the neon! Bring on the out-of-tuners! I'm ready. I'm waiting. I have credit cards.

2008 is a new year and so far, I’ve discovered several things:

• My brief foray into kimchi land showed me how much I love Arashi after all.
  
• The chaos at work helped me realise that I can’t keep up with everything that’s happening in the fandom, and it’s ok.
  
• Clearing my room and looking at the insurmountable mountain of magazines shoved into corners / lining the walls illustrated, in vivid Technicolor, the fact that I can (and quite likely should) live without buying so many magazines.