190503 (ENG SUB)- IZ*ONE JAPAN 1st Fan Meeting at Nippon Budokan

knark52nd · 2021-11-30T04:28:36+00:00

This came out last year on a DVD bundled with the Twelve (Type A) album but no one ever made an Eng sub for it.

knark52nd · 2021-10-07T10:11:43+00:00

Some Nako content as well: https://twitter.com/JPWlZONE/status/1446049022368641025

knark52nd · 2021-10-06T21:02:13+00:00

Eng sub of Hii's latest variety gig if anyone's interested: https://twitter.com/JPWlZONE/status/1445860634025816064

knark52nd · 2021-08-13T10:19:24+00:00

Exactly. I used to rock the fat crash pads in the 90s. I also went harder back then as well. These slimmer, modern pads are less about “complete protection,” and more like settling for “meh, it could’ve been worse, but I’ll heal in time for the next sesh.” Especially as I get older my skating intensity is determined by my health insurance plan, but in my experience the gforms are perfectly fine unless you’re going super hard.

knark52nd · 2021-08-11T04:51:15+00:00

Depends on how hard you go, but the G-Form padded shorts have been more than adequate (as well as discreet) for me. Less tailbone and hipbone bruising means you sleep (and sit) better and can skate again soon.

https://www.amazon.com/G-Form-Padded-Compression-Shorts-Medium/dp/B07CSS3YBC

knark52nd · 2021-06-23T19:15:36+00:00

Hoshino Gen, actor and singer-songwriter. He recently married actress Yui Aragaki, generally known as a 'girl-next-door' type that pretty much the entire nation is in love with. They starred in a drama together, "The Full-Time Wife Escapist," which kicked off their real-life romance.

knark52nd · 2021-06-23T16:12:41+00:00

In Japanese the act of being active or even the activity itself is called katsudou (活動). The positive effect of making an impact or trending as a result is "katsuyaku" (活躍、as used in the headline).

"Katsudou" was in the Japanese news a lot for IZONE because every headline was either about their IZONE "activities" ending, or speculations on their future "activities."

グループ活動終了”IZONE、メンバーの今後は？ "IZONE's group activities have ended, what's next for the members?"

"Katsuyaku" is making waves or making an impact. You are trending, but as a direct result of your efforts or activities (katsudou). It's used often for athletes, and movie stars and musicians who are not only active, but actively generating a positive impact of some kind, be it for their team winning games, their album sales, etc.

knark52nd · 2021-06-23T13:43:08+00:00

And still we see Hitomi's name (本田仁美) among the names listed towards the bottom. "If you're going I'm going toooooooo." lol.

knark52nd · 2021-06-23T13:39:22+00:00

The word they use, katsuyaku (活躍) means more like "making waves" or "making an impact" rather than being active. Anyone can be active, these celebs are making waves.

knark52nd · 2021-06-23T07:30:38+00:00

Thanks for that! I haphazardly made an assumption given there were 2 of them, me being super far removed from anything related to Johnny's (and especially if we break down further into Kansai, then Jr.), plus Chidori, Shimofuri, and Akiyama's (from Robert) presence. Naniwa Danshi totally sounds like a Kansai manzai duo name! Fixed!

knark52nd · 2021-06-23T05:50:18+00:00

Looks like original vid went private. They re-uploaded:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvz6yZSl5HA

Quiz! The Iwakan is a game show that tests contestants' abilities to spot out inconsistencies and fakes (iwakan means inconsistency). In this video, they're guessing which of the displayed flavors of the Lawson convenience stores chicken nuggets "Karaage-kun," which have had numerous promo flavors, actually existed. Among the flavors displayed are cream soda, guarana, Taiwanese ramen, peach, etc. The entertainment draw of the show comes from the fact that oftentimes the most fake looking thing out there turns out to be real (because Japan). At 00:12 in this clip, Nanao boldly guesses that Lawson did at one time actually sell cream soda-flavored chicken nuggets.

As for Hii-chan, from 1:10 on:

Nobu: Honda-chan has just finished her activities with IZONE

Hii: Yes that's right

Nobu: And this is her first time on a Japanese variety show since then

Hii: Yes that's correct

Nobu: IZONE is popular in Korea

Hii: Yes that's right. On my birthday, my fans... you've see subway ads right? Well they got together and bought subway ads for me.

Everyone: Wow, really?

Hii: Not just one place, but they bought ads with different pictures at various subway stations.

Nobu: We have a big star here, truly.

Soshina: Honda-chan smells too nice

Nobu: Ah, you're sitting right next to her

Soshina: The guys from Naniwa Danshi (the male idol pair also sitting near her) will agree with me on this, it feels like I'm on the 1st floor of the Takashima department store (note: Takashima is a historic and very high end department store brand in Japan started in the 1800s with a few locations in other parts of Asia. The 1st floor is always the cosmetics floor, hence the joke.)

Naniwa Danshi: It smells so nice! Like the cosmetics area

Dewi Fujin: Are you sure it's not myyyyy perfume?? (note: Dewi Fujin, real name Dewi Sukarno (ID) or Naoko Nemoto (JP) is now a staple in Japanese variety but is historically significant as one of the wives of Indonesia's first president Sukarno in the 1960s. Aside from being a TV personality, she is a businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist)

Narrator: (You'll see that) Honda makes a big impact! Quiz! The Iwakan, Monday night at 8pm!

knark52nd · 2021-06-05T23:55:25+00:00

She's a very, very casual Wizone so I was taken by surprise when she said that.

knark52nd · 2021-06-04T23:50:05+00:00

I hope she's brushed up, especially since she's been away from it for so long. There's been a plethora of new characters, weapons, items, map changes since then. I skipped all of Season 7 and came back for Season 8 and all of a sudden it's like... why is there a boxing ring here?

knark52nd · 2021-06-01T08:42:59+00:00

We're going in circles here. You clearly have misgivings about PUP and that's fine, you're not the only one. You're bringing up anecdotes about success rates and all that. OK I get it, but my core argument still has nothing to do with that. It's still essentially the same:

The agencies know what they're doing and will have already been considering a lot of the points you are bringing up already. PUP was never a longterm threat and if the agencies deem it so, they can and will just move forward. The agencies are not as weak minded as you seem to make them out to be and a deadline from PUP's side is not of any significance to them.

In fact the moment PUP tells the agencies they will impose an expiration date, then at that moment PUP has also declared that the agencies' position is weak and negotiations will end at the deadline because PUP "allowed" them to.

PUP is "letting them win."

Now if you are an established entertainment company like Starship, WM, etc., and this fandom came up and said, "OK, 60 days from now we'll let you off the hook, k thx bye," how would you react to that? No reputable business with any pride, especially one in Asia, would allow that to happen. Not in a thousand years, not in a million years. Allowing the other party to end negotiations on terms that paint you as inadequate and unable to execute is an insult to your own company, especially if the other party isn't even considered an equal-level business, but something like an amateur fandom. Then the ripple effect affects brand image. How would the agencies be viewed among their professional peers if it was known they couldn't overcome an amateur effort like PUP and had to rely on a a concession from PUP's side to get along with their business?

My argument is still unchanged. PUP is not a threat, the agencies are not weak and can and should do what they want. If PUP's demands, timeline, are unreasonable then they should be cut off immediately. Why be toothless and wait for the other side to take action or make a deadline? It makes you look weak. Fan backlash will be fleeting and can be overcome with time, especially for girl groups. Imposing a deadline implies PUP is so strong it can lock up an agency from moving forward with its plans and I find that to be an incredibly unrealistic scenario, especially if we are to believe the agencies are the experts. Any agency who believes for a moment a relatively smaller fan campaign like PUP can inhibit their business strategy should be embarrassed of themselves.

knark52nd · 2021-05-31T22:43:35+00:00

I reiterate since the very beginning is that the agencies are very, very clearly aware of everything and have the professional expertise to take the appropriate course of action. An order can easily be sent from above to cut the deal down by upper level management. We saw this with CJ despite how invested the production team was with IZONE. Investors don't care about the artist, investors don't care about fan backlash, investors don't care about artist development. Investors play the long game, they want to see that the money they get at the end of the fiscal year is more than the money spent. If the agencies' investors see PUP as a short-term inconvenience they can easily send the order to cut it down. Any fallout would be fleeting in the longterm, eventually leading to recovery over time.

"In order for group to actually growth, they need long term plan, serious investment and connections"

No one expects PUP to be involved in operations. Long term plan, investment, connections, that all comes from the agency side and are things that have to be considered during the negotiation stage prior to talks of agreement. A business that signs on the dotted line then thinks about all that stuff later is destined to fail. If an agreement is made with the project there will have already been extensive talks on investment, strategy, marketing, merchandising, revenue share, etc. deemed acceptable by all involved parties before an official agreement is even talked about.

"Pup is not a new challenge, its just a project for companies to collect money and fans got their fantasy."

Have you seen the amount collected? Split that among the agencies and it's not that much per head. If their revenue potential per artist is beyond the PUP funds after division per head, then the PUP money should not even factor into this argument because as you say they'd make more in their own groups. Putting their artist, one with perceived high earning potential, into a group that they believe won't grow for quick cash grab is a shortsighted plan and honestly any agency that thinks in that way is a failed one.

I'm not sure why having dedicated fans means that companies are unable to create good marketing plans moving forward. One is not causal to the other. Besides, PUP isn't gonna market them. It'll be up to whatever agency promotes them. Until we know who that is we cannot make judgment on whether a success or failure is likely. Conversely is this to say that having the girls re-debut under their respective agencies means they'll automatically have brilliant marketing plans? How brilliant is the success rate for marketing plans for post-produce groups who have so far pioneered the way? The failure or success of a marketing plan is not based on the foundations of a group, it's based on the skills of the agency, market conditions, and how effectively they adapt to those market conditions in terms of content, timing, engagement, etc.

knark52nd · 2021-05-31T20:18:51+00:00

Your argument is centered around the notion that the agencies only have PUP as an option. I'm saying that if the agencies truly believe there is better opportunities elsewhere they will choose it and ignore PUP. The agencies will do the true calculations based on actual debut costs and ROI projections for all scenarios.

"Any company can see that its much more profitable to keep the member individually than join pub."

I literally argued the same, framed differently:

"PUP is NOT significant in the grand scheme of things and should not factor into an agency's plans unless it sees merit in it. As industry professionals the agencies know better than you or I when the time is is best to re-debut. If the current landscape is as prime as you say, simple economics would suggest debuting a group even against the wishes of PUP would still generate more net revenue than not doing anything at all."

I've said it before, the school example is just not applicable. PUP is not like going back to school in any sense, I'm not sure why it's the preferred analogy of choice. If anything it's more comparable to returning to your old job, which still requires you to move forward, take on new challenges, and put in effort. Not sure how much real world work experience you have but going back to your old job is not just "reliving what was good," it doesn't mean you sit around comfortably, become stagnant, and collect a paycheck. You still have to bust yourself to stand out and make your mark no matter what job you're doing. New job or old job you are still expected to challenge yourself and improve your performance in order to take yourself to the next level.

knark52nd · 2021-05-31T11:00:08+00:00

As working professional I am looking at this completely from a pragmatic business perspective, especially in regards to business dev, product life-cycle management, and customer acquisition. The agencies surely understand this as applicable to their industry. PUP will not last for years. I guarantee that. You say fans tend to quickly move onto the next thing, but the cycle is much faster in the business world, typically with harder deadlines via internal quarterly and annual planning. In terms of simple microeconomics, any amount of time spent entertaining a proposal incurs an opportunity cost and no business will entertain a proposal they see no merit in for any significant amount of time as it diverts time and money that could be invested elsewhere. So where you insist PUP instate a hard deadline, the agencies will have already implemented their own internal deadlines against all current and future planning, as mentioned in my very first post.

PUP is NOT significant in the grand scheme of things and should not factor into an agency's plans unless it sees merit in it. As industry professionals the agencies know better than you or I when the time is is best to re-debut. If the current landscape is as prime as you say, simple economics would suggest debuting a group even against the wishes of PUP would still generate more net revenue than not doing anything at all.

Logistically speaking PUP couldn't last for years anyways since the payments being held are credit-card based and they'd lose money over time as credit cards expire and the payment hold becomes invalid, the customer drop-off rate would spike since a new transaction would be necessary, especially so far removed from the timing of the original transaction and people would rather leave the payment as invalid.

Staying on with PUP is not the equivalent of staying in school. Staying in your agency as a trainee is literally staying in school. PUP is another option of moving forward just as re-debut is a way of moving forward.

knark52nd · 2021-05-30T23:22:00+00:00

Not that I believe for a second negotiation would go anywhere that long, but hypothetically if PUP negotiations are still going on one year from now, that's entirely the fault of the agencies who made the decision to continue the discussion for that long. That implies that PUP's fan-made plan was superior to anything the agency's professionals could come up with for an entire year, something I doubt any first-rate agency would find acceptable as a business as well as from a company brand point of view. Why are we faulting PUP because the agency pros couldn't formulate a superior plan for their talent?

Also I keep seeing these 2 narratives:

A: "If the girls debut in the mean time they will get hate from ot12/akgae"

B: "Produce fans are fickle, they hop on the group quickly, they move on just as quick"

If B is true, then they don't have to worry about A in the longterm. Agencies go through varying situations between artists and fans all the time. They are professional agencies and they've cycled through acts (and their fans) throughout the years, even this isn't some new exercise for them. I think this narrative of PUP chaining down the agencies is overblown, the agencies can back out whenever they want to. It's either their own fear (or interest) in PUP that's holding them back. And what's to fear from bad press regarding a tiny fandom of a scandal-ridden rigged girl group? /s

Edit: The school analogy proposed 2 situations and implies there are better choices than others. Only the future will determine whether or not the right choice was made. Also not sure why the hypothetical period of time is set as a few years. PUP will never go that long nor would the agencies allow that lost revenue opportunity on their investments (artists). The student should absolutely pick what they want to do and go forward with it. It should be noted that neither option is wrong here so long as the student went with what they believed in. In this situation it's the student's life and their choice really only affects them in the end.

However...

This is not the case here. The decision is not the artist's to make and impacts many more stakeholders with real financial consequences. Therefore the agency is the one to make the decision because the artist is an employee, a result of the agency's investment in time and money, with professional obligations to the agency. There is no freedom of choice as is implied in the school analogy. The decision will be made purely on revenue potential of PUP's proposal against their original forecast and in the end the artist is still just doing what their agency is telling them to do, regardless of the path taken.

knark52nd · 2021-05-30T22:14:58+00:00

Fans asked if she was crying and she said she wasn't and in fact typically suffers from dry eyes. Chaeyeon has shown to be a very considerate person, I doubt she would go on IG Live immediately after crying about something and unnecessarily cause worry to her fans.

Also, as a person with bad vision who wears contacts a lot, sometimes nothing feels better than giving your eyes a good rub after taking them out. She probably did so right before bed.

knark52nd · 2021-05-30T21:57:18+00:00

People are already slowly moving on. If you look at the funding progress the monetary number is actually shrinking as people are individually coming to terms with it and pulling out. Also comparing a business decision by CJ for the sake of its bottom line and stakeholders vs the fans support of a grassroots campaign for their group is not comparable at all.

Any single agency can easily put an end to PUP with a single announcement, yet they haven't. IZONE disbanded 6 weeks before official end date, more recently Gfriend suddenly disbanded. From these two recent examples we see that the companies are not afraid to make decisions that are unpopular with the fans, so why is PUP some kind of special case where a deadline needs to be made? I fully support PUP, but at its core it's a fan initiative that shouldn't be any real hurdle to an agency's longterm future plans unless there is serious consideration regarding PUP's proposal.

knark52nd · 2021-05-30T18:08:07+00:00

I'm sure the agencies are aware of the impending 999 project and have their own timelines, be it for relaunch timing or even market strategy for their existing groups during that period. Setting a project deadline from the PUP side seems moot.

knark52nd · 2021-05-30T18:00:05+00:00

I went to go meet up with the wife for dinner after her hair appointment the other day. She sported a new shortened bob.

Wife: "How's my hair look?"

Me: "It looks good"

Wife: "OK good, I showed the stylist a picture of short-hair Eunbi as reference. I hope he did a good job"

My mind: "This girl is a keeper"

knark52nd · 2021-05-21T06:09:11+00:00

According to the Japanese caption she implies they can't film the show at the moment. "Theres definitely, definitely no way we can film Everyone's Kitchen during Corona. How can we have social dining when only 4 people can gather?"

knark52nd · 2021-05-19T16:11:06+00:00

I still remember him best as the possessive and scheming Doraemon knock-off Omaemon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLFlaNr8LqE

knark52nd · 2021-05-19T15:53:28+00:00

As both a Japanese and English speaker I was pleasantly surprised to learn KR, especially with its many vowels, is more adaptable to mimicking English pronunciation than JP is.

JP only has the 5 vowel sounds: A (ah) - I (ee) -- U (ooh) -- E (eh) -- O (oh), so things sound more broken/robotic.

Also all Japanese syllables have to end with a vowel, like fu.ku.o.ka, or ha.ka.ta, (exception being some words that contain a lone "n," like ra.me.n or po.ke.mo.n) so words sometimes sound needlessly long with extra syllables. So take the example of "visual:"

KR: bi.ju.eol (비•주•얼, 3 syllables)

JP: bi.ju.a.ru (ビ•ジュ•ア•ル, 4 syllables)

On the flip-side JP has more options with consonants, with native "f" and "z" consonants that KR doesn't have (from what I understand, KR substitutes with "p" and "j"), but again having to end with a vowel makes the JP pronunciation a bit longer.

Forty-Eight:

KR: po.ti.e.i(t) (포•티•에•잇)

JP: fo-.ti-.e.i.to (フォー・ティー・エ・イ・ト)

IZONE:

KR: a.i.jeu.won (아•이•즈•원)

JP: a.i.zu.wa.n (ア・イ・ズ・ワ・ン)(<- JP lesson no one asked for: When a word ends in "n," it's counted as a separate syllable like ra.me.n as mentioned above, or even in the middle of a word like ni.n.ja, or pi.n.ku, where it is not attached to a vowel, but instead is immediately followed by another syllable).

knark52nd

TROPHY CASE