HUGE Audio post- EMO live, Jyu Jyu live, Photobook events, and much more

Hey Derek! I haven't really commented on your posts because I feel like I give you feedback to these things in other ways, but I'm going to put my questions for the Q&A here. 1. You mentioned Saya was your 4th (or 3rd) favorite singer in idol, who are your top 5? Or really as many you want to mention, but at least 5. 2. We've talked about this before, but other than something related to idol, what is something creative you want to work on next, and talk about some details as to what that is. 3. What is your favorite sandwich to get at like a deli (like when you lived in the States)? 4. Would you rather work with/take cheki of an idol that is all business and gets shit done quickly/efficiently, or one that is fun, but takes a while to get things done? 5. What is your favorite area of Tokyo to go to? Like if there was a show or meeting, you get excited to go because it's a fun place or something. Bonus question: what was the last thing you ate/drank? (this is just for fun) Thanks for doing this as always! We'll talk soon. All the best to you and your Mom. Hopefully she is doing better. And you give you all the live she can, and I hope for a speedy recovery. It sucks you can't be there with her at this time.

I feel incredibly humbled to have you as a supporter and to leave me such an insightful and in depth comment like this one. Thank you for understanding so very well about what I'm experiencing and also for being appreciative of Japanese idol culture and spreading that culture to your co-workers. Also, thank you for supporting what me and Izumi san are doing with photography and idols. This is why I keep hoping for like, benefactors, or a patron to just throw money my way, so I can put these beautiful girls into an artistic photography concept that I often think about when I see the world around me here in Tokyo. I see more than I can even talk about, you know? And so I try to express things I can't necessarily talk about in these photobooks. They are an outlet for me, but they also are a chance for me to use my access to these idols and my ability to talk to them into doing these crazy ass photobooks. And trust me, the next two I'm working on are even MORE crazier and visually challenging than anything else I've done. Just wait... they are insanely great, as one past icon of our world used to say when he rolled out some new tech for a certain silicon valley company we all know and (maybe?) love lol. But yeah... the problem is that all of these photobooks I have personally paid for out of my pocket, and because of Covid wrecking IU this summer, I'm out of cash to do anything else. These next two photobooks I literally don't know how I'm going to pay for them. And I want to photograph several more idols, including possibly all of the girls in Aphrodite and EMOx7 (maybe do my first group photobooks for both), Chihiro from MXE and Beni from FFF, Neuchan from Jyu Jyu, and Mizuho from Saka-Sama. Also Momoi-chan from Last Question, as I deeply adore and respect Momoi chan. She's been really a great idol to work with this past year. So... these are goals I hope to achieve, but I am trying to figure out a way to do all of this and survive in Japan and create art that can support life here in Expensive ass Tokyo lol. Thank you though. Really... I loved this comment. And thanks for your well wishes for my mother. It was quite the shock, but life goes on, you know? Talk soon.

Hi Derek, it´s been a while. In your case that is always a good thing. That normally means you are juggeling through each of your projects. Speaking of.. You adressed the subtitles of your documentation are in the works. If you work with the usual Script types which are common in Fansubs (SRT, ASS, SSA etc.) feel free to contact me. I´d love to help you translating them to German to have another subs option for physical or digital releases. The pretending social distancing thing (having no one at concert but playing role model for public) is really a strange one. I first saw this live on X-Teen refusing streaming concerts. It´s a shame somehow. Streaming concerts would be such a good way to reach foregin fans. In Germany no one cares how other countries deal with it. At least groups slowly adapt doing streams. Since i missed Necronomidol last year i still haven´t seen a single live concert until 2019. Now Ricky saw an opportunity und if Necroma has 25 concerts Ricky makes it happen to stream at least 20 of them for a more than fair price. And it´s such a wonderful thing. Emomomo7 and Last Question did, even Hanako did which was so fucking awesome. Also they compensate losses due to limitations regarding letting people attend live. So i hope this gets a trend in the future. I´m glad Yuinas photobook starts to sell better. I don´t understand why Saya still is so underappreciated right now. She makes awesome music, has several beautiful, traditional and completely spaced out singing styles. She blows me away, and i even haven´t started talking about her hypnotizing dancing. Hope her event gets a positive surprise as Yuinas did. Photobooks where you and Izumi work on are always high quality. In fact… i only own one photobook besides the ones at least one of you worked on. And it pays out. You have the ideas, Izumi has the perfect eye for the right focus and additional ideas. And boom… Out comes a book i always take out every couple of days and read / watch it. According mental health and Japan… The society has its flaws. On the one hand, all the polite phrases are perfect to make contact fast. But people seemed to stop to learn how to have a real relationships anymore – from making friends to find love. And the workaholic culture doesn´t make it easier. It´s a dark side. Technically spoken idols get in touch more easy with people, but you hardly get through a certain shell. So, if they feel bad they don´t let you know the slightest. This is only healthy until a certain point. Everything beyond that… leads to the self destructing behaviour you saw… I only know two idols so far who are completely even brutally honest how they feel. I wish i knew a way how to make these situation better. But here i am as lost in cultural translation as you I´m an optimistic person, but here i am really clueless… Idol is a whole new culture for western people. One of my first orders were when you opened Idol Underworld and you only started with Necronomidol. Because of my long work days i let you send the orders to my company. And it was really interesting to explain the culture and how fandom works to my colleagues and friends. „Okay.. and they sell polaroids of them. Okay. A personal note. That´s cool. They even called you by name. Do you know them?“ Ben, one of my coworkers and good friend literally was exited as me when stuff from Japan came. One day i ordered the Special Edition of infamous Kunogi gravure book, which more or less caused her leaving Necroma. But anyway… Ben already familiar with the concept of cheki saw Kunogis cheki from the book and that got him the total cultural overkill. If i ever saw a big TILT over someones brain, this was the moment. But here we can learn. People become aware of idol culture. :-P Hope everything works as intended the way it worked the last weeks and better. If you want me to help with a German subtitle option let me know, i gladly help here. Best wishes to you and also best recovery wishes for your mom.

Svensei

Thanks so much for your comment Romy! As always, you are inspiring to me and so helpful. I love when you respond to what I do here! Also, I'll have another patreon post coming about Honami's grad concert yesterday... stay tuned for that. Regarding the cutting... I definitely want to talk to you about it. Perhaps when you come here... that's a conversation better done in person, I think. And also... it still right now is something that I am trying to understand more about the apathy the Idol Industry shows towards girls who do this than why the girls do it themselves. I think it's kind of difficult to agree with this kind of looking the other way, when it comes to girls harming themselves and not trying to offer help, or something of this sort. I dunno... it's a murky subject for me. I just feel sad when I see these things, but there's this overwhelming sense of needing to "stay in line" as a staff person or I'll be banned from working in the industry with many groups... or something of this sort. Again... murky, and no clear answer here... yet. Anyway, thank you for being open about this here. And I care about you, so if YOU need to talk sooner than coming here to Japan, you know how to get in touch. Call me anytime.

Hi Derek! It's been a while, thanks for the audio post! The story about the selfharm scars hits home quite a bit. I unfortunately did it too at some point and the scars are there to remind me. I won't get into it too much now, but if you feel like you need to talk about it or speak to somehow who understands why people do it, you can always hit me up. I'm sorry to hear about your mom, I hope she makes a good recovery. Stay strong Derek!