Idol Underworld 2020 - Plans and New Beginnings

Hello everybody! Yeah... I got some MAJOR news. So let's just jump into it...

For starters, I have to tell you all a huge THANKS for making 2019 a great year for me. I mean, personally, it was one of the worst years of my life, but professionally and business-wise, it happened to be a year that changed a lot for me. I improved some of my Japanese speaking to the point where I could actually start having some basic conversations on my own, and even that was enough to launch Idol Underworld and truly go out on and start recruiting groups to join the website and allow me to sell their products and chekis to foreign fans (and Japanese fans too!). 

Additionally, I made a lot of new friends in the idol world, both in terms of the foreign fans I've met while on tour this past summer and also through the faithful who buy everything I put up on Idol Underworld. I can't tell you how much joy and happiness and, in some cases, necessary, that it was I met all of you, and talked to you. I can't thank you enough for your kindness and love for me. It's got me through some very difficult situations in my life. I mean this, above all else. 

Idol Underworld blew up. I mean, to the point where I was taken completely by surprise with how successful it was. And again, THANK YOU for that. I have had both many foreign fans come to really love what I'm doing with Idol Underworld, and also many idols have come to appreciate that I'm doing for them. I've had idols actually start to contact me to ask me to be on the site, or in some cases, when I have approached an idol group to be part of what I'm doing, they were already well aware of Idol underworld and were happy that I finally asked them to be part of the site. So, I hope this continues in 2020, and we grow this to a much larger thing than what it is now. I have to figure out how to scale this appropriately, but that involves me getting permanent staff and that has, to say the least, proven to be tricky. Trusting people is not something I can do very well, as I tend to get fucked over by everybody I let into my life, or I fuck people over who I am close to. That's a post for another time, but yeah, it has been hard to meet anyone here who can actually work for me and help me. I do need an assistant, somebody to really run my affairs for me here, so if anyone's interested out there, message me and lets talk. I did have Marlon, my good friend, helping me for a bit, but he's become very busy with his new job, and so it's been hard to convince him to give up his nights to come over and help me. And I truly understand that and respect that so all love and respect to him regardless. Marlon's a damn good guy, and he helped me catch up on all those past orders that I was behind on for months, so, I'll always owe him big time for that. 

SO, having said all of that, I decided that I want to challenge myself even MORE this year, in terms of reaching new heights, and I have decided to do several things that are pretty fucking ambitious, but, I'm going to do it all because I actually want to practice trusting people more. And so, I'm going to trust all of you to help me make these things a success. And I think given what I'm going to do, you'll all really, really appreciate what I'm going to do. Or so I hope. Please leave me comments and feedback on this post so I will know if I have made any of you happy with my goals, or if you guys think I should do something different, or maybe you have some pointers to give me about what I'm going to do. All of you who know me by now should think about the fact that I'm very open-minded and very open to CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. I mean, if you want to write shit about me or talk shit to me, go to 4Chan for that. There's I think a few hundred pages of shit talking about me on there, and I read those posts every once in awhile when I need my spirits lifted. I don't say that sarcastically either... some of those posts on  4chan have made me laugh out loud while I'm on the train browsing them on my phone. Seriously, they are hysterical in terms of how clueless and fucking just downright evil and awful they are about me. But... that stuff doesn't bother me even in the least. And my point is that if you want to criticize, tell me something useful, and I'll listen. Make sense? Okay, so moving on, here we go. I'll start with a bit of news for the Idol Underworld faithful:

1. All orders have shipped that were in queue. I shipped everything today. Thanks everybody!

2. Restocks are coming today. I have quite a bit to restock, including a lot of Yoneko's cds, Trash-up's artists, and chekis of a lot of idols. So that will all be done in the next few hours or so. Sorry I couldn't get it done sooner. 

3. In case you were wondering who the girls were in the image above, yeah.... I GOT ODORO!!!!! Welcome the lovely and amazing Shirome and her friends! I am so, so, SO fucking pumped that I got them! They were down and out for the count in 2019, having lost all their members pretty much, but they've come back with this very solid new lineup! I'll be posting chekis of all the members, and also their cds, for sale. Next week, I'm supposed to get parkas and even more items from them, but the team behind Odoro are incredibly kind (and both their managers are female... this is such a rarity in idol! I love them.. both women are SO kind and adorable!) and they were more than happy to have me work with them. I remember meeting them a long time ago when they played a few shows with Necroma, and they blew me away, even with them not having all their members at that time. Shirome is not only one of the most beautiful idols in the idol world, but she's also very fun to watch onstage dance, and she's got a good heart and she's really nice in person. And yeah... their music is some of the BEST idol music in the Idol Underground scene. So many are happy they are back, and I'm definitely one of them. Expect a lot from them this year with me working together with them. They are THE best, and I encourage all of you to give them a warm welcome at Idol Underworld. Buy up their chekis and their cds so next week I can go to them and surprise them with a report of great sales, okay? I like to do that for the new idols. And yeah, I'll have all of their merchandise up in the next few hours as well. So stay tuned for that.

4. I also got another amazing idol, OKINAWA ELECTRIC GIRL SAYA! I got a LOT to sell for her, including tons of cds and cheki. I'll post more about her in a bit and also post her items to sell too, also in a few hours, but OKINAWA ELECTRIC GIRL SAYA is a very, very eclectic and unique idol. Her voice could be one of the top 5 best in the idol world. She could easily be a professional singer, so when you hear her sing for the very first time, I guarantee you'll get goosebumps. She doesn't sound like any other idol, and her music is this strange mix of traditional Japanese singing, EDM, experimental sounds and noises, and great melodies that are both haunting and sticky, in the sense that they stick to your soul for many hours after you hear them, or for me, days and days. I'm so happy to finally work with her, as I've been circling the chance to work with her for a few months now, and I really have wanted to meet her. I've never actually talked to her until recently, but now that I have, I'm super happy that I did... she has a real passion to reach out to foreign fans, and she wants to go overseas, so... expect her to do so this year. I will be helping her do that too, or at least I want to help her.

NOW, here are the goals, and I hope you'll all be really excited for them like I am!

----IDOL UNDERWORLD TAIBAN IN JAPAN! 

So, In August of 2020, I will be putting on the very first Idol Underworld all day festival in coordination with my birthday, which is August 20th. Now, I'll probably put the actual show on the weekend after my birthday, since my birthday falls on a weekday. I haven't decided yet, but I'm letting all of you know because I will be offering a very special discount, or possibly special reservation bonus, for anyone who is a foreigner and who comes to the show. My goal has always been to have a show in Tokyo for idols where there are possibly more foreign fans than there are Japanese fans in attendance. Can we make it happen for the Idol Underworld taiban? I hope so! Anyway, when I get the exact venue determined and day, I'll post it, but just letting you know, A TON OF THE IDOLS I WORK WITH have already said they will play, so it's possible this will be a massive show with twenty or thirty groups on it. And it will be all groups from Idol underworld. So please, if you have any plans to come to Japan, or were thinking about coming to Japan, maybe try to come at that time. I PROMISE this will be THE show of the year! It's my birthday show, and I expect certain groups that will play might even drag me up on the stage to play, or maybe I'll have an old song from my old band be performed by a group? Who knows... I am hoping for a lot of fun surprises that day. And there will possibly even be some groups and idols in attendance that day who aren't playing but are just idols I work a lot with and will come out of respect, so you might be seeing some very familiar faces in the crowd with you there. It will a huge idol spectacle! 

---IDOL UNDERWORLD OVERSEAS TOUR/SHOW

So, this is all early stages, but I'm planning on doing some kind of overseas show in 2020, probably in the fall/late fall. I have two groups and a solo idol already signed on to do it, but I want to go bigger, if possible. My goal was and still is to do a kind of light/dark festival, like one weekend somewhere in the world, where one day it's all the more lighter idol groups I work with, and the second day, all the evil groups I work with. I might just end up taking a few groups over, but no matter what I end up doing, I think it will turn out to be a pretty fun time. The question is... where to go? Europe seems to be the easiest, in terms of the barriers to actually make that happen not being so high, but... is America ready for me to do another idol festival there? I learned a lot from East Meets West and the Oyaholo Tour that I did there, so if I do make that happen, I want to do it perfectly. Like I said, this is all early stages.  I am looking for sponsors for the tour, so if any of you are interested, hit me up. Also, I gotta nail down a few things first (like my visa status here in Japan... still waiting to get my work visa approved. Should be any day now). Once I get a better idea of what to do, I'll let all of you know. I have no guarantees to make this happen, but.. it's on the radar. Stay tuned.

---IDOL UNDERWORLD PHOTOBOOK CONTEST! 

Ah, so this is what I'm REALLY pumped about right now! I've recently received the finances to make an Idol Underworld photobook. Now, I have two photobooks in the works right now for two idols I work with, and those will be announced hopefully soon, but this is something entirely new. I'll be posting all of the links and details for this in the next few weeks, but here is how it is going to work:

Basically, I am going to make a photobook with SEVERAL idols prominently featured in it. The theme Is TBD. I am thinking of two things, thematically, but it will depend on the feedback I get from the idols participating, as to what they want to do. There will be Japanese and English translations of what I'll have them be doing too, plus possible translated interviews with a few of them. Anyway, the photobook's cover idol will be determined by YOU, as well as who gets paid the most per book sold. How it works is that for every book you pre-order, you will get ONE VOTE to give towards an idol that you want to be on the front cover. The idol who gets the most votes will get the cover plus a spread in the photobook that will be more than any of the other idols. Additionally, any books that are bought, you will select the idol that you want your purchase to count towards, and they will be paid for that book purchase. I'll be posting pre-orders for the book once I confirm all the idols who will participate in the book, but it will be quite a few of the ones I have on the Idol Underworld roster. The one thing I'm not going to do is include some of the massively popular idols that I work with, simply because I don't think it will be really fair to a lot of the lesser known idols I'm working together with. Also, I really want the goal of this photobook to introduce you to some of the lesser known idols in these groups. I want to give some of these girls a chance to be seen in a big way. So I would encourage all of you to vote for girls who never would normally see the light of day in an Idol contest like this. I think it's always cool to root for the underdog. And we can turn one of these girls into an even bigger star by doing this. I am basically waiting until I can get one more group on board (they will be posting chekis of their members on Idol Underworld the first week of February), and once they are done, I'll post the pre-order link, and then I hope all of you will start voting for who you want to win. The voting period will be about a month, and then after that, I'll get the photobook made and rolled out. But  basically, YOU all will determine who gets the front cover, the spread, and the prestige of being named Idol underworld's very first Underworld queen! It will be massively fun! 

Oh, and by the way, all the money I raise from the photobook competition will go towards that overseas tour and the taiban I'm putting on here in Tokyo. So please keep that in mind... this is NOT for profit, but for putting money into a reserve that I can tap for making those two things happen this year. So please go hard on your purchases.

I almost forgot.... those of you who pick the winning girl, your books that you buy might have something special with them when they are sent out... I don't want to say what that is, but I'm working on a special surprise that will be delivered with every single book purchase of the winning girl. So that's even MORE incentive for you to get behind this. So in about a week and a half, expect this to be up!

---NEW IDOL UNDERWORLD SISTER WEBSITE!

This one is still in the early stages, though I've been laying out everything pretty fast, but yeah, I'm making a SISTER website to Idol Underworld. It will involve basically creating a market  for one of the items I sell a lot of on IU. I don't want to say too much about this right now, but it's on the way... you guys, I hope, will have a blast with this site. I'm having a blast making it and just thinking about it. Here's a hint though, to tide you all over: 

BASEBALL CARDS. 

I know, pretty fucking vague hint, but put two and two together with what is sold A LOT on the IU site, and I think you'll see where I'm going to go with the new marketplace website I'm creating. But more on this when I have it done and tested.

That's it guys! Thanks for sticking around this long! I am working on getting a lot more idols this year, including another amazing idol group who will join IU next week, and possibly a popular fan favorite solo idol who all of you have been requesting from me for a long time now. We were supposed to meet but she cancelled on me so... if she meets with me and I get her, I'll let you know. She added me on LINE, and that is a big deal to give me a private LINE id, so I think she's serious about working with me, but we'll see. I'm going hard on getting new groups this year. It will all depend on how much you support them, but so far, all of you have done an exceptional job of showing so much love to the groups who are part of my IU family. So thank you for this, and please continue to show love and support to them all. I'll be asking for some cheki wipeouts soon, but for now, digest everything in this post, tell me your thoughts, and if you're hyped, especially, then please share that with me too! I can use the encouragement, as lately, I've not slept much and I'm really feeling lonely and kind of out touch with everybody and everything, so please do show me some love okay? 

Thanks so much! Here's to a massively ambitious 2020! Let's make it amazing!

-Love, Derek