[Blog Post #4-3. Last interview by Seung Woo]
'A'(false name) - Interviewd by Lee Seung Woo
Our last interviewee is super fan of Japanese virtual idol 'Muse'-featured in animation 'love live'. He is university student, and playing piano and guitar in a school band. For him, muse is real 'muse' who give him a musical inspiration. He is really into the Japanese culture and really good at Japanese, but he is not that good at English. So we meet personally before our main interview and make our interview sheet before interview. Because of this, we prepare lots of contents but it only take 10 minutes for interview. And, in this interview, I want to show you the super fan is not that strange person, but just enjoying some special hobby.
■Falling in love with 'muse'
He said that he first saw his star on a game about two years ago. He was highschool students that time, and his friends are really into rhythm game. He met her star in that game. He said, the game was so interesting, and at first hearing, he started to love its music. Then he started to watch animation about 'muse', and listened to their music. And, he recommend one of his stars piece, name 'Snow Halation'. which was released in 2012. For he playing the piano in school band, he loves song with piano accompaniment, and it is the song which caught up his ears. In the intro, sweet piano sound was so beautiful to him, and he said he was really inspired by this song for his composition for school band.
■Misunderstood about virtual star's super fan
Before interview, I personally thought that super fans are spending lots of money and time for their stars. I wondered why, so I prepare questions about my stereotype to find out the truth.
First, economic part. He has almost every CD of them including their figures. And he watched 'muse' animation movie about 7 times, and went to the concert several times. He even said that he went to the place where on the animation, But, he thinks it isn't that burden to him. He said that it just like doing other hobbies like traveling or watching movies. And, I confirm his argument by checking my spending for hobbies; it was almost same as his spending by fandom.
Second, routine part. He said there are some difference between his star and normal friend. He love his star cause they're true idol for him. He love the star's priceless effort to become a super star. And, since he is doing composition in school band, it really helpful for him to listen to their 'bright', 'hopeful' music. So, he respect them as artists and hard workers, which are what him want to be. And, answering the question about star's rival, he said that many super fans don't acknowledge rival, and its really bad habit of super fans. He thinks fans have to understand each other. He seems that he is not mentally shaken by his stars in daily life.
In this interview, I know that super fans are not living in a depending life for his stars; both economically and socially. They think they're doing some hobbies, not that different from other hobbies like sports or game.
■Hardest time as super fan, and his wishes
After we talk about the fan's normalcy, he said that when people consider him as abnormal people, he feel stressed about it. He thinks that only some anti-social fans are causing the stereotype of super fans, and many like him are doing fandom as hobby. Also, he hates that peoples bias that discriminate hobby by their own view, and thinking that chess or sports is sound hobby and fandom is not sound hobby, because of few extremely abnormal fans. He thinks spending time and money to one's favorite stars as worthy as any other hobbies. and want us to acknowledge super fan as someone who is doing their own hobby. And, he also make an additional remark that he hopes people think him as different person, not wrong person.
■Meaning of super fan
He said that being a true super fan of his star, means believing 'hope' and 'dream' inside us. Because his star always sings about hope and dream. He first met them when he was third grade of highschool, which is hard time for most of the korean students. But, in this hard time, their hopeful song cheered him up. Since then, he decides to be a one who makes hopeful songs like his stars and sings for people in hard time. And he thinks this is true meaning of super fan; think star as one's role model.
Thanks for having a great interview. Before reading your interview, I didn't think of being super-fan as a sort of hobby. I just thought it as a part of activities which seems not productive to me. But after reading your interview, I realized that there is no excuse for not admitting being super-fan as a hobby. In addition, for your friend's case, being super-fan really helped him to be a better person. It was impressive for me that the music of 'Muse' inspired his music. I knew that there was virtual idol but I didn't think that the music of 'Muse' could be highly appreciated, which was another hidden bias. Thanks for the interview again and I look forwards to your presentation!
ReplyDeleteEven though I haven’t seen ‘Love live’, I have heard of its reputation much. And I somewhat can understand what ‘A’ think of ‘Muse’ as, because I have a similar experience. When I was in middle school, I happened to see an animation named as ‘Evangelion’. It was so interesting and I became so into it. After watching all the stories of this animation, I also watched theater version of it. And after watching theater version of it, I searched implication or hidden meaning of things featured in this animation. It was so addictive to know more about this animation that I continued it for a few months, but I had to quit it because I enrolled high school with dormitory where there was no way to continue what I had been doing. So I can understand A’s hobby and how much he like it. And I agree with his idea that all the hobbies are equally respectable.
ReplyDeleteI read this interview twice, because it was absolutely astonishing that one can be a super-fan of virtual idol in animation. I guess it was my hidden bias that only idol in reality can have fandoms. Reading your interview, I even felt the power of Japanese animations that had changed your interviewee's life totally different. The animation 'Love live' is quite different from other animations I know and it seems to be really interesting that it have already held the concert several times.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I agree with what he said about being super fan. I can understand that many superfans are supportive to their idols and they just consider it a kind of sound hobby. As he revealed, some of negative stereotypes and uncomfortable words on super fans are probably stressful. I agree that people should not discriminated someone's hobby, based on what they heard about Japanese animation or things related to it. Undoubtedly, It can be a source of hope and dream. I will give a try listening to songs of 'Muse'.
Before reading this article, I realized that I was so biased about animation otakus!! I never gave a chance to look at these people as original fans because they idolize unreal people. I actually had a guy in class in Highschool who loves love live and everybody treated him as a weirdo, byun tae and even humiliated him. Classmates laughed at posters of lovelive in his dormitory rooms and teased at his actions when he went to concerta. Because of that mood I also thought it was not normal and avoidedhim and this interview changed my thoughts!!
ReplyDelete