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Am I the only one who’s staying calm these days? The whole fandom seems to be in a frenzy over Hey! Say! JUMP. In the last 24 hours I’ve read pretty much everything from “OMG, they disbanded Ya-Ya-yah!” to “I hate Johnny Kitagawa” to “Awww, poor Shoon and Taiyo”. And I have no idea why. Whatever happened to “I don’t believe it until I hear anything official from the Jimusho”? Okay, I have to admit I’ve read two or three of those, but the vast majority of people seem to be in a state of complete and utter panic.

It’s not that I don’t understand the things many fans must be going through right now. I do. And I completely understand if people get prepared for a worst case scenario. What I don’t understand is why people act as if that worst case has already happened. Because it hasn’t. Ya-Ya-yah have not been disbanded, and their TV program has not been cancelled. And it won’t happen any time soon. I’m pretty sure that half a year from now there will still be a TV program called Ya-Ya-yah with Yabu, Hikaru, Taiyo and Shoon in it, and Hey! Say! JUMP members will still be regulars on Shonen Club.

I hear people say even though Yabu and Hikaru are in HSJ they won’t buy the single, out of solidarity for Taiyo and Shoon, or for whatever reason. I think it’s a good thing to support Taiyo and Shoon, but please, if you want to support them do it actively. Write a letter or an e-mail. But if you think you can show them your support just by not supporting Yabu and Hikaru that’s just childish, because it won’t help Taiyo and Shoon, but it will harm Yabu and Hikaru. And I’m sure neither Taiyo nor Shoon would want that.

[On a side note, it's really interesting to see how it's mostly the male fans (those that I know to be male) that seem to take a more calm and rational stand on this. Don't kill me over this remark, girls, I know there's always exceptions to the rule.]

And in other news, Akaru pointed me towards this Sanspo article today, and in it Johnny Kitagawa (75) says in a fine blend of wisdom and madness:

「スポーツ界ではハニカミ王子とか、平成の子供たちがどんどん成長してきている。芸能界も負けていられない。本当に時代を変えたい。昭和はもうダメですよ」

“With people like Hanikami Oji [The Bashful Prince, nickname of 16-year-old golf sensation Ishikawa Ryo] and such, Heisei kids are steadily advancing in the sports world. The entertainment world cannot stay behind. I really want to change the era. Showa is already useless.”

GIVE THAT MAN A CIGAR!

This reminds me so much of Yuto’s attitude in that first Shokura after KAT-TUN’s debut, which was kinda like “Congratulations, and now get out of here, this is our stage now”. Oh how I loved that.

When I first heard that “Showa de show wa muri” line in Hey! Say! I thought it was just a nice little line that was supposed to be cute and funny. But now I think that this line might actually have been thought of by Kitagawa himself, and that it’s supposed to be neither cute nor funny. He means it. That man means business.

And I believe for Kitagawa this whole business is about the younger kids, the boys between 10 and 20. Once you’re past that age you either get to debut (or act on TV and in the theatre like Toma for example), or you’re out. What Johnny does is to breed the next generation of pop stars to make him money, but NOT for the sake of being rich and getting richer. If this were about his personal wealth he could have stopped right after SMAP. He needs the money to keep the system going, so he can breed another generation of stars who will in turn provide the financial means he needs to keep doing what he wants to do and what he’s best at. And that is to turn boys into men. To work with them and watch them grow.

Think you’re a teacher. You educate kids and teach them stuff so they can make it on their own one day. But once they’re out of school you don’t really care a lot about your former students anymore. Of course you will always have warm feelings for them, and you’ll be happy when they do well, but what you really care about is the next generation, the one that you have to deal with now.

I think for Johnny Kitagawa this whole business is all about the Juniors. Always has been, always will be.

I admire you, Johnny Kitagawa. I really do. And I hope you’ll stick around doing what you’re doing so wonderfully for a long time to come.

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