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Hello children! Today’s blog post is brought to you by the word “deserve”.

So it’s debut time once again, and as always the one thing that keeps the fandom in a frenzy at a time like this is the question whether or not the people who get to debut actually deserve it or whether or not the people who didn’t make it might have deserved it more than the ones who did.

Now, we’re all biased and we all have our opinions as to who should debut and who shouldn’t. But are we actually in a position to determine who deserves what?

Honestly? I think we’re not.

I mean, how much of the life of an average Junior do we really get to see? How much of their time do they actually spend as Juniors and not as kids who just go to school and hang out with their friends and family? Let’s go for a very conservative estimate and assume that the average Junior spends just 1 hour per day 5 days a week with dance practice, learning lyrics, recording songs and shows, and whatever else it is that they do. That’s roughly 20 hours per month. And how much of that do we as fans get to see? Two Shonen Clubs, a couple of Live Stages and the odd Music Station performance. In an average month that’s 2 hours tops. 2 hours out of 20 that’s… wait, let me get my pocket calculator… that’s roughly 10%. The busier Juniors most likely work a lot more than just 20 hours per month, so the percentage of what we get to see is even lower.

Think of yourself for a moment, in school or in the workplace. Whether you’re working your ass off all the time or whether you’re being a lazy slob, do you really think that anyone who sees less than 10% of your efforts is (or should be) in a position to objectively determine your merits? Honestly?

Example: let’s say Junior A, who happens to be one of the most popular with audiences, is a lazy slob. He’s always late for dance practice, but that’s not so much of a problem because since he’s a natural talent he doesn’t need as much practice as others. He just gets there, does his dance moves, sings his lines, goes back home and everybody loves him.

Junior B, on the other hand, is not so much of a natural talent. He always shows up early for dance practice and stays late, and he even practices his dance steps at home late at night just before he goes to bed, and the first thing he does when he gets up in the morning is practice, practice, practice. And since practice makes perfect he’s doing really well. His singing and dancing is just as good as that of Junior A. But for some reason, maybe because he’s not quite as pretty and not quite as outgoing, he’s not so popular with audiences, and nobody ever buys his uchiwa.

So who deserves it more to debut, Junior A or Junior B?

I’m pretty sure that most people would think that Junior B deserves it more because he’s working so hard. In fact, that’s the most common argument that I come across when people argue for who they think should debut: “because he’s working so hard.”

The thing is, I think Junior A from the above example is probably a somewhat rare exception. A more likely scenario is that all Juniors are working hard. They’re all working their ass off for a solo line on Shonen Club. They’re all motivated and determined to become better performers. They all want to debut, and the vast majority of them probably deserve it. Even Junior C who entered Johnny’s only a couple of weeks ago, but who is both talented and hard-working.

But they can’t all debut, so somebody has to make the decision who deserves it most and who doesn’t. And that somebody is not us.

Let’s be reasonable about this. And let’s be honest. We as fans do not know enough to objectively determine who deserves to debut and who doesn’t. We can only judge what we see, and we simply don’t see enough to make such a call. All we know is who we like best and who we want to debut.

For us to say “this Junior deserves to debut and that one doesn’t” is like saying “strawberries are better than cherries because their shade of red is so much prettier“. It’s complete bull.

Have a look at my sidebar menu. 2.1 million pageviews in just over 3 years. Did I “deserve” them? I don’t know, maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. When I started blogging I never expected to get this amount of attention. And I certainly didn’t start blogging to meet new people because I was so lonely. I’m not very good with people, and I like being lonely. In the last three days I’ve received some 250 LJ comments, which, btw, is totally insane.

This blog post was triggered by one of these comments from a reader who thought other people were more deserving of a debut and who didn’t take too well to being talked to as if they were “a child who knows nothing about the real world” when I told her what I’m telling you now about “deserving”, albeit not in quite as many words.

Like I said, I’m not good with people, and I do admit that sometimes my replies to comments may sound a bit rough or even patronizing. They’re usually not supposed to sound like that, but the thing is… if you’re reading this blog because you’re a Johnny’s fan then I’m most likely somewhere between two and three times your age. From my perspective you are a child who knows nothing about the real world. Well, maybe not exactly nothing, but definitely not as much. When I was 20 of course I knew a whole lot more about life than when I was 10, but trust me, everything I knew when I was 20 is nothing compared to what I know today. And what I know today is probably very little compared to what I’ll know when I’m 60.

So yeah, sorry if I should ever sound patronizing in my replies to your comments. I don’t like it either, but it’s a natural thing, and I’m trying to not let it show too much. Anywho, considering the fact that the one and only thing I have in common with 95% of you, my dear readers, is an irrational affection for Japanese teen idol boys I think I’m actually doing quite nicely in my efforts to be generous and polite.

Thank you all for trying to understand. And if you don’t quite succeed just try again in a couple of years.

Just for the record: even 20 years on Neil Tennant is still sexy as hell. Probably even sexier than ever before.

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