Year In Review: A New Light on Otagei
Wotagei or otagei, which is when you got a bunch of fans (or wotas, if you wanna be all weeaboo) jumping around in semi-pre-coordinated fashion, is something unique to Japan’s music scene. I think. It might even be particular to the Akiba-kei scenesters. It’s not new. It’s also kind of both casual and serious. It’s also something that has largely seeped into the foundation of seiyuu/geek idol fandom in Japan.
I was never a big fan of wotagei; the American in me is too cool (for school kind of cool) when you go rock out. Just moving to the music uninhibited is all you really need to do at a show, as long as you observe some protocols appropriate for the type of show you are attending. Understanding the elements that may appear at a live is just a good safety tip, at any rate.
What 2009 did for me was wisp me to Japan, and inside Nana Mizuki’s largest concert to date. Sold out as NHK’s Akiba-kei headliner/promooooootion girl, she brings a professional announcer’s voice to Kohaku’s online campaign against falling viewership over the years. Still, this is the same Nana Mizuki that voiced in Tsuyokiss, after all, so to many of us she is still on the home team no matter where she is going on that Friday night. At any rate, as a bright spot in an otherwise dim media economy, Japan’s Akiba-kei culture (lack of a better term) is something to be cheered on for its international fans and cherished by the locals. I think that’s why Nana Mizuki gets something she probably deserves, being the hottest musical artist on that bandwagon.
But what I saw in that Seibu Dome live was something truly unique to Japan, when loosely organized fans whipped out their Ultra Oranges and turned the Eternal Blaze into a visual metaphor, even if by the end of the song some sticks were already dimming! Is this a mono no aware moment laced with irony, or what? The sight was as amazing as it was massive. The dimmed stadium was lit brighter by the countless light sticks than its natural backlight through the overcast sky and what little stage lighting did for a venue as vast as a 35,000+ baseball stadium. (I think only 28,000 seats were available with the particular staging configuration at the show). I didn’t think all those little orange sticks could overcome even an overcast sky, but it was near dusk and, well, Seibu Dome is a dome.
It’s one thing to look back from the front row seats during a particularly heated moment of a great live and check out what everyone else are doing. I’ve seen just a range, and am in no way an veteran–just various amount of moshing and surfing, the waving of glowing items (candles, lighters, cell phones, etc), and some of the stuff stuff in between. Otagei on the level of this Nana Mizuki performance is something else entirely. Maybe it’s that they’re using Ultra Oranges, which are military-grade light sticks that are as brilliant as a hundred burning suns (I exaggerate), but it lasts only for a few minutes. Maybe a baseball stadium spreads the crowd much better than something like the Saitama Super Arena, not to mention Seibu Dome is architecturally unusual for a baseball stadium. I don’t know. Maybe it was my vantage point, somewhere high up enough to see most of the crowd, but low enough to feel that I’m still in the middle of it. Maybe I was just excited about hearing one of my favorite Nana Mizuki songs playing live, by the real deal herself.
The term herd mentality comes to mind. I suppose when I am in Rome, I ought to do what the Romans do; once you have a clue what otagei is, the act felt natural. It’s a mentality, a way to look at how to approach a concert or an event like this. It’s not just something like a weird set of dance moves that makes me feel disgusting (well, that’s a separate thing), but it certainly is a mentality that isn’t so far apart from other shared geek behaviors like elitism or knowing where to line up at your favorite home convention, laughing at noobs doing otherwise. This is about what moves are for what part of the song where and when and with what color light sticks you break out. The difference is the end result–nine of ten concert goers will prefer this over other random fandumb, I imagine.
I’m hoping they caught that on the DVD/BD being released later this year.
On that note, Americans don’t otagei. This is a country that finds its individuality through freedom of worship, so that kind of mass-coordinated thing seems unlikely. Although I might still pull out some Ultra Oranges (because they’re freaking awesome), and although some people will still do the deed (as in, freedom of worship), I think when they’re in Rome, they should do what the Romans do!
[edit] Check out this digest clip…for a visual clue how crazy the fans could be…
Year in Review 2009:
Americans don’t otagei
What about doing “the wave” at a baseball game? Just a different fandom.
You are right, they do some in sports, but that’s more like cheerleading, which is distinct from otagei. I mean otagei different than ouendan and stuff like that, even if similar in motive.
>>the American in me is too cool (for school kind of cool)
Lol, I went through pretty much the exact same thought process (and subsequent conversion) when I went to the Momoi shows at AX and Fanime.
I think there is some bad pun I hid in that quote. But yea, it happens for some people.