NKDS

The album that made history.

I read from Danie’s blog that kiseki gurl has posted up her article about Nana going mainstream. My interest piqued, I skimmed through the article before realizing that it deserved more than a simple speed-read. I am normally not inclined to writing posts in response to articles from other blogs since that can lead to blows all too often, but I thought this was a subject worthy of discussion. Danie has already posted her own article regarding this issue, please pop by to take a look.

Anison and mainstream.

Most of you are already aware that the J-Pop mainstream industry mostly treats the anison genre like the inferior stepchild that nobody wants. That is the way it has always been, and that will probably be the way it will always be for the foreseeable future. Aniki himself has said in AFA08, that anison singers and songs were generally looked down upon by their more glamourous mainstream cousins. Those of us old enough to remember will know that Aniki received nowhere as much credit as he should throughout his long career. Younger readers who remember Hayashibara Megumi will know that while she was arguably a better singer than the majority of mainstream performers in her time, she did not receive the attention she deserved either. JAM Project, KOTOKO, Tamura Yukari, the list goes on for a long time. This general perception of mainstream being superior to anison is not a new phenomenon, indeed it has been around ever since Aniki started his career 40 years ago, if not earlier.

Since Anison is perceived as one level below Mainstream in the industrial mindset, what is a seiyuu-singer supposed to do when she has nearly reached the zenith of the anison industry? When you are at the top and the only way to continue up is to break through the roof into the next level, would you do it?

The road from anison to mainstream.

This road has been walked by many seiyuu-singers, numerous times. More often than not, it has proven to be a road into ruin. A recent example would be Hirano Aya, the one who made the mistake of pandering to the mainstream crowd, failing miserably and alienating her budding otaku fanbase in the bargain. On the other end of the scale, we have Chihara Minori, who wisely stuck to the anison side of things and became more successful than the supposed star of the Haruhi series. kiseki gurl is right when she said that no seiyuu-singers have ever managed to break into mainstream and succeed, and a little digging around would confirm that fact.

Why would Nana succeed where all others before her have failed so badly?

The answer is actually simple. She is not consciously trying to do so, at least not overtly.

So is Nana really that impressive to let the industry greats actually take a second�glance at a “mere” seiyuu-singer, thus allowing her to make inroads into the mainstream markets by appearing on music programs? Or are they actually starting to take a closer look at the anison market and the potential untapped sales that it represents, by�observing Nana herself ? If anything, surely the fact that people are happily buying multiple copies of her singles/albums whenever they debut will make any marketing or sales department sit up and pay attention.

If that is not enough, her very recent Oricon #1 must have sent a few of those higher-ups screaming into reality.

The way I see it, Nana is not entering mainstream purely by design. At times, it seems more like the mainstream industry is finally starting to take notice of her and are waving her in of their own accord. That should be easier for the otaku crowd to accept and digest. No longer is it “Our idol is abandoning us for mainstream!?!” It has now become “Those (foolish)mortals outside have finally taken notice of our idol and are starting to appreciate her!” Then again, that is an optimistic scenario. I do not pretend to know the psychology of the average Japanese otaku, or how they perceive the entire situation. I hope they have made their mental preparations though, because Nana’s days as a pure anison singer are numbered, whether she likes it or not.

Nana and the future perception of the anison genre.

The anison genre is changing, and gradually gaining momentum. The K-On girls managed to capture two spots of the Oricon Top 5 when their OP and ED singles debuted, and both Maaya Sakamoto and May’N performed very well in Oricon when their songs from Macross Frontier were released. Earlier examples include the opening single by the Lucky Star girls, and Hare Hare Yukai by the Haruhi group. The Nanoha series have become something akin to a force of nature within the industry, unstoppable and practically guaranteed to sell whenever the OP/ED singles are released. While all these are notable achievements in their own right, they are studiously ignored by the mainstream due to the stigma of anison.

The anison industry requires a single force that it can rally itself around, a group or a person whose light shines bright enough to illuminate the rest of the industry, to show the rest that anison is not just for children, but is in fact a genre that produces consistently high quality songs and singers equal to the best that the mainstream has to offer. JAM Project tried and partially succeeded with their sheer musical prowess, but were ultimately weighed down by the fact that they are no longer a young group. If anyone can continue the work they have begun, it has to be Nana-chan. For this simple and obvious reason: she is the best and the most successful seiyuu-singer in this day and age.

As fans, we can always hope that Nana remains true to her roots and does nothing but anison-related activities for the rest of her career, but that would be selfish, in my own honest opinion. I personally want to see Nana spearhead the on-going effort to gain wide-spread recognition for the anison industry, by being so awesome that the mainstream guys simply cannot help but take notice of her brilliance. I look forward to the day when the average non-otaku customer in a Japanese music store can walk pass shelves packed full of Nana’s latest single and pick up a copy because he knows that Nana is a good singer, and then give Haruka Tomatsu’s character song a sample hearing simply because he knows anison produces more good songs than bad songs, just like the mainstream genre.

There may come a day when Nana-chan is no longer “Our Nana-chan” but “Everyone’s Nana-san”, and when it happens no single fan will have the right to tell other fans how they must react to the change. That will be the true test of faith, the separation of the chaff from the wheat. The good news? Such a change should not take place in the space of a short period of time, but instead will be gradual to the point where the average fan probably won’t even realize it. The bad news? The people who see Nana as the exclusive property of the anison industry are going to leave regardless of the situation, the moment they realize the direction she is heading.

Be assured though, should this ever happen, the anison industry will benefit from the increased exposure. After all, when the anison industry’s biggest singer is starting to gather mainstream fans, it is sure to generate attention for the whole genre. Just too bad that we Nana fans have to be the ones to suck up the pain of the transition. Then again, no one ever said being a fan of the anime industry’s #1 seiyuu-singer was going to be easy!

With this article done, I am going to transform back into brainless Nana fan #9837363, the fan who thinks not and cares not about such weighty issues and only thinks and cares about Nana and little else.

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.