So EGG's upcoming music video is interesting.....

 ちゃおっす It's Spacy! 

I haven't actually ever delved too deep into criticising EGG magazine as a whole because that's far too big of a topic to tackle in a single blog post.

Personally I don't see the point in 2 part blog posts since this isn't a youtube channel and I have no intentions of creating one, but I do have the perfect opportunity to explain why I am very sort of annoyed at EGG currently. And I know.... 2 blog posts in one month, lmfao.

Note: at some point, I will start referring to Heavy Rotation as 'Hebirote' the V sound does not exist in japanese and is replaced with a B sound, rote is short for rotation.

So so so.... where do we start.

October 1st 2024.

Usually every month I go and check out the new EGG magazine cover just to see what its about. But that day was a bit different, i get a DM from my dearest mutual memi asking me if I had seen the new EGG cover.

I had not.

The cover is a tribute to the song called Heavy Rotation, released in August 2010 by the mega jpop idol group, AKB48.

Now me personally, you guys know I'm an idol fan, so seeing an AKB tribute COVER from a gyaru magazine got me really excited and really happy till I looked a little bit closer and ....

WHOOMP there it is

minors, because EGG magazine can't keep their stinkin hands of these little kids.

Now, to provide some context to anyone not invested in japanese idol pop, AKB48's Heavy Rotation music video is in itself, a bit controversial to say the least. Many people criticised the video for being overly sexual despite having minors in it, and even though the director of the music video (who is a woman if that is important) stated the MV is about girl friendships and a world without the watching eye of men but in all honesty, the MV has always been very weird. People in the 48g fanspace have been arguing whether Hebirote MV is gooner bait or a a Masterpiece for over a decade now but... maybe the better word is pandering to the male gaze, who knows.

Ok usually I don't give my opinions on things but, i fear if hebirote was released today, people would get stoned over it. The MV depicts the members kissing each other, in lingerie at a sleepover, there's also a scene where 19yr old Matsui Rena and 13yr old Matsui (no family relation) Jurina share a bathtub together, there's even a scene where the members act like cats and scenes where the camera films almost under their skirts of the members skirts. People have been trying to justify why the whole music video in itself isn't inherently sexual, with many people trying to argue the bathtub scene wasn't sexual either because family in Japan bathe with each other, so I am going to finish off this section with a comment I found on a reddit thread 

'bathing with your family....is different from filming someone in a tub on set to sell the image for mass consumption. It's like the people who say stuff like "you think Mario games are sexist because princess peach is a damsel in distress? Well Mario is a plumber and peach is a princess." Like bro...if the games were REAL - as in if the plot unfolded in real life, that'd make sense. But they are not. It's a completely manufactured/made up dynamic that never had to exist in the first place. They didn't HAVE to have a 13 year old Jurina in a tub on camera. She was not bathing. It was a manufactured scenario created for the SOLE purpose of consumption. In other words, they exploited her and s*xualized a minor for the male fanbase. If she was taking a bath with her family, no one would be saying sht. People are criticizing it...BECAUSE it exists solely for financial reasons and for consumption. It's fanservice that makes their male fan base spend more money on the group. It's gross. Someone's experience with Japan or whatever does not matter in this situation period. We KNOW these fans aren't looking at the members innocently or whatever. Just look at the way they behave, the dating simulator bs etc etc. And look at the camera shots of the members bodies in mvs and the photo books. Bffr as soon as possible.'

And a little note, I don't think the actual visuals and work of Mika Ninagawa are ugly or anything, but rather, I'm simply pointing out the topics and things people dislike about the hebirote MV, Mika Ninagawa also directed the music video for Sugar rush,Sayonara Crawl and Kimi wa melody, as well as producing films like helter skelter and is a pioneer in her own way. No disrespect intended to her or her work. It's also important to note that despite the discussions around it, Hebirote is an iconic music video and the song is still extremely popular, with Bruno Mars doing a cover of it at his Tokyo concert this year.

So yes Hebirote is a kinda controversial music video. So for EGG to go and imitate that music video for their October 2024 cover, and then put 3 children on the cover.... *sigh* it's just bad.

EGG magazine has a history of sexualising it's underage models. An example i've mentioned many times was Erika's first line on Gal is mind, which she sang when she was 17. So EGG exploiting more minors is like finding a fork in the kitchen (which is actually sad to say) but something I missed while getting pissed off at the cover was the fact that this cover was promotion for a new song softboiledegg is releasing called 'GIMMIESUM' so wait, you're thinking what I'm thinking right....

Why is softboiledegg ripping off an AKB48 music video for their OWN music video, I know I know.

It goes a bit deeper then this however.

Something I never noticed before reading the comments on the gimmie sum music video teaser was that EGG magazine never actually mentioned Heavy Rotation BY NAME in their magazine volume description. Heavy Rotation is simply referred to as 'that AKB48 song' and not 'Heavy Rotation' which is exceptionally weird when Heavy Rotation is AKB48's like 2nd most viewed music video, Hebirote is one of the most popular karaoke songs in Japan to this date, why is EGG magazine not properly stating what music video they're paying tribute too when they claim they're paying homage to a song, what song EGG, what song are you exactly paying tribute to?

In the past, gyaru magazines have paid tribute to AKB48, one being Koakuma Ageha in 2009 with their cosplay called AKIDA48 with outfits that look very similar to the outfits worn in AKB48's second indie single, Skirt Hirai.

Popteen has also paid tribute to AKB48 with cosplays in their magazine, and interviewing 48 groups like SKE48 and SDN48 in their magazine, and had Itano Tomomi and Kasai Tomomi modelling and doing adverts in their magazine in 2008, before AKB gained mega popularity

So why is EGG magazine seemingly so vague in their so called 'tribute'

Well the teaser for the music video dropped today, and the video starts off with the exact same plot as the original video, where the camera is looking through the peephole at Momoa (Oshima Yuko in the original music video) taking her shirt off, it then features the lingerie sleepover scene. And the music video is SO obviously a tribute to the music video of AKB48, but this time they don't even mention that it is? No mention of any tribute to AKB48, but rather say 'the music video will pay homage to the japanese idols of the Heisei era' last time I checked AKB48 stood for Akihabara48 and not 'the japanese idols of the Heisei era' so who exactly is this music video paying homage to?

Usually EGG is just sly and downright creepy, but EGG ripping off another music groups music video and vaguely giving them tribute is very weird even for them? Let's not forget softboiledegg are signed to AVEX USA to help them promote internationally, so it's not like this is a HJ EGG magazine project only, but even when it was, they had better and more creative ideas then this new GIMMIESUM music video, because this GIMMIESUM music video is NOT their idea 😭. The biggest difference between the music video and snippit from the teaser is the lack of the dancing scenes.

It screams unprofessionalism and shows EGG's disregard for creativity or credibility because you're ripping off a music video with over 100 million views from one of the top 10 best selling girl groups in the world and the best selling girl group in Japan, and you just, don't mention you're doing a reenactment? And maybe on November 1st I will end up eating my words when they properly credit AKB48 but I think it's shameful to promote a music video that you have ripped off from another group so overtly as your own video? 

And let's not forget the somewhat sexual nature of the original Hebirote music video, is EGG magazine also gonna film those scenes knowing they have kids in those videos? 

What's not helping EGG is the fact they started to delete comments criticising them as stated by this instagram user. EGG knows people are angry they keep sexualising minors, yet they will continue to do it. The description of the music video also talks about how the song will show 'adult sexiness', yet they put 3 minors in the music video, and the MV will show sweetness and sexiness as well.

Something else people also pointed out was that the music video didn't fit the song. The song is supposed to be 'Shibuya gal Trap' while the original hebirote is about love and popcorn and music n.... whatever . They describe the song as being 'Spicy and sweet' with the spiciness being the music itself while the sweetness being the music video (?)  but I wouldn't really describe the song as 'spicy' in like a hot sauce sense, maybe more like Mcdonalds sprite and the taste of buying store brand Wotsits, but I'm not here to make fun of the song so I guess this over. (The MV or song isn't even out yet let me stop hating)

So what have I realised about this upcoming EGG song.

Well its a fucking mess for start.

Minors in the music video, deleting comments calling them creeps, 'paid homage' an AKB48 music video without mentioning they're paying credit to an AKB48 music video, terrible song, poor promos. Japanese people are referring to the music video as 'Pakuri' which is a phrase meaning to rip something off, and i've seen people arguing its not pakuri, but a homage, but I think if you're paying homage to something you should mention what you're paying homage too... right. I also checked the director of the original hebirote MV's social media page to see if she was involved in this, but nothing so far, I also tried to find out who produced the music video for SHIBUYA but EGG did not credit whoever did so I have no idea. Please also note i am not accusing EGG of plagiarism either, simply just ripping something off. Hopefully the backlash and accusations of pakuri will motivate EGG to properly pay homage to AKB48 when the actual music video is released on November 1st.

This blog post could never be too long to start with, maybe I will make a blog post reviewing the song and music video on November 1st when it comes out, maybe I will backtrack on this post and apologise to EGG magazine although I don't think I will simply bc its EGG but oh well, hope you liked this one. My last blog post did amazingly so thank you for all the likes and stuff, last time I made my own thumbnail so why not do it again?

Bye bye

- Spacy 🐠