But if I start gushing about how good Ohno looks now that he's dyed his hair black again, how good he looks in black hair and geeky glasses, I'm sure I'm going to scare you away. So I'll start with something less crazy fangirl-y. I'll start from the very beginning. This is how I fell in love with Arashi.
I was, as many Arashi fans were, what we fans call Jun-baited (Jun is known for pulling in fans through his roles in various dramas. They watch the drama. They like him. They end up liking Arashi too). Some were baited in by the silent, brooding Sawada Shin from Gokusen. Some by the cute pet Momo from Kimi wa Petto. Others still, were baited by the at-first-utterly-hateful-but-later-on-oh-so-baka-and-adorable Domyouji from Hana Yori Dango (HanaDan. There was a Korean remake titled Boys Over Flowers). I fall in the third category.
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| From the left: Sawada Shin, Momo and Domyouji. |
After I finished watching HanaDan, I was so completely taken with Domyouji that I did a bit of research with the help of Google on the actor. I think this was sometime late 2007 so I must have been 13. A 13-year old girl who had never shown any interest in the opposite sex unless he was an anime character, and even then it was never like that because it's an anime character. Eventually, I found out that Domyouji was played by an actor named Matsumoto Jun, affectionately called Matsujun (although I call him just Jun because Matsujun has too many syllables), and that Matsujun is in a group and that this group called Arashi was actually the ones who sang HanaDan's opening song. He acts and he sings! He's perfect!
So I went on YouTube immediately to check out this "Arashi" and I thought they were all ugly except for Jun. YouTube used to be full of Arashi videos (most of them, sadly, are no longer available) and I spent hours watching video after video, all the time focused on Jun like the others didn't even exist. Slowly though, I began learning their names. Sho. Aiba. Nino. And Ohno. Then I began noticing things about them. Like how Sho's muscles are ridiculously hard it's ridiculous. How Aiba laughs in an oddly infectious "ehehehe" way (I don't know how else to describe it. It's a bizarre sound. Like he's trying to laugh and breath in at the same time). How Nino is a brat. And how Ohno......umm......I don't remember if I had any impressions of him.
Anyway, one day I was watching an Arashi video on YouTube and I was laughing so much. I don't even remember what it was but it was hilarious and I don't think I had ever laughed that much before. It was then, as I wiped a tear from my eye, that I realised that I love these guys. Probably, from the moment I Googled Matsumoto Jun it was inevitable that it would eventually come to this.
Alas, none of my friends were into boybands, much less Japanese boybands, so I was forced to keep my newfound love a secret. And then we started packing because we were moving back to Malaysia. In the midst of the busy preparation and the tiring journey, where I was both excited and nervous, and then the awkwardness of trying to fit in and the struggle of relearning a language I had almost forgotten, Arashi kind of got pushed aside to a far, far corner of my brain. It wasn't until nearly 2 years later that I remembered again.
It was when Diana casually brought up Super Junior in a conversation. I had no idea of this Super Junior but upon hearing that they are a Korean group, my mind instantly made the connection to Arashi. I went home and I went online and I rediscovered Arashi and I honestly don't know how I lived for almost 2 years without them. They were just as entertaining and just as adorable as they were when I first found them.
So although Super Junior are not Japanese I figured, them also being a singing and dancing group, that it was close enough and therefore grounds enough for me to bring up Arashi. Finally, I could tell someone! Unfortunately, no one was interested in J-pop and I was mostly laughed at.
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| There are no words to describe just how sad I was to find out I was a lone fangirl in my class. |
But 2009 turned out to be a great year to fall back into Arashi fandom because it was their 10th anniversary. They had tons of activities to celebrate the occasion so there was never a shortage of things to fangirl about. I went to Singapore that year and in the Kinokuniya store there ALL the magazines had Arashi on the front cover. For the first time, my family saw my true nature; jumping in the store, begging to buy a magazine even though it was all in Japanese and I couldn't hope to understand a thing except that Arashi is awesome.
Wow, almost 900 words and this is just how I came to know Arashi. It would take thousands more words to explain why I like them because there are so many reasons. Besides, Arashi can't really be explained in words. They have to be experienced.
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| From the left: Jun, Nino, Aiba, Sho and Ohno. |
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| "But when I looked at my watch it was still 10am," says Nino and everyone bursts into laughter. |
So here I am, to this day, always and forever a fan of Arashi.
And here I lament the lack of Arashi videos on YouTube to put at the end of this post. A music video will have to do, although they don't nearly convey even a portion of what makes Arashi so incredible. Mija, aku harap kau cam lagu ni. :) Korang tak kisah kan walaupun tak faham? Dengar lagu Korea pun sama. ^^
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