It’s been beaten to death one way or the other in other …

• Tags: AKB48, Dating, Idol, Marketing, Otaku, Relationships, Virginity
  

Comment on AKB48′s Minami Takahashi: “Why Can’t We Have Lovers!?” by Imyou:

It’s been beaten to death one way or the other in other comments, but I’ll take both sides here and say that they’re both right, with the result leaning on the side of the fans.

It’s a human right to have love or sex. Doesn’t mean you’re entitled to it and someone better bring it to you, but no one should be able to keep you from it either. And no one is in her case, technically.

But much of what she is paid for is the virginal pretense. If she has a known lover, her value as an idol crashes and she’s out. No one’s keeping her from doing it, but it’s better for her career that she doesn’t.

Finally, if she were a publicly traded company, she’d have an obligation to keep the pretense up to maintain her value to shareholders. Obviously this is not the case, but her contract is no doubt analogous to this: If she can’t at least keep her image clean, she’s not doing her job as an idol. Go ahead and have a boyfriend or even be as slutty as you like (two very different things, guys!) but keep in mind that if even one paparazzi finds out… it’s over, and time to take a normal job or cross over into AV.

Recent comments by Imyou:

• BlazBlue Gets TV Anime:
  

  Are they going to rerelease it every year or two with some changes to the story so you have to rebuy it again to see what’s new?

• Top 25 Spring 2013 Anime You Dropped:
  

  All shows could have a similar drop rate, making the most watched the most dropped… Not saying they do, but something like this is always a factor to some extent if you’re talking raw number of people who dropped each.

• Square Enix “Will Focus On Social Gaming”:
  

  They might as well… They’re known for making games with stupidly high production values, and they tried to do that half-assed with cheap labor and it didn’t work… Well, if they’re not willing to do what it takes to make a flagship title, they may as well go into retirement and make little cheap games like any other upstart.

• Dragon’s Crown Amazon “Ultimate Video Game Hardbody”:
  

  Same here. Hard bodies can be cool, but she’s left human anatomy far behind and charged into uncharted territory. Even the bizarre looking musclebuilding champions IRL are a more familiar shape than that. The characters in this game seem to have been drawn based on looking through a fisheye lens.

• Top 25 Greatest Anime of 2012:
  

  I don’t even watch Kuroko’s Basketball, but after all the threats from that wannabe terrorist, getting events cancelled etc, I’m glad to see it so high if just to annoy the loser calling the threats in.