Off-Topic: Happy Ready Go ! campaign

June 16, 2005, 06:33 PM

by chazumaru, via Chu -
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Here's some news that doesn't directly concern obscure japanese games but shows an interesting reaction from a similar niche to rejection of their hobby by mass media. It comes from The Sugoi's (ex-)webmaster's blog, and from next paragraph I will only be translating his informative entry:

I don't know if anyone talked about it, but there's something quite funny happening in Japan right now. Fans of J-Pop and other musical disasters have certainly heard about Oricon, a local Top of the Pops that tracks back the current best album sales. Although we are far from seeing the same outstanding numbers of copies sold by some LPs in the mid-nineties, the Oricon is still a reference for young Japaneses that want to know what's trendy and hip. Yet last month, at the third place of the ranking, one could find a Character Song Album from (popular Harem-Anime) Mahou Sensei Negima. Although it's not the first time such a thing has happened, media and show analysts totally zapped this fact, giving more attention towards other artists - although these were standing way lower in the Oricon. Not only that, but one of the hosts even criticized "AniSongs", arguing they had nothing to do in an overall music ranking.

That was the last straw for AniSong fans. A rebellion has been organized on the popular 2ch board and a massive campaign is taking place right now. Its goal : to turn the next Character Song Album from Mahou Sensei Negima (with character Evangeline on the cover) into the next number one of the oricon, at a rank where no one will be able to ignore it. Furthermore, this campaign named "Happy Ready Go !" (and subtitled : A revolution in the Oricon for 700 yen) is a bottle in the sea sent to traditional media so they show more respect towards this sub-culture which takes more and more importance inside Japan's social life and economy. And this campaign is already a success, judging from numerous articles already covering this strange manifestation. Shops also jumped on the bandwagon, promoting the campaign with informative flyers. Results of this action will be known by the beginning of july.