Common sense would dictate that the overwhelming, explosive growth of Japanese animation, known as "anime," would naturally lead to equally impressive growth of Japanese music, known as "J-pop" or "J-rock."
But, in fact, the opposite seems to be occurring. Anime, despite flat sales figures over the past year that have been attributed primarily to online piracy, continues a steep upward climb - especially in the video-game market where anime characters and story lines appear to transfer very well to video consoles and online gaming networks.
But where is the music?
Buono!, a successful trio featuring three Hello! Project idol singers - Momoko and Miyabi of Berryz Kobo and Suzuki of °C-ute - was spawned last year to musically decorate the "Shugo Chara!" anime series.
Yet, few fans at this year's Anime Expo 2008 in Los Angeles (July 3-6) who were admittedly big Shugo Chara! fans had any idea which group sang the anime's end theme ("Honto no Jibun," by Buono!), and none had every heard of Hello! Project, home company to Buono!, Morning Musume, Berryz Kobo, °C-ute and the other Japanese idol groups.
That is the kind of disconnect that currently exists between the burgeoning world of anime, and the undeserved J-pop fan base that is purposely kept small and insignificant, either by J-pop's producers in Japan or by the fans themselves, believe it or not.
J-pop Web sites, blogs and Japanese Pop CD Store have grown rapidly in numbers, but many are plagued by infighting between each other (or within the site itself), and outright censorship of opposition opinions. Many of these blogs seem to want zero readership because they either block comments entirely or require a pre-approved Wordpress password for any "outsider" nput.
This just echoes the short sighted attitude of the Japanese Pop CD Store business, to the detriment of all.
Where there exist massive Internet publications such as "Anime News Network" to serve anime fans and producers, no such outlet exists for J-pop. "ZB's A-Z of J-Music" is an excellent blog, but Japanese idol music is virtually shut out of that mix. "OtakuUSA" magazine recently hired A-Z's founder Zac Bentz as J-music contributing editor, but J-pop gets very little attention in the magazine itself.
Unless this changes, J-pop will continue to be squelched, and the extraordinary art form of Japanese idol music will stay imprisoned in a dungeon which is, in part, of its own making.
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