The host boom is heating up again and “first-time vandalism” is rampant…and the reasons are too surprising. | FRIDAY DIGITAL

The host boom is heating up again and “first-time vandalism” is rampant…and the reasons are too surprising.

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I would definitely advise against it. The world is not that easy.

Walking around the Shinjuku Station area from Nishi-Shinjuku to Shinjuku Yasukuni Dori, Meiji Dori, and Shokuan Dori, or near Shibuya Station, one is constantly bombarded by host club LED trucks and advertising cars with blaring music.

On the bodies of these cars are large pictures of young men who look like Japanese idol groups or K-pop idols, and many of them have titles and slogans such as “general manager,” “manager,” “manager,” “number one in sales,” “face value,” and so on.

The number of host clubs in Kabukicho, which had about 300 before the COVID-19 crisis, has plummeted as the number of customers has declined and they have been forced to shorten their hours of operation. News of a string of clubs being forced to close was widely reported in 2020-2021.

The number of host clubs in Kabukicho had drastically decreased due to the COVID-19 crisis, but… (Photo: Afro)

The Host Club Boom Spreads from the Popularity of “Kano Tomorrow

In fact, however, there is now a host boom. The reason for this, says a manga editor, lies in popular manga and TV dramas.

The recent host boom is said to have been triggered by the popularity of “Asai, I’m Someone’s Girlfriend,” a live-action drama based on Hinao No Hinao’s novel that was adapted for MBS Drama-ism in April. The manga is ranked No. 1 on the manga app “Psycomi”.

The popular manga has sold more than 3 million copies in total and continues to hold the No. 1 ranking on the “Saikomi” manga app. The book features five female characters, including a “rental girlfriend” who becomes someone’s girlfriend once a week, a girl who engages in “daddy’s life” with an unfulfilled loneliness, a girl who becomes addicted to hostesses, and a girl who repeatedly undergoes plastic surgery.

On social networking sites, there are many comments such as, “The manga of Asuka Kano is too interesting,” “I can’t stop reading it once I start,” “I’m crying while playing Asuka Kano on an endless loop,” “I’ll lose one of the pleasures in my life if Asuka Kano is completed,” “I registered for Disney Plus just for Asuka Kano,” “When I read the original Asuka Kano, I can understand how well the live action is reproduced,” and so on. There are also fans who make “pilgrimages” to the “holy places” to visit the locations of the works.

I started out with a light heart… but I went into debt and “went through hell.

Among them, the chapter in which “Yua,” played by “=LOVE’s” Nagisa Saito, goes host club crazy was particularly sympathetic. Saito announced her graduation from the group at the group’s 5th anniversary concert on September 25, and it is said that her decision may have been influenced by the fact that her raw and realistic performance in this film was highly praised and served as a wake-up call for her acting career.

Some of the fans of the manga and drama “Kano Tomorrow” are into the realism of the story, saying “I have a friend who looks just like her” and “It’s so real, I thought it was my story,” while others are “glad I’m not into host clubs in my life,” “I would definitely be swamped if I went to host,” “It’s too painful to watch, too painful,” and so on, as “lessons learned. On the other hand, there are also many women who tried going to a host club for the first time because of this film.

There are a lot of people who have posted their host clubs on their Instagram stories, but if you started going to host clubs because of “Kano Tomorrow,” you definitely shouldn’t. It’s not that sweet of a world. It’s not such a sweet world.

Ms. K., a 21-year-old woman who currently works at a cabaret club in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho district and also goes to host clubs, said, “It’s not such a sweet world.

She went to a host club with a friend in a light-hearted way and fell in love with the host, who then asked her to meet him. Ms. K. has this to say about the “Kano Tomorrow” boom: “I’ve been chasing after Japanese guys and doing it.

Girls who used to be chasing after Johnny’s’s are now hooked on ‘Tomorrow’s Girlfriends’ and suddenly they are bragging that they are now ‘hosokatsu crazy.

And since these girls are usually just ‘first-time trolls,’ it’s just annoying to me, who used to be a real hosu fanatic.

Host clubs usually have a fee system that is difficult to understand even when looking at their websites, but for beginners, there are services that allow them to enjoy themselves at an unbeatable price, such as 2,000 to 3,000 yen for the “first time” only, or 1,000 yen depending on the campaign. This system has been around for a long time, but the “first-time fee” system has become popular due to the “Kano Tomorrow” boom, and the number of users of this system has increased.

However, with the “Kano Tomorrow” boom, the number of customers who use the “first-time fee” system has increased, and Mr. K spills the beans that many of the customers who visit host clubs as a result of the boom are customers who play around in various host clubs using only the first-time fee system. In fact, there are even some who go on “expeditions” to host clubs in various regions to play with the first-time trolls.

I can’t get any nominations at all…and I’m mad!”

says Ms. A, a 22-year-old woman who works at a girl’s bar and also goes to host clubs.

She says, “I read a little bit of . There are more and more people who read a little bit of “Kano Tomorrow” and say things like, “Host clubs sound fun,” and then ‘troll’ the first time they go. Because of this, their favorite hosts are losing time to first-time trolls, and the people who originally went to the host clubs are not able to nominate any host club members at all.

Besides, the first-time trolls have no intention of repeating from the beginning, so they verbally abuse the hosts, get drunk and make a lot of noise, and have terrible manners. I’d rather these first-time trolls, who come just for the boom, read “Kano Tomorrow” carefully and learn more about common sense at hoskuras.

Nevertheless, there are many tweets by hosts on SNS and other social networking sites with tags such as “#Tomorrow Kano,” “#host,” and “#first time,” calling for “first time” use by fans of Tomorrow Kano.

There are cases where “first-time” users who want to take a peek into an unfamiliar world triggered by a manga or drama series, and then get into it, and there are also those who play around at various host clubs for the purpose of “first-time trolling”. The host club boom that has spread from the popularity of “Kano Tomorrow” is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

  • Interview and text by Hana Yamada

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