denpa song ♪〜

Appearance

WIP ​

to understand context, we must look at the environment; denpa-song went through various periods & is generally strongly associated with entertainment & japanese culture

the following can be said in summary:

1960s-1980s [ RISE OF IDOL KAYO | RISE OF DOUJIN | BISHOUJO BOOM ]

v

1990s [ RISE OF J-POP | VN BOOM | AKIHABARA OTAKU TAKEOVER ] 

v

2000s [ BBS CULTURE (2ch) | NICO NICO DOUGA (UTAITE) | VOCALOID ] 

v

2010s-2020s [ DENPA EXPOSURE OVERSEAS (4chan /jp/) | RHYTHM GAMES | VTUBER INDUSTRY | "CUTECORE" ]

1960s:

  • 1960s marked protests by university students and lower-class migrant workers in urban areas against Vietnam War and American imperialism (youth radicalism)
  • 1960s marked the introduction of the mahou shoujo trope through the manga 'sally the witch' stating in July 1962 by Fujio Akatsuka
  • university campus riots of 1968 to 1970
  • initial television anime boom in the 1960s

1970s:

  • cheap and portable offset printing and photocopying facilities rapidly became available to the public
    • paved the way for doujinka and their doujinshi
  • growth of the commercial manga industry slowly in the 1970s, and then rapidly during the 1980s
  • microcomputer boom had already established itself in the 70s
  • mass consumerism of 1970s including televised song contests gave spotlight to idol culture
  • large publishing companies ceased to systematically produce radical and stylistically innovatory manga series around 1972 because they no longer matched sufficiently closely the changed interests of their mass audiences
  • 1975 marked the establishment of the 'Manga Research Club' (漫画研究会) in numerous universities
    • this marked a shift where otaku began to prioritize introspection and self-discovery over political engagement; an antithesis to the political activism
  • in the mid 1970s a group of female artists producing high quality manga emerged called the '1949 Group' or also the 'Year 24 Group' ('nijuyon-nen gumi' / '24年組')
    • contributed heavily to the development of shoujo manga
  • a group of young manga critics (Aniwa Jun, Harada Teruo and Yonezawa Yoshihiro) founded Comic Market (Comiket) in late 1975, giving birth to doujin culture; significant rise in the 1980s; early on it was largely dominated by women
    • first instance held 32 amateur manga circles and 600 individuals
    • marking the hiragana otaku
  • birth rates continued to decline

1980s:

  • japanese bubble economy emerged in 1980s
  • lolicon/bishoujo boom took place in the early 80s
  • parody series became popular among doujin audience in the early 80s
  • Nanako SOS by Hideo Azuma starting in April 1980
  • moe elements gradually appeared as early as the 80s but would start to peak in the 2000s;
    • followed by a smaller lolicon boom
  • rise of japanese BBS (bulletin board system) in the early 1980s
  • PC-8800 series ("Lolita: Yakyuuken", "100円ディスク", ..)
  • Fujitsu FM-7
  • amassing a large enough quantity of software provided a hedge against risk through economies of scale
    • selling hardware while simultaneously purchasing used software from enthusiasts and reselling it under their own store brands
    • rise to the business model characteristic of early computer shops
  • bishoujo magazine Lemon People starting in February 1982 (- Magical Princess Minky Momo (anime series, 1982)) (- Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel (anime series, 1983))
  • Fukagawa Street Murders (深川通り魔殺人事件) had occured
  • Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) protocol introduced in 1983
  • Otaku was coined during bishoujo magazine Manga Burikko in 1983 by Akio Nakamori
  • cosplays became widespread in the 1980s and onwards
  • idols (like Lemon Angel, formed 1987) provided music for Cream Lemon & OVA adaptations of bishoujo manga like Outlanders (1986)
  • NES games (Nintendo’s Famicom); Idol Hakkenden (1989)
  • chiptune soundtracks (Idol Hakkenden, 1989)
    • could not contain both graphic data and recorded sound due to storage limitations
  • Tsutomu Miyazaki incident had occured, causing a huge moral panic
    • marking the katakana otaku from here on out
  • ((Akihabara had began seeing sign of otaku being somewhat present in the mid-late 1980s))
  • until the late 1980s, approximately 80% of dojinshi artists attending Comic Market were female
    • universities began to boast not only manga clubs, but also, girls' manga clubs for men

1990s:

  • lost decades kicking in starting in the early 1990s
  • Moore's Law started showing its true colors in the early 1990s; key ingredients for the eroge/visual-novel boom established
  • in early 1990s the asset price bubble bursted
  • katakana otaku (オタク) emerged roughly after tsutumo miyazaki incident that replaced the hiragana otaku (おたく)
  • during 1991 police arrested the managers of five specialist manga book shops where unpublished or amateur manga was available for sale
    • amateur manga artists were subjected to repeated investigations and harassment throughout the rest of the year
  • in 1993, guidance about the appropriate contents of dojinshi were distributed at Comic Market for the first time
    • prohibiting the sale of sexually explicit published materials to minors of 18 years and under despite the fact that a large proportion of amateur manga is produced and sold by minors
  • since 1993, 16000 separate doujin circles participated in every instance of comiket, with over 30000 applications in total (Harumi Trade Centre)
  • Tokyo subway sarin attack by the japanese cult 'Aum Shinrikyo' in march 1995
  • nerdcore techno emerged in the mid 1990s; precursor to j-core music
  • 1995's Tokimeki Memorial & 1997's To Heart are successful examples & paved the way for bishoujo games
  • PC-98 games (NEC’s PC-9800 series); visual novels were being produced (more games: "Sostugyou ~Graduation~")
    • Shizuku (Leaf)
      • followed by "big three" denpa games (3大電波ゲーム): Tsui no Sora, Sayonara Wo Oshiete, Jisatsu no Tame no 101 no Houhou
        • followed by Saya no Uta, Chaos;Head, Subarashiki Hibi, Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi
        • (CROSS†CHANNEL, SSSS.Gridman)
        • popular denpa vn authors SCA-DI & Tanaka Romeo
  • rise of moe songs (akiba-idol, theme songs, eroge songs) in the mid 1990s (inspired by idol culture, mahou shoujo genre, bishoujo & internet technology)
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion had aired starting in 1995
    • inspiring "Serial Experiments Lain", "Paranoia Agent", "Perfect Blue"
  • Beatmania released in December 1997, sparking the boom of music games in 1998
  • Dance Dance Revolution released in in 1998, finding huge success outside of japan as well
  • Windows PC (x86, Windows 95/98/2000)
    • introducing bishoujo games
  • mega-BBS 2channel (2ch) launched 30 May 1999

2000s:

  • early 2000s saw the rise of maid cafés across akihabara and elsewhere
  • OS-tan as a branch of moe anthropomorphism in the 2000s to accommodate depiction operating systems as moe characters
  • Ukagaka emerged alongside OS-tan
  • "Otaku: Japan's Database Animals" published in 2001
  • StepMania was initially released in 2001 as an open source clone of Dance Dance Revolution
  • Guidebook of funny dempa song released in the jp community in 2003, making denpa song relevant across jp & western BBSes including 2ch, world2ch, 4-ch and more
  • vocaloid was released in January 15, 2004
  • Densha Otoko published October 22, 2004
  • lolicore emerged in the mid 2000s which is more or less the western equivalent & extension of nerdcore techno that incorporates western bulletin board culture, moe/lolicon imagery, weeaboo culture mimicking otaku influence overseas & offensive language intended to gatekeep itself
  • Denpa Otoko (電波男) (in responde to Densha Otoko) published in May 2005
  • nico nico douga was founded in 2006
  • osu! was released on September 2007
  • utaite have gradually popped up in the late 2000s in relation to nico nico douga
  • 2008 Akihabara massacre

2010s:

  • 'Cool Japan' initiative was launched in the 2010s but proposed at least a decade prior
  • the ASMR format gradually emerged in the 2010s and is also found among the otaku/vtuber community prior to the establishment of the vtuber industry
  • Gamergate occured in 2014 and shaped the landscape of social media & culture across the internet
  • mid-late 2010s introduces virtual youtubers and therefore gives passage to youtube outpacing nico nico douga and the new 'vtuber agency' model emerges