Otaku Dreams Come True in Japan

I’ve written before about the way Japan-related fandom can be a place where dreams come true. Many of Japan’s professional creators including manga artist group CLAMP, Fate/stay night writer Nasu and music/vocal team I’ve Sound/KOTOKO started out as artists making doujin works to sell at Comiket, while they refined their skills so they could go pro eventually. Then there are singers like British teen Beckii Cruel and the singing duo ClariS, who were able to turn popularity on Japan’s Nico Douga video sharing site into record contracts. Dreams can come true in the J-POP world, too. American Chris Hart from San Francisco was always fascinated with Japanese music, and he studied the language in part using J-POP songs, which is a good way to reduce your speaking accent and pick up vocabulary words. After coming to Japan in 2009, he appeared on a TV show called Nodo-jiman! The World in which foreigners sing songs in Japanese (this is a thing here), and he cleaned the floor with the other contestants by virtue of his amazing silky voice. The next thing he knew he’d signed with Universal Music and had a major debut single under his belt. Chris had always been a fan of Matsuda Seiko, the Japanese idol singer who pretty much invented the category back in the early 1980s (she’s the direct inspiration for Lynn Minmei), and he was able to fulfill his dream of singing with her in a duet single that comes out today. You can find this single plus of Seiko-chan’s songs on iTunes Japan (iTunes link), and buy them with the handy iTunes Japan prepaid cards we sell!

J-POP fan Chris Hart’s dreams came true in Japan.