The Piece of Media Which Changed My Life

The piece of media which changed my view and life was Aikatsu. Aikatsu is a Japanese Anime made by Bandai, and started airing in 2012. It stands for ‘Aidoru Katsudou’ which means ‘Idol Activities’. The second series, called ‘Aikatsu Stars’, started airing in 2016 and I found the first episode in my recommended YouTube videos. My family were going to Japan on holiday in summer the next year, so I decided to watch it to make me look forward to going to Japan even more. But I didn’t realise it would change my view on everything the way that it did. The Aikatsu series are about girls who go to a school which trains them to become pop idols. In the first episode of Aikatsu Stars, the main character Yume and her best friend Koharu go to a concert of a top idol, called Hime, that they admire. It showed a performance of a song called ‘Start Line’ which is about believing in yourself and knowing that you can improve and follow your dreams because you’re only at your Start Line just now. Hime was wearing a beautiful dress, her singing was powerful and her dancing was amazing. I knew instantly that I wanted to watch the whole series and the other series too. Within a few months I had watched all 25 episodes of the Aikatsu stars series, which was still ongoing, and all 178 Aikatsu episodes. Before Aikatsu, I didn’t know about idols. Idols in Japan do many activities including singing, dancing, acting and modelling, but the most important part of being an idol is being a work in progress. The girls in the anime are constantly trying to improve themselves and try their best. Aikatsu motivated me to start dancing and trying to improve myself every day. I found dance covers of the songs from Aikatsu on YouTube and started learning the dances, and posting them on YouTube to be like the idols in the anime. Aikatsu changed me from a person with no hobbies to a person with a passion for dance. Because of this anime, Aikatsu, I soon discovered that idols were real. I became a fan of many J-pop idol groups and was in awe of their dancing. It inspired me to want to dance on stage too. Aikatsu changed my whole life because dancing gave me something to look forward to everyday and motivation in everything I do. I’ve loved Aikatsu for three years and it has changed my life through that time. Aikatsu also changed my view on myself. The characters are all different types of idols, and as I watched it I learnt many things alongside the characters. For example, in the most recent series, Aikatsu Friends, which started airing in 2018, Wakaba says that she wants to be the ‘idol that only I can be’. This made me want to always be myself and never copy anyone else. It also inspired me to follow my passions, and the ‘idol activities’ I enjoy, causing me to take Drama and Media Studies at GCSE and Creative Media Production at college.