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posted by Fnord666 on Friday March 23 2018, @10:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the kettle-corn dept.

Japanese adult video stars launch K-pop group, spark divisive debate

For a freshly-minted K-pop band, the trio could not look any more ordinary. Dressed in bright colorful dresses, the bubbly ladies of Honey Popcorn sang their catchy synthpop track, "Bibidi Babidi Boo," during their debut showcase on Wednesday in Seoul, dancing adorably like any other by-the-numbers rookie girl group. These seemingly unassuming women, however, have found themselves at the center of a public brouhaha, with tens of thousands demanding the government ban their activities. To a large extent, the controversy was unavoidable. The three singers are all Japanese adult video actresses.

The Honey Popcorn members, Mikami Yua, Sakura Moko, and Matsuda Miko, all started their careers in the Japanese entertainment industry as singers in the J-pop idol scene. After retiring from their bands, SKE48, NMB48 and Bakusute Sotokanda Icchome, respectively, they turned to the Japanese adult video scene. Mikami later joined Ebisu Muscats, a musical group composed of Japanese adult video stars, in 2016. The group's formation was announced in late February, along with plans to hold a showcase in Seoul on March 14. The news of the members' steamy professional backgrounds was more than enough to turn heads. Many parents and conservatives became vigilant and demanded the group cancel their debut. A petition was filed on the presidential website, requesting the government to ban Honey Popcorn's debut.

[...] By all accounts, the members appear genuine in their passion for K-pop and their project. According to Kyun Create, the members are huge fans of K-pop music, with Mikami's partiality towards Korea and Korean culture fairly well known among her fans. On her YouTube account, Mikami has several videos of her dancing to hits from A-Pink, Cosmic Girl and TWICE. According to the company, Honey Popcorn is essentially a passion project funded by Mikami. The band also does not appear gimmicky, with production values for the music and videos on par with standard rookie K-pop acts. Not all opinions are negative either, with many supportive comments posted on their artist page on music streaming service Melon.

"I want to live in a world where Honey Popcorn can sing with confidence," Melon user gkakf123 wrote. "Korean girl groups also often perform lewd dance moves. Is there a reason why these girls can't follow the footsteps of idol girl groups?" posted user ktmsh1211.

2018 in South Korean music. Honey Popcorn at K-pop Wiki. And an article about K-pop.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 24 2018, @02:55AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday March 24 2018, @02:55AM (#657351) Journal

    Looking around, I found this:

    https://www.extremetech.com/g00/extreme/177435-depixelating-porn-is-it-really-possible-to-restore-8-bit-genitals-to-their-former-glory [extremetech.com]

    As I wrote this story, another possible solution came to mind: Genital replacement. Rather than trying to salvage what little detail is left, it should be possible to write some software that removes the pixelated region, and then splices in a matching organ from a database of porn. It obviously wouldn’t match perfectly, but it would be easy enough to match skin tone, and perhaps a few other features.

    Nice 2014 prediction of DeepFakes.

    Anyway, the Japanese authorities might go after companies that try your suggestion. There was a case in which someone was arrested over easily-circumvented mosaic censorship. I think it could be this one with Katsumi Ono, chief censor of the Nihon Ethics of Video Association:

    http://variety.com/2008/digital/features/japanese-cops-arrest-porn-censors-1117981744/ [variety.com]

    Point being that even though distributing training data might seem like a great way to respect the letter and not the spirit of the law, a Japanese court might punish a company for trying that anyway. All of this stuff is on somewhat shaky legal ground in Japan.

    An easier idea could be to move production offshore or something. Or transmit the uncensored footage to an offshore company for editing and international distribution. Heck, maybe they already do something like that, I have no idea.

    Here's another case in which a guy/team seems to have gotten the uncensored footage under the table from the production companies (story is not clear about this) and then tried to sell copies by mail order:

    https://japantoday.com/category/crime/illegal-mosaic-free-porn-business-busted [japantoday.com]

    If that's how it went down, it could be done in a smarter way. Getting it into the hands of the Japanese customers just requires digital downloads instead of DVDs mailed in from overseas that could face seizure.

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