New post over on Japan Pulse about the “Witch Girl” phenomenon that briefly jumped up into the top of the keyword searches on Google and goo this past Thursday. I have to give props to my editor Mark who pointed out the phenomenon to me. When I sat down to write the post on Thursday night, I watched one of the Mixi groups double in size over the course of an hour. Buzzter, a Japanese Twitter amalgamator site, clearly shows the extent of the buzz on Thursday:
The Twitter-verse seemed nonplussed. I screen-grabbed a couple of the funniest tweets I could find:
Witch Girls hahahahaha Mountain Girls hahahahaha Swamp Girls hahahahaha
I pretty much understood Forest Girls, but what the heck are Witch Girls?! Ha, what?!
So Witch Girls come after Forest Girls? It's like the next new single, right? But who would want to be called a Witch Girl?
What the hell are Witch Girls? hahaha First time I've heard it hahahaha Girl witches are cute tho.
Man I love japanese tweets.
Haha, quick, now we have to find the next type of 何とかガール so we can market it. I think Japan more so than a lot of countries is about the next big thing. It would be awesome to work for a think tank in a big company deciding the path of Japan’s popular fashion industry. I can’t remember the exact details at the moment, but there was a store opening in 代官山, I think the name is “it’s fashion” or something along those lines, and on their window there was a text in Japanese that said something along the lines of, “We are opening this store in pursuit of leading Japan’s fashion in the right direction.” I was kind of surprised to read such a direct message coming from what I think is a Japanese company. But in the end I think that’s truly what it’s gotten down to, all over the world pushing a certain style forward and hoping it catches. Luckily for these companies Japan is quick to bite and changes styles often.
Anyway, I enjoyed the article on Japan Pulse, I wonder if 魔女ガール is going to look anything like the American Wiccan girls.
So now the Japanese use “w” to represent laughing?
sam – Ha, wiccan girls. Not sure what they look like, but it will be interesting to watch. If anything, I bet the 魔女ガール end up looking like Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service. They often cite her as someone they want to be like.
J – They use w because it’s faster than typing out all of 笑う, which is “warau” when you type it. So basically it’s the Japanese lol.
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I noticed you elegantly skirted around the Touhou reference in your third image there: 「魔理沙の事？」 :V
Dan – Thanks! I had no idea who Marisa was and must’ve been too lazy to Google it! That clears things up…