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2020.10.16 @ 11:12

What’s Happening? #34

Events, General, Global Livestream Events future notes, reboot, reboot of madkid

reboot of madkid

It’s been a very long time since the last post here on AXCEL STYLE, moreso than a very long time since MADKID released their latest and only single of 2020, Rai-Rai-Rai. There were so many factors that we decided to put the site on hiatus besides the horrific COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic really changed the daily lives of many, including us and most especially MADKID.

But, after several months since Rai-Rai-Rai, MADKID is back on the limelight, completely rebooted and rebuilt. What do we mean by rebooted? We will talk about that right now.

On October 14, 2020,1 MADKID held a special livestream on both LINE LIVE and YouTube with the title called The Reboot of MADKID. You can watch the replay in their new YouTube channel. Just fast-forward to about 10:00 to begin the livestream:

Performance Setlist

  • FAITH
  • Overagain
  • Lovin’ You
  • Deteitteyo
  • Stuck on U
  • Come
  • RISE
  • Never going back

The Big Announcements

Why did MADKID call their comeback REBOOT? Here’s why:
– The MADKID mobile FC2 that was first opened back in January 2020 had been shut down on September 30, 2020. As a long-time FC member, I had to cancel my monthly fees before that date, as the system will not cancel payments on its own. When we heard the announcements on Twitter, a few friends and I thought that MADKID may be going through management changes and may no longer be with their agency, Slow Jam Productions.

  • As we thought, MADKID did leave Slow Jam Productions. The group has decided to establish their own agency company, Future Notes. This would mean that in the near future, a brand-new FC site will be launched under the new name. YOU-TA is revealed as the president/CEO of Future Notes.

  • In addition to the foundation of Future Notes, MADKID has re-signed a new recording contract with their previous recording label, Nippon Columbia, who was responsible for producing and releasing all their material from their debut single Never Going Back to their debut album Circus.

  • MADKID will have a new radio show on the AuDee app (formerly known as JFN PARK) called REBOOT OF MADKID; every Wednesdays at 21:00 (9:00 pm) JST.

  • {12/25] MADKID will have their first and only one-man live/one-man concert for 2020, titled REBOOT. If you can recall, they were supposed to have a one-man live titled NEW DIVIDE, but it never happened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the restrictions, there will be online streaming. More information on this one at a later time.

  • Lastly, on February 2021, MADKID will be dropping their first EP as an independent unit, titled REBOOT.

Once we get more information about the latter two announcements, we’ll be sure to update.

New Twitter Account

Because I have been in new fandoms during MADKID’s long-term hiatus, I opened a new public account that will be a mix of MADKID and other J-Pop groups/fandoms. Please follow if you’re interested.

It really is good to be back and it’s a nice, fresh feeling to get AXCEL STYLE active again. There’ll be more portions that needed to be updated, but please stay tuned!

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2019.12.20 @ 17:32

[The AXCEL Side] The End of a Decade

The AXCEL Side 2020, end of the year, holidays 2019

The End of a Decade

By now, I’m pretty sure you’ve been wondering what MADKID has been up to. Maybe a few of you have been wondering what I have been up to and why I haven’t been really talking about MADKID as much as I used to in these past few months and talk about something else. 1 Talking about other groups and artists and anything else that’s not quite related to your fan Twitter account is common though. There’s nothing wrong with getting into and talking about other groups besides MADKID. Even my most dedicated Axcel friends out of all the current Axcels talk about different groups. And it shouldn’t be a surprise that even myself is leaning towards that route as all the other fans around the world on SNS too. 2

In relation to this blog post’s title, we are nearing the end of the 2010 decade. In just a few weeks from this writing, we will be entering a brand-new decade of 2020. Things change rapidly in every decade and that’s just how the flow of life works. We see something new or even decide to bring something buried from the past and re-introducing it to the new decade in this decades-long evolving pop culture. Since I don’t have anything else to talk about regarding MADKID besides my latest post and the posts before that, I’ll just talk about a few of my thoughts about J-Pop in general and that one other fandom that I was closely following since mid-late September, right after I met and experienced MADKID back at the Crunchyroll Expo 2019.

The Revival of Talent Audition & Survival Shows in J-Pop

K-Pop today is also known for their series of idol survival shows such as PRODUCE 101, Unpretty Rap Star, Idol School, so on and so forth. Most K-Pop fans today would probably think that Korea has started these on-air idol training/recruitment variety shows in which the audience get to see the development of one average person into an idol pop star, but once again, as a long-time J-Pop fan, I have to rebuke that. Once upon a time in the early days of late 20th-early 21st Century J-Pop, there were a few named idol survival shows that existed. One such famous J-Pop idol survival show was ASAYAN, which was aired back in 1995 and ended its run in 2002. I didn’t get into J-Pop until I was in university and Korean classmates from my Japanese language class introduced me to J-Pop back in around 1996 with girl groups such as SPEED, Super Monkeys, and MAX. And then I got into boy groups from DA PUMP to Johnny’s idol boy groups. The rest is history. In the 1997 season of ASAYAN, now-famed J-Pop girl group Morning Musume was formed from that season.

Fast-forward till 2019 when MNet 3 sold the PD101 rights to Yoshimoto Kogyo, 4 one of Japan’s oldest entertainment conglomerates and group of talent agencies, known for managing comedians, comedy duos, and top-named actors and actresses, to produce the Japan version of the Korean popular idol survival show as their way of investing into J-Pop. China already has their versions of PD 101 5 and now Japan creates their own take of the Korean survival show with a simple title: PRODUCE 101 JAPAN.

After 3 months of this show, the final group has been formed under the name JO1. Their official debut is slated this coming spring 2020. Now, I want to explain how or why I started following this series besides killing the “hiatus” period with MADKID not announcing anything new at that time. It wasn’t because I’m a fan of PD101 or anything. My curiosity peaked months before that when I caught some MADKID members chatting with some WhiteA members and a few of their other friends in the indie/underground circle 6 about some of their friends auditioning as trainees for PDJP. There was probably more, but they did drop a few names that I decided to be curious and follow them during the show (if they make it in the show then): Honda Kosuke, 7 Shiroiwa Ruki, 8 Uehara Jun, 9 Urano Shuta, 10 Sano Fumiya, 11 and Kawashiri Ren. 12 In the end, among those six friends, only Ruki and Ren made it in to JO1. 13

After PDJP, there is another talent audition survival show called YoruYoung. I created a separate Twitter account for JO1 and explained about YoruYoung. Next year, there is another one called G-Egg, which is a joint survival show between Japanese and Korean idols/artists forming one boy group. There’s not much info on how the format and concept will go just yet, but the trainees were already revealed. Lastly, I even read that Korean/K-Pop agency giant JYP is expanding their operations to Japan and will also be having a survival show of some sort to form their very first J-Pop group under their management. We still don’t have much info about this one.

And so, this is what we’ll be expecting in the new decade of J-Pop – idol/talent survival shows has returned to the J-Pop scene.

エイドリアンはムルチーファンになる?

If an Axcel becomes a multifan with another group who happens to have strong connections to that Axcel’s MADKID bias, then it’s very easy to become a multifan. At least with Ruki and Ren in JO1, they had a past with MADKID and a lot of their fellow brother groups like WhiteA and the disbanded groups like YsR, that it’s easy for many of us fans of these groups to be able to support JO1. Most of my closest Axcel friends are multifans themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But on the other hand right now, both MADKID and JO1 don’t have much new content. However, this is a good chance for me and many JO1 fans (especially those who are new to J-Pop) to share our other favorite groups such as MADKID to them. Going all competitive against other fandoms of other J-Pop groups simply doesn’t exist. If you don’t like a certain group, you don’t need to show to the world how much you don’t like them. Not only that you’re disrespecting that certain group and their fans, but you’re also disrespecting your own biases and your own fellow fans as well, so please, keep all of that to yourselves and focus on supporting your favorites.

I may be also become a fan of the upcoming group that’ll come out from G-Egg as well. One of the trainees in there, one named Kudo Shohei is from another one of MADKID’s brother groups, SELLOUT. Once again, as an underground/indies J-Pop fan and following most of MADKID’s contemporaries, I’m keeping an eye on G-Egg as well.

I don’t know when I’ll write again. This may probably be the final post for AXCEL STYLE in the year 2019. Hopefully I’d be able to write again with some MADKID news when we get them, hopefully sometime in January 2020.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays. Happy New Year as well. See you next year!

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2019.12.01 @ 05:04

MADKID FC SITE Temporary Shutdown

FC-Only Stuff, General temporary shutdown, uncontrollable technical issues, web host bankruptcy

MADKID FC SITE Temporary Shutdown

Greetings, fellow AXCELS! Long time no see/write/post on AXCEL STYLE! I usually have some witty or random intro in starting up a post because I like to start my blog posts off with something like that as part of the writer/reader engagement and get the readers hooked into what this post is all about. As you can see from the featured image above and the title of this post, this fresh post since the last one is all about this. This isn’t a What’s Happening? post because, as I mentioned before, there isn’t much anything happening. I’ve covered a lot of their current activities since then and there hasn’t much any changes with MADKID and the Axcel Fam as of late.

Well, until today, of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be posting right now. As you read above, it was announced through the MADKID Official Twitter today that the FC site will be temporarily shutting down by the end of the year, which is in about a few weeks. I could translate the entire article word for word, but that’s just tedious in my opinion, but because I meddle with a lot of web stuff as my way of living everyday, I can further explain what’s going on behind the temporary shutdown for those who aren’t web techies. What I mean to say is that I’ll have to throw in some “professional” opinions, not as an Axcel, but as a web dev.

The Technical Side

According to the FC blog post posted today, their web host and site management agency went bankrupt, meaning, they’re no longer in business. And what they mean by “out of business” is that the sites that they currently host are completely stuck in their servers, eventually they will be taken offline in the near future. This also means that the businesses and individuals who were unfortunate to be this web host’s customers will have to start shopping for a new web host. Once they do, they will have to do some site migration of from their current host to the new host. Because the FC site is built and powered by WordPress, migration is fairly easy using plugins and other pain-free methods. According to the FC blog post, the brand-new migrated 1 FC site will be reopened on January 6, 2020.

This is very unfortunate for the MADKID FC and absolutely unprofessional on the web host’s side. I’ve had several frustrations since late October about my sudden expiration of my FC membership because it immediately got “expired” when the actual expiration date of my membership isn’t until June 2020. I’ve emailed the FC several times regarding the issue and since then, I haven’t received any replies. Around that time, I’ve been speculating myself on who actually runs the site (FC staff or the developer responsible for building/maintaining the FC site). I’m usually a patient person in general and not so much when it comes to the web or anything tech, but because of my unconditional love ❤️ for MADKID, I remained patient and not as demanding. After weeks of no response from the FC staff, 2 I finally got my answer today.

The more I think about this now, the more I get frustrated. I’m not angry at the FC staff for not responding. I figured they wouldn’t be web devs and system support peeps themselves for not being able to respond until the issue has been fixed. And my guess from their lack of reply to my inquiries after reading this blog post/announcement that the web host/tech support has never responded to the FC staff regarding my expiration date technical issue. I don’t know if the announcement of the web host’s bankruptcy was only made recently or a long time ago, but the web host tech support should’ve been more professional than this and provided the FC staff their answer. Maybe the FC staff wouldn’t feel ashamed of not being able to fix my issue and reply to me about the issue because the “higher level” decided not to bother with issues of their current clients. Really frustrating. 😖

There were some FC-only photos that I wanted to download for fan art purposes, 3 but I guess it can wait until they reopen the site in 2 months.

The FC-AXCEL Side

So, what does this mean for us current FC members? It does mean something significantly. Because the FC site will be out of commission for a few weeks, for use whose real expiration dates isn’t until next year will have to get refunded for the remainder of our annual membership period. In my case, June 2020. The blog post goes into detail on how much refund we will be getting. In my case, I will be refunded ¥2,509 (about $25 USD). Since I renewed my membership via PayPal, they’ll just send me my refund through PayPal.

My guess will be that once the migrated FC site is reopened in January 2020, all of us will have to re-register/join the FC once more. This isn’t much of an issue for me since I’m getting my refund anyway. I just hope their registration system hasn’t changed yet because it’s a bit of a biznatch for me to update/re-updating the FC section of this site. But, it looks like I will re-update again eventually because the screenshots will be different.

Other than this, there isn’t much we could do at this point. We’ll just have to wait and see if there are any changes next. I’m sure that both MADKID and the FC staff are regretful for this inconvenience, but none of this is their fault. I wonder if their agency also uses this same web host as their other talent, as well as their own official website. Because if it is, then this frustrates me even more towards the web host.

Even if a web host is going out of business, it’s only more prompt and professional that they announce this to all their clients including the MADKID FC. In that way, the FC Staff would be able to announce this early on without feeling guilty or being silent at the tech-problem inquiries they kept receiving everyday.

And that’s it for this edition of the What’s Happening? post series. Bad news for current FC members, not so much for non-FC Axcels.

No, you can’t join the FC without paying. No pay, no admission. It’s the same thing with all the other fan clubs of any artist, group, or special interests. I’ve never heard of a “free” admission fan club before, so please, think about the members and the staff and support them.

Till next time, Axcels!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

I also started posting (some of) my MADKID fan art on the following art community accounts:

  • Pixiv
  • DeviantArt

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2019.11.09 @ 04:08

[The AXCEL Side] Fan Art & Other Babbles

The AXCEL Side digital art, fan art

Fan Art & Other Babbles - Yuki Mixed Media Art

Even though the featured image for this personal blog entry has YUKI in it, this post is NOT about YUKI. For this entry, I’m going to talk about my personal thoughts and views regarding art in general. I felt prompted to write about this because recently, thanks to MADKID’s new photo shots that they’re currently using on their social media accounts, my very dormant digital art mojo suddenly woke up. For a while now, I started creating digital art based on those photos and all their other photos currently existing all around the cloud.

Since Crunchyroll Expo, MADKID kind of went on the down-low. Usually around this time, the last few months of the year, this always happens. After all, in the entertainment world, we all deserve a long hiatus break, especially if you’re (almost) a self-produced artist like MADKID. But, “hiatus” doesn’t usually always mean “long vacation” from their field. It can also mean they’re out there doing side projects 1 while also working for new material to be (possibly) released next year. Let’s also keep in mind that they have their one-man live coming up soon in February 2020, so that’s definitely something to look forward to.

At the same time, MADKID also gave us Axcels a break from getting so hyped with them and buying all the merch as we can 2 and also spreading news and updates about MADKID in different languages. They also gave us an opportunity to spend more time in our real-life days 3 and also try something new. I’m currently doing both of them, but I made sure I have my Twitter notifications on so that I don’t miss any tweets that the MADKID official twitter and even tweets from all the members.

My Personal Art History

As for trying something new while MADKID is on the down-low, I did try something new: creating fan art. I have a confession to make regarding art – I’m not like most fan artists where they can do character illustrations by hand or even by digital art using computer graphics software like Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Procreate, Affinity Designer, Clip Studio Paint, etc. I want to get used to using a drawing tablet, but I need something more high end like WACOM Cintiq so it’s much easier to use a drawing tablet as if I’m actually drawing using a traditional pen and paper.

I think my traditional art forte is lettering. I can create eye-catching artwork with words and letters alone. In some way, it’s kind of like creating a painting art or pencil art, but I play with decorative letters, not character creation or portraits of people. There is a formal term for this particular of art. It’s called Lettering. And as a lettering artist, one of my goals is to create my own set of fonts that people could use for their digital designs. The thing is, I’m not very good at using the right tools and software. I have to figure out how to use them for projects like these. But, as everyday life goes, I don’t have any time to spend just to self-teach myself how to use these tools. 4

Along with Lettering, I also do a form of art therapy: zentangles, mandalas, zendalas, and adult coloring books. These are some of the methods of relaxation and destressing or times when I just wanted to not be in front of the computer and simply relax. But lately, my baby nephew has been visiting our house more frequently, so I spend more time with the baby than working on some traditional art. One of my goals is to get an adult coloring book published with some of my zentangle, mandala, and zendala designs in them so that others can do their coloring magic on them, just like how I was with other adult coloring books that I could find.

The most precious necessary element that every living human being must have is time. Because of the nature of my work and the things going on with my life outside the internet, I don’t have time to sit down and take the time to practice or learn how to do character/portrait art, let alone learning how to paint or even do simple shading with the pencil, charcoal, pastel, etc. And the sad part too is that I have plenty of traditional art tools that I can use for all of these: pencils, colored pencils, highlighters, metallic pens, gel pens, markers of almost every kind, etc. 5

Lastly, I do simple digital art. It’s mostly photo manipulation, and that’s what exactly is. However, you can also use original photos as templates for you to trace over to create shapes and then use your coloring magic with these shapes. It sounds easy, but if you’re not familiar with using the digital software that you have, you’ll even have a hard time accomplishing this first step. At first, I thought that people would look at me as a “wanna-be” if all of my best artwork turns out to be digital fan art. That was some years ago when digital art is still in its early stages. Today, even the greatest of all the artists around the world are strictly digital artists. It’s not because they “cheat” by using something that’s automated, but because they have good eye, good imagination, and good perspective on the scene or subject that they want to create art on, but also because they know how to use their graphics software properly, just like how an artist would be skillful in using their tools, like your easel, paint, and paintbrush.

The pros and cons of traditional art vs. digital art

TRADITIONAL ART PROS:

  • Handmade – only your imagination and your hands can create something fresh, natural, and original.
  • So many tools and instruments to choose from, which not only includes your pens, markers, or brushes, but also includes the type of paper you’re using or other surfaces like plastic, wood, etc.
  • You have the freedom to do a lot of customizations with your art, where you can add your magical signature into it, which is something no other can copy or replicate. This even includes framing or packaging your art if you were to give (or sell) to someone else.
  • You can sell your art at a hefty price due to its originality and rarity. If you create your artwork by hand, no one else can replicate it because you add your own personal magic to it. With that personal magic, your artwork becomes one of a kind.

TRADITIONAL ART CONS:

  • Traditional artwork takes a very long time to create. Not all of us have all the time in the world to create art.
  • High chances of making mistakes – if you use an eraser to erase your pencil marks, the paper may get damaged. Or worse, you would have to tear down the paper you used and then start fresh with another one.
  • Art tools and instruments are expensive. The higher your quality, the more expensive of the tools and instruments you would need to spend. Sometimes, certain types of high quality tools and instruments are not found in your local stores and would have to search online all over and order them online.
  • There are learning curves on taking care of your new tools and instruments, especially if you’ve never used them before. You would have to take the time to practice and get used to them.
  • Not everyone can gain or improve their artistic skills regardless of how much time they spend practicing. Some individuals may not have the artistic flair hidden in them, no matter how much they practice. 6

DIGITAL ART PROS:

  • Save time – using a computer graphics software can automate everything that you would need to do by hand. You can even edit the finished result if you want to add your flair at a faster time.
  • Different types of graphics software that you can choose. Sometimes, all you need is just one particular software to do all of your artwork.
  • Save space in your room and on your desk. You won’t have to deal with the clutter or organization of traditional art tools and instruments.
  • You have the option of purchasing extra hardware, such as a drawing tablet peripheral or even a tablet device like an iPad or Kindle Fire, to have a much more natural control of your digital art.
  • If you are a traditional artist and would love your artwork to be digital, you can also combine both. For example, you draw your art in pencil, scan it using a scanner/printer, import it in your graphics software, and trace/color over your scan.

DIGITAL ART CONS:

  • Even though it’s mentioned that you can save time in making the same art style using a graphics software compared to the artwork you’d normally use your hands on, creating an art using a graphics software still takes a lot of time, just like how you create your art by hand.
  • The costs and expenses are also high, however, you can save money in comparison to purchasing traditional arts and tools. You’ve got an all-in-one graphics software that you can use tools like pencil, pen, marker, watercolor, paint, etc.
  • There are learning curves on how to use your chosen graphics software. In fact, not all graphics software are the same. For example, Adobe Photoshop primarily focuses on photo edits and manipulation, as well as creating rasterized graphics 7 for presentations, flyers, etc. Adobe Illustrator is an all-out illustration program, where you can create all your graphics using vector from scratch. So, for example, if you want to create your custom anime character on the computer, you can use Adobe Illustrator for that. Mentioning this, for those who aren’t tech-savvy, even learning how to use the program properly would take you a long time before you can even begin creating your digital art.

So, in short from those lists, both traditional art and digital art are pretty much the same. They’re both art, no matter how much you look at it. Because of this, I’m no longer worried about being called a “wanna-be artist” and gained my confidence in making my own fan art style using original photos as references and still be considered a fan artist. 😅

I will continue writing more about digital art and traditional art on my art and stories blog, Adri Mars INK, sometime, if you are interested in getting to know more.

I have three locations where I post some of my art. I may start posting some of my MADKID fan art in one of these accounts. You can check them out yourself if you like:

  • Behance (dormant)
  • DeviantArt (very dormant)
  • Pixiv (never used cuz I don’t really do character art… eep!)
  • Adri Mars INK (personal art and stories blog)

MADKID and Fan Art

YOU-TA once said on Twitter and even on their official LINE Blog regarding fan dedication to MADKID. He said that you don’t need to do the most extreme to show everyone how much of a fan that you are. There are different ways for you to show your love for MADKID: attend all of their concerts and lives, go to fan meets, talk about them on SNS channels like Twitter and Instagram, talk to the members directly on SNS channels just to say hi, 8 write letters and send gifts to them, and create fan art and crafts of MADKID and/or your favorite member. You can even do the rarest method of showing love for MADKID by building a fansite and blog dedicated to MADKID and/or your favorite member like AXCEL STYLE or go all out with your artistic flair by creating fan art of the group and/or your favorite member. The methods of showing your love for MADKID are simply endless!

And also, who says you can only do one when you can do many of them from time to time? So far, here’s what I’ve done for MADKID since I became an Axcel back in April 2018:

  • Follow them on Twitter and Instagram: RT, tweet the members, etc.
  • Go to their personal livestreams and chill and talk with them.
  • Wake up at 3-4 am PST just to watch MAD MUSIC on LINE LIVE and whatever livestream that they have as a group (SWISH, etc.)
  • Write short fanfic of SHIN at J-Pop Amino as part of their weekly challenges
  • Build a blog that ended up expanding into a full-blown fansite (AXCEL STYLE)
  • Create a separate Twitter and Instagram account to translate some of the news and updates relevant to international Axcels
  • Buy their CDs, singles, and albums
  • Join the MADKID FC
  • Attend a MADKID live through Crunchyroll Expo

Now, during the down-low period of MADKID, I add these to my personal list:

  • Create digital fan art of MADKID
  • Create original graphics of MADKID as freebie downloads for use on SNS channels like profile pics
  • Participate in NaNoWriMo to write a longer MADKID fanfic 9

I was super happy when I received some positive feedback from fellow Axcels who normally make fanart for the guys, even if I used Photoshop and Illustrator to create them. Not only that, even general digital artists also praised some of my basic artwork too. Once I started experimenting with a group image using some basic watercolor effect, I couldn’t stop working on them. Because of that, I decided to open a separate Instagram account that would house all of my MADKID fan art and graphics. I’ll eventually embed my IG gallery somewhere here on AXCEL STYLE, but you can always check out the IG itself and follow me.

If you enjoyed the YUKI mixed media digital fanart that I made, I’m very happy. I promise to make more of a similar feel for the rest of the members too. Best of all, the model himself RT’d this sweet art. 🥰

YUKI Twitter RT

I could go on and on with my digital art methods, but then this is a MADKID fansite/blog and it wouldn’t be about MADKID anymore, so I’ll just write about that on my Adri Mars INK blog instead.

Lastly, thank you for all your love and support for MADKID. I mean, thank you also for giving me some support of any kind for letting me continue on with this site and being able to share all the news and updates about MADKID and our boys. But remember, MADKID is the priority in this case. When you want to share some news and info about them, be sure you refer to them by linking, tagging, or RTing the original source.

That’s all for today. I’m out to make more fan art!

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2019.11.07 @ 05:51

What’s Happening? #33

General cindereile, fan art, nanowrimo, tiktok, wannabeyoutuberkazukingtanabe

going artistic and literal

It’s November, which means there is one more left till we hit 2020. Usually around this time is also MADKID’s cooling time from their usual activities. When we don’t see them as often and active on SNS, 1 it usually means that the boys are busy cooking up with something fresh and brand new to (possibly) kick off the 20th year of the 21st Century. Before, there’s usually some kind of a huge activity with MADKID by themselves, but as of this moment, their upcoming live schedules are at the usual live festivals with other fellow artists and groups from the underground.

On the other hand, this doesn’t mean that MADKID is completely out of the limelight or out of the public social media. In fact, far from it. The members also have gotten into the artistic and literal mood. What I mean by artistic is that they all became a lot more creative in things that are outside their field of expertise. 2 I personally also got into the artistic and literal mood myself. But please, read on.

SEPT presents “CinderEile”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Image Sources: SHIN’s Twitter, MADKID Official Twitter, Nana (GeeSLY) Twitter, SEPT PPN Twitter

Earlier today was the opening night of the CinderEile stage musical. As I wrote from the previous entry, the musical will run for five days, with Sunday (11/10 JST) being the last day. Many of SHIN’s friends and colleagues came by to watch the first night, and from the reports on Twitter, the first night was a huge success.

Also, SHIN finally revealed about the character he is portraying in the story from his Monday blog entry and even on Twitter hours before the opening night. I mentioned from the previous entry that he may be portraying Tomoki because his name was listed second on the official cast list. It turns out that SHIN is portraying the main male protagonist of the story, Haruto Tanaka.

You can check out some of their dress rehearsal previews and soundtrack samples by following the SEPT PPN Twitter. It’s really safe to say that SHIN has expanded his artistic repertoire as a performer from dancer to vocalist to stage actor, so let’s all congratulate him on this major accomplishment to his current career.

But SHIN isn’t the only MADKID member who’s now on the artistic and literal mode. The rest of the members aren’t falling behind either.

#WannaBeYouTuberKazuKINGTanabe

Starting last weekend, KAZUKI began uploading and presenting a series of daily short clips under his new Twitter series, #なりきりYouTuberかずきんぐたなべ (#WannaBeYouTuberKazuKINGTanabe). His new series of clips are mostly product reviews of his favorite electronic devices, appliance, clothes, and some other random stuff. Some would be thinking why won’t KAZUKI just open his own YouTube channel rather than just using this Twitter (and sometimes his Instagram/IGTV account).

In his first video, he already explained why. He wants to gain new followers on Twitter. If he couldn’t gain followers for him as an active J-Pop artist, he thought that he could gain more followers in another way. He already declared himself as a “wanna-be YouTuber” for the past few months now because of his new love and talent for creating vlogs and documentary-style videos. In addition to posting short clips, there is also a catch behind it: fans and users who come to watch his videos must like and RT 3 If the video he posted reaches 100 RTs, he will post a new video the next day.

Upcoming TikTok Stars

YUKI opened a TikTok account sometime last week to post random videos, just like any other TikTok user around the world. I’m not a TikTok person but I used to lowkey watch some old musical.ly videos back in the days before it merged into TikTok. I still haven’t downloaded TikTok because I’m trying to conserve some space on my phone, but I might when on my iPad. You can watch some dance covers of his favorite (K-Pop) tracks and a singing/performing a few covers of his favorite (K-Pop) songs live. You can still find his cover recordings on his SoundCloud.

He isn’t the only one who recently opened a TikTok account. MADKID President YOU-TA also opened a new TikTok account himself. Eventually, he will be uploading some TikTok videos himself, but as of now, it’s empty.

So, if you are a fan of TikTok or a TikToker yourself, please do follow them, and keep an eye out when both start uploading their freshest videos for you to watch.

AXCEL STYLE going Artistic and Literal

I know I don’t talk about my art much, mainly because there are a few things that I’m not confident in sharing and that I feel like that I’m lacking as an artist if I don’t create something “artistically pleasing” through the traditional means of pencil, pen, paper, marker, paint, etc. And from that, I have always stuck myself with adult coloring books and some quick sketching.

But, I also realized too that you can make art digitally. Some say before that using digital graphic tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. is considered “cheating in art,” but in fact, it isn’t. You still have the learning curve of knowing how to use these programs, and just like using traditional art tools, it would also take you a lot of time to create digital art. So, thinking about it, graphics software are also tools, and even if some features make things faster, it’s still a tool you’re using to create art.

MADKID’s latest official photos and SHIN and YUKI’s modeling photos for Hysterical Glamour suddenly gave my dormant digital art inspiration spirit the urge to recreate these images into digital art. They can be watercolor style, pencil style, anything. Somehow, my sleeping creative flows just woke up somehow, and currently, alongside my daily code studies, I just couldn’t get enough making digital fan art of the boys.

Before, I shared them on Twitter. I thought about opening a brand-new section within the site to post my current fan art and keep it there. However, I figured that social media would be a lot faster to gain new followers (and friends, hopefully) and plenty of chances to share about MADKID in the (fan) artist community within IG too. After all, MADKID gained a lot of fans thanks to their opening themes for the anime The Rising of the Shield Hero, so why not?

Because of this, I opened a brand-new Instagram account solely dedicated to my digital fan art, AXCEL STYLE Fan Art. I don’t have a lot in there posted, obviously, but I have posted a few of my art there so far. I still have a lot of WIPs 4 and I need to get to them. I do hope you’ll enjoy what I have there, and if you have a request or (maybe?) commission, you can contact me directly and we may work something out.

November is NaNoWriMo Month

If some of you aren’t familiar with NaNoWriMo, 5 I decided to participate in the yearly event. Why? Because in literary art, MADKID’s current official photos made them look like princes and kings that made me decided to write a fantasy detective story with the guys as the main characters, an original protagonist character added to it, and adding more names of MADKID’s IRL friends in the industry and some trainees from the ongoing TV survival show Produce 101 Japan. So far, I only wrote a prologue to show an insight into what the story is about, but since then, I haven’t really progressed yet.

November just started, so I got enough time for me to catch up. It would have been a lot simpler if I wrote a romantic story, but then I quickly lose inspiration when I write love stories. 6 I’ve been writing this fanfic in my head for quite some time now but haven’t really written it down on a word processor. But, it has been a long time for me to write a 50k rough draft novel. The last time I participated and won the challenge was back in 2011-2012.

Am I going to release the fanfic once it’s completed? Definitely. But the question is, will I be able to finish it, and when will I even release it? 😅

That’s all for today’s’ What’s Happening? entry. Nothing much is going on at the moment, but at the same time, there are some things that are happening. I’m hoping that maybe sometime December or January 2020, we’ll hear huge announcements on what’s to come for MADKID and for the Axcels. Maybe even February, during their New Divide one-man live or even after it.

There were a few on Twitter who sent me DMs, asking me if I can write about the activities and such within the MADKID FC. The answer to those messages is that I can only post so much about the FC. I only post the ones that the MADKID Twitter announce in public and it’s always been that way. If MADKID Twitter tweets something like “The FC blog has been updated. Please check it out.” and nothing more after that comes, these are the cases in which I will not post or tweet about. I’m just honoring the terms of use of the FC after all.

But, for any FC news, I only have one. Unlike last year, in which I received my 2018 birthday video during early 2019, my 2019 birthday video was finally posted a few days ago from this writing. So, in short, the FC is right on time.

Till next time, Axcels!

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AXCEL STYLE is a blog and fansite dedicated to one of J-Pop's most unique boy groups, MADKID. We have been following MADKID since their debut in 2018 and will continue on providing news, updates, and other related blogs about the group, its members, and their activities, as well as blogging about a few personal thoughts about the group.
MADKID © 2020 Future Notes. AXCEL STYLE (Reboot) © 2020 Adrianne.
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