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The Economic Impact of Beckii Cruel

A Japanese news program reports that Youtube celebrity turned idol Beckii Cruel (Rebecca Flint) is an economic success

It is claimed that her new CD is selling well and she’s brought 40 million yen ($0.44 million) into the Japanese economy. Don’t ask me how they calculated that figure.

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37 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - March 21, 2010 at 9:04 am

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags:

Oshiri

How did they calculate that figure?

LOL
Michael

It’s things like this that make Japanese culture absolutely incomprehensible to me. She’s not that pretty (actually, kinda ugly IMO–a very typical English teenage girl with a horrible nose), and in her videos she just stares at the camera. Yet this turned into a HUGE sensation in Japan.

What the HELL?! the baka gaijin screams. She doesn’t do anything, isn’t funny, entertaining, amusing, or talented in any way. So why is she suddenly such a huge celebrity in Japan?

I cannot imagine a greater metaphor for Japanese popular culture.

Michael

I’m sorry, my comment was unfair–she does dance. But STILL.
Mark

Um, she’s not English – she’s from the Isle of Man.

Mark

whoops – bit dumb of me – I read previously she was from IoM, not realising she was actually born in England – apologies Michael

Hamachiman

“What the HELL?! the baka gaijin screams. She doesn’t do anything, isn’t funny, entertaining, amusing, or talented in any way. So why is she suddenly such a huge celebrity..”

For a minute there I thought you were talking about paris hilton, ashlee simpson, kim kardashian, or a host of other “celebrities.”

Max

LoliKon culture

Oshiri

Ding Dong!

Or should that be more like

Ping Pong! (PG-rated version LOL)

Ap

wat
I think you completely misunderstood this blog entry…

Anyway, I don’t like her, she’s way too generic.
Igor

Err… they are talking about 40.000.000 (forty-million) yen, around USD 360.000 . If she sells around 10.000 DVDs you get that numbers, that`s simple math. Geez…

Karisu

Your idea of simple is radically different than mine!

kateebot

I agree with Michael. I mean, yes I’ll be jealous of any white girl who hits it big in Japan just because of YouTube, but I’m actually a huge fan of Magibon. She’s at least cute. But Beckii? No. And her dancing isn’t even that good.

Marcin

As for Magibon, good for you but have you seen her NOT looking straght into a camera that is slightly above her? Guess you would change your mind about her cutness imediately

RMilner

Magibon’s appeal is based on the property of a wide angle webcam which distorts visual perspective, making her forehead and eyes like like a manga character.

Craig

Not much of an impact
momomomomo

Actually,she isn’t popular in Japan.
yoga boy

So my comment about the 4,000 man not equaling $4million dollars but rather $400,000 doesn’t get posted (deleted?) and then the original post gets corrected. Thanks James…..stay classy.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Thanks for the correction – but I delete comments like that all the time to avoid confusion.

I used to leave them in place, but it would just cause confused people who only read the post-correction post to leave follow-up comments telling the person they were wrong.

yoga boy

Thanks for the update James. I see. Sorry for going off the handle there .

stephanie

well,i think she is cool，but her dance are very terrible.
……
beckii is a very beautiful girl,she is shrp.
stephanie

oh sorry,is[sharp]
i was wrong~
http://www.hormel.com Vonskippy

My 6 year old daughter does the exact same dance moves – when she’s waiting to go to the bathroom.

William

LMAO XD
yoga boy

Clearly you are missing out on some income if you were to exploit your daughter for Japanese otaku.

RMilner

They probably calculated the economic benefit based on record sales.

Since Beckii Cruel is from the Isle of Man, she’ll be taking some of that money home with her, and I doubt she has sold any records outside Japan.

However the Keynes multiplier effect means there will be a benefit from the circulation of cash from otaku to record shop to record company to pressing plant, and so on.
Bran

“It’s things like this that make Japanese culture absolutely incomprehensible to me.”

And yet strangely, for other people who have made only a meager effort to understand Japanese culture it makes perfect sense and is in fact easily explainable and not simply in terms of ‘lolikon’. I’m sure if you asked some of your Japanese friends they could easily help your understanding develop a great deal.
William

I don’t know why people like this girl… a japanese girl doing what she does is nice, but when is she doing it it’s ridiculous..
She is pretty but not “cute”…
ini

So I switched on the lolimeter on one of Beckii’s youtube videos and it started smoking. Had to toss it out of the window, the subsequent detonation dug a 4 meter crater on the street.

So much power from a single piece of youtube video.
Yeah, I think I know why Beckii is so popular.

William

Hm.. now that you talked about this, I have to agree.

http://www.essential-japan-guide.com/ Shane

Hmm, I’d guess those sales are coming mostly from fans in South Korea and/or Taiwan maybe?
yom

i have never heard of her or seen her on tv

then again i tend to stay well away from that otaku side of things now a days
http://www.colininjapan.com Colin

Without watching the video i for some reason thought we were talking about just plain old “Becky” (English-Japanese entertainer who is quite big and famous in Japan right now).

I was thinking that “She’s for SURE pumped at least .44 million into the Japanese economy”

But no it was some unknown Becky Cruel. In all my time in Japan, never heard of her. Or seen her on TV. Or anything.
Nova

OMG, not another stupid little girl who loves japan…?
sometimes i totally hate what youtube did to the world.

Lauren

I’m quite surprised at how mean everyone is being actually. This comment has shocked me the most. People should be flattered when people from other cultures and countries take an interest in their culture…not slag them off. It’s so rude, it’s past the point of humour. Would people rather that everyone just ignored one another, never share anything good and never gain a deeper understanding of other human beings and how they just ‘do being human’?

She has just been on a documentary here in England. She hasn’t sold or released any records here. She seems very down to earth, and bright. Not a ‘silly little girl’ that is for sure. Quite mild mannered and nice.

Stop being so mean to her, she’s a child don’t forget.

Peace x

Hamachiman

I don’t know, I think it’s cool someone from another country can one day be just another high school student, and the next an international sensation due to a YouTube video. I’m sure we’ve all had fantasies of becoming famous.

If she can make money out of this, more power to her. Fame isn’t forever, and one day I’m sure Beckii can look back and smile and tell her grand kids about the time she was a star in another country.

William

Well… I don’t know if her grand kids would like it or laugh at this XD

tamatama

It seems the video was deleted.
Is there a flv file of it, or even a new link? I’ve been searching this news report in several sites and nothing so far…
Thanks in advance.

The Economic Impact of Beckii Cruel

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