Editor’s note:

The Boy Named Crow is a former student of mine who has absolutely CRUSHED the game since his bootcamp. He possesses an indomitable drive, deep cultural understanding, and level of deep interest in both Japanese culture and the women he encounters which is rare among gamers. I asked him to shed some light on one topic in which he excels: subcultures. Enjoy. I know I did.

-Sinapse

TOKYO TRIBES

Japan Game and Subculture

Why an article on Game and Subcultures in Japan?

What does getting Omanko have to do with singing along to your favorite Japanese reggae musician or shopping for pink contact lenses in Harajuku to complete your cyber goth outfit?

I will start by saying what this article is not. This is not the complete guide to Japanese subcultures, it is not meant as an overview of all the genres and sub-genres. Others have done a good job at writing up such an introduction and a bit of google search should provide the curious reader with some good articles in both English and Japanese.

So this article does not bother with explaining about all the little details of each scene you don’t really need to know, but goes straight to the point: Giving you just the basic understanding of each subculture you need and focuses and straightforward, fail-proof tactics how to attract and seduce the very hottest girls in these subcultures: The legendary gyaru models and long-legged Hatsune Miku cosplayers you are dreaming of. Sike! – it doesn’t.

If I had an editor I am sure he would insist I delete the last sentence, but follow me here for a minute. Yes, I do write this article with the goal to help you to attract and connect with those girls you want who are into subcultures. But the first main point I want to make is that an approach that is mainly instrumental/results oriented does not make any sense when we speak about engaging in subcultures and how it relates to Game.

To make it even more clear: I don’t think that knowledge about/engagement in subcultures is necessary at all to hook up or have a relationship even with girls who are hardcore into a subculture. I cannot deny that understanding the subculture can benefit you a lot, but it is not a must. And it will definitely show if you try to get some superficial understanding of the subculture, or even worse, try to superficially fit in with a subcultures in an attempt to hook up with a particular girl or a certain type of girl. If you are familiar with concepts like Dad frame, being non-needy etc. you are probably already aware that this type of behavior will have the exact opposite of the desired outcome by making you look desperate and not on your own purpose.

“So why bother with subculture at all then?” you might ask if you haven’t clicked this article away already. My point is that understanding the answer to this question opens up a more general insight into Game and how we learn and grow in it.

Very simply put knowing more about a subculture will give you access to the world of girls who are participating in these subcultures. It will add a whole new dimension of how you interact, and share ideas, language (including the language of sign/codes in fashion, music, etc.) with the girl. As mentioned before you can f course get an infinite number of girls and super hot girls without any of this, since many girls are not that deeply engaged in subcultures and their subcultures are not that niche so you might already be familiar with it.

However, my point is that these extra levels you add to relationships by digging deeper into subcultures, the types of girls it puts you in touch with and experiences you gain are a very valuable form of “result”. It is a more multi-layered understanding of what it means to level up in game. “Getting laid” is just one type of “result” you can achieve and enjoy on your journey in game, playing drums and celebrating free love with some hippie girl at a psy trance festival or riding through the boondocks of Shizuoka with your Bosozoku (Japanese biker gang) girlfriend are some other pretty awesome results.

There are countless Japanese subcultures:

Gyaru ( Ganguro, Kogyaru, Yamanba, Manba, a myriad other sub-genres), Lolita fahion, Dekora, Otaku, Visual Kei, Bosozoku, Yankee, Yakuza, Japanese Rap/Reggae, B-Kei, Mori girl, Lame Kei… did I already mention Gyaru? 😉

I cannot explain all these in detail here, the interested reader might want to do his own research. It would be interesting to discuss to which degree these subcultures are distinctively Japanese (I would argue there has always been influence between “Western” and Japanese subculture) – and how Japanese/Western subcultures are becoming more universally shared through the rise of social media etc. However I will exclude these discussions to focus on the question how Japanese subcultures relate to game.

I want to encourage you to dig deeper into these subcultures, because I can tell you from my personal experience that it is very rewarding. In practice there are many things you can do:

Research

Websites/forums/blogs: There are great websites/forums that explain about Japanese subcultures. In general Japanese websites are more accurate and rich in information, but I also highly recommend you check English speaking sources. You might be surprised that even if you live in Japan and speak Japanese fairly well, you will find people online who do not live in Japan and speak no Japanese but are so obsessed with some niche Japanese subculture that their blog/forum post can teach you a lot about it.

Fashion/Lifestyle Magazines:

GIRLS:

Gyaru: Egg, Ranzuki, Soul Sisters, Koakuma Ageha, Ageha Ane, Blenda, Decolog, Edge Style, Happy Nuts, I love Mama, Jelly, Katy, Nicky, Scawaii,

Harajuku Kei: Kera, Zipper, Cutie, Seventeen, Popteen

Other: ViVi, Sweet, Jelly, CanCam,

MEN:

Skateboard/Skater Fashion: Grind, Sense, Ollie, Warp, Swag, Slider

Street: Men’s Joker, Prodism, Rudo, Samurai, Woofin’ Cool Trans

Host Kei: Men’s Knuckle

Gyaru-: Men’s Egg

There is no other country on earth with such an insane variety of fashion and lifestyle magazines as Japan. Every subculture, even super niche, has its magazine/fanzine. These magazines heavily play a group identity forming role for their readers, which sets them apart as a very different phenomenon from to Western fashion magazines. Their readers often follow the fashion, make-up and lifestyle instruction like a cult, or what Michel Maffesoli and Andy Bennett described as “Neo Tribes” – temporary, fluid communities existing only for the duration of their rituals.  

What is important to note is that these magazines had a huge impact on Japanese youth/consumer and girl culture but are currently on the way out and struggling to survive. They are still a force to reckon with and worth checking out but increasingly losing out to the power of social media.

Social media

Social media is the biggest arena where subcultures are flourishing in Japan now. As I write this in 2018 Instagram is the biggest hype. Twitter is huge but there are also others SNS like video platforms for short 15 second videos – Vine used to be very popular with Gyaru and high school girls but is recently being replaced by TikTok. Nikoniko Douga had a live broadcasting section that was popular with Otaku, High school students and to some degree Visual Kei, Gyaru and other Subcultures.

Getting involved

Rather that sitting in your lab and reading about subcultures, I want to encourage you to actually meet people and get engaged. There are many ways to do this:

Events: Get together, オフ会、live concerts /festivals- for music/fashion based subculture

Workshops/tournaments – for subcultures centered more around activities like skateboarding/BMX/Biker/dance/DJing/Streetart etc.

Areas in Tokyo that have a lot of events related to subcultures and street performances etc. are:

Harajuku, Yoyogi-Park, Shibuya/ Shinjuku/Kabukicho Area, Ikebukuro, Koenji, Shimokitazawa.

If you are already doing cold approach pick-up, you should be more used to randomly talking to people and . It can be very rewarding to talk to people like street performers, event organizers, etc. in these areas, they might introduce you to the community and keep you informed about events etc.

The whole point about getting involved is to throw yourself into it and find a subculture that your are genuinely excited about. If you have genuine interest, I guarantee you that people will react very positively.

To bring it back to how this relates to game. There is no doubt that there are some insanely hot girls in subcultures, and I am talking about standards of physical beauty most of can agree on it (of course ultimately there is no absolute standard of beauty – apart from Rola and Izumi Mana). But while you dig deeper into subcultures you might develop a fetish for some of the characteristic looks (make-up/fashion/accessories) associated with that subculture. At the same time you naturally put yourself in a very good position: You are likely to meet these type of girls if you are actually deeply involved in these subcultures and you will be seen in a very different light than some random gaijin. You can apply all those game concepts like “social proof”, “being on your purpose” etc. However, your interest in the subculture is not an instrument to meet these girls, but if you have followed me up until now, I hope you see how this rather organically all comes together at some point.

Basically me propagating deep engagement in subcultures is just a further illustration of the more broad paradigm that Dorian Grey and Sinapse have laid out in their Magnus Opus  “Japan Game” that takes a distinctively cultural approach to game. I would some up one of their main messages to us as follows: In order to crush it in game in Japan you need to understand and fall in love with the culture – and learn the language. Subcultures are just another dimension to this. Just as with involvement with Japanese culture in general, what you gain is not only access to more and hotter girls but also a deeper more fulfilling level of interaction, and also the chance to explore new worlds out there and within you. Learning the Kanji has given you a tool set to enjoy texting with Japanese girls. Becoming able to read the language of styles, signs and rituals – the semiotics of subcultures – will give you a tool set to connect with unique girls. Girls who will draw you into their exciting and fascinating world, one that is not composed out of Arashi concerts and Disney songs that will make you want to kill yourself. You don’t have to spent your days taking pictures of cupcakes at rabbit cafes, there are brighter horizons  out there for you discover.

At the very basis of this whole picture I am painting for you is a deeper truth about game and subcultures. To get interested in how Yamamba do their make-up or who is the sickest Japanese battle rapper/baddest Japanese dancehall queen – it takes a certain curiousness and open mindedness. From my experience these two traits are very strong in all the people I know who are absolutely crushing it in game on levels that never cease to amaze me. So while it is fun to get obsessed with one subculture in particular and nerd out with it, I would also encourage you to really be open and find the positive/interesting aspects in a wide variety of subcultures. I am very far from being a fan of Visual Kei music and fashion, and it is quite commonly accepted among gamers in Japan that hardcore V-Kei girls are the most crazy and often asexual creatures on the Earth. But, I never forget one encounter early in my game history with a V-kei girl – an experience that definitely got me more excited about game. I had just started doing street approach and started talking to this girl when she just came out of the entrance of a McDonald’s in Ikebukuro. While I was talking and walking with her she told me she was going to a V-kei concert at a small venue in Ikebukuro and I invited myself to join here, she seemed to be happy to have me come along. At the concert I was amazed by the fact that I was literally the only guy there, and a lot of the girls were smoking hot – kind of the opposite situation you experience at a lot of night clubs. Also some of the girls approached me and the whole concert was super fun, even though it is not my type of music, it was super funny to see these girl in their doll costumes metal screaming and head banging like crazy. I actually went to the venue again next week and met the same girl again, after that she stopped relplying to my text and I never saw her again. My point is my openness to go with the flow and experience something new in that situation started something new in me. Hooking up, dating and making friends with many girls in different subcultures later on was all part of this same mindset.

Tokyo is a city full of tribes, as a game warrior out in the streets fighting for your dreams and true love, it is good to know the type of war paints, crests, songs and magic rituals you will encounter, so you may become a master of them and eventually a legend.

-TheBoyNamedCrow