I was thinking of posting a review on the THANKS album, but decided against it because it will probably be another rehash of all my previous w-inds. album reviews (ballads lovely, upbeat songs terrible). Therefore I shall try something different, and attempt to explain the appeal of w-inds. I may not be able to speak for all fangirls, but at least this is an insight into how a fangirl thinks.

Before we begin, here is a brief breakdown of the different w-inds.’ musical eras:

01. Very Young Phase – Forever Memories, Feel the Fate, Paradox

w-inds. has just debuted and is still finding themselves. Ryohei is a little awkward in front of the camera and Keita has terrible hair (however, all is forgiven becaue of the youngKeita!cuteness and pinchable cheeks).

02. TeenyBopper Phase – Try Your Emotion, Another Days, Because of You, New Paradise, SUPER LOVER ~I need you tonight~

This is when they start having very boppy tunes with much rapping from Ryuichi and Ryohei. A lot of fast hip-hop dance moves. This phase ends with a bang because of the brilliance of SUPER LOVER.

03. Growing-Up Phase – Love is Message , Long Road, Pieces

w-inds. starts to shed the teenybopper look and feel, attempting slightly more mature songs. They are around 17 here.

04. Maturing and Getting Hot Phase – Kirei da, Shiki

Keita starts beefing up and we see w-inds. finally maturing into fine young men. These two songs are classics.

The Ballad Period - Yume no Basho E, Kawariyuku Sora, Izayoi no Tsuki, Yakusoku no Kakera

A long period of ballads to show off Keita’s newly accquired impressive voice quality and vocal range.

5. Shiny (Kirakira) Phase – IT’S IN THE STARS

I’m not exactly sure if this is a Phase as yet, but STARS is such a pleasant breakaway from the Ballad Period I hope the Shinyness continues.

Now that we are all on some kind of common ground, I shall embark on my mission of demystifying boyband appeal. I’m starting on w-inds. because they are my longest-standing Jpop boyband obsession, and because JE is a tad hard to tackle. Will try that some other day. For now, I shall dissect the Because of You PV to see exactly why it appeals to me as a fangirl.

Some background information: Because of You was w-inds.’ 6th single. It lands smack in the middle of the TeenyBopper Phase, and to me it represents the innocent yet irresistable magnetism of young!w-inds. But wait! How do we know for sure that it is from the TeenyBopper Phase?

Bendy Hiphop Moves? Check.

Keita is so skinny in this period. It is important to note that Skinnyness is characteristic of the Teenybopper Phase, as is the open-jacket-and-Tshirt combination so often used by Japanese boys (or their stylists) to seem bulkier than they really are.

Lame imagery? Check.

Keita opens the door to a new dawn. Indeed, another characteristic of the TeenyBopper Phase is also the absence of any storyline in the PVs. Every PV is essentially 50% dance shots, 30% Keita making eyes at the camera, 10% Other Members rapping and 10% Lame Imagery.

Yes, there can be no doubt about it. This is a Teenybopper single. Admittedly, the Teenybopper period is a relatively unpolished period, as almost all the songs have the same synthesized sound, which is altogether unspectacular (apart from SUPER LOVER, of course).

Fortunately, it is in this PV that Keita finally gets the most suitable and endearing haircut in the history of w-inds.

Our eager young star wastes no time in trying to work the cameras. He can’t rap to save his life, and looks like he’s saying a bad word in the screencap, but everything is done with that unmistakably Keita charm. Again the innocence of his youth takes me firmly by the hand and pulls me towards the abyss of w-inds. fangirlism, telling me there is nothing to lose if I jump straight in.

Aww. We know he takes his work seriously, just look at the intense expression… Another strange fangirl psychology: Fangirls generally want to support idols who work hard because there is a lot more admiration involved.

To top off all the good vibes we are getting from Keita, he now brings on Lame Gestures That Are Cute Anyway. And against an obviously fake and overly melodramatic CGed background at that. Seriously, does anybody care? We’re just terribly amused that Keita can call upon the forces of thunder and lightning to ornament his PV.

If you have patiently read through this, you may have realised one thing: Fangirls fangirl for very strange and illogical reasons. Many things are based on sight, and the “feel” of it all. I admit that if I were to go by sound and sound alone, I would never get into TeenyBopper w-inds. I never really did, because it was the Maturing Fast and Getting Hot Phase that captured my attention back in the dark pre-w-inds. ages. Yet it was the mindblowingly stupid cuteness of SUPER LOVER that ignited my fangirl tendencies.

Surely, there must be something special, something otherworldly about this TeenyBopper Phase. It can certainly exert some power over us – most fangirls get into w-inds. because of the later periods, but find themselves pleasantly surprised by this musically lacklustre yet almost mesmerising phase. I should know, I’m one of them.

DOWNLOAD the PV!