Being less than 10 months in age difference and yet it’s amazing how time flies and Matsumoto Megumi now at 29, an idol that I sort of “grew” up with in the sense that she regularly graced the idol magazines that I began collecting early on in my road to idol obsession….now and for years now has gone by Matsumoto Rio~.
My subscription to UTB began in late ’95 and on the September ’97 issue her name is still written as Matsumoto “Megumi” an earlier “stage” name that she went by prior to a hiatus from the entertainment industry which then saw her return with “Rio” in place of Megumi. I remember when I first saw her going under the name Matsumoto Rio a few years later….and I was thinking that she was possibly “Megumi’s” sister because they “looked” so much alike it was uncanny and in her hiatus reports surfaced…the details of a “breakdown” had occurred as speculation of an idol’s life becoming too much and the pressures and demands that go with it steadily may have taken its toll. All too often I think from a safe distance we take liberties in just what an idol’s life is like and how the engulfment of all that sparkles surely equates all it entails in glossy print, an often airbrushed~projected imagery. Oasis. With technology comes also an underlying responsibility and words in themselves cut deeper than the sharpest of knives….not the flesh but one’s very own well being falling and altered and in an ever growing age of ease of open media and expression where every nuance and whim is blogged, tweeted and F~booked we each and every one of us utilize and sometimes abuse such rights where even a thought typed to be innocent or a thought expressed to be harmless then commentary can be far more devastating and far reaching then you may imagine~.
My subscription to UTB began in late ’95 and on the September ’97 issue her name is still written as Matsumoto “Megumi” an earlier “stage” name that she went by prior to a hiatus from the entertainment industry which then saw her return with “Rio” in place of Megumi. I remember when I first saw her going under the name Matsumoto Rio a few years later….and I was thinking that she was possibly “Megumi’s” sister because they “looked” so much alike it was uncanny and in her hiatus reports surfaced…the details of a “breakdown” had occurred as speculation of an idol’s life becoming too much and the pressures and demands that go with it steadily may have taken its toll. All too often I think from a safe distance we take liberties in just what an idol’s life is like and how the engulfment of all that sparkles surely equates all it entails in glossy print, an often airbrushed~projected imagery. Oasis. With technology comes also an underlying responsibility and words in themselves cut deeper than the sharpest of knives….not the flesh but one’s very own well being falling and altered and in an ever growing age of ease of open media and expression where every nuance and whim is blogged, tweeted and F~booked we each and every one of us utilize and sometimes abuse such rights where even a thought typed to be innocent or a thought expressed to be harmless then commentary can be far more devastating and far reaching then you may imagine~.
Matsumoto Megumi re~engaged her career as Matsumoto Rio with notable success in modeling, fashion and acting, a career which continues today as her acting resume in particular reads most impressive in both t.v. drama and movies. In a hindsight sense 1998’s highly controversial t.v. drama “Seija no koushin” which depicted the darkest of dark in human cruelty where emotionally handicapped patients were abused and taken advantage of in unspeakable ways by their “caretakers” there resonates an eerie precedence in Megumi’s then blossoming career and while it’s apples and oranges so to speak…emotional hurt in any sense brought upon by any carelessness or wrong doing is all in the same.
While the bridging here between idols in this context and with fans and observers isn’t meant to be directly taken in context, please just pause and even if for a moment before words may escape from your fingertips to keyboard to a real person. Seemingly innocent banter from any vein whether it be in a large forum to a personal blog…a fashion sense in your eyes gone awry, an idol’s fluctuating weight, a line of lyrics sung without approval, a social affair of personal nature….idols are flesh and blood and embody emotions and insecurities like any of us. Being a “celebrity” in an enlightening sense in this context only differs them from “us” in that they’re much more easily accessible, visible on a day~to~day basis……and even if difficult to fathom, on that stage…..we all hurt the same.
While the bridging here between idols in this context and with fans and observers isn’t meant to be directly taken in context, please just pause and even if for a moment before words may escape from your fingertips to keyboard to a real person. Seemingly innocent banter from any vein whether it be in a large forum to a personal blog…a fashion sense in your eyes gone awry, an idol’s fluctuating weight, a line of lyrics sung without approval, a social affair of personal nature….idols are flesh and blood and embody emotions and insecurities like any of us. Being a “celebrity” in an enlightening sense in this context only differs them from “us” in that they’re much more easily accessible, visible on a day~to~day basis……and even if difficult to fathom, on that stage…..we all hurt the same.
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