Opinion: Why I'm not a fan of Gyaru models

This is kind of going to be a mix of personal experience and my opinions. I'm going to throw in some old pictures from 2006 because that's what I have offhand. Let's get started, shall we?

What you may not know about me is that when I used to go to Japan often, I was part of the big ParaPara community. I was even in a Gazen ParaPara!! video before, and that means I got to work with Rumiringo. Yes, the one you all know and love.

Sorry this is blurry, I didn't know how to use my keitai camera at that time. The gal in the black pencil skirt is Rumiringo.

Yoshimi (left) Me (middle) and Tomomi (right) in the dressing room of the video shoot.

What do I think about Rumiringo and maybe a big portion of gyaru models? I think they're egotistical and have ugly personalities. While I'm sure there are some nice ones, that's my opinion and also what I've heard.

I was the only gaijin on the set, and all of the girls (even the ones who didn't know me) welcomed me with open arms and even helped me around if I didn't know something. I had a wonderful time at the video shoot and with the girls (especially Yoshimi, Tomomi and Marie, we were good friends that summer and I'm still in contact with Yoshimi), except Rumiringo decided that she was better than everyone else and either stayed with Marie (the other main dancer) and usually refused to talk to any of the other girls.

I did get to talk to her once during our lunch break (because I was in the middle of talking to Marie) and one of the people on set brought us ONE bottle of orange juice. Mind you this was the middle of summer and extremely hot (there was no air conditioning and probably about 30+ degrees Celsius outside) and all they gave us previously was lukewarm tea. So yes, I wanted some orange juice REALLY bad. She poured some for Marie, some for herself and as she got to the glass for me she decided to act ditsy and "spill" the rest of the OJ, leaving me with a very little amount of it.

Maybe I was just angry at the situation and in the moment, but ever since then I've known not to trust magazine models! I was hoping though that the majority of them weren't bitches, but I've talked to my friends in the ParaPara community who have done ParaPara videos with some other models (like Maipuu, Mi~tan & Yu~tan formerly from Ranzuki and other ones). They've also said very similar words to the ones I've said (egotistical, selfish, brats, etc).

People dancing at a big circle event called "Summer Festival" in 2006.

Another thing that really gets to me sometimes is when gals think that you MUST do ParaPara to be gal. While it's not so much the case anymore, still many gals will do ParaPara just for the sake of "fitting in" to be like their gal inspirations. You know what? Those gal models who dance ParaPara in your DVDs only dance it in those DVDs because they're paid. I will guarantee you that if they ever did go to a ParaPara event, it was only just for business meetings or commitments they made. I think the only time I ever saw magazine models at a normal ParaPara event was when I saw Mi~tan and Yu~tan going to Magical Rave in Roppongi, but they only went to hang out with friends. No, they didn't dance at all.

It's not only Western paralists who make this mistake, but also Japanese gyaru will do so as well. Last time I went to Japan (late 2008) I was attending one of the big ParaPara events called 9LoveJ and there were LOTS of gyaru there. They only had watched maybe one or 2 of the newest DVDs and would run into the dance circle if they knew any. Many of them only knew 1 routine (Shanghai from Chozen ParaPara presents 9LoveJ Super Collection), and would push out the regular club goers. You won't impress anybody by doing that.

Yoshimi, Tomomi and Hanako formerly from 9LoveJ promoting Super Eurobeat 170, which was the newest volume at the time. You might recognize Hanako, she's Bubbly's main model.

Mitsu from Universal Doll talked about this sort of topic in a recent post, I highly recommend this for everyone to read. I won't try to regurgitate stuff that she said but while you should be inspired by models styles, you don't have to do it 100% everyday to be gal. The hair thing is especially such a hassle too, and I think some people have really set their expectations too high on what to consider "gal". You have to go out there and experience for yourself that in Japan, these gals don't look perfect 24/7. The last time I was in Japan I was recognized as gal, even though at the time I didn't dedicate myself 100% to the hair and makeup. So I believe that you can still do it without having to put tons of hours into your look everyday.

Yes, models are good inspirations. You should take their advice on styling, makeup & hair but remember that they're paid to look and dress like that. Would you copy models 100% from a magazine like say, Vogue? I don't think so.

tl;dr? I complain that models are basically bitches and that people overseas have too high of expectations for gal because of what they see in the magazines. Go out there and see it for yourself!