Japanese superband L’Arc~en~Ciel sent out feelers to its Philippine fans, when its official Twitter and Facebook accounts asked them which song should the band use to open their (speculative) first-ever concert in Manila. The teaser posts resulted in a flurry of responses from Philippine Laruku fans, with the efforts spearheaded by the #LArcMNL street team.

The question remains, however, will the band ultimately push through with their supposed Manila concert? Also, will Filipino fans respond in kind, and shell out the money for concert tickets? As longtime J-rock and J-pop fans, we just noticed that there are way too many local “fans” organizing and signing online petitions, but when it’s time to buy concert tickets and official merchandise, they all disappear into thin air Σ(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ

To paraphrase a previous post on J-pop fandom, no matter how many so-called fans sign petitions and spam social media sites — if less than 10% of that number end up purchasing concert tickets, the Philippine market will never be big enough for the Japanese music industry to take seriously.

Likewise, “fans” should also stop downloading songs illegally and start buying authentic CDs/DVDs/BDs and other merch. Real fans, after all, would never stoop to excuses on why they can’t buy concert tickets and tour goods because they are “too poor”, “too young”, or “too far away (from Japan)”. Nobody said being a fan was easy.