I have nothing against idol culture in general or in-game. My friend follow(ed) some idol groups, and after playing P4 a bunch, Rise's character arc interestingly loops back around and takes her back to being an idol, after dealing with how to be two people at once.

P4:DAN introduces Kanamin Kitchen, and while the girls by themselves are cute and inoffensive, the implications of the group and the personification of each of the idols is borderline sexual - all the girls are named after food, with lots of "eat me all up" rhetoric to boot.

When meeting each idol in the dungeon, each gets a bunch of creepy voice-over by men objectifying them as chattel and money-makers, as well as that one guy (you know which one) putting off a severe pedophile vibe. When they "give in" to the pressure of the Shadows' desires, it's a straight-up picture of them in bondage.

All of this is weird but explainable. Bondage is a metaphor, creepy guy is creepy, idol culture is cutesy. However, after watching Vice's "Schoolgirl for Sale in Japan", the entire game has taken on a decidedly more dark tone.

Everything I (an outsider American) have gathered about the idol scene in Japan makes me a bit uneasy. It's not too dissimilar to the feeling all the moe/cutsy school girl anime give me after I remember that their target audience is 20+ men.

Idol culture seems no different from the popular teenage pop star that comes out every few years. It just feels a whole lot weirder because in the west you can't really say you follow that scene, while in the east they kinda wear as a badge of honor.

I feel like it's more overtly sexualized though? Or maybe that's just the junk that gets attention over here?

But I do want to latch onto a point you made. It is different in the US (going from US because that's where I have the most context) if only because of that demographic difference. Take Justin Bieber. He's not too different from Japanese Idols in a vacuum. A semi-talented teen who is mostly sold on being a hottie. The difference being that Bieber is, beginning and end, a pop star made for pre-teen to teen girls (which in turn you could argue results in him getting more hate than a similar pop idol made for boys, but that is an ENTIRE different conversation). Adults can't really be open about liking that stuff because it feels creepy (middle aged women liking Bieber, for example). Meanwhile in Japan it feels like it's more the Idols are made for that older male demographic, so it feels seedier.

Oh, better example actually. You know how Bronies have kinda put a weird edge on MLP, especially because of the stranger, pervier Bronies? I feel like the Idol scene is like MLP except, unlike MLP, it leans into that older fanbase way harder, and the seedier part makes up more of that fanbase. At the very least it's louder.

I don't have data to back this stuff up, I just wanted to talk about how the target demographic can have an effect on something and how it's perceived. Cute school girls marketed towards school girls (or even pervy school boys) feels way different than those same girls being marketed towards young-to-older men.

@i_stay_puft said:

Hm, I wouldn't say they're anywhere near a 1:1 comparison. Idols 'graduate' (aka are forced to leave their groups) once they get too old and have to maintain a sense of 'purity' that fans take very seriously. Young women who are perceived to have gotten too close to a boy their age have made tearful public apologies (where whether or not it was 100% voluntary is dubious if entirely unbelievable) and shaved their heads to make fans forgive them.

Idol culture in Japan certainly seems odd to western audiences for some easily explainable reasons ('groups' aren't very popular in the US, barring a few exceptions like Fifth Harmony and Little Mix, if they're still around), but there are more shocking issues that western pop stars definitely don't deal with on the same level.

Based on the first post, P4:DAN sounds like it's actually taking a critical stance on some of the less savory aspects. Whether or not it's successful, I can't say since I haven't played the game!

I know very little about idol culture beyond incident mentions in stuff like Persona, so can't say how accurate it is, but I got a similar vibe from the story. The two main take-aways from the game, for me, were that:

a) An idol's public persona is a very tightly controlled fabrication, and is likely very different to who they actually are
b) The more seedy/manipulative elements of the culture were presented as exactly that - seedy, manipulative, and kinda not OK. The imagery used is possibly a little on the nose, but I never got the impression that the game was anything other than critical of it.