A 14-year-old girl from the tiny Isle Of Man has become an internet sensation for videos she posted of herself singing Japanese songs online. Rebecca Flint, known online as Beckii Cruel, has had millions of hits to her YouTube performances, and has bagged herself a record deal in Japan.
While this is all great and everything (while also clearly showing that Japan will go crazy for anything a “cute” foreigner does with Japanese culture) it really really agitates me. I might get flamed by some of her fans that may (or may not) stumble upon my blog, but I don’t really care. Recently, she was awarded a “cuteness gold medal” and some have even claimed her to be “too cute.” The thing is, her “cuteness” comes from the fact that she looks like an anime character (I don’t mean that in a hostile way, I’m just calling it as I see it).
While I will give her the benefit of the doubt and call her “cute,” I can honestly not tell if she is genuinely happy about what she is doing. She has a very plastic looking smile makes it seems like she doesn’t really care. Her mannerisms are also kind of fake cute if you ask me.
I think what really bothers me about her becoming so popular in Japan so quickly is that there has been a trend recently of “promoting foreigners” on TV…but not always in the most positive light. I have seriously had students come up to me and tell me that 1) I am cuter than this girl, so that means I must be able to dance better than her or a billion other things like this. On another TV program, they had foreigners come on and talk to some highly educated Japanese people about the differences in Japanese culture and other countries. What this pretty much turned out looking like was that the foreigners were ignorant twebs who understood nothing and refused to accept culture differences. The types of questions asked were ridiculous and I cringed the entire time watching it. In fact, I made Jun change the channel because I was becoming downright offended by the program.
I am not sure exactly where I am going with this anymore besides just showing my aggravation for foreign girls becoming popular in Japan for such ridiculous and “cute” things which in turn creates negative stereotypes about everyone else. The other day I was “hit on” by a semi-drunk middle aged man who asked me to dance for him just like Beckii Cruel.
I could have kicked him square in the balls.
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You go girl–tell them like it is!!!
Firstly I applaud you on finding a decent photo of her. I hate to say this about a little kid, but her face is not attractive. But I guess she makes up for it with her “cuteness”
I don’t think she known outside of Japan/the Japan blogosphere, so I can easily forget about her in my daily life. I didn’t know she was big enough for people to be dropping her name.
I can’t say too much about her since at 14 I was equally nerdy and annoying, but youtube didn’t exist and I couldn’t broadcast myself to the world.
But being honest about her abilities, her dancing is something anyone could do, and her singing is cringe inducing. She had better cash in while her boobs are still flat because her major fan base will be uninterested when she starts looking like a real woman in about 2 years.
I think she is only big enough for the otaku population to be dropping her name. They seem to be trying to promote her to the young girl audience since she is helping promote one of the Pure Cure movies (if any of my elementary school students say they want to be like her…I might have to shoot myself).
When she first came on Japanese TV and did her dance, you could tell that the hosts of the program were really not sure what to make of her dancing. One of them “tried” to dance with her, but it was clear that he was holding back to make her dancing abilities look more amazing than they really are. Totally agree on the singing…
Like I said, her audience is an otaku one and one that has a young girl fetish.
I dunno about any of this, but I will say that it should NOT be that easy to get a record deal anywhere, especially based on Youtube hits.
you haven’t heard her sing….not only does she butcher the Japanese language, she can’t carry a tune very well either.
This is rediculous. It’s Leah Dizon all over again. A record deal PLLLEEEAAASSS. If you don’t know who Leah Dizon is she did basically the same thing using the internet to gain a following only she is older. As a matter of fact she favors her and the Japanese company who handles her is playing up on that. Wow to think you can get paid for having no talent. Not to be mean but I don’t find her cute at all but that’s my opinion.
I had to google Leah Dizon when I first heard her name because this girl is being compared to her. What I found were pictures of her modeling for essentially Japanese Playboy. Definitely don’t like this could be potentially going…
I think she started out just doing the dances for fun. Like, she did some other vlogs for a youtube called 7superawesometeens. Every teenage girl likes to dress up and dance in her room, except Beckii just filmed herself doing it?
Then, apparently, an agency saw her and concluded that she fit the ‘moe’ image. They saw her as a potential to make money off of, so they cast her and a few other ‘moe/cute’ internet dancers to be in the Cruel Angels.
I mean, I think they’re just using her to soak up some money from some otaku. D:
I agree with you. While it is a little unfair to call her annoying as it is not entirely her fault, I still find her whole image to be very annoying and presents a semi-negative image to the rest of the Western population in Japan.
I definitely think she is a victim and hope nothing terrible happens to her image in this country…
You’ve touched on so many things I’ve wondered about. How much of an industry young idols are in Japan? Are the stereo-types of middle aged Japanese men as lechs true? What do Japanese really think of non-Japanese otaku and fans? Sad topic but interesting post. Thanks for sharing this.