Remembering How To Say Good Things: An Overreaction To Dreamcatcher's "Scream" MV

I watched a KPop music video that was released last week (2/18/2020) and liked it so much that I did a very stupid thing: I then watched every reaction video that was released for it.

(I am lying: I loaded every reaction video that searching "dreamcatcher scream reaction" in the YouTube search bar would cough up. There were a handful of videos that I stopped watching when the sound of the MV was too low in the mix or there was too much noise to hear the song. And, of course, the YouTube search algorithm does not deliver all the videos that meet the criteria. Safe to say I have seen all the reactions that have at least a few hundred views to date and most of the ones who have fewer.)

Here is the text we shall be considering today:

It's A Good Video

I am not a fan of KPop.. 

More accurately, I am not a fan of pop music in general. 

I do have a bit of that cloying hipster gene that wants to frame myself as floating above the tastes of the hoi palloi. The truth is I graze widely and very occasionally go deep into very specific bands or genres. I am old and so that means I've encountered a bunch of stuff, and rarely I add a group to my bag of precious gems. 

Dreamcatcher and particularly this video is a precious gem. For me.

The MV for "Scream' is a strikingly beautiful visual art work presenting a powerful song. It uses a lot of CG to present a fantasy setting for a solid EDM bop, and both the video and the song seem to be about something. As we shall see from the reactions, the result is that a wide variety of people find it intriguing and a genuinely enjoyable experience to watch. It evokes a lot of goosebumps and surprised smiles and lots of yelps of delight (though, ironically, few actual screams) and only occasional tears (from the longtime stans),

I do not believe there is an objective "good" in art. There is technical proficiency, of course. "Scream" is slathered in technical proficiency. From the construction of the song, to the art direction, to the editing, to the costuming, to the choreography, to the performance and skills of the women in Dreamcatcher it's all highly professional, and most of the creative decisions are in consonance with the themes of the material.

But that's not why "Scream" is a good video.

"Scream" is good because it's a kinetic expression of human power in opposition to social network systems that dehumanize and hurt people. 

We shall dive deep.

A Lot Of People Think It's A Good Video

Broadly, the reaction videos for "Scream" can be grouped into three categories:

• People who have never seen a Dreamcatcher video and were unaware of the group prior to being recorded.
• Fans of Dreamcatcher
• People who routinely react to KPop videos.

The uninitiated are the rarest and most precious of the reactions. They are uniformly positive for this video. Lots of puzzlement leading to surprised grimaces of "this is not what I expected from a KPop group" leading in turn to head-bopping grins at the drop, gasps at the rap breaks, breath-holding at the bridge and giving over to the jam at the end. The TBC leaves them confused and wondering about what they just saw.

The fans have a bit more range in their reactions. Their expectations based upon prior videos and songs sets them up as fragile at the beginning. Can this song live up to their expectations? Most of this group say yes, and rationalize any shift of genre from rock to EDM as well within the purview of Dreamcatcher's ouvre. The only disappointment in any of the reaction videos, however, come from a few fans who only want metal guitars and vocals in the chorus, and want an even darker visual style with greater contrasting flashes. However, the majority of fans beam at this video throughout and declare it the best one yet, not only because of the obviously larger budget, but because they recognize that this is a song that they love and will become a happy, welcome part of their lives.

The reactions of the semi-pro KPop reaction video community who react to most KPop videos as they are released (besuretolikeandsubscribeandhitthatnotificationbell, thank you) are uniformly positive as well ranging from good to great. The common theme among this crowd is that Dreamcatcher is slept on. Dreamcatcher is acknowledged as having an unusual concept but still well-within the fold of KPop girl-groups and most are astonished at the fact that this group checks all of normal tick-boxes of KPop success (stable vocals, sharp intricate synchronized group choreography and women visually at the very center of the narrow band of what is considered beautiful by KPop standards) but have yet to amass a large, rabid fan-base within South Korea itself. The semi-pro video reactors enjoy this video as a change of pace, and the fact that the group is maintaining their concept despite the fact that doing so inhibits the amount of success they should be seeing compared to equally talented groups.

Getting Into It Is Good

The theme is RIGHT THERE in the opening shot

I didn't tally this metric, but I believe that most reactors read these lines before unpausing the video. A few do not manage to read the entire thing before it disappears. Those who do read it generally agree with the sentiment and then forget about it.

Most people find the video intriguing and do want to figure out what it is saying, but I think only one of the initial English-speaking reactors actually parsed from the first viewing that the theme of the video is that personal attacks on the internet and social media in particular are bad. 

Part of the issue is that the lyrics are saying something that is close to that theme but not exactly the same thing. And the video visually ignores the denotation of the lyrics to support instead the connotation of the theme. That disjoint is exacerbated in the reaction videos by the fact that translations were not yet available for most of the reactors, and even when they were available and subtitles turned on, the cuts and transitions are far too fast for much attention to be left for the first-time viewers. Now's the time to review the lyrics (via Genius):

[Verse 1]
My covered eyes
Are stained with blood
Tell me why
I don’t lie

Cold wind blows
I can feel the stare
Flowing through the vein All Pain

[Refrain]
The feeling of the tied two hands going to sleep
Even when everyone throws rocks at me
I can’t escape

[Pre-Chorus]
Nothing entertains me
Who is this for
Someone please tell me Tell me
On the blazing up fire Now

[Chorus]
Please I don’t want to scream
(Devil eyes come, open my eyes, open my eyes)
Please I don’t want to scream
(Scream scream scream scream)
Spread in the darkness Scream
[Verse 2]
Trick behind the mask, ridiculous Freak
A random Target born from growing animosity
Even if I drink away the burning parchedness, they blame the hypocrisy on me
At the end of the chasing lies the cliff
The choice that only remains regrets

[Refrain]
The sharp words akin to a sharp knife
Even if they dig into me as wounds
I can’t end this breath

[Pre-Chorus]
I don’t know anything
Who is this for
Someone please tell me Tell me
In the rising smoke now

[Chorus]
Please I don’t want to scream
(Devil eyes come, open my eyes, open my eyes)

[Bridge]
After everyone leaves
I open my eyes again
All traces are gone
Can’t believe me
Don’t be sad
No more No more No more
For me No more No more No more
Uh uh, Forget everything you saw
Believe that nothing happened
Like that, one by one, everyone get crazy
[Chorus]
I just wanna make you scream
(Devil Eyes Come)
Everyone look at me and Scream
(Scream scream scream scream)
I just wanna make you scream

The imagery of verse 1 through the first refrain is that of a witch being tied up and persecuted. The video however ignores that specific imagery, and instead presents the women on a witchy wasteland set and wearing fashions from the Stevie Nicks school of occult toggery.

Jui is singing about blood covering her eyes with no blood covering her eyes

An extremely common reaction here is shear adoration of that purple hair.

The previous promotions have set the expectation that there will be a serial narrative conveyed through a series of MVs starting with this video. And so it's perfectly reasonable to guess that the women of Dreamcatcher will be given distinguishing roles or powers in this set of videos and so I do think the visual of Siyeon at the end of verse 1 ends up being a bit of a red herring and a thematic misstep:

No, really, Siyeon is singing about pain running through her VEINS

Despite the fact that she is singing about being in intense pain, Siyeon looks calm and sultry.

Similarly, our first glimpse of the dance choreography is to the refrain about being bound and unable to escape:

This is not a dance about Gahyeon being tied up and constrained

Are the mismatches between the lyrics and visuals intentional? And if so, what is the director trying to convey by doing that? I believe the answer lays in the sense of motion that the director wishes to build. The video begins to hurtle towards something inside that tree:

Oooh, Shiny. Must runs towards that. Nothing scary there at all.

Several fans who kept themselves spoiler free even of the name of album that this video is promoting guess that this is the Tree of Life. The name of the album is "Dystopia: The Tree of Language". That is, in Christian iconography we are not talking the Garden of Eden but, instead, the Tower of Babel in sense of the video being about speech but more aptly about not casting stones and punishing people.

There is a strong visual distinction between the outside of the tree and the inside of the tree. At the drop we have fully entered the tree:

Note the masked Handong memorial dancer

The biggest laugh I had all week was the fan who reacted: "Oh, My, God: They're wearing pants!" No problem with nebulous pink arm auras, drifting volcanic ash or glowing tree portals. No, the biggest shock here is that the women are wearing pants.

We have reached the chorus which is all about fear. "Please, I don't want to scream." and "Open my eyes" are pretty strong indicators that the speaker is trying to awaken from something awful.

But the chorus also introduces the devil into the discourse in an ambiguous way. Does "Devil Eyes Come" mean devil eyes do come? Or is it imperative: I command the eyes of the devil to come here and witness this? The writer probably means both. I think there is a metaphorical interpretation of the line as well based on the ensuing verse and refrain. There is an implication of unwanted social attention - the witch is burned by her community, the adulteress is stoned by her village. The witch trial has begun.

You won't believe this, but the mask is a metaphor

The visual clues to this video being about the internet in particular begin with the lightning effects in the tunnel as we enter the tree, but we see another here in the black and white setting used for Gahyeon and later Dami: the stars are connected with faint lines indicating a network in the mathematical sense. The mask, therefore, is readily interpreted as being about the anonymity that people can put on and take off online, and the way in which doing so enables people to criticize and verbally attack others without consequence via social network comments.

The verbal text points out there is no real way to defend yourself from online pile-ons as Dami spits her first set of fire.

The fan reactions to Gahyeon and Dami are interesting. One gets the impression that they must only rarely let Gahyeon do anything at all in their videos (which I'm not sure is true in my cursory review of the previous videos). Nevertheless, many reactors are surprised and pleased to see her fully take the stage at this moment. Virtually everyone reacts thereafter to Dami, however, and it's immediately clear that she's many people's bias.

The one moment of near literal interpretation comes with the next refrain:

Sua sings about BEING stabbed, not doing the stabbing

The fans immediately think of the previous MV, "Deja Vu", but, indeed, it's not remotely the same kind of sword.

Interestingly, the shot is outside the tree which confuses things even more. She's not being stabbed, and she is not within the Tree of Language as she sings about being stabbed by sharp words.

Oooh, shiny floating gem in the middle of the spooky tree. What could possibly go wrong?

The visuals more than the song text suggest that there is something about the tree than pulls us in. We seek approval, adoration or even fame, but the whole thing can blow up in our faces at a whim.

I believe that the visuals give a hint that this video is more than about the social dynamics that lead to online attacks and mobbing, but the evidence is far flimsier here. Back in the first pre-chorus we have this brief shot:

Who? What?

It takes place outside the tree. One small question:

• How many days since the last KPop suicide?

Things inside the Tree of Language can and do have real-world consequences. This video, I assert on this flimsiest of support, is not only about the adverse socialization that can wound all of us as individuals, but also a response to the parasocial dynamics that focus hatred (like some sort of lenticular gem or something) onto certain individuals like entertainers or celebrities.

Devil Eyes Come

And so we reach the devil horn gesture. In the making of video, Gahyeon seems to think the up-raised fingers represent the devil's eyes, and who are we to doubt her - it turns that the use in music and as a symbol of devilishness in the music industry really only goes back to the Sixties at the earliest, and so the interpretation as horns is hardly fixed.

And then the goddess Siyeon sings the bridge:

The calm at the center of the hurricane

But that antipathetic parasocial attention being criticized in this MV does tend to evaporate. The mob is fickle. What do they care if they left you in the alley bleeding to death?

And so Dami (of course) with the lightning and fire of her voice reaches the conclusion:

The big gun

"Like that, one by one, everyone gets crazy" The victims become the victemizers. The internet is a breeding reactor of hatred. "I just wanna make you scream."

Boom

The Reaction Rabbit Hole Is Good

So why watch all those reaction videos? 

Well, for one, it was a good way to hear a song I like repeatedly. It is a tune that stands up to repeat listening. But more than that, it's a particularly good song for people to react to. There are a wide variety of things to catch people's attention from the fashion to the vocals to the fantasy setting (you would not be surprised by the number of Harry Potter books captured in the background of the reactor's rooms) to the unexpected EDM chorus. Most KPop videos have rap breaks, but everyone knows Dami is strong but then is surprised that Gahyeon steps in and steps up as well.

I think the very first reaction I saw was this one:

We shall come back to it because, man, that leads to an entire roller coaster of related videos.

A good solid video on the music is

My personal favorite is this video, but then, I'm a cat person:

The overwhelming conclusion after having watched all these reaction videos is that this is Earth. I believe I saw reactions from every continent except Africa and Antarctica in over a dozen languages. It's a hugely diverse fandom: we have hijabs, we have piercings, we have cat-ears, we have the ancient uniforms of the metal head. And they are all saying good things. In contrast to the MV itself, the reaction videos are almost entirely about how people do remember to say good things.

Sera Also Says Good Things

Almost exactly two months prior to the release of "Scream" that early reactor up there posted the following video:

She's a bilingual YouTuber (Korean and English). It seems she just wanted to introduce herself to a group she'd heard about like she had done many times before But then .... OMG, YOU CAN SEE THE VERY MOMENT SHE BECAME A STAN.

But the thing is, this bit of the story goes even deeper. You see, she's not just another YouTuber. She's a former member of the KPop girl group Nine Muses. And, conveniently, THE BBC DID A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THEIR DEBUT:

Yes, that's her at the end singing,"You lift me up." I DARE you not to cry.

She rode out the debut and worked in the group for several years. Given what we see of the hellishly bad management in the documentary, it's no surprise she was graduated. But she seems neither bitter nor angry at her time in the industry. She even did a reaction video to her own group's videos including the one that hurt her the most:

And so here's this beautiful former idol, sensitive, artistic, and now, oh boy is she a FAN GIRL. What could be better? How about if she gets to meet and interview Dreamcatcher?

If that does not heal your SOUL from the travails of internet hatred, give up. Nothing can.

Postscripts Are Good

A huge shout-out and thanks to the Ask Me About KPop podcast that introduced me to Dreamcatcher 3 weeks ago.

All I can say is: thank you for starting me on this amazing and unexpectedly rewarding journey.

A Visit To the Belgum Sanitarium

Here we are approaching the site from the west. The site of the two buildings' foundations are in the copse ahead:

The first thing you come across is the remains of the adjacent out-building:

Looking back from the other side of the out-building:

The Sanitarium was surrounded by decorative palms that can help you spot the site from elsewhere in the park:

The path leads you to the remains of the Sanitarium proper out of which two large live oaks have grown:

Looking from the back of the Sanitarium:

One of the trunks has fallen making a convenient place to sit and evoke the Elder Gods:

The view of remaining steps to the basement as one sits on the trunk and contemplates the futility of existence:

The view of the fallen trunk from the other side (... or is that The Other Side):

We continue deeper into the site where the shrieks of madness still echo faintly:

The view of the sitting trunk from what was once the front of the Sanitarium. What was that a muffled footstep behind me?

A closer view of the steps leading down. To what Cthonic Abyss did they once lead?

We attempt to escape from the northern wing of the ruins:

Is there perhaps ... light? A way out?

Could that distant hillside ... be my home?

The board marks a way in for future victims:

Never Posted Vol. 2: the place where my OTT sarcasm on r/terracehouse goes to die

I'm not sure those of us not immediately agreeing with the Harukahaters(TM) are sympathetic with Haruka so much as willing to give her the benefit of doubt until she actually does something more untoward than changing her facial expression or making pointed comments in the direction of Risako.

We are also a bit suspicious of the editing. She, for instance, did not not interrupt Kenny and Kaori's discussion about drawing to get Kenny's attention though the edit makes it appear to be the case. Another redditor pointed out, and you can check for yourself, that the table is covered with food dishes as Kenny and Kaori talk, but the dishes have been completely cleared when Haruka asks for a guitar lesson.

The entrance interview has been translated and is available here:  https://amara.org/en/videos/7xgN9qcx3Xdq/info/xin-zhu-ren-intabiyu2-ao-shan-chun-hua-bian-si-ren-nobi-shi-gaiinatosi-utaipude/  . The two relevant points in the video are at 1: 12 and 3:15. Here are the translations by MrsChap:

- [INSECURITIES ABOUT LIVING TOGETHER] I wonder ... but something I worry about is that me and someone else might be into the same person. That'd be super awkward. Maybe I'd give up on him ... If those two get along really well, I might give up on him like "Here you go." But if they are not particularly close and it's the same with me, I might really go for it. That's what I'm insecure about.

- I used to notice other things people have, so I used to get interested in other people's boyfriends. I've also gone out a few times with people who did not tell me they had a girlfriend. I wasn't very lucky. Maybe it's best not to talk about it.

I'd guess based on those disclosures that she's saying that she's been an unwitting mistress, or she's at least claiming to have not known about being the other woman. Even if that was the case, I'm not sure that it's a personality trait that she's particularly proud of, nor a role that she is consciously and actively drawn to or wants. It's definitely something she talks about in the past tense.

I don't see many people defending Haruka here at all. We're just not immediately agreeing that she is a horrible man-stealer based on what she has said and done to this point. Is the probability high that she will do something obnoxious, perhaps, as early as the first scene of the next episode? Eh, maybe? I suspect that if she really tore into Risako to Kenny or made herself out to be the victim of mean ol' Risako and then trying to snuggle up to Kenny for comfort, that the editors would not have cut there. It's far more likely that the full scene will be ambiguous and unsatisfying ... and then she might well do something obnoxious after that. But until she does, some of us are reserving judgment, not boarding the hate train, and observing that no one has scrutinized and policed the behavior of any of the men on this show throughout its over 200 episode history to the same extent that people do to the women.

People get to like who they like even if their interest is sparked by the attention the potential bf/gf is getting from others, and who they like can change from one week to the next when people are dating. I can understand and sympathize with Risako's frustration here, but people can be open and direct about their feelings or can be reserved and uncomfortable with sharing those feelings particularly with potential rivals or lovers. Neither way is better or worse really. A lot of people like to rip the band-aid off quickly, and more power to them. Others hope that the band-aid will fall off when we are no longer paying attention.
--------------
Yes, there has been an absolute overwhelming wave of up to maybe 6 people on this sub who have implied that he may not be the best bro whoever bro-ed perhaps because of the vast diversity of subject matter found in his art or the motivation he may have had for giving some coffee to Risako to give to her mother for Mother's Day (idk either , I did not understand the allegation at all, but the fact that it was made upset one guy.) It's very important to get ahead of such antimasculinist hate-crimes before they start so that we can devote more time to fully detailing why each of the women who have failed to smile in at least one scene on the show are the worst human beings who have ever been on any reality show ever.
------------
I didn't know you were a fan of the show, Mr. President! Welcome! You're absolutely right. Clearly East Entertainment never uses idiomatic English and double entendre in the titles for Terrace House, and all titles for the show can have only one meaning and can only be read literally. Like

BxGND

- Ep. 6 "Puppy Love"  where the house gets a puppy who falls in love with Seina.
- Ep. 9 "Playtime is Over" when the show stopped having recess segments where the housemates played tag.
- Ep. 19 "No Sweet Valentine" where the girls forget to use any sweetners at all when making Valentine treats for the guys.
- Ep. 34 "Sugar & Spice" where the show made a brief foray into being a cupcake contest cooking show.
- Ep. 43 "Twisted Fate" where Dyki has problems opening the ties on a bag of bread and everyone cries about it.
- Ep. 48 "Going Up in Flames" where, sadly, Yo-san died of immolation after smoking in bed.
- Ep. 54 "Singing a Different Melody" where Rina and Yo-san's ghost tried to sing the title song but Maimai broke into the moment to sing an entirely different melody.
- Ep. 67 "Change of Vibes" where the ghost of Yo-san bought a new vibraphone to replace his old one.
- Ep. 75 "Spring Storm" where the first house was destroyed in a spring storm.
- Ep. 83 "And Yet It Moves" where the housemates put on a play about Galileo's final days.
- Ep. 90 "Love Square" where the house gets a square who falls in love with Seina.

B&GITC

- Ep. 5 "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" where the show briefly tried to revive the recess segment but Makato stayed in the laundry room eating Kit Kats.
- Ep. 20 "Scissorhands" where the housemates put on a version of the film.
- Ep. 26 "Love is in the Air" where the air in the house falls in love with Seina.
- Ep. 43 "Kiss and Tell" where Hayato kissed Riko and told everyone about it immediately.

AS

- Ep. 2 "The 18-Year-Old Madonna" where a young Madonna Ciccone fell through a time portal and took shelter in the house for a few weeks learning to vogue from Yusuke.

And, no doubt, some others after the episode we were talking about.

Please, Mr. President, don't bomb any countries because of my fake news.

(The astonishing thing is that they were using these idiomatic English expressions on the onscreen title cards back before they dreamed of having an international audience.

Did whoever comes up with the titles not know the more recent English meaning of "catfish"? Possibly. The other titles containing food are "An Omelette, a Banana and a Skirt", "Case of Poke Bowl", "Case of the Meat", "No Use Crying Over Meat",  "Hamburg x Hamburg",  and "Only the Apple Was Watching". All the food items mentioned in these titles do get eaten, but I am doubtful that that fact was only reason they were mentioned in the titles.)
------------
Unlikely given her social media since the show does not show her dating at all AFAIK, but she may just be intensely private about it. The two more likely queer but not out at the time of their being on the show are Makoto who was at least gay-for-pay for an AV scene and who dated a trans woman entertainer IVAN, and Mila who started an LBTQ clothing brand during 2018 Pride.
------------
It's an interesting question, and oddly one that has not come up that frequently on this sub. I'd be tempted to run a bracket on it when we hit 64 women having been in the house, but we're only at 45 to date. (There have been some guys with style, but the most stylish guy was probably Hikaru whose style is much more on point in his Instagram than it ever was on the show.)

I put forward a few and then give the answer that many will not like.

The things I remember immediately tend to be the swimwear - Mizuki's bikini with her friends at the beach, Chikako's black one piece, Lauren's for the fashion show (which should not count, obvs). (Odd that neither of the swimwear designers, Avian and Michiko, made an impression on me for what they wore, both going a bit beach bohemian though I think Michiko does bring a bit of flare to that aesthetic).

But Tsubasa's excellent on-trend, consistent athleisure looks is up there. Plus, it's still too early, but Kaori might well be up there with a couple of memorable looks already (the half-sheer skirt when out with Haruka certainly for one).

But my real answer is, of course, Seina. She wore a miniskirt as a weapon at the peak of her arc on BxGND and looked utterly and devastatingly elegant doing so. What more could one want from a personal style? She's also really consistent while still bringing a good variety to the the table. She, of course, has appeared in over twice as many episodes (87 + the movie) as the next longest staying female housemate Miwako (at 33), and so has had more chances to shine. Nevertheless, the peaks in her style still put her at the top for me.
------------
Still not remotely close to what the hated women on this show receive. The panel is a bit worse than we've seen for anyone prior (male or female), but we aren't seeing people in this sub going to every mention of him to say he's an asshole or the equivalent as they do for Cheri and Lauren and have done for Yui and earlier season Haruka.
------------
Yes, exactly. Dyki never had a cyst and "fought" at the fake fight for the belt because kick-boxing is all fake and does not even exist in Japan or Australia or anywhere else in the world, and they used a medical set and and an actor for "that scene". I'm glad there are others who see through the illusion. Come sheeple! Wake up!
------------
A) You failed to reply to the person you are ranting about.
B) My doctorate tells me that the rigors of specialization required to achieve a Ph.D. does, unfortunately, result in people in academia who are markedly unacquainted with normal social mores and issues of relevance to modern society. And so I will spell it out for you using small non-academic words.

There is bias in most human societies against both people on the autism spectrum and people with developmental disabilities. Asserting the someone on a reality TV is either or both or has non-neurotypical behavior in general on a public forum sustains if not promotes that bias. It is not merely a matter of opinion in even from someone purportedly equipped with the appropriate credentials to make the assessment. In short, doing so is gross and obnoxious, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with your being called out for it.

We are here for opinions, yes, but that fact does not mean that this community cannot self-moderate or that there is no bounds on such opinions. Furthermore, it is stupid to think you can debate the mental status of anyone based on edited footage from any filmed media let alone a genre that earns its money through the (admittedly consensual) exploitation of individuals private lives. Such footage is inevitably limited and biased.

Never Posted Vol. 1: things I wanted to say but chose not to on r/terracehouse

TBF, I'm not sure that City Pop has ever been known for having deep lyrics. It, like Disco in the US, was always more a celebration of materialism and economic good times or in the current scene nostalgia for the economic good times of the 80s in Japan.

But I can't say that Shohei 1.0 is any more formulaic than AKB48 when Rie was in it or Hiroomi's Sandaime J Soulbrothers. And that way can seemingly lead to commercial success in the music biz.
-------------------
Hyperbole is perfectly fine. But the issue is that you're using mental diagnostical terminology that isn't matching her behavior. She might well be a narcissist (as are many who appear on reality TV shows) or she may have no empathy for others which is a symptom of sociopathy.
Is she likely to hurt someone emotionally with intention on this show? I would not be surprised. But I do think that the priming of the panel, and her RBF is leading many people around here to over-read her expressions and actions when she's been pretty forthright and normal. Is she competitive? Absolutely: she clearly does not like to lose in golf and drag racing and almost certainly that approach applies to her relationships. Would she willingly shove aside anyone who gets in the way of a guy she wants. Probably without a thought. Is she a psychopath if she does so?  No.
-------------------
Eh, there is a small minority of people here who hate being called on their bile, and will down vote any suggestion that it's not okay to spew their hatred of particular housemates in any way they want. You irked the dozen or so anti-SJWs on the sub by calling out both misogyny and discriminatory language around mental health. They are not representative of the community as a whole, and, generally, their ineffectual whimpering gets drowned out in more popular threads. Unfortunately, they will never think twice about the language they use, but they might feel uncomfortable enough to stop pissing in the corners to mark their ever shrinking territory.
-------------------
Exactly how many of these anti-men hate-campaigners have gone to every thread mentioning Kenny to assert that they knew from the beginning that he is, say, sleazy, and that his Instagram is proof of that. Yes, there have been like one reasoned discussions of the subject matter of his artwork, and one person up thread had some criticisms of, what, his motivation for giving Risako some coffee to give to her mother for Mother's Day? He seems perfectly fine to me too.

People disagreeing with your or my opinion on individuals does not a hate-campaigner make. It's the behavior of reacting to mentions of an individual across multiple threads by posting how horrible they are that makes a hate campaigner.  The anti-Haruka hate has been pretty light this week, but in the past few weeks we have had individual redditors repeatedly saying that she's a bad person and that she's going to shove aside anyone who gets in her way, just you watch.

Look, it is perfectly okay to judge people on a reality show. It's perfectly okay to express that dislike here. However, when that ire leads a person to bring up that individual even in unrelated threads (one guy raked Haruka in a thread entirely about Kaori after having done so in the other threads that week), then they are a hate-campaigner. When that behavior only focuses on women then they are an anti-women hate-campaigner. We have not, in general, seen nearly the same obsessive policing for ANY of the men on the show in any season to date. And we have certainly not seen it for Kenny yet. It could happen, but has not.

I am specifically and INTENTIONALLY being a contemptible junior mod when I use this language. There is no rule for this sub against denigrating only the women on this show or doing so at every mention of particular individual women. I do not think that there SHOULD be such a rule. However, that behavior is toxic and sexist, and I will call it out.
-------------------
>she literally said that that was literally her intention.

Metaphorically, maybe, but literally not all. She said in her entrance interview that she has had a history of liking what other people have. Another interpretation of that scene is that it's a behavior that she acknowledges and that she wants to change. I don't think that there is any evidence that it's a behavior that she's proud of and plans to pursue on the show every chance she gets. In fact, she has said several times that she wants to learn to get along better with people her own age. Why are people consistently ignoring the evidence on the other side?

It's clear that both girls were interested Ruka initially, and both are interested in Kenny at this point in the show. It's seems likely that this is, indeed, a continuation of Haruka's admitted prior patterns. It's the ascribing of some sort Machiavellian intentions to her that I object to. Haruka gets to feel how she feels and so does Risako. It's only on their subsequent actions that they should be judged.

It may well turn out to be the case that in this very next scene two weeks from now that Haruka will do everything she can to shit-talk Risako to Kenny, and try to get him to drop her. Even if that is the case you should not crow (and not just because it's unseemly). First of all, he can't drop something he never held. Second, to this point she has DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG. She has POSSIBLY betrayed some negative emotions on camera. She has asked out a guy she likes ON A DATING SHOW when she knew someone else liked that guy as well. The horror! It's not like she's climbed in bed with him (which HAS happened before on Terrace House, BTWs, maybe three times - Interestingly, the first two times no one judged the women for doing so since there was no rival. We judged the guy for letting it go that far when he had no romantic feelings for the women or, indeed, any human emotions at all from what we could tell.).

All is fair until a pair agree to go steady. Again, people get to like who they like. If Haruka ONLY likes what other women like, that will be problem for her for as long as she does so. It's kind of a pattern that carries its own punishment anyway. Yes, she may successfully become a mistress sometimes and feel that doing so affirms her beauty and charisma ("There is nothing that you can have that I can't steal"), but she's never going to find a person that way who will match what SHE really wants and needs.

But that may not be the type of person she is. People can be wrong in their self-assessments. And people can have feelings and choose to not act upon them for the sake of others' feelings. And, more rarely, people can change. She could surprise us in the next scene and say that she does not want to go out with Kenny at all while Risako is interested in him. It seems unlikely to me too, but, again, this entire situation is almost certainly a tempest in a teapot because Kenny is probably not interested in either of the two.
-------------------
Kaori is "rather aggressive"? For helping Huraka which she was not entirely comfortable with? Egads, what do you expect from women? Women must always wait to be asked out? Should they men also be consulting with the women's fathers before asking them out, and have the show post their dowry amounts as part of their title cards?
-----------------
>Shion’s so judgmental here! Tsk.

I know! He's almost as judgmental as literally almost everyone on this sub (yourself excluded obviously). How dare he! That's our job.
-------------------
The issues with the idiots who crow about being right about the Yui's and Cheri's of the show is that it's all confirmation bias and sexist bullshit. They are the same type of people who dismissed Seina as being a pushover at the beginning of BxGND for drunk kissing Makun and accepting his ghosting of her after he left for California. It turns out Seina is many things, but a pushover is not one of them.

It's also incredibly reductive and essentiallist. People are not their worst moments nor their best. Yui acted hypocritically on the show (she just doesn't seem to be all that bright, to be honest), and Cheri consistently solely acted out of self-interest with very little empathy for others. OTOH, Yui also did a lot of domestic chores without being asked or expecting accolades for doing so. I would not want to share a house with Cheri, but she a neither diagnosable sociopath nor deserving of the amount of hate she receives around here. Her behavior even as bad as it was is well within the range of normal human behavior and not all that far from the way Kenken treated Ryoko or Taishi treated Anna or Oji treated Aya or Tap treated Mizuki or Makoto treated Yuriko or Wez treated Anna or Noah treated Shohei or ... And yet these idiots never feel the same urge to castigate the guys but instead relentlessly police only the women's behavior.

But we should forgive them as well. Clearly, they have about the same level of intelligence as Yui and Yuudai. They're too overly sensitive and willing to leap at any evidence that support their prejudices and ignore any evidence to the contrary to take their opinions seriously.

A Mostly Complete Guide to Risako's pre-Terrace House Drama Roles

Tanigawa Risako has had roles in four dramas prior to joining the cast of Terrace House. These roles are a testament to the power of her modeling agency, T-Tribe Entertainment, because all the roles she has been in are named, recurring characters with (in most cases) lines in almost all episodes of each series, and, in a couple of cases, her role persists well beyond the point where the plot-line it was supporting ends which likely indicates that there was some sort of contractual obligation around the number of appearances in the series. Furthermore, the series are good to very good in quality and are generally well worth watching on their own merits. All of these series have English subtitles provided by fans, and now can be found at streaming sites. I would not recommend watching these series purely to see her because her time on screen is quite brief in each of them, but two of them also feature roles for Terrace House panelists.

Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu (We Married as a Job - 2016)

MyDramalist Rating: 8.4

Synopsis: Mukuri loses her job as a temp and starts doing housework for a programmer, Hiramasa. They soon decide that it would make more economic sense to get married.

Risako plays: Yukari, an office worker at Mukuri's aunt Yuri's workplace. I did not spot her until episode 5 and so there is some chance that she appears in earlier episodes as well. She's in episodes 5, 6 and 9 and has, maybe, three lines throughout the series.

Also features: Hayama Shono as the liaison from management to the IT group that Hiramasa is in. He appears five or six times with a line or two each time. He and Risako are never in a scene together.

Misc.: The writer of the generally better regarded K-Drama, Because This Is My First Life, has been accused of plagiarizing from this drama, but, really, all the two dramas have in common is that they are both about marriages of convenience with socially inept programmers.

This drama is unusual for Japanese dramas in that Hiramasa's boss is pretty openly gay, and the character even gets a meet-cute in the final episode.

Dear Sister (2014)

MyDramaList Rating: 8.4

Synopsis: Problem child Misaki returns to her sister Hazuki's life with a secret agenda for her sister.

Risako plays: Yuko, one of two minions of Misaki's mean-girl rival at the hostess club where Misaki works for the first half of the series. The trio appear in almost every episode even after the plot-line involving the hostess club resolves. The three can also often be spotted at the restaurant where Hazuki hangs out.

Misc.: It's pretty soapy but charming, and has a nice little Christmas romance at the end.




37.5°C no Namida (The Tears of 99.5°F - 2015)

MyDramaList Rating: 8.2

Synopsis: Momoko has lost her job at a pre-school because she has a scary smile, and is now working for a company that provides childcare for children with fevers above 37.5°C which legally prevents them from attending preschool for the day. She learns her new job and then faces and addresses the emotional abuse from her mother that resulted in her unnatural smile.

Risako plays: Sato, the waitress and daughter of the proprietors at the restaurant where everyone hangs out. She appears in almost every episode and, generally, has a line.

Also features: Torichan as Yumika, Momoko's best friend. Torichan generally has at least one scene with multiple lines in every episode. Risako's character has a line directed at the two friends in one scene, and so Torichan and Risako met prior to Risako's joining the house.

Misc.: The child actor, Suzuki Rio, plays the daughter of Momoko's nicer boss and has appeared in number of other good J-Dramas including Woman (2013) and Ashita, Mama ga Inai (2014).


Sumika Sumire (2016)


MyDramaList Rating: 7.5

Synopsis: 65 year old Sumika accidentally spills her virgin blood on a screen featuring a painting of a black cat (as you do) releasing the demon cat spirit trapped within. (Yes, this drama was adapted from a manga, how did you guess?) He grants her wish to be 20 again and go to the college that her family's circumstances had prevented her from doing way back when. Using the name Sumire she returns to school, but every night she must return to her older form for two hours.

Risako plays: Rena, one of two minions of Sumire's mean-girl rival in love at college. Yes, she has played a mean-girl minion twice so far. She appears in nearly every episode even after a time jump takes Sumire beyond college, and her character usually has a line.

Misc.: The demon cat spirits are surprisingly benevolent in this series.

Terrace House, A Deeper Dive: All the Rabbit Holes I've Been Down

I not sure why this show more than any other in my lifetime has led me to explore so many lines of inquiry around the show. Part of the reason must be the metanarratives woven into the show through its structure: the panel discussing the show on the show and the people on the show watching the show in the show. After all, I first learned of Terrace House through a video discussing the implications of these structures:

In any case, the show invites questions as you watch it:

• Why is dating so hard in Japan?
• Who are these panelists?
• Why does a dating show cast people who can't date?
• Are there any other shows like this one?

As I dove into these questions I was led to learn more about Japan in general, and I was exposed to some great media being produced in Japan and, later, Korea.

In this post I will attempt to link to and briefly discuss all the rabbit holes I've gone down in pursuit of these questions and others that have arisen along the way.

The Shows Themselves

I started by watching the series available internationally on Netflix:

• Boys & Girls in the City
• Aloha State
• Opening New Doors

Watching the show led me to seek groups of people talking about the show, where I learned that there was an earlier series which is not available on Netflix:

• Boys x Girls Next Door It's the best series of Terrace House - read the linked article to find out why.

And that was followed by a movie:

• Closing Door - for which there's nothing to link to yet since it has not been subtitled yet. However, there are plans to do so within the next few months.

Talking About the Show

Once I was watching the show, I wanted to talk about it and hear people talking about it:

• r/terracehouse - The largest and most active online English-speaking community talking about the show is on reddit.
• NSAA facebook group - The listeners of the No Script At All podcast have formed a lovely little community to talk about the podcast and the show. Joining the group requires that you answer a question: the answer is "Terrace House".
• #terracehouse - The twitter hashtag is more noise than light, but it gives you some idea what's on the minds of watchers as a whole. Occasionally, it can lead you to new articles and podcasts related to the show.
• Lovelog - A Japanese fan blog catches a lot of news about the cast and panelists with several articles each day. Google translate will usually give you a pretty good idea of what each article is about.
• #テラスハウス - Even beyond the issues of google translate, the Japanese twitter hashtag is pretty useless, riddled as it is with bots leftover from 2014 tweeting links to the same small set of articles from that time and Miwako stans retweeting bikini shots. Even after muting those you'll be left with a more toxic community than we see here in the English-speaking world.

I also started listening to podcasts. Currently running are:

• No Script At All - Currently covering OND, Brendon and Andrea covered every episode of AS and have tabled their run on B&GITC. The episodes are released weekly with occasional gaps.
• Terrace Neighbors: A Terrace House Podcast - Both the hosts went to college in Japan and so this podcast focuses more on giving more insights related to the culture and life in Tokyo. They are covering B&GITC and reserve the right to cover more than one episode per podcast though they've recently have been one to one. Episodes come out every other week.
• Tourist House - The two hosts have taken the wise approach of covering three episodes of B&GITC on each episode of the podcast, and have just finished. They plan a single episode on AS, and will then start on OND.
• Under One Roof, A Terrace House Party - Three siblings discuss OND (one of whom never speaks). This podcast has been coming out a bit more sporadically than the others here.
• A Show About Nothing - A married couple, Ifa and Tama, from Jakarta are covering B&ITC.

One other podcast has succeeded in covering an entire season:

• Terrace House Talks - Covered all of AS. Also had an interview with Yusuke/Eden Kai from the show.

Several podcasts stopped before they finished an entire season;

• Terrace House Mafia - Covered 15/46 episodes of B&ITC. The only podcast I have not listened to since it had already died before I started watching the show.
• Terrace House Friends - Covered 10/46 episodes of B&GITC.
• Hambagu House - Covered 10/46 episodes of B&GITC.
• Terrace Housecast: Boys and Girls on the Internet - Got close but stopped at 34 out of 36 episodes of AS.

The People on the Show

Learning about the cast and, particularly, the panel led me to explore J-dramas for the first time, and so I will link to many of them below, but the two that any Terrace House fan should watch are:

• Transit Girls - This Christmas love story between two girls was filmed by the Terrace House team between Closing Door and B&GITC. It was the first J-drama on broadcast TV to center on a lesbian relationship, and it is great despite a lot of non-consensual cheek pinching. It features Ito Kentaro as the next door neighbor and three additional TH cameos.
• Mondai No Aru Restaurant - This comedy about institutional sexual harassment features YOU in the ensemble and introduced me to the writing of Sakamoto Yuji which is probably the most rewarding rabbit hole TH has led me down.

An obvious question once you get into the show is who are the panelists? I have written about all of them on this blog, and watched many J-dramas that have featured them. 

• YOU - Leads to two rabbit holes: her music and her acting. 
• As for her music, she was the lead singer for a synth-pop band in the late 80s called Fairchild. My favorite track of theirs is
• Jelly Eyes - Yes, young YOU wearing a peacock feather headdress: what more could one want? 
• She started acting while she was a pop idol, but really broke through with a dramatic role in the 2004 film:
• Nobody Knows - An utterly dire film based on a true story. I hated this film, but it's well made and did not prevent me from checking out her in
• Mondai No Aru Restaurant - Which led me to seek out more works by its writer, Sakamoto Yuji. YOU does not appear in any other of these series, but they are all excellent, and a rabbit hole well worth going down:
• Mother - His most lauded work featuring an unbelievably great performance by a six-year old Ashida Mana.
• Call Me Mother - This is the K-drama version of the same story which came out this year, nine years after the original. It's good but not great like the original, but was, nevertheless, hugely successful.
• Our House - Ashida Mana also starred in this light family drama at the whopping age of 12. Her performance is bit variable - directors can let her overact - but when she's on, she's still amazing. She's taking a bit of break right now for, you know, middle school. What did you do today?
• Soredomo, Ikite Yuku 
• The Best Divorce - Another high recommendation. The follow up special has Miwako in a small role. Tokui quotes it in an episode of BxGND.
• Matrimonial Chaos - This the K-drama of the same story which will be broadcast this fall.
• Woman
• Someday, When I Recall This Love, I Will Surely Cry
• Quartet - Set in Karuizawa and has a cameo by Uchi in the first episode.
• anone
• Torichan - Is more of a model than an actress; nevertheless; she's done some film and TV roles over the years as well as released one single.
• Tag - Available on Netflix. This was probably the first thing I watched by a member of the panel since it was on Netflix and came up in my recommendations after watching TH. It's a fairly surreal horror film with OTT, cartoonish violence, but it's also strikingly beautiful at times. It's also a fairly feminist allegory despite the MANY upskirt shots. Torichan plays the protagonist in the first and last segments as her character is transformed in an unexplained, ambiguous way.
• Yamada and the Seven Witches - Torichan plays a member of the Scooby gang in this light high school paranormal comedy.
• Ai No Cocokawa - Her single.
• Tokui - Along with Yamachan and Babachan is a manzai comedian which means like the other two he has a comedic partner who is not on the show. His duo's name is Tutorial. His success in manzai led to a huge career on variety shows, and, infamously, hosting a series of comedy specials called Keeping the Chuck of Tokui Yoshimi Down on an adult satellite network. However, he's also had some supporting roles on J-dramas.
• The NSFW things he's know for are sketches from the comedy specials that have not been subtitled:
• Pero Pero House - Is a direct parody of Terrace House mocking the unbelievable amount of time it takes for the couples to get it on. In the first episodes one of the girls is happily giving BJs to each of the guys in turn within minutes.
• Handjob Karaoke - This comes up on YouTube as an example of crazy Japanese game shows. No, it's just an extended segment on one of Tokui's specials.
• More fun for us English speakers are his appearances on J-Dramas that have been subtitled:
• Cecile's Plot - Tokui plays a gay hairdresser at a fashion magazine. The lead is Maki Yoko who just shines in this role, and led me to seek out other things she's done, and so when I spotted that YOU was also in Mondai No Aru Restaurant, I was in. The story of this J-drama is set in the world of fashion modeling, but it's really about women's friendships.
• It's Not That I Can't Marry, But I Don't Want To -  Tokui plays the guy who got away in high school in this light romcom with really terrible dating advice for career women. Kentaro plays Tokui's character in flashbacks to high school.
• Kentaro - Has the currently most active acting career of anyone associated with the show including a couple of roles you can find on international Netflix.
• Good Morning Call - Available on Netflix. Kentaro has a fairly hefty recurring role in the first season (only). 
• Kantarou: The Sweet Tooth Salary Man - Also available on Netflix. Kentaro plays the antagonist in a single episode.
• Are You Ready? Hey You Girl! - Kentaro plays one of the three wingmen of the protagonist in this high school comedy and is the center of the final episode.
• Babachan - Has had a few character parts in a few shows.
• Kono Yo ni Tayasui Shigoto wa Nai - She plays a delightful and seemingly magical bus announcer in the first two episodes.
• Shono - Is getting some roles right now as well, but few of his are large or subtitled at this point.
• Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu - He does have a recurring role here, but maybe five lines total in the entire series, and so don't watch it for him. It is, nevertheless, a delightful series about a marriage of convenience and a good exploration of gender norms and expectations in Japan. I watched this series because it was supposedly the basis for Because This Is My First Life, a great K-drama that I'll link to below when discussing Shohei..
• Yamachan - Is widely known and hosts many shows and events. He even refereed a couple of the 48-group Janken tournaments which ties him into a rabbit hole discussed below. Unfortunately, very little of what he does gets subtitled.
• Hiroomi Tosaka - The first person in the Boy Prince slot is arguably the biggest name ever on the show. He is a member of Sandaime J Soul Brothers, a boy band that was the largest selling live musical act in Japan in 2017.
• Rainbow - Their most recent MV.

One of the housemates led me done the deepest rabbit hole of all, but the rest are pretty short: most of the cast are so young that they have not had as much time to produce things or be a part of many projects.

• Rie Kitahara - One of the first six housemates raised the question of why a dating reality show would cast someone who cannot date. Rikopin faced the same issue on B&GITC. As an active member of AKB48 at the time, she was a huge get for the show. She did pretty well in the 48-groups reaching #10 out of 370 participants in her final single election in the group, but she was never an ace singer and only centered one song while she was part of the organization. She "graduated" (retired from the groups) this spring and is pursuing a career in acting. Rie led me to learn more about the "Love Ban" in general and AKB48 specifically.
• Choose me - She had centered this music video for a "coupling song" (something like a B-side in the US except there's usually more than one) two years before she appeared on Terrace House.
• Watashi no Tame ni - Her graduation song.
• Tokyo Idols - This documentary is available on Netflix, and takes a dim view of the idol scene in Japan. It pulls up short of accusing the scene of being, essentially, pedophilia, but it's a fair implication from the documentary particularly when it examines the younger idol shows.
• Heavy Rotation - AKB48's most infamous song primarily because of the associated MV which features 21 AKB48 members including Rie all under the age of 18, in lingerie. The director of the video was a woman, if that helps. (Hint: it doesn't help.)
• Amachan - I wondered if there was a good J-drama about the Japanese idol scene and MyDramalist led me to this asadora. Asadoras consist if 15 minute episodes broadcast 6 days a week on NHK, and you might well wonder after the first 18 episodes what the heck this show has to do with idols since it seems to be entirely about women who free dive for sea urchins, but be patient: it definitely gets there including a character who is based on Aki-P, the man who created AKB48 and its related groups.
• Hoyokko - Amachan was so good, it led me to try another asadora, and this one was highly recommended. It's set in the 1960s Tokyo, and includes both leads from Transit Girls, one of whom has a substantial role as the protagonist's best friend. I've tried some other asadoras, but none caught me like these two.
• 48Talk I don't particularly like the 48-groups' music - I'm not really into any kind of pop music. However, I do listen to this podcast because the whole marketing system is so fascinating. The four host of this podcast do a good job of covering what is happening in the 48-groups without being too squicky about the girls in the groups.
• Alt Idols - However, the alternative idol scene is producing some music that is really interesting to me. And there are artists in this scene that are entirely deconstructing what is wrong with the rest of the idol scene.
• Babymetal - Is the most well-known alternative idol group, and, indeed, I was listening to them well before I ever knew Terrace House existed. I particularly liked their second album, Metal Resistance.
• Pikarin - She claims to come from a Buddhist hell called Makai, and who's to doubt her? She habitually walks on the backs of her fans who will not let their Queen's feet touch the ground as she wishes - she crossed the famous crosswalk in Shibuya by doing so,
• Fruitpochette - A speedmetal swing tune? Yes, please.
• BiSH - I don't generally like the rest of their oeuvre, but this was the song of the summer for me.
• amiinA - alT idoL needS morE banjO! you'rE welcomE.
• ········· - How can you not love ·········? You can't say their name in any language. It's painfully hard to search for them online though apparently iTunes just made it possible to find them on that service. Their genre is shoegaze, and it's really good.
• CD - Yes, the name of this CD is CD. Of course, it is. Do give it a listen, but do feel free to stop after 22:00 since it's entirely a noise composition thereafter.
• Alt Idol Podcast - Follows the whole scene producing an episode whenever the feel there's been enough news.
• Produce 48 - A competition reality show that pitted girls from K-pop music agencies against girls from the 48-groups to select a group of 12 to debut in both countries. It was an interesting survival show, but pretty much a failure in terms of the final group selected. Since only South Koreans were allowed to vote only 3 of 12 final girls were Japanese.
• Momochan - She joined an idoly rock band called Band Ja Naimon! ("We are not a band!") a year or so after the show.
• Q.人生それでいいのかい? - A good MV from 2017.
• Born to be idol - Their most recent MV.
• Seina - She appeared along with Hana in a single scene of episode 4 of
• Hibana: Spark - Available on international Netflix. It's a frustrating show. It's beautifully directed and acted, and tells the story of a struggling manzai act which is very helpful in understanding Babachan, Tokui, Yamachan and Ippei. But it's also fairly bleak, and the final half-hour is QUITE weird.
• Still - She and Daiki acted in this MV.
• Makun - He apparently DJs as well as surfs:
• Tropical Style
• Hana - In addition to some acting, she also gets a solo break in the following song:
• It's Awesome, I feel a Sense of Duty
• Oji - I have not watched Kamen Rider (a recent action children's show like Power Rangers), but he has had the biggest acting success of all former housemates having an extended run as Karoto Dan in all but five episodes of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid.
• Yo-san - He was engaged to jyA-Me at the time he passed.
• 嫌いにさせてよ Her video featuring him.
• Renati - The second professional musician on the show, and kicked off the music colony phase of BxGND. She's signed to Sony, and so you can only view one of her videos an YouTube outside of Japan:
• kotobanishitainda
• Maimai - Yes, the show had two singer/songwriters with a folksy vibe at the same time. Maimai promotes under the name chay, and since she's with Warner Brothers, far more of her material is available on YouTube:
• Twinkledays
• True Colors - Yes, that True Colors - it's a cover in English.
• Kiss Me - Her latest.
• Mizuki - Our favorite Lattest barista acted in a music video:
• Sigurado
• Misaki - Is still a member of the Eibisu Muscats.
• Sexy Beach Honeymoon - The group had a surprising amount of chart success with one of their songs reaching #19 around the time she was on the show.
• Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories - Available on interational Netflix. She appears in a single 10-second shot as the younger version of the protagonist of one episode of this anthology series.
• Eden Kai - He's in the thick of building his career:
• Sound of Love - A really good collaboration from this summer.
• Let's Go Home - An old school torch song off his third album, Home Sweet Home.
• Lauren - Appeared in a short film:
• Things To Scream At The Sun She overacts, but not as egregiously as some others in the film.
• Wez - In case you ever need to find it:
• Instargram
• Mayu - She does a lot of advertising and is an extra in a scene of 
• The Could-Have-Gone-All-The-Way Committee - Available on international Netflix. She appears in episode 5.
• Shohei - After his terrible kisses, someone on reddit recommended the following K-drama as an example of more recent trends in Asian drama that are resisting "the guy must be aggressive and the girl must resist" kissing trope:
• Because This Is My First Life - I highly recommend this drama. Not only did it lead to Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu, but I've been watching the other series written by Yoon Nan-joong.
• Fool's Love - The main character is named Fool in Korean and acts like it at times, but the drama does have some nice twists as he falls for a girl from his high school who is now a swimming star. Adapted from a web-comic.
• Queen of the Office - A comedic exploration of contract employee workers rights.
• Flower Boy Ramen Shop

I have run a couple of polls on reddit to determine people's favorite musician from the cast, and these posts contain a bit more about the musicians from the show.

• Poll #1 - Since this pole was run shortly after AS, it's no surprise Eden Kai led the vote.
• Poll #2 - After Shohei ended his run, I updated the pole to include him. Surprisingly, Rinati leapt to the top.

And I built a short YouTube playlist with the music of the TH cast and panel.

A good resource for finding J-dramas which include the cast is MyDramaList. You can find a list of what I've watched and am currently watching there as well.

The Music On The Show

The first thing to know about the music on Terrace House is that the music used on the show is entirely different on the Japanese and the international versions of the show. The music used in the Japanese version contains a lot of popular western music which would be prohibitively expensive to license internationally. A different Taylor Swift song has served as the opening theme song in three  of the seasons (with the same song serving for both B&GITC and AS), and in fact she promoted the show in its initial run as a way to break into the Japanese market. The music for the international version comes from an industrial licensing company called 5Alarm Music (you need to register to see what they have, but it's free to do so and I've only received a single nice e-mail after doing so); nevertheless, the main credit songs for B&GITC and AS were both by the same group - two guys known as Lights Follow.

• Opening theme songs:
• BxGND - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
• B&GITC & AS
• Japan: New Romantics
• International: Slow Down
• Lights Follow has a new album coming out this month (September, 2018).
• OND
• Japan: ...Ready For It
• International: Trying by Eleventyseven

Some music obsessives have tracked down every track used in every episode of the show for some of the seasons:

• Japanese B&GITC
• International B&GITC
• Japanese AS
• Japanese OND
• Spotify has an official playlist for OND

Someone was interested finding more of the music used in the international versions of the show similar to that of Lights Follow and so I built a Pandora Station to do so.

Related Shows

There are a couple of shows that are similar to TH:

• Ainori, The Love Wagon - Ainori started long before TH, and, in fact, TH may well have been shaped to be in contrast to Ainori. The focus is much more on match-making in the context of cheap travel. It too has been rebooted by Netflix and the first of these new seasons has a really good story line involving a guy named Shy Boy
• Hyori's Bed & Breakfast - It's available on Netflix, but watch it at at streaming site because the music is MUCH better, and, in fact, you will miss some music related scenes in the Netflix version. Even less happens on this show than TH, but you will love Hyori, Sang Soon and the employees as they run a B&B for a couple of weeks in each season. The joke is, of course, that Hyori and the employees are incredibly popular K-Pop stars.
• Dream High - The first season led me to seek out more of the employee, IU, and this K-drama features her in a good secandary role. Worth watching if only to hear her acoustic version of "Video Killed The Radio Star".
• Ask Me About K-Pop - The show also led me to want to learn more about K-Pop and this ongoing podcast is an excellent introduction to the topic.