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aesina · 5 years

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Reblogged this bcs it is perfect for my first post. Thanks Shelly from Japanessie

Championing Hiro

I am dedicating my first post here to Hiroki Moriuchi.

Photo credit: Rolling Stone Japan

When I first decided to write here, I didn’t plan on writing about someone other than myself for my first post. But one day, my friend triggered an idea in my mind when she asked for feedback on MY FIRST STORY’s 3rd album 虚言NEUROSE and the fans’ personal thoughts on the band plus our favourite members on her FB page. As I started writing my comment, I suddenly realized it got way too long for a Facebook comment. Thus, turning it into a special blog post was it. I’d be lying if I say I don’t have a favourite member in any band. So, who is or are mine in MFS? The Leader and then the one I gave a few nicknames to i.e Little Darling and Fluffy White Fur Ball.

Photo credit: MY FIRST STORY Instagram

Sho certainly is my most respected member in the band. Even back when I used to ignore MFS because I wasn’t impressed by Hiro’s vocals, I thought Sho was a really good musician. But I couldn’t get into a band if I wasn’t keen on the singer. However, I do admit that Hiro was the deciding factor in converting me into liking the band. Just like he was the reason I stayed away. But I kept an open mind and was always willing to give artists a chance. Hiro pulled me back after 最終回Story. But there is more to the story as I shifted gear into being a Hiro defender after that. Hiro quitting Twitter was the hot news at the time and out of curiosity, I started to go through his tweets and dug into a few Japanese forums & sites. What I found both nicely surprised and terribly shocked me. Now, the good part first. Looking at his Twitter contents, his personality jumped right out at me. He rarely posted selfies but he preferred to show the world the things he enjoyed doing. Good food, doodlings, movies he watched, music collection, concert tickets, views he saw from the windows and weird things he found interesting (anyone remembers that men stocking photo?). It seemed to me that he wanted people to see him for the person inside rather than cashing in on his looks.

Photo credit: (Sorry I forgot this one)

Despite his “fluffy appearance” and a penchant for hugging plushy soft toys, Hiro surprised me when he beamed about this true-story movie Into The Wild….about a man named Christopher McCandless who went soul-searching by leaving all materialistic things behind. He was found dead but his last days were captured on his camera. I then started to understand that buried underneath it all, Hiro’s soul goes much deeper than his appearance might suggest.

Photo credit: Happinet-p.com

I saw how supportive Hiro is to his friends by tweeting and retweeting when they released new CDs. Proudly displaying their CDs in his hands. Or attending their shows. Even during the 虚言 Neurose Tour, he took the time out to support SWANKY DANK at their Monster MV shoot. Though in the end, his own tour crashed when he fell sick. But that’s the kind of person Hiro is. Also, notice how since he was a kid, he’s been working with mostly older people. Guess what? They all like him. That alone tells us how he must have treated those older than him. Though I have never met him in person, it is easy to see that Hiro is indeed a beautiful person on the inside. Now, the terrible part that brought me here. Hiro shutting himself out.

At the time, I had a vague idea that Hiro wasn’t happy with people bringing up his brother over and over again. But the extent that some people would go to insult him really shook me to the core.

I still remember that fateful moment. I was browsing through a forum and saw one insult message after another all posted by anonymous users. Making fun of his father’s illness, his mother and the band itself. Accusing him of using his connection and that things were handed to him on a silver platter. Of course, there were fans who did their best defending him.

Then it happened. I saw a post with a series of disgusting pictures of a woman crapping in bed and a message with an arrow pointing to those pictures with the words 「ヒロくんが生まれた」 or “Hiro was born”. I was SHOCKED! If one doesn’t find that super insulting to a person and his parents, then I don’t know what else is. My eyes watered.

Photo credit: What the heck would I credit this one for?

I’ve been using the Internet since the 90s. Becoming more active once I discovered YouTube, MySpace and blogging. Throughout that time, I had come across many different types of trolling including troll messages to myself. But none had ever shocked me the way THAT troll DID. I rarely cry either and most of the time, I’m neutral towards people BUT that moment really made me tear up. At that moment, I realized the extent of troll abuse Hiro had endured. Imagine yourself in Hiro’s place. At that age 18-19, many would fall apart over hurtful words. There had been teenagers with good lives on the outside but were driven to suicides over internet trolling. Just because he was born into a celebrity family, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any feeling like the rest of us. What did he do to you, haters? This guy wouldn’t hurt anybody. Ok…..figuratively he does hurt my ears every now and then with his shaky singing but he’s working hard to improve his weakness. Hiro deserves all the right to shield himself away from such abuse. Limiting himself on the social media is the right thing. Those troll photos haunted me for weeks.

Each time those images came to my mind, I felt shaken. It disturbed me really bad that I never mentioned it to anyone. This is the first time I have talked about it. On FB, I hesitated talking about it at first because I kept thinking what if Hiro came over and saw it and it brought back terrible memories to him? But I am sure he is a much stronger person now and can probably handle it better than ever. So, it’s here tucked away from a place as open as FB that I talk about it. That troll discovery changed the way I looked at Hiro.

From that moment, I saw him as a real person first rather than this guy in a band. A beautiful-hearted person is a treasure in today’s world. When you come across one, doesn’t matter that he’s that boy on TV or that voice from a CD or a face on YouTube, you cherish the person even from across another continent on this big blue marble we live on.

Hiroki. He got my backing.

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