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The story
“Front-row gatekeeping” by fans of the idol group Juice=Juice became a flashpoint at a festival the group performed at, sparking debate on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. The trigger was an eyewitness account posted on X describing a fan who had staked out a spot at the very front telling other attendees “don’t come over here” — all while being glued to their own phone during the show. The thread saw criticism of this behavior, along with disagreement over whether the agency or the festival organizers should be the ones to deal with it. Some commenters also pointed out that similar complaints had come up before with other groups, but nothing had ever changed.
What people said
I remember that guy who deliberately left a gap at the front to gatekeep it, screaming "don't come over here" at people — and the woman next to him was glued to her phone during the MC and the show itself. Fine, I'll even give you a pass for pulling an all-nighter to claim the front row, but can you at least follow basic manners instead of yapping and checking your phone during the show? Come on, Juice=Juice fans. #GFes
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I've seen a bunch of stuff about Juice=Juice otaku doing front-row gatekeeping and it's genuinely creepy.
Grown men of a certain age, acting like this?
Don't inconvenience everyone around you just to satisfy your own urges.
Otaku from every Hello! Project group do this at taiban (joint shows with multiple groups).
If people had policed themselves back then, maybe none of this would've happened this time.
You're right.
Both the members who didn't call it out back then and the agency are to blame.
I once saw an old guy get beaten up by a few young fans at a live house.
Feels like that's the festival organizers' problem.
The staff manager is right there with them, isn't he?
Just call it out on the spot.
At this point the only countermeasure the festival organizers really have is to just stop booking Juice.
But they did ban jumping, though.
Can't security just step in and warn them? It's happening right in front of them, they'd notice.
Get the agency or the members themselves to say something — that's what'll actually get through to toxic fans.
The manager can't exactly be monitoring the crowd right before showtime.
Not unless they assign dedicated staff for it.
Then Up-Front (the agency) should send its own staff.
Otherwise it just ends up causing trouble for other agencies too.
They're festival attendees first and foremost, so Up-Front can't really intervene.
It has to be the festival organizers who act.
It's on the festival for booking idols to draw a crowd without managing them properly.
Idol otaku have zero interest in the bands anyway.
Still, even so — a festival has acts from all kinds of agencies, so if it gets this bad, the agency should step up and take responsibility for calling it out. It's already causing trouble for other artists and their fans, after all. And if the agency actually did that, both you and I would back them for it.
Seems like this kind of fan crawls out of the woodwork once a group gets popular.
Beyooooonds isn't even popular.
If something like that actually worked on front-row gatekeepers, we wouldn't still be dealing with this.
Just threaten to kick them out of the fan club.
They're probably not even in the fan club to begin with.
Wait, the toxic fan isn't even an FC (fan club) member?
No idea who this guy is, but if he only ever shows up at festivals, that's probably the answer.
Nah, even if he's not winning ticket lotteries lately, he'd still go to the bar events, so he's gotta be an FC member.
I'd think there's real demand for that as a mark of safety and security.
Some deal with it by setting up priority areas.
Please don't lump ANGERME in with that.
Background and key points of this discussion
“Front-row gatekeeping” refers to a long-criticized practice in the idol fan scene where a particular fan effectively claims the area near the front row before an event and pressures other attendees to stay away. What made this instance stand out is that it happened at a festival featuring multiple groups, compounded by manner violations like phone use and chatting during the show. The thread was split between “the agency (Up-Front) should handle this” and “isn’t policing the crowd the festival organizers’ job?” — with some pointing out that even with staff present, realistically monitoring the audience right up until showtime is difficult. At the same time, similar complaints reportedly surfaced before with other Hello! Project groups, with some commenters saying “nothing was done to self-correct back then.” Note that this article does not identify or expose the individual alleged to be at fault.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “[Sad News] Juice=Juice Gets Absolutely Hated On at a Festival wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww“.
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