ZONE: MIYU fired, and something's rotten at Runtime!

[aishiteruaibon]

I should have ventured into this part of the forum long ago.
ZONE!!!!

[TotallyUncool]

ZONE update (which I basically copied from the post I made a little while ago at H!O, where about half a dozen people will read it, so that half a dozen people here will read it here ):

The Futari ni narimashita kedo live DVD (Miyu/Maiko ZONE live at Zepp Divercity Tokyo this past June with a couple of backup dudes) arrived a couple of days ago -- it's good: first rate performances, the vocal arrangements work, and a lot of energy and presence on the part of Miyu and Maiko. They don't sound like they're giving up at all (since there had been some just-plain-speculation about whether they were maybe going to call it quits).

(Incidentally, they did a very nice jazz-style arrangement of Taiyo no Kiss -- very different from the original, but good in its own right.)

I think there's been a subtle change in Miyu, and I think it's a good one. For a long time -- pretty much all throught the first incarnation of ZONE -- she seemed a bit like a sleepy-eyed kid who had such a golden touch to everything she did that she could afford to almost coast through everyday life with her eyes comfortably half-closed. I know that couldn't really have been the case, but so often on Potajyu, for instance, she did seem to have a good-natured, half-asleep smile, and even later, after ZONE broke up, and she was in the middle of her solo career, some of her blog posts (at least in translation) seemed like those of a sleepy child, and some of that manner seemed to stick with her in the PVs and TV appearances. She wasn't always that way, of course, but even in Glory Colors PV, where she hardly seems like a sleepy child, she still seems to be off in her own private world as she sings and plays the guitar.

But in the new DVD, she looks and acts like she's fully awake -- I mean really awake. No more sleepyhead Miyu, and no more cool-but-off-in-her-own-private-world Miyu. She's fully conscious and right there, connecting with the audience and very much in control of what she's doing. It's not just her manner -- there's an awakeness in her eyes that rarely (if ever) was visible in the old Miyu.

I don't know what happened -- it may just have been the natural process of growing up (which each of us does at our own pace), or it may be that she's had to deal with circumstances that forced her to break out of the comfortable-sleepyhead role, or more likely, both. But whatever it is, the effect is very good, and as adorable as the old Miyu was, I like the change.

And as for Maiko, she's always been pretty much 100% there and very good at connecting with the audience. She's just more poised and more beautiful now. (It's very hard to remember that there was a time when they used to dress her up as an awkward-looking little boy for PVs. )

One other thing. Through much of the first part of the DVD, Miyu wears a képi, and it looks very, very cute on her. (What's with Jpop/Jrock girls and képis? Lyn Zs from the ZZZs was wearing one whein I saw them with the Japan Nite tour, and I swear that at least some of the AKB girls have worn them on occasion...)

And speaking of Miyu wearing a képi, she has it on (along with the new, wide-awake-Miyu look) for this poster for their upcoming Christmas show:

[TotallyUncool]

By the way, I just posted all 19 episodes of ZONE Potajyu to JPS.

[wotakubrandon]

I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS THREAD. MY LIFE HERE HAS BEEN A LIE.

[TotallyUncool]

Runtime just fired Miyu, and there's something about the way that they did it that smells like a pile of dead rats:
http://www.tokyohive.com/2013/02/zone-m ... -contract/

Here's the text of their announcement:

急告

2013年02月13日

皆さま方におかれましては，ZONEを応援して頂き誠にありがとうございます。
デビュー以来ZONEを応援して頂いたファンの皆様、そして関係各位の皆様には大変残念なお知らせになります。
ZONEのメンバーMIYUこと長瀬実夕には，著しい不品行及び度々の業務不履行などの行為があり、これによりファンの皆様，関係各位に大変なご迷惑をお掛けし，弊社にも多大な損害を生じさせました。弊社は，長瀬実夕に対し，指導・説得を繰り返して参りましたが，残念ながら改善は見られませんでした。
そのため、弊社は，長瀬実夕との専属契約を続けていくことが困難であると判断し，長瀬実夕との専属契約を本日付けにて解除することとなりました。
今後、長瀬実夕個人の言動行動に関しては一切弊社には関わり合いございませんので、ご理解を頂きますようお願い申し上げます。


平成２５年２月１３日
株式会社　ランタイムミュージックエンタテインメント

And here's the analysis of the situation that I posted over at H!O:

There's something weird about Runtime's announcement. For them to even use the term 不品行 strikes me as being completely out of bounds, no matter what Miyu's been up to. Unless there's some mild contractual-law meaning to the term, it sounds like they're just calling her a slut. Even if she had been engaging in completely out-of-control free-form sexual shenannigans (which, incidentally would be her right to do so, and shouldn't diminish anybody's respect for her), why would they say that in a public announcement, unless it was to destroy any chance of her having any kind of career outside of Runtime?

There have been a few alarm bells ringing in the back of my head about Runtime for several years -- since about the time that Takayo suddenly dropped back out of sight, just after she and Mizuho were starting a joint project, and I'm beginning to think that maybe it's time to start listening to what those alarm bells have been trying to tell me.

Maybe Runtime isn't such a nice, heartwarming place to work, after all. The performing arts school itself seems to have dropped by the wayside, and the Runtime that we've seen during the past few years may be run by a very different set of people than the ones who were in charge when ZONE first started, or even a few years ago.

So here's a hypothesis (and maybe it's no more than that): Let's say that Miyu wanted to get out of her contract with Runtime -- that she really, really wanted to get out, and they wouldn't let her go. So in desperation, she simply refuses to cooperate, hoping to break the contract, even if it's on terms that are very unfavorable to her. So, like a bunch of thugs, they retaliate and fire her and call her a slut.

And another hypothesis (one which I'm afraid may be more likely): Remember when Takayo left, the stories that it had been as the result of sexual harrassment by some high-up executive? Maybe that happened to Miyu, and she turned him down -- and was ready to quit and/or press charges. And he's high up enough to get her fired, and to have her name smeared all over the place. From everything I've heard, tht kind of thing has been a chronic problem in the Korean entertainment industry for years, and I know it happens in other countries. I would expect it to be more handled with more discretion in Japan, but a thug is a thug in any country, even if he wears a suit and sits at the head of the board of directors.

If either of these scenarios is even remotely true, I hope that Miyu gets some good lawyers and drags Runtime through court to the point where the people responsible wind up in prison (or at least are exposed to the world for being the low-grade trash that they are), and she comes out looking like Joan of Arc. But I don't know if it will happen that way -- I just hope she survives, and the truth does come out...

Maybe I'm wrong -- maybe every translation I've found of 不品行 is completely off-base, and it's a harmless business term. but even so, there's something about the tone of the announcement that's just wrong.

Edit: Now I'm beginning to wonder about Tomoka's sudden resignation from the entertainment industry for "health-related" reasons. Is there a pattern of sexual harrassment and forced resignation (under threat of retaliation it the story became public) going back to when Takayo left? And what about Mizuho?

That's a little weird. Out of five girls who have been in ZONE, three resigned under vague circumstances over the past ten years, and one has just been fired. Of the three who resigned, one announced that she was leaving the entertainment industry entirely, and the two who did attempt a comeback cut their attempt short abruptly, and dropped out of sight. And the one who was just fired was kicked out the door with an announcement that sounds very much like it was intended to destroy any chance that she might have at an entertainment-industry career -- or any kind of public life at all. There's something very wrong about that.

[wotakubrandon]

Yeah when I read the announcement I thought it was oddly worded and sounded a little too personal/catty/unprofessional. I'd never given much thought to the other girls leaving the entertainment industry and just assumed that maybe they were private people but now I'm wondering and worried

[TotallyUncool]

Something strange is going on! I just posted this at H!O:

Now that I think about it, there may be a strictly legal/contractual reason for some of the strange language and unlikely statements in the Runtime announcement. If they fire her without cause, that would probably free her of all obligations to Runtime, and allow her to sign with another management company. But if they fire her with cause (for "immoral conduct" and failing to fulfill her contractual obligations), that may leave her under some contractual obligations -- specifically, a non-competition agreement keeping her out of the entertainment industry for a set period of time after leaving Runtime.

Which brings me back to some of the suspicions about Runtime which have been running around in the back of my head since the start of Takayo's first blog.:

1. First of all Runtime's based (as far as I know) in Sapporo, and not Tokyo. That may seem like a minor point, but I'm not sure that it is. Being so far from the center of the Japanese entertainment industry may have had an adverse effect on their judgment.

I think that it's safe to say that there's a lot of corruption (and just plain unethical business practices) in the entertainment industry everywhere. I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and I've known more than a few people in and on the margins of the Hollywood-based entertainment industry. And from what I've seen, corruption and sleaze just go with the territory.

But Hollywood is a major center for the industry, and the people at the top (and pretty far down the ladder, as well) generally have enough good sense to be discreet about it. Even though the checkout-stand tabloids are full of ridiculous scandals involving Hollywood celebrities, corrupt practices on the business end rarely make the news -- and when they do, it usually causes serious trouble for the people involved. So the business side of the Hollywood entertainment industry tries very hard to keep its dirty laundry out of public view. They may be doing all kinds of corrupt, unethical, and just plain illegal things, but they're relatively discreet about it, and they do their best to put on a nice public face.

I imagine that the same holds pretty much true in Tokyo. I understand that Johnny Kitagawa got himself into a few scandals/legal scrapes that I'm sure he would rather have avoided a few years ago, but in general, the big players are discreet about their dirty business.

But when you get away from the major centers of the entertainment industry, that's not always the case. In cities which are big enough and lively enough to support good local bands (like Seattle, San Francisco, Manchester, or Sapporo), you're more likely to find a different mix of people on the management/business end: On one hand, there may be more people who are actually cleans, idealistic, and just plain nice, but on the other hand, the people who are corrupt and sleazy may lack the common sense and discretion of their big-time counterparts. They're more likely to think they can get away with things that really aren't going to work.

I suspect that the people who are currently in charge of Runtime may fall into that latter category -- corrupt small-timers who made it big, and think they can get away with anything. If that's the case, then what we're seeing now is serious bad judgment and miscalculation on their part.

2. Non-competition agreements: I think that these are pretty common in the entertainment industry (as well as some other industries). They basically prevent performers from quitting (i.e., breaking a contract), then going to work for another management company/studio/label/etc. Typically, I think, they impose the restrictions for a set period of time after the performer quits. They could include restrictions on performing, recording, promoting your career, or making reference to your previous work (with the company you left) to promote yourself.

Agreements of that sort have to have some legal limits, and they may not hold up in court, but if you want to challenges such an agreement, you do have to go to court, and you'll need good lawyers..

Based on what I saw with Takayo's blogs, I've suspected all along that she was trying to stay within the limits of a very restrictive, but time-limited, non-competition agreement. Her nutritionist's training was a two-year program, and she started her first blog just about the time that ended. She may have started the blog simply because she was done with school, and it was time to get back into music. But it would also make sense if she was operating under an agreement that required her to stay entirely out of the spotlight for two years. She could wait out the time by taking a two-year training program in a practical field (as opposed to going to a four-year college), then step back into the public eye.

I also noticed that for the entire year that she had that first blog, she didn't even hint about having had a previous career in the entertainment industry. If you didn't know anything about her, you would have assumed that she was just a nice girl who played guitar and sang, and who was taking the first steps toward getting herself established in the music world. And of course, she made no reference at all to ZONE, or to anyone connected with Runtime.

She ended that blog after about a year, I think, then started her second blog. And on the front page of that blog, she had a short bio, which openly stated that she had been a founding member of ZONE. I did the arithmetic, and I think that blog started three years (almost to the day) after she officially left ZONE.

The way I read it at the time was that she was operating under two restrictions: a two-year period when she had to stay entirely out of the entertainment industry, and a one-year period after that when she couldn't use her previous career with ZONE to promote herself. And she was being very careful to stay exactly within those limits -- which suggests that she was afraid of what would happen if Runtime's lawyers found any way to get her into court.

There might have been a third restriction, as well: against getting together with any former members of ZONE to form a group or perform in public. That wouldn't surprise me at all, considering the abrupt ending to her comeback. Even though she and Mizuho did just seem to be having fun with their Goss!p Girl project, it would have violated any restrictions on former members getting together outside of Runtime to form a group -- which could have brought the lawyers down on her and Mizuho both.

This isn't nice stuff, and I suspect that it would have been handled differently by most Tokyo-based management groups. H!P let Goto Maki go over to Avex with a buyout and no apparent hard feelings, for example. Typically, I think, when somebody leaves a group (whether it's idol, pop, or rock) and the group's management, any non-competition restrictions that they face are pretty limited in time or scope, they aren't forced out of the public eye entirely, and if something does go wrong, they don't have to drop out of sight for FIVE YEARS (which is how long it's been for Takayo, I think).

In fact, most former members of pop groups who have any interest at all in remaining in the industry manage to maintain some kind of visibility on the Internet even when their careers are completely out in the cold -- a blog, an occasional public appearance, a mention in a friend's blog, sighting by a fan here or there. That's what's so weird about Takayo's disappearance, Mizuho's near-total disappearance, and Tomoka's disappearance since leaving the re-formed ZONE -- with the exception of the photos that showed up on Mizuho's co-worker's blog, they're all gone. As far as I know, they've dropped off the Internet completely, which is spooky.

3. The ownership of ZONE's name. I'm pretty sure that Runtime owns it. Since ZONE started as a Runtime-originated project when the members were little kids, it makes sense that Runtime would have owned the name all along. And band names are valuable commodities, like brand names or trademarks. What I wonder about is whether they are legally able to prevent the former members of ZONE from performing together under a different name, even after any non-competition restrictions have run out. Whether Runtime legally can prevent it or not, they probably think they can, or at least that it's worth a try.

So maybe, just maybe, Runtime is in the hands of small-time bottom-feeders who think they're big shots and can get away with anything because they're the biggest operators in an out-of-the-way city. And maybe they've overreached themselves, and are about to bring the roof down on their own heads. I don't know if that's the case, but at this point, I just can't imagine that they're the same nice little performing arts school that used to put on heartwarming Crystal Live shows every year.

[wotakubrandon]

Ugh, I hate speculating, makes me sad.
I'd wondered what happened to Mizuho and Takayo's band thingy but I never looked it up to see what was what. Makes me sad that they may not be able to perform together even under a different name.

[TotallyUncool]

The whole situation seems pretty sad to me right now.
But on a slightly more optimistic note, this might actually change a few things in that regard. It looks to me as if Runtime has pretty well forced Miyu into a corner, so that she's either going to have to fight back (which will mean taking them to court, where a lot of Runtime's dirty laundry may come to light), or lose any chance at independence, freedom, or self-respect.
And if Runtime has actually been forcing Takayo and Mizuho (and possibly Tomoka) to stay out of the public eye by means of legal threats, they may be drawn into (or voluntarily join) her case. Even if they don't get directly involved, that part of the story is likely to come out, and the legality of Runtime's actions may come into question.
I don't know if it will work out that way, or how it will turn out for the others if it does, but I have a hard time believing that it's just going to be business as usual for Runtime, with nobody questioning what they're doing.

[wotakubrandon]

Right now I'm more interested in Maiko. Going against your agency hardly ever works but I hardly think she'd stand in their corner if your first theory is correct.

Aww this is a mess.