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姉ageha May, 2021
Beauty
Let's start with beauty which was the biggest section of the magazine. It actually surprised me the amount of beauty related articles, however it kind of made me sad that most of them were not makeup or hair tutorials.
I think this kind of makeup tutorials are ok for daily looks. For example, I think I can incorporate that for work (specially now that I'm trying to dress up everyday) but even like that I feel the makeup is too natural. Of course some models have more dramatic makeup than others. For example, Himena, Sayaka and Usatani's makeup are OK. But considering that there are 22 makeup tutorials, definitely most of them can't be considered Gyaru. Even Misako's makeup is there. LOL. But I understand they wanted to incorporate all the models of this edition in this section.
Then we had hair arrange, which are cute and also OK for daily basis, for people (like me) who sucks at hairstyles or if you want something cute yet fast / easy to do. And that's nice. For more complex hairstyle I highly recommend old EGGs or Koakuma Ageha, not really Ane Ageha, which is more mature and for the boss ladies.
After these two sections we have a bunch of articles about products. Makeup, hair products, skincare products and even products to loose wight. I actually thought Gyaru magazines stopped promoting those kinds of "medicine" to loose weight but whatever. I'm sure I'm to the only one who feels uncomfortable with the really strong fatphobic culture we see on the Japanese model (because I only see that on Gal / Gyau models tbh) environment. Sometimes is even triggering for me but~ There's a bit of that in this magazine as well, so you can be aware. Luckily this has been changing with time because believe me that 10 years ago this was way worse. Now it's getting better.
On the magazine the Beauty section was divided in five:
- Part 1: Makeup
- Part 2: Basic hair arrange
- Part 3: Hair arrange with tools
- Part 4: Products to loose weight
- Part 5: Makeup
I think my favorite part was makeup, specially the chart with the models favorites products because you can find recommendations of new products to try. Not all of them are high-end brands, there's a little bit of everything.
Fashion Diary
- For Casual we have Sayaka with Onee looks, she's cool and sexy like aways.
- For Femenine we have Kanae with more Onee looks but more femenine, perfect for the office.
- For Ryousangata we have Shizuka with literally that. I definitely didn't expect these looks wich are more associated with Himekaji enthusiasts and younger girls. But she looks abolutely cute.
- And for Puchipura we have Nemoyayo with also young chill outfits. Puchipura refers to cheap brands, so all these looks are really affordable.
If the term Ryousangata is new for you, it's a term that came to social media a few years ago. It was a mosogynistic slur that could be translated to "basic bitch" and it points out girls who dress all the same. Which is really ironic because we're talking about one of the most homogeneous countries ever. But it specifically refers to girls who follow fashion trends similar to Jirai kei or Himekaji with this duocromatic outfits from brands like Dear My Love and Honey Cinnamon.
However currently girls are apropiating this word to give it a more possitive twist and magazines and media press are following that trend. If you want to know more about this topic, my cute Amber Daisuki made a complete blog post and resources about the aesthetic.
And the other section for fashion that Snaps! With 6 pages of codes for all heights. I love this! I like that they share the different looks models usually wear, so we can see their actual style and their height.
Lifestyle
We also have lifestyle, which had a lot of content but most of them written so if you don't read Japanese you won't be able to understand. However it's still interesting to see the pages. We have this article about home routines frrom Sakurina, Sayaka, Nemoyayo, Emiri, Usatani. I can't tell if they're morning or night routines but they share their beauty routine and homewear. And talking about homewear, we also have this article specifically about that with readers photos. From track suits, baby dolls, kigurumi or pajama sets, there's a little bit of everything.
And in the middle of the magazine there is this hostess special where they show the life of a few hostesses and the things they do at work. It's really interesting, there is a lot of things.
Review
And that was this issue. There was a few other articles that were mainly text that I couldn't understand at all. Like this 6 page special about cosmetic surgery with Chie, Chika, Yume and Arisa. They also had this two-page spotlight for a couple of Showroom streamers and cosplayers, Haru and Rui. Btw Haru is also a host, so really like they're including the host life in this edition.
They also have chill lifestyle posts about the models lives and if you're a fan of Misako, there is an article of 24 hours with her where she shares all the things she does in a day.
I general I think it's been a pretty complete magazine, it has a lot of information and things to learn. But the bad thing is that there is so much info that if you don't speak Japanese (like me), the only thing you can do is to Google translate everything and even with that we will miss a lot.
Another thing is that the looks are not wow. Not really Gyaru in many cases and the makeups were really basic if we have to compare it with past numbers. And I'm not going to lie, I feel there is too many pages for hacks and tips to be skinnier that triggers me. So I have mixed feelings.
In general I really like this magazine, but this issue in particular... It was a miss for me. So I'll pass to the other ones I got and I'll let you know soon.
What do you think about this volume? Did you like it?
yes, the weight loss thing triggers me extremely, also because I would say I am skinny but not "skinny enough" so it triggers me into bad eating habits even though I don't need it. When I was a teenager I was triggered a lot into proana (I could never do it luckily), and all of these weight loss article make it hard for me to skip and forget the past. I personally think this whole magazine isn't gyaru enough for me, but that is just how gyaru developed today...
ResponderBorrarGosh same 100%. I still struggle having good eating habits and seeing these kind of articles makes me really mad. Same as you, I don't find this issue Gyaru enough but well~ I know Gyaru has evolved to this for older gals but tbh I'm not even sure if this would be considered Gyaru by them or just western inspired trendy looks and that's it. Haha.
BorrarUhm, that's a hard question because Koakuma Ageha was not an agejo magazine perse, it was a magazine that included: Kyaba Life (and the style they used to wear was Agejo), Rokku, Hime Gyaru and even Hime Lolita sometimes. And after being off for some years, they recently relaunched the magazine. I haven't checked that issue yet. :( But I think they still cover the luxury Kyaba life. Agejo... I'm not sure I can say their current style is Agejo.
ResponderBorrarOh! And btw, the magazine I shared here is not the Koakuma Ageha, this is the Ane Ageha. This one is focused on Onee, Ane, graduated Kyaba. So it's not Agejo.