AN INTERVIEW AND PHOTOSHOOT WITH ERIMOKKORI!! (2017)
Italics = erimokkori speaking.
Erimokkori, a 24-year-old ganguro gal, has been ganguro for over 10 years, since even her fellow enthusiasts dropped out one by one.
“I may be the last gal,” she says. But though it may be true, she may be the last gal with true gal spirit.
Yet, Erimokkori still sticks to the ganguro style. “I do ganguro because no one does it now.”
She has been a ganguro ever since she entered middle school at 13. She has passed the last decade as a ganguro.
"I found an elder girl at school who was in ganguro style and it was a revolution for me. 'This is what I wanted to do! She’s completely cute!'”
The very first thing she did to become a ganguro was to start tanning her skin.
"Dark skin is fundamental. Even how much you dyed your hair, how much you had crazy nail decorations, if your skin was white it doesn’t mean anything. It’s “pa-gyaru.”
Pa-gyaru literally means “gal in a half-hearted attitude.” But she was not. She usually caught a train to go to a tanning salon located in the next town. Sometimes she even accomplished the two-hour trip on her bicycle to go to the tanning salon.
You could easily imagine her parents offended her. She was told not to walk outside when their neighbors were out in the streets. Her clothes were often thrown away.
"For clothes, I asked my friends to offer me what they didn’t want. I saved as much money as possible to tan even 10 minutes longer."
However, Erimokkori’s mother gradually accepted her passion. She even helped Erimokkori set up her hair for photo shooting. However, her dad was still negative about her style. Walking with Erimokkori on the day of our interview, we could feel the people’s gaze toward her from other side of the street. “That is still better. There are even people who walk toward right in front of me and stare into my face with no words.”
"None of my friends did ganguro so I looked completely awkward around them. But they never judged me. We still go out together often."
For Erimokkori, nail decorations cost 25,000JPY (approx. 220USD). Using stronger bleaching liquid, and with all the decorations, she pays 30,000–40,000JPY (approx. 260-350USD) at the hair salon for one session.A tanning salon costs 20,000JPY (approx. 175USD) for one visit. She has to tan frequently to keep the ganguro identity, the requisite dark skin.And another 20,000–30,000JPY (approx. 175-260USD) flies away with cosmetics, colored contact lenses, and clothing.
This is the cost every month. This is definitely pricey, compared to following other styles. Moreover, she has to give up an entire day for each session.
"For ‘normal’ hair-style people, they only spend 3–4 hours, even though it took longer than usual. But for a ganguro hair-style, you go to the salon at 10 in the morning, and you get out at 8, 9 at night. That is for the nail salon too. Of course you can’t work on that day."
How does she manage to coordinate her schedules with her friends?
“I love to spend time rationally. I try to push something in between times. For example, when I was at Sanrio Puroland in Tama-city, I had two hours of waiting time so I enjoyed getting some Hello Kitty goods. After the photo shooting, I still had time until the next job so I stopped by Yomiuriland and enjoyed. Then, after that, I went back to Shibuya for the next job. I think I rather enjoy things more than other girls.”
Basically there’s a lot to do to be a ganguro. But what makes it even harder for Erimokkori, is that as the trend changes, more and more, she loses the means to achieve her look.
During this decade, tanning salons closed. A salon Erimokkori goes to often had to raise its prices. Contact lenses and make-up for dark skin disappeared from stores. Brands for ganguro styles went of business too. Right now, Erimokkori customizes clothing herself to make it fit to her ganguro fashion.
"Well, you can’t help it, but the trend changed so much so it is really hard. I know it was easier to be ganguro 10 years ago, when it was still a big trend, but you would be ‘one-of-them.’ Because it’s normal to be ganguro at those times. Ganguros now do it because they want to be different from other people. We chose to be ganguro to stand out. So I think I wouldn’t have been ganguro 10 years ago. I would rather have followed a nice and clean sweet style."
Black Diamond & Exposure:
Now, as a leader of gal group “BLACK DIAMOND,” Erimokkori exerts a strenuous effort to send out gal style on TV shows and social media. Inevitably, her strong attitude and style have inspired many girls and many messages to support her come in every day. “I want to be like you!”
"I’m so happy with the message so I tell them to do what you want to do when you want to do it, but too many of them reply, ‘my parents,’ ‘teachers,’ ‘I live in the countryside,’ ‘I don’t know what my neighbors would say about me,’ and so on. That is kind of sad. Their philosophy is already not gal. They would never be gals. Do what you want to do—this is the gal philosophy."
"Everyone cares about what the boys would think about them. When I was with a girl from the rookie team for BLACK DIAMOND on TV, she was asked what kind of gal she wants to be. She answered, ‘Even when I tanned, I only want to tan to a color that boys would think cute.’ If your priority is how the boys would think about you, it’s not gal. The darker is cuter of course, and a gal’s priority should be on what YOU want to do. So I was like ‘you’ve got something wrong . . .’ when I was listening to her."
Even in the BLACK DIAMOND, there were only two others that were going hard-core ganguro like Erimokkori. But one of them gave up being ganguro to get married. She “graduated” from being ganguro, and went back to her hometown earlier this year. Before she went back, the three did a “graduation ceremony” together with tears. Now, there are only two real ganguros left. (the two other ganguros are Ayuyun & Akarin.)
“I never can date a guy,” Erimokkori replied, when asked about the bad effect of being ganguro.
"All guys basically don’t like gals in the first place. They always say, ‘if you become normal (we’ll date)’ or ‘if you made your makeup lighter I could, but I can’t go out with you in this way.’ When I hear them say so, I just give up because for me, he’s the one being ridiculous to care about what people think about him walking with me. But on the other hand, I do have a sad feeling that gals can’t be the one for anyone."
"I question myself often when to quit being ganguro, since I am in my 20s. This year, I will be 25, and it makes me think of marriage and stuff. But still I’m a leader, and I have this feeling that I just can’t quit so easily. There are no girls that are flashy like me in the group and it makes me wonder who could push up the group? I feel like I should quit after making the group larger. Like some sort of responsibility I owe."
"Well, I do think I want to make more girls dress ganguro. Not that I want to make it a boom again, but there are just too many girls that say ‘I want to be gal but, but, but.’ Simply, I think the ganguro style is the cutest among any styles and I like gal style. So it’s kind of a simple wish that there would be more people who would understand and give out the message together."
When asked: 'How would you want to spend your elderly days?' she was perplexed and replied “Oh I have never thought of that stuff… I don’t know…”
It was natural that Erimokkori couldn’t answer. Because gals live with all of their might in the present.
