10/13 + 10/25 - The Agejo Rabbithole - Iroppo Gal

Welcome to the Yap Session. The start of what I hope to continue blogging called the "what the hell is Agejo gyaru anyways" where I end up probably rehashing a lot of points, giving my thoughts on how we gaijin gals use the internet for research... a lot. So we're calling it the Agejo Rabbit hole. 

Disclaimer: You don't have to follow a substyle... call yourself what you want... I will not kill you. This is just me typing out my findings with my deep dives into the content. I'll do my best to link sources as I can. Also I'm happy for insight and I'm happy to be wrong. I'm coming into gyaru during the reiwa era, I was too busy playing pokemon in 2006 to keep up with the hostesses of Japan to understand how the trend evolved!

Now... this has been something in my head for awhile, but hey... what in the world caused me to want to actually document it? 

Popteen. Posting about gyaru, which makes sense, but was calling out gyaru style. And Popteen posted this.

Source: Popteen's Instagram

I may not have the best knowledge of the Japanese language, but I saw it and was like "well that doesn't say Agejo". So then I had to go ahead and translate it as I am not even at an N5 LOL. 

For folks who have issues reading it says:

A revealing black and pink outfit is a surefire hit!

The sweet al has evolved into a sexy, mature woman.

Barbie doll-like fasion is here. 

MARS was a representative brand!

The number of stoic gals who adjust themselves to fit their clothing is on the rise! (Brenna note: oh god I don't like that.....)

Now here's the thing. I haven't been able to fully deep dive into other Japanese resources, but I don't know if this term has been used for a substyle... if anything, usually the style depicted is what I like to call "surface level agejo". 

Now as an American familiar with Barbie, I definitely think adding the "Barbie doll like" definitely explains the usage of pink. Barbie is commonly associated with Pink, it makes sense. A lot of people also in general just, link Agejo to pink even though it isn't.

I initially thought that this "Iroppo Gal" might be more restrictive than "Agejo gal." but Iroppo is just sexy... and it can be more than just ma*rs to dress like that... if you get what I mean. Lots of confusion here. It's the same problem with Agejo... it's interesting. 

10/25: So funfact I usually only am writing blogs when I am at my friend's parents house as this place is super calming and I feel like I can like get my thoughts out semi-better. So here's a continuation of this.

So continuing, I think another reason it's called "Iroppo" as "Agejo" comes from Koakuma Ageha, and as far as I am aware, this style has really grown out of the Koakuma Ageha styles. Of course I'm not following as many of the models these days, and I'm not super into the modern day kyabajo scene as I used to. In my review of a more recent release of the magazine, "Reiwa Agejo" has I call it has really toned down, from Kyabajo work looks to casual wear, it's REALLY tame. I mean it's even more about the expensive name brand items (I feel like I could just post a screenshot of brilliant nothing on reddit commenting the same image over and over LMAO! Shoutout to that guy. He gets me thinking a lot.)

So I guess really... not much of a change except it's weird to call it Agejo as this really isn't in Koakuma Ageha... NOW... IS IT IN ANE AGEHA... Now this is a question I need to purchase a magazine to find out as I think this style is slowly coming back, I think Usatani is really bringing these types of styles back with gals with her brand gyarumy, but I also think her brand is an extension of what she wants to wear too, if that makes sense. I own a tracksuit and it's pretty nice!

So what's my overall thoughts. I think Iroppo might be more representative of a small part of Agejo, but they can't call it Agejo because it's not in Koakuma Ageha.