To fulfil the objectives set during the introduction, I am going to use different research methods. The first one is an ethnography, through two online international fan communities that I’m already part of. The first one is Stage48, an online forum with over 18 thousand registered members created in 2007. Stage48 is a forum focussing on idol groups produced by Akimoto Yasushi, including AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, Nogizaka46, Keyakizaka46, etc, often called 48 groups and 46 groups. Most of the forum is public, not needing to login in order to see the discussions. By the large number of members using it, the forum became a reference for the non-Japanese fans of the 48/46 groups. The second online community is the online chat WACK Slave Hell on the chat platform Discord. This chat group was created in January 2018 and counts 105 members. It is a private chat, available through invitation only, and contains different “channels” of discussion, following a similar system as visible on a forum. It focusses on groups produced by WACK company, composed of BiS, BiSH, Gang Parade and EMPiRE. These two online communities differentiate from each other by their size, by their accessibility, an open website and a chat available only with an invitation, and by their contents : 48/46 groups are considered “traditional idols” while WACK groups are seen as “anti-idols”. For this research, I analysed the subjects of discussion on both platforms, the relationship between members, the various moderating processes, the activities the members share outside the platforms.

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     I will also use semiology in order to analyse the vocabulary used by wotas, as in many subcultures, specific use of language characterizes belonging to the community. As the target of the community is situated in Japan, the importance of imported terms is of interest.

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     I also decided to create a survey (see Appendix 1 (GIF below)) It focussed on idol fans in general and their vision of their own community, interrogating them on how them became fans, how they see themselves in the community, on their involvement towards both the community and the idols and how they consider their images seen by outsiders. This survey was shared on both platforms mentioned above but also on twitter, which is also a primary source of importance as most of the information and discussions between fans circulate directly on this platform. Fans can connect more easily through twitter and discuss more freely than on an established forum or online chat as the moderation toward both subjects of discussion and accepted behaviours is almost absent. As a result, the tweet linking my survey was seen more than 900 times and after a week I collected more than 300 answers.