Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Josou Paradise

I occasionally search YouTube for trans-related videos and in doing so, I found about a half dozen or so from a Japanese television show.

Each of these videos shows a group of people standing on stage in front of an alcove whose contents is hidden by a curtain. Soon the curtain rises to reveal a seated pretty young woman and the audience oohs and aahs her. According to the description that accompanies the videos, the young women are actually young men dressed en femme. The oohing and aahing is justified because they look great.

I always wondered about the premise of the show, but not enough to research the subject. Yesterday, while researching something else on the Internet, I happened upon some Web sites that revealed what was going on. There is not a lot of information to be had, but here is what I managed to dig up. (If anyone has anymore information about this show, please pass it along.)

The television show is called "Gakkou e Ikou! MAX" and the crossdressing occurs on a segment of the show called "Josou Paradise." During Josou Paradise, a young man ("school ages") appears en femme as described above.

The femulation is so good that some people in the audience cannot believe that the young woman is actually a young man. To prove it, the doubters are encouraged to feel the femulator's breasts to determine if they are real!

Males in the audience can kiss the femulator, but this is done by putting a sheet of glass between the two as they kiss.

Sometimes, the femulator goes out and interacts with the public. On one occasion, a group of femulators participated in a fashion show intended for young women.

This popular youth-oriented variety show went off the air in September after an 11-year run.

Can you imagine an American version of Josou Paradise appearing on television here? You can be sure that I would be a regular viewer.

6 comments:

  1. If there was an american version I would go on

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  2. Anonymous --- Me, too!

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  3. Acctually this segment only started last year, and is already over i think.
    As for the kiss through the acrelyc glass, it only happened in one episode. It was a viewer's request that was taken, and the male (Ninomiya Kazunari) is actually a guest on the show. He is a famous actor (Letters to Iwo Jima)and singer (member of boyband Arashi).
    Thought i'd clear up these few things...:)
    Keep up the good work!

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  4. Anonymous --- Thank you for the information.

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  5. As someone who understands Japanese, the show is watched by many people, and has famous guests such as those top musicians, so asking high schoolers around the nation to send in submissions to be on the show was simple.

    After each episode of this segment, the submissions increase greatly, so much so that best of the "en femme" or as internet slang calls them "traps" or as Japan, "otokonoko(男の娘)" guest starred on Japan's largest fashion show, with over millions of viewers.

    Even after the success of that segment, they had one final show at an all-girls-school, with middle-school students cross-dressing.

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  6. Oh! Oh! I found this!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YGzR04VBT8

    Have fun~~
    No subtitles, but I don't think that's too necessary.

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