First of all, poetic title for what many vets know as the Gyaru Apocalypse. Second, can I just GUSH about how there’s yet another book talking about Gyaru? ギャルと不思議ちゃん論：女の子たちの三十年戦争 came out in 2012 and it’s all about the decline in Gyaru that started around that year, leading up to (almost?) every single Gyaru/Gyaru-esque magazine becoming defunct.

So here’s the thing, right? If you’ve been in Gyaru long enough, you’ll remember that shortly around 2011, things started to become somewhat….scarce. 2012 was more of the defining point where not only was anything Gyaru-related incredibly hard to find, but Gyaru themselves were kind of falling off the face of the planet. Soon enough, magazines were being suspended, brands were dying out, and Gals were “evolving”.

This led to two incredibly different theories depending on who you’d ask:

Gals disappear – From magazines to towns

This article from the Asahi Shimbun detailed how EGG’s 19-year 9-month run was a miracle in and of itself, and also the crazy 3 billion yen debt that Koakuma ageha’s publisher accumulated, leading to their suspension. The article then explains, albeit briefly, that due to the lack of magazine publications coming out, the interest in Gyaru started waning.

Fashion from Shibuya goes to the suburbs

An article from NIKEII ID basically explained that Gyaru moved out of Shibuya and extended to other places. Vets that were part of this by observing this virtual shock and awe overseas know that at some point, we found that there were more Gyaru in Osaka than in Tokyo itself. Further proving the point, Shibuya109’s Gal brand haven no longer was one, introducing more fast-fashion and generic brands like WEGO and SPINNS (this is the part we were all hating and dreading Neo Gal’s existence, and as such, Alisa Ueno’s heavy influence in the topic).

So, this is going to be a mini-series on Gyaru’s decline because WOWZA there’s a ton of ground to cover, honestly. I also think that it’ll be a good idea to do some leg-work and find all of the books that I can that talk about Gyaru on a professional level. Of course, all of these will be Japanese, but should prove to be good for educational purposes as well.

In the meantime, if you’ve found this post interesting just off of the bare-bones of it all, you can buy the book on Amazon JP here. Additionally, the author has come out with other books of interest in reference to Japanese pop culture:

PS: Being the forever nerd that I am, expect the book list to come out tomorrow LOL :’) your girl can’t help herself!