Happy 10th Anniversary!

 

Time flies really fast, as the first AKF article was written ten years ago on April 12, 2011. I had a great five-year run with the site ending in 2016 and writing articles here and there every few years. I was a 20-year-old university student with too much time on my hands (was taking a bunch of general education and basic business courses) up until that point and wasn't taking any hard classes yet. I was also severely depressed and isolated, which I believe were the key ingredients of AKF being the way it was. Now at 30 living in a brand new city, working a fully-remote job that I love, having a great group of friends where I live, dating an amazing and beautiful woman that I love, and just living a much better life than I was a decade ago, there's no way I could return to writing with how my life is. In 2016 I was finally being serious in tackling my depression and the quality of my articles were going down, and when I tried writing again in 2017 and 2018 being in a much better mental state, I wasn't able to recapture the magic that I once had. 

I still follow Kpop and love it, but the overall fandom has become more toxic over time to the point where I disassociate myself with fans. I just wanted to make one last post and share one more MS Paint picture with you all, whoever happens to randomly find this post four-and-a-half years later after the site was closed down.

RIP Sulli

As most of you know, Sulli passed away earlier this week. When I first saw people tweeting about it, I had assumed people were trolling. Sulli had a lot of antis for the pettiest of reasons, so I had assumed a group of antis were fabricating an awful story just to get a rise out of people. However, I soon had learned that Sulli indeed was no longer in this world.

Annyeong

A final goodbye from the AKF team as the 7-year curse hits us as well.

I have found out that over the past year that while I still like Kpop as much as I did the day I got into it 10 years ago, I have zero desire to write about it any longer. As much as that has happened since December when I reopened the blog, I thought about writing something but opted to do other things instead. Even as my favorite singer of all time released three MVs since Christmas, I still didn't want to write about anything. That was when I realized that I just needed to stop and let AKF rest in peace. The site had a good run, but once the owner of a site starts neglecting said site and posts infrequently, that is when I believe it is time for the site to go.

You see many old, broke boxers try to make a comeback just for it to not work out. This is simply the same thing. I wanted to give it one last chance, but with many of the changes in my life, that just means I spend a lot less time on the Internet. I don't follow the news and gossip, I just watch the MVs and whatever variety shows that have my favorites guesting. I don't go to forums any longer and r/kpop is cancer, so I don't see many of the stupid things fans say any longer. I know there's enough material to write about BTS stans until the end of time, and trust me, I know as I made an awful mistake in dating a Kpop fan who also happened to stan BTS, I know. I left many of the Kpop communities just because of how repressive they are. I know closing this site won't help alleviate that, but I have found out that being around less Kpop fans online makes it that much more fun to enjoy. Therefore my insulation from the rabid fans gives me a lot less to talk about.

I don't expect another site like this to ever show up for Kpop, or else someone would have it made it by now. This site has featured people from all races, all genders (even someone who identifies as a vibrator!), sexual orientations, political viewpoints, etc. We all came together to create at least one space in the Kpop media sphere where a diverse set of opinions could be shared in an entertaining fashion. I am happy with everyone who has helped AKF during its run.

Lastly, I will be turning off comments, but keeping the site open. I don't want the site to be overrun by spam comments, as I won't be moderating the comments to remove the spam.

MIKAMI YUA TO RE-RE-DEBUT AS A KOREAN POP IDOL

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

I'm Actually Excited for The Unit's Girl Group

I never watched the show, mainly due to a lack of time due to studying and work, and also used my free time to watch stuff I was more interested in, but in large part was that there were way too many fucking idols. I follow several Yebin fan accounts on Twitter, because of course Yebin is the most adorable idol of the current generation, even withstanding her short stint as a blonde-haired dyke.

ESCAPE FROM SM ISLAND: How He Do It??

For years, we've all assumed that crossing the SM Entertainment gang was almost practically a career death knell. Almost NO ONE left SM and lived to tell the tale. H.O.T. left SM in 2001 due to a contract dispute and where are they now? Donezo, forced to disband since then. JYJ (aka Jaejoong/Chuck, Yoochun, and Junsu) left in 2009 due to a contract dispute, blacklisted ever since. Hangeng left Super Junior in 2009, hasn't done shit since. Jessica left SNSD in 2014, and while she's pretty much her own woman now with BLANC & ECLARE, she may or may not be blacklisted from performing on the major music shows. 

So how is it that Kris Wu managed to escape in 2014 and reach even greater heights than he did with EXO? 

NOTE: Luhan definitely managed to escape too but since he's mostly big in China only (but he's HUGE in China, don't get me wrong), he only gets this small honorable mention.

Kris Wu poses with American smuggler after successful escape from
SM Island, 2014. Colorized.

BoA's Teasers for "One Shot, Two Shot" are Simply Amazing