Wow, it's really interesting to see everyone seriously discuss these issues. Sometimes I think fangirlism has some tolls on us that are real and need to be dealt with.

In my case I'm a fairly new Arashi fan, and I won't be back in school til May so I'm not sure how it's changed my perspective just yet. Being an Arashi fan though has made me seriously start to consider my likes and dislikes when it comes to being in a relationship. For example, even though my favorite is Sakurai-san, I'd prefer to go out with someone like Aiba-san, since I find Sakurai-san more intimidating... I think that going out with someone like him will cause me to lose some confidence.

One of the major rules for my personal life though is to date someone I know well first as a friend. We obviously can't judge just by what we see on TV. These guys are designed to sell, and everything they do is made to look better than real life. Like some of you have said, if these were regular people then we wouldn't even consider dating them if we met on other occasions.

In terms of physical appearance, yes I've always liked Asian guys - that's a fact from before my fandom. But whether they're cute or not is not usually the issue. Looks attract at first, but with good personality any person (male or female) will look radiant and charming.

I definitely agree with vsnow when she said that Arashi has raised her standards as a person. Whether my friends choose to support me in this claim or laugh at me, I've changed as a person a fair bit since I started liking Arashi. I've begun to pursue dreams that I've forgotten or been afraid of. I'm taking the chance to really find a path in life that I will come to like, rather than being stuck thinking "I'm suppose to do this, no matter how much I don't like it, or I won't succeed in my career."

As cheesy as that may sound I really do owe it partially to Arashi that I started to think this way. I really want to start living my life and enjoying it, because it's not so bad as long as we don't think it is.

I've said a mouthful today. ^^'

yea~
i did felt that way. last week, my uncle had wedding party, and there's one of the event organizer that look like masuda takahisa (NEWS)
me and my sister actually follows him!
but that quite interesting though..
like Johnnys-look-a-like-boys hunting time. haha

maybe i just like to relate guys in real life with arashi members..
but even if the guy doesn't look or behaves anything like them..i'd be searching for something to relate them with.. [quote]

I think I'm like this too. Ever since I started to love Arashi, I felt like if I want to have a crush to a person, I want that person to have the same personality or same hobby as with the members . That is what I understand whenever the standard term has been discussed.

I think it's really nice to see that this issue is disscussed seriously here.

In my opinion there nothing worng with having standarts =D
if not Arashi would have raised them somebody else would have. but I think it's really important to keep dreaming and reality away from each other.

I mean my standarts rose aswell with my fandom, but I it's not that I cannot see other men as possible "targets" anymore XD

arashi has raised my standards in terms of friendship. they're very loyal to eachother and support each other through thick and thin.
it proved to me what real friendship is and yes sometimes i think the whole closeness thing may be a bit put on some of the time but in the end they're always there for each other. especially when Aiba came out of hospital and they were all crying during his speech. and in Jun's La Familia and even though i couldnt understand anything but the chorus just seeing the guys come out at the end on stage really showed what friendship is and i personally would dream of having that kind of bond with 4 other people.

also arashi has inspired (probably not the right word but i'm sure you know what i mean ) me to study harder in japanese. im in my final year and i failed japanese last year and was just about to give up until i found arashi and now try and pick up random things in japanese that make me feel bilingual. its lame but i love it and i love them.

sorry about writing a novel

I'm very picky when it comes to guys. I've been like this all my life. Arashi didn't raise my standerds, but simply showed me what I prefer more in a guy. I love artistic type guys like Ohno, and smartass ones like Nino, Smart ones like Sho, Funny hyper ones like Aiba, and Serious Neurotic ones like Jun. I know Arashi's not perfect but nobody is, and I don't care about the bad things articles say or come up with. I just like the way they are. I know I'm not gonna find a perfect guy but I could try looking for someone that catches my interest.
But they did raise my standerds alittle. I've always been into pretty boys. But now they have to be pretty and atleast talented in something. Plus they have to have a sense of fashion. Since I've always been into that myself.

hahaha definitely. For me it's like every boy has to have at least something that resembles one of the arashi members or whoever it is that i like. I don't know haha. I probably like the funny guys like ohno, nino and aiba but at the same time intelligent like sho and can be serious like jun. I wonder if one guy can have all of these... hmmm

hmm, good question.

rather than raising standards, arashi just made it clearer for me what kind of personality i have and what sort of guys i would love to go out with (someone laidback like ohno), which ones i think would be cool to show off to friends and family because he is very accomplished in his career and is a people person (sho), things like that. i crush on nino, jun, and aiba but i think it would be hard for me to go out with guys like them for various reasons.

yea. think so. I've been crushing a lot of guys before, but since i liked arashi, i always think that i would want someone who can dance and sing. hahhha

I am very thankful for this thread, because right now I realized that I always have been afraid that my love for Arashi is kind of influencing me too much, but right now I realized that actually it's not Arashi that influence me that much, but they caused that I am able to express more precisely what it is exactly, that I desire in a man.

I also started to pursue my dreams in a more focused manner and started studying Japanese because of them and I am glad, they give me a lot of things I want to do, try and achieve, they inspire me to dream about things I had long forgotten and they make me laugh much more.

Raise my standards? Not really. I mean, it has implanted this desire to meet them and hang out with them and go drinking with them, but when it comes to standards for relationships the fact that I'm a fan of Arashi has no bearing on anything.

If I set any standards,I definitely wouldn't want anyone as neurotic as jun.I've enough of them in uni.(Honestly, I never see guys who study medicine as not neurotic,they must be very peculiar about stg).Maybe I like Ohno-type or Aiba-type better.Kind of refreshing,

This is just a fantabulous question! I love it, haha! I don't think liking Arashi has raised my standards for the men I look for, but it has definitely raised my standards for liking celebrities. I'm very tough on who I admire and idolize now! Especially other Johnny's groups.