Continuing my odyssey through the years with Sakura Gakuin.
A LEADER I RESPECT
Sakura Gakuin’s next President was (perhaps obviously)
Marina, with Raura being the Vice President.
Marina is the first president I really liked. Ayami was too silly for my taste and Suzuka didn’t
interest me much and was only a part-time president. Marina has always been silly, too, and her
knack for giving goofy answers to questions is part of her appeal. But what really appeals to me about Marina is
her voice. She is one of the best
singers Sakura Gakuin ever had! All one
simply has to do is listen to Marina sing on the early Minipati songs, Sakura
Gakuin singles such as “Jump Up ~Chiisana Yuki~”, the B-side cover song
“Daydream Believer” or her later songs, such as Maboroshi Love’s beautiful
“Kinenbi Noto”, to understand what I am talking about. Ayami’s voice was too high-pitched in her
early days and Suzuka’s songs with Babymetal are too aggressive for my personal
tastes. (I stopped listening to heavy
metal, more or less, around the early part of the 21st Century.) Marina has never really disappointed me no matter
what she is singing, though. Starting
this year, the older members of the group were assigned chairman names. I think this was done to give them a sense of
responsibility. Raura became the Performance
Chairman, Nene became the Talk Chairman and Hinata the Mood Chairman. (I’m unclear why the vice presidents also
have chairman names, unless they weren’t vice presidents after all.) The new members were Yamaide Aiko and Shirai
Saki. One version of the single
“Ganbare!!”, released in October 2013, had a Halloween-themed song titled
“Pumpkin Parade”, which I love. Another
version had the new LOGICA? song, “Welcome to My Computer”. The single version of the song contained the
intro music for LOGICA?’s stage entrance added to the end. The later album version does not have
this. And for whatever reason, the album
version of “Ganbare!!” does not have the opening coin slot sound effect. The album “Sakura Gakuin Nendo 2013 ~Kizuna~”
was released in March 2014. For the last
time, the album had three versions with a DVD, along with the CD only
version. The DVDs each contained one
music video plus another video, only one of which contained music. That DVD was the “Ra” edition, which had an
‘unplugged’ live from the seniors, Marina, Raura, Nene and Hinata, titled
“Thank you! Oh, my friend”. This is a
very teary farewell performance, but a must for fans of those four girls,
especially since Raura and Hinata play acoustic guitar and Nene plays the tambourine. The compilation album “Hokago Anthology from
Sakura Gakuin” was released in May 2014 and contained mostly previously
released songs from the subunits. A
previously unreleased sleepiece song was included along with a remix of
“Science Girl ▽ Silence Boy”. I haven’t talked about sleepiece yet, but I
should have since Marina, Raura and Nene were the members at the time. All their songs are cover songs, but boy are
they fun to listen to! This CD is
definitely worth the purchase if you are a fan of these girls.
IDLE IDOLS
After Marina, Raura, Nene and Hinata graduated from
the group I had to again ask myself, “Do I still want to be a fan of this group
with most of my favorite members now gone?”
I decided that Rinon was still a member, so yes. To no one’s surprise Moa became the new
Sakura Gakuin President and Yui the Vice President. But since they were swamped with Babymetal
duties as well, this year Sakura Gakuin only had ten members. Joining the group were Kurashima Sara and
Okada Megumi. Yui became the Production
Chairman, Hana the Spirit Chairman and Yunano the Talk Chairman. While Moa and Yui were touring with Babymetal,
the remaining members simply had little or nothing to do. Because of this, I had a problem with this
year since Moa and Yui were simply too busy to be active members, and they were
the seniors. What to do when they are
too busy? Call in the previous year’s
seniors, Marina and Raura, to replace them at TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL 2014, held in
August! You see, Moa and Yui were busy
on tour in the United States with Babymetal, opening up for (get this) Lady
Gaga! This leads me to suspect that
Marina and Raura were personally responsible for keeping Sakura Gakuin glued
together for three years straight. Also,
Sakura Gakuin’s workload was reduced by just filming videos for the singles and
not releasing any CD singles. I’m not
sure exactly how this reduced their workload, but whatever. “Heart no Hoshi” was released as a DVD single
in October 2014, and it was, again, written by Kawase Tomoko and her husband
Okuda Shunsaku. I loved the song, and it
was great to hear another Tommy february6 song, even if she wasn’t actually
singing it. I created a website called
Sensational Idols with the help of two female friends. I wanted a website with many of the idol
groups I loved, including Sakura Gakuin.
I asked them many times to help me out and it turned out I was annoying
them too much about this. This led to me
and these young women to stop being friends.
Eventually I was on my own when it came to editing, and I hit a snag
when I accidentally deleted photos on the main page in the edit section. This means that if I save changes my photos
will disappear. Some text on the main
page is not how it should look and I know there are mistakes on several
pages. But I guess my website will
always look like that since I don’t know what to do. In March 2015 the DVD single “Aogeba Totoshi”
was released. This is apparently another
traditional Japanese school graduation song rocked out by Sakura Gakuin. The album “Sakura Gakuin 2014 Nendo ~Kimi no
Todake~”, also released in March, wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring, though. In addition to the now-tired (and shortened)
remake of “Mezase! Super Lady”, Moa’s and Yui’s voices were sounded hoarse. It was if they screamed their heads off at a
Babymetal concert the previous night before recording their songs. Also, I found that naming the new subunits
Pro-Wrestling Club and Purchasing Club was rather lazy. Where were the cute names such as SCOOPERS
and Pastel Wind? The new songs were
mostly forgettable, although “Piece de Check!” by the Purchasing Club was
fun. The Blu-ray generation kicked in
this year, with exclusive music videos on the “Ra” edition of the CD with
Blu-ray. I purchased the “Ku” edition
with a DVD because it had the “Animal Rhythm” music video, also on the Blu-ray. But the second video was an extremely boring
30-minute talk fest with the girls staring down a tube. There’s a half hour of my life I’m not
getting back. I might have enjoyed this
video a bit more if English subtitles were included, although there has never
been any sort of subtitles on these bonus DVDs.
Unfortunately, when Moa, Yui, Hana and Yunano graduated at the end of
March 2014, this also ended Sakura Gakuin’s contract with Universal Music. From this point forward all their CD, DVD and
Blu-ray releases would be sold through Amuse, inc.’s A!Smart website only. You can no longer buy new products from other
sellers.
BACK ON TRACK
If you read comments by fans on YouTube like I do, you
might have noticed at the time that some fans were saying things like, “Once
Moa and Yui leave Sakura Gakuin I’m dropping this group.” That’s very nasty, but yet another example of
a typical idol fan comment. I’m sure
several people did stop being fans of Sakura Gakuin at this point, and that’s
too bad for them. Personally, I think
this is where Sakura Gakuin finally got back on track. Rinon was appointed President, Shirai Saki
was made the Talk Chairman and Ooga Saki was made the Education Chaiman. Six new members were added; Kurosawa Mirena,
Okazaki Momoka, Aso Maaya, Hidaka Marin, Yoshida Soyoka and Fujihara Kano all
joined in May 2015. Since the president
wasn’t busy with other activities and the number of members went back to the
traditional twelve, I feel Sakura Gakuin was now back to how they should have
been. Rinon has always been a favorite
of mine, so she is the second Sakura Gakuin President that I really like and
respect. Rinon may not have been the
group’s strongest singer, but her smile, energy and refusal to cry onstage all
contributed to what I like about her.
The first single with Rinon as President was “Mathematica”, released in
September 2015, a nice if typical Sakura Gakuin song. My biggest complaint is Rinon didn’t sing
much on it. The CD single was a
venue-only release, and it came with a ruler and some other trinkets. The DVD of the music video was included with
an issue of “Ciao” magazine. On December
8, 2015, a special 5th Anniversary DVD single of “School days” was
released. This also included some
footage from TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL 2015.
There was also a 5th Anniversary concert which featured
surprise appearances from Ayaka and Airi. Unfortunately, this concert has never been
released on DVD or Blu-ray. The album
“Sakura Gakuin 2015 Nendo ~Kirameki no Kakera~” was released in March 2016 and is
one Sakura Gakuin’s better albums. For
once “Mezase! Super Lady” is not the first track. The remakes are all pretty good, the title song is a lot of fun and finally a new Minipati lineup records the first song
by this subunit that sounds good to my ears since the first album’s songs. Also excellent is “Michishirube” by Rinon,
Saki and Saki (ha ha!). Unfortunately
for people like me, who do not own a Blu-ray player, the music videos were all
put on the CD + Blu-ray version and the CD + DVD version only contained the
“school test” video, plus footage of the annoying actor who plays Mori-sensei
jumping out of nowhere to scare the girls.
Because of this I purchased the CD only version with the help of a
Japanese friend. This was the last
Sakura Gakuin album I ever purchased.
A LONG VACATION
Once Rinon graduated I did the same thing that I complained about earlier about Moa and Yui’s fans, and I stopped paying attention to Sakura Gakuin. I felt there was no one else in Sakura Gakuin that I really liked, so I gave up on this group. One problem I had was that thanks to Universal dropping Sakura Gakuin it was very hard to get all the various versions of their singles and albums that I wanted but didn’t have the money to buy when they were first released. With everything I wanted out of print and no members to really support I felt justified in giving up on a group that at one time I would have said was my favorite idol group. Not helping matters was Amuse’s decision to not upload new videos to the Sakura Gakuin YouTube channel, except for the previews of the DVDs and Blu-rays that came with the new albums. I also left that forum on which I created the Sakura Gakuin thread for as well. All of the new fans were Babymetal fans, all of their usernames were some word with ‘metal’ added to it, all of their avatars were the same or similar and I couldn’t tell any of them apart. I think that soon afterward one of my ex-friends who helped create my website Sensational Idols later took over my thread. That’s fine with me. I no longer have to update the thread and post things about a group I don’t follow anymore. Of course I didn’t stop following my favorite former members on social media. I even became a fan of the group Maboroshi☆Love, which featured Marina and Hinata, and former Karen Girl’s member Shima Yuika. One thing that disappointed me was in 2016 four former members of Sakura Gakuin were released from their Amuse contracts, including Rinon and Mariri. Also, I have to admit that it was hard to keep with the girls who became part of an anime series, mostly because I had no idea if this series was even available in an English-subtitled version somewhere on the internet. Physical media releases of obscure anime never get an American release, either.
One event that I seriously wish I had attended was Anime Central in June 2019, where Hinata was a special guest! She was voicing a character from a series titled Revue Starlight. I have never seen this and probably won’t because of the above reasons. The reason I couldn’t attend wasn’t really a money-related issue, but rather a health one. I have constant pain in my entire body, and I do not like to stand and walk. I can’t stand for long periods of time, so I need to find a place to sit down, or at least lean on. If I had attended, I probably would have embarrassed myself in front of Hinata because I’m also socially awkward. I have trouble figuring out what to say to people. I would have loved to have her autograph the many CD covers that I have that she sang on. I’m in envy of all the people who love Hinata who actually got to meet her. There came a point when I started asking friends what they knew about Ayaka, Hinata, Mariri and Marina and they couldn’t answer my questions. They knew all about Babymetal, Ayami and the current lineup of Sakura Gakuin, but they had no idea what the other former members were doing. So, I needed to find someone who did know these things since I knew nothing about the anime or other TV series some of them were involved in. I eventually decided to find a Facebook group that had members who could answer my questions. I guess I could have done a search on the internet, but sometimes I don’t get anything useful in English and using an online translator to translate Japanese is sketchy at best. I have been reluctant to mention names in this article, but I’ll do the people on Facebook who’ve helped me out a favor and link the group Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal and @onefive world. Some of the people (maybe the admins) have answered questions I had about the girls I like. That’s very nice of them. It turned out that Hinata and Marina were both busy with various projects, some of which I still need to check out. Ayaka has been acting in a lot of TV series which, again, I need to check out. I’m doing a better job keeping up with Mariri, but just barely. I’m not sure what the other former members are doing because I’m just so overwhelmed with everything both on and off the internet. Real life sometimes gets in the way of me keeping up with internet-related stuff. And, of course, if you read my blog then you’ll know that I try to keep up with various other idol groups I’m interested in. Being an idol fan is a job in and of itself!
ALL THINGS MUST PASS
And so, Sakura Gakuin disbanded at the end of August 2021. Over the years I have gotten a lot of flack for writing about Japanese and Korean idols that are very young, much like Sakura Gakuin. I genuinely enjoy music from many of these idols. I think it’s kind of awful that idol fans simply dismiss younger idols because of their age. All idols begin somewhere, somehow, usually in a local group performing cover songs. It’s fun for me to see the beginnings of an up-and-coming idol, or group of idols. I don’t expect everything they do to be perfect, but as long as I see that they enjoy being on stage in front of an audience, no matter what the size, and are doing their best, that’s all that matters to me. Fans of an up-and-coming group, like me, get to see these idols grow and improve over time. Groups like Sakura Gakuin have many talented girls who eventually develop into better idols. Some of the girls join new groups, start solo careers or pursue acting or modeling. Occasionally, the members of an idol group will leave the group to pursue other interests. Nene went on to study nursing, and she has now reached her dream of being a nurse. Rinon has now became involved on the other side of recording albums, as she is listed in the credits of Sakura Gakuin’s final album as a staff member. So I pick out idols that I think are special, regardless of how big their company is, or how well known they are to most fans. And that’s why I write about them. I mean, who else will if not me? No one, that’s who. So, I’m very proud that I had a chance to write about Sakura Gakuin and help spread the good word about these girls. I became a big fan of girls I never would have known about if I hadn’t taken a chance on them. Lastly, I want to thank a few people that I met years ago when they first became Sakura Gakuin fans. Meeting them eventually allowed us to become friends, and I’m happy to say that we are still friends after all these years. These fans live all around the world, so I think it’s cool that music, such as Sakura Gakuin’s music, is like a universal language.
If you have read everything in both parts of this article, thank you. I knew some of my opinions would be controversial, but I disagree with some opinions from other fans. I may not know all the names of the more recent members, but I still like them all the same.
- James Reed, a.k.a. I ♥ Miyoshi Ayaka, Idol Trailblazer and IdolL0v3r
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