2025 Japanese Idol Year In Review

Yep, another year has gone by and it’s time for my annual Japanese Idol Year In Review!  Last year’s Review was very brief, and I should’ve said more.  I’m going to try to make up for that this year. 

Harmonize Company was formed in 2021.  They created a few idol groups all with the word “superiors” in the name: white superiors, BLACK SUPERIORS, RAD SUPERIORS, li’l superiors and, most recently, Sakura Bloom Superiors.  Two of them, BLACK and li’l, are now disbanded.  I’ve been following white superiors since March 2022 but never really listened to much of their music until this year.  There were two songs released by white superiors in 2025 and my favorite is a Halloween song titled “Pop in Ghost”.  Although there are six members of the group three of them are currently on hiatus due to school. 

The second of the Harmonize groups that released a song in 2025 is Sakura Bloom Superiors.  Their debut song “SAKURA BOOM!!!!” has the catchiest chorus I’ve heard from a song in a long time!  All four members are very talented, especially singers miko and sa-ra who sing that chorus so well.  Of course, I can’t forget to mention sana and nami, who are terrific dancers. 

She’s a Rainbow is a 1960s-style singing group that I think formed in February 2025.  The members are all from the SPIRAL MUSIC groups Harajuku Gakuen and ww.  Their CD “Pinky Fluffy” was released on March 28, although SPIRAL didn’t release it.  All the songs are terrific, and most of them are sung in English, but the title track is my favorite song on the CD.  This video shows the CD cover while you hear the audio.  

Rabi Rabu IDOL School has been one of my favorite groups since the summer of 2021.  They’ve had quite a few lineup changes since then.  However, I’m disappointed that they haven’t released any new songs since January 1, 2023.  I was hoping to hear something new when the members of Rabi Rabu Baby’s were added to the main group.  Tanahara Yuume became the leader on March 3, 2024, and she became my favorite in the newer lineup.  Sadly, Yuume graduated on November 5, 2025.  Originally, I thought that being a singer and dancer as well as a student took its toll on her.  Those who look at Yuume’s Instagram will notice that she loves to dance to K-Pop as well as being a ballet dancer.  As it turned out, though, Yuume injured her leg.  Because of this Yuume must stop all activities.  I’m very sorry to hear about Yuume-chan’s injury and I hope she heals soon.  She’ll always be a great idol, singer and dancer to me!  

Tanahara Yuume (August 2025)

Other than Yuume, Miyagi Rea graduated on March 30.  New members that joined this year include Tanahara Yuua (Yuume’s sister), Uchihara Mahina, Sasaki Mano and Kaho (all on February 15), Yamamoto Yuina (September 13) and Hanashiro Yuno (November 5).  They seem very popular, having 33.6K followers on X!   

Rabi Rabu IDOL School (November 2025)

Did you ever play the game musical chairs?  Well, here’s the idol version of that.  Angel Dessert debuted on March 2, 2025.  Their members were Ayase Moe, Megu, Orihara Kotori and Yanagibashi Sakura.  They were active until June 7, although Megu had left before this.  In the meantime, ULTRA-C was going through changes.  Watanabe Arisa and Hananashi Rin graduated on March 30.  On June 8 the group split in half, with Kawai Riri, Sarasa and Momoi Aya joined with Kobayashi Leona and Yanagibashi Sakura as the new ULTRA-C.  Onda Mahina and Marika were transferred to a new group named Jingu Shojo with Moe, Kotori and Sakuragai Yuna.  Moe was announced as the leader on June 19.  On August 10 Kurosaki Hana joined Jingu Shojo.  Then it was announced that Moe and Kotori were to debut as a duo named Izon’ai Bat Doll.  Their pre-debut was August 31, and their debut was September 27.  Marika graduated from Jingu Shojo on October 13.  ULTRA-C disbanded on October 18.  Mahina and Yuna graduated from Jingu Shojo on October 19.  On October 25, Sakura joined Jingu Shojo along with Iseto Raru.  At this point three of the former Angel Dessert girls were reunited.  However, on December 30 both Moe and Kotori will be graduating from Jingu Shojo and Izon’ai Bat Doll will be disbanding.  Kotori will be leaving SPIRAL MUSIC while Moe will still be a part of the company.  Did everyone keep up with all that?    

Ayase Moe & Orihara Kotori of Izon’ai Bat Doll

ULTRA-C (October 2025)

Harajuku Gakuen has had a somewhat disappointing year.  While the group does have several songs that haven’t been released on CD there weren’t any new singles for 2025.  Actually, I was hoping they’d release an album.  Matsuda Karen graduated on November 3, 2025.  On November 19 it was announced on X that Amakawa Mio, Akizuki Rio and Takanashi Miku are graduating on March 22, 2026.  This isn’t the sort of news that I was hoping for.  I’m not sure what will become of the group after March 22. 

The mixed heritage group ww disbanded on August 31, 2025.  They haven’t been very active, so I wasn’t too surprised.  The only good news is that Lin Oberndorff and Kokoa are still in She’s a Rainbow.  Also, Kokoa is releasing a single featuring the songs “Little China Girl” and “Katakoto no Koi”.   

As I mentioned in my September 4 article, Marble Angel disbanded on August 31, 2025.  They released a new CD with songs sung by the final four members, but one of those songs, “Melty Heart”, was performed live when they had five members.  

A friend of mine was chatting with me and shared this next video.  The group is named Hime Love, and the song is “100% Love”.  I was surprised when I first saw it because the center girl, Riripi, is pink from head to toe!  Her hair is dyed pink, she has pink makeup on her face, her nails are long, plastic pink and she’s wearing pink clothes.  I’ve seen other idols with pink hair and clothes, but Riripi takes her love for the color pink to a whole new level!  The song itself is very cute, and the video is in fullscreen rather than widescreen.  At least this is different.   

Suzuki Hiyori graduated from Jumping Kiss on September 8, 2024, something I should’ve reported last year.  

Suzuki Hiyori (July 2024)

In November 2024 four new members were added: Sakurai Lisa, Yumesai Nanami, Hirakawa Sae and Yukimoto Kohaku.  It took the group until October 13, 2025, to release the first new song with the new lineup, “I Love It, Love It, Love It”.  It seems, however, Akizuki Kanna and Yamada Riara are doing most of the singing while the new members are only singing backup and dancing.   

Manaka Emina graduated from Culumi on August 9, 2025.  She was a member of Culumi from November 2017 until her graduation, along with being a member of subunit Hoshi☆Gumi from August 2018 until its disbanding in December 2020.  Emina was also a member of Iroha Sakura from April 2021 to March 19, 2023, and a member of Twinkle Troupe from February 2025 until August 9, 2025.  

Manaka Emina (August 2025)

Tenjin Musume is the first idol group created by SPIRAL MUSIC WEST, located in Fukuoka.  They debuted in May 2024 and for a while were mostly singing old Konyanko songs.  I’ve only been following this group for a little over a year, and it was their original song “Sekachu” that made me like them.  I tried finding a good video of Tenjin Musume performing this song but many of the videos I watched were either poor quality or had performance mistakes.  

Tenjin Musume (2024 / 2025)

Tenjin Musume member Hanapanman is partially managed by studio fluke and has an original song titled “YOU&I”.  Here’s the video.   

Last year I discovered a new song by Nono Aimi on her YouTube channel and liked it.  I wanted to include it as part of my Year In Review only to discover that it had been uploaded to another YouTube channel in 2023.  Thankfully, I’m pretty sure that the song “Hand in Hand ~Mirai e no Uta~” is a song that Aimi released in 2025.  It’s a mid-paced, sweet song with Aimi sounding really good. 

There’s been many changes in the LuCheers camp this year.  They’re currently in their third generation with nine members.  “Nijiiro Days” is their latest single, a very nice ballad to play when you want to relax. 

LuCheers member Ogura Miori, the youngest girl in the group, has started an acting career.  She has appeared in not just one, but two short horror films on YouTube.  There aren’t any English subtitles for this channel, so I can’t say how scary they are to most people. 

RICORIRI is a new pop duo created by Nicola, a fashion magazine for teens.  Former Rabi Rabu IDOL School member Sakihama Riko (or Rico) and idol newcomer Nakase Riri sing on their debut single, “Pure pop”.  The B-side to the single is titled “Ring★Ring★Ring” and the total time for the CD is a whopping five minutes and fourteen seconds!  No joke! 

Finally, I come to Hoshi Runa’s debut single “LUNA”.  Those who have been following Runa know that she is a model who also sings cover songs.  Her first original single has lyrics written by Runa herself and she possesses a very pretty voice.  I hope that she will gain new fans from this.  The video features a drawing of Runa that has blinking eyes and hair that waves while various things including the moon appear in the background and lyrics appear on the top.  This sort of limited animation video reminds me of the videos that Aoshima Momo did in 2022.  It’s not a bad thing, but I’d prefer a video of Runa herself instead of this.   

I hope everybody has had a great year and that 2026 proves to be even better.  Once again, thank you very much for reading my blog!