There’re a couple things about some of the idol music videos that I’ve shared on my blog that I need to talk about. Maybe these aren’t real big problems or something like that, but they are rather annoying.
On June 12 of this year, I wrote an article titled “Recent Favorites”. I shared a music video titled “my best wishes” by Nono Aimi. It seems that this video has been shared on two YouTube channels, including Aimi’s. The other channel that uploaded it was actually the first one to do so, Bash Official Channel. Bash has a total of seven idol music videos on it. Bash uploaded the video on October 10, 2023, and Aimi shared it on her channel on June 10, 2024. A music video being uploaded to two channels, the channel of music company that owns the song and the idol’s channel, is not unusual. But uploading it to two channels seven months apart is. I had no idea that Aimi’s new song was actually a 2023 release when I shared it because I don’t subscribe to Bash Official. I wanted to include it of my list of favorite songs for 2024 when I write this year’s Year in Review, but now I guess I can’t. Here’s the Bash upload for “my best wishes”.
The group ULTRA-C has had an interesting year. On May 5 a live version of a new song titled “Shoot it up!” debuted on YouTube. It was mentioned in the description that it was to be their first single, to be released at an unspecified date. A few months later “Seishun Shitai” was announced as the group’s first single. A music video spot (a short preview of the video) was uploaded to YouTube on September 21. On October 8 the full music video was shared. Then, on October 13, it was made private, along with the live version of “Shoot it up!”. Why? Originally, I thought that it was because of an error in the video. There’s some wind noise during a beach scene for about one second that isn’t part of the studio recording. I figured they would remove the noise and then reupload the video. I was wrong. Surprisingly, the music video spot is still on YouTube.
The real reason, I suspect, is because ULTRA-C has now added two new members. The decision to add them was probably around the same time that the editing of the music video occurred. The two new girls are Onda Mahina (who no longer uses her family name), former member of ww, and Marika. The girls performed with the group a few times when some of the original members were unable to because of poor health, but they had an “official” debut, when all the members could perform, on October 22. Since Mahina and Marika were not in the “Seishun Shitai” video, I guess it was decided to make it private after a mere five days! Why the video for “Shoot it up!” also had to be made private, I don’t know, unless it was for the same reason.
Last year I wrote about the idol groups at SPIRAL MUSIC that I was a fan of. This article will be an update of sorts and will also include information on new idols. Let’s get started.
ww (May 2024): Lila Balding, Onda Mahina, Lin Oberndorff and Kokoa
The international idol group ww has gone through a few changes again. First, Lila Balding graduated from the group on June 23, 2024. During the summer she visited the United States. (You all remember that she’s half American, right?) A new member named Onda Mahina joined on April 14, 2024, and then graduated on September 15. Mahina still posts photos on her X (Twitter) account of when she was in ww and has said that she hopes the fans will continue to show their support for her even if she joins a new group. That right there tells me that she is joining a new group sooner or later. When she does, I will be sure to mention it on my blog. In the meantime, ww only has two members, founding members Lin Oberndorff and Kokoa.
Harajuku Gakuen, who are my current favorite idol group, have released a second single this year! I wasn’t expecting this! Now I will have to think about which single is my favorite for this year’s Year in Review. Or maybe I’ll include them both! Their new single is “Everybody’s Summer”, which was released on October 8, 2024. The music video was shared on YouTube on September 6. It’s pretty obvious (to me, anyway) that some of this video’s footage is from last summer. Right now, it’s pretty cold outside, especially at night, so releasing a summer song now seems a bit strange. Still, I won’t complain about new Harajuku Gakuen music, so on with the video!
Another group that also released a single on October 8 is ULTRA-C. ULTRA-C consists of members from two former idol groups, Cook a dish (Watanabe Arisa, Hananashi Rin and Sarasa) and ULTRA CinderellA (Onodera Kimika, Kawai Riri and Momoi Aya). This new group made their debut on February 24, 2024. As I mentioned on my blog in last year’s Year in Review, Cook a dish was set to release their debut single, “Seishun Shitai”, on December 12, 2023, which was then pushed back to January 23, 2024. Then it was announced that both Cook a dish and ULTRA CinderellA were to disband in February 2024, and that the single was cancelled. A CD-R of the song with two different covers was released to venues only. (See photo below.) I wish I had that CD-R because I’m not only a fan of the group, but I also would like to have a copy of this song with Miura Reika and Shiina Mau singing on it. Reika is now a soloist, but Mau has stopped her idol activities.
The good news is ULTRA-C has now released “Seishun Shitai” as a CD single! Yay! The video for the song is below. The bad news concerns Onodera Kimika, who has announced that she is graduating from the group on January 26, 2025. It seems that Kimika has been experiencing some serious health issues in which she is losing weight rather than gaining it. She wishes to gain weight because she is very thin. I sure hope she becomes better soon.
Changes are happening with SPIRAL’s youngest groups as well. Shiraki Hina, a.k.a. GAL PINA, graduated from NYAAANYA on May 4, 2024, and graduated from SPIRAL MUSIC on July 27. A new member of NYAAANYA named Minami Saki joined the group from July 28, 2024, to October 6, when she had to suddenly graduate. Neko Tiger’s young leader, Kusumoto Miki, graduated from the group and SPIRAL MUSIC on August 24, 2024. Mizushima Sari graduated from Neko Tiger on September 22, 2024, and will be transferred to NYAAANYA sometime. Angelique will graduate from Neko Tiger on November 3, 2024, and also transfer to NYAAANYA on December 15. No, it’s not easy keeping up with all of this.
Shiraki Hina (July 2024)
Neko Tiger (May 2024)
NYAAANYA (August 2024)
Well, I want to thank you again for reading my blog. I hope it has been fun and informative for all of the SPIRAL MUSIC fans out there!
In 2018 I came across a new idol group named Hoshi☆Gumi, a subunit of Culumi, created by the Osaka-based company Sakura entertainment. They had entered the Idol Matsuri competition in which several idol groups from all over Japan performed a short version of a popular anime song. The group debuted on August 26, 2018 and consisted of three girls, Minami Aono (blue costume), Manaka Emina (pink) and Shimizu Rion (orange). On Christmas Day Hoshi☆Gumi’s first music video, “Spica Capella Rigel Mimosa”, was shared on YouTube. (Unfortunately, it has now been removed or made private. A short live version without Aono is the only official video.) The members of the group also appeared in films made by their company. In August 2019 Hoshi☆Gumi again competed in that year’s Idol Matsuri, this time winning the event for their region of Japan.
Here is a live video for the song “Spiral”.
In late 2019 Aono suspended her activities for a while to recover from physical exhaustion. A second single, “Koi no TeaTime”, was released in February 2020 without Aono participating in the recording. Eventually she returned to the group. In December 2020 the group disbanded due to both Aono and Rion wanting to stop their idol activities. Emina continued to perform with the group Culumi, as well as the group Iroha Sakura from April 2021 to March 2023.
Here is the video for “FACE OFF” by Iroha Sakura featuring Emina.
Culumi has had several member changes since their debut in November 2013. There has been a total of 29 members of the group throughout their history. Emina is the leader of the current lineup of Culumi.
Here is a live fan video for their single “Majide Saikyōururun Bīmu” (“Seriously the Strongest Ururun Beam”), complete with English translations of their names when each member sings.
I hope you enjoyed all the music from these idols. Thanks again for reading my blog and have a good day!
It’s been
a while since I’ve written in this blog, and I’m sorry about that. I’ve been preoccupied with several things in
my life. I thought I’d share a few videos
that I’ve been watching.
Harajuku Gakuen
released their latest single, “Welcome to Harajuku Gakuen!”, on May 28, 2024
and it’s a banger! I’ve liked every song
they’ve released so far, but this one might be my favorite. Here’s the video.
I know I’ve
written a lot about the kids idol group Rabi Rabu IDOL School, but there’s some
great news that fans will want to know.
The Rabi Rabu IDOL School YouTube Channel has uploaded lots of
interesting videos. First, there’s some live
videos from last year’s Christmas Live featuring Non (Okamoto Kanon), Mairi and
Oyakawa Seina, who all have now graduated from the group. Then there’s live videos from May 2024
featuring the current six-member lineup.
But best of all, there’s several videos that previously were only
available to people who paid to support the channel that now can be watched by
everyone! These videos include rehearsals,
live performances (including a 21-minute video), behind the scenes, a birthday
party for Non and videos of the members introducing themselves. All these videos are from 2021 or 2022, so all
the girls in them have now left the group.
Here’s a video from the current lineup performing “Rabi Love Spell”.
How many
people reading this remember the kids idol group Little Blossom? Well one of the former members, Nono Aimi, is
now a soloist and she recently released her third single “my best wishes”. Here’s the video.
ULTRA-C
have an original song titled “Shoot it up!”, which will be their first
single. Here’s the live version.
A group
named Che Guts! (what’s written on their shirts) or Chegattz! (the spelling
used on their X / Twitter account) were brought to my attention from a friend
in Japan. They used to have nine members
but now only have seven. I looked for a
good quality fan video of the group for about an hour, then gave up! Here’s the best I could find, and it only has
six of the girls.
Well,
thanks once again for reading my blog. I’ll
try to write more often, if I can.
Yes, you guessed it, it’s time for a look at the end
of the year as far as the Japanese idols that I follow (and hopefully you
follow) are concerned. It’s been another
crazy and sad year for me, personally. This
year I only typed up three articles for my “This Is Your Wake Up Call!”
blog. I wanted to type up more, but
various problems kept me from writing more.
So much great idol music came out this year, and I’m going to try to
share as much as I remember.
Back in March I wrote an article about the groups Rabi
Rabu IDOL School and Sweet Cherry Pepper’s.
So much has changed about SCP that you’re going to need a score card to
keep track! I mentioned in my March
article about Sweet Cherry Pepper’s debuting on December 18, 2022 with five
members, Murayama Hana from CherryChery, and four Rabi Rabu IDOL School members
(now all graduated from that group), Higashionna Ruka, Miyuu, Shimabukuro Rairi
and Kawamura Yunan. Rairi was inactive
for around three months, apparently even before the group’s first music video
appeared on YouTube on January 14, 2023, and silently graduated on March 19. A new member, Toue Miki, joined the group on
March 12, which was officially before Rairi graduated, and photos of the five-member
lineup without Rairi were taken. This
lineup began performing new songs in April 2023, which were eventually released
as a single in August. However, the new
lineup of Sweet Cherry Pepper’s wasn’t meant to last long. My favorite member (and the youngest in the
group), Yunan, graduated on May 28. So,
the now four-member group continued performing live and recorded the single
“Wonder Land”, which was released on August 25, 2023. On September 23, Izumikawa Rio joined
SCP. But just when you thought this
lineup might stick around for a while, Miki suddenly announced that she was
graduating from Sweet Cherry Pepper’s and leaving Color’s Okinawa Modeling
Agency on November 13. Then on December
9, Moromizato Anon joined the group. So
now SCP has five members again. But not
for long. The very next day Ruka
announced that she was graduating from the group on March 3, 2024. Ruka is one of the better - and prominent -
singers in the group, so this will really change how the group sounds after she
leaves. Sweet Cherry Pepper’s have only been active for a year, and they have
been through so many changes! I hope the
fans are forgiving of this. I almost
wanted to give up on the group, but I decided I want to stick around and
possibly see if I can get their singles.
So, because Rabi Rabu IDOL School’s song “U・SA・GI”
debuted on YouTube on December 30, 2022, and the Dance Version on January 10,
2023, I’ll share the Dance Version of the music video. My pick for Sweet Cherry Pepper’s best song
of 2023 was pretty hard to decide on, but I’m going with “StepUp!”, and I’ll
also share the Dance Version of this song.
In October I wrote an article on the SPIRAL MUSIC
groups. There have also been changes to
some of these groups as well. Thirteen
days after I published that article the kids group Neko Punch disbanded. The group changed its name to Neko Tiger
(“Cat Tiger”, which is silly) and unfortunately lost a member (Takahashi Aoi),
and they debuted under this name on December 3.
Member Kusumoto Miki is taking a break for the rest of the year, so only
three members are currently active. Also
disbanding, on December 30, 2023, are KittyCat.
Members Mochizuki Cocona and Ayaka are both leaving SPIRAL, but
apparently want to continue dancing. I’m
not sure where the girls will next turn up, but when I find out I’ll let all of
you know.
Neko Tiger
KittyCat
The international idol group ww lost two members in a
short time. Takahashi Kazaha graduated
on September 24 and left SPIRAL MUSIC on October 27. Kanda Punam graduated on November 19, and
then was transferred to the group NYAAANYA on November 25. Why, I don’t know. NYAAANYA is not one of SPIRAL’s better kids
groups, and now I feel I have to pay attention to them because I like Punam. Thankfully, there are plenty of videos of ww
with Punam as a member for fans to watch, including the music video for their
only single so far, “Tokimekino SPACE” (“Sparkling SPACE”).
Harajuku Gakuen, another SPIRAL group, is my current
favorite idol group due to their fun videos and some of the silly antics that
they do on stage. This year they released a single titled “Kiss ga Suki” (“Kiss
is Love”), and it’s probably my most played idol video of 2023. Can you tell whose lips are whose in the
close-ups? I can!
Former Marble Angel member MOMOHA released her first
digital single this year, titled “Hey, Are You Calling Me By Name Yet?” She’s a great singer, and super cute! There isn’t a music video, just audio, but
it’s accompanied by a drawing that may be drawn by MOMOHA herself. For those who didn’t know, she’s also a great
artist.
Jumping Kiss now only has three members, but they’re still
releasing some terrific songs. Their
latest song is titled “BLUE MOON” (not to be confused with any other song with
this title), which is pretty fun and energetic!
Fluffy Star debuted a new song in April of this year
titled “OVER CHARGE”. According to the
information in the description, Sara (the leader of the group) wrote the music
and Tsumu wrote the lyrics. There isn’t
an official music video, but I’ll link the first live version that appeared on
YouTube.
Cook a dish, another SPIRAL MUSIC group, was set to
debut their first single, “Seishun Shitai”, on December 12, 2023, and then
pushed back to January 23, 2024.
Unfortunately, a lot of bad news for the group was shared on Twitter on
December 19. First, the group is set to
disband on February 23, 2024. Second,
their single has been cancelled. Leader
Miura Reika has decided to focus on solo activities. Kinohara Ruki and Shiina Mau have decided to
cease idol activities. Watanabe Arisa,
Hananashi Rin and Sara will all re-debut as a new group on February 25. Arisa, Mau, and Reika are my three favorites,
so my biggest disappointment is that Mau is no longer going to be an idol. Mau has been with SPIRAL for four years,
first as a member of Konyanko and then KittyCat. Reika’s solo single, “Love Letter”, is one of
my favorites from 2023, so I’ll share the video again.
RABBIT HUTCH has been around for over six years but hasn’t
released a physical single in over three years.
The group’s latest digital single is titled “LIELIELIFE”, and the video
features the girls divided into two teams playing what appears to be Go Fish. I’ve never seen it played using the Joker
cards, though. By the way, member Goto
Hinata released her first solo digital single, “Kiss no Mahou” (“Kiss of Magic”),
on December 7.
VITORON are the group formerly known as KUWAGATA☆KIDS. The new KUWAGATA☆KIDS are the group
formerly known as Rabi Rin. Meanwhile,
there’s a new Rabi Rin. Got that
straight? Interestingly enough, when
VITORON debuted the girls dropped their former stage names and now go by their
real names. My favorite of their
original songs goes by the title of “Lucky Girl”. Here’s one of the live versions.
The group CRUiSE! disbanded on April 16, 2023, and I
thought that a new lineup would debut sometime later. Well, here it is December and there still
isn’t a new lineup. The former members
of CRUiSE! are now performing solo, so they are at least active. A week after CRUiSE! disbanded member
Tonogawa Harauka released a solo video, “Harugon’s Quest”. (Harugon being Haruka’s nickname, and the
song is about her interest in games.)
Lock★Rock
BAB were a rock idol trio, and I like all their songs. Unfortunately, the group disbanded on May 14,
2023. Back in March they released a
video of their song “Liar”, which is my second favorite from this group (after
“Brave”). The good news for fans of
member Minashi Aura is that she performed solo for a time before joining
Starwill Project Teen. Here is the music
video for “Liar”.
Momonyan, former member of White Rabbits and Fluffy
Star, has been performing solo ever since she left the latter group. Although she has a few original songs, the
official video for her song “Welcome to Nyanko Town”, was shared on YouTube on
June 7, 2023. (Yes, I shared a live
version of this on last year’s list.)
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year! As always, thanks for reading
my blog!
Once in a while I come across an idol company that has
several groups and singers that I really love.
Even if I don’t like every group they have created, there are plenty of
interesting groups for me to say I love the company. SPIRAL MUSIC is one of those companies that
produces idol groups that I am a fan of. They are a very indie company that aren’t as
big and well known as some idol companies, but they have some loyal fans. Select SPIRAL MUSIC artists have their CDs
and merchandise on sale on the company’s website, but more often than not you
need to attend the venue where they are performing in order to buy
something. Thankfully, the official SPIRAL MUSIC YouTube channel has several music videos and live performances for
fans who cannot attend to watch. SPIRAL
MUSIC are known for recycling; that is, if a SPIRAL group disbands, their songs
will continue to be performed by a current group. I’ll focus on the groups I really like for
this article, but I encourage you to check them all out for yourself.
The first group I want to talk about is Harajuku Gakuen (which translates as “Harajuku School”).
They debuted on December 4, 2021 with three members, Okamoto Yuki,
Yoshikawa Emin and Aoyama Nanako.
Matsuda Karen and Amakawa Mio, both from the group KittyCat, were added
later that month. Akizuki Rio was added
to the group on February 20, 2022. Yuki
and Emin graduated from the group in March 2022, the same month that Sato Momo
joined. Takanashi Miku and Momiji both
joined Harajuku Gakuen in July 2022, but Momiji was transferred to KittyCat two
weeks later. Emin later joined Chouonpa
and RONPA~GREEN~, both also SPIRAL MUSIC groups. Momiji was later transferred to NYAAANYA, yet
another SPIRAL group. (As you are
guessing, many of the idols in SPIRAL MUSIC groups get shuffled around a
bit.) Harajuku Gakuen have released two
singles, “Planet Rendezvous” (December 13, 2022) and “Kiss ga Suki” (June 27,
2023). The videos for those songs are
below.
Next, I want to introduce Cook a dish, formerly known
as RONPA ~ORANGE~. This group debuted on
September 24, 2022 with three members, Miura Reika, Shiina Mau and Watanabe
Arisa. Kinohara Ruki joined on December
11, 2022. Hoshimiya Momona, Hananashi
Rin and Momose Kanoka all joined on February 18, 2023. Kanoka was previously in KittyCat. Arienda Mai and Sara both joined on April 29,
2023, the same day that the group officially changed its name to Cook a dish. Momona suddenly graduated on May 5,
2023. Mai left the group on September
18, 2023 due to her poor health. Kanoka
graduated on October 8, 2023 due to a family situation. Cook a dish have announced that their first
CD single will be “Seishun Shitai”, which will be released on December 12,
2023. Below is the live version of the
song.
Cook a dish leader, Miura Reika, also has a solo
single, “Love Letter”, which was released on October 10, 2023. The video is below.
Konyanko (“Kitty”) debuted on April 18, 2018 with four
members, Kanzaki Rino, Hanasaki Miharu, Monina and Kotoha. Including all former and current members, a
total of 42 girls have been a part of the group! On October 27, 2021 the members of Konyanko
were divided into two groups under the heading “Konyanko Kingdom”. The groups are KittyCat and Neko Punch. There are currently four members in each
group. (Note: The name Neko Punch, which
means “Cat Punch”, was used before from 2011 to 2013. Their single, “Moon Light Flower”, is also
performed by the current lineup.)
Although each group performs separately, sometimes they are both present
at the same live event. Some of the
former members were transferred to other SPIRAL MUSIC groups, such as Harajuku
Gakuen, Chibi Mini., ww, RONPA ~ORANGE~ / Cook a dish and NYAAANYA. While Chibi Mini., a duo featuring Takahashi
Kazaha and Shiraki Hina of Konyanko, has released a single named “Kyupid”
(“Cupid”), KittyCat and the current lineup of Neko Punch do not have singles. However, current KittyCat leader AIRI has a solo,
one-track CD-R recording of the song “Magical Cotton Candy”. This CD-R was a limited edition, and it’s currently out of print. The cover is below, along with a video of her singing.
The group ww (pronounced “dav dav”) made their debut
on August 27, 2022 with five members, Kokoa, Takahashi Kazaha, Lila Balding,
Lin Oberndorff and Kanda Punam. The
group’s concept is “worldwide the mix girls unit”. That is, most of the girls have mixed heritages. Kokoa is half Japanese and half Thai. Kazaha is fully Japanese. Lila is half American and half Japanese. Lin is half German and half Japanese. Punam is half Indian and half Japanese. Kokoa, Kazaha and Lila were all members of
Konyanko. Kazaha graduated from ww on September 24, 2023
and will be graduating from SPIRAL MUSIC on October 27. They have a single,
“Tokimekino SPACE”, that was released on April 4, 2023. Here is the video.
SPIRAL MUSIC formed over a decade ago, and there are
many groups that have now disbanded that have songs and videos worth listening
to. I hope this article has been
informative and let you know about some fantastic, up-and-coming idol groups
that you may not have heard of. I want
to give a special shout out to the Japanese Music Wiki on Fandom, as the
information there has helped me to write this article. I’m an editor on that website myself, and I
do my best to create and update many wikis, including those for SPIRAL MUSIC
groups and soloists. Once again, thank
you very much for reading my blog!
Although the idol group CRUiSE! has often had many of
their videos appear in my end of the year “best of” video lists, I haven’t
written too extensively about them. I
feel bad about that because I’ve been a fan of these girls during their seven
year career as CRUiSE!, as well as the years prior to that when they were in
the group Hypericum. Unfortunately, all
the remaining original members, Aoi Miyu, Tonogawa Haruka and Akahoshi Nana,
graduated from the group on April 16, 2023.
A new lineup of CRUiSE! will debut soon, probably with some of the
trainees for CRUiSE!
The first member of CRUiSE! that I became aware of was
Haruka in January 2012. At this time
Haruka was a member of the kids group SpringBell, a duo with Koga Suzune,
created by Office NOIR Modeling and Management.
When an older girl named Akimoto Mika joined them, they were known as
SpringBell feat. MIKA. This trio
recorded a song titled “Puchohenzappu ~ Kodomo Sodan-Shitsu ~” (“Put Your Hands
Up ~ Children’s Counseling Room ~”) that had a music video filmed for it in
2011. It was also released on iTunes and
eventually on a various artists compilation of idol songs titled “Our Shining
Idol”. Unfortunately, the music video
can’t be seen on YouTube anymore.
(Either it was removed by the uploader or made private.) However, here’s a fan video of them
performing the song live, and I kind of like this better than the studio
version since it doesn’t electronically alter the girls’ voices.
A few months after discovering Haruka, I noticed that
the members of SpringBell were posing with other girls from Office NOIR in
photos. One of those girls turned out to
be Nana. I never really noticed that
Nana was in some of the videos featuring NOIR Kids, but I have some old videos
from 2012 and 2013 that have her either dancing or singing. I guess I didn’t know who she was at first. Here’s a short video of Nana performing a cover song in December 2012.
Haruka, Suzune and Nana performed some cover songs at
a Summer 2013 Office NOIR event. In
October 2013 SpringBell feat. MIKA performed for the last time, the same day
that the idol group Hypericum debuted.
Hypericum was initially the older girls who modeled at Office NOIR, but
eventually the group included just about every girl that modeled for them. Hypericum usually had 17 members, but the
lineup changed often when some girls graduated from the group. Sometimes they performed together, but often
they were split into two groups. Here’s
a couple live fan videos from March 2015, with the group split up, that
features some future CRUiSE! members. I
love both songs!
Hypericum eventually disbanded on March 14, 2016. Nine days later CRUiSE! announced that they
had formed and would debut in April. Six
former Hypericum members were the original CRUiSE! lineup: Natsuno Sora, Aizaki
(formerly Magoshi) Yukine, Sasaki Erina, Shiroki (formerly Kurogi) Remi,
Tonogawa Haruka and Akahoshi Nana. Aoi
(formerly Tanaka) Miyu would soon be added, as well as short-lived member
Nakamura Tina from Soror♥Baby→s.
Nana would also become a short-lived member of Soror♥Baby→s.
Here is a cover song performed by the eight-member version of CRUiSE!
from May 2016.
After three months
in Soror♥Baby→s, Nana focused on just being a member of
CRUiSE! once again (and Tina focused on just being in Soror♥Baby→s).
On August 23, 2016, CRUiSE! released their first indie single, “Koi no
Juken” (“Love Exam”), coupled with “Cruising My Story”. Kozakura Aina joined as a trainee in December
2016. Erina and Remi left the group
before the next single, “Mirai Shoujo A” (“Future Girl A”), released on March
21, 2017. Otsuka Minami (later Minami
Mugi) joined CRUiSE! in February 2018, also as a trainee. Her only single as a member was “Dotten
Kaimei”, released on May 22, 2018.
CRUiSE! also released two mini albums, “Cruising My Story” on July 22,
2017, and “Tamayura Seishun DAYS II” on April 21, 2019. Both CDs contained new and previously
released songs.
CRUiSE! have also
released five digital singles, four of which featured a four-member lineup, and
last year one single with the final three-member lineup.In the meantime, CRUiSE! have had trainee
groups, two of which, Cotton Candy and White Lily, were collectively known as
C-FresH.This name was abandoned in
favor of C.C.C Project. Compass is the
name of the graduates from C.C.C Project. Aina was part of Cotton Candy, which released
a digital single titled “Shiroi Graffiti” (“White Graffiti”) in 2021.Both Cotton Candy and White Lily have now
disbanded.The videos below are “Heart
Chaser” by CRUiSE! and then “White Graffiti”.
For those who are wondering, the reason I spell
Haruka’s family name with a g instead of a k, as in most translations, is
because of the way her name was spelled in English on her Hypericum blog header
in August 2014. I’ll share the photo
below. Whether I am using the wrong
spelling or not, I refuse to correct one letter on the hundreds of photos I
have saved of Haruka over the past eleven years! I also saved the blog header for Yukine when
she used the family name Magoshi, instead of Aizaki. This photo will be below as well.
I’ve been listening to J-Pop music for around 25 years
now, and I discovered Japanese idols in Spring 2009. Although many of the idols I followed in the
first few years that I was a fan have now “retired” or have given up singing to
focus on modeling or acting, Haruka is the one idol that I have followed for
over ten years that is still active as a singer. She now has a solo song titled “Harugon’s
Quest”, which shows how much she loves to play games. Harugon, by the way, is Haruka’s
nickname. Here is the video.
I am curious to know who will be in the new CRUiSE!
lineup, and whether they will be as exciting as the original girls. I’m going to keep an open mind, even though I
don’t think the new lineup will top the girls who were in the group during the first
seven years. I guess I’ll find out soon
enough.
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