More Good Idol Music - My 100th Article!

Yes, it's true.  This is my 100th blog article for "This Is Your Wake Up Call!", the blog that discusses Japanese idols that few, if any, other blogs will write about!

The first thing I want to do is update what I wrote about a couple days ago.  The Japanese news article I linked about Menkoi Girls didn't specify which festival they were performing at.  I did a search and it seems it is the Aki Matsuri Japanese Festival.  Now I'm not 100% sure, though.  If it's a different festival I will give an update in a future article.

Also, when I did some research for my article about the group NA-NA reuniting, I didn't research enough.  It seems that since January 2017 Honda Touko of NA-NA has been singing in another idol group.  This group is Colorful Scream, and they have an official video for the song "Sing Bird".  Colorful Scream also have some live videos in which the live sound has been replaced with the studio recording of the song!  I don't know why they did that, though.  Touko's fans should give this one a listen as she seems to be the leader of the group!  That's great!

Another idol group that may have slipped by unnoticed is Dream Catcher.  Dream Catcher's website was created on March 31, 2017, and a radio show with the group debuted on April 24. But Dream Catcher's live debut was on April 29, 2017.  There are five girls in the group and they sing some pretty cute songs.  My favorite is the first, "Yami Miyagi".  I hope you'll like them!  By the way, please don't get Dream Catcher the Japanese idol group confused with a Korean group that has the same name.  

PARLISH are back too, but with a new lineup.  For the August 3, 2017 performance two members, Deki Hikaru and Tanaka Amo, could not appear.  However, four new members made their debut! The names that I have are Karen, Nanami, Morigami Aiko and Yamamoto Rin.  Aiko was previously a dancer for SunRisa in 2014 and 2015.  I had no idea she had her eye on a PARLISH membership!  I have always liked Aiko so I approve of this!  Here is my favorite song from the group, "Jump". 

Finally I want to share a video for a cute group that's existed for a few years, Twinkle.  A couple years ago, at least, they were Twinkle Angel and there were more members of the group.  Now Twinkle are a trio of girls named Saki, Sakura and Misaki.  This is actually a song they did a video for two years ago, which was sort of a dance practice version.  I think the title is "Twinkle Jungle".  

       

I hope you all enjoyed these songs!  I do my best to discover some of the best new Japanese idol music and news for those who are looking for groups and music that might normally be overlooked. Thanks again for reading my blog!  All of my readers are terrific!  

Menkoi Girls Are Coming To America!

Menkoi Girls have announced an appearance in the United States in October 2017 in Henderson, Nevada at the Autumn Festival, near Las Vegas!  I discovered this information some time before the announcement last week, but forgot to write about it in my blog.  I was reminded last night while watching Menkoi Girls on SHOWROOM Live.  I said "Hello" to four of the members last night and caught their attention.  Yuki, the leader of Menkoi Girls, was nice enough to speak a little English to me and told me that they were in coming to America in October.  I really wish I was going, but I have constant pain now and standing and walking hurts too much.  But if you live near Henderson, Nevada or can travel to there in October you might wish to see them.  Tell them that read about it in my blog!  Check out the Menkoi Girls Twitter for updates.

Here is a recent video from the subunit MG-Pen Pen (actually Pen squared).  This is the first time that I've noticed that they didn't add special effects.

     

NA-NA Is Back!

Just as I was about to go to bed last night I decided to check Twitter one more time.  I'm glad I did. I discovered the best news I have heard as an idol fan in some months.  ESSE Academy's NA-NA is coming back!  It's only for two performances on August 27, 2017 but this is better than nothing!  I guess schedules for all four girls cleared up for the time and they felt the time was right.  I certainly feel the time was right.  With all the break-ups and graduations in the idol scene, depressing news, mediocre new groups, and more of the same stuff from groups that have existed for years, it's about time there was something happy happening.  I have to admit the new hair styles (mostly Kimura Karin dying her hair) surprised me, but I still recognize them as NA-NA. You can see all of NA-NA's tweets on their official Twitter with all the info you may need if you are lucky enough to be in Japan.