2021 Japanese Idol Year In Review

Well, another kind of interesting year has gone by!  The virus that started changing our world about two years ago has affected the way we live.  We are mostly communicating through live streams and chats, although a vaccine has hopefully helped those who got it.  Unfortunately, it has also affected the idols I love.  Here’s what I went through recently. 

The backwards thinking of several individuals I met on various websites did not thrill me.  I used to be active on a Discord sever for the idol group Devil ANTHEM.  I made the mistake (?) of complimenting 18-year-old Takekoshi Kurumi, by saying she had “nice legs”.  This caused one individual to respond with “Please don’t lewd her.”  Excuse me?  I gave the girl a compliment and some clown thought I meant something bad.  Typical of today’s politically correct youth.  I also rediscovered an old thread on a forum I created named “Japanese Female Idols”.  Unfortunately, one person called me “creepy” and another questioned whether idols under 20-years-old had talent!  Oh boy, not this again….  I also decided to share a video I love for amorecarina Osaka on another forum and one guy called this “disturbing”.  Sigh.  More Western world people who have a misconception about Japanese idol music and don’t realize this is pretty normal.  I mean, why does being a music fan mean I can only like music from singers and groups who are around my age?  This is entertainment, people, not something world shaking.  Oh well, who needs them?  I love Japanese idols a lot and I don’t see myself stopping my interest in this music anytime soon.  

So, never mind the mainstream, here’s what I thought of the indie scene in Japanese female idols this year! 

Hiwillow announced in March that they were to film their first music video sometime in the summer.  However, leader SHIKI announced in May that she would be leaving the group in June in order to focus on her studies.  Before she left, Hiwillow performed a new song titled “Baby Baby” twice on SHOWROOM Live.  I assumed that this was the song that would be filmed as a video.  I’m not sure if Hiwillow lip-synced to a studio recorded song or if they sang the vocals live.  If they lip-synced then this would explain why the song hasn’t been released as a single yet, since the song can’t be released with SHIKI’s vocals.  In August Hiwillow debuted a new lineup with new members KAHO and AINI.  They performed “Baby Baby” at an idol campus event.  I suppose that Hiwillow will re-record the vocals with the new lineup and release this version as a single.  But as to when, I can’t say.  

In the meantime, Hiwillow collaborated with Heart of Hearts maid café on the song “Aozora Furenzu” (“Blue Sky Friends”).  It seems four older girls are the main singers on the track.  

The new idol song I’ve played the most these past few months is “Rabi Rabu IDOL School Song” by Rabi Rabu IDOL School.  I think I discovered this group on Twitter.  I didn’t immediately pay attention to them after following their Twitter, but when they uploaded the video for their song I watched it.  The song starts like a traditional Japanese school song, with some nice piano music, but then transforms into a catchy dance tune.  Interestingly enough, the members of the group at least partially wrote the lyrics!  I love this new trend where the idols write the lyrics.  (For the record, Fluffy Star, soloist Aoshima Momo and two members of Menkoi Girls have also written lyrics for their songs.)  Sadly, three of the girls in the video - Yume (pink), Hina (red) and Tiara (orange) - left the group on September 27 due to the coronavirus restricting the group’s activities.  Honestly, I think the parents of the girls were (rightly) worried about their daughters possibly getting infected, and not that any of the girls were actually sick.  A month later Riko (green) announced that she was taking a break from the group after their December 19 performance.  There go all my favorite members.  But you’ll be happy to hear that Miyuu (black) no longer has a cast on her arm and there are some new members now.  

Speaking of Aoshima Momo, in March she and her, ahem, ‘twin sister’ Lei released music videos about graduating from elementary school.  You’ll recall that Momo never used her family name until late June of this year when she entered the Junior Earth Japan beauty contest (reportedly the fourth largest beauty contest in the world).  Well, since Momo is a common name, she added Aoshima to enable better search results for her.  I guess this worked in her favor as she won in her category!  Congratulations, Momo! 

Unfortunately, she cut her hair afterward.  Oh well, hair today, gone tomorrow.  In October Lei released a Halloween single with a rock beat, “Invitation to the party”.  I like all of Momo’s songs, but I guess “Invitation” is my favorite of these newer three.  

Another soloist I like is Reika (full name, Nishkawa Reika), former singer for the idol groups Rainbow 7 and PARLISH.  Reika released three physical singles and two digital singles in 2021, the first of which was released on my birthday, January 20!  The A sides to all her singles are written for her, but Reika herself writes the music and lyrics to all the B sides.  Like I said, I love this new trend!  The B side to Reika’s second single, “OSHIGOTO” (“JOB”) is my favorite of her songs so far.  Some of her songs sound more like artist songs, but “OSHIGOTO” is definitely an idol song.  In the video Reika is seen wearing different outfits, but primarily a balloon skirt!  Towards the end she looks like a bride as she walks down a church isle as if she was about to get married.  Because of the song’s title, this may or may not be a metaphor to Reika being married to her job.  Well, I guess if you are 19 years old and it’s not mandatory to go to school anymore you could be married to your job.  

MOMOHA from Marble Angel is currently in the same beauty contest, Junior Earth Japan, that Aoshima Momo entered.  I think MOMOHA is one of the cutest girls I’ve seen, so I think she’ll get a prize!  Her group Marble Angel released a new single this year, “Rainbow Marble Story”, but the title song uses the music from their song “Smile” with new lyrics added!  One of the songs from this single is “TENJIN☆BIGBANG”, which was first performed when Takada Shiori was still in the group, then recorded when Marble Angel was in a transition phase with just four members.  This video features the lyrics, some of them in English, at the bottom of the screen. 

☆Fluffy Star☆ released their debut single “STEP☆UP” on July 10, 2021.  I mentioned this song in my first article of 2021 and shared a live performance.  Well, since “STEP☆UP” was released as a single in 2021 it counts as a new song!  The cover for the single features the girls drawn as manga characters, and it was drawn by member Shi (second from the left in the picture).  So, this is how Shi imagines herself and her friends in manga form.  Sadly, Momo (or Momonyan, which is her nickname, second from the right) graduated on September 19, 2021.  Momonyan is now a soloist, and you can follow her on both Twitter and Instagram.  

Sometime when I wasn’t looking, Ohzora Mitsuki, former member of RABBIT KICK and Campus, joined the group 2o Love to Sweet Bullet.  If I’m going to be honest, I’m not too impressed with some of their songs that were recorded before Mitsuki joined the group.  However, I do like a song they released in August named “Barebare Kamo”.  Unfortunately, there is only a short two-minute version on YouTube.  Now that I know Mitsuki is a member I will have to pay more attention to 2o Love to Sweet Bullet and try to figure out what exactly this name means.  

Cotton♥Candy was a subunit of CRUiSE! that uploaded a video back in January 2021 titled “Shiroi Gurufiti” (“White Graffiti”).  Yes, I said “was”.  The members are Kozakura Aina and Shimokama Kokona and were part of what was known as C-Fresh at the time.  This was a part of CRUiSE! that consisted of two trainees’ groups, Cotton♥Candy and White Lily.  Now it seems that these groups are disbanded.  Aina was a trainee with CRUiSE! since 2017, and I was excited that she finally became part of an actual group, since it seemed she’d never be an official member of CRUiSE!  Now Aina has left and so have some of the other trainees.  I’m disappointed.  Kokona, meanwhile, is now an “apprentice” (read: trainee) for CRUiSE! and the new trainees’ program is known as C.C.C Project.  Whatever.  

On October 24, 2021, the members of SPATIO ERPHY became members of SPATIO.  Completing the lineup is Airi and Manami.  I think the other members of SPATIO graduated, which is why SPATIO ERPHY were simply absorbed into the senior group.  I don’t think there is any new music from the current lineup, but I’ll share a photo.  

The cuties in KUWAGATA☆KIDS released four new videos to YouTube in 2021, including a new version of their first song, “Happy Happy”.  It was pretty tough to choose just one song for my Idol Year in Review.  I guess I’ve watched the video for “FREEDOM” more often than the others.  Sadly, at the end of October both Mana / Marna (I’m still not sure which is correct) and Luna Luna graduated from the group.  Also, Luna Luna’s siblings Oscar (a boy model who didn’t sing) and Ririan, who was in sister group Rabi Rin, also graduated.  There were too many graduations this year!  

Rock idols COLORLESS (whose members do have official colors) released a new song last month titled “Dreamer”.  Konone takes the spotlight here, but she has a good voice, so I don’t mind much. 

Graduations in 2021 included amorecarina Nagoya (who dropped the ‘Nagoya’ from their name for the last few months of their activities), who disbanded at the end of October 2021.  Misaki from Menkoi Girls disappeared sometime this year when I wasn’t paying attention.  And as I reported in my two-part article “Sakura Gakuin and Me”, Sakura Gakuin broke up at the end of August 2021.  

As always, the idols I follow are those you need to leave your comfort zone to truly appreciate. They are not the popular girls on big music labels, nor the sexy girls who get by on looks. But for those idol fans who think outside the box, the rewards for discovering amazing new singers and groups are worth it!

Sakura Gakuin and Me, Part 2

 

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 21^st 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 5^th Anniversary DVD single of “School days” was released.  This also included some footage from TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL 2015.  There was also a 5^th 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 

Sakura Gakuin and Me, Part 1

Sakura Gakuin announced last year that at the end of August 2021 they would disband. This would make them an active idol group for eleven years.  I thought I would write about how I became interested in this group, how I started the fandom for them outside of Japan and what Sakura Gakuin means to me.  This is how I saw things related to Sakura Gakuin through the years.   

THE BEGINNING

I’m reluctant to admit it, but I used to be an active member of a forum for Japanese idols.  I not only commented in several threads on this forum, but I actually started many threads myself.  One of these threads I started was for Sakura Gakuin.  So how did I discover this group in the first place?  Well, it all began with a torrent I downloaded named “TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL 2010”.  It was a large torrent too, over five GB and three hours long.  I didn’t watch it immediately, but I did manage to sit through it one night in November 2010.  Sakura Gakuin were the second group to perform.  I remember it all like it was yesterday: the video began with an announcer saying, “Tokyo Idol Festival 2010”, and then a flash of six photos, the first five of which was two girls each, followed by a group photo with the announcer then saying, “Sakura Gakuin”.  Then each of the ten girls introduced herself followed by a performance of the song “Yume ni Mukatte”.  It was an exciting performance by a group of very cute and energetic girls!  Although I sat through all three hours, it was a mixture of pleasure and doldrums.  Sakura Gakuin were clearly my favorite of all the groups in this video.  Shortly after the video was over I went on the internet to look up information on Sakura Gakuin and found very little about them written in English.  As a matter of fact, I found a list of all their names and a sentence or two written about the oldest members, and that’s it.  I copied down on paper all their names and birthdays for my personal reference.  The original Sakura Gakuin lineup was Muto Ayami, Miyoshi Ayaka, Matsui Airi, Nakamoto Suzuka, Iida Raura, Horiuchi Marina, Sugisaki Nene and Sato Hinata, although joining them as “transfer students” were Mizuno Yui and Kikuchi Moa.  Having discovered their names, I found that my personal favorite amongst them was tall and beautiful Ayaka, whose singing and dancing impressed me the most!  Then I looked for a place to preorder Sakura Gakuin’s debut single.  I found one and placed my order.  Then I went on that forum I used and created the Sakura Gakuin thread.  All of this occurred over the course of one night and early the next morning.  I didn’t go to bed until after 6 a.m.  I then waited for a response, any response.  For a couple of weeks, and no one responded.  Eventually someone responded but it wasn’t exactly what I expected.  Someone shared a video of Suzuka performing with her sister Himeka.  I then found out that both Suzuka and Ayami were previously members of another idol group named Karen Girl’s.  Apparently, Karen Girl’s sang songs for a children’s anime series that never got a U.S. release.  Although I like anime, I don’t keep track of all the series that go unreleased in my country.  Also, it should be noted that in 2010 I was still learning about Japanese idols.  I knew a tiny bit about the voice actresses that sang songs for the anime series I watched, most of which were magical girl series, but almost nothing about idols.  Well, long story short, people did start posting comments in my thread.                     

THE FANDOM STARTS 

It was nice to chat with the fans of Sakura Gakuin after waiting a few weeks!  A lot of people seemed to be fans of Ayami and Suzuka, with only a few people chiming in about the other members.  I didn’t find a fellow fan who shared my interest in Ayaka, though.  I edited a wiki on Sakura Gakuin and continued to update it as many times as necessary.  I wrote about Sakura Gakuin in my blog “I ♥ Miyoshi Ayaka’s Idol Musings” (which, unfortunately, I deleted due to depression).  I edited the Sakura Gakuin performance out of “TIF 2010” and uploaded it my old YouTube channel Doki Doki Morning (which I also deleted, but this time due to me trying to delete part of my Google account).  In fact, I wrote about Sakura Gakuin just about anywhere I could.  Some of the websites where I wrote about them have now, unfortunately, been deleted.  But I let anyone and everyone I knew at the time that Sakura Gakuin was my favorite idol group!  A lot of the things I wrote were copied and pasted into other people’s blogs, websites and various places on the internet, usually without my permission.  This annoyed me at the time, and it still does a bit, but it goes to show that fans all over the globe liked what I said about Sakura Gakuin.  I just don’t like it when people try to claim authorship of something they didn’t write.  (And in some cases, these people didn’t seem to have much in the way of English language skills, so I’m thinking they copied what I wrote as a way of making friends.)  I was really excited when Sakura Gakuin’s first album “Sakura Gakuin Nendo 2010 ~message~” was released (belatedly, due to the earthquake) in April 2011.  I thought the album was perfect, with 11 great songs!  The lead track, “FLY AWAY”, grabbed my attention right away with its electronic sounds leading into a rock beat.  “Hello! IVY” was another great rocker, and one of the single’s tracks.  “Brand New Day” by SCOOPERS, the subunit with Ayaka and Airi, was another personal favorite.  I played that song so many times I lost count!  The album ended with a ballad named “message” in which Ayami, Ayaka and Suzuka all got solos at the end.  A perfect way to end the album!  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to order all 4 versions of the album, something I now regret.  This is still my all-time favorite idol album, and I didn’t get this excited over an idol album again until Candy Kiss released their album “Parfait” in 2015.             

SLIDING DOWN

The odd thing, to me anyway, was that the breakout song that got Sakura Gakuin more notice among idol fans was “Doki Doki Morning” by Babymetal.  Yes, I loved the song too, and even named my YouTube channel after it (something I soon regretted).  Heavy metal fans who listened to idol music, and many who did not, suddenly crawled out of the woodwork and started posting their comments about how they loved the track.  This was both a good and bad thing.  Good because more people became aware of Sakura Gakuin, and bad because many Babymetal fans absolutely hated Sakura Gakuin!  I think some of them were downright offended that a ‘cool’ group like Babymetal would have anything to do with Japanese pop music.  This irked me, and I got even more upset when I saw Babymetal fans calling Sakura Gakuin names I’d rather not repeat here.  (Something that I recall distinctly was sometime later a Momoiro Clover fan said, “Babymetal’s songs are the only good songs on Sakura Gakuin’s albums.”)  Some fans are nice, and others have to be a problem.  Case in point: I tried to be polite when a couple of girls on YouTube begged me over and over to subscribe to their YouTube channel.  I wasn’t interested because they uploaded videos of them singing awful, original rap songs.  They told me that they were big Babymetal fans.  They even mistakenly thought that because my channel was named Doki Doki Morning that I had some connection to the group.  I told them (and many others later) that I didn’t.  After begging me again to subscribe to their channel because they weren’t well known, I caved in.  But I thought their songs were lame and later unsubscribed and blocked them.  I hated to do that, but I didn’t want to get notifications for their videos.  Another bad thing about being named Doki Doki Morning is that a friend told me that this name might imply that I was a fan of Morning Musume!  UGH!  Sorry, but I’m not.  In the meantime, I pointed out to several fans on Facebook and other places on the internet that the things they were posting on their blogs and fan groups were written by me, and how about giving me some credit?  I even linked where I originally wrote what they copied and pasted.  This led to some of them flat-out denying that they copied me.  They even sent me personal messages telling me “I wrote that, not you.”  When I linked the website where I wrote it (again) they said that they did not understand.  When I clicked on their names to see who they were I discovered that they were foreigners, mostly between 16 and 22, who didn’t have English for a first language.  Eventually they blocked me because they didn’t want me to respond to their theft of my writings.  I later changed both my username on that forum to I ♥ Miyoshi Ayaka and my blog name from “Doki Doki’s Idol Musings” to “I ♥ Miyoshi Ayaka’s Idol Musings” so it would be better understood that I am a big Ayaka fan.  It was tiring trying to convince Babymetal fans that I wasn’t involved with the group.  But my new username came with a new set of problems.  Almost nobody I knew liked Ayaka and even people I didn’t know decided that they didn’t like me because I wasn’t supporting their favorite idol.  What happened was I got a series of private messages from people all over the globe asking me why I was supporting Ayaka when Ayami was cuter!  They kept telling how much better Ayami was and one girl kept making fun of how tall Ayaka was!  No joke!  I got messages like that every day for a while from people I never heard of before, all because they saw my name and decided to annoy me for no special reason.  I tried to grin and bear it, telling them how awesome Ayaka was, and it was sad to hear such horrible remarks coming from Ayami’s fans when both Ayami and Ayaka were good friends.  But they would hear none of it and continued to insult both Ayaka and me.  So, I did the only thing I could and waited for them to go to sleep (since we were in different time zones), deleted their messages and then blocked them.  I began to think that being a fan of Sakura Gakuin and Ayaka in particular meant I was inviting the meanest people everywhere to use me as a target for the most horrible remarks a so-called idol fan could muster.    

3 A.M. AND LATER      

In October 2011 Sakura Gakuin began making commercials promoting FLET’s Wi-Fi.  This continued for at least a year.  There were some Q&A games associated with this promotion and I couldn’t really figure out what the text was since I can’t read Japanese.  But at least I tried playing them.  Sakura Gakuin’s second album, “Sakura Gakuin 2011 Nendo ~FRIENDS~”, released in March 2012, was a good follow-up to their first, but not as perfect as “~message~”.  I loved most of the 12 tracks on the album, and it has some worthy group songs such the title song, “Verishuvi”, the awesome rock / electronica hybrid “Otomegokoro”, “See you” and the cover song “Tabidachi no Hi ni”.  There wasn’t another SCOOPERS song here, but instead we got “3.a.m”, which was Ayami, Ayaka and Airi singing a three-part song.  “Please! Please! Please!” by subunit Twinklestars was very good, but their other track, “Rapicamu”, was kind of blah.  The real problems with this album, though, was the awful tracks by subunits Minipati and Babymetal.  The new Minipati lineup was different than the first album’s, and this was part of the problem; I just never got into this lineup like the first album’s lineup.  But the biggest problem was the songs themselves, and this I blame on the songwriters.  Their songs this time around just weren’t up to snuff.  I didn’t like any of the later songs written for the second Minipati lineup, either.  I’m probably the only Sakura Gakuin fan on the entire planet to have this opinion.  As for the Babymetal song, “Ii ne”, which has a 30 second hip-hop section, I have the Vega Mix Version on 3 versions of “FRIENDS” and the regular version on the compilation “LOCAL IDOL BEST”.  Honestly, though, I bought that CD for the B Flat / Party Rockets and Jewel Kiss songs.  On the plus side two new members joined Sakura Gakuin for the 2011 album, Taguchi Hana and Isono Rinon.  I took an immediate liking to Rinon because she was pretty and had long, black hair like Ayaka.  Unfortunately, good things never last, and three members of the original lineup of Sakura Gakuin graduated at the end of March 2012.  Ayami, Ayaka and Airi will always be a part of what made Sakura Gakuin interesting and fun during the first two years.  Talented and funny young Super Ladies all!   

POPULARITY RISING

The new school year brought Sakura Gakuin some new “transfer students”, Notsu Yunano (later Honjyo Yunano), Ooga Saki and Sugimoto Mariri.  Among these girls I took a liking the tallest, beautiful Mariri!  Due to the rising popularity of Babymetal, who were now more than just a subunit, Sakura Gakuin were gaining fans who discovered them through Babymetal.  Oddly enough, while Suzuka was named the new President of Sakura Gakuin, Marina was made Vice President and Raura named Vice Vice President (!), a position that I had never heard of before or since.  To be honest, I think this was done because Suzuka was often busy with Babymetal, so Marina became the President and Raura the Vice President when Suzuka was gone.  (I wanted to mention that Suzuka’s sister Himeka was, at the time, a member of the idol group Nogizaka 46.  I remember reading from a fan of this group that “Himeka has a younger sister in another idol group.”  Why Suzuka wasn’t mentioned by name or why the names of her groups weren’t mentioned by this fan, I don’t know.)  I should mention that at one point I started a fan group for Sakura Gakuin on Facebook.  One of the people who later sent me many annoying personal messages was a member, and I did my best to tolerate her for a while.  I eventually kicked her out of the group and blocked her after she became unbearable to deal with, but she came back under a false name.  There was another Sakura Gakuin group on Facebook that later became a page that I followed.  That was until yet another Ayami fan sent me messages insulting me for liking Ayaka, and basically cyber-bullied me.  I blocked him too and reported him to the administrator of the page.  The admin told me that he couldn’t do anything about the bully because he was only bullying one person (me) and not a group of people!  Honest!  The admin happened to be the friend of one of my friends and I told my friend about this.  My friend’s response was that maybe the admin didn’t understand the situation about me and the bully.  Oh, I think that admin understood the situation perfectly well; he, and the rude-messaging bully, simply didn’t like me.  I unliked the page and never looked at it again.  The lesson I learned from this was that it’s okay for one person to be cyber-bullied because one person, in the long run, does not matter.  Although I still liked Sakura Gakuin a lot, I had to admit that I missed Ayaka terribly.  The good news was that Ayaka was keeping busy with her acting and modeling careers.  She modeled for the Japanese version of “Seventeen” magazine for years and made several TV and movie appearances.  For the movie Gumo Ebian! a.k.a. Good Morning Everyone! Ayaka won the Sponichi Grand Prix Newcomer Award at the 2012 Mainichi Film Awards.  The Sakura Gakuin single “WONDERFUL JOURNEY” was decent, but one of the B-sides, “Song for smiling”, was terrific!  Why this wasn’t the A-side, I have no idea.  One of the pluses of this year were a subunit named Kagaku Kyuumei Kikou LOGICA? with Marina, Hinata and Rinon as the members.  LOGICA? is a mix of 1970s funk rock and modern electronica with lyrics about science!  They released a single in November 2012 titled “Science Girl ▽ Silence Boy”, which has a pretty funny music video for the title song.  Around late February 2013 Sakura Gakuin released the single “My Graduation Toss”, an upbeat song about a sad subject (for idols), graduating.  This utterly fantastic song was written by Kawase Tomoko (a.k.a. Tommy february6) and her husband Okuda Shunsaku.  The music video had the girls doing air guitar impressions, and it’s fun to watch.  The B side to the Limited B Edition was “Mezase! Super Lady” in which all the members spoke lines while the actor playing Mori-sensei sort of narrated it.  I really like this a lot, and I thought that it should have been included on the album that soon followed, “Sakura Gakuin 2012 Nendo ~My Generation~”.  Little did I know at the time that I’d get my wish, over and over again, when it was included on every other Sakura Gakuin album after this.  “My Generation” was released in March 2013 and it was a pretty decent album aside from a couple songs, one by Minipati and the other the B side “Marshmallow-iro no Kimi to”.  The Babymetal track “Headbanger!!” was an improvement from the last album’s song, although the songwriters have the word “metal” attached to their names.  This, and Babymetal’s soaring popularity, caused nearly every fan of theirs to adopt the same type of names for their usernames on the internet.  This wasn’t a good thing, in my opinion.  The very good news was there was two LOGICA? songs on the CD; the aforementioned “Science Girl ▽ Silence Boy”, and a new song titled “Delta”.  “Delta” is, hands down, LOGICA?’s best song!  It is the best funk rock / J-pop hybrid song I’ve ever heard!  This was the last album for founding member Suzuka, and Mariri’s only album, as Mariri decided to leave Sakura Gakuin after only one year.  Mariri’s decision to leave was a sad one for me personally, as she is one of my favorite members of the group, along with Ayaka, Hinata, Marina and Rinon.                              

To be continued...  

The Kids Are Alright: Rabi Rabu IDOL School

Based in Okinawa and created by Color’s Modeling Agency, Rabi Rabu IDOL School (Rabbit Love IDOL School) debuted on September 20, 2020.  The group’s first solo live was on October 25, 2020.  All members are models who also appear in commercials and movies.  Their debut single was released on July 7, 2021, while the music video for it appeared on YouTube on August 7.  The members of Rabi Rabu IDOL School wrote the lyrics for the song too!    

I couldn’t find the birthdays for any of the girls, but the description for the music video “Rabi Rabu IDOL School Song” mentions they are in 4th to 6th grades.    

 
Members:
Fujibayashi Yume - Official Color: Pink
Shimabukuro Rairi - Official Color: Blue
Murakami Hina - Official Color: Red
Sano Junna - Official Color: White
Kawamura Yunan - Official Color: Purple
Sakihama Riko - Official Color: Green
Ikehara Kanon - Official Color: Sky Blue
Miyuu - Official Color: Black
Tokumoto Tiara - Official Color: Orange
Higashionna Ruka - Official Color: Mocha Brown
 
Graduated Member:
Riona - Official Color: Yellow

For some reason the new president of Okinawa Kaiho Bank was interviewed by four different members of the community, and Sano Junna was chosen to be one!  

 

Single:
“Rabi Rabu IDOL School Song” (July 7, 2021) 

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The Kids Are Alright: SPATIO ERPHY

SPATIO is an indie idol group from Oita that debuted on December 24, 2011.  On July 22, 2018, their sister group, SPATIO KIDS, made their debut.  In February 2020 the group changed their name to SPATIO ERPHY to reflect a new, more mature image.  SPATIO ERPHY sing SPATIO songs and various cover songs but have also released a single of an original song, “Jump! Jump! Jump!”, in May 2020.  They have kept the same lineup since their debut.       

Members:

Yua (Leader) - Born on October 11, 2007.  Official Color: Green. 

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Saki - Born on September 10, 2008.  Official Color: Pink. 

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Mina - Born on January 3, 2009.  Official Color: Yellow. 

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Aina - Born on April 19, 2009.  Official Color: Purple. 

Trivia: Aina plays the piano and knows some English.    

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Here's an early performance from SPATIO KIDS.  

“We Love TRINITA” is my personal favorite SPATIO song!  

Here is a fan video with Japanese lyrics for “Jump! Jump! Jump!” 

Some information in my article was taken from the Japanese Wikipedia article on SPATIO. 

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The Kids Are Alright: KUWAGATA☆KIDS

I thought I'd write some articles about Japanese kids idol groups that I’m currently a fan of.  My first article is about KUWAGATA☆KIDS.  

KUWAGATA☆KIDS formed in April 2019 in Nagasaki.  The original lineup consisted of five girls, with Mana joining in July.  Riri joined in August 2020.  The leader of the group is Mari, who is not the oldest.  Rabi Rin is a sister group with Saerin as the leader, Eri also a member and the sisters of Luna Luna and Mirerun also being members.  Moon Clover is a subunit consisting of Luna Luna and Mana; they made their debut on February 21, 2021. 

Members:

Mari (Leader) - Born on July 20, 2009.  Official Color: Red.

Luna Luna - Born on February 6, 2009.  Official Color: Blue. 

Mirerun - Born on September 11, 2010.  Official Color: Purple.

Saerin - Born on July 4, 2011.  Official Color: Pink.

Eri - Born on December 21, 2012.  Official Color: Yellow.

(The above girls are the original lineup.)

Mana - Born on July 31, 2009.  Official Color: Green. 

Riri - Born on May 7, 2011.  Official Color: Orange.

It should be noted that there are different spellings for many of the members.  Japanese people interchange the letters r and l so sometimes there are two or more spellings for a name.  Mari is also spelled Malie and Marie.  Mirerun is also spelled Mirelun.  Eri is also spelled Elie or Ellie.  Mana is also spelled Marna.  Riri is translated into Lily by online translators. 

Trivia: Mari and Eri are sisters.  Luna Luna has a younger brother named Oscar and a younger sister named Ririan.  Ririan is a member of Rabi Rin, the sister group.  Oscar seems to be a child model but I’m not sure of what role he plays in KUWAGATA☆KIDS.  Mirerun has a younger sister named Hiyorin who is in Rabi Rin.  Many members of Rabi Rin are preschool age and I don’t have a list of all their names.       

Two members also play musical instruments.  Riri plays both piano and violin.  

Mirerun plays the bass guitar.  

Here is “SURPRISE PARTY” by KUWAGATA☆KIDS!  

Here's the latest single, “FREEDOM”! 

Official Website (English Version)

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