This Is Your Wake Up Call!

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Prizmmy☆'s "I Just Want To Be With You"

Three days ago the preview versions of the new Prizmmy☆ single, "I Just Wanna Be With You ~Kaso to Shinjtsu no Hazama de~", were uploaded to YouTube. I've watched these videos multiple times as this is one of the best Prizmmy☆ songs yet! Prizmmy☆'s usual songwriters, NOBE and michitomo, had nothing to do with this song, and neither did Prizmmy☆'s normal choreographer, SAKI. Instead, a new composer and choreographer were brought in to give the new single some freshness! This time the song was written by Tetsuya Komuro and the choreography is by Jessica JJ Rabone, a woman born in Japan to British and Japanese parents. The CD will feature both the original mix and a "Club Mix". The DVD will not only include the standard content, regular, Dance Master and TV size versions of the music video, but also a making of segment too. The back dancers are four members of Prism☆Mates, Runa, Yuka, Natsu and Sana, as well as Dairiki Chie, the Grand Prix Winner of Dream Girls Magazine's PriPara idol audition contest.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Aither Members Update

Aither broke up on December 29, 2014, and while this may be the end of the group I loved, the members are still around...at least on Twitter. Four of the Aither girls now have Twitter accounts, with only Megumi having apparently dropped out of the public eye in order to be a normal high school girl.

Aither's original leader Konno Yuuka continues to tweet messages and share photos of herself on Twitter. While she seems to be selective in who she follows on Twitter, Yuuka is following former Aither member Sakura, and, surprisingly, also her old group Party Rockets!

Tsujimura Airi created a Twitter account on December 30, 2014 and has now begun a solo career. She is still signed with Deja Vu.

Misaki created a Twitter account on December 29, 2014 and is also still with Deja Vu. Misaki aspires to a model.

Sakura is continuing to tweet and share photos on her account, and is the only one following all the former members of Aither on Twitter.

Special thanks to my friend GPBchan for some info.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

JS Idol Spotlight: école☆primaire

If you thought St. Bonapro School being reorganized as Si☆Stella was surprising, the reorganization of Q♥T might be even more so. Q♥T was a very indie group that formed in March 2014 with three members, and released singles that were extremely limited. It was said in the group's blog that only 97 copies of each single were available; although I highly suspect that 100 copies were pressed and the three members each got a copy and the rest were sold to fans. Yano Myuu was later added to Q♥T's lineup, but she left barely two weeks later and announced that she was joining usa☆usa Girls Club. Then in November Q♥T broke up. With such a small group and fanbase, it would seem unlikely that a group such as Q♥T would be worth bringing back in some form. I mean, I like these girls very much, but realistically, they were never meant to be a big, popular group. But don't tell this to the management of usa☆usa Girls Club.

On January 1, 2015 it was officially announced on the usa☆usa Girls Club blog that Myuu would be transferred to a new group and the four ex-members of Q♥T would be forming a new group named école☆primaire, or éco☆pri for short. Yes, that is French for "elementary school", with a star symbol inserted. The group will debut on January 11, 2015 at an usa☆usa Girls Club live event. So long live Q♥T, or maybe I should say école☆primaire.

Author's notes: All four girls are now using their full names. Luna is now referred to as Runa, although I still think of her with her original idol name. Mio is now Miori, but again, she is still Mio to me. I thought that Mio's birthday was January 1 (as I mentioned in my original Q♥T blog article), but apparently it is January 17. I have used both Myu and Myuu in my blog for this cutie's name, but I primarily spell it Myuu. Old habits die hard, and old idol photos never die! For example, take this photo of the four member Q♥T.

Here are mostly new photos of all four girls. Myuu's photo is actually from July 2014.

Shiraishi Luna

Yano Myuu

Sanada Miori

Ichinose Himari

Members:

Shiraishi Luna (白石るな) - Born on September 16, 2002

Yano Myuu (矢野みゅう) - Born on December 25, 2003

Sanada Miori (真田美織) - Born on January 17, 2004

Ichinose Himari (一ノ瀬ひまり) - Born on December 15, 2004

école☆primaire Blog

école☆primaire Twitter

Monday, December 22, 2014

Si☆Stella Debuts!

Si☆Stella, the reorganized version of St. Bonapro School, had their live debut on December 21, and two new members appeared with the group! The new members are not just sisters, but twin sisters! The group's website has been updated, plus they now have a blog, a Google+ account and a YouTube channel. (Currently there are no videos on the channel, however, I have subscribed so I'll get an email when they do upload one.) Updated info is below.

Members:
Sakurai Rico, Leader - Born on May 3, 2002
Nono Mafune - Born on July 8, 2004
Akai Sakura - Born on November 20, 2004
Masuda Hina - Born on December 10, 2008
Kashiwa Ayana - Born on July 20, 2005
Kashiwa Yuina - Born on July 20, 2005

Official Website
Official Blog
Official Twitter
Official Google+
Official YouTube

The Expansion of amorecarina

Osaka based idol group amorecarina has some big news. First, on December 10 they debuted a new subunit named Miracle Girls featuring five members, Matsumoto Momona, Sugiyama Hina, Nakajo Himeka, Saitoh Kiara and Fujimoto Naho. Miracle Girls are a magical girl inspired group that only sing songs from magical girl anime!

The biggest news, however, is that the group is expanding. This was tweeted on December 20, and this blog article has all the details. As it turns out, amorecarina will have a group in three cities, Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya. New members will be auditioned to complete each group's lineup. I assume that means the current lineup will be split up, which I'm disappointed about. I'm just getting to know these girls and I prefer them to stay together as they are now rather than splitting them up and adding more members. Creating three groups may make things easier for the members that have to travel to Osaka to practice and perform, though, as only Yanou Juria lives in Osaka.

In related news, I want to wish happy birthday to amorecarina members Mouri Aimi (born on December 21), who is now 14, and Kiyono Momohime (born on December 22), who is now 10.

Mouri Aimi

Kiyono Momohime

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Idol Renaissance Signs With T-Palette!

In October I wrote about a group named Idol Renaissance that was created by Sony Music to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. Although they have nearly all of their YouTube videos blocked and have two venue-only singles now, including the newly released "Taiyo to Shinzo" / "Hatsukoi" double A-Side single, they attended the recent T-Palette "Thanksgiving" event held on December 13 as guests, not realizing what was in store for them. Towards the end of the concert featuring all the current T-Palette artists, they were announced as the newest group to join the label! This was tweeted by T-Palette Records along with this article appearing on their website announcing that Idol Renaissance were now a part of their label, along with the promise of a March 2015 single! What I am unsure of is why Sony let them go. Fortunately for overseas fans, we may be able to purchase Idol Renaissance singles in the near future.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

The 2014 Japanese Idol Review!

With another year drawing to a close, it's time for everyone's favorite (?) tradition, the year in review! Of course, I'll be focusing on Japanese idols for the purposes of this article.

In the past few years the Japanese idol industry has been going through an "idol boom" where idol groups are popping up all over the country. Every city, district and neighborhood seems to have an idol group. You can't walk too far down any street without bumping into an idol or idol wannabe. This, unfortunately, has caused an oversaturation of the industry that has many fans having a hard time keeping up with all of these groups, as well as finding ways to support them through purchasing merchandise and attending concerts. 2014 saw many new idol groups debut, only to have some of them break up or have lineup changes. Sometimes an idol would join a group only to leave a few weeks later, or even join a another group shortly thereafter. Some groups reorganized into new groups and there were even some "microwave" idol groups that came and went in the blink of an eye!

One trend I noticed this year is that older idols were being "phased out". Shortly after I wrote the first English language article about Links on July 24, Saito Mitsue, currently 21-years-old, left the group. The idol group BiS, whose members were in their 20s, broke up. Michishige Sayumi, age 25, graduated from Hello! Project's Morning Musume, and H!P even announced the disbanding (excuse me, "hiatus") of the group Berry Kobo, whose members range in age from 20 to 23, during Spring 2015. While there are still older idols for those who like them, I feel that this may mean that some new, younger girls will soon debut and hopefully take the place of the departed older idols. The only way for the idol industry to survive is to keep things fresh and exciting, and to give younger girls the chance they want to show the world how much they love to sing and dance.

Any end of the year review wouldn't be complete without a list. Yes, I have one! Actually, I have a list of my favorite idols songs of 2014, as well as much shorter lists of favorite albums and new groups. Instead of ranking my favorites, which I can't really do as I love a lot of these songs, albums and groups equally, I am grouping my favorite songs from each idol group that I like, and adding a list of albums and groups that I recommend if you haven't already heard them. (Select songs on my list have music videos.)

Favorite Songs of 2014:

Sakura Gakuin & Subunits -

"I J I"

"Jump Up ~Chiisana Yuki~"

"Mikansei Silhouette"

"Daydream Believer" (cover of The Monkees) by Marina, Raura, Nene & Hinata

"Ningentte Iina" by sleepiece

"Heart no Hoshi"

Caramel ☆ Ribbon -

"First Secret"

"Nana Iro no Niji no Muko ni"

"Sparkling Daydream" (cover)