On July 31, 2017 NA-NA surprised me and the idol fan community
by announcing their return on Twitter, if only for two performances on August
27, 2017. Well, as it turned out, NA-NA
had so much fun that they decided to keep performing, at least for gigs for each
member’s birthday. They also performed
on other occasions, although the performances were spaced apart by months due
to the schedule each girl had. Leader
Hara Mizuki and member Kimura Karin had both graduated high school, but members
Honda Touko and Taniguchi Sayane are both still students. Furthermore, Touko was also the leader of another
idol group, Colorful Scream.
NA-NA announced on Twitter on August 11, 2018 that their final
performance would be on November 25.Touko
announced on the Colorful Scream website on September 11, 2018 that she was
graduating from the group on October 13.(Colorful Scream member Sara was also graduating.)That meant Touko had less idol-related
obligations and could now focus on NA-NA (and school).However, it also meant Colorful Scream would
no longer have any of its original members.NA-NA doesn’t seem to have any new videos on YouTube (that I’ve found)
but today on Twitter I was surprised to see two clips of the song “Koi no
Furezu” (“Phrase of Love”).Furthermore it
seems that Yoshinaka Aoi of Caramel ☆ Ribbon has a new Twitter and she and Ueno Amane (also formerly of Caramel ☆ Ribbon,
now in MahoAmaneRuna) both attended! (I wonder
if Caramel ☆ Ribbon leader Fukata Seina was busy?) I just wanted
to share some photos and the Twitter videos because this may be the last time
we can all see NA-NA live.
In the past couple weeks I have been slowly realizing (thanks to the fact that I can't read Japanese) that one of my all-time favorite idol groups has now broken up. Or "paused activities" as the translation I read put it. SunRisa have stopped being active after a September 7, 2018 performance. It was officially announced by Imamori Manaka on Twitter on October 9, 2018, by Kada Yume on Twitter the same day and on the SunRisa Twitter on October 11, 2018. The SunRisa website and the second SunRisa YouTube channel have both been deleted. Manaka is now modeling for a company named CONAMi. Yume is also modeling as well as being a student.
For those of you who need a refresher, I was the first to write about SunRisa in English on April 17, 2015. The original group debuted on April 13, 2014 with five members: Kozai Sakura, Kumada Rena, Matsuo Fuka, Kawasaki Sakura and
Shimada Mayuka. Okamura Minami joined later in June 2014. Imamori Manaka was originally a candidate (trainee), but joined as a full member on August 22, 2014. (Many fans assume that Minami was an original member when she wasn't.) By April 2015 everyone except Fuka, Mayuka, Manaka and Minami had graduated. In early May Mayuka graduated, followed by Fuka's graduation two weeks later. SunRisa, now a duo, re-recorded their first two singles, "OVER FLOW" and "Fashionable", making the very limited edition CDs with four members singing instant collector's items. Of course, by October 2018 all of SunRisa's CD singles and mini-albums are presumably out-of-print. Minami graduated on October 6, 2016 and later joined Hello! Project. Kada Yume and another girl named Haruka joined SunRisa in February 2017 only to have Haruka leave by April. Ever since April 2017 it's been Manaka and Yume, with this duo recording yet another version of "Fashionable" and releasing it on the same-titled mini-album on December 24, 2017. Now it seems SunRisa have broken up after four-and-a-half years.
I've said a number of Japanese idol groups were my favorites throughout my time as a fan of this music. Sakura Gakuin, Caramel☆Ribbon, NA-NA, Candy Kiss, PARLISH, amorecarina Osaka and SunRisa have all taken top spots as my favorite group. My favorite idol has also changed over time, with Miyoshi Ayaka, Fukata Seina, Yamashita Honoka, Wada Yuka, Tsukamoto Ririka and, of course, Imamori Manaka all being personal favorites. But when I say Manaka has the best voice in all Japanese pop music right now, you better believe I mean it! If Manaka wants to take a break from performing as an idol, and wants to focus on modeling, that's fine. But I seriously hope that someday Manaka will return to singing. This girl has a beautiful voice! Manaka's voice is one of the reasons why "OVER FLOW" was my favorite idol song of 2015; one of the reasons why "Z.E.N.R.Y.O.K.U. Zenkai ~Hisshi no Patchi~" was my second favorite idol song of 2016*; and one of the reasons why "GAO GAO" was my favorite idol song of 2017. (*In 2016 I was most impressed with the song "Shooting star ☆" by amorecarina Osaka.)
The original SunRisa YouTube channel, which thankfully hasn't been deleted yet, mostly has short clips of promos and dance covers, but there is also this wonderful video of Manaka singing a cappella.
There are also several fan videos of SunRisa to watch, such as this favorite for "GAO GAO".
I'm a big fan of Manaka's so maybe I'm getting upset over something that may not seem like a big deal to most people, even Japanese idol fans. But really, I'm reacting like any real fan would react. My favorite singer and yours may be different, but you'd probably say something similar if one of your favorite singers left the entertainment industry, or one of your favorite groups broke up. Manaka to me is a real gem of a girl! Talented, gorgeous and kind, she's what anyone would want in a girl. I'll be awaiting your return, Manaka-chan!
I'm back again with my first blog article in over a year! This time I'm simply sharing some Japanese idol Halloween photos I found on Twitter and Facebook. Enjoy!
Tomimoto Airu
DIANNA PROJECT Idols
Shimizu Rion of Culumi
Kitade Cocoa of MERUCHU
Little Blossom
Happy Halloween everyone! Thanks for visiting my blog!
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 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.
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.
Last month I wrote about the new documentary film TOKYO IDOLS which is currently playing film festivals. I hadn't seen the film then so I could only comment on the trailer and the interviews with director Kiyoko Miyake. I have now seen the 59 minute edit shown on BBC 4, a U.K. TV station. The version I watched late last night was only in 360p quality and has now been removed. It seems there is also a 720p HD version also on YouTube and I will watch this as soon as I can. I will link the video but I cannot guarantee that it will stay on YouTube. I'm also going to be linking a fan comment on this edit of the movie that perhaps you'll want to watch first. Apparently there has been some mistranslation of what the Japanese people in the film are saying.
The first video I'm going to link is Amina du Jean's comment on the BBC edit. This young African-American woman is living in Japan working as an idol herself! She seems knowledgeable on the subject of idols and speaks Japanese. Her video includes photos, some of which aren't used in the documentary. Amina discusses what she does and doesn't like about the film and what it overlooked, in her opinion. She doesn't believe (and neither do I) that the Japanese idol scene is represented as fairly and as in depth as it needed to be. The documentary basically shows the surface of the idol scene and ignores some of the important parts, such as the female aspect of the idol fans. Also, most of the fans shown in the film are over 30, some over 40 years old. I've talked with young women (even Amina, although not recently) both on the internet and in person at Idol Matsuri in Silverdale, Washington back in 2014, and I know for a fact that women like this music. People who are and aren't in some kind of relationship are fans of Japanese idol music. People in all countries and from different cultural backgrounds love this music. Yet, mostly adult male fans are shown in the film. Amina claims in her video that the amorecarina fan has what he says mistranslated. The person who made the subtitles for TOKYO IDOLS apparently wrote his comment in a way that implies sexual implication when there isn't. That's not to say there aren't fans who think of sexual feelings when listening to this music, but that isn't always the case.
The social commentators interviewed in this film are apparently opposed to all of this music, and
only some of the parents of these girls have something positive to say.Another thing missing (in my opinion) are interviews with the people behind the scenes.While some of these people who work at the companies who created the idol groups have the best interests in the idols, there are also a lot of slimy employees that take advantage of the girls.I've heard rumors that some of the staff members actually coerce a date these teenage girls, while forbidding them to have a boyfriend their own age.The "punishments" an idol endures whenever she breaks a rule are atrocious!How these staff members get away with their behavior is a mystery that needs solved.Now this is a 59 minute version of the movie and not the complete film.It is possible that some of the comments in favor of this music were edited out of this version.It's also possible that certain content was unsuitable for British TV.Unless you have seen the full movie, it's hard to tell if the director, film editor and subtitle creator were truly trying to create a film that is totally biased against this music.It does appear that way, though.
I'm going to add some comments which I included on YouTube as a response to Amina's video, with some corrections.
What bothers me as a fan of the idols whose parents were interviewed is the full names of the girls weren't used and some spellings were incorrect. I was the first to write about amorecarina in English in my blog This Is Your Wake Up Call! I have always thought the name of this group was one word spelled with all lower case letters. And Oda Yuzuha is the full name of the member profiled. The footage of amorecarina here was filmed in early 2015 and Yuzuha has now left the group. So have several other girls briefly glimpsed in the clips. Yuzuha said she wanted amorecarina to perform on a stage like Budokan. She left the group possibly in 2016, but I was off the internet at the time, so I don't know exactly when. She was a part of the offshoot group EDMKISS until May 3, 2016. I'm sorry Yuzuha didn't achieve her dream. She wasn't my favorite member, but I did like her. I have the "Monster High" single amorecarina released, and I love it!
The full name of Amu is Kayama Amu. Harajuku Monogatari is an offshoot of Millennium Girls. Note the Millennium Dance Complex shirt worn by a fan in the movie. Again, Amu wasn't my absolute favorite, but I certainly did notice her in videos. She was part of the six members of Millennium Girls who sang "Noisy Girl", the only single by Millennium Girls released outside of venues, which I have. Too bad the single only has one song and an instrumental. At least the amorecarina single has three songs and three instrumentals. Both are worth tracking down if you haven't already added them to your collection.
I'm not familiar with P.IDL so I won't comment on them. I was not aware of Hiigari Rio prior to this movie. After reading the subtitled lyrics to "Worship Me" and "Banzai! Banzai!" I am afraid I have been put off by this young woman and the writer / producer responsible for this single. The song makes me want to do the opposite of worshipping her. I want to avoid Rio and Hyadain (the songwriter and producer) like the plague! Rio seemed sincere in the movie and I was starting to sympathize with her, then she makes me vomit as I see her strings being pulled by the puppet master producer. For having gone along with the recording of this single I have now less than zero respect for her.
My comments might seem a little harsh in regards to Rio, but this is how I felt after watching the finals few minutes of the movie. Unfortunately there are a lot of idols who follow down the same path, letting their careers be pulled in whatever direction that the producer wants. Perhaps this is what Rio and other idols want (and maybe the fans too), but a lot of this songwriting and attitude gets a bit much after a while. This music is meant to be fun, not egomaniacal and self-important.
Here is the short version of the documentary. I hope it stays on YouTube long enough for everyone to watch.
As always, thank you for reading my blog. I hope you have a great day.
