2022 Japanese Idol Year In Review

Another year has gone by, and here’s what I thought of it, at least as far a Japanese idol pop goes. 

I’ve already reported on some of the idols that have graduated and some idol groups that have disbanded in 2022 in a previous article I wrote on May 23, but those weren’t the only idols that left the entertainment world in 2022.  NODOCA, the leader of Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI, graduated on March 27, 2022.  The new leader of ORI☆HIMETAI is MIHO.  I already mentioned that MOMOHA of Marble Angel graduated on May 5, 2022, but on December 11 the leader of Marble Angel, Umeda Aoi, also graduated.  The new leader of Marble Angel is Ishimatsu Haruna. Ayaka of Menkoi Girls graduated on November 27.  The duo Chibi Mini. only lasted a few months before disbanding. 

So, now I want to focus on something more positive!  My favorite idol songs from 2022, in no particular order.   

“Rabi Love Spell (Acer Version)” by Rabi Rabu IDOL School is a song I play often.  This is pretty much my pick for Best Song of the Year!  Rabi Rabu IDOL School have a new single that will be released on January 1, 2023, and I’m sure that song will make my best of list next year!  

“messiah” by Lock★Rock BAB is another great song I like to play the video for.  This one’s for all of you hard rock and metal fans!    

“Tokimeki no SPACE” by ww is a pretty good song that has been announced on Twitter as the group’s first single, on sale April 4, 2023!  If only I could find the SPIRAL MUSIC singles I want on sale online... 

“DIG” by Aoshima Momo is a funky “vocaloid” song that Momo wrote the lyrics for.  The video is a limited animation video, with no live action.    

“♥Kyu→Pid♥” (“Cupid”) by Chibi Mini. is a song by two balls of energy better known as Takahashi Kazaha and Shiraki Hina (who has now changed her stage name to PINA for some reason).  Do you recognize the silver trailer that is used for some scenes in this video?  It’s the same one that was used by St. BONAPRO SCHOOL in 2013 for their video “Yumemiru Carnival”.   

“Planet Rendezvous” by Harajuku Gakuen is the debut single by another SPIRAL MUSIC group (the third one listed in this article, after ww and Chibi Mini.) that is one of my current favorite groups.  When Harajuku Gakuen perform on their home stage you might see the members, mostly leader Aoyama Nanako and Amakawa Mio (who now has short hair), goof off.  That’s what makes watching all of their videos fun for me.  

“Rockyun Date Sunday” by Rockyun Roll was the first - and last - single by this duo (Hoshino Runa and Yuduki Ramu).  There isn’t an official video, but you can hear the audio while looking at the CD cover.  

“YOSOLO” by CRUiSE! is a typically energetic song from this group, with one slightly odd musical shift.  I love everything that CRUiSE! does, so I’m not complaining.  

“flick! flick! flick!” by Hiwillow is a song I wasn’t sure I’d like, since it’s their first single without former leader SHIKI.  But I was surprised that it sounded good to my ears.  There is an official video (two, actually), but it can’t be found on YouTube.  You need to buy the single which comes with a DVD to see the music videos.  Here’s a live fan video.  

“Symphony of Singing to You for 7.7 Billion Minutes” by Fluffy Star + SUNNY Fruits is a collaboration song, although both groups feature some of the same members.  Each group released a single with this song on it, and I assume it’s the same version on each CD.  The Fluffy Star single, titled “Go x 5”, is now out of print.  Again, I’m assuming that only a limited amount of copies were pressed and it sold out faster than was expected.  I never got a copy, so I hope it will be reissued.  At least the SUNNY Fruits single, “SWEETS”, is still available (at the moment).  

“Tippy Toes” by XG was the first single for this group, who are probably the most recognized out of all the groups I am sharing music for in this article.  They sing in mostly in English, but also in Japanese and Korean, and are trying for an international appeal.  To me, this is still J-Pop.  My biggest reason for liking XG is Ueda Juria, former member of the kids idol group amorecarina.  I think she’s an amazing singer, as well as being very beautiful.  Truth be told, all the girls are pretty amazing.    

“POP SHARK” by Shinozaki Karin, formerly Kimura Karin of NA-NA, is her second solo single.  Every one of Karin’s fans should know that she loves sharks, so I’m not surprised she is singing a song with “shark” in the title.  I like this a bit more than her first video / single “My Life”, so this one goes on my list of favorites.  

“Welcome to Nyanko Town” by Momonyan (Momo is her name, “nyan” is the sound a cat makes) is her first solo single after leaving the group Fluffy Star.  Momonyan writes her own lyrics and sometimes uses sign language for certain songs too!  Of course, all the members of Fluffy Star also write their own lyrics, so this must come natural to her by this point.  I had to choose a fan video, and I hope I found one that looks and sounds good to everyone.  

Well, that’s all I have to share for this year.  Obviously, this is not all of the Japanese idol songs I listened to in 2022, but these are the ones that stood out to me.  As always, I thank you if you read my blog and took a look at the videos and links included here.  I hope all my readers have a great rest of the year and all the years to come!       

Once More, With Feeling

As many of you reading my blog knows, I’m an adult who is a fan of what is called Japanese idols.  They’re not exactly the ‘idols’ you see on Western TV talent shows, but rather girls and young women who sing pop music often while wearing colorful costumes.  Idols can also be male, but I usually don’t listen to them out of disinterest.  It’s hard to explain exactly why I choose to listen to female idols, but I’ll try to do my best one more time, just for the record. 

As a kid I usually listened to whatever my parents were playing on the radio or their stereo.  They usually played what some people call ‘oldies’, due to the songs being much older than whatever is currently popular with today’s listeners.  As I grew up and developed my own tastes I started to listen to and collect records of then current pop and rock artists.  Yes, vinyl records from the 1980s.  I collected cassette tapes as well.  Thus, I began a journey of discovering many artists from around the world.  The genre I listened to depended on my age and whatever I discovered, sometimes through friends.  I eventually collected compact discs when I bought my first CD player and took a chance on various new artists I wanted to hear.  I often bought CDs of music I wasn’t really sure I would enjoy, as I didn’t have a computer and the internet at the time.  Now I can just stream music or go on YouTube and watch a music video for free.  Well, I guess I’m paying for it since I pay for the internet.       

My interest in anime is what got me interested in Japanese pop music.  At first, all I really knew was the artists that recorded songs for the anime I liked, so I focused on getting soundtracks for these series.  Then when I finally did get a computer and the internet, I discovered tons of new artists and songs by watching random YouTube videos.  You know how YouTube often suggests what to watch next, based on what you just played?  Well, I played every video that I had time to watch and learned about so many new singers and groups.  Although many of the artists I discovered were adults, I also discovered that there were lots of kids and teenagers singing pop music too.  In the United States, where I live, most pop and rock singers are adults, and it’s rare to come across a teen or kid singing.  Unless, of course, you count whoever is on The Disney Channel.  No offense to these Disney kids, but most of them didn’t interest me.  I don’t watch American TV anymore, so I no longer pay attention to all these young, new stars.  I don’t watch many new movies, either, so I can’t name the current generation of popular actors.  And it’s been many, many years since I listened to the radio, so I couldn’t tell you who are the most popular singers these days. 

I think it was because I was getting tired of American entertainment that I started to focus on Japanese entertainment.  Pretty Japanese girls singing pop was a lot more interesting to me than a Western singer covered in tattoos singing some sort of trendy new song.  Tattoos and facial piercings don’t look good on women.  There, I said it!  Sue me!  Japanese females of all ages usually do not have tattoos or piercings beyond earrings.  Earrings are fine, as long as you don’t overdo it by having more than a couple earrings per ear.  Yeah, you can tell that I’m not really into the fact that some people today look like 1970s punk rockers.  Putting aside (if you can) my dislike for the way some Western people look, it was mainly the voices of these Japanese girls that caught my attention.  If they weren’t talented enough to capture my attention, then I wouldn’t care for them at all.  It’s not that male voices don’t interest me, because that’s not true.  It’s mostly because (yeah, here it comes) I just don’t want to look at men and boys all the time.  No offense, guys, but you’re not as attractive as the girls. 

So, what appeals to me in terms of singing?  Well, cute and girly voices are my favorite.  Voices like these make me smile.  Husky voices don’t do much for me, but I guess it depends on the song.  A good song is very important too, because I don’t want to waste my time listening to garbage music no matter how cute the girl is or how popular she is.  I don’t choose to listen to a Japanese singer based on how trendy they are or how popular they are with other fans.  In fact, most of the singers I like are not popular, even with fans of this music, at all.  I keep hoping I’ll meet a fan online that has the same tastes as me, but that isn’t going to happen.  When I started to listen to idol music, I did listen to some of the most popular groups at the time, but they eventually got boring to me due to me hearing them sing the same songs over and over.  I wanted to hear more than whoever was popular this week, so I started to watch new idol videos of groups I knew nothing about.  This is what got me interested in writing about idols.  If there was nothing written about them in English by other people, I wanted to be the first to do it.  And so, I did, many, many times.  But, for the most part, I was writing about idols that few people were interested in.  I didn’t care.  I like these girls, I like their singing, their dancing, and their songs, so they are the ones I write about!  I’m not writing this blog to be the most popular fan blogger who specializes in writing about Japanese idols on the internet, I’m doing it as a labor of love. 

Somewhere along the line I started writing about a lot of young kids who sing idol songs.  I even started a fan page on Facebook called Young Idol Singers.  I kind of started it as a way of sharing videos of groups that were too young for certain fans, out of spite for some of the negative comments I read about these girls.  Yeah, I understand why some people feel uncomfortable about watching videos of kids singing a song.  Some people just want to focus on entertainers that are close to their age or older.  I’m fine with that if this describes you.  I think some of these kids have really good voices, though, and I encourage people to give them a chance.  What I don’t like is people who write off kids as not being good entertainers.  I can point out examples of kids throughout modern entertainment history that do have talent and can be enjoyed by adults.  Shirley Temple.  The Little Rascals.  The Jackson Five.  Jodie Foster during her early career.  Dakota Fanning during her early career.  I’ve met adults who like all these former child stars.  And there’s more examples than I have the space to add here.  So now that several years of writing about Japanese idols, and several kid idols, has passed, I’m now considered by some idol fans as something of an expert in this field.  Not that I consider myself an expert at anything.  If you don’t want to listen to these girls, that’s okay.  You don’t have to.  But I’m going to keep watching, keep listening and keep track of all the new, young talents out there before they are discovered by everyone else. 

Speaking of which, I feel privileged that I did discover several idols who later joined another group or became a soloist and became better known to fans.  In my original idol blog, “I ♥ Miyoshi Ayaka’s Idol Musings”, which I stupidly deleted out of depression, I wrote about several idols that later became much bigger stars in the idol industry.  I can’t prove this, now, of course.  There are examples of idols in my current blog that I have also done this for.  Some examples are Sakura Gakuin, and in a sense their more popular spin-off, Babymetal; Watanabe Koume of B Flat and Party Rockets, who later joined SUPER☆GiRLS; amorecarina (later amorecarina Tokyo), which counted among their members Saitoh Kiara, now in =LOVE, Matsumoto Momona, now in Takane no Nadeshiko, and a former member of Last Idol and Choux Cream Rockets, Ueda Juria, now in XG, and Kiyono Momohime, now in BEYOOOOONDS; amorecarina Osaka, which counted among their members Yano Yuka, who later joined A Little Bit, Tanaka Ayaka, who is now in Reiwa Startup, and Kobayashi Ran, who is now in AKB48; amorecarina Nagoya, which counted among their members Suzuki Ena, now in SKE48; PARLISH, which counted among their members Noguchi Monami, who later joined GEM, Takeuchi Nanami, now in SUPER☆GiRLS, and Nishkawa Reika, now a soloist; SunRisa, which counted among their members Imamori Manaka, who later joined Showjo Kagekidan, and Okamura Minami, who is now a member of BEYOOOOONDS; Jumping Kiss, which counted among their members Mizuno Zion, now going by the name Kameno Zion and a member of NMB48; and Rabi Rabu IDOL School, which counts among their members (both current and former) Higashionna Ruka, also in CherryChery and OKI.7STARS, and Fujibayashi Yume, now in 4xstAr5.  I certainly hope I not forgetting anybody.     

Ueda Juria 

Tanaka Ayaka

Nishikawa Reika

Fujibayashi Yume

I should probably point out that I don’t really pay attention to most of these new groups that the idols I like join after they leave the indie group that I’m a fan of.  One problem I have is that new members who join a popular group often don’t sing much.  Since they are the new girls, they are mostly backup dancers for the first few singles after they join.  It takes a while for them to get their chance to sing and show what they can do in this new group.  While the fans know this is the system an idol goes through and seem to want it this way, I don’t personally like it.  It’s a waste of the girls’ talent and a waste of my time listening to a group that I don’t really like.  The popular idol groups, for some reason, sing bland love songs, for the most part.  And as I said above, a good song is very important to me.  If my favorite member(s) aren’t doing much, and the songs are forgettable, then I have no reason to pay any attention to yet another bland, boring idol group.  There are plenty of exciting idol groups that are much more worthy of my attention. 

I get the feeling that most people won’t like most or all of what I said in the article, but this doesn’t really matter.  This is my blog, these are my opinions, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  I rarely get a chance to discuss Japanese idols with anybody, even the few friends I’ve made on the internet that also listen to this music.  We all have different living and sleeping schedules, and we all have different tastes.  Everything I just said is something I’ve always wanted to discuss with other fans.  I feel better now that I have finally got to say all this, even if I had to do it in my blog instead of having a conversation with people in a room. 

As always, thank you for reading my blog, and have a good day!

Exciting Idol News!

I have some exciting news to report about a handful of idol groups, and one soloist, so let's get to it!  

Rabi Rabu IDOL School now have a sister group named Rabi Rabu Baby's.  (Yes, spelled like that.)  The group debuted on September 11, 2022  as dancers for the main group.  I'm not sure if this group of younger girls will sing or have a single released.  Higa Kisa, who was announced as a trainee in November 2021, is part of Rabi Rabu Baby's.  The other girls are Katsu Yuna, Kina, Yafu Rua, Tanahara Yuume, Miyagi Rea and Higashionna Riria.  (Riria might be Ruka's sister since they have the same family name.  I'm not sure of this, though.)  Here's a new video of all the members of both groups performing "Rabi Rabu IDOL School Song". 

SPIRAL MUSIC's Harajuku Gakuen announced that they are releasing their first single on November 22, 2022!!  The bad news (well, you may not consider this bad news, but...) is both Amakawa Mio and Matsuda Karen have cut their hair short!  sigh  

Another SPIRAL MUSIC group made their debut recently.  They are named ww worldwide the mix girls unit.  Similar in concept to the now disbanded Global Unit Comet+, ww have members that are (mostly) of mixed heritage.  Lin Oberndorff is German and Japanese.  Kokoa is Japanese and Thai.  Takehashi Kazaha has two Japanese parents.  Lila is said to be of American, British and Japanese heritage.  As I have mentioned on a wiki I created, I'm pretty sure her parents are from the U.S. and U.K., but she was born in Japan.  Finally, Punamu Kanda is Indian (the country India) and Japanese.  Kokoa and Kazaha are former members of Konyanko.  Kokoa was also in Neko Punch and Kitty Cat.  Kazaha was also in Chibi Mini.  Here is ww's first live video.   

Someone at that Fandom wiki site that I am also a part of found a Imamori Manaka video!  Manaka is a former member of SunRisa, and also my favorite idol!  Apparently she is now part of a theater company.  I was surprised to see Manaka's hair so short in the video and didn't recognize her at first.  Yeah, I'm hung up on girls with long hair.  But in any case, Manaka is still one of the prettiest girls in the whole world to me!  I won't stop liking her just because she cut her hair.  And besides, this video is now over a year old.  It's possible she grew her hair back by now. 

Oh, here is Manaka's profile.   

Soloist Aoshima Momo has a new song titled "SAKEBI", and apparently it's an anti-suicide song!  I wasn't expecting this type of song from Momo.  I didn't know this, but apparently there is a high suicide rate among teenagers in Japan around late August and early September because summer is over and school is back in session.  I'm very sad to hear this.  Momo is trying her best to get these kids to listen to her music and hopefully prevent them from killing themselves.  Wow.  This is a very heavy topic for a thirteen-year-old singer to sing about.  Here is the video. 

Now, I'd like to know why Momo or her management took down the music videos on her old YouTube channel.  Unless you downloaded the videos like me, you can't see the videos for "I'll try ~todoku made~" or "Kokoro no Time Capsule" anymore.  That's a shame for her new fans.  

Well, that does it for now.  Thanks again for reading my blog, and have a great day!      

       

Hiwillow's New Single

When your favorite member of a Japanese idol group leaves, it sometimes seems like there is no longer a reason to continue following the group.  I've mentioned this before, and this time I'm talking about Hiwillow.  The departure last year of Hiwillow's leader, and my favorite member, SHIKI, has really hit me hard.  I saved over 400 photos of her, mostly from Twitter, and I didn't bother to save that many photos of the other members.  That's not to say the other girls in Hiwillow aren't pretty or talented, it's just that they weren't my favorites.  I was also hoping that before SHIKI left that Hiwillow would release their second single, as originally planned, in 2021.  That didn't happen, and now that Hiwillow have released their second single with their new lineup I have discovered that it's not "Baby Baby", the last song that Hiwillow performed with SHIKI.  Instead, Hiwillow have released a single titled "flick! flick! flick!".  My first reaction to the short preview on YouTube is that it's too cutesy for a Hiwillow song.  I was expecting something a bit more "cool" than "cute".  I was also hoping that the full video would be on YouTube, but so far it's not.  What I have found is some live fan videos, all uploaded by the same person, of the full song.  Now that I have heard it a few times, I'm actually liking it.  Who knew I'd feel this way?  

So anyway, the new single is available in two versions, each with a DVD containing the regular version of the music video and something else unique to each DVD.  Type A has a "pajama version" of the music video and Type B has video messages from each member.  I'd love to see the "pajama version" of the video!  Below are the official preview and live fan videos of "flick! flick! flick!".  

As always, thank you for reading my blog! 

  

Idol News

It's only May but there's been a lot of things going on in the indie scene of Japanese idols.  Here's a few of the things going on that I wanted to share, and some videos too.   

A few graduations have happened or will happen soon.  MOMOHA of Marble Angel graduated on May 5, 2022.  I have always liked her a lot because she is a very talented singer and she's very pretty.  She's also very good at drawing.  When MOMOHA left Marble Angel she was 11, but her birthday was May 13, so she is now 12 years old!  Happy birthday to one of my favorite idols!  Here are a couple videos from MOMOHA's final performance as a member of Marble Angel.  

Yuduki Ramu from the idol group Rock Kyun Roll is graduating on June 19, 2022.  The group's first - and last - CD single, titled "Rock Kyun Date Sunday", will be sold on this date.  Here's the cover.  

Sano Junna, the leader of Rabi Rabu IDOL School, has announced that she will be graduating on July 30, 2022.  Her energy on stage is amazing!  I will definitely miss her when she leaves.  For those not familiar with the newer members, Non (real name: Kanon, pink), Roia (orange), Rea (yellow) and Mairi or Miley (red) are their names.  Rabi Rabu IDOL School released a new single titled "Rabi Love Spell" on March 21.  Although they apparently filmed a music video for this song, so far it hasn't appeared on YouTube.  However, several live videos of the two versions - that's right, there are two versions - have been shared.  Here are both versions! 

Ishida Aoi of Petit Kiss, formerly Jumping Kiss Standby, graduated on April 16, 2022.  Unfortunately, many girls have graduated from Jumping Kiss and the group now has four members, plus Matsuda Kurumi, the other member of Petit Kiss.  Last year Otsuki Ai disappeared shortly after Jumping Kiss released their third single.  Here is Aoi's final photo uploaded to her Twitter.  

Speaking of groups that keep losing members, CRUiSE! now have only three.  The group's latest single, "YOSOLO", only has Aoi Miyu, Tonogawa Haruka and Akahoshi Nana in it.  Yeah, Aizaki Yukine, the group's best singer, has graduated.  CRUiSE! has a new subunit named Compass, which features former Marble Angel member Kondou Misora.  I hope Compass make their debut soon, because I'd like to hear an original song from them.  In the meantime, here is the latest from CRUiSE!  

  

Two groups I'm following disbanded.  COLORLESS broke up sometime in March.  Si☆4 broke up on April 29.  Obviously, I'm not really happy about this.  Each month it seems there are less and less groups that I like that are currently active.  

COLORLESS (October 2021)

Si☆4 (April 2022)

Konyanko Kingdom is the umbrella name for two kids idol groups, Kitty Cat and Neko Punch.  They have been active for over four years, originally just as Konyanko, yet have not released an original song.  Neko Punch was the name for another idol group that was active around 2011 to 2013, and they released a single titled "Moon Light Flower".  Kitty Cat (not the new Neko Punch)  covered this song in one of their live videos on YouTube, so I know the name for the new Neko Punch is not a coincidence.  Two former members of Konyanko, Takahashi Kazaha and Shiraki Hina, have now debuted as Chibi Mini.  (Yes, that means the translation of their name is "Mini Mini".)  Chibi Mini have released their first single, essentially titled "Cupid" (spelled "Kyu-pid", with hearts and arrows in the title).  Here is the video!  

Aoshima Momo released a new song on a new YouTube channel (which is why I didn't see it on the day it was shared) titled "DIG".  The video features a still drawing of Momo with the Japanese lyrics in various fonts onscreen.  The music is  very funky, and the lyrics, of course, are written by Momo herself.  

Former Rabi Rabu IDOL School member, Fujibayashi Yume, the original pink girl, has her own Twitter.  She is working hard as a model these days.  I'm sharing this because I knew everyone would want to follow her!  

If you are looking for a loud, hard rock idol group to listen to, try Lock★Rock BAB.  The first song in this video, "Brave", is my personal favorite! 

Well, that's about all I want to type right now.  But that's a lot of information I have been wanting to share with everyone.  I hope all of you enjoy these videos and photos and, as always, thank you reading my blog!    

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