The Latest Idol Happenings

A lot of things have been happening to the idols that I am following, so I thought it’s time I shared the news. 

RICORIRI is a new idol duo consisting of Sakihama Rico and Nakase Riri.  Rico is a former member of Rabi Rabu IDOL School who sang on the group’s debut single.  She stopped performing with the group at the end of December 2021 but didn’t officially graduate until March 2023.  Rico started modeling with Nicola, a fashion magazine for teen girls, and this is also the magazine that Riri was modeling for.  Nicola put together this duo and released their first single, “Pure pop”, on June 18.  Here’s the video. 

There have been some graduation announcements for some of the SPIRAL MUSIC girls plus the return of one idol!  Marika a.k.a. Poppy graduated from the group Babooom on August 10.  Mahina has announced that she will be graduating from Jingu Shojo on October 19.  The good news for Jingu Shojo fans is that Kurosaki Hana is back from her suspension and was added to the group on August 10.  Hana is also performing solo again with her guitar.  Sadly, Matsuda Karen will be graduating from Harajuku Gakuen on November 3, after being a member for over three years.  I think the one graduation that’s really going to bother me the most is Karen’s as she is a big part of why I like Harajuku Gakuen.    

Baboom

Mahina

Kurosaki Hana

Matsuda Karen

LuCheers have had some member changes since I last wrote about them.  They now have nine members.  Their new video is titled “Rainbow Days”.   

Once again, thank you for reading my blog.  Have a great day!        

My Favorite Japanese Idol Songs 2025

More than six years ago I shared a list of 54 idol songs that were personal favorites of mine.  I only chose one song per artist and included the year of release in parenthesis.  I thought I’d share an updated list of 80 idol songs.  The artists on my list have several great songs to choose from and it’s often hard to pick just one.  What’s even harder is finding talented groups and soloists to listen to.  I’m going to stand by what I typed last time and not change anything such as the songs or artists I chose.  I did my best to verify the spellings and dates of all the songs, but I apologize if I got anything wrong.  Many of these songs can be found on YouTube if you do a search, but there are some artists that are no longer active, and their videos have been removed. 

01. “Brand New Day” - SCOOPERS (2011)

02. “Niji Iro” - Caramel ☆ Ribbon (2010)

03. “Candy Machine ni Notte” - NA-NA (2013)

04. “Summer Paradise” - Aither (2013)

05. “RainBow × RainBow” - Prism ☆ Box (2013)

06. “Love Romancer” - Candy Kiss (2014)

07. “ORI ☆ STAR Love Jet!!” - Michinoku Sendai ORI ☆ HIMETAI (2012)

08. “KISS ME KISS ME” - CoCo DeCoRu (YouTube: 2013 / CD: 2014)

09. “Shuriken Shu Shu” - Himekko 5 (2013) 

10. “Koisuru Sniper” - Jewel ♥ Kiss (2011)

11. “Oh My Ghost? ~Watashi ga Akuryo ni Nattemo~” - Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku (2011)

12. “life is game?” - PEACEFUL (2011)

13. “Song for You” - Fairies (2011)

14. “Running Fighter” - Onigokko (2013)

15. “Ne~e! Sakuranbo” - Sakuran Bom Bom (2014)

16. “Delta” - Kagaku Kyuumei Kikou LOGICA? (2013)

17. “Hatsukoi Rocket” - Party Rockets (2012)

18. “St. BONAPRO SCHOOL” - St. BONAPARO SCHOOL (2013)

19. “FLY AWAY” - Sakura Gakuin (2011)

20. “lucky star” - mImi (2014)

21. “OVER FLOW” - SunRisa (Live: 2014 / CD: 2015)

22. “Let’s go out” - amorecarina (2015)

23. “Popple ☆ Heart” - Prizmmy☆ (2012) 

24. “NO: ID” - B♭ (Live: 2010 / CD Remix: 2012)

25. “Minichia Ouenka” - Minichia Bears (Live: 2010 / CD Remix: 2014)

26. “JS Datte!! Ima Shika Nai!!” - Pocchimo (2014)

27. “Star Road” - Haru ☆ Kana (2013)

28. “Kyoshitsu Sabaibaru” - Millennium Girls (2014)

29. “Honki! Matsuri! Love Sick!?” - Smile Kiss Gumi (2013)

30. “JUMP” - PARLISH (2014) 

31. “Kinen-bi Noto” - Maboroshi ☆ Love (2014)

32. “Go Go ☆ Dinosaur” - Candy Zoo (2014)

33. “Hypericum Chaka de GO!” - Hypericum (2015) 

34. “Hono’o no JUMPING KICK” - RABBIT KICK (2014) 

35. “Cherie Amour” - CheriCherie (2015)

36. “Susume! Hope!” - loop (2012)

37. “Shooting star ☆” - amorecarina Osaka (2016)

38. “Mirai e no Tobira” - Si☆Stella (2015)

39. “Shukurimu Monsuta ♪” - Cute☆Pit (2014)  

40. “FUJIYAMA △ no yo ni” - FUJI △ PASSION (2014)

41. “MODOKASHI BABY” - BABYFACE (2015)

42. “Warning” - Riluce (2014) 

43. “MY FOTUNE” - powder.jp (2014)

44. “QQQ” - Maliee (2015)

45. “Chocolate Paradise” - MOMONA from Prism☆Mates (2014) 

46. “Dancing Hero” - Showa☆Tokimeki Gumi (2017)

47. “Himawari” - Little Blossom (Live: 2017 / CD: 2018) 

48. “Smile Gakuen” - Smile Gakuen (2011)

49. “Suisei” - Global Unit Comet+ (Live: 2017 / CD: 2018)

50. “Mirai e no Shunkan” - Bear in Mind (2018)

51. “Niji Iro Drops” - W. (2018)

52. “RABBIT HUTCH Matsuri Wasshoishoi” - RABBIT HUTCH (2018)    

53. “Koisuru Bani” - White Rabbits (Live: 2017 / CD: 2019)

54. “Devil ANTHEM. ~Kimi no Heart wo Seifuku Chu~” - Devil ANTHEM. (2015) 

55. “Cherry” - Hiwillow (Live: 2019 / CD: 2020)  

56. “MY MODE” - SAKURA MODE (2019)

57. “Hokago Lip” - Jumping Kiss (2019)

58. “SURPRISE PARTY” - KUWAGATA☆KIDS (2020) 

59. “STEP☆UP” - ☆Fluffy Star☆ (Live: 2020 / CD: 2021)

60. “Tenshi no Namida Furu Hi ni” - amorecarina Nagoya (2018)

61. “Rabi Rabu IDOL School Song” - Rabi Rabu IDOL School (2021)

62. “Kimi ☆ Adventure” - Si☆4 (2019) 

63. “Brave” - Lock★Rock BAB (2021)

64. “Wishing Star” - Angel Sisters (2021)

65. “Searchlight” - ww (Live: 2022 / CD: 2023)

66. “Kiss ga Suki” - Harajuku Gakuen (2023)

67. “Seishun Shitai” - Cook a dish (Live: 2023)

68. “SWEETS” - SUNNY Fruits (2022) 

69. “Rock Kyun Date Sunday” - Rock Kyun Roll (2022)

70. “By My Side” - RIOT BABY (2017)

71. “ORANGE BUBBLE” - Orange (2020)

72. “Smile” - Marble Angel (2019)

73. “Let’s” - Sweet Cherry Pepper’s (2023)

74. “Dystopia” - ULTRA-C (2024)

75. “Iyahon Hazuse!” - Omatsuri Shoujyo (2019) 

76. “WATER Mermaid” - CRUiSE! (2017)

77. “I’ll try ~Todoku made~” - momo (2020)  

78. “FUNKY RIDER” - Colorful Scream (2018) 

79. “Itsudatte Party” - LuCheers (2024)

80. “Acchicchi -Sho☆Do? Chapter 1-” - Menkoi Girls (2014)

ULTRA GROUP

 

ULTRA-C is transforming next month as part of something called ULTRA GROUP.  Instead of one group there will be two, plus a subunit.  On June 7, the current system of ULTRA-C will end, and the new system starts the following day.  The members will split, with Kawai Riri, Sarasa and Momoi Aya in ULTRA-C along with two new members; and Mahina, Marika and three new members in a group named Jingu Girl.  The subunit will be Say, with Sarasa and Aya, who have already performed at SPIRAL MUSIC events. 

So, what happened to Kurosaki Hana?  She was suspended as of May 3.  While I have no idea of what she did exactly to get suspended, I do know that she was meant to be part of Jingu Girl.   Already in 2025 three members of ULTRA-C graduated and now another member is gone.  I was starting to like Hana too.  She performed twice at SPIRAL MUSIC events playing her guitar.  I thought her playing was good, too.  Hana joined ULTRA-C on December 19, 2024, so she’s only been an idol for four-and-a-half months.  Well, here’s hoping that Hana turns up in another group with another company soon.  In the meantime, all of Hana’s social media is still there.  You can still follow her, even if she may not update anything for the time being. 

Lit.Link (a list of all of Hana’s social media)              

Graduations and Revelations

A lot of things have been happening lately with some of the idols I follow, so I thought I’d share everything with you good people!  Graduations happen around this time of year in Japan, from school graduations to idols leaving their groups.  While some of this news is sad for the fans, it’s also expected. 

Tanahara Yuume with the new members of Rabi Rabu IDOL School

Rabi Rabu IDOL School had four new members (trainees) added on February 15, 2025.  Their names are Tanahara Yuua, Uchihara Mahina, Sasaki Mano and Kaho.  (I can’t find any info on Kaho beyond her given name.)  Yuua is Yuume’s younger sister.  Unfortunately, according to an Instagram post, Miyagi Rea graduated from the group on March 30.  I am looking forward to seeing videos with this new eight-member lineup. 

Watanabe Arisa (left) and Hananashi Rin (right)

Watanabe Arisa and Hananashi Rin of the group ULTRA-C both graduated from the group and SPIRAL MUSIC on March 30.  They were my favorite members so I’m very sad about this.  But I want to wish both girls the best with their school and home lives because they deserve it!  Good luck, girls!   

Fluffy Star

Fluffy Star also had some graduations, three in fact.  Yes, it’s true, long time members Sara, Tsumu and Riko (“Ri” to her fans) have all left the group.  This will have a major effect on Fluffy Star as their songs were often written by Sara and Tsumu and the remaining members Aya and Sena aren’t known for their songwriting.  I guess we will all see how the group moves forward from here.  Sara and Riko will continue to use their X (Twitter) accounts to update their daily lives, while Tsumu has deleted hers.  You can still follow the X accounts for the group, Aya and Sena, for updates on their activities.   

I have now found out that the group She’s a Rainbow are in fact a singing group, not a band.  The members posed for promo photos with instruments, leading me to suspect they were a band.  Well, there is a video on YouTube of their live debut, albeit only two songs of the group singing for fans at a Tower Records location.  The songs are written in a 1960s style, and I like it!  I hope you will too. 

Finally, I wanted to let you know that I saw a fan video of the group Babooom, with Amakawa Mio, Aoyama Nanako and Marika from SPIRAL MUSIC groups Harajuku Gakuen and ULTRA-C.  It turns out that they do sing and not just dance to K-Pop.  The video I saw is on X from user kuni_syavin, and I’ll link that here. 

It looks like I had more to talk about than usual today!  That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.  I don’t write in my blog as much as I used to in years past.  I want to keep the fans who are reading this constantly updated when it’s possible.  Thank you to everyone who reads my articles on Japanese idols.  I’m still a big fan of this music after 16 years (and counting!) of discovering idols and 26 years and counting of discovering J-Pop music.  This is the best music I’ve ever heard, and I mean it!  Stay awesome, people!      

What Are Those SPIRAL MUSIC Girls Doing Now?

Some of the members of SPIRAL MUSIC idol groups are involved in new projects.  Two new groups are set to debut soon, and both have a pair of Harajuku Gakuen members in them!  Here’s the lowdown. 

She’s a Rainbow are a four-member group featuring Amakawa Mio and Aoyama Nanako of Harajuku Gakuen and Lin Oberndorff and Kokoa of ww.  The girls are posing on the cover with instruments, but I’m still unsure if they are playing them or not.  I think it’s pretty obvious that the name of the group is taken from a Rolling Stones song.  It’s interesting that the song titles on the CD cover are all in English.  It’d be even more interesting if they are sung in English too.  The cover claims that this is produced by Sally Kubota for Impact Sound, so even though all four girls are from SPIRAL MUSIC groups I don’t think this has anything to do with SPIRAL.  The CD will be released on March 28, and I’m looking forward to hearing it if I can find a copy to purchase somewhere online.     

The second group is Babooom, a “Japanese dance & vocal group” that once again features Mio (as “Chucky”) and Nanako (as “Micky”) as well as Marika of ULTRA-C (as “Poppy”).  The videos that I’ve seen on social media make them appear to be a K-Pop dance cover group, but if they are singing as well then maybe that means they’ll sing covers of popular songs.  Will they perform original material too?  Only time will tell, and that time will be on April 3. 

I’m excited about She’s a Rainbow the most, since I like all four of the girls and because it might be a band.  Even if they are a singing group and not a band, I think I’ll still love them.  Babooom may have three talented dancers but I’m not really a fan of K-Pop dance covers.  Then again, it’s too early to tell what to expect from them.  I’ll keep an open mind. 

Thanks again for reading my blog. 

2024 Japanese Idol Year In Review

It’s time once again for me to share what I consider the best Japanese idol songs and videos and all the new that’s important to my favorite indie idol scenes.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a real fantastic year.  I have already written about the disappearance of a video I liked this year, and I watched some new videos by groups not familiar to me and I wasn’t too impressed.  Lineup changes affected some groups I follow, including the graduations of some of my favorite idols.  But let me get on with the best idol videos of this year! 

SPIRAL MUSIC’s Harajuku Gakuen released two singles this year, both of them a lot of fun to listen to!  I couldn’t decide on which song is the best, so I’m including both!  “Welcome to Harajuku Gakuen” was released on May 28, 2024, and it’s the group’s most exciting song to date!  It’s a fast-paced rocker with lots of electric guitars, a bit of English lyrics and great vocals by all the members.  “Everybody’s Summer” was released on October 8, 2024, which is definitely after the summer season.  Some of the footage in the video was filmed last year, in Summer 2023, and you get to see the girls in their swimsuits!  Both videos are a lot of fun!    

ULTRA-C, another SPIRAL MUSIC group, also released a single, “Seishun Shitai”, on October 8, which I have already mentioned in my past two blog articles.  The CD single featured three tracks including a song named “Dystopia”, which is another awesome song that came out this year that I love!  But as I mentioned in my last article the music video for “Seishun Shitai” was made private after only five days.  I also want to mention that ULTRA-C now have nine members.  Kurosaki Hana joined the group on December 19.  Now I download as many favorite videos as I can, and I’m glad I have this video, but there are probably people who haven’t and can’t see the video now.  So, I don’t have a video link for “Seishun Shitai”.   

ULTRA-C (December 2024)

LuCheers is a group I just got into this year.  They formed in Nagoya in June 2022 and have two singles.  The name of the group is a combination of the Italian word “Lucia” (“Light”) and the English word “Cheers”.  The song “Itsudatte Party” (“It’s Always a Party”) is their first music video.  Two members of the group in this video have now graduated and six new members have now joined.     

RABBIT HUTCH have gone through changes this year.  Last year on November 12, 2023, founding member (and my favorite member) Hattori Sakurako graduated, along with Kiyota Anri, who joined in October 2019.  This year founding member Goto Hinata graduated on August 18.  The group now has five members again, including former amorecarina Nagoya member Amano Natsuki.  RABBIT HUTCH released two music videos this year, but after listening to each song twice I can honestly say that the group aren’t doing anything fresh.  It’s the same cutesy, energetic pop that they’ve been doing since they formed in 2017.  There’s nothing really wrong with that, but the group just seems to be treading water.  

RABBIT HUTCH (November 2024)

After writing the above paragraphs I tried to think of what other videos I wanted to share or what other groups I wanted to write about.  Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything else.  I don’t think it’s because I’m losing interest in Japanese idols as much as it’s because I can’t find many new groups that I like.  However, I am losing interest in some of my favorite groups because my favorite members are leaving these groups and the new songs they sing aren’t to my liking.  Hopefully this will change in 2025.  

Once again, thank you for reading my blog.  Have a great holiday season and I’ll see you next year!    

What's Going On Here?

There’re a couple things about some of the idol music videos that I’ve shared on my blog that I need to talk about.  Maybe these aren’t real big problems or something like that, but they are rather annoying.  

On June 12 of this year, I wrote an article titled “Recent Favorites”.  I shared a music video titled “my best wishes” by Nono Aimi.  It seems that this video has been shared on two YouTube channels, including Aimi’s.  The other channel that uploaded it was actually the first one to do so, Bash Official Channel.  Bash has a total of seven idol music videos on it.  Bash uploaded the video on October 10, 2023, and Aimi shared it on her channel on June 10, 2024.  A music video being uploaded to two channels, the channel of music company that owns the song and the idol’s channel, is not unusual.  But uploading it to two channels seven months apart is.  I had no idea that Aimi’s new song was actually a 2023 release when I shared it because I don’t subscribe to Bash Official.  I wanted to include it of my list of favorite songs for 2024 when I write this year’s Year in Review, but now I guess I can’t.  Here’s the Bash upload for “my best wishes”.  

The group ULTRA-C has had an interesting year.  On May 5 a live version of a new song titled “Shoot it up!” debuted on YouTube.  It was mentioned in the description that it was to be their first single, to be released at an unspecified date.  A few months later “Seishun Shitai” was announced as the group’s first single.  A music video spot (a short preview of the video) was uploaded to YouTube on September 21.  On October 8 the full music video was shared.  Then, on October 13, it was made private, along with the live version of “Shoot it up!”.  Why?  Originally, I thought that it was because of an error in the video.  There’s some wind noise during a beach scene for about one second that isn’t part of the studio recording.  I figured they would remove the noise and then reupload the video.  I was wrong.  Surprisingly, the music video spot is still on YouTube.     

The real reason, I suspect, is because ULTRA-C has now added two new members.  The decision to add them was probably around the same time that the editing of the music video occurred.  The two new girls are Onda Mahina (who no longer uses her family name), former member of ww, and Marika.  The girls performed with the group a few times when some of the original members were unable to because of poor health, but they had an “official” debut, when all the members could perform, on October 22.  Since Mahina and Marika were not in the “Seishun Shitai” video, I guess it was decided to make it private after a mere five days!  Why the video for “Shoot it up!” also had to be made private, I don’t know, unless it was for the same reason. 

ULTRA-C (October 2024)

Anyway, thanks again for reading my blog!