I know one of the things that popped up and spread around the Johnny's fandom was the rumor that there was going to be a new volleyball support unit debuting at the end of the year. According to the rumor the group would be appearing on the cover of the December issue of the idol magazine Myojo.
Honestly I immediately marked this in the questionable. Upon learning that the information could not be verified outside of a single source that was not even known in the past to be reliable I counted it in the number of various other rumors about such a debut. And now that information about Myojo's December issue is out on their official webpage it looks like at best it was a mistake about the unit that will be featured on the cover.
According to a Myojo tweet the cover will feature a new unit which will consist of Sato Shori, Kuramoto Kaoru, Matsushima Sou, Yu Marius and Haniuda Amu and will be called Sexy Boy. So there will be a new unit, but it looks like it will just be a Junior unit as there's no mention of a CD debut anywhere.
Honestly after Kis-My-Ft2's delayed debut and Johnny's at least beginning to push A.B.C-Z towards a debut yet another debut of a group, unless it's a one-shot debut, seems unlikely. I'm sure Johnny's probably had plans for a volleyball debut but because of the disaster in March a lot of their plans have been scrambled which is why I'm thinking that we will not get such a debut unit. A.B.C-xyZ almost seems like an attempt to salvage some of those plans but I'm not a part of the agency so the best I can do is speculate just like any other fan.
There's also the fact that if those five were to be the new unit it would go against another caveat of debuting groups, no one outside of Junior fans would even know who they are. They're all fresh Juniors and have only recently gotten attention from Junior fans in the past few months. A few have been on Yan Yan JUMP but that's still not a lot of general recognition outside of Junior fandom. But all the volleyball groups have been made from some of the most popular Juniors, which tend to be the Juniors that have been around for a while and have had acting jobs, and then an unknown or relatively new Junior or two thrown in. V6 had the three eldest members of the group being popular Juniors of their time, Arashi was made of all popular Juniors, NEWS had Yamapi and Hey! Say! JUMP had the two most popular members of one of the most popular Junior groups, Ya-Ya-Yah, as well as being able to ride off the newer popularity gained by the original Hey! Say! 7 members. And while those five do show promise, especially Shori, they're all very new faces and have a ways to go in climbing up the ranks of popularity with the Juniors even if they seem to be taking leaps and bounds up there.
With this recent bout of rumors of debut I must stress that you make sure sources are verified in some fashion. I tend to stick to known news sites, reliable online stores (those that have a history of only posting correct information up) and if I use blogs I always make sure the information that can be found on other blogs and it is coming from a source that's been mentioned or from various individuals that were personally there at a concert/taping/event that an announcement was made. For example, even though I only linked one blog for the A.B.C-xyZ information I looked at a few other blogs from people that were at the show the announcement came from first and chose that blog as it had the most information at the time. So before you believe a rumor make sure it's either coming from a known reliable source or can be verified by different people that aren't all using the same iffy source for the information.
And with that all out of the way I'd like to go on record and say that Sexy Boy is a terrible group name. And it would not matter if the boys in the unit were ten years older than they are, it just comes off as really unimaginative and boring. As silly as a lot of Johnny's group names are at least they come off as someone took some time to sit down and think about it, while with this name it looks like they just took the words out whatever image pitch they created for the unit.
9 comments:
No way there´s going to be a new unit debut in November!!!
A new debut just two months after Kisumai?! Nooo, Johnnys won´t do that! Let Kisumai own this year!
OMG, "Sexy Boy"??!! What kind of name is that O_o
For me those boys are children and I don´t see any sexiness at all. Gosh Johnny, please come with better names !!
I imagine, my friend asks: "Which Johnns group do you like?" And I would answer : " Sexy Boy" , omg this sounds horrible. It´s so embarrassing!!!
Eeeeh, I even didn´t know that there´s a rumour about those Fresh Jr´s debuting for Volleyball .....
Sorry, as much as I like Shouri-tachi, who would buy their single ?
They are still totally unknown and it´s too early for them. They won´t debut so soon.
I remember, there was Nakayama Yuma with B.I.Shadow debut in 2009.
Nakayama was also very young and unknown so what did Johnny-san?
He put Yamada and Chinen in to form NYC boys because YC were already pretty popular at that time.
Sexy Boy, LOOOOOL I can´t take this name seriously LOL
@ Anonymous
Even if they would debut a new unit so soon they wouldn't do so after announcing that they have intentions of debuting another group. It would divide too much attention between the two groups.
I don't see anything sexy about boys that young either. Sure they're cute but they need to grow up more before I can even think of any of them having sex appeal.
I don't think I can say I'm a fan of the group either. Like you said it's too embarrassing. I think I'll just name off the members I like the most instead if I have to.
@ Misa
They got lumped into the original volleyball unit rumor when the news of them being on the Myojo cover came out.
And that's my point too, nobody will buy a CD of a group of boys that are relatively unknown. Even after starring in a drama and being set to star in another they still pulled in Yamada and Chinen to boost up Yuma. So the chances a group like this would debut are next to none. And honestly with the group name they're getting it's truly for the best.
It's almost like someone at Johnny's decided they were going to find a more cringe inducing name than A.B.C-xyZ, which to their credit they were successful.
Well, I hope you didn´t misunderstand me. I didn´t believe those rumours because I read them somewhere (I usually don´t believe in rumours, I wait until it gets confirmed by J-Net) but what I meant about a possible debut is, that it´s MY feeling and that it´s just MY believe that we get a debut.
I think I didn´t tell you clearly in my last comment, sorry about that.
Okay, reading your post , you´re right, we surely do not get a proper debut but I believe we might get a temporary unit in November.
Of course, this is just my speculation but there are some indications for it, in my opinion.
First, why would HSJ make a special Summary Show in Dome and the date is pretty much the same when Jump´s debut in 2007 had been announced. Tokyo Dome show could be used for some kind of announcement because it´s right in time, that was my reaction.
Kento, Fuma and the group around Shori got really much attention in this year´s summary and were pimped a lot in Kisumai´s concerts as well, especially Shouri.
Then the new Junior variety will start and will have those members.
A CM will come too for it.
Kisumai and those Juniors at Imperial Theatre show immediately after Dome shows.
And then Myojo´s cover.. of course it happened before that Juniors appeared on the cover and also this time it might be just like that, but I think it totally fits in time for the Volleyball Cup.
I don´t know but I don´t think it´s just coincidence.
So everyone can share his own opinions and ideas and my opinion is just that Shouri, Kuramoto etc and Kento Fuma may become a temporary unit .
Wouldn´t it be boring if we would all have the same opinions? ^^
But of course, there are things which make me think that we won´t get a debut too. For example that Kisumai debuted just in August and that those boys don´t have a big fanbase yet.
But Shintaro as Snow Prince also released a single even though they were pretty much unknown.
But yeah, probably you´re right and we won´t get a debut this year. Let´s see ^^
I've seen those chibi's performed in summary 2011.. and they were all over the place, not a very nice scene i'd say. They pretty much need a lot of improvement, really a lot.. and i doubt they will acquire those in two months.. or maybe this is just another debut competing for the youngest average age debut or something.. another guiness?! but Ashida Mana will make a debut as a solo singer and she's just 7 yrs old.
Everything you write makes sense to me and for me, the most important reason why those kids won´t debut is simply that almost nobody knows them and the CD sales wouldn´t looks really good.
Rather than the Volleyball debut which is just a rumour, we should concentrate more on ABC-xyZ debut because this is more or less confirmed since Johnny-san himself talked about it.
So I won´t discuss about a debut in November because the possibility of them debuting is almost zero and I agree with all reasons you mentioned.
I´m looking forward to ABC-Z´s solo concert because we might get more informations on their debut.
Seriously, is Johnny-san on a sexy mode right now?! I thought the "xy" will be sexy members to join ABC-Z but now a group which is called Sexy Boy??
I don´t like that name at all. What should people imagine when hearing that name? That children will perform all sexy?!
Poor boys..
Sexy Boy, Kis-my-ft2, Mis Snow Man etc. some Johnnys group names are really too weird. But I like "Arashi" as groupname.
But Kansai Juniors units háven´t good names either, like 7West who got named after Hey!Say!7 and Shadow West comes from B.I.Shadow.
So unfair that Johnny isn´t thinking of proper names for Kansai.
@ Ani2
I didn't mean to make it look like I was singling anyone out. Honestly this rumor has been spreading pretty rampart around Junior fandom in general and I figured it was time to post my thoughts on it all. So this was more of a general call out to everyone in the fandom, which does include quite a few who are believing that this will be the next volleyball debut group.
Honestly at the start of the year I felt there was a good chance for the usual volleyball unit debut as well but now that it's about that time for an announcement I don't see it happening in the end. Perhaps if A.B.C-xyZ wasn't mentioned I'd be with you in thinking there was still a chance but I can't see three groups debuting in such a short span of time. Though I can see a temporary unit doing a one-shot debut and find that very possible still.
I'm sure there will be an announcement at the Tokyo Dome concerts as well, but I feel it will either be for HSJ or Kisumai and not so much something for the Juniors. I could be wrong but with the Imperial Tokyo Theatre concerts in about a week and then the recently announced A.B.C-Z concert I think those would be the more likely places for Junior announcements.
I think Shori and company are just getting promoted a lot because they are the newest generation of Juniors and will probably be looked at for debuting whenever they decide to debut a new unit or they want a temporary unit for something like a one-shot debut. And as I mentioned very few actually know who these kids are but by getting them on variety programs and putting them on magazine covers are a good way to get them noticed and begin expanding their fanbase so they can be used later down the line for debuts of any sort.
@ Anonymous 1
An idea hit me last night that this group is actually one of those Junior groups created to be tied into the promotion of another group. Much like Hip Hop Jump are tied to Hey! Say! JUMP and B.I. Shadow came about from the Mayonaka no Shadow Boy era. I can then see Sexy Boy being tied to A.B.C-xyZ as the 'xy' is supposed to stand for 'sexy' and would actually explain the name. Of course this also means that they are much more likely to be just another Junior group and not tied to any debut.
Most fresh Juniors need a lot of work. I can still remember seeing Keito running into another Junior when he was back dancing for the original Hey! Say! 7 and he was still quite awkward for a couple of years after debuting. But for me it's part of the fun of being a Junior fan, watching the boys get better at what they're doing.
@ Chris
Right, Johnny's won't even do a one-shot debut with a Junior group unless there is some kind of mainstream tie-in which this group doesn't have that we know of at least.
The more I thought about it I realized that this group just might be a part of the A.B.C-xyZ debut. As I mentioned above in another reply Junior groups have gotten there names from groups that they are connected to, usually as being among the usual group of back dancers for them and I'm beginning to think that is what Sexy Boy is going to be. As the 'xy' is supposed to represent 'sexy' it would be a very Johnny's thing to do to take a part of a name like that to create a new name for a Junior group that will be the back dancers for that group. And honestly if the new members of A.B.C-xyZ are at least the same age as Kikuchi Fuma then having a back dancing unit with boys of Sexy Boy's ages would work and make sense. It's still an unfortunate name but I will be a bit more forgiving if this was the origin.
@ Anonymous 2
Yea, Johnny's isn't known for good names for their groups. But at least they usually tend to have something about them that shows some creativity. Unless it comes to the Kanjuu and then as you say they get lazy and through 'west' into the name which I'm with you for thinking it's pretty lame.
@ Thennary Nak
Oh yes, you might be right about "Sexy Boy" being part of "ABC-xyZ" debut. It makes sense!
But still, I wonder if I´ll ever get used to that name >_>
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