29 January 2012

The State of Junior Groups?

Over the past week I set about updating the Master Johnny's Birthday List with the birthday information that is up at TakiCHANnel. Looking through all the profiles I noticed a few things.

First was that it would be quite nice if it only listed Juniors, as it would help a lot in figuring out the debuts of Sexy Zone and A.B.C-Z. But seeing as Kis-My-Ft2 is still up and there is no doubt whether or not they debuted that is just wishful thinking. Though I would think Kisumai would be removed sometime soon, as again, they are undoubtedly debuted.

For the Junior groups listed though there are very few of them. The only ones (minus the iffy SZ and Ebi) that are listed are FiVe, Question?, 7WEST, B.A.D., and Veteran. Of course these days FiVe is a bit of a unknown factor but the other four are definitely around and active. Of course that does leave the Tokyo Juniors with one Junior group and the Kansai Juniors with three.

Of course there is Noon Boyz, Sanada Yuma and Nozawa Yuki, as an unofficial/official group and Shadow West is supposed to still be around as a duo. But it seems difficult to find more than one official resource that is willing to agree which groups exist and which do not.

I really wish I could fast forward things to the end of the year for the Juniors, as I am sure by then we will finally have a couple of new groups at least. But until then I will have to be stuck in some frustration, hoping that the Juniors I like will not disappear as things get shuffled around as they figure out new groups.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just as a FYI. FiVe has been disbanded (they had their last concert in December) rikki, uesato, and makino left Johnny's and have formed their own band called plan b. Ishigaki is still active with question?.

Yasmin said...

I was just wondering, before the juniors had platforms such as the Shounen Club and other shows, were the juniors actively advertised and in specific groups? If they were just individuals that were occasionally put together, is there anything wrong in having the juniors like that right now?

I mean, its best if they're in groups, but I don't see what the danger is if the majority of the juniors are groupless.

Thennary Nak said...

@ Anonymous

I had been hearing rumors of them breaking up but no one mentioned that there was an actual official announcement for it. I guess it's another sign that the TakiCHANnel website is outdated.

Thanks for the heads up about that.


@ Yasmin

From the start of the Juniors with Johnny's there have been groups. In fact for a good while groups were put together when they were Juniors and then debuted later. It has really only changed when the FIVB debuted groups began as they would break groups up to make that new group. So there is a long history of Juniors being in groups pre-debut.

Honestly I think it's to the benefit of the Juniors to have groups as if someone is a fan of a certain Junior and that Junior is a part of a group then usually they become a fan of the group, which lets the other members also gain a potential fan. And for those Juniors that are not in the spotlight much that could help a lot with their popularity.

Also, as what can be seen with debuts like KAT-TUN and Kis-My-Ft2 groups that are already formed as Juniors can lead to big debuts from being able to build a fanbase over a few years.

Yasmin said...

Ah, I see. Your point makes sense. I do understand the benefits of being in a group compared to being a solo junior, and I completely agree that being in a group is better. But I still don't understand the danger of being a solo junior temporarily. ^^"

Personally, I think that the state of the juniors will be solved after A.B.C-Z's debut is cemented and they make a decision about Sexy Zone. I guess I'm just waiting/hoping for a complete overhaul of the juniors. ^v^"