17 March 2013

20/20 foresight?

The big news to come out of the Tokyo Dome Johnny's World concerts so far is the announcement of a group that will debut in seven years, 2020. The unit is being called Twenty Twenty (I'm just going to type it out as 20 20 from here on out in this to save time.)as of now. It has no official members but there is some information about the group's makeup. It will be divided into two groups of 20, with members being picked from both the Tokyo and Kansai Juniors with the age range being from 7 to 20 years old.

I wanted to be able to just shrug the thing off but seeing the articles surface I know I cannot. This is going to happen in some form or I doubt this would be even announced.

It does seem unnerving to realize that if they do indeed have a seven year old as a member of this group then it would mean he would be born in this year. That and with the age ranges then the oldest member(s) would have to be born in 2000.

I am glad to hear that they will not snub the Kansai Juniors with this group, because honestly to debut 40 Juniors means you are taking all the Juniors that are better known (like the ones that perform on Shounen Club regularly) and that just does not seem like it would work, so pulling from the Kanjuu would makes more sense as at least there would be some of the better known Juniors left over this mega group is created.

It makes me wonder what will become of the 2019 FIVB (Federation International Volleyball) debut group. I guess this group could be the 2019 FIVB supporters but not have their debut single tied into it or perhaps have a temporary group be the FIVB supporters and that group will be a part of 20 20.

Honestly I have no idea how to take this. Johnny Kitagawa has said things before that have not come about, like Hey! Say! JUMP focusing on Hey! Say! BEST's activities to let Hey! Say! 7 focus on studies or the whole A.B.C-xyZ thing. But then again he has also announced things that seemed doubtful at the time but came about, like A.B.C-Z debuting so soon after Kis-My-Ft2 and Sexy Zone.

Then I have to wonder how this group is going to be managed. Looking at how poorly HSJ has been managed over the years and being the biggest group Johnny's has debuted so far does not give me much hope for this group overall. I can only hope they at least have more than one member as the face of the group.

In the end right now I am not going to get too wrapped up in this announcement until something starts coming of it. Instead my focus is on hoping for a Kansai Junior debut in the near future, the 2015 FIVB group debut and hoping that the Bakaleya6 members will be debuting well before 2020/20 20, whether as a group or with other groups, as even Morimoto Shintaro would be too old for this group.

And I know there seems to be information saying that there will not be anymore debuts until this unit is but I am sure it will end up being as true as no Showa born Juniors debuting after HSJ debuted. So I stand by keep my hopes alive on the debuts I want to see before 20 20.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. Seriously? Like what is Johnny thinking?
Personally, I am pretty much against this idea for multiple reasons. I mean, 40 members is just too much. Like, the point of debuting idols as a group is so fans can "pick" their favorites and such. With 40 members, there's no way each member can get enough screen time to let fans get to know all of them. I mean, when HSJ debuted, people couldn't even remember Keito! As for the age range, I think 7 is too young. Generally, when girls (or guys) are old enough to properly "fangirl" and follow idols, they would have to be like 11 at the very least. I find it hard to imagine fangirls screaming over a 7 year old. And a 7 year old should be doing 7 year old stuff. Like learning how to read and multiply.
If I am still in the fandom in 2020, I would probably treat "Twenty Twenty" as just another "section" of the Jrs. Because it seems like there won't be much of a difference between the two.
But luckily, the Bakaleya6 boys would be too old for this group by then and will not be a part of that mess. Hopefully they'll debut soon :)

Anyway, thanks for the news, as always!

Anonymous said...

Sure he doesn't mean that the members are age 7-20 RIGHT NOW, meaning they will be 14-27 when the group debuts?

AimxAim said...

Wow this just seems like such a random and bad idea on so many levels.

When I heard that this group is going to be 2 groups of 20 members I immediately thought maybe Johnny's is gonna try and compete with AKB and their sister groups. But then I remembered this isn't happening now, but in 7 years. And honestly AKB is most likely going to be super irrelevant in 7 years.

Why announce a group so far in the future? It makes no sense. By the time this group debuts everyone hearing about it now will be far past the age range to become a fan. I, for instance, will be 28. I can't see myself being a fan of 7-20 year olds. Assuming I'm even still a fan then. XD

Personally I'm with you just hoping Bakaleya6 will debut. Actually, I hope they do debut another group before this one because it would make absolutely no sense to not debut a group until this one debuts. Especially since Johnny's debuted something like 6 groups in the last 7 years.

Thennary Nak said...

@ ange13unny

I have no idea what Johnny is thinking, other than the speculation I already posted about it.

From things I have been hearing around fandom it sounds like it is not really geared to even try to promote all 40, but to have enough to run like a AKB48-like group, where members are brought in to fill spots of other members if they cannot make it to something kind of thing.

I am personally curious to how fans will deal with 20 20. I doubt I will be a fan of the group but I may end up being a fan of members of it, if that makes sense.

I hope Bakaleya6 will debut soon, or at least before this group does.

And you're welcome as always.


@ Anonymous

It seems more like the Juniors added to the group at any point will be from the ages 7-20, so there is a good chance they will not all be that young when the group debuts.


@ Aim x Aim

Honestly even with thinking about it and finding some good ideas the group comes off as a potential mess to me.

It does seem like this is Johnny's answer to AKB48, but like you said it is probably coming much too late to ride on that train.

I think it does make sense to make such an announcement, as it may help the group from completely flopping if they start building the fanbase for it already.

I still highly doubt the no debut thing is not going to matter in the long run. It would be more foolish not to debut a new group between now and 2020, IMHO.