Entering the Sexy Zone.

As a writer I am coming to actually enjoy this group name after all as with the Zone part of it the possibilities for puns and various other humor are quite vast. I was almost tempted to write this entry as if it was a Twilight Zone episode but I think I need to brush up on my Twilight Zone before attempting that.

On a more serious, though not much more as this is idol-dom after all, is that there are now clips from the various usual morning news shows covering the announcement. From these a few more things have surfaced about the group. They are indeed set to have their debut single to release in November (and I will still stand by my prediction that it will be November 16th for reasons I've stated before). And Nakajima Kento is the leader of the group, they even have the word leader by his name on the programs when he talks. Also it looks like the members have assigned colors:

Nakajima Kento - orange
Kikuchi Fuma - purple
Sato Shori - red
Matsushima Sou - blue
You Marius - green

You can see these colors on the arm bands the boys wear for their debut performance.

The song has that volleyball support song sound to it. It's kinda hard to explain except to go find all the other songs by the other volleyball support units and listen to those. They all just have a certain sound to them and of course since A. Ra. Shi have the group name worked into the lyrics.

From their Imperial Theatre performance.

And as you can see they've divided the group up by age, with the two older wearing red and the younger in blue. Though watching the performance I think it's easy to see who are the more experienced as Nakaken and Fuma really show how comfortable on stage they are. Shori isn't bad and when it's his turn to talk is a natural with it. Sou is okay for the performance but like Shori comes off as being another who's natural at talking in front of an audience which I think goes to help explain his selection for the group. And the fact he's only been in Johnny's for three months really shows with Marius. But while he beats Tegoshi Yuya's record of four months in the agency Okada Junichi will probably always hold the record of joining to debut immediately.

Marius is also getting a lot of attention for not only being the youngest but because he's from Germany and that he struggles with Japanese a bit. Though now that he's debuted I'm sure he'll be using Japanese much more often and get much better at quickly. In fact I'm sure by the end of the volleyball tournament all of them will show signs of improvement all around as all these units do.

Also in other news though not in any of the news clips Sou and Marius will be in a CM with Kansai Juniors Shigeoka Daiki and Kaneuchi Toma. The commercial airs starting today and is for Tongari Corn, a snack food that Arashi has done a CM for in the past. So Johnny's has made sure that they waste no time getting these boys' faces out there.

I think now after seeing these clips and how the group stands I'm beginning to get excited for this debut.

In the Sexy Zone You've Caught a TL;DR!

Like I mentioned in the previous posts I decided to wait to better form my thoughts before doing a knee-jerk reaction to this news. There hasn't been really anything new that's come out though a bit more information has come out, like the single will have the same name as the group and apparently the group performed it at the show, which honestly isn't surprising to me as it wouldn't be the first time Johnny's has had at least members of an upcoming group learn a debut song before they knew they would be debuting. In any case I've written down a lot of my thoughts about the matter, some about my own initial thoughts and then reactions to some of the other reactions I've seen from other Johnny's fans and here they are.

So it's 2011 and as I had been predicting for years we are indeed getting a new volleyball unit debut. For those who may be new to Johnny’s a volleyball debut means a new unit created to be special supporters for the annual FIVB World Volleyball Tournament. Ever since V6 debuted in 1995 every four years Johnny’s has debuted a new unit, consisting of Juniors from various Junior groups and some ungrouped. As mentioned V6 was the first in 1995, 1999 had Arashi, 2003 was NEWS and in 2007 we got Hey! Say! JUMP. It didn’t take me long at all after seeing the pattern to assume that 2011 we’d get the next group. In fact the only reason I began to doubt it was because of the March 11th disaster this year and how it had thrown quite a bit off so I could see this group being passed on for the year and be formed next year instead. I guess Johnny’s felt they could still continue on with their plans and so here we are with Sexy Zone for 2011.


About the group itself:

First off I don't think this is a temporary unit thing. Yes, NYC boys was treated to be the next group debut but it also was a group with two members that were already in a debuted group and we still have NYC from it. And if you read the articles it is mentioned this is the second group debut of the year with Kis-My-Ft2 which leads to idea that this will be another group like Kis-My-Ft2, one here to stay as there have been years a temporary unit and a career debut unit have debuted and no mention like that is brought up. Also in the original Oricon article it places Sexy Zone with the other previous volleyball units, from V6-HSJ, and as none of those have ended up being temporary I can't see SZ all of a sudden being something different.

I am surprised that we are getting such a small group for a debut this time. Both NEWS and HSJ started off as large groups. Perhaps the fact that both have lost members Johnny’s decided that going back to a five member unit like Arashi might be the better way to go, especially if they were going to have such young members. And even though it means there are plenty of Juniors that had to be passed up for debut this time around it is nice to have a smaller group for a change. It will be easier to make sure all five members get a decent amount of screen time for performances and PVs though I can see things being Nakajima Kento and Kikuchi Fuma heavy at first as they are the most popular members of the group right now.

And yes, I have issues with the group name, or at least half of it. I really don’t like the word Sexy as much as Johnny’s does. And like I’ve mentioned before it’s not so much because of the ages of the group members, because at least the older two have been growing into their looks just within the past year and are hitting that stage that the word is fitting of them, but because it just sounds ridiculous to me no matter what the age of the group may be. Maybe because I don’t use the word to describe those I find attractive (I prefer handsome, hot and good looking) it feels a bit unnatural to me. I guess my definition of the word is narrow and I really can see it being used when someone is trying to show their sex appeal, but considering that volleyball units, especially in the first few years, have the cute and youthful image placed on them I can’t see the two images really meshing. It is at least a step up from Sexy Boy though and perhaps when all the members are older it’ll be a better fit for the group but for now it’s just awkward with their current ages.

A curious thing about their name is if you look at the Johnny’s net page it has the announcement for the group on it and the ‘xy’ in Sexy is colored red. I’m curious what that’s about and I’m sure when the group has to go on all the morning shows and music programs it will be something they will explain each time they do, much like how they’ll bring up Marius’ age and whatever thing about the group Johnny’s wants to promote to set them apart from their other groups.


As for the members:

Well Nakajima Kento is a no brainer, IMHO. He just had that special something the moment he was put on stage on SC and with getting drama roles since then he’s easily the most popular member of the group. I’ve had him high on my list of Juniors that will most likely debut for some time now so this was expected.

Kikuchi Fuma doesn’t surprise me either as he’s been paired off with Nakaken so much lately so it makes sense where Nakaken went Fuma would follow. Not nearly as big of a fan of Fuma as I am Nakaken but I’m still glad that more than one member of B.I. Shadow debuted. I think if Fuma stops overdoing it with trying to look sexy we would actually manage to achieve being so but I think he fits the group’s name 

Honestly I felt I would not be surprised to have Sato Shori debut in a volleyball unit this soon if 2011 got one as there is usually at least one newer Junior added to a volleyball unit and if you have a 14 year old that shows that he can have stage presence then he’s the kind of member you want in a young idol group.

 I don’t know much about Matsushima Sou other than being a part of the group that was around Shori for magazine photos and performances.

Though I do know a bit more about Marius as a lot of fans mention that he’s adorable when messing up his Japanese, he’s half-German and has lived in both Japan and Germany. One thing I do like about him immediately is that he’s the only Junior that has debuted that I know of that isn’t 100% Japanese. The fact that Johnny’s has had mixed race Juniors for a long time but not a single one had ever debuted had bothered me a bit but with Marius’ debut at least it proves that even those boys do actually have a chance to debut just like the other Juniors.

And while the age range is pretty big that’s nothing new to Johnny’s groups and I can foresee that Nakaken and Fuma will probably stick together and the other three do the same at first until they get older and levels of maturity are closer in range unless the older two are like HSJ’s Takaki Yuya and have the eternal heart and mind of a child.


About various reactions I’ve come across:

I have to say the ones I'm most disappointed in are the angry Kis-My-Ft2 fans. The group has had their debut and I don't feel that there is any good reason to be mad at a new group debuting after them, especially since they are groups that are mean to appeal to two very different audiences.

I've heard Kisumai fans complain about how the new group is stealing away Kisumai's "moment" because the debut is so close to theirs. I wonder how may remember that Kisumai were meant to debut back in June but because of the earthquake and tsunami their debut was delayed. I’m sure Johnny’s would have loved to have debuted Kisumai in the first half of the year instead of when they did but even they can’t do anything about natural disasters and a massive debut like Kisumai’s so soon after a disaster would be ill-timed. And while we and the members of the group may only now be learning of the debut I'm sure there were plans for it made long before so it wouldn't make sense for Johnny's to throw all that out because they had to delay Kisumai's debut.

Also for any just griping about how long it took Kisumai to debut and how young and new to the agency members of SZ are, honestly this is nothing new. This is pretty much what KAT-TUN fans had to go through when their group got passed up for NEWS to debut so it’s hardly a new thing and Kisumai and KAT-TUN actually debuted together as a group unlike the members of the volleyball units who have had their Junior groups broken up to debut a few of the members. Kisumai fans could all be happy when they debuted but I’m sure there are plenty of heartbroken B.I. Shadow fans that can’t be happy because only two of the four members of their group have debuted.

Plus the sales Kisumai have with their debut single are far beyond what SZ will have with theirs and they are going for very different audiences so they can both be popular at the same time as there actually will be very little in the way of fan overlap between the two groups because of the age gap and very different group images.

Speaking of B.I. Shadow they lived up to my prediction I made a long time ago when they became a four member unit, they would be the next Ya-Ya-Yah. And when I said that I meant that they would be the popular young Junior group that would be broken up by a volleyball debut and it now has all come to pass. It’s sad that only two of the members got to debut but at the same time the group members are younger than Yax3 so I have hope that Koichi Yugo and Matsumura Hokuto will stay on as Juniors and hopefully maybe get a new group as I would hate to see them leave.

And I know there’s a lot about this that is unfair but honestly Johnny’s has never been fair. It sucks but that’s sadly life. The best fans can do is hope the ones they are a fan of find success and if they were passed up for debut it doesn’t mean it’s the end. And yes I do think there are plenty of other “deserving” Juniors out there that I would love to see debut but it’s one of those things you have to come to terms with as a Junior fan, all Juniors won’t debut. Johnny’s can only debut so many groups and those groups can only have so many members so there will be talented and hardworking Juniors that will be passed up for debut for whatever reason. It’s sad but there’s no getting around that truth.

But just because a Junior is passed up for debut once doesn’t mean it has to be the end. I mean look at Kisumai’s Yokoo Wataru, he was a member of K.K.Kity that was one of the groups broken up for NEWS’ debut and then he ended up in Kis-My-Ft2 and achieved debut with them. Or look at Ikuta Toma who has a special recognition from Johnny’s so he’s treated as a debuted member of the agency even though he’s never had a CD debut. So for the young Juniors there are still plenty of chances and for the older Juniors there are other avenues they can take for success with Johnny’s so it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom for them. Especially A.B.C-Z who are getting their own solo concerts in a couple of months and will be one of the few Junior groups still around after this debut so should get a good amount of attention on Shounen Club for that.


My thoughts about the other Juniors & such:

One of the most disappointing things I feel about those looked over is that this is yet another group without a single Kansai Junior in it. I know Nakayama Yuma has gotten his fair share of debuts, though it would be nicer still if he wasn’t still a Junior after them all, but there are a lot of other talented Kansai Juniors that should get a shot at debuting. The last group to have debuted with Kansai Juniors was Kanjani8 in 2004. If they aren’t going to be mixed with Kanto Juniors for a new unit debut I hope they’re planning on debuting another Kansai Junior only unit like they did with Kanjani8. I mean the kind of success K8 has achieved should be a good indication that they should also be thinking about debuting Kansai Juniors, with emphasis on that ‘s’ on the end of Juniors. Also it would be nice to know what Yuma’s status actually is at some point.

And speaking of the A.B.C-xyZ planned debut I can’t help but think that perhaps the reason it was announced so far ahead was because of this upcoming debut. Maybe as a way to let Johnny’s fans know that even if they were going for young Juniors for this volleyball unit there was still a chance some of the older Juniors still had a chance for debuting with a unit. Not to mention by saying that Fuma was a candidate it at least let B.I. Shadow fans know in advance that the group may not have much longer to go. But it makes me want November to come faster so we can figure out what's going on with that group, and I hope they do manage that debut in the end sometime next year.

Something else I’ve been reading a lot are people complaining about how young these members are. Honestly those bring a sense of dejavu as that’s one of the main complaints people had with HSJ when they debuted. But honestly I think people need to look at new Japanese idol groups as SZ’s ages aren’t much younger, in fact compared to some groups their average age would be older, to see that this isn’t beyond the norm. Especially with Johnny’s if you look at some of their one shot groups like Snow Prince Gasshoudan which had members around 8 and 9 years old.

 One thing that can be looked forward to though is for the HSJ fans who were unhappy with how “childish” Magic Power was. With a new unit to take over the youthful and cute image from them now HSJ can go back to moving towards more mature sounding songs like OVER and Arigato. It’s pretty much what happened with NEWS when HSJ came around so it should happen with HSJ now that there’s SZ.


In Summary:

So like all volleyball unit debuts this one is a mixed bag for fans. I will confess not being as excited for this debut as I was for HSJ and Kisumai’s debut announcements, which is partly because both of those groups had my top favorite members debuting. SZ though has Juniors that I like and I can see myself being a fan of but it’ll take longer to warm up to them, even though it’s going to be hard to say the name with a straight face for some time for me. But it won’t stop me from picking up their CDs and if I’d have to guess their debut single will probably come out the week of November 16th as Arashi will be releasing on the 2nd and SKE48 are releasing on the 9th and they could potentially be too much competition for the group to take on seeing as their last single has sold over 450K which is more than Kisumai has sold.

And the 2011 volleyball unit is ... Sexy Zone

While I had been expecting an exciting announcement from the Kis-My-Ft2 w/ Juniors concerts this week I was thinking more in line with a Kisumai announcement for their next single or something, not this. But this is definitely exciting.

This year will have a volleyball unit debut and this time they're going for a smaller unit with 5-member Sexy Zone. The members are Nakajima Kento (17), Kikuchi Fuma (16), Sato Shori (14), Matsushima Sou (13) and Yu Marius (11).

Oricon article. (Japanese)

I guess if they had to debut anyone from JaPAnese Hi! I would have picked the same boys. Shori has been showing a lot of promise and the other two at least are among the number that have been getting a lot of attention. And on an interesting note Marius will not be only the youngest Junior to debut for such a unit but I do believe he's the first mixed Junior to debut as well, unless there were any in the early Johnny's groups that I'm unaware of.

Even though we've had the mess that was NYC boys before in relation to being a new volleyball unit this time the timing would be right and they don't have members of other debut groups mixed in with the line up. So put me down for believing this is a career debut group.

It'll be nine years before the group and their fans can rest easy about not getting caught in underage smoking and/or drinking scandals, but with so few members of the group maybe Johnny's can keep them busy enough that they won't have the time to get into trouble. So I wish them good luck with that as it will be incredibly noticeable if a member drops out this group for any reason.

Again we're stuck with Sexy being a part of a new name, though I'm sure Sexy Boy will now drop to the wayside now that this group has been announced. The one thing I do like about the name is the Zone part as it immediately reminds me of the girl band group ZONE, who I am a fan of. And rather like this group they debuted with some really young members as well so I like those parallels. And if I must talk to others about this new group I'll just go with S. Zone whenever I can as it's too embarrassing to do so otherwise.

I'm sure I could double the length of this post going on what I'm unhappy about with this debut but I'm going to save that for a later post once the shock passes a bit more. In fact I'll probably return either later this evening or sometime tomorrow with a lengthy post about my thoughts on the whole matter and what I see that's good and bad about it. But for now I'll be happy for the boys that are debuting, especially Nakaken and Fuma who already had come so close to debut just to be moved back to Juniors again with the whole Nakayama Yuma w/ B.I. Shadow/NYC boys/NYC mess.

Arashi single & Kinki Kids album for November

Johnny's has begun their solicitations for November and the beginning of the month will have a new single from Arashi, Meikyu Love Song, as well as a new album from Kinki Kids, K album.

The regular version of the single will come with three B-sides that will not be on the limited version as well as karaoke tracks of all the songs on the regular edition. The limited edition comes with the usual DVD with PV but it will have a B-side that will not be on the regular edition. The single will be released on November 2nd.

Meikyu Love Song [Regular Edition] / Arashi 

Meikyu Love Song [Limited Edition w/ DVD] / Arashi

For the Kinki album there will be two editions and will be released November 9th. The regular edition comes with two bonus tracks that will not be on the limited edition. The limited edition comes with a bonus DVD which will be a PV collection of all 31 PVs for their singles as well as a 32-page booklet.

K album [Regular Edition] / KinKi Kids

K album [w/ DVD, Limited Edition] / KinKi Kids

Honestly I've found the fact that Kinki release their albums by letter of the English alphabet rather charming. In it's own unique way it really shows how accomplished they are when they are this close to the mid-point, as they are only two albums away from reaching M, and it gives fans hope that they will eventually reach Z.

And I'm surprised that they are putting their PV collection on a bonus DVD, as they could have easily just released it on a separate DVD and charged the same amount for it as the limited version costs. So I can only imagine that this is news for Kinki fans that are making them really happy.

Europe gets Tsuyoshi but does Asia get A.B.C-Z?

Today the International Johnny's newsletter came out with some announcements.

The first announcement was that Domoto Tsuyoshi's upcoming album NIPPON will be released in various countries in Europe. The news about this had been out for a while but the newsletter confirms which countries should be releasing the album; Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. According to the newsletter the album will be out October 21st.


I will confess that at first I was surprised that Tsuyoshi was getting this kind of release but after thinking about I think Johnny's knows what they're doing. Even if there isn't demand for him in those countries the kind of music Tsuyoshi writes for his solo work would probably fit better with the European music scene than other Johnny's. Especially as it's some of the most un-idol music that comes from a member of Johnny's.


The next is that they are letting international fans ballot for tickets for A.B.C-Z's upcoming concert. And while that in itself probably isn't too noteworthy as a good deal of Johnny's concerts are open for this it's the way the group was promoted. Most notable was the fact that they mentioned how A.B.C-Z toured with Yamashita Tomohisa when he did his Asia tour and how they are, and I will directly quote, "Their popularity around Asia is growing!".

It's rather interesting as one of the things that felt like a sign that Kis-My-Ft2 were being prepared for debut was the fact they were the only Juniors going with KAT-TUN when they did their most recent Asia tour. Especially as they were even put on the marquee with KAT-TUN as if they were also headlining with them for some of those concerts. I don't think A.B.C-Z was featured that prominently with Yamapi's tour but I would not be surprised if part of the reason they were taken to tour with him was to help get people outside of Japan to know that they exist. And going back to the A.B.C-xyZ announcement if the group debuts they'll be heading to Asia soon after debut so maybe Asian Johnny's fans should start figuring out if they'll be a group they would like to become a fan of.

Kis-My-Ft2 to become rumor investigators

Nakai Masahiro has a new program starting titled Nakai Masahiro no Ayashii Uwasa ga Atsumaru Toshokan (which more or less translates out to Nakai Masahiro's Library of Gathered Suspicious Rumors). It will be on TV Asahi on Tuesdays beginning on October 4th and Kis-My-Ft2 will be a part of the regular cast for the show. They will be the ones to go to the locations to verify the rumors that will be presented on the show. And it is mentioned that it won't be the full group, instead the group will have small groups of the members appear and rotate through the full group that way.

The TV Vision Web (Japanese)

Congrats again to the boys. While it still isn't their own program it is still yet another show they get to be on and I think that's good if just for the fact it means more people get to see them and hopefully become fans. And while all the boys won't be in the same episodes at least there's the promise all of them will be on the program instead of only a part of the group.

There's been a rumor that Kis-My-Ft2 share a manager with SMAP which seems very plausible with how they seem to keep popping up on shows connected to SMAP and that group's members. I can't see this be anything but good for the group as someone managing SMAP must have a good idea of what they're doing so it feels like Kisumai will be in good hands if this is true.

Let's speculate ... Where the "Sexy" comes from.

I really thought I only would do one blog about the whole Sexy Boy thing but a thought struck me and has been gnawing at me since. And I honestly still have thoughts on both this group and the A.B.C-xyZ thing as well as they actually tie together.

To best explain how these two groups could be connected it's good to look at how some Junior names are created. A good deal are acronyms that either stand for words to describe the group in some way such as with A.B.C. for "Acrobat Boys Club" or J.J. Express being short for "Johnny's Junior Express". Then there's the popular each letter of the name standing for the first letter of the member's names like how KAT-TUN and Kis-My-Ft2 were created. One of the other ways names seem to get created is to tie the group into an already existing group, like A.B.C. Jr or Hip Hop Jump. And if my theory is right Sexy Boy actually is perfectly in line with these Junior unit naming conventions.

I believe Sexy Boy is a unit that will be tied to A.B.C-xyZ. If you remember the explanation of the new unit name that "xy" stood for "sexy" so much like throwing a "Jump" onto Hip Hop Jump's name connects them to Hey! Say! JUMP the "Sexy" in Sexy Boy connects this group to A.B.C-xyZ. This makes good sense as with mentioning that Kikuchi Fuma is a candidate for the group it indicates that Juniors of his age are probably the most likely Juniors being looked at to be added to the group. So having a young tag-a-long group of their own falls in line with how things tend to be done, as despite the talk of the new members being sexy I'm sure Johnny is just trying to not outright say that he thinks the group needs younger members for him to think they will have a successful debut. Because honestly it's really harsh, though with Kis-My-Ft2 debuting with all the members being 20 or older having another group with a high age range for an idol group debut isn't going to help distinguish A.B.C-Z from the many debuted Johnny's groups that have plenty of members in their age group. While having sixteen year old members will give them the youngest members of a debuted group now that HSJ has lost their youngest member.

Now why would Johnny's have a group so young be connected to a group like A.B.C-xyZ? Simply put, the old man was actually dead series about this debut. If you're familiar with Johnny's concerts you'll find in mostly the younger groups, like from Tackey & Tsubasa and newer, have a Junior Corner. This corner is a bit of break in the concert where the main group gets a break as the Juniors back dancing get a chance to perform on their own in front of the crowd. Certain Junior groups tend to get placed with certain debuted groups, like Kis-My-Ft2 and A.B.C-Z with T&T and KAT-TUN or for Hey! Say! JUMP they have Hip Hop Jump and B.I. Shadow (whose name also connects to HSJ with their name most likely coming from Mayonaka no Shadow Boy). A-Z are bound to have such corners and if Sexy Boy are their usual Junior group they're coupled with it means this group will be featured then. So A-Z will begin to take over being the group that the really young Juniors get coupled with as HSJ can then better move on with changing their unit image to something a bit mature as they wouldn't have the youngest members of a Johnny's group anymore.

I will expect to see if this theory is correct or not in the near future. The concerts with Kisumai and the Juniors at the Imperial Theatre this week is one chance of shedding more light on the matter. The next of course will be the A.B.C-Z concert in November that I'd be more surprised to find doesn't give us anymore information about A-Z.

The name of this new Junior unit is still full of unfortunate implications though, and I can see that might influence in the kind of following it gets in the English fandom. Even though it would look more ridiculous I think if they went with "XY Boy" instead it would actually avoid some of the issues actually using "Sexy" brings for this group as well as still be well in line with the eye rolling kind of names Johnny's come up with, and honestly can't be considered worse than Mis Snow Man. Though until the group is around for a while no one can really tell how many are willing to overlook the name, just as most fans are willing to overlook about the rest of the ridiculous names Johnny's come up with. You can expect to see me reference them as simply SB from now on mostly. That, and wonder how long it will be until the other common Junior group naming technique is used and we get "Sexy Boy West" for the Kansai Juniors.

New Arashi song

Good news for Arashi fans, especially as this year has been much quieter on the release front compared to 2010, the group will be singing the theme song for the drama Sakurai Sho is starring in, Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de. The song is titled Meikyu Love Song.

Sanspo article. (Japanese only)


I think it's safe to say that this will most likely be the next single for the group as well and I would assume it will come out in November which is why it hasn't been solicited yet. So Arashi fans will probably want to saving up for a new release now.

Kondo Masahiko: Singer, Dancer, Actor, Professional Race Car Driver

Kondo “Matchy” Masahiko gets his own section because he is still with the agency after debuting in 1980 at age 16. His debut single, Sneaker Blues, was the first debut single to reach the number 1 position on the Oricon chart, and that is not just for a Johnny’s but for any artist that has been on the Oricon chart.

Matchy, 1985

He achieved his big break when he landed a role in the first season of the Japanese drama 3-nen 3-gumi Kinpachi-sensei with two other boys from the agency, Tahara Toshihiko and Nomura Toshio. The three were known as the Tanokin Trio and while Matchy and Tahara were solo artists and Nomura was the lead in a band they went on TV programs together as a trio regularly. Of the three, Matchy is the only one still with the agency.

He not only had an amazing start for a Johnny’s of his time but he kept going strong throughout the decade, winning two Japanese Record Awards which is the Japanese version of the Grammies. He starred in various movies and dramas and continued to release hit single after hit single.  He appeared on the major annual music program Kohaku Uta Gassen from 1981-88 and returned once in 1996 after that.

Though he had a lot of highlights in his early career he had his hardships as well. No greater hardship for him was the loss of his mother in 1983 when she died in a car accident. He was close to his mother so the loss was rather hard on him. Something that makes it even more tragic about the story he only recently told the public of about his winning of the Japanese Record Award in 1987. In December, the awards are given out in January, someone stole the ashes of his mother and threatened his record label over the phone not to accept the award. To this day the ashes have never been returned.

Because of his fame when it came time for him to learn how to drive, in Japan you have to be at least 18 to get a license, it was decided that he should avoid practicing on public roads so his manager took him to private speedways to learn. It was there that he gained his interest and love for car racing which eventually lead to him becoming not only a professional race car driver but also eventually the owner of a racing team. From 1998 to 2002 he put his idol career on hold to concentrate on racing instead.

In 1994 he married and is still happily married to his wife. They had a son in 2007 so Matchy is a part of the small club of Johnny’s who are married with children.

He returned to the entertainment world in 2002 but did not fully do so until 2005 to celebrate his 25^th debut anniversary. Since then he has going back and forth between the racetrack and his idol career.

For his 30^th anniversary he released a single whose lyrics for the title track were originally planned for him to sing earlier in his idol career, Zanbara. It was explained that it was decided that the lyrics were too sad for him to sing at that time as his mother had only passed away three years prior and the lyrics were about a man facing the loss of a loved one.

Even though Johnny’s stopped nominating their artists for the Japanese Record Awards in the 1990s, for his 30^th anniversary they nominated Matchy for it and he won. It was stated that this would be a one off thing and was done because of Matchy’s history with the Japanese Record Awards, having won two of them previously.

Even though he is only doing his idol work during the off season for racing it looks like he’s back for some time to come and happy to remain a Johnny’s to do so.

Matchy, 2005

TRIVIA: Matchy has participated in the 24 Hour of Le Mans, a car race that mandates that the car in the race must be running the full 24 hours of the race, seven times with his best rank being 8^th place in 2000.

He still holds the record of being the youngest male solo artist to debut at #1 on the Oricon chart.

He partnered up with the Junior band Question? to release a single together with the lead track being an ending theme to the Naruto anime series in 2007. The release was a one-off release under the name Matchy with Question?.

Next Entry > Giving a New Meaning to Playzone, Shounentai

Directory >
Introduction
Johnny’s Juniors, full of rising stars and heartbreak
The Early and Rocky Path to Fame
Kondo Masahiko: Singer, Dancer, Actor, Professional Race Car Driver
Giving a New Meaning to Playzone, Shounentai
Hikaru Genji, Shining the Brightest and Crashing the Hardest

Otokogumi, Rocking It Old School
The Living Legend of SMAP
TOKIO, From Spaceships to the Over 30s World
Victory, Volleyball, Vegetable, Vicylce? V6
KinKi Kids, It's Not What You Think
Arashi, Storming to the Top
The Inseparable Duo, Tackey & Tsubasa
North, East, West, South ... It's big NEWS
Kansai Underdogs,  Kanjani∞
Cartoon? KAT-TUN!
Jumping to Their Dreams, Hey! Say! JUMP
Johnny's Black Sheep, Akanishi Jin
How to Debut Without Even Trying, Ikuta Toma
Kis-My-Ft2, Everybody Go (Roller Skating)!
Yamashita Tomohisa, Johnny’s Golden Boy
Entering the Sexy Zone
The 5Stars A.B.C-Z
International Ventures
Johnny's and Charity 
Odds & Ends

Another 2011 debut? I don't think so.

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.

A.B.C-Z first solo concert

Johnny's net has updated with dates for what will be the first solo concert for Junior group A.B.C-Z. They've headlined for concerts before with other Juniors and had a concert with Kis-My-Ft2 back in 2008 at Yoyogi Arena where this solo concert will take place. The concert will be on November 6th and there will be two concerts for that day planned.


I'm just going to take a moment and speculate that this is when and where we find out more about what's going on with the whole A.B.C-xyZ thing. By that date Kawai should have recovered from his injury and if Johnny Kitagawa is to believed that's when he wants to move forward with this idea. I think we'll probably at least find out for sure who the new members of the group will be at this concert if we don't get that news at the Kis-My-Ft2 with Juniors special concerts next week, though I would think they may want to use those to announce something for Kisumai instead and just let the Juniors there get some special promotion to help build their fan bases.

In any case I think this concert more or less shows that there is some truth to A.B.C-Z, or the proposed A.B.C-xyZ new version of the group, are being considered for debut. They're still a long way from being at the point Kisumai was before their debut, when it made little sense not to debut them or at least some of the members, but this is the start for Junior groups to build up to that.

It's times like these I really wish I was back in Japan so I can be at these concerts to learn first hand what's going on, as it's definitely interesting times with Johnny's.

A final memento of an era.

Thanks to a friend I have been able to receive something very special for a Hey! Say! JUMP fan, one of the drawing prizes from the special promotion campaign for the OVER single. I won one of the clear files, of which there were three different versions.

While I would have preferred getting the DVD I can't complain about this as unlike the DVD the clear file has all ten members of the group. Plus it the cover they used for it is my favorite of the three from the single so I'm quite glad to have it though I probably would have loved to have either of the other two versions as well.

Clear file and notification of winning.

I won't lie and say I'm completely over my anger towards Ryutaro for getting himself into the mess he did but I've reached the point that the anger is residing and I'm finding myself missing him. He was one of the members I thought had a real chance of getting out of the back and closer to the front over time with the group. I guess that hope is now completely dashed as I cannot find the hope others have for his return to the group. Not with being a NEWS fan and seeing the fates of the two caught in scandals with that group have become.

I have been a Hey! Say! JUMP fan since they debuted about four years ago and I hope to remain a fan always. With the release of Magic Power it is really feeling like OVER was the end of an era for the group as Magic Power is the start of a new one. I am grateful that as a fan I can have something special to mark that end as those years from debut to OVER were special and I am glad I got to be a part of them as a fan.

Even those early months where there was a lot of hatred towards the group for Ya-Ya-Yah getting broken up and a lot of complaints about the members being too young or the group name being too silly. It's rather amazing to look at where they are now compared to then and see so many fans swooning over the "babies" so many complained about at first.

With that said I will continue to support Hey! Say! JUMP as a nine member group and hope that all ten good luck as their latest chapter continues to unfold in their lives.

KAT-TUN upcoming song, likely single

It has been announced that KAT-TUN will sing the song that will be the theme song to the upcoming drama Yokai Ningen Bemu that stars Kamenashi Kazuya. The song will be titled Birth.

Also for the drama the first photos of the main cast in their yokai forms have come out and it looks like Kame will be donning a silver wig for the role.

Aramatheydidn't post. (English)

Honestly I can't see this song not becoming a single, especially with this kind of tie-in. Though it does seem like KAT-TUN are long overdue for a new album.

Kis-My-Ft2 join a variety program & Ueda shaves his head for a drama

Have a couple pieces of news for the small screen.

First up Kis-My-Ft2 will be joining the cast of the variety program Moshimo Tours on FujiTV. The program has the hosts go to various locations in Japan to showcase their food and tourism. They will be a part of the regular cast starting October 1st.

Moshimo Tours OHP (Japanese)


Then in other news Ueda Tatsuya will be returning to the small screen as one of the members of the supporting cast of the upcoming TBS fall drama Runaway. For the role he has shaved his head, which you should easily be able to find a picture of as it has KAT-TUN fandom talking with how drastic it looks on him.

Tokyograph article. (English)


I'm really excited about Kisumai joining a variety program. As anyone who follows Japanese TV variety programs make up a good portion of TV programming. Also this could be good experience for them if they are given a variety program of their own to host one day. Though I am curious if it will be the full group or just rotating through the members of the group to take as I can't imagine this kind of program being easy to do with a lot of people.

And I am happy about Ueda's news as it means that at least all the members or KAT-TUN have had something to do this year outside of the CD releases. That and I'm curious how Ueda will do as his first and only other drama role was pretty minimal and quite different from this one.

The Early and Rocky Path to Fame

Johnny’s all started with Johnny Kitagawa who was born in L.A. but later moved to Japan to work. While in Japan he coached a boys baseball team. In 1962 he went and saw a production of West Side Story and was inspired to see about taking a few of the boys in his baseball team and making them a musical group believing that they could do better. From this the first Johnny’s boy band, simply called Johnny’s, was created in 1962. They only lasted five years before disbanding but that did not stop Johnny from creating other boy bands after them.

Four Leaves

The group that first put Johnny’s & Associates on the map was Four Leaves which debuted in 1968. The members of Four Leaves were Aoyama Takashi (who has passed away since), Egi Toshio, Kita Koji and Orimo Masao. They did quite a few musicals during their time and even began the trend of Johnny’s appearing in dramas. The group disbanded in 1978 but reunited in 2002 though under a different agency. In 2009 Aoyama died after a battle with cancer.

One of the big things Four Leaves brought around was the use of trainees from the agency to back dance for them and from these trainees new groups to debut being created. Two such groups that came out of these trainees back dancing for Four Leaves were High Society and Jukebox. Both groups did not last very long and disbanded within a few years after their debut.

Go Hiromi

The next success Johnny’s had they actually lost. Go Hiromi is one of the few that was asked to join the agency in 1971 but left J&A about four years after. He is one of the rare cases in the Japanese entertainment world where he was able to change his agency and find greater success. In fact he’s one of the more popular solo male singers in Japan and even though he’s well in his 50s he’s still going strong. He was also the first Johnny's to win the Best New Artist award at Japan Records, which is considered the Japanese version of the Grammy's.

Johnny's Junior Special

In 1974 the group Johnny’s Junior Special was formed and debuted. The group was a trio and while they disbanded it was to add two girls to the group se they could debut as a five member unit under the name VIP. But VIP did not last long and the group was down to two members by 1980.

VIP

VIP does stand as proof of there once being girls as a part of Johnny’s as well as the all girl group, Orange Sisters and talent Mori Mitsuko. Not much is known about the girls but there were groups from the 60s and 70s but Johnny’s dropped them all during the mid-1980s to turn to being a boys only idol agency. Though Mori Mitsuko still has connections with the agency and has been seen in connection with Johnny’s, such as participating in Johnny's produced stage plays and musicals, up to the present day.

Shibugakitai

One of the more well known groups of the 1980s was Shibugakitai. This group was a trio that was formed after the three were in a drama together. They were one of the first Johnny's to appear on variety shows as regulars, though they never had one of their own. Probably one of the more notable things about the group was the creation of a rival group to be on the show with them, Shounentai, who are still around today.

Tanokin Trio

Other Johnny’s group of the 1980s to note was the Tanokin Trio, that was made up of Tahara Toshihiko, a soloist that was often paired with Kondo “Matchy” Masahiko (another soloist) and Nomura Yoshio (member of the band group The Good-Bye). The groups' name comes from the first kanji of their names, Ta for Tahara, No for Nomura and Kin is another way to read the kanji for Kon in Kondo. They actually didn’t release anything music-wise as a group but existed as the three members were all in 3-nen 3-gumi Kinpachi-Sensei drama, almost always on shows together and did concerts together. They also starred in a few movies together.

Of course with Matchy and Shounentai it’s time to finish this portion of Johnny’s history. These two acts mark the start of giving the different acts that Johnny has debuted as unlike the rest they still have members that are not only still a part of the agency but are still active with activities.

TRIVIA: Namida-kun Sayonara was one of the group Johnny's songs that has been covered by two debuted groups, TOKIO on their TOK10 album and Hey! Say! JUMP for the Sensei wa Erai drama special, and it still gets covered from time to time by the Juniors.

In the 1990s Kita Koji wrote a tell all book titled Hikaru Genji e which included the initial allegations of Johnny and other members of management molesting talents.

Hatakeyama Masahisa from Johhny’s Junior Special/VIP is technically still with Johnny’s himself but is no longer a talent. He’s now a choreographer.

3-nen 3-gumi Kinpachi-Sensei was a popular drama series that since its first season with the Tanokin Trio has had strong connections with Johnny's and several Johnny's began their acting careers with the drama.

Ninja, a band group from 1990-1994, is the only post Shounentai group to no longer have any of their members still with the agency.



Next Entry > Kondo Masahiko: Singer, Dancer, Actor, Professional Race Car Driver

Directory >
Introduction
Johnny’s Juniors, full of rising stars and heartbreak
The Early and Rocky Path to Fame
Kondo Masahiko: Singer, Dancer, Actor, Professional Race Car Driver
Giving a New Meaning to Playzone, Shounentai
Hikaru Genji, Shining the Brightest and Crashing the Hardest

Otokogumi, Rocking It Old School
The Living Legend of SMAP
TOKIO, From Spaceships to the Over 30s World
Victory, Volleyball, Vegetable, Vicylce? V6
KinKi Kids, It's Not What You Think
Arashi, Storming to the Top
The Inseparable Duo, Tackey & Tsubasa
North, East, West, South ... It's big NEWS
Kansai Underdogs,  Kanjani∞
Cartoon? KAT-TUN!
Jumping to Their Dreams, Hey! Say! JUMP
Johnny's Black Sheep, Akanishi Jin
How to Debut Without Even Trying, Ikuta Toma
Kis-My-Ft2, Everybody Go (Roller Skating)!
Yamashita Tomohisa, Johnny’s Golden Boy
Entering the Sexy Zone
The 5Stars A.B.C-Z
International Ventures
Johnny's and Charity 
Odds & Ends

Marching J special movies

Marching J, the charity project for Johnny's to support the relief effort in Japan, has announced a new fundraising venture. On Johnny's net it has the information up and it seems like they will have special videos for sale that people can buy, both on the PC and on their phones. Each video will be 315Yen each with 200Yen from each sale going to the relief effort.

Johnny's net website. (Japanese)

Hopefully like with the TakiCHANnel videos it will be possible for non-Japanese fans to purchase these videos as well. The videos should go up soon as they are schedule to be available on September 15th.


On a quick personal note I'm going on hiatus starting after this gets posted. I'll be traveling for about the next three days so hopefully by Friday I'll be home again and I can start posting again on Saturday. Though even if I am delayed for any reason I should be able to post the next installment of my History of Johnny's project Saturday as all I have to do for it this week is finish editing and tweeking what I have written.

Johnny's Jr. Land!

This looks like exciting times to be a Junior fan. It was just announced that there will be a new Johhny's Junior program called Johnny's Jr. Land on Sky Perfect TV, which IIRC is a Japanese cable network.

The program is said to be set in the style of an amusement park with their being different segments, such as a talk part, on location shots and challenges. The CMs for the program will start on September 30th and the program will begin on October 2nd, running from 9PM to 950PM.

The main hosts of the program will be Nakajima Kento and Kikuchi Fuma and the other Juniors listed to be a part of this program are; Sato Shori, Matsushima Sou, You Marius, Kuramoto Kaoru, Jinguji Yuta, Takahashi Fu, Takahashi Saneyasu and Wakayama Rei.

Sky Perfect TV announcement. (Japanese)

This sounds like it'll be a great program for the Juniors and should be fun to watch. I think it also helps explain some of the picks for which Juniors are going to be in the Kis-My-Ft2/Junior concert in a day or so and I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't an announcement for this there.

On the other hand I'm disappointed that the other two members of B.I. Shadow don't seem to be really involved in this. Maybe Johnny's doesn't want another fan reaction like they had with breaking up Ya-Ya-Yah if they are aiming to just debut Nakaken and Fuma from the group so they're trying to separate them before debut.

I do think it's interesting that the other Juniors are all a part of JaPAnese Hi! and I think we're looking at the new generation of up and coming Juniors with them. Though I do wish Johnny's would debut some more of the older generation before getting too wrapped up in them.

Shounen Club specials for September & October.

It looks like we'll be getting a third episode of Shounen Club for this month and at least the next. NHK has 'Request Special' program for Kis-My-Ft2 for September 23rd and then on October 28th there will be a 'Request Special' for Nakayama Yuma and the Kansai Juniors.

NHK Shounen Club program listings. (Japanese)

Can't say I'm too surprised at Kisumai getting a special as they are still within their recently debuted period and should continue to be pushed for quite some time. I'm more curious to how this program will be run, if the boys will host it and show clips of past shows which is what I'm expecting as I believe KAT-TUN did something similar when they debuted.

I am on the other hand surprised to see that Nakayama Yuma and the Kansai Juniors are getting the same thing. I'm not going to complain as more Kansai Juniors the better as they have some really talented boys that should get pushed more, even if they have to ride Yuma's coattails to do so. Out of the two I'm looking forward to this the most, especially as it should mean more Yuma and Kansai Junior interaction which is great as they seem to be able to take him out of his shell the most.

Johnny’s Juniors, full of rising stars and heartbreak

One of the things about Johnny’s that interested me the most was the relationships between members of different groups. It did not take me long to learn that a good deal of those relationships came from the time when they were all trainees, or as Johnny’s calls them, Johnny’s Juniors.

The original Johnny’s Juniors were created back in 1965, but it was not until the debut of the group Four Leaves (1968-1978) that they began taking on the roles that they are currently known for, mainly back dancing for debuted groups. It was also then that the agency begin to look to these back dancing Juniors for future debut groups from selecting the most popular ones to put together to create new groups from.

In the early days the Juniors lived in dorms together, in fact the sempai groups all seem to have referenced being in these during their Junior days. But from what I can gather at some point after the accusations of Johnny molesting his talents broke out the dorms were done away with. Juniors these days live at home with their families for the most part and have to commute to work and home. The current qualification for age to join Johnny’s these days is said to be for the boy to be old enough to commute on his own, which for Japan the 8-9 years old range seems to be fine for children to start that kind of thing as the crime rate in Japan is rather low.

While the youngest Juniors are around 8-9 the oldest known Junior, Sano Mizuki, is in his thirties. There are also plenty of Juniors in their twenties, and even late twenties these days. The older Juniors though tend to no longer be featured in the Junior programs anymore and tend to move on to do work as actors, whether it be in dramas, musicals or even voice acting.

 To be considered a Junior a boy just needs to be accepted into the agency, which is done typically by sending in an application form then going in for a group dance lesson where the boys get selected to join. From time to time a Junior will be scouted outside of this process and will be asked to join by the agency but the cases of this are far and few in between. There is a rank below Junior, which is simply called Trainee, that has only been given to two Johnny’s that is known and they received the rank because of the scandals they were involved in so it was a part of their punishment.

While Juniors still fill the traditional role of back dancing for debuted groups as their popularity grew so did the variety of work they do. Juniors nowadays get into acting with dramas, movies and musicals, have their own concerts that they can headline and participate in TV programs as part of the regular casts. Because of this kind of exposure recent Johnny’s groups have been able to have number 1 debut singles as they can gather a large fan base pre-debut through such activities.

Juniors can be placed into groups with their own group names and promoted together or they can be without groups. The benefit of being in a group is that those Juniors tend to get more attention though there are some exceptions to this. While in the past Johnny's tended to make Junior groups to later debut with typically some changes in the member roster. The more recent Johhny's groups though have either been newly created groups that broke up Junior groups to be formed or Junior groups that were able to become popular enough that they were able to be debuted without any changes in their members.

The Juniors are based out of two areas in Japan. The larger and more popular location is of course Tokyo, as it is the hub of all things in the country. These are the Juniors one will see much more of as they are the ones on the Junior TV program, The Shounen Club, eleven of the twelve months it airs. They are also the ones that are directly connected to the word Junior so if you see anyone talking about the Juniors there is a good chance they are only talking about the ones in Tokyo.

The Kansai Juniors are the Juniors based out of the Western Japanese city of Osaka. They are like the orphans of the red-headed step-child of the Johnny’s family. Unlike the Juniors in Tokyo they only get one month to be the focus on The Shounen Club and while they do get a fair share of work with dramas, musicals and TV programs they are usually almost always Kansai only, so their nationwide exposure tends to be limited. They are thought to be less popular but if you talk to Kansai Junior fans they will assure you that what they lack in popularity they make up by being entertaining. 

There has also been a growing trend for Juniors to make CD debuts but still remain Juniors. Most of the time these CD singles are a one-time thing connected with some kind of special promotion at the time of release. If you want to know if a CD release is meant for an ongoing group the best way is to see if the Juniors are removed from the Junior section of the official websites and given their own section.

As Juniors are all in training to be the next debut they tend to gather fans who want to support them to achieve this goal. But since in the end it is the agency that picks who gets to debut and who does not being a Junior fan can be heartbreaking when a favorite quits. But speaking from personal experience when favorites actually do debut after you’ve been supporting them for years it makes it all feel worth it.

TRIVIA: Kazama Shunsuke, one of the older Juniors, is the voice actor for Yuugi Muto from the Yu-Gi-Oh! TV series (not the original 1998 one though).


Next Entry > The Early and Rocky Path to Fame

Directory >
Introduction
Johnny’s Juniors, full of rising stars and heartbreak
The Early and Rocky Path to Fame
Kondo Masahiko: Singer, Dancer, Actor, Professional Race Car Driver
Giving a New Meaning to Playzone, Shounentai
Hikaru Genji, Shining the Brightest and Crashing the Hardest

Otokogumi, Rocking It Old School
The Living Legend of SMAP
TOKIO, From Spaceships to the Over 30s World
Victory, Volleyball, Vegetable, Vicylce? V6
KinKi Kids, It's Not What You Think
Arashi, Storming to the Top
The Inseparable Duo, Tackey & Tsubasa
North, East, West, South ... It's big NEWS
Kansai Underdogs,  Kanjani∞
Cartoon? KAT-TUN!
Jumping to Their Dreams, Hey! Say! JUMP
Johnny's Black Sheep, Akanishi Jin
How to Debut Without Even Trying, Ikuta Toma
Kis-My-Ft2, Everybody Go (Roller Skating)!
Yamashita Tomohisa, Johnny’s Golden Boy
Entering the Sexy Zone
The 5Stars A.B.C-Z
International Ventures
Johnny's and Charity 
Odds & Ends

A brief history of Johnny’s: Introduction

 I remember as a new fan of Johnny’s yearning to learn whatever information I could about the organization and being disappointed that there was not all that much information to be found on the older groups let alone the groups that came before them. Thankfully this is not bad as it once was and there are a few English language fans of the early groups of Johnny’s that one can learn about them. Even then though they are all of different quality and have their own emphasis on the different groups and even the best of them have gaps for the early years, as that era had a lot of acts come and go compared to the more static existence of the ones that came after.

 What I want to do is cover the history of Johnny’s & Associates via the groups created and debuted in a way that is easy for those who are new to Johnny’s can follow and understand without it looking too overwhelming. Also considering that we are coming up to the 50th anniversary of the creation of the first Johnny’s group which was formed in 1962, I thought it would be appropriate to do a project for it as it draws near.

I also plan on updating this as new groups debut in the coming years. Some terms I will be using in this:

Daisempai groups – This is for all the pre-SMAP groups and talents.

Sempai groups – These are the groups from SMAP to V6.

Johnny’s – either short for Johnny’s & Associates or for the talents managed by Johnny’s & Associates. Not to be confused with the original J&A group that was called Johnny’s.

Career debut – a CD debut that is meant to be the first release of many to come. A standout marker of this is for the group to be taken out of the Junior sections on the official websites and given their own section.

One-shot debut – a CD debut that is meant to be a one-time thing for a group or soloist. This distinction is made as Junior groups in the past have released CDs, which is often called a debut, with them remaining as Juniors.


 Some notes that might make reading the posts easier:

All names will be listed the traditional Japanese way with the family name first and the given name second.

I will be skipping some of the early Johnny’s groups and lumping the ones I do cover together as there is a general lack of information about them so it would be difficult to justify an entry for a group I only know the name of. I may go back and make entries for the early groups there is a good amount of information about at a later date once I’m done with the initial entries I have for this.

Sub-units will be lumped with the entry of the group they are from, for example Tegomass will be with NEWS and Coming Century and 20th Century will be with V6.

I have decided to give NYC their own entry. Even though I still am not completely convinced they are a career debut unit until either they release an album or Nakayama Yuma is finally taken out of Junior status and they are given their own section on the official pages like Johnny’s net. But they cannot be counted as a sub-unit either because of Nakayama and are not technically a one-shot debut either as they have released more than one single so I felt it was easier to just give them their own entry.

My focus is on the career debuted groups so outside of the section where I explain about the Juniors I will not really touch upon them in this. This is pretty much because there is so much change among them when it comes to members and groups for the most part and because of their numbers it is difficult to track them all. I may do another project for them in the future but this one will stick with the Johnny’s that have been promoted from Junior status, minus the exception that is Nakayama Yuma for the NYC entry.


 And since this is for new fans before I can get to the history of J&A I feel I need to explain an important set up within the agency, Johnny’s Juniors.


Next Entry > Johnny’s Juniors, full of rising stars and heartbreak 




Directory >
Introduction
Johnny’s Juniors, full of rising stars and heartbreak
The Early and Rocky Path to Fame
Kondo Masahiko: Singer, Dancer, Actor, Professional Race Car Driver
Giving a New Meaning to Playzone, Shounentai
Hikaru Genji, Shining the Brightest and Crashing the Hardest

Otokogumi, Rocking It Old School
The Living Legend of SMAP
TOKIO, From Spaceships to the Over 30s World
Victory, Volleyball, Vegetable, Vicylce? V6
KinKi Kids, It's Not What You Think
Arashi, Storming to the Top
The Inseparable Duo, Tackey & Tsubasa
North, East, West, South ... It's big NEWS
Kansai Underdogs,  Kanjani∞
Cartoon? KAT-TUN!
Jumping to Their Dreams, Hey! Say! JUMP
Johnny's Black Sheep, Akanishi Jin
How to Debut Without Even Trying, Ikuta Toma
Kis-My-Ft2, Everybody Go (Roller Skating)!
Yamashita Tomohisa, Johnny’s Golden Boy
Entering the Sexy Zone
The 5Stars A.B.C-Z
International Ventures
Johnny's and Charity 
Odds & Ends

Upcoming release for October

Going to be doing double posts for the next couple of days to catch up as news won't stop coming in. This post will catch up with the recent announcements of new releases and tomorrow, barring anymore new news, I will begin one of the projects I mentioned I would be working on during my hiatus. I hope this one will take me to about the end of this year as I'll be posting an entry for it every Saturday.

First up is the upcoming concert DVD release from Kis-My-Ft2. The DVDs are for two different concerts, one pre-debut and the other post-debut, that can be bought separately or together. Considering most concert DVDs fall between 4000-5000 yen the prices for these are actually rather good and hopefully makes it more affordable for fans. It will be released on October 26th.


Kis-My-Ft ni Aeru de Show vol.3 at Kokuritsu Yoyogi Daiichi Taiikukan 2011.2.12/Kis-My-Ft2 Debut Tour 2011 Everybody Go at Yokohama Arena 2011.7.31 (Title subject to change) [Limited Edition / Jacket A] / Kis-My-Ft2
Kis-My-Ft ni Aeru de Show vol.3 at Kokuritsu Yoyogi Daiichi Taiikukan 2011.2.12 (Title subject to change) / Kis-My-Ft2
Kis-My-Ft2 Debut Tour 2011 Everybody Go at Yokohama Arena 2011.7.31 (Title subject to change) / Kis-My-Ft2

With all the times A.N.JELL has gone on Coming Soon to perform the songs from the drama it comes as no surprise there will be a special release for them. It comes in the form of the OST CD which will be two discs for both versions with the songs used in the drama on one disc and the soundtrack music on the other.

The LE comes with a DVD that has a PV for one of the songs while the RE comes with varient covers based on the album covers of the group before it added its fourth member. It comes out on October 5th.


A.N.JELL with TBS "You're Beautiful (Ikemen Desune)" Music Collection [Cardboard Sleeve] [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Jacket A] / A.N.JELL
A.N.JELL with TBS "You're Beautiful (Ikemen Desune)" Music Collection [Regular Edition / Jacket B] / A.N.JELL

I was honestly expecting another single from Tegomass so I was surprised to find out the next release from them will be a full album. The album will release on October 19th.

The LE has a bonus DVD with a PV for the song Maho no Melody as well as a special interview. The RE comes with three bonus tracks, two of them are the coupling songs that were on the Swedish version of the Tanabata Matsuri single.

Tegomass no Maho [w/ DVD, Limited Edition] / Tegomass (Tegomasu)
Tegomass no Maho [Regular Edition] / Tegomass (Tegomasu)
It looks like October is going to be an expensive month and I'm sure release announcements aren't even done yet for the month.