Sexy Zone debut single thoughts

As promised this entry will just go over some of the thoughts and speculations I have for Sexy Zone's debut single and some various other thoughts about the group.

First off I think I've come to be okay with the name. I still think it's silly but this a boy band we're talking about and groups like these do tend to have all kinds of silly names, you just have to look at the other Johnny's groups to see that. But I figure the 'sexy' is something that the boys will eventually get to, though I think Nakajima Kento and Kikuchi Fuma are already there and Sato Shori is getting there. Shori has the right look when it comes to the face but he just looks too scrawny otherwise so he still needs a year or two, IMHO. The other two it'll be a few years still but I'm sure they'll eventually get there, but for now I just want to see them as the adorable kids that they are.

I know there have been several people worrying about this single not being success and then there are those who just aren't fans and would rather have someone who is releasing this week get more sales than them, but I've always been confidant that they'll debut with a #1 single just like many of their senpai groups. It's become one of Johnny's signature trademarks when it comes to debuts, that it's with a #1. Their only real competition is with one of AKB48's sub-units, Not Yet. And even tough this is one of the stronger selling sub-units they still don't sell nearly as much as any of the main 48 groups with most of their first week sales numbers being around 150K. Personally I've been predicting a 200k~250K sales for the first week of SZ's single with the five versions and now the two announced events connected to it. So I don't think they're in too much trouble. And if they are then Johnny's can always but together another promotional event for the end of the week to boost numbers.

Speaking of the promotional events today is the first one. If you are familiar with the sales date for Japanese media releases, such as CDs and DVDs, then it's common knowledge that technically they go on sale in stores the day before the release date. So having an event today means they are probably trying to make sure they are #1 in sales for the first day, as that's typically the biggest day for sales in Japan. I think this is because with the 48 groups and sub-groups they typically have massive first day sales then drop dramatically, even more-so than the usual sales drops for artists, after that. So I think this event is to make sure SZ gets a higher first day sales number than Not Yet.

So hopefully Johnny's strategy works as I would like to see these boys succeed as I can't help but see a lot of promise with this group, especially when the members get older.

That said, I'm really not a fan of their debut song, Sexy Zone, even though I've warmed up to it a bit. But I doubt it'll ever be a song I'll listen to much down the line unlike Hey! Say! JUMP's Ultra Music Power or NEWS' NEWS Nippon or Kibou ~Yell~. One thing I've finally narrowed down to why the song doesn't do much for me was that it sounds a bit Eurobeat to me and it's a type of music I'm not a big fan of. Sure some of V6's earlier music is fun to listen to and much more Eurobeat than this song but I still don't like them nearly as much as other J-pop songs that aren't Eurobeat influenced.

It's rather interesting that they are going to the Eurobeat for this single, since the heyday for this sound in J-pop was back when V6 debuted, the mid-90s, so the song sounds a bit like their debut song Music For The People to me. But I did always think HSJ and NEWS can similar sounding debut songs (UMP and NEWS Nippon), which makes sense as they had the same person composing the songs so maybe this just means the 2015 volleyball unit will have something that sounds like A.Ra.Shi. XD

But even though I don't care too much for the title track I do like the two B-sides that have had previews floating around. I'm still quite happy that I was right about With You being a B-side and Knock! Knock!! Knock!!! is such a fun song. I can't wait to get my copies of the single in, they shipped on Sunday so it'll either be late this week or early next week, so I can listen to the other B-side. I have high hopes it'll be as good as the other two and I hope I won't be disappointed.

I do find it interesting that a debut concert hasn't been announced for the group. I guess Johnny's knows they can't push for another Tokyo Dome debut concert so soon with them as they probably don't have the fan base to attempt to fill it and they already had that record broken earlier this year with Kis-My-Ft2. So I think instead the debut concerts won't be set to really break records. I mean they are a bit tied with what they can do because of Yo Marius' age and that he's not even out of grade school yet. So I expect for concerts they'll be placed around the school holidays much like HSJ's usually are. Though since they would be using the same venues I can see HSJ cutting back on the amount of concerts that they do a year and moving towards the usual pattern for tours that their senpai groups have where they only tour if they have a new album coming out. Which wouldn't be so bad as that should help insure they get a more regular release schedule for their singles that would make me happy as a HSJ fan.

I'm glad to have this debut to look forward to honestly. After the blow from the HSJ turn of events yesterday it's nice to have something to distract myself with. I can't wait to see what the rest of this week brings, as I can't see it being worse than yesterday.