Johnny's WEST 7

A few days ago photos from one of the monthly magazines started showing up online and the pictures for Johnny's WEST had three other Kansai Juniors, Hamada Takahiro, Kamiyama Tomohiro and Fujii Ryusei. Of course fandom was confused as the group was announced to only consist of Kiriyama Akito, Nakama Junta, Shigeoka Daiki and Kotaki Nozomu. But today things have been cleared up with a new announcement for the group: they will be a seven member unit.

From an article from Oricon Style (Japanese) it has been confirmed that members have been added to Johnny's WEST so now it will consist of, Kiriyama, Nakama, Shigeoka, Kotaki, Kamiyama, Fujii and Hamada. (You can find a translation of it here.) There is also an update on Johnny's Net that confirms the member change.

What is interesting about it is that it does confirm that Johnny's WEST 4 was the original name but it was quickly changed to Johnny's WEST because 4 is an unlucky number in Japan. So that mystery is solved. And of course the best part is that the guys asked for the additional members from the company. I cannot say I am surprised as these seven have done so much together it would seem odd to have them split up. I hope they can prove that adding the other three are well worth it.

This makes me so happy. I was glad for the original four being able to debut but I would be lying if I did not say the fact that at least Hamada, Kamiyama and Fujii not debuting with them made me also disappointed. Now that is no longer an issue and I am beyond delighted. I am so glad that they asked to have others debut with them and that Johnny Kitagawa let them.

I honestly do not care how silly this makes me look, but I have come to love these guys so much in the past couple of years and the fact that they get to be together in a debuted group just fills me with so much joy. I cannot wait to have their debut CD in my hands so I can play all the songs to death.