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.

Ohno in a drama SP & some other tidbits

It has been announced that Ohno Satoshi will be starring in a drama SP that will air sometime during the 2012 New Year's period on Fuji TV. The SP is called Mou Yuukai Nante Shinnai and is based off a novel. The filming for the SP will begin near the end of the month.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)


The reports for the recordings of December's Shounen Club episodes are out and some kinda good news for B.I. Shadow fans is that Matsumura Hokuto is reported being back already. From the bits I gathered he's been shuffled with Hip Hop Jump but it isn't too clear so we'll have to probably wait until the episodes air to see what that is about. Still no sign of Koichi Yugo though.

Then on a more related thing I had planned on doing a bit of a round-up post about Sexy Zone's debut yesterday but lost the drive to do so when I saw that update for Hey! Say! JUMP. But I'm still going to try to write that entry today, as it's something I want to get out before we get their sales numbers.

Hey! Say! JUMP officially down to nine

Well it's happened, Johnny's net has updated the profile page for Hey! Say! JUMP. The new group picture is only of the current nine members and Morimoto Ryutaro is no where to be seen as they have taken down his profile information. He has also been removed from the J-Web site. I think it's now clear that officially Ryutaro is out of the group and there are no current plans for a return.

From what I've heard from Johnny's fans that were around when NEWS lost Uchi Hiroki and Kusano Hironori it took quite some time before they were removed from the profile pages of their respective groups so this comes to no surprise to me. Whether people like it or not I think it's time to really start to accept that Morimoto Ryutaro is not going to return to HSJ. His scandal was just not something an idol, especially a young idol, can just be forgotten and forgiven in the industry. Especially not when the image of the group is clean and wholesome. It may be unfair but with the entertainment business very little is.

For his fans the best to hop for is that he decides to continue on with Johnny's and returns as a Junior again eventually, much like Uchi Hiroki. Of course it'll be his decision in the end to make and hopefully what he decides will make him happy as that'll be the most important thing for him, IMHO.

There might be a slim chance I could be wrong but it's more than likely that I'm not. As I've mentioned before on this topic Uchi and Kusano are the two cases most similar to Ryutaro's and as we can see from them an easy return won't happen. So even if it is possible for him to come back some day in the future it won't be just handed to him, he will have to do something to prove his dedication at least, much think those two had to go through being trainees before regaining Junior status again. After that it'll be in the agency's hands what they want to do with him and unfortunately no fan can really say what they'll decide to do when the time comes. But I just wouldn't keep your hopes up as Johnny's doesn't seem big on giving second chances, unless it's for their most popular talents, which unfortunately Ryutaro wasn't.

Personally even though I know this day has been coming it still feels like a blow to have it finally happen. I've been following HSJ since their debut and I honestly love each member as they each brought something different to the group despite its size. I honestly thought after enough time members that were shuffled in the back would each get a chance to shine a bit and it saddens me that Ryutaro never got that time or now ever will.

Not only that but just like the concert footage on the second limited edition DVD for Magic Power all video with him will be trimmed to cut him out as much as possible like with other groups that had members leave. And to me that hurts the most because I don't like it when it looks like Johnny's is trying to erase the past like that. Ryutaro's time with HSJ meant something to me, to his fans, to the group's fans and of course to the group members. But I don't see Johnny's changing their policy for this and I will treasure the DVDs I have of their concerts and PVs with all ten members as it'll be the only way to see those videos from now on without excessive edits.

This is a depressing way to start a week, especially since today is the 4th anniversary of HSJ's CD debut to top it all off. I guess they must have figured that it would be a good date to confirm as much as they will ever confirm that Ryutaro is gone and it will be the current nine that make up the group from now on. And while I understand the reasoning behind it I can't help but disagree with it, as the thought just makes me even more miserable about it all.

Whatever the outcome I just wish Ryutaro well with whatever path in life he chooses to take. And I hope others learn from his mistake so history doesn't repeat itself again.

Q&A Month: Question 5

As promised here's the second Q&A entry for today to make up for the day I missed a couple of days ago.

This time I'll be answering the second question Kismy left for me: And do you think there´s a chance that they´ll (Kis-My-Ft2) be in Kohaku this year?

Honestly Kouhaku performer lists is something I avoid doing as I don't have too much of an idea of how they make their selections. Though I do think the Johnny's that will be safe bets to be on the program this year are Arashi (as they already have been confirmed), SMAP and TOKIO, as the latter two have been regulars on the program for years. I would put NYC in the maybe pile because even if they haven't done much since early in the year they fill a purpose at Kouhaku for being youth oriented as the program is meant to be enjoyed by young and old.

If NYC doesn't perform this year though then I'm sure they'll be replaced by another Johnny's group, though I'm not sure if Kis-My-Ft2 would be considered a suitable replacement if they want another youth oriented group. I could be wrong, but that's just my impression.

Of course if the rumors about a shake up in who gets invites this year because of the crack down on artists with yakuza connections I can see Johnny's wanting to add another one of their groups to the line up. If so then I think Kis-My-Ft2 has a good shot. They're newly debuted, scandal free, will have two upbeat encouragement songs that they can choose from to perform and if they really do have one of SMAP's managers as their own then also the connections.

Though personally the rumors I've been hearing have Kanjani8 being on the list of Kouhaku performers this year. I'm not sure how they would work that unless NHK is willing to have them appear via satellite seeing as they have their New Year's concert in Osaka and would have to cancel it to perform at NHK Hall, which I don't see happening at all.

In any case the official list should be coming out next week and then we'll know who'll be there, outside of Arashi of course.


And as a reminder just in case you've missed the earlier posts for this if you have a question you want to ask this month please ask it in the comments of this post. I will make sure to answer them all even if I have to go past this month to do so.

Q&A Month: Question 4

Well I still managed to miss a day so to make up for it I'll try to answer two questions today, one right now and if I have the time for it the other a bit later.

For this question I'm going back to answer the next question Chris left for me: - have you ever been to Japan and watched a Johnnys concert?

The quick answer is yes.

The long answer is that from April 2009 to the first week of February 2010 I was in Japan as an exchange student at one of the universities in Tokyo. During this time I made the most of being in Japan after dreaming about going since junior high school and made sure to go to as many concerts/events as I could afford. And thanks to being in the Tokyo area there was a lot I could go to as long as I had the money for it.

Since this blog was up and running during that time I wrote concert reports, some more thorough than others. Here's the quick list of my reports in chronological order:

KAT-TUN Tokyo Dome May 16th, 2009
KAT-TUN Tokyo Dome May 22nd, 2009
Johnny's Jr. New Unit concert June, 7th, 2009
Hey! Say! JUMP Summer Concert '09 July 26th, 2009
Tegomass 1st Live: Tegomass no Uta August 5th, 2009
Natsuyasumi Johnny's Jr. August 18th, 2009
TOKIO LIVE TOUR OVER 30's WORLD September 22nd, 2009
Tomohisa Yamashita SHORT BUT SWEET November 21st, 2009
Hey! Say! JUMP Winter Concert 2009-2010 January 6th, 2010

Of course most of these reports were written as quickly as I could, which meant either about an hour or two hour train ride back to where I was living after the concert ended, so there are some errors in them as I didn't do a lot of proof reading. It's kinda embarrassing reading them because of those errors, especially the Tegomass one as that's the one that was recorded for the DVD release (I can see myself in the crowd in it, but I am tiny as it's from a distance.) so I can re-watch that one.

I also went to a Kis-My-Ft2 concert, Kis-My-Ft ni Kaeru de Show on December 19th, 2009 but for some reason didn't write up a concert report for it. I'm thinking it might have been because there was already a couple of big Kisumai fans writing reports about the concerts and most of the concerts I did reports on I knew there wasn't a big chance of having an English speaking fan to write reports for.

I've been honestly dying to see another concert for a Johnny's artist because if there's anything I've picked up from going to all of those is that Johnny's knows how to put on great concerts no matter how big or small the venue. In fact I'm kinda hoping Akanishi Jin will be touring in a city near me as even though I'm not really a big fan, though I do like some of his songs, I really want to see another Johnny's in concert because I know no matter what it'll be a blast. And of course I still hope to one day go back to Japan, for either a job or for a vacation, and see something then.

KinKi Kids, It's Not What You Think

Members: Domoto Tsuyoshi & Domoto Koichi 

(from left to right) Domoto Tsuyoshi & Domoto Koichi

Don’t let the names fool you. The Kinki stands for the prefecture the members are from and while they have the same last name they aren’t related to each other, even though Domoto is not a common surname.

KinKi Kids is technically the first Kansai group to debut from the agency, as Kinki is in the Kansai region, but are not usually considered as such as they joined the agency back when all Juniors lived in a dorm in Tokyo. Before debuting they went through a lot of name changes starting with Johnny’s Kansaigumi, Domoto Brothers, WDomoto, KANZI BOYA to finally Kinki Kids that eventually standardized the spelling of the group to KinKi Kids.

As a Junior duo they did pretty much everything together. They both were in popular dramas together as Juniors and even held a solo concert at the Nippon Budokan in 1994. Then in 1997 they debuted with Garasu no Shounen, which debuted at #1 on the Oricon chart and sold over a million copies, which only Kondo Masahiko had done before. They also released their first album the same time as their debut single and it also ranked #1 for its debut and sold more than million copies eventually.

The duo has a Guinness World Record for having every single since their debut rank #1 for its debut week and attained it with their thirteenth single. This was the first time a Japanese musical artist attained a Guinness World Record. As of 2011 this record stands at thirty-one singles with the closest runner up being one of Johnny’s other groups, KAT-TUN, who are at sixteen.

KinKi Kids also hold the distinction of being the first Johnny’s group to be on an agency owned record label, Johnny’s Entertainment.

They have been hosts of several different programs together. Currently they are hosts of the popular Shin Domoto Kyodai variety program, which is a talk and music based program.

Domoto Tsuyoshi is known for his singing skills and talent in music. He has gone under a few different names for his solo music works, which he pens all himself, from Endlicheri Endlicheri to 244 Endli-x until finally going to Tsuyoshi for his most recent work . In 2011 he released an album, NIPPON, in Europe. His solo material tends to be rock orientated and not really mainstream.

Domoto Koichi is known the prince of the agency and for his dance skills. His birthday s January 1st so during Johnny’s Countdown, the annual countdown concert for all the debuted Johnny’s groups, he usually gets his birthday well wishes from the other groups when it officially become January 1st. Every year he stars in a musical, Shock (the name is changed slightly every year but Shock is always a part of it). He has had the oppurtunity to create a couple of Junior groups, KAT-TUN and J-Support (later called K.K.Kity), and for the latter he even wrote a song for, Private Hearts.

(from left to right) Domoto Tsuyoshi & Domoto Koichi

TRIVIA: Nakai Masahiro was the one that gave them the name KinKi Kids after the duo became regulars on one of SMAP’s variety programs.

During their debut year they were selected to be main personalities for NTV’s 24-Hour Television event.



Next Entry > Arashi, Storming to the Top

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

Matsumoto Jun gets lucky

Matsumoto Jun will be starring in a drama series for the winter season. The title of the drama is Lucky Seven and will air in the Getsu9 (Monday, 9PM) slot on Fuji TV. It will begin airing sometime in January.

The drama will focus on a team of seven detectives, which Matsumoto will be the rookie member of. The drama is being said to be full of action and comedy.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)


I guess as Arashi fans are doing so as well I'm wondering if the group will be doing the theme song for the drama. I can't recall the last time they didn't when it came to one of their members starring in a drama and January seems like it would be a good time for them to release their next single as their latest single was only released this past week.