Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Tokyo Idol Festival 2011 Part 3

Man, I don't know most of these groups! This is kind of fun!!

JK21: This is a Kansai based group, that was actually formed way back in 2008, but made their major label debut back in 2010. They currently have six members, hoards of ex-members, a side/sub group (JK21 Puchii Musume) and Kenkyuusei of their own.
Another interesting thing is that their name is pronounced "JK Two One" instead of JK Twenty one. Huh!
From what I can tell they still have pretty low sales, but hopefully the Tokyo Idol Festival can help it! They've done the theme song for the Hanshin Tigers in the past, so I wonder if Ishikawa Rika (a HUGE Hanshin Tigers fan) knows of them at all, haha.


Anyways, they seem cute and energetic; they don't really have any specific gimmick that will make them standout, but I like what I've seen of some of their singles and performances!

Jewel Kiss: Because their name is common English words, and there's another Jpop single entitled "Jewel of Kiss", finding too much about them is kind of difficult. I was able to find this site:
They're a group of 8 girls, with ages ranging from 10 to 15. They all have different colors, much like H!P groups or Momoiro Clover. I can't find if they have any original single releases as of yet (though the fact that they don't have j-ongaku or generasia or any other English wiki pages leads me to believe they haven't done anything like that yet). They performed at last year's Tokyo Idol Festival.



It really seems like this song, Koisuru Sniper, is their "signature song"; at the very least, it's what they have the most videos of.

They also seem to do covers; here's one of Go Girl Koi no Victory. I also saw one of Aitai Lonely Christmas up there.



Super*Girls: This is a group I know more about than the other groups I've been covering as of yet!

They're Avex's newest shot at the idol genre, and they're definitely aiming for the top of the idol world. They were formed last year, and actually debuted at the Tokyo Idol Festival, I believe. They've mentioned in the past aiming to beat AKB48. And while I originally  thought that was a little presumptuous, it really looks like Avex is marketing these girls pretty well.

They have twelve members, and released their first album, Chouzetsu Shoujo, back last year. This year they released Ganbatte Seishun as their first single, and their most recent single MAX Otome Gokoro got really close to beating Morning Musume in weekly sales. With each release, their sales go up, and so I really think that they're going to keep gaining popularity and become more of an idol heavyweight in the future!

I don't follow them TOO closely, but since I really like Reira and Kaede (two of the front girls), I should probably try to keep up with Super*Girls news.



Sexy All Sisters: OK, yeah, here's another group I haven't heard about at all before.

Judging from their website (http://sexy-all-sisters.com) it's an idol collective surrounding fanservice; if you love Sexy All Sisters then tell me wrong, but from what it seems, it's a group of different idol groups surrounding a fanservice theme.
You've got the Pairangers, a sentai themed group; the pai probably comes from the Japanese slang word for breasts, oppai.
You have D-Rive, which is a duet group that fixes cars sexily in their PV Gear Spark.
You have Slender, which is cheerleading themed, and also has a song/pv called "Pantystocking" (based off that one anime?).
There's Sangokushi, which is old/historical Japan themed.
There's Umoretai, which is maid cafe themed.
And finally there's Yankee... the Yankee themed group.
They all seem to have their own singles/DVDs, and sometimes do events together. They're REALLY fanservicey; they all seem to be adults, though, and not young idols, which is a bit of a relief. Honestly, if you complain about fanservice in, say, AKB48, look at Sexy All Sisters, because they're in a league of their own.

Tokyo Girls' Style: I think they performed at the Tokyo Idol Festival last year!
They're Avex's first attempt at capitolizing in on the idol genre (before they formed Super*Girls). They're based off of the concept of older idol groups like SweetS; there's five girls, all very young (in the 12 or so range) and they are really skilled in singing and dancing. They haven't been as successful as Super*Girls, but they have plenty of fans in their own right.


Their sales have been dropping, but since they have their devoted fans, I think they'll be OK. And they did my favorite SweetS song, Love Like Candy Floss, yay!

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