Why Johnny's?

I guess before I begin writing about my current thoughts about the Johnny's groups I should mention how I got into them in the first place. It can really be blamed on peroxidepest17, who I friended on LJ back when I was a big Bleach fan as she was one of my favorite fanfic authors of that series. When she became a News fan earlier in the year she began spamming her LJ with links of clips of them on youtube and her infectious fangirling about them. So I decided to check out those links myself and by the end of June I was hooked on News too.

While News was my first JE boyband that I became a fan of, it wasn't the first I had listened to. Before then I had bought Arashi's 'Wish' single and Koichi Domoto's 'Deep in your heart/+MILLION but-Love' single as I had heard them as theme songs, 'Wish' for the first Hana Yori Dango drama season and 'Deep in your heart' was the theme song to the 'Jyu-Ou-Sei' anime series. But neither single had me wanting to learn more about either artist and I was oblivious of the fact they were both under the infamous Johnny's Jimusho until I learned about the Jimusho as I got into News. As one really can't remain ignorant of Johnny's if you're following any of their artists.

News is my favorite group and I can probably go on for hours about them and my love for them. There isn't a member of the group that I don't love and their member-ai just makes me want to melt, it's so sweet. Shigeaki is my favorite member, mainly for his personality. Tegoshi is a close second and the rest are so close it's difficult to rank them. As I got into them post-hiatus I'm much more a fan of the six member News unit than the previous eight member unit before the underage drinking scandals of Uchi and Kusano. I'm not really sure if I want them to return to News, and with the upswing of single sales post-hiatus I don't think Johnny's will bring them back to the group. I do hope Uchi returns to Kanjani8 though as the whole group seems to be pulling for his return. For Kusano, I think it would be great if he could debut with a new group or with Kusano as a duo or as a solo singer. As a big fan of Shigeaki I've been searching out old KKKity performances and I've grown to like Kusano from watching them.

I remained a News only fan for a while until I began looking more into JE, especially when I learned how big it was in Japan. Though I tried several JE artists the next group that really perked my interest was the temporary Hey! Say! 7 Jr group. I really gained interest in the group as I had begun watching the Tantei Gakuen Q drama that Ryosuke Yamada co-starred in. I have a great weakness for cute things and Hey! Say! 7 was full of cute (can you really get any cuter than Chinen?). Even though they performed 'Hey! Say!' to death I still love the song and listen to it a lot.

With my interest in Hey! Say! 7 I also got into the other Juniors. I think it is interesting to see them perform knowing that all the members of debuted groups I like did the same kind of things the current Juniors are doing. As well as try to guess which group will debut next and watch them improve over time. The only Junior group I got into besides Hey! Say! 7 was Kis-My-Ft2 who are my favorite Junior group at the moment. Though Yamashita Shoon, from the now disbanded Ya-Ya-Yah Jr group, caught my attention so I'm hoping for good things for him in his future with Johnny's.

Near the end of September, as I waited in hope to hear the news that Hey! Say! 7 wasn't going to be disbanded even though they had reached the date they were supposed to be broken up, I was shocked with everyone else with the creation of Hey! Say! JUMP. I was exceedingly happy that the Hey! Say! 7 members would be able to debut together though I wasn't sure what to think about the five new members added to the group. It took some time but I have finally adjusted to everyone being in the group, though I don't think they've reached complete cohesion yet. Though with so many members taken from different Jr groups it's to be expected. I know News has mentioned that it took them a while to get used to being a group together as they too were formed out of various Jr groups. I'm still a big Yamada fan and Takaki has become my second favorite of the group. Out of the new five that were added Inoo and Okamoto have grabbed most of my attention. Inoo just a very likable person, IMHO, and it's really interesting to see Okamoto improve as he was so clumsy before as he had very little time with Johnny's as a Junior before being put in with Hey! Say! JUMP.

I have only recently begun to get into KAT-TUN. I didn't care much for the group for some time but Junno caught my attention when he bleached his hair bright blond and began wearing blue colored contacts. I was a bit impressed he did it all for a drama role so he could attempt to look like he could be part-Swedish (it doesn't succeed well, IMHO, but at least he tried which some Japanese actors don't seem to bother to do). I read up more about him and found that I honestly liked him, beyond the blond locks, and as I learned more about KAT-TUN I warmed up to them a bit. I'm still not a big fan outside of Junno, but I do like Nakamaru and I'm sure I'll get to like the rest in time. Though I'm sure I'll still be one of those weird KAT-TUN fans that like group not because of Jin or Kame.

Arashi is another group that I'm slowly beginning to like. They are around my age so I guess they're the group I'm supposed to be into. I do like their songs, they really have some catchy ones too, and I liked the Hana Yori Dango dramas but I just haven't gotten into them yet for some reason. But I seem to like them just a tiny bit more every time I read/watch/listen to something involving them so I'm sure I'll fall in time for them as well.

Though my history with being a Johnny's fangirl has been brief I've made sure to make up for it by really diving into it. I feel this is something I will be sticking with for many years to come as new groups continue to come onto the scene and it's music related, which is one of my great loves in my life. There is nowhere I want to be without music and Johnny's helps fill my life with it.

Introduction Post

This is my blog for fangirling about the Johnny's Entertainment boy bands that I am in love with. So instead of spamming my more general journal over at LJ, I'll be using this one to share my thoughts and any media I want to in relation to JE.

For those who don't know, JE is basically a Japanese male idol making factory. It was formed in 1963 by Johnny Kitagawa and since then has pretty much dominated the Japanese idol market. The way it is set up is that the boys audition to join the company and then, if selected, are given the status, Junior. As Juniors they are mainly back dancers but can be formed together to make singing units that perform mainly on Shounen Club, a program dedicated to showcasing the Juniors. Sometimes those units eventually debut (SMAP, KAT-TUN, Kanjani8) or in other cases they are restructured to form either other Junior units (Kis My Ft + ABC Jr. = Kis My Ft2) or to debut as a new unit (News, Hey! Say! JUMP).

As the idols in JE, both debuted and Juniors, are a part of everything from singing and dancing, acting in dramas, musicals and movies, hosting radio and TV programs, starring in commercial ads, it is difficult not to run across them at some point if you are a fan of Japanese pop culture.

The groups that I will be mostly covering are; News, Hey! Say! JUMP and KAT-TUN. I'll probably have something for the Juniors and Arashi as well.


(Note: This was the first post for my now defunct Johnny's blog, Never Ending Music Power.)