Introducing… Happiness

I know this is late in the month, but better late than never. The next group should not take very long seeing at how new they are.

L to R: SAYAKA, YURINO, KAREN, MAYU, MIYUU & KAEDE

Technically Happiness is a performance group rather than an idol group, much like how EXILE is considered a performance group. Which should be no surprise given that Happiness is one of EXILE’s “little sister” groups. But most just lump them with idol groups anyway so I do not think it will make much of a difference.

Happiness caught my attention when I learned one of the members, KAREN, was the younger sister of 7 WEST’s Fujii Ryusei. Though to be honest if she was not one of the vocalists of the group I probably would not have stuck with them long enough to become a fan. Which is why I am a fan of Happiness and not Flower, the group that has Ryusei's other sister in it. As like with EXILE only two members of the group sing and the rest are just dancers.

The two vocalists of the group are KAREN and MAYU, with MAYU also being the last member to join the group. Then the other four, SAYAKA, YURINO, MIYUU and KAEDE are dancers for the group.

The forte of the group is dancing, which only makes sense when only two of the girls are vocalists. It also means that seeing them perform is essential to see their strength as a group. Thankfully under Universal they get their PVs put up on youtube so anyone can watch them.

They also appear on shows connected to their “older brother” group EXILE.

As a performance group they have a mature image compared to idol groups with members of the same age. In fact it tends to surprise people that the members of this group are either fifteen or sixteen years old.

One of the group’s members, MIMU, is currently on hiatus. The reason given was the standard to focus on studies one so there is speculation on what the reason really is. But with her inactive the group is progressing on as a six member group. Only time is going to tell if she will return or just never be spoken of ever again.

So far the group has released four singles and one album. They usually have a bit of a wait between releases so if you do not want to follow a group that will swamp you with their releases this would be a good group in that respect.

Happiness also falls under the LDH (Love Dream Happiness) grouping that EXILE has for their girl groups. It also means that they are a part of E-Girls, the super girl group that is made up of the members of other LDH groups like Dream and Flower. Recently though they have changed to a competitive selection method for who performs in E-Girls as they have added another girl group, bunny, to the LDH line up as well as let trainees be in E-Girls.

NMB48's Virginity ... щ(ಥДಥщ)

Finally we have the title of the upcoming NMB48 single as well as full track listings. Though I think I could live without the title of the A-side, which is Virginity.

Virginity Type A
[CD]
1.Virginity
2.Musou Girlfriend
3.Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi)
4.Virginity (Off Vocal)
5.Musou Girlfriend (Off Vocal)
6.Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi) (Off Vocal)


 [DVD] 
1.Virginity MV  
2.Virginity MV (Dance Mix Version)
3.Musou Girlfriend MV 
4.Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi) MV 
5.Special Movie ""Goodnight movie (1st half)" 

Virginity Type B

[CD]
1.Virginity
2.Musou Girlfriend
3.Sonzai Shitenai Mono  (Akagumi)
4.Virginity (Off Vocal)
5.Musou Girlfriend (Off Vocal)
6.Sonzai Shitenai Mono  (Akagumi) (Off Vocal)


 [DVD] 
1.Virginity MV  
2.Virginity MV (Dance Mix Version)
3.Musou Girlfriend MV 
4.Sonzai Shitenai Mono (Akagumi) MV 
5.Special Movie ""Goodnight movie (2nd half)" 

Virginity Type C

[CD]
1.Virginity
2.Musou Girlfriend
3.Sunahama de Pistol   (Namaba Teppoutai)
4.Virginity (Off Vocal)
5.Musou Girlfriend (Off Vocal)
6.Sunahama de Pistol  ( Namaba Teppoutai) (Off Vocal)


 [DVD] 
1.Virginity MV  
2.Virginity MV (Dance Mix Version)
3.Musou Girlfriend MV 
4.Sunahama de Pistol ( Namaba Teppoutai) MV 
5.Special Movie: NMB feat.吉本新喜劇 Vol.4

Virginity Theatre Edition

[CD]
1.Virginity
2.Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi)
3.Sonzai Shitenai Mono (Akagumi)
4.Chotto Nekoze
5.Virginity (Off Vocal)
6. Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi)(Off Vocal)
7. Sonzai Shitenai Mono (Akagumi) (Off Vocal)

8. Chotto Nekose (ff Vocal)

I cannot say I am thrilled with the song. I like that it has a 50s/60s retro sound to it but the title and lyrics leave much to be desired. Though it does make me feel glad that Yogi Keila is not in the senbatsu as I do not need to hear a twelve year old sing about virginity. In fact having Jo Erika (14) still in makes me side eye this song pretty hard right now.

At least Musou Girlfriend is a decent song and hopefully the other B-sides will be good. I already like the sound of Namba Teppoutai's Sunahama de Pistol. Hopefully it will be as fun as the name sounds as it looks like that will be the version I will buy of this single.

NMB48 Janken results and 5th single sub-units

Well a lot of things for NMB48 have recently happened and been announced. Here are some of the most recent.

First off NMB48 have done their group janken tournament which decided the six members of the group will participate in the AKB48 Janken tournament on September 18th. The girls are:

Team N: Kotani Riho & Shinohara Kanna
Team M: Kawakami Rena, Takano Yui, Hikawa Ayame & Yamagishi Natsumi

Hikawa Ayame was one of the girls from NMB48 that not only participated in that year's AKB48 Janken tournament but placed in the senbatsu so she seems to be pretty lucky. Hopefully she will be able to do the same this year as well.


Then we finally have the list of sub-units for the upcoming single, which is still untitled, and which girls will be in which sub-unit.

難波鉄砲隊其之壱 ("Namba Teppoutai Sono Ichi") (8) Kotani Riho, Yagura Fuuko, Yogi Keila, Yabushita Shu, Murakami Ayaka, Hikawa Ayame, Matsuda Shiori, Kato Yuuka

Akagumi (12) Watanabe Miyuki, Fukumoto Aina, Ogasawara Mayu, Yoshida Akari, Takano Yui, Yamaguchi Yuki, Okita Ayaka, Shinohara Kanna, Yamagishi Natsumi, Yamauchi Tsubasa, Hayashi Momoka, Akazawa Hono

Shirogumi (12) Yamamoto Sayaka, Yamada Nana, Jonishi Kei, Jo Eriko, Kondo Rina, Murase Sae, Shimada Rena, Kushiro Rina, Mita Mao, Azuma Yuki, Muro Kanako, Yamamoto Hitomi

So glad to see Nana return to Shirogumi. I missed her being with Sayaka last single for the Shirogumi song. Of course I have favorites in all three of the groups so this does not help me figure out if there is a version of the single I would feel fine skipping out on. That will have to wait until information about the DVD content comes out.

I am interested in the Namba Teppoutai Sono Ichi group, partly because there are some favorites, like Keila and Shu, in that group. But also because it is a group of girls that are not the most popular members so this looks like it could be a could chance for them to shine and rise in popularity some.


Also Team N's original stage has been given a new start date of August 19th and it is titled Shonichi.

I am really excited about this as it seems like such an important step for an AKS group to start getting their own stages for their teams. Especially as the songs will be for the members of the team and whenever another team covers the stage they will always be compared to those who did it first.