Thoughts on Mr. King vs Mr. Prince

I know the formation of this group is kinda old news by now but to be honest when it was announced I just gave it a questioning look at the name and really did not think much about it. I am sure this is mainly because I just do not follow the Juniors as much as I once did so none of the members really interest me. I can understand their appeal and know most are likely some of the most popular Juniors at the moment but none have really caught my attention and kept it.

That all said for anyone out of the loop Mr. King vs Mr. Prince (Kinpuri for short) is a new Junior unit made up of two subunits with Mr. King being Hirano Sho, Nagase Ren and Takahashi Kaito then Mr. Prince being Jinguji Yuta, Iwahashi Genki and Kishi Yuta. They are getting a strong push out the gate with them being supporters for TV Asahi's Roppongi Hills Natsu Matsuri Summer Station event and are even doing the theme song for it.

Since there does not look to be a FIVB debut this year it does make one wonder if instead Johnny's is going to debut a new unit without the connection to that volleyball tournament anyway. If they are this unit seems to be the most likely as the members seem to fit that fresh image that Johnny's likes to connect to those types of units.

Of course their name is terrible. Since Sexy Zone though I have given up all hope of a Johnny's group getting a decent sounding name. And at least Kinpuri seems to be much more widespread in usage than the full name from what I have noticed.

I do like that there are a couple of Kansai Juniors in the group as they should help bring some life to it. Or at least I hope so. And I think by going for an older average age with the members Johnny's will not have to worry so much with running into many issues that they can with younger idols. All the members have had strong pushes from the agency so there is no surprise they would be considered for debut if that is to be.

And while I do want SixTONES to debut I am fine with waiting longer for that. I would prefer that group to go the KAT-TUN/Kis-My-Ft2 route and build their popularity up for a while as Juniors so they can have a strong debut with a cool image. As I think any group that debuts this year will be to take over the fresh and young image from Sexy Zone. Which would make sense as SZ has been moving away from that in the past couple of years.

So if they debut or not I do not think it will affect me much. I am always happy to see Juniors get to debut but with so many active Johnny's groups I do wonder if things are not getting a bit over-saturated with them at this point. SZ had issues with their debut not being as strong as previous FIVB groups and not to mention their current state. A.B.C-Z went a completely different route to help make sure they had a way to stand out but cannot be called popular. They seem to be making some inroads though with variety programs that can help them stick around for the long run. Kis-My-Ft2 was lucky to get paired with SMAP early on as well as be steadily pushed so they have managed to become the most popular new Johnny's group. Kinpuri's fate seems rather up in the air even if they do debut though at least this tie-in will help get their name out there and hopefully attract a decent fanbase so they can avoid a bumpy start.

I think I have rambled on enough about the topic now. It will at least be interesting to see what happens with this group in both the near and distant future.