Saturday, January 20, 2018

King & Prince major debut with Johnny's Universe

Announced January 17th, 2018 Johnny's will be having a new group, King & Prince (Kinpuri for short), getting a major debut. There is no set date yet for their debut CD but the time frame that was announced is that it should be sometime in Spring. The group will be debuting with a new record label that will be a collaboration between Johnny's and Universal Music Japan, that will be named Johnny's Universe.

News Article Oricon (Japanese only)
News Article Arama Japan


Honestly the part of this debut that has me the most interested is the creation of Johnny's Universe. Universal Music Japan is one of the more international friendly Japanese music companies, with full music videos being posted on Youtube and music on iTunes outside of Japan for example. Things international Johnny's fans would love to have for any and all the groups they follow. With the presence of Johnny's on Netflix recently, with Johnny's West getting a drama on the platform and Marius Yo having a role in the Netflix produced sitcom Fuller House there are signs that Johnny's is starting to think about letting the rest of the world know that they exist instead of staying in Asia. And if they want to go international then a partnership with Universal would be a good idea, as I doubt they would have what they would need to have in place for a venture with their own labels.

Outside of that the only Juniors in this group that I am interested in are Hirano Sho and Nagase Ren, as liked them as members of KinKan and Naniwa Oji. I have to get back into watching Shounen Club again to get a feel for the rest of the members as it has been a long time since I paid any attention to the Juniors outside of SixTONES. 

In the end it is going to depend if I like their songs if I will follow them, though if they do release songs on iTunes I might just get those as they would be far easier to afford than a CD import. Plus it might finally help bring Johnny's closer to the modern day if this group does well with digital sales, which I am all for. I could get back to following more groups if I had to pay the usual iTunes prices for songs than importing.

Also for anyone who may want to doubt if this is more than a one shot single debut I would like to point out that a new music label has never been created for one of those. Music labels have been created for new debuted units, like Kinki Kids and KAT-TUN, so it is safe to assume Kinpuri is here to stay.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

NEWS LPS single track hype

I honestly cannot recall the last time I felt so hyped up about a new release as I do with NEWS' upcoming single LPS. And it is not that I did not like their recent releases, just with my depression so much of my excitement about what I love felt muted. Now that I am in a much better place I have the feelings I used to have coming back and they are so here with this release.

It comes out in Japan in about a week and I have the limited editions pre-ordered so I will probably get my copies of those by the end of the month.

Since I watched the Johnny's Countdown concert for 2017-2018 I did see the group's performance of LPS and I really enjoyed it. Even though I know I could probably hunt down a radio rip or something for it I am going to wait until I get my CDJapan order to keep my excitement up for it.

What really has me excited about this single release are the re-recorded songs on the LE type B. NEWS has slowly been releasing new versions of their older songs, basically just updated with the vocals of the remaining four members of the group. And the two songs that are getting this treatment are Cherish and Mafuyu no Nagareboshi. Cherish is one of my all time favorite NEWS songs so I am really looking forward to having the 4-nin version of it, especially since it was originally released when the group still had 8 members. I know I will play this version of the song to death and look forward to doing so. Mafuyu no Nagareboshi is a song that I do not feel strongly about either way but I am always happy to have another older song with updated vocals.

Only thing that brings me down is the fact that I could not afford to get all three versions so I will have to wait to pick up the regular edition and listen to the exclusive B-side to that, madoromi. Hopefully I can afford to pick it up with my next CDJapan order. But at least unlike the LEs I do not have to worry about it selling out if I have to wait to pick it up.

I am so glad I have stuck with NEWS throughout all the years. They have brought me so much joy even if there was some heartbreak as well. But by now it seems safe to say I will be with them until the end.