A brief rundown of my idol fandoms 2020

Since I am getting into the swing of things again with writing blog entries this is a good a time as any to go over what my main idol interests are, as they are going to be what I will be blogging about the most.

Johnny's still remains my main focus.And within Johnny's the groups I follow the most nowadays are NEWS, Hey! Say! JUMP, Kis-My-Ft2 and SixTONES. That said groups that I am keeping an eye on and could potentially join the list are; Sexy Zone, King & Prince and Snow Man. All other active groups I still keep an eye on, but just pay greater attention all of the ones I have listed. Of course the Johnny's Jr.s are their own mixed bag, as there are Juniors and Junior groups that I am interested in. Since I fell out of following Johnny's much for a few years I am a bit at a loss at figuring out who some of them even are. Even if it takes a while though I do plan on doing my best to catch up with what is going on with them.

With Country Girls and Kobushi Factory no longer around there is not as much left in Hello! Project for me now. Oda Sakura is still my kamioshi of Morning Musume. As long as she remains in the group I will remain a fan. I do like other members so even if Sakura leaves I will have reasons to keep following the group. Was on the fence about Angerme lately but their new single has convinced me to stay with the group. And with both Inaba Manaka and Inoue Rei both now in Juice=Juice I have become more interested in that group. It also helps they changed their sound a bit and I like the new music direction for the group.

I do still follow Wada Ayaka with her solo idol career. And the only other indie-idol related artist that I follow is the idol group Chu-Z.

The J-pop group that is a collaboration between JYP Entertainment and Sony Music Japan, NiziU, caught my attention and I plan on following them.

And that leads into the few K-pop idol groups I follow. I am still a 2PM fan and patiently waiting for the group to be reunited after all the members finish their military duty. ITZY and Dreamcatcher arethe two girl groups that have caught my attention. And while I just cannot seem to get into BTS I was won over by their fellow label mate, Tomorrow X Together. 

And that covers the idols I actively follow. There are others I listen to but do not follow their activities so the chances of them being discussed on the blog are pretty low. For those listed there will be further posts going over each one with my further thoughts about them. So look forward to those.

Snow Man's Kissin' Stories

After a seven month wait Snow Man fans will be able to get their hands on the group's second single. It will also be the first single the group will release solo, as their debut single was a double A-side with fellow Johnny's group SixTONES. This will be a double A-side single for the songs Kissin' My Lips and Stories.

As with their debut single this single comes in three versions, two Limited Editions and a Regular Edition. 

Kissin' My Lips / Stories [CD+DVD / Limited Edition / Type A]

Snow Man

The Limited Edition type A comes with a CD with just the two title tracks as well as a DVD. The DVD will have the music videos for both songs, a dance shot video of the song Stories, as well as footage from the CD jacket shooting and music videos.

Kissin' My Lips / Stories [CD+DVD / Limited Edition / Type B]

Snow Man

The Limited Edition type B also just has the two title tracks on the CD. The DVD it comes with has multiple angles for the Kissin' My Lips music video as well as a bonus video titled Shinjitsu o Abake! JOKER Game.

Kissin' My Lips / Stories [Regular Edition]

Snow Man

The Regular Edition is just the CD but has a total of four songs, a voice track as well as the karaoke versions of all four songs on the CD. The songs included are the two title tracks and then two new songs for the group. There is also a voice drama listed as a fifth track. 

Kissin' My Lips / Stories [Bundled Set of 3 Editions]

Snow Man

Even though I am a bigger SixTONES fan than Snow Man I really enjoyed their songs from their debut single. Plus because of the tie-ins for the title tracks of this song I have had the chance to listen to them and I cannot wait to hear their full versions. And if the B-sides are as good as their debut single this is going to be a great single.

That said I cannot believe how long it has taken for Snow Man to get a second single. A big part was most likely waiting for Iwamoto Hikaru to return from the hiatus he took because of the scandal he was caught in. No one would have been happy to have the group release a single without him and thankfully it was just a minor scandal so there was little doubt he would be back.

Of course it would have been nice to have gotten more song tracks with this release. SixTONES second single felt like it was making up for how long it had been since their debut single by adding songs from their Junior days. I wish Avex would have done the same but if Snow Man follows the same release pattern as fellow Johnny's group signed on with Avex, Kis-My-Ft2, fans will have to wait for Snow Man's first album release to get CD versions of their Junior songs.

Still overall happy to get more from Snow Man. Hopefully the wait fro their next release will not be nearly as long.