Today is a Fairies blog post, which I am really excited to do considering Fairies is my #2 idol group- I lovelovelove Fairies <3
My friend pointed out that my blog title, Hop☆Step☆JUMP!, now isn't only a Buono reference, but a Fairies reference as well! :D So that's why I used the lyrics to their song "Hero" as the title of this post~
Fairies started as a 7-member group, but as of January 17th, are down to a 6-member group. (Which kills me inside, as Kawane was fantastic and the first girl in Fairies to catch my attention.) The members are as follows:
Shimomura Miki, Age 14 Hayashida Mahiro, Age 14 Fujita Miria, Age 14
Ito Momoka, Age 15 Nomoto Sora, Age 15 Inoue Rikako, Age 16 Fairies have a very cool, mature sort of image, and seriously rock it. Here is an example, with my personal favorite single by them, "Beat Generation":
However, they are able to pull of cuter, more typical idol style as well, when they want, and still manage to really stand out! Here is an example with "Sweet Jewel":
Now, one thing that clearly should stand out when you watch Fairies is their dancing. Dancing is sort of Fairies gimmick- they are definitely a dance group, and they are really good at it! They are tight and strong with ll their moves, and very exact and synchronized. In their first single, they all did double pirouette! I'd never seen an idol group try something like that, so I was definitely impressed. As a dancer, this group appeals to me a lot.
Every member is a good dancer and they are capable of many different styles, and each girl has their specialties. Sora, with 7 years of 'lock' dancing is a fantastic hip-hopper and also handles the more dramatic jazz moves very well. Miria and Rikako are very good with body movements more so than arms and feet, though they can do all of that, and are just generally very charming while they dance- it's easy to be drawn to them. Mahiro joined the group having more difficulties with the dances, but quickly stepped up and is now very capable of participating in whatever kind of dance necessary, and has gotten much better with arm movements. Momoka and Miki would have to be the two all-around best dancers, easily handling any style and really shining while dancing, whatever it may be.
I find these girls all so charming and enjoyable to watch. Here are some of my favorite Fairies dance performances below:
These dance videos are all from their tv show Harajuku Kirakira Gakuin. They didn't only dance on their show, though. They also did covers of old songs from (mostly) the 80's- in English! Though their accents are pretty strong, the covers are really enjoyable and rather impressive. The vocals are great and they have original choreography for each song. Interested? Check out a couple of their covers below:
Fairies is full of such cute, talented girls. The only thing I ever wished was maybe a little different with Fairies is tat three members who hardly sing- Miria, Miki, and Mahiro- would get some lines. Well, now, it has been announced Fairies is going to have a unit called M3 made up of just those three! Fairies will still exist no differently, but now these three girls have another place to shine as well. I'm really reallyexcited for it!
We've now gotten a preview of M3's first single, Yumemiru Dancing Doll, which will release on March 27th. It's very different from Fairies usual sound, but very fun, cute, and extremely addicting!
Both the look and sound have a cute little retro feel. On first look/play I was a little skeptical, but now I can't stop playing this short preview over and over! I have high hopes for this unit, and will definitely be purchasing this single. If you like Fairies, or these members, or the song- you should, too!
There are still a couple first press versions left, which come with a bonus photo, so grab it while you can!
The DVD on the CD+DVD version has the Music Video on it, the Making Of of the music video, as well as "10 minute recording footage" or something like that, not 100% sure what it's supposed to mean, to be honest. xD
The CD+PB version comes with a 28-page photo book of the girls. Definitely worth grabbing!
I hope this post got you a bit interested in Fairies, and I hope some of you are as excited for M3's single as I am and maybe think of purchasing it! :D Thanks for reading~
Hi everyone! So, tonight I decided I want to blog about an agency I have been getting REALLY interested in called iDOL Street. And, if you don't know what iDOL Street is or don't follow them, you should seriously give this blog post a chance because iDOL Street is seriously amazing and full of such great girls.
I'll admit this will likely be a pretty long post, as I'm covering a bit about an entire label, but if you don't know much about iDOL Street, I truly think you should at least skim it or check out the videos. I really think iDOL Street has a lot worth loving for any idol fan.
This post will have information on iDOL Street and the groups as well as videos and music clips. :)
iDOL Street is a label under Avex. There are two things I really love about iDOL Street. The first is that so many of the girls have some serious talent- singing and dancing. iDOL Street has some girls with some AWESOME vocals. But they are also cute and entertaining as idols. The other thing I really like is that each group under iDOL Street very much so has it's own sound. Sort of like each group has a theme? It's really makes them more enjoyable somehow.
The first group to debut under iDOL Street is SUPER☆GiRLS. SUPER☆GiRLS is a group that debuted with 12 members in 2010, though is currently down to 10. They are cute charming girls and the group generally has some really nice vocals.
Out of iDOL Street, this is the group I'd say has the most generic idol sound. It's kind of their thing. But it's actually really enjoyable. They have a nice generic pop sound that you'd expect from idols, but it really works for them. In fact, if you ask me, I could honestly tell you that I don't think they have a single bad song.
Although I consider them the iDOL Street 'generic' sounding group, because of this they also seem to have the most freedom with their music. They generally have a nice pop sound but they are able to put it to many different uses. They also have some great singers and so they are able to throw in some nice harmonies, which I love. They also give fantastic live performances.
This is SUPER☆GiRLS first single:
And here is their most recent single:
They also have an album, titled "Celebration", being released on the 20th of this month! It's bound to be great, and I highly recommend you buy it if you have interest in the group. It will be their third album released, not including their digitally released instrumental album.
Here are some song previews from their upcoming album release:
Rave Together:
Junjou Cinderella:
DREAM SEEKER:
Renai Manifest:
And this is the song the album is named after:
If you have interest in the album, you should definitely consider buying it! On CDJapan, all three versions still have first press available as of right now! That means they also come with a photo :)
Please remember, if you are indeed interested in buying the album, to click those links and buy through there, as I will get a percentage of what is spent (at no extra cost to you) so I can buy some idol cds as well.
The next idol Group to debut under iDOL Street is Cheeky Parade! This group is still extremely new, just releasing their debut single last month. (Although they had an indies single released before that.)
This group is iDOL Streets energetic, over-the-top, hyperactive group. They are weird and crazy and totally fantastic.
They are releasing their second major single on April 10th! It is titled "C.P.U !?" which apparently stands for "Cheeky Parade Understand !?" The MV and song are both fun and crazy, and have a sort of virtual/video game theme to them. Anyway, it's a blast, and you can watch it below:
Personally, I love this single and am trying right now to get the money together to be able to afford buying at least the Regular Edition. I've been following these girls since the start and have loved them, and they just keep getting better! So hopefully I can buy this release and support them.
If you like the group/song and can afford it, please consider buying the single! (And of course, make sure you click through those links before buying to help me out.) I'm really hoping for high sales on this one. This is a group that really deserves it!
And, for just a little more of a taste of Cheeky Parade, here is them performing "Cheeky Dreamer", their indie release, live!
They give a really fun live performance. :)
And, here is my oshi of the group, Mariya, singing a bit of a solo song~
The last group under iDOL Street is GEM, which just performed for the first time ever last month. (The above video introduces each girl about half-way through.) GEM is full of some crazy cute and crazy talented girls with some great personalities. I could see this group being big. (Or, at the very least, they deserve to be big.)
This group covers iDOL Streets 'cool' image. They have a very cool and mature kinda almost R&B sort of sound. Despite their young look and age, they really pull it off. I think these girls could really go a long way.
Here's GEM with their original song, Speed Up!
If that's not great, I honestly don't even know what is. And, these girls haven't even made a major debut! In fact, even under their own label, they are still regarded as trainee members, called streetsei. (Something like H!P eggs or AKB KKS.) However, they've got loads of talent, and I can't wait until they release a single, because I will be buying it.
Currently, GEM is often performing in a group of 7 of the members (which is switched up a bit now and then) being called GEMSTAR. Here is GEMSTAR performing GEM's other original song, Do it Do it at their first live on February 11th!
And, if you want a taste of some of the talent in GEM, check out Maaya (the girl in red) performing a solo!
I'm definitely going to be following this group. They are brand new and so young but their music is phenomenal, they are great performers and have SO much talent.
Lastly, I want to talk about the streetsei. These are the iDOL Street trainees (which, as I have already stated, the above group GEM is still apart of.)
All the trainee members are separated into 5 smaller groups that they perform lives in. The groups are e-Street Sapporo, e-Street Tokyo, w-Street Nagoya, w-Street Osaka, and w-Street Fukuoka. What's really cool is that, just like each iDOL Street group seems to have it's own feel and image to it, so does each group. Each group gives off a different feeling and has different sorts of motions and such. It's very cool because it makes it easier to find one specific one suited for you.
Two of the trainee groups were given an original song (and hopefully the others are, as well, soon!) but for the most part these groups perform iDOL Street songs and sometimes throw in covers of other groups like the ***48's, H!P, and even E-girls!
Below is each group performing.
Sapporo performing a song by their seniors, SUPER☆GiRLS, "Tokimeki Shoku no Kaze to Kimi"
Tokyo performing a song made for the Streetsei (And then given to Cheeky Parade on their first indie single) "Zettai! Love Magic"
Nagoya performing their (AMAZING) original song, which is one of my favorite songs right now, "Kitto for You"
Osaka performing their energetic original song, "Onegai Moonlight"
Lastly, we have Fukuoka doing a cover of S/mileage's "Suki-chan"
Well, after that (massive) post, I hope you can see a bit of what I see in iDOL Street. There are a lot of great idols and great songs and just amazing girls. I really hope you'll give iDOL Street a try! (Whether that means looking more into them, downloading some of their songs, or buying some CDs/merch!)
If you are like me and are the type to be interested in magazines, I have some good recent ones with iDOL Street girls in them below! (One thing I like about magazines is they have a lot of different idols in them, so somehow it makes it more worth buying? xD)
So, if you want to grab something like that, here are some good choices!
This has some really nice shots in it of some great idols, two of which are iDOL Street members! Maeshima Ami of SUPER☆GiRLS and Sekine Yuna of Cheeky Parade.
Top Yell has lots of pics and some articles along with some really cool live shots and backstage offshots. It has TONS of idol groups in every issue, but this issue happens to have a focus on iDOL Street. It also comes with a double-sided SUPER☆GiRLS poster.
This one has some absolutely gorgeous photos of SUPER☆GiRLS and Cheeky Parade both. Absolutely gorgeous, and quite a few!
Or, if you're really getting interested in iDOL Street, I highly recommend you grab an iDOL Street Official Book! Full of great pictures, some articles for those of you who can read Japanese, and it's all about iDOL Street and iDOL Street only!
There are two of these iDOL Street Official Books, and you can find both below:
This one is the first, from in 2011, so it is just SUPER☆GiRLS and the Streetsei at that time (which is mostly the Cheeky Parade members!) This issue comes with a random poster of either SUPER☆GiRLS or the Streetsei.
This is Volume 2, released in summer of 2012. It has a front and back cover, the back featuring Cheeky Parade. There is a lot on SUPER☆GiRLS and Cheeky Parade, as well as the 7 Streetsei at the time. Then, there is coverage from the 3rd generation iDOL Street auditions and profiles for the winners, the 3rd generation Streetsei girls. This has some stunning photoshoots along with some live shots and articles. It also comes with two photos (randomly chosen from 54 different ones) that can be any member of iDOL Street at that time.
And, that is where I end my post. If any of you actually truly READ that whole thing, you need both a reward and...probably something else to do with your life ;p Not that I can talk, I took the time to write the thing, after all xD
I did so because I truly love iDOL Street and think they are fantastic and so worth everyone looking into. So I hope you at least played some of the videos :)
Some questions for those of you willing to leave comments~
♥ Had you heard of iDOL Street before this post?
♥ Had you followed any of the groups previous to this post?
♥ Are you more interested in iDOL Street after this post? (Maybe interested in following some of the groups/girls?)
♥ Did you actually read this whole post? ;p (I'm truly curious if anyone did xD)
Thank you for visiting my blog and checking out my iDOL Street! I leave you with iDOL Streets song, Asu e Step, which includes all of the members before 3rd Generation Streetsei.
Ok so this post is going to be a little "Blog Re-opening!" post and a "Berryz Koubou New Single!"
Both of which are causes for celebration ;D
Anyway, welcome to my blog! My name is Caitlin, I am now 18 years old which is kind of freaking me out beyond belief, and...well, I love idols, if you didn't guess that. :P
For a long time I've meant to get back to blogging but just haven't done it. However, recently, I've gotten into a lot of new idol groups, and more into old ones, and I just feel like I need somewhere to rant about them?
Anyone who read my last blog knows I tend to make long posts. Hopefully they won't be too insane, but hey, that's me. Just a warning ahead of time. ;p
The blog has gotten a new banner for it's re-opening, as well as a twitter feed (follow me if you'd like!) and a new page which I ask you check out, please! (The "Best of Idol Blog Photos" page.) It's something new I'm doing that I thought would just be a fun little thing to add to the blog, and it's something you can all participate in, and I hope you do! Hoping to see a large range of different idols, from the most mainstream to ones I never even knew existed. It will be interesting for lot of fans, I think, including me, and may get us curious about other idol groups. So please take a look at the page!
I am also hoping to open an idol radio station. I don't know how soon it will be, as the site I'm using can take quite a while getting all my music on there, but I am working hard on it and will hopefully have it up and running soon. It will be called "idol BEATS" which is pretty uncreative, honestly, but I was listening to Fairies' "Beat Generation" and it's what I came up with. The radio station will have the goal of playing all idol stuff. Like, mainstream and indie. I want to play tons of idols, even ones I don't really follow. I want it to be a station that plays idols 24/7 with a good mix of everything, and gives people the opportunity to find new groups they've never heard of. (So if you know some good groups I may not know, comment them please!) I will have a link to the station from the blog when it's ready :)
And now, onto Berryz' new single, "Asian Celebration"!
I was debating what my first post should be about. I feel like I have a lot I want to post and talk about, and then today I woke up to see Berryz Koubou's new MV was up. They also happened to have the closest release date out of the groups I wanted to talk about, so I decided to go for it.
Now...I haven't been all that into Berryz lately. Well, that's not quite right...I love them, but lately their music itself has been kinda whatever with me? Nothing has been bad, but nothing has grabbed me really, either. Which has kinda sucked.
Now, I'm not exactly in love with song, but I think it's very fun and extremely catchy. (Not one of you who has heard it can honestly say the chorus wasn't replaying in your head or you didn't sing it out loud after listening!) The music video is a bit of a sparkle overload, but somehow it kind of works with the rest of the MV and the song? It's very disco-ish and I enjoyed watching it quite a bit.
I'm sure you've all probably seen it, but here is the MV:
One thing I have to say...is it just me, or does it seem very Miya-focused? Definitely not complaining, she'd be the one I'd watch if it wasn't, anyway, but somehow it seemed like up until about 1:08 she WAS the MV.
I think her talking parts are pretty adorable. She makes me kinda think of like the person on the intercom or whatever when you're on an airplane at the beginning. Is that just me? ^^; Anyway, it's really cute. Miyabi is a very charming person, so filling the beginning up with her is a good move if you ask me ;)
Captain looks absolutely fabulous. She is obviously the best dancer but her even just bouncing to the music seems to out do everyone elses...well, everything. xD Captain was the second half of the MV for me <3
I took notice of the dance after this. It looks very simple but very very fun. Like line dance? Not quite, but that sort of nature. Easy to pick up but somehow fun, especially in a group of people.
And then Chinami was singing. And then Chinami was singing quite a lot.
And I was very happy.
And I came to the realization everyone is singing in this.
And it sounds great.
So A+ to Berryz in that respect.
This is Berryz Koubou's 31st single and it is releasing on March 13. We have gotten low quality cover previews, and they have me actually really excited for the high quality previews.
The reason I'm excited and curious is I really want to see those alternative outfits! Limited B and C seem to have more casual outfits, and then Limited D with this random cool blue theme?
If you haven't bought it yet but plan to, please click the above links! If you buy through those links, I'll get points on CDJapan so I can actually get the idol stuff I want and properly support the groups I follow ahahaha.
So it'd really mean a lot to me if you click them. <3
Anyway, I suppose that's the end of this blog post~
So, if you're up for commenting, I got some questions for you ;D
❤ Did you read my old blog?
❤ Do you plan to read my re-opened blog?
❤ What are some indie or non-mainstream idols you like? ❤ What do you think of the Weekly Best of Idol Blog Photos I'm doing? (Go check the page if you haven't!
❤ How do you feel about Asian Celebration? (Song and MV)
❤ Are you buying/have you already bought the single?
