This is my first time posting about a Johnny's Entertainment group on here and I'm a little late with this news since it was announced almost a week ago but nonetheless I wanted to talk a little about the recent announcement that Sexy Zone member Marius Yo will be appearing in an episode of Fuller House.
Sexy Zone was the first Japanese boy group that I became interested in, actually. I discovered them while watching J-MELO (an international TV show about Japanese music). This was around the time that their second single, "Lady Diamond" was released and a short clip of it was shown during J-MELO's new releases segment.
Needless to say, I fell in love with it straight away. I'm still surprised to this day that "Lady Diamond" is Sexy Zone's most poorly selling single. The song is so catchy and cute, and the music video is adorable. Two members of the group caught my attention the most in that video mostly due to their cuteness and they were the two youngest members, Matsushima Sou and Marius Yo.
Within a few days I was absolutely hooked on Sexy Zone and this continued for about a year but then - long story short - the dreaded "Sexy Zone Member Split" happened. My two favourite members of the group were more or less kicked out and demoted to being Johnny's Jr's again. I didn't have much interest in this new 3 member Sexy Zone so for that and a few other reasons, I left the fandom.
I returned to the fandom in 2016 after things had been sorted out and Marius and Sou were once again equal members of the group (this was actually just a coincidence) and I honestly felt like a proud mother, haha. Back when I was involved in the fandom, Sou was very underappreciated. He was often referred to as the "ugly" member of the group and while I never thought he was ugly to begin with, I was surprised at the handsome young man he'd blossomed into. He has one of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen and he's a really talented dancer. I was so glad to see people finally taking notice of him.
And as for Marius. Oh my. How had my cute, shy, awkward little German baby grown into such a handsome, confident, still-a-little-awkward-but-that's-okay idol?! I couldn't believe his height! Though aside from that he didn't seem to have changed all that much, haha. He still seemed like the somewhat bratty baby of the group with a bit of a feminine side who was always being picked on by the older members. I always loved how transparent Marius was too. It seemed difficult for him to "just ignore it" when something wasn't right and despite living in Japan for so long he still hasn't lost his very "foreign worldview" if that makes sense.
Which brings me back to his role on Fuller House. Marius speaks English fluently and he will apparently be appearing on an episode of the show that takes place in Japan. According to an interview, Marius is a huge fan of the show so he was very grateful to recieve the offer.
Another thing he said in this interview stuck with me. "My family in Germany will get to see me in action, and I'm looking forward to the reaction from viewers overseas." Fuller House is a Netflix original series so it can be watched globally. Some people have interpreted Marius' comment as shade directed at Johnny's Entertainment about how difficult they make it to view their content outside of Japan. While I don't think that Marius meant it in that way per se, he does have a point even if it was unintentional. JE's lack of regard for overseas fans was another reason why I initially lost interest.
I honestly couldn't be prouder of Marius. He's shaken up Johnny's Entertainment in so many ways; by being the youngest boy to ever debut from the agency, the first hafu to ever debut, and now he'll be appearing in a popular American sitcom! I hope he continues to do even more amazing things both in the Japanese entertainment industry and globally.
What do you think about this news? Will you be watching this episode when it's released? Let me know in the comments!
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I dont really get why Jhonny's make it so hard for foreigners to get their content, have they ever listed a particular reason?
ReplyDeleteI mean, its not really hard, they just need to upload videos to youtube and make stuff (goods) available internationaly (even though this can be a bit limited even in japan lol)
For example, i think that Morning Musume may not be the biggest female group in Japan anymore, but internationaly, they seem to have the biggest fanbase
They've never actually said but I think one of the main reasons is just that Johnny's is so huge in Japan and they make so much money there anyway that they just don't see the point in promoting overseas. It makes no sense to me (like it wouldn't be that difficult to do as you said and they'd be making even more money) but that's just the way the agency is unfortunately.
Deletewell, hopefully this means a possible worldwide expansion...they could start with SZ since they have Marius and see if it results (idk how it could go wrong though lol)
DeleteYour wish cam true, my dude. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1cHlPIE-kqiPvpyYz2O8rQ
DeleteWe've still got a ways to go but it's definitely a start!
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