Hey there, idol fan! Today's post is a look at foreign or mixed boys in the Japanese idol industry, AKA another post all about me crying over my half idol babies.
Why does SOU love half idols so much? A mystery.
But in all serious, having a member who's foreign can definitely add a bit of 'international flavour' to a group and can make the group seen more
accessible to fans who aren't Japanese. It could be useful for Japanese people as well, as it could allow them to learn more about different cultures that they otherwise wouldn't come into contact with.
Or maybe none of that matters and it's all just for Japanese people who have a foreigner fetish.
But whatever the reason, let's take a look at a few foreign or mixed boys in the Jpop idol industry!
We can't have a post about foreign male Jpop idols without mentioning Marius Yo. Marius is the youngest member of Johnny's Entertainment group
Sexy Zone. Not only that but he currently holds the record for being the youngest boy to ever debut from Johnny's and the first boy to debut who isn't fully Japanese. Marius is half-German, a quarter Japanese, and a quarter Chinese and was born and raised in Germany. He moved to Japan to pursue his career as an idol.
Although I don't really follow Johnny's Entertainment anymore, Marius remains a special exception for me. He seems very sweet and down to earth, and his worldly background makes him very 'woke' to a lot of issues. I hope he'll continue to shock us by doing a lot of amazing things that we never would have expected (
like when he made a guest appearance on the American sitcom Fuller House).
The next boy that comes to mind is Jean Kaito, lead rapper of EBiDAN group
SUPER★DRAGON. Jean is half-Turkish and seemingly speaks Spanish.
Anyone who knows me knows how incredibly biased I am towards Jean. He's not the type of idol I usually tend to like at all, yet his whole "I try to act like a bad boy but am actually a huge dork" vibe just gets to me somehow. I made direct eye contact with him
both times that I saw SUPER★DRAGON when I was Japan, but where other idols were really shook to see a black person in the audience, Jean just seemed completely unimpressed with my presence. It was wonderful.
Also from EBiDAN, we have Knight Andrew who is a member of the KiDS group ZeBRA
☆STAR. Knight is half-British and speaks English fluently. Interestingly he was actually born in Hong Kong and seems to travel regularly. Queue more bias from me on account of the fact that we're both British. There is also half-American AMEZARI member Jay.
EBiDAN as a whole does seem to have quite a few foreign and mixed members although most of them seem to be in the trainee department (
BATTLE BOYS) currently, such as half-American
Jeffrey Malone. I hope EBiDAN will end up debuting more of their foreign boys in the near future.
Does anyone else remember Dennis?
A group with just one foreign member isn't enough though, right?
G=AGE had two. If that statement rings true for you then COLORFUUUL's got you covered.
COLORFUUUL boast as being Japan's very first all-foreign male idol group. There have been many changes in lineup since the group was first unveiled but the group is currently scouting for new members. The only member we know of currently is Roma who's from France (and is adorable) but more is sure to be revealed very soon.
