An Emotional Time Capsule | Thoughts on M!LK and SUPER★DRAGON's Second Albums

Last month -- on the 6th and and the 27th respectively -- EBiDAN Next High groups M!LK and SUPER★DRAGON released their second albums. M!LK's is titled "Time Capsule" and marks their second release since the member change (Original member Yamazaki Haruki left the group last year and new members Ryubi, Sono Shunta, and Yamanaka Juutaro were then added from BATTLE BOYS), while SUPER★DRAGON's is titled "2nd Emotion". Let's take a look at all of the songs on these albums (both new and old) and the albums as a whole.

Time Capsule

M!LK's second album "Time Capsule" features 14 tracks including 9 new songs and 5 previously-released ones (one of which is a re-recorded version). It was released in two versions; the regular CD-only edition and the limited edition that comes with a Blu-ray that features clips from a concert the group held back in November at Toyosu PIT. The album is also available to purchase on iTunes and listen to on Spotify along with all of M!LK's previous releases. Up until recently, only "Bokura Nari Revolution" was available to us international fans so thank you for thinking of us EBiDAN!

Let's start off with the previously-released songs. The only previously-released song that received a re-recording for this album was "Bokura Nari Revolution" as this one was originally recorded prior to the group's member change. The rest are all just the same as they appeared on the "Over The Storm" single. Even though I wasn't too keen on EBiDAN's decision to add the three new members to M!LK I actually ended up really liking "Over The Storm". The music video isn't much to write home about but the song itself is really catchy and I like the choreography and outfits.

Next we have this album's main song, "My Treasure". I wasn't very fond of this one when the music video came out; I thought it was kinda boring if I'm honest. But its cuteness did kind of grow on me though it still isn't my all-time favourite song or video by them. "Goin' Down" didn't really stand out to me much but it's cute. I got a similar vibe from "It's only LOVE".

Now "Thoroughbred Onzoushi City Boy". That title's a fun one to type out. The first time I heard this one was when they performed it at MEN'S PANIC, a male idol festival in Japan I attended last year. I had no idea what it was called at the time but fell in love with it instantly and was full-on dancing in the audience, haha. I think it's probably my favourite out of the new songs from this album. "Jungle Rhythm" is very catchy and fun and is another one of my favourites.

Tokyo Candoll -BOYS- 2018 Entrants | Who Will We Be Seeing At This Year's Japan Expo?!

Japan Expo just recently made the announcement that the group BANZAI JAPAN were the winners of this year's Tokyo Candoll -- an annual competition for upcoming female idol groups -- and thus they would be taking the stage at this year's event, just as groups such as notall and Yuigadokuson have done in previous years. But if you're anything like me, that would've led you to wonder "What about the boys?!" I'm a little impatient when it comes to idol boys, okay?

Just last year the first ever edition of Tokyo Candoll -BOYS- was held which from the name you've probably already guessed is pretty much the same thing but for male idols. Last year's winners were the group EPIC STAR and Japan Expo was lucky enough to see a very succesful performance from them.

But you don't want to hear about last year, right? You want to know about which cute idol boys will be gracing the stage at this year's Japan Expo. The winner of Tokyo Candoll -BOYS- has not been properly announced yet but from some snooping around online I do have reason to believe that the winner is the last group on this list so if you just want to know about the winner then you can skip straight to the end. However, there were a lot of interesting groups competing this year so if you'd like to learn about some new groups along the way then let's get started! Please note though that most of these groups are indie groups who have only recently made their debut -- some don't even have a website yet -- so there likely won't be a huge heap of information about them online but I'll share what I can find.

 

TOONBOYS

TOONBOYS is a 4-piece male idol group, with the members having an average height of 180cm. They released their first single "Toon leads love" in February of this year.

Links:
Twitter
YouTube

ENVii GABRIELLA

ENVii GABRIELLA is a 3-member self-produced boy group. All of the members are gay men who previously worked as soloists in different fields. They debuted in 2017 with the single "High Heels".

Links:
Website
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
 

FEARLESS

FEARLESS is a 4-member male idol unit under the agency MovingFactory (also responsible for competitor group MAUVE) that debuted in 2017 with the mini album "Buzzin' People". All of their releases thus far are available on iTunes and Spotify and let me just warn you, they're catchy as heck.

Links:
Twitter
Agency Website
Agency YouTube

Most Accessible Jpop Boy Groups for Overseas Fans | Jpop on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube?

One of the main reasons I believe that Jpop often doesn't catch the interest of as many people overseas as Kpop does is its lack of accesibility. Most Kpop artists are more than interested in growing their overseas fanbase and it's pretty easy to find Kpop songs on sites like YouTube and iTunes with a simple search. However with Jpop, depending on the artist it can still be a little difficult to find their content if you don't live in Japan.

There are still many Japanese labels who only make their artist's music videos available to Japanese audiences or worse; don't let their music videos be uploaded online at all. A lot of Japanese artists do have their music up to purchase on iTunes these days but most only make it available to buyers in the Japanese store so if you're a foreigner your only option is to get the physical CD imported from Japan which not everyone can afford for every single release.

Of course there are ways around these obstacles *cough* e.g. proxy services, hiding your IP address, sneaky fan uploads *cough* but if you're just getting into Jpop for the first time you probably don't want to go through all of that trouble! So I've complied a list of a few of the more easy to access Jpop boy groups; taking into account factors such as their music and videos being available outside of Japan, how much information can be found on them in English, and how involved they've been with their foreign audience in the past. Notice how there aren't any Johnny's Entertainment groups in this list. Then let's go!