Hi all! Partially inspired by the video below (you should also check out this person's other videos; they've made a few good ones about Jpop and Kpop and the differences between how the two genres are perceived overseas) I thought I'd put together a list of my top 5 most handsome Jpop boys.
This list is of course my own opinion so if you disagree feel free to let me know in the comments or make your own list! I'm sure most of you know I love me some cute idol boys too so I'll probably do a seperate post at some point about my top 5 cute Jpop boys. But anyway, let's get started!
5) Fujita Mahiro from MAGiC BOYZ
I hate to admit it but back when Mahiro was just the DJ of MAGiC BOYZ I didn't pay much attention to him. He wore those big glasses all the time too so regretfully I didn't really notice his looks either but now I definitely think he's the most handsome (and talented!) member of Majibo. I often find myself spamming "Mahiro is so cool!" in the comment section of Majibo's videos, haha. That face just gets to me!
4) Ogasawara Kai from Bullet Train
I think very few people would disagree with this decision. Kai has a very attractive and somewhat mysterious face. He's often praised for looking like an anime character and I would definitely agree, especially when he has his hair dyed blonde.
When I was on break from blogging, I found myself nosing around my old blog for a bit of inspiration. While reading one of my personal favourite posts from that blog - my top 5 non-JE boy groups post - I realized that my list had changed somewhat. Be it due to groups disbanding, me discovering new groups, or just simply developing more passion for the groups I already knew and loved. So without further ado, here is my 2017 update of my top 5 favourite Japanese boybands outside of Johnny's Entertainment! These are of course my favourite groups and not neccessarily the "best" groups so be prepared for a lot of personal bias, haha.
5. X.E.N.O. Project
X.E.N.O. Project are a 4-member indie group that debuted earlier this year. They haven't released any CDs yet, but they're actively doing performances around Japan and have a few dance practices up on their YouTube channel.
The reason why I became interested in X.E.N.O. in the first place was because I was a huge fan of the group G=AGE and all 4 members of X.E.N.O. used to be members of G=AGE's trainee unit, G-BOY'S. I looked them up out of curiously and although their videos and singing aren't that great, their songs are all pretty catchy and I ended up falling in love with all of the members.
If you're into Jpop boy groups then I'm sure you know Choutokkyu. Also known as Bullet Train, they are a 7-member group from EBiDAN made up of 5 "front dancers" and 2 "back vocalists". They have a very upbeat, colourful, and slightly over-the-top image.
Choutokkyu was one of the first groups I discovered and while I'm not as big a fan of them as I used to be, they still hold a special place in my heart for that reason. They're a reasonably accessible group for new fans, their songs are catchy as heck, and their fans tend to be absolutely bonkers (in a good way!).
My Ichiban: Kai (blue) My Favourite Song: Battaman
A lot of people have expressed an interest in X.E.N.O. Project and I also have gotten quite into them myself recently, so I thought it high time I make another post about them! Since my last post about them they've released a few new videos including their very first music video, "Love Like Dynamite".
To be honest I wasn't entirely sure at first that this was supposed to be an MV because of how simple it is. All it really shows is the members dancing with different closeups. But they are quite new and I'm pretty sure they're an indie group as well so hopefully their MVs will get better with time.
Some of the camera angles looked a bit awkward and some of the members aren't the best at singing and dancing but I still like it a lot. The song is really catchy. I like all of the outfits apart from Takuya's. That shirt and hat look kinda weird on him, haha. Or maybe it's just me.
Probably my favourite part of the video:
The gif doesn't do it justice. Please tell me I'm not the only one who's hella thirsty for Tsukasa.
Also, did I mishear that or did Takuya just tell me to take off my clothes?
They also uploaded a dance version of this song. I like the choreography a lot!
Here's a video they posted showing the members rehearsing for their debut live that will be held later this month:
Some highlights from the video:
A cute little Takanori to brighten your day.
Takuya getting revenge for the time that Tsukasa did this to him. Featuring Takanori in the background looking at his stomach in the mirror for some reason. I have no idea what's happening here but Tsukasa doesn't look like he's enjoying it.
Sorry, Takanori. It doesn't look like anyone has any sympathy for you.
He will be missed. Just not by his groupmates apparently.
When you go in for the kiss...
But bae isn't having it.
Looks like I'm not the only one who's thirsty for Tsukasa.Takuya, please leave Tsukasa alone. He doesn't look like he's into you.
The great Kazama gives us his autograph.
I don't know about you guys but I think Tsukasa looks even more handsome than usual here. Takanori looks so done.
Finally, here's their dance practice for "YOU'RE SO GOLD":
What do you think of the songs X.E.N.O. have released so far? Is there a particular member who's caught your interest yet? Let me know down below and don't forget to follow my blog to become a member of the #ThirstyForTsukasaSquad.
Here I am again, torturing my boyfriend with handsome Japanese men who he has an unjustified amount of hatred for.Hope you enjoy his suffering, haha.
chotokkyu (Bullet Train)
The "giving the members weird nicknames" trend seems to have returned. Here are a few of them:
Ryouga - Weird Face
Kai - The Villian (Apparently his white hair made him look like an anime villian)
Takuya - Weird...hair...eyebrows
Yuki - The Overly-Photoshopped Girl
Yusuke - Fabulous No-Rules
I showed him a video of them performing "Battaman" live and I think it's pretty safe to say that Yusuke is his favourite member.
X.E.N.O. Project
Now there's another boy group member to add to the list of people my boyfriend doesn't like. He really, really doesn't like Tsukasa for some reason, haha. When I asked him why the only reason he could give me was "Because he reminds of me Jean". He still can't tell me why he hates Jean so much either. Tsukasa also kind of reminds me of Fumito (from G=AGE) who - surprise - my boyfriend also doesn't like. Anyway, I showed him their dance video for "YOU'RE SO GOLD".
He was unimpressed with Tsukasa's backflip (how??) and all he really commented on was how squeaky their shoes were against the floor and the brightness of Takanori's hair. He also made fun of Takuya's facial expressions a lot. Why does he always make fun of my favourites? T^T
BOYS AND MEN
I showed him the "Boimen ~B.M.C.A.~" video because I thought he'd have some pretty great reactions to it. Although, he just ended up pausing the video in random places and laughing at their facial expressions. I made this one his desktop background because I'm pretty sure Yukihisa is now his favourite member.
Seriously, just do yourself a favor and keep your eyes on Yukihisa throughout the video.
Da-iCE
Finally, we'll end on a group that he actually enjoyed and didn't spend the whole time making fun of. I showed him the music video for "Splash" and he admitted that the song was good and the members were talented. He made fun of how high Souta's voice was a little though, haha.
Bonus: Yoshida Jinto
We ended up watching some of the Fit's Gumi commercials. If you don't know, Fit's are a brand of Japanese chewing gum and since the beginning of this year they've been airing these commercials that star various celebrities as high school students including the members of M!LK. He really got a good laugh out of watching Jinto's dancing. He said it was how serious his face was when the dance routines were so cutesy and upbeat. When I told him it was the same guy from M!LK, he didn't recognize him. He found this video particularly amusing.
Since G=AGE disbanded, a lot of its former members (and members of its trainee unit, G-BOY'S) have been popping up on social media. Mostly the boys have just been opening these accounts to keep in contact with their fans as they seemingly haven't been involved with the entertainment world much (save for Sho who is now an actor and Takumi who's a model) but last month probably the most interesting thing to happen so far occurred.
On May 13th a brand new Twitter account and website were unveiled. It seems that former G-BOY'S members Takuya, Takanori, Tsukasa, and Kazuma are now part of a new group called X.E.NO. Project.
X.E.N.O. (pronounced 'zeno') stands for X-Factor, Element, Next, Offspring and while the group still have yet to debut, their first live is set to be held on August 13th. They also have a live show called "X.E.N.O. no Wakusei" that airs every Saturday at 2pm (UK time) which you can watch here.
Members
Ezoe Takanori
Birthday: 1998/05/13
Height: 176cm
Weight: 60kg
Blood Type: A
Takanori was the leader of G-BOY'S and now he's the leader of X.E.N.O. Project. Apparently he's very fond of miso soup.
Tsukasa is definitely the most ikemen in the group in my opinion. He is usually the MC in their live shows. He has a lot of piercings. He's also a former actor and member of EBiDAN.
Kazuma is the youngest member of the group so of course he gets doted on a lot by the other members. He joined G-BOY'S around the same time as Tsukasa did.
Takuya actually ended up becoming my favourite member, much to my surprise. He has a cute face but he's a huge dork and likes to make jokes and mess around in front of the camera. Plus he has braces which is a slight weakness of mine, haha.
There isn't much information about the group as of yet (they're only a month old afterall), but I can't wait to learn more about them and I'll definitely post anymore information I find. I just hope I don't get as into them as I did with G=AGE, haha.
This post is awfully late, considering G=AGE disbanded almost half a year ago. I won't go into what took me so long here as I've already explained it elsewhere but since this group was so important to me, I thought they deservered a kind of "farewell" post. This post will basically just explain what was going on at the time of their disbandment, the supposed reason for it, and I will also keep it up to date with links to what the members of the group (as well as G-BOY'S) are doing now for anyone who wants to continue following them.
G=AGE "disappeared" around the beginning of October 2016, shortly after announcing the upcoming release of their second single, "Ijigen DRIVER". By this I mean they started cancelling events and their social media accounts, blogs, and website weren't being updated. Many fans sent concerned messages to the agency but unsurprisingly, received no response. Little by little, several of the G-BOY'S members began appearing on Twitter; confirming that they were no longer working with the agency.
After a while some rather questionable rumours regarding the group's disappearance began to circulate. There was talk of money issues within the agency, some kind of incident with the Johnny's Jr. member, Abe Aran, and even a sexual abuse scandal. Since it's been a while since all this occured, most of these posts have been removed now and there was no actual proof of any of these things happening anyway (accept for one that I won't go into here *cough* but if anyone wants the details then they can message me or something) so it's up to you whether you believe all of that or not.
After almost two months with no official word, member TASY (Tajima Shogo) opened up his own Twitter account. There he posted a link to a blog post that finally revealed that the group had disbanded. This blog post has since been deleted but I remember it contained statements from each of the members regarding their "decision to leave the agency", stating the reason as the agency putting heavy demands on them which made it difficult for them to balance the group activities with their school work and other responsibilities. (As you can probably tell I don't think this is the whole truth, haha)
Without getting too sappy, this group really meant a lot to me. I thought they were quite unusual and had a lot of potential as well so I think it's such a shame that they would disband after less than a year of activity. Of course I wish they'd stayed together but I'll still support all of the members with whatever they decide to do now. On the upside, a few of the members have opened up social media accounts now and they still seem to be keeping in contact and supporting each other which I think is really sweet. I'll leave the links down below and I'll update this post if any more pop up.
TASY, the airhead who's awesome at dancing VASA, the skinny one who loves food FUMITO, the very cute and exciteable one MAHIRO, the squishy faced one who probably loves cats more than he likes people ROI, my little troll prince who steals people's food and makes cute silly faces at the camera G-BOY'S, I wish I'd gotten to see them more, especially my son HIROYUKI <3
In 2021, Shogo and Hikaru took part in the second season of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN (prior to this Shogo was also active as a trainee in South Korea). Hikaru was sadly eliminated in the second round but Shogo went on to debut as a member of the group INI.
Shortly after G=AGE disbanded, ALO and Fumito brieftly went on to form a duo called Karuizawa Handoutai Club but they later disbanded. In 2019, ALO then went on to work as an actor for a while and announced that he would take part in the first season of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN, but then pulled out before the show began filming. As of 2020, he currently works as a model and has expressed having no interest in returning to the idol or acting industries.
In 2017, Takanori, Tsukasa, Kazuma, and Takuya went on to form the group X.E.N.O. Project but they later disbanded. Kazuma and Takuya then left the agency but the remaining members stayed as talents with ONE PIECE Entertainment alongside Fumito. Check out the website here.
As of 2020, Takuya is a member of the group Mr.LOVER.
Sho is an actor and frequently performs in stage plays.
Takumi is now a model and as of 2019, a member of the group AXXX1S.
As of 2018, Hiroyuki is a member of BOYS AND MEN Kenkyusei Tokyo.
Yuuto went on to join the group TERCERA TRAPs but later graduated. He then went on to take part in the second season of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN in 2021 but was met with controversary due to questionable videos he posted online before being accepted onto the show.
