MEN'S PANIC 2018 Fan Report | Male Idol Festival in Japan featuring M!LK, SUPER★DRAGON & more

Now, I've been wanting to go to Japan for a while. For almost 10 years actually so you'd imagine I'd have quite a hefty list of things planned for my trip. One thing I definitely wanted to do while I was there was see as many of my favourite male idol groups live as I could o this led me to BOYS NEON LIVE (a monthly event for male idols). While searching their website, I saw that during the month of August (the month I would be in Japan) they would be running an event called MEN'S PANIC and checking the MEN'S PANIC website, I couldn't believe how perfect it was. There was a whole host of male idol groups set to be performing at the event with more and more continously being added. Since we hadn't decided on the exact dates for our trip yet, I then made sure that our holiday would be booked to include the MEN'S PANIC dates.

MEN'S PANIC took place on August 11th (Saturday) and 12th (Sunday) at Makuhari Messe, a huge convetion centre in Chiba. I would've loved to go on both days but the tickets were quite expensive as well as taking into account the fact that I had to buy them via a shopping service before I arrived in Japan and I had to pay for my dad as well so I elected to only attend the Sunday, since M!LK and SUPER★DRAGON were performing on that day.

After arriving at the venue and queuing for a little while, we got into the hall just before 10am which was when the first performance was due to start. The members of some of the lesser-known indie groups like URAGAWA PROJECT and TOONBOYS were waiting by the entrance, eager to give out their flyers (although some of them seemed a little wary of us at first as I assume they wondered whether we could speak Japanese or not). The members of URAGAWA PROJECT were particularly keen; I ended up with about five different copies of their flyer, haha.

We took some time to familliarize ourselves with the set-up of the hall and then we went over to the Platinum Stage which was where the first performance I wanted to see was going to be. 10 o'clock came and then Starmen KiDS came running onto the stage, full of their usual energy. Admittedly I'm not a huge Starmen KiDS fan so I didn't know any of the names of the songs they performed but it was still super cute.

The next performance I wanted to see wasn't until 11:15 so I just hung around by the Platinum Stage after that, watching whichever groups came up next. I saw Milli Melle Holic and Rushx300. During Rushx300's performance there was a girl next to me who literally knew their entire dance routines and was dancing along with the members on stage which I thought was pretty impressive, haha. I really liked one of their songs too but I have no idea what it was called.

After Rushx300's performance, we moved over to the Diamond Stage since M!LK's performance was due to start soon. Zekkou Cho Dan☆LoVe were just finishing up their set then and yet again they had a super catchy song that I have no idea what the name of it was, haha.

There was a few minutes of waiting around then and then M!LK's name appeared on the screen to the sound of hundreds of screaming fangirls. My dad said, "Oh, it's M!LK!" in recognition because they're pretty much the only group I like that he actually remembers, haha. They came out onto the stage then and they opened with a new song that I haven't heard before but I'm still super hyped. I felt the same way as when I saw SUPER★DRAGON for the first time; there's just this special feeling that seeing your favourite Jpop group in person for the first time gives you that I can't really put into words.

After the first song they did their usual introduction. I was probably a bit too energetic joining in with the calls but I was having so much fun, haha. They also asked everyone to join in with the "towel spinning" for the next song.

The next song was "Summer Gamba!!". I didn't have a towel but I joined in with my penlight. They had back-up dancers for this song that came on stage wearing M!LK T-shirts and dancing with pom-poms, much to my dad's confusion. They did that dance -- I don't know the name of it but it's pretty popular right now -- the one that DA PUMP do in the chorus of "U.S.A".

The next song is "Shissou Pendulum" and even though this is normally one of my least favourite M!LK songs there's something exciting about hearing it live. Everyone doing the wotagei routine for the chorus part in unison gave me this weird sense of community almost, as cheesy as that sounds.

The went straight into "Ternero Fighter" then and I'm waving my penlight like mad because this is one of my jams. Everyone (myself included) was so full of energy during the "Ternero, ternero, ternero~" parts. It was during this song though that I became very aware of Haruki's absense. There's that part in the song where each of the members call out their names so they had to do it in a different order since Haruki's not around anymore and I think it was slightly confusing for them as well as the fans, haha.

The Time I Met THE HOOPERS

Last year I was lucky enough to be able to see THE HOOPERS live and also meet them afterwards at Hyper Japan Christmas Market. Since this year's Hyper Japan Christmas Market is coming up I thought now would be a good time to share my experience. I won't be attending the event this year mainly due to the fact that there aren't really artists I'm interested in performing but you best believe I'll be spamming their feedback form with requests as always, haha.

I'd bought THE HOOPERS' penlight and album especially for the event. I also slaved in front of my TV screen for many days watching their concerts to get the hang of the wotagei routines, haha. Turns out they weren't signing though so I wasn't able to get my CD signed but it was still awesome to have it and I would have bought it anyway.

BATTLE BOYS Bias | 5 Members You Should Vote For

Hello all, I’m back on another EBiDAN high (pun unintended) so expect a lot of EBiDAN posts over the coming weeks. Today the spotlight’s back on BATTLE BOYS, specifically my favourite members that you should totally vote for ok. But before we get started, let’s check out the current ranking over on the BATTLE BOYS website.

1. Nagano Ryota
2. Yamanaka Juutaro
3. Miyamoto Ryunosuke
4. Ishii Masaya
5. Muto Jun

I knew Ryota was pretty popular but I was surprised that he was popular enough to overtake Juutaro for the number 1 spot, considering Juutaro is older and how handsome and cool he is! I’m happy though since I do like Ryota a lot. I’m a little disappointed that Masaya has fallen from the top 3 but at least he’s still in the top 5. I do like Ryunosuke, but Jun I don’t know much about.

Meanwhile my baby Sora has fallen even further down from 6th to 9th place, and my ichiban Jeffrey is all the way down in 16th! Also Yamashita Yue seems to rising slowly up the ranking. Hopefully this post will persuade more people to show them some love, haha. Also be sure to check out this post from the lovely tanoshimitiger if you want a more general introduction to all of the BATTLE BOYS members.

Jeffrey Malone

 

I really don’t know how to persuade you to vote for Jeffrey because when I try to talk about his good points it just ends up sounding more like I’m insulting him, haha. His dancing is terrible and he’s a huge dork but that’s what makes him loveable. As you can probably tell by the name and the way he looks, he’s not fully Japanese. He’s half-American on his dad’s side and seems to speak a decent amount of English. I wish he’d shown off his English skills a bit in his introduction video; he usually does introduce himself in English durng events. I guarantee if you pay attention to Jeffrey he’ll make you laugh; if not from his awkward dancing and cringey English lines then from his messing around and failing at trying to be cool. All jokes aside, he is a talented boy and does have a lot of cool points. Just check out his special skill in the video above!

Age of (No) Future | G=AGE A Year Later

Here I am again for some reason, talking about a group that already disbanded. Recently, the fifth and final member (Mahiro) of the now defunct G=AGE started an official social media account which means all of the boys are now online. Not only that but it's also been about a year since all of the drama that was going on with the group that caused their disbandment started to surface so I thought now would be as good a time as any to write a kind of reflection post.

If you don't know who G=AGE are they were a 5-member Jpop boy group both born and died (not literally, haha) in 2016 who got a lot of attention at first mainly due to the fact that 4 of its members were originally part of Johnny's Entertainment. And if you'd like the details on why the group disbanded, links to the member's social media accounts, and just a lot of me blubbering helplessly then you can check out this post.

I loved G=AGE a lot. I half-jokingly gave myself the nickname "That G=AGE Girl" over on the Jpop Amino (where I mostly posted my translations, random fangirling etc. before I started this blog) and would try to promote them any chance I got. It's probably not that big of a stretch to say that if it weren't for G=AGE this blog probably wouldn't even exist because my desire to spam people -- I mean introduce people to Jpop boy groups all started with them.

*Insert soppy explanation about how I was going through a bit of a rough time in 2016 and G=AGE helped me out a lot but I don't want to go into it too much here okay now moving on*

My Top 5 non-Johnny's Entertainment Jpop Boy Groups (Update 2017)

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.

My Ichiban: Tsukasa #ThirstyForTsukasaSquad
My Favourite Song: Shake It! BOUNCE

4. Choutokkyu 

 

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

Oh SMAP! | Former SMAP Members Throw Shade at JE with New Project

If you're a Johnny's Enterainment fan, or even just a Jpop fan in general you're probably aware of the fact that SMAP disbanded last year. SMAP was probably JE's best known group, having been in the entertainment industry for about 25 years. Their single, "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" is in the Oricon charts literally every week still despite being 15 years old. So of course it was met with great shock and sadness when such an influential group disbanded and departed from the agency.

I have Eurovision, I have Asia, UGH! | Thoughts on Eurovision Asia

So this happened.

I'm sure most people are familliar with it, but for those who don't know Eurovision is an international TV song competition where various European artists compete, represtening their country. It was recently announced that for the first time Eurovision Asia will be held, which will be the Asia-Pacific counterpart of the contest. Little is set in stone yet but it's expected to take place in 2018.

We're Gonna Be Late For Idol School! | My Top 5 School-Themed Music Videos

Here in the UK and in many other parts of the world, September is the start of the academic year. For me at least it marks the end of being able to sit around all day fangirling and having to get my butt back to college and start being somewhat productive again. But I still continue fangirling in my breaks, of course.

If you're anything like me, returning to school/college/wherever isn't exactly something to look forward to but luckily, some of our favourite Jpop boy groups have our backs with some cute school-themed music videos we can sneakily watch in class when we're supposed to be doing work. So grab your seifuku and your buttered toast because here are a few of my favourites.

MAGiC BOYZ Member Ranking | EBiDAN Member Ranking Week 6

Yo, what's up my homies? I felt like I should greet you like that because of who this week's group is. What was that? You think I should never say that again? I completely agree. I was half-tempted to begin this post with a screenshot of Ryuto giving the camera the middle finger.

 

This week it was Angi's turn to chose the group for our little collab and much to my surprise, she chose MAGiC BOYZ. AKA the group I pretend to hate but actually love 100% unironically. So let's get started! Yo, brap, and whatever the cool kids say these days.

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!

Choutokkyuu Member Ranking | EBiDAN Member Ranking Week 5

Somehow we're already on week 5 of the EBiDAN collab. Yet again, it was my turn to choose the group so I chose Choutokkyuu/Bullet Train! Choutokkyuu were actually the first EBiDAN group that I discovered. They may not be my favourite group anymore but I still love all the members dearly. Now then, let's get started!

My Top 5 EBiDAN 39&KiDS Members

I've had a bit of EBiDAN fever lately, what with all of the exciting things that have been happening over the last few months. Two groups announce their debut albums (I love Majibo and their album is lit, don't judge me), EBiDAN THE LIVE and Hoshio Matsuri 2017, plus my collab with Angi from It's All About JMusic is already on its 5th week. I've been finding lots of other EBiDAN fans online too. I'm so hype. I'm living life in the fast lane since ditching Johnny's Entertainment for EBiDAN. I mean, what?


So are you guys sick of me talking about EBiDAN yet? A little? Sorry but here's another EBiDAN post. This one isn't about the debuted groups though. Today I'm going to introduce you all to my favourite EBiDAN 39&KiDS members because Jeffrey Malone and his terrible dancing are so important. This won't be in any particular order though because they're all my babies and I can't pick a favourite.

PrizmaX Member Ranking | EBiDAN Member Ranking Week 4

It's time for the EBiDAN member ranking posts again, and this time Angi chose PrizmaX! I knew next to nothing about them before I started this post. I tried so hard to give them a chance since they're pretty much the only EBiDAN group that I'm not really interested in but sadly I have to admit that I'm still not super into them. It was fun getting to know the members a little better though.

M!LK's 3rd Anniversary and Album Debut

It was recently announced that EBiDAN group, M!LK will finally release their first album. Its title is "Ousama no Gyuunyuu" (King's Milk) and it will be released on November 22nd. Release events will commence on September 9th.

SUPER★DRAGON Member Ranking | EBiDAN Member Ranking Week 3

Now we're on week 3 of the EBiDAN collab and this time it was my turn to choose the group again so I chose SUPER★DRAGON! Ranking the members was pretty hard to do since they're such a big group and I love them all so much. But anyway, here it is and I hope you enjoy it~

Marius Yo in an American Sitcom? | Plus General Rantings About Sexy Zone and JE

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.

Jpop Boy Groups Performing Overseas? | MyMusicTaste

It's that time of year again. The two biggest Jpop-related events in Europe (namely Japan Expo and Hyper Japan) are over and Hyper Japan in particular have released their feedback forms, which means it's time for me to spam them with requests to get male idol groups to perform next year. They must love me. Every year I beg for Da-iCE, Bullet Train, BOYS AND MEN, and whichever other groups I think might have the tiniest chance of performing overseas even though I know it's futile. If you'd like to aid me in my spam and maybe make the smallest bit of difference then you can find their feedback form here.

We've literally...never had a boy group at Hyper Japan and I'm very salty about it. The closest we had was THE HOOPERS last year (which was pretty awesome by the way). This year Japan Expo in France was lucky enough to see a performance from BREAK☆THROUGH"5D, and for the past two years FanimeCon in America have managed to secure two different boy groups (namely Da-iCE and X4) as their guests of honor.

 

EBiSSH Member Ranking | EBiDAN Member Ranking Week 2

Wow, we're already on our 2nd week of our EBiDAN ranking series! This week it was Angi's turn to choose which group we did and she chose EBiSSH. I didn't know very much about EBiSSH beforehand - I only really knew that one of the members, Naoya was Takuya from Bullet Train's younger brother - so this gave me a great opportunity to get to know them a little better.

This post might be a little shorter than my M!LK post last week since I'm still getting to know EBiSSH and haven't been a fan of theirs as long as I have been of M!LK but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! Here's my ranking of the members of the group EBiSSH.

Hot Singing Anime Boys | An Introduction to Virtual Male Idols Part 1

As with most people, my introduction to the world of Jpop was through anime. While I don’t watch anime as much as I once did, there are a few series I make time for on occasion. I’m also quite into otome games (anime-style romance games for girls). So of course, as a huge male idol fan one of my favourite genres in both of these areas is - you guessed it - male idols. While real male idols are where my heart mostly lies, that doesn’t mean I can’t love 2D ones too! Here’s a little guide I put together of anime and games I enjoy that have a focus on male idols.

M!LK Member Ranking | EBiDAN Member Ranking Week 1

Hello all! Today I'll be sharing with you my personal ranking of the members of M!LK; from my favourite to my least favourite (but of course I love all the members!). I hope you enjoy it and it helps you to get to know the members a little better.

This is a collab with the lovely Angi from It's All About JMusic so be sure to check out her post as well! We'll each be doing our own ranking of the members from a different EBiDAN group every week. On this first week I got to pick which group we did so of course I chose my favourite group, M!LK. Now, let's get started!