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faded_laceOkay, so, we all love to predict debuts, right? ...or maybe that's just me. But either way, as unpredictable as Johnny's is, one thing that we can basically be sure of is that there will be a volleyball debut every four years. But beyond that, there are a lot of general trends that I've figured out in regards to volleyball debuts, and so I decided it was time for me to compile all my research in one place with the end goal in mind of predicting the 2015 FIVB World Cup Support Group.
But... even if you don't give a crap about the 2015 volleyball debut, I think it's pretty interesting to check out. I'm starting with Arashi just because 1) Arashi is the first group I know anything about and 2) since V6 was the first group, the form seemingly hadn't quite been established yet and it doesn't follow the same trends as the next four groups. So... if you're interested to see the fruits of my research, check below the cut!
First and foremost, there are three golden rules that I've come up with surrounding debuts in general:
☆ Non-volleyball debuts are always Junior units first (Kanjani8, KAT-TUN, Kis-My-Ft2, ABC-Z)
☆ Volleyball debuts are never Junior units first (Arashi, NEWS, Hey! Say! JUMP, Sexy Zone)
☆ Volleyball groups must break up a four-member junior unit (MAIN, 4tops, Ya-ya-yah, B.I.Shadow)
But my focus right now is volleyball debuts because they're far easier to understand and predict, so have an additional set of loose rules that generally always apply:
☆ Volleyball groups have a large age range
☆ Volleyball groups have a descending average age over the years
☆ Volleyball groups either have 5 or 9-10 members at debut
☆ Volleyball groups usually include a few "fresh" juniors.
But it's a lot easier to see these trends in table format... so luckily, I have a table! Before we get there, though, I need to explain my categories:
1) group name: self explanatory
2) debut year: all groups debuted in November (except technically NEWS?) so their activities in their debut year are usually limited.
3) # of members: the number of members at debut. Because my stats are more for the intent of considering what thought process goes into debuting a volleyball unit and not what becomes of them afterwards, I'm only listing the number of members Johnny's and Associated chose to debut.
4) # from 4人 jr unit: the number of members from a four-member junior unit. As I mentioned above, this is a common factor for all volleyball debuts starting with Arashi. I'm counting all members at debut, and not taking into account that members have left the group since then.
5) # of "fresh" jr: I'm aware that "fresh" is used in a variety of ways in Johnny's, but for the purposes of this table, I'm using it to mean "Juniors who the average non-Junior-fan person wouldn't recognize." Some Juniors are more active than others, and so obviously the biggers names would be expected to bring in more initial revenue. Basically, those who didn't appear regularly on TV, headline concerts, put out CDs, or otherwise take an active part in the non-Johnny's entertainment world.
6) age of oldest: The age of the oldest member at debut. November and December birthdays are deceptively listed as their age at debut despite the fact that they would have birthdays in a matter of weeks or sometimes days.
7) age of youngest: The age of the youngest member at debut. Same as above, November and December birthdays cause this to not necessarily be entirely accurate.
8) average age at debut: The average age of the members at debut using the same ages from oldest/youngest.
So there you have it. Basically, there's a trend of decreasing age and possible increasing "fresh" members, while the number of kids from the four-member unit seems to have leveled off at two. Also, it seems almost as if there's a break between NEWS, who had an average age of almost 17, and Hey!Say!JUMP, who had an average age of 15. NEWS's youngest member was 15, while JUMP debuted with a not-yet-teenager at 12 years old. Arashi and NEWS seem to have more in common, while JUMP and Sexy Zone seem to be easier to group, though there are post-debut similarities between NEWS and JUMP that maybe I'll get into some other time.
Since JUMP and Sexy Zone are the newest and therefore seem to be the two more relevant groups, I want to break down their intra-group dynamics as well in order to better understand what the 2015 debut might look like.
Again, to explain the categories on these charts:
1) member: the member's name
2) join date: the date on which they passed their auditions to enter Johnny's Juniors
3) join age: the age at which they passed their auditions to enter Johnny's Juniors
4) junior unit: the name(s) of major Junior units with which they were active. I am not counting more minor units that only had a short lifespan.
5) # of jr activities: the number of Johnny's concerts in which they participated before debut
6) # of jr singles: the number of singles they recorded prior to debut
7) age at debut: the age they were when they debuted. Again, November and December birthdays are deceptive.
8) famous parent?: if they had a parent who was famous (which may have impacted whether or not they got to debut).
So then based on this information, we can expect the 2015 debut to have between 2 and 3 relative unknowns and its average age at debut to be between 14 and 15. Based on that knowledge...
...I'm going to predict members for the 2015 FIVB World Cup Support Group! Do I expect to be right? No. Do I expect to be even close? Probably not. Do I hope to get one or two members right? Of course, but I'm not holding my breath. This is basically just for fun/speculation and to generate discussion if at all possible~ So if you're interested in my 2015 picks, read on!
MY 2015 DREAM TEAM
☆ Jinguji Yuta (1997.10.30)
☆ Iwahashi Genki (1996.12.17)
☆ Nakamura Reia (1997.4.2)
☆ Matsukura Kaito (1997.11.14)
☆ Matsuda Genta (1999.4.19)
☆ +4 kids whose ages add up to 48 (for example, 14, 12, 11, 11 or 13, 12, 12, 11)
Number of members: 9
Average age: 15
Number of members from a 4-member Junior unit: 2
Age of oldest at debut: 18
Age of youngest at debut: 11
Number of "Fresh" members: 2~4
This pick is skewed by the fact that the current four-member unit, Sexy Boyz, is on the old side. The members keep changing around, but most of the current permutations contain members that will be 18 or older by the time November 2015 comes around. Already, Kishi Yuta is out, considering he'd be almost 20 by the time he'd be debuting.
Based on the older age set of most of the current popular Juniors, I chose to model this group more on Hey!Say!JUMP than the five member groups like Arashi and Sexy Zone. The last two debuts have been five-member groups, as well, so it seemed as if Johnny's would be likely to go for a larger group. The current group of popular kids gives me more of the feel of Ya-Ya-Yah and J.J.Express with a bunch of kids around the same age who are relatively close personally, and I think that Jinguji, Genki, Reia, Matsukura Kaito, and Genta would fit together well as the "ani-gumi." As for the younger half, I actually am not aware of kids young enough to bring the average age down to 15. At the time of JUMP's debut, Yuto, Yamada, and Ryutaro had been around for a while, but the kids who I thought were young enough... actually aren't. XD; So I'm leaving four empty spots for either kids who make themselves known in the next two years or for complete unknowns. I know 15 seems like a high average age after Sexy Zone, but with the kids he has currently to choose from for the older half (Jinguji, Genki, Reia, Haniuda Amu, Takahashi Fu, Kishi Yuta) there's simply nothing to be done about it... they're on the older side.
So uh, maybe I'll be completely wrong. Maybe I'm off my rocker. Or maybe I'll get one or two names right! We'll just have to see.
If you made it this far... congrats! And sorry I wrote so much @___@; This shows just how much of a total nerd I am, but I had fun making this post XD;;; And if you have thoughts about the 2015 debut, or any of this... let me know? I'm interested to see what other people thing!
... and now I'm going to go collapse. That post took me like 5 hours to make. XD;
But... even if you don't give a crap about the 2015 volleyball debut, I think it's pretty interesting to check out. I'm starting with Arashi just because 1) Arashi is the first group I know anything about and 2) since V6 was the first group, the form seemingly hadn't quite been established yet and it doesn't follow the same trends as the next four groups. So... if you're interested to see the fruits of my research, check below the cut!
First and foremost, there are three golden rules that I've come up with surrounding debuts in general:
☆ Non-volleyball debuts are always Junior units first (Kanjani8, KAT-TUN, Kis-My-Ft2, ABC-Z)
☆ Volleyball debuts are never Junior units first (Arashi, NEWS, Hey! Say! JUMP, Sexy Zone)
☆ Volleyball groups must break up a four-member junior unit (MAIN, 4tops, Ya-ya-yah, B.I.Shadow)
But my focus right now is volleyball debuts because they're far easier to understand and predict, so have an additional set of loose rules that generally always apply:
☆ Volleyball groups have a large age range
☆ Volleyball groups have a descending average age over the years
☆ Volleyball groups either have 5 or 9-10 members at debut
☆ Volleyball groups usually include a few "fresh" juniors.
But it's a lot easier to see these trends in table format... so luckily, I have a table! Before we get there, though, I need to explain my categories:
1) group name: self explanatory
2) debut year: all groups debuted in November (except technically NEWS?) so their activities in their debut year are usually limited.
3) # of members: the number of members at debut. Because my stats are more for the intent of considering what thought process goes into debuting a volleyball unit and not what becomes of them afterwards, I'm only listing the number of members Johnny's and Associated chose to debut.
4) # from 4人 jr unit: the number of members from a four-member junior unit. As I mentioned above, this is a common factor for all volleyball debuts starting with Arashi. I'm counting all members at debut, and not taking into account that members have left the group since then.
5) # of "fresh" jr: I'm aware that "fresh" is used in a variety of ways in Johnny's, but for the purposes of this table, I'm using it to mean "Juniors who the average non-Junior-fan person wouldn't recognize." Some Juniors are more active than others, and so obviously the biggers names would be expected to bring in more initial revenue. Basically, those who didn't appear regularly on TV, headline concerts, put out CDs, or otherwise take an active part in the non-Johnny's entertainment world.
6) age of oldest: The age of the oldest member at debut. November and December birthdays are deceptively listed as their age at debut despite the fact that they would have birthdays in a matter of weeks or sometimes days.
7) age of youngest: The age of the youngest member at debut. Same as above, November and December birthdays cause this to not necessarily be entirely accurate.
8) average age at debut: The average age of the members at debut using the same ages from oldest/youngest.
| Table 1: Volleyball Debut Data 1999-2011 | |||||||
| group name | debut year | # of members | # from 4人 jr unit | # of "fresh" jr | age of oldest | age of youngest | average at at debut |
| Arashi | 1999 | 5 | 3* | 0** | 18 | 16 | 16.6 |
| NEWS | 2003 | 9 | 1 | 1~3*** | 19 | 15 | 16.9 |
| Hey!Say!JUMP | 2007 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 12 | 15 |
| Sexy Zone | 2011 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 11 | 14.4 |
| *It's a commonly accepted rumour that Nino bargained to have Aiba debuted with Arashi, and that the original plan was for only Nino and Jun (two members) to debut from MAIN. **Because this was during the "Golden Age" of the juniors, none of the members were relative unknowns before debut ***I basically know nothing about NEWS, and based on my definition of "fresh" for the purposes of this chart, that effectively makes it impossible for me to accurately fill out this category without going through a lot of old magazines and watching every episode of Ya-ya-yah from 2003. Since right now, I'm not able to do that, this is my best estimate based on what I've learned from friends and seen for myself from media from 2003. | |||||||
So there you have it. Basically, there's a trend of decreasing age and possible increasing "fresh" members, while the number of kids from the four-member unit seems to have leveled off at two. Also, it seems almost as if there's a break between NEWS, who had an average age of almost 17, and Hey!Say!JUMP, who had an average age of 15. NEWS's youngest member was 15, while JUMP debuted with a not-yet-teenager at 12 years old. Arashi and NEWS seem to have more in common, while JUMP and Sexy Zone seem to be easier to group, though there are post-debut similarities between NEWS and JUMP that maybe I'll get into some other time.
Since JUMP and Sexy Zone are the newest and therefore seem to be the two more relevant groups, I want to break down their intra-group dynamics as well in order to better understand what the 2015 debut might look like.
Again, to explain the categories on these charts:
1) member: the member's name
2) join date: the date on which they passed their auditions to enter Johnny's Juniors
3) join age: the age at which they passed their auditions to enter Johnny's Juniors
4) junior unit: the name(s) of major Junior units with which they were active. I am not counting more minor units that only had a short lifespan.
5) # of jr activities: the number of Johnny's concerts in which they participated before debut
6) # of jr singles: the number of singles they recorded prior to debut
7) age at debut: the age they were when they debuted. Again, November and December birthdays are deceptive.
8) famous parent?: if they had a parent who was famous (which may have impacted whether or not they got to debut).
| Table 2: Hey!Say!JUMP Debut Data | |||||||
| member | join date | join age | junior unit | # of jr activities | # of jr singles | age at debut | famous parent? |
| Yabu Kota | 2001.9.23 | 11 | Ya-Ya-Yah | 20 | 1 | 17 | no |
| Takaki Yuya | 2004.6.12 | 14 | J.J.Express | 13 | 1 | 17 | no |
| Inoo Kei | 2001.9.23 | 11 | J.J.Express | 12 | 0 | 17 | no |
| Yaotome Hikaru | 2002.12.2 | 12 | Ya-Ya-Yah | 15 | 0 | 16 | no |
| Arioka Daiki | 2003.6.2 | 12 | J.J.Express | 14 | 1 | 16 | no |
| Okamoto Keito | 2006.8.14 | 13 | none | 5 | 0 | 14 | yes* |
| Yamada Ryosuke | 2004.8.12 | 11 | Kitty Jr. | 10 | 1 | 14 | no |
| Nakajima Yuto | 2004.3.28 | 10 | J.J.Express, Tap Kids | 13 | 1 | 14 | no |
| Chinen Yuri | 2003.6.2 | 9 | none | 5 | 1 | 13 | no |
| Morimoto Ryutaro | 2004.8.12 | 9 | Tap Kids | 10 | 0 | 12 | no |
| *Keito's father is Okamoto Kenichi, formerly of 80s Johnny's unit Otokogumi. | |||||||
| Table 3: Sexy Zone Debut Data | |||||||
| member | join date | join age | junior unit | # of jr activities | # of jr singles | age at debut | famous parent? |
| Nakajima Kento | 2008.4.20 | 14 | B.I.Shadow | 5 | 1 | 17 | no |
| Kikuchi Fuma | 2008.4.27 | 13 | B.I.Shadow | 6 | 1 | 16 | no |
| Sato Shori | 2010.10.30 | 14 | jyaPAniizu Hi! | 2 | 0 | 15 | no |
| Matsushima Sou | 2011.3.20 | 13 | jyaPAniizu Hi! | 1 | 0 | 13 | no |
| Marius Yo | 2010.11.?? | 10 | jyaPAniizu Hi! | 1 | 0 | 11 | yes* |
| *Marius's mother is a former member of the Takarazuka. | |||||||
So then based on this information, we can expect the 2015 debut to have between 2 and 3 relative unknowns and its average age at debut to be between 14 and 15. Based on that knowledge...
...I'm going to predict members for the 2015 FIVB World Cup Support Group! Do I expect to be right? No. Do I expect to be even close? Probably not. Do I hope to get one or two members right? Of course, but I'm not holding my breath. This is basically just for fun/speculation and to generate discussion if at all possible~ So if you're interested in my 2015 picks, read on!
MY 2015 DREAM TEAM
☆ Jinguji Yuta (1997.10.30)
☆ Iwahashi Genki (1996.12.17)
☆ Nakamura Reia (1997.4.2)
☆ Matsukura Kaito (1997.11.14)
☆ Matsuda Genta (1999.4.19)
☆ +4 kids whose ages add up to 48 (for example, 14, 12, 11, 11 or 13, 12, 12, 11)
Number of members: 9
Average age: 15
Number of members from a 4-member Junior unit: 2
Age of oldest at debut: 18
Age of youngest at debut: 11
Number of "Fresh" members: 2~4
This pick is skewed by the fact that the current four-member unit, Sexy Boyz, is on the old side. The members keep changing around, but most of the current permutations contain members that will be 18 or older by the time November 2015 comes around. Already, Kishi Yuta is out, considering he'd be almost 20 by the time he'd be debuting.
Based on the older age set of most of the current popular Juniors, I chose to model this group more on Hey!Say!JUMP than the five member groups like Arashi and Sexy Zone. The last two debuts have been five-member groups, as well, so it seemed as if Johnny's would be likely to go for a larger group. The current group of popular kids gives me more of the feel of Ya-Ya-Yah and J.J.Express with a bunch of kids around the same age who are relatively close personally, and I think that Jinguji, Genki, Reia, Matsukura Kaito, and Genta would fit together well as the "ani-gumi." As for the younger half, I actually am not aware of kids young enough to bring the average age down to 15. At the time of JUMP's debut, Yuto, Yamada, and Ryutaro had been around for a while, but the kids who I thought were young enough... actually aren't. XD; So I'm leaving four empty spots for either kids who make themselves known in the next two years or for complete unknowns. I know 15 seems like a high average age after Sexy Zone, but with the kids he has currently to choose from for the older half (Jinguji, Genki, Reia, Haniuda Amu, Takahashi Fu, Kishi Yuta) there's simply nothing to be done about it... they're on the older side.
So uh, maybe I'll be completely wrong. Maybe I'm off my rocker. Or maybe I'll get one or two names right! We'll just have to see.
If you made it this far... congrats! And sorry I wrote so much @___@; This shows just how much of a total nerd I am, but I had fun making this post XD;;; And if you have thoughts about the 2015 debut, or any of this... let me know? I'm interested to see what other people thing!
... and now I'm going to go collapse. That post took me like 5 hours to make. XD;
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Date: 2013-08-11 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-11 03:52 pm (UTC)I just love that you wrote it all up XD ♥
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Date: 2013-08-11 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-11 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-11 04:09 pm (UTC)(Gen-gen is the one on the far left :D)
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Date: 2013-08-11 04:16 pm (UTC)(oh, yay, pictures :D pictures always help.)
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Date: 2013-08-11 04:22 pm (UTC)(Gen-gen is in the pink ♥ He's not as practicedly cute as Reia... but he's pretty cute.)
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Date: 2013-08-11 04:29 pm (UTC)(Awww, bbs.)
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Date: 2013-08-11 11:50 pm (UTC)(They're cute right?? Ugh now I really want to get an icon of Gen-gen.)
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Date: 2013-08-12 12:18 am (UTC)(XD so make one)
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Date: 2013-08-13 01:33 am (UTC)