Report from today's Sexy Zone new single presentation event

[faded_lace]

From News @ Asahi TV.

Today, July 15th, Sexy Zone's Sato Shori (17), Nakajima Kento (20), and Kikuchi Fuma(19) held a presentation event for their new single in Tokyo's Yoyogi National Gymnasium. In front of 10,000 fans, they performed their new song for the first time, and announced that that same song would not include Matsushima Sou (16) and Marius Yo (14) but would instead be comprised just of Sato, Nakajima, and Kikuchi. The fan's shocked voices, crying out "Ehhhh???" rose up in the venue. Nakajima commented, "We want to move forward showing the fans many forms," while Kikuchi asked the fans to understand, saying, "If we work hard just the three of us, and each become stronger before returning to 5、I think the possibilities for our group will instantly increase." From here on, centered on the three with Sato, there's the chance that they'll become a fluid group with members being switched in and out, and Nakajima expanded what might be expected, saying, "It's possible that next year, we'll put out solos and stuff, too." In May, two derivative groups incorporating Marius and Matsushima respectively were born, and all five will appear in the summer concert starting on July 23rd.

I'm going to refrain from making a comment right now, because I don't want to let my emotions get the best of me, but as you might guess, I'm pretty much livid. All I'm going to say is, we'll have to wait and see how things pan out.

And just as I thought things were looking up, too.

[EDIT] snow has kindly translated a tabloid article about this event here. Please read the translator's notes on the actual translation and keep in mind, though, that these tabloids basically make up facts to sell copies. I think the jury's still out on whether this will continue in the future, but I figured for completeness, I'd add this more "sensationalized" view. Please, though, remember that this article is a tabloid, and not a reliable news source.

Comments

[himaori.livejournal.com]

Well, from the day Sexy Zone are under Ijima's hand, things have got much messier and uglier. I have a bad feeling when Marius and Sou were put with the Jrs for Summer Festival, that SZ would become like this. And now it's happening. I don't know why any group that she takes on always ends up like this. Kisumai and SZ. When Kisumai were Jrs, things were much better than now, and SZ were alo better off when they first debuted as I believe at that time Johnny-san produced and still managed them by himself.

I also have a feeling that Ijima wants to put Marius and Sou together with other Jrs in one group and get them debuted for next year. Marius is my favortie from SZ and it's quite sad and upset to see such things happen. *Sigh* Why Ijima? What's wrong with her?

Julie or Ijima is always a bad choice to put our beloved boys into their hands.

[faded-lace.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really hate Ijima for everything she's done to Sexy Zone ever since she got control over them in 2012. It's really upsetting and frustrating, and I'm sure it's upsetting for the guys, too.

I don't think that that's really a possibility for a few reasons, firstly because since having dual groups didn't really work for Nishikido or Uchi, and secondly because Marius and Sou have contracts to Sexy Zone. In Johnny's, the only real way to end a contract seems to be:
1) Come to a mutual agreement, with the artist wanting to leave the group (example: Yamapi, Nishikido)
2) Break Johnny's rules and have the contract broken (example: Koki)
3) Have the contract come to term and both sides mutually agree to end the contract (example: Jin leaving JE)
I don't think that Marius and Sou would ever agree to leave Sexy Zone, so I don't see that happening. Additionally, if Marius and Sou were to debut with the 2015 volleyball group, their ages are so high that people like Jinguji and Genki wouldn't be able to debut because the average age would be too high. I can't see them choosing to re-debut people who are already debuted over debuting Jinguji and Genki, to be perfectly honest.

I don't know what Ijima's problem is or why she has to ruin every group she gets recently, but personally, I have no problem with Julie.

At any rate, I hope things get better for Sexy Zone.

[himaori.livejournal.com]

Now I'm not sure of everything becoz of what I have been through with KAT-TUN for nearly 10 years. At the first few years of being fangirl, I was quite optimistic and believed that debut was everything to the boys and they would stay forever like that but I don't know why the group I love had to go through many things and all started with my ichiban - Akanishi Jin. Now I tend to not trust anything easily, even they get debut then things can happen and shake our fangirl's life into turbulence.

Well, before Ijima involved herself in JE groups (I believe that she was not interested in taking other groups except SMAP before), Julie was infamous for her favortism policy. She only focused to invest and push the boys she likes, the rest just whatever to her and she only wanted clean image boys, no scandal, no dating revealed. As a KAT-TUN's fan, I don't like her policy as KAT-TUN were famous of having bad boy image. And one thing I don't like about Julie is she never cares for the Jrs, she always waits for Johnny-san to produce a certain group and if she likes a certain boy in that group, she will take it. But then, now Ijima surpassed Julie in annoying fans with her discrimination/separation policy within a group.

At this rate, I'm afraid Johnny West will be the next victim to Ijima's policy coz it seems that she wants to take Johnny West under her sleeves. I don't understand why she is was called Johnny-san's right hand but her strategy just destroys everything.

I though that Jinguji and Genki are the strongest candidates for the next debuted group. Some fans told me that. Actually I don't follow the spotlight Jrs much so I have no idea on this. Yeah, I know the average age of the group is quite important in JE and usually those who debut for Volleyball suporting thingy should be young. But if they do the same formation as V6 then it may happen right? Half of the group is young and half is old. The average age would be decreased. Just my 2 cents.

I hope Marius and Sou finish with the group they were formed for Summer Festival and back to the group. How I miss the day when SZ were first debuted.

[faded-lace.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I was never a fan of KAT-TUN or NEWS or anything in that cluster so I can't really comment on what it was like back when they first debuted. But I think Johnny's WEST will probably be safe, as their label is Johnny's Entertainment, which is Julie's. So unless they switch labels, it seems unlikely that they'll be given to Ijima. And as for Julie "not caring" about the Juniors; it's always been Johnny's job to decide what Juniors debut. He's the one with the ability to pick out who will become successful, so I honestly don't want it to be Julie OR Ijima. Johnny should train a successor, yes, but I don't think Ijima or Julie should be given full control of the Juniors without Johnny training one of them first. It's always been that Johnny himself looks after the juniors.

If you're more interested in the theory behind volleyball debuts, feel free to check out this and this. They're posts that I made basically explaining the usual process as best as I can understand it from studying past groups. If you think about it, though, Sou will be 18 in 2015, and Marius will be 15. Genki will be 19, and Jinguji will be 18. It's unheard of since V6 (who, I might add, fall outside the trend that started with Arashi) to have a volleyball debut with 3 members 18 or older, and to get the average age to 14, which is about what it usually is these days, they'd have to add four members that are 10 or 11. It just seems highly unlikely that they'd debut a group like that to me.

Yeah, I have to agree with you about Sexy Zone going back to how they were when they debuted. The way things are currently is so depressing.

[himaori.livejournal.com]

OK, thanks for the links. I will check it. I remember that Sa-chan who is leader of V6 was 24 or 25 to get debut. It's quite late for a Johnny's Jr to get debut at that age. Lol~~~~

I think Ijima is trying to get her hands on Jr's nowadays to build her own "clan". That's what people call when talking about Ijima vs Julie. But as I know from observing, Tackey may be the successor of Johnny-san's in producing the boys. But it's still early to say anything. In my opinion, Julie should start making plan for her own coz we don't know how long Johnny-san can stay to produce new boys for her.

Well, JE these days are more complicated to me compared to the time I first got to know JE. The most difference is there was no such thing as Julie clan vs Ijima clan. Everything is united to me. V6, Tokio, and Kinki Kids even had their joint project and concert.

Oh, I'm not sure about label Johnny Entertainment coz Yuma released his single under this label but I believe that he's not under Julie's team. I've followed Yuma for 6 years and recently he had two dramas with Ijima's boys. Rather, Yuma is still managed by Johnny-san himself and works closely with Tackey and Tsubasa. That's why I said it was complicated to me. Anyways, hope that everything goes back to what it's supposed to be. Fangirls do not like heart attacks like this.

[faded-lace.livejournal.com]

It's not late for a non-volleyball group, and since V6 was the first volleyball group, they don't really follow the rules for volleyball groups. All the trends really start with Arashi. But yeah. Who knows what's going on within the agency. There's really no way for us to know, so all we can do is hope that things work out.