My faculty is on a strike until further notice, so I don't have to worry about my tests this week! I can continue gushing about NEWS with Lupe (whom I freakin' love for following me into this fandom! Not that I didn't love you before, of course, you're like the little sister I always wanted!)

In any case, now is time for me to give you guys another reason to love NEWS (and the Johnny Entertainment world in general), this time with a little more information on the history of the band.

This post comes after this one.




Reason nº3: The Drama (part 1)

What is "The Drama"? Ok. This story actually begins way, way back in the '60. Yes! That far back!

See, Johnny & Associates, formed by the "worldy known" Johnny Kitagawa in 1963, is the most popular and profitable talent agency for male idols in Japan this days. They freakin' RULE the country! Or at least, the Japanese entertainment industry, more or less. I watched the countdown for the 100 best singles of 2007, and let me tell you, the idols from this agency take around HALF the positions, not because they are that many, but because they show up over, and over, and over again!

Don't think you don't know anything about it. You'll be surprised. When I went looking for information on NEWS, I came across some really familiar names... I realized I had been listening to JE idols in parties for a decade by now!

Do any of you remember the anime Kodomo no Omocha? In the first episode of that crazy, crazy story, the main character, Sana-chan, bumps into a guy, a singer, and thanks him for singing the opening for the anime. That guy? Probably Nagase. The band that sings that song? TOKIO, a JE band.

I can give you one better! You all watched Inuyasha. I know you all did! Remember the catchy and annoying opening? "I want to chaaange the world"? Yes, you do remember! That's V6, another JE band (and they have better songs, too).

I, personally, will never forget the first time I found out there was a band called Kinki Kids (I think I laughed for, like, an hour!), and then, it turns out, they are from the agency too.

And then, of course, is SMAP. I never really liked them much, but some of their songs were played on parties, and I can dance to whatever I'm listening to if I'm in the mood for it. I have a particularly fond memory of Shingo Mama, cus the first time I listen to Shingo Mama no Oha Rock in a party, after my WTF reaction, I realized I UNDERSTOOD the lyrics! Without having to read the kanjis or a translation! The song is so simple is awesome! Is about food and family! Awesome, I tell you!

Anyway, back to the point. This agency has been in charge of creating pop idols since the sixties, and all the bands since SMAP (debuted in 1991) have been extremely profitable and dominate the entertainment scenery NOW from every angle possible. Most of them show up constantly both in tv doramas and movies, also in plays and musicals they have starred in for YEARS, they have one or two variety shows, host all kinds of events and radio shows, and of course, they release singles and albums (as groups, units AND/or solo work) and have concert tours around the country every once in a while, showing up in every other tv program out there to promote themselves. And did I mention the commercials? Oh! And lots of them also write columns in magazines and stuff like that. Busy guys, this idols.

So they are all around entertainers. This is actually what the agency prepares and TRAINS them to do. Is not signing your name in a paper, get assigned a group and start working on your vocal skills. Every year a huge amount of kids go to auditions to get in JE. And only a handful of those actually make it (Though, they are still a lot). Once they're in, they start taking dance classes, cus their first work usually is to be back-dancers for the senpai that has already debuted or are close to do so. If they're lucky and/or skilled enough, people start taking notice of them, and they get their hands on a microphone, and if the people respond well to that, they get assigned a UNIT.

What I am talking about here? See, there is this program, called Shounen Club (or Shokura), where the whole point is to show this kids dancing and singing around. The program goes twice a month, I think, and usually involves the kids presenting either songs of already debuted bands, or showing new material (depending of the "theme" of the day), then interviewing each other about silly topics, more songs, some form of competition or game that shows you how cute this guys are, and more songs. All of this in front of a BIG audience. This helps the guys get noticed, and usually, when they get to the front of the stage, they get to debut, which means they become a *real* band. They graduate from being "juniors" (that's what they're called) and focus on their own shows and their own concerts and their own singles.

They have been different programs to now's Shokura in the history of JE, with different formats on how to deliver the entertainment and show off the juniors, but I don't really know much about them and Shokura always gets the most attention anyway, as reference. Also, for the kids to get to the point of debuting they usually go through more than one unit. The agency experiments until finding something that clicks, so must units are not meant to last until they start getting the public's attention, and with their support they can debut, after YEARS of hard work.

Why all this background information on how things work? Well, because NEWS was different. They weren't a unit that got popular after time of hard work together. Not even close. And that is, in part, The Drama I'm talking about.

Let me tell you a bit about the members. Back then, there were NINE of them.



The first one to enter the agency was Yamapi. He got in in late 1996, after he saw one of his future senpai in a dorama and thought that what he was doing (working as an actor) was pretty cool. Said senpai was Takizawa Hideaki, best known as Takki, who later becomes a mentor to Yamapi (He actually came up with the nickname, cus back in the day, YAMAshita, it seems, used to wear a lot of PInk. Clever, huh?), and once Takki got his chance to debut (in september of 2002 as part of Tackey & Tsubasa), he left Yamapi, the most popular junior back then, and the other members of his unit, 4TOPS, in charge of the rest of the juniors and hosting Shokura.

When Yamapi was a junior, he always hung out with the "cool kids". He was the youngest of the lot, but had enter the agency at the same time as them, or even earlier. He was babied a lot and everyone found him cute (and he so was! see this post as reference of cute little Pi). He was Takki's favorite and got along great with Arashi, a band that debuted in 1999 (so the most popular around that time). It was back then that Yamapi found a great partner in Ikuta Toma, and they both became part of 4TOPS, unit that was sure to be the next one to debut.

Also with the popular crowd was Ryo-chan (Nishikido Ryou), that everyone called Ryo-chan cus he was really tiny back then and he couldn't make them stop calling him that! (and then it got stuck and people keep calling him that now!) He got into the agency in 1997. Keep in mind he's a year older than Pi!



Ryo, though, was from Osaka, and most of his activities where Kansai-based, where he was part of his own unit, Kanjani8, with other seven member. Other member of that group was Uchi Hiroki, that entered the agency in 1999.

Back in Tokyo there were other units. Katou Shigeaki (Shige), entered the agency in 1999, and both Kusano Hironori and Koyama Keiichirou got in in 2001. The three of them were together as part of the unit KKKity in 2003.

Masuda Takahisa, or just Massu, got into the agency in 1998, so even if he wasn't part of a unit (he worked with Kis-My-Ft later on), he knew his way around. Moriuchi Takahiro I don't really know what he was doing back in 2003, but he was probably part of some unit, I think. The only one NOBODY (except for Massu) knew anything about was Tegoshi Yuuya, that entered the agency only in december of 2002 and wasn't part of any units at all.

At the beginning of September of 2003, they got called to get a photoshoot together. Tegoshi describes the event as something of other world "I'm going to be in the same photoshoot as Yamashita-kun and Nishikido-kun? wow!", some time after that, Johnny informs them they are part of a unit formed to cheer on that year's volleyball world cup, an activity performed before by both V6 and Arashi.

Even if it could have been considered a great opportunity, nobody was really happy with it. With so many other units already formed, why didn't they got the chance to performed for the world cup? KAT-TUN had been formed back in 2001 and was still waiting for their chance to shine. Both 4TOPS and Kanjanji8 were eager too. Instead, this group of kids, all quite happy with the units they were already a part of, got separated from them to work with this other group of kids they didn't know anything about.

But it was only temporary, right? Not more than a month, not gonna last. Except that they presented themselves in Shokura on november the second, and on november the seventh their single (NEWS Nippon) came out, and Johnny decided to make them all debut with this group.

This was awful news! (no pun intended) The rest of Kanjani8 got restless thinking they were gonna lose two of their members and be broken apart, just like it happened to 4TOPS without Yamapi with them.

During this time, the kids didn't even try to be friends, cus it-was-not-suppose-to-last, but now they were stuck together with a huge, huge gap between popular Yamashita-senpai and cool Nishikido-senpai, and the rest of them, that didn't have the seniority and didn't spend so many years as the other two did working on their debut.

Then, by the end of the year, Moriuchi quits the agency, to focused in his studies and follow his rock soul.

So 2004 begins with an eight-members group that didn't learn to work together before they got the opportunity they were all waiting for. It was all wrong.

Now, years later, the guys have been able to talk more freely about those days, and recognize it was awful and more than one of them thought of quitting. It is kinda sad to watch the first few interviews of them at the beginning, cus they clearly didn't know what to say about each other.

They did work on it, though. Most of all, NEWS if form by a group of positive thinkers that try to make the best out of situations. They probably learned that from this experience. They kept going. Ryo and Uchi got to be in both NEWS and Kanjani8, and debuted again with that band a year later. Every single NEWS released got to be number one in the Oricon charts, and when their first album (Touch) was out in april of 2005, they had seem to find enough common ground to start enjoying themselves while working together.

Of course, as with all good stories, happiness can't last long...

Yes, to be continued in the next post (sorry! I didn't intend it to be this long!)