October 8, 2011

Showing Love To My Other Favorite Jpop Groups: KAT-TUN


Name: KAT-TUN (the hyphen is important, lol)
Members: (top section, L to R) Akanishi Jin (former member), Nakamaru Yuichi, Ueda Tatsuya, (bottom section, L to R) Tanaka Koki, Taguchi Junnosuke, Kamenashi Kazuya
Fanbase: Hyphen
Fancolor: I dont' think they have a fancolor.  It's more of fans with the member's faces on them.

Well, this is the group that has caught my attention on several occasions.  At first, I just heard about their name, and never really bothered to listen to them or anything.  That is how it usually goes with the groups I follow, lol~!  I was more into anime at the time, and I mainly listened to singers of their openings and endings or to solo singers like GACKT, Miyavi, Maaya Sakamoto, Ayumi Hamasaki, and Utada Hikaru.  There was the occasional boybands that I had one or two songs from though (ex.- Arashi, V6).  Then I eventually switched into Kpop, and that was fronted by my bias group TVXQ.  I didn't hear about KAT-TUN until around March/April of 2009 when they released 'RESCUE'.  I found out about that because that single went up against TVXQ's 'Survivor'.  I found that kind of cool that both titles could coincide with each other.  But I still wasn't very much interested in them.  I had seen other MVs of theirs as well: 'ONE DROP' and 'YOU'.  So what did make me take more interest in them?  Junnosuke.  Yes, one of the members stood out to me.  XD  It was after watching 'Rescue' quite a few times that my sister had told me that Junnosuke reminded her of Changmin (my ultimate bias).  I can see it too!  They may not look totally alike but at first glance and certain angles they can.  So at that point I was like: "Okay.  Pretty nifty this KAT-TUN group is".  However, it wasn't until this year--after hearing the responses of people when 'Run For You' was released-- that I actually started to follow them a little more (i.e.- getting to know who's who, member info, trivia, looking for songs/MVs, etc.).  So now I'm mainly a Cassie-Hyphen fan.  Though the Hyphen part of me is in training.  ^^;;

KAT-TUN was originally made up by six members with the first letter of each of their last name making up the group name: (K)amenashi, (A)kanishi, (T)aguchi, *hyphen*, (T)anaka, (U)eda, (N)akamaru.  They started out as a dance group for a previous Johnny's act (I think it was Kinki Kids).  It was more like a rotational group, but fans loved the members of KAT-TUN so much that they became a permanant unit.  Apparently they set alot of records too!  Having so many consecutive days of performances at the famous Tokyo Dome BEFORE debut is rather impressive.  I was looking up abou tthem on Wikipedia, and it looks like Johnny's Entertainment had them working almost as hard as TVXQ was!  They even had their own television show called 'Cartoon KAT-TUN' which I personally thought was really hilarious!  I saw sides of them that I never really thought about.  But while watching, I was really wishing that TVXQ would be guests.  XD  Ah, but since I've been so used to seeing TVXQ (Kpop in general) dancing, whenever I see KAT-TUN (or several Jpop groups) dancing...it's a bit...off? 

Sadly, one of the members, Akanishi Jin, announced his departure from the group to pursue a solo career.  With that, the 'A' in the group was also used by Kame, so now it's (KA)menashi, (T)aguchi, *hyphen*, (T)anaka, (U)eda, (N)akamaru.  It's rather sad to see groups I like have to split...even if it's only a few members that leave.  Fans are hopeful that one day Akanishi will come back much like many Cassies are hopeful that TVXQ will come back together.  

Well, as of now, KAT-TUN has made themselves a little cozy spot in my list of groups I follow.  Currently, they are my bias group from Japan.  There is still quite a bit I don't know about them, but slowly and surely, I shall get to know them better~!  If you'd like, you can check them out too!   

No comments:

Post a Comment