(Group) Alice Project Company

[ezacessline]

Back from my trip, and I have a lot to say about Alice Project, particularly about Jun, but I'll save that for another post.

A lot has been happening with member changes so I wanted to kinda list them here.

First I'll just summarise in numbers my Alice trip:

16 PARMS shows (9 days of shows, out of 17 of my trip)
1 Armor Girls show at Shibuya O-West
2 Akiba Drug & Cafe shows
12 wide chekis and 15 normal chekis
15 signed drink coasters and 1 signed A4 sheet
1 CD and 1 commerative  photo
4 live DVD-Rs...


Member news:

The biggest news is that Fujisaki Asami is going to graduate on 1st June. This is pretty sad, she's such a key member of Alice Juban. She will be really missed, and I guess Nanaka will do the rapping on her own now.

Secondly, Sakura Yuki moved from Steam Girls to Alice Juban last weekend. She seems to fit in well with Alice Juban but there is a gap in Steam Girls now, particularly during Destiny where she used to go through the crowd on that high chair.

A few members have been missing during my trip, seems like Suzumura Airi has indeed graduated from OZ, who are down to three members now. (Armor Girls are down to 5). Kameda Reona and Tsukimiya Karen both have NOT graduated from Steam Girls, but seems they both haven't appeared for months...

I saw a couple of members make their stage debut for Slime Girls, including Matsugami Yuko who is really cute, and used to be in a different idol group...

A few promotions were just announced yesterday:

Hoshino Rinka and Sakamoto Mana are being promoted from Slime Girls to OZ, which will help bulk out the numbers there.

And there will be a 2nd generation of Pa-Ken!. This will feature Aizawa Mina, Tsukino Moa, Okamoto Yuka, and Hitome Momose, all from Slime Girls.

The New OZ, Pa-Ken! and Slime Girls will debut at PARMS on 3rd May, when the three masked groups are off at their one-man-live at Zepp Tokyo.

I can't wait to read your account about Jun.

I didn't know Asami but it must be sad for her fans.

Armor Girls only released Eps not a full album yet?

[Jul3]

^ Thanks, I'll try to write it soon!

Yes, Armor Girls just have one CD at the moment, with their opening music and 3 songs on it, but you can listen to all their songs on youtube, they are linked here:  http://alice-project.biz/special/music?id=26


In the meantime I'm gonna dump a bunch of videos here:

Sakura Yuki's graduation from Steam Girls...



...and her debut with Alice Juban:




And a couple of signing events at PARMS:

Tachibana Anna signing that WPB (scans posted a few posts above)



And Kamiya Erina singing (in bikini) the Twintails and Machineguns photobook:




Also a vid of the promotions from Slime Girls to OZ and 2nd-gen Pa-Ken!

[Jul3]

Two things:


1. As part of the Shin Megami Tensai 7th Anniversary IMAGINE stuff, they've formed a new sub-group:
http://www.megatenonline.com/7th_anniversary/music.html

Basically, there was a voting battle between members, a total of 59,307 votes were cast. The three winning members were Mori Kanon, Tachibana Anna, and Koyanagi Tomoe.

They form "Alice of Nightmare"



These three then sung a version of "Haru Megiddo" which they'll live debut on the 26th April:




2. They put up a massive Kamen Joshi billboard just outside Akihabara JR station, near the AK48 Cafe, this is big news to them (I think it cost a lot) so they even have their own website for the advert: http://www.alice-project.biz/special?id=85
I think it's going to stay there for half a year.



Here's a bunch of the girls just after it was put up:



And some obligatory pictures of Jun:



Love her hairstyle there 

Edit: here's a vid of them going to the opening of the sign:

[ezacessline]

I have a question about Misa Kubota.
On the official site it says she's part of Armor Girls and Game Girls.

I'm a bit confused about that.

[Jul3]

I have a question about Misa Kubota.
On the official site it says she's part of Armor Girls and Game Girls.

I'm a bit confused about that.

Hmm? Basically there are a set of core groups and each girl is only a member of one of those, and a whole bunch of sub-groups/sub-units which contain members taken from any of the sub-groups.

Here's the hierarchy of the core groups:

Alice Juban*
Steam Girls*
Armor Girls*
OZ
Pa-Ken! (well, 2nd gen hasn't started yet but this is what I assume)
Slime Girls (these are basically trainees, not full members, if you will)

*these three together form Kamen Joshi

So the 4 main groups, the 3 masked ones and OZ, perform every day at PARMS.

The sub-units perform less regularly, mainly on weekend mornings, there's loads and loads of them and they keep on making new ones, here's a list of some of them, it's all a bit convoluted:

Game Girls
Idol Yokai Kawayushi
Prism
Poison Iinkai
Cherry Blossom
White Milk
Pureful

[ezacessline]

I have a question about Misa Kubota.
On the official site it says she's part of Armor Girls and Game Girls.

I'm a bit confused about that.

Hmm? Basically there are a set of core groups and each girl is only a member of one of those, and a whole bunch of sub-groups/sub-units which contain members taken from any of the sub-groups.

Here's the hierarchy of the core groups:

Alice Juban*
Steam Girls*
Armor Girls*
OZ
Pa-Ken! (well, 2nd gen hasn't started yet but this is what I assume)
Slime Girls (these are basically trainees, not full members, if you will)

*these three together form Kamen Joshi

So the 4 main groups, the 3 masked ones and OZ, perform every day at PARMS.

The sub-units perform less regularly, mainly on weekend mornings, there's loads and loads of them and they keep on making new ones, here's a list of some of them, it's all a bit convoluted:

Game Girls
Idol Yokai Kawayushi
Prism
Poison Iinkai
Cherry Blossom
White Milk
Pureful

Thank you now i better understand.

[Jul3]

I've got a load of stuff to catch up on and post here, but for now, here's the Armor Girls cut from the 2014/03/22 2nd show:



It's about 25mins long and features:
   Opening SE
   Kishi ni Naru no da! (騎士になるのだっ！)
   Koutetsu Shoujo (鋼鉄少女)
   MC
   Mitsuro no Theme (ミツろぅのテーマ)
   Kokoroido (ココロイド)

They are in their Kamen Joshi outfits this show, not their standard Armor Girls ones...

I've put the full show with all the groups on H!O and will be uploading 3 more full shows at some point...

[ezacessline]

Jun is part of a contest for Young Jump from the 1st to the 25th May.
Here's the link
http://youngjump.jp/ke-tai/

I'm not sure if clicking on her photo is enough.

[Jul3]

Jun is part of a contest for Young Jump from the 1st to the 25th May.
Here's the link
http://youngjump.jp/ke-tai/

I'm not sure if clicking on her photo is enough.

No, I think you have to subscribe to one of those 3 mobile services they list at the top. Shame, cuz I really want to vote... it would be amazing to see her in Young Jump, and I think it would mean a lot to her...




She was on Visual Web Young Sunday a while back, and similarly, I had no idea how to buy that...



There's some previews at the site: http://visualweb.youngsunday.com/otome/13_012.html


Whilst we're talking about Jun getting her kit off, I really like this one, think it was for some manga magazine I missed, really nice, and a lot more tasteful than a lot of her stuff you see about...

[Jul3]

Saw both these bits of news yesterday morning...

First...


Kameda Reona has announced her graduation.

She hasn't appeared on stage for three months, so it's not much of a surprise.

She wrote a really lovely blogpost about it which is well worth reading: http://ameblo.jp/kameda-reona/entry-11837845704.html

She's been a member for 4 years, and whilst I don't have a proper oshi in Steam Girls, before her disappearance, she was likely my fave.

She's really beautiful and it was sad to not see her perform this year, and sad to see her go...

I liked her simple tweet in English of "Thank you!" accompanied by these two photos:



And here's a couple more she's tweeted since:




About 10 mins after I read about Reona's graduation, I was wondering what happened to the other missing member of Steam Girls and...


Tsukimiya Karen of Steam Girls, wrote a blogpost about the same time: http://ameblo.jp/okarie-kaepyon/entry-11837843781.html

She hasn't appeared since February either, and in her post, says she's been suffering from depression but really wants to return to the stage, so is not leaving, but hopes to return.

I wish her all the best. Ganbatte Karen 

[ezacessline]

No, I think you have to subscribe to one of those 3 mobile services they list at the top. Shame, cuz I really want to vote... it would be amazing to see her in Young Jump, and I think it would mean a lot to her...

It's a shame we can't vote for her.

I don't know them but good luck to Reona.

And i hope Karen will find the strengh to perform with Steam Girls 

[Jul3]

Kamen Joshi performed their first one-man-live at Zepp Tokyo on 5th May 2014

They managed to sell 2200 out of 2700 tickets!

They announced their second one-man-live at Zepp Tokyo on 13th October 2014, which will be a kindof "revenge" show.

This one was a kindof "Summer Song Battle" where the three groups did a shuffle where they performed songs from one of the other groups.

Setlist:



OP - Kamen Joshi Opening SE
M01- Mousou Nikki
M02 - Wohhhh!!!!☆
M03. Haru Megiddo
--MC1--
M04. Tenchi -AMATSUCHI-
M05. Destiny (Armor Girls)
M06. Kishi ni naru no da (Alice Juban)
--MC2--
M07. Tsukemen☆OMD
M08. Cinderalla (Steam Girls)
M09. Yasashii Kaze (Armor Girls)
--MC3--
M10. Shin Adventure (Alice Juban)
M11. Sai Adventure (Armor Girls)
M12. Kaminari Adventure (Steam Girls)
M13. Chou Adventure (Kamen Joshi)
--MC4--
M14. Alice in Underground (new song)
M15. Kokoroido (Alice Juban)
M16. Zenkai☆Hero (Steam Girls)
--MC5--
M17. Saikyo Summer (Alice Juban, new song - they won the summer song battle)
--MC6--
M18. Tsukemen☆Gokumen
M19. Love Is All
M20. Natsu Dane☆
--ENCORE--
EN1. Happy☆ Birthday/Koutetsu Shoujo/High and Low (Choral Medley)
EN2. Dai Bouken☆

http://www.girlsnews.tv/unit/150501

Photos:












15 Minute digest from TokyoSportsMovie

This shows clips of every song, so please watch this vid!



The Daily Alice vids:





The special Kamen Joshi opening theme:



The concert is being made available on DVD/Bluray on their goods site, in the same no-packaging recordable disc form that PARMS shows are, which is a little disappointing, I was hoping for a proper release of this.

DVD: https://alice-project.biz/goods?data=616
Bluray: https://alice-project.biz/goods?data=617



Meanwhile, back at PARMS, New OZ, new Pa-Ken!, and new Slime Girls debuted:

[john_hung]

maybe they can't afford to get dvd packaging because they spent all the budget on that kick-ass backdrop 

[Jul3]

^ Haha yeah, it looks so amazing. I'm so proud of these girls and this epic concert.

Some great pics are at:
http://www.girlsnews.tv/unit/150501
http://www.alice-project.biz/report?id=41

I watched the 15mins digest featuring clips of every song so many times: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=BEp25r_kJpM

Saikyo Summer sounds really good, Anna's solo line is beautiful - looking forward to hearing a full version.


I like these pics of the new Pa-Ken!, seeing these costumes again is kinda nostalgic



And the new OZ, they look so much better now they are filled out again

[john_hung]

yeah it's really awesome to see them enjoying some success - it seems like it wasn't all that long ago that they were performing at shopping malls and stuff

[shurastriker]

Alice 1st oneman literally flooded my twitter line with info and RT and photos and all that stuff... also many other idols also tweeted about it and of course by the photos looks great.

[wattstax]

Does anyone have an english description on how to visit their concerts at P.A.R.M.S and Cheki-events? Google Translate isn't helpful (as expected).

[Jul3]

Does anyone have an english description on how to visit their concerts at P.A.R.M.S and Cheki-events? Google Translate isn't helpful (as expected).

Official website is at alice-project.biz/parms

English translation is at http://www.jpop-idols.com/en/alice-project-concert-guide/

Any other questions, shoot me a PM, I'd be more than happy to help 

The main thing is just knowing where the venue is, so look at the map, and knowing when the start times for the shows are, which is says on both sites above, there are two shows on weekdays and three at weekends. You can buy tickets on the door so that shouldn't be a problem.
 
As per chekis, they are held after each show - if you look at the timetables above, there is about half and hour to an hour allocated to buppan/goods sales. These are the 2-shots/chekis. 1000 yen for a normal size, 2000 yen for a wide one which is also signed. Sometimes after 2-shots, they then open it up to group photos and also you can choose whatever members you like in combination.

Before the first show, they normally do some kind of chekis/handshakes too. Normally just chekis, but not with all members, just a few groups, but sometimes also goods sales - for this, all the groups line up in rows, and if you buy a CD/tshirt/whatever, you get to handshake an entire row.

[Jul3]

All of Armor Girls are now also joining sub-units:

Hinako → Cherry Blossom
Miu → Prism
Misa → White☆Milk
Jun, Manami → Pureful

Also, a couple of members of OZ are also joining sub-units:

Ayaka → Prism
Aina → White☆Milk

[Jul3]

The two new songs debuted at Zepp Tokyo:

Kamen Joshi - Alice In Underground



Alice Juban - Saikyo☆Summer




Also realised I hadn't checked out this new song from a few weeks ago:

Kamen Joshi - Love Is All



For this song the centre was determined through number of downloads of solo versions of the song. Mori Kanon won.

This is the "all members at once solo version" - the vid description lists the members in order of which they appear.



Vids of the debut performance: