(Group) Ebisu Muscats

[L4verra]

We haven't seen Ayako Yamanaka recently. So...here's a few new photos












 

[Tuffty]

I saw THAT pic of Airi Kijima on your other tumblr too and dayuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

[initial]

nice update of Yuma-chi activities 

http://www.tokyohive.com/article/2013/06/cancer-struck-asami-yuma-sends-message-to-the-stage-greeting-of-sakura-hime

[Tuffty]

Well Airi Kijima's done it. If you look at Ideapocket's August releases you'll see that she's making her debut.

[initial]

looked up her debut DVD/CD cover.
dang, not sure what to think.  Am I checking it out?  Of course, I gotta see Airi in action.
Does this mean she will have a page over at the RLD?

[Tuffty]

looked up her debut DVD/CD cover.
dang, not sure what to think.  Am I checking it out?  Of course, I gotta see Airi in action.
Does this mean she will have a page over at the RLD?

You better believe it my friend. Fairly busy in the meantime but will try to get it made tonight.

[illnerdism]

Hi all. It's probably a weird time for a new member to be jumping aboard, but I've actually been an OneMasu fan since '09 and only found out about this forum a few days ago. I wish I knew about this place while the show was still going. I know a little Japanese and I keep up with the individual member goings-on through twitter and their blogs, so I hope to contribute interesting stuff in the future. よろしくお願いします.

I found that the behind-the-scenes documentary DVD from the last concert(s) in Maihama has been ripped and posted online. This DVD was sent to people who bought both the 'Abayo' single and the Graduation Album (I think). It's a shortened "digest" version, but should whet the appetite for when the full concert DVD is released at the end of July.



I'm a little disappointed to hear about Kijima, because I feel like AV is usually a last resort for a girl when her 'normal' modeling career fails. But in her case, it seems like she was being groomed for it from the beginning. She belongs to the same agency as Kishi and Jessica, and if you looked at the agency's website, Kijima was the only non-AV girl on the roster. Until now, I guess.

[Tuffty]

Welcome aboard illnerdism! Many thanks for sharing the vid, much appreciated! Always good to have a Muscats fan come and join, no matter when. Hope you can stay around and have a laugh with us.

I get the feeling she was groomed for it too. The AV cover was posted online today but there's been no explicit pictures, when there normally would be. So the AV company knows exactly how much of a tease that is to long standing fans of Airi, whether it's through Muscats or her gravure career. Or both. Doing that means they will definately watch it, even if just out of interest.

[L4verra]

Well Airi Kijima's done it. If you look at Ideapocket's August releases you'll see that she's making her debut.

looked up her debut DVD/CD cover.
dang, not sure what to think.  Am I checking it out?  Of course, I gotta see Airi in action.
Does this mean she will have a page over at the RLD?

I'm a little disappointed to hear about Kijima, because I feel like AV is usually a last resort for a girl when her 'normal' modeling career fails. But in her case, it seems like she was being groomed for it from the beginning. She belongs to the same agency as Kishi and Jessica, and if you looked at the agency's website, Kijima was the only non-AV girl on the roster. Until now, I guess.

Before I begin, what's good illnerdism? 
You have a fave Muscat? We all do around here. Tuffty has Akiho Yoshizawa, initial has Haruka Ogura, remy_R has Rina Rukawa, and I have Mui Kuriyama and Uruha Mizuki (former Muscat).
Yeah buddy!

But I digress...about Airi Kijima...



Yeah I get it. Since she was famous around the Muscats near the end of their tenure, Ideapocket is playing around with us. Like, not even the sample video on DMM.com shows anything explicit. But there goes another gravure idol gone AV. There's nothing really wrong with that, as it's happened all the time (Yui, Uruha Mizuki, etc.). Perhaps it had to do with the influence of the agency? The same one Miss Westbrook (that's Aino Kishi for ya) and Jess Kizaki were from? That's the best bet I can come up with. Plus, I said earlier that her gravure DVDs are more risque than some stuff AV idols present. Like, Airi Kijima's DVDs are more risque than anything Rina Rukawa has made on the S1 AV label. So it's saying something that Airi Kijima would eventually go this route. Here's hoping she ends up more like Aino Kishi, Rio or Akiho Yoshizawa (gains notoriety in a good way), rather than Yui or Rina Rukawa (you can argue that they are stuck in AV because the Muscats are gone but that's a story for another day).

But because the Muscats ended, most of the girls have time to post new things. Mui has her Through Skills gig, Rina still has Mihirina.tv and she is still under S1, Ayako posted new photos, and Nanako did the same thing.



 

[illnerdism]

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys Favorite Muscat? That used to change weekly, but now that the show is over, maybe Sakamoto Rion? She's cute, and kind of goofy. It could just be that she updates her blog and her Twitter so damn much that I end up seeing her more than any other member since the show ended. And maybe the fact that she's half-Filipino pushes my bias towards her a little bit as well. But really, I love them all as a group.

I get the feeling she was groomed for it too. The AV cover was posted online today but there's been no explicit pictures, when there normally would be. So the AV company knows exactly how much of a tease that is to long standing fans of Airi, whether it's through Muscats or her gravure career. Or both. Doing that means they will definately watch it, even if just out of interest.

This actually seemed to be a common tactic during the show's run. At various times, the affiliated AV companies seemed to be pushing girls onto the show to build up exposure for their eventual AV debuts, then turn around and advertise them as 'idols' who've had TV careers when it was a calculated move all along. This certainly seemed to be the case for girls like Yuuki Makoto, Nagisa Kotomi, Minamoto Miina, etc, who showed up and disappeared after a few episodes. I think Rukawa was also being groomed for her AV debut when she first joined. About Kijima in particular, it always seemed to me that AV was in the cards due to her agency ties. Why join a talent agency that primarily represents AV actresses if you aren't going to eventually be one yourself? If she wanted gravure work, she'd be attached to an agency like 18 Promotion (which represents Shinohara Saemi, Nagasaku, Yamanaka, and Konan) or Newgate (Ando, Rika, Ena). For all we know, she could've been with IdeaPocket all along, and they were just bringing her along slowly, giving her progressively more risque work until she eventually became comfortable with the idea of doing AV?

Anyway, I know of a few post-Muscats gigs that I haven't seen mentioned here. Ando Aika is now a series regular on Okubo-san's new show, Okubo Ja Night. From what I've seen, it seems to be a lifestyle show for women. Not really my thing, but I'm happy for her



Rio also scored a gig on a late night Pachinko show, Suiyou Shinya wa PS Pachi Tomo! Iijanka!. I wanted to get into it, but pachinko is definitely not a spectator's pastime. Not even Rio could make this interesting for me. I saw an image posted here earlier featuring Kishi, Kaho, and Rio at a restaurant - that was actually taken after a taping of this show. I might give it another try when they make their appearance.



I was hoping that more of them would be able to score regular TV gigs with their OneMasu experience but that doesn't seem to be the case as of right now.

BTW, most of the members also happen to be in Hawaii right now for their 'Graduation Trip'. Kishi, unfortunately, was unable to go due to illness.

[initial]

and another Muscat makes her AV debut...
Oshikawa Yuri (didn't she change her name?)
I checked the trailer over at dmm and    (in a good way)
personally, this is the third (?) Muscat to jump from Gravure to AV?
I hope Haruka doesn't start to think, or Yamaguchi, or Kawamura, or Nanako, or...

[illnerdism]

I knew something was up when she changed her name a few months ago.

The feeling that I get is that the older girls have been in the business long enough to know how to make living out of it. It's not like the Muscats gig paid much to begin with - during the last 'Press Conference' episode, it was revealed that they each only received ¥5000 per taping (1 taping = about 4 episodes, so that comes out to about $13 per member, per episode) and only ¥5000 for each live gig. Even OgiYahagi were taken by surprise at how little they were being paid. So most of them were probably doing it for the exposure and the camaraderie. I've seen Ando and Kuriyama, in particular, mention having to work part-time jobs but I imagine that more of them doing the same thing and just not talking about it. Actually, on the latest episode of Mui's radio show that L4Verra posted, Haruka was saying that she doesn't have anything going on post-Muscats, but she lives pretty thriftily - all of her clothes are handed down, she lives with her parents, and she plays Dragon Quest X all day and never leaves the house. And I remember that Yamaguchi seemed dangerously close to doing AV when she first joined the Muscats (she was doing clothed ero videos like Kijima Airi is/was currently doing), but she actually took to her blog and said she was backing away from that sort of work.

The one I actually worry the most about is Shinohara - she's young, she lives in Tokyo by herself and judging by her blog and twitter posts, she seems pretty lonely and emotionally vulnerable. It also seems like her best friends on the Muscats are from the AV group (Nishino and Rukawa). But her talent agency seems to be good at getting their clients work, so I'm hoping things work out for her. Konan, for instance, is with the same agency and she's still working. She's actually in a new idol group called 7cm, which is made up of ex-SDN48 members.

[L4verra]

That's....tragic.

I never thought that the Muscats could live lives like this. I never thought that the show pays so little. The exposure can only help a few of them unfortunately. I already said that Acky, Rio, Westbrook, Sola, and Yuma; that's about it. I didn't know that Haruka is living with her parents and never leaves the house, and I didn't know Mui is working other jobs to keep herself stable. You'd think a J-Pop group and some gravure photoshoots would be enough (and it's probably not). And I already knew about Saemi, and how she may be a little bit emotionally unstable. I think it has to do with her father passing away at 13 because she was not allowed to be a gravure model (and she released two junior idol DVDs). But I can guess that she may consider AV if her talent agency doesn't find work for her, especially how her closest friends just so happen to be AV idols.

Wow illnerdism you seem to know your stuff Like I had no idea Rion was half-Filipina (we had a debate on if some of the Muscats were half another ethnicity; called Manami Yamaguchi and Saemi Shinohara to be half-Filipina and Rina Rukawa to be half-Latina). But yeah I like your insight on things on the Muscats board. 

Speaking of...you do know about this girl right?



This is the only Muscat (former Muscat i might add) who I am the most curious about as of now. I know about what Rina's doing, found out what Mui is up to now, but no I have no idea what Uruha Mizuki is up to. She was only on the Muscats for like, 2-3 months, and was replaced by Kijima to the point where no one really remembered her. But I did. And I'm curious as to just what the hell she is up to. Especially when both her blogs were deleted.

It bothers me...
 

[Tuffty]

Huge credit to this uploader for sharing a documentary on Yuma's cancer. Be warned, even if it's in full Japanese and I don't know what's being said, it can still make for some uncomfortable, sad viewing. But it looks like Yuma's in good spirits so we all have to be too.

[initial]

Haruka playing Dragon Quest all day?  I'm there!!!   
but serious, $15 an episode.  It's become a fact to all jpop fans at how agency's screw their talents.  I didn't know that Yamaguchi was that close to going AV.  Is it exposure?  Is it financial?  In the end, it's reality.  Most of the Muscats were closes to hitting 30 and that's a no no in the J-ent industry.    (i'm 29, until 10/28) 
but about Haruka, I was joking.  I would love to see her continue to pursue her goals.  If it's to be a mainstream idol, or find acting jobs in V-cinema, or act in real theatre releases I would always cheer her on, but that's the reality those that strive for the spotlight must face.  I should know, being a 'never produced' playwright sucks, but I continue to write.   
Looking back at the show, the videos, the performances, I begin to appreciate what EbiMasu was.  All the girls are special to me and I hope they reach some level of exposure.  yes, even if it's in AV.  (no pun intended)      

[Tuffty]

BTW, most of the members also happen to be in Hawaii right now for their 'Graduation Trip'. Kishi, unfortunately, was unable to go due to illness.

Guess that would explain this then!



Good to see Risa there too. Saw Sola along with Haruka in a pic too, but for the life of me I can't find it again.

*EDIT*

Did find this as well, Asami and Rio performing the fusion dance. Oh no wait, it's a heart.

[illnerdism]

There are a lot of good pics on Ando Aika's blog, though it looks like she mostly hung out with Aoi's DARA group - head over there if you want to see Aoi, Rika, Nagasaku, and/or Ogura. By all accounts, it looks like the girls had a blast, but it's a little sad to think that this is probably the final capper on the Ebisu Muscats and that it's the last time you'll see them all (most of them, anwyay) together.

It looks like Rion just changed her name from Sakamoto to Sawabe and is closing down her current blog. As is usual for these sorts of things, she doesn't give a reason for the name change, but mentions that she's been using the name Sakamoto Rion since she was 14. Also, Sakamoto is her actual surname, so the name change does away with using bits of her actual identity. She's already featured on the cover of the latest Shukan Taishu (I think it's a weekly tabloid for men) as Sawabe Rion. We'll see where this goes. She might be trying to make a bigger push into the mainstream as evidenced by the Shukan Taishu cover. But if she ends up opening up her new blog on Livedoor, we know what's coming next.

[Tuffty]

^ Does it involve the letters J A and V?

[L4verra]

It looks like Rion just changed her name from Sakamoto to Sawabe and is closing down her current blog. As is usual for these sorts of things, she doesn't give a reason for the name change, but mentions that she's been using the name Sakamoto Rion since she was 14. Also, Sakamoto is her actual surname, so the name change does away with using bits of her actual identity. She's already featured on the cover of the latest Shukan Taishu (I think it's a weekly tabloid for men) as Sawabe Rion. We'll see where this goes. She might be trying to make a bigger push into the mainstream as evidenced by the Shukan Taishu cover. But if she ends up opening up her new blog on Livedoor, we know what's coming next.

Ah yes...the surnames. Sometimes I wonder about who may or may not be using their real names, as we know who's obviously not (Sola Aoi, Rio [but her real name is revealed on a photo somewhere around here], Akiho Yoshizawa, Yuria Satomi, etc.) and who might be (Rion Sakamoto, Saemi Shinohara, etc.). Other than those few I honestly don't know what the real names of most of the Muscats. The most curious names out there that I'd like to find out are Rina Rukawa, Mui Kuriyama, and Aino Kishi. Maybe Mui is using her real name? I dunno...

But anyway here are some videos of the Muscat's Hawaii trip, from Sho's channel

[TeriyakiBoi]

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything here since I really have moved on from the Muscats.  However, Youtube's "related videos" have a way of bringing me to some of the Muscats' other appearances (past or recent).  Here's Rika Kawamura doing some kind of blindfolded "challenge" (and another video showing her being the recipient of said challenge as well).