Sunday, 17 January 2016

Kanjani8



It is a Japanese boy band from Japan’s Kansai region. They’re all originally from Osaka. It is a special town for them, to which they dedicated many of their songs, like: Osaka Rainy blues, Osaka Obachan Rock, Osaka romanesque or Sukiyanen Osaka.
They were put together into a group by multimedia talent agency Johnny&Associates in 2002. At the beginning there were 8 of them, but Hiroki Uchi was suspended in 2005 for breaking the rules (apparently, he was caught drinking in a club, which was forbidden), and later on the president of J&A, Johnny Kitagawa stated that he was permanently removed from the band. Since then he pursues solo career. 

K8 were signed to Imperial Records for many years, though recently, after their 10’th anniversary in 2014, they created their own record label “Infinity Records”. They claim it to be refreshing and they like their independence, because now they are the ones who decide about everything concerning their schedule and music. They are the first boy band of Johnnys&Assosiates who’ve done that. Congrats to them!


From the left: Ryo Nishikido, Subaru Shibutani, Shingo Murakami, Tadayoshi Okura, Shota Yasuda, You Yokoyama, Ryuhei Maruyama

Interesting fact: They’ve created several skits, which they were performing on almost each show. The most popular was Kanjani Sentai Eightranger, it is where they assume the roles of a real super heroes. Majority of the stories are filled with jokes and a lot of dialogue is changed on the spot. Basically, the concept is about them, the Rangers, protecting the Eight City from the Kansai Juniors’ group B.A.D. It’s a funny, yet educational concept (and a bit of a parody of Power Rangers), because they protect the world by e.g. picking up garbage in the park, and their special attack is “Mugendai” (“Infinity”). Respectively, their names are by their Ranger Color, which you may see below.

What’s even more interesting, is that they’ve made two films about their adventures of being Eightrangers, although the main theme of them is slightly darker, narrating their lives as ordinary people dealing with alcoholism, anger and personality issues, etc.


All I want to say is that they’re really important to me, and I have enormous affection for them. They were my first proper boy band, which made me like Japanese pop music. It was so bizarre at first, because I only listened to metal and rock at that time. They were always and still are crazy, positively of course. Always giving their best at the concerts, in their shows that they’re hosting, in Japanese dramas in which they are appearing. Disgustingly talented and creative, these boys.

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