So. Sexy Zone.

Hello, it's been a hot minute eh? 

I know I was never very active on this blog, but a lot has happened since I made it in 2013 to now. It's been a decade. This blog was a continuation from my vox (yeah, remember that?), but I remember hoping that I could use it as my main fangirl space, but then I just got looped into tumblr and never really left. I would like to come back here though because tumblr has kind of died as a fandom space and no matter what, I will never really jump onto the twitter or discord train. 

Ten years ago I was still in undergrad. Ten years ago Arashi was still going strong. Ten years ago a group called Sexy Zone had just entered their second year. 

Yeah. Sexy Zone. It's funny. I remember when Sexy Zone was formed. I'm the same age as Kento so I remember being horrified. If you had asked me back then if you ever thought I would be a fan of the group, I would've laughed in your face so hard. Well, guess who is laughing now. 

The astute observer may have noticed, I actually translated two SZ songs in 2019. But truth be told, they first entered my radar in 2016 when they guested on VSA, and then Shiyagare and Yakai, and then partnered with Arashi for WWG in 2017 and 2018. Right off the bat, I was immediately charmed by Nakajima Sexy Kento (thanks Nino). Their songs were still a bit too cutesy though and they were clearly still barely getting their grip in the industry so there wasn't much to follow. The impetus for 2019 though was the #sexylawsuit trend on twitter, when fans of a certain kpop group tried to throw Kenty under the bus for "plagarising". From there I learned about "Because of Ai", I stumbled across Kenty's Mission:K solo con (which I LOVE) and absolutely fell in love with SZ's PAGES and XYZ=Repainting albums, and then I watched Sexy Zone Channel and I was basically gone. 

Well I would have been, but in 2019 I remember thinking I would wait until So-chan came back to properly stan them. But then COVID happened, and Arashi's actual hiatus came around and so when So-chan actually came back I was preoccupied. And then Marius went on hiatus, and I was like "oh, well I'll just wait until he comes back" - also because I had thought Marius would be back quickly (oh the irony...). But he clearly didn't come back quickly. And after Arashi's hiatus I basically dipped out of Johnny's fandom for a very long time until Summer 2022.

That's when Sexy Zone released "The Highlight". Thanks to Fuma being part of Janino Channel, and the fact that I realize Marius had been gone for about as long as So-chan, and I had no Arashi to focus on, I latched onto Sexy Zone like a person seeking water in a dessert. It helped that "The Highlight" is an absolute banger of an album. So yeah, jumped back on the train and this is my new ride or die Johnny's group. 

I guess I have just have a thing for 5 people groups (Sexy Zone will always, always, be five people). 

Even if my entire twitter was getting into Naniwa Danshi, and Snowman and Michi and whatever. I took a hard left turn into Sexy Zone and I'm not leaving. 

So. 

This long post is really just to say - please be prepared for a slew of Sexy Zone related translations to be shared on this blog. I've already shared a few subs on the sexy_zone LJ group, but I didn't really know where to share magazine/song translations and then I remembered this place! So please stay tuned :)