Episode 94: A.B.C-Z paved the way feat. Kelly
Third time guest Kelly is back to talk A.B.C-Z, the greatest idol group of all time ever.
We dive into some A.B.C-Z lore, talk about the excellent J’s Journey in which A.B.C-Z go to Australia, and ジャニオタ it out for a couple of hours.
Some of the topics mentioned are:
Temples are burning in Japan.
Are M!LK reheating some A.B.C-Z nachos? Did someone say sparkly member costumes?
A.B.C-Z’s music is now available on streaming platforms but when they first debuted, we couldn’t even get a CD of their songs. Eventually they started including CDs in their DVD releases and then finally released a full album and then started with the CD singles with “Moonlight Walker” (what’s your name?).
I should probably chart out the relationships at some point but the TL;DR is that Sexy Zone (now timelesz and check out their new single and album!) was grouped together with A.B.C-Z early in both of their careers. Hasshi (A.B.C-Z) is about the same age as Kenty (now ex-Sexy Zone), Fuma, and Shori (both Sexy Zone now timelesz); before debut A.B.C-Z and Kis-My-Ft2 were often grouped together because the older members of A.B.C-Z and Kis-My-Ft2 were all the same age cohort and had come up together as Johnny’s Juniors. Fans called them Ebi-Kisu and before A.B.C-Z were given the camp and sparkly stage show atheistic at debut, they also did “cool” songs like Kis-My-Ft2.
Ride on Time on Netflix, season 5, episodes 9 and 10 feature A.B.C-Z.
Tottsu shaved his head the first time because he was thinking of quitting. The second time was for a movie he was doing called The Emperor in August. That is why his hair is so short in “Space Travelers,” which you should watch now because they did this all in one take. Not just one shot—which it is—but one take. They did one take of this one shot video, nailed it, and peaced out because A.B.C-Z are that good.
Rinko-san Wants to Tryis on Tubi.
I remember Teranishi (now of timelesz) from his Junior days, specifically from Shori’s drama 49, which was bonkers.
Hasshi’s vertical drama, Fall In Love Young Master, appears to have been shot at Castle Lockhart, the over-the-top Scottish castle brought to Japan during the bubble era and where A.BC-Z’s video for “Never My Love” was shot.
Love Tune left Johnny’s & Associates and became 7Order.
Impactors left Johnny’s & Associates and joined Takizawa’s TOBE as IMP. Miyake Ken (V6) also joined TOBE—and has released a few things.
The NYC boys were Yamada and Chinen (both of Hey!Say!JUMP) and then Nakayama Yuma.
Maeda Taisho was the timelesz contestant I liked. He is still performing!
Goseki is funny.
We touch on the BBC documentary which I’ve written a lot about—read here and here.
Matchy has some early 1980s bangers, now streaming!
Johnny's Festival ~Thank you 2021 Hello 2022~ was THE BEST! I love it.
Tottsu had a tour! And he has a video!
The “this sounds like an A.B.C-Z song (derogatory)” scandal was SixTones’s Kyomoto caught out.
Where to start with A.B.C-Z?
We both agreed that “Going with Zephyr” is a good album to start with—now available on Spotify!
The tracklist below is also a good place to start but along with that we also reccommend watching their videos because A.B.C-Z is a performance group at heart and their videos are always well thought out and unique. Some favorites include “Cheat Time”, “Game Over,” “Bou! Nen! Kai!” features many of their reoccuring characters to include Kabuki Taro, “Jigsaw,” “Graceful Runner,” and “Just Romantic!”
The songs played are:
“Za ABC Five Stars” by A.B.C-Z (Official PV; Audio)
“Smiling Again” by A.B.C-Z (Audio)
“TAP” by A.B.C-Z (Official PV; Audio)
“Cocktail” by A.B.C-Z (Official PV; Audio)
“Crush On You” by A.B.C-Z (Official PV; Audio)
“Now” by Paramour
“気にせずGo My Way” by Tsuka-Rika (live)
“Happy Happy Happiness” by A.B.C-Z (Audio)
“Rock With U” by A.B.C-Z (Official PV; Audio) The video for this one is really cool—A.B.C-Z face off against themselves and you can see them performing old and new choreographies if you pay attention.
“Maji Magic” by A.B.C-Z (Official PV; Audio)
“Mr. Dazzling” by A.B.C-Z (Audio)
“Hanakotoba” by A.B.C-Z (Official PV; Audio) This is the one where Tsuka-chan plays the janitor.
“Summer上々” by A.B.C-Z (Audio)