Within 3 days after BeForU rebands, it seems that many fans have been voicing their discontent about the new band.
Apparently the Avex doesn’t realise that you have to INFORM known fans before cobbling together something new under a known brand name.
BeForU started out as a 4 member vocal unit in Konami, under the directions of Naoki Maeda. They released a few works and showcased Noria Shiraishi and Riyu Kosaka’s voice talents. Shiyuna Maehara eventually left the group as she was not given any solo pieces.
After that, Naoki set out to audition for 2 new girls to form a band of 5, but however 2 girls drew for the 2nd place in the auditions, thus the member count became 6. The new girls, Risa Sotohana, Sayaka Minami and Miharu Arisawa, became known as NEXT.
They released their 2nd album on 14/2/2006 on Valentine’s day, entitled BeForU II. Eventually in August, the girls signed on over to Avex and debuted in the album Red Rocket Rising (with a Noria bag-raid off-shot clip special) in November. The limited edition Get Set Go!! ~Astronauts Set~ achieved a sell-out in January 2007 after being released for 2 months.
On March 14 2007, on White Day in Japan, the girls released BeForU III, which has a track named “Izayoi” showcasing Yoma Komatsu’s voice talent and 7 new tracks. The album was subjected to criticism for shifting towards heavier tracks by foreign fans. However, it was a success, and pirates made it available through torrents in just a few short days.
In July 2007, the band released Yo Hanabi with 2 new tracks, Yo Hanabi and Moon Bike. It is apparent that young Risa Sotohana has a huge potential for music/song writing as she wrote the lyrics for Moon Bike, and previously in other albums, Hosoi Kusari, Matenrou, and Near me.
The band soon came to a close on December 12 as it is announced that Yoma, the leader of the band will be leaving for personal reasons and Miharu has retired due to ill-health. The band performed their last gig as BeForU Orimen + Next on 30 December.
In Febuary 2008, the band reopens with new members, however is subjected to harsh criticism on 2ch and mixi for not informing fans beforehand about the new layout, and for introducing girls with suggestive backgrounds into the group. That is what we are going to talk about now.
Basically this whole fiasco started because BeForU is seen as a unique girlband of all sorts, firstly with a member count of 6. Secondly, for 6 and a half years, the fans have gotten too used to listening to the original voices. In my honest opinion, the 6 girls have a whole set of unique contrasting voices that meld extremely well together.
1. Noria Shiraishi is known for her super-high pitch in TEARS for DDR, as well as her ever-so-childish and politically incorrect character.
2. Sayaka Minami is known for her natural and nasal singing voice (It is interesting to note that Sayaka and Noria possess pet-like features, Noria as a kitten, Sayaka as a bunny).
3. Miharu Arisawa is known for her supermodel like figure, as well as her low pitch in singing.
4. Riyu Kosaka is known as an icon for BeForU, having the most number of tracks under her name in composition, singing and lyrics.
5. Yoma Komatsu is known for being the oldest member in the band at over 30 years, serving as the team leader for the girls (I would call it a baby-sitter actually….). She also has a rather motherly voice.
6. Risa Sotohana is the youngest and is shown to have significant amount of talent. In the first live, she composed and lyricised the rock ballad Matenrou.
I speculate the interesting makeup of the original band members’ characteristics is what contributes to the initial success. There are 3 sets of character contrasts, namely
1. Noria x Sayaka
Noria and Sayaka seems to have rather contrasting characters, akin to Noria’s sunny spirit and Sayaka’s ice-princess attitude. With Sayaka’s buckteeth, she can also be seen as a cute mouse, and with Noria as the kitten, they form a somehow an interesting yet funny anachronistic relationship (one can also look at it in a way which Sayaka is the bunny and Noria is a wildcat which hunts leproids for subsistence). Sayaka is more reserved and private, while Noria is more outgoing and open. This contrast somehow forms some sort of comedy in which they have to overcome their stark differences and work together.
2. Miharu x Riyu
I find it very hard to find contrast between the 2 girls, but there is one to note. Miharu is popular for having an excellent figure, and Riyu is popular (in terms of looks) for her petite and cute size. Despite their similarities of being born in the same year and being the more attractive in the band, they are different in terms of musical talent, in which Riyu has more. However, Riyu does not have the “hot-girl” characteristics Miharu possesses, and thus the contrast. By right both of them should be jealous of each other, but however they are able to form a strong working friendship with each other.
3. Yoma x Risa
This should be quite straightforward, the oldest and youngest members in the band. However you can also note that when Risa puts on spectacles, she looks alot like Yoma. IMO, Yoma’s “We will do our best and see how” attitude contrasts to Risa’s “Work hard and do your best in everything in life” attitude. Experience also contrasts well with inexperience, thus it somehow forms a elder-younger-sister relationship between both of them. I speculate that Risa gives Yoma the least trouble by being diligent, or maybe the most with her supposedly dense and dreamy character.
I guess there are lots of other factors that made the fans like BeForU OriNEXT (Orimen+ NEXT), but these are the points that made me like them so much and rather unwilling to accept the new version.
Seriously I am disgusted by the fact that the new members come from suggestive and questionable backgrounds, and no actual auditions are held, and NOT A SINGLE BLOODY EFFORT was put in to bring the old members back. This goes to show that whoever is behind this is only interested in money being made. To whoever is behind this, I would like to tell him/her/them in his/her/their face that, BUILDING A FANBASE IS NOT EASY. One can’t just capitalise on something by changing stuff indiscriminately, and besides it shows disrespect to the creator Naoki by doing so. If you are going to say this is how the world works, let me ask you, if everyone else is a jerk, does it mean that you have to be one?
However, as a critic, I would like to call out to all BeForU fans out there, especially in Japan, to calm down and give the new members a chance to prove themselves before passing judgement. It is true that the name has been defiled, but what is done has been done. The only 2 things we should hope for is that the name of this band will ultimately be changed, and that the girls show equal or greater musical talent to rival the OriNEXT.
Give them a chance I say, for the sake of love, hope and peace.
I hope these few thousand words won’t come to waste and someone will bother to even read them.
And damn you whoever just did those indiscriminate things to ruin what people love originally.
I am off. Nights.
