A crazy old woman

“We don’t know if it’ll suit us or not—first of all, let’s get our hands on it all. ‘Excess’ makes right—keeping that in mind, let’s attack!”

OR: Be greedy and reckless when you dream, it’s honestly okay.

“Since antiquity, it has not changed—the dream called “Peace” has not changed. The time has come!”

OR: The original Fudanjuku “revolution” single.

From Kamen Joshi Idol to Tokyo Politician

“It’s ‘cause I like you lots—it’s because I love you that I can’t give up this dream. Farewell, my friend—even when you feel like losing heart, remember those days when we shed our sweat together.”

OR: Fudanjuku grad songs are great.

I haven’t kept up with the dansou side of idols so I’m super late to the party, sorry.

I wiki’ed it quickly but just to make sure I understood:

-Fudanjuku, Hoopers, and Axell were all formed under the same agency, Kay Dash Entertainment, and produced “in collaboration” with hanawa (Fudanjuku’s OG producer-songwriter)-All three were under different labels: Hoopers=Universal Sigma, Fudanjuku=Teichiku Entertainment, Axell=TMS Music-The Hoopers also had Little Hoops who were basically trainees a la H!P Kenshuusei who were trained by Kay Dash in hopes of a potential debut and performed live covers of Fudanjuku/Hoops songs occasionally-The Hoopers retired-Axell (which was technically a “handsome girl” unit rather than a “dansou” one but cross-promoted with the Hoopers) also retired-Fudanjuku is still active-The two “retired groups” get restructured (the remaining Little Hoops members get added to either group and everyone gets name changes?)-The restructured groups are now called Ael (ex-Hoopers) and EUPHORIA (ex-Axell)-On March 1 dreamboat got announced as the “world’s one-and-only dansou unit belonging to the 3 groups Fudanjuku, Ael, and Euphoria”-They’re now all on the same label (Teichiku Entertainment)-General producer is officially hanawa-Their site introduces the members according to their 3 groups and Fudanjuku is set to release a single in June so this looks like an e-girls concept where they promote/perform jointly but retain their core identities?-Group concepts are “energetic performers and innovative pioneers” (Fudanjuku), “Air and sky theme/pouring All their Eternal Love into this” (Ael), “a group that’ll envelop you in happiness” (Euphoria)

Let me know if I misunderstood anything! Based on the above, I think it’s great the groups were allowed to re-form, although the name changes might be confusing to casual fans. (I also think Ael is the cutest name ever, like “We know our group got dissolved but we came back so we could (aeru) see you again, guys!”)

As a Fudanjuku fan I’d say this probably helps them rather than hurts them since they’re pretty obviously getting top billing and literally no changes, and if there’s one thing life as an H!P/48G fan has taught me it’s that “flagship” groups are (for better or worse) always protected by the agency as being too big to fail.

Consolidation might have been done for unfortunate reasons (label drops/struggling sales/management-talent issues) but being under one giant ‘dansou’ umbrella can help secure bookings, pool together general “promotion” money, and coordinate release schedules so they don’t cannibalize each others’ sales (if they ever did, which…I assume so? Dansou is pretty niche). Supergroups are still THE thing for the idol industry, plus being on the same label will probably make subunits/subgroups easier if they ever want to do that down the line.

Names taken from the official dreamBoat site

Btw “ael” is partly a pun on 会える , to be able to meet