*This is a post I first shared on JPop Amino but I felt like posting it here too!*
EBiDAN is my all time favorite group of artists! It's actually a dance and acting school for boys under Stardust but grew bigger and bigger and is now known for a handful of great groups. Today I want to tell you 10 reasons why I love EBiDAN so much and maybe if you never heard of them you might get interested!
I didn't intent to write so much but yeah... it's actually quite a lot I wrote!
#01 EBiDAN the Street
EBiDAN the Street is a project of EBiDAN that focuses on groups that mostly do street performances. I personally only know about two. Satori Shonen Dan, which I think are the most well known (and in my opinion most talented) and Edamame Beans! EBiSSH (former known as Monochrome Rainbow) have been a group under this project before as well but they got their own little project and are not under this project anymore!
#02 awesome musicians
What I love a lot is that EBiDAN has a handful of awesome musicians under them! And with this I don't mean the vocalists but all the awesome guys who play an instrument! When it comes to playing instruments I always liked CustomiZ the most, sadly they already disbanded but at least their drummer Daichi is now a member of DISH//! However I hope to be able to watch Hiroki performing on stage someday again! I always loved how his whole appearance changed as soon as he started playing the bass! That is one giftet bassist! But Daichi is an incredible drummer as well and coming to DISH// I really like the guitar playing of Takumi and Masaki as well and even thought not as good as Hiroki I also love Ryuji as a bassist! Besides them SakuraShimeji members Hyouga and Gaku are really good with playing the guitar as well! I hope with more groups coming there will be more who play an instrument!
#03 variety in music
When it comes to the EBiDAN groups and bands you will find they all have a different style! DISH// who have a rock sound to them, Chotokkyu with their electronic influences, Magic Boyz who doing Hip Hop music, Starmen Kids with their very childish pop, PrizmaX who are very much influenced by western pop, Super☆Dragon who create a mix of EDM and rock, M!LK who mostly produce very fun and energetic pop and last but not least SakuraShimeji with their very sweet and pure jpop!
#04 awesome vocalists
Watching as many lives of them as I can I know that some of them have stunning voices! My favorite being Tsuyoshi of Super☆Dragon because he has a very outstanding voice and I enjoy listening to him a lot! But when it comes to Super☆Dragon I also appreciate the voices of Koki, Hyoma and Tomoya a lot and Jean is a great rapper! After Tsuyoshi my second favorite vocalist of EBiDAN is Takumi, his voice is incredible, very powerful and extremely nice to the ears and it's one you easily recognize! Thought Masaki has a nice voice too and again I really appreciate the rap of Ryuji and To-i! PrizmaXs Win and Tim have very beautiful and strong voices as well! I saw them live once and they blew me away with their great voices! And then they have Daiki who is my favorite rapper of all the EBiDAN members! Then there are Takashi and Koichi of Chotokkyu who have super beautiful voices too! I prefer Koichi a little over Takashi but they both have very beautiful voices! When it comes to M!LK I really like the voices of Jinto and Sano thought they still can improve! To be honest I am not a big fan of Harukis voice! It's a little to high for my taste! Another great vocalist of EBiDAN is Eiku of Satori Shonen Dan! His voice is super beautiful, he still needs more training but there is SO much potential in him! Sakura Shimejis Gaku and Hyouga have very nice and soothing voices as well! At least I want to mention Mahiro of Magic Boyz. Even thought I am not the biggest MagiBo fan I can't deny that I really appreciate his voice! He is definitely the best rapper in this group and the one I see the most potential in! About all the other vocalist they need more training but I am sure they will get better with time!
#05 EBiDAN songs
Despite that of course each group has their own songs, there are a few songs that are sang by all of them together! They are like the theme songs for EBiDAN! They mostly sing these song at the "EBiDAN the Live" events. My favorite of these songs is "Koigokoro" but all of them are extremely beautiful! The other songs are "Believe Yourself", "Sparkling Adventure" and "Koi no Ding Dong". I often get emotional watching them all performing together because even thought they all have a big age gap, their popularity is very different and the music is so different they are like a huge family supporting each other and getting along really well!
#06 the Trainees
Ok Trainees are nothing special when it comes to Japanese music but what I really like about the Trainees of EBiDAN is that you can find them all over Japan! There is not only a Tokyo and maybe Osaka trainee group but also one of Okinawa, Sendai, Nagoya and Fukuoka! All of these Trainees have activities in their surrounding and even small events hold just for them! They get dance and vocal lessons and have their own merchandise. What I also like about the Trainees is that they not only have an own blog but also their own twitter and instagram account not to forget the website "EBiDAN.jp" on which you can find all the important news about them!
Besides all that what I love the most about the trainees of EBiDAN is that they have not only their own live events but also their own tv show! The first one was called just EBiDAN and after that EBiDAN Amigo started to air and is still ongoing! There was a show called EBiDAN Bomba but it didn't last long and their is a show on YouTube that is called EBiDAN station but it's not released regular! However these shows mostly focus on the trainees means you can really get to know and like them before they eventually have a debut! That's an awesome thing I love and the reason I like the members of M!LK, Magic Boyz, Super☆Dragon, Sakura Shimeji, Starman Kids and ZeeBra Star a lot!! I got to know all of them before their debut I liked some of them a lot when they were still trainees!
#07 Stardust Channel
As an EBiDAN fan living outside of Japan you might think it's hard to find all the shows and lives they did online but it's actually not because there is the Stardust Channel! This is a website you can creat an account on even when living outside of Japan!! It costs 400 yen a month and you need a credit card but it's really not much for the content you get! You can watch many of their lives including the "EBiDAN the Live 2016", full concerts of some groups, all the shows they release and special content! It's really amazing and I love that it's available for us international fans as well!
If you have interests in joining I did a post on that on my blog, klick here to go there! I absolutely recommend it if you love EBiDAN!!
#08 their promotions
EBiDAN was able to get quite big in such a short time because of their great promotions! Besides having various shows that air on tv, and them appearing on various other variety shows, they also held events and concerts regular and their groups attend other big events!
They have an own magazine which only focuses on them and are regular featured in magazines like JUNON and Backstage Pass!
They have temporary fan cafes (I went to an chotokkyu one this year, see picture above, and loved it) and do quite a lot of free lives, especially the newer groups!
Besides that they are cooperating with HMV and therefore have their own EBiDAN space at every HMV store in Japan, which gives them more of a spotlight! But even in other stores like Tower Records or Tsutaya you will most eventually find at least a small EBiDAN corner!
(At Tower Records Shibuya)
#09 their concerts/lives
(From Time Limit Museum 1.1.2017 of DISH//)
I own most of their concert DVDs and love all of them! They always do a great show and include something special in their concerts! For e.g. DISH// always do a special challenge and show the results at the concerts e.g. for the Time Limit Museum their challenge was to master playing the Shamisen (a tradition Japanese instrument). They honestly did so well with that! I was super excited listening them playing it while wearing beautiful traditional clothes! Chotokkyu's concerts are very fun too because in general these boys have a lot of fun at stage and their songs are fun but what I love about them is that they focus so much on the dancing! I mean they are said to have 5 main dancer and two back vocalists so it's obvious that they focus on their dancing a lot! However seeing their concerts is much better then you might think! Their dancing is very powerful and outstanding and I always enjoy their performances to the fullest!
I also love the simplicity of Sakura Shimejis lives and the cute lives of M!LK! Super☆Dragon on the other hand has a very strong badass image and that's what their performances always feel like! I was lucky enough to see them live for real and I enjoyed those three songs they performed SO much! Their dancing feels powerful and the vocals of Tsuyoshi made me melt!
Same goes for the vocals of Win and Tim of PrizmaX! A dream came true when I saw them live and they are really adorable! Win is such a flirty guy what made the performance even more fun to watch and the others were awesome too! Always kind of outstanding for me is Tsubasa who is really dorky and super lovely!
All in one I would always recommend watching a live of them! All of the EBiDAN groups are wonderful live!!!!!
#10 The groups
Best for last, the groups! To be honest each group is already one reason to love EBiDAN but that would have been to easy so I decided put them all together under one point! I can honestly say that I like all the groups under EBiDAN thought there is some I like more and some less! For example my least favorite group is MAGiC BOYZ and my all time favorite is DISH//! But In general they are all incredible and I enjoy everything of them, may it be their music, lives, tv shows or anything else I can find of them!
Does any of you like EBiDAN? What are your reasons for liking them? If you didn't know EBiDAN are you interested now?
