Retrospect

From Flower.SMEJ, it seems like “Cinderella Fit†will be the new single with EG Energy as the coupling song. To be released on 24th July.

Love the song too, feels very summer to me

Short version of AKANE released https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zbDWcB6w04

I love this song too! Btw I think there is going to be a MV for this song if the info is true. SS is going to release their 13th single in May. http://www.generasia.com/wiki/Akane_/_Awa_Awa

Hmmm not sure if I got it wrong but Ami's going to release another single on 19th October? EDIT: Sorry but should be old news by now

The camera angle for this made me appreciate the dance as a whole much more. The "domino effect" was very on point and polished and the spin @ 52 sec was the highlight for me.

I think E-girls should include more rap in their songs. It really distinguish their songs from being "idolish". I find that Karen voice is pretty suitable for rapping. Can't wait to see what concept/theme they will use in the upcoming MV.

Well, upon listening to the full song I don't find it outstanding too but I will just buy the physical album to support Ami. And I am confused about why are you quoting DrkSpphrGT and I when we are not the ones who said she sounded like Nishino Kana.

Just worried about the vulnerability of the core groups. LDH won't be scrapping the E-girls project any time soon so my post was just a what if By the way, a short sample (http://ami-ldh.jp/disco.php) of Ami's upcoming single is being released today. Sounds good so far but will need to listen to the full song to fully appreciate it

This is what I find very disturbing about the casual general public's knowledge of E-girls. To be honest, can we blame them? Some people suggested that E-girls was conceptualized to save Dream's dying career but have it helped so far? Ask the general public who Ami and Shizuka are and most likely they can point out, since both of them are always at the forefront of recent E-girl's MV. Ask them the same question with Erie and Aya (Leader of E-girls) and majority won't be able to. Will the casuals know Ami and Shizuka are from Dream? May be but most probably not. Even the media in Japan have put emphasis on Ami being an E-girls member rather than a Dream member. The recent Nikkei female idol ranking is one good example. Right now, we can safely assume that E-girls is bigger than the core groups with Flower an exception (maybe?) since they are signed to SMJ who is heavily promoting them. Most people don't even know E-girls are formed by 3 existing girl groups. Instead they thought that E-girls are a vocal dance unit much like the 48G system. LDH have done a good job with the idea of promoting them together as a collective unit but sadly they did a pretty half a** job with promoting each members and the individual groups they represent. Yes, they do introduced the groups individually in some of the MVs (We Are Venus & GNKY) but that's never enough to get people interested since Japan entertainment is so competitive. It doesn't help by the fact that Japanese varieties and contents are not made readily for casual fans unlike Kpop. The thing I'm really concern about is which of the 3 core groups can survive in the industry in the long run if one day LDH decides to scrap the E-girls project.

Ops.. was drafting and didn't saw Mandilinn's post I some how feels that LDH is playing it too safe and refuses to experiment with the concept and lineup of the various group of E-girls. To me, Dream is suffering an identity crisis now. The members are more popular for their solo activities rather than their group activities and I don't know what HIRO is trying to do with them at the moment. Happiness is a big waste because they have popular members and the best dancers among the 3 active groups but LDH have to stick with someone (Karen) who is neither a decent singer nor a good dancer to front the group. Happiness may have the best dancers but they are also the weakest in vocals among the 3 groups. Flower is still the most stable among the 3. They have a stable but predictable concept and it's all about visuals. They have the prettiest members among the 3 groups coupled with great songs. Regarding NATE's comments about Reina's voice. I'm a bit confused about her vocals because her voice are very different when you listen to a Flower song and an E-girls song. I like her vocals in Flower's song but her vocal in E-girls songs are decent at best. I love E-girls but the lineup for their last 2 singles screams "visually pleasing girls" in my face. I know E-girls is not an idol group but from the way things are going, it won't be long before they are going to be termed an "idol group who can really dance". The real problem though, is still the crisis plaguing 2 of the 3 main groups that formed the core of E-girls. No offence to any one out there but these are my genuine opinion AND concern but I might be wrong too

It's 11th May here so... Happy Birthday Ami!!

Looking forward to wishing her a happy 27th birthday and the official opening of her website tomorrow

We got trolled by Dream lol jpopasia also picked up the news http://www.jpopasia.com/news/e-girls-member-ami-to-make-solo-debut-this-summer::18004.html E-girls member Ami has announced that she will be making her solo debut over the summer. Ami's announcement occurred on April 29 during E-girls' final concert at the Saitama Super Arena. During the concert, a screen on stage stated that Ami would be making a solo debut this summer. The audience of 24,000 screamed with excitement over the announcement. Details about the singer's upcoming solo debut have not been announced. The solo debut's title and release date will be released at a later time. Ami has been a member of Dream since 2002. The singer stated that she wants to challenge herself with something new after 14 years. Now I'm really looking forward to it

I seriously hope it is not going to be a cutesy song. I get it that she is the embodiment of cuteness/energy in e-girls but that was a group project and how they are marketed. As for a solo single, it's a totally different ball game. She's 27 this year and I can't imagine her singing a cutesy song solo I doubt Dream will disband any time soon (can't imagine the hate Ami will get). I'm curious because there were mention of Dream having a new single, was the mentioned single this or it is 2 separate singles altogether

Cool, now it makes sense to me tks!

Is Ami holding a pocket watch at the end? I wonder if there's anything more to that scene... I noticed this MV might be recorded on TV and uploaded to jpopsuki so there MIGHT still be a chance of a seifuku dance

This is my understanding of the game (correct me if I'm wrong) The game show Ami was in is about survival. Think hide and seek AND catching. The catchers in this game show are called hunters and they really can run. Some episodes I watched have an opening event that contestants (celebrities) participate to decide how far are the hunter's starting point or the initial amount of hunters hunting them. Every one starts with 0 yen and with every second you are not caught (touched by a hunter) you gain 200 yen. I wish to emphasize that every one is on their own in this game. Contestants do cooperate to fulfill mission(s) which will benefit them as a whole (I will get to this later). There is a time frame for the whole session and if you managed to stay undetected throughout the whole session, you win the prize money which snowballed. There are some episodes which allows you to surrender like in Ami's episode. Getting touched by a hunter will land you in "prison" or what ever they call it and all the money you accumulated will be forfeited which means you win 0 yen. There are episodes when missions are announced half way through the session that allows a certain number of captive to be revived if it was successfully completed and they can join back the game (I'm not 100% sure if the prize money for these people are the same as the surviving ones). As the game progesses, events will occur which increases the odds of contestants being spotted (whistle-blowers, spies...) There are many types of mission in this game show. Like completing missions to prevent more hunters from being released to hunt you. Missions to revive fellow contestants. So like I mentioned previously, if there was no active mission to revive fellow contestants then I don't think Ami have done any thing wrong. When she surrendered, I remember it was less than 20 mins so it's highly unlikely a revival mission will be announced. If she was the only survivor in the game, imagine the odds of her getting captured since every hunter is looking for her. As for ignoring missions, I have not watched the episodes so I cannot comment. The area of play for this game is huge. It have been played in parks, theme parks, huge shopping centers. Most contestants don't believe in participating in missions for the sake of participating. Unless they are very near to the mission point when the announcement was made, they will usually ignore and assume some one else will participate in it. If Ami wasn't near any mission key points when the announcement was made, it doesn't make sense for her to be a hero and participate and risk getting caught right? If she was near by but choose to ignore it then I would say she is a bit selfish but I would still respect her decision since this is a game and every one made their own choices. Sorry for the longggggggggg explanation but I felt it was important to explain the game rules to a certain extend to let people better judge if Ami have done any thing wrong. For me, she have done no wrong in surrendering. As for people claiming she was selfish in not participating in mission and sacrificing fellow contestants, I think we need to have more info or to watch the whole episode in question to better judge.

Doubt those who are harsh are genuine fans. They sounded more like haters to me. She does have immense support in her instagram though so I felt comforted by it.

Hi guys, newbie here The game show Ami appeared in was called Run for Money in my country. I have watched a few episodes so I roughly get the idea of the show. It is a survival game show where by the longer you survive the more money you accumulate. If I remember correctly, it's 200 yen a second. Getting caught by a hunter will forfeit all your money accumulated and lands you in "prison". The surviving players are always notified via a issued device whenever some one gets captured or there's an incoming event/mission. There are some episodes where the surviving players can perform missions (with limited time) to revive a certain number of captured players but such event usually only occur half way through the game. If such an event wasn't active during the episode Ami was in, then her surrendering doesn't affect any of the captured players at all. She merely prematurely ended the whole session. The only downside is that it makes the show boring as dtt_Jenny highlighted. As for performing mission, some mission requires players to head to a venue to perform task. If a certain player is too far away from the stated venue, usually they will ignore and assume some one nearer to the venue will perform the task. I'm not sure if Ami was near any mission point but choose to ignore it or she was too far to do the task logically. As for sacrificing, it's part of the game. I have seen contestant sacrificing fatter contestant to get captured by hunter lol. I'm quite interested to know what exactly happened because the japanese fandom have a bad history of blowing things out of proportion some times.