Welcome to The Avocado’s weekly discussion of Japanese pop culture! I promise I held back for as long as possible…but today is the &TEAM header. If the last few weeks are any indication, I suspect it won’t be the last. Because the inevitable has finally happened. I have accepted a J-Pop idol group into my heart. It’s been a kind of funny journey, but I can actually tell you the exact moment I was hooked. There I was, just watching the new CDTV episode with my husband. A day like any other. And we’re talking about all the groups, nothing special. Until “Go in Blind” happened (the video is from a different performance but it gives the same idea):
I remember saying “oh that’s a neat trick, because ‘Go in Blind’, cute” and the rest is history. The next day I was already making gifs and looking up their other songs. First thing that stood out to me was that I actually already had two of their songs in my library. Because &TEAM is responsible for the Honey Lemon Soda OP/ED songs, which happen to be my favorite of the year so far! Guess it was always meant to be. 💖
Anyway, who are &TEAM? To keep a complicated thing really simple, they were formed through two competition/audition shows, they debuted in 2022, they’re based in Japan and Korea, their main concepts are “wolf pack” and “9 diverse members forming a team and connecting diverse worlds”1 and their goal is to be known around the world. Looking at the picture in the header (left to right), this is &TEAM 🐺 Maki, Yuma, Harua, Jo, EJ (leader), K (performance leader), Taki, Nicholas, and Fuma (sub leader). I’m new to all of this, and picking favorites has been difficult. I’m not ready to commit! But also, I just think they’re fun together. They each bring a fun, cool energy to their performances. They all have interesting voices with their own sound, and all of them bring their own vibe to the choreography.2 Anyway, I think their album that came out in December, Yukiakara 「雪明かり」, is pretty perfect, so check it out if you’re looking for some solid J-Pop. Here’s one song (so hard to choose):
I probably would have stopped at just liking their music if I hadn’t also watched a couple of these travel guide videos they’re making. Basically, they’re going around Tokyo putting together little travel guides for different neighborhoods, so they’re eating at all these great places and walking around Tokyo and that’s probably the fastest way to make me love something. So yeah, I’m hooked and looking forward to the journey!
Ah, wait! I almost forget the most important part! Their fans are called LUNÉ. So that’s me now. 🌙
And, as always…
What have you been watching/reading/playing/eating/listening to lately?
Happy Wednesday! 🌸