Sunday 8 July 2012

Musical Gyaru

Today we're going to look at gyaru who have made a point of showcasing their love of musical chairs.

...Okay, I jest. Lame joke!

Today we're going to take a look at gyaru who have decided to dabble in music and launch a singing careers for themselves.


First up we have...

Milky Bunny ~ Tsubasa Masuwaka



To any gyaru, it definitely won't be a surprise to see Tsubasa on this list!

Tsubasa Masuwaka first debuted as a musician a few years ago with Magic to Love, a song released to coincide with the release of a perfume of the same name which Tsubasa was promoting at the time.

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Whilst some people consider Magic to Love to be her official debut, it seems as though Tsubasa didn't share that thought.

Tsubasa re-debuted under the name of Milky Bunny last year with the song Bunny Days which went to #12 on the Oricon Charts. Not too shabby for a debut single!

Milky Bunny then went on to release no shape of love, her first digital single, in which the lyrics were written by Tsubasa herself on 9th November 2011. She then followed this up by Zurui yo.../I Wish on 11th January 2012. I Wish was used as the opening to the anime of Fairy Tail.

This was followed by Milk Shake SOS on 29th February 2012 and her self-titled debut album followed on March 21st 2012.



Rina Sakurai (Sakurina)



Rina Sakurai, the popular Koakuma Ageha model, has also tried her hand in the world of music.

She first released her debut single Angel on 18th April 2008. The single failed to chart on Oricon and seemed to put an end to her short-lived singing career.

Until she re-debuted under a new name, of course.

Under the nickname Rina, she re-debuted with Gray Zone on 22nd December 2010. The song was first released digitally in 20 countries before the physical copy dropped. The single charted at #158 on Oricon's charts.



sifow



sifow, real name Shiho Fujita, was a fairly popular gyaru back in her day. Her popularity grew because of her GALRevo campaign but reached overseas with her musical debut.

After taking part in numerous collaboration albums, sifow finally debuted as a indie artist, allowing downloads from her website. After having a fairly good response, avex signed her up and released her first mini-album, & YOU REVO on 15th February 2006.

The album charted at #281 on Oricon's charts.



She then released her debut single, CLOVER which was then followed by her LOVE & PEACE single. The album CLARITY followed on 13th September 2006.

After this, she released the singles Carat, RULE and Natsu Hanabi followed by the album Love Spell. The album failed to chart on Oricon's charts.

After the release of Love Spell she announced she was going on hiatus.



Juliet



Juliet are a three member gyaru group who debuted in August 2009 with their single Natsu Love. The group is made up of gyaru who go by the names of Hami, Maiko and Yumi.

Natsu Love was their first single which peaked at #24 on the Oricon charts. The song peaked at #1 on the Recochoku Ringtone Charts.

The song was released in collaboration with the Popteen model Komori Jun.



Juliet often have a 'seasons' theme with their music and have released a song for every season! In addition they have been moderately successful and have released three albums; Love, Real and Shibuya.



Yumachi & Aina/Shibuya GAL's



Yumachi (Yuma Takahashi) and Aina (Tanaka) are two egg models who are pretty familiar in the gyaru music scene.

Debuting with I Love... they followed up with their debut album, QUEEN, all the way back in August 2010. It was just after the release of this album they announced their new musical venture: a super gyaru group.



To be more specific, a gyaru group based off the AKB48 format. That's right; 48 all singing, all dancing gyaru. The members also act as models.

They released their debut single Ouenka! Agepoyo~ in August 2010. They also promoted with the group at Tsukicon in Finland the very same year!




Other Gyaru-esque Muscians
  • Jamosa
  • Playz (actually, these are a gyaru-o group!
  • Kana Nishino
  • Tsuji Nozomi (tenatively. After she left Morning Musume she became gyaru and was supposed to join Gyaruru but left due to her pregnancy)
  • Gyaruru

  • Saturday 7 July 2012

    Manicure Madness

    Ever since my nails have grown I have become obsessed with nail art. It's kinda unhealthy!

    For the record I stopped biting my nails the day I went to Disneyland. I had bought two cheap nail polishes with the intention of just having colourful nails but for some reason it made me stop chomping on my nails. Success! An unintended success, but still a success!

    I currently have 20-something nail polishes but I want more. I'm becoming such an addict. Since I am really, really new to painting my nails my nail art is often messy because I am still learning.

    Attempt #1



    This was my first attempt at doing half moon nails. I thought I'd start with something easy. I placed the french manicure stickers too far up my nail for this to look really pretty but I still love the way these came out; they're simple yet really girly!

    I've nicknamed these my marshmallow nails as they remind me of marshmallows.

    Attempt #2



    The day I did these nails my dotting tools arrived through the post! I did the half moon technique again and placed dots at the top of my nails for an effortlessly fabulous look. I received so many compliments with these nails!

    Unfortunately, I didn't like them as much as everyone else did. As you can see I smudged one of the dots and the top coat I've been using is pathetically awful; it makes little air bubbles at the top and gives the nail a horrible rough texture. I took this off after a few days.

    Attempt #3



    This is before I finished neatening them. I wanted something cute and easy to do and who doesn't love Pikachu? These nails were super easy to do. My favourite nail has got ot be the Pokeball nail.

    This was mainly done with dotting tools, seriously!

    Attempt #4



    These are probably my least favourite nails. They were inspired by the Fire Nation from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I learnt a lot whilst doing these, such as black isn't a good base for flames and crackle nail polish should not be used for dotting.

    These lasted a week before I took them off (I went to business meetings wearing them, oops!)

    Attempt #5



    This is a case of where the nails look so much more impressive in real life than pictures! They're a dark pink to light pink gradient and once again, this photo was taken before I'd fully finished cleaning them up. These were my favourites.

    My nails were starting to resemble talons and after using a strengthener on them they kept breaking. :'( In the end I had to remove the polish and completely cut my nails down so they could grow in stronger.

    Attempt #6



    I did these once I started feeling a little better about my nails snapping (you an see my middle finger is shorter than the rest since it broke off so low!). These are pink nails with little hearts for tips~

    Completely inspired by Ayumi Hamasaki! These are so cute and ridiculously simple to do.



    That's as far as I've gotten with manicures. I love doing them since it just makes your hands look that extra bit prettier.

    What cute manis have you guys done lately?