38 replies to this topic

[Lurkette]

 

Chubbiness is a unit formed as a collaboration between avex and CanCam with the catchphrase, "Pudgy girls to make Japan HAPPY." The "Nationwide Pudgy Girl Audition" was held in June of 2013, and 10 girls were chosen out of about 3500 to form the group.

Chubbiness will support everyone in being HAPPY through various areas like dancing, singing, fashion, and delicious food!!

 

The name Chubbiness was chosen because it means pudgy in English, and implies a rounder, fuller, "cute" girl.

 

The mail order catalog NISSEN is working with CanCam and avex to produce a fashion brand exclusively for pudgy girls, "PaCSTYLE," for which the members of Chubbiness will model in CanCam and contribute their own clothing designs to sell.

 

Chubbiness is also producing a restaurant chain called "Chubby's," which focuses on tasty, healthy, and filling meals. Members will also provide support as representatives for products for pudgy girls, like in the specialty goods online store, ChubbiMart, and act as ambassadors at various events.

 

Their first music video was posted on the avex YouTube on August 21, 2014. The song is entitled, "Manma de ii ya!" or, "You're fine as you are!"

 

 

Members:

 

Yaegashi Kotomi
(八重樫 琴美)

Image Color: Red

Birthday: September 26, 1994

Hometown: Iwate
Height: 156cm

Weight: 61.9kg

Blood Type: B

Hobbies: Eating, imagining, pictures

Skills: Dance (16 years of modern dance, 6 years of jazz dance)

 

Takao Sonoko

(高尾 苑子)

Image Color: Light blue

Birthday: October 30, 1993

Hometown: Fukuoka

Height: 157cm

Weight: 52kg

Blood Type: Unknown
Hobbies: Reading, walking, stretching before bed

Skills: Speed-reading, waking up early, running

 

Ikeyama Chiaki

(池山智瑛)

Image Color: Lime green

Birthday: May 4, 1992

Hometown: Aichi
Height: 158cm

Weight: 55.4kg

Blood Type: A
Hobbies: Skin care, thinking about hygiene

Skills: Taking vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, pulse, breaths)

 

Saihara Marino

(才原 茉莉乃)

Image Color: Blue

Birthday: January 20, 1992

Hometown: Hyogo

Height: 155cm

Weight: 55.5kg

Blood Type: A
Hobbies: Cosplay, going to temples and shrines
Skills: Stage fighting (3 years experienced with hand-to-hand), lowest grade kyokushin karate, third grade judo (green belt), impressions of fanatics

 

Asakawa Misaki

(浅川 美咲)

Image Color: Orange

Birthday: November 16, 1995

Hometown: Saitama

Height: 161cm

Weight: 65.1kg

Blood Type: O

Hobbies: Shopping, piano

Skills: Making bread (like anpan and cream pan), sweets, and cakes (and tarts and macarons and such)

 

Morimoto Eri

(森本 愛理)

Image Color: Green

Birthday: March 8, 1994

Hometown: Osaka

Height: 161cm
Weight: 58.6kg

Blood Type: A

Hobbies: Futsal, dance, karaoke, shopping

Skills: Singing, swimming (especially freestyle)

 

Horikawa Ami

(堀川 杏美)

Image Color: Yellow
Birthday: November 28, 1994

Hometown: Saitama

Height: 158cm
Weight: 63.4kg

Blood Type: B

Hobbies: Shopping, drawing pictures, fashion, learning about makeup

Skills: Singing, dancing (3 years in jazz-hiphop and jazz-funk), drawing portraits

 

Kawai Akina

(河合 秋奈)

Image Color: Purple

Birthday: November 5, 1994
Hometown: Osaka

Height: 161cm

Weight: 62.5kg

Blood Type: AB
Hobbies: Music appreciation, watching dance videos
Skills: Dance (2 years in hiphop), softball (2 years as pitcher and captain)

 

Nakazaki Erina

(中崎 絵梨奈)

Image Color: Hot Pink

Birthday: June 8, 1993
Hometown: Fukuoka

Height: 153cm

Weight: 50.5kg

Blood Type: O

Hobbies: Drawing pictures, reading, looking at anime and manga

Skills: Typing (Official certification 1st class)

 

Shima Rika

(嶋 梨夏)

Image Color: Light Pink
Birthday: August 16, 1989

Hometown: Hyogo
Height: 150cm

Weight: 51.3kg

Blood Type: A
Hobbies: Going to power spots, cooking, film appreciation

Skills: Flexibility, lines to sell uirou, massage

 

Links:

Official Website

Blog
Twitter
YouTube

Facebook

 

 

 

 

So the group seems to be generating some controversy and discussion on YouTube with the foreign audience; I figured this was as a good place as any to see if H!O had anything else to say.

 

[Aeria]

Chubby Idols have become popular in Japan, right? I see no problem with it. The girls DID audition for this, you know.

 

Once my internet stops spazzing out on me, I'll watch the MV. : )

[RenaiDestiny。]

I really like this group. They're really good singers and dancers. I love the title of the song and the image for the song, you're fine the way you are. I like the jogging parts too.

I hope they don't disappear anytime soon. They seem like a pretty cool and somewhat inspirational group.

[mmaria002]

They are so cute, definetly I'm going to follow them! Anyone knows if this song it's going to be on sale as a single?

[AragonDx]

and this is chubby? Japan is sure "strict" about weight

[Moondoggie]

I'm not even sure i have words for this. I guess if there wasn't so much emphasis on food and eating then i might see it as a positive thing but it feels kinda like exploitation. You could argue that idols in general are in a way but this i dunno. It's like "Lol make the chubby girls dance and eat food. That's right fatty stuff your face with cake"

The song isn't too bad they sing well i just hope this doesn't lean towards cruel and ridiculous like so many things in Japan do. If they can portray a positive message then awesome.

[RenaiDestiny。]

I'm not even sure i have words for this. I guess if there wasn't so much emphasis on food and eating then i might see it as a positive thing but it feels kinda like exploitation. You could argue that idols in general are in a way but this i dunno. It's like "Lol make the chubby girls dance and eat food. That's right fatty stuff your face with cake"

The song isn't too bad they sing well i just hope this doesn't lean towards cruel and ridiculous like so many things in Japan do. If they can portray a positive message then awesome.

I don't think that Chubbiness is meant to have an offensive image towards chubby/fat people or anything like that.Their debut song literally means "You're fine the way you are!', and their eating food, which kind of gives me the idea of how you shouldn't change yourself for anyone else, and how you're fine the way you are, regardless of your size.

[Lurkette]

Japan has a very... odd reaction to people who are different, be it fat or LGBT or whatever else. They tend to fall back on a lot of stereotypes when they relate to these people, almost to the extent that it seems like they're making fun of them, but the people who are different typically respond in an equally stereotypical fashion. For example, if you watch the rest of the "Making of Chubbiness" videos, you'll see that, like normal idols or models or entertainers in general, they're provided with meals and snacks while they're working. However, the cameraman zooms up in on them eating these and focuses heavily on their eating, asking if they always get this hungry from working, and most of them respond with, "Yeah, I do, doing this photoshoot has made me super hungry. I love snacks." I think it's less an act of malice towards someone who's different and more of this need for brutal honesty to accept them. Like, the 'normal' Japanese public would have difficulty trusting or accepting someone different if they pretended anything else were the case. In this particular situation, I think it helps rather than hurts them. Girls who are overweight who might otherwise be exceptionally self-conscious and focused on dieting constantly are now given complete freedom to eat whatever they want and not feel bad about it. If anything, Chubbiness are getting promotion and payment for eating. I certainly wouldn't complain if I had to shoot a music video that was 50% eating doughnuts and candy. Besides, they've made it pretty obvious through their dancing and hobbies that most of them are pretty active and healthy otherwise.

 

 

And that's all aside from the point that most other idols seem to eat a diet comprised of 50% cake and ice cream anyway and they love to photograph and film themselves eating and plenty of MVs feature idols eating junk food. The only difference is that they exchange those empty calories with not eating the next day and got better luck on the genetic end than Chubbiness. I'm not mad at it.

 

 

They are so cute, definetly I'm going to follow them! Anyone knows if this song it's going to be on sale as a single?

 

Nothing has been announced so far, that I can tell. 

[Bexie]

I like this

Will be interesting to see if it's any success, and then, if they actually stick with it - unlike when Kpop tried a similar thing.

 

[

 

Some info for people who didn't know about them: in 2011, the "Piggy Dolls" debuted. I was not a fan of the name, but I loved the song, and damn, they could SING. While they got support, it was met with equal hate.

Then a couple months later, suddenly, it was obvious all the members had undergone dramatic weight loss, which they claimed was simply from dance practise. They were still a bit larger than most Kpop idols, but then they seemed to disappear.

Then last year, a "comeback" - with all new, stick thin members, but weirdly, they kept the name - even though the original point and concept of the group had gone right out the window. No clue what happened to the original girls.

 

And so one of the only groups consisting of truly bigger girls just went poof.

[G☆LE]

^ Piggy Dolls was my favorite group. I still have Hakuna album. So goooood.

There was some story that they were skinny before they debuted (which I think is complete BS, because Minsun has clearly always been chubby and even after losing immense weight, she was still chubby) and that the management forced them to gain weight just to debut. But that story is most likely untrue.

The girls split their own ways, Minsun should be making a comeback eventually and the sisters went to some other small label company. you can find them on twitter.

 

Akina is beautiful.

[☆れいな☆]

The song is cute. But a lot of these girls are actually average weight, even for Japan. A couple of them are noticeably larger, but not by much. (Only 3 of them are actually overweight, and the rest are all right in the middle of healthy. Blame my ED brain for calculating all their BMIs to self compare.) But I guess it's still chubbier than the typical CanCam model and average Japanese models who tend to be stick thin like Koharu and Iikubo. Personally, I don't think they look any bigger than most idols. I just hate to think this is what they promote as chubby to young girls, when the general population of girls fall between a bmi of 19-21, and half of these girls have BMIs of 21 (arguably the healthiest BMI for people.)

But their message is cute, and I hope they continue activities. I'm glad to see a rise in 'chubby' idols. I want there to be more room for talented girls like Kanon, Maasa, Makocchin, Nozomi (of BiS), AD Nagisa, etc, without them feeling the pressures of needing to lose weight or feeling less attractive than their thinner idol mates. I'll keep an eye on this group and hope they don't pull a Piggy Dolls with them.

[Venus92]

I recently saw an article about them on tokyogirls update, gave the song a listen and really liked it! It's so fun, cute and catchy!

I hope to hear more from them!

 

 

^

Lol, so I'm not the only one who did that!? Well, having also had ED myself I guess that's the reason

[melonpan♪]

So I heard about this group a while back but I decided to check them out for the first time now after running into another "chubby" groups MV on a news site. The girls in chubbiness are really cute and have refreshing personalities.
 I'll definitely be keeping tabs on this group~
They really are adorable, My favorites being Sonoko, Marino, and Misaki.

[Lurkette]

This is about as mainstream as a group like this can get, being sponsored by both Avex and CanCam. However, they aren't being expressly promoted as an idol group or even a music group, although they did do their first live performances around the country a few months ago and the song is now available on iTunes and Recochoku (although it hasn't popped up on H!O or JPS, which I hope will change soon). I think that shows the hesitance of the company to move forward pushing them as an actual group, but at the very least it goes to show Japan that girls can be cute and active and confident at a wider range of sizes. 

[melonpan♪]

Well its a good start that they are mainstream! Their latest single in really catchy its been stuck in my head all day   I hope the company will push them more in the future

[Lurkette]

They're getting a second song: http://ameblo.jp/chu...1942280620.html

[Paramorning]

What a cute group! And they can sing!
I've decided that sonoko is my bias.
Edit : nope, changed my mind, Eri has an awesome voice.

[Lurkette]

They did some questionnaires for Woman Insight. Things are kind of crazy for me right now, but if I get the time I'll translate them.

http://www.womaninsi.../archives/85652

[Lurkette]

I found some time, so...

Note that they were all asked the same questions but were interviewed separately. I grouped their answers together to make it easier on me.

 

 

When you heard that you were going to get a music video, how did you feel?

Kawai Akina: Honestly, I doubted myself, like, can I really do this? (laughs) But that music video was like a dream of a dream. I was surprised and happy and all sorts of emotions were spinning around in my head, but make no mistake, I was at the peak of excitement!!!!
Takao Sonoko: To think that the day would come when I sang and danced in front of other people......! For a while I couldn't believe it.

Saihara Marino: I was soooooooooo happy! And then I thought what will it sound like? The costumes? I was excited and eager the whole time. But, up until I heard the song it hadn't even hit me......! Once they told us about it my life became "I'm going to be in a music video?! For real?! Is this a dream??" (laughs)

 

Tell me what you were thinking when you first heard your song.

Kawai: What is this music! What are these lyrics! It's so pop! (laughs) That's about right (laughs).

Sonoko: I think the lyrics are easy to remember, and it makes you look forward to things when you hear it!! I also thought I wanted to sing it at karaoke!

Marino: It got stuck in my head first thing! I said without thinking, "It's so addicting!!" I could sing the chorus with just one listen, and I was grinning like a fool at how great of a song it was, that's a secret (laughs). And then I had a huge desire to get other people to hear it!!

 

Was there anything you were worried about with the music video?

Kawai: I was worried about everything. But what I was most worried about was what the people who saw it and heard the song were going to think about it. 

Sonoko: I have no experience in singing or dancing, and I'm really not athletic, so I worried about keeping up with everyone else.

Marino: It was my first time for everything so all of it was concerning for me. During the MV shoot in particular I was struggling with having fun and being freaked out all at once! Even though I knew the dance there were parts I was bad at so I was nervous about not being able to do them!! But after the filming was over I wasn't worried at all! Fun won out!

 

What did you put the most effort into when getting ready for the recording and the video shoot?

Kawai: I worked really hard at weight training, which I hate, so that I could build up the physical strength for the dance and my vocal projection.

Sonoko: It's a cheerful, positive song, so I tried to have a very positive attitude, like I wouldn't lose to anyone, when I went in to record the song and video. For example, when I was about to cry because I couldn't do the dance well no matter how hard I tried, I just focused on having fun doing the dance.

Marino: First of all, for the song recording, I put a lot of work into singing in a cute voice to match the song and to have fun without sounding too nervous!! For the MV I tried to dance more energetically than anyone and jump higher than everyone else! I also focused afterward on making sure that no matter how many times I did the dance I wouldn't get worn out!!

 

What is something you want people to pay attention to in the Manma de ii ya! video?

Kawai: Everyone giving it their all and our great smiles!!! ... but of course, I also want people to pay attention to the dance scene with Kotomi and Ami and myself (laughs).

Sonoko: The squishy girls of Chubbiness are fine as they are! And we're smiling and being cheerful while working hard, so I want people to see the healing effects that these squishy bodies can have.

Marino: The scene where all the members are living the chubby life (Chubbiness's activities. Eating only the tasty things you like). My favorite scene is when we're all wearing the tracksuits! Those scenes are fundamental Chubbiness so I want everyone to pay attention to them! The dance is also pretty simple, so I want people to watch the chorus section in particular and dance along with us! I hope you'll all get pumped up doing the dance!

 

How was your first live stage at 24-hour TV?

Kawai: I was just so happy, it went by so quickly, really!!! Dancing in front of people was that much fun, I felt so truly happy, and I got to feel the joy that comes from making other people smile!

Sonoko: Even though it was our first performance, a lot of people gave us cheers, and even afterward on Twitter we got messages of support from people who saw us and it made me really happy.

Marino: I was so grateful for those two days, we performed on 8 stages, had very receptive audiences and staff members, people waved their hands at us and danced along with us, and even though I was nervous it was so much fun! I'm really happy so many people came out to see us, I even cried at the last charity live stage......!! (blushes) It was a wonderful experience for Chubbiness getting to perform live and for 24-hour TV charity.

 

What sort of challenge do you want to undertake after this?

Kawai: I want to go with the 10 members of Chubbiness into the overseas market!! And keep eating of course! (laughs) I want get people to see that there haven't been any other Japanese groups like us in terms of performance and sponsoring clothing lines and such.

Sonoko: Our catchphrase is "Pudgy girls to make Japan Happy!" so I want to become the sort of wonderful pudgy girl who can get everyone to think that we're all good girls.
Marino: I want to keep doing lives, and I want to work on my jump height! I also want to do a dropkick like Iron Fist (American Comic Book Hero)!! As part of Chubbiness I want to perform in every prefecture in Japan! I want to meet people from all over! I want to meet lots of tasty food! I also want to work on a backflip! Because backflips are cool...... I want to do all sorts of acrobatics!

 

Finally, please give us a comment for the readers of Woman Insight.

Kawai: From here on I'll be leveling up and giving everything I've got to become a wonderful "sparkling chubby girl," so please support me!!!!!!

Sonoko: My sense of rhythm isn't perfect, but I love to dance in high spirits!! I'd like to convey that feeling to you and recharge all of your energy! Please watch over us!!

Marino: Manma de ii ya! is Chubbiness's first music video! Just as the title says, we want to convey the message that, "Nothing is impossible and you don't have to deny yourself anything, you're fine as you are!" I also tried magic a little in the music video! See if you can spot it! (laughs) It's definitely a cheerful and energetic song! I think you can listen to it anytime, when you're sad or feeling down or having a hard time or when you're happy or having fun! Please watch our video for Manma de ii ya! and take care of Chubbiness! Chubbiness Be Happy!!!

[Blu-Cherri]

Pretty cute answers, they sound so excited I love it

Thanks for the translation Lurkette :3