Osaka Shunkashuto: 大阪★春夏秋冬 (sometimes romanized as Osaka Syunkasyuto)
Alternate names: しゅかしゅん (Syunkasyun) and SSFW. (春夏秋冬 means Spring Summer Fall Winter, which is why they use SSFW. It's also why their name tends to be automatically translated as "Osaka Four Seasons".)
They're a seven-member idol group from Osaka with one main vocalist. They're heavily dance-oriented, and their material and style is strongly influenced by US/UK classic rock, R&B, and hip-hop. As of early 2016, they're still releasing material on indie labels, although there's a very good chance that they are negotiating with a major label and/or management company.
OK. Those are the bare-bones facts. Needless to say, it's a whole lot more complicated (and interesting) than that. For one thing, the main vocalist, Maina, has an incredibly powerful voice, and may just turn out to be one of the absolute best pop/rock singers of her generation. And then there's their collaboration with the mad YouTube genius Soezimax, which gave them the opportunity to break completely out of the standard idol mold (which admittedly is getting broken a lot these days 
) and turn into something else entirely.
But first, a not-so-short history (pieced together from a variety of generally rather sketchy sources, and not guaranteed to be 100% accurate):
Maina's mother runs the HappyTime Entertainment Studio (which she started when she was 16!), a large and successful performing arts school (mostly dance) in Osaka. I'd guess that Maina pretty much grew up at the school -- she seems to have been singing and dancing since the time she could walk (if not before).
In 2009, Maina and three other girls at the school formed a dance/vocal group called Man'yō shaonyan (万葉シャオニャン, which seems like it would translate into something like "Ten-thousand leaf small meow", although it may have a colloquial meaning that's quite different). Apparently, they performed just about everywhere they could -- fairs, festivals, malls, etc., and there's a lot of footage of them on YouTube.
One of the girls (Minamiguchi Nana) left to join GEM, and they went through a few other personnel changes, until Maina was the only original member left. In May, 2012, several more girls joined, and they changed their name to Osaka Shunkashuto.
At that point, they were still doing material that stayed relatively close to the standard idol sound -- there's a lot of YouTube footage, mostly from mall-stage performances (including 2012 Halloween and Christmas celebrations, so they were being true to their new name). The quality of their performance was high, but they weren't breaking out of the mold.
Then Soezimax came along. (Real name: 副島新五 - Soejima Shingo.) He's one of those people who is almost impossible to pigeonhole, contain, or even describe -- a maniacal, hyperactive filmmaker, actor, admaker, entrepreneur, promoter, and gadget-and-violence enthusiast -- one of those people who has dozens of projects going full-blast at any given time, and is constantly promoting all of them (and himself). He has at least three YouTube channels under his own name, and probably half a dozen more under other names.
Soezimax seems to have first run into Osaka Shunkashuto around early August 2013. By October of that year, he was actively promoting them with full-blast insane enthusiasm by various means, including a crowdfunding campaign through CampFire, and a series of 100 numbered videos on his main YouTube channel.
The crowdfunding helped to supply money for their initial singles, and the MVs that went with them. But Soezimax contributed much, much more than that. For one thing, he seems to have been the main force pushing them in their current high-energy-retro-70s musical direction (although Maina has said in an interview that that's Pretty much how her tastes run, so she probably didn't need much pushing at all). He also connected them with Minor School, the group that writes and produces most of their material (and, I would guess, does most of their music).
He also produced their MVs, most of which are wonders to behold -- on the basis of those music videos alone, I'd have to say that he really is a cinematic genius. "Dawn of My Lifetime" is a 7-minute zombie horror epic, and "Moshimo Aetanara" is a 9-minute Tarantino-like masterpiece of violence and warped emotional ambiguity. He also turned "We Will Rock You" into an excellent "Fight Club" parody, and did a first-rate job with the other MVs, most of which make very good use of the group's dance-school training.
By mid-2015, they were starting to get some notice with the MV for "C'mon!", but they really started to take off in August, after their remarkable Tokyo Idol Festival performance, followed by their first live Tokyo club appearance.
Since then, they've released a live CD-DVD, plus a retrospective mini-album of their singles. They've also signed with Fujiyama Project, which seems to be small enough to qualify as an indie idol-management company and record label, so they really haven't signed with the big leagues yet.
Recently, Soezimax pulled almost all of the Osaka Shunkashuto videos off of his YouTube channels, possibly in connection with big-label contract negotiations. According to the Youtube links, he made them private (rather than taking them down completely), and he hasn't taken down the Osaka Shunkashuto-related pages at his blog (which provide good background information on each of the videos, along with some great photos), so the video blackout may be temporary. It wouldn't be surprising at all if they announce a major label deal sometime soon.
(Update: as of October 3, 2017, they are signed to AVEX.)
I adapted the following history timeline from this site: http://idolloverine....hunkashuto.html
2009 (earliest YouTube video is dated June 7th.)
Man'yō shaonyan -- First Generation:
Yano Sayumi
Ogawa Maina
Minamiguchi Nana
2010 -- September
Yano Sayumi leaves
Second Generation:
Yagi Anna
Miyamoto Mana
2012 -- May
Minamiguchi Nana leaves to join GEM
Name changed to Osaka Shunkashuto
Third Generation:
Kajino Eon
Miyaura Rina
Kuroki Maya
Yoshimori Yuna
2014 -- November
Fourth Generation:
Takeda Runa
2015 -- February
Kuroki Maya leaves due to family-related reasons
Discography (adapted from Japanese Wikipedia)
Singles:
Dawn of my Lifetime
Soezimax Records - SMX-002
July 29, 2014
1. DAWN OF MY LIFETIME
2. もしも逢えたなら
3. DAWN OF MY LIFETIME(English Version)
4. Tears in the last moment (English version of もしも逢えたなら)
カメレオン少女
Soezimax Records - SMX-003
December 8, 2014
1. カメレオン少女
2. ロミオ
3. Let you fly
4. もしも逢えたなら〜ボカロ舞にゃん〜Winter Mix
5. Miss Cameleon Girl
C'mon!
Soezimax Records - SMX-004
March 19, 2015
1. C'mon!
2. Last Day
Baby Crazy
Soezimax Records - SMX-005
July 8, 2015
1. BABY CRAZY
2. 戸惑い
Shine
Soezimax Records - SMX-006
August 8, 2015
1. SHINE
Shine
Soezimax Records - SMX-007
October 5, 2015
1. SHINE
2. 妄想ラプソディ
NEW ME
A
FPJ-50004
January 31, 2017
01.New Me
02.ひゅるり
03.New Me -lazerdisk Remix-
NEW ME
B
FPJ-50005
January 31, 2017
01.New Me
02.ひゅるり
03.ひゅるり -Anamanaguchi Remix-
Rainbow Color
FPJ-50006
June 20, 2017
01.レインボーカラー
02.What you gonna do
03.レインボーカラー-instrumental-
04.What you gonna do -instrumental-
Travelin'Travelin'
CD
October 3, 2017
AQC1-77321
01.Travelin'Travelin'
02.キミ色
03.Travelin'Travelin'-instrumental-
04.キミ色 -instrumental-
Travelin'Travelin'
October 3, 2017
AQC1-77320
CD＋DVD
01.Travelin'Travelin'
02.キミ色
03.Travelin'Travelin'-instrumental-
04.キミ色 -instrumental-
DVD収録 Travelin'Travelin'-music video-
(Travelin' Travelin' is their first release for AVEX.)
Albums:
『ハチハチ』LIVE!!
Fujiyama Project Japan - FPJ-50001 / 50002
November 24, 2015
1. OPENING
2. カメレオン少女
3. BABY CRAZY
4. Last Day
5. もしも逢えたなら
6. 戸惑い
7. C'mon!
8. Let you fly
9. Dawn of my lifetime
FPJ-50001 includes a live DVD of the performance.
Early Season
Fujiyama Project Japan - FPJ-50003
December 22, 2015
1. Dawn of my lifetime
2. カメレオン少女
3. もしも逢えたなら
4. C'mon!
5. BABY CRAZY
6. SHINE
7. Let you fly
Members:
Maina
小川舞奈 (Ogawa Maina)
Nickname: Mainyan
Born: October 24, 1997
Dance Experience:
- Hiphop - 16 years
- Japanese dancing - 12 years
- Jazz - 16 years
- Break dancing - 3 years
- House - 6 years
- Rock - 7 years
Hobbies: Flowers, people-watching
Special talents: painting, dance, singing, singing improvisation
Anna
八木杏菜 (Yagi Anna)
Nickname: Anchan
Born: February 24, 1998
Dance Experience:
- Hiphop - 14 years
- Japanese dancing - 11 years
- Jazz - 13 years
Hobbies: laundry, hairdressing, saxophone, watching movies
Special talents: dance, singing
Mana
宮本茉奈 (Miyamoto Mana)
Nickname: Mannachi
Born: December 8, 1997
Dance Experience:
- Hiphop - 9 years
- Japanese dancing - 7 year
- Jazz - 9 years
Hobbies: Dancing, singing, blogging, candy making, piano, sleeping
Special talents: dance, singing, piano, abacus, study, percussion
Eon
梶野恵園 (Kajino Eon)
Nickname: Onshan
Born: November 27, 1997
Dance Experience:
- Girl's Hiphop - 7 years
- Hiphop - 3 years
- Japanese dancing - 3 years
Hobbies: listening to music, rock-bed baths
Special talents: photoshopped selfies (詐欺の自撮り) , long jump
Yuna
芳森由奈 (Yoshimori Yuna)
Nickname: Yuuna
Born: May 26, 1999
Dance Experience:
- Hiphop - 8 years
- Japanese dancing - 5 years
- Jazz - 4 years
- Rock - 2 years
- K-pop - 1 year
- Ballet - 1 year
Hobbies: reading magazines, shopping, making things
Special talent: dance, piano, physical education
Runa
竹田瑠奈 (Takeda Runa)
Nickname: TKD
Born: August 4, 2000
Dance Experience:
- Hiphop - 7 years
- Japanese dancing - 3 year
- Jazz - 5 years
Hobbies: Listening to music
Special talent: dance
Former members:
Maya
黒木麻耶 (Kuruki Maya)
Left February 2015
Rina
宮浦里奈 (Miyaura Rina)
Nickname: Rinachi
Born: November 12, 1997
Dance Experience:
- Hiphop - 11 years
- Japanese dancing - 5 year
- Jazz - 11 years
- House - 6 years
Hobbies: Cooking, Baking
Special talent: dance
Left: October 31, 2016
Videos:
Unfortunately, since Soezimax has taken his Osaka Shunkashuto videos private, most of their best material is no longer on YouTube (although some are on the tracker). Fujiyama project japan does have a couple of Soezimax videos up, and there's still plenty of live material. Here are a few of the more notable videos:
C'mon! MV at Fujiyama Project Japan's YouTube page:
Let You Fly MV (Fujiyama Project Japan):
C'mon! live at TIF:
Links:
Official site:
http://syukasyun.com/
Blog:
http://ameblo.jp/manyo-syaonyan/
Twitter:
Official: https://twitter.com/syukasyun
Maina: https://twitter.com/SingloveMaina24
Anna: https://twitter.com/ssfwanna
Mana: https://twitter.com/OsakaMana
Eon: https://twitter.com/ssfwon
Rina: https://twitter.com/SkstRina
Yuna: https://twitter.com/ssfwYuna
Runa: https://twitter.com/ssfwruna
Fujiyama Project Japan:
http://fpj.asobisystem.com/
HappyTime Entertainment School
http://www.happytime-net.com/
万葉シャオニャン's Old mixi page:
http://mixi.jp/view_...y.pl?id=2873405
Osaka Shunkashuto archives at Soezimax's blog:
http://soezimax.com/...es/tag/大阪★春夏秋冬/
Homicidols Osaka Shunkashuto page:
http://www.homicidol...ka-shunkashuto/
