BABYMETAL-IN THE BEGINNING-SAKURA GAKUIN-2011

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Some day I am sure that we will have a nice Babymetal documentary on DVD (the 10th Anniversary in 2020 could well fit the bill) but fans that want to get into the early history can still find it on the early Sakura Gakuin DVDs. I will highlight two of them today. Created in April 2010 by the Amuse Talent Agency, Sakura Gakuin was to be an Idol Group in which talent could be nurtured and projects could be explored. The girls were involved in a number of different sub-groups that spawned musical projects. One of the first that broke out was called Twinklestars (more on them later), but the most interesting of the lot was to reach fame and fortune in a big way and that was Babymetal. The producer Kobametal (as he is known universally today), wanted to try out an idea in which J-Pop was mixed with Heavy Metal and he picked three of the girls for the project. He knew that Suzuka Nakamoto showed a lot of promise as a singer and he felt that a project could be built around her. To flank her he picked Moa Kikuchi and Yui Mizuni, perhaps the youngest (certainly the shortest) members of Sakura Gakuin. The song “Doki Doki Morning” was recorded and was presented to the girls to work on (vocals needed to be recorded and they had to figure out the dance moves). Glimpses of this process can be seen on the first Sakura Gakuin DVD, “Smile – First Live & Documentary 2010 to 2011” (released on June 27 2012) and so we know that this has been well documented right from the very beginning. This two DVD set also features a full concert filmed at the Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall on March 25 2012 that features all the projects. Babymetal does a playback of “Iine” to a very enthusiastic crowd. The 2010-2011 documentary is called “Smile” and this is were you have the fly on the wall kind of stuff.

The second (single) DVD here is called “2012 The Road To Graduation – Final” (released on July 3 2013) and not only do we get to see Su graduate (this is highly emotional) but we also get to see the girls in Babymetal perform “Headbanger!!” (the single was released in August), to which they also added a very dramatic sounding intro that would have fitted an Ozzy Osbourne concert. This was recorded at the Tokyo International Forum on March 31 2013. A decision had been made to let Babymetal become a professional unit at this point since they had gained popularity quickly. Consequently, this was the last time Babymetal performed at a Sakura Gakuin concert. Yui and Moa had still a couple of years to go so there are more to see on later DVDs. For Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal turned out to be an extremely successful project. Now these DVDs are what they are. For fans of Metal, they are probably not that great. But if you are into Babymetal, this is pure Gold. For fans of J-Pop, well they will probably lap this up too. It is certainly history. All in all, pretty good stuff. Uplifting, happy, sad – it is all included for all to see.
Info-
Babymetal is a Japanese kawaii metal band. The band consists of Suzuka Nakamoto as "Su-metal" (Vocal and Dance) and Moa Kikuchi as "Moametal" (Scream and Dance). The band is produced by Kobametal from the Amuse talent agency. Their vocals are backed by heavy metal instrumentation, performed by a group of session musicians known as the "Kami Band" at performances.

The band was formed in 2010, with the original lineup of Su-metal (Vocal and Dance),
Moametal (Scream and Dance), and Yui Mizuno as "Yuimetal" (Scream and Dance), with the concept of a fusion of the heavy metal and Japanese idol genres. Originally a sub-unit of the Japanese idol group Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal became an independent act in 2013, following Nakamoto's departure from Sakura Gakuin. Babymetal released their eponymous debut album in February 2014. Their second album Metal Resistance was released worldwide on April 1, 2016, charting well internationally for a Japanese band. Babymetal has also embarked on several tours, with a majority of their tour dates taking place outside of Asia.

On October 19, 2018, Babymetal announced that Yui Mizuno (Yuimetal) had decided to leave the band due to poor health, following her absence from live performances since December 2017.Since her departure, the band has performed with one or more backup dancers called at live performances. In 2019, the band introduced three backup dancers that were present in a rotation on each live show to form a trio with Moametal and Su-metal, with the dancers being called Avengers.