Far Away Cinderellas - Fre Fre Chime Festival - New Age Idol Introduction!!
Today I want to bring forth one of my favorite underrated idol groups that I have listened to and actually have seen perform.
That group would be Fre Fre Chime Festival. They are under the label Plume Production.
According to their website they are known as the "after school idols".
Most of the group travels in from the countryside to Tokyo to perform idol activities.
They classify their music as EDM and screamo but I beg to differ. I would classify it as a little bit rock and a little electro and a whole lotta pop.
The goal of the group is to perform at TIF (Tokyo Idol Festival), the @JAM Expo and even a appearance at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Ceremony, which all three of those would be pretty darn cool if you ask me.
The group was formed in July 2015 but officially made their stage debut on September 13th, 2015
Finding out about the group was like it normally is. I used the lovely YouTube to access the group under my suggestions. They produced about a video everyday showcasing the fun times they have as a group. I miss those videos as they stopped doing them a couple of months ago. I watched them over and over and picked a first impression favorite member and continued to follow them. I also have shown this group to my coworkers and one of them picked out a favorite member which is Riona.
I had a chance to see these girls perform and man oh man are they really amazing. The performance was during my recent trip to Tokyo on May 1st. At the time of the performance they had all five members. I will explain later during member introduction.
They held their first one-man live that day at Shibuya Deseo in Shibuya obviously. I happened to get lost on the way to the venue that day but thanks to Google Maps I had just barely bypassed where I should have gone.
Anyways, I waited in line for about 15 minutes and was about the 30th person in line? I'm not quite sure about that number but by the time the doors opened there were at least 30 more people behind me.
No joke.
It was not only their first one-man live but also one of the members, Mei Hirasawa's birthday.
I happened to purchase a t-shirt with all the members autographed on it and had two 2-shots taken, one with Mashiro Abe and the other with Arisa Takagawa,
I also bought their second single Brackish Water and love to listen to it almost every day.
I had a blast at that concert and on the way back to my hotel for the evening, a lovely lady stopped me and said that the shirt was really cute and where I got it from. It turned into a lovely conversation.
Member Information
The group currently consisted of six members at debut but now consists of four members. All members are color coded.
Name: Mei Hirasawa
Birthdate: May 1st
Color: Purple
Twitter: @mei_frefes
Name: Mizuki Hosokawa
Birthdate: July 30th
Color: Pink
Twitter: @mizuki_frefes
Name: Mashiro Abe
Birthdate: October 30th
Color: White
Twitter: @mashiro_frefes
Name: Riona Koizumi
Birthdate: October 8th
Color: Orange
Twitter: @riona_frefes
There were five members as I mentioned above when I saw their concert. Arisa Takagawa graduated from the group on June 11th during her birthday live event. Arisa was my favorite member from the get go. She decided to end her idol activities all together. I am glad I got to meet her when I had the chance to and I wish her the best of luck in the future.
The sixth member whose name was Miho Kamihara left the group in early 2016 to a reason I can not specify.
Discography Information
They have released two singles thus far,
December 2015 - Blue Sky Festival
April 23rd, 2016 - Brackish Water
Video Information
I will showcase their three music videos and a live video. For those wondering, Arisa Takagawa is the one primarily in twin tails. Apparently twin tails are my thing.
The first video is for their first original song, Blue Sky Festival.
As for the second MV, I will show you Flapping Tails.
The members got a little bit older (a couple of months) and a whole lot cuter. As you can see in the video, the amount of travel that some of these girls have to take and it blows my mind.
The third music video is for Ambivalent Cinderella, from their second single Brackish Water.
This music video would have to be my favorite thus far as it shows the members goofiness and the song is very enjoyable as well. It is extremely catchy and will be stuck in your head for quite some time, believe me.
This last one is titled, The Day In The Life.
I really like this song and the live version takes it up a notch.
Overall Review
I really like this group. Their fan base has got to be one of the greatest ones I have seen for a one-man live in quite some time. They may still be a very underrated and underground idol but they are slowly but surely making a name for themselves in the idol world. I will be keeping an eye out for them in the coming months and years as they progress to their main goals. I wish them the best in the future. I hope the readers of this article will fall in love with this group as well and become big fans and share them to your friends or family. If you live in Japan, please go see one of their shows as I say again, they are fantastic.
Official Links
You can follow me on Twitter or leave a comment down below. I do not mind.
*And as always, Wherever you are, have a wonderful day!!!
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