Cute (Japanese idol group)

Musical style

Practically all the group's works are written and composed by Tsunku, the group's producer.

As of 2012, the group's image was considered bright and energetic. Cute's 16th and 17th singles (2011) were happy songs in a major key, but the 18th single "Kimi wa Jitensha Watashi wa Densha de Kitaku" (April 2012) was quite unusual. It was a rock ballad about saying goodbye (it is time to go home; the song's young female protagonist must part with the boy she loves). Since then, the group's songs have generally been more mature.

2002–2004: Hello! Project Kids

All the group's members were initially selected during the audition for Hello! Project Kids in 2002. Since then, the girls undertook serious professional training in Hello! Project.

In 2002, Airi Suzuki and Mai Hagiwara, as members of the group 4Kids, played in the Minimoni movie Okashi na Daibōken!

In 2003, some Hello! Project Kids were placed in groups led by Morning Musume members: Airi Suzuki was selected to be in Aa!, while Erika Umeda, Maimi Yajima, and Megumi Murakami were in the group called ZYX. Both units were beshort-lived, and their activity virtually came to a stall with the creation of Berryz Kobo in January 2004.

Berryz Kobo was founded with 8 members out of the 15 in Hello! Project Kids. The members' average age was 10.75, making it the youngest Hello! Project group ever. On March 3, 2004, Berryz released their first single, "Anata Nashi de wa Ikite Yukenai". Speaking at the unveiling of the new group at Nakano Sun Plaza on January 14, Tsunku said that its lineup will be changeable and he intends to rotate all Hello! Project Kids through it, thus allowing them more time for school activities. Yet, that never happened.

2005–2006: Formation

Cute was formed in the year 2005, consisting of seven girls from Hello! Project Kids who had not been chosen for the group Berryz Kobo. The creation of Cute was officially announced on June 11, 2005, though its formation had been rumored for several months prior. In the announcement published on the Hello! Project official website on June 13, Tsunku literally wrote that it was confusing for him to call out the girls who weren't in Berryz, that he would say something like "... and ... and ... and ..." or "non-Berryz Kobo," so he decided to name them. In contrast to Berryz Kobo, the title and release date of whose first single was announced at the same time with the group itself, no plans for Cute were revealed.

On January 2, 2006, at the first performance of the annual Hello! Project Winter 2006: Wonderful Hearts concert tour, it was announced that Kanna Arihara, a Hello! Pro Egg member, was being added to Cute.

In May–July 2006, in a span of 4 months, Cute released 4 indie singles. They received only limited distribution, being mostly sold at concerts.

On October 31, 2006, Megumi Murakami left the group, officially to concentrate on her studies.

2007–2008: Major-label debut, 58th Kohaku Uta Gassen & the Japan Record Awards

On February 21, 2007, Cute's first official single "Sakura Chirari" was released. On the first day it ranked 3rd in the Oricon Daily Singles Chart, a feat not even accomplished by Morning Musume, whose debut single ranked 6th. With their debut single, they became the youngest group (with the average age of 13) to rank in the top 10.

On December 30, 2007, Cute received the Japan Record Award for Best New Artist. The girls were too young to appear on stage at the awards ceremony, broadcast live late at night, so Tsunku accepted the award for them.

The year ended with the group's debut at the 58th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, an annual music show broadcast on December 31. They performed a number together with Morning Musume and Berryz Kobo.

At the end of 2008, Cute was nominated for the main Japan Record Award, the Grand Prix, for the song "Edo no Temari Uta II", which was chosen as one of the best works of the year. Losing to the boyband Exile, that year they had to be content with a Gold Award, which is given to all main prize nominees. The prizewinning song was originally written for veteran enka singer Hiroshi Itsuki, who was planning to release it on his end-of-2008 album. Tsunku, however, heard the song, and said, "I want the girls to sing it as a modern fairytale." So Itsuki let him use the song. For Cute, it was rearranged from enka into boogie and the lyrics were slightly modified. In what was called a collaboration by Tsunku and a rivalry between two performers by Sankei Sports, they both released the song as CD singles, Cute on July 30 and Itsuki as his 132nd single later in the year.

2009: Departure of Arihara and Umeda

On February 26, 2009, Hello! Project announced that Kanna Arihara was having difficulty performing on stage due to hallux valgus, or bunion deformity, and would not be able to attend Hello! Project 10th Anniversary fan club event that week. She would also be absent from Hello! Project's activities, including activities in Cute, while receiving treatment. Finally, in July 2009, Hello! Project informed that Arihara had decided to leave Cute and Hello! Project and return to the life of a normal girl.

On August 1, 2009, Hello! Project posted Erika Umeda's official announcement that at the end of the upcoming Cute's 2009 fall concert tour she would be graduating from Cute and Hello! Project to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion model. Her graduation was held on October 25 in Osaka, at the last concert of the tour.

The last single to feature Erika Umeda, "Everyday Zekkōchō!!" released on September 19, 2009, topped at number 1 in the Oricon daily singles chart and at number 2 in Oricon Weekly to become Cute's highest-ranking single to date.

In November 2009, the official group member colors changed to: Maimi Yajima – red, Saki Nakajima – blue, Suzuki Airi – pink, Chisato Okai – green, and Mai Hagiwara – yellow.

2010-2012: Expansion to iTunes and Youtube

On November 27, 2010, Chisato Okai released a solo single on iTunes, becoming the first member in the group to do so. The single closely followed the success of Chisato's dance videos on YouTube, the first of which, “Dance de Bakōn!” was viewed more than a million times by the end of January 2011.

On February 23, Cute released their 15th single, "Kiss Me Aishiteru". Cute's 16th single, "Momoiro Sparkling", debuted in 4th place of the Oricon daily singles chart for May 24. It spent two consecutive weeks in the Top 30 of the Oricon Weekly, ranking 6th and 17th.

On June 18, 2011, the concert from Cute Concert Tour 2011 Haru: Chō! Chō Wonderful Tour was broadcast live on the group's YouTube channel. The live stream attracted a large audience from all over the world. As it was reported in Cute's official blog by group leader Maimi Yajima and confirmed by the Up-Front Agency management on Twitter, the broadcast had been watched by a total of 93,144 viewers. On February 8, the group's 7th album, titled Dai Nana Shō 'Utsukushikutte Gomen ne', came out.

On April 8, Cute performed at the idol festival Idol Yokochō Matsuri, giving the first non-Hello! Project joint concert in their entire career. The music news provider BARKS praised the "power performance" that was "overwhelming from beginning to end" and demonstrated the "number one" group's unity out of the whole Hello! Project.

Cute's 18th single "Kimi wa Jitensha Watashi wa Densha de Kitaku" ("You ride your bicycle, while I catch the train home") was released on April 18. The music video for the song was uploaded on Cute's official YouTube channel on March 12. With more than 40,000 copies sold within the first week and reaching number 3 of the Oricon weekly singles chart, the single became their highest-selling single to date, breaking the record of their 3rd major single "Tokaikko Junjō".

On June 20, Cute released its second collaboration CD single with the fellow Hello! Project Kids group Berryz Kobo, named "Chō Happy Song" ("Superhappy Song.") The title tune is a mix of two previously published songs, Berryz Kobo's "Because Happiness" and Cute's "Shiawase no Tochū" ("On the Road to Happiness") from their 2012 albums. Both tracks were intentionally composed and produced by Tsunku to form a new song when played simultaneously. The trick was originally scheduled to be announced at a summer Hello! Project concert, but was uncovered by fans in mid-April. The song became a hot topic on the Internet, and a set of the three tracks, "Because Happiness," "Shiawase no Tochū," and "Chō Happy Song," was hastily released as a digital download single on April 28.

Also in June, it was announced that Cute's concert at the Yokosuka Arts Theater on June 30 would be broadcast live on YouTube.

On September 5, Cute released their 19th single, titled "Aitai Aitai Aitai na". The song premiered at the first concert of the Hello! Project 15th Anniversary Live 2012 Summer tour, on July 21 at the Onyx Theater in Osaka.

2013: Paris & Live at Budokan

On April 3, it was announced that Cute would have their first solo overseas event, “Cutie Circuit ~Voyage a Paris~” on July 5 in Paris, France. In addition,they performed at Nippon Budokan for the first time on September 9 and 10 (Cute's day) to commemorate their 200th performance.

2014

On January 26, 2014 at a release event, ℃ute's 24th single titled "Kokoro no Sakebi o Uta ni Shitemita / Love Take It All", was announced to be released on March 5, in 5 editions. On February 24, it was announced that ℃ute would be collaborating with Reebok to promote their product Your Reebok, where one could personally customize their Reebok, for March 2014. Both "Kokoro no Sakebi wo Uta ni Shitemita" and "Love take it all" were used for their collaboration "Your Reebok x ℃ute."

On March 5, it was announced that ℃-ute's "Love take it all" would be the inauguration CM song for 2014 BS-TBS' Idol Campaign. They would also have a 6-episode TV show called ℃ute no Challenge TV, every last Thursday of the month on BS-TBS. On April 15 it was announced that Berryz Kobo and ℃ute were invited to attend the 15th Japan Expo in Paris as Guests of Honor. On May 3, it was announced by Yajima Maimi, during the last MC corner of ℃ute Concert Tour 2014 Haru ~Cute no Honne~, that Cute will be performing at Budokan on September 10, "℃-ute no Hi".

On July 16, ℃ute released their 25th single The Power / Kanashiki Heaven (Single Version). On August 23 it was announced the ℃ute had set two world records (the longest passing of an egg in a relay (1 hour and 30 minutes) and the most snacks eaten in a relay (1 hour). The records were achieved at a public recording of their TV-show with respectively 259 and 346 of their fans at Asakasa Blitz On September 27, ℃ute performed at the 2014 Aomori SHOCK ON open-air music festival alongside Berryz Kobo and other artists. On November 19, ℃ute released their 26th single I miss you / THE FUTURE. On November 20, ℃ute performed alongside other artists at Tower Records’ 35th anniversary event

2015:10th Anniversary and Yokohama Arena

On April 1, ℃ute would release their 27th single "The Middle Management ~Josei Chuukan Kanrishoku~ / Gamusha LIFE / Tsugi no Kado wo Magare." This single will be their 10th year anniversary commemoration. On April 2, ℃ute and Country Girls are set to perform at 'forTUNE fes vol.0' along with other artists.

On June 11, ℃ute performed their 10th anniversary concert at Yokohama Arena as part of their The Future Departure tour.

2016

On April 20, ℃-ute released their 29th single Naze Hito wa Arasou Darō? / Summer Wind / Jinsei wa Step!

On August 19, it was announced Cute will be disbanding in June 2017.

On November 2, ℃-ute released their 30th single Mugen Climax / Ai wa Maru de Seidenki / Singing (Ano Koro no Yō ni)"

2017

℃-ute will disband on June 12th at their first and only Saitama Super Arena concert, which will also serve as their final concert.

Origin of the name ℃ute

℃ute was named by Tsunku. According to him and the Hello! Project official website, the English word cute means "(little and) lovely, pretty" (（小さくて）かわいらしい，可憐な). Wanting to somehow express the girls' overflowing fervor (enthusiasm), he substituted "℃" for "C".

Critical reception

The music news provider BARKS praised Cute's "power performance" at the festival Idol Yokochō Matsuri on April 8, 2012 as being "overwhelming from beginning to end" and having demonstrated the "number one unity" out of all Hello! Project acts.

Kawaii Girl Japan states that Cute has not only been acclaimed as "the best performer in the Hello! Project," but is also recognized as "the best live performer" or simply "the best performer" by fans of other idol groups. Reviewing the group's performance at the Nico Nico Chōkaigi festival, held on April 28–29, 2012, the website is impressed by how Cute covered the entire stage, being both dynamic and delicate, and how the group kept the audience intrigued and captivated. Depending on the song, Cute members changed their facial expressions from happiness to sadness, easily commanding the audience's mood.

Alleged dating scandals

After Kanna Arihara left the entertainment industry on July 9, 2009, the official reasoning was that it was her own decision to return to the life of a normal girl. Fans of the group questioned the official statement. It was speculated that she may have been pressured to retire by her talent agency after last summer the magazine BUBKA published a scoop about her date with Johnny's Jr.'s Ryosuke Hashimoto. According to a women's weekly magazine (shūkanshi) reporter, soon after the publication there was an incident at a Cute handshake meeting, when some fans refused to shake Kanna's hand. She started crying in the middle of the event. Kanna Arihara's officially announced treatment for hallux valgus since February 2009 could have been in reality a hiatus from the group activities and a punishment. According to the same reporter, the publication itself wouldn't lead to Kanna's retirement, but she continued to date Hashimoto in secret after that. (What happened exactly is that the September 2008 issue of the tabloid magazine BUBKA published a paparazzi article about Kanna Arihara going to the cinema to see the movie Hana Yori Dango: Final with Ryosuke Hashimoto, a member of Johnny's Jr. Despite rumors about an upcoming penitence, he was promoted to A.B.C-Z shortly afterwards.)

Controversies

The December 4, 2008 episode of the TV Tokyo variety show Yorosen!, featuring Cute, included a part on Adolf Hitler in a segment called "Great Men of the World." In it, a Cute member, acting as a "teacher" giving a comic history class to other members, called the dictator "Uncle Hitler," presented a drawing of him, impersonated him, and said that Hitler's speeches had a "soothing effect." The broadcast brought about heavy criticism on Internet message boards, protesting against Hitler being referred to as a "great man" and the contents of the comic lecture. TV Tokyo and the show's production company subsequently issued apologies. "The program's content was based on a mistaken interpretation of history and was inappropriate," TV Tokyo stated on its website.

Best Hits Kayosai

* Lost to RSP.

Japan Cable Awards

The Japan Cable Awards are sponsored by the National Cable Music Broadcasters Association (全国有線音楽放送協会).

Japan Record Awards

The Japan Record Awards is a major music awards show held annually in Japan by the Japan Composer's Association.