@onefive is a Japanese Idol unit formed in 2019, consisting of four then-members (now graduates) of Sakura Gakuin who are all in the same grade and born in the same year: 2004. The name, as one might expect, comes partly from the fact that they were 15 when it began.* Their first song and music video, "Pinky Promise", debuted in October 2019, with the first live performance occurring about three weeks later at the annual Sakura Gakuin Festival.
The members are, in order of descending age:
- Soyoka "SOYO" Yoshida (吉田 爽葉香) [Birthday: June 14th]
- Kano "KANO" Fujihira (藤平 華乃) [Birthday: August 28th]
- Tsugumi "GUMI" Aritomo (有友 緒心) [Birthday: September 7th]
- Momoe "MOMO" Mori (森 萌々穂) [Birthday: December 8th]
Their gimmick, aside from being four good friends who had already worked closely together for several years, is that the lyrics for their songs are written by an unseen fifth member, YURA, who is said to be the same age as them. They are also extremely "fashion-forward", regularly modeling clothing brands in their official photos. They're also fairly active on social media.
As one would expect from Sakura Girls, they are noteworthy for their extremely precise dancing and choreography, provided by Minako "MARU" Maruyama, a disciple of top choreographer Mikiko Mizuno as well as a member of her dance troupe Elevenplay.note The group's music tends to be more gently paced and laid back than most modern J-Pop, though their dancing isn't.
Because the girls are, as of 2022, still minors busy with school, their songs (the vast majority composed by Yuki Tsujimura) tend to come out slowly. In addition, due to coming into being just as the global Coronavirus pandemic took off, they were not able to hold a solo live show until February 2022, 2½ years after their debut. Through 2021 they held livestreams (some paid, some free) without any audience, though they took advantage of the format during interludes to read comments from the chat, including occasionally in English – MOMO, KANO, and GUMI have publicly expressed a desire to improve their foreign language skills.
Beginning in late-January 2021 and lasting about a month, they began filling in for their Sakura Gakuin senior and friend Aiko Yamaide on her "Aiko de Night" radio show after she contracted Covid-19. A few months later, their second single, BBB, reached #5 on Oricon's Indie chart – for comparison, this is the same list on which Babymetal's debut single hit #3 nearly a decade earlier (considered the watershed moment for them in Japan).
In Summer 2022, the group was signed to music label Avex and made their major debut. All four members were also cast in the live-action adaptation of If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die, which necessitated an Important Haircut for MOMO because her role in the fictional group ChamJam (Sorane) is a short-haired girl.
Their songs "Lalala Lucky" and "Just For You" have featured as commercial background music.
Their YouTube channel is here.
Their Twitter feed is here. Their Instagram is here. And here is their TikTok.
CD Singles
- Mada Minu Sekai (2020)
- BBB (2021)
Albums
- 1518 (2022)*
@onefive provides examples of the following tropes:
- DVD Commentary: A very unusual example. Physical copies of their first two singles each contain a bonus track at the end appropriately titled, "Let's Chat with @onefive!" In them, the quartet spend about twelve minutes talking about the single and anything else that comes to mind.
- The Limited Edition of 1518, while lacking the instrumental tracks, comes instead with a Bluray that features commentary about their music video for "Underground".
- The Fashionista: Fashionable clothes are part of their image.
- The Ghost: All their songs are supposedly written by a fifth member named YURA, but she has yet to appear.
- Letter Motif: Their stage names are all four letters long and taken from their first names.
- Meaningful Name: Their name has several meanings – they were all 15 when they started; the five of them (including YURA) are one; and the @ means "from us, from here and now on".note
- Sci-Fi Bob Haircut: SOYO adopted this style in Spring 2021. This, along with being noticeably the tallest, contrasts her from the other members, who all have styles ranging from long (GUMI) to very long (MOMO).
- As noted above, MOMO, known and loved for her very long hair, chopped her locks off in August 2022 to prepare for her role in OshiBudo and ended up looking like this. As she later showed in a social media video, there were many Tender Tears on her part, but she donated her hair to cancer patients.
- Spinoff: Defied. Although @onefive started when its members were still in Sakura Gakuin and its first live performance was during a Sakura Gakuin show, it was never officially considered a club or subunit (in contrast to Babymetal, which was a SG subunit for its first 2½ years).
