For a band that started as a subset of an Idol group, Babymetal has been around for awhile and had an interesting history. This page provides details of their progression. In the spirit of Babymetal, this timeline is divided by Kobametal's "Episodes", most of which have at least one performance critical to the band's career and success.
Please note that this page is far from complete, but will be expanded and tweaked as time goes on.
EPISODE I (November 2010 – March 2014) – Beginnings
The Heavy Music Club
As mentioned on the main page, Babymetal started as the Juonbu (Heavy Music Club) of Sakura Gakuin. Their first song, 「ド・キ・ド・キ☆モーニング」, was recorded on October 29th 2010 and premiered at Sakura Gakuin's first solo show at Yokohama Brick Warehouse exactly a month later. It was one of the tracks on Sakura Gakuin's inaugural album, 2010 Nendo: ~Message~. In Fall 2011, the girls would take part in their first Babymetal music video – "Doki Doki☆Morning" was released as a DVD single and its short version
uploaded to Toys Factory's Youtube channel on October 12th.* It quickly caught the attention of the Idol fanbase.After that, the girls began to record more songs and music videos as the Heavy Music Club, beginning with "Iine!". This song was part of a crossover event – in which the girls also covered "Answer For Animation With You" – that resulted in their first CD single, BABYMETAL × Kiba of Akiba, which came out in March 2012 and unexpectedly went to 3rd place on the Oricon Indie charts and 1st place in Tower Records Shibuya's weekly indie ranking. That July, the girls released their second CD single, "Headbanger"* . During 2012 they also recorded the song "Uki Uki★Midnight" – the B-side to "Headbanger" – and its music video, plus "Ijime, Damè, Zettai", "Akatsuki" (the first Suzuka ballad), "Onedari Daisakusen" (the first Yui/Moa song), and "Babymetal Death" (originally a one-second joke song that was expanded into a five-minute death metal onslaught).
In late 2011, the girls gained their first prominent non-Japanese supporter: Marty Friedman, former guitarist of Megadeth, who had been living in Japan for several years and immediately realized the girls' fusion style had potential to make waves in music. He also happened to be one of two mentors for a guitarist named Takayoshi Ohmura (more on him further down).
On July 21st 2012, the girls played their very first solo show at Tokyo's famous literally underground club Rock-May-Kan, called "LEGEND~ Corset Festival"* . This place holds no more than 250 but is known to have kick-started the careers of many bands, including X Japan.
In August 2012, the girls made their first appearance at Japan's SummerSonic music festival, where they performed on the tiniest stage next to the concession stands, typically reserved for novelty acts. Their energy and enthusiasm caught people's attention, and they would perform at some part of the festival every year through 2017.
These earliest concerts were backed – if there was anyone at all behind the girls – by a group dressed in skeleton costumes who mimed (surprisingly well) to the backing track, known as the BabyBones.
Beginning in October 2012, the girls embarked upon a series of three solo concerts – Legends "I", "D", and "Z" – at mid-size venues around Tokyo. The first, "LEGEND I", had a live band appear onstage and back up the girls on two songs for the encore. This is technically the first appearance of the Kami Band, although none of the musicians who would come to be associated with that name were part of that first show. "LEGEND D" was the first of several Babymetal concerts held on or around Suzuka's birthday, December 20th. That particular concert is unique for being the only show at which Babymetal covered the popular folk rock song "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" (probably best known for its ironic cameo in Evangelion), along with the Karen Girl's theme "Over The Future" – Suzuka had been one of the Karen Girl's, the song had helped Yui through a tough time in her life, and Yui and Moa had auditioned for Sakura Gakuin by dancing to the song; Yui would later write how getting to perform that song onstage with Suzuka was a childhood dream come true.
In between Legends I and D, the girls travelled to Singapore to perform at Anime Festival Asia, their very first trip and show outside Japan. It is also the first and only time they held an autograph signing and interacted with fans.
This period (specifically November 26th 2012) also saw the release of the music video for "Ijime, Damè, Zettai", the final MV released by the group as part of the Heavy Music Club, and considered to be their major debut.
As Suzuka's graduation from junior high school, and thus from Sakura Gakuin, loomed, "LEGEND Z" was held at Zepp Tokyo on February 1st 2013. All indications were that it would be the final Babymetal concert with its original lineup. While the show debuted "Catch Me If You Can", it also featured the girls performing in all white (white being the colour of death in Japanese society) and the Babymetal logo crumbling into dust. Even Suzuka herself was visibly upset, not giving the traditional "See You~!" before the encore; she instead said "Take Care Your Neck!" and walked off stage, leaving Yui and Moa alone and confused. Turned out this was the first of many troll moments by their manager Kobametal – the Babymetal logo came back and it was announced the group would in fact keep going independent of Sakura Gakuin.
This may have been a double-troll move, as Moa's reactions during Suzuka's Sakura Gakuin graduation heavily implied that Yui and Moa, while they knew Babymetal would continue, may not have known Koba had already planned for the group to continue with them as part of it. He would present them contracts to keep them on – Yui signed immediately, but Moa had to argue it out with her mother (a genuinely terrifying person) and promise to keep her grades up before she would be allowed to sign.
Babymetal Gains Respect
Now no longer a sub-unit of Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal made and released their first music video as an independent group, "Megitsune". They also made appearances at a number of festivals, many of which they would play again, including MetRock, Rock In Japan, and (of course) SummerSonic. Some, but not all, of these performances would see the girls backed by the Kami Band instead of Babybones. Their 2013 SummerSonic performance happened to be witnessed by some guys called Metallica. They were impressed by the girls' energy and met them backstage; the girls immediately took to them, later referring to Metallica as "nice uncles".In addition, the group put on two major performances to celebrate the girls' birthdays – Yui's and Moa's birth-dates are exactly two weeks apart, so they got one show for the both of them: "Legend 1999". Su had her second* birthday concert, "Legend 1997", on December 21st 2013 at Makuhari Messe – a venue they would perform at several more times in the future. This is the show that premiered their most popular song, "Gimme Chocolate!", and is the source of the footage of Su being crucified in front of what appears to be a giant statue of the Virgin Mary. It is also the last full-length Babymetal concert where the Babybones appear. At the end of that show, it was announced that Babymetal would release their first full length album (which turned out to be a Self-Titled Album) on February 26th 2014 and they would hold two shows over two nights at the famous Nippon Budokan starting three days after that. The day before the album's release, Babymetal's Youtube channel uploaded the music video for "Gimme Chocolate!", which as of 2019 has garnered over 100,000,000 views.
Babymetal sold out both Budokan nights. These concerts were their largest up to that point (capacity: 10,000), the first to have the Kami Band – at these shows: Leda and Takayoshi Ohmura on guitars, BOH on bass, and Hideki Aoyama on drums – playing all songs (plus some solos of their own), and the first where Yui and Moa undeniably sang live. The girls were also the youngest group to ever headline the iconic hall. The first night nearly crashed and burned, literally, as Yui fell off the stage during "Headbanger" and Moa hurt her leg during "I,D,Z". Both would be fine the next day… when Su tripped on the stage at the very end and almost faceplanted, saving herself with a comical bunny-hop.
At the end of the second night, it was announced that the first Episode of the Metal Resistance had come to an end, and that the girls would be leaving Japan to take on the world, starting with Western Europe.
EPISODE II (July 2014 – November 2014) Seeing The World
After a quick show exclusively for members of Babymetal's fan club, the band took off for Europe, starting with a show at La Cigale in Paris for Yui's 15th birthday (fans had made a giant banner, in English, wishing her well), then a show in the Music Hall in Cologne for Moa's 15th birthday. In both shows, Su handed the lead microphone over to the birthday girl so she could sing "Headbanger", as that song is about a girl going to her first metal concert as a present for her 15th birthday. Ikuo Minewaki, CEO of Tower Records Japan, who happens to be a big fan of Idols in general and of Moa in particular, is believed to have attended both shows.The day after Moa's birthday, the girls played their first show in an English-speaking country* : the SoniSphere festival in Hertfordshire, England. Originally they were booked for one of the side-stages where they would play for a few thousand of their loyal fans. However, due to overwhelming fan response once their booking was announced, the organizer shifted them to opening the main stage, where they had to perform in front of over 50,000 bored British metalheads. The result, well... was a smashing success to put it mildly. Shortly after that, they played a sold-out show at London's Forum, then traveled to Los Angeles for their very first show in the United States. The tour went so well that additional dates in New York and Brixton were quickly arranged for later in the year. Meanwhile, the group returned to Japan to perform at SummerSonic (again).
It was about this time that Lady Gaga, a self-proclaimed fan of the girls, asked them to open for her on a few West Coast stops of her ArtPop Ball Tour. They did so. However, that jaunt happened to be at the same time as Tokyo Idol Festival, which meant Yui and Moa would not be able to perform with their Sakura Gakuin comrades. As 2014 was their fifth and final year with the group they'd helped found and still adored, and Moa had been named Student Council President while Yui was in charge of creating the group's setlists, they were understandably upset. Upset enough that they convinced their superiors to let them film a video message for TIF attendees where they apologized for their absence and danced "with" the other girls to "Yume ni Mukatte".
At their final show of the tour, at the O2 Academy in Brixton, Babymetal unexpectedly premiered a new song, "Road Of Resistance", on which Koba had collaborated with the guitarists of DragonForce. The decision to premier the song in England instead of Japan is said to have been at Yui's request.
EPISODE III (January 2015 – December 2015) Trilogy + Second Tour
After starting off the year with a show at Saitama Super Arena – which would turn out to be the first of three major concerts that relayed a message – the girls and Kami Band readied themselves for another Europe and North American tour. But before that, Yui and Moa needed to prepare for their graduation from Sakura Gakuin.That taken care of, to celebrate and promote the international release of their Self-Titled Album, Babymetal began their tour in Mexico City – to date the only time they have played in Latin America. Moa has mentioned that the city's high elevation (2240m or 7,350ft) took a lot of getting used to, since all three girls come from coastal areas.* They then performed a show at Toronto's Danforth Hall, the only time to date the band has held a headline concert in Canada (they played at the Heavy Montreal music festival in 2014), before playing their first music festival in the United States: Rock on the Range in Ohio.
On May 24th 2015, Babymetal briefly took a side-trip from their own tour to perform a set at Tokyo's MetRock festival. This performance is considered by many fans to be one of Babymetal's very best and was included as a bonus disc on the Limited release of their second album. That done, they headed for Europe for a week-long whirlwind of dates before returning to Japan. On June 21st, coincidentally the day after Yui's 16th birthday, they held a major headline concert at Makuhari Messe – the second part of their Trilogy series. After that, they spent the next two months playing their usual music festivals in Japan, as well as holding the Black and Red Masses – shows in which attendance was restricted by sex and dress code (Black Mass was men only with Corpsepaint, Red Mass was women only; both shows sold out).
The tour ended in December (one week before Suzuka's birthday) with two sold-out shows at Yokohama Arena* , and the debut of a new song, "THE ONE". At the end of the second night, Koba made the surprise announcement – even the girls didn't know much of this – of a second studio album to be released that coming April and a third world tour to support it. Plus, it turned out Babymetal's major shows – Saitama, Makuhari (Chiba), and Yokohama (Kanagawa) – formed a triangle, and the upcoming world tour would reach its finale at the point in the middle of that triangle: Tokyo Dome.
EPISODE IV (April 2016 – September 2016) Metal Resistance
On March 17th 2016, the music video for "Karate" debuted as the first part of a massive international promotion for their second studio album, Metal Resistance, which was released worldwide on April 1st – hitting #1 on the US Billboard World Chart and becoming the first Japanese act in 53 years to chart on Billboard's Top 40. The very next day, the band kicked off their third world tour with an almost-sold-out show at the iconic Wembley Arena (not the soccer stadium; the older former swimming hall next to it), the very first Japanese group to ever headline that venue. Three days after that, they flew to New York City to perform "Gimme Chocolate!" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert before continuing the their tour in Europe, which included a performance at Download UK – invited this time. Then, they returned to the United States, mostly playing venues on the East Coast, all of which sold out.
In mid-June, the girls performed at the Alternative Press music awards show in Los Angeles. This show was extremely bizarre even by Babymetal standards. First off, it is one of the very few times they had to perform in front of a (mostly) dead audience – they played "Karate", but the crowd, 95% of whom had not come to see them, simply wasn't into it. Second and more importantly, after that Babymetal was joined onstage by Rob Halford, longtime frontman of Judas Priest, who had met the group in 2014 and took an immediate shine to them. Rob and Su proceeded to demolish two Priest standards: a mashup of "Painkiller" and "Breaking the Law". In addition to the obvious insanity of the whole thing, this performance also showed the world how Suzuka performs without choreography: she paces the stage headbanging, and messed with Yui to get her to be less nervous. One viewer remarked Su acted like a child who'd just had something bigger than her biggest dream come true.
After that, the band returned to Japan to take part in the Rock In Japan music festival, which was notoriously hot and humid and sunny (Yui got sunburned), and – where else? – SummerSonic, although this time they only performed at the satellite show in Osaka, albeit headlining its Main Stage.
As had been promised at Yokohama, the tour ended in September with two sold-out nights at the 55,000 capacity Tokyo Dome. The gimmick of these shows was that each night had a completely different setlist; no song was repeated, and they went through all but two of their then-extant repertoire.* The first night, Red Night, marks the only time to date the band has performed "Tales of the Destinies" live.
Towards the end of the year, they opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers during RHCP's UK tour, which ended in London with drummer Chad Smith surprising Su-Metal with a cake, as her 19th birthday was the next day (Japan Time).
EPISODE V (January 2017 – October 2017) Opener And Fox Festivals
The year 2017 in general marked a significant shift for the band. Due in part to having earned the respect of higher profile bands, possibly due to having sunk a lot of money into the Tokyo Dome shows, plus Yui & Moa entering their final year of high school, the group began the year opening for their old friends Metallica in Seoul. However, the gig was arranged fairly late; Kami Band stalwarts BOH and Takayoshi had already reserved studio time that day and had to miss. BOH tweeted a photo of himself in the studio wearing a Babymetal shirt and giving the Fox-sign in solidarity.Not long after that, Babymetal performed four shows in Japan opening for Guns N' Roses.
In April, they rejoined their new friends in RHCP to be opening band again, this time touring the American South.
After that, Babymetal played their only headline show that year outside of Japan – a sold-out set at the historic Hollywood Palladium (at a capacity of 4,000 it is the largest indoor show they've played in the USA). This show was notable for being the live debut – and to date the only live performance – of "From Dusk Til Dawn".
In June, they opened for Korn on that group's tour of the Western USA. One gig, Chula Vista, happened to be on Yui's 18th birthday, which Su pointed out to the crowd, several of whom were wearing party hats.
In August, they played SummerSonic for the sixth year in a row, sub-headlining the Marine (main) Stage to the Foo Fighters – that band's drummer Dave Grohl had already gone on record as a fan of Babymetal.
September saw the group play a series of smaller-venue hourlong shows known as the Five Fox Festivals in Tokyo, Nagoya, Saitama, and Osaka. All of these had special attendance and dress rules – for example, the Black Fox Festival was men-only and the Red Fox Festival was women-only (not unlike Black Mass and Red Mass from two years earlier), while the Gold Fox Festival was restricted to minors and White Fox Festival required attendees to wear corpsepaint.
It is worth noting at this point that the girls gave no interviews at all in 2017 and only two video messages, both in English – one was to promote their appearance at SummerSonic, and the other (in which only Su spoke) was to thank their fans for winning Loudwire's "Most Dedicated Fanbase" award. This made it seem like the band had gone dark despite their extensive touring. That Babymetal also played no shows in Europe, where they have a large fanbase, was another contributing factor to this.
In October, the band played a two-day engagement called the Big Fox Festival. This was a full-length concert similar in style to Wembley or the Trilogy sets. While these concerts went off without a hitch, fans had begun to notice that Yui was looking increasingly wiped out in post-concert photos and her dancing was decidedly "off" during Big Fox – on point as always, but stiff, and she was smiling much less than before…
EPISODE VI (December 2nd & 3rd, 2017) LEGEND S - Baptism XX
Suzuka had long expressed a desire to perform in her hometown of Hiroshima. This two-day concert at Hiroshima's Green Arena was meant to be her triumphant return as she quickly approached her twentieth birthday – the age at which one becomes a legal adult in Japan. For the most part, it was. The production was, in some ways, even more elaborate than Tokyo Dome despite Green Arena having just over one-seventh the capacity – live piano, strings, and Taiko drums; a rolling sub-stage pulled by chain-wielding Fox Slaves; the small stage itself edged by six three-eyed-fox heads (the third eye contained lasers).In addition, Suzuka had prerecorded several minutes worth of narration, in English, to give the whole spectacle an added mysticism. She was perfectly understandable, even if what she was reading made absolutely no sense. note
There was only one problem. Less than six hours before the doors opened on the first day, management posted a note outside Green Arena saying that Yui would be absent due to an unspecified medical issue on the advice of her doctors. It was the first – but sadly not the last – time that Babymetal would perform without all three girls present.
Plus, although no one could have known it at the time, these two concerts would mark the final performance with Babymetal of another of the group's linchpins…
EPISODE VII (May 2018 – December 2018) Apocrypha, Hashtags, and Farewells
The sudden unexpected death of lead guitarist Mikio Fujioka from a fall while stargazing on New Year's Eve sent the entire fandom – and of course Team Babymetal itself – into a state of shock.On April 1st, 2018, the band posted a video to their Youtube channel entitled "Metal Resistance Episode VII – The Revelation". In the video, they announced that a "dark side" of Babymetal exists, "with seven metal spirits", and that a "new era is about to begin".
They also announced that a graphic novel entitled Apocrypha: The Legend of Babymetal would be released in October. Unusually for any Japanese group (except possibly this one), the book's original language is English. Koba himself is credited for the script, so don't expect it to make a lot of sense.
On May 1st, they announced via Twitter that they were launching their own record label, named Babymetal Records, and then the next day posted cryptic messages to their social media saying that "no one will know who, when, where, or how, the Chosen Seven will be presented, only the Fox God knows." They proceeded to upload more black and white teasers to their Instagram story over the next week labelled 1-7. Their latest single and music video "Distortion" was released on May 7th to much acclaim.
However, when their tour began in Kansas City (Missouri) the next evening, Yui was again absent, this time without any forewarning. Instead, two women – Minami Tsukui (佃井皆美), an actress whose specialty is high sweep-kicks and is best known for her work in the Kamen Rider franchise; and Minako Maruyama (丸山未那子), a member of choreographer Mikiko-sensei's dance troupe Elevenplay – filled in to an altered choreography. The lack of heads-up about Yui led to the twitter hashtag "#WhereIsYui" becoming a major trending topic, as well as rampant speculation that she had quit or been fired. The band's North American representative, 5B Management, stated that Yui remained a member of the group but would not be on the tour – this turned out to also include its European leg in early June. Amuse confirmed at its shareholders' meeting later that month that Yui was still with the agency and the band, really had been too infirm to perform, and "is recovering", but pointedly refused to give any more details – Japanese as a people are loathe to discuss health issues publicly and Yui would still legally be a minor until mid-2019. While Babymetal's twitter page did acknowledge Yui's birthday on June 20th, much to some fans' surprise, she has as of this edit not been photographed since October 2017 (the Big Fox Festivals in Tokyo and Osaka) or seen in public since she reportedly attended Mikio's funeral in January 2018.
Mikio's vacant spot has been filled by his friend and student Takayoshi Ohmura – already a longtime member of the Kami Band, he simply moved to the other side of the stage and used some of his mentor's equipment, although Leda covered for him on the American leg of the tour as Takayoshi had already scheduled shows with his own band during that time. Takayoshi's spot was taken over by Isao Fujita, a colleague of the Kami members who plays eight-string guitar (as opposed to the seven-string preferred by all the other Kami guitarists).
Babymetal skipped all their usual summer festival appearances in Japan – no MetRock, no Rock In Japan, and for the first time since 2012 no SummerSonic. However, towards the end of the Summer, shortly after the ticket lotteries for their October shows at Makuhari Messe and Kobe World Hall, they suddenly announced an additional concert in between those gigs – "Dark Night Carnival" with Swedish Power Metal band Sabaton and Star Wars themed metal band Galactic Empire (who would also open for them in Makuhari). In addition, it was revealed Babymetal would be opening for their old friends Judas Priest in Singapore – their first visit to the island since 2013 – in early December, before heading south to play at three open-air festivals in Australia (their very first official trip Down-Under). Babymetal happens to have a number of very dedicated Australian fans who'd been clamouring for years for the group to make an official appearance (Suzuka reportedly went to Oz in early 2016 for some studio work). Also, Moa had long expressed a desire to visit and perform there due to her love of koalas.
In the meantime, Amuse stated that Yui's presence at any of these shows was "still undecided". The original Japanese message specifically mentioned "poor physical health" but the English translation omitted that line.
All of this came to a head in October 2018. Days before the first of a series of five sold-out concerts in Japan, and mere hours after the release of their second single of the year, "Starlight" (generally believed to be a tribute to Mikio), Babymetal made the announcement everyone had feared: Yui had indeed left the band. In her own statement, she apologized to the staff and the fans and thanked everyone, while also stating her condition was still poor. She also mentioned she had "a dream from long ago" that she wanted to pursue, strongly hinting of plans to return to the spotlight once she can. As of the announcement of her departure, she remains under contract to Amuse itself, and made no mention of leaving the agency or entertainment, though rumours abounded immediately of her likely departing in April 2019 (the switchover of Amuse's fiscal year, and also less than 90 days before she'd become a legal adult in Japan).
The "2018 World Tour In Japan" would henceforth herald the "rebirth" of Babymetal as a duo of just Su and Moa.
…Except that's not quite how it turned out. The Japan shows employed five extra dancers, not all of whom were always on stage at the same time: Minami and Minako returned for these shows, along with three younger girls – Saya Hirai (平井沙耶), Kotono Ohmori (大森小都乃), and Shoko Akiyama – who had been in a previous dance troupe together. Those who saw the shows through grainy illegal livestreams, complained that Moa seemed to get lost in the crowd, although those who were there said the big-screen spent the majority of its camera time focused on Moa if Suzuka wasn't singing.
For the Singapore and Australia shows in early December 2018, Babymetal brought along only one extra dancer from that group. Research showed the third girl to be Saya, who happens to be the same school year as Moa and Yui. Eagle-eyed fans also noticed Saya wore a head-mic like Moa's, though she did not sing and her makeup was noticeably different than Su or Moa. She was, in general, received warmly by fans for these shows, particularly international fans (Japanese fan reaction was mixed). Naturally, speculation abounded as to whether Saya might become the official fill-in for Yui, with some even adding "-metal" to her name despite her not having been confirmed by Team Babymetal to even exist. note
The Australia shows went off without a hitch despite the blistering heat, and the immediate reaction from the local music press was glowing. After their adventure down-under, Babymetal returned to Japan with no info about Saya or news of the long-rumoured third album anywhere on the horizon.
As it turned out, Saya ended up joining a different Amuse-run group: Torahime Ichiza, the dinner theatre troupe which is also home to Hana Taguchi, Torahime's "youngest flower" who performed alongside Suzuka, Yui, and Moa in Sakura Gakuin. note
EPISODE VIII (April 2019 – December 2019) Lead-Up To Metal Galaxy
To open 2019, Babymetal's twitter posted art of an octahedron that looked suspiciously like something out of Neon Genesis Evangelion, accompanied with several hashtags, two of which – "Odyssey" and "Dawn" – were likely cryptic messages to something. Not long after, 5B Management tweeted to expect "Big Things" from Babymetal in 2019. What that meant, no one had any clue – perhaps the mythical third album or simply the band returning to Australia for the Big Things Festival they had played just over a month earlier. In February 2019, they announced a return to SummerSonic for the festival's 20th anniversary, sub-headlining the main stages in both Osaka and Tokyo.
There remained an open question as to what form Babymetal would take once it finally emerged from hibernation. Fans noted that while much of Babymetal's previous iconography incorporated triangles and/or foxes, the octahedron and the design of 2019's official fan club T-shirt suggest a square. note
On April 1st 2019, the expected annual announcement was… a countdown to another announcement to come at Noon JST on April 23rd, accompanied by a ticking octagon and the message "See You In Metal Resistance Episode VIII". Fiscal-Year 2019's THE ONE membership had already been announced to start on April 23rd and the annual goodie – a T-shirt this time – would begin to ship out.
Later in the day, the band's official outlets posted that there would indeed be a new album released sometime in 2019. In addition, the band also announced two major two-day engagements — "Babymetal Awakens ~ The Sun Also Rises", at the end of June at Yokohama Arena; and "Babymetal Arises ~ Beyond The Moon" the first weekend of July. The second of these happens to also be the much-hoped-for "LEGEND M" — celebrating Moa's 20th birthday in her hometown Nagoya. Babymetal had performed in Nagoya several times, but never at this particular venue. In addition, the day after the Yokohama concerts, Babymetal would perform at the mega-high-profile Glastonbury music festival in England.
Also as of April 1st 2019, "Suzuka Nakamoto" and "Moa Kikuchi" ceased to exist on Amuse's artist page, though they are still listed with their stage-names on Babymetal's. Also, much to the surprise and delight of many, Yui's artist page did not disappear, suggesting she might indeed return to entertainment at some point in the future, albeit not as part of Babymetal. During Amuse's annual shareholders' meeting in late June (coincidentally just after Yui's 20th birthday), Amuse's CEO said, unprompted, that Yui's health had improved to the point she had begun taking steps toward her new dream.
On April 11th, PMC Magazine released long-form interviews with Suzuka and Moa, the first either had given since shortly after Tokyo Dome. In the interviews, both girls admitted that Yui's departure made them extremely worried that fans would reject them (some in fact did, but most stayed onboard), and they had a difficult time on the American leg of Episode VII's tour, though they had regained their confidence by Europe. Moa in particular felt "off" – not so much for lack of Yui, but because the redone choreography meant she couldn't always see Su.
A week later, an unexpected leak of a photo taken a couple days earlier of Su and Moa in street clothes sitting together in an oversized chair and smiling by a pool at a hotel somewhere in California caused the fandom to rejoice, though the leaker self-flagellated himself out of existence and deleted the post, though not before hundreds of fans saved the photo. Why were they in California? Studio work to put finishing touches on the album? Well, just a few days later Babymetal's official site announced a major concert at The Forum (a historic sports & concert venue just outside Los Angeles), their first Arena show in North America, for October 11th 2019. Shortly after that, Babymetal announced a large tour of the United States from September through mid-October. This tour, 20 stops over 42 days, moving from east to west, would be a mix of cities and even venues they'd played before plus locations they'd never visited.
On June 26th, the band dropped a new single, "PA PA YA!!", an unusual song even by Babymetal standards because the bridge is rapped in Thai by Nattawut Srimhok, who goes by the stage name "Fucking Hero". He would be a special guest at the Yokohama shows where Suzuka called him "F-Hero". He brought his daughter to the shows. In addition to "PA PA YA!!", two brand-new songs premiered at Yokohama.
Immediately after the end of Yokohama 1st night, Babymetal's official accounts dumped a ton of information. First and most importantly, a name and date for the third album: Metal Galaxy, to be released the day of The Forum concert. Secondly, additional concert dates in Japan toward the end of the year – no real shock there. Thirdly, a significant European tour for early 2020, almost entirely in Northern Europe, but reaching several countries the band had never visited before, including every mainland Nordic nation. The tour would end at the beginning of March 2020 with two shows in Russia (where it turns out Babymetal has a significant but largely isolated fanbase): Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
Reaction to the Yokohama shows were far more positive than the previous year's Japan shows, though there was still grumbling about the short setlist – 13 songs – and lack of solos (for anyone). Plus the first night's show started 40 minutes late, unusual for Babymetal. Their costumes were a mix of the "Classic" style and the more adult "Dark-side" style – dresses rather than tutus, accented with iridescent mother-of-pearl bits to simulate nebulae and galaxies. Su and Moa also wore their hair in the "Classic" style again. These shows also continued the three-girl lineup from the Singapore and Australia shows, though onscreen text made it clear that Yui's empty slot would be filled randomly by one of three (officially nameless) girls and Babymetal itself remained a duo.
As it happened, the first girl to appear was Riho Sayashi, one of Suzuka's contemporaries from Actor's School Hiroshima – she's five months younger than Su – and a former member of Hello! Project. Riho did not dance in Yui's slot at the second Yokohama show. The dancer on the second day was, to the shock of literally everyone, Kano Fujihira, then serving as Sakura Gakuin's Student Council President (a position Su and Moa also held in their respective final years in the unit). Kano's participation was confirmed in a cryptic tweet by Amuse's mascot. Concertgoers mentioned that the other eleven Sakura Girls also attended the show. The third dancer was unexpectedly revealed during a performance at the Super Slippa 10 music festival in Taiwan in early August. Jaws dropped further when fans realized it was Momoko Okazaki, another Sakura Gakuin member who had aged out in March 2018 but then promptly disappeared to study abroad.
It's worth noting here that Kano and Momoko had been two-thirds of Sakura Gakuin's unofficial "Excitement Club", Kyoufu no Iei Gundan or K.Y.G (tr: Dreadful Yay Corps) – the loudest, most ill-behaved, and most energetic members the unit had ever known. Babymetal fans who were also Fukei (Sakura Gakuin supporters) reasoned that, Riho aside, only KYG were likely to have the energy to keep up with Suzuka and Moa. It's also worth noting that, to date, none of the Avengers have worn head-microphones, despite the fact that all of them are known to be fine singers.
Shortly after Momoko's reveal, Babymetal's website (and Amuse's online store A!Smart) revealed Metal Galaxy's tracklist for all versions of the album (there are at least five). It turned out that once again Suzuka had recorded an English version of one song for the international edition — this time it was "Elevator Girl".
The Japanese editions of Metal Galaxy released on October 8th and the album quickly made #3 on Japan's Oricon chart. It also managed three days later to crack the Top 20 in Germany, Australia, Canada, Britain, and the USA (where it hit 13).
The band also claimed a sell-out of The Forum – well, they sold every ticket they put up for sale; most of the top tier of the arena was curtained off. The concert, consisting of Japan-style lasers, lights, and pyrotechnics, was by far the most impressive show the group had put on in North America as well as one of their longest at a full hour and a half. Momoko and Riho switched off as Avengers during the performance (Kano stayed in Japan to, among other things, prepare for 2019's Sakura Gakuin Festival being held the next weekend). Unfortunately, the planned simulcast in Japan, for which the start time in Los Angeles was delayed over an hour, ended up being cancelled in many cinemas due to Typhoon 19.
Immediately after The Forum concert wrapped, Babymetal announced three new tour dates in Asia in late-March 2020 – Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, in addition to a previously known show in Taipei. Plus two extra Japan shows to start off January 2020.
While Moa has been unusually candid (by Babymetal standards) about her desire to show the group's maturity and also having direct input in 2019's costumes, the girls pointedly refused to say if the Avengers situation was permanent or if any of the Avengers would ever earn a microphone and pigtails. She was, as usual, much more anxious to talk about food.
EPISODE IX (January 2020 – March 2020) Promotion and Pandemic
Now, technically, the usage of the term "Episode IX" can be seen on THE ONE edition of LEGEND M. However, considering Episode VIII hadn't started at that point, one can infer that was a mistake on Koba's part. Wouldn't be the first time.Anyway, Babymetal kicked off their tenth year of existence with a bang, playing a two-night stand at Makuhari Messe (which by that point had become kind of Babymetal's go-to venue in Kanto) called LEGEND METAL GALAXY. Like Tokyo Dome just over three years earlier, each night had a completely different setlist – listed after the fact as "Sun" (Night 1) and "Moon" (Night 2). It also featured something nobody expected: all three Avengers on stage at the same time during "Road Of Resistance" and "Ijime, Dame, Zettai". In addition, both Kami Bands appeared, and have become semi-officially known as the "Kamis of the East" and "Kamis of the West".
Later in 2020, this show was released on video and CD; it holds the distinction for being Babymetal's only live show to-date to receive a general album release (they have plenty of other live albums, but they're traditionally limited to THE ONE video editions of those same shows, and a later digital release maybe).
A couple weeks later, the band embarked upon what was intended to be the first leg of their European Tour. Like with the US Tour, the Western Kamis joined the girls. Unlike the US Tour, where Riho and Momoko switched off just about every other gig, this time Riho performed the entirety of the first half of the tour while Momoko took over for the second half. Fan speculation is this was due to Riho taking a role in a play and needing to return to Japan to rehearse. Kano of course did not participate in the tour at all due to preparing for Sakura Gakuin's traditional Winter shows as well as her own graduation.
The tour concluded in Moscow at the beginning of March and the girls returned to Japan to rest and prepare for the next legs of their tour, which the band's social media implied would build up to something spectacular that October for Babymetal's 10th Anniversary.
Less than a week later, a novel coronavirus that probably came from the illegal animal trade at a wet-market in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 – closely related to the virus that spawned Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong two decades earlier and thus named SARS-CoV2 by scientists, causing a disease now known as COVID19 – jumped international borders and started a worldwide pandemic the likes of which had not been seen in a century (specifically the incorrectly-named "Spanish Flu" of 1918/19). Almost overnight, the entire world shut down as economies ground to a near-halt amid countries imposing lockdowns of varying degrees.
Obviously the first thing to go in such a situation is live shows. Babymetal's highly anticipated mini-tour of Southeast Asia meant to take place in April (which would have seen them reunite with F-Hero at the Bangkok show) was cancelled. So were all the summer festivals in Japan. So was the second leg of the European tour which would have sent the girls through Southern Europe visiting countries they had either never been to before (Spain) or had not been to in years (Italy).
While COVID-19 did not hit Japan nearly as hard as other parts of the world – one of the perks of being an island nation with a long history of isolationism plus a cultural inclination to wearing facemasks – Amuse still acted aggressively to protect its talent by cancelling in-person shows, even all-seaters where mask mandates could be easily enforced (see Sakura Gakuin). Along with Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal encouraged fans to stay home, adopting the mantra "Stay Home, Stay Metal".
Of course, even amidst a worldwide shutdown, the group's already-scheduled DeLoreans came out as planned. Koba also took the opportunity to hawk branded facemasks.
During the shutdown, Riho announced she had joined a new agency (she was a free-agent in 2019) and would be starting solo activities as soon as possible. Meanwile Kano, stuck in a holding pattern limbo while Sakura Gakuin tried to figure out how to hold its annual graduation, focused on her activities with @onefive, leaving Momoko as the only Avenger known to still be on-call (though it's highly likely Kano would return if able; she adores Moa).
Episode X (October 2020 – present) The End? The Beginning? OTFGK
On "XXXX Day", October 10th, Babymetal announced a "Best Of" album with songs chosen in a bracket voting system by fans, the songs being remastered by Grammy-winning engineer Ted Jensen (he met Koba and the girls years earlier when he mastered the Budokan discs). They also announce a streaming-only concert to be held right before Christmas 2020 at the iconic Rock-May-Kan underground stage. This was personal for Koba; he loves the place due to its history and his own history with it – Babymetal held its first solo live there in 2012 – and with the pandemic pushing the famously cramped club to the brink of closure, Koba jumped at the opportunity to help it recover. For reasons unknown to anyone sane, though some have suggested it had to do with Japanese Law, in order to actually support Rock-May-Kan and see the livestream of the show, one had to already be a THE ONE member and buy a T-shirt.The Rock-May-Kan benefit show, which lasted about 40 minutes not counting the short interview segment near the end, was pre-filmed, had no audience (of course), and – for the first time in years – no Kami Band likely due to the extremely small size of RMK's stage. One of the songs performed was "Doki Doki Morning", which Su had not sung live in over four years. Amusingly, in doing so she proved Moa's assertion from an interview the previous week that Suzuka could alter her voice to sound like she was still 13. Worth noting that the intrumental backtrack at this show for their oldest songs sounded wildly different from the first album, much heavier, meaning Koba had taken the time to re-record things.
Sometime during the next two weeks, Babymetal performed on NHK's "Songs Of Tokyo" festival. Their set (which had a couple songs cut, as is standard for TV broadcasts) aired in the first slot on the first day: October 24th.
In November 2020, Babymetal confirmed they had been invited to perform on NHK's 71st annual New Year's Eve broadcast, 「紅白歌合戦」 Kouhaku Uta Gassen (tr: "Red & White Song Festival"). This was a very big deal – Since Japanese usually stay home that evening, Kouhaku is one of the most-watched shows of the year, and typically only the biggest names are invited. Perfume has performed during the show on several occasions, for instance. Coincidentally, Suzuka had written in a Sakura Gakuin diary way back in 2012 that one of her dreams was to perform on Kouhaku. They performed a shortened version of "Ijime, Damé, Zettai".
Momoko was the Avenger at ALL of these performances.
Anyway, at the end of the RMK show, Babymetal announced a series of ten shows at The Budokan spread across 2021 – the first six occurring during the Winter — the Olympics set to take place that Summer after a year's delay meant it'd be off-limits for concerts for over a month (Budokan is a martial arts venue first & foremost and was built for the previous Tokyo Olympics in 1964), so the final four shows whose dates were not announced would certantly take place after.
When 10 Babymetal Years hit stores on December 23rd, it ranked #2 on Oricon's Album Chart for its first week, equaling the position Metal Resistance had reached in 2016. There is general agreement amongst the fanbase that Koba's pandemic-forced (and possibly higher-ups-imposed) decision to refocus Babymetal's attention on the domestic market helped sales by increasing awareness with the broader Japanese public.
Oh, and Suzuka got to spend time with her dai-sempais in Perfume again on New Year's Eve. Always a plus.
As of this edit, SARS-CoV2 is still running rampant across the world despite the existence of at least three effective vaccines (mass inoculation takes time), and Japan has restricted foreign entry into the country until April 2021 at the earliest.
What's next for Babymetal? Well, Only The Fox-God Knows.
