E-girls
E-girls was a Japanese collective girl group created and managed by LDH while signed to music label Rhythm Zone from Avex. As of 2017, the band consisted of 11 members; 8 of which featured members of groups Happiness and Flower. Created as a sister act to boy band Exile, E-girls debuted in 2011 with their single "Celebration". After a string of promotional recordings, E-girls released their debut record Lesson 1 two years later. In 2013, their single "Gomennasai no Kissing You" catapulted the girls into commercial success, selling over 100,000 units, and its parent album Colorful Pop, was met with positive reviews and high performance on the Oricon Albums Chart.
With several members departing from the group, E-girls released their third album E.G. Time, which saw a change in their music and vocal deliveries. That same year, LDH announced changes to their line-up, which resulted in the absence of some members from their singles "Anniversary!!" and "Dance Dance Dance". Beginning the year with their greatest hits album E.G. Smile: E-girls Best, the group announced their E.G. Pop and E.G. Cool themes with the singles "E.G. Summer Rider", "Pink Champagne" and "Go! Go! Let's Go!". Their fourth album, E.G. Crazy, was released in January 2017.
Beginning as a Japanese idol group, E-girls have branched out and conceive a variety of different appeals and cultures as their career progressed, and have become one of the most prominent girl groups in Japanese music. Additionally, their musical style, starting off as soft J-pop and dance music, began to expand as following albums were released. Since their debut, three sub-units have been formed by selected members from E-girls, and have explored both music and fashion endeavours. The group disbanded at the end of 2020.
History
2011–2012: Debut and single releases
In 2011, Japanese boy band Exile held a nationwide audition event for young female artists. Originally, the event was to find members for the dance group named Flower, which was conducted by LDH and already featured four members, but they decided to also scope for a new dance and vocal group titled Bunny. After recruiting dancers Nozomi Bando and Harumi Sato, and three vocalists Reina Washio, Kyoka Ichiki, and Chiharu Muto, Exile's Hiro—the head producer and CEO of LDH—announced the "Girls Entertainment Project", which was later changed to E-Girls; he confirmed that it would consist of all members from Dream, Happiness, and Flower. Bunny were not originally formed as part of E-Girls, and were to debut separately in 2013, but they never carried out any activities. Following their formation, E-girls consisted of 21 members. On 28 December 2011, the group debuted with their single "Celebration", which peaked inside the top ten on the Oricon Singles Chart. Sayaka Yamamoto became the first member of E-girls to leave the group, and subsequently her band Dream; her promise commenced in March 2012.The following year, they released their second single "One Two Three" in April, which performed moderately on the charts than their former recording. For the release, two new members were added into the band: Reina Kizu and Anna Suda, both coming from EGD, a dance group formed at the Exile Professional Gym Academy. On 25 April, E-girls were invited to perform their new single at MCountdown Hello Japan ～MCountdown One Asia Tour 2012～, a live event at Saitama Super Arena hosted by the Korean music program MCountdown. Before the preparation of their follow-up number "Follow Me", Happiness member Mayu Sugieda went on hiatus in August to undergo medical treatment after being diagnosed with infectious mononucleosis. Furthermore, LDH added several more members into E-girls, including the girls from the un-debuted Bunny group and EGD dancers. In total, E-girls consisted of 31 members, with Dream's Sayaka Yamamato, and Happiness' Mimu Hioki and Sugeida on hiatus. Having said this, LDH announced new regulations to have each member train to each following single release in order to feature in the line-up; for example, only 16 of the 31 members appeared on the jacket covers for "Follow Me". The single was released on in October 2012, and was a commercial success in Japan, shifting 500,000 digital units. Not long after, Happiness member Mimu Hioki left the group in October.
2013: ''Lesson 1'' and rise of popularity
In early 2013, three members from Bunny left E-Girls. Additionally, EGD member Ruri Kawamoto and an original performer named Momoka Nakajima joined E-Girls and made their first performing appearance in their single "The Never Ending Story", which the band's name de-capitalized to E-girls. It was a commercial success, reaching number two on the Oricon chart, and became their first feature to included all 29-members on the jacket covers. The following hit, "Candy Smile", performed moderately on the charts but earned a Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan. Additionally, Kawamoto was promoted as a vocalist and sang the B-side "Love Letter", marking her the first E-girls member to change positions. On 17 April, the girls promoted their debut record Lesson 1, which sold numerous units on the Oricon Albums Chart, debuting at number one and charted over 70 non-consecutive weeks. This was the final effort by EGD member Reina Kizu, whom left the group some months later; her position was replaced officially by Nakajima.Happiness' member Mayu Sugieda returned to the group after recovering from her illness, and joined all 29 members for the single's jacket covers and visual for "Gomennasai no Kissing You". This was the final single with Flower member Elina Mizuno, the first release with Anna Suda and Kawamoto as members of Happiness, and the first visual to feature Nakajima since replacing Kizu. A commercial success, it became the girls first physical track to ship over 100,000 copies, and won the Japanese MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography, alongside a nomination for Best Japanese act at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards. In October that year, EGD member Marina Watanabe joined the girl group as a stand-in performer. However, her position was allocated as a primary performer when member Mizuno signed off from E-girls, and Watanabe was featured in the promotional shoot for the groups following number, "Kurukuru". The single became the group's highest first week sales, shifting approximately 69,087 units. At the end of 2013, the group were given the opportunity to appear on several year-end shows in Japan, and were subsequently invited to Kōhaku Uta Gassen. There, they performed a special medley of their songs.
2014–2015: Individual activities, ''Colorful Pop'', ''E.G. Time'', line-up changes and further work
In early 2014, Dream's Aya Takamoto was appointed as the leader of E-girls. Subsequently, each member started to embark on several separate endeavours from the group; 10 of the group's members: Shizuka, Kaede, Karen Fujii, Anna Suda, Shuuka Fujii, Nozomi Bando, Harumi Sato, Kyoka Takeda, Anna Ishii, and Nonoka Yamaguchi, each starred in one episode of the drama A Perfect Day for Love Letters. The opening number to the show was the E-girls single "Diamond Only", which experienced success on the Oricon charts. Despite previous commercial endorsements, it brought the girls more endorsement deals with fashion and lifestyle products. Released as their final single to their second album Colorful Pop, which was released on 19 March, the latter format garnered success on the Oricon Albums Chart and became their second consecutive album to debut at number one. In order to promote the record, E-girls commenced their first national tour between July and August, titled "Colorful Land".In April that year, Mayu Sugeida and Kyoka Takeda left their respective groups Happiness and Bunny, alongside their departure from E-girls; this made Sugeida the second vocalist after Dream's Sayaka Yamamoto to leave E-girls. From June that year, E-girls released three singles consecutively, one per month; the first was "E.G. Anthem: We Are Venus", which included all members and vocalists on the jacket covers and accompanying music video. The following number was "Odoru Ponpokorin", which premiered on 30 July and experienced moderate sales in the charts and featured 14-elected members for the cover art. It used as the opening theme song to the TV anime Chibi Maruko Chan. The third single from their album E.G. Time was "Highschool Love", which was released on 10 September. Like "Odoru Ponpokorin", the single was featured in the Fuji TV drama "Great Teacher Onizuka". While preparing for promotion to their single "Mr. Snowman", Flower member and vocalist Chiharu Muto left E-girls to study abroad but ended up launching her own fashion line; she left in November, the same month that the single was released. At the end of the year, E-girls were invited to Kōhaku Uta Gassen for the second time where they performed their song "Highschool Love". They were also part of the line-up for the performers at the FNS Song Festival.
On 1 January 2015, the band released the physical editions of E.G. Time. The record was commercially success, becoming their third number one on the Oricon charts. However, on 27 January, the staff at LDH announced a new line-up system titled the E-girls Pyramid, which showed each member in the band and their respective sub-groups. With that said, six of the then-remaining 26 members were moved out of E-girls and into either the yet-to-debut groups Rabbits and Bunnies for further training; Yuzuna Takebe, the youngest singer in E-girls, was removed from the line-up and placed in Rabbits. After this, the girls held their second nationwide tour titled "Colorful World" between February and March. With the new line-up set, E-girls started recording new material for their new album by promoting the single "Anniversary!!". Dream member Ami announced her solo debut, concurring with the activities in E-girls and Dream. In October that year, it was confirmed via LDH that Dream member Erie Abe would graduate from being a performer and singer to become a disc jockey for some of the group's future releases and live performances. That same month, Flower member Kyoka Ichiki announced her departure from both groups; this made Flower a six-member unit, and left Reina Washio the only remaining vocalist in the group.
Because of Ichiki's departure, LDH re-added ex-Rabbits' member Yuzuna Takebe to E-girls, but only attributed as a performer until the following year. Once again, the group was invited to their third appearance at Kōhaku, where they performed their single "Dance Dance Dance" as well as another year-end special on Japan's CDTV where they revealed a new song from their then-upcoming greatest hits album E.G. Smile: E-girls Best, titled "Dance With Me Now!". The single premiered as a promotional recording and achieved success on the Japan Hot 100 chart. It was their last release within 2015.