SixTones

Did You Know?

• Johnny Kitagawa named the group "SixTones", initially as "Six Tones".
• The "stones" pronunciation refers to "diamond in the rough".
• The name also refers to six members each with a distinctive tone, personality and sound.

History

In 2011, not long after Sexy Zone debuted, the six future members were back dancers for A.B.C-Z and Hey! Say! JUMP. By February 2012, while still dancing in A.B.C-Z’s stage play ABC Za, they joined the Nippon Television drama Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou. That show marked the first time Johnny’s talents and AKB48 members acted together. They later returned for its sequel and the film Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou: The Movie, both in 2012. At that point, the six weren’t an official unit, but fans called them Bakareya6 or Bakareya-gumi while the drama aired. After a talk with Johnny Kitagawa, the Johnny’s Jr. Johnny’s Dome theater: Summary was announced—one of the rare shows where Juniors took the lead. At the year-end Fresh Johnny’s Jr. concert in Yokohama Arena, clips from the drama played alongside the original soundtrack, Kis-my-ft2’s “Shake It Up.” In January 2013, after they performed Kat-Tun’s “Six Senses” on Shounen Club, the unofficial Bakareya6 group dissolved. The members split into a 2:4 setup: Jesse and Hokuto Matsumura performed apart from the other four. The pair got many appearances, while the rest had fewer chances, sometimes only appearing individually on The Shounen Club. A planned six-member show at Live House Johnny’s Ginza was also changed to the same 2:4 split. In August 2014, five members (excluding Jesse) performed at Johnny’s Ginza 2014. The six came back together for a performance of Kis-my-ft2’s “Shake It Up” at Gamushara J’s party‼ vol.4 in May 2015—their first time as a six-member unit in eighteen months. Afterward, in a magazine interview, Hokuto Matsumura and Taiga Kyomoto said that show felt like a close to their Bakareya period. Yet the next month, Gamushara J’s party!! Vol. 6 was announced, featuring Genki Iwahashi, Yuta Jinguji, and Yuta Kishi alongside the six members.