History of Perfume, The Techno Pop Unit who changes people’s feeling

Welcome to Perfume World!

Well, after a long thought about this I decided to write this article. I’ll dedicate this article to Perfume so that many people can know their hardworks and passions. There are so many idol group in Japan and no one ever caught my attention. It was this group who can tempt me like this. At first, I like their dancing style. But after I hear all of their musics, I become attached to this kind of music. This techno pop music is very well composed and make people who hear it feel strong and happy. Their succesful streaks weren’t easy to get. I think I will tell the history of this group named Perfume. How they can be so famous like nowadays? How can they attract so many people to come see them? How can they become popular like this? I’ll explain it in the next paragraph.

Well, at first Perfume consisted of Kashiyuka, A-chan, and Kawayuka. They picked this name(Perfume), because in their name there is a “fragrance” japanese character. But not long after that, Kawayuka decided to leave this group and made her new group. At that time, A-chan discussed about this sudden decision with her mom. Her mom told her to find a new member because “Three members group is better than two members group”. Therefore, A-chan found Ayano Oomoto known as Nocchi. A-chan kept silent about this until Nocchi joined the group and told Kashiyuka that Kawayuka had left the group and Nocchi came to join the group. They kept their previous group name but changed the meaning of this group’s name(Perfume means that they want people to feel their fragrance of their songs and be happy with it *and yes it caught me lol*). A-chan, Kashiyuka, and Nocchi were members of Hiroshima Actor’s School and all of them were born in Hiroshima. At that time, I believe they were still at 10 or 11 years old. Then there was this chance that will change their future. The chance was a TV show called Club TK. In there, they were offered to dance “Mickey Mouse Club” song. And they did it, but nobody still recognized who is Perfume. Then there are another chance which was a dance tournament. They applied with three of their friends(that makes a total of six) to that tournament. And they won the first place on that tournament. However, this tournament is only in a small scale. So, their name still won’t be recognized by Japanese people. After all of that efforts, Perfume kept finding a lot of dancing job. They will follow someone singing in mall with their dancing skills. With that lot of hardworks, a producer from Amuse was giving a good signal for them. They were told to make an indies single in 2002. I believe the title was “Omajinai Peroni”. After that, they released some of indies single but their popularity wasn’t going up a single bit and people still didn’t know who are they. The only area that people were beginning to recognize them was Hiroshima or their local area. They didn’t give up and moved into Tokyo leaving their parents to broaden their image there. In Tokyo, they joined “Bee-Hive” which was formed under Amuse label. That was the first time “Perfume Introduction” was made. And around that time, they met someone who will change their future drastically. This person’s name is Yasutaka Nakata. Their manager told Nakata to make some songs for them, and Nakata agreed with that. They still released indies single until Vitamin Drops Single. All of this songs weren’t enough to make them popular. Because of this, Amuse decided to make them more idol-like and made a new song called “Akihabalove”. But even this song won’t make them recognized by a lot of people. They appeared in a lot of events, but only a few people were there. A-chan was going to give up and was crying asking why did this happen to them. Why won’t people recognize them despite their hardworks. A-chan wanted to give her parents happiness and a lot of money with her became famous, but this won’t happen. Nocchi wrote a lot of wishes in her note, how she wanted to fulfilled that wishes. In this middle of hard time, Amuse made a big sudden decision. Amuse made Perfume going to Major Debute. This was like a hit and go.

In 2005, Perfume began their Major Debute. First, they released Linear Motor Girl single. Then, they released Computer City single followed with Electro World single. People began to recognize their passions and called them “Near Future Techno Pop Unit”. But even with these three singles won’t make their sales going up. The reality was so hard to be fought. They never had a big budget for marketing or an eye catching exposure on media. They were doing a small event in the corner of CD stores and some other places. They even told the customers that “They are Perfume and they would be happy if the customers even remembered their name”. They were handing out the fliers to their fans by themselves. Three years after they came into Tokyo, they were still low profiled. Many people still didn’t recognize who were they. On 2nd August 2006, their first album “Perfume ~ Complete Best” was released. The album consisted of their previous single collections which weren’t made a good sales before. That time, it was rumoured that the group would break up. Okite Porsche from Roman Porsche said that they must do something for Perfume so they won’t dissapear without a hit. Although he wasn’t a staff of Perfume, but he seriously thought that he had to do something to make Perfume popular. He believed this same desperation was shared by all the fans of Perfume too. However, the girls began to prove that the fans’s fear were useless. Their number of fans continued to increased as they were doing a lot of small but tenacious live events. Their name began to be recognized by Japanese people. Moreover, the numbers of views on Youtube skyrocketed, while the popularity on net exploded. Those situations drastically changed the types of people gathered at their live events. People who know clubs or art creations were fascinated with their excellent sounds and high quality of the videos. There were various types of people who attends their live events and became their fans. There were people who liked them as an idol and there were some people who liked their musics too. Because of their experience on their previous performances, their skills have been polished so well for the live act. Because of this sudden changes, people started to say something began to change. At that time, year 2006 ended with a strange expectation.

In the beginning of 2007, Nocchi told the fans that she had “a little bad luck” from the fortune telling on a shrine. So she believed that year 2007 started with a little bad luck for Perfume. These girls never imagined that year 2007 was the beginning of their turning point on their life. A-chan said that Perfume got a little bad luck which won’t beat them and they will go strong, so wish them luck. While the members of Bee-Hive who shared their sorrows and joys with Perfume started to lost their contracts, Perfume make a new song called “Chocolate Disco”. With Nakata Yasutaka as director of this song and Kazuaki Seki as the art director of this song, one artist responded to this video. It was Kaela Kimura who played this song over and over in her radio program. Then, a CM director, who accidentally listened to Kaela’s radio program made an unprecedented offer to Perfume. Since then, a series of unexpected event started to happen. It was the 8th summer for Perfume, and they started booming everywhere. They were on the TV, newspaper, and every media. They were called to many various events held to make an appearance. And thanks to the niconicovideo of game graphics with Perfume song, “Perfume ~ Complete Best” CD took the first place in the Amazon chart amazingly 5 months after its release. They performed in the Summer Sonic’07 and NHK recycle campaign song “Polyrhythm” released which grabbed 4th place in the Oricon chart on the day of the release with 7th place in the weekly chart. The girls with dreams, came to Tokyo at the age of only fourteen. After a long time of tenacious efforts, they started to make their way to the pop star. With their polite introduction and their repetitive musics grown into their fans. A lot of people began to find news about these girls. And like you see right now, they are really famous. They were asked “Did they ever try to give up before and if yes, how did you overcome it?” and Nocchi was the one who answered that they wanted to try hard as Perfume. They are glad to have this group and Kashiyuka told that they could come this far because they were these three. This is a story about three girls, having gone through the times of pain and desperation. Towards the future they will run faster and get higher.

Well, that’s the story. Whew, this is definitely the longest article I’ve ever made by myself lol. They don’t get this popularity easily. This story makes me realize that nothing comes if you didn’t take a lot of hardworks. When you get something with a lot of hardworks, then that things will not come off easily from your hands. But you will make a lot of continuous effort to pretend that things with you. With this story sets up on my mind, I will grab a chance that is in front of me. And with that chance I will make something good happen. Don’t give up and fight with your dream like “Dream Fighter”. I hope this story can make you realize your own dream.

Dream Fighter Translation(Credits to PerfumeCity):
The fact that we take an endless trip
for our best
is surely the proof that we are alive, so
oh yeh, even if we’re nearly defeated
by reality and fall down
we’ll surely look forward and walk ahead Dream Fighter

Hey, everyone says, “ordinary”
After all, in fact, this maybe
Not straight but close to ideal
but I can’t be satisfied with ordinary yet
until the moment i can think if we can be like this forever
we’ll go ahead far far away
the fact that we take an endless trip for our best
is surely the proof that we are alive
so even if you have obstacles or something
it’s because you surely have enough power
that you never would give up forever, so we’ll keep running too
yeh, even if you drop tears, they are all your treasures too
we’ll surely look forward and walk ahead Dream Fighter

Hey, everyone says, “future”
after all, in fact, this maybe
not completely dark but illuminating
but I can’t be satisfied with ordinary yet
until the moment i can think if we can be like this forever
we’ll go ahead far far away
the fact that we take an endless trip for our best
is surely the proof that we are alive, so
so even if you have obstacles or something
because you surely have enough power
that you never would give up forever, so we’ll keep running too
yeh, even if you drop tears, they are all your treasures too
oh yeh, even if we are nearly defeated by reality and fall down
we’ll surely look forward and walk ahead Dream Fighter