Another spin-off group “DiVA” is debuting from AKB48
Now, AKB48 has become the paramount top young female idol group in Japan and has produced several spin-off groups, some of which I have referred to here. And now, the newest group of such is announced to debut from Avex http://avexnet.jp/index.html on coming April. 27th on this Feb.27th at the AKB48 Theater. The name of this ramified unit is “DiVA”, whose members are four members of AKB, namely, Sayaka Akimoto(/秋元才加), Ayaka Umeda(/梅田彩佳), Sae Miyazawa(/宮澤佐江), and Yuka Masuda(/増田有華) .
As I wrote here before, Akimoto successfully finished the Tokyo Marathon 2011 http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2011/02/28/tokyo-marathon-2011-being-held/ ,and declared to come cack as captain of Team K of AKB (Umeda and Miyazawa are also members of team K ,while Masuda is a member of Team B). At this re-inaugural announcement of hers , Akimoto notifed fans of the “formal” debut of DiVA as well. This is because ,strictly speaking, DiVA kind of debuted last October singing “Nakeru Basho”(/泣ける場所, a place where I can cry) the coupling track of “Beginner” , AKB’s 18th single CD. Yet this time with a new member of Miyazawa, the new DiVA is going to fully and formally debut.
Akimoto and Miyazawa are called “The Twin Towers” of AKB, as both of them are quite tall. The two girls were also members of “Chocolove from AKB48″, the first spin-off group of AKB. Umeda was the Image Girl of Tokyo Tower 2010 and Masuda, who often performs as an actor in movies and plays as well, had debuted as a solo ” ani-son singer” with “Stargazer”, the theme song of an fantasy action anime, “Ikkitousen XTREME XECUTOR~Yume Rokkei~”(/一騎当千 XTREME XECUTOR ~ユメ六景~).
Umeda notifed Miyazawa’s joining the group, Akimoto tells they are striving for becoming musicians showing different tastes from those of AKB , Masuda tells they are determined to try to do anything not to get fans bored as all of the four members have distinct characters respectively, and Miyazawa, being absent from the announcement, sent a message to the fans, saying they hope the new group to be a good rival of AKB.