V6

V6 is a six-member Japanese boy band formed by Johnny & Associates. The group debuted on November 1, 1995 with the single "Music for the People", which was used as the image song for the World Cup of Volleyball in 1995. Their first four singles, including "Music for the People", were all cover versions of the same-titled eurobeat songs composed by Italian producers such as Giancarlo Pasquini, Andrea Leonardi, Alberto Contini, Sandro Oliva.

Similar to their agency seniors Hikaru Genji, the group is separated into two subgroups based on age. For V6, the group is split into 20th Century and Coming Century, which consists of the three oldest members and three youngest members respectively.

History

[edit]Name

In an interview on Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ, the group stated that the "V" in V6 also stood for "Versus" (20th Century versus Coming Century) at first. However, then-presidentJohnny Kitagawa informed the group that the "V" had multiple meanings, such as "Volleyball", "Vegetable" (as Sakamoto's parents own a green grocers), "Bicycle" ("V" and "B" are indistinguishable in Japanese; Nagano's parents own a cycling store) and "Veteran".^[1]

[edit]1995—present

From 1997 to 2008, V6 hosted their own variety show Gakkō e Ikō (学校へ行こう Let's Go to School^?)^[2] and is hosting Viva Viva V6 since 2001 on Fuji TV.^[3] Along with their group shows, the members also have individual TV shows, dramas or radio programs.

V6 celebrated their tenth year anniversary in 2005, commemorating the event by holding about thirty concerts in sold-out arenas all over Japan, holding 3 major "Thank You Events", releasing the movie Hold Up Down and releasing Musicmind as their new album. They also had a rare "Handshake Session" with hundreds of thousands of fans in Tokyo, Nagoya,Osaka and Fukuoka.^[4]

As separate bands, both of them performed the opening song for the anime, Eyeshield 21. Coming Century performed "Breakthrough", the first opening theme song and 20th Century performed "Innocence", the second opening theme song. As V6, they performed "Chain of Power" as an insert song. They also sang "Change the World" and "Brand New World", the 1st opening and 8th ending themes, respectively of the popular anime InuYasha

[edit]Members

20th Century (Tonisen)

	Profile	Nickname	Member Color
Masayuki Sakamoto (坂本 昌行 Sakamoto Masayuki?) (leader of V6, Tonisen)	born July 24, 1971, Tokyo, Blood Type O	Ma-kun, Riidaa (leader)	■ Blue
Hiroshi Nagano (長野 博 Nagano Hiroshi?)	born October 9, 1972, Yamato, Kanagawa, Blood Type A	Hiroshi, Nagano-kun	■ Purple
Yoshihiko Inohara (井ノ原 快彦 Inohara Yoshihiko?)	born May 17, 1976, Tokyo, Blood Type A	Inocchi	■ Green

Coming Century (Kamisen)

	Profile	Nickname	Member Color
Go Morita (森田 剛 Morita Gō?) (leader of Kamisen)	born February 20, 1979, Kasukabe, Saitama, Blood Type A	Go-kun, Go-tsun	■ Red
Ken Miyake (三宅 健 Miyake Ken?)	born July 2, 1979, Kanagawa, Blood Type O	Ken-kun, Ken-chan	■ Orange
Junichi Okada (岡田 准一 Okada Jun'ichi?)	born November 18, 1980, Hirakata, Osaka, Blood Type B	Jun-kun, Okada-kun	■ Yellow