S/mileage and Babyraids? No! ANGERME and Babyraids JAPAN!

| Hello! Project | Posted by Kai Okudara on Dec.19.2014

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Many groups change their names at some point. AKB48 used to be called Akihabara 48, Momoiro Clover Z didn’t always have a Z, Morning Musume added year designations to become Morning Musume ’14 this year and the (KARI) in UPUPGIRLS (KARI) implies that they may change their name at some point. This week S/mileage and Babyraids announced their new names.

S/mileage announced their new name at their final performance of “S/mileage Live Tour 2014 Aki ~FULL CHARGE~” at Tsutaya O-East on December 17th. From over 10,000 submissions Kana Nakanishi revealed the new name of the group is “ANGERME” which is a portmanteau of the French words “ange” (angel) and “larme” (tear). She explained, “the image is of a kind-hearted angel who would shed many tears”.

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Even though it looks like “ANGER ME”, because it is from French, it is pronounced “anjurume” according to the katakana written beneath the Romaji. Several Japanese groups use French words in their names, most famously rock bands L’Arc~en~Ciel (rainbow), Pierrot (clown), Versailles (French city). However, it seems a bit too similar to Ange☆Reve (angel and dream, pronounced “anju reevu”). ANGERME’s 1st single “Taiki Bansei/Otome no Gyakushuu” will be released February 2, 2015.

Babyraids announced their new name during the encore of their first Nippon Budokan solo concert on December 18th. Explaining their desire to become the representative idols of Japan and stealing the hearts of all Japanese people, they would henceforth be known as Babyraids JAPAN.

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While this not such a drastic or unusual change since legendary Japanese rock band X added JAPAN to their name when they were planning to make a US debut since there was already an American punk band named X that had been around since the 1970’s. Additionally there is Ayaman JAPAN and the Japanese national soccer teams are commonly referred to as Samurai Japan and Nadeshiko Japan.

At the very least, neither of them changed their name to an unreadable symbol?

ANGERME official website : http://www.helloproject.com/angerme/
twitter : https://twitter.com/angerme_upfront
facebook : https://www.facebook.com/pages/アンジュルム/741278589301191

Babyraids JAPAN official website : https://babyraids.lespros.co.jp/
twitter : https://twitter.com/babyraids