KAT-TUN
MEMBERS:
Kamenashi Kazuya is affectionately called Kame and is one of the two most popular members of KAT-TUN. Although the youngest member of KAT-TUN, he is considered the group's 'unofficial leader'. He works extremely hard, and is really talented in baseball. Being good in public speaking, he is often appointed as the main speaker whenever KAT-TUN does their MC in TV shows or concerts. Kame usually leads KAT-TUN's participation in the musicals as he is the one most often in the spotlight. With Jin, he is the main vocalist of the group. He starred in Gokusen 2 with Jin and as a result, earned an award for best male supporting actor. Even before that, Kame had starred in a Kimpachi Sensei dorama. He has also starred in a Kindaichi Special and Nobuta wo Produce along with Yamashita Tomohisa from NewS. The two of them have also released a single called "Seishun Amigo" under the unit name Shuuji to Akira which also features the song "Kizuna" which he had written the lyrics for (it was used in the dorama Gokusen 2). The single had sold over 1 million copies in 4 weeks and is No.1 best selling single on the Oricon Yearly Single Rankings for 2005.
Akanishi Jin has some affectionate nicknames from fans. Jin is one of them, but there is also Bakanishi (baka literally means 'stupid'; because he often acts childishly). With Kame, he is one of the two most famous KAT-TUN members. He plays the guitar, has a good voice, and writes many songs for himself and KAT-TUN ("Care", "Hesitate", "Love or Like, "Murasaki""). He starred in Gokusen 2 with Kame, Anego, and a dorama special called Kurisumasu Nankka Daikkirai (I Hate Christmas). Both he and Kame are good friends with Yamashita Tomohisa, the lead singer of a Johnny's Entertainment band, NewS.
Taguchi Junnosuke is known as Junno. He is the tallest member of KAT-TUN. His trademarks are the acrobatic stunts he performs in their shows, despite being the tallest of them all, and also his smile, which has been described as 'invincible'. In 2004, Junno injured his knee and has had to take a few months' break from group activities after surgery. Junno has also acted alongside his senior from SMAP Nakai Masahiro's film Mohouhan (The Copycat) in 2002. He also starred in Ganbatte ikimasshoi with Nishikido Ryo from NEWS, as well as a special 2-hour drama called Happy!, that was shown in early April 2006. Junno is left-handed.
Tanaka Koki naturally gets called Koki. His role in the group is as the main rapper. He writes most of the rap lyrics in their recent original songs and has started to write his own solo rap songs. His style is hip-hop. Koki pairs up with Nakamaru most of the time and they have a comedic unit called "TaNaka" (TAnaka - NAKAmaru). He is also the only university student in KAT-TUN.
Ueda Tatsuya, the appointed and official leader of the group, is one of KAT-TUN's most 'striking' members because he tends to change his image a lot he has been criticized for being "fake" in terms of personality. He is called by the rest of KAT-TUN as Tat-chan. He is learning the English and French language, and prefers songwriting to acting. His solo song "Love in Snow" in their Kaizokuban concert was written by him. He is best out of the entire group at playing guitar.
Nakamaru Yuichi, or Maru, the oldest member, is considered to be the funniest member. He proves that by being in the "TaNaka" comedy unit with Koki. Maru's trademark skill is his human beatbox (sound of beats he creates with his mouth) that gets incorporated in KAT-TUN's songs. Because of this skill, he seems to be gaining more popularity recently.
HISTORYBefore joining KAT-TUN, each member belonged to different Junior units. In 2001, Kinki Kids member Koichi Domoto personally picked 6 Johnny's Jr. members to be his back dancers in the NHK music program, Pop Jam. He chose Kamenashi, Akanishi, Taguchi, Tanaka, Ueda and Nakamaru to join each other under the unit name of KAT-TUN. Initially, KAT-TUN was only meant to be a dancing unit to support Koichi Domoto. However, KAT-TUN gained a great deal of attention so the formation was maintained and KAT-TUN remains a solid unit.
KAT-TUN's debut
Their debut was announced January 29, 2006. This was a long-awaited event for both the members and their fans. The debut is to be accompanied by a concert tour of Japan.
Release Date: March 22, 2006
Debut Single: "Real Face"
Album: "Best of KAT-TUN"
DVD: "Real Face Film"
Debut Sales
With the release of their album, single and DVD, KAT-TUN broke numerous records. Best of KAT-TUN debuted with sales of 557,000 copies, their single "Real Face" debuted with 754,000 copies and their DVD "Real Face Film" debuted with 374,000 copies. They are the first artist to debut at #1 on all three oricon charts. However, they are the second artist to top all three charts. The first artist to do so was Ayumi Hamasaki. They are also the artist with the highest debut sales for a single and also holds the record for the highest opening DVD sales. Their single "Real Face" also topped the Oricon charts for 3 weeks, making them the first artist in the millenium to do so.
