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ZONE

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ZONE (ゾーン) was a four person Japanese pop/rock band. The group was formed by Studio Runtime after a series of auditions to form a new type of group called bandol, a combination of band and idol. After a short indie career the band signed to Sony. The band became winners of the the Japan Gold Disk New Artist of the year of 2002 for their famous single, "secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~". However in late 2003, Takayo announced her graduation from ZONE to pursue her studies and was replaced by Tomoka, one of the two original members cut from the band when they scaled from six members to four. The band disbanded in mid 2005.


Members

Members at time of disbanding:

Graduated

Information

Early Days

ZONE around their debut (1999)
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ZONE around their debut (1999)

It all started out in 1999 when Studio Runtime ran adutitions to form a new type a group, a bandol. The word bandol being a combination of the words band and idol. The all the group would have to sing, dance, and play an instrument. The bands name refers to their initail goal, starting out at the bottom (Z, the last letter of the alphebet) and going all the way to number one (ONE).

Initially ZONE started off with eight members in 1997, then was reduced down to six members and finally four. In 1999 the group released their first single, "believe in love" on the indie label Knockers Records. The single featured a normal pop idol sound, and only featured the girls singing and dancing. Though the single failed to chart on the Oricon charts, it did well on the indie charts.

Over the next year the girls were all given an instrument and trained on them. The bands re-emerged in 2001 with their second single, "GOOD DAYS". The single marked their major label debut under Sony.

Success - Takayo's Graduation

ZONE during their first Summer Live (2002)
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ZONE during their first Summer Live (2002)

The bands breakthrough hit came as their fourth single, "secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~". The song was about sad goodbye to a good friend. The song was an instant hit reaching #2 on the Oricon and selling 744,000 copies. After another single the group released their debut album, "Z" just a year after their major label debut. On the same day ZONE also released thier sixth single, "Yume no Kakera...".

The bands next two singles share similar success. "Hitoshizuku" (which was used as the theme to the Japanese release of Ice Age) and "Akashi" reached #3 and sold over 100,000 copies. The band then assembled their second album, "O". The album was release less then nine months after their debut album.

Much like with with their first album the band released a single ("Shiroi Hana") on the same day of their second albums release. The bands next two singles ("true blue / Renren..." and "H・A・N・A・B・I ~Kimi ga Ita Natsu~") both reached #3 on the Oricon. The track "true blue" was used as the ending theme to the Astro Boy anime. The single sold well, and became the groups best selling since "secert base". Because of this ZONE even collabrated with the Run Time All Stars to create an Astro Boy themed album.

ZONE with Tomoka (2004)
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ZONE with Tomoka (2004)

Takayo then announced that she would be leaving the group to further pursue her studies. Her last single with the group was "Boku no Tegami". The single reached #2, and Takayo then gracefully graduated from the group.

Tomoka Joins - Disbandment

After a four month absence the band returned in early 2004 with their new guitarist, Nishimura Tomoka. Tomoka was one of the original six girls in the group before the cut-down. The first single featuring Tomoka was "Sotsugyou". The band released three more singles, each of which started selling less and ranking lower than one another.

In February of 2005 it was announced that ZONE would be disbanding at the end of their Spring Tour. It was initially Saito Mizuho's idea to leave, however, they did not want to replace her and didn't want to continue the band on as a three piece band.

On April 1st ZONE played their final live concert at Nihon Budokan. It was then on April 1st, 2005 that they disbanded. The last song they played at the concert was their initial hit, "secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~".

Miyu and Takayo are now pursuing a solo careers. While Maiko now fronts the all-girl band MARIA.

The band has been given an homage in the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by featuring a band named ENOZ (ZONE reversed).

Discography

ZONE
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ZONE

Albums

Singles

DVD

External Links

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