Kinki Kids

Kinki Kids are an exemplary success of the Johnny & Associates agency, a Japanese entertainment industry giant that specializes in creating male pop-culture idols. The two men comprising Kinki Kids were handpicked by the management, educated by Johnny's, and then unleashed upon Japan, first as actors and then as pop singers, whose sweet tunes wooed enough teen girl fans to bring them a place in The Guinness Book of World Records for their chart achievements. Kinki Kids are Koichi Domoto and Tsuyoshi Domoto -- not related, but both coming from the Kinki region of Japan (hence the band's name). Both born in 1979, they had their showbiz debut as early as 1991, when they appeared as stage dancers in a Hikaru Genji show. Their first magazine and movie stints soon followed, and in 1993 the two teens debuted as W Domoto (aka Double Domoto, later renamed "Kansai Boya," and finally becoming "Kinki Kids" in 1996). Despite playing the Budokan as early as 1994, Koichi and Tsuyoshi were initially marketed as actors, their roles in drama series bringing them nice ad contracts, the first big deal being signed with Panasonic (later in their career they also promoted Nissan, Coca-Cola, and All Nippon Airways). The Domotos also ran their own variety show, Love Love Aishiteru, from 1996 to 2001. All of this, however, was only a prelude to pop music stardom, the road to which really began in 1997, when Kinki Kids debuted with the single "Glass No Shounen" and the album A. All of their subsequent studio full-lengths were named with letters of the alphabet, comprising a string from A to I and released between 1997 and 2006 (they only skipped 2004). All of these releases topped the Oricon charts, A being the band's best-seller, as it shifted over 1,000,000 units, although the rest also sold...