UPBEAT and uplifting: that best describes the five young girls who make up the Japanese pop group Dear Kiss at the girls’ first meet-and-greet event in Malaysia last week.
The five – Saki (full name Shishima Saki), Miiwa (Yamasaki Miiwa), Rikako (Saito Rikako), Nonoko, and Maho (Iyama Maho) – were all earnest in their call to their Malaysian fans to “support us and cheer for us”!
Dear Kiss was formed in April of 2016. Four months after its debut, the group came into the limelight when it made an appearance at the Tokyo Idol Festival, one of the most significant idol events in Japan.
In April last year, latest member Maho joined the current group.
For the past three years, Dear Kiss has done its darndest to be the best J-pop group not only in Japan but also in Asia Pacific.
In the last six months, the group has appeared in several events in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Malaysia was picked as one of its stops for its meet-and-greet tour because a majority of the group’s Facebook fans are from here.
While in Malaysia, the girls sampled roti canai, visited the Petronas Twin Towers, made a few appearances and held several performances around Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.
Understanding that communication with fans is key to achieving their goals, the girls of Dear Kiss have been taking lessons in speaking Mandarin, English, and Bahasa Malaysia.
Of the three languages, they claim to find our national language to be the most difficult.
At the event, the girls were all decked out in lovely, flowery yukatas (casual summer kimonos) and promptly proclaimed Malaysia as “hot”.
Still despite the heat, they possessed enough energy to enthusiastically perform three songs – their hit song, Step and Shout, in Mandarin, as well as Tameiki No Sekai Wa Iranai (loosely translated as I Don’t Need a World of Sadness) in English, and Zukkyun Love – complete with choreographed moves.
The five members of Dear Kiss are next heading to Australia to perform at the Sydney Manga & Anime Show (SMASH!).
