entertainment

Video of dancing girls revisits Japan’s weird ’90s street fashion

16 Comments
By Krista Rogers

Once a common sight on the streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya youth district, women decked out in the alternative ganguro style are now rare…which makes it all the more strange that an online video of five ganguro girls dancing in a classroom has recently popped up.

Apart from its randomness, the video is actually pretty fun and infectious, and makes us nostalgic for other wacky Japanese street fashions. After seeing their moves, you might even want to get up and dance, too.

First of all, in case you’re not familiar with the ganguro fashion fad of 1990s Japan, here’s a quick primer. The most distinguishing feature of the subculture is a dark tan, bleached hair, and outrageous makeup and clothing. The style supposedly evolved from young, rebellious women who wanted to challenge the traditional Japanese ideals of beauty.

The trend mostly died out in the early 2000s, but you can still occasionally spot a ganguro in certain areas of Tokyo today. Therefore, it comes as a surprise to see a video of five ganguro girls who call themselves “TEMPURA KIDZ” dancing along to an upbeat song titled “Suimin Busoku ~ need more sleep”.

The description on YouTube explains the video in awkward English as “Japanese gals who are dressed up in school uniform with quirky pop make-ups show a mind-blowing dance.” Sounds like a winner to me! It also says that they released a cover mini-album “Minna no Dansu Uta” on March 12.

After watching this video, you can’t help but wonder what kind of strange dancing video will pop up next.

Sources: Dance@Web, YouTube

Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Top 10 YouTube videos in Japan 2013 -- Before and after of our reporter’s garish but gal-ish makeover
-- Japanese granny busts a move on the streets of Tokyo

© RocketNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


16 Comments
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I am a bit curious how my comment garnered so many thumbs down.

1 ( +10 / -9 )

Not the 90 it was 2000 this was popular.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Simple history lesson / reminder. Every attempt to make your generation more unique can and will be used by your children as ammunitions in parodies.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Lol, they have much better video than this, its little older, but check it out,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qj9GzAxXY8 bdw,they are also dancers for Kyaru Pamyu Pamyu .

0 ( +5 / -5 )

It's too bad that the girls seem to have put a lot of effort into rehearsing and choreography, but the video production efforts are sorely lacking. Cute nostalgic costumes and dance moves, however it's wasted on the shoddy cinematography, bad set preparation, and absence of directing/editing. This could have been successful if they had just got someone who could shoot a real video.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

If they are the same girls they have grown up. I knew of them when they were just elementary ages.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

I'm surprised that the article didn't mention the famous manga series Gals! by Mihona Fujii. That manga series is probably the best way to encapsulate the entire ganguro culture centered around Shibuya.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Indeed if this a 90 fashion, I can recall that I saw it in 2005 in several streets of Shibuya...

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Ganguro was like: look! We are different! We are ugly but nevertheless different! Let's be different at any cost!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

It is very fast paced. These gals must sure be fit. Wish I could move that fast without tearing a muscle or breaking wind.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

By the way, they are not all girls, hence the name Tempura KIDZ. His stage name is Pi-chan...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I enjoyed it. Nice to see something different.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

Hey.. Hold your Horses!. You guys need some clarification on the Tempura Kidz テンプラキッズ.

1- The girls are not ganguro, they just dressed and had makeup like that for the video.

I´m sure many of you had seen them before... you guys remember the vegetables dance in a supermarket aired by NHK? Or maybe have heard about Kyary Pamyu? Well, the Tempuras are the grils that appear in meny of her concerts and videos. Just request きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ Kyary Pamyu Pamyu │ 江崎グリコ on Youtube.

If you still have not clue.. ask any teen who likes Jpop...

2- The girlz records are done by Sony Music Japan, the managing creator was Asobi, and all music is composed by the great DJ aRAM... rings a bell?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Some poor soul thumbed everyone down so I thumbed ya all back up.

This is not just a YouTube thing - I saw a different video by them on Space Shower last week-ish.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Thumbed everyone back up

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

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