Up Up Girls (Kari)

Up Up Girls (Kari) (アップアップガールズ(仮); pronounced Up Up Girls Kakko Kari), or simply Up Up Girls, is a Japanese girl group unit consisting of seven former Hello! Pro Kenshuusei members currently under UP-FRONT CREATE. They were originally known as Up Front Girls (Kari) (アップフロントガールズ(仮)), but they changed to their current name in June, 2011. As the name implies, the group is still in its tentative stage. The last part of their name, (仮), read 'kakko kari' is often used as a logo to represent the group.

Unlike other idol groups that were under UP-FRONT PROMOTION, Up Up Girls were not part of Hello! Project. Up Up Girls performed live every Thursday at MAP Theater, Akihabara, as one of the regular weekday acts until the theater was closed down. For a short time they moved their act to Hatsudai The DOORS. They still regularly perform at different venues

All members of Up Up Girls are also member of UFZS, a K-Pop dance cover group which was formed long before Up Up Girls.

Members

 * Sengoku Minami (仙石みなみ; Red ) Leader
 * Furukawa Konatsu (古川小夏; Pink ) UFZS Leader
 * Mori Saki (森咲樹; Green )
 * Sato Ayano (佐藤綾乃; Purple )
 * Saho Akari (佐保明梨; Yellow )
 * Sekine Azusa (関根梓; Orange )
 * Arai Manami (新井愛瞳; Blue )

2010
After their last Shinjin Kouen concert in November, Hello! Pro Egg underwent a major change, in which it dramatically slimmed down its membership by graduating over half its members. Sengoku Minami was among the first to announce her training completion from Hello! Pro Egg, through a Hello! Project fan club website in December.

2011
Following Sengoku's announcement, Mori Saki, and then Furukawa Konatsu, also announced their training completion in January.

On March 3rd, a new project was announced for 5 of Hello! Pro Egg members: Sato Ayano, Arai Manami, Sekine Azusa, Furukawa Konatsu, and Mori Saki.

In March, it was revealed that a new TV show featuring the previously mentioned five and Sengoku Minami would be aired on Sky Perfect TV channel, entitled Up Front Girls. This was the first mention of the group name. Not long after, Sato, Sekine and Arai announced their training completion. Various Internet social media also opened for Up Front Girls, such as Ameba blogs, a Ustream channel, and a staff Twitter account.

In early May, Up Front Girls held a series of shows for a fan club event. In the last show of the event, Saho Akari, who had already completed her training in Hello! Pro Egg in April, made a surprise appearance, and announced herself as a new member of Up Front Girls. The show was broadcast live through Nico Nico Douga.

In early June, each member was finally assigned an image color. This procedure was shown live on their weekly Ustream show, where each member actually picked their own image color. The order of this process was determined by two games played before. The result was Sengoku – red, Furukawa – pink, Mori – green, Sato – purple, Saho – yellow, Sekine – orange, and Arai – blue.

In late June, 2011, at their weekly Ustream show, to the members' surprise, the management decided to change the group name to "Up Up Girls (Kari)".

A few days later, it was revealed that the group has been chosen as one of the regular performers at a new stage at Akihabara: MAP Theater, a joint collaboration between PigooHD and Sofmap Akihabara. In September 2011 the officials at the MAP Theater ordered all performances to be stopped after a government inspection found the theater to be unsafe. While the theater was being fixed performances were temporarily moved to a new venue, Hatsudai The DOORS. Eventually the MAP Theater was officially closed, and performances were then continued at various venues.

In late 2011 the group collaborated with the South Korean duo TENSI LOVE, by acting as backup dancers for their performances. The group also performed covers of two of the groups songs at events, "Shine" and "Cake House". Soon after this at another event, the instrumental of a new song was revealed to the members; it was to be their first original song.

It was decided that their next project would be to debut as Korean artists.

2012
In January 2012 the group performed a tentative version of their still-untitled original song over Ustream. The next month they performed the song yet again and it's title was announced to be "Going my ↑".

Up Up Girls were invited to perform as the opening act at IDOL NATION, on August 11.

Up Up Girls and THE Possible will perform together at Shinjuku Blaze. The event is set for October 7.

In a "Road to Korea" video released in August 2012 the producer of the group announced that Furukawa Konatsu would now be the leader of the kpop dance cover group UFZS.

Around late December, it was announced that the Up Up Girls were releasing their first album.

2013
It was revealed that Up Up Girls, along with THE Possible and Kikkawa Yuu would be guests at the upcoming Winter Hello! Project tour. The Up Up Girls performed Chopper☆Chopper at the concert.

A 2 part horror movie titled Ada ~ADA~ featured all the members from Up Up Girls in it, and had Sato Ayano and Sengoku Minami taking on the lead roles. The movie was directed by Koji Shiraishi and was released on July 13.

In June, it was announced Up Up Girls would collaborating with idol groups Vanilla Beans, Caramel Ribbon, and Lyrical School's Mei to form the group T-Palette mini All Stars and release the single Bad Blood/Hereafter, which is the soundtrack to the movie Ada ~ADA~.

On July 15, Up Up Girls released their very first music video on Recochoku, the music video was for the song Up Up Typhoon.

On October 1, they were transferred from UP-FRONT PROMOTION to UP-FRONT CREATE.

On October 31, Up Up Girls announced at Starry Night/Seishun Buildup's promotion event that each member will go to one of the 7 big cities in Japan to promote the group.

On November 28, it was announced that Up Up Girls will be on the upcoming Disney song cover album "Disney Rocks!!! Girls Power!", along with 15 other artists. The song they will be singing on the album is "We're All In This Together" (known in Japan as "Minna Star!") from High School Musical. The album will be released on January 22, 2014.

On December 16, it was announced that Up Up Girls are releasing their first ever Christmas song titled "Santa Claus" on December 22nd. It is a (Kari) CD, so it is a limited release.

Television
Aired at Sky Perfect Channel as a monthly show, re-aired weekly and available to watch at pay per view service PigooHD, Up-Up Girls' TV show titled the same as their name, 'Up-Up Girls', featuring all members of the group. The show follows the pattern of a typical idol TV show, with lots of games and challenges done by the members. Occasionally, the show also includes various footage of the group's activities, such as events and live performances.

Internet
Two blogs opened for the group at Ameba, one for the members' daily blogging, and one solely for news purposes. They also have two internet video and broadcast portals. The first is Ustream, where they do a weekly show every Monday night. The second is Nico Nico Douga, where they upload various videos, ranging from event footage to dance covers. The staff also have an active account on Twitter. In 2012 the group started another regular internet broadcast titled "JouJou Shoujo's" (上々少女’s), through TV Asahi Douga.

Live Stage
Up-Up Girls performed live every Thursday at MAP Theater, Akihabara, as one of the regular weekday acts until the theater was closed down. For a short time they moved their act to Hatsudai The DOORS. They still regularly perform at different venues.

UFZS
All Up Up Girls members are also a member of UFZS. UFZS is a dance unit focusing mainly on covering Korean pop songs. It is produced by Josei Jishin. The group was revealed in late February, 2011, long before Up Up Girls was even revealed to the public. Initially formed to compete in a K-dance competition, "DREAM ON! vol.2", the group has since made a few appearance in a number of events and competitions, including the Japanese round of the Korean TV talent show, Superstar K3.

UFZS was originally a five members unit: Furukawa, Mori, Sato, Sekine, and Arai. Sengoku and Saho joined later in May, 2011, making all Up Up Girls members also member of the dance unit.

Indie Albums

 * 1) [2013.01.30] First Album (Kari) (ファーストアルバム(仮))
 * 2) [2014.02.19] Second Album (Kari) (セカンドアルバム（仮))

Digital Albums

 * [2013.08.04] Natsu Festival Sansen Kinen! 8/3「ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2013」Setlist Album (夏ﾌｪｽ参戦記念!8／3｢ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2013｣ｾｯﾄﾘｽﾄｱﾙﾊﾞﾑ)
 * [2013.08.11] Natsu Festival Sansen Kinen! 8/10「IDOL NATION 2013」Setlist Album (夏ﾌｪｽ参戦記念!8／10「IDOL NATION 2013」ｾｯﾄﾘｽﾄｱﾙﾊﾞﾑ)
 * [2013.09.23] Natsu Festival Sansen Kinen! 9/22「Inazuma Rock Festival 2013」Setlist Album (夏ﾌｪｽ参戦記念！9／22「ｲﾅｽﾞﾏﾛｯｸﾌｪｽ 2013」ｾｯﾄﾘｽﾄｱﾙﾊﾞﾑ)

Collaboration Albums

 * [2013.07.17] T-Palette Records 2nd Anniversary Mix 〜Diggin'on you〜 (#3 Respect Tokyo; #20 Sutorera! ~Straight Up!~)
 * [2014.01.22] Disney Rocks!!! Girls Power! (ディズニー・ロックス!!! ガールズパワー)  (#15 We're All in This Together)

Indie Singles

 * 1) [2012.04.25] Going my ↑
 * 2) [2012.06.27] Barebare I LOVE YOU (バレバレI LOVE YOU)
 * 3) [2012.07.25] Uppercut! / Yuudachi! Through the Rainbow (アッパーカット！ / 夕立ち！スルー・ザ・レインボー)
 * 4) [2012.08.29] Mechakyun♡Summer ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ (メチャキュン♡サマー('▽`)ノ)
 * 5) [2012.09.26] Namen na! Ashi Girls / Marble Hero (なめんな！アシガールズ / マーブルヒーロー)
 * 6) [2012.10.03] End Of The Season
 * 7) [2012.11.07] UPPER ROCK / Ichiban Girls! (UPPER ROCK/イチバンガールズ!)
 * 8) [2012.12.05] Chopper☆Chopper / Survival Girls (チョッパー☆チョッパー／サバイバルガールズ)
 * 9) [2013.02.20] Respect Tokyo / Sutorera! ~Straight Up!~ (リスペクトーキョー / ストレラ!～Straight Up!～)
 * 10) [2013.03.13] SAKURA DRIVE / Dateline
 * 11) [2013.04.10] Next Stage / Ano Saka no Ue Made, (Next Stage / あの坂の上まで、)
 * 12) [2013.06.05] Ginga Joujou Monogatari / Burn the fire!! / Natural Born Idol (銀河上々物語／Burn the fire!!／ナチュラルボーン・アイドル)
 * 13) [2013.07.24] Summer Beam! / Up Up Typhoon (サマービーム!/アップアップタイフーン)
 * 14) [2013.09.04] SAMURAI GIRLS / Widol Seven (SAMURAI GIRLS / ワイドルセブン)
 * 15) [2013.10.30] Starry Night / Seishun Buildup (Starry Night / 青春ビルドアップ)
 * 16) [2013.12.25] Nijiiro Mosaic / ENJOY!! ENJO(Y)!! (虹色モザイク／ENJOY!! ENJO(Y)!!)

Event Singles (represented by (仮))

 * 1) [2012.03.10] Going my ↑
 * 2) [2012.05.03] Barebare I LOVE YOU (バレバレI LOVE YOU)
 * 3) [2012.05.03] Rainbow
 * 4) [2012.06.10] Uppercut! (アッパーカット！)
 * 5) [2012.06.10] Yuudachi! Through the Rainbow (夕立ち！スルー・ザ・レインボー)
 * 6) [2012.07.15] Mechakyun♡Summer ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ (メチャキュン♡サマー('▽`)ノ)
 * 7) [2012.08.12] Namen na! Ashi Girls (なめんな！アシガールズ)
 * 8) [2012.08.12] Marble Hero (マーブルヒーロー)
 * 9) [2012.10.07] Ichiban Girls! (イチバンガールズ!)
 * 10) [2012.10.28] Kakko Tsukete Ii Desho! (カッコつけていいでしょ!)
 * 11) [2013.12.22] Santa Claus (サンタクロース)

Collaboration Singles

 * 1) [2013.08.21] Bad Blood / Hereafter (T-Palette mini All Stars)

Event DVDs

 * [2011.08.09] Up Up Girls (Kari) ga Up Front Girls (Kari) Datta Koro no Event DVD ni Narimashita!! (UP UP GIRLS(仮)がUP FRONT GIRLS(仮)だった頃のイベントがDVDになりました!)
 * [2011.12.28] Up Up Girls (Kari) no Natsu no Event no DVD wo Fuyu ni Hatsubai shichaimasu!! Nenmatsu ppoi omake tsuki! (Kari) THE DVD Part.2 (アップアップガールズ(仮)の夏のイベントのDVDを冬に発売しちゃいます!!年末っぽいおまけ付き!(仮)THE DVD Part.2)
 * [2012.04.27] Up Up Girls (Kari) ga Going my↑ wo Hatsu hirou shita Live no DVD (Kari) THE DVD Part.3 (アップアップガールズ(仮)がGoing my ↑を初披露したライブのDVD！(仮)THE DVD Part.3)

Live DVDs

 * [2012.12.12] Up Up Girls (Kari) 1st LIVE Daikanyama Kessen (Kari) (アップアップガールズ(仮) 1st LIVE 代官山決戦(仮))
 * [2013.04.03] Up Up Girls (Kari) 2nd Live Roppongi Kessen (Kari) (アップアップガールズ(仮)2nd ライブ六本木決戦(仮))
 * [2013.07.31] UP UP GIRLS (KARI) 3rd LIVE Yokohama BLITZ Dai Kessen (KARI) (アップアップガールズ(仮)3rd LIVE 横浜BLITZ 大決戦(仮))
 * [2013.12.25] Up Up Girls (Kari) 1st Live House Tour Apuga Dainishou (Kari) Kaisen (アップアップガールズ（仮） 1st ライブハウスツアー アプガ第二章（仮）開戦)

Compilation DVDs

 * [2013.08.23] Up Up Girls (Kari) Taiban Angya (Kari) ~Official Bootleg BOX~ (アップアップガールズ（仮）対バン行脚（仮）～Official Bootleg BOX～)
 * [2013.08.28] Up Up Girls (Kari) THE DVD ~Mini MV Shuu Omaketsuki~ (アップアップガールズ（仮）THE DVD ～ミニMV集 おまけつき～)

Photobooks

 * [2013.05.28] Up Up Girls (Kari) 1st Document Photo Book RUN! Upga RUN! (Kari) (アップアップガールズ (仮) 1stドキュメント・フォトブック RUN!アプガRUN! (仮))

Magazines

 * [2012.11.25] bounce issue 350
 * [2013.03.01] De-View April 2013 Issue
 * [2013.09.20] PHOTO TECHNIC DIGITAL
 * [2013.12.20] Luck You Vol.36
 * [2014.02.07] GiRLPOP 2014 Spring (Back cover)

Calendars

 * [2012.12.19] Up Up Girls 2013 Calendar with pictures taken by Hirofumi Nagano (2013 長野博文撮り下しカレンダー写真集 with アップアップガールズ(仮))
 * [2013.09.XX] Up Up Girls 2014 Calendar (アップアップガールズ（仮）2014年カレンダー)

Trivia

 * They have 2 names: UFZS, which is the name for their group that covers Korean songs, and Up Up Girls (Kari), which is the name for their group in Japan.
 * Their name is also stylized as UP UP GIRLS kakkoKARI on their YouTube channels.
 * They're the first Up-Front-Act to do the Harlem Shake.
 * The average age in the group is 18.5 years old (as of late-August 2013).
 * They've ranked at #1 on Oricon's weekly indie single chart three times.