All About ZONE !

ZONE

From Left to Right: Mizuho , Miyu , Takayo(Former Leader ) and Maiko



From Left to Right : Mizuho(Leader), Tomoka, Miyu and Maiko

ZONE Profile

Name: Maiko Sakae (栄舞子) or just Maiko (舞衣子, まいこ)
Bass and Vocals
Date of Birth : 24/07/1986

Place of Birth : Osaka

Zodiac Sign : Leo

Blood Type : O

Height : 154cm

Family : Parents, Older brother

Favorite Colors : Black, Blue

Name Meaning (Kanji) : “Dancing + Girl”

Hobby : Taking pictures

Favorite food : Tsukemono (kind of japanese pickles)

Food that hates : Green peppers

Likes : Light-emitting objects

Name : Miyu Nagase (長瀬実夕)
Guitar and Vocals

Date of Birth : 20/05/1988

Place of Birth : Hokkaido
Zodiac Sign :Taurus

Blood type : B

Height : 156cm

Family: Parents, Older sister

Favorite Colors : Yellow

Name Meaning (Kanji) : “Fruit (bearing) + Evening”

Hobby : Singing and Dancing

Favorite food : Rice, yoghurt, tomato

Food that hates : Beef

Likes : Shopping

Name : Mizuho Saito (斎藤瑞穂)
Drums and Vocals, Leader

Date of Birth : 12/12/1986

Place of Birth : Hokkaido

Zodiac Sign : Sagitarius
Blood Type : A
Height : 153cm

Family : Parents, Older sister, Younger brother

Favorite Colors : Red

Name Meaning (Kanji) : “Vigorous + Spike”

Hobby : Collect red things to her bedroom

Favorite food : Soft Bones

Food that hates : Pumpkin

Likes : Chatting

Name : Tomoka Nishimura (西村朝香)

Guitar and Vocals

Date of Birth : 19/09/1986

Place of Birth : Hokkaido

Zodiac Sign : Virgo

Blood type : O

Height : 160cm

Family : Parents

Hobby : Skiing, skating

Favorite food : Organs (animals)

Food that hates : Celery

Likes : Her dog Ron-chan

Name : Takayo Ookoshi (大越貴代)
Guitar and Vocals, Former Leader (1999-2003)

Date of Birth : 13/06/1985

Place of Birth : Hokkaido

Zodiac Sign : Gemini

Height : 154cm

Family : Parents, Older sister

Favorite Colors : Black

Name Meaning (Kanji) : “Precious + Age”

Hobby : Digital camera, pets

Favorite food : Eggplant

Likes : Singing

They so cute right ! Their song also very nice. Wasted la ~ T.T

Forever ZONE !!

Information From Wikipedia.org ( Summary )

HISTORY

At first, ZONE started off with eight members in 1997, then reduced to six and finally four – these members were Miyu Nagase, Mizuho Saito, Maiko Sakae, and Takayo Ookoshi – by the time they released their first indie disc in 1999.

Mr. Ominami Tadayuki, a representative of Sony Records, noticed that the crowd reaction to the debut concert was particularly enthusiastic. Back then, ZONE was solely concentrated on singing and dancing. Following his belief that ZONE had the makings of a hit, Tadayuki watched a live video of the band playing with instruments at the KomeKome Klub and felt that, due to the overabundance of dance groups, ZONE had the makings of a breakthrough act, providing they could play their instruments as well as sing and dance.

In late 2003, Takayo Ookoshi announced her graduation from ZONE to pursue her studies and has been since replaced by Tomoka Nishimura, one of the two original members cut from the band when they scaled from six members to four.

Between 1999 and 2005, ZONE released seventeen hit singles, three full lengths CDs, three DVDs, did commercials, and had their own television special, in addition to attending high school. They all graduated.

ZONE officially disbanded on April 1, 2005, after playing their final concert at Nippon Budokan.

Discography

Singles
believe in love (Indies Single)
GOOD DAYS (2001/02/07)
大爆発 NO.1 (2001/05/23) Dai Bakuhatsu NO.1
secret base ～君がくれたもの～ (2001/08/08) Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~
世界のほんの片隅から (2001/11/14) Sekai No Hon No Katasumi Kara
夢ノカケラ・・・ (2002/02/14) Yume No Kakera
一雫 (2002/07/17) Hito-shizuku
証 (2002/09/26) Akashi
白い花 (2002/11/27) Shiroi Hana
true blue／恋々・・・ (2003/04/16) True Blue/Renren...
H・A・N・A・B・I ～君がいた夏～ (2003/07/30) H.A.N.A.B.I ~Kimi ga Ita Natsu~
僕の手紙 (2003/10/29) Boku No Tegami
卒業 (2004/02/04) Sotsugyō
太陽のKiss (2004/06/02) Taiyō No Kiss
glory colors ～風のトビラ～ (2004/08/04) Glory Colors ~Kaze No Tobira~
笑顔日和 (2005/03/09) Egao Biyori

Albums
Z (2002/02/14)
O (2002/11/27)
ASTRO Girlz & Boyz (2003/07/16)
N (2004/02/18)
E ～Complete A side Singles～(2005/04/13)
ura E~Complete B side Melodies~ (2006/04/19)

DVDs
ZONE CLIPS 01 ~Sunny Side~ (2003/10/29)
ZONE CLIPS 02 ~Forever Side (2004/03/17)
ZONE TV special "ユメハジマッタバカリ" DVD edition (2004/09/29)
ZONE CLIPS 03 ~2005 卒業~ (2005/05/18)
ZONE FINAL in 日本武道館 2005/04/01 ～心を込めてありがとう～ (2005/06/22) ZONE FINAL LIVE in NIPPON BUDOKAN

Information From channel-ai.com

In 1999, Studio Runtime held an audition in Sapporo for a new type of group that they called a “bandoru” (band+idol, a group that could both dance and play instruments). Initially, 8 members were picked, but that was later shortened to 4: TAKAYO, MIYU, MIZUHO and MAIKO. This became ZONE. The name “ZONE” refers to the group’s goal, starting from the bottom, or “Z” (the last letter in the alphabet), all the way to number one (“ONE”).

On 1999/12/18, ZONE’s indies single “Believe in Love” was released. More than a year later, in February of 2001 their first major release “Good Days” hit the shelves. “Good Days”, a fast-paced song about overcoming hard times to think positively, brought them a little success, but not nearly as much as their 3rd single, “secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~”. With a dreamy, lullaby-like introduction and touching lyrics about saying a sad goodbye to a good friend, everyone in Japan seemed to relate, young or old. A year after the release of “secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono” came ZONE’s 1st album, “Z”.

Their 6th single “Hitoshizuku” was used as a theme song of the Japanese release of “Ice Age”. Next came “Akashi”, a dark rock song about feeling lost in the world. This showed ZONE’s versatility as a band. These two songs, along with another single, “Yume no Kakera”, were contained on their 2nd album “O”, which was released at the end of 2002.

“true blue” was ZONE’s 9th single and also was used as a theme song of the hit anime “Astro Boy”. Near the end of 2003 as soon as they had begun work on their 3rd album “N”, TAKAYO, the group’s leader and eldest member, announced that she was leaving the group to further pursue her studies. A replacement member, TOMOKA, was brought in. TOMOKA, who originally tried out for ZONE, was a member of the original 8 but was rejected for being too tall. Her first single with the band was called “Sotsugyou”.

In February of 2005, ZONE officially announced that they were disbanding. The reason was not because of artistic differences or catfights or loss of popularity, they simply wanted to explore options for their futures. That’s a pretty acceptable reason, as at that time 3 of the members had just graduated from high school and one had yet to graduate! ZONE’s final single “Egao Biyori” was released in March and soon a best hits compilation, “E”, was put together.

On April 1st, 2005, the 4 members of ZONE held their final concert. Sadly, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke. At the end of the concert, ZONE said farewell to all their fans as well as the rest of the world with a very emotional “secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~”.

Special Thank to :

http://www.zonefan.com/ for the pictures

http://paginas.terra.com.br/lazer/ZONElover/profiles.html for the profiles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZONE for the all the information

http://www.channel-ai.com/blog/2005/09/01/zone/ for all the information.