Yumi's JPOP Series - 3: Female Solo Idols - Aragaki Yui and Okamoto Rei

Name: Aragaki Yui

Nickname: Gakky

Birthday: June 11, 1988

I first discovered Gakky in a Japanese Drama called "Papa To Musume No Nanokan" (2007) where she played a high school girl who has the "soul" of her father (father-daughter switched bodies). I was especially drawn to her charming smile and her talent in acting. After that event, I began researching about her and found out that she was previously a model in the popular middle-school targeted girl magazine "nicola". She became a model at the age of thirteen and was the most loved model, having appeared in covers for at least twenty times. When she graduated from nicola, she started her singing career and produced many melodic and heartwarming songs. Truthfully speaking, Gakky's not really the best singer......it is only because of her mellow voice and the meaningful lyrics that I grew to love her songs. I also watched some of her other dramas and movies including Koizora (2007), a superb tear-jerker movie, and Smile (2009), in which she played a high school girl who has lost her voice due to an accident. Currently, she is concentrating more on modeling for magazines and acting. Her singing career somehow was put to an end(????) i guess....but I hope she will be making more songs in the future :)

Here's a song by Gakky called "Heavenly Days". This was the theme song for the movie "Koizora"

Name: Okamoto Rei

Nickname: Rei

Birthdate: June 18, 1991

The way I found out about Okamoto Rei was very amusing. It all started when I came across a blog post about my favorite Japanese celebrity, Arioka Daiki, dating a girl (Okamoto Rei). I became curious and looked her up. I though to myself then that even if Daiki has a girlfriend, I will still be his fan. Then, because of that, I started to become more interested in Rei, including her looks and her skills. She was also a nicola model, a junior of Gakky. But, Rei surpassed her by appearing in more covers than Gakky. She also had her singing career, but it was short lived. Although it was only for some time, I still loved her songs. She wrote most of it and composed a few tracks. Rei also knew how to play the guitar and the piano so in some of her songs, she was the one playing the respective instruments. Like Gakky, she's now concentrating more on her acting skills with movies and dramas lined up for her this year. So far, I have seen two of her dramas, Akai Ito, and Koishite Akuma ~Vampire Boy~.


Here's the link to a short promotional video of her last single, Railroad Star, released last 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6ORaWJHVjU