Worstgen
RobertoTheOharaSurvivor
(all of which to be frank pale in comparison musically with no presence in the music industry) to form YOASOBI, we never would have been able to hear her amazing vocals on a large scale nor would she have been able to rise into one of Japan's top vocalists/units for the last 5 years. And she likely would have been forced to pivot towards another career since she was in the middle of doing artist training courses w/
RobertoTheOharaSurvivor
a no-name label that didn't guarantee her commercial success in Japan. Ayase literally only found out about Lilas Ikuta through a self-cover on IG of Aimyon's "Kimi wa Rock o Kikanai" (an uber, extremely popular artist at the time, still popular now but everyone listening to jp music from 2017 - 2019 knew about aimyon and topped every single chart), which Lilas did for fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DEPGqEanc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DEPGqEanc
RobertoTheOharaSurvivor
as a 17-yr old graduating high school while Ayase was asked to choose any vocalist he wanted to be a part of YOASOBI since he wasn't satisfied with the choices Sony gave him. And being selected to join the group and be under the umbrella of Sony or SMEJ allowed Lilas to not only have a consistent source of income, but also the opportunity to get exposure in the public scene (such as THE FIRST TAKE) and to even
RobertoTheOharaSurvivor
pursue a career as a solo artist at the same time. Crazy enough, she recently graduated from Nihon University in March 2023 as she was already massively popular by this point.
RobertoTheOharaSurvivor
she was even a street performer at 14 / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em3-xWBDnJM
RobertoTheOharaSurvivor
and ofc no autotune used like in the US - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W8dMLd7CNvo
RobertoTheOharaSurvivor
and ofc the infamous NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75H4rqJkRnY