AAA

AAA (トリプル・エー, Toripuru Ē^?, Triple A), and also known as Attack All Around, is a Japanese pop band signed to the label Avex Trax which debuted in September 2005. The group originally consisted of five young men and three young women who had all acted in commercials and had been dancers for other Japanese stars, such as Ayumi Hamasaki and Ami Suzuki.

History

2005–2006: Early days and debut

AAA was originally planned to be a 6 member group. At first, members included Takahiro Nishijima, Naoya Urata, Shuta Sueyoshi, Shinjiro Atae, Mitsuhiro Hidaka and Misako Uno as the only girl. Avex later decided to add two more girls; Chiaki Itō and Yukari Goto. As songs like "Blood on Fire" and "Friday Party" were previously prepared for 6 members, the two girls are only heard in the refrain.
The Members are: Naoya Urata the leader and one of the main vocalists of the group, Takahiro Nishijima the main male vocalist, and one of the most well known of the group, Misako Uno the main female vocalist of the group throughout the whole of AAA as well as being best known overseas, Chiaki Ito who despite being little more than a dancer in the early days of AAA, has now become joint lead female vocalist with Uno, Mitsuhiro Hidaka is the main rapper of the group, Shuta Suyoshi and Shinjiro Atae are the main dancers and occasional singers. Yukari Goto left AAA in 2007 due to an illness.
In the summer of 2005, avex announced the debut of a new pop/eurobeat group consisting of boys and girls who have undergone training in the avex artist academy, the record label's training facility for singers, dancers, and other entertainment talents. Because of this, the group's debut was much anticipated and was received well by many fans. In their debut year, they received the "Best Newcomer Award" at the 47th Japan Record Awards. From September to December they released a single each month plus a photobook and their very first album, Attack, in January 2006. With all the previous advertisement and releases the group did not have time to perform their songs live. However, as each of their singles has a different genre this did not cause a problem with sales.

Misako Uno, the female lead, starred alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar in the Hollywood version of The Grudge 2 in 2006. She played a one of the 3 school girls and all of her lines were in English. After releasing mini album All/2 on September 13, 2006, AAA released their second studio album All on January 1, 2007. The album's sales were a success but still less than it's predecesser ATTACK, although this is almost certainly due to the band releasing all but 3 songs off the album as singles with music videos throughout 2006.

2007–present: Media mix and acting + Larger Success

AAA is also performing the opening for 2007's Kamen Rider Den-O and also for Delicious Gakuin. For this single, "Climax Jump," they have temporarily changed their name to "AAA Den-O form". The single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for the shipment of 100,000 physical singles and 100,000 full-track ringtone music downloads (or Chaku Uta Full) each, making Climax Jump their most successful single to date.
AAA appeared at Otakon 2007 in Baltimore, Maryland.
AAA had their first Oricon weekly number 1 single in 2008 with "Mirage." AAA also appeared on the theaters and Nishijima manifested interest in the acting. He appeared in the film Love Exposure, which was the first film for him to play the main role. He performed cross-dressing in the film and eventually won the Sponichi Grand Prix New Face Award of the year 2009 on January 19, 2010.
After a string of top 5-10 hits throughout 2007-2008, AAA had a successful era in 2009 with their album HEARTFUL, with the album and all of the preceeding singles debuting in the top 3. In 2010, AAA's double A-side single "Aitai Riyū/Dream After Dream (Yume Kara Sameta Yume)" topped the Oricon weekly charts in May 2010, becoming their second number 1 single on the charts. Both songs were composed by Tetsuya Komuro, while those lyrics were written by others. Their next single "Makenai Kokoro" was released in August. The song is also composed by Komuro, but Uno and Ito sing the majority of the song while Hidaka provides backing rap vocals like their Heartful era. The single debuted at number 3 on the Oricon charts at over 45,000 sales.