SPEED SNAP - hiro + eriko + takako + hitoe

Speed is female Jpop group, consisting of Hiroko Shimabukuro, Eriko Imai, Takako Uehara, and Hitoe Arakaki. The four girls hail from Okinawa Japan and are all alumni of the popular Okinawa Actors School. Speed made their official recording debut in August 1996 with the release on their single Body and Soul. The release of the single helped launched them into superstardom and on to becoming the highest selling Jpop Female group all of time with combined album and single sales. Despite their popularity, in October 1999 the group made a public announcement that they will disband on March 31, 2000 in order to pursue their solo interests. However, after an eight-year hiatus with intermittent reunions, the group officially reunited in 2008 with the release of the single Ashita no Sora.

When the group formed in 1996 the youngest member of the group Hiroko was only 12 years of age. Unlike most artists from the Okinawa Actors School which were signed to the Avex record label, Speed was instead snatched up by Toys Factory. Their sole producer during their time together was Hiromasa Ijichi. Upon forming, Speed recorded a few songs, however “Body & Soul” was quickly chosen to be their debut single. The video for the song was filmed on location in San Francisco and Los Angeles and sold an impressive total of 638,000+ copies upon its release. Body & Soul was also Speed’s longest chart song, lingering in the charts for 31 weeks. Body & Soul was quickly followed up by the ballad single “Steady” which was their first million selling single (1.27 million copies). Following Steady, Speed decided to go with a more upbeat song and released “Go! Go! Heaven“. The video for the song was filmed on location in New York and Miami. The song sold over 665,000 copies and became the girls first single to hit No.1 on Japan’s Oricon weekly charts. Following “Go Go Heaven”, Speed released their debut album Starting Over. The album contained a mix of upbeat songs mixed with soft ballads. Their debut album became their first number-one album on the Oricon charts.

After the release of Starting Over, Speed followed on with their upbeat genre and released the single “Wake Me Up!“. The video for the song was filmed on location in the Philippines and sold approximately 671,000 copies (total shipment: 890,000) when it was released. It was also during this time that Speed decided to have their debut concert. The concert titled ‘Speed - First Live’ was staged outdoors on location in Odaiba and featured an impressive stage with pyrotechnics and acrobatic stunts.

In October 1997, they released “White Love“. Their style took a change from dance music by the single. The Winter themed single became the smash hit single of the holiday period. By the time the single exited the charts it had already sold an impressive 1.845 million copies. After White Love, Speed continued on with their more mature style and released the anthem like song “My Graduation“. The single sold 1.475 million copies and became the Japan’s highest-selling single on the subject of graduation.

After “My Graduation”, Speed finally released their highly anticipated second album Rise. Speed’s second album followed on from their change in musical style and took on a much more futuristic sound to their original album. In fact, it appears that the single “Wake Me Up!” arguably received a remix just so it could fit in more appropriately with the other tracks on the album. Rise was highly successful, entering the Oricon chart in the top spot and sold over two million copies.

Following Rise, Speed decided to give acting a try with the girls starring in the Takashi Miike directed Sci-Fi thriller Andromedia. The film was screened across Japan and was highly successful. To accompany Andromedia, they also recorded a theme track titled “Alive”. The single was shot in location in Hawaii and became one of Speed’s most popular singles. Despite the single’s popularity, the song slightly failed to cross the 1 million mark in sales (total 967,000 copies). However, this was probably because Andromedia also released a soundtrack that contained the single “Alive”, thus undermining the single’s sales.

Following Andromedia and “Alive”, Speed begun what was to be one of their incredible feats - their Rise Tour. They begun their tour first by visiting most of the major cities throughout Japan. To no surprise, all of their concerts sold out really quickly. They followed up their dome concerts with what can only be achieved by the most formidable artists in Japan - the Dome tours (Tokyo Dome, Nagoya Dome, Osaka Dome, and Fukuoka Dome). The girls managed to achieve this all with just an average age of just 15.25 years. This was the youngest record to hold the 4 big dome tour.

During the Dome tours Speed also released another single titled “All My True Love“, a fast upbeat song shot on location in the Grand Canyon Arizona. The single was exciting for fans for many reasons. However it was also the turning point for SPEED as seen by many. The single was exciting because it contained the first official solo tracks sung by the two lead singers of Speed: Hiroko and Eriko. Hiroko’s song was titled Mitsumete itai and Eriko’s, Tsumetaku shinaide (Eriko actually teamed up with a dance troupe called Crunch at the time and thus was known under the name, Eriko with Crunch). Both songs also contained their own music videos that were shot in sound stages in Universal Studios, Hollywood. The single was also Speed’s first Maxi single to be released on a regular 12cm CD cased within a Digi Pak. The single topped the charts again and went on to sell over 1.22 million copies.

After the release of “All My True Love”, Speed followed up by releasing their greatest-hits album: Moment, which topped the charts and shipped over 3.04 million units. Moment contained all of Speed’s released singles at that time along with a couple of popular album and single tracks. The album also contained a critically acclaimed Christmas Standard version of the single “White Love” and a hidden instrumental track of the song as well. The first print edition of the album came with flip book that shows the girls performing their trademark dance moves when flipped through quickly. Three versions were available (though fans didn’t know which one they were getting) - “Body & Soul”, “White Love”, and “my graduation”.

Following Moment, Speed released the single “Precious Time”. The single’s video was shot on location in Los Angeles and the single itself also featured a coupling track to celebrate the cartoon character Doraemon’s 40th anniversary. The single went on to sell over 623,000 copies.

Shortly after the release of “Precious Time”, news broke that Takako of the group will be releasing a solo single in March. More surprisingly, the producer will not be Hiromasa Ijichi, but instead Ryuichi Kawamura of Luna Sea. Takako’s debut single “My First Love” was highly anticipated and came in at number 1, selling over 530,000 copies. The video for the single was shot on location in Hawaii.

Following Takako’s solo debut, it was revealed that another Speed member, Hitoe would also be releasing a solo single. For her debut Hitoe decided to go with a much more adult look, appearing in her video wearing mini skirt & bikini with a short coat. The single titled “Inori” was more rnb in nature and show cased Hitoe’s impressive dance moves. In fact for the single, Hitoe adopted the pseudonym Hitoe’s 57 Move (57 meaning Go-Na - gonna in Japanese). Hence Hitoe’s 57 Move. The shock value of her image may have worked against her as Hitoe’s debut single sold approximately 230,000 copies - nonetheless an impressive figure for a debut single.

After “Inori”, Speed was back on track again and released another upbeat maxi single, this time titled “Breakin’ Out the Morning“. The single also contained another solo track by Eriko with Crunch titled - “Everyday, Be With You”. The single sold over 582,000 copies and at the time was actually Speed’s worst selling single. It was also the first single by SPEED which was not an original release but a cover.

Following Breakin’ Out to the Morning, the time came for Hiroko to show case her solo talents. Her single titled “As Time Goes By” was produced by Hiromasa Ijichi and was the theme song of the drama series Tengoku no Kiss. The video for the single was shot on location in New York (mainly Brooklyn). “As Time Goes By” was an instant hit, high charting at no. 2 selling close to 900,000 copies.

After hiro’s single, Takako released her second single titled: “Come Close to Me“. The single was again produced by Ryuichi Kawamura and sold over 200,000 copies.

In October 1999, Speed announced that they would disband.^[8] The news shock many fans and artists alike as they appeared to be breaking up at the peak of their music career. The reason offered was that they have grown up and would like to pursue their own solo paths and interests. The date announced for the disbandment was the following year - March 31, 2000. This date was chosen because it was the time when the Sakura would bloom in Japan, thus signaling new life.

Following the news, Speed, released their final single together as a group titled “Long Way Home”, which had an R&B vibe to it.^[9] Although the single didn’t top the charts at no. 1 (due to competition from Arashi’s debut single “Arashi” and Hikaru Utada’s highly anticipated First Love follow-up “Addicted to You”) it still sold over 613,000 copies in total. Shortly after Long Way Home, Speed released their final album Carry On My Way. The album contained a variety of tracks from soft tone ballads, to R&B songs and even a couple rock songs. Overall the album sold 880,000 copies in total. At this period Speed also commenced their final dome tour in Japan titled Speed Dome Tour 1999 Real Life with 6 dome concerts. This is also their tour sequel to their summer tour Speed Tour 1999 Real Life which visited arenas and various concert hall. The concerts outdid their previous ones in terms of stage settings and performance. In addition they also managed to complete another Dome Tour of Japan with their very final concert being held in the Fukuoka Dome on Christmas Day.

A few weeks prior to the disbandment of Speed, hiro release her 2nd single “Bright Daylight” and Eriko finally released her own solo CD under stage name Eriko with Crunch. Her debut solo single titled “Red Beat of my Life“, a fast paced song was produced by Hiromasa Ijichi. The video was filmed on location in New Mexico USA. The single came in on the charts at no. 3 and sold over 240,000 copies. On March 29, 2000 Speed released two greatest-hits albums titled Dear Friends 1 and Dear Friends 2. The albums contained all their hit singles along with previously unreleased tracks and other popular songs from their single b-side and album. Dear Friends 2 contained their break up theme song April and the video featured the girls along with review clips of their past music videos and concerts. The albums also contained a program that when installed displayed little virtual images of the girls on your computer screen. On 31st March 2000, Speed attended Music Station and had a roughly 30 minutes mini live singing a few of their hit song. The last song they sang together is “Starting Over”, which had Takako cried during singing. This is Speed’s Final Live, and after which, Speed officially disbanded.

On August 21, 2001, news broke out that on October 6, Speed will have their first and one night reunion for an earthquake charity. On that day, Speed held a one night outdoor live concert reunion at Kobe Awaji, attracting more than 24,000 fans. They sang many hits song during that night and member Takako, Eriko and Hiroko also sang some of their solo songs. They also performed a new song “One More Dream”. After the concert, on December 12 and 19, Speed released a new special single “One More Dream” and a live recording album of that night Speed Memorial Live “One More Dream” + Remix!!! respectively. Both of which are limited edition. This 2 CD is also Speed last CD to be release on Toy’s Factory label record. After 6 years under Toy’s Factory label record, Speed members officially change their record label to Avex sub-label “Sonic Groove” at the end of 2001. On December 2, Speed had another private reunion at the wedding of their long time producer Hiromasa Ijichi. They sang “Two of us” from their final album “Carry On My Way” on their wedding.

On July 17, 2002, all members attended Suisupe!. However, this is not a reunion. They attended the program as solo artiste talking about their thoughts.

On April 8, 2003, Speed held a press conference which they announced they will be having their 2nd reunion for another charity “Save the Children”. The purpose of this charity is to raise money for poor kids all around Asia. This 2nd reunion had a time span of around half a year from April to 31st December. However, activities only starts around July to December. On 27 August, Speed released their 13th single “Be My Love” During this period, Speed also re-released all their VHS to DVD format, which include Speed Spirits 1 & 2 and 3 of their concert. From 29 September to 14 November, Speed held a “Speed Save the Children Speed Live 2003″ with 19 nation wide concert.

On 27 November, Speed released their 14th single “Walking in the Rain / Stars to Shine Again” and 4th studio album Bridge. “Walking in the Rain / Stars to Shine Again” is Speed 1st double a-side single and also this is the first single which is not produce by Hiromasa Ijichi. Before the release of their 14th & 4th album, every single song by Speed is produce by Hiromasa Ijichi. On the Christmas Day of 2003, Speed released DVD of their “Speed Save the Children Speed Live 2003″ which include the PV of “Be My Love” and “Walking in the rain”. Speed also visited Vietnam during this period to get to know more about their living situation of children over there. After many activities from July to December, Speed attended their last TV program “Japan Record Awards 2003″ on 31st December to receive a special awards. After which, as the ambassador of Save the Children officially ended. They raise about 1,4644,5469 yen for Save the Children. Speed member returns to their solo work once again.

On January 9, 2004, Speed released a photobook “Bridge” consisting many photos from their 2nd reunion. Also on 11th February, Speed released a live recording album Best hits live ~ Save the Children Speed Live 2003. The live album includes “Snow Kiss” which is not included in their “Speed Save the Children Speed Live 2003″ DVD.

On 1st August 2006, Toy’s Factory open a 10th Anniversary Site for Speed. This site is open up for digital downloads for all Speed’s songs released under Toy’s Factory. Songs are up for download on their debut date, 5th August. On July 2007, Hitoe, Takako, Eriko & Hiroko donated a sum of money to a charity together. Once again, a sign of private reunion of Speed to fans.