Kishibe Seven Starts 'Tail Care' Feature, Showing the Everyday Side of Noa Kishiyanagi and Iroha Urahata
Idol group Kishibe Seven, signed to Shiosai Records, launched a short-run feature on its official site on the 3rd following the 'tail care' routines of its two members with clan traits — Noa Kishiyanagi, 20, a third-generation fox-line Drifter, and Iroha Urahata, 19, a second-generation cat-line Drifter. The series has the two answering long-standing fan questions, from how they manage their tails under stage costumes to how they groom through seasonal changes, and has drawn a strong response from its first installment.
The feature series "Tail Care," launched on Kishibe Seven's official site on the 3rd, alternates between the group's two members with clan traits — Noa Kishiyanagi and Iroha Urahata, both previously reported. The first installment featured Kishiyanagi, who explained how her tail is accommodated under stage costumes: "We work with the costume team to cut a slit positioned so the base of the tail isn't cramped. Costumes used to be designed on the assumption the tail would be hidden, but now they're designed from the start with the tail in mind, which makes things much easier." Urahata, previewing her own upcoming installment, said, "I've avoided talking about grooming because it's embarrassing, but there have been so many questions from fans that I've decided to just go for it."
As previously reported, fox-line and cat-line traits differ in tail thickness and grooming needs, and the series plans to show those differences as they are. Kishiyanagi shared a behind-the-scenes detail: "Urahata's tail is thin and soft, so even the choice of brush is different. We tried swapping grooming products once and neither worked at all for the other — we both ended up laughing." A Shiosai Records staffer who conceived the feature commented, "We wanted a subject the two of them could talk about naturally, as people who actually live with their clan traits. We didn't want to sell the traits themselves — we wanted to show them as part of everyday life."
Within half a day of the first installment going up, the group's buzz reportedly came second only to the reaction when its new song "Ahead of the Light" previously hit No. 1 in streaming. One teenage fan said, "I'm glad they can talk about having clan traits without feeling embarrassed. I'm a cat-line half myself, so it's encouraging." Meanwhile, the group's members without clan traits have jokingly asked for a "claw care" feature of their own, and the series is expected to continue on a roughly weekly basis for now, with updates planned for Fridays; Urahata will take the next installment.
A costume-room staffer affiliated with Shiosai Records, who handles the group's outfits, shared some of the behind-the-scenes effort: "Where the tail sits is slightly different for each of them, so we can't just use an off-the-shelf pattern. We start measurements over from scratch every time." Kishiyanagi said, "The old costume used to catch my tail painfully in the fabric when I danced — this one's completely different. I owe the costume team a lot," and Urahata agreed, "I'm grateful they handle all the small fixes without ever complaining."
The series runs alongside the group's previously reported weeklong shadow-coverage shoot for Bayside TV's special program set to air Oct. 18, meaning both the official-site series and the television special are expected to show glimpses of Kishiyanagi and Urahata's everyday lives around the same time. Shiosai Records said, "It's unusual to see this much of their everyday selves across two different media at once, but the overlap in timing was a coincidence." The group's leader offered a comment: "Seeing the two of them talk so naturally made the rest of us feel like we could show more of our own 'normal' too. Whether you have a tail or not, everyone gets to show it their own way."
