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aquarius-encore-project · 3 months ago

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INTRODUCTION POST #1 02.9.2024

ENTRY #1: JELLI

My name is Jelli! my image color is strawberry pink and my zodiac is Taurus ♡ I was born in Japan and moved to southern california during primary school. I was always into idols when I was in middle school but didn't really understand what they were outside of "JPop" I just liked the music and costumes and even sang idol covers online back in the early 2010's. I joined the group because I wanted to perform with my friends and create music and art that was true to ourselves. I do feel like sometimes I can be the "frosting?" to the cake that is Aqu♡rius. I do a lot of the design and brand work. My specialty is marketing so I want to make sure our group story is communicated well. I LOVE light and simple desserts like strawberry cake, shortbread cookies, and strawberry chocolates. I also love Siopao which is a filipino steamed meat bun... so comforting, everything you need in one package. My favorite part about being in the group is performing together! I love being able to perform on stage with my friends, I can't describe the feeling better... we work so hard and being able to come together on a stage is exhilarating. I enjoy laughing and brainstorming together when working with Aqu♡rius. We all are so unique and have so many different ideas for the group and having it all come together is like one huge melting pot of gold! My dreams for the future are to perform overseas with Aqu♡rius. Ideally I would love if we all are able to go to Japan together and perform. For myself I want to also create more solo music and show everyone what Jelli can do!

ENTRY #2: LILY

Hello~ I am Lily! My image color is princess pink and my symbol is a princess crown. My sun and moon is a scorpio and my rising is a sagittarius. I was born in one of the more diverse cities in Southern California. Growing up Filipino, we love our karaoke! I would sing all the time at the parties when I was little. I remember wanting to become a popstar, like Hannah Montana. When Aqu♡rius was still an Aqours cosplay dance group, I was, actually, a part of their very first cover, Koi ni Naritai Aquarium in 2016. However, I was just subbing in at the time. In 2018, I temporarily joined Aqu♡rius again to be their Ruby for their Awaken the Power music video. When I did my last performance with them, I remember crying because I had such an amazing time hanging out, practicing and performing with them. It felt like I fit right in, and it saddened me that it was only for a short time. Later in 2019, they officially recruited me as a member to play Ruby. Of course, I said yes and joined! I feel like I am the organizer of the group. I help a lot with setting dates, making schedules, and help keep the group on track! I also love making the lyrics distribution and formation. Especially when we have to adjust a 10-person choreo to 7. It feels like I’m solving a puzzle and I love solving puzzles!! I am such a foodie! I have my holy trinity of food that makes me happy: Shabu Hot Pot, Sushi, and Seafood boil. I also love anything spicy. I think I have the highest spice tolerance amongst my members. My favorite part about being in Aqu♡rius is performing with a great group of friends. I’ve always wanted to perform, ever since I was a kid. I thought that life was impossible until I met them. I feel the most at-home when I am on stage doing what I love. I love how we are consistently trying to improve ourselves and each other. We get to see each other grow. It’s such a rewarding feeling. My dream for the future is to perform overseas with Aqu♡rius! Maybe..Japan…at Tokyo IdolFest…? Haha! My personal goals for myself is to make more original songs and content!

ENTRY #3: HALEY

Hello everyone! My name is Haley and I am the berry purple member of Aquarius. My birthday is on November 24th and my zodiac sign is Sagittarius. I was born and raised in Southern California where it has always has been hot and anytime it rained it was like the streets are drowning. I grew up pretty much my whole life in a small town kind of in the middle of nowhere. I do like my little town life and I really prefer that over the big cities.Through out my childhood I have always been active and I tried several different sports and activities such as softball, volleyball, etc. and then in high school I did cheer. In terms of hobbies, I was introduced to anime and cosplay by my best friend Ko in middle school and that is how I ended up meeting Aquarius later on after I graduated high school. Speaking of Aquarius, I joined the group after being introduced to the other members of Aquarius through Ko and I have been a part of the group since. I joined the group because I was interested in continuing to perform since in high school I did cheer and I loved performing and doing something in that realm. I thought this would be a great opportunity to do something new, fun and exciting with a group of wonderful individuals who have the same interests. I also wanted to make new friends and meet new people. My role in Aquarius is pretty much I offer to do whatever is needing to be done. As in if anyone needs help doing anything I try to offer up. My favorite foods honestly include a lot of desserts or sweets. I just love making and eating sweets. I got more into baking recently and for the first time I made my mom’s recipe for lemon bars and they turned out amazing even if they were not perfect. In terms of savory foods, I love sushi and pasta/noodle dishes.

My favorite part about being in the group is just being with such amazing, talented, lovely people and just making something amazing together. It was honestly so cool and amazing to make Racketball together and just seeing how everything came together in the end. I cannot wait to make more music and create more with Aquarius! What I enjoy most about working with Aquarius is that sometimes things can be stressful, but we still know how to have fun together because in the end we are a group of friends that found each other and now we are one big family. My dream for the future is to make more music with Aquarius and I think it would be cool to travel more together as a group and perform.

ENTRY #4: J

Hey! It’s Shooting Star Idol, J! ✨✌🏽 My image color is Golden Yellow and my pronouns are they/he/siya (siya is a gender-neutral pronoun in the Tagalog that can used to refer to anyone)! I was born in SoCal and raised by my Filipino migrant family. The culture I was raised in influenced me to care a lot about music, dance, food, and history! I was exposed to anime and manga at a young age (lol), and through my own internet rummaging, I ended up hyper-fixating on Vocaloid, K-On!, and idols from all over the world!

Joining Aqu♡rius at the end of 2017 was a surprise! I had only gotten to know Aqours in October of that year and my baby gay dream of joining a full Love Live cosplay group came true soon after. I was eager to incorporate singing to our covers since then so I’m not surprised that Aqu♡rius has shifted to the direction it has gone now! I think I am the music guy a lot of the time for the group, but I also lead in teaching and cleaning the singing and dancing lessons. Some of my favorite foods right now are stone fruits like mangoes, peaches, nectarines, and plums!

My favorite part about working in a group is actually flourishing and developing each other’s creativity! Working on things collectively makes the results of our hard work more valuable and special since we all contributed to its development :) It’s also cool that we all have many talents and a huge majority of our work is self-produced! One goal for me is that I want to get to know all of you more! I’ve met so many people through idol activities who have shared with me their passions and optimisms and I want to be able to help uplift those who want to build community with others. As for Aqu♡rius specifically, it would be really exciting to eventually have a setlist full of only our original music!

ENTRY #5: EGGY

Helloo! I am Eggy (she/they), the cherry red member of Aqu♡rius. My birthday is on April 4th, which I think its quite fitting that my sun sign is Aries (the red imagery is burned into my soul ♥). I am also a socal native, and growing up I was always an artsy kid- loved doing any arts and crafts and creation that I could get my hands on. That artistry eventually led me to anime (I was obsessed with the art style of course), then to cosplay, and that slippery slope led me to where I am now. The Love Live to Idol pipeline is real, and I'd like to personally thank my girls Umi and Yohane for helping me along the way. Originally, I was kind of the one who started what would become Aqu♡rius, through a Love Live cosplay group that eventually evolved and led to us becoming what we are today. Because I had never had any formal training in dancing, and especially singing before, it took a little while for me to sort of ruminate on the idea of being kaigai idols when Jelli suggested we switch over from Love Live cosplay dance covers to doing what we do today, but I couldn't see myself doing this with any other group of people, and am so thankful I took the plunge. It was rather stifling being contained in a character's box, so being able to deviate from that by doing whatever we want, and ultimately just being more creative with the whole process has been amazing. As for my role in the group,,,, I have a hard time putting an exact word to it. Honestly, I feel like my strengths are in the ideas I have. I get smacked on the head with inspiration when I'm with everyone and just want to design and create faster than I can realistically keep up with. I love making art for our concepts and visuals, as well as designing when I can. I cannot lie to you guys, ice cream cannot be beat for me, I love it so much. My top tier flavor is rose, but that's hard to get so other favs are pistachio, and strawberry. Besides ice cream, I absolutely love börek, and highly recommend trying it if you haven't yet. The best thing about being a part of Aqu♡rius is just being able to be with everyone. I genuinely love and care about everyone so much and it's actually so insane to me that we have been able to create this and come so far from where we started. It's an honor to surround myself with such wonderful and inspiring people that choose to dedicate their time and energy into this project of ours. My dream for us is to continue creating- new songs, dances, events, ideas- whatever it may be. I hope one day we can host our own event with multiple original tracks (coughs I think everyone having a solo song would be so incredibly cool) and create a space for other idols in the community to do what they love to do. As for myself, I just want to continue improving, so I can be proud of every performance I do.

ENTRY #6: TUNA

Hallooo everyone!! It’s Tuna! My image color is sage green and my zodiac sign is Gemini sun, Aquarius moon and Virgo rising. I grew up in a small suburban town in Socal. I was the token weird anime kid growing up. I started cosplaying in 2011, a passion that led me to finding Eggy in 2013 at a local cosplay meetup. As my passion for anime grew, it sparked an interest in Japanese music. I found Vocaloid and quickly became a devout fan to producers and then utaites. Joining aqu♡rius was really something that basically was just a long term manifestation... I was always longing for a cosplay group. Even more, I wanted friends to sing with, a secret passion I had after finding out what a nico nico chorus was. I would have never imagined to find both in the same wonderful group. I would probably consider myself the glue of aqu♡rius. Which is to say, I am the goof that keeps us together and laughing. In reality, my range of contributions is wide, I love being a multi disciplinary artist and my contributions are eclectic and a result of random inspiration. My main focus is writing lyrics and costume construction and misc design. My favorite meal lately has been eggs in a basket toast, and favorite fruits are donut peaches and cherries! My favorite part about being in Aqu♡rius is the simple ability to create together. Aqu♡rius has inspired so much growth and change within myself and has taught me so much about how to manage my time and resources. I am so grateful for our shared experience and promise to do my best in the future too! My dream for us as a group is to travel internationally together… As for myself, I want to make more friends in this community! I also desire to keep growing my musical practice, I want to learn to play an instrument!

ENTRY #7: EDEN

Hi! I’m Eden, the shiny knife idol of AQU♡RIUS! So knife to meet you all!! You might recognize me as the pearl gray member (that’s white on your penlights!) I’m a Sagittarius sun with a Scorpio moon :) I’ve been into vocaloid since I was a wee little butter knife, I’m pretty sure when I was still in elementary school.. Then it evolved into Love Live!! And that’s where I started my idol journey! I already loved dancing since the Luka★Luka Night Fever flash mobs were popularized, and baby Eden just loved watching little dances from then on out. (I still bop to Mascara Blue Jeans often hehe)

I initially joined for a Love Live!! Cosplay group, and we just started performing.. Then added singing.. And wow here we are! Popped out like a fresh egg. I love my friends so it was really easy to get the ball rolling with everyone’s reassurance. My role? I really contribute what I can without stepping on anyone’s toes! My specialty is doodling for merch, and sometimes being the comedic relief when needed. It’s really cool seeing my drawings be made into little charms and keychains!!

My favorite food is cheesecake… I LOVE cheesecake.. I could eat a whole cheesecake by myself in an hour if I could.. Any type of pasta is also a comfort food, so is sinigang (filipino sour soup). Any rice is good.. I just love my carbs..

My favorite part about being here is the fact that it’s really just a group of my best friends performing together! They’re all such wonderful people that It makes me feel so incredibly lucky to have met all 6 of them at the time that I did. They all know how to make me laugh or reassure me of something that I need clarification on. I don’t think I could really achieve that with just a group that didn’t start as friends first. I don’t really have any specific dreams at the moment..! I just follow where the waters take us. Performing with AQU♡RIUS is already a dream in itself.. As for me, I’m always improving little by little, it’s not always linear, but that just makes me want to work harder. One day I’ll be completely proud of myself! I’ll get there with everyone!!

#aquarius encore project #Jelli_Post #Lily_Post #Haley_Post #J_Post #Eggy_Post #Tuna_Post #Eden_Post #kaigai idols

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