Pop duo Tackey & Tsubasa are a part of Johnny’s Jimusho. They started off as backup dancers and have since worked their way to being successful singers. Aside from being known for their singing ability, Tackey is a prominent drama actor and Tsubasa is known as one of the best dancers in Johnny’s. Even though they’ve only been together for a few years, Tackey & Tsubasa are very successful and have many hit singles as well as a multi-aged fanbase backing them.
biography
Before becoming Tackey & Tsubasa, Takizawa "Tackey" Hideaki and Imai Tsubasa were a part of Johnny's Junior; this division of younger boys in the agency usually begin their career as backup dancers and the successful are given the chance to work up to their own group debut. Tackey & Tsubasa were originally part of the backup dancer lineup for the KinKi Kids in 1995 and over the years, the two boys became very good friends. After the Arashi debut in 1999, Tackey became the 'Leader' of the Johnny's Juniors and together with Tsubasa were one of the agency's most popular groups. At the 'Johnny's Junior FIRST Concert' in Tokyo in 1999, Tackey asked Tsubasa to join him in a duet, their first, and again a year later at the 'Johnny's Junior Spring Concert 2000'. During their Junior days they also hosted a number of variety shows including Gakibara Teikoku in 2000 and appeared in the drama Genroku Ryoran, which brought them even closer together.
In mid-2001, Johnny announced that each boy would be debuting in 2002 as a solo singer. This had followed the success of their first tour, 'Takki and Tsubasa 21st Century Showdown with all Johnny's Juniors', which had led many to believe they would debut as a duo. This tour was a JE first in that two individual boys were named in the tour title. Neither Tackey nor Tsubasa wanted to be separated, neither did their by now substantial fanbase want the two to part ways. Tackey announced his want to debut in a group at the 2002 Johnny's Junior Concert, leading to a year-long battle and fan campaign sending letters to Johnny asking him to let them debut as a duo. It was a tiring endeavour however on August 1, 2002, Johnny announced that the boys would be debuting as Tackey & Tsubasa. The following month, the boys released their debut album Hatachi, meaning "20 years old" and recognising their ages at debut. It begun a trend of naming each album, somehow, after their ages: 2wenty 2wo in 2004 and then Two You Four You in 2006. Hatachi was a huge success and claimed the #2 spot on the Oricon Top 200 Weekly charts after its release.
The following single To be, To be, Ten made To be released in February of the following year also performed well selling in excess of 100,000 copies. Each subsequent release from Tackey & Tsubasa would reliably make it into one of the top two slots on the Oricon charts, if not the #1 slot itself. In late 2003, Yume Monogatari was released, arguably their most popular single to date although afterwards the duo went a bit quiet for almost a year concentrating instead on drama - Tackey was becoming involved in the Taiga drama, Yoshitsune. Perhaps this brief hiatus caused their popularity to slip a bit as in September 2004 their Serenade single was less well received selling under 100,000 copies. Whatever caused the slip in popularity vanished with the release of their Venus single in January of this year, which is their highest seller to date. Their releases have been smaller in number than the average JE group with only 9 singles, 3 albums and 3 dvds in 5 years, nor have they enjoyed the same selling power as some of their familiars however the closeness of their friendship and popularity through both acting and previous Junior status has earned the duo a wide fanbase of devotees.
2007 is the duo's first Anniversary Year; 5 years of Tackey & Tsubasa. The single releases have been strong with a One Piece anime collaboration in April for the single x~dame/Crazy Rainbow and SAMURAI in August and both songs reached #1 in the Oricon weekly charts as expected although neither has as yet managed to outstrip the sales success of Venus. However a Best album celebrating the anniversary year, TakkiTsuba BEST is scheduled for an Autumn release to round off the duo's first 5 years together and to look ahead to many more.
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