Japan’s newest heartthrob is a real baaaad boy.
Take a look at the roster of just about any Japanese male idol group and nine times out of ten you’ll find an almost interchangeable collection of beautiful boys. However, the Japanese male idol group *ChocoLate Bomb!! is a bit different. While yes, the majority of its members do indeed fit the “beautiful boy” type, *Chocolate Bomb!! also has a member that isn’t even a boy. In fact, it isn’t even human. It’s a goat.
*Chocolate Bomb!! (a.k.a. Chokobo) was founded in 2014 as a five member male idol group. Since then the group has been regularly putting out music, touring, and steadily growing its following. In short, there was nothing particularly remarkable about *ChocoLate Bomb!! for most of its existence. Earlier this summer, though, *ChocoLate Bomb!! suddenly turned into one of Japan’s most unique idol groups when it welcomed a sixth member into its ranks.
On June 24 of this year *ChocoLate Bomb!! released its seventh single: “Love Me Do ~Doko nimo Iccha Dameh~” (Love Me Do Don’t Go Anywheeere). In conjunction with the announcement of this new single, the group also announced that an African pygmy goat named Shropen would be the group’s newest member, thus making them the first idol group ever to have a goat as a member.
At the end of July, *ChocoLate Bomb!! released a music video for “Love Me Do” and, of course, Shiropen is prominently featured in the video. Not only that but the song also uses goat “vocals” and a giant mecha-style robot goat even makes an appearance.
Check out the music video below.
But who is this mysterious goat? Interestingly, Shiropen was already pretty well known even before he became an idol. His rise to fame began on Instagram where his owner would post videos and photos of Shiropen dressed up in all sorts of costumes. For example, the video below shows Shiropen cosplaying as Beast from Beaty and the Beast.
It seems that Shiropen’s popularity on Instagram eventually led him to get noticed by Japan’s mainstream media and pretty soon both Shiropen and his owner began appearing on Japanese television. Here is a clip from one such appearance.
The Japanese media seems to have particularly latched on to Shiropen’s relationship with his owner: Aya Shinozuka. Whether it’s true or not is uncertain but Shinozuka appears to be fine with having the world think that she considers Shiropen her romantic partner. In fact, in just about every TV appearance she does or says something to further this narrative. For example, in the clip below a TV crew visits Shinozuka and Shiropen at their residence in Ōta City in Tokyo. During the interview she says she has been living with Shiropen for eight years now and that she doesn’t think there is a man out there that is more of an ikemen (handsome man) than Shiropen. The narrator goes on to explain that Shinozuka loves Shiropen’s handsome face so much that she’s taken over 700,000 photos of her beloved goat. For some reason Shinozuka also points out that Shiropen’s lips are incredibly soft.
In the clip below from another Japanese TV show, Shinozuka can be seen with her mother discussing Shinozuka’s relationship with Shiropen. The mother expresses that she is concerned her daughter has been unable to get married due to her relationship with Shiropen. Shinozuka responds by saying that she doesn’t think there is a (human) man out there that is better than a goat. She is then asked if she sleeps in the same bed with Shiropen and Shinozuka says yes. Shinozuka is then asked what she does on Christmas, which in Japan is generally seen as a Valentine’s Day-esque holiday for couples. In response, Shinozuka explains that she goes out with him to popular date spots like Odaiba in Tokyo and Minato Mirai in Yokohama.
Later in the same show that the clip shown above was taken from, it is suggested that Shinozuka could get married to Shiropen. This results in the clip below. The clips shows Shinzuka in a wedding dress and Shiropen in a tuxedo in a mock wedding ceremony.
While it definitely seems that Shinozuka cares a great deal for Shiropen, it is quite likely that Japanese TV producers are having Shinozuka exaggerate certain aspects of her relationship with Shiropen for the cameras. Regardless of the truth, though, it appears that all the media attention Shiropen was getting caught the eye of someone at *ChocoLate Bomb!! and resulted in Shiropen becoming an idol.
Whether Shiropen’s presence does much to increase the public’s awareness of *ChocoLate Bomb!! certainly remains to be seen. For the time being, it doesn’t seem like it’s done all that much but only time will tell. However, it should be pointed out that that Shiropen will only be part of *ChocoLate Bomb!! for a limited time.Hopefully, this means that *ChocoLate Bomb!! will bring in another animal member into the group after Shiropen’s departure. Perhaps an alpaca would be good. Those seem to be popular in Japan these days.
For more Shiropen-related content, you can check out his official blog or Instagram. And for more information on *ChocoLate Bomb!! you can visit their official website.
