sFAQs

About MADKID and the members

• How did they get started? (and anything else related)

  You’ll find all your answers at the Throwback Timeline section. This includes their milestones, accomplishments, and a few details about the singles they released.

• What are the member positions and who composes their songs?
  • Leader/Main Vocal: YOU-TA
  • Vocal: KAZUKI
  • Vocal/Main Dancer: SHIN
  • Rapper/Composer/Producer: LIN
  • Rapper/Dancer/Lyricist: YUKI

  About 99% of their songs are composed and produced by the group themselves. They do get a few contributions from fellow songwriters and artists within their agency. ² LIN and YUKI also contribute some of their songs to fellow agency artists as well. ³

• What agency is MADKID being managed by?

  MADKID is being managed by a small management company, Slow Jam Productions. I often refer to them as SJP, but many other fans refer to them simply as Slow Jam.

  You can visit their official site here.

• Can I send fan mail and gifts to the members?

  All of that info are all in this section.

  When you do end up attending one of their live events, whether in Japan or somewhere else, you can bring them gifts. However, you will have to pass it on to a MADKID staff member instead of the member themselves. ⁴

• Is it true that fans get to communicate and interact with the members?

  From time to time, individual members do livestreams so they’re able to keep in touch with the fans worldwide. Check out the SLYKY section for more information.

• Is the group really Japanese? They look like a K-Pop group!

  The funny thing about this question is that the majority of those who made these comments are (male) anime/manga otaku fans. The majority of the current global MADKID Axcels are current (or former) K-Pop fans, meaning K-Pop fans in general can easily tell who’s a K-Pop artist and a J-Pop artist.

  As a long-time J-Pop music and Japanese Pop Culture fan in general, I’ve seen and somewhat got exposed to different styles of their own pop culture. Anime cosplaying, Visual Kei bands, and the general Harajuku Fashion scene ⁵ all have one thing in common: They all sport out elaborately colored hair ⁶, all sport out very intricate fashion designs, very high-detailed makeup, and very fashionable jewelry. These trends within Japanese Pop Culture have come to existence since the ’70s and are one of the pioneers of Modern Asian pop culture. Neighboring Asian countries (especially South Korea) have been exposed to them.

  So in short, because of the global popularity of K-Pop, a lot of the “newer” fans think that S. Korea invented general Asian Pop culture with those traits mentioned above. Their thoughts completely contradicts what many scholarly-written textbooks about K-Pop and Korean Pop Culture mentioned otherwise. Just search around Google for its history.

  And the whole “they look like Korean” bit? This is like saying “all East and Southeast Asians look Korean.” It’s like how others see Caucasian people look like one another, African-descent people look like one another, etc. In addition to this, centuries of history of connections and tensions between Japan and Korean also come into play.

  In short, none of the MADKID members are Korean. All five of them were born and raised in Japan and Japanese is their native language.

• Are the MADKID members anime/manga fans?

  This is a very common stereotype from non-Asians (especially non-Asian anime/manga otaku fans) that all Japanese are anime/manga fans. That’s like saying that all Americans are Disney fans.

  Among the MADKID members, there is only one member who considers himself a certified otaku: LIN.

  YUKI is a casual anime/manga fan and really enjoys anisongs. ⁷

  The three vocalists (YOU-TA, SHIN, KAZUKI) all mentioned that The Rising of the Shield Hero is the first anime series they’ve ever watched in their lives, only because they produced and sang both opening themes. Other than that, the only anime/manga they can recall are the ones they’ve watched during childhood. ⁸

• Why did LIN disable his social media accounts to not be tagged in photos?

  LIN is not a very photogenic person and being that he’s aware of his public figure presence, he also doesn’t like to be repeatedly being tagged on (official) photos by several people. It floods his timeline. If you were in his shoes and then get tagged at photos you’ve already seen several times by random people, wouldn’t you be annoyed?

  His Instagram account barely has anything except for those famous Instagram grids. He is not a selfies-type person, nor that he likes his photo to be taken in general unless if it’s career or promotion-related.

  It’s a bad idea to bring this issue up with LIN (when he does his InstaLive livestreams) because unlike the rest of the members, this guy does not sugarcoat and he’ll be direct with you on the spot.