B-Komachi

B-Komachi (「Ｂ小町」) is an idol group affiliated with Ichigo Production, Inc. The group has two incarnations, sharing the same name.

The original incarnation consisted of Ai Hoshino and three other members. After more than ten years of activity, it disbanded two years after Ai's death, which was its ace and center.

Its current incarnation has three members: Ruby Hoshino, Kana Arima and Mem-Cho.

Current Generation

 * Ruby Hoshino
 * Kana Arima (graduation confirmed)
 * Mem-Cho

Original Generation

 * Ai Hoshino (founding member)
 * Takamine (founding member)
 * Nino (founding member)
 * Watanabe (founding member)
 * Meimei
 * Ari
 * Kyun

Original Generation

 * Our Sign Is B
 * STAR☆T☆RAIN
 * HEART's♡KISS
 * Super Motor
 * More than 30 unnamed songs

Current Generation

 * STAR☆T☆RAIN
 * Our Sign Is B
 * Pop in 2

Original Generation
The original generation of B-Komachi was active for around ten years, starting from when Ai Hoshino debuted at twelve years old. Originally, the group had four members, including Ai, which later got increased after they become affiliated with Ichigo Production, Inc.

Being uniquely captivating, Ai had been the center of attention and popularity the group had accumulated. This brought about tension and jealousy within the group and even alleged favoritism at the agency level. Nevertheless, every involved party was aware of Ai's importance and indispensability and Ai would soon become the unchanging ace and center of B-Komachi.

At the summit of their popularity, Ai was murdered on her birthday and the day of their confirmed Tokyo Dome performance. This caused a sudden disruption to the group and its agency as their president, Ichigo Saitou, disappeared from the industry entirely. Two years later, the original B-Komachi disbanded and it also marked the deactivation of Ichigo Production, Inc's idol department.

Current Generation
The current generation started as Ai Hoshino's daughter, Ruby Hoshino, joined Ichigo Production, Inc to become an idol, officially relaunching an idol group after more than a decade. As Strawberry Production look forward to add more members to the new idol group, she was joined by Kana Arima, someone that Aqua Hoshino recommends and goes at great length to get her to agree on joining. Ruby came up with the idea of taking the B-Komachi mantle and resurrected the group into a new incarnation after filming a collaboration with Pieyon. After the conclusion of the production of the reality show LoveNow, streamer Mem-Cho joined the group after being recruited by Aqua.

Through every connection channel utilized by the group, its members, and its agency, the new B-Komachi rose to significant popularity, following in the footstep of fame of its original incarnation. Their trip to Miyazaki for a music video production yielded a notable success. Ruby followed Ai's footsteps, becoming uniquely captivating, albeit with a darker atmosphere.

After Kana graduated high school, she announced her graduation from the B-Komachi, wanting to refocus on her career as an actress.

Trivia

 * According to the novel 45510 by Aka Akasaka, the four founding members of B-Komachi were Takamine, Nino, Ai & Watanabe.
 * Ai's smartphone & blog account  password was "45510," (which is the same title as the novel) the initials of the four founding members. The number corresponds to the Japanese flick keyboard:
 * Takamine (た Ta): 4
 * Nino (に Ni): Double 5
 * A flip phone mechanic: double press な Na to get に Ni
 * Ai (あ A): 1
 * Watanabe (わ Wa): 0
 * The same novel has also revealed that in some private posts of Ai's blog, Ai had always wanted to stay friends and reconcile with the other original band members, but it is now impossible after her death, and the novel's main character deleting the blog permanently.
 * It appeared that each member in the old generation used animal mascots to distinguish themselves with Ai using a bunny.