Get Your Zekkyou Fix While You Can, For the End Is Nigh

And thus we add another project’s corpse to the pile created by this brutal year.

You probably saw the recent hubbub around Montero, the half of Screaming Sixties who did not get to perform in the UK last year (though we did chat with Kai), who announced that she was pregnant. While this was remarkable in itself — not because an idol clearly had a sex life, but because it was received mostly positively by fans of all stripes — and I was halfway to writing up a thing in relation to that, yesterday brought forth what’s probably the logical conclusion to the whole affair; Zekkyou’s putting an end to things after a one-man at the beginning of September:

Here’s Kai’s reaction:

And Montero’s:

This is a tough one, gang. Back when I was still treating Homicidols Dot Com as a source moreso than a reaction, they were not only one of the last profiles that I did, but one of my personal favorites. They were cool to delve into, a uniquely conceived spin-off from a punk band trying something different, and damn did it work. That they’ve been together for this long and that it’s always been just the two of them (and a rotating cast of support, and their extremely fit wota, and Hamada) is a testament to a real-life version of the strong bond between people that idols so often largely pretend to have.

So what’s next? It’s hard to say for absolute certainty, but come on: Zekkyou is effectively done after this Zepp show. Montero, in addition to just I’m-too-pregnant-to-idol time, is going to have her child, and then she’s going to spend a good while mothering that child. Goodness knows how her outlook will change or remain the same at that point, but the usual Zekkyou grind — traveling all over and performing almost anywhere at almost anytime — just isn’t going to work for her. I could see her — them — taking the stage in the future in a limited sense, a la latter-day FRUITPOCHETTE, but that’s the extent of it. Yeah, there are idols with children out there, but the circumstances that make that work aren’t, I think, in Zekkyou’s favor. Could the group soldier on without Montero? Hypothetically yes, but also it doesn’t sound like that’s the idea. I think we’ll see Kai in another role before we’ll see Screaming Sixties back to being a thing.

Sayonara, I think, Zekkyou. You put on a great show.

You have no idea how badly I wanted to call this post “In Like a Lion, Out with a Bang”, but Team advised that this would be perhaps just the tiniest bit in bad taste