#and b. lil is missing the commonality that ties jr.exile together

[thistaleisabloodyone]

Jr.Exile - with the exception of GENE, hilariously enough - could maybe be called the EXILE GENERATIONS generation. EXILE GENERATIONS (hereby referred to as EX-GEN because less characters) was a trainee group where one had to pass a professionalism review to become a backup dancer for other Exile Tribe groups.

I cannot find a GENE member in the list of former EX-GEN members on the wiki, but:

RMPG has 6 former EX-GEN members - Shohei, Itsuki, Shogo, Makoto, Kenta and Riku FANTA is basically entirely former EX-GEN members - Taiki, SawaNatsu, Hori Natsuki, Leiya, Keito and Shota BBZ has four former EX-GEN members - Ryuta, Masa, Rikiya/Ricky (I never know how to refer to him 😩) and Miku PsyFe also has four former EX-GEN members - Tsurugi, Jimmy, Kokoro and Ryoga

So much rambling beneath the cut re: GENE and Jr.Exile

I do feel like this makes the gap between GENE and the other groups - more obvious? It feels like there's a gap there, at least for me, where I often accidentally sort GENE into what I call Founding Exile, with Exile, JSB3 and Exile the Second. (The fact that GENE debuted two weeks after Exile the Second, but nearly ten years before PsyFe probably doesn't help that)

If RMPG hadn't had a 2.5 year debut delay, it would feel less extreme, I think, since RMPG and GENE are around the same age. GENE's average age is 30, whereas RMPG's average age is 27, and GENE's youngest member was born in 1996, the year RMPG is missing. Hilariously, Likiya is actually older than Mandy by two months, which means the oldest member of RMPG is older than the oldest member of GENE.

But I think a part of it is definitely the debut gaps - RMPG probably would've debuted in 2015 if the musha shugyo hadn't basically caused a collective mental breakdown, since GENE had a 7 month gap between formation and debut, Exile the Second had a 5 month gap between formation and debut, and JSB3 had a Less Than One Month gap between formation and debut (they really threw JSB3 straight into the deep end there 😂)

But since the musha shugyo did cause a collective mental breakdown, they didn't debut until January 2017, putting an approx. 4 year gap between them and GENE. Then FANTA debuted in December 2018 (~6 years after GENE), BBZ in May 2019 (~6.5) and PSYFE in July 2022 (nearly 10 years later), so GENE has a 4+ year lead in experience and name recognition over everyone else in Jr.Exile.

There's also the fact that, like, FANTA and PSYFE mbrs were backup dancers for GENE - I own the Speedsters tour recording and, like, two or three songs in, I realized I was playing an Easter Egg hunt of "Find the future Jr.Exile member" with the support dancers.