Flower was a Japanese pop girl group formed and managed by LDH from 2009 to 2019 and signed to the record label Sony Music Japan. They were a dance and vocal unit of collective girl group E-girls alongside Happiness, Dream and three other original E-girls members. The group consisted of one vocalist and four performers at the time of their disbandment.
History
Flower was formed firstly as a performance group, with LDH recruiting four EXPG (Exile Professional Gym) students: Elina Mizuno, Manami Shigetome, Mio Nakajima, and Shuuka Fujii in 2009. They began appearing in Exile music videos and started modeling, before gaining popularity as backup dancers on tour for Exile. On April 24, 2011, E-girls, (EXILE Girls) was formed as a joint project featuring Dream, Happiness, and Flower, but while the other two groups had vocalists, Flower only performed as a dance act at E-girls' shows, but in May 2011, vocalists were added.
As a 9-member group, Flower released their debut single, "Still", on October 12, 2011. The single charted at number 5 during the first week of release, and remained on the chart for several weeks. In November 2011, all members of Flower were confirmed to be joining the collective group E-girls. Flower continued to release several singles throughout 2012 alongside promoting as members of E-girls.
Leader Elina Mizuno left in 2013.
2014: Debut album Flower and Chiharu's departure
The group's self-titled first album was released on January 22, 2014.
On January 25, Manami Shigetome and Chiharu Muto were invited to meet British girl group Little Mix prior to their first performance in Japan. They exchanged albums and talked about the possibility of a future collaboration.
On June 11, Flower released their 7th single "Nettaigyo no Namida" (熱帯魚の涙; Tears of a Tropical Fish).
On August 20, the group participated in the VERBAL Presents OTO_MATSURI 2014 × m-flo TOUR “FUTURE IS WOW” Special Final at Yoyogi National Stadium.
On October 12, Chiharu Muto officially announced her withdrawal from both E-girls and Flower, deciding to study abroad. Shortly after, on November 12, the group released their 8th single, "Akikaze no Answer" (秋風のアンサー; Answer of the Autumn Wind), being the last single to include Chiharu. The title track was chosen as the theme song for the Nippon TV drama Binta!~ Bengoshi jimu-in Minowa ga ai de Kaiketsu Shimasu ~ (ビンタ！～弁護士事務員ミノワが愛で解決します～) which stars Exile's Matsu in its leading role.
In December 2014, LDH announced that Flower would be releasing their 9th single, "Sayonara, Alice / TOMORROW ~Shiawase no Housoku~" (さよなら、アリス / TOMORROW ～しあわせの法則～; Sayonara, Alice / TOMORROW ~Law of Happiness~) on February 18, 2015. This would be Flower's first double A-side single, and also their first single without Chiharu, as a 7-member group. Additionally, "TOMORROW ~Shiawase no Housoku~" is a cover of the song "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie and was used as the theme song for the Japanese release of the American movie Annie from 2014.
2015: Second album Hanadokei, first tour and Kyoka's departure
On February 3, 2015. Flower announced the release of their second album, to be released on March 4, less than a month after the release of their double A-side single "Sayonara, Alice / Tomorrow Tomorrow: Shiawase no Hosoku".
On February 14, during the first day of E-girls' second tour COLORFUL WORLD, Flower's first live tour Flower LIVE TOUR 2015 "Hanadokei" was announced to be held in 5 cities starting in June.
On February 24, Flower and Little Mix's collaboration song "Dreamin' Together" (Flower feat. Little Mix) was released. The song was created after both groups reunited in summer 2014 and nominated in the category "Best Collaboration" at the MTV VMAJ 2015.
The group released their 10th single "Blue Sky Blue" on April 29, 2015. The title song was chosen as the commercial song for KOSE's new mascara product, with the CM titled Facio E-girls Demonstration Live (ファシオE-girls実証ライブ) featuring 11 E-girls members.
On October 7, Kyoka Ichiki announced her departure from both Flower and E-girls. In her graduation message she wrote that she wanted to follow different paths.
The group released their 11th single "Hitomi no Oku no Milky Way" (瞳の奥の銀河(ミルキーウェイ); The Milky Way in Your Eyes) on December 16 as their first release as a 6-member group. The song was used as the ending theme for the anime Kindaichi Case Files (R): Season 2, for which member Reina Washio dubs a character. Flower also held a row of live performances titled Flower Gathering Winter 2015 (Flower 花の集い ～2015冬～) to promote the release of this single.