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Editor's Note
Shibuya had a gal week, and I followed every day of it from Toluca. Eleven gals from Osaka debuted as GALEDGE., and their producer, SHINKO, told an interviewer she grew up on egg, nuts and Koakuma ageha. All three of those magazines are on my shelf. This issue puts the new group next to the pages it came from, which is the reason Gal Data Press exists. I'm back, and SHINKO has agreed to answer my questions for a coming issue.
THE SCENE: SHIBUYA, OCTOBER 13 TO 19
On October 13, eleven gals performed on Inaribashi Plaza at Shibuya Stream for a crowd of about 400 people. It was GALEDGE.'s debut showcase and the first live performance of WILDCARD, which went out on streaming at midnight Japan time on October 14.
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October 14
egg 渋谷 平成ギャル化大作戦
On October 14, egg opened a pop-up called 「egg 渋谷 平成ギャル化大作戦」 (egg's Operation Heisei Gal, Shibuya) at INOSHIBU, the concourse outside the central gate of the Keio Inokashira Line at Shibuya Station. Entry is free through Monday, October 19 (last day!). Inside: an exhibit of Heisei-era egg covers and a ¥600 AI photo booth that turns your face into a surf gal, ganguro gal, egg gal or hime gal, laid out like an egg cover.
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October 15
Riisa Naka x Shibuya 109
On October 15, SHIBUYA109 put Riisa Naka on its walls through October 25, with visuals inside and outside the building, a photo spot and stickers with her handwritten signature. Naka played Ayu, the legendary-gal older sister in NHK's morning drama Omusubi.
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The Extra Note
men's egg Auditions
And men's egg, the gyaruo magazine that returned to print in October 2025, is auditioning solo artists and vocal and dance units, men and women 18 to 35, with Budokan as the stated goal. Entries close November 11, Japan time, and the final is in person in Tokyo on November 14.
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Four gal stories landed in one neighborhood in one week, and two of them are about building new performers. |
THE PEOPLE: MEET GALEDGE.
GALEDGE. (ギャレッジ in Japanese) is a gal performance group of eleven: AINAGAL, AYUCHI, HONO, KIKI, LII, MIIIHO, RENPOM, RIMIBABU, UIUI, UNA and YUINEKO. RENPOM is the leader and AYUCHI is the center. SHINKO brought them together through her dance school in Osaka. They average about 15 years of dance each, and she has worked with every one of them for more than ten years, since they were little. The group grew out of SSSCLUB, which SHINKO formed in 2023.
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The name pairs GAL with EDGE: sharpness, individuality, the cutting edge.
SHINKO has danced for more than 20 years across hip-hop, jazz and reggae. She is the exclusive choreographer and director for Senritsu Kanano and MINMI, directs Kansai Collection, and has taught about 10,000 students in lessons across Japan.
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Meet GALEDGE. Producer SHINKO
In an October 12 interview with VANITYMIX, she went back to the Heisei gal boom of her childhood: 「コンビニエンスストアに行けば、『egg』や『nuts』、『小悪魔ageha』などのギャル雑誌がずらっと並んでいたんです。」 (Any convenience store you walked into had egg, nuts and Koakuma ageha lined up on the rack.)
She says gal culture kept her going as a kid, and she chose GALEDGE.'s members for their passion above their looks.
SHINKO's definition of a gal: 「ギャルは色物でも一過性のブームでもない、ここまで戦ってきた戦士なんだぞって。」 (Gals aren't a novelty or a passing boom. They're warriors who have fought their way here.)
SHINKO's gal mind comes in three rules:
- Love yourself.
- Stay true to what you love.
- Back your crew with everything you’ve got.
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WILDCARD
WILDCARD is a dance-pop track built on bass music and hard house. Nic Gitter and Masaki Fukuda of the creator collective NOGRID wrote the music, Nic Gitter arranged it, and Fukuda and SHINKO wrote the lyrics.
TWIN PLANET says the song is about accepting the weaker person you used to be and moving forward together. Actor Takayuki Yamada was the MV's creative director.
My two cents: Plenty of girl groups are trying to break into the music scene in Japan, and GALEDGE. has an edge that sets them apart (pun intended). They get their punch from the dancing. The WILDCARD MV starts strong, ends just as strong, and the eleven of them move as one unit the whole way through.
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WHO'S BEHIND IT
GALEDGE. is a project of TWIN PLANET, a Shibuya company founded in 2006 that built its business on gal marketing and gal culture. For its 20th anniversary it started a gal group of its own, and it says it wants to take G-POP to the world. Its definition of G-POP: a new kind of musical expression that fuses gal mind with high-level dance performance and reaches the world through gal vibes.
Yamada, in his debut comment, said he hopes the group lasts: 「GALEDGE.を一過性で終わらせず、メンバーたちがどうやってここから生きていくのかというところも見えていったらいいなと思います。」 (I hope GALEDGE. doesn't end as a one-time thing, and that we get to see how the members live from here.)
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THE LINEAGE
Gal culture has always had a soundtrack and a dance floor, and every magazine in the Gal Data Labs archive caught some of it.
For a lot of gals, para para came first: eurobeat, mostly arms, a set routine for every song, so a whole floor moved as one. Suzujun, who has taught para para for more than 20 years, told Gal Data Press in 2025 what matters most: 「その場にいる全員と合わせる」 (moving with everyone who's there).
→ You can go back and read the interview with Suzujun and Heather here ☆
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men's egg put the gyaruo of those years on its covers. The archive has men's egg from 2002 to 2006, the Center Gai years, plus men's egg Core, men's egg Youth and later issues up to 2013. Fine started out covering surf and moved into hip-hop, skate and dance, and it put the music gals and gyaruo danced to on paper. Four Fine issues from 1999 to 2006 are in the archive. The gals and gyaruo who were in those scenes built them.
GALEDGE. carries the same gal mind into a professional group: about 15 years of dance per member, a company behind them and a genre name aimed at the world. men's egg's audition points the same way.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: THE CONVENIENCE-STORE RACK
egg, nuts and Koakuma ageha are the three magazines SHINKO named.
All three are in the Gal Data Labs archive in Toluca: egg from 1997 to 2014, nuts from 2004 to 2012, and Koakuma ageha from 2009 and 2019. These are the covers she grew up seeing at the convenience store.
In her debut comment she put it plainly: 「私自身もギャルに人生を支えられ、救われてきました。」 (Gals held up my life and saved me.)
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WHY OVERSEAS GALS SHOULD CARE
TWIN PLANET says G-POP is meant for the world. Gal culture has traveled for as long as the magazines have, and gals outside Japan have built their own scenes for years. Gal Data Press will follow GALEDGE. in English from here, and I want to hear from you if you're listening from outside Japan.
Hit reply and tell me
Which gal magazine was on your rack growing up?
Which is still your favorite after all these years?
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日本語ダイジェスト
今号のテーマは「G-POPには系譜がある」。10月14日にデビューしたGALEDGE.（ギャレッジ）を、平成ギャル文化の流れの中で紹介しています。
今週の渋谷：GALEDGE.のデビューショーケース（約400人）、eggの「渋谷 平成ギャル化大作戦」、SHIBUYA109 × 仲里依紗、そして武道館を目指すmen's eggのオーディション。
SHINKOさんがインタビューで挙げた「egg」「nuts」「小悪魔ageha」は、3誌ともメキシコ・トルーカのGal Data Labsアーカイブに所蔵しています。
今号の一言：「ギャルは色物でも一過性のブームでもない、ここまで戦ってきた戦士なんだぞって。」（SHINKO／VANITYMIXより）
今後、SHINKOさんへの書面インタビューをお届けする予定です。
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COMING UP
A written interview with SHINKO.
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Photos, artwork and MV: ©2026 TWIN PLANET / PuZzle. Magazine photos: Gal Data Labs archive. All magazines © their publishers.
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