was a Japanese

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

project group associated with Hello! Project. It was formed by

Up-Front Promotion is a Japanese holding company for various entertainment companies. Its subsidiaries include the talent agency Up-Front Promotion and Up-Front Works, a music production and sales company that manages such record labels as Zetima, Piccolo Town, ...

in 2003. Its members consisted of

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles ...

member

Mari Yaguchi is a Japanese singer, actress, and television personality. She joined the girl group Morning Musume in 1998 as a second generation member and was the leader of subgroups within Hello! Project, such as Mini-Moni, Morning Musume Sakuragumi, and ZY ...

and Hello! Project Kids members

Erika Umeda is a Japanese singer and former model. She was a member of the Japanese idol girl group ZYX and Cute up until departing to pursue a solo career in modeling. In 2013, she returned to her music career with the release of her debut solo single "Cr ...

Saki Shimizu is a J-pop singer. Her career began in 2002 when she passed the audition for Hello! Project Kids, an all-female teen pop group within Hello! Project. She continued to sing in that group and became a part of two smaller groups composed of Hel ...

Maimi Yajima is a Japanese singer and actress. She was a member and the leader of Cute, a girl idol group within Hello! Project. Career Yajima first joined Hello! Project in 2002 as one of the fifteen children chosen from the Hello! Project Kids audi ...

Momoko Tsugunaga is a former Japanese singer, actress, and radio personality. Tsugunaga joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Project Kids at the age of 10 and later became part of the girl groups Berryz Kobo and Buono! Following Berryz Kobo's hiatus, ...

, and

Megumi Murakami is a Japanese choreographer and former singer and actress. She first gained recognition when she joined Hello! Project Kids and later became the lead vocalist of the girl group Cute until her retirement in 2006. Career 2002–2005: Hello! P ...

. The group remained active until 2004.

History

The name ZYX is a kind of

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

using a somewhat intricate play in notation. "Z" and "Y" are taken from the phrase "Bai ni," meaning "double in size," is represented not as "B" but as a multiplication sign "×" which was then represented by the letter "X." Also, the letters ZYX are the last letters of the English alphabet in reverse order. In Hello! Project, this inverted order naming is followed by the groups " W" created in 2004, " v-u-den" in 2005, "

The Possible ''The Possible'' ( th, เก๋า..เก๋า, ''Kao ... Kao'') is a 2006 Thai musical-comedy film. It stars Thai rapper Joey Boy (Apisit Opsasaimlikit) as the leader of a 1970s rock group ( Thai string combo) that finds themselves transporte ...

" in 2006, and SI☆NA in 2008. This line-up of groups continues the reverse alphabetical naming (ZYX-W-VU-T-S). On February 28 and March 1, 2015, ZYX reformed for Berryz Kobo Matsuri with Momoko Tsuguana, Saki Shimizu and Maimi Yajima to perform "Shiroi Tokyo", the first time members of the original ZYX line-up have reformed under the name ZYX since 2006.

Members

(Leader) *

Legacy

In 2009, ZYX was revived as ZYX-Alpha (stylized as ZYX-α) as a

Hello! Project Shuffle Unit was a Japanese idol project group formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2000 and associated with Hello! Project. Beginning in 2000, the Shuffle Unit project was a yearly collaboration among existing Hello! Project acts, where members were recombined ...

. Tsugunaga and Umeda, now members of

Berryz Kobo was a Japanese girl group formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2004 and associated with Hello! Project. The group's members consisted of Hello! Project Kids members Saki Shimizu, Momoko Tsugunaga, Miyabi Natsuyaki, Chinami Tokunaga, Maasa Sudo, Y ...

and Cute respectively, rejoined as members of the group. New additions to the group included

members

Risa Niigaki is a Japanese actress and singer. She was a fifth-generation member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined Morning Musume in 2001 along with 3 others- Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa. She grew up in Yokohama after movin ...

and

Koharu Kusumi is a Japanese actress, model, television personality, singer, and voice actress. In 2005, she became the only seventh generation member of the Japanese girl group Morning Musume, a part of Hello! Project. While Kusumi was in Morning Musume, she p ...

; Berryz Kobo member

Chinami Tokunaga (born May 22, 1992) is a Japanese singer. She is a former member of the J-pop idol group Berryz Kobo. History Tokunaga was born in Kanagawa, Japan. In 2002, she passed the Hello! Project Kids audition and became a member of Hello! Project. ...

and

Maasa Sudo is a Japanese actress, singer, and tarento. She is a former member of Berryz Kobo, a J-pop idol group within Hello! Project. Career Sudo was born in Tokyo. In 2002, she successfully passed the Hello! Project Kids audition. Sudo was a member o ...

; and Smileage members

Ayaka Wada is a Japanese singer and idol signed to YU-M Entertainment. She was a first generation member and the leader of Angerme as well as the leader of Hello! Project. * Biography Wada joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Pro Egg in June 2004 ...

and

Saki Ogawa , formerly , is a Japanese idol girl group from the musical collective Hello! Project, which originally consisted of four former Hello! Pro Egg (''Hello! Project'' trainees) members that left Egg in 2010 and became full-time members of ''Hello! P ...

. The group released songs for Hello! Project's compilation albums ''Champloo 1: Happy Marriage Song Cover Shū'' and ''Petit Best 10''. The group was also active as a concert-only unit until 2011. In 2013, for Hello! Project's 15th anniversary, Tsugunaga, Sudo, Wada, Tokunaga, and Niigaki (as a special guest) performed together.

Discography

Singles

DVDs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zyx Japanese girl groups Japanese idol groups Japanese pop music groups Musical groups established in 2003 Hello! Project groups Musical groups from Tokyo