was a Japanese idol project group associated with

Hello! Project is a Japanese musical collective consisting of all female recording artists and groups under Up-Front Promotion, a subsidiary of Up-Front Group. The name was initially used as Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume's fan club name in 1999, but ...

. It was formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2003. Its members consisted of

Morning Musume , formerly and commonly known as and colloquially referred to as , is 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 to ...

member Mari Yaguchi and Hello! Project Kids members Erika Umeda,

Saki Shimizu is a Japanese former 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 compos ...

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, 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 ...

. The group remained active until 2004.

History

The name ZYX is a kind of

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

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

, this inverted order naming is followed by the groups " W" created in 2004, "

v-u-den was a Japanese idol girl group associated with Hello! Project. The group was formed in August 2004 and consists of members Rika Ishikawa (Morning Musume), Erika Miyoshi, and Yui Okada, with Ishikawa being the leader. The group officially disb ...

" in 2005, "

The Possible ''The Possible'' (, ''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 transported by a time machine-micropho ...

" 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

* Mari Yaguchi (Leader) * Erika Umeda *

* Momoko Tsugunaga *

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 idol 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, Maa ...

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 mo ...

and

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

; Berryz Kobo member Chinami Tokunaga and Maasa Sudo; 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 2 ...

and Saki Ogawa. 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