wFL, what happened?

wFL used to be very popular, but what happened to them in these years?

In 2001 a new boy band which is not from JE debuted, they were w-inds. under Vision. It was probably refreshing since they hada totally different style compared to the JE boys.
With their first single "Forever Memories" they have quickly gained fame. When they released their 1st album "1st Message" it quickly topped the Oricon chart and position on first place.As they stayed in this music industry their popularity have gained a lot, people started to see their own talent and soon w-inds.was recognised by this music industry.

While Vision see that w-inds. getting more and more popular, Vision gathered more boys to create another two boy band.
In 2002 two boy band from Vision FLAME & Lead debuted. FLAME debuted before Lead did, as it was another boy band and it's under Vision, FLAME popularity grew instantly with their first single "Mune no Kodou". Later around 2002 September another boy band name Lead debuted, their first single "Manatsu no Magic". As Lead debuted during the time when
w-inds. is having their "1st Message" live tour, Lead was the opening guest for the tour. This was a great chance to promote Lead and since Lead and w-inds. is under the same company most fans are fans of w-inds. & Lead.

See that the wFL are now popular, Vision decided to use this to get more money. First of all w-inds. FLAME & Folder 5 sang a song "World Needs Love" together for the Japanese soccer tournament.After that wFL released an remix album "Buddies", but I guess the selling wasn't that great despite that the remixes aren't that great.

As the Taiwanese loves Japaneses stuff, wFL started to get recognised in Taiwan. Their popularity are amazingly big and probably the most famous Jpop artist in Taiwan.
Seeing that wFL gotten more and more famous in Taiwan, to let the fans in Taiwan see their idols the show "Factory Generation" was made."Factory Generation" is a TV show that features w-inds. FLAME and Lead once per week, it clearly films what they have been doing lately and talks.
But unfornately this show only lasted for 2 seasons because the amount of peoples uploading it online and selling it over the internet.
Vision had a big fist about the copyright and stuff. So the show was put off even though a lot of fans complained about it.

During 2004 Vision annouced that Kaneko Kyohei from FLAME is leaving the group, due to this announcement fans were assuming FLAME would be disbanded. But a new member Seigo Noguchi was replaced, even though a new member was placed in and the fanswere happy because FLAME is not disbanding, but FLAME was not how it used to be.
With Kyohei as the vocal of FLAME, since he left the main vocal has been given to Yusuke and Hisato the two twins.
After Seigo joined in, they had a FC event. While singing back the old songs, Kyohei's part was replaced by either Yusuke orHisato and the song has changed to a different feeling.
The first single of the new FLAME "Shake you down" was released during February 2005, continuing their hip hop style. After the "Shake yoy down" single FLAME has been 'going their own way'. With Yu and Seigo filming a drama "Star Light" and Yusuke as radio show host.
FLAME has became pretty dead, seeing that there's no news from FLAME many fans moved on with another group. Slowly the popularity of FLAME decreased. Even though FLAME has released a single "Hanashitakuhanai" during November 2006, a theme song for anime "Marginal Prince".
The PV has disappointed many long-a-waited FLAME fans as the PV seem poorly made. The single didn't get FLAME popularity rise again.

wFL, F was gone and now only w-inds. and Lead survived in this music industry. Lead was also starting to lose their popularity, the times they have performed live have decreased in these past 2 years. After their 4th album "4" released during July 2006, they had their 3rd tour concert "Upturn 2006 - 4".
Probably after the concert fans has slownly lose hold of what's happening to Lead. They might be on some TV shows but just reminding everyone that oversea fans won't have a chance to watch them on TV show.

So what's left is w-inds.
w-inds. is the only all time popular group, although throughout these years their popularity have been going up and down but they were never a time where there's completely no news from w-inds.
As w-inds. release a single regularly, they have kept their popularity evenly. But in 2006 there was a big change, Vision announcement that Tachibana Keita from w-inds. will go on solo. This has scared many of the fans thinking that w-inds. would probably end up in FLAME situation, with Keita leaving the group.
If the main vocal Keita left what's there left for w-inds.?
But seeing w-inds. popularity so high at that time, Vision would not risk the chance to let Keita leave the group.
Seeing the talent in Keita Vision gave a chance to Keita to create his own music world, releasing his first solo single "Michishirube" which is written by Keita. The song quickly jumped to top 10 of Oricon chart. To not let this 'Keita wave' stop, no longer after the single he released an album "KOE" including 8 new songs written by himself.
Many fans were proud of Keita seeing he has such talents to write such beautiful lyrics. Keita's style has changed a lot ever since then, he was not only a hip hop artist but truly an artist who knows how to express his feelings through music.
While Keita's on the run, w-inds. has stopped their events Ryohei & Ryuichi was not seen on TV. Right after Keita finished a whole lot of promotion and a mini live concert w-inds. was back on track.
With their popularity gaining, they had presented the 'Most popular Jpop group' in Korea.
While Keita's solo events stopped, w-inds. has gone back as a whole and released their latest single "Hanamuke".
As "Hanamuke" means goodbye or farewell, many fans had a thought that this was a sign that w-inds. will be breaking up. But as I believe in Keita's words "I will always be in w-inds." the thought of breaking is not worth thinking because it won't happen.
Even though I said w-inds. popularity throughout these years were pretty evenly, but compared to the past the numbers of lives they performed have decreased a lot.
Their were rumours that JE was trying to stop the Vision artist going on some music show but as it is a 'rumour' and there's no proof so can't confirm that. But I have been hearing a lot of bad comments about the JE manager.

So with w-inds. still surviving preparing to release their new album "Journey", Lead has gone back on track with their new single "Drive Alive" and FLAME is still settle down behind.

So will wFL appear once again on TV or anywhere esle?
Will Lead gain back their popularity or will FLAME gone back on track and start racing?