BeForU

An all-girl J-pop group produced by Naoki Maeda, originating from the Dance Dance Revolution video games. The group was picked from auditionees into a competition held by Konami, in which talent was sought for use in their Bemani series of video games. The group began with four members: Noria Shiraishi (白石紀亜) Riyu Kosaka (小坂りゆ) Yoma Komatsu (小松代真) Shiyuna Maehara (前原しゆな) Shiyuna, being the only member of the group to not perform a solo track for a Bemani game, left in 2004. She was replaced with three new members: Miharu Arisawa (有沢みはる) Sayaka Minami (南さやか) Risa Sotohana (外花りさ) Outside of the Bemani series of games, BeForU have begun to release tracks on the Avex Trax label achieving success within the general J-pop market. In November of 2007, Miharu Arisawa and Yoma Komatsu left hte group. Later on her blog, Riyu announced that Noria and Risa would be 'Graduating' to pursue solo careers. In December, a 'Graduation' concert was held with the 4 remaining members. After this the BeForU site was shut down. In late January 2008, On the site, It told fans it was going to re-open in February. When the site re-opened, BeForU had 3 new members: Megumi Fukushita (福下恵美) Ayano Tachibana (立花彩野) Hiromi Nishiuchi (西内裕美) Riyu 'presented' the new members at her concert 'Riyu's Carnival'. Sayaka was not present at the concert due to illness. Later, Sayaka revealed she was not recovering very well and was going to retire from BeForU. There was a retirement concert held for Sayaka then she officially left, leaving BeForU with 4 members.