Eight years after first seeing ATARASHII GAKKO! at a Shibuya live house and becoming a fan, AiNA THE END has joined the quartet in the music video for ‘Sweet Memories’, their first song together.
Released on September 15th, the video is the centrepiece of Bourbon’s latest Fettuccine Gummi campaign. A digest serves as the brand’s new commercial, which went online alongside the video and begins airing across Japan on September 22nd. It is ATARASHII GAKKO!’s fourth appearance in a Fettuccine Gummi commercial, AiNA’s first, and their first together.
All five developed the choreography together in the studio, with MIZYU telling Bourbon that they quickly came up with around three versions of the chorus.
RIN said AiNA made the routine her own. “We have our own colour as ATARASHII GAKKO!, but when AiNA danced it, I could really feel the choreography become an AiNA THE END piece”, she said. “It was alluring, or should I say, really sexy”.
AiNA found the five were on the same wavelength. “Maybe it’s because all four of them have such similar instincts, but even the little things we’d say while choreographing were similar, like, ‘Oh, this is a bit too much dancing, let’s take some away'”, she explained.
In a comment shared when the collaboration was announced, AiNA said that after that first Shibuya show she went on to attend their gigs and watch their documentary. The two acts had also got to know each other through appearing at the same events.
She admitted to wondering whether she could blend in with performers whose dancing she had admired for years, but said the end result turned out brilliantly. “I feel that because I was a fan, we were able to harmonise in both singing and dancing”, she wrote.
‘Sweet Memories’ was released digitally on September 4th, when the five also gave the song its first television performance on TV Asahi’s Music Station. RIN has already floated performing it together again before the end of the year. “It would feel amazing for the five of us to sing and dance on stage at a festival or event”.
Watch the music video for ‘Sweet Memories’ below.
About ATARASHII GAKKO!
ATARASHII GAKKO! are a four-member Japanese dance and vocal group comprising MIZYU, RIN, SUZUKA, and KANON. Formed in 2015, they built their identity around sailor uniforms, member-created choreography, and the idea of being the "Youth Representatives of Japan", using music and performance to champion individuality and freedom without simply reproducing the conventions of the idol scene. Dance, physical comedy, theatrical staging, and deliberately eccentric character work have remained as important to the group as the songs themselves, while their music has moved freely through J-pop, Showa-era kayōkyoku, jazz, hip-hop, funk, rock, and punk. After early performance and commercial projects, the group made their major-label debut through Victor Entertainment in 2017 with 'Dokubana', a H ZETT M-produced piano-rock track with a Showa kayōkyoku streak. Their first two albums, 'Maenarawanai' in 2018 and 'Wakage Ga Itaru' in 2019, developed the offbeat school-age themes, retro Japanese pop references, live-band arrangements, and self-choreographed performance style that defined their early years. In 2020 they released 'OTONABLUE', produced by yonkey, a song whose deliberately nostalgic sound would later become their biggest domestic breakthrough. Their international expansion began before that breakthrough. ATARASHII GAKKO! signed with US-based Asian music company 88rising in late 2020 and made their worldwide debut in January 2021 with 'NAINAINAI', adopting ATARASHII GAKKO! as their overseas name. Releases including the Money Mark-produced 'SNACKTIME' EP broadened their sound and international audience, but 'OTONABLUE' changed their scale in 2023 when its neck-shaking choreography became a major TikTok trend. The revival led to a breakout year in Japan that included appearances on THE FIRST TAKE and NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen, as well as an Excellent Work Award at the Japan Record Awards. By 2024 the quartet had turned that viral attention into a sustained international live career. They sold out Nippon Budokan, performed at Coachella, released their third album 'AG! Calling', and undertook their first headline world tour across Europe, Asia, and North America, including their UK debut in London. Their tenth anniversary in 2025 brought a large-scale Makuhari Messe concert and career-spanning best album, while 2026 saw the release of fourth album 'From Tokyo with Love' and their first anniversary concert outside Japan at London's Roundhouse. Across each phase, the same four members and their self-created choreography have remained at the centre of ATARASHII GAKKO!, turning a deliberately unconventional Japanese school-uniform concept into one of the country's most recognisable global performance acts.
About AiNA THE END
AiNA THE END is a Japanese singer-songwriter, dancer, choreographer, and actor whose career first reached a national audience through BiSH. Coming from a dance background, she joined the newly formed group in 2015 and became one of the defining voices of the self-described "punk band without instruments". BiSH made their major-label debut through avex trax in 2016 and grew from Japan's alternative idol scene into a major rock and festival act. AiNA's raw, husky vocal tone became central to the group's sound, while her experience as a dancer fed directly into its visual identity: she was responsible for choreography across BiSH's catalogue as the group developed an increasingly physical and theatrical live style. AiNA began establishing a separate musical identity while BiSH were still active. Her formal solo debut came in 2018 with 'Kienaide', a song she wrote and composed herself, released on a split double A-side single with fellow BiSH member CENTCHiHiRO CHiTTiii. She also appeared on recordings by artists including MONDO GROSSO and TeddyLoid before launching her solo career in earnest with 2021 debut album 'THE END'. AiNA wrote and composed all 12 songs on the record, making songwriting rather than interpretation the foundation of her solo work. A second album, 'THE ZOMBIE', followed later that year alongside extensive solo touring. Her work soon expanded beyond recorded music. In 2022 she played Janis Joplin in the Japanese premiere of the Broadway musical 'Janis', and in 2023 she took her first leading film role in Shunji Iwai's 'Kyrie's Song'. Her performance earned her the Newcomer of the Year prize at the Japan Academy Film Prize, reinforcing a career that increasingly crossed music, dance, stage, and screen. BiSH disbanded in June 2023, leaving AiNA to pursue solo activity full time after eight years with the group. The post-BiSH period established AiNA as a major solo artist in her own right. Songs including 'Red:birthmark' for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, 'Aikotoba' for The Apothecary Diaries, and 'Love Sick' for Mononoke the Movie brought her distinctive voice to a wider anime audience. She sold out her first solo Nippon Budokan concert, ENDROLL, in 2024 and released third album 'RUBY POP' later that year, followed by her first overseas solo concert in Taipei. Her international reach expanded further with 2025 single 'On The Way', written for the second season of DAN DA DAN. The song became the largest streaming success of her solo career, entered the Billboard Global 200, earned an Excellent Work Award at the Japan Record Awards, and preceded her first solo appearance on NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen. In 2026 she completed her first Asia tour and added 'Luminous', the opening theme for ONE PIECE, to a catalogue that now spans alternative pop and rock, anime and film themes, self-written singer-songwriter material, choreography, and acting.
ATARASHII GAKKO! feat. AiNA THE END
Sweet Memories
Release Date: 04/09/2026
Label: ATARASHII GAKKO!
Stream: Links
