The 3 Gonguro siblings with U? The legacy of the gonguro siblings and the birth and death of the gonguro boom

  ゃおっす It's Spacy! ... UH yeah where have I been? here this entire time, I've had so many goos blog ideas but I've been too lazy to write them, but I decided to stop procrastinating on blog posting and start procrastinating on my school work instead.

If you know me, theres 1 EGG model I can never get enough of, and that is Buriteri, the queen of ganguro, but who even is Buriteri? Who are her 3 other best friends who defined the short but explosive era of gonguro, and how did them and their legacy change the gyaru scene forever?

'Lately, there has been a proliferation of crazy gals called 'manbas' on shibuya street, but five years ago, there was a group of dangerous gals called 'The three gonguro brothers with U' who caused a culture shock in the Japanese archipelago. Does everyone know this? Actually. Yuka, who is writing this, was one of them, but the reason why it was so popular was due to the influence of Buri, who was the leader at the time'

This extract comes from a 2004 EGG volume, written by Mizuno Yuka/U, a member of the Three Gonguro siblings with U and a former EGG model.

What are the origins of the three gonguro siblings with U (ゴングロ3兄弟withU) ? 

Well first, gyaru back then was very different from how we see it now. Yuka herself in this same extract said gals didn't wear false lashes back then, it was all heavy tans and Alba. The concept of shiro gals (gals who didn't tan) never really existed back then, as this was before ayuers and the bihaku craze created by Ayu in the early 2000's.

Yuka describes how she really admired gals at that time, so she started hanging out with 2 local gals named Akoichi (Aco, second daughter) and Fumiko (third daughter) in Shibuya. At the time, Aco's friend knew of a gal and took Yuka to meet this friend at the club Pylon in Shibuya, which was a famous and popular club filled with loads of gals. Yuka then meets this mutual friend, who she describes as 'I was completely shocked by her black skin, platform scandals and over 2m tall figure, I was so suprised by the intense aura of the gal that appeared infront me.' What I just described to you was the first encounter between Mizuno Yuka, future editor of EGG magazine, and Buriteri.

Yuka continues by saying that because of Buri, Fumiko and Aco started to bake (tan) atleast 3 times a week, and they all became so dark it shocked the other gals around them.

Yuka tells many other stories aswell, such as how Buri taught her how to do gonguro make by using MAC foundation made for black people, how they would go to fumikos house and watch AV all day and read erotic novels. This is the start of what is known as the Three Gonguro siblings with U... but what is Gonguro?

No I haven't been misspelling ganguro, Gonguro and Ganguro are similar but slightly different.

Ganguro actually has 3 stages to it:

Ganguro - Tanned

Gonguro - Deeper tan

Bachiguro - Somehow even darker then gonguro

Gonguro is just ganguro but even darker. The gonguro trend also is where I first had seen bright white lipstick with gals. Gonguro is also characterised by huge platformed shoes, usually La carte boots.

I've talked about gonguro on this blog on before... yeah gonguro is kind of blackface, of you want a better read click here

What made Gonguro explode?

Well theres 2 things, shock factor and EGG magazine!

Many people saw the gonguro siblings and were so shocked at how dark their tans were, even in gyaru communities, this led them to gaining attention and attending events and featuring in news papers at the time. This caught the attention of EGG and the Gonguro siblings starting making appearances in EGG magazine in the year 1999.

The gonguro siblings with U continued to model in EGG magazine, until some time in either November or December 2000 when Fumiko, the 3rd sibling left EGG magazine. Buri, Aco and Yuka continued to model for EGG, until Buri and Aco also left some time in Autumn 2001, and Yuka leaving EGG magazine last after 2002.

With Buriteri the poster face for Gonguro, they took EGG by storm in March 2000 with Buris iconic Otakebi pin cover shot (Otakebi refers to her roaring expression).

But, by January 2001, Gonguro was gone, literally poof, Buri, Aco and Yuka were no longer tan and Fumiko was no longer modelling for EGG, but what happened and what caused the rapid death of this newborn trend?

2 things, like I mentioned, the bihaku gal boom started by Ayu, as gals who admired Ayu stopped tanning to be just like her, and the other reason why Gonguro died was because those who created gonguro were bullied out of it.

from this

to this

and finally this

In the same text source mentioned above, Yuka talks about how people considered her dirty despite the fact that she showered 2 times a day and was in education at the time gonguro became mega popular. People also spread rumours about the girls, such as how Fumiko was a prostitute, how Fumiko and Ako were taking drugs, and how they were whores, how Yuka had AIDS. Yuka talked about how these assumptions really hurt them, as they were just gals who wanted to have fun being themselves. Buri especially took loads of heat and by 2001, they had all quit gonguro. The loss of the pioneers and icons of gonguro killed the trend as soon as it was born, as peopele smeared the girls calling them disgusting and cockroaches and other insults.

So what happened to the 3 Gonguro siblings after their modelling era ended?

 Yuka ended up becoming an editor for EGG magazine til the end of the magazine in 2014, her legacy being engrained into the very pages of EGG itself and parts of her work helped to mold and evolve gal through EGG until EGG stopped publishing. Yuka got married and has 3 children. On her instagram, she often hangs out with many gal models from many magazines, often hanging out with people like Itabashi Rumi, Nemoyayo and Ririka. Yuka still holds influence behind the scenes in gal communities, even with New EGG to this day. Buriteri became a manager at Ash&Diamond in Harajuku, In 2018, Buriteri got married and in December 2023, Buri gave birth to her child (first I presume). Aco became an office worker and worked with skincare brands, and has 2 elementary school aged children. Aco and Yuka often hang out even to this day, and they took a trip to hawaii together a few years ago. Fumiko is the most obscure, I really don't know much about her or what shes doing, but I think Fumiko has 2 children but she may possibily only have 1 or may have more, as she was pregnant in April 2018 ans shown in a snap with her and Buri.

Finally last and not least, what is the legacy of Buriteri and the 3 gonguro siblings?

Buriteri herself is the self proclaimed founder of Yamanba gyaru and pioneered the evaluation of Yamanba before she stopped doing gonguro as a whole. Buri has also had influence on ganguro and its evolving styles and is still revered as an icon 24 years after her iconic march 2000 cover.

(Source is here if ya wanna read)

This blog post is shorter than I expected, wow. I've been meaning to make this blog post after seeing the gyaru wiki call the 3 gonguro siblings the three ganguro siblings despite the katakana they referenced saying gonguro in it but I never found the time.

I think for my next project, I want to create a profile of every major EGG model from each generation, so I made this post in preparation for it. I just really love the 3 gonguro siblings with U.

Bye bye, oh and heres that block of text I was referencing this entire bp

    Other credits:

Gal data labs and Galture