William Allitt BBC School Report

ClariS-Clear & Bright.

Famous for their music getting anime openings such as the 2011 hit ‘Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica’ , ClariS are loved by many fans worldwide, forming as Junior High students back in 2009 and submitted covers of vocaloid songs to ‘NicoNicoDouga’. However with member Alice leaving, to continue with high school, Clara continued solo until she met Karen, and Karen joined her as the new second member of ClariS. Clara can usually be seen in pastel pink items, Alice in pastel blue and Karen in pastel green. The group comes from Hokkaido Japan, and are signed to SME records.

Much focus was put on Clara and Alice being in junior high school at the time of their debut. From early on when they uploaded their covers onto Niconico, there were some arguments online whether the girls were actually in junior high school and there were numerous opinions on their adult-sounding voices. Despite this, Clara and Alice were described as simply normal junior high school girls.

ClariS released their third studio album ‘Party Time’ on June 4, 2014 which was Alice's last song with ClariS. Following Alice's departure, Clara denied all rumours that ClariS would disband. On November 8, 2014, volume 19 of M-ON! Entertainment's ‘LisAni!’ magazine was released with an attached CD containing the original song  ‘Clear Sky’ sung by ClariS, now composed of Clara and Karen who was also still in high school at the time.

In order to keep up with their schoolwork, ClariS have not released any photos of themselves to the public and employ illustrators to draw them, on the left we see Clara with a crescent moon, and Karen with a star. Former member Alice was depicted with the sun. To also prevent anyone from finding their identity, they have told no one that they have debuted as idols except close family.  

As listed on their website, ‘ClariS’ can also carry the meaning of ‘clear’ and ‘bright’ in Latin (although it is actually spelled as ‘clarus’).

 

Image credits- www.fanpop.com, www.wikipedia.com