# Timelesz Project

Timelesz Project (Japanese: タイムレスプロジェクトオーディション, stylized as timelesz project -AUDITION-) is a talent competition reality show, created by entertainment company Starto Entertainment, to add new members to the boy group timelesz (formerly known as Sexy Zone). The project involves the three current members of the group, Fuma Kikuchi, So Matsushima, and Shori Sato as they audition and select contestants from Japan and the United States.

## Background

After the departure of Marius Yo in 2022 and Kento Nakajima in 2024 from Sexy Zone, the remaining members (renamed timelesz) decided to hold open auditions based on Kikuchi's suggestion. The selection of new group members through an audition process was later confirmed to be in a reality competition show format internationally distributed by Netflix.

## Overview

A total of 18,922 applications were submitted to join timelesz and of those, 350 were selected for the second round of auditions held in Tokyo and Osaka, where the successful applicants were required to sing and dance songs selected from a list of approved songs originally performed by Starto Entertainment artists. Thirty-six contestants moved on to the third round where they were placed into groups, having to learn a song and choreography within three days. The fourth round narrows the number of remaining contestants to fifteen, plus the inclusion of Starto Entertainment actors Takuto Teranishi, Yoshitaka Hara and Daichi Imae. Round five had 12 candidates. Round six cut the number to eight. The final number of new members, and who they are, were determined by the three original members of the group in consultation with the program's dancing and vocal trainers, NOSUKE and Miki Miyamoto in the last episode.
The last episode aired on February 15, with a surprise appearance by Arashi's Sho Sakurai as moderator. Sakurai mentioned the passion of the members and the participating candidates. He talked about timelesz, about the memories he has with them, and how much they have grown. And about the project: "Today, the three of them will make a big decision. It's nerve-wracking. I'm nervous too. I think it will be a really big day. I hope you will watch over them with kind eyes until the end". Noting the end of the "candidacy era", Sakurai touched on the fact that there might be frustration, not only within this moment, but also in the future. He told them that they have to start thinking as a group, that even the smallest frustrations, affect it. That the opponent they will be fighting in the end, is not inside, but outside. He advised them to avoid actions that put others down to make themselves look good. "If anything happens, there are many seniors, including me, so I hope you will come to us for advice, even if it's something small. I think that's our strongest point, because we're a family". Finally, Sakurai shared his own experience. "I was a junior for four years. When I debuted, some of my friends ended up drifting apart. So it might be difficult to get back together right away after this, but you can stay friends forever. I want you to cherish each other".
After singing the last pair of songs ("Run" and timelesz' new single, "Rock this Party"), the winners of the project to be the new members were revealed: Shuto Inomata, Taiki Shinozuka, Masaki Hashimoto, Takuto Teranishi and Yoshitaka Hara. The new members were introduced to the press 5 minutes after the end of the program. In the press conference, Kikuchi proposed a toast, giving each of the new members a colored drink, which ended being the color each one was to adopt: Shinozuka, white, for him to "look for your own color"; Teranishi, light blue, "support the people around while being calm, trustworthy, and mature"; Hashimoto, pink, "cute, yet strong and passionate"; Inomata, yellow, "kind, loving and positive mind" (Hara added that Inomata is like the sun "I hope that the sense of closeness will permeate the fans", while Kikuchi joked on the choice of color, not knowing if he should have chosen "Yamabuki color"). As Sato started the toast, Hara blurted out that his drink was bitter, and Matsushima smiled saying "lets go on with this". Hara asked Kikuchi if he had prepared a normal, "refreshing drink", and he answered "Sorry, it was a mistake". Hara's color is yellow-green.
The new group formation released "Rock this party" as a digital single, on February 28, 2025.

## List of contestants

timelesz project -AUDITION- contestants :
| Name | Age | Region | Profession | Results |
| Tomoki Nishiyama | 24 | Tokyo | Dance Instructor | Round 5 Elimination |
| Noa Asai | 17 | United States | High School Student | Semi-final (Round 6) Elimination |
| Kaede Kitabayashi | 24 | Okinawa | Restaurant Worker | Round 4 Elimination |
| Yuga Sano | 22 | Tokyo | Dance Instructor | Round 3 Elimination |
| Ota Kagaya | 20 | Hokkaido | University Student | Round 3 Elimination |
| Wataru Yamane | 22 | Yamaguchi | Italian Restaurant Employee | Round 5 Elimination |
| Daisuke Maeda | 23 | Toyama | Karaoke Bar Employee | Round 5 Elimination |
| Yoshiaki Takahashi | 25 | Tokyo | Gym Manager | Round 3 Elimination |
| Hiromu Honda | 23 | Kanagawa | Part-Timer | Semi-final (Round 6) Elimination |
| Sota Sukegawa | 18 | Kanagawa | University Student | Round 3 Elimination |
| Takumi Maie | 27 | Ibaraki | Construction Equipment | Round 3 Elimination |
| Masaki Hashimoto | 24 | Kanagawa | Yakiniku Restaurant Worker | Advanced to Final |
| Sota Saito | 26 | Gunma | Beauty Salon Owner/ Former Johnny's Jr. | Round 3 Elimination |
| Yu Okami | 24 | Aichi | Firefighter | Round 3 Elimination |
| Taiga Matsuda | 20 | Aichi | Cafe Employee | Round 3 Elimination |
| Roi Hamagawa | 18 | Okinawa | High School Student | Semi-final (Round 6) Elimination |
| Rai Tsutsumi | 21 | Fukuoka | University Student | Round 3 Elimination |
| Taisho Maeda | 28 | Kanagawa | Former Idol | Round 4 Elimination |
| Riku Nagai | 27 | Yamanashi | Dancer | Round 3 Elimination |
| Ikuto Kamiya | 20 | Aichi | Influencer | Round 3 Elimination |
| Shunto Ikeda | 19 | Saitama | Part Timer | Round 3 Elimination |
| Kota Shikano | 20 | Kagoshima | University Student | Round 3 Elimination |
| Hiroki Takayama | 22 | Okinawa | Part Timer | Round 3 Elimination |
| Ryota Ueno | 28 | Kyoto | Dance Instructor | Round 4 Elimination |
| Atsuki Ide | 22 | Okayama | Sales | Round 3 Elimination |
| Shuto Inomata | 22 | Ibaraki | Painter | Advanced to Final |
| Kenta Hino | 29 | Ehime | Singer | Round 4 Elimination |
| Kazuki Numata | 26 | Saga | Rapper | Round 3 Elimination |
| Yutaro Yazaki | 29 | Kanagawa | TV Announcer | Round 3 Elimination |
| Taiki Shinozuka | 21 | Osaka | University Student | Advanced to Final |
| Ryosuke Abe | 26 | Fukuoka | Pizza Delivery Worker | Round 3 Elimination |
| Ryo Suzuki | 25 | Tokyo | Phone Case Salesman | Round 5 Elimination |
| Kazuki Matsuda | 20 | Kanagawa | Vocational School Student | Round 3 Elimination |
| Ayuto Kawamura | 21 | Mie | University Student | Round 3 Elimination |
| Kuha Sano | 19 | Shizuoka | Dance Instructor | Round 3 Elimination |
| Ryoto Iwasaki | 23 | Aichi | Yakiniku Restaurant Worker | Round 4 Elimination |
| Kei Kurita | 27 | Saitama | Former Johnny's Jr. | Round 2 Elimination |
| Yu Kawaguchi | 27 | Chiba | Former Johnny's Jr. | Round 2 Elimination |
| Chihiro Shibata | 27 | Tokyo | Former Johnny's Jr. | Round 2 Elimination |
| Takuto Teranishi | 30 | Kanagawa | Actor (Starto Entertainment) | Advanced to Final |
| Yoshitaka Hara | 29 | Kanagawa | Actor (Starto Entertainment) | Advanced to Final |
| Daichi Imae | 29 | Kyoto | Actor (Starto Entertainment) | Round 4 Elimination |

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Original release date |
| 1 | "Episode 1" (Japanese: episode 01 仲間探しオーディション、timelesz project 始動) | September 13, 2024 (2024-09-13) |
| In the search for new groupmates, Fuma Kikuchi, Sou Matsushima, and Shori Sato of timelesz meet, interview, and watch the live auditions of the first half of the 350 applicants who have passed the initial screening process in Tokyo. Additionally, the trio provide insight into why they have decided to add new members nearly fifteen years post-debut. |||
| 2 | "Episode 2" (Japanese: episode 02 出会いのその先へ…いよいよ3次審査 通過者が決まる!) | September 24, 2024 (2024-09-24) |
| Kikuchi, Matsushima, and Sato, meet, interview, and watch the live auditions of the second half of the applicants who have passed the initial screening process in Osaka. The 350 individuals who were selected for round two are narrowed down to thirty-six people that will compete in round three. |||
| 3 | "Episode 3" (Japanese: spexial edition-覚悟-) | October 11, 2024 (2024-10-11) |
| Kikuchi meets with Shota Watanabe of Snow Man and discusses Watanabe's similar experience with adding three new members to the group shortly prior to the group's debut after the group's lineup had remained unchanged for seven years. Kikuchi also reads a letter from Ren Meguro, one of the three added members, about his perspective and experience as someone joining a pre-existing band. |||
| 4 | "Episode 4" (Japanese: episode 03 3次審査開始! 候補生36名がチームパフォーマンスに挑む!") | October 25, 2024 (2024-10-25) |
| The thirty-six remaining participants are tasked with learning the choreography to "Can Do! Can Go!" by V6 in thirty minutes. The participants are ranked based on how well they perform the dance, with Wataru Yamane in first place. The third round consists of the participants being split into four groups of nine where they have three days to learn their assigned song. Kikuchi reveals that the number of participants that will advance to the fourth round will be fifteen based on their performance of either "SHAKE" by SMAP or "Monster" by Arashi. Blue Group is assigned "SHAKE" by SMAP but suffers from a power struggle between the assigned leader of the group, Rai Tsutsumi, and two other members which impacts the decision making and performance quality of the group. Tadayoshi Okura makes a guest appearance as a special trainer and expresses doubt that the participants are ready for careers as idols. Matsushima and Kikuchi advise Blue Group on how to better communicate and support one another. In their group performance, they were able to overcome their initial issues and receive positive reviews from timelesz. |||
| 5 | "Episode 5" (Japanese: episode 04 3次審査 team GREEN密着篇) | November 8, 2024 (2024-11-08) |
| Green Group is tasked with "Monster" by Arashi. timelesz finds the group's members promising but the group suffers from a lack of communication and group leader Daisuke Maida being unable to learn the choreography and lead simultaneously. Sato also notices that the group is too focused on themselves and some members seem to not be fully invested. They implement some of Sato's suggestions but the group still seems unconfident during their midpoint performance check. They continue to work on their critiques and receive positive feedback from timelesz in their evaluated performance. |||
| 6 | "Episode 6" (Japanese: episode 05 3次審査 team YELLOW密着篇) | November 22, 2024 (2024-11-22) |
| 7 | "Episode 7" (Japanese: episode 06 3次審査 team RED密着篇&3次審査通過者決定!) | November 28, 2024 (2024-11-28) |
| 8 | "Episode 8" (Japanese: episode 07 4次審査ついに始動! 候補生を待ち受けるのは－!?) | December 7, 2024 (2024-12-07) |
| 9 | "Episode 9" (Japanese: episode 08 4次審査 team 『人生遊戯』) | December 14, 2024 (2024-12-14) |
| 10 | "Episode 10" (Japanese: episode 09 4次審査 team 『RIGHT NEXT TO YOU』) | December 21, 2024 (2024-12-21) |
| 11 | "Episode 11" (Japanese: episode 10 4次審査 通過者発表 18名から12名に) | December 27, 2024 (2024-12-27) |
| 12 | "Episode 12" (Japanese: special episode 02 -素顔-) | January 3, 2025 (2025-01-03) |
| 13 | "Episode 13" (Japanese: episode 11 5次 メンバープロデュース審査スタート!) | January 10, 2025 (2025-01-10) |
| 14 | "Episode 14" (Japanese: episode 12 5次審査 team SATO篇) | January 17, 2025 (2025-01-17) |
| 15 | "Episode 15" (Japanese: episode 13 5次審査 team MATSUSHIMA篇) | January 24, 2025 (2025-01-24) |
| 16 | "Episode 16" (Japanese: episode 14 5次審査 team KIKUCHI篇) | January 31, 2025 (2025-01-31) |
| 17 | "Episode 17" (Japanese: episode 15 6次（ファイナル）審査始動!) | February 7, 2025 (2025-02-07) |
| 18 | "Episode 18" (Japanese: episode 16 最終審査&新メンバー決定!) | February 15, 2025 (2025-02-15) |

## Legal action over slander against the candidates

On February 4, 2025, on the project's SNS, a post calling attention to slander: "We will take strict measures, including legal action". This was after confirmed content and information that can be taken as slander was found on SNS, in particular, following the results of the fifth round of screening. "This situation cannot be overlooked". Starto Entertainment, which operates the timelesz project, will take strict action.