Tommy February 6 had “lost media” status until recently, when her label finally released itself from the curse of early 2000s Japanese strict copyright laws and finally posted her discography online.
Tommy february6 is the synth-pop alter ego of Japanese musician Tomoko Kawase, known for early 2000s Y2K-style J-pop and tracks like Everyday at the Bus Stop and Lonely in Gorgeous.
And, her listeners aren’t even Japanese…a majority of Tommy listeners are from overseas. In 2024, her music went viral on TikTok and gained a new global audience.
Let’s take a look at her story through photos, her alter egos, and what brought on her revival.
The Alter Egos
Tommy February 6
Tomoko Kawase debuted her solo act, Tommy February 6, in 2001 after garnering fame from her previous rock band called The Brilliant Green.
Tommy February 6 was a sweet, perfect girl who was also a bit of a nerd.
Her first single was called EVERYDAY AT THE BUS STOP. There is a famous scene at the end where she blows the head off a mannequin, and it quickly became one of her best selling singles in Japan.
She sang mostly in English – which is still a rare sight for artists in Japan even today. J-pop singer Fujii Kaze released his first all English album titled Prema two weeks ago, and that’s making the news even in 2025.
Tommy’s songs are inspired by 80s synthpop and the Eurobeat sound. She made some insane production and stylistic choices that even caught the eyes of Doja Cat and Charli XCX.
February is always seen with cheerleaders in her music videos.
Tomoko was at home one night watching a high school drama. She said the cheerleader girls looked so youthful and positive compared to her usual negative self.
Since then, she always had a group of preppy dancers nearby to cheer on February.
Indulging in her nerdy side, February loved knick-knacks and collecting dolls. She was often seen carrying around an Elmo doll.
Her self-titled first album debuted at number one on the charts in 2002.
The producer on the album is a guy named Malibu Convertible, who is actually just her husband… 😛
Thanks to her big success and love for dolls, an official Blythe doll was released based on her image. Blythe is a popular doll brand in Japan, similar to Barbie or American Girl Dolls.
February was cute and innocent, but she loved to sneak swigs from alcoholic drinks in whenever she could.
Tomoko said this reflected her own mental instability, even though she isn’t able to drink a drop of alcohol in real life.
Tommy Heavenly 6
After two years of success from her solo music, the bubblegum kawaii-esque sounds of February quickly put Tomoko into a box with what she could create sound and style wise.
From this stress, her new alter-ego was born – Tommy Heavenly 6.
Tomoko imagined Heavenly as the darker, more emotional side of February.
There’s some more lore you can find hidden throughout Tomoko’s magazine interviews, but she said she created them as “sisters separated at birth, who share the same DNA but grew up in different environments”.
February looked up to Heavenly, and was even a little envious of her ability to be so free from worry and judgement.
Heavenly was an American pop-punk girlie living in suburbia, and a way for Tomoko to get her more negative feelings out into the world without breaking the perfect character of February.
The alter egos made albums with complementary themes, styles, and sounds – like the two sides were having a conversation with each other.
You can see both of them interacting in this music video (which was also retweeted by Doja Cat!)
Heavenly carries around the Blythe doll of February in this music video. Is she envious? Showing her support? All while February is obsessively peaking in on her and her suspiciously foreign band.
Why Is Her Revival So Successful?
Like I said earlier – a lot of Tommy’s listeners are not Japanese at all.
Originally, she had a decent amount of success in Japan – one mainstream hit album that charted number one with her debut – and a niche, dedicated fanbase for the rest of her career.
The peak of her career was from 2002-2007, a “final” album in 2009, and a well received comeback in 2013.
But, since then, there hasn’t been much buzz about Tommy, and not many domestic artists credit her as an influence. She wasn’t the kind of artist you would see often on the shelves in the record stores.
That changed recently thanks to her overseas fans after her label uploaded her original music videos to TikTok and YouTube last year.
I was born in the USA, and I get nostalgic just looking at this photo. How can you not get excited seeing loaded shopping cart full of Valentines Day cookie tools in the baking isle?
If you look closely enough, you can see the price is still in yen, even though those brands like Quaker Oatmeal can’t be found anywhere in Japan.
Her ability to recreate early 2000s America despite being in Japan was completely unique and some self-indulgence in Tomoko’s own fascination with American music and culture.
Tommy-style aesthetics have been on the rise outside of Japan recently. With the cartoony, bright colored Y2K style of NewJeans, to the cute and nerdy beats of PinkPantheress…
Tommy has a style that throws back specifically to the Y2K nostalgia of mundane American life.
And, she adds her own original twist to it, making it feel super fresh.
She was unapologetically herself.
Rather than capitalizing on her “Japanese-ness” like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu did back in the day, she was playing an American girl in a early 2000s Japanese world.
Notice more American spice and soup brands in here shopping cart here.
She was simply doing what she loved, including covering American songs and playing around with her more fringe themes.
Halloween was another American idea she incorporated into her style.
Halloween wasn’t really a thing in Japan until about 15 years ago, starting with Tokyo Disneyland popularizing the tradition for a quick holiday $$$ boost.
Even today, its still uncommon for songs to be made about the foreign holiday.
I think the world finally caught up to February and Heavenly in 2025!
A theatrical screening of her concert was just announced in New York and Los Angeles.
Oh, yeah, and I caught up with the world too. I started to make YouTube video essays. Which I wanted to start doing like, 10 years ago. Oh well.
I made it about Tommy, so give it a watch if you are interested~ There is some more info in there about her first band.
That is all for today’s post on Tommy.
I accidentally stumbled into her feature at Tower Records last month after seeing her name online a few times. I thought her visuals were cool, then a friend forced me to watch Gintama the same week, which Tommy sang the opening for… ok, great song…
The final nail in the coffin was when I got a really nice comment asking about February’s career. I couldn’t really give a good answer, and that has lead me on a several week binge of Tommy songs and lore. If you are reading this, thank you for the question, and hope this could answer your question!!!
Until next time. ❤
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