Again, the band members re-formed, and now they were performing to support their increasing fame as their musical style was moving towards an acoustic focus they planned to expand their scope to cover not only street performances but live house concerts as well. Mizuno dedicated himself to persuading Yoshioka, and went through a difficult journey meeting each of these challenges head-on.Д«y March 2003, overcoming many hardships, Yoshioka recovered emotionally, and was determined to take this second chance to revive and grow as a person. Because of her emotional condition, she stopped having the will to perform with the band. In March 2002, the band came back together and resumed playing however, Yoshioka experienced frustration and discouragement for a while because of the strict rehearsals required for her music school. Meanwhile, Yamashita got into Hosei University. After attending Meiji University while waiting to get into a better school, Mizuno was admitted to Hitotsubashi University.

In September 2000, they suspended the band to focus on college entrance examination for Yamashita and Mizuno. Now performing with three members, the band did a cover of Yuzu's single, 'Natsu-iro' ( The Colors of Summer ?). Yoshioka was the younger sister of one of their classmates she entered as the main singer and the band took on its present-day form. In those days, Mizuno and Yamashita planned to make a group with a female lead vocalist, an unusual sound for the street performances they were doing. In December 1999, Yoshioka joined the band. At first, they did covers of Masayoshi Yamazaki. On February 1, 1999, Yamashita and Mizuno formed a music group and began performing live on the street not taking it too seriously, they named it 'ikimono-gakari' after their shared experience in first grade. Yamashita later noted that he really wanted to be a 'blackboard monitor'. In 1989, Mizuno and Yamashita, met by chance while they were in the first grade they were both put in charge of being 'ikimono-gakari', an experience which later became the basis for the band's name.

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