Maruyama's career as a Johnny's idol has interesting beginnings. He was among 3 fresh Johnny's Jrs selected at an audition on September 22, 1996 (along with fellow member Subaru Shibutani) and appeared in an idol magazine announcing their selection on the same day. After not hearing from the agency for close to half a year, his parents decided to reapply in 1997. At his second audition, he met future fellow members Shota Yasuda, Ryo Nishikido and Tadayoshi Okura. Maruyama tells the story of how, when president Johnny Kitagawa was surprised and asked what he was doing at the audition when he had already joined. Apparently his paperwork had been misplaced or lost. His most notable prominence as a Jr was winning the Johnny's Half-marathon in Hawaii in 1998. He also had some appearances in Jr. dramas, the biggest being a role in J Ke Hanran, a Johnny's Jr vehicle with several popular Jr's. His closest Jr. friends growing up were Shota Yasuda and Ryo Nishikido. In 1999, he was grouped into a band called V.WEST ("five-west") as its bassist. This Kansai Jr. band was a parallel unit to the pre-existing Tokyo Jr. band, FIVE. The band enjoyed a good level of popularity among fans; they were chosen to perform on Music Station once and also got their own TV show, Shuukan V.WEST (Weekly V.WEST), on Kansai TV. They held their only concert, V.WEST First Live at Zepp Osaka, not long before Kanjani8 was formed in 2002. Maruyama carried over his role as bassist to Kanjani8 as well as its subunit, SubaruBand. Maruyama and Shota Yasuda (the guitarist) exhibit spirited and energetic performances in concerts, frequently leaping and running about while simultaneously playing their instruments. Maruyama and Yasuda usually sing the rap portions of Kanjani8's songs, besides doing most of the back-up harmonizing, with Maruyama doing the low parts, and Yasuda, the high notes. The two are solid in both respects, having an excellent flair and g Watch drama online for free.