Week 3 Figures Are In/Meetan’s Final Countdown

The sales figures for week 3 are in and Oogoe Diamond has now upped it’s total to 64,141 selling an additional 5,635 copies. Sales would have been higher but for the disastrous result on Sunday when the song dropped to no.42 in the Oricon Daily charts. The previous days had seen the song in the top 20. I’m still confident that the song can reach 70k.

Oogoe Diamond Theatre Version Cover CD

“It’s the final countdown” was what 80’s rock band Europe sang about and for Megumi Ohori it’s definitely the final countdown and whose future in AKB48 will be decided in the next couple of days. With 10k the target figure she has to reach before November 15th, her total so far stands at 7,200 copies. Another hug event is planned (one that is scheduled to last for 8 hours!!!!) and never underestimate the power of the wotas. She might yet achieve a miracle and reach the magic total. It looks unlikely but you just never know. We’ll soon find out her fate.

2009 Idol Calendars

As I mentioned a while back I ordered Maki Horikita’s and AKB48 weekly calendar for 2009 and both came through the post last week.

As with most of Japan’s idol calendars, the Maki Horikita one comes in a large B2 format with a picture for 2 months of the year. First opinion when I flicked through the calendar was this isn’t that special. I’m somewhat disappointed with Maki’s calendar. There’s just some kind of sparkle missing with the pictures that comes with it - maybe it’s the clothes and the setting for each picture but I’m not seeing the stylish Maki I’m kinda used to. I’ve seen far better pictures of her than what’s on this calendar. Perhaps other fans of her will disagree with me but I expected something better. I quite like the cover photo with her smile and the last one but not the others at the moment. I’m sure once I actually put it up on the wall and start looking at it daily the pictures will grow on me.

The Cover for Maki Horikita

There was no disappointment to be had with AKB48’s weekly calendar which comes in the smaller A4 format. It starts off with a great picture of Sayaka and then the next week has Tomomi Itano. Most of my favourite girls come later on in the year (Nonti for example pops up in September, Takamina in July and Acchan in October). The calendar also came with 5 small BLT photos. The 5 photos I got was Aika Ota  and Haruka Katayama (Team B), Reina Fujie (Team A), Natsuki Satoh (Team K) and Shizuka Ohya (Research). Not the 5 photos I was anticipating to get but I’m not complaining. Already some of the most popular members photos are up for auctions and going for quite ridiculous prices. I should have really bought a calendar of either Acchan’s or the two Tomomi’s. Maybe I’ll be able to track one down when I’m in Japan.

A Sample Of The Photos Inside The AKB48 2009 Calendar