Sweet Black Feat Maki Goto – With… PV

The PV for Maki Goto’s 3rd collaboration with Sweet Black called ‘With…’ is out. This one has a more gentler pace than the other two singles and so far Maki hasn’t put a foot wrong with her music. I’m glad to say that her new song continues the fine form she’s in. It might not be as catchy as Fly Away and Lady Rise but I like it and the PV below matches the song perfectly. If this does well as a digital single, maybe it’ll be time for AVEX to give her a major debut single.

Be aware as with the other Goto videos that have been put up on Youtube/Dailymotion, AVEX will most probably take this down at some point so make the most of it.

AKB48 New Single Announced…..With A Twist

Details about AKB48’s new single called Namida Surprise has been announced today and it’ll be released on June 24th. But there’s a bit of a twist with this single as there’ll be a special card inside in which you’ll be able to vote on which member you want to be on the next single. Voting can be done through the AKB48 mobile site or through the fan club so if any international fan is in that then you’ll be able to vote. For the rest of us, we won’t be able to have a say on the outcome. Quite an interesting ploy by the group’s management to make us buy the next single.

Anyway for Namida Surprise, the members going to be in this one are:

Team A
Atsuko Maeda
Reina Fujie
Kojima Haruna
Miho Miyazaki
Minami Minegishi
Minami Takahashi
Rie Kitahara
Tomomi Itano
Mariko Shinoda

Team K
Yuko Oshima
Erena Ono
Sae Miyazawa
Tomomi Kasai

Team B
Mayu Watanabe
Yuki Kashiwagi
Moeno Nito
Rino Sashihara

SKE48
Jurina Matsui
Rena Matsui

Research Student
Rena Komori

It’s a bit lite on Team K members and Sayaka is left out once more.

Another French Adventure For AKB48 Plus Japan Tour

It was announced at their NHK concert last night that one team (not sure which one) will come back to France in October to play a concert in Cannes. I’m trying to find out more information about this plus the group is going on a small tour of Japan during August stopping off at Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and the Budokan in Tokyo. There’s a good chance I’ll be attending their concert in Cannes.

AKB48 Start Their European Invasion

It’s not just Hello!Project that are spreading their wings worldwide with the news that AKB48 ’s Team A have been confirmed to appear at France’s Japan Expo 2009 between July 2nd – 5th as guests of honour. As soon as more details come out I’ll post them up on the blog but I’m seriously excited about this. It’s just typical that I’ll be flying out to Japan a couple of days after the Expo so I don’t think I’ll be able to afford to go to France. This is apparently just the start, more European appearances could be on the cards.

Stockholm Japan Expo Cancelled!

I couldn’t believe what I saw today about this being cancelled and a huge blow to all those that bought tickets and were looking forward to seeing Buono perform. I really feel sorry for all the fans especially those coming from far away. Apparently the economy, competition from other festivals and poor ticket sales is to blame. I wonder if H!P will reschedule Buono to come over to the London Expo instead?

Details On Kago’s Role In New Ju-On Movie Plus Teaser Trailer

Some small snippets about Kago’s role in the new Ju-On movie Kuroi Shojo has been revealed. She’ll play a nurse named Yuko who has an odd experience whilst taking care of a girl called Fukie. Test results show a cyst inside Fukie’s body which is in actuality a leftover grudge from a baby which was unable to grow.The grudge spreads from Fukie to everybody around her.

This double teaser trailer shows clips from the other Ju-On movie first then Kago’s movie.

An Interesting Development For AKB48

There isn’t a lot of information about this just yet and it will be revealed in the very near future during a concert next week but it seems that AKB48 will soon be performing at a new venue which could hold 1,000 people from June onwards. This obviously must be because AKB48’s popularity is on the rise and demand for their daily shows is increasing. The current theatre at present holds 250 people so this will increase the attendance by 4 fold. It also seems that the group’s management have been listening to the fans about the hated lottery system and acted on that. Now the questions you must ask is: will this new theatre be situated in Akihabara and if not, where will it be plus who will take over the current theatre? It’s possible that it could mainly be used for the Research Students whilst the teams move out into the new place. This is of course all speculation right now but I await more news on this development. It’s great news for foreign fans like myself who should have an easier chance to see them in a larger venue.

More Japanese Movie Trailers

1. HIGH SCHOOL GIRL RIKA: ZOMBIE HUNTER

This movie is supposed to have come out on DVD since Summer 2008 but so far nothing has appeared on the shelves. I really want to see this low budget zombie splatterfest.

2. OPPAI VOLLEYBALL

23 year old female teacher Mikako volunteers to coach her school’s male volleyball team but finds that they’re all geeks and there’s only 5 of them. To motivate the lads and gain new members she promises to give the team a peek of her breasts if they win a tournament. Naturally this spurs the team on to become better players but can they win a tournament and get to see some breasts? It sounds like a good comedy and it features Ayase Haruse as the female teacher who was voted in a recent survey by men as the woman they’d like to marry the most!

3. GOKUSEN: THE MOVIE

Only a small teaser trailer is out at the moment but I’m really looking forward to seeing this. It’ll be the last time for us to see Yankumi as this concludes her story which has been wildly popular in Japan over the past couple of years. Will some of the characters from all 3 series appear?

4. SLACKERS

Another comedy about a bunch of teenage bad boys who are constantly battling with a rival gang for control of some turf. They’re forced with an ultimatum – join their school’s baseball team and make them a winning one or face expulsion.

5. HIDE AND SEEK

A strange supernatural game starts to spread on the internet and Ritsuko still reeling from her parents divorce participates in it but when she doesn’t turn up for school her friend Ryoko checks up on her. What Ryoko finds is a piece of paper with instructions on how to play Hide & Seek which involves a doll, a knife, uncooked rice, red string, a sewing needle and a glass of water. Judging from the trailer it doesn’t look very original and I can see various nods to past J-horror movies. I’ll reserve judgment when I see the movie in it’s entirety.

Morning Musume – Shouganai Yume Oibito PV

The PV to Morning Musume’s 39th single called Shouganai Yume Obito has just come out on Dohhh Up!. I’m sorry to say that it’s just an ordinary tune to me, certainly isn’t one of their best but I might change my mind after a couple of listens. It’s nice to see the lines to the song have been evenly distributed between the members and the PV is better than what I’ve seen from their past couple of singles. They all look pretty stunning especially Ai-chan.

The single comes out on May 13th.

EDIT: The b-side “3-2-1 Breaking Out” (which will be the theme tune to the Anime Expo 2009) is actually better than the a-side! Maybe they should swap the tracks around and let this one be the a-side instead.

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Miki Saotome Graduates From AKB48

Former Team B member Miki Saotome who demoted herself to the rank of Research Student in January 2009 has quit the group it was announced at last night’s kenkyuusei show. This is effective immediately. Nobody really knows why she moved to being a RS in the first place. The official explanation was she thought she wasn’t performing up to the high level of Team B but others are suspecting that she could have been bullied, teased or wasn’t fitting in with the other girls. Then again she might have been caught with a boyfriend. Whatever the reason is for the demotion, it’s obvious it didn’t work out for her so she’s gone. I’m disappointed as Miki was one of my favorite members in Team B. Good luck to her in the future.