Newly Promoted AKB48 Member Quits!

In an unexpected turn of event, 15 year old newly promoted Research Student Shihori Suzuki who was due to join Team B in October during the major regrouping of AKB48 has quit! Apparently her heart isn’t in being AKB48 anymore and rather than let her peers down whilst they’re trying their best she’s decided to go and try and figure out what she really wants to do. It was only a week ago that she was promoted along with 11 others to join AKB48. Her last day will be on September 20th when she’s due to take part in a handshake event. Does this now mean that another RS will be promoted to take her place?

Japan Top 40 Singles – 30/8/09

After a gap of 3 weeks the CDTV charts reappear on Youtube. I’ve gotta say I cannot stand this week’s no.1. It’s terrible.

40 – Koichi Domoto – Ayakashi
39 – UVERworld – GO-ON
38 – DEATH DEVIL(Sawako Yamanaka (Asami Sanada)) – Maddy Candy
37 – Takeshi Matsubara – Marimono Mizu Umi
36 – ECLIPSE – Futari no Yakusoku
35 – Hiroshi Hashimoto – Genki DE SHOW
34 – Toshihiko Takamizawa – Vampire ~Yuwaku no Blood~ / Yatterman no Uta
33 – Sonar Pocket – Arigatou
32 – Motohiro Hara – Halation
31 – Junko Akimoto – Tasogare Love Again
30 – ALI PROJECT – Senritsu no Kodomo Tachi
29 – Ryo san – Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari-kouenmae Hashutsujo
28 – JERO – Tsumeato
27 – MAY’S – I LOVE YOU ga Ienakute
26 – Red Theatres – Kaze ni Naritai
25 – NICO Touches the Walls – Hologram
24 – Ryoichi Higuchi – Tegami ~Shinainaru Kodomo Tachi He~
23 – JYONGRI – Muteki na Ai
22 – Stereopony – Smilife
21 – SEAMO – MY ANSWER
20 – Takeshi Konomi – Tenipuritte ii na / Smile
19 – Lil’B – Jikan wo Tomete
18 – Arashi – Everything
17 – Salyu – EXTENSION
16 – Hideaki Tokunaga – Hello
15 – EXILE – THE HURRICANE ～FIREWORKS～
14 – GARNET CROW – Hana wa Saite Tada Yurete
13 – GACKT – The Next Decade
12 – Akiko Shikata – Henyoku no Tori
11 – supercell – Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari
10 – Nakayama Yuma w/ B.I.Shadow / NYC boys – Akuma na Koi / NYC
9 – Morning Musume – Nanchatte Renai
8 – Ayabie – Natsu Monogatari
7 – The Gospellers – Sora he ~Reach for The Sky~
6 – Tatsuro Yamashita – Bokura no Natsu no Yume / Muses
5 – Yuko Hara – Yume wo Arigatou
4 – Ayumi Hamasaki – Sunrise/Sunset ～LOVE is ALL～
3 – TOKIO – Taiyou to Sabaku no Bara / Subeki Koto
2 – B’z – Ichibu to Zenbu / Dive
1 – Kiyoshi Hikawa – Tokimeki Rumba

Koharu Kusume Gets Sexually Harrassed On TV!!

I’ve never heard of the American parody glam rock group Steel Panther before but wotas and fans of Morning Musume are up in arms over something that their lead singer did to Koharu Kusume on a TV programme in Japan which you can see below. He put his head on her arm and started to stroke it not once but twice and Koharu although smiling rather uncomfortably didn’t seem to like it. The rest of Morning Musume found it rather funny. My feelings is that he was only joking around with her and it’s nothing serious to get nuts about. Calm down fans!

AKB48 – Iiwake Maybe Day 5 Sales

As I said earlier on the day, sales have been extremely poor for AKB48 over the past 2 days and they got even worse today. Only a paltry 2,869 copies were sold dropping them down to no.3 on the daily charts whilst SMAP shifted over 9k. Iiwake Maybe’s grand total right now stands at 84,966.

Nattou Angels – Nattou Punch/Iiwake Maybe Update

There isn’t a PV accompanying the song from this new AKB48 unit I talked about a while ago but you can listen to it from the Youtube video below. Not a bad song at all.

Althought not confirmed yet, early indications show another poor day for AKB48’s new single, even worse than yesterday. I’ll update on the figures later on today.

AKB48 – Iiwake Maybe Day 4 Sales

It’s now looking increasingly likely that AKB48 won’t get their first no.1 on the Oricon charts let alone hit 100k if today’s sales are any indication. Very disappointing figures. They only sold 3,738 copies which makes their grand total at 82,097. SMAP are now over 5,000 copies ahead at 87,726. It was good to see AKB48 beat them for the first day but you somehow knew that SMAP would eventually catch up with them. I’m hoping for a miracle tomorrow and that AKB48 will sell a shed load of their single.

Hikaru Utada – Take On Me (LIVE)

I somehow stumbled upon this performance by Hikki of the classic 80’s song Take On Me by Norwegian group A-ha on Youtube. She performed this track way back in 2000 and you can see how young she looks. I just love her version of the song. Check it out.

THE POSSIBLE – Family – Tabidachi no Asa PV

This is the new PV to accompany The Possible’s brilliant new single Family – Tabidachi no Asa. I’ve been impressed with these girls over the past 18 months and this new power ballad from them is yet another top tune. I hope this does well for them. It’s released on the 9th September.

You’ll see that they’re now down to 5 members after the graduation of Kaede Ohse on the 22nd August.

AKB48 Coming To NYC Next Month

It was only a rumour before but not anymore as it’s been confirmed today that AKB48 will be attending the New York Anime Festival as a musical guest from September 25 – 27th. Not only will they have a concert on the 26th and 27th but they’ll also be doing an autograph and Q&A session. It’s not been announced yet which members will be flying to the Big Apple. This is fantastic news for all American AKB48 fans.

AKB48 – Iiwake Maybe 3rd Day Sales

The sales slump continues for AKB48 with only 7,063 copies sold today compared to SMAP’s 16,407. The total sales as of now is 78,359 with SMAP snapping at their heels at 78,127. Only a gap of 232 seperate them. Let’s hope with the weekend coming up that they’ll sell a hell of a lot more than they’ve done these past 2 days.