This clip has AKB48 performing River on Music Station. It’s not the full song just the short version. It seems that Takamina’s skirt had a bit of a problem, lucky that they always wear black shorts underneath those skirts otherwise it could have been embarassing for her. It didn’t affect her performance at all, she just carried on like the trooper that she is.
With it being the 2nd week of sales for River, you would have thought that the new single by Morning Musume ‘Kimagure Princess’ would make them favorites to win the idol battle this week pretty easily but AKB48 haven’t done so badly against them. OK, so MoMusu got 16,666 on the first day which is poor anyway but since then AKB48 have battled back strongly to overtake them in the daily rankings on the 2nd day. It’s embarassing to say the least and now on some online forums MoMusu fans are starting to argue amongst themselves. If AKB48 manage to nudge ahead of Morning Musume when the weekly figures come out next week their humiliation will be complete. Besides what do they expect with a stinker of a song! You would have thought they’d have come up with something better for Koharu’s last ever single.
You saw a preview of it a while back and now the full PV is out on Youtube. Also it’s been announced that another song from this single CD – “Bouken Et Cetera” will have a tie-in with an online RPG game called Grand Fantasia. In addition there’ll be 2 special limited edition versions of the single coming out – a Grand Fantasia one and a Fairy Tale one (seeing as the title track is the end theme to the anime Fairy Tale).
One of AKB48’s most popular member Atsuko Maeda raised 1.25 million yen for charity recently. She sold 3 autographed personal items – a bench coat that was only available to members of the idol group, a set containing a pyjama top with 2 scrunchies and a bag she used during high school. The items were auctioned off on Yahoo Japan. It was the bench coat that got the highest price out of the three going for 501,000 yen. The money raised goes to Green Cross International. Well done Acchan.
We all knew that they were going to get it but it’s official at last – AKB48 are at the top of the Oricon charts with River. The 1st week totals were 178,579 – very impressive numbers though sales have gradually gone worse as the week wore on. Today it seems they only sold around a 1,000 copies and stay at no.5 in the daily rankings. But now is not the time to dwell on poor figures – it’s a time to celebrate the fact that they’ve gotten their deserved no.1 slot. Congratulations to all the girls. Even better news is that AKB48 are the biggest selling female group in 7 years. Another accolade to add to their growing popularity. It’s a great time to be their fan.
Not a very good day at all for AKB48 as they finally lost the no.1 daily rankings for the 1st time since the single was released. They actually dropped way down to no.5. The sales figures are in the region of 3,000 or so. I really thought they’d be able to hang on to being at the top of the daily rankings but it was not to be. It doesn’t really matter as the weekly no.1 was theirs for the taking after the first 2 days of sales.
This week’s chart is now up:
30- Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra – “KinouKyouAshita”
29- Kotomi Maki – “Mujou no Ame ga Furu”
28- UNCHAIN – “Gravity”
27- Ryu Si Won – “Memu”
26- Chuji Mikado – “Naniwagawa”
25- Ryuuko Mizuta – “Ine no Funaya”
24- Keisuke Yamauchi – “Fuurenko”
23- TOKYO No.1 SOUL SET + HALCALI – “Konya wa Boogie Back”
22- Nami Tamaki – “Moshimo Negai ga…”
21- Toko Furuuchi X KREVA – “A to XYZ / Slowbeat”
20- The Cro-Magnons – “Glycerin Queen”
19- JEJUNG & YUCHUN(from Tohoshinki) – “COLORS~Melody and Harmony~/Shelter”
18- THE ALFEE – “Yoake wo Motomete”
17- Kiyoshi Hikawa – “Tokimeki no Rumba”
16- RHYMESTER – “ONCE AGAIN”
15- JAY’ED – “Everybody”
14- SCANDAL – “Yumemiru Tsubasa”
13- Unicorn – “Hanseiki Shonen”
12- B’z – “Ichibu to Zenzu / DIVE”
11- the GazettE – “BEFORE I DECAY”
10- Mari Iijima, FIRE BOMBER, May’n – “Macross Gannen Kinen Chojiku Anthem : Iki wo Shiteiru Kanjiteiru”
9- Hilcrhyme – “Shunkashuto”
8- The Birthday – “Ai de Nuri Tsubuse”
7- Ikimonogakari – “YELL / Joyful”
6- Shoko Nakagawa – “Arigato no Egao”
5- Gospellers – “Love Notes”
4- Shinsengumi Rian – “Otokomichi”
3- YUI – “It’s all too much/Never say die”
2- Sukima Switch – “Golden Time Lover”
1- B’z – “MY LONELY TOWN”
There was a slight increase today with sales of River and they managed to shift 7,085 to bring the total up to 167,895. They managed to hold on to the daily no.1 ranking. It doesn’t look like they’ll hit 200k this week. Still a quite magnificent achievement for them.
These days I don’t expect the CDTV charts to pop up on Youtube every week so I was kinda surprised to see this one appear.
30- Gilgamesh – “crying rain”
29- Ryuuko Mizuta – “Ine No Funaya”
28- Keisuke Yamauchi – “Fuurenko”
27- Kaori Kozai – “Onna no Kikyou”
26- 12012 – “Usubeni to Ame”
25- Mika Nakashima – “CANDY GIRL”
24- CHOZEN LEE – Songs Of Love”
23- TOKYO No.1 SOUL SET + HALCALI – “Konya wa Boogie Back”
22- Hitoto Yo – “Your Medicine – Watashi ga Anata no Kusuri ni Natteageru”
21- Megamaso – “chimes”
20- 9mm Parabellum Bullet – “Cold Edge e.p.”
19- Skoop On Somebody – “~momiji~”
18- Kotomi Maki – “Mujou no Ame ga Furu”
17- B’z – “Ichibu to Zenbu/Dive”
16- VAMPS – “SWEET DREAMS”
15- Juliet – “Fuyu Love”
14- Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra – “KinouKyouAshita”
13- Jun Shibata – “Love Letter”
12- Kiyoshi Hikawa – “Tokimeki no Rumba”
11- DEEP – “Endless road”
10- KOME KOME CLUB – “Koi no Gamble”
9- Ikimonogakari – “YELL/Joyful”
8- JEJUNG & YUCHUN(from Tohoshinki) – “COLORS~Melody and Harmony~/Shelter”
7- Hilcrhyme – “Shunkashuto”
6- The Cro-Magnons – “Glycerin Queen”
5- Ryu Si Won – “Memu”
4- THE ALFEE – “Yoake wo Motomete”
3- Unicorn – “Hanseiki Shonen”
2- the GazettE – “BEFORE I DECAY”
1- YUI – “It’s all too much/Never say die”
Yet another big drop today in sales for River but they still managed to retain the daily no.1 ranking. They sold an additional 4,707 copies today making the grand total 160,810. I think getting up to 200k is impossible now but we’ll see if their appearance on Music Station will make a difference.
