Oricon Top 30 Charts 2011 – Week 21

30 Inawashirokos – I love you & I need you Fukushima
29 UNISON SQAURE GARDEN – Orion wo Nazoru
28 Kanjani8 – T.W.L / Yellow Pansy Street
27 Sandaime J Soul Brothers – LOVE SONG
26 Honma Meiko (Kayano Ai), Anjo Naruko (Tomatsu Haruka), Tsurumi Chiriko (Hayami Saori) – secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~
25 Tenkatoritai – kagerou
24 TOKYO GIRLS’ STYLE – Kodou no Himitsu / Sayonara, Arigatou.
23 KARA – Jet Coaster Love
22 May’n – Scarlet Ballet
21 Fuyumi Sakamoto – Sakura no Gotoku
20 Mao Abe – Motto. / Hikari
19 Oratorio The World God Only Knows – A Whole New World God Only Knows
18 LM.C – SUPER DUPER GALAXY
17 Tokyo Jihen – Sora ga Natteiru / Onna no Ko wa Dare Demo
16 Girls’ Generation – MR. TAXI / Run Devil Run
15 Jang Keun Suk – Let me cry
14 The Gospellers – NEVER STOP
13 UVERworld – CORE PRIDE
12 aiko – Koi no Super Ball / Home
11 French Kiss – Kakkowarui I love you!
10 Tomoyasu Hotei – Promise
09 9mm Parabellum Bullet – Atarashii Hikari
08 Kanjani8 – My Home
07 BUMP OF CHICKEN – Smile
06 Nightmare – VERMILION.
05 Kana Nishino – Esperanza
04 2PM – Take off
03 DiVA – Tsuki no Uragawa
02 Perfume – Laser Beam / Kasuka na Kaori
01 KAT-TUN – WHITE

Senbatsu Election 2011 – 1st Day Results

I’m sure like myself you’ve been anxiously awaiting how the voting has gone on the 1st day so without further ado here’s how it looks:

1 Oshima Yuko (17156)
2 Maeda Atsuko (16452)
3 Kashiwagi Yuki (12056)
4 Takahashi Minami (8633)
5 Watanabe Mayu (8582)
6 Shinoda Mariko (8016)
7 Sashihara Rino (7357)
8 Itano Tomomi (6596)
9 Matsui Rena (SKE48, 6559)
10 Kojima Haruna (6534)
11 Miyazawa Sae (5157)
12 Takajo Aki (5096)
13 Minegishi Minami (3931)
14 Kitahara Rie (3860)
15 Kasai Tomomi (3102)
16 Matsui Jurina (SKE48, 2843)
17 Yokoyama Yui (2753)
18 Sato Amina (2684)
19 Masuda Yuka (2201)
20 Kuramochi Asuka (1793)
21 Takayanagi Akane (SKE48, 1761)
22 Nakagawa Haruka (1571)
23 Akimoto Sayaka (1502)
24 Hirajima Natsumi (1484)
25 Yamamoto Sayaka (NMB48, 1444)
26 Umeda Ayaka (1441)
27 Miyazaki Miho (1378)
28 Suda Akari (SKE48, 1139)
29 Oota Aika (1129)
30 Hata Sawako (SKE48, 1118)
31 Kizaki Yuria (SKE48, 1053)
32 Ooya Shizuka (904)
33 Ooya Masana (SKE48, 885)
34 Watanabe Miyuki (NMB48, 854)
35 Sato Sumire (852)
36 Matsui Sakiko (814)
37 Ooba Mina (Research Student, 811)
38 Komori Mika (792)
39 Yagami Kumi (SKE48, 779)
40 Fujie Reina (778)

So how did your favourite member do? I’m happy that Yuko is at no.1 but look at the big jump that Yukirin has made. That’s amazing and Takamina has improved as well.  Sasshi is doing extremely well at no.7. I’m surprised though with Tomochin just at no.8. But as always this won’t reflect on the final result. The gap between Yuko and Acchan is similar to the final result last year. It’s too close to call really to say whether Yuko will carry on being at no.1. There are many hundreds of thousands of votes still to be cast. Positions are going to change and the media senbatsu members will more than likely swap places during the next 2 weeks.

EDIT: There’s an article online which reports that one person bought 5,500 copies of the single and voted for Yuko. I don’t know about you but that’s just stupid. Also Lovetan seems to be taking the 1st round results quite badly judging by her blog entry. She doesn’t sound too happy at all. Take a look at this video from a Japanese TV show which is all about the 1st round results:

EDIT: This is the picture of the guy who allegedly bought 5,500 copies!

AKB48 – Everyday Kachuusa 1st Day Sales

What an incredible day it’s been for AKB48 today for sales of their new single. All of us as fans expected a huge figure considering that the single contained the senbatsu election voting ticket, hell I even thought that selling a million copies in one day would be possible. Believe it or not, it very nearly did happen. In fact a quite phenomenal 942,475 copies have been sold propelling it into the all-time top 10 best selling singles sold in a week in Japan (no.7) just behind their last single. The no.1 position is currently held by Mr Children in which they sold 1.2 million. It wouldn’t surprise me to see AKB48 break that record this week. It’s safe to say that the million barrier will be breached tomorrow. Many many congratulations to AKB48.

Senbatsu Election 2011 – Let Battle Commence!

Today is the day when you can start voting in this year’s exciting senbatsu election. Battle lines have been drawn and there’s gonna be some fierce fighting taking place between Acchan and Yuko fans to see who comes out on top. But for those that are still undecided on who they’re going to be voting for, may I suggest you vote for this girl as she’s great. Who am I talking about? None other than Sasshi!! Check out the video below to see why she’s so awesome!

EDIT: There’ll be an early election result tomorrow sometime so we can see who the front runners are in the election. I’ll post the results up right here.

AKB48 – Beginner PV (The Uncensored Version)

You will recall that when Beginner was released last year, there was a big fuss made about the content of the original PV version – it was too violent and there was blood letting as well. The PV was removed from all CD singles and from all TV airplays. You could only download it on a Japanese mobile phone. 7 months later and somebody has leaked the original uncensored version on Youtube and here’s your chance to see it before it disappears. At first I didn’t know what the fuss was all about. Sure there are some graphic deaths such as Kojiharu’s face being sliced in half which is nasty but there’s no blood involved until we come to Acchan that is and she spills quite a bit of the red stuff. I think it was this that prompted the most complaints. Her screaming is quite unnerving too. I like the PV. I can understand how younger fans might be traumatised by the PV so overall it was a wise decision to remove it.

Team B’s Newest Member

With Maachan now gone from Team B, that left a space missing and so Shihori Suzuki (a kenkyuusei member) has been promoted to Team B. However with her promotion, it’s left some fans fuming at this news. You see, Shihori has been promoted to Team B before and left of her own accord (in 2009) saying she wasn’t good enough and that she wasn’t giving it all her all. And that was even before she even got to perform with Team B! She must have realised that she made a bad judgement because it wasn’t too long that she reapplied to be a kenkyuusei member once more. Even though she was back as a 11th gen kenkyuusei member, she’s somehow managed to jump over the 9th and 10th gen girls who were probably hoping to nab that elusive place in Team B.

Let’s hope she makes the most out of this 2nd chance.

BTW Shihori is also the tallest member now of AKB48, even taller than Mariko!

Kojiharu Fainted During TV Show Recording

A tabloid magazine “BreakMax” has picked up a story that remained a secret until they published it in their pages regarding a recent incident that happened for Kojima Haruna.

Apparently during the recording for the “Mecha Mecha Iketeru” special that was aired on April 9th, Kojima fainted and hit her head on a desk. Sasshi and Sayaka were two other AKB48 members appearing on the show.  Staff working on the show had noticed that something was amiss when Kojima felt giddy and failed to respond to the show’s host Okamura teasing her about a wrong answer. The recording was stopped whilst everybody rushed to check if she was alright. Kojima regained consciousness quickly and apologised for making everybody worry for her. The rest of the recording passed without incident. During all of the drama, Sasshi and Sayaka remained cool, calm and collected – they’ve probably seen it all before with other members. Looking back on the incident, one Fuji TV staff member said Kojima looked tired and had bloodshot eyes. It makes you wonder how many times this sort of thing happens for AKB48 members.

Sashihara Blog Challenge – On Target For Success

To celebrate the 1st anniversary of her blog ‘Sashihara Quality’, Sasshi was given a challenge to blog 200 times in 24 hours. The challenge started at 9am today and so far she’s managed to do 110 entries. As of myself writing this blog entry it’s just past midnight in Tokyo so who knows what Sasshi will write during the lonely night hours. I’m sure she’ll have plenty to say about this week’s Majisuka Gakuen 2. To achieve her target, she needs to write around 8/9 blog entries per hour. If you take the blog entries that’s she written already (110) divided by 15 hours (9am – 12am) then you come up with just over 7 entries per hour. I’m sure Sasshi will bump up her blog entries as the clock ticks down ever closer to 9am on Saturday morning. I just hope Sasshi won’t fall asleep!! Ganbatte Sasshi, I know you’ll be able to complete your challenge.

EDIT: Sasshi successfully completed the challenge with just under 6 mins to go. She had a nice 6 hour break (no doubt taking a nap!) before she was back blogging again! What a trooper!

AKB48 Security Scare At Handshake Event

Hokkaido police recently arrested an 18 year old unemployed man who posed as a cameraman at a recent AKB48 handshake event in Sapporo on May 15th. The man somehow managed to get hold of an armband and identity card of a media firm who were filming the event and even brought a video camera to shoot some footage. He mingled with genuine TV cameramen. However suspicions were raised by AKB48 staff when the man was caught filming for a couple of hours even though the rest of the media had left as they were only supposed to shoot the first 5 mins of the handshake event. Although at first AKB48 staff thought he might be a overenthusiastic fan, they soon changed their minds thinking he could be part of an organised crime gang shooting footage that they could sell illegally. The police were soon called and the man was arrested. It could have been more serious had the man actually grabbed one of the girls but thankfully that didn’t happen. I’m sure some of you know about the infamous video footage that was taken illegally of Morning Musume members on the toilet and being followed that was sold on the net some years ago. OK, so this man wasn’t doing anything quite as bad as that but AKB48 staff have to be on their guard at all times.

Oricon Top 30 Charts 2011 – Week 20

30 Inawashirokos – I love you & I need you Fukushima
29 Erio wo Kamattechan – Os-Uchuujin
28 noanowa – Have a Good Day!
27 MAXIMUM THE HORMONE – Greatest the Hits 2011~2011
26 Shoji Koganezawa – Fuyu no Tabibito
25 Aiko Nakano – Camellia no Hitomi
24 DIAMOND☆DOGS – Carnival ~Kinjirareta Ai~
23 The fevers – Daiku no Ben-san
22 Kobukuro – Ano Taiyou ga, Kono Sekai wo Terashitsuzukeru You ni.
21 BEAST – SHOCK
20 School Food Punishment – RPG
19 Honma Meiko (Kayano Ai), Anjo Naruko (Tomatsu Haruka), Tsurumi Chiriko (Hayami Saori) – secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~
18 Ken Hirai – Itoshiki Hibi yo
17 KARA – Jet Coaster Love
16 COCOATOKO. – Soldier / “NO you! NO life! NO… xx?” feat. Me
15 Kanjani8 – T.W.L / Yellow Pansy Street
14 UNISON SQUARE GARDEN – Orion wo Nazoru
13 KREVA – C’mon Let’s go
12 Girls’ Generation – MR. TAXI / Run Devil Run
11 May’n – Scarlet Ballet
10 Sphere – Hazy
09 You Kikkawa – Kikkake wa YOU!
08 Jang Keun Suk – Let me cry
07 Sandaime J Soul Brothers – LOVE SONG
06 Tokyo Jihen – Sora ga Natteiru / Onna no Ko wa Dare Demo
05 UVERworld – CORE PRIDE
04 aiko – Koi no Super Ball / Home
03 BUMP OF CHICKEN – Smile
02 French Kiss – Kakkowarui I love you!
01 Kanjani8 – My Home