Radio Rip of Wasamin’s Debut Single Mujin-eki

We’ve seen a small preview of Wasamin performing her debut single Mujin-eki at a recent enka festival but now we’ve got a longer preview thanks to Watarirouka Hashiritai 7′s radio show. If I hadn’t seen Wasamin performing at that festival, I’d have sworn that it was somebody else singing this song. She sounds like a much older woman with her vocals which makes it even more impressive as she’ll only turn 17 years old in 2 weeks time. I just love this song so much, it’s bloody brilliant. Fast forward to 9:27 to hear the song.

And here’s a small preview from the PV. It’s a very atmospheric one with the snowy landscape around Wasamin.

Nogizaka 46′s Version Of Aitakatta

I’m not going to make a habit of posting about Nogizaka 46 as I’m concentrating solely on the 000 groups but I just had to share this Youtube video which shows the group performing their own unique version of Aitakatta (which they call Aitakatta Kamoshirenai) on their Japanese TV show Nogizaka tte, doko?. It’s really good IMO – slightly more rockish than the original, sounds a little bit different but still very enjoyable. I wonder how this so-called rivalry with AKB48 will pan out in the future especially with Nogizaka 46 about to launch their debut single at the end of February. This version of Aitakatta is likely to feature on that single as one of the c/w tracks.

Click on the link to see and hear the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONX98QRqvJ0

AKB48 And Ultraman To Defend The Earth In New Movie

This piece of news has been out for some time now (November 2011) but I haven’t mentioned anything about it yet. 7 AKB48 members will be taking part in the new Ultraman Saga movie which comes out on March 24th. The plot features 3 Ultraman (Zero, Dyna and Cosmos) collaborating with a group of humans (Team U – part of the Earth Defence Force) to protect the Earth from a group of invading aliens.

The 7 AKB48 members taking part are Sayaka who plays the part of the team leader Anna, Umechan is the vice-leader Misato, Sae is the special attack unit captain Sawa whilst Kana and Yuttan play the maintenance personnel Nonko and Maomi. Rounding off the AKB48 members in the movie is Suuchan as medical officer Riisa and Haruu as communications chief Hina.

I’ve got a soft spot for these kind of movies although the last Ultraman movie I watched was Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers and that was 3 years ago. I don’t think the Ultraman purists are too happy about the decision to include AKB48 members in the movie as they seem to think that the focus will be too much on them and not on the Ultramen. I’m not complaining especially when Umechan is in the movie!!!

Check out the movie trailer below: