I haven’t been that impressed with Mano Erina’s 4 major singles so far, in fact I think she’s taken a step backwards from her indie days but her new song (her 5th major single) Love & Peace = Paradise thankfully is a lot better than her last song. As for the PV, she’s too kawaii for words and is fabulous in the dress she wears in it. I could look at her all day long! The single is released on November 25th.
AKB48 did exceptionally well during 2nd week sales for River. They stay inside the Top 10 and drop down to no.5, just one place below Morning Musume. They sold 20,574 copies bringing their grand total up to 199,153. Looks good to breaking another milestone – 200k tomorrow. Morning Musume even though they beat AKB48 last week have crashed down to no.28 in the daily rankings at the start of the 2nd week for sales for Kimagure Princess. River manages to hold steady and is still selling reasonably well in it’s 3rd week.
So far AKB48 has 4 entries in the Top 50 of the Oricon Yearly Charts. River is presently at no.19 but with sales continuing who knows how high it could go. Other AKB48 songs are at no.32, no.41 and no.44.
I’ve been thinking to myself because of the success that AKB48 have achieved this year, if they don’t get invited to appear on the annual New Year’s Eve extravaganza Kohaku Uta Gassen it will be a big disgrace and a slap in the face for them so I hope the people that pick the artists for the show see sense and invite them.
The latest CDTV charts is now up on Youtube. I’m delighted to see AKB48’s name at the top of the charts, hope this is the first of many for them. There’s some good stuff in the charts namely Spontania, AAA, Sheryl Nome starring May’n, Kana Nishimi and Mimi Kitagami.
30- B’z – “Ichibu to Zenzu / DIVE”
29- Gospellers – “Love Notes”
28- Takako Matsu – “Kimi to Nara”
27- Kazuya Iwade – “Ame yo Fure”
26- TOKYO No.1 SOUL SET + HALCALI – “Konya wa Boogie Back”
25- Mari Iijima, FIRE BOMBER, May’n – “Macross Gannen Kinen Chojiku Anthem : Iki wo Shiteiru Kanjiteiru”
24- The Birthday – “Ai de Nuri Tsubuse”
23- ALI PROJECT – “Datenkoku Sensen”
22- Etsuko Yakushimaru – “Oyasumi Paradox / Jenny wa Go Kigen Naname”
21- Hiroyuki Nishikata – “Kanzakura”
20- Spontania feat.AZU – “Onaji Sora Mitsumeteru Anata ni”
19- Sukima Switch – “Golden Time Lover”
18- Kiyoshi Hikawa – “Tokimeki no Rumba”
17- Joji Yamamoto – “Senri no Michimo”
16- Kagrra, – “Skiki”
15- Rina Aiuchi – “MAGIC”
14- Shinsengumi Rian – “Otokomichi”
13- Ikimonogakari – “YELL / Joyful”
12- YUI – “It’s all too much/Never say die”
11- Naotaro Moriyama – “Namida”
10- Nodoka Manabe(Chika Fujito) – “‘K-ON!’ Image Song (Coolly Hotty Tension Hi!!)”
9- Mimi Kitagami with MM Gakuen Gasshoubu – “Daisuki ni Nare! / Kokoro Kimi ni Todoke”
8- Hilcrhyme – “Shunkashuto”
7- Ui Hirasawa(Madoka Yonezawa) – “‘K-ON!’ Image Song Ui Hirasawa”
6- Kana Nishino – “Motto…”
5- Sheryl Nome starring May’n – “Pink Monsoon”
4- B’z – “MY LONELY TOWN”
3- Ken Hirai – “Boku wa Kimi ni Koi wo Suru”
2- AAA – “Hide-away”
1- AKB48 – “RIVER”
Juri Ueno is back as the loveable Megumi Noda in one of her most famous roles. Nodame Cantabile’s popularity doesn’t seem to be abating. First there was the dorama series then a special and now they’re transferring to the big screen. What’s great about her return as this character is that there’s going to be 2 Nodame Cantabile movies. The first will be released in Japan on the 19th December and the 2nd comes out sometime in 2010. I can’t wait to see both of them. Here’s a trailer for the first movie which is set in Paris:
Usually at Halloween time, a group of foreigners ‘hijack’ a carriage on the Yamanote Line train and drink to excess, basically making a nuisance of themselves to all the citizens making their way back home. This year however, it failed to happen due to a heavy police presence but something else did happen which dismayed me.
An anti-foreigner protest took place at the station with some loud and vocal nationalists venting their racist views and wishing for foreigners to get the hell out of their country. Some unfortunate foreigners who had nothing at all to do with the planned Halloween party on the train were subjected to some abuse by these people. I won’t even write what some signs were saying. I’m sure that the majority of Japanese people will not want to be associated with these idiots and if word of this goes out across the internet it will only make things worse by accusing the Japanese of being racist and unfriendly which is completely untrue. Japanese people are probably the most welcoming and friendly I’ve come across.
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.
