Oricon Top 30 Charts – Week 26

30 Shoji Kaganezawa – Hamanasu Kaigan
29 Hilcrhyme – Loose Leaf
28 Kana Nishino – Aitakute Aitakute
27 Kaori Mizumori – Matsushima Kikou
26 CNBLUE – The Way
25 Ikimonogakari – Arigatou
24 Honey L Days – Manazashi
23 Kiryu – Minazakura
22 Various Artists – Climax-Action ~the Inazuma History~
21 Girls Dead Monster – Little Braver
20 Lia / Tada Aoi – My Soul, Your Beats! / Brave Song
19 Shinagawa Hiroshi to Suberas / Air Visual Band – Salary man / Daisan no Otoko
18 miwa – Little Girl
17 Italy (Daisuke Namikawa) – Hata Futte Parade
16 Kyo – Kyo Onna
15 Fuyumi Sakamoto – Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru / Asia no Kaizoku
14 Kiyoshi Hikawa – Shamisen Tabigarasu
13 ARASHI – Monster
12 Toshinobu Kubota    – LOVE RAIN ~Koi no Ame~
11 AKB48 – Ponytail to Shushu
10 Sound Horizon – Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido
09 Aya Hirano – Hysteric Barbie
08 Kaela Kimura – Ring A Ding Dong
07 DEATH DEVIL (Asami Sanada) – Love
06 Fudanjuku – Muteki! Natsu Yasumi
05 Nightmare – a:FANTASIA
04 Spitz – Tsugumi
03 w-inds – Addicted To Love
02 flumpool – reboot ~Akiramenai Uta~ / Nagareboshi
01 Koshi Inaba – Okay

New AKB48 Unit – French Kiss

AVEX have created a new idol unit with 3 AKB48 members – Yuki Kashiwagi, Aki Takajo and Asuka Kuramochi called French Kiss. Their debut single which will be released sometime during the Autumn is called Zutto Mae Kara and it will be the end theme for an anime series. I’m not sure if this unit is likely to be long term or not.

Shukan AKB 25th June Summary

I missed out on doing the summary to last week’s show due to lack of time. This week we’re back in the studio with Speedwagon and onto the continuing personal challenges given to various members of AKB48. They have 90 minutes of practice before doing their challenge in the studio.

The first challenge is between both Miichan and Chiyuu. Now I don’t know what the thing they have to do is called but it involves a rope and they have to pass the object from one rope to the other without dropping it. Their teachers for this challenge are two males who are experts. In the studio corridors both girls are shown exercises on how to perfect the technique. It takes a little bit of time for them to get things right individually but on their first attempt together in practice everything comes together perfectly. Subsequent attempts though end in failure. Can they nail it in front of Speedwagon and the rest of the girls in the studio? And the answer is yes they can. They did it perfectly although the pass back to Miichan by Chiyuu was a little bit wayward but luckily Miichan managed to catch the object with her rope so this was a success.

Lovetan gets a golf challenge to do. She has to putt a ball over 2.5m into a makeshift hole using one of these putting practice games you can buy in shops. Her teacher is surprisingly enough the referee for the whole episode. Earlier attempts at putting the ball in the hole isn’t good but it doesn’t take her long to manage to putt the ball in the hole a few times. With her teacher away, Lovetan thinking that she’ll be OK for the challenge sneaks off to goof about with Sasshi and send messages on her keitai. She is caught out by her teacher. Back in the studio, she’ll get 3 chances of holing the ball. On her first attempt she putts with too much force, 2nd attempt is off course and the 3rd also ends in total failure so Lovetan doesn’t succeed with her challenge. I don’t think she was too bothered!

The 3rd and final challenge of this episode is with the adorable SKE48 member Kumi Yagami who has to remember 30 breed names of dogs by looking at pictures. She gets a little bit bored studying the names and plays about with a small blue ball and she does struggle with pronouncing one breed name in particular – the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. But there was nothing to worry about as Kumi gets all of them right in the studio with no problem even the very last one which was the Corgi one. Well done Kumi!

It’s onto the One Phrase Theater with Tongue Man and 10 girls. Each girl is given a situation and they have to answer back with a witty response. As I didn’t understand any of the situations, I’ll just say who took part: Sayaka, Lovetan, Tomochin, Rena Matsui, Ayaka Umeda and Acchan.

Apart from one tiny bit of news, that was it for this week’s episode.

AKBingo 23rd June Summary

This episode continues from last week in which a TV man called Fuji tries to show the girls how to do TV announcing/reporting. Clips from the previous episode are shown.

The first segment is how to become a newscaster and Fuji gives an example of doing it properly and how to read the autocue. Acchan is given an opportunity and she is shown behind a fake desk looking sweet in a powersuit and glasses. After she does her stint, Fuji says she only gets 40 marks and Acchan is not pleased with this. Then Mocchi has a go and she nails it achieving 85 marks. Mocchi was really good.

The funniest thing in this episode comes from the 2nd segment and that is how to do a weather report in extreme conditions. Kojima is given a rain mac and an umbrella and has to stand in front of a big fan. When the fan is switched on, she has to try and do a weather report. With papers flying all around her, she does her best but a green cloth flies straight into her face which stops her. Everybody in the studio is laughing and Kojima only gets 30 marks. Next up to try is Takamina. She starts off well but with the fan going full speed she just can’t say anything. The fan even forces Takamina off her feet and onto the floor. She was hilarious and Tomochin is crying tears of laughter in the studio. Fuji gives her 80 marks.

Finally there’s a sumo announcing lesson with 2 special mascots coming into the studio for a sumo match. I’m not sure who the mascots are but the girls were very excited about them. Miichan is given the reins to do the announcing but Fuji isn’t that impressed with her and gives 30 marks. This segment ends a bit abruptly with Fuji giving Takamina the MVP of the entire 2 episodes.

Phrasemuseum is between Acchan and Mariko. Acchan wins but as Kiyoshi is putting white paint on his brush, Mariko disappears from her frame and moves to be with Acchan in her frame. This confuses Kiyoshi but he turns around to see both girls trying to pull down the blind to their frame. Kiyoshi decides to go to the back and chase Mariko. He catches her eventually and she gets her face painted.

Mayuyu and Yuko are in the editing suite backstage of AKBingo in their Yasai Sisters costume talking to the man that does the BGM of the show. I’m sure he said he liked Tomochin in her vegetable costume. They give him a Kagome drink at the end of their chat.

To end the show, Watarirouka’s PV to their new single Seishun no Flag is shown.

Nex week sees the return of Shojiki Shouji between Acchan and Tomochin.

Ponytail to Shushu Update/17th Single Name Revealed

Just to update you on the sales for Ponytail to Shushu, AKB48 rose 4 places in this week’s Oricon charts to no.5 with the song and sold an additional 10,465 to bump the overall total up to 587,481. Only 12,519 more to go before they reach 600k and if they won’t achieve that next week then certainly it’ll be the week after.

The name of AKB48’s upcoming 17th single has finally been revealed and it’s called POISON CAT’S and the PV does have a feline feel to it according to this picture from the shooting on Mariko’s blog.

Oricon Top 30 Charts – Week 25

30    HO-KAGO TEA TIME – Pure Pure Heart
29    YUI – to Mother
28    SID – Rain
27    sg WANNA BE+ – Precious ~Kimi Dake ga Boku no Kaeru Basho
26    UNICORN – Hadaka no Taiyou
25    Kana Nishino – Aitakute Aitakute
24    VAMPS – Angel Trip
23    Hilcrhyme – Loose Leaf
22    Ikimonogakari – Arigatou
21    Kagrra – Tsuki ni Murakumo Hana ni Ame
20    BIG BANG – Tell Me Goodbye
19    Idoling!!! – Me ni wa Aoba Yama Hototogisu Hatsukoi
18    Honey L Days – Manazashi
17    Morning Musume – Seishun Collection
16    Lia / Tada Aoi – My Soul, Your Beats! / Brave Song
15    Mimi Kitagami (Mana Ogawa) with MM Gakuen Gasshoubu – Kimi ga Shuyaku Sa!
14    Fuyumi Sakamoto – Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru / Asia no Kaizoku
13    Do As Infinity – 1/100
12    Girls Dead Monster – Little Braver
11    Kiyoshi Hikawa – Shamisen Tabigarasu
10    Ayabie – Dramatic
09    GIRL NEXT DOOR – Freedom
08    Dragon Ash – AMBITIOUS
07    KAT-TUN – Going!
06    Arashi – Monster
05    AKB48 – Ponytail to Shushu
04    Kaela Kimura – Ring-A-Ding-Dong
03    Toshinobu Kubota – LOVE RAIN ~Koi no Ame~
02    Sound Horizon – Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido
01    TOKIO – Haruka

Shibuya GAL’S – Yes, It’s Another New Idol Group!!

It seems that everybody is now jumping on the idol group bandwagon hoping that it’ll lead to huge success like AKB48. The latest new group to appear will be a gyaru one called Shibuya GAL’S. The group will be produced and led by Yuma Takahashi  and Aina Tanaka who are both 21 years old. They’re models for the fashion magazine Egg and are releasing their debut music album this week.

Auditions for Shibuya GAL’S took place last month with 4,000 girls applying from across Japan. Yesterday 22 were selected to be in the group and by the end of the year Takahashi and Tanaka hope to have added another 24 to bring the total up to 48 members.

AKB48 Kenkyuusei Selection Axe Is Wielded

Last week the AKB48 RS were given a test that would determine their future in the group. If a member did well they’d be given a stay of execution and allowed to continue as a RS with a chance in the future of being promoted to the ranks of AKB48 itself. The downside is if they didn’t do well enough then that would be it – they’d be fired immediately.

Today the all important results of the test came out and unfortunately 3 of the RS failed to make the grade and have been given the chop. Another member that passed the test decided to withdraw herself. The 4 members that are now gone are: Atsuki Ishiguro, Sara Fujimoto, Momoko Kinumoto and Eri Takamatsu.

This is the 2nd time that Sara Fujimoto has been fired from the RS so she must be feeling really bad about this. She also got the axe in January 2009 but somehow she managed to get back in but I think this is it for her now. There will be no third chance for her. Game over! There’s a bit of a story going on with Atsuki Ishiguro’s firing. Rumours floating around are saying that a picture of her with a possible boyfriend could be behind her firing but the official line is she wasn’t good enough to be selected. Even worse is Ishiguro was selected to be in the Under Girls for AKB48’s forthcoming new single. She was placed at no.40. It’s obvious now that somebody else will fill that position but I’m not sure who that member will be though. I just feel sorry for the fans that voted for her in the senbatsu election. Their votes will have all been for nothing.

SDN48 Suppon no Onnatachi Episode 3 Summary

Episode 3 of SDN48’s TV show opens with the host commenting on Nonti and Sato’s shoes.

The 3 SDN48 members taking part in this week’s challenge which is promote the idol group on a radio station is CinDy (finally she’s on the show and she looks great), Sayaka Kondo and the plain looking Reiko Nishikunihara. I’m not sure the name of the company they were visiting on this show. In the same format as the past 2 episodes, the 3 members have to do a little PR in front of the company’s main man.

CinDy feeds him some cake which he likes, Sayaka speaks English (well she did move to Detroit whilst she was a child and graduated in a high school there before moving back to Japan) and Reiko tries to sing like a Japanese Susan Boyle before all 3 girls do some PR together. All 3 get to do a radio interview in the end.

The show finishes with a clip of SDN48 performing a stage song. The programme makers better change the content of the show if they don’t want things to get stale quickly. They just can’t go on visiting a company each week doing the same old crap. Last week’s show was great as they had Meetan to liven it up but this one was just plain dull and boring. The only good thing about it was the appearance of CinDy. We’ll see if things improve in Episode 4.

SDN48 First Round Senbatsu Results

Right, the first round of voting is over in the SDN48 Senbatsu Election and the results are as follows:

1. Ohori Megumi
2. Sato Yukari
3. Noro Kayo
4. Urano Kazumi
5. Akita Kazue
6. Umeda Haruka
7. Aikawa Yuki
7. Kato Mami
9. Konan
10. Kohara Haruka
11. Nachu
12. Ito Kana

So Meetan gets first place. I wonder if her provocative, teasing and sexy appearance on SDN’s TV show last week helped her in the voting because I’m sure it did. I expected the former AKB48 girls to be placed high and they all got the top 4 positions. Once the 2nd round results are out I’ll post them here too.