Today had a slight drop in sales figures which saw Beginner sell 23,191 copies. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for the single to break through the 800k mark but I’m sure that’ll easily be done tomorrow. The grand total now stands at 791,295.
Here’s a performance of Beginner on Music Japan below. I’ve noticed that Miichan has been wearing glasses for some promotion appearances for Beginner. Has she got a problem with her eyes? She looks great with the glasses!
I’m a bit late in posting the 4th day sales figures! Saturday saw another large drop but still good enough to hold onto the no.1 spot in the daily charts. They sold an extra 26,077 copies to push Beginner’s grand total up to 768,186. I hope sales will improve a little bit tomorrow for the single to crawl over the 800k mark.
It only took them 3 days but finally AKB48 overtook Arashi at the top of the pile and became the highest selling single of the year. There was another dip in sales figures today- they sold 61,863 copies to bring the overall total at 742,109. I think 800k at the end of the first week looks possible now. Well done AKB48!!
I finally had a chance last night to look at the censored Beginner PV. I couldn’t look at it on Tuesday and Wednesday due to Youko’s region lock which I found pretty annoying but I managed to find another alternative. I loved the PV itself. OK, so it’s a bit violent but as other fans have pointed out AKB48’s target audience isn’t kids so I don’t agree that changing the PV was a wise idea in the end. They should have stuck with it.
We’re back with yet another edition of Time Pressure:Battle Burger Shop. The teams are:
Kyo-Takki Team (Kiyoto): Takamina, Mayu, Sasshi, Mikapon, Kojima and Mariko
Boss Burger Team (Sata) : Yuko, Tomochin, Rumi Yonezawa, Myao, Yukirin and Sae
I’ll state the rules once more in case there’s somebody new watching the game for the first time. The object of the game is each of the first 5 girls in the team has a burger on a moving conveyor belt flip open to reveal a certain object. They must say something in 5 seconds that associates with the object without actually revealing what it is. The last girl at the end should manage to guess what the object is with all the clues that the rest of her team have given her.
First up is Sata’s team with Sae as the final member guessing the first object correctly which was a conbini store. Kiyoto’s team with Mariko as the final member also got their first object (location) right which was Shibuya
Round 2 of this stage and Sata’s team gets it right once more. I’m not sure what the correct answer was – it sounded like Sae said Fukugawa Yuki? Kiyoto’s team also got theirs right with the answer being Takamina. No episode of AKBingo is complete without some Takamina ribbing!!
Round 3 sees Sae on a roll getting all 3 of her answers right. This one being “monomane” I think.
At the half way stage of the game the Boss Burger Team is 3-2 up!
The game moves onto the 2nd stage. Same game as before – they get to draw something in 5 seconds which associates with the object that the end girl gets to guess. The teams have changed into:
Kyo-Takki Team: Kojima, Kitarie, Chiyuu, Mariko, Mayu and Takamina
Boss Burger: Tomochin, Miichan, Kikuchi, Sae, Moeno and Yuko
Round 1 – Takamina got her answer right which was a hot air balloon. Sata’s team with Yuko answering also got theirs right which was “okosama lunch”.
Round 2 – Takamina got her 2nd picture correct which was a “catcher” but this is the moment in which the game turned in Kiyoto’s team favour with Yuko getting her answer all wrong. It was funny seeing her facial expressions trying to guess who was in the picture drawn. She guessed Santa Claus but it was in fact the samurai Saigo Takamori. The statue of him walking his dog stands near the Southern entrance of Ueno Park. You can’t miss it in the park!
Round 3 – Mayu came to the rescue of her team with her great drawing skills as Takamina correctly guessed Mona Lisa as the answer. I don’t think she would have got the answer right if it wasn’t for Mayu.
Game over with Kiyoto’s team edging a tight game 5-4
Phrasemuseum is between Acchan and Miichan. No surprises in that Acchan won!
To end the show we’ve got a live studio performance of Beginner with Tomochin in the centre. It’s the same as last week basically.
And that’s it for this week. More Muchaburi Dodgeball in the next episode. Can’t wait for that.
There was quite a big drop in sales figures for the 2nd day and I thought they’d overtake Arashi as the biggest selling single of the year but that failed to materialise but there’s always tomorrow for that to happen. It was still quite an impressive figure considering so many copies were sold yesterday. The figure was 112,151 bringing the overall total up to 680,246. I guess it’ll be tomorrow when AKB48 will break through the 700k barrier for the 1st time.
The figures are finally out for the first day sales of Beginner and it far exceeded what I thought it would be – the figure is in fact 568,095!!!! It has destroyed AKB48’s previous best by a long shot (Heavy Rotation sold 340,487 on the first day) and who knows what the final total for the 1st week will be? The single will definitely be the biggest selling single of the year and that there is no doubt. Congratulations to all the girls. I’m sure they’re all shocked by how well the single has sold today. All eyes will be on tomorrow now and how well they do on the 2nd day.
30 Does – Jack Knife
29 Ayumi Hamasaki – Virgin Road
28 TAMURAPAN – Rough
27 Kaori Uesugi – Sui Nada
26 Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi – Try Again
25 Fuyumi Sakamoto – Zutto Anata Ga Sukideshita
24 Kara – Mister
23 Takeshi Tsuruno – Sugarvine
22 Azusa – Kimi no Mamade
21 EXILE – Motto Tsuyoku
20 maika – Kokoro
19 Girls Generation – Genie
18 Kotoko – Loop-the-Loop
17 THE ELEPHANT KASHIMASHI – Itsuka Mita Yume Wo
16 Yukana – Koi wa Mizuiro
15 fripSIDE – future gazer
14 AKB48 – Heavy Rotation
13 Go Hiromi – Aishiteru
12 Shota Shimizu – Kimi Ga Kurasu Machi
11 EXILE – I Wish For You
10 Kiyoshi Hikawa – Nijiiro No Bayon
09 The Cro-Magnons – Auto-bike To Kawa Jumper To Curry
08 Sphere – MOON SIGNAL
07 Claris – Irony
06 Arashi – Dear Snow
05 Maaya Sakamoto – DOWN TOWN
04 Bump Of Chicken – Uchuu Hikoushi Heno Tegami
03 The Rootless – One Day
02 Girls Generation – Gee
01 NYC – Yoku Asobi Yoku Manabe
Tomorrow is the big day when AKB48’s new single “Beginner” is released and expectation amongst fans are very high. 1.03 million copies have been shipped out to stores providing an opportunity for AKB48 to sell over a million copies during it’s first week. The last time a single sold over a million copies in it’s first week was way back in 1999 by Hikaru Utada. Reservations for the single has already surpassed “Heavy Rotation” so signs are we could see a huge total come the end of tomorrow when first day sales figures are released. Check back here tomorrow when I’ll have all the details of what the final figure will be – is 500,000 copies sold on the first day an unlikely target? We’ll soon find out.
I did my Top 5 AKB48 members recently so here’s my Top 5 SKE48 members now. There will be one for SDN48 members coming up soon as well.
5. Shiori Ogiso (Team KII)
Shiorin is probably the prettiest girl in Team KII – so beautiful. Her charm point is apparently her small face. She’s got such a sweet voice. It’s only a matter of time before she’s given a push to become one of the front girls.
4. Akane Takayanagi (Team KII)
When I first watched Team KII it was Akane that stood out the most for me. One of the team’s front girls and she’s cool & cute. Such a crazy girl with a nice smile. Perhaps they could get Akane and her equivalent in AKB48 (Yuko) to get together for a day and see what kind of antics they could get up to!
3. Kumi Yagami (Team S)
Kuumin has to be one of the best performers in Team S who gives it her all and uses a lot of high energy. She’s also got a great voice to boot. She was so awesome in the 2009 Nemousu SP in Australia which made me even more of a fan of her.
2. Jurina Matsui (Team S)
I really don’t understand how anybody can hate this wonderful young girl as she’s great but apparently there’s a lot of Jurina haters out there and all because she was stealing the spotlight from some AKB48 members in their PV’s. Right from the get-go when she came onto the idol scene, her infectious smile has made me realise one thing – this is a young girl who enjoys her job very much. You can see from everything she does that she’s got a smile on her face. She’s still only 13 years old but very mature for her age. Incredibly talented with a brilliant voice – Jurina is quite rightly the “ace” of SKE48 for a reason and deserves to be the center in the team and their singles.
1. Rena Matsui (Team S)
I didn’t really take any notice of Rena in SKE48 until Majisuka Gakuen when her role as the demented psycho Gekikara made a lot of heads turn including myself. I totally fell in love with her after that and realised what a great performer she is. Rena is another girl who deserves to be a front girl in Team S. She’s a fun girl, very beautiful and such a pleasure to watch when she’s performing and we all know she came out on top in the SKE48 Request Hour Set List Best 30 2010 with her solo song “Kareha no Station”.
The 2 songs below have been heavily repeated on my Ipod lately. Meisa Kuroki is undoubtedly one of the sexiest Japanese women on the music scene these days and she’s also becoming sought after by movie producers. Her next high profile role will be in the live action movie of Space Battleship Yamato. When I first heard LOL! I wasn’t too keen on it but it kinda grew on me and now I love it.
I admit I had no idea who MAA was before being introduced to her song Ghost Enemy on the website “Kurayami Monogatari”. I was instantly hooked on the song which does remind me of Lady Gaga.
IXA Ready - Fist On! 