Sayaka Reinstated As Team K Captain/New Unit

As you may all remember, Sayaka Akimoto resigned as Team K leader back in October due to a scandal in which a much older individual had stayed the night at her apartment even though the circumstances regarding the guy staying at her place was innocent according to her.

Today saw Sayaka taking part in the Tokyo Marathon. She barely finished the course before the 7 hour time limit of the race came up. She did the course in 6 hours and 50 mins. Aki-P was suitably impressed with her effort and reinstated her back to her old position as Team K leader. I’m sure all of those in Team K are delighted with this news and so am I. I don’t think anybody else could have taken over and do as good a job as Sayaka.

But that’s not the only news about Sayaka. She will be a part of a new 4-member unit called DiVA alongside her best friend Sae, Ayaka Umeda and Yuka Masuda. The foursome will release their debut single sometime this coming Spring.

Yuko Goes Solo In Hong Kong

Yuko Oshima held a solo handshake event in Hong Kong yesterday where 1,200 fans turned up to see her. Yuko also performed 1 song live. She was also a guest at the HK Japanese Expo like event “C3 In Hong Kong 2011”.  Over 200 fans even went to the airport to greet her as she arrived.

I didn’t know that AKB48 was so popular in Hong Kong. I knew they had 1 official store there but apparently there’s another 1 as well.

Check out the 2 fan videos uploaded on Youtube below showing Yuko at the handshake event:

Massive Handshake Event To Celebrate New AKB48 Album

To celebrate the release of AKB48’s new album when it’s released on April 6th, there’ll be a big handshake and photo event at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe. It will not only be held once but 3 times in all on these dates – May 1st, May 8th and June 19th. But that’s not the only surprise on the cards. The whole AKB universe is going to be taking part! Yes that’s right – AKB48, SKE48, NMB48 and SDN48 will all be there. If you ever wanted to meet your oshimen in each group this is going to be the opportunity of a lifetime for you. Everybody all there under 1 roof. I hope I’ll be able to go on the final date – June 19th.

Oricon Top 30 Charts 2011 – Week 8

30 AKB48 – Ponytail to Shushu
29 AKB48 – Beginner
28 Kuroyume – Misery
27 SCANDAL – Pride
26 NAOTO INTI RAYMI – Ima no Kimi wo Wasurenai
25 Saburo Kitajima – Otoko no Jinsei
24 AKB48 – Heavy Rotation
23 Yoshimi Tendo – Futari no Funauta
22 KAT-TUN – ULTIMATE WHEELS
21 Tomomi Itano – Dear J
20 Tohoshinki – Why? (Keep Your Head Down)
19 Aoi & Ryohei incl. Ayabiemegamasso – Monochrome
18 ClariS – Connect
17 Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 – Valentine Kiss
16 CHEMISTRY – a better tomorrow
15 RADWIMPS – Kyoushinshou
14 Mami Kawada – See visionS
13 Kiyoshi Hikawa – Ano Ko to Nogiku to Watashibune
12 Kana Nishino – Distance
11 EXILE – Each Other’s Way ~Tabi no Tochuu~
10 Shinonono Houki (Yoko Hikasa), Cecilia Alcott (Yukana), Fan Rinin (Asami Shimoda), Charlotte Dunois (Kana Hanazawa), Laura Bodewig (Marina Inoue) – SUPER STREAM
09 Inazuma All-Stars – Mate ne…no Kisetsu
08 KREVA – Idome
07 Kalafina – Magia
06 ONE OK ROCK – Answer Is Near
05 Kazuya Yoshii – LOVE & PEACE
04 AAA – Daiji na Koto
03 Kobukuro – Blue Bird
02 Tegomass – Aoi Bench
01 AKB48 – Sakura no Ki ni Narou

AKB48 – Sakura no Ki ni Narou 1st Week Sales

With the 1st week of sales over and done with, what was the final figure for the first 7 days? Well, the single sold an incredible 942,000 copies to move up 1 place in the all-time best selling singles over 1 week to no.6. AKB48 are the first group/artist to break the 900k barrier in this century and also have the honour of being the 2nd group to achieve a streak of 7 no.1 singles. The last group to have the same level of success was Pink Lady and that was way back in 1978.

Well done girls!

AKB48 TV Show Gets Prime Time Slot

AKB48 will have a regular TV show in a prime time slot on Thursday evenings at 7pm from April. “Naruhodo High School” first aired 2 special programmes last year – the first in May 2010 got ratings of 8.0 and the second in October 2010 which did even better with 11.8. This has persuaded NTV to come to the conclusion that there’s potential in the show. I didn’t even know anything about these 2 previous specials, in fact I find it odd that they’ve slipped under my radar. I will have to track them down.

“Naruhodo High School” which will have around 20 AKB48 members (no information yet as to who will be appear) is an information/variety show with the members doing some experiments and such. Is it something like Mythbusters? One half of the comedy duo London Boots – Tamura Atsushi will be a regular host along with some special celebrities dropping in from time to time.

It sounds like an interesting show so I’m looking forward to it.

Maachan To Graduate From AKB48

The one-time future ace of AKB48 according to Aki-P a couple of years ago – Team B’s Manami Oku has announced that she’ll be graduating from the group in April. This hasn’t surprised me to be honest considering that she isn’t that popular.

Maachan stated on the AKB48 official blog that she wants to go back to school and enter a university sometime in the future. I only realised this but Maachan has been in AKB48 since she was 10 years old and has never experienced school life. She’s missed out on a big part of growing up as a child/teenager in Japan. She feels that she’s been having doubts about being an idol in AKB48 – not really knowing what she wants to do. After consulting with Aki-P and staff, she feels it’s right to graduate this year. She further says that she’s caused some trouble and worry for people over the years (what does she mean by that?). Is it worry from her family as I’m not aware of any scandal as such that Maachan has been involved in.

I haven’t exactly been a big fan of Maachan over the years but I valued her contribution to AKB48. It’s going to be strange not seeing her in AKB48 and at one-time she was a part of the old Team K (my favourite team ever!).

The exact date of her graduation will be announced soon. Good luck to you Maachan in the future.

EDIT: News of Maachan’s graduation has caused a right old rumpus on Stage48 where one forumite which I won’t name upset some others by saying not very nice things about Maachan. Having an opinion is one thing but not considering the feelings of Maachan’s fans is another. It wasn’t the most tactful thing to do.

AKB48 – Sakura no Ki ni Narou 5th Day Sales

Quite a drop today in sales from the 2 previous days (50k +) in which only 30,801 copies were shifted to being the grand total up to 891,851. 900k is sure to be broken tomorrow.

On the chart for best selling records bought in one week, this single is currently at no.7. They need to sell another 31k to move up to no.6 and 60k if they want to displace B’z with Love Phantom at no.5. Another AKB48 song Beginner is at no.10.

Aki-P Selects Senbatsu Members for SDN48’s 2nd Single

Yesterday evening, there was a surprise announcement at the SDN48 performance taking place at the AKB48 Theater. The group told the audience the 12 senbatsu members that had been selected for their 2nd single “Ai, Juseyo” which comes out on March 23rd. There will be 2 CD versions coming out (Type A and Type B).

For their 1st single it was the fans that voted who became the senbatsu but not this time. It was Aki-P himself that selected them and some fans might be surprised at the omission of some members from the lead single.

Popular members such as Meetan, Nonti and Cindy will not be singing on “Ai Juseyo” but will do the coupling song “Tengoku no Door wa 3 Kaime no Bell de Hiraku” as part of the Undergirls A instead. Undergirls B will sing another song as well.

So who are the senbatsu members that have been chosen? They are: Haruka Umeda, Mami Kato, Masami Kouchi, Haruka Kohara, Sayaka Kando, Yukari Sato, Serina, Yuuki Aikawa, Yui Takahashi, Tomomi Tanisaki, Akane Akuda and Yumi Fujikoso.

The members who are in the Undergirls A are: Meetan, Nonti, KONAN, Cindy, Kazue Akita, Chen Qu, Machiko Tezuka,  Chisaki Hatakeyama, Mana Ito, Yuuki Kimoto, Yuka Ninomiya and Rumi Matsushima.

The ones in Undergirls B (Megumi Imayoshi, Misa Okouchi, Juri Kaida, Nachu, Hiromi Mitsui, Akiko, Aimi Oyama, Marina Tsuda, Natsuko and Miyuu Hosoda) get to sing a unique song only found on the Type A CD called “Awajishima no TAMANEGI” while Reiko Nishikunihara gets to do a solo song only available on the Type-B CD called “Ai yo Ugokanai de”.

Sae To Star In Mobile Phone Drama

Team K member Sae Miyazawa has been cast in a spin-off mobile phone drama for the popular movie and manga “Koukou Debut”.  For those like myself that have no knowledge about the manga – it follows the relationship between Haruna Nagashima, an enthusiastic former softball star, and Yoh Komiyama, the cool boy she convinces to coach her in romance.

Sae plays the role of Mami Takahashi, the best friend of the lead character.

The drama with it’s full title of “Koukou Debut ~Debut Chokusen Shuuchuukougi~” will release 5 episodes with each episode lasting 5 mins. All episodes will be free of charge with the first being made available on the drama’s website but all subsequent episodes will only be available on participating mobile phones. The 1st episode comes out on March 4th.