DiVA – Lost the way Full PV

Wednesday saw DiVA complete with their 6 new members launch their 3rd single ‘Lost the way’. It’s not doing too bad in the Oricon daily charts although it’s going to be quite a tough challenge for them to become no.2 in the weekly charts next week. Kis-my-ft2 are guaranteed the top spot as sales have been solid for them so far so it’s a straight forward fight between DiVA and KARA for second place. DiVA were winning on Wednesday but KARA have stormed back today. Seeing as KARA are popular in Japan, the battle for 2nd place could well be over already and DiVA will have to be satisfied with the no.3 spot but who knows how sales will go over the weekend.

As for ‘Lost the way’, the song is different from the previous 2 singles from DiVA. It’s probably my favorite single from them and it sounds ideal as a theme song for an anime series. It’s already the theme song for the Ultraman Saga movie.

Check out the full PV below.

 

DiVA – Lost the way PV Preview

The new 10 member DiVA will be releasing their newest single ‘Lost the way’ next month and AVEX have released a 1 min 44 sec preview of the PV. The 6 new members of DiVA judging from the preview will not have any singing lines whatsoever, they are just in the background acting as dancers for Sayaka, Umechan, Yuttan and Sae. I like the song very much and it’s the theme tune for the new Ultraman movie featuring several members of AKB48. Take a look for yourself at the preview below.

J-Pop Top 100 Songs Of 2011

It’s that time of year again when I compile a list of the best 100 J-Pop songs I’ve listened to during the year. IMO 2011 was slightly better than 2010 in terms of great music coming out in Japan. It was tough as it always is in doing this countdown but overall I’m satisfied with what I picked.

Anyway, give me a shout about what you think of the chart.

100 EXILE – Each Other’s Way
99 AAA – Daiji na Koto
98 9Nine – Shining Star
97 Negoto – Charon
96 Aqua Timez – Mayonaka no Orchestra
95 Mai Kuraki – Your Best Friend
94 Idoling!!! – Yarakai Heart
93 Ayahi Takagaki – Takaramono
92 SDN48 – Ai, Juseyo
91 Nana Mizuki – Scarlet Knight
90 Maximum The Hormone – Greatest The Hits 2011~2011
89 Mika Nakashima – Dear
88 Yui Horie – Presenter
87 You Kikkawa – Kikkake wa You!
86 Kana Nishino – Distance
85 Buono! – Zassou no Uta
84 SDN48 – MIN MIN MIN
83 Kie Kitano – Kizuna
82 Happiness – Wish
81 Nana Mizuki – Junketsu Paradox
80 FLOWER – Still
79 YUI – Green a.live
78 SCANDAL – Haruka
77 Angela Aki – Hajimari no Ballad
76 JASMINE – ONLY YOU
75 YGA – Jounetsu Heroine
74 KAT-TUN – Ultimate Wheels
73 JUJU – Kono yoru wo Tomete yo
72 Sphere – Hazy
71 Morning Musume – Only You
70 KARA – Jet Coaster Love
69 miwa – 441
68 Tokyo Girls Style – Limited Addiction
67 Eri Kitamura – Be Starters!
66 ClariS – nexus
65 KARA – Winter Magic
64 PASSPO – Vivi Natsu
63 SCANDAL – Pride
62 Afterschool – Diva
61 Koda Kumi – Pop Diva
60 YUI – Hello~Paradise Kiss
59 Super Girls – MAX! Otomegokoro
58 May’n – Scarlet Ballet
57 Perfume – Spice
56 Superfly – Ai wo Kurae
55 Tohoshinki – Why? (Keep Your Head Down)
54 4Minute – Heart To Heart
53 Aoi Teshima – Sayonara no Natsu
52 SCANDAL – Love Survive
51 L’arc En Ciel – Good Luck My Way
50 Infinite – BTD
49 NMB48 – Zetsumetsu Kurokami Shoujo
48 Perfume – Laser Beam
47 Supercell – My Dearest
46 EXILE – Rising Sun
45 Kis-My-Ft2 – Everybody Go
44 4Minute – WHY
43 Girl Next Door – Silent Scream
42 no3b – Answer
41 French Kiss – If
40 DiVA – Cry
39 Idoling!!! – Don’t think. Feel!!!
38 Kaoru to Tomoki, Toma ni Mook – Maru Maru Mori Mori
37 Not yet – Shuumatsu Not yet
36 Bump Of Chicken – Tomodachi no Uta
35 Namie Amuro – Love Story
34 Meisa Kuroki – Wired Life
33 French Kiss – Kakkowarui I Love You!
32 Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 – Hettapi Wink
31 FictionJunction – Stone Cold
30 Atsuko Maeda – Flower
29 2NE1 – Go Away
28 French Kiss – Saisho no Mail
27 Arashi – Lotus
26 no3b – Kuchibiru Furezu
25 Namie Amuro – Fight Together
24 JASMINE – ONE
23 Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 – Valentine Kiss
22 SKE48 – Pareo wa Emerald
21 DiVA – Tsugi no Uragawa
20 B’z – Don’t Wanna Lie
19 Tomomi Itano – Fui ni
18 AKB48 – Ue kara Mariko
17 AKB48 – Sakura no Ki ni Narou
16 Not yet – Pera Pera Perao
15 Atsuko Maeda – La Brae Ave
14 NMB48 – OH MY GOD!
13 SKE48 – Banzai Venus
12 Not yet – Naminori Kakigoori
11 AKB48 – Everyday Kachuusha
10 AKB48 – Kaze wa Fuiteiru
09 AKB48 – Flying Get
08 SKE48 – Okey Dokey
07 Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 – Kibou Sanmyaku
06 Koda Kumi – Ko-so ko-so
05 Shoudo Jidai – Mr Taxi
04 Namie Amuro ft Afterschool – Make It Happen
03 Tomomi Itano – Dear J
02 AKB48 – Seishun to Kizukunai Mama
01 AKB48 – Gondola Lift

DiVA Increases By 6 Members To 10!

Today saw the AKB48 Kouhaku contest at the Tokyo Dome City Hall and if you were one of the lucky ones that saw it on Youtube or through Google+ then I hope you enjoyed it.

There was a big announcement made at the beginning of the event. That much touted DiVA audition that was supposed to happen if I remember rightly at the beginning of the Summer and then everything just went quiet…..hell I thought the auditions had been a bust and nothing was going to happen but how wrong I was. As from today DiVA has 6 brand new members – and none of them are currently in the 000 family. These are 6 outsiders whose lives will now suddenly change forever.

The 6 new members are: Ayaka Yamagami, Satoko Kasuya, Yuina Inoue, Yuuki Futama, Atsuko Furukawa and Noramu Fuku. Check out the video below which serves as an introduction to the new members. Personally I thought DiVA was fine as it was with 4 members but Aki-P said that there was something missing and they were incomplete. He seems to think that DiVA will improve with more members, just like EXILE did when their membership increased.

DiVA also performed a new song called ‘Lost the way’ which may or may not be a new single for the unit.

Sae Celebrates Her Birthday With A Live Event

August 13th saw DiVA have a live event at the Ai Chikyuu Haku Memorial Park in Nagoya to celebrate the release of their single ‘Cry’. Luckily enough one half of the Twin Towers – Sae Miyazawa was also celebrating her 21st birthday on the same day and 2,300 fans turned up in the unrelenting heat to help her have an event that she’ll cherish in her memories.

Sayaka, Umeda and Masuda even shocked Sae with their own rendition of ‘Namida Surprise’ as a birthday treat for her. After performing on stage, the 4 girls took part in stamping items of their fans choice with a variety of different stamps that the members themselves had designed (see picture below). Two similar events by DiVA will take place on Saturday 20th August at the Chiba Makuhari Messe and also on September 17th at the Senri Serushii in Osaka.

A belated happy birthday to you Sae. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your birthday after work.

Another AKB48 Sub-Unit Suffers Disappointing Sales

Last week Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 didn’t do quite as well as I expected with their single ‘Hettapi Wink’ and this week DiVA have also suffered a slump with their 2nd single ‘Cry’. DiVA’s debut single did reasonably well in it’s first week selling 73k, Cry is looking around the 53k mark when the weekly charts come out on Wednesday. It didn’t look good when the 1st day sales figures come out and sales have been dropping each day since then. SKE48 was even outselling them yesterday just as they did with WH7 last week. Even Sayaka is crying about the sales figures – check out the picture below!! It’s a damn shame as this unit has so much talent and deserves to do better. Hopefully the addition of a new member soon could generate some good promotion for them.

We’ll know better with AKB48’s next single ‘Flying GET’ whether the slump in sales is perhaps the start of a backlash or not but as I’ve said before, having a CD release every week does not help the situation at all. Everybody is going through a tough time financially at present, even I can’t afford to buy every release that comes out so I have to decide in advance which ones I want to buy.

Hettapi Wink 1st Week Sales/DiVA’s Cry 1st Day Sales

3 days ago I commented on WH7’s single Hettapi Wink and the disappointing sales figures so far especially coming off the back of a great single such as Valentine Kiss.  The final total came out for the week and I wasn’t far off with my prediction for the total sold for the week. The single sold 80,017 copies. It’s not a disaster by any means for the group and I’m sure they’re pleased as punch with those figures but I did think it would have been upwards and onwards for them. Still they’ve come a long way from sales figures of last year.

Yesterday saw DiVA release their latest single Cry. It made no.2 in the Oricon Daily Charts with 35,060 copies sold. They didn’t stand a chance to achieve no.1 with Johnny’s group Kis-my-ft2 selling in excess of 175k with their single. Hopefully DiVA will top the 1st week’s sales for their debut single Tsuki no Uragawa which sold nearly 74k.

DiVA Announce New Member Audition

DiVA have announced that they are looking for a new member to join them and will be holding auditions to find a suitable person. The person will come from outside the OOO family. Before anybody asks, this isn’t the same as before when they were apparently going to add 6 new members to the group. You can take it now that this idea due to perhaps the fury from the fans has now been scrapped and they only want 1 new member.

Those that fancy trying out for an audition must be between 18-23 years of age and have previous dance experience.  There’ll be 3 rounds to go through for each candidate: the first will be the application process, the second will be an interview and finally the person will have to sing and dance in front of DiVA. The successful applicant will then sign with the agency Office 48 and officially join DiVA as a new member. The application closing date is August 20th.

I thought there would be plenty of candidates for an additional member within the OOO family itself but apparently Aki-P wants an outsider.

DiVA – Cry (Full PV)

Here’s the full PV for DiVA’s upcoming single “Cry”. It’s a great song backed by a cool looking PV. Check it out below:

DiVA – Cry PV Preview

You’ve seen the covers and the tracklisting, now see the short 35 second PV preview of DiVA’s 2nd single Cry that has been uploaded on AVEX’s Official Youtube Channel.

I love this track, it’s definitely an improvement on their 1st single. Not that there was anything wrong with it but I do prefer the feel of this song much better.  The PV looks great as well. Umeda is smoking hot in it, I do think she’s fast becoming one of my favorite AKB48 members.

Check out the preview below