Mayuyu To Miss A Portion Of AKB48’s Nationwide Tour

Mayu Watanabe has been hit by a bout of acute gastroenteritis and an inflammation around the pharynx therefore she’s been ordered by doctors not to take part in AKB48’s nationwide tour which kicked off recently. Team B is due to have concerts in Hiroshima today and at Kobe tomorrow but Mayuyu will be absent from both. It’s hoped she’ll take part in Team B’s future concerts on the tour.

Mayuyu isn’t the only member suffering lately. Tomochin was absent from last weekend’s handshake events at Tokyo Big Sight due to swollen tonsils and a possible mouth ulcer. She’s also had a fever which resulted in her having to have an injection but that didn’t help things at all. However after 3 days of rest at home the fever came down but she’s still not feeling too good. She apologised to fans on her official blog. Sayaka also fell ill during the handshake events and missed some sessions.

I hope all 3 get well pretty soon.

Mayuyu Battles Yamapi For Chart Domination!

Yesterday saw Mayuyu release her debut solo single ‘Synchro Tokimeki’ and set the early pace in her battle for the weekly no.1 position. Up against her was none other than former NEWS member Yamashita Tomohisa. It was quite a surprise to see Mayuyu beat him on the first day of sales although the gap between them was quite small. Mayuyu’s single sold exactly 50,415 and Yamapi’s sold 47k. Power to the Mayuyu wotas!

Johnny’s are going to use the same tactics when French Kiss did very well with their last single and beat one of their artists early on in the week – have several handshaking events to boost sales. The 2nd day of sales has seen a reversal of fortunes. Yamapi beating Mayuyu by a considerable margin of over 7.5k. Mayuyu has sold around 74k in 2 days which is pretty damn good. I’d like to see Mayuyu give Yamapi a good run for his money for the no.1 position but it’s probable even though it’s only the 2nd day that the battle has already been lost. Perhaps Sony should have given Mayuyu a couple of handshake events this week as well.

Could it be that Yamapi’s star power is on the wane considering how close the battle between him and Mayuyu has been so far. You’d expect that he would have beaten her fairly easily. Also instead of blaming Acchan for the drama Ending Planner’s low ratings, Johnny’s should take a look at Yamapi. Maybe he’s not that popular as he was before anymore?

EDIT: Mayuyu regained the top position in the Oricon Daily Charts on Friday and clawed back the lead in sales that Yamapi had taken on Thursday. It really is too close to call who will be no.1 come next week. It would be an almighty shock should Mayuyu win. Come on Mayuyu wotas, let’s make it happen.

Mayu Watanabe – Synchro Tokimeki PV

I’ve only seen some tiny snippets of the PV for Mayuyu’s solo debut song before today and what I had heard didn’t exactly make me excited so I was looking forward to hearing the full song and PV. Upon watching it, I’m still uncertain about the song itself. It’s not bad but it’s not brilliant either. Perhaps I was expecting something more upbeat and dancey. The PV is OK and sees Mayuyu at her desk drawing and daydreaming. She plays 2 alter ego’s in the PV – one a princess and the other looks suspiciously like Aya Ueto’s movie character Azumi. Mayuyu’s version sees her fighting a mysterious unseen foe. A shame she couldn’t have played her character more like Aya’s Azumi and have her face off against a bunch of bandits and slaughtering them with her sword.

Regardless of whether I think the song is good or bad, I will still support Mayuyu and buy the single as I like her.

Enjoy the PV and tell me what you think about the song and PV.

More on Mayuyu’s New Drama

As I reported previously, Mayuyu will be taking the leading role in a comedy drama series called “Sabadol” which starts next week (January 13th) and is set to run for 12 episodes. Now more details about her role have been released to the press. Mayuyu will play an unattractive 38 year old high school teacher called ‘Usa Shijimi’ who’s constantly being harassed and made fun of by her students. She teaches them classical literature. However she also masquerades as a 17 year old idol ‘Mayu Watanabe’ whom the students adore.

I’m not sure how Mayu is going to look and act as a person more than double her age but I guess the make-up department will do the necessary for her to start ageing a little bit. I haven’t got that high an expectation for this drama but I’ll take a quick peek at the first episode to see if it’s any good. I’m probably looking forward more to hearing her debut single ‘Synchro Tokimeki’ which is also the theme song for ‘Sabadol’.

Mayuyu Goes Solo In 2012

Don’t panic folks, Mayuyu isn’t leaving AKB48 to go solo in 2012 but she will release her solo debut single which has a tie-in with a late night drama series that she’ll be starring in called Sabadoru (Saba Doll). Little details have been released about the plot of the drama other than the fact it’s set in a high school.

The title of the track is called Synchro Tokimeki and apprently there’s supposed to be an 80’s vibe about the track which kinda excites me. The song will be the theme tune for Sabadoru and if you want to catch Mayuyu acting alone for the first time without her AKB48 friends it all starts Friday January 13th on TV Tokyo in the early hours of the morning.

I was really surprised when I saw this piece of news but I’m delighted for Mayuyu and can’t wait to hear her track. Synchro Tokimeki will come in 4 versions (3 Limited edition and 1 Regular) on February 29th.

AKB48 Top 10 Members (December 2011)

I know it wasn’t that long ago (July 2011) that I did my last top 10 AKB48 members list but things have changed a lot since then which you’ll see below.

10. Yui Yokoyama

I can hear you all saying ‘it wasn’t that long ago you were criticising her’ and you’ll be right on that count but Yui has really grown on me in the past 6 months and she is so funny on Bimyo.

9. Nito Moeno

8. Minami Takahashi

Out of the Top 5 goes Takamina. I still love Takamina to bits but there are more interesting members that rank above her.

7. Rie Kitahara

6. Haruka Nakagawa

5. Yuko Oshima

This is one of the biggest changes on my list – the former no.1 taking a big tumble down to no.5. Something I thought would never happen but I’ve become sort of bored with Yuko lately. She just doesn’t excite me as she used to do before,

4. Mayu Watanabe

Into the Top 5 goes Mayuyu – up 2 places. The more I see and watch Mayu perform the more fantastic I think she is.

3. Yuki Kashiwagi

Yukirin stays in her position at no.3 though it did cross my mind at times to move her up to no.2.

2. Rino Sashihara

Sasshi also stays in her current position. Sasshi completes the cleap sweep of Not yet members in my Top 10!

And at no.1 is……………

1. Ayaka Umeda

In July, Umechan was at no.8 so this is a huge jump from her into the no.1 position. So how has Umechan managed to steer herself into being at the top. I can’t recall any specific moment of seeing her when I thought ‘OMG she’s now my no.1 favorite member’. She’s just completely gained my full attention especially over the Summer. I’ve just been seeing her in many things on Youtube and I just started to really like her a lot. I love her quirky, some say a little eccentric personality and she is just so damn beautiful. Her singing voice is great, she looks like a lot of fun to hang out with and I’m just happy that she’s getting more attention now. I’m kinda peeved that she’s no longer the Tokyo Tower image girl otherwise I would have gone to see her doing her DJ stint on a Friday night there.

So there you have it. The new Top 10 list. Will it be the same when the next one comes out in May/June?

Mayuyu Promotes Evangelion Movie

Anime fan Mayu Watanabe has been chosen by NTV to appear in several CM’s to promote their broadcast of the anime movie Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance on August 26th. This coming Friday will see Mayu in a variety of 12, 15 and 30 second length CM’s. Seeing as Neon Genesis Evangelion is my all time favorite anime, I’m pleased that Mayuyu has been chosen to do this. She’s a fan of Evangelion and sang the theme tune on Naruhodo High School.

As I like Mayuyu, here’s a bonus clip of her singing solo from a TV show. It must have been during a WH7 promotion event for Hettapi Wink. She is so cute and adorable.

Taiwan Welcomes Mayuyu

To celebrate the launch of the AKB48 Official Shop Taiwan, Mayuyu travelled alone it seems to the country to shake hands with the lucky 500 fans who had been chosen at random from a draw. Mayuyu looks like she was given a very enthusiastic welcome from the fans and judging from the smile on her face had a great time in Taiwan. The Taiwan shop makes it the 3rd overseas one following Hong Kong and Singapore.

Check out the fancam of Mayuyu’s arrival at the airport and going to a bus.

For All Mayuyu Fans Out There!

Mayuyu has been on a roll over the past couple of weeks. Not content with fantastic sales for her photobook, she’s also wowing AKB48 fans in her despicable manipulative role as Nezumi in Majisuka Gakuen 2. In the latest Young Jump magazine in which she’s on the cover, there’s a special feature in which Mayuyu invites us to her own private fantasy of being in a fairground where she turns into a princess for one night. I think you’ll agree with me on seeing the pictures that she looks cute and pretty in them.