Junior News Round-Up 004

Wanted to make sure I had a good deal of Junior related news to talk about for this one.

Kiriyama Akito has gotten a Tackey-bump as by recommendation of Takizawa Hideaki he will be co-starring with his senior in Tackey's upcoming NHK-BS Premium drama, Mayonaka no Panya-san. The drama will start airing in April of 2013 and will run for eight episodes.

JE News Daily (English)

I am so happy for Akito. He has been getting quite a few drama roles for a Kansai Junior and seems to be the "actor" of the group. And it is nice that this will be a national drama.

Not sure about how much attention it will get being on a premium channel and Tackey no longer being the big draw to dramas he once was but it is still a good opportunity for him and he will hopefully pick up some more fans with this.

~*

The Kansai Junior National Tour is actually national this time. Usually they just remain in the Kansai region but this time around they do have dates for other parts of the country. The Kansai Juniors listed for these concerts are B.A.D., 7WEST, Kin Kan, Naniwa Oji and Hamada Takahiro.

Concert places and dates:

4/14 Hiroshima
5/4 Sapporo
5/12 Ishikawa
5/19 Fukuoka
6/9 Nagoya
6/23 Miyagi
6/30 Tokushima
7/6 Tokyo
7/7 Tokyo

My personal hope is that this is another sign that B.A.D., 7WEST and Hamada may be edging closer to debuting, most likely in a created unit with them all. And Kin Kan and Naniwa Oji are being pushed so they can help fill the gap for the Kansai Juniors that will be created when those others debut.

~*

Kamenashi Kazuya has Juniors in his latest AOKI suits CM. The Juniors in the CM are Hagiya Keigo, Iwamoto Hikaru, Morita Myuto, Fukasawa Tatsuya and Abe Ryohei. The Official Home Page has images of the Juniors in their suits as well as the CM and a making of clip for it as well.


I am rather happy for the boys though I do not follow any of them that much. But with Snow Man more or less gone it is nice to see some of the guys from that group keep getting work. Myuto has been with Johnny's for so long it is nice seeing him get some breaks and I have liked Hagiya since Hip Hop Jump, not enough to really follow him but enough to feel happy when he gets a break like this.

Junior News Round-Up 003

Not a lot of news to pass on but I have delayed this post long enough. Hopefully the next one will have more to report.


Nozawa Yuki will get another chance at acting by being a part of the cast of an episode of TV Tokyo's Wednesday Mystery 9, a weekly mystery series that airs on Wednesdays at 9PM. The episode he will be in will air on December 12th.

TV Tokyo site (Japanese)


Nakama Junta from B.A.D. will be in a Nagoya local channel, Meetere, special program that will air on December 17th. The program is in celebration of the stations 50th anniversary and will use the theme of trains. It will also have other celebrities in it, like SKE48's Matsui Rena.

Meetere OHP (Japanese)


Also the Fresh Junior concert in Yokohama Arena has added another show. It will now be two shows on December 16th, the first starting at noon and the second at 4PM.

Dramas and a name change

We finally have some information about the upcoming NTV late night drama. It is going to star Inagaki Goro from SMAP but will have plenty of Juniors in the cast. The name of the drama is in the Room and will start on January 12th. Inagaki's character will be a school counselor and of course the Juniors, that have not been announced yet, will be students.

Nikkan Sports article (Japanese)

I have to say I am surprised they are having someone as high profile as a member of SMAP be in one of these late night dramas. I wonder if this is to make sure the next drama in the slot is a hit after Piece not doing so well, but then again it could have been decided well in advance so who knows.

But I cannot wait to see which Juniors are going to be a part of this. I have the feeling that they may announce it at the Fresh Junior concert this coming week so I would expect members from noon boyz and Bakaleya6 to be in it, minus Jesse for reasons in the other drama news in this post.

Also I cannot help but think that someone out there is already spinning out a conspiracy story how this slot is probably part of the Michi faction now that SMAP is tied to it.

~*

It seems like Lewis Jesse is changing his stage name to just drop his last name and go only by his first, Jesse, from now on. This comes with the news that he will have a role in the upcoming Getsu 9 drama, Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou, which will star Japanese actress Gouriki Ayame and air on Fuji TV beginning in January.

Jesse will be playing the part of the main character's younger brother that is named Shinokawa Fumiya.

Fuji TV OHP (Japanese)

Big congrats to Jesse for this. The Getsu 9 slot is a major time slot for dramas and he is joining a cast that has AKIRA from EXILE, who played the lead in the GTO remake that was rather successful, so it should at least start with good ratings. But even if it flounders in the ratings it will still be the most high profile drama he has been in yet and could work as a launching pad for him to become more of a regular on the prime time dramas. Which I am sure Johnny's is trying to go with him looking at his past drama work. I just hope he improves on his acting in time but until then at least he is a pretty face to look at.

For his stage name change I cannot help but think it may be to make him seem less "foreign". As though there are a few actors/actresses that are part-Japanese like him they either have Japanese names or at least either their surname or given name is Japanese unlike Jesse's case. So this could be a way to make his name not stand out as much in that crowd.

Nakajima in a Lover's Share House

The other cast members for the NTV drama Share House no Koibito (Lover's Share House) has been announced and Nakajima Yuto will have a role in the drama. The lead for the drama is actress Mizukawa Asami. The drama will start in January and air on Wednesdays at 10PM.

Cinema Today article (Japanese)
OHP (Japanese)


Even though it has been a long time since I saw Nakajima act last, I still have yet to get around to watching Risou no Musou, I am interested to see how he will do. Even though he is not the lead from what I can gather about his character it looks like he may at least have a prominent role as his character will have a girlfriend, and with the title of the drama being what it is that relationship should get some plot to play out for the drama.

Regardless I am happy to see more members of Hey! Say! JUMP get drama roles and I hope this will become more of a regular thing for them.

Now just for Johnny's to decide to get out a new single for the group in the near future as well.

Nagase goes from 2D to 3D

Nagase Tomoya is going to be returning to the drama world as the star of the upcoming drama, Nakuna, Hara-chan. He plays a character a mangaka created that somehow comes to life and crosses from the 2D world to the 3D world.

It will air on NTV starting in January.

JE News Daily (English)


This news makes me really happy. I loved Nagase in My Boss, My Hero and the fact that this series shares the same producer gives me hope that this could be a fun series. I also hope it does well as I love seeing him act and would love to see more of him, but I know if the ratings are not there the chances of that are going to be slim.

I also hope these means I can look forward to a new TOKIO single with a tie-in to this drama. I have been loving their album and would never say no to more music from TOKIO.


Also on a slightly different note, Nagase is a good example of a front man that does solo activities, including a single release, and does not break off to go solo. And I am sure a good part of that was that he did not want to go solo because he loves being with his group mates. And I think whether a solo release leads to a solo career really depends if the member wants to push for it and the agency agrees to it.

Tamamori is a French time traveling chef, really

It has been announced that Tamamori Yuta will be starring in a drama this coming winter season. The drama is based off the manga series Nobunaga no Chef, which has a French chef, named Ken, be transported in time to the Sengoku period of Japan to become the chef of historical figure, Oda Nobunaga.

The drama will air of TBS on Friday nights at 11:15 starting in January.

Tokyograph article (English)

This is a pretty ridiculous set up for a drama so I am not sure if I can say that I am in or not for giving it a chance. Being very likely to be a comedy is a plus for me but I think I will have to see the first episode to see if it is something I would actually enjoy.

On the other hand a big congrats to Tamamori for getting a solo lead role. It really was only a matter of time with how he has been pushed by the agency as an actor for Kis-My-Ft2. And I think a more light hearted drama is a good way to go for a young actor to be the lead of. And hey, maybe we can see some of his onion cooking resurface. Or not, but I would love the writers of this drama forever if they could work that in somehow.

Also I think this assures us that Kisumai will have a new single early in 2013. I would be shocked if the group did not do the theme song for the drama and if they are doing a drama tie-in then I am sure we will get a single out of it. So it looks like Kisumai fans will have something to look forward to already for next year.

Junior News Round-Up 001

Since there tends to be a lot of little snippets of news for the Juniors, Tokyo and Kansai, I decided to create a series of posts that will go over the ones I want to but do not think that are enough on their own to merit a separate post.

Playing some catch up now the Kansai Junior groups, Kin Kan and Naniwa Oji, have been given their own regional program to host. The program is called Maido! Johnny~ and airs weekly on BS Fuji. For their first episode they had Sexy Zone on as guests.

~*

Also more information is out on Nakayama Yuma's single, Missing Piece. The second LE that comes with a DVD has the track listing out for it. It will have the performances from the fan meet and will be 27 minutes long according to the official listings for the single.

JE News Daily (English)

This makes me wonder if Johnny's is partly using this release to test to see if there is interest in the Kansai Juniors that were at that fan meeting, as that version of the single looks like a must have for Kansai Junior fans.

~*

For some Tokyo Junior news, Hasegawa Jun has been added to the cast of the upcoming NTV drama, Piece, which can be seen on Johnny's net. One can only assume it will be a small part but still it means that all the members of the Junior group Four Tops are in a drama this season now.

~*

And in sadder news it seems like two more Kansai Juniors have left the agency this year. The two are Senzaki Ryota and Okazaki Takumi. Their profiles have been taken off of TakiCHANnel and both were missing from the taping of Shounen Club in Osaka this month.

AKS Master Post 003

Figured it was time for another one of these as there is quite a bit of NMB48 news to talk about.

First off none of the NMB48 members in the janken tournament made it into the senbatsu. Honestly I do not think I can feel too heartbroken about that as it means there will be one less AKB48 single I feel that I need to buy because of any NMB48 members in it.


That said there is more information about NMB48's upcoming single that will be released November 7th. The title of the single is Kitagawa Kenji, which seems to be a nod to one of the main men behind AKS as well to the lyrics of the song. The lyrics this time are from a guy's point of view and how he realizes that the girl he loves is so lovely to him because she is in love with this guy, Kitagawa Kenji.

While there is not a complete track list out there is some track listing information out. Like all their releases the single has three versions sold in stores. All versions will have the same title track and a B-side, then the Type A has the usual Shirogumi song, the Type B has a Akagumi song and the Type C will just have another group B-side not on the other versions. There of course is a theater version but the details for that are not out yet.

Kitagawa Kenji [CD+DVD/Type-A] / NMB48

Kitagawa Kenji [CD+DVD/Type-B] / NMB48

Kitagawa Kenji [CD+DVD/Type-C] / NMB48

Also on the final Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ episode NMB48 performed the new single song. Going from the performers in that the senbatsu looks to be; Ogawasara Mayu (Team N), Katou Yuuka (3rd Gen KKS), Kadowaki Kanako (Team N), Kishino Rika (Team N), Kotani Riho (Team N), Jonishi Kei (Team N), Shiroma Miru (Team N), Tanigawa Airi (Team M), Fukumoto Aina (Team N), Yagura Fuuko (Team M), Yabushita Shu (3rd Gen KKS), Yamada Nana (Team N), Yamamoto Sayaka (Team N), Yokoyama Yui (team unknown), Yoshida Akari (Team N) and Watanabe Miyuki (Team N).

That gives us eleven Team N members, two Team M members, two 3rd Gen KKS and Yokoyama Yui. The last three should have teams by the time the single is released but this is still a very Team N heavy senbatsu as not even half of it are from the other two teams. Not that I do not love Team N but I think it is time that the spotlight is spread out a bit more with the other teams.

I just hope the Shirogumi and Akagumi units are more balanced between all the teams for this single.


NMB48 will be celebrating their second anniversary, the date their first single was released, on October 9th. On the 8th Team N will have a new stage they will start, October 9th will have a new Team M while on October 11th Team BII will debut.

Staff blog (Japanese)

There is speculation that the new Team M means that there will be a mini shuffle between the members in that team and the one being newly created, Team BII. Apparently this is something that happened with SKE48 when they created Team E, shuffled some of the KKS into Team KII while moving some to Team E. Though they also made some back into KKS, which I hope is not going to happen with NMB48.

But with Jo Eriko graduating Team M is losing its Ace, plus they already have an open slot because of that so it would make sense to do a bit of a shake up. Not to mention they need to place AKB48 exchange member, Yokoyama Yui in a team and the up and coming KKS Yabushita Shu seems destined to be an Ace for whatever team she is placed in. And with the debut of a new team it sounds like a good time to do a small shuffle like this, and hopefully this will make Team M stronger and help give Team BII some early support so they are both not stuck to be eternally in Team N's shadow.


In other news Jonishi Kei will be in an upcoming drama. The drama is named Poison and will air on YTV in the midnight slot starting on October 4th. Not much is known about Keicchi's role, other than the character is reoccurring as she is listed with the other actors on the official home page of the drama.

Poison OHP (Japanese)

Congrats to Keicchi for getting a drama role. I have not really seen her act so I cannot say if I have any hopes for her. But if anything it could be helpful if she is going to continue pursuing acting as a career.


And on a final and much less exciting note, the date for Jo Eriko's graduation stage has been announced. She will graduate from the group on September 28th.

Staff blog (Japanese)

I am still bummed out about her leaving but I can understand her reasons. I wish her the best and NMB48 is not going to be the same without her.

Kindachi's star filled cast.

NTV has updated its official site for the upcoming Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo(Kindaichi Case Files) SP that will star Yamada Ryosuke. And with this update we have names for the supporting cast.

Arioka Daiki will be joining his group mate by playing the character Saki Ryuji who is listed as being a video otaku. Then we have international cast members as Big Bang's V.I (Seungri) from South Korea, Vivian Hsu, an actress that works in both Hong Kong and Taiwan and has previous experience being in a Japanese drama, Wu Zun(Wu Chun) a Taiwanese actor and once member of the Taiwan boy group Fahrenheit, and Eric Tsueng, an actor from Hong Kong.

NTV Kindaichi OHP (Japanese)

I am happy to see Daiki be added to the cast. Even though he is one of the more popular members of Hey! Say! JUMP he does not seem to be as pushed as other members. Which is a pity as he can act and I would love to see him get more chances.

Also it was probably nice for Yamada to have someone he knows well with him for the shooting in Hong Kong. Especially since the two are known for being friends and hanging out together in their free time.

And I am impressed with the international cast for this. NTV really went out to make sure they got a good deal of big name stars from around Asia. I would not be surprised if this SP ends up being pushed to air in those markets, which would be great for HSJ to help them get better known around Asia.

Kanjani8 to be first group in 24hr. TV drama SP

It's been announced that the drama SP that Murakami Shingo will be starring in will have all seven members in it. The drama is for the upcoming NTV 24hr. program and this is the first time in the show's history that all members of a host group have appeared in the drama special.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

On another tangent I actually decided to check out the first episode of Ikemen Desu Ne and so far I enjoy it. I'm a fan of the more lighthearted dramas and while I won't say it's amazing it's still good fun fluff. I was surprised to see the members of They Budou in it and unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with the older back dancing groups to recognize if M.A.D. or M.A.D.E. were the other back dancers shown in the drama. But if you're a fan of They Budou I would recommend watching if only for the locker room scene.

Nakamaru Yuichi in NHK suspense drama

It has been announced that Nakamaru Yuichi will be a regular cast member in a NHK suspense drama. The title of the drama is called Last Money ~Ai no Nedan~ and will air for 7 episodes beginning on September 13th.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

Glad to see another drama role for a KAT-TUN member. I guess even if they don't have their usual concerts they do have other things to keep them busy such as work like this and releasing singles.

Drama news

A couple pieces of drama news.

First off Nakai Masahiro will be starring in a drama SP for the series Aji Ichimonme. This special is based off the drama series of the same name that had two seasons in the mid-1990s. Since then there were two other SP episodes but they were also in the 1990s.

The special will air in the spring of next year on TV Asahi.

Tokyograph article. (English)


The next is for the upcoming drama season. Yokoyama Yu will be returning to the small screen to be a part of the cast of a new Fuji TV drama starring actress Matsushita Nao, who is co-hosting Kouhaku this year with Arashi.

The drama will begin airing in January but it's still untitled at the moment.

Tokyograph article. (English)

News round-up

Since I have some free time I figured I should do a quick round-up of news pieces here and there from the past week or so.

First up is that Ikuta Toma's Genji Monotagari film has announced more of the cast and he will be joined by fellow agency member, Higashiyama Noriyuki, who will play the man the author of the original tale is based on used for inspiration.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)


Then Koyama Keiichiro will be starring in a play version of the 0 Go Shitsu no Kyaku drama. The play will only have the story that Koyama had a part in but it mentions that they will have Yokoyama Yu reprise his role via pre-recorded video segments during the play.

The play will run from November 13th to December 5th at the Tokyo Globe Theatre and the from December 17th to the 20th at the Sankei Hall Breeze in Osaka.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)


And then there are a couple of SMAP related pieces of news.

First Inagaki Goro will be in the upcoming drama Nagereboshi, which stars Ueto Aya. He will play her brother in the series.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)


And SMAP has gotten a mention in international news. In a BBC news online article about the recent troubles between Japan and China their canceled Shanghai concerts have a mention as one of the many affects this has had between the two nations.

BBC news article. (English)


Finally a little update about how the photo scanning is going along. I do have them all finally scanned so I just have to sort them all into ZIP files and upload them to a downloading site. Hopefully I'll have the time to do this before the week is over.

Full cast of Freeter, Ie wo Kau revealed

Ninomiya Kazunari's upcoming drama, Freeter, Ie wo Kau has put up the full cast list and Nino will have two other Johnny's as a part of his supporting cast. Maruyama Ryuuhei from Kanjani8 and Yokoo Wataru from Kis-My-Ft2.

Fuji TV official website. (Japanese only)

As a big Kis-My-Ft2 fan I'm really happy and excited to see Yokoo making his drama debut. Especially since dramas with leads from Arashi tend to get good ratings so hopefully he'll get a bit of a popularity boost from this, as well as maybe draw in some new fans for Kis-My-Ft2.

I don't have a lot of time right now but I think I may try to watch this drama now for Yokoo too, as he is one of my favorite members of the group.

Ninomiya in new drama

Looks like Ninomiya Kazunari isn't going to get a rest anytime soon as it's been announced that he will be starring in an upcoming fall drama on Fuji TV. The title of the drama is Freeter, Ie wo Kau and so far the only cast announced are Ninomiya and the lead female actress, Karina. Filming has already begun though so hopefully they'll announce the rest of the cast soon.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

So that's one of the rumored drama series confirmed. I am still surprised it's Ninomiya this time as he has been so busy with filming Ooku and GANTZ. Though I guess since he hasn't done any drama work since 2008 it does make some sense it would be his turn to lead a drama series for this season.

Johnny's fall 2010 drama rumors

For a while I've been wondering whether or not to make a post for when the drama rumors come out and have finally decided to just go ahead and do so. I, of course, caution not to take these as things that are set in stone, hence why they are only rumors. For some seasons they've been pretty spot on but for others they've also been quite off so take it all with a gain of salt.

From the list there are two dramas that are rumored to have Johnny's as leading actors. Of course to probably no one's surprise one of them is for a member of Arashi, this time it is Ninomiya. The other drama is for Nakayama Yuma who will be co-starring with actress Shinohara Ryoko.

TBA
Date: October 2010, Tuesdays 9.00 pm
Station: Fuji TV
Cast: Ninomiya Kazunari

Koganebuta ~ Ketsuzei o Kuraumonotachi
Date: October 2010, Wednesdays 10.00 pm
Station: NTV
Cast: Shinohara Ryoko, Nakayama Yuuma

I'm a bit surprised that Ninomiya is getting another drama with all his recent movie work but I guess Johnny's wants to keep him busy with acting if this rumor pans through.

I was much more surprised to see Nakayama on the list. I had been hoping that a Hey! Say! JUMP member get a drama for the Fall, but as I do like Nakayama I can't feel too heartbroken at the moment, especially with it all being rumor still.

Though it did make me wonder if this would mean we would be getting a new NYC or NYC boys single if Johnny's is in charge of the theme song. I think now that HSJ finally has an album I would be okay with that, though still would prefer more HSJ.

Of course I still haven't given up all hope of someone from HSJ to get a drama role as there are always supporting or guest roles. But as I've mentioned a few times already this is all just rumor right now and it'll still be a bit before the networks begin to make their official announcements.

SMAP news round-up

Well SMAP has had a few recent bits of news come out as I was busy finishing up finals.

The first is that they will all be in a drama together for the first time in about six years. And what's unique about this one is that none of them knew they were being filmed for a drama. Instead they believed they were filming for a variety program. The drama special will air on TV Asahi on July 1st.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

Then Kimura Takuya's upcoming film, Space Battleship Yamato, will be celebrating it's 35th anniversary of the original series debut. As part of the promotion there will be a special team up with Hello Kitty, who is also 35 years old this year, who will adorn the costumes of the characters for a special show, Hello Kitty to Daniel no Eiga Daisuki!! ~Space Battleship Yamato yori~, at Tokyo's Sanrio Puroland theme park from the film for a limited time.

Anime News Network article. (English)

Then finally Kimura Takuya will be voice acting in an upcoming anime film, REDLINE, by animation studio MADHOUSE that will be released in theaters in Japan in October. He will voice the main character of the film and this will be the second time he has been a voice actor in an animated feature, the first being Howl's Moving Castle.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

News roundup

Well the news keeps coming in so I've decided to collect the recent batch in this one entry.

First off Tegomass's tour has been extended as they will be returning to Yoyogi July 30th-August 1st for three more shows. More information can be found on Johnny's net.

A bit of a downer, SMAP's concert in Shanghai has been canceled. The Expo canceled the concert after safety and security concerns arouse when South Korea had a concert with popular acts from their country and the commotion it caused. The Expo feared the same would happen with the SMAP concert and opted to cancel the event.

Brietbart article. (English)

And then for some better news, the SP for NTV 24 Hour Television has been announced. Nagase Tomoya will be starring in the SP for his second time. He stars alongside Hirosue Ryoko as a couple that have to deal with a terminally ill daughter.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

I'm a bit disappointed that it's not Masaoka Masahiro starring in the SP, especially since I would have loved to have seen him with Hirosue again after they were in Yasuko to Kenji together. But I can't complain about having Nagase in another drama as I tend to love him in whatever he's in.

Nishikido Ryo in new drama

Nishikido Ryo will be in a Fuji TV drama for the upcoming summer season. He will be a supporting cast member in the drama Joker: Yurusarezaru Sousakan that will star actor Masato Sakai. It is set to begin on July 13th.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

While I'm happy to see Ryo in another drama it makes me wonder when he will ever get the chance to be a lead actor in a drama. Perhaps if his movie does well he'll get a chance, so I hope it does well even though it has such a strange premise.

New Matsumoto Jun drama

I forgot about this piece of news with my excitement with finally having a release date for the Hey! Say! JUMP album.

But it has been announced that Matsumoto Jun will be starring in a new drama for this upcoming summer season. It is titled Natsu no Koi wa Nijiiro ni Kagayaku and will air on Fuji TV.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)