NMB48's Virginity ... щ(ಥДಥщ)

Finally we have the title of the upcoming NMB48 single as well as full track listings. Though I think I could live without the title of the A-side, which is Virginity.

Virginity Type A
[CD]
1.Virginity
2.Musou Girlfriend
3.Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi)
4.Virginity (Off Vocal)
5.Musou Girlfriend (Off Vocal)
6.Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi) (Off Vocal)


 [DVD] 
1.Virginity MV  
2.Virginity MV (Dance Mix Version)
3.Musou Girlfriend MV 
4.Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi) MV 
5.Special Movie ""Goodnight movie (1st half)" 

Virginity Type B

[CD]
1.Virginity
2.Musou Girlfriend
3.Sonzai Shitenai Mono  (Akagumi)
4.Virginity (Off Vocal)
5.Musou Girlfriend (Off Vocal)
6.Sonzai Shitenai Mono  (Akagumi) (Off Vocal)


 [DVD] 
1.Virginity MV  
2.Virginity MV (Dance Mix Version)
3.Musou Girlfriend MV 
4.Sonzai Shitenai Mono (Akagumi) MV 
5.Special Movie ""Goodnight movie (2nd half)" 

Virginity Type C

[CD]
1.Virginity
2.Musou Girlfriend
3.Sunahama de Pistol   (Namaba Teppoutai)
4.Virginity (Off Vocal)
5.Musou Girlfriend (Off Vocal)
6.Sunahama de Pistol  ( Namaba Teppoutai) (Off Vocal)


 [DVD] 
1.Virginity MV  
2.Virginity MV (Dance Mix Version)
3.Musou Girlfriend MV 
4.Sunahama de Pistol ( Namaba Teppoutai) MV 
5.Special Movie: NMB feat.吉本新喜劇 Vol.4

Virginity Theatre Edition

[CD]
1.Virginity
2.Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi)
3.Sonzai Shitenai Mono (Akagumi)
4.Chotto Nekoze
5.Virginity (Off Vocal)
6. Bokura no Regetta (Shirogumi)(Off Vocal)
7. Sonzai Shitenai Mono (Akagumi) (Off Vocal)

8. Chotto Nekose (ff Vocal)

I cannot say I am thrilled with the song. I like that it has a 50s/60s retro sound to it but the title and lyrics leave much to be desired. Though it does make me feel glad that Yogi Keila is not in the senbatsu as I do not need to hear a twelve year old sing about virginity. In fact having Jo Erika (14) still in makes me side eye this song pretty hard right now.

At least Musou Girlfriend is a decent song and hopefully the other B-sides will be good. I already like the sound of Namba Teppoutai's Sunahama de Pistol. Hopefully it will be as fun as the name sounds as it looks like that will be the version I will buy of this single.

NMB48 Janken results and 5th single sub-units

Well a lot of things for NMB48 have recently happened and been announced. Here are some of the most recent.

First off NMB48 have done their group janken tournament which decided the six members of the group will participate in the AKB48 Janken tournament on September 18th. The girls are:

Team N: Kotani Riho & Shinohara Kanna
Team M: Kawakami Rena, Takano Yui, Hikawa Ayame & Yamagishi Natsumi

Hikawa Ayame was one of the girls from NMB48 that not only participated in that year's AKB48 Janken tournament but placed in the senbatsu so she seems to be pretty lucky. Hopefully she will be able to do the same this year as well.


Then we finally have the list of sub-units for the upcoming single, which is still untitled, and which girls will be in which sub-unit.

難波鉄砲隊其之壱 ("Namba Teppoutai Sono Ichi") (8) Kotani Riho, Yagura Fuuko, Yogi Keila, Yabushita Shu, Murakami Ayaka, Hikawa Ayame, Matsuda Shiori, Kato Yuuka

Akagumi (12) Watanabe Miyuki, Fukumoto Aina, Ogasawara Mayu, Yoshida Akari, Takano Yui, Yamaguchi Yuki, Okita Ayaka, Shinohara Kanna, Yamagishi Natsumi, Yamauchi Tsubasa, Hayashi Momoka, Akazawa Hono

Shirogumi (12) Yamamoto Sayaka, Yamada Nana, Jonishi Kei, Jo Eriko, Kondo Rina, Murase Sae, Shimada Rena, Kushiro Rina, Mita Mao, Azuma Yuki, Muro Kanako, Yamamoto Hitomi

So glad to see Nana return to Shirogumi. I missed her being with Sayaka last single for the Shirogumi song. Of course I have favorites in all three of the groups so this does not help me figure out if there is a version of the single I would feel fine skipping out on. That will have to wait until information about the DVD content comes out.

I am interested in the Namba Teppoutai Sono Ichi group, partly because there are some favorites, like Keila and Shu, in that group. But also because it is a group of girls that are not the most popular members so this looks like it could be a could chance for them to shine and rise in popularity some.


Also Team N's original stage has been given a new start date of August 19th and it is titled Shonichi.

I am really excited about this as it seems like such an important step for an AKS group to start getting their own stages for their teams. Especially as the songs will be for the members of the team and whenever another team covers the stage they will always be compared to those who did it first.

Hey! Say! JUMP's new single gets a new edition

I woke up to find some exciting news in my e-mail box in that Hey! Say! JUMP's upcoming single, Over, will have another LE version. This version will have Born on the Earth as a song track on the CD and come with a DVD with a video clip for Ai-ing -Aishiteru-. Much of that excitement died though when I went to add this to my already existing pre-order and found that it was listed as sold out at CDJapan.

I figure I'm stuck having to either wait for CDJapan to open pre-orders for it again, which I'm hoping they will seeing as the original LE version of the single is still open for pre-orders, or having to hope that the Kinokuniya nearby will have it in stock when it comes out. Though I think I may just ask next time I'm in about saving a copy for me so I can ensure myself a copy.

For those who want to see if CDJapan opens up pre-orders again for it here's the link for it.

Over [w/ DVD, Limited Edition 2] / Hey! Say! JUMP

Other than that it should also be mentioned that there's a special campaign with this single in which if you buy a copy, doesn't matter which version of the single, you can download a message from one of the boys. Each single will have one user code which can only be used once and will only let you download one message. Each member will have three messages each so there will be 30 messages in total.


Honestly I can't say I'm actually too surprised at this turn of events. If you follow the charts the week HSJ is releasing this single has competition with girl groups No Sleeves and KARA, both who potentially could sell as much if not more than HSJ, especially as they both had/have more versions of their single as KARA has 3 and No Sleeves has 4. So I'm pretty sure that this is to combat that by at least having as many editions as KARA and then adding the special messages to give incentives to have fans buy multiple copies of the three editions.

But as this is giving us a CD version of one of HSJ's concert songs I'm not complaining too much. In fact I kinda welcome it as I really would love to see more of the songs they've only sung live be put on CDs so I can enjoy them with higher quality sound and without audience noise. I just gotta figure out whose messages to download (if they can be downloaded with a PC and it isn't just a Japanese cellphone thing) because I'm rather torn between Takaki and Keito.

New Release For November

Johnny's has taken no time in announcing the early November releases for their artists. It makes me wonder if their will be more for the month or not.

The first is V6's DVD of their Asia tour which will be released on November 1st. It comes in three editions, two limited with an extra bonus disc with each, and a regular edition.

V6 Asia Tour 2010 in Japan Ready? [Limited Edition <READY? Ver.> / Jacket A] / V6

V6 Asia Tour 2010 in Japan Ready? [Limited Edition <ASIA Ver.> / Jacket B] / V6

V6 Asia Tour 2010 in Japan Ready? [Jacket C] / V6

Then there is NEWS' recently announced single, Fighting Man, which is up for pre-order.

Fighting Man [Regular Edition] / NEWS

Fighting Man [Limited Edition] / NEWS

And then the week after NEWS we get another Arashi single, Hatenai Sora, on November 10th. This single will have the song that will be the theme song for Ninomiya Kazunari's upcoming drama. The RE is more expensive for this than their recent singles have been but it will have two more B-side songs and all four songs on the CD will have karaoke tracks.

Hatenai Sora [Regular Edition] / Arashi

Takizawa Kabuki to get DVD release & SMAP's ticket lottery

Tackey's Takizawa Kabuki is getting a DVD release on September 22nd. It will come in two editions with the limited version having a Children's Day Special which has a 80 minute run time according to Johnny's net. The regular edition will instead have a 90 minute documentary so both are three discs in total.

Takizawa Kabuki [RE] / Takizawa Hideaki

Takizawa Kabuki [LE] / Takizawa Hideaki

On the release day for their single SMAP announced that the serial numbers that come with the limited editions of the single are for a lottery drawing for 50 lucky fans to attend a SMAP concert from backstage, as well as get a chance to meet the group before the concert.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

I have to say if this is just the beginning of the lead up to their 20th anniversary I'm curious to what else they plan to do. I guess this is going to be a great time to be a SMAP fan.

SMAP's new album release date announced

Johnny's net has updated the new release section once more, this time for the release of the already announced new SMAP album, We are SMAP!. It will be released on July 21st and the only track information given is that it will have the single song Sotto Kyutto on it. I think it will be safe to say that it will only be one version as SMAP almost never does the multiple version releases of their CDs.

EDIT:

There is some more information about the upcoming album on a Japanese website that has been translated. Like their previous album they will be having many prominent artists working on it with them, probably the most familiar name to international fans would be Daniel Powter. They also have popular musician, famous for his Ghlibi movie soundtracks, Joe Hisaishi also on board to write the music for a song.

Also it has been confirmed that it will be a 2 disc album.

Arama They Didn't entry. (English)

Jump No. 1 !

Just got an update from cdjapan and it's the one I've been waiting for what seems like years. Hey! Say! JUMP's debut album is set to come out on July 7th and will be titled Jump No.1.

The album has two editions though from the cdjapan listings it looks like the only difference will be the jacket cover and the booklet that each will come with. That's a bit disappointing, but they also list that there should be 17 tracks in total so at least there will be a good amount of new music. Plus I know this will save me some money as I'll only be getting the regular edition.

EDIT:

I've been checking everywhere for any more information and have found a bit with the Japanese version of the cdjapan listing. It will be the five single tracks (which means no Bouken Rider even though that was also supposed be an A-side for the Your Seed single) and Jounetsu JUMP and Memories will be on the album. So that gives us seven of the seventeen songs. Hopefully Johnny's net will update and have the full listing when they do.

I'm really happy about Memories getting a CD version as I have loved the song since first listen. And I think Jounetsu JUMP is one of the better volleyball songs so I'm glad it's on the album as well. I do hope there are a few brand new songs though as well as a few more of the older ones. Not to mention at least have one song each for the two sub-units. But I guess we'll find out soon enough about all that.

KAT-TUN's Going! without Akanishi

It has been announced that KAT-TUN's upcoming single Going! will only feature the vocals of the 5 members of KAT-TUN that will be doing their world tour. Or more simply put Akanishi Jin will once again be left out of a KAT-TUN single. The last time this happened was back when he left to go the U.S. for six months and he was not on the Bokura no Machi de single. Of course he had little to no presence on the album cartoon KAT-TUN II You either because of his absence.

This has caused a stir and of course rumors that Jin may be leaving the group as he starts up activity in the States. Especially with reports that there is nothing scheduled for him to do once he ends his activities in the U.S. in October. Johnny's has denied this rumor and has insisted that he will still be a member of the group but has not let out any other official confirmation.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

Honestly I don't think there's enough information that anyone outside of the agency is privy to that can confirm or deny the rumor. I'm sure if Jin's solo concerts prove to be incredibly successful Johnny's may try other attempts to break in to the U.S. market, but they aren't an agency that does things haphazardly or without making sure they have a good chance of success. While they may like to surprise the fans I don't think they enjoy surprises much themselves.

Plus this isn't the first time Jin has taken a leave of absence from the group so the chances of him eventually coming back to rejoin with KAT-TUN are probably just as good as him not, if not better as at least with KAT-TUN he has job security and something to do as it has proven very difficult for an Asian artist to break in to the U.S. so I'm sure if Johnny's wants to have him try it will be after they know they have the right connections to do so successfully.

Yamapi to star in live action Ashita no Joe movie

It has been announced that Yamapi will be starring in the live action Ashita no Joe movie. Filming for the film will be from March to May and no release date has been given yet. In fact there isn't much other news about the new film other than the filming dates and that Yamapi will be the lead actor.

Anime News Network article. (English)

Personally I'm happy to hear the news, as I'm really hoping NEWS will get to do the theme song for the movie like they did with Kurosagi. And while a release date isn't given I would assume there wouldn't be too much post-production work so it would be released this year which is another reason I want NEWS to do the theme song for it as it would guarantee that they would be releasing at least three singles this year.

And while I'm on the topic of NEWS' singles there has been a date change for the release of Sakura Girl. It will now be released on March 31st instead of March 24th. I think it can be assumed Johnny's made this change because of Avex's announcement that Tohoshinki will be releasing a new single on March 24th and they didn't want NEWS to lose their singles number 1 streak.