Other Idols Master Post 003

Time to round up information for the various other idol groups that I follow.

First up is E-Girls news. They will doing the theme song for the upcoming Getsu 9 drama, Biblia Kosodou no Jiken Techou. They will be performing a cover of the song The Never Ending Story. And yes, it is that The Never Ending Story song from the movie of the same name that came out in 1984.

Sanspo article (Japanese)

I am quite interested in how this is going to turn out, as The Never Ending Story is a rather dated sounding song. Not to mention something that I cannot imagine dancing to like E-Girls songs tend to be with most of the group being just dancers. But it is a wonderfully 80s song, and I am curious if we are going to get this in Engrish.

~*

Yamashita Sean has a new theater role in the play Hashire, Melos! The first show will be on December 27th, 2012 in Tokyo and the final in Osaka on February 2nd, 2013.

OHP (Japanese)

There is information about the story line that this play is adapted of on the Wikipedia page, and it sounds pretty interesting. And I think I would want to watch it even if I knew none of the actors in the production. So I hope Sean well with this venture and I can understand why he is excited in having a role in this.

~*

Despite semi-frequent visits to their official site and recently began following their official twitter account Love La Doll managed to ninja in a new release for December 12th. This is their third single and it is titled Seishun GIRLZ Saizensen.

One of the most exciting parts about this release is that they actually have a PV for the title track. Their past two singles have only had dance shots so this is a step up from past releases. Plus it looks like the PV actually had something of a budget for an indie-idol group.

While I do not like the song as much as what I have heard from them so far I do like the PV and there is always a chance the song can grow on me. Either way I am still happy to see the group finally have their own PV.

While I cannot find the CD to purchase on the usual online stores it is up on iTunes Japan, with the rest of their previous singles, and I figure that is probably where I will buy it from. Especially as the single is the one title track with karaoke version only.

~*

The word cannot end this year as then it will miss out on JYJ's Jaejoong's solo album that will be released in January 2013. The genre of the music for the album is going to be rock as Jaejoong has done well with singing the genre in the past. You can check out his solo Maze from his Tohoshinki days to see an example of this.

Kpop Starz article (English)

I am really excited for this release as a fan of rock music and Jaejoong. I really agree that rock songs suit him well too, his voice is just a good match for the kind of songs that genre produces. And I am glad that the chances of it being available on iTunes US are high so I will have no trouble getting this album when it comes out.

6 Gatsu no Bitter Orange upcoming play

I had to move over the weekend and the internet isn't up at the new place yet so updates will continue to be sparse overall as I now have to rely on public internet spots. I'll try to update as much as I can today with the news items I'm behind on, as I'll be at school and will have internet there between classes.

Kato Shigeaki and Joshima Shigeru will be starring in a play called 6 Gatsu no Bitter Orange. They will play brothers, with Joshima of course as the older brother and Shige as the younger.

The play will run the month of June in Tokyo then in Osaka for the first week of July.

Tokyo Graph 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.