Mid-year predictions and thoughts, 2012 (reviewed)

I figured as the year closes it would be a good time to review the predictions I made mid-year to see what I was right on and what I was not before I make me predictions for the first half of 2013.

TOKIO, will release something? Maybe? Honestly TOKIO has gained a very erratic schedule when it comes to releases it makes it extremely difficult to predict when the next will be. They are long and well overdue for a new album but I am not sure if I should even still expect one from them any time soon and not just another single. But I do hope they release something before the close of the year, and album would be great but I would settle for another single if I must.

Well they finally released the long overdue album and it was great and they even did a concert tour. So it was a good year for TOKIO fans. So I am counting this as a win in my corner for being correct.

NEWS have their best of album already slated to release and still have the single and concerts already announced. I think that will be the summer for them, most likely sometime in July as August looks like it will likely be full of AKS releases and NEWS does have a number 1 streak to protect. I hope they can start releasing singles at a steady pace once this comeback single comes out. I would be happy if they at least release one more single before the end of the year.

It would be nice if one of the members gets some kind of drama role during the second half of the year as well. It would be nice to see that kind of push for the group after the recent member change. Though I guess at least Tegoshi Yuya, Kato Shigeaki and Koyama Keiichiro have regular programs they are a part of to help with TV exposure.

Well I got my wish here that they released one more single before the end of the year so score another one for me. And they even got to keep their number one streak for singles, which is the main one people care about.

Shige and Massu both got drama roles and Koyama is going to be in the Lucky Seven SP so on that front they did well. Even though I doubt they will ever get a big break just continuing as they are should help them in the long run for being able to prove worth keeping as a group.

Kanjani8 will continue to release singles at a steady pace until it is time to release a new album for their annual winter concert tour. Though I expect there being something special being done for their next album as they are making this year their big anniversary year being their 8th year since debut. I know they just announced the special thank you concerts for their 8th anniversary but I still think they will stick to their usual schedule as well, as someone has to be at the Kyocera Dome for Johnny’s Count Down and I really cannot see anyone but K8 doing that.

They seem to be having a packed year with work and I doubt it will change. Already two members have been announced as leads for summer dramas and I am sure the fall season will continue with Kanjani8 members in dramas. Then of course there is their movie, even though they are done filming for it their will still be plenty of promotion they will be doing.

Looks like I ended up being off with K8. Their album was just the usual best album, though the limited editions did have some nice DVD extras. Also performing on Kouhaku means no Kyocera Dome for JCD.

I was right on the drama front as they do continue to have at least one member in a drama every season and I do not see that changing anytime soon.

Hey! Say! JUMP should have at least a couple more singles to be released this year. I think one in the fall and another in winter would be good. It will be interesting to see if the tour in the winter this year or become a group that only tours when they have a new album like the older Johnny’s groups. Summary has already moved on to newer groups (Sexy Zone and A.B.C-Z) so I can see them slowing down with touring as well to complete the transition from being the younger/newer group to one of the more seasoned ones.

I think Johnny’s needs to keep HSJ members in dramas, and now that Yamada Ryosuke is older he can do more roles and I would like to see him starring in something else before the end of the year. It is an interesting move to have Chinen Yuri star in a drama, but I guess this will prove if he can be a lead drama actor like Yamada, something I am sure Johnny's would love.

I think they will try to do something for their fifth anniversary this year. It may not be anything really major but I am sure they would want to do something. It is a landmark that is worth recognizing in some way. But maybe with K8 taking up so much of the year with their anniversary HSJ is waiting for their actual anniversary date to begin doing something for it.

Another group I was off with as we only got one single from the group all year. But we did get a new album and have the single concert to go with it so that is a sorta right guess about that.

While there are not many other members in dramas this year it does look like things are improving on that front a bit with at least other members other than Yamada are getting roles on a more regular basis in the past. Hopefully these roles will eventually lead to something.

Unfortunately HSJ did nothing of note for their anniversary. I find that disappointing as I think there should have been some kind of celebration for them reaching that land mark. Especially when you have newer groups making a big deal of their first anniversary.

Kis-My-Ft2 should release two more singles before the year is up. They are one of Avex’ best selling acts so I am sure they will want them releasing as much as possible. I can actually see them being one of the few groups to release a single in August as they are one of the better selling Johnny’s groups and I think they could easily beat the AKS group releasing a single on August 1st, NO NAME. And since they will most likely be doing the theme song for Fujigaya Taisuke’s summer drama I think that would be a good release date for their next single.

I do not think a drama season will go by without a member having a role in a drama, even if the chances of that member not being Fujigaya Taisuke or Tamamori Yuta is slim. But I think Fujigaya moving into the leading man slot is a big thing, and hopefully his drama, Beginners, does well so he continue as the lead in dramas. I do hope though one of the other members get a chance for at least a supporting role in a drama before the end of the year. It will be nice to see them get these small pushes that will hopefully lead to bigger things with them.

Pretty much spot on for Kisumai. Of course it helps that they fit the usual mold for Avex artists that do well so they are going to have a rather steady release schedule from them. I am quite happy that I was spot on with them releasing in August even though it was a week later then I thought it would be.

Not surprised that I was right about the members of the group being frequently in dramas. They are getting solid pushes that I do not see stopping as long as they continue to do well.

~*

I am going to skip Sexy Zone as I am not following them much anymore. And in any case they did surprise me with releasing a single so late in the year then following up with an album.

For the Juniors I can see them slowly getting back to being a larger focus on Shounen Club. Kis-My-Ft2 has already moved on to being just guests and were not in May or June’s episodes so that should free up some time that can be given to Juniors. I think this would be a perfect time to push the Bakaleya6 as a group.

Also with the recent drama roles those Juniors should be getting some kind of push on the program. I would not be surprised to see more drama roles given to Juniors later in the year either. With the recent debuts now is a good time for Johnny’s to push some of the remaining Juniors to find the next big hits among them. This can be seen with the recent announcements of Juniors getting drama roles in the upcoming drama season.

The rest of the year should be interesting for Junior fans as things continue to shift for them as Johnny's searches for their next big hits and sets them up for possible future debuts.

I think there is a slow change to getting the Juniors just a little more screen time on SC. Unfortunately HSJ, SZ and A-Z make up a large portion of the program still, but with Bakaleya6 being full of rising Juniors they have had more presence on the program and I can see that growing as they continue to grow in popularity.

Overall it still looks like Johnny's is taking their time to figure out who they want to push in the Juniors. I think it is safe to say that they have their eyes on certain members and it will be mainly just time for Johnny's to decide what they want to do with them.

Speculating for the Juniors is always the hardest thing as there are just so many of them and it is not easy to tell what management is thinking in regards to them as you have no idea how they are really managed.

And I expect the Kansai Juniors to continue to keep gong strong. I think it is a good sign that they are being brought to Tokyo more and more for work and I expect it to eventually lead to something for them.

Well the Kanjuu are indeed continuing on and getting more and more breaks. Their Tokyo concerts are something exciting to look forward to as well as the upcoming movie for them. Still hope this all means something is being prepared for them, like a debut, in the near future.

NMB48 are most likely going to release two more singles this year, the next one has even already been confirmed for an August 8th release date. We will probably also get auditions for their fourth gen KKS announced but wait until after New Year’s to have their next team, Team BII, formed.

It will be interesting to see if the AKB48 sister groups also add extra groups to them, like AKB48’s Team 4, but that will be years down the line I would suppose and SKE48 will be the group that does it next.

I do wonder if NMB48 will get an album release. The AKS groups do not release CDs like most artists, with that they mainly just release singles. AKB48's first non-stage album was a single collection after all. But then they did release a studio album so it will be interesting to see if NMB48 will just continue with singles or will have a studio album of their own this year. Of course we could just get a stage album whenever they finally get around to doing their original stage.

I would not be surprised if there is another graduation this year, as sad as it would be. But when you have a group as big as NMB48 I think having a high turnover rate is to be expected, from health issues, like the girls that have graduated after making it into a team or for other reasons like the KKS graduations.

Well at least I can say I am right about the single releases for this group. Also there is a 4th generation of KKS but we got the formation of Team BII earlier than I expected.

With the recent group shuffles it is safe to say that there will be no Team 4 for NMB48. If anything they may just expand their teams eventually, though with the current rate of graduations it may not be much of an issue.

I no longer have to wonder about an album release as the group is expected to have their debut album in February. It will be interesting to see how that shapes up as we get more information about the release the closer we get to the release date.

And it seems like I was aiming low with only predicting one more graduation. Should have realized that with the next team forming it would mean a few KKS would graduate around that time. It is a bit worrying to have so many graduations but then again you look at the fact that they just had a group of girls join that will not be set to have a new team formed for so I doubt things are going to get better because it looks like they have no issues with finding fresh faces to join up in hopes of getting a spot on a team.


So in the end a mix bag of what I managed to guess right and things I was off on. Not a bad run and now I have to see about predicting the next six months for these groups.

The 2013-2014 Johnny's Calendars are coming

It's that time of year again, the official Johnny's calendars are up for pre-order. Of course these calendars are based off the Japanese school year so they will not be released until March of 2013.

It looks like last year was the start of the new calendar assortment, where before after ten years a group stopped having a calendar released all the groups minus the younger ones (Hey! Say! JUMP and those that debuted after them) did not have a calendar. Again this year Hey! Say! JUMP is the oldest group to have a calendar.

The Hey! Say! JUMP calendar will be a reversible wall calendar that will be 26 pages and will come with a premium card book.

Hey! Say! JUMP 2013.4 -> 2014.3 Johnny's Official Calendar [Calendar 2013] / Hey! Say! JUMP

Kis-My-Ft2 will have a portable calendar that is called Kis-My-Bible, that will have 88 pages with data about the members in it.

Kis-My-Ft2 2013.4 -> 2014.3 Johnny's Official Calendar [Calendar 2013] / Kis-My-Ft2

Sexy Zone, A.B.C-Z and Nakayama Yuma are getting lumped in with the Juniors again this year. It will be a set of four calendars, SZ and A.B.C-Z getting a desktop calendar each, Nakayama Yuma will have a notebook calendar and the Juniors a binder type calendar. They will come with a special case display all four.

Sexy Zone / A.B.C-Z / Johnny's Jr. / Yuma Nakayama 2013.4 -> 2014.3 Johnny's Official Calendar [Calendar 2013] / Sexy Zone / A.B.C-Z / Johnny's Jr. / Yuma Nakayama

While I skipped getting a calendar last year, as I really wanted a NEWS one that year and I did not care for the types they had for HSJ and Kisumai I am tempted in getting something this coming year. I really want the Junior calendar if just for the Bakaleya6 but I do not care to have the SZ and A.B.C-Z ones.

Of course I cannot help but wonder why at least SZ are not getting their own calendar this year. Last year made sense as they were Juniors for most of that year but it has been a year since their debut so they should be able to pull off having their own calendar that was not attached to the Juniors at least.

I hope this will not be the norm and next year they will have their own calendar that is not sold with another group's/grouping's.

Let's Speculate: Junior expansion?

EDIT: Meant to actually put this in the original post but for whatever reason did not. But there is very little in the way of actual concrete information about this. So this is pretty much what I have cobbled together from comments I have found in various places in the English language fandom and anything I could figure out from information about Hirano Sho on Japanese sites, which I will admit could be off as I am far from fluent in Japanese.

So basically this is a lot of speculation. Sorry if this has caused any confusion. I know usually I am much better about warning about that in these kinds of posts but I ended up ignoring my inner editor and failed to give this warning before posting. And it has honestly been bugging me since hitting the post button.

~*

This information has been floating around a bit but I finally got around to rounding up more information about it. But there does seem to be a third group of Juniors other than the Tokyo and Kansai Juniors, Nagoya Juniors.

Nagoya Junior: Hirano Sho

Word has it that there are only about 15 Nagoya Juniors. So far the only one that anyone has information on is Hirano Sho because of his inclusion in the Kansai Junior group Kin Kan (Which seems a bit odd seeing as Kin Kan stands for "Kings of Kansai", but whatever it's a Johnny's group name so it does not have to really make sense.). But this looks like to be a new development and most get grouped with the Kanjuu, like with Hirano getting put in a Kanjuu group.

Whether or not Johnny's plans on growing the group even more so they can eventually get their own studio for lessons is only known to Johnny's. Though expanding on the Juniors would not be surprising seeing that there are more and more debuted groups to back dance for and it is probably easier to just have local Juniors do that for groups instead of having to bring Juniors with them to all the stops on a tour.

Nagoya has always been on the map for entertainment behind Osaka and Tokyo. It does have one of the official Johnny's Shops and if a group is hitting only a few cities on a tour it is pretty much assumed it will be on that short list. In fact I believe one of the first concert tours Hey! Say! JUMP did for going outside of just Tokyo just had Osaka and Nagoya as the additional cities. Of course the huge success of AKS sister group SKE48 cannot be overlooked as they are not only based out of Nagoya but were the first sister group of AKB48. So while Nagoya is not as well known as Tokyo and Osaka it should not be overlooked as it does indeed seem to have its own strong entertainment ties.

Of course that all said it does not look like we will see too much of them for a while, outside of Hirano because he is in an active Kanjuu group. But it shall be interesting to see what the future will bring with this development.

The Junior Concerts are Coming

Two concerts featuring the Juniors have been announced, one for the Tokyo Juniors and the other for the Kansai Juniors. Information about both came be found on Johnny's net.

The Kansai Junior concert will be held November 23rd in Osaka and the ORIX Theater. It will headline Nakayama Yuma and has the Kansai Juniors Kiriyama Akito, Nakama Junta,  Shigeoka Daiki, Kamiyama Tomohiro, Kotaki Nozomu and Fujii Ryusei listed by name under his. And of course it mentions that there will be other Kansai Juniors participating.

The other concert will be on December 16th at Yokohama Arena and from the title is to feature the Fresh Juniors, or the newer Juniors.


It is nice to see Yuma back with other Kanjuu, especially past group members. It is a bit odd to just have it randomly in November as the Kanjuu normally have Christmas concerts that he could have done with them, so I wonder if there might be a bit more to this concert. Though that is just me being hopeful, as I really would love to have something big happen for the Kanjuu soon.


The last time they had concerts featuring the Fresh Juniors was back in 2009 when they came out with Nakayama Yuma w/B.I.Shadow and NYC boys, so I am very curious what Johnny's has planned for this concert. Especially since they are using the Yokohama Arena, compared to a hall where the 2009 concerts took place. I mean it was at the Yokohama Arena that Hey! Say! JUMP and Kis-My-Ft2 had their debut announcements. I do not think we will get a debut announcement but there is a presidence about this venue that something should happen/be announced at this concert.

I hope that at least we will get a new group or two formed for the concert, maybe a special temp unit. I cannot think of a group that I would like to see debuted so soon, as it would really be only Bakaleya6 and noonboyz, maybe Snow Man, to go from but none of the members in those groups are Fresh Juniors. And as much as I love B6 I would rather have them wait a while before debut as there are some things they need to iron out for a group before I would consider them debut ready.

In any case I know I will be excitedly awaiting any news from these concerts.

Tokyo Juniors Vs. Kansai Juniors

Johnny's net has updated with information about a Junior concert event at NHK Hall on Novmeber 27th. It seems Johnny's is willing to spend some money on the Kansai Juniors and will be bringing some over to participate in the two concerts scheduled for that day which are titled A.B.C.-Z + Tokyo Juniors Vs. Nakayama Yuma + Kansai Juniors. Well there's a little more before that but I'm feeling dead tired right now so I don't want to do a full translation but it more or less ends up translating to a 'East/West song battle, East/West Juniors gathering'.

I really wish I would be in Japan for this, especially considering how rare it is to have a group of Kansai Juniors perform in Tokyo. Hopefully there will be a fan who knows English that will go and give everyone a report for the concert.

TakiCHANnel on air.

Meant to post this yesterday but I've been really busy these past couple of days. I will be responding to comments in the next day or so as I don't have much time on the net for now.

But as I reported earlier there is a new Johnny's net section which is a page for a web program produced by Hideaki Takizawa, TakiCHANnel. The first episode launched a couple of days ago as well as an uphaul of the page itself. It know has a new background image of an imaginary city street with the images of Juniors plastered just about everywhere. (I personally am quite amused at the 'la femme Ryosuke' ad featuring Hashimoto Ryosuke.) If you click on the screen on the cityscape you'll see the first episode featuring Kis-My-Ft2 as they answer trivia questions about their group.

One thing that really jumps out at me is the fact that all the photos used on this site of the Juniors are actually clear with no photo shop layering to make them look a bit strange but they look as clear as any of their magazine photo shoots. I've gone ahead and made a snapshot of the web page for quick reference for people to see what I mean.


Also of note on the page is the J Birthday link which has a calender with the birthdays of several Juniors (both Kansai and Tokyo) listed. One can only assume that these will be the Juniors that will get featured on this web program. From that then the groups that will be featured will be; Kis-My-Ft2, A.B.C.-Z, B.I. Shadow, 7WEST, B.A.D., Snow Prince Gasshoudan, Question?, Veteran, Hip Hop Jump and BOYS. And the un-grouped Juniors are; Takada Sho, Masuda Ryo, Kyomoto Taiga, Anderson Casey Takashi, Morimoto Shintaro and Yasui Kentaro.

There's also a message from the producer (Tackey) and a a contact us link that will let you send an e-mail in. There are two links at the bottom that aren't open yet, one for a gallery and the other is a quiz. I hope those open soon as they seem pretty interesting, though I know I probably won't be able to completely read the questions and answers for the quiz.

All in all though, I'm pretty impressed with this web page so far. I'm really glad Johnny's has decided to branch out more on the net as for overseas fans it's the easiest way to keep in touch with what's going on with the boys as we don't have them featured on TV programs like in Japan.

Fresh Juniors introduction profiles Wink Up May 2010

I guess I've done a poor job about keeping this journal up for the past few months. But I'm finally feeling organized so there will be at least more translations for a while for me to update with. And as the Seattle Kinokuniya finally had the May issue of Wink Up in the other day I've decided the next thing I'll work on translating are the introduction profiles of the four Fresh Juniors they have in it.

Like with all my translations I do admit that I am still learning Japanese so if there are any mistakes that someone notices please feel free to point them out to me so I can correct it.



Sekiguchi Kaduya (関口夏月也)

Nickname: Kaduya
Birth date: August 18th, 1995. 14 years old (3rd year middle school).
Blood type: B
Place you're from: Tokyo
Height: 173cm
Weight: 57kg
Foot size: 27cm
Strong point: Cheerful
Weak point: Bothersome things
Hobby: Baseball, games, reading books (and manga).
Specialty: Baseball
Favorite food: Ramen, meat, crab, sushi, fruit.
Disliked food: Almost all vegetables.
Favorite color: Black
Favorite sports: Baseball
Subject you're good at: History
Subject you're bad at: Everything but history.
Favorite animal: Dog, horse, lion.
Reason for applying: It seemed interesting.
Admired sempai: Arashi
Type of girl you like: A person who knows what to say.
Personal appeal: I will try my best from now on, so please support me.


Miura Wataru (三浦わたる)

Nickname: Wattaa
Birth date: June 6th, 1998. 11 years old (6th year elementary school).
Blood type: A
Place you're from: Chiba
Height: 142cm
Weight: 32kg
Foot size: 24cm
Strong point: Occasionally can say something cute.
Weak point: Don't plan.
Hobby: Kamen Rider*
Specialty: Swimming, dance.
Favorite food: Hamburger, milk coffee.
Disliked food: Plum.
Favorite color: Red
Favorite sports: Baseball
Subject you're good at: Gym
Subject you're bad at: Japanese
Favorite animal: Dog, giraffe, white tiger.
Reason for applying: I want to be like Aiba and Tamamori.
Admired sempai: Tamamori Yuta
Type of girl you like: A long hair girl with a cute feeling.
Personal appeal: I want to become like Aiba and Tamamori, please support me.

*The actual words are ライダーもの(Raidaa mono), but ライダー is a short way of referring to the Kamen Rider series, which is aimed at young boys for its audience, so I'm assuming that's what he's talking about.

Tanimura Ryuichi (谷村龍一)

Nickname: Tani
Birth date: December 21st, 1998. 11 years old (6th year elementary school).
Blood type: O
Place you're from: Tokyo
Height: 147cm
Weight: 37kg
Foot size: 24cm
Strong point: I can dance.
Weak point: I don't like studying much.
Hobby: Dodgeball
Specialty: A strong body.
Favorite food: Riceball.
Disliked food: Grapefruit.
Favorite color: Black
Favorite sports: Baseball
Subject you're good at: Arithmetic
Subject you're bad at: Japanese
Favorite animal: Dog
Reason for applying: My older sister applied for me.
Admired sempai: Nakayama Yuma
Type of girl you like: A meddlesome girl.
Personal appeal: I'm doing my best with dance lessons, please support me.


Ushiki Tsubasa (宇敷翼)

Nickname: Ushiki
Birth date: July 23rd, 1998. 11 years old (6th year elementary school)
Blood type: B
Place you're from: Tokyo
Height: 140cm
Weight: I don't know.
Foot size: 23cm
Strong point: Frequently helps out.
Weak point: Impatient.
Hobby: Card games
Specialty: Falcon rope skipping*
Favorite food: Steak, tuna
Disliked food: Eggplant
Favorite color: Light blue
Favorite sports: Basketball
Subject you're good at: Arithmetic
Subject you're bad at: Science
Favorite animal: White tiger
Reason for applying: My mother sent in the application.
Admired sempai: I don't know yet.
Type of girl you like: A kind person.
Personal appeal: I'm giving everything my all, so please support me.

*This is the literal translation of the answer なわとびのハヤブサ(Nawatobi no Hayabusa). It doesn't make sense to me but I have no clue how else to translate it.

22nd poll results

Just wanted to get this out of the way real quick. I'm going to the final Yokohama concert today for Hey! Say! JUMP and will be leaving shortly after posting this. And I will try to make sure I at least put up a highlights report for the concert tonight before I go to sleep. Though I think it may depend on how quickly I can do my homework.

But now onto the poll results for ' Which Junior group(s) do you want to see more of?'.

Kis-My-Ft2 41

B.I.Shadow 36

Mis Snow Man 28

Question? 26

A.B.C.-Z 25

Hip Hop Jump 16

Hey! Say! 7 WEST 15

Butoukan 12

B.A.D. 12

FiVe 9

BOYS 7

Shadow WEST 2

I'm pleasantly surprised that Mis Snow Man managed to rank so high. I mean they don't get a lot of chances to be on stage like some of the other Junior groups so I think it's great that despite that they have a good amount of fans. And I really think Johnny's should be giving the boys more attention as they do seem to picking up a good fan following already and they seem like they'll be the group to take over the spot the older Junior groups hold when they are either taken off of Shounen Club or debut.

On to the next question, Which group(s) should release an album in 2010? This one will also allow multiple choices.