I had expected that the theme song for Shinryochuu -in the Room-, the upcoming NTV midnight drama, would be done by SMAP with one of the members of the group in the starring road and all. Apparently someone thought it would be better to randomly have Yamashita Tomohisa do the theme song instead as it has been announced that the drama will be using a new song from him, Kai Sera Sera, for it.
It seems really strange for Yamapi to be doing the theme song for this drama when he is not in it at all as far as we know. At least with Kis-My-Ft2 doing the theme song for Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou they had one of their group members in the show, even though the role was small. In fact going from that it would have made more sense for Kisumai to have the theme song for in the Room with Senga Kento being in the drama.
I guess there are somethings about Johnny's I will never understand.
I do think the title of the song is a bit interesting though. with the 'sera sera' part it immediately had me think of the English song, Que Sera Sera. I wonder if there will be a connection with the two songs because if there is I think it might at least be a fitting song for the drama as it is about letting worries go and from what we know of the drama the students coming to Inagaki Goro's character are full of worry over different matters in their lives.
It was announced at the Kansai Junior Christmas Concert on December 25th that the Kanjuu will be starring in their own movie, titled Kansai Johnny’s Jr. no Kyoto Uzumasa Koshinkyoku!, that will be released in theaters in Japan on March 30th. The two main leads will be played by Kiriyama Akito and Shigeoka Daiki with Kanjuu, Nakama Junta, Hamanaka Bunichi, Fujii Ryusei, Kotaki Nozomu, and Mukai Koji also being in the cast.
The Kanjuu will do the theme song, NOT FINALE, for the movie and plan out the choreography for it.
This announcement has me so happy. Things really feel like they are looking good for the Kanjuu. Sure they still do not get all the chances and breaks that their Tokyo counterparts do but you can hardly say getting their own movie is all that shabby. Especially when there is also a Tokyo concert coming up for them as well.
I hope that the theme song they will do will get released as a single. I think if the Tokyo Juniors can get all kinds of one off singles and temporary groups that get to release something the Kanjuu should be able to get the same chance. Not to mention if Johnny's wants to gauge the selling potential of the Kanjuu, or at least this group of them, it would be a great way to do so.
Like always I hope this is something that will lead to a debut of a Kanjuu group. Right now I just really want B.A.D. to debut in a group, especially Kiriyama as he has really begun to impress me recently with his interactions with the other Kanjuu. I have always though him to be talented with his singing, though in the past in need to knowing to dial it back a bit as he had the habit of overpowering everyone else.
EDIT: Speaking of that Tokyo concert, it has become concerts as there are now three concerts scheduled for the Kanjuu to do on January 1st, the first at noon followed by one at 3pm and the final at 6pm.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
I was so close, so close to having an AKS Master Post without an announcement about a girl leaving. I guess that teaches me about being lazy and not making one sooner.
~*
We have another AKB48 member leaving, this time by one of the girls that has been with the group for a long time, Masuda Yuka. She joined AKB48 as a 2nd generation KKS and was a member of the sub-unit DiVA. She was caught by the tabloids spending the night over at the apartment of one of her fellow cast members of the musical she is starring in, The Wiz, and has decided that because of the scandal it has caused, even though she denies doing nothing more than talking with him, she will leave AKB48.
From the sounds of it she may be better off leaving in the long run. She is keeping her lead role in the musical she is currently in and she has not been active in AKB48 because of it. She is also a really talented singer but is not one of the most popular members of the group so she does not get pushed much from what I have seen. I think she would not have many issues continuing with her career solo, whether it is to become a singer or continue with stage productions. So I wish her the best and wish she could have left the group without a "scandal" attached to it.
I think it is safe now to say that DiVA is not coming back. It never was a big seller compared to all the other sub-units and with Yuka now graduating and Miyazawa Sae in China as an exchange member for at least a year it is highly unlikely that it will be continued. Which is a pity as the unit had some of the strongest vocals of AKB48 and I personally loved everything they had released.
~*
AKS must have realized that with the Janken senbatsu just being AKB48 and SKE48 members fans of the other groups may skip on getting the single as each Japanese sister group will be getting a B-side song and PV on one of the versions of the upcoming AKB48 single, Eien Pressure.
For NMB48 the song is title HA! and there is already a PV preview out.
Have to say that I am loving the song so far. I really do not care to get the single for the one song so I will probably see about getting an iTunes Japan card and buy it with that instead.
~*
Fukumoto Aina participated in her first marathon at the 2nd Osaka Marathon. She was running to support charity for the relief efforts in Tohoku after the earthquake in 2010 and not only met her time goal but ended up running the marathon under it.
Congrats Ainyan for exceeding your goal and of course just for participating in a good cause. It is always great to see idols take on challenges like this, as it will hopefully inspire others to do the same.
~*
And this is just something I want to do from time to time so I have this information easy to find if I want to do a quick check. It is just an age list of the members of NMB48 as it is sometimes easy to forget how old some of the girls are or what the overall age for the group is. I can assume that this list could also be helpful for fans to check on whether or not they should be mentioning how oppai some members are.
NMB48 Age List (as of 30NOV2012)
20 -
Yamada Nana (Team N)
19 -
Fukumoto Aina (Team N)
Yamaguchi Yuuki (Team N)
Yamamoto Sayaka (Team N)
Watanabe Miyuki (Team N)
Shimada Rena (Team M)
Murakami Ayaka (Team M)
Yokoyama Yui (Team undecided/Team A)
18 -
Ogasawara Mayu (Team N)
Kishino Rika (Team N)
Kotani Riho (Team N)
Yoshida Akari (Team N)
Takano Yui (Team M)
Hikawa Ayame (Team M)
Yamagishi Natsumi (Team M)
Kamieda Emika (Team BII)
Kono Saki (Team BII)
Nakagawa Hiromi (Kenkyusei)
17 -
Jonishi Kei (Team N)
Okita Ayaka (Team M)
Kawakami Rena (Team M)
Koyanagi Arisa (Team M)
Tanigawa Airi (Team M)
Mita Mao (Team M)
Ijiri Anna (Team BII)
And with that done I am going to feel so very old right now.
But besides that it is interesting to look at the age break down of the different teams. Team N has an age range of 20-14, Team M is 19-13 and Team BII is 18-12. The Kenkyusei range from 18-12 but most of them are in the younger range, which should hopefully mean for them that they have a good chance at promotion at some point as long as they stick with the group.
It has been announced that NEWS will be doing the image song for the NTV coverage of the FIFA Club World Champion 2012. The title of the song will be WORLD QUEST.
Still no concrete news about the single that is supposed to be coming from the group but it is probably safe to say that this song is probably going to be on it.
The championship will be in December and I have the feeling that will be the month we will get a new single from NEWS, as most of the other Johnny's groups will have releases close enough to the month that it would be too soon for something new or be busy with other activities. NEWS does not have those issues and if WORLD QUEST ends up being the A-side having it released around the time of the championship just makes sense.
I watched the first episode of the drama Hana no Zubora-Meshi and got to hear more of Pekoponpekorya, and it is a cute and fun sounding song. Yet it is not the kind of song I would expect to be an A-side track as it does not sound as strong as Chankapaana. So I was hoping that there would be another song to be the A-side of their upcoming single and have Pekopon either be on it as a double A-side or a B-side with a tie-in.
It has been announced that NEWS will be doing the theme song for the late night drama that Kato Shigeaki will be in, Hana no Zubora-meshi. The title of the song is Pokoponpekorya and it is written by the same composer and lyricists as their previous single Chankapaana.
I am happy that we are getting a new NEWS song with one of the dramas for this season. I knew between Masuda Takahisa and Shige both being in dramas one would have to give NEWS the chance to do the theme song.
With the group mentioning that they have plans for another single at the end of their tour I can only assume that this song will be the A-side for it. With it coming from the same team as Chankapaana it makes it even more likely to be the case. Hopefully we will get the solicitations for it soon.
As I find Chankapaana a fun song to listen to I have hopes that Pokoponpekorya will be the same. Though I do wonder how to shorten that mouthful of a non-word, perhaps Pokopon will do? And I hope the PV will be as fun.
I actually showed the PV for Chankapaana to my nieces the other day and they actually rather liked it. My younger niece even did the same kind of dancing around to it as the girl in the PV did. So I hope this can be another PV I can show them to see if they will become future J-pop fans as well.
It has been announced that Hey! Say! JUMP will be releasing a new song sometime in September. The title is Magic Power and will be the theme song for the Japanese release of the Smurfs movie.
As reported before Yamada and Chinen have dub roles in the film and that it will open in theaters in Japan September 9th.
I was so sure that this was going to be a tie-in for NYC so I'm surprised that it's HSJ instead. Though I'm not really disappointed because it's about time that they get some releases out on a timely matter. Though it's going to be strange to have them go from the more serious and cool image they had going for their more recent singles back to something that I'm assuming is going to be more cutesy.
And I'm pretty sure this will mean a single as movie tie-ins usually get them. In fact I can't think of a case where there wasn't a single for a movie theme song when it comes to Johnny's.
Of course I think the big question will be if Ryutaro will be a part of the single or not, since he's currently on suspension and there's really been no further official word on what his status will be when he returns.
Sorry for being M.I.A. recently, I just haven't been feeling well. But I'm better now and I'll be working on catching up now.
First off is the freshest news, Kanjani8 will be doing the theme song for the GM Odore Doctor. This is the first time Kanjani8 are doing a drama theme song. The drama itself stars Higashiyama Noriyuki with Ohkura Tadayoshi also being a part of the cast.
While August 25th has been announced for the release date for the single there is no further information about it yet.
Next is some news that has been floating around for a while, but as a part of the campaign with Dwango for Kis-My-Ft2 they have a website. They actually use photos of the group members on the site and advertise that there are downloadable version of the photos for those with Japanese cell phones. They have also listed the locations of advertisements in the Shibuya Station for fans to check out. You can also view the commercials on the website.
I'm going to leave the whole NYC thing for a bit as I take in what information has been brought forth about the issue, as I will have quite a bit to say about the matter so I feel it should get its own entry for that. So instead here are a couple other tidbits of recent news connected to the Johnny's world.
First off it has been announced that Kimura Takuya is set to star in a new drama for the spring season. It will air on Fuji TV and it is said to focus on romance. Other than that there is no information about the drama but as the spring season draws closer there's bound to be more announcements for the drama.
Also Hey! Say! 7 will be supporting the National High School Volleyball Tournament this year with the song Ganba Let's Go!. So HS7 will have something to keep them busy for this month as the tournament kicks off March 20th.
I really wish there was something for Hey! Say! BEST to do as well, but I'm crossing my fingers that maybe a member or two will at least get a supporting role in one of the upcoming dramas for the spring season.
