New Arashi Tour DVD

Looks like Johnny's is ready to start announcing releases for April and have kicked off with one I know a lot of people probably have been waiting some time for, a live DVD of Arashi's Anniversary Tour 5x10.

The main footage will be from the Kokuritsu Kasumigaoka Kyogijo on August 29, 2009 concert but it's listed to include some footage from the other venues they performed at for the tour.

And it looks like Johnny's is being kind to the fans by only releasing one version of the DVD.

CDJapan listing. (English)

Arashi sweeps Japan Gold Disc Awards

The 24th Japan Gold Disc Awards, which is a yearly award for various categories within the Japanese music market. This year Arashi won a total of ten awards in the categories, Artist of the Year, Single of the Year, Best 5 Singles (Arashi had four of the five places with KAT-TUN taking the last place), Album of the Year, Best 5 Albums and Best Music Video (won twice in this category).

Tokyograph article. (English)

Usually there is a cd release of the various winners of the Gold Disc Awards but no Johnny's have ever been on it which makes me wonder how the track listing for this year's will be like with so many victories for Arashi.

Kamenashi becomes a sports caster

It has been announced that Kamenashi Kazuya will be joining the NTV sports news program SUPER Urugusu as a regular sports caster for the baseball section of the program. This will be Kame's first time as a sports caster and will be on the show weekly on Sundays as the program is changed out for a new one called GOing!! Sports & News as the yearly line-up changes take place in the spring.

Tokyograph article. (English)

Well it seems to be a popular trend for Johnny's to expand beyond variety programing with Inohara becoming a news caster recently. I think it will be interesting to see them in such roles, and I know with Kame he's probably quite excited about this new job as he's a big baseball fan.

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.

Ohkura's film debut and new Kanjani8 live DVD

The rest of the main cast for Ninomiya's upcoming movie, Ooku, has been announced and he will be joined by fellow Johnny's talent Ohkura Tadayoshi. This will be Ohkura's film debut and his character will be the rival for Ninomiya's character.

Tokyograph article. (English)

And Kanjani8 fans have a lot to be thankful for right now as it has been announced that the 2009-2010 Countdown concert in Osaka that the group did will be getting a DVD release. It will release on March 31st and Johnny's net has the listing up, though it doesn't have much information about it yet.

And to give people a heads up, cdjapan does have the recently announced V6 album up for pre-order already. I can only assume that the Kanjani8 DVD will be listed soon seeing that it will release on the same day as V6's album.

EDIT: cdjapan actually already has the Kanjani8 DVD up for pre-order.

V6 gearing up for 15th anniversary year.

For those following V6 about a week ago there was a rumor reported that the group was heading towards a break up by the end of the year. Johnny's and Avex have finally spoken up about the matter and have dispelled the rumor that the group will break up.

And while they were at it they announced that on March 31st the group will release a new album and will have a nationwide tour later this year.

So all V6 fans can not only sigh with relief but also be excited about the upcoming album and tour from the group.

Tokyograph article. (English)

Various other news.

Alright, I'm just about caught up finally after I'm done with this post, which makes me happy, though a bit worrying too, as I haven't figured out what to do on a day when there's nothing to report. Though I guess as I have more free time I could go back to working on some simple translations again, which I should do to help practice my Japanese anyway.

But anyway onto the actual news to share.

First off Inohara from V6 has landed a position as a newscaster on NHK's new morning news program that will begin March 29th. This will be the first time a celebrity has been a regular newscaster on a NHK morning news program, which seems pretty impressive as NHK has been doing morning news programs since 1966.

Tokyograph article. (English)


Next in TV news, Kanjani8 will finally have their first national TV program. It will air on TV Asahi on Sunday mornings and will feature the members of Kanjani8 going to different locations all around Japan to showcase the locations.

Tokyograph article. (English)


Then there's a piece of movie news. Nishikido Ryo will finally get to be a lead actor and will make his film debut in the upcoming movie Chonmage Purin. He will play a samurai that somehow winds up going through time to the modern age and then ends up becoming a pastry chef.

It sounds like one of those movies that only with the right script, director and actor could it be pulled off well enough to be enjoyable to me. I think it's a good sign that Ryo is in the cast, as I think he's a good actor, but I think like many I'll have to see and hear more about the movie to judge whether it actually would be worth trying to see.

Tokyograph article. (English)