Get ready for Janken!

The date for the annual AKB48 Janken tournament has been announced for September 18th, taking place at Nippon Budokan. All team members of AKB48 will be in the tournament for that date while the AKB48 KKS, and the 48 sister groups will have preliminary rounds to send a select amount of their members to participate. The break down for those groups are 8 from SKE48, 6 from NMB48 and 3 from HKT48 and 1 KKS from AKB48.

This tournament is one of the big events of the year for AKS as unlike the senbatsu election that lets the fans decide which girls are the most popular and get to be in the senbatsu group for a single the janken (rock-paper-scissors game) leaves it all to chance. Each girl gets a single chance against another and moves on in the tournament until the one lucky enough to have beaten all her opponents in the tournament gets to be the center girl for the next AKB48 single. This way girls that may be unknown or never in the front get a chance to do just that. And unlike the senbatsu election the results are unpredictable.

IIRC, last year NMB48 was only able to send five members so it is nice that they get to send one extra this year. Especially since they managed to get two members into the janken senbatsu last year. And they will be having their own janken tournament for their group to decide who those six are on June 30th. So it will not be a long wait to know which NMB48 girls will be participating in the tournament. I hope girls that do not normally get pushed get in like last year as well.

The Shounen Club 10 November 2002 review

Onto November now and with the gaps I have by the end of next week I will be done with 2002. Taking a quick glimpse at upcoming episodes the January 2003 episodes are both recaps so I will end up doing those together so it should be about mid-July that I will reach the next season at NHK Hall.

M.A.D. gets an introduction at the beginning so I guess that helps mark the beginning of that group. The boys in it have been back dancers for a while so really no surprise that they are in a dance group. I think currently M.A.D. no longer exists as it was sorta merged with M.A. a while back but I do not follow the dance groups too much to know for certain.

The opening song is Believe Your Smile, a V6 song, sung by various Juniors.

This week's guest is Yabu Kota. He pretty much is adorable throughout and it is a basic get to know him kind of interview.

Then Jimmy Mackey butchers Stand By Me with KAT-TUN helping out near the end. I will go ahead and state right now that I do not get the appeal of Jimmy. There is really nothing stand out about him to me other than he is not full Japanese and as a foreign fan I do not find that exotic.

We get another segment of Club no Ousama. Tagushi Junnosuke is up first and he juggles while reciting some long test, which from the amount of furigana seen is likely in olden Japanese.

Yamashita Tomohisa shows that he either has favoritism to the young Juniors or no sense of the amount of work and effort that something like that would take and fails Junno.

I bring up Yamapi favoring the young Juniors as then Yokoo Wataru comes otu to do some simple basketball moves and gets a crown for it. The last episode only the young Juniors got crowns so it feels like Yamapi is just okaying anyone who is young enough and failing the older Juniors.

We get the return of Nakamaru Yuichi and Tanaka Koki, this time going under the name Tanaka. I guess in the end they decided not to care that their duo name was the same as Koki's last name. To no surprise they also get a fail from Yamapi.

The song between is a Ya-Ya-Yah medley of the group's three songs. We get some fun acrobatics during one as well as who I am sure is Masuda Takahisa in the back dancing for them.

Next up after that is the question board. This time the question is about being an adult. No Junior highlighted is one I recognize though. I do kinda wish I could see Ikuta Toma's shirt better as it looks to have Engrish on it.

KAT-TUN get to do the end song for this episode, and there is not much to say about the performance.

I am not surprised Yamapi brings up eating in his mumbling as that does seem to be one of his favorite pastimes. But he has a large Domo-kun plush and is kinda cute with it so I will still place this as one of his better end segments.

Pink to Grey to be adapted as a manga

It has been announced that Kato Shigeaki's debut novel, Pink to Grey, will be adapted into a manga series. The announcement was found in the August issue of the shoujo manga anthology magazine, ASUKA. The date that the series will start or who the artist will be has not been announced but it can be assumed it will run in ASUKA.

Natalie article (Japanese)


I cannot help but feel proud of Shige for having his work adapted. It is a pretty major thing for a novel to get an adaption in a different media as it helps reach more fans than the original would have. Of course I feel it must be partly because Shige is an idol but the story must be seen as interesting enough to get people to read past that as well for this to happen.

But in any case I am pretty happy with this news as even though I own the novel my Japanese is nowhere good enough to be able to read it. A manga version though would be helpful as the pictures would do a lot to help show the story and I could follow along that way. I am sure many foreign fans feel the same way.

Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou ep. 10 review

Sorry for being late with this review. I guess soon the drama will be over and I will not have to worry about it. Though that seems rather sad not to have another episode to look forward to. But there are two more episodes to look forward to, not to mention the movie, still.

The episode starts off with the last few seconds of the previous episodes. As Mana leaves Tatsuya runs after her to ask her if she really hates Fumie. Mana does seem to have more reason than that for doing what she did but she does not say and leaves.

The next day Mana is gone and Fumie is clearly depressed about the matter and not really paying attention like she normally does which worries the girls and Tatsuya and Tetsuya.

Not liking the atmosphere of the classroom Tatsuya announces he has an idea in the middle of class. Later he talks to his group about it and reveals that it is a plan to cheer Fumie up. 

The guys do not understand why they should do such a thing but Tatsuya convinces them to do it anyway.

This part of the episode seems to be more there to give some fun lighthearted moments to the episode as the rest is pretty drama heavy. But the boys are all rather cute in their attempts to get Fumie mad. Of course how that is to lead to cheering her up Tatsuya only knows.

So it is no surprise that the plan completely fails as Fumie is too much in her own head to really pay attention or care about what the boys are doing which leaves Tatsuya stumped about what to do.

The next day they run into a student that got beat up pretty severely. They try to get him to tell them what happened but he refuses. 

Meanwhile Fumie stops at the gates of school then turns around and leaves. Tetsuya sees this and decides to follow her.

During class the girls are worried about Fumie because she did not show and did not tell anyone that she would not be coming to school. The boys notice that Tetsuya is not there either but figure he is just skipping class.

Meanwhile Fumie is a park just sitting on a bench. Tetsuya joins her and tells her that he will help her skip as she does not look like she is any good at it.

Eventually Saya cannot just sit in class and excuses herself so she can look for Fumie. After she leaves so does Tatsuya.

Tetsuya and Fumie go to the family restaurant they went to in an earlier episode. Fumie still seems down but Tetsuya ends up cheering her up a bit.

Tatsuya and Saya are out searching for Fumie. Saya has not found her in the spots that she usually spends time at. She then remembers that Fumie did mention that she really enjoyed going to the restaurant and decides that is where they should check next.

Tatsuya and Saya find the two at the restaurant. Saya holds Tatsuya back to watch what is going on between the two though. 

By then Tetsuya is able to connect with Fumie and she lets out some of her pain with him, crying. He pets her head to comfort her and Saya takes it to mean that they are closer than friends.

Saya rushes out of the restaurant then and Tatsuya follows confused about her reaction. Saya ends up spelling it all out for Tatsuya who is of course clueless. Tatsuya then recalls a couple of conversations with Tetsuya that do point to him having feelings for Fumie and realizes that he failed to pick up on it then.

The next day Fumie asks Saya about if she searched for her. Fumie ends up lying about where she was so Saya asks to talk to her alone. She calls Fumie out on her lie and tells her that she likes Tetsuya but even so she will still be Fumie's best friend.

I love the fact that Saya is not going to ruin her friendship with Fumie over romance. Too often in stories like these friends turn into bitter enemies over a love interest, especially girls, for the sake of drama and to me that does not seem right. Girls can have strong bonds of friendship that can stand up to something as easy as liking the same guy and I am glad to see that this is the way this drama is going. And I think it really shows why Saya is Fumie's best friend. Not to mention actually shows what kind of person Saya is, caring but strong, something that has been missing until now.

Meanwhile Tatsuya talks to Tetsuya about Fumie. He tells him that he is fine with it and that surprises Tetsuya. Tatsuya does not get why Tetsuya would be and tells his friend that Fumie is not his type. Though as he leaves the rooftop he realizes that there is something not feeling quite right about it.

He does not get a lot of time to think about it though as he is told to come to their room. The room the boys hang out in has been broken into and trashed. They notice that even their school name placard is missing which of course angers them.

There is a noise and the guys rush to the classroom where their placard has been thrown through a window. Not being able to see who did it from the window they leave the room.

Tatsuya and company go outside calling out to whoever is responsible. The guy with the two-tone hair and scorpion tattoo comes out from behind and punches Tatsuya in the gut. Tatsuya tries to recover but is not able to and falls down, and that is where the episode ends.

This episode does feel like it is mainly just set up for the next story arc, which I guess will be the final major one. Though I guess it at least pushes through quite a bit of progress with the love triangle now that it is clear who Tetsuya likes to everyone and that Tatsuya is noticing that he may just have feelings for Fumie after all.

Love that Saya finally got actual character development and I finally feel like she has become a character worth rooting for. Though honestly I personally would pair Tetsuya x Fumie and Tatsuya x Saya, but I know how these character archetypes work in dramas so I know it will not happen.

From the previews the next episode looks like it will focus mainly on the new adversary for Tatsuya that sucker punched him at the end of the episode. That and the threat of having the male students expelled to save the reputation of the school. Both definitely sound like the kind of story lines that will end the series on a strong note if pulled off well.

The Shounen Club 27 October 2002 review

While I am getting excited about the fact that I am starting to get close to being done with the pre-NHK Hall episodes of Shounen Club I do still find these earlier episodes interesting. But I think overall I do miss not seeing more of my favorites which should change shortly after the next season of the show begins.

There really isn't anything really worth noting about the standard introduction this time.

We get Ya-Ya-Yah doing an opening song again. Nothing really stands out this time except for a sighting of Kitayama Hiromitsu back dancing.

The guest for this episode is Murakami Shingo (Hina) of the Kansai Juniors. He is there to promote the play he was in at the time, The Kiss of an Invisible Man.

I am pretty happy to see one of the Kansai Juniors of the time show up on the program. Especially since it should not be too long before Kanjani8 is formed so I would expect to see more of those members appearing as they were pretty popular when they debuted so it would make sense for them to be appearing on a program like SC to reflect that.

At the end we get to see rehearsal clips of Hina practicing for the play.

As with Domoto Koichi in the last episode Hina is just there for that first talk segment and does not show up in the program to perform. Instead the next performance is KAT-TUN. They perform two songs but I only recognize the first, My Angel, You Are Angel, as they have released that on CD after their debut.

And this episode happens to have the new game segment for the program, Club no Ousama (King of the Club). The set up is that Juniors come out and perform a talent and Yamashita Tomohisa gets to judge them and either give them a pass or a fail.

Yabu Kota does that traditional Russian dance, but is mainly just adorable. It is hard to connect him with the adult he becomes as he is just so cute right now.

He of course gets a pass. Honestly you would have to be heartless not to. He gets a crown, which is what those who get a pass get.

We get Nakata, the comedy team of Nakamaru Yuichi and Tanaka Koki. They start with the hosts talking about their name and mentioning they picked it as flipping it around would have given them Tanaka, Koki's last name.

We also get to see that this is not the first time this segment has been done with them as they have the "batsu" stickers that those that Yamapi fails get on them.

We also get to see them earn another as Yamapi fails them yet again after they finish their comedy routine.

After that we get the next song performance, a multiple group performance of V6's Believe Your Smile.

The groups that get to sing are Four Tops, KAT-TUN, K.K.Kity and Ya-Ya-Yah. And Yabu's voice is sadly painful to listen to at parts as it sounds like he is screeching more than singing.

And we get some group mixing for the performance, which is something I always enjoy seeing. Part of why I love Johnny's Countdown so much.

Masuda Takahisa gets highlighted during the answer board segment. The question is about favorite words and he gets spotlighted for being in the Musashi taiga drama in 2003.

The Four Tops get to close out the program singing the end song, Love & Dream. And they finally have outfits that match completely. They seem to be looking more and more group-like with each appearance.

Yamapi has Hasegawa Jun with him for his end segment and pretends that Jun is a doll and makes him speak. So it is one of his more interesting end segments so far.


An interesting episode if just for the fact that I can finally see the new game segment of the program. Though it really was nice to see Hina, for as I mentioned this should be the time the eventual members of Kanjani8 should be rising as the debut dates of NEWS and Kanjani8 inch closer. Hopefully there will be more Kanjani8 in upcoming episodes.

Oricon rankings for the first half of 2012

As we are in the middle month of the year Oricon has put out the yearly rankings for 2012 for the first half of the year. They have the top fifty sellers up for singles, albums and music DVDs.

Unlike in previous years were I just listed the Johnny's I will also list the girl groups that I have already introduced or plan on introducing. Though it really won't make the list much longer.

Singles

3. Arashi - ワイルド　アット　ハート (644,899)
4. Arashi - Face Down (601,467)
7. Arashi - Your Eyes (477,820)
8. NMB48 - ナギイチ (433,421)
9. NMB48 - 純情U-19 (376,302)
10. Kis-My-Ft2 - We never give up！(309,103)
11. Hey! Say! JUMP - SUPER DELICATE (290,971)
13. Kis-My-Ft2 - SHE!HER!HER！(234,339)
20. SMAP - さかさまの空 (167,635)
21. Yamashita Tomohisa - 愛、テキサス (167,635)
22. SMAP - 僕の半分 (165,148)
28. Kinki Kids - 変わったかたちの石 (147,508)
30. Sexy Zone - Lady ダイヤモンド (138,551)
35. Akanishi Jin - Seasons (113,528)
36. NYC - ハイナ！ (110,480)
37. NYC/Nakayama Yuma - Wonderful Cupid/Garasu no Mahou (110,132)
45. V6 - バリバリBUDDY！(78,329)
46. DiVA - Lost the way (77,417)

There is no stopping the AKB48 juggernaut this year either. But Arashi is still doing well, though Your Eyes seems to have suffered from being released so soon after Face Down and just being a lackluster song overall.

As a NMB48 fan I am very happy with the fact they keep doing better with each release. I cannot wait for their next one in August.

Though as a Kisumai fan I would like to see them do better and maybe sell around NMB48's range. I think their next single should do well as it should be for the theme song for Beginners and it has been a good amount of time since their album was released. SHE! HER! HER! mainly did not do so well because the song was on the album even though the single was being released only a week prior to it. So I expect their next single to be closer to We never give up! numbers.

I honestly fully expect all the singles with less than 100K sales to drop off this list of top 50 before the end of the year. I think we should get enough strong sellers releasing singles before then to make that happen. In fact if Kanjani8's latest single, Ai Deshita, was on this list it would have already knocked a single off of it.

I think NEWS' single Chanpakana should be over 100K. I will not guess what exactly the sales numbers will be as it is so hard to tell with them not releasing a single in about twenty months. While the best of album only sold a bit over 100K so far I have the feeling most fans were waiting for the single. And the fact that the LE for the single has sold out just about everywhere is a good sign that sales should be good, but we will wait and see.


Albums

6. Kis-My-Ft2 - Kis-My-1st (304,936)
17. KAT-TUN - CHAIN (133,262)
20. Hey! Say! JUMP - JUMP WORLD (126,578)
36. Akanishi Jin - JAPONICANA (80,331)
37. Domoto Tsuyoshi - shamanippon －ラカチノトヒ－ (80,258)


When Arashi and Kanjani8 release their albums for the year I am sure there will be more Johnny's in the top ten. I do not think Arashi has a chance of being number one this year with the two Mr. Children best of albums both selling over a million each and still charting strongly weekly. So I think it will be a race for third place between Arashi and AKB48 this year.

I believe HSJ should sell more than KAT-TUN's CHAIN album by the end of the year. They had a bit of a bigger number for their first week numbers and there is only about 7K separating the two albums which HSJ should be able to sell eventually.

Otherwise not much to talk about as their just is not as many albums released in a year compared to singles.


Music DVDs

1. Arashi - ARASHI LIVE TOUR Beautiful World (642,597)
3. Kanjani8 - 五大ドームTOUR EIGHT×EIGHTER おもんなかったらドームすいません (181,777)
11. A.B.C-Z - Za ABC～5stars～ (86,803)
14. Hey! Say! JUMP - SUMMARY 2011 in DOME (78,610)
18. V6 - V6 live tour 2011 Sexy.Honey.Bunny! (60,183)
21. Yamashita Tomohisa - TOMOHISA YAMASHITA ASIA TOUR 2011 SUPER GOOD SUPER BAD (55,202)
23. Tegomass - テゴマス 3rd ライブ　テゴマスのまほう★ (44,531)
40. Arashi - ARASHI 10-11 TOUR“Scene”～君と僕の見ている風景～ DOME＋ (26,884)
42. SMAP - THANKS FOR BEIJING!! (25,592)
44. Tackey & Tsubasa - タッキー＆翼 TOUR2011 OUR FUTURE (25,282)
46. Kis-My-Ft2 - Kis-My-Ft2 Debut Tour 2011 Everybody Go at 横浜アリーナ　2011.7.31 (22,807)

Arashi has no worry about staying number one of the DVD charts. There really is no competition, even from AKB48 on this one. And they even manage to have a release from last year still on the charts. It will be interesting to see if it remains there by the end of the year. But they are not the only group to have a DVD from 2011 still charting, Kis-My-Ft2 has managed to do that as well. And this week their new concert DVD went on sale so I expect that to do well, not sure if it would do as well as Kanjani8 but it would be nice if they surpassed 100K.

I do wish they also had the Blu-Ray chart for the second half of the year as well. While it is still pretty sporadic with which groups get a BD edition of their concert releases it is getting a bit more common. And IIRC the Kanjani8 BD did decently on the charts when it was released.

Of course one of the weird things about BD in Japan is that it is typically more popular with men than women, which is why the anime aimed at a male audience will always have a BD release that usually sells more than the DVD but anime aimed at a female audience is still mainly just DVD only and if it does come out on BD it does not sell nearly as well. I have the feeling that this breakdown is partly why Johnny's has not completely jumped onto the new format but I hope BD catches on more in Japan as it is nice not having to worry about being in a different region than the Japanese release for BD.

Summer 2012 drama tentative watch list

Well just about everything is out about the summer dramas, minus theme song information for all of them. I have a list of dramas that I want to watch though how many I will actually watch as they air is a bit iffy as there are still dramas from this season I need to get around to watching. But this is the list of the dramas I want to at least give a try to, and of course they are all Johnny's related.

Sprout - With such a Johnny's filled cast I have to give this drama a chance. In fact I am thinking of doing episode by episode reviews of it like I am with Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou. It is a late night drama so it should be only about a half hour for each episode so it would be a good replacement. But it will ultimately depend on how much I like the first episode. (July 7th start date)

Dragon Seinendan - I am actually really looking forward to this drama. I doubt it will be great but I do hope it is at least fun as that is what I will expect from it. I have not watched any drama Yasuda Shota has been in yet but I do like him from the variety programs I have seen him in. (July 17th start date)

Ghost Mama Sousasen ~Boku to Mama no Fushigina 100 Nichi~ - I love Nakama Yukie and the drama sounds like something I would enjoy. Plus there will be Sanada Yuma. (July 7th start date)

Beginners - Not sure if this drama is going to be something I will like even though I do like Fujigaya Taisuke. I will give it a try though because of him and Kitayama Hiromitsu and see if the first episode is good enough for me to want to watch anymore. (July 12th start date)

GTO - Plan on giving this a try, at least the first episode or two. I typically like the genre and it has Morimoto Shintaro in it. (July 3rd start date)

Yoru no Onnakyoushi - Will be giving this series a try just because Matsumura Hokuto will be in it. It is another drama I am overall unsure of so the first couple of episodes will have to win me over. (July start date TBD)


So that is the list for this season. We shall see if I actually get around to watching them all or not when the time comes.