Archives by Tag 'AKB48'

Tomomi Itano of AKB48 is debuting as a solo singer and a new “Muse” of Samantha Thavasa

 Tomomi Itano(/板野友美)  http://tomomiitano.jp/,  one of the 20 original members( only six of whom still remain as current members) of  AKB48, the most popular young female idol group in Japan at the moment, debuted as a solo singer releasing her first single music CD ＋DVD　”Dear J” on this Jan.26th. like I referred to here before.

“Dear J” has four types of Type-A, Type-B,Type-C, and the Theater Type each of which include different B-side respectively (A is with”TUNNEL”, B  with”Stay by my side”, c with”Thank you”, and  Theater with “Tsundere !”), the first editions of each types include a special display, raw-photos of Itano, and lottery tickets of related events. 

 

As an incumbent member of AKB, she is the second solo singer following the first solo singer, Meshibe Ohhori(/大堀めしべ or  MegumiOhhori / 大堀恵) who is currently a member of SDN48, with “Amai Kokansetsu”(/甘い股関節,  sweet hip joints).　 

Itano also became a new “Muse” of  “Samantha Thavasa”, a popular brand-name bags and jewelry of  Samantha Thavasa Japan Limited http://www.samantha.co.jp/ .  A “Muse” is an “image leader” of the brand and worldwide famous celebrities, such as Beyonce, Paris Hilton, Penelope& Monica Cruz, and so forth. Itano is the first Japanese female musician to be a Muse. 

Itano has been working as the “fashion leader of AKB” and Samantha Thavasa Japan Limited appointed her a new Muse  last December making much of her such public image. So, Itano hosted a press conference announcing the collaborated project of  promoting her singing performance of her above mentioned first song and the brand of that company at Samantha Thavasa DELUXE Omotesando GATES on the 25th.

Such projects of  a tie-up of AKB’s  music and fashion culture or products are expected to draw attentions of the public which may lead to a huge revenues and popularity. Actually, Itano is the only member that is allowed to dye her hair brown as a symbolic character of a “contemporary high school girl” by Yasushi Akimoto, the general producer of AKB. She was also rated 7th at the “General Election of AKB48 2009 ” (a popularity poll of AKB members by fans) and 4th last year 2010, because of which she is said to be one of the “Golden Seven Members”(namely, Yuko oshima/ 大島優子, Atsuko Maeda/前田敦子, Mariko Shinoda/篠田麻里子, Minami Takahashi/高橋みなみ, Mayu Watanabe/渡辺麻友, Haruna  Kojima/小嶋陽菜, and Tomomi Itano) who are constantly the top  seven popular members.

“Not yet” from AKB48 is debuting

  A new spin-off group from AKB48, currently the most popular national young female idol group is anounced to going to release its debut single CD on this coming Mar. 16th   on the Jan.21 at the AKB48’s “AKB48 Request Hour Setlist Best 100  2011”, its annual concert this year at  SHIBUYA-AX  in Tokyo.    

The name of the new spin-off group is “Not yet” , consisting of four popular members,namely, Yuko Oshima(/大島優子), Rie Kitahara(/北原里英), Rino Sashihara（/指原莉乃）, and Yui Yokoyama(/横山由衣).  Oshima is  the winner of the “gereral election of AKB48” last year and Yokoyama is a new regular member having  been promoted from  traineeship just last October.    

 The four members announced they are going to debut as  Not yet and release the first CD “Shumatsu Not yet”(/週末Not yet,  A Weekend Not  yet).  This song was written by Yasushi Akimoto (/秋元康), AKB’s  general producer as all the other songs of AKB, SKE, SDN, and NMB.  Yet it was composed by Jun Abe(/安部純), some of whose songs in the past  were for anime works, and arranged by Daisuke Suzuki(/鈴木大輔), a member of  “GIRL NEXT DOOR”, one of the currently top popular J-pop music groups.

AKB has already accrued some smaller groups, such as “Chocholove From AKB48”, “No Sleeves(/ノースリーブス)”, “Watarirouka Hashiritai（/渡り廊下走り隊）”, “Team Dragon From AKB48″, and”French Kiss”. And just recently Tomomi Itano(/板野友美), one of the original members and quite popular one debuted as a solo singer.  Most of those “subgroups of AKB” are so popular themselves and the constituting members are usually supported by their entertainment agencies respectively. Actually, three of the four members of Not yet are entertainers of  Ohta Pro.(/太田プロ), an influentioal talent agency http://www.ohtapro.co.jp/.

Those groups and members will hopefully establish good rivalry with one another to enhance their talents even more.

Kana Uemura, No Sleeves, and the Kouhaku Effect

According to the Oricon ranking, singer-songwriter Kana Uemura recently made her first appearance on NHK’s year-end music show Kouhaku Uta Gassen. Her latest song, “Toilet no Kamisama,” has been receiving a lot of attention since then. Due to the so-called “Kouhaku effect,” the song not only reached #1 on the download charts, but it sold 11,000 copies this past week to achieve #1 on Oricon’s single sales rankings, marking Uemura’s first time ever at the top of the charts.

“Toilet no Kamisama” was first released as part of Uemura’s mini-album “Watashi no Kakeratachi” in March 2010. The song became popular as a digital download later that year, and she released it as her 10th CD single on November 24. However, the song debuted at #12 and never broke the Top 10 before this past week.

The last time that a single rose to #1 from a spot outside the Top 10 in the preceding week was in 2004, when Kanjani8’s “Naniwa Iroha Bushi” started out as a Kansai-only release and then began selling nationwide.

Also thanks to the Kouhaku effect, idol group AKB48 saw their singles climb the rankings to place four of them in the Top 10. “Chance no Junban” and “Heavy Rotation” were already in the Top 10 in the previous week but rose to #2 and #3 (from #3 and #8), while “Beginner” and “Ponytail to Chou-chou” jumped to #5 and #9 (from #11 and #25). This is the first time that a female group has had four singles rank in the weekly Top 10. Including female solo artists, they are only the second to achieve that, tying with Hikaru Utada’s record from 1999.

Many other artists’ singles benefited from appearances on Kouhaku or other music shows at the end of the year. These included SNSD’s “Gee” (#13 to #6), EXILE’s “I Wish For You” (#20 to #7), Ikimono Gakari’s “Arigatou” (#40 to #15), KARA’s “Mister” (#33 to #18), and Fuyumi Sakamoto’s “Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru” (#48 to #29).

Dating game AKB 1/48 Idol to Koi Shitara reaches 250,000 reserved copies

AKB 1/48 Fall In Love With An Idol lets players “date” all 48 idols from the group. The goal of the game is to win the heart of your favorite idol. Each idol did their own voice acting plus posed for photos. There are 10,000 pictures of the idols and over 80 minutes of video to watch. The AKB48 virtual dating game “AKB 1/48 Idol to Koi Shitara…” (PlayStation Portable) is being released this week on December 23.The game has already reached 250,000 reserved copies.and at this pace it is predicted that the game will eventually sell at least 500,000 copies.

2010 Was AKB48 and Arashi Year

AKB48 and Arashi（嵐）took every slot in the top-10 best-selling singles software ranking list of 2010, entertainment information provider Oricon Co. said.

AKB48 had four titles in the top 10, including the CD “Beginner,” which came out on top with 950,000 copies sold, while Arashi took the remaining six places.

Arashi had combined sales of almost ¥17.2 billion, an increase of ¥2.5 billion from last year’s total. They are the first Johnny’s act to top the rankings in two consecutive years, and the first artist to do so since Inoue Yosui (井上陽水),62, did it in 1974-75. Arashi also ranked top in a record seven different categories.

D-BOYS’ Araki co-stars with AKB48’s Kikuchi, Nakagawa in “X Game” film

D-BOYS member Hirofumi Araki (荒木宏文) will star in a new movie with AKB48 members Ayaka Kikuchi (菊地あやか) and Haruka Nakagawa (仲川遥香). The film is titled “X Game” (read as “Batsu Game”) and is based on the suspense novel of the same name by writer Yusuke Yamada（山田悠介）. Read the rest of this entry »

AKB48 Mai Oshima makes solo debut

Mai Oshima (大島麻衣) will make her solo debut on May 5 with a song titled “Mendokusai Aijo” (メンドクサイ愛情/Troublesome Love). The song will also be available as a ring tune for cell phones (Chaku-uta). Read the rest of this entry »

AKB48 set an astonishing record again~”Sakura no Shiori” hit the No.1 and something more at the Oricon Weekly Chart

  AKB48, a young female idol group now has become a nationally popular idol group, which I referred to on previous pages (such as,  http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2009/11/24/kouhaku-performers-names-revealed/  ) a few times here, hit the number one at the Oricon Weekly Chart under the date of  the Mar.1st  issued on  this 23rd with their latest CD, “Sakura no Shiori”(/桜の栞、The Bookmarker of  The Cherry Blossoms).    That CD , which was releaesd on this Feb.17th, sold estimated 229,528 copies  on the first day ,which made the CD  No.1  in the Oricon Day Chart of that date. 

 

However, what is more,  the CD sold 318,000   copies in the first week, which hit the  No.1 in the Oricon Weekly Chart as well.  It is for the first time that  a   single CD  of a female singers’ group sold more than 300,000 copies in the first  week of  the release in eight years and four months since  Morning Musume’s “Mr.Moonlight ~Ai no BigBand~” (/Mr.Moonlight～愛のビッグバンド～).

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AKB48 ×Waratte Iitomo

AKB48 made their debut on popular long-running noon show　Waratte Iitomo（笑っていいとも!）. Read the rest of this entry »