End of September update

Hello! I’ve been away for a bit and now I have some news to share. First of all – you may already know that Berryz Koubou new single is to be released on 5th of November. You may also know that its first supposed title was “Sakura” but we now know that its real title will be “Madayade”There’s no more information on this since it’s pretty far away for now.

Next news – there’s already a full PV version of MilkyWay’s Tan Tan Taan. It was made available at Dohhh UP! You can click – here and watch it from Dohhh UP! But if you prefer youtube more – I’ll embed it here for your convenience.

As I’ve said – I like this song and I like this PV, though they are less catchy than MilkyWay’s previous single, but it’s great nevertheless.

Tsugunaga Momoko‘s yet untitled photobook has been announced a while ago. No new information available. There will be two releases – photobook+dvd making of(on 21 of November) and a separate dvd(on 3rd of December).

I think that’s pretty much everything for now.

Thanks for your time.

Milky Way Tan Tan Taan Preview

Hello! I’m having a cold, so I’m a bit off-date with the news. But I have a little thing to share. New Milkiway’s song has been shown in an episode of Kirarin Revolution. Thanks for Nouciel from JPH!P forum for highlighting this one. I’ll post it here too.

I must say that this song didn’t “catch me up” like ‘Anataboshi’ did – but nevertheless I liked it the way it is – a bit calm and somewhat interesting.

Thanks for your time.

Michishige Sayumi 5th PB – Love Letter and Love Story Sayu Guam DVD update

Hello! Only one day till release of the photobook and our fellow Japanese fans have already managed somehow to get their hands on the photobook itself and dvd making of… I’ll post some pictures here, because I can’t but share the greatness of Sayumi. She really grew up even more pretty than she was. Of course I already saw the pictures I’m going to share and I must say that my being skeptical that was there when I first saw small preview of the cover. I was like “Okay, another photobook that starts off with a bikini shot…” But now I see that I was completely wrong. I already looking forward to the release of the photobook. And Sayu has just climbed three or four positions in my personal rating(even though I equally like all of C-ute, Berryz Koubou and Morning Musume – there exists some kind of a rating in my head XD).

Anyways – as I promised – here’s the pictures. And thanks to people who shared them.

There’s also some screencaps from dvd making of – but I think I won’t put all of them here, because there’s too many. I will only put some good ones.

As you can see now – these look really promising. Personally, I can’t wait for it! Sayumi is perfect as usual plus she got even better(like I’ve already said).

Thanks for your time.

Takahashi Ai to star in new dorama

Hello! It seems that Takahashi Ai is in the news spotlight two days in-a-row. And it’s great to see how one of my favourite members get a lot of extra-attention. Anyway – it has been already discussed on many sites, blogs and forums, so I’m a bit late with these news. But in case you didn’t know – Takahashi Ai will star in a new dorama, called “Q.E.D Shomei Shuryo” which will start in January. Personaly, I can’t wait for this – because I really liked the way how Ai-chan played in “Hit maker Aku Yuu Monogatari”(I liked Risa’s acting too – but today the news are not about her) so I’m really looking forward to seeing even more acting from Ai. Anyways – I’ve managed to translate an article from Oricon Style and I will share it with you.

Original article is – here.

Momusume’s active member Takahashi Ai to star in dorama!

Takahashi Ai leader of  an idol unit Morning Musume is to be starring in a dorama called “Q.E.D Shoumei Shuryou”(NHK). This dorama is to start on 9th of January. And this was announced on Hello!Project home page.  She will be starring in dorama which is to be aired in a prime-time, and so this is the first time when a member of Hello!Project group will be starring in dorama.

“Q.E.D Shoumei Shuryou” is based on manga, created by mangaka Katou Motohiro and which was published by Kodansha in “Magazine Great.” The story tells us about energetic and bright high-school student Kana(played by Takahashi Ai) and gifted young man Touma(played by Nakamura Aoi), who graduated from American university at the age of 15. Together they solve many difficult problems and come to logically correct conclusions.
Although in 2004, Abe Natsumi, from Momusume starred in “Koinu no Waltz”(Nippon TV) it was after her graduation. But it’s the first time in whole history of Momusme, when an active member is to star in dorama.

In “Cinderella the Musical”, which started in August and was shown in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Koma theatre for about a month, Takahashi Ai was starring as Cinderella. And also in August, she was starring as Mii, on of two girls from Pink Lady, in special dorama “Hit maker Aku Yuu Monogatari”(Nippon TV). These two experiences helped her to expand her acting capabilities, as well as to be noticed by others.
Starting from January “Q.E.D Shoumei Shuryou” will be broadcasted on NHK every Thursday at 8:00 in the evening.

And thats pretty much everything I wanted to share with you. If anything comes up – I’ll post it right away.

Thanks for your time.

Takahashi Ai in Sanspo article – translation.

Hello! New article about Morning Musume and their upcoming single “Pepper Keibu” has been released today on Sanspo. This time – it has some quotes from Takahashi Ai. I’ve translated it, so you can read it too.

Original article is here.

Momusume. Takahashi Ai “Pepper Keibu is something you should dance to with your family”
9.22.2008 17:45

Takahashi Ai, leader of Morning Musume,
who covered Pink Lady’s
mega-successful song “Pepper Keibu”.

Morning Musume covered a big hit song from Pink Lady “Pepper Keibu”(Pepper Police Inspector). And this cover single will be released on 24th of September. “The arrangement of the dance is left as it was in the original, so I want you to dance to this song together with your families.” – says Takahashi Ai(22) leader of Morning Musume.

Takahashi Ai, as well as other Hello!Prohject members appeared in a dorama called “Hit Maker Aku Yuu Monogatari” so that became the cause for this new single. “It was the song, which everybody knows, so I was very glad, when it was decided to make a cover of it” – Says Takahashi smiling.

Takahashi’s mother was a big fan of Pink Lady back when they were popular. “Even now children and parents dance to this song, when they see videos of those days.” A bit later, in November, another cover of Aku Yuu’s song will be released. This time Takahashi Ai will sing “Izakaya”(Tavern) together with Hiroshi Itsuki.

And that’s all of the article. The most interesting point of the article are news that Ai-chan will sing yet another song by Aku Yuu – “Izakaya”. And it will be a duet with Hiroshi Itsuki. Now I’m looking forward to this, as well as the release of “Pepper Keibu.”

Thanks for your time.

Shugo Chara Egg unit debut live. Sanspo article translation.

As I’ve promised – I translated the article from Sanspo, regarding first debut live of Shugo Chara Egg unit.

Shugo Chara Egg’s debut was held live.

20th of September 2008 16:46

A new unit has been announced on 20th of September in Tokyo, Odaiba Aqua Arena, where they debuted with live performance. It consists of Hello!Pro Eggs and called Shugo Chara Egg.

All the members of the new unit were announced only today, and they are Maeda Yuuka(13) from Hello!Pro Egg, Saho Akari(13), Wada Ayaka(14) and Fukuda Kanon(13). They performed opening theme song to new Tokyo TV series “Shugo Chara Dokii”(which starts on 4th of October and will be aired on Saturdays 9:30), which will also be their first debut single and which is called “Minna no tamago”(Everybody’s Egg), which will be on sale on 10th of December. “Although I was nervous, we started singing so that everyone could hear the song” –Maeda Yuuka said. All people present at the event were cheering them with their smiles.

Original article is here.

Also there is a small article on headlines.yahoo.co.jp I’ve translated it too.

A Hello!Project new unit was announced on debut live performance.

20th of September 16:23

Today, on 20th of September in Tokyo – new four-person idol group unit called “Shugo Chara” was announced. Maeda Yuuka(13), Saho Akari(13), Fukuda Kanon(13) and Wada Ayaka were announced as members of this unit.

“Minna no Tamago”(Everybody’s Egg), which will come on sale on 10th of September is an opening theme for Tokyo TV new series “Shugo Chara Dokii” which will be aired at 9:30 and which will start on 4th of October. This announcement was taken with cries of joy, coming from about 1000 people present at the event.

Characters of “Shugo Chara” are only visible to those who believe in them and they appear in very cute red, blue, green and yellow outfits. By the way, Maeda turned around showing off her red skirt, – “My favourite part of this skirt is 11 hearts surrounding it”, – this act was appreciated by men in the audience with earthshaking shouts.

And also I’ll post profile image of Shugo Chara Egg, just to brighten up plain text.

News and updates

Hello! There’s some news that I’d like to share. First things first – Sayumi’s photobook now has official cover.

Sayumi is great here – but I don’t like the concept of bikini-shot on cover – I’d rather see something more interesting and intriguing. But I never judge anything by its cover – so I’ll see what the book itself turns out to be. And it’s going to be released on 26th of September – so it’s not that long wait.

Next – if you remember – I already posted here news regarding formation of new unit for Shugo Chara. We already know who are the members, what the unit is called and even what their first single is called, as well as when it’s going to be released.

So the unit is called Shugo Chara Egg. It consists of Hello!Pro Eggs – Fukuda Kanon, Wada Ayaka, Saho Akari, Maeda Yuuka.

This is a comparison picture – so left to right – Saho Akari, Wada Ayaka, Maeda Yuuka, Fukuda Kanon.

There’s also a lot of other pictures but you can go either to JPH!P forum to get them or to Shugo Chara Egg.com and get them yourselves.

Their debut single is called Minna no Tamago and it will be released on 10th of December.

Now what I think about this unit – before I start to listen them – the unit is pretty good – even though I’m not H!P Egg fan – I like it from the very beginning. I also like the outfits – though they are very different from Buono!’s one. But this unit is more closely related to the anime, as far as I know, than Buono!

And also – regarding Buono! – it will not be disbanded any soon, that’s as far as I see.

I will put some photos after all – these are from Sanspo.com article about Shugo Chara Egg debut live. I will probably translate it later.

But that’s not all the news. One more thing left. You probably know that audition in Taiwan “Hello!Project New Star” was held by Hello!Project. It was held – because now it is over and the winners are announced. Both on Hello!Project Chinese Official Site and in Tsunku’s blog – an information regarding this has been posted. For now I’ll post up photo from the event and member photos, you can also see them here(hello-project.com.tw) and here(Tsunku blog) – but I’ll post them up here for your convenience.

Zao Guo Rong(16) – Zeng De Ping (17) – Wu Si Auan(20)

Gu Yun(12) – Wu Zhao Xian – Lan Ai Zi

I didn’t follow these auditions – just because I wasn’t that interested in them, but since it’s H!P related – I’ve posted them here. As far as I’ve read – they will probably take training in Japan and then return to Taiwan to make a debut single or something – so they are basically an addition to main H!P as H!P China.

I think that for now these are all news.

Thanks for your time.

Kumai Yurina is featured in “Photo Technics” magazine. Full scans update.

Hello! Cover of the 10th volume of the magazine has become available yesterday. And today photo of one of the magazine’s pages has leaked to the net. I’ll put them here and keep monitoring if there’s any scans to come. If not – then it’s just waiting, because sometime it will be posted.

At first I somehow didn’t recognize Yurina, because she is gorgeous here. I’m really looking forward to the inside of the magazine(because the photo looks promising and because I saw Yajima Maimi’s article in some of the previous editions and I liked it).

UPDATE: Full scans of all of the pages with Yurina have become available – I’ll post them here too.

As I’ve expected – these photos are great! Yurina is always very pretty and these pictures show her beauty very well.

Thanks for your time.

Two releases are postponed…

Hello! I’ve been away for a bit and we already have some news, regarding postponing of Berryz Koubou new single and Abe Natsumi’s single. This is something unpredictable, but at the same time I can’t understand why Berryz’s single was postponed – because it could’ve been released at the same time as AKB’s one(I already talked about this) and now it will probably have to deal with more serious rivalries(which are even can’t be considered as such…). But anyways – we have what we have.

And now to some details. Abe Natsumi’s single was to be released on 15th of October and it has been moved to 3rd of December. Single V was also moved – from 29th of October to 17th of December.

Berryz Koubou single was to be released on 22nd of October and now it’s 5th of november. Single V was moved too – it was to be released on 5th of November and now it is to be released on 19th of November.

These singles are yet untitled. Credits for the information go to tiny from JPH!P forum for Abe Natsumi’s single and to KrO.Chan~ also from JPH!P forum for Berryz Koubou single.

Thanks for your time.

Nakajima Saki’s 1st photobook rumored…

Hello! Nakajima Saki’s 1st photobook was rumored. With no information available at the moment. There’s also a picture, probably fan-made, because the same picture is at C-ute.jp site as one of wallpaper downloads from Saki… But I’ll stick it here, just in case. As soon as I find something out about this – I’ll either bring this post down if this rumor is way too far from truth or I’ll update it if it’s something that’s going to happen.

UPDATE: Okay, I don’t want to disappoint you, but it seems that these rumors are total rumors that are unlikely to come true… The picture above, as I already said is fan-made and has nothing to do with real announces. So this rumor news are closed. Though maybe some time later something new comes up… Who knows.

Thanks for your time.