Kusumi Koharu Graduates from Morning Musume & Hello! Project

7th Generation Morning Musume member, Kusumi Koharu, graduated from the group and Hello! Project tonight at the final night of Morning Musume’s Concert Tour 2009 Aki ~Nine Smile~.

Her graduation was announced only a few months ago and she’s probably one of the last members anyone would have expected to graduate at this time. As a relatively popular member of the group with a somewhat sucessful solo career under her belt she’ll be missed in Hello! Project.

Many fans are hoping for 9th Generation Auditions next year, I myself would prefer an older girl to be added from Hello! Pro Egg personally!

Shock! (Covers)

Today on °C-ute’s artist page, the covers for both editions of their newest single, titled SHOCK! have been revealed.

The cover of the Single V was also uploaded onto their discography page and it’s a very nice group shot, with Airi in the center.

I’m not entirely surprised by Airi being in the center and even though I dig Maimi’s new haircut…I do think it could’ve been styled better. I’m anxious to see the PV for this. Let’s hope it’s not much longer until it’s officially out since the single is due out early next year, on 2010-01-06.

New releases for next year

To start things off, Morning Musume’s 42nd single has been revealed along with a release date, keep in mind that both are still subject to change before the date. The single is titled 女が目立って　なぜイケナイ (Onna ga Medatte naze Ikenai, What’s wrong with woman standing out?) and will (for now) be released on 2010-02-10 in four different versions. This will be the first Morning Musume single to not feature Koharu as she graduates in just a few short days, on December 6.

I just recieved my newsmail from cdjapan today and it featured a new release for AKB48 due out a week later, 2010-02-17. So far the single remains Untitled but according to the description, it will feature a graduation song and both versions of the single(from what I’ve seen as of now) are CD+DVD editions, both featuring different Music Videos.

Also on E-hon’s page it was revealed that Mano Erina will be releasing a new Image DVD titled Mano Guide in Yakushima which release date is on 2010-01-27. We can assume that there might be an upcoming Photobook announcement a few days before the DVD release date as it has been the custom with the most recent Hello!Project Photobook releases as of late.

Guardians 4 also have a single announced for next year, the title being ‘Going on!’ which will be going on sale on 2010-01-27 with the Single V coming out the week after on 2010-02-03.

And Mano Erina also has a new single announced for next year, due out on 2010-02-24 and so far the title has been revealed to be 春の嵐 (Haru no Arashi) and it will be released in two limited editions along with one regular edition.

And lastly, Tsunku has finally announced that S/mileage will be graduating from Hello! Project Eggs status and having their official debut under the Hello! Project umbrella during spring of next year. Something which I’m really looking forward to since I’ve enjoyed all of their indies releases.

Seems next year will be full of Hello! Project releases. Which is a very good thing in my book. ^^

Hello everyone !

Hey guys, just a quick little intro post so everyone knows who I am since I’ll be helping out around here.

I’m Sheila, 21 and live in an island called Puerto Rico. Born and raised there and currently attending college here too. I got into Hello! Project thanks to playing Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! way back in the day…two years ago really. ^_^ Morning Musume’s ‘恋のダンズサイと’ was a song in the game and I got hooked from there…that song is still one of my favorites to play in game.

I also have a twitter so if anyone would like to follow me, feel free to. My user is 007kiki and I tweet about just about everything…^^

All right people, a catch up post shall be up soon with info on some new releases that are coming up next year…one of them being something I’m sure that a lot of people will be interested in.

Updates to follow

There has been a distinct lack of updates around here lately, sorry about that. The university I go to in Tokyo has a crazy amount of classes per week and the homework is also pretty taxing!

I’ll try and get into posting at least a few updates a week!

Also, if anyone would like to try their hand at writing for this blog comment and I’ll contact you by email.

New Singles for C-ute & S/mileage

It was announced yesterday that C-ute will release their 11th single this coming 2010-01-06 – the first major Hello! Project release of the new year. It will also be the group’s first single as a 5 member group, I’m hoping it’s something a bit more enjoyable than everything they released in 2009! The single is titled SHOCK!

S/mileage will release their 3rd indies single entitled スキちゃん (Suki Chan) this month on 2009-11-23, the group will most likely make their major debut next year though as their indie singles are published on TNX it’s unclear if they’ll debut under Hello! Project or TNX – I’m hoping Hello! Project!

 

Record Sales for AKB48

AKB48’s latest single RIVER has sold a staggering 178,579 copies in it’s 1st week of sales and ranked at #1 in the Oricon Charts – a first for AKB48.

These sales are really very impressive for an idol group and AKB48 seem to be going up and up in terms of sales and popularity, the area where I live is literally covered in posters for the group and it’s surprising all the different places the girls crop up both as a group and individually.

The single ranked at #4 today, one place ahead of Morning Musume’s newest single “Kimagure Princess -” not looking too good for Morning Musume!

I’m not really a fan of the direction AKB48’s music has taken and for me, they were at their best in 2007. Still congratulations to the group!