THE Possible – New Single (2009-01-07)
TNX Unit THE Possible will release their third major single on 2009-01-07 in two editions; one including a DVD and the other a CD only edition. More details will follow when available!
未定
ＴＨＥ ポッシボー≪ＤＶＤ付
発売元： (株)キャニオンレコード
発売日： 01/07/2009
商品番号： QWCT10026
価格： \1680
http://www.fujisan.com/online/shopping~ … 1282116700
未定
ＴＨＥ ポッシボー
発売元： (株)キャニオンレコード
発売日： 01/07/2009
商品番号： QWCT10027
価格： \1260
http://www.fujisan.com/online/shopping~ … 1282116701
An Interesting Week in Oricon
The Oricon Charts this week are quite interesting in that AKB48‘s latest single Oogoe Diamond has sold an extremely respectable 48,258 copies in it’s first week; a whole 10,000 copies more than Morning Musume’s latest single sold, worrying stuff for Japan’s top girl group but good news for AKB48! Oogoe Diamond is now their best selling single.
Good news for Satoda Mai as well as her album with the Hexagon All Stars has managed to get to #1 with sales of 270,310 in it’s first week! Satoda Mai has had a more fruitful career outside of Hello! Project this year than all of her years in Hello! Project with Country Musume.
Berryz Koubou to Release Best Album (2009-01-14) [Update]
Berryz Koubou are set to release their first best album (not including Special! Best Mini ～2.5 Maime no Kare～) on 2009-01-14. As of yet the title is to be announced as is the tracklist. The limited edition will include a DVD.
As a side note you may have noticed I’ve stopped posting the releases/events for each day on the main page. This is because I no longer have time to do so, I’ll still update the individual pages though which you can check. I may occasionaly announce a release or an event if I think it’s particularly newsworthy or interesting.
[Update:] According to Shinseido the album will include “carefully selected tracks from all eighteen singles and six albums as well as one new song.”
This will be so far the first Hello! Project release of 2009!
Sources
http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/C … ORT_CD=101
http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/C … ORT_CD=101
Ohori Charts at #27
AKB48 Team K member Ohori Megumi’s debut solo single has charted at #27 in the Oricon Weekly Charts with it peaking at #22 in the daily charts. The single sold 3,969 units in it’s first week and for those of you unaware Ohori has to sell 10,000 copies within one month or she will be forced to graduate from AKB48.
The single is titled Amai Kokansetsu and is basically a sexy (slutty) song which I actually find pretty fun to listen to, I like her almost smokey voice and the single isn’t too expensive for a DVD to be included.
You can help support her by purchasing her CD! You can also watch the PV for the single on the sidebar to the right –>>
Melon Kinenbi to Remain as a Group (Update)
Saito Hitomi and Ohtani Masae of Melon Kinenbi have confirmed that the group will remain together after the mass graduation of the Elder CLub in March. This is good news for fans of the group and I’m glad they’ll be staying together.
Whether they release anything is another question.
[Update:] Murata Megumi has confirmed Melon Kinenbi will remain with Up-Front.
Elder Club to Graduate (2009-03-31)
２２人ハロプロ卒業!!!
As I’m sure you’re all well aware Hello! Project’s Elder Club is to graduate as a whole. This means that all of Hello! Project’s original members as well as some of the most established members will graduate and leave Hello! Project in the hands of Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou and C-ute.
The graduation will take place on 2009-03-31 just over two months after their winter tour. The complete list of those graduating is as follows;
- Nakazawa Yuko
- Iida Kaori
- Abe Natsumi
- Yasuda Kei
- Yaguchi Mari
- Ishikawa Rika
- Yoshizawa Hitomi
- Tsuji Nozomi
- Konno Asami
- Ogawa Makoto
- Fujimoto Miki
- Inaba Atsuko
- Satoda Mai
- Melon Kinenbi
- Maeda Yuki
- Matsuura Aya
- Miyoshi Erika
- Okada Yui
- Ongaku Gatas (Perhaps not the Hello! Pro Egg members?)
I’m obviously quite shocked by this news as this constitutes a substantial breakdown of Hello! Project leaving the “label” with fewer than 30 artists, not including the Hello! Pro Egg members of course.
As for the future of the graduates the news is right now that all of them will remain under the Up-Front umbrella, perhaps on different labels. The general idea is that graduating will enable all of the “older” artists to break free of the idol sterotype Hello! Project has given them and allow them to grow as artists. I can’t personally see soloists such as Inaba Atsuko or Nakazawa Yuko suddenly having flourishing solo careers but nevertheless this could be a positive move. Artists such as Satoda Mai, Ishikawa Rika and Yoshizawa Hitomi have already been involved in non-Hello! Project ventures so this may not pose much of a change for them.
Of course Ongaku Gatas will be disolved in March after a somewhat shaky year as a group, I can’t say I’m too upset by Ongaku Gatas’ disbandment as their music never greatly appealed to me, HANGRY & ANGRY on the other hand are quite interesting.
Fujimoto Miki and Ogawa Makoto are already part of a new company(?) called J.P ROOM which of course is under UFG. Rather interestingly TNX’s Tokito Ami and Wonderful Hearts member Mano Erina are also listed as talents, does this mean Tokito is leaving TNX and Mano is also graduating from Hello! Project?
I’m not sure what the future holds for Hello! Project but I have a feeling the winners of the Taiwan New Star Auditions might have something to do with it. Will we see mass auditions next year? Who knows?
One last thing; Hello! Project without Matsuura Aya?!
