Iida Kaori’s Son Passes Away
It has been revealed by former Morning Musume member Iida Kaori that her son passed away due to chronic renal failure on July 27th 2008. Iida was obviously overcome by grief for quite some time and has only recently managed to make the information public.
She is due to re-enter the entertainment world on January 10th and an Elder Club concert.
Pretty tragic news. Condolences to Iida and her family.
New Buono! Single (01/26) & Album (02/11)
Just after the release of their 5th single Buono! are due to release their sixth on 2009-01-26 and will follow with an album under a month later on 2009-02-11! Pretty rapid releases from the trio! Both titles are currently unknown.
Single Details
http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/C … ORT_CD=101 (Limited CD / DVD)
http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/C … ORT_CD=101 (Regular CD Only)
http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/C … ORT_CD=103 (Single V) (2009-02-04)
Album Details
http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/C … ORT_CD=101 (Limited CD / DVD)
http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/C … ORT_CD=101 (Regular CD Only)
Morning Musume not to appear at this year’s Kouhaku Uta Gassen
This year’s Kouhaku Uta Gassen artist list has been announced and Morning Musume aren’t part of the show this year, the first time in ten years. It’s not exactly known why Morning Musume won’t be performing this year as single sales haven’t been particularly bad and I wouldn’t say they’re any less in the public eye than they were the year before – perhaps a little less out of the tabloid press – which is a good thing.
Last year Berryz Koubou, C-ute and Morning Musume all performed at Kouhaku as part of the Hello! Project 10th Anniversary Celebration. Also not on the roster this year is AKB48 who have expereniced their best year yet. This again is a little odd.
What’s worse for Morning Musume and Hello! Project in general is that they’re aren’t scheduled to appear on any Christmas specials. They will however been appearing along with most of (the active) TNX and a few others on the Sharan Q 20th Anniversary concert which is being broadcast on WOWOW on 12/6. Does anyone know – is this a popular television station?
To end on a slightly happier note, the Hello! Project Winter Tour begins on 01/02.
Mano Erina’s 3rd Single “La La La So So So”
Hello! Project solist Mano Erina is to release her 3rd indies single next month with the title La La La So So So. I’m imagining it could be a rather annoying song due to the strange title, it’s a little Kusumi-esuqe for my liking but I’ve enjoyed her past two releases so I suppose I’ll just wait and see.
No exact date has been given yet but when one is available I’ll add it to the release page.
Covers for Pucchi Best 9 and Mega Best Releases
The covers for the upcoming Pucchi Best 9 compilation album as well as the Hello! Project Mega Best releases have been revealed. Some are really nice and some are rather less so;
Pucchi Best 9
CD
Not too bad, not particularly inspiring but then the Pucchi Best covers never are. Kusumi appears three times on this cover. Ugh.
DVD
See above.
Nakazawa Yuko
Now this is what I’m talking about, Yuko looks stunning! I’m really tempted to buy this almost entirely for the cover. It’s simple yet elegant, Hello! Project gets it right sometimes I suppose.
Abe Natsumi
A little strange and why is she wearing a rug? It’s cute though and at least it’s not just a stock photo or covers of her earlier works.
Tanpopo / Pucchimoni
Quite a simple cover but by no means awful, it does what it says on the tin I suppose. It’s quite similiar to the cover for Tanpopo’s earlier best-of album.
Taiyo to Ciscomoon / T&C Bomber
This is also really nice, a bit like Yuko’s it’s simple yet very visually appealing. I like how they’ve incorporated the group’s logo and the font is really pretty. The picture they’ve used for the group is also very, very flattering as I used to think some of their cover art and publicity shots were a little odd.
Country Musume
One word: Love. I’ve always been a big fan of Country Musume and this cover does them justice. It’s light-hearted and with a good sense of humour, just like the group. It’s a little sad they haven’t included Kobayashi or Yanigahara on the cover but then I suppose that’s to be expected; they would have very little photos of the two. I suppose they were only featured on one song as well, due to well known reasons.
Melon Kinenbi
This is sort of cool but also very cheap. I like the pictures they’ve used but they could have put in some more effort witht the font and the colour behind the font, it’s a little sickly looking. I also don’t like the way the photos have just been squarely alinged one next to the other. A nice group shot what have ultimately been better.
Shuffle Units
Okay I can see what they’re trying to do here and it almost works, but why does it have to be in a pixelated style? Was someone let loose with MS Paint again or something? I have a feeling this might look better bigger but it’s a little sore on my eyes I have to say.
Special Groups
Ouch. This hurts. What an awful cover, it’s almost like no effort has gone into this and I’m slightly horrified by the choice of covers. Not good!
Oricon Update
Lots of Hello! Project artists are in Oricon this week and I also have the sales figures for some of the artists from last week;
Milky Way;
Milky Way’s 2nd, TANTANTAAN!, single ranked at #63 in it’s 3rd week of sales and is currently at 22,624 copies. A lot less than their debut single. It’s currently outside the daily charts.
Berryz Koubou;
Berryz Koubou’s 18th single, MADAYADE, single ranked at #50 in it’s 2nd week of sales and is currently at 24,936 copies. Quite a bit lower than their recent releases but not too awful.
Buono!;
Buono!’s 5th single, Rottara Rottara, ranked at #8 in it’s 1st week of sales with 22,484 copies being sold. It’s currently outside the daily charts but ranked at #12 at the start of the week.
Satoda Mai;
Mai’s 2nd single ranked above Buono!’s in it’s 1st week of sales at #7 with sales of 25,788! A great success for Mai, it’s currently at #45 in the dailt charts.
HANGRY & ANGRY;
The Yoshizawa and Ishikawa duet, HANGRY & ANGRY’s debut mini-album debuted at #23 on the daily charts this weekand currently sits at #49. This isn’t actually too awful as it’s an indie release.
Ogamana;
Canaria Club member Ogamana’s debut single Spin Rock debuted at #15 in the daily charts and is at #20 today. This is pretty impressive for a relatively unknown new soloist from a relatively unknown indies group!
New Artist Images for Abe Natsumi & Kusumi Koharu
The Hello! Project official website has uploded new artist images for Abe Natsumi and her new single Screen as well as Kusumi Koharu for her new album Kirari to Fuyu. Abe looks stunning and for once I think Kusumi actually looks pretty cute!
