Arihara Kanna Begins Hiatus
It has been announced today via the Hello! Project website that C-ute member Arihara Kanna will take some indefinite leave as she has a bad case of hallux vulgas or a bunion as they are more commonly known.
Due to the intense dance routines and volume of work involved in being in C-ute Arihara will not take part in the upcoming concert tour nor the promotion for C-ute’s upcoming single, Bye Bye Bye!
For now C-ute will have a 6 member lineup until further notice.
Naichau Kamo Ranks at #3
Morning Musume’s latest single Naichau Kamo has ranked at #3 in the Weekly Oricon charts with sales of 44,121 – better than their last 4,000 below Resonant Blue. Not bad at all – it’s nice to still see Morning Musume charting high! They were only around 2,000 copies behind the #2, Acid Black Cherry.
Sales weren’t so favourable for soloist Matsuura Aya who managed to sell only 757 copies of her single in the second week bringing her to a total of 4,795 so far. Pretty poor for the once mega-idol Matsuura.
The ravex / BoA / Goto Maki colloboration single charted at #8 with sales of 15,074 – I expected this to do a bit better as all the tracks on the single are amazing! It quite possibly has more long lasting selling power than Naichau Kamo though.
New Artist Images for Berryz Koubou & Mano Erina
To promote their upcoming singles the Hello! Project Official Website has uploaded new artist images for both Berryz Koubou and Mano Erina. You can view both below. Mano’s PV for Otome no Inori is also now viewable on the right!
Berryz Koubou
Mano Erina
News Round-Up!
Well, I’ve not posted in a little while due to various reasons; mainly ilness, school work and computer problems – in that order. Now for a round-up of all o the latest Hello! Project news!
Morning Musume in the USA!
Morning Musume will be appearing as the guests of honor at the upcoming Anime Expo ‘09 in Los Angeles. There seems to be a pretty concentrated fan effort to welcome them and I’m sure it will be pretty awesome! Pity I don’t live in America!
Naichau Kamo & Believe in LOVE
2009-02-18
- Morning Musume – Naichau Kamo (38th Single) (Limited A+B with DVD)
- ravex - Believe in LOVE feat. BoA (2nd Single) (Limited with DVD) (Goto Maki featured on b-side)
These two are pretty big releases and both are pretty nice singles – I really like Naichau Kamo though I think Believe in LOVE is pretty awesome too – Goto Maki’s track is also very nice and of high quality compared to what we were used to her releasing while she was a member of Hello! Project. Naichau Kamo debuted at No.2 in the charts, fell to No.3 and then rose again to No.2 today! Not too bad at all!
Otome no Inori Covers
Limited A, B, C & Regular.
Oricon
Matsuura Aya’s latest single, Chocolate Damashii fared rather poorly in the Oricon charts selling 4,028 copies in it’s first week and charting at No.19. This is her lowest charting single so far – just goes to show that a more upbeat single won’t necessarily get anymore sells. On a more positive note Satoda Mai’s newest single has now sold 42,131 copies in it’s 5th week of sales and is still charting! The tables have certainly turned in Satoda’s favour since 2007!
Cover for Seishun Boku
Aboce you can see the cover for Yaguchi Mari’s debut single, Seishun Boku. Unlike I had originally thought the a-side will be sung completely by Mari while the b-side, Seishun Ore, will be sung by Airband!
I’m so excited for this single – it will be released March 25th!
Cover for Kenchana ~Daijoubu~
Above you can see the cover for Hello! Project soloist Maeda Yuki’s upcoming 9th and final single with Hello! Project. I think the cover is really pretty special – the picture is beautiful and I love the text-style – I think it’s cool how there is Korean as well!
I myself haven’t actually heard a preview of the song yet but I’m already quite tempted to buy it – I really like Maeda and I’m sure this will be great. If anyone has a preview or knows of it’s location point me in the right direction please!
This single is out on 2009-02-25 and will be released on CD and casette as always!
Yorosen! Coming to an End
Late night / early morning Hello! Project show Yorosen! is to end this Spring as the production company responsible has ended activities with Up-Front. SSM Productions has produced many Hello! Project shows begining with ASAYAN around 11 years ago – it’s unclear whether SSM or Up-Front decided to part company but the last episode of Yorosen! will end this spring with a new show apparently in the works with a different production company.
I can’t say I’ll particularly miss the show as from the few episodes I watched, I wasn’t overly impressed. The format was quite dull and it didn’t feature quite as much Morning Musume as I would have liked. Let’s hope the next show is a bit more fresh!
Read translated comments and the full story at Hello! Online
