The End of the Elder Club
We’ve known this day would come for some time but the day has finally arrived – the Elder Club members are no longer members of Hello! Project and the new leader from today onwards is Morning Musume’s Takahashi Ai. I’m hoping the Hello! Project website is updated to reflect these changes soon!
I became interested in Japanese music and subsequently Hello! Project around the end of 2005 and if these short four years there have been a LOT of changes! Some of the things that stick in my mind are; the disbandment and subsequent countless scandals of Kago Ai, Tsuji Nozomi falling pregnant and getting married, Murakami Megumi leaving Hello! Project and Ayaka getting married, amongst other things.
I actually first heard of Hello! Project in around 2003 through the video game Silent Hill 3 – there is a Morning Musume / Yaguchi Mari reference somewhere.
Enough reminiscing and sharing – bye Elder Club~! We’ll still see them do things through Up-Front hopefully!
First Week Sales for Yaguchi
Yaguchi Mari’s debut single after four years of not recording anything has managed to chart at No.6 in the Oricon Weekly Charts with sales of 19,928. The single is likely to sell decently in the coming weeks as Hexagon singles usually have a longer shelf life than that of Hello! Project releases. Well done Mari! Let’s hope she has more releases!
Morning Musume can’t help but chase dreams
The title for Morning Musume’s upcoming single has been revelead as しょうがない 夢追い人 (Shouganai Yume Oibito) – People who can’t help but chase dreams. The single will be released on 2009-05-13.
Quite a pretty title I think.
New Unit: Guardians 4
A new Hello! Project unit has been announced entitled, Guardians 4 – those of you familar with the Shugo-Chara anime may have heard this name before as the group is based on four characters from the series. It was originally thought that the group was simply a rebranded Shugo-Chara Egg however the group is made up of the following Hello! Pro members;
- Mitsui Aika (Morning Musume)
- Sugaya Risako (Berryz Koubou)
- Kumai Yurina (Berryz Koubou)
- Nakajima Saki (C-ute)
This is the first time Sugaya Risako and Kumai Yurina have been in a sub-unit, not including 4KIDS. Mitsui and Nakajima were in Athena & Robikerottsu together. The group will debut with Omakase! Guardian on 2009-05-27. I’m assuming Shugo-Chara Egg is no more?
Guardians 4 will sing both the opening and ending themese for Shugo-Chara Doki!
2nd Single for Mano – Hajimete no Keiken (2009-05)
Recently debuted soloist Mano Erina will release her 2nd single this May, so far there is no release date however the Single V is already listed on Fujisan.
シングルＶ「はじめての経験」
真野恵里菜
メーカー:(株)キャニオンレコード
発売日:2009-06-03
規格コード: HKBN-50114
価格（円）: 1575
The title; はじめての経験, transliterates as Hajime no Keiken which means “First Experience,” I’m not entirely sure as to what experience the title refers…
Fujimoto Miki Marriage!
Following the recent trend of ex-Hello! Project getting married, soloist Fujimoto Miki will be getting married in the not too distant future to comedian Shouji Tomoharu who she has been dating for quite some time now and was the reason for her abrupt departure from Morning Musume in 2007. Apparently Miki will continue her work as a soloist, not necessarily releasing music though appearing in plays and on television.
Oh and it’s been confirmed Mikitty isn’t pregnant.
All the best to Mikitty!
Rankings for Morning Musume & Mano Erina
Morning Musume released their 9th album last week and Mano Erina released her debut single, Otome no Inori. It was certainly a week of mixed fortunes;
Morning Musume’s Platinum 9 DISC charted at No.13 with sales of 14,704, a pretty disapointing result I think, especially for such a good album.
Mano Erina had a more favourable week with her debut single charting at No.5 in the weekly charts with sales of 20,812, not bad at all for what is quite a boring single.
