New Material for Ice Creamusume?
It’s been almost eight months since Ice Creamusume released their debut mini-album in Taiwan and Japan, and the girls released it in Mainland China at the beginning of this month. I’m certainly eager for some more material from them either in Mandarin or Japanese!
One of the girls have mentioned on their blogs that they are in recording for something right now and the blog will undergo a revamp later this month – possibly to promote their next release. If they follow the patterns of most other artists in Taiwan it’s like to be another mini-album or EP, perhaps even a full length album. Singles are somewhat more rare in a Taiwanese context.
The girls will be performing at most of the remaining summer Hello! Project concerts so maybe we’ll even get a preview, might be a bit early though!
Karen to make her major debut (2009-09-23)
All of Karen’s hard work has paid off, she recently announced via her blog that she will make her major debut on 2009-09-23! If earlier reports are correct she will debut under Victor Entertainment, a pretty major label recently famous for artists such as Leah Dizon and JERO.
I really liked her indie single and feel pretty priviliged that I was able to get a copy, Karen’s a great singer and I can’t wait to see what she’ll produce! I hope she has lots of release events so I can go meet her!
New Single for THE Possible – “Family – Tabidachi no Asa” (09-09-09)
It was announced today that finally, THE Possible will release their fourth major single this September and for the first time they will appear as a five person unit following the August graduation of Oose Kaede. I’ve done a bit of an Up-Front and cropped Oose out of the picture above to give an impression of the trimmed down line-up!
The single will be titled Family～旅立ちの朝～, Family~Tabidachi no Asa~ and will be released on 2009-09-09, according to descriptions the single will be a ballad but with a distinctive THE Possible feel. I’m glad the girls are releasing something else!
The single will be released in two editions, a limited edition with a DVD and a regular CD-only edition.
Sales So Far…
Rather shockingly more than half of 2009 has already passed and that means it’s time to compare some single sales for the year so far! Below you can find all of the singles that have been released so far in 2009, if an asterik is next to a single it means it’s still charting. Some of the positions of single sales are actually quite surprising!
- AKB48 – Namida Surprise! (Oricon Rank: 2) (Sales: 134,034*)
- AKB48 – 10nen Zakura (Oricon Rank: 4) (Sales: 103,199)
- Morning Musume – Shouganai Yume Oibito (Oricon Rank: 1) (Sales: 53,950)
- Morning Musume – Naichau Kamo (Oricon Rank: 3) (Sales: 50,313)
- Satoda Mai with Gouda Kyoudai – Bye Bye (Oricon Rank: 5) (Sales: 45,052)
- AKBIdoling!!! – Chu Shiyouze! (Oricon Rank: 2) (Sales: 40,291)
- Satoda Mai – Don’t Leave Me (Oricon Rank: 4) (Sales: 35,349)
- Berryz Koubou – Seishun Bus Guide / Rival (Oricon Rank: 4) (Sales: 34,589*)
- Yaguchi Mari - Seishun Boku (Oricon Rank: 6) (Sales: 34,368)
- C-ute – Shouchuu Omimai Moshiagemasu (Oricon Rank: 5) (Sales: 32,679)
- C-ute – Bye Bye Bye! (Oricon Rank: 4) (Sales: 27,918)
- Berryz Koubou – Dakishimete Dakishimete (Oricon Rank: 8) (Sales: 27,797)
- Mano Erina – Otome no Inori (Oricon Rank: 5) (Sales: 25,228)
- Mano Erina – Hajimete no Keiken (Oricon Rank: 6) (Sales: 24,721)
- Buono! – MY BOY (Oricon Rank: 7) (Sales: 23,621)
- Buono! – co.no.mi.chi (Oricon Rank: 4) (Sales: 22,735)
- Watarirouka Hashiritai – Hatsukoi Dash (Oricon Rank: 10) (Sales: 16,513)
- THE Possible – Shiawase no Katachi (Oricon Rank: 4) (Sales: 15,572)
- Kusumi Koharu – Hapi Hapi Sunday! (Oricon Rank: 9) (Sales: 14,468)
- No Sleeves – Tane (Oricon Rank: 9) (Sales: 13,117)
- Watarirouka Hashiritai – Yaruki Hanabi (Oricon Rank: 9) (Sales: 12,178)
- MM Gakuen Gasshobu – Mecha Mote! I LOVE YOU (Oricon Rank: 18) (Sales: 10,904)
- Shugo-Chara Egg! – Shugo! Shugo! (Oricon Rank: 10) (Sales: 10,899)
- Guardians 4 – Omakase! Guardian (Oricon Rank: 18) (Sales: 10,563)
- Matsuura Aya – Chocolate Damashii (Oricon Rank: 19) (Sales: 4,795)
- Kago Ai - no hesitAtIon (Oricon Rank: 52) (Sales: 1,757*)
- Melon Kinenbi x BEAT CRUSADERS – DON’T SAY GOOD-BYE (Oricon Rank: 68) (Sales: 1,385) (Indie Release)
- Maeda Yuki – Kenchana ~Daijoubu~ (Oricon Rank: 118) (Sales: 1,241)
- Karen: Nakuna Okamechan (Oricon Rank: N/A) (Sales: 1,024*) (Indie Release)
News Roundup
As I’m away from home right now I haven’t kept up with the happenings in J-Pop over the last few days and a few interesting things have went down!
It has been announced that C-ute member Arihara Kanna is leaving C-ute and Hello! Project after five months of absence due to bunions, one can’t help but feel that maybe the bunions weren’t the only reason for her absence.
It has also been announced that former Hello! Project soloist Goto Maki will release her debut mini-album with Avex on 2009-09-16!
Finnaly, TNX enka soloist Karen was recently challeneged offered the chance to be signed by major record label Victor should she be able to sell 1,000 copies of her debut single through street performances and lose 15kg in weight. She’s completed the sales part of her challenge and the single is pretty nice if you like enka!
The Revived Groups are Revealed! (Updated with Images)
Although this has yet to be fully confirmed below are the supposed line-ups for the recently announced revival groups for the upcoming Hello! Project cover album.
- Aa!: Natsuyaki Miyabi (Berryz Koubou), Suzuki Airi (C-ute), Saho Akari (Hello! Pro Egg).
- Shin Minimoni: Linlin (Morning Musume), Fukuda Kanon (S/mileage), Takeuchi Akari (Hello! Pro Egg), Miyamoto Karin (Hello! Pro Egg).
- Pucchimoni V: Nakajima Saki (C-ute), Hagiwara Mai (C-ute), Mano Erina.
- ZYX-α: Niigaki Risa (Morning Musume), Kusumi Koharu (Morning Musume), Tsugunaga Momoko (Berryz Koubou), Sudou Maasa (Berryz Koubou), Tokunaga Chinami (Berryz Koubou), Umeda Erika (C-ute), Wada Ayaka (S/mileage), Ogawa Saki (S/mileage).
- Zoku v-u-den: Michishige Sayumi (Morning Musume), Junjun (Morning Musume), Sugaya Risako (Berryz Koubou).
- Tanpopo#: Kamei Eri (Morning Musume), Mitsui Aika (Morning Musume), Kumai Yurina (Berryz Koubou), Okai Chisato (C-ute).
I’m not too pleased with Tanaka Reina being removed from Aa! as I don’t really see why they had to change the line-up of a group that was essentialy still in-tact, nevertheless Saho Akari isn’t a bad performer. I love Linlin and Fukuda Kanon is pretty cute so Shin Minimoni should be alright, the other two are very young. I think Pucchimoni V is a bit of a weak line-up but Nakajima can sing I suppose and Hagiwara and Mano are decent enough. ZYX-a sounds pretty cool though I wish they’d kept Shimizu Saki as a member. Zoku v-u-den is an awesome line-up as I like all of the members though none of them can sing particularly well, I LOVE Junjun though. Tanpopo sounds like it should be a pretty decent line up as they’re all fairly compotent singers!
Melon Kinenbi 3rd Colloboration Single: “Sweet Summer Suicide Story”
First of all, how awesome is that title? Secondly, I love the cover. Melon Kinenbi are doing pretty exciting stuff right now and I have really liked the two previous colloboration singles, one which is yet to be released. This one is out 2009-08-12 and is a colloboration with Midori†. You can see Melon Kinenbi and Midori† together below:
By the way, I’ve updated the Release Schedule & History pages with new info!
