According to an announcement on Hello! Project’s official website, Morning Musume members Mitsui Aika and Sayashi Riho will be withdrawing from their current concert tour, “Hello! Project 2011 SUMMER“.
Because of her previous ankle fracture, Mitsui is being advised by a doctor to rest for approximately eight weeks. Sayashi is currently at home for sciatica (pain, numbness or weakness in the leg caused by the injury/compression of the sciatic nerve), and will not return for about six weeks.
Mitsui developed a stress fracture in her ankle last May while on tour with Morning Musume, but decided to continue working while treating her ankle. Although the idol sat for many of her performances, it appears as if the condition was not entirely healed, so doctors are requiring that she take a break.
Sayashi brought attention to pain in her lower back after their July 16th performance in Nagoya, and has since been surveyed by doctors to see how her condition developed. As a result of her medical examination on the 28th, however, the young idol was diagnosed with sciatica and assigned a required six-week rest to recover.
Both girls will miss out on the rest of the Hello! Project summer tour this year.
V6 has just revealed a PV preview for their latest song, “Sexy.Honey.Bunny!“!
“Sexy.Honey.Bunny!” is one of two songs from of their upcoming double A-side single, “Sexy.Honey.Bunny!/Takara no Ishi“.
It’s said that the choreography in this PV was made for fans especially so they could learn the moves to later bust out at karaoke and at concerts. The clip also features V6 celebrating the wrap-up of their video shoot.
It’s been announced that rock band VAMPS will be holding their Halloween event, ‘HALLOWEEN PARTY 2011‘, once again this year!
The ‘HALLOWEEN PARTY’ attracts a lot of attention thanks to the performers’ unique costumes and gorgeous stage sets. This year, the event will be held at Chiba Makuhari Messe on October 21st and 22nd, and at Kobe World Memorial Hall on October 29th and 30th.
Tickets will be available to the public through Play Guide starting September 24th, however, fans of VAMPS’ fan club, “VAMPADDICT“, will have the chance to pre-order tickets starting August 4th.
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October 21st (Fri) – Chiba Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex 9~11 Hall Artists: VAMPS/Acid Black Cherry/BREAKERZ
October 22nd (Sat) – Chiba Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex 9~11 Hall Artists: VAMPS/Acid Black Cherry/sads/SID
October 29th (Sat) – Kobe World Memorial Hall Artists: VAMPS/Acid Black Cherry/and more
October 30th (Sun) – Kobe World Memorial Hall Artists: VAMPS/Acid Black Cherry/and more
Japanese visual kei/gothic band BLOOD has announced that they’ll be performing at anime convention, Dotcon, in Toronto, Canada. They will be performing live on November 12th, and they even left a short video message.
In the video message, each of the members introduce themselves (except Dora) and expressed their gratitude and hope for their fans to come up to Canada. Impressively, they all spoke in English.
On July 27th, AKB48 members Maeda Ami, Iwasa Misaki, and Oota Aika attended a press conference to commemorate the grand opening of their first official streetside shop, “AKB48 OFFICIAL SHOP HARAJUKU“.
This store will be located on the famous Harajuku shopping street, Takeshita Dori; for the time being, customers can only enter by making an appointment. Oota excitedly stated, “I’m happy because it makes me feel like an idol,” while Maeda mused, “I want to be a salesperson for a day.”
The concept of the shop is “After school in high school“. It will feature over 150 variety of items from original goods to snacks, even an original gelato. The interior is designed like a classroom, with a blackboard that’s covered by the members’ doodles. Iwasa, who made the finishing touches on the blackboard during the interview, commented, “Doodling on a blackboard is fun, it’s like staying after school. The shop is like a school, and it’s very cute. I want everyone to enjoy it, and like AKB48 even more.”
The store’s staff were also introduced at the press conference, all wearing cute uniforms. Maeda’s eyes gleamed as she said, “I would like to try it on.”
“AKB48 OFFICIAL SHOP HARAJUKU” will pre-open on July 27th and 28th, and will have its grand opening on the 30th. Reservations will be available through the shop’s official website.
The DVD for Studio Ghibli’s masterpiece, “Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)” has managed to stay on the Oricon DVD Ranking chart for 500 weeks!
This DVD was released back on September 28th, 2001, and has stayed on the rankings for exactly nine years and ten months as of August 1st.This is the first DVD that’s managed to rank for 500 weeks ever since Oricon began its DVD chart in April of 1999.
“Tonari no Totoro” has sold over 1,084,000 copies in total, and although it’s only 9th place in the ‘Oricon Generation DVD Sales’ ranking, the DVD is known to sell twice as much during summer vacation, so that figure is expected to boost with this summer’s sales.
Other Studio Ghibli works in the TOP 100 DVD rankings are “Karigurashi no Arrietty (Arrietty)” (in 7th place), “Majo no Takkyuhaibin (Kiki’s Delivery Service)” (in 80th), and “Tenku no Shiro Laputa (Castle in the Sky)” (in 92nd).
In commemoration of their upcoming third album “After Eden“, chamber pop trio Kalafina is preparing a special treat for their fans!
A currently untitled “Kalafina book” will be released at a later date, containing pictures of all three members, exclusive interviews, coverage of their spring tour, and commentary by the group’s producer Kajiura Yuki on all their songs.
Additionally, the sixth volume of “Lis Ani” – which was released on July 25th – contains a live report from their performance at the American anime convention, Anime Expo 2011.
On July 26th, AKB48 members Sashihara Rino, Kitahara Rie, Minegishi Minami, Kasai Tomomi, and Takajou Aki attended a product launch event for “AKB48 x Hello Kitty” at Sanrio Puroland.
As tokyohive reported earlier, AKB48 collaborated with Hello Kitty for a brand new line of products called, “AKB48 x Hello Kitty”. The new series was designed after AKB48’s stage costumes, and comes in three different versions: A, K, and B.
While holding the collaboration goods in her hands, Kitahara excitedly commented, “I’m happy to be able to collaborate with Kitty-chan, who is loved by people all around the world. For us, this is a step forward to the world. We want to become cute like Kitty-chan.”
“I’m running out of the word cute. Kitty-chan is a ’senpai’ to idols. I want to study this cuteness,” said Minegishi, showing her aspiration of becoming like Hello Kitty. While Kasai stated, “Kitty-chan is really cute. Even her movements are cute; I want to learn from her.”
When the group was asked what other Sanrio character they would like to collaborate with, Takajou answered, “If possible, I really like Kiki and Lala, so I would like to collaborate with them.” Sashihara also responded, “I like Hangyodon the most.”
The first 12 items of the “AKB48 x Hello Kitty” series was released in advance during the event at Sanrio Puroland. It will be generally released in the beginning of August.
It’s been announced that idol group S/mileage will be holding a mini-event on July 24th at Pony Canyon in Toranomon.
This mini-event will occur three times during the day: 3:00 PM, 5:00 PM, and 7:00 PM, at the event space on the first floor of the Pony Canyon building.
On the day of the event, a participation ticket will be distributed randomly to fans who pre-ordered S/mileage’s 6th single, “Uchouten LOVE“, at the entrance of the building. Fans will be guided in 30 minutes before the event, according to the reference number on the participation ticket. Once a fixed number of participation tickets run out, a participation ticket for a handshake event will be distributed.
As the release date of “Uchouten LOVE” draws near, this mini-event will be a great opportunity to promote the new single.
Yamamoto Sayaka, the leader of NMB48 and a member of the AKB48 ‘Under Girls‘, has graced the cover of this week’s Big Comic Spirits magazine.
The beautiful 18-year-old girl from Osaka is the only member of NMB48 who made it into the top 40 at this year’s general election. Not only can she sing, but she also possesses charming beauty, and is a sweet girl to boot!
Check out her cute smiles and sweet charms in her pictorial below:
On July 21st, singer MAA released the full PV for “OKay”, along with her 3rd single of the same name. The track is currently being used as the ending theme to NTV’s “Happy Music”.
The dream-like themes of the PV are a wonderful compliment to the pop-rock single. You can purchase MAA’s single for 800 yen (~$10 USD) and check out her coupling tracks “F.B” and “Tomorrow @ Your Kingdom – THE LOWBROWS remix –” at her official website.
On July 20th, it was announced that Arashi’s Matsumoto Jun (27) will star in Ninagawa Yukio’s production play, “Aa, Koya” at the Saitama Art Theater from October 29th to November 6th.
This is Matsumoto’s first play in five years – his last production was done back in 2006 for Ninagawa’s “Byakuya no Onna Kishi (Warukyure)”. Commenting on how the two were collaborating again, Matsumoto said, “Last time, Mr. Ninagawa showed me many things I would have not seen otherwise. So I am excited to see what kind of new world he will show me this time.”
In this upcoming work, Matsumoto will play a young man who walks through his period of adolescence through boxing. Actor Koide Keisuke (27) will play his rival.
This play will also be staged at Tokyo’s Aoyama Theater from November 13th to December 12th.
Disney/Pixar’s computer-animated film “Cars 2” held its Japanese premiere at Tokyo’s Differ ARIAKE on July 20th, and technopop unit Perfume made an appearance in gorgeous yukatas! Perfume’s song “Polyrhythm” was used in the movie’s soundtrack, and because of that, the girls were invited not just to this premiere, but to the world premiere in L.A. as well.
Member A-chan commented cheerfully, “We wonder if its okay to be here, standing in our yukatas. We are happy to experience a lot of new things.”
Kashiyuka said, “It’s an honor to have “Polyrhythm” used in the movie.” She continued, “Just as the message of the movie says, ‘It’s important to be yourself’, we, Perfume, always talk to each other about how to bring out individuality.”
Nocchi is known to love the character ‘Mater’, so comedian Yamaguchi Tomomitsu (who’s also the Japanese voice for Mater) asked her, ”Do you like Mater, or Gussan (Yamaguchi) ?!”, causing everyone at the event to laugh.
Aside from Perfume and Yamaguchi, Toda Keiko, Park Ro Mi, Panzetta Girolamo, and Fukuzawa Akira also made their appearances at this Japan premiere. “Cars 2″ is scheduled to hit Japanese theatres on July 30th.
On July 19th, Hey! Say! JUMP’s Yamada Ryosuke and Chinen Yuri attended a press conference for the upcoming 3D animated movie, “The Smurfs”, which they both voice acted for in the Japanese dubbed version.
Commenting on the huge FIFA Women’s World Cup victory by the national Japanese women’s soccer team, Nadeshiko Japan, Chinen said, “Since the Smurfs and [Nadeshiko Japan] are both blue, I want to continue to stir up Japan with this momentum.” Yamada continued, “I believe if we combine everyone’s strength together, we can do anything. I want to convey that through this movie.”
Regarding their aspirations, Chinen revealed, “I want to learn English with the intention to become international.” He added, “I want to sing with Justin Bieber.” Yamada mused, “Possibly… co-star with a Hollywood star!? Maybe that’s too big of a wish… But, I highly respect Johnny Depp.”
This movie is a 3-D adaptation of “The Smurfs”, a popular comic that originally started in Belgium. The Smurfs are described to be little blue creatures that carry good fortunes, and wears white hat and pants.
For the Japanese version of this movie, Yamada will be tackling his debut voice acting role with “Clumsy Smurf”. He said, “For my voiceover with this character, I concentrated all my wishes to create a character that is overflowing with happiness. This was really fun; if possible, I want to voice act once again.” He continued, “It was an easy role for me since I am clumsy as well. Most of the time, I used my natural voice for this character.”
Chinen, who has had prior experience voice acting in 2008’s historical anime, “Sword of the Stranger”, stated, “As I thought, voice acting is hard. It was quite difficult to go with the rhythm in the scene where I had to rap. I can’t believe I had a hard time when I had to sing…” and finished with a laugh.
Since Chinen will be playing a smart character called “Brainy Smurf”, he added, “This character is a little bit annoying. But since I can be quite annoying myself, maybe we are quite similar (lol). I am not smart like him but within [Hey! Say! JUMP], I have the most intelligence out of all of them.”
Yamada and Chinen, who are known to get along well within their respective groups of Hey! Say! JUMP and NYC, also demonstrated a warm friendship. Yamada said, “Chinen remembers dance quite fast and he also is good at reading the atmosphere as well.” Chinen replied, “When I go out to eat with Yama-chan (Yamada), he pays for me.”
The members of Kanjani8 have acted in individual dramas, but now the entire group will star together in the upcoming Nihon Television special drama, “Ikiteru Dake de Nankurunai sa“!
Member Murakami Shingo will play the lead part, and he’ll be joined by actress Tanaka Rena as his wife. The “life story” is based on Tamamoto Eisaku’s novel of the same name, and revolves around the main character as he struggles to fight through his multiple incurable diseases.
Nishikido Ryo, who starred in the 2009 special drama “Niini no Koto Wasurenaide“, commented, “It’s been a long time since we’ve co-starred together, and the standard Japanese was difficult.” Murakami also had a few grievances about the dialect used in the drama, which posed an interesting challenge to the members of Kanjani8. “It’s the first time that the seven of us have had to perform using standard Japanese together, so it felt more strange than it did fresh. When I was talking to Maruyama (Ryuhei), I ad-libed and my Kansai dialect came out,” he commented.
Each of the members then gave viewers a message, asking them to look forward to Kanjani8’s drama together. “I hope you can feel the deepness of our bonds to each other, and how close we are (by watching this),” said member Shibutani Subaru. Maruyama smiled as he commented, “Since we’re all the same age in (this drama), I hope it gives off a warm feeling.”
The special drama airs on August 20th as part of NTV’s 24-hour charity programming.
Buono! has just updated their Hello! Project official webpage with the track list for their upcoming mini-album, “partenza“!
The mini-album will feature two songs that the girls have released in the past, “Natsu DAKARA!” and “Zassou no Uta“. It will also feature the song, “FrankincenseΨ“, which was originally performed by Hello! Project’s SI*NA.
“partenza” will be released on August 10th.
Check out the full track list below!
Buono! partenza
1. partenza~Let’s go!!!~ 2. Zassou no Uta 3. FrankincenseΨ 4. My alright sky 5. Natsu DAKARA! 6. Kia Ora Gracias Arigatou 7. JUICY HE@RT 8. 1/3 no Junjou na Kanjou
Kawaguchi Haruna’s first starring drama, “Ouran High School Host Club”, broadcasted a special video via video hosting site, ‘GyaO‘, on July 15th (JST) at midnight. The special broadcast featured an open talk session with the eight main actors from the drama, and was incorporated into a special footage segment titled, “Episode Zero”.
The manga of the same name by Hatori Bisco is a popular series that sold approximately 12 million copies in total. The drama is set at a wealthy high school – Ouran High School -, and focuses on Fujioka Haruhi (Kawaguchi) who attends the academy as scholarship student. However, she accidentally knocks over an antique vase and becomes a ‘male host’ to pay off her debt. Other cast members include Yamamoto Yusuke, Nakamura Masaya, Daitou Shunsuke, Takagi Shinpei, Takagi Manpei, Chiba Yudai, and Ryuusei Ryou.
The SP drama spotlights the encounter between the host club members and Ouran High School’s female students; the sub-regular members of the drama, such as Ogawa Momoe, Hiromura Mitsumi, Higashi Ayu, Seino Nana, and nicola, also made appearances on the “Episode Zero.”. The SP story ended at Haruhi’s arrival and the drama will pick up the story from there.
The SP was featured on GyaO’s official site for this drama and other affiliated websites.
Recently, a trailer for the new Doraemon movie , a popular Japanese animation series, was revealed through their official site. Titled, “Doraemon Nobita to Kiseki no Shima: Animal Adventure“, the movie will hit theaters on March 2012, and will celebrate the 100th year before Doraemon’s birth (September 3, 2112).
Tokyo Jihen have just announced that they will be releasing a new video clip collection this September!
“CS Channel” will be released in both DVD and Blu-ray formats on September 21st, and contains videos like “Noudouteki Sanpunkan“, “Kachiikusa“, “Sora ga Natte Iru“, “Atarashii Bunmei Kaika” and more. The release will also include a previously unreleased track titled “Handsome Sugite” and “Tengoku e Youkoso ~Tokyo Bay Ver.~“.
Check out the track list for the collection below!
Track List 01. Noudouteki Sanpunkan 02. Kachiikusa 03. Sora ga Natte Iru 04. Atarashii Bunmei Kaika 05. Onna no Ko wa Daredemo 06. Handsome Sugite - end roll - 07. Tengoku e Youkoso ~Tokyo Bay Ver.~
On July 16th, several members from idol group SKE48 attended an opening event for Fuji-Q Highland’s new roller coaster ride, ‘Takabisha‘.
The members who attended are Ono Haruka, Mukaida Manatsu, Ueno Kasumi, Kaneko Shiori, Kimoto Kanon, Nakamura Yuka, Matsui Jurina, and Ishida Anna.
When the event MC asked, “Is anybody afraid of roller coasters?,” Matsui and Kimoto raised their hands. “I hate when the roller coaster drops; it feels like my heart is going to jump out,” said Kimoto. Matsui also stated, “I hate when it climbs vigorously, and my legs float.”
Ono, who says she loves roller coasters, commented, “Jurina looked gloomy since yesterday, and I enjoyed watching her.” The other members also showed joyful expressions on being able to ride on the new roller coaster. Then the girls started a face-off, saying, “You try riding the ‘Takabisha’!” and showed the crowd each of their charms, by responding to each other with witty remarks.
When the time came for the members to ride ‘Takabisha’, the girls decided to hold a janken tournament. Kaneko, Ueno, Ishida, and Mukaida won, and were chosen to ride the roller coaster. Their smiles quickly turned into a nervous look as they got into the cart, and they screamed as they experienced the attraction for the first time.
After the thrilling ride, Mukaida commented, “It was fun, but I didn’t have time to breathe.” Ishida gave her honest impression, saying, “The drop at 121 degrees was scary, but climbing at 90 degrees was even scarier. Also, I was surprised because it was like bungee jumping when it came to a stop before the drop.”
At the end of the event, the girls shouted, “‘Takabisha open!“, and filled the place with smiles.
Today, it was announced that AKB48’s Shinoda Mariko will appear in the NHK movie, “Salaryman NEO Gekijouban (warai)” (“Salaryman NEO Movie (lol)”), based on a NHK’s unique comedy show.
This movie, which stars Koike Teppei and Namase Katsuhisa, has changed its title since our previous article, but it’ll still give the same atmosphere and outlook as the original TV series. The film focuses on ‘Shinjo‘ (Koike), a new employee at NEO Beer, and his eccentric cast of co-workers, such as an unreasonable section manager named ‘Nakanishi‘ (Namase) and ‘Kawakami‘ (Sawamura Ikki), a businessman who hasn’t been able to land a single sale in five years. The overall story is said to regale the life of a miserable and odd salaryman.
Shinoda will play a charismatic receptionist who works at Shinjo’s and Nakanishi’s company during the day, and has a mysterious part-time job at night. She will play an important role in Shinjo’s future, since she gives a substantial piece of advice, allowing him to succeed in a large company project.
Speaking on her role, Shinoda stated, “From the start, I have always been a fan of comedy, so I have always wanted to appear in a comedy drama or a movie.” She continued, “I was nervous at the beginning because they have already created the “team power” through the TV edition, but everyone is hilarious at their roles and even made me laugh during the breaks so it was a fun setting to work in. I did my best to try to not destroy that atmosphere with my presence and gave my utmost ability to make this film excellent.”
This movie will hit theaters nationwide on November 3rd.
On July 15th, rock band OKAMOTO’S held at their first online press conference, ‘OKAMOTO’S Yokubou wo Happyou!!!!’, during which they announced their new album, “Yokubou” (“Desires”), scheduled to be released on September 7th.
The four members also formally announced that the song “Yokubou o Sakebe!!!!” will become a single, and is scheduled to drop on August 3rd. The song is currently being used as a ending theme song for popular anime series, ‘Naruto Shippuden‘. “Yokubou o Sakebe!!!!” and “Ai no Theme” were aired during the online event, and were revealed to be part of 14 tracks in OKAMOTO’S’ upcoming full album.
OKAMOTO’S also sang a capella and did various monomane (imitations) as a part of their fans’ requests through Twitter. Furthermore, the band showed purikura pictures, drew pictures of each other, and the guitarist, Okamoto Kouki, even tried to make a fruit parfait!
This summer, the band will be participating in many festivals such as the ‘FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL ‘11’, ‘ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2011’, and ‘WORLD HAPPINESS 2011’. On September 10th, just days after their album release, they will be kicking off their live concert tour, ‘OKAMOTO’S Tour 2011: KICK OUT THE EYES’, scheduled to span 14 cities in Japan.
Read on for their new album’s track list as well as concert dates below!
1. Yokubou o Sakebe!!!! 2. Ai no Theme 3. Hello I Love You 4. Tegami 5. Give It Away 6. Ano Musume Boku ga Tsukattara Donna Oto Surundarou 7. Hama Okamoto’s Jiyuujikan 8. Half Time Show 9. Casablanca Dandy 10. Insane Man 11. O.ma.e 12. Get Some Money 13. Pump It Up 14. Future Eve
*OKAMOTO’S MOVIE (3) (Limited Edition DVD only)
OKAMOTO’S Tour 2011: KICK OUT THE EYES
9/10/2011: Yokohama BASIS in Kanagawa Prefecture 9/17/2011: Sapporo PENNY LANE 24 in Hokkaido 9/19/2011: Nagoya CLUB QUATTRO in Aichi Prefecture 9/23/2011: HEAVEN’S ROCK Saitama New City Centre VJ-3 in Saitama Prefecture 9/25/2011: Kyoto Takutaku in Kyoto Metropolitan Area 10/1/2011: Sendai darwin in Miyagi Prefecture 10/8/2011: Hiroshima Namiki Junction in Hiroshima Prefecture 10/10/2011: Okayama IMAGE in Okayama Prefecture 10/11/2011: Takamatsu DIME in Kanagawa Prefecture 10/13/2011: Oita Drum Be-0 in Oita Prefecture 10/15/2011: Fukuouka Drum Be-1 in Fukuoka Prefecture 10/16/2011: Kumamoto Drum Be-9 in Kumamoto Prefecture 10/21/2011: Osaka BIG CAT in Osaka Metropolitan Area 10/22/2011: SHUBUYA-AX in Tokyo Metropolitan Area
Dream Morning Musume member Kusumi Koharu has turned 19-years-old!
Kusumi Koharu explained that she was at rehearsal until late last night for TBS’s “Ongaku no Hi”, which Dream Morning Musume will be participating in July 16th.
However, during that time she became 19-years-old. “I turned 19 before I knew it… Princess Nacchi (Abe Natsumi) congratulated me too”.
Next year, Kusumi will become a full-fledged adult. “This year will be my last as a teenager <3 :D,” the idol wrote.
Ikimonogakari has just revealed a surprise for their fans in Hong Kong and Taiwan!
The pop band is currently preparing for their two-day “Ikimono Matsuri 2011 Donata Summer mo TanoshimimaSHOW!!!” concert on July 23rd and 24th. Since all 60,000 tickets sold out immediately for both performances, Ikimonogakari decided to broadcast their performance live on the 24th in theaters across Japan.
To include some of their international fans, Ikimonogakari will also be broadcasting the same performance through Hong Kong’s MCL Cinema and Taiwan’s VIESHOW Cinemas.
If you live in either Hong Kong or Taiwan, make sure not to miss out on this special event!
S/mileage has just shared a new announcement on their official website, revealing new event-only covers for their recent single, “Uchouten LOVE“!
So far, these special covers feature members Fukuda Kanon and Wada Ayaka; the covers for the other two members will be revealed at a later date. Fans can only purchase these limited edition versions of “Uchouten LOVE” at S/mileage’s live events on July 16th (Fukuda) and 17th (Wada).
Sandara Park releases an angelic CF for “Nikon”
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Nikon Imaging Korea has just released a jaw-dropping commercial with 2NE1‘s
Sandara Park.
The idol shed her quirky style and emerged as a gorgeous woman w...
On July 27th, AKB48 members Maeda Ami, Iwasa Misaki, and Oota Aika attended a press conference to commemorate the grand opening of their first official streetside shop, “AKB48 OFFICIAL SHOP HARAJUKU“.
The concept of the shop is “After school in high school“. It will feature over 150 variety of items from original goods to snacks, even an original gelato. The interior is designed like a classroom, with a blackboard that’s covered by the members’ doodles. Iwasa, who made the finishing touches on the blackboard during the interview, commented, “Doodling on a blackboard is fun, it’s like staying after school. The shop is like a school, and it’s very cute. I want everyone to enjoy it, and like AKB48 even more.”
“AKB48 OFFICIAL SHOP HARAJUKU” will pre-open on July 27th and 28th, and will have its grand opening on the 30th. Reservations will be available through the shop’s official website.
On July 26th, AKB48 members Sashihara Rino, Kitahara Rie, Minegishi Minami, Kasai Tomomi, and Takajou Aki attended a product launch event for “AKB48 x Hello Kitty” at Sanrio Puroland.
“I’m running out of the word cute. Kitty-chan is a ’senpai’ to idols. I want to study this cuteness,” said Minegishi, showing her aspiration of becoming like Hello Kitty. While Kasai stated, “Kitty-chan is really cute. Even her movements are cute; I want to learn from her.”
Yamamoto Sayaka, the leader of NMB48 and a member of the AKB48 ‘Under Girls‘, has graced the cover of this week’s Big Comic Spirits magazine.
Kawaguchi Haruna’s first starring drama, “Ouran High School Host Club”, broadcasted a special video via video hosting site, ‘GyaO‘, on July 15th (JST) at midnight. The special broadcast featured an open talk session with the eight main actors from the drama, and was incorporated into a special footage segment titled, “Episode Zero”. 
The SP drama spotlights the encounter between the host club members and Ouran High School’s female students; the sub-regular members of the drama, such as Ogawa Momoe, Hiromura Mitsumi, Higashi Ayu, Seino Nana, and nicola, also made appearances on the “Episode Zero.”. The SP story ended at Haruhi’s arrival and the drama will pick up the story from there.
On July 16th, several members from idol group SKE48 attended an opening event for Fuji-Q Highland’s new roller coaster ride, ‘Takabisha‘.
When the time came for the members to ride ‘Takabisha’, the girls decided to hold a janken tournament. Kaneko, Ueno, Ishida, and Mukaida won, and were chosen to ride the roller coaster. Their smiles quickly turned into a nervous look as they got into the cart, and they screamed as they experienced the attraction for the first time.
Today, it was announced that AKB48’s Shinoda Mariko will appear in the NHK movie, “Salaryman NEO Gekijouban (warai)” (“Salaryman NEO Movie (lol)”), based on a NHK’s unique comedy show.
Shinoda will play a charismatic receptionist who works at Shinjo’s and Nakanishi’s company during the day, and has a mysterious part-time job at night. She will play an important role in Shinjo’s future, since she gives a substantial piece of advice, allowing him to succeed in a large company project.
On July 15th, rock band OKAMOTO’S held at their first online press conference, ‘OKAMOTO’S Yokubou wo Happyou!!!!’, during which they announced their new album, “Yokubou” (“Desires”), scheduled to be released on September 7th.
S/mileage has just shared a new announcement on their official website, revealing new event-only covers for their recent single, “Uchouten LOVE“!
Wada Ayaka version
