We recently reported that F.T. Island’s new track, “Satisfaction“, was picked up to be the theme song for the Japanese anime, “One Piece x Toriko Crossover“. Now, the full PV has been released!
Alternating between shots of the band members moving in slow-mo and the full band performing the song, the MV sticks to the basics and shows F.T. Island’s musicianship. And (gasp!) there isn’t even a romantic storyline in this MV! That’s right, not a single female to be seen throughout the 4-minute video.
If you’re looking for some good ol’ shots of F.T. Island rocking out to their song, then check out the video below!
Last December, it was announced that AKB48 member Maeda Atsuko would be starring in her first lead role in the movie, “Moshi Koukou Yakyuu no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no ‘Management’ wo Yondara” (What if the Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team read Drucker’s “Management”?), or “Moshidora” for short. The book is a #1 seller by author Iwasaki Natsumi, so the anticipation has been high.
Maeda will play “Kawashima Minami“, a high school baseball team manager, who accidently purchases the wrong type of management book. She buys a book written by a consultant, “Management: Tasks, Responsibities, Practices” by Peter Drucker. While the book is not about managing a baseball team, Kawashima believes in the books practices and utilizes them to transform the baseball team and take them to nationals.
Although, Iwasaki originally painted the heroine “Kawashima” after AKB48 member, Minegishi Minami, Maeda was chosen because she has more experience in acting. Regardless, Minegishi will appear in the film as “Hojo Ayano”.
But Maeda and Minegishi are not the only things AKB related to this film, as AKB48’s 21st single, “Everyday, Kachuusha” (Everyday, Headband), will be included in the film as well, and the single will release on May 25th.
TV program “PON!” has revealed scenes from the movie, as well as a preview of AKB48’s upcoming single.
Child actress Ashida Mana might only be six-years-old, but the way she is speeding ahead on the fast track should already astonish most of her seniors.
Today it was announced that Ashida is going to debut as a singer in a duo, called “Kaoru to Tomoki, Tamani Mook“, with fellow child actor Suzuki Fuku (6), for the theme song of her upcoming drama, “Marumo no Okite“. The title of their song is going to be “Maru-Maru-Mori-Mori!”
As reported previously, Ashida and Suzuki are going to play twins by the name of Kaoru and Tomoki. Further, they have a pet dog called Mook who will also make his appearance in what is supposed to become a soothing song.
Having proven her dance abilities in various recent TV appearances, we can also look forward to cute choreography by the adorable duo. Hamada Miwako, who already coached child actress Ohashi Nozomi for her Ponyo song, was put in charge as their choreographer.
Ashida about the song and dance, “It’s a very fun dance with poses where I’m acting like eating a rice ball or wearing a school bag. The lyrics are fun as well, so I hope you will memorize it and dance along!”
Fuji TV will premiere the drama on April 24th, and the theme song will be released on May 25th.
It’s been revealed that bump.y’s new song, “Smileflower“, will be played on NHK’s “Minna no Uta” from June to July.
“Minna no Uta”, which means “Everyone’s Song”, is a 5-minute music program that plays popular songs along with an animated music video targeted for children. The program gives artists great exposure, since it airs several times a day as filler on NHK channels.
“Smileflower” had been recorded as a demo in the past, and after the March 11th earthquake, their producer decided that it could be used to help people maintain a positive spirit in these tough times.
Leader Matsuyama Mary commented, “I experienced the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake when I was 3-years-old. The earthquake this time does not feel like someone else’s business. Right now everyone is anxious, but in order for all the people in Japan to move forward and be able to smile again, bump.y will also be singing with our all. I’ll be happy if (people) can gain even a small amount of energy after listening to this song.”
Hello! Project’s new girl group, Dream Morning Musume, made up of 10 former members (Old Girl or OG) of Morning Musume, will be releasing their first album, “DoriMusu。①“, on April 20th, and the women’s magazine Josei Jishin was able to conduct interviews with some of the members.
In this first post, we bring a partial translation of the interview with Dream Morning Musume’s Yoshizawa Hitomi, who was the fourth leader of Morning Musume:
Q: …Has recording [for "DoriMusu。①"] already ended? It’s finished. This album will contain hits from (our) Morning Musume days, a cover…of the Morning Musume songs released after our graduation, as well as two new songs.
Q: That means for this album, each OG had to record a song after learning it for the first time? Yes. But I knew most of the recent songs, so there were barely any songs I had to newly learn.
Q: How many songs were retaken? (Newly recorded for the album.) In total 7 songs, and for me, 4 songs.
Q: How did you feel when you heard that, “We’re making DoriMusu”? …When I heard that we were doing a tour, I thought, “It’ll be fun, but the process leading up to it will be difficult~”.
Q: What parts were difficult? Everyone has their own activities, so things like “Will our schedules match?”, “What are we doing about the dance lesson”, and “Who’s going to be the teacher?”
Q: Will the dance will be close to the original? Or will it be a more mature sort of dance? I’m not sure yet. But probably, the original songs will be done with the original [dance]… It doesn’t feel that new to sing old songs with OG… My body is already used to it, so the movement comes naturally.
Q: Wow! So you haven’t forgotten the choreography. When the music comes on, my body moves. My body remembers.
Q: In that case, it seems like everyone can start the tour without trouble. It’s just that, members have changed several times, the dance teachers have also changed, and we’ve done several different formation, so I’ve gradually added my own twist to [the dance]. I have to change that back to the original choreography, and there’s a lot of places where it’s like ‘I did it more like this, right?’. I want to return to a beginner’s state of mind and dance the choreography from back then.
Q: What kind of things do you talk about with members, as the tour is approaching? …It’s like a class reunion, and we talk about stories from the past and then say, “It was fun~” and “Alright, let’s go again! Morning Musume!”
Q: Who’s the most excited? Definitely the 1st generation members Ne-san (Nakazawa Yuko), Kaorin (Iida Kaori), and Abe-san (Abe Natsumi). They have a strong love and a sense of “this is what we bulit up” for Morning Musume.
Q: How do you want old fans to listen to the new album? I think it’ll be great if they can think “Oh, how nostalgic” when they here songs like “LOVE Machine” and “Renai Revolution“. Time-wise, I think a lot of fans from back then have kids who will be hearing these songs for the first time…I’ll be very happy if they can get to know Dream Morning Musume.
Q: How do you want your fans to enjoy the stage (performances)? I definitely want them to dance along. I think the fans who came to see us back then are more interested in the younger kids in currently in Hello!Project. So, I want them to jump and dance like before. For many songs, there’s cheers (of member names) … that gets passed down generation by generation (as members graduate) . It’ll be great if they could use the original cheers to cheer us on.
Q: There’s no leader in Dorimusu, so who’s going to be in the center? Everyone has a unique personality, so it’s probably going to be a scramble for the center position. For every song, there will be a competition for the center.
Q: Is singing and dancing on stage still fun? Yes. I’m most experience in live (performances), so I’m looking forward to doing lives. I want to enjoy it with a good level of nervousness.
Q: Do you still get nervous with your senpais? Now that we’re adults, when we go eat together, I can say things like “That time, Ne-san was really scary.” Just recently, I laughed after watching Kaorin dance seriously during rehearsal, but if this was in the past, I wouldn’t have been able to. Of course even now, I’ll support the senpais, but the distance has shortened. This time, there’s a 7th generation member, Kusumi Koharu, so I’m in the middle management position.
Q: What’s your most memorable moment as a member of Morning Musume? When I first entered, I didn’t have any composure and I spent days where I didn’t have time to sleep. After I got used to it a bit, during “The Peace!” days, when we performed across the country, that would be my most memorable time. I can’t remember where we went, but I remember what we did clearly. Also, something changed within me after I became leader.
Q: What changed about you the most? I started to think that I wanted to act and say convincing things to pull everyone together. Until then, I had older sisters (in the group) so I could do as I pleased. I was the leader for two and a half years, but I was the captain of the futsal team before then, so I felt relatively at ease becoming the leader.
Q: Please, do a world tour with Dream Morning Musume! Well. When I go abraod, there are a lot of overseas fans who say, “I’m a fan from the Morning Musume days”, so if there’s an opportunity, I would definitely want to do it.
The weekly women’s magazine Josei Jishin recently interviewed several members of Hello! Project’s Dream Morning Musume.
This time, we bring you a partial translation of the interview with Kusumi Koharu, who was a 7th generation member of Morning Musume :
Q: How do you feel being selected as a member of Dream Morning Musume? The graduating members wanted to get together and sing and dance, and as a former member of Morning Musume, I thought “I’ve got to do this”. At first I was pretty surprised… But I think it’s a way of meeting the fans’ expectations.
Q: How was it dancing with the group? There’s only 2 members who were in Morning Musume at the same time as I was. All the other members were people I watched on television. Although I was part of Morning Musume, now I feel as though I’m a part of the Morning Musume I saw on TV.
Q: How does it feel to be in a group with people you saw on TV? I’m happy. I’ve had the opportunity to work with the individual senpais several times, but when everyone is together, there’s an amazing aura, an I’m very happy that I can participate in that.
Q: Is there a difference between the Morning Musume you were part of and the current Dream Morning Musume? It’s completely different. Of course, the members are different, but when I was in Morning Musume, our dances where very intense and we had to constantly try to keep our rhythms in sync. Dream Morning Musume’s members have their own activities and their own personalities, so in a good way, I thought it was a “free” Morning Musume.
Q: In Dream Morning Musume, what would be your strong point? I’m the youngest. Dream Morning Musume’s average age is 27, and I think I’m responsible for lowering it quite a bit. So I guess, my youth.
Q: What was the most fun you had when you were in Morning Musume? It was a lot of fun to meet fans. Also, being able to do different types of work. There was a lot of work that I could only do because of Morning Musume, and I think I’ve been able to experience a lot.
Q: In contrast, what were some difficulties? There were a lot, but I entered as a middle school student, so it was difficult not being able to go to school. I was still a child, so it was impossible for me to meet the mental maturity of the adults around me… I couldn’t judge things by myself, and I tried to do things as I was told, but I think I didn’t understand a lot of standards.
Q: Looking back now, do you wish you had more time? No. I think it was inevitable at that time, and there’s aspects of myself that only exist because of that time.
Q: How was it recording a new song as Dream Morning Musume? It was a weird feeling, but I’m simply happy.
Q: Do you want to take the center position in Dream Morning Musume. Not at all … I’m too busy trying to catch up. I am good friends with Abe-san (Abe Natsumi), so I’ll be happy if I can follow behind her. Kind of like goldfish poo.
Q: Did you feel a difference in the choreography of “LOVE Machine” with the original members, compared to your Morning Musume days? It was completely different. The only part that was in sync was the “wow wow”. The “LOVE Machine” we used to do had everyone doing the same choreography, but (here) people have different movements in the chorus. I was really surprised that this was the real choreography.
Q: What is your goal as Dream Morning Musume? Everyone is unique. I want people to see each of our unique talents. So you can like Dream Morning Musume as a whole, and as separate members.
On April 2nd, Music Japan held a special broadcast of their usual show, called “Music Japan Special 2011 Spring Festival“, and AKB48 made a stirring appearance by performing a trio of songs.
They took to the stage and sang “Juunen Sakura“, “Sakura no Hanabiratachi“, and “Sakura no Ki ni Narou“, and you can check out their performance below!
It was revealed that PUFFY’s new song, “SWEET DROPS“, has been chosen as the theme song for both “Usagi Drop” movie and anime.
“Usagi Drop” is based on an ongoing manga on “FEEL YOUNG“, written by Unita Yumi. The movie “Usagi Drop”, starring Matsuyama Kenichi and Ashida Mana, will be released on August 20th, while the anime “Usagi Drop” will start airing in July on Fuji TV.
Both PUFFY members are big fans of this manga, therefore, they were very much pleased to sing the theme song. PUFFY commented, “We tried not to ruin the world of original manga. We are very satisfied with the song which became very PUFFY-like.”
PUFFY’s new song, “SWEET DROPS”, is schedule to be released in this summer.
NHK Radio will be starting their newest program, “KAKEDASE!”, on April 2nd at 9:05.
This program will be hosted by ROLLY, as well as the newly promoted AKB48 members, Oba Mina and Nakamata Shiori. The program will be 1 hour and 50 minutes long with the following corners: “HayaMIMI and Trend”, “Talk AKBeat!”, “Anokoro Download”, “My News”, and “KAKEDASHI LIVE”. The first broadcast of the program will also have a special interview with ROLLY, Oba, and Nakamata.
Also, Hirahara Ayaka will be a guest on the “Anokoro Download” corner, so it should be a very interesting talk segment that everyone should look forward to.
On April 1st, AKB48 members Matsui Sakiko, Umeda Ayaka, and Maeda Ami went to Hong Kong to participate in a Japan Relief Project called “Love Beyond Borders 311”, produced by actor Jackie Chan.
The event began at 7 PM and the three girls of AKB48 were just one of the guest artists to perform in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park. The event had a marathon fundraising method to raise money for disaster relief.
Jackie sent a message to the victims of the earthquake, “Many people have lost families and homes due to this disaster in Japan and we continue sending our greatest condolences. The difficulties in the future are more than anyone can imagine. There is no border when it comes to love and sympathy. Us performers want to send our singing voices across the sea and we hope that it brings some relief and hope to the Japanese people”.
This year, MTV Networks Japan are heading into their 10th year and they’ve announced that the international music award ceremony, “MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN”, (VMAJ) will become “MTV VIDEO MUSIC AID JAPAN”; a relief event for the area struck by the Great Eastern Japan earthquake. This event is in coordination with the Red Cross of Japan and will display things like what the people are doing to reconstruct the area. Furthermore, it has been decided that the MC of this event will be popular idol group AKB48.
Generally, this program is a festival where the viewers vote for the “Best Music Video”, but it has quickly changed to a disaster relief through music event.
Viacom explained, “Throughout the world, music fans are trying to support Japan. So this year, VMAJ’s ‘AWARD’ has been changed to ‘AID’.” They expressed their hopes, “Music has the power to encourage people. We hope that the music fans throughout the world will be willing to offer help”.
“MTV VIDEO MUSIC AID JAPAN” will be held on June 25th (Saturday) at Makuhari Messe Makuhari Event Hall in Chiba. The event will be broadcast live to the 7.7 million households who subscribe to MTV in Japan, as well as other regions of Asia. Also, it will be broadcast to around 600 million households around the world at a later date.
Nominations, voting methods, subscription methods, and performing artists will be announced in a few days.
Currently, MTV Japan is airing a program to encourage the victims through music, and the program is called “MUSIC OF HOPE”. MTV has opened up a special site (http://www.mtvjapan.com/moh) with music videos, live performances, and support videos from artists domestic and abroad to help cheer people up.
Singer Shimatani Hitomi will be providing a new ending theme for the NHK anime “Hanakappa“.
Although not much is known about the release date of the song or the new ending theme’s air date, the song title has been announced as “Ureshii Koto“. Shimatani will be joining fellow Avex artist hitomi, whose new song, “Special“, has been the new opening theme since March 28th.
More information will be provided about the two song’s release dates as they become available.
Singer Koda Kumi is taking her support for the earthquake disaster victims to the next step. Much like other artists who have been donating money, the singer hopes to comfort people with her songs, and is going to start making donations a very regular activity.
Koda will be donating all the money earned by the downloads of her very own three songs through her official fan club. “Kiseki“, “walk“, and “Comes Up” will be the three songs, and the donations will run through March 29th.
“I want everyone to smile again,” said the singer on her official fan club page.
The charity download proceeds will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross.
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...
Child actress Ashida Mana might only be six-years-old, but the way she is speeding ahead on the fast track should already astonish most of her seniors.
As reported previously, Ashida and Suzuki are going to play twins by the name of Kaoru and Tomoki. Further, they have a pet dog called Mook who will also make his appearance in what is supposed to become a soothing song.
Ashida about the song and dance, “It’s a very fun dance with poses where I’m acting like eating a rice ball or wearing a school bag. The lyrics are fun as well, so I hope you will memorize it and dance along!”
Hello! Project’s new girl group, Dream Morning Musume, made up of 10 former members (Old Girl or OG) of Morning Musume, will be releasing their first album, “DoriMusu。①“, on April 20th, and the women’s magazine Josei Jishin was able to conduct interviews with some of the members.
It was revealed that PUFFY’s new song, “SWEET DROPS“, has been chosen as the theme song for both “Usagi Drop” movie and anime.
