Last December, we posted a CM for “Eyeful Home”, which featured a song called “Little Dancer” by SPEED. Back then it was unsure if the track would ever get a release, but now Japan’s beloved group will release it as a single on August 10th.

This year, SPEED will be celebrating their 15th anniversary by releasing their 20th single. “Little Dancer” is the first single release by SPEED this year and was produced by BENNIE K member YUKI “Jolly Roger”.

The title track is a pop tune covering SPEED’s own tracks until debut, but also encouraging kids to dance. The coupling track is called “PRIDE” and features OHGA.


[“Little Dancer” Track List]

01. Little Dancer

02. PRIDE feat. OHGA

03. Little Dancer (Instrumental)

04. PRIDE feat OHGA (Instrumental)


source: tokyohive

Solo singer JUJU made a splash in 2010 through her hotly anticipated cover album, “Request“, which revisited several hits from singers such as Amuro Namie, BONNIE PINK, and SPEED in the singer’s own style. The album, which was released in the latter half of last year, stormed to the top of the album charts, and has since sold well over 464,000 copies according to Oricon.

The singer is now set to release a brand new original studio album, her 4th overall, entitled “YOU“. The album will go on sale on the 13th of July and contains her singles, “Kono Yoru wo Tomete yo“, “Sayonara no Kawari ni/Negai“, and “Mata Ashita…“.

Check out the cover and track list below!

01. Kono Yoru wo Tomete yo
02. Sayonara no Kawari ni
03. Tsuyogari
04. If
05. Negai
06. Voice
07. Love again
08. Memories
09. Piece Of Our Days
10. Trust In You
11. Mata Ashita…
12. Antique
13. YOU

===

JUJU has also covered a track by the band GLAY, “BELOVED“, which is currently being used in a Sony CM.

It is not featured in her new album though, and currently has no release date.

source: tokyohive

Popular seiyuu and singer Mizuki Nana has announced the title of her newest single, “Junketsu Paradox“!

Mizuki’s latest single will be released on August 3rd, but for fans who can’t wait to hear her new song, “Junketsu Paradox” will begin airing as the ending theme to the anime “BLOOD-C” beginning in July.

“BLOOD-C” is the latest in the “BLOOD” series, which includes the 2000 anime film “BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE“, a light novel trilogy, video games, the anime series “BLOOD+“, and even a live action film. The latest series, “BLOOD-C”, will feature the popular manga group CLAMP as the story writers and character designers, and also Mizuki Nana as the voice actress for the main character, Kisaragi Saya.

Stay tuned for more information on Mizuki Nana’s upcoming single!

source: tokyohive

AKB48 held their first live performance on Music Station the day after AKB48’s 3rd Senbatsu General Election. The group did a medley of “Shoujotachi yo” and “Everyday, Kachuusha” and had an interesting chat with the host Tamori, who even put on the kachuusha (headband) that Maeda Atsuko and Oshima Yuko gave him.

Many fans have been wondering, “Is there bad blood between Maeda and Oshima now that Maeda has taken the #1 spot back?”. Well, Tamori decided to get straight to the point and asked the girls if there was any bitterness between them, and both girls quickly spouted back while smiling, “Really, we don’t have a bad relationship at all!”

Moreover, the day after the election, the official AKB48 blog had 7 million page views, whereas they usually only have around 500,000 a day.

source: tokyohive

On June 9th, ‘Ariyoshi AKB Republic’ aired a special live episode showing footage from the ‘3rd AKB48 Senbatsu General Election’.

Hosts Ariyoshi Hiroyuki and AKB48’s Kojima Haruna were joined by comedians Tsuchida Teruyuki, Yamasato Ryota, and announcer Tokumitsu Kazuo, who hosted both this year and last year’s results. The crew reviewed the top 21 members, as the results cut down the list one-by-one.

We’ve got videos below from the special, and since there was a lot of drama surrounding whether it would be Oshima Yuko or Maeda Atsuko who would get 1st place this year, we’ve also included translations of their acceptance speeches and messages to each other.







Oshima Yuko’s acceptance speech:

“These vote numbers, where one person gets many votes… can it really be called an election? Shouldn’t an election be one vote per person? People around AKB say a lot of things, but for us, votes means everyone’s love. We are loved, and so are able to hold an event like this on such a large stage, in such a large budokan. Last year, I was #1 and sang a song called ‘Heavy Rotation‘ in the center position. For me, it’s a very dear song. In the next single, I’ll be #2 but I won’t feel resigned, and I will dance and sing with all my power. Thank you for all the love.”

Maeda Atsuko’s acceptance speech:
“Everyone, thank you so much. I was really able to feel encouragement and support from many people. Of course, I know there are people who don’t like me. There’s just one thing I’d like to ask: even if you dislike me, please don’t disklike AKB! This year, I want to deliver smiles to everyone with AKB48. Please take care of me.”

Maeda to Oshima:
“To Yuko…this entire year… not just this year, I have thought, that it was Yuko, and not me, that always, always pulled everyone forward. I would be very happy if you could continue to support AKB48 together with me. Thank you!”

Oshima to Maeda:
“Acchan is the face of AKB. As long as Acchan is smiling and looking forward, everything will be fine. Let’s continue looking forward together.”

source: tokyohive

On June 8th, the 23 Japanese finalists for the “Miss Earth” contest were revealed, and among them was Watanabe Shiho (23), a former AKB48 member.

On July 3rd, Japan’s representative will be selected to attend the world contest in Thailand in December. Similar to AKB48’s “3rd Senbatsu General Election” on the 9th, Watanabe is looking towards being “selected” as Japan’s representative. She was a first generation AKB48 member along with girls like Maeda Atsuko and Takahashi Minami.


Watanabe appeared at the recital in a beautiful red dress. She commented, “I am a former AKB48 member and a reporter for ‘Ousama no Brunch’. I want to make the best use of my experiences up until now”. Out of 300 applicants, Watanabe was able to stand with 22 of her rivals and she was placed in the center; her appeal being her unique personal history.

“Miss Earth” is the 4th largest miss contest after “Miss Universe”, “Miss International”, and “Miss World”. Last year, 84 countries participated in the contest. Aside from looks, the girls are selected by global environmental protection knowledge and action. For the 11th time, this year applications were accepted starting in March. 80 women were then chosen to move on to the 2nd audition and from them the 23 finalists, between 18 and 26 years old, were chosen.

Watanabe was among 24 successful applicants in AKB48’s Opening Member Audition in 2005, which had a total of around 8,000 applicants. She also participated in AKB48’s debut song “Sakura no Hanabiratachi” in February 2006. She stayed in the group for about two years and graduated in October 2007. After graduation Watanabe became a reporter on TBS’s “Ousama no Brunch” and appeared in dramas such as “Bloody Monday”.

source :tokyohive

AKB48 sub-unit No Sleeves had been on a rampage recently with teasers for their “Kuchibiru Furezu…” PV, and now the real thing is finally out!

Check out the full music video for their seventh single below!




source: tokyohive

Beginning on August 16th, Hello! Project groups C-ute and Berryz Koubou will be starring in a female stage adaption of the popular sci-fi novel, “Sengoku Jieitai“!

The story revolves around a inexperienced battle unit who accidentally travels back in time to the Sengoku era, a time of social, political, and military conflict that eventually resulted in the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate . “Sengoku Jieitai” has already seen two movie adaptations, one starring Chiba Shinichi in 1979, and another more recent adaption starring Eguchi Yosuke in 2006.

Berryz Koubou and C-ute will do their own ‘female version’ of the story, which will open for the first time on August 16th at the Ikebukuro Sunshine Theater. In this version, each group will play two separate platoons. The twelve girls will also be split into two theater groups, allowing them to perform more often: the “Moonlight” group (Shimizu Saki, Tokunaga Chinami, Okai Chisato, Suzuki Airi, Tsugunaga Momoko, and Hagiwara Mai) and the “Whirlwind” group (Sudo Maasa, Kumai Yurina, Sugaya Risako, Nakajima Saki, Natsuyaki Miyabi, and Yajima Maimi).

“Hearing that Berryz Koubou and C-ute will be performing ‘Sengoku Jieitai’, which has been turned into a movie, makes me really nervous,” admitted Berryz Koubou captain Shimizu Saki. C-ute’s leader Yajima Maimi also chimed in, “I’m both nervous and grateful about being able to perform a wonderful work like ‘Sengoku Jieitai’ on stage.”

source: tokyohive

AKB48 member Oshima Yuko updated her official blog with cute behind-the-scenes photos from photoshoots for the idol group’s newest album, “Koko ni Ita Koto“!

“AKB48’s new album ‘Koko ni Ita Koto’ was released today!”, she wrote in her blog entry. “The limited edition comes with a photo book. We took the photos with a circus theme. A ringleader (Takahashi Minami), a tightrope-walking girl (Maeda Atsuko), a bear (Kojima Haruna), and a leopard tamer (Itano Tomomi), and her leopard (Oshima Yuko). There are other pictures that you won’t get to see much, so please enjoy them~”.

Fans commented, “I’m gonna go buy it tomorrow!”, “You guys are super cute”, and “Acchan’s so cute as a tightrope walker!”

Check out her cute photos below!







source: tokyohive

Hey! Say! JUMP’s Yamada Ryosuke will attempt voice-acting for the first time in the Japanese dub of “The Smurfs“!

Yamada will be joined by his fellow Hey! Say! JUMP member Chinen Yuri for the upcoming 3D movie, which will make its debut in America on July 29th. The film revolves around the cute blue characters as they try to find their way back to their village before the evil wizard Garamel finds them.

“I’m receiving advice from Chinen, who has experience as a voice actor, so I don’t ruin the cute image of the Smurfs,” said Yamada, who will tackle his first voice-acting role with the character “Clumsy Smurf”. “I want to do my best with him!”

Chinen – who will voice “Friendly Smurf” – replied, “I did try voice acting once in the past, but I had a lot of trouble with it… I think it’ll be hard this time, but I want little me to play a little blue elf!”

The movie will begin airing in Japan on September 9th.

source: tokyohive

Popular J-rock band B’z has renewed their record of having the most consecutive #1 singles on the Oricon Weekly Singles Ranking after landing their 45th single, “Don’t Wanna Lie“, in first place this week. The record had just been extended to 44 singles back in mid-April.

“Don’t Wanna Lie” was released on June 1st and recorded first week sales of 169,000 copies, nearly 40,000 more than their last single.


The title track is being used as the opening theme for the anime “Detective Conan“, and the B-side track, “Homebound“, is the ending theme for TBS’s news program “NEWS23X“.


source: tokyohive

On June 6th, a video of Suzuki Airi was uploaded on C-ute’s official YouTube channel.

Basically, Suzuki was giving an announcement that there will be an announcement! On Friday, June 10th at 20:00 (8pm) JST, make sure to check out C-ute’s Official YouTube channel for the mysterious announcement that Suzuki was talking about.


Details on what the announcement is going to be about are still unknown, so you’ll have to tune in to find out what it is. Hopefully it won’t be an announcement of an announcement of an announcement.




source: tokyohive

Itano Tomomi performed her new song, “Ai ni Pierce,” (digitally released on June 1st) for the first time at AKB48’s nationwide handshake event at Kyocera Dome in Osaka. Accompanied by two back-up dancers, Itano wore a sexy black outfit and performed in front of 25,000 fans, “It’s been awhile (since February) since I’ve done a solo performance, so I felt nervous,” she said with a smile.

This January, Itano had her solo debut with her hit song “Dear J”, which sold 215,000 copies and peaked at #2 on the Oricon charts. She has since released a two month consecutive digital single release, “Wanna be now” in May and “Ai ni Pierce” in June. Itano is also set to drop her second physical solo single on July 13th.


On this day, AKB48 announced that their new song “Everyday, Kachuusha” has shipped over 1.7 million copies. Takahashi Minami reported, “Thanks to all of you, we were able to sell enough copies in a week to get #1”.





source: tokyohive

We previously named the lead stars for the Japanese remake of Korean drama, “You’re Beautiful”, and now another cast member has been revealed!

AKB48’s Kojima Haruna (23) has been chosen to play ‘NANA‘, a popular idol who has an innocent image on the outside, but is a malicious little devil on the inside. In the original Korean version, NANA was called ‘Yoo He Yi‘ and was played by After School member UEE.


This will be the first time that Kojima will star as a main cast member in a primetime drama, thus taking her first real step into the acting field.

If you guys have seen the original, how well do you think Kojima can pull off the evil side of NANA/Yoo He Yi?


source: tokyohive

Fans have been eagerly waiting to listen to AKB48’s highly-anticipated first original album “Koko ni Ita Koto“, but now the wait is over!

Although the album won’t official hit stores until June 8th, fans can already preview the album through tracks that have leaked onto the internet.

Without further ado, check out the songs below, and don’t forget to support AKB48 by purchasing the album!












soruce: tokyohive