The 40th single for Morning Musume. Amazingly enough Risa and Ai have been around since the 13th single, so this is pretty big for them at least!

Highlights:
- Reina’s solos stood out to me as the best.
- The pseudo-rap part was definitely cool. I’d like to see if Aika could rap in future songs lol.
- Ai’s second outfit (the white one) looked great on her. Made her look more mature.
- The choreography was decent as well.
- Most of the group had decent face time which is unusual. I’m happy to be seeing more of Jun Jun and Lin Lin.

sources: 1, 2

GUARDIANS 4′s second single is coming out September 2nd appropriately titled “School days”. School days will be the second theme for the anime “Shugo Chara Doki”. GUARDIANS 4 is made up of Aika Mitsui (Morning Musume), Risako Sugaya (Berryz Koubou), Yurina Kumai (Berryz Koubou) and Saki Nakajima (°C-ute)

Personally I like this better than their first release. It’s pretty campy, but then again it’s anime so that’s allowed. I feel like the vocals are stronger here as well. Here’s hoping the PV (if there is one) won’t be as bad as the last one.

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Morning Musume’s next single will be released August 12, 2009.

Source: ampedchoz@ JPM

Nono and Mos Burger

In recent news, Tsuji is promoting the new Mos Burger “Wai Wai” kids set, the Mos Burger version of a McD’s Happy Meal for 440 yen.While posing with the Mos Burger mascot Mossan, she make a joking suggestion of her own idea for a new addition to the Mos menu:

“What about a burger you roll up and skewer like a dango?” Laughing, she immediately retracted with, “Wait no, nevermind.”

Mos Burger is one of the many native burger chains here in Japan, alongside First Kitchen, Freshness Burger, Lotteria, Becker’s, and of course the usual American staples: Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Burger King, and even Subway (no burgers there!). Mos is arguably the most popular, as the food ordered there is prepared when the order is placed, making it fresh and hot.

If you didn’t catch it the first time her is Nono and Yaguchi Mari’s CM for Mos Do/Mos Burger:

source; source

Maki Goto releases 1st mini album

Maki Goto will finally be getting her first physical release on avex, after being with the company for over one year. It will be released under the “SWEET BLACK” name on September 16th. The mini album will reportedly include 8 songs, 4 pvs, a deluxe booklet, and a mini drama.

SWEET BLACK feat.MAKI GOTO (アーティスト)
価格： ￥ 3,150
発売予定日は2009年9月16日です
# CD (2009/9/16)
# ディスク枚数: 2
# レーベル: エイベックス・マーケティング(株)

source; source

Rika Ishikawa to tango with Marcia in upcoming musical

Singer, model and actress Riki Ishikawa, 24, formerly of girl group Morning Musume, is set to perform with singer-actress Marcia, 40, in their upcoming stage musical “Opera do Malandro Rio de Janeiro 1941.”

Set in 1940s Brazil, Ishikawa plays Ludmila – a young hottie from a well-to-do family who returns to Rio. She tries to court the affections of Max Overseas – a big-time pimp and smuggler – played by actor Tetsuya Bessho, 43.

Marcia, herself of Brazilian descent, plays Margot – a cabaret singer and prostitute who is in love with Max Overseas – and finds herself competing with the young Ludmila.

Bessho said at the press event held in Tokyo: “Seeing the girls fight over me on stage is just awesome. I urge everyone to come check it out.”

Ishikawa said: “I’ve worked with Marcia on stage once before, but if I hadn’t, I think I’d be scared,” to which Marica replied tongue-in-cheek: “You are the scary one.”

“Opera do Malandro” will be performed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space in Ikebukuro from July 25 to Aug 2.

source; source

Arihara Kanna has left °C-ute and Hello!Project as of July 9th. Arihara worked hard after she joined Hello!Project in the 2004 audition, joined °C-ute in 2006, and as their member, she had a major debut the year after.

She stopped appearing on the stage since February this year due to a medical condition caused by a bunion. She expected to receive treatment for it and continue activities with °C-ute, but now decided to leave °C-ute and Hello!Project and return back to the life of a normal girl.

Their had been talk among fans for quite awhile about whether Kanna would return as the usual recovery time for bunions if roughly 6-8 weeks. Rumors have been flying about Kanna having a boyfriend and that is why UFA decided to pull her out (that would be when she was pulled out for surgery). Still, no credible sources have come out so take it with a grain of salt. I’m sad she’s leaving, but if this is what she wants then I wish her the best of luck.

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Korea-Japan project audition show ‘Great Tokyo Girls’ 15 finalists have been revealed. The 15 were chosen out of the 2500 participants.

The finalists ranged from 27 corporate worker to middle school 3rd year student cum ex Swi.T member, to model off Ceci photoshoots. The finalists were picked by the producer of ‘Morning Musume’ looking at their online audition videos submitted.

The winners from this audition show will form the group ‘Hello Project’.

In the photo: Hong Ji Yeon (18), Kim Yoo Bin (23), KIm Jung Eun (27), So Yoo Mi (18), Kang Da Yeon (15), Kim Cho Hye (21), Yang Yoon Soo (17), Song Ji Eun (18), Kang Mi Kyung (21), Lee Hae Ri (17), Oh Mi Na (21), Ahn Ha Yeong (23), Ahn So Ri (22) and Lee Soo Jin (23).

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Great to see they’re already playing up the lolita concept by dressing them all in EGL clothes /sarcasm. The range of ages is a little different than I expected: 15 to 27. Perhaps Kim Jung Eun (27) will be the Korean Nakazawa Yuko? I’m reserving judgement until a) we get a bigger picture, more background info and b) actual show footage of these girls singing.

As announced earlier the Kpop group After School did the theme for the Hello! Project audition show “Great Tokyo Girls”. The song, “Dream Girl”, is a remake of the popular Morning Musume hit “Love Machine” and the MV was released today.

I honestly wouldn’t call it an MV perse. It’s exactly along the lines of SNSD’s (Girl’s Generation) MV for “Way To Go”. (watch it here). Sort of a backstage look at how a song is recorded. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting concept of having them remake the song. I’m interested to see how the lyrics get translated compared to the original.

The song is catchy, but I think that’s due to the fact that it’s just “Love Machine”. After School is a good group though so they did a good job with it. I’m going to listen to this version, but if I had to pick I’d say “Love Machine” all the way.

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If you’re interested in more After School here’s a few videos -

Ah MV
Diva MV
Diva live on MusicBank

Kpop group After School’s new digital single is out! It’s called “Dream Girl”, and it will be released May 22nd, 2009.

“Dream Girl” is the theme song for the audition show “Great Tokyo Girl”, which we all know by now is the show in Korea that will determine the next group under Up-Front’s label.

Basically? It’s a techno-ish Korean version of “Love Machine”. No lies.

source: 1 2

After School to debut in Japan?

Debuted more than a year, news of After School advancing into Japan has already surfaced. (Note that these girls debuted only about 6 months ago)

The company of Morning Musume, who sang the theme song ‘Dream Girl’ to the recent Korean-Japanese audition show ‘Great Tokyo Girls’, has seeked interests to remake Morning Musume’s ‘Love Machine’ and to work with After School.

The composer-cum-producer to Morning Musume’s ‘Love Machine’ has also likings to the group ‘After School’ after listening to their hit songs ‘Ah’ and ‘Diva’. The company had went to meet After School personally during the girls’ recording of ‘Dream Girl’.

The representative of the company said, “Though nothing much has been confirmed, we talked about advancing into the Japanese morning. We are looking forward to have yet another Korean group making it big in Japan like Dong Bang Shin Ki and SS501 etc.”

The audition show will be aired from 22nd May.

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“Japanese idol girl group, Morning Musume announced their support for the first joint Korea-Japan audition venture project called the Great Toyko Girls with 4 of the group’s members arriving in Seoul on the 27th. Besides promoting the joint project venture during their time here, they will also be meeting up with their fans. The 4 members of Morning Museume who are here in Seoul include Ai Takahashi (leader), Risa Niigaki (fluent in Korean language), Reina Tanaka (cute looks) and Lin Lin (Chinese descent). They already have many fans in Korea and said that they could not wait to meet the future members that will join their family. This will be Morning Musume’s first visit back to Korea since their last concert on 1st June 2008.

The joint project is a collaboration between Mnet Korea and the media company behind Morning Musume, Upfront. The name of the group at the end of the audtions will be known as Haro Project and the members will be chosen from Korea. The preliminary cut for the Great Tokyo Girls search will air on Mnet in mid-May with 2PM’s Junho and Chansung confirmed as hosts for the program.”

sources: OMNTD, allkpop (more pics @ links)

So now it’s “Great Tokyo Girls” and not “Meet Tokyo Girls”? Neither name sounds good to me anyway. Also in Risa really fluent in Korean? I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if she was actually studying it, but maybe “fluent” is exaggerated. I’m also amused that members of 2PM are hosting. I haven’t heard a lot of their music, but they’re pretty good.

I’m a bit perplexed about the choice of the group name – just “Haro (Hello) Project”? Really? Geez you’d think they could be a little more creative than that. I honestly don’t believe that Tsunku would just leave the name at that. It’s probably just a tentative thing.

Can’t wait to see which girls get picked.