AKS Master Post 007

I was so close, so close to having an AKS Master Post without an announcement about a girl leaving. I guess that teaches me about being lazy and not making one sooner.

~*

We have another AKB48 member leaving, this time by one of the girls that has been with the group for a long time, Masuda Yuka. She joined AKB48 as a 2nd generation KKS and was a member of the sub-unit DiVA. She was caught by the tabloids spending the night over at the apartment of one of her fellow cast members of the musical she is starring in, The Wiz, and has decided that because of the scandal it has caused, even though she denies doing nothing more than talking with him, she will leave AKB48.

aramatheydidnt article (English)

From the sounds of it she may be better off leaving in the long run. She is keeping her lead role in the musical she is currently in and she has not been active in AKB48 because of it. She is also a really talented singer but is not one of the most popular members of the group so she does not get pushed much from what I have seen. I think she would not have many issues continuing with her career solo, whether it is to become a singer or continue with stage productions. So I wish her the best and wish she could have left the group without a "scandal" attached to it.

I think it is safe now to say that DiVA is not coming back. It never was a big seller compared to all the other sub-units and with Yuka now graduating and Miyazawa Sae in China as an exchange member for at least a year it is highly unlikely that it will be continued. Which is a pity as the unit had some of the strongest vocals of AKB48 and I personally loved everything they had released.

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AKS must have realized that with the Janken senbatsu just being AKB48 and SKE48 members fans of the other groups may skip on getting the single as each Japanese sister group will be getting a B-side song and PV on one of the versions of the upcoming AKB48 single, Eien Pressure.

For NMB48 the song is title HA! and there is already a PV preview out.

Have to say that I am loving the song so far. I really do not care to get the single for the one song so I will probably see about getting an iTunes Japan card and buy it with that instead.

~*

Fukumoto Aina participated in her first marathon at the 2nd Osaka Marathon. She was running to support charity for the relief efforts in Tohoku after the earthquake in 2010 and not only met her time goal but ended up running the marathon under it.

aramatheydidnt post (English)

Congrats Ainyan for exceeding your goal and of course just for participating in a good cause. It is always great to see idols take on challenges like this, as it will hopefully inspire others to do the same.

~*

And this is just something I want to do from time to time so I have this information easy to find if I want to do a quick check. It is just an age list of the members of NMB48 as it is sometimes easy to forget how old some of the girls are or what the overall age for the group is. I can assume that this list could also be helpful for fans to check on whether or not they should be mentioning how oppai some members are.

NMB48 Age List (as of 30NOV2012)

20 -
Yamada Nana (Team N)

19 -
Fukumoto Aina (Team N)
Yamaguchi Yuuki (Team N)
Yamamoto Sayaka (Team N)
Watanabe Miyuki (Team N)
Shimada Rena (Team M)
Murakami Ayaka (Team M)
Yokoyama Yui (Team undecided/Team A)

18 -
Ogasawara Mayu (Team N)
Kishino Rika (Team N)
Kotani Riho (Team N)
Yoshida Akari (Team N)
Takano Yui (Team M)
Hikawa Ayame (Team M)
Yamagishi Natsumi (Team M)
Kamieda Emika (Team BII)
Kono Saki (Team BII)
Nakagawa Hiromi (Kenkyusei)

17 -
Jonishi Kei (Team N)
Okita Ayaka (Team M)
Kawakami Rena (Team M)
Koyanagi Arisa (Team M)
Tanigawa Airi (Team M)
Mita Mao (Team M)
Ijiri Anna (Team BII)

16 -
Kadowaki Kanako (Team N)
Azuma Yuki (Team M)
Kusaka Konomi (Team BII)
Kobayashi Rikako (Team BII)
Muro Kanako (Team BII)
Ishida Yuumi (Kenkyusei)
Uno Mizuki (Kenkyusei)
Miura Arisa (Kenkyusei)

15 -
Kondo Rina (Team N)
Shinohara Kanna (Team N)
Shiroma Miru (Team N)
Kinoshita Momoka (Team M)
Murase Sae (Team M)
Yagura Fuuko (Team M)
Akazawa Hono (Team BII)
Ishizuka Akari (Team BII)
Katou Yuuka (Team BII)
Sugimoto Kano (Kenkyusei)
Hisada Riko (Kenkyusei)

14 -
Kinoshita Haruna (Team N)
Yamamoto Hitomi (Team M)
Kurokawa Hazuki (Team BII)
Yabushita Shu (Team BII)
Koga Narumi (Kenkyusei)
Sato Sorai (Kenkyusei)
Hayashi Momoka (Kenkyusei)

13 -
Yogi Keira (Team M)
Ueda Mirei (Team BII)
Umehara Mako (Team BII)
Kushiro Rina (Team BII)
Nishizawa Rurina (Kenkyusei)

12 -
Ota Yuuri (Team BII)
Yamauchi Tsubasa (Team BII)
Takayama Riko (Kenkyusei)


And with that done I am going to feel so very old right now.

But besides that it is interesting to look at the age break down of the different teams. Team N has an age range of 20-14, Team M is 19-13 and Team BII is 18-12. The Kenkyusei range from 18-12 but most of them are in the younger range, which should hopefully mean for them that they have a good chance at promotion at some point as long as they stick with the group.

MSSL line-up announced (Johnny's focused)

Rounding out the major year end music programs in Japan is Music Station Super Live. The program will air on December 21st and has announced their list of performers for it.

MSSL site (Japanese)

Johnny's artists:

SMAP
Kinki Kids
TOKIO
Arashi
KAT-TUN
Kanjani8
Kis-My-Ft2
Hey! Say! JUMP

Other artists I'm looking forward to:

B'z
Mr. Children
L'Arc~en~Ciel
Superfly



I am sad to see that NEWS is not on the list but hopefully I will get plenty of them on music programs leading up to their new single being released in December. And I will assume Sexy Zone is missing from the list as not only will they be doing Johnny's World still but have their own winter concert tour that they will need to be ready for around that time.

I feel happy for KAT-TUN to get on this program. They tend to get overshadowed by other groups these days so it is nice to see that they are not completely forgotten. And since they have a new CM tie-in song fans of the group will be able to look forward to a new single from the group in the near future.

And I am quite happy to see most of my favorite J-rock groups will be on the show. Somehow I cannot help but feel this will be a rather epic show with both B'z and Mr. Children performing as they are both top of the top tier when it comes to modern Japanese music artists.

Other Idols Master Post 002

Hooray! I have a non-Johnny's post that does not have news of group loosing a member! In fact there is much better news than that here.

While I have always remained mostly focused on Japanese idols there are a few Korean groups that have caught my attention over the years, though fewer still that has kept it. One of those groups is the Wonder Girls, who I am quite happy I got to see live when they did their USA tour a couple of years back.

That said the news that surprised fans that was recently announced is that one of the members, Sunye, will be getting married to her boyfriend of two years in late January.

Allkpop article (English)

All I have to say about the news is congrats to Sunye and her soon to be husband and I wish them the best of luck. That and I am happy to hear that she is not going to have to leave the group when she does get married, even though the members are going to focus on solo activities in the coming year. But it is probably for the best, she will get to spend time as a newlywed with her husband as the rest of the girls get to pursue things they would not be able to do as a group. I just hope that Sunye will want to come back when they are all ready to.

On another note, I will say that agencies lifting the dating ban for both their male and female acts is something I see a step above the Japanese idol agencies. Sure it seems to happen for Johnny's unofficially at some point but female idols really only have the choice to date in complete secret or leave the group just to date. And I am personally interested in seeing how things play out for WG with one of their members being married when they get back to group activities at some point, perhaps in the next decade with the usual rate they have been going.

~*

There is a special dance unit created with three members of EXILE, Usa, Tatsuya and Nesmith and singer Crystal Kay. The unit will be called DANCE EARTH PARTY and be produced by member Usa.

Universal Music Japan OHP (Japanese)

They will release their debut single, Inochi Rhythm, on January 16th in two editions. The limited edition has everything the regular edition plus a DVD with the PV and the making of for it.

Inochi Rhythm [Regular Edition] / DANCE EARTH PARTY

Inochi Rhythm [w/ DVD, Limited Edition] / DANCE EARTH PARTY

I have been a fan of Crystal Kay's since about 2004-ish and have followed pretty much liked everything she has released. So I have often found myself disappointed that she has not been doing so well with sales in the past few years, as I think more people should be listening to her. This news has me hoping that this group will get a good deal of promotion and hopefully she will benefit from it.