Semi-hiatus

Probably should have announced this yesterday but I'm going to be on a semi-hiatus for about week as I am currently visiting my sister and her family in Hawaii before I go on to Japan. I do have internet access here, but since I'm visiting with family I don't have much time on it, especially when it'll be the weekend and I'll be going out with the family to sight see.

I will try to post when I can though to keep up to date with news at least when I can. But it'll depend on how much time I have to spare to do so.


*EDIT*

As of April 1st (and no, this isn't an April Fool's joke, I don't do those) I am in Japan. The place I'm staying at does have accessible internet but it's on the slow side. I will try to go back and answer and respond to people and begin getting on track with writing up news and the like as soon as possible.

Johnny's found a way to make me buy one of Tackey's solo cds

Information about Takizawa Hideaki's second solo cd single has been updated on Avex's official webpage for it. It's a double A-side titled Sharara/Mugen no Hane and for the regular edition there will be a third track but it's still untitled for now. The two LEs will have a DVD each with a different PV for both.

Now for the exciting (or the exciting for me) news is that this time he will be joined by four Juniors for the Mugen no Hane song. The Juniors are Kitayama and Fujigaya from Kis-My-Ft2 and Tottsu and Kawai from A.B.C.-Z. Being the big Kisumai fan I am, I will be picking this up for Kitayama and Fujigaya, even if they only sing in chorus with no solo lines what so ever because I am a fangirl and will buy whatever I can with my boys on it.

Also the release date for the single will be May 6th, so cdjapan will probably have the pre-order for it up next week as they just put up the pre-orders for April 29th this week.

April 29th Releases

My wallet is crying so hard at all the releases that are coming out on April 29th. Apparently Johnny's must have wanted to have a strong presence on the charts or something as NEWS will be releasing their new single, KAT-TUN will release their new album and Hey! Say! JUMP will release their concert DVD all on that day. I think they only thing of that I'm passing on is the LE version of KAT-TUN's album as I don't care for photo booklets all that much.

First off the track listing information is now out for the Koi no ABO single on the Johnny's Entertainment website. The most exciting thing is that the LE will come with a DVD that will have about a half hour of concert footage.

RE track listing:

1 - 恋の ABO (Koi no ABO)
2 - ラビリンス (Labyrinth)
3 - OPEN YOUR EYES
4 - Share (Live at TOKYO DOME)

Koi no ABO [Regular Edition] / NEWS

So the track list for the LE looks like this:

1 - 恋の ABO (Koi no ABO)
2 - ラビリンス (Labyrinth)
3 - 恋の ABO -karaoke track- (Koi no ABO -karaoke track-)

DVD track listing:

「NEWS WINTER PARTY DIAMOND
　in TOKYO DOME 2008.12.31」
・Happy Birthday
・weeeek
・ガンガンガンバッテ (Gan Gan Ganbatte)
・裸足のシンデレラボーイ (Hadashi no Cinderella Boy)
・SUMMER TIME
・MC

Koi no ABO [w/ DVD, Limited Edition] / NEWS

Almost no information is out about the new KAT-TUN album other than that both versions will be 15 tracks long and that the LE comes with a bonus photo book.

UNTITLED (4th Album) [Regular Edition] / KAT-TUN

UNTITLED (4th Album) [Limited Edition] / KAT-TUN

And there is a track listing out for Hey! Say! JUMP's DVD:

Ultra Music Power
Dreams come true
Your Seed
FLY
ワンダーランド・トレイン (Wonderland Train)
麗しのBad Girl (Uruwashi no Bad Girl)
Moonlight
カワイイ君のことだもの (Kawaii Kimi no Kotodamono)
Deep night 君思う (Deep Night Kimi Omou)
真夜中のシャドーボーイ (Mayonaka no Shadow Boy)
スクール革命 (School Kakumei)
Star Time
ス・リ・ル (Thrill)
Switch
蜘蛛の糸 (Kumo no Ito)
愛しのプレイガール (Itoshi no Playgirl)
SUMMARY メドレー (SUMMARY Medley)
冒険ライダー (Bouken Rider)
Hey! Say!
Memories
勇気100％ (Yuuki 100%)
トビラの向こう (Tobira no Mokou)

Hey! Say! Jump-ing Tour '08-'09 / Hey! Say! JUMP

New HSJ program School Kakumei

The rumors for this new program have been circling for a while but finally there is a credible source for the announcement. Showa x Heisei is ending and will be replaced by a new program titled, School Kakumei. The boys from Hey! Say! JUMP that will be regulars on the program are Yamada Ryosuke, Chinen Yuri and Yaotome Hikaru. The program will begin airing on April 4th.

The unique aspect of the program is that they will be holding auditions for one boy to join them in filming an episode with the three members of HSJ and receive training as a Johnny's Junior. (Not sure if that means they will be allowed to join the agency but I don't see why they wouldn't.)

Sports Yomiura article. (Japanese only)

While I'm happy to see at least one member of Hey! Say! BEST among the cast I can't help but wish they had more of the group members on the program. Maybe they can replace Hi! Hey! Say! with something new, or change the program up a little to get more members to be on that one. At least School Kakumei sounds like it will be interesting so I'll be trying to catch the episodes when they air, as hopefully I'll be able to find a TV for cheap in Japan.

1st Poll Results

I do admit it was really just my curiosity that lead to me to start up doing polls. I'll probably continue doing them as it's a way to get to know the readers of the blog a bit without people actually leaving comments. And at the end I'll do a results post like this so I have something to look back to if I ever do the same poll twice to see if anything's changed.

Poll #1: Favorite Active Johnny's Groups

Hey! Say! JUMP: 90
NEWS: 78
Arashi: 59
KAT-TUN: 45
Kanjani8: 13
Tokio: 4
SMAP: 3
Kinki Kids: 3
Tackey & Tsubasa: 3
V6: 1


I'm not surprised at the top 2, as they are the two groups I blog about the most so it only makes sense I would attract the fans of those groups. I think Arashi at number 3 is part of the testimony of just how massively popular they are as I don't blog about them much outside of dramas. The difference between the number of votes between KAT-TUN and Kanjani8 is a rather massive drop. But not very surprising as everyone Kanjani8 and below I don't blog about much about outside news articles and release information. But I am glad each group at least got one vote. It would have seemed too sad if one of them didn't get a single one, IMHO. I guess I'm a bit of a woobie like that. XD

Thank you everyone for voting, I appreciate it.

A slew of news from this week.

As I've mentioned in my recent posts I'm in finals week, only one paper left to finish off now and then I'll be free. But since I know I can't write in one go I've decided to try to get all the news that I've been meaning to share typed up for an entry when I need to give my mind a small break.

First off, Shingo Katori from SMAP has been chosen as the final actor to play the character, Zatoichi, a blind samurai in what is said to be the final movie of the Zatoichi movie franchise aptly called, Zatoichi The Last. The original Zatoichi films were produced between 1962 to 1989 and it has seen a few remakes since then. This final movie has begun filming and plans are that it will be released next year and that the movie studio is aiming for worldwide distrobution of the film.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

Next up is Tokio's Kokubun Taichi will become a sportscaster for Fuji TV's sports program, Sports!, and will begin on the program April 4th. Apparently with this appointment he now has regular parts on programs for all seven of Japan's standard TV stations.

I will confess I don't follow the TV programs Johnny's are on too closely for the most part so I am quite impressed with how Kokubun can balance that all out. I guess the older groups are really still a force to be reckoned with in the entertainment world.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

Next item is that Ueda Tatsuya from KAT-TUN will be making his drama debut in SMAP's Nakai's upcoming drama, Konkatsu! The drama will begin airing April 20th and Ueda will be playing Nakai's younger brother. And I just have to comment that Ueda as Nakai's younger brother really doesn't fit, as they don't look the same at all. But that has never really stopped casting directors before. *coughryuuseinokizunacough*

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

Johnny's net has some information up, that on March 28th there will be a special episode of Shounen Club airing. It's rumored that Hey! Say! JUMP and KAT-TUN will have something to do with it, but it sounds to be more like a clip show like the Christmas Special is and this is a Spring Special. Plus, I have the feeling that if they have live performances there will be a Gokusen tie-in one, which would be interesting to see with Tamamori in the mix with Takaki, Akito and Nakama.

And that wraps all that up, now I'm going to get some sleep.

New NEWS single Koi no ABO

There is a lot of news that I know I need to post about, but I'm on the final stretch of my finals week and have a final test and a eight page paper to write so it'll probably have to wait until tomorrow. That or I might just do it when I feel I need a break from all the school work.

But one piece of news that I just cannot wait to share is that finally NEWS will be releasing a new single. The single is titles Koi no ABO and is being used in the RUSS-K ad for the spring/summer clothing line. It's a bit of an interesting title as seeing ABO makes me think of blood types, which is pretty important in Japan as they believe there you can figure out someone's personality from their bloodtype. Koi of course is Love so I guess the title translates loosely to Love's ABO.

Johnny's net has just the very basic information up about the single, which is the title and release date, April 29th. Hopefully they'll update soon with some more information.