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Japanese Entertainment News & Info HERE! [part IV]
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Former AKB48 member turns to AV
Sat, June 26, 2010 (5:51pm EDT)
Reports have spread that former AKB48 member Rina Nakanishi (22) is entering the world of AV. It started with a full nude gravure appearance in the most recent issue of FRIDAY and will continue with her first adult DVD in August.
Nakanishi was one of the first generation members of AKB48, but she graduated from the group in November 2008. On June 6, 2010, she wrote in her official fan club blog that she was returning to her hometown in Oita, seemingly to take a break and to refresh herself. However, it appears that she is really just undergoing an image change, moving into the adult industry under the stage name "Rico Yamaguchi."
The news seems to have first been broken by the magazine Shukan Taishu, whose June 21 issue reported that a former AKB48 member was going to make her AV debut. At the time, a writer for Cyzo speculated that the girl in question was Nakanishi. On June 25, that guess was confirmed when her nude photos appeared in FRIDAY, and AV company Alice Japan announced the debut DVD of Rico Yamaguchi, scheduled to go on sale on August 27. In addition, it has also been announced that Yamaguchi will get her first nude photobook titled "Departure" on July 13.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Momoiro Clover unknowingly stars in horror film
Sat, June 26, 2010 (11:07pm EDT)
The six members of idol unit Momoiro Clover, who released their first major label single just last month, will star in their first movie. The film is titled "Shirome" and is being handled by horror director Koji Shiraishi.
On Saturday, Momoiro Clover held a live performance in Shibuya to commemorate the second anniversary of their formation. During the encore, their staff announced the news about "Shirome," which was a complete surprise to the girls themselves.
The movie was filmed earlier this month, but the members of Momoiro Clover were originally told that it was for a television program, in order to capture the girls' real reactions. The show was purportedly a special about ghost spots, so they filmed at an abandoned school in the Tochigi prefecture.
The story of the actual movie is about six girls who trespass into an abandoned school in an attempt to have their wishes granted by a mysterious entity known as "Shirome." The movie is said to be shot in the style of a fake documentary and with a low budget, similar to films such as "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity."
"Shirome" will begin playing in theaters on August 13.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Post Last Edit by whitedove at 7-7-2010 10:30
Itoh Misaki is a Mother
Actress Itoh Misaki (33) gave birth to her first child in Tokyo on June 27, her management announced yesterday. Itoh married Enomoto Yoshinori (41), CEO of major pachinko company Kyoraku Sangyo, in November of last year. There has been no announcement regarding her return to work.
Source: www.japan-zone.com
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12012 to perform at Anime USA
Sun, June 27, 2010 (7:37am EDT)
The Anime USA 2010 convention recently announced that its headlining musical guest will be rock band 12012. They will perform a concert and are expected to participate in other events, but complete details are still unknown at this time.
12012 has previously played in the United States at Oni-Con in 2006 and AnimeNEXT in 2007.
Anime USA 2010 is being held on November 12-14 in Arlington, Virginia.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Maki Tamaru stars in new "Tokumei Joshi Ana" movie
Sun, June 27, 2010 (8:36am EDT)
Model and actress Maki Tamaru (31) will star in a new "Tokumei Joshi Ana Namino Yoko" movie, set for release on August 7. The complete title will be "Tokumei Joshi Ana Namino Yoko: LOVE IS OVER."
"Tokumei Joshi Ana Namino Yoko" is a manga by Kimio Yanagisawa, the writer of the popular "Tokumei Kakarichou Tadano Hitoshi" series. As a spin-off, the manga has a similar setup, with the title character Yoko Namino being a TV announcer by day, but an agent undertaking special missions for the company president by night.
The manga was already turned into a movie in 2009, starring talento Nori Horikoshi (28). Like that one, the new version will also be limited in screenings, but there are hopes that it can be turned into a series of films in the future.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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"Hisshiken Torisashi" to compete at Montreal
Sun, June 27, 2010 (8:55am EDT)
Hideyuki Hirayama's "Hisshiken Torisashi" has reportedly been chosen for the World Competition section at the 34th Montreal World Film Festival, which opens on August 26. It will apparently be the first samurai period film to ever compete at the festival.
"Hisshiken Torisashi," which stars Etsushi Toyokawa (48), is based on a story in the "Kakushiken" novel series by writer Shuhei Fujisawa. Fujisawa's works include the books that were adapted by director Yoji Yamada for the films "The Twilight Samurai," "The Hidden Blade" (also based on a book from the "Kakushiken" series), and "Love and Honor."
"Hisshiken Torisashi" opens in theaters in Japan on July 10.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Buono! announces best album
Mon, June 28, 2010 (8:28am EDT)
Idol group Buono! will release their first best album on August 10, titled "The Best Buono!"
The limited edition of the album will contain 2 CDs and 1 DVD. The first CD will be a selection of their best songs and is tentatively planned to have 19 tracks. The second CD will be a B-side collection, while the DVD will include making-of clips and previously unseen footage of the group.
Buono! is also planning a 3-city tour in August, just after the album's release.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Yu Koyanagi stars in next "Ultraman" film
Mon, June 28, 2010 (10:29am EDT)
The "Ultraman" franchise celebrates its 45th birthday next year, and naturally a new film has been announced. Titled "Ultraman Zero THE MOVIE: Choukessen! Belial Ginga Teikoku," the film will star actor Yu Koyanagi (21).
Ultraman Zero is the son of Ultra Seven. Zero debuted in last year's "Daikaiju Battle: Ultra Ginga Densetsu THE MOVIE," but this time he will be the central character, fighting against the evil Kaiser Belial who is trying to take over the universe. Koyanagi will play Zero in his human form, Ran.
Koyanagi, who is the son of Brother Tom (54), will be supported by a cast that includes Tatsuomi Hamada (9) as Ran's brother Nao, and Tao Tsuchiya (15) as the queen of Planet Esmerelda.
Filming starts next month under director Yuichi Abe. Theatrical release has been scheduled for December 23, 2010.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Tatsuro Yamashita to release new album
Mon, June 28, 2010 (10:59am EDT)
Singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita (57) is celebrating the 35th anniversary of his debut with a new original album titled "WooHoo," his first in five years.
Yamashita has released two singles this year: "Kibou to Iu Na no Hikari" and "Machi Monogatari." Both will be included on the album, along with "Zutto Issho Sa" (the theme song of the 2008 drama "Bara no nai Hanaya") and "Bokura no Natsu no Yume" (the theme song of the 2009 anime film "Summer Wars"). The album will include a total of 12 songs, and the limited edition will come with a bonus disc of remastered audio from past concerts.
Yamashita is also launching a 35-concert tour across the country, starting in early August. "WooHoo" will go on sale halfway through the tour, on September 15.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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"Bandage" leads nominations for Nikkan Sports Fan Awards
Mon, June 28, 2010 (12:06pm EDT)
The Nikkan Sports newspaper has chosen half of the nominees for its Fan Awards in the 23rd Nikkan Sports Film Awards, being held this December. A total of 9,364 votes were collected, and the #1 domestic film was Takeshi Kobayashi's " BANDAGE," which stars KAT-TUN member Jin Akanishi (25).
Fans voted between June 15 and June 24 in two separate categories for domestic and foreign films, covering from the end of last year to May of this year. "BANDAGE" led the nominations by an overwhelming margin, taking more than 60% of the votes (5,680). Women in their 20s offered a significant portion of that support, and more than 1,400 of the votes came from other countries such as Taiwan. "Ningen Shikkaku," starring Toma Ikuta (25), ranked #2.
In the foreign film category, "Avatar" came out on top, narrowly beating out "Alice in Wonderland." #3 was the animated film "Up."
The top ten films in each of the two categories will be eligible for the actual Fan Awards in December, along with the nominees from the second half of 2010.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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SMAP gets their own magazine
Mon, June 28, 2010 (7:35pm EDT)
SMAP is getting its own special one-time magazine issue, currently titled "Super-fashion & Music Assemble Photo-magazine" (abbreviated as SMAP). The issue will be jointly edited by the magazine houses of popeye and anan, with a target release date of August 25.
SMAP will fill the pages of the entire magazine, which is planned to be roughly 140 pages in length. This is the first time they have undertaken such a project.
One of the highlights of the magazine is that it includes conversations between SMAP members and other well-known celebrities. For example, Goro Inagaki (36) spoke with manga artist Naoki Urasawa (50), while Shingo Katori (33) spoke with fashion designer Tom Brown. Other features of the magazine include a special essay by author Mariko Hayashi (56), previously unpublished off-shot photos of SMAP (some as old as ten years ago), a survey-based ranking of SMAP's songs, and various topics such as date fashion.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Details of GLAY's new single announced
Wed, June 30, 2010 (11:58am EDT)
In June, rock band GLAY announced the creation of a new independent label called "loversoul music & associates." They declared that they would release their first single under that label this September, and now they have revealed further details.
The single is titled "Precious" and will go on sale on September 8. Aside from "Precious," the single will include a new song called "HEART SNOW ~Kokoro ni Furu Yuki~," a new version of "Kanojo no Modern" (their 3rd single), and an audio preview for their next album.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Gallop's Hayashi to tie the knot
Wed, June 30, 2010 (12:04pm EDT)
Takeshi Hayashi (32), a comedian who belongs to the duo Gallop, will be getting married on July 7, his management has announced.
Hayashi's wife-to-be is a 35-year-old company employee living in Osaka. No details about their relationship were announced, but it was mentioned that they plan to hold their wedding ceremony this November.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Superfly tune hits 300k downloads in 11 days
Wed, June 30, 2010 (12:52pm EDT)
Superfly's new song "Tamashii Revolution," which is being used by NHK as its World Cup broadcast theme song, broke 300,000 downloads as of June 29, eleven days after its release.
"Tamashii Revolution" was released as a digital single on June 18 (the day before the Japan-Netherlands match), available through services such as chaku-uta full and iTunes. On iTunes, the song was #1 for eleven consecutive days, and it ranked #1 on the most recent weekly chart.
Despite its popularity, the song is not currently planned to have a CD release.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Watarirouka Hashiritai expands
Wed, June 30, 2010 (11:41am EDT)
AKB48 sub-unit Watarirouka Hashiritai has expanded. On Wednesday, two new members were added to make a temporary group called "Watarirouka Hashiritai 7," which will focus on radio activities.
Watarirouka Hashiritai currently consists of Mayu Watanabe (16), Aika Ohta (15), Haruka Nakagawa (18), Natsumi Hirajima (18), and Ayaka Kikuchi (17). They just released their 5th single, "Seishun no Flag," this week.
The five members are being joined by Mika Komori (15) and Misaki Iwasa (15). Together, the seven girls will host a new radio show called "Watarirouka Hashiritai 7," airing late at night (12:53am) on Mondays through Thursdays on Nippon Broadcasting System. The show will premiere on July 5.
It has not yet been revealed how long the new unit will last.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Charts: Kana Nishino takes #1
Wed, June 30, 2010 (12:34pm EDT)
Rising artist Kana Nishino scored her first #1 on the charts this week with her second album, "to LOVE." It sold 290,000 copies, a big improvement over her first album "LOVE one." from last year, which sold 34,000 copies in its first week. Incidentally, "LOVE one." more than doubled in sales this week, jumping up from #61 to #45.
At 21, Nishino is the first female artist born in the Heisei era to achieve a #1 album. She also now has the highest opening sales numbers for a solo artist this year, surpassing the 220,000 copies sold by Kumi Koda's "BEST ~third universe~ & 8th AL UNIVERSE" in its opening week this past February.
Several other new albums made the top ten this week. ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION ranked #2, followed by Yuko Hara, then Kiyoshi Hikawa. American artists Eminem and Miley Cyrus were #6 and #8, respectively, while Gackt came in at #10.
Meanwhile, the singles chart was also led by a solo artist - Koshi Inaba of B'z. "Okay" is Inaba's first solo single in roughly six years, and it sold 100,000 copies to take the top spot. All three of his previous solo singles were also #1 hits.
The rest of the top ten this week included new singles by flumpool, w-inds., Spitz, Nightmare, Fudanjuku, DEATH DEVIL (from "K-On!!"), and Aya Hirano.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Tokyo Disneyland reopens Michael Jackson's 3-D attraction
Friday 02nd July, 06:00 AM JST
CHIBA —
Tokyo Disneyland on Thursday reopened a 3-D theater attraction featuring the late entertainment icon Michael Jackson for the first time in about 14 years. The theme park will run ‘‘Captain EO’’ for a limited time through June 30, 2011. The film starring Jackson, who died suddenly in June 2009, was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with George Lucas serving as its executive producer.
‘‘I enjoyed it when I saw it more than 10 years ago, so I wanted to show it to my 5-year-old daughter,’’ said Seishi Yamabe, a 51-year-old company employee from Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, who came with his family.
A 21-year-old college student from Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, said she was ‘‘overwhelmed’’ by the attraction. ‘‘I became a fan of Michael,’’ she said.
The film was shown at the theme park between 1987 and 1996 and gained popularity through Jackson’s dazzling dance performances.
Source: www.japantoday.com |
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Anzen Chitai gets another groupie for the road: Noriko Aota
Friday 02nd July, 07:00 AM JST
TOKYO —
Anzen Chitai rocker Koji Tamaki, 51, will be bringing along girlfriend Noriko Aota, 42, on the band’s national tour that starts Saturday at the Yokosuka Arts Theatre.
Aota, who announced on her blog last month that she would be taking a break from her work, posted a message this week saying she has secretly been preparing for the concerts, and that “Tamaki-san is normally really funny, but as soon as it comes to music, he becomes incredibly serious. I feel honored to be loved by someone like that.”
She then announced, “I’m going to head out on tour to support him as much as I can.”
Source: www.japantoday.com |
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