Japanese Entertainment News & Info HERE! [part II]

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Talento Adachi Yuri (51) unveiled the results of her 2-month,

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Comedians Bakusho Mondai made a donation of

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X Japan leader Yoshiki yesterday launched a jewelry range inspired by his "world view." Wearing a

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Comedian Tamori to host new variety program
Thursday 25th September, 06:45 AM JST



TOKYO

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Japanese director disappointed film pulled from Thai film festival
Thursday 25th September, 06:50 AM JST



BANGKOK

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Oricon: most interesting manga
Thu, September 25, 2008 (12:32am EDT)



A recent Oricon survey asked 300 teenagers (ages 14-19) to name the most interesting manga series they had read. The long-running adventure manga "One Piece" was ranked #1, followed by the classic basketball manga "Slam Dunk."

"Dragonball" and "Death Note" tied for 3rd, while the comedy series "Gintama" took 5th. "Lovely Complex" split the #6 spot with "Nodame Cantabile."

At #8 was "Detective Conan," beating out "Hana Yori Dango," which tied for #9 with "Fullmetal Alchemist."

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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3rd Mobile Phone Novel Award winners
Thu, September 25, 2008 (2:45am EDT)

The 3rd Mobile Phone Novel Awards have been announced. About 3,350 works were submitted to the competition, but the grand prize went to the painful love story "Atashi Kanojo," written by 23-year-old author Kiki. It was a clear favorite among the judging committee (headed by producer and writer Yasushi Akimoto), as it also won the Tsutaya Award and Joysound Award.

Excellence Awards were given to "Kokuhaku -synchronize love-" by Eru Natsuki and "Rental na Kankei" by Rei Mizusawa. Male writer Akinashi took the Genre Award with "Boku ni Ki ga Otozureru," while Aoi Yaguchi earned a special prize for "LOVE BOX ~Hikari wo Saga#e~."

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Comedy team joins forces with Super Junior
Thu, September 25, 2008 (2:17am EDT)



Female comedy duo Moeyan is teaming up with the six members of Korean group Super Junior-T to create a temporary unit. On November 5, they will release a song based on a chart-topping single that Super Junior-T released in Korea last year.

The collaboration is a project supervised by the Nippon Broadcasting System radio show "Ginga ni Hoeru! Uchuu G-Men TAKUYA." The idea was suggested by Super Junior-T, who were planning to release their debut single "Rokugo!" in Japan. To help them localize the song into Japanese, they presented an offer to Moeyan, whose act combines comedy with song and dance. However, this will mark the duo's official debut as singers.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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SMAP starts nationwide tour
Friday 26th September, 05:17 AM JST



TOKYO

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Actress Saki Fukuda introduces 'mini karaoke' product
Friday 26th September, 11:05 AM JST



TOKYO

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Yoon Son Ha gives birth
Fri, September 26, 2008 (1:01am EDT)



Korean-born actress Yoon Son Ha became a mother on Thursday, giving birth to a baby boy at a Seoul hospital.

Yoon, who had been building a career in Japan, married a Korean businessman in September 2006 and permanently moved to Seoul, returning to her fanbase in Korea. She plans to get back to work by the start of next year.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Kumi Koda's "Taboo" ties up with wrestling
Fri, September 26, 2008 (2:29am EDT)



Kumi Koda's 41st single, "TABOO," is being used as the theme song of NTV's broadcast of the 2008 FILA Wrestling World Championships. This year's championships include only the female freestyle event, which will see performances by repeat medalists Saori Yoshida and Kyoko Hamaguchi, among others.

The championships are taking place in the Yoyogi National Gymnasium on October 11-13. "TABOO" goes on sale October 8.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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New Hibari Misora song surfaces
Fri, September 26, 2008 (3:23am EDT)



An unpublished song by legendary singer Hibari Misora has reportedly been discovered, and it will be released to the public later this month. Titled "Au wa Wakare no," the song is said to resemble her 1966 hit "Kanashii Sake." It was composed by Yoshiyuki Kozu, with lyrics written by his wife, actress Meiko Nakamura. During her lifetime, Misora was good friends with the couple and she created 11 songs with them, though this was the only one to never be publicly released.

The song was apparently found just this month. In April, the Hibari Misora museum was reopened, and as a related project, all of her songs were cataloged to create a "customized CD" system, which let fans create their own album composed of their 20 favorites songs from her 559 singles. Earlier this month, 120 songs taken from her albums were added to that list, and in the process, Columbia Records found the recording of "Au wa Wakare no."

The song will be heard by the public for the first time on Saturday during an evening special on TV Asahi. It will then be made available only through the "customized CD" system, starting on October 1.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Kimaguren lands drama tie-in
Fri, September 26, 2008 (2:59am EDT)



The recently-debuted duo Kimaguren will be handling the theme song of the Fuji TV drama series "ROOM OF KING," which starts next month. After releasing the hit song "LIFE" in May and the chart-topping album "ZUSHI" in July, expectations are high for this new tune, a Latin-influenced number called "Ai NEED."

Moreover, Kimaguren will be doing not just the theme song, but also the insert song and the entire drama soundtrack. The experiment is being compared to the drama "Fuzoroi no Ringotachi" in the early '80s, which Southern All Stars did the music for.



"ROOM OF KING," which stars Hiro Mizushima and Anne Suzuki, premieres on October 4. "Ai NEED" goes on sale November 19.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Razor Ramon HG takes stage for "Samurai 7"
Sat, September 27, 2008 (3:48pm EDT)

Akira Kurosawa's famous film "Seven Samurai" is being adapted to the stage for the first time. The lead roles, originally played by Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune, have been given to actor Masaya Kato and talento Masaki Sumitani, who is better known as Razor Ramon HG.



The play, titled "SAMURAI7," will actually be based on the recent anime remake "Samurai 7," which places the story in a semi-futuristic setting.

The rest of the seven titular samurai include Masataka Nakagauchi and Hijiri Shinotani (both known for their Tenimyu roles), Ryuji Sainei, playwright Tsuyoshi Kida, and seiyu Hiroki Takahashi. 15-year-old Erina Mizuno has been cast as the heroine, while Ginnojo Yamazaki plays the villain.

The production will be directed by Shunichi Okamura, who was in charge of the stage version of "Azumi" and the Avex musical "Kokoro no Kakera." Performances are scheduled for November 14-24 at the Shinjuku Koma Stadium, which is closing at the end of this year.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Idol Komukai loses contract
Sat, September 27, 2008 (4:06pm EDT)



23-year-old gravure idol Minako Komukai has been dropped by her agency RIP. On Wednesday, the company issued a statement on its website announcing that they had terminated her exclusive contract.

Komukai debuted in 2000 at the age of 15, and has since been active in gravure, television, and film. But according to her agency, Komukai has frequently had physical and emotional problems, and there have been periods of time where the agency has been unable to contact her. Although the idol has shown signs of wanting to continue work, RIP felt it could no longer support her.

It is not yet clear what Komukai's plans for the future are.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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DJ OZMA-Tunnels collaboration revealed
Sat, September 27, 2008 (8:27pm EDT)



The collaboration between DJ OZMA and comedy duo Tunnels that was announced last month has now been revealed. The trio are "producing" a female unit called Yajima Biyo$hitsu, which will actually be the three of them in costume.

The group is supposedly made up of a family from Nevada, consisting of a 36-year-old former nude dancer named Margaret Yajima (played by DJ OZMA) and her two daughters, the 17-year-old Naomi and the 11-year-old Strawberry (played by Tunnels). Their debut song, "Nihon no Mikata - Nevada Kara Kima$hita," is being released by Avex on October 29.

The song has been given a tie-in with a new Lotte commercial starring Masami Nagasawa, which started airing on Friday. But the tune had debuted on TV the day before, and the song reportedly saw 14,000 chaku-uta downloads in the hour after its premiere, taking the #1 spot on the Recochoku daily charts.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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ZONE's Tomoka acts in music video
Sun, September 28, 2008 (1:59am EDT)



Former ZONE member Tomoka Nishimura is making her debut as an actress, appearing in a music video for a new band from her native Hokkaido. The video is for a song called "Hanabi," the first major label single by the 7-member funk band MenSoul.

Nishimura only recently returned to show business, more than three years after the breakup of ZONE. Her appearance in this music video is being labeled as her "comeback work," and it is also noted for being the first time that the theatrical group Furanojuku (led by Sou Kuramoto) has written a script for a music video.

The video is being made available digitally starting on October 1.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Spitz reveals guitarist underwent cancer surgery
Sun, September 28, 2008 (2:10am EDT)



Tetsuya Miwa, a guitarist for the band Spitz, previously underwent surgery for lung cancer, it was learned on Friday. The revelation was made to the band's fan club this month.

In the spring of 2006, Miwa had a physical examination, and an early-stage tumor was found in his lungs. After discussing with his bandmates and his friends, he decided to immediately have an operation. Since then, he has been regularly visiting the hospital for further examinations.

It was also recently announced that Spitz will be doing their first-ever arena concerts next year. They will play at the Saitama Super Arena on January 17-18 and at the Osaka-jo Hall on January 24-25.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Dreams Come True again voted #1 in TV Celebrity Image
Sun, September 28, 2008 (3:21am EDT)



Video Research Ltd. announced the results of its most recent TV Celebrity Image rankings, which are meant to be a measure of celebrities' popularity, public recognition, and image. DREAMS COME TRUE has often been ranked #1 in the female category, and currently they are on a streak of four consecutive placements atop the list. This time, Yukie Nakama and Becky ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively.



On the list of male celebrities, baseball star Ichiro was ranked #1, followed by talento Hidehiko Ishizuka and actor Hiroshi Abe.

The rankings are conducted semi-annually and are currently in their 72nd edition.

Source: www.tokyograph.com