Taiwanese boyband Fahrenheit will make their Japanese debut with the single “Stay With You” to be released on May 21. Well, debut might be pushing it a little - they’ve already released two Japanese language albums - but “Stay With You” is their first original Japanese single.
The rock band Base Ball Bear will be releasing “changes” on May 8th. The title song is being used as the ending for the anime Toshokan Senso.
Base Ball Bear is a band that I feel has a generally pleasant sound. All of their songs are good, but few of them really are stand-outs, the kind of song that gets looped endlessly when it comes out. Still, I really like them because I like their sound in general - it’s driving while laid-back, rocking while not being overpowered by rock instrumentals, Koide Yusuke’s vocals highlighted by Sekine Shiori’s in parts, the feeling of the song sometimes bittersweet and always wistful.
NEWS’ next single “Summer Time” will be released May 8th. The title song is used for RUSS-K’s summer 08 promotion, which is the third season NEWS has been promoting the brand and the second season their song was used as promotion.
The single covers were released first, and I was a little skeptical of the single quality - it looks like a no-effort design that even photoshop beginners can throw together. Plus, the title sounds extremely generic and cheesy - I mean, really, a song called Summer Time released in the summer time, unique. I was worried that NEWS was being shafted aside with a low budget production.
But then the CM using the song was released, as well as it being played on radio, and I really shouldn’t have worried at all.
WaT’s new single, “Toki wo Koete ~Fantastic World~” will drop April 23rd.
WaT’s releases haven’t interested or inspired me for the past year or so. I don’t enjoy their solo work, and together they are, for lack of a better term, boring. It’s always midtempo, with WaT singing a sweet tune while strumming lightly on their guitars - mellow, cheerful, and unmemorable. I don’t even remember what Yume no Tochuu actually sounds like. Still, I hold hope - I enjoyed a lot of their slightly earlier works (”5 Centi” or “Boku no Kimochi”… and I liked “Bokura no Love Story” too) and know that they could make extremely enjoyable and at least slightly inspired pop.
HAPPY! is a new NTV show on Friday nights hosted by electropop trio Perfume, CanCam model Tokuzawa Naoko, and comedienne Nishioka Sumiko. On the show, they go over celebrity blogs and also have fun information for the girls to play around with. It’s something like a high-tension girl’s variety show - bringing an odd mix of female celebrities together for interesting show presence and talking about topics girls would enjoy.
I actually don’t understand much what the show is about but it’s a short lighthearted watch, even if I don’t understand much Japanese. It’s a five person show, but it’s obviously focused on Perfume, and has lots of cute moments with all the girls. …And, let’s be honest, it’s not like I’m genuinely that interested in celebrity blogs as much as in seeing Perfume. (Sorry for the bad quality screenshots, I youtubed these two episodes.)
Unless you’ve been completely ignoring J-pop venues for awhile, you’ll have heard of these girls: Perfume. Produced by Nakata of Capsule. Electro-pop trio who made it big last year with “Polyrhythm” and even bigger this year with “Baby Cruising Love.” Their album “GAME” is going to drop next week.
I am so hyped for this album, more so than any album this year so far - it is going to be FANTASTIC.
This has been circulating madly amongst NEWS and Yamapi fans, but for those who don’t know yet: a few days ago, Yamashita Tomohisa (NEWS, probably better known now as Yamapi) went on a private trip to Korea with his friend Shirota Jun (D-Boy’s Shirota Yuu’s brother) and his manager. It went all well, but news of his trip somehow leaked on the sixth, and at the airport for his return flight… well, I’ll let the video speak for itself. (You might want to turn down the volume.)
Domoto Tsuyoshi is half of the prolific Johnny’s duo KinKi Kids. On his own, he has released music under both his real name and ENDLICHERI☆ENDLICHERI. In his newest solo project, releasing the single Kurikaesu Haru and album I AND Ai last week on April 2, he now uses the name 244-ENDLI-x (a play on words - it’s supposed to sound like Tsuyoshi Endlich, a mix of his real and stage names).
On Sunday, April 27, University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts will be hosting the Los Angeles premiere of the remake of Hidden Fortress: The Last Princess. After the movie, to appear at the Q&A (this is a school after all) afterwards are director Higuchi Shinji, special guest Anthony Daniels, and lead actor Matsumoto Jun.
Okay, I’ll be honest: Higuchi Shinji (Evangelion, Lorelei: the Witch of the Pacific Ocean, Sinking of Japan) is the bigger star of the show here, as is Anthony Daniels (Star Wars). But I’m an Arashi fan, and let me be glad that this is yet another step for Arashi (and Johnny’s Entertainment, and Japanese stars as a whole) to get into American entertainment.
I don’t understand the choice for the event too much, as I’m not familiar with films - why a premiere instead of just a showing? Why USC? Why this choice of guests? Subtitles? How is Anthony Daniels related to this at all? Is my guess that USC is filthy rich and thus can invite everyone and get a premiere just because they want to correct? - but this event should be interesting.
As I’m probably unable to hop on a plane down to LA that weekend (I am very sad about this), I haven’t looked up tickets and how to obtain them, but all information regarding the event is here for any interested parties.
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