Now Browsing the
Older Posts »
Droppin’ Loads of Fresh Eyecandy hide/expand
By CK♂ in AKB48, Blogs, Eyecandy, Hello Project, JPop on 2010/03/12

High Castle Sub Timber-Trees (Hello! Island)
The Eyes of Amina (Idol Eyes)
:3 (Hello!Blog)
~AKB48 shines~* as UTB cover♥girls, the truth about sediments & Mayuyu’s awesome shirt~! (モーニングBerryz…the morning after…..)

I think it is safe to say I am running out of clever titles for these eyecandy posts.  No matter…lets get down to business, shall we?

We begin in the land of the Loli, AKA Hello! Island.  Here Pata has a picspam of AKB48’s Aki Takajo, who amazingly is over the age of 18!  I say that because I know the Hello! Island Team prefers girls a bit younger.  But I guess they made an exception for the super-cute and youthful Akicha.  Or maybe it was the excessive use of bikinis.

Miitan continues the theme of his blog focusing on the eyes of Sato Amina.  He wonders if she is wearing contacts, and I see what he means.  I have always thought Amina had the craziest eyes!  In addition Miitan has posted some of the awesome photographs he took at the NY Anime Festival.  I’m not sure how he got so close.  My guess is that they saw his big camera and assumed he was a pro, LOL.  Actually, he is!

Like me, PTom is getting a bit tired with the Mitsui Aika bashing.  So he brings the ultimate form of retribution in the form of a cute picspam set!  Tom was recently taken with how good Mittsi looks in a bikini.  So much that it has him clamoring for a photobook.  I see what he means.  I always think of her as the “baby” Musume, but she is filling out that bikini quite well!

MB brings it all together with a showcase of the new issue of UTB.  I love this magazine so much!  The cover features a few members of AKB wearing some crazy shirts.  It isn’t so much that they have Engrish phrases, it is more the color schemes and pics that are awesome.  Especially Mayuyu…you gotta love that shirt!  The rest of the mag features Kashiwagi Yuki getting a bit kinky, S/mileage looking pure, Kitahara Rie playing sad and Maimi as the cutest snowbunny you have ever seen!  Oh, and if you are reading this MB…I got Set A!

Enjoy the “kawaii”!

Wanna Play ‘Jan-Ken-Pon’ With AKB? hide/expand
By CK♂ in AKB48, Blogs on 2010/03/12

GAME (The Ultimate Idols)

I never thought I would want to make idols cry until I tried this.  :(   J has a link to the Universal Studios Japan website, which is currently featuring the classic Jan-Ken-Pon game.  But the coolest part?  You are playing against a bunch of AKB48 idols.  If you want to check out what it looks like, J has also embedded a YouTube clip of the game in action.

Although it obviously gets repetitive, the game is quite addicting.  I couldn’t stop until I beat Kasai and Takamina.  And I don’t think I ever beat Chiichan!  It takes a couple minutes to load up, but after that the game runs smoothly.  At least it does on my PC.  So thank you J for turning us on to this fun site!

The Top H!P Songlist…As Voted By You hide/expand
By CK♂ in Blogs, Hello Project on 2010/03/11

Fans’ Top H!p Songs Poll: Results Part 1 (Bikkuri Project)
Fans’ Top H!p Songs Poll: Results Part 2

You remember Celestia’s Top 100 H!P song collection, right?  It did win IW’s Best Series Award for 2009.  In that spirit Celestial decided to give the readers a vote, and put together a video of the fans’ Top 40 H!P songs.  It wasn’t shocking that Morning Musume dominated the top end of the list, and most of the recent singles ranked pretty high.  But there are a few surprises along the way.  One of the biggest “WTF’s” to me is what ranked at the top.  I thought everyone was tired of that song?

In addition to the Top 40 videos, Celestia breaks down all the songs that were voted for.  This had me thinking “damn, I forgot about that one!” quite a few times.  A big thanks to Celestia for taking on such a big project!

Queen & Elizabeth PV Has AKB Fans Buzzing hide/expand
By CK♂ in AKB48, Blogs on 2010/03/11

[LOOOVEEE WAAAAARRSSSS] (AKB48 Journal)
Love Wars PV! (no akb no life)
Queen & Elizabeth – Love Wars PV (IXA Ready – Fist On!)

Fabulous…Fantastic…Awesome!  These are the adjectives these bloggers used to describe the upcoming single and PV from new AKB48 sub-unit Queen & Elizabeth.  If you don’t know them, Q&E are actually AKB48’s Itano Tomomi and Kasai Tomomi.  And the song is in support of the popular TV series Kamen Rider Double, which TomoxTomo have been appearing on as recurring characters.  This team teamed up last year with Miyazaki Miho for a unit called Nattou Angels, which also had a cute and catchy song.  But this one, woah!  It just blows me away!

The only bummer is that Q&E is apparently a “one shot” unit.  Awwww, too bad.  Perhaps we can all convince AkiP to rethink that one.

Momoiro Clover Break into the Big Leagues hide/expand
By CK♂ in Blogs, News, Pop Idols on 2010/03/11

Momoiro Clover 1st Mayor Single (Kira Kira Anni)

I’m so glad to see these girls making it to the next level!  It was announced last week that Momoiro Clover will be getting their first major single release in May.  In celebration the group will be doing a celebratory tour in Japan this Spring.  Anni has photos, and a video of the official press conference.  I think that is what the video was.  Either that or an idol Boxing “weigh-in”!

They are too cute, and like many others I love their gimmick.  Lets all hope the new single is a smashing success!

Have °C-ute Lost Their Way??? hide/expand
By CK♂ in Blogs, Hello Project, Noteworthy on 2010/03/11

°C-ute – Shocking 5 (Sora to Kujira)
Shocking 5 ~ Album review (Jiriri Kiteru)
C-ute – Shocking 5 (Tasuki Daisuki Blog)
C-ute – Shocking 5 (Selective Hearing)

The new album from C-ute has been out for a little while now.  It hasn’t gone unnoticed that I haven’t seen/heard too much scuttlebutt over the new tracks.  After reading the following reviews I am beginning to understand why.  But if you are still wondering if you should hit the purchase button on your own shopping cart, here are a few opinions for your review…

Suffice it to say the new 5-nin version is not working for Jin, who has been disappointed with C-ute’s latest single releases.  So there is one strike.  As far as the new material Jin finds one song worthy of mention.  But the rest of the CD is given the seal of “disaster”, making me wonder if the 2 1/2 star rating was a bit too generous.

Arche-JoIyO has been reading a lot of negative reviews, but wonders if the Cd could really be “that bad”.  She rates each song individually, the final judgement being if the song makes it onto the Ipod (hehe).  I won’t give away how many songs made the cut, but overall she finds the album enjoyable.  At this point I’ll take “enjoyable” as the ultimate victory.

TD wonders if this album represents the group’s search for a new identity.  If you think about it, MoMusu, Berryz and Manoeri definitely have a consistent style (more or less).  But what about C-ute?  They seem to be all over the map lately.  And while she sees this effort as a bit “premature”, she appreciates the attempt to mature as a group.

Finally Greg is disappointed with the group he once said “gets the best songs in H!P”.  Perhaps this is an aberration.  Echoing Tasuki Daisuki, it could be that Tsunku is experimenting with a new dynamic.  If it doesn’t work, then back to the drawing board I guess.

I feel badly for C-ute, as it seems they haven’t yet recovered from the loss of Erika and Kanna.  I know they weren’t the front members of the group, but they were as much a part of the family dynamic as anyone.  Unlike some of these reviewers I have actually liked their recent singles, so perhaps I would give a more favorable review than these.  But the general consensus seems to be consistent across the board.

The good news is that like the bad haircut I recently got, nothing is permanent!  Tsunku and the girls can always follow this up with something new and different, and then everyone will declare C-ute to be awesome all over again.  And one other thing…

If this doesn’t speak to the benefit of adding new members, I don’t know what does!

Morningtime Has Fun With Polls hide/expand
By CK♂ in Blogs, Hello Project on 2010/03/02

Polls (Morningtime)

Which H!P member has the best photobooks?  (Reina, of course :) )  Which H!P kid would you save from falling off a cliff?  These are just two of the many fun activities Morningtime has in store for you in this post.  So feel free to pass the time finding out great little useless tidbits like if fans would like to see Beckii Cruel be the next member of Morning Musume.  Or would they rather just kill themselves???  And I was quite surprised to see how many voters would let all the girls go over the cliff!

Fun times!

At the End of the Day, it’s All Eyecandy To Me hide/expand
By CK♂ in AKB48, Blogs, Eyecandy, Hello Project, New Blogs on 2010/03/02

MA・YU・YU (いただきまゆゆ!)
Matsui & Matsui (The Ultimate Idols)
Future rock ‘n’ roll stars (Berryz Kobo International)

Let’s get some eyecandy going in this house, eh?

Today we lead off with a brand new site from Wendychi, Yayyy!  And what a surprise, her new worship site is dedicated to none other than AKB48’s Team B cyborg Watanabe Mayu (AKA Mayuyu).  In honor of her new blog, Wendychi has posted Mayuyu’s bio, as well as a huge selection of Mayu pics and YT videos.  Mayu keeps quite busy with her AKB duties, as well as her lead position with Watarirouka Hashirtai.  So I’m sure Wendy will have plenty of material to fill the site with.  Anyway, we need more worship blogs!

J has posted a selection of Matsui Jurina and Matsui Rena pics from a recent issue of Memew magazine.  I’m sure you know Jurina as she is the face of SKE48.  But Rena is surely “second in command”.  And after her turn as the evil and demented Gekikara on Majisuka Gakuen, she is a force to be reckoned with.  That and the fact that she is as cute as hell!

Last but definitely not least are the girls from Buono! with their electric guitars and drum kit.  Miya’s Fender bass looks exactly like mo own.  I can never get enough of Momo with that Union Jack shirt!  And Airi?  That hairstyle just speaks rock n’ roll!  As Zush states, the next step is to learn and play your instruments.  Have the girls been practicing?  Well then, I am looking forward to Airi’s Van Halen-esque guitar solo during the next tour!

How cool would that be?!?!

In Tribute to the Original Team K hide/expand
By CK♂ in AKB48, Blogs, Noteworthy on 2010/03/02

K thx bai (no akb no life)
Goodbye Team K. (MELOS no Michi)

You may or may not be aware that AKB48’s Team K did their final performance of their 5th stage ‘Saka Agari’  on February 21st.  The show marked the end of the original K lineup and the beginning of the AKB48 Team shuffles that were announced last summer.  The end of the original Team A and Team B are soon to follow, although no official dates have been announced as of yet.  Here we have two tributes…the first one by Xyish of “team no akb no life”  Xyish has a great deal of the senshuuraku LOD in the form of snippet videos.  There’s tears, laughter and plenty of memorable moments to catch.  No question, it’s a must-watch performance.

Melos also has a review of the senshuuraku.  In addition he has a translation of Ohori Megumi’s post-show messages that she blogged the day after the performance.  I’m sure this was especially emotional for Meetan (and Nonti for that matter) since this also marked their “graduation” to full time members of SDN.  I’ll leave you with an especially touching quote from Melos that I think says it all…

“Team K will always be remembered by me and I’m sure many others as the greatest, strongest, most united and most loving Team ever. Nothing can ever replace the old Team K. Rest in peace.”

MB Discovers AKB While Anni Finds Idoling!!! hide/expand
By CK♂ in AKB48, Blogs, Pop Idols on 2010/03/02

～ＡＫＢ48 「桜の栞」Idol Heaven~* in a Jewel Case (モーニングBerryz…the morning after…..)
Idoling!!! (アイドリング!!!, Aidoringu!!!) (Kira Kira Anni)

They said it wasn’t possible.  As wide-ranged as MB’s J-music interests are, she had never made the leap over to the “dark side”known as AKB.  That all changed as a result of a cute pictorial of Watarirouka Hashirtai in a recent issue of UTB.  This prompted her to take the next step and order copies of Sakura no Shiori.  Hmmm, I guess we are now getting a clue where the 300,000+ copies went.  MB is loving the new single package, and gives an adoring review full of screencaps and PV samples.  Careful MB, next thing you know you’ll be collecting BLTs (not the sandwich!) and flittering around Ameba Pigg looking for Tomochin!

Meanwhile Anni has a discovery of her own, in the form of Idoling!!!  Oh yes, I can feel the Idoling!!! momentum gaining strength.  Pretty soon they will be the one’s with the #1 single!!!  Anni picks some of her favorite PVs for you to check out.  And what a coincidence, the first one on her list is the same PV that got me hooked too!  In addition she picks 9 members that have caught her eye.  Asahi Nao is awesome, I love her too.  But no Yazawa???  That proves that Anni must be a female.  Erika is definitely a guys’ kind of idol!

Older Posts »