AKB48 to perform [RIVER Surprise Kohaku Remix] for Kohaku

The Kohaku Uta Gassen official website has updated their website with the songs that the artists will be singing. The song that AKB will be singing is titled [RIVER Surprise Kouhaku Remix]. This is probably a medley of RIVER and Namida Surprise. I can understand why they choose these songs. RIVER is their best selling single till date and it is Kohaku's 60th Anniversary so that's they went with the birthday song. I would have preferred it if they did a medley of RIVER and Oogoe or Iiwake though. NamiSapu ain't one of my preferred singles. It's great and all but it's not my type. I can't listen...

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15th single updates: [Enkyorii Poster] and [Choose Me!]

Yesterday evening (Japan time) on BayFM ON8, AKB48 played the songs of Team PB's Enkyorii Poster and Team YJ's Choose Me!. Team Weekly Playboy - Kashiwagi, Miyazawa, Miyazaki, Oota, Nito, Takajo, Maeda Ami Team Young Jump - Kasai, Kitahara, Nakagawa, Minegishi, Sashihara, Kuramochi, Kikuchi Enkyorii Poster aired first. For me, it sounded quite similar to Kimi no Koto ga Suki Dakara. The song wasn't an instant hit for me as Kimi no Koto was though, it was good but I felt it was lacking something. My first thoughts once the song ended was: "That was it?". I mean I was expecting something more. I was a little disappointed. Then Choose Me! aired. INSTANT HIT. It was kinda of a surprise as we were only informed that only Enkyorii Poster would be played. The song had some 80's feel to it which...

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AKB4800: Round TWO START

Verbatim has updated their AKB4800 website. So now we can't download any pictures from it any more. This time, we have a brand new game. All 4800 pictures are lined up in a circle and there is a rainbow coloured "Tadaima no Atari" indicator. What you have to do is click on a spot on the circle. It will then zooooom in onto the picture you have chosen and a box will appear. You can still change your choice of picture by pressing the left and right arrow key on your keyboard. (Note: All pictures are the same as in Round ONE). Once you have decided on your picture, enter your email in the box. (Note:...

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More movements in SKE

SKE Kenkyuusei Yanase Aiko has been fired from the group on 9 December 2009 (09/12/09). Also, Yamashita Moe from Team KII will be graduating from SKE48 25 December 2009 (09/12/25). No reason has been given for Yanase Aiko bering fired. I hope it isn't because of someting stupid such as taking a purikura with a wota like what Nanami Nishikawa from AKB Kenkyuusei did a couple of months ago. I don't know anything about SKE Kenkyuuseis so I'll just leave it like this. Yamashita Moe will be graduating on SKE's Christmas Concert which lies on Christmas day. The Neko Musume says the she can't realise her dream in SKE48 and will be continuing with her studies. She added that she now wants to be a graphic designer. I (again) don't know much about her. I've seen her performance in Ame no Pianist during...

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15th single updates: Setlist and possible costumes

Super late update. So it seems that the two different versions for the single are promotions for the Team Playboy (PB) vs Team Young Jump (YJ) project that had been going on since RIVER. Team Weekly Playboy - Kashiwagi, Miyazawa, Miyazaki, Oota, Nito, Takajo, Maeda Ami Team Young Jump - Kasai, Kitahara, Nakagawa, Minegishi, Sashihara, Kuramochi, Kikuchi The disk's setlist has also been announced. Type A DISC1 (CD) 01: Untitled 02: Majisuka Rock 'n' Roll 03: Enkyorii Poster (Team PB) DISC2 (DVD) 01: Untitled (music clip) 02: Majisuka Rock 'n' Roll (music clip) 03: Enkyorii Poster (music clip)(Team...

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Drama updates: The cast and their . . . nicknames.

The roles that the girls will be portraying in the drama have been announced. And so have their character's names. Their names have lots of references which some of you might not have even heard of. Prepare for massive LOLing. MAIN Maeda Atsuko - Maeda Atsuko (Transfers to the school and into 2C) Transfer student? Wearing glasses? Hmmm reminds me of Mei-chan no Shitsuji where the transfer student changes all the bad girls into good. Well they aren't bad in Mei-chan but you get the point. I'm not sure if 2C is the only class in the school that the girls will be occupying. Also Maeda seems to have some kind of past (look at Minami). Yuko-senpai - Oshima Yuko (Leader of the strongest gang / wind instruments club "Rappappa") Leader of strongest gang. So maybe she is like the main boss? Not the...

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The Great Kenkyuusei Battle (Dec 2009)

On 30 November 2009, AKB48 management did another Kenkyuusei selection for the 8th gen Kenkyuuseis. The purpose was to filter those girls who have not improved much since they joined from those girls who did improve enough to join a Team. The results were a total massacre and only 3 girls remained standing out of the 13 who once stood. The remaining 10 girls were sent packing. THE RESULTS IN: Imai Yurie, Ueki Asaki, Sano Yuriko OUT: Ishii Ayaka, Ishibe Aya, Kaku Grace, Komizu Nanami, Sakamoto Rio, Tomite Ami, Miki Nicole, Muranaka Satomi, Sugiyama Miku I haven't seen any LoDs of Kenkyuusei performances...

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[Kisu no Ryuusei] 1st week sales

Kisu no Ryuusei sold 20,174 copies on the 1st week and ranked on the weekly chart at #8. This is quite good sales for a subunit. Especially since it was released in a bad week. Could this be because of the shockwave of RIVER or has a subunit finally clicked with the general population. Or it also could be with the different music style compared to their previous singles [Relax!] and [Tane]. Kisu no Ryusei seems more mature compared to the genki Relax and Tane. I wanted post the video of their debut performance here but unfortunately all Kisu no Ryuusei videos have been deleted from YouTube. Damn AKS is going on a deleting rampa...

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SKE48 members graduating

Ichihara Yuri from Team KII and Hashimoto Ayumi from SKE Kenkyuusei will be graduating from SKE48 on 30 November 2009 (09/11/30). That's tomorrow by the way. Ichihara has not been performing for a month due to her poor health. However the graduation of the two members might not come as a shock as there have been rumours of their graduation on forums for a while. To be honest, I don't know those two girls yet. I actually don't even know half of Team S *facepalm*. Nevertheless, any kind of graduation is sad news and they will be dearly missed by their fans. I wish both of them good luck and all the best on their life ahead. Also, 23 year old Maeda Eiko from Team KII will be transferring to SDN48 in 1 December 2009 (09/12/01). Specific date is unknown. I don't know her either but from her thread,...

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No Sleeves (no3b) 3rd single [Kisu no Ryuusei]

The PV for no3b's newest single Kisu no Ryuusei is finally out. Kisu no Ryuusei looks set to become my favourite no3b single so far. Everything about the song and PV is just great. The incredible closeups, the beautiful background, even the fake trees. The release date is on 2009/11/25 (Wednesday). If you haven't preordered it yet, do so now. If you can't order stuff online (like me), well just wait for updates and hope someone uploades it fast. No Sleeves (no3b) - Kisu no Ryuusei (キスの流星) Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3O-HY1Urmo No Sleeves (no3b) - Kisu no Ryuusei (Music Japan Performanc...

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AKB4800

No AKB48 hasn't gotten 4,682 new members and it hasn't changed it's name. AKB4800 is a collaboration between AKB48 and media storage company Verbatim. Most of you will know Verbatim as those blank CDs and DVDs that you buy to store your AKB vids and other stuff. Verbatim will be hosting pictures of the members which will be available for download. FOR FREE! While post of the pictures are your usual photoshoots, there are also pictures from the members childhood, youth and private life. There are also lots of LOL pics for us to LOL at. The total number of pics to download is, obviously hence the name, 4800. Also included are special photos of certain members. Luckily both Amina and Sayaka are included. Be warned. These photos are a total killer. Amina's special photo is 4547 X 10039 pixels....

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[RIVER] 3nd week sales

Sorry for the very late post. Got the flu and have been very sick for quite some time. Ok anyway lets get to the main point. RIVER is somehow still staying in the Oricon Daily top 30 charts for this week, mostly hanging around the 20+ region. Weekly position is at #12. This week's sales count to 9,483 sales. Now if you remember correctly, total sales up to last week stands at 195,522. This means that RIVER has finally broken the 200,000 mark. Congratulations girls. Total official sales is 205,005 copies. Other than that, there isn't really much happening with RIVER sales. TOTAL WALLETRAEP AMOUNT (as of 04 November, 2009) Week 1: 178,579 X 1,600 yen = 285,726,400 yen or 3,137,167.46 USD Week 2: 16,943 X 1,600 yen = 27,108,800 yen or 298,194.01 USD Week 3: 9,483 X 1,600 yen = 15,172,800 yen...

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[RIVER] 2nd week sales

Haven't posted about the RIVER sales for some time. In future I wouldn't post about the sales if the single isn't in the top 10 until the end of the week. The daily sales of Week 2 was a rollercoaster ride with AKB coming in and out of the ranking few times. They started week 2 day 1 at #18 to then charge back in at day 2 to #4. They then went back down to #11 on day 3. Day 4 and 5 were at #9 and went up 1 spot to #8 for day 6. Then there was a sudden drop back to #19 on day 7. Week 2 sales scored pretty high despite the release of other big artists like KinKi Kids, UVERworld and Morning Musume. KinKi Kids's [Swan Song] took the #1 spot as usual with 160,407 sales, Morning Musume's [Kimagure Princess] at #4 with 36,274 and AKB48's [RIVER] took #5 with 16,943 sales. That brings the total...

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AKB48 [RIVER] Music Station Performance

AKB48 performed recently on Music Station their song RIVER. It's the shortened version unfortunately, so no chanting in the beginning. Nevertheless it was an awesome performance. Great camerawork by the cameramen. Everyone had their share of screentime and there isn't any camera hogging. However, not all was good. There was a small problem with Takamina's skirt. It seems that it was too short, but luckily she was saved by those black shorts they always wear under the skirts. (Like those in Skirt, Hirari). Her performance is unaffected though, I must applaud her for that. AKB48 - RIVER (Music Station Performance) Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO9Q2lw3t-s Note: Sayaka, Sae Yukirin abse...

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[RIVER] Week 2 Day 1 and 2 sales

AKBN48's RIVER starts Week 2 very slowly on 13th place on the Oricon Daily Charts. Quite low but it isn't bad for a start on Week 2. 10nen Zakura started Week 2 at #18. So #13 isn't a bad number. In fact, We should start associating the #13 with good luck not bad because, look whose back. RIVER rises back to the Top 10 and claims the #4 spot, smashing Morning Musume's sales at #5! This is incredible! AKB48's Week 2 day 2 sales passing Momosu's day 2 sales! We don't know how much is AKB's and Momosu's sales though but I think they are close. Like separated by only 1,000 or so. We also don't know the sales amount since both are out of the Top 3, except that they are less than 13,317. They could be anywhere between 6,000 and 13,000. KinKi Kids represented Johnny's Entertainment and challenged...

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[RIVER] 1st week sales

RIVER's sales on day 3 is a massive drop from the previous 2 days, going at only 14,259. What's more worrying is that the 4th day sales aren't any better and dropped to 4,707. If this goes on they might lose their #1 spot on the Daily charts. This does not look good for AKB. At least they still hold the #1 spot for now. Hopefully their sales will increase after their appearance on Music Station on 2009/10/30 (Friday). Their appearance on Music Fighter didn't do much difference to the sales sadly. 200,000 is highly unlikely for 1st week but there is still hope for total sales. Maybe they should change their tactics and start showing Kimi no Koto ga Suki Dakara and Hikoukigumo on advertisements and not just RIVER. After all, in my opinion Kimi no Koto is better than RIVER. Wotas...

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AKB48 14th Single [RIVER] 1st & 2nd Day Sales

AKB48's 14th single [RIVER] was released yesterday, and for the first time ever AKB48 achieved 1st place on the Oricon Daily Ranking Chart. The exact no. of copies sold was 87,795, almost double that of their preceding single [Namida Surprise]. Second day sales were even more exciting. While there was a drop of 30k down to 54,049 copies sold, the total sales for the 2 days reaches a staggering amount of 141,844 copies sold,  more than what Namida Surprise sold in it's whole 1st week! This is history in the making! Damn am I glad I joined the AKB48 fandom in time to witness this prosperity. Will AKB48 be able to sell enough on the next couple of days to break the 200,000 barrier? Only time will tell. They have an upcoming performance on Music Station on Friday (091030)...

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MELOS no Michi is LIVE!

MELOS no Michi is LIVE! Welcome to MELOS no Michi, my new blog for AKB48 fanboying. Who am I you might ask? My name is Joshua, but I go by the nickname of Melos on the AKB48 forum Stage48. I have been an AKB48 fan for just half a year, joining the fandom soon after 10nen Zakura was released. During that time, I have witnessed the difficulty of finding information about the group and their works. Information can be found on forums, but it is tucked away somewhere within the threads and hard to backtrack. It is for that reason that I created this blog, to archive each and every single activity for the non-Japanese speaking fans, so that if the need arises in the future, the information will always be there for them. Of course, I also have my personal reasons of creating this...

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