Eguchi Aimi's profile picture stolen

Terrible news! On AKB48's official blog Togasaki-san has posted that the profile picture of CG idol Eguchi Aimi has been stolen from the theater. It is unsure what exactly happened but it took place when the monthly photosets went on sale. During that time, the lobby of the AKB48 Theater is crowded to the max with people trading and it can get quite confusing and chaotic. That was probably how the thief managed to sneak out with the picture. This is the first time a profile picture has been stolen from the AKB48 Theater, and Togasaki-san says it is the strong bond between the...

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SKE48 [Pareo wa Emerald] 1st day sales

SKE48's 6th Single released yesterday to incredible success. Pareo wa Emerald 264 thousand copies sold on it's first day in the charts. Even though I thought the single was a step down from their 5th Single Banzai Venus too. In comparison with SKE48's previous 2 singles, Banzai Venus sold 206k on it's 1st week, 60k less than Pareo's 1st day on the charts. 1!2!3!4! Yoroshiku! sold 119k for it's 1st week. And comparing with AKB48's singles, Sakura no Shiori sold 229k on it's 1st day. So SKE48 is in the same level AKB48 was in February last year. AKB48's sales started doubling...

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NMB48 [Zetsumetsu Kurogami Shoujo] 1st week sales, bloomers are a no go

NMB48's debut single Zetsumetsu Kurogami Shoujo, just released last week, made quite a splash in the Oricon sales chart, selling an incredible 218 thousand copies and of course securing the 1st place in the weekly chart. Zetsumetsu Kurogami Shoujo Day 1: 131,654 Day 2: 15,719 Day 3: 7,532 Day 4: 50,240 Day 5: 3,736 Day 6: 3,751 Total: 218,441 This is an incredible feat for any artist. Not only did they achieve 1st place in the daily and weekly chart in their debut single, but this amount of sales makes them the female group with the highest debut sales in history. The previous holder was...

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SDN48 3rd gen Hayakawa Sayo withdraws

So only after around 2 months in SDN48, 3rd gen Hayakawa Sayo has decided to withdraw from the group. No reasons at all were given for her withdrawal. Wait. Who? No seriously who is this girl? The only thing I know of her is that she is one of the 3rd generation members of SDN48. Other than that, well the profile pictures of the 3rd gens aren't even up on the official website yet. The 3rd gens had their stage debut a month or so ago but Hayakawa Sayo only appeared in the MC and did not perform any songs. Well let's hope she doesn't regret her decision and finds success in whatever...

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Team 4 Captain Announced + 2 Kenkyusei Promotions

Team 4 Member Oba Mina was announced as the Captain of Team 4 during the 2nd concert at Seibu Dome on July 23. Nicknamed Minarun, she is currently the oldest member of Team 4 at age 19. In addition to Minarun's promotion, two 10gen Kenkyuuseis were also promoted to Team 4, bringing the member count of Team 4 to 12. The two are Abe Maria and Iriyama Anna. Regarding the Kenkyuusei Janken preliminaries which Iriyama Anna won a slot, this was not seen beforehand and management has apologized. She will still be in the Kenkyuusei slot in the main tournament. Abe Maria who did not win,...

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AKB48 Concert [Yossha ~Ikuzo~! in Seibu Dome] Setlists

Yossha ~Ikuzo~! in Seibu Dome よっしゃぁ～行くぞぉ～！in西武ドーム All Right ~Lets Go~! in Seibu DOME AKB48 with SKE48, SDN48, NMB48 Date: 22 July to 24 July Location: Seibu Dome in Saitama Today was the 2nd Day of AKB48's [Yossha Ikuzo] Concert in Seibu Dome. AKB48's 1st ever "dome" concert. A total of 155 members from AKB48, SKE48, NMB48 and SDN48 performed today. 1st Day Highlights AKB48 22nd Single Flying Get 1st live performance and showing of PV. NMB48 2nd gen Jo Eriko solo of Romance Kakurenbo AKB48 1st Original Album Koko ni ita Koto medley Majisuka short play 2nd Day Highlights SDN48 3rd gen concert debut. Acchan got out of breath after Flying Get performance due to hyperthermia from heatstroke. She was brought back to the backstage and rested until Seishun to Kizukanai Mama. Majisuka short...

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Itano Tomomi [Fuini] 1st Week Sales

After topping the Oricon charts with nearly 51k units on the first day, Itano Tomomi clinched the #1 spot in the Oricon Weekly charts with her 2nd single [Fuini]. With a total of 90k units sold, [Fuini] hasn't sold as well as her debut single [Dear J] (which sold 163k units in the first week, just for comparison). Despite this, [Fuini] is in fact Tomochin's first number one single, so congratulations are in order!! The lower sales are likely in part due to some tough competition with so many recent releases, including fellow AKB48 member Maeda Atsuko's much-anticipated solo debut....

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AKB48 Concert [Yossha ~Ikuzo~! in Seibu Dome] Merchandise

Yossha ~Ikuzo~! in Seibu Dome よっしゃぁ～行くぞぉ～！in西武ドーム All Right ~Lets Go~! in Seibu DOME AKB48 with SKE48, SDN48, NMB48 Date: 22 July to 24 July Location: Seibu Dome in Saitama AKB48's ameblo blog has revealed merchandises available for purchase during the group's first ever dome concert in Seibu dome! The concert which starts from tomorrow and ends on July 24th will be the group's second concert. The products have already been launched today and fans will be able purchase them throughout the concert. And this time fans will get to buy the products of not only the three teams...

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NMB48 [Zetsumetsu Kurogami Shoujo] First Day Sales

NMB48 released their debut single Zetsumetsu Kurogami Shoujo on July 20 managing to sell 131,654 copies on its first day. This got them the Number 1 spot on Oricon Daily ranking for the first day. 131,654 is a really amazing number for first day sales and personally I am surprised and very happy for the girls. Surely they profit from AKB48's current popularity, but it is still a nice accomplishment. But the interesting part comes now. If NMB48 manages to get the No 1 spot for weekly charts as well, they will get rewards from comedians sharing the same agency with them. If they fail to...

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AKB48 24th Single Janken Tournament - SKE48 Preliminary Results

SKE48's preliminary round for AKB48's 2nd Janken Tournament has just ended. 57 members battled it out for 5 slots. Some very surprising and also not so surprising results. And the five winners are: Winners Block A: Kuwabara Mizuki (Team S) Block B: Wakabayashi Tomoka (Team KII) Block C: Takeuchi Mai (Team E) Block D: Matsui Jurina (Team S) Block E: Sato Mieko (Team KII) Katsuo power wins!!!! Yay! Not that glad about B and C Block though... I wanted Matsurina and Akarin to win. Jurina wins of course. Can't have her not inside an AKB Single. And finally I am very glad for Mieko. She is a nice...

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Mariko Shinoda to appear in new comedy film

It has been recently announced that AKB48's Mariko Shinoda would be casted in a comedy movie for the very first time! She would be involved with the new comedy film from NHK, titled [サラリーマンNEO 劇場版 (笑)] (Salaryman NEO Gekijyouban (warai)). The movie is based on a previous comedy drama, and the story takes place in beer company NEO Beer, where it depicts the different employees of the company. In the show, Mariko sama would be taking on the role of a regular receptionist by day, and yet holding on to a mysterious job by night. What's going to happen from there? We could only find out by watching...

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AKB48 x Hello Kitty Collaboration

Two of Japan's biggest icons, AKB48 and Hello Kitty, will be working together. They will be introducing a new series of products called "AKB48 x Hello Kitty". Products sold are mostly stationaries and other novelties like notebooks, files and towels. Each product will come in Team A, Team K and Team B versions. (no Team 4? what's with that?). These products will only be sold in specific Sanrio stores in Japan. They will go on sale some time in early august, specific date not announced. However at the Sanrio Puroland you can get them earlier starting July 26th, where the product launch is taking...

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Itano Tomomi's [Fuini] - 1st Day Sales + Review

A couple of days back, AKB48's Itano Tomomi dropped her 2nd single as a soloist, ふいに(Fuini), on the charts, and came in #1 on the Oricon Daily Chart with close to 51k units sold. Congratulations to her! Although Tomochin managed to come in #1 on the charts in the first day, it is noticeable that this single has not sold as well as her 1st one, Dear J. To put this into perspective, here's a comparion for the sales of both singles up till now: Dear J Day 1:   86,681 Day 2:   26,404 Day 3:   12,085 Day 4:   10,493 Fuini Day 1:   50,874 Day 2:   15,589 Day 3:  ...

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Team YJ7 vs Team YM7 - Round Updates

The battle will between Team YJ7 (Weekly Young Jump) and Team YM7 (Young Magazine) heats up as the two teams continue to compete in a variety of rounds. Round 4's theme has been decided as Special Skills Movie Battle, aka the girls will show off their special skills in a video. The starting date has yet to be decided, but stay tuned. To refresh your memory: Team YJ7: Minegishi Minami, Kitahara Rie, Yokoyama Yui, Oota Aika, Sato Amina, Yamauchi Suzuran, Ichikawa Miori Team YM7: Sashihara Rino, Kasai Tomomi, Takajo Aki, Miyazaki Miho, Sato Sumire, Komori Mika, Takeuchi Miyu Official website: http://www.akb48-yj7-ym7.com/pc_index.html 3...

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AKB48 24th Single Janken Tournament - NMB48 Preliminary Results

Yesterday, July 16, NMB48 held a Janken tournament at Zepp Osaka in front of 600 fans to determine the 5 girls that will participate at the AKB48 24th Single Janken Tournament (September 20) as NMB48's representatives. As expected of Janken, the results turned out quite surprising. The five winners are: Winners Block A: Yogi Keira (2nd Generation Kenkyuusei) Block B: Yamaguchi Yuuki (Team N) Block C: Shimada Rena (2nd Generation KKS) Block D: Hikawa Ayame (1st Generation KKS) Block E: Fujita Runa (2nd Generation KKS) So 4 out of the 5 spots go to Kenkyuusei, while the only Team N member who...

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AKB48 24th Single Janken Tournament Preliminary Rounds

More info about AKB48's 24th Single Janken Tournament. Unlike what I posted previously, only 3 AKB48 Kenkyuuseis will be taking part in the main tournament at Nippon Budokan. Just like SKE48 and NMB48, the members will go through a preliminary round to decide which members will take part in the main tournament on 20th of September. SKE48 and NMB48 will have 5 slots each by the way. All 3 preliminary groups have done a draw at their respective theaters some days ago. I made a romanised bracket chart, check the images below to see which member will go against who. Click the images to view...

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AKB48 x H.I.S 3

AKB48 will be collaborating with travel agency company H.I.S again for the 3rd time. (Wait 3? The 2nd one totally slipped under my radar). The CM will have 5 different versions set to air starting 13th July. In other words they are already out. The members taking part in this CM are Takahashi Minami, Oshima Yuko, Watanabe Mayu, Kitahara Rie, Takajo Aki, Oba Mina and Kenkyuusei Abe Maria For the 1st CM, the song Ikitakatta (i want to go), a word play on AKB48's Aitakatta, was used as the CM song. For the 2nd, Hito no Chikara from AKB48's 21st Single Everyday, Kachuusha. (really this completely slipped under my radar). This time, the song used is Dakishimecha Ikenai, one of the B-sides of AKB48's upcoming Single Flying Get. Check out Takamina's version of the CM. The other versions...

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SKE48 to open the rollercoaster Takabisha

8 SKE48 members will be attending the opening event of Fuji-Q Highland's newest rollercoaster Takabisha (たかびしゃ) on July 16th at 10:30PM. Also attending the opening is comedy duo Vetoben. The attending SKE48 members are: Team S: Ono Haruka, Matsui Jurina Team KII: Ishida Anna, Mukaida Manatsu Team E: Ueno Kazumi, Kaneko Shiori, Kimoto Kanon, Nakamura Yuka The event (but not the coaster) is free admission. The 8 members will have a short talk on the stage right in front of the coaster, before taking a ride on the coaster and then give their impressions of it afterwards. Meaning "dominant"...

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NMB48 announces 2nd Gen 1st Stage and 1st Concert

On July 13th, NMB48 announced the first stage for its 2nd Generation. From August 13 on, they will remake Team A 1st Stage [Party ga Hajimaru yo] originally performed 2005-2006.Another major announcement was made the same day. Exactly one year after NMB48 made its debut at AKB48 Tokyo Aki Matsuri (October 9, 2010), the group will have its first concert in NHK Osaka Hall.Personally I am not very excited about the 2nd Generation doing A1. A1 has been remade quite a few load of times already, and SKE48 Kenkyuusei are still doing it. Sure it is a relatively easy stage to start off but I was hoping for some other stage that has not been redone y...

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AKB48 22nd Single [Flying Get] tracklist is out

Now that I have some free time... The tracklist of AKB48's new Single Flying Get, to be released of August 24th, has been released. The title track Flying Get is being used as the opening and ending theme for the golden time slot drama Hanazakari no Kimitachi e〜 Ikemen☆ Paradise〜 (Hana Kimi), which started airing on Fuji TV last Sunday. Senbatsu members for this Single was selected by an election back in June. The common B-side song is Dakishimecha Ikenai, used as the theme song for AKB48's 3rd collaboration CM with travel agency HIS. TYPE A's exclusive B-side song is Seishun to Kizukanai mama, the ending theme for AKB48's recently ended yankee drama Majisuka Gakuen 2. TYPE B's is Aisu no Kuchizuke, the song used in the collaboration CM with Ezaki Glico (the one with CG Idol Eguchi Aimi).....

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Major Announcement

SOS It brings me great sadness to say this, but MELOS no Michi is in trouble. I will be conscripted to the army in a couple of months, for a couple of years. And if you look at who is writing the posts, 75% is done by me. So that is a big problem. _chinpingpong is also going to be conscripted, and kieyuku is already struggling to cope with her studies. So that just leaves us with Miss Moonlight, our NMB48 newswriter, who is in university and also busy with her studies. For a few weeks now I have been going around to other people I know and asking them, but to no avail. Thus I have no choice but to announce it here. I call out for help from my readers out there. This blog needs your help. Desperately. Anybody with a passion for writing, want to expand your OOO48 knowledge, or just willing...

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Happy 20th Birthday Acchan~! A short story about AKB48's little Flower

Today, July 10th 2011, is the 20th birthday of AKB48's dearest Maeda Atsuko! Congratulations! A change from the usual news, today I will share with all of you a short story about our most beloved Acchan. The struggles she faced to get to where she is now. One of the few surviving 1st gen members left in AKB, she joined the group at the young age of 14 years old. Acchan was quite a reserved girl and actually never wanted to be an idol. She admitted that the only reason why she decided to audition for AKB48 was because Akimoto Yasushi's name was on the poster. That was her first time auditioning...

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DiVA's [Cry] TV CM revealed

The TV CM for DiVA's 2nd Single Cry has been uploaded to DiVA's official YouTube channel! Check it out below! My comments so far: - Omg Umechan why are you so awesome - Liking the song much more than Tsuki no Uragawa. - Definitely not liking the olive colored costumes. Olive is an ugly colour. - Olive nail polish too. eeeeeewwwww. - The horizontal lens flare/ reflection is getting on my nerves. - Other than that the PV looks promising. The tree and sky in the back is nice. - Can't wait for the full ...

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GROUPON x AKB48, SKE48, NMB48. A new election?

AKB48, SKE48 and NMB48 (yes all three!) will be working with GROUPON Japan, a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates. The campaign website will open July 9th (tomorrow) at 10:00AM JPT. GROUPON Japan official website: http://www.groupon.jp/ Campaign website: http://www.groupon.jp/campaign/48/ The concept of this CM is "Everybody picks, everybody makes". For this campaign, the members participating in the CM as well as the theme of the CM will be chosen by the fans in the website. Members from AKB48, SKE48 and NMB48 are available...

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AKB48 members as HP Support Angels

Is your laptop getting slow and unresponsive? *nods* Thinking of getting a better laptop or desktop? *nods* But you always thought "Nah it's too bothersome" or you just plainly don't have the money. *nods* *nods* WELL IT'S GOOD NEWS FOR YOU (but not your wallet) BECAUSE AKB48 WILL BE COLLABORATING WITH Hewlett-Packard AGAIN THIS YEAR!!! This is the 3rd time AKB48 will be collaborating with HP, the previous 2 were in Spring and Winter 2010. This time round the participating members are called "HP Support Angels". And the member participating are Team A: Takajo Aki, Sashihara Rino, Kuramochi...

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DiVA's 2nd Single titled [Cry] + Covers, Tracklist

Tracklist and covers for DiVA's 2nd Single have been revealed. Titled [Cry], it will go on sale on August 10th and like all OOO48 releases now there are multiple versions to collect, a total of 4. TYPE A, B, and C will have different coupling track, and the Theater version will have all the songs but without the instrumentals. Theater version will also include 1 (one) ticket to a handshake event Just like in their debut single Tsuki no Uragawa, an AKB song has been "DiVA-ised". Previously it was Blue Rose from Team K 2nd Stage [Seishun Girls]. This time the song used is the popular  MARIA...

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No Sleeves [Kuchibiru Furezu...] 1st Week Sales

Following the last update where the ladies of No Sleeves sold 42k units of their 7th single, Kuchibiru Furezu, on the first day on the Oricon charts, the Oricon Weekly charts has also been updated, where the trio kept their #3 position, ranking in after Hey!Say!Jump! and KARA. The final sales count for the week tallied up to close to 100k sales, which is the best weekly result for the subunit so far. To put this into context, their 6th single Answer, which was released back in March, sold about 82k in its first week, while the 5th single Kimishika sold about 31k. So as we can see, the popularity...

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Not yet [Naminori Kakigoori] 1st Day Sales & Review

Not yet's sophomore single, Naminori Kakigoori, released today, three months after their debut in March. Have they outdone themselves this time, or sunk further? Let's take a look at the Oricon charts today first: Congratulations to Not yet once again for topping the charts! The best-selling AKB48 subgroup continues to do us proud. Naminori Kakigoori sold 75,979 copies on the first day. For comparison, Shuumatsu Not Yet sold 50,563 copies on its first day. It is a comfortable lead for now, but will this single be able to beat their debut's first week sales of 159,678 as well? I believe it...

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