NMB48 Announces 1st Album+Request Hour and Introduces 4th Generation

During the theater show on December 23, it was announced that NMB48 will release its first album on February 27. The title has yet to be announced but it was already revealed that the album will come in 4 types: Type N, Type M and Type B (CD+DVD, 3,200 Yen each) as well as a theater version (CD only 1980 Yen). It was also announced that NMB48 will hold their first Request Hour Setlist Best 30 event next year. Voting tickets will be included in Type B of the album. A date has not been announced yet. The same day, NMB48's 4th Generation members were presented for the first time in the theater....

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Yokoyama Yui Joins Team N

On December 19 Yokoyama Yui, member of AKB48's Team A, made her debut as Team N member in the NMB48 theater and performed for the first time in Team N's current stage show, a revival of N1 [Dareka no tame ni]. Yui took over the spot of Matsuda Shiori, who graduated in October, so her unit in the show is now [Rider]. It had already been announced in August during the big AKB48 team shuffle in Tokyo Dome that Yui would be a member of both AKB48 and NMB48, and she has since then been active in NMB48 as a Senbatsu and Shirogumi member in the last single [Kitagawa Kenji] and was selected for...

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Oricon End Of Year Charts

AKB48 have dominated the Oricon end of year charts round-ups. They placed number one in the "total artist sales revenue" table(which counts CD/DVD/bluray sales) with 19,098,000,000 Yen. That's the equivalent of 227 million US dollars, or 172 million Euros. In the album table, AKB48 placed 3rd with [1830m] at 1,029,954 copies, and SKE48 placed 40th with [Kono Hi no Chime wo Wasurenai] at 143,648 copies. The singles chart, the following placed: 01 – “Manatsu no Sounds good!” – AKB48 : (1,820,056) 02 – “GIVE ME FIVE!” – AKB48 : (1,436,519) 03 – “Gingham Check” – AKB48 : (1,303,407) 04 – “UZA”...

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Nogizaka46 4th Single [Seifuku no Mannequin] 1st Day Sales

Nogizaka46 4th single [Seifuku no Mannequin] sold 190,108 copies on it's first day to place number one in the Oricon daily sales chart. This is a huge increase over their 3rd single [Hashire Bicycle]'s 150,056 copies, and even eclipses that single's first week sales, which was 186,613 copies. This single was available in 3 CD+DVD types, and 2 CD only types, one of which was an anime version. The regular CD only version could be pre-ordered from chara-ani.com with individual member handshake tickets. Congratulations to Nogizaka46, this is a big increase in sales for them. They have recently...

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[AKB48 2nd Kouhaku Taikou Uta Gassen] Setlist

AKB48 held their 2nd [Kouhaku Taikou Uta Gassen] on the 17th December 2012 at Tokyo Dome City Hall. As per last years event, this is modelled on the NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen held on New Year's Eve which features red and white teams take turns singing songs in a competition. This year, the akagumi (red team) captain was Shinoda Mariko and the shirogumi (white team) captain was Takahashi Minami. Akagumi won the competition by 8 votes to 4. Near the end of the show, Kasai Tomomi, announced her graduation. She will release her debut solo single [Masaka] on the 26th December 2012. In addition, this...

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NMB48 Hikawa Ayame and Sato Sorai to Graduate

NMB48 Team M member Hikawa Ayame and Kenkyusei Sato Sorai both announced their graduation on December 13. This news comes only a week after Kenkyusei Sugimoto Kano resigned from the group. Hikawa Ayame has been taking a break from her activities in NMB48 since late October due to a leg injury. Since it will take more time to recover, she decided to graduate from the group. Ayame is a 1st Generation NMB48 member. After not making Team N in 2011 she continued her activities as a Kenkyuusei, and was able to get into AKB48's Janken Senbatsu last year. In January this year she was selected for...

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AKB48 29th Single [Eien Pressure] 1st Week Sales

AKB48's 29th single, [Eien Pressure] has sold 1,073,499 copies to place number one on the Oricon weekly singles sales chart. This is their 10th consecutive million selling single, and 11th in total. This does represent a slight drop in sales from previous single [UZA]'s 1,128,696 copies but this single did not release in Limited Edition versions with national handshake event tickets. The senbatsu for this single was decided in the Janken Tournament, with Shimazaki Haruka centering. [Eien Pressure] also dominated the Soundscan weekly singles charts, taking up the top 4 places: 1. Eien...

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Kasai Tomomi 1st Single [Masaka] Tracklist + Covers

Details of Kasai Tomomi's solo debut single [Masaka] have been revealed. The single, to be released on the 26th December 2012 will come in two CD+DVD types and one CD only type. There will be one new original coupling song, and solo versions of [Dakishimeraretara], from Team K's 5th Stage and [Candy] from Team B's 5th Stage. This single is part of the [Kasai Project] which also sees her solo photobook being released, as well as her solo CM and mini-live. View a PV preview after the tracklisting. Kasai Tomomi 1st Single Masaka まさか 26 December 2012 Type A 1,600yen[CD] 01. Masaka 02. Watashi...

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NMB48 Kenkyusei Sugimoto Kano Resigns

NMB48 Kenkyusei Sugimoto Kano has announced on December 6 that she will resign from NMB48. She had problems with her health and decided to focus on her studies now. Her leave was immediate and her participation in the official blog and Google+ will end the next days too. Sugimoto Kano's Comment to her fans: Original Message I am sorry for this sudden announcement. I, Sugimoto Kano, will resign from my activities in NMB48. Today will be my last day of work in NMB48. I wanted to become a person who can make people smile, and also I wanted to change myself at least a bit, so I applied for...

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AKB48 7th Anniversary Theatre Show Setlist

AKB48 celebrated their 7th Anniversary with a special performance at their theatre. This included all current AKB48 members and kenkyuusei, as well as SNH48 members Miyazaya Sae and Suzuki Mariya. Former AKB48 and SDN48 member Ohori Megumi performed in one of the songs, and also announced that she will be getting married to Kanazawa Tatsuya. To start with, the three Teams each performed their new team songs from the [UZA] single. There was then a song by all the members who are primarily in sister groups but also hold a role in AKB48. Then songs were performed by each generation in turn, starting...

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Iwasa Misaki 2nd Single [Moshimo Watashi ga Sora ni Sundeitara] Covers + Tracklisting

The details of Iwasa Misaki's 2nd single [Moshimo Watashi ga Sora ni Sundeitara] have been revealed. Like her debut single [Mujin Eki], this will be an enka song released in two types, a limited edition CD+DVD and a regular edition CD. An enka version of AKB48's [Flying Get] will be a common b-side across both types. The limited edition will contain a cover of Jonouchi Sanae's [Ajisai-bashi], whilst the regular edition will contain a cover of Ishikawa Sayuri's [Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyugeshiki]. The single will be released on the 9 January 2013, 11 months after her debut. Six launch events will commemorate...

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AKB48 29th Single [Eien Pressure] 1st Day Sales

AKB48's 29th single [Eien Pressure] has entered the Oricon daily singles charts at number one with 840,043 copies sold. This follows the slow downwards slope, as their last single [UZA] sold 884,602 copies on day one. However, there were no limited edition handshake events associated with this single so the result is a good one. [Eien Pressure] is available in four CD+DVD types and a theatre edition, featuring coupling songs by the three Japanese sister groups and OKL48, as well as the three PVs voted for in [Music Video Request 2012]. ...

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All 20 AKB48 Stages to be Released on CD as [Studio Recordings Collection]

All of the AKB48 stages will be released as studio recordings on CD on 1st January 2013 under the [Studio Recordings Collection] banner. Each will cost 3,000 yen and contain 2 CDs, the 2nd contain the instrumental versions of the songs. A total of 20 stages will be released, 6 from Teams A, 6 from Team K, 5 from Team B, 2 Himawari-gumi and 1 from Team 4. Stages which have been performed by more than one team will get released in separate CDs for each team's version. It has not been yet stated whether these will be the original recordings or which which of the two casts will be used for the...

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Watanabe Miyuki and Yamamoto Sayaka Photobooks 1st Week sales

NMB48's Yamamoto Sayaka and Watanabe Miyuki both released their solo photobooks [Sayagami] respectively [Mirugami] last week. It had been announced in advance that the girls would battle against each other in terms of first week sales, and the winner would get a solo CM. First week sales are out now, amounting to 29,800 copies for Milky and 27,622 copies for Sayanee, making Milky the winner by approx. 2,000 copies. She now stars in a CM for the sushi chain Sushiro. The photobooks took the two top spots in the Photobook Ranking and ranked 2nd and 3rd in the Oricon Overall Book Ranking. They...

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