Kuramochi Asuka Solo Debut Single [Itsumo Soba ni] Tracklist

Kuramochi Asuka's solo debut single [Itsumo Soba ni] will be released on 29 May 2013. As previously reported, this will be released in one CD+DVD type, and 5 "one coin" CD only types, costing just 500 yen each. Each of these types has a cover design chosen by a magazine. The "one coin" types include a voting ticket to select your favourite cover, and one winner who guesses the correct order of popularity of all 5 covers gets to spend a day at the horse races with Mocchi. On our last post, only the 5 "one coin" type covers were revealed. Today the remaining CD+DVD cover was revealed on Kuramochi's...

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Nogizaka46 Announces New Center: Shiraishi Mai

Announced during Nogizaka46's handshake event on 20th April, Nogizaka46 will have a new center for their 6th single. Shiraishi Mai will be replacing Ikoma Rina, who has been the center of Nogizaka46 since the group was formed back in 2011. Currently the title of the single as well as the release date has not been announced, but the senbatsu line up was revealed. The Hachi fukujin for the single are: Shiraishi Mai (center) Matsumura Sayuri Hashimoto Nanami Sakurai Reika Ikuta Erika Ikoma Rina Nishino Nanase Takayama Kazumi And the remaining 8 senbatsu members are: Ito Marika Inoue Sayuri Nakada...

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JKT48's 1st Single [RIVER] Will Release Next Month

JKT48 have officially announced that they will be releasing their first single [RIVER] next month. The single is still a translation of AKB48's single, not yet their original song. No exact release date or tracklist has been announced as of yet. JKT48 first performed RIVER at a Heavy Rotation special show in the JKT48 Theater last week, and again just yesterday during the [AKB48 Group Rinji Soukai] Concert in Nippon Budoukan. This will be the first time JKT48 is using the 16 member Senbatsu system for their songs. The songs in their previous album [Heavy Rotation] featured all the 23 members...

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[AKB48 Group Rinji Soukai] Concert Promotions and Concurrent Team Changes

With today's [AKB48 Group Rinji Soukai] Concert at Nippon Budokan, we got a couple of member promotions as well as shocking member shuffles. First of all, the remaining 12th generation kenkyuusei were promoted today. Promotions Sasaki Yukari promoted to Team A. Hirata Rina promoted to Team K. Oomori Miyu promoted to Team B. Last year during Tokyo Dome concert it was announced that Yokoyama Yui, Kitahara Rie, Kotani Riho and Ishida Anna will hold concurrent positions in NMB48, SKE48 and AKB48 respectively. Today the 3 members were released from their concurrent positions with new members from...

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AKB48 5 Big Dome Concerts Announced!

In conjunction with the bidding of Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics, AKB48 will be holding a series of 11 concerts at the 5 biggest dome stadiums in Japan, from July to August. This was announced by the Governor of Tokyo Inose Naoki through a VTR at the end of the [AKB48 Group Rinji Soukai] Concert, held over 4 days at the Nippon Budokan. The concerts series will take place in Fukuoka, Sapporo, Osaka, Nagoya, and will end with a 4 day concert in the Tokyo Dome. Of those 5 Dome locations, only Sapporo, Hokkaido does not have a 48 group stationed. 2013 5 Big Dome Concert Fukuoka Yahoo! Auctions...

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AKB48 Group Kenkyuuseis to have their own Budokan Concert

It was announced during the 4th day noon performance of  the [AKB48 Group Rinji Soukai] Concert that all of the AKB48 Group Kenkyuuseis will have their own solo Budokan concert on 5th June. This is the first time any of the Kenkyuuseis have a solo concert on their own. AKB48 Group Kenkyuusei Concert [Oshimen Hayaimonogachi] Date: 05 June 2013 Venue: Nippon Budokan Time: TBA Details are unclear if "AKB48 Group" is limited to the groups residing in Japan (AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48), or will include the overseas 48 groups like JKT48 and SNH48. Yuasa Hiroshi 1:51 - Public AKB48 Group...

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AKB48 31st Single [Sayonara Crawl] Cover Art

The covers for AKB48's 31st Single [Sayonara Crawl], releasing on 22nd May, 2013, have just been revealed. The covers were shot by renowned Japanese photographer Ninagawa Mika, who previously directed AKB48's Heavy Rotation PV, as well as Yobisutte Fantasy and Sugar Rush. Ninagawa Mika is known for her vibrant and flowery photos, the covers of Sayonara Crawl are saturated with exactly that. Check out all 7 different covers below. TYPE A (Limited) cover, Type A (Regular) cover TYPE K (Limited) cover, TYPE K (Regular) cover TYPE B (Limited) cover, TYPE B (Regular) cover) Theater...

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[AKB48 Group Rinji Soukai] Concert at Nippon Budokan Set Lists

AKB48 Group Rinji Soukai ~Shirokuro Tsukeyou Janai ka!~ ＡＫＢ４８グループ臨時総会 ～白黒つけようじゃないか！～ Venue: Nippon Budoukan Date: 25 ~ 28 April, 2013 25 April 2013(Thursday)17:30SKE48 26 April 2013(Friday)17:30NMB48 27 April 2013(Saturday)12:00HKT48 27 April 2013(Saturday)17:30AKB48 28 April 2013(Sunday)12:00All Groups 28 April 2013(Sunday)17:30All Groups The Sunday 17:30 JST All Groups concert will be livestreamed as part of YouTube Music Week DAY 1 (25 April) Group: SKE48 Kage-ana: Kimoto Kanon M00 - Overture M01 - Nakama no Uta -----MC1----- M02 - SKE48 M03 - Banzai Venus M04 - Pareo wa Emerald M05...

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AKB48 31st Single Titled [Sayonara Crawl] + Tracklist

AKB48 has announced the tracklisting of their long awaited 31st single, AKA the Senbatsu General Election voting single. It is that time of the year again to vote vote vote! Just like last year's, the new single will have a summer theme and is titled [Sayonara Crawl], releasing on 22nd May, 2013. [Sayonara Crawl] will be released in 7 different versions: Type A, Type K, Type B and Theatre versions. Type A, K and B is further separated into Limited and Regular Edition copies. The Regular Edition copies of Type A, K and B come included with a voting ticket for AKB48's upcoming 32nd single...

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Watanabe Mayu 2nd Photobook [Seifuku Zukan Saigo no Seifuku] Sales + 4th Single Announced

Watanabe Mayu's second solo photobook [Seifuku Zukan Saigo no Seifuku] went on sale on the 19th April 2013. Retailing for 1,400 yen, this features 256 full colour pages. It is set around a school theme, with Mayuyu wearing the seifuku (school uniforms) of 94 real Japanese schools. On it's first week on sale, the photobook placed 9th in the Oricon overall books charts, selling 17,836 copies. For reference, her first photobook [Mayuyu], released 13th May 2011, sold 45,209 copies on it's first week on sale. In addition to her 2nd photobook, Mayu's 4th solo single has been announced! This...

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Kuramochi Asuka Solo Debut Single and Photobook Announced

Kuramochi Asuka will join the ranks of soloists from AKB48, releasing her first solo single on 29th May 2013. She is the 10th member from AKB48 to have a solo debut. Her official website was launched recently Official website: http://kuramochiasuka.jp/ At the time of posting, the solo debut single is still untitled, but we do have some information about the single. It will have a total of 6 different versions, which is a huge number for an AKB48 solo artist. There will be the main CD+DVD limited edition version worth 1,600 yen, consisting of the main the A-side and 2 coupling songs, the instrumental...

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Kasai Tomomi 2nd Single [Mine] Tracklisting, Covers + PV Preview

Kasai Tomomi's 2nd solo single [Mine] will be released on the 8th May 2013. This follows her debut single [Masaka] released on 26th December 2013. The release of this new single is just after her graduation from AKB48 which takes place on 3rd May 2013. [Mine] will be the theme song to the TV Tokyo drama [Meshibana Deka Tachibana] which she will play a leading role in. It will be released in 2 CD+DVD types and 1 CD only type. The CD+DVD types contain a photo and lottery application for tickets to a live event to be held in Tokyo on the 16th June. The CD only type will contain a handshake ticket...

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MELOS no Michi is hiring

A good day to all our readers, this is Melos here. Most of you have noticed that over the past year, this blog has not been up to standards and we have been missing out on a load of news. I also have not been active on the blog and the AKB48 community. The truth is that my interest in AKB48 has kinda died down quite a lot. And now this blog is really short of hands. Currently, there are only 2 active contributors to the blog, Miss Moonlight and Jul3, who by the way have been doing a damn good job keeping the blog alive while I was gone. Well I'm back now. It all changed when I recently saw a JKT48 performance in Jakarta recently. I guess it kinda reactivated the idol sprit inside me that has been waning ever since AKB48 stopped performing in Singapore. However I am in the army now, so I...

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NMB48 Yamada Nana Moved To Team M+ Promotions

NMB48 held their [Request Hour Setlist Best 30] on April 18 in Osaka and during the event some surprise announcements were made. First of all, it was announced that popular Team N member Yamada Nana would be moved to Team M. Nana is a 1st Generation member and has always been in Team N since it was formed. Nana will take the spot of former Team M member Hikawa Ayame who graduated in December. To fill the spots left open by Shinohara Kanna's recent graduation and Yamada Nana's move to Team M, two Kenkyusei, Koga Narumi and Nishimura Aika have been promoted to Team N. Koga Narumi is a 2nd...

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NMB48 Request Hour Setlist Best 30 Results

NMB48 held their first Request Hour event on April 18 in the Orix Theater in Osaka. Fans could vote for their favourite songs and the Top 30 songs were performed. Voting tickets were included in Type B of  NMB48's 1st Album [Teppen Tottande]. The ranking showed some interesting results. No single made it into the Top 5 songs. The top spot was taken by the Shirogumi song [Kesshou], a B-side of NMB48's 2nd Single [Oh My God!]. The group's first original song [Seishun no Laptime] ranked second and Yamamoto Sayaka's solo song [Jungle Gym] came in 3rd. You can see the full results below. NMB48リクエストアワー2013...

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