HKT48 Kenkyuusei Abe Kyoka To Graduate

HKT48 Kenkyuusei Abe Kyoka has announced her graduation on December 26th. She wants to pursue a career as a model. Her last stage show will be a performance of HKT48's Himawari-gumi stage [Pajama Drive] on December 30th. Kyoka is a 1st Generation member, so she has been with HKT48 since the group made its first appearance in 2011. Before joining the group, she already gathered experiences in modelling. After her graduation, two 1st Generation Kenkyuusei will be left in HKT48: Imada Mina and Fukagawa Maiko. Abe Kyoka's G+ entry about her graduation Original Message Good evening. I, Abe...

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Sato Amina Announces Graduation

AKB48 Oshima Team K member Sato Amina has announced her graduation during the theater show on December 22. She wants to pursue a career in voice acting. A date for her graduation is yet to be decided. Amina has been in AKB48 for more than 6 years and is known for having been a big fan of the group before joining. She debuted as a 4th Generation Kenkyuusei in mid-2007, was promoted to Team A in 2008 and later shuffled to Team B and then K. Amina made Senbatsu for the first three election singles [Iiwake Maybe], [Heavy Rotation] and [Flying Get] and was a voice actress for the AKB48 anime AKB0048...

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AKB48 5th Album [Tsugi no Ashiato] Tracklist

AKB48's 5th Album [Tsugi no Ashiato] will be released on the 22nd January 2014. There will be 4 types of this album, a Type A Limited Edition 2CD+DVD, Type A and B Regular Edition 2CD and a Theatre Edition 1CD. The first CD is identical on all types but the Theatre Edition has an exclusive track. The Theatre Edition sales are now over but included 2-shot photo tickets with a member of your choice, so was very popular. Disc 1 contains the singles [Manatsu no Sounds Good!] through [Koisuru Fortune Cookie], also including their Theatre Edition coupling songs. The other disc contains a mixture...

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Team M Tour Dates Announced

It was already announced during NMB48's 3rd Anniversary Concert on October 13th that Team M would have its own tour in 2014. Now the dates for this tour have been revealed. Team M will perform 7 concerts at 6 venues in February and March all over Osaka Prefecture with a two-day final in the Orix Theater in Osaka City. The dates are: February 25th Kishiwada Municipal Namikiri Hall, Kishiwada February 26th Osakasayama Culture Hall SAYAKA Hall, Osakasayama February 27th Sakai City Public Hall, Sakai March 17th Kaizuka City Hall Cosmos Hall, Kaizuka March 18th Izumisano Municipal Culture...

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48Groups Dominate the Oricon Yearly Charts Again

Oricon has released its yearly ranking and once again AKB48 took the top spots. The year's best selling single is [Sayonara Crawl] followed by the other three AKB48 singles released this year before the release of the ranking ([Suzukake Nanchara] was released too late to be counted in). [Eien Pressure], already released last year, also makes an appearance on #48. The sister groups also have good ranks with SKE48 taking #7, #8 and #11 and NMB48 on #9 and #12. HKT48 did not make the Top 20 but took #23 and #24. A few solo/unit singles also made it to the Top100. Official rival Nogizaka46 did...

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AKB48 34th Single [Suzukake Nanchara] 1st Week Sales

AKB48's 34th single [Suzukake no Ki no Michi de "Kimi no Hohoemi wo Yume ni Miru" to Itteshimattara Bokutachi no Kankei wa dou Kawatteshimau no ka, Boku nari ni Nannichi ka Kangaeta Ue de no Yaya Kihazukashii Ketsuron no you na Mono] finished its first week in the Oricon charts and ranked first in the weekly ranking selling 1,033,336 copies . The single sold 916,912 copies on its first day, which were good first day sales for a Janken single, but the rest of the week did not turned out as well as usual for AKB48. Weekly sales are behind last year's Janken single [Eien Pressure]'s (1,073,499)...

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JKT48 News Recap

JKT48 Second Anniversary Concert JKT48 will hold their second anniversary concert titled "Thank You For Being My Friend" on 21st December 2013. The concert will be held in two time period, there will be noon and night show. For details, click here. Concert DVD released JKT48 have released their DVD concert "Let Us Introduce Ourselves : JKT48". There will be also a 2-shot event for the fans who purchase two DVDs. For further info and setlist, click here Renai Kinshi Jourei Sensuuraku  JKT48 Team J's current setlist, Renai Kinshi Jourei will come to its last show on 28th December...

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3rd AKB48 Kouhaku Utagassen Setlist

On December 17, AKB48 and their sister groups held their own Kouhaku event for the third time. Members from the 48groups competed against each other divided into two teams: the White Team with captain Yokoyama Yui and the Red Team with captain Watanabe Mayu. The White Team won with 8 out of 11 votes. Red Team (Akagumi) Captain: Watanabe Mayu Vice-Captains: Takahashi Minami, Sashihara Rino, Minegishi Minami AKB48: Izuta Rina, Iriyama Anna, Iwata Karen (did not perform due to illness), Oshima Ryoka, Kawaei Rina, Kobayashi Marina, Takahashi Juri, Takahashi Minami, Tano Yuka, Matsui Sakiko, Morikawa...

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AKB48 34th Single [Suzukake Nanchara] 1st Day Sales

On December 11th,  AKB48 released its 34th single [Suzukake no Ki no Michi de "Kimi no Hohoemi wo Yume ni Miru" to Itteshimattara Bokutachi no Kankei wa dou Kawatteshimau no ka, Boku nari ni Nannichi ka Kangaeta Ue de no Yaya Kihazukashii Ketsuron no you na Mono]. The single sold 916,912 copies on its first day making AKB48 once again the top in the Oricon Daily Charts. Sales have declined by about 100,000 copies compared to the previous single [Heart Ereki]'s first day sales of 1,020,800 but compared to last year's janken single [Eien Pressure]'s 840,043 copies, sales went up. ...

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Suga Nanako and Yano Azuki Will Graduate From SKE48

On December 7th, SKE48 members Suga Nanako and Yano Azuki announced that they will leave the group this month. Team E member Suga Nanako will have her final graduation show on December 22nd and Kenkyuusei Yano Azuki a day later on December 23rd, but both will still participate in a few handshake events in early 2014. Both girls want to focus on their studies. Suga Nanako is a 5th Generation member. She joined SKE48 in late 2011 and was promoted to Team S in August 2012 and then became a Team E member after the SKE48 shuffle this April. She made SKE48 senbatsu constantly since the 10th single...

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48Group New Team Stages To Be Rescheduled

Recently it was announced that Team S' 5th Stage scheduled for November 30th had to be delayed. The new shonichi date for this stage has now been revealed: it will be on February 27th, 2014. But this is not the only news concerning new team stages. Team H's new stage, the first original one for HKT48, planned to start on December 22nd has been delayed too. A new date has not been mentioned. Additionally, new stages for the other teams will have to undergo schedule changes as well.  I guess many people expected this to happen. I did, but it is still disappointing. Why did they even...

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