General News Thread

[atarashii-michi]

I am honestly going to cry... Nacchan is my favorite member.... </3

[carenduna]

I am also a big Watarirouka Hashiritai fan, and was incredibly saddened to hear the news of Nacchan's departure. Her vitality and lovely smile will be greatly missed, and I hope whatever path she takes in her career, will see her happy and successful.

[SomethingWild]

Six years of hard work just gone like that. A hardworking 1st generation member leaves without a proper send off. That's just sad.
WH's handshake event today can't be a happy event either. Once again, I hope the people there won't say hurtful stuff to the other girls.


Aki-P comment:

It was a regrettable announcement.
It was the result from a discussion between the girls, their managers and staff, so I agreed.

I don't want to specifically blame them. If they were normal students then there will be no problem.

But they're members of AKB48 and have to obey AKB48 rules.
"Well how about that other member?"
Considering the rumours, there are probably people pointing fingers.
That is the many yellow cards that the managers or staff put out for them.

They only broke the rules of AKB48 and not the rules of society. Even if they quit AKB48, they are saying they want to remain in the entertainment business, so I will support them from now on.

[Yagami.Rai]

LOL They're trying to tie the necktie for each other~

[SomethingWild]

Kashiwagi Yuki and Miyazawa Sae will be the seiyuu for the anime adaptation of “Marimo no Hana: Saikyō Butō Shōgakusei Densetsu.”

Writer: Akimoto Yasushi
Artist: Yuuko Kasumi.

Yukirin will perform Marino and Sae will perform Masaru.

http://natalie.mu/comic/news/63830

[Amplifier]

AKB48 member Akimoto Sayaka (23) will star in an NHK drama for the first time next month. The show, titled “Asadora Satsujin Jiken,” will be broadcast over two consecutive nights around the end of March.

Akimoto will take on the role of Miho, who is appointed as an assistant producer for a morning television drama. One day, a giant daruma doll is discovered in the studio, making it impossible to film the drama. The chief producer (played by Kokusho Sayuri) orders Miho to “expel” the daruma, and for some reason she gives her a “Ghost Countermeasure Manual.”

The screenplay is written by Hokimoto Shinya, a director and writer for the Comedy Unit Isokawake troupe.

Kiriyama Renn, Chris Peppler, Rokkaku Seiji, and Aijima Kazuyuki have also been cast.
The drama will be a new experiment for NHK as its first “multi-channel drama.” It will be broadcast on multiple channels, with the main channel containing only the main story. At certain points, the sub-channels will differ from the main channel, showing scenes from inside Miho’s imagination. Viewers will be given signals indicating when to change channels to view those extra scenes.

Production for the drama began on Tuesday. Although the show is scheduled to air on 2 consecutive nights, NHK has not yet announced specific broadcast dates or times.

Source: http://www.tokyograph.com/news/akb48s-akimoto-sayaka-to-star-in-nhks-first-multi-channel-drama/

Related:
http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/movie/2006730/full/
http://mantan-web.jp/2012/02/07/20120207dog00m200048000c.html

Sounds.. crazy.

[YKT]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57371627-1/otaku-band-akb48-morphs-into-$200m-business/

Otaku band AKB48 morphs into $200M business

With a reported $212 million in record sales in 2011, AKB48 is one of the highest-earning pop groups in the world.

What if the vice president of your university were a genius producer who had put together an insanely successful pop group of 90 singers and then approved the creation of identical doll versions of them?

Weird? Not for Kyoto University of Art and Design and Yasushi Akimoto, the Steve Jobs of otaku (supergeeks) in Japan. The school just hosted a hit exhibition of dolls based on the gals in the band he produces, AKB48.

At 90 members, AKB48 is the Guinness-certified world's largest pop band. Its members are all females in their teens and early twenties, and all its bubble-gum singles top the charts on the day of their release.

The music is, shall we say, an aquired taste; it sounds like arcade game tunes drenched in a massive one-part vocal harmony. Yet intense otaku fandom has lifted the hydra-headed, miniskirted band to the highest levels of Japanese acceptability. It's even acting as Japan's unofficial representative in China.

The original idea behind the group, which was founded in 2005 with 20 girls, is "idols you can meet." At an AKB48 theater in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district, otaku who are lucky enough to have won tickets in a lottery run by the band can see some of their idols onstage. The men dance to the songs, wave glow sticks, and get to briefly meet the performers after the show.

But the adulation doesn't end there. AKB48 also runs popularity contests for the girls, and fans get to vote with tickets included in CD packages. Some otaku spend thousands of dollars buying the same disc to give their favorite member a better chance of winning the contests.

Akimoto has added to the band's ranks so they now number some 90 girls, including various teams, captains, "trainees," and one, Aimi Eguchi, who's a computer-generated character.

On the human side, the youngest trainees are only 14 years old.

Indeed, AKB48's videos sell young faces, young flesh, and more than a bit of titillation, with bikini dances and locker-room romps; YouTube views rank in the tens of millions.

That's nothing new in pop, but AKB48 has seen unbelievable success recently: 16.28 billion yen ($212 million) in 2011 CD and DVD sales alone, according to compiler Oricon. That's more than what Forbes' chart-toppers U2 makes.

The accuracy and impartiality of Oricon's charts has been questioned before, and it could be way off now. Yet even if the latest AKB48 numbers are inflated, there's no denying the band has gone mainstream in its popularity.

In Tokyo's gadget nirvana Akihabara, AKB48 has expanded to a cafe and movie theater screening concert footage; huge posters of the group can be seen at Akihabara Station.

Meanwhile, Shiseido hair products, Glico candy, Asahi drinks, Peach John lingerie, and other big brands have entered endorsement deals with the girls. Even the staunchly conservative Japan Post has started selling AKB48 stamps; fans crashed its Web site when the product was announced.

AKB's tentacles have spread to other parts of Japan, and even Indonesia, sprouting clone groups and waves upon waves of merchandise. Producer Akimoto apparently wants to take the concept to other Asian countries as well. Is there a universal appeal?

"Boys like them because they think the girls are cute," Akimoto explained to The Wall Street Journal. "Slightly older men want to cheer them on, as they would little sisters or daughters."

Somehow I doubt there would be as much cheering without the bikinis and miniskirts.

But Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba seems to agree with Akimoto, and recently recruited AKB48 girls to act as goodwill ambassadors to China to improve the countries' often rocky relationship.

The girls will try to boost Chinese tourism to Japan, which dropped off following last year's massive earthquake. In their thigh-highs and ponytails, they'll outshine anything else Tokyo could send.

As for the dolls, fans are clamoring to take them home. Created by design studio Petworks, they're 10 inches tall and just about identical to the real thing, right down to the coiffures and eyelashes.

They're not on sale yet, but it's probably just a matter of time before otaku will be able to get their own little piece of AKB48 to love and cherish forever.


When Japan Post announced AKB48 stamps, fan zealotry crashed its Web site.
(Credit: Japan Post)

[YKT]

Out on Blu ray and DVD on April 27, 2012

Source http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/entertainment/2006826/full/
http://mantan-web.jp/2012/02/09/20120209dog00m200053000c.html

[winner]

Yukirin is coming to Taiwan and Hong Kong!     

「Kashiwagi Yuki of AKB48 is coming to Taiwan and Hong Kong！」

Sorry for keep you all waiting!
Kashiwagi Yuki is the captain of Team B, AKB48. She won the second runner-up award in Senbatsu Election 2011 and is one of the most popular members in the group. She is now planning to come to Taiwan and Hong Kong.
During 25th to 28th Feb., Kashiwagi yuki will come to Taiwan and Hong Kong to shoot photos preparing for her next photo book. <-- {really hope this isn't a typo}

Of course, there will also be hand-shaking events in both Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Schedule and other details will be announced soon!

http://www.facebook.com/notes/akb48-official-shop-hong-kong/akb48%E6%9F%8F%E6%9C%A8%E7%94%B1%E7%B4%80%E7%B5%82%E6%96%BC%E8%A6%81%E4%BE%86%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%8F%8A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E5%95%A6/373721319321450

[Amplifier]

[JapanToday] - AKB48 members take part in mini-concert in Beijing to thank China for 3/11 support

BEIJING — Six members of popular all-girl idol group AKB48 performed at a mini-concert in Beijing on Friday night to thank China for its support for relief efforts in the Tohoku after last year’s March 11 disaster.

[Mainichi] - AKB48 members take stage in Beijing to thank China for quake support

BEIJING (Kyodo) -- Six members of Japanese all-girl pop group AKB48 took the stage in Beijing on Friday in a mini concert, expressing gratitude for support provided by Chinese people following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

[YKT]

Video Research Ltd. has released the 2011 edition of its annual report on TV commercial data. In particular, its ranking of celebrity screen time revealed that actress Ueto Aya received the most exposure in 2011 in the Kanto, Kansai, and Nagoya areas, largely due to her appearances in the SoftBank and Asahi commercials. Dante Carver, who also appears in the SoftBank commercials, rose from 22nd to 6th in the Kanto region.

In the Kanto region, Ueto has always ranked in the top 20 since 2004, reaching as high as #2 before 2011. In 2011, she was #1 by a wide margin, with 239,550 seconds (more than 66.5 hours) of screen time over 14,884 commercials. Counting all three regions in the report (Kanto, Kansai, Nagoya), she had 723,555 seconds (almost 201 hours) over 42,712 commercials.

Idol group AKB48 also had a breakout year. While none of the members ranked in the top 20 during 2010, this time three members were in the top 10 with four more in the top 20.

The top 20 in the Kanto region are listed below. (2010 rank is in parentheses.)
Ueto Aya – 239,550 seconds – 14,884 commercials – (#2)
Owada Kensuke – 182,550 seconds – 9,754 commercials – (#496)
Oshima Yuko – 179,895 seconds – 11,098 commercials – (#562)
Maeda Atsuko – 171,855 seconds – 10,558 commercials – (#1,343)
Nagatomo Yuto – 168,435 seconds – 9,101 commercials – (#2,722)
Dante Carver – 168,135 seconds – 10,281 commercials – (#22)
Shinoda Mariko – 162,015 seconds – 10,441 commercials – (#562)
Sakurai Sho – 156,465 seconds – 7,664 commercials – (#146)
Matsuki Rina – 154,425 seconds – 7,483 commercials – (#37)
Takei Emi – 153,345 seconds – 9,298 commercials – (#1,341)
Kojima Haruna – 143,685 seconds – 8,943 commercials – (#562)
Takahashi Minami – 141,675 seconds – 8,745 commercials – (unranked)
Itano Tomomi – 140,385 seconds – 8,907 commercials – (#769)
Ayase Haruka – 139,155 seconds – 8,245 commercials – (#35)
Fukuyama Masaharu – 136,155 seconds – 8,203 commercials – (#17)
Higuchi Kanako – 132,420 seconds – 8,004 commercials – (#9)
Kashiwagi Yuki – 127,965 seconds – 8,111 commercials – (#4,286)
Mukai Osamu – 126,885 seconds – 7,932 commercials – (#65)
Sasaki Nozomi – 125,295 seconds – 7,952 commercials – (#32)
Ninomiya Kazunari – 122,770 seconds – 7,186 commercials – (#26)

Sources:
Sankei Sports
Video Research Ltd.

http://www.tokyograph.com/news/ueto-aya-finally-becomes-cm-queen/#more-23602

During an event at Seibu Dome in Saitama on Saturday, idol group AKB48 announced another major donation to the Japanese Red Cross. More than 580 million yen is being given toward the earthquake relief efforts. Combined with their previous donations, AKB48 has raised a total of more than 1.25 billion yen in aid.

After the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, AKB48 began collecting donations for the relief efforts through their “Dareka no Tame ni” charity project and at various events. Those donations, plus a portion of the revenue from their CD sales, amounted to 668,916,085 yen up until February 18 of this year. They announced that they will contribute an additional 585,259,888 yen, bringing the total amount to 1,254,175,973 yen.

On top of that, the group will also donate 30 vehicles to the prefectures of Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi (10 to each). There are also plans for AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, and HKT48 to hold charity concerts at their respective theaters on March 11 (the anniversary of the earthquake).

Sources:
Sankei Sports
Oricon

http://www.tokyograph.com/news/akb48-charity-efforts-have-raised-1-25-billion-yen-in-donations/#more-23592

[Masa]

It is official; Tomochin will finally be making her first trip to meet her China fans as part of the Genki Japan campaign mentioned previously. There will be 3 stops in total, namely Beijing, Shanghai followed by Hong Kong. Tomochin, Ume-chan and Yui will be going to Shanghai for a special performance and a meet & greet session. It will be the first time Tomochin gets to meet her huge chinese fanbase and I am feeling excited for this whole event already.

Due to the large number of people who wants to meet the girls, the organisers have set up a lucky draw system for the event. Results were announced earlier today via email and at the moment, there is a lot of activity over on the Chinese forums on exchanging of tickets for preferred time slot out of the 2. Let’s all hope that the security and reception will be awesome for the girls and that they will have a safe and memorable trip!

http://tomoland.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/tomochin-goes-to-china/

Oh snap! Both Tomochin AND Umechan! Let's visit China!

[t-motion]

Interesting chart and an interesting post:
Charting the success of the 48′s

[YKT]

AKB48, Nakai Masahiro, and Esumi Makiko will host a new TBS song program starting at April

--akb48journal

Nakai Masahiro, Esumi Makiko & AKB48 to be the MC for TBS’ new music program
by Shiso on February 28, 2012 at 9:47 pm


It was announced that SMAP’s Nakai Masahiro, actress Esumi Makiko, and idol group AKB48 has been chosen as the MC for a yet-to-be-titled music program on TBS which will start in the middle of April.  The music show will feature three or four artist groups every week, and will comprise of performance and discussion segments.

AKB48 member Takahashi Minami commented, “For AKB48, this is our first experience to be the regular MC for music program.  All members are very excited about this.”  Every week, around 10-16 Senbatsu AKB48 members will appear on the program along with Nakai and Esumi, and two or three of those members will take turns as the MCs.

The new music program will be aired every Tuesday at 9:00 PM on TBS.

http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/02/nakai-masahiro-esumi-makiko-akb48-to-be-the-mc-for-tbs-new-music-program/

TBS to start new prime time music show with Nakai Masahiro, AKB48, Esumi Makiko
Posted on February 29, 2012 by tokyograph

TBS has announced that it will launch a new prime time music show in April. The last time the network had a prime time music program was “THE MUSIC HOUR” in 2010. Like that show, SMAP’s Nakai Masahiro (39) will be the MC, but this time he will be joined by AKB48 and actress Esumi Makiko (45).

The new show does not yet have a title, but it is described as a mix between a live performance show and a variety show, combining music, talk, and news segments. TBS plans to have 2 or 3 artists appear as guests each time.

It is said that about 10 of AKB48′s main members will appear each week, but 2 or 3 of them will be rotate as the show’s MCs, hosting alongside Nakai and Esumi.

The show will air on Tuesdays at 9:00pm, beginning in April.

Sources:
Mantan Web
Natalie

http://www.tokyograph.com/news/tbs-to-start-new-prime-time-music-show-with-nakai-masahiro-akb48-esumi-makiko/#more-23707



A dedicated thread will be started once we have more info like a title...

[SomethingWild]

AKB48 Official Diary

First official diary features AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, and JKT48. Includes diary covers of all groups, profile of all members, monthly calendar (April 2012 - March 2013) featuring birthdays of all members, weekly schedule featuring their memorial days, and more.

CDJapan

[muppet]

Now class, we will have  an open book test at the end of the quarter. Please pick up your textbook at the student store.....

No one passes "Idol 101" with a score below 70, and the quarterly open book tests are 35% of your total grade, so get the book and read it!!!

[LovelyGaki]

AKB48 achieves a Guinness World Record for their 90 CMs for ‘Wonda Coffee’
by halicolipocky on March 5, 2012 at 10:35 pm

Back in February, AKB48 broadcasted 90 solo member’s CMs for Asahi’s ‘Wonda Coffee Morning Shot’ and has now received a Guinness World Record for broadcasting the “Most Number of Same Product Television Endorsement within 24 Hours”! The broadcast of all 90 versions of the CM (restricted in Kanto, Kansai, Tokai region) took place on February 28th, and defeated the previous Guinness World Record for broadcasting 60 commercials in 24 hours.

This endorsement, became a hot topic as it featured every single member of AKB48 (members of Team A, Team K, Team B, Team 4, and Research Students) and sent out encouragements to Japanese citizens nationwide.

This CM is still currently airing as of this announcement.

Congratulation for this incredible feat, AKB48!

Source: http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/03/akb48-achieves-a-guinness-world-record-for-their-90-cms-for-wonda-coffee/

And ANOTHER record for AKB!

[muppet]

And an awesome series of CM's indeed:

[muppet]

Team K's turn:

[muppet]

Team B's time: