AKB48 album Kamikyokutachi sold half a million

Idol group AKB48 reached half a million units sold with their best album “Kamikyokutachi” this week, after almost an entire year. Originally released on April 7, 2010, the album sold approximately 2,000 copies this week, pushing its total to 501,000. Although the group has had two million-selling singles in recent months (“Beginner” and “Sakura no Ki ni Narou”), “Kamikyokutachi” is their first album to hit the half-million mark.

In fact, the last female group to sell 500,000 copies of an album was Destiny’s Child, who did it with “#1′s” in 2006 (592,000 in current total sales). Not counting overseas artists, the last female group was Morning Musume with “4th Ikimasshoi!” in 2002 (515,000 in current total sales).

AKB48 is expected to outdo “Kamikyokutachi” with their first original album, “Koko ni Ita Koto,” which was previously scheduled for release on April 6 but is being delayed due to the effects of the March 11 earthquake. No new release date has been decided yet.

Meanwhile, AKB48, their related subgroups, and member Itano Tomomi (as a solo artist) experienced a small boost with their singles this week. Currently, there 12 AKB48-related singles in the Top 100.

Source:
Oricon

AKB48 as student in series Sakura Kara no Tegami

Members of idol group AKB48 are going to star in a short television miniseries titled "Sakura Kara no Tegami ~AKB48 Sorezore no Sotsugyou Monogatari~." The show will consist of 17 episodes aired on 9 consecutive nights, from February 26 to March 6.

AKB48 will be playing themselves as 3rd-year high school students getting ready to graduate. One day, their homeroom teacher, played by Takaya Kamikawa (45), suddenly announces that he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and only has three months left to live. As the students each begin reflecting on how to change their own lives, they come to understand the significance of "graduation."

Each of the episodes will be its own story, building up to the climactic final episode. The main cast will consist of Yuko Oshima, Atsuko Maeda, and the rest of the "media senbatsu" team (decided at last year's senbatsu), while the "under girls" and other AKB48 members will also appear as supporting cast. It is reported that all of the AKB48 members will make an appearance.

The drama's main theme song will be "Sakura no Ki ni Narou," whichb AKB48 will release as their next single on February 16.

The first episode will be 30 minutes long, and the last episode will be 60 minutes long, but the 15 episodes in between will each be 10 minutes long. In total, the drama has a running time of 4 hours. According to Mantan Web, the broadcast schedule will be:

* Episode 1 - February 26, 11:55pm
* Episode 2-4 - February 27, 11:55pm
* Episode 5-7 - February 28, 11:58pm
* Episode 8-10 - March 1, 11:58pm
* Episode 11-13 - March 2, 11:58pm
* Episode 14 - March 3, 12:38am
* Episode 15 - March 4, 1:28am
* Episode 16 - March 5, 12:50am
* Episode 17 - March 6, 10:30pm

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AKB48 member Tomomi Itano debut single Dear J

AKB48 held a handshake event and mini-concert at Ajinomoto Stadium on Saturday to celebrate their latest single, "Beginner." During the event, member Tomomi Itano (19) announced that she is going to make her solo debut next year.

Although AKB48 has several sub-units, Itano will be the first of its current members to have a solo release. Her debut single is titled "Dear J" and will be released on January 26, 2011. It is described as an up-tempo dance song with a club music feel.

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AKB48 Rina Nakanishi become AV Actress

Reports have spread that former AKB48 member Rina Nakanishi (22) is entering the world of AV. It started with a full nude gravure appearance in the most recent issue of FRIDAY and will continue with her first adult DVD in August.

Nakanishi was one of the first generation members of AKB48, but she graduated from the group in November 2008. On June 6, 2010, she wrote in her official fan club blog that she was returning to her hometown in Oita, seemingly to take a break and to refresh herself. However, it appears that she is really just undergoing an image change, moving into the adult industry under the stage name "Rico Yamaguchi."

The news seems to have first been broken by the magazine Shukan Taishu, whose June 21 issue reported that a former AKB48 member was going to make her AV debut. At the time, a writer for Cyzo speculated that the girl in question was Nakanishi. On June 25, that guess was confirmed when her nude photos appeared in FRIDAY, and AV company Alice Japan announced the debut DVD of Rico Yamaguchi, scheduled to go on sale on August 27. In addition, it has also been announced that Yamaguchi will get her first nude photobook titled "Departure" on July 13.

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AKB48 release album Kamikyokutachi in US

All-girl supergroup AKB48 will release their latest album Kamikyokutachi in the US through American-based label Maru Music.

Taking the world by storm, AKB48 have reached the point of worldwide recognition. This highly-anticipated North American release, coupled with their performance at the Anime Expo Convention in Los Angeles is sure to make July a month to remember.

Kamikyokutachi contains 16 tracks, many of which have also become high charting singles, and a DVD with three choreographed music videos in multi-angle format so that fans can learn and recreate their dance moves. An exact release date has yet to be announced.

Maru Music will be present at Anime Expo this year and will be making nine major release announcements at their panel. This is the first of those announcements, so expect more release news soon.

jame-world

AKB48 Atsuki Ishiguro dropped out because dating

Nikkan Sports is reporting that Atsuki Ishiguro (16) was dropped from AKB48's kenkyuusei for breaking the group's policy against dating. Earlier this month, a picture of her and a boy taken in a photo booth was leaked onto the internet.

The photo was leaked during the voting period of AKB48's most recent "senbatsu" election, which determined the lineup for the group's next single. On June 9, the senbatsu results were announced, and Ishiguro was revealed to be #40, giving her the final spot in the 19-member "under girl" unit that will record the single's B-side. At the time, Ishiguro was still just a candidate for the official Team Kenkyuusei.

On June 12, AKB48's Team Kenkyuusei selection process took place, and the results were announced on June 20. Despite being popular enough to make the cut in the senbatsu, she was one of three girls who failed the selection - the other two were Momoko Kinumoto (15) and Sara Fujimoto (13). At the same time, another kenkyuusei member, Eri Takamatsu (17), left the group on her own.

According to Nikkan Sports, Ishiguro failed the selection because of the photo. A source familiar with the situation said that it was unfortunate because the photo seems to be old, implying that Ishiguro is not currently dating. There is even speculation that the photo may have been taken before Ishiguro joined the group of kenkyuusei candidates this past September, but there has been no confirmation of that. Still, AKB48's no-dating policy is strictly enforced, evidenced by the previous dismissal of Ayaka Kikuchi (16) in 2008. A separate source explained that the management has no choice but to set an example for the many other members.

It was not made clear whether someone will replace Ishiguro in the "under girls" for the upcoming single, which goes on sale on August 18.

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AKB48 Ponytail to Shushu with bikini on the beach

A-K-B-forty-eight or Akihabara48 is a Japanese theater/idol group produced by Akimoto Yasushi. The group has 48 members, divided into 3 subgroups, namely Team A, Team K, and Team B. They have released 4 singles as of present, and will be releasing their next single in April of 2007. Unlike other idol groups in Japan, AKB48 is theater-based and have their own theater in Akihabara (a district in Tokyo) where they perform once every weekday. AKB48 released its debut single "Sakura no Hanabiratachi" in February 2006.

AKB48’s 16th and latest single Ponytail to Shushu (ポニーテールとシュシュ). This video features the girls sporting ponytails whilst dancing on a beach。What a wonderful view is all the girls are wearing only colourful bikini and sexy pants. Although it is not so hard for us to see Japanese young ladies in bikini photoshoot (MV/pictorials), but fans still so pleasure to watch again AKB48's young teen in bikini on the beach. Plenty of bikinis, sunshine and beach, the MV was filmed in Guam.

Contrary to their conservative neighbours, it’s pretty common for mainstream Japanese idols to don in bikinis for MV/pictorials beside the fact that most of them are doing so at teen age. It’s almost a cultural thing;

As stated on Oricon, the last female group to break the half million sales record was Morning Musume with 515,000 copies of their Renai Revolution 21 「恋愛レボリューション21」 back in 2000 . The first female artist to break the half a million record was Hikaru Utada with 784,000 copies of Can You Keep A Secret?.

Here’s the member that were featured in this music video:

Team A: Kojima Haruna, Shinoda Mariko, Takajo Aki, Takahashi Minami, Maeda Atsuko
Team K: Itano Tomomi, Oshima Yuko, Ono Erena, Minegishi Minami, Miyazawa Sae
Team B: Kasai Tomomi, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kitahara Rie, Miyazaki Miho, Watanabe Mayu
Team S: Matsui Jurina






Watch AKB48 Ponytail to Shushu ポニーテールとシュシュ PV video here :

Japan Group AKB48 songs for Deltora Quest

The Yomiuri Shimbun paper's website reports that Yasushi Akimoto, the producer and songwriter of the Japanese female idol group AKB48, is entertaining offers for spinoff groups from seven television stations and production companies in six countries. The six countries include Thailand, Singapore, China, and Italy.

According to the website, Akimoto believes that "the era of imitating the West is over. Now we export Japanese culture." The seven companies want to license the rights to localize AKB48's concept and format in their respective countries. In particular, the proposed spinoffs would each have a theater of its own (like AKB48 has in Tokyo's Akihabara otaku shopping district), 48 members and a name that ends with "48," costumes modeled after high school uniforms, and songs written by Akimoto.

AKB48 performed theme songs for the Deltora Quest and ICE anime projects. The contemporary artist and occasional anime creator Takashi Murakami illustrated the jacket for the AKB48 idol group's June 24 single, "Namida Surprise!" In return, AKB48 producer Yasushi Akimoto wrote the lyrics for the "First Love" tie-in song for Murakami's "Superflat First Love" anime short. Members of the group have made appearances in New York Anime Festival in the United States and Japan Expo in France.

In a separate development, Beckii Cruel, the 14-year-old British dancer who rose to Internet fame in Japan by dancing to anime songs in net videos, is making her first appearances in a manga and a Japanese television program on Wednesday. The dancer appeared in Hideo Nishimoto's Mō, Shimasen Kara non-fiction manga in this year's sixth issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine. The manga installment reports on her first sightseeing trip to Tokyo's traditional Asakusa neighborhood. She is also making her Japanese television debut on the Jinrui Akiramekaketeita Yume program on the NTV television network on Wednesday.

After her dancing videos were seen over 3.3 million times last year, Beckii Cruel released a DVD in Japan, performed at a stage event in Akihabara, and is now leading a three-girl band for a CD.

Anime News Network

AKB48 to play yankees in drama "Majisuka Gakuen"

Idol group AKB48 will star in a TV Tokyo drama series this winter. Titled "Majisuka Gakuen," the show was planned and written by AKB48 producer Yasushi Akimoto.

The drama will revolve around adolescent "yankees," or delinquents. Although all of AKB48's members are planned to appear on the show, the main character will be Atsuko Maeda (18), who was voted #1 by fans in the group's "senbatsu" election earlier this year. Maeda has already acted in multiple films and dramas, and was recently announced as a cast member in NHK's 2010 taiga drama "Ryomaden," playing a niece of protagonist Sakamoto Ryoma (Masaharu Fukuyama).

"Majisuka Gakuen" will air in TV Tokyo's "Drama 24" time slot (Friday nights at 12:12am). The show premieres on January 8. The official website has already opened.

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AKB48 River in Oricon Singles Weekly Ranking

1. AKB48 - River = 178579
2. AAA - Hide-Away = 43659
3. Ken Hirai - Boku wa Kimi ni Koi wo Suru = 30034
4. B'z - My Lonely Town = 25002
5. Sheryl Nome starring May'n - "Macross Frontier The Movie 1st: The False Songstress" Insert Song: Pink Monsoon = 23563
6. Kana Nishino - Motto... = 17956
7. Hilcrhyme - Shunkashuto = 14690
8. Ui Hirasawa (CV: Madoka Yonezawa) - K-On! Image Song = 13202
9. Nodoka Manabe (CV: Chika Fujito) - K-On! Image Song = 12144
10. Kitagami Mimi with MM Gakuen Gasshoubu - Daisuki ni Nare! / Kokoro Kimi ni Todoke = 11410

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