"Modeled after Morning Musume's Tanaka Reina, the on going 4 square manga series "Kaito Reinya" (Phantom Thief Reinya) that's currently serialized in "Shoukan The Television", "Gekkan The Televsion", "Gekkan Newtype", "Shounen Ace", "Comptiq" is finally being made into an anime! It has been decided to premier beginning January 2010 on KBC TV (Kyuushu Asahi Housou)!"
Tsuji is singing a song called "Bokutachi ZESUPURI KIWII Da ne" for Zespri Kiwi. If you visit the official website you'll find clips of the commercial, along with a link to buy the song on iTunes.
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day: Tsunku♂, the Hello Project producer best known for assembling the Morning Musume female idol group, is making his voice-acting debut in the anime adaptation of Tomoko Nishimura's Gokujō!! Mecha Mote Iinchō high school romance manga. He is playing Nijūkyu-sensei, the advisor of Musashino Moriyama Academy's light music club. (The Television magazine posted side-by-side pictures of Tsunku♂ and his character.) In the story, Mimi Kitagami is a kind, level-headed girl who aims to be the best, coolest student council president of her high school class. However, three trouble-making boys are always causing her grief — and she has a one-sided crush on one of the boys, Ushio Tōjō.
In addition to being a character in the anime, "Nijūkyu-sensei" is credited with composing the "Mecha Mote I Love You," "Kirei ni Naritai," "Daisuki ni Nare—!" and "Kokoro Kimi ni Todoke" theme songs. Tsunku♂ is the actual composer of these songs. The songs' performance are credited to "MM Gakuen Gasshō-bu" (Musashino Moriyama Academy Choral Group), Mimi Kitagami (voice actress Mana Ogawa), and MM3 (the characters Ushio, Ao Nishizaki, and Namito Nagumo as played by voice actors Ryo Oshima, Ryutaro Abe, and Tomohiro Watanabe, respectively).
After his dialogue post-recording session, Tsunku said that the voice-acting stint was basically his first job outside his usual work in the music business and was most fascinating. Tsunuku played the character with an accent from the Kansai region south of Tokyo.
Tsunku assembled Morning Musume from the finalists of the televised auditions for his own rock band, Sharan Q. In addition to producing Morning Musume and other musical acts under the Hello Project umbrella name, Tsunku♂ once sang several hit songs for Sharan Q, such as DNA²'s "Single Bed" and Orphen's "Ai Just on my Love" and "Kimi Wa Majutsushi." He also composed and wrote music for Hyakko, Kirarin Revolution, Patalliro Saiyuki, School Rumble: 2nd Semester, and Yo-Yo Girl Cop. (Some of these anime- and manga-related projects feature current members and alumni of Hello Project.) He appeared at Anime Expo this past July.
Mari Yaguchi is taking part in a "Cute Creation Team (Kawaii o Tsukuru Dan)" project, which, as she puts in her blog, is meant to "make Japan brighter and more cheerful by making Japanese girls "cute"." From what I can tell they have information on recipes, makeup, and how to capture the "cute" look of the girls featured.
I don't know how long it'll be up so check it out soon here!
The mother of Morning Musume member Kago Ai reveals the background reasoning she used when allowing her daughter to live in Hawaii together with that person (age 35).
With her three younger brothers and sister having a different father, and the parents having a quarrel about their divorce, she shoulders the burden of their lives.
A daughter who was hurt by being told about her parents’ divorce. – “She’s just a victim.”
“Going on a trip during her suspension with a man who is 16 years older than her, and smoking once again.” As a result, she was fired from her office. As her fate remains unknown, her mother reveals the hidden truth behind her smile for the first time. This is the true Kago Ai, not the “Kago-chan” everyone is familiar with.
“She said her listening skills are getting a lot better than before. And also, she said happily that she was praised by people around her, like, ‘You have a good ear, because you’ve played music from a young age. You’re progressing quickly.’ She’s also good at cooking. She likes to cook a variety of dishes in her own way. Apparently, she cooks all the time at the house where she’s staying now.” Going on a hot springs trip during her suspension with an older man, and also having her smoking being exposed, the former member of Morning Musume, Kago Ai (age 19) got the shocking pink slip from her office on March 26th. After all that fuss, she hasn’t been heard from again. But her mother says that after a temporary stay in Hawaii, she’s currently living in New York. It’s her birth mother, Aki (age 38) who has been watching Kago Ai with gentle patience, giving pep talks to her at times. She lives in Nara, and raises her oldest son (age 7), second daughter (age 6) and second son (age 2) by herself. She gave birth to Ai when she was 19. She’s 38 years old now. She’s wearing a small white one-piece and leggings, and has nicely curled brown hair. It’s no wonder she was mistaken by some media reporters for Kago’s sister.
She has kept in touch with Kago by phone or e-mail every day since she moved far away from her. She says she’s still doing it. Having a look very similar to her daughter in her eyes, she slowly started talking about her daughter’s debut and dismissal, what they’ve been doing lately, and the problems she’s facing now – the interview lasted 2 hours.
Tearful apology
Kago Ai and her mother Aki’s whole lives were changed by the coverage of her smoking in the Friday magazine which was released in February 2006. As a result, she was given an indefinite suspension.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry…” She made a phone call to Aki and apologized in tears. “I was surprised. I didn’t know she smoked. Because I became a mother at a very young age and caused my parents a lot of trouble, I was always trying to be strict with my children. So it’s like, ‘It can’t happen to my child.’ I’m very sorry for giving so much trouble to the fans, insiders of the company and all the people around her.”
At that time, Aki was worried about the divorce from her husband. Actually, he isn’t Kago’s biological father. Aki got married at 17 and gave birth to Kago at 19. However, she got divorced when Kago was barely 1 year old. She remarried when Kago was in fifth grade, and had three children together with him since then. It was just before Kago joined Morning Musume that she was told about the existence of her real father. She thought that her “father” was the one who had always been with her ever since she could remember.
“Until then, I had never told her those kind of ‘adult’ stories. But I was having trouble with my husband back then, and being slightly in a panic, I found myself talking to her about it. In retrospect, I think she must have gotten hurt by that. She’s just a victim in that way.”
Not-So-Daily Links of the Day: Former Morning Musume singer Ai Kago (Mini Moni the TV) and Public Enemy producer/guitarist Brian Hardgroove are among the dozen duos performing electronic-music-influenced covers of magical girl anime theme songs on the Kirakira Majocco Cluv album. The other duos include Christopher Just and Tomoe Shinohara (Kodocha), Franck Muller and Erika Asakura, Paolo Scotti and the female idol group AKB48's Miho Miyazaki, DJ Scotch Egg and Nakano Fujoshi Sisters' Chiaki Kyan, Bymski and Yumi Sugimoto, Electrocute and Marin Nishitani, Plastic Operator and Mao Miyaji, Maho Thaidisco and AKB48's Tomomi Kasai (ICE), Sexy-Synthesizer and former Idoling!!! member Mira Takiguchi, Pan Pacific Playa and Sayaka Isoyama (Chouseishin GranSazer), Kazuo Gondayama (a.k.a. Cherryboy Function) and Mina Fukui.
The album's 26 tracks range from the earliest magical girl theme songs like Mahōtsukai Sally to recent hits such as Zettai Karen Children's "Over the Future." In between are songs from Cutie Honey, Urusei Yatsura, Magical Princess Minky Momo, Kiki's Delivery Service, Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, and Zero no Tsukaima. The album will ship on October 7.
In related news, Turn A Gundam and CAPCOM character designer Akira Yasuda has drawn the cover art for the Gundam Rock album by Andrew W.K. The Californian singer is performing English-language covers of theme songs and rock versions of background music from Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise's first Mobile Suit Gundam television series and its movie trilogy remake. Andrew W.K. is also reenacting the opening narration and Garma Zabi's funeral speech by Gihren Zabi (a.k.a. the "Sieg Zeon!" speech) from the anime in English. The album ships in Japan on September 9, 2009.
Miki, former member of Morning Musume, has recently married her fiance, Shouji Tomoharu of the comedy group "Shinagawa Shouji," in July of 2009. Congratulations!
After five years, manga creator An Nakahara has ended her Kirarin Revolution series in the June issue of Shogakukan's Ciao shōjo magazine on Friday. The romantic comedy centers on Kirari, a teenaged girl who aspires to be a singing idol after being inspired by different members of a boy idol group. To commemorate the ending, the magazine is offering the 53 color opening illustrations from the different manga chapters over the years, along with a photo frame signed by Nakahara, to 30 readers in a drawing.
The next issue of Ciao magazine will ship on June 3 with a spinoff one-shot manga called Miracle Revolution by Rio Fujimi. The manga will recount the real-life rise to stadom of "miracle idol" Koharu Kusumi, the single-charting voice of Kirari in the Kirarin Revolution television anime series and a member of the Morning Musume girl group. The anime version just ended last month after three years and 153 episodes. Viz Media has been pitching the anime (under the names Kirari and Kilari) to potential overseas distributors at trade conventions. Kusumi and the rest of Morning Musume will be performing at Anime Expo in Los Angeles this July.
Miracle*Revolution will star Morning Musume idol Koharu Kusumi, focusing on her (thus far) idol career, in manga magazine Ciao. This follows her run as the voice of Kirari in the anime and manga series Kirarin Revolution, a story about a young girl who strives to be an idol. No furthur information is known.
Tsunku♂, our Hello!Project's exclusive producer is expanding his horizon internationally with the debut of Rhythm Heaven (as known as DS Rhythm Tengoku Gold in Japan) for the Nintendo DS hand-held system. Released on April 5 of 2009, the game entered the U.S. market shelves and received a highly positive reaction from the gaming population. This music rhythm based game was co-developed by the Nintendo R&D1 team and TXN (the company that Tsunku himself 'owns').
Rhythm Heaven, or DS Rhythm Tengoku Gold is actually a sequel to the game Rhythm Tengoku (released Aug 8th, 2006) for Gameboy Advance which Nintendo SPD with the help of Tsunku as a lead developer. But since Rhythm Tengoku was only released within Japan and never internationally, the sequel, Rhythm Heaven, becomes the first time Tsunku (and this game series) enters the worldwide gaming industry.
This sequel game expands from the GBA button controls to the DS touchscreen gameplay and it contains a very simple concept that requires the player to Tap, Flick, Hold or Slide in correlation to the music and animation of the game. Unfortunately for us as Hello!Project fans, there does not seem to be music in there taken from the H!P song collection (seems like NiceGirlProject fans can get something out of the JPN ver though). However, for the gamers who owns a DS, this game is definitely worth checking-out.
Go to link for more info and interview with Tsunku.
1.ＳＯＮＧＳ 2.リゾナント ブルー (Resonant Blue) 3.雨の降らない星では愛せないだろう？ (Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou) 4.Ｔａｋｅ ｏｆｆ ｉｓ ｎｏｗ！／高橋愛・新垣里沙・田中れいな (Take off is now! / Takahashi Ai, Nigaki Risa and Tanaka Reina) 5.泣いちゃうかも (NaiChau Kamo) 6.私の魅力に 気付かない鈍感な人／光井愛佳 (Mitsui Aika Solo) 7.グルグルJUMP／久住小春・ジュンジュン・リンリン (Guru Guru JUMP / Kusumi Koharu, Junjun and Linlin) 8.みかん (Mikan) 9.情熱のキスを一つ／高橋愛・新垣里沙・田中れいな (Jounetsu no Kiss o Hitotsu / Takahashi Ai, Nigaki Risa and Tanaka Reina) 10.Ｉｔ’ｓ Ｙｏｕ ／道重さゆみ (Michishige Sayumi) 11.女に 幸あれ (Onna Ni Sachi Are) 12.片思いの終わりに ／亀井絵里 (Kataomoi no Owari ni / Kamei Eri) 13.悲しみトワイライト (Kanashimi Twilight)
Overall I found this album to be boring and not very impressive. Of all the songs, I only find myself listening to Resonant Blue and Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou more than once. Everything else has yet to grow on me. The cheap sounding synth was way overdone, too. Not their best in any way or form.
Former Momusu Mikitty & Shouji Tomoharu to Wed This Summer
On March 24th, it was announced that ex-Morning Musume leader Fujimoto Miki (24) and comedian Shouji Tomoharu from comedy duo Shinagawa Shouji will complete their 2-year-long relationship with a wedding in July. Currently they are scheduling the ceremony day and other necessities. Fujimoto's agency confirmed the wedding news for our publication.
The agency sent us a fax entitled "The Engagement Report". Within it, Fujimoto explains her joy about her engagement with Shouji, saying, "I'm really happy I met someone who helps me grow, and we really understand and support each other. I would be really happy if you could give us your warm support from now on."
Fujimoto plans to continue with her career, but will prioritize her family.
Furthermore, Shouji's agency published his comment. Being obviously very happy, Shouji said, "I've been captivated by Miki's kindness and straightforward personality, so I decided it's about time to seal this almost 2-year-long relationship with a wedding. From now on, we plan to clasp our hands and work hard towards reaching happiness together."
Also, neither of the two plan to open a press conference regarding this engagement.
