AKB48 Newswire

Three Related news items


AKB48 Sets World Record 

AKB48 set a world record on February 28 by having their “Asashi`s Wonda Coffee Morning Shot” commercial aired 90 times in 24. The promotion features 90 different members of AKB48 with their own solo commercial’s, each one was aired once within a 24hr period nationwide.
By the way the promotion is ongoing so it`s well past 90 airings now.
On a personal note ,I have not timed it , but it feel like an AKB48 endorsement airs on some channel every program break , regularly .Every time you turn around there is an AKB48 member promoting a product.

----------------
Charity Live
AKB48/SKE48/NMB48/HKT48  ,

 Will be holing a charity live on March 11 the anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake.
The charity performance will be held at each of the group’s theaters in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka.
The event will start 16 minutes before the time of the earthquake at 2:30pm and will last until 4:00pm
Since the Earthquake many stars have raised money to help out, for their part AKB48 has raised [1.25 billion yen [little over 15 million USD and 30 vehicles for schools in the earthquake zone.]
------------

Senbatsu comes to Google
AKB48 has created a Google+ Senbatsu unit.
It is created to pay tribute to the 16 most active members of AKB48 on Google+
They are
Matsui Sakiko, Takajo Aki, Katayama Haruka, Nakamata Shiori, Ishida Haruka, Suzuki Shihori, Tanabe Miku, Kuramochi Asuka, Nakagawa Haruka, Kitahara Rie, Yokoyama Yui, , Fujie Reina [ AKB48]

Matsumura Kaori , Matsui Rena [SKE48]

 Yamaguchi Yuki , Yamamoto Sayaka [ NMB48]
Google+ Senbatsu will be doing ads for Google and have a song on the commercials and on AKB48 next single.

AKB48 Newswire

AKB48 Newswire

AKB48`S Watanabe Mayu has landed her own late night TV Tokyo Drama .The drama`s related details have yet to be published outside of it being related to a school will debut on January 13.

Disclaimer-Photo is not related in any way to the drama

In other news

Ota Aika & Hirajima Natsumi have landed starring roles in the upcoming movie “X Game 2”

“X Game 2” is a follow up horror film to the 2010 released “X Game” . The basic storyline of this series is girls who are bullied ,end up seeking revenge on their attackers .

For their roles both Ota and Hirajima are ordered to receive corporal punishment .In order to escape this punishment ,they must face a punishing series of survival challenges .

The film will come to theaters next spring.

The Power Of AKB48

The Power Of AKB48

It`s very difficult to walk through the streets of Tokyo and not see something endorsed by AKB48. It`s difficult to turn on your television and not see a product ad by AKB48 members, or see them on a variety show, theirs or a guest. It`s difficult to turn on your television and not see a member in a drama or movie. It`s common to look at the various music charts and see AKB48 setting record after record ,this chart topping success ,has now started to extend to world music charts [largely due to domestic sales] . Yet none of these things created or displayed the force to create noise in the music industry as one harmless promotion.

Recently AKB48 entered into a deal with the postal service to create member stamps, something that famous or historic figures have done in every country of the world. When it came time for the stamps to be released, the postal service decided to set it up so people can order it online.

Simple enough right, when time came for the promotion to start, the demand for stamps was so great that it crashed the postal service web site.

Fans reacted with concern that they would not be able to get the stamps as a result of the interruption, that the postal service urged anyone who wanted to stamps to get them at their local office and that the stamps are print on order, so there is no worry of not getting the stamps.

When you reach the point that large numbers of supporters in one nation, worry over what is little more than a sticker that you can collect or put on an envelope, you have left the point of just being a group and entered the point of being a powerful franchise. It`s power in a kind of, this is a kind of wow, this is cool type of moment. Will it go down in history as one of those iconic moments in history? no ,it`s just one of those wow this is cool or interesting  moments, that we have come to expect from AKB48 ,just as we came to expect when Morning Musume shook the foundations of the genre with Love Machine.

The campaign will continue until January 9, 2012.

AKB48 Makes More Record History

AKB48 Makes More Record History

In related AKB48 news AKB48 has capture more records, this time in Oricon’s Karaoke rankings.

For the week of September 5 to 11 AKB48 captured the first three positions in the weekly singles rankings. This marks the first time in the 17 years that this ranking has been held that one artist has held the first three positions.

On top of this AKB48 has set a new record by toping ORANGE RANGE for the longest a single has been number one on the weekly Karaoke Rankings.” Heavy Rotation” has been number one for 47 consecutive weeks.

AKB48 Flying Get 1Million Sales In A Single Day

AKB48 Flying Get 1Million Sales In A Single Day

Another wow! moment and this time it`s from AKB48 .AKB48 ’Flying Get” sold 1,025,952 copies in a single day.

This is a slight improvement over their last release that took all of a difficult two days to cross 1 million.

It`s very likely that before the end of the week this single will break the record, established by AKB48 “Everyday, Kachuusha” at 1.5 million copies.

The next closest release was 28,943 and PASSPO☆ was third at 14,412 so one member is going bald, lol.

In related news, their Majisuka Gakuen 2 DVD sold 10,000 copies in a week .Only one other drama release has done that. It also by the way included members of AKB48 in the cast. 

AKB48 Hand Out Special Free CD Covers

AKB48 Hand Out Special Free CD Covers

AKB48 [staff] entered Shibuya Station on August 23 armed with 3,000 gold stamped “Flying Get” CD covers. The covers were freely distributed to anyone who wanted one and were completely distributed in one hour.

What made these covers so special is that they cannot be purchased at any store or online with any version of the CD.

Related Photos
http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/music/2001030/full/

AKB48 Flying Get Movie

AKB48 Flying Get Movie

Not long ago I added the short version of Flying Get to PIH .Readers asked what the full 18-minute version was like. Here is the full 18 minute version of the PV .The video in classic martial arts setting displays various camps representing good and evil  destine to fight an epic battle.

The early moments show the AKB48 forces simply enjoying a meal, knowing all along that a gathering storm is approaching. The writers and directors follow the traditional martial arts film build up with a slow calculated start building to the dramatic finish. To add spark the guardians of AKB48 speak with altered voices, until the members of AKB48 say enough of this foolishness and the song kicks in and the forces of good AKB48 swing into battle.

As with a number of martial arts films, there is a plot twist at the end as one of her own betrays Maeda. 

The movie when you watch from start to finish is nothing more then a dramatic takes on the senbatsu elections and battle for top position.

The amount of time, money and effects involved are sure to keep this unit in the media spotlight for sometime to come with this single.

Flying Get Movie
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjk2ODAyMjcy.html

Coupling PV`s
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjk2ODAxNjky.html
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjk2ODAxNzgw.html
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjk2ODAxNzUy.html    [now I miss the drama again, lol]

Note will replace PV`s with Youtube versions first chance I get.




 

AKB48 Get New Comedy TV Show

AKB48 Get New Comedy TV Show

I have not had a chance to see a lot of TV as of late due to music commitments , but AKB48 is getting a new comedy skit TV show that at first look reminds me of the old H!P Hello Morning skits , but much funnier.

The show will air late night on Thursdays starting September 29 and I am going to be watching this.

Previews of their new comedy skit show.





Extra footage
http://youtu.be/kCgnyzCYuVQ
http://youtu.be/qAkS4u_ZNOc
http://youtu.be/KcJMUbKSDrw
http://youtu.be/L61b8HNc5BQ
http://youtu.be/MLBY97QcW_U
http://youtu.be/1RigPdGKqqE
http://youtu.be/SWYIqF936eg
HP
http://hikaritv-akb48.jp/

AKB48 Documentary Gets American Release

AKB48 Documentary Gets American Release

Is this a one off thing or the start of AKB48`s move to take over the United States music industry, [couldn’t pass this joke up].

AKB48 has entered into a distribution agreement with NEW PEOPLE ENTERTAINMENT to have their recently aired film “DOCUMENTARY of AKB48 – To Be Continued” to be released by film and on DVD in the Untied States.

NPE President Horibuchi Seiji announced that they had acquired the rights to release the film in both theater and DVD formats. The film release for now is at only one theater and for one event.

The film release will take place on August 28 at 1:00PM California time at the NEW PEOPLE’s cinema in San Francisco. It will be part of the 2011 J-Pop Summit Festival.

The J-Pop Summit Festival is a festival held in San Francisco’s Japantown and is a summit of Japanese culture and music. The festival includes film releases, Q and A events, parties, live guest music performances, fashion shows for Visual Kei, Anime, Lolita genre ,cosplay and more.

Mr. Horibuchi announced that AKB48 was selected because they have massive Japanese popularity, but more so they are experiencing a fast rising American fan base, making the group fitting for this type release.

Horibuchi added, “AKB48 is a group unlike any other in pop music and we hope more people will discover AKB48 through this film”.

No time schedule was announced for the U.S DVD release.

This is onetime I wished PIH had international based field reporters, oh well that is for another discussion.

If your a fan of AKB48 and can make the festival and screening do so, it`s a great film with a behind the scenes look at the rise of AKB48 and their struggles to become number one, that is a must see for hardcore AKB48 fans or those just interested in how life is like for idols.

Film and festival ticket information.
http://www.newpeopleworld.com/films/films-8-2011/
Pop festival
http://www.newpeopleworld.com/festival-2011/about/

Related video






View the American Film trailer [it`s the Japanese one with Subs, lol]

http://www.newpeopleent.com/AKB48/

Spend Your Life With AKB48

Spend Your Life With AKB48

This falls under the category of this is just over the top. Have you ever wanted to spend your life with AKB48? I don`t mean as a fan, I mean live your day-to-day life with a member of AKB48.

Well that is not going to happen, but they have done the next best thing ,AKB48 apartments. AKB48 has teamed up with Apaman Shop to create the AKB48 fans dream come true, an apartment called "AKB48 Voice Rooms". These special apartments will be for purchase across Japan starting in September and will include the ability to hear the voices of the top 12 members in the Senbatsu.

AKB48 Voice Rooms’ will have sound sensors installed in various parts of the room, which when pressed you can hear one of the members say a wide range of things such as "Good Morning! "or even better "Welcome Home!"


The interior design will feature AKB48 related items such as life size member shower curtains, towels and more. In other words every place you look, you will see and hear AKB48 living life with you.

It`s all the more reason for a wota to never get married, when he can just date his apartment.

Just when I think AKB48 can`t come up with anything else, their management tops everybody again and dominates the media.

AKB48 vs. Nogizaka46

AKB48 vs. Nogizaka46

It`s now official, as AKB48 is so big that no other unit can match them, their creator has
entered “Castle Akimoto” and a rival will be born.

Please welcome to the idol wars Nogizaka46.

Confirmation has come that Akimoto Yasushi will in fact create an rival unit to go head to head against AKB48. This unit will be called Nogizaka46.

Nogizaka46 name comes from as I mentioned yesterday from being the office location of Sony Music Entertainment .The 46 is the number of members this unit will have. The reason that the unit will have 46 and not 48 was explained by Akimoto “Although there are fewer members than AKB48, they will not lose.”

Auditions will start on July 20, with follow up rounds on August 6 and 7 nationwide in 7 cities. Everyone that passes stage two will move to stage three on August 20 and 21.

20 girls will be selected for debut in October.  The unit will be a major label artist for Sony and will take part in music releases, live events and variety shows with the mission to become more popular then AKB48.

One thing to keep in mind, years ago Akimoto mentioned in an interview that AKB48 was something that he could see lasting around ten years.  Could this new unit not only be a new rival for AKB48, but the building blocks for the day that AKB48 ends and this concept of Idols that you can meet will live on in Nogizaka46?  If that is the case, then Akimoto looks set to control the top spot in the genre for years to come.

So much could have been different today in this genre, if companies had viewed AKB48 for the rivals they truly are, instead the sands of time moved on and Nogizaka46 will now carry the flag of battle to AKB48.

Will this be a true idol battle of rivals or more of the same? , Only time will tell and the idol community and media  will be watching closely.


Nogizaka46 HP

http://www.nogizaka46.com/

Related Post
http://pureidolheart.blogspot.com/2011/06/akb48-to-get-rival.html

AKB48 To Get A Rival?

AKB48 To Get A Rival?

This is breaking news and, let me say this could just be  the AKB48 marketing machine at work again. This same company that tried for two days to convince the nation that a CGI Idol was a real girl and a new member of AKB48. A move by the way that is still making headlines.

Therefore, with that out of the way, word is coming out that AKB48 is getting a rival unit. According to various mainstream media outlets Sony records has asked Akimoto Yasushi to create a rival unit to AKB48 for Sony Records.

This unit is being speculated  to have the working title of “Nogizaka46” .Nogizaka by the way is Sony’s HQ office building location “Nogizaka, Minato, Tokyo” .There is no explanation for the 46 number.

According to various mainstream media outlets, the unit will have auditions shortly, with more information scheduled to be released later.

Sony on it`s part have reportedly announced  “that we will strike hard with this project. This will be a serious competitor and strike AKB48 hard."

Let’s say for a moment, that this is not Aki-P trying to blow smoke up the collective backside of idolhood, what could be the motivation, outside the usual”.

Could it be that AKB48 has become so famous that the members feel they can relax without the fear of a real threat? Could this be a different image and concept that he could not do with AKB48?

With 48`s starting up across Japan and ventures into other countries to set up stores and theaters , now this ,at what point does Akimoto start biting off the hand that feeds him and pushes one project over the line and wotas start looking for something fresh.

It can very well happen suddenly ,just go over to Hello!Project and look .At one time no one outside of Pink Lady and Speed could match up with Morning Musume , now they are in a desperate battle to out sale new fresh idol units .

More developments to this story as they break.

Followup
http://pureidolheart.blogspot.com/2011/06/akb48-vs-nogizaka46.html

AKB48 Dating Game Round 2

AKB48 Dating Game Round 2

AKB48 is releasing a new PSP dating simulation game on October 6. The game will be  titled “AKB 1/48 Idol to Guam de Koishitara. This time you are going to Guam to try to win the heart of your favorite AKB48 member. The game will feature many swimsuit shots from the members and the confession scenes recorded in Guam.

In addition, the game will come in three versions a Regular Edition, a Limited Edition that will include bonus footage and a First Press Limited Edition that will include goods and bonus footage.

At the press conference, Nito Moeno mentioned a scene of hers. “There’s a scene where I go down a hill on my bike in a residential area and at the bottom they had a camera set up and I was supposed to stop perfectly in front of it, which was really difficult”.

Sashihara jumped in to say the following “There are two kinds of shots: a confession scene when you do things correctly and a scene where you get the cold shoulder. However, I think the cold shoulder scene is more interesting, so make sure to do that one (haha)”.

Sounds like Sashihara wants to play hard to get, lol.

Shibuya TSUTAYA Becomes AKB48 TSUTAYA

SHIBUYA TSUTAYA BECOMES AKB48 TSUTAYA

AKB48 took over the SHIBUYA TSUTAYA store on June 23, 24 as part of a new promotion campaign for their DVD “AKB48 Ga Ippai ~ The Best Music Video ~”.

Staff decorated the store  with  official pictures and outfits from their music videos to the large monitor screen which played their new DVD, every inch of the store became dedicated to AKB48 ,thus becoming in a way AKB48 TSUTAYA .

On June 24, members of AKB48 showed up at the store and signed their pictures on the walls of the store for two hours.

In related news, six AKB48 members made an appearance at SHIBUYA 109 and the building currently has a large billboard poster of Kashiwagi Yuki, which you can see as you walk by.

The DVD includes 36 of their music video including “Beginner”, “Heavy Rotation”, and “Ponytail no Shu Shu”.

For more photos of the store make over you can go here
http://mdpr.jp/021142937

The Truth Revealed

The Truth Revealed

After milking this so-called drama for a few days , the truth that we all knew ahead of time was revealed.


What truth shall that be? -Eguchi Aimi was a CGI Idol. Big shock right, lol.

Now on to the more important news of the day, just who is Eguchi Aimi?

Aimi`s hair and body belong to Oshima Yuko ,her online is Takahashi Minami ,her eyes is Maeda Atsuko ,her eyebrows are from the Cyborg idol Watanabe Mayu . Her nose is Itano Tomomi`s, her mouth is Shinoda Mariko`s and "Dr" Akimoto removed 12th gen`s Sasaki Yukari`s voice and made it Aimi`s.

Now as to her member bio, well that is true; you see it is the bio for Glico's company profile.

Here is the good part, instead of cursing "Dr" Akimoto for playing with your hearts by creating this Frankenstein Idol. Instead head over to the home page at the end of this post and you can create your own idol.

That is right; you can take parts of 47 AKB48 members and create your own CGI 48 Idol.


http://www.icenomi.com/oshimen/index.html

The Eguchi Aimi Saga Continues Is She Real After All?

The Eguchi Aimi Saga Continues Is She Real After All?

Well ,well ,well , is she real or is she not ? That my friends depend on whom you believe. First, the media asked the real camp- Glico if she was real  ,and the answer was  "Sorry we can’t comment”. AKS the management company for AKB48 has gone as far as  saying, “She’s real! She didn’t take the 12th generation auditions, so we had to quickly accept her (into generation 12.5)”. An entire bio has also been created on her  and some cover story of her being first accepted into NMB48.

Now the fake camp . What happens when you let idols blog , well they talk .
Kikuchi Ayaka  before management discovered it and deleted the post wrote Eguchi Aimi-san is cute . She’s just too pretty! Lol lol lol she is in the 12.5 generation~ I also did a shoot! I wonder when a part of my face will be used (hehe)”

Oshima Yuko , may have let it slip as far back as February ,when she posted a photo with dots on her face and the words “The shoot has finished. It took a long time, but I was by myself so I was able to stay nonchalant. In addition, in the end I turned out looking like this.

Looks like AKS and Glico ,has more miles they want to milk out of their new creation . Is she real as they claim or is she CGI as the members of AKB48 claim?

The real answer we already know , but the marketing of the controversy will guarantee that AKB48 will get maximum media coverage when Hello!Project is preparing for the release of Morning Musume`s single . A bit of chance or back room strategy by the idol, super power?







Related
http://pureidolheart.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-face-of-akb48-eguchi-aimi.html

The New Face Of AKB48; Eguchi Aimi

The New Face Of AKB48; Eguchi Aimi

What happens, when your the Queens of the female Idol genre, and frankly just don`t have a lot of time to push yourself to every network in the country?

Answer- you create the new “it girl” for AKB48.


Please welcome AKB48 newest member and rising star Eguchi Aimi.

Aimi is currently one of the fastest rising members of AKB48, reaching magazine and a lead in a promotional ad before doing her first video or theater live.

So what makes Aimi so special that she may challenge for the center position in the next Senbatsu? , you see Aimi is not real. Just like Dr. Frankenstein, when he had a few free days on his hand, went wild and created his own creation. "Dr". Akimoto has taken bits and pieces of his AKB girls and created the “perfect” idol. After all, if you are going to create the perfect Idol, you already have the perfect idol franchise to take parts from.

AKB48 producer Akimoto Yasushi who created Aimi , describes her as the reason AKB48 was created to “meet the heroine of the new age”."Dr".Akimoto`s creation  has wasted no time in gaining media popularity by landing a magazine cover and the lead in the Glico candy promotion, of which she was created for.


The possibilities are now endless for AKB48 ; will we see an entire CGI unit? what about CGI auditions? , Will Aimi be allowed in the Senbatsu or even in PV`s? On the other hand, just maybe Watanabe Mayu is really the mastermind behind AKB48 and we will see Cyborg AKB.

Say what you want to about AKB48 , be it for or against this group ,but one thing is for sure ,when it comes to promotions and keeping their franchise name in the media , no other female idol group does it as well as AKB48 .

So until we get Cyborg AKB doing “Ponytail to Shushu II” here is Eguchi Aimi`s debut.

Followup

http://pureidolheart.blogspot.com/2011/06/eguchi-aimi-saga-continues-is-she-real.html

AKB48 Tops H!P Idol Golden Era Record + New Member

AKB48 Tops H!P Idol Golden Era Record + New Member

The current Queens of Idol genre AKB48 after breaking singles record after singles record , have now broke an album record that will likely stir the emotions of two veteran idol camps.

AKB48`s album “Koko ni Ita Koto”  has sold a   very impressive 602,000 copies in a single week. By doing so AKB48 has broken Morning Musume`s 11 year hold for first week album sales by a female group ,when Morning Musume  sold 578,000 copies [863,000 + overall] in one week with “3rd-LOVE Paradise"  .

AKB48 also managed to defeat EXILE for the highest sales for an album to date this year.
Incase your wondering if this is just another marketing trick ? ,it is not ,this album does not include any promotional tickets .Now the question is will this album manage to break their record for weeks on Oricon at 62 weeks set when they released “Kamikyokutachi”.

On the singles front their single “Everyday, Kachuusha” is about to cross the 1,500,000 ,after three week sales of 1,499,000.

AKB48 has  also announced a new member Eguchi Aimi  who is quickly rising up the ranks and has endorsements already lined up . In case you have not heard, Aimi is a CGI Idol for an AKB48 endorsement campaign.

AKB48 Sets More Sales Records

AKB48 Sets More Sales Records

Coming on the heels of their Seibu Dome concert announcement, the women of AKB48 have officially taken the music industry here under their control.

AKB48 have broken, what many felt was an unbreakable record.

Legendary rock band Mr. Children had previously lead all of Oricon chart history with the highest single weekly sales figure at 1,208,000. Mr. Children originally set the record by the way in 1996 with “Namonaki Uta”.

AKB48 broke this record with their current single “Everyday, Kachuusha” with first week sales of 1,334,000 making it the highest single sales for a week in Japanese music history.

The group also set a second and very important  record  by having 8 consecutive #1 weekly singles  .The last female group to do this was Pink Lady 32 years ago.

Takahashi Minami released the following statement on their accomplishment
“It’s such a big honor for us (to break this record). Everyone knows that it’s all thanks to all of our fans.”

It makes no difference if you are a fan or not of this group, what they are accomplishing in this current era of record sales trends is impressive and deserves respect.

Congratulations to the members of AKB48, for breaking these prestigious records and for opening the media doors to look for fresh idol groups.

AKB48 To Headline At The Seibu Dome

AKB48 To Headline At The Seibu Dome

This day was going to come and it was only an issue of which Dome that the group would perform in first .Many believed it would be the Tokyo Dome, which for non-baseball events can hold 60,000 + fans.

Well AKB48 is not heading to the Tokyo Dome instead, they are heading over to near by Saitama for a three-day concert at the Seibu Dome. The Seibu Dome is a professional baseball stadium that seats 35,655 for baseball games and depending on how the stage is set up, you can get up to 50,000 [40,000 would be a good  size crowd] for other events.

AKB48 will perform at the Seibu Dome as part of their upcoming nationwide tour events on July 22, 23, 24.

Coming on the heels of selling a million copies of their current single in two days and SKE48 transferring to Avex, these are happy times in the 48 family.

Nationwide Tour

July 22, 23, 24, -Saitama Seibu Dome.
August 1st – Fukuoka Palace Hotel & Hall

August 2nd – Kagoshima-shi Minbunka Hall

August 4th – Kouchi Kenritsu Kenmin Bunka Hall

August 8th – Tottori Yonago Convention Center

August 10th – Aomori Bunka Kaikan

August 12th – Sendai Sun Plaza

August 15th – Hiroshima ALSO Hall

August 17th – Niigata Kenminkaikan

August 19th – Hokkaido Nitori Bunka Hall

August 22nd – Toyama Aubade Hall

August 24th and 25th – Nagoya Kokusaikaigi Century Hall

August 29th – Shiga Kenritsu Geijutsu Theater Biwako Hall

August 30th and 31st – Kobe Kokusai Kaikan Kokusai Hall

Seibu Dome Baseball configuration

Seibu Dome Concert Configuration

Concert Performance Inside The Seibu Dome