7 former members of Morning Musume are part of a new promotional group called… Afternoon Musume. The unit (featuring Nakazawa Yuko, Iida Kaori, Natsumi Abe, Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari, Ogawa Makoto and Fujimoto Miki) will be promoting Georgia coffee drinks with commercials starting on September 8th (which it just so happens to be in Japan already).

Ado at Hello!SayuNii has a link to the first CM released. It features only 5 of the members, with Mari and Miki to appear in a future CM whose release date has not yet been announced.

I wonder if the timing of this new unit will affect applications for Morning Musume’s 9th generation auditions… Or is Tsunku’s target audience (for the auditions) too young to feel the nostalgia of the golden era?

So I’ve never had the chance to try and see AKB in Japan. (Or at all actually, but.) But I imagine it must be really hard to get a ticket. They have so many fans now that your chances of getting a ticket to a show are probably getting lower and lower. If you’re a foreign fan, it’s even worse because you only have such a limited time before you have to go back home! In order to fix this, AKB is starting up a “super enpou” ticket system for foreigners. If you apply and tell them when you’re in Japan, they’ll try to hook you up with at least one show that you want to see. And not only that, the seats are in the front row!! I’m so jealous XD

The bad news is that the AKB fanclub, Hashira no Kai, is turning into the AKB Official Mobile Fan Club. While this probably doesn’t matter to many people in Japan, as mobile phones are used constantly there for things like this, it means that foreign fans will probably no longer have access to the fanclub. I’m sure putting everything on a mobile system is much more convenient for Japan, but since other countries have different carriers and systems, it’s impossible for us to get into it at all. This issue has popped up before with mobile-only blogs and subscriptions, and it’s really frustrating to not be able to access things D: But hopefully this will cut down on the reselling of tickets, which is the reason listed for the change, so all in all it’s probably for the better?

For those of you who haven’t heard about or seen the clips from this past weekend’s 24hr TV broadcast, Morning Musume and S/mileage from Hello! Project collaborated with some AKB48 members to perform a Ghibli medley and Morning Musume’s Dekkai Uchuu ni Ai ga Aru.

I haven’t read fan reactions on the forums, but I can only imagine the flame wars which resulted from this “yume no collaboration”. I’m a Hello! Project fan, but I found it interesting to see Hello! Project and AKB48 members on the same stage working together (Morning Musume’s leader, Takahashi Ai, and AKB’s #1 girl, Oshima Yuko, were so cute near the end of Dekkai) . And really, this event shouldn’t be about idol group vs. idol group. Both Gaki and OpsMonkey put that in perspective as they remind us that this is a charity event and not the time for wota rivalries.

Morning Musume is set to transform into cute little chibi versions of themselves to promote a sushi chain based in Osaka. Their alter are known as Muten Musume, and leader AiAi has said, “As Muten Musume, we’ll be helping to spread around the world the culture of Japan’s own sushi”. They will be releasing their single Appare! Kaiten Zushi on October 27th.

It looks like the fears that this sushi single was going to be the graduation single for Kamei Eri, JunJun and LinLin were unfounded. So far, there hasn’t been any further word on Morning Musume’s 44th single. But in the meanwhile, take a glance at the Muten Musume chibis. They’re so adorable!!

It’s that time of the year again… Time to decide which idol group (or individual) will adorn your wall for the upcoming year. The two links above have the previous of the covers for the Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, Mano Erina and S/mileage calendars. I have heard that there are previews up for some AKB calendars, but so far haven’t found these previews myself.

H!P fans, one thing to keep in mind is that this year’s Morning Musume calendar will be the last with Kamei Eri, JunJun and LinLin. I wonder if that will affect some choices this year for fans of multiple groups.

Honestly, when I first saw these pics, I was little bit more than freaked out. I had first seen them on a friend’s twitter, so I thought they were photoshopped. He’s got a habit of doing so. Anyway, then I saw them elsewhere and my reaction is STILL wtf. I mean, is this something that you would expect to come from Dear Sweet Boring Innocent Mano Erina?

With the recent influx of new idol girl groups in Japan, I could see why the news stations would be interviewing the public about this. For these groups to even come into existence, there needs to be enough interest in forming new ones/joining established ones. That means that people need to want to apply for the ability to audition for these groups. Don’t even get me started on the last two boy groups/bands that formed in the past week or two. Saturation of the market is NOT needed right now~ -_-

Mano’s latest single and accompanying PV seems to be … strange, for lack of a better word. I mean, ManoEri, the ring leader? Snapping a whip at a middle aged man? While wearing a happy smile!? That seems antichrist-like to me…

So, I understand that change is needed to freshen up the image of Hello!Project, so that they can draw in new fans. And while what Max suggests is interesting, I don’t agree with it. It seems to me as if he’s trying to turn them into another AKB. That’s not what H!P fans, current ones, I guess, are looking for. He’s keep bringing up the issue of line distribution, talking about giving it to the leads, but isn’t that is done already? I don’t know, I just disagree with his thoughts on a proposed restructuring of Hello!Project, but how do you guys feel about it?

The current leader of Morning Musume has long held the attention of the fans. She is beauty personified and has the voice and personality to match… Wait a minute, who am I, VGN? Anyway, I agree with that statement somewhat, but not to the degree that I’ve seen various people go to. Morningtime is one of those people. Ai-chan is goddess to these people. And with this post, you can somewhat see why.

And you know what I mean by THESE PEOPLE.

It’s always to hear what was considered idol music back in the 70′s, 80′s, and even the 90′s. Listening to these songs, you can really tell where the likes of Morning Musume, Momoiro Clover, AKB48, Arashi, and the rest of those idols got their inspiration and influences from. I love the classic feel of all these songs.

Today is the long-awaited release day for AKB’s new single, Heavy Rotation, with the PV that everyone’s been talking about! Sales are already out for the day, and it seems that after shipping 650000 copies to stores to sell – more than their previous single – they ending up selling less than Ponytail to Shushu. But before you start freaking out over their downfall, it was only about 10k less, bringing in a total sales number of 340,487. That’s over 300,000 more copies than AAA’s new single at #2!! With that I’d say it’s pretty much guaranteed they’ll get #1 for the week. I can’t wait to see their total sales for the week!

Simple question I’ve got for you guys. Is there an idol group in which there isn’t a member you hate/dislike? Honestly? And that idol group, do you pay attention to it? I mean, aside from single releases and things of that nature, do you really care what’s happening to that group? Line delegation? Facetime in the PV? If not there’s probably a reason you don’t care that much and I think Usa-chan’s got a good explanation as to why.

Just what everyone needs to get over the middle of the week. A little bit of Maimi to give that extra burst of energy and will to make until the weekend, where you can rest… until Monday, where it starts all over again. Maimi. Maimi, Maimi. Mm.

What were you expecting the graduation single for THREE Musume to sound like? I imagined it would be something upbeat, and exciting, you know, to fit the energies of these three girls! We don’t want them to go out on something… mediocre… like Seishun Collection was. Well, 2ch has made it clear that this was NOT what they were expecting and guess what?! UFA LISTENED. It’s nice to see that sometimes the fans actually do have something of an influence on what happens with the music they listen to.

This reminds me of what happened to an earlier single of theirs…

*EDIT: Link fixed. Sorry, people~*