The year is coming to a close, so the end of year rankings are upon us! Today, Oricon revealed its Favorite Artist Ranking for 2016. In the 12 previous years this feature has ran, Oricon’s magazine Only★Star was in charge, but the magazine has now been folded into Oricon proper. Outside of that change, pretty much everything else is the same. This ranking is based on a survey which polls 20,000 Japanese citizens of different age groups in order to reach a respectable representation of the public’s opinion. While it is not totally accurate, the poll remains a very interesting statistic to consider, particularly when compared to the results for previous years.

In keeping with things being pretty much the same, Arashi tops the Favorite Artist Ranking for the seventh year in a row, a new record. The group also topped the teens and 20-something rankings. When asked why they chose Arashi as their favorite, respondents named things such as the group’s unity, their positive attitude, their dutifulness, their performance ability, and their ability to cross musical genres.

The rest of the top 3 is a flip flop of last year, with Ikimonogakari rising from 3 to 2, while Mr.Children falls from 2 to 3.

Check out the rest of the rankings below!

This week’s guests were Zeebra and R-Shitei.

Zeebra x R-Shitei x Kanjani8 – Sweet Dreams

To the surprise of absolutely no one, legendary animator, director, writer and manga-ka Hayao Miyazaki is probably coming out of retirement yet again (presumably to fix everything wrong about anime).

Miyazaki’s first mention of retirement goes all the way back to 1998 when he said that Princess Mononoke was going to be his last movie, and has since directed six movies. “This time I am quite serious,” Miyazaki proclaimed 3 years ago. But was he?

This occasion marks the seventh or so time the globally acclaimed filmmaker has claimed to retire from feature films, his last in 2013 following the release of The Wind Rises which became the highest-grossing film in Japan that year, winning the Japan Academy Prizes’s Animation of the Year and earning a nomination for an Academy Award for best animated feature.

Pop-rock singer/songwriter Yu Takahashi will be releasing his fifth full album “Kishikata Yukusue” next week on November 16th.  This new release will include Yu’s previous singles “Ashita wa Kitto Ii Hi ni Naru”, “Sakura no Uta”, “Umareta Wake”, and “Hikari no Hahen”, as well as a self-cover of “Zou” (which he wrote for idol group Kanjani8) plus seven new songs for a total of twelve.

In addition, a video digest for the album’s DVD content and the short music video for its opening track “Mr.Complex Man” have been uploaded to his official Youtube channel.  The PV is a collaboration between Yu and comedian/illustrator Muneto Ashizawa; it features a version of his popular character “Futeneko” that was made to resemble Takahashi.

You’ll find both of these videos, as well as the cover and complete track list for “Kishikata Yukusue” just beneath the cut.

PinocchioP is a vocalist, lyricist, and VOCALOID producer known for his fast-paced beats of electro punk and witty lyrics reflecting on everyday life’s issues. He is also an illustrator and the creator of two characters that are the subjects of his songs: Aimaina and Doushite-chan. These two characters are featured in most of his videos and merchandise.

PinnochioP began his career in 2009 when he first uploaded his original Vocaloid productions onto the internet. PinnochioP produced the original song “Gorilla Ga Irunda” for the 2012 hit art-game SOUND VOLTEX BOOTH, and also released his major label debut album the same year, titled Obscure Questions. In 2013, he was invited to produce music for the mobile phone campaign, Xperia feat. HATSUNE MIKU concept CD MikXperience E.P. In 2014, he continued to expand his commissioned works when he was asked to create the theme song for Pentel pen’s i+ x Hatsune Miku collaboration project.

ARAMA! JAPAN was given the opportunity to chat with PinocchioP to find out about his upcoming album “HUMAN”, and a behind the scenes insight on the VOCALOID scene.

This week’s guests were

AI x Mika Nakashima x Kumiko x Hata Motohiro – Minna ga Minna Eiyuu

Hata Motohiro – 70 Oku no Piece

Mika Nakashima – Forget Me Not

AI – Miracle

Kumiko x Hata Motohiro – Samishii Toki wa Koiuta wo Utatte

It’s that time of the month again where ARAMA! JAPAN contributors share their favorite songs, albums, and dramas released last month.

Check out the October 2016 staff selections below. On page one: Polaris, Indigo, and Ash. On page two: Ariane, Ronald, Ariane.

After two years since their formation, vocal group whiteeeen, will be releasing their first album!  Zero Koi will include their singles “Ai-uta ~ since 2007 ~“, ” Kiseki ~ mirai e ~” and “pocketto“. Since the girls are known for being a female cover group of GReeeeN, you can expect to hear more covers of the group’s songs; like “Hoshi no Furu Yoru Ni “. Another thing to look forward to is an original song, written by whiteeeen, called “▽ no maho” (the triangle means heart). Continue on for more details.