Hello AramaJapan readers! We are back with our monthly wrap up feature. A few of the staff members have come together to share their faves for the month of November. Find out what the staff was loving this past month! Also feel free to post what you loved this past November in the comments!

As it has been reported before, Momoiro Clover Z and KISS will release a collaboration single, and more details have been unveiled just now. The title tracks “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina” is composed by Paul Stanley and Greg Collins with Yuho Iwasato on lyrics. The song will be performed by Momoclo with KISS play the instruments and backing vocal. Coupling song’s title will be announced later.

KISS version, will have one extra song called SAMURAI SON, and will be included in KISS’ new best album “Best of KISS 40” which will be released at the same time as the collaboration single on January 28, 2015.

More details are available below.

Popular magazine Nikkei Entertainment recently revealed their Year-End charts for 2014, which list the highest selling music releases over the past 12 months.  Nikkei’s rankings make use of Soundscan’s numbers, so as with the normal Soundscan Chart, these rankings are a better reflection of what people in Japan who use conventional purchase methods (i.e. music/convenience stores and unaffiliated online retailers) are actually buying.

This year the Singles ranking was topped by popular idol group AKB48, with their single “Labrador Retriever” selling 651,982 copies between its eight versions.  On the other hand, the Album ranking was topped by the juggernaut that is the Frozen Soundtrack, which managed to breach the million mark and sell 1,026,380 copies over the course of the year.  For comparison, last year’s top single was Arashi’s “Calling / Breathless”, which sold 881,144 copies between three versions, with Arashi’s album “LOVE” likewise ending up atop last year’s Album ranking with a grand total of 795,245 copies sold.

Check out Soundscan’s full yearly charts below, and look forward to seeing how they compare to Oricon’s numbers for the year.

It has been revealed that Hello! Project group s/mileage will continue group activities as ANGERME from now on. Back in September the name change was decided after a third generation of girls were added to the group. S/mileage originally debuted as a 4 piece group in June 2009 with “aManojaku”, the following year their major debut single “Yumemiru 15” was released. Ayaka Wada and Kanon Fukuda are the sole remaining original members.

The new name was apparently thought up by member Kana Nakanishi. ANGERME is supposed to be the french pronunciation of “angel” and “tears”. Kana explained that the members of the group (angels) must work together in-order to achieve their goals, and once those goals are met they’ll be overcome with joy and cry. The angel evokes an image of hope, and the tears represent happiness.

ANGERME will be releasing their debut single on “Taiki Bansei/Otome no Gyakushuu” on February 4th. Unlike all of s/mileage’s previous singles, Tsunku will not be having any involvement with the production or lyrics.

ANGERME’s new official profile pictures can be seen below!

On December 17th, actor Shirota Yuu (28) tweeted the statement “I like men more than women” on his personal Twitter account, leaving fans in shock.

Alright, as requested by many of our readers, starting with the new Oricon year we’re also going to be posting the Japanese Soundscan charts that are released each week. While a physical chart like Oricon, Soundscan breaks down the sales of any one particular release by version and shows you exactly how much each of these versions have sold in a Top 20 format (for both Singles and Albums).

Of note, this chart doesn’t include copies sold by Avex’s Mu-mo shop, Pony Canyon’s shop, AKB48’s Chara-Ani, GLAY’s G-Direct (though Oricon doesn’t count these guys either), and the like. As such, it’s not necessarily as complete of a chart as Oricon, but it does provide an interesting look into what those who use conventional methods to purchase music within Japan are buying.  Plus, there are rare moments where a release can sell a higher amount of copies on Soundscan as well (Mr.Children’s “Ashioto ~Be Strong” and Nishino Kana’s “with LOVE” are good examples on the current charts).

Also of note is that because it’s version-based, one variant of a particular release can top a week’s Soundscan chart and not actually be the highest selling release overall (counting all charting versions) on Soundscan that week. As such, rather than just telling you about who topped the Soundscan chart one week, I might have to give a bit more background about how the chart shaped up.

So, now that I’ve given you all of the basic information you need to read the Soundscan chart, let’s take a look at this week’s and see how things played out.

The Oricon physical music charts for the week of 12/8/-12/14 have been released! For the singles charts, SKE48‘s “12-gatsu no Kangaroo” sells 386,495 copies while KinKi Kids push 133,569 units of their album “M album“.

Check out the top 10 of each below!

Recochoku:
1. Sandaime J Soul Brothers – O.R.I.O.N.
2. Che’Nelle – Happiness
3. Nishino Kana – Darling
4. SEKAI NO OWARI – Dragon Night
5. Ikimonogakari – Kirari
6. LiSA – Shirushi
7. Nissy – GIFT
8. AI – Story
9. Leo Ieiri – Silly
10. Yoshida Yamada – Hibi

iTunes:
1. Sandaime J Soul Brothers – O.R.I.O.N.
2. Che’Nelle – Happiness
3. LiSA – Shirushi
4. SEKAI NO OWARI – Dragon Night
5. Leo Ieiri – Silly
6. Namie Amuro – BRIGHTER DAY
7. Haruka Tomatsu – courage
8. Ayumi Hamasaki – Movin’ on without you
9. Nissy – GIFT
10. e-girls – Mr.Snowman