ARAMA! JAPAN | Page 1502 | Breaking J-Pop News and Celebrity Gossip

Sugar’s Campaign to release first album this January

City pop/electro duo Sugar’s Campaign, comprised of Takuma Hosokawa (otherwise known as Avec Avec) and Seiho Hayakawa (otherwise known as seiho), will be releasing their first full-length album on January 21st. Titled FRIENDS, the album will come in regular and limited editions and features an original comic book as a store-specific bonus.

Strongly inspired by the likes of Yasuyuki Okamura, Toshinobu Kubota, Todd Rundgren, and 90’s anime, the duo formed in 2011 and made their debut in 2012 with the track “Netokano”, a nostalgic-sounding laidback song with 90’s flavor, and later released it as a single in September of this year. They released their major debut single “Holiday” on November 26th. Check out the cover/tracklist of FRIENDS and the PV for “Netokano”, which has amassed over 100k views on YouTube, below!

A look at the CG of “Assassination Classroom” live-action Movie

A teaser trailer has been revealed for the upcoming Hasumi Eiichiro’s live-action adaptation of popular manga series ‘Assassination Classroom‘ starring Hey! Say! JUMP’s Yamada Ryosuke. Earlier on, a movie handout offered the first look at the live-action version’s CG rendering of Koro-sensei. The release of the teaser unveils the CG version on screen. The movie will open March 21, 2015.

The story revolves around “Class E” of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, a group of students determined to have no future who are separated from their classmates and assigned to a bizarre tentacled alien homeroom teacher. The alien, whom the students refer to as “Kuro-sensei” (literally “unkillable teacher”), had previously destroyed most of the moon and threatened to destroy Earth. However, he decided to delay his plan for one year if he was given a class of junior high school students to teach on the terms that he wouldn’t harm them.

Ken Hirai covers “Tomorrow” for new Annie film

Ken Hirai has released a cover of “Tomorrow” to promote the upcoming film “Annie”. “Tomorrow” was created in 1977 for the original Broadway production of “Annie” and has since become one of the musicals signature songs. The song has been covered by numerous artists from the around the globe, misono and chara are among the other Japanese musicians who did their own spin on the cheerful tune.

Ken attended the Annie premiere in New York, at the Ziegfeld Theater where he rubbed shoulders with the films main stars Jamie Foxx, Quvenzhané Wallis, and Cameron Diaz. Upon hearing Ken’s version of “Tomorrow” Jamie and Cameron were full of praise, complimenting his crisp and beautiful singing voice.

“Tomorrow” is included on the regular edition of Ken’s latest single “Sore Demo Shitai / Onnaji Samishisa.” Ken’s version of “Tomorrow” as well as some pictures from the premiere can be seen below the cut!

(via What’s In? Web)

miwa Sings “360°” for “Doraemon: Nobita’s Space Heroes” Movie

It was announced that singer songwriter miwa will be providing the theme song, titled “360°” for the movie “Doraemon: Nobita’s Space Heroes” set to open on March 7, 2015. This was announced during the singer’s second day of her first arena tour “-39 live ARENA tour-” miwanissimo 2014 “ at NGK Hall in Aichi.

miwa appeared during the encore “Today there is a big news!” announcing the movie title and theme song decision to 7,000 fans. The song was performed for the first time during the concert. Doraemon and Nobita also joined her on stage.

Which celebrities had the most CM contracts in 2014?

Nihon Monitor has revealed the ranking for the number of CM contracts for the year 2014. Last year, pro golfer Ishikawa Ryo and actress Takei Emi topped the male and female celebrity ranking, respectively.

Who reigned as the CM King and Queen this year? Find out below.

Mamoru Hosoda directing first film in 3 years

A press conference was recently held at the Toho headquarters, there it was announced that Mamoru Hosoda would be releasing a new animated film written and directed by him. Mamoru’s numerous directorial triumphs include “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” and “Summer Wars”. Mamoru’s last film was 2012’s “Wolf Children”, released under his own animation company Studio Chizu. “Wolf Children” became a great success receiving acclaim from critics and becoming the fifth highest grossing movie in Japan for 2012.

Mamoru’s new project is titled “Bakemono no Ko”. The story takes place in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward and a bakemono realm. A lonely human boy gets lost in the bakemono realm and becomes the disciple of a lonely bakemono. Mamoru chose Shibuya as the setting since he found the lively ward to be very “thrilling”, he also mentioned that “There are surprisingly few animated works set in Shibuya. Even though it’s a famous place, it’ll be novel as a movie setting.” Mamoru further explained the plot of the film: “The movie is a training story about a boy who was separated from his parents and becomes a disciple of a bakemono (supernatural creature). It’s going to be a traditional yet novel story.”

The script for the film has been completed but they’re still in the process of casting voice actors, production is set to complete next year June. “Bakemono no Ko” will open in Japan July 11th 2015.

(via ANN)

Teaser for “Initiation Love” Starring Matsuda Shota and Maeda Atsuko

First teaser trailer has been released for upcoming movie “Initiation Love” Starring Matsuda Shota and Maeda Atsuko. This is the first time for both of the actors to work together, after the planned 2013 film “1905” was cancelled. Fumino Kimura joins them in an ensuing love triangle.

The movie is directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi and is based on Kurumi Inui’s novel. The novel intrigues due to the sudden, unexpected turn toward mystery in the last two lines.

The romance mystery movie will be released on May 23, 2015. Check out the plot and teaser trailer below.

E-girls releases “Move It! -Dream & E-girls TIME-” PV from new album

E-girls has released the full music video for “Move It! -Dream & E-girls TIME-“ off the upcoming new album “E.G. TIME”, slated to be released on New Year’s day. As its title indicates, the PV spotlights subgroup Dream and its four members, Aya Takamoto, Shizuka Nishida, Ami Nakashima and Erie Abe.

The members’ characters are expressed in the video by the chair designs used by the members. “LOVE & CUTE” for Ami, “ART” for Aya, “DANCE & MUSIC” for Erie, and “COOL & BEAUTY” for Shizuka.

Check out the group’s latest video for their new electro dance tune.