2018 came as a shock for Momoiro Clover Z fans when green member Momoka Ariyasu suddenly announced her graduation from the group after a concert. Despite the somber news, the girls recently announced their 18th single Xiao Yi Xiao.

The song will serve as the theme song for the upcoming 26th Crayon Shin Chan movie Crayon Shin-chan: Burst Serving! Kung Fu Boys ~Ramen Rebellion~. Besides the main title track two b-sides will be included on the single. The CD only, or Shin Chan version will feature it’s own exclusive b-sides. The CD+blu-ray (Momo Clo Edition) will include the full MV and offshot, stickers are first press bonuses for both editions.

Additionally, the girls will be releasing a 10th anniversary BEST album on May 23rd. A CD only, 2CD+Blu-ray, and deluxe 3CD + 2Blu-ray have been announced so far.

One of the lead vocalists for Sandaime J Soul Brothers, Hiroomi Tosaka, has released the MV for his latest offering LUXE. 

His third digital single overall, he collaborated again with the Dutch DJ Afrojack who also produced his first two digital singles WASTED LOVE and DIAMOND SUNSET. Tosaka is also joined this time by his fellow Sandaime J Soul Brothers member ELLY, who is going under his rap moniker CRAZYBOY. The two helped contribute to the lyrics of LUXE.

The cinematic like MV starts with Tosaka kissing a woman with a shaved head, and transitions into what looks like a gang about to start a fight. For this MV Tosaka played around with his image a lot, donning a long silver wig in some scenes and a sinister looking rabbit mask. Some scenes also feature him in a red room surrounded by knives covered with blood and wounds.

CanCam has featured a set of makeovers causing tons of buzz in the Japanese makeup/beauty scene.

CanCam is a monthly fashion magazine that originally got it’s start in 1981, and has since become one of the leaders in it’s industry, constantly maintaining it’s popularity throughout the years. In the upcoming March 2018 issue the magazine did a profile on average teenagers who have been able to completely transform their look using makeup.

A comedian who goes by the name of “univershara” (photo in the header) was also profiled, and commented that she almost wanted to cry when seeing herself once she began improve with her techniques and take photos for SNS. “It’s a fraud!!” she joked. Her very thin eyes and lips were targeted the most with the transformation. She was surprised with how easy it was once she had gotten used to the techniques, with it not taking that much time at all “Anyone can do it“.

It looks like the reign of mega group AKB48 won’t be dying down anytime soon, today marks the release of their 6th original studio album Bokutachi wa, Ano Hi no Yoake wo Shitteiru. Naturally, the album went straight to number 1 and according to Oricon it has already sold 540,913 copies in just one day.

The album was released in two standard versions, a type A CD+DVD and type B CD only. An additional theater CD only ver was also released. The DVD content on type A consists of exclusive footage from an “air handshake event”,  type A also comes with a photobook.  The type A version of Bokutachi wa, Ano Hi no Yoake wo contains 14 tracks in-total with three of them being exclusive to that version. Type B has 13 songs in total and two exclusive songs. Besides popular singles like #SukiNanda and Shoot Sign, the members were split into various units to record album tracks.

We finally have a confirmation to previous rumors of a Hana Yori Dango sequel! It’s not another remake of the popular drama but a live action adaptation of its sequel Hana Nochi Hare ~HanaDan~ Next Season (Boys Over Flowers Season 2). The drama will air at TBS in April, Tuesdays 10pm timeslot. Sugisaki Hana will take on her first lead role in a drama series as the protagonist Edogawa Oto. She will be joined by Hirano Sho (of the soon to debut Johnnys group King & Prince) and actor Nakagawa Taishi.

On February 14, ayaka and Daichi Miura will release the collaborative single “Heart Up.” The song serves as the new CM song for Tokyo Metro’s “Find my Tokyo.” campaign, which stars Ishihara Satomi.

The idea for the collaboration came about last April when the two singers realized they were both born in 1987 and debuted around the same time. ayaka wrote and composed the song, while Kobayashi Takeshi, who the duo met with this past summer, arranged it. The song was complete in September after ayaka and Daichi both performed at KREVA’s 908 FESTIVAL 2017. The song is described as being about a man and a woman following their destiny despite previous heartbreak.

The music vidoe for “Heart Up” was recently released. Check it out below along with more information on ayaka and Daichi’s new single!

This week, SKE48 topped the Hot 100 chart with their new single “Muishiki no Iro.”

Nogizaka46 topped the Hot Albums chart with their new best album “Boku Dake no Kimi ~Under Super Best~.”

Namie Amuro topped the Streaming Songs chart for the second consecutive week with “Hero.”

RYUJI IMAICHI topped the Download Songs chart with his debut solo single “ONE DAY.”

Nana Mizuki topped the Download Albums chart with her new best album “THE MUSEUM III.”

Following up on a rather quiet 2017, rock band Nothing’s Carved In Stone will be releasing a new studio album next month on February 14th.  Titled “Mirror Ocean”, this will be the group’s first new record since 2016’s “Existence” and is set to include 10 freshly written songs from the band.

In order to promote this release, the band have already published the music video for its title track to their Youtube channel.  The PV, fittingly, finds the group performing the song amidst an array of mirrors, their own reflections staring back at them as they play.

You’ll find this music video, as well as the cover and track list for “Mirror Ocean” right after the jump.