After two months of silence and Fumika Shimizu‘s retirement from the industry, the staff behind the Tokyo Ghoul live action has issued an apology and announced the release date for the movie, July 29.

While the apology does not touch upon Shimizu’s situation, implicitly referring to it as “a series of news related to the cast” and only acknowledging the long wait between the announcements, she is still credited on the updated official website.

In addition, the staff hopes that despite all the difficulties the movie will convey the powerful message of the struggle between humans and ghouls portrayed in the original manga.

This week, Kis-My-Ft2 topped the Hot 100 chart with their new single “Tonight.”

EXILE THE SECOND topped the Hot Albums chart with their new album “BORN TO BE WILD.”

This week’s guests were Ohara Sakurako, flumpool, and MOTHBALL.

Ohara Sakurako – Hirari

flumpool – Last Call

MOTHBALL – Fight it out

Last year during the summer, Hello!Project group C-ute announced that they would be disbanding in June 2017. This month the group will be releasing their final single, a triple a-side titled “To Tomorrow / Final Squall / The Curtain Rises”.

Today, C-ute’s official youtube channel uploaded the MV for one of the a-sides “Final Squall”. The upbeat tracks lyrics are about a couple breaking up, but due to the nature of the single it almost feels like it’s targeted towards the groups fans. In the video the girls are performing surrounded by their fans, until a “squall” comes in covering the entire venure with rain. “Final Squall” was written and produced by SHOCK EYE, while “To Tomorrow” and “The Curtain Rises” were made by Tsunku.

“To Tomorrow / Final Squall / The Curtain Rises” will be released on March 29th 2017, covers and the video for “Final Squall” can be seen below.

Today, Utada Hikaru was announced as the Grand Prize winner of The 9th CD Shop Awards 2017 for her album “Fantôme.” The album was chosen from seven final nominees that were selected by record store staff from across Japan. Aimer’s “daydream” given runner-up prize. Utada did not attend the ceremony.

Check out the full list of winners below!

As they enter their 11th year on a major label, alternative rock band Base Ball Bear have announced that they will be celebrating the occasion by releasing a new album on April 12th (the anniversary of their debut).  Titled “Kougen”, this will be the band’s first record since the sudden departure of guitarist Shouhei Yuasa and is themed around the idea of ‘Youth’.

“Kougen” will be released in two versions, the latter of which will come packaged with a DVD, and includes eight brand new songs which the group created over the past year.  One of these tracks, “Subete wa Kimi no Sei de”, aired on popular radio program “SCHOOL OF LOCK!” last night, a recording of which can be found below.

In addition, you’ll also find the cover and track list for “Kougen” beneath the cut, so please read onwards.

Hello Arama readers! Here are our staff picks for February 2017, check them out below.

This week, Sandaime J Soul Brothers topped Recochoku with their new single “HAPPY.”

On iTunes, Anly+Sukima Switch= topped the chart with her new single “Kono Yami wo Terasu Hikari no Mukou ni.”