A little more than a year after releasing his ninth studio album “THE STILL LIFE,” Ken Hirai has announced that his 41st single “Boku no Kokoro wo Tsukutte yo” will be released on March 1st. This song will be used as the theme song for the new Doraemon movie “Doraemon the Movie 2017: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi”
It was also announced that on February 24th, a character with a melodious voice modeled after Ken will appear in the Doraemon series. In anticipation of this new release, the jackets for the single have been released and Ken can be seen sporting a wildly different look than usual.
Two coupling tracks were announced in addition to the title track. “YUMING” is a track to show his respect to Matsutoya Yumi whom Ken loves and respects. Where as the track, “ho” features a collaboration with Teshima Aoi.
Check out the covers below!
Online web portal Goo decided to take on the daunting task of asking their readers which male entertainers are the most ‘beautiful’. Even though Japan is famous for preferring ‘pretty boys’, the inspiration came from the trend of top male entertainers being quite ‘strong’ and manly (perhaps due to monster popularity of acts like EXILE), but the resurgence of ‘beautiful men’ seems to be on the rise again.
Who do you think made the ranking? Find out below!
EXILE THE SECOND released the video for their newest song SUPER FLY, the main promotional song from their sophomore album Born To Be Wild which will be released on March 1st, 2017. SUPER FLY will also be released as a single one week before the album drops on February 22nd, 2017.
The high energy SUPER FLY video takes place in a club, with the EXILE THE SECOND members and dancers all donning 1950’s doo-wop inspired clothes. Born To Be Wild has 14 songs in total and will be released in 5 versions. CD only, CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray, CD+3DVD, and CD+3Blu-ray. The standard DVD and Blu-ray combo will come with 4 music videos, while 3-pack editions will include their entire concert held at the Osaka-Jo Hall on November 16/17th, 2016, as well as a documentary.
EXILE THE SECOND originally released their debut album under the name THE SECOND from EXILE, but permanently changed their name to EXILE THE SECOND for their 3rd single YEAH!! YEAH!! YEAH!!. The covers and tracklist for Born To Be Wild, as well as the full video for SUPER FLY can be seen below.
This week, Kanjani8 topped the Oricon single chart with their new single “Naguri Gaki BEAT”, selling 273,893 copies in its first week.
AKB48 topped the Oricon album chart with their new album “Thumbnail”, selling 609,565 copies in its first week.
Suchmos topped the Oricon digital album chart with their new album “THE KIDS”, selling 12,136 copies in its first week.
On February 22, pop-rock singer Shishido Kavka will release a concept mini-album (2nd overall) titled “DO_S”. The title is translated as “extremely sadistic” and in her message attached to the album Shishido commands the boys to “kneel and listen to it”. To support the mini Shishido has dropped the album trailer highlighting all the tracks and a short version of the music video for one of them, “Tachiagare”, where she makes an appearance during the second part.
Read on for both videos and the album track list below.
Hello, Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw Hoshino Gen defeat Mr.Children. Both acts are back again this week, facing off against a newcomer. Find out what various staff members thought of the songs that topped the physical and digital charts this week and share your thoughts on them too!
On February 1, KREVA will release his new album, “Uso to Bonnou.” This is his first studio album since “SPACE”, which was released in February 2013. This is also KREVA’s first release since moving from Pony Canyon’s sublabel Knife’s Edge to Victor Entertainment’s SPEEDSTAR RECORDS.
“Uso to Bonnou” will be released in 3 editions: 2CD+DVD, CD+DVD, and CD only. The 2CD+DVD edition’s second CD is a radio program CD, while the DVD contains music videos and their makings, as well as live performances. The DVD that comes with the CD+DVD edition contains the same music videos and their makings, as well as the opening movies for KREVA’s 908 FESTIVAL shows in Tokyo and Osaka from last year.
Check out more information on “Uso to Bonnou” below!
Actor Shunji Fujimura, known affectionately as “Ohyoi-san”, passed away on January 25 due to heart failure at the age of 82. A ceremony to offer flowers to Fujimura is scheduled to be held at Chosenji Temple in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 14, beginning at noon.
