PORNOGRAFFITTI’ｓ First-Ever Overseas Show!, releasing two “BEST” albums in the U.S.

PORNOGRAFFITTI will be participating as Guests of Honor at Anime Expo 2013 in Los Angeles which will be taking place July 4 ~7.

PORNOGRAFFITTI’s first ever overseas headliner show will take place on Saturday, July 6 at Club Nokia.

To mark this special occasion, PORNOGRAFFITTI will be digitally releasing two of their “best” albums, “PORNO GRAFFITTI BEST RED’S” and “PORNO GRAFFITTI BEST BLUE’S” in the U.S.

Widely recognized to the U.S. fanbase for their tie-ins with several anime series, fans who attend their concert will no doubt be in for a spectacular show!

<Anime Expo 2013>
Date: July 4~ 7, 2013
Convention Venue: Los Angeles Convention Center
Concert Date and Venue: Saturday,July 6th, Club Nokia

For ticket information and updates, visit the Anime Expo 2013 website www.anime-expo.org
(concert tickets will be available for Anime Expo 2013 attendees only)

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

Album Release Information

<“PORNO GRAFFITTI BEST RED’S”>
<“PORNO GRAFFITTI BEST BLUE’S”>
Available on July 1st via iTunes & Amazon

[About PORNOGRAFFITTI]
PORNOGRAFFITTI debuted with the song “Apollo” in 1999. Widely recognized for their ground-breaking music, the duo released their follow-up single “Music Hour” in July 2000 which turned out to be one of the hottest songs that summer and their following singles “Saudade” followed by “Saboten” both sold over a million copies in Japan.
The rock band has produced many hits such as “Melissa” (opening song for the anime series Full Metal Alchemist), “Hitori no Yoru” (opening song for the anime series GTO) with several tie ups with anime, movies and TV shows.
Throughout their career, they have continually produced multiple hit singles, albums as well as sold-out stadium shows and record-setting tours.

PORNOGRAFFITTI official site

http://www.pornograffitti.jp/

[About Anime Expo]
Hosted annually in Los Angeles, Anime Expo is North America’s largest celebration of Anime, Manga, and Japanese culture.
The event will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 4th~7th.

http://www.anime-expo.org

AKB48 Mock Elections – Children’s vote and general audience vote

With the AKB48 General Elections around the corner (the final results will be televised on June 8th),we know that for the preliminary votes announced on May 22nd, Rino Sashihara currently has the lead at #1 with Mayu Watanabe at #2, Yuko Oshima at #3, Jurina Matsui at #4 and Yuki Kashiwagi at #5.

But various media also held their mock elections.  In fact, two mock elections were held over the weekend.

The first was a children’s poll hosted by Yahoo! Kids Japan and for the children, Yuko Oshima was the overwhelming winner at #1 with 27% of the votes (11,613).  #2 was Tomomi Itano, #3 was Haruka Shimazaki, #4 was Mariko Shinoda and #5 was Mayu Watanabe.

Another mock election held by Goo Japan with NTT was focused on “General Audience”.  And for this mock election, Yuko Oshima also took #1.  For the remainder of the top 16 in this mock election, #2 was Shinoda Mariko, #3 was Haruna Kojima, #4 was Watanabe Mayu, #5 was Shimazaki Haruka, #6 is Itano Tomomi, #7 was Takahashi Minami, #8 was Kashiwagi Yuki, #9 was Yamamoto Sayaka, #10 was Matsui Jurina, #11 was Yokoyama Yui, #12 was Umeda Ayaka, #13 was Sashihara Rino, #14 was Matsui Rina, #15 was Kitahara Rie and #16 was Watanabe Miyuki.

Anime Expo Announces Porno Graffiti as Guests of Honor at AX 2013

LOS ANGELES, CA, May 31st, 2013 – Anime Expo proudly announces PORNOGRAFFITI as a Guests of Honor! The legendary rock band, known for hits like “Melissa” from Fullmetal Alchemist and “Hitori no Yoru” from GTO will be performing live at Club Nokia on Saturday, July 6th! Originally from Innoshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Akihito Okano (vocal and guitars) and Haruichi Shindō (guitars and vocals) formed the band while in high school, and subsequently moved to Osaka where they launched their career as best-selling artists, with a number of hit singles, albums and sold-out stadium shows and record-setting tours.

PORNOGRAFFITI debuted with the song “Apollo” in 1999.  Widely recognized for their ground-breaking music, the duo released their follow-up single “Music Hour” in July 2000, which turned out to be one of the hottest songs in that summer. Their fourth single “Saudade” became a big hit on the Oricon charts, followed by the equally successful “Saboten”.

They went on to release the singles “Agehacho”, and “Ai Ga Yobu Hou E”, the theme song for the populAR TV drama Suekko Chonan Ane Sannin on TBS. Their first “best” albums, “PORNO GRAFFITTI BEST RED’S”, and “PORNO GRAFFITTI BEST BLUE’S” were released for their fifth anniversary, and topped the Oricon album charts, taking the top two spots respectively.

Other singles include “Winding Road”, used as the ending theme of the anime series Ayakashi Ayashi,  “Koyoi, Tsuki ga Miezu Tomo” was featured in the third Bleach film, and their song “Anima Rossa” was featured as the eleventh opening of Bleach, their single “2012Spark” was featured as the main theme song for the movie Gyakuten Saiban, and  their newest single “Matataku Hoshi no Shita de” will be the second opening theme for the anime Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic. A cover of their 2000 single “Music Hour” was also featured in a stage of the Nintendo DS rhythm game Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 .

Anime Expo is excited to welcome Porno Graffiti as a Guests of Honor to AX 2013!  Don’t miss this chance to see the rock legends live at Club Nokia! Tickets available soon on the official AX website.

Register now and join the fun! You can connect with your favorite artists, voice actors, and musicians from Japan, display amazing cosplay and other artistic creations, and enjoy the best in Japanese anime and pop culture. Connect. Create. Culture. All at AX2013!

About Anime Expo

Hosted annually in Los Angeles, Anime Expo is North America’s largest celebration of Japanese culture. Anime Expo 2013 will be held July 4 – 7, 2013 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. To register, or for more information, please visit the Anime Expo website.
About the SPJA

The SPJA (“Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation”) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to popularize and educate the American public about Japanese entertainment culture, as well as provide a forum to facilitate communication between professionals and fans. For more information, please visit the SPJA website.

AKB48 32nd Single General Election First Day Preliminary Results are out! Rino Sashihara leading in votes!

With the first day of sales of AKB48′s 31st CD single “Sayonara Crawl” selling over 1.4 million copies, fans who made the purchase were able to vote on their members they feel deserve to be the top 16 members  and will represent the 32nd single (note: Members who purchased the “Sayonara Crawl” get to input their vote of who will be the ace center for the upcoming AKB48 CD single but it’s also used as a barometer to show one’s popularity of the fans).

The first day general election preliminary results are a shock to longtime fans as AKB48 members who have dominated the polls in past few years have now dropped out of senbatsu, while a few are hanging in the top 10.

It’s important to note that these are only first day results and are expected to change.

As of now, the first day results show that Rino Sashihara is #1 and results are expected to change.

1. Rino Sashihara (28,563)
2. Mayu Watanabe (14,885)
3. Yuko Oshima (14,000)
4. Jurina Matsui (13,656)
5. Yuki Kashiwagi (12,887)
6. Rena Matsui (12,177)
7. Haruka Shimazaki (11,832)
8. Aya Shibata (11,530)
9. Yui Yokoyama (10,616)
10. Miyuki Watanabe (9,163)
11. Akari Suda (8,753)
12. Sae Miyazawa (8,567)
13. Sayaka Yamamoto (8,097)
14. Tomomi Itano (7,407)
15. Mariko Shinoda (7,126)
16. Yuria Kizaki (6,891)
17. Kaori Matsumura (6,616)
18. Minami Takahashi (6,598)
19. Ami Kobayashi (6,536)
20. Haruna Kojima (6,502)
21. Madoka Umemoto (6,055)

The following are the first day results in Japanese:

本日のAKB48劇場公演にて「AKB48 32ndシングル 選抜総選挙」の速報（1位～64位）を発表させていただきました。

下記が速報結果となります。

※発表させて頂くチーム表記ですが、5月22日現在で、【発表】されている表記とさせて頂いております。

1 位 指原 莉乃　28,563票
2 位 渡辺 麻友 　14,885票
3 位 大島 優子 　14,000票
4 位 松井 珠理奈　13,656票
5 位 柏木 由紀　12,887票
6 位 松井 玲奈　12,177票
7 位 島崎 遥香　11,832票
8 位 柴田 阿弥　11,530票
9 位 横山 由依　10,616票
10 位 渡辺 美優紀　9,163票
11 位 須田 亜香里　8,753票
12 位 宮澤 佐江　8,567票
13 位 山本 彩　8,097票
14 位 板野 友美　7,407票
15 位 篠田 麻里子　7,126票
16 位 木﨑 ゆりあ　6,891票

17 位 松村 香織　6,616票
18 位 高橋 みなみ　6,598票
19 位 小林 亜実　6,536票
20 位 小嶋 陽菜　6,502票
21 位 梅本 まどか　6,055票
22 位 梅田 彩佳　6,030票
23 位 薮下 柊　5,539票
24 位 兒玉 遥　5,096票
25 位 斉藤 真木子　5,051票
26 位 峯岸 みなみ　4,875票
27 位 入山 杏奈　4,864票
28 位 高柳 明音　4,824票
29 位 大矢 真那　4,703票
30 位 中西 優香　4,654票
31 位 上西 恵　4,640票
32 位 松本 梨奈　4,493票

33 位 川栄 李奈　4,457票
34 位 古川 愛李　4,392票
35 位 武藤 十夢　4,195票
36 位 片山 陽加　4,118票
37 位 高城 亜樹　4,114票
38 位 北原 里英　3,507票
39 位 矢方 美紀　3,277票
40 位 磯原 杏華　3,272票
41 位 多田 愛佳　3,259票
42 位 田島 芽瑠　3,080票
43 位 木下 有希子　3,072票
44 位 市川 美織　2,948票
45 位 山田 菜々　2,872票
46 位 大場 美奈　2,868票
47 位 山下 ゆかり　2,864票
48 位 金子 栞　2,821票

49 位 森保 まどか　2,809票
50 位 前田 亜美　2,761票
51 位 朝長 美桜　2,740票
52 位 藤江 れいな　2,710票
53 位 菊地 あやか　2,704票
54 位 倉持 明日香　2,699票
55 位 岩立 沙穂　2,685票
56 位 石田 晴香　2,665票
57 位 岡本 尚子　2,660票
58 位 阿部 マリア　2,595票
59 位 矢倉 楓子　2,535票
60 位 鈴木 紫帆里　2,492票
61 位 宮脇 咲良　2,482票
62 位 岩佐 美咲　2,406票
63 位 田野 優花　2,394票
64 位 木本 花音　2,275票

New changes in store for AKB48, SKE48 and NMB48, the new team shuffle announcement at Budokan

At the Budokan concert held on April 28th, AKB48 theater manager Tomonobu Togasaki announced the new Team Shuffle for 2013.

Togasaki began with the announcement that AKB48 will be performing at the Yahoo! Auction Dome, Sapporo Dome, Osaka Dome, Nagoya Dome and Tokyo dome this summer.

But then he announced the Team Shuffle which began with the promotions of three Kenkyusei (KKS) as Rina Hirata will be joining AKB48 Team K, Yukari Sasaki will be joining AKB48 Team A and Miyu Omori will be joining Team B.

Togasaki then discussed the cancellation of concurrency (in which members are part of two groups) for Rie Kitahara (AKB48/SKE48), Yui Yokoyama (AKB48/NMB48), Riho Kotani (NMB48/AKB48) and Anna Ishida (SKE48/AKB48). During this announcement, SKE48 members who have bonded strongly with Kitahara and also Kitahara herself, were shocked and began crying after the announcement.

The big surprise is the new concurrency in which Mina Ohba of AKB48 will now be joining SKE48 Team KII, Miori Ichikawa of AKB48 will be joining NMB48′s Team N, Nao Furuhata of SKE48 will be going to AKB48′s Team K, Fuko Yagura of NMB48 will be going to Team A, HKT48′s Haruka Kodama will be going to AKB48′s Team A, SHN48′s Sae Miyazawa will be going to Team K, Mariya Suzuki of SHN48 will be going to AKB48′s Team A and JKT48′s Aki Takajo will be going to Team B.

Of the members who received new concurrency assignments, the look on Sae Miyazawa’s face was unexpected.

In a blog post and several tweets after the event, while Sae was happy that she can be close to the fans in Japan, the fact that it was her decision to be part of the Shanghai team and dedicate so much time to it and now having to divide both her time in Japan and China left her a bit flustered.

Meanwhile, another AKB48 member who made a decision to go abroad, Haruka Nakagawa, who joined JKT48, will continue to be a JKT48 member.

And the final announcement was that HKT48 member Rino Sashihara will also work together to become HKT48′s theater manager.

Meanwhile, on Togisaki’s Google+ account, a lot of enraged fans are reacting to the shuffle announcement.

Okinawa-based band 7!! will make their US debut performance at FanimeCon!

7!! to perform in the U.S. for the first time at FanimeCon 2013

A four-piece band from Okinawa, 7!!(pronounced seven oops) will participate in North America’s anime convention “FanimeCon 2013” next month in May which takes place during the Memorial Day weekend at San Jose, CA.
FanimeCon is Northern California’s largest anime convention which has invited renowned artists such as YOSHIKI from X JAPAN, FLOW and Yuya Matsushita in the past.

7!! is a four-piece band from Okinawa with an infectious pop sound thanks to their vocalist NANAE’s sweet voice. With their high energy performances and NANAE’s female perspective, 7!! attracts many young fans. Their debut 2011 single ‘Fallin Love’ was featured as the theme song for popular film ‘High School Debut.’ Since then, their music has been featured in a variety of shows including Fuji Sankei Group’s morning news program ‘FCI Morning Eye’ with the song ‘Nijiiro’, and in the anime series ‘Naruto Shippuden’ with the song ‘Lovers.’ In late 2012, 7!! had their single ‘Bye Bye’ used as the theme song for ‘Kimi to Boku’ and in early 2013 had their most recent single ‘Sayonara Memory’ used as the ending theme for ‘Naruto Shippuden’. The band is expanding its fan base with successful animation tie-ins. Last year, they performed at ‘Anime Festival Asia Indonesia 2012’ in Jakarta for the first time in overseas.

With their music available in 19 countries on iTunes and Amazon and their first full-length album ‘Dokidoki’ out now in Japan 7!! has quickly become a burgeoning force in the Japanese music scene.

■FanimeCon
Date：May 24-27 *7!! will be performing on March 25(Sat)
Venue： San Jose Civic Center
For further details, please check FanimeCon website: www.fanime.com

■7!! Official Website

http://7oops.com/

■7!! facebook

https://www.facebook.com/sevenoops

Sayaka Akimoto to graduate from AKB48, Minami Minegishi files for her candidacy for senbatsu

It has been a surprising Sunday for AKB48 fans with a few surprises.  The first big surprise was the announcement by AKB48 2nd Generation member Sayaka Akimoto who announced that she would be graduating from AKB48.

The former Team K captain and also member of the sub-unit DIVA, Sayaka has been pursuing acting with several trips to New York for training and on March 29th, she starred in an NHK drama with SKE48 member Rena Matsui titled “Housou Museum Kikiippatsu”.  Last March, Sayaka starred in the NHK draqma “Asadora Satsujinjiken”.

In her blog, Akimoto announced that with the deadline to run as a candidate for the general election today, she decided last minute that it is time for her to step to a new world and use what she learned and experienced from AKB48 to pursue her dream as an actress.

So, Sayaka decided that she will graduate from AKB48 and not participating in the upcoming Senbatsu elections.

The senbatsu elections is based on a popularity vote amongst fans who must purchase the May CD single and using the code, to vote online of who will be part of the next single for August.  The one who garners the top votes becomes the center “ace” performer for the single and is usually accepted as the most popular member of AKB48.  The remaining 16 get to be part of the main track on the single, while #17-32 are known as the Undergirls who sing the second coupling track, while the other ranked members after, are known as the Future Girls.

Sayaka Akimoto was ranked #12 in 2009 and in 2010-2011 she was ranked #17, last year Sayaka ranked #20 and it was the first time she became an Undergirl.

Akimoto was known for her exotic look as a half Japanese/half Filipino member of AKB48.  But she was also known for her humor, her beautiful voice and the member of the group who worked hard to get her six-pack abs.

With several major members of AKB48 to graduate from the group, such as Tomomi Kasai (it was announced yesterday that she will be graduating on May 6th), Tomomi Itano and Moeno Nito (note: Sayaka Nakaya graduated immediately from AKB48 on March 6th to pursue her career as an anime voice actress), it is unknown if Sayaka will be graduating at the same time as each of these members or graduating separately.

In other news, first gen AKB48/no3b member Minami Minegishi, who was demoted to Kenkyuusei earlier this year after violating the no-dating rule, has filed her intention of candidacy for the upcoming senbatsu election.

AAA to have a shop in Harajuku to commemorate their new single “PARTY IT UP”

To commemorate AAA’s new single “PARTY IT UP” (to be released on March 13th), for a limited time, a real shop in Harajuku will be opened titled “e~Shop in URAHARAJYUKU”.

People can purchase various “e~panda” (pronounced as “eh-panda”) goods  which is the official character of AAA.

AAA will be going on tour in April for the AAA TOUR 2013 EIGHTH WONDER.

Japanese idol group AKB48 exceeds sales of over 20 million copies and the becomes the fastest group to achieve those sales

Japanese idol group AKB48 has achieved another record in their career.  The group exceeded sales of over 20 million copies for a CD single but also beat Mr. Children’s eight years to achieve that feat by doing it in seven years and one month.

AKB48 joins the elite company of those in Japan who have sold over 20 million copies of a single, which include B’z, Southern All Stars, Mr. Children, SMAP and Ayumi Hamasaki.

NMB48 becomes the first female group in Japan to debut at #1 for their first single and album

Japanese idol pop group NMB48 has achieved something that their sister groups AKB48 and SKE48 hadn’t achieve and other female pop groups in Japanese music history and that is to have their debut single “Zetsumetsu Kurokami Shōjo” and their debut album “Teppen Tottande!” debut at #1.

While many Japanese female idol groups had #1 albums in Japan, many of them did not have a #1 single for debut.

Pink Lady debuted at #4 with “Pepper Keibu”. Morning Musume’s first single “Morning Coffee” debuted at #6, SPEED’s “Body & Soul” debuted at #4, AKB48′s first major label single “Aitakatta” debuted at #6, SKE48′s and “Tsuyoki Mono yo” debuted at #5.

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