ORICON ROUNDUP

Please note: The charts below are accumulative sales from the past 2 weeks as Oricon forgoes weekly ranks for the week over the new year.

CHARTS:

Singles:

01 stay with me Koda Kumi 58,108 NEW
02 Days / GREEN Hamasaki Ayumi 40,003
03 Aino Mamade... Akimoto Junko 37,591
04 Yowamushi SANTA Shuuchishin 28,231
05 Koyoi, Tsuki ga Miezutomo Porno Graffitti 23,537
06 Nocturne / Campanula no Koi Hirahara Ayaka 22,342
07 Sheryl no Uchu Kyoudaibune Nado Nome Sheryl 18,284 NEW
08 Ranka & Bobby no SMS Shoutai no Uta nado Nakajima Megumi 16,980 NEW
09 fairytale Kalafina 15,984 NEW
10 Nihon no Mikata -Nevada Kara Kimashita- Yazima Beauty Salon 15,532

Albums:

01 My song Your song Ikimoni Gakari 242,691 NEW
02 EXILE BALLAD BEST EXILE 190,213
03 GIRL NEXT DOOR GIRL NEXT DOOR 171,165 NEW
04 SUPERMARKET FANTASY Mr.Children 166,095
05 ai no Uta 2 Various Artists 55,048

Also, I forgot to post the Oricon charts for the last week of December -_-; (sorry) so here they are (12/21):

CHARTS:

Singles:

01 Days / GREEN Hamasaki Ayumi 127,650 NEW
02 Yowamushi SANTA Shuuchishin 33,249
03 Koyoi, Tsuki ga Miezutomo Porno Graffitti 20,905
04 Aino Mamade... Akimoto Junko 17,608
05 HEAVEN BUCK-TICK 14,724 NEW
06 Tomorrow Yukari Tamura 10,691 NEW
07 Nocturne / Campanula no Koi Ayaka Hirahara 10,332
08 Friend / Sugao no mama Rina Aiuchi 9,573 NEW
09 Sunao ni Naretara JUJU feat. Spontania / I can be free JUJU 9,182
10 White Xmas KAT-TUN 7,790

Albums:

01 SUPERMARKET FANTASY Mr.Children 177,581
02 EXILE BALLAD BEST EXILE 147,454
03 LOVE LETTER Otsuka Ai 104,232 NEW
04 BLEACH BEST TUNES Various Artists 52,835 NEW
05 ai no Uta 2 Various Artists 24,740

...my true love gave to me something a bit naughty,
a rise to fame,
10 years of bliss,
an anniversary trio,
a group of amazing vocalists,
a hit single,
a stunning voice,
the sweetest song,
a deliciously creepy new artist,
and a WINTER PARTY!

Koda Kumi began 2008 with a bang, her 6th studio album Kingdom rocketing to number 1 with sales of 750K, and the year was pretty good to Kuu-chan. Her 3rd single of the year, TABOO, saw her gain her 5th number one single and a return to the funky, dance sound which made her so popular.

TABOO was a track I was obsessed with this year. While I like lots of songs, I rarely listen to them on repeat over and over, even with songs I call my favourites - but with TABOO I did. It was just the perfect track Kuu could have released after Anytime & Moon Crying which while good, didn't have that edge that Koda is known for. I was even compelled to buy it and it was a wonderful purchase ^_^ ~! The video caused a bit of a stir but hey, it's Koda. If she wasn't strutting around in little girl guide outfits, I'd think something was wrong. This is the way Koda Kumi should be (at least in my opinion). I definitely prefer these upbeat, infectious tracks over her ballads, but she seems to like the ballads and they're pretty good so I'll run with it.

Speaking of ballads, Koda's Winter themed single stay with me was released this week and I've heard that there is already a major buzz for the song. It seems the Japanese public loves their ballads and this one is a sweet one, so it should do well. Koda is also releasing her 7th studio album TRICK at the end of January 09. I have high hopes for it to live up to her previous albums. Go Kuu!!

NEWS: The 2008 Japanese Nail Queen awards were held yesterday at the Japanese Nail Expo in conjunction with the JNA (Japanese Nailist Association) and the results are in! (exciting, yeah? ^_^ ) (click images to enlarge)

Homare Sawa, Peter, Yonekura Ryoko, Koda Kumi, Watanabe Ann, DAIGO

Yonekura Ryoko took home the top prize in the actress category, while Watanabe Ann (model) recieved the prize in the talento catagory. DAIGO (BREAKERZ) represented the men and I'm sure he loves being called a Queen ... or maybe he's the Nail King? I have to admit, nail art looks cool, but I dunno if I'd do it. If you're a dude, I think you have to be a rockstar to pull it off. Homare Sawa and Peter also won awards in the sport and special categories.

Koda Kumi was also named a Nail Queen in the artist category. She has held the title since 2006 and because she has now reigned 3 years in a row, Kuu was inducted into the Nail Queen Hall of Fame. She was presented the award by fellow Hall of Fame-er Becky, who had won the Talento category from 2005-2007. Koda had her claws out proudly at the awards - I think you'll agree, they're very impressive ...

PREVIEW: Hot off the no.1 hit TABOO, Koda Kumi has a new single coming out this December title stay with me. The track is said to be a winter love ballad reflected in the winter themed covers.

CD+DVD CD ONLY

Playroom Edition (Fanclub)

I only just realised that the preview wasn't working before as something went wrong when I uploaded it and I stupidly forgot to check before posting. It should be ok now :)

The preview for the song is very short so it's hard to get a full grasp of it. I'm still unsure on whether or not I like it. I definitely think it has some potential and it will be interesting to hear the full version.

WINTER!WINTER!WINTER

I am excited for this release purely because I love Winter ^_^ My birthday is in Winter, so growing up I always claimed it was my favourite season :D Of course, down here in the southern hemisphere, Winter is in the middle of the year not at Xmas time (I'm getting sick of stinking hot Xmas days) and it doesn't snow, it doesn't look pretty ... in fact it is usually just wet and overcast - I guess I just love the Wintery image and of course ... Winter ballads ^_^
Anyway, yeah I love Winter, so bring on the Winter singles >_< !!

ORICON ROUNDUP

Koda Kumi's 41st single, TABOO struggled on the charts but managed to just edge out Porno Graffitti to take top honours. TABOO is Kuu's 5th no.1 single despite selling 66.5K, more than twenty thousand copies less than her previous single MOON. In contrast, Porno Graffitti's Love too, Death too's sales were up slightly from their previous single, selling 60K.
GIRL NEXT DOOR's Drive Away / Shiawase no Jouken scored third place but sales were down 10K from their debut's first week.

Takeuchi Mariya's EXPRESSIONS continues to leave its mark on the Album Charts, no.1 for the second week in a row with 132.7K copies sold. The album's sales edge closer towards the half a million mark, hitting just under 438K in only two weeks. Not bad, not bad at all.

CHARTS:

Singles:

01 TABOO Koda Kumi 66,569
02 Love,too Death,too Porno Graffitti 60,155
03 Drive Away / Shiawase no Jouken GIRL NEXT DOOR 21,081
04 The Birthday ~Ti Amo~ EXILE 20,687
05 Sai Ai KOH+ 19,749
06 Happy Birthday NEWS 18,301
07 Tegami ~Haikei Juugo no Kimi e~ Angela Aki 14,487
08 Anata to ayaka x Kobukuro 13,778
09 Aishuu no Mizuumi Hikawa Kiyoshi 12,307
10 Forever Song Hata Motohiro 10,700

Albums:

01 Expressions Takeuchi Mariya 132,772
02 Macross Frontier O.S.T.2 Nyan TRA (Various Artists) 102,331
03 Dig Out Your Soul Oasis 27,763
04 The BEst of melody. Timeline melody. 22,226
05 12 Love Stories DOHZI-T 21,403

Some purchases I made a while ago arrived today, Nobody from the Wonder Girls, DBSK's MIROTIC and Koda Kumi's TABOO. (click images for larger pics)

Nobody's packaging is probably the nicest. The whole thing is a book which is filled with great pics of the girls, including fold out pages for each them. The CD is on the back of the book, while the cover slips off and folds out into a cool poster.

MIROTIC is in the chunky box thing which looks nice, and the CD and booklet slide behind it.

For TABOO I just got the regular edition so it's pretty normal to every other Jpop release. It has a nice foldout though and Koda is looking great!

REVIEWS: This week I'm reviewing 3 pretty good singles: GIRL NEXT DOOR's Drive Away / Shiawase no Jouken; Porno Graffitti's Love,too Death,too; and Koda Kumi's Taboo.

Drive Away / Shiawase no Jouken GIRL NEXT DOOR

GIRL NEXT DOOR's second single is a double A-side, both songs being upbeat, pop numbers.


Drive Away is the standout track on this single for me, pretty much because both songs sound very similar and Drive Away is just a lot more catchier. The chorus really makes Drive Away stand out from Shiawase no Jouken. It is very catchy, especially the "drive away" bit and the song in general just has a really uplifting feeling. I had a problem with their debut single not quite being able to distinguish itself between rock and pop/dance. This single clears that all up, both songs are very up tempo, dancey ... very pop.


My issue with this single is that the second A-side, Shiawase no Jouken, is very similar to the first track. It's almost an extension of Drive Away - If you did a nice transitioning, they could be the same song. The problem with this is that neither track really distinguishes itself enough. I personally had trouble remembering what each song specifically sounded like shortly after listening, despite being able to recall the general sound of the single. It's all one big mush of dance/pop.

I do like this pop style GIRL NEXT DOOR is going with but some variation between the two songs would have been nice. Perhaps a rockier tune for the second to compliment Drive Away's pop style? Why have a double a-side if both songs offer you exactly the same thing? Still both songs are fun and reasonably decent tracks.

Rating: Drive Away 7.5/10 - Shiwase no Jouken 6.5/10

Love,too Death,too Porno Graffitti

Porno Graffitti's 26th single adopts a jazz/rock kind of style ... whatever it is, I really enjoy it!


Love, too Death too is just an undeniably catchy, fun tune. It has a really interesting arrangement with inspirations from jazz styles plus their typical rock sounds and even some orchestral strings. I'm not really a regular listener of Porno Graffitti's stuff so at first I found Okano's vocals slightly off putting (he has a unique voice) but I got over that pretty quickly and actually really enjoy them now (the same thing happened when I reviewed Gift lol). The chorus is obviously the highlight in this song, the "Love, too Death too" line is the song's hook and it's repeated a lot but never gets tiring. The verses have a great style to them and the instrumental sections are a joy to listen to. The bridge towards the end of the song is also another highlight for me, it has a great melody and sets up for a cool guitar instrumental.

All in all, just a really refreshingly unique track from Porno Graffitti. The boys have 2 BEST albums released in a couple of weeks BEST ACE and BEST JOKER ... I'll have to check them out.

Rating: 8.5/10

Taboo Koda Kumi

This single has been a LONG time coming but it was definitely worth the wait. Koda's Taboo sees her return to the funky, dance tracks that she has been so popular with in the past.


I've loved this song ever since the previews and I'm a fan of Kuu-chan's stuff in general, especially her past two albums. Despite hearing this song, probably a month or so ago and listening to it over and over (and over) again, I still haven't got sick of it. It's such a great song; The chorus is catchy, the verses are catchy, the beat is infectious... What more can I say? I definitely prefer this style for Koda, her voice suits and excells in this genre. The random English throughout is a nice touch, even though a lot of it is hard to decipher without lyrics (ahh Engrish^_^ ~!)

Taboo is everything that a Koda song should be (more of this, please!) and it's already in the mail, heading to me right this moment.

Rating: 9.5/10

PREVIEW: How typical that as soon as I posted the preview of Koda Kumi's TABOO, the actual full PV would be released. Oh wellz, here it is:

Gothic Victorian settings, urinal toilet dancing and slutting it up with two girl scouts - how could this PV not be good?! Koda's got quite a few gay sex orgies heating this PV up and she seems to get quite a kick out of it. Sex on the brain, methinks.

Watching the full PV, I have to say the song is awesome. I haven't been TOO impressed with some of the latest Koda releases but this is really good. Welcome back Kuu!

PREVIEW: Koda Kumi is releasing her new single TABOO on the 8th of October and her official site has a PV Preview up.

It's looks pretty awesome so far. I really like the style of the PV, the dark Victorian style. Koda looks great and the dance is hot. The song is also very good, TAA-BOO! Can't wait for this release!

K-pop's Wonder Girls are also releasing soon and have an MV preview for their upcoming album ~The Fourth Project~ WONDER GIRLS NOBODY.

The song sounds like a powerful ballad but the MV seems to suggest a more uptempo song with dance moves. I'm guessing this ballad section might just be the intro which then launches into some funky, retro pop tune, or perhaps it's an entirely different song.

Finally, Tohoshinki/TVXQ/DBSK is making their long awaited comeback in Korea with their 1st album in 2 years MIROTIC. It's being released later this month.

It sounds pretty good. I'm sure all the fangirls will be drooling and screaming, hearts pounding and bodies quivering. Mission accomplished, eh?

NEWS: Goto Maki performed her 2nd and final performance at A-nation '08 yesterday evening, the final day for A-nation this year. Maki performed alongside artists such as AAA, alan, Mihimaru GT, Koda Kumi, Amuro Namie and Hamasaki Ayumi as well as many others.

Unfortunately for Maki (fortunately for us *snigger*) it began pouring rain almost immediately as she stepped on stage . (Click to enlarge pics)

Maki steps confidently onstage ... and the heavens opened!

While a lot of the crowd ran for cover, Maki ushered them back to hear her performance. Maki performed soaking wet in the rain, singing the same setlist as her previous performance. Check out Goto Maki's Avex Debut for a fan recording of Maki's performances of Shy Guy and her original song, Hear Me.

Here is a news report on the event which features clips of a lot of the performances - Maki is at 0:08 and 1:56.

Some more pics from A-nation '08's final day: (Click to enlarge pics)


Amuro Namie


mihimaru GT ~Hiroko <3


AAA


Alan


Koda Kumi


Hamasaki Ayumi