01 Yowamushi SANTA Shuuchishin 152,260 02 Koyoi, Tsuki ga Miezutomo Porno Graffitti 81,907 03 White Xmas KAT-TUN 19,962 04 Aino Mamade... Akimoto Junko 17,550 05 Heart of Winter Yamazaki Masayoshi 14,206 06 Eien no Ashita DEEN 13,898 07 Tobira GReeeeN 13,235 08 CROSS GAME alice nine. 12,703 09 Minna no Tamago Shugo Chara Egg! 12,587 10 PAPERMOON Tommy heavenly6 11,838
Albums: 01 SUPERMARKET FANTASY Mr.Children 707,763 02 EXILE BALLAD BEST EXILE 257,760 03 VOICE Nakashima Mika 33,920 04 Enka Meikyoku Collection 9 - Aishu no Mizuumi - Hikawa Kiyoshi 28,765 05 ai no Uta 2 Various Artists 28,125
40 Abe Natsumi Best Selection 15 Shoku no Nigaoe Tachi Abe Natsumi 5,206 66 Pucchi Best 9 Various Artists 3,354 122 MEGA MELON Melon Kinenbi 1,477 132 Hello! Project Special Unit MEGA Best Various Artists 1,349 148 Taiyo to Ciscomoon (T&C BOMBER) MEGA Best T&C Bomber 1,172 164 Hello! Project Shuffle Unit MEGA Best Various Artists 1,102 168 Tanpopo / Pucchimoni MEGA Best Tanpopo / Pucchimoni 1,084 171 Country Musume MEGA Best Country Musume 1,073 182 Legend Nakazawa Yuko 1,020
REVIEWS:Review time again! As it gets closer and closer to Xmas, I'm running out of winter ballads. I'm still haven't found one that totally knocks my socks off... maybe next year. This week none of the tracks are especially wintery, well except for Shuuchishin newie but ... well read the review. I also review new tracks from Porno Graffitti, RSP, Tommy heavenly6 and H!P's newest unit Shugo Chara Egg!
Koyoi, Tsuki ga Miezutomo Porno Graffitti
Porno Graffitti are sort of entering a new chapter of their singing career, coming off their successful BEST ACE/JOKER albums released last month. They kick off this phase with Koyoi, Tsuki ga Meizutomo which is the ending theme for the third BLEACH anime film (Bleach: Fade to Black –Kimi no Na wo Yobu-). The song has a great sound to it throughout; it’s an upbeat, energetic song with some rock and synth elements. It really is very high energy from start to finish … It must be a bitch to perform lol so all credit to Okano who does really well vocally. The song is really going for that exciting, upbeat sound, but for me I would have liked a little more variety in the instrumental. It tends to maintain pretty much the same energy throughout, there’s no highs or lows, it’s much of the same all the way through. It’s still a pumping track though and a great start for this new chapter for Porno Graffitti.
Rating: 8/10
LA.LA.LA LOVE SONG ~Koko kara Hajimaru Koi Monogatari~ RSP
LA LA LA LOVE SONG ~blah blah~ (lol) is RSP’s first single since their debut album DICE which was released a little earlier this year. The track sees the girls (+dancers) team up with DA BUBBLE GUM BROTHERS and is a cover of a Toshinobu Kubota song. One thing I love about RSP are the edgy vocals of Saki and Ai. They both sound very unique and give RSP their own unique vocal sound. Unfortunately we’re bombarded by DA BUBBLE GUM BROTHERS who are some old dudes who rap. I’m not really sure why the girls just couldn’t rap themselves, we all know they can… urgh wateva. In regards to the song, it’s a great track. Very catchy with a bit of a disco beat but still maintaining that street feel that RSP have. Maybe on their next album they’ll have an RSP only ver of this track? I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Rating:7.5/10
Minna no Tamago Shugo Chara Egg!
Ah~! ‘tis a debut single from a new H!P group! Shugo Chara Egg!’s Minna no Tamago is the opening for the new season of Shugo Chara (Doki!!) and is very much inspired by the colourful anime. I always love when new groups debut and this one has one of my fav eggs Wada Ayaka in it! Unfortunately pretty much my whole fandom of DAWA was based on her cute performances where I hadn’t really heard her sing solo. This song sort of crashes my pure image of her. Everytime she opens her mouth I feel like sticking a gun in mine -_-; Oh well, I still love ya DAWA! (even if you can’t sing) -_- The other girls are all very cute and it’s generally just a fun, childish song. It’s not the most terrific song to ever grace H!P but for its purpose it does well.
Rating:7/10
PAPERMOON Tommy heavenly6
PAPERMOON is Tomoko Kawase’s new single and her first since release as Tommy heavenly6 since Heavy Starry Heavenly back in early ’07. It’s good to have heavenly back! To be honest, the track is a pretty conventional Tommy rock track but I still really enjoy it. For me the song is very upbeat and catchy, the chorus in particular has a great sound to it – but I do really like the whole track. Tommy’s vocals go a long way – she is a pleasure to listen to, especially when she really goes for it. The rock instrumental is pretty good, if not totally original, and it works well with the track. Perhaps one of the very exciting things about this release is IW’s fav gaijin rocker Elec (LAVERITE) appears in the Wizard of Oz themed PV, rockin’ out as the scarecrow. It’s a pretty nifty PV so check it out:
Rating: 8.5/10
Yowamushi SANTA Shuuchishin
Everyone’s favourite Shuuchishin has a Christmas track which is almost certain to rocket to no.1 … yay! (-_-; ) … lol I don’t watch Hexagon so I don’t really ‘get’ the appeal of these dudes but each to their own I guess. Yowamushi SANTA is pretty dodgy. I’m sorry lol, but it just is. Firstly the guys can’t really sing very well, which I can look past if the song is good (hell, I’m a H!P fan) … but the song just isn’t anything special either. It’s like a mid tempo sway session song … what a bore. The chorus is kind of catchy I guess, I’ll give it that. It might work on the whole retro tv song level – I can totally picture this being sung on their show. It’s not bad, I mean I can listen to it, but it’s just a very average song – so I’m giving it a very average rating.
PREVIEW: Talk about a long wait! Shugo Chara Egg's debut single Minna no Tamago is released next week and the dohhhup! JUST released the PV! We heard this single AGES ago from the Shugo Chara opening but had to wait so long for the PV, how strange. Anywhoo- here it is:
The PV is really cute and is one of the better recent green screen PVs. It really fits the mood of the anime well and the scenes from Shugo Chara are nice but don't totally overpower the PV (it's mainly about the girls, as it should be). Everyone is great, I'm starting to like Yuuka more and more which scared me lol. Kanon is cute as can be, very aibon-esque looking! Akari seems very sweet and while DAWA has a voice that can make my ears bleed, she's still my fav egg ^_^
PREVIEW: Shugo Chara Egg! have their debut single Minna no Tamago being released next month and we get a peek at the PV as commercials start airing on TV ^_^
First impression is COLOURFUL! Which is a good thing considering this is a unit for Shugo Chara which is a colourful, boisterous anime - the little preview captures that well. The girls are dressed in the outfits of Amu's Chara Transformations Amulet Heart, Amulet Diamond, Amulet Clover and Amulet Spade - they're not perfect recreations but they're good enough, I guess. We get a little preview of the covers too and they look very cute. It seems DAWA and Yuuka are the being pushed in this unit, a slight surprise as I would have considered Kanon to be more popular than DAWA - even though I like Ayaka more ^_^ (though I like both more than Yuuka and I don't even really know who Akari is, she's never popped up on my radar). Full PV should be out in a couple of weeks I'd guess.
PREVIEW: Shugo Chara returned to Japanese tv screens this morning and with it comes previews of two upcoming H!P releases, Shugo Chara Egg's Minna no Tamago and Buono!'s Lotta Love Lotta Love.
The Opening for the new season, titled Shugo Chara!! Doki, is the new H!P Egg's group Shugo Chara Egg. Their single Minna no Tamago is released on the 10th of December.
The song is expectedly very cutesy and sweet and it sounds like each of the Eggs gets their own solo parts which is good, giving each girl their time to shine. The YEAH YEAH! parts are very catchy and I can see this selling well amongst the younger fans of Shugo Chara.
Buono!'s 5th single Lotta Love Lotta Love is the Closing song for the new season and is released, a little over a month away, on the 12th of November.
Although I'm a fan of their previous 4 singles, I did fear they were starting to sound VERY similar, but this song is different and really good. The Lotta Love Lotta Love ("Rottara Rottara") sections are very catchy and the chorus is high energy and cool. A very promising song for Buono! and one of their best singles imo.
PREVIEW: I've got some previews this morning of the upcoming Anime releases from H!P and TNX.
First up is Ogawa Mana's Suppin Rock. This is the Opening for the Anime Hyakko which premiered yesterday. While I was searching for the opening I stumbled upon the actual PV lol.
The song has a pop/rock feel and Mana is so awesome and confident in this PV. The PV is surprisingly decent for TNX's budget and doesn't involve a danceshot *eek*. Lots of different scenes too, and Mana with crazy hair = awesome. Her voice as always is fantastic and the song is pretty great too.
Mana also takes on voice acting in this anime (for the 2nd time), playing the role of one of the lead characters. THE Possible's Goto Yuki also steps into the Seiyuu ring with this anime. You can watch a short little promotional video featuring the two, below.
Now onto the new Eggs group Shugo Chara Egg - Their upcoming single Minna no Tamago is the opening of the second season of Shugo Chara titled Shugo Chara!! Dokki. A small commercial promoting the upcoming anime has been circling around and their new song is featured in it.
The song sounds really cute, from the tiny bit we can hear, and the girls voices suit the anime style VERY well. Should end up being a good song.
Well that's all on the anime front for today. Enjoy! :)
NEWS: I had previously reported a new H!P Egg group for the Shugo Chara anime about 3 weeks ago, and we finally have some more info to report! Shugo Chara Event in Odaiba today announced not only the group lineup, but also their debut single.
The members of Shugo Chara Egg are (from L to R) Saho Akari, Wada Ayaka, Maeda Yuuka (High King), Fukuda Kanon. The girls each represent a character from the Shugo Chara anime named after the suits in a deck of cards:
Spade ~ Diamond ~ Hearts ~ Clubs
Their debut single will be titled Minna no Tamago and is due to be released on the 10th of December. The group also has an official website where you can find further information.
UPDATE: Sanspo has an article about the event which includes pictures of the performance. Warning: Cuteness OVERLOAD!! (click for larger pics)
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