SECRET AMBITION is No.2 in the Oricon Weekly Chart. WTF? The daily charts are royally screwed up LMAO.

As expected, Takky and Tsubasa easily made No.1, selling 1.7x more copies than Nana.

Some more chart news from Oricon, plus figures from 2channel:

01. x~Dame~/CRAZY RAINBOW. Takky & Tsubasa (65,613 copies sold)
02. SECRET AMBITION. Mizuki Nana (38,538)
03. Looking For. Spitz (32,221)
04. Babylon. Ryu Si Won (29,291)
05. GET Chu!/She no Jijitsu. AAA (24,339)
06. Cry Baby. SEAMO (24,070)
07. Tokyo ni mo attanda. Fukuyama Masaharu (20,556)
08. Keibetsu shiteita aijou. AKB48 (20,323)
09. Train. Ketsumeishi (20,237)
10. Dream Lover. Infinity16 (19,203)
11. Sen no Kaze ni natte. Akikawa Masafumi (19,041)
12. GHOST. BEAT CRUSADERS (16,705)
13. Tsubomi. Kobukuro (16,392)
14. Zukkoke Otokomichi. Kanjani8 (15,929)
15. Dare no tame demo naku kimi ni... Kawamura Ryuichi (13,508)
16. Blind Romance. Merry (11,345)
17. Joushitachi ni asu wa nai. Chatmonchy (10,831)
18. Fate/stay night Realta Nua Theme- Ougon no Kagayaki. Number 201 feat.MAKI (10,595)
19. Natsukaze Tayori/Kokoro yoho. RAG FAIR (9,850)
20. Flavor of Life. Utada Hikaru (9,206)
+24. romanesque. FictionJunction YUUKA (6,098)

I seriously did not see that coming. And nobody on 2channel called it either. Anyone who says they expected Nana to sell that many copies, enter at No.2 and beat off the likes of Spitz, SEAMO, AAA and Ryu Si Won is a liar. I think most people, even Nana fans, are probably in a state of shock ^^; SUPER GENERATION had been Nana’s previous biggest selling first-week single at 23,688 copies and ETERNAL BLAZE her biggest seller overall at 48,336 copies. Surely SECRET AMBITION will beat that now?

I wonder if the tie-ups (Nanoha + Shining Wind + Gacchiri Monday) were actually any help in achieving those sales figures. Granted, it’s nowhere near the levels of some of the major players; the likes of Kobukuro, NEWS, Utada Hikaru etc who can break 200,000 sales in the first week. Alas, the days of the million-selling single are well and truly over - I think there have only been 3 in the last 3 years; KAT-TUN’s REAL FACE, Shuji to Akira’s Seishun Amigo and ORANGE RANGE’s Hana. Getting to 500k is already a huge achievement these days.

It’ll be interesting to see how many copies Nana’s next single sells….. is she really breaking into the mainstream or is it just a flash in the pan? Maybe we’ll see her on Music Station one day……… for now she’ll have to settle for Gussan’s (comedian Yamaguchi Tomomitsu) MusiG. She’ll be in that (sometime next week) with Nakagawa Shoko, as seen in Nana’s blog entry pic below.

It’s unbelievable to me. How did she get above Spitz????? I’m very annoyed by that actually ^^;; Spitz were the band that really got me into Japanese music all those years ago and they’ll always be my No.1. That sounded really cheesy ^^ Reminds me of an S Club 7 song……

FJ YUUKA bombed >_> I certainly did not expect the Fate/stay single to outsell it.

And as expected, KAT-TUN grabbed the No.1 spot in the album charts with a whopping 271,000 copies of their 2nd album sold. Avril Lavigne wasn’t too far off, selling 224,000 copies of Best Damn Thing. Arctic Monkeys racked up 40,000 sales for Favourite Worst Nightmare to enter at No.4 - I’m quite impressed by that. Should easily top next week’s UK charts too. Hayashibara Megumi’s Plain also did brisk business - 9,198 copies sold to enter at No.18. Pretty good as it was released on Saturday instead of the usual Wednesday, so she had 3 less days sales than the rest.

No TWIJ or profiles this week. Life will get a whole lot better for me starting next week…..

Random fact #1:
Despite me having been in the UK for five years, studying at a university which has seen some of my favourite bands (Ash, Teenage Fanclub, Delays, Razorlight, The Go! Team) play at the union; I have not been to a single gig. And probably never will. The main reason? Me having tinnitus means I’m less tolerant of persistent loud noise. Last year I went along with my parents to one of their line-dancing parties and I swear, it was like my head was being pounded by rocks eventhough it was mostly (rather hideous) country music. By the end of the night I was nauseous and had a massive headache…..I think I’ll stick to classical performances. The Vienna Boy’s Choir was brilliant when I watched them ages ago.

I was pondering this when watching a couple of live DVDs (Mizuki Nana, STRAIGHTENER) and thinking ‘Woah, what I’d give to be there’ and then the next minute frowning and saying ‘But I don’t want to end up with tinnitus in both ears’….I guess that’s what earplugs are for? That would probably kill the atmosphere though. Sigh, it’s been nearly 7 years I’ve had it now and I guess I’ll be stuck with this buzz in my ear forever. Though I hardly notice it anymore anyway.

Random Fact #2:
I wear earplugs to sleep every single night. It started out as something of a last resort after having to put up with the shenanigans of all the drunken first-years returning at 3am on a Friday night, screaming their heads off. But now it’s become a habit and I feel almost…. incomplete without them, lol. Can’t get to sleep if I don’t wear them.

Um yeah, anyway moving on……… some more random trivia bits, but for the rest of this entry they’ll be about Mizuki Nana. I was mentioning her radio schedule on a post a few days ago and I made an effort to catch all of them. I missed the one on Monday (Recommend) cos I was at a lecture or something but I did listen to all the others; though they’re all shows that are part of my usual listening line-up anyway (except YoungPs).

Tuesday (17/04/07)
Azuma Takahiro’s YoungPs

Azuma is the boke half of comedy duo Take2 and also does a bit of acting. And is a MoMusu fan. Nana’s made a couple of appearances on YoungPs already, though I’ve not caught any of them before as the show runs on JOLF, a station I don’t normally tune in to.

Anyway, the show actually runs for 2 hours (from 10pm-12am) but Nana was around 15 minutes late. The show featured Azuma calling up listeners who, if they answered a question correct; got to speak to Nana and had her say a line of their choice (i.e. Oniichan, daiiiiisuki). Since Nana was late, the first caller never got to speak to her and instead Azuma said he’d ask her any question he wanted. The question turned out to be ‘Which seiyuu are you good friends with?‘. So Azuma called up Nana’s mobile phone some 6-7 minutes into the show, and I guess she was still in a car somewhere (highway sounds); and asked her the aforementioned question. Nana’s answer: Noto Mamiko, though obviously Azuma had no idea who she was and misheard it as Miko-chan ^^;

Thursday (19/04/07)
Mizuki Nana’s Smile Gang
…..it was the usual show, and I don’t actually remember most of it. They (Nana + Fukuen Misato) were mostly reading listener letters and talking about the single though, and I did recall that Misato said that a bunch of new corners would be starting next week.

Saturday (21/04/07)
Anispa

Thanks to the baseball, the show only lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes. Don’t know if it was planned, but Nana appeared together with Kageyama Hironobu; with both having new records to promote (JAM PROJECT’S Stormbringer, Nana’s SECRET AMBITION) and also doing a joint promotion for this summer’s Animelo Live.

When Masumin asked Kageyama and Nana if they had spoken to each other before, Kageyama joked that he was already at the ‘Oh…Honey!’ stage. And Nana responded by calling him Darling ^^; Kageyama spent half the show making fun of Nana’s surname (because of part-time JAM member Mizuki Ichiro) eventhough the kanji is different ^^; (水樹 vs 水木) and they called her ‘Boss’ and Mizuki-sensei [Mizuki Ichiro is seen as the pioneer/aniki of the anison genre].

They spent most of the time talking about the Animelo live, and according to Kageyama, recording for the single will begin next week. Eh, I didn’t like last year’s OUTRIDE so I can’t say I’m particularly excited about this either. Only a bunch of artists have been confirmed for this year’s show with Juukai, Momoi Halko and m.o.v.e some of the new acts joining the usuals Takahashi Naozumi, Okui Masami, Ali Project, Kuribayashi Minami etc on the bill.

Sunday (22/04/07)
Tentama
It seems ages ago since Nana was in an anime with Horie Yui…. I think Bottle Fairy must’ve been the last one, before this season’s (rather boring) Shining Tears X Wind. Anyway, Nana was promoting SECRET AMBITION here as well, though they did play one of Hocchan’s silly games called Tsundere Senbon Knock - Yui read a tsun line; and Nana has to come back with a dere line.

Example:
Hocchan: ちょっと，丼に蟲入ってるわよ。 (Hey, there’s a bug in the bowl!)
Nana:　♥♥ほら、あぁ♥♥ (Say Aaah…..)
……….Hocchan said ‘That’s no dere! That’s tsun!!! And an S (sadist) too! How can you feed someone bugs!!!’

The funniest thing about the show? Halfway through, Yui suddenly asked Nana if she was interested in the drums. Turns out she was trying to persuade Nana to be Kurobara Hozonkai’s drummer (they don’t have one) ^^;;;; and made comments like ‘Oh you’re so fair….oh you’d look good in black….’

Nana actually knew what Kurobara Hozonkai was, and had their CD (someone gave it to her). If you don’t know, Kurobara Hozonkai is Horie Yui’s side project - a goth-loli band (like AliPro) that has Yui singing and writing the music, with the rest of the band being Tentama staff members. They’re 10 times better than Aice5 in my opinion, but about 100 times uglier ^_^

Mini Oricon report:

I think Nana’s looking good for around No.5-No.6. What the chart should look like come Wednesday:

1. x~Dame/Crazy Rainbow. Takky & Tsubasa (1→1→1→1→1)
2. Looking For. Spitz (3→2→2→2→3)
3. BABYLON. Ryu Si Won (2→3→4→9→14)
4. Get Chu!/SHE no Jijitsu. AAA (4→5→5→7→10)
5. SECRET AMBITION. Mizuki Nana (5→4→7→11→9)
6. CRY BABY. SEAMO (8→6→3→5→2)

I’m wondering if SEAMO will beat out Nana, but poor first day sales might just have scuppered his chances. Unless SECRET AMBITION completely bombs over the next few days, I think she’ll scrape past him…. though I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if SEAMO won out. Ryu’s downward trajectory is looking a bit ominous too, but I think strong sales in the first three days will just keep him afloat.

7-10 is probably too close to call, but I’m thinking BEAT CRUSADERS, AKB48 and Infinity 16 will take up the remaining spots. Though I’m not discounting Fukuyama Masaharu and the phenomenon that is Akikawa Masafumi sneaking in.

I’m pleased Infinity 16 (feat. Shonan no Kaze, MINMI & MOOMIN) are doing well cos Japanese reggae/dancehall is grossly underrated. Lord knows where FJ YUUKA are going to end up; it sure isn’t looking good (21→24→29→38→39).

Now I have a wretched presentation to add to all the test and dissertation mayhem. Sigh. Will probably make it up as I go along (as usual).

I only watched 1 episode of anime this week (Emma Season 2). Instead, whilst working I’ve been catching up on 4 months worth of English music - I haven’t really kept up with the scene much since the death of Britpop and the boyband invasion (must be nearly 10 years now, lol). So I tend to go on a downloading spree once every few months to check out what’s hot and what’s not and decide what to buy & what to bin. I’ve found a lot of stuff to like so far this year, but increasingly I’m starting to think my music taste 10-11 years ago was appalling (Cast, Ocean Colour Scene, The Corrs, Dodgy, The Bluetones).

I love my indie music as much as my cheesy Jpop. I just can’t explain why.

I hope nobody’s looking for downloads here. You know you’ll have more chance of success on XXXXnova or eMule failing all else. These aren’t reviews as such…it’s just me reminding myself what I liked in 2007.

Top of the Tree
The Boy With No Name. Travis

Bloody hell. This record reminded me of why I used to be such a massive Travis fan in the The Man Who years…. I’d sort of given up on them after hearing Re-offender. I actually own all their studio albums, and it’s a track record that’s very likely to continue. Selfish Jean is just like, woooah. It’s their most catchy, upbeat tune since uh… We Are Monkeys? There’s maybe a couple of songs that sound too much like Keane/Coldplay for my liking (Closer, One Night) but the high points outweigh the lows by a huge margin. Me likes this, a lot.

Voxtrot. Voxtrot

Finally, an album. Yeah, that’s me you hear rejoicing there. Maybe some think this is not up to par with the quality of the EPs but hey, how on earth do you top a song like Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives really. There’s plenty of great songs on here like Firecracker, Ghost and Kid Gloves that worm their way into my brain immediately. I’m pretty sure I’ll still be loving this at the end of the year.

Saltbreakers. Laura Veirs
Pitchfork’s review of this is utterly wrong. What a bunch of pillocks they are. This is an amazing album, probably her best yet.

Ongiara. Great Lake Swimmers
So it’s more of the same hushed, acoustic folk tunes from GLS. If ppl didn’t like them before this, Ongiara won’t change their minds. But for fans it’s another awesome record.

Myths of the Near Future. Klaxons

Even if every other song on this was the sound of people playing ping-pong (snigger), this album just needed Golden Skans to be that good. It is just the most addictive tune I’ve heard so far this year. Thankfully the rest of the album is pretty solid; Atlantis to Interzone and Forgotten Works rock.

The Bird of Music. Au Revoir Simone
I love twee indie-pop. I love Swedish bands (Sambassadeur, The Lovekevins) especially. Au Revoir Simone sound like a Swedish twee indie-pop band but they’re actually from New York. Stars is a fantastic song - You make me wanna measure stars in the backyard with a calculator and a ruler baby. How can you not love a song with lyrics like that?

Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?. Of Montreal
With a title like that, it had better be good. And so it is. Damn good.

The Amber Gatherers. Alasdair Roberts

Ten years ago I’d have laughed in your face if you told me that in 2007, folk would be my music of choice. Ten years later, it’s very much true and Roberts is one of the best exponents of the genre around. Good stuff.

Ballads Of The Book. Various Artists

I was interested in this as it featured some of the best (and most well known) Scottish musicians around; including Norman Blake (TFC), Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap), Alasdair Roberts and er… Idlewild, interpreting writings by the likes of Ian Rankin and Louise Welsh in song. Absolutely fantastic album.

Cassadaga. Bright Eyes
Folk is nice, folk is good. Another accomplished album from Mr. Oberst.

The Postmarks. The Postmarks
A charming little record. One of the best indie pop albums I’ve heard this year, the vocals by Tim Yehezkely (female) are sublime.

Middle of the Road
Kingdom of Fear. Shitdisco
So their name drew a chuckle from me. But it’s actually not a bad record. I Like Kung Fu!! Doesn’t everybody, really? Reactor Party is excellent as well.

Make Another World. Idlewild
More guitars this time. There’s still plenty of hit and miss moments, but at least it’s a step forward from Warnings/Promises. No Emotion is top notch though.

Octopus. The Bees

Left Foot Stepdown, The Ocularist and Listening Man. They’re the best tracks on this rather groovy album. Half of it is pants though. I’m still addicted to Chicken Payback.

Contact. Thirteen Senses
I’ve read some pretty horrible reviews for this album, though I don’t actually think it’s as bad as it’s made out to be. Coldplay-lite? Well I’ll be damned if Coldplay can make anything that sounds half as good as this. It’s nowhere near the standards of The Invitation but it’s a pretty, inoffensive album.

The Deep Blue. Charlotte Hatherley

I was disappointed when she left Ash - I’d always thought their material with her in the band was much better than the 1977 stuff. The Deep Blue is a much better album than Grey Will Fade, but still somewhat lacks that oomph factor. Wonder what Ash can conjure up for their next record…..

Because Of The Times. Kings of Leon
I didn’t particularly like their first two albums, and this….. is just a melting pot of weird songs and extended jams that are destined never to make it onto a karaoke machine. But the album’s actually growing on me quite a bit, probably need to give it a few more spins.

Yours Truly, Angry Mob. Kaiser Chiefs
I have a soft spot for them cos I’m a massive Leeds fan too (sad times). Ruby’s one of the best singles this year, but there’s a bunch of songs that are quite frankly, abysmal (Thank You Very Much, Try Your Best) and hence, it’s just a good, but not great record.

We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. Modest Mouse

Merely OK. A little disappointed with this, but I guess Modest Mouse’s mediocre is still better than most bands’ best. Brock’s vocals started grating on my nerves after a couple of tracks.

Candylion. Gruff Rhys

I’m pretty much a Super Furry Animals fan, so obviously had to get my mitts on this. Hah! Erm what can I say about this………..it was fun and entertaining on the first listen, then a little bland on the second, and unbearable after that. But I can’t get the Candylion tune out of my head…..

Traffic and Weather. Fountains of Wayne
Rather disappointing album for me unfortunately. I can’t help thinking I’ve heard it all before somewhere…………

Bottom of the Pile
Favourite Worst Nightmare. Arctic Monkeys
Admittedly I was addicted to Mardy Bum and Riot Van for a few weeks. Then I got incredibly annoyed everytime I heard I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor; an agitatingly repetitive, tuneless excuse for a song. Unfortunately most of the songs on this are more I Bet You Look Good… than Mardy Bum for me, the only songs that survive me pushing the next button everytime they pop up in shuffle mode are The Bad Thing and D is For Dangerous. Doesn’t help that most of them sound the same. Maybe I’m becoming an old fart, cos guitar rock just gets up my nose these days.

Take To The Skies. Enter Shikari

At the beginning of every year some bands get hyped beyond belief, and Enter Shikari were one of 2007’s chosen ones. I had a nagging feeling I was gonna hate them but I gave the album a go anyway. I guess I wish I didn’t. Anything that favours screaming over melodies is never going to go down well with me. Headache! Headache!

Hats Off to the Buskers. The View
So someone tell me how this got to No.1 in the UK. Some of the most unexciting stuff I’ve heard in ages. Yawn.

Some Loud Thunder. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Rubbish.

Life in Cartoon Motion. Mika
Seriously.

There’s still tons of stuff I haven’t got round to sampling; Kate Walsh (she’s brilliant), Maximo Park, Blonde Redhead, The Arcade Fire, The National, Deerhoof, The Rakes, LCD Soundsystem, Jesse Malin, Silverchair, Wilco, Kelly Jones, Apples In Stereo…. though I get a sort of feeling that I shouldn’t bother with half of them. Manics have a new album soon too. Oh Rilo Kiley album, wherefore art thou?

TWIJ on hiatus this week, dissertation due in 16 days + mid-term test next week. eSnips uploading goes on as usual…..

Something brief; tomorrow being the ‘official’ release date for Mizuki Nana’s SECRET AMBITION, means Nana-chan will be doing craploads of promotion and appearing here and there and everywhere……

For any of you radio listeners out there, shows she’ll be on for the rest of the week;

Tuesday (17/04/07)
Azuma Takahiro’s YoungPs (2200 Japan time) on JOLF

Thursday (19/04/07)
Mizuki Nana’s Smile Gang (2130) on JOQR

Saturday (21/04/07)
Anispa with Washizaki Takeshi/Asano Masumi (2100-2300) on JOQR

Sunday (22/04/07)
Tentama with Horie Yui (2430) on JOQR

Anispa you can usually get on Winny/Share, but the rest….I guess Peercast is your best bet.

So why’d she have to go and release the single on the same day as Tackey & Tsubasa, Spitz and BEAT CRUSADERS? Takki & Imai will surely be No.1 come next Wednesday… Nana’s last three singles (Justice To Believe, SUPER GENERATION and ETERNAL BLAZE) all sold around 23k copies in the first week…. she should place comfortably within the Oricon top 10.

FictionJunction YUUKA’s romanesque should scrape the top 20, not sure how a strong of a tie-in El Cazador is…….. their two biggest-selling singles have had Gundam Seed connections - Akatsuki no Kuruma actually broke the 100k sales barrier; something Mizuki Nana hasn’t come remotely close to doing. Kouya Ruten (Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto OP) did pretty well for a release with a rather weak tie-in; racking in 16,372 sales.

Pretty tough week this time though, with the likes of SEAMO, Kawamura Ryuichi, Sambomaster, RAG FAIR, 100s, Ryu Si Won, AAA, Ulfuls and Chatmonchy all looking for a debut in the top 30. Plus there’s the likes of GLAY, Kobukuro, Utada Hikaru, Amuro Namie and mihimaru GT who’ll surely be sticking around for a while.

Ah, and there’s the Fate/stay night Realta Nua OP theme out tomorrow as well. Most F/s n related music releases have generally sold well, even the chara albums so I expect to see Ougon no Kagayaki by NUMBER201 feat.MAKI there or thereabouts. On the indie side dorlis, Japahari Net, Jackson vibe, Snowkel and Tsubaki all have new singles but with the exception of Japahari Net I seriously doubt any of them will trouble the top 30. Or top 50 for that matter.

Album charts are a foregone conclusion, if KAT-TUN aren’t No.1 I’ll eat that aubergine that’s been rotting away in my fridge for 2 months. Avril Lavigne will be up there somewhere, and I hope Hayashibara Megumi sells well.

The last template was driving me mad so I changed it. New Blogger is still broken in a lot of places, unsurprisingly - i.e. I can’t delete the damn labels. Try clicking ’seiyuu profile’ and nothing comes up, eventhough it lists 11 phantom posts. Commenting in Blogger is not for the blind, I myself can hardly find the damn button sometimes (it’s at the bottom of every post, next to the time). Maybe I should switch to some other blog provider…… Apologies to anyone using Opera (I use it too), cos it looks absolutely horrendous.

If things suddenly turn wonky that means I’m trying to fix something ^^; I am so crap at this, makes me wish I’d taken computing instead of boring old economics….

11 April 2007
Not a lot out this week, thankfully. I’ve a wretched dissertation to write. I just want to point out the existence of the Saint October OP song’s PV for the unaware - a suitably hideous PV for a hideous song from a hideous anime. I hear DVD sales are pretty bad…. and it’s only halfway through its run.

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Someone a little more established this time. The baby-faced assassin has been a personal favourite ever since I heard Hirohashi debut in one of my most loved anime Haibane Renmei. Her performance as the innocent, shy Rakka tugged at my heart (I’m just a sentimental fool ^^).

Hirohashi can do cute, loli-bait characters, impossibly cheerful teenage girls, deadpan, and yuri-yuri ninjas. Oh, and she was a mahou shoujo in Magical Canan but I doubt anyone watched that.

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OK, so I was half-lying when I said I wanted to do a profile for a fit and young male seiyuu. To be honest my top 3 choices were Kakihara Tetsuya, Tsuda Kenjiro and Kawada Shinji but I abandoned the idea cos I couldn’t find any decent photos of them. I guess male seiyuu (with the exception of ppl like Ishida Akira, Hoshi Soichiro etc) don’t get in the limelight too much.

So I copped out and had to settle for a semi-popular seiyuu; another person who looks like he’s going to have a pretty good year. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Ono Daisuke-san! There’s not a great deal of information out there about him either, but I tried my best to dig out as much as I could.

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