j1m0ne’s blog

28 November 2007
This week’s not too bad in terms of releases as the anime record labels (Lantis/Starchild) take a breather. I’m actually more interested in the fact that Mizuki Nana’s announced a new as-yet-untitled single scheduled for release on 6th February 2008 (My…God…that’s so far away), I wonder what sort of tie-up it might be for. Moving on~~~

Last week’s reviews’ chart placings
Singles
02. Sei naru Yoru ni. Ketsumeishi (115,520)
03. I Believe. EXILE (94,284)
04. Kiss Shite. KOH+ (54,639)
07. Hikari. Ging Nang BOYZ (25,021)
14. Dugong no Mieru Oka. Cocco (10,484)
17. Mugen no Kaze. Okuda Tamio (9,252)
19. Saigo no Kajitsu. Sakamoto Maaya (8,468)
21. Lucky Star Chara Song Vol.11 - Kanata & Sojiro. Shimamoto Sumi etc (7,335)
24. Lucky Star Chara Song Vol.12 - Nanaka & Yui (6,749)
28. Sora ni Saku. Komine Lisa (5,738)
29. Colorful Days. Sato Rina, Inoue Marina, Chihara Minori (5,264)
30. Chasse. Utatsuki Kaori (4,984)
33. Follow the Nightingale. KOKIA (4,644)
35. Love Song. ONE DRAFT (4,347)
36. KURENAI. Miyazaki Ui (4,256)
49. synchronicity. Makino Yui (2,902)
52. Rocket. Polysics (2,724)
57. Insanity. Okui Masumi (2,569)
58. 1/2. Ishikawa Chiaki (2,555)
66. Negaiboshi. Snow* (2,088)
70. White Choco. LOVE (2,057)
71. Aruiteikou. Yoshida Jungo (2,051)
79. Second Fantasy. UNDER GRAPH (1,734)
83. perfect blue. Jazzin’ park (1,590)
86. Vivace by Shindo Kei. Okada Junko (1,549)
87. Hadaka Denkyuu. Nakamura Ataru

Albums
01. KISS. L’arc~en~Ciel (220,649)
02. Dareka no Chijoue. Aqua Timez (56,837)
09. Immortal. STRAIGHTENER (15,471)
13. EXPOSED. BOOM BOOM SATELLITES (13,415)
15. Zeitakubyo. ONE OK ROCK (12,066)
34. Tobira album. Rie fu (6,203)
44. Hayate no Gotoku! Charasong Vol.8 - Nishizawa Ayumu. Takahashi Mikako (5,187)
45. Gateway to Tomorrow. Nagase Miyu (5,108)
47. Hayate no Gotoku! Charasong Vol.7 - Wataru + Saki. Inoue Marina/Nakajima Saki (4,699)
78. Astral Lamp. KELUN (3,006)
92. Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei Chara Album. Various (2,480)
117. YURIA2. YURIA (2,091)
220. Sketchbook OST. Muramatsu Ken (907)

Me lolz at Chasse debuting below Colorful Days.
Me cries at Ishikawa Chiaki debuting below Okui Masami T_T

Singles
SEISYuN. TOKIO

TOKIO may be one of the Johnny acts with a sliver of credibility since they play their own instruments and rarely dance, but alas! They rely on other people to write their songs…. how many bands do that? SEISYuN is written by veteran singer Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi and is the theme for frontman Nagase Tomoya’s dorama Utahime. It has a very ’70s Japanese folk flavour about it and despite having all manners of instrumentation (strings, trumpets and electric guitars), things come together nicely to make a highly listenable song that I can just imagine teenage boys belting this out at the top of their lungs in a karaoke box.
Watch: SEISYuN PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.01 (second day=⇔ at No.01)
Rating:

RED RIBBON Spiritual Song ~Umare kuru Kodomo-tachi no tame ni~. AIDS Charity PROJECT

Two versions of the song hit the market this week (the other is on Oda Kazumasa’s Jiko Best 2). This is an all-star charity single featuring the likes of TAKURO & TERU from Glay, Hitoto Yo, Ayaka, Ryo from Ketsumeishi and of course, Oda himself. The original is actually by Oda’s old band Off Course btw. Somehow…. a bland ballad has been turned into a reggae-tinged, upbeat pop song - I guess they had to update it to accomodate some of the urban artists. Though I wish Shonan no Kaze’s Wakadanna would shut his trap, his rap spoilt the song for me somewhat.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.08 (second day=↑ to No.02)
Rating:

Aishitenai. ACID BLACK CHERRY

Anyone missed Janne da Arc? Thought not. Anyhow, for the few that did frontman Yasu continues right where they left off with Acid Black Cherry. I gave the first few singles a miss, but since Aishitenai has a title with ballad written all over it I decided to give it a go. Not as bad I feared it’d be, but maybe a little too sugary for my taste.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.02 (second day=↓ to No.03)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Destination Nowhere. ERIKA

Having made the headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent months (see very immature strop here), Japan’s grumpiest entertainer returns with the second single under her ERIKA moniker. I actually like Destination Nowhere a lot, - the lyrics are co-written by Sawajiri with LOVE, better known as ex-CORE OF SOUL vocalist Fukko and the music by COZZi, who writes most of YUI’s songs so comparisons between the two are inevitable. I’m not sure if sales have been affected that much (her first single was No.1), but the public backlash and tearful apology that followed her misbehaviour will hopefully see ERIKA grow up a bit. I’m not counting on it though, tales of her alleged ‘diva-ness’ have plagued her since debuting….
Watch: Destination Nowhere PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.04 (second day=⇔ at No.04)
Rating:

Silent love~open my heart/BE WITH U. Kuraki Mai


Once dubbed an Utada Hikaru clone, it’s interesting to see how much their respective careers have diverged. Whilst Utada experiments with all sorts of musical styles, Kuraki sticks with the safe formula of mid-tempo ballads that have garnered her decent if not spectacular success over the last few years. Yet another safe choice this time, and yet another festive-themed song. I can’t tell the difference between Mai K’s songs anymore - the exact same feeling I get when I listen to Garnet Crow.
Watch: Silent love~open my heart PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.05 (second day=↓ to No.06)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY/Aikotoba. mihimaru GT

Arguably, mihimaru GT’s selling point has always been their ability to meld samples of popular songs and blues-pop together to form a sound that’s completely their own. This time the duo take the chorus ofKylie’s I Should Be So Lucky, replace the verses with raps and voila! Instant cheese. By right it should be rubbish, but there’s something oddly charming about it. I think that lies somewhere in Hiroko’s enthusiastic delivery and her ability to chant I should be so lucky, lucky lucky lucky with a completely straight face.
Watch: I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.06 (second day=↑ to No.05)
Rating:

Fuyu no Amaoto/NIGHT PARADE. FLOW

Fuyu no Amaoto is so…. un-FLOW. I thought I had put on UVERworld by mistake ^^; Strange to be putting out a summery single in the dead of winter too. NIGHT PARADE is a collaboration with HOME MADE KAZOKU and I was kinda skeptical about whether the two bands’ sounds would go well together, but it really turned out to be more of FLOW than HMK since the only input the latter had was in writing the lyrics. It’d be a fantastic song if only it didn’t sound so much like COLORS and Days…..
Watch: Fuyu no Amaoto PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.13 (second day=↑ to No.12)
Rating:

Signal 004. LAST ALLIANCE

LAST ALLIANCE have finally gone major, this is their first single for VAP which is a pretty cutting-edge label anyway - they’ve got people like Gomes The Hitman, eastern youth and FOOT STAMP on their books. Signal 004 is another solid release but doesn’t have anything that sounds like Shissou, for people who recognise the band name from that Ouran theme they did. Thankfully they seem to be doing alright without the need for a tie-up, they did have a sizeable following before their move anyhow.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.22 (second day=↓ to No.31)
Rating:

Orion. Asia Engineer

I keep telling myself it’s a sin to like Asia Engineer but oh well, I give in the sappiness of their rap-ballads. More of the same mushy ‘I-love-you-I-miss-you-I-wanna-see-you’ stuff here that they’re so fond of doing, so if that turns you off…. Oddly, they’ve done an anime song before - Eternal Pose, for One Piece which I thought was one of the strangest choices for an anime theme ever.
Watch: Orion PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.27 (second day=↑ to No.25)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Ima, Kaze no Naka de. Hirahara Ayaka

Woah. Hirahara’s career seems to be in serious decline, the lack of decent tie-ups or promotion are certainly hurting sales. And she’s only 23-years old too - on the scrap heap already? Not a huge fan of this single either. Given that I’ve had Little Drummer Boy, Joy to the World and Frosty The Snowman pounding my head every time I go out, I’m definitely not in the mood for slow songs. And this is slooooww.
Watch: Ima, Kaze no Naka de PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.32 (second day=↑ to No.30)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

i spy i spy. Superfly x JET

If you’re wondering whether JET is that JET, then yeah it is that JET. For people who don’t know who Jet are (why is their name capitalized here?), then you’re probably better off not knowing. i spy i spy is a very groovy tune that was recently used in a rather bizarre ad for the Nissan Cube which will have helped its fortunes somewhat. I’ve got the image of a giant swinging a tiny car about singing i spy i spy stuck in my head now….
Watch: i spy i spy PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.41 (second day=↑ to No.37)
Rating: ★★★★☆

BAMBOO BEAT/STAR RISE. Hirohashi Ryo, Toyoguchi Megumi, Kojima Sachiko, Kuwashima Houko, Satou Rina

Wait, wait, wait. I didn’t know Bamboo Blade was popular at all. This debuted above Crystal Kay, COLOR and Hirahara Ayaka (cue hysterical laughter), wtf. As Japanese otaku would say - 日本オワタ＼(^o^)／I don’t normally like songs where everyone sings at the same time instead of giving each person individual lines, but I guess there were too many girls and not enough lyrics ^^ To be honest I can only really hear Megu, her singing voice has always been pretty powerful and stood out in. Having three out of five being half decent singers helps mask the deficiences of those who can’t (Ryo is not great, and I don’t like Sacchan’s singing much either) I suppose. For some reason I really like BAMBOO BEAT, it sounds like something a girly pop band would sing. Kinda figures since Koma2 Kaz (w-inds, Ueto Aya) wrote it.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.17 (second day=↓ to No.20)
Rating: ★★★★☆

Mou Hitotsu no Mirai~starry spirits. Moriguchi Hiroko

I was just wondering whether she was ever going to release anything new after I ranked Mizu no Hoshi Ai o Komete 2nd on my list of all time fave anime songs, but here we go. This is the theme for the SD Gundam Generation Spirits game and it tries hard to be epic and exciting but fails miserably.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.26 (second day=↑ to No.24)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Yubikiri/Furefureponpon!. Kadowaki Maii & Sawashiro Miyuki

The person on the right is flatter than my ironing board -_- I don’t care for either Sawashiro or Kadowaki(her live singing kills me)’s singing, but both songs are catchy enough to warrant a second listen. I’m sure my apathy for Ninomiya-kun makes me like this less than I would if it was for a show like erm… Minami-ke or…. Moyashimon? I just realised that this autumn season ended up sucking quite a bit, I’m only regularly watching 3-4 shows instead of the usual 9-10. But oh well, that gives me more time to listen to music ^^
First day Oricon chart placing: No.26 (second day=↓ to No.36)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Albums
Jiko Best 2. Oda Kazumasa

I probably don’t need to listen to this to know I like it - maybe it’s a bit boring to hear 15 ballads in a row but Oda possesses one of most distinct vocals in Jpop; a bit nasal perhaps but always heartfelt. Jiko Best 2 is a compilation of some of his singles including recent hits Kokoro and Daijobu plus re-recordings of songs from his Off Course days (Tasogare, Hitori de Ikite Yukereba), plenty of housewives and casual music fans should pick this up ensuring that Oda retains his record of oldest artist to have a No.1 album (he’s 60). Strangely, the second day sales for the album actually exceeded those for the first day - a good sign that it’ll remain a steady seller right through to the end of the year.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.01 (second day=⇔ at No.01)
Rating: ★★★★☆

FUNFAIR. RIP SLYME

I’ve not had much time to get into FUNFAIR, but 2 spins and it’s been alright so far. I’m not the biggest fan of their ‘mellow’ songs (Tales, Zannen Boy) as I’d prefer them to do those inane songs with high-octane rapping - stuff like NP and Fa-a-r are right up my street.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.02 (second day=⇔ at No.02)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Posted on November 30th, 2007 under music, this week in japan • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback