TWIJ…#44
05 December 2007
Looks like another bland week again - no big anime CD releases. Ho-hum.
Last week’s reviews’ chart placings
Singles
01.SEISYuN. TOKIO (46,283)
02.Aishitenai. Acid Black Cherry (38,900)
03.RED RIBBON Spiritual Song. AIDS Charity PROJECT (34,628)
04.Destination Nowhere. ERIKA (26,624)
08.I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY. mihimaru GT (23,608)
09.Silent Love. Kuraki Mai (21,969)
17.BAMBOO BEAT. Hirohashi Ryo, Toyoguchi Megumi etc (7,225)
18.Fuyu no Amaoto. FLOW (7,126)
23.Mou Hitotsu no Mirai~STARRY SPIRITS~. Moriguchi Hiroko (5,999)
35.Yubikiri. Kadowaki Maii & Sawashiro Miyuki (4,062)
40.ORION. Asia Engineer (3,816)
46.Signal 004. LAST ALLIANCE (3,235)
49.Ima, Kaze no Naka de. Hirahara Ayaka (3,053)
Albums
01.Jiko Best 2. Oda Kazumasa (175,970)
02.FUN FAIR. RIP SLYME (69,484)
Oh joy, selling less than 50k can get TOKIO to No.1. If only Mizuki Nana had released a single last week we could’ve seen the first seiyuu chart-topper :/ I am still incredibly bemused by how well BAMBOO BEAT did. Outsold FLOW! ^^;;;;
Singles
Darling. Kuwata Keisuke
Yikes. Not often that Kuwata writes/produces a dud, but Darling’s one of them. It doesn’t seem to be able to decide whether it wants to be a ballad or an upbeat pop song, ends up sounding more like a song your grandad might like. I hate this.
Watch: Darling PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.01 (second day=⇔ at No.01)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
BLADE CHORD. abingdon boys school
BLADE CHORD is the same old style they’ve used for the last 2-3 singles; loud riffs, rap-rock etc. I don’t care much for it. Desert Rose OTOH is awesome, even with intelligible Engrish (I’m a kwiminelll… owezz on de run….) - why isn’t it the A-side instead? Too bad it’s selling pretty awful despite a debut at No.2 - index 5273 multiplied by 1.8 = 9,491 :/ Won’t get near 50k at this rate….
Watch: BLADE CHORD PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.02 (second day=⇔ at No.02)
Rating: 
Royal Chocolate Flush. MISIA
Not often that I listen to MISIA, but I caught a glimpse of the PV (which is hot) and was happy to find out that it wasn’t another boring big-lunged ballad. Damn, it’s funky - got RCF stuck in my head and looping on my playlist now. Add in a couple of solid c/ws and this is a great single.
Watch: Royal Chocolate Flush PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.04 (second day=⇔ at No.04)
Rating: ★★★★☆
MonStAR. Hirano Aya
I wasn’t too impressed with MonStAR when I first came across it on the radio but now that I’ve heard the full version I have to say - it’s pretty catchy and fun. Definitely much better than NEOPHILIA or LOVE GUN anyhow. PV is a tad gaudy with all that gold and glitter though *_* Only thing that mars the single is Love Song, an insanely dull 4 minutes 14 seconds of tunelessness. MonStAR debuted at No.07 - that is actually pretty awful when you consider that the competition is almost non-existant; Hirano’s otaku army are sorely lacking in numbers…..
Watch: MonStAR PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.07 (second day=↓ to No.10)
Rating:
Kagayaku Yoru. CHEMISTRY SUPPORTED BY MONKEY MAJIK
Kagayaku Yoru is screaming MONKEY MAJIK from the first second - in fact I kinda thought it’d be better if Maynard & co. kept the song for themselves….. But I really, really like it no matter who’s singing. Very fun, great sing-a-long chorus. The song is the theme for Fifa Club World Cup 2007, which AC Milan will surely stroll unless Kaka, Gattuso & co. get poisoned by some deadly fugu dish. But I’d probably have said that four years ago (when they lost to Boca Juniors :/). But this single seems to be underpromoted & the PV came out pretty late too - it deserves to do better.
Watch: Kagayaku Yoru PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.08 (second day=↑ to No.06)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Hikokigumo. Ayase Haruka
I thought Ayase had abandoned her singing career, Kousaten Days was more than a year ago now. Seems people have forgotten that she sings too as it’s not doing too well. I really like it though, catchy and cute (like her). And her voice is better than Aragaki Yui too….. (see below)
Watch: Hikokigumo PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.11 (second day=↓ to No.16)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Shonen Young. Denki Groove
Amazingly, it’s Denki Groove’s first single since 1999 though they did release two in collaboration with Scha Dara Parr a couple of years ago. Their style remains largely the same - electropop carrying obvious influences from YMO, Kraftwerk etc. I do like the odd Depeche Mode song now and again, but the style of music is mostly lost on me and starts grating on the nerves after approximately 25 seconds.
Watch: Shonen Young PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.18 (second day=↓ to No.26)
Rating: 
DIVE TO WORLD. CHERRYBLOSSOM
Good heavens. I thought Oh well, anime song. Let’s give it a spin….. not expecting to hear girly punk-pop. Looked them up, and found out that one of the members used to be in ska-punk band MidnightPumpkin. Who I hated…. so no, punk (however tame it may be) really is not my kind of thing.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.19 (second day=↑ to No.11)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Merry Christmas. Fumido
If you’re wondering, it doesn’t go ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’. It’s just the usual Fumido blues-pop with festive lyrics which will send fans into raptures and everyone else to sleep.
Watch: Merry Christmas PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.28 (second day=↓ to No.31)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Do you remember?. MOUMOON
The duo’s first few releases were produced by Nagao Dai (ex-Do As Infinity), and largely followed the same DAI template except the songs were a little more cheerful. I can’t find any mention of him on here but Do You Remember? is a mellow/soothing mid-tempo ballad that recalls wyolica at the peak of their powers.
Watch: Do you remember? PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.48 (second day=>top 50)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Albums
ACTION. B’z
17 tracks for a regular album is always a dangerous thing - bound to be filler somewhere along the way. B’z status as Japan’s biggest rock group might allow them room for a bit of indulgence, but that’s no excuse for producing songs as awful as HOMETOWN BOYS’ MARCH (sounds like a reject TOKIO B-side) or ONE ON ONE (a rehash of all their bad 90s ballads). Still, Inaba’s voice is as glorious as ever and Matsumoto’s guitar work solid even if he pales into the background for most of the album - the veteran rockers are still a force to be reckoned with. Even if they rip off everyone from Bon Jovi to Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.01 (second day=⇔ at No.01)
Rating:
Sora. Aragaki Yui
Good heavens, what a god-awful cover -_- Guess Aragaki’s not too hot at illustrating…. If anybody’s planning to buy Sora don’t get the CD only version cos there’s only pictures of that damned frog in there and none of her :/ Seriously I doubt anybody’s gonna buy this album because of the songs - people will get it cos it’s Gakky!! Is there anyone who doesn’t like her? I certainly do, she’s one of the best young actresses in recent years and she’s really adorable ^_^ Her blog’s one of the most read celeb blogs in Japan too.
On to the music. There’s some strong material contributed by established artists such as Tsuji Ayano, Suneohair, Ando Yuko, H ZETT M (of Pe’z & formerly Tokyo Jihen), Furuuchi Toko and Mito from clammbon. The songs are pretty good, all inoffensive mid-tempo ballads with easy listening melodies perhaps written with her wafer-thin voice in mind. Shame Aragaki’s singing is on the same sort of level as other idol-turned-popstars - maybe slightly better than Hirosue Ryoko, and about as bad as Nakagawa Shoko 
Ai o Shiritakute is an absolute pain in the arse (or ear) to listen to….
Watch: heavenly days PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.02 (second day=⇔ at No.02)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Juunanasai. BASE BALL BEAR
After selling their soul to the major record label devil, BBB have really stepped on the accelerator and cranked up their production rate. It’s insane - 6 singles, 1 mini-album & 2 full-length albums in the space of 18 months is a surefire recipe for burnout. Four of those singles are present here plus eight new tracks. Of the new songs, Heaven’s Door Girls & Aoi Haru.Kyomu left the most favourable impressions on me - they’re mostly good though. The only songs that don’t pass muster are the awful Aishiteru and WINK SNIPER - is it a coincidence that both songs feature vocals by female bassist Shiori? I think not.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.07 (second day=↓ to No.10)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Otokouta~cover song collection~. Shimatani Hitomi
I have an inability to resist Jpop cover albums, if only to see how modern Jpop artists have smashed the classics to pieces Shimatani puts a twist on the old formula by covering songs all originally sung by male vocalists. I have no idea whether she had a hand in choosing which songs to cover, but man……… she could’ve, & should selected songs that had a bit more life in them instead of 12 super famous, (mostly) super slow ballads. To make things worse, whoever arranged the songs decided to give Anzen Chitai’s Kanashimi ni Sayonara a Christmas makeover & Ohtaki Keiichi’s Shiawase na Ketsumatsu a reggae beat. Yeap, reggae - my joy knows no bounds :/
I also thought it was impossible to make Off Course’s Kotoba ni Dekinai, Yamazaki Masayoshi’s One more time,One more chance or BEGIN’s Koishikute any more boring than they already were, but somehow Shimatani succeeded ^^; It’s not all bad though - her version of one of my all time faves, Murashita Kozo’s Hatsukoi is actually pretty good as are Rainy Blue (Tokunaga Hideaki) and Kanade (Sukimaswitch). Not faulting Shimatani in any way, but poor song choice and dire arrangements make Otokouta one to forget.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.08 (second day=↑ to No.07)
Rating:
Genji Nostalgy. Rin’
I had nooooo idea Rin’ were releasing a new mini-album. Needless to say I am a huge admirer of the trio’s blend of enka pop with traditional Japanese instrumentation, and this concept album based on The Tale of Genji is suitably lush & epic. There’s a song featuring hot new Chinese/Tibetan vocalist Alan, and a few others where the Rin’ girls handle the vocals themselves but as always, the highlight is hearing the harmonious sounds of the shakuhachi, koto and biwa. Too bad there’s only 6 tracks on Genji Nostalgy….
First day Oricon chart placing: >Top 50
Rating: ★★★★☆
6 tear drops. Ohyama Yurika
I’ve not paid much attention to Ohyama - she always struck me as having a nice voice, but boring songs. This mini-album features two covers, one of Koizumi Kyoko’s Kogarashi ni Dakarete - apparently AV idol (or porn star to me & you) Aoi Sola appears in the PV but I haven’t seen it yet…. 6 tear drops is nice… but boring. All the songs are similarly paced - nothing much to get excited about.
First day Oricon chart placing: >Top 50
Rating: ★★★☆☆