While not quite as packed with interesting releases as July, there’s plenty in August keep the Oricon numbers interesting every week.
This list has selected single and album releases for the month, not all of them (i.e. releases from groups that I’m interested in tracking). My apologies if I missed a significant release – please mention the artist and title in a comment and I’ll update the list.
More complete listings are available on merchant websites (I use CD Japan’s list).
August 7th
Southern All Stars – Peace & Hi-lite
Akanishi Jin – Hey What’s Up?
Acid Black Cherry – Greed Greed Greed
Nishino Kana – Namida Iro
IDOLING!!! – Summer Lion
Yusuke – Tomorokoshi/Earth Child
August 14th
Kis-My-Ft2 – Kimi tono Kiseki
UVERworld – Fight for Liberty/Wizard CLUB
Dream5 – We are Dreamer
SCANDAL – Kagen no Tsuki
The Second from EXILE – Survivors feat. DJ MAKIDAI
An Cafe – ROMAN-Let’s make precious love
SONAR POCKET – Senko Hanabi – 8 Gatsu no Yakusoku
August 21st
AKB48 – Koisuru Fortune Cookie
V6 – Kimi ga Omoidasu Boku wa Kimi wo Aishiteru Darou Ka
Sukima Switch – Popman’s World – All Time Best 2003-2013 (album)
EXILE ATSUSHI – Michishirube
GReeeeN – Itoshi Kimi e
androp – Voice
August 28th
Morning Musume – (Title TBA)
Nakashima Mika – Boku ga Shino to Omotta no wa
LUNA SEA – Thoughts
mihimaru GT – mihimaland (album)
mihimaru GT – mihimania 4 (compilation)
September 3rd
Sonar Pocket – Sonapokeizm SUPER BEST (album)
September 4th
HKT48 – Melon Juice
AAA – (Title TBA)
Tohoshinki – Scream
Nishino Kana – Love Collection – pink – (album)
Nishino Kana – Love Collection – mint – (album)
Southern All Stars will be the main treat on August 7th. I sort of expected Akanishi Jin-kun to get back to work after a respectable amount of time after his kid’s birth, so I don’t really consider this a big comeback, though it’ll still be interesting to see what sort of number he posts.
Has Kis-My-Ft2 continued to increase their already formidable fanbase? Will UVERworld be able to contend for #2 on August 14th? And even though they’ll be lucky to get into the top 10, I’m still a Dream5 booster.
The single title for V6 was really long – I hope that doesn’t hamper their ability to promote it. Obviously AKB48 is going to take the top spot on August 21st, but how will the group’s numbers turn out without the election boost?
Morning Musume seems to be picking up steam these days – will that trend continue with this new single?
Even though I don’t normally cover DVD releases, I suppose special note must be given for the Johnny’s World DVD on the 14th and the SZ Japan Tour DVD on the 28th. It just feels odd to have two Johnny’s DVD releases – both involving Shounen Club regulars – in the same month.
J-Everything 
I m really curious about how much Jin is going to sell. I really don’t like nor the song nor the pv but He is getting quite a lot of promotion and they had been working on giving him a new image too for moooonths before his comeback was even announced.
The most surprising thing here was Sexy Zone DVD announcement….Their concert ended last may! And the January concert, not even a small footage, is NOT included in them ( despite the fact that that day the boys bring out a small camera and filmed the audience, themselves etc…The type of thing that we always get a making of from Oo) …And even the DVD was announced quite late surprising everyone… Shori s position as a center also displease quite a lot NakaKen/Fuma fans (the cover is showing is ”new ”position in the band). I don’t think it’s going to have consequences though, as fans will anyway buy it.
I suppose we got it because JE is trying to appease fans ? There was quite a lot of people getting angry or anxious about JE lately due to PR problems…I don’t know if you heard about it or not, but last May, NakaKen and Fuma who came to ABC-Z crea ( or was it concert ? I think it was crea) announced that there wouldn’t be any Summary this year but that they will use City Hall for a new show. It was quite a bit unclear but the idea was that both Sexy Zone and ABC-Z would do some ”solos” songs with juniors ( for exemple ” Shori and Juniors”..) …Well anyway, it was unclear, but they announced it officially. There was supposed to be a show with them.
Suddenly, in July, Johnny’s Film Fiesta was announced instead in city Hall, to add insult to injury, there is no ABC-Z, Sexy Zone nor Juniors in the cast. //This may have been the reason as to why HSJ did not record July SC episodes, they were recording the movie in June//…
As you can imagine, that did not go well at all. //JE may have gotten some kind of trouble and decided to do JFF there finally, because this is the first time they ever did JFF in such a big venue, as many times a day, and as many days …And well this is actually the longuest time for Sexy Zone and especially ABC-Z stayed without being in either a concert hall or a theatre lol//
Another PR trouble that didn’t go well, and still is worrying fans is the KAT-TUN trouble (linked to Jin) …One day, all FC members got a new mail and link announcing the new tour and official dates …An hour later or less, everything was taken down.(for the story : Fans call due to that,in order to know what was going on and JE said that no Tour was planned for the time being. )
I hope Dream5 will get a good number. They are the only other idols outside JE and AKB that I follow
I m really curious about Kisumai numbers this time around too…They are nowadays JE second best sellers after Arashi and their tickets concert are the second most expansive too…Almost the same prices as Arashi.
Haha yes V6 new single has a long name xDDD
No promotion for Js World in Dome, I wonder how it will sell….
Yeah, I’m not interested in Jin-kun’s music – just the number to give me an idea how many people are interested.
I didn’t really pay attention to which concert it was, but now that you mention it, that’s quite striking. Clearly, the recording of the January concert didn’t turn out well enough, but the speed with which they’ve done the work on the May concert seems unprecedented. Why not give it some extra time instead of rushing it out? I suspect that means there’s more stuff in the works in the Fall and Winter, but that’s just a guess.
Honestly, I count myself as a Kento fan, but I can’t sympathize with anyone taking issue with Shori-kun being at the center – he’s been the center of the group from the very start. I have their album and three of their singles behind me and guess who’s at the center of every single one of them? So I don’t know where fans who are complaining are coming from. Are Kento-kun and Fuma-kun more talented than Shori-kun? Of course they are. But how many years are we going to spend complaining about that when this arrangement is clearly already a done deal.
I was at least thankful that Marius-kun and Sou-kun ended up on the cover. They sure looked small, though. Previous images were more balanced, but I’ve seen worse on DVDs.
Hmm, I didn’t know anything about the lack of Summary in the first place, much less the complication with the new concert format and then the Johnny’s Film Fiesta. I did hear about the Film Fiesta, but didn’t read much into it.
It sounds like a pretty typical JE public relations mess. It always begins with someone getting a bright idea and trying to mess with a formula that has been working just fine – trying to fix something that isn’t broken. The thing is, upper management really can’t justify their own existence if everything just keeps working fine without them as long as they just keep doing things the same way, so they try to mess around with it. It reminds me of the woman in charge of the Google front page (might be someone else now – it’s been a few years since the interview) – her job over the years has been to say “no” to all the bright ideas people have to make it better. Sometimes I think Johnny’s needs one of those.
As for this being a long time for SZ and ABC-Z to be without a venue, I think that probably supports the idea that we’ll see much more movement in the Fall and Winter, and these releases are clearing the way for that (and appeasing fans, of course).
KAT-TUN fans certainly haven’t been treated well by the agency. Considering the group’s music and edgy image, there’s definite room for the group to be much more popular than it is, but the agency is completely ham-handed in working with that potential. This sort of mistake is simply another sign of that neglect.
I wait eagerly for the day that Dream5 can post a good enough number that we’ll get to see them perform on one of the music shows.
Kis-My-Ft2 are the group in JE with the strongest growth in recent times, so their number is always huge because we wonder how far they can keep up the momentum. Probably pretty long – two of the members are leads in dramas this season, their variety shows are still chugging away (even though I no longer cover KisuHama, it’s doing fine without me), and there’s no shortage of exposure for them. Now, if only the agency would get the message and create some stable junior groups fans can follow for years before they debut, and support properly once they debut. That steady cultivation of a fanbase was what worked for KMF2, and if ABC-Z got the same sort of support, I think we’d see that it has worked for them as well.
Speaking of ABC-Z, I wasn’t able to get a good copy of the first ABChan-Zoo, but managed to get the July 28th episode. A quick scan-through revealed a lot more eating than I would have liked, but I’ll see what I can do with it.
No promo for the Johnny’s World DVD? That doesn’t sound good. I was thinking of reviewing it because it had roughly the Shounen Club cast and I thought that would be an interesting angle to tackle it from. I’ve been having trouble figuring out how to approach reviewing concerts without making the articles unwieldy. But having no promotion is a sign that the agency isn’t very confident in it and doesn’t want to spend the extra money pushing it – not a good sign.
Thanks for commenting!
Ooooh I didn’t know about Google. Thank you for telling me ^^ that was interesting and gives another perspective
ABC-Z has a butai this october that is being heavily promoted ( they finally changed the idea. At first, and Johnny-san also announced it like that, it was suppose to be a story about ABC-Z, but in the official press conference, the name of the butai changed and the story, it’s going to be about Johnny’s : their senpais. I suppose Otokogumi, Matchy, Nishikiori and such ? ABC-Z are still going to do everything in the show, plan everything) and last JE said there is going to be Johnny’s World this fall/winter too, but no official annoucemment, so we shall see.
I have yet to see ep 1 of ABChan -Zoo nor the second, but the 1st one doesn’t seem to have much eating.
Mmmm yes, concert do seem like difficult to review, why not try butais first?Since it’s between a drama and a concert ( I mean a story with an ending + there are songs) and it represents what Johnny-san wanted first to do. I m really not clear today, sorry. I mean that he wanted to bring out a mix of Japan and USA musicals in his shows…
Yeah, Google’s full of people will all sorts of ideas (Google Glass, Android, self-driving cars, etc.), so it actually takes effort to keep the site looking the barebones-but-functional way that’s always worked for the company.
I really wish ABC-Z could get something that wasn’t about their senpais – when you think about it, that’s more of a junior thing to do, and I still feel like pushing back whenever the agency makes ABC-Z look like juniors. Nice to hear that the group is planning everything, though, and maybe with their new variety show the agency will gain some more confidence in them and next time, it really will be a story about ABC-Z.
I’ll give ABChan-Zoo a fair try, and it looks like someone posted a very low quality version of the first episode at the ABC-Z livejournal community. I hope we get a good consistent source for it.
Good point about butais and the fact that the storyline can keep the review tight. The problem there is two-fold: getting copies (which is harder than with concerts) and the fact that I know a whole lot about American musicals. You might say I grew up on the same American musicals that Johnny-san would be familiar with – the ones from the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties – and that leads me to have certain expectations. I’ll think about it. I’m still interested to see about giving Johnny’s World a try – if I can keep it mostly positive, I’ll give it a go.
actually,if I remember correctly, Johnny’s here means their senpai group that called that exact name. they’re the first group that created by JE.
Now that’s interesting – the original Johnnys. Why do I get the feeling we won’t hear the whole story on that one? If that’s the case, though, I’ll withdraw my criticism of the agency giving ABC-Z junior-style stuff – a show about the origins of Johnny’s would be a different cup of tea. Thanks for the info!
As Mika pointed out, it’s about Johnny’s the first group ^^ finally .I m curious about it, especially since ABC-Z got free reign about it…I really wonder how it will turn out. //But to be honest, I m way less excited than for the first announcement haha, though curious about what we may learn, as I don’t know a single thing about ” Johnny’s” .//
I don’t think JE is giving them only Junior related thing…I mean, butais about their senpai. I may be really really wrong,but I do feel like we are getting more senpai -life related shows lately anyway. I m not just speaking of the fact that Playzone this year was only cover songs ( usually there are some originals)
This september, we’re getting also Dream Boys Jet, in which Tama, Miyacchi and Sen-chan are starring, and it’s inspired by Matchy’s life (he is a car racer, and own the Kondo Racing, on parallel to his idol life)…Matchy has a small role in it, it’s Tama who’s getting ” Kondo Masahiko” role. …Also, the musical is going to have lots of Matchy s song.
I wonder how much will be ” true” and how much will be inspired by the previous Dream Boys? They clearly said that it was inspired by Matchy s life anyway, and Matchy also stated that he never thought his life would end up a musical, so we shall see ?
Ah, I get what you mean about musicals…Indeed, especially since Js butais are errr…special, I would say ?Unfortunately, we lost all Dream Boys links after MU shut down(though they may have been reuploded ?), but I know Shounentachi ( Kisumai-ABC-Z) were subbed by Jounetsu, and the September 2011 version with ABC-Z was shared…
I m either too used to JE musicals, or because even though musicals are huge nowadays in France, and pretty much always a national success each time get a new one, it’s much less in our ” culture” than in the US ? I mean, pretty sure the first huge french speaking musical that popularized musicals over here was Notre Dame de Paris, or Romeo and Juliet and they re not that old . Though we did have others such as Starmania, I don’t think they popularize it as much..Anyway. Therefore my expectations might be lower ? Or different ? Because I m first going to see a ” JE” musical, and not a ” musical” ?
haha even if it’s not 100% positive or more negative than positive, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to write it ? I mean, if you end up not liking it, you re probably not the only one. And it’s not like it s a terrible thing to say that you really think that wasn’t good ( As much as I love Kame, I really think the show is not good and I m happy Kame got free from it lol and that we are actually all free from it thanks to this new story)… I mean, you re no hater, and you always try to remain fair and neutral, so if you don’t like a show, and get more negative than positive, as long as you don’t attack it mindlessly like some do, it’s completely okay in my opinion…Especially since you re always open to discussion.
=============== I m not really speaking of Js World in Dome, but in general lol.
Indeed – it’ll be interesting to see what ABC-Z does with the opportunity and the extent to which the personality of the group will be reflected in the performance.
Maybe we’re getting more senpai stuff and I’m just not keeping up. As you already know, I don’t follow the butais well, if at all.
Yeah, I knew Matchy-san was a racer – his English Wikipedia page is almost more about that than about his idol career. Seems to me his life would make for a good movie – the trouble with a stage musical is we don’t get to see any of the races.
When it comes to how much it’ll take from the original Dream Boys, I guess it depends on how much Matchy-san’s life overlaps with the Dream Boys plot 🙂 I would be very surprised if they rewrite everything from scratch, otherwise why even call it Dream Boys? A musical about Matchy-san would probably be able to stand on its own without taking the Dream Boys name.
Ah, thanks for the tip about Shounentachi. I had an old Dream Boys from . . . I think its 2006 . . . but nothing since then.
It’s less a matter of culture and more about timing. I wouldn’t say musicals are a big part of American culture now, but they used to be, and I think around that time they would have been big in France as well. There are two types of American musical – the ones with just singing, and the ones that are a combination of song-and-dance. As far as I’m concerned, the last great American song-and-dance musical was West Side Story, so the style of musical that Johnny-san and I prefer is largely in America’s past. There’s still Broadway, but musicals aren’t embraced as deeply as they used to be, when the songs from musicals used to be #1 hits. There have been attempts to reintroduce Americans to musicals – the movies Moulin Rouge and Chicago – but those didn’t really spark anything. Before the Fifties, though, musicals were pervasive, and the stars of musicals were the biggest stars in Hollywood. What killed the old-style musical? Television. It was actually the TV music programs like the Ed Sullivan Show that did the trick.
It’s unavoidable that there’s a gap between any musicals produced today and the old musicals, and JE isn’t alone on that. The expectations are different because now we have other ways to see people perform music, whereas back before TV, the musicals were the only choice. It’s not easy for me to deal with the difference though. Geez, when it comes to musicals, I feel like the oldest thirty-one year old ever! Here I am writing about what it was like before TV and how people appreciated musicals before my father was even born!
Well, you know that I do write negative reviews from time to time, and I’m not afraid to do so. It’s just that if its the very first review of its type, then I don’t want to have to be a total downer about it. In particular, I don’t want to spend my time griping about the horrible use of English or anything nit-picky like that – that’s really what I’m afraid of when it comes to Johnny’s World. I could easily lapse into that mode and get distracted away from seeing the positive aspects of the show. It’s really about whether I’ll be able to do the review properly. I’ll only know if I can once I actually see the DVD.