Weekly Oricon Rankings (Ending 08-03)

The top single for the past week was SKE48’s “Bukiyou Taiyou” with 324,076 copies sold. This continues a trend of declining first week sales for them which began with their all-time best single, “Choco no Dorei”, which sold 538k in its first week early in 2013. This single is now below levels that the group hasn’t seen since 2011, when they first managed to get the top spot on the singles chart.

At #2 was ONE OK ROCK’s “Mighty Long Fall/Decision”, which saw 50,670 in sales.

Momoiro Clover Z was right behind with their “Moon Pride”, the theme song to the new version of Sailor Moon, which sold 50,340. I was somewhat surprised that it didn’t do better, considering the tie-in to a much-anticipated anime and previous single in the 60-70k range.

“Black Butterfly/Kaze ni Fukarete” from Juice=Juice was at #4, selling 37,008.

Taking #5 in its second week, “Ti-Ti-Ti-Terette Teretititi ~Dare no Ketsu” from Busaiku sold a very impressive 27,824 to get above the gold threshold, now with a total of 105,205. The sales profile for Busaiku is so far not like any other idol group that I’ve seen – we’re talking about second week sales approximately 30% of first week sales compared to 9% for Johnny’s groups in general and 3% for AKB groups.

Nogizaka46’s “Natsu no Free & Easy” took #12 by selling 12,888, bringing its four-week total to 468,366.

In its second week, “NEW HORIZON” from EXILE sold 10,701 at #14 to push its total to 158,273.

Weekly Oricon Rankings (Ending 07-27)

The top single for the past week was “NEW HORIZON” from EXILE, which sold a respectable 147,572 copies.

Taking the second spot was the second single from Busaiku – “Ti-Ti-Ti-Terette Teretititi ~Dare no Ketsu” (or something like that) – which sold 77,381.

Nogizaka46’s “Natsu no Free & Easy” got #4 in its third week, adding 16,155 copies sold to bring its total to 455,478.

Right behind was SMAP’s “Top of the World/Amazing Discovery” with 14,339 sold in week two, now with a total of 137,189.

“Cling Cling” from Perfume took #14, selling 7,055 to push its two-week total to 80,480.

King Cream Soda’s “Geragerapo no Uta” was at #22 and now has 84,733 copies sold after thirteen weeks.

Taking #26 in its third week was “KiRa-KiRa Sensation!/Happy maker!” from μ’s, which managed 3,253 in sales to get its total to 57,772.

Rounding out the singles was Kanjani8’s “Omoidama” at #30, with a new four-week total of 189,405 copies sold.

The album side continues to have a lot of substance to it. At the top this week was Shoujo Jidai’s “THE BEST”, which saw 74,921 copies sold.

At #2 was Ketsumeishi’s “KETSUNOPOLIS 9”, with 50,225 in sales.

The Frozen soundtrack popped back up to #4, partly because some of the new albums last week lost ground this time. It added 16,008 to its substantial total to breach the 900k mark. Its twenty-four week total is now at 900,315.

Oda Kazumasa-san’s “Oda Hiyori” was at #5 in its fourth week, selling 11,127 to bring its total to 133,830.

Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi-san was once again right behind Oda-san, and his “All Time Best 2014” sold 9,948 for a four-week total of 113,226.

“HEART” from TOKIO got #8, and saw a strong second week with 9,178 copies sold. Its fresh total id 50,334.

Finally, taking #9 in week five was Chris Hart’s “Heart Song II”, which added 8,576, bringing its total to 93,771. There’s a chance it’ll break gold next week.

Weekly Oricon Rankings (Ending 07-13)

Sorry about not posting the last couple of days – I’m currently caught up in a project that is preventing me from watching stuff to review. Still have the time to do the Oricon update, though, so here we go:

The top single for the past week was Nogizaka46’s “Natsu no Free & Easy”, which sold 421,622 copies. That’s a drop from 457,837 for “Kizuitara Kataomoi”, but that was a huge jump on all their other singles, so this number is nothing to sneeze at.

At #2 was “E.G. Anthem -We Are Venus-” from E-girls, selling 49,207 copies.

There’s no end to the singles from μ’s, and they keep managing to pass my threshold. The new release this week was “KiRa-KiRa Sensaion!/Happy maker!”, which took #3 by selling 49,099. However, there was also “Love wing bell/Dancing stars on me!” at #18, which added 2,778 in its fifth week to bring its total to 59,986. But that’s not all – “Yume no Tobira” got #23, and now has a seven-week total of 56,907. That’s three singles in seven weeks.

Taking #4 was GLAY’s “BLEEZE”, which sold 45,078.

Kanjani8’s “Omoidama” was at #7 in its second week, selling 12,306 to bring its total to 181,172.

Also in its second week, AAA’s “Wake up!” did well, taking #9 by selling 6,325 copies, boosting its total to 47,033.

“R.Y.U.S.E.I.” from Sandaime J Soul Brothers found itself at #13 this week, and it now has a three-week total of 176,285.

King Cream Soda really doesn’t want to leave the top 30. In its eleventh week, the group’s “Geragerapo no Uta” climbed from #16 to #14, selling 3,863 to push its total to 76,984.

Weekly Oricon Rankings (Ending 07-06)

The top single for the past week was Kanjani8’s “Omoidama”, which saw 168,866 copies sold. That seems shockingly low for the group, as I normally expect to see a 2- handle on their numbers. This didn’t happen when “Ai Deshita” closely preceded the “ER” release, so I have no idea what’s going on this time.

INFINITE’s “Last Romeo ~Kimi ga Ireba ii~” took second place with 47,262 sold.

At #3 was “Wake up!” from AAA, which sold 40,708 copies.

“Kimi ni Deaeta kara” from miwa was in at #4, selling 25,025.

Last week’s top single took #6 this week. Sandaime J Soul Brothers’ “R.Y.U.S.E.I.” sold an additional 9,402 copies to boost its two-week total to 171,576.

Fukuda Kouhei-san’s “Tougegoe” shot up to #10 from #28 in its fourteenth week, selling 3,855 to bring its total to 71,790. As expected, it’s not going to leave the top 30 without a fight or another Fukuda Kouhei single to take its place.

That pop was nothing compared to the one for NMB48’s “Takane no Ringo”, which went from #112 to #11 in its fifteenth week, selling 3,820 to reach 448,262 copies sold in total.

Jin’s “daze/days” was at #12 with 3,808 copies sold and a three-week total of 52,305.

Taking #16 in its tenth week, “Geragerapo no Uta” from King Cream Soda now boasts a total of 73,121.

After four weeks, Hoshino Gen-san’s “Crazy Crazy/Sakura no Mori” found itself at #23 with a running total of 49,236.

UVERworld took #25 as “Nanoka-me no Ketsui” sold an additional 2,447 in week three and reached a total of 58,315 copies sold.

Upcoming J-Pop Releases – July 2014

I accidentally missed the June list – that’s the trouble with having a monthly post when everything else is weekly. Anyway, I’ve compiled the list for July, and it looks like activity is picking up into the summer. July 2nd in particular seems like a popular day for album releases.

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 or at least recognize). I know I must have missed important ones, so 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).

July 2nd

Kis-My-Ft2 – Kis-My-Journey (album)

Kanjani8 – Omoidama

UVERworld – O CHOIR (album)

Hamasaki Ayumi – Colours (album)

AAA – Wake Up

Itano Tomomi – SxWxAxG (album)

Babyraids – Jiko Shokai (album)

miwa – Kimi ni Deaetakara

Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi – All Time Best 2014 (album)