Cafe Buono!

Buono!'s official site now has a title for their upcoming album- Cafe Buono!.
The album will be released on February 20th in two different versions, a CD-only and a CD+DVD. According to the website, the DVD will include:
-Kokoro no Tamago (dance version)
-Renai Rider (dance version)
-jacket shoot making of
-something promoting Shugo Chara

I'm really looking forward to this, especially the Kokoro no Tamago video. I really wanted it to have a PV when their debut single was first released, but sadly only Honto no Jibun was released on the LE DVD/Single V.
Actually, the limited edition of this album is sitting in my Yesasia cart right now, but since I just made an order last week I have to wait a bit longer before I can order more stuff. >_<

Honto no Jibun US release, again...

Ok, I talked with my friend, she looked at the Newtype article and says that it doesn't mention anything about a US release. There's an article (apparently it calls them "lovely ladies", haha) and a little box showing 'their latest single' according to Sarah (I'm assuming she's talking about Honto no Jibun), but it only says "Now available in Japan" or something along those lines.
I'm going to grab the issue this weekend at the book store (along with the February Shoujo Beat- it's a j-music special issue) just to make sure, but until then, or until an official source pops up stating that it really is going to be released in the US, I'm calling this just a RUMOR. (Damn.)

This isn't the first time I've seen this type of info pop up, there was this one guy that repeatedly added "info" about the supposed "release of the Morning Musume 10th Anniversary album into the US" onto the ThePPN Wiki article. Of course, that ended up being false (sadly)...


While I am considering this a rumor at this point, I wouldn't totally give up quite yet. You never know...

Honto no Jibun US release...maybe.

Honto no Jibun US Release

So, according to Hello! C-ute (someone added this info to ThePPN Wiki, which is where I first heard about this, then I spent about a half-hour searching online for more info), Honto no Jibun is being released in the US in February.
BUT.
I'm really skeptical about this. Apparently it's to promote the US release of the Shugo Chara anime. However...I can't find ANY INFORMATION AT ALL about Shugo Chara even being licensed in the first place. Even if it was licensed now, the anime wouldn't air for a while- so why would the theme song be released in February?
The only thing I can find that says ANYTHING about the anime being in the US is the English Wikipedia page, which categorizes the Shugo Chara article as "Cartoon Network" and "2008 Television Debuts", but it doesn't have any info about the actual licensing. The Cartoon Network site never mentions it, and a google search doesn't turn up an English official site or anything.
Also, I can't find anything official mentioning a US release of Honto no Jibun...

SO, is this all a total rumor? I want this to be true, haha. XD Except maybe the actual licensing of the anime, that can wait until it finishes in Japan, cause otherwise I'm worried the sub group will drop the series. D:


EDIT: I heard that this was apparently announced in this month's issue of Newtype USA, and I checked on the Newtype website and they do have a Buono article in the music section of the issue! I don't have access to the issue, there's no way I can get to a bookstore until the weekend (damn boarding school), BUT I'm calling up my friend who bought the issue when we went to Tokyo Kid last weekend. Hopefully she'll be home, I'll get her to check for me~

[scans] Japanese fashion magazine (or something) KERA vol. 112 (Nov. 2007)

I went to Tokyo Kid yesterday with a $150 gift certificate, and along with some manga and candy, I picked up a Japanese magazine they were selling. Typically they don't have any Japanese magazines, so I had no idea what this actually was, but Kamiki Aya was on the cover and there was a list of names on the right side of the cover which included Buono!- so I assumed it was a j-pop magazine and immediately bought it.
(Thinking back, if I had bothered to try and read the other stuff on the cover, I probably would have realized that this was like a fashion magazine instead. But then I probably would have bought it anyway because of Buono!, lol. xD)
So yeah, it's a fashion magazine. It's from November, I have no idea why it was still out there, but w/e. xD
I actually had a lot of fun looking through it even though I don't really care about fashion and stuff. Some of it was kinda crazy and weird, like who the hell would ACTUALLY wear some of this stuff. =P
So anyway, I decided to go through and scan a couple of pages- just the ones with people that I've actually heard of, haha. xD Basically, that means Kamiki Aya (who's on the cover), Buono!, and Shirota Yuu, who I didn't even notice was in the magazine at first (I totally don't know the kanji for his name so I didn't see it on the cover or ToC) but then I was flipping through and he was just like THERE. xD

So, yeah, here are the scans. Sorry for the not-so-good quality of some of them. I seriously don't know what's up with my scanner.











...I used to totally dislike Shirota Yuu. I think it's cause my very first introduction to Tenimyu (well, technically the live-action movie) was a picture of him playing Tezuka and of course I had the initial "EW IT LOOKS SO WEIRD IN LIVE-ACTION DDD:" reaction. And I still think he looks weird and nerdy as Tezuka. But after seeing pictures of him -not- playing Tezuka, he's not that bad. xD

2008 predictions

Haha, I wrote a list out like two weeks ago, but forgot to post it here. Oops.
Thankfully, I remembered it now, otherwise it would have been too late! xD
Some of these are predictions, some are more wishful thinking on my part...xD;

2008 Predictions
-Morning Musume will release 3 or 4 singles and their 9th album. Their 9th album has gotta be coming up soon, they've already released three singles due to be on it, and there's a fourth being released in March.
-Morning Musume 9th gen auditions. I know the 8th gen hasn't been around for that long, but...
-Takahashi Ai graduates, becomes a solo artist. I'm kinda neutral on Takitty, I don't love her but I don't hate her either. I could totally see her graduating to become a solo artist at some point...she has a good voice, and because of that, she gets so many solos in Momusu. I want the others to get lots of lines too...xD
-Hello! Project Kids become uber popular, get a #1 single. I keep hearing people say that the Kids have taken over Hello! Project...I think it's just a matter of time before some H!P Kids group, whether Berryz, C-ute, or Buono, gets a #1 single.
-One of the Berryz gets a boyfriend and is kicked out of Berryz. Haha, I kinda want to see this happen...8D I barely even know their names (I'm learning! I swear I am!) so if one of them got kicked out, I wouldn't really care all thaaat much...
-Yaguchi Mari starts a solo career. Or at least does something, please! She's my favorite ex-Momusu, and I really want her to sing again.
-Yasuda Kei does nothing. Still. Damn.
-Goto Maki signs with a new record label and releases first single. Please? I really loved Goto...
-GAM comes back. Even for just one single. I was hoping that because of GAM, Miki would still have something to do even after she left Momusu, but now GAM's pretty inactive...
-As for the new units...Ongaku Gatas is permanent, and continues to release singles. Athena & Robikerottsu releases maybe another single after their upcoming one, then either actually breaks up or just fades into inactivity. Buono! keeps going until Shugo Chara ends, singing all the opening/ending themes, then moves onto another anime.


And just a couple of quick non-j-pop predictions...
-Prince of Tennis ends. This is the one prediction that I'd hate to come true the most. However, the end of PoT is obviously happening soon- it's so close, they're on singles 1, the very last match of the final round of the National Tournament. The author once said that he'd like to go through Ryoma's second and third years at Seigaku. I think at one point this would have worked- when Prince of Tennis was really really popular. However, now it's not, and so I think that he's just going to end it where it is rather than go on with the chance of cancellation.
-Mx0 gets an anime. PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE
-Sket Dance survives in Jump. YESS

Upcoming releases

Ok, so there's lots of stuff coming out either in the next two weeks or around the beginning of 2008, so...

Let's start with Hello! Project:
-On January 16th, the duet between Abe Natsumi and Yajima Maimi, 16sai no Koi Nante, is being released. I just listened to a preview of it, and I don't think it's too bad. Probably not something that I'll listen to a lot, but it's not that bad either. And, btw, I don't really know who Yajima Maimi is. I swear I've gone over the names and faces of the Kids like 5 times since I started this blog. I have a horrible memory, I guess. ;-;
-Buono!, the group formed with three H!P Kids that sung the opening and ending for the anime Shugo Chara!, is releasing their second single and their first album in February- the 6th and the 20th, respectively. I believe their second single, Renai Rider, is going to be the new ending theme for Shugo Chara!, it's supposed to start airing soon so I'll be able to check it out before the single comes out. xD As for their album, I really thought they weren't going to be a permanent group, but I think an album usually signifies that they'll be around for at least a little while longer.
-Ongaku Gatas also has their first album coming out, 1st GOODSAL, on February 6th. I loved both of their singles, so I'll definitely have to order this one. I'm glad that they're getting an album, hopefully this means that they're a permanent group.
-Athena & Robikerottsu is releasing a second single on February 14th, Seishun LOVE Launch. I hope it's as catchy as their first. xD I can't wait for more Risa and Aika...and those two Kids that I can't even remember their names. ;-; God I suck.
-According to wiki.theppn.org (I haven't seen anything about these anywhere else), C-ute and v-u-den are getting new singles on February 27th. Both are still untitled. I probably won't end up buying either of these, sadly...;-; There's too much stuff out there, and I have too little money...
-And Berryz Koubou is apparently releasing a new single called Jingisukan on March 12th.

And on the other side of my blog, the other fandom I love...upcoming Prince of Tennis releases:
-This Saturday, at Jump Festa, three new Prince of Tennis CDs are being released. The first two are for the Prince of Tennis Musical- two new Best Actor's Series CDs, #9 and #10 in the series. 9 features Sanada and Yukimura. 10 is a special Extra Seigaku 3rd Cast Memorial CD- a memorial for the third cast of the Seigaku regulars, who graduated (I feel like I'm talking about Hello! Project now. =P) after this summer's Absolute King Rikkai feat. Rokkaku ~Second Service~ musical. The fourth cast debuted in the Progressive Match Higa feat. Rikkai musical, which started 8 days ago on December 12th. (sadly, I have yet to see photosets of the new Seigaku cast. I really really really need to see what the new cast looks like in character!)
The third CD being released at Jump Festa 2008 is a new Megane's single, their fourth. Originally it was just going to be called "Odorimasen ka?", meaning something like "Won't you dance?", but apparently they had to keep the tradition of having "Megane's" in the song title (their previous singles have been "Go Go Megane's", "Kira Kira Megane's", and "Manatsu no Megane's"), so they renamed it "Odorimasen ka? Megane's". =P According to the description on the official page, it has something to do with the National Tournament Finals OVA (which, by the way, is the LAST OVA SERIES and therefore THE LAST WE'LL SEE OF PRINCE OF TENNIS T_____T unless the manga keeps going after the Nationals, but that's pretty unlikely) and the amazing 100 song marathon that's taking place early 2008. It also says that apparently this song is a high tempo SALSA song. Oh dear lord. @_@
Oh, and they released the cover for it too: here. Ohhh wow, PoT cosplay's fun, but...@_____@ WHAT THE HELL
"Won't you also dance with these three people?" @_@
-After those three, looks like there's nothing else until February 14th (which is kinda strange cause there's been so much released lately, what with the Best of Rival Players for Shitenhouji and random other character songs). On 02.14, Kai Yuujirou, Higa Chuu's vice-captain (I think), is releasing his version of Valentine Kiss. It's the 5th year of this tradition, and he's the 6th person to sing it- so far we've had Atobe, Oshitari, Sanada, Shishido, and Ooishi.
-And of course, the massive rerelease thing on February 27th. @____@

-not music related, I know, but the 3rd and final volume of the Prince of Tennis National Tournament Semifinal OVA series is being released January 25th. After that, which wraps up the match against Shitenhouji (this DVD encompasses Tezuka vs Chitose in Doubles 1 (er...well Inui and Zaizen are there too, but they decided to just stand at the side so it's basically a single match. hey, playing singles in a doubles match makes more sense than Eiji playing doubles in a singles match. =P), and Ryoma vs Touyama Kintarou in that one-point match since the official match didn't make it to singles 1), the first volume of the National Tournament Finals OVA series is being released on March 16th. During the finals, Seigaku plays Rikkai for the second time, but this time for the National title rather than the Kantou Tournament title. I'm not sure what this DVD will have- the first DVD of both the original National Tournament OVA series and the Semifinal OVA series only had one episode, which was a prequel to the actual match. So maybe this DVD will have the special Yakiniku no Oujisama / Prince of BBQ story that was originally between the semifinals and the finals in the original manga? It was a 4 chapter thing that started off as a party for winning the semifinals but ended up as a 5-school yakiniku eating contest. =P (everyone lost, btw, and they set the yakiniku place on fire. xD) I hope we get to see it animated. It's not really a prequel-thing like the other first episodes, but since Seigaku's played Rikkai before, there was no introduction set of chapters or anything in the manga...unless they take the scenes of Rikkai vs that exchange student team (they were originally mixed in with the one-point match between Ryouma and Touyama) and make it into it's own episode.

Buono!'s first album!

And here I thought Buono! would end up a one-shot group like so many others in H!P history. I guess the Kids are really starting to take over Hello! Project...xD;; I definitely didn't think this would be a permanent group, but I'm really happy. I absolutely loved their first single, so I hope their upcoming second single and first album are just as great.
I wonder if their new music will also be tied in to Shugo Chara? Haha, even though I usually hate shoujo manga/anime and almost all I read is Jump manga (with some other shounen manga from other magazines, but mostly Jump), I love Shugo Chara. xD

Their album is set to come out February 20th...yet another thing I have to pre-order. xD I have an order set to go on Yesasia that I was going to get with my birthday money, but maybe I have to cut it down a bit to save enough money to get some early 2008 releases. xD

So I ordered new music today.

Yeah...
Buono! - Honto no Jibun (limited edition)
byTachikiritai - Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy! (limited release)
Gyaruru - Boom Boom Meccha Maccho! (limited edition)
Morning Musume - 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu Morning Musume Mini (limited edition)
Morning Musume - ALL SINGLES COMPLETE ~10th Anniversary~ (limited edition)
Morning Musume - Eizou The Morning Musume 4 ~Single M Clips~
Ongaku Gatas - Nari Hajimeta Koi no Bell (limited edition)
Prince of Tennis 2008 calendar

I think this is the first time in a while that I've bought more general j-pop than PoT music...anyway, with this I'm finally caught up with Morning Musume's CD releases, so now I have to start heading back and collecting everything before Chokkan 2...
Aaand I actually bought a Morning Musume DVD! YAAAAYYYYYYY I downloaded this DVD a while ago, and I liked it a lot~ it's all their PVs from THE Manpower!!! to Kanashimi Twilight. Plus, it's the only place to find their PV for Koi wa Hassou Do The Hustle!...
Then there's Gyaruru's single- it's the limited edition, so it comes with the DVD. I heard that the DVD of this is basically like an H!P Single V DVD, so I'm looking forward to it~
I'm not exactly sure what the DVDs for Nari Hajimeta Koi no Bell and Honto no Jibun have, but whatever~
Lol, then there's Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy!. I wasn't actually planning on buying this, but when the opening video came out the other day, I ended up listening to it a lot and getting addicted. xD;;;;; It's too catchy...though I STILL don't like it as much as Flower or Kakaeta Kiseki, it's definitely good. So that resulted in me pre-ordering the single...
And the calendar, of course. Someone posted the images on the tenipuri LJ community, and it looked amusing. xD So...yeah, I bought it.
I was tempted to choose the split shipment option, but it was $10 extra, so...guess I just have to wait until the end of October for this to ship out (since Honto no Jibun and Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy aren't being released until the 31st).


On a totally unrelated note, Ao to Bin to Kan's single Gather FINALLY SHIPPED! I ordered that over a month ago from one of those places through Amazon. Believe me, I'm not ordering from that site again...I almost forgot about it, but I got an e-mail a day or so ago telling me that it shipped. YAAAAYYYYY]

And on another totally unrelated note, 6 more PoT character CDs have been announced. From the looks of things, it's the Shitenhouji Best of Rival Players set. Dunno how they're gonna get 6 CDs...Shiraishi definitely gets one, same with Chitose and the freshman kid. Then I bet there's gonna be one for Koharu/Yuuji...maybe Ishida Gin? And that's only 5...maybe Oshitari's cousin, Oshitari Kenya? Not like he plays an important role in the story at all, but...well, whatever. We'll see when it gets closer to the release dates- two are coming out on November 21st, two on the 28th (Eiji's birthday btw, yaaay), and then two are coming out the Wednesday after that (too lazy to look up the date).

New H!P unit, 'Buono'

I'm heading off to camp tomorrow, and while I'm frantically rushing around and trying to add as much crap to my iPod from my desktop computer as I can (it's not an outdoors camp, and I'm bringing my laptop, but my backlog of music I need to add to my iPod is all on my desktop), and searching for Prince of Tennis chapter 351 (which is FINALLY OUT this week, thank god), I checked my Google Reader to find a couple new entries...
So there's a new H!P Kids unit, consisting of Miyabi and Momoko from Berryz and Airi from C-ute.
Ok, I'll admit it- the Kids have never been my strong point in Hello! Project. I can name every single other current member of H!P, and many past members, and I can name all the groups and which members are in what...EXCEPT Berryz and C-ute. (and the Eggs, but they don't do much of anything, so whatever) I think I know a few names, but I can't put names to faces or anything...I listen to their music, but I don't really know anything about them, lolz. xD
So honestly, I have no idea who these three girls are. *sigh*
And the name. "Buono". Lolz, what? Wtf does that mean? xDD

Rawr, I dunno. I'll wait for more information~