New releases for this week were almost non-existant, and with the new year coming up, things are really slow. So I thought I’d do a sort of “year in review” for reference.

Bands/Artists that Debuted this year:
Acid Black Cherry - Janne da Arc’s taking a break, but we get Yasu’s awesome solo project. He has a new single and an album planned, and let me tell you, that album will be mine as soon as I can pre-order it!
alan - Chinese Opera singler extraordinaire! Her debut single was awesome, and her collab with Rin’ was too. Can’t wait for the next release!
ERIKA - Sawajiri Erika had a release for the drama Taiyou no Uta under the name Amane Kaoru in 2006, but officially debuted in 2007. Or something like that.
Ikegami Kei - Still hard to get her stuff, but she has a nice voice.
ONE OK ROCK - Had their major debut, though they’ve been indies since 2006.
Soulja - His awesome duet entitled “Koko ni Iru yo” with Aoiyama Thelma was really good, and his album did pretty well if I recall correctly.

Bands/Artists that Disbanded this year:
BeForU - I never really listened to them, so I can’t really comment on this.
bis - I can comment on this, though… bis is disbanding in Jan 2008 (can I even include them in this list?) and I’m really surprised about it. I felt like their latest releases have been pretty strong; but then I only started listening to them recently, so I guess I can’t really make that distinction well.
Def Tech - Micro now does seperate collabs, but always seems to still be introduced/credited as “Micro of Def Tech”. Hmm…
LOVE - Otsuka Ai’s sugary sweet bunny-thing. Grows on you.
Mi - Cute girl group that I actually sorta liked. They weren’t really bubblegum which was nice.
W - Hello!Pro group that was on hiatus due to Kago Ai’s smoking scandal. Then she was caught “socializing” with older men. This being an especially sore point for H!P fans, I think I’ll stop with the comments here. They wouldn’t have been very nice anyway. *grin*

Other odd happenings in that respect
AAA - the loss of one of the girls hasn’t changed the singing of AAA much. I wonder how it feels to be 2 girls surrounded with 5 guys all the time? *grin*
Antique Cafe - lost their bassist Bou, but gained 2 new members and came out with strong singles in my opinion. I really liked Ryuusei Rocket, and though I’ve always liked Bou, I also like the changes in An Cafe that came about this year as well.
the brilliant green - Came back! YES! 2 new singles this year, and a single collection planned for early next year.
speena - They left avex and had a name change to something I can’t quite remember and don’t feel like looking up.
ZARD - Izumi Sakai, the single and face of ZARD, died in the hospital this year. I really liked her, and I was sad at this news… but really. Do we really need 6 tribute/best of/rememberence/whatever albums? Seems wrong to use her death to sell stuff.
…and both mai and Van Tomoko seem to have dropped off the face of the earth, music wise.

Interesting collabs:
ayaka and KOBUKURO - WOW. The sheer awesomeness of voices for this single still never fails to blow me away.
Ito Yuna and Celine Dion - including this because even though the single isn’t out till January, the PV is out. What an interesting duo… I’d have thought Yuna’d be outclassed by Celine, but she really proved she deserves “diva” status. She held her own, and then some!
The Gospellers and Howie D - Definitely Backstreet Boys-esqe, but I’m really enjoying this theme of Asian + Western artists. I think it is awesome that Western artists are at least attempting to sing in Japanese! XD
Koda Kumi and Tohoshinki (DBSK) - reaffirmed I really don’t like Tohoshinki, but that Koda can make anyone look good. Did those guys sound goofy in the talking part, or what! *dodges rotten fruit thrown by fangirls*
KOH+ (Shibasaki Kou and Fukuyama Masaharu) - Liiiiiked it!
MONKEY MAJIK - did a lot of collabs this year, everyone of them good. Except maybe that last with CHEMISTRY… I honestly couldn’t tell it was a collab.

I’m sure I’ve missed some, but those were the main things for me. Feel free to add on in comments, and any other news you remember being big from the year!