SHOWTA. - Haru na no ni
Info: Official // wiki.theppn
Support: Global Yesasia // US Yesasia

01. Haru na no ni 02. Samidare no Uta 03. Haru na no ni (Instrumental)

Awww, I like SHOWTA. That’s a guy, btw. He has a very high, clear voice (think Keita of w-inds. before he hit puberty), and these songs are gentle and wintery feeling. Very nice single! We should be seeing an album from his shortly…

Heart’s Grow - Kasanaru Kage
Info: Official // wiki.theppn
Support: Global Yesasia // US Yesasia

01.Kasanaru Kage 02. SORA IRO 03. YELL 04. Kasanaru Kage (Instrumental)

Fun single, very upbeat and happy! I think SORA IRO is a bit repetitous, but YELL is a cool song. Pretty strong single, overall!

Kalafina - obvious
Info: Official
Support: YesAsia US // YesAsia Global

01. oblivious 02. Kimi ga Hikari ni Kaeteiku 03. Kizuato

WHOA. New project of Kajiura Yuki, who brought us the nifty sounding songs of various animes such as .hack//SIGN, plus the composition-collab FictionJunction series. This single is AWESOME. She has such a beautiful tone of voice, and has so much control over it as well, and couple that with the haunting melody of obvious plus two very solid extra songs makes this single the next on my “buy” list! Looking forward to future releases from her, as well!

Those three singles were my favorites, but other notables include ZARD’s fan-picked best album, Amano Tsukiko’s new indies-release HEAVEN’S GATE, and THE BACK HORN’s new BEST album. Fun week! Next week, the crowning jewel seems to be Koda’s new album, and her single this week was solid, but I guess we shall see. Till next time!

Which releases did you guys like this week? Looking forward to anything for next?

Japan has always been an earthquake-prone country (1995 Kobe earthquake, remember?). This is due to the fact that Japan is located dab smack in the middle of where some oceanic and continental plates meet. In an effort to prevent the massive death toll during the Kobe earthquake (5,500 people were killed), the government is developing an earthquake warning signal sent to the people via SMS. The technology will be operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The system measures the primary waves, the preliminary weak yet fast moving waves of an impending quake and predicts the route and strength of the S-waves, the secondary slower yet more destructive waves. The location and strength of the S-waves will then be sent to people via the joint efforts of Japan’s three largest mobile phone networks. As of current, the developers project that those nearer the epicenter might not receive an SMS at all due to the nature of the current algorithm. But according to sources, “researchers agree that the possibility of any warning is better than none.”

UPDATE: Everyone who’s interested in joining us, please send me a sample writing along with your email. A link to your blog, to your FFN profile, fan fics, stories, whatever would do.

Hi Everyone!

As you may have noticed, Nihon Watch has currently been a bit inactive. Unfortunately, many of the bloggers are currently beleaguered with real life issues (including yours truly) and have to take an indefinite hiatus. As such, we are looking for people to join our team. We’re looking for bloggers on the following topics:
Read the rest of this entry »

Title : Romeo x Juliet
Genre : drama, fantasy, romance
Production : Studio GONZO
Episodes : 24
Vintage : 2007

‘Romeo and Juliet’ is my favorite from all the Shakespearean stories. I was surprised to see that it was created into an anime and had my doubts whether it would be good or not. I must admit that I was amazed by the series, although everything happens in an alternative universe, everything is done extremely well, from graphics to music and voice characters.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good week of releases this week! I’ve already mentioned Ito Yuna and Celine Dion’s amazing collaboration, so I’d like to mention a few other releases that I enjoyed:

01. Yume no Kajitsu 02. Kokoro no Kagi 03. Okubyou na Lion 04. TELL ME THE TRUTH 05. Futashika na Mono 06. Moshimo Hitotsu dake Negai ga Kanau Kara 07. Uzu 08. Darling 09. Tenohira 10. Yasashii Uta 11. Hoshi ni Negai wo

Yorico’s third album, Negau, is a mellow, relaxing album typical of her style and highlighting her beautiful vocals. Many of these songs, including Kokoro no Kagi, were released as digital singles earlier, so we have heard pieces of this album. But I have to say, I enjoyed these songs within the context of the album as a whole a lot more than I did as individual singles. The songs were a bit boring by themselves, but they don’t make a boring album; indeed, they all add into a mellowing, calming experience together.

01. Fuyu no Maboroshi 02. Koi Ichiya

Acid Black Chery, vocalist of which is from Janne Da Arc, has released their awesome 4th single as a prelude to their album coming on in February (whose exited for that? I am! Yes!) Fuyu no Maboroshi… I can’t really pinpoint what I like about it. The sound effects are cool, instruments solid, lyrics really good, and the PV trippy. What’s not the like? XD;

People may be expecting a review of UVERworld’s new album, but I’ll have to disappoint. I didn’t like it at first listen (I never seem to like their albums, only singles…), but I’m going to listen a few more times and give it a chance. It doesn’t hit the disappointment that was Timeless, but we’ll see if it is even at BUGRIGHT’s level.

Feel free to add your 2 cents. What releases did you particularly like this week?

The years 2006 and 2007 are the peaks of Boys Love or yaoi films and movies. About a dozen boys love- themed works have been released within the two year-span and more are on the way. In my opinion, this is the only time I have seen BL films to be released at such a fast rate, successful or not.

It might not be a coincidence that most of the BL dramas, if not all of them, released in the previous two years featured Tenimyu actors. After all, the stage adaptation of Prince of Tennis is a mine of ikemen, or gorgeous young men, and most of them are just starting their careers and waiting for a big break to the big screen or television. Aside from their looks, they are also talented in singing, dancing, and acting, making them versatile targets for the industry that had always been bent on keeping the female part of the fandom happy: Boys Love.

If casting Tenimyu actors in BL is a tradition or a coincidence, we may never know. But really, who wants to find out the answer when we’re all busy watching?

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Apologies for the amazingly late post for this…er… last week! I’ll be recommending a single that is technically coming out the 16th, but has already been leaked, so we get an early taste of this awesome single!

An odd coupling at first, these two powerhouse diva’s work amazingly well together. Their voices blend in this single for an inspiring song that might be a bit familiar to those fans who also own Celine’s most recent album. Rumor has it that after hearing Yuna’s rendition of My Heart Will Go On on the album Tribute To Celine Dion, she picked Yuna to do a duet with over all the other collaborators for the album.

When first hearing of this single, I was a bit afraid Celine would overpower Yuna and outclass her a bit. After seeing the PV, I’m happy to say that my fears were misplaced. Yuna holds her own; indeed, I’d say she is featured even more than Celine is! Of course it is her single afterall… but even in the parts they sing together, Yuna’s beautiful voice shines through.

The single consists of four versions of the same song: the original, a “U.S.A version”, a version with Yuna singing the entire thing herself, and an instrumental. Although the version with Yuna by herself is beautiful, I tend to prefer when Celine sings as well, as I enjoy hearing the blend of two voices I love! The U.S.A version I would have assumed would be completely in English, but the lyrics are the same. It is the background music that is different, using just the more acoustic-sounding guitars and less of the little electronic additions that are in the original. Honestly though, they don’t sound all that different. I’d have been interested in an all-English version as a duet, but perhaps that was deemed too much like Celine’s solo original.

Additional Links:
Single information from wiki.theppn
Youtube link to the PV
Buy!: CDJapan // Yesasia
Lyrics from JPopAsia

So, what did you guys think? (BTW, would you prefer this style of posting/reviewing, or that of a big list and brief reccs?)

Happy New Year, everyone! I’m back with an (admittedly) small set of recommendations for the first release session of the new year, simply because there were only 4 of them! And honestly, I’m surprised at that… who bothers to release on the same week as Ayumi Hamasaki’s album? Precisely.

AKB48 - album - “SET LIST ~Greatest Songs 2006-2007~”
Hamasaki Ayumi - album - “GUILTY”
Kuraki Mai - album - “ONE LIFE”
w-inds. - album - “w-inds. Single Collection “Best Eleven”"

So I’ll just go through these one-by-one then! Read the rest of this entry »

Lucky number 7 has come and gone, and the best way to say goodbye to the old and hello to the new is to do one last recollection.

Most Played-Out Song of 2007

Sure, there was plenty on the pop side (”Get Freaky!”) and even in enka (”Sen no Kaze ni Natte” anyone?), but there was one particular song that captured the ears and hearts of many, while others screamed “AGAIN!?” everytime it came on. I was the latter.

SoulJa - Koko ni Iru yo (feat. Aoyama Thelma)

Okay, so maybe it was bearable the first hundred times, but the catchy chorus sung by Aoyama Thelma slowly became more and more annoying as time went on, and SoulJa’s whisper-rapping didn’t help. But then Thelma released “Soba ni Iru ne” which just happened to feature SoulJa and have the same hook! Are you kidding me?

Best Holiday Song of 2007

Fresh new Japanese holiday songs were as scarce as a good-tasting fruit cake this year, but we still had a couple good ones. Among the many cover albums that came out this holiday season, Full of Harmony and Exile’s winter songs stood out the most, but since I have to pick one, it’s gotta be Exile.

Exile - I Believe

“Ima sugu ni dakishimete…” If that line didn’t get stuck in your head after hearing Exile’s R&B winter song, then I don’t know what will. “I Believe” had just enough winter and season references to count as a song for the holidays, but was centered more around love than anything else, making it suitable for the winter months after Christmas as well.

Breakthrough Artist of 2007

Many artists made their stake in the Japanese Urban music industry in 2007, but few did it like this woman. As much as I’d love to give this title to Foxxi MisQ, nobody did it like Thelma.

Aoyama Thelma

She went from being totally unknown to being one of R&B’s biggest names without even releasing an album. Starting with her collaboration with DS455, “Summer Paradise,” her catchy hooks and beautiful voice pushed just about any song with her in it to the top. After finally releasing her first single, “One Way,” she appeared on SoulJa’s “Koko ni Iru yo,” and then released her own re-hash of it, “Soba ni Iru ne.”

Comeback Artist of 2007

On the pop side, it’d be hard to not give this title to the Brilliant Green, but as far as urban music goes, ISSA was definitely in the running with his single “Chosen Soldier,” but after a three year lull, Japan’s Wu-Tang came back with a new album.

Nitro Microphone Underground

2007 was NMU’s year. A new album, entitled “Special Force,” was released in November, along with their own Nike Air Force Ones, and one of the best selling Hip-Hop DVDs of the year.
Hottest R&B Album of 2007

This is totally my opinion, but I think it’s hard to disagree with. Other R&B singers came out with good albums this year, including Juju, Kato Miliyah, and May J, but this girl’s great singles “Not Over” and ‘Next Door” were just precursors to the awesome album that she released in November.

Aria - The Jukebox

Combine a beautiful voice with solid production and almost as many collaborations as an M-Flo album, and you’ve got The Jukebox.
Hottest Hip-Hop/Rap Album of 2007

Well, there were a ton of awesome albums to choose from, including Dabo’s “Baby Mario World Vol.1,” Zeebra’s “World of Music,” NMU’s “Special Force,” and Kreva’s “Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu,” but none achieved the level of Hip-Hop greatness that this album did, in my opinion.

Big-O and DJ Watarai - Straight to Next Door

DJ Watarai and Big-O on every single track? It was clear that the album was going to be hot, and it received more hype and publicity than I have seen for a Hip-Hop album in a while. Throw in a couple NMU members, some other really good but not well known Japanese MCs, and the always enjoyable Lupe Fiasco, and you’ve got an album full of listening pleasure.

Male Artist that Owned 2007

I didn’t want to call it “the best” male artist of 2007, because that’s all about opinion, but there’s no denying this guy was in charge of the charts all year long.

Kreva

That’s right. His crossover R&B/Hip-Hop/Pop vibe took the oricon charts by storm this year, with a ton of singles that broke through the top 50 and a couple that claimed spots in the top 10. With his first mix album in March and his third full solo album in September, Kreva was on fire all year long.

Female Artist that Owned 2007

This woman went from topping the charts with her candy pop to doing the same thing with her stylish “Hip-Pop,” of which she is definitely the queen. In almost every store I walked into while in Tokyo, they were playing either Koda Kumi, or this girl’s new album. Who else could it be?

Amuro Namie

“Baby Don’t Cry,” “Can’t Sleep, Can’t Eat, I’m Sick,” “Funky Town,” and “Hide & Seek” claimed top spots on the charts all year long, while other tracks from her new album, “PLAY,” were used all over the place, including in the Japanese versions of the movie “Sin City” and the TV series “Prison Break.” Not only is she the queen of Hip-Pop, she’s the queen of 2007.

I hope you enjoyed my recap of 2007, and let’s all hope 2008 is as good to the Japanese Urban Music community as ‘07 was! If you’ve got comments, questions, or maybe want to add/replace some of my choices, just leave a comment!