Johnny’s swung their weight around again?

I think the general agreement online is that for a lot of dramas, directors used popular guys in JE for publicity… or JE told the directors to take their guy as one of the actors *cough* Takaki Yuya in Gokusen *cough*. And you know, I’m right about Takaki… the script changed and he got less lines because he didn’t have enough skill and practice for that role… I bet his make up artist was new too, because it was extremely distracting…

Anyway, did you also know that JE can put pressure on the plot lines of movies? According to JapanToday, JE put pressure on the directors of the movie, Space Battleship Yamato, to have the film focused more on Kimura Takuya than the battle scenes… @_@ Does that mean that its going to be more of a romance film then? sighhh…

I was also looking around the net, and apparently Kimura wants to make the CG in Space Battleship Yamato to be like Avatar… Does he realize that Cameron spent practically all his money from Titanic to create Avatar? and that the only reason he created Titanic, was to bring Avatar to life? @_@ Anyway, if you read the rest of the article, you can tell that the post-production team is a little frustrated.

I hate it when people underestimate the time and effort it takes to create CG… or more like art in general. Even a simple business card takes a long time to design.

Anyway, even if Kimura takes a pay cut, I don’t think it’ll improve the movie that much… not only that but they already released a teaser, so there’s the time issue too.. If they do decide to redo some parts, the movie will definitely be delayed and the hype will die out.

Of course, he is the main lead and might have some weight to swing around.. sighhh…

Potato December 2009 Yaotome Hikaru x Yabu Kota

credits to ai-star @ LJ

Yay! New translation! since.. like.. last year. XD. Anyway, it’s a bit old, but I hope you enjoy it.

HSJ became AKB48?

Due to a rumor of HSJ doing a guerrilla concert in Takeshita, there was a massive stampede causing 3 girls to be sent to the hospital after complaining about nausea and chest pains. However, the press quickly changed the articles saying that  it was actually AKB48, not HSJ. Like what this article says on CNNgo, it is quite possible that JE did do a cover up and because it was a rumor that started it all, the press can put any name and replace it. After all, who wants to have a stampede of crazed fans that caused injuries to be associated with an idol group? Then again, I don’t see why that matters.. because there are always incidents that are similar.. such as tons of people fainting at concerts…  The other possibility is that, maybe the press just got it wrong in the first place and it was originally AKB48.. but no offense, JE is more popular for most women and girls. @_@ So I’m not sure if they would really get that excited for AKB48…then again, if it was a rumor about guerrilla concert, then… that means it’s free.. and well I would love to go to a free concert. lol..

Anyway, wow.

The power of information.

[Artist Spotlight] Obi Tenaka

credits to yui-life.com

You probably never heard of him, in fact there’s barely anything on the internet about him, but that’s because he hasn’t debuted yet. But he’s definitely someone to look out for especially he got signed to Sony Music two years ago.

Obi Tenaka, a singer and actor, has gained popularity in Japan by appearing on some famous TV shows including Hey Hey Hey Music Champ!, and has made a variety of appearances on Fuji TV and TV TOKYO. He made his splash in Japan when he was signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan in late 2008 and has composed and written songs for commercials. He recently made an appearance for the CM Oronamin, which features Japanese idol Aya Ueto as the main cast. Obi has been noted for his affiliation with some top stars including Utada Hikaru, M-Flo, Chemistry, and many others. He has been referenced in blogs and events by some top actors and actresses in Japan and Korea including Erika Toda, Aragaki Yui, ARASHI, and Han Hyo Joo. His cousin is Crystal Kay, who is also a singer in Japan. He has said many times that Crystal Kay was his inspiration for entering the world of entertainment.

Obi Tenaka was born and raised in England on November 11, 1990. He is 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 Korean and 1/2 African American. After his birth, he and his family relocated to America for 2 years and then moved to Tokyo, Japan. At the age of 15, he auditioned for Avex but was declined. 3 years later, Obi once again auditioned for Avex but instead caught the eye of the SMEJ vice-president and received a sign-on contract for one of largest music labels in Japan.

Credits to yui-life

Did I mention the rumor that he got recruited or offered by Johnny’s Entertainment? How many times does JE actively recruit? Usually it’s the moms/sisters/friends that send in the applications and JE has to sift through all of them. I think it’s only been Matsujun that comes close to have been recruited. Except, he still applied. It’s just that when they saw his picture, they accepted him. Obi’s case… direct recruit?! He’s probably really good, if the rumor’s true. Either way, it seems like he already has many connections throughout the Entertainment World with many people supporting him as stated above in the mini-bio I just quoted.

Whether his skills will resonate with the public and gain world wide fame, only time can tell. For now, we can only wait for him to continue training and sharpen his skills, before showing off his true potential to the world.

Jaejoong joins Eita and Ueno for “素直になれなくて” drama!

credits to Allkpop.com

“素直になれなくて” or Sunao ni Narenakute is about five friends who met through Twitter and help each other out in their lives. According to Japan_Now, Tohoshinki’s Jaejoong (Hero) will play the character of a doctor that moved from Korea to Japan and is met with lots of pressure and troubles for struggling to get promising results for the company he is working for. Allkpop states that the drama was written and produced by Japanese screenwriter Kitagawa Eriko, who also worked on Heaven’s Postman. It has been 8 years since she had written for Fuji TV, but a lot is expected.

Crazy Fans of JE Idols

There was an interesting article translated from a Singaporean magazine about the fandom with JE idols. I have to say that there were quite a lot of situations that I wasn’t really aware of that were caused by obsessed fans, known as Yarakashi and Oriki. You can read it here.

Although if you bother to read the comments, you would realize that the terms Oriki and Yarakashi are defined differently. Oriki are eager fans who follow all of the idol’s schedule and basically show up to a lot of their performances, but they have rules, like no stalking. So respectful eager fans. On the other hand, Yarakashi are the crazy disrespectful fans that bring shame to the name of fan.

Yep.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask..

Do you think these idols will ever have true friends that they make after their debut? I feel like they’ll all grow up either only making friends with other idols or just sticking with their elementary school friends.

It also makes me question what I should do if I do happen to stumble across them one day. Pretend I don’t know them? Politely ask for an autograph? Strike up a random conversation?

What would you do?

NYC Boys is official w/o B.I. Shadow

credits to asianpopcorn.com

So after performing at Kohaku back in December, JE is putting a lot on the line by making NYC Boys official without their backup group, B.I. Shadow. You can read the official article here.

Although I’m not too surprised that B.I. Shadow isn’t debuting with NYC Boys, since they were just a back up group and didn’t really have as much of a significant part, the fact that NYC is going to be official is a little unnerving.

Why?