ArashiJun’s blog

Arashi's member Sakurai Sho is going to play the lead role in the drama 'Tokujo Kabachi /特上カバチ!!', which will be aired from Jan.17th 2010. In the blog, it is said that "Sakurai's character is full of passion which might be quite suitable with his own image!" "There will be love scenes with Horikita Maki in the drama. Though I am very looking forward to it, I feel a little bit confused..." There still one month to go but the drama already becomes the hot issue.

It's a story about the growth between a administrative scrivener (Sakurai), and a female administrative scrivener who hates male. The highlight of this drama is 'the real-time phone call from the actors/actresses'. In a special corner of the program, audience can talk with the actors/actresses in real time while they are watching the drama. A lot of fans held a high expect that Arashi will sing the theme song. But it is not yet officially announced, and no one knows about the truth.

Starting with the drama 'Saigo no Yakusoku/最後の約束', ten years after the last drama having all five members acting together, Arashi, coming with dramas in the spring and movies in the autumn, seems could not be stopped easily. Arashi, literally meaning the storm, is supposed to take the entertainment industry by storm. Let's see how large the storm they will bring to us.

Source: Asian Fanatics

Arashi J-pop group member Kazunari Ninomiya and singer/actress Kou Shibasaki will star in the live-action film adaptation of Fumi Yoshinaga's award-nominated Ōoku: The Inner Chamber manga. ASMIK Ace will release the film in Japan on October 1, 2010.

The historical science fiction story takes place in an alternate history version of medieval Japan, in which a bizarre disease has dwindled the male population. This has led to a matriarchal society where women outnumber men by 4 to 1. The shogun and de facto ruler of Japan keeps her own harem of men, or Ōoku. The film will adapt the story in the first volume of the manga.

Ninomiya (Tekkonkinkreet, Letters from Iwo Jima) will play Hiroyuki Mizuno, the young man rising through the ranks of the Shogunate, while Shibasaki (Battle Royale, Dororo, Sekai no Chūshin de, Ai wo Sakebu) will play Shogun Yoshimune herself.

Fuminori Kaneko, a director best known for the live-action Kisarazu Cat's Eye and Ikebukuro West Gate Park television series, is overseeing the Ōoku film project. Natsuko Takahashi scripted the animated television version of another Yoshinaga work, Antique Bakery, before tackling this project.

The manga has been running in Hakusensha's Melody magazine since 2005, and Viz Media began releasing the manga in North America in August. Ōoku was nominated for Japan's prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for the third year in a row this year, and it finally won the Grand Prize in April. The manga was also nominated for the first Manga Taisho Awards last year.

Source: Asian Fanatics

Arashi member Aiba Masaki is playing the lead role in the drama series 'マイガール / My Girl'. Fellow member Sakurai Sho will guest star!
It has become something of a tradition where fellow Arashi members appear as guest stars in the final episodes of dramas that feature one (or two) of the members as lead actors. For 'よい子の味方 / Yoi Ko no Mikata' with Sakurai playing the lead, Matsumoto Jun, Ohno Satoshi and Aiba appeared as guests. Ohno also guest-starred in '山田太郎ものがたり / Yamada Taro Monogatari'; the lead actors were Ninomiya Kazunari and Sakurai. Ohno played the lead role in '魔王 / Maou (Maoh)', and Ninomiya made an appearance in the final story.

For the upcoming episode Sakurai will become 'Sato', the new employee at the photo studio where 'Masamune (Aiba)' works. Sato will be crucial in showing Masamune's feelings. Sakurai soon became a natural part of the cast. "Everyone was cheery and kindly welcomed me in."
Aiba in between rehearsals discussed extensively with Sakurai about the timing and pace of their characters' conversations to better ready themselves for the filming. Aiba said that their talk renewed his love for the group. "Arashi is superb." Their consulting each other also showed how passionate and serious Aiba was about the drama.
The filming of Sakurai's scene started at 23:00. When he appeared at the film set the staff and cast members loudly applauded. After an hour, the filming was complete. While taped music played in the background Sakurai was even handed a bouquet of flowers. Since it was the final day of filming for the entire drama, he joined the staff and cast members when they took a group photo.
Sakurai later talked about it during an MC at a concert held on December 4th. Ninomiya asked "Did you actually join them [in the photo]?" Matsumoto took a step closer and said "I hope you had the decency to stand to the side." Sakurai smiled shyly and replied "Well, uh, everyone said I should go ahead..." He revealed that [despite having only a bit role] he stood dead center in the group photo alongside Aiba.
The drama's official blog also recounted Sakurai's guest appearance, and made a surprising announcement! "We succeeded in including a scene where we have a rare close-up of his eyes. Sakurai-san said it was a 'great honor' to have that scene included. We hope you enjoy watching that part." Fans can't afford to miss that crucial scene.

Source:Asian Fanatics

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Johnny's member Ikuta Toma talked about his recently meeting with Arashi member Matsumoto Jun.

Ikuta "For the first time in ages I went out to eat dinner with Matsumoto Jun. Afterwards we ended up going to Matsumoto's house...I had a great time talking about lots of different things. Matsu-Jun [Matsumoto] is a very earnest person. He's a great source of motivation. While we were talking we discovered that we were using the same perfume. We 'argued' who should switch to a different one! 'I'll change first!' 'No, I will!'
That reminded me of when we had costarred in the theater production 'Stand by Me'. We quarreled practically everyday (laugh). We fought over the most insignificant things. But hey, we were just middle school students back then.
Now those 'brats' have grownup, and there we were talking while having a drink...gee, we've matured a lot (laugh)."

Fans would definitely have wanted to be there between them! The two longtime friends must have been surprised to find that have unwittingly been using the same perfume. Does anyone know exactly what brand they're using? As they grow older they are bound to continue being good friends and also be good influence for each other!

Source:Asian Fanatics

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L'Arc~en~Ciel announced on their official MySpace blog that they will be releasing a new single, titled BLESS, on January 27th 2010.

The title song will be used as the theme for the NHK Vancouver 2010 Broadcast. The release will be issued in both regular and limited versions, with the latter including a DVD featuring the PV for the title track and a different cover.

The band's leader tetsu has also decided to change his name to tetsuya within L'Arc~en~Ciel and TETSUYA for his solo project.

Despite the fact that the band promised to return with live shows only in 2011, they are continuing to delight their fans with new releases.

Source: Asian Fanatics

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Tomohisa Yamashita and best friend Toma Ikuta may be forming a new unit called “Iku & Pi” a.k.a. “the ikemen unit.” Well at least just for one night.

Yamapi who just finished his first solo concert at Yokohama Arena, had one his best friends make a special guest appearance during the second half of the show and they instantly formed “the ikemen unit.”

Both of them joined Johnny’s Entertainment in 1996 and became really close friends. So when it was decided that Yamapi was to have his first solo concert, he immediately called Toma and asked him to make an appearance.

“It’s like a dream come true to have both of us on the same stage,” Yamapi stated, and with a happy smile, “It was like going back to our JR. days.“

The last time they were both on stage was seven years ago when both Yamapi and Toma were part of Johnny’s Jr.

Source: Asian Fanatics

Bloody-monday

The sequel to the dorama series "Bloody Monday" finally got confirmed via the newest edition of the Shonen Magazine. They are currently publishing the 2nd season of the manga and put up a 1-page ad confirming that the sequel is underway and will start airing in January.

The main cast will basically stay the same except for a few. Confirmed so far are Miura Haruma, Sato Takeru, Kichise Michiko, Matsushige Yutaka, Ashina Sei, Kawashima Umika, Narimiya Hiroki, Kurokawa Tomoka, Takashima Masahiro and Yoshizawa Yuu.

With this there are only a few free slots left for the upcoming season. Netizens are speculating that Shinohara Ryoko might get a shot at the Wednesday 10pm slot on NTV, but those are mere speculations without any evidence. Ueto Aya has been in the talks for that time frame as well. Another interesting dorama spot is going to be Tuesday 9pm on Fuji TV. Eikura Nana is leading the speculations, whether that’s going to be as the starring actress or the heroine. A recent single post on 2ch made some blogs believe that she might take a part in a Japanese adaption of popular Korean drama "Coffee Prince" next to Tamaki Hiroshi, but so far there’s only one anonymous post supporting this rumor. Whatever it will, it’s definitely going to be a season packed with many nice actresses, don’t you think?

Source: Asian Fanatics

I Had to post this because I love the first season so much.

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Yamada Ryosuke (16) from Hey!Say!JUMP will play his first lead role in a drama that will start airing next January (Saturdays at 9) on Nippon Television.

'Hidarime Tantei EYE' was aired as a tanpatsu in October. Yamada plays a junior high school student (Tanaka Ainosuke) who receives a corneal transplant from his elder brother. He then starts getting flashes from the new eye that led him to face off against a criminal organization.

Yamada commented,"I was very happy when I knew that I was to play Ainosuke again. I hope to make filming go smoothly with the help of the other actors. When I read the script and get to the unexpected endings, I think "I was tricked!". This time the stories will develop towards more unpredictable conclusions. I hope everyone will accompany Ainosuke as he gets embroiled in more cases and mysteries!"

Yokoyama Yu (28) and Ishihara Satomi (22) will also return.

Source: Asian Fanantics

The singer GACKT has finally revealed his real age. It happened during the press conference held in Tokyo for the stage production '眠狂四郎無頼控 / Nemuri Kyoshiro Burai-hikae' in which he plays the lead role for the first time. At the beginning of a video segment introducing the outline of the project, his age was given as 'to turn 37 years old in 2010'. Afterwards during the Q&A session reporters asked if it was the first time GACKT told how old he was. He smiled wryly while replying "A long while ago at a concert, on a whim I said I was born in 1540. Somehow that became my official year of birth. Since then I couldn't find an opportunity to correct it. I wasn't keeping my age a secret or anything."

As the main character Nemuri Kyoshiro of the 'Nemuri Kyoshiro' series GACKT will appear in various media. The stage production written by Koyama Kundo is the first in line of the 'NEMURI×GACKT PROJECT'. After the theater version of 'Nemuri Kyoshiro', the combined character 'NEMURI×GACKT' will be featured in manga, anime, video-games and film.

From summer GACKT has been in the process of losing 10 kilos for his role. "Up until the summer I had been building up my body in order to stay healthy during the tour. But I've put on too much muscle for my role, so I've since shed 5 kilos. I'm trying to lose 5 more kilos to make a body sharp as steel, one that will hurt you if you touch. Just like a swordsman [Nemuri Kyoshiro is a master with katana]."

Source: Music Japan Plus