v-u-den breaking up

The Hello! Project official website has a new announcement, simply called “News from Hello! Project”. The contents of the announcement?
v-u-den is disbanding on the final night of their concert tour in June.
Apparently it’s because Okada Yui is turning 20, but I don’t really see what that has to do with anything.

I’m really sad about this, they weren’t my favorite group in H!P but I really loved their early singles- I haven’t been as much of a fan of their latest singles but I still kept looking forward to each one. I just bought their Single Best 9 limited edition album…
Rika has Ongaku Gatas, so I’m not really worried about her that much. Hopefully this means Ongaku Gatas will be around for a while.
I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen to Erika and Yui. Neither of them have anything else in Hello! Project. Maybe they’ll be involved in an upcoming new unit. I really don’t want to see them just sit around doing nothing like so many other members that left a group and haven’t done anything since.

I hope for the best for all three of them, and while I’m definitely going to miss v-u-den, maybe something really good will come out of all this.

I just listened to Jaja Uma Paradise, and…

…all I can say is, what the hell. xD;; I really liked Koisuru Angel Heart, so I thought this would be good too…but I don’t like this song…
Yes, I know I’m uber late listening to this song. I have an uber backup of music on my computer because I was uber lazy last year so typically music doesn’t make it onto my iTunes until at least a couple of weeks after it’s released, unless it’s Momusu, then I stick it on as soon as it comes out. xD

On another note, Yesasia finally added the Prince of Tennis re-releases- I was kinda worried for a bit that they wouldn’t add them and that I’d have to buy from CD Japan. No offense to CD Japan users, it’s a good site, but I put together a tentative order there with some of the upcoming re-releases and a couple of H!P CDs, and it told me shipping would be like $50. What the hell.
Yesasia has free shipping. 8D Even though the prices are a little higher, the free shipping should make up for it.
So now that Yesasia added the re-releases, I don’t have to worry about that stuff…

I had to cut down on some of the stuff in this order I’m planning to make uber soon in order to insure that I have enough money for both the re-releases and Anime Boston, which is coming up in March. (Haha, this year it’s during spring break, so I can go the entire weekend and not have to worry about homework and studying!) Oh well, I think in the end it’ll be worth it. If only I had a job, then I wouldn’t have to worry as much about money…I always get lots of money in December cause of my birthday and Christmas, but then I typically spend it all before summer starts. xD;; Then I’m screwed until December again…

I dunno, this post was kinda random, but I’m just like hanging out on my last day of break and I don’t really have anything long enough to devote a full post to…

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.

I FINALLY GOT SUKEBAN DEKA~

xDDDD
I got it at Newbury Comics during school retreat…they let us free in a mall for dessert after we had dinner at Fire+Ice, and I was just poking around Newbury Comics, looking through the foreign films section like always (I think I’ve been hoping for a copy of the Tenipuri live-action movie or something like that, or maybe Battle Royale), and all of a sudden it was like “YO-YO GIRL COP”
Lolz, I’ve been looking for this ever since it came out in America, but this is the first time I’ve actually found it. So, I immediately bought it…thankfully I brought more than the $15 they suggested for spending money. xDD
This movie looks great. Ayaya looks kick-ass on the cover. XDDDD And then Rika looks badass in a pic on the back cover…
I can’t wait to watch this this weekend with my friends along with our Prince of Tennis dub marathon (the first two box sets, so 26 episodes of crappy dub amazingness)~ of course I’m going to watch it with the Japanese voice track- of course I wanna hear Aya and Rika and the other two v-u-den members~ But at one point I definitely wanna watch the dub track, it’ll be interesting (to say the least) to hear someone else’s random voice coming from Ayaya’s mouth…xD

My friend was freaking out because it said “This film is not rated”…I mean, it’s Hello! Project girls acting in it, it’s not gonna be like porn~ xDDDD I tried to explain that to her, but I don’t think she got it…I said that at the most, this movie would be rated PG-13, and she was like “What about the other rating with a number?”
NC-17?
xDDDDDDDDDDD
It’s Matsuura Aya and v-u-den, from Hello! Project. xDDD I really don’t think Tsunku would have his girls star in porn movies…
So I just reassured her that it’s not porn…I don’t really know if she believes me…xD;

So I really can’t wait to watch this movie and see Ayaya kick ass with a yo-yo…

New Momusu single + new H!P group? + American release of Sukeban Deka + Korean cover of Renai Revolution 21…

ROAR INFORMATION OVERLOAD~ DDDD:
Lol, this is what happens when you follow H!P like this. It gets REALLY crazy, REALLY fast.

So first of all, NEW SINGLE FROM MORNING MUSUME ON JULY 25th~~~
xDDD I’m so excited~ This is the first single with Junjun and Linlin...I seriously can’t wait to hear them sing. =D They were really cute in their intro at Yossi’s graduation concert~ I’ve been waiting ever since to hear them sing and everything~ It’s also the first single in like EVER (well, 7 years) without Yossi. T_____T I seriously miss her so much already~ She wasn’t really one of the main singers, but I really really liked her…
Morning Musume’s 34th single – Onna ni Sachi Are
I was looking for an official source for this, but I couldn’t find one. I must not be looking in the right places… =/ Ah well, ThePPN Wiki will do just fine for now. xD

Next up~ I actually don’t know much about this one, but apparently there’s a new H!P duo, consisting of Koharu and Aika? I’m not quite sure. There’s nothing on ThePPN Wiki (well, the name of the duo was added to the groups list a few hours ago, but it’s not mentioned on either of the girl’s pages), there’s nothing on Wikipedia (English or Japanese), there’s nothing on the official H!P site…however, Some Boys! Blog says in the latest New Upcoming Releases post that a group called “Kira*Pika” is releasing their first single on August 1st…and in the comments, someone said that ‘Kira’ represents Koharu and ‘Pika’ is Aika.
I’m gonna keep hunting for information about this Kira*Pika duo…

Next~
Sukeban Deka: Codename = Asamiya Saki is being released in America~!! It’s going to hit stores June 17th, using the English title of Yo-Yo Girl Cop. xD
I haven’t seen this movie yet, but I’m DEFINITELY buying it as soon as I find it. It looks absolutely amazing. xD
This movie stars Matsuura Aya as Asamiya Saki, a delinquent girl who is taken in by the government and fights crime to redeem her troubled past. (lol, copy-pasted from Wikipedia since I’ve never actually seen it. xD) Apparently she goes undercover in a high school or something…and she uses a yo-yo to fight.
Now, it ALSO stars v-u-den! Ishikawa Rika, Miyoshi Erika, and Okada Yui play Ayaya’s rivals…or something like that. xD;
I did a quick search and found a 90-second preview on Youtube…

Looks pretty amazing. xD
The theme song is Thanks!, by GAM…which, of course, includes Ayaya~

Last but not least…
Lol, this isn’t really as much H!P news or anything as it is just a random thing I found through a few other H!P blogs.
All H!P fans know Morning Musume’s 2000 hit single Renai Revolution 21, right? And in case you don’t know or forgot, here’s the PV~

It’s one of my favorite Momusu songs, which is one of the reasons I was so shocked when I heard this:
The Korean actress/singer Hyun Young released a new single today…a Korean cover of Renai Revolution 21.
The PV actually has references to some H!P acts. One of her outfits in the PV looks a lot like 3nin Matsuri’s outfit from waaaay back in the second set of shuffle units. Another looks like the outfit from Odoru 11’s shuffle unit PV.
And I noticed in the Korean PV, there are parts where she uses pretty much the same dance as the original. xDD
Anyway, here’s the Korean PV:

I promise my next blog entry won’t be like uber long H!P rants and crap. xDD; I’d write something up on something else, but it’s 10:45 and I still need to do homework and crap…