Time for a jpop update >< and quite a lot going on atm (so BIG POST coming up)!!!
So much so it’s hard to know where to start… But I guess you can’t go wrong starting with this.

New PV from Tamaki Nami - ‘Brightdown’
HQ stage6 divx version here
Those of you watching D.Gray-Man will be familiar with this since it’s the second opening theme

I really dig the direction Tamaki is taking with this new release, it’s more jrock than jpop tbh, I really love the early trance infused stuff too from Tamaki like Heroine, Believe etc, but this is exaclty what I was looking for now, it’s got power and good energy >< coupled with that the PV is possibly the hottest thing I’ve ever seen Also Tamaki released her second live concert about two months ago, If you haven’t checked it out, it’s top notch stuff
If anyone got into the jdorama ‘My Boss My hero’ `and I know we tried to promote it here ` you will be familiar with the awesomeness of the main man Tomoya Nagase, who is also the Lead singer of Johnnys Group band ‘TOKIO’ , I must say TOKIO were never really interesting to me but the theme tune of MBMH ’sorafune’ really made me rethink my attitude towards TOKIO, and am I happy I did, because this new single is even better imho. Powerful stuff.

Check this out if you know whats good for you

Next up is a new release from Utada Hikaru - Kiss and Cry . It’s quite simple to catagorise Hikkis music, there’s the good stuff , which is really good, and this bad stuff, which is really bad (eg. you make me wanna be a man, i mean seriously ). Luckily this falls into the good bunch, and I can never get enough of Utada. She is one of the main reasons I got into jpop in the first place, this single is particularly interesting since it’s the tune for the new Anime ‘Freedom’ by famed Katsuhiro Otomo,

Incidently it’s also being aired with Nissin Cup noodles commercials… ahh Nissin… how you sustain me ^^
check it out ohh yeah, looks awesome!
and Utadas PV set to scenes from the anime here

and now for something completely different… いきものがかり , this single is a bit old at this stage, but I thought id throw it in. I’ve always been a fan of Ikimonogakari since their sakura single, their format , perhaps generic, but they have actually been around since 1999 and are not a manufactured band, yet they produce a really good pop sound, + this latest offering ‘Natsuzora Graffiti’ is really cute and feel good.


いきものがかり - Natsuzora Graffiti

Moving along…

Mink has a new PV out. I really like mink, something really nice about her music and PV’s.. very peaceful. Together Again is another nice song, there is something of a calming effect with her music, I also really like the cyberpunk influences with her videos, it maybe isn’t what you would expect to see in a video with this type of music but I think it really works.

In somewhat larger news The Brilliant Green have reunited, after a couple of years absence, their new single Stand By me is nice, but I think maybe fails to live up to what my expectations were, I used to really like the brilliant green, and while this song is good, I hope we will see something more inspiring in the future. Maybe I’m just expecting too much, check it out for yourselves.

Anyway its great to see them back, I wonder if Kawase Tomoko will still continue her solo career in parallel !!!

Matsuura Aya has also just released her new single, it’s great actually, very chilled out, I jsut can’t find the time to get into Momosu these days, but how can I ever forget Ayaya chan. heh, where would I be without you. Probably not here writing this post anyway :>

Aya Matsuura 松浦亜弥 － Egao 笑顔 PV

And last but not least AKB48 have a catchy new single chocolove

What I want to know is where are the other 45? it’s like the other chocolate themed pv with these girls (sorry I don’t know all their names yet . I consider this a good thing) anyway it’s a nice song so can’t complain .

if you made it this far, then maybe you should also check out new releases by Chihiro Onitsuka and Tokyo Jihen.
and keep aired for these new releases
Perfume / Polyrhythm
Galneryus / “One For All - All For One” (new album, this is going to own)
And perhaps the most important news of all, Miyu from ZONE is staging a comeback… new single out next month.
www.nagasemiyu.com
so that about wraps up my jpop news flash
remember you can get HQ copies of all this on jpopsuki and buy online from sites like cdjapan.co.jp

Thats all folks