A couple of months ago CD Japan had a pretty awesome sale where if you spent more than 5000 yen (can't remember the exact number) at their online store, you got free shipping (in order to celebrate their new shipping method - FedEx International Express).
Now that may not sound like much, but most websites that offer free shipping ships it by the slowest method possible. I'm talking about shipping, that when shipped, takes so long to get to your house you completely forgot you ordered it when it does arrive. This wasn't the case with CD Japan's sale. They allowed you to pick any shipping method you wanted, for free. Naturally, I chose the most expensive (and therefore fastest) method - FedEx International Express.
I've had my quirks with FedEx in the past (I'm more of UPS guy), but this package was delivered in record time. CD Japan shipped it on the 29th and it got to my house around 9 AM today, the 30th. Also keep in mind that this package had to go all the way from Japan to the United States East coast. Talk about fast.
Anyway, onto the CDs
8 awesome singles
I bought mainly new releases so I could finally catch up with the singles I missed out on buying when they released.
Obviously one of those singles isn't Hello! Project, so we'll take a closer look at that one first.
Perfume's VOICE single
I very rarely buy non-H!P CDs these days (being broke 99% of the time contributes to that), but I fell in love with both songs on Perfume's 11th single.
The A-Side (VOICE)
The B-side (575).
Now onto Hello! Project.
S/mileage's Ganbaranakutemo ee nende!!
Manoeri's Genkimono de Ikou!
Risako/Ogawa Mana Anime single
The Oshare My Dream (Ogawa Mana) and Elegant Girl (Sugaya Risako) double A-side single is one of my favorites of the bunch. Originally I loved the Ogawa Mana song more, but recently Elegant Girl has been growing on me.
Also, I am now in love with Ogawa Mana's voice after hearing Oshare My Dream.
Eri, Junjun, and Linlin's last single
If you look closely in the very first picture in this post, you'll notice something on top of Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game.
For buying (pre-ordering?) from CD Japan, I got a small photocard. Awesome.
Kaiten Zushi
The back is awesome. Eri and Linlin especially looks great.
Inside
Finally onto C-ute.
Campus Life
Aitai Lonely Christmas
Inside Aitai
With Campus Life and Aitai Lonely Christmas, I finally have every C-ute single, including their six indies singles. Now all I need is five of their albums to have all of their CDs.
They sold 4,799 copies for their second week, bringing Onna's total to 47,204. It is now officially their highest selling single since the awesomeness that was Nanchatte Renai. If they have a couple more strong weeks, they can outsell Naichau Kamo and Shougani Yume Oibito.
Morning Musume's 44th single, Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game, received a weekly ranking of #6 and sold a total of 42,405 copies.
It's a little off from my predicated sales, but it is still a solid number, especially for one week. Sales aren't as high as I had hoped, but Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game is Morning Musume's highest selling first week since Shougani Yume Oibito and sold higher in its first week than nine of their last thirteen singles (that's four years worth of singles).
This single is definitely a success in my opinion and we haven't even gotten into its second week. There is still a Music Japan performance on Sunday, which will help boost second week sales. Even though they didn't reach 48,000 - 50,000 in the first week as I had hoped, Morning Musume can certainly get to that mark in their second week and possibly even surpass it.
Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game is a great way to end the year for Morning Musume.
Also, just in case anyone is interested in how the other artists stacked up against Morning Musume this week, here is the top six ranking.
The daily rankings are just as I guessed, except for the most important one. Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game debuted one spot lower than I had hoped -- at #5 instead of #4. As expected, they will be in a fight for #4 with AAA the whole week.
There are no estimated sales yet, but #3, Kobukuro, sold 24,000. It's really impossible to guess what Morning Musume sold at this point except that it was less than 24,000 on the first day (which they weren't going to surpass anyway, barring a miracle).
Hoping for around 15,000 for today. Anything above that number is a bonus.
KAT-TUN is #1, SKE48 is #2, Kobukuro is #3, AAA is #4, and Morning Musume is #5.
The Ninki poll is a poll that Oricon does every week, basically asking people which new singles and albums the Japanese public is interested in. It's not a prediction of how songs will do; it's just a way to somewhat gauge how much interest Japanese people have in the new releases.
Before I go on, I'd like to bring to light a correction I made in my last Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game post. I completely forgot about Kobukuro releasing on 11/17, and they almost definitely will rank higher than Morning Musume, so my new prediction has KAT-TUN #1, SKE48 #2, Kobukuro #3, MM #4, and AAA #5.
The Ninki poll disagrees with me. KAT-TUN is 1, Kobukuro is 2, SKE48 is 3, AAA is 4, and MM is 5.
We'll have to wait until next week to see who is more accurate.
Also, back to my last post for a minute. I wished that Morning Musume would get on Music Japan and/or Melodix, and the former has been announced. The Music Japan episode they will appear on is the November 28th show.
We're now less than two weeks away from the release of Morning Musume's 44th single and just a month away from Kamei, Junjun, and Linlin's last concert as members of the group. UFA obviously knows that and have started the promotional blitz that I hoped they would.
In a blog post today, Sayumi mentioned that Morning Musume recently finished filming a talk segment on the TV Tokyo music show, On Ryu and a performance on another music television show, Happy Music. (thanks to amped @ H!O for the blog translation)
There is also a 30 second commercial airing on Japanese television right now, promoting the single in HD.
And probably the best news of all are the results of this whole process. While the single does not go on sale officially until the 17th, there is still good news to be reported.
First, Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game has reached #7 on the Recochoku charts.
Recochoku is a PV ranking site that measures sales for cellphone downloads. This is the reason why we got a low quality preview of the PV a short time ago.
And for the best news of all, the single is ranked #1 for pre-orders in two different online stores, Tower Records
and HMV Japan.
(thanks to Nouciel and S-N-I-P-E-R @ H!O for the info and screenshots)
Both are pretty popular stores (both online and brick-and-mortar), so this is good news indeed.
Though it should be noted that this is just for two websites for one day. It's great news, but it does not mean they will suddenly sell a ton of copies.
But they are definitely on the right track. I'm hoping for one or two more TV appearances to be announced (it would be great if they got on Music Japan or Melodix) to help things along.
Competition for November 17th is somewhat tough, but Morning Musume could surprise some people and come out with a weekly #3.
Super popular boy band KAT-TUN will definitely take the #1 spot. They consistently are able to sell 200,000+.
From the AKB48 fame, SKE48 will likely take the #2 spot if their last single was any indication of their success (it sold over 62,000 in its first week).
The last group that Morning Musume has to worry about is AAA. Both of their last two singles sold 45,000 in their first week.
Morning Musume can definitely beat AAA and take that #3 spot, but it's not going to be easy. Actually #2 could be up for grabs as well. SKE48 is a bit of a question mark. Their singles have sold anywhere from 27,000 to 62,000 in their short history. If they "only" sell in the 50,000 range for this single, Morning Musume has a real shot of beating them, but again it won't be easy. They will need that extra push like they had for Nanchatte Renai to do it.
I predict that Morning Musume does sell about 48,000-50,000 for the first week and take the #3 spot and that SKE48 continues to raise their sales to the 70,000 range, taking the #2 spot.
Whatever does happen, I still love the song and the PV and Eri, Junjun, and Linlin will be dearly missed.
Quick edit: I completely forgot about Kobukuro. They usually sell in the 60,000 range, so they will probably take the #3 spot and so my prediction drops Morning Musume to the 4th spot.
A TV commercial of Morning Musume's 44th single. Loving this song more and more as the days pass. The dance looks pretty cool and the PV looks very interesting. Really excited for this single. Haven't felt this way since like Nanchatte Renai. A must buy.
