Sakura Mankai

It was announced by the fanclub of M-Line that Kusumi Koharu left JP-Room and thus Up-Front Promotions due to her contract not being renewed. M-Line is the fanclub for all graduated Morning Musume members that are still under Up-Front. It seems to be a decision made by Koharu herself, so let's support her in her new direction and she were she will be taking her career! http://www.up-fc.jp/m-line/news_Info.php?id=9642

Morning Musume '16 ended their first week of sales for their 62th single at number 1 at the Oricon Chart! Following the rules of Oricon they sold about 98.000 cds!  Congratulations to Morning Musume '16! Here is a video about Mezamashi delivering the news:

Michishige Sayumi announced on her blog that she will be returning to the world of entertainment! Sayumi had been posting for a few weeks prior to her announcement with little blogposts about her life. Fans found out that the first character of all her blogposts made out her name! When she announced her return all the characters said: Michishige Sayumi Saisei ! This means something like: The Rebirth of Michishige Sayumi.  Michishige announced she will officially be returning in the spring of 2017. What she will be doing is for now unknown, but she said it will be a different form of preforming.  Welcome back Michishige Sayumi!

Tsubaki Factory will release their debut single on the 22nd of Febuary. The single will be their first triple a-side single and today they announced one of the songs to be called: Just Try! The song has lyrics and composition by Tsunku. Let's look forwards to more information about their debut single!

Morning Musume, finally, revealed some new information about their 13th generation! After their last search ended with no winners, the new members will now be introduced to us during their tour final at Budokan on the 12th of December! The girls also announced that the winner(s) will be from the Kenshuusei ONLY .  This means there will be no "new" girls entering the group, only trained Kenshuusei.  There was no other information about the amount of new members or if the new members already know they are choosen, yet all news is welcome at this point.  Furthurmore, the concert will be live streamed in Taipei and Hong Kong! I am really exited for the new members, although I am a bit disappointed they will only be from the kenshuusei. Yet there are some gems in there that would fit Momusu! How do you all feel about this news? Are you happy or sad the girls will be from kenshuusei? How many will get in? Source: Hello!Pro website

Morning Musume '16's 12th generation will be releasing their first book! On the 12th of december they will celebrate their 2 years as members through this book! It will feature interviews (past and new) and gravure shots from the past two years. 12th gen will be the future of Morning Musume, who will be celebrating their 20th anniversary next year and this book will show the fans their plans.  The book will be available through Wanibooks .

Remember Oura Hirona? She was a 20th generation kenshuusei who failed the Morning Musume auditions. She left the kenshuusei on the first of september 2014. Not much later Hirona got active on social media and has been posting pictures of herself quite a lot. She also interacted with quite a lot of fans.  Last week she announced she will return to showbizz, although she said nothing about when or where. Anyway this is great news for anyone who was and still is her fan! Twitter

This years Petit Best covers have been revealed on the Hello!Project site! Blu-ray Cd Both covers look like they have a french postcard theme. All members have one of their group pictures on the covers and their group names are on there too. It's quite nice to see Tamura, Zukki and Manaka on there, isn't it?  Anyway, I really like these covers. They are really, really simple, but when I look back at the covers of last year, this one is clean and simple, with a nice touch to it. 

Hello!Project announced their Petit Best 17 some time ago and we finally have the official tracklist for it!  Cd Tracklist: 1. Jinsei wa STEP!- C-ite 2. Utakata Saturday Night!- Morning Musume '16 3. Tsugitsugi Zokuzoku- ANGERME 4. Karada Dake ga Otona ni Nattan ja nai- Juice=Juice 5. Boogie Woogie LOVE- Country Girls 6. Chotto Guchoku ni! Chototsu Moushin- Kobushi Factory 7. Hitorijime- Tsubaki Factory 8. Solatido ~Nee Nee~- Buono! 9. Otona no Jijou- NEXT YOU (Juice=Juice) 10. Jinsei wa STEP! (Lil'Yukichi Remix feat. Cherry Brown)- C-ute 11. Utakata Saturday Night! (Kawanabe Hiroshi REMIX)- Morning Musume '16 12. Tsugitsugi Zokuzoku (SWG REMIX)- ANGERME 13. Kizetsu Suru Hodo Aishiteru!- Country Girls/Tsubaki Factory 14. Higashi no Chihei, Nishi no Towa- Morning Musume '16 15. MODE- ANGERME 16. Kiss Yori Saki ni Dekiru Koto (Country Girls '15 5-nin Ver.) (bonus track) Blu-ray Disc 1. Jinsei wa STEP!- C-ute 2. Utakata Satu...

Juice=Juice's Takagi Sayuki announced she had Vocal Cord Nodule surgery almost directly after their Budokan concert.  She is currently at home resting and won't be able to sing or speak for at least three weeks.  On her blog Sayuki talks about how she was having pain for a while now and consulted with her family and the staff about what to do. The doctors gave her the green light to sing at all 225 Juice=juice lives and their Budokan. She says it's quite hard for her to not sing right now, but she will work her hardest to fully recover soon.  Let's all wish Sayuki the best and hope for a speedy and full recovery!

Kobushi Factory will release their first album "Kobushi Sono Ichi " at the end of this month. The album will be released in 3 version (limited A & B and Regular edition).  Today they released all three covers, let's have a look: Limited A Limited A is a cover for the album with the DVD, so naturally the format for it is different. I really like how they shot the album covers on a location (believe it or not, this doesn't happen a lot). Yet the lighting is really bad and it feels like a photo taken during a release event or something. I like the idea of this, but it's poorly done.  Limited B Where are the girls? Oh way in the back? Okay, again I am all for the location shots, but this cover is about 60% location and 40% members. Kobushi has beautiful members, please use them! I like the play with colors (the blue and green), but I really don't like how small they are.  Regular  Oh Regular is nice. I quite like the action pict...

Country Girls' Playing Manager Tsugunaga Momoko announced her graduation during their 2nd anniversary event.  Tsugunaga has been with Country Girls eversince their reboot and fully joined them after Berryz Koubou went into indefinite haitus. She wanted to try being an idol for a bit longer and train her kouhai in Country Girls. Back then she already mentioned it being for only 2 or 3 years, so the new members would grow and learn from her before starting their own journey.  Tsugunaga announced she will be graduating on the 30th of June, which will be her 15th anniversary in the entertainment industry. She also announced she will retire from the entertainment industry and start working in education, which she has been going to university for. I want to thank Tsugunaga for all her hard work these past years and especially for all her work in Country Girls, as it couldn't have been easy. I think she will make a great teacher and the childeren will love her. Let's...

Hello!Project announced their Winter Concert Tour! The tour will start on the 2nd of january and will end on the 25th of febuary.  The tour will have two patterns: ~Crystal Clear~ & ~Kaleidoscoop~. This will be the first Hello!Pro concert to not feature C-ute since their debut and the first tour to feature Tsubaki Factory as a full group (they will have their major debut during this tour).  For more information: http://www.helloproject.com/event/detail/edc3fab19f1af4cf49d66ae3f593a562181ae1b8

Goto Maki (Morning Musume 3rd gen member) announced her second pregnancy on her blog! She is already 5 months along and will be expecting her baby in Spring 2017! Gomaki gave birth to her first daughter in December of 2015. Congratulations to Maki and her husband!