tokyographers

Okay, I know I’ve mentioned ORESKABAND a few times already, and it may seem like I’m obsessing over them, but after a couple recent news items, I feel they deserve attention again.

These girls are really aiming to make it big in the U.S., especially on the West Coast. We’ve already heard about them on the SXSW Japan Nite tour, and the news about them getting a movie deal with Hollywood producer Barry Rosenbush. And if anime fans didn’t know about them before (since they did one of the ending themes for the Naruto anime series), they’ll get another chance with their ending theme for Bleach.

Doing a theme for a popular anime series is a really good way for a band to get exposure overseas. I know that in general, a lot of people aren’t really into ska (and probably more so among the anime-watching population), but I think they may be receptive to this particular brand of ska. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, it’s poppy and catchy.

Anime Expo recently announced that ORESKABAND will be guests of honor at this year’s convention in June-July. They’re going to play live there, and “Pinocchio” has even been chosen as the featured song for the official AX commercial. Pretty big news for them. I’m really looking forward to seeing the performance, especially because I feel the reactions there may be somewhat of a litmus test of their general appeal. If they get received well there, that would definitely be a good sign.

It also turns out they’ve confirmed six dates on the Warped Tour:

• Boise, ID (8/17)
• Seattle, WA (8/18)
• Portland, OR (8/19)
• Fresno, CA (8/22)
• Sacramento, CA (8/23)
• Los Angeles, CA (8/25)

Warped Tour will definitely be a tougher crowd for them, since the vast majority of people there will have no idea who they are. And there aren’t any other bands on the roster to help draw out the J-music fans. I really wish the best for them there, and I know I’ll at least be cheering them on in Los Angeles.

As you can see, they’re very busy this year. They’re actually still on tour in Japan until the end of May, and then they’ll be hitting up AX at the end of June/start of July, followed by the Warped Tour in August. And likely, they’ll be working on the details of their movie in Hollywood sometime in between. I’m very curious to see what will happen with it, as it may be a very big boost for them.

ORESKABAND is definitely a group to keep an eye out for, particularly in the next few months.

First off, let me revisit the hot topic from last time: Ai Otsuka. It appears the Oricon daily estimates were rather low, and I ended up being wrong about her expected total sales for the week. “Ai am BEST” actually ended at around 350,000 copies sold, which beats out her previous album “LOVE COOK” by about 15,000. Awesome! So her album sales have continued to increase throughout her career (these are numbers for first-week sales):

• “LOVE PUNCH” (Mar 2004) - 190,000 copies, ranked #3
• “LOVE JAM” (Nov 2004) - 224,000 copies, ranked #1
• “LOVE COOK” (Dec 2005) - 335,000 copies, ranked #1
• “Ai am BEST” (Mar 2007) - 350,000 copies, ranked #1

So things are looking very good for her, and hopefully she’ll put out her 4th album sometime later this year.

Now for who’s not hot: unfortunately for Morning Musume fans, Ai Kago’s career is looking pretty dead at the moment. (If you haven’t already read about the scandal from last week, read here and here. And if you want to see some of the fan reactions, go check out Hello!Online.) Even though Tsunku has publicly said he still supports Kago, it’s pretty unlikely that he can bring her back to Up Front Agency. She committed two pretty big no-nos:

1. caught for underage smoking not once, but twice (after she had supposedly reflected on her actions, and we all know that wasn’t her first smoke since the first time)
2. caught in a relationship (with a much older man, no less, and one who seems to already have a more serious relationship going on)

So what’s up with her? Where did she go wrong? Does she just not care anymore? Maybe. Hello!Online posted a report saying she’s not sorry and she’s naturally developed a big head because of her success. Estimated income at the time she was fifteen: 40 million yen (roughly $33k U.S.)… per month. Damn.

Nikkan Gendai wrote up an article about Kago’s background - I’m not sure how accurate it all is, but Nikkan Sports reported some of these the details as well, and I trust them. It kind of explains why she hasn’t really been sailing smoothly throughout her life.

According to the magazine, when she was born in 1988, her parents were only 17. When Kago was 1 year old, her parents broke up and her mother was in charge of raising her. Because she had few opportunities to see her father, she is suspected of having developed a “father complex” (which is probably more common than you think, but I’ll save that topic for another time). Other sources have said that this recent scandal isn’t the first time she’s expressed an attraction towards older men.

(On a sidenote, you may also have noticed that Yasuyuki Ishimoto, the cafe owner she was seen with, is actually older than her father.)

Anyway, Kago’s mother later married a truck driver, and she eventually gained three siblings, with more than a ten-year age gap between her and them. Even though her new father showed her affection, she left the house and entered show business right after the first sibling (a brother) was born. Barely 12 at the time, she went on to build herself a career in the industry.

If all this is accurate, then she very likely had additional complications at home. Based on her reported situation, it seems she’s not just saying “screw you” to her fans (and her fellow H!P members, particularly Nozomi Tsuji). In any case, all this is just to give some perspective on the issue.

So what’s in store for her now? Well, often when an idol loses a career because of a relationship, marriage soon follows, but that doesn’t look likely in this case. Either way, it looks like she’ll be gone from show business for a while, and even after the scandal has blown over, it’s almost a certainty that she won’t be taken back in by UFA. Will she be able to successfully return as a talento or singer? Maybe. There’s also the possibility she’ll end up like other idols whose time has passed, and eventually move towards nude work.

But don’t give up hope yet - for example, Ami Suzuki seems to have successfully bounced back from being blacklisted in the industry several years ago. Like Suzuki, Kago has heavy fan support. If she plays her cards right, she may able to make her way back into the spotlight.

Who’s hot this week? Ai Otsuka is currently dominating the charts with her just-released best album, “Ai am BEST.” Just look at the numbers so far. I’ve put in parentheses the sales for m-flo’s “COSMICOLOR,” which is on track to be the second-best selling album this week.

Tuesday: 64,396 (10,471)
Wednesday: 46,707 (9,479)
Thursday: 30,362 (14,026 - this is Mr.Children’s “HOME”)
Friday: 17,798 (5,719 - m-flo moved back to #2)

So Ai-chin has sold almost 160,000 copies so far, plenty more than the rest of the other albums this week. But it looks like it’ll still fall far short of the performance of her previous release, “LOVE COOK,” which sold about 335,000 copies the first week. A bit disappointing for fans like myself, but at the same time, it’s still another #1 spot with fairly strong sales.

Who’s not hot right now? Talento Chinatsu Wakatsuki has been pretty cold for a while, and Nikkan Gendai just did a little write-up about the current state of her career. At one point she was a regular on 10 different shows, but that number quickly dropped after she took a break at the end of last year for health issues. Now she’s only a true regular on two shows: NTV’s Thursday late-night “Love Katsu” and Saturday afternoon “Meringue no Kimochi.” And she’s even losing “Meringue” to Aya Matsuura this coming month.

So where does that leave her? Apparently she’s at least been filling up her time with her blog, which she started in January. She’s been updating regularly, about once or twice a day (except for when she was filming overseas). At one point (February 5), she did some kind of Q&A session with her fans, and she posted 74 times in a single day. That actually tops current blog queen Shoko Nakagawa (”Shokotan”), whose record is only 70 times in one day! (Incidentally, Nakagawa reached 500 million hits this February.)

The lack of work and the amount of blog time seems to be a bit distressing for Wakatsuki fans. Apparently Wakatsuki was even envious of the whole Jun Natsukawa age misrepresentation scandal, just because she’s been feeling left out of the news. Ouch.