Morning Musume Tanjou 10en Kinentai was a special Hello! Project unit that was created in 2007 to celebrate Morning Musume’s 10th anniversary. The name of the unit translates to “celebrating Morning Musume’s 10th birthday special unit”. The unit consisted of 5 graduated and present Morning Musume members. Tsunku explained that the original Morning Musume members debut age ranged from 13 – 24 years old, so for this special unit he selected members that was close to this age range to make it appear like the original group’s formation. Interesting enough, all the members selected came from an odd number generation.
Though the group was only active in 2007 they released 2 singles and had a concert tour before going on hiatus at the end of the year.
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The special photobook cover that was included with first press DVD.
To celebrate her third year since her debut with Momo no Hanabira, Otsuka Ai held a special concert at Hibiya Yagai Ongaku-Do on September 9, 2006 entitled 【LOVE IS BORN】～3rd Anniversary 2006～. But this was more than an anniversary concert for her, as September 9 was also her 24th birthday and hence the title of the concert “Love is Born” as Ai’s name means “love” in Japanese.
The concert’s DVD was released on January 1, 2007 making it the 3rd DVD concert released by Ai. In addition to a special 40 page photobook that was released as a first press item for the DVD, fans who pre-order the DVD online from mu-mo by November 16, 2006 also received a replica of the staff passes used at the concert.
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At Home Dad is a family comedy dorama that aired in the spring of 2004 consisting 12 episodes and a special. Abe Hiroshi and Shinohara Ryoko played the leading roles along with some fresh young faces that play the neighborhood’s children. The story revolves around the lives of two stay at home dads and the challenge to master the various household tasks that has to be done while holding on to a sense of male pride.
The interesting thing about this dorama is that it challenges Japan’s stereotypical gender role and the belief that a man should enter a good university, graduate from it and enter the workforce with a promising future to support his family. While the general storyline is about a stay at home dad, it also touches other society norms such as the belief that women should stay at home after marriage and being a housewife is a very simple task.
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Mop Girl is based on the novel written by Kato Miaki, which is also entitled Mop Girl. This dorama starred the uprising young actress Kitagawa Keiko as a girl who has the ability to travel back in time when she touches a recent deceased person’s item. The dorama began airing on October 12, 2007 and spanned over 10 episodes. The opening theme entitled ‘Destination Nowhere’ is performed by ERIKA.
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![LOVE [99] COOK](/img/aprilis/love_cook-love_cook.jpg)
Screencap of Ai-chin from the concert.
Exactly one year ago, Ai Otsuka’s second national tour LOVE[99]COOK began in Fukuoka on April 1st 2006. After a month, the tour came to an end on May 9th 2006 in Ai’s hometown Osaka. Although this tour only had 11 tour dates (3 less than her debut tour, JAM PUNCH), the concert halls are a lot bigger. And in a sense, this is like an “upgrade” from the previous tour. A DVD from the May 9 concert filmed at Osakajo Hall was released on July 26, 2007. Not only did the DVD debut at the #1 spot on Oricon, it was also the 12th best selling DVD of 2006. The oversea version DVD and VCD were released on August 16, 2007.
At first glance, the tour title ‘LOVE[99]COOK Tour 2006 ~Mascara Mainichi Tsukete Masukara~’ might seem very weird, but there’s actually a special meaning behind it and it can be broken down to 3 parts. The first and most obvious part is LOVE COOK, which is the name of Ai’s third album. In Japanese the word ‘Ai’ means love, which is why all of Ai’s album thus far has the word ‘love’. On an episode of Music Fighter, Ai explained that the word ‘cook’ represents her birthday, which is September 9th. In Japanese this is pronounced as Kukku (クック) and if you say this fast enough, it sounds like ‘cook’. The second part of the title is [99], which also represents Ai’s birthday. Celsius translated Ai’s July 18, 2006 dairy entry from her official site, which explained the meaning behind the phrase ‘Mascara Mainichi Tsukete Masukara’ which roughly translated to ‘I wear mascara everyday’. In that dairy entry, Ai wrote:
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