Channel-Ai Community Blog - JPop reviews, articles

Ayumi Hamasaki’s 37th single “HEAVEN” was recently released on the 14th September 2005. Apart from being Ayumi Hamasaki’s 3rd single for this year, it is also the theme song for the highly anticipated movie “SHINOBI -heart under blade-”.

Pucchi Moni (or Petit Moni) was one of Morning Musume’s subgroups. It started in 1999 with Morning Musume members Sayaka Ichii, Kei Yasuda, and Maki Goto, (1st Gen Pucchi Moni) but was later remade with Kei Yasuda, Maki Goto, and Hitomi Yoshizawa, (2nd Gen Pucchi Moni) and then remade yet again with Hitomi Yoshizawa, Makoto Ogawa, and Coconuts Musume’s Ayaka. (3rd Gen Pucchi Moni) Though their discography is short, they are/were a very great group which is worth a try…

Rie fu, one the talented singer in Japan who influenced by 70’s American Pops during the 3 years life in Maryland,US. These 3 years also took away her Japanese-slang English, maybe this is one of the reasons she tends to mix the Japanese and English lyrics. Some of the J-Pop fans may took a lots of attention on her songs because of a anime Bleach.

Yazawa Ai’s masterpiece manga “NANA” has been gaining a lot of attention this year: first with its very own tribute album, a dedicated café, and now a movie starring Nakashima Mika herself as the rocker-chick Oosaki Nana. To play with the “realism” of the movie a single has been released entitled “GLAMOROUS SKY” under the psuedonym “NANA starring MIKA NAKASHIMA”. Staying true to the style of Yazawa’s character, the single contains four rock tracks, the title track being composed by the famous rocker HYDE himself…

Miki Fujimoto, of the Hello! Project, used to be a solo artist, before entering Morning Musume. Her solo works were loved and are missed. Want to learn more about her, and download some of her stuff? Then you should read this article…