August 25th, 2008 marks the 3rd anniversary of Channel-Ai Community Blog. It is hard to believe we have made it this far, as all of this started out as an experimental move to spread the love of J-Pop music. We acquired many writers throughout the past 3 years, all of them passionate and knowledgeable when it comes to the artists they love. Some went on hiatus due to various reasons but luckily, we never run out of new writers to inject new energy into this blog. This year, 3 new writers: 1337rice, sljinu and DJAeon, joined our crew and they have proved themselves to be the most productive despite being the newest additions to our family!
|
Artist: Hinouchi Emi Product code: KICS-1414 Release date: 2008.12.03 Highest Ranking: #64 Label: Venus-B Limited Edition: CD+DVD, Alternate Cover |
Aside from hardcore M-Flo fans, few people probably would have heard of R&B sensation, Emi Hinouchi. Having been acknowledged by working with several highly notable acts such as M-Flo, The Teriyaki Boyz and Epik High, Emi has proven time and time again her outstanding attributes to Asian music fans around the globe. However, despite this exposure poor sales continue to plague her career with her solo works failing to make a considerable mark on the Oricon charts.
|
Artist: Nishino Kana Product Code: SECL-750 Release Date: 2009.01.28 Genre: Pop Highest Ranking: #43 Label: Sony Music Entertainment Format: CD First Press: Alternate CD jacket |
MAKE UP is Nishino Kana’s 4th single. This single is a follow-up of her 3rd single Style., which was the 2nd ED of the popular anime series SOUL EATER. Kana isn’t really popular despite being her 4th single. It posted at rank #43 in JBOOK (not sure about ORICON) during the first day of release. 3 songs from this single are for the newly released animated movie and series Chocolate Underground (January 31st), which serves as a 20 minute extension to the 13 6-minute episodes on the internet.
Her presence is slowly rising as she performed a TV live on Music Japan last week. She also recently announced her first tour to celebrate her 20th birthday. Best of all, her MAKE UP -First Press- is sold out.
This single is produced by 12 different artists combined, including the well-known Ito Yuna and the recently retired artist, melody..
|
Artist: Perfume Product Code: TKCA-73390/5 Release Date: 2008.11.19 Genre: Technopop Highest Ranking: #2 Label: Tokuma Japan Communications Format: CD, CD+DVD Limited Edition: CD+DVD version |
Dream Fighter concludes their successful 2008 run. It was a single that generated a lot of hype, from forums to blogs. When the 15 second preview came out, everyone became somewhat confused. “This doesn’t sound like Perfume” a fan says. Until the full radio preview came out, people expressed their opinions. Some say that it carried too much pop than techno, some say it sounds different from their previous works, but most people still like it anyways.
Despite the success that they had on Love the World and GAME, their ORICON single sales rank fell short to UVERworld’s new single: Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi, which is UVERworld’s first #1 single based on the highly popular mecha series Gundam 00 S2.
This article is translated from an interview done with Otsuka Ai by Excite.
Translation by sljinu





