The StyleJapan Report

This week, Arashi (Again! Can’t they just get off the number one position and let bands that are actually talented (GLAY anyone?) take the position?!) and FUNKY MONKEY BABYS take the number one positions; Ai no Mama de… (Junko Akimoto, whose single has been in the top ten for as long as she has lived it seems) and Rule/Sparkle (Ayumi Hamasaki; no surprise there) stay in the top 10 singles, and Angela Aki’s ANSWER and UNICORN’s Chamble stay in the top 10 albums. Too bad alan isn’t up there… maybe she’s #11?

After their hit album My song Your song reached #1 on Oricon, it seems Ikimono Gakari is getting ready to start the year with another Naruto Shippuuden opening theme, Hotaru no Hikari (light of the fireflies) is set to be released as a ringtone on April 9th, the same day as it will become the opening theme for Naruto Shippuuden. No release date has been mentioned for the physical CD, but we can expect it to be released around the end of April, judging by the average life-span of a song as an opening/ending theme being around a month or two, and at the latest I think it’ll be out by the middle of May. Sounds like a number one single to me, right after a massively popular album and being featured, again, as the opening theme to one of the most popular anime, don’t you think? 

While the American release of the physical version of This Is The One has been pushed back to May 12th by certain retailers (this is not completely confirmed), Utada’s second English album will be released digitally on March 24th, the original release date for the album. The release date may still be moved as it is not certain whether May 12th is the official release date, so it is possible that it will be available in some retailers earlier than May 12th, although I don’t really think it will be. If it is moved, I think they’ll delay it more, not bring it closer.

Since broomhead, in this article, which attracted me to this news, asked the opinion of others on this digital release: I don’t think it changes much, although if anything, it could go either way. If people are like me, they’ll download the digital release (I pre-ordered the Japanese release so I’m in no hurry to do that) and then wait frantically to get the physical copy (because I love holding physical CDs in my hands). This would augment sales. However, most will probably think that they don’t need the physical copy now that they already have the album and not bother. And since I don’t think digital sales count in the charts (please correct me if I’m wrong), This Is The One’s chart ranking will drop. I see the second option happening a lot more than the first, because not everyone is as obsessive about music as me, so I’m not really happy about this.