Kawaii Joyuu

Last week I reported on Miyazaki Aoi's new commercial for the apparel brand "earth music & ecology". The commercials have been airing for a couple of days now and it seems like people can't get enough from her cute smile and her a cappella style singing.

In the commercials she sings the Blue Hearts' song "1001 Violins" without any backup while playing baseball with kids, hanging around on some iron rod or just walking down a street. It's a very simple concept, but it still might be one of the cutest recent commercials. Miyazaki commented that singing isn't really one of her best abilities, but maybe that just makes it even more adorable.

I'm not just saying this to push one of Miyazaki's commercials. People on Twitter and 2ch have gone nuts over her cuteness. "Extremely cute!", "Too cute to put in words!", "I can't get 1001 Violins out of my head anymore!", "How can someone be so cute?", "Wonderful!", "She's a mystery!" ..just to quote a few. There new new and similar comments getting posted day after day.

Do you agree with all those Japanese who can't get enough of her new commercials? Check for yourself:

Making of:

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: RocketNews24
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Today it was announced that actor Matsumoto Jun (26) and actress Nagsawa Masami (22) are going to have a kiss scene in Fuji TV's upcoming 50th anniversary dorama "Wagaya no Rekishi".

The dorama is set during the turbulent middle period of the Showa era and evolves around the seven members of the cheerful Yame family. Matsumoto plays Yoshio the eldest son of the Yame family who falls in love with Yukari (Nagasawa), the child of a good family.

Due to the discrepancy between their families they strongly oppose the marriage plans of the couple, but then even a picture of one of their "prohibited kiss scenes" becomes public and matters get worse. They eventually decide to run away to save their love, but super typhoon Vera is going to thwart their plans. Vera hit Japan on September 26th, 1954 and was the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history. Looks like fate isn't a fan of their relationship either.

The special anniversary dorama will air on 3 consecutive nights starting on April 9.

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: Sanspo
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Actress Ayase Haruka (24) made a new commercial for Glico's "Giant Cone" ice cream brand and gets to have some enjoyable moments with the sweet ice cream.

Ayase poses as an office lady who treats herself to some Giant Cone while relaxing at home in her dressing gown. A chanson like song is playing in the background with lyrics that could be translated as: "Sometimes I give myself a treat~ Moments I give myself a treat~ Today is one of those days~."

The same production team shot the previous commercial with Ayase and it's still consisting wholly of women – the director, the camerawoman, the art director, the stylist, all women. Together with Ayase they've created a commercial full of authentic women's eyes of happiness together with that entranced expression and innocent smile women get when eating some delicious and sweet ice cream.

The TV commercial will start airing on the 15th, but there will also be a special version available on the official site only. The special version will be out on the 10th and show 1 week in the life of Ayase the office lady.

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: Sanspo
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 Every Monday/Tuesday I'm going to bring you the newest box office charts from the past weekend.

[Weekend of March 06 ~ February 07]

	Rank	Last Week		Movie	Week
new	01	-		Doraemon: (anime)  Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King	1
new	02	-		Liar Game: The Final Stage  - Toda Erika, Kichise Michiko…	1
	03	02		Avatar	11
	04	01		Percy Jackson & the Olympians:  The Lightning Thief	2
new	05	-		The Princess and the Frog (animated)	1
	06	03		Oceans	7
	07	04		Saru Lock The Movie  - Higa Manami, Ashina Sei, Konishi Manami…	2
	08	05		Ototo: Younger Brother  - Aoi Yuu…	6
new	09	-		The Hurt Locker	1
	10	06		Keroro Gunso the Super Movie: (anime)  Creation! Ultimate Keroro, Wonder Space-Time Island	2

Trailers of new Japanese movies in the Top 10:

Doraemon: Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King

Liar Game: The Final Stage

Actress Kurashina Kana (22) just made herself a name on TV with the NHK morning dorama "Welkame" (Sep.28~March.27). However, fans don't have to be sad once her morning heroine era is over, because she will straight move into the golden frame (prime time) with a role in the upcoming NTV dorama "Mother".

In fact, Kurashina already started filming for Mother in the chilly prefecture of Hokkaido on February 27, just 10 days after she finished her 9 month long period of filming for Welkame. "I've obtained a great sense of responsibility and experience while filming for the morning dorama and I want to make the best use of that," she looked back at all the great things she learned from Welkame.

Unfortunately she won't start her dorama career with a starring role, but that might be too soon for her anyway. Veteran actress Matsuyuki Yasuko (37) has the starring role in Mother as it was announced a while ago and Kurashina will play one of her 2 sisters. Matsuyuki plays the eldest of the sisters and works as a teacher at an elementary school in Hokkaido. She ends up becoming something like a mother-role for some of her pupils, since she has the good habit of rescuing those who receive ill-treatment from their actual mothers. Kurashina's role is searching for her eldest sister and travels all the way from Tokyo to Hokkaido in order to find her. As you can tell it's a dorama all about maternal feelings and bonds, but it's supposed to have some suspense as well.

The producers have a lot of faith in Kurashina. "Kurashina is the personified definition of a charming person and she'll be completely able to prove that with this role. Further you are going to discover a fresh and new face beyond her already established image." Kurashina is eager to tackle a dorama with a serious topic such as motherhood as well. "I'm going to put all my gratitude for the 'motherhood' of my own mother into my performance," she said.

"Mother" will start in April and air every Wednesday at 10pm.

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: Sanspo
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The Weekly Taishuu reports that actress Miyazaki Aoi (24) and her husband Takaoka Sousuke (28) have been spotted flirting in the public again. It all seems like all the bad rumors about Takaoka and the pressure from her agency don't really bother the married couple that much.

"Only a few days ago there was a couple all over each other in front of a station in Tokyo. I tried to see their faces and – wow, isn't that Miyazaki Aoi and Takaoka Sousuke?" A representative of a TV channel told the tabloid. You can't blame him for being surprised. There have been so many rumors about that couple being on the verge of a catastrophe.

Their bold actions are even more surprising, considering the rumor that her agency is completely against their relationship. An editor of a newspaper explains, "Takaoka showed off his new tattoo on his own blog, there were rumors about him with other women, even domestic violence and so on. He's an actor with a really mischievous image and that doesn't really go well with a pure image of someone like Miyazaki. Her agency even already suggested her to divorce him."

Divorce? That topic doesn't seem to be on the minds of Miyazaki and Takaoka at all. Instead there are more and more sightings of them being all lovey-dovey in public. "There is an Italian restaurant frequently visited by celebrities in the city and customers spotted the couple there as well. They have been flirting with each other and Miyazaki even fed him despite all the silently starring people around them. It's almost like they want to be seen together like that," a journalist for a woman magazine revealed.

People who worked together with Miyazaki for commercials have similar stories to tell. "During the breaks when filming a commercial, she often calls her husband. When you ask her about all the rumors surround them, she coolly responds – That's no concern of mine."

For the sake of Miyazaki I hope that almost none of the rumors surrounding Takaoka are true, but it's still good to see that they won't let the media nor their agencies affect their relationship.

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: Shukan Taishuu (via entameblog)
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At the end of last week, one weekly tabloid reported that TBS plans to air a dorama version of the rumored upcoming movie "Ashita no Joe" and that actress Kitagawa Keiko (23) would co-star next to Yamashita Tomohisa (24).

Well, that rumor about Kitagawa didn't last longer than 1 weekend. Today her agency denied her involvement in anything related to Ashita no Joe. "That's a groundless rumor. There are neither plans for Kitagawa to appear in the movie nor a dorama." If the rumors about her involvement are already wrong, how high are the chances that we are going to see a dorama version in the first place?

At the same time the movie has finally officially been announced and it really will feature Yamashita in the starring role. Another actor has been confirmed as well. Kagawa Teruyuki (44) is going to play Tange Danpei, the boxing trainer of Joe. "Ping Pong" director Sori Fumihiko will direct the movie.

Filming will begin in the last third of March and it will probably be in theaters early next year.

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: Sanspo
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Don't worry, there aren't any news or rumors concerning a possible live-action film or dorama of popular manga and anime "One Piece", but the possibility is still there with so many live-action adaptions in the past years.

Oricon's print magazine "Oricon Style" thought the same way back in 2007 and asked their readers what kind of cast they would like for One Piece. They came to the following conclusion:

Luffy – Katori Shingo, Koike Teppei or Moriyama Mirai
Zoro – Odagiri Joe or Tanaka Kouki
Nami – Ueto Aya or Wakatsuki Chinatsu
Usopp – Oizumi You or Ito Atsushi
Sanji – Odagiri Joe or Tamaki Hiroshi
Robin – Kuriyama Chiaki or Koyuki
Franky – Gorie (Garage Sale) or Abe Hiroshi

Unfortunately the survey didn't include the characters of Chopper and Brook.

Later there also was a vivid discussion about the same topic on the Japanese bulletin board "alfalfa" (collection of 2ch threads). They ended up agreeing on the following characters:

Luffy – Tanaka Kouki
Nami – Kimura Kaela
Robin – Kuroki Meisa
Sanji – Narimiya Hiroki or TERU (GLAY)
Usopp – Oizumi You
Chopper – Sentokun (lol)

When collecting the opinions from several Japanese blogs, you once again end up with different choices for several characters.

Luffy – Ichihara Hayato or Hayashi Kento
Nami – Kitagawa Keiko
Sanji – Matsuda Shota
Chopper – the younger one of MaedaMaeda (young comic duo, brothers)
Brook – Matsuyama Kenichi

What would be your favorite cast?

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: 4510plan (RECRUIT)
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Last month it was announced that the classic boxing manga "Ashita no Joe" would get a live-action film starring Yamashita Tomohisa (24), but according to Shukan Shincho and several rumors on Japanese boards there might even be a dorama adaption airing on TBS this summer.

The tabloid claims that there are plans to have a dorama version before the actual movie and that it is going to start airing in July. Further we are supposed to look forward to actress Kitagawa Keiko (23) playing his love interest. A doubtful and intriguing choice, considering that they've just acted together in "Buzzer Beat" and that they are rumored to be a real life couple as well.

Shukan Shincho also was able to get in contact with his grandmother to talk about how his family actually has some relations to boxing and his rumored girlfriend Kitagawa. Let's only concentrate on the romance rumor. "Some time ago, Tomohisa, his father and her went for a meal together. Still, they are just friends. All those tabloids are only jumping to conclusions. He's only 24 years young, his agency wouldn't allow it anyway. She's at the height of her popularity and will probably stay an unmarried woman for the time being as well. No, they are not dating." A clear statement from his grandmother, but the rumors won't stop that easily.

Dating or not, there seems to be another dorama with Yamashita and Kitagawa to look forward to. Do you like that couple?

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: Shukan Shincho
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Yesterday it finally was time for the "33rd Japan Academy Awards" held at the New Takanawa Grand Prince Hotel in Tokyo.

Actress Matsu Takako (32) won the Best Actress Award for her role in "Villon's Wife". She beat several strong rivals such as Ayase Haruka (24) or Hirosue Ryoko (29). The biggest winner of the night was the movie "Tsurugidake: Ten no Ki" (The Summit: A Chronicle Of Stones to Serenity) with a total of 6 awards. 

Here the complete list:

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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: Oricon
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