“LIVE NEXT!! Featuring Hello! Project” Event Announced

Two one day events featuring a selection of members from Berryz Koubou and C-ute along with S/mileage titled LIVE NEXT!! Featuring Hello! Project have been announced.

The selection for members from Berryz Koubou and C-ute include Shimizu Saki, Tokunaga Chinami, Kumai Yurina, Yajima Maimi, and Nakajima Saki.

The clear details about what the members will do at the event have not been revealed but the site mentions that they will appear alongside a member of the Nankai Candies and there will be a live chat with girls and more live fun.

It’s always fun to see events where members from two groups can appear, and with what appears to be a unique theme this event will most likely be very interesting for fans since the focus seems to be not on performing but on a chat with girls and other activities, for example the page mentioned the making of a stage director.

I’m not that clear on what the event will be but I encourage fans in the area to attend one to find out for sure since the appearance of both Berryz and C-ute members in a five member team along with S/mileage the next day will be fun to see.

The events will start at 18:00 (JST) and will feature members from Berryz and C-ute on 9/3 and S/mileage on 9/4 at the Nippon Seinen Kan in Tokyo.

Official H!P Page For LIVE NEXT!! Featuring Hello! Project

Happy 18th Birthday Tokunaga Chinami!

Today is Tokunaga Chinami‘s 18th birthday and I have decided to do a small post to congratulate her since she is one of my favorite Berryz Koubou and H!P members.

Chii usually doesn’t get the attention she deserves so I decided to spotlight her and show some (many) of her pictures as well as a brief story as to how I became a Chii fan.

The story isn’t that in depth since there isn’t much to it, but since the day I first heard Berryz Koubou Chii always stood out to me because of her incredible personality since she was usually the member who smiled the brightest and told jokes which made everyone happy.

After I read many stories about how Chii had made members smile when they felt sad (for example Momo) I instantly liked Chii a lot more and she became my top favorite Berryz Koubou member and one of my many H!P favorites from then on.

Her bright smile, her personality and her cuteness make her a great idol and even though she usually doesn’t appear as a main singer in singles she is a very talented idol with a great voice.

Chii was finally given her first PB last year, which made her and all of her fans very happy, and while it was only her first one she will hopefully get many more in the future (you can check out my review of her PB in the Review section).

Apart from her PB she also got a solo in the last Berryz Koubou concert:

Tokunaga Chinami – Ohiru no Kyuukei Jikan

Video uploaded by: JoshuaHallto2

Without a doubt Chii has grown a lot during the last year and she has become a very talented and beautiful idol, and I will continue supporting her in everything she does in the future.

She is simply one of the best idols I have seen because of her personality, cuteness, and overall character, and now that she is 18 years old I want to wish her a great birthday and I hope that she gets many new fans and PBs this year.

Happy Birthday Chinami-chan!
誕生日おめでとう 千奈美ちゃん!

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*I added larger versions of the pictures after the break*

EDIT: A picture of Chinami with her new hairstyle and her birthday cake:

Shimizu Saki, Tokunaga Chinami and Kumai Yurina Arrive In Thailand

Berryz Koubou members Shimizu Saki, Tokunaga Chinami and Kumai Yurina arrived in Thailand earlier today to promote their first concert in Bangkok. Ticket’s will be on sale to the general public soon (although roughly half of the sets are already booked through presale, especially the good seats).

It is great to see that they are promoting their concert well by sending members over to appear on TV and on radio since it probably means that they are trying their best to make their first concert in Thailand a great one.

There were also many fans at the airport to welcome them and here is one of the many videos that are up on Youtube (check out TIMMII97’s channel for more videos of the girls arriving at the airport).

Video uploaded by: TIMMII97

This is the video of the show they appeared in:

Berryz Koubou on Channel V Thailand Pt 1

Berryz Koubou on Channel V Thailand Pt 2

Videos uploaded by: loveberryzthai

Hopefully the seats for the concert sell well and we get a great concert since it would mean that Berryz Koubou’s first concert overseas was a great success (technically second if you count Korea).

Berryz Koubou’s First Live In Bangkok will occur on 3/27.

ThaiTicketMajor Site To Buy Tickets (Ticket sales up now)

PingBook Page With Information About The Show (In Thai)

Tokunaga Chinami Diagnosed With Flu-Like Symptoms

Tokunaga Chinami has been diagnosed with flu like symptoms, and as a result will have to rest for 5 days. She will miss two Berryz Koubou concerts during that time, which are: 11/7 in Aichi Kinrou Kaikan (Nagoya) and 11/8 in Osaka Kosei Nenkin Kaikan.

It seems that the flu again has started with the other Berryz members, and after infecting all but one member it seems that the flu has started to affected H!P once again, more specifically Berryz Koubou. Kuma-chan is the only member of Berryz Koubou until now who hasn’t been infected, and hopefully that is still the case by the end of the tour.

As for Chinami I hope that the symptoms are nothing serious and that she can come back to perform smiling like always in no time. Her solo will probably be done by another member during her absence so hopefully they give it to a member who hasn’t had a chance to sing that much in the tour.

Official H!P Announcement Regarding Chinami’s Flu

Get Well Soon Chii!

H!P Releases September 11

• Tokunaga Chinami – “Chinami” (PB)  HMV Amazon

Only one release today, Tokunaga Chinami’s 1st solo PB:

Tokunaga Chinami – Chinami, Chinami’s 1st solo PB and 1st PB by an H!P Kid in Hawaii (please correct me if I’m wrong). Chii has always had a great idol personality, and that is highly noticeable by her smile (like Niigaki it’s almost impossible to not see her smile) and of course because she’s pretty (I’m completely biased), so it was just a matter of time until they gave her a PB and fortunately we didn’t have to wait long.

I have to admit I have been looking forward to this PB since it was announced and I’m glad to see that the pictures don’t disappoint at all.

The cover, for example, features Chii in a green bikini smiling as she is getting out of a pool, and even though the giant “Chinami” watermark on the side distracts a bit the cover looks fantastic.

♥

Chii’s 1st PB was shot in Hawaii so most of the pictures have Hawaiian scenery, which is perfect since it reflects her happy and bright personality. And in all of the previews I have seen it is incredibly noticeable that she had a lot of fun doing the PB, so hopefully UFA decides to give her another one with a chance at a solo DVD.

The PB, like most PB’s, is split between casual wear pictures and bikini pictures, and even though I usually only focus on the casual I have to admit that she looks really good in a bikini.

♥♥♥

Most of the pictures I have seen so far look great, especially the picture of Chii in the “Aloha” shirt where she simply smiles while looking directly at the camera. Or another picture where she looks into the distance while in a room with the calm and beautiful scenery behind her while she wears a pink shirt (or sweater, I have no idea what it is) with hearts on it (looks a bit like Tsuji’s “rest wear”).

Overall I would highly recommend it to everyone, and even though I speak as a Chinami fan I think that Berryz Koubou and H!P fans in general will really like this PB. She is usually one of the most underestimated members of Berryz Koubou so I’m glad to see that she finally gets a bit more attention.

Also  a quick notice, I plan on doing a more complete review when my copy arrives (HMV barely shipped mine…) so please look forward to that.

Next release date is 9/16 with C-ute’s 10th single (last one for Erika) titled “EVERYDAY Zekkouchou”, Guardians 4 Single V for “School Day’s” and Goto Maki’s 1st physical album since leaving Hello! Project titled “SWEET BLACK”.

Tokunaga Chinami – “Chinami” Making Of Preview Released

A preview of the Making Of for Tokunaga Chinami’s 1st PB Chinami has been released on Dohhh UP. I’m really happy to see that the Making Of DVD came out great, and Chinami fans will really be happy with the result (although a solo DVD would have been nice…)

The preview features Chinami in casual wear and in bikini during most of the preview (the preview is almost half casual and half bikini). I might be slightly biased because I’m a Chinami fan, but she looks incredibly pretty in all of the previews (especially when she looks at the camera and smiles).

As you all know the PB was shot in Hawaii, so expect to see many shots of Chinami outside in either a bikini or casual wear. I’m glad that they decided to make the PB in Hawaii, since it probably means that they already had planned to do a PB for her for a while and shot it during the Berryz Koubou Alo Hello.

She looks like she had a lot of fun doing the PB (noticeable because she is smiling throughout the entire preview), so hopefully they give her a chance to do another one.

Dohhh UP Link To Making Of Preview

Tokunaga Chinami 1st PB Announced, Titled “Chinami”

Tokunaga Chinami’s 1st PB titled Chinami has been announced for release under Kids Net. The PB is in A4 size (about 210 mm x 297 mm) and will include a Making Of DVD.

I am really happy that they finally are starting to release PB’s for members that don’t have one and hopefully this trend continues some more (still waiting for a Shimizu PB).

The cover looks really good, although the only thing that I don’t like that much is the giant “Chinami” on the side which looked like a watermark at first. Chinami looks great in a green bikini, and apart from the somewhat strange looking text they used for the title I really like it a lot (this from a biased Chinami fan).

The news came out of no where, somewhat similar to Kumai’s PB, and it’s good to know that she is getting at least a handshake event on that day for her PB. Preview’s are going to be hopefully appearing soon so I’ll try and update with some when they are released.

The release date is set for 9/11.

Official H!P Announcement About Chinami’s PB

Info About H!P Handshake Event

Tokunaga Chinami’s Collapse In Concert

Many blogs and forums have already reported this, I knew about it since it was reported when it occured on Jphip and over at the Tokunaga Chinami thread on H!O, but I didn’t post it, mainly because it was just a slight incident with no long term effects. I decided to post it now mainly to inform those people who do not know, or do not know exactly what happened and because she is my favorite member after Niigaki and Sayumi. I wasn’t present at the concert, I am mainly guiding myself from forum posts from gordokaba over at H!O who has details on the incident, so if you have questions I probably won’t be able to answer them.

The incident occured at the Hachioji concert this past Sunday, according to gordokaba:

“From what I could see she realized that she became dizzy or something and tried get off stage by herself. Then the staff ran up and caught her right before she was falling down. I’m pretty sure that she didnt hurt herself then. And with passed out -> fainting. She was lying on the side of the stage for like a second before they carried her away and we couldn’t see anymore of her.”

“Afterwards Momoko came back on stage and said something in the line of that “she got exhausted by having a bit too much fun, but now she’s feeling okey”.

Source: gordokaba @ H!O

It’s a slight incident and I’m sure we can take Momoko’s word that she is fine and just suffered energy loss. She will probably be ready for the next concert with a big smile and just wave the accident off like it was nothing, but she will hopefully be allowed to rest a bit and take it easy for some time. It is understandable that she would suffer some exhaustion, Yaguchi for example used to run around and jump all around the concert stage while singing, but because of years of practice and more energy. Chinami is somewhat like her (from the few performances I’ve seen) but compared to Yaguchi she is younger, combined with the overwhelming work Berryz Koubou it was understandable that it resulted in some exhaustion.

Berryz Koubou has lately suffered a lot of incidents, sickness being one of the bigger one’s, probably caused by the overall strain of an upcoming single, the Alo-Hello DVD coming out soon, and the concert tour. Hopefully the girls can get some rest sometime soon because compared to the other 2 groups they are being overworked a bit more than usual (as a group, not as separate members).

Chinami, please continue to light up the stage like you always do, but take it easy for a while and get better.