Official “Tsunku Project” Site Opened

A site featuring info about many of Tsunku’s projects titled Tsunku Project has been opened.

For the most part the site is a pretty interesting addition since it has info about many things that are related to him, such as info about the movie he will be directing, his Rhythm Tengoku games, links to blogs of many UFA members, his Twitter, his blog, as well as episodes of his show Tsuntube, and it’s simply a great way to find info about Tsunku and his activities.

Apart from that I really like the way the site looks since it’s clean and it features an impressive logo with the words Tsunku Project in a crystal heart with a gold border and wings, which is impressive to look at since I didn’t expect to see something like that as part of Tsunku’s site. Despite that the colorful banner and the colorful buttons make the site easy to navigate and equally easy to find out info about Tsunku at a glance.

Hopefully everyone can check it out, and while there might not be as much info right now it will most likely have quite a lot of news about his upcoming projects in a few months.

Official Tsunku Project Site

Serend Blog Permanately Closed

http://twitter.com/#!/Serendnet/status/108768567650037760

The Serend Blog will permanately be closed.

This doesn’t relate to H!P too much but each Berryz Koubou member had a mini-blog here, C-ute had a temporary blogs here and I believe Tsunku had a blog here too.

From my understanding the site has closed down, so it wasn’t a decision that H!P had a say in. It’s a shame that the site has closed down since the blogs provided a means of communication with the fans.

Hopefully H!P can find a replacement site for the Berryz Koubou blogs and maybe Tsunku can even “relocate” his blog too.

The site will close on 9/20.

Tsunku To Appear on “J-POP Seishun no ’80”

According to his blog, Tsunku will make an appearance and perform on NHK’s J-POP Seishun no ’80.

He will perform songs from Morning Musume, Sharan Q, as well as a few others.

Tsunku might have a busy schedule with the S/mileage audition, Momusu’s audition, his TsunTube show as well as a lot more, but it’s great to see that Tsunku still makes appearances on shows to perform since he is after all a talented singer and with the promise of seeing him perform songs from many groups it seems like fans are in for a great show.

The names of the songs he will perform haven’t been released but we will probably see him perform some of the most popular songs, although it will be interesting to see if he performs any new songs from Momusu. Along with songs from Momusu and his group Sharan Q we will see other songs, but he doesn’t mention from what groups so we will have to wait and see.

Hopefully everyone who can checks out the performance.

The appearance is schedules for 8/25 from 20:00 ~ 20:58.

Tsunku Blog

J-POP Seishun no ’80 Site

Tsunku Opens Up A Facebook Account

Tsunku has opened up a Facebook account.

There’s not much on his page yet except for his profile picture and his biography. The only thing I see of interest so far is Tsunku tweeted two photos of the H!P girls practicing for their upcoming summer concert. Since his facebook is connected to his twitter and blog his Facebook is a much easier way to stay up to date with things. Also Facebook is one of the most popular social sites so it’s good promotion for himself.

Hopefully other UFA artists follow the example and more of them join Facebook.

Tsunku’s Facebook

Tsunku’s “Minna no Rhythm Tengoku” Wii Game Announced

A new Nintendo Wii game by Tsunku and TNX titled Minna no Rhythm Tengoku has been announced.

As you might remember Tsunku ventured into video games a few years ago with the release of a fun rhythm based DS game titled Rhythm Tengoku or Rhythm Heaven as it was known in the US and while there wasn’t that much hype at first it was really well received since it had a unique concept that many gamers around the world enjoyed (most reviews I have seen are very positive and it even had an arcade release in Japan).

I am a really big fan of rhythm and music games so I’m looking forward to seeing this game since I already had a chance to play a demo of the previous DS version a few years ago and it was without a doubt one of the best games I have played since it manages to feature a similar system to Dance Dance Revolution where players match actions to the beat but in a unique way based on mini-games where gamers have to follow the beat of the song in order to do certain actions.

The official site features many videos with various scenes from the game, such as the player controlling a fork while catching peas or hitting a golf ball tossed by a monkey, which should give everyone an idea about how the game is played (simply press the button to the rhythm) and while it doesn’t seem to use the gesture control of the controller it looks like a very polished game with many fun games.

Apart from 1 player games we also get to see some interesting 2 player games which so far look amazing since they manage to incorporate the concept of the game for many players.

Tsunku continues to amaze us with his many projects alongside H!P and this game is a good example of that since I wouldn’t have expected to see him continue to work on video games apart from directing movies, producing TNX and H!P, along with all of the other work he has but fans of rhythm and music games will love this game for sure.

So far only the release date for Japan has been announced, but the game will be released this year worldwide so hopefully and fans who liked the DS game take a look at this interesting game.

The release date is set for 7/21.

Official Minna no Rhythm Tengoku Site

EDIT: Thanks to Mint for posting about this!

According to a post from the Amazon page for the soundtrack of the game Minna no Rhythm Tengoku will feature songs from many Nice Girl artists such as THE Possible, Canary Club, Ogawa Mana and (Kurei) Soshi.

Minna no Rhythm Tengoku for the Wii will have new songs from THE Possible, Canary Club, Ogawa Mana, and (Kurei) Soshi! Game: 7/21; CD: 8/24

— nicegirl_en (@nicegirl_en) July 7, 2011

Minna no Rhythm Tengoku game: http://amzn.to/nLzDg1 Soundtrack: http://amzn.to/nZwiOo http://bit.ly/oSvsKE #thepossible #canaryclub

— nicegirl_en (@nicegirl_en) July 7, 2011

It’s great to see that Tsunku has incorporated music from his own company since it gives each group a bit more exposure worldwide, and with a fun and interesting game like this it will be interesting to see how their songs are used in the game

The soundtrack for the game will be released on 8/24.

Tsunku Will Start A New Entertainment Show Titled “TsunTube”

According to Musicman-net, Tsunku will start a new entertainment show titled TsunTube♂ which will air on MXTV and will focus on music, games, anime, idols, software, and manga.

Screenshot of the official site

Here are more details about the show from TokyoHive:

The show’s content will shine a spotlight on Japan’s core entertainment that has recently been gathering attention worldwide, and in keeping with the late night show tradition, will also feature appearances from many beautiful girls.

As the main personality, each week Tsunku♂ will touch upon different themes and focus on connecting to them along with the viewers. The show will also be organized into various mini corners introducing core information.

Moreover, keeping in line with the show’s title, a number of the back episodes will be uploaded to YouTube, and in accordance with today’s evolving lifestyles, fans will be able to watch a large number of the shows in their free time, outside of the normal broadcast.

The show will also have two mascots that will serve as the image of the show, the first of them being Otaku-shi who is a symbol “capturing the feel of today’s cool otaku“:

As well as Tsunkuma who, as the name suggests, is a bear made to resemble Tsunku:

Tsunku surprises me each day since he manages to do things that not many of us would expect to see, and I have to admit that I am really surprised since I never expected him to have his own late night show and while we have no clear idea about how the show will be presented I am looking forward to finding out since the theme of the show is really interesting.

It’s not clear whether Tsunku himself will appear as host of the show or whether there will be other hosts, such as animated versions of the two mascots or one of the many “beautiful girls” who will be appearing but the idea of airing the show then adding the episodes on Youtube for fans to see them anytime they like is a really good idea since it gives fans a chance to sleep throughout the night knowing that they didn’t miss a show, not to mention that it makes it easier for fans who usually upload shows to Youtube.

As far the mascots go they are unique since I didn’t expect to see Tsunku represented by a cute white bear with a punk look, and while the bear might not exactly look like Tsunku (apart from the different colored bandana and hairstyle) he will probably be fairly popular among female viewers of the show since the bear is pretty cool and cute.

There aren’t that many details about how the episodes will look but we will most likely find out once the first episode is released (in about 16 hours or so), and while the articles don’t mention the Youtube account where the episodes will be uploaded it seems that they will use the official TNX Youtube channel since the site features a link to that channel.

I look forward to seeing the show when it is released so hopefully many fans can check out the first episode when it airs.

The show will air every Friday starting 7/1 on MXTV at 26:00 ~ 26:30 (2:00~2:30 AM).

MusicMan Article About Tsunku’s Show

TokyoHive Article

Official TsunTube Twitter

Official Tsuntube Site

Ishikawa Rika and Nakazawa Yuko To Appear In A Movie Produced By Tsunku

Ishikawa Rika will be starring in a movie titled Atsushi Hime Number 1 (Eng: Number 1 Kind Princess).

The movie will be produced by Tsunku, this being his first time producing a movie. Nakazawa Yuko will also appear in the movie as supporting actress.

Tsunku has done practically everything: he voiced an anime character, he’s part of a popular band Sharan Q, he’s the producer for most of H!P and writes most of their singles among many, many other things, but it seems like he can finally add another item to the list: a movie producer, and while it’s not clear whether it will be a DVD release or a theater release (most likely theater) I am looking forward to it.

The outfit that Rika was wearing at the announcement event was very interesting since she appeared wearing a cute traditional red kimono along with an interesting hairstyle which made me look forward to seeing the movie even more since it looks like her character will be pretty interesting to see.

Like his music we don’t really have any idea about what to expect, but we will probably see a very interesting movie since it has a more traditional Japanese theme (as we can tell from Rika’s outfit) and along with Rika’s appearance as the main actress and Yuko as supporting actress it should be a great movie to check out once it’s released.

The movie is expect to be released next Spring.

Mantan Site

News Coverage Of S/mileage’s Member Auditions

BARKS news has released coverage for S/mileage’s new member audition.

When asked what type of member he’s looking for this is what Tsunku said:

“I’m (looking) for members who seem like they’ll motivate S/mileage and Hello! Project. I might even pull girls from the Eggs (Hello! Project trainees). I’ve been thinking of adding Eggs into S/mileage. Basically, I’m looking for their appeal to the public.”

I wasn’t too surprised though that he may look at the H!P Eggs since S/mileage was created from them plus he looked to them during the Morning Musume 9th gen auditions.

However Tsunku also noted that he may have a system of “sub-members” and he may even add up to 6 members to the group. While I’m not sure what he means by sub-members these are his comments from the article. (Translation thanks to TokyoHive)

“Three or four sub-members, and one or two normal members, if I add six members, they’ll all be sub-members, but if there’s a girl who’s outstanding I’ll make her a main member.”

Some fans are speculating that Tsunku is trying to bring back a workshop type group, similar to what he had in mind for Berryz Koubou, where the members would be rotated. I think that would be quite interesting but for now we’ll just have to wait for more info from Tsunku.

The auditions are filled with a lot of surprises so far and according to the article this is only for the 1st day! Hopefully more news will be released regarding the auditions, until then please continue to support S/mileage.

TokyoHive Translation Page

BARKS news Coverage

Tsunku’s 3rd Child Is Born

A few months ago Tsunku announced that right after his 42nd birthday his wife was pregnant with his 3rd child which was due to be born on April 1st, but the baby girl was just born (2 weeks early)!

The baby was born on March 16 at 2500 grams.

I’m really glad to see that Tsunku’s baby girl was born without any complications since the recent earthquake was a primary concern for everyone, but even though there was the fear of some aftershocks that might have affected the birth Tsunku sounds relieved that there was no problem at all and that the baby is healthy and safe.

Since Tsunku is most likely occupied with his many fund raising efforts for the earthquake as well as taking care of the newest addition to his family there haven’t been any photos yet of the baby girl but hopefully we get to see some photos of the happy family as well as a mention of the name they chose soon.

Congratulations Tsunku and Kanako on your 3rd child!

Serend Blog Post About Tsunku’s 3rd Child

EDIT: More news reports about Tsunku’s third child:

Natalie.mu Article

Barks.jp Article

New Tsunku Single Announced, Titled “To You”

Tsunku has announced his next solo single titled To You. The c/w for the single is titled My Song.

I’m glad that Tsunku is still focused on his career apart from composing songs for all H!P groups since he does have quite a few fans, and even though it might be extra work he has done a great job so far with his past releases, including his most recent single Tsubasa.

He did state quite a while ago that he had a problem with his vocal cords, but from what I can see from his new releases it seems that he is a lot better and is moving his career along.

Hopefully we get to hear a preview soon since the cover and the titles for the songs seem interesting.

The release date is set for 12/29.

Natalie.mu Article About Tsunku’s Single