So, Shintaro Morimoto’s birthday has disappeared from Johnny’s website calendar. That’s usually as official as it gets...an idol has retired, or more likely, been retired. Showbiz is tough. With Johnny, there’s no announcement and no certainty. For a while you think “maybe it was a typo” or “soon they’ll come to their senses” or “the uprising ( Read more... )

Lately it seems like I have something to say about once a year. This might be worth the wait. I just finished with this year's highlight, traveling about halfway around the world to see SUMMARY 2011 at Tokyo Dome City Hall. The dream started when Johnny's announced their first international ticket sales last year. I was hoping, but not ( Read more... )

It was so good to see Nakayama Yuma on this month's Shonen Clubs from Osaka. There he was in his old job, leading Hey!Say!7 WEST, all over the place in front of the camera. Good for him! He looks great, with a new hairstyle - in fact, he looks so different I almost didn't recognize him ( Read more... )

I just got the An An magazine that features Yamada and Yuma on the cover. OK, I probably shouldn't have paid $12 including shipping for this, but if I lived in Japan it would be a bargain for ¥370. Except in Japan this is old news; a newer issue has already been out for a week ( Read more... )

Check out the new Broadway Billy Elliot!


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I came across the drama Aishiteru while downloading Koishite Akuma. It has completely distracted me from watching Yuma's show for the time being. High quality j-dorama. I'm only halfway through so I can't tell you if the ending holds up, but I'm totally hooked. The story is about a 5th grader who finds a younger boy locked out of his house, ( Read more... )

I always thought Joey Tee was older than he was. Turns out that for most of those J-International days, he was only 12. Most of the J-International members seem to have left Johnny's. The only ones I see these days are Camu and Jesse ( Read more... )

I've been thinking a lot about Ryutaro Morimoto's brush with crime the other day, and all the reactions it's brought and is sure to bring in the future. At this point, the reports say he had a confrontation with a stalking, persistent, way-over-the-line "fan," who talked about having a knife and grabbed Ryutaro's phone. Scary stuff, and who hasn' ( Read more... )

One of the best things about Hey!Say!JUMP's Yokohama concert is how it starts with such a bang. Before any lengthy introductions, they're out on stage Jumping to their Dreams. Then - bam - into Dreams Come True. What a great start! I watched all these songs thinking this is more than a boy band, these are great entertainers who are going to be ( Read more... )

I don't know if it's the recession, or if Johnny just decided he was getting too big too fast, but this year's Junior calendar shows an astounding unemployment rate of 56%. That's right, unless I'm missing something, more than half of last year's Juniors have packed up their multicolored costumes and left the building. This isn't a total disaster ( Read more... )