Top 10 celebrities who you would like to go on an overseas holiday with (Oricon)

Oricon conducted a survey on 400 respondents of both genders in their teens to 50s where they chose the celebrity who they wished to go on an overseas holiday with. Sakurai Sho was the favourite among the teenagers and those in their 20s while Imoto Ayako, Ishihara Satomi and Yamashita Tomohisa were tops in the 30s, 40s and 50s categories respectively:

1) Sakurai Sho

2) Imoto Ayako

3) Ishihara Satomi

4) Yamashita Tomohisa

5) Aragaki Yui

6) Watanabe Naomi

7) Degawa Tetsuro

8) Akashiya Sanma

9) Matsumoto Jun

10) Aiba Masaki

Source: Oricon

Preview of "Hanzai no Kaisou" (Drama SP)

Title: Hanzai no Kaisou 犯罪の回送
Official website: here
O.A. Date: 2 July 2018 @ 9pm
Broadcast by: TV Tokyo
Original novel by: Matsumoto Seicho
Cast: Murakami Hiroaki, Jinnai Takanori, Suzuki Honami, Hiraoka Yuta, Tanaka Michiko, Katsumura Masanobu, Omi Toshinori, Yada Akiko, Kawano Taro, Shibuki Jun

Top 10 actors who made a breakthrough in the first half of 2018 (Oricon)

The following survey was done by Oricon Monitor Research on 1,000 respondents from their teens to 50s between 16 June and 22 June where they chose which actor they felt had made a breakthrough in the first half of 2018. Hirano Sho was the favourite among teenagers while Shison swept the No.1 title for the rest of the age groups:

1) Shison Jun

2) Arata Mackenyu

3) Tanaka Kei

4) Hirano Sho (King & Prince)

5) Nakamura Tomoya

6) Sakaguchi Kentaro

7) Iwata Takanori

8) Nakagawa Taishi

9) Yoshida Kotaro

10) Kitamura Takumi

Source: Oricon

Preview of "Gibo to Musume no Blues" - Summer 2018

Title: Gibo to Musume no Blues 義母と娘のブルース (Stepmother's and Daughter's Blues)
Official website: here
Official Twitter: here
O.A. Start Date: 10 July 2018
Timeslot: Tuesdays 10pm
Broadcast by: TBS
Original manga by: Sakurazawa Rin
Cast: Ayase Haruka, Takenouchi Yutaka, Sato Takeru, Kamishiraishi Moka, Yokomizo Naho, Kawamura Yousuke, Hashimoto Mami, Marin, Muramoto Daisuke, Okuyama Yoshie, Asari Yousuke, Asano Kazuyuki and Asou Yumi

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 19th & 20th May 2018

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) Meitantei Conan Zero no shikkounin (360)

2) Peter Rabbit (311)

3) Nomitori Zamurai (326)

4) Rampage (339)

5) Avengers: Infinity War (362)

6) Korou no Chi (336)

7) Rapurasu no Majo (322)

8) GODZILLA Kessen Kido Zoushoku Toshi (158)

9) Saraba Seishun, Saredo Seishun (167)

10) Eiga Crayon Shin-chan Bakumori! Kungfu Boys Ramen Tairan (353)

Source: Eiga.com

Preview of "Genkai Danchi" - Spring 2018

Title: Genkai Danchi 限界団地 (The Housing Complex At Its Limit)
Official website: here
O.A. Start Date: 2 June 2018
Timeslot: Saturdays at 11.40pm
Broadcast by: Tokai TV / FujiTV
Theme Song: "Hibiwareta Sekai" by majiko
Cast: Sano Shiro, Adachi Rika, Sakoda Takaya, Yamazaki Shigenori, Watanabe Uta, Asaka Mayumi, Yamaya Hatsuo & Enami Kyoko

Storyline: The "danchi" (housing complex) used to be the desired new town in the past where people could interact freely with their neighbours and live together in a close-knit community that helped one another. However, as time passed, the danchi estates are a shadow of its glorious past where the connections between the residents are weakening and they lose interest in who their neighbours are.
Just then, an old man moves to this estate with his young granddaughter hoping to relive his happy days when he used to stay here during his youth. Although he looks like a kind old man on the surface, strange things start to happen with his arrival such as the serial deaths happening in strange circumstances and the bad things which happen to people who flout the estate's rules. Could this be something coincidental or more sinister than meets the eye? As the old man nears the end of his life, his abnormal love showered on his granddaughter and his overly-strong attachment to the good old days of the danchi will cause everyone around him to be embroiled in a strange and unpredictable series of events.

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 12th & 13th May 2018

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) Meitantei Conan Zero no shikkounin (360)

2) Avengers: Infinity War (362)

3) Korou no Chi (336)

4) Rapurasu no Majo (322)

5) Saraba Seishun, Saredo Seishun (167)

6) Ready Player One (346)

7) Eiga Crayon Shin-chan Bakumori! Kungfu Boys Ramen Tairan (353)

8) Coco (371)

9) Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (286)

10) Kido Senshi Gundam THE ORIGIN Tanjou Akai Suisei (35)

Source: Eiga.com

Preview of "Aniimouto" (Drama SP)

Title: Aniimouto あにいもうと (Siblings)
Official website: here
O.A. Date: 25 June 2018 at 8pm
Broadcast by: TBS
Scriptwriter: Yamada Yoji
Original novel by: Murou Saisei
Cast: Ooizumi Yo, Miyazaki Aoi, Takimoto Miori, Taiga, Nishihara Aki, Shimekake Ryuuya,  Ichiro Maki, Charlotte Kate Fox, Sasano Takashi & Namino Kuriko

Announcement: Some changes to the coverage on this blog

First of all, sorry for being MIA for about a month. Things have been rather hectic of late and my circumstances have changed in such a way that it has become almost impossible to keep up with my usual blogging pace. And inevitably, I have to consider what I need to do in order to keep this space going.

In the end, my conclusion is...to make some adjustments to the amount of content which I'm covering.

I know for sure that it's not possible for me to keep up with the news translation and coverage as per before. And yet, I don't want to give it up all together. The only way to get around this problem is to scale back on what I have been doing and make changes to the processing time needed for this task. As such, this is what I have to do.

- Most of the news will be "summarised" and posted exclusively on the Twitter and Facebook fan pages. If need be, please check the details on the original news stories. Google Translate will be there to help you if you can't understand Japanese.
As Twitter has a character limit, I can't write that much in a single tweet so it will most likely be a one-liner about the story. On the other hand, I can afford to write a bit more on Facebook but will keep it to three points max so that I can clear the news stories in a short time.
For major stories, I will probably spend a bit more time compiling various sources and doing a translated summary on the blog.

I have a rather huge backlog of stories so I will be posting them over the next week or so. Don't be surprised to see really old stories popping up here.

Please follow the blog's official Facebook and Twitter pages to continue getting the latest news. I'm not sure if there's any function on Twitter to help you see my tweets more easily among the sea of content you may be reading but I know that if you Like instead of Follow my Facebook page, it places the stories in a higher position within the hierarchy of posts. Otherwise, you have to keep coming back to the page to ensure that you do not miss anything.

- The second part to the change is the blog returning to its roots of focusing on reviews. This was initially set up for me to post reviews. However, I have been so caught up with posting translated news that I have totally neglected that aspect. With this change, I hope to use the time freed up to focus on writing reviews again and do more on my other blog Shoku / Shisou / Seikatsu which is on a more personal basis.

This decision is not an easy decision to make. However, rather than stress myself out over the things which I can't achieve now, I feel that these adjustments are necessary in order for me to continue with this blog. I hope that you can continue supporting this space as usual and look forward to interacting more with all of you.