New HP CM

Although tomochin did not appear in the HP Support Angels CM last year, she is recently selected as 1 of the 5 members of AKB48 to star in the new HP CM. The five members involved are Tomochin, Acchan, Mariko-sama, KojiHaru and 13th gen research student Mitumune Kaoru, whom you may remember as the only 13th gen research student who performed in last year’s AKB48 Kouhaku event.

I must say I was pretty surprised myself to see this new girl getting so much push before she even made it to a official member but I do not deny that it is a good tactic to generate interest and discussion since AKB is pretty much involved in every single product endorsement that people may not take so much notice in this new series of endorsement of HP laptops.

Tomochin Arrives in Shanghai

Tomochin, Yui and Ume-chan arrived in Shanghai this early afternoon for the 元気な日本 campaign which AKB48 are acting as supporters. A lot of Chinese fans have been planning for her arrival and even printed huge banners and new fan club T-shirts to welcome her. As no flight information was disclosed, many of the Chinese fans started waiting since the night before (until the twitter picture showing the three girls having dinner confirmed that they are not going to arrive in the night). Also, the fans were also unsure if the girls were actually departing from Tokyo, and that greatly increased the number of flight arrivals possible. In the end, the turnout at Pudong Airport was small because majority of the fans were camping for a different flight at Shanghai’s other airport, Hongqiao Airport.

After the news that tomochin and the other girls have arrived at Pudong Airport, all the remaining fans rushed to the venue where the performance was to be held and below are some photos taken by the various fans.

According to tomochin’s Google+/twitter, she has been feeling unwell even before the handshake event yesterday. After commenting that she was feeling uncomfortably warm and non-stop sneezes, fans and members and even Aki-P alike, commented on her posts and told her to take care of her health and rest more. Chinese fans were super worried that she was not going to make it for the Shanghai trip at the last minute but luckily all things went well; our dear girl even managed to sustain throughout the handshake event which is definitely not an easy feat.

More fan reports will come up soon and I hope to share more about her trip and the fans’ impressions soon.

Tomochin Goes to China

It is official; tomochin will finally be making her first trip to meet her China fans as part of the Genki Japan campaign mentioned previously. There will be 3 stops in total, namely Beijing, Shanghai followed by Hong Kong. Tomochin, Ume-chan and Yui will be going to Shanghai for a special performance and a meet & greet session. It will be the first time tomochin gets to meet her huge chinese fanbase and I am feeling excited for this whole event already.

Due to the large number of people who wants to meet the girls, the organisers have set up a lucky draw system for the event. Results were announced earlier today via email and at the moment, there is a lot of activity over on the Chinese forums on exchanging of tickets for preferred time slot out of the 2. Let’s all hope that the security and reception will be awesome for the girls and that they will have a safe and memorable trip!

Third Single!

If you have been following Aki-P’s Google+ account closely (which I highly recommend you to, for translated post add here), since his first surprise find of a nice tune for tomochin’s new single, he has finally say that he is starting to write the lyrics for it. And his update this afternoon went:

I listened to the sound source of Itano’s recording , and since the falsetto was beautiful ,
I want a song that is made use of high notes .
Yoshimasa!
Yoshimasa and Jyunji Takada are close friends .
This is a trivia .

I must say that I am both excited and worried for tomochin at the same time. I will loveee to hear beautiful falsettos from tomochin but then again I fear it will pressurize her so much during live performances in music programmes when she start promoting her single. And unofficial sources revealed that the new single will be released on the 25th of April, 2 months from now. Be ready for any changes since it is yet announced on any official channels though.

Give Me Five!

AKB48’s 25th single, Give Me Five!, has officially gone on racks and sold over a million. I think we are looking at 1.2m at the end of their first week which is totally awesome though they did not crack the million mark on their first day, something which we have probably gotten used to seeing in 2011. The girls have gone on to various music programs such as Music Station and Happy Music to promote their latest single and as what most of the fans have hoped, they performed as a band in all these promotional performances.

I did not highlight this single much on tomoland because I think most of you would have gotten relevant information regarding the single from all other AKB sources and for some extras, I am here to share some 25th single tomochin related stuff only~

For a start, this awesome picture of tomochin that comes along in theatre editions:

A few gifs I found randomly on weibo and Baidu, all featuring tomochin (along with mariko-sama) during their band performances. Being not involved in any of the key instruments, I am thankful that tomochin still had reasonable screentime during performances lol, or else that would have made me so sad.

         

My favourite is the second one, i think the 2 girls are trying to play some transparent guitar over there XD.

For some random member ai, tomochin twitted that she changed her hairstyle for Music Station into something more girly, to which mariko-sama responded that “rather than it being girly, it’s sexy, Itano-san”. I have decided to have a Member Ai post II soon, the interactions between tomochin and mariko-sama are so silly sometimes that I just want to share. =P

More Goo Goodies

I love tomochin’s endorsement of Goo and all it’s related products & website. There have been a recent new release of tomochin’s 7 styles in a bigger resolution on it’s facebook page. I am not too sure the exact usage of these pictures since they are not desktop wallpaper friendly either… but who cares right? Click for bigger reso and save away~

Naruhodo HS: Which of the members do you think…

I just remembered that I’ve forgotten to share this piece of poll results with you guys. On the 2nd Feb Naruhodo High School episode, a street survey was held in Osaka among the middle-aged to elderly residents. Do note that most of the residents probably do not know the girls well and judge based on looks alone (which is btw the small profile pic of the girls on AKB48’s official website).

Here is a summary of the girls who appeared top for each of the categories:

Which of the AKB members do you think…

1. is most disliked by the other members of the group
– Takamina (tomochin was no. 2 with only 1 vote’s difference)

2. is the dumbest
– Mayuyu (most common reason is that they don’t think girls with such ponytails appear smart)

3. is the stingiest
– Mariko-sama (this is funny, the most common response was that she had short hair so that she could save on shampoo)

4. you will want as your daughter-in-law
– Acchan (the amazing thing is, tomochin was no. 2 with only 5 votes dif. that was totally unexpected for me.)

5. is the most popular (popular as in guys will go after)
– Tomochin (as expected)

6. is the one most likely to be transexual (remember the Naruhodo HS SP where we had a Onei48?)
– Sayaka (my poor girl)

7. is most likely to appear in FRIDAY magazine (FRIDAY is a tabloid magazine known for uncovering a lot of showbiz relationships and scandals, so indirectly i guess it also means that which member is most likely to get involved in a scandal)
– Tomochin (reason being she has the looks which older men like and hence likely to get taken advantage of and get involved in these scandalous relationship)

8. has the dirtiest room
– Sae

9. is most likely not a member of AKB
– Kitarie (that was kind of sad)

For a more detailed breakdown of score numbers please see under cut, it’s long.

(more…)

Myojo Readers Vote for Their AKB48 Oshimen

Myojo, a popular teen magazine that mainly covers male celebrities, especially those of the Johnny Jimusho, released an AKB48 Oshimen Ranking. As the main target market of the magazine is junior high girls, this ranking may not accurately reflect any indication towards the AKB election results this year but definitely does provide an interesting insight into the likes of Japanese young girls who are most probably avid Arashi or NYC Boys fans.

The ace of AKB is indeed the ace; Acchan leads the pack with 783 while tomochin is lagging just a little behind at 724 votes ♥ There is a huge gap between tomochin and Mayuyu who got a total of 345 votes. The votes for the rest of the girls are undisclosed but I am surprised that Yuko ranked all the way at 7th and Miichan actually got a 4th (miichan is my oshi too so yay for that too). From the older AKBingo episodes and fan reports of handshake events, tomochin is probably the member with the most number of children fans; kids from elementary school to early junior high years. If these fans continue to be dedicated and not oshihen (change oshi) as they grow up and gain buying power, tomochin’s future is bright.

When the mid-way results were released, Mayuyu was 2nd while Tomochin was 3rd. More and more fans of tomochin began to vote and at some point of time, her votes nearly surpassed Acchan’s. The magazine also highlighted that other than common reasons such as her duck lips charm point, surprisingly, many voters commented about how they liked tomochin’s my pace attitude and her sometimes sarcastic comments.

The chart also got me wondering if the magazine is actually based in Kansai region or if a large percentage of the voters came from that area as the NMB48 members that ranked here surprisingly does not include Sayanee, the only NMB member featured at all in AKB48’s senbatsu. So I gather those voters must have watched the NMB48 shows personally or follow their television programs and grow to like the other girls like Yamada Nana (since their television programs are only shown in the Kansai region).

2011 Fast-rising Blogs Ranking

I am not too sure if that is the right name to call this rank but basically it refers to the top 10 Ameblo blogs which received the greatest increment in views and hits in 2011. Among the top 10, for AKB have Yuko at number 1, Acchan at number 3, Sasshi at number 4 and tomochin at number 7. I am personally happy for tomochin to be ranked 7th despite her not updating as frequently as the other members. I am pretty sure her blog is going to have even more daily views if she updates more often with more text and more personal and member photos, but this is my pace tomo for you, lol.

[THEATRE MSG] Itano Tomomi 3rd Feb 2012

Today is Reinyan’s Birthday show ☆☆ Tomo was the MC for today’s show. Chiyuri-chan’s letter was so touching!!! I will do my best for the next performance too!