Shuukan Yoro! Vol 139

Site: The new review section debuted earlier this week and it seems like for the most part it was very well received so I’ll continue that format from now on!

The post was supposed to go up around Sunday but since I had a few problems updating the table with the shop links to a more easy to read and more informative style it took around a day more, but I’m really happy with how the review came out. It was rather long (more than 2,700 words) but I liked the freedom of being able to talk about everything I wanted about the single, that along with the new table format, in depth style, and easy to follow layout made the post a really great addition to the site in my opinion since it gives more details than a simple brief look.

What can you expect from this new section? Reviews from the major releases from each group, such as singles, albums, and sometimes DVDs if they’re concerts or something similar. We won’t review every single good since sometimes there isn’t that much to say or there isn’t that much info available, but feel free to send us a message and let us know if you want us to review a particular good that’s going to be released soon.

So that being said the next review will be C-ute’s Kimi wa Jitensha Watashi wa Densha de Kitaku, and it should be up by this Sunday for sure since the layout is complete and it’s just a matter of filling in the review:

Like the H!P Releases posts I included the shopping links, but I know that not everyone shops at CDJapan, HMV, Amazon.jp or YesAsia since after all digital formats are becoming more and more popular since it’s easier to support your favorite group by just buying them electronically the day of release without having to spend a lot of money on shipping and singles or albums to enjoy it, so I’m glad to announce the addition of iTunes links:

The links are aimed primarily to the US store (adding links for every single store in the world would take an incredible amount of time) but thankfully it seems like the links don’t have the country codes so it should be easy for everyone to get the correct link. The only disadvantage of iTunes links are that usually the links for the singles/albums on iTunes are released the day that the actual single is released, but that can easily be resolved by updating the posts on that day with the new links instead of the “pre-order” links. Hopefully everyone likes the addition of these new links, and if you have a store recommendation we can add make sure to let us know and we’ll consider adding it!

Apart from the addition I’m also trying out a new widget that will hopefully be helpful for many, Latest iTunes Releases:

It’s basically just a quick link to the latest release on the iTunes store for any H!P group, and while it might be simple I hope it’s of great use to everyone. The style of the widget is basically the previous widget I had except instead of having links to CDJapan, HMV, and YesAsia it only has links to iTunes, and I decided to use this format since updating the previous widget was too much work (that’s the primary reason why I abandoned that idea after a few weeks), but this widget should be up from now on since it’s only one link.

I’m also planning on adding another widget with the three latest reviews for those who would like to read them without having to look for them, but I haven’t had a chance to add it, although it shouldn’t take that much time since I already have the layout in mind.

Hopefully these new additions and improvements are useful to everyone who uses the site since there are many more that I will update soon, primarily the Birthday and Links pages which were put aside for a while due to the unforeseen amount of work on the Hello! Review post. They’ll both be up by tomorrow so hopefully everyone likes how they look!

Social: 774 followers on Twitter and 773 fans on Facebook, and like every week a big thank you to everyone.

During the past week I’ve started to focus on Twitter a lot more with the return of updates as well as the Oricon reports, and I’m glad to see that the increase in followers reflects how the updates were received. Basically the type of info you saw this past week is the kind of info we’ll post about there, focusing more on the semi-important news while leaving the site for the must read news, and the Facebook page for basically a center of all info.

Just quick mention, updates will come primarily when I’m not in school or have other crucial projects to finish so please excuse the small delay in updates. All updates will be posted though so if you prefer Twitter over Facebook then please follow us, although I would recommend you follow our page and Twitter to get the entire spectrum of info.

That being said please look forward to the general improvement of the site and all of our outlets of info from now on, but like always a big thank you to everyone who follows the site, our Twitter account, as well as the Facebook page!

Polls:

The winner for this poll was Okai Chisato with 412 votes (48%), congratulations Chisa! Iikubo Haruna came in second with 258 votes (30%), and Sudou Maasa came in third with 190 votes (22%).

There was a total of 860 votes for this poll.

Congratulations Chisa!

Chisa lately has been really popular with her dance cover videos being a great way to get promotion, so I’m not surprised at all to see that she managed to get 1st place with around half the total votes. Apart from that I was glad to see that Iikubo managed to get around 30% of the votes since she is starting to show off her character a bit more, and while Maasa got last place it’s good to see that she did get a respectable 22% of the votes since it shows that she has a solid following.

I would love to see Maasa get 1st sometime in the future but it seems like with current promotions and Berryz continually dropping sales it might be a bit hard, although this can easily be fixed so hopefully UFA gives them a bit more attention. Iikubo will probably get 1st sometime soon so I’m looking forward to that day but Chisa will continue to be a strong fighter so it will be interesting to see how she does against stronger members.

For now good luck to Iikubo and Maasa with their next polls, but congratulations to Chisa!

For the next poll it’s Hagiwara Mai, Mano Erina, and Wada Ayaka and while Maimai might have a bit of an advantage it will be fun to see how it turns out since Mano or Ayaka might get their first member of the week win.

The winner for this poll was Yoshizawa Hitomi with 358 votes (28%), congratulations Yossie! Kusumi Koharu came in second with 346 votes (27%), Ogawa Saki came in third with 319 votes (25%), Konno Asami came in fourth with 167 votes (13%) and Ogawa Makoto came in third with 87 votes (7%).

There was a total of 1,277 votes for this poll.

Congratulations Yossie!

For the most part the positions didn’t move but it was an exciting poll since the top three ended up with very close results, in fact they took most of the votes and the difference was around only 1 or 2 % for each of them. Yossie winning is a nice sign that she still has strong support, as well as Koha and Saki who have around the same results. Makoto still continues to get last place but it’s most likely due to her being somewhat out of the main entertainment news, and while it’s still nice to see that she gets a respectable result I hope we get to see her 1st sometime in the future.

Congratulations to Yossie, and good luck to Koha, Saki, Konno, and Makoto!

To make it easier for fans I will provide the direct link to the H!P poll HERE.

Please vote!

Shuukan Hello: It’s time for a Hello Pro Time episode!

With a recent Music Fighter episode it’s time once again to come to Hello! Project’s most recent series, Hello! Pro Time. Continuing from the last episode we showed we get to see part 2 of Kumai and Chii’s visit to Kyoto where we get to see one of them dressed up in an elegant Juunihitoe after a Tousenkyou match as well as dinner in an elegant restaurant. Apart from that we get to see Wada go to a painting class for Hello! Channel and a look at the second round of S/mileage’s new member auditions.

It’s a great episode so I hope everyone likes how it looks, and like last time I’ll show the next episode of Hello Pro Time to try and catch up a bit with the series, but for now I hope everyone likes this episode!