26 members from AKB48, SKE48 and NMB48 held their coming-of-age ceremony (成人式, seijin shiki) on January 13 at Kanda Shrine in Tokyo.
Watanabe Mayu, Shimazaki Haruka, Yamamoto Sayaka and Watanabe Miyuki were part of the girls who became adults. They were all wearing beautiful furisode.
Check out some photos of the event.
Oricon yearly charts 2013 have been released.
As for the previous years, AKB48 are the best selling singles artists. Sayonara Crawl topped the Oricon yearly singles chart with 1,955,162 copies sold.
Their sister groups SKE48 and NMB48 reached the top 10. Nogizaka46, HKT48, Morning Musume, Not Yet, Kashiwagi Yuki, Takahashi Minami, Momoiro Clover Z, Super☆Girls, Watanabe Mayu, Maeda Atsuko, and no3b (No Sleeves) are the other idols in the top 100.
The teams for the 3rd AKB48 Kouhaku Taikou Uta Gassen 2013 (第３回 ＡＫＢ４８紅白対抗歌合戦) have been announced.
Watanabe Mayu will be the captain of the Red Team, and Yokoyama Yui the captain of the White Team.
134 members from AKB48, SKE48, NMB48 and HKT48 will participate in this annual singing battle.
The 3rd AKB48 Kouhaku Taikou Uta Gassen 2013 will be held on December 17 at Tokyo Dome City Hall.
NMB48 Team BII 1st Stage “Aitakatta” Senshuuraku 2013.10.17 (NMB48 Team BII 1st Stage「会いたかった」千秋楽) will be released on DVD on January 1.
This DVD includes the final live performance of the stage held on October 17, 2013 at NMB48 Theater in Osaka.
The setlist has 16 songs including a medley.
NMB48 Studio Recording (NMB48スタジオレコーディング) will be released on January 1. It includes 5 stage albums recorded at NMB48 Theater in Osaka :
These albums are also available separately.
AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, Momoiro Clover Z and E-Girls will participate in the 64th Kouhaku Uta Gassen 2013 (第６4回ＮＨＫ紅白歌合戦) on December 31.
NHK announced the full line up for the 2013 edition of the event. There will be a total of 51 artists. AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, Momoiro Clover Z and E-Girls will be part of the red team.
All 48 groups held the 1st AKB48 Group Draft Kaigi (AKB48グループドラフト会議) on November 10 at Grand Prince Hotel Shin-Takanawa.
The 29 finalists performed River and Aitakatta. 20 candidates have been drafted by the team captains to join AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, and HKT48.
The rookies are going to enter into negotiations with their new teams before officially joining them in December.
AKB48’s 34th single Suzukake no Ki no Michi de “Kimi no Hohoemi wo Yume ni Miru” to Itteshimattara Bokutachi no Kankei wa Dou Kawatteshimau no ka, Bokunari ni Nannichi ka Kangaeta Ue de no Yaya Kihazukashii Ketsuron no You na Mono (鈴懸の木の道で「君の微笑みを夢に見る」と言ってしまったら僕たちの関係はどう変わってしまうのか、僕なりに何日か考えた上でのやや気恥ずかしい結論のようなもの) will be released on December 11.
The 16 senbatsu members were selected at the AKB48 Janken Tournament 2013 (AKB48 34thシングル選抜じゃんけん大会) held on September 18 at Nippon Budokan. The center is SKE48’s Matsui Jurina.
The list of the members selected for the coupling track Mosh & Dive has also been revealed.
AKB48 2013 Manatsu no Dome Tour ~Madamada, Yaranakya Ikenai Koto ga Aru~ (AKB48・2013真夏のドームツアー ～まだまだ、やらなきゃいけないことがある～) will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 18.
The Special Box contains 10 discs featuring 3 concerts and bonus footage including the graduation ceremonies of Shinoda Mariko, Akimoto Sayaka and Itano Tomomi. It comes with a 132-page booklet and 5 photos.
The Single Selection includes 2 discs with the live performances of the songs from AKB48’s singles. It contains a photo randomly selected.
AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, and HKT48 participated in the live event.
Several surprise announcements were made at NMB48 3rd Anniversary Live.
The former Team M member Jo Eriko returns to NMB48 as a Kenkyuusei. Jo Eriko had graduated from the idol group in September 2012 in order to focus on her studies.
Hayashi Momoka was promoted to Team N. She is a 2nd generation member of NMB48.