Weekly Oricon Chart Roundup – Week 35

Heya, and welcome to our nommy roundup of the Oricon Chart! We’ll be showing you some of the most popular new songs in Japan this week.

ハロウィン・ナイト – AKB48
At number one this week there’s AKB48’s new smash single, “Halloween Night.” Selling 1,277,761 copies in the first week, this single is well on track to become to most sold single of 2015 in Japan, a metric AKB48 has been utterly crushing for 5 years in a row now. Most of you probably know AKB48, but for the ones that don’t, they are a 140 member strong girl idol group, formed in 2005. They operate on the concept of “idols you can meet” which includes teams of idols going out to events, handshake events and daily performances at their own theatre in Akihabara, Tokyo. More recently the group had the Senbatsu Sousenkyo, or general election, which is basically a popularity contest that fans can vote on. Sashihara Rino managed to win the title of queen of AKB48 with 190,000 votes, having placed second last year.

I LOVE THE WORLD – UVERworld
Number two is taken by UVERworld’s new single, “I LOVE THE WORLD.” UVERworld is a six-man rock band originating from Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture. Their debut single is probably a song a fair amount of readers know, as it was the second opening theme for Bleach. It was a great success, getting placing 4th in the charts. And their second single made it to the 5th spot, which was impressive for the time, as there was only one other group who had subsequent top 5 singles. After that they also made opening songs for anime such a Blood+, D.Gray-man, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Ao no Exorcist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7egw9-db9VM

DOGMA – the GazettE
Over on the album chart, we find the GazettE, with their latest album DOGMA. The GazettE is a Visual Kei band, which is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes,  often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics. Visual Kei is not a genre, however. It’s more of a subculture. The GazettE is fairly popular outside of Japan, having toured the world in 2013.

Bravely You/灼け落ちない翼 – Lia/多田葵
Back in the singles chart, we have the opening AND ending themes for the anime Charlotte at number four. The anime is made by P.A.Works, and both the story and the songs are written by Jun Maeda. Anime fans will know him for works such as Angel Beats and Clannad. The first song, “Bravely You” is sung by Lia, who is also known for the opening theme for Angel Beats and the opening song of Air. She also lent her voice for the IA vocaloid, and has even performed some eurobeat songs for Initial D Fourth Stage. The second song is sung by Aoi Tada, who’s voice is well-known to most anime fans, having sung the emotional ending song to Angel Beats, Brave Song, and has also voiced none other than Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, or more commonly known as Edward or Ed, from the classic anime Cowboy Bebop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBQDAaQu_mM

ひみつをちょーだい – アルスマグナ
Number five is taken by ARSMAGNA’s new single. ARSMAGNA is a 5 member dance unit who occasionally sing, and are known for their unique school uniform style outfits. They are most famous in Japan for dancing to high-energy songs, particularly those by Giga-P. Another thing of note is that the design of the upcoming vocaloid Arsloid is based upon Akira Kano, a member of the group.

PINK SEASON – Apink
Number five on the album chart is claimed by Apink’s new album, PINK SEASON. Apink is a Korean girl group who has recently entered the Japanese market with their single NoNoNo. This marks their first full album release in Japan. The group is known for their innocent image, unusual these days among girl groups’ sexy concepts, as member Oh Ha-young pointed out in 2012: “Other girl groups these days tend to highlight their dancing skills and sexy looks, but our concept was an innocent and pure image. I think that’s why the audience felt comfortable with us.” Their music generally fits into the bubblegum pop genre but is influenced by things like 80’s synth-pop or 90’s hip-hop at times.

満たしてアモーレ – predia
And last but by no means least, there’s predia at number nine. They are a sister group to Passpo☆ and Palet, but define themselves as having a more “adult and sexy” style. This has earned them the tag of Adult Idol, as most idol groups tend to bank more towards the cute and innocent side of things, with groups like AKB48 even telling their members to not have a boyfriend to ensure the image of innocence is kept as strong as possible.

That’s it for this week! I hope you had your fill of nommy songs, and I’ll see you next week for another roundup of the Oricon Chart!

The full charts can be found at oricon.co.jp