Ozu

I'll just quote what I wrote on J-Pop Central:

Idols are not eternal, after all. Enjoying their relatively short period of blooming is all you can do and then graciously move forward. Acchan has certainly bloomed more brightly than most idols of the 21st century. Her graduation will be a challenge for the other members and the fans. How will they deal with the center's graduation? It's about time the fans have to face the reality and reflect on their fandom. Are they more interested in the individuals or the group? This monumental change will have its consequences, both good and bad, but that's how it should be. Nothing is eternal and trying to ignore that only brings decay and sorrow - as Akimoto himself wrote on Google+ yesterday: a rolling stone doesn't gather moss. It's better to quit while you're at the top.

Or as Bertolt Brecht realized a long time ago: "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are."

Pre-ordered the Risa edition back when it was added on CDJapan. 105

In my opinion Hoshino's popularity won't rise with the sort of promotion the group is getting now. She is closer to the "quiet and cool" type of idol who doesn't necessarily stand out at first without obvious pushing. When compared to AKB48's Kami7 I think she resembles Itano the most. Hoshino has a characteristic that might make her more popular in the long run and I think that's why she was chosen for the center.

Hold on a minute. I'm so confused by the instructions on how to (eventually) purchase a ticket I'm just like a deer caught in the headlights. I understand that the tickets will be available 2 weeks before the concerts (excluding the FC tickets, naturally) and there were links to various sites where one can possibly purchase them at once they are available. With my weak Japanese and this being the first time I'm trying to buy a concert ticket I have no idea I can buy a ticket from any of those sites. Could anyone please help us newbies (I believe I'm not alone on this matter) on how to use at least one of those sites so that we can at least try buying our tickets for the concert. I will be in Japan at the time even if I don't get a ticket for the concert, but it would be a shame to miss such a great once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Basically Ninki is a "hype meter" that a group of salarymen puts together every week. They follow promotion and the reactions to each release. Ninki doesn't aspire to be an accurate prediction of sales numbers - instead it's just a relative measurement that shows the amount of hype for each release. Next week's Ninki is basically telling that SKE48 will crush everything else and MM might fare better than the other "smaller" releases. The competition is quite scarce this time so MM should be able to take the #2 easily, but I don't think it will stand out that much since the week is full of idol releases. In the end, the ranking doesn't matter that much. It's the amount of copies sold that truly matters.