from here to here

This week's major topic of course was the announcement of Aya's new single release "Egao". A lot of confusion was based on the fact that it was first presented as the theme song for News24, an (online?) news channel. Only little by little did the information trickle through that it would indeed be her first single release since Namida.And here's the mp3 for your listening pleasure

sville first wrote (I edited the post a bit): The title of the song is Egao (literally translated as Smiling Face.) Lyrics by Tanimura Yumi. Arranged by Oka Naoki. It should already have been aired with the program but won't be released until August 29, which coincides with the release of GAM 1st tour DVD. Matt has shared the clip on the tracker (and the RS folder - including the mp3 rip posted by Marcello later on). According to neowing.co.jp, the b-side track is a cover of Tanimura Yumi's Anata ni Deaete, originally released in Yumi's album on 1995.10.21. Here' s the sort-of PV part of that report:

sville then linked a mp3 rip by JDthor, and the list of confirmations grew.

The comments on the song were mixed as was to be expected. Not only on hello-online, but across basically all boards. Some liked the song and the way Aya was going, others were sick and tired of ballads and were expecting something more lively. Here's some of the comments:

Matt (yeah I know, But I DID post first :-) Has a nice retro quality to it which I personally like. I'm afraid though that it will flop in sales given what has happened ballad-wise in the past at HP. Linking it to the News24 show might have been a smart move in that respect. You must take in account though the purpose of the thing. This was NOT announced as her new single (still isn't I think) but the new theme for a TV news show. News24 I'm sure had a lot to say in this, and upbeat and jazzy was probably not what they were aiming for.

Nights4Saturn: Ooh, I kinda like it. It's very pretty. Although, I must say that I am a little disappointed that it's another ballad, and I must agree with Mattthecat that it'll pry flop in sales because of that... Oh, what the heck! It's her first single in well over a year, rejoice!!!

Sev: This is by no means anywhere near as good as Suna wo Kamu You ni... NAMIDA or Zutto suki de Ii desu ka. Especially the one mentioned later. It's like they're slowly killing her off by doing the same thing over again, just not as good. This song needs to grow big on me for me to appriciate it to the extent I want. Wich makes me sad, since I was really hoping a new single would refuel my interest in Aya.

mangomalte: after listening to it i kinda feel the same. i wanted something more upbeat and jazzy, something like Origial Jinsei would've been awesome. she's done too many ballads lately.

On another note thekobun asked: To any of the ayaya golf regular viewers, I have a quick translation question. To those times the players missed the ball and claimed it was, "shiburi desu", what does that mean? I tried to look it up, but i don't think im getting the meaning right. Thanks. Unfortunately no one knew enough Japanese to help him :-(

Time for some images now. First a collage from the latest Meringue: . Then pics by mixedmedia and japanese_boy:

The next two images of nurse and officer Aya were posted by atstrbcks (N4S noticing that it was an Arkansas uniform :-)

pili wanted to know where these pics came from (thinking they were from kotomikku daijiten). They are from the "Ayaya to Mikitty" photobook (RS folder) and was dying to know what Aya & Miki said in this pre-regular appearance on Meringue (available in the RS folder), but again no one knew...

Another round of images by japanese_boy and Matt plus some very nice mag scans by Marcello

Fumi then marveled us with her latest cartoon , though I liked her written passage even better: my uncle says I am "high on life" but I don't understand this completely, I am afraid of heights. Love ya :-)))

rnwc then completed the subs for episode 6 of "Aijou Ippon" and thanks to sville1999 (and kl0000@JPOPPV for the source) an interesting TV video surfaced in which Aya was honored for best commercial in 2003. They sure as hell didn't honor her for best cap...what is that? Santas's gay helper?

Thunderbolt3000 then wanted to know where this came from:

Turns out it was from the TV show "Bokura no Ongaku" on 2004.04.17( thanks mangomalte and sville), and in that show she sang three songs: "Love Namidairo", "Sayonara daisukina hito"and "Hyacinth". Matt uploaded the first two songs to the RS folder. "Sayonara Daisuki na Hito" was originally released in 2000 by Hana*Hana, a 2-girl group, as their 8th single and the theme song for a TV series.

blackwin found another two Making ofs (for Ne+e and Gomattou's Shall We Love (both in the RS folder now) and Matt posted some caps from the new Meringue:


(includes some pics from the torrent description)

sville also provided us with the ordering information for the Egao single and video:

Egao (single) - EPCE-5495 - 2007/08/29
Egao (single V) - EPBE-5261 - 2007/09/12

Pre-order links:
Single:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=EPCE-5495
http://www.neowing.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=EPCE-5495
http://www.e-hon.ne.jp/bec/SA/DetailMulti?...1&Sza_id=MM
Single V:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=EPBE-5261
http://www.neowing.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=EPBE-5261
http://www.e-hon.ne.jp/bec/SA/DetailMulti?...1&Sza_id=MM

Finally the lyrics to Egao (not from this thread, but made by HO's own H!P46:

Cya next week :-)))