The good news is Enbujou ’08’s beautiful ending ballad, “With Love” will be included with the single release.

Ordering Information
CD Japan  |   HMV  |  Amazon

Jacket A : Permanent Edition

愛・革命  Ai  Kakumei (CD+DVD) Price ¥1,680 (tax included)

CD Tracklist
1. 愛・革命 (Ai Kakumei)
2. With Love

DVD Tracklist
1. 愛・革命 (Ai Kakumei) Music Clip

Jacket B : Limited Edition

愛・革命  Ai Kakumei (CD+DVD) Price ¥1,680 (tax included)

CD Tracklist
1. 愛・革命 (Ai Kakumei)
2. With Love

DVD Tracklist
1. With Love Music Clip
(Takizawa Enbujou ‘08 Special Edition)

Jacket C : Regular Edition

愛・革命  Ai Kakumei (CD) Price ¥1,050 (tax included)

Bonus Content for First press
Interchangeable Jackets (3 types)

CD Tracklist
1. 愛・革命 (Ai Kakumei)
2. With Love
3. Home Party!! (with Yamapi, and Kanjani 8’s Hina and Yokoyama You)
4. 愛・革命 カラオケ  (Ai Kakumei  karaoke)
5. With Love カラオケ ( karaoke)
6. Home Party!! カラオケ (karaoke)

Coinciding with Tackey’s new stage show Takizawa Kakumei, it is a fully fledged, three version single with a PV, coupling songs and DVD content on wide release. The Avex home page has been updated with news of the release and we will bring you cover art as soon as the online stores update. For those asking, there has been no news on the mooted and long overdue Tackey and Tsubasa single/album this year, making it apparent that this will not be happening as planned. What this means for the future of Tackey and Tsubasa as a unit is still unknown.

So it appears the boys’ solo careers are still where all the focus is at the moment. (Mmmm … maybe if they each bring out a solo CD with three versions and the fans buy all six, this could be an ingenious marketing initiative to sell more singles. Who knows, but it has sure thrown the cat among the pigeons ….. )

There is no cover art yet, and many undecided tracks, jiving with Tackey’s recent comments that this has all been very sudden. Tsubasa too commented at the conclusion of his World’s Wing concert series that the plan to do yet another solo show series at Christmas was very last minute and that he didn’t know when Tackey and Tsubasa would resume their unit activities.

For his part, Tackey has been working overtime coming up with the songs and lyrics. Doing extensive publicity for Kokuchi Sezu, writing for and doing publicity for the new single and mounting a whole new stage show which begins on January 1 is surely an amazing workload for anyone. We wish Tackey all the best with these new ventures.

I think I’ll need more Categories…

Ordering Information

CD Japan  |   HMV  |  Amazon

Jacket A : Permanent Edition 

愛・革命  Ai  Kakumei (CD+DVD) Price ¥1,680 (tax included)

CD Tracklist
1. 愛・革命 (Ai Kakumei)
2. タイトル未定１ (Title unconfirmed 1)

DVD Tracklist
1. 愛・革命 (Ai Kakumei) Music Clip

Jacket B : Limited Edition

愛・革命  Ai Kakumei (CD+DVD) Price ¥1,680 (tax included)

CD Tracklist
1. 愛・革命 (Ai Kakumei)
2. タイトル未 定１ (Title unconfirmed 1)

DVD Tracklist
1. 収録内容 未定 (Content unconfirmed)

Jacket C : Regular Edition

愛・革命  Ai Kakumei (CD) Price ¥1,050 (tax included)

Bonus Content for First press (unconfirmed)

CD Tracklist
1. 愛・革命 (Ai Kakumei)
2. タイトル未定１ (Title unconfirmed 1)
3. タイトル未定２ (Title unconfirmed 2)
4. 愛・革命（カラオケ）(Ai Kakumei, karaoke)
5. タイトル未定１（カラオケ） (Title unconfirmed 1,  karaoke)
6. タイトル未定２（カラオケ） (Title unconfirmed 2, karaoke)

Tackey’s 2 hour SP drama, Kokuchi Sezu (告知せず), aired last night on TV Asahi as part of their 50th Anniversary celebrations. If you have signed up with Veoh, you can either watch or download it here. At the very least, you’ll get the preview. Enjoy! Well, not so much enjoy, more like sob your lungs out – but you know what I mean…

(Thanks hideki!)

Watch Kokuchisezu in Webisodes  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Updated: Newshfan has already subbed both Tackey’s interview with Tamori-san and all the song lyrics into english. She just amazes me. You can go to her LJ for download options.

Tackey appeared live on Music Station tonight to perform a sneak preview of his new song “Love Kakumei” (愛 革命,  Love Revolution) from his new stage musical “Shinshun Takizawa Kakumei” (新春滝沢革命 - New Year Takizawa Revolution) which kicks off in Tokyo’s Imperial Theatre on January 1, 2009. You can read more about Takizawa Kakumei here.

The song begins as a slower, torch song then picks up speed with a full latin beat and lots of dance moves. You can see the performance here (Credit to wofler7 for the speedy upload, and thanks to nyanco for the heads up).

In Tsubasa news, at the conclusion of his recent World’s Wing stage show, it seems he took himself off on a week long vacation to Europe. His latest J-Web entry (Vol. 295) is extremely long, like a daily diary — he transited through Amsterdam and went on to Barcelona and Madrid.

During the trip he dined out at various restaurants, watched football, toured Antonio Gaudi’s famous La Sagrada Familia (a giant temple in Barcelona that has been under construction since 1882 and is not expected to be finished for another 50 years!!!) He rode around the city on the Metro and soaked up “the buzz”, visited the Olympic sailing port and strolled around the city by night, went to flamenco bars, went to more football, sampled more local cuisine (seems he had a lot of paella), back to Madrid, more football… uh…. more eating, more football, more flamenco. Then he finally joined up with a camera team for a photoshoot of some sort and got a chance to meet up again with long time friend and football star Daisuke Matsui who plays for France’s Saint-Étienne.

His holidays sound about as exhausting as mine. Anyway, he certainly knows how to indulge his passions for food, friends, travel, sport and flamenco. Especially as these boys always seem to have to have their vacations in short, energetic spurts.  Way to go Tsubasa, you deserve it!

The publicity machine for Tackey’s new medical drama special Kokuchi Sezu 告知せず (airing at 21:00 on Saturday, 15th November 2008 on TV Asahi) swung into top gear this week. Tackey co-stars with veteran actor Tetsuya Watari as Hasegawa Ryo, a young intern, whose mother is diagnosed with cancer. You can read more about the drama here.

Tackey travelled to Japan’s major cities (Sapporo, Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo – I think we passed each other on the shinkansen several times !!!) for premiere screenings of the drama and question time with fans (tens of thousands of applications were received) and Tackey’s co-stars complimented his good manners and humble professionalism.

Watch video of Tackey and the cast touring Japan and appearing in front of fans for the Kokuchi Sezu promotion (Thanks again to sweetwater329)

Promo 1  |  Promo 2  |  Promo 3

Countdown to Kokuchi Sezu TV Schedule

Monday 10 Nov @ 24:45 - Leader’s How To Book
Tuesday 11 Nov @ 23:15 - Pu Suma ぷっ」すま
Wednesday 12 Nov @ 13:20 - Tetsuko no Heya 徹子の部屋
Wednesday 12 Nov @ 19:00 - Nani Kore Chin Hyakkei ナニコレ珍百景
Thursday 13 Nov @ 24:15 - Ii Hanashiisa いいはなシーサー
Friday 14 Nov @ 20:00 - Music Station
Saturday 15 Nov @ 6:25 - Yajiuma Plus やじうま プラス
Saturday 15 Nov @ 13:59 - Kokuchi Sezu Iyoiyo Kon-ya 告知せず いよいよ今夜
Saturday 15 Nov @ 21:00 - Kokuchi Sezu 告知せず premiere screening

nyanco has done a wonderful rundown of all Tackey’s collected media appearances around this drama’s premiere. You can see them here.
Also, Michelle at Takki.us  has been collecting all the TV appearances. Make sure you check it out!

Kokuchi Sezu 30 sec CM spot (Credit: sweetwater329)

Some images from the shoot are now available in the Johnnys Shop, on both the Tackey & Tsubasa and NEWS walls, and Tackey is also featured in one of the “group” photos in the concert photo sets. I have scanned all the shop photos, as well as the concert group photo, in high resolution and placed them in the ‘look’ gallery.

You can click on the image at left to see a larger version, or just go straight to the gallery. Please take anything you like, no credits necessary.

To start, as promised here is the complete gallery of the on-stage birthday party Tackey and the cast of World’s Wing threw for Tsubasa’s 27th birthday. I have scanned the photos in high resolution, so hopefully it’s the next best thing to being there. Please feel free to take anything you like, no credits necessary.

As a sample, you can click on the image at left to see a larger version.

More to come soon…

The good news is that the World’s Wing Premium senshuraku performance came to a safe and spectacular conclusion, and our hands are tired from clapping.

But at this evening’s performance, Tsubasa said he had an announcement to make, and of course we all “eeeeeeehhhhhhd?” Then he said that this year, in December, there would be Christmas concerts at Osaka’s Shouchikuza theatre. So while we were all screaming about ANY kind of announcement about things happening this year, it turns out these are SOLO concerts. By the time we had come out of the final performance, there were signs up all over the theatre and they were taking ticket applications from members. So Kuricon has gone solo????

(more…)

11 November: Have now updated these pics with high resolution scans, and added all Tackey directing shots that were available at the NEWS concerts and Johnny’s Shop. Please go to the ‘Look Gallery’.

Please click on these thumbnails to see a larger view.

Tackey has a significant presence at the NEWS “Winter Party Diamond” tour, which kicked off in Sendai on Saturday. The “theme” of the tour is a “Las Vegas Celebrity Party” (to us, it looks more like a host club). Tackey directed the opening VTR intro to the concert, wherein NEWS is seen running down a street and along a boardwalk and into a building, presumably on the way to the “party”. They mug at the camera and muck around with food and party poppers.

Then, in the closing credits of the concert (as NEWS change for the encore), you get to see “behind the scenes” VTR footage of Tackey and the boys shooting the opening.

Tackey also appeared on stage at the first show during the MC, and was well-received by the NEWS fans, garnering many excited blog reports for his appearance. The Force is strong with Takizawa-kun.

In addition, Tackey is also featured in one of the “group” photos in the concert photo sets (see at right) and the new shop photos released on Saturday also feature a Yamapi and Tackey shot (see above). Again, please feel free to take these images, but I will do a better, high resolution scan when I get back home to my scanner.