[Oricon Sales] "Itsuka..." & KH Films vol.9

Itsuka Hanareru Hi ga Kite mo debuts at #16 on Oricon daily charts.

WEEK 1: x->#16->#14->#16->#24->#14->#18 // Total: #19 (7,933 copies)
WEEK 2: #26->#27->#26->#20->#21->#22->#26 // Total: #26 (3,932 copies)
WEEK 3: #24->#25->#30->#28->#30->#32->#33 // Total: #30 (3,032 copies)
WEEK 4: #31->#48->"Out of Top50"->#46->#43->#46->"Out of Top50" // Total: #60 (1,348 copies)
WEEK 5: Total: #90 (1,113 copies)
WEEK 6: Total: #82 (1,113 copies)

Total sales so far: 18,474 copies

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Ken Hirai Films vol.9 debuts at #10 on Oricon daily "music DVD" charts.

WEEK 1: x->#10->#6->#8->#10->#8->#13 // Total: #9 (3,602 copies)
WEEK 2: #16->"Out of Top 20" // Total: #28 (960 copies)
WEEK 3: Out of Top 30

Total sales so far (Weeks 1+2): 4,562 copies

I'll be updating this thread daily with the ranking of both releases, and sales figures when they are available on a weekly basis.

oh man ...

I knew somehow the single will not perform as well as expected seeing that it's a recut single but it's still BAD :S

Ken Ken should have included a couple of B side songs or something . No wonder it's not selling well especially since there's only 1 song & an instrumental in the single ick

Eden110 wrote:This single is actually doing better than what I had anticipated. After all, it is just a song that could have easily been ripped from the album. The lack of a b-side also didn't help to improve sales.

I guess especially since it's a recut single from the album & people like ourselves who have the album already might feel a bit gutted in ways or another & yeah I have to agree with you in that the lack of any new material ain't helping matters :S

agree, no wonder the selling is not that great, fakin' pop just being released like 1,5 - 2 months ago. I also have feeling that they release this single only as part of the promotion of the movie, not to ambitiously being in top oricon chart.

So all said, I hope Ken won't feel too bad about this. He still has to perform this on Music Station this Friday. I think they release this single cos' they agreed with the film company beforehand to promote the film. And maybe the film is delayed so they have to put out the album as scheduled and then recut this song as a single around the time the film finally released.
After all, maybe it's time for Ken and his record company to really think about his next move.

minerva wrote:agree, no wonder the selling is not that great, fakin' pop just being released like 1,5 - 2 months ago. I also have feeling that they release this single only as part of the promotion of the movie, not to ambitiously being in top oricon chart.

agree

I have a feeling that DefSTAR wants to cash in since the song's gonna be used as the theme song to the movie & they thought hey why not rip a few people's $ & release just the song & put that in a single ?

if you ask me , it's quite a stupid strategy to undertake . I don't mind honestly if there're a couple of B sides inside the single & it doesn't hurt to include the PV in the single isn't it ?

then again to each his own .

Anyway it's not the end of the world , this's not going to be Ken Ken's worst charting single to date . Precious Junk debuted at no.50 while his 2nd - 7th singles didn't chart so all hope's not lost

Karen

goldfinger wrote:So all said, I hope Ken won't feel too bad about this. He still has to perform this on Music Station this Friday. I think they release this single cos' they agreed with the film company beforehand to promote the film. And maybe the film is delayed so they have to put out the album as scheduled and then recut this song as a single around the time the film finally released.

After all, maybe it's time for Ken and his record company to really think about his next move.

well at least we have another performance to look forward from our dear Ken Ken this coming Fri

I hope Ken will do something special & nice for a 30th single

Both releases went up today (i'll be updating the first post daily with the new rankings). Nice.

And Itsuka... "chaku-uta full" (it's a service to download songs to mobile phones) debuted at #2 in recochoku charts. [LINK]

In PC downloads, it's at #2 in musico.jp and #10 at mora.jp

LNany wrote:Both releases went up today (i'll be updating the first post daily with the new rankings). Nice.

And Itsuka... "chaku-uta full" (it's a service to download songs to mobile phones) debuted at #2 in recochoku charts. [LINK]

In PC downloads, it's at #2 in musico.jp and #10 at mora.jp

ah good to know that

I think the performance from HEY ! HEY ! HEY ! helped in some ways or another

let's hope that sales will boost up over the weekend when he perform at MUSIC STATION tomorrow

Eden110 wrote:This is good to hear. Hopefully a digital success would help to offset the low sales of physical copies. It would make more sense that the general public would rather download this two-track single over going to a store and picking up a copy.

agree

DefSTAR should have done this instead . It seems more worth it to pay 200 Yen for a digital single instead of purchasing a single containing a song & an instrumental that's worth 630 Yen

no wonder people feel a bit short changed & are refusing to pay for it

I think if the film is a success when it releases this weekend, it will help a lot. Otherwise.....

goldfinger wrote:I think if the film is a success when it releases this weekend, it will help a lot. Otherwise.....

let's just cross fingers & toes that later on his performance on MUSIC STATION will somehow help things or not

goldfinger wrote:I think if the film is a success when it releases this weekend, it will help a lot. Otherwise.....

Definitely. BTW, is the movie expected to be a big hit or something? I'm not into japanese movies so i don't even know if the actors of the film are famous and such... Maybe he could pull another "Hitomi wo Tojite" (nah, no way )

He went down a few positions at Oricon charts, but he's keeping strong at digital download charts. In PC downloads the song went up to #1 at musico.jp and is #8 at mora.jp. And as for mobile phones, the "full chaku-uta" (complete song) is still at #2.

Oh, and FAKIN' POP is back into the "Top 20" Oricon album charts.
Ranking of FAKIN' POP this week: 18->33->28->20

I don't know if 竹野內豊 (Takenouchi Yutaka) is famous now in Japan.
But it was said this is his 2nd film after the last one he shot with Kelly Chan some 7 years ago. And the story is based on an American novel called "Jenny has wings"
I am not that interested in this film, a sad movie with lots of crying I guess.
But it would be a record if it can help pull the song up a few notches or even within top 5 (though I doubt that...)

The movie can save this single from crashing down from the Oricon chart. The song is very good almost as good as Hitomil so I wish it will do well too.

So the first week in the charts came to its end. The official weekly results will be out by tomorrow, as always. But i guess we can expect "Itsuka.." within the Top 20 [around #18] with 8-10k copies sold.

The song is still keeping goods rankings in digital/ringtones charts, and FAKIN' POP is #14 in the daily album charts.

LNany wrote:So the first week in the charts came to its end. The official weekly results will be out by tomorrow, as always. But i guess we can expect "Itsuka.." within the Top 20 [around #18] with 8-10k copies sold.

The song is still keeping goods rankings in digital/ringtones charts, and FAKIN' POP is #14 in the daily album charts.

well at least Itsuka ... is doing something good for FAKIN' POP . I thought FAKIN' POP would have long ago exited the chart but its chart life's even better than what I expected to be

Good to know Fakin' Pop album is back to no. 14
If Itsuka...single released before the album, the result would not be so embarrassing.
Let's hope if there is a Ken's bar II album out this year, the marketing ppl. will do a better job.

goldfinger wrote:Good to know Fakin' Pop album is back to no. 14
If Itsuka...single released before the album, the result would not be so embarrassing.
Let's hope if there is a Ken's bar II album out this year, the marketing ppl. will do a better job.

agree

I want a Ken's Bar II album like yourself . It's only fair for him to release another especially since this's the 10th anniversary of his Ken's Bar concept

I think there is a high possibility on that. He seemed a bit rush to release Fakin' Pop in March (can't wait till the movie to come out and release Itsuka....) so perhaps he planned to release 2 albums this year. He will have a Ken's bar special on May 29th; just like in 2005, he has a 10th anniversary special concert on May 13th to celebrate his debut. And a 10th anniversary album (Utabaka) released in Oct (or Nov? I forgot) 2005
So very likely the Ken's bar album II will be out around Oct/Nov 2008.
And to make it more perfect, he should have an Asian Ken's Bar concert tour which everyone has been expecting for ages.
But of course, the above is just the wishful thinking of the fans. I think the record company/managment company and Ken himself have to consider lots of factors (which only insiders would know) before making the decision. Just hope they can make the wise decision.

goldfinger wrote:I think there is a high possibility on that. He seemed a bit rush to release Fakin' Pop in March (can't wait for the movie to come out and release Itsuka....) so perhaps he planned to release 2 albums this year. He will have a Ken's bar special on May 29th; just like in 2005, he has a 10th anniversary special concert on May 13th to celebrate his debut. And a 10th anniversary album (Utabaka) released in Oct (or Nov? I forgot) 2005

So very likely the Ken's bar album II will be out around Oct/Nov 2008.

And to make it more perfect, he should have an Asian Ken's Bar concert tour which everyone has been expecting for ages.

But of course, the above is just the wishful thinking of the fans. I think the record company/managment company and Ken himself have to consider lots of factors (which only insiders would know) before making the decision. Just hope they can make the wise decision.

1st of all before I go on , Utabaka was released on 23rd Nov '05

FAKIN' POP - you can definitely tell there's quite a severe lack of new tracks on the album . I don't know why but maybe it's due to time constraints & other factors especially since his singles releases are quite inconsistent .

Eg. in '06 , he only put out Bye My Melody & last year 3 singles . I don't know how this year will go , new material wise .

I like the idea of an Asian Ken's Bar concert tour , that will be totally awesome but somehow I doubt that idea might materialise but hey never say never .

He should do a tour outside of Japan if you ask me . This idea's so waiting to bear fruit for the longest time ever . This year I don't think it's possible cos he's going on tour starting this Fri in Japan for the next 2 months + so to ask him to do another tour so soon after that , it's a bit too much for him .

Maybe he might do 1 in 2 years's time for a 15th anniversary thingy ?

His current tour finishes at the end of July. And then he should be perparing the Ken's bar II album if there is gonna be one this year. Then he will do the promotion on that in Japan. I was thinking maybe in Nov/Dec he can go to HK or Taiwan for concert. Or maybe in early 2009?
15th anniversary....that's 2 more years from now. I don't wanna wait that long (though I don't have a choice) and there is one thing call 'timing'. He should hold overseas concert while he is still considered the most popular solo male Japanese singer now. And also his phyiscal condition.

Things can be changed.......

goldfinger wrote:His current tour finishes at the end of July. And then he should be perparing the Ken's bar II album if there is gonna be one this year. Then he will do the promotion on that in Japan. I was thinking maybe in Nov/Dec he can go to HK or Taiwan for concert. Or maybe in early 2009?

15th anniversary....that's 2 more years from now. I don't wanna wait that long (though I don't have a choice) and there is one thing call 'timing'. He should hold overseas concert while he is still considered the most popular solo male Japanese singer now. And also his phyiscal condition.

Things can be changed.......

er yeah you're right on that . The dude's pushing 40 & he still can seize whatever chance/opportunity he has at this point in time to tour outside of Japan .

1 of the few things that I hope to see from Ken in which I think it will never materialise is a full Eng original album . Like what Babyface said , Ken really has the potential to go global & be an international hit provided if he only sing in Eng as what stated in the CNN talkasai interview as I personally think that his Eng dictation's fantastic despite the fact that Eng's not his 1st language .

Unfortunately time's not on Ken's side at this point in time . He could have put 1 out a few years ago but sigh , that's not the case

So alternative's to settle for whatever Eng songs that he did in his career for the past 13 years & counting & also his Ken's Bar cover album

It's difficult for an Asian singer to make it big in the US music scene no matter how great he/she is. (remember he lived in New York for 3 months in 2003, I think they really thought of giving it a try for the US market but maybe it didn't work out at the end. Luckily he had his mega hit 'Hitomi wo tojite in 2004) I don't want to see him losing his uniquness/identity in order to fit into the US market.
If he can play the piano and sing just like Norah Jones, I think it's more of the chance. But as a vocalist, the westerners may want more of him (not just standing on the stage singing without playing any musical instrument at the same time). I mean like portrait a sexy image, hugging and surrounded with half-clothed girls in the MV or is a good dancer as well ...etc. Ken has done that in his MVs and we all see how awkward he looks.
To have a cover Eng. album, he can choose the classic songs ppl. already knew and liked (like the case of Michael Buble). The quality of the melody and lyrics is guaranteed for sure.
But for a all original album, the quality of the song is important.

goldfinger wrote:It's difficult for an Asian singer to make it big in the US music scene no matter how great he/she is. (remember he lived in New York for 3 months in 2003, I think they really thought of giving it a try for the US market but maybe it didn't work out at the end. Luckily he had his mega hit 'Hitomi wo tojite in 2004) I don't want to see him losing his uniquness/identity in order to fit into the US market.

If he can play the piano and sing just like Norah Jones, I think it's more of the chance. But as a vocalist, the westerners may want more of him (not just standing on the stage singing without playing any musical instrument at the same time). I mean like portrait a sexy image, hugging and surrounded with half-clothed girls in the MV or is a good dancer as well ...etc. Ken has done that in his MVs and we all see how awkward he looks.

To have a cover Eng. album, he can choose the classic songs ppl. already knew and liked (like the case of Michael Buble). The quality of the melody and lyrics is guaranteed for sure.
But for a all original album, the quality of the song is important.

eh he did lived in New York for a while ? I didn't know about that

but yeah I understand where you're coming from because if he were to release a full Eng album now , he basically has to start from scratch & at this point in time , time's not on his side .

But I suppose having a Eng cover album ain't such a bad idea to begin with

& yes you could see how shy/awkward he's in the PVs for fake star & Strawberry Sex