LOVE is BORN ~9th Anniversary 2012~ confirmed!

Ai Otsuka comes back on stage with her show LOVE is BORN ~9th Anniversary 2012~!

In a message to her mobile fanclub LOVE9CUBE, the singer confirmed that the recent important decision that she made concerned her musical activities. This year, LOVE is BORN concerts will take place in Tokyo, Kobe and Nagoya. Here you have more detailed information about dates and venues:

• September 09, 2012 (Sunday) - Tokyo Hibiya Open-air Concert Hall
• September 16, 2012 (Sunday) - Kobe International House
• September 29, 2012 (Saturday) - Nagoya Congress Center

The ticket prices are 7.350 yen for a regular seat and 9.999 yen for a seat and goodies. LOVE9CUBE members will be able to buy their tickets from May 25.

At the moment, further details such as theme and merchandise are unknown, but surely they will be announced later.

Ai Otsuka fans - are you excited? I know that I am! :D

SOURCES: Channel-Ai by LittleBigHeart

Enigmatic messages from Ai Otsuka? / New photos!

A recent message from Ai Otsuka caused quite a stir among her fans. Using her mobile fanclub LOVE9CUBE, the singer wrote vaguely about an important decision that she has recently made. She didn't reveal any details concerning this decision, so her fans began to interpret her words in all possible ways - starting from optimistic thoughts about a comeback or concerts, ending with pessimistic predictions about the end of her musical career. At the moment it's rather impossible to tell what Ai-chan meant by her message, so let's wait patiently for more details :)

Meanwhile, let's admire two beautiful photos of Ai Otsuka which appeared on her official website a couple of days ago :) Isn't Ai-chan gorgeous?

As a loyal and optimistic fan, I have a gut feeling that the photos herald something great ;) How about you? Share your opinions in the comments!

SOURCES: Ai's official website | Channel-Ai

Ai Otsuka releases "Gomen ne" - listen!

Ai Otsuka's newest song titled "Gomen ne" has been finally released and it was uploaded on YouTube. Use the player below to have a listen!

"Gomen ne" was meant to be published along with Ai's second picture book "Neko ga suki ni natta kirai na neko", but it's release was postponed to April 27, 2012.

This song has such dreamy, romantic and relaxing feeling that made me realise how much I love our sweet Ai-chan :) It's so good to hear her voice after such a long time of silence!

How about you - do you like "Gomen ne"? Express your opinions about the song in the comments :)

Many thanks to the person who kindly shared the song with us :) For us, overseas fans, this is especially important and valuable, because the song is available to download only in Japan. Even if somebody imports the original book from Japan and obtains the download code, it works only in Japan. Let's hope "Gomen ne" will be released as a physical single or a future album, so that fans from all over the world can buy it :)

SOURCE: Channel-Ai (thank you!)

Ai Otsuka is on Twitter! / and we are too...

Apparently, Ai Otsuka began to miss her fans a lot, because she started using Twitter! Today she spent some time chatting with several lucky fans. The account she's using was created to promote her new photobook (hence the name), but let's hope Ai-chan continues her tweeting to stay in touch with fans.

Ai-chan's username: @aiotsuka_neko

Don't forget to follow and tweet a lot! Let's show Ai our strong love for her ^^ Remember to tell where you come from if you are overseas fans - let's make sure Ai knows that she's adored also outside Japan :)

This is not the end of Twitter news!

Ai Otsuka Love Blog has created the official Twitter account as well :) Don't forget to follow us to keep up with updates!

New Illustration book + new song from Ai Otsuka

This is the 100th post on Ai Otsuka Love Blog, yay! :D Let's celebrate! Especially because this post brings you very exciting news about Ai-chan :)

According to the information on her official website, Ai Otsuka is publishing a new illustration book called "Neko ga suki ni natta kirai na neko". Along with the book, there will be a new song "Gomen ne" released, probably as a digital single.

The book and the song will be available on March 30, 2012, but you can already pre-order :)

It's a great news, isn't it? :) We've been waiting so long for anything new from our beloved Ai-chan!


UPDATE: Here is the cover:

Can't wait for the book and for the new song!


UPDATE 2: According to information on Ai Otsuka's official website, the book is going to be published as planned (March 30), but the release of the song has been postponed. The new release date is April 27, 2012.
We'll wait patiently :)

SOURCES: Ai's official website | Channel-Ai

Ai Otsuka's songs charting on Recochoku

To everyone's surprise, a couple of days ago some Ai-chin's songs appeared on Recochoku Top 100 (a ranking of the most popular digital downloads).

The ranking for 5th of November:

• Planetarium #8
• Sakuranbo #27
• Daisuki dayo #57
• Cherish #64
• Ren'ai Shashin #70

The ranking for 6th of November:

• Planetarium #8 (=)
• Sakuranbo #21 (+6)
• Daisuki da yo #37 (+20)
• Ren'ai Shashin #47 (+23)
• Cherish #54 (+10)
• Kingyo Hanabi #82
• Peach #83
• Kuroge Wagyu Joshio Tanyaki 680 Yen #97
• SMILY #99

As for today, Planetarium and Sakuranbo are still the most popular (charting at #21 and #32 respectively), Cherish and Daisuki dayo occupy place #97 and #98, and the rest of the previously mentioned songs are out of Top 100.

The reason why the songs started charting was a special price reduction announced on Ai's official website.

I think that this sudden burst of popularity of Ai-chan songs is evidence that Japanese people still remember about her and love her music after all :)

Sources: Recochoku | Channel-Ai | Ai's official website

Special thanks for Skeedatl :)

CONFIRMED: Ai Otsuka's new song: Hikari!

Now it's confirmed - tomorrow, 9th of October, Ai Otsuka is returning with a new song, called「ヒカリ」("Hikari"). The song is going to be released only for the members of her exclusive fanclub LOVE9CUBE. As for this moment, it's unknown whether the song will be released physically on a CD.

Let's hope that somebody will record the song and share it with us :)

UPDATE: Listen to "Hikari" (full song)! | Lyrics

The info about the song: hiraga_tetsuo @ Twitter, avex_news @ Twitter

A new photo of Ai Otsuka!

A new photo of Ai-chin surfaced which is a great news for all her fans :)

The man on the picture is Hiraga Tetsuo, a journalist from hotexpress who once interviewed Ai Otsuka during her "愛 am BEST" promotions. It was also him who uploaded the picture on his profile here. It was taken during a kind of happy meeting of him and Ai-chin.

Ai looks very slim in this picture, doesn't she? And the ponytail suits her, although I never saw her wearing such a hairstyle ;) It's so nice to see her after a year of complete silence. After all, excluding the wedding photos, this is one of the very rare pics of her we've discovered in 2011.

  

Sources: 1 | 2

Photos from Ai's wedding! LOVE9CUBE PREMIUM Vol. 0

There they are! Thanks to LittleBigHeart from Channel-Ai who found them somewhere on the net, we can admire the photos from Ai Otsuka and Su's wedding!

The photos come from LOVE9CUBE PREMIUM Magazine Volume 0 which is a special book available only for the members of Ai's fanclub in Japan.

Ai looked absolutely wonderful... Better than Kate Middleton (pardon me, the Duchess of Cambridge), I would say in my highly personal opinion :D I'm in love with our sweet Ai-chin right now xD

LittleBigHeart, you are my idol for bringing these stunning pics to us! Thank you!

***

Here are the pictures (click on the thumbnails to see the full size):








































You can see all the pictures also here: Channel-Ai Gallery

EDIT (05.05.2011) - I found some entries on various Japanese blogs where the lucky ones who have the magazine posted some photos of the publication. The pics are definitely LQ, but it's better than nothing:

1 | 2 | 3

Message from Ai Otsuka about the childbirth

Ai Otsuka sent a message to her fans via her mobile fanclub LOVE9CUBE.

Ai wrote:

つい最近……

無事に女の子を出産できました
母子共に元気です。

ずっと逢いたかったこの子に
ありがとうでいっぱいです。
一生分の幸せをくれました。
よく来てくれたね、一緒に歩いていこうね。

隣で支えてくれた旦那さんにも
ありがとうです。

私を丈夫に産んでくれたお母さんにも、
ありがとうです。

安全に導いてくれた先生や助産婦さんたちにも、
ありがとうです。

これまでに、安産を願ってくれたたくさんの人にも
本当にありがとうです！

小さな小さな彼女は、お腹の中でも、この世に出ても、
一生懸命生きようとしてます。
あたりまえにある普通のことを、
恵まれた時代に見失いそうな普通のことを、
大事に、一つ一つを大事に、
教えられながら進んでいきます。

第二章、出発☆

Translation (Jpopasia.com):

Just recently….

I gave birth to a girl without mishap.

Mother and daughter are both safe.

I am full of appreciation (after seeing) this child who I have wanted to meet for so long.

I have been given a lifetime’s worth of happiness.

Thank you for coming, let’s walk on together.

Thank you, also to my husband who’s been supporting me by my side.

Thank you, to my mother who gave birth to a healthy me.

Thank you, to the doctor and midwives who led me safely.

And truly, thank you, to everyone who has wished me an easy delivery up until now!

This tiny, tiny her is trying to live very hard, in (my) belly, and (now) out in the world. I will continue on while being taught to cherish, to cherish one by one, the normal things that seem ordinary, normal things that we can lose sight of in this blessed age.

Second chapter, depart☆

Sources: jpopasia | barks.jp

24 March 2011 - Ai Otsuka gives birth to a baby girl!

My dear Readers!

Today, 24th March 2011, the most beautiful day in Ai Otsuka's life has come - she gave birth to her first child - a baby girl!

Omedetou, Ai-chin! Omedetou, Su!

The name of the baby is still unknown, but it's only a matter of time when Ai shares this with us. I can't believe it! I'm so happy!

Ai Otsuka and Kazuto Ootsuki (RIP SLYME's Su) got married on 25th July 2010. Ai announced that she was 3 months pregnant during her live performance LOVE is BORN ~7th Anniversary 2010 in September 2010.

Sources: Channel-Ai | Yomiuri | Kumanichi | TokyoHive

Ai Otsuka draws a pregnant girl in LIFE-LOVE CiRCLE :)

こんにちわ、みんな！

We're meeting for the first time this year. And today I have something for you which is related to Ai-chan's pregnancy :)

As you probably know, Ai Otsuka is having a baby in April. Generally, we don't know much about the pregnancy, as Ai stays aways from the public eye. She only appears in her weekly LIFE-LOVE CiRCLE program on Tokyo FM (the official website is here) and that's it.

The news below come from a rough translation provided by chokokokoa from Channel-Ai.

Yesterday, Ai-chin had her first program this year aired. She wished everybody a happy new year and briefly summarised her professional achievements of 2010 (she mentioned also obtaining the driving license ^^). Then she expressed her delight and disbelief that she's a mother (still didn't get used to the growing belly? :D). What's the most interesting for us, chokokokoa claims that Ai used the words 女 and 女の子 (female and a girl) several times...

Is it telling us indirectly that she's going to have a baby girl? (No, I'm not suggesting anything!)

If so, then the dreams of many fans about Ai having the cutest baby in the world are coming true! ^^ (it's mine dream as well).

At the end, Ai-chan mentions she feels like eating mochi...

Here you have the picture for today's episode:

I'm in love with the cuteness and simplicity of Ai-chin's drawings!...♥

It's doubtful whether the woman in the picture is Ai herself.

I have some doubts concerning the kanji character on the left. At first glance, the character resembles this one: 女 which means female or woman. The kanji in the picture (安) has a small "roof", which makes it a different kanji than 女. According to my kanji dictionary, this "roofed" character means safety, peace or peace of mind. Therefore - we can't assume that Ai drew it next to a pregnant woman to express the child's gender, because despite the initial similarity, the kanji here has a different meaning. I don't know what to think about it... I will have to ask my Japanese teacher to clarify this issue :)

If you want to listen to Ai's sweet voice (her sweet laugh!) every Saturday, you can download podcasts with her program from the Tokyo FM official site: http://www.tfm.co.jp/love/circle/

I definitely can't wait till April!

EDIT (03.01.2011) I learned some important things about the news above. Both kanji characters in the picture put together mean easy childbirth or easy delivery (according to flintandtas @ Ch-Ai). Moreover, chokokokoa added that this picture was probably for a friend of Mizuki-chan (whose message was read by Ai in the program). The person to whom this pic is dedicated is pregnant, so Ai probably wanted to wish her easy delivery. We wish the same for Ai-chin :)

Ai Otsuka and Su's secret wedding ceremony

According to this site, 13th October 2010 Ai Otsuka and Kazuto Ootsuki (alias Su) had a small private wedding ceremony which was attended by around 50 people. This celebration was a secret, therefore no media were present there. As far as I know, there aren't any photos of the wedding, but hopefully they will appear in time :)

Omedetou, Ai-chin and Su! :)

At the moment we can only imagine how charming Ai-chin was that day, but this is not so hard, especially because we can admire her beauty in her calendar for 2011:

Unfortunately, this photo is of very poor quality (even though I did my best to make it look better). Anyway, enjoy!

UPDATES: Ai Otsuka gives birth to a baby girl | Photos from Ai and Su's wedding

Ai Otsuka announces her pregnancy - YouTube

I have found a video on YouTube which is a piece of news from Japanese TV about Ai-chin announcing her pregnancy during her live concert LOVE IS BORN 7th Anniversary on 11.09.2010. You can see her there smiling while delivering the news and gently touching her (still flat at that moment) belly :)



Later in the clip, when the speaker comments on the event, Ai is singing "I love xxx" as if she was singing for her baby. This looks so sweet, doesn't it? :)

LOVE IS BORN: 7th Anniversary & Ai Otsuka is pregnant!

LOVE is BORN 7th Anniversary! The live concerts took place 11th and 12th of September 2010 in Yokohama (strange that not in Osaka and not 09.09., but nevermind). The tickets sold out very quickly, which wasn't a big surprise :) Especially because the campaign promoting the events was well-organised and rich in attractions: lots of unique merchandise, like photos and posters: see them here. Moreover, there is also some sweet stuff, like chocolates ^^ These and much more cool LIB stuff are presented on the special website: click here to see.

The setlist:

1. Ai

2. Is
3. Zokkondition
4. Hanikami Jane
5. Action 10.5
6. Always Together
7. Momo no Hanabira
8. Neko ni Fuusen
9. Kingyo Hanabi
10. LOVE LETTER
11. Ren'ai Shashin
12. Planetarium
13. Birthday Song
14. Rocket Sneaker

15. Sakuranbo
16. Mirai Taxi
17. LUCKY STAR

encore:
18. CHU-LIP
19.I love xxx

Here you have 2 photos from the event:

Near the very end of the concert on Saturday, Ai-chin opened her heart and announced that...  she's pregnant! Ai said: September 9th, it was my birthday and I spent the day with my husband, but it was actually the birthday with the baby too. Although the baby is still very, very tiny, I wanted to tell you guys first. I can't see you guys for awhile in live, but I will look forward to see you later again. (Source: Oricon style). According to Ai, she's 3 months pregnant, so the delivery should be around April 2011. The news was spread throughout the whole world by the Internet in no time, making everyone both shocked and happy :) Omedetou, Ai-chin and Su!

Pregnancy means that our lovely Ai-chin will disappear for some time, but don't worry :) She'll be back for sure. She's been a really busy bee for the last 7 years, so she deserves for some time just for herself and her new family. I'm sure that Ai will be a great mother and the child will be the most important for her. I wish Ai, Su and their small penguin all the best! :)

UPDATES: Ai Otsuka gives birth to a baby girl | Photos from Ai's wedding

Ai Otsuka got married!

Hot news! As the official Ai's website informs, 25th June 2010 Ai Otsuka married SU (real name: Kazuto Ootsuki) from RIP SLYME. The news was published a day after the event, moreover, all that was known about Ai and SU's relationship was that they MIGHT be together. Allegedly somebody saw SU leaving Otsuka's house, somebody else claimed that Ai gave SU keys to her house.... All this were just rumours, so barely nobody thought about them seriously. And now... Well, apparently there was a really huge grain of truth in this gossip.

Even for a typical small gossip about somebody dating somebody, this one was a hot topic. In addition, it was spread not only throughout Japan - even in Polish magazine about manga and anime there was a brief mention about Ai and SU being together. I was kind of puzzled that they were writing about some unproved hearsays and not about the professional achievements of both concerned - especially because the page where I found this news was to be about J-POP MUSIC only. There were many relevant things to write about - 'LOVE is BEST' tour, 'Zokkondition / Lucky Star' single...

Speaking of 'Zokkondition' - I felt that these lyrics must mean something! I only didn't think much about this deep meaning, because officially Ai didn't have any boyfriend... And I admit, I didn't have any time for thinking about it. Now it occured to me like some epiphany that nobody writes such suggestive words about getting married if they don't have nuptial vows in mind. And they are in love. It is clear and completely transparent that Ai was in love like hell when she wrote 'Zokkondition' lyrics - read it once again to see.

Yeah. Marriage. Like most of Ai's fans, I'm still lost for words when it comes to the latest Ai-chin's deed. Especially because lots of people on Channel-Ai threaten that if SU dares hurt Ai, 'there will be blood spilled' (said by user skeedatl) :P They say that SU is a lousy playboy, so the newlyweds won't be happy together, at least not for long. Well, I don't know SU that much, so I don't know what he may do, but I strongly believe that since Ai-chin chose SU as her husband, then she can see something precious and good in him, moreover, she can see a common path for both of them. I hope that they will live happily ever after and they will belong to this happy half of married couples who don't divorce :) I wish them all the best and I hope that our sweet Ai will write more beautiful songs full of love and passion. (But Ai, please, write and perform on your own - WITHOUT HIM - because one 'aisu x time' is enough :P)

For those who don't know Japanese - news in English from Tokyograph.

UPDATES: Ai and Su's wedding ceremony | Ai Otsuka gives birth to a baby girl | Photos from the wedding