I seriously hope he’s gonna participate in the new KAT-TUN single Yorokobi no Uta, because the last album was kind of…lacking? bad? ^^;
Well KAT-TUN isn’t KAT-TUN without the A. There’s hope for them yet…
Wiki –
Member Akanishi Jin went on hiatus from the group from October 12, 2006 to April 19, 2007 to study English abroad in the U.S. leaving KAT-TUN as a 5 member group for 6 months.
Akanishi took time off to study language starting on October 12, 2006, but returned to Japan on April 19, 2007 to resume activities with KAT-TUN.
This was my first Johnny’s Calendar, and I had decided to purchase it after rave reviews for the products from previous years. When it arrived in the mail, I was quite surprised to what it contained.
Firstly, it came packed in this glossy slipcase/box which featured five-member KAT-TUN in a moody, blue-tinged pose. The box itself opened up into four flaps. The first flap opened to a picture of Koki and another moody blue pic (with Koki sporting this absolutely horrendous spotted leopard hat), the second was Nakamaru, third Ueda, and forth Junnosuke. Where is Kame you might ask? He’s the middle part of the box, hidden under the calendar.
The calendar itself… well… really isn’t a calendar. It’s actually a gorgeous photo book with a matte cover, sporting another moody picture, this time in greyscale. The book is 56 pages, the last 12 containing a month-by-month calendar with the days and tiny little oval boxes for you to write in. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m definitely not writing in this thing. The 44 preceding pages are all photos of the group, and are actually much better shot than KAT-TUN’s other photo album “KAT-TUN in New York”. There’s even one unrecognisable picture with Ueda in it looking like some other member from NewS.
As a calendar, I must say, it’s quite useless. As a photo book, it’s gorgeous. The print and quality of the whole thing is absolutely outstanding. It’s the most well printed novel ‘calendar’ I have ever bought.
Highly recommended for any KAT-TUN fan.
CDJapan stocks these, but for some strange reason the shipping is very high. I recommend getting it at YesAsia, because at least then, the shipping is free.
“Bokura no Machi de” is actually the theme song to the drama “Tatta hitotsu no koi” – it is the first single that KAT-TUN has released as a five-member unit, after the announcement of the hiatus of Akanishi Jin.
So when I had received this single from Yesasia, i had two immeadiate responses.
1) Oh boy, this is really heavy for a single
2) Nooooo there’s no Jin on the cover!!!
However, besides that, i listened to the songs anyways and the reviews are below.
1. Bokura no Machi De
Normally, the lead vocals are done by Akanishi (who has the largest vocal ability and range) whilst the others are used to back him up. However, with him noticeably missing, they have Kamenashi Kazuya leading instead. Kame does have a decent recording voice, and the song has him singing most of the solos, followed by back-up vocals by the rest of the group. KAT-TUN never did sing well in unison, and sometimes their backing vocals do clash with some of them out of tune.
Another difference to this song to their others is this is a ballad – compared to their debut rock single “Real Face” and the pop-y “SIGNAL”. I really do appreciate how well this song is written, however, being a ballad, it’s slow enough to show you the limitations of the member’s voices. That said though, I still enjoy the song. Rating: 3.5/5
2. Way of Love
Way of Love sees KAT-TUN going back to their Jpop, and that being said, it’s very old-school pop KAT-TUN, and very old-school pop Johnny-boys in general. It also does feature the group’s famous Engrish. Rating: 3/5 Stars
Bokura no Machi De PV
Compared to their Real Face and SIGNAL PV’s, I find this one kind of lacking – there’s a lot of sitting, walking towards the camera, staring off into space type singing. That being said, there’s enough close-up’s for fan-girls to swoon over.
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
You can watch it below here:
In general, I think this is a nice change to KAT-TUN’s regular upbeat tempos (however, if you want you’re upbeat, just listen to the B-side). The single matches well for the drama, although I do think these boys should work on their vocals a bit before they release their next ballad.
Money wise, the single only contained two songs and a DVD, which in turn only contained the PV. I think that if you want better value for money, try and get your hands on the first press normal edition – but for the KAT-TUN fan, you can’t let the limited release slip out of your hands – remember, when this first came out, the DVD edition sold out from cdjapan in a matter of hours.
Edition: 
