Kenji Urai Appears During Former Takarazuka Star’s Concerts!

Kei Aran had an almost 20 year career with Japan’s Takarazuka Revue before she retired last year to pursue other interests. She went on to star in Aida, and also performed her own concerts too. Running through the month of June was a new series of personal concerts by Kei, called Kei Aran Live 2010. The show featured her singing songs, dancing, and performing short dramatic pieces in grand costumes, accompanied by actors Shinji Takeda on the Saxophone and Kenji Urai (Tuxedo Kamen from 2001-2002) who sang duets with her. Kenji and Kei wore very classy black outfits and sang a variety of old jazz songs. The last concert was on June 19th.

Mikako Tabe’s New Films A Hit!

Mikako Tabe has two new movies in Japan right now. The first one is Kenta to Jun to Kayo-chan no Kuni (A Crowd of Three). It is a movie about two men named Kenta & Jun, who lived at a children’s facility and grew up as almost brothers. Now they work as part of a demolition crew but they are not happy with their jobs. They then decide to take a road trip to visit Kenta’s brother who is currently in prison. Mikako plays the supporting role of Yumika in this one. This movie had its world premiere at TOKYO FILMeX last November, and was released to theaters in Japan on June 12th. In February, the movie was also shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, to warm reviews. Mikako is also in the upcoming live action adaptation of the popular manga Kimi ni Todoke, starring as the lead character Sawako. The movie’s trailers were just released, and the last day of filming was on June 8th. On that day, the stars gave interviews to the press, and Mikako revealed that she was a little nervous about her ability to portray the different emotions of her character. The images that we have seen so far really look like they have bought the manga and the anime to life, and we hope that this one will be as good as it looks!

Not too much to report now, but we thought we’d still report these since these actors were all featured in huge roles during Sera Myu!

Kenji Urai is a Prince!

Fresh off his win at the 44th Kinokuniya Theater Awards, Kenji Urai (Tuxedo Mask from 2001-2002) will be making an appearance in a stage musical, and he wil get to play a prince! Bara to Samurai: Goemon Rock Overdrive (Rose to Samurai: Goemon Rock Overdrive) began on March 18th in Tokyo, and will travel through to Osaka in April and May. The play takes place in the 17th century, about two pirates named Goemon and Ann. Lured by a reward, another pirate tries to kidnap Goemon, but captures Ann instead. Everyone finds out later that Annu is the long-lost daughter of the recently deceased King, and is set to rule over his kingdom. At her first party, Annu meets a prince named Charles from another country who falls in love with her, but Goemon isn’t ready to give her up easily. Kenji is playing Prince Charles, and has received some rave reviews from fans already over his performance! At a promotional event held earlier this month, the two leading cast members playing Ann and Goemon (Yuki Amami and Arata Furata) were excited for the chance to cosplay as pirates on stage!

Tae Kimura Presents at 33rd Japanese Academy Awards After Winning Year!

2009 was a great year for Tae Kimura (Fisheye in Sailor Moon SuperS musicals). She won two awards for her role in the critically acclaimed film All Around Us (including a Japanese Academy Award), and became well known around Japan. A few weeks ago, she appeared to present an award at the Japanese Academy Awards, and was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the Japanese film Zero Focus. This movie was about a mysterious disappearance of a woman’s husband. We have a photo of her at the awards featured here (in the brown dress). Unfortunately, she didn’t win, but we are still proud of everything she has achieved! Zero Focus will be released to DVD and BD this June. Fans can check out more information about the film in English here.

Maki Aizawa Goes Shopping and Has a Beauty Blog

Maki Aizawa (Loof Merrow in 2004) went for a little shopping trip with her friend, Yuko Ogura (another idol) before they had to go to work. This for some strange reason was covered by the tabloids (*sigh*). They went to one of the most trendiest stores in Tokyo called ISBIT DAIKANYAMA which is very popular among idols for the eclectic selection of clothing it carries. They tried on a few items and took some photos of themselves without makeup and went on their merry way (which included posts on both Yuko and Maki’s blogs). Maki is the girl on the right side of the photo we have posted here. Maki also started a beauty blog a few months ago which is slowly gaining some steam with her fans. She reviews beauty products that she uses.

Tabe Mikako in New Lipstick Commercial!

Tabe Mikako (Yaten Kou/Sailor Star Healer) is currently being featured in a new lipstick commercial in Japan for Orbis Rouge Crystal. This lipstick has special shine enhancers in it to make your lips sparkle. Orbis has two commercials for this product, the first one features Tabe putting the lipstick on and talking about how it makes her lips sparkle. The second one, features Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott playing a Chopin waltz off of her brand new album. Both aim to show that this lipstick will make you sparkle and shine at just the right moment! Fans can check out videos of both commercials here!

Anza Oyama a Matter of Weeks Away From South America!

Anza Oyama (Sailor Moon from 1993-1998) is the lead singer of Japanese metal band Head Phones President, and they are heading out for the first time to South America a month from now! They will be playing four shows in Brazil, and 3 of them are at anime conventions: the concert on April 24th will happen at Anime Hero!, then they will head off to Anime Osasco the next day, and then to Porto Allegre’s J-Party Ballads on the 30th. On May 2nd, they will finish their tour playing in Rio de Janeiro. We know our friends at SOS Brazil are very excited about this and we can’t wait to hear what they have to report! The band sings in English, and their style of music is definitely a departure from the cutesy songs fans know Anza best for singing in Sera Myu. Fans who want to give their music a listen can check out their MySpace! We wish Head Phones President the best of luck on their tour and we hope to see them perform in other places as well.

Welcome to Day 3 – our final day of Sera Myu updates! These last two sightings are small, but we’re sure many of our readers will recognize these names!

Maki Aizawa to Model in Special Fashion Show!

Maki Aizawa (Loof Merrow in 2004) will be modeling at the Fukuoka Asian Collection (FACo) Spring/Summer 2010 Fashion Show on March 21st. There will be over 40 brands represented at this event, and even brands from Thailand and Taiwan will be featured! Parco (Japan’s largest department store) is currently holding a model search. The winners of this “Cinderella Girl” search will also be walking the runway at this show. Maki said at the press conference that she doesn’t think that there is much difference between fashion in Fukuoka and Tokyo, but that she thinks Fukuoka fashion is a little more sophisticated. Tickets are sold out, but hopefully we will be able to show you some photos of Maki coming down the runway! For more information on the other models appearing at the event, check out the official FaCO site.

Kenji Urai Wins Award for Role in Henry VI!

Last Fall, the New National Theater Tokyo undertook a major task: they were going to present all 3 parts of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy (a whopping 9 hours). Playing Henry VI through all of these was none other than Kenji Urai, who played Tuxedo Mask from 2001-2002. He was hailed by the critics, who said that he really embodied the wavering monarch, and brought a tremendous reality to this production. At the 44th Kinokuniya Theater Awards, Kenji won an award for his performance as the fabled King. He was shocked that he was so young and receiving such a prestigious award, and could not believe they chose a person like him as the winner! Unfortunately, this was the only image we could find of him at the awards show, and that is him nodding on the left side with his drink. Congratulations Kenji, and we’d never imagine that someone on Sera Myu would be doing such a marathon performance on stage!