Japanese pop band CHAI announce split after current tour

Ellise Shafer It’s official: Taylor Swift is heading to the Super Bowl. And by Taylor Swift, we mean her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who led his team to victory against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night and clinched a spot in Feb. 11’s big game.

EXCLUSIVE: Improv icon Colin Mochrie (Whose Line is it Anyway?) will narrate a Canadian version of the eye-opening but heartwarming Japanese format Old Enough!, in which kids run errands on their own.

Taylor Swift‘s boyfriend is going to the Super Bowl!

A monkey is on the loose in a Scottish village after escaping from the Highland Wildlife Park.

Love Live! School Island Festival 2 alongside its imminent closure.First launched in 2013, the Love Live! games are an extension of the Love Live! multimedia series which also features anime, manga and actual music. The franchise focuses on fictional groups of children who become idols in order to save their school, and the rhythm games follow a similar narrative.An English version of the Love Live! School Island Festival mobile game was launched in 2014 while a sequel was confirmed in 2022, with players able to transfer their process to the new game that was due to entirely replace the original.The servers for the original Love Live! School Island Festival were then shut down on March 31, 2023 with the sequel launching in Japan a couple of weeks later.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix has picked up worldwide rights to “The Imaginary,” a currently-on-release Japanese animation film from producer Studio Ponoc. “Studio Ponoc is thrilled to bring our storytelling and innovative hand-drawn, hand-painted animated films to all audiences, and in particular to children and their families to enjoy together, around the world on Netflix,” said Nishimura Yoshiaki, Ponoc founder and former Studio Ghibli producer. The film is directed by Momose Yoshiyuki, who has credits on Ponoc’s 2017 title “Mary and the Witch’s Flower” and others on Ghibli’s “Spirited Away,” “Princess Mononoke” and “Porco Rosso.” Adapted from a novel by A.F. Harold, with a screenplay by Nishimura, the film “portrays the depths of humanity and creativity through the eyes of young Amanda and her imaginary companion, Rudger.

Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson had an extra reason to celebrate this week as she proudly showed off her brand new £150,000 car after successfully passing her driving test.The 32 year old singer was spotted filling up her stylish Mercedes G Wagon G63 shortly after passing her test, as she made the most of the new found freedom that came with the ability to drive her brand news set of wheels. Dressed down for the occasion, Jesy cut a casual figure in a lilac tracksuit emblazoned with smiley faces as she opted for a make-up free complexion to fill up her new motor at a local petrol station in Essex.

ITZY have announced the dates and venues for their upcoming 2024 ‘Born to Be’ world tour, featuring concerts in North America, Europe, Asia and more.Today (January 25), ITZY revealed the dates and venues for their upcoming 29-date world tour, titled ‘Born to Be’ after their new studio album of the same name.ITZY’s new tour will kick-off with a two-night concert at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. The following month, the K-pop girl group play three shows in Oceania, as well as one in Bangkok Thailand.April and May 2024, ITZY play a one-night-only concert in Singapore, before starting the Latin America, Europe and Japan legs of their tour.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Indie distributor Bitters End has finally set a theatrical release date in Japan for Christopher Nolan’s lauded “Oppenheimer” – after the Oscars. The film will arrive in Japanese cinemas on March 29, the company said on Thursday. That date is some two and a half weeks after the Oscars ceremony (March 10 in Los Angeles, March 11 in Japan), at which “Oppenheimer” has a strong chance of winning multiple awards. At the Oscars nomination event, earlier this week, “Oppenheimer” became the front-runner, collecting 13 nods, including best picture, best director and a trio of acting nominations.A post shared by 映画会社ビターズ・エンド (@bitters_end) Despite its critical and commercial success in cinemas around the world last year – it earned $952 million – the film is controversial in Japan.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A Japanese court on Thursday announced the death sentence for Aoba Shinji, the man who burned down the Kyoto Anime studio in 2019 and killed 36 people. There was little doubt that Aoba, who himself was badly burned in the blaze, was the perpetrator and set the fire using gasoline. Shortly after the attack, at a press conference, the Kyoto police said that Aoba had unspecified mental health issues.

While in England, German director Wim Wenders was sandwiched between a press tour and a brief lunch when a member of his team walked into the restaurant to secretly signal across the room that he was nominated for his first feature film Oscar with Japan’s Best International Feature Film, Perfect Days. “Someone came in raising their thumb, which was the sign that we had agreed on, and no word was spoken because there were too many guests in the restaurant,” Wenders laughed while retelling the Tuesday nomination. “So, I knew then I could let that meal go a little cold. It was lovely because I had prepared myself to not expect anything. I had completely prepared myself to not be on the list so that I wouldn’t be disappointed. So [this nomination] was quite a surprise today.”

After 25 years together, fans around the world were shocked to hear that Boyzone's Keith Duffy and his wife Lisa Smith are allegedly calling it quits on their marriage.The former boyband singer, 49, has also reportedly moved out from their marital £1.15million home in Dublin and the once-loved-up pair have also stopped following one another on social media. Their marriage appeared to be a showbiz relationship made in heaven, lasting decades, with the pair appearing happier than ever as they celebrated their 25th anniversary together on a trip of a lifetime to the French Riviera in July last year.They even shared sweet posts about one another.

80s pop legend Sam Fox spent a night in jail after being arrested for an alleged drunken bust-up on a plane.The model and pop star, 56, was on a British Airways flight to Munich when she allegedly got into a dispute with another passenger.The plane was on the runway ready for takeoff but was turned around at London Heathrow after Fox “kicked off”, sources said.Its passengers had to get off and were put up in a hotel. They subsequently made the journey the next day.Police said a woman in her 50s was arrested on suspicion of being drunk on board an aircraft and bailed until March.Fox said she is helping with the investigation and is “deeply sorry for any disruption caused”.The star was hit by tragedy in March last year after her sister Vanessa died suddenly following a heart attack, aged 50.The sisters were very close; ahead of her 2017 autobiography, Forever, Sam told how Vanessa saved her when their alcoholic dad Pat attacked her.Fox, 56, recalled: “I thought he was going to kill me and begged him to stop.

“Naomi Osaka: Her Journey to Finding Her Power and Her Voice” (Dutton), it felt great. “I count it as my best victory ever,” she says. When Naomi finally bested Mari, wiping “that obnoxious grin off her face”, it became Osaka’s “inflection point.” “Losing to Mari shaped my competitiveness,” she adds.

Ed Sheeran will be flying between Asia and the UK every week during the Asian leg of his tour.Sheeran is set to kick off the Asian leg of his ‘+ – = ÷ x’ tour later this month. The first two shows will take place in Japan, before heading to Taiwan and Southeast Asia in February.

NCT, will make their debut next month.Today (January 18), NCT’s agency SM Entertainment announced that NCT WISH will make their long-awaited debut in February 2024. The new group will feature six members – Sion, Riku, Yushi, Jaehee, Ryo and Sakuya – who were previously confirmed through the reality show NCT Universe: Lastart.According to reports by Korea JoongAng Daily and Yonhap News Agency, NCT WISH will be based in both South Korea and Japan, through which they’ll conduct their global activates.

Western television and anime localizers have recently come under fire for injecting “woke” language into English dubs not present in the original work, prompting some companies to implement artificial intelligence (AI) as a way of limiting human intervention or to remove them entirely.The use of AI in the industry is already well underway. On December 21, the official X account for “The Ancient Magus’ Bride” manga announced it would soon return with a simultaneous internal release in English using AI translation created by the Japanese company Mantra.In addition, Funimation, an American subscription video-on-demand service for anime, recently merged with the Sony Group Corporation-owned streaming service Crunchyroll.

IU has announced her 2024 ‘H.E.R.’ world tour, featuring dates in Asia, Europe and the US.IU’s newly announced 2024 ‘H.E.R.’ world tour will kick off on March 2 at the KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea, where she will play four shows over two weekends. During the same month, the singer will also perform two shows at the Yokohama Arena in Japan.The K-pop idol’s upcoming world tour will then head to other countries and regions across Asia, including two shows in Taipei, Singapore and Jakarta in April, followed by two Hong Kong shows in May.In June, IU will host one concert in the Filipino capital of Manila, alongside two concerts in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Coronation Street star Tony Maudsley has excited one of his co-stars as he revealed how he's lending his skills to another show away from the cobbles. The actor is now known for playing George Shuttleworth in the ITV soap but is also famed for playing Kenneth Du Beke in Benidorm.

K-pop boy band RIIZE recently performed covers of songs by SHINee and Lee Hyo-ri.RIIZE recently made an appearance on veteran singer Lee Hyo-ri’s music talk show The Seasons: Lee Hyo-ri’s Red Carpet. During their episode, the K-pop boyband serenaded Lee with a performance of fellow SM Entertainment group SHINee’s 2008 debut single ‘Replay’.“Noona, you’re so pretty (Looking at her I go) / Crazy (Ha, but she’s tired of me now) / Replay, replay, replay,” they sang during the chorus, with some of the members getting up to dance to the choreography.Elsewhere in the episode, members Anton and Sungchan also took a moment to pay homage to Lee with a cover of her debut single ‘10 Minutes’.