Tokyo Showbiz Latest News and Updates

on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Thursday, the Bon Jovi frontman, 62, said he and guitarist Richie Sambora were invited to party with the “Smooth Criminal” hitmaker while he was in Tokyo for the “Slippery When Wet” tour. “We walked into his hotel room, which was all done up in mirrors so he could dance,” the rocker explained.

Tess Daly has been told she 'hasn't changed' as she took a trip down memory lane and shared one of many throwback snaps with her fans. The Strictly Come Dancing host appeared to have been looking through an old catalogue from her modelling portfolio after starting her career in the industry.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief While multiple Korean TV series have connected with global audiences, Japan’s production committees, terrestrial broadcasters and talent agencies have kept their TV industry tightly focused on a local market. Anime and variety have long remained the Japanese TV industry’s best-known exports, while the premium end of the spectrum has largely escaped Japanese producers.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Online comic book platforms Marvel Unlimited and VIZ Manga are to begin cross-promotions that are aimed at expanding fandom in the genre. The move follows the 2022-23 collaboration between Marvel Comics and Viz Media that extended stories from the Marvel comics universe into the Japanese manga format, in a handful of titles. Subscribers to the VIZ Manga digital service can now access titles featuring fan-favorite characters including “Deadpool: Samurai,” “Wolverine: Snikt!,” “Spider-Man: Fake Red” and “Marvel’s Secret Reverse.” Later in the year other Marvel-manga crossover titles will be added including “Spider-Man: Octo-Girl” and “X-Men: The Manga: Remastered.” To launch their cross-platform cooperation, VIZ Manga and Marvel Unlimited will offer each other’s U.S.

Callum McLennan Comedy docuseries “The World’s Strangest Jobs,” from Johannesburg-based Mannequin Pictures, one of South Africa’s key production, finance, and distribution companies, has sold to Prime Video the rights to the African continent. Mannequin is now pursuing sales in all other territories. The eight-part series is hosted by comedian and actor Schalk Bezuidenhout.

TV presenter Nathan Templeton has tragically been found dead by a river after suffering what's believed to be a "medical episode" while out walking his dog. Nathan was known for presenting the Australian morning news show Sunrise on Channel 7, with his body being discovered on a walking track near the Barwon River in Australia on Tuesday (9 April) afternoon. A statement from his family reads: "Our hearts are broken for an adoring father and a wonderful friend, who’ll be missed by many." Nathan is survived by his wife, Kate Coghlan, and two sons, Jack, five, and James, four.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Hong Kong government has licensed the broadcast rights to the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. It intends to relicense the rights to four TV broadcasters in the city – TVB, ViuTV, HOY TV and government-owned RTHK.

Alexis Jandard, a French diver, added a memorable twist to the inauguration of the Paris Aquatics Centre, a venue slated for this summer’s Games, with a comical mishap that left spectators chuckling.Donning the tricolor trunks of his homeland and eager to impress French President Emmanuel Macron, Jandard enthusiastically began his dive. However, what followed differed from the graceful display he had hoped for.

If the final episode of season two is the last of “Tokyo Vice,” the MAX series saw several storylines come to a fitting conclusion. Speaking to creator J.T.

Alison Herman TV Critic If John Sugar, the PI played by a gravel-voiced Colin Farrell in the eponymous crime drama “Sugar,” seems like too much a collection of noir clichés and male fantasies to be a plausible protagonist, that’s partly by design. But the Apple TV+ series, created by screenwriter Mark Protosevich (“I Am Legend,” Spike Lee’s “Oldboy”), executive produced by Audrey Chon (“The Twilight Zone” reboot, “Invasion”) Simon Kinberg (the original “Mr.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and EventsApril kicked off with Beyoncé being presented with the Innovator Award at the iHeartRadio Awards in Los Angeles.

Carolyn Giardina Goldcrest Post, an independently-owned feature and episodic postproduction facility that currently maintains bases in New York and London, plans to open a third location at Lionsgate Studios Yonkers, just outside New York City. Goldcrest plans to open in September as a full service facility that will include a theater equipped with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision for screenings, color grading sessions and sound mixing.

Liberal talk show host Jimmy Kimmel spoke on his show about how surprisingly clean Japan is in comparison to the U.S. and even Europe, joking that Japanese people associate Americans with garbage.While American cities struggling with rampant homelessness, crumbling infrastructure and crime is a popular point of discussion in American politics, Kimmel gave a monologue Monday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” about how a recent trip to Japan shattered his image of what a modern society could look like.“Here in America, we know we have our faults. We know we have areas for improvement.

Uniqlo has officially confirmed when it will be opening the doors its first ever store in Scotland later this month.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Japanese broadcaster TV Tokyo and Taiwan-based LGBT streaming platform GagaOOLala will this month release “At 25.00 in Akasaka,” a live-action drama series in the popular Boys Love (BL) genre. Based on a popular manga by Natsuno Hiroko, the underlying comic has sold over 1.2 million copies. The series explores the romance between a renowned actor and an aspiring talent, cast as leads in a BL drama that wins the hearts of audiences worldwide.

Finnair is expanding its services from Manchester Airport to Helsinki as it celebrates 30 years of direct flights from the Finnish capital to Manchester. The airline will increase capacity to 12 weekly flights this summer, with plans to launch double daily flights by winter 2024.

Strictly Come Dancing bosses are reportedly thinking of the line up for next series already and could have their eye on one particular Olympic champion. Following her retirement from cycling, it looks like Laura Kenny could be taking to the dancefloor as the 'ultimate signing' with a source claiming that producers believe the nation would 'love' her. A source told The Mirror: "Laura is Britain's most successful female Olympian, with five gold medals.

Rina Sawayama and YOASOBI are set to join NewJeans at their two-date fan meeting in Tokyo in June.It was announced earlier this week that the two-day fan-meet concert, called the ‘Bunnies Camp 2024’, will take place on June 26 and 27 at the Tokyo Dome.And now, a poster for the shows has revealed that YOASOBI and Sawayama will be part of the shows, as “special guest appearances”.NewJeans Fan Meeting 'Bunnies Camp 2024 Tokyo Dome'

Oppenheimer” finally premiered in Japan on Friday with trigger warnings after an eight-month controversy over how it would be perceived there.Signs were posted at the entrances to some theaters in Tokyo, warning that the Christopher Nolan film, which was released globally in July, contained images of nuclear tests.The movie tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer — played by Cillian Murphy, who won the Oscar for his portrayal — the physicist behind the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, killing more than 200,000 and ending World War II.“Of course this is an amazing film which deserves to win the Academy Awards.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Sega is selling off “Company of Heroes” developer Relic Entertainment and laying off 240 employees across Sega’s Europe and UK-based teams, including Creative Assembly and Sega Hardlight. The cuts make Sega the latest video game company to downsize its staff in 2024.

It’s already been a banner 2024 for HBO and Max, with “True Detective: Night Country,” “Tokyo Vice” Season 2, and “The Regime” all scoring high with critics and audiences.

Celeb Confirmed.Following the Seoul shows, the remaining four member of VANNER will host concerts in the East Asia cities of Taipei, Tokyo and Hong Kong in May and July 2024. More information about the concerts, including venue and ticketing details, are expected in the coming weeks.Meanwhile, tickets to the Seoul dates of VANNER’s 2024 ‘The Flag: A to V’ tour are on sale now from the official Yes24 website.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief In these culturally sensitive times, having an American director and showrunner on a quintessentially Japanese series is sure to raise the issue of cultural appropriation. But the Dave Boyle-directed “House of Ninjas,” which Netflix launched in February, stands out not only as a hit, but as a seemingly happy blend of East and West. An original story about the last living ninja family in modern times, the show ranked as the streamer’s top non-English show in 16 countries and regions, as well as reached the top ten list in 92 countries.In an interview with Variety, Boyle (“The Man From Reno,” “Big Dreams, Little Tokyo”) said that surprising career left-turns brought him to the series and helped him keep the show authentically Japanese.

NewJeans have made a surprise announcement of two new single albums and a 2025 world tour – find all details below.The K-pop girl group have been teasing new music since the beginning of this month, and have unveiled not one, but two new single albums. NewJeans shared the announcement via their app Phoning, where they revealed the first single album will drop on May 24, and then on June 21.The first single album will be called ‘How Sweet’ and will feature its title track and another song called ‘Bubble Gum’.

Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi wowed international audiences and critics with his drama “Drive My Car,” which earned the Best International Feature Film Oscar in 2022. The venerated director is back with “Evil Does Not Exist,” an ecological fable with genre elements about a father and daughter living in the wilderness outside Tokyo.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia, where popular anime characters such as “Captain Tsubasa” and “Dragon Ball” protagonist Son Goku have been engrained in the culture for decades, is taking its love affair with Japanese manga content to the next level. In late March, just a few weeks after the death of “Dragon Ball” creator Akira Toriyama, it was announced that the world’s first theme park dedicated to the megahit Japanese manga and animation franchise will be built in Qiddiya, the massive entertainment and tourism project outside the Saudi capital of Riyadh through a joint venture between Qiddiya and Japan’s Toei Animation.

Netflix unveiled its anime line-up for the year at the AnimeJapan event in Tokyo, including feature film Ultraman: Rising and TV series Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance and Rising Impact.

Rauw Alejandro and Rosalía have sparked intense speculation about whether they are still thinking about each other.The intrigue began when Puerto Rican sensation Rauw Alejandro took to his social media platforms to share a snapshot of himself dining at a ramen restaurant in Tokyo. While this might seem like an ordinary occurrence for a celebrity, what caught the attention of eagle-eyed fans was that the restaurant featured prominently in one of Rosalía’s music videos.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Osaka-based Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation will launch ytv animation, a new brand that will leverage Yomiuri TV’s long history in animation, while also undertaking more challenging titles. The move comes a day ahead of the Anime Japan 2024 convention being held at Tokyo Big Sight. It also comes “ahead of the 60th anniversary in 2027 of Yomiuri TV’s airing of ‘Golden Bat’ in 1967,” the company said. “We will leverage our nearly 60 years of experience producing and broadcasting anime to bring exciting titles to our fans,” said ytv animation producer in a prepared statement.

NBCUniversal is adding a set of features to Peacock as it gets set for the streaming outlet’s live coverage of the Paris Olympics this summer.