Singer Seiko Matsuda will appear as herself in the August 17 broadcast of "Doraemon." The story involves Doraemon and Nobita using a time machine to travel back to around 1980. There, they encounter Matsuda at an autograph session near the time of her debut.

This is Matsuda's first time playing an animated version of herself.

Fashion model Anne (who is the daughter of actor Ken Watanabe) will make her debut as an actress this fall. She has been cast as a female detective in TV Asahi's television remake of Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low," which was announced last month. Her character was not present in the original film.

Pop artist Ai Otsuka managed to outsell Morning Musume this week to take the #1 spot on the singles chart. Her 15th single, "PEACH / HEART," sold about 25,000 more copies than the competing "Onna ni Sachiare." This marks Otsuka's third #1 single. It is her first since the 2005 release "Planetarium," which was also a tie-in with a highly popular drama series.

Meanwhile, rock band Orange Range dominated the albums chart, garnering both the #1 and #2 spots with their simultaneously released best albums, "ORANGE" and "RANGE." Each sold more than 210,000 copies, far surpassing the #3-ranked "Sora wa Maru de" by Monkey Majik, which only sold 82,000 in the same week.

In the overall DVD rankings, Volume 7 of the "Code Geass" anime series came out on top. This is the show's second DVD to reach #1, and every volume so far has shown up in the Top 3.

Sanpei Shirato's manga "The Legend of Kamui" ("Kamui Gaiden") is getting its first live-action movie. It will be directed by Yoichi Sai, and will star Kenichi Matsuyama in his first true action role.

Shirato's comic about a lone ninja was originally serialized from 1965 to 1967, then from 1982 to 1987. It was turned into an animated series in 1969 and an animated movie two years later. Sai's film will be the first live-action treatment of the work.

The script will be handled by celebrated writer Kankuro Kudo. Filming is scheduled to run from November to February, but the movie will not be released until 2009.

Pop group Arashi, who are currently on tour across the country, announced on Monday that they are adding four dome concerts to their schedule. The shows will take place on September 23-24 at the Kyocera Dome Osaka and on October 7-8 at the Tokyo Dome.

Korean actor Ryu Si-won will be a regular cast member of the upcoming TBS drama series, "Joshi Deka!" The show stars Pinko Izumi and Yukie Nakama as a pair of female detectives.

This is Ryu's first regular role in a Japanese series. He previously appeared in NTV's 2005 tanpatsu, "Koi no Kara Sawagi," and was a cast member of NHK's "Dondo Bare" for a week. He has been gaining popularity in Japan in the last few years through Korean dramas and his music career.

In "Joshi Deka!" Ryu plays the role of a camera operator. He lives together with Izumi's character, but is actually the son of her former lover. A romance develops between him and Nakama's character. Ryu will appear in every episode, and his lines will be spoken entirely in Japanese.

Idol Shoko Nakagawa will appear in her first starring television drama role next month. On August 28, Fuji TV will broadcast its summer special of the "Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi" series (also known as "Scary True Stories"). The program consists of four stories, including one titled "Rei no Tooru Ie." In that segment, Nakagawa will act out a story based on her own real-life experiences.

Nakagawa's experiences originally appeared as stories in the "Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi" magazine published by Asahi Sonorama, which is ceasing operations at the end of September.

The idol has had many seemingly spirit-related experiences in the past. The first was in 1994, when she was 9 years old. Her father, musician and actor Katsuhiko Nakagawa, had passed away. After that, she began seeing bloodlike stains appearing on a wall in her home, and hearing footsteps with no one else around. Later on in life, she had experiences with sleep paralysis and other strange phenomena.

The other segments of the "Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi" special will include performances by Goro Inagaki, Ei Morisako, and Takahisa Masuda.

Saki Aibu and Shun Oguri have been chosen as the image characters for the 2007 "CM no CM Campaign." The commercial campaign, sponsored by the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan, is intended to promote TV advertising. It is often recognized by its catchphrase, "Enjoy CM!"

The new commercials with Aibu and Oguri will begin airing on August 1.