On Monday, former ozeki Konishiki announced on his website that he underwent gastric bypass surgery last month in order to reduce his weight.

The procedure, designed to treat obesity by reducing the stomach's capacity, was performed in Hawaii on February 25. Konishiki reported that the operation went smoothly.

Surf brand RUSS-K will again use NEWS as its CM characters for the next two seasons. Five new commercials, filmed in Hawaii, will start airing on the 5th.

This time, the group's members were not assigned specific lines. Instead, they were given outlines of the different scenes, and they ad-libbed the dialogue.

Jun Matsumoto, Junichi Okada, and Karina are the new image characters for Pepsi Nex. They will appear in new commercials for the drink starting on Tuesday.

The next in line of the "Pokemon" movies will have its theme song provided by R&B arist Crystal Kay. Titled "ONE," it will be her first tune for an anime film.

Producers have apparently been considering the singer since 2001, when she sang "LOST CHILD" for the "Satorare" movie. They finally decided to use her music for the upcoming 11th film, "Giratina to Sora no Hanataba: Sheimi," which opens on July 19.

Crystal Kay commented that she has been a fan of the Pokemon franchise since she was a child.

The release date of "ONE" has not been announced, but it will begin chaku-uta distribution on March 8, the same day that the movie's trailer enters theaters.

An unfinished film by director Akira Kurosawa will be publicly screened in 2010, it was announced on Friday.

The work is a documentary titled "Gendai no Noh" that Kurosawa started in 1983 while production on "Ran" was halted, but was shelved when "Ran" resumed shooting.

Kurosawa captured about 50 minutes of footage of a modern Noh play, which was given to the National Archives after the director's death. An additional hour of footage will be shot to complete the film in accordance with the original screenplay and production plan.

The finished feature will be shown as part of the "AK100 Project," which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Kurosawa's birth in 1910. Memorial activities are reportedly starting up later this year. Along with "Gendai no Noh," the public will also get a chance to watch several minutes of unseen footage that was intended for the 1970 film "Tora! Tora! Tora!"

Hello! Project has revealed the lineup of its newest unit, Milky Way. The group, which is tied to the anime series "Kirarin Revolution," consists of Morning Musume member Koharu Kusumi plus Hello! Project Eggs Yuu Kikkawa and Sayaka Kitahara.

Kusumi voices the anime's lead character, Kirari. Kikkawa and Kitahara will be joining the voice cast as new characters.

Milky Way's first single, "Anata Boshi," goes on sale April 30.

On Friday, Korean media outlets reported that the country will soon have its own live-action version of "Hana Yori Dango."

Yoko Kamio's popular manga has already been turned into two drama series in Japan, plus a movie that recently finished a shoot in Las Vegas. It was also adapted in Taiwan as "Meteor Garden," which had two sequels and spawned the popular band F4.

The Korean version is set to start in late 2008, lasting 24 episodes that run 70 minutes each. No cast details have been announced so far.

The 4-member band Hi-Fi CAMP will see their debut single used an insert song in Kwak Jae-Yong's "Cyborg She" (also known as "Cyborg Girl" or "Boku no Kanojo wa Cyborg"). The film which opens on May 31, stars Haruka Ayase and Keisuke Koide.

Hi-Fi CAMP is made up of two vocalists, a keyboardist, and a DJ. The group formed in January 2007 and has already signed with the same company as Monkey Majik and GReeeeN.

Their song, titled "Kizuna," goes on sale on June 4.

AKIRA, a member of pop group EXILE, has been cast in his first television drama. The series is TBS's "Around 40," which starts on April 11.

"Around 40" focuses on women around the age of forty. Yuki Amami stars as a single psychiatrist. AKIRA plays her younger brother, a former gang member who is now a beautician with a wife and child.

The drama series was previously announced here.

Rapper LITTLE (of KICK THE CAN CREW) has assembled the hip-hop counterpart of Mini Moni. He has formed a unit called SHORTYS, whose members stand between 150 and 160 centimeters tall (a little over five feet).

LITTLE originally formed the group in 2002 with rappers MICRO (Home Made KAZOKU) and SMALLEST (Torikabuto), quietly continuing their activity in the indie scene. Then last November, SHOGO of rock band 175R asked to join the group. LITTLE accepted him and decided it would be an opportunity to move the group to the forefront.

LITTLE will release a new album called "YES rhyme-dentity" on May 7, his 32nd birthday. One of the feature tracks, "Gradation," was recorded by the four artists last month. They will perform it for the first time on the same day the album goes on sale, as part of LITTLE's 10th anniversary concert at the Ebisu Liquid Room.

Several other musicians, including DOHZI-T and Metis, are also participating on the album and will perform with LITTLE at the anniversary concert.

Singer Nana Kitade is continuing to promote the animated series "Ruby Gloom," this time with a new single released under the name of the show's title character.

Ruby Gloom is an apparel brand that originally spawned a cartoon in Canada, which is now broadcast in several countries. It started airing in Japan last month, though the brand began being promoted last year through a tie-in with Kitade's second album, "I scream."

Kitade's new song is titled "Siren," produced and arranged by Marty Friedman. It is being used as the show's ending theme, and will be released under Ruby Gloom's name on March 26.