Singer/songwriter cloe, a popular musician on mobile site Mobage Town, has an album in the works that will be released in June. She is the first artist to go from a mobile site to a major label record deal.

cloe studied vocal music at Tokyo's Musashino Academia Musicae and started her career in August 2006. She began contributing her music to Mobage Town in April 2007. By December, she ranked #1 in 3 different categories: best overall song (out of about 12,500 songs), best creator (out of about 3,100 people), and best new song. She also attracted roughly 8,700 registered fans, the highest on the site.

Her 7-track debut album, titled "Boys be ambitious," features a mix of genres such as classical and jazz, though it is rooted in pop. It goes on sale June 25.

Popular otaku idol Shoko Nakagawa has been announced as a musical guest of honor at this year's Anime Expo, which takes place on July 3-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. She has sung several anime theme songs, including music for "Gurren Lagann" and "Hakaba Kitaro."

It was made public on Monday that the theme songs to various major box office hits will be sold as a single album on April 16th.

The title of the collection is "J-MOVIE SONGS." A total of 13 tracks will be featured in the album, including Ken Hirai's "Hitomi wo Tojite" from the movie "Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu," Yuna Ito's "Precious" from "Umizaru 2: Limit of Love," and ORANGE RANGE's "Hana" from "Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu."

The movies associated with the album have a combined revenue of over 30 billion yen, and a total audience of about 25 million people. A similar compilation of songs from Western films, labeled "MOVIE SONGS FOREVER," will also be released simultaneously.

Actress Erika Toda is starring in a movie called "Koikyokusei," due out this coming winter. It will be the directorial debut of photographer Amiy Mori.

The story is based on a short manga by Omi Mitsuya called "Kimi ni Hikari wo" that appeared in Bessatsu Friend in 2005. Toda plays Natsuki, a young woman who lives in Hokkaido, where she takes care of her autistic younger brother. One day, she reunites with a childhood friend (Kazuki Kato) and falls in love, but he suffers from a terrible illness.

This is Toda's first time playing the sole lead in a movie, and is also her first love story.

Filming, already underway in Otaru and Sapporo, is scheduled to last until mid-May.

"Lala Pipo," a novel by prize-winning author Hideo Okuda ("Southbound," "In the Pool"), is being turned into a movie.

The novel's title is based on a mishearing of the phrase "a lot of people." With sex as its central theme, the original novel combined tragedy and comedy in its portrayal of human nature through the lives of several characters. One of them, a scout for the sex industry, will be played by Hiroki Narimiya in the film.

Director Tetsuya Nakashima is handling the script, while Masayuki Miyano is taking on his first feature-length film as director. Filming begins on the 29th, with Nikkatsu and Desperado jointly distributing the movie next spring.

It has been confirmed that LUNA SEA's SUGIZO will be participating in the upcoming X Japan reunion concerts, on March 28-30 at the Tokyo Dome. He will be taking on the role of guitarist, filling in for deceased member hide.

SUGIZO and Yoshiki have worked together before as part of the supergroup SKIN, along with Gackt and Miyavi.

However, SUGIZO is not the only guitarist who will participate in the concerts. Both Richard Fortus (of Guns N' Roses) and Wes Borland (formerly of Limp Bizkit) are playing, and more guests are planned.

The final episode of Fuji TV's "Bara no nai Hanaya," which aired on Monday, achieved ratings of 22.1%, with a peak of 26.3%. The whole series averaged 18.8%, making it #1 of all the dramas this season.

The next highest ratings for the season were held by "Aibou 6" (16.5% average) and "Saito-san" (15.5% average). The latter achieved 19.6% with its finale.