Arashi's latest live DVD, "ARASHI AROUND ASIA 2008 in Tokyo," received the top spot on the DVD charts this week by selling 230,000 copies. This surpasses EXILE's "EXILE PERFECT LIVE 2008," which sold 214,000 copies in its first week of sales. Among all movies, owarai, and music DVDs, "ARASHI AROUND ASIA 2008 in Tokyo" now holds this year's current record for first week sales.

In addition, the DVD now ranks 3rd in history for first week sales among music DVDs, behind KAT-TUN's "Real Face Film" (374,000) and SMAP's "Live MIJ" (281,000).

In this week's Oricon ranking news, Ayumi Hamasaki's tenth original full album, "NEXT LEVEL," topped the charts with almost 241,000 copies sold in its first week of release. Ever since the release of Ayu's first album "A Song for XX" in 1999, she has put out a #1 album for 11 consecutive years, which extends her record as a female artist.

Following Ayu's album is Korean group TVXQ's "The Secret Code," selling 158,000 copies. This is their second consecutive Top 10 album. Also in the top ten this week were two compilations from Kumi Koda, ranking at #6 and #7.

On the singles chart, Perfume's newest single, "One Room Disco," gained the top spot with 77,000 in sales, giving them their second #1 single. They were followed by Gackt and the GazettE, while DJ OZMA's unit Yajima Biyoshitsu achieved #5 with their second release.

Former Hello! Project member Mari Yaguchi also reached the top ten at #6 with her single "Seishun Boku," coupled with AIR BAND's "Seishun Ore." Rock band 10-FEET ranked #10 with their latest single.

And for the second week in a row, Hikaru Utada's "This Is The One" held the top spot on the foreign albums chart.

The winners of the 18th Japan Movie Critics Awards have been announced, though the prizes will not be formally presented until the awards ceremony on April 23.

This year's winners were:

• Best Picture: "United Red Army"
• Best Director: Yojiro Takita ("Okuribito")
• Best Actor: Noriyuki Higashiyama ("Yamazakura")
• Best Actress: Eiko Koike ("Seppun")
• Best Supporting Actor: Ittoku Kishibe ("GS Wonderland")
• Best Supporting Actress: Maki Sakai ("United Red Army")
• Best New Actor: Lily Franky ("Gururi no Koto")
• Best New Actress: Yuriko Yoshitaka ("Hebi ni Piasu")
• Judges' Special Prize: Makoto Fujita ("Ashita e no Yuigon")
• Judges' Special Prize: Seiko Matsuda ("Hotaru no Haka")
• Best Music Artist: Joe Hisaishi ("Okuribito," "Gake no Ue no Ponyo")
• Bset Cinematography: Shigeru Komatsubara ("Koisuru Tomato")
• Special Achievement Award: Yutaka Okada (Argo Pictures)
• Special Achievement Award: Keiichi Uraoka
• Special Award: Minoru Kawasaki
• International Activity Award: Shun Shibata
• Golden Glory Award: Chiharu Kuri
• Golden Glory Award: Hiroko Sakurai
• Golden Glory Award: Chako van Leeuwen
• Diamond Award: Susumu Hani
• Diamond Award: Shoichi Ozawa

SMAP member Takuya Kimura has picked up his next starring role in a television drama. He will play the lead in TBS's comedy/mystery series "MR.BRAIN," scheduled to start in mid-spring.

Kimura plays the part of Ryusuke Tsukumo, a neuroscience researcher affiliated with a National Police Agency laboratory. Although his skills help solve difficult cases, he has one flaw: he is generally "clueless to the situation" (better known by the slang term "KY," or "kuuki o yomenai"), leading to various comical interactions. In general, each episode will be a different case.

Kimura's assistant will be played by Haruka Ayase, while Hiro Mizushima will take on the role of a young cop. Other characters include the head of the lab (Mao Daichi), another detective (Teruyuki Kagawa), and a couple of researchers (Yuji Tanaka of Bakusho Mondai and Tortoise Matsumoto of Ulfuls).

TBS plans to broadcast the drama in its Saturday 7:56pm time slot, which will be occupied by "God Hand Teru" starting April 11. "MR.BRAIN" will begin on May 23.

Comedian Ryuji Akiyama (30) of the owarai trio Robert has been married since April of last year. The news was just revealed on Tuesday, and in fact, the marriage had been kept secret even from the other two members of Robert until recently.

Akiyama's wife (29) is currently an employee at a clothing store. The couple reportedly had been dating for 7 years when they registered their marriage on the woman's birthday last year.

Comedienne Tomomi Oka (31) of the duo Aozora became a mother on Monday afternoon. She gave birth to a son named Shinnosuke, apparently inspired by the title character of "Crayon Shin-chan."

Oka got married to a salaryman (30) last November after they learned that she was pregnant. She has been on maternity leave since January.