2007: Keiko's Year In Review + January 1, 2008

  Okay, I've never done this before, but I was inspired by Oricon and since I have the resources and figured I'd celebrate this season to the fullest with a review of Keiko's Year. I gotta say, this year has been the most successful of Keiko's career! She appeared in a total of 4 movies (Dear Friends, Sono Kare, SOUTHBOUND, and Heat Island), 3 commercial campaigns (Suntory 'Let's' Diet Water, DoCoMo 2.0, and COFFRET D'OR), 1 drama---her first, in which she plays the lead (Mop Girl), and over 50 magazine. If you think I've forgotten anything, leave the date and the info in the comment box at the end of this post. Otherwise, from January 2007 and forward, here is Keiko's year in review!

January 8, 2007: Keiko attends the Coming of Age Ceremony at the Toyokawa Inari in Tokyo. Keiko promotes Dear Friends and tells reporters she's looking forward to growing successfully as a student and as an actress for the year 2007.

January 26, 2007: Dear Friends Photo book goes on sale. It's Keiko's second photo book since the beginning of her career.

January 29, 2007: Keiko appears along side Dear Friends co-star, Yuika Motokariya at the CECIL McBEE x Cawaii fashion show. When asked about her role as Rina in Dear Friends Keiko reveals, "I was inexperienced with going out clubbing and dancing. I couldn't imagine my face and figure being attractive so I went to Shibuya to study how the girls spoke and carried themselves."

February 3, 2007: Dear Friends premieres in theaters and receives good reviews although it doesn't fare well in the Japanese box office

March 3, 2007: Keiko's blog reveals that her newest role is as Momoka Katsuragi in the movie Sono toki wa kare ni yoroshiku starring Masami Nagasawa, Takayuki Yamada, and Takuya Tsukamoto. Heat Island release for summer 2007 is pushed to autumn 2007.

March 12, 2007: Rumor of Keiko dating Jdrama star, Jun Matsumoto surfaces thanks to FRIDAY magazine but is later dismissed as false.

April 5, 2007: Scholar Ranking poll on the U-25 actress list Keiko ranks 26 out of 300 most popular idols. This is a climb from her former position at 51.

April 26, 2007: Keiko's first CM since her modeling days, Suntory Let's Diet Water, is revealed and airs frequently on Japanese TV.

May 7, 2007: NTT DoCoMo reveals its newest cell phone campaign called "DoCoMo 2.0"  that stars Keiko and seven other major stars in the Japanese entertainment industry: Tomoya Nagase, Tadanobu Asano, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Aoi Yu, Anna Tsuchiya, and Fukiishi Kazue.

May 26, 2007: Keiko begins filming for the movie SOUTHBOUND.

May 28 2007: Keiko attends the Sono Kare stage show with costars Masami Nagasawa, Takayuki Yamada, and Takeshi Tsukamoto.

May 29, 2007: Keiko's blog reveals that Keiko has landed a new movie role as Yoko Uehara in the movie "Southbound" featuring top Japanese actors, Etushi Toyokawa and Yuki Amami.

May 30, 2007: DoCoMo releases the 904i premium commercial which features 7 minutes of the DoCoMo characters interacting with each other. Keiko's character is close with Tadanobu Asano's---one of the most hailed actors in Japan. Keiko appears briefly in Kou Shibasaki's "Prism" PV (the theme song to Sono Kare).

June 1, 2007: DoCoMo 2.0 launches its summer campaign (featuring Keiko) which leads to a new line of corporate advertisements that can be seen all over Japan.

June 2, 2007: Keiko attends the Sono Kare premiere stage show with Masami Nagasawa, Takahashi Tsukamoto, Takayuki Yamada, Ryoko Kuninaka, and director Yuichiro Hirakawa. Sono Kare debuts is the Japanese box office at the no. 4 spot and is Keiko's most successfully ranked movie.

June 6, 2007: DoCoMo "Bowling" TV-CM airs featuring Keiko and costars Fukiish Kazue, Aoi Yuu, and Anna Tsuchiya.

July 7, 2007: Keiko's management teams states that Keiko's blog will close July 15, 2007 and this causes an uproar in Keiko's fan community. Her blog is replaced by a weekly personal column in a Japanese newspaper.

August 22, 2007: Keiko turns 21!

August 25, 2007: Stardust launches SMOOCH GATE, the official site for it's newest audition set under the banner "Who is the next blooming?" Keiko and Erika Sawajiri promote the weeks long event.
September 11, 2007: Keiko attends two  press conferences for the release of the SOUTHBOUND movie with her costars.

September 24, 2007: Keiko is chosen along with top actresses Erika Sawajiri, Kou Shibasaki, Takako Tokiwa, and Miki Nakatani as the face of Kanebo's newest cosmetics campaign, COFFRET D'OR. Keiko attends the Shibuya press conference for Heat Island. Keiko lands a lead role in the TV Asahi drama, Mop Girl.

September 27, 2007: Keiko appears with former co-star Ayaka Komatsu and other actresses in the magazine special, Bijo-Megane 3.

October 6, 2007: SOUTHBOUND debuts in the Japanese box office but fails to take a top 10 spot. Keiko does not attend the premiere stage show, instead Mika Nakashima (sings the theme song "Eien no Uta" for the movie) attends in her place.

October 12, 2007: Keiko's first drama, Mop Girl, premieres on TV Asahi with a audience viewing rate of 10.2%

October 13, 2007: Keiko attends the SOUTHBOUND Cine Com stage show with director Morita Yoshimitsu and co-star Kenichi Matsuyama.

October 19, 2007: Stardust releases "Actress Make-up" handbook which features Keiko on the cover as well as within the book.

October 20, 207: Heat Island debuts in the Japanese box office but fails to take a top 10 spot. Instead, it ranks number 1 as most satisfying movie for it's opening weekend.

November 1, 2007: Keiko attends the DoCoMo 905i and 705i concert with the rest of the DoCoMo cast. DoCoMo 2.0 launches a new campaign for the newest series of phones and gives the cast a more elegant touch.

November 14, 2007: Keiko attends Kanebo: COFFRET D'OR Yahoo Live Talk event with costars Erika Sawajiri, Kou Shibasaki, Takako Tokiwa, and Miki Nakatani. This marks the official launch of the COFFRET D'OR campaign.

December 12 , 2007: Keiko climbs in the idol ranks from her number 26 position to a whopping number 10 thanks to more TV exposure via. the DoCoMo and Kanebo campaigns as well the the success of Mop Girl.

December 14, 2007: Mop Girl finale airs with a 9.4% rating, giving the show an average of 10.2%---excellent for Keiko's first drama and considering the time slot.



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