On July 19th, idol group 9nine held a release event for their latest single, "Natsu wanna say love U", at Ikebukuro Sunshine City.

At the event, 9nine performed their new song live for the first time, and tested a special segment where fans could take photos of them with their mobile phones. The 2,000 fans surrounded the girls simultaneously and whipped out their mobile phones,� reporting the event through Twitter and blogs with special photo attachments.

9nine also announced that if they shake hands with 3,939� fans throughout the seven release events, they will hold their first beach party on August 17th at Yuigahama in Kanagawa. They specifically chose '3,939' because when pronounced, it's 'san kyu san kyu', or "Thank you, Thank you". On this day, they were able to shake hands with 892 people, leaving them with 3,047 more handshakes to reach their goal.

After the event, Kawashima Umika commented, "We took over Ikebukuro Sunshine! 9nine will continue to grow from here on." Nishiwaki Sayaka also expressed, "Exactly 3939. I was happy when fans told me to do my best to achieve 3939 handshakes." Filled with excitement, Satake Uki said, "It was so much fun! I almost burst into tears," as�Murata Hirona stated, "I was so happy that a lot of people came." Yoshii Kanae also expressed, "From the moment we appeared, there was cheering from all 360 degrees! I was impressed."

9nine will hold release events at Tokyo Lalaport Toyosu on the 21st, Hiroshima Parco-mae Alice Garden on the 22nd, Osaka Hankyu Nishinomiya Gardens and Nagoya Kintetsu Passe on the 23rd, and Kawasaki Lazona on the 24th. They will also hold their first one-man live after member changes at Shinzuku BLAZE in Tokyo on September 10th.

Check out photos from the event below!

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Source + Photos: Oricon