Comments (8) I lied. On second thought I am going to write a full report after all, mainly because my memory is getting very bad and this time next month I’ll no longer remember the event so best to get it down in text first. No pics, refer to Soup for that.
Continue reading '28/08 – Animelo Summer Live 2010 Evolution Day 1'»
Young seiyuu Akesaka Satomi is well known for having a long list of traits she wishes her future husband to have, ranging from the practical to the banal. It’s all well expecting your life partner to be an upstanding member of society with as few bad habits as possible, but Ake-chan’s conditions are just hilarious – made worse by the fact that she herself doesn’t have too many great selling points as a potential wife. Yet, she hopes to get married between the ages of 23 and 25 (she’s 22 years old).
She often talks about the type of person she would like her ideal husband to be. Unfortunately not even Jesus could fulfill her criteria methinks.
Finally got my hands on a copy of Kobayashi Yu’s 2nd photobook two.love x one.love. After the disappointment of the first PB, I was rather apprehensive about this one but was convinced to take a chance on it thanks to the fact that sabra were the ones handling the photoshoots. The name ’sabra’ did ring a few alarm bells for me given how risqué some of their gravure can be (re: Takahashi Chiaki’s Juicy Dancing) but the inclusion of a DVD and the promise of bare thigh flesh swung it for me.
Quick pics (apologies for poor lighting) and comments follow.
Er no, not Christmas.
This is becoming a rather regular occurence by now but yeah, I won’t be around for a couple of weeks while I traipse around in sunny Tokyo. For the record, it’s my 5th trip in 15 months (and by November, it’ll be 6 in 18). Excessive much? You don’t have to remind me.
Anyways, I’m actually going to AniSama Day 1 after all albeit with less enthusiasm than I had before Sphere @ Budokan was announced. I nearly ended up not going at all but the prospect of seeing fripSide, Itou Kanako etc and oh yeah, Sphere XD was strong enough to push me to grab a crappy ticket to go for the 28/08 Saturday date. But honestly, the line-up this year is pretty threadbare. No Hocchan, no Aaya, no Suara. Blame the whole Girls’ Night thing I guess.
No, I have no interest in Day 2. Or should I say, I have no interest in fighting with the hordes for Day 2 (not that I can afford to go). Gosh, why did they put Minorin, Yukarin and Nana on the same day D= I think Crush Tears is the only act that day I had remotely any interest in seeing but oh well. I can live without seeing them.
Goods-wise, I’m amused by the AniSama stuff on offer this year (first-aid kits, ration sets) but won’t be buying. Sphere have apparently got T-shirts and towels on sale and I’m willing to bet that they’re the same ones from Lantis Matsuri last year haha. Actually I don’t have that particular set so I might pick one up if there’s any left by the time I get there.
Predicted setlist
angela: Aoi Haru, Alternative
Ishikawa Chiaki: Gyakko is a must. There’s a chance she might sing the new single もう何も怖くない、怖くはない, some fans think she will do See-Saw’s Kimi wa Boku ni Niteiru. Chances of duet? Maybe with Nanri Yuuka…
Itou Kanako: Pick 2 from fetishism ark, A.R. and Sky Clad no Kansokusha. I’ll be fine with those, hoping for fake me is likely an exercise in futility.
ELISA: Dear My friend, Real force. Possibility of Railgun connection collabo with fripSide? You never know.
GirlDeMo: Crow Song, Thousand Enemies, Little Braver (one will be duet with Lia maybe?)… Er, I think I have given up on this. I really cannot recognize any of the AB! songs apart from Ichiban no Takaramono & Brave Song…
Kuribayashi Minami: Meiya Kadenro, Unreal Paradise + 1 other song… maybe United Force.
GRANRODEO: Dunno their songs. They’ll prob get 2 + a collabo…
THE GOMBAND: Braveheart. I think he will only get one song, if another one the Black Rock Shooter Gom version
JAMPro: I have no idea, don’t know any JamPro stuff. Errr the Transformers song?
Sphere: Now loading…SKY!!, either Super Noisy Nova or REALOVE:REALIFE. Some ppl think NauSuka might get cut cos it’s not very AniSama-ish. I think they will sing it cos it’s the newest single…
Takahashi Naozumi: Rashinban, the other song is harder to predict. Nao-nii might go for Time Capsule but he might also choose something older…Kaze ni Natte or Kimi ni Aete Yokatta? Difficult to say.
Nanri Yuuka: Tsukishirube. Odyssey is possible but maybe a FJ YUUKA song like Honoo no Tobira is also likely.
nomico + Masayoshi Minoshima: Ehhh, gotta be Bad Apple right? I don’t think they’ll get more than 1 song. If they do, I hope nomico does Shichaimasho lololol.
fripSide: Only my Railgun, LEVEL 5-Judgelight-
Yonekura Chihiro: Your guess is as good as mine. Somehow last year she managed to come out with two of my favourites (Yakusoku no Basho e & 10 Years After), this year… maybe Butterfly Kiss and Just Fly Away. Who knows?
Lia: My Soul, Your Beats!, maybe Toki o Kizamu Uta + duet with GirlDeMo. Please not Tori no Uta lol
As always, there’ll be surprises collabs. I try not to think about it too much and let whatever that comes, come.
Apart from that one day, my trip will be a very normal, very regular holiday, filled with hanabi taikai, fruit picking (maybe) and the highlight, going to see Cirque du Soleil ZED.
-I want to eat Blue Hawaii かき氷 wheee!
-I am not looking forward to the noisy cicadas orz.
-Randomly, I am sad to find out that HMV Shibuya is closing its doors next week – it was a regular haunt of mine for the latest in Japanese pop and indie =_= There’s always Tower Records, but somehow it’s just not the same…orz.
Trying to go through every single thing in my backlogged anisong list on a single post seemed an impossible task, so splitting it into two seems like the perfect solution – soundtracks get to go first. Unfortunately trying to mass review a dozen or so OSTs at one go means I won’t go into too much detail on any of them.
I think I get asked this question more times than I’d like to (via formspring) so perhaps I should address this once and for all. Also inspired by deftoned’s list.
There’s no malice in my words, some people’s voices just rub me up the wrong way. Taste is subjective after all. Similarly I don’t expect people to like all the seiyuu I like so it’s no use throwing rotten tomatoes at me, I ain’t paying attention lalala♪
Continue reading '10 seiyuu voices that annoy the hell out of me'»
I meant to talk about this a week or so ago but REALIFE issues have been robbing me of my brain cells…
Continue reading 'Briefly talking LISP and girl seiyuu units'»
I don’t normally post news items here anymore but this is too good to pass up.
YES, SPHERE @ BUDOKAN!!!
I don’t care if:
1. This is a prelude to a split
2. It’s way too damn early for them to be playing Budokan (but we know rental fees are cheap cheap)
3. I become penniless as a result
4. The live is held on a dead day (ie Tuesday)
I MUST GO TO BUDOKAN! Bye-bye AFA, my plans for you are smashed to pieces (unless you bring Sphere there too)!
Also, new single announcement…but that got swept under the carpet LOL. No release date yetDue 20th October, it’ll be the theme for the autumn Otome Yokai Zakuro anime which Toyosaki Aki is appearing in. I shall go do a HAPPY DANCE now, whilst torturing the mottohadeni chat people who can’t go to Budokan *lalalalala.
For the past few months I have been reading the Moteki manga, and now the live-action drama adaptation is on air (check out Hinano’s post on it). It’s basically about how this guy has never had a girlfriend for 20+ years but suddenly finds himself the center of female attention, facing a period described as ‘moteki’ (モテ-popular 期-period).
There have been studies claiming that each person goes through a moteki at least twice (sometimes thrice) in their lives, and a recent article on livedoor related the experiences of a few young people including a girl who always got rejected during their schooldays but somehow at the age of 27, found herself the recipient of 3 love confessions from male friends.
Thinking about how moteki might apply to seiyuu and their careers – if you look at casting trends over the past 10 years or so you might notice a recurring pattern. Certain seiyuu suddenly become ‘hot’ on the back of one role, with some ending up voicing the same type of voices and characters (think Kugimiya Rie and tsundere) over the next few seasons.
It is hard to sustain such success over a prolonged period of time though, a lot of times you’ll find a previously popular seiyuu making way for their younger colleagues’ turn to be motemote (モテモテ). You can see how Hanazawa Kana is this year’s moteki seiyuu – she already has more leads in 2010 than in 2008 and 2009 put together while 4-5 years ago her Osawa Agency senior Noto Mamiko went through something similar.
There are many reasons why a seiyuu might find themselves in a moteki:
1.Riding the wave
Ah, the benefits of having your name attached to the right project at the right time. Case in point – the Haruhi quintet of Hirano Aya, Chihara Minori, Goto Yuko, Sugita Tomokazu & Ono Daisuke or more recently, the K-ON! quintet of Toyosaki Aki, Hikasa Yoko, Sato Satomi, Taketatsu Ayana & Kotobuki Minako. Unfortunately this is something like throwing a bunch of darts and hoping that some of them stick, you can never really predict what shows will take off with the otaku crowd and what shows will fall flat…especially when auditions for shows are done anywhere between 6-12 months in advance of airtime.
2.Agency decides to push the seiyuu hard
Unflatteringly known in the business as ゴリ押し, or assault tactics. Please ignore how suspicious it is that Aniplex and Lantis-backed anime have various members of Sphere either singing theme songs or all having major roles in the show (*cough Manimani *cough AsoIku *cough Kannagi *cough Occult Gakuin)!
3.Plain luck
Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. Even the best of seiyuu fail at auditions (Kamiya Hiroshi couldn’t get into Minami-ke for example), so just try harder next time.
Some good examples of seiyuu who spent years being irrelevant only to suddenly find themselves in moteki include Kamiya and Fukuyama Jun. I remember the days when they both looked like geeky schoolboys and marvel at how they managed to transform into heart-throbs thanks to Gundam and Geass. Moteki indeed, and they had better enjoy the attention while it lasts – it might not come around for another 10-12 years.
I wish I could resume doing those seasonal seiyuu trend posts I used to do but alas, time is not a forgiving master. It would be nice to be able to do nice little graphs detailing the seiyuu who were most popular (by season) over the last 10 years. I’ll shove that idea into my stuffed box of ‘Things to do before I’m 50′ then!
In the meantime, why not try finding out when your own personal motemote period will be? It might be pretty accurate too, pointing out my level of mote-ness being high at the age of 11 which is when I had my own mini-harem of 4 boys who did my every bidding, although one of them ended up breaking my heart. But that, is another story for another day.
Continuing the Sphere series is a brief look at the background story of each of the girls, plus as much as I can give you about the personalities behind the faces.
Music Ray’n is a notoriously secretive agency, so not a whole lot is known about the girls and their private lives. These are all pieces of information picked up over the years from magazine interviews, radio shows and blog posts that I’ve merely reordered to make for palatable reading. All of this in the public domain (albeit in Japanese) so no, I don’t have any insider scoop on the girls or where they live or what they had for breakfast yesterday. Actually scratch that, I know there’s a 60% chance that Haruka ate yude tamago from Family Mart for breakfast yesterday.
Continue reading 'Sphere 101 Pt.2 – the volume of a Sphere'»
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