Merry Christmas

Video of the month

Horie Yui x Mizuki Nana – HIKARI x COSMIC LOVE (Anisama 2011)

late entry for October ^^”

This isn’t so much a new video but just a performance that I really like. Nothing like a collaboration between two of my favourite people. I think they chose songs that really suited one another. I think Hocchan pulls off COSMIC LOVE really well.

This makes me happy

Now that Minorin and Nana are always on separate days, my dream for a Minorin x Nana duet is pretty much dashed to pieces…

Video of the month

Figured I’ll try and edge back into posting by featuring a video every month (not very ambitious lol). Hopefully will edge into fortnightly and then maybe weekly posts ^^”

Music Star from Kotobuki Minako’s 3rd tour “Tick tick tick”

Now one of my favourite performances by Minako. I was really impressed that she was able to play this song and sing so well as it’s quite fast and has a lot of jumping and really proved that her piano skillz are the real deal.

Hope this video will inspire everyone to buy the DVD/BD. It’s worth it I’ve been watching and crying all day

Amazon [DVD] [BD]
HMV [DVD] [BD]

Happy Birthday Hocchan!

Hocchan celebrates her 17th birthday for the 22nd time today!

A fan on twitter has kindly documented her journey as a 17 year old in a chart since her debut.

I see she has perfected *the smile* from 2003 onwards… Looks like nothing much has changed except the level of makeup ^ ^”

While I’m on the topic of Hocchan, be sure to follow her new instagram if you have one. It’s great u can see her doing the same pose over and over again on a much more frequent basis and also some other interesting pics of food and other people [which is a legit great thing, this sentence wasn’t meant to sound so sarcastic!!].

With fellow Aice5 member Asano Masumi

During an Aice5 photoshoot

HOCCHAN MAWATTE!!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t forget to rate, comment and subscribe to her Instagram for more great shots.

Anyway, here’s to another exciting, healthy year for Hocchan! Hope she gets hitched if she secretly isn’t already.

More information released for black hole

I wasn’t planning to post anymore about black hole but Minako’s website updated and the jackets got released and……..!!!! I’m too excited lol

First press limited edition CD＋DVD 1,713yen

Normal edition CD 1,241yen

Minako gone 10000% hipster?! Definitely feeling the KOTOBUKI ROCK!!!!!

On her blog Minako said it’s titled ‘black hole’ because recently she’s taken a liking to lowercase letters LOL. First press edition is in a similar pose to the one on TICK which is great I love how a lot of her CD covers are simple and in similar poses, they’re great to put adjacent to one another.

＜CD＞
1.black hole
2.Another Wonderland
3.black hole (Instrumental)

＜DVD＞
1.「black hole」Music Clip
2.TV SPOT（15sec+30sec）

I can’t believe there are only 2 tracks…… come on Music Ray’n….

There’s a bit over three weeks til the release and the CD jacket only just got released.. I checked the website earlier today and the news page was buggy lol they must have been updating it at that time. I can’t believe how last minute Mina’s promo team is lol compared to other artists..

Anyway, looks like the limited edition also comes with stickers for you to create your own “original” CD jacket. I’m sold!  Preorder both editions now!!! Might as well grab the new photobook, minakoxmuseum, as well!

SPHERE CLUB

I’ve been watching SPHERE CLUB recently (yes, only 4 years late.. lol this blog is lost in time) and haven’t seen much about it on the English side of the Internet so I figured I’d make a short post about it here.

For those not familiar with it, it’s a series of 11 minute shorts essentially consisting of three segments; a mini “anime” part about a lazy and whacky student council where they will mention the name of a strange sounding club. Then there’ll be a 6 minute short where the members themselves act in a live action depicting the activities of said club. Afterwards the members perform a song to end the episode.

SPHERE girls and the characters that they play (loosely based on their appearances lol)

Ayahi (Hii-chan in the show) is usually the club captain and also the student council president. Haruka often plays the new or visiting member that wants to know more about the club. The club activities are usually so bizarre and she does an excellent role in being the straight man. Her tsukkomis are so on point, lol.

Examples of whacky clubs include ‘neo-wrestling’, sock, jingle, megane, hypnotism, ‘burikko’ (pretending to be cute), ‘compromising’ among many others.. It’s actually quite amazing that they can do so many weird things without laughing when they were filming, I wonder how many takes they had to do? I think I’d love to see the bloopers more than the real thing LOL

In particular I loved the ‘burikko’ one (episode 3). Ayahi and Aki pretend to be “moe” (*shivers*…). Unfortunately Minako doesn’t join in but that episode was absolutely hilarious.

Aki: Ah! I-it's not like I'm so happy about my first date that I'm crying or anything! It's just that I got sand in my eye!

KotoMina to release new maxi single on April 8

Announced yesterday, Kotobuki Minako is going to release her 8th single right before her TICK TICK TICK tour on April 8 2015 (Wednesday). Title, cover and tracklist are all still to be announced.

The single is already listed as a maxi on HMV so hopefully we’ll have 3+ songs?

Limited edition comes with a DVD at 1850yen. Regular edition is 1340yen.

Minako says on her blog that “cool songs are under diligent construction”. Looking forward to more Kotobuki Rock!

AFTER FLIGHT☆03

Somehow or other before I knew it, it became 2015, Nana turned 35 and LIVE THEATRE is already over and I haven’t finished Nana’s AFTER FLIGHT posts yet ^^” so here I am trying to catch up. lol are all seiyuu blogs doomed for inactivity?

If you don’t know what these posts are talking about, you better order Nana’s LIVE FLIGHT+ DVD/BD!!!!! It came out two weeks ago!

2014.08. 6 When it comes to a tour, I look forward to the planning process! ♪ As such, today we will talk about this! (^O^)/ Since I covered DREAMS COME TRUE’s “egao no yukue” in SUPERNAL LIBERTY, this time, we decided to pick up all the songs I’ve covered until now outside my name (so from character songs etc.) and onto a die! The challenge is to roll it at the venue and sing the song that comes up! (≧ω≦)ｂ Since I am unable to predict what will come up, it is different to drawing lots as we can’t go through the process of elimination and the same song might come up again and again… The truth is this was secretly the most nervous corner I’ve ever been wrapped up in (^^ゞ But, being nervous with everyone while rolling the die was fun… ♪♪♪ It was certainly perfect for the live! o(^-^)o I was happy that the die landed on all the songs and I was able to sing them all~! (≧▽≦)/

14 years since Nana’s debut

Today actually marks 14 years since Nana’s debut in 2000 when she was only 20 years old. (Fun fact: she debuted on the exact same date as Koda Kumi.) I got to know her in early 2007 so it’s right in the middle and marks my 7th year knowing her lol. Not much to actually say really except CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Over the past 14 years, Nana has dished out 10 albums and 30 singles, broken several records and appeared on Kouhaku 5 times (this year will be her sixth time). She is truly a remarkable icon in the anime world and not many in Japan don’t know her name or have not heard her voice.

Appearance wise I can’t say she changed all that much apart from longer hair and… bigger eyebags lol.

Nana in 2000.

Nana in 2014.

Way more than 14 years ago but I felt compelled to share in the midst of nostalgia lol.

Surely many more successes and happy stories await.
As always…. 水樹奈々に・・・・かかってこい！！！！

THE IDOLM@STER MOVIE cast talk sessions – Chiaking is a suteki onee-san

source: THE IDOLM@STER 輝きの向こう側へ！　Pamphlet

Interview with Nakamura Eriko, Asakura Azumi, Shimoda Asami and Takahashi Chiaki. Interestingly, all of them are from Arts Vision except Chiaking (ex-Arts Vision) who is now freelance.

The interview covers their initial thoughts on the movie production, and their thoughts after recording. One little segment that I thought was nice to read was about Chiaking channeling her inner Azusa.

Here’s a rough translation:

Takahashi: …Is it intimidating of me to speak my mind? Nakamura: W-what’s wrong? (laughs) Takahashi: I’m just wondering if I have any common features with Azusa. Asakura: When I just came in during the 5th anniversary (in 2011 as Yurina’s replacement), Chiaki-san really looked out for me. During rehearsals, if I was standing alone she would swiftly approach me and ask “How have you been lately?” Nakamura: Me too! During the 3rd anniversary at Pacifico Yokohama, we’ve never had such a big stage before, so when I was standing on the side of the stage all stiff, Chiaki-san quickly came to me and held my hand, saying “Don’t worry, you will shine”. At that time, even Chiaki-san’s hand was covered in sweat and shaking, but she said that to me. Also, when I was afraid to sing, she looked at me and said, “Don’t worry, I will sing.” Shimoda: I have a story about Chiaki-san as well! When I was nervous at the 7th anniversary live at Yokohama Arena, she told me, “If you go in there with a smug face (ドヤ顔) you’ll be fine” ! And it really worked! Just go in there looking smug and everything works out!! Nakamura: Just when I thought you were looking great, that was your smug face!?

…Time to go back to 7th to check out Shimoda’s doya? Chiaking has always struck me as quite Azusa-like (or maybe it’s the other way around?). She seems mature and also very outgoing. Anyway, you can read the rest of the interview in the pamphlet.

For all im@s animation fans out there, I highly recommend the movie pamphlet. The product itself has no name except the title of the movie. Inside it contains character info, staff interviews, and cast comments. You can take a quick look inside the book here (0:22-0:53). You can find it online for as little as 800yen on mandarake. I also really recommend the nemurihime m@terial book (roughly 1500yen on manda) if you enjoyed that segment of the movie. Both books are good quality and offer valuable insights into the movie for their decent price!