Random news bits – Stuff worth mentioning after New Years Edition
So after the big/huge/gigantic news of Nana-chan’s performance on Kouhaku, you have to admit that everything else is not that news worthy, and even downright boring. So after turning my nose up at the other pieces for a few weeks, here are some things which are finally worth posting.
Mizuki Nana stars as lead in new Pretty Cure
Well had to begin with Nana-chan now that she’s on after burner towards mainstream stardom and recognition. As all Nanatards will know, Nana-chan has the tendency to star in either shitty throw away side characters of good shows, or good characters in shitty throw away shows, with very little exceptions. So now that she finally gets to be the heroine of the biggest anime franchise in Japan watched by little girls AND lolicons “big adult friends” alike for a full year, it’s time to celebrate that she’s going to actually live up to the voice acting part of her seiyuu career (probably). Oh, and Nanoha fanboys should be happy to see that Nana-chan gets to play more ass-kicking, brutal fist-fighting magical girls that would make most modern day shounen heros look like pussies.
Mizuki Nana sings for new Metal Gear Solid game
Just can’t stop the big news once you’ve gone to ultra-celebrity status can you? As revealed in her blog, Nana-chan just recorded an insert song titled “恋の抑止力” (Koi no Yokushiryoku, Love’s Deterrance) for the latest Metal Gear game. Kojima Hideo is a pretty big seiyuu fan (some may say even an otaku?), so it’s not too surprising that he would create an opportunity for Nana-chan to show off her vocals in his game. Perhaps he even went out of his way to make this happen to satisfy his inner seiyuu-ota, who knows. Now whether the English version of the game would have this song though is a different story, but I would recommend people to play the J-dub anyway as I’ve found the franchise had always felt too Japanese in its presentation style and writing thus fairly incompatible with an English track (it’s like dubbing a Kung-fu movie you know? no matter how good you do it, it just doesn’t work), Nana-chan being in there or not.
Tomatsu Haruka’s new photo book sample photos
The title is “Pi Touch! High Touch!” (sorry for the lame Idolmaster breast-touching event joke), and as promised, there’s the bikini shot! They seem to have toned down her approachable cutesy girl-next-door image for something a little more young adult. Want or Do Not Want? That’s for you to decide.
Takahashi Chiaki to release photo book and DVD
As she wrote in her blog here, while this is not anything new and hardly news worthy, I liked how she gave her motivation for doing these things in a recent Famitsu interview (thanks for pointing it out Dom! Would’ve been too lazy to read it otherwise) – “Because those celebrities and gravue idols are coming here [into the voice acting world], so I’d thought I’ll go over there too.” – a strange yet great display of her pride in voice acting in doing what is, as she sees it, as essentially the same thing (rookies light-heartingly entering into another profression’s world). The full interview is fairly interesting too, like how when she told her parents she was going to become a seiyuu instead of going to university, her father kicked her out of the house hoping she would be deterred in her quest and come back to her senses, but he still gave her a million yen anyway as living expense before doing so.
IM@S Christmas Live
Looks AWSME, all those bitching about the commercialisation of Christmas can die in imaginary hell fire because it gave us Santa Girl costumes (probably the only thing worth celebrating on Christmas for an atheist like me, LOL). Now when are those Blu-ray/DVDs coming out, pretty please?
January 11th, 2010 at 22:13
I’m not sure I want an adult Haru-chan but I guess I’d probabl change my mind once I see the photobook itself lol.
January 11th, 2010 at 23:06
Never knew Metal Gear Solid was japanese, I always thought it was American -rolleyes-. Now it makes sense why Wakamoto was in MGS, and how much it reminds everyone of Code Geass. Nana-chan with an insert song in MGS sounds even weirder (to me) then getting a role in Pretty Cure. When I first read Nana is in Pretty Cure, I thought someone was trolling…never occurred to me that she’ll ever get a good role.
I do agree that Nana always have sucky roles for someone her fame, her best role up to now is still Fate. I guess who ever manages what roles she finally worked their arse off to get her good roles.
January 12th, 2010 at 01:26
> LilaChan
I would’ve thought that the very idea of a human pilotable bi-peddle giant robot that fires a nuclear warhead on a giant railgun would’ve tipped people off about the “Japanese” nature of Metal Gear series. Americans simply don’t think of shit like that (Americans goes for sentient/AI machinary instead).
January 12th, 2010 at 05:45
Woo, I might have to watch Precure at some point. Maybe.
January 12th, 2010 at 11:16
ya! Pretty Cure new seasons! o ^_^ o
suprising 1 of the heroine will be voiced by Nana XD ya!!!
(i better add to my favorites anime list LOL XD)
January 12th, 2010 at 12:27
“Nana-chan has the tendency to star in either shitty throw away side characters of good shows, or good characters in shitty throw away shows, with very little exceptions,” huh? Maybe you should write up a review on the White Album anime then, now that it’s finished airing. I’d like to hear your expertise on how the anime used or squandered its extensive seiyuu talent.
Will you be getting the new White Album PS3 game? It uses the same seiyuu talent as the anime did and will likely feature more songs. I’d like to get the full story on Yayoi’s path in the new game myself, since I like Romi Park’s performance the best in the anime.
January 12th, 2010 at 21:44
> Mazryonh
Well for starters, White Album’s DVD sales bombed, and the BD only registered on rankings because BD sales are crappy in general, so that pretty much sealed it’s “throw away anime” status commercially. (But King’s point was to sell Nana-chan CDs in the first place, so that worked out just fine).
As for the show itself, I think most of the English-speaking audience just got wowed because of the DORAMA, whereas the show itself is viewed as poorly handled by the Japanese audience. Nana-chan’s voice work in WA is also not that outstanding, Rina’s type of character is well within her ability, so she really didn’t bring her best game here. The attraction is just mostly because Rina is about the only sane character amongst a bunch of wackos. So I would put this in the “good character in throw away show” category.
January 13th, 2010 at 09:41
Hmm, that’s too bad. I take it then that her role as Fate from Nanoha is the closest she’s got to a main role in a mainstream anime? Or is it just because her corporate handlers
I’d still like to hear a review of what you thought of the seiyuu performances in general in that show, such as Romi Park’s or Aya Hirano’s. I also think Haruka Tomatsu as Mana Mizuki did a nice job, even if I didn’t understand her character’s motivations.
It seems then I was more right than I thought when I said earlier that “the anime is just a 13-hour marketing campaign for the game.” Why don’t you get the game then? Since it doesn’t have to be written around “making certain every heroine gets screentime and action of various types,” it’s likely to be more plausible and have less pointless DORAMA. I’d love to see you post a video walkthrough or the like of Rina’s route from the PS3 game.
Good work keeping this blog running. You wouldn’t happen to know just who Sayaka Ohara just got married to, would you?
January 13th, 2010 at 12:21
> Hmm, that’s too bad. I take it then that her role as Fate from Nanoha is the closest she’s got to a main role in a mainstream anime?
Her role as Kotoko in Itazura na Kiss (as well as the live action version dub) would be her main role in mainstream anime. Nanoha by all accounts is an otaku show.
> I’d still like to hear a review of
Well not going to happen, the show bores me. And Hirano Aya’s breathy-fake-weak-happy voice rubs me in every sort of way except the right one. I have huge respect for Park Romi in everything, so I don’t think she needs anymore praises. And Toma-chan had always been versitle, if maybe a little too much for her own good that she’s not standing out much now.
> Why don’t you get the game then?
Buying PS3 games is against my goal of eventually killing Sony, LOL. My PS3 shall stay as a Blu-ray player, unless they release Senjou no Valkyria 3 or something.
January 17th, 2010 at 08:57
Have I ever told you how much I love your little quips involving Mizuki Nana? 8)