seiyuu3

Taken from Nico Nico Douga.

As the event was live streamed on Nicodouga (just like Animelo) so access was limited on the day (9th Nov). This is a screen-captured video of the the live streamed so can’t do anything about the Nicodouga comments. There’s also two more parts after which is the talk section but I’m not going to bother, people who understand moonspeak can find it themselves, and those who don’t won’t get anything out of it – that would be my excuse for not uploading them.

The songs she performed are “Be MYSELF” and “Tenshi ni Naritai” (天使になりたい – lit. want to become an angel) – two of her own original songs which you can purchase on the iTunes Music Store listed under “Megumi Nakajima” (Japan store only, sorry folks, the usual region blocking applies, but I’m sure you can use the Giftcard tricks to obtain them)、Sony’s “MORA” digital music download service (not even sure if this store is available outside of Japan), and the usual mobile phone ringtones stores (no chance of using these if you don’t live in Japan). The songs are currently not released on a CD and there’s no information about a CD release yet. According to various reports, apparently she also sang her signiture キラッ☆ song aka Seikan Hikou from Macross Frontier after the talk section but it was not streamed on the day – most probably due to rights issues.

Megumi seems to be putting a lot more effort into her singing career now – not unlike her predecessor Iijima Mari – and there doesn’t seem to be anymore voice acting roles that she’s taking on in the near future. So the question is whether she’s going to continue to be a seiyuu, or will she just merely use Macross as a stepping stone to get her into normal stardom. Though if her management has any brains, they really should get her more voice roles, as it’s very clear that her current fanbase are entirely made up of otakus, and you don’t want to alienate them so quickly.

Famitsu is on their game again so official track listing can be found here.  As predicted, today was Niconico Douga Meme Song day, if you are a fan of nicodouga, especially of the Nicodouga Kumikyoku, you’ll no doubt get a massive kick from hearing the meme songs being performed full live – we definitely did.   Anyway again some highlights:

*  Omoide wa Okusenman performed by JAM Project as an opener.  What a starter!  Hang on, Makkun isn’t in there but replaced by Misato Aki.  Hmm what happened?

*   After the song, Kageyama Hironobu announced that Makkun fell sick, and her condition worsen because she forced herself to perform yesterday and the doctor gave her the order to not to perform today.  DAMN.

*  Misato Aki sang nicely – taking over Makkun’s role in such short notice and as the first performer, great effort on her part.

*  Elisa’s voice is simply beautiful.  After 2 acts the bar for the night is set pretty damn high.

*  After two slow songs from Elisa, angela Domestic Love Band started the night’s long run of goth-metal music.  It’s quite a departure of her old stuff.  Yeah, even Shangri-La was pretty out there.

* Sound Horizon had some interesting sounds, and lots of members and vocalists. My favourite part though has to be the electric violin in their music. Might check them out later.

* Yui’s goth band is a good gag act. I like how they made fun of themselves with the whole “toilet break act” gag, even though they were far from that level of terrible.

* Momoi Halko did a real-life Idolm@ster-style “performance accident” – she literally tripped and fell on all four after missing a landing from a jump. She recovered from it straight away though, that’s a pro performer right there.

* Mosaic.wav’s Gacha Gacha Kyu~~~ I was waiting for this piece and the fun metre explodes when everyone in the stadium does the hand gestures.

* Everyone sang true my heart – the call for “Kishimen!” was insane, Lelouch by the power of the Code Geass MAD meme orders you all to obey and sing!

*  Sakura Saori’s talking voice scares me since it sounds just like when she sings.  It’s like she’s constantly on helium or something.

*  No Kiss My Lips.  That is just not right. :(

*  miko (IOSYS) for Marisa – complete with the original flash movie on the big screen.  There’s something magical about everyone yelling “yi er san yi er san one two three one two three ichi ni san” at the same time.

*  Tori no Uta, another totally expected piece.  It’s a nice song except that for all of the 2 to 3 times I’ve seen it live Lia can never perform it well in a live situation and this time was no exception, which is a pity.

*  iM@S performed a medley of their most famous songs, which is awesome because there is just no way they can get through all their cool songs any other way.  Asapon was the most in character, Mingosu did well with her solo Aoi Tori section, and even Nakamura Eriko managed to sing pretty well too.

*  Makka na Chikai was sooooo intense.  I’ve never seen so many people get so psyched up, except for JAM Project’s SKILL.

*  May’n does her Macross Frontier Sheryl act.  That’s all there is to say about it.

*  Psychic Lover does a ballad, wow.  It’s so not their usual image.

*  Hirano Aya improved her singing – it is no longer as painful as last year’s because she stopped trying so damn hard to do her weak attempt at a vibreto (thank god).

*  anisong Uninstall was another piece that I really want to hear live, and Ishikawa Chiaki delivers it in spades.

*  Woo, another new unreleased song in full – Gundam 00 second season’s ending Prototype.

*  Gundam-gasum continues with a medley by a Ishikawa Chiakii/Yonekura Chihiro duet doing their most famous Gundam themes.

*  I can fly!  You can fly!  We can fly! Motto motto! 

Today’s concert was enjoyable in a completely different way compared with yesterdays.  While yesterday’s – as expected by such a strong line up of strong singers – wins purely by the sheer high quality of the performers at performing live, today’s was exciting for the concentrated bursts of pure FUN as meme songs and recent cult hits gets performed live on stage and how everyone joins in with the acts at the same time to create an unbelievable live atmosphere.  So both days were awesome in their own rights.

Also it looks like they’re already planning for next years Animelo, so see you next AniSummer!

The full track listing can be found here for those who can read Japanese, I might get around to translate it later.  In the mean time just some moments worthy of mention:

*  Concert kicks off with – what??  Yukarin’s “Koiseyo Onnanoko”!  But wait, there’s one more person!  OMG it’s a duet with Nana-chan!

*  Nanoha Yukarin and Fate-chan Nana-chan than sang Nana-chan’s “Anone – mamimume☆mogacho”, wow, Yukarin doing the monkey too!

*  First solo performer is Yukarin, despite this being her first Animelo appearance.   She did three songs in her usual top performance.  She even got the entire stadium to do the melon stick wave, it’s a great act to get people to warm up for the concert.

* AAA is a very well packaged mainstream Avex J-pop young band – complete with the pretty boy singer, rapper, girl vocal formula sang to eurobeat songs topped with well chronographed dances.  Bonus for them being actually able to pull it off.

* Karen Girls were not bad, but still a very painful act to watch.

*  yozuca, Minorin and savage genius sang FictionJuction YUUKA’s “nowhere”.  That really came out of nowhere.

*  savage genius  sang a new song “Just Tune” which is the opening to one of the autumn show “Yozakura Quartet”, not a bad tune.

*  Akino!  愛してる (Aishiteru)!

*  bless4 were pretty amazing with their a cappella.   Really talented group of young people.

* GRANRODEO (lead vocal is Taniyama Kishou) replaces Takahashi Naozomi as THE male seiyuu act of Animelo.  They brought with them some pretty heavy J-Rock which is a welcome change.  While Takahashi Naozomi is by no means a bad performer, one has to admit that one thing Animelo doesn’t lack are feminine acts.

* Suara sang the only slow song for the night.  Her performance is still so perfect.

* Kuribayashi Minami covered up even more parts of her body this year, even though she’s still wearing a really skimpy skirt.  I guess the organisers still think she’s wearing too little?

*  Minorin got a big share this year, performing 3 (4 if you count Contact which IMO isn’t really a song) solo pieces.

*  Minorin Makkun Rondo Revolution duet!  But they sang it to the inferior Makkun tribute album remix of the song, so last year’s Nana-chan/Makkun duet is still the one to top.

*  Nana-chan’s super-awesome Dancing in the Velvet Moon performance complete with sexy costume.  Every year she still simply OWNS the show as she bursts onto the stage.

*  The last piece is Eternal Blaze, ZOMG it’s a Nana-chan/Arika (Ali Project) duet!  They kept their promise!

*  Mic volume level problems during the final 3 group songs.   Hope its just a live-mixing problem such that they can fix it for the DVD release.

One more day to go!

News had gotten out that famous Japanese online video website Nico Nico Douga will be streaming, live, selected sections of the Sunday session (August 31st) of this year’s Animelo in their Nico Nico Live section.  The live-cast is to start at 4pm Tokyo time (UTC + 9) and is limited to the first 10,000 users.  Don’t know why they aren’t doing the Saturday session as well, but besides the usual rights problem, I’d wager that it might have something to do with how the Sunday session currently looks awfully like they took a artist roll-call from the songs used in the Nico Douga Kyumikyoku.  Afterall, the people behind Nico Nico Douga, dwango, is also the major sponser to Animelo, seems like a perfect opportunity to cash in on some cross-promotion.

Either way, this maybe a great opportunity for those overseas who can’t make it to get a glimps of what it is like – provided they don’t put in IP blocking that is.

Fellow seiyuu3 reader dodgethis has a spare Sunday Animelo ticket and asked me to lend some shouting space. So here it is:

Hi guys.

Currently I have a spare ticket for the second from Yahoo Auctions. If you’re interested in it, please e-mail me at mobiledeath underscore sg at hotmail dot com. We’ll sort out the details through that.

Thanks

dodgethis

Anyone interested should contact him directly while he still has it!

Track List (it was a hefty 3 hour concert):

1. shiny smile [Short Ver.] (Hasegawa Akiko, Wakabayashi Naomi, Kugimiya Rie)
2. Agent Yoru wo Yuku [Short Ver.] (Takahashi Chiaki, Imai Asami, Shimoda Asami)
3. GO MY WAY!! [Short Ver.] (Nakamura Eriko, Nigo Mayako, Hirata Hiromi -> All members)
<MC>
4. Do-Dai (Nigo Mayako, Imai Asami, Shimoda Asami)
5. Watashi wa Idol (Wakabayashi Naomi, Takahashi Chiaki)
6. Here we go!! [REM@STER-A] (Hasegawa Akiko)
7. My Best Friend [REM@STER-B] (Hirata Hiromi, Kugimiya Rie)
8. relations + [Normal->REM@STER-A] (Nakamura Eriko, Wakabayashi Naomi)
9. 9:02pm [REM@STER-B] (Hirata Hiromi, Hasegawa Akiko)
10. Taiyo no Jealousy [REM@STER-A] (Imai Asami, Shimoda Asami)
<Ochiai Yurika Video message>
<MC Drama>
11. Kiramekirari [Short Ver.] (Nigo Mayako)
12. Furu Furu Future [Short Ver.] (Hasegawa Akiko)
13. Futari no Kioku [Short Ver.] (Kugimiya Rie)
14. Start Star [Short Ver.] (Shimoda Asami)
15. I WANT [Short Ver.] (Nakamura Eriko)
<MC Drama>
16. Positive! [REM@STER-A] (Takahashi Chiaki, Nigo Mayako, Takita Juri)
17. Ohayou!! Asagohan [REM@STER-A] (Hirata Hiromi, Shimoda Asami, Kushida Akira as Yakiniku Man)
18. Ippai Ippai [Short Ver.] (Wakabayashi Naomi)
19. Me ga Au Toki [Short Ver.] (Imai Asami)
20. Meisou Mind [Short Ver.] (Hirata Hiromi)
21. Tonari ni… [Short Ver.] (Takahashi Chiaki)
22. Merry (Nigo Mayako, Kugimiya Rie, Nakamura Eriko)
23. ID：[OL]  (Takita Juri)
24. THE IDOLM@STER [Short Ver.] (All members)
25. Mahou wo Kakete! (Imai Asami, Wakabayashi Naomi)
26. Valentine (Hasegawa Akiko, Shimoda Asami)
27. YES♪ (Hirata Hiromi, Nakamura Eriko)
28. inferno (Imai Asami, Takahashi Chiaki)
29. shiny smile (Kugimiya Rie, Wakabayashi Naomi, Hasegawa Akiko)
30. Omoide wo Arigatou (Nigo Mayako, Shimoda Asami)
31. Sora (Takita Juri)
32. my song (Takahashi Chiaki, Hirata Hiromi, Nakamura Eriko)
33. Aoi Tori (Imai Asami)
<PSP game announcement, new characters introduction>
34. Over Master (new song) (Hasegawa Akiko, Hara Yumi, Numakura Emi)
MC
35. Massugu (Nakamura Eriko, Kugimiya Rie, Nigo Mayako, Takahashi Chiaki, Wakabayashi Naomi)
<Encore>
36. THE IDOLM@STER (everyone)

Just a reminder of who plays who:

Nakamura Eriko – Amami Haruka
Imai Asami – Kisaragi Chihaya
Ochiai Yurika – Hagiwara Yukiho
Nigo Mayako – Takatsuki Yayoi
Wakabayashi Naomi – Akizuki Ritsuko
Takahashi Chiaki – Miura Azusa
Kugimiya Rie – Minase Iori
Hirata Hiromi – Kikuchi Makoto
Shimoda Asami – Futami Ami, Mami
Hasegawa Akiko – Hoshii Miki
Takita Juri – Otonashi Kotori
Hara Yumi – Shijyo Takane (new character for the upcoming PSP game)
Numakura Emi – Ganaha Hibiki (new character for the upcoming PSP game)

Some random thoughts and trivias:

*  The character Takita Juri plays – Otonashi Kotori – is actually not an idol in the game but one of the workers of 765 Production (the name of the production house in the IDOLM@STER games, it’s a pun since 765 can be read as Namco). Kotori had become a really popular character ever since her appearance in CD dramas and such, as well as having her own songs.

* In the beginning, they used the newly released 3D model of Otonashi Kotori to tell people not to do otagei as Kotori was doing it on the screen.  It was hilarious.  For why the fuss and info on what otagei is, go here for j1m0ne’s coverage on the story [Sakakibara Yui Bans Otagei at Her Live Shows?].

* Leading on from above, the crowd was actually very withheld.  Even the normal jumping and cheering was well beneath normal accepted levels.  Maybe something to do with the gaming crowd being a little less scary?

* Special guest Kushida Akira for number 16 is a veteran anime/tokusatsu song singer. You can find his English homepage here.  As for why he’s there as Yakiniku Man, well, you’ll just have to listen to the song which can be found on one of the CDs.

*  Takita Juri is a great performer – both for her singing and her narration during the MC dramas.  Even though her character Kotori is not officially an idol in the game her singing is very high quality.  A quick look at her profile reveals that she used to be a member of the Minami Aoyama Shoujo Geikidan.  If that doesn’t ring a bell, Chiba Saeko and Nanri Yuuka (AKA Fiction Juction YUUKA) are both graduates of this musical group.

*  There were a few instances where Kugimiya Rie slipped out of her high pitch voice when singing, it sounds surprisingly pleasant.

*  Shimoda Asami is really really crazy.  I still can’t believe she actually did the stupid hand-poking-into-the-air dance move from Do-Dai and her mic didn’t flew out from her hands.

*   Hirata Hiromi sounds much better live than on the CD.  I think it has something to do with her deep voice which seems to fill a concert hall better than being delivered via recording.

*  Imai Asami finally managed to sing Aoi Tori when she is in her best shape – and boy it was awesome.  Last time she sang that she was not well so much so that she collapsed backstage after the performance.

*  Chiaking +  Asamingosu’s version of “inferno” was great.  Too bad for Ochiai Yurika (the original song was a duet by Imai Asami and Ochiai Yurika)

*  Nakamura Eriko’s performance is still abit shaky if she moves too much, otherwise she’s definitely getting better.  Hopefully she can improve more before Animelo since she’s by far the weakest link out of the 4 iM@S seiyuu that are attending.  It’s not really her being terrible though, it’s just that the other 3 being Takahashi Chiaki, Imai Asami and Shimoda Asami are just more skillful.

*  The owner of the rival production house of the PSP game – 961 Production (read Kuroi Production, again a pun on the number reading, also “kuroi” means black) seems to be voiced by Koyasu Takehito.

*  Just for the record, there were a few girls there.  We were particularly traumatized by two really dedicated stealth fangirls in front of us.  “Stealth” as in you can’t tell they were the crazy type since they look absolutely normal (they were pretty too) until they decide to whip out 10 different glow sticks each and wave and cheer like what normal teenage girls would for their favourite boy band, except of course in this case, the performers are all female….

EDIT:  Nearly everyone’s blog has some photos of sorts, but the blog for Chiaking (Takahashi Chiaki) and Asapon (Shimoda Asami) has the most photo spam, so much so that I’d rather not try to steal them.  Go visit Chiaking’s blog here and Asapon’s blog here for photo goodness.

This is what happens when you don’t teach history properly and watch too much animu (especially too much of the pro-Zeon Gundam works) – you think Nazi uniform makes perfect concert dress material. Hey as long as it looks cool right? And Japan wonders why it has issues with its neighbouring countries.

Just for the record, this was one of the costume she wore for her recent Live Fighter concert, sent and I facepalmed when we saw this on stage. I was going to write about it earlier, but pictures are better (or worse, in this case) than my words alone. I’m gonna dread watching this again on Blu-ray that’s for sure.

In our hunt to actually get some tickets to the Animelo 2008 Saturday session, which has turned out to be a lot harder this year, we’ve ended up with some spares. So if any of you who are making the trip over still need any, now is your chance.

We have two pairs of tickets for the Saturday session only. For those who want/need them, same deal as last time. Send us an email to seiyuu3 (at) gmail (dot) com and make sure you include the following:

Full name
Email address
Date of arrival in Japan
Country you’re coming from

We’ll sort out where to meet, payment, etc in the emails.

The Sunday session is turning out to be pretty awesome too but we don’t have any spares for that.

Cue expressions of lament!

Okui Masami is going solo on the Saturday session (please have another duet with Nana-chan! prettyprettyplease), and her fellow JAM Project bandmate Fukuyama Yoshiki is also detaching himself to get his own solo act on Sunday (oh man please can we now have a Basara + Sheryl duet?! But even Maka no Chikai will be AWESOME YELLING TIME anyway). LIA is also going to Animelo Sunday (Tori no Uta! Tori no Uta!), and with ave;new feat. Sakura Saori (True My Heart! Kiss My Lips!), MOSAIC.WAV (gacha gacha kyu!), miko (kirai, kirai, lovin’!), iM@S etc Sunday is turning out to be a day that would make any nico douga fanboy (especially of the nico nico douga kumikyoku type) weak at the knees just at the though of all these artists on stage at the same time.

Only a little more than one month left!

Completely unexpected – Animelo’s official site has pre-announced that THE IDOLM@STER will be attending the Sunday session of Animelo Summer 2008.

THE IDOLM@STER is the group of seiyuu behind the Bandai Namco game of the same name, and the members are:
Nakamura Eriko (Amami Haruka)
Imai Asami (Kisaragi Chihaya)
Ochiai Yurika (Hagiwara Yukiho)
Nigo Mayako (Takatsuki Yayoi)
Wakabayashi Naomi (Akizuki Ritsuko)
Takahashi Chiaki (Miura Azusa)
Kugimiya Rie (Minase Iori)
Hirata Hiromi (Kikuchi Makoto)
Shimoda Asami (Futami Ami, Mami)
Hasegawa Akiko (Hoshii Miki)

Not to be confused with the spin-off anime Idolmaster Xenoglossia made by Sunrise with an entirely different cast of seiyuu, THE IDOLM@STER and the seiyuu behind them had gain a strong cult following thanks to devoted otakus posting self-made AMV on video sharing sites such as nico nico douga and Youtube, and the makers proping up the interest by continously releasing some pretty decent songs for the fans to play with. There are some fairly talented singers in the group – Imai Asami and Takahashi Chiaki are especially skillful which I greatly admire and respect, while others like Shimoda Asami and Hasegawa Akiko had also came a long way.

Finer details will be revealed tomorrow night at 7pm Tokyo time, probably related to whether the entire cast will be available at the concert or not. To this date I think they have never managed to assemble the entire cast for any events, including THE IDOLM@STER’s own events. Kugimiya Rie and Ochiai Yurika are currently the two with the most “no show” record – both of which had cited scheduling issues as the reason behind it. While it’s understandable that Kugimiya Rie with her “tsundere queen” status which leads to her voice being on everything from anime to consumer electronics thus naturally comes with a super cluttered schedule, on the other hand for the relatively unknown Ochiai “Yurishii” Yurika many otakus speculate this is due to her links with the Arts Vision scandel leading her to be surpressed within the industry. Here’s hoping they can actually get everyone there as it would be a spectacular sight to have them all on stage.