seiyuu3

Animelo 2008 had added a few more names to the line-up in the last couple of weeks. While both Psychic Lover and savage genius were familiar names to Animelo, one that came out from the left was the announcement of Kurobara Hozonkai performing on the Sunday session.

Kurobara Hozonkai is Horie Yui’s strange little goth band that was born from her radio program “Horie Yui no Tenshi no Tamago” back in 2006.

Mizuki Nana’s 17th single “Starcamp EP” goes on sale next week - to all you people coming in looking for downloads and torrents, check the release date first ya fools! And for the record this site does not provide downloads and torrents - anyway this means that heavy promotion is about to begin. Yahoo Japan is going to stream the PV for Astrogation starting this Friday, and Nana-chan is scheduled to appear on television program “Oto Riko!” on the 18th. In the mean time a 15 second long commerical can be found below.

On a sort-of related topic (related to Nana-chan anyway), I was made aware of this certain scene from episode 17 of Majintantei Nougaminerou:

LOLZ at the two guys that were obviously drawn to cover the two Ns of “Nana”, so this can’t be a fluke. Looks like someone at Madhouse is a Nana-chan fan. If you are wondering where the source pictures are from and for, they are from the canned sweets which were sold on the recent Live Formula tour as part of the tour goods.

Info on Tamura Yukari’s new album is now up. Titled “Izayoi no Tsuki, Kanaria no Koi”, it will be released on 27th of February, which is also Yukarin’s birthday (she’s turning 17, again). The first pressing will come with a DVD containing the PV to one of the songs in the album “Chelsea Girl”. The release of this album also means that there would be plenty of new songs to look forward to for her Budoukan live in March.

Since both King Records and Yukarin’s own homepage fails at images, it is again up to Amazon JP to save the day with a nice big image of the cover.

Chihara Minori will also be releasing a new single on 26th March. Title is not yet known. I think there’s a good chance that we might get to hear it at the final sessions of her live tour.

Horie Yui just released her highly anticipated album “Darling” yesterday. The promotional train for this album is insane - Yui was literally on the cover of every single seiyuu magazine, with hm3 running a cover special which spans 3 consecutive issues no less. We’ve even spotted a big poster ad at Akihabara station (no pictures, sorry). No doubt it is part of VIMS’ plan to get back some lost ground now that a few of the other seiyuu artists are nibbling at Yui’s heels. Will be keeping an eye on the Oricon charts to see whether the big promotional effect is going to pay off or not. sent might also have a word or two on the album later on now that his copy came in.

Finally, one release that surely fell under the radar for many people is Takahashi Mikako’s album “sweet” which was also released yesterday. Not only is the album fully produced by Mikako herself, she also wrote the lyrics and composed the music to every single one of the 10 tracks in the album. Apparently it took her 3 years to do all of this. Mikako is a decent enough singer, I’m tempted to buy it, half out of respect for her effort and half out of curiosity.

The small image is not because of bias, just that it’s the biggest image I could find.

I was lucky enough to get tickets for Horie Yui’s Xmas Live and managed to organise my yearly trip home to allow me to come back in time for it. There were two reasons for wanting to come back early. One, Yui doesn’t do solo live events often and two, I’ve never spent a Christmas in Japan. Having experienced the latter now, I can’t say I care for it much. But Yui’s Live event turned out better than I had anticipated.

True, having been to her previous solo lives, I wasn’t expecting aural excellence on par with Nana or even Yukarin. Out of your top selling seiyuu, Hocchan is a particularly weak live performer. Her acting is far better than her singing. However, having recently seen the Love Aice5 Tour Final there was some reason to hope for improvement.

１「恋の天使舞い降りて」
２「マッシュルームマーチ」
３「Time machine」
４「ショートショートケーキ」
５「かみさまおねがい」
６「桜」
７「Days」
８「クリスマスメドレー 」(きよしこの夜)
９「Happy snow」
10「Say cheese！」
11「Love Power」
12「Merry Merrily」
13「恋する天気図」
14「try again」
15「ヒカリ」
16「Angel恋をした」
17「スクランブル」
18「ラブリ♡エブリデイ」
19「Lady GO！」
20「笑顔の連鎖」

Encore
21「ずっと」
22「Love Destiny」
23「Happy happy*rice shower」

The set list for the night was a pretty good mix of new and old with Yui singing 3 new songs from her upcoming album as well as some old favourites. During the MC, she mentioned she wanted to perform “Christmassy” songs but she found that there weren’t all that many amongst her own songs. So there’s a bit of Yamato Nadeshiko here and Aice5 there and she tried to pick songs that conveyed a feeling of happiness and togetherness. There were even some carols, 「きよしこの夜」 is “Silent Night” in Japanese.

Performance wise, I have to say that Hocchan was terrible at the start, which didn’t give me encouragement to hope for better towards the end. But by the 3rd song in it seemed that she had warmed up and was actually hitting notes on cue. That actually put me in a good mood for the rest of the concert, coupled with some great oldies like Sakura, it brought a smile to my face as things got swinging.

Interspersed during were some “interesting” bits of drama and prerecorded video instead of regular MC sections, which if you ask me were a clever way of playing to her strengths in acting while giving her singing voice a break. It also gave good opportunity for costume changes.

However, as it turned out, there was little reason for me to worry as Hocchan’s stamina held up to the very end. She even managed to pull off 「try again」which impressed me since she notably failed to hit the notes during last year’s fanclub event. Though I think she’s still not quite Yukarin level yet, Yui is at least approaching that, perhaps in part due to the “training” with Aice5. There were definitely some really nice performances last night, especially one of the new ballads. So I’m actually looking forward to picking up her new album 「Darling」 come January 30. There’s also a good chance that this event might be released on DVD too since there were enough cameras and they were shooting in widescreen.

Going along with the theme for the night (the drama about the snowman wanting to meet up with his girlfriend and Yui dressing up as Santa Claus), there were ending credits rolled instead of the usual encore calling. However Yui came out afterwards anyway and had her free MC for the night. She spilled some interesting things like the fact that she’s spending this Christmas with Kanda Akemi as she has done so for the last two years. And also how she had a challenging time relearning the Aice5 songs for solo performance as she learned not to sing the other parts.

Speaking of Kanda Akemi, she was actually in the crowd, apparently wearing a mask and sitting somewhere behind this guy.

Overall, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected and I’m rather looking forward to the fanclub event in February. And, if Hocchan can keep this up, hopefully more live events next year.

No not in that way - after turning freelance several months ago, Seiyuu Grand Prix’s website database now lists Hocchan under VIMS. VIMS is a special branch inside I’m Enterprise, which actually belongs to…. wait for it…. ArtsVision. Yes the same ArtsVision that was involved in the scandal which may or may not have led to Hocchan going free in the first place. So in the end this whole incident resulted in nothing more than a short round of musical chair. Absolutely fascinating.

(很久沒寫中文文章)

不久之前King社的某高層曾說過要加強旗下的動畫和聲優音樂發展, 但是當全世界的音樂商都在頭痛CD銷量下滑的情況下, 為甚麼ACG界反而強調這一方面的發展呢? 當然和御宅族的忠誠習性有莫大關係, 近期ACG系的CD銷量直線上昇, 更有直逼主流音樂CD的銷量的趨勢. 成本遠比動畫製作甚至主流音樂低而利潤又高的動畫CD業在商人眼中當然不能夠放過. 而現在ACG界中的兩大頭音樂社King Records和Lantis雖然現在各有強項, 但很明顯它們想達到的目標卻是一樣的, 在說明這個目標是什麼前, 現在先說一說兩間公司的現狀吧.

首先說King, 為了方便把子公司Starchild也連在一起說吧. King現在可是很令他社羨慕的公司, 無他, 現在銷量最好的ACG歌手大多都是它旗下的藝人 - 堀江由衣, 水樹奈々, 還有最近正式歸屬的田村ゆかり, 三名都是現在僅有可以多憑自己名氣少靠tie-up作品品質而有資格入Oricon週間十大的聲優歌手. 雖然現況甚好但是對於King來說它的未來發展就沒有那麼樂觀, 原因就是King其他的ACG音樂商機卻是不太理想. 除了靠King本身有份投資的動畫作品而用自己旗下的聲優歌手作出tie-up的做法外, 很少會有作品會來跟King要用它旗下的歌手來負責音樂. 其次就是上述的三大天后的”嘗味期限”雖然還不能夠說近, 但是在King多番努力下現在還後接無人的情況下前景實在是大大的不太妙. 不能永遠只靠三位聲優歌手而且動畫音樂也沒甚麼看頭的King當然就想加強旗下的陣容了. 雖然嘴上這樣說但King的進展還是慢得可以(日本人特性?), 到最近都還沒有什麼實質的新動作. 除了還是玩那組聲優樂隊那老把戲試金石和開始大力推捧還甚有發展力的田村ゆかり外, 不久前竟然還要出到把老手林原大姐再請出來灌了大碟這一著. 長遠發展暫時並不樂觀.

另一方面Lantis可以說是正相反. 現在隨便看一套動畫都差不多可以看到Lantis是音樂方面的贊助, 而且它旗下還不缺乏一群雖然不能夠像三天后那樣輝煌但還有一定銷量保證的歌手例如JAM Project, CooRie, 粟林みな実等, 但對Lantis來說它發售的CD中銷量最好的往往是要靠超人氣作品帶動的. 只要拿涼宮與因這套作品紅得發紫的平野綾個人單曲”明日のプリズム”比較一下就知道, Lantis現在旗下的歌手在個人程度來說是大多都沒有足夠的號召力. 每次都要擔懮作品有沒有可能可以達到像涼宮或最近的らき☆すた那種驚人的人氣程度才有銷量保證的話對公司來說當然也不是辦法, 所以Lantis便積極地簽了一群聲優歌手來加強實力. 雖然手上已經有了平野綾這一未來大將, 但是其實現在的平野綾靠的還是演出作品的間接人氣. 平野綾雖然有一定的潛質, 而且Lantis很明顯是看到”God Knows…”等的表現和她的衣著性格而想將平野綾培養成一個靠搖滾歌的小rock后, 可是平野綾本身在音樂上的表現還沒有足夠的實力, 個人風格和演出經驗(特別是live)可以和King的三大天后周旋 - 歌唱力不及水樹奈々, 風格變化不及田村ゆかり, 暫時也沒有由衣的招牌糖衣歌. 加上沒有可能只靠一個人來支撐場面, 所以Lantis還簽下另一位同是涼宮出品的聲優歌手 - 茅原実里. 如果說平野綾是偏向堀江由衣那種賣特定音樂形像的聲優歌手, 那茅原実里就是走水樹奈々那樣的正統實力派. 只要一聽和看茅原実里最近的作品”君がくれたあの日”就已經一目了然公司要她走的方向了, 實在是有向水樹奈々的名曲”Eternal Blaze”作出宣戰的模樣. 加上茅原実里本身的音樂造詣不低, 還有不能小看的live實力(她今年可以出席Animelo已經是一個很好的證明, 不能唱live的人去Animelo簡直是自討苦吃), 她已經成為了Lantis主力力捧的另一對象. 最後擔當和田村ゆかり對台的好可能就是SOS團最後的團員 - 後藤邑子. 她的新作單曲已經宣佈會在八月發售.

為什麼King和Lantis都這麼積極地加強聲優和歌手的陣容呢? 答案就是想做到”一手包辦”這個目的. 要知道現今日本動畫界”製作委員會”制度是異常的複雜和麻煩, 但當音樂公司可以一手包辦主題曲和聲優唱的character song的製作的話, 一來可以減少委員的數目而不必把收入分薄, 而音樂公司自身在業界的地位和收入也相對地提高, 是一石二鳥的發展計劃. 所以兩公司才會有這樣的發展方針. 至於它們會不會成功, 我們便放長雙眼來看吧.

…to wear sunscreen.

Speaking of Seiyuu Grandprix’s new website. They’ve curiously listed Horie Yui as a “free” agent. No doubt this is fallout from the recent ArtsVision scandal. For those of you who missed the story, the President of the talent agency, Matsuda Sakumi, recently admitted to harassing a 16 year old girl who was interviewing to be accepted into ArtsVision as a seiyuu. The girl told police that she had initially put up with the behaviour while she was in the interview process but when her application was eventually rejected, she pressed charges.

Needless to say this has had massive repercussions throughout the whole company, ending up with Matsuda stepping down and Yui and other talents leaving the agency. ArtsVision is still apologising for it on their webpage though it’s unlikely they’ll shake the infamy of this malfeasance anytime soon.

Meanwhile, Yui is a free agent but I doubt it will remain that way for long.

Sega’s latest addition to the “Shining” series - Shining Wind - just went on sale on Thursday last week. Some of you probably also know that there is currently an anime in the spring season line up called Shining Tears X Wind, the names are no coincidence as the two titles are in fact closely related. While the anime tells the story from the point of view of the hot-blooded Souma (Hoshi Souichiro), the game tells the story from the slightly more timid Kiriya (Ishida Akira). Although some minor execution of the story from the different perspectives do not entirely agree in continuity, the two do seem to be designed from the ground up to compliment each other in painting the entire scope of the plot. While these types of simultaneous cross-media promotion had always happened in the forms of anime/manga/drama CD, a cross promotion between anime and game is an interesting evolution to this formula as no doubt they have realised that there is major cross-over between the two demographic of anime watchers and gamers. It’s a hook that worked on us at seiyuu3, as we have found ourselves putting the mediocre anime back on our watch list, and finding the experience much more enjoyable then when the two works were taken separately.

For the gameplay, the real time action-based battle system of the game is fairly straight forward and is easy enough to not punish the casual players, which is a logical move as the point of the game is really about moving the plot forward rather than dwelling in the RPG battle mechanics. There is a visual novel like element which let the player engage in unlocking mini story-arcs of the characters in the team in order to level up the character’s “Soul Blade”, which are said to be a materialisation of the owner’s emotions. The mini-arcs are not even limited to females, so some fangirls who are into pairings will no doubt get a kick out of it as well (though I’m bothered by the beastialities). It’s not an entirely new concept game design wise mixing strategy with adventure, personally I find it like they took some Langrisser and tone down the battle system and topped it off with a little Sakura Taisen. The result is a game that’s neither hardcore battle nor hardcore adventure.

Of course, this franchise first came on the seiyuu3 radar in no small part due to the extravagant seiyuu cast. Practically all of our top favourite names are here – Mizuki Nana, Horie Yui, Kawasumi Ayako, Kuwashima Houko, etc., the list goes on and on. The opening theme song Heart-shaped Chant by Nana-chan (available on the Secret Ambition single), a great song as it is, had now found a permanent spot on the daily playlist. It had also became a ritual to sit through the opening animation whenever the game is fired up for play.

For those wondering about the banner art, it’s a campaign run by Sega which gives sites hosting the banner art a chance to win some seiyuu goodies. Yes, we want those, badly. ;)

Taking place in September 20th at Yokohama Arena.  Announcement here.

See, what did I tell ya?

I  guess it’s kinda late for Xmas greetings :P

堀江由衣 Horie Yui, this year has been progressively holding more and more interesting events. Following her book signing and continuing this trend, Hocchan recorded her radio program in front of a live studio audience for the very first time since the show began.

This special recording, held on Sunday July 30, marked the 200th show of Horie Yui’s radio program 「堀江由衣の天使のたまご」 “Horie Yui’s Angel Egg” and, trust me, there was no better way to celebrate the milestone.

I was lucky enough to be one of the 100 audience members invited to attend the recording at 文化放送 Bunka Housou’s new studio in 浜松町 Hamamatsucho. A very slick new facility just opposite Hamamatsucho station.

For regular listeners of her show, the 200th will be a bit of a departure from the usual program as Yui the opportunity to revive some old segments and reminisce in amusing moments they had during the previous 199 recordings.

I won’t reveal too much as the show will be broadcast this coming Sunday August 6 at the usual time of 24:30 (that’s Monday morning 0:30) on 文化放送 AM 1134 kHz. However, Hocchan did have two surprises in store for us during the event.

Towards the end of the recording, she disappeared to change outfits and returned to perform a mini live! Appropriately, Yui sang the opening and ending themes for 天たま, 「Romantic Flight」 and 「Angel 恋をした」 and as a bonus for me, my first time experiencing 「ヒカリ」 performed live.

As a second surprise to top the day off, Hocchan unveiled her new goth band. Named the 「黒薔薇保存会」 (Kurobara Hozonkai), they performed their one and only song to close off the event. What does this mean? It means that Yui is going to be one busy seiyuu. It also seems that Starchild are leveraging her popularity with this little experiment into the goth music scene. However, their performance was actually pretty good and it will be good to see Yui sing with a live band again. Watch this space.

Overall the event was very enjoyable and I would love to go to another one. The crowd was great too and you could feel the emotion in the air and Yui even got teary-eyed toward the end.

One thing that stood out was that there were a good number of females in attendance. Close to 50% of the audience. It struck me as a very similar situation to Hirano Aya’s Hey!Hey!Hey! appearance. Plus they checked everyone’s identification on entry. On the whole, the event was very well organised which is usually wanting at times. Could this be a new trend?