Archive for the ‘坂本真綾/Sakamoto Maaya’ Category

2008 Review – Seiyuu3 Edition

Posted by houkoholic on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 09:34

Hopping onto the bandwagon. Categories not in any particular order, I’m just writing it as they come to my mind.

Most Memoriable Seiyuu Moment – I killed Ueda Kana in Halo 3

It wasn’t memoriable just because I fragged her, but because she was actually a competent player. While I am not so shallow as to think that there are no female gamers (some of my friends are quite heavy gamers), but you have to admit that a certain amount of skepticism is in need about the way Ueda Kana professing her addiction to typically very male orientated games like FPS and Monster Hunter that I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see for myself if it was just an act or was she for real. It turns out she is the real deal and all the more respect from me to her.

Oh and sorry about the video, I’ll probably never get around to it. *runs*

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Most Memoriable News Announcement – Brief Return of the Sakamoto/Kanno Golden Team

When they announced that Sakamoto Maaya and Kanno Yoko were going to work together again for Macross Frontier, I was ecstatic – I’m the old schooler that thinks everything non-Kanno Yoko by Maaya is crap (yep I’ve said it). While opinions on Triangler seems to be leaning towards the negative side, personally I much prefer it to the more popular Lion. Only Maaya can screech and still sound sort of good.

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Best Concert/Event I Attended – (tie) THE IDOLM@STER 3rd Anniversary Live and Animelo 2008

A lot of the other concerts/events I went to seems to suffer from little things which keeps me from enjoying them to the fullest – such as Nana’s horrible wardrobe in Live Fighter or the unsatisfying Minorin Fanclub event. In the end, it is only for the IDOLM@STER concert and Animelo 2008 where I can say I was completely and totally pumped and excited for the entire duration of the concert. Too bad neither seems to be coming out on DVD anytime soon.

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LULZ Award – “Aya Style”

Hirano Aya’s bikini screw-up leading to the coining of the new term “Aya Style”. It was even funnier because it was a female friend who pinged me about it in the first place and said, quote – if she wasn’t flat as a board, that would hurt. It made me laughed so hard that I had a stomach cramp.

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Best New Personal Seiyuu Discovery – (Tie) Imai Asami and Shimoda Asami

It seems that not only do they share the same given name, but also some other similiarties too – similarities which also happens to be what made me like them.

One is their singing abilities. They are both really really good singers with distinctive voices. Imai Asami has a deep powerful mature voice while Shimoda Asami can sing in both her normal voice and her nasal character voice which is quite a rare talent even amongst great seiyuu singers. The second are their quirky personality. Imai Asami “Mingosu” is a gamer-erojiji-lolicon-otaku with a chest complex, while Shimoda Asami “Asapon” is a multi-facet character (which includes her normal female self, a cute/dumb/wtf elementary school loli personality as well as a, you guessed it, lesbian side where she likes to claim fellow cute seiyuu as her waifu under her male personality named “Asao”) with a talent for voice imitations and writing original lyrics to songs and performing them live on her radio show. Sounds too good to be true? Think it’s all a marketing gimmick? That’s probably true, but that’s what makes seiyuu idol personalities interesting and warrants closer examination, right?

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MVP – Tomatsu Haruka

Tomatsu Haruka without a doubt is the new rising star that dominated this year with a very strong list of memorable characters and roles. Nakajima Megumi may have gotten better limelight, but she hasn’t demonstrated the same versitility and range that Tomatsu Haruka had shown. Ever since Polyphonica last year it was pretty clear to me that Tomatsu Haruka has that something in her to make it big, this year was the year that she capitalised on it to make her mark on everyone’s radar. Even though I’m not found of Kannagi, it’s hard to argue that Tomatsu Haruka’s Nagi was quite a vital attraction of the show.

It also helps that she has very nice legs.

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Best Seiyuu Gaming Moment – Senjou no Valkyria

It was an all-star cast for an incredible game (though not my Game of the Year though, that would actually be Fallout 3). You can read about what I had to say about the game here. While the presence of Fukuyama Jun did add a big LOL factor, it was Inoue Marina that made Valkyria for me. I really like Inoue Marina’s protrayal of the down-to-earth girl that is Alicia, it’s distinctive yet subtle, it catches your attention without being loud. It would be nice to hear Marina repraising the role of Alicia in the upcoming anime version.

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Favourite Song – Shiny Smile from THE IDOLM@STER Live For You!

As it was my most played song which was released in 2008 according to my iTunes log it takes the crown of Favourite Song of 2008. To be honest 2008 was a pretty rough year for me, and Shiny Smile was one of the songs I went to for a pick-me-up. It’s a very simple catchy tune that gets you to sing along instantly, plus it has the right lyrics and attitude – the never give up, never stop moving forward and to just go for the goal with a bright smile was really what I needed when I’m feeling a bit down and just don’t want think too much while helping me to keep a positive attitude.

Someone went to the trouble of subbing the song and post it on Youtube. The translation is stiff but it gets the jist of it.

Most Disturbing Seiyuu Related News – Crazy People Making Death Threats to Seiyuu

Mizuki Nana and Chihara Minori both recieved death threats this year which made it to headline news. While they both seem to turn out to be nothing more than pathetic pranks when the police caught the ones responsible, it is still disturbing that people would use such things for fun, especially for the fact that they seem to be inspired by the tragic incident in Akiba.

“About f#@king time” moment – Area 11 Discovers the Rest of ZA WAARUDO!

In the form of half-heartedly setting up the “Overseas Fan Choice Award” in the Seiyuu Award. Doesn’t change the fact that the award itself is still a joke though.

“I can’t believe he/she did that!” Seiyuu Moment – Miyano Mamoru’s Shotgun Marriage Announcement

I will not claim knowledge on how fangirl logic would work (though I’m guessing it is probably not that different to how fanboy logic works), and I know that the entertainment industry here are generally pretty harsh when it comes to idols coming out with “shameful” and image damaging news such as these – and sure enough they pretty much cleanse the usual sources of his video message announcing his marriage, including his own official page, and tried to pretend that nothing happened (but the internet being the internet, you can still find the video if you spend 10 seconds on teh googles). That’s some gutsy thing Miyano did, but ultimately foolish with how the industry here works and I wish him luck and hope that he’s not going to be regretting this decision of his anytime soon.

“I can’t believe I did that!” Seiyuu Moment

Thankfully this category is empty as I haven’t done anything to any seiyuu that would have me writing this from inside a prison cell.

Wish you all a Happy New Year.

Sakamoto Maaya TV special on TBS

Posted by sent on Monday, July 3rd, 2006 at 15:31

坂本真綾 Speaking of Seiyuu TV specials, while I missed the first time around, TBS is broadcasting a special documentary on Sakamoto Maaya on Sunday July 16. Curiously the TBS website, states that this is the first time it will be broadcast, so maybe I haven’t missed it, but on an earlier version of the page it was first broadcast in June.

Titled 「坂本真綾・君に届く声~ミュージック&ドキュメント~」 Sakamoto Maaya, the Voice that Reaches You, Music and Documentary, Maaya herself will be narrating the program as it covers her three types of voice work. As a seiyuu for anime and foreign films, as an actress in a live musical and as a vocalist in her own right. Maaya will also sit down to talk to 山寺宏一 Yamadera Kouichi, and reflect on examples on her work.

You can catch the special on TBS, July 16 at 23:00. It sounds like it will provide interesting insights on Sakamoto Maaya’s more recent works. Maaya is certainly a worthy case of study as her career has taken her to perform in diverse areas of the vocal art. It’s also good to see that seiyuu are beginning to get more exposure and recognition in the mainstream for the talent and the roles that they breathe life into.

坂本真綾がミュージカル「レ・ミゼラブル」で千穐楽を迎えた

Posted by sent on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 13:50

エポニーヌ/坂本真綾さん(左)とジャベール/鈴木綜馬さんDuring the last 4 years Sakamoto Maaya has been participating in the musical “Les Miserables“ right here in Tokyo. After 4 years of playing the Eponine, the musical came to a close for Maaya and 7 other principal actors on April 24.

Toho has been posting reports with messages and photos from the principal cast on their final days. You can read Maaya’s message here.

この作品を通してたくさんのことを教えてもらいました。常に自分との戦いである、ということです。また、そこから逃げないことが大事なのだ、ということを教わりました。どんな時も、こんな頼りない私を支えて下さったのはカンパニーの皆さんです。ここで出会えた人たちに感謝しています。そして、見守ってくださったお客様、ありがとうございました。 

Maaya said that she has learned many things during this production. Things like to constantly stir herself and there are things that are important not to run away from. She is also really grateful for the support from everyone in the company. And she said thanks for looking after her.

It’s a pity, that I didn’t take the time to go and see it myself especially since it was only in Yurakucho. orz

Source: Toho

Maaya gives good performance in male-like role.

Posted by sent on Friday, April 7th, 2006 at 12:09

Sakamoto Maaya voicing the lead role in a new anime called 「桜蘭高校ホスト部」 (Ourankoukou Host Club). She plays a character named 「藤岡ハルヒ役」 (Fujioka Haruhi), and apparently she’s been given the thumbs up from the guys on 2chan for a good performance.

895 名前:名無しさん@お腹いっぱい。[sage] 投稿日:2006/04/05(水) 01:17:21 ID:Hqn3RSERO
男役でも問題なし

898 名前:おむこさん志望 ◆QtGqCwfDSA [sage] 投稿日:2006/04/05(水) 01:40:12 ID:JL2Pz5xc0
すごくよかった 
着てる服によってちゃんと声で演じ分けてるね

899 名前:名無しさん@お腹いっぱい。[sage] 投稿日:2006/04/05(水) 01:41:08 ID:Q6p/72/A0
全く違和感がなかった・・・
いつの間にか実力上がってたのね。

Her performance drew comments like “It was great”, “No problems with a male character” and “No sense of discomfort at all”. As far as I know this is Maaya’s first male role and while I haven’t seen 「桜蘭高校ホスト部」 yet (and I might never) it’s good to hear that she does it well.

Maaya is also doing a weekly podcast for the show which you can subcribe to from here or access from iTMS here.

桜蘭高校ホスト部 is airing on 日テレ(NTV) on Tuesdays at 24:50, which is actually Wednesday 0:50am.

Ouran High School Host Club

Update: Having watched the first episode now, I realise my mistake. I’ll admit I was quick to assume the content of the show based on the promo art. I really should know better by now :P. Still it was good to hear Maaya acting in anime and I can actually concur that this is a good showing from her. Like one of the others said, “I really did think she was a guy at first”. :)

ID, WatchSeiyuuBan, NTV

坂本真綾の新曲決定!菅野よう子まだ行方不明…

Posted by sent on Sunday, April 2nd, 2006 at 13:23

Sakamoto Maaya is releasing a new song! Carrying on from the ending theme for the 1st season with 「ループ」, Maaya’s new single 「風待ちジェット」 will be the opening theme to the second season of Tsubasa Chronicle.

第1シリーズに引き続き、坂本真綾の新曲がエンディングテーマになります。
風待ちジェット」 詞:坂本真綾 曲:鈴木祥子

2005年春にスタートしたCLAMP原作のアニメ「ツバサ・クロニクル」。
2006年春からは、セカンドシーズン全26話の放送がいよいよ始まります。
【放送開始日時】
2006年4月29日(土・祝)18:25~18:50(予定)

The second season of Tsubasa Chronicle will start airing from April 29th while Maaya’s new single coupling with 「スピカ」 is due for release on June 14th.

風待ちジェット/スピカ(両A面シングル)
2006年6月14日 発売です。
「風待ちジェット」 作詞:坂本真綾 作曲:鈴木祥子
「スピカ」   作詞:坂本真綾 作編曲:h-wonder

As you can see, Kanno Yoko is a continuing absence from Maaya’s recent work. I can only say that I am somewhat saddened for the inevitable change in style after some much loved brilliance in their former works.


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Rule 1. Anything can be found on the Internet.
Rule 2. If Rule 1 appears not to apply, you haven't looked hard enough.
Rule 3. Given sufficient time for Rule 2, somebody else will find it for you or upload it hence fulfilling Rule 1.
                                                                                - seiyuu3