seiyuu3

Minorin just revealed in her blog that she will be making an appearance as a solo artist at this year’s Animelo.  The official page of Animelo also confirms this piece of news.

As a solo artist, there’s no Haruhi hype-riding this time around and the organisers must feel that Minorin has what it takes to put up a performance that can rival the big guns at Animelo to let her in on the game.  As we here at seiyuu3 had covered previously, Minorin is a great live artist, so I’m not worried about her ability to putting on a great show.  It’s going to be a great opportunity for Minorin to make a giant leap in her singing career, and personally I’m glad that she’s getting her share of fortunes after being drowned out by the successes of Hirano Aya and Goto Yuuko.

The cover of the single was released recently.

Titled 「君がくれたあの日」 (Kimi ga Kureta Ano Hi), it will go on sale on June 6th.

Simple but nice looking picture of Minorin, I like. ^____^

A Haruhi live event is scheduled for March 18th.

Chaos ensures. 

The difference between a good concert and a great concert is a number of factors.  The obvious ones would be the singer in question, the sound, the choice of music, costumes, while the less obvious would be things like the venue, the organisation and the crowd.  Chihara Minori’s birthday concert “Love Live 2006″ was, in all aspect, a great concert. 

Minorin’s live singing really was exceptional.  As sent has said in his post, her performance is nearly up there with Nana-chan and Yukarin, and she also seemed to do it with so little effort as well.  Being the only person on stage, with no band members nor dancers to rely on, Minorin manages to draw all my attention for the entire duration of the concert.  She taught us hand gestures, she led the calls and chantings, and she got all of us to sing with her for “La La La”, a song which she wrote all by herself.  There is no doubt she really enjoys it and this is reflected in the atmosphere of the concert.  One of the highlights of the concert was no doubt her solo performance of 「ハレ晴レユカイ」, where Minorin was singing as well as performing the complete version of the dance, and it was performed better than the same skit done at Animelo Summer with Hirano Aya and Goto Yuuko.  Also one of my favourite songs of hers ”Naked Heart” is perfect for the concert atmosphere and I really enjoyed listening to it in a live environment with an enthusiastic crowd.  Fans of Minorin were dedicated but not crazily overboard with their affection towards her, so even though the venue was small and packed, there wasn’t a moment where I felt unpleasant, and in the end it all adds to the overall atmosphere.

As for the announcement of her upcoming single, I guess I can say that my prayers had been answered.  Minorin really has a lot of potential and it would be sad to see her being sweeped aside because of all the focus on Hirano Aya in the media as of late.  Let’s hope that Minorin can make it big too as I would not hesitate to add her to my list of “must attend seiyuu concerts”.

You could say that my excitement for any particular seiyuu is pretty contained. It usually takes a live event, or in Aya’s case a semblance of a live event, to blow it wide open. Nana and Yukarin are both fantastic live performers and Yui is a special exception on my part. Which brings me to Minorin. While her CD makes for remarkably good listening that did not prepare me for what was in store today.

It’s been a while since seiyuu3 went to a live gig and maybe that added to the effect but it cannot be denied. Minorin is simply awesome, live.

Minorin’s Love Live 2006 birthday event was held at Ebisu Live Gate which can be only described as claustrophobic. 200 Minorin fans packed into this fire hazard making things very cozy. However, this did nothing to take away from the excellent performance witnessed tonight.

Minorin came out gunning with 「マリオネット」 and I was completely blown away in the first few seconds. Fans of hers would have known this for a while, but the album is not a fluke. She really is that good. Live. Her repetoire is still fairly limited so everything on the album was performed but there were still some songs that neither of us had heard before. Also some very welcome extras from Haruhiism like 「うぇるかむUNKNOWN」 and 「ハレ晴レユカイ」. Of course, she also performed her Nagato Yuki character songs 「雪、無音、窓辺にて。」 and 「SELECT?」 which were a total blast to hear live. And I just went nuts over 「魔女っ子メグちゃん」. As an encore, Minorin returned to the stage with her guitar Gou-kun and gave us an acoustic treat called 「La La La」 from her roadside performance days in Akiba. Yes, she can play the guitar too. Brilliant.

Minorin’s performance puts her at near Nana-level and if it weren’t for the big buzz around Aya we might all be talking about her instead. If there is one thing that is weak, it’s Minorin’s talk sections. They’re are a bit plain at the moment but that’s something she can work on.

After we had given her a birthday surprise by singing “Happy Birthday” (you should have seen her reaction) Minorin announced, somewhat tearily that she is releasing a new single on January 24, 2007. Called “Re-start” it looks like it’s going to be fairly trancey like some of her current fare. With Nana having sewn up the pop scene and branching out, and Aya bringing it rock-style, Minorin taking on trance should make it very interesting. It’s gonna be good all around.

Incidentally, maybe we’re getting better at noticing press but Minorin was certainly getting a lot of coverage for this event. Lookout for reports coming. And I’m sure houkoholic wants to say something on it too.

Awesome.

Ok first let’s get the ugly bits out of the way – the first episode of Lovely Idol is terrible.  In brief, Lovely Idol is apparently a long running franchise where they had various “generations” of idols, and the anime is going to focus on the newest groups – the third generation, detailing on how these young talents are going to make themselves worthy of the Lovely Idol name.  The alarms went off as soon as I noticed that they reused an entire 10 second of animation sequence in the opening animation, and here I thought that opening animations were supposed to make people want to watch the show.  Pulling a Gundam Seed Destiny on us in less than 90 seconds has to be a record.  The show itself is uninspiring and it screams of a low budget bishoujo anime trying to capitalise on the diehard fanbase, and I don’t even want to get into the obligatory little sister character who has too much affection towards her older brother. 

While the first episode was cringe-inducing except for the impressive acapella performance by the character (of whom I’ve forgotten the name) played by Nogawa Sakura 野川さくら, the remaining of the event was entirely entertaining.   Besides the aforementioned Nogawa Sakura, the other seiyuu guests consisted of Nakahara Mai 中原麻衣, Momoi Haruko　桃井はるこ, Goto Yuko　後藤邑子, Chihara Minori 茅原実里 and Sakai Kanako 酒井香奈子. 

During the two talk sessions, as Nogawa Sakura, Nakahara Mai and Momoi Haruko were no strangers to events, thus they were all capable of handling what were thrown at them.  Chihara Minori seems to be settling more comfortably now and was able to stir up the atmosphere and get some reactions from the audience.  She also make some fairly interesting and non-stock answers to questions.   

The surprise for the day definitely goes to Goto Yuko.  Her witty comments and numerous good comebacks on comments made by the MC shows an entirely different image to her many on-screen avatars. 

On the other hand, Sakai Kanako’s lack of experience and her young age really showed through.  Stumbling on a few conversation topics and made a real blunder when she failed to properly read one of the ward names in Tokyo during the prize draw.  

Besides the usual talks, there were also live performances.  Nogawa Sakura skillfully handles the opening theme song by herself, and the very idolish ending theme, complete with equally idol-style dance moves, were performed by the entire cast.  Chihara Minori’s gunshot hand gesture was particularly cute, overloading the many, and very loud, Minorin fans with her moe-ness.

* Warning – the following are purely personal opinions based on what I saw on the day, so take it with a big grain of salt.

While during the talks the cast themselves insisted in their bondings during the recordings and puts up as much of a joyful mood in the event as possible, at the end of the event sent pointed out that somehow they didn’t seem to fit together.  I made the observation that it was more like a 2:1:3 formation.  The 2 being Nogawa Sakura and Nakahara Mai, 1 being Momoi Haruko, and 3 being Goto Yuko, Chihara Minori and Sakai Kanako.  Momoi Haruko didn’t seem to fit in at all and she did not once chat with the other seiyuu on stage nor follow up on any conversations.  Nogawa Sakura and Nakahara Mai were quite comfortable following up to each other, most probably thanks to them having worked together before.  The remaining trio seems to have Minorin in the centre, with her having worked closely with Goto Yuko in Haruhi, and that she’s co-hosting a Lovely Idol radio program with Sakai Kanako.  On top of that, Sakai Kanako also co-host a radio program with Nogawa Sakura and they seem to have a kohai/sempai relationship going on there.  Remember that Kanako blunder I mentioned?  While everyone else gave Kanako a little teasing laughter for her lack of knowledge, Nogawa Sakura was the only one who had her face all straight disapproving.  Also I can’t help but think that Nogawa Sakura wasn’t particularly happy that day with Minorin’s fans making up the majority of the attendees and Minorin having the loudest cheers.  It’s probably just me imagining things, but it sure made good conversation topic on the way home.

In a 50/50 split on veterans (Nogawa Sakura, Nakahara Mai, Momoi Haruko) and up-rising stars (Goto Yuko, Chihara Minori, Sakai Kanako), watching them in this event it strikes me as almost ironic to have such a cast in a show where it’s about uprising idols wanting to walk out from the shadows of their predecessors in the idol industry, as the cast seems to be themselves a reflection of the story they’re playing.  If it’s up to me, I would just forgo the anime altogether and let the seiyuus themselves play it out. 

THAT, I would pay to watch.

Minorin is flavour of the month here at seiyuu3 and it comes to our delight to note that Chihara Minori will be holding a mini live and talk event in celebration of her birthday. Dubbed 「LOVE LIVE 2006～Minori Chihara Birthday～」 the event will be held at 「恵比寿LIVE GATE」 on November 18 which is Minorin’s actual birthday.

houkoholic has been encouraging me to listen to her album “HEROINE” for a while now and with good reason. There is a lot to like in there. 

Standing at nine tracks, one of which is a remix, it’s a fairly short album, however, a surprisingly good demonstration of her range and versatility. While her recent character songs as Nagato Yuki are noticeably improved, her performance in this album is by no means sub-standard. There’s a good mix of fast and slow tempo songs, some of which are very catchy like 「魔女っ子メグちゃん」 (it’s a cover) which has quickly become one of my favourites. This is definitely a recommended listen for those who want to get an idea of Minorin’s vocal range.

Capitalising on the massive Haruhiism earlier this year, Minorin has managed to ride that wave to new heights in her career. With her involvement in a project like 「らぶドル」 it’s clear where her management wants to take her.

We could be looking at one of the next big seiyuu idols.

Tickets go on sale on October 14. Time to camp out at Lawsons.

I have to admit, I’ve been on a bit of a Minorin-fever lately, so when I caught news about this event on 茅原実里’s official homepage, I was hoping that I can still make the cutoff limit of the first 100 person to pre-order the　「Ｌｏｖｅｌｙ　Ｉｄｏｌ　Prologue DVD」 at とらのあな秋葉原本店, and both sent and I were lucky enough to make the cut.

To be honest, I have no idea about the show nor was I particularly interested in it, except for the fact that it stars a fairly impressive cast and that it’s got something to do with idols.  But to us seiyuu fans, these points are not important, so there I was, at an event related to a show which I had no idea of, just for the seiyuu. 

As the event begins, the MC of the event, also a producer from Avex, introduced Minorin, whom was wearing a black short-sleeve shirt with a white dress today (photos at her blog) which presented her in quite a different style compared to last week’s event, but no less attractive.  However that was not all, as there was a surprise today, 酒井香奈子 (Sakai Kanako), probably most known for her leading role in ＲＥＣ, joined as special guest for the event.  A pleasant surprise for the fans indeed. 

The event itself was pretty ordinary like most events of these types – which consists of talks about the show, and then the goods were handed out.  The present for today’s event was a らぶドル trading card signed by Minorin herself which she hands out to the attendee personally.  Besides the trading card, as a bonus, the people whom attended this event also has a chance to draw a ticket from a box for a chance to go to the らぶドル premiere event on the 24th September, and this was Sakai Kanako’s job for the day.  The flow was first draw ticket with Sakai Kanako, then receive trading card from Minorin, during which the attendee also has roughly a minute worth of time to talk with each seiyuu.  

For me personally, the highlights of these events are always when I meet the seiyuu face-to-face and the challenage of trying to say something meaningful to them.  Talking to Minorin was relatively easy as I already had something in mind when coming to this event - the signing event last week and her upcoming birthday event in November - talking to Sakai Kanako though was a different matter.  It was a good thing that I’ve seen REC hence I could strike up a compliment on her job in the show.  Nevertheless, I do feel sorry for Sakai Kanako when some people whom were obviously not interested in her and never expected her to appear would just stand there in silences waiting for their turn to talk to Minorin. 

Next up on the Minorin-event calender is らぶドル premiere event.  Apparently there would be a mini-live there so I’m looking forward to hear some live performances there.

*UPDATE* アキバBlog has a report on this event.  Visit for photo goodness.

A little late in posting, but here it is, the Chihara Minori signing event at Magmani Chiba.

It was a long trip for a short signing event, with the actual climax of the event only lasted about a minute or so, but as always, attending nicely organised events are fun and it was worth it.

I arrived at the store at about 3:15pm, and the staff directed the crowd to line-up outside the store at 3:30pm.  While in line, we were given pens and asked by the staff to write our name in hiragana on the back of our tickets, as Minorin will be signing our names on the board as well.  Seeing how that I’m not Japanese, and that foreigners always write their name in katakana, I wrote my name down in katakana first, and then in hiragana just for good measure.  Just a little before 4pm we were led to the back of the store to the small space where a simple rectangular table was setup with a big stack of signing boards.  They were playing the Nagato Yuki image songs in the background, and has a banner hanging from the ceiling.  There’s no mistake about this being a Minorin event.

When the clock stirked 4pm Minorin came out.  She was wearing a blue yukata, the same one which she wore for a shooting of a previous issue of Voice Newtype.  I always have a soft spot for yukata and kimono so I was doubly excited to see Minorin coming out wearing a yukata.  You can see some more pictures of Minorin in her yukata in her own blog entry here.  After some brief talk about her choice of wearing the yukata and thanking the organisers and the fans, the signing begins.

I was the 5th person to go get my sign board.  During the signing, the attendees were allowed to talk to Minorin (no handshakes though, boo!) for a good minute or so.  When it was my turn, sure enough, Minorin  was a little surprised when she read my name and said it would be better to write my name in katakana.  I didn’t push my foreigner angle in the conversation however, instead I told her that I bought her first album and asked whether she has any plans to release a second personal album, in which she replied that although she would like to, there are currently no definite plans for one.  She then handed me the sign board and that was basically the end of the event. 

Not a particularly fancy event, but it’s always a new experience to meet and talk to seiyuu in person. 

Although not getting nearly a quarter as much attention and promotion as Hirano Aya (平野綾) despite the popularity of Nagato Yuki, Chihara Minori (茅原実里) isn’t just going to sit there and not captialise on the current biggest anime craze that is Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱). So on the 2nd of September, Minorin is going to hold a signing event at Magmani’s Chiba store (マグマニ千葉店). The event is limited to the first 100 people whom had purchased more than 2000yen worth of Minorin-related goods such as CDs or anime DVDs.

Due to the Haruhi-influence, not so long ago I began back-tracking the works of Minorin – her first album “Heroine” and her blog book “minorythum”. Personally I do feel that she has potential, as both her writing and singing were of fairly good quality, morever, I do think that Minorin is quite moe, therefore I wasn’t going to pass on this event. Watch this space for a report next week.