seiyuu3

Pics are NSFW, you’ve been warned. Probably should check that your family members aren’t behind your back looking over your shoulder too.

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Title of the book is “Juicy Dancing”, and will be the first as well as last photobook she would release (we’ll see about that). Goes on sale on 10th Feburary.

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?

Link is safe for work, sort of?

I can’t think of a post title that would read, er, “safer”? Anyway I should’ve posted this much earlier when it came up here but there was no link to the ordering site (or read: I’m lazy). The picture really speaks for itself. And LOL King is the only one where they don’t mention the year of birth.

So apparently Takahashi Chiaki aka Chiaking is going to Sydney to perform the im@s song “Tonari ni..” with the famous Australian symphoney orchestra Eminence as part of their “A Night in Fantasia 2009” performance on the 26th September. This is an extremely rare treat – as far as I know us Aussies never had a seiyuu come down to show case their singing abilities, let alone one which seems to be promising something much more epic than what the Japanese fans had ever gotten – im@s hasn’t even had a live band in its concerts thus far, so having a live orchestra to go with the symphonicially arranged song that is “Tonari ni…” performed by one of the top singers of im@s is something not to be missed. I know there are other Aussies here that aren’t away (unlike me), and some of you are already im@s fans *cough*danie*cough* so you should go and get your im@s stuff signed or something. Oh and tape the performance to share *wink wink*.

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!

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.