Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Moving to WordPress!

Yes, this blog is moving to a new home with a new title:
Resonant Blue

I tested out WordPress a bit ago and immediately fell in love with it. I love the idea of pages, and there's also the idea of cutting a post so the entire thing doesn't show up on the blog's main page. Plus there isn't a limit to how many categories a post can have, which I made full use of in my first new post on the new blog. xDD Just in general I like it much better than Blogger, so I made the decision to switch. After the incident last week where some WP blogs were deleted, I initially changed my mind, but then once the cause for that was pinpointed I realized I would be safe as long as I didn't put up any downloads by Pony Canyon artists. So I started making preparations to switch again, and I finally finished today. I moved all the posts from this blog, and I made the first new post already- Catching up.
See you all at the new blog~

Monday, March 3, 2008

Ikemen Samurai - Dear Prince ~Tennis no Oujisamatachi e~

Another new single announced today! Dear Prince ~Tennis no Oujisamatachi e~, meaning Dear Prince ~To the Princes of Tennis~, should be kinda familiar to fans of the manga, as it's the song that was used in the last chapter of the manga last week. I still don't see the point of that, all it was was the lyrics written on the page, I think they were trying to imitate a song playing in the last episode of an anime but it doesn't really work with manga. I hear it was hell for scanlators. xD But anyway.
Ikemen Samurai? xD I thought it would be a serious song but the group name (meaning something along the lines of "Good-looking Samurai") makes it sound like it's totally not. Though, according to the website, Konomi chose the group name, so...
The group consists of Echizen Ryouma and Tezuka Kunimitsu from Seigaku, Atobe Keigo from Hyoutei, Yukimura Seiichi and Sanada Genichirou from Rikkai, Kite Eishirou from Higa, and Shiraishi Kuranosuke from Shitenhouji. Lots of different schools being represented here...Seigaku and all the teams they faced in the Nationals.
I think this would be a good ending or opening song for the Finals OVA series. I'm sure it's going to be the ending for the last episode, at least.

タイトル:Dear Prince~テニスの王子様達へ~(初回生産完全限定盤)
アーティスト:イケメン侍(越前リョーマ、手塚国光、跡部景吾、幸村精市、
               真田弦一郎、木手永四郎、白石蔵ノ介)
発売日:2008年4月23日(水)
品番:NECM-10101
価格:¥1,000(税込)


Title: Dear Prince ~Tennis no Oujisamatachi e~ (limited release)
Artist: Ikemen Samurai (Echizen Ryouma, Tezuka Kunimitsu, Atobe Keigo, Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichirou, Kite Eishirou, Shiraishi Kuranosuke)
Release date: 2008.04.23 (Wednesday)
Catalog code: NECM-10101
Price: 1000 yen


April 23rd...that's a normal release date (aka Wednesday). For once. xD

Tong-tai - Ya.ki.ni.ku

@_@
Another Prince of Tennis unit, this one being one of the more "wtf"-inducing ones. This new unit, just announced today, is based off of the special Yakiniku no Oujisama episode that's being released on March 16th, where Seigaku and a lot of rival schools meet at a yakiniku place and have a contest to see which school can eat the most in one hour. This song is apparently going to be the ending theme for that episode, and I can only hope that it's -only- that episode...
The unit is made up of Tanishi Kei from Higa, Kabaji Munehiro from Hyoutei, and Chinen Hiroshi from Higa. From the manga, I remember Tanishi's uber yakiniku-eating skills, and Kabaji copied those, but I don't remember Chinen...?

タイトル:や・き・に・く(初回生産完全限定盤)
アーティスト:トング隊(田仁志 慧、樺地崇弘、知念 寛)
発売日:2008年5月9日(金)
品番:NECM-10104
価格:¥800(税込)


Title: Ya.ki.ni.ku (limited release)
Artist: Tong-tai (Tanishi Kei, Kabaji Munehiro, Chinen Hiroshi)
Release date: 2008.05.09 (Friday)
Catalog code: NECM-10104
Price: 800 yen


Wonder what's up with the Friday release again? Maybe the next DVD is going to be released then or something.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Arashi's "We can make it!" is a cover?!

This just blew my mind.
We can make it! is one of the two songs that got me into Arashi. I love the song and it has a really high playcount on my iPod.
I just found out today that it's a cover. Apparently the original is "Love is All Around", by some woman named Agnes Carlsson. Well.
So I immediately went onto Youtube to find the original. After a search of the artist + the title, I didn't find any music video or anything. However, I found this:

Ohhh wow. xDD I'm only a casual fan of Arashi, I listen to their music but I don't know any of their names or anything. (I can't see myself ever getting into Johnny's like I did with Hello! Project, one uber idol group is enough. X_x) Still though, it's really amusing to have a girl's song playing over a video of a guy group. xD And apparently the Arashi version added some parts, considering this video has to cut to audio from We can make it! in order to fit with the PV. xD

It's always weird to find out that a song I listen to a lot is a cover, cause I always think of the one I heard first as the original. I kept almost referring to We can make it! as the original in this post...

Tezuka & Fuji - Koko de Bokura wa Deattashimatta cover + tracklist

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TEZUKA ZOOOONNNEEEEEEE
But why is Fuji doing it too? xD Unless they're in SYNCHRO! 8DD But they're not a doubles pair so maybe not.


The tracklist was put up on Yesasia here:
1. Koko de Bokura wa Deattashimatta (Fuji & Tezuka)
2. Ryuusen no Michiyuki (Fuji)
3. Koko de Bokura wa Deattashimatta (SF to Karaoke)
4. Koko de Bokura wa Deattashimatta (KT to Karaoke)
5. Koko de Bokura wa Deattashimatta (instrumental)
6. Hitomi wo Tojite Kokoro no Mama Boku wa Kimi wo Omou ~200 Title Memorial Version~ (Fuji)

Ahaha, Fuji gets two solos but Tezuka doesn't get any. Poor Tezuka. xD Anyway, there's the title track and the b-side, and then the three instrumentals. SF stands for "Shuusuke Fuji" and KT stands for "Kunimitsu Tezuka", so I'm assuming both of those versions only take away the vocals of one of the two and leave the other. Of course, track 5 is just the normal instrumental. As for #6, Hitomi wo Tojite etc (the title's way too long xD) was Fuji's first solo single, released under the BEST OF SEIGAKU PLAYERS series. Maybe it's like a self-cover or something?

Four days until this release, I hope we get the full single right away. No one's uploaded the full single of Kai's Valentine Kiss yet...=(

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Kinokuniya purchases

My friend went to NYC for a couple days this week (Wednesday-Friday I think- it was vacation week for the public schools, so she had it off while I was stuck at school) and so while she was there, she picked up a few things from Kinokuniya for me.

At first I was debating what to ask her to buy, I heard somewhere that they have Hello! Project photobooks but she isn't a Hello! Project fan (she knows what Morning Musume is due to my random ranting, but that's it) and I didn't want her to have to ask about those since that would without a doubt be awkward for her. xD I also wanted something Prince of Tennis, but the only specific thing I could think of off the top of my head was the 30.5 illustration book and I didn't know how expensive that would be...which would be necessary because I had to give her the cash beforehand.
So this is what I ended up with:

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SKET DANCE 2 - My second-favorite current Weekly Jump manga! =D Soon to be my favorite, as Prince of Tennis is ending at some unspecified time within the next month or so. (Somehow there's never been anything stated about the upcoming end, but everyone knows it's coming and the non-fans over at the Weekly Jump LJ community are uber quick to write it off every time there's a rumor. >_<)
I bought volume 1 a couple of months ago, I remember that that was the volume holding my Mikan copies back for a few weeks! I decided then never to buy manga from Yesasia again if there's an alternative. =) Volume 2 came out January 9th, and it features uber cute chibis on the cover!! 8D Kind of fitting, because this volume has the chapters with the chibi puppets and also the chapter where Bossun turns into a little kid.
Sket Dance is doing really well in the weekly rankings in Jump, and I seriously think that this could be the next big hit. I mean, sooner or later the main series will end and something needs to carry the magazine afterwards. (lol for some reason while typing that I thought of the Prince of Tennis English manga's line "You can carry Seigaku!" I love how I can relate everything to PoT in some way.)

Weekly Shounen Jump 2008 issue 12 - This was the major thing I asked her to get! See, this is in some ways my dream Jump issue- Prince of Tennis is on the cover and has color pages, and Sket Dance has color pages in the center! My favorite issue of Jump in a really long time. As soon as this ToC was announced on the Jump LJ community, I immediately said "I have to get this issue!" And while searching around the web for some way to get this issue, I realized that it was the issue for the week Sarah was going to NYC! SO LUCKY! 8D
It's pretty significant because it's basically Prince of Tennis' final Jump cover, not the final color pages because it's possibly going to get more of those next week, but it's probably the last cover it's going to get. I think it should definitely get the cover on it's final issue - all series that I've seen end in Jump haven't, but those have been canceled rather than really ended, and PoT has been running for 8.5 years - but it's probably not going to in favor of another cover for One Piece/Naruto/Bleach. >_<
I love the cover, with Tenimuhou!Ryouma and everything. I was really worried that somehow it'd look bad, with either something else taking over a huge part of it, or just a bad drawing- I mean, in the back-to-back double issues for Christmas and New Year's, the art wasn't really that good. However, this cover turned out to be really good. And the color pages inside...I love the two-page spread! With Tenimuhou!Ryouma on the left side with the green spiky-ish hair and green eyes (...last week when I read this chapter I immediately thought 'Super Saiyan!') and that cool look, and the text on the right side over the stands. Some of the volume covers are taken from chapter covers, there haven't actually been that many chapter covers lately so I hope the cover for volume 42 could maybe be the picture of Ryouma here. (On that note, I've been checking the Shueisha website for news of volume 41, and while they started listing it last week they didn't put a release date. However, the color pages in this issue of Jump say that it's coming out March 4th. That's only like a week and a half away! Definitely buying that when I get the chance.) I should set the two-page spread as my laptop background, when I get tired of the Sket Dance wallpaper taken from the color page in the same issue.
Speaking of which, the Sket Dance color page is nothing too special, but I think I'm just unconsciously comparing it to the last two color pages- one of which had the Sket Dan exchanging outfits (Switch was crossdressing as Himeko, thankfully with sweatpants under the skirt...xD) and the other had them dressed up in ninja outfits. xD
Also, the color page for Sket Dance says that volume 3 is going to be released April 4th.


I really wish there was a Kinokuniya in Boston. Apparently the one in NYC was huge, and I want to go so badly~ @_@ My parents say that maybe we could go to NYC over a long weekend and merge that with a trip to visit my stepsister and her husband and baby daughter (they live pretty close to NYC). I'm so excited~~
(Though, you know, I should be even more excited for my one-month trip to Japan this summer. xD While I'm there I'm definitely going to go for a ton of H!P merchandise...do they have an official store anywhere near Sapporo? xD That's where I'm going for the three-week homestay...and the last week is sight-seeing with the other kids from my school.)

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Prince of Tennis + Chinese drama adaptation = ...this is going to take me some time to get used to.

So I wrote a couple of posts about the upcoming Prince of Tennis Chinese drama back when the news first came out. Here are the posts if you're interested, but it's really nothing more than basic information:
Prince of Tennis Chinese TV drama?!? (um, this one kinda contains a small rant about how the anime failed to follow canon, so spoilers for the Rikkai arc)
A bit more info on the Prince of Tennis Chinese TV drama

So, I was happy to wait like a year before it came out. But then I started getting impatient. XD A couple of weeks ago, I found that there was a page for it over on the DramaWiki (http://wiki.d-addicts.com/The_Prince_of_Tennis) and immediately got uber excited. However, back then, all it was was a list of cast members and roles, a picture of a couple of the regulars, and a link to a Chinese site. This was quite a problem. See, they changed the names.
So I was left with a cast list full of Chinese names, and honestly, reading about how Qin Jun Jie is playing "Long Ma" means nothing to me. XD And a trip to the official (I'm assuming) Chinese site didn't help, though I identified Tezuka, Inui, and Ryoma in the pictures. xD
But!
I have no idea what motivated me to do this, but I checked the DramaWiki site again today, and yay! A summary was added, plus someone added links to the Wikipedia pages for each of the characters- so each Chinese name linked to the Wikipedia page for the character in their Japanese name! Now I can tell who's who! xDD (The "Long Ma" guy I mentioned earlier is Ryoma, btw. I actually probably could have figured that out, with him being first in the cast list, but w/e...)

Here's the summary:
Long Ma is a tennis prodigy who garnered 4 successive victories at the American Junior Tennis Tournament. Like his father, former professional tennis player Long Zheng Nan, Long Ma possesses both top-notch skills and deep passion for the sport. Upon returning to his homeland, he attends the distinguished Qing Chun Academy and quickly secures a spot as a regular member of its famous tennis club after beating out numerous upperclassmen. With each match towards their ultimate goal of winning the nationwide Junior Tennis Championships, Long Ma and his teammates grow as players and as friends.

...
The plot sounds nice and all, but...oh this is going to take me forever to get used to. Wait, are they changing it so they're all Chinese, like within the series? Thinking about it now, it makes perfect sense, but that never really occurred to me before. Hmm. Not like it would really change much in the plot. Except the tournament set-up would have to be changed...and China's so big, wouldn't it take much longer within each tournament because there would be way more teams?
The name changes are going to kill me every time though, they don't sound at all like the Japanese names...I take a Mandarin Chinese class two times a week (I only started in January and all I know is pronunciation) and I thought that when they imported names or something they came up with a Chinese name based on the pronunciation of the original name. However, it looks like instead of doing that, they instead used the original kanji for the names (or as close as they have in Chinese) and took the pronunciation from that.

Apparently there are only going to be 20 episodes (which I guess isn't short for a drama (lots of j-dramas are 13 episodes, I think? never watched one fully) but it's shorter than I was expecting), which a) leaves me wondering how they're planning on reaching the Hyoutei arc, and b) crushes my dreams of it reaching the Rikkai arc. Oh well. I guess it's going to be like the live-action movie and end after the Hyoutei matches, though since it's far longer hopefully they're not going to be like the movie and cut out lots of canon stuff. XD Actually I didn't watch the full movie, I got annoyed when they skipped a lot of stuff in the very beginning so I turned it off. xD

I wonder if they're changing the ages of the characters, or if the badge-thing on each of their school uniforms stating "YOUTH COLLEGE" is merely a case of Engrish? xD (can the term Engrish be used when referring to a culture other than Japan? I've only seen it used related to Japanese stuff...seriously, China is like a whole new world to me, I have no idea about anything and honestly, outside of a few bands/singers, I don't plan on getting involved with it) Seishun Gakuen is the original name of the school, and it translates to "Youth Academy" or something like that, so...


Anyway, I don't see anything totally wrong with the casting or anything, which is good. But, Ryuuzaki-sensei's a young woman?? O__O I'm starting to wonder if there's something wrong with having a grandmother as a tennis coach in live-action or something- in the musicals they cut her out (they cut out all female characters), in the Japanese live-action movie they made her a young woman (played by Shimatani Hitomi!!) who was Nanjirou's classmate rather than his coach, and now this drama seems to be taking the same path.
Really, I'm happy as long as Eiji Ju Wan Eiji's actor is good.
picture
Not the best, probably not my first choice (where's the flippy red hair? and the band-aid?), but I'm satisfied. 8D
Oh, and as a bonus, Ooishi's hair isn't uber ugly! xD See, it's bad enough in the manga/anime, but in the musicals, they try to imitate it...in real life it's just even worse. X_x The flipside to this, though, is that now he doesn't immediately stand out, but I'll get over it. XD

Let's end this with a group picture! 8DD In which I can't identify Taka, Eiji, Momo, and Ooishi. They need identifying features like the others.

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(Blogger cuts it off, click it for the full image)

Monday, February 11, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUNJUN! <333333

Wow, Junjun turned 20 today! 20 is the age in Japan where you are considered an adult, and it's a big thing.
I remember I was really surprised when I found out she was 19 a couple months or so ago- I had thought that I had heard that she was really young, so when I saw her birthday on ThePPN Wiki I was uber surprised. xD
So, yeah, happy birthday to Junjun, and I hope she had a great day today~ xD

Morning Musume ranking

I was actually planning on doing a Morning Musume ranking soon anyway, so this provided a great opportunity to actually do it.



I didn't do the Berryz Koubou and C-ute ones, because while I FINALLY know their names (YESS) I don't actually know anything about them. Definitely not enough to rank them.

1. Junjun
Definitely my #1 right now, even though she's pretty new there's just something about her...
2. Reina
Reina's cute and has a good voice, but somehow her spot was just recently taken over by Junjun. xD
3. Aika
She's the only Musume younger than I am (only by a month), and I didn't like her at first but slowly I've grown to really like her.
4. Risa
I like her voice, and I'm glad that she has the Athena & Robikerottsu unit- though I don't think it'll be a permanent unit since it was created only for that anime.
5. Koharu
While she doesn't have the best voice in the group, I really like her solo singles. They're strangely addicting...
6. Ai
She has a really strong voice, and I think she would be great as a soloist. However, I can't help but feel like she's getting wayy too much attention in Momusu.
7. Sayumi
She's really cute, but she really doesn't have that good of a voice. She's definitely improved though, I saw a video of her singing Do it! Now with two other girls (I forget who, maybe Reina and Eri) and I couldn't stand her voice. X_x It's tolerable now.
8. Linlin
I don't really know much about her...
9. Eri
Sorry Eri fans, but I just don't like Eri that much...


Comparing it to the first Momusu ranking post I did, here, my opinions of most of the girls haven't changed that much. xD

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Fuji Shuusuke & Tezuka Kunimitsu special single title announced

You know, I really wish these songs had PVs so I'd actually have something to comment on. Plus a PV for Type wa D! would kick ass and have lots and lots of Golden Pair love! <333333 Cause right now, all it is is three basic posts: 1) "they announced a new single today!" 2) "they announced the title of the single today!" 3) "they put the cover up on their website!" xD
This post falls under the second category. If you couldn't tell already.

タイトル:ここで僕らは出会ってしまった(初回生産完全限定盤)
アーティスト:不二周助&手塚国光
発売日:2008年2月29日(金)
品番:NECM-12156
価格:¥1,200(税込)


Title: Koko de Bokura wa Deatteshimatta (limited release)
Artist: Fuji Shuusuke & Tezuka Kunimitsu
Release date: 2008.02.29 (Friday)
Catalog code: NECM-12156
Price: 1200 yen (with tax)


"We met by chance here", or something along those lines. YAY TEZUKA/FUJI LOVE SONG <333
I wonder what the song's going to be like? I actually haven't heard any of Tezuka's solo songs, but I've listened to his songs with Aozu, and...what can I say? His voice just doesn't fit with the others. Actually, it's not as bad in WHITE LINE, but in Kakaeta Kiseki it's really funny because it's like "whee nice voices" and then BAM Tezuka's is like, uber uber low. xD Which is why he only gets like two lines. Poor Tezuka. xD Then in GIGS, with Flower (why didn't they ever get another single?) it's not that bad because Sanada's voice is uber low too. xD As for Megane's, I can't take that unit seriously because they're so much crack, so...xD
I'm assuming that, like all the other duet singles, there will be a solo song from each of them...but I don't know for sure.

I can't wait to hear this single, it sounds pretty good. It's apparently being used as the ending theme for the Tenipuri radio show this month, but I don't think anyone's ripped it or anything...