Fuji Shuusuke & Tezuka Kunimitsu upcoming single!

Wow, I really need to check this site more often! I thought that site was old and wasn't updated anymore because they stopped listing the PoT CD releases in mid-2005 (all of the releases after that are listed on the Index Music site or w/e). But I looked on the main page of that site today and saw a news item just added today...
So then I checked the news page to see what type of news they showed, and guess what? ANOTHER NEW SINGLE! 8D

And GUESS WHAAAAT??
THIS IS THE 200TH PRINCE OF TENNIS CD!

★テニプリＣＤ記念すべき２００タイトル目発表！（1/4）

タイトル：未定（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）

My attempt at an English translation, I didn't really know the first line but after using an online translator, a dictionary, and some rewording, I think I got the main point across...>_>

* Tenipuri CD 200th title commemoration announcement! (1/4)

Title: TBA (first-press limited release)
Artist: Fuji Shuusuke & Tezuka Kunimitsu
Release date: 2008.02.29 (Friday)
Catalog number: NECM-12156
Price: 1,200 yen (including tax)

WHEE, another duet! So far there have been three duet singles- first was Type wa D! by Ooishi and Eiji from Seigaku, second was Rakuen e by Chinen and Rin from Higa, and third was TRICK, FAKE, or TRUTH by Yanagi and Niou from Rikkai. I guess this one's the fourth in the series...though unlike the previous singles' pairs, Tezuka and Fuji have never played doubles together.
Initially the release date confused me- first because I was like "what the hell? February 29th?" but then I realized it was a leap year this year. >> Second, because YET AGAIN it's a weird release day, but it's Friday this time.
So that initially confused me because there ISN'T any special event happening on the 29th (as far as I know), but then I realized-
IT'S THE LEAP YEAR.
Fuji's birthday is February 29th. So he only has one birthday every four years. (He was uberly pwned as soon as he was born, huh? xD) And since this is the leap year, he actually has a birthday this year!
SOOOOO he gets a single to celebrate not only the 200th seiyuu CD release, but also his birthday!

I don't know why Tezuka's involved. Cause TezuFuji's so uberly canon (but not really)?

Honestly, I'd think Ryoma should get the 200th CD. He hasn't had a CD in a while... (Never mind, forgot about Wonder Land back in September.)

I wonder what counts toward the 200 CD mark? Obviously the character singles and albums, but what about...
-radio CDs?
-soundtracks?
-musical soundtracks/Best Actor's Series?
-radio show theme songs not sung by characters (there's a set of like 4 of those that are listed on both CD Japan and the official site as PoT CDs)?
-opening/ending singles? (obviously the ones sung by the seiyuu are counted, but the others...?)
Obviously this isn't counting the rereleases...
I'm actually interested in this, I might try to figure it out this weekend.

Anyway. Yet another new Prince of Tennis single. Actually, there aren't that many coming up, it just seems like there are because of the overwhelming amount of re-releases coming out on February 27th...

I just listened to Jaja Uma Paradise, and...

...all I can say is, what the hell. xD;; I really liked Koisuru Angel Heart, so I thought this would be good too...but I don't like this song...
Yes, I know I'm uber late listening to this song. I have an uber backup of music on my computer because I was uber lazy last year so typically music doesn't make it onto my iTunes until at least a couple of weeks after it's released, unless it's Momusu, then I stick it on as soon as it comes out. xD


On another note, Yesasia finally added the Prince of Tennis re-releases- I was kinda worried for a bit that they wouldn't add them and that I'd have to buy from CD Japan. No offense to CD Japan users, it's a good site, but I put together a tentative order there with some of the upcoming re-releases and a couple of H!P CDs, and it told me shipping would be like $50. What the hell.
Yesasia has free shipping. 8D Even though the prices are a little higher, the free shipping should make up for it.
So now that Yesasia added the re-releases, I don't have to worry about that stuff...

I had to cut down on some of the stuff in this order I'm planning to make uber soon in order to insure that I have enough money for both the re-releases and Anime Boston, which is coming up in March. (Haha, this year it's during spring break, so I can go the entire weekend and not have to worry about homework and studying!) Oh well, I think in the end it'll be worth it. If only I had a job, then I wouldn't have to worry as much about money...I always get lots of money in December cause of my birthday and Christmas, but then I typically spend it all before summer starts. xD;; Then I'm screwed until December again...


I dunno, this post was kinda random, but I'm just like hanging out on my last day of break and I don't really have anything long enough to devote a full post to...

2008 predictions

Haha, I wrote a list out like two weeks ago, but forgot to post it here. Oops.
Thankfully, I remembered it now, otherwise it would have been too late! xD
Some of these are predictions, some are more wishful thinking on my part...xD;

2008 Predictions
-Morning Musume will release 3 or 4 singles and their 9th album. Their 9th album has gotta be coming up soon, they've already released three singles due to be on it, and there's a fourth being released in March.
-Morning Musume 9th gen auditions. I know the 8th gen hasn't been around for that long, but...
-Takahashi Ai graduates, becomes a solo artist. I'm kinda neutral on Takitty, I don't love her but I don't hate her either. I could totally see her graduating to become a solo artist at some point...she has a good voice, and because of that, she gets so many solos in Momusu. I want the others to get lots of lines too...xD
-Hello! Project Kids become uber popular, get a #1 single. I keep hearing people say that the Kids have taken over Hello! Project...I think it's just a matter of time before some H!P Kids group, whether Berryz, C-ute, or Buono, gets a #1 single.
-One of the Berryz gets a boyfriend and is kicked out of Berryz. Haha, I kinda want to see this happen...8D I barely even know their names (I'm learning! I swear I am!) so if one of them got kicked out, I wouldn't really care all thaaat much...
-Yaguchi Mari starts a solo career. Or at least does something, please! She's my favorite ex-Momusu, and I really want her to sing again.
-Yasuda Kei does nothing. Still. Damn.
-Goto Maki signs with a new record label and releases first single. Please? I really loved Goto...
-GAM comes back. Even for just one single. I was hoping that because of GAM, Miki would still have something to do even after she left Momusu, but now GAM's pretty inactive...
-As for the new units...Ongaku Gatas is permanent, and continues to release singles. Athena & Robikerottsu releases maybe another single after their upcoming one, then either actually breaks up or just fades into inactivity. Buono! keeps going until Shugo Chara ends, singing all the opening/ending themes, then moves onto another anime.


And just a couple of quick non-j-pop predictions...
-Prince of Tennis ends. This is the one prediction that I'd hate to come true the most. However, the end of PoT is obviously happening soon- it's so close, they're on singles 1, the very last match of the final round of the National Tournament. The author once said that he'd like to go through Ryoma's second and third years at Seigaku. I think at one point this would have worked- when Prince of Tennis was really really popular. However, now it's not, and so I think that he's just going to end it where it is rather than go on with the chance of cancellation.
-Mx0 gets an anime. PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE
-Sket Dance survives in Jump. YESS

Berryz Koubou cameo in Gintama! xD

I think it's supposed to be Berryz, at least.
So I've been watching Gintama yesterday and today to try and catch up with the subbed episodes. Gintama parodies billions of other anime/pop culture things, like the main character wants a Bankai (from Bleach), and in episode 62, Yamazaki (who's obsessed with badminton) plays a badminton match against someone from 'Hyoutei' complete with crazy moves, the rest of the 'Seigaku' and 'Hyoutei' players on the sidelines, and 'mada mada dane' at the end. (Prince of Tennis parody, if you couldn't figure it out. link to the video, it's hilarious) But I didn't think there was going to be anything involving Hello! Project...well, I was wrong. xD
Basically in this episode (episode 18), there's this guy that goes around stealing women's underwear and giving it to the lonely guys that aren't liked by girls...and he's currently having a speech about all the lonely guys and how they're 'begging for him to save them'. xD Complete with pictures of said 'lonely guys' doing random things, like painting big-boobed anime figures and, you guessed it, going to a Berryz Koubou handshake event. xD

The headband on the guy on the far left says "Switch OFF" which I think is supposed to be a parody of their Switch ON! 2005 tour. xD

Haha, I love Gintama. xD

Well, guess it's time to start from scratch...

Ok, so...
My external hard drive just died. Like, COMPLETELY FUCKING DIED, as in, I CAN'T EVEN GET MY FILES BACK.
GODFUCKINGDAMMIT

I guess I'm not really starting from scratch. I still have everything that was on my desktop (THANK GOD for that, considering all of my j-pop's there and if I lost that I'd diiiiieeeeeee), and the things that were on my laptop's main drive.
But still...I'm uberly distressed right now. There goes so much stuff.
I mean, I don't even know everything I had on there, really...I know I definitely lost all the PoT musicals, EVERY SINGLE FUCKING POT CD THAT TOOK ME OVER TWO FUCKING WEEKS TO DOWNLOAD (except a couple of the opening/ending CDs, since I had started to organize them and I had decided that I should stick the opening/ending CDs on my main drive), the last 78 episodes of PoT, the entire PoT OVA series except the latest two episodes that just came out today (those are on my main drive cause my hard drive stopped working last night), the entire first season of Heroes, lots of Gintama, lots of Lucky Star, lots of Naruto, some One Piece...and some j-pop. I don't remember which j-pop releases were on there, it was just a couple of recent releases...

At least I still have all my manga...? xD;
I have to redownload everything as soon as I get a new hard drive...and I was planning on having a PoT musical marathon this weekend, too. T_T Now I don't even have any of them...

IT'S TUESDAY THE 25TH

GUESS WHAT THAT MEANS
(according to Yesasia and CD Japan)

WHEE THE SECOND DVD OF THE PRINCE OF TENNIS ZENKOKU TAIKAI HEN SEMIFINAL OVA SERIES IS OUT

Bwahaha, I can't wait until these episodes are released online.
The first episode is without a doubt the funniest match in the entire series, while the second is without a doubt the bloodiest match in the whole series.
Yes, even bloodier than Inui/Kaidou vs Yanagi/Kirahara. But if you've read up to that match, you knew that anyway, so whatever.

The first episode is Momo and Kaidou playing doubles against the only confirmed gay duo in the entire series (though we all know the Golden Pair are having sex behind the scenes), Konjiki Koharu and Hitouji Yuuji from Shitenhouji.
I mean seriously, look at them.

Koharu hits on Kaidou at one point. It's extremely amusing. He actually grabs Kaidou's ass. xD Then Kaidou gets pissed (he doesn't want to cheat on his Inui-senpai) and goes to hit him...
Then it turns out Koharu is a genius with an IQ of over 200 (YAY SHIKAMARU)...and he knows LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of embarrassing moments Kaidou had as a little kid.

I WANT TO KNOW THE END OF THAT SENTENCE. D:
Oh dear lord I really really really hope the anime creators humor us and put in a picture of cute little kindergarten Kaoru-chan wearing a skirt. <333333 FLASHBACKS WOULD BE EVEN BETTER
I figure it's the perfect sponsor background image. Too bad they don't have the sponsor scenes in the OVA series since it's going directly to DVD...
ANYWAY, I absolutely love the mental image I'm getting right now. xD I'm kinda thinking of chibi Tenipuri family Kaoru-chan (who is the most ADORABLE THING I'VE EVER SEEN btw)...which is why I need to find a non-chibi image of little-kid Kaidou in a skirt...xDDD I bet there's one out there...

So anyway, to get off the subject of Kaidou crossdressing...
Both Momo and Kaidou get sucked into Koharu/Yuuji's playstyle, so then Momo has the great idea of covering their faces...
...with wrestling masks...

Yeah, they play with wrestling masks on, and crap happens, and I won't spoil it for anyone...


Then onto episode 2 on the DVD. It's episode 4 of the Semifinals, and episode 17 of the overall Nationals.
As I said, it's the bloodiest match in the entire series. Oh joy.
Kawamura Takashi vs Ishida Gin. Yeah, Ishida Tetsu from Fudoumine's older brother. He's the guy who taught Tetsu the Hadoukyuu. And lo and behold, his Hadoukyuu is MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE POWERFUL than Tetsu's.
So this turns out to be a power battle. It's the first time we see Taka as a freshman (if I remember correctly)- a cute scene where he has tons of power but absolutely no control, and everyone's making fun of him, but then the other soon-to-be-regular first years (Tezuka, Ooishi, Eiji, Fuji, Inui) come up to him and tell him they envy him for his power. <33 LUFF FOR TAKA-SAN~ <333333
So then he decides that his goal is to become the #1 power player in Japan, since he's not good at anything else.
He's playing against the #1 power player in Japan- he has over 100 levels of Hadoukyuu, and Taka's is only equal to one of like the first ten or so. Something like that, too lazy to look it up...basically Taka's Hadoukyuu fails compared to his. However, Taka doesn't want to give up a power battle, and uses the ONE-HANDED Hadoukyuu every single time he hits the ball. WHICH SHOULD KILL HIS ARM. Sigh. What people are willing to do for freaking tennis.
Anyway.
There's also the whole angst thing about this being his last tennis tournament EVER due to him quitting after middle school in order to become a sushi chef.
Seriously, if you're willing to kill your arm for tennis, I'd suggest sticking with it.
Anyway.
Gin's uber powerful, and even though he can just nullify all of Taka's Hadoukyuu he decides to respect Taka by defeating him with his full power.
And then Taka gets uber beaten up.

See that little explosion waaay up there in the stands?
That's Taka crashing into the stands after being hit with Gin's 21st-style Hadoukyuu.
Oh dear lord this guy is powerful.

So Taka's like dying here, and then Gin gets to the 23rd-style Hadoukyuu.
And of course Taka goes FLYING back into the stands, waaay up at the top.
And then the moment we've ALL BEEN WAITING FOR...(well, not really, but it sounds more dramatic that way)

AKUTSU'S RETURN~!
YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY
(which reminds me, I have a bit of a story to tell involving Yamabuki and the dub, but that's for another time)
Seriously, if Akutsu/Dan wasn't my Yamabuki OTP, I'd so write Akutsu/Taka. <3333 Akutsu says he doesn't care about anything like this, but you know he cares about his childhood friend Taka...<3 And Taka has no one in Seigaku. All the other regulars can be paired up, but there's an odd number, and Taka's always the odd one out...
Anyway.
So then it's match point for Ishida, and it's Taka's serve, and Taka desperately wants to just get ONE POINT from Ishida...but as he starts to serve he starts to lose consciousness...and he accidentally hits the ball with the edge of the racket.
Which results in an UBER POWERFUL SHOT that's not a Hadoukyuu but is as powerful as Ishida's 40th Hadoukyuu...and when Ishida tries to neutralize it, he realizes it's not a Hadoukyuu, and then it breaks his wrist!
SO HE FORFEITS AND TAKA'S THE NUMBER ONE POWER PLAYER IN ALL OF JAPAN YAAAAAYYYY!


So anyway, I totally can't wait until these episodes get on the internet. These are gonna kick-ass...xD
I'm not even gonna wait for the sub...I've read the manga, I don't really need the subs to get what's going on. xD

So I know I said I wouldn't order through Amazon again after what happened last time, but...

...they had Oshitari's Valentine Kiss single, and I just couldn't resist. xD Considering the only version still available on Yesasia is Sanada's, and none are still available on CD Japan...I basically jumped at the chance to get Oshitari's. xD
I'm not technically ordering from Amazon anyway, just through it...for every item in my cart, I'm using the "buy used & new" option so it's not actually coming from Amazon. It's way cheaper this way too. xD
So this is exactly what I'm getting:
Aozu (Echizen Ryoma, Fuji Shuusuke, Tezuka Kunimitsu, Ooishi Shuuichirou) - Kakaeta Kiseki (Prince of Tennis National Tournament OVA 2nd opening)
Ao to Bin to Kan (Atobe Keigo, Sanada Genichirou, Oshitari Yuushi, Kikumaru Eiji, Sengoku Kiyosumi, Fuji Shuusuke, Kirihara Akaya, Echizen Ryoma) - Gather
GIGS (Echizen Ryoma, Tezuka Kunimitsu, Atobe Keigo, Sanada Genichirou) - Flower -Saki Midareshi Hana- (Prince of Tennis National Tournament OVA 1st opening)
Kikumaru Eiji - ONE
Oshitari Yuushi - Valentine Kiss
Prince of Tennis Box Set 2

After I get Kakaeta Kiseki and Flower, the only seiyuu OP/ED songs left to get are Fujori (by Hyoutei Eternity; the second OVA ending) and Thank You!! (by Cap to Bin; the third OVA ending)...
ONE is by Eiji, which means I HAVE to get it, which means that all that's left for my Eiji solo collection is his album Hello! and his Best of Seigaku single, Tsubasa ni Natte. But neither of those are limited releases, so I think I'm gonna put those off for now while I go through and get some limited stuff.
As for why I bought Gather...well, it's the JUNIOR SENBATSU TEAM of course. xD Fuck the fact that that was all filler, it has EIJI in it (which made me UBER UBER HAPPY when they added Eiji to the team because I didn't think Eiji would make it on the team in a million years) and it has KIRIHARA in it (well, it's not Kirihara I care about, it's his seiyuu Morikubo Shoutaro who is AMAZING) and having both of them in the SAME SONG is uber uber amazing. WHICH IS WHY I NEED TO FIND DOWNLOADS OF EVERYTHING RELEASED BY THE DUO HEART-BEAT BECAUSE IT'S BOTH OF THEIR SEIYUU. *dies* (even though Eiji's seiyuu sounds nothing like Eiji when he's not actually trying to sing as Eiji.) I really like the song anyway. xD
And last but not least, Valentine Kiss. Hmm, I wonder if anyone out there in the j-pop blogosphere knows about the '80's song Valentine Kiss by some member of Onyanko Club? I hadn't heard of it until recently, when I was looking at the Lucky Star Wikipedia page to see the list of endings and on the talk page someone mentioned something about Valentine Kiss (one of the endings) being used as a Prince of Tennis song. That immediately got me interested, so I looked it up. Turns out, the song has been covered by 5 different Prince of Tennis seiyuu on 7 different releases. On Valentine's Day 2004, Atobe released a single containing a cover of Valentine Kiss. In 2005, it was Oshitari who released the Valentine Kiss single. In 2006, they both released Valentine Kiss singles...I haven't listened to them all yet, I don't know if they were re-releases or actually sung differently or whatever. In 2007, it was Sanada from Rikkaidai who released a Valentine Kiss single. Also, Shishido sung a cover of it as a bonus track on his album, and Ooishi did the same for his album.
The version on Amazon is Oshitari's 2006 version...the only other version I found was Sanada's, which I can still get on Yesasia so I'll grab it later.
Oh, and then I guess there's the 2nd PoT box set. I need to watch the dub. I haven't watched it since they took it off the air back in June...I wanna start from the beginning and I don't think you can do that on Toonami Jetstream. To be honest, from what I remember of the dub, it absolutely sucked, but whatever. Really, if I can handle Dub Piece I can handle this. I think.

I noticed the lack of non-PoT stuff in this, and I swear I'll make it up next order, which at the moment I think will consist of...Arashi's latest album Time, Morning Musume's SEXY 8 BEAT (limited edition of course), and Morning Musume's 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu Morning Musume Mini or w/e it's called (limited edition for that too). Probably Manatsu no Megane's, by Megane's (I don't even know how to make "Megane's" possessive, I seriously doubt it'd be "Megane's's") and Cap to Bin's Thank You!! too (I would actually get those in this order, but there aren't any "buy used & new" options for either single and I don't quite trust Amazon with import CDs anymore), and if I have the money maybe the Ongaku Gatas single. The limited edition probably, because I like the cover a lot better. xD
But that'll have to wait until later.
(or I might buy the 3rd PoT OVA DVD. I just got waaaaayyy too tempted to get it when I found it on CD Japan while looking for the Tenimyu DVDs...I mean, it's Eiji, and Golden Pair angst, not to mention it's the OVA series so the animation quality is great and everything...)



Anyway, I'm heading off to Cape Cod tomorrow morning (against my will) for a week with no TV and no internet, but I'm bringing the PS2 down along with a couple of *coughcoughillegallydownloadedcoughcough* Tenipuri games (I have Doki Doki Survival Secret, Doki Doki Survival Mystic, Gakuensai no Oujisama, and Smash Hit! 2- the first three being dating sims and the last being just a tennis game) and Narutimate Accel to hopefully keep me busy. (lolz, for the record I just recently found out you can download PS2 games and burn them onto DVDs, and I've kinda been abusing that power I guess...) That in addition to summer reading and a couple of episodes of Shippuuden plus about 8 episodes of Bleach plus all of Gintama plus all of Lucky Star...well, I don't think I'll be too bored while hanging out in the cottage. xD

I really was expecting to scan and upload the CDs from my most recent order, but my mom's computer wasn't hooked up to the scanner and every time I remember to ask her, she's not in the house. >____< And now I don't have enough time...sorry, I'll get those up as soon as I get back~


On a total side note, there's no Jump this week. Which makes me UBER UBER SAD because I wanted to at the very least find out who's playing doubles 2 before I get sent off to Cape Cod and cut off from the world for a week. T________T

[Scans] HOME MADE Kazoku's Nagareboshi, nobodyknows+' Hero's Come Back, Hoshimura Mai's Sakura Biyori, ELT's Grip!

Explanation and music list

Ahhhh, I scanned these yesterday but I totally forgot to actually upload them and everything. xD
So I actually got a request yesterday, and since yesterday was my last day of school, I was more than happy to go down into the basement and spend an hour or so scanning some j-pop CDs. xD It's annoying, cause we can't find the installation CD for it and the only computer it works on is my mom's laptop...which doesn't have internet. Thankfully, I have a small flash drive I've been using to bring the scans up to my computer.

The request was for HOME MADE Kazoku's Nagareboshi ~Shooting Star~. And I'm not going to go downstairs and hook the scanner up and everything just to scan one single, so I grabbed some other CDs too. Since I was scanning Nagareboshi, the first Naruto Shippuuden ending, I figured I'd scan Hero's Come Back!!, the first Shippuuden opening too. If I'm scanning those, I might as well scan my other anime OP/ED singles, so I also scanned Sakura Biyori, the 11th ending for Bleach, and Grip!, the 4th opening for Inu Yasha. I also brought down Aruiteru by Morning Musume, but it took me longer than I thought to scan the others, and I figured it'd take me forever to scan the entire single including the photobook...so I'm leaving that for another time.



So, first up is Nagareboshi ~Shooting Star~, by HOME MADE Kazoku. Not only do I love this song, but it's the first ending to Shippuuden. (I don't like the chibis in the ending video, though. Cute, but it just doesn't fit Shippuuden.)

Download the .rar file for the rest of the Nagareboshi ~Shooting Star~ scans


Next up is Hero's Come Back!!, by nobodyknows+. I absolutely looove this song~ xD And it's the first opening to Shippuuden. To be honest, I like the TV size better than the full version...but the full version's great too.
This is the CD+DVD version. I have no idea if it's limited or not. xD I don't think there's a difference with the cover or anything, but I have no idea.

Download the .rar file for the rest of the Hero's Come Back!! scans


Next is Sakura Biyori, by Hoshimura Mai. It's a slow song, which I'm usually not too much of a fan of, but I love this song. ^^ (I was actually going to sing it at karaoke at Anime Boston, but I forgot until we had already left. xD;;) It was used as the 11th ending to Bleach.
This is the first press edition, which also included a 2007-2008 Bleach calendar. It starts with April 2007, and ends in March 2008, and features one character on each page, which takes up two months. I included those scans in the .rar file.

Download the .rar file for the rest of the Sakura Biyori scans


Last (but not least) is Grip!, by Every Little Thing. It was used as the 4th opening to Inu Yasha, which used to be a huge obsession of mine. This was actually one of the first j-pop singles that I owned...it was from the first online purchase I made, which was Grip!, Moments by Hamasaki Ayumi, and Shine We Are! by BoA. This is still my favorite song by Every Little Thing~

Download the .rar file for the rest of the Grip! scans


So if I don't get any requests, my next scans post will probably include the rest of my current Morning Musume collection- Do it! Now, Ai no Dai 6 Kan, Rainbow 7, SEXY BOY, and Aruiteru.