PoT panel count update- after volume 6

You know, it's really interesting reading a series again. You catch all these things that you never noticed the first time around- foreshadowing and such. Of course, Prince of Tennis is no exception, ne? xD
I'm really surprised by how freaking early Konomi introduced characters/schools~ Between the Fudoumine arc and the St. Rudolph arc, Yamabuki, Hyoutei, and even RIKKAI were all introduced in some way. Yamabuki had Sengoku scouting out Seigaku (but looking at girls instead and then getting absolutely pwned by Echizen), Hyoutei had Atobe and Kabaji at the street courts (whyyy on earth would Atobe ever use street courts? o_o) pwning everyone and then bullying An (since when does Atobe want to go out with An?). And Rikkai has of course the Kirihara chapter, which I remembered from the first time around, but they also had an appearance where they pwn some other unnamed team, then Sanada and Renji go up to the reporters and tell them to tell Tezuka that Seigaku didn't play with their full strength- which was a scene I didn't remember.
The last Rikkai one (and the Sengoku scene and the Atobe/Kabaji scene too, to some extent) is one of those scenes where you don't think it's important, so you don't pay attention to it or really care to remember it- but when you look back on it after reading the entire manga, you go 'oh! that's Sanada and Renji! and they're challenging Seigaku! wow, they appeared way earlier than I thought!'
So I kinda took some liberties with this panel count, and when they showed an overhead shot of Rikkai and that unnamed pwned team Rikkai played, even though it wasn't close enough to make out hairstyles and stuff that distinguishes one player from the next (see, the fact that everyone from the same team wears the same outfit makes this panel count harder...>_<), I counted it as a panel for all the Rikkai regulars except Yukimura. xD Even though you obviously couldn't make out Marui and Jackal and everyone else, I figured it's gotta be them, so...xDDD;
Anyway.
Echizen's still pwning everyone by like 700+ at this point, while the freshman trio are now 3 of the top 7, and the other regulars are catching up~ The highest non-Seigaku member is Kamio- I think it's partly because he sat next to Tachibana during Shinji's match (so everytime we saw Tachibana, we saw Kamio too), and partly because he was involved in the Atobe incident. Whatever the reason, he's somehow beating Fuji, Tezuka, and Taka...well, Taka I can understand, but...
At one point I started mixing the Gyokurin players (Fukawa and Izumi) up, so...those might not be completely accurate. xD;;
One interesting thing about this is that it forces me to learn the non-important players' names. I now know who Mori and Uchimura are! (they're the doubles pair from Fudoumine that played against the Golden Pair- Uchimura's the one with the hat)

Anyway, this is how it stands so far...

Echizen Ryouma - 1132
Momoshiro Takeshi - 416
Horio Satoshi - 375
Kaidou Kaoru - 338
Katou Kachirou - 301
Inui Sadaharu - 300
Mizuno Katsuo - 251
Ooishi Shuuichirou - 223
Kikumaru Eiji - 220
Kamio Akira - 218
Fuji Shuusuke - 210
Tezuka Kunimitsu - 209
Ibu Shinji - 203
Ryuuzaki Sakuno - 159
Ryuuzaki Sumire - 150
Kawamura Takashi - 117
Fukawa Kimoyoshi - 112
Izumi Tomoya - 109
Sasabe - 108
Tachibana Kippei - 105
Arai - 96
Echizen Nanjirou - 88
Inoue Mamoru - 87
Shiba Saori - 75
Ishida Tetsu - 72
Sakurai Masaya - 62
Hayashi - 59
Ikeda - 58
Mori Tatsunori - 56
Osakada Tomoka - 56
Tachibana An - 54
Uchimura Kyousuke - 49
Kirihara Akaya - 48
Atobe Keigo - 30
Mizuki Hajime - 30
Karupin - 28
Kachiro's dad - 25
Sasabe Sr. - 24
Kabaji Munehiro - 23
Sengoku Kiyosumi - 19
Kiichi Kuki - 16
Akazawa Yoshirou - 11
Kawamura's dad - 8
Fuji Yuuta - 6
Nanako - 6
Ooishi's uncle/Tezuka's doctor - 5
Sanada Genichirou - 5
Yanagi Renji - 5
Ryouma's mom - 2
Jackal Kuwahara - 1
Fuji Yumiko - 1
Marui Bunta - 1
Niou Masaharu - 1
Yagyuu Hiroshi - 1

Milestones:

100
Sasabe - Chapter 1
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 1
Horio Satoshi - Chapter 5
Momoshiro Takeshi - Chapter 10
Kaidou Kaoru - Chapter 10 (the exact same page as Momo, just one panel after xDD)
Ryuuzaki Sakuno - Chapter 12
Katou Kachirou - Chapter 12
Inui Sadaharu - Chapter 14
Mizuno Katsuo - Chapter 14
Fukawa Kimoyoshi - Chapter 25
Izumi Tomoya - Chapter 25
Ooishi Shuuichirou - Chapter 26
Ryuuzaki Sumire - Chapter 27
Fuji Shuusuke - Chapter 27
Kikumaru Eiji - Chapter 29
Kamio Akira - Chapter 32
Tezuka Kunimitsu - Chapter 34
Ibu Shinji - Chapter 36
Tachibana Kippei - Chapter 40
Kawamura Takashi - Chapter 46

200
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 4
Horio Satoshi - Chapter 15
Momoshiro Takeshi - Chapter 22
Inui Sadaharu - Chapter 23
Katou Kachirou - Chapter 25
Kaidou Kaoru - Chapter 31
Mizuno Katsuo - Chapter 35
Ibu Shinji - Chapter 40
Kamio Akira - Chapter 45
Ooishi Shuuichirou - Chapter 46
Kikumaru Eiji - Chapter 47
Fuji Shuusuke - Chapter 49
Tezuka Kunimitsu - Chapter 50

300
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 8
Horio Satoshi - Chapter 33
Momoshiro Takeshi - Chapter 34
Kaidou Kaoru - Chapter 40
Katou Kachirou - Chapter 50
Inui Sadaharu - Chapter 51

400
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 12
Momoshiro Takeshi - Chapter 47

500
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 16

600
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 20

700
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 24

800
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 35

900
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 38

1000
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 43

1100
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 49

So, I'm doing a Prince of Tennis panel count.

I KNOW, I'm such a nerd. 8DDDD
I remember back when I hung out on NarutoFan 24/7, there was a Naruto manga panel count- counting how many panels each character was in, to compare screen time and stuff. I always thought that was really cool...
So last night, I came up with the idea of doing a panel count for the Tenipuri manga...I didn't start it until this morning cause I came up with it at like midnight last night, but w/e...

It's actually pretty amusing to see how it's turning out- I just finished volume 2. I didn't realize how late Taka was introduced compared to the other regulars- all of the other regulars had showed up a couple of chapters into volume 1 and had various bits of screen time. However, Taka didn't have ONE PANEL until the VERY LAST PAGE of VOLUME 2, when they showed the final set of regulars after the ranking matches. Kirihara got a panel before Taka- when reporter dude was saying that there's only one other middle-school tennis player that can do the one-footed split step. xDDD Meanwhile, 3 of the top 6 are the Freshman Trio, with the other two being Echizen (duhhh) and the two Echizen faced in the ranking tournament, Kaidou and Inui.
Sasabe from chapter 1 was the first to hit 100 panels, and at the end of chapter one he had more panels than Echizen- but of course, since Sasabe basically never shows up again, he's stuck at 108 panels for the series. Horio's the only character other than Echizen to hit 200- ewww. And Echizen's keeping a steady rate of panels, so far he's gotten 100 panels every 4 chapters.
Oh, and I probably mixed Ikeda and Hayashi up (they're the two that were bullying the freshman with that can game), but I can't figure out which one's which so I just kinda guessed...?

Anyway, this is how everything stands after the first two volumes:

Echizen Ryouma - 515
Horio Satoshi - 208
Inui Sadaharu - 167
Katou Kachirou - 143
Kaidou Kaoru - 123
Mizuno Katsuo - 118
Ryuuzaki Sakuno - 117
Momoshiro Takeshi - 110
Sasabe - 108
Arai - 77
Fuji Shuusuke - 52
Hayashi - 51
Ryuuzaki Sumire - 51
Ooishi Shuuichirou - 50
Ikeda - 45
Osakada Tomoka - 40
Shiba Saori - 36
Kikumaru Eiji - 33
Tezuka Kunimitsu - 30
Inoue Mamoru - 29
Echizen Nanjirou - 7
Karupin - 7
Kawamura Takashi - 2
Kirihara Akaya - 1
Nanako - 1

Milestones:

100
Sasabe - Chapter 1
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 1
Horio Satoshi - Chapter 5
Momoshiro Takeshi - Chapter 10
Kaidou Kaoru - Chapter 10 (the exact same page as Momo, just one panel after xDD)
Ryuuzaki Sakuno - Chapter 12
Katou Kachirou - Chapter 12
Inui Sadaharu - Chapter 14
Mizuno Katsuo - Chapter 14

200
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 4
Horio Satoshi - Chapter 15

300
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 8

400
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 12

500
Echizen Ryouma - Chapter 16

[download] byTachikiritai - Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy full version (not the single)

Download through Mediafire

Credit for this goes to makaioh from Livejournal, who uploaded the full version of the song today. =D I'm gonna upload the whole single when my copy comes- it should arrive at my house sometime next week (along with like 5 other CDs I can't wait to get...xD), so I'll get it next weekend. I'm planning on scanning this (I'm going to set up my new printer/scanner this weekend) and maybe romanizing the lyrics. I'm going to start trying to romanize some lyrics, since my Japanese is getting better, but I'm probably not going to do it that often since I'm not that good at it. I romanized Ao to Bin to Kan's single Gather this morning, and I only knew about half the kanji in the lyrics...

ANYWAY
I absolutely love this song. ^^ It's the new opening to the PoT OVAs, and I think it's a great song. It's totally random with the choice of members in the group (I STILL wtf over Shishido being in the group, considering he's TOTALLY not in the new OVA series AT ALL), but it's still a good song. XD The only voice I can pick out in this song is Fuji's, since I haven't really watched much of the Shitenhouji matches (I've only watched Momo/Kaidou vs Yuuji/Koharu; I actually haven't watched Fuji vs Shiraishi and Taka vs Gin yet...), but Fuji's voice really sticks out no matter who he sings with. O_o Everyone else's voice is like ROAR GUY and then Fuji's is SO OBVIOUSLY A GIRL...xD Well, I mean, Fuji's a guy, but his seiyuu is a girl, and it's especially obvious when Fuji sings. xD; I really like his seiyuu's singing voice~
So, yeah, I can't wait until my copy gets here. xD I want the full single, but the person who uploaded this never uploads the instrumentals, so...
Not to mention that's it's in the same package as like 5 other CDs- Buono's Honto no Jibun (which I've recently become uber addicted to, and I'll elaborate on that once it arrives- I'm gonna write a post about the single and Shugo Chara), Ongaku Gatas' Nari Hajimeta Koi no BELL, Momusu's 10th anniversary album, Gyaruru's Boom Boom Meccha Maccho, and Momusu's 7.5 mini-album that was released last year. And the latest Momusu PV DVD. xDD YAY LOTS OF STUFF

Goto Maki leaving H!P...

Ok, a couple of things I have to say first before I get to the main point of this post.
First of all, I'm sorry for not updating in a while! I started high school last month, and I definitely don't have as much time as I did over the summer and at the end of last year when I started this blog. So I really can't update as frequently as I used too. I haven't been keeping up with j-pop news at all lately- really, all I know is stuff about new releases. I've found that I kinda have this thing where I go back and forth for a while between focusing mostly on j-pop and focusing on anime...I haven't written a j-pop post in like forever. ;-; It's just cause I don't really have the time to keep up with everything anymore, but I think I'm gonna try to keep up...

Second, yeah, I moved the blog to a new URL- from 'indigoskies-shadow' to 'indigoskies-shadows'. If you're reading this, you've figured that out already. I thought I wrote a post explaining why, but now I find out I didn't. ;-; The thing is, my mom found my blog (it's really all my fault, I forgot to delete the link from my e-mail signature when I e-mailed her at one point), and she got really mad at my swearing and stuff (somehow she missed the Darling! post, which I'm ETERNALLY THANKFUL for) so she said she was going to monitor my blog. See why I had to move it?
I don't know if people are going to find this blog again. ;-; I barely had any visitors before, but now I don't think I have any. I figure this is a good time to get back into the j-pop blogosphere, and I'm probably gonna post the new link to my blog on International Wota somewhere...


ANYWAY. On to the main point of this post...

So today I was procrastinating and not doing my homework, and I looked up Goto Maki on wiki.theppn.org.
And saw that Goto Maki was leaving Hello! Project.
Oh wow.
Apparently it's because her brother was arrested recently. But what does that have to do with Maki's career? I don't understand.
I'm totally gonna miss Maki in H!P, but at least she's still going to be singing, just under a different record label.
I think this could really work for her. I'm pretty sure that no one who left H!P has had a successful career outside of H!P, but Maki's definitely popular, and I think she can do really well if she ends up with a good record label. This will also give her a lot more freedom, since we all know H!P is really strict when it comes to things like boyfriends.
Maki is (was, I guess?) my favorite H!P soloist, so I really really hope she does well. <33 I'll continue to support her no matter what...so good luck, Maki~

So I ordered new music today.

Yeah...
Buono! - Honto no Jibun (limited edition)
byTachikiritai - Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy! (limited release)
Gyaruru - Boom Boom Meccha Maccho! (limited edition)
Morning Musume - 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu Morning Musume Mini (limited edition)
Morning Musume - ALL SINGLES COMPLETE ~10th Anniversary~ (limited edition)
Morning Musume - Eizou The Morning Musume 4 ~Single M Clips~
Ongaku Gatas - Nari Hajimeta Koi no Bell (limited edition)
Prince of Tennis 2008 calendar

I think this is the first time in a while that I've bought more general j-pop than PoT music...anyway, with this I'm finally caught up with Morning Musume's CD releases, so now I have to start heading back and collecting everything before Chokkan 2...
Aaand I actually bought a Morning Musume DVD! YAAAAYYYYYYY I downloaded this DVD a while ago, and I liked it a lot~ it's all their PVs from THE Manpower!!! to Kanashimi Twilight. Plus, it's the only place to find their PV for Koi wa Hassou Do The Hustle!...
Then there's Gyaruru's single- it's the limited edition, so it comes with the DVD. I heard that the DVD of this is basically like an H!P Single V DVD, so I'm looking forward to it~
I'm not exactly sure what the DVDs for Nari Hajimeta Koi no Bell and Honto no Jibun have, but whatever~
Lol, then there's Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy!. I wasn't actually planning on buying this, but when the opening video came out the other day, I ended up listening to it a lot and getting addicted. xD;;;;; It's too catchy...though I STILL don't like it as much as Flower or Kakaeta Kiseki, it's definitely good. So that resulted in me pre-ordering the single...
And the calendar, of course. Someone posted the images on the tenipuri LJ community, and it looked amusing. xD So...yeah, I bought it.
I was tempted to choose the split shipment option, but it was $10 extra, so...guess I just have to wait until the end of October for this to ship out (since Honto no Jibun and Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy aren't being released until the 31st).


On a totally unrelated note, Ao to Bin to Kan's single Gather FINALLY SHIPPED! I ordered that over a month ago from one of those places through Amazon. Believe me, I'm not ordering from that site again...I almost forgot about it, but I got an e-mail a day or so ago telling me that it shipped. YAAAAYYYYY]

And on another totally unrelated note, 6 more PoT character CDs have been announced. From the looks of things, it's the Shitenhouji Best of Rival Players set. Dunno how they're gonna get 6 CDs...Shiraishi definitely gets one, same with Chitose and the freshman kid. Then I bet there's gonna be one for Koharu/Yuuji...maybe Ishida Gin? And that's only 5...maybe Oshitari's cousin, Oshitari Kenya? Not like he plays an important role in the story at all, but...well, whatever. We'll see when it gets closer to the release dates- two are coming out on November 21st, two on the 28th (Eiji's birthday btw, yaaay), and then two are coming out the Wednesday after that (too lazy to look up the date).

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...

byTachikiritai - Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy opening video out!

alsdkfjaweoiruasldkfjalweirsudlsifkj
YAAAAAAYYYY
Ah, I love new openings. =D

Ok, I have to say, I definitely don't like this opening as much as Flower ~Saki Midareshi Hana~ and Kakaeta Kiseki, the first two PoT OVA openings. But this is still pretty good...
I'm still wtf-ing over the title and the members of the group. And when the song hit the line "sore ja gekidasa daze!" ("that's lame!") I facepalmed. Sigh.
But I like it.
I mean, there's FULL DEVIL MODE KIRIHARA. =D YAAAAYY

I find it weird that this opening seems to be more centered on Shitenhouji and Rikkai than Seigaku (with the exception of Ryoma, of course)...there was a quick thing at the beginning where each member was shown, then they had two team pics, but the rest was all either Ryoma/wild kid (can't remember his name, to be honest I really couldn't care less about Shitenhouji, except the blatantly gay doubles pair, they're funny) or Shitenhouji/Rikkai.
Wonder if the Rikkai stuff is foreshadowing for the finals? Or they're going to fill in the match between Rikkai and that other team in the semifinals that has all the foreigners.

So, I kinda think the video for this is pretty boring. It's really simple, and it's not that much new footage- lots of still pics instead. I was hoping for cool scenes where people show off their uber tennis stills, but nope...just a bit of the wild kid, and then the Kirihara scene...


Anyway, the REAL reason I'm uber happy about this showing up on the internet is because that means that the new episodes should come out soon! =D
They were released over a week ago, so they're due out soon...the raws, at least. Wish there was a good subbing group working on this, but...=/ oh well.


EDIT: According to the Japanese Wikipedia (and double-checked on the actual opening video), the group is actually called "byTachikiritai". Wtf.
No, I'm not just confusing the "by" with like the actual word in a sentence, it's in the actual Japanese name, by断ち切り隊
DDD: I'M EVEN MORE CONFUSED NOW

The Japanese Wikipedia also mentions something about the origins of the name of the group and the song title...apparently the "by" has something to do with Chitose (something about a different dialect and saying "bai" instead of "tai" or something? oh how I wish it was in English so I could really understand it), the "Tachikiritai" is from Fuji, who apparently says "断ち切る" ("tachikiru", maybe? dunno what that means, but apparently he says it). And the song title itself, Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy..."gekidasa" comes from Shishido, and "ecstasy" is from Shiraishi.
That still doesn't explain the uber random choice of group members or anything. D: I'm still confused...

WHEE FREE DOUJINSHI

xDD
The owner of doujinstar.com (which is down at the moment apparently) is giving away a bunch of doujinshi over on the Tenipuri community on Livejournal...2 per person, $4 for shipping. =3 Of course I immediately grabbed 2 MG doujinshi (Apple Rain and Strawberry Tart)...there was also the doujinshi Echizen Ryoma by Flower Place which I've been wanting for a bit (it's the counterpart to the doujinshi Momoshiro Takeshi, which I already have), but it was already taken by the time I got there. Oh well.

They're going to be shipped out on Monday, which means I should be able to get them when I come home next weekend. =3 YAAAAYY

Darling!

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ugh since when has Friday night been 'early' for Jump chapters?

I REMEMBER THE DAYS WHERE THE CHAPTERS REGULARLY CAME OUT ON THURSDAY
D:<
people have been saying stuff like 'wow, it's early this week' when Jump chapters came out on Friday night.
Seriously, since when has Friday night been early?
=/
I was so used to them coming out on Thursday, and maybe even Wednesday if we were lucky, then they started coming out on Friday instead.
It took me forever to get accustomed to that, but now I'm so used to the main manga (One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, PoT, Eyeshield 21...) coming out on Friday afternoon...and now they're starting to come out either really really late on Friday night (last week PoT was out at around midnight IIRC) or Saturday morning. A couple of weeks ago, the chapters weren't out until Sunday morning. =/
And even though it's still the same amount of time between chapters, it feels like FOREVER cause I'm still half-expecting them on Friday afternoon. >_<
Oh well, eventually I'll get used to them coming out on Saturdays...