Some photos taken over Animelo weekend

Ikebukuro. This will be home for the duration of the trip to Japan.

There is lots to see and do. But since this is a Momoist/otaku blog, let's just skip all the other touristy stuff I did and get to the substance...

animate! 9 floors of stuff. Took a good 4-5 hours to look through it all.

k-books (lots of good used stuff and comiket items)

Only bought a few things...spent conservatively since if I want to waste money on things that should never see the light of day, there was still all of Akihabara and Nakano Broadway.

Spotted while heading toward Animelo on 8/30.

Was so excited to be walking toward Saitama Super Arena

The Arena.

Merchandise tables. Combo sets and wristbands were sold out unfortunately by the time I got there. Picked up 2 shirts, towels, and pamphlet.

Outside map. Momoists set up camp in the marked area the next day.

Crowd began to swell as time got closer.

Had a blast at the concert. Jaw dropped when trying to find the number marked on the ticket and then the realization they were direct stage-side seats. Damn this thing was long. A great time was had, but I learned my lesson this time. 2 ultra oranges, 2 pinks, and 2 neon sticks is NOT ENOUGH. Wanted to UO on so many good acts but blew my entire stash right out the door with Yukari.

Goods obtained from the concert. Managed to catch a streamer that got shot out of the cannon during the encore. Since the thing was right next to me, when it went off I thought something exploded and nearly ducked for cover.

8/31

Posing with another Momoist.

Huge group of Momoists hanging out in the lower food court while waiting for seating to open. It was the same reliable group that has been to every concert I've ever seen so far. They came from all over. Some big trips to see Momoi include travellers from Osaka, Aomori (8 hrs by train), and even Korea.

T-shirt present for Momoi. Everybody included their own personal message. Takayama Saki (actress of Momoi from Haruko Update) was also attending Animelo to support Momoi and showed up to sign the shirt and say hello to Momoists.

These seats were actually pretty good and you could get a clear view of the performers as well as the entire arena. The "not as lucky" comparison is only relative to day 1, but otherwise it was awesome.

Lesson learned from day 1: stock glowsticks!!! Used up 15 ultra oranges, 6 ultra pinks, 2 ultra greens, 4 red and blue glowing bracelets, and fully drained 6 AAA batteries for neon red and neon blue light sticks.

Picked up 2 MOSAIC.WAV shirts along the way.

Still in Japan right now this is concise to save time. If you want to see parts of day 2 including Momoi you can probably find some recorded segments on Nico or Youtube although I won't bother posting the links since they will be constantly deleted/reuploaded. Also consider visiting seiyuu3 for a more detailed description of other artist acts.

Visited Akiba and a few other famous Momoi spots and specific stores/buildings thanks to a local fan who took a full day off to play ad-hoc tour guide. Maybe will visit more Momoists in Kyoto and we have a Suara concert to go see on Saturday. Let's see how it goes.

Posted by Paranda at 11:35 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Blah

Day 1 of Animelo just passed. It was a bad idea to explore Ikebukuro in the morning because the concert itself is a massive test of stamina. After tomorrow I will never walk again. Too tired to title this post.

Highlights of the day include seeing Suara, Mizuki Nana, Minorin, and Yukari. ESPECIALLY YUKARI...getting to draw hearts to Koiseyo Onnanoko, getting zapped with the MEROMERO stick, and actually implementing the moves taught to the meron song in the latest Chelsea Girl DVD (good thing I watched that before I left).

Posted by Paranda at 10:29 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

MOSAIC.WAV interview from DNS

There is a lot of overlap between Momoi fans and MOSAIC.WAV fans including myself as I have posted in the past, and from other commenters here. So everybody who likes MOSAIC.WAV should read this fantastic English interview by DENPA NO SEKAI.

It's so impressive I had to make a post just to link to it. Plus Koike is referred to as "legendary." Yep, that's the kind of rep you can get for being one half of UNDER17 8)

Also, willpower to study steadily deceasing since two weeks ago...relearning all the fast habits I had with my trusty TI-89 all these years and re-ingraining them to hp 12c for financial math has been great fun.

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Just returned from seeing JAM Project

Still collecting thoughts. Sleep now.

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Yells ~It's a beautiful life~

The new Animelo theme song has come out this week. Since a version has begun floating around online I couldn't resist but preview it while I wait for my copy. The song is rather simple but I derived great enjoyment at the constant switching up of singers, which occurs much more frequently than the previous three Animelo theme songs. Aside from a slightly annoying pronunciation of "Yell", the song has quickly grown on me after multiple listening sessions, and I currently rank it somewhere above Generation A and below Outride.

This year, Momoi got to have three solo lines, slightly up from last year, and more noticeable thanks to more balanced artist rotation (though some still got more coverage than others). Meanwhile, Mizuki Nana, Arika, and most of JAM Project except Makkun got major cuts in their line count, possibly in favor of promoting some newer acts and also because of how many verses they had in previous years.

Unfortunately despite her increased role, Momoi does not appear much in the accompanying video since she was not present during the taping of the group session. The only Momoi footage was of her individual recording session, which is played during her solo segments. This is a shame because she appears in the video very sharply dressed and in perfect makeup, giving off an incredibly radiant smile that would have been sure to draw some attention from anyone getting their first exposure to Momoi in this video. One thing that Momoi is really good at is smiling. Also as consistent with last year's DVD reveal when responding to a comment by Yoffy, Momoi always records sitting down so it was interesting to see her posture again in contrast to other artists who did their singing while standing up.

Thoughts on other artists:
1. Best delivery goes to Suara, for her version of "立ち止まらずに歩こう" compared to everyone else who sang the same line.

2. Tanimiya looks WAYYYY different from what I expected him to look since he is usually so clean cut in cast pictures.

3. I almost didn't recognize Ishikawa Chiaki despite seeing her in person at AX last year, and almost missed it since she only got one solo line like Arika. She looks like she reverse aged 20 years.

4. Kitadani is awesome as usual and likes to acknowledge the camera. Yoffy still does his handwaving. I miss seeing Naonii do his neck twisty thing whenever he sings though...this was not the year he should have sat out now that I'm finally going to see it dammit!

5. I have no clue who the hell May'n is, why is she part of Animelo again? I guess I am ok with her though, based on the video.

6. It is going to be fun seeing how they are going to split this up between like 40 people on stage for each day. I also seriously cannot picture denpa singers like Shaori or MI~KO doing anything this poppy at all. My mind will be blown.

Posted by Paranda at 1:53 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Happy Love Live 2007 was pretty bad

In anticipation to clear my watching queue for when Momoi DVDs arrive, I finally found some time to watch two other seiyuu concerts I had been putting off.

Biggest letdown: Sakakibara Yui's Happy Love Live 2007. I really enjoy listening to Yui, so it was a major disappointment to discover that she can't actually sing very well live. You have some seiyuu idols who sing so perfectly on DVD that you can't help but wonder if there is some sound engineer heavily doctoring up all the audio before release and piping in a studio-recorded dub (Yukarin, but maybe she's just that good), and then you have performances like Yui who gets winded by her own movements. I think I will stick to listening to her CDs from now on. I managed to go about 4 minutes before I could no longer resist the urge to hit fast forward. Even the MCs were boring.

The concert was just two hours of mediocre singing and dancing, two things which Yui can't seem to get to mesh together well. In fact she is so unremarkable, the only way I could tell her apart from her own background dancers was knowing to look in the center.

I fared better with Chihara Minori's Contact First Live Tour, although I already had experience with her live singing from earlier Animelo and Lovedol DVDs so I was familiar with her approximate live singing skill. Even so, I still did a lot of skipping since a lot of the songs just didn't really appeal to me...I think I just stuck to the more well known songs that she released in singles earlier. Since I don't really follow Minorin closely, one thing that I was surprised about was that she seemed much more subdued than her "strawberry" loopy uncontrollably giggling self shown in last year's Lovedol concert or from her AX appearance. MCs were still interesting to watch through though, and Minori could still get a good reaction from the audience. My favorite part was probably the encore, which I didn't skip any of at all.

Posted by Paranda at 2:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Going to Animelo 2008 Challenge

Well, it just became official. I am going to Japan this year for Animelo 2008 with Arena A tickets. Having MOSAIC.WAV, coorie, and yozuca added just today further sweetens the deal.

Posted by Paranda at 10:47 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Suara LIVE TOUR 2007

Well my Suara concert DVD came yesterday. Speaking not as a Momoist, but as a voice fan in general, I consider Suara to be, probably, one of the best professional singers I have ever heard within the limited scope of Japanese anime/game related music.

Suara has fantastically unique sweet earthy sound and a tremendous amount of range in her voice. She is also one of the few singers who can draw out very deep notes and hold a tune without overly abusing vibrato. Having combined her raw skill with a great selection of songs, Suara managed to easily outshine many other widely respected artists in the same field, including a majority of the people she performed with this year at Animelo. She was no less amazing live in the tour concert DVD. With a great deal of vocal control, she sang nearly each song to perfection, matching or exceeding the quality of her album recorded versions.

Overall, the concert was a great way to show off Suara's strength, training, and discipline as a singer. I have absolutely nothing but praise for her in this aspect. In fact, my only complaint about the entire concert is a highly superficial one regarding her movements. It may be because I am not used to this particular style (most concerts I watch have PPPH-obessessed crowds and singers flipping out harder than Kaneda Tomoko on Schedule I stimulants), but for the first half of the concert Suara just seemed completely rigid and robotic. Her two feet never shifted an inch from the spot they stood, and this was especially obvious since she was wearing a skirt that only went down to her knees. If you muted the audio, she came across like one of those electronic mannequins at theme parks with can only twist their upper torso and arms in certain patterns. While this is something I could expect in solo recording sessions, in front of a live audience, I think there is a lot of wasted potential. It's not like she was at a recital or anything. This was a full blown publicity tour. Once the novelty of "OH SHIT IT'S SUARA SINGING LIVE" wears off, the visual part of the concert started to get a little boring. You may as well have just watched a Suara gif loop a lot.

It wasn't until she sang Ichiban Boshi that she really started moving around, smiling a lot, making direct eye contact with her fans, and really trying to sing to her audience. As a result those segments were my favorite parts out of an already amazing concert. In my blog, I have frequently referred to my numerous attempts to hide my wota tendencies in real life, but this particular DVD is something I would not be ashamed to display on my shelf to even non-anime fans, as I would highly recommend it to all fans of music. It's just quality singing. I almost want to buy a PS3 now so I can order the blu-ray version of this.

Posted by Paranda at 10:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Shaori :3

Sakura Saori promos for her in-progress first solo album, and talks a bit about taking care of her throat after recovering from a cold on a new LoveLoveLovable posted today. She started doing these weekly internet shows in September, but this was the first time I actually listened to the whole thing and I found I became seriously uncomfortable after listening to her talk for a while. I was cringing most of the way through, because just thinking about her go on and on in that voice for nearly 20 minutes straight at a significant volume makes my own throat start hurting. Saori is not human. Within 10 years she's going to be speaking through an electrolarynx..

Lovable is probably my most anticipated non-Momoi album of the year though. Primula juliae remix hell yeah!

Posted by Paranda at 6:41 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

New respect for Rita

I've had exposure to Rita since forever, having heard numerous examples of her work from Gwave compilations, remix CDs, and so on yet I never really noticed her. Until now. In the end, the tipping point was due to a little bit of accidental repeated exposure to one song, after listening to disc 3 of the Little Busters. which played several versions of its opening theme. Rita may not have the greatest singing ability, but holy hell does she have an arsenal of awesome voices to sing with. Little Busters! -Little Jumper Ver- is now a regular item on my playlist.

Posted by Paranda at 3:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Impressions: 4-EVER - Music of the Eternities, Sakakibara Yui - Far Away.

I finally got around to listening to 4-EVER's CD "Master of Epic Original Soundtrack - Music of the Eternities" that was released last month. I've only seen two episodes of the show, and it's not that special aside from having a few amusing puns, Chuu*Bukotsu scenes, and CLOVER cast as Waragecha V. The soundtrack on the other hand, is pretty standout. I'm not going to go as far as to compare it to masterpieces like Satou Naoki's work for Eureka Seven, but "Music of the Eternities" is probably too good to be wasted on a seemingly cheap generic show like Master of Epic.

4-EVER uses a large mix of instruments creating a lot of nice and sometimes surprisingly complex sounds. There's stuff using the harpsichord and accordion, full-on orchestral tunes, and cheesy synthpop to provide a theme for every possible setting, and none of it is boring. Other nice bonuses, also composed by 4-EVER, are the Waragecha V theme song and Wonderful World sung by CLOVER, both of which will forcefully drill themselves into your head and make it hard for you to resist singing randomly in public at great social detriment. Koike Masaya once again proves himself as a capable BGM musician, and his new unit is off to a good start if this soundtrack is indicative of what is to come in the future.

Another single I have picked up lately is Sakakibara Yui's new release, Far Away. This CD follows the same formula as her previous two singles, coupling one upbeat fast-paced pop tune with one slower acoustic track (Ai no uta) to show off her range. The production is solid, and although the Far Away lacks the insanely addicting qualities of "Beautiful Day" it is nonetheless fine looping material. Plus, if you enjoy looking at your track play through spectrum analyzers, this one is especially frantic. I also think Ai no uta is one of the better slow tracks that she has put out lately, further adding value to this single. Importing is expensive, and although I regularly sing hyperbolic praises of many many seiyuu, I am actually relatively picky on which artists to buy as routine. At the current rate, Yui is very close to moving herself from my "sometimes buy" to "always buy religiously" list.

Other music suggestions for this month:

Edelweiss Vocal Album "Sunset Sunrise": YURIA and yocuza* are present, which already makes this worth getting, but the real treat on here is some great stuff from Satou Hiromi (the singer, not the porn star) and Nakahara Ryou.

Love Planet Five - Tenjou wo Kakeru Mono Tachi: Standard I've stuff, but this is the first time I've seen a single with this many I've singers since "See You". A good kickoff to the special unit that is possibly here to stay, if Rondorobe giving them their own section means anything. Fans of Kawada Mami should also consider grabbing the Mami Kawada First Live Tour 2006 "Seed" Live&Life vol.1. Although, word of warning for obsessive types, "Vol.1" means you will inevitably be lured into buying more volumes to complete your collection. Goodbye paycheck.

Posted by Paranda at 6:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Windows Media Player 11 still sucks

Since my specially DIY-upgraded 40gb H-340 was snatched away by a thief in October, I had been shopping for a replacement for some time. Unfortunately, the excellent H-340 model had been discontinued by iRiver and followed up by newer (yet somehow inferior) H-10 models. Aside from that series, there was no other HD player I wanted so I decided to go with the flash player instead. Originally I wanted to wait for the Cowon iAudio D1 model, but as Blip Festival came up I decided I couldn't wait any longer.

Apparently, photography, recording, video-taping, etc..was encouraged by the festival organizers, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone by buying the 4GB Clix which had just come out since it also had a recorder. I always record events when allowed now - a lesson I learned after MISSING THE CHANCE to do this with Kawasumi at Otakon. Here's a short clip of YMCK's Opening at Blip Festival

I've now been using the Clix for a week. As an mp3 player, the clix is OK so far, but a major MAJOR downside is they force you to use WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER to synch files to the player. Although WMP11 is an improvement over WMP10, and it looks fancy and glossy, it is still a huge crock of shit when it comes to supporting ID3v2.4 tags - it doesn't, and it'll overwrite to ID3v1 or the equally crappy ID3v2.3 if you look away! As a foobar2000 user for God knows how long, I refuse to switch over to this slow and buggy abomination of music software until at least ID3v2.4 support is added.

So far I've been compromising by making a backup of my entire music collection (hooray for 2TB - I can't stop buying drives) and a disposable folder specifically for when transferring over to WMP. In short, it sucks.

Posted by Paranda at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

Esper Mami Tribute Song by Momoi

The ESPER MAMI DVD-BOX, part 2 was released today. Along with it comes the Esper Mami Tribute CD. Momoi shows her love for the series with a new original song, "E.S.P. Thanks to Mamichan" which she wrote, composed, and sang herself. I really love it whenever Momoi composes her own work, it always ends up being catchy. I want this CD so bad right now.

animate.tv has kindly uploaded the short version PV to their website. Danger section: watch out for "beep! beep! beep! beep!" accompanied by hand motions, it is easily over critical mass in moeness.

Animate.tv PV page

I think this may be the best she has ever looked on TV while not in cosplay. Very nice hair, makeup, and wardrobe. It's hard to believe she's only one week away from her 29th birthday.

Also paying respects to Esper Mami is her fellow seiyuu and friend, Ueda Kana. Both videos can be found on the page. Make sure you click the video links on the right if you want a nice broadband version.

Posted by Paranda at 7:58 PM | Comments (3)

Yume no Baton release

Momoi's brand new single, Yume no Baton came out in Japan today. There is a CD format as well as a more expensive limited edition version that includes a DVD. Yume no Baton is the ED theme to Haruko Update, and coupled with song is Koi no Meiousei.

Chuo Line, which was sung during her Wonder Momo-i live tour, was erroneously reported to be the c/w song by CDJapan many months ago. I somehow missed this until I looked at the cover just now.

Also possibly of interest to fans of moe music, Makino Yui's first album is out. I've been following her ever since season one of ARIA, and so far she has been putting out pretty good singles, especially the ED to that NHK anime (I still haven't gotten around to watching it). I think I'm really going to like this album. If so, Makino may be the ninth Japanese artist to cross over from the "download" to "buy" category for me.

Finally, Chihara Minori's Lovedol character single is out too. She's done a great job singing for the Haruhi singles, and I've heard nothing but praise from seiyuu3 about her album, so I'm pretty curious. I've been ever so slightly let down by her voice work in Lovedol, but as I've learned, her singing and voice acting are on completely different levels so the song itself will probably still be good.

In general, there's lots of stuff this week.

Posted by Paranda at 8:19 PM | Comments (3)

Again ranks 29 on Oricon weekly chart

Yui-nyan's two singles released last week have both made the top 50 in Oricon singles charts. "Again" reached number 29, and "Magical Generation" reached 36. That's pretty impressive. Actually, that's ridiculously impressive for someone who has never released any singles on a major label before. I don't think even Momoi ever got that high. UNDER17's most popular single is probably "Love Slave" which reached a high of 55 (although Love Slave did manage to stay on the charts 6 times, which shows for something).

Then again, the OP singles of the same anime are also on that chart. We've all seen from Haruhi that otaku do indeed have enough sway in Japan to influence charts heavily like these. Then again, Haruhi is one thing, this is......Otoboku? Happiness? Honestly, aren't these niche shows or does Japan currently have a massive fever for cute crossdressers like Mizuho and Jun?

Whichever way, by her own merits, by association with her more famous peers (Aice5), or by riding her way up with a successful anime series, Yui is going to be a seiyuu superstar at this rate, and once she makes it, I have confidence she'll be able to maintain her position. Yui seems to have a well honed ability for cuteness, and plenty of experience to promote herself very well without a manager breathing down her neck.

While many seiyuu are indistinguishable from pull-string voice box dolls puppetted by their agencies, Yui is more similar to Momoi in that she has a specific vision for herself, and she's doing everything in her power to take control of where her career path is now going. Since childhood she had her sights set on being a self-made singer, and that kind of drive is showing itself through her work. Although signed under Hobirecords, she basically produces every aspect of her product: writing her own lyrics, choreographing her music videos, managing her fashion for photo shoots, and arranging much of her own advertising and networking.

She also fields difficult questions very well from what I've seen. In a recent interview, the subject of her "loli" roles in the past was brought up, a rather embarassing topic. She managed to laugh it off, focusing more on the skill aspect than the context or content of the voice. She talked about how she had to work consistently in the high ranges to perform them well and now rejects them because she would rather explore more ranges, but invited those still interested in these specific characters to visit her site where all of her work, questionable or not, was proudly displayed.

She acknowledged that Yes there are adult roles that can make her look bad, but effectively disowned the roles by reducing their significance to all but a resume bullet point, writing them off as professional jobs without disowning those fans who discovered her through them. She provided no ammo for which a critic could use to attack. Yui understood very well that a scandal is only a scandal if you treat it like one, and by being so frank with her history, she gave off the attitude of a moe-friendly progressive thinker. How's that for PR sense?

For the record, despite writing this piece of praise, I am still strongly of the opinion that Momoi > Yui.

Posted by Paranda at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

One week until Saigo no Rock release

Quick reminder for everyone: November 8, Saigo no Rock, the OP to Haruko Update will be out. You can hear a sample of it on the radio program I mentioned ealier.

With the OP/ED and DVDs being released within 3 months from now, Momoi is making the rounds on the magazines and news again, proving to everyone that she can still somehow look cute in seifuku at age 28. This month, she is featured in the November issue of PAM! and has an interview in "HM3 Special."

You can read PAM! free (and hi-res) online at http://www.avexmovie.jp/pam/comic.php?vol=078.
There are preview screenshots of the DVD inside!

As for HM3, I am back at school now so I have access to a scanner again. I may scan the HM3 pages too when my monthly magazine package comes (I finally broke down and subscribed to Megami and HM3 in September ;_;. No "Seiyuu Grandprix" unfortunately, I heard she was in that last month too)

Posted by Paranda at 8:11 PM | Comments (2)

Sakakibara Yui pumps out two excellent singles same day

Sakakibara Yui is rapidly climbing to fame this season with voice roles and songs in two bishoujo anime. People are already starting to take notice, and the dual CD releases today will only gain her more fans. Too much? Dilution? No way. Both releases feature Yui-nyan at her best, each containing one upbeat cutesy song (super addictive; I've been playing them all day) plus one other slower track showcasing her wider singing range.

Purchase Links:
Magical Generation
Again

Tip: Beautiful Day is amazing. Listen to it, love it.

Posted by Paranda at 11:32 PM | Comments (3)

Sakakibara Yui's album "Honey" released

Sakakibara Yui, who I recently became a fan of, released her second album today. Based on her first album "yuithm" and her four singles, I'd say her regular singing isn't the kind of stuff I would usually listen to. I wouldn't call it substandard, but it's heavily outclassed by what I consider to be her strength, that is, to sing in the cutest way imaginable. After seeing the PV for Honey, the second album may contain more her cute singing style than the first (which only had about 3 under that category), so I will probably be picking it up.

Also, although Yui-nyan on the surface appears to be a suspiciously good "newbie" with a surprising amount of seiyuu contacts (she links to some famous names on her site, and many of those link back to her), apparently she did a ton of idol and stage work since 1999 under the name Hinano Mayo, including being in an idol group with Asano Masumi. So...we can say she has a bit more experience than her profile would let on. Why she dropped that name, I don't know, one thing is clear and that is she gets a lot more work under "Yui." Either she's finally been discovered or, she previously sucked and has improved enough to deserve promotion. I won't speculate because I don't know anything yet.

Two anime that she has roles in will be broadcasting shortly this season. She has only appeared in games (that I haven't played) so far, but I have heard her voice work elsewhere. I enjoy her music videos, her radio acting, and especially game singing so I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do on a television anime series.

Posted by Paranda at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)

Ippozutsu and other Momoi news

Last month, I offhandedly mentioned how excited I was about the new TV anime Lovedol. Specifically, I was excited about the concept of an "idol anime" with a great cast, because it signals an inevitable stream of character CDs. But that was all speculation then. Now, it's confirmed.

According to the September issue of avex's free monthly publication pam!, there will be a series of single releases: one per week starting in November at 1260 yen each. Probably more as they release compilation vocal albums. The ultimate hope I have here of course is to have lasting seiyuu stables as a result, releasing single after single and compilation albums reaching "Sister Princess" levels.

Here's the release schedule if you're having difficulty reading the flash file on that site:

11/01 - Nogawa Sakura - Koi, hajimemashita
11/08 - Nogawa Sakura - Hateshi no nai sora
11/15 - Nakahara Mai - WISH STAR ni na.a.re
11/22 - Momoi Haruko - Ippozutsu
11/29 - Goto Yuko - Kiipon! Kiipon!
12/06 - Chihara Minori - Candy(bitter&sweet)
12/13 - Sakai Kanako - Junjou ko wa RARURARUN♪

Although I've bolded Momoi's song for emphasis reasons, I'm pretty much looking forward to every single one of these releases - especially more singing from Minorin.

But anyway, Ippozutsu is not the ONLY interesting Momoi news lately. According to her Avex page, tomorrow Momoi has a mini-live event at Osaka's Days Pier, where she will show a preview of her OTHER newest song, Saigo no Rock, the opening theme to her upcoming DVD. Toranoana will also be having a mini-live on October 1st. The single will be on sale officially November 8th this year.

Finally, Momoi's Komugi character has undergone somewhat of a surprise resurrection. Check out this month's character radio special "Komugi's Magical Nurse Station ZZ."

Speaking of radio, fans of Koike Masaya, YURIA, or Kesugi should tune in to "Moe Music Station," an online radio program broadcast every Friday by their band Sweets Tankentai. It's been on for a while but I only started listening two weeks ago. On most older sites, the show is billed under YURIA and Kesugi only, but Koike has been on every single time I've listened so far - I think he's just officially part of the show. His picture is part of the radio icon anyway so maybe he was added to the roster, I don't know.

Fun facts about Sweets Tankentai band members gleaned from listening?
1. Koike still uses and answers to the name Aniki.
2. All three are exclusive Mac users (although you probably already knew Koike was a mac fan just by visiting his homepage).
3. All of them love Haruhi Suzumiya!

edit: Apparently I misspelled "resurrection." That'll show me for playing too much Discworld.
edit2: I claimed earlier in this post that Momoi's new song was called Moe wa ROCK da. This is incorrect. An update on "Momoi no Homupage" indicates that the new song is actually titled Saigo no Rock. It appears that Moe wa ROCK da is just tagline of sorts for the promotion.

Posted by Paranda at 11:59 AM

Why do people think Aya Hirano's voice change on Hey Hey Hey is the greatest thing ever?

So I guess this post sounds a bit like flamebait for the Haruhi fanboys out there, but um...pretty much all seiyuu have an incredibly wide range of voices. Even Asami Sanada can convincingly play a guy in Rozen Maiden and then switch to fucking Dejiko or Vita for chrissakes. Hirano's voice change, while neat, was not OMG BEST SEIYUU I BET NOBODY CAN DO THAT LOL. Plus Hirano was already using a fake high pitch voice so the switch to low made the change sound more impressive than it really is (she claims that's her "real" voice but that's so obviously bullshit, just like her staged all-female audience). Hey I don't have anything against Hirano, but let's not hype her to the moon okay? I'm just slightly bitter because she's taking up like 10 pages in every damn seiyuu photobook I've bought for the past 6 months. Aya Hirano is the John Cena of voice acting. She's cute and all but I just don't like having people crammed down my throat as THE NEXT SEIYUU SUPERSTAR SENSATION. Now Tomokazu Sugita or Minori Chihara...there's two people I can get behind as being awesome.

Also Hirano is way too hot for her own good. It's hard to measure objectively just how skilled she actually is as a voice actress when everyone is screaming "KAWAII" in your ear. She only has one series where she's had a decent amount of lines or range of emotion, so I suspect a lot of current fanboyism for Hirano is either residual Haruhi love OR based on her being a 19 year old cutie. When the Haruhi fanaticism inevitably dies down, will her career last on talent, or will it crash horribly the moment she gets facially disfigured?

Maybe I'm exhibiting elitist internet maleism or coming off sounding like someone who's desperately trying to be "indie," but keep in mind I have openly declared my love for Yui Horie, Yukari Tamura, and Nana Mizuki...all of whom could certainly be considered very very mainstream. Remember I am not against Aya Hirano on a basic level. I recognize she has some ability (in fact she is my 32nd most played artist on Last.fm) and I honestly want her to do well, like I do for all rookie seiyuu with a lot of potential. While I'm not so fond of her acting, I will admit she is an amazing singer by ALL standards. Still, I feel they are pushing her too fast too far and I'm personally getting annoyed by her ubiquitous presence in every voice actor related thing I read now. Take that as you will.

Oh and in case you've been living under a rock for the past few months or something, here's the segment I'm talking about.

Update: The original video was taken down due to usage violation less than a day after I posted this. That's so strange. New link up.

Posted by Paranda at 5:31 AM | Comments (3)

LOVE.EXE PV rumors clarified

According to Exafield, it seems the "PV" is actually live footage from her recent concert (in the above outfit). However it has been restricted to playing in Toranoana store windows for now, so I highly doubt we'll be able to see it (maybe on the DVD later) unless somebody sets up a cam outside the store and posts on youtube or something. Searching for LOVE.EXE on youtube will get this fun little video of Yuki Nagato kicking large amounts of ass though.

Speaking of Yuki Nagato, there's an interesting little entry on Minori Chihara's blog (VA for Yuki). Apparently she went to Momoi's concert. They are on good terms it seems. That makes Minorin twice as cool as previously thought. And I had already liked her in-character singing best out of the Haruhi seiyuu trio. She and Momoi both have roles on the upcoming TV anime Lovedol ~Lovely Idol~.

It should be noted that Lovedol, although at first glance appears to be utter garbage concept-wise, has a wonderfully interesting seiyuu cast even if we exclude Momoi. After seeing the results in Magikano, God knows I will wade through any kind of shit for Mai Nakahara and Sakura Nogawa cast together. Not only that, as an idol anime we are guaranteed plenty of character CDs and image songs, so even if the show winds up as a swirling vortex of suck, at least we'll be left with some great residual merchandise. Remember Wandaba Style? Same deal.

Posted by Paranda at 6:49 AM | Comments (2)

MOSAIC.WAV's first major label single

If you are living outside of Japan like me and have ever tried to buy MOSAIC.WAV, you are probably familiar with how frustrating it can be. Aside from getting lucky in auctions, MOSAIC.WAV albums simply aren't sold anywhere that agrees to ship overseas for a reasonable cost. The individual singles are even more difficult to find, sold usually only instore or at events like Comiket. However, this may soon change. For the first time, online shopping sites like cdapan.com, yesasia.com, and even amazon.com have all put up MOSAIC.WAV preorder pages for "Kyun Kyun Panic," the ending theme to TV anime Mamotte Lolipop which began broadcasting last month (subs by NnK, although I can't see why anyone sane would possibly want to watch this).

Backed by Lantis, it seems MOSAIC.WAV is finally getting their long deserved first major release, and hopefully not the last. Kyun Kyun Panic will be on sale August 23, 2006.

Update:
I forgot to mention, Koike Masaya is in the production credits. Also, here is a tracklisting:

01.キュン・キュン・パニック
02.らりほるらりほ
03.キュン・キュン・パニック（off vocal)
04.らりほるらりほ（off vocal)

Now if someone can tell me what the hell "rarihorurariho" is supposed to mean...

Posted by Paranda at 8:14 PM | Comments (0)

I am now a Yui Sakakibara fan.

This was the song that finally did it: DokiDoki ga Tomaranai.

That is all.

edit: Also check out MUSIC in my heart, which I didn't upload but I'm sure you can find it somewhere.

Posted by Paranda at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)

Seiyuu and Anime Song Music Guide

On the way back from work, I stopped by Kinokuniya to see if I could get my hands on the august issue of Anikan. While the mission failed, I did manage to come back with something equally interesting:

Aspect's Seiyuu and Anime Song Music Guide, a full color voice actor and anime song guidebook with some 100 artists and 200 titles listed, most with a brief description/review and lots of pictures. There are also articles and additional photoshoots with certain artists like Round Table featuring Nino and Ryoko Shiraishi. Most importantly, a large section is dedicated to a Momoi interview with plenty of photos. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner so I can't scan any pages...but I do know how to rip DVDs! And it just so happens that this guidebook also includes a 22 minute "message" DVD with many of the featured artists.

See Momoi's message on youtube (1:23)

Posted by Paranda at 9:02 PM | Comments (2)

Momoi CD, Otakon loot, and other things

momo-i quality ~Best of Momoi~, Halko Momoi's first independent album, has arrived. Somewhat disappointingly, the "photobook" is not a real separate book but actually a hybrid built into the first edition album jewel case. The case is a hardcover book format, with adorable Momoi baby and school pictures (with commentary) as well as a collage of recording studio photos attached to the inside cover. There is an additional booklet neatly sandwiched between some pages of the photobook, containing lyrics accompanied by photos of Angel Momoi and Demon Momoi in various stages of DBZ-style battle before finally reconciling their differences on the last page. The disc is a fine black with the text "momo-i quality" printed in a futuristic silver font.

Lyrics booklet:

Photobook:

Inside Disc:

A separately packed B2 (20"x28*) promotional poster is included.

Although momo-i quality is a compilation album of past songs, upon listening it actually feels quite new since most of the songs previously released have been remixed. Here are the tracks I've picked out that have not been previously released:

Opening - dreaming more! more! - is an instrumental intro remix loosely based on Motto Yume Miyou and was composed by Momoi herself.

LOVE.EXE -momo-i quality version- features more complex instrumentals this time, arranged professionally by Shinya Saitou. The vocals have also been significantly stripped of distracting effects, and the overall result is a much cleaner song that maintains the catchiness of the original.

Far and away ~party night~ -new mix- is my current favorite on this album and a wonderful remix of Feria's theme song from Prism Ark: Prism Heart II. Slow clear vocals set to a good tune always always tend to sit well with me. The arranger is Haraddy.

Akihabalove -summery summer version- A very impressive remix by Halko Momoi, who according to the credits also played composer/arranger on this one. I find the background instrumentals a lot more varied and interesting than the pure synth sound by Perfume. As for whether she does a better job of singing, I think her pronouncing of "dekiruyo" is a thousand times cuter than Nocchi. I will not say more at the risk of starting a Perfume vs. Momoi holy war.

As for Motto, Yume, Miyou!! -now I feel...version-: although it is "new" in name, it appears to be the exact same song as bright future next step version. If someone can correct me on this and point out any subtle differences that I may have missed, please let me know.

Overall, given the new tracks and the extras, this album is solid in terms of content and a good buy for any Momoi fan, especially since many of the singles featured in this CD are no longer available for purchase.

But aside from Momoi stuff, my mail today also contained a few other goodies which had probably been sitting in CDJapan's offices for months before I finally relieved them of their misery and let them ship everything together:

Clockwise from the top-left corner: momo-i quality, Mami Kawada's Seed, two Kimiko Koyama albums, To Heart 2 Soundtrack and Character Songs, Marinarina and Zoku Marinarina.

And lastly, because I forgot to post about it...I returned last week from Otakon. The trip was fairly productive, and I managed to cram in most of the presentations I wanted to see, excluding 4chan because fuck that idiotic line and the powertripping staffers who tried to herd it.

Out of the video showings, I most significantly came away with newfound appreciation of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, which I previously dismissed as retarded magical girl pedobait (I was ESPECIALLY put off by this genre ever since the steaming turd that was Magical Canan - which I forced myself to watch solely for Rokku character designs and Mizuki Nana voice - who by the way probably realized this show was shit and mailed in an absolutely dismal performance that I still haven't completely forgiven for someone of her caliber). Now realize the error of my judgmental ways. In the 4 episodes of "A's" that I saw, I learned that Nanoha is not a panty flashing girly girl moe show but actually about powerful mages wielding awesome steam-releasing pump-action cartridge-loaded rocket-powered polo-playing jackhammers scored to a John Williamsesque full orchestra soundtrack (HELL YEAH). Goldenboy was also pretty good and I will probably be tracking it down eventually. Out of all films, my favorite showing without question was Osamu Tezuka's Cleopatra, a terrible low-budget and unsubbed 18+ movie which was simultaneously the best and worst thing ever.

Industry-wise, I attended about 12 industry panels during my trip. Notable guests I met include Madhouse founder Masao Maruyama and director/character designer Kazuto Nakazawa, two great guests who both had CRIMINALLY low attendance (like 20-30). Interestingly enough, Masao Maruyama went to see Nobuteru Yuki's panel, and sat down directly next to me - I scored an early autograph this way. I had to miss most of the J-Rock panels due to scheduling reasons, although I did get into the MUCC/Nana Kitade concert thanks to some incredible luck. Out of everything, Ayako Kawasumi was probably my favorite for obvious reasons, and I'm still kicking myself today for forgetting to bring my iRiver with me to record it. During the autographing session, she signed my Maritan book and was particularly amused that I even knew about it.

Here is the Otakon haul, limited not by my funds but by the size of my backpack (Sunday in dealer's room was AWESOME. My budget was only $200 but I filled up wayyy before that):

As you can see, a couple of good things up there..such as two Aria figure collections, new YURIA album Honey Bee, an issue of HM3 (seiyuu photobook magazine), oh and the crown jewel + ultimate goal of the trip:


Two autographed items by Ayako Kawasumi! :) I'm quite the happy camper.

By the way, Ayako is much MUCH cuter than any pictures would have you believe. She's just not very photogenic.

Posted by Paranda at 7:33 PM | Comments (5)

momo-i quality on sale now

Album is now in stores. My own package has shipped and is due to arrive in 2 days.

According to some Japanese blogs, there are additional extras aside from the photobook. However, they will remain a surprise for those of you ordering :).

Also, AVEX has a new feature at the top of their page. MOMOI PROJECT!!! It seems like there will be a three part project with the first part, her "essay" coming this fall. A DVD drama disc is planned for next spring, and opening/ending songs for the DVD will be out in November and December.

Posted by Paranda at 10:06 AM | Comments (2)

New Halko Momoi album release date set for August 9th

Way back in January, I posted a small note about a planned Momoi album. Then it was never discussed again and I forgot about it. So imagine my surprise when Plug announced a release date for "Momo-i quality ~Best of Momoi~", a new compilation album featuring much of her post-UNDER17 work. The album will go on sale August 9th, 2006 for 3000 yen (3150 after tax, which is irrelevant if you are ordering outside of Japan).

Although Momoi may have dropped some hints during her fanclub concert earlier this Sunday, Plug says they will release more details at a later time so there is no official word on goodies or the tracklist yet. However, only hours after the announced release date, CDJapan has listed the product here and promised to include a promo poster if you get the first pressing, so definitely preorder if you want one!

Here's mine:

Also, I finally managed to buy the elusive "Akihabalove" DVD from last summer, so expect some videos making the rounds at Youtube very soon. :)

Posted by Paranda at 10:13 AM | Comments (8)

Sweets Tankentai first album "NA NA NA" released.

This is a bit late, but hey I had tests.

Sweets Tankentai released their first album earlier this Wednesday. The band features YURIA, Masaya Koike (of UNDER17 fame), and K-SUGI. Release details can be found at Broccoli. It seems like most of it is filled with various OP/ED songs they did in the past year, but there are also some original songs in the mix. Guest artist MOSAIC.WAV is in one of the songs.

Subjectively speaking, I feel it is probably MUCH better than YURIA's first original album released two months ago. Examples of their excellent work can be found in the Canvas 2 OP/ED, which despite the horribly disappointing ending, is still a pretty good show. I suspect my forgiving attitude to this series must be attributed to the hypnotic nature of this music.

Posted by Paranda at 2:00 AM | Comments (1)

My turn

Now it's my turn to flaunt this DVD after everyone else already got theirs. Stupid SAL shipping :(. So anyway, the pacakge came after much waiting. Final projects are coming up and I have too much to do this week so I am going to put off comparing this new DVD with the old one until i have more time. A lot more time. Like.."after final exams/start of summer" time. I'll say this though - the extras are a bit disappointing. A single folded sheet as a liner note, with a B&W image on the back? No stickers/booklets/anything? I think they fixed the aspect ratio though, and got rid of the stupid interlacing. That's good at least. More on this later. In addition to Wonder Momo-i DVD, I have also received KOTOKO's new single "being," limited edition version, and Arisa Nakayama's mini album "Heart to Heart." This is significant since I rarely import non KOTOKO/Momoi CDs. Heart to Heart is just that good to be worth getting, so consider it a big deal I guess.

Posted by Paranda at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)

Mebius Ring

A short version of Halko Momoi's new song, Mebius Ring, is now up. It is the opening song for the H-game Sweet Room which will be released April 28th. Information can be found at the game's website (NWS!!!)here(NWS!!!). H-game songs often tend to bring out Momoi's best work, so I'm very glad she doesn't consider herself beyond doing these just yet. It is pretty catchy.

I've ripped an mp3 copy for anyone who wants to throw it on a portable player without WMA support until the full version comes out. Please enjoy.

It is back to studying for me.

Posted by Paranda at 1:33 AM | Comments (2)

Wonder-Momo-i DVD and Mami Kawada's SEED out today.

Well Momoi's DVD is finally out. Let's see if I preordered early enough to get in on the limited extras or not. There's not much new to report yet that I haven't already said in my previous anticipation posts, but in the coming days I will be scouring the blogs of Japanese fans who bought it for some reactions and information.

Regarding today's second significant artist release: Mami Kawada is the second I'VE singer to to catch a big break, having signed on with Geneon last year and released several singles. Her first album, Seed, came out today. I unfortunately did not know about this album release soon enough to have packed it together with my Wonder Momo-i DVD which shipped this morning. Earlier in the month, Mami also announced her first Live Tour in Japan which will begin in May. Advance tickets were made available through ThreeNine.

Posted by Paranda at 11:32 PM | Comments (4)

YURIA 1st Album

An amusing note on my last update: it seems someone linked to my front page in a Perfume thread yesterday on 2ch and it got hammered to shit in record time, which is why there was some downtime earlier today. I suppose getting slashdotted by those guys is an honor though. Thanks 2ch!

Anyway, my purpose for today's post is simply a reminder that YURIA's first album will be coming out TOMORROW!

As I mentioned earlier in this entry, YURIA basically kicked my ass back in November 05 after a chain of events turned me into a diehard fan. These included watching Shuffle, Canvas 2, and rediscovering Rurun Heart in my long lost unsorted denpa folder, among other things. Now YURIA is finally going to make her album debut, and hopefully a sign of more good things to come. --Please more voice roles!

Posted by Paranda at 4:43 AM | Comments (0)

Some ramblings on Perfume

Today I am going to write about the rising popularity of Perfume, the techno-pop trio that permanently gained my respect after an awesome performance at Wonder Momo-i. Be warned, this is gonna get long. In case you've never heard of them, take a look at their latest music video on YouTube, it might just prompt you to read this thing: Computer City

The members, Ohmoto Ayano (Nocchi), Nishiwaki Ayaka (A-chan), and Kashino Yuka (Kashiyuka) were recruited from the Actors School Hiroshima in 2001 to form pop idol group Perfume. They released two limited singles the following year: Omajinai Perori in March and Kareshi Boshuchu in November. In 2003, they signed with Bee-Hive to produce what is considered their first real indie single, "Sweet Donuts." They followed up with Monochrome Effect and Vitamin Drop in 04. At this point in time, Perfume's personality had been defined as "cute," but their sound was messy - it was all over the place and inconsistent in quality. Frankly I have trouble listening to their early stuff.

2005 was a big year for them. Perfume started going toward techno-pop which was a great move. That summer, Halko Momoi switched on her DJ Momoi personality and gave Perfume a huge push with the Akiba crowd by producing and promoting Akihabalove. This would be the release that eventually hooked me into Perfume fandom. Later that year, they put out their major national debut single "Linear Motor Girl" (this was a big release, you can even find it on Amazon.com in the US). Most recently, Perfume released their second major single "Computer City" this January.

Talent-wise, Perfume has what it takes. Their biggest weakness was their highly inconsistent sound, which has since been fixed now that they appear to have settled in with the electronic theme. Both their two new major albums have been very good and consistent, and their website makes it very clear they're shooting for a futuristic look. The group definitely has the performance part down too - they have great coordination and dance very well together. The music videos feature some extremely cool coordinated moves, and their live shows are equally exciting.

However, there is a lot of improvement that can still be made now that they're in the big leagues. Nocchi is quite obviously the weakest singer although she appears to be the most popular based on her fan club numbers. This is probably because she is ridiculously cute and acts pretty crazy when she's not singing, but I think in the long run, it will be more important to have passable vocals - Nocchi has screwed up repeatedly during live segments, and she sounds quite shaky even on mastered recordings. Sometimes it gets so bad she can ruin a good song. Needs a bit more practice there, but hopefully Perfume's new improved national presence will encourage her to work on her vocals a bit more - maybe get a voice coach.

A-chan appears to be the most comfortable on stage, which is why she appears to have the only speaking role in the group. She also seems to have the most common sense when appealing to fans (for a very obvious example - if you watch the Momoi video, when the fans start waving to Perfume A-CHAN IS THE ONLY ONE OUT OF THE THREE WHO REALIZED TO WAVE BACK. I mean..that's pretty basic right?) Unfortunately, as leader of the group (I say if you speak for the group, you are the defacto leader), A-chan does not have a very strong voice (although much much better than Nocchi), and a lot of times she comes across as mumbling.

Kashiyuka is my top pick right now, with no obvious flaws that I have seen yet. I may be biased though, because I basically decided she was going to be my favorite after about 30 seconds into the Momoi concert, after she delivers two simple introduction lines in the most awesome intonation possible. I have a weak spot for skilled voice work, and that great first impression of Kashiyuka will not be undone easily. Hopefully she starts getting some more attention.

But I don't want to get in too deep to discussing each person, or even just writing a few more extra paragraphs fawning over Kashiyuka because it just doesn't make me feel comfortable. During my research, I found out that apparently all three members of Perfume are actually younger than me: age 17, with A-chan being the youngest having her birthday just 5 days ago. This comes as a great shock considering my original estimate of their ages was somewhere around 22 to 25. Holy crap I was way off! Suddenly I feel dirtier than before in my fandom...especially since I used to consider it a mark of pride to be able to distance myself from those creepy guys who like the Morning Musume teens. Now I have nothing to hold myself above them. But, it is too late to turn back; after hearing Kashiyuka's promo and seeing the group perform at Wonder Momo-i, I have decided that they are going places.

Like an investor in the voice securities market, I am going to back Perfume early so I can hopefully reap the greatest reward any internet nerd knows: the right to say "I so called that shit" years down the line. Feel free to join me; we can be investor buddies :)

Link:

In an unrelated event: I signed up with Mixi today after Priz sent me an invite. My profile link is here if you feel like adding me and have an account. It looks like some sort of Japanese myspace/facebook, and while I usually hate joining up for websites like these, so far I find the various discussion communities formed on Mixi to be pretty useful for keeping up to date with seiyuu news, especially the calendar feature which is extremely neat - A LOT EASIER compared to say..browsing the 2ch behemoth (but I've only been browsing mixi for 2 hours so what do I know?).

Posted by Paranda at 5:56 AM | Comments (1)

Chuo Line

As I said in my last post, I was going to find out where the hell Chuo Line came from. It turns out it was a song from a live event very long ago by Momoi called the Mail Me Campaign. As far as I know, and I looked pretty hard, there are no CD copies of it in existence.

Thus, I did what I had to do..rip directly from DVD.
Chuo Line (Wonder Momo-i Live tour final version)

edit: bonus Akihabalove track :)
Akihabalove (Wonder Momo-i Live tour final version)

Posted by Paranda at 1:04 AM | Comments (4)

We love Space Akiba-Pop

Technically not Halko news, but it's time see what Koike's been up to, as we haven't heard from him in a while. As you may or may not know, Masaya Koike (Aniki of UNDER17) recently teamed up with dempa-song duo MOSAIC.WAV and is featured as a guest artist on their brand new album, Space Akiba-Pop, contributing his arrangement and guitar skills to several songs. Sold in limited quantities earlier last week at Comiket 69 and with a street date release of January 20th, it has surprisingly found its way onto the Internet, allowing us commoners an early listen. I express surprise only because this album seems to be getting more coverage (aside from the usual Japanese P2P sources, two IRC groups have also released mp3 versions through torrent sites) than MOSAIC.WAV's previous album "We Love Akiba-Pop" which cannot be found anywhere online as far as I know or cared to search for.

MOSAIC.WAV consists of MI-KO on vocals and Susumu Kayamori on keyboard, veterans to the dempa* song business. They work for Sham Studio. Space Akiba-Pop is their second full length album released to date. On this album are all the familiar electronic beats and MI-KO's adorable vocals and cheerleader-esque choruses. It clearly does not disappoint with respect to the first album, with tracks like "Space! Wave! Akiba-Pop" being just as addictive as its predecessor song...or even the cover art, this time an illustration by master-of-cute artist Poyoyon Rock. Plus it has Koike and we know what he can do! With KOTOKO now firmly in the "rock/pop" genre of music and no signs of turning back, we desperately needed another top-tier moe song performer to fill her gap. MOSAIC.WAV was a worthy claimant to this position for quite some time, and their second release now cements their long-term establishment in this field.

If you question my judgment being blurred by my obessions with UNDER17, let me state that I was a MOSAIC.WAV fan even prior to Koike's involvement with them. Not to take away from him or anything, but this album would have received my full endorsement regardless of its ties to the former UNDER17 member. I strongly suggest checking this out if you are a moe song fan like me and have not already heard of this group. Samples of some songs may be found freely available for download on their studio page, but if you plan on buying the CDs anyway (or are feeling particularly unethical) I suppose you could also hunt down the previously mentioned rips on P2P. I need more listening time on the new album to make an accurate recommendation for the new songs, but I can confidently push my old favorites like the original "We Love Akiba-Pop" and "Futsu no Uta." You can't go wrong with these.

* Someone correct me on this, but I believe dempa song is the original term for moe songs - UNDER17 has been credited with coining the word "moe song" according to an article on Excite which has now largely replaced dempa song in usage. The two terms can still be used interchangeably however (with exception to mature content), it appears MOSAIC.WAV has chosen to stick to the older term for consistency.

Posted by Paranda at 8:01 PM

YURIA has finally won me over.

This graph is actually rather misleading, as YURIA has always been awesome. Instead, the low points only indicate the time when I myself was TOO STUPID and TOO DEAF to know it was so. I have since been enlightened.

I had heard this song before when randoming through my mp3s, but I never bothered to really pay attention to the voice or who was singing. Today I randomed to it again, but thanks to Shuffle I became fully aware of this song's quality. (Thought process: "Hmm whoever sings this sounds strangely like the actress for Ama Shigure, who I really really love the voice work for. Hey this song is pretty good now that I am listening to it. And I love that voice, let's check the tags: wait..this is Yuria? Hold on, now let me check the Shuffle staff listing...*click*...AAAAAHHH YURIAAAAA!!!") Yuria really is at her best when she does the whiny, ditzy, yet somehow mind-meltingly cute high pitched voice. She also seems to have slight pronounciation quirk on certain consonants and vowels that I can't pin down or describe, but I know I can't get enough of it.

Posted by Paranda at 5:04 PM | Comments (0)

Mami Kawada is unstoppable.

Mami Kawada is probably the only I'VE singer other than KOTOKO that I follow with invested interest. To most people, they sound rather similar and often indistinguishable (usually to Mami's disadvantage - I can't tell you how many times I've seen the Onegai Teacher and Twins ending themes miscredited to KOTOKO), but I vouch that after repeated listenings, it becomes very easy to notice the unique and very ear-soothing inflection in Mami's voice. In fact, I would go so far as to say that she is now a better singer than KOTOKO. Her earlier songs simply weren't catchy enough to gain any sort of attention, and were often relegated to features for games, or used as anime ending themes.

That is quickly changing, and this year is a particularly good year for her. Like KOTOKO, she signed on with Geneon and started getting more attention, from both fans and her own composers. Her first release under Geneon was Radiance, the opening theme for Starship Operators. Radiance totally blew me away, and contains what I believe to be the most addictive intro sequence ever in anime song history. At the time, I considered Radiance to so ridiculously awesome that I instantly declared it the pinnacle of her musical career.

Apparently I was wrong, because her new single, Hishoku no Sora, is even better. It is by far the best opening theme this season, for the highly promising Shakugan no Shana animation. She is now 2/2 for hits, and headed in a great direction with Geneon supporting her. As of now, Mami Kawada is unstoppable. I am almost afraid of hearing her next song; will I be able to handle it?

Posted by Paranda at 1:25 PM | Comments (1)

Holy Weight Loss

A rip of the Wonder Momoi and some scans were released by LonE today, so I grabbed them to take a look until my package arrived. Here are the jacket pictures.

Jeez Halko got wayyyyyy too skinny. Oh my god where did her cute squishy face go? She needs to smile to bring out the cheeks. But I have no complaints with the songs. Or the angle on the lyrics page.

edit: now with OMG CHATLOGS. Because they make me feel better.
[23:11:29] ******: o you know what it is
[23:11:33] ******: its the angle they took the picture
[23:11:38] ******: but she did get stick skinny
[23:11:43] ******: now i must go on a diet too
[23:11:59] ******: and her makeup made her face look longer
[23:12:16] The Paranda: oh wow you think it's the makeup too?
[23:12:23] The Paranda: makeup can do that?
[23:12:29] ******: im a girl...
[23:12:30] The Paranda: i mean..it looks like the physical dimensions actually changed
[23:12:42] ******: its the angle and the makeup
[23:12:48] ******: youre not looking at her from the front view
[23:13:14] The Paranda: yeah but..i've seen her from this angle before.
[23:13:42] The Paranda: and that arm..it appears to be getting thinner as it travels up
[23:13:46] ******: the red blush made it seem like her cheek bones arent sticking up
[23:13:53] ******: and notice that she isnt smiling
[23:14:02] ******: or barely
[23:14:11] ******: well thats what happens when you lose weight
[23:14:22] ******: i want arms like those
[23:14:25] ******: :(
[23:14:30] The Paranda: :(
[23:14:48] ******: or maybe this is because she is getting old
[23:14:49] The Paranda: i want my momoi to eat more burgers and icecream again

Posted by Paranda at 11:07 PM

Sale date for Wonder Momoi

Yeah...

Should arrive in a week.

Posted by Paranda at 5:43 AM | Comments (0)

More Wonder Momoi anticipation

Only 6 more days until Wonder Momoi is on sale. Here is a shot of the cover. WONDER-MOMO COSPLAY! BRILLIANT!

Tracklist:
1. WONDER MOMO-I-NEW RECORDING-
2. ONCE UPON A TIME-FAIRY STORY-
3. WONDER MOMO-I-NEW RECORDING-
4. ONCE UPON A TIME-FAIRY STORY-

Posted by Paranda at 9:06 PM | Comments (0)

Wonder Momoi countdown

Hello friends. I am here again with some good Halko news. WONDER MOMOI release is only two weeks away. The cover art is still undecided, but we are fortunate enough to have something even better to satisfy our curiosity until release date. Despite not updating her website for over a month, Halko Momoi is still very much alive and still keeps fans up to date on her radio show instead. Last weekend on URAMOMOI, she gave us a preview of the upcoming single! I finally found some time today to check it out, and if you don't already listen to URAMOMOI then here is your chance to do the same:

WONDER MOMOI, Uramomoi version.

This song caused my brain to explode. This song exhibits what made me a Halko Momoi fan in the first place, before I even knew what she looked like or became entranced in her moe-moe mannerisms: the voice talent! She frigging changes modes mid-song and goes from one spectrum allll the way to the other. It's almost like there are two people singing. In fact, to someone who hasn't listened to her a lot they probably thought there WERE two different people singing. I was already on the edge of cracking when she starts going "rabu rabu momoi", but when she just shifts from hypercute and goes all opera-style near the end, I just lost it and started hooting. This single is gonna be good. So so good. ~Wowowowonder Momomomoi~

Posted by Paranda at 2:18 AM | Comments (0)

I've Girls Compilation 6

Why yes, despite all my Momoi love, I AM still partially an "I've" fanboy, so I have not forgotten about them. I haven't written about them much lately, but that's because it's been a while since "I've" last released something big. Now is finally that time.

A little background: I've stands for "I love, I live, I leave" and was founded by Kazuya Takase in 1998. Like UNDER17, their gimmick was to generally make G-rated songs for, well, X-rated games - with the exception of MIKI's "FUCK ME" - where the hell did that come? They also do a lot of trance work independently, although you can often hear instances where their trance influences their pop. Recently, their songs have gotten a more serious and harder feel. According to Lina, some duded named Yasutaka Ippoushi was also involved but I have never heard any of his work under any I've label EVER so I can only assume he dropped off before it was formed.

"I've"'s success is mostly thanks to a single singer, KOTOKO (Totally understable - she is the best :heart:), whose explosion of popularity earned "I've" much well deserved recognition. However, "I've" has actually had many many singers including AKI (runnerup for best, but sadly appears to have disappeared from the face of the earth), Kaori Utatsuki (lol replacement AKI. Cute, but AKI is a tough act to follow), Eiko Shimamiya, SHIHO, Mami Kawada (new runnerup after the realization set in that AKI is probably not coming back), MELL, MOMO, LIA (who is now part of Key), and a few others. They have even made songs for Hiromi Sato and Marina Ohno. The singer talent is rather varied, but voice talent doesn't matter because the music is almost always good.

Why? I'VE's true value is in the composers, who make the awesome JPOP/trance beats. Kazuya Takase and Tomoyuki Nakazawa are absolutely insane. You can always rely on them to come out with something ridiculously addictive no matter what. Even their solid trance outshines most of the others. For me, they are the two most important members of I've. The only I've member that can even come close is C.G. Mix. Seriously, how the hell do they come up with some of these tunes?? Atsuhiko Nakatsubo (FISHTONE) is also responsible for several gems but he tends to pull out turds way too frequently to receive the same amount of adulation. For a more complete guide to I've, you should check out http://www.ivesound.jp/ which happens to be the absolute best I've website out there, period. Even if you can't read the moonspeak, it is probably more useful than some random blog (such as this one :p) or any outdated low-content pitiful poorly written english fanpage (also such as this one if, say, you swapped 'Momoi' with 'I've' :p).

Anyway, they released I've Girls Compilation 6 yesterday. I have managed to obtain a copy through Winny, but I have yet to listen to it, so I will hold off my review until I get around that. I believe there is also a torrent on TokyoTosho if you look hard enough. Currently, there is no way to import a real copy of this, because Amazon.jp decided to list it as software (just like all the 5 previous compliations before) and their crazy restrictions mean software doesn't ship overseas. They did this with AkibaPop too, and it is one of the little things that Amazon likes to do for the sole purpose, I think, of being annoying and also because they enjoy the feeling of losing out on potential customers. Somebody please drop a comment if you know another place that will ship this to the U.S. at a REASONABLE PRICE.

Here is a link so you can look at it with envy.

Posted by Paranda at 1:30 AM

"Akihabarabu" news

It's two days too late, but I figure I might as well update on it. Nakid badly needs to implement a mailing list so I know about these things ahead of time.

On August 29th, Nakid released CD/DVD packs of "Akihabarabu" which contained recordings of the Uchimizu event I wrote about earlier. "Akihabarabu," which is a play on words "Akihabara," the number-one Otaku district in Japan, and the "Love," was sold in extremely limited quantities on the first floor of the YamagiwaSoft shop for 1,980 yen each (holy crap that's cheap!). According to some Japanese blogs, you had to reserve a ticket to buy this with representatives on Nakid.jp first to even have a shot at buying it.

The CD single contains "Akihabarabu" in its original and karaoke version. The DVD contains 2 videos: A promotional video of the Uchimizu Taisaku Ikusa event, and a choreographed music video.

Since I entirely missed my chance of owning this in any way (I have no way of travelling to Japan anyway), and this will not be mass produced or sold in any other stores..I will be watching the P2P networks extremely closely for the following weeks in hopes that some kind soul will rip and upload this. Hopefully, I will be able to grab something and share with the rest of us American fans. This was how I managed to get my hands on the Da Capo secret concert in 04 with Momoi as Utamaru at least, so it's not entirely impossible.

In the mean time, good luck with your own Momoi hunting, and please please email me any additional details you may find about this release.

Posted by Paranda at 5:00 PM

WONDER MOMOI

Today, I learned of Halko's brand new single WONDER MOMOI. Slated for release on October 19, it is yet another collaboration work between Momoi Halko and Manzo (they might as well stop beating around the bush and just officially form UNDER17 II together). The song is one of many for NAMCO's "Taiko no Tatsujin Tobikkiri! Animation Special" released earlier this month, from a series we english-speaking folk may recognize as "Taiko Drum Master!"

If you are looking to pre-order like I did, its catalogue number is COCC-15804. Happy Hunting. More details as they develop.

Posted by Paranda at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)

Ton Dol Baby pics

Ton Dol Baby scans were uploaded on the Internet yesterday. I decided to grab them to take an early look at what I'll be getting in the mail shortly. I opened them eagerly with overflowing excitement, expecting to be completely blown away.

Well I was blown away, but not in the way I had expected.
Hi-larious.
I certainly didn't expect this. LOL at keyboard guitar. Reminds me of someone else, but I can't remember who. Someone..

Wow. I didn't realize that was a horrific mockup of "baby lingerie." Padded flowery bra and exposed midriff.

I'm on the fence about this one. I think I like the costumes, but they just seem so different from "the usual." My pro-Momoi bias will result in me giving me the thumbs up, although if someone else were to wear these I'd probably call them hideous. One absolute that hasn't changed though, is the awesome music. "Ton Dol Baby" full version is wonderful. "Eigo to Koi wa Umaku Naranai" also features highly enjoyable words. Glad I can find stability in that.

~How are you today? How do you do tonight?~ <3

Posted by Paranda at 7:16 AM | Comments (0)

Overdue Enlightenment

Ever had an album that you didn't really enjoy listening to the first few times and dropped it, only to relisten to it months later and discover it was awesome? This magical phenomenon of your brain suddenly "getting it" happens to me far too often, but even with my veteran experience...I was totally caught off guard this time with Yuki's recent album, "Joy."

Yuki Isoya, as many people may know, was the lead singer for the 90's j-rock band "Judy and Mary." After the breakup in 2001, she moved on to pursue her solo career and has been fairly successful. Joy, released this February, is her third album following "Prismic (2002)" and "Commune (2003)." While I was not really a fan of Yuki or JAM in general (I liked 'Radio' and 'Overdrive', but that's about it), I decided to grab "Joy" back in February simply out of curiosity and need for new music. After only listening it about two times, I got that "ehh it's okay but I will get around to it again a little later" feeling. A little later turned out to be a lot later: July, and totally by accident.

I am a pseudo-shuffler. This means I like to load up every single song I have in my collection onto my iRiver, and play it on shuffle..but I don't actually listen to the songs in the order that get shuffled. I usually start with a particular song on my mind and just hit the next button until I randomly get to it. If there is anything good along the way I might stop, but otherwise my thumb gets a really intense workout any time I'm listening to music. So, even though I shuffle, I never really try many new songs since they always just get skipped over after the first 2 seconds. Yuki was categorized as "skip." However, last Friday, I was dead tired from working and I fell asleep on the way home (good thing I wasn't driving huh?) with my iRiver still playing. About a half hour later, I woke up refreshed to a very pleasant sound. My mp3 player had shuffled to "Walking on the Skyline," track 4 of Joy. After it finished playing, I hit back and listened to again, then a third time.

It was time to become a Yuki fan. I turned off shuffle and let the album play out. Next was "Sweet Seventeen," which had the most ridiculously nasally vocals I've ever heard in my life, and it was so cute I wanted to melt. And I did melt, because next on the playlist was "Cider." Yuki constantly sounds like she's got a frog lodged in her throat, yet it's not a bad thing at all. It's an addicting voice. She's also got a flair for mangling words and vowels. With all her "schleins" and "schlas" and "ü's" or whatever the hell she's saying, sometimes I can't tell if she's belting out Japanese or some weird variation of German. Jerman, perhaps? I seriously wonder if she purposely constructed her singing voice or if she really just does sound like that in real life. This style of singing was fairly prominent when she was in JAM too, probably even moreso, and now I am busy cycling through old JAM stuff to give it another chance. If I end up liking it, I'll be pretty busy with 9 years of stuff to go through. That's a lot of music.

Joy wraps up with a few slower songs, which are also nice once again because of the voice. "Tinkerbell," track 11, gave me the gay temporarily because I really like it and I should not like songs named after pixies, but I digress. "Joy" is a great album which has resparked my interest in Yuki, and I can't believe I've been skipping over it all these months. So if you've got time, check it out.

Posted by Paranda at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)

New Songs

With the airing of Akahori Gedou Hour Love Game, two brand new Momoi songs have surfaced. Well, one and a half. The opening theme, "Nesshou! Rabuge Night Fever," is performed by Love Pheromone & Gedou Otometai featuring Momoi Haruko, Kageyama Hironobu, and arranging credit to some other guy that I didn't bother to research. Momoi and Kageyama have worked together many times in the past and have covered famous anisongs together on the radio. This new song has recognizable traits from both of them, but especially recognizable is Momoi's trademark yelp, "~fuu~fuu," which appears in favorite songs such as "Ichigo Go! Go!," "Tenbatsu! Angel Rabbie," and "Koko da yo." Unfortunately, this sound effect is not done by her in this particular song, and the result once again proves that if your name isn't Momoi Haruko, you should not attempt to make this sound. Download OP here. The single will come out on July 27th and will have the full version of the song. I like Neowing so I am going to pimp their site again, because they ship insanely fast and are cheaper than Amazon after you factor in shipping. Thanks Amazon.jp, for $20 "economy" shipping on $10 items.

Do not despair however, because TV shows always have an opening AND an ending. In the same show, the ending theme is a Halko song featuring full blown cutey moe moe vocals. The arranger this time is none other than Manzo (also the arrange guy behind 'Hide and Seek' and 'Friendship'), who seems to be adapting very well to Momoi's style of music, as each of his newer songs with her gets better than the previous one. In fact, he is starting to carve out a style of his own instead of churning out carbon copies of old UNDER17 tracks. As much as we all miss Aniki, this guy is looking to be a pretty good replacement. This actually sounds like an original song while still maintaining the things that make Halko songs so good. Ton Dol Baby features cute melodies, cute vocals, and even cuter lyrics. "motto baby" Download ED here.

The full version of this also comes out July 27th on CD, so preorder your copy now. I'd love to get both OP and ED singles, but I am just so poor. If you have to choose, choose this one: it has more Halko.

Oh, and another reason to buy this...the frigging cover! Jeez just look at it (click image for big). There are just so many "WTFs" on so many levels with that image that I absolutely have to get at the liner notes and see where it's going. There is bound to be more pictures inside..rattles and pacifiers are a possibility. It's so odd yet so funny. Why do I suddenly feel like a creepy fetishist? Order it. Yes I am getting it for the music, not the pictures. No really. Seriously. I am. Those pics just..uh..happen to be a bonus, you know..if there are going to be any.

Oh by the way, it's not the first time Momoi has dressed up in baby gear; bet you didn't know that. :O

Also, my images are randomly floating over my borders when there's not enough text so I have to add this filler crap to make sure that doesn't happen. This is probably due to my shoddy beginner level CSS, but what can I say? I'm sure there's a way to fix this with one line to my stylesheet, but that's for skilled people. I, on the other hand, happen to suck.

Posted by Paranda at 7:37 PM | Comments (0)

Angelrabbie PV finally in hand.

After noticing a rather large spike in bandwidth usage this month, I decided to go check out the logs. Apparently, a particular site had been hotlinking my Koi no Milkyway PV videos. Although I would usually throw fits about hotlinking and such, when we are dealing with Halko my hostility towards these kinds of practices are overridden by curiosity and satisfaction (plus he was even nice enough to link back to me. Thanks guy); that another site exists that would host or even leech remotely UNDER17-related content..the more the better, and I chalked it up as another victory for the Halko fanclub. Yes, I realize I sound like a huge faggot.

Anyway, it turns out this was the best thing that could ever happen to me because today I followed the link and BEHOLD: Direct download of Tenbatsu Angel Rabbie PV (ZOMG SO HOT)! This particular one had escaped my eye in both Winny and Share, and now that I have obtained it my day has been made. I'd like to say once again, "Thanks Somdan you are pretty awesome."

http://ncity.net/~somdan/tt/index.php?page=1

Posted by Paranda at 11:36 PM | Comments (3)

Glass no Kaze anticipation

There are only five more days until Glass no Kaze comes out. Today, I finally broke down and decided to preorder a copy from CDJapan.

Track list is as follows:
01. RETRIEVE
02. Wing my Way
03. Oboetete Iiyo
04. Tameiki Clover
05. Meconopsis
06. Sasakure
07. Kohaku
08. Re-sublimity
09. Glass no Kaze
10. 421-a will-
11. Free Angels
12. ß-Nendo no hoshi
13. Akai tama, aoi tama

It doesn't have much new stuff, but neither did Hane and I did not regret buying that. I think the bundled DVD will be worth it.

If you understand a bit of Japanese, you can find more information about Glass no Kaze at KOTOKO's official website.

Posted by Paranda at 9:15 AM | Comments (0)

Let me love you

About two weeks ago, I came across a very strange Momoi song called "Let me love you." Its strangeness comes from the style of the song which, as any dedicated fan may realize after listening, is a little different from anything she's ever done before. This song does not sound like Momoi. Where normally there should be hyper cries of "chu chu" and an onslaught of really addicting guitar riffs and electronic sounds, we find instead soft soothing vocals set against gentle acoustics.

Although Momoi has a long and varied career, her music has always maintained a certain flavor. Whether she was UNDER17 or Poly-Phonic or Virtualian-co, her lyrics were often sugar-coated with girly innocence (Magi-cu), geeky references (GURA GURA), or general insanity (Ichigo Go!Go!); her voice was always cute; her tunes were always horrifically ear-bleedingly addictive. While some songs, like as "Figure ni Naritai" and "Kotae," broke this traditional formula, in them you could find influences of her unique style. The general rule was, "You can always know a Halko song when you hear one."

This was not one of those songs. Here, I found myself listening to it several times on loop and still wondering to myself, "Did Momoi really sing this?" Here, I found a serious attempt at a conventional love song. Momoi's old music had carved such a distinct impression on me that I was unable to adapt to change. But, if there were any song that could break the pigeonhole, this was it. I found myself enjoying it more and more, and now it is one of my favorite songs.

Yesterday, I finally discovered the origins of this song. It came from School Days Vocal Album which was released in late April (thank goodness for ero-games and their demand for character music). This was a new song, a display of her excellent vocal range, and possibly a hint of things to come. It is fun to think what could have happened if Momoi stuck it out singing standard Jpop back in 97 and never moved on to moesongs. Then perhaps all of her songs would sound like this. However, objectively speaking, this song is not really special and it sounds like every other love song out there. The catch is that it is Momoi, and thus the appreciation is boosted knowing that it is so different from the old. For her, it is fresh and groundbreaking. I like this song, because through it, I witness Momoi's evolution. It's always nice to see something like that...

Sparingly though. She still needs to stick to the cute stuff: I like that best.

Let me love you.ogg

Posted by Paranda at 11:16 PM | Comments (3)

ironic

More adventures in Winny (because Share sux and doesn't work)! This time I have grabbed a copy of Ironic, which is a song I have been looking all over for since May of last year. It does not disappoint.

No, not Alanis Morissette. Poly-Phonic.
Let me tell you...Momoi armed with a vocoder...that just blows my mind.
Also, last night's Uramomoi was pretty funny.

You know I should really really be studying for exams right now.

Posted by Paranda at 2:55 PM | Comments (1)

Momoi butchers classic anisongs

Picked up 4 episodes of Uramomoi, a new weekly radio show that Halko hosts late at night. Although it's not as feature-packed or organized as KOTOKO's show on Air-G, it's still very cute and has many funny moments. She answers fan mail, takes requests for songs (and she's pretty damn good, if she's really improvising all those requests on the spot), and talks about the various things going on in her career. I suggest all other Momoi fans to make an effort to catch at least one episode. Even if you can't understand a word, you'll find yourself enjoying it.

Not convinced?
We are living, living in the eighties
We still fight, fighting in the eighties

Posted by Paranda at 7:44 PM | Comments (1)

Koi no Milkyway

Today I was sent an incredibly awesome and very rare file: an old UNDER17 promotional video produced by Nakid! It is by far the cutest music video I have ever seen (the song is called "Koi no Milkyway"). There are just so many things that are perfect about this video: the bewildered anime nerd, the body pillow, the absolutely over-the-top false enthusiasm and subtle insanity in Momoi's smile...ah it's all just too great. Words cannot describe the coolness of this thing..you'll just have to see for yourself. Temporary Download Link.

I love this woman.

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