Resonant Blue

OH MY GOD I’M MAKING A POST. (GASP!)

So it’s that time of year again where covers for all the 2010 calendars are out, and everyone’s pre-ordering them. And yet again, I find myself with a dilemma. Just which calendars should I get…?!
But…somehow it got much worse than last year. Last year I was trying to decide between 3. This year…well, let’s just say it’s a little more ;___;

Starting wiiiith…

Morning Musume. I have their calendar for 2009, and I really love it. Even though I haven’t been blogging as much lately, I still really love Morning Musume. And this cover is really really pretty!! I love the outfits and everything.

Next is the Prince of Tennis calendar. I had their 2008 calendar and was completely in love with it- every page was interesting. Like, a page with Kaidou and Mizuki at Rikkai cafe- wtf?! XDD So random. After that, I was really excited for the 2009 calendar. But then….I’m glad I didn’t end up getting it. The 2009 calendar was really boring, with each page featuring a team (or two) in cool tennis poses with a boring background. I mean, really?! DDD: Disappointing…I’m kind of wary for this calendar now- I’m definitely not pre-ordering it until I see previews. Which…hopefully won’t take forever to show up? If it’s interesting like most of the previous calendars, I’ll get it…

Onto the toku calendars: Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Kamen Rider Decade/Double. I suppose it makes sense that Decade and Double share a calendar, since they’re both 2009 series…XDD The Decade/Double calendar looks kinda cool- I like that there are pictures of the other Heisei Riders on the front, maybe they’ll be included in the actual calendar :O And I totally love the Kuroko on the bottom of the Shinkenger calendar. HOWEVER, I’m still a little apprehensive about toku calendars- do they feature pictures of the characters as themselves or only the suits?! I mean, considering I pretty much watch toku for the eyecandy, I don’t want to get a Shinkenger calendar thinking it has Takeru and Ryuu and Chiaki and the others only to find that all the pages are of them in their transformed form XD I don’t think I saw any pictures of the Kiva calendar from last year- if previews don’t show up, I’ll probably end up not buying them.

…Actually I have no intention of getting this one but I’m curious, it shows every single main Kamen Rider and Red from sentai, does that mean they’re all in this calendar?! Also hi Mebius <333
It's kind of interesting I guess, cause you see the mass of Red from sentai....and like, to me it really hit me that even though these sentai shows that I've watched seem totally special to me cause I love them so much, in years they'll just be 'one of the 2000s sentai', doomed to maybe be referenced in anniversary sentai but otherwise forgotten D: I mean, it's sad to see GekiRed just in the group of Reds, because to me Gekiranger was the first sentai I saw and it's still my favorite....it's to be expected but it's still kinda sad XD;; (actually, I was nostalgic about Gekiranger the other day cause I finished Boukenger, and since Boukenger was the series directly before Geki, they had commercials for the "new series". I miss hot Arayan and adorable Zukki and Manpei and Mele and...;___;)

So now to look through the Male Stars part of Yesasia’s calendar section…8DD

…It feels like just yesterday that Inoue Masahiro and Murai Ryouta were pretty much unknown Hyoutei B cast Tenimyu actors. Fast-forward a year later and they have their own CALENDARS. What happened? They starred in Kamen Rider Decade, of course. I feel bad now, when they were first announced for Decade I was like “…they couldn’t have gotten anyone better?!” Their musical wasn’t even out on DVD yet, I was just completely biased cause I loved the A cast actors ;__;
I will say though, Seto starred in Kiva last year, why didn’t he get a 2009 calendar? T___T (…actually maybe he did and I missed it. hmm. I wasn’t very actor-focused back then…)

For the other main toku, we have two of Shinkenger’s stars, Matsuzaka Toori and Aiba Hiroki, Takeru/ShinkenRed and Ryuunosuke/ShinkenBlue respectively. I’m pretty sure Matsuzaka’s another example of one series boosting his popularity a ton- I certainly hadn’t heard his name before. Though I think he did modeling work before Shinkenger? idk. Aiba, on the other hand, is a totally experienced actor, so I’m not surprised he’s getting a calendar. As much as I love Aiba though…I think I like Toori’s pic better @___@ I want to see Tono-sama like that in Shinkenger…
The other two main actors in Shinkenger don’t seem to be getting calendars DD: On the girls side though, Morita Suzuka (Kotoha/ShinkenYellow) is getting her own calendar. Not surprising, considering she is in Idoling!!! after all. No sign of anything for Mako’s actress though…

So many pretty calendars….what to do ;____; I don’t see any sign of a D-Boys calendar, which is a little surprising…I would totally get one if they made it. No individual D-Boys either….I want Arayan .____. Or, not D-Boys, but Hamao Kyousuke. Or Takiguchi Yukihiro. Or Watanabe Daisuke. Or….as;dlfkjasdflk ;___;
A Tenimyu calendar would also be AWESOME but they don’t make those, do they XDD

So this weekend was Anime Boston. I only got to go on Saturday though. Friday was too busy cause of school and today I wanted to go but my mom said no cause she didn’t want to drive me =( But I was there for a looong time yesterday! (part of it against my will, but still….)

This year was my first year going without the usual crowd from my town and without an adult. My mom just dropped me off in front and was like “call me when you want to be picked up!” I picked up my badge within like a minute cause I pre-registered, but then I stood in line with a couple friends from my anime club cause I’m an idiot. After that we started going off separately but then Justin went to lunch with his cousins so the rest of us were like WE NEED TO FIND HIM AND HAVE LUNCH TOGETHER. We didn’t find him but the rest of us ate together. After that we went back to the dealer’s room where we split up again. I was literally in the dealer’s room for three hours. I ALMOST made it out of there with still like $65 left…but then when I was done I called my mom to pick me up, and she was like “….I’m driving north to have dinner with a family friend and I can’t just leave them there” WHAT THE HELL YOU SAID TO CALL YOU WHEN I WAS READY. So then she told me she couldn’t get me until like 7:15 (it was like 5:15 at the time). I sat in the corner being all emo for like a half hour, then decided to go find the anime club people again. After texting one of them I found out they were back in the dealer’s room, so I went back there, but then I never ended up finding them. I wandered around for a little bit and then found the Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged Series booth…by this point it was like 6:15. So I’m standing in front of it staring at all the awesome t-shirts trying to decide which ones to get, and watching the series on a computer on the table. (I ended up on webcam actually, they were doing a live stream from the booth the entire con.) Then all of a sudden I overhear a guy from the next booth over (the Connecticon booth, which was going the other way so I could see the computer from where I was standing) go “…I can watch live Japanese TV…” So I look over and I think “….that series looks familiar.” Checked my watch. 6:25. Calculated time difference. Japan time, 7:25 Sunday morning. me: “….is this…TV Asahi?!” So all of a sudden even though I decided which shirts to buy and I paid for them and all, I realize I have to hang out until it hits 6:30. As soon as it hits 6:30 I’m just staring at the computer…and then a very very familiar scene shows up on the screen…SHINKENGER <333333 For once in my life I"m like "...fuck awkward moments, I'm going over to watch" So I run over to the next booth, and the guy's just like "...wtf?" He was watching it seriously until the opening came on and it finally showed them in the Shinkenger outfits and then he was just like "WHAT THE FUCK POWER RANGERS?!" So we watched the episode together :3 I educated him on the wonders of sentai. But then just as Decade started up, the announcement came over the speaker system that it was 7 and the dealer's room was closing =( So I couldn't watch Decade. Then I bought myself dinner and just waited outside until my mom came.
I find it very amusing that the awesome story of the day only happened cause my mom couldn't pick me up on time. I'm kinda glad that happened now. I also met someone from the YGO abridged series booth that's a Kamen Rider fan- we talked about it for a bit. I actually went on their IRC channel today and hung out- they wanted me to come back to the con today but I couldn't =( i think I'll probably hang out in that channel a bit longer- it was pretty cool. Also the YGO abridged series in general is just awesome xD
I...managed to not take a single picture of a cosplayer. What the fuck. Oh well. I saw an awesome Eiji but she (...I find it amusing how all the good cosplays I see of Eiji and Fuji are by girls) was working at a booth and she was busy so I couldn't ask her for a picture, and I didn't want to just be like LOL CREEPY STALKER PICTURE.

Now...the other awesome part of the day. The stuff I bought there, of course! XD

Originally I only spent half of my money and was saving the other half for Shouganai and P9D. But then when I had to wait two hours, I was bored and went back into the dealer’s room, and there’s no way I could hang out there without spending money! XD I ended up with like $15 left…

Yeah um…it looks kinda random. The problem is, I couldn’t remember which Japanese volumes I had already =( I had a list of the English volumes I have, but not the Japanese versions. I’ve pretty much been working backwards- I bought 40, 41, and 42 as they came out, so then I’ve been buying them in reverse order. I couldn’t remember how far back I was though…T___T Turns out I DIDN’T have 35 like I thought I did. I knew I had 34 cause it was the Synchro volume, and I knew I had 31 cause it was Eiji’s singles match. So I bought 33, 32, 30, 29, 28…and then, I don’t even know what I was thinking when I bought 13. I mean…what? O___o I would have eventually gotten it at some point so it doesn’t really matter, but why did I choose to buy that one? Maybe cause it had the movie ad on the obi? With Shirota XD I feel like I got overcharged for these =( For 6 volumes it was $44, and I didn’t think anything of it at the time…but now I realize that it was $7 per volume (plus tax). It shouldn’t be that much….they didn’t have price tags on them so I just kinda assumed it’d be about the same as they’d be in Japan. Oh well.

The CD selection wasn’t very good this year for people that AREN’T into the popular j-rock, but then again it’s like that every year. I did, however, find an original press (before the rerelease!) of Koi no Dance Site, a first-press Happy Summer Wedding (which comes with a special booklet), and then one of Koda Kumi’s singles from that 12-single release thing she did a couple years ago- most of them are out of print now, so I was surprised to find this. Thankfully it was one of the ones I like! XD
Then, the first thing I bought was Kamen Rider The First. I was so excited to find this! I knew it was licensed but I hadn’t ever seen it anywhere. Now I can watch this, then download the subbed version of The Next (the sequel which hsan’t been licensed yet) which has KATOU KAZUKI <3333
And then Morning Musume playing cards from 2003. They looked cool so I bought them XD There were some other H!P sets, but this one was my favorite.

The Newtype was kind of a mistake, but…whatever XD I like Newtype so it’s ok. I was looking through a booth that was selling old magazines, and I was flipping through the Japanese magazines to see if there was any PoT. While looking through another one, I was holding the Haruhi one (along with the Otaku USA which I actually did intend to buy) and the guy working there took them from me and started adding the prices up…so I was just like “…whatever” I’m so glad I found that Otaku USA- I don’t follow that magazine but there was a special Kamen Rider feature in that issue! I missed it when it came out, so I thought I wouldn’t be able to find it, but…:D The article about Dragon Knight is fine and everything, but the history of Kamen Rider section….not really liking it. This is from April 2009, so why is it still like “Kamen Rider Den-O: January 2007-now”?! If it were early 2008 it could be attributed to an earlier deadline, but this is 2009- Den-O finished over a YEAR ago XD Also they said “Kamen Rider Kiba”. (Decade wasn’t mentioned at ALL.) >___< I wonder if the people that write these articles have actually ever SEEN the shows...?

Yes, that is Atobe x Sakuno. See, I scoured the entire con for doujinshi that I liked, and…there really wasn’t a very good selection of PoT doujinshi. The booth that had a good amount of PoT doujinshi was all like “DOUJINSHI FOR 18+ ONLY”. Out of the other two booths that had doujinshi, only one had PoT, and it was only like, 4 doujinshi. I wasn’t going to buy it originally, but then I thought to myself, “am I really going to leave here without buying any doujinshi!?” and went back to buy these two. The Atobe x Sakuno one is pretty much just cause I thought the art was really cute (though it turned out to be an anthology by a bunch of different artists), and the other one…I had NO IDEA what it was going to be, so I was kinda hesitant, but then I figured it’s better to buy it and be disappointed than to not buy it and regret it later (cause i can always sell it if it sucks). Turns out it’s a crack doujinshi and it’s TOTALLY AWESOME o__o

RYOUMA FIGURE WOOHOO. I saw this at one booth for $40 and thought “…too expensive, I’d buy it if there was an Eiji figure but there’s only Ryouma and Fuji”. Then after walking around more, I found another booth selling them for only $23! So I bought the Ryouma one XD


T-SHIRTS <3 I couldn't choose between the YGO abridged t-shirts so I bought three of them XD (though there were still more that I wanted...) If you don't get these jokes, you really need to see the series. It's totally awesome XD These are my new favorite t-shirts now. It's good cause i've been needing some new shirts...I don't go out and shop at stores, I pretty much just buy shirts from events like cons >____>

In addition…how about the other stuff I’ve been getting? No CDs actually, but…in the past two weeks, I’ve gotten quite a few photosets…

I wish they sold cool photos at AB. There were a bunch of photos and even some boxes labeled “photos of hot guys” but it was only those popular j-rock groups D: No REALLY hot guys XD
I bought the first two, 2nd cast Ooishi (Suzuki Hiroki) and original Choutarou (Date Kouji) from one seller- they were cheap o__o It was awesome, I don’t usually see 2nd cast photosets for sale so I had to grab these!
Then the rest is all from Dream Live 6th- one person sold an entire set of 4th cast Seigaku photosets + Shitenhouji B Shiraishi. Someone bought the Tezuka photoset before I found the post though, so I just got the rest of the set. It’s awesome to have the sets from DL6…cause it’s 4th cast’s last performance and all T___T Not to mention I love these sets! The second picture, of them in a classroom in character, is awesome. In particular…

ADORABLE. Mao-chan <3 I'm going to miss him so much T_____T His voice wasn't the best but he was SO CUTE as Eiji. (though I wish he was smiling in the out of character pictures. some actors look better when they're all stoic, but to me Mao-chan is best when he's smiling and Eiji-level happy <3)

Also lol Kaidou. PINK BANDANNA! :D (I don’t actually like pink but I think Kaidou needs to wear that someday.)
As for the others in 4th cast? I’ve grown to love them all so much…but some of them, when I see them out of character and costume then I’m just like “…….” 4th Ooishi looks weird to me with normal hair XD And then for some reason I just think 4th Inui’s much hotter with the Inui hair and the glasses. (but only when in costume and everything. no one looks good with Inui hair unless they have the uniform and megane.) I really do love 4th cast though… .___. WHY DO I FALL IN LOVE WITH THE CASTS RIGHT BEFORE THEY LEAVE?!

Anyway, so…yeah, that was Anime Boston this year. Now off to do work and study for exams…? Not very good timing this year, huh. I liked last year when it was during spring break =(

Earlier this week in assembly, there was announcement in assembly about Art Street- a yearly tradition at my school where this old guy called Sidewalk Sam comes and we all draw on the sidewalks with chalk and there’s a food sale and slushies and…you know, I really don’t know the POINT of it, but it happens on a Friday in late May every year and it’s really fun! It’s warm out, so drawing on the sidewalk in nice weather (well, hopefully. two years ago it started pouring near the end of the day) is really fun and kinda brings me back to when I was a little kid and did that all the time. It’s also a good break from schoolwork, cause exams are coming up in two weeks. But anyway. At first I thought “oh awesome, Art Street!” Then I remembered what I drew last year- among other things, I wrote a first anniversary message for Resonant Blue (which was late by a couple of days, but whatever). As soon as that came into my mind I was thinking “oh shit I missed my second anniversary!!” As soon as I got to a class where I could use my laptop, I immediately pulled up this site- and thankfully, I still had a couple of days.
Well, that day is today. Both Resonant Blue’s second anniversary and Art Street are today! As I type this while sitting int eh library, I can see outside (the building has like huuuge windows on all sides) where they’re setting up right now. I have classes until 12:50, so hopefully there will still be some room left for my anniversary message D: (though by the time this gets posted, I’ll have actually written it and posted the pictures XD)

This year I haven’t been as active as my first year- I’m sorry T___T I’m not very good at like, analyzing singles or PVs or whatever, and if I write about a new group it’d just be like “this group is cool, I like this member but not this member, I’m looking forward to their single”. Of course I’m still following H!P- I can talk about stuff in #wotachat, but putting it in a blog post form?
I feel like a news blog would be easier for me- but then at the same time, there isn’t just one official site that H!P uses to announce everything. You look at Prince of Tennis- which I do have a news blog for (and I update it a lot more than I do this)- and the three official sites have all the news right away, so I just have to check those three sites and translate any news. H!P would be much harder, wouldn’t it?

Looking back on last year’s post amuses me. “Prince of Tennis ended, and I cried. =( (HATED the ending, btw.)” Well, this year? SEQUEL. FUCK YES. Just so I can look back on this in a year: right now in the sequel, the last chapter left off with that mental strength coach guy being like “FORM PAIRS OK?” so everyone was like YAY DOUBLES <3 and then the coach was all like "NOW PLAY EACH OTHER AND THE LOSER HAS TO LEAVE THE CAMP" and everyone FREAKED OUT. (except the weird random pairs. Inui obviously saw this coming cause why else would he pair up with Mizuki?) GOLDEN PAIR T___T I kind of want lots of Golden Pair angst. But then at the end it has to be all like some sort of test because NEITHER OF THEM CAN LEAVE THE CAMP. I'LL CRY IF THEY HAVE TO T___T
At that time, I was also just starting to get into dramas and live-action shows- though really, even though I said I wanted to watch more, I didn't watch much. I hadn't even watched much Tenimyu- probably only up through St Rudolph o__o The summer after that, I finished catching up to Tenimyu (I always hated the new casts as they came in cause they were replacing actors I had grown to love so much .__. I even hated 2nd cast at first! O___o Right now I'm still in the hate stage for 5th cast- hopefully that will change soon. .__.) and I also began to get into one of my current biggest fandoms- TOKUSATSU.
Kamen Rider Kiva was my starting point- I knew of Seto Kouji as Eiji in Tenimyu (though I don't know why I loved him so much- I hadn't SEEN any 3rd cast yet but I still thought he was so adorable), and I looked up his new show when it was first announced, thought "....Eiji in a Power Rangers show?" and downloaded it. Of course I didn't end up watching it until summer, but...once I caught up with the latest Kiva episodes at the time, I then found out about this other show (that's really much more like Power Rangers than Kamen Rider) called Juuken Sentai Gekiranger, starring Araki Hirofumi and Suzuki Hiroki (Inui and Ooishi from 2nd cast, respectively- this was after I caught up to the musicals and fell in love with 2nd cast XD). When I first started watching it, I kept thinking "...oh god I'm watching a kids show why am I doing this this is so lame" but then I actually really got into the story and everything and... .___. (also I fell in love with another actor, Takagi Manpei, and an actress, Hirata Yuka) I finished Gekiranger and Kamen Rider Den-O (which I watched because it was a Rider show, not because of any awesome actors- I actually had never heard of the actors in it) over Christmas break, and started Kabuto...etc etc.
Now I only have three Heisei Rider series (out of 10) left to watch- Kuuga and Agito because they haven't been subbed yet by TV-Nihon, and then Hibiki just because XD I probably wouldn't have bothered with the old series if it wasn't for the 2009 series, Kamen Rider Decade- which, as a special anniversary series, involves all 9 previous series. As for sentai, I've since watched Engine Sentai Go-Onger and I'm totally in love with the 2009 series, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger- which I was iffy about watching when it was first announced, but then they announced the actors and OH MY GOD AIBA HIROKI IS SHINKENBLUE. But again, this turned into loving the actual show, not just watching for Aiba!
So anyway- each new show I watch gets me interested in at least one new actor I'd never heard of before, which then makes me want to watch his other shows, and the cycle just keeps going XD
Lately I've been focusing more on toku and actors and stuff rather than H!P...I feel kinda bad. It's not that I don't like H!P anymore or anything- I'm not one of those people that's like "oh I fell out of the fandom cause I got into this other fandom" and then they actually never listen anymore or anything. I just...don't post as much, really o__o I'm still interested in H!P, I just haven't really been putting as much time into blogging about it. That's been the biggest change over this year...

Well, anyway. It's been two years since I started blogging...(wow. It's so weird to think about it like that.) And to celebrate, since today was Art Street...of course I wrote a message!! This year's was bigger and more elaborate than last year's XD I chose a larger space, but it was in the sun...which turned out to be a bad idea cause the pavement was scorching hot. But I made it out alive XD Covered in chalk (I actually ran into history class right after making this (running late) with my hands literally purple all over and with chalk on my FACE cause I kept pushing my hair out of the way.), but alive XD I got more attention from other people this time too- a bunch of people asked me what I was writing about. Even Sidewalk Sam asked me about it (this was after he decided he wanted me to make art for him over the summer o___o;;) and said he'd check it out XD Anyway, here it is- sorry the pictures suck. It's a pretty new camera and I haven't used it much yet...and it was too big so I couldn't get it all in the picture XD


<333333
I don't know why I added the Kaidou thing. All of a sudden it just hit me cause I was loling with Rocky last night about it XD When I was first getting into PoT and looking at the Wikipedia pages, for some reason, the following quote was under the trivia section on Kaidou's page: "Kaido name starts with a K" And it wasn't just something that got reverted right away, it actually stayed on the page for a while XD I have NO idea what the hell whoever added it meant, what the point of it was, and the bad grammar and everything....XDDD;
(I also drew my crazy stick-figure dog….Sidewalk Sam compared it to a professional artist and called me an artist and actually asked me to do art with him this summer O_____o I uh…IT’S A STICK FIGURE XD)

So here’s to another year of blogging gone by, and hopefully the third year will be totally awesome!!

I love surveys :DDb

First, misa’s (from minna iru kai):

1. What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to?
Overall, I guess it was some anime song by an obscure artist. Probably either the Sailor Moon opening or the Tokyo Mew Mew opening, but I don’t really remember that far back. I don’t really consider those to be my first j-pop songs- once I got into Inu Yasha, however, I ended up listening to lots of actual j-pop since all the openings/endings were done by popular artists like Do As Infinity, BoA, Hamasaki Ayumi, etc. Since I watched the dub on TV first, and they didn’t show the opening themes, not to mention I started in the middle of the series, I *think* the very first one I saw was Every Heart, by BoA, one of the ending themes.

2. Did it inspire you to like that group/singer, or did it turn you away?
Yes!! I fell in love with that song and really wanted to hear more of BoA’s music, so I googled her name and started downloading whatever I could find. This was back before I discovered torrents, so I would try to find mp3 rotation sites and see if they had anything from her, or I’d see a review of a single and then look for a download of that specific song.

3. What is the one song that you have been listening to for the longest time?
Way too hard of a question XD I think a lot of Ayu’s music that I fell in love with back then, I still listen to sometimes now, but most of the songs I totally spam now are songs that have either just been released recently or I just heard recently for the first time. I tend to get tired of old songs after a while (by that I don’t mean that I don’t like it anymore, but I start auto-skipping it on shuffle, which isn’t good because when I actually DO listen to it I realize how much I love it)…I still listen to older songs but not as frequently. I definitely can’t say one song specifically though.

4. What group/singer have you liked the longest?
Considering I still like Ayu/BoA/DAI/etc, I guess I have to say them XD I got into them all around the same time because I was totally into IY. Surprisingly it’s not Morning Musume, even though I love them much more than the avex artists now! It took me a while to get into Momusu, I didn’t know about them until like summer 2005 even though I got into Ayu/BoA/DAI/etc in summer 2004.

5. What is the song with the most plays on your itunes/media player?
…looking on my iPod, somehow it’s Younha’s Houki Boshi O__o I’m not sure how that happened…? I used to love that song so much, but how is it still the highest played…? Under that, it’s Hoshi wo Mezashite by NEWS, and then….oh god seriously? Minna Star by AAA, aka the Japanese cover of We’re All In This Together from High School Musical.
HOWEVER, I wouldn’t consider my iPod play count to be very reliable. See, I USED to just listen on my desktop computer all the time. So all the songs I listened to back then have high play counts on my computer. But recently, I’ve been adding to my iPod and listening through there, because I have music on two different computers. The play counts get built up on my iPod (and stays at like 0 on my computer), but recently it crashed and I had to readd all my music so all the recent stuff has low playcount. THEREFORE, let us head over to my last.fm which is probably a better source!
My top three: Tenimyu’s Sannin de Doubles with 155 play counts, then DEPARTURES by Aozu+Cap to Bin (from Prince of Tennis) with 89, then THE TOP from Tenimyu with 86. Almost all of my top 15 are Tenimyu/PoT/tokusatsu, which shows off my more recent loves lol

6. Is that song your favorite?
I don’t have a favorite song overall. It’s way too hard to choose! All of my top songs on last.fm are songs that I really love.

7. If not, what is?
Again…I don’t have a favorite XD

8. Is there any one group that you can listen to all/most of the songs by? If so, who?
Oh man, YES. I have three: HINOI Team, Buono!, and TETRA-FANG <3 All three are totally awesome! It's too bad Buono's the only one still going though. HINOI Team disappeared a couple years ago and TETRA-FANG broke up after Kamen Rider Kiva ended =(

9. What is your favorite agency?
Well, agency as in like...avex, H!P, JE, etc? H!P, definitely. I love a lot of avex artists and I've been getting into some Johnny's groups lately but H!P is still #1 for me.

10. What is your favorite group/singer?
I'd have to say Morning Musume, but Buono is a close second. I still like a bunch of other groups, like AAA, Do As Infinity, etc, but Morning Musume is my favorite!

Second survey: midori’s!

Gender- M/F/no answer (>o.o)>
female

Approximate age- 12 & under, 13-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61+, no answer (>o.o)>
well, I’m 16, so 13-20 lol :Db

1. What was the first pop song you remember liking?
First pop song ever?! fffff I can’t remember back that far. It was either N*SYNC or Britney Spears. I want to lean towards Britney’s first album but I don’t remember =(

2. What bands/music groups/singers did you grow up listening to? (>o.o)>
N*SYNC, Britney Spears, Play, and A*TEENS. Play and A*TEENS were my favorite for a really long time- I had all of their music and even saw Play live once! (we conveniently happened to be in Disney World at the same time they were performing live there, so we went twice- it was awesome!! I got a picture with them and their autographs <3

3. What bands/music groups/singers were popular when you grew up? (ie. Were on the radio a lot) (>o.o)>
I listened to Radio Disney for a while, so it was mostly pop, and all appropriate for children. In 5th and 6th grade, I watched MTV/VH1 and got somewhat into the popular music on there (though I don’t really remember what was. it was like, some rap artists and some other stuff…), but I was already starting to get into j-pop so that soon took over.

4. When (What year) did you first hear Jpop that you liked? What groups were popular?
2004. For a while I was just listening to Inu Yasha music, which turned out to be a lot of popular avex artists. I didn’t really know what was popular since I didn’t really hang out on forums, blogs, whatever , and I had no idea what Youtube was. (was it even around then? I only found out about Youtube in like 2006 or something.) Turns out the artists I were listening to were popular- Ayu, BoA, Do As Infinity, day after tomorrow, etc XD

5. What kind of Jpop/Jrock did you initially like? (>o.o)>
The same kind that I like now- pop, a little rock. Not so much rap, though there are a bunch of Heartsdales songs that I still love (though those were more like pop songs with rap in them XD) When I found Morning Musume, I immediately fell in love- I liked bubblegum pop music when I was young so it was perfect! XD
I guess if your’e talking VERY first, it was the anime theme songs for random shoujo anime. I don’t remember the artists, it’s no one that anyone’s ever really heard of, mostly just people that solely do anime songs.

6. Do you still like said kind of Jmusic? (>o.o)>
The anime songs, not as much, but the rest, yeah! My tastes haven’t changed much at all XD

7. Do you still listen to the music in your native language (or some other language) as often as Jpop? (>o.o)>
Not at all XD I don’t listen to American music much if ever.

8. If so, what other kind of music to you enjoy listening to? (>o.o)>

9. Do you go to concerts/performances of your favorite groups from your country? Do you go to ones for J-pop groups?
I wish I could go to j-pop concerts~ I would if I had the money and was old enough to go to Japan alone!

10. What do you think about the Jpop industry’s future? Do you think that you’ll continue to like it for another 5 years? (>o.o)>
Honestly? It’s just the music industry. Of course music will keep going. Artists will die out and new ones will come in, but it’s not like people are just going to stop making music altogether. What’s popular will probably change, but…
I think I’ll still like it. I’ve already invested 5 years into this, I’m sure I can keep going another 5 years!

11. What’s your favorite group? (>o.o)>
Morning Musume, with Buono as a close second. :3 I also LOVE AAA and Do As Infinity…and HINOI Team used to be up there but now they’re not around anymore =(

12. Is your favorite song/single/album a Jpop one? (>o.o)> Is it from your favorite artist?
as;ldfjasldkf I don’t have a favorite song/single/album. There’s too much! I do have albums that I absolutely love- Cafe Buono (by Buono!), Destiny (by TETRA-FANG), SUPER EURO PARTY (by HINOI Team).

13. Do you like pop from outside of Japan, such as Hannah Montana? (>o.o)>
Some Korean and Chinese pop. Not American music though XD Though in terms of English music, I like Sweetbox. They’re not from America but their music is in English XD

14. Do you like musicals? If so, what’s your favorite, and one you really want to see? (This one is just to humor Midori)
….
I love Midori for asking this question.
Even though I know this isn’t what Midori is looking for.
TENIMYUUUUUUU
The Prince of Tennis musicals are the BEST <333 At first I thought, what the fuck a musical about TENNIS?! But it’s so much more than that. It’s the actors, the characters, the dorkiness of the tennis freaks, the hotness of the guys, the suggested yaoi, and the AWESOMENESS OF THE SONGS.
It’s not just crazy tennis (though there is a lot of that). It gets emotional too- just like Hello! Project, members graduate and join. On May 10th, the final performance of the spring musical, Dream Live 6th, the entire 4th generation Seigaku (the main team) will graduate. I’d do anything to be able to see their final performance. I’ve fallen in love with every single cast so far, and it’s so sad to watch them break down in tears in the middle of a slow song (I CRIED WHEN SHIROTA YUU STARTED CRYING DURING YUME WO TSUNAGE IN DREAM LIVE 3RD T_____T) and give their final thanks to the fans.
There are lots of hot guys too. Nagayama Takashi, Shirota Yuu, Aiba Hiroki, Araki Hirofumi, Suzuki Hiroki, Seto Kouji, Takiguchi Yukihiro, Tomo Yanagishita, Hamao Kyousuke, Watanabe Daisuke, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. There are a huge amount of actors that have been involved in the 6 (so far) years of Tenimyu.
So um, there’s a little bit of something for everyone in Tenimyu. Unless you just want hot girls. There’s nothing there for you, sorry. BUT FOR EVERYONE ELSE. So if you like musicals and haven’t seen Tenimyu yet, I’d really urge you to go and do so (I have download links here: http://indigo.unchained.nu/pot/?page_id=26, ctrl+f for “Musical Tennis no Oujisama”)

This year I actually went downstairs with the intention of making cupcakes, but then we not only didn’t have the paper liners but we didn’t have any frosting either!! So yet again, I made brownies for cake day XD
I can’t believe it’s been another year for IW. And, this day is also significant to me because it’s the one-year anniversary of when I became a contributor for IW!! This also led into me going onto wotachat like a week later (I wish I knew the exact date…) and chatting with everyone…they’re now my really close friends and I don’t know what I’d do without them all.
For me, some things have changed within the last year (last year around this time my mindset was still “lol Seto Kouji is starring in a Japanese Power Rangers show? maybe I should watch that sometime…” look how that’s changed, as of writing this I’ve watched 4 entire Kamen Rider series and have caught up with the subs of 3 others) while other things stayed the same (Prince of Tennis is still awesome XD). Also last year around this time Prince of Tennis had just ended about two weeks before cake day. This year? New Prince of Tennis just STARTED two weeks ago! YAY SEQUELS <3

I can’t believe it’s really been a year. Even though I found IW in April of 2007, I wasn’t really PART of the community until Cake Day last year. My blog has died down a lot since then (I used to spam it so much o__o, now it’s lucky to get more than a post a month), but…I wonder if this year maybe I can try to post a little more? XD Right now Rock*54 is active but Resonant Blue is getting neglected. That really needs to be fixed…
And not only that, but I need to post more on IW!! I’m sorry everyone for not posting regularly XD Lately it’s been like, I only really feel motivated to write a post up when I’m really interested in it, but recently that’s pretty much just been toku and Tenimyu- neither of which are very common topics in our corner of the blogosphere. XD; I’ll definitely work harder this year!!

I hope everyone else has an awesome Cake Day :D HAPPY BIRTHDAY INTERNATIONAL WOTA <3

So uh, I know 2008 ended over a month ago and I”m a bit late but whatever. >___>
There are only three artists out there that I’ve liked every single song from them. Those three are HINOI Team, Buono!, and TETRA-FANG. HINOI Team disappeared a while ago, I haven’t heard anything about them since their last single. Buono’s still going strong, I listened to their new album yesterday and I’m loving it~! Then there’s TETRA-FANG…

TETRA-FANG is a j-rock band created to sing for the 2008 Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Kiva. I have no idea who the guys who play the instruments are (>___> oh well) but the vocalist is Seto Kouji, who plays Kurenai Wataru, the main character in Kiva. (Seto is the reason I started watching the show, because he played Kikumaru Eiji, my favorite character, in the 3rd generation of Prince of Tennis musical actors.)

Their first single, Destiny’s Play, was the first ending to the series. In Kamen Rider, the ending isn’t really it’s own separate section of the show, and instead it just plays over the main battle of the episode, and as such, there isn’t any sort of ending video. (actually, a “TV size” version was released on the soundtrack, but I don’t think I’ve heard that length of the song actually used in the show o__o;; usually they just play the chorus or something…) Destiny’s Play actually tied into the series at one point, as in episode 11 and 12 (or something like that) Wataru formed a rock band with a guy he met, and overcame his shyness to sing Destiny’s Play at a live performance (looking absolutely hot as he did so, btw). It’s an awesome song, and while it did get a bit overused in the series I still love it XD
Also, Seto’s shirtless in some of the scenes in the PV. >___>

Individual-System was a tribute to IXA, the second rider of the show. It was a bit more series-specific, talking about like justice and the “shiroi senshi” (white soldier- IXA’s suit is pretty much all white, compared to Kiva’s which is like red and black) It’s been remade into two songs for Nago Keisuke, one of the actual users of IXA, but those were separate and unrelated to TETRA-FANG XD This was the second ending theme to the series, used in battles when IXA was kicking ass. XD

Supernova is my favorite TETRA-FANG song- it got REALLY overused in the end (it’s cause Wataru started freaking spamming Emperor Form! bahhhhh) but everytime it came on I ignored the battle and started singing along instead XDD This song is just so energetic and awesome and so cool XD It was the ending for Kiva’s Emperor Form, so once Wataru forgot about all his previous forms and just started transforming directly into Emperor Form, this song got used A LOT XD; Instead of a single, this was released as a mini-album, with an intro instrumental song (which had a PV for who knows what reason) and four other songs. Shout In The Moonlight was a tribute to Garuru form (it was used in like, one episode), Innocent Trap was a tribute to Basshaa form (again, one episode) and Silent Shout was a tribute to Dogga form (never used in the series. wtf Riki got shafted T___T and he’s my favorite of the three too….). Message, the last song, was a different style than all of their previous songs….I didn’t like it at first because of the different style, but it’s not bad. Personally, even though I do like all these songs, imo they’re pretty weak. Except Supernova which is AWESOME 8D

And this takes us to Roots of the King, a tribute to Saga. Roots of the King is an awesome song, totally different from Supernova and the other two previous singles, but still pretty kick-ass. It actually took a bit to grow on me, but I really do love it. Not my favorite single of theirs, but a nice change from their other singles. This single got a bit less spamming, only in like four episodes, cause after the whole GASP SAGA IS AWESOME thing, Saga always appeared with Emperor!Kiva and Kiva always got more attention, so Supernova was the ending XD

Pretty soon after Roots of the King was released, Tetra-Fang released their only album, Destiny. (it amuses me that it’s right on top of Destiny’s Play on iTunes, cause I always finish listening to Destiny and I don’t even notice it’s over cause Destiny’s Play starts up XD) On my first listen-through, I was really disappointed- I was expecting the new songs to be the same level of awesomeness as their singles. Sadly, this wasn’t true…none of them had the same high-energy like Supernova, or the coolness of Individual-System or anything. Instead, when I finally listened to the IXA tribute album, I thought it was AWESOME and loved that more XD (Inherited-System is awesome, but not Tetra-Fang so I’ll save that for another time XD) But somehow, without even trying to, the Tetra-Fang album really grew on me!
Of course my favorite tracks are still the singles, but of the new tracks I love Mind Garden, Eternity Blood, and Rainy Rose. Mind Garden is a bit slower, not as fast-paced as the singles, but still an awesome rock song with bonus Engrish lyrics! (”I…I don’t see my garden…” “I’m lost in my garden~~”) Eternity Blood has an awesome instrumental. Also Bishop seems to know of it, as in the final few episodes he played the beginning part on the organ XD Rainy Rose is a slow ballad, usually I don’t like those kinds of songs but somehow I really love this one. Lightning to Heaven and Exterminate Time are probably my least favorite songs on the album, but I really love all of the songs so that doesn’t mean I think they’re bad, just that the other songs are better XD Exterminate Time is like…O__o 1986 King tribute I guess? He’s all like YEAH LET’S EXTERMINATE RACES 8D Prayer~Message2 and No matter who You are are both songs along the lines of Message (well, obviously Prayer is, considering it’s a sequel to Message XD) They’re both pop songs, not really the rock songs that Tetra-Fang usually does. At first I couldn’t stand them, not cause they were bad songs but just cause I was hoping for awesome rock songs. But once I started thinking about them more as a separate thing and not in the context of their previous singles, I started really liking them. All together, I think this album is awesome- it combines a couple different types of songs, from fast-paced like Supernova to slow songs like Rainy Rose to pop songs like Prayer and No matter who You are. Destiny was one of my favorite albums of 2008, probably only behind Buono’s Cafe Buono.

But sadly, just as Kamen Rider Kiva had to end when it’s time was up in January (series can only last a year, after all…then they have to give it up to the next Kamen Rider series. only Den-O is immune to this tradition with it’s freaking four movies o___o;; THE CLIMAX WILL NEVER END!!!), Tetra-Fang disbanded along with it. They were a “limited rock unit” after all, and without Kiva there wouldn’t really be much to do XD Kiva activities and events continued a little past Kiva’s finale, but as of a couple days ago or something (forgot the date) Seto posted on his blog that everything Kiva was done. Well, Seto’s continuing to play Wataru in some episodes of the new series Decade, but Tetra-Fang had their final concert and are now gone. T___T
I wonder if a group like Tetra-Fang will pop up this year? Hopefully not for Decade. I mean, sorry but the main character can’t sing >___< He plays freaking 5th cast Atobe in the Prince of Tennis musicals, but when I listened to the soundtrack the other day I was cringing at his solo in Hyoutenka no Jounetsu. Don't even get me started on Heavy Rain, cause that's ALMOST an Aiba solo but Inoue has to come in and ruin it >___<

Let’s start this off by taking a look at my predictions for 2008 I made back in 2007!!

2008 Predictions
-Morning Musume will release 3 or 4 singles and their 9th album. Two singles and a cover album. Half-credit?
-Morning Musume 9th gen auditions. Nope.
-Takahashi Ai graduates, becomes a solo artist. Nope.
-Hello! Project Kids become uber popular, get a #1 single. Well, they’re popular, but no #1 yet.
-One of the Berryz gets a boyfriend and is kicked out of Berryz. ALMOST. XD Thankfully, no.
-Yaguchi Mari starts a solo career. Sadly, nope.
-Yasuda Kei does nothing. Still. Correct! 8D
-Goto Maki signs with a new record label and releases first single. Well, I got the new record label part right!
-GAM comes back. Nope.
-As for the new units…Ongaku Gatas is permanent, and continues to release singles. Athena & Robikerottsu releases maybe another single after their upcoming one, then either actually breaks up or just fades into inactivity. Buono! keeps going until Shugo Chara ends, singing all the opening/ending themes, then moves onto another anime. Pretty much correct, except Shugo Chara hasn’t ended yet, so *shrugs*

And just a couple of quick non-j-pop predictions…
-Prince of Tennis ends. WHY DID THIS ONE HAVE TO COME TRUE T____T But you know, SEQUEL IN 2009 8DD
-Mx0 gets an anime. awww. instead it got canceled.
-Sket Dance survives in Jump. YEAAHH!
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…except that’s NOT true, cause I have other stuff I should be doing right now!! XD Like watching Kamen Rider Kabuto which I should finish before Decade starts in a couple of weeks, or catching up with the latest music that I haven’t put on my iPod yet, or watching other stuff, or…see?? XD
I don’t know if anyone remembers this, where I organized my music by release date instead of by artist, but when I was looking back at my old blog entries (damn, I posted a LOT in 2007 O___o) I saw that post, and since that was from back in summer 2007 and now it’s almost 2009, I thought, why not try it again and see how it turns out?
Well, it took me FOREVER (damn those bootlegs that don’t have the release dates on the obi!! had to keep going back and forth between my shelves and my computer…) but I finally managed to do it.
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Well, #wotachat’s doing their Morning Musume rankings :D Here’s mine!!

1. Junjun
I <3 JUNJUN! She's really cute~ She doesn't get many solo lines though, so I don't really know her voice too well I guess. Still though, she's definitely my favorite <3 I mean, look at this! The beginning, and then the very end...

<33333333
2. Mitsui Aika
Aika’s cute. She didn’t grab my attention at first- I mean, in my first ranking, she’s second to last. Wtf?? But as I started paying more attention to Momusu (I had taken a break from Momusu, then when I came back she was part of the group) I really started liking her…
3. Tanaka Reina
She used to be my favorite. Not anymore.
4. Niigaki Risa
Risa’s cool :D
5. Kusumi Koharu
Her voice sucks, but her songs are too catchy. I can handle the bad voice for her solo singles, which I LOVE XD
6. Michishige Sayumi
Yeah uh, she’s cute…?
7. Takahashi Ai
She has a good voice but she totally steals a lot of the lines. Buhhh.
8. Linlin
Linlin is uh…I dunno…
9. Kamei Eri
Don’t like Eri. No idea why, but I never liked her.

Wow, I can’t believe this is for real. Yoshizawa Hitomi and Ishikawa Rika in this new unit…
http://www.myspace.com/hangryandangry
Shirow posted this on Twitter earlier, and when I saw the page I thought he was joking about it being a new H!P unit. But as i was listening to the song (which I LOVE) I realized that the voices sounded REALLY familiar, and looking at the pictures, I finally recognized it as Yossi and Rika! I was just staring at the page for a really long time trying to figure out if it was really for real, and then as I finally started to do some searching online and was loading H!O, Max came into wotachat and started talking about it…
I think this is TOTALLY cool. It’s totally different than anything H!P has done, and it’s also the first new unit in a while that isn’t anime-related, which is nice. I absolutely love their first song, and I really hope this isn’t just a one-shot unit!
I also really love that the group has a Myspace page. I don’t have a Myspace, but I think it’s great and that maybe if enough people friend or comment or whatever, it’ll let H!P know about the international fanbase.
A couple of things though…I understand the reasoning behind the name and everything, since it’s based off of a fashion store or something called HANGRY & ANGRY, but it’s still just kinda…wtf. XD And the costumes are cool, but I think the hair is kinda going overboard a bit…? XD

Anyway, I’m totally looking forward to their first mini-album, released November 19th. I’ll definitely get it if I have any way to! :D