Ok, so as some people may know, starting tomorrow, I’m going to be in Japan for a month! It’s going to be a great trip and I’m definitely going to buy a lot of stuff. xD Anyway, I’m going with a school program, and I can’t bring my laptop, so my internet time will be limited. I doubt I’ll update this within the month, but I’ll definitely have lots of stuff for when I get back!
Ja ne~

INUI WITHOUT HIS gLASSES

ASDKLFJASIEURLKASDJDFLKADSJFLAKSDJFK DUDE THAT’S SO COOL
It’s from the 10.5 databook! Dammit, why does it have to be from the only .5 I don’t own?? I already have the 20.5 and 40.5 databooks, plus the 30.5 artbook, but I thought 10.5 wouldn’t be worth getting cause I already have the data from the other books! This has obviously changed my mind, and I’m totally grabbing 10.5 when I’m in Japan soon!
(on a side note, look at his hand, isn’t that totally Atobe’s Insight? xD)

I have to say though, this TOTALLY got my hopes up for a sequel or a new series…I scrolled down my friends page on livejournal kinda quickly so when I saw that I was like “WTF NEW REgULAR??” But then it turned out to only be Inui with no glasses…though that’s still pretty kick-ass.

I still think he looks better on the cover of his single DISTANCE. Not quite megane-less, but at least you can see his eyes through the glasses, unlike 99% of the time when they’re creepily opaque and glinting.

I wonder if I should make a separate Prince of Tennis blog for stuff like this…

Wheee, I finally made my first podcast today! I was so fucking nervous though. In the first two talk segments, I kept screwing up and having to start over. Actually, the second talk segment is actually made of like 6 pieces of audio, cause I’d get pretty far and then screw up, but instead of starting over I’d just find a good place to cut the last one off, and then start from there. I don’t think it sounds that good…
By the time I got to the Miyabi part, the fourth (I think?) talk segment, since I didn’t know what I was going to say until I actually started talking, I just ignored any mistakes and just kept going! I think that worked out way better. BUT, near the very end, I accidentally moved my mic so I did have to rerecord the end since you couldn’t hear me in the original. >_>;;; It happened in the middle of a sentence too!
At the end, I said it was a short test podcast, but it ended up being like 40 minutes. So maybe it’s actually a good length podcast? xD

I find it interesting that I feel like it’s easier to rant about Prince of Tennis than it is to talk about Morning Musume and other j-pop. Maybe it’s because nobody else reads Prince of Tennis, so if I make a mistake nobody will jump down my throat for it? But if I make mistakes about Momusu, people who listen will notice…

Anyway, here it is:
Resonant Blue Podcast #1

Oh, and about wotachat…I really don’t know what I was saying there. xD But I meant it about everyone going there! It’s on IRC, connect to the Rizon server, and join #wotachat.

Here’s the music list:
Morning Musume - Resonant Blue
Ikemen Samurai - Dear Prince ~Tennis no Oujisamatachi e~
Kirihara Akaya (Morikubo Shoutarou) - Akaku Someru Tsuki
Buono! - Kiss!Kiss!Kiss!

Edit: Almost forgot. This was the Prince of Tennis manga page I was talking about, where Momo sings LOVE Machine. It’s the scanlation though, not the Viz English translation.

(aka, another way to procrastinate studying for my Biology exam tomorrow? Maybe.)

So, uh, due to exams and other crap, I’ve fallen behind on PoT music announcements. Today I noticed that in addition to those, I missed two announcements made on May 19th! >_< And then I realized that any more announcements would bump those off the news page, and since there is no archive, I should probably do those before I lose the chance. o_o

Starting with the May 19th ones:
Sakuno’s first solo single, Flying Cherry, has a cover:

I really don’t like Sakuno, but I have to admit, she does look pretty here. I really do like the cover. If I see this in Japan (I leave June 19th) I’ll probably end up grabbing this one despite my dislike for her…
The basic info:

タイトル：フライングチェリー（初回生産完全限定盤）
アーティスト：竜崎桜乃
発売日：２００８年６月１８日（水）
品番：ＮＥＣＭ－１０１０７
価格：￥７７７（税込）

Title: Flying Cherry (limited release)
Artist: Ryuuzaki Sakuno
Release date: 2008.06.18 (Wednesday)
Code: NECM-10107
Price: 777 yen

Also, Renji’s single has a title and a cover now:

This single just strikes me as…different? I dunno. There’s no way this can be a pop song, not with a cover like that and a title like “Ore no Nihonkai” (”My Sea of Japan” or something like that). I just realized now that this is a birthday single for Renji, as his birthday is tomorrow. And hey, Sanada’s single was a birthday single too. xD
Info:

タイトル：俺の日本海（初回生産完全限定盤）
アーティスト：柳 蓮二
発売日：２００８年６月４日（水）
品番：ＮＥＣＭ－１０１０３
価格：￥７７７（税込）

Title: Ore no Nihonkai (limited release)
Artist: Yanagi Renji
Release date: 2008.06.04 (Wednesday)
Code: NECM-10103
Price: 777 yen

Moving on, there’s a bunch more info from May 26th that I didn’t post either. DDx School’s almost over, I’ll be up-to-date after that! But then I’ll be in Japan with not much blog access so…

I don’t cover the radio show songs unless they’re sung by characters, but I like this cover:

=P Seems really random to me, with Eiji/Marui/Rin/Zaizen(?) playing cards…? But it’s cute. xD Well, that’s basically just Eiji and Marui, but…
Anyway, it’s the cover to the April ending theme “Flying Cherry” (which I’m assuming is the song that’s covered by Sakuno for her solo), by “Nanakana”. There are three editions, and the normal edition has a b-side called Kaze no Tabibito. Maybe a cover of the Prince of Tennis ending song of the same name? Well, it was released last week, so I should probably check it out…=P

Next, the cover and tracklist for the On The Radio best album were released!

It’s Ryouma hanging out with bunch of random third-years, none of whom are from Seigaku. xD OKAY! He looks so tiny compared to the senpai…
Info:

タイトル：テニスの王子様 オン・ザ・レイディオ Ｒ１０（ラジオ・テン）（初回生産完全限定盤）
アーティスト：Ｖ／Ａ
収録内容：
01.Hey,now!／白井裕紀
02.SKY／真崎 修
03.フライングチェリー／corin.
04.愛のIZM／シンボリサオリ
05.Happy lucky day!／福士健太郎
06.Flower-咲乱華-／IKUO
07.Calling／HIRO-X
08.風に乗っかって／近藤 薫
09.雪の結晶／塩谷麻公
BONUS TRACK
10.NEVER END／越前リョーマ
発売日：２００８年６月２５日（水）
品番：ＮＥＣＡ－３０２２７
価格：￥２，５００（税込）

Title: Tennis no Oujisama On The Radio R10 (Radio Ten) (limited release)
Artist: V/A
Tracklist:
01 Hey,now! / Shirai Yuuki
02 SKY / Masaki Osamu
03 Flying Cherry / corin.
04 Ai no IZM / Shinbori Saori
05 Happy lucky day! / Fukushi Kentarou
06 Flower ~Saki Midareshi Hana~ / IKUO
07 Calling / HIRO-X
08 Kaze ni Nokkatte / Kondou Kaoru
09 Yuki no Kesshou / Shiotani Maki(?)
BONUS TRACK
10 NEVER END / Echizen Ryouma
Release date: 2008.06.25 (Wednesday)
Code: NECA-30227
Price: 2500 yen

WAIT. Since when were so many radio show songs performed by the people who do the opening/endings to the series?? Shirai Yuuki did Shining and Paradise. Masaki Osamu did Dream Believer, my favorite opening! Fukushi Kentarou did Little Sky, one of my favorite endings! IKUO did Long Way. HIRO-X did both future and Driving Myself. And Kondou Kaoru did Hello & goodbye, the first ending to the OVA. ALL OF A SUDDEN I’M KINDA INTERESTED IN THIS CD.
Oh, and IKUO doing a cover of Flower, originally sung by GIGS as the first opening song to the OVA, certainly makes me really interested. That was a kick-ass song!

Tezuka and Sanada have a duet single coming out! I think there are actually going to be more than one. The title of the news item (”手塚国光＆真田弦一郎のデュエットシングルが３ヶ月連続リリース決定！
第1弾発売日決定！”) implies consecutive releases over three months. I’m not sure if that means three Tezuka/Sanada singles or three duet singles or what. Actually, three duet singles would work…Tezuka/Sanada, Fuji/Niou, and Ryouma/Yukimura? Single match-ups for the Nationals Finals. But wait, if it’s over three months, they definitely wouldn’t all have been shown in the anime yet. I really am not sure about this, guess we’ll find out.
Info:

タイトル：未定（初回生産完全限定盤）
アーティスト：手塚国光＆真田弦一郎
発売日：２００８年８月１３日（水）
品番：ＮＥＣＭ－１０１１１
価格：￥７７７（税込）

Title: (TBA) (limited release)
Artist: Tezuka Kunimitsu & Sanada Genichirou
Release date: 2008.08.13
code: NECM-10111
Price: 777 yen

The Zenkoku Taikai Hen Finals OVA opening song has been officially announced on the music site, even though I’m sure it was already used in episode one (released late April, I haven’t seen it yet because the good subbing group I like is way behind and I haven’t had any motivation to watch unsubbed stuff lately). And the honor of the very last opening song for Prince of Tennis ever goes to—

タイトル：ACROSS MY LINE（初回生産完全限定盤）
アーティスト：越前リョーマ
発売日：２００８年８月６日（水）
品番：ＮＥＣＭ－１０１１０
価格：￥７８０（税込）

Title: ACROSS MY LINE (limited release)
Title: Echizen Ryouma
Release date: 2008.08.06 (Wednesday)
Code: NECM-10110
Price: 780 yen

SOLO RYOUMA? Awww. I was hoping for a group Seigaku song! That’d be a nice way to end the series. Well, at least I can always hope for a group Seigaku song as the last ending. Or maybe Dear Prince ~Tennis no Oujisamatachi e~! I mean, come ON, there’s NO WAY they’re keeping the Ya.Ki.Ni.Ku song as the ending for the entire Finals OVA series, right…??

After about 4 years and 2 months, Kirihara finally gets a second single!! (I’m not even joking. It actually says the first part in the title of the news item. His only single, BEST OF RIVAL PLAYERS XXI - Akaku Someru Tsuki, was released 2004.05.26.)
Info:

タイトル：未定（初回生産完全限定盤）
アーティスト：切原赤也
発売日：２００８年７月２３日（水）
品番：ＮＥＣＭ－１０１０９
価格：￥７７７（税込）

Title: (TBA) (limited release)
Artist: Kirihara Akaya
Release date: 2008.07.23 (Wednesday)
Code: NECM-10109
Price: 777 yen

IT’S KIRIHARA! Kirihara means…MORIKUBO SHOUTAROU!!! <333333333
Morikubo Shoutarou has been one of my FAVORITE seiyuu ever since I heard him as Shikamaru in Naruto! And I LOVE his singing! He hasn’t done any singing as Shikamaru, but he’s had some solo work, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Akaku Someru Tsuki as Kirihara! Plus, he had that seiyuu unit, Heart-beat, with Takahashi Hiroki, who plays EIJI! I totally can’t wait for this single!

Last but not least, this was just announced today, so it’s actually recent…xD The title for Choutarou’s solo debut is out!
Info:

タイトル：ｃｏｎｔｒａｉｌ（初回生産完全限定盤）
アーティスト：鳳 長太郎
発売日：２００８年７月２日（水）
品番：ＮＥＣＭ－１０１０８
価格：￥７７７（税込）

Title: contrail (limited release)
Artist: Ootori Choutarou
Release date: 2008.07.02 (Wednesday)
Code: NECM-10108
Price: 777 yen

I have no idea what the hell that means. Dictionary.com tells me that it means “a visible condensation of water droplets or ice crystals from the atmosphere, occurring in the wake of an aircraft, rocket, or missile under certain conditions.” Ok, Choutarou, if a native English speaker doesn’t know what that means, no one in Japan will. Then again, that’ll probably make it cooler to them. xD

So, uh, this is really late. I actually did this last Friday, but somehow I never ended up posting it until now.
On Friday, at my school, we had Sidewalk Sam come to our school for a…something. Not a party, I dunno. My school does this every year. One day in the spring, this old guy Sidewalk Sam comes and brings tons of chalk, and everyone draws stuff on the pavement. He’s really nice. It’s also a day when there’s a candy sale, tie-dye t-shirts, stuff like that. It’s really fun!
This year, I ended up drawing/writing a couple things.

For my first anniversary, I felt like I didn’t do enough. Because of Kawaiirrhea’s puzzle, I got distracted and didn’t even post Junjun picspam like I was going to! So the next day, at Art Street, I couldn’t think of anything to draw/write- and then I got an idea. =D

There were so many people that came over while I was writing to ask me what “Resonant Blue” was. X_x Some were sincere, just like “that’s cool, what is it?” and then there were people like the group of 7th grade boys that laughed and were like “wtf is that?” D:

Since I can’t draw, I tend to just doodle Japanese characters. xD This was one of the first kanji I learned, at camp before 8th grade. “Ai”, meaning “love”. Nobody understood it, but I liked it. xD

GOLDEN PAIR LOOOOVVEEEE <33333333333 Uh, I wrote this pretty small so people wouldn’t ask. And it was in Japanese so most people wouldn’t be able to read it, because “golden pair” isn’t something people normally write…last thing I wanted was MORE questions. “Ai” I can explain, but I’d rather not have to explain my love for a fictional gay tennis doubles pair. xD

Classic. I draw this every year. It’s the only thing I can draw. In spanish class in 6th grade, I had to draw a dog, but since I can’t draw, I drew a quick stick-figure dog. The “woof” is because my teacher thought it was a cat. And there’s always a period at the end of “woof”. I don’t know why. It’s tradition now.
Sidewalk Sam said I was a “creative genius” because of this drawing. o__o;;;

The last one says “Junjun suki” (something like “I love Junjun”). xDD;; Nobody asked, but the heads of the anime club passed by, and one of them started reading it and was confused…the other thought I was referring to Matsumoto Jun. xDD

It’s May 22nd. One year ago today, I created ~ lurking in the shadows ~, which has since moved to WordPress and become Resonant Blue.
What happened this last year?
I got into the Prince of Tennis fandom, and it basically took over my anime fandom. Prince of Tennis ended, and I cried. =( (HATED the ending, btw.)
Naruto all but turned into “Sasuke”, and I don’t think Naruto’s shown up in a couple months.
Morning Musume had three singles, with Mikan being their first single since Morning Coffee to not get into the top 5. >_< But they hit their 10th anniversary!
I moved, entered high school, and started 5-day boarding…unrelated but still.
I started getting into the H!P Kids besides just their music, and I actually finally learned all their names! xD I remember trying to learn them, looking through the Hello! Online picboard and just going “who’s this…?” I still can’t rank them, but I know who’s on the top of my ranking (Chinami) and who’s on the bottom (Risako). xD My goal for my second year? Learn the names of the Eggs! xDDD
I’ve gotten into AKB48, and Johnny’s. Neither are fandoms I’m really familiar with, but I like the music a lot!
I’ve also started getting into dramas, through AZN Television (RIP D: ) and Tenimyu actors. Abarenbo Mama was my first full drama, and I’m planning on watching lots more!
I’m now an International Wota contributor, even though I totally admit that I’m not that active as one. xD;;;; IW inspired me to start blogging, so I decided the best thing to do would be to help with IW, and maybe IW will encourage more people to start blogging!

So, this means my second year is coming up. I’m going to Japan for a month! While this probably means no blogging because I don’t think I’m going to bring my laptop (it’s a school trip so I might not be able to), it also means lots of new experiences to talk about once I get back. Plus new j-pop, anime, random merchandise, and most importantly (because you can’t get these outside of Japan) - TENIMYU DVDS! YEAH!
Other than that, I don’t think I have any plans for my second year. I guess I’ll just see what happens…

To celebrate, I’ll randomly post some uber cute Tenimyu Golden Pair clips, because they’re really cute and I just discovered one of them yesterday. And because Tenimyu makes Ooishi x Eiji canon! As if it wasn’t obvious already in the manga/anime. xD
I was going to picspam with Junjun pics, but then I got distracted by Kawaiirhea’s new puzzle. I spent all afternoon on that, so now it’s late and I don’t have enough time to pick out and upload some Junjun pics! Later, then.

I dunno if these are really to celebrate or if it’s just cause I don’t have any other way to fangirl over these. xD

This clip’s from Rikkaimyu, so it’s third cast. I haven’t seen past the first cast in the musicals, but damn, after seeing this clip…Seto Kouji’s so cute as Eiji! Especially when Eiji loses and he’s just like “unn~ makechatta jan…” He’s playing a Prince of Tennis game or something! xD He’s yelling at his characters to “go! go!”, and he calls Ooishi “Shuuichirou”, his first name. =D Well, not to his face, but he’s playing as Ooishi and he’s like “go! Shuuichirou! do the Moon Volley!”
Then there’s unrelated Kaidou stuff. Which is boring. Because he does the EXACT SAME THINg HE ALWAYS DOES. (exercising)
But after that, it’s Ooishi being cute and totally worrying over everything. xD It’s the night before the Rikkai match, so he’s worrying if everything will be ok…once he falls onto the floor, he starts counting Eijis (like trying to count sheep, but Eiji instead) to try and get to sleep. It’s so cute! xDD “Eiji ga ippiki…Eiji ga nihiki…” And then he laughs and is totally dreaming about Eiji. xD

This one’s the one where golden pair is seriously canon, though:

Oh, come on, “that time”? And Ooishi making kissy-faces when he apparently sees a mini Eiji in his fish tank? xDD I figure the anime/manga can’t really make yaoi canon because guys read it, but really, would guys want to go to a gay tennis musical? The fangirls SCREAM during this scene! I would too if I were there! xDDD
Man, this is the reason I want to buy Dream Live 1st. They seriously all but straight-out say they’re freaking going out. xDD And I love Nagayama Takashi as Eiji! Those pictures of him with the parfaits are so adorable! Especially the third one! xDD

Now, as I bet most people reading this blog don’t know, I’m a huge yaoi fan. xD Mostly Prince of Tennis yaoi, but I’m starting to get into other actual yaoi manga (as opposed to doujinshi/fanfics). My favorite Prince of Tennis doujinshi artist is Kodaka Kazuma, a professional yaoi mangaka that just happens to write PoT yaoi also. <33 I love her art, it’s really great when it’s serious and really adorable when it’s chibis. I love her stories too! She just so happens to write doujinshi for my FAVORITE pairing, the golden pair, and I own her golden pair anthology called Darling. I also own her hilarious comedy doujinshi Seishun gakuen Paradise, with lots of mini stories including yaoi sex ed, a school festival, evil!Fuji…
According to Wikipedia, Kodaka Kazuma’s manga Kizuna was one of the first and most popular yaoi manga. I still think it’s so cool that she does PoT doujinshi too~
So anyway! I was on Yesasia, looking for Kizuna volumes, because I’ve been thinking about reading it and apparently the English version is totally censored. My search was pretty unsuccessful (I only found Chinese versions), but it lead me to an amazing finding!
YESASIA SELLS DOUJINSHI!

This doujinshi came up when I searched for “Kodaka Kazuma”!
It’s an anthology of some of her doujinshi. For only 13 freaking dollars! =O Each doujinshi in here probably costs more than that by itself!
While Yesasia doesn’t list any info about it, thankfully someone reviewed it listing the doujinshi included.

It apparently includes two of her Hyoutei doujinshi, Muteki no Venus and Happiness. I think I’ve read one of her Hyoutei doujinshi before, but I don’t still have it on my computer so I don’t know what it was called…
Then it has her Momoshiro x Ryoma doujinshi, Toshishita no Otoko no Ko (A Younger Boy) (download). This one’s my friend’s favorite doujinshi! It’s a cute doujinshi where Momo goes over to Ryoma’s house, only to be confronted by Ryoma’s dad singing a song called “Younger Boy” by this 70s group Candies. Momo decides that Nanjirou is “singing his thoughts”…xDD So then some MomoRyo fluff happens, and then Momo pushes Ryoma onto the bed and they’re not really having sex or anything but Momo’s all over Ryoma and Ryoma’s shirt’s off and everything…and then all of a sudden Ryoma’s dad jumps in singing SOS by Pink Lady and gets uber pissed and beats up Momo in tennis. xD
After that is my FAVORITE, three of her Golden Pair doujinshi! So what if I own them all already in her anthology Darling. You can NEVER have too much golden pair! xD First is my favorite doujinshi of hers, the first one I ever read, Jet Coaster Romance (download). This doujinshi is amazing! It tells the story of how Ooishi and Eiji got together. Eiji keeps accidentally embarassing himself around Ooishi due to the huge crush he has on him, so finally he starts avoiding Ooishi. Ooishi misinterprets it as Eiji hating him, especially when he overhears Eiji saying “I’ll try my best to look him straight in the face”, so he offers to find a new doubles partner since he thinks Eiji can’t stand him. They end up taking a walk to figure it out, and–it’s so adorable, Eiji’s really cute during this whole scene–since Ooishi keeps thinking that it’s his own fault, Eiji ends up just confessing his feelings. Of course, he immediately regrets it, and starts crying and trying to get away from Ooishi thinking that Ooishi hates him now…But of course this is a yaoi doujinshi, and it is golden pair, so everything works out in the end and they get together…This is easily my favorite doujinshi!
The second gp doujinshi is je t’aime je t’aime (download). Uh…shit…I wonder if I should just say that this is one of her graphic doujinshi and just leave it at that. o__o Basically this doujinshi is about their first time having sex…I’d reread it (cause I haven’t in a while) but I’m in the dorm right now so even though I’m in my dorm room alone I don’t feel like this is private enough. o_______o This scene of Eiji reading advice columns is really cute though. XD
The last of the gp doujinshi is Darling (download). I’m actually surprised at this one- it was the bonus doujinshi exclusive to the Darling anthology, so why is it on another anthology…? Anyway, this is just how the golden pair reacts to their loss against Niou and Yagyuu from Rikkai. Somehow I feel like the art isn’t as good in this doujinshi, but I like the story and everything.
Next is the Fuji x Tezuka doujinshi Signal (download). I’m not a huge Fuji x Tezuka fan, but I’ve read this one. This doujinshi is actually kinda overwhelming at times. Not that it’s really intense, but Tezuka seems so out of character in it! At first it’s fine, but near the end…One page he starts CRYINg, and then immediately after he’s all SMILY AND HAPPY! Neither of those emotions fit Tezuka at all. @___@ Basically, there’s lots of misunderstandings. Tezuka is horrible with words so he can’t really tell Fuji how he feels, but Fuji thinks that means Tezuka doesn’t love him. But of course everything ends up happy in the end!
So, uh, then there’s apparently a Hikaru no go doujinshi. Wtf. xD I haven’t read it.

Apparently this anthology is pocket-sized, so it’s way smaller than the huge-ass normal doujinshi. That’s good.
I want this doujinshi really badly, but it says it will take 21 days before it ships. Usually it doesn’t take that long, but last time I ordered a manga it took the full 21 days and held up my Mikan copies! I don’t want to wait for Kiss!Kiss!Kiss!…

But anyway! After I saw this doujinshi, I saw that Yesasia also sells Love Prince! Love Prince is a multi-artist Prince of Tennis doujinshi anthology, I have a couple volumes. And then they also have ground Smash, another anthology that I have a volume of! And I bet they have more, but I can’t come up with any other titles off the top of my head.
All of a sudden, I think I love Yesasia. xDDD

So, broomhead from True Life Seek posted this survey for other bloggers to answer…
I figured I’d give it a try. Maybe it will help me out, because I feel like I might be partly in the same situation as he is.

Goals:

* Why do you blog?
Really, I’m not quite sure how to answer this one. I don’t know, actually. It’s not like I get a lot of readers, and sometimes I feel that no one reads posts that I write, so why bother? It’s not like I add really new opinions to things.
I started blogging last May (oh sweet, almost a year! I should celebrate on the actual anniversary.) after I found International Wota. I had never blogged before…well, not in this sense. I had a journal on gaiaonline.com, but I don’t consider it to actually be a blog. I did have some Hello! Project posts, like one I made right when Kago Ai was originally suspended, but it was mostly personal crap. (It’s here if anyone cares, I dunno if you can see it without having an account but if you can, PLEASE keep in mind that this was like 2004/2005/2006 and I was an uber n00b back then, especially with the early entries. xD) I also had a LJ, but again, it was more personal stuff. But somewhere in April 2007 I was looking for the lyrics to Kanashimi Twilight by Morning Musume and found HNPH. From there I found International Wota, and after lurking there for a while I decided I wanted to blog. It was partly because I liked the community, and partly I think because I wanted attention. xD;;;; Also, I don’t have any real life friends that like Japanese music, and I really wanted to be able to tell my thoughts to SOMEONE.
* What long-term goals do you hope to accomplish, if any at all?
Long term goals? I don’t really have any. I’d really like to become someone that lots of people know, like some of the more prominent bloggers in the International Wota community. Obviously that’s not happening any time soon, I’m not active enough to even think of considering myself to be one of those people. I want to get to the point where I have regular readers.
* Where does your blog fail to meet your goals?
Well, I guess I already kinda said that. I don’t post enough. I’m not active enough, and I know it. It’s not that I’m busy. I totally could pull the schoolwork excuse, cause it IS getting dangerously close to the end of the school year, which means projects and papers and exams, but that’s not the issue. It’s not that I don’t have enough time. I spend tons of time on websites like gaia, time that I could use to blog. Somehow I feel like I’ve lost some enthusiasm for blogging, and I’d like to try to get that back, but it’s just not happening right now…
* If you do have goals, what will accomplishing them do for yourself?
To be honest, not much. Becoming a popular blogger in the International Wota community won’t really do anything, I’ll just be really happy and I’ll get that nice “people like me!” feeling. xD
* What do you want to gain out of blogging? A creative outlet? Praise from others? Personal satisfaction? Money?
I’m not exactly sure what a creative outlet IS, like I know the term but I’m not sure exactly how it’s defined…but I THINK that’s the term I want to use here. Blogging is a good place to just write, and put stuff here that I know my friends don’t care about. I don’t have any real life friends that like j-pop, especially Hello! Project, so it’s not like I can talk with them about something like, say, Kago Ai getting kicked out of H!P. Or anything like that, really.
Praise from others…well, it’s kinda part of it. Would I keep this blog going if I didn’t have any readers? Definitely not. International Wota definitely encourages me to blog. Whenever I make a Hello! Project post, I always look forward to what whoever covers it says on IW about it. I know there’s not a guarantee that posts are always going to end up there, and there’s definitely been some controversy about that, but when a post -does- end up getting covered, it makes me really happy. ^^
Money? If there’s a way to earn money by blogging, please tell me. =P (Actually wait, bloggerparty does that, right? If it’s a site like that, never mind. xD)
* Do you feel that your blog should meet a requirement for amount of entries? Do you feel any particular entry should be a certain length?
Not really. I don’t ever feel like “oh! I should make three posts a week.” or anything like that. Sometimes, though, I start feeling bad because I haven’t posted anything in FOREVER…like now. D:
* For any particular entry, what motivates you to start and finish blog posts?
It depends. A lot of my posts are about Hello! Project news, or new PVs. Those are just done when I get the news, usually. Also, a lot of my posts are about Prince of Tennis music news. Again, that’s just done as soon as the news comes out. Other than that? I think a lot of it is just me getting a random idea and wanting to post about it. The problem is, I always get those ideas during the school day! If I have no access to a computer, I start kinda writing it in my mind. As soon as I can get on a computer, I start writing, but sometimes I have to stop in the middle. When I go back to it after, I look at it and somehow I either don’t have the inspiration or I can’t write in the same way, so it’s hard to finish. It’s a huge problem! For random posts that aren’t about news, if I can’t get them done in one sitting I usually can’t get them done at all.
* Do you actively consider long term goals for each individual post?
Nope.

Subject Material:

* What do you blog about?
Hello! Project, and Prince of Tennis music news. I try to keep it to stuff relevant to either of those, or at least j-pop/anime. For Prince of Tennis music news, I check the music official site all the time and whenever there’s a new news post about a PoT character CD, I just translate the info and post it here. For Hello! Project, it’s just kinda whatever. xD News, my opinions on current H!P news, stuff like that.
I’ve been thinking about whether I should start incorporating H!P news into my blog, like I do with Prince of Tennis- I already cover big news, but I mean CD info and stuff. I feel like I could be way more active if I did a lot of that. However, it’s totally not as easy, cause there isn’t ONE specific source for all H!P CD news, and I don’t want to just copy my news items from a blog like Some Boys! Blog. Plus, there are already quite a few blogs out there that do that…
* Would you be keep a blog even if it wasn’t about the subjects you tend to cover?
Not exactly sure what this means. It depends, really. I don’t think I could write a blog about a fandom I’m not really familiar with, and H!P and PoT are the two fandoms that I really am familiar with.
* Do you write about the material to promote it to others?
Well…not really. I think a lot of the stuff I write about is stuff you have to be a fan to really get. For example, I don’t expect to turn anyone into a PoT fan just because of my posts about the CDs. (Although that’d be cool.)

Readership:

* How much do you care about readership?
I really love when people read my blog. I wouldn’t ever pull anything like “if I don’t get x amount of comments, I won’t update” (which I’ve actually seen! Not on the j-pop blogosphere, but…) but I do like comments. I definitely wouldn’t be blogging if I never got any readers.
* Does it satisfy you to know people are reading, even if they don’t comment?
Totally! One reason why I like WordPress better than Blogger. I don’t think you could see page views on Blogger, I didn’t think I was getting any readers because no one commented. But I actually am getting people that read my blog!
* What effect does receiving a comment have on you?
I love getting comments. I especially feel really happy when a Prince of Tennis fan comments on my PoT posts! I don’t hang out on PoT fan sites or anything so I don’t know how they find my blog- which is why I love it, because it means they came across it on like a google search or something and found it interesting enough to read and comment.
To me, it doesn’t mean as much when I get views from people finding my blogs through google, because a lot of times people find my blogs with search terms such as “eiji oishi doujinshi” or “morning musume download”, and when people are looking for those, I know they just click the back button as soon as they see that I don’t actually have any of that. I mean, I get people finding my blog with terms like “powerpuff girls movie” and “manga sex”…o_o So comments from people finding my blog through google show that they actually read my blog and cared.
* Do you write with a particular audience in mind or an unspecified general audience? Why?
Well, really it depends. For all my Hello! Project stuff, I typically have a particular audience in mind- the International Wota community. For PoT news, I really don’t even have regular readers that check for those. I don’t even expect people to ever read those most of the time. Anything else, like random thoughts, is just kinda for whoever happens to read it, whether it’s a j-pop fan that checks my blog once in a while or someone who finds it through a site like google.
* If you write for a particular audience, is it International Wota? If yes, why?
Yeah, for my H!P stuff. It’s basically because I think mostly everyone who reads those posts actually come from IW. xD

Community: (The International Wota section)

* If International Wota didn’t exist, would you blog?
I wouldn’t have ever started my blog. However, if all of a sudden IW just DISAPPEARED or something (xD Hopefully that never happens!) I’d keep blogging, because I know at least I’d keep up with the rest of the community.
* When IW covers an entry of yours, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
I guess it motivates me a bit more. Reassurance that people care, maybe? xD Also, when I’m linked to from IW, I get a lot of hits, and lots of hits kinda motivate me. xD
* When IW does not cover an entry, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
To be honest, I kinda have an idea of what IW will cover and what they won’t. Probably because since I’m a contributor (though not a very active one…) I know all the rules as to what gets covered. (Although, you know I’m really starting to wonder with some stuff. xD A couple of Tenimyu posts have been covered lately!) There’s obviously some stuff that falls into that category but doesn’t get covered, because not everything will be- all contributors have other stuff to do, so they can’t do EVERYTHINg. Obviously I don’t expect any of my PoT stuff to be posted, unless it relates a lot to j-pop too (I actually didn’t really expect the Munasawagi Scarlet tennis cover post to get covered, I figured even though it’s a Berryz cover, it was really just me going “ZOMg TENNIS POT YAY” so it wouldn’t get covered. xD). For Hello! Project stuff, I admit that for a few days after I post it I check IW way too often. xD Refresh the main page, the to-do list, the scheduled posts…
If it doesn’t get posted, I know it’s no big deal. As a contributor myself, I know not everything can be covered. If it’s something I really thought was good, I might get kinda disappointed, but usually it’s fine.
* How often do you read other blogs?
Ooh, depends. I check Some Boys! Blog at least once a day for news and stuff. Unless I’m really busy (or just really lazy) I have a feed reader that shows me when blogs have new posts, so I just read the new posts through there. To be honest, I don’t know what a lot of blogs look like, since I just use the feed reader…xD
* How often do you comment on other blogs?
Not too often, unless I really have something to say. I commented on an IW post instead of the actual post recently, it was one of Vee’s PoT posts that got covered on IW. xD Thinking back, I should have posted it on the actual post…
* If another blog covers a topic that you wanted or wished to cover, do you still blog about that specific topic? Why or why not?
Yeah! I mean, if everyone said “oh, he/she posted about Resonant Blue, I shouldn’t”, it’d be boring and we’d only have one opinion. I mean, I usually don’t have radically different opinions that no one else has, and I find that sometimes I just kinda repeat what others have said already, but I still like putting it in my own words and having my opinion on my blog.

Commitment:

* How serious is your attitude towards blogging? Do you consider it just as something to do for fun?
I do it for fun. If I was really serious about it and I tried to blog a ton, I’d start considering it just a job and then it wouldn’t be at all fun anymore.
* How often do you blog? How often would you like to blog?
Lately, not too often. I really want to blog more. I want to make this more active, not so much that it’s not fun anymore but still, I haven’t posted anything good in a while.
* What priorities do you or have you put aside in order to blog? Why?
If I have a really good idea for a post in the evening/at night, I’ll do it instead of homework. xD Because it’s more fun!
Well, really, when I get a good idea, I’d like to just type it up right then and put everything else aside. Sadly, it’s not always possible (I hate getting an idea in the middle of the school day!) but if I can put something aside and blog instead I probably will. xD
* Do you see yourself blogging in 6 months? Why or why not
Hmm. 6 months. …November, right? Yeah. I mean, it’ll probably be like this. Not very active, but still there.

Personal:

* Would you say you blog for yourself?
Yeah. Especially with the PoT stuff. Not many people read that, I’m not sure why I do it. xD
* What is your feeling after posting an entry? Is it relative to the time and effort you put in an entry?
When I post an entry that I really think is good, it feels great to actually post it. I definitely feel accomplished. xD
* What needs does blogging fulfill?
Uh, needs? I guess the need to tell someone my opinion of something. xD When my friends don’t care, I need to put it -somewhere-.
* Do you consider yourself a writer?
Yeah. I write lots of fanfics in my spare time too.
* Do you consider yourself good at writing? Good at blogging?
Not really. xD;; When it comes to my fanfics, I don’t share them with other people. Those are totally just for me. xD I don’t think they’re good enough to share with people. When it comes to blogging, I think being a good writer is important, but it’s also important to get your opinions across. As long as I can do that, even though I don’t consider myself a good writer, I’m fine.
* How much of your personal life do you share on your blog? If none, why do you leave this out?
Oh, I really try to keep it out. Unless it directly relates to something I usually talk about. I just think that people reading my blog don’t care as much.
But I’m really bad at keeping that stuff out. xD;;;

As shown on the Prince of Tennis music site (http://tennipri-indexmusic.jp/index_swa.html), Sanada’s upcoming single now has a cover! Yaaay.

タイトル：Ｄ気持（初回生産完全限定盤）
アーティスト：真田弦一郎
発売日：２００８年５月２１日（水）
品番：ＮＥＣＭ－１０１０２
価格：￥７７７（税込）

Title: D Kimochi (limited release)
Artist: Sanada Genichirou
Release date: 2008.05.21 (Wednesday)
Code: NECM-10102
Price: 777 yen

You know, I really don’t have too much to say about this one. Hmm.

In the same news post, they reposted the basic details about Renji’s upcoming single AGAIN. Nothing has changed since the first time they announced it! I mean, it still doesn’t even have a TITLE. I’m totally not gonna even bother translating it cause I’ve already done it twice.

You know, sometimes I get these weird thoughts that I really could live without. This happens to be one of them.
I was thinking about Prince of Tennis this morning, probably fanfic ideas, and then all of a sudden Resonant Blue just randomly pops into my head. So I’m humming Resonant Blue and thinking of PoT fanfic ideas and then all of a sudden it just HITS me that 9 Seigaku regulars = 9 Morning Musume members and immediately I have the mental image of Seigaku singing/dancing Resonant Blue!
Er, what…?

For some odd reason I’m imagining Eiji, Fuji, and Ryoma as the leads. After that, I really don’t know…