HAPPY BIRTHDAY EIJI!!

So today’s November 28th, which means it’s everyone’s favorite cat-like acrobatic tennis player’s birthday! YAAAAYYY!!
So, a lot of people draw fanart or write fanfics for a character’s birthday, but see, I’m totally not creative enough to do that! Actually, I started writing a quick one-shot about Eiji’s birthday during Biology today, but I dunno if I’ll finish it in time.
So, I decided to contribute in a different way- 320kbps mp3 rips of all of Eiji’s birthday singles! 8D ACTUALLY I meant to scan these to make them cool and special because as far as I know, PoT CD scans are hard to find, but some stuff happened this weekend and so I didn’t get a chance to- and now I’m stuck at school until this weekend. I’ll scan the CDs then and upload the scans once I’m done~

I think out of these three singles, only ONE was actually labeled as a birthday single, but the other two came out on his birthday in 2004 so I still consider them birthday singles. 8D
ONE is his actual birthday single, and it comes with the b-side ‘I~i jan’.
Come Together doesn’t have a b-side, but it was used as the radio show theme for a month in 2004 or something. It comes with a voice track called ‘Talk Time ~Kikumaru Eiji On the Radio~’.
Kiku-chan no Souran Bushi is his own version of the traditional song Souran Bushi- with a different arrangement than most versions and new lyrics. It comes with a b-side called Taiyou no PARADISO.

Downloads:
[2003.11.28] Kikumaru Eiji – ONE
[2004.11.28] Kikumaru Eiji – Come Together
[2004.11.28] Kikumaru Eiji – Kiku-chan no Souran Bushi

YAY <3

Mikan first week sales are a record low for Morning Musume

Aw, fuck.
I think that basically sums up my thoughts right about now. I can’t believe it, and I really don’t know how to react to this.
In my opinion, Mikan is Morning Musume’s best single since…well, a while ago. Not that they’ve been really bad, but none of their singles measured up to their old releases back when they were really popular. Mikan…I thought it was a great catchy song, nice PV, it seemed more Golden Age-ish than any of their singles in the past year or two, or even longer. I thought this single would do way better than their more recent singles. Didn’t mostly everyone on the H!P blogosphere like this song?
So what the hell happened to make this their lowest selling single ever?
Not that I ever expected this single to have sales rivaling Golden Age singles, but I definitely expected more than their recent singles. Instead we get a huge drop from their last single and it ended up beating out Ambitious! Yashinteki de Ii Jan as their lowest first-week single sales.

Well, I guess all we can do is cross our fingers and hope that their next single doesn’t somehow drop even lower…and I think I’ve learned not to expect so much from Momusu. *sigh*

BUT I STILL LOVE THEM <3
xD No matter how badly they sell, I’ll still support them. <33 They still remain my favorite j-pop group…

Congrats, Nono! ^^

As I’m sure most people on the j-pop blogosphere know by now, Tsuji Nozomi had a baby girl yesterday! Sugiura Noa was born at 12:45 am yesterday morning, weighing 2730 grams. Both Nono and Noa are in good health~
Wow, I still find it so hard to believe Nozomi has a kid now! @_@ I mean, NOZOMI of all people! As I think I said back when the pregnancy was announced, I never would have thought that Nozomi would be the first Momusu to have a kid. I guess I was expecting one of the older members of H!P like Nakazawa Yuko or Iida Kaori to be the first…well, Kaori’s #2, with her child due soon (January, maybe?)…

On a random note, I romanized the lyrics to Mikan and the b-side today, but I’m not sure if the kanji lyrics I got from a Japanese fansite are 100% correct so I’m going to wait until my copies arrive (just to double-check) before I put them up here…

Broken headphones, connections, and a little bit of angst

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Grr, my headphones finally totally broke this morning on the way to school. They were at least usable before, but now the left headphone doesn’t work at all and the outer part of it is like GONE…what a horrible time for my headphones to break, now I have to live with these all week until I go home for the weekend. My mom’s going to buy new headphones from the Apple Store, but yeah, I still won’t get them until the weekend.
I use my headphones so much during the week too- I can’t fully wake up in the morning unless I listen to my iPod from breakfast straight through until assembly, and since I have such weird music tastes (well, to the normal American world =P) that once I’m back in my dorm room I have to listen to my music with headphones rather than just using my computer speakers. This is definitely going to bug me all this week…

Connections: Well, I just had teh uber shocking discovery. I was listening to Ibu Shinji’s first character single from the Prince of Tennis anime, Can See the Light, and looked it up on Yesasia to add it to my cart cause it’s a great song, and then I noticed that Yesasia said that it was by Moriyama Eiji. Ok, I definitely recognized that name, so I went to look him up on Wikipedia, and I found out- he’s Momo’s first-cast actor in the Prince of Tennis musicals!
What the hell…? So then I redownloaded the full single (I lost it when my hard drive crashed a while ago, but the song was still on my iPod) to listen to the voice message, and sure enough, as soon as the seiyuu started talking I immediately recognized him as Momo. It’s so hard to tell though, when he’s actually voicing Shinji! I definitely would -never- make that connection…
Moriyama Eiji as Ibu Shinji in the Prince of Tennis anime – Can See The Light
Moriyama Eiji as Momoshiro Takeshi in the Prince of Tennis musicals – Ore wa Momo-chan ~ Seigaku no Abarenbou
Seiyuu Voice Message from Shinji’s CD- the first voice is Moriyama as himself (which is basically his voice for Momo) and then he has a ‘conversation’ or something with Shinji (aka, himself but with a different voice)…xD
Moriyama also plays Renji in the Bleach musicals, but I haven’t watched that yet. I seriously need to, cause NAGAYAN (aka the cutest Eiji actor ever) PLAYS HITSUGAYA ASASDFKAJESLRIJASDLKFJASDKLFJ

And last but not least, I’m having an angsty moment on the inside cause my Yesasia order with my precious 3 copies of Mikan hasn’t even shipped yet. It’s been almost a week since Mikan was released~! DDD:
And since I chose free shipping, it’ll be another week after it ships before it arrives at my house! And knowing my luck, it’ll end up arriving on like a Monday and then I’ll have to wait until the weekend before I actually get it. *sob*

Ongaku Gatas – Yattarouze!

God, today’s been crazy. My older stepsister and her husband and 14-month-old daughter (uber cute! _<
BUT PERSONAL ISSUES ASIDE…

I finally got around to watching Ongaku Gatas’ new PV, Yattarouze!. I tried to watch it on Wednesday on Dohhh UP, but video streaming sites hate my computer. >_< So I downloaded it from Hello Online, but I never actually watched it until just now.

The PV starts out with a nice shot of Yossi kicking the ball, then cheering- and then it turns kinda weird as her and four other members fall through the field or something? xD
Anyway, I love Yossi’s appearance in this PV. I think she looks awesome- definitely one of her best looks in my opinion.
It’s still really nice to see more of Yossi and Konkon- I mean, since Yossi wasn’t in a group before graduating, I figured she’d go the same way as Kei and Mari: not doing much of anything. And Konkon actually graduated from H!P about a year ago, so I thought I’d never hear anything from her again.
I still don’t know any of the Eggs, although I think I’m starting to be able to kinda pick out Mano Erina…I’ve seen blog posts praising her, so I looked her up and I can kinda pick her out now.

When I first heard this song, I thought it was kinda weird, but after watching the PV fully, I like it. It’s not as good as Nari Hajimeta Koi no BELL, but it’s still pretty catchy…
I think the dance in the PV is a bit weird, but…xD Some H!P dances are…

I might snag the limited edition of this in my next Yesasia run, whenever that is. Probably in a while, cause my mom doesn’t like that I’ve been getting so many packages lately. Especially when they come from a specific person rather than a company like Yesasia or CD Japan, which has happened quite a bit since I recently had this shopping spree on Livejournal. xD; I haven’t bought anything in a week, but I still have 4 packages that I’m expecting…xD;;;; One with Seishun Gakuen Paradise and two Love Prince anthologies (which should have arrived by now, but I’ll give it another week or so), one with all the stuff I bought from green-tea-river on LJ, which is lots of bromides, a pin, a couple of doujinshi, a shitajiki, and a card or two, one with my last Yesasia order which hasn’t shipped out yet (dammit why is it taking so long for them to find Sket Dance volume 1?), and one with that CD Japan order which won’t ship out until the Momusu PV collection DVD is released.
Though I guess it’s kinda a good thing that the Yesasia order hasn’t shipped out yet. Mom’s really starting to get suspicious, so if I got like 3 packages in a week I’d probably be in trouble…

On a kinda related note, according to ThePPN wiki, Ongaku Gatas is having a tour early 2008! <3 I’m definitely picking up that DVD once it comes out…

Odorimasen ka?

Well, the Megane’s of Prince of Tennis have a new single…I could have sworn I read on some site that Manatsu no Megane’s was their last single, but obviously not considering they’re coming out with another one on December 22nd.
Because of the date, I thought it would be a Christmas/winter-themed single (I mean, come on, their last single, Manatsu no Megane’s, was uber summer themed…xD), but the title seems to indicate otherwise- ‘Odorimasen ka?’, or ‘Won’t you dance?’ (or something along those lines), according to Yesasia. Well, maybe it’ll turn out to be a winter single, but…well, we’ll see. xD
I was uber confused at first cause the 22nd is a Saturday- but then it said in the description image on Yesasia that it had something to do with this year’s Jump Festa, which takes place December 22nd-23rd. I think it’s coming out at the Jump Festa itself…
There are also two other CDs coming out on the 22nd- the two new Musical Tennis no Oujisama Best Actor’s Series. #9 is Sanada and Yukimura, while #10 is a special Seigaku 3rd Cast Memorial Edition- the third cast graduated in Absolute King Rikkai Second Service, which took place a couple of months ago. Which reminds me, Progressive Match Higa Chuu feat. Rikkai is premiering really soon…I can’t wait to see 4th cast. Let’s hope the new Golden Pair will handle the angstiest Golden Pair scene ever (Eiji vs Kai…) really well. <3
YAY FOR ANGST

By the way, I wonder if I’m the only one that is reminded of Hello! Project a bit when it comes to Tenimyu actors? I mean, they both have people ‘graduating’ and constantly get new members…
xD;

roar @ Yesasia

I really really want my copies of Mikan…but it still hasn’t shipped out yet. T_T I didn’t think it would take this long to find a copy of the first Sket Dance volume…grr, now I know not to put a manga volume in the same Yesasia order as something I’m uber looking forward to…
Hopefully it’ll ship out soon, then it’ll arrive next weekend or so. I really don’t want to have to wait ANOTHER week…even if it comes on a Monday, I still won’t get it until that weekend since I board…D:

Morning Musume + America = …?

Well, everyone’s talking about this right now. I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a debate like this in the j-pop fandom- the anime fandom, sure, but not the j-pop fandom. I guess it’s cause I haven’t been part of the blogosphere or anything for too long…but anyway.
I’m going to follow the crowd and be unoriginal and write a post about my opinions to the idea of Morning Musume coming over to America! 8D

I’d LOVE it if Morning Musume came to America. Honestly, it would be like a dream come true. To hear Morning Musume on the radio, to be able to buy their albums without paying like $30 + shipping, to even maybe get the chance to go to a concert…and if everyone knew about Morning Musume, I wouldn’t be the considered the freaky girl at school who listens to weird Japanese music anymore. 8D Now that would be cool. I have a couple of kids at school who also like anime, but when it comes to j-pop (and especially H!P), all I have is the j-pop blogosphere. Oh how I’d love to have friends who I could actively chat with about this stuff. xD
HOWEVER, I’m trying to be realistic about this…and so I’m not exactly sure if they’d actually do really well.

Now, I haven’t listened to the radio in years- well, I’ve listened to a couple of stations in the morning cause my roommate at school wakes up to the radio in the morning, but it’s not like the popular music station or anything, so…
I haven’t watched MTV or VH1 or any music station, either. However, from what I -do- know about popular music these days, it’s that there isn’t ANYTHING like Morning Musume. Pop used to be popular, back in the days of boy bands like NSYNC and solo girl singers like Britney Spears. But now I don’t think anything like that’s popular- so Morning Musume would be totally different than most of the stuff that’s on the radio. Now, for me that’s definitely not a bad thing. I don’t like American music, so having more pop music like Morning Musume on the radio would actually get me to listen to the radio sometimes. However, for most American music fans, I’m not sure if that would be a good change- people aren’t really used to that. It would be different, definitely- but I’m not sure whether it would be considered a good thing. I know a lot of people who love rap music, so if all of a sudden a Morning Musume song came on the radio after some popular rap song, I’m pretty sure they’d turn it off.

I guess this kinda also ties in with tours and sales- they have fans in the US already, but would they really be able to become popular with the people that don’t already know them or watch anime? I want to say yes- but I’m really not quite sure. They’d get some fans- but I’m not sure if it would really be enough for it to really be worthwhile to come to America.

However, I think it would be a great idea to come to America for something like an anime convention. At an anime convention, they don’t have to worry about the language barrier or anything, since everyone there obviously knows anime and everything. That would give the already-existing fans a chance to actually see them in concert, and also draw in more people to the fandom- they have a much better chance with anime fans than with your typical American who just listens to the radio everyday. And for the record, if Morning Musume ever goes to an anime convention, I’M THERE. 8D Unless it’s on the west coast, then I’m screwed since I live in Massachusetts…>_<
I’m not exactly sure how all this stuff works, but maybe they could release their 10th anniversary album in America- just to start off, since it’s all their singles (which, in my opinion, are their best songs), and see what happens with that. And if that’s popular, then they could go ahead and try releasing more albums and maybe come for a tour or something.
I think putting Momusu on US iTunes is a good start. Now, I personally refuse to buy songs from iTunes- if I’m willing to pay for a song, I’ll buy the physical copy, thank you very much. >_< But so many people use iTunes for all their music- so making H!P music available on US iTunes was definitely a good idea. It’s much easier (and cheaper) for non-hardcore fans to buy a song on iTunes rather than import an album from Japan.

I don’t believe they could just all of a sudden come to America, tour, release an album, and just become popular just like that. If it’s not like American music (which it’s not, obviously), then they can’t just break into the market right away- but if they start small, maybe they could possibly get enough attention to get on the radio and become popular.
I know that a lot of people have strong opinions either way- either saying that Morning Musume would totally work in America, or that they would fail and they shouldn’t even try. I’m kind of in the middle of this- I don’t want to totally rule out the possibility of them coming to America, since I think they could have a chance, but I don’t want to be overly optimistic and say that they’ll definitely become a huge hit.

I do think that there are other artists in Japan who could become huge hits in America- but I think I’ll save that for later. ;)

Since when did Morning Musume have a manga? @_@

I was totally unaware Morning Musume had a manga…called Musume Monogatari, and it was in Nakayoshi. @_@
Lol, not like I pay any attention to shoujo magazines, but someone was selling some Nakayoshi issues and said that ‘Musume Monogatari (morning musume manga)’ was in it…so basically my Morning Musume fandom requires me to get those issues. xDD The LJ user was also selling two issues of some other manga magazine (dunno which one, couldn’t read the title) that apparently had a Minimoni manga, and Morning Musume + Minimoni interviews.
So of course I got them all. xDDD I seriously vowed last week to wait a couple of weeks before I bought more things, cause I bet my mom’s gonna start getting suspicious considering every week when I come home there’s always at least one package waiting for me. =P Except this week, but those two packages should come tomorrow. xD
BUT THIS IS A SPECIAL EXCEPTION. xDDD
Cause, I mean, manga and anime and stuff like that, you can get other places, but when people sell manga magazines, especially old ones like the ones in this post (2002-2003), it’s pretty hard to find elsewhere…so yeah.
That totally doesn’t rationalize buying them, but…8D They were cheap…?

You know, now that I think about it, I have an issue of this other shoujo manga magazine Ciao that I got from my camp that has a manga involving Minimoni in it. Hmm…xD

On a random note, I have this post about H!P shuffle units that I wrote today, but I wrote half of it during history class so I wasn’t 100% focused on it, and now I’m too tired to read it over and edit it so I’ll do that in the morning. xD

New stuff, yay!

Well, I’m kinda procrastinating my homework right now, so I took the time to put together two orders, one on CDJapan and one on Yesasia…
So this is what I ended up getting:
Athena & Robikerottsu – Shouri no BIG WAVE!!! (limited edition)
Morning Musume – Mikan (normal edition)
Morning Musume – Mikan (limited edition A)
Morning Musume – Mikan (limited edition B)
Hello! Project 2007 Winter Live DVD Box (limited)
SKET DANCE volume 1
The Morning Musume. All Singles Complete Zen 35 Kyoku – 10th Anniversary (limited)
Megane’s – Manatsu no Megane’s (limited)
Kawamura Takashi – C’mon every burning (limited)
As soon as I heard about the Athena single, I knew I had to get it- I mean, it’s Risa and Aika and two H!P Kids…
I actually ended up getting all three versions of Mikan. I was looking on Yesasia, and for each of them it said the first press came with a randomly selected photocard. I love the photocards, so I figured it’s definitely worth it to buy all three, not to mention it’s my favorite Morning Musume song in a while, so…
And as for the box set, who could turn that down? I mean, it’s THREE concerts- the normal concert and the Wonderful Hearts/Elder Club concerts that are usually only released to the fanclub.
Then there’s SKET DANCE volume 1, one of the newest Shounen Jump series- I absolutely love it, so when I heard the first volume was out I had to buy it. xD
Since I bought the Momusu 10th anniversary CD, it only makes sense to buy the DVD that goes along with it- it includes all of their PVs, including an alternate version of Mikan and something to do with LOVE Machine…
Then there are the two PoT character singles. At first it started off with me looking for something cheap to randomly add to the CD Japan order (I put the Momusu DVD in a separate order on CD Japan because I didn’t want it to hold back the other stuff since it’s coming out later) because if I hit 5000 yen I’d get a 500 yen coupon, and I ended up with Manatsu no Megane’s. Then I found out about Taka’s new single, which actually includes a b-side (which is rare for PoT singles, usually it’s just the title track, an instrumental, and maybe a track with random talk from the seiyuu) and stuff, so…xD;

AND I also bought a couple of doujinshi yesterday…someone was selling Seishun Gakuen Paradise by Kodaka Kazuma for $2, so of course I bought that, and she was also selling some other doujinshi for cheap prices so I got two anthologies, Ground Smash 2 and Love Prince 4.

AND the girl who runs (well, at this point, it should be ‘ran’) doujinstar.com is selling all her Prince of Tennis stuff- all of it. SOOOO of course I had to get some, right?
New Season Set 1 Birthday Card Akutagawa Jirou
Eiji Pin
Bromide Set 2: Summertime/Oceanside: Golden Pair
Bromide Season 4: Sakura: Jirou
Bromide Season 5: Festival/Costume: Eiji
Bromide Season 5: Festival/Costume: Momo/Kaidou
Bromide Season 7: White Day Presents: Eiji
Bromide Season 8: School: Golden Pair
Bromide Season 10: Fashion Prince: Golden Pair
Databook 20.5
Love Prince 1 + 2
I ordered all this stuff a bit more than a week ago, but it’s not going to be shipped until she puts the last batch of her stuff up for sale- I’m waiting until the end just in case I want anything from the third batch of stuff. xD

EDIT: ooh hey even more stuff! don’t feel like making a new post, so…
AAND someone else on the garagesalejapan LJ community just put up some CDs including W’s two albums (the first press of the second one) and Berryz Koubou’s first two albums (again, the second album was the first press edition) so I just had to grab some of them. I ended up buying the two W albums and the second Berryz album~
Seriously, with shipping it ended up being $33.13. That’s basically how much one album is on Yesasia.
I’m having lots of fun with this Livejournal community…