Upcoming releases

Ok, so there’s lots of stuff coming out either in the next two weeks or around the beginning of 2008, so…

Let’s start with Hello! Project:
-On January 16th, the duet between Abe Natsumi and Yajima Maimi, 16sai no Koi Nante, is being released. I just listened to a preview of it, and I don’t think it’s too bad. Probably not something that I’ll listen to a lot, but it’s not that bad either. And, btw, I don’t really know who Yajima Maimi is. I swear I’ve gone over the names and faces of the Kids like 5 times since I started this blog. I have a horrible memory, I guess. ;-;
-Buono!, the group formed with three H!P Kids that sung the opening and ending for the anime Shugo Chara!, is releasing their second single and their first album in February- the 6th and the 20th, respectively. I believe their second single, Renai Rider, is going to be the new ending theme for Shugo Chara!, it’s supposed to start airing soon so I’ll be able to check it out before the single comes out. xD As for their album, I really thought they weren’t going to be a permanent group, but I think an album usually signifies that they’ll be around for at least a little while longer.
-Ongaku Gatas also has their first album coming out, 1st GOODSAL, on February 6th. I loved both of their singles, so I’ll definitely have to order this one. I’m glad that they’re getting an album, hopefully this means that they’re a permanent group.
-Athena & Robikerottsu is releasing a second single on February 14th, Seishun LOVE Launch. I hope it’s as catchy as their first. xD I can’t wait for more Risa and Aika…and those two Kids that I can’t even remember their names. ;-; God I suck.
-According to wiki.theppn.org (I haven’t seen anything about these anywhere else), C-ute and v-u-den are getting new singles on February 27th. Both are still untitled. I probably won’t end up buying either of these, sadly…;-; There’s too much stuff out there, and I have too little money…
-And Berryz Koubou is apparently releasing a new single called Jingisukan on March 12th.

And on the other side of my blog, the other fandom I love…upcoming Prince of Tennis releases:
-This Saturday, at Jump Festa, three new Prince of Tennis CDs are being released. The first two are for the Prince of Tennis Musical- two new Best Actor’s Series CDs, #9 and #10 in the series. 9 features Sanada and Yukimura. 10 is a special Extra Seigaku 3rd Cast Memorial CD- a memorial for the third cast of the Seigaku regulars, who graduated (I feel like I’m talking about Hello! Project now. =P) after this summer’s Absolute King Rikkai feat. Rokkaku ~Second Service~ musical. The fourth cast debuted in the Progressive Match Higa feat. Rikkai musical, which started 8 days ago on December 12th. (sadly, I have yet to see photosets of the new Seigaku cast. I really really really need to see what the new cast looks like in character!)
The third CD being released at Jump Festa 2008 is a new Megane’s single, their fourth. Originally it was just going to be called “Odorimasen ka?”, meaning something like “Won’t you dance?”, but apparently they had to keep the tradition of having “Megane’s” in the song title (their previous singles have been “Go Go Megane’s”, “Kira Kira Megane’s”, and “Manatsu no Megane’s”), so they renamed it “Odorimasen ka? Megane’s”. =P According to the description on the official page, it has something to do with the National Tournament Finals OVA (which, by the way, is the LAST OVA SERIES and therefore THE LAST WE’LL SEE OF PRINCE OF TENNIS T_____T unless the manga keeps going after the Nationals, but that’s pretty unlikely) and the amazing 100 song marathon that’s taking place early 2008. It also says that apparently this song is a high tempo SALSA song. Oh dear lord. @_@
Oh, and they released the cover for it too: here. Ohhh wow, PoT cosplay’s fun, but…@_____@ WHAT THE HELL
“Won’t you also dance with these three people?” @_@
-After those three, looks like there’s nothing else until February 14th (which is kinda strange cause there’s been so much released lately, what with the Best of Rival Players for Shitenhouji and random other character songs). On 02.14, Kai Yuujirou, Higa Chuu’s vice-captain (I think), is releasing his version of Valentine Kiss. It’s the 5th year of this tradition, and he’s the 6th person to sing it- so far we’ve had Atobe, Oshitari, Sanada, Shishido, and Ooishi.
-And of course, the massive rerelease thing on February 27th. @____@

-not music related, I know, but the 3rd and final volume of the Prince of Tennis National Tournament Semifinal OVA series is being released January 25th. After that, which wraps up the match against Shitenhouji (this DVD encompasses Tezuka vs Chitose in Doubles 1 (er…well Inui and Zaizen are there too, but they decided to just stand at the side so it’s basically a single match. hey, playing singles in a doubles match makes more sense than Eiji playing doubles in a singles match. =P), and Ryoma vs Touyama Kintarou in that one-point match since the official match didn’t make it to singles 1), the first volume of the National Tournament Finals OVA series is being released on March 16th. During the finals, Seigaku plays Rikkai for the second time, but this time for the National title rather than the Kantou Tournament title. I’m not sure what this DVD will have- the first DVD of both the original National Tournament OVA series and the Semifinal OVA series only had one episode, which was a prequel to the actual match. So maybe this DVD will have the special Yakiniku no Oujisama / Prince of BBQ story that was originally between the semifinals and the finals in the original manga? It was a 4 chapter thing that started off as a party for winning the semifinals but ended up as a 5-school yakiniku eating contest. =P (everyone lost, btw, and they set the yakiniku place on fire. xD) I hope we get to see it animated. It’s not really a prequel-thing like the other first episodes, but since Seigaku’s played Rikkai before, there was no introduction set of chapters or anything in the manga…unless they take the scenes of Rikkai vs that exchange student team (they were originally mixed in with the one-point match between Ryouma and Touyama) and make it into it’s own episode.

[Scans] Morning Musume, Athena, and some manga covers

Explanation and music list

So, this is basically the scans post to go along with my recent orders that arrived on Friday. Sorry it’s late, but scanning the two limited photobooks took forever, and I had a sleepover last night cause it’s my birthday today (yay!).
I also didn’t end up scanning the H!P 2007 Winter Live DVD Box, cause there’s this 4-DVD case that’s too big for my scanner and I was too lazy to figure out how to get it all. xD
I might end up scanning some more CDs soon cause I’m on winter break, but I can’t make any promises. xD;;

EDIT: Sorry that the small versions of the preview images look crappy! In my earlier posts, I actually uploaded them to Blogger, but this time I uploaded them to Photobucket instead. Guess the site handles it differently. Just click the preview images for the full-quality version.

Morning Musume’s latest single Mikan, normal edition. I scanned the photocard of Risa and included it in the .rar file.
Download the .rar file for the rest of the Mikan scans

Morning Musume’s latest single Mikan, limited edition A which comes with a DVD. I scanned the photocard of Koharu and included it in the .rar file.
Download the .rar file for the rest of the Mikan limited edition A scans

Morning Musume’s latest single Mikan, limited edition B which comes with a photobook. I scanned the photocard of Sayumi and I also scanned the photobook- both are included in the .rar file.
Download the .rar file for the rest of the Mikan limited edition B scans

Athena & Robikerottsu’s first single, Shouri no BIG WAVE!!!, limited edition which comes with a photobook. I scanned the photobook and included it in the .rar file.
Download the .rar file for the rest of the Shouri no BIG WAVE!!! scans

I scanned the covers of the manga for my personal collection, so I thought I’d share them here too if anyone’s interested. For SKET DANCE 1 and Prince of Tennis 40, it’s just the one image so I didn’t bother to upload a .rar file- just click on the preview image. The dust jackets just barely fit on my scanner- I didn’t include the inside back flap because all it is is like a list of Jump tankoubon. For the Prince of Tennis Fanbook 40.5, the book’s really thick, so the dust jacket was too big for my scanner. I scanned the inside flaps separately, so there’s a .rar file for 40.5.

SKET DANCE 1 – Penki Kamen / Paint-Mask

Tennis no Oujisama / Prince of Tennis 40 – Tennis wo Wasureta Oujisama / The Prince Who Forgot Tennis

Tennis no Oujisama / Prince of Tennis 40.5 – Official Fanbook
Download the .rar file for the rest of the 40.5 scans

Recent purchases

It took us 4 hours to get home yesterday from my school, which usually only takes one…and it was uber dangerous, too. D: I love snow, but not when I’m trying to get home on the highway…I got uber bored, so I ended up romanizing lyrics to some Prince of Tennis songs I had lyric scans for on my laptop. I would have done j-pop songs instead, but the only scans I had were for the Prince of Tennis ending singles WHITE LINE and Wonderful days. xD; I’ll post the romanizations later…
Anyway, I think the two packages sitting on my bed when I got home actually kinda made up for the long drive. 8D

I love Kinokuniya. I used to get pissed because there isn’t one nearby where I live, but I ordered Prince of Tennis volume 40 and the 40.5 Fanbook on Saturday, and it’s already here! 8D I’m so used to Yesasia which takes forever to ship, so…I think in the future I should use Kinokuniya to buy books and stuff, otherwise they’ll slow down Yesasia orders like it did with my latest order. >> Sadly, this strategy doesn’t work with Hello! Project photobooks. I checked it out when I went to make the order with the Tenipuri books, and you can’t get them from the New York stores. It redirects me to their Japan store site instead, which a) I can’t navigate very well and b) the shipping would be hell anyway, and take a while. But Kinokuniya is good for manga, so…xD
And then, I FINALLY got my Yesasia order that I placed over a month ago. I’m still pissed that it took so long- it really should have shipped out once Mikan was released. It’s all because Sket Dance took so long…but I think it was worth it. Three copies of Mikan (haha, I know, I’m an uber crazy fan), Shouri no BIG WAVE!! limited, Sket Dance volume 1, and the H!P 2007 Winter Live DVD Set.

First up, the three copies of Mikan. I love this song so much. xD Which is part of the reason I bought all three editions. The other part is because there were special photocards in each one, and I love stuff like that. xD
I’d share some more pics of the booklets and limited photobook and stuff, but I’m going to scan these later today, which is even better! 8D
And now…which photocards did I get??
SUSPENSE! xD

Risa, Koharu, and Sayumi.
If I could have chosen which I got, I would have chosen Reina, Junjun, and Risa, my current three favorite members. (or the group card, which I totally didn’t know existed until like five minutes ago…?) I absolutely LOVE Reina, and I love how she looks in the promo pics for this single! She has some really nice shots in the limited photobook- I love her outfit and her hair and like EVERYTHING! @_@ Sadly, luck was not really on my side when I opened these last night.
I’m really happy I got Risa, though. =) She’s my second favorite member, and I like her photocard.
Sayumi’s cute too- she’s not one of my favorite members, but I like her appearance in this single, so I’m fine with getting her card.
Koharu, however…don’t get me wrong, I like Koharu, but…I don’t really like her here. I just don’t think she looks that good- and honestly, she’s not very high on my member ranking, so…

Next up is the limited edition of Shouri no BIG WAVE!!, which came with a photobook. I actually had no idea it had a photobook until I opened it up and it came out…xD I totally never saw anywhere just what the limited edition actually had in it.
I love this song- it’s really cute and upbeat, and the Engrish makes me laugh a bit. Though, as much as I love this song, I think I’ve had enough “OKEY-DOKEY!”s for a while. @_@
The photobook has some pictures of the four girls involved in this single- the two Momusu, Risa and Aika, and the two C-ute members, Nakajima Saki and Okai Chisato. Aika’s really cute. xD And, I’m sorry, I still don’t really know who Nakajima and Okai are. I had to look them up to find out which group they’re in. ;-; I seriously need to get my act together and learn the names of all the H!P Kids already…

Then there’s the H!P 2007 Winter Live DVD Box. I feel like such an uber crazy fan having this…it cost $100, but I think it’s worth it- three concerts and a bonus backstage disc. It’s my first H!P concert I’ve actually bought- I’ve thought about buying some other concerts in the past, but turned them down in favor of more music. I can’t wait to sit down and have an H!P concert marathon…xD
What I really like about H!P concerts is that unlike concerts by a solo artist or a normal group (lol, as in like, one that stays the same rather than constantly changing), there’s always new groups of people singing an old song. Like current Morning Musume singing a song like LOVE Machine- I love always being able to hear different people sing older songs like that. Compare that to a concert by someone like BoA- you don’t really hear anything new when she sings her older songs, because it’s still the same person singing it- just live instead of a studio recording.
Now if only they’d record some of these new versions in the studio and release them separately…xD

Last but not least, there’s the three manga I ordered. Sket Dance 1, Prince of Tennis 40, and Prince of Tennis 40.5.
Sket Dance is a new manga in Shounen Jump, and it currently has 21 chapters. It’s a random school comedy manga, and it’s really funny. Most new manga hasn’t been doing so well in Jump lately, but I hope Sket Dance survives- it’s really cool and funny, definitely one of my favorite series in the magazine.

Prince of Tennis 40…oh this is so much crack. xD The title of the volume is “The Prince who Forgot Tennis”…you really wouldn’t think there would be this much crack in a tennis manga, but there seriously is. Basically this volume starts out in the middle of the National Tournament finals with Tezuka’s arm being UBER DEAD (xD) and Sanada winning…then Ryouma comes back with Momo, Atobe, and Oshitari (because, see, Ryouma didn’t show up to the finals, so Atobe WITH HIS HANDY HELICOPTER THAT HE JUST SO HAPPENS TO HAVE AT THE TOURNAMENT takes Oshitari and Momo to go find Ryouma. Who knows why Oshitari went, he’s absolutely pointless), and the rest of the team is uber excited ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT RYOUMA HAS AMNESIA AND DOESN’T REMEMBER TENNIS! DUN-DUN-DUN
Then Inui and Kaidou play doubles against Yanagi and Kirihara, and Inui gets uber beaten up and basically dies in the middle of the court after stopping Kaidou from going into devil mode. Which is an uber scary sight that I hope I never have to see again, btw.
I know, wtf, people actually can get sent to the hospital for playing TENNIS?
Inui wakes up, he has UBER UBER BANDAGES WRAPPED AROUND HIS ENTIRE BODY (ahahaha I love that panel), and then it switches to Fuji vs Niou.
Niou, with his Illusion or w/e it’s called, apparently can turn into Tezuka. I DON’T KNOW HOW IT WORKS EITHER. I mean, he’s not just using Tezuka’s moves, Konomi’s actually DRAWING TEZUKA instead of Niou. And then it turns out that, ZOMG KONOMI PUT AN ANIME FILLER EPISODE IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS MATCH FOR A FLASHBACK, and Fuji played Tezuka as a freshman. Angst happens. Then the volume ends.

40.5 is not, as you may think, half of a volume. xD It’s the new fanbook, taking after 10.5 and 20.5 (no, it’s not that they don’t know how to count…30.5 was an artbook rather than a fanbook.). It has tons of information on all the players, and tons of other interesting pages that I’m sure would be much more interesting for me if I could understand any of it. Some of my favorite facts:
-Marui’s favorite music is ORANGE RANGE. That’s some good taste right there, huh? xD I started skimming to see if anyone else mentioned specific bands, but I got bored after getting halfway through and put it down. Eiji apparently loves idol groups, but he didn’t specify H!P. I bet he has a collection somewhere, though. xD
-Ooishi’s special skill outside of tennis is that he’s able to tell whether a baby chick is a boy or a girl. Wtf, Ooishi. That’s weird.
-Jirou carries Marui’s wristband in his bag. STALKER
-Sanada carries around the “Sanada Family Rock”. xDDDDD oh Sanada. A rock?? Why does his family even have a ‘family rock’ in the first place??

Haha, look at Inui. xD Who knows why he still wears his glasses. Can he even see with all those bandages? xD
(oh, and Koharu and Yuuji are there too- they hold the honor of being the ONLY EXPLICITLY STATED CANON GAY COUPLE in the series. <33 Now if only Konomi would just admit that the Golden Pair has sex behind the scenes…xD)

So, there we go. Scans and lyrics should be posted soon.