j1m0ne's blog

ALBUMS
**1 132,772 Expressions 竹内まりや (Takeuchi Mariya)
**2 102,331 マクロスF O.S.T.2 娘トラ。菅野よう子 (Nyan Tora)

Nyan Tora lost out to Takeuchi Mariya in the end as expected. I’m happy Mariya’s 4-CD best of compilation is selling so well (it’s in its second week), sure to get past the 500k mark now. Not bad for a 53-year old o-baba ^^; But Nyan Tora managed to break the 100k barrier so it’s not all bad news.

SINGLES
*13　*14　**8,081　315,948　17　崖の上のポニョ　藤岡藤巻と大橋のぞみ (Damn Ponyo song)
*14　***　**7,756　**7,756　*1　INTENTION　鈴村健一 (Suzumura Kenichi)
*15　**2　**7,620　*64,821　*2　Trickster　水樹奈々 (Mizuki Nana)
*17　***　**5,970　**5,970　*1　涙 NAMIDA ナミダ　平野綾 (Hirano Aya)
*18　*25　**5,756　107,469　*8　ライオン　May’n/中島愛 (Lion)

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.

Seriously, I don’t know why NAMIDAx3 sold that badly – I mean, Lion nearly beat it and it’s in its 8th week of charting. Only slightly over half of what MonStAR and Neophilia sold in their first weeks, and 2k lower than the already poorly performing Unnamed World. At least Hirano’s album sales are good!

And look at Ponyo is in its 17th bloody week (go away FFS) and Nana in her second week. And Suzumura… fangirl power FTW!

To tell the truth, I loved the Suzumura single – he doesn’t actually sound too shabby on record, even if he looks rather dodgy in the PV (oi, stop stupid hand movements please). The songs are all generic Jrock which definitely sits better with me than any other idol type music anyway. I think I’m going to add INTENTION to my shopping basket soon…

な・・・何だ！？！

When I looked at the picture above (from the Love Megane section of the new Seigura) I did a double take – I thought it was Tanaka Rie… or Bonnie Pink… or Hirano Aya… but Nazuka Kaori?
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Mizuki Nana performed Trickster on Music Fighter last night – the good people over at seiyuu3 posted it on youtube, but you’ll probably want to grab the HQ capture (TS format) of it by hikkichan over @ Jpopsuki if you have an account there – you can see Nana in full glory, warts and all. Mmm, only a 2 1/2 minute long performance but I think Nana did pretty well there. The ‘backing track’ drowned her out a bit at times, there were a few rushed notes and she sounded flat on some of the lower parts (actually, the entire vocal sounds lower than it does on record) but I guess that’s just nitpicking. A capella bit was good!

Oh, and Trickster overtook Hirano Aya’s NAMIDAx3 in the charts yesterday (and is still above it today at No.14 vs No.20) No offence, but NAMIDAx3 is a bloody awful song.

Mmmm. Seems a bit long since I last featured Yu-tan around here.

As usual, she’s making an utter fool of herself… the yelp around the 26 second mark sounded rather painful.

Full video, with Yu talking crap about wearing school swimsuits on Nico Nico Douga.

God. I can’t believe I’m doing this.

But since townberry suggested it as further punishment for not believing in Nana enough, I shall heap misery upon myself.

Do you know how many times I had to stab my hand to force myself to type those lines?

[inner monologue: I AM A MASOCHIST.]

But seriously, I don’t really hate Hirano to the ends of the earth.

She is on my list of Top 100000000000 favourite things, right after broken legs, kimchi & durian-flavoured juice and pink-and-yellow-polka-dotted knee high socks.

I still like Suzumiya Haruhi and Bouken Desho Desho y’know.

And Hirano’s Doushite song from Himawari is damn good.

And Mei from Manabi Straight! is awesomeness.

A 21st birthday is a very special thing, people should make sure they celebrate it properly and all. Mine was spent watching episode 7 of My-Otome whilst eating a pizza and drinking hot cocoa, with a duvet wrapped around me.

Back to work now…

Memorandum

TO: All Members
FROM: Hirakawa Aya, President of Mizuki Nana-sama Cheerleading Squad
DATE: 6th October 2008
SUBJECT: Notice of Disciplinary Action

It has come to our attention that j1m0ne, erstwhile leader of the female sub-division of the Mizuki Nana-sama Cheerleading Squad, has been found guilty of non-promoting of, and deliberately pessimistic outlook on Mizuki Nana-sama’s most recent masterpiece & soon-to-be national heritage, the Trickster single. We have now learnt that despite j1m0ne’s best attempts to undermine Mizuki Nana-sama’s assault on the Oricon charts by fervently pimping Hikawa Kiyoshi, KOH+ and Aqua Timez as potential winners over Mizuki Nana-sama, the move has backfired as it prompted angry hordes of Mizuki Nana fans to purchase five copies of Trickster each. Despite that, the authorities have decided that action is necessary.

This memo is to inform all members of j1m0ne’s multiple punishments for the crime stated in Chapter 717, Section 117B (noted as “lack of faith”), agreed upon by the Mizuki Nana Cheerleading Squad Disciplinary Committee headed by Hirakawa Aya. This will consist of:
a) a copy of War and Peace with extra large font, to be inserted in j1m0ne’s mouth (a punishment otherwise referred to as “eating of words”)
b) seven slaps across the face with a dirty, smelly trout
c) a mandatory purchase of 777 copies of Trickster
d) a forced 48-hour tape loop of NEWS’ Happy Birthday to be blared into j1m0ne’s ears via headphones that have been safely secured on using epoxy glue
e) a stripping off of all titles held previously, including the Almighty Leader of the Gaijin Female Mizuki Nana-sama Cheerleading Subdivision J title with immediate effect
f) a temporary 3-month demotion to subsidiary Hirano Aya’s Toilet Cleaning Brigade with immediate effect

After a three month probationary period, j1m0ne’s membership in the Squad will be re-evaluated and if necessary, further action will be taken.

All members are asked to sign their names in the blank spaces provided below to acknowledge that you have read and agreed to the action stated above.

NB: Indeed, Mizuki Nana-sama has sold 57,201 copies of Trickster, her best ever first week chart performance yet! It was indeed sad that she chose to unveil her latest masterpiece to the world in the same week as the wretched NEWS, but rejoice! Our faith as a Cheerleading Squad has made the world sit up and take notice of beloved Mizuki Nana-sama! To celebrate, every member will be presented with a commemorative rubber replica of a trout.

Top 10 chart performance below:
*1　201304　NEWS
*2　*57201　水樹奈々 (Mizuki Nana)
*3　*54005　EXILE
*4　*51063　氷川きよし (Hikawa Kiyoshi)
*5　*43217　KOH+
*6 *27,428 絢香×コブクロ (Ayaka x Kobukuro)
*7 *21,878 BAReeeeeeeeeeN
*8 *18,286 Aqua Timez
*9 *18,180 アンジェラ・アキ (Angela Aki)
10 *16,009 ASKA

What a close battle it was! Give yourself a pat on the back, Nana fans.

Reflecting on Saito Chiwa’s recent ‘image change’, I’ve been wondering since when I started bothering about seiyuu looks, their image etc.

I mean, I used to think all seiyuu looked like cleaning ladies. That was something like 6-7 years ago after the trauma of discovering that the people behind the voices of my beloved Mahoro (Kawasumi Ayako) and Kirika (Kuwashima Houko) rather resembled the motherly matrons in my boarding house.

Nowadays all seiyuu have to regularly attend live events and appear on anime TV shows & DVD specials so there’s no way they can avoid not showing their faces. So they better stop munching on those Pockies if they don’t wanna be stuck with all the fat jibes. Or lose a role because their face is ‘too fat’.

I think you pretty much know where this is leading – a visual before/after study seeking to explore the wonders of concealer, foundation and eye-shadow. Let’s get cracking.
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