j1m0ne’s blog

Random fact #1:
Despite me having been in the UK for five years, studying at a university which has seen some of my favourite bands (Ash, Teenage Fanclub, Delays, Razorlight, The Go! Team) play at the union; I have not been to a single gig. And probably never will. The main reason? Me having tinnitus means I’m less tolerant of persistent loud noise. Last year I went along with my parents to one of their line-dancing parties and I swear, it was like my head was being pounded by rocks eventhough it was mostly (rather hideous) country music. By the end of the night I was nauseous and had a massive headache…..I think I’ll stick to classical performances. The Vienna Boy’s Choir was brilliant when I watched them ages ago.

I was pondering this when watching a couple of live DVDs (Mizuki Nana, STRAIGHTENER) and thinking ‘Woah, what I’d give to be there’ and then the next minute frowning and saying ‘But I don’t want to end up with tinnitus in both ears’….I guess that’s what earplugs are for? That would probably kill the atmosphere though. Sigh, it’s been nearly 7 years I’ve had it now and I guess I’ll be stuck with this buzz in my ear forever. Though I hardly notice it anymore anyway.

Random Fact #2:
I wear earplugs to sleep every single night. It started out as something of a last resort after having to put up with the shenanigans of all the drunken first-years returning at 3am on a Friday night, screaming their heads off. But now it’s become a habit and I feel almost…. incomplete without them, lol. Can’t get to sleep if I don’t wear them.

Um yeah, anyway moving on……… some more random trivia bits, but for the rest of this entry they’ll be about Mizuki Nana. I was mentioning her radio schedule on a post a few days ago and I made an effort to catch all of them. I missed the one on Monday (Recommend) cos I was at a lecture or something but I did listen to all the others; though they’re all shows that are part of my usual listening line-up anyway (except YoungPs).

Tuesday (17/04/07)
Azuma Takahiro’s YoungPs

Azuma is the boke half of comedy duo Take2 and also does a bit of acting. And is a MoMusu fan. Nana’s made a couple of appearances on YoungPs already, though I’ve not caught any of them before as the show runs on JOLF, a station I don’t normally tune in to.

Anyway, the show actually runs for 2 hours (from 10pm-12am) but Nana was around 15 minutes late. The show featured Azuma calling up listeners who, if they answered a question correct; got to speak to Nana and had her say a line of their choice (i.e. Oniichan, daiiiiisuki). Since Nana was late, the first caller never got to speak to her and instead Azuma said he’d ask her any question he wanted. The question turned out to be ‘Which seiyuu are you good friends with?‘. So Azuma called up Nana’s mobile phone some 6-7 minutes into the show, and I guess she was still in a car somewhere (highway sounds); and asked her the aforementioned question. Nana’s answer: Noto Mamiko, though obviously Azuma had no idea who she was and misheard it as Miko-chan ^^;

Thursday (19/04/07)
Mizuki Nana’s Smile Gang
…..it was the usual show, and I don’t actually remember most of it. They (Nana + Fukuen Misato) were mostly reading listener letters and talking about the single though, and I did recall that Misato said that a bunch of new corners would be starting next week.

Saturday (21/04/07)
Anispa

Thanks to the baseball, the show only lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes. Don’t know if it was planned, but Nana appeared together with Kageyama Hironobu; with both having new records to promote (JAM PROJECT’S Stormbringer, Nana’s SECRET AMBITION) and also doing a joint promotion for this summer’s Animelo Live.

When Masumin asked Kageyama and Nana if they had spoken to each other before, Kageyama joked that he was already at the ‘Oh…Honey!’ stage. And Nana responded by calling him Darling ^^; Kageyama spent half the show making fun of Nana’s surname (because of part-time JAM member Mizuki Ichiro) eventhough the kanji is different ^^; (水樹 vs 水木) and they called her ‘Boss’ and Mizuki-sensei [Mizuki Ichiro is seen as the pioneer/aniki of the anison genre].

They spent most of the time talking about the Animelo live, and according to Kageyama, recording for the single will begin next week. Eh, I didn’t like last year’s OUTRIDE so I can’t say I’m particularly excited about this either. Only a bunch of artists have been confirmed for this year’s show with Juukai, Momoi Halko and m.o.v.e some of the new acts joining the usuals Takahashi Naozumi, Okui Masami, Ali Project, Kuribayashi Minami etc on the bill.

Sunday (22/04/07)
Tentama
It seems ages ago since Nana was in an anime with Horie Yui…. I think Bottle Fairy must’ve been the last one, before this season’s (rather boring) Shining Tears X Wind. Anyway, Nana was promoting SECRET AMBITION here as well, though they did play one of Hocchan’s silly games called Tsundere Senbon Knock - Yui read a tsun line; and Nana has to come back with a dere line.

Example:
Hocchan: ちょっと，丼に蟲入ってるわよ。 (Hey, there’s a bug in the bowl!)
Nana:　♥♥ほら、あぁ♥♥ (Say Aaah…..)
……….Hocchan said ‘That’s no dere! That’s tsun!!! And an S (sadist) too! How can you feed someone bugs!!!’

The funniest thing about the show? Halfway through, Yui suddenly asked Nana if she was interested in the drums. Turns out she was trying to persuade Nana to be Kurobara Hozonkai’s drummer (they don’t have one) ^^;;;; and made comments like ‘Oh you’re so fair….oh you’d look good in black….’

Nana actually knew what Kurobara Hozonkai was, and had their CD (someone gave it to her). If you don’t know, Kurobara Hozonkai is Horie Yui’s side project - a goth-loli band (like AliPro) that has Yui singing and writing the music, with the rest of the band being Tentama staff members. They’re 10 times better than Aice5 in my opinion, but about 100 times uglier ^_^

Mini Oricon report:

I think Nana’s looking good for around No.5-No.6. What the chart should look like come Wednesday:

1. x~Dame/Crazy Rainbow. Takky & Tsubasa (1→1→1→1→1)
2. Looking For. Spitz (3→2→2→2→3)
3. BABYLON. Ryu Si Won (2→3→4→9→14)
4. Get Chu!/SHE no Jijitsu. AAA (4→5→5→7→10)
5. SECRET AMBITION. Mizuki Nana (5→4→7→11→9)
6. CRY BABY. SEAMO (8→6→3→5→2)

I’m wondering if SEAMO will beat out Nana, but poor first day sales might just have scuppered his chances. Unless SECRET AMBITION completely bombs over the next few days, I think she’ll scrape past him…. though I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if SEAMO won out. Ryu’s downward trajectory is looking a bit ominous too, but I think strong sales in the first three days will just keep him afloat.

7-10 is probably too close to call, but I’m thinking BEAT CRUSADERS, AKB48 and Infinity 16 will take up the remaining spots. Though I’m not discounting Fukuyama Masaharu and the phenomenon that is Akikawa Masafumi sneaking in.

I’m pleased Infinity 16 (feat. Shonan no Kaze, MINMI & MOOMIN) are doing well cos Japanese reggae/dancehall is grossly underrated. Lord knows where FJ YUUKA are going to end up; it sure isn’t looking good (21→24→29→38→39).

Posted on April 23rd, 2007 under misc, music • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback