j1m0ne's blog

2009 celebrates the nice little milestone of 7 years of Nana fandom for me, which began back in 2002… and oh wait just go back and read this crazy rambling post, saves me a bit of time.

For the past 1 1/2 years or so I’ve taken a backseat with regards to Nana coverage so that the hardcore fans (you know who y’all are *cough* danie~) can take front and center. Honestly this is a great time to be a Nana fan (although I do feel sorry for everyone’s wallets…), what with her firmly entrenched on the seiyuu pop idol throne and making inroads into the great boiling cauldron of mainstream Jpop. It’s been great fun watching her journey throughout this decade, rising from seiyuu idol wannabe to bona fide superstar.

Although my fanaticism has settled down a lot from my peak craziness (3-4 years ago) I’m still totally in love with her music and that’s something that’ll never change. Since it’s the end of the decade I thought it’d be fun to compile a list of 77 favourite Nana songs as of this very moment (24 December 2009). My tastes tend to fluctuate over time, which means sometimes I can suddenly take to a song I never really liked (like Shin’ai) but generally I think my top 10 is pretty consistent. Hopefully I won’t be too redundant with my comments as I find 77 ways to describe 77 Nana songs…

Countdown time!

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One of the impulse purchases I made on my recent trip to Tokyo was this, a 114-page book to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the a-FAN FAN radio programme last year. It’s a 90-minute weekly show on cable radio network USEN hosted by four different people (one for each week of the month) – Kobayashi Yu, MC Minami Kaori, Mizuki Nana and songwriter Mieno Hitomi, delivering anime information and music. The strange thing that all four women have in common? They all have blood type O.

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So I just spent five and a half hours looping ULTIMATE DIAMOND on the flight back from Narita, turning each track around and back to front. And ended up writing my impressions using traditional pen and paper, something I probably haven’t done since I graduated from high school…

Basically, a couple of notes on each track as I listened to them. I believe most of the discussion is going over at danie~’s since that is er… the ultimate Nana shrine. I am but a mere admirer.

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And Mizuki Nana is only the second ever seiyuu to achieve that feat.

Guess who’s the other one?

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Uh yeah. I said I’d translate the interview with Nana but I’m still not 100% done yet – I blame work.

What I’ve translated anyway.

Oh, and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in coverage of the following DVD:

“Nana Mizuki Smile Gang 5th Anniversary Book + DVD”. It’s like an extended episode of Smile Gang except you get to see their faces, and also witness Nana showing off her terrible tendency for cheating :3

I’d just like to point people to this interview with Nana by Nikkei TRENDYnet which I had linked to on my shared Google reader stuff, and I thought it’d be good to give it a little more exposure here. The interview is done by a non-otaku and is aimed mostly at non-otaku, and throws in a few unconventional questions. I probably won’t translate it all because… it’s a bit long, but I thought there was some amusing stuff in there which I’ll just shoot off quick translations for (I’m at work!).

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danie~ has already posted about this, but I thought I’d try and knock off a full translation of Mizuki Nana’s blog entry talking about her father’s passing away (sorry my Japanese is not that great).

暫くの間ブログをお休みしてしまい、
みなさんにご心配をおかけしてすみません。
Apologies for any worries I have caused as a result of my absence from this blog over the last few days.

新聞などで既に知っている方もいらっしゃると思いますが、
先月２９日に父が他界しました。
もっと早くにみなさんにもご報告したかったのですが、
葬儀の準備や色々な手続きなどもあって、
このタイミングになってしまいました。ごめんなさい。
It has been in the news,
and I think most people will have heard by now that my father passed away on the 29th.
I had wanted to tell everyone about this news earlier,
but was unable to due to the preparations for the funeral
and so, it has been delayed up until now.
Apologies.

父は１０年前に脳梗塞で倒れ入院、
以来ずっと病院で闘病生活を送っていました。
本当に歌が大好きな父で、
若い頃はバンドを組んで歌手を目指したことも…。
その影響を多大に受け、
私も幼い頃から歌手を夢見て歌い続けて…
今の私があるのは、本当に父のお陰です。
10 years ago, my father was hospitalised as a result of a stroke,
and since then he has been constantly fighting the illness.
My father was a man who truly loved music,
and in his younger days even formed a band to try to make it in the business…
This had a large influence on me.
When I was young, I too sang, dreaming of becoming a singer someday…
I am who I am now, because of my father.

一度、生で私のライブを見せてあげたかった…
その想いを込めて、お通夜みんなが帰った後、
父に教わった演歌を父の傍で歌いました。
そして、
「パパの娘に生まれてくることができて幸せ」と、
沢山のありがとうを伝えました。
これからはいつでもすぐに飛んで行けるから…
そんな言葉が聞こえた気がします。
I wanted him to see me sing live someday…
With that thought in my mind,
I stood beside my father when everyone had gone home after the wake,
and sang to him an enka song he had taught me.
And then, with much gratefulness I said to him,
‘I am truly blessed to have been born as Papa’s daughter’.
And somehow, I felt I could hear him saying to me,
‘From now on, just call and I’ll be there…’**

今回のことを経て、今まで以上に音楽に真摯に取り組み、
大好きな歌を大好きな人達に伝えていきたいと
心から思っています。
まだまだ走り出したばかりの水樹奈々を
よろしくお願いします。
With what has now passed,
I will put my whole heart into music, more than I ever have before.
Singing the songs I love, to the people I love,
is my heart’s true desire.
I have only just begun down this road,
so please continue supporting me (Mizuki Nana) from now on.

激励のメッセージをくださったみなさん、
本当にありがとうございました。
Thank you for the many messages of encouragement I have received.

暫くはブログの更新が不定期になるかもしれませんが、
みなさんよろしくお願い致します。
Blog updates may be irregular in the interim,
but please continue supporting me.

From Mizuki Nana’s blog.

**the literal translation of これからはいつでもすぐに飛んで行けるから is ‘from now on, I can fly to you whenever I wish’