j1m0ne's blog

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.

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.

Er, I think I need to re-examine my belief in Nana and her fans.

It seems Nana fans are out in full force on the first day, everyone else has spent their money on the NEWS singles and not bought any of the others.

Who wants to be the eternal optimist and predict that Nana will hold on to that No.2 spot? I’ll play it safe and predict that a late week surge will see Hikawa Kiyoshi and KOH+ overtaking her. I hope I’m wrong…

I offer Nana in a box to make up for my lack of faith.

Go, Nana fans! Buy 10 copies of Trickster each & er… show off how scary powerful otaku are, or something.

I haven’t even ordered the Trickster CD yet, hah. But er yeah, there’s a reason for that – it’s Hari Raya celebrations over here and there’s no way in hell I’m letting any of my packages sit in shitty Malaysian post office’s depots while the postmen stuff their faces with chicken wings. God knows where my CDs would end up (most likely some bush in some remote village down in Johor or something).

Anyway, quick first impressions of Trickster.

-They kept in the a capella bit at the end of Trickster, thankfully. It sounds as good on record as it did in the PV. Pretty much the same goes for DISCOTHEQUE.

-I like Trinity Cross. Fans turned off by Trickster & DISCOTHEQUE might find it more to their taste – it’s a bit like Tears’ Night, one of my fave Nana songs ever. Seems a bit of a waste to use Trinity Cross for a shitty show like RosaPan *weeps in despair*

-Overall Trickster is probably the best seiyuu single CD release in 2008 so far though there aren’t many other contenders really. It’s much better than STARCAMP EP anyway.

-Shame Nana/record company somehow always manage to choose stupidly competitive weeks to release in lolz. Have fun trying to outsell:

Happy Birthday. NEWS
-Johnny’s. Nuff said.
Previous single first week sales: 201,266 (SUMMER TIME)

Ashiato. BAReeeeeeeeeeN
-The shittiest name for a musical project, ever. It’s a collaboration between GReeeeN and BACK-ON. GReeeeN’s latest album has sold over 700,000 copies.
Previous single first week sales: 186,097 (GReeeeN – Kiseki)

Aisho no Mizumi. Hikawa Kiyoshi
-Everyone’s favourite enka singer.
Previous single first week sales: 60,047 (Genkai Funauta)

Natsu no Kakera. Aqua Timez
-I love Aqua Timez (aka gay pop music); if charts were lined up by quality rather than sales then they would be No.1. Ain’t gonna happen though. Watch PV on Youtube.
Previous single first week sales: 55,233 (Niji)

Saiai. KOH+
-Second collab between Fukuyama Masaharu & Shibasaki Kou, Saiai is the themesong for the Yogisha X no Kenshin movie (sequel to Galileo dorama). I actually quite like Saia, much more than I did Kiss shite which was used in the dorama. Watch PV on Youtube.
Previous single first week sales: 54,639 (Kiss Shite)

STARCAMP EP first week sales: 37,353

Good luck, Nana!

I’m bored of every third hit I get being from someone searching for ‘trickster’ + ‘nana’ + ‘torrent’. Shoo, go away.

I was actually going to write this as a reply to my Trickster preview post, but it got too long

So the full PV’s out and I’ve just got around to viewing it myself. Visually, it reminds me of something a Jrock band would do – 9mmPB’s The World was one of the first things that popped into my mind, along with Straightener’s various B&W PVs. I’m sure there are better examples out there.

Trickster’s definitely one of my fave Nana songs now; it’s got an awesome rhythm section – some pretty good drumming in there. And the song also ends with Nana singing a capella – has she ever done that before? Somebody refresh my mind.

And so much for thinking the PV would be underwater, lol. I did enjoy the bits where the water sprayed off the instruments when they hit it (especially the cymbals).

The Discotheque PV looks gayer (and I don’t mean that it in a non-PC kind of way) but it seems pretty fun, camp ’80s disco mode & all. Looking forward to seeing the full versh!

There you go, less than half an hour after it was played for the first time on Smile Gang. No doubt Nico Nico will have a better version very soon – I recorded this off a shitty Peercast stream so don’t blame me! Ear cancer, arghh. I’ll replace this with a HQ version as soon as I can.

Anyway, a tiny picture of Trickster’s cover has been uploaded on Nana’s site and… they might as not have uploaded it at all, I can hardly see anything FFS. If Nana hadn’t talked about how the cover had a circus theme to it I wouldn’t have noticed. Why circus? Trickster –> clown –> circus. Yay. Trust Amazon to come up with the goods, eh? Hmmm. I don’t like Nana’s hair here >_< I think I prefer the simple but sleek look of STARCAMP EP.  Not feeling those fishnet stockings either. Nice balloon though.

Nana was also waffling about Son Goku or something when trying to reason why she’d written something called Trickster but I wasn’t listening properly, I just wanted to hear the song! Like DISCOTHEQUE, Trickster something really different from Nana – rockier and much more mainstream than anything she’s done recently. I like it myself, although the chorus may be a little meh for others. I think the PV should be airing within the next few days (I think Nana mentioned the words ‘underwater’ and ‘NOT wearing swimsuits’ when talking about it), and I’m sure Seiyuu3 will be bringing it to you when it does Only Trinity Cross to go now – October 1 can’t come soon enough for me!

I foresee a lot of people hating this! DISCOTHEQUE is like CUTIE HONEY & Cat’s Eye mashed with Morning Musume and that is going to kill all the fans who only got into Nana in her Elements Garden phase. Plus, she uses her cutesy high-pitched voice here, which is an er…acquired taste. Personally, I don’t mind the song that much – it’s about 60,000 times better than COSMIC LOVE at least. I see Nana didn’t sing DISCOTHEQUE at Animelo.. actually, she ended up singing four of my not-so-favourite songs (Zankou no Gaia, Pray, Dancing in the velvet moon & ETERNAL BLAZE) so I don’t feel bad about not getting my arse over to Japan for the show.