Hooo boy, here we go again. Tomatsu Haruka is appearing in yet another live-action adaptation of a manga (the other being RH Plus). Koko wa Greenwood, which begins July, features lots of B-grade actors I’ve never heard of…plus Iwata Mitsuo (Marcosius in Shana) as narrator and our friend the airhead Fukui Yukari (facepalms).

I mean, look at the actor playing our supposed ‘guy who looks like girl’ Kisaragi Shun. That don’t look like no trap to me. More like a transsexual operation gone wrong.

So er…Tomatsu’s cast as the idol singer Nitta Mieko, and she even gets to sing the ending song. But then, I’m not even sure that she’s a good singer at all… but it’s her official debut single so I’ll probably buy it. Google tells me ‘Naissance’ is French for birth. If you’re wondering why Haruka is even involved in this, it’s because Aniplex (owned by Sony) are one of the producers of Koko wa Greenwood. Haruka’s signed to a Sony seiyuu agency, as are access, singers of the opening theme ‘Dream Runner’. But seriously, they should stop making her do drama series that nobody watches. I certainly don’t think it’s going to advance her career one bit…

I’ve been wondering what’s up with Maeno Tomoaki’s sudden rise to prominence. After 2-3 years as a bit of an odd-jobber, doing bit-part roles in dead-end anime, Maeno’s finally gotten his break with a trio of lead roles this year. The role that brought him to the attention of the general anime-watching public is that sexy beast Dojo Atsushi (above) from Toshokan Senso, which is sadly coming to an end soon. But I didn’t know that much about him, so I’ve been doing some digging over the last few months.

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So it’s true after all that Mizuki Nana is going to be in the anime adaptation of Leaf’s 1998 visual novel WHITE ALBUM. With Elements Garden composing the music, I wonder if we’ll get at least an opening or ending theme by Nana. It’s more likely that Hirano Aya, being the voice of the main character’s girlfriend, will get the gig but if it came to that…then they should stick to hiring the usual Aquaplus singers like Suara or Motoda Emi ^^;;

Anyway, Seven Arcs (Nanoha series) are behind this - most of the staff look unfamiliar to me, never heard of the director either. Anime is currently slated to air in January 2009. Someone who’s into eroge might know more about WHITE ALBUM’s premise, which according to wikipedia, is…

…the first bishojo game made by Leaf that has not used the title of “visual novel”, so there are some differences between the system of WHITE ALBUM and the other previous Leaf games. One of the most distinctive features is that the game’s hero already has his girlfriend, so the objective is not to form a new relationship, but to either keep the girlfriend, give up, or act as if nothing happened.

Right. That sounds exactly like the sort of thing I wouldn’t watch! We’ll see if it turns out to be good like true tears or bad like H2O in 6 months time…

Staff
Original work: Aquaplus
Planning: Shimokawa Naoya
Director: Yoshida Taizo (? - 吉田泰三)
Scenario: Sato Hiroaki
Character Design: Yoshinari Kou
Original Character Design: Kawata Hisashi
Art Director: Katahira Shinji
Music: Elements Garden
Sound Director: Shioya Tsubasa
Producer: Mishima Akio
Animation: Seven Arcs
>>Hirano Aya: Morikawa Yuki
>>Mizuki Nana: Ogata Rina
Official site: http://www.whitealbum-tv.com/ (to come)

News via MOONPHASE.

Things I’ve now learned, having been away from the internet for 2.5 days….

-The summer anime season’s already started? Gee, I had no idea.
-Kanbe Miyuki is now dead. Jeebus, she’s the same age as me T_T
-WaiWai is gone. Heck, I loved all that trashy gossip. Didn’t change my perception of Japan one bit (as in I always suspected it was a cultural shithole anyway).
-Ketsumeishi, GReeeeN and Ayaka’s new albums all leaked. Unfortunately they’re not that good - so much for that three-way battle for the No.1 spot then, I really don’t care who gets it now. In terms of quality, I’d rate it GReeeeN>Ketsume>Ayaka, but I’d place my money on Ketsumeishi to win.
-Kitamura Eri’s single has gotten a name. REALIZE, it’s called. She talked about it a bit on ChoRaji yesterday - that she’s already recorded the songs and shot the photos for the sleeve. And she says that REALIZE’s in a musical genre that she doesn’t really like…great! Lantis calling the shots then…I’m starting to worry that it’s going to turn into some polka/country hybrid.
-New Sakakibara Yui album!!…wait, King Records/Starchild are now marketing & distributing it (with her original company LOVExTRAX still involved) so unsurprisingly, neither Koi no Honoo (5pb./Media Factory) nor Koisuru Kioku (Geneon) are on JOKER. I’m happy that Till I can see you again and Einsatz are on it, but 10th September is a loooong way away. Her official site is surprisingly muted about the release, no sexy belly-baring pics this time around then?
-I totally forgot to order Minorin’s live DVD, hah! Anyway, I’m neither desperate to get my hands on it ASAP nor am I willing to pay the exorbitant shipping fees so I’ll just wait for the next time I pick up some J-indie albums. Besides, I think it’s better that I stop buying all this pointless stuff so I can eat decent lunches and maybe buy some petrol for the car or something…

Other Boring Rants:
My fellow Sabahans are officially idiots. What’s with all these stupid SMS rumours causing KK people to push the panic button all the time? I had an amusing time watching the cars queueing for petrol from my office window around 3pm, but come 6pm… I had to restrain myself from shouting expletives at all the retards blocking the roads on my way home.

I didn’t finish Ninja Gaiden after all >_> but I did finish Breath Toiki wa Akaneiro. It was over before I realised… I just wanted to hear what stupid song Noto Mamiko’s character would be singing at the end >_> The minigames were both amusing & annoying, I laughed everytime I tried to whistle the silly tune and kept failing the tasks, lol. I liked the balloon-blowing one (blow into mic & press L when it reaches correct size), and hated the bus parking one (whistle at certain intervals to get the buses to line up), grrr. Seriously, if it wasn’t because I had gotten bored of all the other games I had with me I wouldn’t have played the damn thing. Breath had a plot thinner than a tissue paper flattened by a gorilla’s buttock, which I believe involved two emo kids, a flute, some soap bubbles, breathing on a girl’s boobs and lots of dreadful curry.

On the other hand, I find Soul Bubbles pretty endearing ^^;;

Uh…disturbing lack of images in this post. Have a Minorin one with glasses (I personally think she looks crap in them)…

Or maybe one of Kitamura Eri…

…er, I’ll probably get back to regular blogging soon. I think.

I haven’t covered anime/seiyuu radio shows in much depth of late, despite listening to a boatload of them to while away the hours at work. Laziness, I suppose. Kobayashi Yu seems to be everywhere lately…

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I fear I’m not going to bring anything new to the table if I just rehash the whole ‘otaku are harmless, misunderstood individuals/otaku are the bane of planet earth’ argument so I’ll settle for peering at the otaku world through my own rose-tinted spectacles. What follows is a collection of random thoughts and observations, keep in mind that it’s not meant to be an essay so don’t expect a good introduction, plot or ending.

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Hahahahahahahah. This fan-made video is way too bloody hilarious. Credits to whoever made & put it up on NND - sure made me grin like an idiot for 5 minutes. It would help if you:

1. know basic Japanese or
2. have been reading my blog for a long time or
3. keep up with all the latest gossip, news and stupid rumours going around in Seiyuu Land
and most importantly,
4. have a sense of humour.

Since it makes fun of anyone and everyone, you know a seiyuu is famous if they’re being made fun of here. The jokes:

-Dekobitch is an unflattering nickname for Hirano Aya (Deko = big forehead, bitch = well… female dog, to be precise)
-Mizuki Nana and Imai Asami’s lack of boobs
-Saito Momoko & Kimura Madoka’s lack of work lately [ハロワ is a temp agency]
-Nakamura Eriko (Idolmaster) cannot sing to save her life
-Yukarin and Hocchan are stinky obasan
-Ueda Kana’s obsession with mahjong
-Koshimizu Ami’s uncomfortable appearance on Waratte Iitomo, and the comparison of (the length of) her face to a horse’s
-Goto Saori is referred to by some as 弱い方の後藤さん (the weaker Goto-san) as opposed to the loud & rude Goto Yuko
-Inoue Marina’s cosplay days (Goenma!! xD)

And this also reminds me that Hidamari Sketch x 365 is coming soon! Sketch Switch is a really fun song…

Edit: And I messed up the post permalink wtf. Oh, whatever.

Finally, it’s out. I’ve been waiting rather impatiently for this week to come so I could finally feast my ears on a version of Donten that doesn’t give me ear cancer. It’s like, only the best anime theme song so far this year, and the best of the many good Gintama themes so far. Screw VELTPUNCH, listen to DOES. PV, is predictably boring. Sounds OK live, too.

On the other end of the spectrum is Hikita Kaori’s Amatsuki ED theme Namae no nai Michi. The first time I heard this I had to give my ears a decent dig with the pick to make sure I wasn’t hearing things. Apart from the fact that it sounds like a rehash of 99% of Kajiura’s other compositions, the first line of the song’s chorus is amusingly, almost identical to that of Duca’s Ai no Niwa. Which happens to be my favourite video game-related song of 2008 so far, and is a kazillion times better than Namae no nai Michi. Yeah well, coincidence I suppose. The song’s verses also sound oddly familiar but I can’t quite place it at the moment. Whatever, back to Donten then.