Random Anime/Seiyuu News + Updates
TWIJ on hiatus this week, been busy running around with job interviews etc. & I’m not quite in the mood to judge an EXILE album at the moment. Damn huge sales for that though. Around 200k(!!!) copies on its first day; still not as many as Mr.Children’s HOME though. DREAMS COME TRUE are also doing really well too - 100k or thereabouts. Incidentally, in the bizzare world of the Oricon calendar this is the first official chart week of 2008. Anyhow, here’s a round-up of a few news items that’ve seeped through over the last couple of days.
Random news
1.Hirano Aya’s MonStAR debuted at No.11, selling 10,542 copies. That’s 113 more than Neophilia. Rejoice! Oh, and if anyone’s not yet noticed, Hirano featured on hip label VAP’s bizarre CD in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Jingle Bells (released 28th November). There’s an Angura-kei version Jingle Bells by Inugami Circus-dan, a jokey Jingle All the GAY! by Sendai Kamotsu (alter-ego of VKband Nightmare) and a host of other odd takes on the festive favourite. Alas, Hirano does not sing Jingle Bells, but rather recites the lyrics. In Japanese. Samples can be heard on the special VAP page for the album. I’m almost tempted to buy it on iTunes just for a laugh…..
2.The PSP remake of tactical RPG Yggdra Union (originally released for GBA in 2006) is getting a radio show. The hosts will be seiyuu Nakahara Mai (Rena in Higurashi etc) and singer/seiyuu Sakakibara Yui (Priecia in Prism Ark) who voice Yggdra and Kylier respectively. Truth be told, this is one of the strangest combinations I’ve heard of yet - not that I’m complaining since I like both of them. Yui-nyan doesn’t do too many non-eroge related projects, and I generally don’t care for her voice acting (she seems to have an inability to turn off her ero-voice) though it’d be nice if she sang the theme song….
3.Iwao Junko’s releasing an anime song covers album on 30th January 2008 titled ANIME ON BOSSA. Some promotion blurb I’ve been reading dubs the project as an Akiba-kei SOTTE BOSSE (SOTTE BOSSE are a Japanese group who specialise(d) in bossa nova/lounge style cover versions of Jpop songs). A full tracklisting hasn’t been confirmed, but some of the songs mooted include Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze, Omoide ga Ippai and Tonari no Totoro.
4.It was announced sometime last week that idol Nakagawa Shoko would be singing the ending theme snow tears as well as voicing the character Neko in Hakaba Kitaro (yet another Gegege anime, yay). And you know it had to happen - Shoko-tan cosplays as her character. I’ll leave it to you to form your own opinion of that photo…. And as usual Sony will be sucking her fans dry with 3 versions of the snow tears single, one of which includes Shoko-as-Neko stickers. I wonder if the PV will have her in cosplay mode too.
5.So mecha manga Kurogane no Linebarrel is getting animated…. The Shimizu Eiichi X Shimooguchi Tomohiro manga runs in Champion RED, and the March issue will include a special drama CD - Kakihara Tetsuya and Noto Mamiko have been apparently been cast as the main characters Hayase Koichi and Kizaki Emi.
I’m flicking through some of the manga at the moment and it’s not bad - the art and designs are clean & the mecha battles look good. Though the ‘kid awakens with superpowers’ plotline isn’t really my kind of thing. Anyone into Evangelion or Gundam should give the Kurogane manga a shot, I’m not sure if there’s anyone scanlating it though. It’s fully furigana-ed anyway, so anyone with a basic grasp of Japanese should be able to muddle through it.