Otakon 2009

Oh man I’m a lazy bastard…I have not updated in 7 months. The chances are, that Comiket report will probably never happen (see couple posts below).

I begin to realize that laziness sets in when I have to write large amounts of text then layout pictures.

So from now on I will only do one, not both.

With that said, let’s see what happened at Otakon.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I will just post picture highlights…

1) The man, the legend, the director god himself, YAMAKAN / Yamamoto Yutaka / ヤマカン

(He blinked, Orz. He was extremely impressed about my AX 2007 Haruhi poster which I fought an arm and leg for.)

C75: Memoirs of a Comiket Initiate (Day 1)

12/28/2008. Day 1 of Winter Comiket 75

Today’s itinery:
1) Go to Comiket!
2) Line up for INDUSTRY HALL (West)
3) Scour for expensive goods
4) Drop off stuff @ Hotel
5) ???
6) PROFIT!

C75: Memoirs of a Comiket Initiate (Day 0)

12/27/2008, I leave from Taipei International Airport, Taiwan, for Japan. My flight was around just after mid-day, and we arrive in Narita a little before 5PM.

Today’s itinery:
1) Meet up with Shinikenshi and Ayu from #nekonyan at the airport. They are folks whom I know through Zalas of Encubed (Shinikenshi is also the eroge peddler many of you know from Hendane! at major North American cons)
2) Get to my hotel in Roppongi, drop off, ready for the big battle ahead

Leaving for Japan in a few hours

I will be going to Japan tomorrow. Less than 12 hours in fact. This will be 5 years since I last been to Tokyo, or Honshuu for the matter…

More to come…

Preview May’n☆Street

Courtesy of the official May’n mailing list, you can now listen and preview May’n new mini-album on the Internet:

Just follow this link and click on the songs…(Windows Media streaming format)
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Discography/A021682/VTCL-60090.html

May’n Street will be released 1/21

The first track, May’n Space, sounds a little more poppy than I expected. It’s Yoko Kanno song of this album.

My impression is that they all sound great – of course they’re just like 10 second previews so it’s kinda hard to tell for now. Except that I thought Lion sounds the same as before XD

This picture amused me

This set of picture amused me:

It’s Mizuki Nana and Hirano Aya posing for pictures together (left from Nana’s blog, right from Aya’s blog). I can just feel the horde of Nana fanboys around the world collectively pop their veins when they see this picture while cursing profanities (“Get away from our goddess, you filthy woman!” etc.) Is there anyone out there who is a die-hard Nana fan and doesn’t hate/laugh at Aya, or is a die-hard fan of both? If you are, please disprove me and leave a comment – I wish I am proven wrong.

I admit (which is no secret by now) that I am a huge huge huge Hirano Aya fanboy/worshipper/follower, but I have never been one to laugh at / speak bad of other seiyuu and singers. But from my experience in the seiyuu otaku world, the ones who badmouth Hirano generally fall into the following categories:

1) Mizuki Nana fanboys
2) Horie Yui fanboys
3) Tamura Yukari fanboys
4) Fanboys of other seiyuu

Seriously, are fanclubs and fanboys so insecure that they feel the need to ridicule other popular seiyuu icons in order to make themselves feel better and superior? I for one have never felt the need talk down fans of other seiyuu in order to show my support for Aya. I admit that she’s not perfect – she still needs to work on her singing during live performances (she’s already much better from what I see in Animelo 08), she needs to fire her make-up artist, and I did laugh a little @ Aya Style bikini. But there are many things which she excels and cannot be replaced by others – voice acting (I dare anyone to say with a straight face that strictly in terms of voice acting, Nana is better than Aya), her energy, stage presence, etc.

As for those rumors / slander about Aya originating from 2ch (e.g. “she’s using seiyuu as a jumpboard into the mainstream entertainment!” or “according to animation staff, in reality, she’s a stuck up snob!” or “She’s getting so much coverage because her dad’s a powerful dentsu executive!”, etc.) Well guess what, I really don’t give a rat’s ass about them. Neither should you. Since when can the crap coming out of 2ch ever be taken seriously? INTERNET, SERIOUS BUSINESS!!!!!11111I like VIP and 2ch culture and I find it extremely funny, but anything coming from 2ch should always be taken with a grain of salt because there’s so much trolling.

Just some random seiyuu ota ranting from me…

Macross Frontier OST3: NYAN TAMA

It is finally here. I have ordered my copy, have you?

全力で買え！！！！ BUY WITH ALL YOUR FORCE!

We must work together and push this CD to #1 again!

Order from HMV….
http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/2807646

Me? I have been busy. I expect activity to start up again sometime during winter break, or perhaps during exam study break.

Oh,  I will be attending Comiket 75 this winter!
12/27 – 1/3 in Japan.

May’n’s 19th birthday…

Keep watching this space for May’n 19th birthday celebration (Oct 21)

You may send her your birthday greetings here:

http://mayn.horipro.jp/mail/

or leave a comment in her latest blog post.

Even if you can’t speak Japanese, “Happy birthday” should be sufficient.

MACROSS FRONTIER OST2: NyanTora….DAILY ORICON ALBUM #1!!!

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/

I am at school right now so I can’t post a lot, but CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ENTIRE MACROSS STAFF!

Macross Frontier OST2 ranked #1 on Daily Oricon rankings for Oct 8. Of course I helped too…because already pre-ordered a copy.

INCREDIBLE! AMAZING!

Haha my copy of Nyan Tora came today in the mail courtesy of HMV + EMS. So fast. This is literally same-day international service XD. Pics later.

Also our goddess Hirano Aya’s new single Namida^3 (too lazy to type all 3 out) got #10 on Daily Oricon Singles Rankings. Job well done.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MS. HIRANO AYA, お誕生日おめでとうございます、われらの平野綾さま！

Happy 21st birthday. If she comes to America she can drink alcohol XD

２１歳のお誕生日、おめでとうございます。アメリカでお酒が飲める年齢ですｗｗｗｗｗｗ

I will continue to support you!
これからもずっと応援します。がんばってください！

Hirano Aya’s works in the fall season:
Nonomura Ayumi, Hyakko
Miu Kujo, Linebarrels of Steel
Nagase Minato, Akaneiro ni somaru saka