TEAM K SHONICHI

NEW TEAM K HAD IT'S SHONICHI AT 2 AM MY TIME. I REFUSE TO CHECK ANYTHING ABOUT IT UNTIL I CAN FIND AN LOD. BUT ALL CAPS TO SHOW MY EXCITEMENT YAY!

I am not dead

... BUT DANG DO I FEEL LIKE IT. lol Not really, but I've been super busy working on a lot of my other projects. At the moment this is what I have been up to:

-Trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, and also what I want to get out of it. This is probably priority number 1.

-I've been doing a lot of work on my cover groups. I'll probably have a post on them when I get around to not being lazy here.

-Working on creating a brand new youtube radio program about cover singing.

Anyway, I SHOULD SET GOALS FOR MYSELF! Maybe I'll actually get something done here. Here's things that I've been thinking of doing:

-A closer look at songs and stages.

-A new member ranking because when I first started this blog, to be honest, I didn't know who everyone was, but I'm now member proficient.

-Some team analysis

-Post about my cover groups and the work I have done over there.

I'm kind of spread thin on my hobbies, so I can't guarantee anything, but I'll definitely make a conscious effort to do something here within the next week.

Bye Bye Bye to Arihara Kanna

Was the next to previous single foreshadowing? But as of today, Arihara Kanna has left the Hello! Project. Am I surprised? No, not really. Am I sad? Surprisingly, no. I actually think that she's better off not in the group.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not a Kanna hater or anything like that. But it seems that the fans have really been treating her badly. I've heard a story about the time when her first boyfriend pictures surfaced (apparently, according to H!O, there is now a second set? Or maybe this is the same set?). Basically in a handshake event, all the wota would deliberately shake hands with all the other C-ute members and then deliberately skip over her, resulting in her ending up in tears at the end of the event.

I know that I'm a fan of AKB48, where cruelty to their members seems to be their business (election anyone? I'll probably do a post on that later), but for the most part, I put that on the managers, since the love to structure things that the girls know when they're not popular so that they "work harder". Ha, or have a nervous breakdown.

Anyway, that's to blame the management. But with Kanna, I feel it was the failure of us, fans. They maybe idols, but they're still people. And I toast Kanna's departure and hope she finds a better future, and people who will appreciate her a lot more than we have (or at least the Japanese fans have).

Anime Expo Day 2

I went to the concert! It was unbelievably awesome! I got to AX at about 10, but we stood in line in registration for the second time, because I went with my best friend and her boyfriend, and her boyfriend hadn't registered. Then we walked around the exhibit hall for a while before we got in line to get seating for the MM concert. It was really hot outside >.<, but you could hear the songs they were rehearsing.

Then we sat in the concert hall for 2 hours before the show started. I sat next to a guy from Japan who goes to numerous concerts a year. He's a huge Ai-chan wota, wearing a yellow shirt... and I tried out my Japanese the best I could, but it had been 1 year since I had spoken it so it was pretty broken Japanese >.<. I also hung out with Aaron, who I met in line for the MM tickets, and met Joel. I know that Aaron was a Reina-wota, and it just seemed like Joel was a general fan.

I had a great time there. Here was the setlist:
Mikan
3 2 1 Breaking Out
MC Intros
Shouganai
How Do You Like This Japan
Resonant Blue
Golden Age Medley (the exact medley I think from the all Singles concert)
Love Machine
Resonant Blue Coupling Song (too lazy to look up the title)
Ame ga Furanai .... (apparently this song is about global warming? I had no idea)
Announcements with Yossi (!!!!!) and Tsunku(!) with OPV winners.
3 2 1 Breaking Out Reprise

Some thoughts:
*-I had a great time here, but the audience seemed kind of low energy. I really credit that to the inexperience of some fans, but I know that a lot of people there had no idea who they were, and didn't know their stuff.
*-The girls looked super tired. Their energy wasn't up as high as I've seen in other concerts. I'm guessing they were jet lagged... they only did arrive 3 days before the concert.
*- Junjun's intro was pure win. She said something along the lines of "I came from China, but I'm here with the Japanese group Morning Musume. It is because of this opportunity that I now know that music has no borders." and she did it in English! She's so awesome! I wish I had glow stuff in her image color.
*- Best song: HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS JAPAN? It seemed to have a lot of energy, and it seemed the crowd loved it.

After that, I walked around the exhibit hall some more and then I went to the "Whose Line is it Anime?" That was really funny, but I wish I knew more anime so that way I could enjoy it more. I had to leave this early though and headed over to the Sekai no Melody panel. I had a great time there... they seem like an awesome dub group!

I had a great time that day... ended up going home way too late!

Morning Musume! AX 2009

A quick report!

So, today was the first day of Anime Expo, and I got to see Morning Musume live in person for the first time! Now I've never been to AX even though I've lived in the LA area my entire life, but I just had to go this year. I wish my camera was in working order for pictures.

My costume: High King. I'll have to upload pics of this later, though I guess some people who take pics of cosplay have my outfit in their picture catalogue.

My first item on my agenda: AX Idol auditions. Man everyone was so good! I auditioned with Sobakasu, but I'm afraid I drifted a little on the song because of nerves and it was acapella. I saw Kyttyee and the leader of Sekai no Melody. It was loads of fun, and the judges were nice. I wish I knew who they were...

Second item: Morning Musume Q&A panel. I wish I was closer... then I would have gotten an autograph ticket. I was running late because of the AX audition, but it was so amazing that I could be in the same room as them. My impressions: Ai, Risa, and Eri are adorable. Junjun and Aika are very reflective and thoughtful, Sayumi is absolutely hilarious. Poor Reina had so many fans that asked her to do things (one guy wanted to do the punishment game with her... yuck) ... she looked a tad grumpy... might have been the jet lag though. Koharu was a tad bit annoying... when one person asked about future voice acting roles, Koharu wanted to do her Kirarin role... It would have been okay, but he was really asking the others for future roles.

I'm glad I understand Japanese... the translator kind of left stuff out, some of it to me changed the meaning. But *heart* Junjun liking the movie "Eraser inside my head". I saw that and it was so sad and moving... it's kind of nice to know that I've seen something that she has... I really wished that I could have gotten the chance to ask them something... I was too damn far away to get in line in time.

So I went over to the exhibit hall so I could purchase something for them to sign, but they were also out of autograph tickets. I'm hoping that if I stand in line long enough, I might be able to get something signed, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen.

I do have my concert ticket for tomorrow! This is going to be my first Jpop concert, so I'm super stoked. I'll be sure to post more about it later!