xanithofdragons | Entries tagged with arashi

Since we're about half-way through the year now, I thought I'd take a look back at the list of ~~fandom~~ Johnny's-related things I hoped would happen this year (see here) and see how things have turned out at the half-way mark.

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Speaking of A.B.C-Z no Ienai yo, that reminds me of an interesting list I found in the July issue of Popolo. There was a whole big section about Johnny's variety shows, including reader rankings, and one of the rankings was "Variety shows you want to see again". The rank was as follows (I'm not familiar with all of these shows, so sorry if I romanize something weird):
1. You Konto Shichainayo
2. Kiss My Fake
3. Gakkou e Ikou
4. Kanpani
5. Arashi no Shukudai-kun
6. Yanyan JUMP
7. Himitsu no Arashi-chan
8. A.B.C-Z no Ienai yo
9. 8ji da J
10. Soukon

I am pretty glad other fans liked A.B.C-Z no Ienai yo enough to list it here. I am also not at all surprised at You Konto Shichainayo making it. I really hope they make it a yearly or semiannual thing! There's a lot of really popular older Johnny's shows on the list too. ♥ The only one I don't get is Kiss My Fake being on there, especially in the #2 spot, since I found that show so boring I stopped watching after a few episodes, but there are a lot of Kisumai fans, and a lot of Kisumai fans would be regular Popolo readers, so *shrugs*.

So I got my copy of Arafes '13 back on... Wednesday, but didn't post about it until now because I was busy working a ton of hours for Memorial Day weekend and because I've started actively looking for a new job again and that... takes up a lot of time and adds a lot of stress and I'm generally tired. I actually worked the day it came and ended up staying up late to watch it all that night because I couldn't wait.

( packaging picspam )

The entire DVD is all really good! I liked at the beginning how they looked back on the other Kokuritsu lives they had done. It was really cool that they had "corners" for each of the members, and that helped group the live into several different parts really well. I think Sho's was my favorite corner, although Jun's corner is really close too! If I'm leaning towards Sho's corner, it's probably because I tend to like songs where all the members have rap parts, and because COOL & SOUL was probably my favorite performance in this live. It's also cute how they switched the rap and singing parts for a Day in Our Life. ^^

Of course, the remixes in Jun's corner were great! I do really like remixes, and it's fun to hear familiar songs changed to be a little different. ^^ And, about the single request ranking... I feel a little bad for Aiba because although Endless Game and Breathless made it into the ranking as the new single songs of the year, Calling didn't. And none of the theme songs for Aiba dramas did either. >_< I will just pretend that Calling ranked in at #11, okay?

It was also great at the very end how Arashi expressed their gratitude to Kokuritsu at the end of the live and asked all the fans to, too! No matter how popular Arashi gets, they always stay really grounded and humble, and that's something I really respect about them. I don't remember which show it was, but I remember Nino talking on one TV show about how he's (they're) always planning ahead for when their popularity wanes and how they didn't expect to stay as popular as they are for as long as they have.

One last thing I want to talk about in this post is pairings. Arashi has such a tight dynamic that it's hard for me to pick a favorite pairing, so my favorite shifts around a lot. But I could really understand any pairing within Arashi being popular. I tend to prefer pairs that include my favorite members, so I tend to lean towards pairs with Nino. Until recently, I was leaning towards Nino/Sho, but that was always more because I really like YamaTarou than because of the dynamic Nino and Sho themselves have. Lately, I've been leaning more towards Nino/Aiba because they have a really cute and playful dynamic. ♥ And I saw some more of that in what small part of the MC that was included, so I was happy to see that. xD Nino always teasing Aiba in clearly friendly, playful ways. ♥

I got my copies of GUTS! on Friday. ^^

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I had my JET interview on Friday, and I feel like I did really poorly. >_< I tend to get pretty nervous at interviews, and I got really nervous for the JET interview. I feel like most of my answers sounded pretty convoluted, and I blanked on what to say for some questions. T_T I probably ended up sounding like I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

Ah well, I won't know anything for certain until April.

Also on Friday, I got my copies of Arashi's new single! But because I felt tired and had to work over the weekend (feeling even more tired), I didn't get around to listening to it until today. ^^; ( Cut for review and screencaps )

And last, but most WTF? Kisumai has announced a new album! But it's a single collection album... -_- Why? Why would they do this now?

To think of a few reasons why a musical group would release a single collection/compilation album: 1)To celebrate/commemorate big anniversaries (5 years, 10 years, etc.) 2)To close an era when changing labels 3)To signal an end when members are leaving or the group's disbanding 4)To signal the end of an era when they're about to shift musical direction/image or some other big shift 5)The record company wants more money with minimal effort.

It hasn't even been three years since their debut, and there's no word of Kisumai changing labels, so 1 and 2 are pretty much out. With their current activity levels, 3 seems highly unlikely, and if it was 3, they would've thrown Hikari no Signal on too. If we consider 4, the best possible scenario would be them using this as a turning point to shift to more equal focus amongst the members, but that brings up the same question as 3. Why isn't Hikari no Signal on there too when it doesn't seem like they're doing anything any differently from their previous singles? Knowing Avex and their sales strategies, 5 is the most likely reason. -_-

On the bright side, though, we do get Kis-My-Calling on the CD-only regular edition ~~because why else would fans buy it~~.

Every season I think of making a post about which J-dramas I'm watching, and most seasons I never get around to it. ^^; We're at about the half-way point now, so it's been long enough to get a pretty good feel for everything I've been watching (and also about the time I usually start to get behind on some dramas and give up on some of the.) I'll go over the dramas I'm watching this season, including one I've already dropped and one I'm thinking about dropping. There are a couple others from this season I've been thinking about checking out, but I won't include those.

( Includes spoilers )

So in short, SHARK is great, romance dramas are a crap-shoot, I like legal dramas and period dramas, and I watch a lot of mystery/police dramas.

Hello new friends from the Johnny's friending meme! It's nice to meet you all. ^_^ I never really know what to write for intro posts, so I'll try to cover some information that I think is important about me, do something I've been thinking about doing for a little while, and then open the floor to questions.

I recently graduated from college with a BA in Japanese Language and Culture and am currently working part-time as a bakery clerk in a grocery store. The kind of job I want to do in the future is pretty much anything where I can use Japanese in my work, maybe as a translator or an interpreter or just someone who works in a company that does business in both Japan and America or other English speaking countries and occasionally has reason to use her bilingual skills.

I studied abroad in Japan my junior year of college and left my heart in Japan, in that I fell even more in love with Japan. I want more than anything to have a reason to go back in Japan and live there at least another year. I'm applying to the JET program and maybe to one or two similar programs. As for my Japanese fluency, I passed the N2 of the JLPT and am going to take the N1 this year ~~and haven't studied nearly enough yet~~.

I think that's pretty good as an introduction of where I am right now in my life. The other thing I want to do in this post is a list of how many Johnnys singles, albums, and DVDs I have, by group and then total. ^^ When I have multiple versions I'll include a count not including multiple versions of the same release.

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And that's just for Johnny's groups... And just the current count... xD I have other Jpop CDs, too, but not quite as many. ^^;

And lastly, I'll open the floor for questions. My introduction may have left out a lot of things you'd like to know, so ask me about what you want to hear about. Ask me any questions and as many questions as you like. New friends, friends who've been here longer. If I get enough questions, I'll make another post answering them. ~~If I don't get many, I might just answer them in comments~~. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) my favorite x, how I got into x hobby or activity, what other hobbies I have, personal questions, stories from Japan (do not expect me to be a good story-teller), whatever you can think of. If it's something really personal, I might post about it in a locked post, but I definitely want to know what you all want to know about me.

My copy of LOVE came in the mail yesterday. \(^_^)/ Just looking at the box for it and the booklet, I thought a little that the le would have been worth it even without the bonus dvd (but I still want the bonus dvd, yes, please keep doing that).

( cut because I discuss each new album song )

A problem I've been having recently with listening to Jpop is that the lyrics become a huge part of my experience of the songs, and then that becomes hard to express to friends and family who don't know Japanese.

It's been a while since I last posted, over a month already. I have a lot less free time because of work, but there's also a limited set of things I feel like doing when I have time off.

Work started out a little rough, but I'm starting to get more comfortable in the job. My coworkers are pretty fun and friendly for the most part, so that probably helped settling in. There's still a lot of things I don't know about the job yet though, and I have trouble answering customers' questions without asking for help from someone else. >_< There's some pretty funny things too. There was one customer who made a Star Trek: TNG reference out of nowhwere. For some products, but especially for pies, since many of them look similar, people'll write on the baking sheet which one it is, and on one pie sheet, one of the pies was marked "Rupaul". It was a strawberry rhubarb pie. xD

With Arashi announcing their next album (I have a limited edition preordered ^_^) and the Arashi ni Shiyagare renewal and then hearing about Arafes going on and watching news clips about it, I'm in an Arashi mood more lately. Also, watching A.B.Chan-Zoo reminded me of Mago Mago Arashi, so I've been watching some episodes I've had sitting around unwatched for a while. ^^;

It's been a while since I last did one, but here have a random video of the post. ^^

These came in the mail yesterday:
P8020978

It was interesting to buy these books all together because each is a pretty different kind of book from the others.

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I have so much reading to do, and I'm excited about it. I've been wanting to work on increasing my Japanese reading speed anyway.

Current Mood: excited

My copies of V6's Oh! My! Goodness! and Arashi's Popcorn DVD came in the mail on Monday! \(^_^)/

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I finally ordered V6's latest album, Oh! My! Goodness! and Arashi's Popcorn DVD. ^_^ CDJapan was having a clearance sale, and both of the limited editions for OMG were there on discount, so I bought the one with the music videos on the bonus DVD. And since I was ordering something anyway, I figured I may as well go ahead and order Popcorn since it was another thing I wanted to be sure to buy eventually.

I'll finally get to hear the full studio recording of Supernova. ♥ When I'm very seriously planning on buying a CD, I avoid listening to it before getting it, so I actually haven't heard the other album songs yet. xD And for the music videos, all I've seen is the short version of Supernova and some gifs of the other one. I've been waiting so long. I guess it shows my determination to buy it more than anything. ^^;

And Popcorn! I'm so excited! I can count on Arashi to have amazing lives and amazing DVDs. ♥ I'm such a Johnnys otaku that when I mention a release to my family, they ask if I've bought it/when I'm going to buy it. ^^;

I had my first job interview on Friday. I was pretty nervous and they asked me questions different from what I was expecting, so I had trouble answering a lot of them. Overall, I got the feeling that I wasn't really the type of candidate they were looking for anyway, though. They gave me the sense that they wanted someone with more math/science experience or something. Ah well, it was a worthwhile experience. I may have gotten a little bit better understanding of the kind of work I want to do, though.

My copy of Endless Game arrived today! It only took about a week to ship! ^_^

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Current Mood: happy

Last week I was working on a paper and a friend reminded me that I didn't really have to do the paper, that even if I didn't do it, everything would still be okay. And it's true. It's a paper in a class I don't need to graduate. I don't want to fail a class my last semester, but it's true that things won't really be too bad even if I do (as long as it's not that one class I actually need to finish my major ^^;)

I really needed that reminder that I didn't have to write the paper, because that freed me to remember that I wanted to write the paper. I feel like, with school work, if I think, "I have to do this" then it seems like more of a burden than anything, but if I can think, "I want to do this" then it's easier to motivate myself. Like, if I think "I want to do this" it's more internal motivation and even if it's stressful it's still something I'm choosing, rather than "I have to do this" being something I'm doing because the professor told me and being more external motivation in this case. ^^

I'm glad that for the two classes I have major projects in this semester are getting us to have at least some of it finished before the whole thing is do with drafts and presentations. I'm so bad and procrastinate. >_<

And I remembered while writing this post that I previously made a post about an entirely different "I want to" vs "I have to" set of feelings, lol. I guess it's something on my mind.

Oh yeah, before I forget to mention it here, I preordered the LE of Arashi's upcoming single release. I'm still sad that I have to wait on their DVD being released this week. I only have the money for something like a single but not for a dvd. T_T I need to find work soon after graduation and get money. >_< I used ordering the single as a bit of motivation. I was in a really good mood after ordering it and thought, "I can work hard because of Arashi!" xD This is something I feel like I can only say to other idol fans. I'm still not working hard enough though. orz

Speaking of motivation, this site has helped me some. Shuzo is so wonderful. ^^

Current Mood: sleepy

I got really busy last week, so I never made a post about these:

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I keep trying to look for opportunities to show Johnnys stuff to my rl friends more, but maybe I'm not aggressive enough. >_< Even though I know of plenty of people who I think might like them. I feel like I'm the only j-pop fan at my whole college. -_-

Current Mood: happy

I think it was in an episode of Kis-My-Ft2 Radio where Miyata was talking about how, being an otaku, it had gone from "wanting to watch" anime to "having to watch" anime. I feel it. I feel it as a Johnnys otaku. Of course, I want to buy their releases and I want to watch the shows they appear in, but I also have this feeling like I have to buy some of the releases and I have to watch the shows they appear in. I was talking with some friends today and said something like, "So I have to spend all my money on them", and one of them who takes on the role of the "sane" person when she's hanging around with fangirls (of various fandoms), said, "You don't have to." And then tonight I ordered Kisumai's calendar and single and album and dvd (3 simultaneous releases, why?), and felt that "have to" feeling.

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I figure a lot of that "have to" feeling comes from otaku culture and fandom culture. We become part of a group when we join a fandom. We want to interact with the other members of the group, and to do that, we "have to" watch every episode or listen to every song. If we think of ourselves as "otakus" or "wotas", that becomes part of our identity. Although last I heard, Kisumai fans don't have a name yet, I do know lots of Johnnys groups do have names to call their fans. "Eighter" "Hyphen" Those become identities too. We get ideas of what an "otaku" is or what a "good fan" or "hardcore fan" is, and we start to want to fit that. A "good fan" buys their favorite group's releases, so if we want to be a "good fan" we "have to" buy the group's releases. That sort of thing.

Ah~, fandom is really interesting. I can see why people want to analyze it and write papers and stuff.

Current Mood: thoughtful

My school had its midterm break this week. Sometimes it's called a spring break, but since it's at the midterm and not during spring, there's not much point in calling it that. I haven't been doing much during this time, but that's the best way for me to spend my breaks. This way I get to relax. If I were doing things all break, I wouldn't be able to rest. Of course, that also means I haven't been doing much schoolwork...

Every so often, I go on brief old Johnnys kicks. ^^; This time I downloaded some Shounentai and Hikaru Genji music. It's so much fun to listen to them.　It also seems like different words were common in lyrics during different periods, so I feel like I can learn new things. ^_^ Now I want to rewatch the episode of Arashi ni Shiyagare where Higashiyama guested and they performed Kamen Butoukai together. ^^;

I keep wavering about how much of Kisumai's upcoming releases I want to buy. I think the thing I'm most unsure about buying is the dvd. >_< The info on it is too vague! I know for sure I want the Kis-My-Zero version of the album. For the singles, maybe one or both of the limited editions? I don't know. >_< I also really want their calendar. Ah, it's all gonna cost so much money together. But like half of the titles for the album songs are really hilarious. I also want to know what's with the half of a horse statue on all of the jacket covers, lol.

So today I was on the online stores and trying to plan how I would buy both Kisumai's new single (probably 2 versions) and one of the limited editions of V6's new album, but then Arashi comes along and makes me have to rethink everything because of course they're releasing a single too. >_<

And it's not like I couldn't have seen it coming, what with people spotting that they were singing the theme to Last Hope on promotional posters and everything, but I couldn't expect a double-A side! Their last double-A side was in 2009! It's been almost 4 years. I thought they might release a double-A side last year when there were two members in dramas and they were singing the themes for both, but it's happening this year. In March. But of course they're still not going to have making ofs... But I want them anyway.

And Perfume was releasing a single too. *sigh* T_T

Well, at least I have two copies of Arashi's upcoming single preordered now...

...

...T_T

Current Mood: worried

My copy of the Arafes DVD came today! \(^_^)/

Everything is wonderful. I just watch it and think the camera work is cool, the stage is great, the song selection is filled with everyone's favorites, the costumes are ~~ridiculous at times but~~ cool, everything's pretty. I felt like I gained an even greater appreciation of a lot of the songs. ^_^

From the start, as always, everything was pretty and I got excited. I felt close to crying within the first few songs. xD I loved that they switched it from "CARNIVAL NIGHT" to "FESTIVAL NIGHT." ^^ It was really nice that they did the split screen for "Love Situation." I could feel like I wasn't missing anything. All the solos were great. Jun was over the top in the best ways possible. I had never heard "Energy Song" before, and it was great. So pretty. Everything was pretty.

The brief kind of talk sections they had were nice too, like even without kind of a proper MC(?), it was nice to have them. Oh yeah, the little animations for the Arashi members was cute too. ^///^ And "Gimmick Game" was great, and "Rain" too. There was water falling from somewhere near the end of Rain and I kind of thought, "Oh no, Ohno called down actual rain" lololol, but that wasn't it. ^^; The whole DJ MJ section was really cool! It was like a lot of things Jun does, where it seems silly but ends up being really cool. The dance for Tokeijikake no Umbrella was so cool. I love the kind of dancing walk they did during it, lol.

And then, the live orchestra! I was listening to One Love played that way and thought that if I ever had a wedding, I could play this at a wedding or a reception or whatever. xD The whole section with the orchestra felt like it got better and better with each song. I was so moved by the beauty of truth the first time watching it that I couldn't even pay attention to them dancing. ^^; I had to pause before watching disc 2 because it was so awesome.

I feel like I need to rewatch all of it. ^^; Lol, this got long.

Current Mood: touched

In the end, the pull of an Arashi concert DVD is irresistible. I ordered the Arafes DVD. >_<

I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) today! N2 level. I don't know how well I did. >_< There were some parts and questions I felt pretty confident about, but also lots I was really uncertain about. There are just so many words to learn and I don't know enough of them. Oh well, gotta keep studying. Always and forever. There were some fun aspects to the test, though, lol.

Between going down the Chicago to the test location and taking the test and coming back, I just feel kinda exhausted in a way. -_- Like I want to stop time and sleep more. Or just lie down and relax. I'm too worried about my final paper for a class. It's so hard to pick topics.

Current Mood: stressed

Reading about the post-war period of Japan is super depressing. But that's the period we're on now in my Japanese history and culture course.

The kind of expected has happened. Arashi's Arafes dvd has been announced, coming out 12/26, and I can't afford to buy it right now. T_T I wasn't expecting it to be released until next year, but the point of me not being able to afford it is the same. >_< At least as expected, there isn't really a limited edition (aside from packaging differences), so I don't need to feel bad about delaying buying it. But still. Still. T_T And then it's only gonna be a matter of time next year before the Popcorn tour ends and they're releasing the dvd of that. Me and my expensive hobby.

I think this post was originally gonna be about something else before I saw the news about Arafes... Ah well.