みんな☆

January 23, 2008

JPTV Winter 2008 Season

Filed under: Anime, Blog-related, Fandom, J-Dramas — Kimitsu @ 4:42 am

I don’t think I even have the right to be making this post, because there’s so much from 2007 that I have yet to finish watching (or start, even). But, whatever, forging on ahead because this post has been sitting on the back burner, but it’ll be overcooked if I leave it too long. (Yes, the lack of food dramas this season has gotten to me.) Here are the highlights of the current winter 2008 season of Japanese dramas and anime for me.

December 29, 2007

The Importance of Knowing English?

Filed under: Blog-related, Fandom, J-Dramas, Johnny's Jimusho, Ramblings — Kimitsu @ 6:51 am

My sister and I watch a bunch of Johnny’s dramas. (Rather, I watch, and she tags along.) By Johnny’s dramas, I refer to ones specifically intended to market the pretty boys, where the story’s got little drive (each episode is only linked by a common theme and the characters) and the selling point is undeniably the actors’ day jobs, their musical careers. Stuff I’ve watched that I would shuffle into this category: Yukan Club, Sushi Oji!, Yamada Taro Monogatari, Kuitan, Remote. Sure, you can argue that some of them had a decent story and better acting, but at the end of the day, what was supposed to sell the drama was the lead actors’ faces.

Lately I’ve come to the conclusion that a Johnny’s drama just wouldn’t be complete without the butchering of another language in some way. Luckily for the two of us and our American upbringing, that language is usually English. (We get bonus points if the language being mutilated is Chinese, though. Oh, Kuitan. I will never be able to thank you enough )

So we were watching Yukan Club’s episode 7 and I was being amused at Mike He’s accent when speaking Japanese… and then the antagonists of the episode spoke. It was clear that for all their foreign looks, English was not the first language for all but one of them, or even one that they were used to. And then Akanishi Jin’s character slid in and had three lines of English roll off his tongue with more vocal fluency than the ones who were supposed to speak English, and my sister and I died.

Clearly that time in America wasn’t completely wasted partying his drunk ass off.

Not to sideline Kashii Yu, either, who had the perfect tone of a newscaster and only stumbled a bit during her “translation” part. I wanted to get in some giggles at Taguchi Junnosuke, who said “Friends” with too much of a Japanese accent in contrast to his son-of-the-Swedish-ambassador character, but just seeing him blond and blue-eyed makes me want to snort in ridicule so I think we’re even.

(And then hereon, we’ll be ignoring the fact that Yukan Club’s ratings were pretty low because quite frankly - even Kaga Takeshi couldn’t save it from the ridiculous suckage that it became. Also it never comes up in this post again.)

English and other languages are sneaking in more and more into Japanese pop culture. At the same time, that whole expansion through East Asia thing is going on in the music industry as well - and the US has always been a fairly popular destination. There are a lot more artists who are fluent in English, or have a decent grasp of the language, and a lot more traveling overseas is occurring.

When Crystal Kay first broke the market, despite some powerful vocals and obviously good English, along with one of Japan’s better composers (Kanno Yoko) backing her, she didn’t get anywhere. Now there’s a lot more vocalists in the Japanese music industry like her (melody., Arashiro Beni, Ito Yuna, Rie fu, EMYLI, MONKEY MAJIK, etc.) - and actually, they’re scattered around the market. H!P’s Coconuts Musume got pretty much nowhere - but Ayaka and Mika managed to brighten their respective careers in the fold by exploiting their English capabilities because it was a novelty gimmick. BoA’s English versions of her single tracks died out after Every Heart - back in 2001. Sure, Utada Hikaru’s EXODUS album hit highs in Japan, but she had to start out attracting with her Japanese lyrics as well. Her speaking English only made her more accessible in the States, really. English hasn’t had a very good run in Japan in the past - and now it’s become the boom.

So are the leaders of Japan’s entertainment world attempting to ease out? (Which leads to - is the entire industry a giant conspiracy where they buy high-end champagne with overseas fans’ rapid ridiculous spending in our attempts to get notice?) Is this the influence of groups like m-flo, who’ve worked artists who do have more of a Western sound, and the general American music craze in Japan?

Should Kimi stop typing up posts at 1:52 AM after a fairly disappointing day? (I bought a duplicate issue of Myojo at full price WHY? D: Dammit, there must be someone up there working against the idea of my buying two Japanese pretty boy magazines in a week.) Tune in tomorrow to find out. (You all know that’s a lie.)

Also - I really ought to come up with better year-end (for me) posts. See you guys in 2008.

November 22, 2007

Thank You For…

Filed under: Blog-related, J-Dramas, Music — Kimitsu @ 1:12 am

Because it is American Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, I’m supposed to be thankful about something.

But frankly, right now’s a pretty busy and insane time for me, half-due to my own stupidity, so I’m going to throw the usual things I should be thankful for out the window. (I have a roof over my head, I have food to eat, I have an internet connection and a laptop to be doing this on, I have working sensory organs to enjoy what it is that I enjoy, I have money to spend on J-Pop… I think I covered it all? Yes? Okay, there it goes. Hope that random stranger walking down the blog doesn’t trip over it.)

So things that I am thankful for this year that would be relevant to this blog:

Sure, my summer job was under a crazy boss and half the time I had stuff shoved onto me last minute - like in the last half-hour of my last day on the job, and I sincerely wish I was joking about that - but for the most part, I had it good. It was easy, I had time during which I typed up posts for this blog in Notepad, I had easy access to Japanese snack food, and most importantly, I got paid. This same payment allowed me to get to Otakon, for what I will always fondly remember as one of the best weekends in my life. You ought to know why already. (Okay, I’m sure you’re sick of reading about Otakon 2007.)

Living in NYC’s a boon for the J-Pop fan in me that I take for granted too. It’s not California, it’s not Hawaii, but it’s certainly got a much better supply of Japanese music-supplying stores than most cities in the country do, and all the J-stars want to come here for reasons-unknown because it’s apparently awesome - I just miss all the awesome when they’re actually here. (It should be noted that I’m kicking myself over missing both Miura Daichi and Domoto Koichi when they were here - back in July. I’m sort of tempted to look up my horoscopes for that month and see what they said about that.) But the latter’s pain-causing potential aside, the former is a bounty. Oh, Book-off and your $3/7 shelf. Oh, Kinokuniya and the first Japanese album I ever bought (Hamasaki Ayumi’s I am… if you really must know). Oh, Asahiya and the fond memories of Hong Kong you bring… wait, that has jack shit to do with living in NYC. And oh, Karaoke Duet and being able to sing Japanese songs I actually know at karaoke (and the Urata video!)

I really ought to thank the Tantei Gakuen Q drama. So, thank you. I will conveniently overlook how you’ve caused my sister to fall in love with Yamada Ryosuke and how that has forever ruined Hey! Say! JUMP for me. (Fangirls, please go away today. NO. I will never have an interest in them, just because my sister’s interest in them terrifies me so. She actually bothered to look them up. She never bothers, not even with Arashi (and she’s declared her love for Sakurai Sho, who’s 10 years older, so many times it makes my head hurt) or NEWS (half of whom she identifies as “buttsex boys” - please don’t ask), and she’s constantly pleading for me to play them for her.) I will conveniently overlook how some endearing parts of the original were cast aside, how some plot holes were left as gaping maws by the time the show ended, how there were times I wanted to scream at the characters as they were portrayed because I loved the original comic.

No, we’ll ignore all that because you did three good things. One, you introduced me to the goodness that is FLOW. Two, you gave Kayou Aiko a role to act in and show off that she wasn’t just another vapid idol. (Granted, her role was kind of vapid, her murder scene was just plain ridiculous, and she had less lines than she probably should have given her role in the episode. But it was her with more than just song and stupid dance.) Three, you gave me Yamamoto Taro in a skirt, a fucking skirt, and that was just the first episode. Every time he showed up onscreen was a pure delight, and he was in every episode. THANK YOU. I suppose four would be it being one of the better quality dramas this year, with a good cast of actors and fairly high production values, though I’d throw Himitsu no Hanazono in for nominations as well; and five would be the BuriGuri tie-in of an ending track, but frankly, I’m not a big BuriGuri fan. Maybe next year.)

Thank you, those of you who read this blog, and even more so if you actually write yourself (because I probably know about it if you do). I think there are maybe 6 of you altogether, but the fact that there are people who actually read whatever it is that I write (because I’m not sure what it is myself) is a huge ego-booster and inspiring (in some misguided way) towards my attempts at improving my writing. Maybe one of these days I’ll come up with something that’s actually worth the attention. Or just resort to talking about H!P.

I can, however, safely say I’m not thankful for having met Raid. The nerve of him, getting me into Arashi despite all my attempts to the contrary and then promptly dropping out of the fandom himself. (Just kidding, I’m thankful for that too. I think. Though it’d help if he didn’t message me at 2AM - whether it’s his time or my time. I sincerely mean it every time I call him crazy.)

October 18, 2007

JPTV Autumn 2007 Season

Filed under: Anime, Blog-related, Fandom, J-Dramas — Kimitsu @ 4:24 pm

Belated? Why yes. Considering the season’s already started.

But despite that and the fact that I’m still trying to catch up on Summer’s shows, let’s get this on anyways. Here’s what I’m looking forward to watching from Japanese airwaves this season.

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July 17, 2007

JPTV Summer 2007 Season

Filed under: Anime, Blog-related, Fandom, J-Dramas — Kimitsu @ 6:57 pm

Alright, alright, we’ve established that I’m behind. Very much so behind. Bear with me here as I attempt to catch up - you’ll bear with me, right? Of course you will.

I partially considered ignoring Japanese TV altogether this summer - because I’ll be spending a third of it in Hong Kong and surrounding areas, most likely lacking a proper internet connection with which to watch any of it. But ohhhh, no matter how hard I try, its siren call always claims me back.

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April 19, 2007

JPTV Spring 2007 Season

Filed under: Anime, Blog-related, Fandom, J-Dramas, Reviews — Kimitsu @ 9:09 pm

I think it’s really amusing how much of a hold Japanese Television has on me, especially in comparison to the lack of a hold American Television has. Granted, I’m watching the shows days after it airs on Japanese channels, but we bow to the glory of the Internet for that.

With that said, I foresee hours of me sitting in front of my laptop this season, engrossed in shows spoken in a language I do not completely understand. Possibly failing my finals as well, thanks to lack of studying from too much watching.

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