Category Archives: Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

January 19, 2015

Lantis Festival Las Vegas, Or the Offkai Is a Con

By omo

Anisong World Tour Lantis Festival Las Vegas is the full name. In 2014 Lantis celebrated their fifteenth anniversary as anison specialty music label with four multi-day festivals in Japan, covering from south to north. In 2015 Lantis plans a series of oversea events, and Las Vegas kicks it off. Next month they’ll do a show in HK, and then SG, Taipei and Seoul. During Saturday’s event they announced that Shanghai will be their newest stop.

I went to the Vegas show, of course, because I want to support the Lantis label–it is the anison label that ultimately purposed itself to be the anison label since its initial days. Other more established labels have anime/stuff sublabels for this stuff, but throughout the years Lantis has been the one that keeps its focus rather than just coast on the big success stories. Of course it also helps they carry some of the stuff I like, some that shows up at the Vegas show. At any rate, it feels like Lantis does actually produce stuff I like, so the support I give them has a much more direct relationship.

I don’t really want to spend too much time talking about the two actual shows, besides that this is probably my first “anisama” type experience, where you have these clutch and swing-from-the-hip musicians do collabs and covers besides their main songs. I mean Choucho x Sayaka’s ENTER ENTER Mission was awesome, sure, but Bamboo’s Koi no Mikuru Densetsu really killed it for me. Maybe it helps that I remember how the calls went (it’s super easy). Super Driver was great. Go Go Power Rangers was great. It’s a baseline setlist and delivers more or less what I expected, with each collab and cover super great surprises.

Of course, seeing Sayaka, Choucho and Yousei Teitoku for the first time was good too. (And Bamboo…kind of.) It dawned on me why Das Feenreich is on an anison label after seeing them at the VIP session. A bunch of nerds! But I guess that’s not so unusual for metalheads.

Speaking of which, Lantis Fest Vegas is brought to you by Otakon (Vegas), which helped them with all kinds of things, and in exchange they did some collab events. I thought the collab was done well from my point of view, because I managed to pony up for a membership to OV despite not caring at all for its programming other than Sushio. I got an autograph from him on Sunday and he looked pretty much plastered. You can probably count on him to live it up!

The VIP event, on that note, was cool. It was super stiff, but cool. I think in the end it was more like we were kind of chatting with each side kinda. I spent most of my time with Yousei Teikoku so I didn’t see much going on with Jam, although that one felt more like just people taking their turns fanboying or fangirling them. I think I spent enough time grilling them in 2014 so I wanted to interrogate the fairy metal band more.

There was some snacks, sushi, and soft drinks. Nothing great besides this baked brie thing. Photo session was provided by Otakon and it was great to just fool around with all the guests.

What made this Vegas trip great was not only the Lantis (and Otakon) stuff, but that we got to hang out with all the eventers and what not.

We miss you brah!

The two tricks and tips as eventer that I/we picked up last year are the “viewing” and the “Joysound.” It sounds like a Kawaiikochan comic but being in Vegas, it’s pretty easy to pick up a “party suite” and set up “viewing” and “Joysound.” This means you can karaoke for a cheap price with a lot of people, and be really freaking loud at really late at night. Or if you don’t sing, doing calls to Jam Project concerts or ML 2nd sounded good too. This particular hotel even provided Blu-ray players for each TV they had, making wiring things up super easy. In addition we were about to deploy “advanced ‘viewing’ techniques” such that we did a real-time watch Cinderella Girls episode 2 along with the CG live-viewing Niconama. The hardest part was waking up at 6am to setup when you went to bed at 3am the day before. And that episode was hella hype!

But yes, the “party suite” and the massive gathering of online people meant that we had a better karaoke setup than Otakon Vegas, showing better programming content (at least more relevant to our interests), and more interesting goods exchanged hands (I picked up my C87 loot!) and we even had a cooking event or two in the suite (it is has a fully featured kitchen). The room block that we had had enough spare/separate rooms that we were even doing board gaming (mahjong and Weiss) at one point. There were spare PS3/PS4s if people wanted to game. We even had cosplayers, and I was part of a shoot? So in that sense I thought we have not only beaten the “con != offkai” thing into the floorboards but broken through to the basement by doing the offkai better than the con.

Of course, we’re not entirely serious, in that Otakon Vegas is probably good at what it does. I’m just pointing out that OV doesn’t have much in terms of event we’re interested in. It doesn’t cater to any of us other than what makes up for all the Lantis Festival-related events. And maybe that’s good enough. It just makes the whole purchasing decision aspect of OV a little hard to take.

On that note, it was great partying all weekend and hanging out with net and non-net friends. It’s so bizarre that we had an offkai from the offkai because so many circles of friends overlapped. It was also kind of interesting that we scored the right types of hotel packages to facilitate all of our IT and transit needs. Having locals who can VIP it up for us at the casinos and being able to drive people around was really wonderful, too, and a key ingredient of a good time.

Putting it all down and thinking about it makes me very thankful of all the people that helped making it possible. And it was something everyone helped contribute to some degree, from just having the luck to win a VIP thing or doing a lot of heavy loading like logistics or hosting or driving. Thank you all, you know who you are.

On an even more personal note, this event really helped satisfy my feeling about seeing team West Coast at least once a year, because I just did that. Now I can focus on doing the JP Eventer thing for 2015.

PS. Special shoutout to Kurotsuki, who by not being there still was able to be a crucial piece of the puzzle by connecting so many of us together. You were missed and I hope 2015 will be more awarding than you can imagine!

PPS. I hope I can share the photos we took in Vegas sometime. It’s hilariously lel.

PPPS. Slightly regretting not dogeza’ing or otherwise begging Lantis to come back to USA this year with an idol group. Even Star Anis is fine. Prefer Stylips/u’s/Million Stars obviously.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

December 14, 2014

Housekeeping, Expelled, Lantis Festival Vegas

By omo

I think I’m going to pre-order these three from CD Japan for early next year. So I’ll link them here for my own benefit (lol aff links):

  • WUG Best Collection – If we think of idols as a music industry thing, then I’m totally not a fan in the sense that I don’t buy the CD/BD stuff. Just merch. Kind of like how people feel about WUG regardless of the anime. Anyway, grab all/most of their songs here.
  • Haramii’s First Live BD – Mainly for the tokutens, but Haramii is lovely anyway.
  • IM@S CG St@rter Best – 14 existing chara songs on one disk, featuring the main 14 idols the anime will focus on.

And a few recent items:

I’ve been pretty delinquent with buying crap this year. More like, the crap I buy are not the usual stuff. They tend to be (equally) worthless things like doujinshi or happi from events I didn’t go to. What can I say besides they are swag? Like, they are swag, not that they are swag.

==

Angela rotated

I went to see Expelled from Paradise, the 3DCG movie directed by Seiji Mizushima and created/written by Urobuchi. The movie comes from Graphinica, which is probably best noted these days as a photography and CG studio for some Aniplex shows (they worked on both moviem@s and anim@s). This season they’re doing the CG for Your Lie in April. They’re also credited for the memorable transformation scene in Penguindrum.

What sticks out more to me is that Itano is the chief CG action guy. You won’t see it here but he has a team just on all the action CGs. And it really shows. Like, REALLY. If you’re a fan of Itano’s action choreo and designs, it’s a must watch because the movie follows a very predictable Hollywood-ish plot (ie., lots of opportunity for eye candy and action sequences), and the second half of the movie had a couple awesome, jawdropping cuts. At least for me anyways.

When I saw the credits at the end I was having a Shirobako moment.

On a less technical note, Mizushima’s movie unloads all his tricks. It’s bang-bang all the way, although towards the end I’m not sure if the film has laid it enough on in the first 90 minutes to get “corny” on us. It has all the tricks you would expect a Japanese mainstream movie, except the crafting feels still like an Urobochi film, which means basically it’s as subtle and as graceful as a raging bull.

The main character in the movie is a kinpatsu twintail teenage tsundere with large jugs, voiced by Kugyuu. OK, now point out the one thing in my previous sentence that don’t belong. That is basically the problem of Expelled from Paradise allegorically.

Oh, before I give the wrong idea, Expelled from Paradise is a Toei animation film, even if it’s still mostly Graphinica? It’s also not all 3DCG, there are some 2D animation (mainly faces). It tickles my funny bones a bit, like how Karen Senki sometimes is too cartoony for the feel of the show.

==

The PR engine in Lantis Fest Vegas is in full swing. I know because I’m getting PRs and Otakon is actually tweeting something about them. I also know because there’s a “rumors” channel I’m a part of and someone even got a part-time gig to canvas forums, SNS and sites with Lantis Fest Vegas stuff.

I also know because now I see those silly preview videos for Otakon Vegas/Lantis Fest. Com’on Otakon you can do better than this. Das Feenreich needs a bigger PR budget. It’s all but confirmed, but Sunday at Otakon Vegas there will be some panel or signing or whatever. We’ll see.

Sushio at the con, hopefully, means a jolly time.

1 comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Idolmaster, Rakuen Suihou, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

November 25, 2014

Seiyuu Nonsense, And Go Vote Already

By omo

A taste of a year-in-review post here.

Ibuki Kido

So the annual seiyuu award is going on. Or Seiyu Award because, it’s a proper thing. Awards ceremony is usually first thing next year. In past couple years they have a fully EN-language submission form, and now it even claims to count your vote along with the Japanese ones. I wonder which poor sod will actually try to read who voted whom.

You can access the voting form here. I don’t know about the eligibility requirements for newcomer. I think it’s like, 3 or 4 years?

I’m not going to make a blow-by-blow description/speculation like this person but here’s who I’m voting for:

Best Actor: Junichi Suwabe – Space Dandy. Also (it’s a theme) meeting him this year impressed. He looks just like him (in the yankee/bum sort of way), at least in terms of that feeling. This is only a superficial similarity that I am describing. It also probably had to do with his Dandy cosplay…

Best Actress: Eriko Nakamura – IM@S the movie. It’s rather good, in that you get the concert full-feels version of Nakamura. By all means, Nakamura is an above average seiyuu, perhaps not top seiyuu quality, but definitely someone who has been doing it for a while. What makes her shine is the “seibuta” qualities, least to mention that she is the cover girl for my favorite anime thing this year, but also just a well-rounded good entertainment personality. Seeing her in person was p. cool.

Best Supporting Actor: Hiroshi Tsuchida – Samonji from Argevollen. It’s just a great performance that I enjoyed tremendously.

Best Supporting Actress: Saori Hayami – Hatoko from Inou Battle. Her epic performance from last week’s Inou Battle aside, she always make a strong voice acting case every year. It’s all just a matter of if she can land that role that allows her to showboat her skillz. Also saw her this year, and she never fails to impress.

Best Rookie Actor: Hanae Natsuki – Slain from Aldnoah.Zero. I don’t track male seiyuu as far as voice acting roles go, but she really stood out in the handful of shows I saw him in, for better or worse.

Best Rookie Actress: Ibuki Kido – Kana from IM@S the movie. I would also hat-tip KN33S0XXX for the phat rhymes. She’s new enough right? I think her roles up to this point are all really solid, as far as an actress goes. It’s pretty amazing to see her turn it on, so to speak. It’s by no means Fancy Lala but she changes from a teenage girl into an entertainer like a snap.

Best Song: Juri Takita – Kimi ga Erabu Machi from IM@S the movie. I didn’t think there is an outright winner this year, despite having some really sweet tunes this year soundtrack-wise. I mean, KN33S0XXX. Can I nominate Suwa’s beatbox CD because, LOLs. The usual strong performers like Minorin and Sphere still are very strong, but nothing really outstanding. If I had to rep a song outside of IM@S, then probably Spica from StylipS (really sweet harmony that leverages their singing style), or WUG-chan’s Tachiagare, which is the other masterpiece from Kousaki Satoru this year.

Best Personality: Momo Asakura – TryAngle Harmony (Torahamo). It’s squarely in the idol seiyuu category, but Muray second gens are a fun bunch. It’s probably not going to be her–she’s not all together, so to speak, but there’s something special going on. Other radio shows I check out this year that could be cool includes Hayami Saori no Freestyle and Yumi Hara’s solo radio, Hara Yumi no Maru Maru (HaraMaru) Radio.

PS. If you like a seiyuu, go stuff that ballot box.

===

I revisited this blog post after some P bros rediscovered it. Are things any different now? Not really. I just realize a key factor between my last write-up and my present feeling–the community detachment. Since I don’t 2ch I have developed my own theory on voice acting. And in reality doing otaku stuff these days, the voice actors and actresses are attached to a list of other extracurricular activities. The Seiyu Awards acknowledge this via the “best song” and “best personality” categories, among other things.

And in that sense, it’s easier to be in the “jitsuryoku camp” (実力派) if you have some distance. If all your attachment to voice acting is from the work they do–chara songs, anime, games–then how can you be not? I don’t know, actually. As I write this, it also comes to mind that my first times seeing certain seiyuu and the impact that had on me. In that sense, distance may be helpful but if you are not inundated by excessive pushing/pandering, you won’t build that reactive “immune system” that Paranda referred to in his post. It’s like you could be allergic to that koebuta fodder, or maybe you can get sick of it after a while.

The realization, thus, is that I am not 90/10 or even 60/40. I am 100/100. It’s easy to see why I can like (and rank) seiyuu based on their performances in voice acting. It’s also easy to see why I lose it with Mocho or would fly to see the WUG-chans if they land in North America. These are not conflicting interests. So it’s easy to see why some might do a 60/40 matrix if you just want to have a “bucket list” or “priority to apply vacation time” or whatever, or why nobody can guess my list. There is no one right way to like a seiyuu. There are multiple ways to like a seiyuu, too.

After all, it’s no different than those seiyuu who can act AND sing AND dance AND have the looks AND have the personality. The world is not fair.

3 comments | posted in Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

November 18, 2014

Idol Invasion, NYC 2014

By omo

Airi Totoki

Five idol acts attended NYC in the span of about six weeks: Cheeky Parade, Morning Musume 14, Miku, Babymetal and now Perfume. That runs basically the whole gamut of today’s Japanese visible idol scene north of indie. And if some indie JP idols dropped by NYC during the last 6 weeks, I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t know them. I didn’t even make it to Cheeky Parade’s free show at BCGC because *effort*.

And I think this is important. Japanese idols, the post 1999 kind of thing, is a maligned if entirely foreign creature. It’s too easy to liken them to boy or girl groups, because that’s what they are. But that entirely misses what makes idols the engines of Japan’s entertainment industry today. Too many geeks and nerds and “otaku” (US ver.) turn their noses to them. I’m not sure why there’s so much resistance for Americans against Japanese idols, but that’s how it feels.

Continue reading

8 comments | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

October 17, 2014

Shirobako 02 Notes

By omo

I think the plan is I will do this on Jtor, but since I’m still working on the intro post let me jot down some notes here in the form of a blog post.

Couple items worth noting: 2ch tries to map the Musani staff to real life people, and for the most part it works. Then there’s this comment from another fellow seiyuu aficionado: “Hahahahahahaha damn if only the seiyuu were THAT pretty hahahha.”

What’s amusing is that while there’s this direct mapping between characters and real life individuals, when we go into “prpr mode” (for the lack of a better term) I think our way to judge stuff changes. In a nutshell, the anime/manga character style is a form of caricature. As a rule it’s not life-like in details. Shirobako applies already a pretty life-like approach to the character designs (in a way that is reminiscent of a lot of the prior PA Works shows) but I mean, just take a look.

Shirobako S2 via Conflag

Fellow koebutas can agree, I think, that Kayano has that puppy-looking eyes going, and for me they’ve really captured her visage by doing the eyes/bang layout right. Nakahara Mai, on the other hand, is a lot more difficult to capture using the anime/manga style because her distinguishing facial features are more the way her nose and facial bone structure are, giving her that sharp look. It’s hard to portray those things when most anime characters don’t even have a pronounced nose to speak of. On top of that, when you have kind of a late-night moe anime thing going on, Kayanon’s puffy cheeks are easy to reproduce relative to the more mature looks you get from Nakahara and Itou. That said, I think Itou Shizuka’s forehead/hair go a long way to represent her character in the anime, so that one was easy to pick out just at a glance, too.

I wonder if they took that into consideration when selecting the seiyuu they would mimic. I suppose there was a casting call for these three girls who had to voice as themselves and then voicing a character within the anime. If you think CV: Casting Voice is meta, Shirobako is one layer more!

As for the actual comment about pretty, let’s just say even accounting for the “3DPD factor” there are pretty anime characters and not-as-pretty anime characters. I think even in Shirobako you have that range of visual beauty–just look at our 5 protagonists. So no comment here about if not-Kayanon or not-Nakahara is prettier than their real life counterpart (uuuuh).

By the way, what Kayanon demonstrated in episode 2 was a page out of seiyuu school. If you listen to seiyuu radios it can be a treat. Like what Hayami Saori demonstrated at her Otakon panel, for example…

As for the episode proper, I loooove the way how the plan comes together and the way anime uses anime-only powers to demonstrate what it is really meant when Arupin has arrived. I loooove the way how they make Maruyama a bit like the patron saint of struggling TV anime productions. The way they add him during that meeting scene is both lovingly done and funny in the sense that they make clear he doesn’t really contribute in a tangible way. Can we have a Shirobako-type anime but instead produces a movie that takes 7 years to release? LOL.

PS. Onee-chan is Nu. But she doesn’t get an anime character cameo! WTB anime Nunu please (fat chance, I know).

Episode 02

PPS. Speaking of the ED animation (as last week’s ED is actually the OP animation), it’s done by the core team, directed by Mizushima.

2 comments | posted in Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Shirobako