Category Archives: Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

February 20, 2013

Seiyuu Idol Debut Season

By omo

Congrats 2 Hiromi Hirata!

It might or might not be duck season or rabbit season, but it’s definitely seiyuu idol album debut season. Beware of the ref links, sorted by release date.

Ayahi Takagaki – Relation, Apr. 17.

Shizuka Itou – TBD, Apri. 17.

Ayana Taketatsu - Apple Symphony, Apr. 10.

Mai Aizawa – moi, Mar. 27.

Kana Hanazawa – Claire, Feb. 20.

Mikako Komatsu - THEE FUTURES, Feb. 13.

u’s – Love Live Best Album – Jan. 9.

StylipS – Step One – Jan. 9.

On the horizon is Yoko Hikasa’s “compilation album,” too… And YuiKaori is probably due in 2013. I’m probably missing someone. I have to give it to Yoko Hikasa’s Pony Canyon website for dishing it up, that’s exactly how you should approach selling her stuff.

Don’t even ask if they are any good. I guess we can actually admit that Hanazawa’s is something you can listen to, but nothing here is going to change the world or anything.

This is, of course, on top of all the other crap coming out. Looks like it’s going to be pretty busy up till April.

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

February 15, 2013

Good Job Robbing the Cradle, Guys

By omo

It's manga niku

I laughed when Hashihime titled it “youth movement.” I guess it’s true when most of GJ-bu’s cast members are under 17 years old. But it’s not even the first or the lowest-on-average otaku anime in terms of seiyuu age. There’s this (now-licensed) anime called Sasami: Magical Girls Club where, at the time, all the main voice acting girls were 13 years old. I assume it’s licensed because it is a tangential hinge on the Tenchi Muyo franchise, and it’s probably not a horrible show, I don’t know.

I want to raise this point because what I think is a good job isn’t that GJ-bu is full of young’uns. I think what is good is the profession of the seiyuu idol has seen yet another subtle transformation.

In Magical Girls Club, the series is more like a launch vehicle for a potential teenage idol unit, working with girls already on an idol entertainer track. You can check ANN for details. On the other hand, the girls in GJ-bu are on the seiyuu track, groomed to probably become actual seiyuu-idols.

Seiyuu idols are not a new thing. They’ve been around for maybe a couple decades now, as a genuine career path, at least enough of a path to make a name for yourself; the Shiinas, Hayashibaras of the world. But one Nana Mizuki doesn’t make an industry; she’s just an icon of a larger underpinning of systems and businesses and more importantly, entertainers of varying degrees of success. And honestly, Nana is more about anison than idol. Idol, in my mind, is like Yukarin Tamura and Yui Horie, who are also groomed in the same steps but are nurtured not with the money of a hit success, but a cult-like following. Their businesses are not so different, but I think there’s a reason why I don’t think Nana’s generation will raise another Tokyo-dome caliber seiyuu.

Well, people might take issue with me saying Nana Mizuki is mainstream, and I understand where they’re coming from; it’s like saying AKB0048 is not mainstream. But I think that is making “not mainstream” a meaningless indicator if I have to go the range from, say, Ibuki Kido, to a girl a month older, Juri Takahashi (of AKB48 team A). One is clearly, actually, mainstream enough to be called that. Nana is mainstream enough for Kohaku, so that has to count for something. But if Nana is not mainstream, to satisfy the semantic arguer, then everyone else is waaaaay not-mainstream. Super un-mainstream. Super-super-stream not-mainstream.

But it’s nice to see a deeper integration and talent cultivation for the likes of Kido and Miyamoto. Maybe the debutante Chika Arakawa will build on her possible success here. I mean, think about it. It isn’t that kids did anime voices; some of my today’s favorites include the ever-present Miyuki Sawashiro who started at 13 years old and ex-child performer Maaya Sakamoto who started at 15. It’s distinctly different than, say, Yuuki Aoi’s Murasaki at 15, because that was the case where they hired a kid to play a kid, not so much because they were grooming her career to be whatever the petit-pas that Aoi is trying to do today.

Actually, what is Yuuki Aoi trying to do anyway? I think this is kind of exactly not the thing, say, Yui Ogura is doing. That’s what I’m talking about. But that might be jumping the gun. Maybe we just like kids in our anime playing our animated kids. Is that what the Forever-17 club is trying to do?

1 comment | posted in GJ-bu, Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Tenchi Muyo

January 16, 2013

Asumi-san@Ganbare

By omo

This post is actually not about the radio show with almost the same name, Asumi-san@ganbaranai, which is the companion radio show to Sasami-san@ganbaranai. This is more about, well, Kana Asumi and my musing on why she’s in so many shows I watch this season, and in general for the past few years.

In a nutshell, I think she embodies the basic idea of seiyuu’s rise to popularity: just voice as many main characters as possible. When I go see seiyuu (and for that matter, also English-language VAs) at cons, their popularity often correlates with simply how many major roles they’ve taken on. Sure, things are not so simple once you start digging, but things do very generally boil down to simply this fact. It’s also not unusual to hear a lot of newer VAs reflect on their future in such a way when they part ways at a con. I think Kitamura Eri especially impressed me in this way when I saw her back at AX–she was just starting to get some bigger opportunities at the time. (You can kind of see why she would say this.) If you want a lot of fans flock to you at a con, just work on more shows and more popular shows. It’s especially true overseas–since it’s usually just the anime that get exported, not the sei-wota culture, the web/radio shows or stage events.

asumiss

What’s special about Asumin? Wikipedia can be helpful here. Well, it’s not so special to like apple pies or have an older sister, but that’s the thing they say. It might help to know her nicknames. It seems that after graduating from some Tokyo-area college, she eventually signed up with 81produce, after previously dabbling in various things like singing or what have you. And if Wiki can be trusted, you can infer, well, good luck finding a job in Tokyo with a nursery school teaching license after graduation. Why not be a seiyuu?

Since her bursting on to the scene around 2007-8, she’s doing more and more voices, and many of them lead roles. In my mind there’s a particular brand of nasal that Asumin currently owns in her space. By her current level of success I can assume that most of us find that brand of nasal kind of cute. Moe, if you will. But what is truly remarkable about that sound is that she can actually subtract it and turn it on and off, like a gradient. Being versatile in that gives a voice actor the flexibility not only to do a memorable role, but also blend in and snatch up multiple minor roles within a single show (read: easier to land more jobs).

It’s probably safe to say that Asumi has been voicing certain types of roles–moe protagonists, namely. She’s done little sisters, raging emo teen, magical critter, quiet shy girl, quieter shy girl, overenergetic teen plot generators, and of course, the childhood friend. There’s also more of a branching out as of late: the womanly, little sister/obasan, little sister/grump, maid grump, and genderless shounen battle manga participant. I don’t know where she will go but there sure are a lot of Asumiss characters out there already. I guess the main thing that’s left for her is voicing some Jump or Jump-like protagonist (say, like Kyari in Magi).

I think the other notable thing about Asumi is how she had to take a break from doing all this stuff a couple years ago, in relationship with her old idol unit from 81produce. When she announced the break in 2011, it end of the road for LISP, which also dissolved in the same year. In 2011 she was doing a lot of roles already, though, so there’s probably some kind of back story there.

Anyways, I didn’t intend to do an Asumi overview but it kind of turned into one. I hope you’re enjoying her various roles this season like I am!

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

December 28, 2012

Year in Review 2012: Together with That Moe Koe of Yours

By omo

This funny picture is f unny

I think a part of me died when I published this post with that title. Anyway, two parts to this post.

1. Like I said, and others have said the same many times, 2012 will be known the year where a ton of notable seiyuu got married. Of course, I only have what I know to go on, so there might have been some other year where more seiyuu got married, but 2012 is the one I do know. These voice talents often do not have the kind of publicity in the old days as they do now, especially since social networking is a great way to promote yourself and more people flock to it as a mean to promote their work. As a result fans (and everyone else on the internet) get a better look at the personal lives of these celebrity-types. Entertainers.

Oh, well, let’s see–

And as a related note:

  • Tsuyoshi Koyama got married on valentine’s day. Mikuni Shimokawa also got married on valentine’s day.
  • ZUN tied to knot, too.

Well, congratulations to all the new couples in 2012 and I hope they stick till death do them apart.

2. I think it probably marks the 2nd or 3rd year that I’ve been posting and toasting over here. It’s probably the third year for this guy, too. Recently I tried to cross post some stuff over at Pinterest, but it’s still just an experiment at the time. I’m not so much on chronological landmarks but I do appreciate all the work, for years(!), a few people put into posting these seiyuu shots on the web in a way that’s easy to access, so cheers to that!

Up next: I feel fine.

PS. That XCOM game is still ongoing, but progress is very slow given that I haven’t touched it in a while…

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4 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, XCOM Seiyuu Play

December 26, 2012

Year in Review 2012: Music

By omo

I haven’t written much about music in 2012 compared to years past, for whatever the reason. It’s kind of something in and out of my consciousness. I still listen to a fair share of it. Finally equipped with a multi-disc, mp3-capable CD player in the car, I have this rotation of music that seems to never end. It feels inadequate only if I count things by the album. Of course, I also don’t drive very much.

The truth is I’ve hit a snag in the workflow between the music and my ears. I do most of my exploratory listening either on youtube or on my phone while I’m out of the house. Youtube is pretty straightfoward and direct. Music on the phone is a trickier matter. Thing is, it’s too much of a pain in the butt to download music/rip the music, unpack it, check if it’s tagged right, tag it, rename the stuff, delete the added files I don’t want to put on my phone (like scans), and then copy it to my phone. Maybe I’m just lazy. I wonder how many albums/singles I can do in an hour.

Merry Christmas!

For sake of simplicity I’ll just list a bunch of items, in bold:

By and far away Chihayafuru was my favorite soundtrack of the year. I asked Morio about it at an AX panel and he said he wanted something that’s modern and appeal to young people. I’m not sure if this was it but sure appealed to me!

I didn’t like the first CD, but the second soundtrack released for Last Exile: Fam hit the sweet spot. They were packaged just like the original Last Exile. I probably should finish watching this show huh…

Beyond “Her name is Koko, she is loco” I think Taku Iwasaki’s more world-music-influenced style simply fits the sort of story that is Jormungand. I guess I am also partial to his stuff, it’s just a lot of fun to listen to. It’s not as whacked as Ben-Tou, but it doesn’t have to be.

Tsuritama – Kuricorder Quartet does not disappoint. And what’s up, Sayonara Ponytails! I think them butchering a great song is rather appropriate and I think it’s a good thing for these post-modern weird bands to try such things. At any rate I appreciate Spitz double-teaming with Yuki (in Moyashimon S2 OP) for noitaminA nostalgia power hour.

Tari Tari Music Album – Yeah, I like it for the glee club crap, but otherwise it is thematically impressive, almost like Yoko Kanno’s Macross albums, minus the thick, moody feels. It’s just a seaside adolescence story here.

Aquarion EVOL doesn’t disappoint; it’s just as fun as the original Aquarion but with more refinements. It’s not all Yoko Kanno, but overall it works just the same.

Sakamichi no Apollon is not really worth mentioning for the name brand, but rather for the musicianship. I think I should at least give prop to a track labeled as “My Favorite Things~Someday My Prince Will Come~Moanin'” especially when it’s the emotional climax of the series, because, LOL. JOSEI ALRIGHTY. The OP and ED are p. nice.

How can we skip a Otani Kou soundtrack about a post-apocalyptic world? The last time he did something like Humanity Has Declined turned out to be one of anime’s best. Granted, this is as different as it gets. Ave Maria anyone?

The Sphere anime has another nijine piece, and you might know how I feel about his stuff. It makes Natsuiro Kiseki a lot of fun.

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere – I skimmed through season 1’s offering, but somehow I’m liking season 2’s music a lot more. It’s just as “touhou”-y as I would expect, minus the mysterious “eastern” feels. Instead it’s more like… I don’t know, I like the mix of electronic-y style in there.

There’s something in ClariS’s Birthday album. I suspect it’s MDMA for your ears. Also, my face when I heard this while combing Natsuko Aso’s discography.

She’s right–there’s just a lot more misses in Kajiura’s work lately.

The sound to Eureka 7 Ao is pretty okay, typical of what you’d expect. But I prefer Zetsuen no Tempest a bit more, and I guess that reflects on who writes it. Not sure if it’s a meaningful comparison LOL.

Having Ano Natsu de Matteru around goes to show that them I’ve Sounds guys still have the same sound, if they wanted it. Sign and Vidro Muryo are both pretty good.

Rinne no Lagrange – Marble is delightful.

I like Sword Art Online OP1, but it’s more because of LiSA than the power pop arrangement. I think LiSA really did well this year as far as winning wota hearts and wallets are concerned. Her AFA show was super good, and this is from someone watching it via Niconama.

Aya Hirano’s new album has that Pizza song on it, and I love that song. I don’t know.

If this year is the year of idol pop groups invading my anime, then StylipS is doing it right. I think none of their songs may chart on my personal list but Saki Achiga-hen OP Miracle Rush is pretty damn close.

I can count the number of Chihara Minori songs I like on one hand, but she’s got one this year in Oniai OP, Self Producer. The iM@S tie-in from the anime helps, probably.

Speaking of doing it right, Momoiro Clover Z is probably doing the most-right-eous out of them all. Besides Mouretsu Pirates (which has a pretty old school soundtrack too, including that Black Holy track–it’s even titled old school no less), Joshiraku’s tie-in with Yoshida Bros is a lot of fun.

The other ham-fisted drivel adaptation involving online gaming–err I mean Accel World to be specific–has a Sat x KOTOKO product, and I really like it. It probably helps to see it live hurhurhur. Speaking of Sat, that Decade track is pretty okay, as uh, hammy as it is.

Platinum Disco (Nisemonogatari) is no Renai Circulation. Sweets Parade (Inu x Boku SS) is no Renai Circulation, but it’s bull’s eye for Kana Hanazawa. She even goes peropero in it… Happy Ending (Zetsuen no Tempest) is no Renai Circulation either, although that one feels a little closer than the others.

Generic-template Kurinoko songs are okay in my book, but sign was a sign for her untapped potential at doing this pop stuff. She ought to do more…different. Certainly soothes the ear better than Koda Kumi’s OP in Muv-luv Alternative: Total Eclipse.

And, of course, there was iM@S.

Bonus: Do we count Guilty Crown original soundtrack as 2012? How about Penguindrum’s ARB cover album?

Next up: Loving live for you!

PS. No sharks in this post, sorry.

PPS. Last year I did a “select” playlist for 2011’s remarkable themes. I guess I wanted to do the same for 2012, so I did. Note that there’s no copy of the full thing on Youtube for some songs, so if you wanted you’ll have to assemble the whole thing on your own. The track listing (and where to find it) are:

  1. Kokoro no Senritsu (#6 ED version) – Tari Tari (Music Album)
  2. INSIDE IDENTITY – Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai (ED single…or the OP single has a rroooocckkking cover that is 100% times better)
  3. Mōretsu Uchuu Koukyoukyoku – Dai-Shichi Gakushou ‘Mugen no Ai’ – Mouretsu Pirates (OP single)
  4. Vidro Moyou – Ano Natsu de Matteru (ED single)
  5. Kaoru & Sentaro Duo in BUNKASAI (Medley “My Faorite Things~Someday My Prince will Come~Moanin'”) – Sakamichi no Apollon (OST)
  6. Wareta Ringo – Shinsekai Yori (ED single comes out 1/26 I think, so this is just the TV cut from the OST)
  7. Requiem – Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (It came with a DVD/BD I think, there’s a single that has it but probably not sold separately)
  8. Enter Enter MISSION – Girls und Panzer (ED single)
  9. →unfinished→ – Accel World (ED1 single)
  10. SELF PRODUCER – Oniai (ED single)
  11. signs ~Sakutsuki Ichiya~ – Muv-luv Alternative: Total Eclipse (ED1 single)
  12. Above your hand – Sankarea (ED single)

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4 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop