In 2023, westerners who enjoy Shinkai can squarely divide into two camps: those who think 5 Centimeters is his best work, and everyone else. At the showing for Suzume at the always-wonderful New York International Children’s Festival 2023, the emcee threw the question out to the audience (or more like a command?) to poll which of his movies are the audience’s favorite. Based on the responses in the crowd, it seemed that way to me in this anecdote. However, it does not explain why time after time, I still come back to his new works and revisit his old ones, as someone in the 5 Centimeters camp.
Really, it’s that even 5 Centimeters, too, is just one brick in a house of Shinkai ideas that are interconnected. Spoilers ahead–for all his works.
For long time readers of this blog, you might recall back in 2013-2014 I did some stuff to prepare for Master of Idol World 2014. After that I wrote something like, 13 thousand words to try to sum up the experience. I am doing nowhere nearly as much this time. Why? Because I don’t have to. Flower stands are not allowed, and instead we have these Bandai Namco-sanctioned flags that you can fund, and there are at least several oversea Producer ones. I joined probably the most popular one of those, which looks great by the way.
I don’t have to plan a big meet up after the show, because charitable Japanese and Oversea Producers are doing it, so I am just going to theirs. It is definitely a different world in 2023 versus 2014. I might even have multiple things that I could go do, I don’t know, just not too focused on it.
The difference to me, I think, is mostly on me–I just don’t have that much time and attention span lately to spend on this stuff. I play some mobile games…and it’s already too much. I guess I only seriously play Theater Days, and even then that is a very light load. I sorta-serious play JP Priconne and semi-casually play Global Priconne, but those combined is still a light load. JP literally runs 5-10 minutes a day and up to 30 for CB, while Global is not much more. I’m so behind on those games too in terms of commu and what have you. I have a love-hate relationship with Blue Archive still, but I think I have to shed this game despite it being occasionally fun and frustrating. And it’s a light-weight game as these things go, being largely a Priconne clone.
All this is to say I still watch a bunch of anime, but even then that’s always kind of the struggle, since as long as I have been watching seasonal anime. I guess we are in February, where I don’t have any Baseball to watch and there’s just 1 game left in the NFL schedule. Speaking of which, is there a bar or somewhere in Tokyo where I can crew up to watch the Superb Owl and all the dumb ads? I guess I can do it in a hotel room (or, more likely, at the airport) thanks to unplugged television services, but it isn’t the same (at 8am).
When the NFL is the only main thing on my mind during MOIW weekend, is a good thing. There are other logistical items to note, at least some out of many:
The buppan (goods sale) area spans 3 separate locations this time–Tokyo Dome, The Science Museum (near Budokan), and Kanda Square (about 10-15 minutes walk from the Museum). Looks like Tokyo Dome won’t have all of the stuff, and the heavy lifting is going to be at Kanda Square. The music CD stuff will be at the Science Museum. Along with the lottery on ticket time, this could be tricky for folks wanting to pick up stuff. I haven’t had much time to look through the goods list, but there are a few things I want.
I just spent half an hour figuring out what to try to buy… Gonna be kinda pricy.
I’m going to an Asaka concert on Friday, just to get the juices going. Also Asaka with a live band is always a fun time.
I’m going to Lonesome_Blue’s first show on Saturday, so this is going to be tricky trying to get tickets out before MOIW lol. I hope I can make it from Shibuya timely and meet everyone. Ideally the day before.
Tokyo Dome has an amusement complex attached to it. There’s a MLB cafe. There’s the JP Baseball Hall of Fame museum. There’s a Ferris wheel…? A lot of stuff there. There is a collab with IM@S that weekend at the various shops there. This means I can literally line up for Shake Shack and get, I don’t know, an imas sticker or something. The details are all online.
After MOIW weekend I am going to have a proper vacation while shepherding my folks around town in Japan. That’s also on my mind.
And on a similar note I have to go to l-tike and buy tickets to Ghibli Park on the 10th, for May. Sigh.
For fandom extra-curriculars, besides the meetings after the show, there are some producers doing a display at a rental office/meeting space, and the usual call guide handouts at several locations.
At some point I should at least learn all the group songs, especially the SideM ones. Pretty sure I got 765Pro All Stars and Million down pat. For Cinderella Girls, I watched their show from November on live stream, so that’s something. I don’t know any Deremas calls for anything 2019 and onward, though. Now that calls are unbanned, Ps are gonna yell out loud. Do Shiny Colors even have calls besides Urya-Oi LOL. I’m pretty much up to date on Shiny except maybe just the latest series.
Did you know that same weekend has a ton of other events? It’s the weekend before Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t really matter to the Ps out there I guess. Worse comes to worse, there’s a stream and an archive viewing.
I think going to see all the IM@S happening in Tokyo is exactly the kind of escape and relief I need. I hope to see some of you there? This is like a very perverse victory lap.
After the missing years of COVID, I was able to return and attend a Million Live solo show. Before 9th, I attended stops of 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 2 stops of 6th.
As I sit and think about the 100s of links I’m about to repost below, I realize marble, the band we booked for Kurocon vol1, has a little series of shows to celebrate their 15th anniversary. Aoki Ume was announced for their 1/15 show in Tokyo and I could make it if I skipped the other show I ticketed for already. Just sort of a bummer that I couldn’t make it because I really want to see marble in person now.
See you at Million Live 9th? I’m going to Japan again, after this blank of 2 months or so. Although I will only be there for a few days, it would be great to meet up with anyone who I’ve not seen for some time. It’s also nice I can just copypasta (almost) the same paragraph from the last letter lol.
It sure was better than the previous idea I had about opening this letter–on Hitomi Suzuki. I’ll get on with this later.
When I first read about Hitomi Suzuki in or around 2016, it was a line item under the concept of “NOW ON AIR,” a seiyuu idol unit produced by Lantis with agency Office PAC. It didn’t stick. The second time I read about Hitomi Suzuki, it was looking up which color Yuki Tanaka was in NOA when she was added to IDOLM@STER Shiny Colors as Asahi.
I’ve not really seen NOW ON AIR at all, as they were low profile, and other than two of their animetie-ins I have barely heard them either. Still, that was enough for me to “get” what it was like once I connected the dots. In 2021, NOW ON AIR was put on indefinite hiatus.
Reading about Hitomi Suzuki recently, it was the news of her passing from cancer at the age 26. It seems she was part of Office PAC during her entire seiyuu career. At first I didn’t even realize she was formerly of NOW ON AIR. Then the realization came. Cheers to Crunchyroll calling it out in the headline.
It’s so weird how that little bit of context adds so much–because you can now imagine how a Hitomi Suzuki tanoshi’s life is like? Can you imagine the feelings the NOA cast and staff had to deal with the last 18 months? Your struggling seiyuu dreams crushed by COVID and the rest of your future robbed due to terminal illness? That just seems way too much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhKm9lCTGE8
Since NOA disbanded in 2021, Momoe, Misako and Mina have left the agency as well. Momoe seems to have completely retired from show biz. Misako and Mina found out about Suzuki’s passing through social media and it’s rough to see their now-freelance reactions on social. Here’s also a shout-out from Aira Yuuki who worked with the group in the past. The remaining members were still connected via their agency, and they work together in the agency’s vocal unit, “Coe-mony.”
What’s really tragic isn’t so much of all of the hang-wringing I’m now reading up on, but that “Coe-mony” has a live show on Jan 15 2023. Hitomi Suzuki is listed as a cast member still for that show. I’m assuming “Coe-mony” has a regular program and they talk about this throughout, and have some kind of plan to put everything in perspective given that Suzuki’s agency should be in the know throughout her health journey. But I’m just guessing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkhbVXB8MIw
To me, the most memorable thing was finding out that NOA participated in Machi Asobi one year and did the race within the city. Was it a half marathon or something? It was pretty amusing to see seiyuu idols go through it, which is why it stuck. I’m just hoping everyone affected by Hitomi Suzuki’s passing can find some solace in these pretty harmonies.
