NHK 58 Kouhaku Utagassen

It's aired. Expect full coverage soon!
(and the Music Station super live too!)

RT: CDTV 12/23/07

-Perhaps this time I can cut back on random thoughts. But it's an hour long program so I won't make any promises.
-Nice, SMAP and Takasugi Satomi are the guest lives!
- Oh no the 3D characters are dressed in christmas outfits!
-How come there's always enka at the bottom of the countdown but never the top? lol
- High and Mighty Color's Amazing PV looks....amazing!
- Whoa this girl looks like she jumped straight out of the I"s manga.


- This might seem like a stupid question but since I know next to nothing about christmas in Japan, they say Happy Christmas instead of Merry in Japan?
- Man I love the song Bokura no Machi de.
- Sambomaster with a new song!? Man it's been ages since I saw them on a music program, or Japanese television for that matter.
- Fuckin exile has been all over this episode. I counted them like 5 times just in the middle of the program. I CANT ESCAPE THEM!
- Ooh another new Brilliant Green song. I liked stand by me a lot so i'll give this one a chance.
- lol I saw a commercial of Aiuchi Rina's single + PV where she's crying. Hilarious, I must get.

A bit on music...

Definitely the most anticipated single for me this year was, without a doubt, AKG's (Asian Kung-Fu Generation) After Dark. After a long absence and not releasing a single since 2006, After Dark filled that hungry need I had for a new ubber single. Ubber for me anyways XD Its upbeat and has a great rhythm and they finally seemed to have come back from the style they worked on Fanclub, which was good but I didn't like that album as much as Kimi Tsunagi 5 M or Sol-fa. I was a bit let down with the second track on the single, since its usually just as good as the
1st one.

Next up would be an anime theme from this season. The more noticeable one for me -besides After Dark, which I learned about before I knew it was going to be Bleach's new op- is D gray man's Doubt & Trust, which goes amazingly well with the new opening animation and above anything, it goes well with the sudden turn the story has taken, so much drama and action ><;; High & Mighty Color's Amazing was also a nice addition for the holiday season, being both catchy and with a nice rock beat. The 3rd track called Parade also got my attention, especially cause it somehow reminded me of a Morning Musume song, don't ask.

Last but not least is Erika Sawajiri or ERIKA or Kaoru Amane XD I first saw this girl in the dorama 1 litre of tears. Really, you either want to suicide yourself once you see that show or you want to live life to the fullest, I chose the latter. Anyways it was Uska that told me that she started a singing career. I didn't look her up for music until I saw the drama Taiyou no uta. Which I liked a lot ^_^ and it wasn't as depressing. I kinda liked the songs she sang in the drama and that's where I began to check out her music. I've now listened to all her singles and I can say she has the potential and the songs are nice, still room for improvement but otherwise Destination nowhere and Taiyou no uta have been stuck on me for some time now.

A quick roundup on what I saw in a recent musicstation:

1. Ayumi Hamasaki talks freaky, as if I didn't already know that.
2. I think I've only seen like 2 musicstations where Ayumi isn't a guest.
3. BOA sounded pretty good, but above everything she's v-pretty and dances pretty damn good.
4. Cocco took me by surprised despite her weirdness, hell I'm weird too. She sang beautifully though.
5. Boy band boy bands... They never seem to get my attention.
6. Remioromen was nice, got the mp3
7. Morning Musume wasn't in the Musicstation super live, poor souls, they're on their way to death.

On a side note, haromoni@ sucks bad, as if I didn't already know that, but really... its bad...

Random Thoughts: CDTV 121607

This is a new section I like to call random thoughts. This is the stuff I think about when watching shows and PVs and other stuff that I don't feel merit a full review or editorial on.That being said, sometimes I will include random thoughts into my reviews. Generally they're apart because they're personal opinions and just that; random thoughts. Hope you find it at all interesting!

- The opening theme is by INFINITY 15 welcomez SHOCK EYE from Shonanokaze, MUNEHIRO. It's called Itsumademo Merry Christmas. Very catchy tune.
- Seems it will be a good show.
- God, I like the show cause of the guest lives and showingm e a ton of different music I get interested in and some news from artists, but it has the absolute worst CG animation I've ever seen.
- Last week's Top 10 was pretty good, wonder how this week will top that.
- The section has kanji I can't identify, but I think it was this year's best 20 karaoke songs. I agree with most of them, as I know them by memory myself and sing them often. lol
- Johnny's dominated this section, as usual. At least Momusu was on it! Love Machine will nevar die!
- Most songs in 40-31 sucked ass.
- Sen no kaaaaaaaaaaazeeeeeeeee niiiiiiiiii sen no kaaaazeeeee niiii natteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
- I was surprised with Cocco's Juugon no Mieru, I usually don't like her songs but she nailed this one!
- Oshirikajiri is like the most annoying song on the face of the earth.
- I have to remember to pick up the m-flo and ellegarden DVDs some time, they look good.
- Man I hate EXILE. lol They're asians trying to be black, what more can I say.
- I really liked GLAY's 100mankai no Kiss
- YUI's DVD also seems good. I have to remember to write about her soon, I have criticism. :P
- OMG I was obsessed with Mr.Children not too long ago, with the op of 14sai no Haha too.
- A NEW KAT-TUN CONCERT TOUR DVD! WITH THEIR SECOND ALBUM SONGS! MUST GET!
- Except for NEWS and ACID BLACK CHERRY, and a few others, 30-21 wasn't great.
- Didn't now Ayase Haruka did a new song, it's pretty good.
- UGh EXILE. Look at these guys, with the exception of the guy talking in the middle they're all almost kako(puerto rican rapper).*fastfowards*
- It's wierd to see the kid from Tantei Gakuen Q be a little boy band group member. He's a good actor, convinced me that he was all sulky and broody. lol
- iei Ongaku Gatas!
- who's the girl in the pig tails? She's ubar cute, I gotta find out!
- Good to see Rika with long hair again, though that awful hairstyle is back.
- I couldn't help but crack up at The Birthday's PV(#12) for some reason. Bahahahahahaha
- I always like CDTV Library. w00t for SMAP's Lionheart!
- Upon seeing some PVs from early 2000 and 90s, I feel that Japan is like stuck i nthe 80s. That Christmas Eve song but the dude who's name I can't read gives me that vibe.
- It's too bad ZARD died. She was talented and very pretty. Rest in piece.
- Crystal Kay is stunning. I forgot to say this.
- Why doesn't any of my friends beleive that Hirai Ken is actually Japanese? hahahaha
- That Ketsumeishi PV looks really romantic. o.o
- Why does the AIDS Charity Project PV make me so emo? It's really depressing for some reason(No, I haven't looked up the lyrics).
- Keep the Faith just fuckin owns. KAT-TUN rules.
- YUS! Boa's the guest live! She's super beautiful, can dance really really well, and sing just as good. I lurve her.
- Seems like her pasts songs more or less, but it's her style by now I guess. It's a pretty solid song, the choreography is great and BOA's HOT. I say this means we have winnar.
- This week's top three are KOH+(with Kiss Shite), abingdon boys school(with BLADE CHORD), and Kuwata Keisuke(with Darling).
- abongdon's new single was too much TM Revolution like for me, so it doesn't cut it. I thought the whole point of the project was to not be TM Revolution, and I know he'll put his style into that music but the past songs weren't like that. It fails.
- Sorry if this gets on anyone's nerves but I couldn't care less about hte second guest live. The song's not great.
- It's that time of year again, those music specials that will take me an eternity to download are coming. CDTV's seems to be real good too.

What I'll be watching this season!

Well this is a list of what I(and likely Rubi too) will be watching in the following drama season! Right now, we're watching a few dramas. I still have Liar Game to watch, Bambino and Hanayome to Papa to finish, and Hotaru no Hikari to continue. Not to mention the other dramas from 2 seasons ago I was watching that I have to re get due to my data loss, these include Yamada Tarou Monogatari, Stand Up!, Tantei Gakuen Q, HanaKimi, and Proposal Daisakusen. This time I will watch them weekly and try not to wait up on anyone to slow me down, see I hate seeing series by myself, but the downfall is that the only way to watch it entirely without takin 5 years is to watch it alone. Rubi or my friend Jojo will probably see at least one series with me, so we'll see. Here's what I will be watching and some thoughts of it:

Sasaki Fusai no Jingi Naki Tatakai : This drama sounds fun because of the way it's different from what I usually watch. It's either high school kids, or adults around 25 to 30. And it's either in a high school, or a neighborhood, or an office. This time it's likely to be in a court room a lot, and knowing next to nothing of how Japanese courts work, it should be interesting. Sure it's not gonna be a 100% real depiction, but it's a start.

One Pound Gospel : Usually I watch dramas for actors of whom I'm a fan of. When I saw this title I thought "Oh cool, I've heard of an anime of this buy never saw it, although people have told me it was good." But then I saw that Kazuya Kamenashi was in it, so now I HAVE to watch it. I first saw Kamenashi in Nobuta, and his dramas are always good, and he's a great actor. So I can't wait to see this. I bet KAT-TUN's new single will also be the op, which makes for total win, too bad Yukan Club was a total piece of crap.

Mirai Koshi Meguru : Like above, I saw the lead, Fukuda Kyoko, in Yama Onna Kabe Onna, so I think I'll give this one a shot. The plot sounds ok, and the drama seems like it'll be average, but it could also turn out to be good.

Edison no Haha : Itoh Misaki. Nuff said. The plot sounds ok too.

4 Shimai Tantei Dan : Bunch of cute girls, including(but not limited to), Ichikawa Yui and Kato Natsuki. <3~ href="http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Daisuki%21%21">Daisuki!! : This one I'm thinking about, but might leave for later. I am also seeing Taiyou no Uta and 1 Liter of Tears, and I probably can't take another fucking tragedy. But it seems good so I'll give it a try.

Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi : Doesn't seem too great from what I read, but Ayase Haruka's in it, so I'll give it a shot anyway.

Koshonin : As much as I love a good detective drama, this one sounds average. Who knows, though, it might turn out to be good so a shot is in store. It has a pretty good all star cast too. Yonekura Ryoko is the lead, I last(and first) saw her in Katagoshi no Koibito, which I recently finished(and was excellent). Also is Tantei Gakuen Q and 1 Liter of Tears' Jinnai Takanori, HanaKimi's Shirota Yu, and veteran Takahashi Katsumi.

Aoi Yu x Yottsu no Uso : The format is different and interesting and the feeling I get is that it will be fresh all the time, and most importantly cute little Aoi Yu will be in it!

Saito-san : I'm giving this a skeptical shot. I don't know any of the actors and the plot doesn't seem that good. We'll see.

Binbo Danshi : Oguri Shun? Yamada Yu? A theme song by Bennie K? WHAT MORE DO I WANT!? The story seems like it'll be fun and I love these people. Definitely watching this one!

Ashita no Kita Yoshio : Holy crap, this shit is serious. Sounds good too.

Bara no nai Hanaya : Ok so the plot doesn't reall convince me, but the lead guy is from SMAP, the lead chick is cute, the hawt teacher from Stand Up!!, and Jirou from Hana Yori Dango are all there, the cast seems real good so I'll be giving it a shot.

Honey and Clover : This is my number one pick for the season. I've seen the movie and both anime, and I absolutely LOVE this story. I can relate to every character, but Takemoto the lead guy is the one I most identify with. This story has left a huge mark on me, and I really can't wait to see what they do with a drama series. While the movie was kinda dissapointing, it wasn't really so bad. Narumi Riko plays Hagu, I loved her in 1 Liter and in Juuken no Kamisama(even though the drama itself was crap), but I just don't see her as Hagu or some reason. Ikuta Toma is in it and I really like him, but I really don't see him as Takemoto. Narimiya Hiroki plays Morita... He was in Stand Up!! And I think I know who he is(I forget their names since I don't watch it often due to subs not being out), so if it's who I think it is, I LOVE this guy for Morita. Fits perfectly! Yamada and Mayama's actors I've seen in other dramas but don't remember them at all. The rest of the cast I actually don't know either, same as the rest above. It's all good though, I just hope they don't ruin the characters' personalities.

I'll post detailed reviews about them once I see them. Till next post!

The digital loss & PCs in an online social world

Losing your PC can be a really painful experience... Similar to losing precious data like Uska did, losing a PC due to hardware being either broken or burnt can bu equally painful. My PC died around October, it was quite random too. Good news is that only the processor seems to have died and the data and other hardware is intact. Still, I've suffered from PC withdrawal for the last 3 months. Something that didn't happen since I had my own PC 4 years ago, so now I'm back to the sharing days. Right now I can say that it hasn't been as hard as I thought, due to my lack of online social life which is nothing compared to how it was in my teens.

My dead PC

Online social life is an important aspect in a world where the internet is everywhere, and so it was for me, especially in such years where one tends to be so emo and lame but still in need of social acceptance never the less. Whether it is online games or forums or IRC, I experienced all 3 of them, each with its own 'Golden Age'. The first one was PSO. Though I started with EQ and played other MMOs like DAoC, AO, AC2, Lineage2, etc; PSO stood as the pinnacle of online gameplay in a highly social environment. I, who was an outcast pretty much throughout all my junior high and high school life, found a lot of comfort, support and fun in such game. Then there'd be the forum and Sunday meetings which increased my interaction with new people. It also served as a means or me and Uska to spend time together when we sometimes couldn't meet up to hang out. PSO also stands out as the only constant online game that I played for around 5 years.

Now those were the days.

Forums and IRC came next, where I would spend there hours either being idle or chatting about nothing. Still it probably filled the gap in the more lonely years of high school, and overall, I had some good laughs in #Noated ^^; Plus there were the staff channels in Uska's fansub groups. I'd always be on standby for many projects but I had bad luck D: I timed two episodes, one having its release cancelled and the other being released even though they forgot to put my name in the credits -lol-.

Some of the conversations really were pointless.

Anyways after that came a sudden fallout of anything related to social interaction through online means. College had a lot to do with this, probably because it consumed more time and the drastic change of environment had its consequences, in a extremely positive way. So the need for social interaction lowered and after passing through so many experiences, I've come to a point where I lurk some forums sometimes, play some online games here and there and I sometimes chat with some old online friends.

Still thinking of myself today without such a techy based background in my teens and childhood is pretty hard. It's also interesting to note how I was able to experience the birth of the internet, online games and communities first hand one by one. Starting with the Sega Genesis and our first Packard Bell PC to having the courage to build my own computer and being fully inmersed in an online world. PCs and technology are in that way really amazing. It gave me the ability to socialize in many ways with people around the world in times where social anxiety used to pretty much dictate my life -hehe- Today though, I'm still a loner and I dislike being in big groups but not in terms of fear but in terms of taste really. I'm picky with who I hang out with but I enjoy having a conversation with strangers. The online social life helped me in acquiring confidence when it came to who I was and gave me the chance to have a social life that wasn't ruled by the same standards of the majority. If I were to lose my PC in those days, I'd be suffering a lot ^^; So yeah, technology is a big deal today, and its implications in the development of a person's personality and psyche are significant, for bad or for worse.

A real badass phone.

Oddly enough, nobody has reported on the sexiest phone I've seen to date, so I guess I will. I'm not talking about the iPhone, oh no this comes from Japan. Japan has always made the best phones, but lately it seems our market has been catching up and even matching what the Japanese market has to offer. Since I haven't checked out new Japanese models I decided to search the Softbank site thinking "Surely they have some awesome stuff in store for us for 2008!!" Afterwards, I got on the site and I was thoroughly sexed up.

On the main site I saw the Softbank 913SH G Type-Char, Char Aznables Custom Mobile. Now being a big fan of slider phones, the 913SH was already sexy on it's own, but this takes the cake. On the surface it has Char's logo, the Zeon logo, Mobile Suit ranking insignias, and of course is red. But while that itself sold me the product, it was teh Zaku head charger that made me covet it. IT'S A FREAKING ZAKU HEAD THAT CHARGES THE PHONE! How sexy is that!?

Besides the great aesthetic features, it has everything you(and by you I mean me) would want in a phone: 2MP camera, broadband speed browser, video conference, chaku-uta, e comics, media player + microsd expansion, and Bluetooth. Overall this is a great phone, it's only too bad we can't get it over here...

For pictures of the cellphone visit Softbank's site here.

Fansubs, downloading, and the industry

If you're up and about the anime scene, you most likely download fansubs. And if you also read AnimeNewsNetwork, you've probably read Justin Sevakis's open letter to the industry. If you haven't click here. Since he wrote so much I'm only gonna offer a small opinion.

Being from both the fansub scene and the world of production(not necesarily anime), I can see how much a fansub can help and hurt an anime. I agree with pretty much everything that Justin said, the industry does need a dramatic change. Let me tell yo what a wonderful thing it is to be able to download anime. I can watch a series entirely and then decide if I wanna buy it or not. I don't have much money so I am left drooling sometimes for DVDs. The new Death Note vol1 brings a very cool Ryuk figure, and the Suzumiya limited set was just awesome, so it's not like buying them is not worth it. The problem is that I am selective with what I watch and what I decide to buy in the end, I sometimes want to only watch a series, which would be like only watching the TV airing in Japan, and then not buying the DVDs. Therefore I agree the market needs to be more niche, the few people that like to go out and buy DVDs are likely as selective to buy stuff as I am.

Another thing is that we want our anime now. The industry needs to look for new ways to keep up. I know a ton of people who watch stuff on streaming sites, why not make a _good_ streaming site for the stuff you license, viewable in high speed and decent(not high) quality, and charge a small monthly fee for it? Maybe even ofer it next day from the original airing. I'd pay for that, and then buy the DVDs if I liked it, which is another alternative. Make DVDs limited editions.

People who download and never buy weren't going to buy the product even if he didn't have the download alternative, so it's not really a loss when those people only download and don't buy. Shrink up the market a little, and make DVDs more limited. The industry isn't dead and it's an industry we love, so for now let's buy the DVDs of shows we like and support them while they change. In due time they'll see that they have to change, Bandai has even noticed, so let's see what they have in store for us these following years.

Kouhaku Uta Gassen

It's that time of year again, the Kouhaku is back and just in time for my wanting to see a big concert. I've always loved Kouhakus, ever since I started watching it three years ago. This year I hope to see it live as we get NHK here, although I don't know if we actually get the live feed, or if it's another NHK programming all together. Either way, I'll find a way to get it. I wrote a very nice article about it, but I lost it in the hdd so I'll just point you to the Wikipedia post.

I've been between teams in the years, but this year I'm 100% red team. The team list is out, and here it is:

Red Team: (Girls' Team)
aiko (6)
Amin (2)
ayaka (2)*
Angela Aki (2) -hate-
Ishikawa Sayuri (30)
AKB48 (1) *
Otsuka Ai (4)*
Kawanaka Miyuki (20)
Kouzai Kaori (15)
Koda Kumi (3)*
Godai Natsuko (14)
Kobayashi Sachiko (29)
Sakamoto Fuyumi (19)
Tendou Yoshimi (12)
DREAMS COME TRUE (12)*
Nakagawa Shoko (1)
Nakashima Mika (4)
Nakamura Ataru (1)
Nakamura Mitsuko (12)
Nagayama Youko (14)
Hamasaki Ayumi (9)
Morning Musume (10)***
Berryz Koubou (1)*
C-ute (1) *
Hitoto Yo (4)
Hirahara Ayaka (4)
BoA (6)*
Mizumori Kaori (5)
mihimaru GT (2)*
Leah Dizon (1) *
Wada Akiko (31)


White Team (Men's Team):
Akikawa Masafumi (2)
Itsuki Hiroshi (37)
w-inds. (6)
EXILE (3)
Gackt (5)*
Kitajima Saburou (44)
Kitayama Takeshi (3)
Kobukuro (3)
Kome Kome Club (5)
Sada Masashi (19)
Sukima Switch (3)
Sugimoto Masato (1)
SMAP (15)*
Terao Akira (2)
TOKIO (14)*
Tokunaga Hideaki (2)
Toba Ichiro (20)
Baba Toshihide (1)
Hikawa Kiyoshi (8)
Hirai Ken (5)*
Fuse Akira (23)
Porno Graffiti (6)*
Maekawa Kiyoshi (17)
Makihara Noriyuki (2)
Mikawa Kenichi (24)
Mori Shinichi (40)
WaT (3)

NOTE- Big thanks to Hello! Online, from who I lifted this list of. Next to the names are a parenthesis with a number, which is the number of times that they've appeared on Kouhaku. And next to those numbers is a * sign, which means I am a fan.


As you can see, the number of people I am a fan of on the red team exceeds white team greatly, so go Red team!

I am really looking forward to hearing the live version of "SEN NO KAAAAAAZE NIIIIIIIIIIIIII" lol I hated that song at first but I loved it later. The dude can really sing. I also really look forward to some new comers, people who I've talked about in this blog. That's Leah Dizon(which apparently they're handling her career a lot better than I thought. I still say she needs stronger singles though), C-ute, Berryz, and AKB48(gogo pedo!). As usual, Morning Musume appears, although their appearance was kinda doubtful for me because of their decline. Hopefully this new appearance will further push them, and bring a lot more exposure to C-ute and Berryz, who really need it in order to become the success that they're capable of. Oh and get this, SMAP and Utaban's Masahiro Nakai is gonna be hosting for red team. That's a major breakthrough, he's the first male host for team red since like the 6th Kouhaku. Bahahahaha that's more reason to wanna cheer for team red, Nakai is with us either way!

This year should be really interesting for Kouhaku and I will fully cover it, so stay tuned!

Bad news

my hard drive with all the shit I planned to review died. So instead i'll review other stuff soon. Until then~