NKDS

They are the same person >.<

Seiup delivers again! I don’t think this is the complete set of the swimsuit pictures from Haruka Tomatsu’s photobook, but its a start.

More after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

これは良い知らせだよ～

Amazon is being “friendly” again with all their recommendations whenever you go on their front page. This time they recommend me this. This is good news for all Nana fans out there. There will be a character insert song for both of the precures. Nana’s character, Tsubomi, will be singing her insert song 「つ.ぼ.み 〜Future Flower〜」 in episode 4 which will be the next upcoming episode this Sunday. Fumie’s character, Erika, will sing hers 「スペシャル＊カラフル」 in episode 8. Original information to be found at TV Asahi’s precure page here.

 Seven flavours of schoolgirl Nana to choose from. 

The webpage for the Live Academy concert goods is up here. Me? I’m only getting the school calendar, seen in the above picture. There is enough fantasy material in the calendar for the most exacting Nana fan out there.

A 17 year old girl should act her age by cosplaying in various school uniforms. Nana-chan gets my intense approval for this series of pictures.

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.

Noto~~!! <3

Another year, another time to wish Noto happy birthday again. The past year has been pretty Notoble, with her voicing a few roles she has voiced before in sequels, namely Notozaka Haruka in Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza and Toudou Shimako in Marimite 4. But her new roles were also awesome, with the most determined and cool Tomoe from Queen’s Blade and as an ojou-sama type as Toudou Lilicia in Seitokai no Ichizon. But the role that dominated my memory of the past year is most definitely Kuronuma Sawako from Notodoke; what can I say, it’s simply 2D Noto! Ever so sweet, so cute, so naive (and hence even more cute), so earnest and so lovable; just like Noto! This took the spot of most iconic Noto role ever for sure at least, and now I simply cannot imagine anybody else voicing for that role.

And on Noto’s birthday it seems that I was blessed; opened a signed Starlight Breaker in one of the Nanoha First boxes that I bought today, making this happy day just simply fantastic. Now for another year of joy, another year of happiness and another year of Noto! <3

Enough said. And the plushies do look pretty big!

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.

The Eternal Diva, now younger!

Happy birthday to Nana-chan, the light and love of our lives! Now that she has turned 17 years old, she has joined the exclusive clique of eternally 17 year old ladies, a sacred sisterhood which includes luminaries such as Kikuko Inoue and Yukari Tamura. Though one can argue Yukarin is eternally 7 years old rather than 17…

Nana is now of the same age as Alexander the Great when he conquered pretty damn near the entirety of the known world in his days. Similarly, Nana has achieved all that she could conceivably achieve in Japan; she has performed in the Dome to an audience of more than 30 thousand, she has performed in Kohaku, and she has achieved Oricon #1 in singles, albums, music DVDs and Music Blurays. Anison-wise, there is really not much else that she can achieve in Japan, except for the expansion of her legions of fans. However, any artiste will have an upper limit in the number of fans she can draw in her home country, which is an unpleasant fact that her and her management must face. So what is the solution?

Alexander tried to solve his problem by expanding the boundaries of the known world, literally entering the unknown in order to conquer it. Therein lies the solution… Nana and King Records need to recognize that there is a ready market for her outside of Japan, and people WILL pay good money to attend her concerts if she performs overseas.  Long story short, like Alexander, Nana needs to take the plunge into the unknown, to go forth and try her hand in other countries. Besides, what’s the risk? The support of cities like Shanghai, and countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong are practically confirmed. Hold a concert in Singapore and it is guaranteed that fans from all around Asia will flock here like bees to honey, thanks to the ease of travelling to Singapore. Not to mention Singapore is building an excellent track record of hosting anison artistes, as proven in the past two years of AFA and last year’s EOY. Plus we have the infrastructure and logistics in place to hold a truly memorable concert for Nana, something that May’N, Yoshiki Fukuyama, Shoko-tan and Ichirou Mizuki can readily attest to.

If Singapore can achieve this much for anison in a space of two years, it goes without saying that Shanghai, Taipei and Hong Kong will be much better equipped for Nana. After all, they had a decade ahead of us, literally. JAM Project regularly holds concert tours in these countries, and I believe that fact speaks for itself.

Nana can retire now and already be considered an anison legend in her home country, but I am certain that is not what she wants. She would not reach such heights without ambition, drive and sheer capability. If only Nana and her management would turn that ambition overseas… she may be the biggest seiyuu-singer in Japan right now, but she has the potential to make anison history in an entire continent. After that.. well, lets cross that bridge when we reach it.   

So once again, Happy 17th Birthday, Nana-chan. Have a good one, and may your star shine ever brighter.

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.

It finally happened. Nana Mizuki is to voice Cure Blossom in the latest series of precure. Now, you all cant ignore precure ^^

Official pic from TV Asahi.

*Note: Coincidentally this is the 7th year of precure

Seki Tomokazu, live as Animate Tenchou Anisawa Meito! The only reason why I even bothered with the show, and really, nothing beats this in the entire performance! 

Akira and Shiraishi were wrapping up Lucky Channel when they were shafted by the man who very much defined the term ”hot blood”. Sucks to be them, I guess. XD

“cue screams of fear from Akira”

Read the rest of this entry »

No she’s not loot of course! But she sure is sweet >_<

Now that EOY is over, it is time for the usual run-of-the-mill dime-a-dozen loot post! Except that rather than EOY loot, this year, one of my dreams came true. Makino Yui came down for EOY 2009 and gave a concert! And it was a damn awesome concert; Makino Yui was so lively, fresh and very very cute! Especially when she’s surprised, her “eh?” was just so moe~. Her piano playing was also great, and she performed a piece that she had played for the movie “Love Letter” when she was 8 years old as a present to us fans. And she was interrupted by the EOY staff giving her a surprise early birthday cake (her birthday is actually on January 19), and we sang her a birthday song. As for the song list, she opened the concert with Euphoria, and she sang Amrita, but most of the songs she sang were new songs. And they were really good, especially Fuwa Fuwa ♪, which is to be released next year March 3! I’m going to have to get that, it’s a really totally awesome song.

And there were autograph sessions too! Which allows me to seamlessly transit from my off-topic fanboying of Makino Yui’s concert back to the topic of loot, since for this year, my EOY loot consists of signed goods. And thanks to friends (Akai, Zelfi, Julius Firefocht) helping me to queue, it isn’t just one or two signed CDs either!

Read the rest of this entry »