KAT-TUN 2 Me

Okay, so this isn’t a proper post (I’m working on something really fun though) but just a celebration post to announce that KAT-TUN will be having a new concert tour this summer!!! And, it’s starting in July which means that more likely than not I will be able to go to one of them. YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ll post dates and whatnot when I find them. In the meantime, does anyone know the best way to buy concert tickets while one is actually in Japan? I’m willing to pay any price short of my first born son (and even that is negotiable).

This first paragraph is going to be the same in both of my blogs. Just giving you a heads up.

Hey guys. I have officially returned from my spring break camp-o-rama, and I’m pleased to see that nothing HUGE happened while I was gone. I was so worried all week. If you were wondering what all I was doing, my school has an ‘alternative spring break’ program where instead of partying all night and sleeping all day, a group of 15 or so students spend the week doing ’service learning’. My particular trip focused on nature, so that meant I spent the week doing stuff like camping, surveying streams, removing invasive species, building trails, and planting trees. It was usually too cold to sleep, even with 12 or so layers of clothing on, we routinely got stuck in thigh-high mud, and my arms look like I lost a fight with an angry cat (blackberries are the devil), but I had a truly awesome time. What does this have to do with Jpop, you might ask? Well, 4 of our resident Japanese exchange students participated in the trip, and so I had the chance to get pretty close with them and learn a bit about their music tastes. Our sample group is made up of female sophmores in college, all around 20 years old.

When we first were discussing what kind of music we liked, I started listing off my favorite groups, and when I got to Arashi, I was met with excited squealing. Turns out that they all like them, and 2 out of the 4 are big fans and have been to several concerts. The conversation quickly turned to, “Who’s your favorite?”. One of them favors Sho while the other adores Nino (just like me!) which lead to more squealing and girly, “oh my gosh he’s so cute!!” talk. For the rest of the trip they’d occasionally start singing ‘A.RA.SHI’ and try to get me to join in. Also, all four of them watched and enjoyed Hana Yori Dango. One of the other girls in the group is a huge fan of Kanjani, and she was disappointed that while I knew the words to the chorus of ‘Zukokke Otokomichi’ I didn’t know the accompanying hand gestures. Sheesh. I didn’t even know it had hand gestures. As for KAT-TUN, none of them were fans really. Three of them generally liked them and enjoyed some of their songs, but didn’t follow them particularly closely. One of them (one of the Arashi fans) loathed KT because, “they’re arrogant, narcissistic, and rude to their sempais” I can only imagine that the Jun/Jin drama of the past was running through her mind at the time. Personally, I would argue that arrogance is the only logical response to being as handsome, talented, and popular as Akanishi Jin.

I’ll be back with a proper post once I catch up to everything I’ve missed this week. It could take a while…

HAGS,

~Celestia~

Before I start the image rush, a quick announcement. I already wrote about this in my other blog, but in case you don’t read that, yesterday I found out that I got a job I applied for to teach English in Japan for the year, which, as wu-san kindly pointed out, is just a cover for my real purpose: attending concerts and buying merchandise. So, if any English speaking Johnny’s fans will be in the Tokyo area from August 2008-July 2009 and would like to attend a concert with me, please drop me a line! It’d be nice to have another Gaijin with me there. It seems that I’m arriving about a week too late to catch Arashi’s new concert tour (dang it. I wonder if I can think of an excuse to leave a week early), but I’m sure that they will be having some really awesome 10th anniversary concerts in 2009, so hopefully I will be able to catch one of those. It goes without saying that I will do everything in my power to attend any concert featuring KAT-TUN or any of its members.

And we’re back to the frozen North!

So this isn’t really funny if you don’t speak Japanese, but basically, they had to shovel a path up those steps, and the guy asks why it gets narrower at the top (because they got lazy!). Jin, in one of his bouts of strange cleverness, explains that it’s so if you are walking up with your girlfriend, you’ll end up pulling in close together as you approach the top.

“Yuu-kun (hereafter referred to as ‘Adorable Child’), which of them do you want to stay and read you a story?” Guess who he’s pointing to.

Smart kid. Now we have reason to feel sorry for Nakamaru #3, he has to go back out into the cold and build a snowman. Jin gets to stay inside and play with Adorable Child.

Demanding a recount, Nakamaru questions Adorable Child again.

Rejected! Reason to feel sorry for Nakamaru number #4.

Watching Jin play with Adorable Child makes me want to have his babies even more than I already do.

Next, a contest to clean off the ice for skating. Winner gets hot soup, loser has to sweep up the rest of the snow. Reason to feel sorry for Nakamaru #5, he cheats (look at all those parts he’s skipping!), and he still loses by quite a bit.

Revenge! I’m pretty sure this hurt Maru a lot more than it hurt Jin though. Is it just me, or does Kame look kind of concerned up there?

Jin and his minions skate around and harass Nakamaru while he tries to sweep.

They had dinner with everyone after this, but it wasn’t particularly interesting to look at, so now back to the studio. What’s this?? Kame announces that Adorable Child has sent presents for Jin and Maru. Jin: “Yaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!” Maru: “Bitch didn’t even like my snowman”

Jin was tearing up a bit when he saw his present. Awwwww. Here we also have our 6th and final reason to feel sorry for Nakamaru, the picture Adorable Child drew for Jin is much better than the one he drew for Maru, and everyone teases him about it.

One last shot of Jin and Adorable Child. Just when I thought I couldn’t love him more, he has to go and do something ridiculously endearing like this.

This will be my last post before I peace out for Spring Break. I’m going to be camping, so I’ll be away from my computer and the internet, which means that amazing and blog-worthy events will happen next week. Last time I went away for Spring Break they added Chinese members to Morning Musume. So, if it is revealed next week that Ueda is pregnant or that KAT-TUN has declared war on Arashi and there are heavy casualties on both sides, my bad.

See you next week,

~Celestia~

Inspired by photo/witty commentary filled reviews of recent Haromoni (the reviews are much more interesting than the actual show, BTW), I’ve decided to do the same thing for the recent most excellent Cartoon KAT-TUN special where Jin and Maru are sent to Hokkaido to freeze their asses off. I made too many for one post (it’s an hour-long special) so part 2 with the second half is immediately to follow this. Uh, and I hope you like Akanishi, because there’s quite a lot of him…

No doubt JunJun would be horrified at the waste of a perfectly good banana. They’re pounding nails with it to prove how cold it is.

Since this is a “punishment game” they have to ride in a convertible. Hehehe, Jin looks like a turtle.

Bakanishi is pwned by a tiny pony (it bit him). He looks so aghast!

As this episode progressed I began to feel more and more sorry for Nakamaru. Reason to feel sorry for Nakamaru #1: He got assigned the job of shoveling horse doo-doo. Reason to question Nakamaru’s sanity #1: He decided to smell it.

Meanwhile, Jin is being all manly and chopping wood. It took him a while to get the hang of it…

Attempts at kicking the log into submission were met with minimal success.

But he gets it eventually!

“Okay. Now I’m going to chop the biggest damn log you’ve got!” he exclaims in typical Jin fashion. Maru once said that Jin is unstoppable when he puts his mind to something. It’s somewhere in my quote collection, but the story was that back in his earlyish Jr days, when he couldn’t really do a backflip yet, some of the other Juniors were teasing him about it, so he went and did an even more difficult type of backflip that he’d never even attempted before just to shut them up, and he pulled it off.

Needless to say, the log didn’t stand a chance.

Maru, we’re eating. Please recount your poop-sniffing story some other time. Love Jin’s smile though.

Back to the car. Hey, where did JinJin go?

And now we take a break and return to the studio to repeatedly lock Kame in a freezer.

“Guyyyys! C’mon guys! That’s not funny!” Sorry Kame, but it is.

Reason to feel sorry for Nakamaru #2, Kame froze his shirt.

Jin was very impressed with the frozen spaghetti.

If the Lips PV ‘Making of’ taught me anything, it’s that Bakanishi loves megaphones.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

~Celestia~

First things first, HAPPY 1^st BIRTHDAY INTERNATIONAL WOTA!!! I’d bake you a cake if only I had an oven.

It’s time for another exciting round of ranking KAT-TUN on various traits! But before I get into the ranking that I’ve done, some proof that as hard as I may try to pick the randomest traits I can, the Japanese will always do random better. Behold, a magazine feature that ranks KAT-TUN members according to fist circumference. Yes, you read that right. Fist circumference. It’s clear that they’re all taking this very seriously, especially Kame. From smallest (6), to largest (1)…

6. Tanaka

5. Ueda

4. Nakamaru

3. Kamenashi

2. Akanishi

1. Taguchi

It makes you wonder if this is correlated to any other measurements, if you know what I mean.  Looking at the order, it almost makes sense to me…

Anyway, since it seems that I’ve pretty much given up all pretense of not being a fashion bitch, I’m going to go ahead and rank them by how much I like their costumes from the Lips PV. Since the PV is kind of dark, I’ve borrowed some screencaps (I don’t take credit for these) of their MS appearance as our reference pictures. Some of them have changed their hats, but the clothes are the same.

KA-TN

T-UN

All

6. Taguchi- Junno has not only crossed, but blown way past, the line between casual punk and Final Fantasy Land. I’m afraid that he’d look much more at home at a cosplay convention than in the Lips PV. He’s practically wearing a rhinestone studded cape, and that’s almost never cool.

5. Tanaka- Looks like a janitor, especially when he had his white baseball cap on. Stand him next to Junno, and the contrast is ridiculous.

4. Nakamaru- There’s nothing really wrong with what Maru’s wearing, but it’s just kind of boring. Once again, he’s the only one I wouldn’t glance at twice if I saw him walking down the street in these clothes.

3. Akanishi- His hat is supposed to be white, which I like much better, so just pretend he didn’t switch hats on us when you’re looking at the picture. I also really like his necklace. As for the clothes, Jin is certainly well-suited to the overly-long coat thing, but with the fur and all of the hanging black fabric, the look of this particular costume is too heavy.

2. Kamenashi- This is pretty cool. Kame always looks good in the fitted jacket/ tight pants motif, and his accessories are nice as well. The only thing that bothers me is the British flag stuff in his jacket. Everyone else has pink accents, so Kame’s red and blue accents don’t really match.

1. Ueda- That means that our winner is Ueda! The shredded drapeyness and all the white make him look like a little fallen angel. On anyone else, I might not like this top, but it suits Ueda perfectly. The design is unique and interesting, yet he still avoids looking like he’s about to join Taguchi on a quest for 10 mythrils and 2 phenix downs.

What to show for Uebo? I’m afraid that I’m not very fond of his solo performances since they tend to be ballads, and I find most ballads to be boring. Also, I really like Ueda’s voice when he’s paired with another member or two. He has the kind of voice that can sort of fill in the cracks in another person’s, so the combined sound is really nice. In fact, I’d say he’s the only member of KAT-TUN who sounds great when paired with any given other member. On his own though, his whispery style starts to grate on me. So, no solo performance this time. Instead, some cute stock photos from Keep the Faith. I really like his expression in the first one.

And that’s all she wrote,

~Celestia~

It’s time to semi-introduce a new feature. I say ‘semi’ because my dance post qualifies as part of this feature, but I didn’t know it was going to be a feature at the time. What I’d like to do is a series of posts ranking the KAT-TUN members, and maybe Arashi if I feel like it, on various traits. Because I love media-sharing, the winner gets a solo performance and/or picture. Junno was the winner of the dance ranking, and he did indeed get a solo video, so it all fits!

This time, I was looking at my lovely calendar photos, and I found myself noticing a lot of small details that are difficult to see in low-quality computer images. Specifically, for some odd reason, I started noticing their eyebrows, so today’s ranking topic is ‘Best Eyebrows’!! Silly, yes, but no sillier than the actual oricon ranking topics.

First, some images. These all come from the calendar scans. They’re not as clear as I’d like them to be, so you’ll just have to trust me that I’m looking at better quality versions of these pictures when making my judgments. Can you tell which set of eyes belongs to which member?

Highlight> Sorry to be boring. They’re just in KATTUN order. Pat yourself on the back if you got it right. Go study some pictures of all of them if you got it wrong. Actually, even if you got it right, feel free to go look at some pictures of them too.

‘Ze List

6. Koki. He tries to change his eyebrows too much, and they’re just a mess as a result. They’re plucked way too thin, uneven, starting to grow back in, and it appears that he’s missing the outer half or so of each eyebrow. Is this all just part of his style?

5. Nakamaru. On the other hand, Maru could use a good tweezing. His eyebrows look bushy and unkempt. Tss. You’re having close-up pictures taken. Make a little effort next time.

4. Taguchi. It has become more difficult to judge because the remaining four’s eyebrows are all meticulously shaped and groomed. Good to see that at least some of the group knows how to be proper idols. Taguchi gets the fourth spot because his eyebrows are very straight across, having barely any arch at all. They’d be nicer if they had a little shape to them.

3. Ueda. Ueda’s eyebrows are also very straight, but they’re angled inwards, which makes them a bit more flattering than Taguchi’s straight across eyebrows. Still, I think eyebrows should curve a bit, so he gets 3^rd.

2. Akanishi. It was a challenge to judge Jin’s eyebrows due to his tendency to have most of the upper part of his face covered by either a hat or his hair. From looking at a variety of pictures, I have concluded that they’re quite nicely shaped, not too thin with a nice subtle arch. They’re almost perfect, but somehow he’s still slightly edged out by…

1.Kamenashi. Kame gets first because he makes his eyebrows work for him. The guy has pretty narrow eyes, even for a Japanese person, but the way his eyebrows are shaped, with a strong arch in the outer third, does wonders to open up that area and give him the illusion of having wider eyes than he does. Also, his eyebrows are particularly well-groomed, and he’s quite an expert at the ‘cocking one brow suggestively’ look.

Congrats to Kame! I’m sure he’s thrilled. Here’s a video of his solo performance “Someday for Somebody” from the Cartoon KAT-TUN 2 U concert. It’s got a back-flip, a small army of Johnny’s Juniors (good lord, how many of them are there now? I count at least forty on-stage at one point), a very sweet Kame, and some nice special effects that will probably leave you thinking “how did they do that?”

Download

You stay classy San Diego,

~Celestia~

Recently, I’ve been fantasizing about what I would do if one of my favorite idols showed up at my door one day and said I could do anything with/to him that I wanted. Don’t worry, this entry is not about to turn porny here. I love my boyfriend, and so even if given the opportunity to cheat on him with pretty Johnny’s boys, I don’t think I would do it….in most cases… Anyway, these are in no particular order.

Kame- If Kame showed up at my door I think I would spend a lot of the day just taking pictures of him, because he might be the most photogenic member of KAT-TUN. First I’d dress him up in a dapper suit, and then maybe some casual clothes for outdoors shots, and then back home for some sexy shirtless pictures. I’d spend the rest of my life happily gloating about my exclusive Kame collection. I’d also make him sing something sweet and romantic for me, maybe the song he sang in the making of footage of the lips PV. Oh, and I’d force him to sign a contract promising to never ever get as skinny as he used to be again, because I didn’t used to think he was all that attractive, but he has become exponentially prettier in the last few months, and I will become depressed if he reverts back to being so gaunt.

All of Arashi (together): I’ve said it before, but I really want to go get a beer with those guys. Maybe we could all go to Karaoke afterwards so I could enjoy private drunken Arashi performances. Yeah, that would be awesome!

Taguchi- I’d definitely take Taguchi out on a date with me. We’d go shopping and have lunch and he would be all gentlemanly and cheesy: pulling my chair out, carrying my shopping bags, giving me outrageous compliments, that sort of thing. The night would end with an innocent kiss on the cheek and then I’d return to my room, hug my pillow, and sigh dreamily at the ceiling until I fell asleep.

Koki- We’d go out clubbing, I’d introduce him to all of my friends, they’d love him, and we’d basically all party the night away.

Aiba- I would totally take him to Disney Land. With all his childish enthusiasm, I’m sure we would have a blast riding everything as many times as possible, eating way too much sugar, taking photos with characters, and generally acting like big stupid kids.

Jin- Sigh. I said most cases, right? I might be a bad person for saying this, but honestly, if Akanishi Jin showed up at my door and he was interested, there would be sexing, and lots of it. That’s a really bad decision on my part, but looking at him makes my head all fuzzy and I do stupid things like shelling out lots and lots of money for KAT-TUN calendars (which I don’t regret in the least!). After we got tired I would probably just sit him on my couch and stare at him for a few hours. Wow, I am creepy when I’m being honest with myself.

Nino- I would hold all of his video games hostage and interrogate him until he gave me a satisfactory explanation as to why his hand is practically glued to Ohno’s ass. After he had solved, or at least given me some good clues into “The Mystery of Ohmiya” we could play with his video games together. He would beat me by approximately a million points and gloat about it, and I’d enjoy it.

Ohno- You know, I think that Ohno by himself would be kind of boring. He really needs the rest of his group around him because it’s the way he interacts with the rest of them that’s so hilarious. Well, I’d probably make him draw something for me, and then have him teach me some fun Arashi dances.

Ueda- I wouldn’t be able to resist dressing Ueda up in stylish girly clothes. Something cute, not ridiculous and drag-queeny or anything like that. Then I’d do his hair and makeup and go parade him around in public, because embarrassed Ueda is really really cute.

Matsujun- Matsujun would have to cook me dinner, it’d better be something Italian and fancy, and he’d better be wearing an apron. We’d drink wine and eat out under the stars, by candlelight and it will be absolutely beautiful.

Nakamaru- What to do with a Maru? Ask him to introduce me to the rest of KT? Lol. It’s not that I don’t like Maru, but he doesn’t hold much fascination for me. We’d probably just sit around talking and watching TV.

Sho- Sho is the kind of guy that my family would really approve of, and I’m a big fan of the idea of him playing with kids, so I think I would introduce him to my extended family and then watch him playing around with all of my little cousins. My relatives would all congratulate me on finding such a nice well-educated young man (they’re not fond of my current boyfriend). Thinking about it, out of all these boys, Sho is probably the best marriage material. Hmmmm.

As an aside, I recently showed my brother (age 18, straight but very meterosexual) a couple of pictures of some Johnny’s boys, pointing out Jin and Matsujun in particular. I thought some of his reactions were quite amusing.

Jin- I like his hair, but he looks just like one of those anime characters. They really have people that look like anime characters in Japan?

Matsujun- Is he gay??? (lolol. That was his reaction just from looking at a picture. I didn’t even show my brother his dancing)

Wishing upon a star,

~Celestia~

I have a lot to celebrate today. My KAT-TUN calendar has arrived, and it’s even more glorious than I had hoped. Today’s Cartoon KAT-TUN was the first part of the episode where Nakamaru and Jin are sent to Hokkaido to freeze their asses off, chop wood (how manly!) and play with children (how sweet!) which means lots and lots of Jin to look at both this week and next week. And finally, if you hadn’t noticed, KAT-TUN 2 Me has moved to this spiffy new International Wota address! Isn’t the new format pretty? HUGE thanks go out to Ray for setting this up for me.

So, to celebrate all of this stuff, I’ve decided to make an offer of free Johnny’s mp3 downloads to anyone who reads this. I’ve pretty much got the entire KAT-TUN discography and a fair amount of Arashi as well as a few random things from other groups. All I ask of you is that if you download something, please leave a comment. Since this is a brand new blog, I’m back to zero comments, and that makes me very lonely. Also, frankly, this took a really long time, so if you download without commenting it’s just rude. If you have a problem with downloads like this, I’m sorry. I get the feeling that Johnny’s is in no dire financial straits, and no one outside of Japan is going to become a fan and buy things if they don’t get a chance to hear their music anyway.

Singles that are on listed albums are not listed again in the ‘singles’ section. ***marks the songs that I recommend most! If you aren’t that familiar with Johnny’s then why not give some of these a try? C’mon, what have you got to lose?

KAT-TUN

Best of KAT-TUN (album)

1. She said***

2. Never again***

3. I like it

4. Miracle

5. Blue Tuesday

6. Rhodasia

7. Gold***

8. Wilds of my Heart***

9. Special Happiness (Kame/Junno)

10. One on One (Koki/Maru)

11. Butterfly*** (Jin/Ueda)

12. Rush of Light

13. Harukana Yakusoku***

14. Precious One***

15. Real Face***

Cartoon KAT-TUN 2 You disc 1 (album)

1. Signal

2. Peak***

3. Splash

4. Bokura no Machi de

5. Make you wet (Koki solo)

6. Key of Life (Maru solo)

7. LOST (Ueda solo)

8. Jumpin’ Up

9. Samurai Love Attack (Junno Solo)

10. Freedom

11. Someday for Somebody (Kame Solo)***

12. Movin’ On

13. Utai Tsuzukeru Toki

14. You

Cartoon KAT-TUN 2 You (disc 2)

1. Freeze

2. Love or Like

3. Fight all Night

4. Heartbreak Club

5. My angel, you are angel

6. No Matter Matter***

7. Peacefuldays***

Singles/B-sides

Will be All Right***

Yorokobi no Uta***

Your Side***

Keep the Faith***

Crazy Love

Lovin’ You

Lips***

Love

Message for You

Arashi

Iza now (album)

1. Kotoba yori Taisetsu na Mono***

2. JAM

3. The Bubble

4. Thank you for my days

5. Pika-Nchi Double***

6. Keep a Peak

7. Eyes with Delight

8. Right Back to You***

9. Rainbow

10. Hashida no Mirai***

11. Yasashikutte Sukoshi Baka

12. Dear My Friend***

13. Kimi dake wo Omotteru

14. Check no Muffler

15. Tochuugesha

5×5 the Best Selection 2002-2004 (compilation album, repeats not listed)

1. Hero

2. Hitomi no Naka no Galaxy

8. Lucky Man

9. Blue

10. Tomadoi Nagara

11. Fuyu no Nioi

12. Pika-Nchi***

13. Nemuranai Karada

14. Nice na Kokoroiki

15. A Day in Our Life

16. La Tormenta 2004

One (album)

1. Overture

2. Natsu no Namae

3. Romance

4. Lai-Lai-Lai

5. Days

6. Subarashiki Sekai

7. Sakura Sake***

8. Rain (Ohno Solo)***

9. Itsuka no Summer (Aiba solo)

10. W/Me (Matsujun Solo)

11. Himitsu (Nino Solo)

12. Yume de Ii kara (Sho solo)

13. Yes? No?

14. Kazamidori

Arashiac (album)

1. Wish

2. Runaway Train

3. Raise Your Hands

4. Kitto daijoubu ***

5. Ready to Fly

6. Caramel Song ***

7. Cool & Soul

8. Tabidachi no Asa

9. I want somebody

10. Secret Eyes

11. Chou Arigatou

12. Carnival Night part 2

13. Silver Ring

14. Love Parade

Singles

A.RA.SHI ***

Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi ***

Happiness***

We can make it ***

Step and Go

Love so Sweet ***

Other

Kinki Kids- Kanashimi Blue, Hakka Kyandii ***, Ne, Ganbaru Yo

SMAP- Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana ***

Kanjani- It’s my Soul, Zukkoke Otokomichi

NEWS- Hoshi wo Mezashite, Cherish, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

Tokio- Honjitsu Mijukumono, Hitoribocchi no haburashi***

Shuji to Akira (Kame/Pi)- Seishun Amigo ***

Don’t forget to vote in the poll! I’m really curious as to who I’m actually writing for,

~Celestia~

I feel like if I’m doing a post just to get people to watch KAT-TUN performances and read my stunningly insightful commentary, having a coherent theme helps legitimize it. This time, the theme is KAT-TUN covering other Johnny’s songs. Due to their extended time as juniors, they did quite a bit of that. I’ve been wondering though, what is the best method of sharing media files? I like embedding, though I worry that that’s bad for those of you who are not blessed with fast internets, youtube links are okay, but they require you to open a new page, and maybe you don’t want the hassle. I could also provide downloads, but I don’t know if people would actually use them. Hmmm. I think I’ll do both embedding and downloads this time, but if that proves to be too much of a hassle in the future I might not continue.

First, not all of KAT-TUN, but just Akame covering the Kinki Kids song ‘Bonnie Butterfly’. Those two really do look nice together, don’t they? I don’t mean as a couple (sorry, Akame fans, but any hope of that died long ago) but performing side by side. Their different styles, voices, and looks complement each other perfectly, I think. Oh, and love that last pose, btw.

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Next, a clip I only recently stumbled upon. It’s KAT-TUN singing part of that darn SMAP song that was playing absolutely everywhere when I was in Japan. It holds a special place in my heart as the first Johnny’s song that I knew and liked, so I was excited to find KT singing it. And yes, they do sing better than the smappers. Waaaay better. KT sure looked a lot friendlier (and less cool) when they were Jrs, didn’t they? Ueda, with his blonde hair and that necklace looks the most princessy I’ve ever seen him, and Jin and Koki are both smiling way more than I’m comfortable with in a performance from them. As for the bastard children of a toga and a leisure suit costumes that they’re wearing, I think that the costume hall of shame may have to invade this blog very soon. My only concern is that it’s almost too easy.

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As long as we’re discussing this clip, a short h!p digression. I’d like to point out baton-boy in the background. See, this is one of the things that Johnny’s consistently gets right. No, not baton twirling, but utilizing the special talents their idols. You know how to twirl batons? Great, get out there and start twirling. Good at tapdancing? Can play the guitar? Can whistle and play harmonica (hey Kame)? Do flips? Whatever they have, they incorporate it into their live performances. H!p should be taking notes! Why do we not have JunJun out there playing piano, Ai-chan incorporating classical ballet into a nice lyrical number, or any of the other girls honing whatever special performance talents they have and showing them off? This needs to happen, and it needs to happen like yesterday.

Lastly, another Kinki Kids cover, Hakka Candy. It’s actually KAT-TUN and friends, but whatever. Admittedly, KT looks pretty young and unpolished (this is from four years ago). Well, Jin is as beautiful as ever, but most of them have unflattering hair, Kame seems unnecessarily angry at times, and it’s not vocally perfect. Despite those things, I still cannot describe how much I love this performance. The song is just so beautiful and all the emotion in it comes through exquisitely. The trademark tiny Jin smile at the very end melts my heart every time.

Download

I might be addicted to quotation qorners. It has been a whole 2 entries since I did one though! BTW, I think that this entry might have been skipped in all the confusion, and I kinda like it, so check it out if you want. For today’s entry, it’s Jin being an ass and Nino being…difficult. I don’t want to call him an ass, so we’ll go with difficult. And yes, I am very biased and I do write about my favorites much more often than the rest of them.

I’ll do Jin first (yeah I will) . I’ve gone to such great lengths to prove that he’s an air-head lately, haven’t I? Truth is, he can be clever on occasion, but those occasions are almost always when he’s taking shots at the other members, particularly Nakamaru and Taguchi.

Jin: If you hear this, it will appear in your dreams.
Ueda: Jya, everyone, let’s go back.
Jin: Close your eyes.
Maru: But its scary…
Jin: Imagine it vividly in your head.
Ueda: Iyada! Iyada!(no! that’s awful! similar sentiments)

*dramatic pause*

Jin: Nakamaru when he had long hair!

Summer 2007, Cartoon KAT-TUN

Kame: I heard that if you only think and don’t move for a long time your arms and legs could become paralyzed.

Junno: I’ve never had that happen. I only know sleeping or awake.

Jin: Well, that’s all you know.

November 2007, Cartoon KAT-TUN

Scene: KAT-TUN members have just undergone a personality test where they have to befriend a dog.

Kame: And coincidentally both Akanishi-kun and Taguchi-kun decided to call the dog ‘John’

Jin: I almost called it ‘Jun’ but then I thought that someone would get mad at me again

Matsujun: *’I hate you so much’-type smile*

Jin and Jun don’t get along (though Jin seems to be trying to mend fences lately). It’s sad because if they were friends I would call them Junji and their combined sexiness could take over the world.

2004, Utawara

Scene: Writing about going on a location shoot to Hokkaido with Nakamaru.

Jin (writing): Nakamaru no baka (Nakamaru the idiot) was asleep for almost the whole trip. I thought about burying Nakamaru no baka in the Hokkaido snow, but Nakamaru no baka was sleeping so peacefully that I stopped myself.

February 2008

So like a spoiled little kid, mad because Maru wasn’t paying attention to him. At least he stopped himself, right?

Scene: Talking about misplacing train tickets

Junno: It makes me feel like I really wasted something

Jin: I know what you mean. I feel like I’m wasting my time talking to you right now.

Cartoon KAT-TUN

Interviewer: Do you ever look at yourself and think, “Man, I’m really cool”?

Jin: Yeah, whenever I’m standing next to Nakamaru.

Unsure, sorry

As for Nino, he’s certainly not mean, but he’s infamous for being difficult to interview. Getting a straight answer out of him that’s not, “<3 Games!" or "<3 Arashi!" is damn near impossible. I think that interviewers must hate him, but oh how I love reading what he comes up with. Sometimes he’ll flat out refuse to answer the questions, sometimes he’ll make up something ridiculous, and even when he gives a plausible answer, since it’s Nino you can never be quite sure if he really means it or not.

One of my favorite examples comes from an attempt to psychoanalyze the boy’s romantic tendencies through a series of questions. This kind of thing is quite common in Japan. Sho, Matsujun, and Aiba gave sincere answers (though Aiba’s were predictably spacey) Ohno gave answers like responding to the question “what time would you pick her up” with the current time and “what music would you play on your date” with the song that was currently playing in the room. Nino seemed to make it his personal goal to stump their psychologist, and I’d say that he thoroughly succeeded.

Q. You have a date with a girl on Valentines day. What time to you meet?

A. Valentines? Let’s see, 3 AM in the morning I think. We should use that day fully.

Q. You’ve gone out for a meal. What is her outfit today? (I’d like to note that Aiba’s answer to this one was ‘Naked!..oh wait, was that bad?’)

A. A judo outfit. Black belt… no, green belt. I guess she’s not strong enough for a black belt yet.

Q. After the meal is over you receive a Valentines present from the girl. What is it? o:p>

A. The belt she was wearing. She’ll say, “because I’ve risen to black I’ll give it to you”

Q. You both are now full. Where to next?

A. Batting center I guess. She’ll catch the ball with her bare hands. It’s to measure the strength of her grip. She’ll catch a ball flying at 120km with her bare hands, release it, then catch another one and another one.

The poor psychologist’s final analysis of Nino is (summarized): Those were some very unusual answers… If I have to pick one, I’d say that rather than romance he just wants to play actively. He really values uniqueness.

You can just hear the psychologist getting more and more pissed off as the interview goes along. It’s great!

March 2008, Duet

source

The little bastard truly enjoys messing with the interviewers.

Nino: Recently, I always just tell interviewers about playing video games. I’ve really only talked about playing video games in all my interviews for the last three months. They’ll ask me, “What have you been doing recently” and I’ll answer, “Playing video games” and they’ll have this expression on their face like, “AGAIN??” So… I’m going to continue answering that way for the next 3 months too *laughs*

Baystorm (his radio show)

Later Skater,

~Celestia~