Not a real post, just some venting. I just got a new (long) letter from my host family in Japan and I’ve been up most of the night translating it. They want to meet my parents…hmm…I wonder if that would be a good idea or not? Also, my host father writes, “Are there any Japanese things you want? We’ll send them to you!” Oooooh how I want to respond with, “YES! Buy me KAT-TUN tickets. Lots and lots of them!!!” but I’m pretty sure that that’s too much to ask. Sigh. Must resist temptation.
It’s time for another round of ranking KAT-TUN on something random. So far, Junno has won for best dancing, Kame for best eyebrows, and Ueda for best “Lips” costume. In the spirit of “I am going to the new KAT-TUN concert if it kills me” today’s contest is concert themed. Specifically, I’m going to be ranking the boys on who had the best intro sequence at the KAT-TUN II U concert, and if you think that sounds boring then you have obviously not seen those intros. Let’s remedy that, shall we?
Cool, right? But whose stunt is the coolest?
6. Koki- I just can’t think this is cool because I’m laughing at how much he looks like he’s about to rob a stagecoach. And what’s with the pose? THE CLAW!?!?!
5. Junno- Ranked so low because he doesn’t really do much other than just drop. I like his pose at the end though.
4. Nakamaru- Looks like he’s having fun, but why is he running in slow motion after the flipping? It would have been better if he had been yelling, “Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!” in a slow motion voice as well.
3. Ueda- He’s so cute when he smiles and waves at the crowd! It’s kind of cool how theymake it look like something’s gone wrong, but the sign thing fell a bit too early and gave it away.
2. Kame- Love the beginning pose/facial expression. He another one who looks like he’s having fun with this, and his enterance is one of the most dramatic. However, not as dramatic as…
1. Jin- Oh come on, how could I not pick him? Look how incredibly sexy he looks when he glances up at the crowd and then how gracefully he swan dives! Also, he once said in an interview that doing that was pretty terrifying for him, and when he crosses himself he’s not just pretending, but actually praying. So he’s scared, but it certainly doesn’t show. Kakkoiiii~~~~
So for Jin…hmmm… how about a really short clip with him singing a bit of one of my favorite non-KAT-TUN songs, Tokio’s “Hitoriboshi no Haburashii”. It’s so short that even the laziest of you or those of you with the slowest of internets can watch it! He starts singing around 0:29, and oh how I love his voice. It has such a beautiful tone to it. There are lots of Japanese singers who are technically strong and good singers, but have a kind of annoying nasally quality to their voice. You get used to it, but it makes me appreciate the lovely tone of Jin’s voice even more in comparison. I’m not going to claim that he’s perfectly on pitch 100% of the time or anything like that, but the actual sound of his voice is always very pleasing unless he’s being bakanishi-ish and intentionally making it otherwise.
Just listen to the fangirls scream. Geez. I shouldn’t talk though, because I had to watch that Jin’s part of that clip about 10 times in a row before I could make myself move on with this entry
And since that clip was so short we’ll end with one unreasonably hot picture of him.
Dates for KAT-TUN’s new concert tour are out. They can be found here
My plea is the usual one, can someone please, PLEASE, PLEASE help me get tickets? They’re not on sale yet, but I’m starting to look for someone to help me early because the thought of not being able to attend makes me feel kind of panicky. Lol. My Japanese speaking and listening is pretty good, but my reading isn’t that great (because I hate studying kanji), so I don’t trust myself to try to buy from ticket websites that are in Japanese without screwing it up somehow. Also, I don’t have a Japanese credit card, and while I can use one of my friend’s addresses to register, I’m not really comfortable asking for their credit card information. I really want to go to either one of the Tokyo Dome concerts (August 2nd or 3rd) or the Ishikawa concerts (July 20th or 21st) because I will be in Ishikawa staying with friends in late July and in my new permanent residence in Saitama by early August. Going to the Ishikawa concert would be my first choice because it’d probably be more convenient for me and maybe less expensive.
Ideally, I’d hope that someone would like to attend one of these concerts with me, but if you are just willing to help me buy tickets, that’s cool too. I’ll take what I can get (insanely expensive seats, crap seats, insanely expensive crap seats, whatever) as long as I can go. I really MUST go to one of these concerts. You probably don’t even understand how important this is to me. I’m willing to generously compensate you for your time and effort if you can help me. This may well be my only chance to see KAT-TUN live, and I think you’d be surprised what I’m willing to pay to make that happen. Leave me a comment or an AIM address and we can work something out. I’m looking for a serious commitment here, not just “well maybe” so I can just stop freaking out about this. If I can’t go I may fall into a deep depression and never blog again!! You wouldn’t want to be responsible for that now, would you?
Hi. Just a quick note to correct something that I erroneously posted earlier. Apparently the limited editions of KT’s new single will not have solo versions of the title track as c/ws but rather entirely new solo songs! That’s way better, isn’t it? BTW, the version with Jin’s solo (and Tanaka’s) is currently leading in pre-sales by a pretty large margin. Kame (and Taguchi’s) is in second with Ueda/Maru’s in third. All three limited editions are currently ahead of NewS’ new single which will be releasing a week earlier. Tehehehe. KAT-TUN wins, as usual!
I’ve decided to do a feature on Masaki Aiba today. This is to make sure that Aiba gets his due, because he’s my least favorite Arashi member, so I’m not usually inclined to write about him very often. I still do love him though. It’s just that he can be kind of…annoying sometimes with his hyperness and his speaking voice. His singing voice is not unpleasant, but it is disconcertingly feminine, so that’s a whole ‘nother problem right there. Plus, he’s the least attractive Arashi member, at least to me. All of that aside though, it’s impossible to hate Aiba. He’s so like a child in so many ways: enthusiastic, sweet, ditzy, emotional, clumsy, and naive. Hating Aiba would be like kicking an unusually cute puppy. Let’s start this off with an attempt to find a decent picture of him.
Now, some quotes!
Aiba: I’d like to try riding on a whale’s spouting water Interviwer: Is that even possible? Aiba: Probably not, but isn’t it dreamy?
Matsujun: These guys (sho and nino) were shooting a drama, so the other three of us were doing various things to prepare for the concert. Riida was working on choreography and I was planning various things like staging and song order, and Aiba-chan… Aiba was just eating. Aiba: Yes! In order to keep everybody’s energy up! Nino: Ohno used his body and Matsujun used his brain, but he didn’t do anything, did he? Aiba: If I’m not eating, I can’t give energy to everyone!
Interview Question: A song you always sing at karaoke? Aiba: Arashi’s live song list for two and a half hours. It’s fun! It’s like, “Ah. Just as I thought. I am in Arashi!”
Interviewer: How long do you want to keep doing concerts?
Sho: We can still do them right up to the last minute, can’t we?
Aiba: I can still dance, even with a cane!
Eep. Lost the source. Sorry.
Interviewer: You and Aiba-chan have known each other for 11 years now. What is the most unforgettable thing about him? Nino: Basically, he is a BAKA. (laughs) He can’t do 2 things at the same time. I was talking to another member about that and he got mad and said, “I can so! I can eat newspaper and read breakfast at the same time” I remember I said “That’s amazing. I can’t do that”.
He tells this story too often… Aiba: When I was in high-school on a class trip I was in the bathroom and a woman came in. I thought, “Oh crap!” and I couldn’t decide whether to hide my crotch or my face.
Aiba: Every day I have a feeling of thankfulness for all of the members. That’s basically because I like everything about all of them. Since we did lots of solo activities, whenever we are together as Arashi I can feel that “sensation”. I think about that kind of thing a lot, but I can’t quite find the words to explain it.
Finally, videos! First, a clip of a concert MC that mostly focuses on Aiba. Subbing credits are in the clip. The subs are in the boy’s image colors (Aiba=green, Jun=purple, Nino=yellow, Sho=red, and Ohno=blue) so you can tell who’s saying what. After you get past the Arashi “YAY!” stuff (they really like to say ‘yay’) it’s pretty much all Aiba trying to make the scoreboard light up, falling on the ground naked, empathizing with birds, and making Matsujun pissy because he’s talking too much. More importantly, it’s a really good sample of Aiba’s personality. really funny.
And a Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi performance. It’s not only Aiba, but there’s lots of Aiba in it. It’s the fake-out ending to last year’s concert tour (there’s still the encore) and he is already just bawling. To be fair, I’m pretty sure I see tears in the eyes of several of the members, but Aiba is definitely the worst.Isn’t he just the cutest thing? I also enjoy this clip because of Matsujun’s facial expression at 3:17 or so (could he be any happier?), Sho patting Aiba on the butt around 2:52 (I’m surprised! usually sho is one of the least gropy members), and because of their costumes. I get the impression that they’re covered with stickers advertising something. Just like racecars!
Since there aren’t many Johnny’s blogs in our blogosphere, unlike my other blog, I feel obligated to provide important news here (no, not NewS, just news). So this is another short post to announce that KT shall have a new single out on May 14th! The title is “Don’t U Ever Stop”, and it is described as being less-rockish than their most recent singles and more dancy. There will be four editions: Regular, and then for each limited edition the c/w tracks will be solo versions of the song by two of the members. Way to think of new and creative ways to suck money out of the fans Johnny’s! You’re still a bit behind AKB48, but you’re getting there.
My one complaint, of course, is where the heck is our new album?!?! This marks their 4th single released since they had an album, and they have a concert tour coming up. Don’t concert tours usually revolve around albums in Johnny’s land? What are they going to name the thing if they can’t title it after an album??? The Johnny’s naming department is not known for its creativity. New concert? Let’s name it after the album. New group? Oh, I don’t know, how about we make some kind of word out of their initials?
This brings me back to Arashi again, because I can’t help but wonder what they would have been called had they not been formed before the acronym naming system was widely implemented. Let’s see… O, S, A, N, and M
So, Man? (I do wonder about Jun on occasion), No Mas! (no more! probably not the message they want to send), O-Mans (oh man..), M’naos (a tribute to the city in Brazil), Snaom (fun to say! we’re getting closer), Moans (YES!)
Yep. That’s it. Arashi could very well have been called MOANS. Think about that the next time you shake you head at the fact that there’s a Johnny’s Jr group called KIS-MY-FT2 (pronounced Kiss my foot too)
Here is the promised “fun thing” that I have been working on. I’ve made a video ranking what I consider to be Arashi’s funniest choreographed dance moves. Making this video has left me wondering what kind of magic Arashi has that allows them to perform this kind of thing all the time without getting laughed off stage. All too often while making this video, I found myself squinting cross-eyed at a particular dance section and saying, “well sure it’s ridiculous, but is it unusually ridiculous?” I’ve limited it to single choreography because if I included free-style stuff I’d probably have to include 50 clips of Matsujun alone. I did sneak a bit of unchoreographed shenanigans into the introduction though.
This video is kind of an experiment in combining media with commentary to make one neat video package. There are still a few kinks to work out. Some of the volume levels are weird, and I didn’t have high enough quality versions of some of the clips I wanted to use. Still, I’m pretty sure that the end result is amusing. If you are an Arashi fan you will probably grin appreciatively, if you hate them you can go ahead and laugh mockingly, and if you are indifferent, who knows, this might even change your mind. Anyway, be nice. I’m still figuring out this video editing thing.
I think I’ll end with a nice Arashi quote or two. It’s been a while since I posted any. Let’s call these,”Evidence that Arashi lives in their own little Arashi world”
MatsuJun: You know, the other day I thought out of the blue, wouldn’t it be interesting if we held the press conference announcing our marriages all together? (laughs) Other four: Ahahahaha! Sho: Just like when we made our debut, the five of us get together, show off our rings (laughs). MatsuJun: In Hawaii, aboard a boat. Nino: They’ll be like, “Leaving your brides alone…just how much do you guys like Arashi!?”
Ohno: This is happiness right now, when we’re saying these things. Other four: You just said something good just now! MatsuJun: The happiness when the five of us can be together
You know, you could solve the problem of abandoning your brides to hang out with your group-mates if you all marry each other. Just sayin’
Matsujun: No matter what, if it’s Party or GOKON, if someone puts “A.RA.SHI’ in Karaoke, we will just have fun just the 5 of us. All surroundings are left behind! (Laugh) Aiba: I agree! (Laugh) After finishing the entire song, we may just leave. Sho: “Thank you for today. Will do it again!” Like that? (Laugh) Nino: Is that a concert or what? Though people who are in the place will be dumbfounded, we will really be satisfied!(Laugh)
Oh man. Can’t you just imagine this happening? Someone puts A.ra.shi. on karaoke and they break into full song and dance routine, and then go frolic off somewhere together after the song ends, completely forgetting about their dates who are just sitting there going, “WTF? They’re coming back…right?”
