KAT-TUN 2 Me

http://www.savefile.com/files/1517425

Yayayayayay! Here is a radio rip (so not perfect quality, but still not bad) for your downloading pleasure. As for initial thoughts on the song, I think I’ll save those for after I see it performed, so excuse the fangirling, but I’ll leave it at “OMFG I love this song!!!” for now.

 Flails happily,

~Celestia~ 

This post is just a few things I wanted to share that weren’t long enough to be worthy of their own entry.

First, some fun KAT-TUN news. Apparently Jin went to see Dreamboys (musical staring Kame and Koki) and they dragged him up on stage during the KAT-TUN songs and made him sing. He was totally lost as to where he should stand and when he should sing, so I imagine it was quite funny. And oh isn’t it good to see Akame getting along again? Apparently, he’s the first other KAT-TUN member to attend. When he was told this he said, with surprise, “I thought Taguchi would have come by now. Actually, I thought he was in this…” (he’s not Bakanishi dear, he’s not). Here’s a link to the synopsis.
Link

As you may know, Arashi has two new shows, Himitsu no Arashi-chan being brand new, and VS Arashi thankfully replacing the dreadfully dull Golden Rush Arashi (not their fault. the show just had a terrible format). VS Arashi is off to a promising start, so I’ve linked to the first episode. Basically, they play a bunch of stupid games against their guests, and at the end they all vote for who is the most worthless Arashi member that day. Bright colors, a live studio audience, and lots of action makes it fun to watch, especially if you love Arashi but aren’t fluent in Japanese and are therefore lost when it comes to talk segments. Watch as Ohno stylishly catches poles, Nino nimbly scampers up a wall, and Matsujun…well, I’ll let you see for yourself what happens to Matsujun. Can Morning Musume please start doing this kind of thing on Haromoni? Please??
Link

I was thinking again about Johnny’s “scandals” and the more I think about it, the less it makes sense. There’s a key difference between a Johnny being photographed with a girl and a H!P idol being photographed with a guy. H!P idols don’t talk about their love lives on camera at all, and so maintain the illusion that they are pure and innocent. Johnny’s, however, talk openly about dating girls. They’re constantly answering interview questions like, “How do you ask a girl on a date?” or “What’s your worst dating experience?” and that sort of thing. Why in the world should fans be shocked and horrified if a chaste picture of one of them with a girl surfaces? You know that they date girls and you know that those girls are not you!! Why does having a specific face (or hairstyle maybe if the face is blurred) to attach to it make a difference?

Today I visited the only Japanese book store within driving distance of where I live. It doesn’t really carry the usual idol magazines, but it does have Non-no, which just so happened to feature 15 pages of Arashi this month. Want to guess what I bought?

And finally, I realized that when I did my mp3 carnival I didn’t include any live performances. I generally prefer studio versions of things, but there is an unfortunate preponderance of Johnny’s songs which are performed live but never get studio releases, particularly solos. It surprises me to see Johnny’s pass up a chance to make money by selling these songs. They should make a CD full of previously unreleased solos from all their groups. I bet it’d sell really well. Anyway, in case you were interested, links to the audio rips of the two solos I posted in my “performances that make me cry” entry as well as KAT-TUN’s Six Senses, an unreleased group song.

Care

Konseki

Six Senses

Toodoloo,

~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~

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.

download

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.

download

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

Goodnight Moon,

~Celestia~