KAT-TUN 2 Me

I knew it! I knew they wouldn’t let KAT-TUN get away with only 2 singles for the year. The title is “White X’mas”. A Christmas song! How, un-kattuny, but it seems like odds are good it’ll be a ballad, and I’m excited for them to release a slower song as a single and have Jin be included.

Comes out on December 3rd. Mark your calendars!

~Celestia~

Today after work, I stopped by a book store and purchased the October issue of Myojo. I was debating whether or not to do it up until the very end, because that’s the magazine that brought us Jin demonstrating his poor decision-making skills with regards to his hair. However, I have decided to graciously look past that, because KAT-TUN’s section is just full of super duper cute pictures of Kame. Look!

“Hmmm. Did I leave the oven on?”

Close up. I don’t know why, but I kind of love how he usually paints just a few of his fingernails black.

So pretty in profile.

LOL! My favorite of the bunch

I went ahead and replaced poodle-hair Jin with an actual poodle. I can’t have anything distracting me from shy Kame in the corner there.

BTW. Kamenashi has also been named “Best Jeansist” for the 2nd year in a row. I guess having a feminine waistline and a preference for going comando is good for something other than inspiring pervy fanfiction.

Last ones. These are clearly not from this month’s Myojo, but they are some of the cutest pics I’ve ever seen of baby Junior Kame.

What a little Cutie-Pants!

~Celestia~

PS. Quick Arashi note. Truth/Kaze has sold 63,535 copies in its second week, bringing the total total to 530,823 copies sold, as reported by Oricon. 500K+! Awesome. The single is now sitting pretty as the top seller in Japan for 2008 so far.

Is anyone actually coming here for news? I have my doubts, but there have been a few happenings worthy of note.

First, Uebo is going to have his own solo concert! Congrats to him for being the first KAT-TUN member to do one. Apparently all of the songs are going to be composed by Ueda himself. Impressive!

Second, it’s old news, but I never mentioned it: Nakamaru will be having his own solo stage show. Congrats to him too! That’s two of the “forgotten” KAT-TUN members getting individual recognition, two to go. If we’re really going in reverse KAT-TUN order, Koki should be next.

Third, Arashi’s next single “Truth” has been announced with a release date of August 27th. It’ll be the theme to Ohno’s new drama. That’s three singles and an album already for Arashi in just over half a year. I wonder if they’ll end up making it four for the year? Three seems to be the usual quota for the higher profile Johnny’s groups, but Arashi looks to be getting a big push this year, so we’ll see.

Fourth, is not news, but just to say that I’m feeling a tiny bit stressed about going to this KAT-TUN concert. I’m just worried that some of the fans could be unfriendly to a JE concert “newbie” like me. I heard some complaints in the fan communities about newbies at the recent Arashi concerts who didn’t even know the appropriate chants and hand gestures to go with the songs. The hardcore fans were practically accusing them of gravely insulting Arashi with their ignorance of the dances and other concert etiquette. I know the movements that go with the chorus of Real Face and that one swirly part of Harukana Yakusoku, but that’s it. Eep. I don’t want to piss anyone off…

Fifth: A tiny picture in the corner of an article about Oh-chan’s new drama. It was taken on-set. I love it when they take photos like this, and I admit to being a bit more obsessed with these two than usual lately.

And Sixth: If you haven’t read the post ahead of this, you should, because it’s much better than this one.

Word,

~Celestia~ 

The Queen of Pirates concert tour has officially begun! Yay~! I’ve seen pictures of the merchandise, and it’s stunning. I’m going to have to bring a lot of cash with me to that concert… I’ve also heard talk of the several of the guys personally handing sign-boards and uchiwas to fans in the audience. I think I’d just die on the spot if that happened to me. Here’s the fan-reported set list (may not be 100% accurate, all set-lists are subject to change, promotional offer not valid in some locations, see website for official rules and restrictions)

Taboo (I knew it! I knew that would be the opening song)
Keep The Faith
Gold
Jumping Up
No Matter Matter
DUES
12 o’clock
Koki solo
Kame solo
Junno solo
MC
Ai no Comand
Lips
Wilds of my Heart
MC
Father/Mother
Jrs (Kis-My-Ft2, tee hee hee I’m still giggling at that name)
Six Senses
Hell No
Jrs (ABC)
Maru Solo
Ueda Solo
Jin Solo
Bokura no Machi
Signal
MC
She Said
Yorokobi no Uta
Crazy Love
MC

Encore
Real face
Peaceful Days

Encore 2
Our Story ~Prologue~
Harukana Yakusoku

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Almost all of my favorite songs from the new album made the cut, and almost none of them that I really didn’t like are there. I guess there are a few things that I wish were included that aren’t. I was hoping for “Your Side”, but since that’s a B-side and they need to make room for the ballads from the new album, that was kind of a long shot. I also really like “Will Be All Right” in encores somewhere, but overall, I’m really quite pleased with the list. I’m looking forward to attending the concert even more now!

And now some Arashi quotes. Someone at Intl Wota (Ray maybe) once said that from the looks of things Arashi will be together for the rest of their natural lives. Well, interviews about their upcoming 10th anniversary confirm. Source is Myojo. As usual, my commentary in purple to distinguish it from their words. Translations are from HERE

The members were asked to write out a personal time line for their goals in life, and Sho’s last goal was absolutely priceless.

Goal for 2062 (70 Years Old) Arashi Concert
Sho: We will be Arashi, even when I’m 70 years old or 80 years old. It’s life’s work. (Oh Sho-kun, I suddenly love you more)
Jun said something similar with a more modest target year of 2038.

Then when talking together about their future goals as a group. The idea of opening a restaurant together was batted around, and then they moved on to…

Sho: Don’t you want to build an Arashi memorial museum? (some discussion on where they should put it)
Ohno: I want to make a bronze statue of Arashi

Nino: Five of them?

Sho: What kind of pose?

Ohno: This *does triumphant pose* I would totally go to that museum

After agreeing that concerts in 10 years will be no problem…

Aiba: Well then, let’s think about 20 years from now.

Sho: Satoshi-kun will be 47

Nino: Can dance or can’t dance? I think it will be difficult to dance

Sho: What should we do for the concerts?

Nino: Let’s talk!

Jun: A talk show!? Let’s play baseball instead. WTF Jun??

Nino: …But what will actually happen?

Sho: Aside from dancing we should be entirely fine.

Aiba: Of course, if we’re talking about dreams, I want to still be Arashi even when I become a grandpa. (Discussion of how 60 is normal retirement age, but Ohno will have to retire at 63 if Nino and Jun retire at 60)

Jun: I can’t imagine that. I wonder if we will still release singles?… What about “Kitto Daijoubu?”

All: *laughter*

Aiba: They don’t want to hear that from us

Sho: It’s the opposite. They will worry about us like “Daijoubu??” (Note: That means “Are you okay??”)

I swear. They’re going to kill me with their cuteness.

Ya know what’s  interesting? I read an Arashi interview from 2000 with a similar theme. Where will you be in 10 years? 20? etc. They were all still just teenagers then and Arashi had only been around for less than a year. Both Sho and Ohno were convinced that Arashi would have split up before 10 years time (2010), Aiba and Jun didn’t comment about that, and Nino was the only one who had faith they’d still be a group in 10 years, but he figured they’d have split up by 20. Now look at them. Sho and Ohno were the most skeptical, and now Ohno is insisting that they can still dance just fine 10 years from now and Sho wants to hold an Arashi concert when he’s 70. They’ve sure changed their minds a lot over the years, haven’t they?

Lotsa Love,

~Celestia~

I have decided to do a “The Voices of Arashi” post, because I think the “The Voices of KAT-TUN” post was a success, but don’t expect it for another week or so because it takes me a while to put the videos together. So, look forward to that, but in the meantime, you can watch this .gif that I made from this week’s Shukudai-kun. Nino takes a bite of cake, then feeds Ohno the next bite, nonchalant as you please. <3

Oh, and I’d also like to mention that Oricon did one of their polls where they asked 500 high-schoolers which men they think are sexiest, and guess who came in 1st place? Akanishi Jin of course! The article said he had overwhelming support from girls, many saying that “everything about him is sexy” and seeming to be drunkenly in love with him.

Back Soon,

~Celestia~

Arashi has announced that they will be having another “Around Asia” tour this fall with stops in Korea, Shanghai, and Taiwan ending with a couple open-air stadium concerts in Japan. Maybe I could go to one of them in Japan, but…open-air…I dunno. I love Arashi, but say it’s torrential rain that day. I’m glad they get to do some more concerts though. Being in high-capacity domes, this tour didn’t have that many shows, and they were complaining about that a bit. Those boys really do love their concerts. See?

Interviewer: Please tell us what you’d like to do in 2008
Aiba: If we could do a lot of concerts in 2008, I’d like to do concerts continuously if space could be provided.

Nino: I’d be happiest to do fun concerts more than last year. The people who come and watch us play the leading role, but we also really enjoy doing it.

Well, the rest of them have all said similar things at one time or another, but it’s pretty much the same, so we’ll move on.

Tomorrow is my favorite member of Arashi’s 25th birthday! Happy Birthday Nino-kins!!!

As long as we’re on the topic of Nino, he announced at one of their concerts that he will be making an appearance in Ohno’s new drama! Isn’t that cute? Ohno had an appearance in Nino’s last drama, and now it’s the other way around.

And now that we’re on the Ohmiya topic that’s so near and dear to my heart, I’d like to show you something kind of interesting I noticed. We all know that they sometimes engage in very deliberate fan-service, such as all the rampant nipple tweaking that’s apparently occurring during the Ohmiya SK section of their latest concert tour, but I find the more subtle Ohmiya stuff to almost be more suspicious. For example, their body language during the Arashi no Shukudai-kun episodes. The interview portions are done on three couches with Nino and Oh-chan sharing one, Sho with the guest on the middle couch, and Jun and Aiba on the 3rd. The couches are large enough to comfortably seat three people, but Ohno and Nino always sit really close together, usually with their knees or shoulders touching. It’s interesting to me, because I highly doubt they’re thinking, “we should sit closer together than we have to every week because the fans might notice!”. It’s just something that they do unconsciously. Aiba and Jun, who share the same sort of couch, space them selves out, but Ohmiya huddle together. Here’s some screen captured evidence taken from the first 3 Shukudai-kun episodes I came across. I swear that I didn’t have to sift to find good examples of this, because that’s how they sit in just about every single episode.

knees touching

This week’s episode. Sho was moved to their couch because there were 2 guests. Notice how close Ohno is to Sho vs how close he is to Nino, and by all accounts, Sho and Ohno get along very well.

JunAiba pics from the same episodes for comparison. Same type of couch, but very different seating arrangement.

Note that they have their own personal space bubbles.

One more because it’s kinda cute.

So… I don’t want to read too much into this. It’s just an interesting observation, and in all likelihood they prefer sitting like that just because they’re sort of touchy people and they’re good friends. Still, it’s just one more thing to consider, and like I said, the fact that they probably don’t even know they’re doing it raises my eyebrow another notch or two.

Do ya think?…nah…but..maybe? No? Couldn’t be…right?

Celestia

It’s another post with four shorter posts combined into one to make one super entry!!!

First: I am officially going to a KAT-TUN concert! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!! I’ve purchased tickets to the evening show in Ishikawa on July 20th, and even found someone to buy my extra ticket. To say that I’m excited is a humongous understatement.

Second: KAT-TUN is going to be releasing their second photobook on August 4th. Sweet. I’m not going to decide whether or not to buy it until I see previews. Here’s hoping for lots of shirtlessness and for Kame to stop trying to have facial hair before they shoot it. Seriously. His features are too delicate for that, and it makes him look homeless.

Third: The PV for Arashi’s new single “One Love” has been released. Since this single is the theme for the last installment of the ever-popular Hana Yori Dango, I imagine it will sell pretty well. Let’s take a look.

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Very cute. The whole “painting come to life” motiff is cool, if a little CG heavy. Or is it a wedding cake come to life? They look like they’re supposed to be painted, but maybe they’re just supposed to be made of frosting or marzipan? Yummy. Nino’s wearing shorts again. It makes him look more like a little boy than he already does. Tee hee. Anyway, like so many other Arashi songs, it’s nice and sweet, if a teensy bit bland. It’s like frosting! Ohhh, maybe that’s the connection to the PV. Also, what’s with the Irish-sounding music at the beginning? First Milky Way, now Arashi. Is a bagpiping trend about to sweep Japan?

Fourth: It’s back to KAT-TUN for a couple of parting quotes about their new album taken from the Oricon Style. I don’t take any credit for translating these, though I tweaked just a couple of things into smoother English. The full translation can be found HERE

Kame: I like Nakamaru’s voice!
Jin: Me too!
Junno: Me too!
Kouki: Me, not so much!
Maru: Oye! *laughs*
Kouki: Someone has to say it right!?

Maru: In Nannen tattemo, there’s one part of the lyrics that goes “Jinjin, its hot.” and Akanishi sings the line before that. That’s why that “Jinjin” starts sounding like Akanishi Jin’s Jinjin and I had fun recording

The Interviewer asks who does the “chu” at the end of 12 o’clock. Hey! I asked the same question!
Junno: SEE THERE! WHO!?
*All five turn to stare at Akanishi*
Jin: NO! NOT ME!
Junno: But, you sang all the way to the very last
Jin: I DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEFINITELY didn’t do it! Really, it isn’t me!
Junno: It’s not me
Ueda: Not me either
Kouki: I didn’t too
Kame: I…. didn’t too
Junno: Kamenash-kun!?
Kame: I… can’t say for sure I didn’t do it… I think. But when did I do it?
Maru: AH I DID IT!
All 5: EH~~~~~~~!?
Maru: I lied.
Kouki: I thought it was Kame though
Jin: If it was going to be done, it would be one of the two of us (Akanishi and Kamenashi)
Kame: But doing a “Chu” is more like me-ish, but I don’t remember how I did it…

I like Jin’s reasoning. It’s like, well, if someone is going to do a kissy sound it’s got to be either me or Kame, and I know I didn’t do it so… And Kame accepts this logic like, don’t remember, but I guess it must have been me, huh? They all find the very idea that it could have been Nakamaru to be completely ridiculous. Ah KAT-TUN’s hierarchy.

Chuuuu,

~Celestia~

Happy news! They’ve added quite a few performances, including two more at Tokyo Dome, making it FOUR Tokyo Dome performances! I can only assume that these extra dates were added due to the high demand for tickets. I hold some small hope that the addition of these dates will make it a bit easier for me to get tickets. Anyway, here are the additional dates and locations.

Hiroshima
6/21 14:00
Sendai -
6/27 18:00
6/28 14:00

Hokkaido
7/11 18:00
7/12 14:00

Ishikawa
7/19 18:00
7/20 14:00

Tokyo Dome
8/4/ 18:00
8/5 18:00

Yayay!

~Celestia~

Excuse my language, but it’s about fucking time.

KAT-TUN III- Queen of Pirates, new album to be released June 4th. Lol that it’s queen of pirates. I mean, I know they have a pirate thing going on ever since Kaizokuban, but I didn’t know they were ready to own up to being queens.

Oh KT, you have been making me so very happy lately. <3

~Celestia~

Edit: And minutes later, the tracklist shows up. Credit to kattunlove lj community. Very glad to see that 6 senses is getting a studio release.

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?

I think I’m officially a crazy fan,

~Celestia~