KAT-TUN 2 Me

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

My latest little project, which turned out to take far more time and effort than I expected, is a series of short videos I’ve created to showcase each KAT-TUN members’ singing voice. I’ve put together between 3 and 5 clips of what I consider to be some of their best singing out of my video collection. Jin and Kame have 5 because they have many more longer solo sections to work with. Ueda has 3 because his was already as long as Kame’s with only 3 clips. The rest have 4. I am not a professional singer nor am I a vocal expert. However, neither are the majority of KAT-TUN’s listeners, and I know what sounds good and what doesn’t, so I think my opinions are valid. Let’s look at them in KAT-TUN order, shall we?

Kame is very good at tricking you into believing that he sings better than he does. It’s all in that excellent showmanship of his. That’s not to say that he has a bad voice. He’s a much better singer than your average guy, but for being one of the lead singers in a very popular group, he doesn’t have that great of a voice either. He’s learned to work well with what he’s got, and I commend him for that. Also, his singing has improved a lot since his early junior days, so I’ll commend him for that too. His vocal range is a bit narrow and he sounds strained sometimes, but the overall tone and sound of his voice is quite pleasant, which counts for a lot in my book. I think I like him best singing ballads. He has a very sweet voice for them.

Online Videos by Veoh.com
A couple notes on Jin’s: there’s none of that crazy high singing in this, and if you aren’t familiar with the song, he’s the one doing all of the harmonizations in the Harukana Yakusoku clip (the one where they’re in the cage things suspended from the ceiling). I think I’ve raved enough about Akanishi’s voice and how I want to make love to it, so I’ll just let the video speak for itself. If I have to pick a weakness, I’d say lack of consistency.

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Next up is Taguchi. Junno’s voice is a bit… problematic sometimes. He’s got plenty of power behind it, and he can hold notes well, but a lot of the time there’s just something off about his singing. He’s really good when he’s good, and almost unlistenable when he’s bad. Of course, there’s only good singing examples in here, so don’t be afraid to listen.
Online Videos by Veoh.com

Koki was the most challenging part of this project because most of his solos are rapping. Thankfully, I managed to scrounge up a few examples of him singing. I think Koki is actually a good singer, but unfortunately, his singing voice is kind of annoying. He just tends to overdo it. I think the clip of him singing Arashi acapella might be the best I’ve heard him sing because he’s not trying to “perform” so much, resulting in a much sweeter sound.
Online Videos by Veoh.com

Ueda, Uepi, Tat-chan, Princess, Uebo, Ueda-hime. He is not only distinguished by having the most cutesy nicknames in the group, but also by having the most distinct voice. I think with Ueda either you love his singing or you hate it. His voice is so very very breathy when he sings quietly, and borderline shouty on the rare occasions when he sings loudly. It’s really more suited to rock than pop. That said, he definitely has his moments of brilliance, he can hold notes well, and his voice blends very well with any of the other members. Also, he sang a lot of Jin’s lines when he was on hiatus in America, and that says something.
Online Videos by Veoh.com

Last as usual, but certainly not least, Nakamaru. Maru has a lot going for him. He has great range, a pleasing and non-offensive tone, and good control. Unfortunately, Kame’s biggest strength (showmanship), is Maru’s biggest weakness. Somehow, when I’m watching, he manages to convince me that he sings worse than he does. It’s because he usually looks so unsure of himself and awkward. Also, I get the sense that he’s hesitating sometimes, like I know he could sing better if he’d just let loose, but he’s holding back. Watch this video of some of his good singing, and I bet you’ll be impressed and maybe, if you are new to Kat-tun, surprised.
Online Videos by Veoh.com

I’m considering doing this for Arashi but the prospect of intentionally listening to lots of Jun solos in search of material is daunting, so I’ll get back to you on that one.

Do Re Mi,

~Celestia~

This entry is for a couple random odds and ends that I’ve been meaning to post. But first…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve figured out a way to acquire KAT-TUN tickets for one of the Ishikawa performances (7/20 or 7/21). The catch is that it’s spendy. What I want to know is if any English-speaking fan close to my own age (22) would want to accompany me. I’ll warn you, it’ll cost you at least $200, probably more. I have never paid that much for concert tickets before, and I swear that never will again, but this may well be my only chance to see KAT-TUN live, and if that’s the price that I have to pay, so be it. The problem is that I have to buy the tickets in a pair, and it’s just too expensive for me to justify paying for two and then dragging along a friend who isn’t even a fan. If you are willing to pay that and you are SURE you will be able to be in Ishikawa, Japan on the designated day, leave me a comment. I’m very serious about this offer, and I’m looking for a commitment here.

Next-

So, have you seen Cartoon KAT-TUN lately? There seems to have been a major format change. No word as to whether or not it’s permanent, but it looks like they’ve built a fairly elaborate set, so it might be. So far we have Ueda working out shirtlessly, Koki looking at weird pictures with some guy, Jin being shocked and scandalized by girls who tell him that they date 3 guys at one time (Jin: I don’t date a girl unless I think I could marry her some day… Girl: Hahahaha! You’re so young. *Jin looks worried and confused*), Junno reading love letters and then writing one…to himself, Kame wandering around asking random people “What is love?” (Baby don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me. No more), and, the best part, Maru being horribly horribly embarrassed by the lady he’s interviewing about “adult love”. It’s so fun to watch him squirm. The boys are all separated now though, so I kind of miss them interacting with each other. Here’s a picture about the show.

Finally-

I feel like I’ve been neglecting Arashi lately. Here are some very cute and love-filled pictures to make up for that.Thumbnails, so click for bigger.

Rabu rabu rabu rabu!

Leave it to group whore Satoshi to make a sly grab for Sho’s crotch.

You know how in middle school girls sometimes write, say, “Ashley x Jason= <3″ all over their binders. They left out the =<3 on these shots, but given the theme, I think it’s implied. Also, it really weirds me out when they call Nino “Kazunari”. It’s almost as bad as when they call Aiba “Masaki”.

Damn it Aiba, raise your hand! Someone has to volunteer to be the girl tonight.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!!

Wow. This entry was all over the place, wasn’t it. I’m working on a sort of project right now, so I promise that the next entry will be more coherent.

Later,

~Celestia~

Oh glorious day! Queen of Pirates has been leaked onto the internet a few days before its official release!

I think what impresses me most about this album is the incredible diversity of styles. Sure, the majority of KAT-TUN’s singles fall into the same general sort of genre, but if you look at their B-sides and albums, this album in particular, you’ll find everything from angsty power ballads to sugary sweet love ballads, from big band style to boy band style, and from almost hard rock to almost techno. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, KAT-TUN’s versatility is one of their biggest advantages over some of the other Johnny’s groups. I cannot imagine Arashi or NewS successfully pulling off a song like Lips, but I have seen KAT-TUN successfully pull off songs similar to Arashi and NewS’ usual fare many a time. KAT-TUN’s other big advantages are named Jin and Kame, but we’re not going to be focusing on that one right now, because it’s time for a track by track review. I’ve also assigned ratings from 1-5 with 5 being the best, mostly just based on how much I like the song.

1. Taboo- The introduction to this song is awesome. It’s kind of a combination of ‘Le Ciel’ and ‘DUES’. The song has a mysterious and exotic feel to it. I couldn’t think of a better track to open this album with, or a concert for that matter. The musical section at the end is sweeping and builds tension for what is to come. My main complaint is that it ends a bit too suddenly, which is why I prefer it as an introduction to something rather than as standalone song. 4/5

2. Keep the Faith- A single. I’m not going to review the singles since I’ve already written about them, but suffice it to say that that it’s in my top 5 KAT-TUN songs. 5/5

3. Affection ~Mou Modorenai~ Hmm. I was expecting a ballad, but this is more of a relaxed mid-tempo song with an R&B feel. There are some interesting points, like the prominent female background vocals (very unusual for Johnny’s!). Overall though, I think this is set too high for most of them except for Jin (his lines at the bridge are great!). I think I would have liked it a lot better as a Jin solo actually, because of both the higher register and the Western feel of the song. It’s pleasant enough I guess, but not one of my favorites from this album. 2.5/5

4. Hell, No- First, can I say how amused I am that they released a song called “hell no” immediately after a single with a prominent “hell yeah” line? That aside, I quite like this song. It really really reminds me of earlier, pre-debut KAT-TUN stuff. It is one of my favorite new tracks from the album. What can I say, I’m a sucker for “catchy” and I love old-school KAT-TUN. 5/5

5. Distance- Powwwwwwwer ballad! And the opening lines go to…Junno? Really? You can probably count the number of KAT-TUN songs where either Jin or Kame don’t have the first solo lines on one hand. I’m glad to see them mixing things up a bit here. As for the actual song, I’ll have to admit, I kind of love power ballads, as uncool as that is. Emotional music will always win me over faster than clever lyrics or artistic composition. I suppose that makes me a very poor music critic in most people’s eyes, huh? Anyway, KAT-TUN has always been good at being loud and angsty, so I fully approve of this one. 5/5

6. Mother/Father- Aw, it’s a sweet and simple little ballad. This time Ueda gets the opening lines, again breaking away from the typical KAT-TUN “pattern”. Ueda has a good voice for soft ballads. Let’s see, the song is nice and touching, but it doesn’t particularly grab me, and the rap section at the end seems out of place. There are better KAT-TUN ballads out there. 3/5

7. Lips- Another single, and perhaps the most hard rock of anything KAT-TUN has produced. It grows on you. 3.5/5

8. Yorokobi no Uta- Two singles in a row? *shrugs*. A fun happy song (happy in the KAT-TUN sense, not the Arashi sense. There is a difference). I like to sing along to this one. 4/5

9. “Un-“ Don’t be confused. The dash is part of the song title. Yay for Japanese songs and their random punctuation! Where was I? Oh yeah. The song. It sounds like a boring filler track from an Arashi album to me. After listening to it I couldn’t even remember the chorus. It reminds me of “Rush of Light”. Unfortunately, I really don’t like “Rush of Light” Next. 1/5

10. Our Story ~Prologue~ Not to bring up the punctuation again, but this is the second title featuring unnecessary tildes. Not that I can talk *clears throat*. I don’t know why they put this song right after “Un-“. The feel is way too similar. “Our Story” is much less boring, but the chorus is just a bit too sappy for my tastes. I’m reminded of Disney music. That’s how sappy-sounding we’re talking here. The key change towards the end almost saves it for me though. Almost. 2.5/5

11. Nannen Tattemo- The last song of the regular edition album is a disco-flavored dance number. Again, they’re playing in a range that’s a bit too high for most of them. *sigh*. I wish they would stop doing that. There’s nothing too special or outstanding about this song for me. 1.5/5

12. Shot- We’re in limited edition territory now, and out of nowhere: big band sound! How cool is that? I’m especially impressed with all of their singing here. The song is catchy and unusual. A winner in my book! 4/5

13. 12 o’clock- Oooh. Once the music starts the introduction for this song is veeery sexy. The song itself utilizes vocal distortion for a techno sound though the instrumental isn’t pure techno at all. This is yet another creative and different sound for KAT-TUN, and the song makes me feel like dancing. I guess it could be a bit weird for some people’s tastes, but I like it a lot. It ends with a kiss, bringing back the sexy. I wish I knew who it’s from! 4.5/5

14. Ai no Command- With lots of heavy guitar and a dark feel, this is the most “rock” of the new album tracks. KAT-TUN’s playing to their strengths here, so it’s pretty good, though I find myself wanting something more from the chorus. I’m not sure what. Just… something more. 3/5

15. Six Senses- Why this song didn’t get a proper studio release before this is beyond me. Everybody loves it, don’t they? Then again, what better way to end an album than by giving fans something they’ve been wanting for quite a while? It makes me very happy to have a high quality version of this now. All I can say is that they had better perform it on their concert tour. 4.5/5

Excuse me for fangirling for a minute, but Jin’s voice might be the best thing about this album for me. He can be inconsistent in singing live on occasion, I know this, but in studio recordings there’s no one in KAT-TUN who can even come close to his vocal ability and his silky smooth tone. His solo lines are the stand-out point of almost every song almost every time. Even if Jin wasn’t half as hot as he is, I swear upwards, downwards, backwards and forwards that I would still be in love with his voice. The Cartoon KAT-TUN II U album really suffered from lackluster song composition, but the absence of Jin’s voice was the nail in the coffin for me. Needless to say, I much prefer this album to that one. I can’t rank it over KAT-TUN’s first album though. It represented the best of 6 years of collected songs, and I doubt they will ever be able to top that in a single album. So, Queen of Pirates is now my 2^nd favorite of the 3 KAT-TUN albums.

In summary, the album started off strong, loses steam towards the end of the regular edition, but finishes off with a bang with the excellent limited edition tracks. If you buy this album, do spring for the limited edition. Overall, it’s strong and varied with a little something for everybody and very few tracks that sound like filler. I was not disappointed, and I don’t think you will be either. Highly recommended listening!

Yarrr,

~Celestia~

PS. Do you need downloads? I’m sure you can find them if you look hard enough, but if people ask nicely I suppose I could upload it here.

I may have graduated from college, but I still enjoy playing with numbers. And what numbers could be more fun to someone like me than Oricon Sales Figures? Behold, graphs!

This first graph shows the average yearly single sales of all the currently active Johnny’s groups. Average meaning that if a group produced three singles in a given year, I added up the total for those singles, divided by three, and plotted the resulting number on the graph. I couldn’t find the numbers for many of V6’s early singles, unfortunately, so they are not included in the beginning portions of the graph. Also, no SMAP because I’m missing some of their early numbers too, and they threw the whole scale off with the Sekai ni Hitotsu song selling like 2 million some copies. Besides, they’re only barely members of Johnny’s now a days anyway.

I thought that graph looked a bit messy around the end, so I redid it with only 2002 on . There are a few interesting things to notice on these charts, like how Arashi’s overall line is kind of bowl shaped, with gradual decline in popularity followed by a gradual increase. KAT-TUN has a big drop at the beginning due to Real Face being such a smash hit, but they’ve leveled off above the other groups, and recent single sales have been on the increase for them. Oh, and I made these graphs before DUES, but I don’t think that would change things too much at this point. I’d say the Kinki Kids have had the harshest decline, retaining decent popularity, but falling A LOT from where they started. If I had the figures for V6 I suspect they’d show a similar pattern. Tokio has sort of scooted along the bottom, slowly and steadily for a long long time. NewS may have been surpassed by Arashi lately, but it’ll take a few more singles before I’m totally convinced of that. Kanjani seems to fall in the middle, with some gains in popularity in the last year or so. Finally, Tackey and Tsubasa tend to be on the lower side of things in terms of the Johnny’s, but they’re still consistently pulling in singles close to the 6 figure range which is quite good for any JPop artist.

Don’t let the downward sloping trend lines on either of these graphs fool you. Johnny’s is still very much on top of things as far as sales numbers go, and most of the lowered numbers that you see reflect the decline in CD sales in the Japanese market in general. The Jimusho is far from being in decline. In fact, if we just look at KAT-TUN for this year, there has been a grand total of 1 single released so far that currently has higher numbers than Lips and DUES (KAT-TUN’s singles for 2008 so far) that being ‘Soba ni Iru’ by Aoyama Thelma ft. Soul Ja, at 435,209 copies, and it’s certainly possible for DUES to end up pulling ahead since it’s only had two weeks of charting so far and 412,892 copies have already been sold. The next closest competition for the year is that Shuuchishin song at 362,406 copies, falling behind KAT-TUN but ahead of many of the other Johnny’s acts. Aside from those two singles, the only groups that have even come close to KAT-TUN’s numbers are other Johnny’s, such as Arashi. Here are all of the weekly winners of 2008, from lowest to highest, as reported by Oricon. In order, I’ve listed song title, artist, release date, and 1^st week sales. Those with a purple star belong to Johnny’s.

“Mirage”, AAA, 1/9, 25,333
“60’s 70’s 80’s”, Amuro Namie, 3/19, 38,162
*“Ore ja Nakya, Kimi ja Nakya”, V6 20^th Century, 3/26, 38,898
“Purple Line”, Tohoshinki, 1/16, 40,033
“Soba ni Iru”, Aoyama Thelma, 1/30, 47,409
“Beautiful You”, Tohoshinki , 4/23, 62,139
“Anata ga Koko ni Itara”, Porno Graffiti, 2/13, 63,529
“Order Made”, Radwimps, 1/23, 73,130
“Drink it Down”, La’Arc en Ciel, 4/2, 94,086
*“No More”, Maizu Tsukasa aka Domoto Koichi , 4/30, 110,538
* “Sono Mama”, SMAP, 3/5 115,100
“Burn Fumetsu no Face”, Bz’s, 4/16, 141,562
“Mirrorcle World”, Hamasaki Ayumi, 4/9, 145,576
*“Dreams Come True”, Hey!Say!Jump, 5/21, 181,064
* “Wahaha”, Kanjani, 3/12, 194,304
*“Summer Time”, NewS, 5/8, 201,266
* “Taiyou no Namida”, NewS, 2/27, 230,186
* “Step and Go”, Arashi, 2/20, 324,223
* “Lips”, KAT-TUN, 2/6, 351,294
*“Don’t U Ever Stop”, KAT-TUN, 5/14, 381,672

Notice who’s clustered at the top there? Correct me if I’m wrong here, but I don’t think there are any weeks this year that a Johnny’s group released a single and it didn’t get 1st. However, I know that first week sales aren’t everything, so let’s look at total reported sales of those same singles, again, from lowest to highest. Keep in mind that most of the more recent releases are still charting, so these aren’t the final totals for some of them. I’ve also added in Shuuchishin, which is not a weekly winner, but a monthly winner, so I thought it ought to be included.

“Mirage”, AAA, 1/9, 32,234
“Purple Line”, Tohoshinki, 1/16, 47,303
*“Ore ja Nakya, Kimi ja Nakya”, V6 20^th Century, 3/26, 50,011
“Beautiful You”, Tohoshinki ,4/23, 79,897
“Anata ga Koko ni Itara”, Porno Graffiti, 2/13, 85,545
*“No More”, Maizu Tsukasa aka Domoto Koichi , 4/30, 110,538
“Order Made”, Radwimps, 1/23, 116,465
“Drink it Down”, La’Arc en Ciel, 4/2, 122,919
“Burn Fumetsu no Face”, Bz’s, 4/16, 125,335
* “Sono Mama”, SMAP, 3/5 158,837
*“Dreams Come True”, Hey!Say!Jump, 5/21, 181,064
“Mirrorcle World”, Hamasaki Ayumi, 4/9, 188,047
* “Wahaha”, Kanjani, 3/12, 228,463
*“Summer Time”, NewS, 5/8, 243,086
“60’s 70’s 80’s”, Amuro Namie, 3/19, 279,851
* “Taiyou no Namida”, NewS, 2/27, 291,447
“Shuuchishin”, Shuuchishin, 4/9, 362,406
* “Step and Go”, Arashi, 2/20, 374,449
*“Don’t U Ever Stop”, KAT-TUN, 5/14, 412,892
* “Lips”, KAT-TUN, 2/6, 421,902
“Soba ni Iru”, Aoyama Thelma, 1/30, 435,209

A few switch-ups, but still a very strong showing for the pretty boy factory.

May their Reign be Long and Prosperous,

~Celestia~

Disclaimer: Yes, I am using Oricon numbers, and yes I know they don’t count online sales and they don’t poll every single store and blah blah blah, so it might not be perfectly accurate, but it’s the best thing we’ve got, and I do believe that it gives a good picture of where one song stands relative to another, even if the overall numbers for both are lower than they should be. If you don’t trust Oricon or whatever, fine, but please don’t comment here to lecture me about that, k?

I just realized that Jin’s name can be fashioned into a wide variety of puns. Yes, you should be worried.

I’m somewhat opposed to doing the same kind of entry twice in a row, but there were some pictures of Jin from a July magazine posted in a KAT-TUN community that I simply must share but there’s more to this entry than just eye-candy, so I’ll let myself off the hook. I ought to shrink these… but I just can’t.

This picture literally had me shouting obscenities at my computer.

Gold boots aside, another great picture.

Flawless close-up

And now that I’ve fangirled over Jin’s beautiful face, I’ll move on to fangirling over his beautiful voice. His normal speaking and singing voices are both lovely, but his crazy high falsetto is another thing all together. I regretfully acknowledge that there are many better professional singers out there than Jin, but there are very few who have a better vocal range. He can sing from low notes all the way up to notes that are well above the staff. To demonstrate, I’ve just spliced together the two best examples I know of. They come from ‘Never Again’ and the ballad version of ‘Gold’. Now, he may well be lipsyncing this in these live performances (I think not on the first one but probably on the 2nd), but even if he only sang like that in a studio, I’m still hella impressed that he can do this.

Online Videos by Veoh.com
And that, my friends, is what you call pure God-given talent. Rumor has it that one of the tracks on the new album features more of this ability of his. From what I’ve heard in previews so far, I already like the new album much better than their second one, so if that rumor is true, it’s just icing on the cake.

Mmmm cake,

~Celestia~

Here are three shortish things of interest.

#1, a friend drew my attention to this.

Apparently it’s from some hentai manga involving demons, and the girl over there has decided not to destroy humanity because there are too many pretty guys in the world. Johnny’s save the day yet again! She has good taste, doesn’t she, though I wonder if the Jimusho knows about this. I’ve almost worked out who is who in the pictures. I’m thinking that Arashi is Top-sho, middle left- nino, middle right-ohno, bottom left-Jun, and bottom right- aiba, but I’m not entirely sure. For KAT-TUN, I’m thinking it’s top-kame, middle left-junno, middle right- maru, bottom left- koki, bottom middle- jin, and bottom right- Ueda. I’m fairly sure about those actually.

#2 involves NewS again. I was looking at Oricon on Tuesday night, and was shocked to see that NewS’ “Summer Time” was no where to be found on the rankings. I was sure that NewS was releasing a single the week before KAT-TUN, so I didn’t understand how this could happen. NewS released a single and it didn’t even make the top 20 on its first day?!? Did one of them have some kind of major scandal or something? Was it revealed that Yamapi’s favorite hobby is kicking puppies? Did Ryo finally snap under the stress of being in two active Johnny’s groups at the same time and go on a fan-girl killing spree? Turns out they just released the single on Thursday. Don’t ask me why. Singles release on Wednesdays. Everyone knows this.

#3 Features one of Jin’s bestest friends, D-boys member Shirota Yuu. He’s only loosely related to KAT-TUN, so, to make up for that, here’s a recent picture of Jin with Yuu and his brother vacationing in Hawaii. Unofficial photo so, no one report me to the Jimusho, k?

The point of this blurb is that Shirota Yuu played Tuxedo Mask in the Sailor Moon musicals for a couple of years (rofl), and I happened to come upon a really amusing clip of him. I know that the text says, “I’m the Prince. I’m the Prince. I’m a prince of the Earth” but every time I listen to it I hear, “I’m a prince of the ass!”. Not to make fun of Japanese accents or anything, but that shit’s just too funny.

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Tsuki ni kawatte!

~Celestia~

Yessssssssss!!! Giving up on the PV being released worked! Like how a watched pot never boils, right? It’s only the 4 minute PV, so I’ve just gone ahead and included the soundless fan-cam version of the beginning. This is EPIC. I hate to use that word, but for a Japanese PV, it really is. Wait. Watch it before I talk about it anymore.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

And the full, 8 minute, version via fan-cam, just so you can see the beginning and the end.

It has been deemed mandatory that any discussion of this PV begins with freaking out about Jin’s hair. I’m serious. In all the Japanese music shows’ reporting about the PV, the headline has something to do with Jin’s hairstyle. So… Jin’shairJin’shairomfgjin’shairhelookslikealotrelfjin’shairhotjinextensionsjin’shair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now that that’s finished, I can move on to the rest of the PV. I’m sure they will explain the plot eventually, (WHAT?? An idol PV with a plot??? YES! A plot!!), but as far as I can tell, KAT-TUN are some kind of mercenaries or perhaps just vigilantes in a futuristic and possibly post-apocalyptic city and they go to a mysterious club which might also be a cult to free the people from the influence of some evil glowing crystals. Their methods involve smashing the crystals, dancing, and wandering around while looking really really hot. Also, time freezes on occasion, the people may or may not be holograms, and strangest of all, they show Jin playing chess, so he is apparently smart in this alternate reality. Weird! The boys are victorious in the end, the happy clubbers dance on, not a glowy glass ball in sight, and KAT-TUN kick open the door and stride out of the club looking as bad-ass as possible. All in a days work, Miss. All in a day’s work. Okay, so that all sounds really stupid when I write it out, but it’s actually very cool. I could probably spend a long time analyzing this and trying to figure out the symbolism, because I’m pretty sure a deeper meaning is intended (if the text after Jin walks into the club didn’t make that clear) but I think I’d rather enjoy it for what it is than try and think about it too much.

So, I know where 90% of Johnny’s PV budget is going…. Like two dozen separate scenes! Special effects out the wazoo! Extras (and lots of them)! Johnny’s PVs have extras how often? Like once in a blue never? The other Johnny’s groups must be jealous. I know I would be if I were them. Heck, NewS is considering selling themselves to raise money for future PVs. SEE!* Arashi just twirled and jumped around in slow motion for their last PV. And then, KAT-TUN gets some kind of mini-feature film.

I can’t wait to see the making of… which is coming out with the album in like a month instead of with the single next week (aaaaaaaaarg!!). I wonder if they’ll show them talking to the extras, the girls in particular, or if they will keep some kind of fence between the females and KT. I hope they don’t mention the name of that girly Kame was dancing with, or she might start appearing on the fan girl’s hit lists.

I don’t know where else to put this observation, but Koki looks like such a school-yard bully when he starts grabbing people’s crystals and smashing them. Like, “nyaaaa! broke your toy!” and then the club-goer starts crying and runs home to his mom or something.

*Okay, so that’s just another crack-sub (by the same person who did the last one), and even though I’m not a fan of NewS, I had to post it. It’s really funny, and I’m amazed at how well the subs match the PV.

I am so frustrated. DUES is due (lol pun) to be released in less than a week, and a high quality version of the PV still hasn’t been aired yet. We’ve got commercials, previews, and even a fan cam version of the whole thing (because they’re playing it inside the Johnny’s stores now), but they have yet to show it on TV. It’s 8 minutes, 8 minutes! long and looks to be all kinds of awesome, but I don’t want to really write about the thing until I can show you a decent version, so I’m stuck. I tend to get rather impatient where KAT-TUN is concerned, don’t I? Well, I finally gave up on the waiting and found something new to amuse myself. I’ve made another OPV. This time it’s all about Jin’s baka-ness, because there are plenty of OPVs of Jin being sexy, but I don’t feel there are quite enough of him being stupid. Some of the clips I used are kind of bad quality… my apologies. I couldn’t find better versions. Hope you can enjoy it anyway. Clips used range from early Junior days to just a few days ago.

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Oh, and since Youtube viciously deleted anything and everything Arashi related, I’ve reposted my previous two OPVs on Veoh. Links!
Nino Harassing People

Silly Arashi Dances

Warm wishes,

~Celestia~

Last week Arashi was on V6’s show which featured cute boys dressed up as girls harassing them. They had absolutely no idea, so the prank was successful. This week, just Nino is back to evaluate some of the “girls” which combines two of my very favorite things in the world: Ninomiya Kazunari and cute boys in drag. If they had managed to throw ice cream in there somehow I would be in heaven. Does anyone else find it ironic that out of all the guys in the world they decided that Nino should be the one to judge how cute these boys are? Because, you know, if they can get Ninomiya, clearly the straightest member of the least gay group ever to grace the Japanese music scene, to fall for them, they must really be girly, right??

Embedding is disabled, so just links.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I just love that Japan is totally okay with this. No, they even encourage this kind of thing. The show gives make-up tips, presumably to be used by the viewers at home to make their own pretty boy look like a girl. Look at all the school girls in the audience, beside themselves with glee. Why is it okay for men to openly admit that lesbian stuff turns them on, but girls are supposed to be disgusted by male homosexuality? Japan has it right. It works both ways, though many American girls are too ashamed to admit it.

Nino’s cuter than all those “girls” put together though.

Shine on,

~Celestia~