The J-Music Lovers' International Assembly

[Mandilinn]

^ Speaking of Kana, the names of the new songs for her best album are out:

 

New Songs on Love Collection ~mint~:

 

Sweet Dreams
HAPPY HAPPY

 

New Songs on Love Collection ~pink~:

 

涙色 (Namida Iro)
Join us!
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

 

I'm kind of mad that they put Namida Iro out as a single and listed it as a new song on the album. What was the point of that, exactly?

Edited August 8, 2013 by Mandilinn

[Mandilinn]

Whelp. The hosts for Kouhaku were announced. Let's hope this doesn't begin the whining about why K-Pop acts are or aren't going to be invited. I had enough of that last year.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Mandilinn

[Mandilinn]

Shishido Kavka's album is up on J-mp3 now. Gonna try to work through that one and SPYAIR's new album. Right after I stop listening to Happiness' and Flower's singles. <3

 

Every song Leo released after the debut album has been disappointing.

 

Yeah.   She was doing so well, too

 

Hmm well as far as music goes I have pretty broad taste liking pop, rock and urban music. Not a big fan of idols though. Never found a group that I liked or got. For some reason I was thinking Yampi and Akanishi Jin were the same person this week haha

 

Favorite artist include Do As Infinity, Utada Hikaru, RADWIMPS, Crystal Kay, and Hirai Ken. Also into UVERWORLD, Shota Shimizu, SCANDAL, AKFG and FLOW but not as much as I used to be. I need some good recommendations cause I've been pretty bored with music lately. Been getting a little into Namie and Ayu. Listend to Kumi as well but sometimes her albums just seem so disjointed. And yep.

 

Does anyone know how much of an impact Arashi has on Kohaku ratings by hosting?

 

Do As Infinity   You'll fit in just fine here. We all like a variety of artists and there's not one artist on your list that at least one of us doesn't like. Welcome!

 

Considering Arashi is the biggest male idol group right now, I'd say they have a pretty significant impact.

 

EXILE and their brother groups are probably the biggest non-idol male groups. I'd rather have them hosting, honestly.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Mandilinn

[Mandilinn]

DJ Deckstream's album trailer came out about a week ago but it's region locked, however a fan of Daichi's clipped his part out and uploaded it.

 

Will probably get this on iTunes because of Daichi (gotta support Vision Factory <3) and Reina. Daichi's song sounds good. 

[Mandilinn]

^

Daichi sounds nice in that song.

 

Nope, not at all.

Isn't she?

 

__

Going through Ze:a's discography since they just came back. I like their new song. Can't ever go wrong with a good string section (if anyone has any recommendations for any music with some good strings, I'm all ears).

 

This song is really good. It's basically a solo for their leader. I liked him since he has a deep voice, not the kind I'm used to hearing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS_1sTOcCnQ

 

Btw for the Kohaku thing, couldn't a popular actor host it? How many years has Arashi hosted?

 

I think the article said this was to be their 4th year. Arashi is the most popular male idol group currently. Why wouldn't they have them on? (Though you're right, I'd like to see someone else have a chance, too).

[Mandilinn]

Anna from FAKY did a song before debut last year that actually sounds better than the one that FAKY actually put out.

 

http://onehallyu.com/index.php?/topic/16973-world-sketch-the-world-ends-with-you-feat-anna-from-faky/

 

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/world-ends-you-feat.-anna/id583298543

[Mandilinn]

Wait so because they wanna get their name out there they're being called idols? O.O

No. Very few people are calling them that (in fact, I've never heard that) ^^; They're still dance/vocal groups. I hear them being called "dance/vocal girl group with EXILE's DNA" or "EXILE's little sisters" 95% of the time. I've only seen them participate in an idol event once or twice. They are most definitely not idols.

 

And I've seen video of Bunny and they sound nothing like an idol group, so I don't know where that came from.

 

I HAVE FINALLY COMPLETED OCARINA OF TIME (after many first failings with Ganondorf ahem)

 

WILL NOW MOVE TO MAJORAS MASK

 

AND I WILL CELEBRATE BY LISTENING AND CATCHING UP TO THE JPOP I HAVE NEGLECTED THESE PAST FEW WEEKS.

 

WooT~

Congrats! D: Be careful with the three day time limit in MM and try to manage your time well. Otherwise you might have to do a temple over again :D

Edited August 10, 2013 by Mandilinn

[Mandilinn]

I love this. Seungri is such a big Kuu fan (he likes Namie a lot, too).

 

http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XNTkzMTUxMzU2/v.swf

 

Direct link: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTkzMTUxMzU2.html

 

The drink looks good :Q

Edited August 11, 2013 by Mandilinn

[Mandilinn]

Was tempted to ask for a Wizdalinn banner for the forum for Mandi's birthday  . 

 

'Twas good thanks. Two weeks frying my skin on a beach and buying meals I could never finish. Could not get used to or comfortable to driving around though.

Lol, I was always feel odd posting here because I'm so out on sync with J-Music and have no clue what's going on. 

 

 

Am finding I like both quite a lot, which is odd, because usually I don't usually care for Happiness songs as much. 

 

I'm flattered    but

I think Happiness is a group that has to grow on you. They weren't my favorite at first, either.

 

 

 

FLOWER's single is really good. Happiness next! Then Kana's single~

 

 

Happiness's song "Eien" is beautiful. I think you'll love it

[Mandilinn]

The plus side of that k-pop thread is I'm now remembering how great 00s J-Pop was. <3 Old BoA and TVXQ was the best.

 

 

That's why i said there are exceptions. Madoka is amazing and I fucking love Eva.

 

Haven't seen SnK yet because i can't get myself to watch anime anymore. There's that and Psycho Pass that i will watch if i ever start watching anime again. 

 

There's always potential for great series. Two of my favorite animes of all time were released in the last few years, being Steins;Gate and AnoHana. But looking at the schedule for fall i see very little that interests me outside of some of the movies. For a while the only thing keeping me interested in anime was Gintama and now that's over...

I started to watch SnK, but I became uninterested really quick. I don't know if it's because I'm older now or what but I'm more into gaming and live-action dramas (as far as TV goes) now rather than anime/manga. The only one I've really watched to comepletion this year is Sword Art Online, which I liked a lot. The anime just has to hook me right away for me to like it, I guess. Oh...I guess I did finish the Persona 4 anime, too. But I liked the game already.

[Mandilinn]

I'm the total opposite. XD SnK is the first anime I've loved this much for years. SAO was boring as heck for me. But SnK is *___* addictive. I love it. But I'm tired of all this cutesy anime or action anime with cutsey drawing styles. /isstilbutthurtoverFMA:B'sartintheanime >_>

 

SAO is the type of anime I wanted .Hack to be, so that might be why I like it. .Hack is just too over the top and all over the place, where as SAO is fairly simple and not all that hard to get into in terms of the world and stuff.

 

But I know what you mean. Every time I happen to check for new anime, it's all cute or cute-looking and it's a big turnoff.

 

Even after all these years, stans still manage to piss me off when it omes to DBSK. Will it never stop?! :(

 

Probably not. :(

 

 

 

Yea i have pretty much completely switched all my anime watching to drama watching now.

 

I remember the hype around SAO. I downloaded all the light novels for it already and would probably rather read those over watching the anime.

 

what's wrong with Brotherhood's art?

 

Does this mean you're not going to watch Sailor Moon this winter? 

 

 

The light novels are actually pretty good. I enjoy them almost more than the anime, but I'd still watch a sequel to SAO if they offered it.

 

I'm watching Sailor Moon for nostalgia only. Sailor Neptune better be in it~

 

 

 

I like both SAO and SnK

Though Mandi, have you watched Accel World? It's by the same author of SAO and the anime is made by the same company.

 

 

I remember looking that up and thinking it could be interesting, but I never watched it for some reason. Maybe I should.

[Mandilinn]

Uh...is it just me, or does this look like SM knocked down the walls of TVXQ's Break Out set and used that again?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ4VNCl7hPs&feature=player_embedded

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G79G2QwGqQ&feature=player_embedded

[Mandilinn]

 

 

Definitely Break Out Part II as far as visuals go (it really does seem to be the same set), but the actual song wasn't this much of a mess. Normally I love a dance song with some rock elements, but this is bad. I suppose it's better than what they've been releasing, though.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Mandilinn

[Mandilinn]

The song with Reina (from Flower) for DJ Deckstream's album sounds gorgeous.   The preview is in the Flower thread.

[Mandilinn]

AAA has announced the b-side for their new single is called "MASK" and it will be used as the theme song for the movie "Tiger Mask" out in November.

 

 

http://natalie.mu/music/news/97075

[Mandilinn]

I'm finally finished with this!! \O/

 

http://onehallyu.com/index.php?/topic/17720-numero-interview-one-tough-flower-the-muse-of-beauty-and-strength-namie-amuro/

 

The photoshoot is here. ^_^

 

http://onehallyu.com/index.php?/topic/17719-namie-shows-off-her-sexy-fall-fashion-for-numero-tokyos-september-issue/

 

That took forever

[Mandilinn]

Lately I've really been getting into the band FripSide. Does anyone listen to them? I know they usually sing anime music, which isn't what I'm typically into, but their songs are all just so good.

 

Thank you for these. You translated the interview right? Awesome job!

 

Thanks. I'm glad her Numero appearances are only once a year or I don't think I'd ever be finished translating. But she'll be in Vouge Japan in a few weeks, so there might be a long interview with that, too....

[Mandilinn]

I can't imagine the pain of being the only i-stan that knows the language. Does it make you feel obliged to post these translations or do you genuinely enjoy doing them?

 

I know it's hard to find translations for J-Pop, so I don't mind doing them because people seem to really enjoy reading them. The long ones are just harder on me than most (and this one had some really difficult wording to translate).

 

If you see something that you might like translated, PM it to me or ask me here and I'll see what I can do.   (I can't do anything with video right now, though. The program I use to sub things isn't working currently.)

 

 

Random tabloid to come up, Kusanagi of SMAP x Yuko of AKB48.... *gossip marriage gossip anyone who cares*

 

Oh, is that the "male idol"  people have been talking about who supposedly is really close to getting married?

[Mandilinn]

I guess? It's been blowing up on twitter recently and I'm expecting lots of tabloids to jump on this cash cow to sell.

 

Oh, I'm sure. Rumors of a member of a legendary male idol group and the biggest current female idol group getting married? There's no way they can ignore that. Or if they did, I'd be very surprised.

 

 

From being a fan of Namie since 2005, I think Mandilin is the poster/person I've seen translate stuff regularly for Namie. It's so hard to be a fan translation wise for acts outside AKB48/Johnny/MM, etc it seems all their stuff gets translated.

 

I'd love to translate interviews for artists other than Namie, but I'm never sure of where to find all that stuff.   It's easy to get ahold of Namie's interviews because I know who to ask or where to find it.

[Mandilinn]

MiChi's new single cover:

 

 

The single appears to be a double A-side now.

 

The font is really ugly and makes the cover look kind of cheap.  If it weren't for that, I'd be okay with it.

 

 

WAIT WHAT? YUKOS GETTING MARRIED WHAT?

 

Only a rumor right now. But yeah....they're saying it's to a SMAP member, I guess.

[Mandilinn]

Whatever happened to Model Girls? Did they flop so much that they're not ever going to release something again? Their debut single was actually okay.

 

[Mandilinn]

I was just rereading that topic about 90s J-music being better. Would anybody be up for a thread just to post 90s j-music?

 

I think we had one on H8, but we never re-made it here. I'd love to have that thread again.

[Mandilinn]

If you were an Ayu hater, what sort of shit would you say about her? Her plastic face? Low sales? Etc? Im probably biased as fck, but shes so successful idk what you can hate on...cuz you can justify it.

 

Yeah, you're biased all right. There's things that could be said about Ayu, but I won't. While she isn't my favorite J-queen, I respect her too much to go there.

[Mandilinn]

I respect you a lot for that as there are a lot of shady Ayu fans, and they haven't always been very nice to Namie fans over the years but now maybe they're more humble.

You mentioned a couple of days you'd love to translate some stuff for other artists, I was wondering if you could translate the Pride box?

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/1686/cddata06jan20dr4.jpg

 

I would never ask you to do the whole thing as that's much to ask but I'm mostly curious about Pride as it's my fave track on the album.

 

Sure. ^_^ Just give me a little while and I'll have that done for you~

[Mandilinn]

 

 

Arigato~  

 

Sorry for the wait!

 

Pride

"From the time I got the demo for this song, I knew I wanted to sing it very well. But this song is one of inner strength, and rather than just me singing earnestly by myself, I wanted it to be about everyone shouting these feelings to something unseen. So that's why I got a chorus of people to sing with me. We had people in their 50s, all the way down to young elementary schoolers. There was a fairly large amount of people all singing, and I thought it was really cool. Even CMJK-san said it was a masterpiece."

Edited August 16, 2013 by Mandilinn