Kenchana ~Daijoubu~?

Maeda Yuki's latest single is bordering on release, with only 4 days left before we can get our hands on it, what do I think of her new single?

I've been something of a Maeda Yuki fan for some time. Enka isn't something I go out of my way to buy normally, but I do love the genre. And while Maeda Yuki's songs tend to be more along the lines of Enka/Pop/Rock... I find them to be wonderfully satisfying.

This song, though, I found didn't quite satisfy that hunger the same way. This Enka/Ballad, it has charm, and Maeda's voice is beautiful as always, but I found the song didn't have that kick to it. Her last single, Ai Ai Daikou, was much stronger, with booming drums and powerful singing on Maeda's part, Kenchana ~Daijoubu~ just feels incredibly empty in comparison. And that's not just because it's a ballad, I'm a fan of them, Goto Maki's best songs were ballads, in my opinion. But at the same time, this kind of ballad just seems a little removed from the kind of songs were used to hearing from her.

I wonder where the idea for this came from. Could it be that her poor sales figures have prompted the agency to try something different? If that's the case I suggest that they try something else, because I don't see this single going much further than any of her previous songs. And then, who knows? Maybe it's opened up to a new audience and it'll go prove me wrong. And believe me, I hope I am wrong, because I'd love to see her gain in popularity. Too few people know of her and her music. That has to change.

In the last few days, we finally got to see the PV for this single appear on Dohhhup! Unfortunatly, the PV is just as forgettable as the song. It is, however, consistant. The PV seems to be trying to take that traditional enka feel and put a bit of a more modern theme in there. One of the first things we see is Maeda walking through, what I assume is, a mountain temple in a cream jacket. This just makes her seem incredibly out of place, which I hope wasn't the intended effect because it's an awful idea. We then see her singing in front of a brick wall. I don't know which was duller, the wall or her dress. After, we see her sitting down at a table in this brick celler, looking at old photos by candelight. I kind of like that little scene there, it kind of puts the loneliness of the whole video into some kind of context, further expressed in the following scene where she stares thoughtfully out onto a mountain lake. Finally, we see her back at the temple, take a picture with her camera, I assume to add another memory to her little collection, and then walk off. That's really as interesting as this video goes.

This is one single I won't be buying. Unfortunate, considering how much I like Maeda Yuki. I guess I was waiting for an explosion that didn't happen.

That said, if you liked the song, then I'd encourage you to go buy it. Seems it even comes with a remix where some of the song is sung in Korean. If this were a better song, I'd eat that oppertunity up in an instant. But I feel it will sound just as dull in Korean as it did in Japanese. I guess I'll wait to hear the c/w before even contemplating buying this.

01. Kenchana ~Daijoubu~
02. Seoul no Ame
03. Kenchana ~Daijoubu~ (Japanese + Korean Mix Version)
04. Kenchana ~Daijoubu~ (Original Karaoke)
05. Kenchana ~Daijoubu~ (Half tone lower Karaoke)
06. Seoul no Ame (Original Karaoke)

Buy from CDJapan | YesAsia

I don't know about you, but I'm off to listen to Ai Ai Daikou.

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Mano Erina became big!

I put my order for Mano Erina's new PB in last week. And a complete scan is now finally out on H!O, I've had a chance to check it out, and I must say. I like what I see. So I thought I'd talk about it.

Before that though, let's take a few steps back and talk about Mano Erina herself, something that I haven't really had a chance to do with this blog.

Mano wasn't really someone who stood out to me at first, not until her training ended as an egg and she left Ongaku Gatas. The Eggs are still pretty much unknown to me, and Ongaku Gatas never cease to bore me, despite the fact I'm a former Yossy fan. Can't say I'll miss them in this Post-Elder Club world. However, after ManoPiano, I suddenly realised just how great she was. She auditioned and got through the Hello!Project Eggs audition at the age of 15. Two years later and look where she is, huh? Completed her training, getting her Major debut and being featured in Magazines all over the shop. Seems she's become quite popular recently. ManoPiano caught me like a fish on a hook. I thought, "Wow! This girl has a really cute voice. She sounds like a seiyuu! And she plays the piano backing here?" I was seriously impressed. But I have a soft spot for bands that play their own instruments. In my opinion, that's a REAL artist.

Anyway, each song she releases gets catchier and catchier. And watching her live solo performance during the H!P concert was amazing. One song. But I really do think she's a singer who is even better live than in the sound studios where they record her releases. And these last few months she's been getting bigger than ever. A solo concert, solo photobook, and major debut single have all been announced! (And a new TV Dorama to boot!) I have no doubts that she will achieve great things, perhaps help bring H!P out of the depression we've seen in recent years. Only good things can come of ManoEri, that much is clear.

Anyway. on to the photobook! Some of you may call this picspam, but what I'll do is pick some of the pics I like and comment on that picture.

This picture is quite interesting for me, you can see from the ground and the fact that she is carrying an umbrella that it is raining... or should be. Yet, for such a wet day, she is looking incredibly dry and cheery. Not to mention well-lit, as if the sun is shining away on this not-so sunny day. Where IS all that light coming from, I wonder...

I also really like this photo, it's simple, and beautiful... And oh, so similiar to an earlier, older photobook belonging to Yossy. Don't know if anyone can remember the photo I'm talking about, I think it was from her first photobook. It involved a shot a Yossy's face incredibly similiar to this, I think she was also holding some sort of petal or flower then too. Perhaps Mano drew inspiration from that time? Or maybe I'm just imagining that shot, and the Yossy one, in fact, looked nothing like this. Who knows.

This is a... side of ManoEri we don't get to see often... A shame really, it really... re-defines the whole image I have of her. Don't you agree? Lovely er... backdrop, too.


And on that note, we've come to the rear, I mean end of the post. Like I said, I ordered this photobook last week, it hasn't arrived yet, but I'm very much looking forward to seeing it for myself. I suggest you all go out and procure a copy of it yourselves too, because if it's ManoEri, we know it'll be good. And as a farewell present and show of good faith, here is the History of Mano Erina, subbed into english for your enjoyment. Really interesting stuff in there.

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Birth of BerryzKyuuden Fansubs?

A while ago I decided I wanted to give fansubbing a try. Then I realised how difficult it was, and gave up. But sooner or later I would go on to add (incredibly basic [read: crap]) subs to Airi's performace of Single Bed during Berikyuu! episode 126. (See below) For this task I made use of a powerful (and pretty expensive) piece of video editing software called Sony Vegas Pro. I found the translation on the internet somewhere, and timed and added each line to the video. Those of you who have seen the original video will know that the kanji subtitles were already in the video. Which was the reason for the weird placement of the subtitles. If I got to choose I would have had the English at the bottom of the screen and the romaji and kanji at the top, or something. But since the kanji was already hardsubbed into the broadcasted footage, it would have looked weird to have the romaji at the top, then the kanji and translation at the bottom. So I switched them around. And I was happy with how it turned out.


(Note: When I first encoded this, I didn't know what I was doing, and the video ended up really small and quite bad quality (further reduced by YouTube), but afterwards I did another, better encode which can be downloaded here)

I got a bit of praise from the few people who saw the vid, and decided to try again. And I spent the last week trying to figure everything out and timing my new project. This time I wanted to improve on the last one and make use of some karaoke effects like Hello!Fansubs use (note; H!F have become something of an idol or role-model to me. Sad? Yeah.) And as I was looking through my video collection to find something to sub, I saw Buono!'s Rottara Rottara. An excellent song. One of my favourites. And as far as I'm aware, no one had subbed it yet. "This could be my chance!" I thought. (If anyone has subbed this, my appologies, but yours is probably better than mine anyway.) So it took me 2 days to figure out the software and the karaoke effects (using ASS codes), and even then I barely scratched the surface. Maybe I lack the creativity? It did take me a long time to get rid of a couple bugs with the karaoke effect where the transforms would affect the whole line instead of each syllable in turn, but I got there in the end.

At the start of the vid I put down "Berryz Kyuuden Fansubs", really as something of a joke, and also because Hello!Fansubs normally put that (or a logo) at the beginning of their vids (imitation is the highest form of flattery, they say). But who knows? Maybe I'll stick at it, and BerryzKyuuden Fansubs will actually become a reality.

Anyway, let me know what you think of it, either through this blog or via the YouTube comment system itself.

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