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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Please sign here, sir...

The newest addition to my H!P collection arrived today, just thought I'd share the news with you all. One night Liamers and I were browsing the Yahoo Auctions, and came across a ton of signed H!P goods. Most of them were signed baseballs (a Rakuten Eagles promotion), but we also found this...

That's right. A "photocard" signed by all 8 members of Berryz Koubou. I'd never seen this before, and I assume it's a rare item, so I asked Himalia over at Hello!Online to get it for me, I think he gets items from the Fanclub store and Yahoo Auctions for people frequently. All in all it cost me £70 for the item and the shipping. The item itself was only 5000en. But for a complete set of Berryz signitures (and 8 cute pictures to boot), I feel it was money well spent. I'm insane for buying it, I know, but I'm somewhat proud of myself.

I do, however, find the "Not for sale" printed on the right side of the card to be somewhat ironic.

So, readers, share your H!P autograph collection with the rest of us. Show off what you have. I'd love to see them.

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Instrumentals & Karaoke

Some time ago, in fact, back in July or something, I came up with the idea of posting H!P Instrumentals to YouTube, and since I didn't have the needed software to create a .kar file, I opted to take the ready-subbed PVs from Hello!Fansubs. That way the vids already had the PV and the Karaoke effects on the romaji (+kanji), they just need the instrumental put in, and I have my karaoke vid!

So I downloaded Berryz Koubou's Kokuhaku no Funsui Hiroba, which H!F had already subbed. And worked with a video editing program (Was before I got Sony Vegas Pro, so I was working with WMM) and tried to get the timing of the instrumental track I was overlaying ontop to match the video perfectly. Took me about 20 minutes of careful tweaking. I think I got it pretty damn close. So I uploaded it to YouTube and went through the same process again with Piriri to Yukou!

Following that I asked SacredCultivator for permission to do it with more videos. He mentioned something about the fact that for Veoh, all you have to do is download and change the audio option from 1 to 2. Like changing the language spoken in a DVD. (Which on YouTube you can't do yourself.) Well, I'll be damned. After all that, and I didn't even have to add the instrumentals myself, that had already been done. Anyway. SacredCultivator agreed to let me do the rest, but he asked that I create a seperate YT channel for that purpose.

I created HFInstrumentals. And it has since seen a few videos be uploaded, but has been fairly inactive. But I'm working on it again, and have already uploaded a few videos over the last 2 or 3 days. So I'm inviting you to come check it out. Especially if you're the kind of fan who likes to sing with the instrumentals. *wink*

I guess that's all I wanted to say. Ja ne!

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ADULTISM

First off, my apologies for not updating either this blog or the Church of Maasa for well over a month. Throughout most of December I was bed-ridden with a bad case of the flu. But I'm back now, and what an entry to come back with!

It's recently been announced that Kago will make her come-back with this new Photobook. From National Idol and MiniMoni member to Gravure model, Kago will be appearing in a "semi-nude" photobook, due for release on the 23rd of January.

From what I can tell from Forum and BBS posts, reception for this news has been pretty polarised. With many female residents saying "I don't like this new Aibon", and with the majority of male residents, like myself, excitedly awaiting more previews, and ultimately the release of the photobook. The latter is my own perspective, and the perspective this entry will assume. If such a thing offends you in any way, don't read, and don't flame in the comments section.

Ai has become famous in recent years for her scandal - underage smoking and dating an older man. And with this new photobook, I think it's very likely that she has been trying to show the world that she isn't the 13 year-old Minimoni anymore, and has matured into a woman. And, let's face it, posing for a nude (even semi-nude) photoshot is definately one way of going about that, it may or may not be the best method, but a method still. Of course, she later came to regret dating that man and in a recent interview said that after turning 20, she no longer felt the urge to smoke, even though she was now legally able to do so. I just hope this photobook isn't something she'll come to regret later like those other things.

The photobook, itself, is looking really ... interesting. I myself am really looking forward to seeing it. There were rumours about a nude photobook some time ago, looks like the rumours weren't too far from the truth. I do wonder, though, if I'll ever be able to look at Kago the same way again after seeing it? What do you guys think? Good? Bad? Ugly?

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