Hibiki

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This year’s CharaHobby took place on August 27-28 at Makuhari Messe. Friends and I overnighted the night before in order to get good spots outside the seating area of the main stage. Let’s just say Friday night kind of sucked. It rained and rained and rained. We only had to endure it for about 4 hours though since the staff let us into the building at midnight. Still rather sucked because these three girls behind us kept talking and laughing out loud all night long. Couldn’t sleep a wink! >_< All the effort was worth it though because my friends and I were able to get front row on the right side of the stage, same as years past. The moment we got there, the main screen showed a commercial for the DGS4LO event DVD, which made a few people scream with delight. After securing our spots, I went to register and change into my HiroC cosplay.

The DGS recording was the second event of the day. Usually Chanko chan is the one who does the maesetsu (introduction before the main event) but this year it was Yagihashi kun, aka Yajuuhashi kun, all by himself. You can tell he was a bit nervous, hehe. After he was finished, my goodness, the screams/cheers as Dear Girl wa Nemuranai started playing on the speakers and Kamiya and OnoD did the title call from backstage. It only intensified when they came out on stage. Every year the number of people who come to watch the recording increases dramatically. Kamiya immediately pointed out that there was a Dear Boy front and center outside the seating area. OnoD did his “mosu” call and asked everyone if they were genki, going by section (right, left, center, seating area). At the end he yelled out, “Buppan genki??” (“Buppan” = sales booths.) There was silence for a second but then the staffers at the Animate booth which was directly facing the stage started cheering. It was funny.

As is tradition, Kamiya and OnoD were wearing the Hibiki jumpsuits. You could see that they were wearing the Charinty Charinty tshirts they made on the inside. Kamiya was worried that this being the 4th year DGS has had a public recording at CharaHobby, people would be tired of them and barely anyone would come and thanked the large crowd for coming to see them. He then explained that they shirts they were wearing were photographed by Kamiyama Chikin sensei, and added in that he’s never met him. OnoD then said that Sensei came twice and his personality the second time compared to the first time was quite different, to which Kamiya said he wouldn’t know (since he’s never met him).

After the opening, they went right into the shikakuteki (visual) portion of the show and screened digest footage of the DGS4LO event DVD. It was great reliving the memories and I can’t wait for the DVD’s release! (The event report can be found here.) Next was a big announcement! With the AniSama theme playing in the background, OnoD announced, “We are now taking early reservations for Kamiya Hiroshi’s Birthday 2012 ‘rainbow’!” (This year’s AniSama is titled “rainbow.”) Kamiya was all, “But my birthday is in winter…” The project was to plan for what they’d do for Kamiya’s birthday next year and out came a large Ono Note (big black paper pad with “Ono Note” written on it in DEATH NOTE-like fashion) from under the table. The staff brought out a couple of boxes, one with A written on it and the other with B. Inside box A was paper with either “HiroC” or “OnoD” written on it. Inside box B was what they would have to do. Kamiya was the first to go and he pulled “HiroC ga” from box A. OnoD was going to pull from box B but Kamiya immediately insisted that he’d choose himself. He pulled out a piece of paper that said “nurunuru ni naru (will become slimy/slippery)” on it. The crowd laughed. Of course Kamiya was not happy with this result. Next up was OnoD. From box A he pulled out another “HiroC ga.” From box B he pulled out “kekka shiawase ni naru kara subete yurusu (will be happy in the end so all will be forgiven).” Kamiya didn’t understand what this meant so OnoD explained that if it’s funny everyone will laugh and Kamiya would be overcome with feelings of happiness, which is why anything they do to him will be forgiven. Once again, Kamiya was  not very content. Next was Kamiya’s turn to pick again and before saying so, he said that only “OnoD” is left inside the box, and indeed he picked an “OnoD ga.” Kamiya pulled out a paper from box B and after reading it, put it back, picked out another, and put that one back in the box too. OnoD protested and Kamiya finally pulled another out and read it: “OnoD ga sunege wo soru (OnoD will shave his leg hair).” Kamiya said that it’s something OnoD always does and went to check by pulling up one of OnoD’s pant legs. Surprise! OnoD forgot to shave his legs, LoL. But apparently his leg hair was really thin. In the end they looked at all the papers that were inside the box, which included, “will go far away,” and “neoki dokkiri (surprising someone by waking them up),” among others that I can’t remember. Kamiya then checked box A and the last paper inside was another “HiroC ga,” to which he yelled out, “Hey! My name’s in here 3 times! This is unfair!!!” Haha, so cute. They started thinking of what should be written in the Ono Note and Kamiya was all combining the different choices into one. OnoD grabbed the Ono Note and wrote, “HiroC to OnoD ga kekka shiawase ni naru (HiroC and OnoD will be happy in the end).” Kamiya questioned why OnoD is included in it and covered up OnoD’s name so it’d only read “HiroC ga kekka shiawase ni naru (HiroC will be happy in the end).” In any case, since it’s been written in the Ono Note, I guess we can expect some more chaos next year for Kamiya’s birthday.

Next they showed another video, this time of the photo session to take photos for the Charinty Charinty tshirts. As the video started, Kamiya went backstage. The video was hilarious! Kamiya was dressed up as Kamiyama Chikin sensei with a large afro wig and sunglasses. He greeted OnoD by pinching OnoD’s nipple. ^^;;;;;; While they didn’t directly show it, there were screams as OnoD took off his shirt to change into the OnoD Mercury tank top. As Kamiyama sensei and OnoD Mercury were walking to the photo shoot area, the camera was recording them from behind and Kamiyama sensei was rubbing OnoD Mercury’s butt the entire time. XDDDDD Tons of laughter from the crowd. When OnoD’s session was over, he went to give Kamiyama sensei a handshake but Kamiyama sensei pinched OnoD’s nipple instead. ^^;;; For Suwa san’s photo, they (= OnoD) really threw a bucket of water on him. XD Only after that did they start the photo session. For Yagihashi kun, he pretended to bite the panel board.

After the video, OnoD explained that they really do do all that crazy stuff on the show, and then he noticed that Kamiya was gone. When he tried to call him out, out came Kamiyama Chikin sensei with his afro, sunglasses, camera, and wearing Kamiya’s Photogenic You tshirt and rainbow patterned pants. XD It was hilarious, and let me remind you that Kamiyama sensei talks like an okama. OnoD pointed out that the shirt he was wearing looks to be more tight-fitting than it did before. Kamiyama sensei explained, “It’s a Jr. L!” (The smallest size.) This drew a large “Eeehhhhh~” from the crowd as they were all surprised that he could even fit into that size. He wanted to take some photos of OnoD and prepared to throw a bucket of water on OnoD. OnoD ran away but finally stood still. Kamiyama sensei pretended to throw the water on OnoD, twirled the bucket in a circle at his side, etc. In the end, the bucket was actually empty but he did a good job of making people believe there really was water in it. He took a bunch of photos of OnoD with the audience in the background. Wonder if they’ll upload some of them onto the mobile website. Oh, and Kamiyama sensei did rub OnoD’s butt on stage, though not for as long as he did in the video shown earlier. OnoD was taken by surprise and immediately jumped a bit, running away.

When the photo session ended, Kamiyama sensei went off stage and left OnoD all by his lonesome. Text on the screen signaled OnoD to buy time, so he did what he did at the DGS event and asked, “Arena genki? Shimote genki? Kamite genki??” etc. Kamiya came back on stage and it was time to record the Dear Voice. Of course it was the ever popular “bi-chiku bi-chiku bakyun bakyun!” Since it’s hard to figure out on the radio, OnoD showed the audience the hand motions for it. For the “bi-chiku bi-chiku” part, you have your hands in a fist close to your chest (bottom of your hand facing forward) and do an up-down motion with your fist twice (one for each “bi-chiku“) as if you were turning something. Then for the first “bakyun,” your right hand becomes a palm and thrusts forward. For the second “bakyun,” your right hand goes back and your left hand (in a palm) thrusts forward. We practiced a few times before the actual recording. OnoD practiced with everyone, and then called out for just the girls, and then just the guys. There were actually a lot of guys and they gave it their all. XD Both Kamiya and OnoD were surprised. Then OnoD had Kamiya do it. For the recording, they had the audience do it once with Kamiya, and then once with OnoD.

Probably from yelling out “bi-chiku bi-chiku bakyun bakyun,” Kamiya’s microphone started acting strange and the volume wasn’t as loud as it should be. A staffer brought him a regular microphone (they usually use headset types). At the end, they made another big announcement: They were going to release a new single and the OP/ED songs for the show will be changing in October! The CD, titled Smiley Time,  will be released on November 2nd and Kamiya teased us by saying, “And this is the jacket cover!” but on the screen it was just a square with “Now Printing” written on it. ^^;; Apparently Kamiya hasn’t started recording yet but OnoD has. OnoD said that the opening song makes you think, “Oh, DGS is starting,” but ending song makes you think, “Huh? Is this really the ending?” All the ending songs up until now have been slow ballad-like melodies but I guess the new ending will be more upbeat or something? Looking forward to hearing it!

Kiseki was already playing in the background and Kamiya and OnoD thanked the audience for coming. And with that, the public recording for this year came to an end. The show will air on September 10 and photos will be uploaded onto the mobile site after its broadcast. Can’t wait!

After the recording, Chanko chan and Yagihashi kun were at the Bunka Housou booth to take photos with fans. They sat in front of the Namaste senpai outfit display and there was a chair between them for people to sit and have their picture taken. There was a huuuuuuuuge line that snaked and went outside the door! Unfortunately it was so long that I wasn’t able to take a photo with them but when they had to go, Yagihashi kun went around and shook hands with everyone in line. He’s nice. ^^ Luckily on Sunday, the DGS crowd was mostly gone and I was able to easily take a photo with them. The chair that was in the middle the day before was gone so I was just going to stand next to Chanko chan on his left but then Chanko chan offered me his knee to sit on. XD I asked them if they were ever going to do a public recording overseas but it seems there are no plans at the moment. (Well, even if there was, I doubt they would tell me. ^^;) Here’s to hoping that they will have one some day!

At the ASCII Media Works booth, they had on display some Gotouchi DGS Hibiki created by the staff of the show. There was a long line to take photos of them. At the Bunka Housou booth, they had the QR code to download mobile wallpapers of the illustrations Kamiya and OnoD drew of each other on the show. Luckily my friend had gotten the URL earlier and emailed it to me so I didn’t have to line up. (It was the same line to take photos with Chanko chan and Yagihashi kun.) They also had on display some photos of the DGS Farm, including a photo of Yagihashi kun and his mom, the new farm caretaker, and photos of listener-submitted Gotouchi DGS Hibiki and the Namaste senpai outfit that Kamiya wore for the DGS4LO event. Unfortunately my Gotouchi DGS Hibiki that was read on the show was not on display and they only showed ones by people inside Japan. I guess they were worried about copyrights for the Statue of Liberty or something. ^^;

For DGS goods, I bought Kamiya and OnoD’s tshirts, and the hand towel. I wouldn’t use the letter set if I bought it so I skipped out on it. The DGS Hibiki goods are up for order online at Dengekiya but the tshirts are not on sale yet. They should be available at the Chou! A&G Shop at a later date.

Mew Reports/Photos DGS