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. Read more…

Reports/Photos DGS

KAmiYU in Wonderland 2

Sunday was the KAmiYU in Wonderland 2 event at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall with Kamiya and Irino Miyu. It was a very hot and humid day. Got there early to line up for goods but already there was a huge line. It was not fun waiting in the sun. Had to kill some time before the event. Got my tickets from a friend. They were first floor but towards the back. Luckily you can still get a good view even from the back.

When the lights went down, everyone screamed and turned on their lights and cracked their glow sticks. Kamiya and Miyu kun came on stage and sang Taiyou no Sympathy. That got the crowd in it from the get-go. After the song, they talked about summer. Apparently Kamiya feels it’s summer when he sees tons of kid and families on the trains. A sign came onto the screen that introduced the event’s “hosts,” a couple cats named Kira and Mune. They showed some photos of the photoshoot for link-up’s booklet and had Kamiya and Miyu kun talk about them. Kamiya explained that there were over 1000 photos taken. Then they were asked questions and given two choices, A or B. The questions were pretty normal but the possible answers were very weird.

The next corner was “Reverse Theater” where they were given a situation that they had to act out, but they had to do it in reverse. A camera would record them and then play back the footage backwards, therefore starting from the beginning. The first situation was a baseball scene where a pitcher would pitch and the batter would hit a home run. So when they acted it out, they had to start with the batter celebrating his hit and the pitcher on his knees in disbelief. Kamiya acted as the pitcher with Miyu kun as the batter. After they finished, they video was played in reverse. It was funny because the movements would look unnatural. Still, they did a pretty good job and after read the lines for scene while the video played. They also switched roles so Miyu kun was the pitcher and Kamiya the better. The next situation was hurdling. They had to start acting from the end at the finish line and jump backwards and stuff. Pretty funny stuff, and they even put on PE hats like elementary school kids wear. Again the recorded video was played in reverse and they acted out the lines for the scene.

After the Reverse Theater, Kamiya and Miyu kun left the stage and they played messages from the Kiramune family on the screen. Namikawa’s message was the funniest. At first he was all, “KAmiYU Wonderland… In,” and then for take 2 he said, “KAmiYU Wonder in Land,” LoL. It’s amazing how he can sincerely make these mistakes, and I say that in the best way possible. XD

Next was the live corner! Kamiya and Miyu kun changed outfits and came out singing my Proud, my Play!. They then talked a little about recording the mini album and then sang Go the Distance, Sting of Love, Joe Joe Everyday, and Gradation. It was awesome seeing them sing Go the Distance since it’s mostly rap. It must’ve been really difficult. Next was Sting of Love and OMG they DANCED!!! Most of the song was choreographed. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!! After seeing that, I honestly have a hard time thinking of Kamiya as a 36-year-old. You know he put a lot of effort into this. SO COOL!!!!!!!! After that was Joe Joe Everyday which had a little bit of choreography. They swung their legs in the air and stuff. Very cute. Last was Gradation, which I honestly was very happy to be able to hear live since it’s my favorite song on the CD. I nearly cried. So pretty… ;__; The boys said their goodbyes after the song and disappeared off stage. Then come the chants for an encore.

After a few minutes, Kamiya and Miyu kun returned on stage wearing the event tshirts, except theirs were customized with shiny lettering. They sang Kokoro no Tobira for the encore, and that was the end of the event. I didn’t expect them to sing all their songs. Can’t say enough how cool their dancing was.

The night event was pretty much the same except for the talk corners. The night event was a lot more entertaining because Miyu kun really let loose. For the first corner, in order to test how well Kamiya and Miyu kun get along, they were asked questions and had to come up with the same answer. Miyu kun kept on writing answers that no one would ever think of and it was hilarious because he was so confident with himself. XD Out of like 10 or so questions, they only got 3 the same. Every time they wrote different answers, smoke would blow at their faces. It’s kind of hard to explain Miyu kun’s answers. You have to had been there or watch the DVD. In any case, I, and pretty much everyone else at the event, laughed so much it was tiring. My stomach started to hurt from laughing too much! ^^;;

Next they did the Reverse Theater again but with different situations. First up was a volleyball scene where one would receive the ball, the other would set it and then the first player would spike the ball. As per the rules, they had to act out the scene backwards and the video was then played in reverse to start at the beginning. Funny stuff. The next scene was a sumo one. They had costumes, including mawashi (sumo belt), and fake hair. It was hilarious. XD They had to act out a bout scene, in reverse of course. It was very funny but is hard to describe in words.

There were some announcements during the event. Kiramune Music Festival 2012 will be taking place March 17-18 at the Makuhari Messe Event Hall. This was originally announced at the CONNECT live last week. Next they announced Miyu kun’s second mini album to be released November 9th. Lastly, they announced Miyu kun’s participation in the LisAni live in December 4th at Budoukan. Unfortunately there were no announcements for Kamiya. (Maybe at the event in Osaka?? One can hope.)

KAmiYU in Wonderland 2 will be released on DVD November 25th. It will be sold only at Animate and .ANIME and retail for 6000 yen (2 discs). There is a report for the noon event at the Girl’s OH website.

Jiyuu no HiroC

Unrelated to KAmiYU, but on DGS 226, my gotouchi DGS mail got read! I sent in a photo I edited of the Statue of Liberty with HiroC’s face and the statue holding an issue of SYLPH, and titled it Jiyuu no HiroC (the Statue of Liberty in Japanese is “Jiyuu no megami“/Goddess of Freedom). I was very surprised they introduced my photo. This is the first time I’ve ever been read on DGS, and it only makes it better that Kamiya was the one who read it. =3 I didn’t notice since I was busy spazzing but apparently “自由のヒロC (jiyuu no HiroC)” was trending on Twitter for a while. XD On the DGS mobile website, there is a photo of Kamiya holding a print out of the photo I sent in.

Reports/Photos Kamiya Hiroshi

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Yesterday was the Dear Girl ~Stories~ 4 Lovers Only event at Pacifico Yokohama. It rained practically all day. As expected from Ono “Rain Man” Daisuke. I didn’t get to sleep until 2AM because I was working on organizing the letters and art for the project. Thank you to everyone who participated!! I’ve posted some photos in the gallery above. I only had a black marker so all the colored parts were written with Gundam Marker, haha. (Please don’t mind the fact that I wrote “Yokohama Pacifico” instead of “Pacifico Yokohama.” >_> It was 2AM.)

Anyway, I woke up at 5:30AM and was out the door before 6 in order to line up for goods by 8. There were already lots of people by the time I got there. Waited for four hours for them to start selling goods. During that time it would rain off and on. Sometimes the rain would come very suddenly. Other times it was sunny and bright out. Whenever it’d get sunny, I imagined it was because Kamiya “Sunny Man” Hiroshi gave OnoD a good kick in the butt. ^^; They finally did start selling goods at 12 and I bought pretty much everything except Suwa san’s tshirt and the Neko Masshigura Hibiki Kan. I also bought the Hibiki drama CD and received a clear file of Kamiya and OnoD as a bonus. (My only reason for buying it. ^^;) There were no purchase limits. FYI, some goods from the event, including the pamphlet and tshirts, will be on sale online. The pamphlet has a lot of great photos, including ones of Kamiya and OnoD holding swords. They looked like yakuza. XD Going for the dirty agent look, maybe?

After buying goods, I had lunch with friends and got back to the venue a little after 4PM when doors were supposed to open. There was a very long line to get in. …And it was rainy and windy. We finally got in though and my friend and I went to our seats in the 24th row (aisle). We had a great view of the stage. I got ready with my towel and all. I had changed into the Ono Daisuke produce tshirt during lunch. For tshirts this time they had girls’ and men’s sizes. I bought the girls’ M size and the length of the shirt was perfect, but the part where the sleeve connects under your armpit was a bit tight. I was able to exchange the Kamiya shirt for an L size but OnoD’s shirt was already sold out by the time we got back, and of course I was wearing the one I had bought so I wouldn’t be able to exchange it anyway. Read more…

Reports/Photos DGS

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This past weekend was CharaHobby 2010 at Makuhari Messe. The DGS public recording was on the second day and there were several announcements, the biggest one being the announcement of a DGS movie! That’s right– MOVIE! It will start playing at Ikebukuro Cine Libre starting October 23. An official website for the movie can be found here. Tickets for the special late-night showing on 10/23 will go on sale September 25. While it’s called a movie, it’ll be more like a documentary of the trip to Ushiku for OnoD’s birthday. The video was filmed by UchiP, as usual, and will star Kamiya Hiroshi, Ono Daisuke, Yonaga Tsubasa, and Kobayashi Chanko Chanko. The photo used for the movie website and flier is actually just a random photo taken by the staff. It was not taken specifically for this use, hehe.

The jacket cover for the new DGS single was shown. You can see it on the BinaryMixxRecords website over here.

You can find out the contents of the radio show by listening to it this weekend so I won’t go into too much detail about it. Chanko chan was in charge of the explanations and warnings before the recording, but his “tooth hurt” so he passed the baton onto Yagihashi kun who made his first public appearance, sliding onto stage like a rookie. The maguro (tuna) “caught” by OnoD was a present that Irino Miyu gave Kamiya. It finally became of use, haha. OnoD got kicked in the butt by Kamiya again. This has become tradition for DGS public recordings.

After the public recording, fliers for the movie would be passed out at the Bunka Housou booth. There was a mad rush to get over there. We were squished like sardines and unfortunately they ran out before I could get one.

On the first day, I was near the Bunka Housou booth in my HiroC cosplay and Chanko chan came up to me saying, “HiroC no cosplay da (It’s a cosplay of Hiroc!)” I told him I was from America and he said he kind of remembered me from last year. Whoo hoo! I was watching an event at the Bandai Namco booth when UchiP walked passed me. He saw me and I gave him a nod and smile, and he responded back with the same. =) On the second day when we did an all-nighter to get a good spot near the stage for the day’s events, before doors opened, we were near the glass windows and could see inside the hall. Was near the Bunka Housou booth and saw Chanko chan and UchiP. Chanko chan was walking towards us (though of course he would be going under since we were on the second floor.) My friends and I waved at him and after a while he noticed and waved back. So cute! Saw UchiP at the Bunka Housou booth later in the day and went to take a picture with him. He’s so tallllllllll!!! I asked him about a possible public recording overseas and he said only if it they got permission. Well, at least it sounds like they’re not against the idea! In retrospect, I should have asked him to put the video he takes onto DVD, but then later in the day they announced the DGS movie, so yeah.

At the Bunka Housou booth, there was a small display with Haman Khan, the Yonagappa suit, and Doki Doki Kokan Bazooka. There was also a reader thingy to get special mobile wallpapers of Kamiya and OnoD’s drawings of each other. Apparently there was a problem on the 29th so now the wallpaper is available on the mobile website for everyone and not just for those who went to CharaHobby. The mobile website has also been updated with information about the movie and new single.

During the Oshaberi Station stage with Iwata Mitsuo and Suzumura Kenichi, and guests Irino Miyu and Namikawa Daisuke on the first day of CharaHobby, they announced Kiramune Music Festival 2010. It will be held November 6 and 7th at Makuhari Messe. Tickets are already available for early preorder here. Performers will include CONNECT (Iwata Mitsuo, Suzumura Kenichi), Irino Miyu, Kamiya Hiroshi, Namikawa Daisuke, and Kakihara Tetsuya.

The Kiramune sound drop keychains were available for early sale at CharaHobby at the Bandai booth. I got Kamiya’s on my fourth try. His has three different lines:

• Shizentai de iin ja nai
• Ganbattekou!!
• Kui no nai you ni kyou mo ganbaru ka!

Overall, had a great time at CharaHobby. I also went to the Gundam 00 Supporter’s Gathering later in the day on Sunday. That was fun too, though each event was quite short.

News, Reports/Photos DGS, Kamiya Hiroshi

Went to the noon event of KAmiYU in Wonderland at Yokohama BLITZ. It featured Kamiya Hiroshi and Irino Miyu with guests Okiayu Ryoutarou, Onosaka Masaya, Yoshino Hiroyuki, and Nakamura Yuuichi.

My friend and I were numbers 93 and 94 so we were able to get a spot near the back where there was a step. It was very easy to see the stage.

The curtain went down and there were the usual announcements about cellphones and recordings, etc. It was done by Kamiya and Irino and was very cute. Kamiya pretended to be talking on the phone and stuff while Irino pointed out that the things Kamiya was doing wasn’t allowed.

When the curtain (on which was attached the screen thingy) went up, Kamiya and Irino were on stage doing sitting seiza style. I think the jeans Kamiya was wearing were the same pair he wore for the Seiyuu Paradise photoshoot. Anyway~

They talked about the name KAmiYU and how the whole thing came to be. Kamiya had no idea while Irino knew it all. XD Apparently the discussion came up after Irino’s JUMP event in Yokohama. Possible names for the unit included “Color Ball” and “Thinking Time.” X.D Color Ball because of the colored balls in the JUMP PV, and Thinking Time because all the producers and people were all thinking of what to do. In the end they combined “Kamiya” and “Miyu” for it to be KAmiYU. Kamiya talked about how he wasn’t sure where the accents were in the name, and Irino decided where they would be on the spot. X3

Next they showed Irino’s JUMP PV and commented on it. Irino really liked Kamiya’s performance of full count during KiraFes so he wanted to have trumpets and stuff too. Irino had the people pause during certain scenes he wanted to talk about and for the first one, his face when they paused it… XDDDDD

After, the Sigma Seven duo came out in sunglasses. Yocchin introduced himself as Fujiwara Keiji. X.D He did look a lot like him, LoL. Nakamura looked good in his black vest. They talked about what qualifications they had and everyone except Nakamura had Eiken level 3 (like the JLPT but for English). Unfortunately they didn’t give us a demonstration. =( Next, Irino got to be cameraman. He held a camcorder and acted as director with the other three making up a sentai scene. Yocchin was the bad guy monster while Nakamura was Kuro Vest Red and Kamiya was Kuro Vest Pink. X.D They were the Kuro Vest Rangers because Nakamura was wearing a black vest. At the end Irino wanted to replay it a bit but it turned out he didn’t even record it, LoL! After they had a “first pitch ceremony” where they all threw signed plastic balls into the crowd. Unfortunately the balls were real light so they couldn’t go very far. Needless to say, none came our way.

Next was the Aoni duo. Okiayu and Onosaka came out in yukata! *________* Okiayu’s was, of course, flowery. He kept on saying “curry” as if that was the only thing he could say. It was funny. X.D They had a Balloon Talk where subjects written on paper were inside balloons and they had to pop the balloon to find out what it was. One person would pop it with a needle and one other would have to hold it and was in charge of having a “wahh!” reaction. First up with Onosaka popping and Kamiya holding. Onosaka kept getting closer and closer to Kamiya with the balloon and then popped it. Kamiya was startled and it looked like he was kinda mad. ^^;; The topic was they had to compliment each other. Other topics included secrets about KAmiYU, and I think there was one or two others but I don’t remember what they were.

Next up was the live corner. Namikawa came out and sang a couple songs, Rock Star and Alright!!. He was so nervous when he had to talk. Now I know what people mean when they say Namikawa’s kinda dumb. ^^;;; I have to admit, he’s not really the brightest bulb around, but I say that in the best way possible cuz he’s adorable. X.D He said weird things like “Congratulations on attending KAmiYU” instead of “Thank you for attending KAmiYU.” X.DDD

And then Irino came out and sang JUMP!!! I didn’t know he was gonna sing too. I only expected Namikawa too. As usual, Irino sang very well.

AND THEN Kamiya came out and sang full count!!! Wa~i!!! He was really good, though the performance lacked the pink jacket that will forever be associated with this song. No air trumpet or guitar either. I think his performance at KiraFes left too deep an impression. X.D It’s hard to top that.

AND THEN!!! Kamiya and Irino announced that they sing the song for the Gunpla Builders OVA (see PV with the song over here) and it’s not only one song, but TWO!!! And they sang BOTH songs!!! First was My Proud, My Play (the song in the PV) and then Kokoro no Tobira. Both songs are really good and Kamiya and Irino’s voices go well together. Can’t wait for a single release! (There better be one!!)

Lastly, they had all the guests come back out. Okiayu and Yocchin were carrying the KAmiYU tote bags. It looked a little too fitting with Okiayu’s yukata. XDDD Streamers were blast out and like at KiraFes, they had star cutouts come down from the ceiling. I swear one of them was signed or something! Either way, something was written on it while all the others were blank. I’m pretty curious.

KAmiYU was a really fun event and it will be released on DVD, but only sold at Animate and .ANIME. It’ll only be about 200 minutes so my guess is that they will only include one of the events and not both, since the event was a couple hours.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that during the talk session with Okiayu and Onosaka, Kamiya had a huge laughing fit. He literally couldn’t stop laughing/giggling for at least 5 minutes. And you know how his voice gets all high when he really laughs? Yeah, it was ADORABLE. Irino also announced that he’d be releasing his first full album in October.

EDIT2: Read reports of the night event and dude!!! NO FAIR!!! For the PV commentary, they showed my diary. Kamiya was apparently told that his leg hair was too thick and to do something about it by the staff. XDDDDD He has nothing but Toppo inside his fridge…. >__>

And they announced the newest member of Kiramune!! KAKIHARA TETSUYA!! He came out on stage too!! Dude!!! Why didn’t they announce this during the noon event too? That’s so unfair. ;__;

Reports/Photos Kamiya Hiroshi