Haven’t updated this blog in months but figured I’d at least announce I’ll be at AX this year. I even get the honor to crash with the Great Omo, Momotato, and Alexd to boot; all awesome gentlemen in their own right!

I honestly can’t believe the amount of events going on this year but much to say, I’ve already gotten my schedule figured out. I’m pretty much giving up on seeing 1/2 the guests to go to AKB related events and will only most likely see 3-4 anime-related guests at best (Hocchan! May’n! Mamegu!). I guess ’tis the way of becoming an idol otaku, for better or worse.

I have no honest plans of any meetups but depending if I’m free or not, am more than willing to go to some (I’ll need to bug Omo since he’s always in the know). Given my somewhat tight schedule, however, who knows if I’ll even be free or alive to do so!

I’m trying to keep my expectation low, so any mishaps won’t ruin the overall experience but I cannot say I’m not excited. Considering this is my first AX, there’s just so much potential awesome waiting to happen! All of which, I’ll hopefully try to blog live-ish about via twitter and qik if time (and reception) allows!

So for those that are going, if you happen to see some asian guy in a Nana Mizuki Live Diamond baseball jersey or some AKB branded t-shirts, do stop me to say “hi” if you wish. And since my ugly mug can be found at multiple places (check my old Otakon posts for example), don’t blame me if you stop some other asian dude wearing similar clothes

Header post image credit to danie since I had nothing else good to work with. I’ll also be referencing her various Nana’s posts to help explain or buff out mine, so thanks again ^^;;

I should probably start off by saying this post will more be about my mis-adventures related to the concert and not so much on the concert itself. Not so much that the concert was bad, no it was pretty awesome without a doubt, but more to the fact my memory is pretty bad when recalling songs other than “oh I know this one!” I’ll still talk about the concert itself, but if one wants real impressions of Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY concerts, please do check out danie’s reports of Fukuoka and Niihama instead.

With that little disclaimer aside, I’ll start off the post with me checking in at Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel the night before the concert. Literally like <10 minutes away from Yokohama Arena (you’ll see in a sec), I decided the last second to get a room versus totally camping out. In hindsight it was definitely good, especially since I got a nice room for 7000yen, but if I was really going to be all hardcore, I should have just camped out like the Japanese fans did.

And yes, I took a photo of the floor as I found it funny I got a room (actually room 703) on the 7th floor. FYI for those just reading this for kicks and have no idea what I’m talking about, 7 in Japanese is “nana”; get it? ^^;;

I cringed when I re-watched this video, mostly because I don’t like the sound of my voice and my camera work is shaky at best. Sorry for the lack of quality but I thought having some personal videos would add a nice twist to blog posts about concerts (at least Japanese related ones) that one normally reads. Hopefully as one can tell from the video, I’m pretty close to the venue able to see it clearly from my window without problems!

I’m definitely no Danny Choo when it comes to doing these self videos but hope everyone who watched enjoyed it. If anything, now everyone can put my rather sarcastic (and still randomly cracked voice at the old age of 27) tone of voice together with my writing style, which for better or worse, is pretty much the same.

As mentioned in the video, but for those that didn’t bother watching, my game plan for the night ended up being crashing for a bit and then get out by 3AM to camp with my fellow Nana followers. I do have to mention thank god I brought something to kill time since the internet in my room didn’t work at all; AKB48′s “Infinity” stage theater easily kept me entertained for the night.

Second embarrassing video for the event, recorded my short journey from the hotel to Yokohama Arena as well as giving a glance of the queue that already formed. Just to point myself out wrong in the video, what I thought was initially the front (where you see them at the staircase) is actually the back, which stopped and went to the OTHER side of the Arena. Took me awhile to figure out as after my failed attempt to ask someone in English, I had to watch how other newcomers were lining up.

While waiting in line with other folk, ended up walking around a bit even taking a quick photo of the upcoming artists’ concerts at Yokohama Arena. And yes, I already knew about AKB48 for those that may point that out ^^;;

Between 3AM and 5-6AM (whenever the sky actually started to turn blue) really didn’t do much. Just listen to my mp3 player the whole time while keeping warm, although it wasn’t that cold during this time surprisingly enough. Really, I think the only “incident” was that at one point, we needed to move our line closer to the initial queue. Basically where it stopped at the staircase, people started to line up even though we who were on the other side had continued the queue prior. Thankfully, it wasn’t an issue and no one complained about the 10-20 people that got in front of us after everything was said and done. That’s one thing you got to love about the Japanese; they don’t complain verbally much publicly and are pretty good about being mindful of others (for example, being able to leave one’s bag safely in place while getting food or walking around, waking up other folks in line when moving, etc).

Boredom really started to settle in around the 6AM-ish mark so to kill time took a look at the queue and was (pleasantly) surprised just how much longer it was getting. I don’t know if one can see it in the above photo, but far back is where I was initially queued (when the line was broken so not to get in the way of the Arena entrance) and it was already going way pass that point going around the venue!

Where I was in line after the move (basically at the staff entrance), silently thanking myself that I was towards the beginning even though I thought otherwise initially. Of course during this time, with the trains now running, more and more Nana fans were arriving at the venue joining the line; some surprised how long it already was considering the merchandise booth doesn’t open until 9AM!

More and more people coming and further up the beginning part of the line. During this time while not freezing my arse (mostly because of the wind) I kept thinking back to Utada’s NYC concert and how it would never be this self organized, clean, and relatively low-key!

I believe around 7AM-ish staff came out to check on us and start getting the line a bit more compacted and organized. But even doing so, the line still wrapped like crazy as the above shows; just to help with the point of reference, this is the end of the line which is at the bottom of the staircase in the photo prior to this one. Yep, it already started to wrap twice around the Arena!

I believe around 8AM-ish staff started to push us forward as I think they decided to try to open the merchandise booths a little early, to help get through the queue. Even after moving up a bit, one can still see just how crazy the line was continuing to get. Orderly as hell, yes but still very very very long!

I guess at this point I’ll quickly talk about the Japanese Nana fans, at least from what I gathered. Obviously, still majority guys but I would overall say maybe 10-20% of the crowd were females. A lot of them not even bad looking to boot! Although it could be due to some of them wearing school uniforms due to Nana’s concert theme. Yes, I just felt a bit dirty typing that as I think most of the girls were younger than me so… (and I pretty sure I saw an elementary/middle-school combo later on)

… definitely rioting in hell for this ^^:;

Social morals aside, most of the fans seem pretty “hardcore” in the sense that they must have gone to a few of Nana Mizuki’s concerts. Saw a lot of various concert goods being used/wore by her various fans, which did bring a tear to my eye since you’ll never see this in the US. Also just seeing the amount of people (young-ish as well) there really goes to show how far Nana has come as an artist. Good feeling all around which helped me make it through this crazy line wait since my feet were killing at this point ^^:;

Thankfully around 8:30AM they started to move my part of the line forward enough that we were only a few minutes away from the merchandise booth arena entrance. Quick shot above to see how long it stretches.

Photo of the line wrapping around from the back, only getting longer as the minutes went by. Honestly I was as surprised as some of my fellow line mates at just how long the queue was getting. I know I heard stories and all but seeing it in person just makes a world of difference in putting it in perspective.

I must thank the gods, or at the least the Nana fan who made this and handed it out to folks, for the above piece of paper. Thanks to this, I could figure out what I wanted and simply hand the list to the folks selling the goods. A little more on this in a bit but it was a lifesaver as I did not need to point and work through either bad Japanese or English what I wanted to buy!

I really only have danie and j1m0ne to work off of, but I think the video I took of the actual merchandise booth is one of the first for an english blog. If so, go me as sometimes when reading others’ experiences of various events like concerts, I wish I could see and get an actual feel for it. Although the video is short, hopefully for those that have never went to a Nana concert can get a slight idea of how some things go down.

Anyway, my part of the line was finally let in the venue around 9:30AM… only to find out we had to line up again to actually buy the goods! I don’t know how it was and is in general (guess it depends on the venue), but I know I and a few others were like “WTF O_o;;” Deal-able, obviously but still a slight letdown that we had to wait again!

At least, however, they had some nice eyecandy and music to keep us going. Better shots of this awesome image for its size alone a bit later. Speaking of the music, I had to LOL when DISCOTHEQUE and that came up; everyone pretty much sung to that ^^:;

While waiting in line, they had some other staffers announcing the whole “buy 2000yen or more of CDs/DVDs/Bluray, get a free clear file” danie mentioned in one of her post. Other than that and finally seeing what some of the goods physically look like, I kept changing my order not sure about some stuff; more so since the polo shirts were already sold out as soon as my part of the line were let in.

Making changes to my order and the like, I was happy they had four booths with at least 2-3 staffer per booth helping fans buy the concert merchandise. Sure it still took awhile, which I’ll get to in a bit, but at least given the amount of people and goods available, was going at a decent pace.

Forgot to mention but the venue limited goods were on the gray scale of the color spectrum. I’ll say it now but I thought they all looked kind of fugly. I will admit though after getting them, I can say at least the pin/badge is pretty cool (purple and black for those wondering).

Finally done figuring out what I wanted but still waiting for my turn, kept myself busy taking various photos of the huge Nana poster/whatever. I mentioned this on twitter but seriously, where can I get one of these to setup at home!?

Actually proud of the above closer shot as it was a nice clear view with my camera doing well even after zooming in to get just the image itself. But seriously (again), where can I get one of these babies for home!?!

Continuing on with the “I want the huge Nana poster for myself” rant, I was kind of surprised that only after looking at my photos, I realized there were stuff behind the walls as well. I guess flags or something as I don’t remember there being a good angle to double check this.

I’ll talk about the total amount and actual goods in a moment but much to say, thanks to the order form I had I was able to get what I wanted without too much hassle. Lady that helped with my purchases was nice enough and had me (well everyone really) double check that x shirt was the right size and style, wanted x-item, total amount owed, and amount of NANACA cards one is suppose to get. Obviously I was pretty happy it went smoothly enough although my wallet being lighter had me tearing a bit ^^;;

And before I forget, yes I also ended up with a clear file as I re-bought “Innocent Starter” and “Silent Bible” to get it. Ended getting the school Nana as I didn’t care much for the other image (used with Silent Bible I believe?) although it was a closer shot of the lovely lady. If one is wondering why those two singles, well “Innocent Starter” pretty much started me on the Nana fandom (at least her singing part) while “Silent Bible” was simply a rock solid release that I didn’t mind having a double of.

On the way out of the merchandise booth area, they had another area setup for those interested in signing up for Nana’s offical fanclub as well as advisements for Windows 7 with Nanami. For those that do not know, short story is a limited edition of Japanese Windows 7 came with a character theme pack (sounds and wallpapers) voiced by Nana Mizuki. It was only later on after I got back and checked my usual sources that I realized they were pimping out the new special edition that comes with Nanami’s “debut cd single” with Nana Mizuki obviously lending her vocals for it ^^;;

Blast the Japanese for trying to make even more money via Nana Mizuki and cute booth girls!

Oh, I should also mention as one actually left the arena, they were displaying some of Nana’s stage costumes which I thought were pretty cool. No photos allowed but nice to see some of them in person… now only if I could remember for which songs they were for…

I’ll cut out the story of getting back but much to say, I was able to head back to my hostel in Minami-senju without problems. Actually, to step back real quick, for the Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel I ended up checking out at 4AM as I was afraid I would not make it back in time due to the line waits. Ironically enough, even though there were a good 50-100 people in front of me I was done a little after 10AM. I was pretty surprised it went through that fast considering how everything seemed so long.

On the merchandise themselves, I ended up spending a grand total of 52600 yen. A bit over my initial budget but not by too much. Also to bite my own words, ended getting pretty much everything that wasn’t sold out minus the backpack (was never ever getting that). For those actually interested with what I bought:

- Sweater Vest (new item)
- Keychain/cell-strap B (new item)
- Keychain – Black (new item)
- T-shirt D (new item)
- Photo(?) album x2
- Postcard Sets A-B-C x2 (each – total 6)
- Calendar
- Wristbands – Red & Blue
- Towel
- T-shirt A-B
- Tie
- Cap
- Lightpen
- Keychain/cell-strap – Black
- Curry crackers
- Venue T-shirt
- Venue ruler/pen/notepad set
- Venue badge/pin
- “Innocent Starter” CD Single
- “Silent Bible” CD Single
- NANACA card x26

Before anyone ask, no I have not eaten the curry crackers as I’m still not sure I want to ^^;;

Last video for the concert event I took, which has me quickly going over the merchandise bought as well as opening up the NANACA cards. Once again, I apologize for the shoddy camera work, my voice, inability to open up a wrapper, and my general commentary! I will admit, it was a bit fun doing it “live” as one gets to hear my reactions as I open up each card to see what I got. I will also say man, I sure got A LOT of doubles which at this point, I’m still not sure what I want to do. Giveaways in the future?

Also to correct myself again, after looking at danie’s reports, seems I’m missing one from the regular set. Kind of annoying considering how many cards I got but at least I have the rare “shiny Nana-sensei” to make up for that ^_~

Finally with the most stressful part of the concert done, ended up chilling at the hostel for a bit as I had a few hours to kill before going back (a nice 1.5 hour ride) for the concert itself. Arrived back at the venue around 3PM (they open at 5PM) to find the merchandise line still long as hell as well as 10x more Nana fans around the area than when I left!

I thought this morning was already crazy but it just got more crowded as time passed, with people either lining up on the merchandise queue, meeting up with other Nana fans, etc. Also surprisingly how even with the increase of people, everything was still pretty organized in general. I guess I’m just too simply wow’ed with how the Japanese keep everything going right?

Scoping out the area a bit more, they seem to have moved the Windows 7 booth outside. Demoing and telling of the ventures of Windows 7, the booth got a few people looking to kill time if anything else. Then again, having the cutout of Nanami and cute-ish booth girls probably didn’t hurt either.

I think I’ll have to dead air myself as I’m starting to run out of things to say at this point for this time frame. Really the following several photos are just nice to show how crowded the area was and how popular Nana Mizuki has become.

People, a lot of people. Plain and simple.

As an FYI, I was coming back from a cheap 100yen vending machine that is just around the corner of the venue. Nice to save a few yen, especially if you don’t care for the need of a particular drink at the time.

Still crowded but at least the merchandise line was starting to thin out a little.

Booth girls trying to do their job. After stalking observing the booth, realized there were four and not two booth girls! I think only two out of the four were cute at best but honestly at this point of time, I was just bored out of my mind waiting for 5PM to roll around.

Finally around 4:30PM-ish they started to setup the lines to let us in the venue! It would still be around 30-45 minutes before we were actually let in but at least one can see the craziness of it all with everyone waiting to get inside.

They finally started to let people in around 5:15PM, with it luckily being a quick affair with security. Basically they mentioned no cameras, etc and simply had us open the main compartment of our bags to see if we had anything we shouldn’t. I know it definitely would not be like that in the US but I wasn’t about to complain as my feet were starting to die out again from all the standing!

Obviously with Nana’s concert being my first time at and in Yokohama Arena, didn’t know what to expect with seating and all. After waiting a bit more until they let us into the actual stage, I was pleasantly surprised my seat wasn’t as horrible as I thought. Without an doubt, I had one of the further seats in the arena but I could see everything pretty clearly. Sure Nana would be like a speck but monitors would help with that and it was more about hearing her live than anything else.

On the actual concert itself, I’ve seen epic used in a few places. It was, to put it simply, an insane difference experiencing the concert first hand versus watching it on DVD/Bluray. When seeing all the various lightpens/lightsticks/whatever turn on together when the lights were dimmed was simply amazing. Omo was right when he said I had to see it myself in person after he experienced Live Diamond last summer.

The fans, OMG they are uber hardcore! Maybe because I can’t keep a beat and/or rhythm for the life of me, it was just something altogether other worldly seeing all the lights (and fans) in sync otagei-ing like it was second nature to them. I mean, you see it on the various releases but it’s something I can’t explain unless you’ve done it (even horribly as I did) live with others!

Nana herself was in fine form that night belting out god knows how many songs I know but don’t remember the names of. Obviously for a setlist, don’t even ask me ^^;; I will mention however, the two “surprises”/specials for the venue which were her singing Touma’s (from Minami-ke) character song “Mirai Travel” and having the old SisPri (Sister Princess) unit PRITS sing “Sakura Revolution”. For the character song, I was actually glad although I believe some in the audience may not have known about it (surprisingly right?). Nana I think messed up with some of the initial tones(?) of the song as it has been a long time ago since she initially sung it. Nana being Nana however, she easily got through the song eventually hitting the right notes and whatnot even though she needed to look at the lyrics a lot (definitely a lot more than the other time I saw her sing a character song). For “Sakura Revolution”, that threw me off bat since I didn’t realize who she brought on stage until they introduced what they were doing. And while it was cool to see some other seiyuus, it was totally unexpected… on the song itself, well let’s just say Nana was the only good one ^^;; (edit: I can’t spell, thanks for pointing that out danie)

Nana’s MC was great as usual and it was nice just seeing her go at it with ease. Sadly I can’t really remember what she talked about even though it was only 24 hours ago, so my bad.

Lastly as far as Nana commenting goes, much props to her for using a lacrosse stick to give out the signed balls at the end of the show. She actually got some good distance considering her usual attempts to throw signed objects at her fans. Obviously no luck for use in the standing seat area ;_;

Okay, this is my last Nana comment which has to do with the fact she really does have a great set of assets vocals. I say this even though it’s obvious because actually seeing and hearing her give her thanks sans mic (like she always does) proved without a doubt she has it. I mean, if I could hear her clearly with a loud audience as well as being in the nosebleed section, you know she has something right going on!

There is probably a bit more I can talk about the concert itself but as now, nothing is coming to mind. If I do remember, I’ll make another post and edit this one so for those interested, check back in the coming days okay?

Otherwise, Nana performed one solid concert that lasted about 2-2.5 hours that left this Nana fan more than satisfied that he went. The walk back to the JR station and general ride home however, is a completely different story -_-

One quick thing I would like to mention on the trip back, they had various people selling Nana photo cards at different prices. I don’t think it’s anything official as the images I saw seem to be ones you can find on the net; just that they were of nice quality on photo quality paper? I did have to LOL when I overheard and eventual saw one stand selling Nana photo cards but had Yukari Tamura in the set as well for some reason. Wasn’t sure if the seller thought that Yukari was Nana as well (the images he had kind of sort of do if you looked real quick) or was just selling other seiyuu related photos too.

And with talks of stands selling non-official goods, it thus ends my long report on Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY Yokohama Arena March 13th 2010 concert. I hope everyone enjoyed at least parts of this post as it was a labor of love I don’t normally do. If someone is expecting me to do something similar (i.e. videos) for any future events I’ll go to, all I can say is time will tell ^_^

I should start off this entry by saying it’s been about four months since I’ve see Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ in Japan, so my memories are pretty foggy. However, thanks to the movie pamphlet and the general story of the series I can still more or else give Macross F fans an idea of how awesome the movie is!

To be blunt, if you’ve been following the TV series the movie will not be that new to you. I would say the movie is roughly 50-70% straight TV footage and general storyline while everything else is movie specific. Specifically, I would say from the beginning of the TV series until the first major battle with the Vajra during Sheryl’s final Macross Frontier concert.

I’ll get into the movie specific plot in a bit but to continue like me run down the characters real quick. To cut some time on the love triangle, pretty much everyone (or specifically Alto) knows Sheryl and Ranka in the movie. They do show via quick flashback scenes how each met (pretty much the same in the TV series) but I did like how they saved audience’s time with such introductions.

Obviously with the movie only being like an 1 1/2 hours long, the majority of character development went to the three leads, i.e. Alto, Sheryl, and Ranka. I would say for Alto, he’s pretty much SERIOUS BUSINESS in the sense he’s not as undecided about his career and whatnot. Still uber girly looking, though ^^;; Sheryl actually has some development really being more, I guess, down to earth? Don’t know how to put it exactly, but I guess she shows more of her emotions openly versus Alto chipping away at them like in the TV series? Ranka, on the other hand, got to show more of her drive to become a singer/idol and it was great to see that determination a bit more drawn out versus how it was in the TV series.

Going back to the plot, and warning now but these are total spoilers, the movie specific add-ons definitely added a nice touch and overall improvement to the series. Just listing some off the top of my head, one of the biggest is Sheryl is in the know of Grace’s project/communicating with the Vajra… or at least knows Ranka’s “Aimo” song; something like that ^^;;

Also nice and an easy way to get his character involved at the start, Brera is Sheryl’s bodyguard. I don’t think him and Ranka being siblings was established in the movie although I think he knows… really forgot or I could be mixing this up from the TV series.

There’s probably a lot more I’ve forgotten about the movie but two more things I have to mention related to the plot before I forget. Even bigger than Sheryl knowing about the Vajra, MICHAEL FRICKING LIVES! Yes, during the final major battle where you just know he’s going to bite the dust, they pull the wool over our shoulders and have the man live! How crazy is that!?

Really the only thing that topped MICHAEL FRICKING LIVING was the epic, and I do mean epic, final battle during Sheryl’s pirateship live. The concert, fighting, singing… just everything was 100x better than anything the TV series gave us! Like if I wasn’t going to buy the DVD/Bluray of the movie prior to this scene, after the final battle, I would have been sold otherwise! That’s just how insane the final battle & concert scenes are!

I know I didn’t really give much of a review but rather “oh I vaguely remember this and that” free-flowing post, but if I had to say one thing about the movie it would be this: BUY IT!

Even if you’ve never watched Macross F, I believe the movie did a good job of setting up the characters and showed the plot in a way that anyone could enjoy. Heck, the friend I bought to watch the movie with me doesn’t understand Japanese and I could only give him a general rundown of the series, but still enjoyed the movie nonetheless (actually he liked it a lot more than One Piece: World’s Strongest which I thought he would have liked better since OP is pretty straight forward to watch). It may be the lack of sleep talking but I must admit I was pretty impressed with the Macross F movie never expecting it to make me like the series more after watching…

… though I do got to admit seeing Sheryl more dere dere didn’t hurt to improve my opinions either!

Oh, just in case you’re wondering all the images in this post are from the random scans I did from the movie pamphlet one could buy. Sorry if the scans aren’t that great but I’m way too tired to even try to re-do them.

And before I forget, btw this is another spoiler, I remember reading on some site when the movie initially came out, they thought Sheryl’s “Welcome to My Fan Club Night!” outfit’s (i.e. the cowgirl looking one) skirt was dynamite or something. Well to put people’s fear aside, they are in fact not dynamite but mini-rocket boosters that get put into good use to save her at one point ^^;;

… also, the iSlug gets a nice upgrade to orange which was weirdly one of the first things I noticed once the movie started.

Okay, I’ve definitely run out of anything useful at this point, so I’ll leave the rest of the post to the scanned images of the postcards one could also buy for the movie ^^

This post is more for myself so I have a list of sorts of what I want to buy while in Japan and also to help keep my budget somewhat in check. Obviously this doesn’t include day-to-day expenses like food, transportation, housing, the random “WTF”, and other folks’ “buy this for me” wish lists but…

Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY Concert

For more info about the goods, head over to danie sensei’s blog. I thought initially I was going to try to get everything but honestly there’s some crap there that just isn’t worth the money.

Conversely, there’s some stuff I’ll probably get a double of like the calendar and card sets. Maybe also the cap since I do plan to actually wear it but would like one that doesn’t have all my sweat on it as a keeper ^^;;

Total: 44900 yen (roughly depending on what doubles I get)

AKB48 Request Hour Set List Best 100 2010 LIVE at SHIBUYA-AX

I’ve fallen pretty bad for the AKB48 fandom, ’tis all I have to say orz

… but to sum up this DVD, basically AKB48 has a yearly countdown of the top 100 fan voted songs that usually span 4 days. The great thing about these concerts other than getting to hear and see your favorite song(s) sung, is they always invite graduated members to come back to sing if it used to be their sub-unit song. So fans get their chance to see old members come back and perform songs that just aren’t the same if it weren’t for said member(s).

Also the Shinbuya AX concerts are a good primer if you want to hear the wide range of AKB48 songs (and trust me, there are A LOT) before you dive deeper into the fandom. They helped me a lot when I got started and are actually 10x more enjoyable after you know who’s who and what song is what ^^;;

Total: 20300 yen

AKB歌劇団「∞・Infinity」

For more information, check out STAGE48. There’s yuri action for those interested

Total: 5980 yen

AKB48′s “Sakura no Shori”

I actually have three copies of the CD single already (one Type A and two Type B) but figured since I’ll be in Japan, may as well get the theater version as well (which can only be picked up at their official shop).

Total: 1600 yen

Kamen Rider W – CycloneJoker (S.H.Figuarts)

First off, photo credit goes to the awesome TASTE. Second, I blame AKB48 for getting me into Kamen Rider W since two of their members happen to guest star in the series. Checking their related episodes led to downloading the currently released episodes which led to checking out other Kamen Rider series to well… yea ^^;;

Total: 2500 yen

Kamen Rider W – Heatmetal (S.H.Figuarts)

See above for the reasons why I’m want this.

Total: 2500 yen

Kamen Rider Decade – Diend

Photo credit goes to TOMOPOP. So after watching Kamen Rider W, I jumped back a series and started to check out Decade. Overall not a bad series and it was kind of cool seeing past Kamen Riders in it if anything else.

As for the figure, well Diend is pretty cool and got to admit, your gun as your henshin “belt” is something new to me! And at least he isn’t pink like the main character ^^;;

Total: 2800 yen

Queen & Elizabeth’s “Love Wars”

CD single with two AKB48 members (Tomomi Kasai and Tomomi Itano) tying into the Kamen Rider W series. You can see the full PV if you click the image and overall, it’s a decent pop-ish song so…

Total: 1890 yen

Minori Chihara’s “Sing All Love”

Yes I already have the Bluray edition but I need to pick up the normal and DVD editions to support her. Also may try to get the other photo cards from the various stores if I actually remember which has which.

Total: 6800 yen (if I’m just picking up the normal and DVD versions)

Maaya Sakamoto’s Birthday Live

I have no idea what they’ll be selling at her concert but odds are I’ll be picking up at least her recently released Everywhere album celebrating her 15 years in the business.

Total: 3780 yen?

AKB48 DVD Magazine Vol 3

I have to get this DVD (although I already have the rips) since this is during the time AKB48 was in NYC, including their Webster Hall concert ^_^

Also yes, you can see myself and few others in the audience during the concert if you know where to look ^_~

Total: 6000 yen

And surprisingly, that’s all I want to buy at the moment. Totaling at roughly 96350 yen, it’s actually not as bad as I thought. Really only Nana’s concert merchandise and the AKB48 Shinbuya AX concert are going to kill me but otherwise pretty straight forward purchases.

Knowing myself though, I’ll probably end up buying something totally random and expensive just cause or it was something I “wanted”. I just hope it won’t be anything too big since I don’t have THAT much free luggage room ^^;;

The world must be coming to an end as I’ve updated this blog three days straight! Even if the posts are crappy, that’s probably the most I’ve ever updated the blog in months! Go me!

Anyway this update is an oldie but goodie, my quarterly(?) room photo post! Really mostly to satisfy @prajantr‘s curiosity to see what my otaku room is like, I figured may as well make a post while I’m at it. For those that have been following my “otaku room” series, all I can say is I’m sorry and man, every post I always have more crap in ‘em ^^;;

Basically what it looks like as soon as you walk in. Really not much has changed since last time other than more figures and posters, which I’ll go into more detail in a bit.

More figures and stuff I’ll probably never open due to space. Also cleaned up the magazine mess moving them to their own shelving.

Figures you’ll see as you go to the bathroom. Tis been the same for months/years I believe.

The two Nanoha figures any decent fan with the money should have. Lovely figures from what I can tell through the box and seeing others’ photos. Probably will never open them since I’ll be too lazy to dust them off; plus I don’t have any room at the moment ^^;;

My DVD/Bluray/Signed items shelves. Had to reorganize the whole shelf, basically cramming more DVDs per shelf to make room for my non-anime DVDs/Blurays. Also the two big tubes you see hold my various posters that I don’t put up but are somewhat important to keep safe (i.e. my Nana and AKB48 ones).

Probably can’t tell from the image, but every DVD that’s displayed in the front part of the shelves are all signed. Have fun guessing (if you can see at all) who signed what media!

Mostly the big figures I can’t fit in the glass cabinets and whatnot.

The bed and probably one of the few times you’ll ever see it half-way decently made ^^;; New poster since last time as well, Atsuko Maeda from AKB48 from her 2010 calendar that I picked up while in Japan. Not bad and you have to admit, 90% of the time any poster looks 5x better framed versus not framed right?

Basically my “back” wall? Also another new poster, Haruna Kojima from AKB48 looking good in that blue one piece dress. Sadly I’m really out of room for these posters as maybe, I can hang two more if I pushed it. It’ll be interesting to see what I’ll do once that happens…

Just a quick shot of my HTC Touch Pro 2 in its cradle. Really glad I picked up the cradle for like 12USD on ebay; really it just allows me to stand up my phone so I can use it as an clock/alarm when I wake up in the morning XD

You’ll also see I moved all my magazines and artbooks to these shelves to save/maximize the space I have left. Sadly also running out of room here as well.

Where any good otaku will spend a majority of their freetime when they’re a NEET orz

Closer look at my PC setup and yes, I’m still loving the portrait monitor setup!

Scanner, mini-fridge, and misc clear file folders I’m using to sort various crap. Mostly seiyuu photo cards and other billing stuff, nice to finally find a use for the folders!

My tower of CDs and one of my (still) favorite Minorin shots. God I won’t tell you how long it took me to sort my CDs in alphabetical order, but let’s just say I was mighty glad when I was done ^^;;

Got to watch anime, Nana, and various idols on a big screen right? Surprisingly no big screen upgrade this time around, although that’s mostly due to financial issues rather than any personal reason not to ^_~

Bought a cheap “game chair” to sit while under the kotatsu which makes things a lot better than sitting on the bare cold floor.

Yes, I know I need to dust. Badly.

Very Badly.

Picked up a second glass shelf many moons ago to move all the figures I had lining around the plasma and whatnot. Looks better plus they get less dusty that way.

It’s sad they’re both completely maxed out although I could use a third one if I ever find room or the money to do so ^^;;

FFXIII soda can (yes somehow it made it in one piece from Japan to HK to USA) and random figure boxes I’m keeping as well as Japanese PC/PS2/PSP games in the back.

Theme: put as many figures as possible and luckily pull off a “bunny girl & maid” theme at the end

Theme: play figure tetris to see how many figures I could get in on a shelf without activating the row deletion feature ^^;;

Theme: Rock ‘n Roll?

Theme: Nanoha, Swimsuits, and Dust!

Theme: Dust v2 and Gundams!

Theme: Stuff the big figures and pray nothing falls

Theme: Red red red red!

Theme: Junk the figures until you can junk no more!

Theme: Wedding Dress with reincarnated warriors as guards?

And that ladies and gentlemen, sums up another fun trip to moyism’s “otaku room”. Stay tuned until next time when I will probably do something financial stupid again only to regret/enjoy whatever ill-gotten gains it’ll be!

If you are looking for an in-depth review or something actually worth reading, I would highly suggest checking out animemiz’s report instead. If, however, you would like something entertaining or want to kill a few minutes reading an “old man’s” ramblings, continue on as I’ll give the quick 411 on Utada’s “In the Flesh” concert in NYC!

I was debating whether or not to tell it in my usual style of “play by play” (like I do for the majority of my cons posts), but seeing that would lead to a lot of dead air time (i.e. ranting about 7+ hours standing in line) I decided to skip that. Instead I’ll just give the good, bad, and overall impressions to save the hassle.

On the bad, this really had to do with the venue’s management. I’ll admit I don’t do concerts, like ever, but out of the few I’ve been to I would have to say the Fillmore’s was the worst. What I mean by that is how once they started to let people in the actual building, any sense of order was thrown out the window. Beside normal security checks, getting into the actual venue was a mad rush with everyone waiting an additional 30 minutes before they would let us to where the stage was. During that time, the line ended up being lines and once the door was opened to the stage, it was like cramming 10 people at a time into a door opening that only fit 2 people at most. Plus people pushing like mad to get through the already crowded venue just made it all the more annoying. Great right?

Luckily venue management issues was pretty much it, as beside that, the concert itself was great. Like out of the dozen or so Japanese related ones I’ve seen live, easily the top 5 hands down! Utada definitely knows how to work the audience and kept everyone thoroughly pumped through her 20-odd song set list. Obviously my big favorites were her japanese songs with “First Love” being the top, but even her english stuff (which I did not like initially) grew on me as the night went by. I was thoroughly glad she stuck to her more popular and mainstream Japanese songs as its really her older songs that made Utada well, Utada Hikaru for me. I won’t go into more details on why but let’s just say after a certain time period, Utada’s songs have been hit and miss for me since ^^;;

Not really have seen any of Utada’s Japanese concerts (beside Nippon Budokan, what others have been released on DVD?), I was quiet surprised at how good she was during the various MCs. I guess since I’m used to seeing MCs a certain way after watching god knows how many other Japanese concerts, it was refreshing and weird at the same time for Utada to be pretty normal/American(?) during hers. I mean, how many Japanese artists during their MCs would bitch about the venue’s pillars (Boston), call the audience crazy for camping out (NYC), or tell them to shut up (playfully) for being too enthusiastic for cheering her on? Plus she was freely switching between Japanese and English depending on the song/mood, which had my brain working overtime to boot! Actually, on this, I have to admit it was kind of sad I understood her better when she MC’ed in Japanese versus English. I think it had to do with how she was talking; not in term of accent (she had none really) but grammatically (edit: thanks wah, my English goes down the crapper the later it gets) I guess? Like if she switched some wording around, whatever she was saying would have sounded smoother? This was more obvious to me in the beginning but I think as the night went on and Utada got more in the mood, it disappeared. Heh, go fig, but I guess it simply comes down to not being used to having a predominantly Japanese singer speak normal english ^^;;

Overall though, excellent concert and totally worth the 40USD, 7+ hours of waiting in line outside in the cold, and having my feet totally destroyed. Would I do it again if I had to? Definitely. I mean as much as Utada may not be as uber popular as she was during her peak, she’s Utada fricking Hikaru! Easily one of the artists that got me interested in Jpop back in the days whom career I’ve seen only get better and better (for the most part) since she started! Plus there are only so many chances to meet and hear artists of her caliber in Japan, let alone in the US, so for foreign fans like myself there’s just no excuse not to take the chance when available!

Just in case I sleep in way too long or get too lazy about it, Happy Chinese New Years to those that celebrate! Hope everyone can enjoy the holiday (CNY, Valentines, whatever) peacefully!

… And while I unfortunately got nothing for the ladies, for the guys at least, here’s an additional eye candy shot of Oshima Mai (former member of popular idol group AKB48) they can enjoy:

I swear I did not simply change my blog layout because super rats did as well; timing was just weird like that! Also, 2+ brownie points for anyone that knows who the girls are in the post image I’m using. Hint, they’re not seiyuus ^^;;

Anyway, and as seem to be the norm looking at past entries, I switched around my blog theme again to spice things up… or at least give the illusion that I can be productive with the blog when I need to ^^;; The new theme, Magazine Basic, really made my life easy as I hardly had to edit much of the code to my taste as the creators already made all the options accessible via GUI instead! Really, the longest part was finding an image to use for the front page, which after much soul-searching, I think worked out well.

For said image girl, I’ll let you all guess who it is although it’ll probably be pretty easy ^^;; As an FYI, I’ll probably make a few more banners and have them randomly rotate as the days go by as long as I don’t get too lazy about it, so look forward to more eyecandy!

So beside actually getting off my uber lazy butt for once, I’ve also scanned in a few tokutens I got recently and while in Japan that I thought I’ll share. Mostly Nana Mizuki’s stuff, I also have some random Yukari Tamura scans to hopefully settle the non-Nanatards down ^^;;

From one of the stores in Japan (either animate or toranoana) for Nana’s “Mugen” CD. Close up of Nana FTW!

From HMV for Nana’s “PHANTOM MINDS” CD. Not much to say other than it’s very colorful O_o

Princess/Queen Nana from HMV from her “Silent Bible” CD ^_^

Scan from a flyer I took while in Japan when visiting Tokyo’s Anime Center in Akiba. Also around the time the Layton movie was coming out so…

From HMV with Nana’s “ULTIMATE DIAMOND” album; forgot if it came with the normal or limited edition (yes I have both) ^^;;

From either animate, toranoana, or gamers in Japan when I picked up her “You & Me” CD single. Actually like this shot a lot for some reason.

In Japan from one of the stores above ^^;;

And just for kicks, scanned in the Haruhi movie flyer I picked up when in Shinjuku watching various anime movies in Japan. Currently out, hopefully I’ll be able to catch it when I’m in Japan next month, along with the Nanoha and Fate/Stay Night movies!

So after months of saying I am going to Japan in March, I finally sat down and planned out the darn trip. Figured while I was making the plans, may as well post about it and see if I can get anyone else to join in on the hi-jinks that may ensure!

Initial planning has me in Japan for at least 2-3 weeks, with me leaving the US around March 9-10th and going back around April 3-4th, depending. For lodging, looking through hostelworld.com, Backpackers Hostel Ks House will probably be the best bet and relatively cheap to boot (like $40/night per person)! So with just travel and lodging, I’m already looking at ~$1600USD which I don’t think is too bad considering how long I’m planning to stay.

On the actual stuff I plan to do, want to at least hit up two seiyuu concerts. Nana Mizuki hopefully in Yokohoma March 13/14th and Maaya Sakamoto at Budokan March 31st (I think?). Haven’t even attempted to find their tickets yet but I figure I’ll figure something out (or bug folks who know better what to do). Beside that, hopefully will check out a few anime movies like Haruhi’s, Fate/Stay Night’s, and Nanoha’s (if the last 2 are still playing) as well. Also seeing some sakura action will be nice assuming my timing is right and I can find where they’re blossoming.

Other than the above, I’ll probably just wander around and try not to spend too much money in general ^^;; Hopefully if I can get some folks to go along (looking at animemiz, Omo and his various crew for example), there will be stuff they will want to do as well. I’m pretty much up for anything as long as someone convinces me to do it, which depending on what it is, isn’t that hard ^^;; For example, since I’ll be in Japan for a bit thinking of hitting up Kyoto for a day or so depending on what my plans may be.

So yea, I’m pretty psyched but praying I’ll have someone to tag along with. ‘Cause as much as I can do Japan solo, it’ll be 1000x better with a buddy or two. If anyone is interested in going with me or doing some type of meet up while in Japan, let me know! I’ll be more than interested and definitely in this case, the more the merrier!

FYI if there is anyone interested in going to Japan with me, please let me know if you can or not by the end of January. I need to book the hostel at least a month in advance else lodging may be living off the streets for awhile XD

Quick little post to start off the new years. With boredom re-settling in after being back in the States for about two weeks, figured I may shave a few minutes by changing wallpapers for once. Surprisingly the last time I did a “major” wallpaper switch was back in July of 2009; about six months which isn’t too bad for me, I guess. After much soul searching (*laughs*) I decided to do something a bit different…

… and change one of my monitors to portrait mode!

Honestly could not tell you why I decided to do so other than seeing random folks do it once in a blue moon. I must say, while I’m still getting used to it, portrait mode with a decently sized monitor really rocks! On the wallpaper end, you have like 9304812 more options as most photos/scans are done in portrait layouts. I mean, just look at the huge Minori Chihara wallpaper I’m using!

Beside the floodgates of possible wallpapers, general productivity at least while web browsing is a lot better. It’s simply nice not having to scroll down to check if x or y site has updated as well as being able to read a post in one full screen! And if I was still coding, I can easily also mention that being able to see more code in one screen is like heaven on earth. Honestly, I would recommend giving it a try if possible as I think you’ll be highly surprised at how it can really change (for the better) one’s computing habits.

Okay, now with ranting about portrait mode done I guess I should talk about the wallpapers huh? If one hasn’t already, click on the first image to see a screenshot of all my current desktops/monitors. I decided to go with a “green”/spring-ish/nature theme this time trying to select images that would go well with each other. Ended up with Nana Mizuki on my plasma (left), Haruna Kojima on my main (middle), and Minori Chihara on the portrait (right). Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with my selections and if anything else, it’s a nice change of digital scenery to help keep me sane during my NEET-like days ^_^

Wallpaper Sources:
- Nana Mizuki: 1920×1080 | GiRLISH BEAUTY@BLOG
- Haruna Kojima: 1920×1080 | 1280×850
- Minori Chihara: 1080×1920 | 2136×3027