I was watching the SHOOT! PV dance version and it just suddenly occurred to me that Kana-chan and Yukachi are the 2 “centres” of RO-KYU-BU (basically when Kana-chan isn’t centre in their dance formation, Yukachi is). And they are both from Office Oosawa (talent agency). How on earth did Oosawa manage to buy their way into putting 2 of their girls into THE seiyuu idol group of the year? Oosawa isn’t even known for seiyuu units, much less idols (I call them idols because they pretty much do what idols do…sing and dance and be in photo shoots). So yeah, just randomly noticed that Oosawa is doing really well, Kana-chan and Yukachi are both up there in terms of popularity (Kana-chan probably more famous than Yukachi, but they’re both pretty awesome. At least Yukachi can sing…cough).
I sort of hope Kana-chan and Yukachi won’t have to do this type of stuff again though, it’ll be nice if they got more sophisticated roles (something not involving lolis or excessive moe) and actually show off their awesome seiyuu skills. All those dance lessons and tours on top of their already busy work schedule doesn’t seem really nice. But I guess popularity these days is about selling into as many different types of media as possible, sticking with just voicing in anime is not enough.
So, just a rant that came out of surfing nico while procrastinating. Well done to Oosawa for developing 2 stars who right now are shining really brightly. Looking forward to the future of those 2, it will be interesting.
So, since I am utterly failing at translating Kalafina Club, I was wondering if anyone out there would like to co-translate with me?
I’m thinking we each do 1 ep, then we edit the other person’s translation. Saves time from double/triple checking. Also means we could eventually catch up to the current ep…
From my experience, it takes around 2hrs each ep, and I don’t translate it word by word. I just put what I think is interesting and worth other people reading. I am quite a perfectionist so 2hrs could be on the long side.
It’s a good chance to practice Japanese and learn words outside of anime (anime tends to reuse the same category of vocab). You don’t have to be fluent, if you can understand about 80% with the help of a dictionary/wiki etc., that’s good enough.
If interested, leave a comment! I would really really appreciate some company when doing this daunting task! I just can’t get motivated even though I do have the time, sort of.
I have soup now!!!!
seiyuu radio highlights, adventures at NicoDou and all the rest of it
Was thinking I should share the goodness of being a NicoDou addict. Recently addicted to the dance cover category, and because of that kpop and HelloPro are starting to infect my brain…. MASSARA. Also regaining interest in Vocaloid stuff. Dance seems to have a strange power…
Kalafina Club 33
2011.02.15
- datte shouganai janai [but still it can’t be helped can it, by Wada Akiko. K wins right off the bat!
- yesterday was Valentine’s Day. W says it’s good for the people who got chocolates, K asks what’s with her indifferent attitude, W answers that in Japan it’s usually girls who give chocolates to guys. Kalafina got some tomo [friend] choco presents from girls, K was happy that it was from girls (oi…ww). W says it’s a good chance to give tomo choco to girls you like/respect. K remembers that Kajiura-san once gave chocolates to them, it was mint flavoured, a little expensive, grownup-like. The kind of chocolate a person chooses shows their personality. K says that recently chocolate eaten with a spoon is becoming popular. It’s a little expensive, comes with a spoon, is softer than chocolate but harder than chocolate mousse. It’s the type of thing girls would like, maybe not guys.
Magia will be released tomorrow so today will be a Magia special! Read more…
Kalafina Club 32
2011.02.08
W>Wakana, K>Keiko, H>Hikaru, L>listener, [translation notes]
Valentine day kiss *cha-la cha-la* kiss ～[Valentine Day Kiss, by Kokushou Sayuri]. First round: everyone rock, winner is H again.
- there are heart ornaments everywhere, pink, red…. K says everywhere is fuwa fuwa [fluffy, light], then asks H to say fuwa fuwa which turns out to be very cute. Feb 14 is on a weekday this year, it’s been on Sun and Sat the last 2 times, so it must be difficult to give out chocolates to all colleagues. H says there is a bayfm event on the 14th and asks for chocolates from everyone, K joins in, W comments on the hard-selling and demands. There are many types of chocolate: giri [obligation i.e. no romantic feelings, girl→guy] honmei [real feelings, girl→guy], tomo [friend, usually girl→girl], my [for myself], fami [family, girl→guy], gyaku [opposite, guy→girl]. K says she has a friend who thinks gyaku choco is very normal, W comments that it is overseas. W and K say guys should give chocolate to girls too, it’s weird that in Japan it only happens the other way around. Don’t need to talk about soushokukei [grass-eating, meaning not stereotypical strong, competitive males] guys!!! K says roll cabbage type guys are popular these days, meaning on the outside they are grass-eating but inside they are meat-eating.
Corner: Futsuota [Ordinary Mail] Read more…
Kalafina Club 31
2011.02.01
W>Wakana, K>Keiko, H>Hikaru, L>listener, [translation notes]
- asu no asa mama kara denwa de shikatte morau wa, my darling! [tomorrow morning I’ll get your mom to scold you over the phone, my darling! Rouge no Dengon by Arai Yumi, from Kiki’s Delivery Service]. Yay K wins!
- 1 month of 2011 has already past. Have they done anything that they would be scolded for yet? W says she ate something that K was planning to eat. K says she hasn’t returned H’s novels yet. W asks K to return her Nausicaä [manga, or dvd?].
- W got excited when the Rouge no Dengon was requested. When everyone sees off Kiki as she sets out for witch training, as she rides her unstable broom, she asks Jiji the cat to help her turn on the radio because she doesn’t have any hands to do so. When the radio switches on, this song starts playing. W loves this cheerful, refreshing scene, Jiji was almost falling off the broom when switching on the radio.
Corner: Kalafina Bible Read more…
Kalafina Club 30
2010.01.25
W>Wakana, K>Keiko, H>Hikaru, L>listener, [translation notes], (my random comments)
- bokura wa jiyuu wo, bokura wa seishun wo [I don’t know how to translate this… something about “our [guy form] freedom, our youth”. From Okuda Tamio’s Iijuu Rider]. W and K tie, W wins!
- it’s ep 30 of KC! What images do they have of the number 30? K: 30 food items a day [some Japanese prof back in the day suggested that people should eat 30 different foods a day, including sauces and others, in order to be healthy]. H: age, what it’s going to be like when she turns 30. W: 1 month. She thinks it’s awesome that they’ve done 30 eps of a 30 min show, and there are 3 of them.
Corner: Kalafina Bible Read more…
Kalafina Club 29
2011.01.18
W>Wakana, K>Keiko, H> Hikaru, L>listener, [translation notes], KC>Kalafina Club
- geinoujin wa hagainochi [A performer’s career depends on how nice their teeth look. Comes from a commercial]. H wins straight away lol
- Today is “ii ha no hi” [day of good teeth, a play on the pronunciation of the date], thus the opening phrase
Corner: Futsuota [Ordianry Mail] Read more…
Kalafina Club 28
2011.01.11
W>Wakana, K>Keiko, H>Hikaru, L>listener, [translation notes], (my random comments)
- Watashi no watashi no kare wa hidarikiki [“My my boyfriend is left handed”, from “Watashi no kare wa hidarikiki”, by Asaoka Megumi]. W and H win, then W is the WINNER.
- That song was a hit in 1973. Because of the song, lefties were given attention and in those days the majority of goods sold were for lefties. H says that it was a year that was kind to lefties. No one in Kalafina is a lefty. K thinks lefties are cool, in tennis when she sees a lefty, she gets a little shiver [how else to translate “zokuttosuru”?] thinking “it’s a lefty! How lucky”. W’s older brother is a little bit of a strange person, he lives while looking towards the future. He said “if I fracture my right hand I can use my left hand” and often held chopsticks with his right hand while he was a student. W thought it was a strange thing to do but her brother is still serious about that and can use his left hand. He played basketball so when he couldn’t use his right hand his left was his friend.
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- H was laughing because the director’s headphone was slipping off the front of his head. How can she be laughing already???
Corner: Kalafina Smile
- When L was in elementary school, during social studies they were learning how to read a map. The teacher pointed at the compass rose symbol on the map and asked a boy in the front row to try to say the 4 directions. The boy said “Hoi hoi hoi hoi ~” [hoi = direction], the whole class roared with laughter and everyone copied him saying “hoi hoi!”. Obviously the teacher was asking for east west south and north.
- One day, L came home a little hungry. There just happened to be food on the living room table. It was cube shaped and white, something looking like tofu on the plate. It wouldn’t taste like much just eating it plain so L put cucumber, bonito and ham on top, and added sesame dressing. When L put chopsticks into the tofu-like substances, it split very tenderly. Hm, maybe it was there for a long time and became soft. When L put it in his/her mouth, it was very watery, didn’t taste like tofu and wasn’t delicious at all. L investigated thoroughly and found out it was bifidus yogurt. At that moment L realised he/she had put cucumber, bonito, ham and sesame dressing on yogurt. Behind was L’s mother lol-ing. H and W ask why K would laugh at the end about the mother, but I understand because it was actually the mom playing a prank. K loves that type of mommy.
- L and a friend went to a café after work. That day L had a slightly unhappy experience at her workplace and describing what she said to the manager, “Colleague A said ____, I just can’t believe it!” At that moment L’s friend says “that guy is hot”. L’s friend was actually not listening and was looking at the café’s employee. W comments that the way K read it was really funny. Girls tend to just say it when there are hot guys around (um… maybe?).
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Normal Mail Corner
- what kind of Chinese bun do they like? K likes Seven Eleven’s Red Bean Bun, especially when it’s a little burned on the bottom. When H was in vocational school she often went to the Family Mart nearby. They had a Salty Pork Bun, which used salt instead of soy sauce unlike normal pork buns. W likes pizza buns, in which the cheese is all melted. W also likes hot dog type things, with cheese inside. L chiki [Lawson’s chicken burger] is the best.
- L and 3 friends who all love Kalafina made a Red Moon cake to commemorate the release of the Red Moon DVD and BD. It is a red round cake and on top are 3 cookies which look like the 3 members of Kalafina. H is the only one without a mouth, and has a nose instead.
- L’s pen name is “goligo”, H laughs because the other 2 mention that the name is not “goligoli”. She laughs so much tears come out. Goligo is a 50 year old guy, first time emailing this type of show. He became even more of a Kalafina fan after watching the DVD. He doesn’t have the courage to go to a live by himself. W mentions how she was not the type of person who sent letters to radio shows. During junior high her heart was really moved by a certain DJ and she sent a fax, it was the first time she did something like that.
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I’m still alive… actually got sick twice in like a month… summer holidays are so dangerous.
The end of LISP
The seiyu unit consisting of Asumi Kana, Kataoka Azusa and Hara Sayuri is coming to an end 1 year after the unit was formed on July 30 2010 (official site). It seems their first year anniversary live on July 31 is going to become a farewell live as well….
Can’t say I’m too sad about this, but I was really shocked (was like :O for half a minute, would have screamed out loud if I was alone by myself).
Lurked around 2ch a bit, seems like there are people who are genuinely happy about this. Especially with the incident of Asumin getting sick a bit over 1 month ago (coincidence or not…. don’t we love conspiracy theories lol), some people are glad LISP is over. Of course there are also people who are genuinely sad, and also worried about whether this will affect the Pretty Rhythm anime and its events (LISP sing the OP and are part of the cast. There’s an event on Sep 4 as well).
So there are loads of questions right now and pretty wild guesses as to why they’re ending so fast. People are saying Asumin is changing agencies (LISP was formed because of the 30th anniversary of 81pro). Or maybe it was just too fail of a copy of Sphere so it had to end. Or maybe someone got pregnant…that’s the most outrageous one I saw. Some are saying maybe Azucchi and SayuSayu will stay together as another unit….which isn’t impossible. (My theory is that Asumin’s hiatus was actually a strike, she threatened 81pro to end LISP by not going to work. I know, it’s stupid and highly improbably, if Asumin did that she probably wouldn’t get any work for the rest of her career. 81pro is a huge agency, you don’t want to dis them.)
I personally quite liked the new ideas that were being brought out by LISP. I just think they didn’t quite get the right target audience. It would have been a nice way to advertise three new seiyu idols or something along those lines, but putting Asumin in it was just weird… she’s already extremely famous and 26 is old… for that type of stuff. They’re singing is no good too, which isn’t surprising at all for a seiyu unit but… if selling songs was their goal it was already a failure to begin with.
It’s really a shame it had to end now, it just makes it seem like it really didn’t work out well and had to be cut short. Perhaps that is the truth, hope it won’t turn into black history for the 3 of them.
Anyways, good luck to you 3, Asumin! Azucchi! SayuSayu! これからも声優として頑張り続けてください！
