Category: Japanese

  • La Nueva Yma Sumac by La Casa Azul

    Just ran into this very cute music video – alert! Yma Sumac pop culture reference xD – really, I never thought I would have seen Yma Sumac named alongside Superman, but alas~~~ La Casa Azul (the blue house) has come up with the song (the new Yma Sumac) and this cute Cartoon Network-esque music video.

    And they’ve made the original Spanish version, and a Japanese version! Though sounds wayyyyy cuter in Japanese. It’s the whole electro-cutesy pop vibe, you know? It just fits better with the voice.

    you can check the Spanish version here, and
    visit Cocoe Studios who were in charge of the animation~~~

  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – Hito no SEKKUSU o Warauna – Don’t Laugh at my Romance

    Well, long time no see, eh?

    It’s been nearly 4 or 5 months since our last discussion, and I really thought there’d be more people discussing Tekkonkinkreet, but alas~ No one has commented on it. If you have just discovered Yu Aoi (either through Osen, or a random watch of either Hana & Alice, One Million Yen Girl or Lily Chou Chou) and have been hit in the face with like a meteor, I invite you to watch Tekkon as well. Any animation fan won’t really regret it.

    Anyway, we’re here to discuss Don’t Laugh at my Romance, or Sex is no Laughing Matter or Hito no SEKKUSU~~~ whatever your pick on names is.

    First a little about the film~
    Don’t Laugh at my Romance is a 2008 film adaptation of the the novel by Naocola Yamazaki, directed and sort of adapted by Nami Iguchi. It is about a 19-year-old student (Matsuyama) who falls in love/lust with his lithography teacher (Hiromi Nagasaku) at university, though he isn’t aware that his friend and classmate (Yu Aoi) is quite fond of him.

    Genre: Dramedy with Romance
    Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Hiromi Nagasaku, Yu Aoi, Shugo Oshinari, Yoichi Nukumizu
    Duration: a little over +2hrs

    Beware! Possible film spoilers~~~

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  • Yu Aoi by Keiichi Nitta

    This is a pretty old photoshoot, February 2007 in fact~
    but I care about photographers, and I wanted to know
    who shot it, for who and when xD so I took my time to post.

    Yu Aoi - Eye Scream - Keiichi Nitta

    Shot by Keiichi Nitta, who has photographed Lady Gaga x Koda Kumi, Kylee, Aoi Miyazaki, Justice, Chiaki Kuriyama, M.I.A., Beck, Madonna, Beyonce, The Chemical Brothers, Fergie and even La LiLo xD

    His photographs, more often than not exude sexiness, sex oftentimes with a mix of innocence, playfulness and edgy. So it is no wonder that this is perhaps Yu’s more “Fierce” photoshoot to date. LOL To quote on Tyra xD In here, she plays a little with the Lolita-esque style looking oh-so-innocent… NOT. One of the photos, one of the very first photos I saw online, has that just-got-out-of-bed quality to it. Only I saw it in black and white and cropped on the face, which makes it look so good.

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  • July + August Films~

    Let’s see how the movie count goes~
    shall we?

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  • July and August Music~

    Well, it seems like I’ve heard a lot of music lately, but looking at my list – doesn’t appear to be. So I wonder if I listened to a lot of repeated music… let’s see~~~

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  • Yu Aoi, a Mori Girl?

    I think Kawaii Joyuu will explain it better,

    Do you know the latest buzzword “Mori Girl”? It’s a term that got created in the mixi community, a huge social networking system and one of the most visited Japanese sites in the Internet. The general definition would be a “a girl who seems to be/live in a forest”, describing a girl who would fit more into a forest rather than into a city.

    “She has to like fashion that’s natural, but also a bit quirky” or “She wears a lot of dresses that have a loose or comfortable feeling to them”, to name a few of the opinions. The difficulty is that the girl should like “natural clothes”

    They did a ranking, in which Yu had nearly 50% of all the votes, pulling a head (for the first time?) of Aoi Miyazaki and Juri Ueno. Also on the list, Mikako Ichikawa – who I think looks amazing with hair pulled up *points to Atsu-hime* And YAY! for the Top 3~~~ xD

    Anyway, spoon magazine did a whole issue on it on March. =D

    spoon magazine - mori girl

    I should use the cover, but this is my favorite shot. xD

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  • The 5 Bags – Guitar Case Girl

    Minna! Great news, yo!

    First, Juri Ueno and the 5 Bags begins in less than 20hrs with the 1st episode titled “GITA~ KE~SU no Onna” (Her Guitar Case) or in this case… Guitar Case Girl, directed by Hideta Takahata who also directed Chapter 2 of WOWOW’s Camouflage with Yu Aoi. xD

    Greatest news? Someone will be fansubbing this. YAY!!
    A big hooray for ViiKii.net!!! Hooray!!

    Can I beg and grovel for Camouflage subs, Viikii??? xD

  • Yu in Drag!?

    Finally time~~~

    This post is dedicated to Julz, who always mentions that Yu-chan looks like a very cute boy. Now, the newest issue of So-En magazine has given me the chance to search online for photos of Yu in drag. Why? Well, as the title on the magazine suggests… “Aoi Yu no BO~IZU SUTAIRU!” or “Yu Aoi’s Boy Style!”

    Yu Aoi - So-En - Boy Style

    I haven’t found great big scans of this, just a photo of a photo. But the rest of “Boyish Yu” from other shoots make up for it, I think…

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  • Shadowplay by Dan Blank

    Winner of the Best Short at the LA Film Fest (2002), and the Student Emmy Award,
    comes this stop-motion by Dan Blank about the shadows left behind after Hiroshima.
    just make sure you have 15min to spare, and let it load before watching~~~

  • A day in the life of… Yu Aoi by Libraryman

    where did this come from?
    and when did it happen?

    About “A day in the life of…”
    In the limited edition series A day in the life of… photographers are portraying a day in their lives, fiction as non-fiction. The fourth publication in this monthly series is completed by Stockholm based artist Jenny Källman where she assembled pictures of young peoples everyday lives. She blends documentary shots of the social games of the street with more or less pre-arranged scenes. – from Libraryman Co., Ltd.

    A Day in the Life of... Yu Aoi

    Found out about it here. You can get the book here. Roughly $15-ish USD.
    Maybe Julyssa can scan bookstores in Sweden for it…