Category: Japanese

  • Yu Aoi’s Yu-chan Bday Shortakes~

    Yu’s officially three-decades-old… but still is as cute as ever, even though she’s trying to be all grown-up and stuff. Just sit her in front of a nice matcha shaved-ice with red beans (or a velvety choco-purin), and you’ll get her all giddy.

    pon-japanese-variety-yu-aoi-2015-dr-rintaro-001 pon-japanese-variety-yu-aoi-2015-dr-rintaro-002

    That’s exactly what happened when promoting Dr. Rintaro on the Japanese variety Pon! with co-star on-screen mom Atsuko Takahata, who -I must say- is hilarious, too. These are obviously via the Yu Aoi Chinese fans. Watch the video. It’s 10min. long and it takes a while to load (for me).

    She also did the Lilo & Stitch voice-over event [1], and apparently got back together with someone from her Oha-girl days, so they did an Oha greeting! lol

    Oh, man. I remember how much I used to love Yu-chan. xD I think I’m going to watch Climbing to Spring without subs, and hope to watch The Case of Hana & Alice now that it’s out on DVD.

  • Yu Aoi’s The First and Last Time of Love Talk for MEKURU

    For the latest volume of MEKURU Magazine [Facebook][Official Website], they are holding a special on Yu Aoi who will be turning 30! I’m not sure what’s gonna be in there (Japanese being rusty and all), but there’s gonna be an interview and (maybe?) photos by Kawashima Kotori (川島小鳥) [Portfolio], who apparently is an Ihei Kimura (木村伊兵) awarded photographer for his book Star (明星) [Amazon JP].

    It’s titled Aoi Yu, Saisho de Saigo ni Ren’ai o Kataru (蒼井優、最初で最後に恋愛を語る) — you’ll have to forgive my des and nis translations.

    mekuru-vol05-aug15-yu-aoi-cover

    They’re totally selling it like a direct sequel to Travel Sand. xD

    There will also be a poem by Shuntaro Kanikawa (谷川俊太郎) titled Aoi Yu (あおいゆう). Among other stuff I can’t make out, it’ll include 128 pages and will be listed at Y907 Yen. It’s available on Amazon JP and HMV JP.

    src 1, 2

  • Yu Aoi with a Daughter from the Future for Mitsui Fudosan

    Yu Aoi is old enough to have a daughter… from the future for this latest CM.

    For some reason, her daughter has her same hair-styled bun and that adorable fuzzy hairline that everyone loves. Otherwise~ good casting! Why need a dad when your kid looks just like the mom!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOGL8z-g7v0

    Also, I hope this doesn’t disappear because Japanese brands have this crazy idea that they can delete videos and accounts once the commercial’s season is over. No, people, these stay.

  • Mid-2015 Yu Aoi Short TEIKUSU~

    I haven’t caught up with Dr. Rintaro since the first episode, but Yu-chan’s name has been going around on Twitter. Apparently — according to Twitter/Google/Bing translation — Yu is one of the actresses/actors who smoke. You know Japanese magazine rags, though, all text no images xD If anyone is shocked/surprised/following this, please do let me know. Otherwise, disregard. If Yu is, in fact, smoking… for years, hats off. Gurl, how do you keep yourself so young? Genes, I tell you, GENES!

    In other news… The Case of Hana & Alice is (finally) coming out on DVD/BR disc in August.

    There’s also news that Yu-chan will be voicing a character (I suppose the female robot) in an upcoming Disney Channel Lilo & Stitch SP. Complete with Yu & Stitch photo [picture][link].

    lilo-stitch-disney-channel-sp-yu-aoi-002

    … and finally~

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  • It’s a Smug-Off! Huang Xiaoming vs. Masaki Okada – FIGHT!

    I thought I could hate Sonam Kapoor and Fan Bingbing with a passion, but hey! Look at Mainland actor Huang Xiaoming or Japanese actor Masaki Okada, they never fail to make me want to punch them in the face. While Masaki Okada does have a sizable fandom of girls, I’ve yet to find someone (ANYONE!?) who likes Huang Xiaoming and his smug face. LOL

    huang-xiaoming-vs-masaki-okada

    Battle conceded to Okada, I guess. xD

  • The Last 15 Years of Oscar According to Amy

    One go, not much thinking and over-thinking. Yup, this looks about right.

    amys-15-years-of-oscar
    • 2000 – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
    • 2001 – Moulin Rouge!
    • 2002 – Gangs of New York
    • 2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (because I have to)
    • 2004 – Finding Neverland
    • 2005 – Munich
    • 2006 – Letters from Iwo Jima
    • 2007 – There Will Be Blood
    • 2008 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • 2009 – District 9
    • 2010 – Toy Story 3 (because you HAVE TO)
    • 2011 – Midnight in Paris
    • 2012 – Life of Pi
    • 2013 – 12 Years a Slave
    • 2014 – Boyhood

    I struggled a little with LotR and (maybe) Toy Story, but I’ll give it to them anyway~ I’m also a bit lukewarm about Finding Neverland and Midnight in Paris, and I totally warmed up to Life of Pi… though I don’t mind Argo. With Boyhood over Whiplash (despite me liking the other one better xD), it makes the list a lot more larger than life.

  • Missed these Yu Aoi Nov’14 Interviews

    Oh, man~ my Japanese has gotten so bad. Or at least, my non-food related Japanese. I ran into these interviews Yu-chan did to promote the release of her last interview-PB Yu Diary book, which includes the nugget that she almost quit acting at age 23. But please, feel free to guide me through all these chunks of text.

    The other interview includes info on the process of making the book… as well as these three photos of her.

    — August 20th 2015 —

    Ran into more shots of this shoot [1][2].

    docomo-entame-yu-aoi-nov2014-001

  • Pricey Time of Eve

    Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s Time of Eve is one of my favorite animations of the decade so far, though I do prefer the series, I think. I don’t know how I missed the Kickstarter, though I’ve grown tired of them and it brings the Time of Eve release at the same price of the Japanese release. Sighs. Japanese products.

    But look at this beauty~

    time-of-eve-the-movie-store

    The ones offered through Amazon, do not offer shipping to my location :( but The Time of Eve Shop does… at a kinda expensive price. Nearly $20 USD in shipping!

  • Yu Aoi for a Sumo Isenoumi Stable Visit~

    Yu-chan doesn’t get much social media play, but she showed up in (Twitter via) the Facebook page of the Isenoumi Sumo Stable (伊勢ノ海部屋) (WHY is it called a stable?). It takes me back to that Glee Japan commercial, ne?

    isenoumi-stable-sumo-yu-aoi

  • Yu Aoi for Dr. Rintaro Ep01

    o-hisashiburi desu, Yu-chan~

    It’s really been a long time since the last time I saw you SAW-YOU, thuogh it’s only been a year since Wakamono-tachi. So much time that your hair is no longer short. LOL I still got plenty of movies to catch up with, but it’s good to see you as an Osen-san-meets-Omoto-meets-Mina type of character. I’m not sure how Dr. Rintaro is dealing with the topic of clinical depression, considering how Asians view mental illnesses… but I’m interested in seeing why your character acts the way she does- is it Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)? Or are you just blowing Dr. Hinorin off xD
    Also- can’t complain when this thing happened:

    dr-rintaro-ep01-yu-aoi-train1 dr-rintaro-ep01-yu-aoi-train2

    Many more screencaps and some GIFs below the break~

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