Archives For japan

Almost a month ago, I blogged PRICEY! xD OMG, has it been almost a month already?? A month of pricey-ness~~~ which includes Photobooks. Which includes me buying those photobooks. Yes, those 3 photobooks (except for Travel Sand) are in PROCESSING status on YesAsia.com – And I’m hoping that I don’t get an email saying they can’t find the Rhythmedia Photobook entitled Dandelion, because that one already shows up as OUT OF STOCK. But it wasn’t out of stock when I placed my order, so there you go~~ I also bought Travel Sand from another store, but I won’t post where until I complete my order successfully. xD

Anyway, July 16th is coming soon. That’s the day when Aoi Yu x 4 Lies CAMOUFLAGE weird thingy series comes out. I like weird, and I like artsy fartsy~ and apparently the show wasn’t so popular, but people IT WAS GOOD. But it’s not for the masses… le sigh. Will my Yu sacrifice the artsy for commercial? I don’t want her to stop doing projects like Camouflage just because they don’t sell. So AM wondering… should I buy or should I not?? If there weren’t language and region issues, I would so totally buy. BUT there’s such thing as language and regions… Right now, it’s only being released as a Region 2 DVD (Japan, Asia, etc etc) and there are no subtitles listed. In the day of multi-region DVD players, I could overlook the region… but I can’t overlook the lack of English subtitles.

So if you’re Japanese… or are able to watch the show sans-subs because you know Japanese… AND you liked the series, I suggest buying. I can only hope to either learn Japanese fast enough (ha!), or that a version with English subs comes available soon. Here’s the link to YesAsia.com:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

*Fuming*

I blogged this maybe… two weeks ago? Can’t bother to figure out while ranting. Continue Reading…

So… I saw the Linda Linda Linda movie the other day, and I got the songs stucked in my head. LOL’ The film released 2 soudntracks of sorts… One the official soundtrack, and one 6-track album performed by the actresses of the film as PARAN MAUM (Meaning Blue Hearts in Korean, referring to the * Blue Hearts covers).

* The original soundtrack contains 3 of the 6 tracks in “we are PARANMAUM” with bits with less lyrics.

  1. RINDA RINDA (Linda Linda) *
  2. Boku no Migite (My Right Hand) *
  3. Owaranai Uta (Never-ending Song) *
  4. Aoi Kokoro (Underneath Heart)
  5. BIZU Saiku (Beading)
  6. SON no BARUDO (Son’s Ballad)

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A little over a year ago, I blogged some music. I had discovered Kazumi & Maia, and it has been the most difficult thing to get their lyrics coz no one blogs them. Le sigh~~~ And their website (Record Company Website) wasn’t helpful either… Le sigh sigh~~~ u_U

Who are Kazumi & Maia? They are two Japanese women in France who do crazy genre music fusion in French and Japanese… or so called ‘chanson franco-japonaise” ~ Le gasp!! One of my best online music findings, because it was instant love! But if no one blogs them, how are they to become popular?? So I decided to blog them because I found out that Amazon.com has their album “L’Amitie” in their site. As of this moment, the item it’s listed as “out of stock” but they also have a note saying they’ll deliver it when they get it.

The hard-copy album, I think, it’s a bit pricey… BUT it DOES come with a so-called “Bonus DVD”, so who knows… it migth be worth it. Considering the state of their online ‘presence’, it makes me wonder if they would take much care to make a really kick ass bonus disc, though…. Le sigh sigh~ So if hard-copy is not your thing, you can get it through Amazon MP3 – you see, the good thing about digital downloads is that it’s always in stock, LOL – and if you’re not a US IP user (until Amazon MP3 turns international… when is that happening anyway??!?! I thought it was soon~~), you can get the album through Calabash Music.

Hahaha, the reason we love Nodame Cantabile is because Juri Ueno as lovable Nodame. Now, if you don’t know the series, you will still love this behind the scene of Juri Ueno singing Nodame’s Fart Exercise song.

It turns out that the song was so popular, Juri recorded a small album with kids songs. You can find the lyrics in Japanese, Romaji and English translation of the funnyness in here. (also includes imeem link)

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LOL. So the last episode of Last Friends was out last thrusday. Did you watch it? I hope you did, coz I might be spoiling some of it on this post.

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Pricey Hobbies

June 16, 2008 — 5 Comments

Wah… That’s all I have to react, Wah~~~ hahaha

So because I’m a dork, I usually try to purchase stuff I really quite like listening or watching, or just for the sake of having it. So, for the past week, I have been totally addicted to Yu Aoi material – Films and Shows – so dorky me went “What the heck?” and I visited YesAsia.com to check on DVDs. I watched an episode of Camouflage, which I thought was BIZARRE, but surprisingly good as in “it almost looks like a film” type of show.

The show (also known as Aoi Yu x 4 Lies, or something like that) is told into four 3-episode-chapters (making the number of chapters 12), each chapter directed by a different director, who had no restrains to tell a story centering on the idea of lies.

So I watched it, and thought it was really good, but all episodes are not downloading so I went and looked them up. They’re coming out on DVD (Japan Region, 2) this July 15th, on 4 different sets. However, problem number one! They don’t have English subs. And problema numero dos, each set of 3 episodes is roughly $40USD, making the whole 12 episodes $160USD… roughly, give or take. So my mouth dropped, and profanity came out of it hahaha.

Because of this, I went and searched for Nodame Cantabile (just to check on average prices), which was roughly $240USD for the 11 episodes on the show. LE GASP! My heart broke, my brain cried, and my spirit was broken realizing how broke my bank account would be. Can you imagine?? Buying 3 different Jdrama DVD sets at $240USD each? Lucky, or unlucky for me~~ most of them are not English subtitled. Maybe not knowing Japanese is a perk? LOL’

The good thing is that Amazon.com has some Yu Aoi movie DVDs, but it’s VERY limited… at a reasonable price, but limited. And I doubt they will list Camouflage… le sigh. I might consider buying “Hana and Alice” and “Hula Girls”, though I will be missing Rainbow Song. T_T

RASUTO FURENZU’s Orignial Soundtrack was released like 4 days ago! It includes the drool-inducing version of the Main Theme, Prisoner of Love, in its Quiet Instrumental Piano version. The Utada Hikaru single of the song includes 4 tracks, which include the regular version, the Quiet Version, and both tracks on Karaoke Version. However, the Quiet Instrumental Piano Version on the OST is the best! Because it’s on the show, duh!

Original music for a show? American TV shows ask. Yes, most of the tracks on this OST are instrumental pieces, unlike Western shows which oftentimes use hand-picked from a handful of artists, who are willing to license their music for cheap. Not complaining much of it, because some are great… but this TV soundtrack makes it more especial, non?

You can buy the OST on YesAsia.com – Leave ya with the drool-inducing Instrumental Piano version of Prisoner of Love. [here a couple more tracks]

Okay, so it’s official. I am RASUTO FURENZing people one at a time… and now that the last episode is approaching, I’m telling you right now! I’m coming to get ya! When I read about the show, and the controversy, I knew I had to watch. I was in a pickle when I saw the first two episodes, when damn! I realized the show had just started showing, and I had to wait for the next episode… and I’ve been waiting for the last 8 episodes.

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Apparently there’s a manga based on Fuji TV’s Last Friends, it’s set before the show… so I suggest watching the show before this. Anyway, ^Yuuki made some lovely scans (but I won’t post those because they are in Japanese), and suketeru (who also makes the subs for the show uploads, DOMO!) made a translation for it. I took the liberty to make some nice text inclusion, and some changes in phrasing. I think it looks pretty good, almost like it’s real. Take a look yourself! Continue Reading…