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This is an event report from 5th Jan 2019 archived from my Wordpress blog. You’ve probably already read it. I’ll add photos later.

Writing this on the plane back to Tokyo from what I would consider a treasure-filled three days in Kumamoto. I will never forget this weekend and I genuinely dread having to go to school tomorrow.

My flight to Kumamoto was on the day of the live itself, a 0710 flight from Haneda Airport bound to arrive in Kumamoto Airport at 0910. My plan was to head straight to bed as soon as I got home since I’d have to wake up at 3 AM to get to the airport in time. Much to my dismay, the blend of excitement over finally being able to go see Yoppi at Kumamoto, and the anxiety over the fact that if I’m unable to wake up in time I won’t be able to go see that, had me awake all night and I ultimately gave up trying to go to sleep at around 2 AM. Made myself some fried eggs (Yoppi’s favourite food her mom would make her, from her song Watashi no Ki), got ready, and headed to the airport without a second of sleep. Unsurprisingly, I was already dying when I got to the airport but for some reason I just couldn’t close my eyes. Afraid I wouldn’t be able to get any sleep in-flight, I asked some friends over what to do in order to die in the flight immediately.

The answer was simple: down a can of Strong Zero.

Keep reading

It’s been quite a long time.

I had moved my blog to my own Wordpress instance to learn how AWS works and also because I didn’t want to have to rely on Tumblr, but I have since shut down my blog and I’ve decided to archive my blog posts on this Tumblr blog.

Most of my posts were Wake Up, Girls! or tech related, and considering most of my followers here are Love Livers, feel free to unfollow me as I’m never posting Love Live! related content again.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

So I actually had no intention of going to the watashikai in the first place as it was way too expensive, and I had to save up for Bus Tour as well as the Solo Events, which is why I skipped days 1 and 2 of Comiket because those are the two days the watashikai tickets were supposed to be given out, but turns out I was fated to meet my oshi regardless.

Number 72. When I went to buy it, they had at least 50 left. I feel bad for Yoppi…

I went on Day 3 to get some doujins as well as see Yoppi from a distance because I’m free and why not right? So after I got the doujins I decided to go check out the booth a few hours before the watashikai, and lo and behold, the tickets were still being given out. Me, being the financially unstable idiot that I am, bought it on the spot, the exact thing I was avoiding, and only after buying did I realise “shit, I’m going to have to eat grass for the entire month”. But eh, I get to talk to Yoppi, and I happened to bring all my Yoppi armour with me, so I went along with it.

Come 2PM, and it is time for the watashikai. We get lined up, and I was all the way at the back for obvious reasons. A user on Twitter (@Al_dente_NA_YA) was calculating the time each person spoke to Yoppi and posted it on Twitter, and it ranged between 15 to 30 seconds, so I was quite anxious over whether I could tell Yoppi everything I wanted to say. A friend of mine, fellow WUGner ceviche came over to the watashikai area to speak to me and I made him feel my heartbeat and he went “holy shit” over how fast it was beating over my excitement and anxiety. Regardless, time passes and it was our line’s turn to go to the booth. The person that was standing in front of me was the person I was conversing with the entire time I was in line, and when our line was at the booth everything he said to me I could pay no attention to because of how nervous I was. Thankfully, he understood how I felt and laughed it off. Before it was my turn, seeing Yoppi speak to other people with so much joy and excitement already brought a huge stupid smile on my face. She is so cute, everything she does is so cute, the way she speaks and moves her hands is so cute. Argh she is just so cute.

Anyway, it’s finally my turn and I go up to her. The first thing she says is 「ちょっと待ってね」 and starts drinking water using a straw in the cutest way possible with her eyes locked to mine. She knows exactly how to play with a seiyuu otaku’s heart, extremely dangerous. I was stunned, I had no idea how to react and I tried so hard not to blush at how absolutely cute it was. After she was done with her drink, I opened by saying 「緊張でドキドキ」 which should have honestly been said the other way around, but I was so nervous proper sentences refused to come out of my mouth. She understood that, looking at her facial expression, and with the most worried face replied 「そうですよね、、、」and I quickly got my act together and named myself. She didn’t say a word and simply said 「ñ̺̻̩͡ȧ͎̪̓̚m̹̬͎̪̅̀̄͒̀ẻ͍̝̰ͪ͗ͤͨͩくんね！」 as though she had heard my name before. At that point I realised, she probably remembered me from the previous meeting (and while I don’t mean to brag, I do stand out, a lot), and continued with the conversation normally. I told her how I listened to the Kumamoto City FM radio show called たまごの声, which she was a guest in in the previous one which aired two nights ago, and she was so surprised and exclaimed her thanks. I then mentioned how she said she wanted to be a personality that could represent Kumamoto during said show, and said that is a naive goal to reach for. She, in a surprised manner, replied with a long 「おー」 and I said she should be aiming to represent the entirety of Kyushu! She had a huge smile on her face at that point and replied with how I’m right, and I responded with a yeah, and I broke into the first thing I wanted to tell her about. I asked her whether she remembered the radio show she did in 2014 (聞いとっと！？よしのモン。, of course she remembers dumbo) and she nodded and asked 「うんうん、きいてくれてたの？」 to which I replied yes. I then told her how I want her to do a radio again and she nodded her head and agreed (or so I think, it felt like she dodged the question orz). At this point, my thirty seconds were up and the person that was keeping time started patting me, signaling me to wrap it up and leave. My adrenaline rushed and I started speaking really quickly, and I told Yoppi to release a photobook. She didn’t get me the first time because of how quickly I spoke, so I said it again and she nodded with an okay! And finally to wrap it up, I told her I was going to Aomori for the Solo live and with the biggest most adorable smile on her face she said thank you, and we waved each other with bye byes. I almost tripped leaving the area because of my adrenaline rush. I was able to speak to her for 36 seconds, 6 seconds over the allowed time.

After the whole thing was over I went back to ceviche who watched the whole ordeal and commented over how I didn’t spaghetti as much as he thought I would, and I was pretty calm over the whole thing. I most definitely was not! My throat and mouth were completely dry after that exchange, and I was more nervous and anxious about this than my sixth form final examinations. In order to not forget this amazing moment in my life, I quickly jotted down the entire conversation, from memory, onto Google Keep, which I am using as a reference to write this report right now.

But that is not all. After the event, I realised I don’t need a dakimakura cover, especially of a character I don’t particularly like, from a show I didn’t particularly enjoy, so I decided to quickly head to Akihabara and maybe sell it for at least half the price I bought it for. I quickly rushed to the train, and headed to Akiba as quickly as I can, and ran to K-books. I got my kaitori number and waited to be called. When I was finally called and I placed the dakimakura cover on the desk, I was asked if this was from Comiket, to which I replied “Yes, it’s from today.” and the staff looked in a huge list of C93 goods, and named the price he could give me.

10,500 yen.

That’s a 500 yen profit. I sold it immediately, on the spot. Can you believe it? I got to get a ticket to a watashikai on a day it’s not supposed to sold anymore, I got to speak to Yoppi for 36 seconds and get to see her drinking water and call my name, and then make a 500 yen profit over the whole thing.

What an amazing end to an amazing year.

Proof of sale in case noone believes me.

Before I start, let me just preface this by saying I am very much an idol fan and I love the whole idea of yakkai. I love mixing and tigering wherever I can. I wouldn’t do it for Love Live!, but I definitely wish I could.

In recent years Love Live! and other 2.5D idol franchises have been gaining a lot of popularity by linking together both the 2D side and 3D side of the series. This is not limited to the characters and their specific seiyuu either, as many of these franchises take place in real life locations as well allowing for activities like butai meguri. Some of these groups are so popular, they have live viewings of their concerts in various countries outside Japan, and the thought of overseas performances are no longer a dream.

By linking 2D with 3D, these franchises have brought together both anisong and idol fans, which is great, but this results in a culture clash as both sides have very different cultures regarding concerts. In idol concerts, not doing mixes and calls is disruptive because it gives people around you the impression that you are not excited or enjoying the concert, while in anisong concerts, mixing and tigering is disruptive because it ruins the mood of the song and the environment. What this means is that these 2.5D concerts are littered with people from both sides, neither being aware of the other sides concert culture. With Love Live! being a series with a majority of its fans coming from the anisong side, the actions of idol fans are not well accepted, and even yield hostile reactions from the other side. You could bring up the recent rise in popularity of mixing and tigering in anisong concerts as a counter-argument, but I feel this is also a result of 2.5D idol franchises reaching the mainstream.

In regards to the recent Tigers vs ONIBE incident, some people have brought up to me that many of the “problematic” people at these DVs, who they call tigers, have been to Anisong World Matsuri and so they must have an idea of how an anisong concert works. What I speculate is that those idol fans at AWM just assumed the crowd was filled with casual NA anime fans, people unware of the very existence of calls and penlights, and did not think too much of it. They then went to the 2nd Live delayed viewings and behaved as though they were at a regular idol concert and were frustrated over their actions not being well received. These people most likely assumed that because it’s a Love Live! Concert DV, most people there, unlike AWM, must be fellow idol fans, and so they must be accepting of idol culture, completely oblivious to the fact that most Love Livers are anisong fans and idol culture is completely foreign to them, thus complaining about these “yakkai” fans being disruptive and ruining the mood.

Complaining and trying to explain that these actions are disruptive is not going to help in any way whatsoever because what defines disruptive differs from person to person, especially between the average idol fan and the average anisong fan. This whole issue stems from misinformation. As an idol fan myself, I would like to say that other idol fans should understand that Love Live! lies more on the anisong side rather than the idol side, so they should be considerate and attend these concerts as though they are attending an anisong concert. At the same time, anisong fans should understand that these idol fans are not trying to be rude or disruptive, and are not out to annoy you, but rather they’re trying to enjoy the live in their own way, and they should try to inform them about the differences between their concert cultures. Being violent and throwing hate towards each other will not help with anything at all, and will only cause turmoil within the fandom. The only way this issue can be resolved is to inform, and be informed.

Special thanks to link2110 for fixing up my Engrish.

I just came home from Wake Up, Girls! Shin Shou Minilive at Venus Fort, and as an idol otaku, that was an experience I will never forget. I don’t think a crowd can be any more amazing as it was today.

I stood in line from 7 to 10 AM for this ticket and it was still three digits despite being the 30th person in line. Fuck me.

The minilive was simple. Just a rehearsal for sound checking (where they performed Bokura no Frontier), and then four songs, followed by announcements that we already know about. What made it so different from any other live I’ve been to though, is that calls and jumps were banned completely, and while it does say so in the ticket, the last time during the One in a Billion release event, people did it anyway, so this time the seiyuu (namely Mayushii) did a pre-live MC where she told everyone not to do so, and the others as well told us to clap with all our hearts. Everyone, being WUG oshis, obviously listened and made do with just clapping, and that’s what made this such a unique experience.

Despite my shitty three digit number, I was really close to the stage, so I got to see Yoppi’s raw legs. Absolute perfection.

They opened with Tachiagare. As any WUGner knows, this is a song that has quite a lot of calls and even has a loud “Wake Up Girls!” call in the beginning and “Tachiagare” towards the end. Since we weren’t allowed to shout, we clapped to the syllables of the calls. Everyone knew exactly how it should be done and it was so well synchronised I was shocked.

Then came 7 Senses. While this is a new song and doesn’t really have calls around it yet, shouting the names of the seiyuu as they sing their lines is what everyone agrees on so far at least, as it’s a borrowed trait from their previous OP 7 Girls War. But of course, we couldn’t do that. So what we did was point at the seiyuu singing and clap the syllables of their name. It was actually amazing.

The next song, Shizuku no Kanmuri, is a slow song so there was ｎo clapping or waving of penlights at all. It’s a beautiful song by the way. I’m really glad WUGners know how to respect the singers by keeping quiet and just listening to their beautiful voices. A lot of them were doing furicopy which seemed really fun but alas I did not know the steps.

Gokujou Smile, the closing song, was what made it such an amazing experience. If you don’t already know, Gokujou Smile is a very call heavy song. The whole enjoyment of the song during lives comes from doing the calls for it. How are we supposed to make by with just clapping? We gave it a go without thinking too much about it, and I have to say, I really appreciate how synchronised the crowd was. Unlike the other songs, we didn’t clap to the syllables of the calls, but rather we clapped to how we wave the penlight as we usually do the calls, and it worked perfectly. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. There are certain calls like 「なんだか違う！」 where half the people made X signs with their hands as the other half clapped to the usual penlight wave, and the call 「豊作！豊作！」 where everyone copied the seiyuus hand signs and again clapped to the usual penlight wave.

This is an experience I will never forget. Who would’ve thought banning calls and jumps could make it this much of a unique experience? I definitely want to do this again.

Just a bonus because I want to talk about it, but after the minilive there was an omiokurikai, where we basically get to walk past the seiyuu and say goodbye to them standing within a metre of us. I told Yoppi 「名前は n̵a̛̕m̨̀͘e です！覚えてください！」 (My name is ǹà̛҉mé! Please remember me!) since she wrote in her blog that if you tell her your name she will most likely remember it the next time you meet, and she replied back 「n̷a̸m͏̴̀e̷̛ ね！おｋ！」 ( n̵̸á̢̛m̸͏e right! Ok!) and I was so happy my heart was beating so hard I actually had to sit down and get my breath back. It’s been hours and I am still so happy I could cry at any moment right now. This is how it feels meeting your oshi? The adrenaline rush is insane and I love it. I’m gunna try so hard to meet her as much as possible!

認知厨だぜ。

Wake Up, Girls! Shin Shou - A New Chapter Begins [English Subs]

Ever since the release of the preview for Aqours’ new song “Landing action Yeah!!” I’ve been looping it pretty much non-stop. It’s just so good! Having listened to the song so many times, I started to notice something. Since I like shitposting on Discord I thought maybe I’d have some fun with what I noticed and do a shitpost theory on how their new song is about overseas lives but as I was doing a lyrical analysis of the song I started to believe my own shitpost. Let me explain. Let’s start with the first verse:

Landing action

今日はどこで　君と遊ぼうかな

さあみんなで　go runだ!!

I think the first thing that gives it away is the second line, which means “Where should we hang out today?” and while it’s a normal trend in idol music and Love Live as well, this line already hints the fact that they’re going somewhere else other than their usual places.

どこにいても　こころ一つになろう

いつも願ってる　それは同じだよね

更に強い絆　分かち合いたいな

そうだ　目の前で君を見ていたい

The second verse is where my theory starts to shape itself, although it’s not quite there yet. The first two lines, sung by the second years, mean “wherever we are, we pray for our hearts to be one, I’m sure we all wish for the same thing”, which again, does sound like any other idol song lyrics, but this is a little bit more specific, it not only implies that their wish was not obvious from the beginning, which it would be if they were all from the same general area, they’re also implying that the fact that everyone wishes for the same thing is something special. This point is further strengthened by the next two lines, sung by the third years and first years respectively, which mean “We want to share bonds that only grow stronger, yeah, I want to see you right in front of my eyes”. Now if they were in the same general area, seeing your fans isn’t anything to sing about, especially when you’re at a level as huge as Love Live, although it is something idols tend to sing about, but the fact that they also talk about how they want to share their strengthening bonds, and use the word “分かち合う” for sharing, just goes to show that there is some kind of wall that exists between them and their fans, and I feel that that is the ocean, what separates Japan from the overseas.

一緒に　jump! もっと高くね　jump!

やっと会えるから　軽くなっちゃうね

体も　気持ちも　Yeah!!

These next few lines are not very interesting on the surface, but when looking at the context with the rest of the song, I feel it helps shape my theory further. The last two lines of this verse, which mean “we can finally meet, our bodies and feelings will only get lighter, yeah!” shows how excited they are to meet their fans, and I don’t think they’d specifically write about this unless it’s fans they haven’t met yet, the overseas audience.

遠くから　聞こえたよ

ここにおいでって

誰の声かは　わからない

でも聞こえたよ

まだまだいっぱいあるんだ　話したいこと

待ってるだけじゃ伝わらない

だから遊ぼう!

ここで遊ぼう!

今日は遊ぼう!

This final verse is the real tease, and the most interesting part of the song, as it puts all the pieces together to my theory and gives the entire theory its shape, right from the first four lines, which mean “we could hear ‘come here!’ all the way from here, we don’t know whose voices it was but we could hear it from here”, and the lines right after that, which mean “there’s still so much more we want to talk about, just waiting won’t help, so let’s hang out!” just goes to show that they are not singing about their local fans at all. These are fans that they have not met yet. These are fans that they do not yet understand personally. They want to know, and they’re on their way to hear these faraway cheers in person, and to sing their journey forward, together.

Of course, this is not the full song. But dear god is it a real tease. I’m 0% sure this is true by the way, but it sure was fun writing this, as it only hypes me up more for the full song release. I have it pre-ordered and I cannot wait, especially for the Chika solo version!

Uranohoshi Girls’ High School Store: Online Shopping Program Vol. 5 (Chika Birthday Set) [English Subbed]

Ainya, Anchan, and Rikyako advertise the absolute angel of perfection Chika-chan’s Birthday Set, it’s absolutely perfect and you have to buy it regardless of the contents. If you still want to know what it consists of, it’s a Shiitake pouch, and a pin badge and acrylic stand of the already gorgeous Chika-chan in a dress that makes her more beautiful than the existence of god itself. Buy it immediately!

Order here.

Love Live! μ’s Final LoveLive! ~μ’sic Forever ♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪~ English subs are finally complete!

Team ONIBE along with LoveEcho! and VCB-Studio present - Love Live! μ’s Final LoveLive! ~μ’sic Forever ♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪~, finally English subbed! This took absolutely forever, and it’s completely because of my procrastination. If not for Lucia being super harsh on me, and the boys at Team ONIBE doing all the tough parts of the subbing process in such a short period of time, this would not have been done right on time. So thank you to everyone that worked so hard on this! I hope everyone can finally enjoy the live to its fullest, enjoy! 

Torrent Link

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