#It was a special events some seiyuus were a part of

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS CHAOS LINEAGE Stellaworth Tokuten Drama CD: “The Vampire’s Every Day: Board Game Edition ~ Kou/Yuma VS Carla/Shin ~”

Original title:「ヴァンパイア達の日常ボードゲーム編～コウ・ユーマVSカルラ・シン～」

Source: Diabolik Lovers Chaos lineage Animate Tokuten Drama CD

Audio: Here

Seiyuu: Suzuki Ryouhei, Tatsuhisa Suzuki, Morikawa Toshiyuki & Morikubo Shoutarou

Translator’s note: This set of drama CDs has been incredibly entertaining so far and while this one definitely has some great moments as well, I am a bit sad to see that it follows a different pattern from the Sakamaki’s CDs. Instead of playing a magical board game in which all events from the game also occur in real life, they’re instead working as teams and facing off against each other. That being said, there are a bunch of hilarious moments, so I’d definitely recommend giving it a listen!

→  LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

The crowd cheers. 

*Clap clap clap* 

Yuma: Fuck yeah! We won this match too!

Kou: Mmh~! Victory is as good as ours now! …Well then, I wonder who we’re up against in the finals? 

Carla: …Your opponent would be us. 

Kou: Why are you two Founders participating in a gaming tournament organized by Kaminashi City’s department store…!? 

Shin: Why does it matter? Is there a rule that forbids us Founders from joining? 

Kou: I didn’t say that, did I?

Shin: I mean, you guys are participating as well despite being Vampires, aren’t you? What’s your motive? 

Yuma: What do ya mean? ‘s obvious! We have no win no matter what to get our hands on the prize!

Carla: Heh. I see. I suppose you two are also after…that. 

Yuma: Yeah, exactly! …Distributed only by Kaminashi City’s department store…

Carla: The exclusive, hand-selected goodie box, is it? 

Yuma: Exactly! We need to win that prize at all costs! He…Ruki is sitting at home, eagerly waiting for us to bring back that box which has both soy sauce AND detergent amongst other things.  

Kou: Mmh. I mean, it's not actually that serious of a matter. Anyway, Ruki-kun told us to bring the prize back home. It’s such a rare chance to get both soy sauce and detergent for free, so we definitely want to win to help Ruki-kun in his money-saving endeavors! So please, would you be so kind as to let us have the win~?

Shin: Haah? Don’t be ridiculous! We have our own reasons why we want that prize so badly. Right, Nii-san? 

Carla: Exactly…One of the items granted to the winner is a cured ham sample set. I need to get my hands on this no matter what. Therefore, we will mercilessly destroy everyone who stands in our path. Yes, for the sake of my cured ham…!

Yuma: Interestin’! We also made a deal with Ruki that in return for helpin’ him save money, he’ll increase the amount of side dishes at dinner by one! So in this match…Founders or not, we’re not losin’ to ya bastards!

*Diiiing* 

Yuma: So? What are we playin’? I’m pretty sure the final match has some kind of special ruleset? 

Kou: Mmh! Exactly! Let me see…According to the tournament’s official guidelines…

*Flip*

Kou: Seems like it’s a quiz of some sorts. 

Shin: Yup, you’re right. Come on, look at your feet. The ground looks like a huge board game, doesn’t it? First you have to spin this roulette over here, then proceed as many squares as the number you rolled, before answering the question written on there. If both of you can give a correct answer, you get to stay on that spot. If you get it wrong, you have to go back to the previous square you were on. I guess whichever duo reaches the goal first, takes the win. As for the quiz part, apparently it’s meant to test just how much you know about your partner. Well, I’m sure it’ll be a piece of cake with the excellent teamwork between Nii-san and I. Heh. 

Kou: Hehe~ We won’t lose in that regard either! …Right, Yuma-kun~? 

Yuma: Guess so. We’ve got a long history together, so we pretty much have a mutual understandin’ of each other!

Carla: Thoughtless fools. We shall give you a taste of your own incompetence. Let the match begin! Brace yourself, Mukami brothers. 

Yuma: Yeah! Bring it on!

Kou: Okay then~! The coin toss decided that Yuma-kun and I will go first. Yuma-kun, please make sure not to break the roulette when you spin it, okay?

Yuma: Yeah, I know! ‘Kay! Time to spin this bad boy!

Yuma spins the roulette. 

Yuma: One, two, three, four…Yup! This is the one! Let’s see…What does it say? ’Answer with your partner’s hobby’. …Hah! These questions are even easier than I thought!

Kou: Is it really? I’m expecting a correct answer now, Yuma-kun!

Shin: Hey! You can’t talk with each other once you’ve started writing down the answer, okay?

If you do, I’m getting you both disqualified on the spot!

Kou: Oh shut up! We know that! …Here, Yuma-kun. Write the correct answer on this board. I’ll also write mine, so make sure to get my hobby right, okay? 

Yuma: Yeah! Leave it to me! 

*Scribble scribble* 

Shin: …This quiz really is way too easy. I’m pretty sure he’ll actually get this one right. We might just lose at this point, so isn’t there some way I could…? …! Right!

Carla: Hm? What’s the matter, Shin? Did you think of something? 

Shin: Hey, Nii-san! By the way…Have you heard the latest rumor yet?

Carla: …Oi, no need to shout, I can hear you just fine either way. A Founder should know better than to make a fuーー

Shin: (whispers) Oh come on, Nii-san! Just play along with me for a sec! (talks louder again) Word has it that a certain Mukami Kou has been attending yoga classes at the school right across the station!

Carla: Hooh? Yoga, you say? I must say, he has a good taste. I have actually taken an interest in it as of late as well. Yoga is actually quite complex, you see, improving both one’s physical and mentalーー

Shin: (whispers) Sorry, Nii-san! I promise I will listen to your lecture on the benefits of yoga some other day! 

ーー No, no! I’ve just been spotting him by the station quite often during the weekend as of late, so I’m sure he’s pretty passionate about it! I was so surprised, I even double checked to make sure it was really him!

Yuma: …Hah? Kou’s goin’ to the yoga school? That’s a first for me though…I thought he liked dance instead? Don’t tell me…Did he change hobbies recently!? Ugh…I’m confused now!

Shin: Hehe…He’s hesitating for sure! You better it all wrong now, Yuma!

Carla: Shin. Which yoga school would you personally recommend to me? As a Founder, I do not want to attend just any run-of-the-mill yoga class. 

Shin: Yeah...Right. We can talk about that later, okay?

*Whistle* 

Yuma: …Fuck! I gotta make up my mind at some point! I’m goin’ with this as my answer!

*Scribble scribble* 

Kou: H-Hey, Yuma-kun? Everything alright over there? It looked like you were struggling quite a bit…

Yuma: Y-Yeah…! I’m fine! There’s no way I’d get this wrong ‘bout you!

Kou: Mmh, you’re right. I have faith in you! Let’s reveal our answers at the same time then! Ready…Go!

They both flip their boards around.

Yuma: Yoga!

Kou: Dance!

Yuma: Hah!?

Kou: Eh!?

*BZZZZT*

Kou: Hold up! Yuma-kun!? How could you get this one wrong!? When did I ever mention liking yoga!? 

Yuma: Ah!? B-But they were talkin’ ‘bout it! They said you’ve gotten hooked on the stuff as of late and have been attendin’ some kind of yoga school!

Kou: Why would you believe what our opponent says!? That was obviously a lie! This sucks~ Just how many years have we spent together now!? You idiot! Doofus! 

Yuma: Hah…? A lie…? Then, they…tricked me? 

Kou: So you actually did believe them…I can’t believe you fell for such an obvious scheme…I had faith in you too…

Shin: Hehehe…! You have to be pretty naive to fall for that. I guess this just proves that Vampires really are the inferior species amongst us. 

Carla: My thoughts exactly. It is simply laughable how you would believe the enemy over your own brother and ultimately fall for such a blatant lie. Now be a man and accept your defeat.  

Shin: …I mean, you kind of fell for it too, Nii-san. …Anyway, it’s finally our turn! We’ll show you two the true strength of us Founders! I’m going to spin the roulette now!

Shin spins the roulette. 

Shin: Five! Come on, Nii-san. Onwards we go!

Carla: Yes. 

Shin: One, two, three, four…and five! Let’s see…Our question is also ‘answer with your partner’s hobby!’

Carla: Heh. I see. That’s it? No big deal. …Shin. I can trust that you know exactly what my hobby is, correct? 

Shin: Yeah! Leave it to me, Nii-san!

*Scribble scribble* 

Kou: Fuck…It’d be so frustrating if this leads to our loss… …Hey, Shin-kun~ Did you know? Carla-kun’s hobby is actually bonsai art~!

*Whistle* 

Shin: You must be a fool if you think I’m going to fall for that.

Carla: Truly idiotic. I have only dabbled a little into the art of bonsai. 

Shin: Exactly! Nii-san has nevーー …Eh!? You actually have!? Hold up. My current answer is the correct one, right? Your hobby is actually still ‘that’, isn’t it!? I’m going to turn around my board now, okay? It’ll be fine, right!? Ready…go!

*Thud* 

Carla & Shin: Collecting paintings 

*Ding ・ dong* 

Carla: Correct. …Well, I suppose that was only to be expected. 

Shin: Phew, thank god…! I was sweating for a second there, but I guess we are the best after all!

Kou: Aah~ I guess they got one step ahead of it. 

Yuma: Don’t sweat it, Kou. It’s only the first round! We can still turn things ‘round, can’t we? So don’t give up hope and let’s keep goin’!

Kou: Yuma-kun…Mmh! The game has only just started! It’s our turn again now! Let’s push forward!

Yuma: Yeah! That’s the spirit! …’Kay! I’m gonna spin the roulette!

*Rattle* 

Yuma: Three! Let’s go. 

Kou: Yes~!

They proceed three squares. 

Yuma: So, what’s written on there now? 

Kou: Um…Let’s see…’How tall is the Kaminashi Tower? Choose the string with the correct answer.”

Yuma: Haah!? The fuck’s with that serious quiz question…!? It has nothin’ to do with the damn theme either! How are we supposed to know that!? 

*Tick tock tick tock tick tock* 

Kou: Uwah…They’ve even got that timer music playing in the background…This sort of thing always makes me even more nervous. 

Shin: Hey, what’s wrong, Mukami’s~? How about you stop dawdling and pick an answer already? Don’t tell me you can’t even answer such an easy question? 

Yuma: Aah…!? Don’t be grinnin’ over there! Shin, that bastard…I dare bet that he doesn’t know the answer either!

Kou: Aah, but what to do? I have no idea either! …Hey, do you know, Yuma-kun? 

Yuma: What makes ya think I do!? …Wait, hold up…But Ruki said somethin’ ‘bout the height of Kaminashi tower the other day…

Kou: Eh? Really!? Come on, remember it, Yuma-kun! Quick, hurry~!

Yuma: Don’t be ridiculous! Back then I honestly didn’t give a flyin’ fuck so I kind of just listened mindlessly and don’t remember any of it!

Kou: Poor Ruki-kun…At least pretend to be interested in the things he talks about every now and then…

*Whistle* 

Yuma: Time’s up already!? Aah, whatever! It’s probably this one! Ready? I’m gonna pull the string!

Kou: Go ahead! At this point, I just have to trust you! Pull it with everything you’ve got!

Yuma: Ready…go! There!

Yuma pulls the string. 

*PANG*

*SPLASH*

Kou: Waaah…!

…

Uu…This sucks…Why didn’t they tell us we’d get water dumped all over us if we picked the wrong answer? 

Yuma: Ugh…What did I do to deserve this…? 

Shin: Aah~ That was hilarious! Thanks for giving me such a great show! I guess winning this whole thing will be easier than we thought. Thank god we ended up against you guys in our final match. 

Kou: Keh…I can’t believe we haven’t earned a single point yet. I’m feeling really dispirited right now. 

Carla: It was only to be expected with us as your opponents. Well then, Shin. Spin the roulette for the next round. 

Shin: Good idea. I think it’s about time we end this farce. 

*Rattle* 

Shin: Six, huh? If we can get the question right, we’ll be right at the finish line! One, two, thee, four, five…six!

Carla: This square, huh? Shin. What is written on it? 

Shin: For some reason, it’s the only one in a different color. Let’s see…’Special square’, it says. 

Carla: What does that mean? 

Shin: Hmー I see…Apparently everyone has to compete for this one, including Kou and Yuma. 

Carla: I see. I suppose this is the ideal opportunity to show the overwhelming difference in power between us. Yuma! Kou! Both of you, come join us here!

Kou and Yuma walk up to them. 

Yuma: ‘Join us here’, my ass! Don’t be tellin’ me what to do!

Kou: What’s going on? Seems like you landed on a special square? What will happen? 

Carla: Apparently we have to undergo a trial in which we are confined to this area and must mercilessly hurl these sheer white solidifications of fat at the opponent’s vital points

Yuma: Hah!? I have no idea what you’re sayin’, mate!

Kou: Sometimes Carla-kun truly speaks in riddles, doesn’t he? 

Shin: Are you guys making fun of him!? It’s not his fault that you’re too stupid to understand him! Fine, I’ll explain it in a way that anyone can understand, okay? We’re going to battle it out in what you’d call a ‘pie throwing contest’ by human world standards. Whichever pair can collect the most points by hitting the opponent with these pies, wins. 

Carla: Furthermore, it says that whoever wins this battle, will automatically win the entire game. It would appear to me that we can settle the score with this. 

Yuma: Hah! I like the sound of that! Not only does it save a bunch of time, but the rules are nice and simple!

Kou: Guess so~! Yuma-kun, this could be our chance! If we can collect a bunch of points, we could run away with the victory!

Yuma: Yeah. They’ve really made a fool out of us the whole time, so I think it’s time we return the favor. 

Shin: Ah-ah~ I have to say, you sore losers really got lucky. Our victories from earlier are basically in vain now. 

Carla: Oh well, it is fine. All we have to do is win, regardless of the conditions. It is as simple as that. Our mission remains the same. 

Shin: I guess you’re right. As to be expected of Nii-san! You always know exactly what to say!

Yuma: Oi, ya fuckers! How much longer are ya gonna blabber on for!? Stop whinin’ and let’s get this battle started! 

Carla: Very well. As you wish, I shall have you succumb to me at once. 

*Ding* 

Yuma: Let’s get this party started! …Take this!

*SPLAT*

Carla: How insolent…

Shin: Hah…!

*SPLAT*

Kou: …Woah! That was close! …Time for revenge!

They continue throwing pies at each other. 

Shin: You’re only wasting your time…! Just admit defeat already!

*Woosh* 

*SPLAT*

Kou: Wah! We’re going to win this one no matter what…!

*SPLAT SPLAT*

Carla: I must say…You have some nerve to throw those fatty clumps at me. 

*SPLAT*

Shin: Hah…! 

*SPLAT*

Shin: Fuck! I can’t get any of them to hit…! Stop running around from left to right…! You pesky littleーー God!

Kou: Hehe~ You can throw in the towel if you want~ 

*SPLAT SPLAT*

Yuma: Ah…Fuck! You’re so damn persistent! Just give up already…!

*SPLAT*

Shin: Why don’t you two admit defeat instead!? 

*SPLAT SPLAT*

Carla: Shin. We are running out of time. Let us settle this with our next throw. 

Shin: Yeah, I know, Nii-san! This is the end for you two…!

*SPLAT*

Yuma: Hah! Why are ya talkin’ as if you’ve won already!? We’re the ones who will land the final blow!

Kou: Exactly! Let’s grab the win…and bring back home those prizes to Ruki-kun and Azusa-kun!

Yuma: Yeah! This is it!

*Woosh* 

*SPLAT*

Carla: Hah. Do not get ahead of yourself. As if we would ever lose to a mere bunch of Vampires. 

Shin: Let’s go, Nii-san! …Uwah!? 

*Thud* 

Shin: Owowow…What happened? My foot slipped…I’m covered in cream now as well…This seriously sucks…

Carla: Ugh…Shin…Shin!! 

Shin: Nii-san, what’s wrong!? It looks like you can barely breathe! …Wait? Uwah! I’m so sorry!! I stepped on the edge of your scarf!

Carla: Shin…! Please just…step…aside…

Kou: Hahaha! What are those guys doing? Yuma-kun, I think this might be our chance~! Finish it with those two pies in your hands!

Yuma: Gotcha! …Take this!!

*WOOSH*

Carla & Shin: …!? 

*SPLAT*

Kou: We did it! Right in their faces!

Carla & Shin: Ugh…

*DING ・ DING*

*Clap clap clap* 

Yuma: Phew…That was the bell signalin’ the end of the game. 

Kou: Hooray! Look at the scores! We turned things around and won!

Yuma: Yeah!

Shin: No way…You’ve got to be kidding me…

Carla: Ridiculous…How could I lose…?

Kou: Fufu~ Check that out, Yuma-kun! Their sheer white faces are a must-see!

Yuma: Ahaha! You guys look hilarious! I’m pretty sure I’ll remember this moment forever! Hahaha…

Shin: How dare you throw a pie in Nii-san’s face…I won’t let you make a laughingstock of him like that! 

Kou: What are you saying? His face ended up covered in cream because you tripped, remember? 

Carla: I cannot believe it…I lost to some lowly Vampires…

Yuma: You should just genuinely admit defeat. ‘Almighty Founders’ 

Shin: I won’t…I refuse to accept this…!!!

ーー THE END ーー

[eshrii]

I thought I’d start putting some of my other hobbies aside from translations here ^.^ I’m not very familiar with drawing people yet but I randomly remembered that Emitsun said she likes Flareon in a Pokemon ORAS event and I had an urge to draw her and and flareon ^.^ Are the sparkly flowers overkill? Maybe. Do I care? Not at all.

[bleuskais]

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: The Animation Special Event ~ JOESTAR The Inherited Soul ~

I can’t believe I paid so much money for machine translated English subs...

Praying hard that we’ll get better subs in the archived video but I doubt it since the archived video on the streaming site is only until 5 April

~

No one’s in the audience so they’re just appearing in the aisles and made their way to the stage at the start of the event

~

They opened the event with some stats... I forgot to take a screenshot of it all lol

The one that stuck with me was there were 313 seiyuu to date...

and someone actually took the time to go through every script from all 5 parts to count the number of sokuon or small tsu ッ

~

Q&A

Jonathan Joestar aka Okitsu-san’s question to Giorno aka Ono Kensho: who do you think is your father, Dio or Jonathan?

Ono Kensho said they’re both his fathers. He then spent the rest of the event referring to Okitsu/Jonathan as his 半パパ han papa or half father lol

.

Sugita’s question: Is it true that Okitsu-san auditioned for Giorno Giovanna? Okitsu: How did you know?! S: that day I got a call from someone saying "yabai, Sugita. Okitsu-san is here for Giorno's audition too" Okitsu/everyone else: who? who? S: it was Part 5's Bruno... i mean, no one >_> Me: 🤣😂 will he ever not bring up his BFF apropos of nothing? please never stop doing that lol

the moment he started imitating that conversation, I knew™

.

loved Ono Daisuke referring to Okitsu as jii-chan no jii-chan aka Grandpa’s grandpa

and also Sugita doing his Unsho-san/old Joseph voice throughout the event lol

Ono Yuki is surprisingly chatty lol... He said that before Part 4 was announced, Sugita said he’d want Ono Yuki to play his son (Josuke) and he really did! He also said before they announced Part 5, he read the manga and heard Ono Kensho’s voice for Giorno.

~

JoJo Protagonists Best Scenes & Live Dubbing

They showed the best 3 scenes as voted by audiences and did a live dubbing of a famous scene from each part.

The scene they chose for Part 2 was Caesar’s death and I’m crying... It hits so differently when you’re watching the live dubbing... Such intensity! The entire atmosphere was solemn after Sugita basically bared his soul in that scream. I can’t tell but were there actual tears? I won’t be surprised if there were...

Voice actors are actors y’all

(edit: getting goosebumps just thinking about it while writing now)

~

Ono Daisuke: and finally, I would like to pass on the Joestar Soul to ...

Me: YATTA!

FAIROUZ AI IS CUJOH JOLYNE

.

Ono Daisuke: Nakamura also told me when we met the other time... [referring to Fairouz Ai] “Isn’t that Jolyne?”

He called her daughter and got everyone to say “welcome to the JoJo family” to her d’aww...

Okitsu-san welcoming her into the Joestar family, telling her everyone is here for her and they’re all her nakama in this JoJo journey omg i cry

oh no... she’s getting choked up too T_T Fai-chan said the pressure is great and she’s touched by everyone’s kindness and support and she’s gonna do her very best to continue the JoJo spirit

I CAN’T WAIT

~

They ended the event with a performance of the first JoJo opening song, JoJo ~Sono Chi no Sadame~ by Tominaga “TOMMY” Hiroaki. As they should.

[miniaturestitches]

30-day seiyuu challenge/appreciation week 4 + 2 days

Finally got the time to post this!  Got really delayed because so many things got in the way...my computer decided to stop cooperating...tumblr also decided to whisk part of my draft away...

Anyway! here’s the last week for the challenge~ I don’t even know if what I typed makes sense.

Hey, if you guys want to do the 30-day seiyuu challenge (whether mine or someone else’s), can you please let me know? I want to read more appreciation posts for seiyuus~

If you want to see more posts filled with fangirling and my opinions, here is the link to week 3.

22. Seiyuu with fastest voice change

Shimazaki  Nobunaga

Just listen to his character Kaido Shun…

And this guy… 

You'll know what I mean.  The way he shifts in pitch is near instant.  

23. Seiyuu with best main character roles

Nakamura Yuuichi

He doesn’t get casted as those typical loud, heroic, shounen main characters, but you'll want to root for his characters.  (hmm, actually you'll like his characters even though they're support characters.)

He just… "owns" the character he voices.  Once I hear him voice a character, I can't really imagine that character being voiced by anyone else. 

 I feel that his voice really improves the character too; adding depth to the character.  

Special Mention: Hanae Natsuki I'm personally not a fan, but I have to admit that he is talented.  

He is given a lot of main character roles and he excels at it. He is given a lot of main character roles and he excels at it.

24. Seiyuu with best support roles

Kimura Ryohei

I don't know why, but I tend to like his characters more when they're not the main lead.  

His characters tend to make others shine and become more memorable.

25. Favorite seiyuu duo/ combination

Kimura Ryohei + Nobunaga Shimazaki

I'll go ahead and say it, I was very biased for this item.  They don't really get much projects together unlike other seiyuu duos (Kamiya Hiroshi + Ono Daisuke, Fukuyama Jun + Sakurai Takahiro)  but they're dynamics as theGreed pair just worked so well for me.

I just really, really love their tandem as Licht and Lawless!  

I loved it even more when I saw clips of the live Servamp event.

I hope to see more combinations like this in the future.  

Another duo I like is Nakamura Yuuchi + Fukuyama Jun.  Ratio and Birthday was a great tandem.

26. Seiyuus you always mistake for the other

Hatano Wataru and Konishi Katsuyuki 

The sound so similar to me.   

I actually thought these guys were voiced by Hatano Wataru until I checked the credits.

 Well, they were actually casted as son and father once (the Yaotomes in Idolish7)

I guess I'm not alone in thinking that they do have some similarities?

27. Underrated seiyuu

Kimura Subaru I don't think he gets much main voice acting roles.  (Well at least Hypmic got an anime now.)  He has this unique voice which sounds refreshing.    

I myself didn't really notice him before until someone pointed out to me how great he was in voicing Terasaka and Kanba.

Furukawa Makoto

Aside from Saitama (One-Punch Man) people rarely talk about his roles.

I think he deserves more recognition for his voice work. 

I was a bit disappointed when Taiju only got appearances in the earlier episodes of Dr. Stone.  I hope he gets a bigger role in the next season!

Did you know he did the narration in the Saiki Kusuo Psi-nan anime?  

I like his voice as Hatsuharu too.

28. Seiyuu who deserves better roles

Ono Yuki

His voice range is so flexible! 

I always get pleasantly surprised when I find out that he was the voice behind a character. He's one of those seiyuus who make you remember the character, not the voice actor.   

Sadly, I feel like everytime he is one of the main characters, he ends up getting outshined or forgotten...because other seiyuus are more popular.

Kawanishi Kengo

Really impressive work in 3an-gatsu no lion!

I think he deserves more leading roles!  He did get the lead role in Junjo no Magmell.  The anime had so much potential, but I felt that it could have ended better.

He was also perfect as Asagiri Gen in Dr. Stone!

29. Seiyuu who works well with other seiyuus

Miyu Irino

I can't really describe it well.  But Miyu Irino (both character and voice) just blends into whatever role is given to him.  

Classic example is Tachibana Chizuru from Kimi to Boku…like...he just established himself in their circle.

I guess he does get a lot of “outsider” characters who find their way in becoming a core part of a group.

One minute it’s “look at this wild card” and the next minute it’s “since when did you guys get all so chummy?!”

As expected of an experienced voice actor!  He can make his voice work in any genre, any character, with any cast.  

Hosoya Yoshimasa

He works so well with various tandems.

I have a friend who likes the Shimazaki Nobunaga + Hosoya Yoshimasa combi.

While I prefer the Miyano Mamoru + Hosoya Yoshimasa combi~

Whichever combi you like, there’s no denying his talent.  He has a good range of character types!

30. Seiyuus who gives characters life

Suzumura Kenichi

I'm not just talking about making the character lively. (like this adorable furball)

Whether the character is energetic or not, young or not, Suzumura Kenichi makes the character so believable and real.  

It seems to me that, no matter how minor, he makes each character memorable.

and that’s a wrap for the seiyuu challenge~ (for now ^ ^ ) I did have fun doing this and now have even better appreciation for the work they do.  I hope I can repeat this challenge in the future~ there are still so many impressive seiyuus out there!   

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Why You Should Watch SKET Dance

Why You Should Watch SKET Dance

If I were to tell you what I took away from SKET Dance from old lessons to new, I would say that it said something along the lines of this:

“You are not the mistakes you made in the past. You are not defined the person you were before. If anything, the past is something that you cannot change, but you can surpass those regrets and try to change for the better. Trauma is something that cannot be left behind, but it can get better, especially when you are surrounded by the right people and support. Helping people doesn’t always change the world, but it can change the world of that person and maybe even yours.”

That cheesy quote took a while to write (so did this whole post), but that’s because I wanted to get it right. I wasn’t even sure where to start with this post of sorts.

I will warn ahead of time that if you aren’t familiar with anime, SKET Dance might be an overreach. It does have some references that are niche, and it has a lot of “manzai” (tsukkomi/boke) jokes with tons of mentions. There is fanservice, but no more than you’d see in some of the other series that were released under Shonen Jump. Sometimes the humour and everything can be a little cringy, but I think that’s a given with the fact that you are watching anime.

(This is spoiler-free, gluten-free, no trans fat, and took me too much time.)

Story

I get that it’s like Gintama, but I wouldn’t say it’s a “poor man’s Gintama”. Instead, take it for what it is. It’s like comparing a younger sibling to the older sibling. You’re not letting SketDan shine on its own, and it deserves to.

SketDan has a really simplistic story. It’s about a school club that wants to help people. There is no big war, massive battles, or over-the-top villain that needs to be crushed. I can’t say that it’s episodic, but it definitely leans towards the more “slice-of-life” approach. It has its own arcs that come one after another in good bits and pieces. This series balances itself so well with its drama and comedy. The backstories were done so well, and they didn’t even get to all of them! In fact, one of the best ones was left just in the manga.

The story is made by the characters. It doesn’t rely on the environment or the world around them. Instead, the world to them are the people they are surrounded by. No aliens, samurai, ninjas, or great big event, it’s just them, their high school, and their unconventional club.

Characters

This has got to go down as one of the best ensemble trios in anime. All of them do get their time to develop, and they balance each other out so well. You’d think these characters were friends for their entire lives. I can’t even say who’s the best because I think they’re all the best!

Bossun is a sensitive guy who’s insecure about being the main character of this series (yes, he does mention that). He doesn’t have any spectacular “Shonen Jump” skills. He has no “bankai”, “rasengan”, or “Kamehameha”. He has a hat and goggles. His power is concentration. These are completely valid reasons to be worried about your character status because, on the surface, Bossun sounds downright pathetic (and he knows it). But through the story, you get to see why he’s actually one of the best main characters out there (even if the cast doesn’t want to acknowledge it).

Himeko is one of the coolest characters in this series. I haven’t seen a weapon of that kind… ever. She isn’t afraid to slap the stuff out of anyone and will do anything for a friend. I don’t want to get into her character too much due to spoilers, but it’s revealed early on that she is quite legendary. She’s quite important for the humour of this story. It’s often brought up that she’s the “tsukkomi” (the one who responds to the “boke” stupid).

Last but not least of the great trio, we have Switch. This is probably the character I was most blindsided by. Even though I knew his backstory beforehand (nobody stops me from clicking from “show spoiler” button, it’s quite a problem). He’s the local otaku and database. And he’s probably the most observant. Even though he never “talks”, he’s one of the funniest characters in the series even when he isn’t in the limelight. I legally cannot dig into more about his character due to spoilers. You really need to see it for yourself.

The supporting cast is nothing to put aside either. A lot of them become more and more important as time passes, and the roles they play soon play right into the main plot of the story. We’ve got someone who speaks in “yabasu”, a ghostly occult member, a samurai, a captain, a tsundere, a visual kei star who doesn’t speak in any actual language, a 1.8m tall woman who can literally murder you with a slap, a voice actress idol movie star, and a teacher who makes drugs and bombs. That doesn’t even touch on the student counsel. Anyways, discovering these characters is part of the charm.

Art

There are too many good faces in this anime. While the art isn’t always consistent, it’s never “bad”.

The faces in this anime are on-par with other comedy anime. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Music

*downloads all the music*

I’m going to pretend like I haven’t listened to some of these on repeat since I finished the anime. Not all anime will literally have a designated band that are made after the characters. That was a really nice touch. There are a ton of special insert songs that go with certain arcs too.

SKET Dance is like any other anime in a way. It benefits from having a good OST. A good OST will add to the story. It will add to the anime, and it will convey all the right feelings. It helps with the comedy, the drama, and the random “what am I watching” moments.

Seiyuu

I wanted to save this category for last. This anime actually changed the way that I look at all the main seiyuu of this anime. It’s not that often that the Vomics (voice acted comics) have the same cast as the anime. They fit their characters so well, and I really can’t express that enough. I associate their voices with their character. It’s like how you can look at a picture of your favourite character and remember exactly what they sound like (or maybe that’s just me).

I haven’t actually heard a lot of lead roles by Hiroyuki Yoshino because he has such a uniquely odd voice. I think the last anime I watched where he actually played the protagonist was Kekkaishi which was quite a while ago. He did well for that role too. Another anime where he played one of the main characters was in Hai to Gensou no Grimgar which didn’t have a very enjoyable cast compared to other anime including SKET Dance (but still worth checking out if you like tamer isekai). I’ve also seen him play a suave character, but I actually skipped most of his lines going, “Not this again.” Present Mic is a character that he seems to be popular for, but those specific niche characters didn’t give him nearly the range that Bossun did. From the moments we were laughing with him and at him to the serious moments that really made me go quiet, it felt like he was truly the character.

Ryouko Shiraishi is such an underrated seiyuu. She admits that she doesn’t have a very cutesy voice, and due to that, the number of female characters she can play goes down, but I wouldn’t dismiss how great she is. For one, she’s really good at the Kansai dialect. Second, she plays a lot of younger male characters. She makes Himeko really cute but also really tough and spunky. She carries a lot of the humour as the reactor “tsukkomi”. And if you’ve watched Demon Slayer, she plays one of the demons and is so good at it. I really like her unique voice because it deviates from the norm just like Himeko’s character.

Gintoki—I mean Tomokazu Sugita is great as Switch, and even though sometimes we forget that he’s a legitimate voice actor who can actually voice act and not just scream on command. Of course, he’s funny. That goes without saying. Almost all of his well-known characters are known for being funny. Even the guy in real life is really funny. I’m not sure how much explanation would be needed for him.

Summary

Overall, I had such a good time with this anime. It made me laugh, feel the feels, and really smile (I mean the type that people really ask you what the heck you’re watching because you’re smiling like you just watched someone you hate fall down the stairs). It reminded me of what I liked from comedy anime, but it also reminded me what I like about anime that take it to basics with just its characters. Actions and battles are good once in a while, but the characters are the heart, soul, and being of this anime. If you’re looking for a good laugh or smile with a ton of gags and jokes with a great ensemble cast, look no further! SKET Dance is here!

I’m going to recommend this anime to anyone who has read this, @azroazizah​, @brettyblease​, @tsukiomoon​, and anyone else who likes those Shonen Jump shenanigans.

P.S. It is totally worth picking up the manga after watching the anime.

[suzdotranslation]

[Interview TL] USHIROMUKI - Double Ishida Web Interview

Source

For those who were unaware, USHIROMUKI is a special theatrical reading event which features two familiar entertainers who shares the same name; Ishida Akira (The seiyuu and manzai actor respectively). This interview took place before the DVD release!

due to the naming similarity, spoken lines will be coded by their initials and some will be colored accordingly, see below for guide:

Akira (actor): AA -> orange color Akira (seiyuu): AS -> red color

Is this really a fan letter addressed to NONSTYLE? The lamenting of Ishida Akira

―To start this off, were you both aware of each other before this opportunity considering the name similarities?

AA: Actually I did know about him for quite a long time. There were times when I've been told something like "Hee~, so you're named Ishida Akira, how cheeky~". Though as soon as I wrote my name's kanji(明) he immediately said "Then, I guess you're forgiven".

AS: What do they mean by that (laughs).

AA: That person probably thought the name "Ishida Akira" would definitely refer to "that" Ishida(彰)-san. But I also thought to myself "What's so cheeky about it (Ishida Akira)!" (laughs). Also, it might be because my usual partner (Inoue Yuusuke) had "井上(Inoue)" in his name, we often got a fan letter addressed for NONSTYLE[1] but mistook our name as Ishida Akira and Inoue Kazuhiko-sama (laughs). *Inoue Kazuhiko (Hatake Kakashi in NARUTO, Nyanko-sensei in Natsume Yuujinchou, etc.) were often casted in the same series alongside Ishida Akira.* [1]: NONSTYLE is the name of Ishida/Inoue owarai duo

AS: Ahahaha (laughs).

AA: It was such a confusing moment that I responded with "Is this really written for us?" and laughed it off (laughs). But I'm actually happy when we're given an opportunity to talk about this (project). I immediately reply "I'll do it! I'll definitely do it!" as well.

―Akira-san looked like a person who would enjoy comedy-shows but generally speaking, how was your impression of Akira-san on TV screen?

AS: Ah, I thought about how hard-working this person must've been.

AA: I'm so embarrassed!

―What part makes you think he's a hard-working person?

AS: Isn't it awesome that he could spend a lot of time on-stage alone to simply do manzai(one-man act) practice.It made me think it would’ve been weird if someone like him didn't manage to get an award out of it, he definitely deserved it. That's why I thought the 2008 M-1 Grandprix results were really spot-on. Also, for some reason I felt somewhat happy when I heard his name being called in during the result's announcement. I’m somewhat surprised since it was the first time I found someone that shares a similar name as I do so I instantly thought "Such a me(Ishida Akira)-like name!".

―"USHIROMUKI" was chosen as the title based on both's common point from what I've heard. How did it lead to this decision?

AS: I remembered when before I entered the practice room, someone asked "What do you think about yourself?" to me. To be frank, I thought of myself as quite a timid person. I often hesitate on something even during crucial times, and I'd rather not try off new things. But when I called myself a "Negative thinker"-type quite shakily, Ishida-san surprisingly replied "I thought the same too". Although honestly, seeing the show title named like this got me thinking, "Is it really fine to have such a negative-sounding name for a show?" (laughs).

AA: I've been seeing people saying 'positive'-sounding stuff quite often recently and, it's not like I disliked it. When you say these positive things, it does make people want to do their best. But surely, there are those who would feel pressured to match these expectations no matter where they are. For example, I'm an extremely cautious type of person and on top of that, were also struggling while making my way here. That's why the title "USHIROMUKI" feels very personal to me as well.

―When talking about common points, being "not good around people" seems to be mentioned a lot here. Are there times during practices when any of you both felt something like "Ah... this person isn't good around people isn’t he..." toward each other?

AS: I do realize we didn't meet each other to eyes a lot... (laughs)

AA: Yeah we didn't do as much (laughs). Even during the closing party we only took a little peek.

AS: There was a scene on stage where we really had to meet eye-to-eye, it really made me feel anxious. Even if we've met and practiced together so many times, while managing to keep the story feeling in a nice mood, it always feels weird when we were told "keeping eye contact in this scene would be a good idea!" and such because whenever I started doing it I just... I just can't! (laughs).

AA: Maybe to the audiences, it feels like a 5-seconds scene but for us it really felt like an eternity. However as we both aren't good with people in general, we're slowly learning to get over it alright! We were able to enjoy the closing party's hot pot together in the end after all! ...although we still haven't met each other to eyes as always (laughs).

Which type of “Negative-minded”? Let's hear the opinion from both sides!

―Negative-minded people tend to be a man of few words, though there are also other varied types. Have you two ever thoughts about what type of "negative-minded" person you are?

AA: In my case, I see people who go to a drinking place and say stuff like "I definitely won't be able to see you next time!" would become really chatty in that place. But I think even in my next life, I'll always become super-careful towards people I talked to. That's why I always do my best when I'm talking with fellow entertainers, I'm quite shy even. I always immediately thought that they're "Testing me". In the first place, my confidence isn't that high, so I tried not to leave a bad impression on others, so much that it makes me nervous when speaking, it's been like that since school days.

AS: For me......, now that I think about it recently, my shyness might've shifted into a new genre instead. Instead of thinking "Let's be calm and careful towards people in my life so I won't give them a bad impression about me." like Ishida-san, in order not to make someone have a bad impression toward me I would give them a shut-out first thing first so it won't be too much of a hassle.

AA: A shut-out (laughs)

AS: Recently I've been thinking that I might've been not actually shy towards people than I initially thought. Think of it as a stubborn old-man who lives among his pile of trash (laughs), no matter what you think it's definitely going to bother people around them, and when someone says "You should clean up a bit." they'll refuse to and insisted that "Everything here is important stuff!" or something. Surely when I was in a situation where I can't be stubborn, I would find myself stuck in a corner. There was no one I could depend on at the right timing, so nowadays I couldn't even solve it myself...

AA: The past (grief) keeps escalating each time, it makes you stuck in a situation you can't escape from (laughs).

AS: Then again, it's alright to see it from a fan's perspective as well I think. Think about it like if you were to buy a dog and someone says "How cute!" to them, they would still run away when they got bitten by a wild dog right? For the people who have overcome that, they're definitely a very special type of people. For me if I were to become a pet, I think I'm the type that would be hard to handle (smiles bitterly), though there might be people who find the idea quite interesting. But leaving that aside, you're still dealing against a wild dog, surely there aren't many people that would be eccentric enough to care about them... somehow I felt like this interview only gives me demerit so far (laughs).

AA: Well rather than being told by someone else, this is all coming from Akira-san so it sounded like a confession instead (laughs).

―But I think it's precisely because of that, when both of you teamed up it makes for the path of success of this performance! Frankly, how did you feel about the responses?

AA: Performing live... really makes you feel alive, huh.

AS: Yeah, there were a lot of excited audiences too after all.

AA: There were a lot of things I started to understand after I stood on the stage too. I thought to myself, "Ah these lines would look nice when I said it during this music timing!" and when I finally experienced it myself, it made everything much easier. The performance started in Tokyo and ended in Osaka already, but I really felt the differences between both venues. Realizing that, I tried to adapt to it, and I eventually got to be in shape at the end (laughs).

AS: ahaha (laughs).

AA: In the end I even manage to match the sound of said lines, it's good enough that I can start doing little tricks in between it, even for myself I did thought it felt a bit underhanded though.

AS: Oh not at all, I don’t think that would be something underhanded. After all in the audiences' perspective, the synchronization between the music and the feelings is important to amplify what they felt towards it (the performance). I think it's a good idea to match it up if it feels right to do it.

AA: I've never really done anything besides manzai, so doing all this was really fun and interesting. When I was told to do acting for the first time there are also some occasions where I was told to "try to match it up along with the music", out of 31 performances I only manage to succeed on two performances only (laughs). You can't be picky in this type of thing that I understand, but this time I think I manage to say all the nice lines and manage to get the feels just right.

―We know that Akira-san had a lot of experiences with theatrical reading already, but how was the reading with Akira-san feels like?

AS: Ishida-san's lines made me feel "Ahh! it's so easy to follow!". Previously, Ishida-san did say if you can match the tune of the music with your lines then it'll be good, but to be honest I was going through the whole scene while unable to listen to my surroundings as much. Then again by including things like reading, music and videos together, I felt a sense of unity with Ishida-san who worked hard to get those feelings across.

AA: Ah I'm glad. But honestly Ishida-san's reading is just really good, even when I thought "Ahh these lines sounded pretty hard", when Ishida-san gets to say it, the lines become much easier for me. It's amazing how it manages to drag out my emotion towards the lines, it always made such a good learning material. Because of that during the actual performance, I gradually was able to understand the objectives for each line, sometimes I would think "I see, so I should've gone with these tones to raise the feelings during this scene!". Also, since Ishida-san always improvises himself on each show, it makes everything so much fun.

―Speaking of, Akira-san had a regular work partner (Inoue-san), but to the blunt, how does it feel to be partnering up with Ishida-san (for this work)?

AS: Manzai and reading were two completely different things I think. It has different goals as well, right.

AA: Both Akira-san and Inoue-san had a pretty wide range so they're a bit similar, but Inoue-san said his lines naturally without anything as backsound. Though it manages to make his lines conclusive, it gives no room to "feel" it. Which is why it was easy to play the straight-man part for him. But with Ishida-san, in addition to his wide range, his voice was mostly powerful with plenty of variations as well, it made me feel like "If we can make it through, there would be lots of stuff we can do after this for sure!".

AS: Thank you so much. Somehow it made me a bit uncomfortable though (laughs).

Next time is a manzai reading opportunity!? The common points between reading and manzai are...

―This time you were teaming up to do a reading, but if there's by any chance you both were able to work together again what things that you would like to do?

AA: What do you want to do?

AS: I would've preferred doing something not related to stage performances, but the choices are pretty limited I think. I can't do theater acts, and doing manzai-like roles is out of the question. Theatrical reading is the most I could do.

AA: Ahahaha. Then, how about doing a "Manzai reading"?

AS: Is there such a thing like manzai reading!?

AA: I never tried it before so honestly I wouldn't know either (lol). But, wasn't this time basically just exchanging conversation between each other? I thought it's a bit of waste by calling it "only" a stage reading. If we leave the script we held and move around it's practically an act, right.

―In Akira-san's opinion, what are the common points between reading and manzai?

AA: Hmmm... "USHIROMUKI" for me especially, seemed to be quite similar in that terms. The point where each person's words clash with each other to reach into common objectives, I think the only difference is that the other one leaned more into comedy. Ishida-san's tension keep arising and hard to be shaken off so I had to lessen mine, it's practically the same as manzai. That's why I enjoyed the clashing exchanges the most. Sometimes I tend to overdo it that I sometimes ended eating up Ishida-san lines as well.

―For Akira-san, you added more movements than regular reading for this one. What is your main intention in doing it?

AS: Usually when I do reading, I try to project some kind of image simulation inside my head. With moving even with a slight gesture it would make the scene easier to be expressed as well as knowing when to tone it down. Since we still have to match the mic placement as well, it's important to have a sense of unity on the stage.

AA: I'm completely inexperienced when it comes to theatrical reading that I first went "How do I get it right?", but during the first day right after the shooting is over I got told "Akira-san is reading into the script too much, we can't take any pictures if you didn't look at the front! Please learn from Akira-san as well!" and stuff like that. That's why I tried mimicking Akira-san the next time... but it was a mess (smiles bitterly).

AS: Well of course that happened. Even I had my share of bitter memories in the past. There was a time when I was able to look at the script and act it out during practice, but during the real show I got carried over by the audience's emotion so much it piques my interest, and I let my eyes off the scripts which ended up making it a huge failure.

AA: Is that true!? so things like that do happen to Ishida-san as well huh.

AS: Well obviously, if you did it all so suddenly (laughs).

AA: I guess so, before the actual show I actually consulted about it and say "I think I will try mimicking Akira-san today." in which they answered with "You definitely shouldn't do that!!". Though I was told to never do it even during practice, I always went "No, I'll DO it!" in the end and made a total mess out of it. The next day I immediately said "I'm so sorry!" and apologized earnestly to everyone (laughs).

―Seems it will be fun to watch the DVD after knowing all these episodes after all. Looking back, can you tell us which part you thought to be important that you would go "I wanted to see this part!".

AS: I'm not sure how much reading the audiences have done toward the show, but I was thinking there would be one occasion where people who have seen some scenes on repeat will go "This part seemed rushed huh" or something. There's nothing we can do when it comes to stuff like this, so I think finding out the flaws (as you watch) would be an fun thing to do in my opinion. Once they paused a few times, I wonder if it would end with them thinking "I saw good things there." (laughs).

AA: So it's enough to watch it up to 2-3 times huh (laughs). To people who have already watched more than thrice, they would be able to enjoy it even without seeing the clips since the voices alone will be enough.

AS: Ahahahaha!

AA: And then everyone definitely wouldn't mind (the flaw)! Remember to watch the clips only up to 3 times!

[leenaevilin]

[Personal] Happy Birthday♡

it’s this time of the year again^^ 

Happy, Happy B-Day Yuuichi-kun♡

off to one of my favourite posts: tell me about your №1

I really ♡ Nakamura Yuuichi (中村優一; ← actor, not seiyuu!!!! )

He is and will ever be the person I will LOVE the most of all those j-actors^^

He is such a lovely dork and I really like his smile.

Some facts first:

① born October 8, 1987 [he is 2½ weeks older than me笑] ② nickname ~Channaka~「ちゃんなか」(Naka-chan backwards) ③ best known for his role ‘Sakurai Yuuto’ (Kamen Rider Zeronos) in Kamen Rider Den-O (2007)… but did you know that he actually played ‘Kiriya Kyousuke’ in ‘Kamen Rider Hibiki’ (the first actor to portray 2 Kamen Rider)

④ assigned to G-Star.Pro ( ジースター・プロ ) ⑤ has 2 Chihuahua ~Zero~ (Kamen Rider Zeronos) & ~Spica~ ↓ ↓ ↓ (Futatsu no Spica)

⑥ was part of Johnny’s Jr. (~2003)

⑦ had poor health as a child (asthma) [same here!!! in and out of the hospital] ⑧ loves reading shoujo-manga (ex: Good Morning Call グッドモーニング・コール / he had a cameo in the drama adaptation epi.15/16) and listening to jpop (Shounan no Kaze, Kis-My-Ft2, EXILE, CHEMISTRY, AAA ← friends with Nishijima Takahiro & Atae Shinjirou since ‘Delicious Gakuin’) ⑨ former member of a group of actors called D-Boys

as I talked about in one of my earlier posts… I really feel connected to Channaka and he kinda ‘helped’ me during the hardest time of my life. [check out my post about ‘Doukyuusei’ if you want to know why^^]

… when I heard he would be in the special unit called D☆DATE (together with Araki Hirofumi, Igarashi Shunji, Seto Koji & the new member Horii Arata) in 2010, I was so happy for him… because he deserved some more attention! He is one of the few boys who didn’t act in Tenimyu and that was really hard for him, because most of the D-Boys acted in it and became kind of “famous” for it.

In interviews he often talked about that he couldn’t get over the fact the he didn’t have a chance to be in Tenimyu and he couldn’t understand why, especially because he came out first at the 1st D-Boys audition.

And finally he got the attention he deserves, the most unthinkable thing ever happened. Right before his new stageplay (D-BOYS STAGE 2010 trial-2 ラストゲーム ) it was announced that he will take a break from work to cure his ‘chronicle back pain’. It was a huge shock for me because they announced it right before I moved to Japan. I still remember that I was sitting on my packed boxes in the livingroom when my friend called and told me the news…

almost a 1 year later we still had no real information about his condition… it was really depressing. I went to almost all D☆DATE events wearing orange things/stars (his member colour) and was even on TV (はなまるマーケット hanamaru market) with these ↓ ↓ ↓  uchiwas ↓ ↓ ↓  just to show that we were still waiting for him T^T

At the 1st Concert Tour of D☆DATE we finally got some ‘news’. They talked about him, said that it’s sad he couldn’t make it in time for the concert, but he would be trying his best to show up on stage again as soon as possible. I was crying while they showed pictures of him during the con because I felt so helpless.

After all the terrible things that happend in the first half of 2011 (the Fukushima-incident, the sudden death of my aunt, trouble with my former workplace…) I was kinda happy to hear that Channaka was still part of the group and the members where all waiting for his comeback!!! I thought that it would be only a matter of time until I could finally see him safe and sound on stage again… I was soooo motivated that I created a photo album with many pictures from fans all around the world to cheer him up and show him that soooooooooooo many people are waiting for him!!! I wrote the first fanletter (~8pages) of my life and told him that his fans would always support him and would wait for him as long as it would take for him to recover… and I wrote something that some fans would never understand… ‘If you wanna quit, don’t worry about us… we will respect your decision!!’ actually there is a reason why I wrote something like that…  

I heard from a friend who worked as a model for Watanabe Enertainment, that he had no ‘back-pain-problems’ at all!!! He was suffering from depression… [he had a hard time in August 2010 and realised that he couldn’t perform with this unstable condition, so he stopped coming to rehearsal 2 weeks before the actual stage… I can understand that the other D-Boys member were not amused about it… but what I heard from my friend made me really sad: they started to bully Channaka and told him to quit… especially the D☆DATE members didn’t want him to come back!!!… from my experience with the industry in Japan, this is quite common (especially Johnny’s Enertainment) but I still find it hard to understand]  ← I got this information from a friend, no official statement!!! + I don’t hate any D-Boys members… I’m just sad about the fact at all!!!

And than,on November 8th, 2011 (4 weeks after I handed out my letter & 2 weeks after my B-day) it was announced that he would retire from D☆DATE/D-Boys ＿|￣|○ (I had never expected that this would happen… I cried a lot!! who would think that this little sentences in a little fanletter from a little foreign girl would come reality. I don’t believe that it was the trigger for his decision… but still… the timing… I was shocked) The ‘official’ statement was ‘in order to recover he needs to conentrate on rehabilation more’… but I couldn’t believe this anymore!!!

The following year Watanabe announced that he would completely retire from the entertainment world and I was crashed… I met soooo many people from the industry (not only because I went to a lot of events… my job gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of people in private) but the only person I ever wished to meet in Japan ‘disappeared’ and my chances to ever see him in person were almost 0…

And than in the beginning of 2013, he all of a sudden started his new blog where he posted pictures of him posing with friends (O_O) Rumors started to spread that he opened up a café/bakery with a friend (but I have no detailed information about that). I was so relieved that he was doing fine^^

AAAAAAAND 1½ years later the best thing ever happened!!!! August 30th, 2014: Nakamura Yuuichi returned to the entertainment industry. I was jumping up and down in my room, called my best friend (who isn’t even a fan at all笑) and poured my whole soul out^^

It took a while for him to come back on screen, but it was worth waiting for!!! The first role he represented after his comeback was ‘Sakurai Yuuto’ in  ‘Superhero Taisen GP Kamen Rider 3 Gou’ (スーパーヒーロー大戦GP 仮面ライダー3号)

I think you get it by now… Kamen Rider Den-O (Sakurai Yuuto/Ootsuka Houchuu aka Denebe) means a lot to him!!! and if you are still not convinced… try to listen to the recording from ‘Kamen-Raji-Ranger 仮面ラジレンジャー’ I was at the venue when they recorded the show T^T aaaaaand just for the records…

this was the first time seeing him in person right in front of me!!!!!!!!!!!!! (August 18th, 2015 will go down in history^^) can you believe it… it took me almost 5 years to meet him (O_O)

(the pic I posted on twitter after I saw his post^^)

since then he acted in soooo many great productions and had a few leading roles (薄桜鬼SSL ~sweet school life~ / 舞台 裁判長!ここは懲役4年でどうすか 2016 / スレイブメン / 舞台 警視庁抜刀課 / 舞台 BRAVE10/ 舞台版 ヘルプマン! ~監査編~ / 最後の晩ごはん)

Seeing him working this hard after all that happend in the past, I decided that I will follow and support him as a fan for the rest of my life笑 He will always be my №1 ♡

If you feel like supporting him or just got interested in him… here are some things I recommend:

① check out his: twitter official blog wikipedia

② (re-)watch Kamen Rider Den-O

③ take a look at his photobooks^^

1st shashinshuu (2008)

2nd photobook (2010)

aaaand his newest photobook (was released October 8th, 2017 to celebrate his 30th B-day)

④ if you want to get emotional… watch:

Doukyuusei [同級生] Futatsu no Spica [ふたつのスピカ]   D-Boys Stage Vol.3: Karasu [10 D-BOYS STAGE vol.3「鴉~KARASU~」-10]

⑤ or consider buying any kind of media you might be interested in^^

if you made it to this point… thx for sticking along!!!! ♡ I would love to hear/read from you about your  №1 and maybe some thoughts about Nakamura Yuuichi^^ (maybe you want to make your own post and add @leenaevilin to it so I get notified)

[keyofjetwolf]

Bonus Question Answers! (anime heat 3)

I asked a silly question! You gave me incredible answers. SO VERY MANY INCREDIBLE ANSWERS. If yours is listed below, you’ve earned an entry in a random draw to win a GIFTENING liveblog OF YOUR CHOICE

SURPRISE EVERYONE WHO ANSWERED THIS ONE GETS AN ENTRY (with extra entry if you pulled a specific line). This has been such a struggle for me for the past ... you know, million years or something, and each of you made me feel so good, thank you. ♥

—

Q: This is reaching back into the memory a bit, I know, but what's your favourite of my fanfic? (BONUS BONUS ENTRY if you pull a specific line!)

*  i cannot remember a specific line off the top of my head but i remember the post-S series dealing with usagi's trauma from pharaoh 90 (sound of silence?) was a gut punch and a half --  anewconstellation

~~

* "Blue shirt. Pearl buttons." I think this was the first time I read you writing the Outers, particularly Neptune and Uranus, and, uh, holy shit. Absolutely note-perfect dialogue and dynamic, particularly for that period of Sailor Moon S when Michiru and Haruka used intimacy of speech and gesture as an instrument of distancing and obfuscation (of their goals to the Inners, of their hearts to themselves and to each other, of the heli-pad to the staff at Mugen Academy, etc). It was so clear, and so clearly *them* that I could actually hear the intonations of their respective seiyuu. And then to deploy such spot-on character elements in combination with the stakes and the maturity the anime never reached for, my WORD, are you trying to kill me??? The pacing, the restraint! What an absolute gift. You're a wonder. (also your drabbles are fuckin peerless, and the BTL concept is such a clever series framework)  -- @rasiqra-revulva​

~~

*  This was so hard to pick from, but I finally settled on "Cause and Affect" - it's such a heartbreaking story, but the juxtaposition between the clinical lines of information from the computer to the memories Ami is dealing with to the horror of the visuals around her... it's so bright and sharp and PRESENT.  It keeps me in the story, that mix of tones and feelings.  And the final line?  Perfection.  "Number of regrets: none"  What an amazing take on Ami and how she processes information and how she deals with the situation she is in.  I still get chills up my back when I read the story.  -- @amberlilly​

~~

*  I love your Between the Lines series, it's how I found your Tumblr and liveblogs back in the day -- @amboato​

~~

*  Author Alert.  “So never, ever, going to live this down.” -- @crunchbuttsteak​

~~

*  "Of her word" quote "But for all that, it remained sand. Rei erased it with one swipe."  -- Dei

~~

*  Between The Lines. Adding further character/emotional depth to canon is YES PLZ. I really liked the whole idea of Usagi having trauma post-Pharaoh 90 and all the chapters that hit on that. On a less serious note Chibs' circus-related PTSD and freaking out when Hotaru wants to go to the circus kills me every time. ("But your precious dreams Hotaru-chan!")  -- forgottenfae

~~

*  This is probably the obvious choice, but "The Sounds of The Silence" has haunted me in all the best ways since I first read it. The way you write Rei, Usagi, and Rei and Usagi hits me right in the heart every time. This particular fic, with Usagi so traumatized, and Rei being as soft and gentle as Usagi needs, will always stick with me. I pulled up the fic to try and narrow down a single line, and ultimately there's no real debate. "She would never stop trying to do more, but for now, she simply did this." That line is, at its core, the essence of Rei Hino. And it is perfection.  -- gatorsandglitter

~~

*  I don't expect this to win at all, just sharing,, but I just super fondly remembered the goggles and all the amazing content, meta, and fic those inspired, both from you and others  -- @goosebytrade

~~

*  "You Win or You Die"  my favorite line is "She and Rei WOULD have The Moment, they WOULD get their thousand years of bliss, and they WOULD be making out after all this was over. Like, SO HARD."  -- @i-needa-nap-please

~~

*  I'm always really bad at answering questions like this because my mind has pretty much become a goldfish in my old age and I have a hard time remembering specific fics; it all sort of starts to jumble up in my brain and things get lost. But I have always loved reading your writing, it's what got me onto this godforsaken website in the first place -- it was just before Crystal dropped, and we were all foolishly full of hope and excitement, and you were going through the Moon Pride video and waxing poetic about the FRIENDSHIPS and I was like, "YES! Finally! Someone who understands why I love this stupid kids' show!" I think I sent you an ask saying this before, (but who knows if you ever got it, Tumblrs being what they are - indifferent) but I tried reading fanfic and even published novels based on properties, like the Buffy novels and Star Trek and Star Wars novels, for a long time, and mostly found it frustrating and annoying and just... wrong. It always had this awkwardness and clunkiness to it that didn't do anything for me and just constantly screamed "THIS IS A FANFIC IT IS NOT REAL WRITING" at me. Didn't like it. But, I liked yours. Yours didn't feel awkward or clunky. You have never written any sentences like, "Rei watched the blonde stand up" where "the blonde" is Minako, and I don't know why fanfic writers think that calling characters "the blonde" or "the redhead" or whatever is sexy or cute but it ain't (sorry, pet peeve tangent). So, when you were writing stuff more, I would read it like it was going out of style, and you led me to Doc's writing, which had the same natural, "this is real writing" quality, and I loved hers, too. Anyway, my favorites of yours have always been the Between the Lines stuff. I just love the "hidden" moments that we didn't get to see. The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead bits of Sailor Moon (speaking of fanfic that actually works) that bring so much depth to characters we know and love already or to characters we see only briefly. Also, the Shadow Senshi, because FUCK. Just... Kill Me. In any event, I know that writing has been difficult for you of late, and I know how that feels, so I hope that people who are actually able to answer this question have given you some places to go and draw strength from so that it can become part of your life again. TBH, I've been using the bonus questions on your Giftening surveys and Doc's 8 Days surveys as an excuse to try doing some small bits of quick, no pressure, nobody's gonna see it unless you or Doc actually LIKE it, don't think about it writing, and it has been helpful. I hope you can find something that gives you the same opportunity. Now that I've written you a novel that doesn't even answer the question you asked (goldfish, remember? *sigh*), have a gorgeous Tuesday!  -- @incorrecttact

~~

*  The one with Pluto and Queen Serenity, where Serenity is selfish in a very Usagi way, but her arrogance combined with that selfishness makes it a fatal flaw? I liked that one a lot. -- Jules

~~

*  the bit you wrote to 'fill in' a gap for why during r did mamoru act like a distant jerk. My favourite parts were Rei coming to see the same dream, and despite being the one to have the biggest reason to believe in these kinds of prophetic visions, Rei still doesn't believe fate is set in stone. -- just... a fan. a well-baked one

~~

*  Make It To New Year's -- @kaleidodreams

~~

*  ahhh, where is a link to all of your fanfic? It's the series you started after S, with Rei comforting Usagi, because like you I was let down by the fact that they never followed up on what Usagi saw, or even how she dealt, with the end of S. runner up: the one where Usagi is about to give birth because everything you write with Rei and Usagi is amazing. -- kari

~~

*  There was a drabble/draft/something that you used one of my prompts for, and I prompted you with Usagi and Rei, but you did it from Luna's perspective and THAT WAS SO UNEXPECTED and it turned out SO GOOD cause like!!!!!! You made Sailor Moon both someone Luna cares for, because still the legacy of the moon, and someone utterly discouraging for her because *this should not be*, and wow what a way to make it both about Usagi herself and about her powers.  -- katrani

~~

*  I love the btl fics, they fill in the missing gaps, add depth to the story, and sometimes smooth over things (SuperS) when canon is just...blah. One line I really liked was: “I was listening, at first, but then I started thinking about how hungry I was, and how a pork bun would be really good right now, and then I wondered what makes a thing a bun, and like, if you put ANYTHING in a bun, does it become a Thing-Bun, so could you make a bun out of another bun and would it be a Bun Bun, and wouldn’t that be the greatest thing to– Rei?” It's a great run-on, stream of thought sentence that just really catches Usagi's voice, is hilarious, and such a natural progression. -- @kumeko

~~

*  “HUG,” Usagi demanded again, because dammit, she’d been promised a hug and SOMEONE was going to deliver. (The one where Michiru has the hiccups. Because it's fun HaruMichi stuff, because it weaponises Usagi in a useful way, because it manages to (gently) make fun of both perfect!Michiru and saint!Usagi without being mean to either character, and also because I get hiccups a lot and I haaaaate them.) -- nerdy-flutterings

~~

*  I can't remember a specific fic, but I LOVE your Shadow Senshi headcanons and they're the main reason I started writing my own Shadow Senshi stories. -- @notesfromtheidiotbox

~~

*  The Figuarts saga is the Sailor Moon fic I never knew I needed -- Raye

~~

*  Special Delivery is a delight. So much Rei Certainty (that ends up being misplaced). So much Usagi being The Most Usagi About Pregnancy. So much Comedic Hijinks, because why the hell WOULDN’T ‘the Senshi get blindsided when Usagi goes into labor’ end up going full screwball? There’s a lot of great lines there (Rei’s theory about Chibs taking control of the Gate of Time and manipulating things is fantastic, as is the ending,) but my favorite is definitely “Rei Hino if I give birth to my daughter on the side of the road I swear I will go back in time and tear all the pages out of your favorite coloring book! [...] I’ll break the crayons too, Rei-chan!” Delightfully specific and childish, especially since Usagi sticks with it, and that particular brand of comic specificity is definitely a highlight of yours. -- Regalli

~~

*  Fire on Mountain!!! When I got to “Her voice was deeper than most expected when facing the certainty of her. It was rough, sandpaper running over cherry. She’d been a singer, once. Nobody would have believed her.” I was like oh. OH! -- Sasha

~~

*  My favorite of your fanfic, one one of the first I read is 'Hard to Break'. And my absolute favorite line is Usagi's panic when Minako tries to smoke: "Minako who was almost certainly dying, the cigarette had spread its evil and killed her instantly oh god."  -- @shavedjudomonkey

~~

*  Tonight Ami would grieve, and wish she understood why.'  This Between the Lines about Ami getting her mini computer both haunts me and brings tears to my eyes.  -- @shonasof

~~

*  I can't remember the title, but it's the one where Minako realizes that Rei's been writing Sailor V fanfic under the name Red Bow -- Somariel

~~

*  You would think Mako-chan's Happy Ending, but nope, this one goes to Hard to Break (although I had to look up the exact name.) This thing is filled with such great lines. How am I supposed to pick out one? "[Watch out, boys,]" Minako said in smooth and entirely unnecessary English. "[Lady Super Cool is on the prowl.]" -- Ultrace

~~

*  I forget the title, but it's the 'last senshi standing' fic where Ami is reflecting on the battle that took the others from her. Detatched and cold as she analyzes Rei Minako and Mako and finally Usagi's death with a medical efficiency, going through her Visors readout and then reflecting that the clinical words were nothing compared to what she'd actually seen. following up the method of death of the senshi with a statistic in relation to her friendship with the girl. Number of milkshakes shared, number of conversations lasting well into the night, number of hugs, number of smiles that brightened the darkest of moods. Describing how Rei's heart was pulped in a monster's grip, Minako's once beautiful face smashed against the rocks, Mako's lightning that outlived its mistress as she and Usagi ran off, and then finally that one last attempt to protect Usagi failing as 'Cervical Fracture' flashes on her visor. And From there she just... accepts death. sitting beside where Usagi had fallen and waiting for the end. it's dark af but it's the first one that always comes to mind when i think about ur fics :>  -- Vega

~~

*  I am extremely predictable here with two of my choices, as you know that I am obsessed with Fire on the Mountain and Blue Shirt, two things you wrote when you "definitely couldn't write" (Sidenote: My new year's resolution is to be harder on your about writing) We all know why I love blue shirt, it's basically an underhand pitch to the face for me, but Fire on the Mountain has a quality of regret and longing that I really connected with, something that really struck me in a way that was powerful. It's different from a lot of your inners work, and I think about Mina posing as Rei, in her disguise magic in the woods, and all the reasons why, fairly often. Something that MAY come as a surprise to you, is I really wish we got more ofyour overwatch stuff, and maybe I'll just keep asking for this for my birthday for the rest of our natural lives, but I think of like, the one you wrote on 7/14/20, with Pharah longing to have a man to shoot in the face because that would be easier than the emotions around whatever's going on with her, and I'm utterly tantalized. And I loved that hurt/comfort you wrote for me, where Pharah had this single minded drive to find out what had happened to Angela, and Tracer's trying to, well, comfort her, on some level, and the way you described Pharah's "animal cry" was FANTASTIC, and as always I am deeply jealous of your Tracer voice and IF YOU WOULD WRITE IT MORE IT WOULD HELP ME. -- WRITE, BITCH.

~~

*  The one were Hotaru confronted Michiru and Haruka about how they had tried to kill her in order to stop the Silence. Such a good little moment =w= -- zorrito

~~

AND THEN THESE WERE UNSIGNED SAD FACE

*  Chosen. I like your Overwatch stuff but Chosen was a goddamn masterpiece.

*  Operation: Heart Angels. Senshi going after Mamoru for his bullshit was something I didn't know I needed.

*  The entirety of Beggars Would Ride, including every single line of Anya's dialogue.

—

I’ll be drawing for the bonus liveblog around the start of THE GIFTENING 2020 (currently looking to be Monday, 11 January 2021). Each bonus question is another chance to earn an entry! I CAN ABSOLUTELY AND SHAMELESSLY BE BOUGHT.

[impracticaldemon]

Hey! So I haven't kept up with a lot of otome games and stuff, including some of the non-hakuouki stuff you are into, but I was curious about it? I wanted to know about whatever the Ikesen (ikemen??) series is, or what it is I suppose lmao? I assume mobile games, which is cool, I kind of want to look into some of those, but I curious about what were your favorites or your thoughts on them, etc.

Hi Miss P!

Just for context, I want to mention that I was a “non-mobile otome only” player until about 2.5 years ago.  I was wary of mobile otome games for a few reasons, including *my* perceptions about (lack of) depth of story and characters, cost, and dependence on a server (i.e., you don’t get to buy and “own” a game).  I took a harder look for two reasons: (1) seeing the artwork from more recent games; (2) discovering some favourite voice actors in the mobile otome world.  Also, I just wanted to find more localized Japanese otome.

What have I played?

I have actively played all the (localized) games by Cybird:  

Destined to Love (historical AU, Shinsengumi / bakumatsu era; thrown back in time; fated lover concept)

Midnight Cinderella (classic “you’re suddenly chosen to be the Princess” concept; setting is sort of mid-1800s, European-type country)

Ikemen Sengoku (historical AU, mid/late Sengoku era; taken in by Sengoku faction, become close to key leaders; thrown back in time)

Ikemen Revolution (fantasy, overarching framework based loosely on Alice in Wonderland; setting is Victorian-with-magic, not weird-drug-trip)

Ikemen Vampire (late 19th Paris, but focus is personal, not much political/historical; famous men now vampires; thrown back in time)

I have also played MLQC (from “Mr Love Queen’s Choice” - the worst localized title I have ever come across - I mean, it sounds ridiculous. The Japanese title is “Love and Producer” [ 恋とプロデューサー ] which is more accurate and less dorky sounding.  This game is Chinese (not Japanese) but so popular that it has been translated into Japanese, Korean, and English. **Note that there is some debate as to whether this is an “otome” game.**

I haven’t played: Voltage otome games; Mystic Messenger; or any other mobile otome games.

How do they work?

Almost every game has these features:

you choose the love interest right after the prologue [completely different story for each guy, no common route]

total story length is approx. 26 chapters of 5 sub-chapters [or 13 chapters with 10 sub-chapters]

you are given 5 free tickets a day; one ticket = one sub-chapter

you can buy more tickets with real money by buying “gems” (or whatever the premium in-game currency is called)

you have a stamina bar that refills over time that lets you compete in simple, totally automated challenges versus other players for experience points (usually a straight comparison of your “beauty” score, where beauty is all about how nice your clothes are and what you own (cue eye roll))

you can buy more stamina with real money, but don’t have to if you’re patient (you recover 1 point per 3 minutes, or 20 points per hour)

you need a certain level of experience points in order to pass “intimacy” challenges throughout the story

you also need certain items or outfits to pass “attire” challenges - you can buy these things with in-game regular currency (you get a bit each day) or in-game premium currency

once you’ve read a chapter you cannot go back without re-reading from the start and using new chapter tickets [there is no save function]

there are dialogue choices that raise your affection points with the love interest (getting the maximum affection score by the end of the game usually gives you a nice bonus gift; a minimum score is required to complete the story)

EVENTS are completely separate from the main routes - you compete against other players for the highest event points in order to get coveted items (outfits, chibis, teddy bears, etc.) - you DO NOT HAVE TO play in events in order to enjoy or progress in the main routes

Favourite:

Ikemen Sengoku is hands down my favourite. I would recommend this to most Hakuouki players in search of some interesting historical otome.

not historically accurate (apart the obvious, the warlords presented did not all work or live together in 1582 as presented; the main AU premise is that certain key warlords didn’t die, and relative ages and relevant details have been adjusted to fit the overarching plot(s)), but captures a lot of historically accurate details

best protagonist (modern sensibilities, has a chosen profession she relies on, sense of humour, generally competent, spunky but not perfect

the modern-era physics grad student and history-buff-turned-ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is a wonderful person, character, and “narrator”

excellent sense of humour (game) - big selling point for me tbh, and the localization team has generally done a great job (translating humour is *hard*, and while the adaptation sometimes strays too far from the Japanese original, it’s generally very good)

all main routes are different (overall, the main story quality is very good and has plot to go along with the character/romance development)

character background and development is very good

variety of love interests, with non-love-interest characters still playing important and interesting roles [sadly, few-to-no developed female secondary characters; lots of bro/mances of different kinds]

main routes all have two different endings (moving toward three); the different endings span several chapters (not just an epilogue) and are reasonably distinct in most routes (but both are clearly happy endings)

dressing up your character turns out to be a lot of fun (apparently I have NOT gotten over playing with dolls, bears, or chibis, go figure)

special “events” feature all kinds of new stories, some more creative than others (imagine Hakuouki with frequent, official new content!)

Note:  romance/sexiness level varies per route and character (Cybird provides some guidance on this in their route notes for most of their games); you generally have to pay to read more explicit stuff, but even then the level of implied/explicit varies - IkeSen is generally mid-range for Cybird for romantic/mature content in my opinion

Voice Acting:  only a few voiced lines, but more are in the works - there is a PS Vita version of the full game with full voice acting; my attention was drawn by Toriumi Kosuke (Saito from Hakuouki) voicing Toyotomi Hideyoshi (but the voice is deliberately lighter than Saito’s sadly for me); there are a LOT of pro seiyuu in the more recent Cybird games (Hakuouki’s Kazama as Leonardo da Vinci in Ikemen Vampire is a treat for the ears, honestly)

Reviews for other Cybird: 

I enjoy Midnight Cinderella for the sheer Princessy-ness of it all, and playing with dolls *ahem*. The main stories have both “personal development” and “political intrigue” style plots; however, this game is biased toward romance. There are a range of love interests, which is great - everyone can have their favourite(s). The top characters are “poster boy” (Knight Captain) Alyn Crawford (the guy you’d find on the box cover if there were one), (King) Byron Wagner, and (Duke) Louis Howard.  Call them Classic Tsundere, Classic Kuudere, and Classic Appears-to-be-tsun-but-is-really-a-total-cinammon-roll Deredere.

I enjoy the characters and world design of Ikemen Revolution; would definitely recommend it, but feel more could have been more done with the setting and characters. Alice is my second-favourite Cybird protagonist. The character interactions are very good and well-developed. 

Ikemen Vampire is very popular, and has a lot going for it, but isn’t my personal cup of tea.  That said, I’m still playing, and I do enjoy various aspects of it - the characters and character interactions, for instance.  If you’re looking for a more modern, sexy, gothic kind of feel to your otome, this could be a good choice.  

I wouldn’t spend money on the Shinsengumi game, Destined to Love, for two reasons:  (1) Cybird appears to have dropped the localized version completely (you can play all the main stories for free, one chapter per day, and you can buy old event stories, but there are no events or updates; (2) most of the stories have an unfinished feel to them, at least for me. 

That said, DTL isn’t bad if you’re in the mood to read some different stories about Hijikata and the guys (plus there are more love interests from the anti-bakufu side).  Hijikata and Saito have a similar feel to them, Okita and Yamazaki have definite similarities as well; I enjoyed Sakamoto more in DTL than in Hakuouki,and Katsura is nice.  Takasugi has a route if you’re okay with a rougher version of Hakuouki’s Okita - just be prepared for sarcasm and a very aggressive edginess.

Non-Cybird:

MLQC is a lot of fun as a deck-building game and has the most innovative story - character development aside, it’s a mix of modern China (the main plot is set in a fictional Chinese city) and increasingly sci-fi elements as you slowly learn more about what makes the protagonist and the four love interests different. There is a fair bit of grinding if you want to read more chapters and upgrade your cards, which are needed to pass challenge points in the story.

This game does not follow the usual “common route then pick a route” progression of most otome games.  Also, you don’t have choices that affect the main route progression (there are choices that affect each love interest’s affection level, though). You fully control which cards you develop (since some resources are scarce unless you throw money at the game), and you’ll probably develop one or two guys’ cards over the others.  Since each card provides you with a four-part story “date” (mostly implied romance, some more, some less), it’s up to you how you progress.

The art is gorgeous, the story is great, the translation is… not so good but better than many Chinese games… the English voice acting is quite good.  You can also download the Japanese voice acting in a number of places.

This is not the kind of otome/game you play to get an Otomate (Hakuouki, Code Realize, Collar x Malice) kind of experience.  But there are a lot of good qualities.  One of which is that it’s the easiest of the games to play for free.  Also, they have a “post whatever you want” policy.  Which tells you just how popular the game is, since people throw money at it anyway!

~ Imp

PS  This is already longer than intended, but there’s a lot more I could write. I’d be super happy if you (or anyone!) had follow-up questions about the mobile otome experience or specific games.

[sora-namari]

Hi! How did you watch the special event? Were there new announcements there? Maybe spoilers? What did the voice actors say in their interviews?

I watched it as a live stream. Nah, not really. Except for the opening and a short preview of ep 1 (a minute long lol), from which we’ve learned that Akane is imprisoned.

As for the seiyuu… They were asked like two-three questions each and that’s all. I’ll try to summerise some points for you as much as I can remember.

Nakamura Yuuichi confessed it took him like five times to be able to say “kei-mihairu-igunatofu” correctly. Now he’s able to do it smoothly though, but it was hard to pronounce at first. Not only for him, he noted, but for others as well. He was relieved he wasn’t the only one.

When asked about the relationship between the two main characters as partners, Nakamura replied he liked the contrast between their opposite personalities. Arata’s quick to take action but Kei remonstrates with him when needed, prevents him from doing whatever he’ll be doing in S3. Arata’s special ability comes with certain responsibilities and risks, and Kei also plays a part in helping to deal with these risks. Also, Kei can observe things from the perspective of an immigrant, which he is.

Kaji Yuuki shared his first impression of Shindou Arata. When he first saw Arata’s character design, he felt like he could instantly hear the character speak with his voice. This encounter really got him excited.

Hidaka-san noted their likeness in appearance, to which Kaji agreed saying that, yeah, some of his colleagues from the cast told him the same thing. He admitted they both had a somewhat round-shaped face, a “tanuki face”.

What Kaji liked the most about his voice acting experience as Shindou Arata is playing an Inspector character, more specifically—giving orders, activating the Dominator… and hearing Hidaka-san’s voice whenever Arata was holding his Dominator. The moment he said it I was like “how sweet” and “I feel you dude” even though I’ll never get the chance to voice an Inspector character lol.

Even though it might be not the best time to mention this, he said, but at the beginning, there’s a scene that he finds very impactful.

Also, they announced the results of the top 5 PP episodes/projects poll and it looks like this if I remember the order correctly, that is:

S1 E22

Gekijouban PP (the movie)

S1 E16

PP SS Case 2

S1 E21

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS Born To Die Vol.1 Tsukinami Carla [Track 1]

Original title: 恋人の願い

Source: Diabolik Lovers Born To Die Vol.1 Tsukinami Carla [CD not owned by me]

Audio: Here

Seiyuu: Toshiyuki Morikawa

Translator’s note: I really wish the ‘Born to Die’ CDs existed for the other families too because I like the concept a lot, but it is no secret that the Tsukinami’s + Kino are not my favorite characters out there. While I do enjoy Carla’s personality, the way he talks can be a pain to translate and his voice is also waaay too deep for my liking. > < I’m doing this for all you Carla stans out there though. uwu Hope you enjoy this one~

Track 1 ll Track 2 ll Track 3 ll Track 4 ll Track 5

→  LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

Track 1: A Wish of my Beloved

You walk up to Carla’s room.

*Knock knock*

“...Hm? Who is there?”

You answer.

“You? ...Come in.”

You enter his room.

*Rustle*

“Yes. I was enjoying a book from the human world for the first time in a while.”

*Flip*

“Once I started reading it, I found out it is truly fascinating. I only picked it up to kill some time, but I certainly did not expect human literature to challenge my wisdom like this.”

*Flip*

You ask him what the book is about.

“This is a book on human behavior. I have always thought that the feelings and actions taken by humankind were simply beyond my understanding, but this book explains everything in minute detail.”

*Flip*

“Do you want to give it a read as well?”

You shake your head.

“Why do you immediately assume the contents would be too difficult? You should not give up before reading it. However, I suppose it is much preferable over someone who insists on doing someting beyond their powers. In that case, at least make an attempt. I shall help you with the parts you have trouble understanding. ...No. Before that...”

He closes the book.

“Did you not come here because you needed to ask me something? If there is something you need to tell me, go ahead and take a seat next to me.”

You sit down next to Carla.

“And? What exactly do you need?”

You explain.

“My birthday...?”

You suggest organizing some sort of celebration.

“One’s birthday is simply the day on which they were born. There is no reason to remember it. For one, how come you are aware of mine? I am fairly certain I never told you.”

You say that you heard it from his brother.

“Hm...Shin, huh? I did not think he actually remembered as well.”

You suggest organizing some sort of celebration.

“You want to celebrate my birthday? I was wondering what you’d tell me, but that’s what’s on your mind, isn’t it? However, there is no reason to go out of your way to celebrate. ...No need to be so surprised. I am aware that humans have a habit of celebrating such events. I can imagine that a human such as yourself would get excited over celebrating the birthday of their lover.”

You ask Carla if he has never celebrated his birthday.

“Exactly. Like you just said, I have not celebrated my birth even once. It is not part of our Founder culture. We Founders are immortal, we would not celebrate this eternal life time after time. The day we were born is part of a distant past after all. Therefore, we do not regard it as special either.”

You frown. 

“At present, neither me nor Shin have celebrated our birthdays. This is where our intuition differs from humans. I suppose it is something you would have trouble comprehending.”

You make a sad face.

“Hm...Why would you make that sort of expression? It was never my intention to sadden you?”

You admit to simply wanting to celebrate together.

“Haah...Come here. Lean against me...”

Carla pulls you close.

*Rustle*

“I simply stated the truth. Yet, why does it make your heart ache so painfully?”

You explain.

“You find it sad...? I did not think my words would stir up such an emotion within you. Hm...I believed the book earlier had brought me one step closer to understanding, but it seems it will still take some time before I will be able to fully grasp human nature. I shall not let you make such a face. Therefore, I shall gladly accept your wish to try and do something for my sake. If you wish to celebrate, you can do so.”

You seem surprised.

“Yes. I am interested to see what you will come up with. I am expecting a celebration worthy of a Founder. ...Well then, what will you do now?”

You explain your plans.

“Together with Shin...You say? I do not mind the idea of a birthday party by itself but...Hm...”

You frown, asking if something is wrong.

“I have no complaints regarding your proposal. However...We are lovers, no?”

Your cheeks flush red.

“Hmph. Have you realized? Exactly. I want to celebrate with just the two of us. Can you grant said wish of mine?”

You promise.

“Yes. Well then, let us get going right away.”

Carla gets up.

“If we are going through the trouble to celebrate, we should arrange a place which guarantees privacy, right? I shall go tell Shin we will be away from the manor for a bit. Furthermore, if there is anything you need for this ‘party’ of yours, tell me. I shall have the Familiars prepare everything.”

You suggest making a list with everything you need and writing it down. 

“Yes. In that case, I shall hand your note over to the Familiars.”

You nod and start writing right away.

*Scribble scribble*

*RIIIIIP*

*Flip*

“Hm. Thank you. (1) Well then, let us get going.”

*Creaaaaak*

*Thud*

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

Translation notes

(1) The phrase Carla uses here is actually often used when you receive a package at your door. It would be something you say to the carrier, to confirm that you received the package. It literally means ‘I have indeed received it’ but this sounds really weird and stiff in English, so I think a simple ‘thank you’ is actually a better translation context-wise. 

[shiraayuuki]

My Top 5 Free Anime Games

This list will be ranked 1 (least) to 5 (best) of my most favorite Anime games of all time

1. Princess Connect Re:Dive

Developed by Cygames, a Turn-based RPG mobile game with a gacha system wherein you can get your units from.

Every characters in this game are girls each one having different guilds. The main protagonist You, Kokkoro, Kyaru, and Pecorine begin your journey in Landsol in the continent of Astraea with the guild created known as Royal Gourmet Palace to defeat monsters as well as meet other girls and guilds along the way.

Everyone in the game is voiced, and these voices include famous seiyuus in Japan. Some popular voices includes: M•A•O, Miku Itou, Maaya Uchida and more

Each units has different rarities and are upgradable up to 5*, each unit also has different sets of skills ranging from Damage to debuffs, and each having damage types (physical or magical) and races (human, elf, beast, demon)

You can get units with the gacha system implemented. Crystal will be used to draw units. 1x pull requires 150 crystal while 10x requires 1500 with a gurranteed 3*

Pros:

The Game is very generous providing free gems for Gacha

Very polished

F2P

Really great arts

Everything is voiced

Very good story

Often have collab events

Very good animations

Cons

Only available in Japan

No English

Everything is voiced, meaning this can consume roughly 10gb of space in your phone

PvP is P2W

2. Love Live School Idol Festival

Developed by Klab is a mobile Rhythm game that consists of 9 rings across the ring, the goal of the games is to finish live shows by tapping falling notes

The game started out with the story of Muse, a group of 9 school girls who wants to save their school from being demolished by being school idols! Honoka, who created Muse recruited 8 girls with different school years. Umi and Kotori (her friends and 2nd years), Hanayo, Rin and Maki (1st years) and Nozomi, Eli Nico (3rd years) are part of muse.

There were another school idol group that were added after Muse graduated. That group is known as Aquors. Chika, who created Aquors was inspired by Muse and led her to creating Aquors. The group consisted of her friends Riko and You (2nd years), Hanamaru, Yoshiko aka Yohane, and Ruby (1st years), Kanan, Dia and Mari (3rd years)

The game is also voiced by famous Japanese Seiyuus as well

The game also has a gacha system where you can get those members. gems are used to pull in gacha. 5 gems are needed for 1x pull and 50 gems are needed for 10x pulls (has gurranteed SR or higher). Every member has 1 in 3 types of skills. In can either be timing, heal or score boost. each member also has different rarities starting from N, R, SR, SSR and UR.

During live shows, there will also be different rank type according to your score, it can be classified as C, B, A or S according to your performance. Skills and rarities of members can get you to a high rank and how good you play.

The songs in the game are based from its anime series Love Live! by Bushiroad

Pros

Good story

Fully voiced

Great card arts

Good songs

F2P

Cons

Not very generous

10x gacha is really hard to do without spending cash

Average gem you get after clearing some live shows cannot be more than 10

Can be hard for some

Can consume roughly 5gb worth of space

Notes cant get any faster

Semi P2W

Grindy

PS: The only reason this was ranked higher than princess connect was because I played this longer and made some impact in my life so yea I was a bit biased :P

3. Honkai Impact 3

Developed by miHoYo Limited, is a ARPG mobile game that enables you to control the "Valkyries" to defeat the honkais.

This can game can be a direct sequel to the game Gun Girls Z.

The game takes place at a futuristic world where honkais are invading. Kiana, being the 1st valkyrie to be introduced were weaponized to deal with the honkais with the help of Stigmatas.

The game once again has its own gacha system that uses crystal as currency for the gacha. The gacha has two types, one is for valkyries and the other one is for stigmatas and weapons 2x gacha needs 280 crystal for gacha and a 22x gacha requires 2800 crystal with a guranteed A valkyrie or 5 star stigmatas or weapons.

There are currently 10 characters each having theyre personal weapons ranging from pistols, swords, cannons, greatswords, scythes, or gauntlets. This items has rarity from 1* to 5* and valkyries has a rarity of B to SSS (everything is upgradable) each valkyries also has different sets of skills. Some requires you to upgrade before unlocking their skills

Pros

Very good graphics (PC level)

Controls are simple yet very entertaining

Events are really good

Fast paced

Cons

Repetitive meaning can be boring overtime

Not F2P

Very Grindy

Can consume 4gb of space

No consistent Stories

It has multiplayer but very limited

4. Azur Lane

Develoyed by Yostar Limited, is an Naval Battle RPG mobile game that recreated real life ships into Anime Girls.

The story of this game are sometime related to real life naval battle like the battle of solomon and the battle of the Denmark Strait. They recreated popular ships like USS Enterprise, USS Bataan, IJN Mikasa, IJN Ayanami, HMS Belfast, HMS Queen Elizabeth, KMS Prinz Eugen, KMS Bismarck and many more.

Their description can be related to real life description of their impersonated ships. They are also fully voiced by famous Japanese artists and seiyuus

The game has a Gacha system as well with 3 types: Light, Heavy, Special and in some cases Limited. Each type gives specific ship types like Light Cruisers, Battleships, Submarines or Aircraft Carriers. The gacha requires cubes, Light requires 600 gold and 1 cube for 1x pull and 6000 gold and 10 cubes for 10x pull. As for the others, they all require 1500 gold and 2 cube for 1x pull and 15000 gold and 20 cube for 10x pull.

The ships as well as gears are all categorized in different rarities from Common, Rare, Elite, and Super Rare. Everything can be upgraded and some ships can also be "Retrofitted" meaning going up a rarity.

Ships also has their own skills being a passive or active skills while some gears has passive skills

There is also an oath system where you can marry a certain ship you like

Pros

Educational in some way about naval battles

Very F2P and very generous

Very good Events (collab events included)

Story is also good

Voices are really good

Ships from different countries are included

Unique gameplay

Art is really good

Oath system

Easy to learn

Very good gacha rate ups

Cons

Story is not fully voiced

PvP is P2W

Can be grindy

Can be repetitive

5. Bang Dream Girls Band Party

Developed by Craftegg and Bushiroad, is a mobile Rhythm game that has a horizontal tapping line having 7 tappable areas

The story follows Kasumi, a young girl who experienced kira kira doki doki while looking into the stars. Shortly after those stars led her to the guitar known as "Random Star" where she met Arisa, the owner of the guitar and shortly gave it to Kasumi, after that the dream of Kasumi forming a band started and Arisa being the keyboard then recruiting Rimi as Bass, Saya as Drummer and Tae as 2nd Guitarist, Kasumi being the Vocal and lead guitar. After that, they decided to name their band Poppin' Party!

And they meet some other bands as well, some of thie bands are Roselia (band strieving to be professionals in every aspects), Afterglow (band consisting of childhood friends), Pastel Palletes (a band formed by a talent agency), and Hello! Happy World! (A band who wants to make everyone happy)

The game yet again has a gacha system that uses star gems as currency. 250 gems for 1x pull and 2500 gems for 10x pull with guranteed 3*

Each member also has its own rarities from 1* to 4*. 3* and 4* rarity can be idolized meaning, you can improve it further.

They also have different skills just like Love Live SIF but more. The skills can be Timing, Heal or Score Boost and in some instances they can be Hybrids.

The game is one of the 1st games to include a multiplayer rhythm game

Each live show also has specific ranks from C, B, A, S and SS

Pros

Fully voiced

Very good gameplay

Very good story

Each character has individual stories

Very good animation

Songs can be original or cover songs

Very good art

Very good events (collabs included)

Customizable according to your style of gameplay

Generous

Good gacha rate ups

Songs are exceptionally euphoric

Has Multiplayer

Cons

Can be hard for some

Multiplayer has no chat

PS: i got nothing to say except that this game has changed my life drastically and this can be very long if i were to include my experiences

[drowningotometrash]

Because I’m currently obsessing over Love and Producer (Mr Love Queen’s Choice), I HAVE to rant all about it, and what better place than here lol. I never really thought I’d be this into it as I saw waaaaaay too many ads for it prerelease. I was actually like “mehhhhh I’ll think about it”, until my friend mentioned she liked it and I was bored.

Love and Producer is a Chinese game that has blown up quite a bit in the Chinese community. The taiwan ver was released late last year, approximately a year after the initial release in China, and is also the version I’m playing. You can choose VAs of all versions in the settings, currently there’s Mainland Chinese, Taiwan and Japanese. The Japanese release of the game is actually slated for 2019, but you can already choose the Japanese VA. And despite me usually liking Japanese voice acting, I SWEAR you’ve got to go with the mainland Chinese ver for this game. It simply is a lot more natural and flows a lot better. And note, the music is AMAZING in this game, I’m utterly obsessed. And the card illustrations and CGs are glorious.

Unlike quite a lot of otome games, the charm of Love and Producer for me is the plot. Like Mystic Messenger, L&P is quite plot heavy. In fact, there are 21 chapters released thus far in the Chinese ver (14 for the TW ver) and the first 10 still feels like the prologue, though I’ve heard it gets quite angsty later on.

The plot revolves around you as a producer of TV shows. You’re in charge of the production company that your father has left behind, and it’s steadily loosing viewership. Through various events you come to meet 4 men and they all seem to be interested or know you. You have dreams that you can’t explain and some parts of your memories are obviously suppressed. Eitherway you come to learn of Evolvers, humans with the Evol gene which makes them super human, and that an organisation is trying to capture and harm these people.

There are only four date-able characters, and they each play a significant role in the plot. Rather than say that the game is for you to “date” the 4 guys, occasionally it feels more like a story about people with super powers. In fact you learn more about the characters through side dates with them than the actual main plot line. Though I’ve heard later on you do get to choose whose route you want to play, but as of ch 14 you are still on the main route with all 4 guys. And it’s quite interesting because I do occasionally feel like the asshole that’s stringing 4 guys along as you jump from guy to guy in each chapter lol. But like previously mentioned, it’s because each guy actually does have a role to play in the plot and you need them to push it forward. Though you jump between guys, it is to let you have an initial grasp of these four people that are involved in the conspiracy around Evolvers. And for once I still haven’t managed to pick out my favourite character yet, I just love them all.

So now onto the guys:

First is 許墨 Xu Mo aka Lucien

He's a director and assistant professor of the local university. He's basically the mysterious guy. Very kind and gentle to MC but you know that he’s definitely not all he seems to be. He’s the kind guy you first meet when trying invite him onto the last episode to save your show. He always seems to know a bit too much and you some how end up as neighbours. Xu Mo is the warm but reasonable and the scientific person who helps you a lot with ideas and suggestions for your shows. He’s also the guy that will leave subtle hints for you even before events happen to you. He’s the kind that’s warm but you definitely feel he’s got a barrier between him and everyone. Though you are naturally much closer to him than others, there’s still a distance. Everything about him is mysterious and there’s an underlying sense of danger around him. Out of all characters, he is the only one who’s Evol is still unknown.

Next guy is 李澤言 Li Zeyan aka Victor

His japanase VA is Tomokazu Sugita, the same guy who voices Oda Nobunaga in IkeSen. And what can I say, he’s the typical rich CEO who basically is the guy who funds everything. He’s mean but always helping you, calls you an idiot, teases you and refuses to admit that he cares. You actually call him out on his tsundere attitude on dates lol. He’s basically the Han Jumin of the game, but not as competely out of the loop as Best HusbandTM is. He seems to have a fondness for animals, esp Chibas. He’s also a great cook, sharing memories in regards to pudding with you. He definitely knows you from before though details still aren’t exactly revealed yet (or I haven’t gotten there yet lol). His Evol is related to Time Control.

Side note: His assistant is the best.

Third is 白起 Bai Qi aka Gavin

Baiqi was your senior in high school. The rumoured bad boy who got into fights all the time and with atrocious grades. You were actually afraid of him during high school. However he suddenly transferred away and you never saw him again until the events started happening. Currently he's working as a police officer at the local Police station, though everyone thinks he doesn't care about his job. But he's actually a secret agent working against the organisation targeting Evolvers. He's the special forces guy that has always liked you but is not good at or used to expressing his emotions. Despite being the guy with the clearest and most direct connection with you, he never tries to push that on you. He also doesn't try to correct the assumptions you used to have of him. His Evol is Wind/Air related, as he straight up tells you "As long as you are in the wind, I will know where you are." He is also the one who clearly displays his protectiveness over you.

Side note: His self proclaimed sidekick and best friend is always trying to make you realise he's always liked you.

Extra side note: I was so shocked when I discovered who his Mainland Chinese voice actor was. As I hadn't looked up anything before the game, I was halfway through the released chapters before I found out. I was so shocked. With Japanese seiyuus you tend to be able to recognise them if you've watched one too many anime. But here? I even went back to listen through the story portions again and I couldn't (and still can't) link up the voices lol.

Lastly is 周棋洛 Zhou Qiluo aka Kiro

He's an idol superstar. Basically he can act, sing and model. He's the most popular celebrity and he can attract fans from all walks of life. He's the typical bright bubbly guy who lights up your life or tries his hardest fo cheer you up when you are down. He loves snacks and calls you Miss Chips as you met over a bag of chips at a convenience store I wish it actually were that easy meeting celebrities. You both love to eat and bond over food. You gradually discover more sides to him and he definitely knows more, but he's still a bright boy at heart (at least from where I've gotten so far). His Evol is Absolute Attraction.

Side note: If you thought I was shocked when I found out who voiced 白起 Bai Qi, I was utterly floored when I discovered who voiced this guy. The difference in characters of the roles the VA played in a previous show is too shocking. I still can't link up the two and was literally flabbergasted when I found out.

There's also a unique feature of this game called "By Your Side". It's basically an ASMR recording of the characters speaking to you softly as he lays beside you and lulls you to sleep. It's definitely very soothing though I haven't tried to fall asleep to it. However only one segment of one character, 許墨 Xu Mo, is free. You'd have to pay if you want to unlock the rest.

[mocarena]

i originally posted this on twitter, but i figured i might put this out here too...! gonna just copy & paste everything for the most part~

i got my RAS tattoo done yesterday!! it's a coincidence i got it done on their anniversary, but that makes it even more special to me

mushy talk incoming, i'm an emotional baby and there's talk of mental health, so warning for that

(read more if ur fine with reading some very personal stuff)

I had to drop out of my school (HTL) during my (repeated) second year due to the decline of my mental health. Depression was at its peak and my social anxiety really did not help in that case. It's now been three years, the first two passed by without me doing anything.

I stayed at home a lot and didn't find much fun in anything. All I've had was editing and talking online, but even then I had anxieties and insecurities constantly gnawing at me. Therapy didn't bring much progress during that time.

And then Endori came out. I have not heard of bandori before that, but friends tried it out so I did too. I absolutely fell in love with this game, and the continuous updates were a massive appeal to me. I took a particular liking to Harohapi, who brought me a lot of happiness.

All the characters in general made me at least a bit of a happier person without having to fake anything. I love the events, the lovely art, the everything. I obviously still had to battle with heavy depression and anxiety, but I was at least a bit more joyful for moments in time.

Then RAS happened. I had taken some interest in them before, but I really got into them in like December, which is about the time I also started to dive deeper into seiyuu stuff. They're amazing. RAS is such an admirable, energetic bunch.

It's specifically RAS for some reason who really got to me on an almost emotional level. I wished I could have even a bit of that energy when I was just a quickly exhausted shell of a person. Following the seiyuu's doings (including many other bandori seiyuus) really struck something in me.

Especially Tsumutsumu's personality made me long to be more of an outwardly joyful and silly person that I knew I am inside. So many of the bandori seiyuus seem so genuine and so silly, it was something I wanted to be again.

So I actually went and actively tried to make progress during a time I felt so helpless but didn't want to take help. I finally reached out to places I knew would give me the help I needed to get back on my feet. To get me back out there again.

It's RAISE A SUILEN who inspired me the most, and I am so thankful for that. Not just them, but bandori in general, but I felt like it was RAS who gave me this internal push that I needed. With a side of harohapi too <3

I've still got a ways to go, I'm still a fairly shy person, but I'm getting better at expressing my outward joy over things, and be more courageous. Steps to take to outwardly be the person I actually am.

It's crazy for me to look back the past several months and see what I've accomplished, when in comparison to that I've been miserable for several years without an ounce of progress before that.

So this tattoo isn't just the mark of some band I like. To me, this tattoo is like a symbol of healing. A mark that I heavily connect with courage that I needed to get help for myself. It means a lot to me and is dear to my heart.

I've always generally been a very sentimental person, so I know I'll carry this tattoo with pride for the years to come. And I wish the best for RAS. I hope they thrive and continue wreaking havoc, bringing energy to the masses.

If you read this far uhh hi I cried a little. Talking ab my experiences with twitter's limit is hard (cough oops doesnt apply here on tumblr), and I didn't exactly say everything on my mind, but I don't think I have to, either. I don't need to justify this to anyone when I myself know what I'm doing.

I'm still not quite there yet, but I've got time to work on my health. Thank you for giving me the energy I needed, RAISE A SUILEN. Looking forward to seeing them at Charaexpo! <3

[skirak]

The Ultimate Introduction to Hosoya Yoshimasa Part 1 [Everything you should know about Hosoya Yoshimasa #3]

37th Birthday Special

10 February, the ultimate day as a certain baby turns 37. Time really flies... I still remember creating posts for his 36th bday last year in my main account @akaskira

This is taken from a Chinese source: PukiWiki 

Translated by me!

Introduction

Source: 新R25 Interview (Japanese)

Hosoya Yoshimasa [細谷佳正]

Born 10 February, 1982 in Onomichi, Hiroshima.

Height of 175 cm (5 feet 7), Blood Type B

Left hander.

Was a member of Mausu Promotion till 1 July 2014 and has been Freelance since.

Nicknames include Yosshi (used by Ono Yuuki), Posoya-kun (used by Sugita Tomokazu)

Called Hosoyan by fans and Hikasa Yoko

According to himself, has rarely been given nicknames.

Favourite food includes sea urchin. Likes to drink but doesn’t smoke.

Likes ghost story and horror movies but gets scared as hell in haunted houses (click for link!)

Probably can see ghosts - many colleagues have heard real ghost experiences from him.

Okamoto Nobuhiko once said he wanted to go to haunted house most with Hosoya as his reaction is interesting

In the world of Male seiyuu Singers, he is considered to be of mid-high ranking.

Used to do busking and released his own songs.

Sang albums for character Shiraishi Kuranosuke in “Prince of Tennis”

The first album “Medicine or...?” got 7th in Most Daily Played and 10th in Most Weekly Played. The second album “Poision” achieved 3rd in Daily and 6th in Weekly [Oricon Style]

CD or LIVE, his performance is worth a praise. His condition has been good since his first performance, “Prince of Tennis Hundred Song Marathon”. He then received praise for his singing plus dancing in FESTA 2009, and also is the first from Prince of Tennis to have his very own solo concert and album in 2010.

Doesn’t really sing as his characters, so the songs you hear are all his own style.

Seiyuu with the same experiences as him include Tsubasa Yonaga, Kaji Yuuki, Okamoto Nobuhiko etc.

One of Mima Masafumi (Director of audiography)’s favourite seiyuu. It’s like wherever there’s Mima there’s Hosoya

Experiences

High School 

Used to be in fencing and acting clubs, and quit fencing for acting.

Was in a leader position in acting, but didn’t know whether to pursue it.

After that, watched “Martian Succesor Nadesico: The Motion Picture - Prince of Darkness” recommenced by a friend and decided to be a seiyuu as he was inspired by Yamadera Koichi’s character.

Voiced in the remake Space Battleship Yamato 2199 as Katou Saburou, fulfilling his dream of voicing with Yamadera.

Achieved Best Supporting Character Awards in 2014 and 2016 tho he has no luck in MC

Characteristics

Has a natural mid-range voice, therefore often gets cool / calm Sports Captain roles. To other people, Hosoya can also be seen as a man who’s calm with few words.

Because he started as acting in Western works, he’s better at “natural calmness” performances rather than exaggerated.

Mostly voices young characters from straightforward to cold ones. Also can voice as some bad “Uncle” (Ixion Saga DT as Pet)

Basically after Takamatsu Shinji’s (animator) favourtism, his image has disappeared (this is a compliment)

Maybe because Hosoya’s tone is a little plain (Hey!!) he rarely voices as MC but as supporting roles (MC’s friends etc)

For some reason, always voice some “big Brother” characters and recently, 80% of his roles are muscular guys

Accepted more roles as he grew popular.

Voiced as an insane character in a game “Princess Arthur” and received praise for it.

Before that, also voiced incanely in “Edel Blume” but the game wasn’t good so it wasn’t popular

Common traits of his characters: glasses, prideful, disses, dialect.

Real person is a helpless dork which is totally different from his characters, so may surprise people who don’t know him well.

Started by dubbing in Western shows / movies, so isn’t known in ACG (Animation, Comic, Game) community until his role as Shiraishi.

One of the few who dubs a lot in both ACG and Western films, where he voices in almost every season.

Often receives dialect roles (Osaka, Fukui, Hiroshima etc). Says that his voice is like a plain Ochazuke (rice with tea).

Has very few R18 works.

In BLCD, only appeared for a passerby and never a seme/uke role.

With the exception of Miyano Mamoru and Irino Miyu who both have acting backgrounds, Hosoya being famous even without a R18 character is considered as really special.

People may mistake Hosoya as voicing in more shoujo themed anime due to his popularity with women and large variety, but he actually focuses more on dub and shonen works.

Hosoya EVERYWHERE

In 2016 October, he accepted roles from 12 more works out of his normal ones, and with different varieties as well.

Probably because of overperformance, he hurt his throat and took a break from 23 April 2017 to August 2017.

Personality

Speciality: plays guitar and likes shooting

Is bad at technology so doesn’t have Twitter or personal blog (except link)

Known as the most woman-like male seiyuu.

Ogata Megumi: “Among male and female seiyuu, the one with most girl powers is Hosoya Yoshimasa.”

Actually also wants to be popular so often asks tips from other male seiyuu

A member of Mizuki Nana’s female team

Proved by a lot of people that he loves to talk about love.

Self-claimed masochist. Is actually also very masochistic

Gets nervous easily and sweats a lot. When he’s nervous, he always speak incoherently / stammers so he’s often teased by others.

Always at the bottom of the food pyramid.

In Free, was bullied by “predators” Miyano Mamoru and Suzuki Tatsuhisa.

Nobunaga Shimazaki: “Sorry—”

Hosoya: “We’re not gonna lose like this!!”

Masafumi Mima: “In Knb, 50% of seiyuu were new and perhaps to calm their berves they decided to tease someone. That someone is Hosoya. Even though he’s the captain, his reaction when bullied is priceless.”

Known as the natural dork, which often comes into topic when he’s not around.

Has a weird way of thinking sometimes.

Often leaves audience and cast speechless (and is usually made fun of later), but can tell he means what he says, and usually still has a good relationship with others.

Likes to not look at the camera in pictures, affecting people around him. Fans have also started to imitate it.

Easy to go along with and humble.

Often calls person with “san” behind and uses respectful language (formal)

Depending on atmosphere, he does call people by their first name and vice versa.

People he calls first names include Ono Kenshou, Osaka Ryota, Ishikawa Kaito etc.

“Will go crazy in unreasonable situations” - Hikasa Yoko

Too many sports roles. Fans often say he can “hold an Olympic on his own” and those roles are still renewing.

Some include tennis, Basketball, baseball, soccer, Volleyball, piano, drums, judo, karuta, Swimming, rugby, ice skating.

Fans often check if he’s voicing in new sports anime - and it’s a common habit.

Seems to also notice himself and talks about doing them sometimes.

Relationships

Male Magnet.

Attracts both senpai and junior’s appreciation.

Accidentally stepped into a gay bar and was almost harassed.

Even Fukuyama Jun, who doesn’t work with him much, would mention him from time to time.

Kamiya Hiroshi: “He’s a good kid who’s too serious.”

Has many hidden fans in the industry. Ishikawa Kaito has played his songs directly from his phone before.

Others

Likes girls who’s younger but mature big Sister type omg that’s me

Seems to like... boobs, D-cup in particular.

Had a defect where he was born with six fingers on his right hand but had the extra surgically removed.

Was a fan of the manga “Ushio and Taro” so was very happy when he voiced Akiba Nagare in it.

To be continued

I’ve kind of run out of space so I’m going to do a separate post later. For now, I’m so glad I decided to rewatch anime or I wouldn’t have found out about this adorable dork who made me who I am. I just came back from Japan after studying there for about 4 months, and it had just been the best knowing we were in the same country, breathing the same air, almost living in the same city. 

While I didn’t manage to go to a Hosoyan event, I would definitely go at least once just to “meet” and see him live. 

I love him with all my heart and wish him the best in everything.

[kobayashi-aika]

Seiyuu Animedia September 2018: Interview with Kobayashi Aika (Part 1)

The first of two interviews in the recent Seiani. This one was Saint Aqours Snow themed.

Scans from Dyrea. QC from Mega.

“I can feel a ring around Aqours”

Q: Now that the 3rd Live Tour is over, tell us some of your honest thoughts.

A: It went by even faster than the 2nd Live Tour. We gave it our all, and had a lot of fun, but it still feels like there was a hole left in my heart. There were days after the tour ended where I would think “Oh, I guess there’s no rehearsal today?” (laughs).

Q: Were there any challenges you set for yourself during the 3rd Live Tour?

A: Definitely my solo song! Having everyone’s eyes on me in such huge venues, and basking in the glow of penlights in my color… just thinking about it makes me shiver. Being able to give input into the design of our performances made me really happy, too. It was a performance filled with things that we wanted to do, and so I wanted to let everyone fall in love with Yohane. I designed the performance thinking, “I want everyone to see how charming Yohane can be”.

Q: Was singing while sitting on a chair your idea?

A: Ever since I first heard the song, I had the mental image of sitting on a throne while singing, and the costume I imagined looked a lot like the SIF Punk Rock set costumes, so I suggested those for this performance. Also, the title of the song is “in this unstable world”, so I had the image of constantly going back and forth between Yoshiko and Yohane. It’s about what’s there between an angel and a fallen angel, so I also put a black and white wing on the back. Yohane was wearing white on the cover of Season 1’s Blu-Ray Volume 4, and I think white looks good on her. So I tried to convey the idea of Yohane and Yoshiko’s coexistence. I’m glad I was able to get that across in my solo song; the costume turned out even better than I imagined.

Q: Did you have any goals or challenges for the group songs as well?

A: I’m always performing to look like just Yohane does, but this live focused on Season 2, so I made it my goal to focus on getting the little details down. For example, in MY Mai☆TONIGHT, there’s the  “O” shaped mouths. It hasn’t really come up before, but in the song, there are a lot of places where we stress the “O” syllable, so I took a good look at how they’re done. I also made sure to check exactly how many times I need to wink, and I’ve become more conscious about what the other members are doing. I feel like I want to become a vessel to for Yohane to descend into and perform in.

Q: You’re really mindful about the details, aren’t you?

A: Right. There’s the “Yohane Bun”, but I also make sure my bangs are just like hers, and I dye my hair a little blue. I think it’s nice that I can become a vessel for Yohane, and let the audience connect with her, even for just one moment.

Q: Did anything in Aqours’ performances leave an impression on you throughout the tour?

There’s two things. One is definitely MIRACLE WAVE. I know how hard Anchan has been working, so I was really moved by her. At the moment of the jump, there’s a part in the choreography where she looks right at me, and I can see her holding in her emotions, and her nervousness right up close. I don’t know what kind of face I should show her...and when I see her expression, it makes me want to cry. But I feel like I have to cheer her up, and I think Yohane is the kind of person to do that too, so I always tell her “Go for it! You can do it!”. I’m so happy that she didn’t get hurt across the 3 venues and 6 performances.

Q: And what’s the other thing?

A: WONDERFUL STORIES. It’s the tour title, so I thought it might come sometime in the middle or at the end of the main performance, but it turns out that we did it at the end of the encore. I feel like the song being an insert song at the very, very end of episode 13 has a lot of meaning. It’s a summary of Love Live! Sunshine!!, as if the song was our curtain call. Having that be our last song gives even more meaning to the place that this franchise has brought us to. I think it’s really significant.

Q: How was performing on stage as Saint Aqours Snow?

A: I bet everyone was excited to finally see “Awaken the Power”, and I was really happy to be able to perform in front of everyone as Saint Aqours Snow! It’s an insert song in a very important episode of Season 2, so I think everyone had high expectations. Standing at center stage and being enveloped in everyone’s cheers felt really great… I was so surprised at how hyped up everyone was (laughs). It was fun feeling the power of the Numazu school idols and the Hakodate school idols coming together.

Q: From the 1st Live and the 2nd Live Tour, up until this 3rd Live Tour, what part of you do you think has grown the most?

A: I feel like our camaraderie has gotten even stronger. We were somehow able to make it through the 1st Live, but since then, our bonds have gotten even deeper. We went from being just friends to best friends, and from best friends to being like family by the time the 3rd Live Tour came around. Our individual feelings are all connected, and I’m excited to see where we’ll go from here.

Q: And what comes after becoming family?

A: As Yohane would say, everything will become one...something like that. (laughs).

Q: Do you feel like anything about Aqours has changed or grown with the 3rd Live Tour?

A: We do two days at every venue, and the first day is always nerve-wracking, but when I look at everyone’s faces, they look like they’re having fun. It’s different from the debilitating nervousness we felt during the 1st Live; even though we’re nervous, I can feel that we’re enjoying ourselves. I might feel pressure, but I also feel like I want to have fun. It’s probably because I feel like everything will be okay when I’m with everyone.

Q: You mentioned becoming “like family” earlier. Your bonds must have gotten a lot stronger since then.

A: I can feel a ring around Aqours. Of course, there’s the ring that we form right before every performance, But also, the bonds between all of us in Aqours, and everyone in the audience who comes to see us, form an even bigger ring around us. That makes me feel at ease.

Q: Lastly, what do you think are Aqours’ strongest points?

A: There’s the “ring”, but also, our unity! Our performances are never something we make by ourselves. Whenever we rehearse, I never feel like our performance is fully completed. The fact that people come to our lives and get excited is what completes it. I think that’s one of the charms of Aqours, and it’s our strongest point.

I’m excited to see where these deepened bonds will take us

Q: Any memories from lives, fanmeets or overseas events?

A: At LA, the fans gave us a special surprise with their penlights by making a rainbow. I wasn’t sure about how well we would be accepted in a different country, but that showed us that everyone was happy to see us. When I saw it, I just started crying.

Q: Did anything fun happen during the 3rd Live Tour?

A: During rehearsals, Aida Rikako-chan fell right asleep while we were backstage (laughs). It was really funny, so everyone was taking pictures and videos. But then her eyes started opening and she kept sleeping with her eyes half open (laughs).

Q: Any thoughts from the Hakodate Unit Carnival?

A: The 11 of us singing “Yume Kataru yori Yume Utaou” left a deep impression on me. Also, for the people listening, seeing the units go AZALEA-CYaRon!-Guilty Kiss was probably a breath of fresh air.