K-on :3

Taken this morning before setting off.

Eating chicken rice, my dinner as I type (with aching legs but its not surprising since I’m one of the few people who can actually fail PE) … My AFA companion is at the anisong concert, at the expense of her textbook money… Your sacrifice to watch the concert for me will not be forgotten… XD

I can’t even stand up now, unless I’m willing to experience excruciating pain in my legs  (like I said, I accomplished the incredible feat of failing physical education) due to lack of rest for my legs.

Walking~ (blur image…)(thats not me btw)

A few minutes from 10am

Like yesterday, the crowd and queues were already present when we entered:

and it was only minutes since the doors opened…

After staring at the crowds, I decided to pluck up my courage and try the Joysound karaoke machine which I’ve been itching to use. I debated on using Haruhi songs or the Gundam 00 OPs (I wanted to sing Cruel Angel Thesis but it wasn’t available though on the list). In the end I sang Hare Hare Yukai.

You probably won’t hear me (shoot, I don’t even recall hearing myslef) cuz the mike wasn’t working well at the first part of the song (until the first “Boon” part).

So if you saw someone singing Hare Hare Yukai while carrying a Micky Mouse sling bag, with her voice overwhelmed by the music, that was me. My friend told me there were people dancing Hare Hare Yukai while I was singing it behind me…

Mickey~

Listening to Kaname’s talk about cosplay, only went there to get a good seat for K-ON though, lol.

Zoom~

The highlight of the entire AFA 09 must be, *drumroll*

Obviously K-ON .

Yōko Hikasa wasn’t there (;_;)

Photo taking/Video or an other forms of recording isn’t allowed (T^T) so I desperately tried to preserve this memory, in some part of my brain. When I exit and met up with my friend who skipped K-on to stalk Kaname (lol) and she asked me how was it, I only had one word.

*punches fist into air while shouting “SUGOI!”*

God, it was awesome… The live dubbing had Aki Toyosaki (Yui), Satomi Satō (Ricchan), Minako Kotobuki (Mugi) and Ayana Taketatsu (AZUNYAN!!!) re-enacting 3 scenes:
1. When Azusa stepped in to the club room and Yui teases her with cake (ep 9)
2. Before the school festival when they got Yui’s guitar maintenance (ep 11)
3. Wlking home from school scene (ep 13, extra)

The Q&A session shows us just how moe (I’m bothered whether I’m using it correctly after reading OEG but I’m not targeted so I get to get away with it, probably…) the K-on seiyuus ‘(seiyuu’ is not english but it still works to add an ’s’ behind for plural form?) are.

I loved the question about their favourite lines from their characters.

Aki Toyosaki’s answer:

The part when Yui was playing castanets, lol. “Un-tan, un-tan, un-tan~”
*Applause and mad cheering from the audience*
Someone cosplaying Yui whose seating in front of me took out some castanets.

Satomi Sato’s Answer:

The line in ep 1 when she was convincing Mio to join the club, about their promise to form a band.
Curiously, what the other seiyuus chose aren’t really lines.

Minako Kotobuki’s answer:

The line in episode 2 when she was cutting the price (more, more~) of Yui’s Giitah to ¥50,000.
I don’t have many comments though…

Ayana Taketatsu’s answer:
This is Azu-nyan we’re talking about. What line could represent azu-nyan more than the line she said in ep 9 when Sawako-sensei gave her a pair of nekomimi and Ricchan got her to say “Nyah~”
*Immense cheering from the crowd and me*

The choosing of seat numbers for the 4 lucky winners was exciting (since I had 2 seats to myself cuz my friend went off to stalk Kaname and didn’t make it back), sort of. Nearly got it too, when Minako Kotkobuki chose a second time. I was seating at C 36, C37, she called C31. D:

In the end, I just loitered around and took lots of photos after K-on…

Self Reference, What I bought:

Sat:
*2 day pass $20
*Code Geass file (share) $2.45
*Doraemon doujinshi by kusotaisa $12
*Code geass strap $9.90 (Lelouch made me buy it…)
*K-On key chain thingy $10
*Kagamiku Figma $40+…
*GA Pencil board $10 (give or take…)
*lunch, noodles $7.90 (eff…)

Sun:
*Blooper key chain thing $5
*red shell key chain thing $5
*Negima volumes 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; ChuangYi chinese ver. $20 (where the hell is volume 5 D:? )
*dinner, chicken rice $2.50

I’m off to sleep… Anisong concert ended really early today though (not that I was there…)

La página oficial de la recién concluida serie K-On!, anunció hace unos días que el último DVD de la serie contendrá un episodio nuevo de bonus. El séptimo y último DVD de K-On! en Japón, disponible también en Blu-ray saldrá a la venta el 20 de enero de 2010.

Dejando atrás las noticias random, les traigo un nuevo review (el primero del año? xd), sobre una de las series mas recientes de Kyoto Animation, por supuesto hablo de K-On!, la serie que nadie esperaba que gustara y dió una agradable sorpresa. Ahora la reseña, que será esta vez bastante corta para no hacerla tan tediosa como otras:

~~~Azu-nyan~~~

Serie del año 2009, basada en los comics de cuatro paneles (similar a Lucky Star) de Kakifly, como resumen, la historia trata sobre un grupo de amigas en un colegio de Japón solo para mujeres las cuales se unen (de diferentes maneras) al club de Light Music (algo así como música popo), y empiezan un grupo al cual se irán uniendo más personajes al grupo así como personajes que no necesariamente tienen que ver con el club, que al final quieren tocar en el Budokan, su meta final. Una serie tipo Slice of Life/Musical, K-On! nos presenta una serie que a mi parecer divierte, no se entran en dramas tontos a cada momento. En lo personal ha sido una de las series que mas me ha gustado, aunque en el género de Slice of Life me parece que Lucky Star es superior ya que tenemos una cantidad más grande de personajes, un poco más de desarrollo de los mismos, lo cual es uno de los grandes puntos en contra de K-On! pero no por eso la hace menos amena.

Desde el punto de vista musical, las canciones tienen las letras más cursis que se pueden imaginar, pero por alguna extraña razón todas (y recalco todas) las canciones se me han quedado en la cabeza, y las tengo en mi ipod para oírlas camino a la Universidad. El ritmo, composición, las voces de Toyosaki Aki (Hirasawa Yui) y Hikasa Yoko (Akiyama Mio-chan~) que son bastante suave, y la otra bastante fuerte le dan un toque especial a las canciones. Me centro en la música ya que de eso se trata la serie (o no?). Los conciertos, aunque me parecieron buenos sentí que algunos podrían haber sido un poco más emotivos, pero no les resta mucho mérito.

El desarrollo de la historia es aceptable, muchas situaciones graciosas bastante inocentes a veces, algo que me agrado de la serie es que no se ven en la necesidad de fan service excesivo (dígase panties cada 5 segundos *cough*Rosario+Vampire*cough), y las escenas de la playa y eso las toman como algo normal, algo tendrá que ver la falta de figuras masculinas dentro de la serie. La inclusión de los personajes como Nakano Azusa (~Azu-nyan~) a la mitad de la serie fue buena, aunque no conocemos mucho de ella sirve para poner un poco de orden a las perezosas protagonistas,o las apariciones random de Yamanaka Sawako  (Sawa-chan-sensei, cortesía de Yui) ayuda un poco en la historia aunque nunca profundizan mucho en estos personajes, más que para darle mas variedad al grupo.

Los únicos hombres en toda la serie (y eran niños)

En general la serie me parece muy buena, a mi me gustó (demasiado diría yo), por lo que esta reseña podría no parecerles lo más neutral posible aunque traté, la serie me ha parecido bastante corta (13 episodios Q_Q) aunque al leer el manga (no me pude aguantar a esperar unos años para la segunda temporada) me doy cuenta de porque esta razón, ya que se pegó bastante al manga, aunque no lo suficiente para solo episodios. La animación y calidad de dibujo como siempre es  THE  Kyoto Animation, por lo que no tengo que decir nada más. Muy buena serie la recomiendo, si desean más información sobre los personajes está en mis primeras impresiones de la serie

In honor of the 14th episode. Me wants more Kannagi... may rewatch sometime soon.

Out of the series you picked from the spring anime season, how many are you keeping up with?

Out of the…. large number I thought I’d try, I’m keeping up with…. 9 of them. I haven’t even tried some of the ones I thought I would. Like Tears to Tiara and 07 Ghost. Ones I’ve kinda not kept up with are Pandora Hearts. Think I got to ep 4 of that, and just lost track. I lost track of a couple others, but caught back up. (The ones I’m still watching are below.)

Asura Cryin’ – Lost track, but caught up.
Eden of the East – Kept up all the way. Tis an awesome series.
Haruhi Season 2 – Only the first episode is out admittedly, but I know I’ll keep up with it. How can you not?
Hatsukoi Limited – A nice, light hearted romcom. Gotta have at least one per season.
Higurashi no naka koro ni Rei – Seen the first 3 OVA’s, can’t wait for the 4th!!
K-on! – Need I say more?
Saki – Who knew mahjong could be so moe? lol. Still enjoying it. Can’t wait to see the final battles.
Shangri-La – Another big hit with me. A thinker, instead of something like Hatsukoi Limited or K-on! which requires little or no brain power to watch lol.
Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Crimson S – So far I got no clue what the Crimson S part has to do with anything… but I’m enjoying it. Not the best thing this season, but it has Haruka Tomatsu and Ai Nonaka in it. So I’m more than happy to keep watching.

I find myself doing this alot more, choosing series based on which voice actors are in them lol. Tis reason I’m keeping up with Asura Cryin’. Both Tomatsu and Nonoka are in that funnily enough. Hahah, though tis not why I picked it. With Polyphonica I started watching cos of my Corti figure. I tried Mamiko Noto’s newest appearence… Queens Blade.. I gave up on that even before she appeared… Still, 9 is waaaay more than I watched last season lol.

Also saw the 14th ep of Kannagi last night. Really enjoyed it. Felt some Haruhi-esque home-made video-ness while they were shooting their film. But that didn’t last that long, people might have revolted if it did lol.

While googling seiyuu’s, I came across this vid. Haruka is super lovely.

Love the Kannagi op. And the other music in the series lol.

And heres a vid of Fuuko-chan singing. So cute!!!

Oooo I didn’t know Nonoka was in Natsu no Arashi… Never tried that. One of the ones I didn’t. Might have to now. Se’s not a main character, but any Ai is good Ai. Her voice is so juvenile… but I love it!!

Oooo some more Haruka now! Her and 2 of the main girls from Hatsukoi Limited singing the op theme(The band is Sphere, didn’t know Haruka was in a band…lol). And wow… 3 of the 4 K-on! girls are in Hatsukoi Limited. Aki Toyosaki, Yui, I heard the voice and thought it must be her. Minako Kotobuki, Tsumugi, didn’t recognise her voice. She seems the traditional ‘ara ara’ onee-chan voice. Not the ones I pick up on. And Satomi Satou, Ritsu. No Mio(Yoko Hikasa) though. She’s in Asura Cryin’ though, along with Haruka and Ai, and Aki, Satomi and Yoko. I’m sure the K-on! girls careers have gotten a big boost from K-on!. More Mio the better I say lol.

Love the op and ed theme for Hatsukoi Limited.

The pic of Nagi from the beginning of this post is from here.

K-On!’s story revolves around four Japanese high school girls who join their school’s Light Music Club to try to save it from being disbanded. However, they are the only members of the club, and the last recruit, Hirasawa Yui, has no experience in playing instruments or reading sheet music. I think it`s gonna be a really really funny anime… You should watch it!

Characters:

Mio Akiyama (秋山 澪)
Mio is a shy girl in the light music club who plays a left-handed, 3-Color Sunburst Fender Jazz Bass with an attached pickguard made out of tortoiseshell. She originally intended to join the literary club, but was forced into the light music club by her childhood friend Ritsu. She gets excellent grades in school, and is bad with listening to stories involving painful experiences.
Voice : Hikasa, Yoko

Yui Hirasawa (平沢 唯)
Yui is the main character of K-On!. She is one of the members of the light music club, and plays a Honey Burst Gibson Les Paul Standard electric guitar. She does not get good grades in school.
Voice: Toyosaki, Aki

Tsumugi Kotobuki (琴吹紬)
Tsumugi is a girl with a gentle personality who plays the Korg Triton Extreme 76 keyboard in the light music club. She has played piano since she was four-years-old, and has experience in winning piano contests. She is the daughter of a company president, and her family has several villas in various places around Japan. When Yui goes to buy her guitar, Tsumugi is successfully able to drive down the price. She often brings confectionery to the club room, along with a tea set which is kept in the room. She originally intended to join the chorus club, but joined the light music club after receiving an invitation and encouragement from Mio and Ritsu.
Voice: Kotobuki, Minako

Ritsu Tainaka (田井中 律)
Ritsu is the president of the light music club. She has an ambiguous personality, and often has trouble with forgetting about important club activities and announcements. She says she chose to play the drums because they are “cool”, but she has trouble playing instruments which involve intricate finger movements.
Her drumset is a yellow Yamaha HipGig.
Voice : Satou, Satomi

Source : http://myanimelist.net

Sweet Bitter Beauty Song by Aki Toyasaki, Youko Hisaka, Satomi Satou, & Minako Kotobuki
from the single Don’t say “lazy”

Romanized by oyogenai

Don’t say “lazy” by Aki Toyasaki, Youko Hisaka, Satomi Satou, & Minako Kotobuki
from the single Don’t say “lazy”

Romanized by oyogenai

Scans (OP and ED) : Scans download link

BTW Make sure to download the Marvel VS Capcom 2 demo on the 30th, it’s going to be FAAAAAAAAAAAAAABULOUS.

K ON OP ED FULL

320 Bitrate, MP3, ZIP File comes with : K-ON OP: “Cagayake! GIRLS” by Aki Toyosaki, Yoko Hisaka, Satomi Satou and Minako Kotobuki

and

K-ON ED: “Don’t say ‘lazy’” by Aki Toyosaki, Yoko Hisaka, Satomi Satou and Minako Kotobuki

The full versions of the two very catchy songs from K-ON! were leaked [LQ] ahead of tomorrow’s official release date around a couple of days back. I can’t believe I didn’t find this earlier. But the full versions in [HQ] are also out now it seems (DDL links of full versions below).

Aki Toyosaki, Yoko Hisaka, Satomi Satou and Minako Kotobuki perform both OP and EDs: “Cagayake! GIRLS” and “Don’t say “LAZY”". The first leaked versions aren’t of highest quality (64kbps) but nonetheless, it’s the full song!!

They’re even more catchy than the short versions. I wonder if they’ll be performed by the quartet in the actual anime.

DDL links of full versions albums HQ: (not uploaded by me)

Cagayake Girls | Don’t say “LAZY”

The full album includes two other songs and all instrumentals versions + lyrics in Japanese.

The two tracks: “Happy! Sorry!!” and “Sweet Bitter Beauty Song” are okay to listen to as well but I think I still like Don’t Be “LAZY” most right now. Anyway, have a listen and get both albums in person if you can as well. The CDs themselves looks awesome.