Thursday, November 29, 2012

"Malaysian Fans~" They said~

During the TGS UStream broadcast at 2012-11-10 something really unexpected happened. I was feeling kind of down that day because I'm really short of money and I could not go to Singapore to watch BABYMETAL at AFA. Furthermore I missed the chance to meet Endou Mai who also came to Singapore for a single day to co-MC IENOMI with TM Revolution from Singapore. While feeling all messed up and everything, my internet was really slow that when I watched the TGS UST I had no visual at all, it was only sound but then something really awesome happened.

It just so happened that a friend of mine asked about how to get the handsign in UST channel in English and suddenly the staff of TGS replied to him in English too. Seeing the reaction everyone started to as a little bit of question in English to the staff too. When people realized this, a lot of the foreign fans started to comment in English too and by the anyone realized it, it was swarmed with English already. Fans from Malaysia, France, Philipine, Singapore and many others were have a real good time that day. Then suddenly the staff replied to my friend's request because he wanted to see Miyu (since the camera was static and only Hitomi, Yuri and Mei was on camera) and he made the girl say hi to us Malaysian fans



Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Jejak Jepun Bersama Zizan (Exploring Japan with Zizan)




The other big thing that happened this year would be this show "Jejak Jepun Bersama Zizan". Zizan is a well known comedian in Malaysia and apparently he's in love with Japan too. In this show, he was sponsored by a Malaysia airlines (AirAsia) to go around Japan to complete a single mission which is to meet Ayumi Hamasaki.

I'm a huge fan of a maid cafe called @home cafe in akihabara and one day a maid posted information about Zizan visiting the cafe and they did a recording of him being in the cafe so I was pretty excited to see the maid that I know appearing on Malaysian TV but a few days after that TGS posted information that they are appearing on the show with Zizan as well. When the trailer came out, we were all very excited because Onnaji Kimochi is the theme song and we're listening to it on Malaysian TV. However that was only the tip of the iceberg... As the show goes along, the whole show from the 1st episode to the 6th episode (last episode) the OST was nothing but TGS song. The excitement from waiting every episode and wondering which song is going to be used in the upcoming episode was just amazing. It was pretty nostalgic too since I have abandoned TV for a very long time and it has been a while since I'm so excited about a show that I waited a few minutes before the show in front of the TV.

TGS of course only appeared in episode 5, and Zizan is a jerk for not allowing the girls to self introduce themselves (but he's a good jerk for promoting them~ hahaha) and I'd love to hear the girls talk more or at least more scene of Zizan teaching them to speak Malay or something along that line.

Coincidentally, TGS came to Singapore a week before the broadcast of episode 5. Had the pleasure of talking to them about it at the live.

The aftermath of the show was many people in Malaysia are starting to know TGS. Suddenly, Malaysian audience are commenting on TGS's Onnaji Kimochi official PV at youtube talking about how they reached that page because of Zizan. And a few videos of kids dancing to Onnaji Kimochi.



This much exposure has definitely left some impact on the audience and though I do not want to assume that the show has made Malaysians as TGS fan but I'd say it has made TGS known. I believe that is a great first step. Unlike MCZ visit to Malaysia the impact was only to those who came to the event. There was hardly any real publicity to let the masses know about their arrival and there are no recording or showing of the live either to really rile up the nation. While MCZ has re-ignited the flame inside many old wotas, TGS has spark an interest of the nation towards J-Idol.

I'm not going to say that the show popularity has already warrant TGS a huge audience if they were ever to do a live here, but I'm sure that with a little bit of help from Zizan and a few other publicity it'll all work out well. Plus Singapore and Indonesia wotas are very active in supporting any idols that drop by around this vicinity as well. It should all be good.

Now I really hope that all these events just would prompt more visits towards ASEAN countries. If that's the case then... I'm sure we can overcome this Halyu wave.


Momoiro Clover Z in Malaysia, the start of 2012 hype

This was at Putrajaya Kuala Lumpur, and whee I'm on TV~
I'm an active member of the Malaysian wota community called Xmorfis.info and up until last year, the group's flame has been slowly waning as one by one of the members has jumped ship into the korean wave. We're a pretty old in group in Malaysia too, some members are even getting married and paying attention to J-idols all together but this year was different. I'd say this year is the year of change and the one that started to re-paint the scenario over here would be none other than Momoiro Clover Z.

When it was first announced that they are coming as part of the Hari Belia Negara (National Youth Day) we all thought it was just a joke but when it was officially announced and the article on Natalie and Tokyohive appeared everyone was more than excited. This was the 1st J-idol to ever perform in Malaysia, it was a pretty historical event for us.

Honestly, I never watched any MCZ concert prior to that live, I love Akari and when she graduated my interest in the group turned a bit sour until Roudou Sanka came along. Being there at the live was just amazing. While I am aware of the very different situation of idol live (well Idoling!!! and TGS audience would be pretty mild when it comes to their live) this was the first time I'm in an idol live with very active audience and with me right there at the very front of the railings. It was just so wild, all the chantings still echoes in my mind even until today. This would've never been possible if the Japanese mononofu didn't come over. The energy behind the show that day was just something that I never experienced before. When I was at Shimokita FM idol festival in 2010 the audience was pretty crazy too but I was not in the middle of that crowd so it was kind of different.

While the show was all fun and good, the more important part of the show to me is the gathering of almost all Xmorfis members. Right after the show, a lot of them has started to hop over to the J-wave or at the very least starts to follow J-idol again. Out of a sudden the group has a new faction appearing, the marenofu (Malaysia mononofu). Some non idol fans were also converted into one on that day. The day MCZ came to Malaysia was definitely the day a lot of things started to change, we're all very grateful for it.



Idoling!!! 829 DJ RuKaede!!!

soft sub

and... NO they're not going to let you go that easily
About this episode

They basically gave free reign over to Ruka and Kaede to host their own talk show where they can ask any questions that they want. It was basically a traumatizing experience to all the other members.

This episode could easily be one of my favorite, first of all RuKaede really did not hold back at all with their question and then they handled every answer really well. From uninspiring ones like Yuuna's to the angry one like Umeko's and it is all so funny. But the best of all just had to be how Masuno pulling the strings to guide RuKaede on what to do next. Just the look on his face how he enjoyed looking at the girls in trouble is just... eeevil XD

# credit to Code001 for QC

Idoling!!! #828 Ami Ta--lk!!!

Soft Sub

If you don't want your food then don't waste it~


There we go~ good old Idoling!!! sub after a really long absence. I'm sure those who follow the forum over at JPH!P would've gotten this sub already but it is just an obligatory post XD

About this episode,

Well this is just an obligatory episode to sub, simply because it features so much Umeko and it is just too funny to ignore. The whole bento talk was a lot of fun and it basically just screams out "Idoling!!!" more than ever because you hardly see any idols talk about this kind of topic this openly on TV. It does make one wonders too, just how much does an idol earn anyways or could it be that living standard in Tokyo is just too freaking high. Anyways, everyone is just adorable when talking about how happy they are getting free food, and Masuno's tsukkomi on the Dragonball reference was just golden.

The second part of the segment is just okay to me, because well, Asahi is Asahi and she is just full of joy all the time. Nothing really surprising in this segment.

# credits to Code001 for QC.

Tokyo Girls' Style in Singapore

On the 5th-6th of October TGS came over to Singapore to perform during a Japan Travel Fest at Takashimaya, Orchad Road Singapore.

I was really taken by surprise because a week before that I already went to Johor (which is just next to Singapore) and now in less than 5 days a sudden announcement was made and they are going to be in Singapore. I seriously thought that it was just a rumour but after a few hours it came up on the official site and I know that I had to go. Took another day off from work and headed over to Singapore

The live was for 2 days and I managed to go to both of them.
That feeling when your favorite member waves at you... Priceless

The months that was...

I'm really sorry for not updating the blog for a very long time, between work and the bunch of surprises this year, I've totally lost track of time and focus to keep up with everything that I'm supposed to do.

So as of today, I'm back to blogging. Will be updating every little news and reports that I have in store worth of the missing post that I have skipped~!