Japan Trip 2012 Report #1 : TGS Live in Budoukan

So I arrived in Japan on the 21st December at 2345, after rushing to get my accommodation all in order it was really exciting to think that, after I woke up the next day, I'll be heading to Budoukan.

On the 22nd morning it was raining and it really freaked me out, since that is like my first ever rain + winter combo in my life (I'm from Malaysia, so I'm not used to Winter).  So I grabbed an umbrella and head to Akiba to meet up with my friend, Hatix. The plan for the day was to meetup with another friend, Tokosilent at Budoukan at around 14:00 so I went to meet up with Hatix at Akiba around noon. We went to Shoshen and I bought a few magazines (BOMB and BLT u-17).Since we had some free time, we went to @home cafe first, being a customary tradition to do when we reach Japan. When we... Naah, I'll write a different report for @home visit XD

So at about 1300 we made our move to Kudanshita station, and reached Budoukan at about 1320. The concert starts at 18:00 but the goods are on sale starting from 12:00. So by far, we're pretty late already. It was still raining when we reached Budoukan and we saw many people walking to the opposite direction that we're going while carrying TGS Budoukan bag. I figured they might have bought all the goods already and just heading home until the concert starts. So me and Hatix just went to the goods area and saw the long line for goods. Honestly speaking, long line in Japan is nothing new to me already, but this is the first with everyone holding an umbrella. I have quite a lot to buy in my list and that includes what a few friends asked me to get for them.

Kaorin is back~

Hayano Kaoru (早乃香織) a.k.a Kaorin is back in the singing industry! No more MC-ing and doing radio show only for her now, its back to business.  Since today is her birthday, she's starting her blog once again (it was taken down earlier this year, to make her debut a secret I guess) and made her first post today.

To those who are not familiar with Kaorin

She was an ex-AKB48 member from team K and graduated from the group. During that time she's probably the smartest girl in the group academically, judging from the various surveys done in the AKB48 guidebook released then. Initially, she was the one that dragged me into AKB48 fandom and for a while I was stuck with the group thanks to her. She's quite witty, a little bit shy and awkward and a huge otaku to boot. Seems to be a huge fan of Evangelion as well. She graduated from the group for some unmentioned reason and was happily pursuing job as assistant MC on various events and radio show. Now she's back in the idol industry again. So starting from today I'll be translating her blog as well, now that it has really gotten into track again ^^ http://enhayanokaoru.blogspot.com/

Below is the preview PV of her 2nd single, Betelgeuse Beat

Umeko on ASCII

I'm sure that not many people saw this coming but Umeko is getting featured in the weekly ASCII this week. Well it's kind of exciting because she hardly appears for shots like this alone, afterall she's not really the prettiest girl in the group nor a girl whom one would easily fall to. I really like the fact that they made her cosplay a whole bunch of theme and it ranged from Goth Loli to just tradition kimono and looking and her facial expression in each picture is entertaining (lol). Well let's just say she's not much of a model... and imitating Serina for the GothLoli costume is just freaking brilliant hahaha

Idoling!!! and Randomness

One of the really big charms of idoling!!! definitely has to be the random factor that they have. I believe this is the only idol group that has been talking so much to each other about which one of them is an orthodox idol or not. Everyone just have their own quirks that made keeping up with the show is such a joy. The TV show is already at episode 940 now! I have watched nearly every single one of them and still I find this group enjoyable. The group has such a colourful cast of members, the divas, the jokers, the quiet ones, the bizzare ones and simply the annoying ones but then again once they are all together it's all good. The staff of the show is just as if not more random than the girls too. I have to tip my hat off to the staff for always venturing into ideas that you don't normally go to nearly all the time.

An Idol show is normally very similar. A lot of beautiful girls, a funny MC and they play games/ experience doing something and go through some punishment game. The games played are normally very common among Japanese Variety show, and you can basically find them anywhere on the TV.

Idoling!!! staff always go ahead with bizzare ideas. An episode on the girls kicking the Assistant Director, an episode on the girls learning to Capoeira, an episode of girls riding a unicycle while avoiding the staffs which are sleeping on the floor, catching eels and a whole lot more bizzareness. It really keeps the show fresh and makes it always exciting to catch the next upcoming episode. Of course there are time when it is quite obvious that they are just recycling old segments a few times but the moment that idea block is over, Idoling!!! simply shines. For this reason alone, I won't be dropping this group anytime soon. No other idol group has a better teamwork between the Idol and the staff compared to this one IMO. It's so random that it is refreshing.

"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

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.