In yet another breaking development that casts a blinding spotlight on the unrelenting passage of time and my lost teens, Maaya Sakamoto, my favourite singer in all dimensions of space and time, got married at the ripe age of 31 to fellow seiyuu Ken’ichi Suzumura.

Seriously, do you people realize that the 90s was like twenty years ago? It’s fricking insane. Maaya is basically old school now. I don’t even know the names of any voice actors nowadays. Get off my proverbial lawn you damn kids. I am having a quarter-life crisis.

Anyway, I had just returned from a trip to Hong Kong two days ago and spent today finishing up my packing for my imminent house-moving, so I didn’t notice this piece of gigantic news until Kurogane messaged me on Twitter.

There’s a short personal message on Maaya’s official news feed announcing that the wedding took place on 8th August (incidentally a rather auspicious date in some East Asian cultures):

今日はいつも応援してくださっている皆様に、ご報告したいことがありまãã€‚
私、坂本真綾は、８月８日に声優の鈴村健一さんと結婚しました。

今までの自分の人生の中で
好きだと思うことや、嬉しい、心地いいと思うことを優先ãã‚‹è¡Œå‹•ãŒ
いつも未来につながってきました。
だから結婚についても、
私がそうしたいと心から思えるときが自然と来たので
その気持ちに従いました。
鈴村さんは、一緒にいるととても穏やかな気持ちになれる、優しい人でãã€‚
これからも私が私らしく歌い、演じ、そして生きていくために、
心休まるパートナーが側にいてくれること、とても頼もしく思いまãã€‚
皆様にも、あたたかく見守っていただけたら嬉しいでãã€‚

これからもより一層仕事に励んでいきたいと思っておりまãã®ã§ã€
どうぞよろしくお願いいたしまãã€‚

坂本真綾

Today I have an announcement to make to everyone who has long supported me.
I, Maaya Sakamoto, was married to voice actor Ken’ichi Suzumura on August 8.

Throughout my life, prioritizing the things I like and the things that make me happy and feel at ease has always turned out to be the right path to my future.
So when it came to marriage, the feeling that this was the right time came naturally to me and I decided to follow it.
Suzumura-san is a kind person who makes me feel calm when we are together.
I believe that as I continue to sing, perform and be myself in the coming future, it will be great to have a supportive partner by my side.
I would be really glad if everyone would also continue to watch over us.

I hope to strive even harder in my work in the future, so please continue to lend me your support.

Maaya Sakamoto

Interestingly, as noted by Kurogane, Ken’ichi Suzumura voiced Shinn Asuka in Gundam SEED DESTINY, alongside Maaya who voiced Lunamaria Hawke. This is like Nadesico’s Ruri x Akito all over again. Although Nadesico is by now so old in Internet age that I don’t think anyone online knows what I am talking about.

Real-life parallels fiction

Now to be clear, this is not going to be a fanboy rage thing where I desperately struggle in a futile attempt to not have to confront reality because the marriage of my favourite singer somehow symbolizes the lost of a part of my comfort zone for the past decade. But I have to admit that the timing of this almost too perfectly coincides with the start of a new chapter of my life.

Human beings are superstitious creatures like it or not, and it’s not unreasonable to perceive mutual significance in unrelated events as long as we keep it to poetic musings.

I am actually quite happy for Maaya. 31 is kind of old for a woman to get married by Japanese standards and, in typical Japanese fashion, all sorts of social complexities evolve past 30 for a single working woman. Hope she continues to sing.

I guess officially Maaya Sakamoto is now Maaya Suzumura even though she probably keeps her maiden name as her stage name for branding purpose.

I expected last year to be my first and last chance to watch Maaya Sakamoto perform live, but I was wrong and my sentiments at the time were rendered somewhat hyperbolic in retrospect. In spite of the recent events in Japan, I managed to make my way to Osaka International Convention Center last night for her “You can’t catch me” live tour.

This time last year, Budoukan was surrounded by a pink forest of cherry blossoms. The sakura trees have yet to bloom this year because of the colder weather.

Last year’s concert was a joyous celebration of Maaya’s 15th anniversary as a singer and her 30th birthday. This year, it came two weeks after the largest earthquake that ever shook Japan devastated Tohoku, and the Sendai and Sapporo legs of the tour were subsequently cancelled. In some ways, the tone of yesterday’s concert reflected the current mood of the nation. Portions of the setlist were changed and Maaya spoke about her feelings as a self-identified Tokyoite of seeing the great metropolis she thinks of as her hometown falter beneath a dark cloud of uncertainty as epitomized by the unprecedented rolling blackouts and the bent antenna atop Tokyo Tower.

LED board at the convention centre

Her performance was enchanting. I actually thought that the acoustics in the convention centre’s main hall was much better than at Budoukan, but my experience might have been slightly enhanced by the fact that my seat was in the 6th row from the stage. Maaya stood literally 7-8m in front of me.

There was a moment where, I swear with all my heart, she looked right into my eyes, our gazes met for a fleeting two seconds, time came to a standstill and the world achieved perfection… Just let a man have his dreams, okay?

Seriously though, it was really a significantly superior experience for me as compared to last year. The premium seat made a huge difference, but the stage also had much better computer-controlled lighting effects and fog machines. The only drawback was that there were no huge LCD screens so the folks sitting far behind were kind of screwed as far as the visual experience was concerned.

My only complaint is that she didn’t sing as many of her oldies as I would’ve liked. Then again, I guess I shouldn’t have expected much from a live tour named after her latest album. The full setlist for Osaka (apparently she tweaks it for every venue) is as follows:

1. eternal return
2. Himitsu
3. KIMIDORI
4. Utsukushii Hito
5. Mizuumi
6. ALKALOID
7. SPICA
8. Tegami
9. KIMI NO SEI
10. Remedy
11. Kanashikute Yarikirenai
12. MOONLIGHT -mata wa “kimi ga nemuru tame no ongaku”-
13. UNIVERSE
14. Kazemachi JET
15. Private Sky
16. Get No Satisfaction!
17. MAGIC NUMBER
18. Hikari Are
19. TOPIA
20. Bokura no Rekishi
21. everywhere
22. POCKET wo Kara ni Shite

Overall, I have to say that Utsukushii Hito was hands down the best performance of the night. It must be a really difficult song to perform live, but Maaya pulled it off perfectly as far as I could aurally discern. Plus, the synchronized beams of light casting streaks of shadows through the fog screen gave the entire scene an aura of mystique that played very well with the piece’s classic oriental vibe. (The song was composed by Yoko Kanno for last year’s Shanghai World Expo to commemorate historical exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and Japan.)

The concert also made me realize that Kanashikute Yarikirenai is a really great song. It is one of the three Japanese classics Maaya covered for a recent single release, and I didn’t think much of it until last night. The song is about sadness so intense that there is no end in sight and tomorrow seems as bleak as today. Other than the fact that it is a cover, the song also differs from Maaya’s usual repertoire in that it is about pure unfiltered grief, whereas most of her songs tend to be hopefully optimistic, neutral or at the very least subtly melancholic. I came to this realization during the performance and really enjoyed the way Maaya sang it. Her sorrowful tone sent chills down my spine.

I think Maaya really did an excellent job conveying her feelings about the earthquake through her words and her songs. She wrote a 4-page message that was included in handouts given to all the attendees. She also took the time to explain on-stage why she chose to make certain changes to the setlist.

She shared with the audience how, some years ago, her elder brother was met with a serious accident and went into coma for a month. Her father told her not to cancel a live performance scheduled for the next day because he believed it was vital for life to continue as per usual for the family so that the brother would have a functional family to return home to.

Maaya also shared a fan letter she received from a young man in Sendai who described to her all the things that he plans to accomplish and the places he plans to visit for the rest of his life because he felt that there is nothing he is not capable of achieving after having survived a life-changing event so terrible.

Maaya brought with her a message of hope and humility. There were plenty of teary eyes that night.

Music has the power to make the world better. It sounds clichéd, but I think that Maaya really tries to do good in her own way. It’s easy to assume that everything performers do is premeditated and profit-driven and it may even be prudent to do so. I know that there is quite a bit of controversy online over Maaya’s decision to not cancel all her upcoming lives.

But considering the fact that Maaya consistently puts in the effort to stay true to her message, I think she deserves an exceptional suspension of cynicism. After all, all that time she spent on penning down her thoughts in the form of numerous essays can’t be explained by mere self interest when she probably made many times more money from Ouran.

One interesting takeaway from the concert: Maaya finally explains the meaning of her cryptically-titled song Kimidori, the topic of much fandom debate in the past. The song is about fondly recalling the past and “Kimidori” is an allusion to the seiyuu-incubator Group Komadori of which Maaya was a member in her early teens. In the song, the words “yasashii kimidori” or “gentle kimidori” are actually meant to be “yasashii Komadori” in her mind. She changed the vowels to obfuscate the origin of the title so that listeners could come up with their own conclusions about the song’s meaning. I guess someone should amend the translation here…

Overall verdict: Probably the most awesome concert experience I’ve had so far. And that’s including the time I had supper with May’n.

Maaya’s latest album You can’t catch me was just released a few days ago. The best song in the new album is by far Utsukushii Hito, a collaboration with Yoko Kanno for the Kentoushi Fune Saigen Project at last year’s Shanghai World Expo. The exhibition itself was basically a replica of a ship used during the Tang Dynasty to bring Japanese envoys to China and Utsukushii Hito was the official theme song for the project. Maaya performed it live at the ship’s departure ceremony from Osaka but didn’t actually show up at the Expo.

Lyrics and translation after the break.

Click for: Kanji | Printable

Interestingly, the chorus contains two short phrases sang in Mandarin Chinese but rendered in Japanese kanji in the lyrics booklet (probably out of typesetting convenience). I am not 100% certain, but I think this may be the first time Maaya sang anything in Chinese. :O

Such an awesome song. Gives me chills in a good way. 美丽的人 :D

P.S. Speaking of Chinese lyrics in Japanese songs, check out ALI PROJECT’s Feihong De Mudan.

It’s finally here.

A few months ago, I spent 13 hours in an oversized aluminium alloy tube to get to Japan and back so that I could attend Maaya Sakamoto’s 15th anniversary concert at Budokan. A few days ago, the DVD and Blu-ray recordings arrived at my door step. A few hours ago, I finished encoding them into H264 MKV files and went out for ramen.

Packaging

The first press releases of the DVD and Blu-ray come with a special matt cardboard packaging and a ribbon. Future releases will only come with the plastic DVD case found inside the box. The Blu-ray box is white while the DVD box is black, but I suspect the actual plastic cases have the same cover design. (I don’t have a Blu-ray player, so I only opened the DVD version.)

DVD edition with red ribbon

The ribbon comes in either red, blue or gold colour at random. The gold version is supposedly a “rare” item, but I suspect it’s only there because they ran out of red and blue…

The special box has a cover fold that doubles up as a small photo booklet. It’s pretty decent considering that it’s a freebie for first press buyers.

The DVD casing is a regular plastic case. The front cover art is a photo of Maaya playing the guitar intro for “Get No Satisfaction!!” and the back is a song list.

There’s another smaller booklet of credits and a few photos in the DVD case itself.

The DVD edition comes in two discs. The first disc contains the main concert itself (2hr+) and the second disc contains the encore (40min) and two short specials (behind the scenes footages and Maaya practising the guitar).

Concert

The recording is pretty decent, although the Blu-ray version should be even better. I sat pretty far away from the stage during the concert, so it’s nice to finally get to see the performance close-up. But it does kind of miss out on the stage effects.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the most memorable moment for me was this part where all the lights were switched off, leaving a few spotlights trained on Maaya as she was slowly elevated by a mechanical platform in the centre of the stage. When she reached the chorus of Hikari Are (“Let there be light”), the lights came on. This effect is quite unnoticeable in the video because the camera auto compensates for the change in ambient brightness. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Her first costume was a “gift”

Guitarist Masato Ishinari

Vocalists Kazco and Mari Asai

Her second costume. She’s wearing the third one underneath

Yoko Kanno

Maaya performing with a guitar for the first time

Her third costume is…colourful

Hikari Are

If you squirm hard enough, you can see me. Or at least my seat section…

Composer Shoko Suzuki at the drums

Maaya’s fourth costume

I have that T-shirt :D

Maaya plays the piano for Everywhere

Maaya leads a sing-along POCKET wo Kara ni Shite

Refer to my post on the concert for more thoughts.

Watching through the DVDs, I’m actually quite surprised by how much I managed to cover in my last post by memory. I’m usually not very good at remembering details. The only thing that I didn’t catch was when Maaya missed a line of PLATINA.

I also love the MC sessions where Maaya talks about her personal take on life and how she expresses it through her songs. Not all singers can do it the way she does, full of sincerity and meaningful pauses.

Specials

The two omake footage on Disc 2 show the lead-up to the big day.

There’s a scene in the encore, where Shoko Suzuki presented Maaya with a surprise birthday cake and Maaya blew the candles while the audience sang Happy Birthday, that was cut from the main recording for some reason. The first omake footage contains a short portion of it starting at around 13:30.

Don’t know why they cut it from the main footage. Maybe they forgot to keep the cameras running… Oh well.

Oh noz, no one showed up

Yoko sending off Maaya

Group cheer before the show

The brithday cake’s hiding place under stage

Air guitar

Conclusion

It’s damn awesome, so please buy the DVD or Blu-ray if you can (or if not…). In the meantime, I am working on translating and subbing the entire thing. Will post it up somewhere When It’s Done™.

The cherry blossoms bloomed early this spring, just as it did thirty years ago on Maaya Sakamoto‘s birthday. The date was 31st March and the venue was Budoukan. I stood in line at the entrance of Kitanomaru Park along with thousands on that cool spring afternoon and waited.

This is the story of the time I finally saw Maaya perform live.

This. Is. Budoukan!

My journey began nearly a decade ago with RahXephon. After Hemisphere first brought me into the fold, tune the rainbow and Ongaku made me a fan for life. I was bewitched by her voice and addicted to her lyrics. It wasn’t long before I had collected all her songs.

Considering my love for Maaya’s music, attending her live concert was the next logical step. Unfortunately, the forces of the universe conspired against me and, for the longest time, prevented me from fulfilling my duty as a fanboy. Having missed her “We Are Kazeyomi” concert in 2009 due to a series of events that could’ve been avoided, I was convinced that my dream had come to its destined end. I came to terms with that fact that I might never have the chance to see Maaya in the flesh.

Fast-forward to a year later. A one-day live concert was to be held on 31st March 2010, Maaya’s 30th birthday, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of her official debut single Yakusoku wa Iranai, the theme song of Visions of Escaflowne. I decided that this was my last stand — my 絶対防衛ライン as it were. More than the Kazeyomi concert, I had to be there for this. Somehow, miraculously, I managed to do just that even though at one point my plan was almost derailed by a passport snafu — I managed to beg convince immigration to extend it by a measly six months. Looking back, it kind of amazes me how my single-minded obsession brought there. *Tears*

Enough of the boring fanboy story. Let’s talk about the concert itself. First of all, it was fricking awesome like a flying robot rainbow unicorn.

Budoukan

I arrived at Budoukan just a little pass noon. The concert was set to start at around 6pm but a long queue had already formed for the concert merchandises.

If queueing were an Olympic event, Japan would sweep the medals

The queue extended from the front of the Budoukan up the stairs, half circled round the circumference, came back down the stairs, crossed a road, went out the inner gate of Kitanomaru Park and, in typical Japanese fashion, folded six times upon itself within the empty grounds between the outer and inner gates.

So basically, what you would expect queueing for Kyoto Animation’s booth at Comiket for your chance to exchange pieces of printed cotton paper for pieces of printed plastic paper — just a short 2-hour queue that’s all.

The goods

The end point

There were quite a number of foreigners in the queue, not counting the non-Japanese Asians whom I, despite being one myself, can’t pick out from a crowd. A few of them were visibly surprised by the length of the queue. Guys, wait till you see Comiket.

As is standard practice, there were a bunch of flower wreaths on display around the entrance of Budoukan with messages of congratulation from various organizations. There were ones from Kadokawa, Animate, Aniplex, Tower Records (a brand that is somehow still alive in Japan), Square-Enix and even one from May’n.

Unfortunately, those are the last of the pictures I took of the actual concert venue because cameras were prohibited inside… Instead, I shall try to describe the interior using this picture I found.

Right at where the judges are in the picture was a stage that covered about a third of the arena space, with a small corridor extension that led right to the exact centre of the Budoukan. The rest of the arena was lined with premium front-row seats that went for more than 40,000 yen on Yahoo Auctions. I should’ve coughed up the cash for one of them but I didn’t, so I ended up in one of the second-floor seats.

Budokan is an octagon and uses compass directions to name its seating section. The stage was on the North side, which meant that people sitting in the North, NE and NW were rather screwed for most of the concert unless they were there to stare at Maaya’s behind. Hmmm…

Songs

The full set list for the concert can be found on gabrielarobin.com.

Maaya started the concert with “Gift”, a song that can be found in her new album “everywhere” which was released on the same day as the concert. Her first costume was a red dress decorated with red gift boxes tied with ribbons. You can imagine the crowd going wild when she said that she’s her “gift” to her fans. Incidentally, the concert itself was also called “Gift” and it kind of also ties in to her birthday.

The first part of the concert was upbeat and featured quite a few poppy songs that the audience could clap along with such as Platina.

The first costume change came just before Kiseki no Umi, during which the drummer put up a pretty mind-blowing solo performance to entertain the crowd.

Once the background vocal for Kiseki no Umi started, the lights were dimmed and Maaya rose out of the stage wearing what could be called (and what she referred to at one point as) a wedding dress — it was a long-sleeved sort-of-Victorian white dress (you can tell I’m not a fashion expert). Of course, there was the now-standard banter every time she did a costume change.

Maaya: <insert something about never having worn this particular type of costume before and/or the length of the skirt being inversely proportional to her age>
Fans: maaya-san kawaiiiiiiii!
Maaya: ee? hontou?
Fans: kawaiiiiii
Maaya: *shakes butt cutely* motto itte :D

Kiseki no Umi was followed by a few of her other more vocal-focused and slower pieces, such as gravity and Kazamidori. The lighting remained dimmed and the audience was quiet for this part. Kazamidori in particular was really beautiful and appropriate for the occasion (spring + early cherry blossoms + Maaya’s birthday).

154-page concert pamphlet with write-ups from and about Maaya’s past and present… and tons of photos!

At one point, Maaya walked to the centre of the Budoukan (on the previously mentioned corridor) with the guitarist and performed a guitar-only version of Danielle. The rest of the arena was kept dark and the only spotlights focused on the two of them. When the song ended, the intro to Yakusoku wa Iranai could be heard coming from the piano on stage and the audience went crazy.

The spotlight shone on piano and lo and behold, Yoko Kanno was playing it. Without actually performing Yakusoku wa Iranai, Maaya and Yoko immediately went into a medley of songs that they had worked on together, including Yubiwa, Shippo no Uta, Yoake no Octave and tune the rainbow. The ultimate fan tease came at the end when Maaya sang the first line of Triangler, driving the crowd into a frenzy, before switching back to Yakusoku wa Iranai, which itself was interrupted at its end by a happy birthday wish from Yoko to Maaya. Fan service to infinite and beyond.

Photos of Maaya… taken by Yoko Kanno!

Maaya fan art by CLAMP

Another one of the more memorable moments was the performance for Hikari Are (the Japanese translation for “let there be light”). Maaya was elevated by a hydraulic platform in the centre of the arena. The whole place was dark, except for spotlights on her. At about the 2:45 mark, as she sang “hikari are” and reached for the ceiling, all the white lights in the Budoukan came on, flooding the entire room.

After Hikari Are, Maaya changed into a rainbow-coloured short(er) skirt (cue more “kawaii”) and moved on to her faster-paced rock-ish pieces like Get No Satisfaction! and Private Sky. She strummed the guitar for a bit for the intro to Private Sky. Fan service is awesome.

The guitar used by her

During the encore, she introduced onto the stage Shouko Suzuki, composer for a few of her recent songs such as Saigo no Kajitsu, who brought with her a surprise birthday cake — though how surprising can it be when the concert fell on Maaya’s 30th birthday? There were thirty candles. More fan service followed with Maaya playing the piano for everywhere, a song she said was inspired by her one-person trip to Italy last year where she stayed at a small mountain inn.

And of course, the encore and the concert ended with Pocket wo Kara ni Shite as per tradition. Balloons were dropped from the ceiling of the Budoukan at the end of the song and Maaya and the rest of the stage members bid farewell to audience. As Maaya turned around and walked off the stage, a single green balloon, previously caught in the release mechanism, gently descended. An unintentional poignant moment.

Side note: the walk from Budoukan to the train station after the concert was kind of insane. Imagine more than ten thousand people trying to squeeze through choke points only a few metres wide. Budoukan is a death trap. Also explains why the park has a “shelter for people with commuting problems”…

My Thoughts

Overall, the songs were a good mix of old and new and included some of my all-time favourites such as blind summer fish, Kazamidori, Hemisphere (a slower mix with live instruments) and parts of tune the rainbow. My top favourite Ongaku was sadly not included, but it’s a pretty obscure song so it was expected.

It was a pretty cool experience and I’m happy I finally got to see Maaya perform live. I think the concert, the accompanying publication and the album represented a great deal of what I love about Maaya. She has all these elaborate ideas and meanings in all her performances that she likes to put into words in the form of her essays, her radio talkshow and her concert chat sessions.

She’s in the music business as an artist trying to express herself and part of that was why she decided to go separate ways with Yoko after Shounen Alice. In this age of auto-tuners, idol factories and prefab celebrities where you don’t even need to be human to make it big, Maaya Sakamoto feels real to me and, arguments about whether that feeling is in itself real aside, that is what appeals to me.

More Pictures

Toranoana’s display promoting everywhere

Top: a special concert-limited cover slip for everywhere
Left: my 2nd copy of everywhere because I had to buy it again for the cover slip
Right: postcard

There are many pictures of Maaya in various states of undress in the book… all taken by Yoko…

The book also contained song lists for all her past albums and singles

Retro Maaya

Album art chocolates

Past concerts

There’s a small Maaya exhibition on the 1st floor of the Shibuya Tower Records building

Costume she wore for Yoko’s Choujikuu Tanabata Sonic

Costume she wore for everywhere PV

Apparently there’s a lucky draw where you can win this…

P.S. I apologize for this senseless fanboy rambling imposting as a blog post. Hopefully I’ll be writing more informative entries soon. Then again, there’s still the inevitable concert DVD…

Maaya Sakamoto, the greatest singer/seiyuu in the history of the universe, held a live tour at the start of this year (2009) called “We Are Kazeyomi!” This was her first proper concert in the five years since she released her album Shounen Alice and her third since her debut as Hitomi in Visions of Escaflowne.

This is a story of what may be the greatest regret of my life. And oh yeah, the official concert DVD is out too.

I am a terrible fanboy. Terrible in the sense that if companies depended on fans like me to survive, they would probably be worse off than General Motors. I just can’t keep my attention focused on something long enough… Ooh Shiny.

It is therefore rather amazing that I have been a Maaya fanboy for the past six years, ever since I first listened to her performance in RahXephon. It’s probably not too far-fetched to say that during my rise from adolescence, my love for Maaya is the only constant in my life. Watching Maaya perform live is a dream that has always been at the back of my mind.

Although I’ve been to Japan numerous times, I never had the opportunity to attend her many performances. (Kazeyomi is technically her third live tour, but she does a lot of smaller promotional concerts and also voices Eponine in the Japanese production of Les Misérables.) This was because concert seasons tended to fall in the middle of my school terms. I accepted, rationally if not emotionally, the fact that in all likelihood I would never see my wish come true. Will I find the time to realize my dream, or will she retire from performing before that? I was not hopeful.

Kazeyomi gave me hope. At the end of 2008, I had just graduated from Singapore’s equivalent of high school and was planning a year-end trip to Japan with my classmates. Kazeyomi was to be held in late January. I applied for a ticket through the official Maaya fan club (I am probably its only Singaporean member?) and won the draw for the Nagoya stop. I had to pay upfront to secure my booking, but because I was then uncertain about my schedule in January, I decided to give it up. I thought I could purchase a ticket (preferably for Tokyo instead) later during the regular ticketing period, after I had confirmed my availability.

Long story slightly shortened, I ended up with nothing. By the time I realized that my schedule did in fact allow me to attend the concert, it was too late to get a ticket.

Looking back, it would’ve taken me a good amount of money and trouble (including staying in Tokyo for an additional two weeks) to make it all work, so the outcome was probably for the best, all things considered. But deep down in my heart, I knew that I would live to regret not giving in to my impulsive desires for that one time.

Of course, I preordered the official concert DVD which is in my hands now. (Can you expect anything less from a guy who owns every album and single released under Maaya’s name?) The DVD is great and all — in fact it is awesome and brings tears to my eyes — but it also serves as a sad reminder of what could have been.

During the concert, Maaya performed both her new works and old favourites, including Triangler, Ame ga Furu, Kiseki no Umi, Praline, Platina, tune the rainbow, and a rather awesome rendition of Poketto wo Kara ni Shite. Including the rather long encore, it was a total of two and a half hours of awesomeness.

There was plenty of concert theatrics, some of which I’m sure were pre-planned. (See: the encore.) Maaya’s performance was not perfect either — she even forgot one line of lyrics during Yubiwa! But no matter how I try to play it cynical cool, I know that this flawed and deeply human performance is exactly what I would like to have watched live. (And maybe it’s just the fanboy speaking, but I find that she performed much better for her older songs.)

Maaya’s emotional displays might very well have been staged, but ultimately it didn’t matter. The transient relation between a performer and her audience remains a fleeting illusion as it has always been. The audience’s reaction is the only meaningful outcome. I just wish I were part of it. (Also, the fanboy bias in me tells me that Maaya’s words were sincere. I want to believe!)

I still hope desperately to watch Maaya perform live at least once before either one of us dies. It is a tiny wish that rests in an inconspicuous corner of my mind, waiting for its moment to come — one which may never arrive. Then again, now that Obama is president, anything is possible.

Unfortunately, the signs are not looking favourable. TBS recently cancelled her weekly late-night radio talkshow Chizu to Tegami to Koi no Uta (which I miss terribly) and the official fan club stopped its online merchandise sales. Is Maaya getting ready to retire (or fade into talent management like many older seiyuu)? I hope I’m just being over-sensitive…

This is starting to feel like LiveJournal, so I shall stop. Oh yeah, the DVD is really great. You should get it if you love Maaya. *Pokes Omo*

“DM, why didn’t you cough up 7,000 yen + lodging to watch my concert?”

Why indeed… orz

P.S. Does worrying about my favourite singer retiring mean that I am getting old? :( I hope I don’t start to chase young whippersnappers off my imaginary lawn soon.

In addition to my Comiket 75 shopping spree, I also contributed diligently to the wider economy of Japan in numerous ways, no doubt single-handedly helping the island nation escape the brunt of the on-going global recession and the collapse of our century-old debt-based financial institution. I’m kidding of course: the economy has long passed the point of no return.

Jokes made in bad taste aside, I didn’t actually spend much this trip. In fact, on the whole, I probably spent in my one-month stay about as much as I used to spend in a week-long stay. This is particularly amazing when placed in context with the yen’s current exceedingly high value.

How does this amazing mathematical hocus pocus work? Well, firstly you stay in cheap shared dormitories, and secondly you wait for the daily 50% discount at the supermarket for bento nearing their expiry hour. Also, you learn to not buy every piece of mass-produced fan goods that Gamers stocks. I mean, gee, do I really need another key chain when the same amount of money could be used to buy four second-hand CDs from Book-Off.

And oh yes, the cardinal rule of otaku shopping: second-hand shops are your best friend, your fairy godmother and Santa Claus all rolled into one.

Second-hand

90% of the items you see in the pictures are second-hand. This means that someone’s sweaty overweight paws have touched them all over, but it also means that they are cheap. Fortunately, Japanese generally treat their belongings better, especially when resale value is on their minds due to the thriving second-hand industry.

Every CD in the left pile costs 100 yen

100 yen (slightly more than 1 USD) is the magical number when it comes to second-hand goods. Newly-released items and rare collector’s items are graded according to physical condition and market demand by the second-hand dealers, usually selling for slightly less or even more than the original retail value. (For example Final Fantasy Dissidia retails officially for 6,000 yen, a dealer buys your old copy for 4,000 yen and sells it for 5,000 yen.)

However, older items that don’t sell often sit on the shelves for years until finally they are sold off in the discount bin for 100 yen. These items may be too old, too crappy, too over-produced or too niched, but whatever the reason 100 yen is a good deal and generally the heavily-discounted price tag is not an indication of the physical quality of the product but rather the lack of demand or overstocking.

I bought 15 volumes of Zipang and 5 volumes of Tenjou Tenge for 105 yen each (5% tax).

This copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban cost 105 yen

Of course, you don’t have to just aim for 105 yen to get a good deal. DVDs for example seldom sell for that low no matter how low in demand. I saw a complete Kimi ga Nozomu Eien DVD set selling for 6,600 yen at Trader‘s Akihabara branch, when each of the DVDs retailed for 6,000 yen.

The infamous DOA Hand Maid Mai and under-appreciated Seikai no Danshou

If you have the patience and time to dig through poorly-organized shelves of used stuff, you can always find a few gems. Those of you Singaporeans in the late teens to twenties might recognize YAT Anshin! Uchuu Ryokou above. Ah, nostalgia, thou art a money-sucking bitch.

The top left CD is a Nami Tamaki single. I had no idea what it was but I just bought it anyway since it was one buck. Also, Sega Saturn copies of Sakura Taisen!

And I added a few more Pactio cards to my collection. The Chiu single is actually an unopened copy. Also, I think this is my third copy of Evangeline’s card. Fanboyism isn’t cheap either.

And above is possibly my best find in a second-hand shop ever. It’s the first press of the limited edition version of my favourite Maaya Sakamoto album Nikopachi. The cover is different from the regular one (somewhat). First press of the limited edition is like getting double jeopardy or something, except the latter is against the law whereas the former is just milking the fans.

If real-life were World of Warcraft, I’d have earned the “Maaya Fanboy For Live” achievement about five times over by now.

Shiny Things

And of course I didn’t just buy second-hand stuff. I’m not that cheap. Close but not quite.

The only thing I bought at Gamers this trip

Tony Taka’s C74 release

PLANETES manga

And prepare yourself…

Cloning technology put to good(?) use

Yes, I bought LIVE FIGHTER dammit. And the Blu-ray version too. I don’t even own a Blu-ray player! There’s a back story to go with this expensive purchase. It’s kind of long, so here’s the short version:

Every fricking anime shop in Japan was playing the LIVE FIGHTER recording and for some reason I liked it a lot. There was this exhibition at the Animate main branch in Ikebukuro where they displayed all the costumes Nana wore during the concert. There was also a lucky draw promotion for LIVE FIGHTER purchases.

So yeah. I am heavily susceptible to the right kind of targeted advertising and ended up coughing up 9,450 yen for LIVE FIGHTER despite not being a huge Nana fan.

And not just that…

I also picked up the CDs for Suddenly ~Meguriaete~ and Dancing in the velvet moon, my two favourite Nana songs. For what reason? Because Animate gives people who buy over 2,000-yen worth of Nana CDs and DVDs (but not Blu-ray) a limited edition photo of her in a kimono. Kind of creepy if you think about it. Heh.

My current long-term plan is to somehow leverage this photo to recoup my monetary losses from Moyism (the Nana Stalker) somehow. The plan is still in the conception stage.

Keitai

And finally, I bought these…

That looks like 2,000 bucks worth of mobile phones right there. But in actual fact, they cost four dollars in total.

They are actually one-one models used in mobile phone shops in Japan to promote phones. They weigh and feel exactly like the real thing but are otherwise useless. I found a shop in Akihabara selling these off for cheap because it no longer needs them.

zaku towa chigau no dayo!

And of course, a little slice of Gundam thrown in for those G00 fans who are still reading my blog for some inexplicable reason.

P.S. I really need to finish my Comiket report some time before C76…
P.P.S. Yes I am torrenting the HD encoding of LIVE FIGHTER now to make my money worth.

I hereby declare Macross Frontier OST 1 to be the animé soundtrack of the year, and all upcoming titles for the remaining half of the year shall have to live in shame knowing that they will never live up to the greatness that is this collection of pure awesome. It’s so good that I translated half the songs on it already.

Frontier

As you may or may not know after all my constant fanboying, Macross Frontier’s soundtrack is composed by Yoko Kanno, known overseas for her works in Cowboy Bebop.

The main vocal locomotives in the show are May Nakabayashi (May’n), who provides the singing voice of everyone’s favourite galactic fairy Sheryl Nome (<3), and Megumi Nakajima, a debut seiyuu who also sings quite beautifully.

Interesting facts: They are both the same age as me, and Megumi Nakajima (中島愛) is NOT read as Ai Nakajima.

The OST contains all the songs that appear in the series so far, as of episode 9. (Edit: Except Ranka’s Miss Macross song apparently. Forgot about that.) Going against industry convention, both the ending and opening themes are included in full in the OST. Then again, most shows don’t make music such a central part of their story dynamics. Some of my favourite songs from the OST:

Infinity
インフィニティ
by May’n

This is probably my favourite song in the series so far. It totally blew my mind the first time Sheryl performed it in episode 7. (Though the choice of costume leaves much to be desired.)

Iteza ☆ Gogo Kuji Don’t be late
射手座☆午後九æ‚Don’t be late
by May’n

This is the “wow” moment in episode 1. It’s pretty good too. That said, I still can’t figure out what the first part of the title (Sagittarius ☆ 9pm. Don’t be late ) is supposed to mean. Is Sagittarius the meeting place? A bunch of stars light years apart sure is a huge ass volume of space to find someone in…

Diamond Crevasse
ダイアモンド クレバス
by May’n

This is the ending theme. So good. T.T

Triangler
トライアングラー
by Maaya Sakamoto

This is the opening theme. Maaya-sama! XD (I scare myself sometimes.) And I’m pertty sure the title is “Triangler” and not “Triangular”, however nonsensical it may be English-wise. It’s even spelt that way on the CD cover.

Aimo
アイモ
by Megumi Nakajima

This song, along with Ranka, will probably end up saving the universe or something. I can’t say for sure since I don’t speak many languages, but I think most of the lyrics are in Yoko Kanno’s (aka Gabriela Robin) trademark gibberish.

What ’bout my star?
by May’n

This song has actually been performed by both Sheryl and Ranka in the series, but I prefer Sheryl’s version. I haven’t translated this one yet.

And many, many more! (i.e. I’m lazy.)

Macross Frontier’s music is just amazing.
Do buy the OST if you can. (Amazon JP | CDJapan)

Oh my god! It’s finally here! The Holy Grail! The first song that Maaya and her former mentor Yoko Kanno have worked together on in almost half a decade!

Triangler is the first opening song for Macross Frontier. Lyrics translation and fanboying after the break.

Kanji | Printable

This song is a marked return to Yoko Kanno’s faster pace. The lyrics, credited to Gabriela Robin (one of Yoko’s pseudonyms), is quite noticeably different from Maaya’s other recent songs. While most songs in general are clear and elaborate in their messages, Yoko’s lyrics tend to be highly condensed and open to (mis)interpretations, which makes translation difficult.

The prevalent grammar contractions present quite an obfuscated challenge, and the systematic omission of overt pronouns in Japanese certainly doesn’t help either. Hopefully I got the crucial meanings right… Do comment.

I hope this song is a sign of more to come, because Maaya and Yoko are just meant to be. As a Maaya fanboy holding IDS membership, I approve of this release. That said, my favourite Maaya songs are still the ones from her Nikopachi singles collection.

And oh yeah, I think Macross Frontier is great too.

You can purchase the single from Amazon or CDJapan. First press is sold out though. (I have one of them.)

Triangular will be the OP theme to Macross Frontier, which is due to be aired in April this year. This marks the first time in almost half a decade that the two of them are working together. Maaya’s seiyuu and singing career were jump started by her role as Hitomi Kanzaki in Visions of Escaflowne, with Yoko has her mentor. She also sang the opening song Yakusoku wa Iranai, which is probably one of her better-known works for English speakers, along with Platina from Cardcaptor Sakura and Hemisphere from RahXephon.

I’m a happy fanboy. XD

[ Source: Chara-Ani ]