A few days ago I posted some pictures of the cute JRock artist Nana Kitade. I pointed out that I like her gothic lolita style and don’t know any of her songs. Well I couldn’t help myself and googled her (‘did a little research’ in other words ^_^).
Name: Kitade Nana 北出菜奈
Occupation: singer and songwriter
Birth date: May 2, 1987
Birth place: Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Blood type: O
Horoscope sign: Taurus
Zodiac sign: Rabbit (oh yeah she always carry a rabbit stuff toy. When she was interviewed in Shojo Beat if she has a boyfriend she said that her stuffed rabbit is her boyfriend.)
Learned piano at age 3, written her first lyrics at age 12 and by age 14 she started to play the guitar. After Junior High she went to Tokyo to pursue her music career. August 2005 she released her first album, 18-eighteen with ‘Kiss or Kiss’ as her the carrier single. The song is also featured in the Jdorama “Anego” (the song is good by the way and I’m going to upload it here soon… oh yeah I have to idea ‘yet’ what Anego is all about, though I read that somewhere have to research about that later). Her Gothic Lolita style is one of the reasons why she growing popular and became a fashion icon in Japanese youth. She has a clothing line called ‘Moon King’ that carries her signature look. Well in an article I read in Shojo Beat, she’s also big in the US. She’s the cover girl for Shojo Beat Febuary 2007. (in which I first saw her)
Some of her songs are also featured in various anime series such as Full Metal Alchemist (Kesanai Tsumi), Beet the Vandel Buster (Pureness), Demashitta! Powerpuff Girls Z (Kibou no Kakera, I’m actually a fan of powerpuff girls and didn’t know that this series exist) and D.Grey Man (Antionette Blue).
Well that’s it… I’m not that obsessed to her unlike OGURI SHUN.
How many times I’m going to say I like Ogushun? This you’ll never know… cause I don’t know either ^_^!
[I actually made a review about a person, how weird am I?]
originally posted: August 14, 2007
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Detective Conan, a drama special is made entitled “Detective Conan: A challenge letter to Shinichi Kudo”. Oguri Shun played the famous 17 year old high school detective, Kudou Shinichi. Kurokawa Tomoka played his childhood friend and love interest, Mouri Ran. And Jinnai Takanori played the ‘famous’ detective and Ran’s father, Mouri Kogorou .
The story is set before Shinichi Kudo is drugged and discovered that he shrunk into a 7 year old boy. As a treat for their graduation, their class is going on a school trip. Shinichi decided not to go but when he received a challenge letter from the ‘kidnapper’ saying that one of his classmates is going to be kidnapped. He accepts the challenge and decided to go on the school trip.
Detective Conan is one of my favorite anime and the fact that Oguri Shun played Shinichi Kudo makes this more enjoyable to me. Half way in the story I kinda figured out who the kidnapper was, I thought maybe I’m watched Detective Conan too much that it became a little predictable. So if you’re a fan too you’ll maybe figure it out by that particular scene. Anyway they kinda spoiled my discovery anyway *sigh*, you’ll know what I mean if you watch it. But of course I only figured that much and the trick is still a mystery to me until the very end.
The story closed where the anime started. They went to Tropical Land in celebration of Ran’s victory on the Karate completion and if you remember the very first episode of the anime you’ll instantly recognize the clothes that Shinichi is wearing. It’s amazing that they went down to the very details. There was actually a scene where, Genta, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko appeared and Genta tripped on their way to the roller coaster… wait… I’m wasting my time here again, telling you details you already know.
Anyway, this is definitely worth watching especially for those big fans of Detective Conan. And yeah according to some fans, Kogorou should have at least one drunken scene and I totally agree. But at least they pointed out the he’s a big fan of Youko. That particular scene is so ‘him’, her posters on the wall and rushing in front of the TV just to watch her. ^_^
Title: 名探偵コナン- 工藤新一への挑戦状
Tagline: さよならまでのプロローグ
Title (romaji): Meitantei Conan: Kudo Shinichi he no Chosenjo
Tagline (romaji): Sayonara Made no Prologue
Title (English): Detective Conan: Kudo Shinichi's Written Challenge
Tagline (English): The Good-bye Prologue
Broadcast date: 2006-Oct-02
originally posted: July 24, 2007
Again I watched this movie because Oguri Shun is here too. Well this time he lasted more than 30 minutes in the movie. *sigh*
The movie is a continuation of the first movie. Azumi (Aya Ueto) and Nagara (Ishigaki Yuma) are on the run against Kanbei, Kato’s right hand soldier. They got cornered and managed to escape. But Nagara was hit. They rested and while Nagara was regaining his strength, Azumi went to a store where a group of bandits attacked asking for money. There she met Ginkaku (Oguri Shun) an exact look a like of Nachi. Though Ginkaku’s allies wanted her to join them because she got the right attitude and kawaii (cute) but Ginkaku let her go. When she went back to Nagara, Priest Tenkai’s soldiers are there to accompany them. Priest Tenkai wanted to let his soldiers finish their mission but Azumi and Nagara felt that they should finish what they are ordered to do for their fallen comrades, Tenkai let them continue with the mission. Gozue (Kuriyama Chiaki), one of Tenkai’s soldiers, voluntarily joined but she seemed to have strange intention towards Azumi and Nagara. Meanwhile, Ginkaku and his friends joined Kanbei’s men promising more money after they kill a couple of assassins. After realizing that they have to face Azumi they immediately switch side and supported Azumi.
Though Ginkaku’s friends think that fighting in the war is useless, Ginkaku and some men willingly joined Azumi’s quest to stop the impending war. Now that Azumi’s allies are growing they are going to face Sanada’s stronger forces but this is not going to be easy. Kanbei offered his strength to Sanada so he can avenge his master’s death. Not only that, Sanada hired a notorious group of ninja assassins called Uenokogasho.
When I was watching this I was getting slightly nervous for Azumi, cause as the story progressed she is realizing the consequences of being an assassin. The ending well it’s kinda sad for me though she completed her mission (I can only give this much okie).
As for the subtitle Death or Love, I actually don’t get it. In the span of the story Azumi only remembers her love for Nachi and when she saw Ginkaku she never once thought of joining Ginkaku [ok maybe a little] and still prefers to complete her mission, although Nagara abandoned her and left her with Ginkaku.
Facts:
~ Nagara played by Ishigaki Yuma can also be seen in Gokusen 1 as Minami and his also one of the members of Wild Seven in Battle Royale 2 (refer to Battle Royale 2 picture).
~ Gozue played by Kuriyama Chiaki also stared in Battle Royale 1 and her most notable role is when she played Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill no.1
originally posted: July 20, 2007
There is one reason why I watched this movie and yes you’ve guess it, Oguri Shun. But it kinda devastated me because his appearance didn’t last for 30 minutes all together. Oh well, after seeing some of the first few scenes I know I’m going to like it.
Azumi (Aya Ueto) was orphaned when she was just little. Her master, Gessai, found her and trained her to become an assassin together with 9 other orphaned boys. Gessai (Yoshio Harada) is a former soldier, when his army lost to the enemy, Priest Tenkai gave him an order to train assassins and kill the warlords. One day, they were all called for one last session. They were asked to pair up and then gave them the order to kill each other. Nachi (Oguri Shun) and Azumi were hailed to be the first and second (respectively) best in training by their friends and fellow trainees. But unfortunately they were paired in the last session. *sigh* Nachi, as much as he didn’t want to, pulled his sword and told Azumi to do the same saying it was their destiny. Nachi died along with the other four trainees. Five were left to carry out the long awaited missions with their Master Gessai.
These assassins are still young maybe 15-18 years old and all their lives they were trained to hold a sword in the mountains. When they got to a village they saw it was being attacked. As much as they want to help they were stopped by their master. After the massacre, they questioned their master but they were reminded of their mission though it was never cleared to from the very start. A ninja called Nagato came to them and gave them the order from Tenkai to assassinate the three warlords and stop the impending war.
The story is probably set around the era where Japan is starting to form an alliance with Europe because some of the soldiers already know how to use a gun. I enjoyed the scenery of the movie it is set in old Japan makes me want to go there. So cute! And so much blood is used in the fights.
I especially enjoyed the serial killer character in the movie named Bijomaru Mogami he was imprisoned for the said crimes and was hired by Kanbei to fight the assassins. He’s so cute, I mean he’s shonen long hair was mistaken for a girl that is usually found holding a red rose and armed with a sword without an arm guard and wears a lot of white. I wonder what’s the deal with him, why wear all that white when going to a battle? Didn’t he know blood stains are hard to wash off? hehehe just kidding. He talks in a calm manner but the words he put out are violent and threatening. He also started saying “Sugoi” when Azumi was fighting all the soilders and samurais in the village. He’s so adorable and crazy.
A movie worth watching especially those who likes to watch Samurai movies or gore… ok maybe it’s not categorized in gore but there so much death in the movie. But if you’re reason for watching the same with mine, well as I’ve said his appearance didn’t last for 30 minutes all together but might as well, ne?
originally posted: July 19, 2007
~drama special~
The drama special is like a continuation of the series. I really don’t know how long a typical drama special is in Japan but this is like a full length movie. The story begin after Onizuka stopped Azuza from working as a flight stewardess. And he finally used that condom he was saving for a very special girl on Azuza. He was asked by the school director to substitute in an all high school girls university and the director of that school happened to be the director’s twin sister.
His was tricked by 3 of his students and made him their “genie of the lamp”. Asking him to give them a ride everywhere and go shopping with them. One day when they were shopping they saw Azuza with an old man and followed them. It turns out to be his father and now Onizuka is on his bad side for punching him and being late for several occasions. Not only is that, one of the girls, Yamaguchi Riki, in a dilemma. He must help his students and at the same time make a good impression on Azuza’s father.
~ movie ~
The movie began when Kaoru (Nokira Fujiwara) a journalist for a local newspaper found a wallet that contains a condom that says “love for the second girl”. This happens to be Onizuka’s wallet. This actually made me sad knowing from that point that he and Azuza didn’t work out. Anyway, in Canada Land, Horobonai, Hokkaido he is asked to substitute for a local school. The town went bankrupt are the park closed and the whole village sad and depressing.
On the way to school, Onizuka saw a boy laying on the train tracks. The boy noticed this and got startled and stood up away from the tracks. But when the trains passed Onizuka left without talking to the boy. He continued to go to school but since he lost his wallet he couldn’t afford to buy gas for his motor bike. Again he met the boy on the tracks and he was being bullied. He “helped” and went to school but it seemed that he’s not the only student that is in trouble. There was a commotion at the school, a girl was walking at the edge of the school building. Upon seeing this, Onizuka dragged Raku (Hideyuki Kasahara) at the same spot and asked the girl to let him go first since he startled Raku earlier. Onizuka started to encourage him to jump and Ayano Katsuragi (Rena Tanaka)thought the situation ridiculous and just walked out. The girl seems to be hated by her whole class and turns suicidal. When Onizuka was offered by Raku’s parents to stay with them, he accidentally found out that Raku liked Ayano. Though Onizuka talked him out of this and his father somehow forbids it, Raku still continued to like her.
But the town soon will face a problem that again will involve Onizuka. A serial robber ends up in town. This is the criminal that the journalist is looking for and she thinks that this criminal is Onizuka when he confirms that the wallet she found was his. Not only that the police force thinks that the serial robber is posing as a substitute teacher.
This is actually the kind of the story that is kinda never ending and because the story is so care free and full action I wanted to see more.
originally posted: July 15, 2007
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