Dec/0819
Maikaze Touhou Anime Seiyuu list?!
Wait, what? Touhou anime? This was completely unknown to me till it came up in a channel on IRC I will not name, but I will link to our fabulous member rk who told us about it while we frenzied on 2chan to find the names.
Maikaze "Touhou Anime Project; Musou Kakyou" (舞風「東方アニメプロジェクト・夢想夏郷」), is the title, and Musou Kakyou roughly translates to Visionary Summer District. It's gonna be on sale at Comiket 75, apparently with soundtracks, high-quality prints and postcard sets coming with it's limited edition, price will tentatively be 2800 yen during the event. Also, there's going to be the ability to get a reproduced script that's been signed by the awesome seiyuu list. The doujin group will be located at West hall 2, on day 2 (12/29), section あ (hiragana A) block 41A.
The list is as follows:
Hakurei Reimu: Nakahara Mai
Kirisame Marisa: Sawashiro Miyuki
Shameimaru Aya: Fujimura Ayumi
Patchouli Knowledge: Takahashi Mikako
Izayoi Sakuya: Tanaka Rie
Remilia Scarlet: Tsuji Ayumi
Ibuki Suika: Toyosaki Aki
Narration: Inoue Kikuko
I'm so excited if this shit is happening, since holy shit this cast list is insane. I'm not too happy about Reimu, but jesus christ Suika, Remi, Sakuya, Patchouli, Aya, all of them! GENIUS!
Nov/0811
New Toradora OP/ED themes’ CDs announced
Starchild's just updated their release pages with information on the coming new opening and ending themes for Toradora. According to the information posted by Starchild here, there's going to be a limited edition copy of the opening theme. There's no covers yet or anything, just some data:
New opening theme named "silky heart" - sung by Horie Yui (Minorin).
Release date: 2009/01/28.
Limited edition comes with a DVD containing the PV movie for the song.
Limited edition will cost 1890 yen, regular edition will cost 1200 yen.
Contains a total of three songs, with karaoke versions of all three - total tracks is six.
New ending theme named "orange" (orenji) - sung by Horie Yui (Minorin), Kugimiya Rie (Taiga) and Kitamura Eri (Ami).
Release date: 2009/01/28, will cost 1200 yen.
Contains a total of two songs, with karaoke version of both - total tracks is four.
The cover is going be drawn by the character designer, Tanaka Masayoshi.
Nov/0813
Early morning kills the ilifin?
I got online this morning to eat my breakfast and look at IRC bantering like always, and #kokizzzle on rizon was spammed with network admin fiberOptiC and questions directed at him.
[07:17:55] <@Mango-chan> fiberOptiC
[07:17:59] <@Mango-chan> when you do a global msg
[07:18:01] <@Mango-chan> to /msg someone
[07:18:07] <@Mango-chan> how many /msg does that guy u-sually get
[07:18:08] <@Mango-chan> yes
[07:18:17] <~fiberOptiC> depends
[07:18:24] <~fiberOptiC> sometimes not many
[07:18:29] <~fiberOptiC> other tiems, 20-30
[07:18:31] <~fiberOptiC> maybe more
[07:18:41] <@Mango-chan> 20-30
[07:18:49] <@Mango-chan> a fake xdcc pack on #bss could do better than that
[07:18:50] <@Mango-chan> -v-;
[07:18:56] <@ilifin> .
[07:18:57] <@Mango-chan> right tu
[07:19:00] <~fiberOptiC> well most people ignore notices
[07:19:00] <@Mango-chan> tu--
[07:19:00] <@Mango-chan> what
[07:19:01] <@ilifin> I got like
[07:19:02] <@ilifin> 200
[07:19:03] <@ilifin> the last time
[07:19:05] <@ilifin> someone did that
[07:19:05] <@Mango-chan> ilifin
[07:19:06] <@Mango-chan> from who
[07:19:07] <@Mango-chan> lol
[07:19:13] <@Mango-chan> Kokizzzle - -b
[07:19:16] <@ilifin> fuckers that posted gss g00 ep6
[07:19:20] <@ilifin> as ilifin pack 27
[07:19:26] * Mango-chan highfives Kokizzzle
[07:19:28] <~Kokizzzle> what
[07:19:29] <~Kokizzzle> wasn't me bro
[07:19:31] <@ilifin> that was koki
[07:19:35] <~fiberOptiC> lol
[07:19:36] <@Mango-chan> it was either me or koki
[07:19:37] <@Mango-chan> i think
[07:19:43] <@`Waryas> was m
[07:19:43] <@`Waryas> e
Fun, no? During that Gundam 00 episode, I lost count of the amount of leechers tagging my PM. fiberOptiC then wanted to prove his global messages do more than an xdcc bot pack...
Nov/0811
Gundam 00 episode 8 seiyuu frustration
Tieria Erde has a female voice during episode 8 of Gundam 00, and whoever was doing it isn't even credited in the ending theme. I am convinced it was either Ogasawara Arisa (who does Marie/Soma) or Honma Youko. (who does Sumeragi) I pride myself in my ability to recognize seiyuus, yet this I am afraid I might have to admit defeat - but there's no actual info to confirm or deny this. Do we know yet?
I've sat down and listened to the amazing amount of two lines the female Tieria gets to speak, and the pitch rise she does at the second sentence is similar to how Ogasawara does the casual speaking Soma - but not similar to how she voices as Marie. The pitch isn't there from Honma however, she never raises her voice to that kind of pitch, always the calm and sultry voice from Sumeragi. I don't have any previous experience with both of their voices as they're both fairly new and not too much used either, and I haven't seen the shows they've been in. Should I get Wolf's Rain to hear more of Ogasawara, maybe? It's not like I want to even watch Futari wa Precure for more of Honma.
P.S. Marie is awesome.
Nov/0825
Taking a deep breath
I'm going to a hotel and spa resort with work this weekend (i.e. why I'm up at 07:30 on a saturday) - and anything that would require me to be present or require me to do anything will be delayed or tossed on someone else. I think the image I used in the previous entry here fits my current situation as I have not had the chance to take a break and relax for the entirety of the week because of work. They are kinda forcing us to relax now by taking us away from our regular spare times and moving us all to a hotel for the weekend for teambuilding etc.
In short: anything I'm translating is delayed, bitches. I'm getting rest and relaxation.
P.S. I saw episode one of Ga-Rei Zero yesterday and that was not an episode one episode, that was an episode seven. You heard it here first.
P.P.S Fringe is awesome and anyone who doesn't watch it needs to.
Nov/0837
Radio dramas – why doesn’t anyone translate them?
A commenter reminded me of the fact that the Toradora opening single includes the opening song for the radio drama of Toradora. I don't remember ever seeing anyone translating radio dramas, and yet there are so many of them that run alongside anime or manga, which let Japanese fans get more insight, or more funnies, or whatnot that comes with the package of the dramas. Is there even a western scene for them? Why is it hard to subtitle/translate them?
Doing them as blank videos or videos with pictures on YouTube, with closed captions or subtitles, I guess would work. But that would be rather dumb too, as YouTube is shit quality. So is there a solution for it? Do we have a container of some kind that can hold music + translated text, that you can view on say, an iPod? I know my iPhone has karaoke possibilities in a very fancy format, and I've added it to some songs for the fun of it. It really works too, matches with the music and highlights what's being said just like in anime, as an overlay on top of the album cover. Is this format a standard that can be used to release to the masses?
I honestly wouldn't mind doing this for say, Toradora, but doing this would require some figuring of how to release them and how to make it possible to listen to these like a radio drama CD or whatnot would be listened to; on a music player of your choice, not like a video you sit watching like it was anime. I'd really like to hear from anyone who's tried to explore this area, as getting a radio drama translation scene up would be really coal.
EDIT: Okay, people are missing my point. I'm asking whether anyone knows of a unified, soft-sub type of format for distributing audio + text that can be used to do radio dramas. Having a format like this would ease up the process of releasing translated radio dramas, and removed the need for a video player to follow. Sure, you'd still have audio + text you read, but that'd give people the chance to either read the text OR the audio - even though the text alone would probably miss some of the point cause of the soundeffects in the dramas.
If this kind of format does exist, why isn't anyone using it? If it actually does not exist, are anyone trying to make one? This is the things I'd like to find out, while kinda polling the interest in the radio dramas so one could figure whether it is worth my time too.
Nov/0822
Toradora sidecharacters: who are they?
People have been asking me, who are these "Nanako" and "Haruta" etc that I talk about when I blog? I am of course talking about the many side-characters with no real stories on them yet, that are getting love in the novels we've yet to see. I thought I'd introduce them to you with the slight knowledge I have of them.
