I've been so busy this semester I've forgotten to update for about two months! ^^;;;

Fortunately finals are coming up soon, so during the summer I will probably be writing and posting much much more...

Poll #1190768
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What should doinkies write about next?

WAVE's omamori Kagami and Tsukasa set

( picture )

Kotobukiya's Horo figure

( picture )

Sadly doinkies probably will just be stuck admiring them on the Internet. D:

ABOUT YOU / YOUR JOURNAL

1. What is your LiveJournal username? How did you come up with it?
doinkies. It seemed obvious for me to choose that surname because I have sometimes referred to myself as "doinkies".

2. Have you renamed before? If so, what were your old names? If you haven't renamed, what names would you want to rename to?
I've used "doinkies" so long on LJ, I have gotten used to it and will never change it.

3. How much does your userinfo say about you?
It's not as fancy as some other people's userinfo pages but I spruced it up a bit with the table and the doink and the last.fm charts and whatnot. I think it fits me fine, though I could have drawn a better picture of a doink.

4. How long have you been on LiveJournal?
Since May 15, 2003 - back when LJ was like mixi and you needed to get a code from another LJ user to join. I joined because not only were many people from THEM using it, but I also wanted to join the marysues community and report doinky fanfiction. XD

5. What is the longest amount of time you've gone without posting?
I never post as often as I should, it's sad. I always procrastinate about writing LJ entries and recently I've been busy with school and whatnot...I don't know what the longest amount of time I've gone without posting is, because I never post much even though I want to.

6. On average, how many entries do you post per day? (Divide how many total entries you have by how many days you've been on LJ.)
I don't know...it's probably pretty low though T_T

7. What are your posts normally about?
Various fandom things.

8. Is your LiveJournal friends only? Why or why not?
It isn't friends only because I don't post a lot about my personal life or anything that might be too private.

9. Does your LiveJournal have an actual title or are you merely USER @ LiveJournal?
The title is "doinkies' journal of doinkiness", and I've had this title from day 1. It's a somewhat bland title compared to other people's LJs though.

10. How long do you see yourself staying on LiveJournal?
As long as my core group of friends and comms are on it.

( The rest of the survey )

H!P group Biyuuden will disband in June

I was really surprised when I read this announcement...then again I could sort of see it coming since their next single had been delayed/canceled, and their sales have gotten doinky compared to earlier releases of theirs. As always, on the big H!P boards people are banging their "H!P is doomed" drums and "Tsunku is a doink" gongs, but I've come to expect this sort of stuff with every big H!P announcement. Needless to say I doubt H!P will be going anywhere, but I'm a bit concerned about what Biyuuden members Miyoshi Erika and Okada Yui will be doing within it (all 3 members will still be in H!P). Some people speculate they may become soloists but I don't really think they are solo material...I can see a new group with them in it perhaps. But they might also become Z-level members like Ayaka and Maeda Yuki and Inaba Atsuko, not appearing much anywhere except Uta Doki! episodes...Rika was always the "big-name member" of Biyuuden and the other two, who were pretty much H!P n00bs at the time, were overshadowed a bit by her I think.

As for Ishikawa Rika, she still has a big fanbase so I think she'll still be active in H!P whether it's solo or in another group.

As for doinkies' thoughts on Biyuuden, in around 2005 or so I really, really liked them and would watch anything with them in it. My favorite song of theirs is still "Ajisai Ai Ai Monogatari". But since then they've kind of been a B-level group for me - not that I didn't keep up with their activities, but I didn't really make a point of watching absolutely everything with Biyuuden or a Biyuuden member in it. I also thought their costumes for "Aisucream to My Purin" looked stupid and that "Issai Gassai Anata ni A-ge-ru" was too cutesy for them.

Anyway, I wish all 3 members best of luck in their careers to come.

Today doinkies went to San Jose's Japantown, which is not very big but has some good stores. I managed to get some anime/manga goods, as well as just manga.

Nakayoshi Feb. 2008 w/furoku
Mint na Bokura vol. 1
Marmalade Boy vols. 1 + 2 (Japanese)

And a really cool Basara pencilboard:



as well as this Cardcaptor Sakura pencilboard:



I also got a Wish pencilboard, but it doesn't scan very well as it is translucent.

I also spotted Takada Akemi's artbook Tir na Sorcha, but doinkies didn't have enough money for it T_T I love her artwork and character designs, they are gorgeous. I hope to get that artbook next time I come.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
明けましておめでとうございます！
新年快乐！/ 新年快樂!

I wish you all a great new year! doinkies resolves to write in this LJ more often. ^^;;

I have not watched this year's Kouhaku Utagassen yet, but I am downloading it right now and will also download Ayu's Countdown Live for this year!

( A Christmas doink for you )

I got a great yuletide fic this year. It's an Escaflowne fic. ^^

I also wrote a somewhat slashy Azumanga Daioh fic as a yuletide request.

I should write more fanfics.

There is this meme going around Japanese sites where you type in your name and you get a picture of what is supposedly most on your mind.

Here's doinkies' results:



The purple kanji means "desire" (as in wanting something I guess).

The dark blue kanji means "worry".

And the pink kanji is "love".

If doinkies types "doinkies" in katakana, I get this result:



In this case, I get "food", "love", "friends" and "money" as the things that are most on my mind.

I don't think either are really too accurate in doinkies' case though. ^^;;

doinkies bought:

Hataraki Man, vol. 1
Maria-sama ga Miteru Premium Book (a book about the size of a regular MariMite novel with information about the first season of the anime along with lots of pictures, a special manga and a short story)
Shokotan <3 Blog (a compilation of the otaku idol Nakagawa "Shokotan" Shoko's blog entries from 2004-2005, with some other stuff including an interview with her and her favorite mangaka Umezu Kazuo, stickers, pictures of her cosplaying as Creamy Mami, a glossary of her catchphrases, etc.)
Bessatsu Margaret and Bessatsu Friend October issues (a note for mangacast: the Oct. issue of Betsufure has the ending chapter of My Heavenly Hockey Club in it)

It was very hard for doinkies to decide between books. I also spotted some other books I wanted to get, but Dad only wanted doinkies to get a few books. I also came across the abovementioned Shokotan's photobook as well as a photobook of Takahashi Ai. Unfortunately, they were rather expensive and Dad would probably give doinkies funny looks if I got those, so I got the above books instead. XD

I intended to look for the first vol. of Otomen too but alas, doinkies completely forgot about that...they also didn't have any earlier volumes of Lucky*Star.

-----------------------------
Oh boy, a GZOMG MANGA SALES R IN DECLINE AND MANGA IS ALMOST DED!!!111 article.

Though it's true that sales of manga publications have been in decline, this only applies to manga magazines and not to tankoubon (which, oddly, this article doesn't mention). Tankoubon sales are still high and, as the article mentions, large numbers of people have been downloading manga on their cell phones to read. Personally, I think that people nowadays prefer to just buy their favorite series, and only read the magazines in stores without buying them (yes, Japan has "manga cows" too) or use their cell phones instead. The magazines are rather cheap and the paper and presentation quality is doinkier than a tankoubon, and people tend to throw them out after one reading. It might be doinky to spend your money on a magazine that you're really only following a couple series or even just one series in, that has doinky paper, and gets disposed of after you're done reading.

However, I don't think that means manga is dying. I think that it's switching to another means of distribution. I wouldn't be surprised if the major publishers all have cell-phone editions of their magazines out in several years.

doinkies set up a channel on Veoh (a YouTube-esque site, but with more J-pop on it) that is specifically devoted to J-pop idol singers.

You can find it at http://www.veoh.com/channels/idolific.

Though doinkies doesn't have a lot of videos on it yet, doinkies has put up some videos from more obscure idol groups and singers as well as rare videos from the 80s of TV shows such as The Best Ten.

Apparently you can also add other people's videos to your channel but doinkies can't figure out how to properly do so...no matter how many times I click "Post Video" it won't post the other person's video. I wonder if you have to be friends with the person first.

Anyway, if you have an interest in H!P, AKB48 or just idols in general, be sure to take a look at doinkies' channel. ^^

Geneon Exits American Anime Industry

T_T

The second anime doinkies saw was the Tenchi Muyo! dub on CN (censored, though), and the first anime doinkies bought was the dubbed Sailor Moon R movie and the first subbed anime doinkies bought was also the Sailor Moon R movie...back when they were Pioneer...and doinkies has a lot of DVDs from Geneon/Pioneer too...

I really hope that some other nice companydoinks will rescue the stuff that Geneon had announced/were releasing...especially Rozen Maiden and Saiunkoku...

T_T T_T

For some reason, even though my account doesn't expire until next year, it reverted to a basic account! Has anyone else had this problem? O_o

Edit: Hmm, it seems to have gone back to normal again. Weird.

Tamura Eriko debuted in 1989 with the song "Locomotion Dream" after winning an audition, and made her first acting appearance that same year in the movie "Hana no Furu Gogo".

One of the most noteworthy things about her was how she was promoted - through a 51-episode anime series, "Idol Densetsu Eriko" (Legendary Idol Eriko) that was a highly fictionalized story of her anime character counterpart's rise to fame (who was, naturally, also named Tamura Eriko). Though the seiyuu Yajima Akiko provided the character's speaking voice, the real Eriko provided the singing voice, and several of her singles were featured in the series. In the original broadcast, there was a segment called "Eririn Corner" before the episode previews, which featured Tamura Eriko herself promoting her singles and albums.

After the show ended, Eriko continued singing, acting in J-dramas and movies, appearing in variety shows, and modeling for photobooks and magazines. She was never super-popular, but she managed to do well enough and had a devoted fan following.

In 1995 Eriko released her last single, "Samishisa ni Kowasarete mo", and retired from her singing career, focusing more on acting. In 2000 she moved to Los Angeles to fulfill a dream of becoming a world-famous actress, and she still lives there today. She anchored a local LA Japanese news show and appeared in some obscure independent movies, and she is going to play a character in the second season of "Heroes".

Here is a kitschy performance of her single "Honki" from the late-night variety show Tokyo Yellow Page. This song was featured in Legendary Idol Eriko.

( Chotto ya sotto no koi ja nai / Honki na no / Shinjite )

For some odd reason, the producers decided to put some random facts about Eriko being a fan of Chage & Aska at the bottom. O_o

One of doinkies' bad habits is procrastination...I always seem to put off things for the next day...and this extends to updating my LJ. (Another bad habit is overusing ellipses, but that's for another time ^_-) Anyway, there has been a lot of stuff happening since doinkies last updated, so here's some short blurbs on each.

Comic-Con: Unfortunately doinkies didn't go, which is doinky because Tanemura Arina-sensei was one of the guests this year...but I still followed the news from it, and among that news was that Viz had licensed the rest of Arinacchi's previously-not-published-in-English works (I-O-N, Time Stranger Kyoko and Kanshaku-dama no Yuuutsu). They seem to have licensed the FMoS artbook too. As an Arinacchi fan, this news pleases doinkies greatly, mainly because I will finally be able to read a non-doinky translation of chapter 11! (And believe me, any other translation would totally pwn that monstrosity of a script translation I used...) Hopefully, after this Arinacchi blitz, Viz can license some more manga from my other favorite Ribon and former Ribon mangaka (*coughYoshizumiWatarucoughObanaMihocoughmoreYazawaAistuffplzcoughcoughandGoodMorningCallwouldbenicetoocough*). They also licensed some manga called B.O.D.Y that ran in BetsuMa (which seems to be a lot more popular than regular!Margaret at the moment, judging from its circulation #s). According to the Japanese Wikipedia article about it, it is apparently about some girl whose boyfriend is a top host at a host club but the boyfriend decided to quit that business to be with the girl. It sounds a bit doinky but if a preview of it shows up in Shojo Beat doinkies will probably read it...

Regarding the other announcements, the people over at mangacast were squeeing over CMX getting Teruteru x Shounen, a Hana to Yume series. I have seen this series in HtY before but never really perused it. But doinkies might check that out. Also, Seven Seas licensed Hayate X Blade. I liked the little I've read of it, so doinkies is looking forward to this release. I hope they'll get Strawberry Shake Sweet from the same mangaka soon too. Unfortunately, TokyoPop decided to license a much, much doinkier yuri title: Kannadoinkyzuki no Miko. So as not to offend readers who might enjoy that series, doinkies will simply say that that series is not my cup of tea, and so I will move on to:

The Summer Anime Season: This seems to be one of those summers where the studios, having put out some actual pretty good series in the spring, decide to dump out the doinky/uninteresting (at least to doinkies) ones. As such, there are no summer anime that catch my interest. There are, however, many J-dramas released this summer that did manage to interest doinkies.

The Summer J-Drama Season: Because doinkies is too lazy to write a blurb for each drama, here are my ratings for each of the ones I've watched (represented with a scale of fluffy doinks - 1 doink is horribdoinky, 5 doinks are excellent):
First Kiss: 3 doinks
Hanazakari no Kimi-tachi e ~Ikemen Paradise~: 3 doinks
Hotaru no Hikari: 4 doinks
Juken no Kamisama: 4 doinks
Papa to Musume no Nanokakan: 5 doinks
Ushi ni Negai o ~Love & Farm~: 3 doinks
Yamada Tarou Monogatari: 4 doinks
Yama Onna Kabe Onna: 1 doink (couldn't even get through the first episode...seems to been have targeted at people who like lots and lots of repetitive boob jokes...)

MoMusu's New Single: When I heard the radio preview of Onna ni Sachi Are, I found it pretty good, sort of like Genki+ from the Sexy 8 Beat album. It wasn't so good that I had it on repeat but it was a pretty good song with a nice beat and good lyrics (the baka parts were especially powerful). As for the PV, many people saw the costumes as reminiscent of the ones in the final part of The Peace!'s PV, and I noticed that too (along with the super-bright yellow color of the costumes, which weren't quite as cheesy as the doinky costume that Moritaka Chisato wore in that "17-sai" performance doinkies posted but still pretty cheesy in that idol-kitschy way). It was an OK PV, though I've seen better. I liked the MoMusu Tanjou 10-nen Kinentai's new PV better actually.

But congrats to the "new" MoMusu for getting #1 on the first day and getting #2 on the first week even with heavy competition from Otsuka Ai among others. They're still in the top 10 today, at #5. ^^

Moritaka Chisato first debuted in 1986 as the spokeswoman for Pocari Sweat (yes, the infamous Engrish-named sports drink), and later that year, released her first single "New Season". Some more singles followed, some written by herself (a rare thing for an idol singer even today), but it was her cover of 70's idol Minami Saori's song "17-sai" in 1989 that propelled her to fame. She became a sort of sex symbol of the late 80s-early 90s, and had many more hit singles such as "Ame", "Hachigatsu no Koi", "Benkyou no Uta" and "Kaze ni Fukarete". Nowadays, she is married to actor Eguchi Yousuke and has 2 children. Though her singing career has been on hiatus since 1999, she still appears in magazines and commercials from time to time.

Incidentally, Chisato is managed by Up-Front Agency...yes, the same company that manages Hello! Project acts. I suppose this is the reason why many H!P artists have covered some of her songs (Mini Moni's cover of 'Rock 'n Roll Kenchoushozaichi', Matsuura Aya's and Goto Maki's covers of 'Watarase-bashi', Abe Natsumi's cover of "The Stress"...).

Here's a performance of "17-sai" from one of her concerts. doinkies doesn't know which concert it is from. But the doinky costume Chisato wears in this video is definitely pure 80s Idol Kitsch.

( Watashi wa ima / ikite iru... )

Speaking of idols, doinkies discovered a quiz at Hello! Blog that asks you to rank your favorite current Morning Musume members. Here is doinkies' picture:



I probably would have put Miki at the top were it not for the whole kerfuffle that's happened since a couple weeks ago.

My thoughts on said kerfuffle can be found in the transcript of a recent IM conversation with miwasatoshi under this cut:

( Following H!P really gets to be like some doinky soap opera at times )

At least Miki still gets to host Dokimiki Night, though the logo has changed to just "Fujimoto Miki no Dokimiki Night" instead of "Morning Musume Fujimoto Miki no Dokimiki Night". doinkies wonders if they'll put the new logo on the clear file presents too...doinkies' clear file with the old logo could become a collector's item that only the TROO MIKIWOTAS POSSESS!!!!111!!! XD

Well, doinkies made a new layout yesterday, because I figured my LJ needed a new one. The header image, default icon, and mood theme are pictures of Michishige Sayumi, a 6th-gen member of Morning Musume. The header image is from one of my favorite pictures in her most recent photobook, Doukei. And there's quite a lot of pink in this layout, because, well, it fits Sayumin quite well. :P

However, doinkies is having a problem with the comments pages in this layout...for some reason there is a large amount of white space in between the entry and the comments...can anyone who knows more CSS than doinkies help fix this? Thanks ^^

Kirara to Urara (Kirara and Urara) were a J-pop idol duo active from 1984 to 1986. The members' real names were Ootani Kanako and Amano Nagisa, respectively. They started out as bikini models (under their real given names) and then became singers. They released 5 singles, and then split up. After splitting up, "Kirara" married producer Komuro Tetsuya. However, they soon got divorced, and she later became a tarento under the name Komuro Kanako. As for "Urara", in 1990 she became a solo singer under the name Amano Ayumi, and released 3 singles.

Probably Kirara to Urara are most remembered for their debut single, "Sentimetal Boy" (Yes, it is "Sentimetal" not "Sentimental", for the song is about a robot...), which W covered on their debut album Duo U&U.

Here is a very 80s Idol Kitsch-y performance/music video of it:

( Tetsu no heart ne, sentimetal boy... )

"Kirara" is the one with the red shirt, and "Urara" is the one with the blue shirt.

The cheesy cartoon energy blasts and other special effects are the highlight of this video. :P Not to mention the doinky dance...

I got the information above from this site: http://park17.wakwak.com/~nephila-clavata/kilaula.htm . It is in Japanese, and features cover scans of all 5 of their singles.

Enjoy the doinkiness! :P

doinkies has been a busy doink lately, what with school and all. So I haven't had much time to update my LJ, though I have watched many new anime and J-dramas (which I will post about in future posts)...not to mention I need to renew my LJ account soon...but doinkies just had to post the video that you can see below.

So doinkies was bored one day and decided to doink around YouTube...and I happened upon this video:

( WAAAARNER HOME VIDEO )

This is some kind of 80s trailer for Warner Home Video tapes that was put on Swedish WHV releases. The male singer is some doink named Richard Häger, though doinkies doesn't know the female singer's name.

Since Swedish and Norwegian are very close languages that use many of the same words and same grammar, I decided to ask northlander72 to translate the song in the video. Unfortunately, Northdoinkies wasn't able to catch all the lyrics, but he did translate some of it:

( The partially-translated lyrics )

As far as I know, this trailer was only on Swedish WB videos and not in any other countries. Certainly it wasn't on the ye olde tape of The Neverending Story that doinkies used to rent all the time when I was a little doink...:P