seiyuu – bluemist anime blog

Animeme: Balalaika->Yaranaika

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APLb_orhVb0&hl=en&w=425&h=355]

Wow this song is total bait! We have a very cute Morning Musume girl innocently releasing her single which is the second OP theme of the popular shoujo idol anime Kirarin Revolution, which she stars in. Unfortunately, the internets has some mystical way to put two and two together. What results is a very effective mashup, replacing ‘balalaika’ with ‘yaranaika’ and modifying the lyrics to sound even more ghey-ish. Add 3D animation and it becomes a recipe for awesomeness… even if you hate yaoi. Don’t worry, it won’t bite. It’s a total LOL-fest! Check out the videos below.

School Rumble Live!

I watched on video a certain School Rumble Live Concert, and it was quite good! Seiyuus, singers and some bands sang numerous songs featured in the anime series and also the drama cds as well. Too bad no sign of Yuko Ogura was found, maybe she’s too mainstream to be in such an ~~otaku-filled~~ event. Instead, we get all the girls singing her Otoko no Ko Onna no Ko ending theme.

One performance in particular, School Rumble 4 Ever, was so great! Four of the girls danced and sang that incredibly catchy female rap song.

I enjoyed this one better than the Love Hina live concerts, probably because there are more cute and young seiyuu here. The songs are great too. [Yui Horie->horie-yui] may have stuttered a bit during her Scramble performance, but the live rendition of that School Rumble OP is as catchy as ever. Maybe my only complaint is that there is too much unicorn table, while too less Mamiko Noto.

Anyway sorry that I can’t bring you the songs nor the concert video itself, so I have boring screenshots. Spicing it up a bit is the seiyuu’s respective character that they voiced in School Rumble, and a bit of other anime info.

Ami joined Yui also as the Ichijou twins in both Futakoi series.

Yui Horie, she’s appearing in so many series these days.

She currently plays Kanade-kaichou in Gokujou Seitokai.

You would probably know her as the legendary “Lain.”

Mamiko, another seiyuu with an unmistakable cliched voice working in many series these days.

Nao in My Hime. Different style, eh?

You guys would probably know her as Nono in Top wo Nerae 2 but I didn’t watch that.

I dunno how she belongs to School Rumble, maybe a minor seiyuu, featured in a drama cd/ost, or maybe a guest. Anyway she is also one of the singers in the Mahoraba OP.

They have a lot of songs scattered around the drama cds of School Rumble. Because of this, they had the most songs performed in the concert.

Horie Yui

Well, she’s just one of the few seiyuu I find beautiful, on certain angles and levels of make-up though. It’s undeniable that she is one of the cutest and most popular faces in the industry, and she has that extremely distinct voice that is instantly recognizable. I have already seen a LOT of anime with her voice on it. I like her songs too.

She's okay, but she didn't sing well enough here Nice here
These are some shots from a certain School Rumble Live Concert. She sang Scramble and Feel My Feeling in these two shots, along with other songs. Well, she’s cute here with the gothloli outfits and all, but she didn’t sing well in Scramble. Having her jump around and dancing made her voice a bit skippy at times, but I enjoyed the live rendition of Scramble. In Feel My Feeling, I feel like her voice is a bit off at some notes.

Nice!
This is from the same School Rumble live, singing School Rumble 4Ever, along with 3 other female seiyuu. I enjoyed this performance! She has a nice outfit here too. The musical notes in her dress… liked it.

Apparently some groups are kind enough to share many anime/jpop promotion video goodies to the public, I’m thankful to them. Please support them as much as you can.

More PVs meant more Yui Horie for me, so here’s some more!

She looks fine, but not enough.
This is a music video called Sakura. Apparently it’s from her first solo album, which is virtually unknown to me surprisingly. Seeing that in that album there is another version of Yakusoku (my all-time favorite Love Hina song), I feel deprived of information. Sakura as a music video… isn’t too good by jpop standards, but oh well, it isn’t aimed at mainstream anyway.

Good visual PV, not good Yui
Okiniiri no Jitensha looks like a very refined PV. On the flip side though, dunno why, but I didn’t like her in this one.

Not good PV, good Yui
All My Life, the OP for Mao-chan, is a simple PV. If you ask me it’s trying to be jpop mainstream but as always anime-related stuff rarely succeed when they do that.

Annoyingly cute here
Do I have weird taste? Just tell me. This is Kirari Takaramono, the Love Hina Again OP. And… I liked it. I just like those scenes where she sings in an 80’s microphone and dances around (it’s much like the School Rumble PV). This kind of fun, hectic, and wicked energy is just what anime PVs should be.

She's nice, but kinda annoying here, swaying back and forth.
Here’s a promotion video for Sister Princess, she sings Love Destiny here. Not bad a music video, not too good either.

Cute here
She’s in a live concert here, singing again Love Destiny… wearing some sort of school uniform. Kinda in-fashion for that otaku crowd, they like her a lot apparently.

Cute here They're funny
In the Fruits Basket DVDs, she has some sort of omake interview show, where she’s the host and she interviews the three main male seiyuu of Fruits Basket. These are kinda interesting segments.

Okay here... Kanda Akemi is kinda fat...
This is an Ultra Maniac making-of interview. On the left is Kanda Akemi, a bit of a newcomer seiyuu back then.

She's cute, the PV is not.
Another PV, this time from the anime Da Capo. In the anime she plays Shirakawa Kotori, one of my favorite bishoujo game characters. It would have been interesting if she had a PV for Soyokaze no Harmony (a very beautiful song), but this (Pureness) is kinda a consolation.

She is great! The video is great!
And another PV, this time from School Rumble. The song is Scramble, a joint with a certain ska group named Unbalance. I have to admit that this is one of the best anime PVs I’ve seen so far because of its style, plus the catchiness of the song itself.

Chiba Saeko

Well, she’s just one of the few seiyuu I find beautiful, but only on certain angles and levels of make-up. And seemingly, she has many types of voices, including the cute, and the cool.

The hair rocks!
Here is one from the promotion DVD of Ichigo Mashimaro. Watta hair, and her makeup seems a bit chinese-style.

she's not cute here, must be stress from work...
Here is one of her interviews for My Hime.

she's cute here
A promotion music video for My Hime. Cute, but I agree with moyism that the PV is terrible.

she's cute here
Some omake from Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. Actually it’s a candid camera stint with her and that other guy as victims. Apparently the other anime staff wanted to pair them up, so they set up hidden cameras spying on their, er, intimate moments.

quite ok here
She doesn’t look good too much here but because I absolutely love what she sings here (Ice Cream from the anime Narue no Sekai), this counts as ‘ok’.