October 31, 2007

good Shoon&Taiyô news


This deserved an entry of its own even though I posted another just a few hours ago. Fiona has just updated her site, Happy Town with a piece of good news for Taiyô and Shoon fans.

I don't understand a word of Chinese, but Altavista's Babelfish comes so handy in these cases:
萬聖節快樂! 剛上來為大家帶來好消息....12月duet有太陽solo頁,翔央跟莉央兄弟搭檔上場~
Babelfish automatic translation: Halloween is joyful! Just came up for everybody brings news... 12 month duet to have taiyo the solo page, shoon teams up with Brother reon to go on stage ~

OMG!!! I'm so happy and hopeful after hearing a confirmation of this!! ;_____; Yui had told me just now in the comments that a friend had told her about it, but she was not sure if it was true. A page for Taiyô in the December issue of Duet, and Shoon and Reon... together on stage?!!!! OMG! I need somebody who speaks Chinese to confirm this 'cause it might be a mistranslation of Babelfish. I don't know if this means that they've become a unit together, if they're going to sing together, if they're going to be in a play together, or what! XD According to Montanaky, who left a comment, the part about Shoon and Reon probably means just that they appear together on the same page in the mag which would be great! <333 Anyway, I'm so excited and relieved to know they're still there in Duet at least. I hope Wink Up and Potato will feature them too. I also hope JE has something good in store for Taiyô - you better do, you hear me, Mr.K.? Taiyô deserves something better than being a backdancer, okay? *glares* Taiyô, Shoon... ganbatte kudasai ne!

PS: [about the pics on Fiona's latest entry] Hikaru, why do you have to be so adorkable? I want you back in Ya-Ya-yah!! And bring Yabu back too. He's getting too handsome for his own good, dammit. XD

PS: some more news - SC related [I moved it from the previous entry to this one]
The Shounen Club official site has been updated with info about the December episode (will be aired on Dec. 23rd) already. It will be a special like last year, with Takki and Musical Academy's Yara Tomoyuki as guests. The episode was recorded at the NHK 101 studio, with the juniors there, just like last year as well, and they'll air old clips requested by the audience too. I wonder if Taiyô and Shoon will be there. *crosses fingers* There will also be a Junior ni Q like last year and recorded Xmas messages from several debuted groups. Also, they'll air a music video clip of the dance unit Takki has created, and a making-of of that video.

ザ少年倶楽部スペシャル ~僕たちのクリスマスプレゼント~
BS2 12月23日(日) 午後7:30~8:59 BShi 12月25日(火) 午後6:00~7:29
昨年の「ザ少年倶楽部スペシャル~僕たちのクリスマスプレゼント」では、過去4年間の放送の中から視聴者のリクエストに応えてVTRを紹介し、スタジオトークとともにジュニアたちからのたくさんの「クリスマスプレゼント」を贈った。
今年も、101スタジオにジュニアが集結し、ゲストには滝沢秀明、屋良朝幸(Musical Academy)を迎えて、さらにパワーアップした内容で送る。昨年のスペシャルにゲスト出演した滝沢秀明が語ったとおり、番組の「コーナープロデュース」が実現!その「滝沢秀明スペシャルプロジェクト」の集大成ともいえる、新ユニットのミュージックビデオを番組内で発表!もちろん、ミュージックビデオのメイキングシーンや、本人の撮影秘話も紹介していく。そのほか、今年ホールに遊びに来てくれた先輩たち、タッキー&翼、NEWS、関ジャニ∞、KAT-TUNからの「クリスマスメッセージ」や、今年起こった先輩たちの「10大ニュース」を紹介するVTRも。また、おなじみの「Jr.にQ」をスタジオで展開。ジュニアの本音に迫る。


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Hey! Say goodbye!


I need to rant about this a little because... seriously, it irked me so much. I’ve been busy and haven’t been able to post before but I really need to rant about it.

How much of a disappointment was the last Ya-Ya-yah episode? Fiona hasn’t uploaded it yet to her clubbox, but you can watch it in 3 parts at smileyuya’s YouTube account [part 1, part 2, part3]. That didn’t even qualify as an episode. *grumbles* Just a bunch of old clips thrown together. Please, any fan could have done that! However, what irritated me the most was that my fears came true: they didn’t let Ya-Ya-yah have a word in between clips, or even at the end to say “thanks for following the show” and goodbye. ;__;

You know, when I was making the fanvideo of the previous entry I felt weird putting those words in their mouths at the end, but something told me we were not going to get that, and now I’m glad I did.

You fail so much, JE. I was ranting about this to Kamichan in the comments to the previous entry, and his words made me reconsider for a moment my opinion on the matter — how do you always manage to do that? XD — , but ended up standing by what I had said.

Irea: Have you watched the last episode on smileyuya's YouTube account? I'm so irked now! How could they do that?! It's all old clips, and they didn't even let the boys say "thanks for watching" or "goodbye"!! For God's sake! What are those people made of? Iron steel? *shakes head in disbelief*
Kamichan: Yes I have. And after the preview at the end of last week's show I didn't really expect anything else. I know it would have been nice for us fans to see them saying thank you and good bye to us. But what would it have felt like on their part? Having a camera pointed at you and being told: "Okay, we're gonna kill you know. Any last words you'd like to say to your friends and family?" No, JE doesn't work that way. If you decide to leave or are made to leave it happens silently. You just dissappear, as if you never existed in the first place.
Irea: I don't think it would have felt like that on their part. It would have been more like: "This show has been an important part of your life. Any words you want to say to the people that have been following the show?"
I know that's the way JE works, but for some reason I had a stupid hope. Do 5 years of a show really mean nothing to these people? Or do they think fans will kill themselves in a bout of collective hysteria if they let the boys say goodbye?
Kamichan: Talking about people killing themselves, Japan has a beautiful tradition of honorable suicide. However, you wouldn't commit seppuku in the marketplace but in the privacy of your own home. If you're ordered to commit seppuku you don't whine about it on national TV. To protect your honour you just silently disappear. I know I'm pretty much alone with that opinion, but the longer I think about it the more convinced I am that having them say good bye on TV would have been crueler on them than not having them do it is cruel on us.
Irea: But thing is they haven't done anything dishonorable, so why should they commit seppuku??? Perhaps the people who messed up the show with segments like The Teppan should, but not Ya3. They should be honored, they deserve recognition, not being pushed out through the back door. And, honestly, there's nothing that people love more than seeing their idols are human and cry too. It would have been heartbreaking but beautiful to see Ya-Ya-yah saying goodbye and shedding some tears, but yes, I know, in the Japanese society there's no space for weakness.


He made me wonder if perhaps I was being selfish as a fan, wanting them to say goodbye, if, as he said, it would have been cruel on them, but I think not. They say that success has many fathers but failure is an orphan, meaning that everybody is prompt to claim their part in success, but nobody wants to acknowledge failure. That’s the case in JE. Success is always to be celebrated in a big way; failure must be hidden and all the people concerned must act as if it had never happened.

For those who don’t know, seppuku (more commonly known as harakiri) is a ritual form of suicide by slashing the abdomen (yikes!), formerly practiced in Japan, sometimes commanded by medieval lords or the government in the cases of disgraced subjects/officials. Seppuku was seen as an honorable act as opposed to the dishonor (in the sense of humiliation) of being executed.

Personally I think there’s nothing honorable in suicide, unless you’re a danger to other people (like rapists and serial killers are) or, as it happened in the past, you country is under siege and you prefer to die rather than being conquered.

If you’ve made a mistake, you have to acknowledge it and face the music, not commit suicide or hide it. The first is cowardice; the second is having a lot of nerve and no consideration for the people affected by your mistake.

If somebody messed up the Ya3 show —we’ll get into that some other day— and audience rates fell, for sure it wasn’t Ya-Ya-yah. Why then deny them their right to be honored, to get the recognition they deserve after five years of starring in the show? Why deny them just a few minutes to show people their gratitude for their continued support?

Even though I don’t like changes I know sometimes they are necessary, and also that other times they can’t be helped. If TV Tokyo/JE were losing money with the Ya3 show, I understand —even though it still hurts— that they decided to cancel the show. However, we humans need ceremonies. Ceremonies celebrate natural transitions like birth, puberty, death, and also transitions that have an important effect in our lives like graduating from highschool or university, marrying... Neglect in honoring the passage of one stage to another gives a feeling of emptiness, of a lack of purpose, of a lack of a sense of closure. I know it from experience. Here in Spain state universities don’t hold graduation ceremonies, and after spending four years studying I felt rather empty when I graduated. I had no sense of closure. I didn’t want some big, boastful ceremony, you know, but... it didn’t feel real when I graduated. I only got a diploma a secretary made me sign and her congratulations. That was all.

The end of the Ya3 show is the end of an important stage in the lives of theYa-Ya-yah members, and it’s very sad that somebody decided they just had to leave through the back door and close the door behind them quietly.

Would it have been so hard to do something special in the last episode? I don’t think so. They did it in the 2003.12.28 episode, in which we got to see Shoon get a little emotional when watching a clip from the very first show, and smile fondly at that memory.



They did it the 100th special (2004.12.12). How nice and enjoyable was that episode? Ya-Ya-yah in tuxedos, Midori-san in an elegant black dress, the show’s guest presenting a bouquet of flowers to Ya-Ya-yah...



Yes, they know how to do it, and the fact that they decided not to do it for the very last show disappointed me even more than the last two Harry Potter books, which is saying something.

On to other things, the Shoon LiveJournal community I co-mod with my friend Akgla, Shoon around-the-Clock, will be holding a contest for Shoon’s 19th birthday (December 20th). If you want to take part in it just for fun or to win one of the prizes we’re giving out, please click on the image below to know more. =]



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October 27, 2007

so many memories


The last episode of the Ya-Ya-yah show airs today in Japan, but we won’t be able to watch it until Fiona uploads it to her clubbox —probably on Wednesday or Thursday. Perhaps, with a little luck, smileyuya will upload it to her YouTube account like she did with the last onigokko. Either way... the last episode of the Ya-Ya-yah show... How weird that sounds.

Has it ever happened to you, when you’re on the last chapter of a good book, that you don’t want it to end? That’s the way I’m feeling now the Ya-Ya-yah show is coming to its end. Then, when you close the book, when there are no more pages to read, you start feeling melancholic, like you do when you have to go back home at the end of a journey you’ve enjoyed.

However, what’s a fan to do? It’s not like we have any say in this, do we? Nope, TV Tokyo announced some weeks ago that the show was ending today, and so the show ends today. They’ll still let fans submit comments at the show’s BBS today, and I’ve posted one. It sucks of course that as a foreigner you can’t say “I’ve watched each and every show —several times in fact— and I LOVE it”, so I just wrote:

私はYa-Ya-yahが大好きです。だから今日はとても悲しくの日。でも、いつまでもYa-Ya-yahを応援してます。翔央くん、太陽くん、光くん、藪くん。。。頑張ってくださいね。本当に、本当に、素敵な思い出をありがとうございました。
[I love Ya-Ya-yah, so today is a very sad day. However, I’ll always support Ya-Ya-yah. Shoon, Taiyô, Hikaru, Yabu... please keep it up! Thanks so so much for the great memories.]

I don’t know if it will be posted, because they don’t post all the comments submitted, and I don’t know if Ya-Ya-yah read those comments, but I just felt the need to do it. I wonder what will happen with the site when Hi! Hey! Say! begins. Will the Ya-Ya-yah site become a Hi! Hey! Say! site? Will they delete the BBS, and the show’s diary and all the other Ya-Ya-yah-related contents? I hope not.

And speaking of things I don’t want to happen... there are two other things that I don’t want to happen. Again, they are beyond my control, but it would hurt a lot if they happened:

1) I don’t want other juniors to wear the Sgt. Pepper outfits. EVER. Those outfits are part of Ya-Ya-yah’s history, they belong to Ya-Ya-yah and Ya-Ya-yah only. If there’s no chance of Ya-Ya-yah rejoining some time in the future —yes, I have that hope—, please put them in a Johnny’s Museum. Mr.K., you know that would be a good way of making money. *nudge, nudge* People would pay to see Johnny’s memorabilia. =D
2) I don’t want HSJ or even HSB to sing Ya-Ya-yah’s songs. I do want Yabu and Hikaru to keep on singing their solos though —and I’m hoping they’ll have more solos, or even duets in the future. The fact that they’ll be singing Arashi no Carnival and Gentles on the November SC is one of the few reasons I’m “looking forward” to that SC. The other reasons are seeing Shoon, and knowing who will be the additional member in the dance unit Takki created for his project thingie. I was anxious for Shoon, but I’m much relieved after reading a report from a Shoon fan who attended the SC recording. She says that whenever the camera focused on him, he smiled. That, being hopeful, might mean that Taiyô and him still have a place in JE. It might also mean that he’s really strong and has accepted all that is happening, which would make me admire him even more. Or it could also mean that he has felt the fans support in the last year, and is doing his best for them. About the Takki project... I don’t know if I’d like Shoon to be that additional member or not, or if that is even likely to happen. I mean... Shoon hasn’t taken part in Takki’s Enbujô, and even if Takki chose him for his dance unit... Shoon is an amazing dancer, but I’d like him to do more than dance. Sure that might bring other chances for him, but... Oh, well, we’ll have to wait and see.

Anyway, back to topic... the end of the Ya-Ya-yah show. *grimaces* No, I don’t want it to end, but it’s ending, and while I see the people around me moving on, I just can’t. Some tell me to give HSJ a chance. Well, I’m sorry, I don’t have the heart to, and honestly, it’s like telling somebody whose partner has died recently to go out on a blind date. I’m not married, but I know that if I ever married and my partner died, I’d never marry again. I’m a one-love person.

Every Ya-Ya-yah-related site I used to visit is transitioning from Ya-Ya-yah to HSJ or HSB: the Ya-Ya-yah official site, Happy Town... even Ya3-Tachi, which had become my favourite Chinese forums because it was a Ya3 forum, will change its name to “Let’s Say Best” on October 28th. Oh, well, at least it won’t be “Let’s Say JUMP”. =/ Even though I suppose I might get to like HSBEST with some time, it would never be the same as Ya-Ya-yah for me.

I love with a passion the Time Master trilogy by Louise Cooper, and I read the continuation trilogy she wrote long afterwards, but it’s not the same —not by far. Some of the characters from Time Master appear in the continuation trilogy, but they’re not the main focus anymore, and one of the reasons I fell in love with the books in the first place was because of the main characters: Tarod and Cyllan. So HSJ and HSB have Yabu and Hikaru in them, but... no, it will never be the same.

The Ya-Ya-yah show was something magical for me, a memory I’ll treasure as long as I live. Just like I re-read many times my favourite books, I know I’ll re-watch the shows many, many times. Reading a new book is like making a new friend, but re-reading one you love is like meeting with an old friend and spending the afternoon remembering the old times together.

Thus, this blog won’t have anything “new” to offer from now on, so instead it will become a warm place for any of you who want to pay a visit and remember the good ol’ times. Sure I’ll keep on posting about Yabu and Hikaru whenever they have solo or duet performances, and about Taiyô and Shoon if they stay in JE or remain in the showbiz so I can keep track on them, but otherwise today the clock has stopped here at Ya-Ya-yah Obse-shoon to become a timeless dimension.

I’ve made a little fanvideo which is not as good as it should be. Actually it’s the song I’ve used for the video that is meaningful for this entry, but I didn’t want to post just the song. I didn’t have time to make a video that would sum up over 200 episodes either, so I thought I’d settle for making a video that would feature the people who made the Ya-Ya-yah show possible. Well, not everyone, of course, because that would mean the cameramen, the make-up artists, and many more, but, you know, the “main” people: Ya-Ya-yah, of course (including Masaki and Naoya); Massu, Tegoshi, Koyama, Kusano, and Shige); Moriuchi; Inoo, Macchan, Yuuto, Midori, Akiyamacho-sensei and Murakamigo LOL ... There’s also Bobby, Korikki the wrestler, the ugly but funny Ungirls... And I just had to squeeze in a clip from my favourite episode, the Christmas special from 2004, because —among other reasons— it has “Shoon!reporter”, who is so much love, in those geeky glasses and even geekier coat, and because Hikaru is the best Santa ever and he was incredibly tender and sweet. Oh, and there’s a Hawaii clip too, because I love the Hawaii episode too, and I wanted J.J.Express to be in this video. Actually, there’s so many people missing in this video —I couldn’t possible include all of them in a five minutes video. Because... seriously, when you look back, ALL the juniors have appeared in the Ya3 show, even if only in the livestages: QUESTION?, ABC, KMF2. And how many other JE people have been there too? Takki&Tsubasa, Kanjani8, KATTUN, Moriuchi Takahiro, Tôshin... Ya-Ya-yah has memories for SO MANY people. It’s a shame this show has to end, but... what’s a fan to do when she’s watched and re-watched all the episodes for the hundredth time and still somebody doesn’t see it’s a crime to put an end to it? Blog about it and make the world remember there was once a wonderful show called the Ya-Ya-yah show.



PS: The text on the header, 思い出がいっぱい(Omoide ga ippai) means “So many memories”. =]

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October 25, 2007

sunny

Dear Taiyô,

I’ve been thinking about you all day today and yesterday; worrying.

I don’t want to watch the November SCs. I’ve been thinking of your fans, of how down they must be feeling. You better have a good reason for not showing up for the recording, okay? .___. I haven’t seen Tina around in the last couple of days, and I’m a bit worried for her too, because she’s one of your biggest fans, you know.

There’s something about your fans that makes them dear to me. I think people who love somebody as good-hearted as you are have to be good-hearted themselves. There’s not that many people nowadays that value innocence and kindness. Some actually equate being good and naive to being a fool. The world belongs to those who are shrew, to those who don’t care about stepping on others to get where they want to get to. You have to be rude, you have to be tough, you have to be ambitious. I don’t want to have anything to do with such people. I’d rather spend my time in the company of somebody calm and unassuming; somebody like you.

I know Shoon loves you very much —it just shows in those warm smiles he flashes at you, and in the way he smiles fondly when you are not looking— and so does Yabu —it’s obvious you’re closer to him than Hikaru is, even if JE wants us to believe they’re as close as twins— and so does Hikaru —even if he enjoys teasing you— and so do I. I never knew how much in fact until I learned you were not present at the recording of the November SCs.

I know it’s a clichè to compare you to the sun, but you really are like the sun. You make everything brighter and warmer with your presence. I want more sunny days, so please, be back. I’ll be waiting for you.

[this is from a lame, Spanish talent TV show, but I love this guy’s voice (his name is Sergio Rivero) and I love this song, so this song is for you, Taiyô, and for all your fans ^__^]




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October 22, 2007

November SC report

Yui told me about this earlier, and I've read about it at a Japanese blog now. It's the blog of a fan who attended the November Shokura recording at NHK Hall.

Just a few things, 'cause unfortunately I don't understand all:

+Major presence of HSJ as expected.
+新ユニットも誕生しているよーなー していないよーなな・・ 加藤冠、野沢、亀井、真田、はっしー
a new unit apparently (?) with Kato Kan, Nozawa Yuki, Kamei, Sanada Yuma, and Hasshi.
Well, that would be good news for Kamei and Hasshi fans.
+で、お手紙は、はっしー⇔トッツー
Good news for Hasshi fans again: Hasshi and Tottsu read letters to each other on the Anata ni o-tegami kakimashô segment. Some Hasshi pimping. That's nice to hear.
+翔央も歌ってましたよ。
Shoon sang too. I wonder what this means. He sang solo? He sang a part in a medley? Either way it makes me hopeful to know he was there.
+でも・・・・・・いない。どこにもいない・・・・太陽がいない・・・・
However... Taiyô... wasn't there. T__________T It's going to be so damn weird and depressing not to see Taiyô there. ;___; I remember the SCs in which some member of Ya-Ya-yah was missing, it was just so strange, no matter who it was. Perhaps he's not in this SC but will be in the next one. Oh, God, please let it be so. ;___; It's also going to be so strange to see Yabu and Hikaru together with the rest of HSJ and Shoon... apart. .____. I should be feeling somewhat happy because Shoon is going to be there, but I'm not. This is just too damn surreal. U__U *hugs Aki, Yungboy, Rin, Alei and all the Taiyô fans out there*

PS: Will answer all the unanswered comments tomorrow.
[edit] PS2: Medetaikaru has posted a translation of a more complete report he's found. (Thanks for telling me!) Apparently Shoon sang Hoshi wo mezashite with HSBest and he was wearing a different outfit from the rest and looking quite lonely. T___T I'm so NOT glad about this even though he was there. .__. Shoon-kun, ganbatte! *hugs Puppet*

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words of love and wisdom

Ever since I joined the Ya-Ya-yah fandom, I've been visiting regularly the Korean Moonlightboy.com website, and also the blog of the webmistress, Yuuna. I've always been fascinated by her site because she seems to have been a Ya-Ya-yah fan from the very start, back in 2001-2002 and has so much rare stuff. I don't understand a word of Korean -how I wish I did!- but I always had a feeling that what she writes on her site and blog is deep and meaningful. It couldn't be otherwise seeing as she has followed them from the very start.

Unfortunately she doesn't speak much English either, so my attempts to communicate with her have been fruitless, though she has been quite kind and replied to the messages I left on the BBS of her site and we exchanged a couple of polite, short e-mails acknowledging that we visit each other's sites -that's why I know her name.

So, anyway, the thing is some days ago she made a lengthy post on her blog, of which I only understood a few Japanese sentences she used, and the names of the four Ya3 members, which I've learned to recognise in Korean after some time [야부 코타 (Yabu Kota), 아유카와 타이요 (Ayukawa Taiyô), 야마시타 쇼온 (Yamashita Shoon), 야오토메 히카루 (Yaotome Hikaru)], and I thought it had to be interesting, what she said, so when I found out one of the readers of my blog, Quin-tessen-ce, is fluent in Korean, I asked her if she'd mind reading it and telling me more or less what it said. ^^

She's been so kind that she has translated the whole post, and I'm so thankful to her, because it's very beautiful and moving, and I think we have much to learn from this Korean girl. You can read Quin-tessen-ce's translation of that blog-post here. It has cheered me up a lot, and it has made me want to support Ya-Ya-yah even more.

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October 21, 2007

quiet heroism

I didn’t want to blog about this until I knew for sure, but when I saw Fiona had posted at her site, HappyTown, pictures of the December issues of Myojo and Popolo, and there were only HSJ pics I had a bad feeling. I left a comment on her BBS, asking if there was no Ya-Ya-yah article or if at least Shoon and Taiyô had solo pages, like people like Tôshin, Ikuta Toma and others have been having even though they’re not part of a group. She has finally replied, and her answer was no. .__.

I agree with my friend Yungboy that I’d rather see Shoon and Taiyô on TV than a million pictures of them, but this is rather worrying. In JE, it seems, there’s no place for feelings, nor for goodbyes and fare-thee-wells. When a Johnny quits by his own will or has to quit, there’s no official goodbye to the fans that have been following him. He just has to disappear, be it gradually or one day, all of a sudden. There are too many examples that come to mind: Jimmy Mackey, Hoshino Masaki, Macchan... Cold and cruel, but that’s the way JE works. I guess Mr.K. deems his business has to be all about happy, smiling faces and shiny, colourful outfits. No, in JE there’s no place for feelings, nor for goodbyes and fare-thee-wells.

What I mean is that we might be waiting for an “official” confirmation that won’t come. Still, waiting is all we can do, so I’ll wait some more. In these last days I was waiting for those two magazines to come out. Now I’m waiting for the recording of the November Shounen Club episodes. When the SC website is updated, we’ll know if Ya-Ya-yah will still appear or not, or if at least Shoon and Taiyô will, even on their own.

In this gloomy horizon there’s still a bright light, though, shining brighter than ever, and that’s the love and dedication of the fans. Yui sent me an e-mail a while ago, to tell me about something that’s spreading quickly through Japanese Ya-Ya-yah fanblogs. Some of the Ya-Ya-yah fans who are going to attend the HSJ debut concert in December are planning on showing their support to Ya-Ya-yah at the encore by joining their hands and singing together Te wo tsunaide yukô.

We’re in October, and it’s a long way till December, so I wonder if this will hold up until then, but as Yui says, knowing that they’re still trying so hard at this point to make their voices be heard is very moving. I know this is just showbiz and plastic-pop fandom, but in these gray times of materialism, in which there are no crusades and no knights in shiny armours, this anonymous, quiet heroism gives mankind back some of its brightness.

私たちたちで、12月22日に行われる、Hey!Say!JUMPのコンサートで、アンコールのときに、客席みんなで手を繋いで高く上げて、「手をつないでゆこう」を歌いましょう!!
When we go to the Hey! Say! JUMP concert on 22nd December, at the encore, let's hold hands with the person sitting next to us, put our clasped hands up, and sing Te wo tsunaide yukô!!

http://goulove.blog110.fc2.com/blog-entry-127.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/mikan917/archives/64822881.html
http://takaki-tomoe.jugem.jp/?eid=19
http://yayayah4ever.jugem.jp/?eid=20
http://to-hikaru.jugem.jp/?eid=393
http://uedatatuya1004.blog117.fc2.com/blog-entry-18.html
http://ameblo.jp/tukasa39/entry-10051960218.html
http://yui-cherry.jugem.jp/?eid=249
...

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onigokko!! ...and scans


EDIT: Because I feel spazztic after watching this onigokko I decided to scan some more pages. XD Prease to scroll down. =]

SMILEYUYA, I don't know you, but I love you. Thanks so much for uploading the whole onigokko to YouTube. ^__^ This was such a great onigokko!

You can watch the first part here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAv2XEEZeOg

and the second one here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGnsENr12V8

READ THIS ONLY AFTER WATCHING THE CLIPS
Hikaru: how could you let them catch you so soon? *smacks Hikaru on the head* XD Taiyo: I love how you evilly rejoiced when they caught Hikaru. XDDDD Yabucchi: Will you stop getting handsomer by the day? Oh, and I love how happy you were when it was just Shoon and you in the end. =p You made this Yamabu fan very happy. XD Too bad you were caught soon afterwards. *smacks Yabu on the head* [Oh, and Scribe!!! Are you reading this? When Yabu said "ore to Shoon" I remembered that part in Yugureden in which Yabu says "Me and my brother" and Shoon amends him saying "My brother and I" LOL You really know Yabu well!] Shoon: I love you to bits, I swear. You're wonderful. Thanks for trying so hard on this last onigokko. You made me so proud! And I love you for saying at the end that Ya-Ya-yah is 4 people, so your victory was the victory of the 4 of you. You rock. ^^BBB 4=1 I love you guys. ^___^

PS: Is it me or was this onigokko episode filmed long ago too? It seems like the weather was pretty hot, and I doubt it was that hot in Japan at the end of September even, much less now in October, right? =/

PS2: I've gone crazy and scanned the Ya3 article of 2004.09 Duet, and even the back of the pages, in which there's NEWS, ABC, and also Inoo and Macchan. Comments are very much appreciated if you take them, even if it’s only a ^___^ or ♥♥♥. Pretty please? It only takes a moment to leave a comment. :3 Hey, I made a rhyme! XD All image links below open in a new window. If you want to post them somewhere else it's okay as long as you credit me for the scanning. No need to credit if you want to make icons, graphics, or translations. If you don't want to click on the individual thumbnails, you can also click here for all the Ya3 pics, and here for the random ones.

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October 19, 2007

Edo era arts&crafts

Have you downloaded last Saturday’s show from Fiona’s clubbox already? [If you can’t use CB I suppose Kamichan is uploading it and will post links soon at his site. ^_^] This time it was Shoon and Taiyô with Shige as MC and a comedian who doesn’t seem funny at all. =/ Oh, well, at least he was pretty quiet most of the time and didn’t hog screentime from our Ya3 guys as others do.

It was a very enjoyable show to watch, especially if you like arts and crafts as much as I do. =] There’s a mechanic doll that can write with a brush! So amazing! And all the little “props” the doll has! So beautiful! And then there’s this guy that makes the most incredible cut-outs with a sheet of paper and scissors in just a few minutes and telling stories at the same time! Sugoi! And Taiyô is so much love in this episode! <333 Again no livestage ;____; A report about a Kanjani8 tour instead. No fair! -__- Oh, well, enjoy the episode in case you haven’t downloaded it yet. =] It’s not the whole show of course; I cut the boring parts. ^^



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October 18, 2007

mags or tearouts?

Well, if you fangirl several groups I’d say mags, but honestly, if you are a one group fan, like I am, tearouts is definitely the best option.

Unfortunately in Spain there’s no bookshop where you can buy JE-related magazines, so if I wanted to buy, say, the latest issue of Myojo, I’d have to buy it online, for example from Amazon. Amazon has the possibility of subscribing for a year (12 issues) for $134.00 ($11.17/issue), which is not exactly cheap if you’re only interested in 4 pages of each issue.

Also, if you’re a collector, like I am, getting every magazine Ya-Ya-yah have been featured in would leave you broke. Most times Kindai features only stuff related to the Ya3 show, and Ya3 have only started being featured in Popolo recently, so let’s just count the 4 main magazines — Duet, Myojo, Potato, and Wink Up. Ya-Ya-yah have been regulars on those magazines since 2002. They are monthly mags, so each mag has 12 issues. In a year that makes a total of 48 issues, and from 2002 to 2007 that would be 288 issues. 288 issues at $11 would be more than $3000. @___@

So until a few months ago I never dreamed of buying even a single magazine, because I thought it would be wasting the money I have to work so hard to earn. Then I learned that some people sold tearouts on Yahoo!Japan auctions and I thought I’d give it a try. Problem is Japanese people are reluctant to sell to buyers from other countries (mostly because of communication issues), so you have to do it through a deputy auction service. You may remember my first disastrous experience with Rinkya. Never never bid through them. My package with over 300 tearouts got lost and they ignored my repeated claims to find out what had happened to it or at least give me my money back. Also their service and handling fees are way too high. >=(

Because I’m rather stubborn and some people had told me to try Crescent Shop I decided to try again. And I’m so happy I did. ^___^ They reply promptly to any questions you may have, the service fees are acceptable, and the packing is really professional.

Yesterday I received a package from 2 different auctions, and it was the second time I bid through Crescent Shop. Bidding on the first auction was a bit of a whim, as it was very few pages, but they are rarities — pages from two issues from 2005 and 2006 of a magazine called Nicola. The other was 250 pages (plus a few posters) of Ya3 articles from 2002 to 2004. 67 issues of different magazines in total. ^__^

I can’t say it was exactly cheap, but it was cheaper than if I had bought the 67 issues —that would have been more than $700. The handful of Nicola pages was —service fees included— 1780 yens ($16), but hey, they are rarities and one has one of my favourite Shoon pics! =p (the one up there, on the left) The 250 pages batch of articles from 2002-2004 was 6025 yens ($54), but totally worth every yen I paid. Damn, it was even woth the 5400 yens ($49) I had to pay for the shipping. Yeah, I know: “$49 ... ouch!”, but most of those articles are very hard to find. However, the most awesome thing is that the seller of the 250 pages auction sent them perfectly organized with the name and date of each issue in 4 clear display folders!! *____* Japanese people are amazing.

I’m a very organized person, so I had bought clear display folders for the tearouts I’d won the first time, but I would never have expected to get those 250 tearouts organized so neatly. ^o^*

I don’t have a digital camera, so I can’t take pics of the folders for you to see, but I can show you the pics the seller put on the auction page. The first is just a pic of a clear display folder in case you don’t know what they are. They are really handy —before now I used them for keeping my drawings. =]

clear display folder with several pockets carpetas3 carpetas2 carpetas


Obviously those are just a sample; not the 250 tearouts. ^^ As I said on a previous entry I plan on scanning all of my tearouts —little by little, of course XD— and I thought today I’d share the 2 pages from the 2005 Nicola issue. =] I’d only seen a blurry scan of them before, and really, Shoon looks gorgeous in the group pic, so it was a shame there was no nice, big scan of it around. Shoon has such a beautiful physique —and he was just 16 back then! Staring at pics of him like that one makes me itch to grab a pencil and make drawings of him. I’ve tried to draw portraits of him, but being the obsessive perfectionist I am, I’m not happy with the results I’ve achieved so far. ^^;;; So anyway... the scans. Comments are very much appreciated if you take them, even if it’s only a ^___^ or ♥♥♥ ...especially after the indecent amounts of money I’m spending. XD;;; If you want to post them somewhere else it's okay as long as you credit me for the scanning. No need to credit if you want to make icons, graphics, or translations.

PS: Do you believe in true love? ^o^ Are you a Yamabu (ShoonxYabu/YabuxShoon) shipper? Then you have to join Slave of Love, the Yamabu LiveJournal community created by mknsen08, janel_23, and wordplay712. It was about time they had their own community! *wanders off thinking of posts she wants to make there*

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October 14, 2007

notice & puppies


edit: it seems that a lot of people had been requesting another onigokko game on the Ya3 TV show, and on the official site there's a note saying we'll get an onigokko episode on the 20th of this month. I wonder if the guys were in the mood for it. ^^ It also mentions there will be a report about the Taiwan tour of NEWS... which means no livestage. Damn. =(
2007年10月20日放送 「鬼ごっこ」がパワーアップして復活!今回はリクエストの多かった大好評企画「鬼ごっこ」がパワーアップして復活!制限時間は60分!広大な大学を舞台に薮・光・翔央・太陽をお笑い軍団9人が追い詰める。果たして4人は逃げ切ることが出来るのか?また先日行われたNEWSの台湾ツアーの模様もお届けします。お楽しみに!

Due to work I won't update again till Wednesday or Thursday. ^^ In the meantime, I'll leave you with scans of some tearouts of the 5 member Ya-Ya-yah from the Taiwanese edition of 2003.04 Wink Up. =] These are different from the Japanese edition and I bought them from Princekira. I'm a cat person, but these photos of Ya3 with puppies are so cute! Comments are love. *wink-wink* [all image links open in a new window]

PS: If you love smexy Yamabu half as much as I do, you MUST go and read Thixophobia's fic Pay Attention II. Even if you haven't read part 1, which is awesome too. 8D You won't see Arashi no Carnival in the same way after reading them. XD

PS2: Because Shoonmassu has asked this in the comments and I think other people might like to know this...

[from Shoon's Japanese Wikipedia page] 名前の「翔央」(しょおん)の由来は「神様からの贈り物」という意味で、さらに「伸びやかに羽ばたけ」という意味も含まれ名付けられている
Namae no "Shoon" [name in kanji] (Shoon - name given in hiragana for correct pronounciation) no yura wa "Kami-sama kara no okurimono" to iu imi de, sara ni "nobiyaka ni hanebatake" to iu imi mo fukumare nazukerarete iru.


More or less it says that the origin of the name "Shoon" can have the meaning of "God's gift" or "comfortable/carefree wings". Those are possible meanings based on the kanji that make up Shoon's name. However, Shoon himself mentioned in a magazine article that his mother worked as an stewardess (air hostess), so she speaks English (in fact it seems his parents spoke English to him until he was 5 yrs. old) and she gave her sons English-sounding names. Thus, "Shoon" is actually "Sean", and "Reon" is "Leon". In fact, if you watch the clip below, there's a moment (at 00:00:54) in which Shoon holds a cardboard with his name written as "Sean". The kanji of his name were chosen not only because of the meaning, but also because of the phonetic similarity: Sean [pronounced "shon" with a long o] is similar to 翔 - sho 央 -on. Some years ago I met a Japanese girl called "Marie" because her mother was a Catholic (i.e. the name was a variation of "Mary", the Virgin's name), but she wrote her name in kanji like this: 真理江. That is: 真 - ma 理 - ri 江 -e. =]



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October 12, 2007

bon appétit!

Fiona has uploaded last Saturday’s show already! The guys are divided in pairs, as usual, but there are moments in which they are all together too. They help prepare a three-course meal for a man and a woman who hold some record for eating huge quantities of food in a really short time. I’ve always thought those contests are disgusting and stupid. They don’t even enjoy the food; they just eat like pigs. *shakes head* Anyway, in this show there’s 3 cooks who prepare —with the aid of Ya3— three monster dishes this man and woman have to eat. That’s not interesting at all, but watching somebody cooking is always fun. What? I like cooking and I like cooking shows! XD Also, Ya3 are the handsomest kitchen assistants you’ll ever see and they look so domestic shopping and cooking! *kidnaps Shoon to have him cook for her* [note: I’ve cut all the parts in which the man and the woman eat —which have no interest whatsoever— to make the clip 10 minutes long]



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October 11, 2007

Baby Babe livestage

Last Saturday's livestage has put me in a good mood that I hope will last me at least till Fiona uploads the whole show. Since this was recorded looong ago, everybody is happy and relaxed. Such a contrast with last Sunday's SC! Shoon's smile in mid-performance has worked wonders in my mood too. =]



If you want to download this, please head to Mitsukai's site Singin' for You.

PS: What does Yabu say at the very end, when he's kneeling on the floor? XD?

PS2: Saw just now that hottaky has uploaded this performance too. I was typing a comment on her LJ asking her if she'd like to help Mitsukai with Singin' For You since she's been uploading them every week for some time now and it's silly that both of us are uploading the same thing. Then I remembered there won't be that many more livestages to upload, so I stopped typing in mid-sentence and deleted the comment. We only have 3 shows left, and somehow I'm afraid hoping for 3 livestages in those would be expecting too much. <=( I still haven't got used to the idea that in 3 weeks the Ya-Ya-yah show will be history. *sigh*

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October 10, 2007

happy 20th b-day, Masaki!

The former Ya-Ya-yah member Hoshino Masaki turns 20 today. Happy birthday, Masaki-kun! =D

The Japanese Ya3 fans call Shoon ハニカミ王子 (hanikami ôji) -the "bashful prince"- because of his shyness, but I think that title fits Hoshino very well too. I don't know about you, but I love shy guys. I think shyness in a guy is really cute, and it makes them so endearing too! ^__^ Probably this has some biological explanation like we feel motherly towards them because they remind us of lost puppies, but whatever the reason, shyness in a guy is a charming point for me.

summary42


So what could possibly be cuter than two shy guys together? XD Watching Shoon and Hoshino in the old Ya3 shows and SCs is just adorable.

It seems they were truly close, and Shoon turned quite moody when Hoshino was kicked out of Ya-Ya-yah and left JE. Some people think the change in Shoon, from the happy, enthusiastic kid he was, to the moody Shoon he became later is just the result of maturing, of growing up. I really don't agree with that. We've all seen in the last months a happier Shoon we hadn't seen for sometime, more similar to his younger self of 2003-4. I think it was a hard blow for him when Hoshino left, and then, without a doubt, being pushed to the background, becoming little more than a backdancer, didn't sit well with him at all.

We shy people (yes, I'm part of the club too LOL) often forget about our shyness when we are with somebody we feel comfortable with, and that's what happened when Shoon and Hoshino were together. It was something wonderful to behold, and I wish so many times JE had let Hoshino stay for the happy Shoon he brought out just by being there!

There are some rare performances I treasure, precisely because of how rare they are, like the few times Shoon and Taiyô have performed together, and this is one of those: Shoon and Hoshino in front, with Taiyô, Yabu, and Akama behind them. I also love how Yabu is smiling, as if happy to see his two older bandmates so happy, being for once in the spotlight. =] This clip is from the Sekai medley of 2003.12.07 SC (thanks, Kamichan for telling me! - I don't even know what I have on my external disk ^^;;;) You can download the whole clip and its mp3 rip here. Mental note: I need to find some time to update Never Stop the Music properly. ^^



Kawaii, ne? ^__^ Anyway, a couple of Hoshino scans to celebrate his birthday (the first one (the one I've used for the header) is from 2003.07 Myojo, and the second one is from the 2002.08 issue of Myojo. The other 3 scans are the one I used for the support-Ya3 header, which is from a TV magazine called TV JON (2004.05 8th-14th May issue), and then the two last thumbnails are scans by MIMINI from 2007.11 Myojo, a short report of the Daibouken concerts. [all image links open in a new window]

[edit: if you missed Hoshino's b-day header you can still see it below.]


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October 08, 2007

surprise visit and SC musings

A Japanese Ya-Ya-yah fan, who it seems found this blog through Daily Motion, left a comment on yesterday's entry, which makes me really happy. =] Now Japanese fans will know that fans outside Japan haven't given up on Ya-Ya-yah either. ^__^

はじめまして。ちょっと前からこのサイトをのぞいていました。Ya-Ya-yah大好きな者です。
Hi. I've been visiting this site for a little while. I'm a big fan of Ya-Ya-yah.
書いてある内容は何となく解るのですが英語でコメント書けなくて申し訳ないです…。
I know it's a poor excuse (for not having done this earlier), but I don't understand much of what is written here, and I don't speak English, so I didn't comment.
私もまだあきらめていません。Ya-Ya-yahは不滅です!4人でなくちゃYa-Ya-yahではないですよね。
I'm not giving up yet either. Ya-Ya-yah forever! If it's not 4 people, then it's not Ya-Ya-yah.
これからもYa-Ya-yahの活動を応援していきたいと思います!諦めないで頑張りましょうね!
I want to keep on supporting Ya-Ya-yah as a group! Let's not give up!
海外にもファンがいるってすごいことだと思います。
I think it's great that Ya-Ya-yah has fans abroad too.
ますますこれからもYa-Ya-yahを続けていって欲しいと思いました。
This has made me want even more to see Ya-Ya-yah go on.
みなさん、がんばりましょうね!
Everyone: let's do our best (in supporting them)!

So yes, this has cheered me up quite a bit. =]

I thought yesterday's Shounen Club would cheer me up too because, since it was recorded before the HSJ debut announcement, I expected to see all of Ya-Ya-yah happy -and they were-, but Shoon and Taiyô got very little screentime, so I enjoyed it, but not as much as other episodes with more Ya-Ya-yah.

Watching it, though, I once more had that feeling that there were so many things that would have made anybody think they were in for a debut, like either being introduced in the very first place before all the other groups, like this time (watch clip below), or after all the others, to increase the expectation. Also, unlike ABC or KMF2, they were each introduced by their names, and their performance of Baby Babe was saved for the last part of the show, making you think that they want to hold the show viewers till the end.



It's so confusing that everything seemed to be pointing in one direction and then suddenly Mr.K. gave the steering wheel such a sharp turn. Then again perhaps it wasn't so, perhaps we just misread the signs and Ya-Ya-yah was a kind of red-herring? I mean, things are starting to add up:

+June 16th - announcement that Hey!Say!7 would release a single on August 1st.
+July 14th - a new drama with the Morimoto brothers (Ryutarô and Shintarô) called Juken no Kamisama starts airing
+July 30th - filming of the Sept. SC episodes, in which Okamoto sings with Yabu and Hikaru
+August - Daibouken concerts with an important presence of HS7
+Sept. 17th - filming of the Oct. SC episodes - Ryutaro has a solo (so does Shintaro), Inoo has a solo, HS7 get quite a bit of screentime and sing as a group the beginning of the song that closes the show, and all of a sudden Kamei too gets some screentime
+Sep. 23rd-24th Yokohama Arena concerts - called "Hey Say 07 Johnny's Jrs. Concerts" - again with an important presence of Hey Say 7.
+Sept 24th Yokohama Arena concert - HSJ debut announcement

What I'm trying to get at is that things don't happen for nothing in JE. I think the HSJ debut has been brewing since well before July 30th. Same as it's obvious that Kamei got some screentime on yesterday's SC to promote him because he's going to be in the new Kinpachi Sensei season, I think we'll agree that we all wondered why was that Okamoto kid singing a song with Yabu and Hikaru all of a sudden. Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that Ryutarô and Inoo got solos on yesterday's SC -which was recorded on Sept. 17th- given the fact that both are in HSJ now. I must admit that I like Shintarô better than Ryutarô, but Ryutarô surprised me with his dancing. ^^v

This gives me some hope. If JE has been giving some attention to Taiyô and Shoon, as well as to Ya-Ya-yah as a group giving them new songs, remakes of their old songs, etc., it cannot have been for nothing, right? ^^ Perhaps somewhere along the way Mr. K. decided it was too soon to play his trump card? I still remember when Kamichan discovered that on amazon.co.jp there were two suspicious items that could be preordered: a Ya-Ya-yah CD, and a Ya-Ya-yah DVD. Then, all of a sudden, those items disappeared. Wish I had a link to that entry. I think Kamichan still keeps a screencap (don't you?). Also... remember the Beatles references, Ya-Ya-yah singing A Hard Day's Night and all that? So strange... Oh, well.

So anyway... Shokura. ^^ Ya3-wise the main Ya3 presence was Yabu and Hikaru again on their O-tegami itadakimasu corner, the Junior League segment, their performance of Baby Babe, and the ending song, Days, which they performed with the rest of the juniors.

On the O-tegami itadakimasu Hikaru was cute and funny as always, making faces and voices, but I didn't grasp much of what they were saying. ^^;;; so I don't think it's worth posting a clip of that. Side note: the way they appoint winner Yabu or Hikaru is so random! O_o edit: on second thoughts I'll post a tiny bit 'cause they were both so cute! ^^B



The Junior League segment was quite creative this time. The SCs theme was Anniversary as the guests were Takki&Tsubasa who are celebrating their 5th anniversary of marriage XD as a duo. Hikaru, Kawai, Nakamaru, Takki, and Tsubasa were disguised in long black cloaks with hoods. They were sitting with their backs to the Johnny's Rainbows and Dream Bombers teams, and each had a microphone especially set up so that their voices sounded distorted. The teams had to make questions and find out the real Takki and the real Tsubasa. This was quite funny as well, but I don't think it's worth posting either 'cause I can't explain all they said. Let's hope someone will sub that. =]

Okay, on to the Baby Babe performance. The coreography was very much the same, but even if Ya-Ya-yah performs the same song a hundred times, there are always things to notice, things that make each performance special, like a smile, or a gesture, or a series of steps that one of them performs really well... All in all however, I must admit I liked better their first performance of this song on SC. This time, for some reason, they weren't focused -Taiyô and Yabu almost crashed into each other at the end ^^;;;-, the performance looked a bit rushed somehow, and Yabu changed his microphone from hand to hand in a rather brusque manner. Actually they seemed kind of distracted at some moments with the lyrics and the hand movements.



Finally, the Days performance with all the other juniors. It's a very beautiful song, and it was nice that even though HS7 opened the song, then Takaki and Daiki joined Inoo, Hasshi, and Kamei to sing as JJE, and that then Ya-Ya-yah, ABC, and KMF2 each sang a part too, but in the current circumstances the song has connotations of sadness and uncertainty for me. <=( No, these are not days for melancholic songs, JE.



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October 07, 2007

a letter to Mr. Kitagawa

Dear Mr. Kitagawa,

if you’re not too busy trying to bury the Showa era, thinking of clever puns and acronyms, like Hey! Say! and J.U.M.P. (Johnny’s Ultra Music Power? ... Pffft! what the heck!), or trying to come up with new combinations with the word “kitty” for new group names, I’d like you to take a moment and look at the face of Yabu Kôta on this clip. It’s a bit from the press conference held after the H!S!JUMP debut was announced, from the day that was supposed to be one of the happiest days in his life. (?)

May I suggest that in the future you don’t divide the juniors into groups? What’s the point if later on you will dispose of this and that member to make a new group debut, like one makes a salad, choosing only certain leafs of the lettuce?

In the meantime, please don’t give hopes to juniors and fans just to crush them later on. We know you run a business, but you’re dealing with people who have feelings; not grain sacks.

Yours sincerely,
Irea

PS: In case you can’t see Yabu’s face well in this streaming video, I’ve uploaded it just for you. The image quality is much better on the original 720x480 clip. Click
here.


----------------------------------------------

Yes, poor Yabucchi looked like he was trying really hard not to cry. ;___; Anyway. I’m going to break a promise I made to Aki, but it’s for a good reason. I told her the Shoon&Taiyô Ya3 support header would stay until we knew what’s going to happen to them, but even for me it was getting too depressing to see it every day. ;__; I want to be positive. That’s why I’ve made a new support header with all of Ya3, the nicknames they came up with when they dreamed of their next concert, and a motto the Japanese Ya3 fans use a lot: 4=1. Because the 4 of them together are as 1. ^__^ If you missed Taiyô’s 6th anniversary header, you can still see it below. =]

2007septheader4 2007oct6anivtaiyo

And because we need to cheer up, I want to share with you ZANSANHANE’s latest scans:
2007.11 Duet :: 2007.11 Potato :: 2007.11 Wink Up

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October 06, 2007

happy 6th anniversary, Taiyô!

I learned just now, thanks to Stevenica, who left a comment with a very nice drawing, that today is Taiyô's 6th anniversary in Johnny's =] and I thought that this well deserves a Taiyô header, even if just for one day. Happy anniversary, Taiyô-chan! Hope you'll celebrate many more anniversaries!

The picture I used is from the 2002.08 issue of Myojo.I'll scan the whole article some other day, but here goes Taiyô's page as a present to all the Taiyô fans out there, and especially to Yungboy, Aki, and Rin. =] Click on the pic on the left. ;-) [opens a new window]

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I "hate" HSJ

Yesterday Yui and I were commenting on how painful it is that JE seems to be killing us slowly, stab by stab. First the HSJ debut announcement, then the Ya3 show is cancelled, yesterday a notice comes up at the Ya3 show official site regarding the new show, Hi! Hey! Say!... and today, at Yahoo!Japan auctions I find this:





Those are pics of the November issues of Duet, Potato, and Wink Up magazines. In the last months Ya-Ya-yah had been getting up to 5 pages in the mags sometimes. In the November issues of these 3 magazines they only get 3. The WU one is particularly irritating as well because Yabu and Hikaru get 1 page each, while Taiyô and Shoon share the third page. There we go, pushing them into the background again. So nice.

Since Yabu and Hikaru get more pages thanks to being in HSJ now —see the orgy of overpopulated pages below—, wouldn’t it be fair that at least Shoon and Taiyô should get 1 page each?


The way things are going, this makes me wonder if next year we’ll even be lucky enough to get 1 page of Ya-Ya-yah in the mags, like poor ABC. I swear I’m trying to be positive and hope for the best, but it’s harder by the day, and I grimace everytime I see an HSJ picture. I think I'm developing a serious case of HSJ allergy.

Every time I see a HSJ picture I want to drag Yabu and Hikaru out of it and think “No! You belong in Ya-Ya-yah!”. ^^;;; Actually I’m starting to understand the webmistress of the Korean Ya3 site Moonlightboy.com.

Many of us feel bad for the way Akama and Hoshino were kicked out of Ya-Ya-yah, but I don’t think we can say we feel attached to them in the same way we feel attached to Hikaru, Shoon, Yabu and Taiyô. It’s natural, after all, because we only got to see them in the first few shows —playing some real, active part I mean. Then, little by littl they were pushed into the background, till in 2004 Akama disappeared completely from the scene, to be followed by Hoshino shortly after.

The Moonlightboy webmistress seems to have followed Ya-Ya-yah from the very start —she has some really, really rare stuff that dates back to 2001 and 2002—, and it seems she felt very attached to Akama and Hoshino.

I can now imagine how she must have felt when all of a sudden someone decided to put Hikaru in Ya-Ya-yah, and little by little Akama and Hoshino were pushed to the background. As a matter of fact, if you take a look at the galleries on her site, you’ll find no Hikaru solo pictures and in some pictures he’s even been cut from them (a bit extreme, really ^^;;;). Now however she seems to be finally accepting him as part of Ya-Ya-yah, because she’s not doing that anymore.

Of course it’s stupid to blame or hate Hikaru for Akama and Hoshino being kicked out of Ya-Ya-yah, but us fangirls are many times somewhat irrational.

To show the absurdity of it, Kamichan compared, a couple of days ago, hating the HSJ members —does anyone really hate them? O_o?— to hating a friend who moves to another town because his father has been transfered because of his job.

As I said I don’t hate the HSJ members, but in a way, yes, I guess I “hate” HSJ, and I can’t help it. Using “hate” in this context does not necessarily imply the literal meaning of the word, though. When you say “I love sausages”, does that mean you’re in love with sausages?, that you want to marry them? =p No, of course not. So when I say I “hate” HSJ, it only means that I dislike the group (not the members) strongly because its coming into being might —still clinging to a desperate hope, yes— mean the end of something I love. And if you want a comparison, think of a kid whose parents divorce and his mother or father remarries. The kid at first will most likely “hate” his stepfather or stepmother, not on a personal level, but as the change that has been suddenly imposed upon him.

Changes in Nature are normally smooth, the result of the passing of time or millions of years of evolution, but the changes in our lifes are more often than not sudden, abrupt, and hard to get used to. We humans have a tendency to cling to the things we know and love, and it’s hard to let them go.

October 03, 2007

till whenever!

I thought I was done with crying, but it looks like I’m not. Yes, I admit it: I’ve been crying again. But not because of the confirmation we had yesterday that the Ya-Ya-yah show will soon come to its end. No, I was prepared for that. I saw it coming. In that respect I feel... just numb. I only hope that at least the last show will be some kind of special, with all Ya3 together, in recognition of the five years the Ya3 show has been on air. I'd hate it to end without a word of goodbye or something. -__-

The thing that made me cry again is the wonderful fanfic Mousapelli posted yesterday at the Ya3 LJ community: Itsumademo (Until Whenever). She’s managed to write a very moving story without getting sentimental at all, and that’s something I admire and envy. It made me smile too; a lot. She has a knack for humour.

Actually itsumademo means “for always”, or “forever”, but the concept of eternity is a bit too big for the human mind. I mean, how can we even grasp the idea of eternity when our life is as short as a sigh, compared to the millions of years the Earth has been in existance? “Until whenever” is so much more honest. We have no way of knowing what’s going to happen in a year, or in a month, or even tomorrow, so yes, “until whenever” is a much more beautiful idea.

I had started an entry for today, which was getting absolutely depressing, but after reading Mousapelli’s fanfic I remembered a comment Kizuite left a couple of days ago. She asked me to cheer up because she felt even more down than she was when she read my posts. When I read that I realized I had to make an effort and try to cheer up for those of you who follow my blog.

I owe it to you all. To those who leave comments regularly (Sue, Yuki, Rin, Maya, Kyuri, Alei... you’re too many to mention here). To those who have been silent lurkers for a while but left the shadows to comfort me in the past days. To Yui, who has been so wonderfully generous she offered to pay for the shipping of 18 Yuuki 100% CDs to engage other fans in actively supporting Ya3. To the people who have ordered one or more CDs even though they already have it. To Yungboy, who has been uploading SC clips for months to help me with Never Stop the Music. To Aki, for being so generous and loving Taiyô so much. To Luma, who’s thinking of writing a Yamabu fanfic to cheer me up ^^B and has been sharing so many scans she should enter the Guiness Book of Records. To Yuantim, who generously donated many, many scans to my album —I still have quite a few to upload. To Akgla, who co-mods with me Shoon around-the-Clock, and helped me so much with his 18th b-day project. To NEWShFAN and Fahlyu, who helped make that project come true too. To the people who sub Ya3 clips and translate Ya3 articles. To Kamichan, for often making me question my views and beliefs —a healthy exercise for the mind, really. To Mitsukai, for creating Singin’ for You. To Scribe, Bree, Mousapelli, and all the other people who write fanfics that make me smile, cry, and laugh. To all the people who have read my own fics and encouraged me to write more. To Esther, for making me laugh so much with our Yamabu-Shookaru “fights”. To Quin_tessen_ce for starting a new Ya3 support project by encouraging people to send postcards or letters. To Theo-chan, for writing the funniest, most complete SC reviews. To Akarirei, whom I miss but I think is still around as her LJ account hasn’t been deleted. ...

That’s a long list, isn’t it? So yes, I think I owe it to you all to try and cheer up. The Ya-Ya-yah show will soon be no more, we don’t know what’s going to happen with Ya-Ya-yah as a group, nor with Shoon and Taiyô, but I’ll still be blogging about Ya-Ya-yah... till whenever.

In a few weeks there won’t be any more new Ya3 shows for me to comment on, but then I’ll comment on the old ones. There’s so many little things I’ve always wanted to comment on about those and haven’t been able to due to the lack of time and the urge to comment on the latest ones!

If Ya-Ya-yah breaks up there won’t be any new Ya3 scans for me to share or any new Ya3 SC performances for me to upload either, but I’ll just keep on sharing old ones that haven’t been shared yet till there are no more to share. And then I intend to take up my Japanese again so that I’ll be able to translate each of those articles. Perhaps when I’m fluent enough I’ll even start subbing the old episodes that haven’t been shared yet.

I’m also going to get myself busy with special posts for the boys upcoming birthdays, and projects for Yabu’s 18th b-day —anybody up for a countdown?— and Shoon’s 19th. As a matter of fact I’m thinking of a special contest for Shoon’s b-day this year... and this time there will be prizes as now I have two copies of several Ya3 tearouts. =] I love Crescent Shop. I decided to bid through them at Yahoo!Japan auctions and have won over 260 tearouts that arrived yesterday. Can’t wait to scan and share many of them with you! ^__^

This will always remain a Ya3 blog, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever post about Hey! Say! JUMP nor about Hey! Say! Best... unless one day I’m actually capable of watching one of their performances without having a knot in the stomach. To this day I can’t even watch a full HSJ-related clip on Kamichan’s blog, so that’s how hard it is for me to accept all this. However, I’ll post about the Hi! Hey! Say! show if Taiyô and Shoon are featured there as well.

You can also expect me to keep posting any Shoon-related news unless one day he leaves the jimushô for good or goes back to being an anonymous person —which I’d understand and respect even though it would break my heart as it would mean never knowing about him again. ;__; Above all else I’m a Shoon fan, and whatever path he chooses to take, be it theatre plays, dramas, or anything else showbiz-related, I’ll support him and follow closely his career.

And to show that I mean all I’ve just said, here go three scans: an old one, and two I’d never seen anywhere else before. The first one is the page that was missing from the 2002.11 Myojo set, remember? That set was among the 260+ tearouts I received yesterday and it was complete. =] The other two scans are part of what I’m going to call the “Stand by Me files”. XD Among the tearouts there’s a whole batch of SbM-related articles from different non-JE magazines, and these two reflect the Ya3 I don’t want to see and the Ya3 I want to see.

I don’t want to see Ya3 all serious in the bleak corner of an uncertain future, as in the second scan. Jeez, the mag photographer was not in a very cheery mood that day, was he? ^^;;; I want to see Ya3 together —till whenever— and happy, as in the third one. =]

[the pic links below open in a new window]

SCANNED BY IREASCANNED BY IREASCANNED BY IREA

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October 01, 2007

some Taiyô and Shoon love

I never got to write an entry about the 2007.08.12 SC episode because I was on vacation and my Internet connection was lousy, so I'll take the chance to do so now. I think it's a good moment to do so too because Shoon and Taiyô need some love these days.
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Not that I didn't miss the rest of the boys, but it was so awesome they were the only Tokyo juniors on the two August episodes. ^__^ It was also wonderful that on the 2007.08.12 one they got to do a bit of MC-ing for the NEWS mania corner.
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Don't know if you've read about the rumours that HSJ will be the ones to do the MC-ing next year on SC. I always wanted Yabu and Hikaru to have that chance, but to be honest I don't think they are MC material. ^^;;; Yabu is too shy, and Hikaru is very funny, but he often messes up when they have to introduce their O-tegami itadakimasu corner. Of course they might get better at it with a little practice, but... you know who I think would be an awesome MC? Taiyô. Seriously. Watch him on this clip. He's so charming, natural, and funny!
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And what follows is another bit from this game corner, because I need objective confirmation of something. LOL You see, sometime ago I read on a Japanese blog an interview to Yamapi in which he was asked to name a junior he considered cute. He answered that when he saw Satomi Hakkenden he thought Shoon was really cute! XD And then, when I was watching this part of the show... Right after Shoon smiles childishly when he sees Massu's drawing, I'd swear the corners of Yamapi's lips lift, as if he were thinking Shoon is really cute, because he's looking his way and he doesn't seem to be listening to Nakamaru at all. LOL Who knew?, Yamapi's got a crush on Shoon. XDDD Then again it might just my imagination, so I want somebody else's opinion. =p I don't know if you'll actually be able to see Yamapi's smile on this streaming clip 'cause it's kind of hard to see, so I cut this bit and uploaded it to YSI. MediaFire seems to be acting up lately. =/
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And speaking of smiles... I wonder if anybody else noticed this on the solos livestage: Shoon smiled in the most adorable way when Yabu kissed his thumb to throw a kiss at the audience, as he always does at the end of Arashi no Carnival, then wiped the smile off his lips, as if reminding himself that they were working. XD A streaming video wouldn't allow you to see this at all, so I uploaded this to YSI too, and I uploaded yet another cute Shoon clip I cut and cropped (that's why it's so small) from the Daibouken report Fiona uploaded some weeks ago. It's a clip from the very end of the concert, when the boys are waving to say goodbye to the audience. In the background you can hear a song that goes something like "I want to boogie, let's boogie", and Shoon does a cute silly dance that makes me smile everytime I watch it. I think we all need to smile these days, so I uploaded that too. =]
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PS: Oh, and another thing that made me smile today: a piece of cool fanart a reader from Thailand called Nopparat Rattanawong sent to me. Thanks so much! I love it. =]
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shoon_fanart
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PS2: Some people have asked if it's okay to order the Yuuki 100% CD from other sites, like YesAsia.com, and others. Sure. =] It won't reflect on the amazon.co.jp ranking, but it will no doubt reflect on the sales figures JE receives, so sure, go ahead and buy it from other sites. The important thing is to support Ya-Ya-yah, and you'll be doing that no matter which site you buy the CD from. ^__^
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