山下翔央, Yamashita Shoon, Ya-Ya-yah
Clocks and watches should be banned. I spend my days like Alice in Wonderland's white rabbit, always in a hurry, trying to catch up with everything I have to do and want to do. =__=;;; What bothers me the most is that I never have enough time for all the things I want to do. I don't want to be a slave of work, I want more time for myself! D:
Okay, enough ranting. ^^ Last Sunday there was Shounen Club, and I didn't find the time to post an entry about it, but I NEED to comment on at least two things: Shoon singing Miso Soup with MAD's Kosaka, and Yabu's solo.
Miso Soup... I'm sure Kosaka is a very nice guy, and there's no doubt he can sing, but I wish he hadn't performed this song as if he were at a karaoke place. ^^;;;
ABC's Kawai can make great impersonations of different people, but when ABC performs an Arashi song on SC he doesn't mimic Matsumoto Jun's gestures. Funnily enough -and I guess this was unintended-, while Kosaka's hand gestures were a perfect imitation of Massu's, his singing at certain moments reminded me of Tegoshi. So if he had been at a karaoke place or taking part in an impersonations contest I'd say he did great.
However, since that was not the case, the result was a rather unbalanced performance. Shoon was calmly doing his own thing, because he is, as the Japanese say, a very "my-pace" guy, while Kosaka was too busy mimicking Massu to remember it was a duo and not a solo. Speaking of which, he sang so loud it was hard to hear Shoon at all, and I don't think it's a question of voice potency because in the last lines he toned down his voice a bit without a problem.
Somebody who has problems controlling his voice is Yabu, but it seems his voice trainer is finally trying to help him. I'm not an expert in music; I can only judge somebody's singing on whether it sounds good or bad. You don't have to be an expert to notice when a singer goes off key, though. Yabu has a nasal, distinct voice that can sound very nice sometimes, but others... well, sometimes I find myself grimacing. And it's such a shame. Well, it looks like his vocal trainer has decided to resort to Yabu's falsetto as a way of avoiding Yabu's off-key moments. A falsetto is "a technique in singing using a voice pitched higher than the singer's natural range" (Webster's Online Dictionary). It is "breathy and flute-like" and it "enables the singer to sing notes beyond the vocal range of the normal or modal voice" (Wikipedia). The most beautiful example of falsetto singing I can think of right now is the theme song of the movie Mononoke Hime, sung by the Japanese countertenor Yoshikazu Mera. I'm totally in love with that song and with the movieand Shoon would make a wonderful Ashitaka in a real image movie.
Yabu had used this technique before, though it was more noticeable in Rain Dance, and in his new solo, My Everything, he makes an extensive use of it. It was very interesting, even for someone like me, who doesn't know much about music, to see him battling with his voice. He was trying so hard it made me love him even more. 頑張って下さいね, やぶっち! [The clip on the left was uploaded to YouTube by sshoonn] He needs to improve his English pronounciation too, but well, one thing at time, right? ^^
And now it's Ya-Ya-yah time. =D I've scanned two sets today. One is from the very first time Ya-Ya-yah was featured in Popolo, back in 2003. It's an article about Stand by Me, the first time they staged the play. I wish there were fancams of the 2003 version and the 2004 one to compare the boys performances and the differences in each version. Judging from the photographs at least, I'd say Shoon's take on Chris in the 2003 version was too naive when Chris is supposed to be a bit of a rebel, the kind of guy who acts like he's very tough even though he's very intelligent and sensitive. Just look at the pic on the right. He looks too sweet! ^3^ And this scene he had with Yabu (who played the part of Gordie) on the tree-house is so much love. XD *squee*
_____ 
And if Shoon looked sweet, Taiyô looked plain angelic. I would have loved to see what his acting skills were like in this, because he was pretty good in Kinpachi Sensei. I so hope groink will upload the last subbed episodes of the series to D-Addicts. T___T Re-watching it and being able to understand everything is so much better. It's just a few more. *begs groink* m(_ _)m
Anyway, the other set I've scanned is from a 2005 Kindai issue that has an article about the dodgeball Ya-Ya-yah episode (see pic below), and another about that onigokko game (Onigokko Reverse) they played in this sort of Wild West theme park. This one has some really funny pics (see the pic of Hikaru below riding a... giant plush bear? XD). It also has Yabu striking a sexy pose in that hideous black outfit they wore and the mushroom haircut just made it worse. =_= You know, I blame Yabu's hair stylist for how long it took Ya-Ya-yah to leave behind the kiddy-group look. XP
Oh, and there's even a group pic on one page with Ya-Ya-yah, Shige and Kusano, and I just couldn't resist making a wallpaper. XD
Links ~ 2003.10 Popolo || 2005.07 Kindai || wallpaper (5 screen sizes)
PS: the header is an official pic of Yabu from DreamBoys. The text is a little excerpt from a Ya-Ya-yah fic I'm writing, a fic about Ya-Ya-yah's break up.
PS2: Once again, please bear with me. I still have lots of comments to reply, but I will reply them all. Ganbarimasu!
Clocks and watches should be banned. I spend my days like Alice in Wonderland's white rabbit, always in a hurry, trying to catch up with everything I have to do and want to do. =__=;;; What bothers me the most is that I never have enough time for all the things I want to do. I don't want to be a slave of work, I want more time for myself! D: Okay, enough ranting. ^^ Last Sunday there was Shounen Club, and I didn't find the time to post an entry about it, but I NEED to comment on at least two things: Shoon singing Miso Soup with MAD's Kosaka, and Yabu's solo.
Miso Soup... I'm sure Kosaka is a very nice guy, and there's no doubt he can sing, but I wish he hadn't performed this song as if he were at a karaoke place. ^^;;;
ABC's Kawai can make great impersonations of different people, but when ABC performs an Arashi song on SC he doesn't mimic Matsumoto Jun's gestures. Funnily enough -and I guess this was unintended-, while Kosaka's hand gestures were a perfect imitation of Massu's, his singing at certain moments reminded me of Tegoshi. So if he had been at a karaoke place or taking part in an impersonations contest I'd say he did great.
However, since that was not the case, the result was a rather unbalanced performance. Shoon was calmly doing his own thing, because he is, as the Japanese say, a very "my-pace" guy, while Kosaka was too busy mimicking Massu to remember it was a duo and not a solo. Speaking of which, he sang so loud it was hard to hear Shoon at all, and I don't think it's a question of voice potency because in the last lines he toned down his voice a bit without a problem.
Somebody who has problems controlling his voice is Yabu, but it seems his voice trainer is finally trying to help him. I'm not an expert in music; I can only judge somebody's singing on whether it sounds good or bad. You don't have to be an expert to notice when a singer goes off key, though. Yabu has a nasal, distinct voice that can sound very nice sometimes, but others... well, sometimes I find myself grimacing. And it's such a shame. Well, it looks like his vocal trainer has decided to resort to Yabu's falsetto as a way of avoiding Yabu's off-key moments. A falsetto is "a technique in singing using a voice pitched higher than the singer's natural range" (Webster's Online Dictionary). It is "breathy and flute-like" and it "enables the singer to sing notes beyond the vocal range of the normal or modal voice" (Wikipedia). The most beautiful example of falsetto singing I can think of right now is the theme song of the movie Mononoke Hime, sung by the Japanese countertenor Yoshikazu Mera. I'm totally in love with that song and with the movie
Yabu had used this technique before, though it was more noticeable in Rain Dance, and in his new solo, My Everything, he makes an extensive use of it. It was very interesting, even for someone like me, who doesn't know much about music, to see him battling with his voice. He was trying so hard it made me love him even more. 頑張って下さいね, やぶっち! [The clip on the left was uploaded to YouTube by sshoonn] He needs to improve his English pronounciation too, but well, one thing at time, right? ^^
And now it's Ya-Ya-yah time. =D I've scanned two sets today. One is from the very first time Ya-Ya-yah was featured in Popolo, back in 2003. It's an article about Stand by Me, the first time they staged the play. I wish there were fancams of the 2003 version and the 2004 one to compare the boys performances and the differences in each version. Judging from the photographs at least, I'd say Shoon's take on Chris in the 2003 version was too naive when Chris is supposed to be a bit of a rebel, the kind of guy who acts like he's very tough even though he's very intelligent and sensitive. Just look at the pic on the right. He looks too sweet! ^3^ And this scene he had with Yabu (who played the part of Gordie) on the tree-house is so much love. XD *squee* _____ And if Shoon looked sweet, Taiyô looked plain angelic. I would have loved to see what his acting skills were like in this, because he was pretty good in Kinpachi Sensei. I so hope groink will upload the last subbed episodes of the series to D-Addicts. T___T Re-watching it and being able to understand everything is so much better. It's just a few more. *begs groink* m(_ _)mAnyway, the other set I've scanned is from a 2005 Kindai issue that has an article about the dodgeball Ya-Ya-yah episode (see pic below), and another about that onigokko game (Onigokko Reverse) they played in this sort of Wild West theme park. This one has some really funny pics (see the pic of Hikaru below riding a... giant plush bear? XD). It also has Yabu striking a sexy pose in that hideous black outfit they wore and the mushroom haircut just made it worse. =_= You know, I blame Yabu's hair stylist for how long it took Ya-Ya-yah to leave behind the kiddy-group look. XP
Oh, and there's even a group pic on one page with Ya-Ya-yah, Shige and Kusano, and I just couldn't resist making a wallpaper. XD
Links ~ 2003.10 Popolo || 2005.07 Kindai || wallpaper (5 screen sizes)
PS: the header is an official pic of Yabu from DreamBoys. The text is a little excerpt from a Ya-Ya-yah fic I'm writing, a fic about Ya-Ya-yah's break up.
PS2: Once again, please bear with me. I still have lots of comments to reply, but I will reply them all. Ganbarimasu!
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