That's right. You can now pick up the December 2009 issue and read my review of the new Vola & the Oriental Machine album Sa Ka Na Electric Device in all its glory.
And that's all that I've got this time around, but there's more great music coverage to be had in the form of Brian Camp's huge interview with the members of Morning Musume. (Did you read my interview with group leader Ai Takahashi in August?) And there's also a special Cosplay Cafe interview with the Anime-Song Girl's Club.
Then of course there's the usual barrage of video game, film, anime, manga and general otaku spazoid greatness. Check it out!
The new issue of Otaku USA Magazine just hit my mailbox, so I thought I'd give you a bit of a run-down to hopefully entice you to check it out when you see it in your favorite local otaku hideout.
First up, the big feature (at least as far as ZB's world is concerned) is my interview with Morning Musume group leader Ai Takahashi. We talk a bit about her rise to stardom and what it's like to be a Musume. I also review the new Morning Musume album Platinum 9 Disc. And speaking of reviews, I take a look at the debut album from Cellythm, a band signed to Nobuo Uematsu's own record label Dog Ear Records.
Aside from music, I review Noby Noby Boy, a game for the PS3. If you haven't played it, well, maybe my review will help you understand it. Maybe. Finally, as part of the big Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood cover story, I take a listen to the opening and ending themes to the show, from Yui and SID.
Then there's also everything from everyone else! There's a Utada Hikaru story from Mike Dent, A look at MadWorld for the Wii from Joseph Luster, an eye-popping interview with manga master Hitoshi Iwaaki, a billion manga, anime and film reviews and way too much other stuff to go into here. I mean, you'd need 122 pages!
I really hope you can pick up a copy as soon as you see it. As always, Otaku USA Magazine is the best (and only!) magazine for the hardcore otaku!
[Full details after the jump] ANIME EXPO® ANNOUNCES MORNING MUSUME AS FIRST OFFICIAL GUESTS OF HONOR FOR 2009 CONVENTION IN LOS ANGELES
Nation’s Largest Anime and Manga Convention Welcomes Japan’s Top Female Group from Hello! Project
Anaheim, California and Tokyo, Japan (February 12, 2009) — With excitement beyond belief, Anime Expo® proudly announces the attendance and performance of Japan’s most celebrated and top all-girl music group MORNING MUSUME (also referred to as “Momusu”) to the nation’s largest anime and manga convention held July 2-5, 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org .
The MORNING MUSUME (モーニング娘. Morning Daughter) is a one of a kind all-girl group whose story began in 1997 when Japanese producer TSUNKU♂ held auditions for a female rock vocalist for his band SHARAN Q held on the Japanese TV show ASAYAN. With the five runner-ups from the contest, Tsunku decided to create an all-girl group that sold 50,000 copies of their indies CD single “Ai no Tane” and debuted as MORNING MUSUME. They are the lead group of Hello! Project .
MORNING MUSUME’s first single “Morning Coffee” made a huge splash by hitting the #6 position in the Japanese pop charts within its first week of release. In August of 1998, MORNING MUSUME reached the #1 spot in the Japanese pop charts with their 3rd single “HOLD ON ME”. In 1999, the group had their first nationwide tour with 19 performances in 7 cities for 40,000 fans.
In September of 1999, MORNING MUSUME released their smash hit “Love Machine” that sold 2 million copies and held the first place spot in the Japanese pop charts and stayed 17 weeks on the Oricon Karaoke Chart.
MORNING MUSUME is famous not just for being Japan’s top female group, but also for its unique approach with the shuffling of members. Producer TSUNKU♂ creates freshness by graduating band members and adding new members to create different units and adds fresh new faces for fans old and new.
In 2007, MORNING MUSUME made a historic impact within the Japanese music industry as the band welcomed new members Jun Jun and Lin Lin from China and began to reach an international audience. In 2008, MORNING MUSUME celebrated their 10th anniversary. MORNING MUSUME is definitely the world’s most famous and successful Japanese all-girl group.
MORNING MUSUME consists of band members Ai Takahashi, Risa Niigaki, Eri Kamei, Sayumi Michishige, Reina Tanaka, Koharu Kusumi, Aika Mitsui, JunJun, and LinLin.
Images available upon request and/or via the Anime Expo® 2009 Online Press Kit.
Attendees, Press and Industry Members are also encouraged to view the video coverage site of the 2008 convention at www.AXBackstage.org and to register for the 2009 convention at www.anime-expo.org .
In coordination with this event, JapanFiles.com will release Morning Musume's digital catalog on its website, beginning with the release of the group's new single "Naichau kamo" on February 18, 2009. JapanFiles.com will also open a special Morning Musume store for fans with official goods from Japan.
About Anime Expo® Located in Los Angeles, California - Anime Expo®, the nation’s largest anime/manga convention, serves to foster trade, commerce and the interests of the general public and animation/ comics industry. This event serves as a key meeting place for the general public to express their interest and explore various aspects of anime/manga, as well as for members of the industry to conduct business. AX 2009 will be held July 2 – July 5, 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Southern California. More information can be found at its website (www.anime-expo.org).
About Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) is a non-profit organization with a mission to popularize and educate the American public about anime and manga, as well as provide a forum to facilitate communication between professionals and fans. This organization is more popularly known by its entertainment property – Anime Expo®. More information can be found at its website (www.spja.org ).
The statements made in this press release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The Company cautions readers of this press release that a number of important factors could cause Anime Expo®/SPJA’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation, product delays, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, vendors and third-party developers, international economic and political conditions. The Company may change its intention, belief or expectation, at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, in the Company's assumptions or otherwise. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
I'm sometimes asked why I haven't reviewed [insert band name here], or am told that a profile isn't quite in-depth enough for [crazy fan of insert band name here.] This is usually the case for the really popular bands. I can certainly understand how the hardcore fans will always want to see their favorites in the spotlight (see any of my entries on Polysics for an example of this in action,) and I'm always happy to see such pure enthusiasm for any Japanese band.
The truth is that, in these cases, I feel it's much better for people to just Google or Wiki the band's name and gather the info themselves from the unlimited number of fan-sites that are out there. Together they can all do a much better job at covering the details than I can. That amount of depth and obsession isn't exactly what ZB's A-Z is about.
All of this is a long-winded way for me to explain why I don't always cover the major label/studio conceived pop bands. It's certainly not because I don't enjoy listening to them. In fact, one of the first Japanese pop groups I became a fan of was Morning Musume. Of course this was most likely because they are everywhere. It's tough to open any mainstream Japanese music magazine or watch any popular count-down music show and not see them pop up, sometimes more than once. Plus the sheer strangeness of Hello! Project to the first-time viewer is enough to force interest.
In a very small nutshell, Hello! Project (or H!P) is the product of the Up Front Agency. H!P is a collection of a huge number of young girl singers/idols. These girls form many smaller groups or solo acts, sometimes shuffling (hence the term Shuffle Group) in and out of other groups. Morning Musume is the largest collection of girls, hovering around a dozen or so at any one time. Much like Latino boy-band Menudo, the girls are "graduated" out of the group when they reach a certain age.
The H!P sound is pure, cold filtered, beech-wood aged pop. While the style of each group (somewhere around 50 I think, including solo acts) may differ slightly in both look (from the size of the girls (literally!,) to their ages, to their costumes) and sound (from traditional folk, to "reggae," to pop), it's all essentially the same vein of pop. This is possibly a result of almost all the music bring written by a single person, Mitsuo Terada.
From here, I leave it to the fans. I highly recommend the excellent blog-collecting-blog International Wota. There you can find any number of links to fan sites and blogs covering the entire spectrum of Hello! Project news, as well as other pop groups, including news, reviews, blue-sky speculation and latent fan-boy/girl-ism. Of course there is also Wiki and ThePPN.
W was another duo, this time featuring Nozomi Tsuji and Ai Kago from the huge (both literally and figuratively) J-Pop collective Morning Musume. Their two albums feature mostly covers of older pop hits from other duos like The Peanuts and Pink Lady. Much like Morning Musume, the songs are the essence of J-pop, with very slick production and over the top instrumentation, often with super happy dance beats. Unfortunately their career was cut short after a couple (very mild by any other than Japanese standards) scandals involving Kago.
J-Pop and J-Rock are only the beginning. The modern Japanese music scene is just as vibrant and varied as any other music scene in the world. I'm Zac Bentz, writer, musician, designer and all around Japanese music fanatic. Here I hope to share with you a comprehensive (!!) list of Japanese artists and bands (with a strong focus on underground and indie acts) that you may or may not have heard of, in the hopes of expanding our mutual awareness of Japanese music.
I don't mean to suggest that everything I listen to is great. Quite the contrary, I hope that you will take the time to recommend your own favorite artists in the comments so that we can all learn a bit more about the huge range of Japanese music that's out there.
"The best Japanese music blog in the world." - Door Slam "Definitely a must-visit for J-pop and J-rock fans!" -The Otaku "Zac Bentz loves music. A lot." -Japanator "Very cool!" -J-ENT "...one of the foremost blogs and information centers on all J-pop and J-rock...the top source for tour information on Japanese bands in the US..." -YankeeOtaku "Wer mehr darüber wissen will, der sollte sich mal hier umschauen, ein sehr gutes J-Music Blog übrigens." -CommandSheep "...very well-written, and there’s an excellent range of artists...a useful resource." -International Wota "не плохая энциклопедия японских исполнителей/групп" -Diary.ru "Great resource for Japanese music fans who want to explore today's J-rhythms beyond Johnny's Entertainment bishonen music and anime music. XD" -Kaishi "If you are a J-Rock fan, [ZB's A-Z] is a must see." -Crunchyroll community "Otaku USA magazine finally got wise and hired Zac Bentz as a J-music contributing editor."-Radicalpatriot "Reviews practically every Asian band that has ever created a recording."- Zallie "Gewährt spannende Einblicke in die japanische Musikszene." -Laut.de
