Random Seiyuu Fangirling

Kamiya Matsuri, Gurren Lagann Zenyasai, Monochrome Factor Vocal, Macademy Wasshoi! M-O-E-S, Say U event goods

January 21, 2009 at 6:24 PM by Mew

In this entry: Big Kamiya Festival (G Senjou no Neko I & II, VIP 1-3, Live Pastel Collection 2006, Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou 1-3, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 5-7, Hachimitsu to Clover I & II), Gurren Lagann Gekijouban Zenyasai DVD, Monochrome Factor Perfect Vocal Collection, and Macademy Wasshoi! Kazoeuta #4.

I’ve been really diggin’ Kamiya Hiroshi lately so most of this entry will include reviews of things he was in.

G Senjou no Neko I & II
Cast: Morikawa Toshiyuki, Hiyama Nobuyuki x Kamiya Hiroshi

Ikeda (Morikawa) finds a boy passed out at his front door one day. It’s Narukawa Riya (Kamiya), a genius violinist with a split personality. One personality is really fesity and hates the violin while the other is is very timid and is very serious about his violin playing. Kousaka (Hiyama) is Riya’s upperclassman who, while always bullying Riya, obviously has a crush on him.

The series was okay. The story was only a notch better than regular BL stories since this one’s pretty unique, but I didn’t find it particularly outstanding, though some may argue with me.  It may have something to do with the fact that this series is always listed as Morikawa x Kamiya when there’s actually only one short scene with them in the second drama and anything else is pretty much Hiyama x Kamiya. I felt a bit cheated as I was expecting more Morikawa, though of course I like Hiyama too.

The cast is what I liked about this series. Kamiya is SO. GOOD. The way he changes his voice to portray the two personalities of Riya is just awesome. Morikawa and Hiyama both sound great as well. Hiyama used his deeper bad-boy voice whereas Morikawa’s voice was more timid-like.

VIP, VIP -Toge-, VIP -Kowaku-
Cast: Miyake Kenta x Kamiya Hiroshi, Hirakawa Daisuke, Toriumi Kousuke, Furushima Kiyotaka, Narita Ken (Toge), Kondou Takashi (Kowaku)

Let’s just start by saying I REALLY liked this series!

When Kazutaka (Kamiya) was 17, he had no place to go and one day met Kudou (Miyake). Kudou asked Kazutaka if he’d like to come with him and since Kazutaka didn’t have anywhere to go, he did. He stayed with Kudou for about half a year until he found out that Kudou was a yakuza. Kazutaka got scared and ran away without saying a word. 7 years later, the two meet again. Kazutaka is the manager of a VIP club called Blue Moon (BM) and it turns out that Kudou is a a prime investor or something.

Wow, where do I start? First off, Kamiya’s acting is SUPERB, as always. He is just so good with acting out emotions. Miyake is sexy~ Mmm… I love his rough yakuza voice. He sounds like Genma from ZE in this. Hirakawa’s chara Miyahara is the owner of BM and is a very nice person. Toriumi’s Kazusa is Kudou’s right-hand man. Satoshi (Furushima) is a boy that Kazutaka picked up, just as he was picked up by Kudou, and lives with Kazutaka. Tanizaki (Narita) only appears in the second drama and Tamaru (Kondou) in the third. Tanizaki is cute when he plays video games with Satoshi.

Kazutaka has a bit of a love/hate relationship with Kudou. He hates yakuza and refuses to get involved but he can’t help but feel something for Kudou. Umm… Let’s just say the H is hawt, LoL. Kamiya’s uke is one of the best in the biz! I especially liked the scene in the second drama where Kazutaka goes directly to Kudou’s base.

Live Pastel Collection 2006
Cast: Morikawa Toshiyuki, Horiuchi Kenyuu, Midorikawa Hikaru, Toriumi Kousuke, Suzumura Kenichi, Kishio Daisuke, Kamiya Hiroshi

“BL wa suki desu ka?” Wah! MoriMori before he toned down the color of his hair!

This event was really funny. Lots of antics and Horiuchi in a makeshift turban, LoL. They had the usual corners with live recordings and a little BL Tantei stage play, freetalk, etc. Kamiya was SO CUTE! He had just gotten his wisdom teeth out the other day and when he laughed too hard, it would start hurting. Haha, poor guy. I feel your pain… It looked like he only got the ones on the left side of his mouth out. I HAD ALL FOUR TAKEN OUT AT ONCE! Oh yes, I know the pain. Throughout the event you’d see him suddenly grab the side of his mouth with his hand. During one of the freetalks, it started to really hurt and Kishio pointed out that Kamiya was at his limit. Morikawa then asked if there were any dentists in the audience. X.D

The BL Tantei part was the best. Darkness Queen Hiroshi, LoL. He would talk normal and then get really high pitched. It was hilarious. He was wearing red sunglasses and as he was going through the audience to get up on stage, he said that he marked his script in red and with these red sunglasses he can’t see a thing, LoL. Later at the end during their last messages, he said that earlier when he was awaiting his turn to come out, he was sitting in a chair outside and someone who needed to go to the bathroom came out and saw him in that outfit (emphasized by Kamiya) and quickly walked away, LoL. They must’ve thought he was some kind of pervert, haha.

Overally, a hilarious event. Everyone was great and you could tell they had fun too. I love seeing how they’re such dorks when they’re just being themselves but when they read their lines for a live recording, they enter serious mode. That’s a pro for ya!

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou 1-3
I. Love. This. Series. This was the series I was most looking forward to. Keeping up with the quality of the first season, Zoku is just as great as the first. The first episode with Kuro Nyanko was really cute. Matsukaze Masaya guest starred. Yocchin was in the second episode as Gen. It was a really moving performance. The third episode had the return of Natori (Ishida Akira). I really liked when the youkai whom Natsume helped at the very beginning of the episode came back to return the favor by purifying the evil youkai. Turns out the youkai that Natsume helped was a very powerful one.

This series is just so good. I can’t say it enough! This series is SO GOOD! The quality of the story, the animation, the cast, everything is just perfect. If there are people reading this who have yet to see the series, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 5-7
I’m finally starting to watch this series again and in a nutshell– it’s crack. Haha. So much insanity! Now one the things I must experience before I die is hearing Kamiya yell out “zetsubou shita!!!” live. I especially laughed during episode 6.

Hachimitsu to Clover I & II
Another great series, on par with Natsume Yuujinchou. Or is it Natsume Yuujinchou that is on par with HachiKuro since HachiKuro came first? ANYWAY! VERY good series. I read that when it aired in Japan, it attracted people from outside its target audience and people who don’t normally watch anime got into it. That’s just amazing.

This slice-of-life series sets the standard. It tells the story of a group of students and their teacher at Hamabi Art School and their relationships. I felt a very strong connection with Takemoto (Kamiya) because Takemoto is a lot like me, especially near the end of the first series where he didn’t know what he wanted to do after graduating. (I’m in the same boat right now.)

I don’t want to delve into the story because it’ll take forever. But take my word for it… This is one of the best series EVER. I usually only watched two episodes a day but while watching HachiKuro II, I went from 2 to 4, to 6, and ended up finishing the series in 3 days instead of 6. You get really engrossed in the story and all the characters have such strong personalities that you end up feeling for all of them. Ueda Yuuji’s Morita was HILARIOUS. Sugita as Mayama was perfect but at the same time a little weird if you keep expecting for him to bust out in Gintoki’s voice. And Kamiya… Kamiya is a MASTER at monologues. I can’t imagine Takemoto being performed by anyone else. Unfortunately, the last episode of HachiKuro II was when Nojima Kenji had to take over for Takemoto because Kamiya had been in a bad traffic accident. You really don’t want to think about how things would be had Kamiya not recovered. I did skim through NojiKen’s version of Takemoto but yeah… Takemoto has to be Kamiya, and I ended up watching the DVD version where they had Kamiya re-record Takemoto.

This is just an amazing series. There’s comedy, romance, drama, everything you could ask for, HachiKuro delivers. Oh, and the MUSIC! The insert songs were perfect for the series. I can definitely see why this series was so highly acclaimed.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Gekijouban Zenyasai DVD
Cast: Kakihara Tetsuya, Konishi Katsuyuki, Inoue Marina, Fukui Yukari, Saiga Mitsuki, Itou Shizuka, Taniyama Kishou, Onosaka Masaya, Hiyama Nobuyuki

There are three parts on this DVD: the cast stage, BGM concert, and a tokuten video (Viral no Amai Yume). For the BGM concert I’ve only seen part of it. The tokuten video is just Viral no Amai Yume with the illustrations in full screen. It was performed live during the cast stage with the illustrations on the big screen.

The cast stage started out with Kacky doing the kage nare and he slipped on his words on the first sentence! It was really cute. Konishi as Kamina butts in and tells everyone and if they do something wrong, he’ll give it back to them 10 fold so, for example, if someone’s phone rang, he’d put the phone to their ear and make it ring 10 times as loud, LoL.

There were a few corners in the event. The first presented a situation and the cast would respond to it based on what some audience members suggested. The one that had me laughing was when the situation was “Why were you late to school?” and Inoue’s response was, “Kamina was giving it to me 10x over.” (In reference to the kage nare.) LOL!!! Everyone was like, “Erosugi~” Inoue got an extra cushion for that, haha. Konishi was like, “Hey, I’m Kamina so can I get one too?” Haha. When Kacky got an extra cushion, he had to get off the one he was sitting on and his foot was numb. So cuuuuuute!! His excuse was that he’s not used to it (as in sitting seiza style). Oh, and I forgot to mention that Onosaka had his face painted like Leeron, LOL. The other cast members were kind of scared of it, LoL. I would be too if he looked at me like that!

I believe the next corner was a Q&A with Nakashima Kazuki, screenplay writer for the series. He answered a few questions and some of them he totally made up the answer to on the spot, LoL. Total lies. Next was “What’s Boota saying?” They played a scene with Boota on the screen and the cast members had to guess what Boota was saying in each. Itou Shizuka would then say what the answer was. After was a live recording where they had the original cast do the lines and then they’d mix the cast around and have someone else dub the character. They did this at 2007’s event too and they’re hilarious every time. The last corner was Viral’s Sweet Dream, a special mini story that Nakashima wrote for the event. They had the seiyuu voice the characters on stage. It was hilarious! All I have to say is, poor Viral… Haha. And as always, Kackys’ Giga Drill Break is awesome! I was able to see him say it live in 2007 and just wow… He can scream! It’s awesome. And it’s always fun seeing Konishi doing Kamina’s voice– EPIC.

At the end they sang Sorairo Days with the audience, which was pretty cool. They closed the event by having everyone, including the audience, say “Pierce the heavens with with your drill!” (in Japanese of course).

Overall, a very enjoyable event. Last thoughts… Fukui is always so NERVOUS, haha. It’s kinda funny. She never seems to be able to speak calmly. Except when she’s reading lines. Like I said about Live Pastel Collection, it’s cool how seiyuu can get into serious mode when they’re working. Also, it was Taniyama Kishou’s birthday and they made him dive in head first into the cake, LoL. Very fun event.

Monochrome Factor Perfect Vocal Collection
Asriel, Ono Daisuke, Kamiya Hiroshi, Suwabe Junichi, Konoshi Katsuyuki, Hatano Wataru

I actually have the individual CDs for the songs that I wanted to buy already but they had to go and have solo versions of the ED themes in this so I was “forced” to buy it. .>_< The solo versions of the ED themes were the only thing new on this album. I rather like the character songs in this series. I just wish I knew they were coming out with compilation so I didn’t have to buy the individual CDs! Would have been much cheaper. =.( And I wish Hatano could have gotten a solo version of the ED. Too bad he doesn’t sing the original one.

Macademy Wasshoi! Kazoeuta #4
Terashima Takuma, Suwabe Junichi, Hiyama Nobuyuki

M-O-E-S ~K-S-K Suru Shoudou is a fun song. I’ve never seen this series so I don’t really know anything about it. This group of guys seem like dorks though. The CD has one song, mini drama that’s actually pretty long, a freetalk, and a karaoke track. My only real comment is that Takkun sounds really good when he speaks in a deeper tone. .*_*

Say U in Seoul 2008 event goods
Got the stuff I bought over the weekend thanks to a friend and OH. EM. GEE.

HATANO IS ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kyaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! I bought the pamphlet and 4 photo sets. When I first opened the pamphlet I was like, “I can’t read Korean!” but quickly realized they had a Japanese translation as well. Guh. Hatano’s cuteness cannot be expressed in words. He looked so good in all the photos! Hirakawa was cute too but WACCHA~!! Narita’s not my type so I don’t have much to say about him. (Sorry!) WACCHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow this entry is long! Over 2,300 words says word count.

Posted in Anime, DVDs, Drama CDs, Music CDs, Reviews
Tagged as Fukui Yukari, Furushima Kiyotaka, Hatano Wataru, Hirakawa Daisuke, Hiyama Nobuyuki, Inoue Marina, Ishida Akira, Itou Shizuka, Kamiya Hiroshi, Kondou Takashi, Konishi Katsuyuki, Matsukaze Masaya, Miyake Kenta, Morikawa Toshiyuki, Narita Ken, Ono Daisuke, Onosaka Masaya, Saiga Mitsuki, Sugita Tomokazu, Taniyama Kishou, Terashima Takuma, Toriumi Kousuke, Ueda Yuuji, Yoshino Hiroyuki