Tochiro

Ahahaha, none that shall ever be posted Im afraid. Pics are one thing, but to me, posting vids of something like this crosses certain privacy boundaries of those involved, sorry.

Well, it was an art exhibit and they were trying to get ppl to buy $4000 drawings so photographs were naturally prohibited. I will say that Renato, Save and myself were actually filmed while on stage talking with Mikimoto. Have no idea if that footage will ever see the light of day though.

Thanks for the impressions - it's always great to hear other's impressions of concerts, especially when there's a Macross connection :-) Her tour this year is split into 'A-Side' and 'B-Side.' I decided to hit one of the B-side concerts in September (hopefully the current heatwave will have broken by then. Last time I checked over 50 ppl had died nation-wide due to heatstroke and related fatigue). BTW, the goods list from the tour can be found here. Firstly, never listen to anime bloggers - 99.99% of them have never even set foot in Japan (let alone out of their mothers basement). By Japanese standards May'n is average looking I suppose. My main criticism is that they use far too much makeup on her (whereas the makeup artists use less on Megumi). Second, there ARE times where May'n has been acting like Sherryl - in particular the Galaxy Tour. I witnessesd this first hand - but that was the POINT of that gig - both May'n and Megumi were in character the entire show and didnt even use their real names. On the otherhand, when you go to a May'n concert you get...well, May'n. I find it funny how a lot of so-called anime experts dont seem to realise that they are watching a carefully crafted and marketed persona - sometimes what they are seeing is 2, even 3 persona's removed from the 'real' performer. But thats fine, because 'real' is not what Japanese audiences want (I brought this up in the feedback of anAX concert review recently) As far as May'n going 'May'nstream' is concerned - she has been trying but so far it hasnt been happening. The last concert she did at the Budokan was hyped pretty hard and even got a Bluray release (relatively rare for Flying Dog to do although it has since become a little more common) - but the fact that she went straight back to doing tiny gigs leads me to believe it might not have been as profitable as the organisers would have liked. She is pretty much unknown in Japan outside of otaku/Macross fandom. The company I work at even put her in a tv commercial, but she just hasnt done anything that could be considered a breakout hit music -wise. Playing to the otaku crowd isnt necessarily a bad thing. Like they say - all you need is 1000 hardcore fans. Keep them happy and they will buy anything you put out and you can live off that. Megumi has gone the full idol route as of late and its actually increased her popularity among the Akiba crowd. May'n on the other hand - well, I hope she finds her niche soon because it would be heartbreaking to see her short on work after the Macross Frontier hypetrain leaves town.

Looks like you guys had a good time. Impressive lineup of merch there - Id hate to think how much postage cost to get some of that stuff to Oz. Ruskii - whats the story behind that Minmay sketch?

Well, I thought the pics got slightly downsized automatically by the uploader? When Im in a rush I dont really have time to go through and do em one by one, sorry. And as for the nanpa - oh you have no idea ;-) lol. But anyways, did u notice what Rays headband was made of? Red chopsticks! lol.

And of course how could I forget the big man himself?!?!?!?!

Well guys, just got back and am currently trying my darndest to stay awake until I head off to the Mari Iijima concert in a couple of hours. So how was the all-night Macross Night? I didnt go in expecting all that much but goddamn it ROCKED! Save and I were the only two Macross Worlders representin' at this particular event. It was basically a gathering of Macross fans and cosplayers to mingle, get drunk, groove to some Macross tunes and just celebrate all things Macross. There were a lot more cosplayers than I had expected and most of them were more than willing to talk about their history with Macross and how they made their costumes. There were a lot of Rankas and Sherryls on stage, dancing along to various Frontier songs, a pair of Minmays and a pair of Basaras, as well as one very special cosplayer who came all the way down from GUNMA! (a 100km+ train ride) after work to rock out as RAY! Some highlights: THIS is what happens when you give Ranka beer ^^; General vibe on the dance floor. ARRRGH! Get the mic away from Gamlin! SAVE is a little wary of strange manthing Minmay. Is it a trap? (actually ...no, it was actually a girl ^^ But he likes the cute Minmay with the blue contact lenses much better methinks ;-) Sherryl seems to have misplaced her drinking money.... (This is DJ Sou - she also performs at Yoko Kanno parties dressed as Faye Valentine) And of course Basara just wants to rock out. BOMBAAAAAAAAAA! A great start to the weekend! Got home at about 7:30am. Now, must drink more coffee!

Well theres no other version listed so the game/Bluray bundle is the only one listed at the moment. Having said that I doubt there will be a 'regular' version. The game is just a trial and is basically using some of the room they no doubt had left on the disc. The disc price itself is standard Japanese Bluray price - it wont get cheaper than that new. The version listed is a first pressing and comes with a free piece of film from the movie - similar to Evangelion 2.22 and Yamato Fukatsu-hen. And those screens look better than ACE R imo. The cell shading effect looks nice as does the resolution. For a freebie trial game im fine with it. ACE R has waaaay too many muddy textures imo.

Well now I know where my November budget is going! Preorder confirmed! And even if its only the PSP game with PS3 quality textures, that game would be sweet!

Great Karaoke pic! Good to see the track list - will get around to writing a review soonish - have at least 4 concert reviews backed up and Im trying to get ready for a business trip - Busy summer is busy! @Beltane70 - Actually we werent that far back. Id say about 60% of the crowd was in front of us and 40% were behind us. See the pic I posted earlier to get a feel for what the view of the stage was like :-)

Well I FINALLY managed to get a tic to the festival on Aug 15. It wasn't easy-auction scalpers are making a lot on these ones. I think I'll rejoin the fanclub just so I don't have to pay 2-3 times the regular price for these things. Anyways, I decided to go to the first session at 1:30. Is anyone else going? Most of the MW regulars don't seem to be interested but with the Mac F voice cast, kawamori, cosplayers, and news about the 2nd movie, I figured I can't be the only one going surely? To anyone who is going- let's grab a coffee or something beforehand!

Unfortunate folk? Go buy a text book and some dictionaries man! :-p 'お〜見えてました。外国人部隊が日本語で歌ってる〜と思いました！ペラペラですね〜！？' Yeah, I could see you. I though, 'the foreign brigade is singing in Japanese!' You guys are fluent, arent you!

Despite the difficulty of spotting Gubaba, myself, and Renato in the pic... Chie DID see us apparently! I asked her if she could see us and got this response ;-) 'お〜見えてました。外国人部隊が日本語で歌ってる〜と思いました！ペラペラですね〜！？' So there you go Gubaba, our Japanese singing ability has been praised by Mylene herself! ....FIRE!!!!!!

Hmmm...definately a tough question! Well, when explaining a game concept to an R&D team last year and asked how to describe the player experience in one word, I replied: ....DECULTURE! And you know what? Nearly everyone in the meeting understood immediately. No further questions asked, lol.

Not quite the way these things usually work, but PM sent.

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this yet, but May'n has been announced in the lineup for this years Animax Musix. Also of not is the fact that Origa (GitS:SAC) will be returning to Japan for the show concert as well! http://www.animax.co.jp/animaxmusix/ Ticket details have yet to be finalised so keep an eye on the above website if you are interested. One of the major pulls of Musix is that the guests try to do collaboration pieces and cover each others songs. With May'n, Origa AND Akino (Aquarion) there, this could be very interesting indeed.

Here's a pic that Chie took with her phone while on stage. The venue was small but PACKED:

If anyone has read my concert reviews before, you probably know that I try to take a pick or two in the hall/arena to show the atmosphere. Well, I managed to actually get a decent one during the concert this time. On my little camera it was a total fluke!

Yep, the concert certainly was damn good. Will try to do a mini review later this week when I get a set list together. And good work on the karaoke - you definately kept the JP fanclub on their toes.

Well naturally Im talking about Amazon Jp since we are talking about Japanese products. And there are multiple ppl on this board, including myself, who Im sure would only be too happy to resend stuff if its the only way for you to get it.

Incredibly hard to find? I got both from a 2nd hand amazon seller for about $5 each. Have never ever seen them going from more than half the RRP.

Ozma's pimped out vf25 sure looks sweet in that shot. For the non-space missions though, the texturing on the environments does look a little asstacular. Will be picking this up but may wait a month or 2 to save a bit by getting it 2nd hand. Am kinda broke right now anyway. And Graham - I'll 2nd the blu ray player argument. The ps3 is a great Blu player. Comeon man, I'm sure you can pull one somehow!

Of course you can count on me being there! lol! How often does Chie do solo concerts? Practically never! I saw that memory stick offer. Do be honest its too pricey for my tastes. The tshirts for the concert are looking good though. And naturally Chie designed everything herself! I'll probably be busy pre-concert but lets meet up afterwards if possible. Anyone else going?

Thanks for the reply! Late is better than nothing! lol. Yeah I picked up the Blu too but have only had time to watch a little bit of it. Glad you enjoyed it tho. Along with the Galaxy Frontier Blu, we now have a lot of great live Macross out there that all the fans can experience region free :-) (and then theres the Maaya Sakamoto Blu in August - my wallet cries!). The funny thing with May'n is that it looks like she has gone back to playing smaller gigs. Her upcoming double tour in August-September is mostly at smaller venues and is back down to 4000-5000yen a ticket. Big Waaaave tics were close to twice that. Heck, even Mari Iijima's gig on July 31 is 6500yen or so! So I'm curious as to where her career will go from here (and yes, sigh, at that price Ill probably drop by her September Tokyo show, although its the same weekend as the Tokyo Game Show and a potential Maaya Sakamoto gig. Yikes!). I agree that the production values of Big Waaave were excellent though! I stand by my original statement that it really was the definitive May'n experience :-)

For anyone in the Tokyo area, theres an all-night Macross night happening on July 30th, featuring DJs (including the lovely DJ Sou who I saw at a gig today dressed as Faye from Cowboy Bebop!). Click on the pamphlet to enlarge. Me, Ill be there all night and going straight to see Mari Iijima's concert at 2pm the next day. Gonna be a looooong day, lol. PM me if you are interested in coming.