(Ms.) Tomo Kimura’s Translation/Tokyo Notes

Is out already.

Vol. 20 will be out Sep. 12 here.

Oct 3:

Vampire Knight, Vol. 8
Second Novel

Nov. 5:

Vampire Knight, Vol. 9
Fan book

I guess they’re speeding up the publication of Vol. 9 to coincide with the second season of the anime?

I finally got around to getting this book.

The book is a guidebook/archive of the mobile NANA site. You can see what sort of features are available, and can look at results of various popularity polls. There are color pages containing the many standby display screens and Flash accessories that are available for download.

Character profiles and a Q&A section with Yazawa-sensei are included as well.

Is out already.

Amongst all the flyers I got at yesterday’s live was a black envelope with the Kalafina logo on it. Inside was a “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” message from Kajiura-san mentioning the release of the second single, that there’re four vocalists from the second single, and how much fun she’s having creating works for Kalafina.

According to a friend who works at a nationwide bookstore chain, Yohan, the largest importer of foreign books and magazines here, has filed for bankruptcy.

I buy most of my English books from the foreign book section in amazon.jp (since it’s cheaper), but the magazines I bought at bookstores were usually imported by Yohan. Wonder who’s gonna import them now.

I just got back from her second live at Shibuya O-East. (The first one was held in April, but when I found about it, tickets had already sold out.)

The opening act was kalafina, who sings the theme songs for the movie Kara no Kyoukai. The second single, sprinter/ARIA dropped yesterday, so they were four for the first time, and sang four of the five songs.

For the main live, the vocalists were Kaida Yuriko, Kaori, Keiko, and Wakana. They sang songs from soundtracks such as the various .hack works, Portrait of Petit Cosette, NOIR, and Aquarian Age. Kajiura-san had posted the “lyrics” for Aquarian Age in her blog, so you could practice the Kajiura-ese and sing along.

Ito Eri appeared as guest vocalist, and she sang songs from tsubasa chronicle and Xenosaga2.

The first time I heard Kajiura-san’s work was in NOIR, so I was very happy I got to hear Kaida-san sing “canta per me” and “salva nos”.

Because there were four vocalists for each song, you got to hear the beautiful thickly-layered choruses that’s so distinctive of her works. And the band had a violinist playing, which was great with songs like “the world” and “canta per me”.

Kajiura-san promised there will be a third live. There was also an announcement that a DVD of today’s live will be released sometime this fall.

It’s been a while since women’s magazines started coming with various furoku. I’ve gotten a white dress shirt, pantyhose, pouches, and skincare/makeup samples with the magazines I bought.

The trend now seems to be “collaboration” furoku where the magazine teams up with a particular brand that’s popular with the target readers.

The fashion magazine I bought yesterday came with a mirror, a cloth pouch, and a scruncher:

The cleansing oil I bought at the local conbini came with a Black Kitty mini-mirror:

Since this was announced at the San Diego Comic Con, I guess I can write about it now.　I’m translating/adapting GA - Geijyutsuka Art Design Class by Kiyuduki Satoko. It’s a 4-koma about five high school girls who’re majoring in art.

Two volumes are out so far, and the series is running in the 4-koma monthly magazine “Manga Time Kirara Carat”.

I went to see this Wednesday evening. The overall color tone has changed from greenish/bluish to orangish. A lot of sequences has been re-done, such as the opening and the scene where Motoko disappears after the assassination. Some of the graphics are now 3D, like the helicopters, and Motoko was 3D in some scenes as well.

The puppet master is female in this version, and she was very very alluring when she asks Motoko to merge with her.

After we came out of the theater, the friend I saw this with mentioned how small and shabby the Shinjuku high-rise buildings look compared to the ones in the movie (^^ゞ

Here’s a photo of the movie brochure. The first half contains material about 2.0, and the second half is a reproduction of the movie brochure for the 1995 version.