Awesome Drumming with 14 Year Old Senri Kawaguchi!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
Holy Toledo, Just saw the most AWESOME clip of this 14 year old girl named Senri Kawaguchi totally KILLING IT on the Drums, playing along with the uber-nutty "Go Go MANIAC!!" song from the Anime Show "K-ON!" and just HAD to Share!!!

Going online, Senri's quite established and has got quite a few of these amazing performances accompanying equally frenetic songs, and as a drummer myself, I can honestly say, "Holy Crap this girl has some FREAKIN' SKILLZ!!!!"

Girls Generation Hits The Stage!

SNSD performs "Not Alone" at the Girls and Peace Japan Tour

One of the big drawbacks of being a fan or either J-Pop or K-pop is that for the most part, you’re not likely to see any of their concerts in person (barring an expensive and exhaustive journey across the sea), so for most of us, the only way to really experience an artist live was to get their live concerts when they came out on Laserdiscs and VHS), if you were lucky enough to have them even RELEASE a concert for that year’s Tour (I’m STILL sore that Pony Canyon never recorded CoCo’s “Sylph” concerts) and have them release it in a timely fashion!
  Luckily, in the age of the internet, not only is most Concert footage readily available, but the staggering amount of fancam footage makes even the most recent concert clips as easy to experience as a click of a button! And the quality! Far from those old, grainy, shaky bootleg videos of old, these clips are so well shot and focused, it’s really the next best thing to being there! So when I heard that Girls Generation were heading back to Japan this year to promote their awesome GIRLS AND PEACE album, the FIRST place I went was onto the ‘tube to look up the latest clips made by those diehard SNSD fans out there…and find them I DID!

Above and Below: "I'm A Diamond" Majestic Set!

Oh man, watching the clips of the new songs (as well as songs I’d never seen performed live from THE BOYS) just had me on the edge of my seat- these gals REALLY know how to keep the show moving and interesting, with elaborate sets, killer synchronized dance moves, and hefty helping of both cutesy AND Sexy outfits, each and every song was a mini-video in itself! Take a look at some of these stills which show how eye-catchy each song set is:

"All My Love Is For You" under Cherry Blossoms

Black and White Stripes make perfect fit for "Animal"

Feisty Dancing for  "Express 999"

Killer Moves for "Reflection"

Adorably Cute for "My J"

"Do You Remember the Nine Warriors?" asks the lyrics for the song T.O.P., and as the girls sing the words, they wield glow-in-the-dark batons, making the girls look like Jedis with Light Sabers!

Below is one PARTICULARLY awesome set-up during their kicking performance of "Paparazzi", where the girls are situated in doorways below huge projections of themselves, and as each girl sings, their screen and doorway lights up, and when the chorus comes, the entire setup lights up like the sun!

Above and Below: "Paparazzi" Setup

The Split Screen was also used to dramatic effect for the haunting "Time Machine", where each of the 9 screens featured one girl's personal camera fixed only on her.

For the final set, the girls came out in their "GG Airlines" Stewardess Outfits, singing songs I'd been DYING to see them perform, such as the fun "Beep Beep" and the incredible and beautiful "Stay Girls"...the latter is a real ballad belter, and Taeyeon takes us there...!

Aww, I’ve been watching these songs, over and OVER again, GODS, I CANNOT WAIT til they release this Japan Tour on DVD, and I really hope and pray that they're able to capture the raw excitement these fancams exude!!! Sooooo grateful to these fancammers for taking me right to the stage, if only through the magic of the internet!

Taking a bow as the Concert Wraps Up

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

T-ara and 2NE1 Arrives!!!

Aw Yeah, my T-ara BUNNY STYLE discs came in today, and MAN, they look so nice!!!!! Though I didn’t get all the members, I did put aside enough funds to buy Hyomin, Jiyeon, Eunjung and Soyeon’s versions which came with bonus photos of Hyomin, Jiyeon, Eunjung,  and…Boram?? Boram? How come I didn’t get Soyeon? Hmmm.
  I also got the Deluxe Edition Version C, featuring the Jiyeon/Hyomin/Eunjung subunit song "Dangerous".  The bonus photo for this one was Areum, and I have to confess, ever since the Bunny Style video, I’ve been really liking her and so I was STOKED when I saw it was of her, willya lookit her pic, she's such a cutie!!!
EDIT: Okay, I just opened all the T-ara Bunny Style CDs, I didn't realize that every CD had a trading card inside as well! I got Hyomin card for Hyomin version, Eunjung for Eunjung version, but the rest were totally different, this makes me realize that they're ALL random, even the bonus photos: though the fact that the photos were almost exactly matched with the solo versions I ordered, they must all just be randomly put inside, so they didn't accidentally give me Boram instead of Soyeon, after all! LOL

I've been watching two 2NE1 Concerts I bought the other month over and over again, I love 'em so much! Hell, even my SNSD and KARA concerts haven’t been taken out more than a few times, anyway, it got to the point that I knew in my heart that I HAD to have the Japan concerts as well, and as you can see by the below pic, I ordered both the First Japan Tour and the New Evolution in Japan discs!!! For the latter, I picked up the Blu-ray for an extra 10 bucks because the bluray disc was Region-free (as you know, unlike  Korean releases, most Japan DVDS are strictly Region2 only!) so I could watch it on my main entertainment system!

  So far I’ve only watched the New Evolution concert, in many ways it’s just like the Seoul Concert, I  was surprised how many of the songs were still sung in Korean since they’ve released Japanese Versions… One big difference is of course since it’s in Japan I finally get to see them perform “Scream” live…and let me tell you, it was freakin’ AWESOME! Additionally, the performances of songs that they DID keep in Korean, it was like watching the New Evolution in Seoul perfs I love from a different angle! I especially love Bom’s “You and I”, god, that NE Performance might be my favorite single 2NE1 perf ever!
    I also ended up buying the Japan Scream and I love You releases, too. I love these girls so much, It's to the point I really need to have all the stuff they've released.LOL.
The bonus disc on both the SCREAM set and the I LOVE YOU set is 2NE1's Phillipines trip, haven't watched it yet so I don't know if both discs are of the exact same special, we'll see!
Looks Like I'll be busy watching stuff this week!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Anne Gets Sultry in xxxHOLIC

Anne as Ichihara Yuko in xxxHOLIC

I’ve always been a big fan of pretty actress ANNE, and her latest horror drama xxxHOLIC is truly a BLESSING for the fanboy in me- Anne looks just FANTASTIC in this show! Her portrayal of the mysterious "dimensional witch" Ichihara Yuko is unlike any I’d ever seen her play before-so beautiful and sexy, kind of like her gothic look in Yoake Ningen Bem, but supercharged with this underlying hotness, a combination that could give Elvira a run for her money! 

The story of xxxHOLIC is the tale of a boy named Kimihiro (played by Shota Sometani) who can see spirits a la THE SIXTH SENSE, and one day as he meanders on home, he happens to take a step off the beaten path and somehow arrives at an old seemingly abandoned house, where he is confronted by two enthusiastic girls who takes him to meet their master, the svelte Anne herself, whom they say is a good witch of this world.

Mistress of her Domain: Anne as Ichihara Yuko

He soon finds that this curious house is in fact a store of sorts- various people in need find their way to the establishment where Yuko offers to give them whatever wish their heart desires…for an exacting price, some of which we find very heavy indeed! After seeing what she can do, Kimihiro decides to ask her to make his visions of dead people go away, and at that, Yuko invites him to come work for her until the value of his wish is attained!

Above and Below: Anne and Sometani Shota

From there, as you may have guessed, the show turns rather episodic, with each chapter featuring a new “client” with another strange spiritual malady, but make no mistake, the CLEAR star of the show is beautiful Anne, each scene showcasing her awesome looks and featuring her in the most fetching (and, truth be told, cleavage-revealing) outfits ever!

So far, it’s a fun, magical ride-Along with Anne and Sometani Shota, the regular cast is rounded out with Masahiro Higashide and adorable Karen Miyazaki as his two only school friends, Domeki and Himawari, who each have their own mysterious secrets to be brought forth in the course of time…and judging by the cast listing in dramawiki, there’ll be even MORE names added to the cast as the show goes on!

Sometani Shota, Karen Miyazaki and Masahiro Higashide

Karen Miyazaki, Sometani Shota

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Sexy Sawajiri Erika Seduces in "Helter Skelter"

Sawajiri Erika as Lilico in Helter Skelter

   I may be the most clueless moviegoer out there, but I swear that when I got the new Sawajiri Erika movie HELTER SKELTER, it was solely because I’d read that the movie starred her as a supermodel/actress/celebrity and figured I’d get to see Erika in some Pretty n Sexy outfits looking Hot as Hell…well, I got that, and MORE, as anyone who’s even briefly perused the reviews knows, never mind the pretty outfits-this is the movie where Erika went ALL OUT, burning a path of hotness that dubbed everything she’s done before as “tame’!

From the get go we see Erika duked out in the most salacious of outfits a la red garters and panties, and even as I was marveling at the sight, thinking she’d really upped the notch of sexiness, she was moving on to the next big “Heart Attack” moment for me, and the depravity didn’t stop there! By the time the movie had gone about halfway into the story, I has seen Erika in just about every imaginable sexy scenario, leaving me with an open mouth and glazed look on my face, thinking, “This girl sure knows how to generate a COMEBACK MOVIE!”

Like I said, I initially checked out this movie to see Erika as a model wearing model-type outfits, and I am happy to say that in that, they wildly succeded- every scene is chock full of Erika in tight flowery bikinis, lacy lingerie, svelte suits and sultry dresses. I was in screencapping heaven!

Sadly, as the movie’s story progressed, Helter Skelter began to be less a tale of the scary world of plastic surgery and more into a decidedly “sci-fi” genre flick (no “regular” plastic surgery here, there operations are executed with strange Orwellian methods with side effects that ring more Horror than Drama!) and by the time the backwards-walking midgets came out (for reals, yo.) I knew this movie had turned into a David Lynchian Psychedelic Trip and from there, my interest dwindled…

Too bad, the first half of the movie seemed to be grounded in a very realistic backdrop and I thought it was going to be  a human drama study about the pressures celebrities have and the lengths they go through to stay in the public eye (I guess that is the message, in a twisted way), having Helter Skelter turn into another arthouse-y project just left me disappointed, and Sexy Sawajiri Erika aside, can’t say this show has much more that I’d go back for. Though I WILL be back for said Sexy Sawajiri Erika, you can best bet THAT! 

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Back To Kawaii Kon 2013

It's Adventure Time at the 2013 Hawaii Kawaii-Kon!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
 It's that time of the Year again (Gads, has it already been that long...?) when the fanciful Anime Expo Kawaii Kon makes its appearance, and though I hadn't given it much thought  in the last few months, when my friends called me up to tell me we were gonna be spending our Saturday there, I was all in!

 We actually got there fairly late, by the time we found parking and made our way there, it was already past 1:00 in the afternoon, most of the Morning Crowd had gone, and it was still a bit too early for the nighttime costumers to show up, but all in all we still managed to see some fun and interesting sights!

 One thing that was a twist was that this time we actually had someone in our crowd who KNEW all of the anime shows and characters- whereas before we'd marvel at how well the costumes were made, but had no idea how close they'd gotten to the actual outfit, THIS time, she was running around pointing out all the various "celebrity" anime characters, yelling out "HEY, It's Flame Princess!!!!"and a BIG highlight was the cast of the zany ADVENTURE TIME anime show (pictured at the top of this post)!

Sadly, even with four (four, count them, FOUR!) cameras at our disposal going off non-stop (or so it seemed), only a small handful of all the pics we took actually came out, a problem that bugs me to no end...! So throughout the 200+ pictures we took, all I was able to put together was this meager sample of the fun that was going on that afternoon!

Ah well, there's always next year, and my friends have already stated that we are DEFINITELY going to be coming in the year 2014, as checking in on Kawaii Kon is our new "tradition", LOL!!!

The Dreaded Running Man Steal

  I’ve been a big fan of the SBS variety/reality show Running Man ever since first catching it almost a year ago, and have faithfully anticipated and cherished each and every episode since-but I have to tell you that there is this disturbing trend that has been appearing more and more regularly, and that’s the challenge where the team has to collect certain objects (where the team that acquires the most items wins). 

Now, I’m all fine with that, but the thing that grates me is that the PD has deemed it OK for the opposing team members to “steal” the objects from the collectors even as they’re carrying them to the winning table, and while it may make for “funny” television, having the members have to collect the items OVER and OVER again, only to have them get continually stolen is like trying to build a tower of blocks only to have a bully keep kicking it over!

Though they’ve occasionally used variations on this challenge in the past, the first time it really BUGGED me was during Episode #123’s “Kim Chee Run”, where everyone kept stealing each other’s toy cabbages: watching Kwangsoo and Sukjin walk up to Han Hyojoo and simply snatch the cabbages she’d worked so hard to collect out of her hands was PISSING ME OFF! 

Though that challenge irritated me, I felt that since it was only an isolated incident, I could look it over. Then when I was watching the “Spy VS Spy” Race in episode #132 (where the challenge was to accumulate a certain amount of steel briefcases), I found myself watching the SAME SCENARIO all over again as the teammates began stealing each others’ cases from their hidden storage places as well as right out of their hands, and I was like “OH GAWD, it’s the Stealing Strategy again!!!!” Luckily this episode had sort of a twist on it, (so I was entertained throughout the race), but STILL…!

I thought I’d seen the last of this “Stealing Thing”, and even overlooked the similarly aggravating “Executive Chair” episode in #128 (where there was the same stealing, but was a bit more controlled), but when I watched the latest episode with Jackie Chan where they had to collect animal costume head masks and they began stealing from each other in earnest, I KNEW it was here again; indeed, the players are so used to this stealing setup, that guest runner Choi Siwon doesn’t even bother looking for the Animal Heads and instead goes directly to the opponent’s table to steal the heads they’ve collected. And once again stealing and snatching scenarios ensue, to the delight(?) of all!

After seeing this stealing concept appearing AGAIN, I realized this is a concept that the writers of this show think is popular, funny, and intend to keep around for a WHILE! D’oh!
I dunno, I suppose if I were a more casual fan of the show, it might not MATTER who won or lost, as long as the contestants were zany and silly, but the best thing I've always loved about this show is how passionately the Runners run this race, so it’s maddening to have the final challenges boil down to this! As a loyal fan of the show, I BEG the PD’s and WRITERS: CUT OUT THE STEALING CONCEPT!!!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com