T-ara's "Number 9" Inferno

Ooooh, MAN, T-ara is BACK with their new song "Number9", and it looks like this time they intend to take no prisoners! Coming on with an all-out attack, the girls look so damn FINE and the songs are so kick-BUTT- this is clearly the return of the original "fierce" T-ara I first got into with songs like 'Cry Cry" and 'I'm Really Hurt"...so full of BAD-GIRL ATTITUDE!

 

 

 

Been awhile since I've seen them doing the "Sultry Leather" thing, everyone looks hella killer, especially my main girl Hyomin, who continues to rock my socks off even now- this gal is one of the HOTTEST k-pop idols out there, PERIOD!!! I'd been talking to a friend not-so-long-ago about how Hyominnie was still one of my VERY favorite girls even after all this time, and WOW here she comes along and re-confirms it once AGAIN!

Besides the shredding "Number 9" , T-ara's comeback also consists of the svelte crooner "I Know The Feeling", showing the girls all done up in satin and lace- such a great contrast to the former song! Aw Yeah, the Girls are back in town! Can't WAIT to order this one (when the HECK are they going to put it up for sale, anyway?! It's already the 10th!)

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Time For Some APink Goodness!

APink Shipment! Une Annee, Seven Springs of APink and Snow Pink

 My APink order arrived on my doorstep this morning, and all at the height of my APink Mania, to boot!!! After getting their latest album Secret Garden, I fell head-over-heels for APink and just HAD to have ALL their back catalog, including Seven Springs of APink, Une Annee, and what has become probably my favorite album from the girls, the superb Snow Pink!!
 Awww, such beautiful packaging as usual (for a standard K-pop release), Snow Pink and Seven Springs came as beautiful hardcover booklets with beautiful thick photo books within:

Snow Pink and Seven Springs of APink

 ...and the Girls’ first full-length album Une Annee pulled the stops by giving it a deluxe postcard box treatment with innovative flaps that hold the actual CD, removing the CD opens the flaps which reveal the photobooklet and trading card (I got Eunji), such a sweet package!

Apink Une Annee Box wi Booklet, CD and Eunji(!) card

Aw, just about the only thing that bummed me out about the order was the way they mailed the goods to me- I really wish Yesasia would ship their packages in sturdy cardboard boxes like CD Japan than the usual plastic bubble wrap and envelop because my order, though tightly wrapped, was pretty squished, and the oversized Une Annee box was totally thrashed, as if an elephant stepped on it, or at least Bomi doing her “gorilla” imitation!  

Une Anneee Damaged in the Mail

Looking at it, I may well have to order another copy, though probably NOT from Yesasia this time! Aigoo! I may have to sic Eunji and Chorong on them- THEY'LL reprimand anyone daring to damage the Une Annee Album, that's for sure! LOLOL

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Some Shocking KARA News

Just found out today that what some have been speculating about for  the past few days is apparently true- seems Nicole won't be renewing her contract with DSP and even Jiyoung is musing about leaving when her contract expires in April to go back to school. AIGOO!  Man, when THAT happens, even though it seems Gyuri, Seungyeon and Hara are planning to continue under the KARA banner, it just won't be the same!
  What a Bummer- as you all know well, KARA was the group that initially got me INTO K-pop and the whole K-scene in general. I'll still be supporting our girls, but we'll have to see what direction the group will be going after this HUGE change...
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

APink's Sweet "Birth Of A Family"

As readers of this blog know well, when I get into something, I get into it full throttle, and my latest adoration of ACUBE Idols APINK is no different! After immersing myself in their wonderfully entertaining reality series APINK NEWS, I was REALLY falling in love with them, and had to have MORE! Through an Apink Forum, I was introduced to a mysterious reality series of theirs called "Birth Of A Family"... What WAS this show and why were Apink fans (dubbed "Pink Pandas") so into it?
  Well, come to find out Birth of a Family was a show from this past year where the girls were put in charge of two recently rescued shelter dogs who needed human interaction so they could be put up for adoption and once I learned THAT, I just HAD to get my hands on the series! Girls and Puppies, who could beat it!!!

Well, the series delivered, and THEN SOME! What an INTERESTING show Birth of A Family was! Watching the Apink Girls as they lived day to day caring for two puppies "Quick" and "Dalie" as surrogate "mothers", we get to see a side of them that is so sweet and gentle. Within each and every  you can see the love the girls have for the dogs, whether it be dresing them up to take walks in the park...

or the serious things like giving them medicine and taking them to the veterinarian for checkups 

...or the simple days of lounging around and playing together!

When Apink were first given the dogs, Dalie was so introverted and shy, but as the days went on, you could see him come out of his shell and run around playing, happily interacting with the girls (especially Bomi, who really became like a mother to him!) After three months, the dogs were ready to be adopted, and thus we come to the totally HEARTBREAKING part of the show, when the girls had to finally give the dogs over to their new owners. MAN,was this episode hard to watch!!! For three months the girls have lived with and taken care of these two dogs, and it is SUCH an emotional WRECK watching them saying their final goodbyes to their beloved "children"... Yup, even I was totally destroyed!

Thanks to this emotional series, I can safely say that APink has absolutely become one of my very favorite groups after all this time, and I've even just started watching the "We Got Married" show again to see Shinee's Taemin and Apink's own lovely princess Naeun filming their reality nuptials! The APink craze continues....

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

APink Pop Perfection with "Prince"

  Besides all the Reality Shows, Music Appearances and Interviews, I've also of course been devouring all of APink's Musical back catalog (While I wait for my physical copies to arrive, I've been making do with MP3 downloads) and I have to say, if the reason I didn't originally get "into" Apink when I first heard them because I thought they were too "J-Poppy" sounding, it's that SAME J-poppy sound that is making me LOVE THEM so darn much NOW!
   Really, as I listen to their Albums and Mini-Albums, I'm BLOWN away at how doggone CATCHY these tracks are, and one song out of all of them seemed to stick out and shine even brighter for me, and that's their awesome song "Prince", the "album "closer" for their great album SNOW PINK. The song first caught my ear because it reminded me of the classic Pony Canyon style (in fact, it's intro and refrain reminded me of my favorite CoCo song "Yume Dake Miteru") and every time I came on, it gave me such a positive feeling!

   Yes, so positive that I was pretty shocked when I finally read the translation and found that the song was more about a loser of a guy who's about to get dumped because he doesn't appreciate his girl than any chivalrous "prince" demeanor, but it's all in fun as the song ends with the girl giving him another chance (and secretly confessing she'll always love him!)

A perfect album closer for an incredible album that also includes the superb "My My", the sweet "He's My Baby", "Yeah" (which I immediately recognized as the APINK.NET intro to all their subbed videos, LOL) and the bittersweet "Like A Dream" (which was made even sadder when put in context of "Birth of A Family" which used the song in its final episode. And that's just ONE of their CD releases! As Baloo once said to Bagheera in the Jungle Book, "There's more, Baggy, LOTS more!"
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

I'm Always Chasing Rainbows

Soompi Rainbow Promotion

   So about two months ago, Soompi offered up this awesome deal for Rainbow’s “Rainbow Syndrome Pt. II” CD- you could get the album autographed by all seven members and a set of members photos, all for only 21.99!! After missing out on Dal Shabet’s “Be Ambitious” autographed promo, I was determined to make sure I got my hands on THIS one! 
   Rushing to the Checkout Page, I immediately sent my order in, and all I had to do was wait for the promotions to end (the Special was set to end when they had gotten orders for 1000 copies)... or so I thought!
  After about three weeks, I remembered the Rainbow CD order, and wondered if the CD had shipped yet. Going on the Soompi site, I was informed that my order was still in “processed” status, leaving me to wonder if the promotion was still going on! Then I got this message from Soompi:

Oh Noes!!! If the girls were busy, then who KNOWS when ALL SEVEN girls would get around to signing ONE THOUSAND copies of their album! So you can guess how RELIEVED I was to receive THIS message last week:

Well, THAT was a relief, and JUST TODAY, I’m finally HAPPY to say that my autographed copy of Rainbow Syndrome Part Two IS HERE!!!

Wheee...! Rainbow Autographed CD

Haha, I can tell by their writing that this autograph session was probably a major pain-in-the-butt for the girls to work into their hectic schedules (strangely, the signatures hardest to make out are the ones I wanted most- Woori, Jaekyung and SeungAh) but I’m still so stoked to have ‘em- and the bonus photos are BEAUTIFUL! Even though I now have TWO copies of Rainbow Syndrome II  (since I’d already bought a copy when it first came out), it was so inexpensive that it was worth every penny, despite all the delay and such! 

Oh NO- I’ve just gotten a message from YESASIA informing me that the Autographed SPICA promotion I ordered is going to be delayed, too! OMO, here we go, back to the waiting game once AGAIN, LOL!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

My Latest K-Obsession: APink!!

My Latest Fave Group: APink!!

  YES, true believers, as you’ve probably predicted, I’ve FINALLY become a bonafide fan of APINK!!! And as you may have guessed, it all started with that silly clip of Eunji and Naeun dancing with Gary on Running Man. Sure, it was silly, but BOY was that dance move freaking CUTE!!!   As you may recall, after watching that clip over and OVER again, I downloaded some live performances of NoNoNo, and was SO blown away by it, I wanted to explore MORE about the girls, and I did it with the help of their THREE appearances on the show “Weekly Idol”…Now it was time to really get to know the girls!!

 The first episode I watched was the recent July Appearance they did to promote “NoNoNo” (this past July) and it was here that I got to "meet" the girls for the first time. learning each of the members and their characteristics...at this point, the two that really stood out for me was Namjoo and Bomi (the latter who I just fell in love with, she’s so candid and GOOFY!!!) but I have to say the others still looked “the same” to me.

Hilarious Bomi wi NaEun sharing a laugh

 Next I watched an earlier episode from May of 2012 where they were promoting “Hush”, this time Eunji was too busy so didn’t come, but it was SUCH a fun episode with lots of games and eating (Bomi and Chorong polishing off a plate of Chicken Feet and Namjoo eating 4 slices of pizza at once!!), I started loving the girls even more-

Eating, Eating and More Eating

Adorable Maknae HaYoung

 This time I got to know Hayoung better (she reminded me of a younger and more adorable Gyuri of KARA), and the way I could tell Yoo Kyung was that she reminded me of ChoA from Crayon Pop. Chorong was still kind of hard to recognize (as yet) though I realized she kinda reminded me of Japanese actress Aimi Satsukawa a bit. 
It was only when I watched their earliest (and first) appearance on Weekly Idol (from January of 2012 when they were promoting “My My”) that I started beginning to tell all the girls apart and recognized their specific "variety show" characteristics:  Chorong: The sensible and thoughtful leader, Eunji: The cool tomboyish chick, Bomi and Namjoo: The fun, energetic and comedic girls,  Yookyung: Shy and quiet, Naeun: the girlish "princess" type, and Hayoung: The sweet and cooperative maknae!

Yep, I was really starting to love these girls and as I began learning their back catalog of music, I wanted to see MVs and Live perfs of their older songs and so went onto the good old reliable Jpopsuki Tracker site (whod’ve ever thunk back when I was first using that site to download Arashi and  Morning Musume videos that it would be my main site to get K-pop as well, LOL) and began getting old perfs of songs like “I Don’t Know”, “Wishlist”, “My My”, “BuBiBu” and HUSH, as well as some absolutely KILLER perfs of “NoNoNo”!

Man, there's just something about watching cute girls performing catchy songs dressed in pretty outfits that just DOES it for me, and though I've mentioned it before, it MUST be said again how awesome EUNJI is- not only as the girl with the most KILLIN' voice ever, but easily one of the most sultry femme fatales out there! Eunji is the first to say that she doesn't think of herself as sexy, but watching THESE perfs at least, not only IS she sexy, ya know DARN WELL that SHE knows it, TOO!!!

"Yes, I know I'm sexy, but don't tell anyone...it's a secret!"

 After I exhausted those episodes and clips, watching them over and over, I needed MORE, so I knew it was finally time to GET SERIOUS and start watching those abundant episodes of “APINK NEWS” that are ALL OVER Youtube, and more importantly, ALL SUBTITLED! I dove in and right away began LOVING the show, and as usual when watching a reality show following a group, got to know them intimately, their personalities and quirks through their photoshoot sessions and MV filming...

...Their  outdoor activities and MT training...

(Where they're usually out doing challenges for food!)

...and ESPECIALLY the moments where they're just having FUN being themselves-like EunJi and Bomi hanging Chorong upside down on Exercise equipment, LOL! Things like this make me love them even more!

By episode 5, I really and truly felt like I “knew” them and could now REALLY tell each other apart, even Chorong! By the time they began covering their promotions for Seven Springs of APink on the show, I was TOTALLY gone for them, and NEEDED to have their stuff! I went online and ordered not only Seven Springs of APink, but also Une Annee, AND Snow Pink!!!! 

  As of right now I’m taking it slow and am trying to watch a couple of episodes a night, though of course there are some days I have to watch more, it's so much FUN! Just about the only drawback I can see watching these old episodes of Apink News is, of course, that besides the other members, I’m ALSO getting to know and love YooKyung as well, and feel rather sad knowing she'll leave/get forced out of Apink. Really bittersweet watching her with all the girls trying so hard to make it and knowing that she’d be dropped in only another year. I have to keep telling myself its for the best since she was never comfortable singing and only wanted to dance. Still so sad, actually...they seemed at their best when they were all seven of them!

Happy Days with Eunji and YooKyung

But anyway, so YEAH, I’m TOTALLY digging Apink right now, really love the main three: Eunji, Bomi, Namjoo (they’re so energetic and fun!) and I think Hayoung’s a Babe... (especially back when she had black hair, not a real big fan of her blonde look…omo, wait, she was only 16? Aigoo!) Chorong is cute as the mumbling leader (really started loving her towards the end of season one) and Naeun is super pretty (man, in the “U You” video, she looks just KILLER)... As I still have ways to go in getting to know ALL of the girls better, you can expect my opinions and rankings of them to grow more and more in the coming weeks!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

She Sees Dead People: Gong Hyo Jin in "Master's Sun"

"He's Right Behind Me, Isn't He?" Gong HyoJin in Master's Sun

 While I wait for the final episode of Hanzawa Naoki to get translated, I've been biding my time taking a turn for the fanciful with the sweet, funny and at times heartbreaking K-drama "Master's Sun"(Jugun-ui Taeyang), the story of a young woman who, yes, sees dead people, and ends up spending most of her time, credibility and sanity trying to help them right wrongs that have kept them on this mortal plane.

Gong HyoJin and So Ji Sub in Master's Sun

Tae Gong Shil has somehow acquired spiritual visions from some as-yet-unexplained  earlier accident, and since then has been haunted by hoards of ethereal stalkers of sorts, all wanting her to do things for her day and night, to the point where she simply cannot get away from them. One day she comes across a rich president named Jong-Woon whom she finds that somehow, when she is touching him, manages to keep the ghosts at bay. Only problem is, he's a selfish and money-hungry person who sees Gong Shil as nothing more than an eccentric nut who seems to keep hanging around no matter how much he dissuades her!

Gong HyoJin as Tae Gong Shil

So JiSub as Joo JoongWon

The drama's got a lot of original ideas going for it already, but the main draw watching this show for me was the cute antics of adorable Gong Hyo Jin, whom I last saw as the bride of Lee Kwang Soo in a hilarious romantic-comedy themed episode of Running Man months ago- she is SO DARN adorable in this show, I could watch it just for her expressions and quirks alone! Luckily, there'a whole lot of other reasons to keep tuning into this one and it already looks like it's shaping up nicely!!!
Below: the cutest single scene in episode one where someone wakes up Gong Shil and tells her that she looked just like a cat sleeping in the sun...

 AHAHAHA, Too Cute!!! 
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com