Currently, I have taken on the task of running a website that is documenting NANA Day events in all different parts of the world!
I apologize for the lack of updates. I have many things I could post up in here now, but I am quite lazy!
My friend came back from Japan and bought me a whole bunch of NANA merchandise from the cafe/museum they opened dedicated to the new movie. I wished I could have gone there myself! I have the strawberry glasses, keychains, pins, badges, cell phone straps, tee-shirts etc. I love me some NANA merchandise. I would take pictures later, maybe.
I've done a couple of more cosplay photoshoots at the past conventions I've attended. I will put those up one of these days--- although the pictures have been posted on other websites and my livejournal already.
As far as everything else goes-- I've only been keeping up with the manga story thus far. I haven't had time to watch the anime. It's just not the same when I used to watch the anime in my bedroom in Japan with my little television at midnight every Wednesdays! I miss those nights...
So NANA 2 is out and I'm whining about how I'm no longer in Japan so I can watch it. I should have stayed there for another half a year, what's wrong with me?
There's been a summary of the movie up on my livejournal community already. The way they did the plot and ended it sounds a little funky, but I could care less. The movie is all about the eye candy and just the fun of it!
I've also really gotten into the song, 一色. I was a little pensive with it at first, and just enjoyed it for what it was (a GLAY song! I love GLAY). Now, I really like it. It still doesn't suit the Blackstones image in my mind, but it's still a fairly pretty song to listen to.
I love watching Mika Nakashima perform the song live. It is a very revealing song for her in terms of her singing skills. She's a wonderful singer, but her range isn't great yet, and she makes so many mistakes when she performs this song. It's kind of cute, in my opinion. It's hard to imagine how difficult this song must be to sing for her. I can't sing myself, so if I butcher this song in karaoke, it's just a given that I sing badly!
I started reading the NANA mangas when I was in high school (which was years.. and years... ago... T3T lawd, I'm old), and yes-- I am a stickler to the mangas. I refuse to buy the VIZ translations because I think they're horrible (and trust me, I have enough English release mangas so I am not a snob when it comes to translations... I just know a bad one when I see it! But I do tell the NANA beginners to buy the VIZ books, anyways). I support the Yazawa Ai by buying the Japanese mangas, COOKIE magazine and whatever official merchandise I can get my hands on. I try to avoid the pirated merchs that litters the US conventions as much as possible.
The movies are not perfect, of course.
But I rather enjoy them than bitch about what's wrong with them! They're great eye candy and I love most of the actors. I loved the cast from the first movie... and we all know how I feel about certain cast choices in the next one (NO NEW REN ACTOR LOVE FROM ME! NEEEVVEEEER!!!). I love the re-casting of Shin and I don't mind the new Hachi at all. I think she'll be great (Aoi's Hachi will be miss greatly though).
Now, watching that promotional reel, it makes me a little teary-eyed on some of the scenes. Sniff, sniff! No matter how many times I watch the same scenes in different formats, it still makes me weep. That letter scene will kill me, as it did when I read it in the manga.
Admittedly, I think some scenes are just going to make me giggle stupidly-- that part with Shin throwing water in Takumi's face is going to be AWESOME. It looks so badly executed that it's fabulous! Go go dramatics! AMIRITE?! XD Or am I the only one who sees the funny in it...?
Seriously, I think some of the wannabe-anal-NANA fans just need to relax and enjoy the eye-candy the movies have to offer. There's nothing wrong with enjoying them even if they're not ohsoperfect to the mangas, in my opinion. Why people always make having fun a sin, I have no idea. I know being an anal party pooper ain't all that crack up to be.
I also do enjoy the songs from these movies. "Hitoiro" is faaaaaaaaaaar from what Blackstones should sound like, but I still think it's a nice song over all.
So, yes, I'm excited. How about you?
To be flat out honest with all of you guys, I have a love/hate thing for Ren Honjou. I can't completely hate his character... but I can't completely love him. Most of the time, I tend to wish that Yasu would just snatch Nana away from him already! For those keeping up with the Japanese release of the manga, don't you think Nana's life would have turned out possibly for the better if Yasu has been taking care of her, instead of Ren?
Let's face it-- Ren is cool and all that-- and honestly... I would probably date him too. XD But man, some aspects of his personality and life just screams: LOSER!
The most recent chapter has me cringing in my seat a little bit. I think most of us can see where this is heading. Everything is going to be Ren's fault and I'm going to want to kick him where it counts!
Which brings me to my next Ren related topic: the new actor for NANA 2.
I'm sorry, but I think he's completely wrong for the role. Of course, I am judging by A) his looks and B) trailer clips for the new movie.
Mostly because I'm also incredibly biased towards Ryuhei Matsuda, who played Ren in the first movie. I love that man and I believe he is a very talented actor. Most people didn't like him as Ren because his face wasn't "skinny" (huh?) enough for the character, apparently. I loved his screen presence as Ren-- very cool, and very sensual. I wished they had delved more into Nana and Ren's sillier personalities in the movie though. That's where it mostly failed for me-- all the characters are so flat in the movie. But it is a show that lasts for less than two hours, so what can you do, right?
This new actor looks less more like how Ren should look for me. He's... kinda grody looking in the punk wear. He can not pull it off; and the hair just doesn't work with him at all. Especially since the spike's are too long. So I will just say it flat out: the Ren look really, really, really looks BAD on him to a point that it looks really awkward. Ryuhei pulled it off way better.
Of course, I have yet to see him act-- and perhaps, he might turn up an incredible performance that will make me change my mind. For now, he's my least favorite casting change. Unfortunately, NANA 2 is the last film... so it's ending with an ugly Ren. How unfortunate. Oh well-- I'm sure I'll enjoy the movie nonetheless. Though I will miss Ryuhei while I watch!
On October 28, I attended the convention, Pacific Media Expo, to participate in the NANA costume contest that was judged by Olivia Lufkin, the singing voice of Reira in the anime. I made most of my costume, which is based on an outfit Oosaki wears on volume 5 of the manga, mixed with the anime's version of it. I made the skirt and the ruffles. The corset is Vivienne Westwood, and the shoes are lolita lola rocking horse shoes.
I got at the convention fairly early, to make sure I get my badge in time before the contest, which was set on 11am. The event was mostly interesting. I wouldn't say it was exciting or all that fun-- it was a little exciting to see Olivia, of course. On the other hand, the event lacked energy and I was disappointed. There was a lot of awkward silence, which shouldn't have been the case since the star of the convention was there!
I think a little music even would have pumped up the room a little more.
First off, there wasn't very many participants in the contest. I think part of the problem was that the other NANA cosplayers didn't get through registration in time and didn't make it. Which was unfortunate because there was quite a few who were really good!
The event wasn't much of a NANA celebration, but not surprisingly, just became mainly a meet and greet Olivia event. Olivia fans were very excited to get a rare opportunity to talk to her, even though they were supposed to be talking about NANA. I don't blame them though! I'm sure many of them were dreaming of the day they can talk to Olivia directly.
Overall, the event needed more energy and excitement to get everyone going. I think they seriously needed to get emcees for these kind of things that are more energetic and know how to entertain and get a crowd to respond more. I thought it was unfortunate that an event with a popular Japanese star turned out to be rather "blah". . . I don't think PMX thought this event through very well.
Stephanie Yanez walked away with the Top Winner title-- congratulations Stephanie!!! She did wonderfully and made a great Reira, in my opinion. The character really suited her. We plan on cosplaying Nana and Reira together in the future.
I've attended PMX ever since its first year, and the convention still needs to grow up a lot. What it desperately needs is a personality and its own niche on the convention calendar. They keep shifting it every year, and it always competes with other more popular conventions-- this time, it was right after Ani-magic and Yaoi-con. Of course, most con veterans are going to attend those conventions over PMX, and I don't blame them. PMX lacks the con-goer pull, and they rely way too much on the Japanese guest stars they get. The first year was only a success because of TMRevolution's attendance. The second year proved to be dead since there was no Japanese musician headlining that was popular. My friends and I worried about the fate of the convention; since for some reason, we had a general feeling of "fondness" for PMX. This year, among all my friends, I was the only one to make an effort to attend. People were either broke and recovering from the other two conventions this month, or just didn't care for the new location.
Personally, I didn't care much for the location either.
The hotel was beautiful, but it just didn't compliment what PMX is trying to do as a convention in my opinion.
I left the convention early out of boredom, and questioning if it was worth all that trouble and money for. I did get a signed Trapnest tee-shirt from the contest--- though I thought the prices could have been better, too. I wasn't too concerned about loosing to Stephanie, especially since I didn't care of the Olivia towel top winner price too much myself. I'm glad it went to an Olivia fan, because I wouldn't know what to do it myself!
I did have people express their disturbance to me that I didn't win the contest, which made me smile. If you were one of those people reading this, I want to thank you! I appreciate everyone who was cheering for me, which is awesome since I went to the convention not knowing anyone else!
I'm getting too old to cosplay Nana-- but it was always a blast whenever I dressed up like her. No pun intended! ;)
I've been collecting NANA merchandise for a few years now, though I really don't have a lot of things. I rely on the free stuff that the COOKIE magazine comes with, most of the time. Speaking of, a day ago, I stopped by an Asahiya bookstore and bought the latest COOKIE issue and NANA volume 16-- the COOKIE came with this cute NANA folder.
I decided, I might as well take pictures of all my merchandise~! Here's a quick group shot.
I also have a couple of posters-- a giant one from COOKIE, and another one which I forget already where I got it... o_O; Then I have DVDs and music CDs, of course. Plus, the manga collection in Japanese and the artbook. I wished I had access to get all the new items coming out in Japan because of the anime T3T
At the end of this month, Olivia Lufkin-- now known as the singing voice of Reira for the animated series-- is making a trip to Los Angeles, California to perform a live concert at Pacific Media Expo. Looks like it's going to be another big PMX convention! The first year of PMX was huge, due to T.M.Revolution's concert. The second year was rather dull, with no musical guest to speak of. Now, on their third year, PMX is picking up the failed pieces of their second year with another huge Japanese performer.
Takuro from GLAY is writing the music for the next song that Mika Nakashima sings for the second NANA movie. The title of the song is Hitoiro. I'm excited to hear it. I've been a big fan of GLAY for so long and Takuro is very talented, in my opinion. I also can't wait to hear Yuna Ito's new Reira song!
When I first started to read the manga, and I met Reira for the first time, I brushed her off immediately as probably the "annoying female" character in the story. I thought she would be childish and non-important. But as I read on, I began to like her more and more for the things she says, how she takes care of her bandmates (especially Ren) when she can, and some of her actions are quite sincere to me. She has more heart than Oosaki does, for sure-- though she'll never be as sweet and honest as Hachi! I think what bothered me about Reira is that she acts so naive and untainted when she's the exact opposite. Fame and fortune wipes away innocence, in my opinion, and Reira seemed like she was pretending to be an innocent little girl.
Recent Comments
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NANA said:
NANA 1 was released about a year ago and I have my copy in DVD format. I believe the movie... read more
on NANA 2... NANA 2... NANA 2!!! -
My Lovely One said:
i watched the promotional reel. is there a Nana 1 anywhere I can watch??? I got here some how by... read more
on NANA 2... NANA 2... NANA 2!!! -
Niri-niri said:
xD you look so cool! I love all the costumes. I was supposed to go to PMX but, I got... read more
on Olivia Lufkin, NANA costume contest, PMX -
bee said:
Haha- I saw you walking around the con~ I personally didn't attend the NANA cosplay event because I went to... read more
on Olivia Lufkin, NANA costume contest, PMX
Hi! Curiously I had planned a project to celebrate this manga a long time ago, ignoring that this year we... read more
on NANA Day!