Studio Coast

Yesterday was the Harezora Party event at Shin-kiba Studio Coast. Of course, the event was held on Kamiya’s birthday. It was a very nice day, except for the wind and cold. It was very cold. I arrived at the venue a little after 12 and already there was a long line for goods. It took about an hour for me to get to the front of the line where I bought all the goods they offered, which included a hand towel, mascot cleaner, and bromide set. It looks like they were giving away Harezora promotional posters to those who bought the CD.

Goods

At 2:30, they opened the entrance doors. I was in the A group in the 400s. Got a spot sort of near the front to the right side of the stage, perhaps 6 or 7 rows back. They were playing the tracks from Harezora in the background. For the night event I was in the B group in the early numbers. My friend and I decided to take a spot in the back behind the staff. We were in the center and had a very clear view of the stage. (It was sort of interesting since I could see the staff controlling what’s displayed on the main screen.) When an announcement of the event rules and such came on with Kamiya reading them, everyone jumped. The announcement was played several times before the lights went down and everyone screamed as Kamiya took to the stage.

A spotlight was cast on Kamiya, who was wearing a black and white striped shirt and black vest. The noon event started off with a Q&A in the style of the Doumoto Ichimon Ittou corner from the variety show Doumoto Kyoudai, complete with narration by Kobayashi Toshio who does the actual narration on the show and is also affiliated with Aoni Production. The corner was instead titled Kamiya Ichimon Ittou and Kamiya was asked to do a self-introduction, and there was a quick Q&A, which included the following:

Q: What’s got you excited recently?
A: The announcement of a new model of the New Beetle. I’m wondering if I should change cars.

Q: Tell us a secret that even the Kiramune members don’t know.
A: I recently bought a new bed that was quite expensive, but I’m not very used to it yet so I can’t decide if it’s comfortable or not. My poor (binbou) body is used to cheap beds.

For the night event, it started off in a similar way, except it was in the style of OnTama, another well-known variety show and narrated by Terase Kyouko, again a seiyuu affiliated with Aoni. The corner was KamiTama and again Kamiya was asked several questions.

Q: What kind of student were you when you were in middle school?
A: I was an idiot. I never studied and left all my textbooks at school even though we were supposed to review at home. Make sure you all study and don’t become someone like me!

Q: What gesture done by a girl makes you instantly like her?
A: I like it when girls say, “Iyaa mou~ (Oh geez~)” while lightly pushing me on the shoulder.
Q: That’s certainly cute. Let’s see you face the camera and do it one more time.
A: “Iyaa mou~ Kamiya kun~”
So cute!!!

After the corner was finished, there was an announcement by Kamiya saying he wanted to hear everyone’s voice. When he said “Harezora!” the audience yelled out “Party!” We said it a bunch of times.

Kamiya: The people in the front! Harezora?
Audience: Party!
K: The people in the back! Harezora?
A: Party!
K: First floor! Harezora?
A: Party!
K: Second floor! Harezora?
A: Party!
K: All the girls! Harezora?
A: Party!
K: All the guys? Harezora!
A: PARTY!
K: In a high voice! *high voice* Harezora~
A: Party~
K: In a loooow voice. *low voice* Harezora…
A: Party…
K: In a sexy voice. Ha-re-zo-ra.
A: Par~ty~

There were actually quite a few guys in the crowd! For the last one, everyone hard a hard time saying it in a sexy voice. ^^;

For the next corner, again the lights were off when Kamiya’s voice was heard on the speakers. “There’s someone in this venue whose mind is not clear. Yes, it’s you who’s standing alone on the stage!” The spot light turned on and there was Kamiya standing in the center again.

Kamiya: Who the heck are you?
Psyche: I am Kamiya Hiroshi.
K: What!?
P: I am another you. I guess you could call me your deep psyche.
K: What are you, chuu ni?
P: What date is it today?
K: January 28th…
P: And what day is that?
K: Well, it’s my birthday…
P: That’s right! Everyone’s here to celebrate for you! Yet what’s with that attitude!? All right everyone, we’re singing that song!
K: Sorry everyone, he’s very selfish. Please play along with him.
[cue psyche!Kamiya singing "Happy Birthday" really badly and the crowd singing along while holding back their laughter]
P: How old are you now?
K: 37… Anything wrong with that?
P: When Einstein was 37, he published the General Theory of Relativity. When Tomino Yoshiyuki was 37, he created Gundam! And what about you? You’re totally third class! C-rank! We’re going to find out if you have what it takes to become a real adult. Surely someone who’s reached #2 on the Oricon chart can tell the difference between low-class and high-class, right!? We’re going to determine all this in Mirror World.

First, Kamiya had to find the door to get to Mirror World and knocked on invisible doors.

K: *knock knock*
Door: *knock knock*
K: Hey, there’s someone in there!
P: It’s the next door.
K: Tell me a little earlier, won’t you?
*knocks and opens the next door*
Girl: Kyaaaaaaaaa! Hiroshi san no ecchi~
K: *quickly closes door* What was that?
P: Just some fan service for you.
K: I would have liked a visual.
*knocks and opens the next door*
Inside door: Kokoro no tobira wo hiraite~
K: *closes door* What the heck?
P: That was the kokoro no tobira. KAmiYU’s mini album Link-up is currently on sale now!
K: What’s with the promotion?
P: The door to Mirror World is the one in the back.
K: *knocks and is about to open the door*
P: Wait! …That one’s a sliding door.
K: *laughs and slides the door open*
*sliding door noise*
K: What a cheap sound!

Once inside “Mirror World,” Kamiya was given some quiz questions where he had to determine which was the higher class item. For the noon event, first up was hamburg steak. One was a 100 yen hamburg steak and one was a hamburg steak from a very high-class restaurant. Kamiya ate each of them and you could hear the noise as he chewed. ^^; He said both tasted good and then made his guess. He was wrong and smoke blew into his face, similar to what happened at the KAmiYU in Wonderland 2 event. The second test was calligraphy. He was shown two “一番星 (ichiban boshi)” written in calligraphy. One was written by a professional calligrapher and the other was written by a manager at Aoni, LoL. Again, Kamiya guessed wrong and was blown smoke in the face. The last question tested his ears. He had to determined which guitar was a vintage million-yen guitar, and which was a beginner’s 200000-yen guitar. The melody played was a little part of Kamiya’s song Basil. For this question, Kamiya guessed correctly! The answer was given via video message and it was by Irino Miyu! Miyu kun was the one playing the melody and he talked about a wooden wind chime he bought for Kamiya and showed it, saying he’ll hang it in the green room. Kamiya laughed and said that something like that really was hanging in the green room and that he didn’t need it.

For the night event, Kamiya had to tell the difference between cake, “晴れ空 (harezora)” written in calligraphy, and there was another guitar test. This time he got all of them correct! The guitar melody was really weird and was played by Namikawa Daisuke. Namikawa promoted his upcoming mini album in the video message. ^^;

The next corner was a live reading. The setting was Harezora Cafe where Kamiya was the owner. He was dressed up in a waiter uniform. Sorry, I’m going to skip the story summary. ^^; During the whole time though, there was a professional pianist playing piano arrangements of songs from the Harezora album. They were very pretty.

Last was the live part! The set list included Dual Wing, For myself, Ashita he no Baton (noon), Hello my shadow (night), Ichiban Boshi, and Harebare Heart for the encore. Sooooooo gooooooood!! For the first two songs and the encore, there were a couple male dancers. For all those songs, Kamiya danced with them and there was some kind of choreography throughout the songs. During For myself, the crowd sang the “Oh-oh oooh-oh” parts. During the noon event, Kamiya was pretty out of breath after singing Ashita he no Baton. You could tell that he was quite tired while singing Ichiban Boshi as it really showed on his face. After the song, he ran off stage and cue the chants of “encore.” After a few minutes, the chant changed from “en-co-re” to “Hi-ro-shi,” which was funny. (During the night event, the “Hiroshi” chant started a lot earlier.) Finally the lights went up and Kamiya had changed into a very spring-like outfit. The top was cute, but I have no idea what was going with the bottom half. It was like shorts over black spandex half-pants. Not to mention both the top and bottom were a spotted pattern, which was kind of… yeah… LoL. However the dance for this was incredibly cute, and the crowd yelled out “Viva hare otoko desu!!” and “Mada mijuku mono desu!!” For the night event, during the riff, Kamiya ran around with a smoke gun kind of thing and blew it into the crowd. I’m not sure if it was just because I was in the back and couldn’t get as good a look as during the noon event, but Kamiya didn’t look as tired when singing during the night event. That was a relief.

Overall the event was very enjoyable and I had a great time. I only wish he also sang Mirror World, which is one of my favorites on Harezora. But other than that, he sang all the songs I wanted to hear most. Also there was a project on mixi to sing “Happy Birthday” after the event ended but since they kept playing Harezora in the background, there was no chance to sing. =( This was my first time attending a Kamiya-only event since I’ve never won the lottery for any of his release commemoration events. I hope he’ll have more in the future and at a larger venue where there are seats since all-standing is rather tiring and there’s not a lot of room to move.

Harezora Party was recorded and Kamiya announced during the event that the event will be streamed online in the future. This announcement can also be found on the Kiramune website. Some parts of this report might be a little off and I know I left out some parts since it’s hard to remember all the details, but you’ll be able to watch it all for your self when the stream is up.

Looking forward to KiraFes 2012!!

As usual, the live started off with the OrePara rap. For the noon event, OnoD’s performance was third, and for the night event, he was fifth. His set list was the same for both and included: DELIGHT, Ride On Funky Night, Netsuretsu ANSWER, and Daisuki.

My God, the screams when OnoD’s kanji for the live 継 (kei) showed up on the screen… The night event was especially crazy. The moment the kanji showed up, almost everyone in the venue broke out either a yellow glow stick or an ultra bright orange one. In any case, the venue was suddenly lit up quite brightly. OnoD came out on stage wearing a red suit jacket similar to the one he wore in the DELIGHT PV, but not the same. (Yes, he had black eyeliner on.) He also had a headset mic as opposed to a handheld one like everyone else. Why? Because he danced. And the dancers from the PV were on stage with him! At first it was just the two girls but then in the middle of the song the two guys came out too. The girls had different outfits but the guys were wearing the same red and blue shirts from the PV.

For DELIGHT, everyone yelled out “Delight!” and “Wo-oh!” etc. As for the hand movements, at the beginning of the chorus (“Mabayui mirai~”) everyone held their glow sticks up in the air and waved it in tune with the song. For the “delight” and “all right” parts, we all did the raise the roof motion. It was hilarious! During his MC, OnoD kept doing the motion for no reason and then everyone would do it too. He commented that it was funny when everyone does it together, hehe. They actually reenacted parts of the PV on stage, such as the dancing during the instrumental part. It was tons of fun.

Ride On Funky Night also had its own choreography. It was really cool! It’s hard to describe, but take my word for it… It was cool. For Netsuretsu ANSWER, of course everyone did the dance. I was sitting on the third floor so I had a good bird’s eye view of the entire venue and it was pretty amazing to see everyone dance in sync. The last song was Daisuki and this time they made up a little dance for it. OnoD explained it beforehand. It was kind of like hitting a taiko drum. The dance was for the “D-A-I-S-U-K-I daisuki!” part of the song. For “D-A” you would “hit the drum” to your left, alternating between left and right for each letter, and then “I-S-U” was on the right side. “K-I” was down below, and then for the last “daisuki!” you would “hit” with both hands above your head twice, once for “dai” and then once for “suki.” It was a lot of fun dancing along. Near the end of the song, Hirakawa, whose name is also Daisuke, came out on stage. It was cute.

At the end of the event they sang Nemuru Monotachi he and the new song Galaxy Bus. OnoD still had his makeup on and was wearing the gloves. For the noon event when they were doing the last jump, Iwata jumped and everyone else did the NAHA pose, which was opposite of what happened last year. (Watch the DVD for 2010 if you don’t know what this is.) Poor Micchan! XDDD The crowd was in the dark about this surprise too since they didn’t announce it beforehand like last year. Apparently they came up with the idea of doing it the night before. For the night event, they all surprised SuzuKen with a guitar signed by everyone and Yorke. of OLDCODEX painted on the case. It was a wedding present and the entire audience got to congratulate SuzuKen on his marriage.

The buzz on Twitter was that Kamiya and Sakamoto Maaya were at the noon event sitting in the middle section, front row on the third floor. I was 9th row and did not notice them. They say Kamiya was also at the night event. I was 3rd row for that one and again, did not notice him. ^^;; Ahh… So close yet so far. Obviously no one could squee about it since it would make things awkward. If someone squeed I think everyone would have realized he was there.

Anyway, the event helped me fall in love with OnoD all over again. We may laugh at his silliness but at the same time he can be so cool! I was reminded as to why I look forward to OrePara the entire year. This is definitely one of the best annual events out there and though tickets may be on the rather expensive side, the events are about 4 hours long each so you definitely get your money’s worth. Just when you think OnoD’s at his best, he outdoes himself again. I wonder what’s in store for next year. ^^

Now for the main topic at hand, Christmas is just around the corner! I’d like to organize a project to send letters and fan art to Kamiya and OnoD for Christmas, similar to the DGS4LO Fan Project earlier this year. Rules are the same, so let’s show the boys our support!

The premise
Send fan letters and/or fan art to Kamiya Hiroshi, Ono Daisuke, and/or the DGS staff. All letters and art will be sent together as one package to Bunka Housou and addressed to Dear Girl ~Stories~.

What is allowed
Letters and art only. Sorry, no presents.

DEADLINE
All letters and art must be received by DECEMBER 12, 2011.

Guidelines

• Only fan letters and fan art will be accepted.
• Letters can be addressed to Kamiya, Ono, or any DGS staffer.
  If you will be writing to more than one person, please write them as separate letters.
• Please HANDWRITE letters, if possible.
• The boys and staff only understand Japanese, though perhaps they also understand simple English.
  It is recommended that letters be written in Japanese, but letters in any language will be accepted so feel free to write in whatever language you feel most comfortable. It’s the thought that counts!
• Do not write anything that could be considered rude or too personal.
  ie. No marriage proposals.
• Please draw art on standard-sized paper.
• Keep all art PG.
  Any fan art that I consider inappropriate, such as those with BL tones, will not be accepted.

Submission

• Letters and art will be accepted via postal mail only (no email).
• All letters should be sealed in an envelope and mailed within a larger envelope.
• Art can be mailed as-is without being sealed in an individual envelope.
• Write your name (nickname is OK) and country on the envelope with the letter/art inside.
  If you are only submitting art, please include your name and country somewhere on it. (The back is fine.)
  Please do not include your address, except on the outer envelope you are mailing everything in.
• Please write your email address under your return address so I can let you know when I’ve received your letter/art.
• Clearly mark on all letter envelopes who the letter is addressed to.

Wanna join?
If you are interested in participating in the project, please contact me (hibiki <at> boyscloud <dot> net) with your name, address, and what you will be submitting (letter and/or art). I will respond with my address for you to mail everything. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks!

12►

This year’s CharaHobby took place on August 27-28 at Makuhari Messe. Friends and I overnighted the night before in order to get good spots outside the seating area of the main stage. Let’s just say Friday night kind of sucked. It rained and rained and rained. We only had to endure it for about 4 hours though since the staff let us into the building at midnight. Still rather sucked because these three girls behind us kept talking and laughing out loud all night long. Couldn’t sleep a wink! >_< All the effort was worth it though because my friends and I were able to get front row on the right side of the stage, same as years past. The moment we got there, the main screen showed a commercial for the DGS4LO event DVD, which made a few people scream with delight. After securing our spots, I went to register and change into my HiroC cosplay.

The DGS recording was the second event of the day. Usually Chanko chan is the one who does the maesetsu (introduction before the main event) but this year it was Yagihashi kun, aka Yajuuhashi kun, all by himself. You can tell he was a bit nervous, hehe. After he was finished, my goodness, the screams/cheers as Dear Girl wa Nemuranai started playing on the speakers and Kamiya and OnoD did the title call from backstage. It only intensified when they came out on stage. Every year the number of people who come to watch the recording increases dramatically. Kamiya immediately pointed out that there was a Dear Boy front and center outside the seating area. OnoD did his “mosu” call and asked everyone if they were genki, going by section (right, left, center, seating area). At the end he yelled out, “Buppan genki??” (“Buppan” = sales booths.) There was silence for a second but then the staffers at the Animate booth which was directly facing the stage started cheering. It was funny.

As is tradition, Kamiya and OnoD were wearing the Hibiki jumpsuits. You could see that they were wearing the Charinty Charinty tshirts they made on the inside. Kamiya was worried that this being the 4th year DGS has had a public recording at CharaHobby, people would be tired of them and barely anyone would come and thanked the large crowd for coming to see them. He then explained that they shirts they were wearing were photographed by Kamiyama Chikin sensei, and added in that he’s never met him. OnoD then said that Sensei came twice and his personality the second time compared to the first time was quite different, to which Kamiya said he wouldn’t know (since he’s never met him).

After the opening, they went right into the shikakuteki (visual) portion of the show and screened digest footage of the DGS4LO event DVD. It was great reliving the memories and I can’t wait for the DVD’s release! (The event report can be found here.) Next was a big announcement! With the AniSama theme playing in the background, OnoD announced, “We are now taking early reservations for Kamiya Hiroshi’s Birthday 2012 ‘rainbow’!” (This year’s AniSama is titled “rainbow.”) Kamiya was all, “But my birthday is in winter…” The project was to plan for what they’d do for Kamiya’s birthday next year and out came a large Ono Note (big black paper pad with “Ono Note” written on it in DEATH NOTE-like fashion) from under the table. The staff brought out a couple of boxes, one with A written on it and the other with B. Inside box A was paper with either “HiroC” or “OnoD” written on it. Inside box B was what they would have to do. Kamiya was the first to go and he pulled “HiroC ga” from box A. OnoD was going to pull from box B but Kamiya immediately insisted that he’d choose himself. He pulled out a piece of paper that said “nurunuru ni naru (will become slimy/slippery)” on it. The crowd laughed. Of course Kamiya was not happy with this result. Next up was OnoD. From box A he pulled out another “HiroC ga.” From box B he pulled out “kekka shiawase ni naru kara subete yurusu (will be happy in the end so all will be forgiven).” Kamiya didn’t understand what this meant so OnoD explained that if it’s funny everyone will laugh and Kamiya would be overcome with feelings of happiness, which is why anything they do to him will be forgiven. Once again, Kamiya was  not very content. Next was Kamiya’s turn to pick again and before saying so, he said that only “OnoD” is left inside the box, and indeed he picked an “OnoD ga.” Kamiya pulled out a paper from box B and after reading it, put it back, picked out another, and put that one back in the box too. OnoD protested and Kamiya finally pulled another out and read it: “OnoD ga sunege wo soru (OnoD will shave his leg hair).” Kamiya said that it’s something OnoD always does and went to check by pulling up one of OnoD’s pant legs. Surprise! OnoD forgot to shave his legs, LoL. But apparently his leg hair was really thin. In the end they looked at all the papers that were inside the box, which included, “will go far away,” and “neoki dokkiri (surprising someone by waking them up),” among others that I can’t remember. Kamiya then checked box A and the last paper inside was another “HiroC ga,” to which he yelled out, “Hey! My name’s in here 3 times! This is unfair!!!” Haha, so cute. They started thinking of what should be written in the Ono Note and Kamiya was all combining the different choices into one. OnoD grabbed the Ono Note and wrote, “HiroC to OnoD ga kekka shiawase ni naru (HiroC and OnoD will be happy in the end).” Kamiya questioned why OnoD is included in it and covered up OnoD’s name so it’d only read “HiroC ga kekka shiawase ni naru (HiroC will be happy in the end).” In any case, since it’s been written in the Ono Note, I guess we can expect some more chaos next year for Kamiya’s birthday.

Next they showed another video, this time of the photo session to take photos for the Charinty Charinty tshirts. As the video started, Kamiya went backstage. The video was hilarious! Kamiya was dressed up as Kamiyama Chikin sensei with a large afro wig and sunglasses. He greeted OnoD by pinching OnoD’s nipple. ^^;;;;;; While they didn’t directly show it, there were screams as OnoD took off his shirt to change into the OnoD Mercury tank top. As Kamiyama sensei and OnoD Mercury were walking to the photo shoot area, the camera was recording them from behind and Kamiyama sensei was rubbing OnoD Mercury’s butt the entire time. XDDDDD Tons of laughter from the crowd. When OnoD’s session was over, he went to give Kamiyama sensei a handshake but Kamiyama sensei pinched OnoD’s nipple instead. ^^;;; For Suwa san’s photo, they (= OnoD) really threw a bucket of water on him. XD Only after that did they start the photo session. For Yagihashi kun, he pretended to bite the panel board.

After the video, OnoD explained that they really do do all that crazy stuff on the show, and then he noticed that Kamiya was gone. When he tried to call him out, out came Kamiyama Chikin sensei with his afro, sunglasses, camera, and wearing Kamiya’s Photogenic You tshirt and rainbow patterned pants. XD It was hilarious, and let me remind you that Kamiyama sensei talks like an okama. OnoD pointed out that the shirt he was wearing looks to be more tight-fitting than it did before. Kamiyama sensei explained, “It’s a Jr. L!” (The smallest size.) This drew a large “Eeehhhhh~” from the crowd as they were all surprised that he could even fit into that size. He wanted to take some photos of OnoD and prepared to throw a bucket of water on OnoD. OnoD ran away but finally stood still. Kamiyama sensei pretended to throw the water on OnoD, twirled the bucket in a circle at his side, etc. In the end, the bucket was actually empty but he did a good job of making people believe there really was water in it. He took a bunch of photos of OnoD with the audience in the background. Wonder if they’ll upload some of them onto the mobile website. Oh, and Kamiyama sensei did rub OnoD’s butt on stage, though not for as long as he did in the video shown earlier. OnoD was taken by surprise and immediately jumped a bit, running away.

When the photo session ended, Kamiyama sensei went off stage and left OnoD all by his lonesome. Text on the screen signaled OnoD to buy time, so he did what he did at the DGS event and asked, “Arena genki? Shimote genki? Kamite genki??” etc. Kamiya came back on stage and it was time to record the Dear Voice. Of course it was the ever popular “bi-chiku bi-chiku bakyun bakyun!” Since it’s hard to figure out on the radio, OnoD showed the audience the hand motions for it. For the “bi-chiku bi-chiku” part, you have your hands in a fist close to your chest (bottom of your hand facing forward) and do an up-down motion with your fist twice (one for each “bi-chiku“) as if you were turning something. Then for the first “bakyun,” your right hand becomes a palm and thrusts forward. For the second “bakyun,” your right hand goes back and your left hand (in a palm) thrusts forward. We practiced a few times before the actual recording. OnoD practiced with everyone, and then called out for just the girls, and then just the guys. There were actually a lot of guys and they gave it their all. XD Both Kamiya and OnoD were surprised. Then OnoD had Kamiya do it. For the recording, they had the audience do it once with Kamiya, and then once with OnoD.

Probably from yelling out “bi-chiku bi-chiku bakyun bakyun,” Kamiya’s microphone started acting strange and the volume wasn’t as loud as it should be. A staffer brought him a regular microphone (they usually use headset types). At the end, they made another big announcement: They were going to release a new single and the OP/ED songs for the show will be changing in October! The CD, titled Smiley Time,  will be released on November 2nd and Kamiya teased us by saying, “And this is the jacket cover!” but on the screen it was just a square with “Now Printing” written on it. ^^;; Apparently Kamiya hasn’t started recording yet but OnoD has. OnoD said that the opening song makes you think, “Oh, DGS is starting,” but ending song makes you think, “Huh? Is this really the ending?” All the ending songs up until now have been slow ballad-like melodies but I guess the new ending will be more upbeat or something? Looking forward to hearing it!

Kiseki was already playing in the background and Kamiya and OnoD thanked the audience for coming. And with that, the public recording for this year came to an end. The show will air on September 10 and photos will be uploaded onto the mobile site after its broadcast. Can’t wait!

After the recording, Chanko chan and Yagihashi kun were at the Bunka Housou booth to take photos with fans. They sat in front of the Namaste senpai outfit display and there was a chair between them for people to sit and have their picture taken. There was a huuuuuuuuge line that snaked and went outside the door! Unfortunately it was so long that I wasn’t able to take a photo with them but when they had to go, Yagihashi kun went around and shook hands with everyone in line. He’s nice. ^^ Luckily on Sunday, the DGS crowd was mostly gone and I was able to easily take a photo with them. The chair that was in the middle the day before was gone so I was just going to stand next to Chanko chan on his left but then Chanko chan offered me his knee to sit on. XD I asked them if they were ever going to do a public recording overseas but it seems there are no plans at the moment. (Well, even if there was, I doubt they would tell me. ^^;) Here’s to hoping that they will have one some day!

At the ASCII Media Works booth, they had on display some Gotouchi DGS Hibiki created by the staff of the show. There was a long line to take photos of them. At the Bunka Housou booth, they had the QR code to download mobile wallpapers of the illustrations Kamiya and OnoD drew of each other on the show. Luckily my friend had gotten the URL earlier and emailed it to me so I didn’t have to line up. (It was the same line to take photos with Chanko chan and Yagihashi kun.) They also had on display some photos of the DGS Farm, including a photo of Yagihashi kun and his mom, the new farm caretaker, and photos of listener-submitted Gotouchi DGS Hibiki and the Namaste senpai outfit that Kamiya wore for the DGS4LO event. Unfortunately my Gotouchi DGS Hibiki that was read on the show was not on display and they only showed ones by people inside Japan. I guess they were worried about copyrights for the Statue of Liberty or something. ^^;

For DGS goods, I bought Kamiya and OnoD’s tshirts, and the hand towel. I wouldn’t use the letter set if I bought it so I skipped out on it. The DGS Hibiki goods are up for order online at Dengekiya but the tshirts are not on sale yet. They should be available at the Chou! A&G Shop at a later date.

KAmiYU in Wonderland 2

Sunday was the KAmiYU in Wonderland 2 event at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall with Kamiya and Irino Miyu. It was a very hot and humid day. Got there early to line up for goods but already there was a huge line. It was not fun waiting in the sun. Had to kill some time before the event. Got my tickets from a friend. They were first floor but towards the back. Luckily you can still get a good view even from the back.

When the lights went down, everyone screamed and turned on their lights and cracked their glow sticks. Kamiya and Miyu kun came on stage and sang Taiyou no Sympathy. That got the crowd in it from the get-go. After the song, they talked about summer. Apparently Kamiya feels it’s summer when he sees tons of kid and families on the trains. A sign came onto the screen that introduced the event’s “hosts,” a couple cats named Kira and Mune. They showed some photos of the photoshoot for link-up’s booklet and had Kamiya and Miyu kun talk about them. Kamiya explained that there were over 1000 photos taken. Then they were asked questions and given two choices, A or B. The questions were pretty normal but the possible answers were very weird.

The next corner was “Reverse Theater” where they were given a situation that they had to act out, but they had to do it in reverse. A camera would record them and then play back the footage backwards, therefore starting from the beginning. The first situation was a baseball scene where a pitcher would pitch and the batter would hit a home run. So when they acted it out, they had to start with the batter celebrating his hit and the pitcher on his knees in disbelief. Kamiya acted as the pitcher with Miyu kun as the batter. After they finished, they video was played in reverse. It was funny because the movements would look unnatural. Still, they did a pretty good job and after read the lines for scene while the video played. They also switched roles so Miyu kun was the pitcher and Kamiya the better. The next situation was hurdling. They had to start acting from the end at the finish line and jump backwards and stuff. Pretty funny stuff, and they even put on PE hats like elementary school kids wear. Again the recorded video was played in reverse and they acted out the lines for the scene.

After the Reverse Theater, Kamiya and Miyu kun left the stage and they played messages from the Kiramune family on the screen. Namikawa’s message was the funniest. At first he was all, “KAmiYU Wonderland… In,” and then for take 2 he said, “KAmiYU Wonder in Land,” LoL. It’s amazing how he can sincerely make these mistakes, and I say that in the best way possible. XD

Next was the live corner! Kamiya and Miyu kun changed outfits and came out singing my Proud, my Play!. They then talked a little about recording the mini album and then sang Go the Distance, Sting of Love, Joe Joe Everyday, and Gradation. It was awesome seeing them sing Go the Distance since it’s mostly rap. It must’ve been really difficult. Next was Sting of Love and OMG they DANCED!!! Most of the song was choreographed. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!! After seeing that, I honestly have a hard time thinking of Kamiya as a 36-year-old. You know he put a lot of effort into this. SO COOL!!!!!!!! After that was Joe Joe Everyday which had a little bit of choreography. They swung their legs in the air and stuff. Very cute. Last was Gradation, which I honestly was very happy to be able to hear live since it’s my favorite song on the CD. I nearly cried. So pretty… ;__; The boys said their goodbyes after the song and disappeared off stage. Then come the chants for an encore.

After a few minutes, Kamiya and Miyu kun returned on stage wearing the event tshirts, except theirs were customized with shiny lettering. They sang Kokoro no Tobira for the encore, and that was the end of the event. I didn’t expect them to sing all their songs. Can’t say enough how cool their dancing was.

The night event was pretty much the same except for the talk corners. The night event was a lot more entertaining because Miyu kun really let loose. For the first corner, in order to test how well Kamiya and Miyu kun get along, they were asked questions and had to come up with the same answer. Miyu kun kept on writing answers that no one would ever think of and it was hilarious because he was so confident with himself. XD Out of like 10 or so questions, they only got 3 the same. Every time they wrote different answers, smoke would blow at their faces. It’s kind of hard to explain Miyu kun’s answers. You have to had been there or watch the DVD. In any case, I, and pretty much everyone else at the event, laughed so much it was tiring. My stomach started to hurt from laughing too much! ^^;;

Next they did the Reverse Theater again but with different situations. First up was a volleyball scene where one would receive the ball, the other would set it and then the first player would spike the ball. As per the rules, they had to act out the scene backwards and the video was then played in reverse to start at the beginning. Funny stuff. The next scene was a sumo one. They had costumes, including mawashi (sumo belt), and fake hair. It was hilarious. XD They had to act out a bout scene, in reverse of course. It was very funny but is hard to describe in words.

There were some announcements during the event. Kiramune Music Festival 2012 will be taking place March 17-18 at the Makuhari Messe Event Hall. This was originally announced at the CONNECT live last week. Next they announced Miyu kun’s second mini album to be released November 9th. Lastly, they announced Miyu kun’s participation in the LisAni live in December 4th at Budoukan. Unfortunately there were no announcements for Kamiya. (Maybe at the event in Osaka?? One can hope.)

KAmiYU in Wonderland 2 will be released on DVD November 25th. It will be sold only at Animate and .ANIME and retail for 6000 yen (2 discs). There is a report for the noon event at the Girl’s OH website.

Jiyuu no HiroC

Unrelated to KAmiYU, but on DGS 226, my gotouchi DGS mail got read! I sent in a photo I edited of the Statue of Liberty with HiroC’s face and the statue holding an issue of SYLPH, and titled it Jiyuu no HiroC (the Statue of Liberty in Japanese is “Jiyuu no megami“/Goddess of Freedom). I was very surprised they introduced my photo. This is the first time I’ve ever been read on DGS, and it only makes it better that Kamiya was the one who read it. =3 I didn’t notice since I was busy spazzing but apparently “自由のヒロC (jiyuu no HiroC)” was trending on Twitter for a while. XD On the DGS mobile website, there is a photo of Kamiya holding a print out of the photo I sent in.

Yesterday was the Dear Girl ~Stories~ 4 Lovers Only event at Pacifico Yokohama. It rained practically all day. As expected from Ono “Rain Man” Daisuke. I didn’t get to sleep until 2AM because I was working on organizing the letters and art for the project. Thank you to everyone who participated!! I’ve posted some photos in the gallery above. I only had a black marker so all the colored parts were written with Gundam Marker, haha. (Please don’t mind the fact that I wrote “Yokohama Pacifico” instead of “Pacifico Yokohama.” >_> It was 2AM.)

Anyway, I woke up at 5:30AM and was out the door before 6 in order to line up for goods by 8. There were already lots of people by the time I got there. Waited for four hours for them to start selling goods. During that time it would rain off and on. Sometimes the rain would come very suddenly. Other times it was sunny and bright out. Whenever it’d get sunny, I imagined it was because Kamiya “Sunny Man” Hiroshi gave OnoD a good kick in the butt. ^^; They finally did start selling goods at 12 and I bought pretty much everything except Suwa san’s tshirt and the Neko Masshigura Hibiki Kan. I also bought the Hibiki drama CD and received a clear file of Kamiya and OnoD as a bonus. (My only reason for buying it. ^^;) There were no purchase limits. FYI, some goods from the event, including the pamphlet and tshirts, will be on sale online. The pamphlet has a lot of great photos, including ones of Kamiya and OnoD holding swords. They looked like yakuza. XD Going for the dirty agent look, maybe?

After buying goods, I had lunch with friends and got back to the venue a little after 4PM when doors were supposed to open. There was a very long line to get in. …And it was rainy and windy. We finally got in though and my friend and I went to our seats in the 24th row (aisle). We had a great view of the stage. I got ready with my towel and all. I had changed into the Ono Daisuke produce tshirt during lunch. For tshirts this time they had girls’ and men’s sizes. I bought the girls’ M size and the length of the shirt was perfect, but the part where the sleeve connects under your armpit was a bit tight. I was able to exchange the Kamiya shirt for an L size but OnoD’s shirt was already sold out by the time we got back, and of course I was wearing the one I had bought so I wouldn’t be able to exchange it anyway.

The stage had a large monitor at the top, an upper stage, stairs on both sides, and then the main stage below. Beside the stairs were the letters “DGS4LO” that lit up and the stairs were also lighted. There were video cameras so I think it’s safe to assume the event will be released on DVD. After some time, the lights went down and music for Dear Girl wa Nemuranai began playing. Out came Kamiya and Ono from the upper stage! The event had begun. During the opening they also sang My Dear Girl! and there were dancers. Kamiya and OnoD also danced too! It was sooooooo cool~! Props to the choreographer. After the songs, they welcomed everyone and explained that the event had four parts: Live, radio, Hibiki, and video. The first part was live and there would be more of it later. I must also mention that Kamiya was wearing shoes with plush bear faces on them. XDDD The audience yelled out, “Kawaii~” and OnoD chuckled and said, “Hiroshi… Kawaii…” and immediately got punched by Kamiya. XD

The next corner was radio. They relived some DGS moments on stage. First up was Duriangelion!! A table with half a durian and a bottle of Vittel came up from under on the upper stage. Kamiya and OnoD ran up the stairs and then couldn’t get any closer. Whenever they tried, they would run away because of the smell. OnoD put on some gloves as BGM from Evangelion started playing. He took a spoonful and went up to Kamiya with it. Kamiya reluctantly ate it and after a second made a face and went for the Vittel. OnoD tried some too with the same result, except he didn’t drink any water after. Kamiya explained that during RE:BRIDGE, the durian didn’t taste as bad as the first time, and that this durian was like the one from the first time, meaning it tasted really bad, LoL. Next up was Namaste senpai! A mannequin wearing traditional Indian clothing came up on stage. As usual, Kamiya went to find Namaste senpai, leaving OnoD on stage by himself. But that’s OK! They had practiced this on last week’s show of DGS and OnoD said the exact same things he did then, such has having sung 53 songs, etc. There was a plan on Twitter and mixi for the third row to be silent like how it was on the radio, but I guess everyone couldn’t help themselves since the third row also cheered. OnoD was going to start his “next song” when Namaste senpai came out to teach OnoD a new yoga pose that would be good for his throat. The monitor showed an illustration for how “Ono Dai san” should pose, which was drawn by Namaste senpai. It was sort of an orz pose and on the side it said “Japanese dogeza.” OnoD did the pose in front of Namaste senpai and then tried to pull on Namaste senpai’s clothes, which earned him an “Indian Kick.” OnoD fell over. XDDD The next drawing shown on the monitor was a face with their tongue sticking out. Namaste sensei yelled at OnoD to pretend like he was licking his boots. OnoD kneeled down center stage and stuck out his tongue. The monitor showed a close-up on OnoD’s face. So funny! Namaste sensei finally “went back” to India. During the whole time, Kamiya kept adjusting the mustache and finally just took it off, saying it was detachable. ^^;

After that, the staff put a table in the center of the stage and Kamiya and OnoD sat down. Movie time!! They showed some video footage of DGS recordings. Some of the video they showed were Mote*Sta from Kamiya’s birthday (Temuko, LOL), OnoD trying to get the smell out of Yagihashi kun’s sock, drunk Kamiya and OnoD, pulling the table cloth from the table, and Kamiya getting scolded by Louis the 53rd. I really wish they would put all this footage on DVD. Hilarious stuff! You can tell they really enjoy recording the radio show.

Next was the Hibiki portion of the event. At first they led everyone on to believe that they were going to do a public recording at the event, but it turned out to be a skit. There was a semi-transparent screen put up on stage and HiroC and OnoD were supposed to change into their Hibiki jumpsuits, but it kept on being something else, such as school girl uniforms, Ononita, Hamashou, and Mario and Luigi. (It wasn’t actually Kamiya and OnoD wearing the costumes, which is why the semi-transparent screen was there to cover their faces.) Finally they got into their jumpsuits and Kamiya and OnoD came back out on stage, and out came Yusa Kouji wearing the Teraikemen eye mask. He couldn’t read his script with it on. XD He explained that their mission was to get a girl who had cooped herself into her room because there was nothing to look forward to in life and it was HiroC and OnoD’s mission to get her to come out.  They tried one-shot gags and that didn’t work, so Black Hibiki came out. Okiayu and Yonaga were both wearing really nice black outfits. Okiayu looked SO. GOOD. Like, wow… I’ll take this look over his flowery shirts any day. ^^; They had a contest to see who could get the girl to come out. The girl apparently likes animals so they did some animal imitations, with Kamiya as a squirrel, Yonaga as Yonagappa, and Okiayu as a stink bug. That still didn’t get the girl to come out. Teraikemen Shireiken then mentioned that she also likes anime, so HiroC said a line in Izaya’s voice, and OnoD a line in Shizuo’s voice. That of course got a big cheer from the crowd. Still, the girl wouldn’t come out. I don’t remember what they had Black Hibiki do but of course the girl didn’t come out then either. Lastly, Ikemen Shireikan said that the girl likes music. Cue DIRTY AGENT with all four guys singing. This 4-person version was so cool!!! After the song, the girl finally came out. Mission success!

After the little skit, they had a corner where there the teams were divided up between Hibiki and Black Hibiki. They were given a theme and Yusa would decide whose answer was best. The winner would get a prize. The first theme was pick-up lines. Okiayu was up first and said, “Feed me curry to my heart’s content. ^^;; He really does like curry… OnoD’s line was, “Please wipe my armpit sweat now and forever” or something like that, LOL! Yonaga’s line was “Love injection,” which is a line by the Japanese comedian Tanoshingo. Kamiya was last and said, “I’ve got money” while doing the money gesture with his hand and having a doyagao facial expression. It was hilarious. The winner for this round was Kamiya. XD Yusa’s reason was, “Money is everything.” The next theme was a lne from a dependable man. Kamiya raised his hand up first but Yusa called on Yonaga, saying it’s not good to be greedy. ^^; Yonaga said, “I’ll make cucumber!” which was decided as not being goo enough so they’d make Yonaga go again after. ^^;; Next was Kamiya and again he said, “If it’s money, I’ve got lots” while making a doyagao. LOL! Okiayu’s line was, “No matter how old you get, I’ll continue to lead you by the hand.” Everyone swooned over this line, including Kamiya and OnoD. XD OnoD’s line was really weird, something like, “Vocal cords are the part of the human body that wear out last. I’ll maintain them forever.” The cast then laughed at him saying that he’d be the first to lose his job. XD Last was Yonaga again and this time he said, “I’ll support you forever!” Okiayu was decided the winner for this round. The last round was to yell out their grudge. OnoD said, “I shave my legs every event but never get a chance to show them off!” LOL. XDDD He showed them and wow… So white and clean!! XDDD Next was Kamiya with, “Actually, I don’t have much money. *cry*” LOL!!! So cute~ XD When he went back to his seat, OnoD pretended to give him some change. Okiayu said, “I recently gained 3kg.” Yonaga kun grumbled, “Call me up for the main part of the radio show already!!” LOL. Poor guy. Yusa decided that Black Hibiki was the winner and their prize? Dear Girl Samba started playing in the background and out came the Men’s Maid!! XDDD Okiayu and Yonaga were surrounded by them and they came in really close and touched and rubbed various places, LOL. Yusa thought Hibiki did a very good job too so he had the Men’s Maids come out again to do the dance around Kamiya and OnoD. As they left, Kamiya got up, pointed back where the maids were running away and yelled, “He touched me!!!” LOL. OnoD was all, “One of them touched my knee with their ‘Silicon Valley.’” LOL!!!!!! Wow, to think the name of my hometown would come up here and be used in that kind of meaning. XDDDD (I’m from San Jose, California, the capitol of Silicon Valley.) Of course they couldn’t let only one person get away unscathed so Kamiya and OnoD moved the podium, put a chair in the middle of the stage and made Yusa sit down. Out came the Men’s Maid for a third time. XDDD Alas, it was time to say goodbye to the guests and everyone, including Kamiya and OnoD, went off stage.

They started showing CDDG (Countdown Dear Girl), which they made to look like CDTV with the CG characters and all. It was a countdown of the best DGS scenes (with video!). At #5 was OnoD’s “maguro ippon tsuri,” which was from last year’s CharaHobby public recording. #4 was when the Frenchmen came to do an interview and OnoD did his French one-shot gag about the Eiffel Tower. That got a chuckle out of the Frenchmen. XDDD At #3 was the Hamaween Party. They had a video comment from Hamaween and you couldn’t see UchiP’s face cuz he was too tall. XDDD (What’s funny is that on the train home, the monitor on the train showed a commercial for HamaShou’s upcoming live. ^^; How timely.) #2 was the first celebration of Kamiya’s birthday on the show, Kami*Sta! And they actually showed the footage of them in Kamiya’s house!! It was 98% mosaics though, LOL. XDDD You could only see Kamiya’s face, maid!Suwa san, Nyanko Sensei, and some objects inside the house. They even showed when OnoD climbed into Kamiya’s bed and then got kicked. XDDD It was so hilarious. Lastly, #1 was Haman Memorial. The look on Kamiya’s face when Sakakibara’s voice started playing was priceless. XDDD

Kamiya and OnoD came back out on stage and in the middle was a large, red king chair. A while ago they led everyone to believe they were going to do a public recording, but now they really were going to! And it would be aired on May 7th– Yup! OnoD’s birthday episode!!!!! They had OnoD sit down in the chair while a staffer put a Teraikemen eye mask over his face and headphones playing  Tyurya Tyurya Birthday over his ears. OnoD said it was really loud, but it was that way so they he wouldn’t hear Kamiya explaining the plan to the audience. Kamiya called out to OnoD to check if he could hear and OnoD didn’t react at all, which meant that he couldn’t. Kamiya then explained that they were going to trick OnoD into thinking that MamaD was guest on the show. And who would be playing the role of MamaD? On the upper stage, the middle part came up to reveal Taitem lying down on on his side with his head propped on his head in a RED CHINA DRESS. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kamiya laughed hard too. He didn’t know Taitem would appear in that outfit, and apparently the dress was Taitem’s personal belonging. XDDDD His legs were so smooth. XDDD After finishing the explanation, they took the headphones off OnoD and Kamiya started asking the guest some questions. The used a voice changer on Taitem’s microphone and it was actually kind of hard to make out what he was saying since it was so high, but Kamiya repeated the answers. Even OnoD at times made a “what are they saying?” face. ^^; The first question was for how long they’ve known OnoD, to which Taitem replied “OnoD’s entire life.” Of course that immediately got OnoD thinking. We learned that OnoD dressed up as a girl for the sports festival when in 6th grade (they said that this is probably when OnoD started becoming interested in cross-dressing XD), that MamaD found a photobook of Kawashima Naomi while folding OnoD’s futon, and that OnoD once researched about how to befriend a beetle. There were some other things too but these were the most funny. Of course by the end of it, OnoD had an idea of who it might be, but Kamiya told him to not say who he thinks it is yet since for the last part, they’re going to have the person touch OnoD. I think OnoD also thought it could have possibly been his older brother because at one point, he asked, “Ani?” Anyway, Taitem came down from the upper stage and patted OnoD on the head, then on the shoulder, and then took OnoD’s hand and made him rub his butt, legs, and belly. XDDDDD At the end, Kamiya asked who OnoD thought it was, and OnoD said that at first he thought it might have been his mom, but now that he’s touched the person, he was all, “It’s a man, isn’t it!” The crowd tried to trick him by going “Ehhhh~~~?” which did confuse OnoD a little bit. Kamiya told OnoD to hurry up and make a decision, and to say who he thinks the guest is. OnoD yelled out, “Taitem!” to which the crowd went “Ooooh~” I think it would’ve been better if they didn’t do that though because it totally gives it away. Oh well. Kamiya let OnoD take off the eye mask and see who the guest was. The moment he did, he burst out laughing at seeing Taitem in a red China dress. XDDDD Though the guest wasn’t MamaD, they actually did call up MamaD to find out stuff about OnoD, so all the stuff that was said really is true. XDDD OnoD was surprised his mom knew about the photobook, LOL. They brought out a huge birthday cake with 33 candles, and the audience sang Happy Birthday. OnoD looked like he was going to cry. (OnoD’s manager posted a photo of OnoD and his cake, with Yusa’s hand wiping his mouth, up on TwitPic.)

The last part of the event was the second live portion. They sang a medley of the ED songs (Kienai Omoi ~Dear Girl~, Tsuki no Mane, Kiseki). I was really happy to hear Kiseki live since it’s one of my favorite songs. So pretty. Kamiya said they want to end the event on a high note so they sang Party Flight and Netsuai S-O-S!. The crowd joined in for Party Flight. At the end, they ran off stage, and before stepping off, Kamiya blew a kiss. XD But they had run off the wrong part of the stage and had to go back to go out the right way and Kamiya blew four kisses. Kyaa~ XD

There was no announcement that the event was over and people started chanting “encore.” After a long while, Kamiya and OnoD took to the stage again, this time wearing the shirts they had designed. They said some messages for the audience and almost teared up hearing Kamiya. He talked about how after the natural disasters that they were wondering if it was okay to continue to hold the event, but in the end they decided to hold it, and that Kamiya feels that was the right choice because they could then see everyone’s smiling faces. Kamiya is so good at talks. You can tell he really cares about the fans and that he speaks from the heart. I can’t help but respect him for that. Lastly, they said that they usually can only use tools to deliver their voice, so they put down their mics for a second and yelled out “Arigatou gozaimashita!” It was so touching. ;__; Now it was time for the final song, and of course it was the first song they ever recorded for the show, Say Your Name! ~Dear Girl~. Near the end, heart-shaped styrofoam floated down from the ceiling. Luckily I was able to catch one of them. After the song, Kamiya and OnoD left the stage and a video with Prologue as the BGM started playing on the monitor. It was a compilation of photos taken during the four years DGS has been running. Very moving. Now whenever I hear the song, I think of this movie and the event. It makes me kind of sad because it reminds me of how I felt when the event was over. I wanted it to last forever, but alas, all good things come to an end. At the very end, the screen showed hand-written messages by Kamiya and OnoD. OnoD’s said “arigatou” and Kamiya’s said “kore kara mo yoroshiku.” And that was the end of the event. It was scheduled to be 2.5 hours but ended up being 3.

I wonder when the DVD will be released. I’ve been to a lot of events but this was definitely one of the most memorable. I sincerely hope they’ll have another event in the future, and at a bigger venue. I’m sure there were a lot of people who wanted to go but weren’t able to get tickets. I was very fortunate to have gotten tickets through the lottery. In any case, Dear Girl ~Stories~ is now into its 5th year. I think we can expect many more unforgettable DGS moments in the future. We love DGS!!

Update 5/8: Corrected a few things in the report.

12►

This past weekend was CharaHobby 2010 at Makuhari Messe. The DGS public recording was on the second day and there were several announcements, the biggest one being the announcement of a DGS movie! That’s right– MOVIE! It will start playing at Ikebukuro Cine Libre starting October 23. An official website for the movie can be found here. Tickets for the special late-night showing on 10/23 will go on sale September 25. While it’s called a movie, it’ll be more like a documentary of the trip to Ushiku for OnoD’s birthday. The video was filmed by UchiP, as usual, and will star Kamiya Hiroshi, Ono Daisuke, Yonaga Tsubasa, and Kobayashi Chanko Chanko. The photo used for the movie website and flier is actually just a random photo taken by the staff. It was not taken specifically for this use, hehe.

The jacket cover for the new DGS single was shown. You can see it on the BinaryMixxRecords website over here.

You can find out the contents of the radio show by listening to it this weekend so I won’t go into too much detail about it. Chanko chan was in charge of the explanations and warnings before the recording, but his “tooth hurt” so he passed the baton onto Yagihashi kun who made his first public appearance, sliding onto stage like a rookie. The maguro (tuna) “caught” by OnoD was a present that Irino Miyu gave Kamiya. It finally became of use, haha. OnoD got kicked in the butt by Kamiya again. This has become tradition for DGS public recordings.

After the public recording, fliers for the movie would be passed out at the Bunka Housou booth. There was a mad rush to get over there. We were squished like sardines and unfortunately they ran out before I could get one.

On the first day, I was near the Bunka Housou booth in my HiroC cosplay and Chanko chan came up to me saying, “HiroC no cosplay da (It’s a cosplay of Hiroc!)” I told him I was from America and he said he kind of remembered me from last year. Whoo hoo! I was watching an event at the Bandai Namco booth when UchiP walked passed me. He saw me and I gave him a nod and smile, and he responded back with the same. =) On the second day when we did an all-nighter to get a good spot near the stage for the day’s events, before doors opened, we were near the glass windows and could see inside the hall. Was near the Bunka Housou booth and saw Chanko chan and UchiP. Chanko chan was walking towards us (though of course he would be going under since we were on the second floor.) My friends and I waved at him and after a while he noticed and waved back. So cute! Saw UchiP at the Bunka Housou booth later in the day and went to take a picture with him. He’s so tallllllllll!!! I asked him about a possible public recording overseas and he said only if it they got permission. Well, at least it sounds like they’re not against the idea! In retrospect, I should have asked him to put the video he takes onto DVD, but then later in the day they announced the DGS movie, so yeah.

At the Bunka Housou booth, there was a small display with Haman Khan, the Yonagappa suit, and Doki Doki Kokan Bazooka. There was also a reader thingy to get special mobile wallpapers of Kamiya and OnoD’s drawings of each other. Apparently there was a problem on the 29th so now the wallpaper is available on the mobile website for everyone and not just for those who went to CharaHobby. The mobile website has also been updated with information about the movie and new single.

During the Oshaberi Station stage with Iwata Mitsuo and Suzumura Kenichi, and guests Irino Miyu and Namikawa Daisuke on the first day of CharaHobby, they announced Kiramune Music Festival 2010. It will be held November 6 and 7th at Makuhari Messe. Tickets are already available for early preorder here. Performers will include CONNECT (Iwata Mitsuo, Suzumura Kenichi), Irino Miyu, Kamiya Hiroshi, Namikawa Daisuke, and Kakihara Tetsuya.

The Kiramune sound drop keychains were available for early sale at CharaHobby at the Bandai booth. I got Kamiya’s on my fourth try. His has three different lines:

• Shizentai de iin ja nai
• Ganbattekou!!
• Kui no nai you ni kyou mo ganbaru ka!

Overall, had a great time at CharaHobby. I also went to the Gundam 00 Supporter’s Gathering later in the day on Sunday. That was fun too, though each event was quite short.

My friend and I were numbers 93 and 94 so we were able to get a spot near the back where there was a step. It was very easy to see the stage.

The curtain went down and there were the usual announcements about cellphones and recordings, etc. It was done by Kamiya and Irino and was very cute. Kamiya pretended to be talking on the phone and stuff while Irino pointed out that the things Kamiya was doing wasn’t allowed.

When the curtain (on which was attached the screen thingy) went up, Kamiya and Irino were on stage doing sitting seiza style. I think the jeans Kamiya was wearing were the same pair he wore for the Seiyuu Paradise photoshoot. Anyway~

They talked about the name KAmiYU and how the whole thing came to be. Kamiya had no idea while Irino knew it all. XD Apparently the discussion came up after Irino’s JUMP event in Yokohama. Possible names for the unit included “Color Ball” and “Thinking Time.” X.D Color Ball because of the colored balls in the JUMP PV, and Thinking Time because all the producers and people were all thinking of what to do. In the end they combined “Kamiya” and “Miyu” for it to be KAmiYU. Kamiya talked about how he wasn’t sure where the accents were in the name, and Irino decided where they would be on the spot. X3

Next they showed Irino’s JUMP PV and commented on it. Irino really liked Kamiya’s performance of full count during KiraFes so he wanted to have trumpets and stuff too. Irino had the people pause during certain scenes he wanted to talk about and for the first one, his face when they paused it… XDDDDD

After, the Sigma Seven duo came out in sunglasses. Yocchin introduced himself as Fujiwara Keiji. X.D He did look a lot like him, LoL. Nakamura looked good in his black vest. They talked about what qualifications they had and everyone except Nakamura had Eiken level 3 (like the JLPT but for English). Unfortunately they didn’t give us a demonstration. =( Next, Irino got to be cameraman. He held a camcorder and acted as director with the other three making up a sentai scene. Yocchin was the bad guy monster while Nakamura was Kuro Vest Red and Kamiya was Kuro Vest Pink. X.D They were the Kuro Vest Rangers because Nakamura was wearing a black vest. At the end Irino wanted to replay it a bit but it turned out he didn’t even record it, LoL! After they had a “first pitch ceremony” where they all threw signed plastic balls into the crowd. Unfortunately the balls were real light so they couldn’t go very far. Needless to say, none came our way.

Next was the Aoni duo. Okiayu and Onosaka came out in yukata! *________* Okiayu’s was, of course, flowery. He kept on saying “curry” as if that was the only thing he could say. It was funny. X.D They had a Balloon Talk where subjects written on paper were inside balloons and they had to pop the balloon to find out what it was. One person would pop it with a needle and one other would have to hold it and was in charge of having a “wahh!” reaction. First up with Onosaka popping and Kamiya holding. Onosaka kept getting closer and closer to Kamiya with the balloon and then popped it. Kamiya was startled and it looked like he was kinda mad. ^^;; The topic was they had to compliment each other. Other topics included secrets about KAmiYU, and I think there was one or two others but I don’t remember what they were.

Next up was the live corner. Namikawa came out and sang a couple songs, Rock Star and Alright!!. He was so nervous when he had to talk. Now I know what people mean when they say Namikawa’s kinda dumb. ^^;;; I have to admit, he’s not really the brightest bulb around, but I say that in the best way possible cuz he’s adorable. X.D He said weird things like “Congratulations on attending KAmiYU” instead of “Thank you for attending KAmiYU.” X.DDD

And then Irino came out and sang JUMP!!! I didn’t know he was gonna sing too. I only expected Namikawa too. As usual, Irino sang very well.

AND THEN Kamiya came out and sang full count!!! Wa~i!!! He was really good, though the performance lacked the pink jacket that will forever be associated with this song. No air trumpet or guitar either. I think his performance at KiraFes left too deep an impression. X.D It’s hard to top that.

AND THEN!!! Kamiya and Irino announced that they sing the song for the Gunpla Builders OVA (see PV with the song over here) and it’s not only one song, but TWO!!! And they sang BOTH songs!!! First was My Proud, My Play (the song in the PV) and then Kokoro no Tobira. Both songs are really good and Kamiya and Irino’s voices go well together. Can’t wait for a single release! (There better be one!!)

Lastly, they had all the guests come back out. Okiayu and Yocchin were carrying the KAmiYU tote bags. It looked a little too fitting with Okiayu’s yukata. XDDD Streamers were blast out and like at KiraFes, they had star cutouts come down from the ceiling. I swear one of them was signed or something! Either way, something was written on it while all the others were blank. I’m pretty curious.

KAmiYU was a really fun event and it will be released on DVD, but only sold at Animate and .ANIME. It’ll only be about 200 minutes so my guess is that they will only include one of the events and not both, since the event was a couple hours.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that during the talk session with Okiayu and Onosaka, Kamiya had a huge laughing fit. He literally couldn’t stop laughing/giggling for at least 5 minutes. And you know how his voice gets all high when he really laughs? Yeah, it was ADORABLE. Irino also announced that he’d be releasing his first full album in October.

EDIT2: Read reports of the night event and dude!!! NO FAIR!!! For the PV commentary, they showed my diary. Kamiya was apparently told that his leg hair was too thick and to do something about it by the staff. XDDDDD He has nothing but Toppo inside his fridge…. >__>

And they announced the newest member of Kiramune!! KAKIHARA TETSUYA!! He came out on stage too!! Dude!!! Why didn’t they announce this during the noon event too? That’s so unfair. ;__;

DGS will be working in collaboration with Yuraku, the producers of Black Thunder, to release Dear Girl Sunder!! (In Japanese, “thunder” is written in katakana as サンダー/sanda-.) That’s right, DGS is going to the general public! Flavors such as durian, wkas, and hatsukoi (first love) were suggested by the audience. There was also a discussion about possible catch phrases for the product.

And there you have it, the big announcement. This really is quite huge. so it’s no wonder HiroC and OnoD were even surprised themselves. Once again, this was brought to us by OnoD’s careless utterings, haha. Things he says without thinking tends to come true, but this one is a really big step because this product will be in regular convenience stores where the general public will see it. I hope it’ll be out by the end of November so I can pick some up in Japan!

Here are a few details from the DGS public recording from what I was able to gather. I guess the audience was told not to write spoilers in their blogs so people are being pretty vague. We’ll have to find out next week when the kouroku moyou is aired.

• Chanko Chanko chan appeared on stage to the Mario Theme.
  There was a Luigi too.
• Some kind of collaboration with a food company??
  OnoD mentioned on the radio before that he wanted to do one. I guess another of his careless utterings will be coming true, haha. The audience was asked what flavor they would like and everyone yelled out, “Durian!!” to which OnoD replied, “I knew everyone would say that! But would you really buy durian flavor!?”
• Shikakuteki (visual) corner
  GachaC videos!! It started out in the booth where HiroC and OnoD did jan ken to figure out who would have to wear the Gachapin costume. Listening on the radio, you could already hear the loud noise when HiroC hit OnoD on the arm, but I guess if you watch the video, you can tell that HiroC really did hit OnoD hard. .^^; GachaC got scolded by a Lawson employee when he tried to go buy karaage. The last of the footage was GachaC’s “Dosukoi~ Dosukoi~” Watching the video, HiroC remembered the horrors and OnoD pointed out that his eyes were dead, haha.
• Quiz corner
  This is something Suwa san wanted to do. Instead of having concrete answers, the “correct” answers would be decided by Suwa san
• Dear Voice
  As usual, they had the audience participate. The audience had to say, “HiroC, are yatte~ (HiroC, do that~)” and “OnoD, are yatte~ (OnoD, do that~).” What HiroC and OnoD responded with was an adlib and we’ll have to find out next week what they said. HiroC handled his adlib well but OnoD had some trouble. Feeling that he might have messed up a bit, OnoD clung onto HiroC, for which he received a swift kick. I guess it’s not a public recording without OnoD getting kicked, hehe.

Again, the kouroku will be aired next week. The details written above were from a Japanese blog post I found.