Vs. Arashi! #129

Aired On: March 3rd, 2011

This is the "Taisetsu na koto wa subete kimi ga oshiete kureta" Team episode, but I really think of this as the "Haruma Miura episode." ^^ apparently Haruma Miura is a big fan of VsA and was excited about being on the show. as a result, he got to choose his favourite games for the show. Arashi's "Plus One" guest is the comedy duo Football Hour.

The first game is Pinball Runner, where Miura-kun runs with Erika Toda leading the support team. He got both the pink balls and finished with 180 points. Oh-chan's the runner for Team Arashi. Since Miura-kun announced that he wanted to get 300 points earlier, Ohno said that he's aiming for 700 points. He managed to get... 80 points. He blamed Iwao-san for yelling out the wrong numbers.

Next favourite game of Miura-kun's is Rolling Coin Tower. It's Sakumiya vs. Miura-kun and Erika Toda. In order to catch up on their 100-point gap, all Team arashi had to do was to make sure the tower doesn't fall in their turn. Nino then claimed that they would attack with only 10-point coins, and Erika said that her team would do the same. Of course, when Nino started the game, he did so with three unbalanced 3-point coins, which made the foundation of the tower shaky. Nino is sneaky. :p Unfortunately, his strategy backfired and the tower fell on his turn. Now the gap between the teams is even larger.

The third game chosen by Miura-kun is Dual Curling, with Ohba and Iwao-san playing for Team Arashi. The drama team's players were all in their teens, which really made me think, huh, Arashi have really grown up. (As if I haven't realised this before!) There was a minor conflict in Team Arashi over who would be the starter - Ohno said Iwao-san, and Iwao-san said Ohno, and Aiba said never mind, he would do it, but they asked Takei Emi (one of the other team players) who said she wanted Iwao-san to do it, so he did. Aiba managed to get one of his markers in the 50 point area, but it got knocked out by Iwao-san's marker. Aiba was aiming his x2 marker for the 50 points after that, but it didn't even reach the 10-point area, and when asked to give his excuse, he tried to, but couldn't quite explain and said he'd fax it later (lol). The one-on-one showdown was between Jun and Miura-kun. Jun totally failed, getting 30 points in comparison to Miura-kun's 130 points. It was cute when Jun was trying to find an excuse for his fail - he blamed the stick, so the rest of them asked him to apologise to it, which he refused to do.

Dual Curling was followed by Cliff Climb, with Miura-kun and Suda-kun climbing for the drama team. Jun, already in a kind of a sulk over his earlier fail, continued to be bullied by the rest of Team Arashi. Arashi's climbers should be Goto-san and aiba, but because Goto-san was afraid of heights (and everyone else wanted to continue bullying Jun), MatsuJun took over his place. Jun did well, but fell off after hitting the 50-point button and didn't get the perfect score he was aiming for. The rest of the team stood up before him and asked if he was going to blame the grip this time. He apologised again for his Dual Curling excuse.

Haruma Miura's favourite game is the last for this episode - Bound Hockey. Arashi was behind by 280 points, and needed to get 300 points in order to win. Jun was feeling a lot of pressure (especially since if they lost, he probably knew he was going to be the MDa) and Ohno stood by him, saying that Jun doesn't have to worry, because he would be Jun's guardian angel. *ah, be still, my Juntoshi-loving heart* In the end, Arashi did very well, but they only managed to get 200 points, so the drama team won.

When the MDA started, Jun already knew it was going to be him, and was really fidgety. He chose himself too, together with the rest of them. I love this guy. <3

[vid credit: Neon Lines]

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Vs. Arashi! #138

Aired on: May 26th, 2011

Usually I don't watch the newer episodes as much, but I couldn't resist this episode. Not only the guest team were the Paradise Kiss film cast, the Plus One was Haruna Ai ♥. Even before the guests appeared, though, one of the best moments in this episodes appeared - Nino was wearing a simple looking jacket, which Aiba commented on, saying that it was too normal for Nino (who, admittedly, has been given a lot of embarrassingly garish outfits throughout this show) and said that they ought to exchange their jackets. Nino protested lightly at first, but gave in in the end. That's not all - Aiba's tee read the words "carnival", causing Sho to call him Carnival throughout the episode. ^^

Aimiya exchanging their jackets | Haruna Ai getting excited to see Osamu Mukai.

The first game was Cliff Climb, with Sakumoto representing Team Arashi. I really liked how Sho quoted my favourite (and everyone else's, haha) line from ParaKiss, and the exchange he had with aiba before they started. aiba asked him to take his shoes off, which he did, but then he was told that he had to put them back on before climbing XD. Both Sho and Jun failed completely in this game. Next is Dual Curling, with Nino, Haruna Ai, and Ohno representing arashi. They lost in this game, too, although it was an impressive match. Nino had a showdown with Osamu Mukai, and before they started Haruna danced to "Shoujo Jidai" for them, which was really cute.

Sho quoting ParaKiss | "Please wait while Sakurai-kun puts on his shoes..." XD

The third game was Kicking Sniper, where Nino mentioned that they were losing and that neither Jun nor Ohno seemed motivated. Aiba joined him and the two of them said that if they didn't do well, they'd have to do the Shoujo Jidai dance. This certainly brought out their motivation, as they managed to catch up to their gap in points in this game. Jun even got a perfect score (he really didn't want to do the Shoujo Jidai dance), but then Aimiya decided that he had to do it because he got a perfect. I love it when Aimiya bullies Jun XD. Jun decided that they should janken for it, and in the end it was Ohno and Nino that had to do the Shoujo Jidai dance with Haruna. Since he was safe, Jun went back to his DoS mode and enjoyed their embarrassment. Unfortunately, when the ParaKiss Team played, they immediately went back in the lead. Osamu Mukai was really good!

Jun forgot to press a button | Sakumoto being scolded

Jun being bullied by Aimiya | Ohmiya + Haruna Shoujo Jidai Dance

Because of all the Shoujo Jidai performances, there weren't enough time, and one of the games had to be cancelled. They skipped Pinball Runner and went to Bound Hockey as the last game. The ParaKiss didn't seem to be able to play this well at first, but they got the hang of it soon enough. Team Arashi had to get 400 points to catch up and win. They played well, but ended up with 50 points behind their goal, and lost. 

Thankfully for the Arashi members, they agreed on the MDA early on - it ended up being Haruna Ai, who did the Shoujo Jidai dance one last time before falling.

[vid credit: yuizaki-libra@LJ]

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Arashi no Shukudai-kun #032

Aired On: May 14th, 2007

This episode begins with Arashi slamming the guest box against the stage. Then they revealed that the guests are comedy duo Drunk Dragon - Tsukaji Muga and Suzuki Taku. Because Tsukaji likes shrimp, they requested for delicious and rare shrimp dishes as their homework for the audience. Aiba did the introductions, and first presented a salt-grilled lobster, which is a whole spiny lobster marinated in salt and meringue. The next dish was sakura shrimp, to be eaten fresh. Uhm. Well. All I can say is, this segment really didn't make me think that I could suddenly like seafood. These shrimp are called "sakura shrimp" because they were caught during April-May, when the sakura are supposed to bloom. Next is a soft cream mixed with spiny lobster, which surprisingly was enjoyed by Drunk Dragon. Finally, Aiba introduces his own recipes, including shrimp hot dog and choco-shrimp. Needless to say, they were kind of weird. :p They didn't like the hot dog, but seemed to love the choco-shrimp. 

In the following segment, Tsukaji talked about things he didn't like about Suzuki, the first of which Tsukaji didn't like Suzuki's impromptu changes in their routines. When they talked about the audience's image of them, it was said that Suzuki had the image of someone who'd be extorted for money, so he revealed that he's strong. He then made a demonstration with Aiba pretending to be a thug. He did pretty well when Aiba went for him without without weapons, but when they tried a demonstration where Aiba used a weapon, Suzuki didn't manage to fight Aiba off. Ohno took over Aiba's place, and the same happened. So Suzuki declared that there's no way he could win if his opponent has a weapon. All in all, a pretty amusing episode!

[vid credit: Nyan-chan]

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"Scene"～君と僕の見ている風景～ DOME+

The cover for the Dome DVD is out on Johnny's.net. The contents are also listed, along with the title of the new PV/single, which would be included in the DVD. (I wonder if the single would still have an LE version, now, and what it would include if it did? Since the PV and making is already in the DVD...?)  The new song is called ｢まだ見ぬ世界へ｣ (Mada Minu Sekai e).

The LE version will run for 306 mins, while the RE runs for 210 mins. So glad I've pre-ordered the LE!

On a totally unrelated note, I really ought to work harder on my Shukudai-kun rewatch project... ^^;; After all this time, I'm still at episode 31!

Also, (1) for Malaysians who want to pre-order Nippon no Arashi, they could do so at Kinokuniya KLCC, and (2) I know that I haven't been posting about Japanese magazines bargain buys lately - that's because instead of doing monthly bargains, the Japanese books department have decided to hold one major bargain sale together with English & Chinese books, and so are saving the mags until then. Will update when the major bargain sale is announced, of course. Here, and also at this tumblr account, where the updates may be a bit faster since it's easier to update there.

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Himitsu no Arashi-chan #126

Aired On: April 14th, 2011

I know that not everybody is happy with the VIP Limousine, since not all of the members are in the episodes now. This isn't really a deterrent for me; sure, it's fun to see all of the members together, but I enjoyed their older shows (like Mago Mago Arashi) where they paired up for different assignments. And, I guess part of it is also because even though I have a Sho-bias, I love Arashi for being Arashi - that is, I like all of the members and so wouldn't boycott particular episodes just because my bias isn't in it. I suppose it's different for everyone? Anyway, this episode is Sakumiya, so I do get to see Sho-kun. (^_^) The guest this time is model/actress Takei Emi, who gets to go with Sho and Nino on a Korean date.

They first take her to a Korean grocery store in Shin-Okubo. I'm not sure if they underestimated the fangirls or what, because the place was swarming with them. (Hey, isn't that another fun thing about the VIP Limousine? Stalking them? Haha) Anyway, they tried some sort of Korean melon, which was hard and not too sweet. Sounds like my kind of fruit! Then they took her to a cafe where a lot of ikemen Koreans worked. She seemed to enjoy herself a lot here, but so did Sho and Nino. They introduced three ikemen, and, er, Sho, and she had to choose the one closest to her idea of an ikemen (which she had drawn out earlier). Unsurprisingly, Sho lost. ^^;; Throughout this they talked about her 10 VIP points, which are basically just trivia about her - one of which stated she wanted to go on a date in school uniform. So Sakumiya indulged her, of course. In school uniforms, they headed to a Korean fortune teller. Takei-san had always wanted to be married at 23, but the fortune teller said that she won't. Finally, they take her out for yakiniku, which she loves.

The theater part, I didn't really enjoy as much as the VIP Limousine, but I guess Sho's proposal was funny. If anyone tried that on me I'd have laughed and laughed and laughed at them. *not very romantic* Nino's, on the hand, was really cute. And very creepy. Ahaha.

Maybe I'm just seeing things that aren't there, but I can't help but think that Sakumiya seemed to be leaning away from her.

Of course, filming outdoors come with challenges... wonder if they anticipated this crowd.

Which is the most ikemen of them all?

In school uniform. Wish that Nino's wearing a gakuran too.

[vid credit: ANJ]

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Dome DVD (yay!) and New Album Announced!

As usual, it had to happen when I was at work, so by the time I'm home and on Typepad everyone else already knows. XP I was at the sales floor, and when I got back to the office I checked my e-mail to find Shi-chan on gchat, saying something like "DOME  DVD OUT ON JUNE 15TH, NEW ALBUM BEAUTIFUL WORLD OUT ON JULY 6TH! WE ARE GOING TO BE SO BROKE!" My brain almost broke from the news.

Like almost everyone else, I had expected a Dome DVD but kind of gave up on that when April came and went without any announcements. Then this happened, and with the album announcement on top of that (which, okay, Shi-chan and I have both anticipated) is just too much of a good thing at once. I love it. Not the fact that I'm going to be broke, but the fact that there will be yet another DVD to flail over with other Arashians, and another album to play on repeat for a couple of weeks. ^^;;

Anyway, the DVD will be of the Fukuoka concert - I was really hoping for Tokyo Dome, but the LE  (6,900円) comes with a documentary, so hopefully there will be some Tokyo Dome bits there? (Really wants to see Oh-chan's birthday again) And solo interviews! Can't wait. ^_^

The first press release of the album, Beautiful World, (3,200円) will include 7 new songs and 5 solos, and the currently released singles not in BnMF, of course. That should be everything from To be free, onwards? *checks CD rack* Yup. To be free, Love Rainbow, Dear Snow, 果てない空, and Lotus.

I'm super excited about both and hopeful for concert announcements :D

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stuff bought (not so) recently

Since I haven't posted anything on my typepad for the last couple of months, here are pics of things I've recently got during that time :D

5x10 (my fav of all the totes!) and Time totes.
Actually I love totes in general, and Arashi totes are just <3 of course! 

DVD of Aiba's pornbutai "Kimi to Miru Sen no Yume", which is beautiful. Love it!
And Lotus LE, which I've yet to open, since I downloaded it before receiving my copy. ^^;;

Android AU pamphlet/booklet.
Usually I don't buy them, but I made an exception for this.
Because I love the CMs so much. And this booklet is gorgeous.
Also the Arashi Meets Manga special from Asahi Shimbun, which, of course, is a must have.
Because I love the manga listed almost as much, or more, than I love Arashi. 

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