Is Meno New Year under Alice Project or are they just advertising it because so many former members + Tachibana Anna are involved with it?
*** Important Kamen Joshi Theater Schedule from October onwards... *** https://twitter.com/Kamenjoshi_Info/status/1705222234573566078 Google translation: Mon: Kamen Joshi, Meno New Year Tue: Katakuri Musume (Co) Legend, Meno New Year Thurs: Kamen Joshi, Katakuri Musume (Co) Legend Fri: Joint performance We will keep you informed regarding performances on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Thank you.
UP*T dance video...surprised they did this after already having a PV. if the video does not show watch the video here
I am sorry for my absence Anyway, here is the report, it will contain some stuff not related to Kamen Joshi and of course a lot of Hitomi-san stuff but I think you will find it nonetheless interesting: I arrived on Sunday morning an hour early. This was a very lucky thing for me. This because over the 2 days of the weekend there was an event at the Tokyo Big Sight, a hobby show. The ambassador of this event was a talent I already follow for several years named "Kazari" and she would hold a photoshoot and meet & greet during this event. Thanks to the hour early arrival of my plane I got the chance to participate in the shoot and meet her for for the first time. I was most impressed that when we said goodbye she did so with the Dutch words "Tot ziens", something I taught her 2 years ago and never expected her to remember. Fun fact, after the shoot there was the chance to take a two shot with your private phone, her manager that took the shot was quite surprised and confused when she used my phone as it didn't make a shutter sound which Japanese phones are lawfully required. As the whole timeline is a bit blurry for when exactly I went to go and see Kamen Joshi I won't name days except for the 2nd of October as that was also the day that the new group "Meno new year" made their debut. Sadly without Nanami Mana as she was (and is still) recovering from something that required multiple days of hospitalisation. I can describe it best as Cerisier 2.0 with some Topping*girls and Kamen Joshi mixed in. They were well received and did a good job. I saw Kamen Joshi a total of 3 times this time around. Two times I met Moa-chan who was happy to see me again. Kamen Joshi has made some changes since March, most importantly masks are no longer required during cheki times, for fans and the members! This makes for a much more pleasant experience. Also it seems that they want to introduce more ways to interact as during one show they had a pop-the-pirate game where you could win a prize (every visitor got one try to pop the pirate) but the most fun they game up with was the robot battle. For 1000 yen you could battle a member of your choice with some sort of robot game (shake your left hand and the robot left leg moved, right hand right leg and once you bumb into each other try to smash out the opponents pilot). I chose Moa-chan and we had a great fun battle with a good amount of interaction as it was also her first time playing this game. I beated her in the game and won a small cheki of her I would have see Moa-chan more if I didn't make the mistake of reading her agenda wrongly which made me think she would be in the theater on Thursday but she wasn't. Instead I took cheki with our leader Coharu-chan who has gotten pretty damn cute. Now I could have seen Moa-chan more but on the 16th I was invited by a fan to go together to the Halloween party of former members Kuboto Misa and Yukino Shihori. It was a great fun event even though I hardly understood anything of what was going on but I did manage to win Misa-san her phone cover (which she signed). Also I tried the, supposedly, very sour drink which they used for the game "guess who drinks the sour drink" and found it actually tasting pretty good. As the event was held in a space above the Produti bar where Shihori-san works me and the other fan went for some drinks at the bar after the party was over. I bought Misa-san and Shihori-san a drink in exchange for telling me a secret about Hitomi-san (all in good spirits of course). Now of course I know that you want to hear about Hitomi-san. I was lucky that she held a concafe event during my visit to Tokyo (on the 14th) but my preparation started already on the 2nd day I was in Japan when I went on the hunt for one of her presents (A bracelett from Hermes) which turned into quite the event as I had to go to 3 stores before I found the size I needed (the first 2 only had a large size). On the 3rd day of my trip I had to exchange my rail pass voucher and chose to do that at Shinagawa station. While waiting I suddenly remembered something. Hitomi-san had told me a couple of things she liked and one of those things was a perfume. I looked up where to buy that months ago but forgot about it untill suddenly I remembered: The only place in Tokyo was behind the ticket gates at Shinagawa station. As I am not one to tempt fate when it gives me such a good luck push I of course searched for the store and purchased the Perfume. (Later on I notice that I actually bought the wrong one so 2 weeks late when I returned to Tokyo I bought the right one, but I gave her both). During my trip I also travelled to Oita, Hitomi-san her home prefecture, but my main goal while there was to go to Kokonoe, her home town. Kokonoe isn't really a town in itself, it is a cluser of extremely small villages and farms and was extremely hard to get to (Only 3 trains a day) but I did manage to go to a local shop and buy true "Made in Kokonoe" honey as proof of my visit. When I got back in Tokyo I spent one day to find Hitomi-san some new clothes which proved a difficult but fun challenge. The concafe event was just wonderful, even though Shinjuku station and I will never be friends (it is the worst station there is) I was good on time and Hitomi-san greeted me warmly. She showed me to my seat and over the night (the event was from 18:00 till 24:00) we had plenty of time to talk and drink! It was at the same concafe as she held her birthday meet ups but since that time the costumes had changed and she looked absolutely gorgeous. There was plenty of food, snack and drinks. Here in The Netherlands there is brand of chocolate (Tony chocolonely) which has the option to custom design your own wrappers. I designed one with a picture of Hitomi-san on it in the outfit she wore during her birthdaty with some text and decoration. I ordered 10 of those bars and gave them to her to give out to the other fans who visited that night. It was very well received. As I had a whole bag of gifts I gave them spread out over the night. The clothes she was very surprised about but extremely happy too, I might be the first guy she has gotten clothes from. One gift she can't open yet but that damn smart girl already guessed what it is (An Advent calendar from Rituals). Instead of a letter I let out my artistic and romantic side and wrote her a poem. Other fun things: - Another fan (same one as I went to the Halloween party with on the 16th) had made some acrylic stands from Hitomi-san and gave me two. - At the end of the night I was saying to Hitomi-san that I probably would never meet again a girl like her and that I really love her and the guy next to me also told her he loved her to which I declared "I am sorry, but I will not loose" - Champagne really gives me a headache - Hitomi-san is extremely make-up consious as at one point she rushed to the toilet to fix it even though I (and others) couldn't see what was wrong but she did. - Hitomi-san went home by taxi, she refused me paying for it so instead I just gave her a monetary gift on her Note-account which made her chuckle (It seemed to me that she appreciated it and liked the creativity I used). - This time I was the last person to leave. The next day she posted on her Note account a picture wearing the clothes I bought her and she looked perfect in it! Now as some of you may know Hitomi-san also has a prebo account through which I reguarly send physical gifts. I used this to, on the last day I was in Japan so that it would arrive while I was on the plane back home, one last thing, a letter and a quality Citizen watch with a "Beauty and the Beast" theme (her favorite Disney movie). So yeah, that is it. My Japanese adventure has finished and I had a great time. Oh, and the Friday after I got back I already bought my next ticket (March 4th arrival, March 15th departure)
As it is unrelated to my post above and since this was news after I came back I do this in a new post: - Maopi-chan has done her first swimsuit gravure which will be published on the 17th in Young Gangnan magazine. In an article on Tokyo sports she suggested that this won't be the last time as she is interested in becoming the gravure idol from Kamen Joshi. - Taking pictures with your celphone during parts of the shows in the theater is being allowed. I am not to sure about the details but this is a major change.
This was very informative Oddball. Good Lord, your dedication to Hitomi is to be admired, I have never seen anything like this, especially from a foreign fan. I don't know what the outcome will be, but I am very much routing for you! I'm excited for the Maopi gravure news being that she (& Moa) are still my 2 fave current members of Kamen Joshi. I hope she will get to DVD level. I'm guessing with Misshan & co. you teamed up with our old friend Fruit Punch! ;-) Some meager questions if you don't mind, have other things changed there at PARMS? For example, do they still use the cheki machine? Any new-news on Alice Project moving on from PARMS? What's the Japanese crowds like now that that the group is so much smaller? You really are doing the rest of us a great service, since we are still unsure of when our next venture in Japan will be. We appreciate these reports so much. Kamen Joshi international fandom has been in decline since the end of the "golden era" (& the end of Daily Alice) & is now almost non-existent, so still having someone go there as regularly as you, is very informative for those of us here still on this board. Looks like your next visit is just in time for a certain special someone's bithday...
@blurryeyes Thank you for the compliment. I am not expecting anything in terms of outcome, somehow that makes everything easier, but I will do my best (I already have an idea for her birthday) Maopi and dvd? interesting thought but let's see first how the upcoming shoot will be received. That she was doing a gravure shoot really surprised me. Actually It wasn't Fruit Punch. I sort of expected him to be there but from what I've heard from others he hasn't been visiting lately (and in all hectic I forgot to send him a message). As to your questions: - Yes, the cheki machine is still there - I haven't heard anything about AP moving. - Crowds were pretty decent. One thing to keep in mind is that I went on weekdays and these will never fill up the house (all shows I saw were on the 7th floor) but compared to weekdays pre-covid I think it was good. Another thing is that even though the KJ sub groups no longer exist there are still other AP groups like Meno New Year and that one that consists of 4 Cerisier members (I always forget the name). I also have the idea that AP works with a lot of guest performers. When I was visiting there was a guest performance of a 3-girl group of which one of them would graduate soon. From my little understanding she was a fan of Tachibana Anna (Who during the MC gave her a bouquet) and that girl did perform a couple of songs with KJ and even got to ride the boat! - I also saw Naachan her group, however their performance was short so I am not ready to give an opinion about them yet. - About international appeal: Funny enough AP management has prepared materials in English to receive foreigners. On the last show I visited I was surprised to find signage and explanation leaflets in English! It turned out that a group of Hong Kong tourists had booked tickets (they were absolutely crazy enthusiastic) and thus theater staff put the English signage out. I did discuss attracting foreigners a bit with other fans as I think it should be quite easy to get more tourists to visit. It isn't a secret that I planned my next trip around Hitomi-san her birthday, she knows that too.
KamenJoshi will go to South Korea! January 6th and 7th they will perform on an idol festival. https://twitter.com/Kamenjoshi_Info/status/1729465932484165712?t=aAYNnSFgFjtBs-pi8dWDnw&s=19 I am happy for the girls that they can go abroad. I hope they have lots of fun! This is also good for the group as it shows that they are still a group that counts. It could also be something that attracts new candidates for auditions.
Ex-golden age Kamen Joshi member Erina announced her pregnancy/birth on Twitter... https://twitter.com/erinyannn1015/status/1737065264934793485
I am happy for Erina and her husband. But I must admit I am not that surprised. Having a kid soon after getting married is still the norm in Japan. Once she is pregnant for the 2nd time I will be more surprised as that is far less common. I hope the pregnancy will go well and she will have an wonderful, and of course healthy, baby. To mix it up with some other, less fortunate news: - Ex steam girl, Nanami Mana, who was also slated to join Meno New Year but suffered health issues (with hospitilisation) right before the debut has quite suddenly left idol life. Her health doesn't improve enough to continue staying an idol. - Katakuri Musume Legend, the pretty popular 4 member unit remnant of Cerisier, will disband in April 2024 due to one of the members graduating. What the other 3 members are going to do isn't sure yet.
Tokyo Sports digest video of the Kamen Joshi one-man live at Shinjuku ReNY on 1/20: if the video does not show watch the video here
New Kamen Joshi song: "Bukuon Wayy" Live Short Version if the video does not show watch the video here Full Studio Version... if the video does not show watch the video here
I really like that song. I am also very happy that they also uploaded it on spotify. Now I just hope that they also perform it when I go to Japan again (march 4th till 15th)
