Copyright (C) 1995 by Jeff Okamoto. All rights reserved.
Photo of Megumi Hayashibara is Copyright (C) 1995 by Jeff Okamoto. All rights
reserved.
Welcome to issue #5 of the Hayashibara Megumi Internet Fan Club Newsletter! I have some wonderful news to report.
According to Hitoshi Doi, this fan club was mentioned on Miss Hayashibara's radio program. On Sunday, November 26, 1994, she read a letter from a listener in Kanazawa who mentioned he'd seen this newsletter on an FTP site (probably venice.tcp.com). The listener promised to send Miss Hayashibara translations of this newsletter.
It is confirmed! Miss Hayashibara will be attending Anime America, to be held on July 7-9 at the Red Lion Inn in San Jose, California. Miss Hayashibara will be doing another concert, as she did at Anime America in 1992.
I may as well also mention that Anime Expo will be held just one week prior to Anime America, over the Fourth of July weekend, June 30 through July 2. It will be held at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton in Los Angeles, CA. For more information, you can send e-mail to info@anime-expo.org.
The image on the front page of this issue is a gray-scale version of the membership card you can receive!
All you have to do (if you don't already have one!) is to send me your real address. The card is in color and is laminated to protect it. It also has your membership number on the back.
I will soon have all the back issues of this newsletter available on the World-Wide Web, and accessible using either a graphical browse like Mosaic or Netscape, or through a text brower like lynx. Once it is set up, I will publish the URL.
In this issue are some summaries from Ms. Hayashibara's radio program "Tokyo Boogie Night", translated by Hitoshi Doi.
Thanks to Hitoshi Doi for providing these translations and allowing me to use them in this newsletter.
Guests: Mitsuishi Kotono
Songs: Life (Hayashibara Megumi)
Mitsuishi Gakuen Kouka (Mitsuishi Kotono)
Drama: none
Near the beginning of the show, Furumoto Shinnosuke came and announced that his band Soul Too Hot, will have a live event at the Harajuku Ruido on October 18th. Furumoto has done the voices of Leo (Jungle Taitei) and Bakuretsu Hunter.
Megumi played "Life", which was the coupling song to the Blue Seed ED. The ED CD single will go on sale November 3rd.
A listener wrote in that there was a train station called Mitsuishi, but that there wasn't one called Hayashibara.
Megumi was wondering if you can take the insides out of a sea urchin, and have it survive out of the shell. "What is that inside part?" Megumi asked. Kotono said, "The brain?" Megumi said, "It can't be living with just a brain."
Megumi and Kotono talked about Blue Seed. Kotono had lots of trouble doing Koume. "At first I thought I was going to cry. But now it's fun."
Megumi used to do roles like that. Megumi said that she gets a lot of stress doing roles where she is like a real heroine. "I was really happy that Momiji was a girl who got protected by others. But when I actually see Momiji fall in the battle scenes, I feel like I want to get up myself and go wild. Doing a heroine is very difficult. Lots of stress."
Kotono said, "That's because you're not used to it. You always did characters who fight on their own, who got up right after they fall down."
"Or characters that never fall down," Megumi added.
Kotono started going to a sports club. "I wanted to get into shape, and to make friends and meet guys. But I usually only go to the pool. In the pool, everyone just swims and does everything by themselves. So I can't meet anyone." Megumi asked, "Any coaches?" "They're women."
In a future episode, there will be a kappa aragami in Blue Seed. There were lots of them, so Megumi did a voice for one of them.
Kotono will release a CD single on November 25, "Dare Yori Kagayaite" and "Mitsuishi Gakuen Kouka" will be the songs. It is the first single she releases as herself.
Megumi played the song "Mitsuishi Gakuen Kouka".
The only new show this fall that Kotono is in is Blue Seed. The other roles that she is doing are videos and continuing TV series. Sailor Moon will have new bad guys. "Now I transform into Super Sailor Moon. Super Sailor Moon has yellow hair that stands up and can fly!"
Megumi said, "That's Dragonball!"
Kotono said, "Just joking."
Guests: Morikawa Toshiyuki
Songs: Moonlight Angel Ashitani
Mukatte (Kouda Mariko)
Rock to the Top (Morikawa Toshiyuki)
Drama: none
Tokyo Boogie Night is now aired at 1:30 AM, instead of 2:00 AM.
Megumi appeared on a variety TV show, "Naruhodo the World", and there were a lot of mails by fans. Several voice actors went on the show, and the guests had to guess which voice actor did the voices for which character. They couldn't guess Megumi's character (Nanami). Some of the other voice actors were Tanaka Mayumi, Midorikawa Hikaru, etc. They did the rehearsal, and then had to wait 4 hours until the real thing. "But it was fun," Megumi said.
Megumi played the song "Moonlight Angel Ashitani Mukatte" by Kouda Mariko from the OAV Tekkaman Blade 2. It was a fast song.
The Tekkaman Blade 2 CD will go on sale October 21, and will contain two vocals by Kouda Mariko, and radio drama.
Morikawa Toshiyuki's CD "Heaven's Door" will go on sale November 2nd. (Heaven's Door is also the name of his fan club.) The songs on the CD will be rock and ballads. Morikawa wrote the music to two songs and lyrics to five songs. The recording was done with the members of the band that Morikawa had been with since his student days.
On November 12th and 13th, Morikawa will have a live stage event in Ikebukuro. On the 20th there will be an event in the Shinjuku Loft at 13:00. (2800 yen for one drink.) There will be songs from the album.
Megumi played the song "Rock to the Top" from Morikawa Toshiyuki's new album.
Morikawa says, "The concept is `myself'. The things that I've experienced, the things I want to do."
The guest next week is Hiyama Nobuyuki.
Guests: Kamiya Jun (director of Blue Seed)
Amiya Masaharu (literary director for Blue Seed)
Songs: Otsuki-sama to Dance (Yokoyama Chisa)
Touch and Go (Hayashibara Megumi)
Drama: none
Megumi said, "It's cold in the morning and night. I finally put out my carpet."
With the Akazukin Chacha ED playing in the background, Megumi announced that Sawada Shoko will have a concert tour. (November 14 - Fukuoka, 18 - Nagoya, 19 - Osaka, 22 - Tokyo.)
"In DNA^2 I play a feminine girl, like I've never played before. I won't be in it much around episode 3 and 4. When I auditioned for it I didn't think I would get it, but I did.
"Next March (around the 3rd) I will release my third best album. It will probably have songs from Nekomusume, Momo, and maybe some new songs."
Megumi played "Otsuki-sama to Dance" by Yokoyama Chisa from the Yuna 2 CD that goes on sale November 3rd.
The guests (staff of Blue Seed) appeared, and Megumi read some of the questions from the listeners.
Question: Isn't the TV going ahead of the manga?
Director: That's not a problem. The story will go in a different direction from
the manga. Only episodes 1 and 2 are similar. The ending is different. With the
TV series, you get to see more of the details of each character.
Question: Any stories in the production?
Director: Since the story is about Japanese gods, etc, there were some strange
happenings. When we were going recording, the sound that had been on tape
disappeared.
Megumi played "Touch and Go", the ending song to Blue Seed that will go on sale November 3rd. Megumi said that the words are a little different from the TV version.
Question: Can you tell us about how the story will go?
Director: The aragami will appear all over and they will have to fight. But the
relationship between Momiji and Kusanagi will be something to look forward
to.
There will be a Blue Seed country-wide event! It starts November 20th and will go into December, all over the country. The Tokyo event will be December 18. Megumi will go to all of them.
On November 6, the movie "Vanishing Red" will be televised. Megumi did a voice in the dub.
Guests: none
Songs: Trust You Forever
Megami no Hoho ni Kuchizuke (Kouda Mariko)
Drama: none
This is the first Megumi-only 30 minute DJ special in four months.
Megumi said, "I want to apologize. This Wednesday there was a TV program called `Tonight' and I was interviewed. They told me about it on Sunday, and we got the radio staff together on Monday. So I didn't have time to tell you.
"Also on November 15th (Tuesday) I'll be on a NHK program, `Ohayou Nippon' from 6 AM to 8 AM. I'll be interviewed in the `Trend Corner'. They're doing a special on female seiyuu.
"I also got (or will get) interviewed for the Flash and Shuukan Houseki magazines.
"I was sent a bag of chestnuts from a fan and I was very happy. But when I opened it, it was all spoiled. I still haven't eaten chestnuts or matsutake yet this year. But I will soon.
"The other day I went to the supermarket. Usually I don't have a chance to go because I don't get home in time when the supermarket is open. I discovered that things are so convenient now. There are so many things that are already made, so it's very easy. I was surprised."
Megumi played the song "Trust You Forever" the new OP from G Gundam.
They did the recording of this soundtrack in Hong Kong, so there's going to be Hong Kong versions of these songs too.
"In the magazines, they now advertise for a lipstick that will not leave a mark on the cup. In the fine print, they say that it might be different for different people. I wonder what they mean by that. Anyway, I bought one. But it didn't work! I wore a white sweater, and the lipstick left a mark. Well, there seems to be a technique for using this. After putting it on, you have to dry it with a tissue, and then put it on again."
Megumi played the song "Megami no Hoho ni Kuchizuke" by Kouda Mariko from Tekkaman Blade 2.
Question from listener: Is Blue Seed really going to end in 26
episodes?
Megumi: Yes, it's planned that way.
The Blue Seed national tour will start soon: December 10th in Yokohama, the 11th in Takatsuki, and the 18th in Hachiouji and Ogikubo.
Information: To contact this newsletter, send electronic mail to the Internet address okamoto@seiyuu.com. Please also include your permanent mailing address.