Enter Another New Face, and a Blessed Holiday

Today, on this December 25, a new person enters the ranks of the blessed clergy of the Church of Maasa.

My name is Haru, I've been a fan of Maasa for but a short time -- reformed from the Cathedral of Miyabi, and still somewhat a believer. but fully I am devoted to our Heavenly Mother Maasa.

By now, our Heavenly Mother has probably finished her celebrations of Christmas (as it is almost 16:00, 4:00 PM for the Americans, in Japan as I write this blog) and is enjoying a cozy afternoon and evening with her family. Perhaps her group mates have surprised her with gifts as well. Being a teenage girl, I'm sure she received things like lotions and soaps and clothing, and of course something cute. And living in the technological world, she may have even gotten a new cell phone, or laptop. And of course, being the otaku she is, I'm sure she received some manga as well.

My friends, I hope you enjoy the Christmas season with warmth in your heart, and remember that wherever you may be this holiday season, Maasa will be with you.

Amen.

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Most biased review ever

Recently two Dvds where released, the H!P Summer Concert Dvds Wow Wow and Yeah Yeah.

In  the Yeah Yeah Dvd we get treated to a Solo Performance by the Holy Godmother Maasa herself.

What Song is it then? One that would fit Maasa according to stereotypes?

Oh no, it is the hyper funny S/mileage song ○○ Ganbaranakutemo Eenende!!.

Watch it here on Youtube

Now what happens if you pair a song that is designed to be funny and fit the cutesy voices of Kanon and co with Maasa? The result is plain awesomeness, yes, you read that right, the voice of Maasa actually adds to the Entertainment value of that song, so H!P did the exact right thing by letting Maasa sing that particular song. It is perfection done right or as we call it here, perfection done the Maasa way, perfect pitch control, perfect expression, perfect everything.
And by the way, the rest of the Dvds are pretty awesome as well.
And if you want to do the exact right thing, please buy the Dvds, they are as usual available from cdjapan and every other decent Onlineshop.

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New Face

Some time has passed since someone from the Church voiced their opinion here, so out with the old and in with the new, except of course we would never get rid of the old, as a Church we believe everything is eternal, so of course People like Dran will still be here, but also a new face, Nao-kun.

Nao-kun? who is that?

A couple years ago in a location slightly west of Dran Nao-kun was sitting in front of a box and not sure what do on a boring rainy Sunday afternoon, turns out that box was a PC and Nao-kun stumbled over a Morning Musume Video on Youtube that the Church had planted there as a trap to test the loyalty of its followers.

Initially Nao-kun gave in to the temptation of Morning Musume, but then saw the light and focused all attention to Berryz Koubou, the one and only true Idol Unit to ever grace this Planet Earth we happen to be on as well as the Universe this Earth is trapped in until the great Maasa decides that all Evil has been extinguished and will take us away to the real Universe.

How do we win over those Evil things and how far has Nao-kun progressed in defeating them? While the revelation of the full list has not happened yet a selection can be found below:

Under no circumstances shall anything ever take priority over Berryz.

Traveling 52500 miles in a 27 month period for Berryz shall be considered normal.

The use of the only Wardrobe to store noting but Hello Project Merchandise shall also be considered normal.

All Walls need to be covered by Berryz Posters, Towels, Calendars, Visual Screens and similar items.

Maaism is not just a religion, it is also the cradle, path and destination of life which shall always be chosen as any other path leads to Doom.

Either way, that crazy Maadict known as Nao-kun is looking forward to bring you the occasional sensible but usually just "slightly" biased update through the Church of Maasa from whatever corner of the Planet Berryz Koubou is currently at.

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On this day...

Nineteen years ago today the Great Mother experienced her first moments in the world. And we reached the official start date for the lesser-known Maaist dating system, which today becomes AMV (or AM for short) 20.

And so the Church wishes a happy Birthday to the Holy Mother, Maasa, and a happy Awesome Day to the people. 

Just how are you all celebrating? I shall celebrate today with the consumption of good food and alcohol. A feast for the coming year, as it were. Perhaps you are the same. Perhaps you have grander ideas. Do share.

I know that one honourable Maaist is providing the service of a brief timeline of the history of Maasa in Hello! Project. It is no small undertaking, but he has catalogued much information and many pictures as diligently as one could possibly hope to ask. You can find this fine reliquary here.

May Maasa continue to watch over you in the coming year, and may you continue to watch over her.

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Light Novel no Tanoshii Kakikata Released!

Maasa's movie, first announced back in October 2009, today released on DVD. The movie managed, on its first day, to chart on Amazon's best sellers at #2 in the Comedy films section and #5 in the Romance section. The movie has proven to be incredibly popular, getting, on the whole, positive reviews and spreading across Japan to various theatres that weren't included in the initial run (and one such theatre extending its run beyond its original length).

My own copy of the Limited Edition shipped the day before, and is sitting in Germany right now waiting to be loaded onto a plane to the UK. Needless to say, I'm excited by the long wait to almost finally have it in my hands, as, I'm sure, are you all. Assuming you also ordered it. You did order it, didn't you?

Already, the beginning of the movie has appeared on YouTube, though the uploader doesn't show signs of uploading any more than the first 13 minutes, it still proves to be an entertaining watch.

I do feel guilty myself for watching it before my copy arrives. And it only makes me even more impatient for my own copy. But judging from the beginning, I'm expecting the movie to be pretty good - certainly to live up to my own expectations.

Though it does sadden me a little. It has been 18 months since we learned about the movie, and the fact that I'm now able to watch it represents for me the end of an era. Thanks to being the one (and there weren't many who did so) who reported every bit of news about the movie (either here or on H!O), the one who translated the official blog every day, and one of the many who were sure that this movie would be important and would lead to good things for Maasa... I've grown attatched to it. Despite having never read the original light novels, despite never having seen the movie, despite having never even heard of it until I saw the news that Maasa would be starring in this movie... I've been very much the go-to guy on affairs related to the movie (unless you knew someone who HAD read the original light novels or seen the movie.)

This levels the playing field. Upon seeing the movie, all of us will have an equal knowledge of what it is about and what happens. And the loss of the feeling of authority on the subject (however slight that authority was) is sad but inevitable. It may represent the end of an era for me, after the movie became an integral part of my life and my daily routine (especially from September to December when I was translating the blog every day). But today also represents the beginning of a new era for me. The post-movie era, if you will, where we can witness first-hand whether or not our predictions and hopes about the outcome of this movie come true.

With it announced this week that Maasa will also feature in Tanaka Reina's new stageplay (perhaps more on that as information develops), which makes it the tenth Gekidan Gekiharo produced by Hello! Project since 2007, it would appear that Maasa (who, at least since the Berryz Koubou in Bangkok concert, has said that her dream for the future is to do lots of acting) may yet be advancing towards her goal. But is this just coincidence or a direct result of the popularity of Ranobe?

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Making Light Novel no Tanoshii Kakikata

Last time I spoke about Colombia Records' plans to release two DVDs of the movie Light Novel no Tanoshii Kakikata which Maasa is starring in. I also mentioned that the more expensive of the two editions will contain a bonus disc featuring a 60-minute "making of" documentary.

Well, this time we have a new trailer to reveal, which shows you the kind of thing we're likely to see in this bonus making.

What I love about this preview is that they show a much more dynamic and fun set with all the interaction between the cast members. It's something we just didn't get with the Ranobeblog. And you can't help but feel that maybe, just maybe, new friends were made all round over the two months of filming.

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