Recent Maasa activity

Like known, Maasa has been up to her play after Berryz hiatus, and it was also announced that she will be in another play with Morning Musume members : )

Over past few days she has pretty actively updated her blog...

Peach juice loving Maasa:

"I love momo♡ (peach)

I love momo..........

I love Momochi♡ lol"

Also met Saki and Yurina, who went to see the play

Kamitomo meeting when Chinami went to see the play 

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Long time no see

Sorry for this huge gap between the posts, but now we're back! I've had a lot school things lately which have drained my energy to do anything productive... ><

Also since there was such a big break between posts, I won't be providing translations. I am very sorry about that : (. But from now on I will continue to keep you updated about the highlights of Maasa's blog posts and news about her! : )

Also these guys do fantastic and really hard work translating blogs, so check out http://blog-project.net/sudou-maasa !!!



Maasa has been up to

Berryz visit in Thailand!

Growing her hair longer!

Expanding her harem!

There was also an article about Berryz Koubou in a newspaper where it was stated that Maasa looks over Engeki Joshibu!

Also some sad news... it is only 16 days until our beloved Berryz Koubou will suspend their activities. Let's keep on cheering for them and hope them good luck to their future careers and possible family lives!

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Maasa's Christmas

Merry Christmas

Every year Maasa looks a bit forward to Santa's visit.
But he never comes.

Santa hasn't visited her for whole 10 years, since the 6th year of elementary, however, now he appears again for her nephew.

For Maasa, the best Christmas gift is that she gets to spend it with Berryz members.

She asks all the papas and mamas not to show the blog text to children (lol.)

http://ameblo.jp/sudou-maasa-blog/entry-11968439419.html?frm_src=thumb_module

The best condition!!

Maasa asked if all the little kids got presents from Santa yesterday.

She wishes every elementary, middle and high school students good luck with their homework.
For college students she wishes an enjoyable winter break, since there are challenges and such.
She cheers for the adults to do well in their jobs.

Berry-chans will run through these remaining 6 days of 2014 with good spirit.

Maasa will do her best in rehearsals and shootings!

http://ameblo.jp/sudou-maasa-blog/entry-11968796535.html

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Event

Berryz Koubou had a Christmas event today. It was quite a free event and there was a karaoke set on the stage for the members. Maasa had a lot of fun in the event. She'll have fun and be happy everytime she can.

For everyone that couldn't come, she says there might be a DVD release of the event. They sung a lot of songs that weren't from H!P.

http://ameblo.jp/sudou-maasa-blog/entry-11968117430.html

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Rehearsal

Today was another rehearsal for H!P's upcoming tour.

For the first time in a while Maasa is a bit confused with all the moves, since there is a lot.
She thinks the power of the children is great and doesn't want to lose to them.

Maasa also loves the t-shirts she and Yurina are wearing today.

(Photo is a mirrored version to show the awesome t-shirts!)

http://ameblo.jp/sudou-maasa-blog/entry-11967795341.html

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A Ponytail can be Cute too

In today's news, Maasa continues to be beautiful. 

I'm sure bondskizuna won't be happy that I stole such a fine post opportunity from her, but well I saw the pictures and decided to post them anyway. Bwahahaha!

It comes from her blog from yesterday where she mentions that she decided to tie her hair back for a handshake event. 

She also asks "I wonder what my hairstyle will be tomorrow? ♡"

Who knows, but I must admit that I'm sort of glad to see her start to grow her hair back out. Ikemen Maasa still looked cute, sure, but for 5 years she was the long-haired yamato nadeshiko of the group, and it took a long time to get used to that not being the case. Now that her hair is starting to grow out a bit, I can't help but wonder if she will keep the short hair she sported for 2014, or whether she'll go back to being our long-haired Maasa-hime in 2015?

Watch this space, or something...

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Tour rehearsing

In her yesterday's blog post Maasa talked about rehearsals of the H!P tour that begins on 2nd January. The tour will be Berryz' last full-H!P tour : ( Since Berryz is the senior group in Hello! Project now, with 9 years of experiencing by watching her seniors, Maasa wants to do build up a good Hello! Project for her kouhais.

http://ameblo.jp/sudou-maasa-blog/entry-11965828172.html

Photo is from Captain's blog.

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Shooting

In her recent blog post Maasa says she was in the middle of shooting for something that will be released in Hello! Shop! (most likely goods and photos)

Also said that her hair got messed up because of rain... lol
In the photo she is having her make up done.
http://ameblo.jp/sudou-maasa-blog/entry-11965337274.html

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Back to business and a new member

The Church blog seems to have been on hiatus for more than 2 years. But with a new author we hope to get this a bit more active again.

Hello everyone! I am bondskizuna and I'll be writing in this blog too from now on. I came to like Hello! Project back in 2008 but first I listened to pretty much only Morning Musume so Maasa didn't catch my eye until at around March 2011. I remember that day very clearly. While surfing through the internet I happened to find some photos from her photobook and her beauty was something extraordinary. I looked for more information of her and the rest is history. I hope to translate some of the main points from her blog texts and add them here. My Japanese is not that good so feel free to point out any mistakes!

A lot has happened in these 2 years. For example, Berryz Koubou and of course Maasa's first time in Europe, at Japan Expo on July this year. Also the unfortunate announcement of Berryz Koubou's indefinite hiatus.

Happy announcements have taken place too! Maasa has been announced to be a playing manager for Engeki Joshibu, Hello! Project's acting group.In the summer of 2014 she was the first and so far only Berryz Koubou member to get a driving license.She also revealed that she is an aunt to a 2 year old nephew, a son of her younger sister.

Let's hope that our precious Maasa stays in the spotlight even after the 3rd of March and we'll get an occasional peek at her : )

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Random ramblings about age

So the holy mother of Berryz otherwise known as Maasa will turn 20 soon.

20 may not seem old seeing how people easily live to a 100 these days, but in another way it's been a long time since Maasa joined H!P in 2002, yep, 10 years. The same applies to the other H!P Kids as well and look at it this way: Kennedy talked about flying to the Moon in 1961, then 1969 people actually walked on the Moon, that is how many years? Eight. So in other words Maasa has been a Idol for longer than it takes to develop a Spaceship and fly some people to the Moon with it. Personally I only discovered H!P in 2007 (thanks to European media pretending Japanese music wouldn't exist) and that may sound like it was awfully late seeing how H!P had its 10th anniversary in 2007, but now it is a full 5 years later and time sure has flown past.

In a way I could say it is already 5 years later, or 10 years later, but do we really realize how fast time goes by and more importantly, do these Girls realize it? I'm sure at some point they have and did consider their options (yeah, I'm hinting at that certain G word that is the Devil work) but for whatever reason they chose what we as Fans consider the correct option.

As they have chosen that correct option, do they think of getting older? do they consider what life has in store for them once they are 30? 50? 80? Obviously at 80 it is unlikely any of them will still be Idols (well, except for Momochi who doesn't get older) and we don't want to think ourselves getting 80 either (just ignore that if your 80th B'day is tomorrow xD), which brings me to a funny point, we may dread the thought of getting old and loosing what is our dearest Idol group, but at the same time what can we do about it?

Make the best of the time we have until we turn 80 and ENNNJJJOOOOOOYYYYY!!!!!

To help with that, have some Berrylicious PVs:

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Maasa Runs Races, Smacks Girls and Isn't Afraid of Anything

Our Heavenly Mother recently starred as the latest "rival" in the H!P-laiden J-drama called "Suugaku♥Joshi Gakuen," and was awesome, as one should expect her to be.

A basic TL;DR of Maasa--er, I'm sorry, Fuyumi events:

• She eats ramen. Like a boss. (I personally kinda found this scene a little offensive considering she is one of the few full figured girls in the company, and is the leader of a group called the Gluttony Girls? Come on.)
• She challenges Nina (Tanaka Reina). Like a boss.
• Changes the menu. Like a boss.

She continues to do some pretty boss-like things, such as stealing fruit from Sayuri (Michishige Sayumi), pushing Kazuki (Sakurada Dori), becoming Maasa Sumou, and slapping the Kyuukies like they're newborn babies. I seriously cannot stress the wonder of this drama. And I highly suggest you watch it. Sadly, there are no .gifs from the episode yet; but I can guarantee you the one of her slapping the Kyuukies will be the first in existence.

If you want a look at the episode, you can see screenshots here, and watch an unsubbed version of Lesson 3 here. A hard-subbed version, courtesy of MM-BBS, will most likely be available within a few days.

Photo courtesy of lovemusic at Hello! Online. Thanks for the screenshots!

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Minecraft and Idol Fandom

Yep, I'm going to talk about a Sandbox Game on a Idol related Blog, but there is a good reason for it.

Just a quick explanation on what Minecraft is, it is a Sandbox Game where you obtain resources, craft various Items, build things like Houses and Railways and it comes with a addiction factor of 11 on a scale of 0 -10 and that high addiction factor is where the connection to Idol Fandom is.

Flying to Japan takes a long time especially when you remember the extra time wasted at various Airports and so its no surprise I had nothing better to do on the way to the Land of Berryz and H!P than play Minecraft (which thanks to its basic Graphics runs fine even on my ancient and by now replaced Laptop).

Unfortunately some random Guy started asking stupid questions about it and I quickly found myself in a situation where I had to justify my addiction. Justifying the addiction to Idols is something many struggle with as the general public is often not enlightened enough to understand it.

That situation got me thinking on how one can justify being addicted to Maasa, Berryz, H!P or just Japanese Idols in general to some random person?

Of course one could choose the not really successful but simple way: "It's either this or Crack, your choice". My Mom didn't really appreciate that one lol (just for the record, I got nothing to do with Drugs).

And thats where Minecraft comes in useful for a hopeless Idol addict, like Crack it got millions around the World addicted and with Minecraft just being a harmless Game and due to its popularity pretty much everyone will know someone who is addicted to it, so the next time someone asks stupid questions about your Idol addiction, just tell them that it is indeed entirely harmless and normal to be addicted to Idols, just like the Minecraft addicts they are likely to know are harmless as well.

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Welcome to 2012!

This year, according to the Maaist calander, will be AM 21. 

Things have gone pretty well in the last year, don't you think? Perhaps not as eventful for the Church as previous ones, but we should not forget that Maasa has been very busy. "Idolness over Idleness", as it were.

Between the singles, albums and concerts, Maasa managed to continue to pursue her dream to be an actress. We had the DVD release of Ranobe, opening her big screen debut of the previous year up to thousands of new fans whom, for whatever reason, were unable to witness it in the cinemas during it's extended run at select theatres.

Aside from that, we've seen her feature alongside Tanaka Reina in her stageplay, as well as featuring alongside other Berryz and C-ute members in the first ever joint Berikyuu stage play. She was then given a supporting role in the movie Ousama Game, with Kumai Yurina and Suzuki Airi taking the leads. 

And then there's the upcoming drama, Suugaku♥Joshi Gakuen, which is due to air in just over a week.

All in all, Maasa and the Church are both ready to pounce on the opportunities of the coming year. Are you?

Carpe diem.

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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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Light Novel no DVD no Tanoshii Mikata

Glorious news regarding the movie "Light Novel no Tanoshii Kakikata" starring Sudou Maasa which released in select cinemas at the start of December.

The movie was released in three or four theatres around the country including two catering for audiences in Tokyo and Osaka. After decent publicity including the release of the trailer back in July which racked up 40 thousand views in 3 days (and has gone on to over 130 thousand over the last 6 months), a promotional tie-in with Pizza Hut, as well as several events and TV mentions, the movie released to largely positive reviews.

Anyway, this time there's a DVD to be released, which was posted on the official Ranobe blog this morning.

It lets us know that Nippon Columbia will be publishing two versions of the movie on DVD, including one Limited Edition which will include a bonus disc containing the making-of documentary.

The pricing is a little steep for this kind of movie, with the regular edition coming in at nearly 4k yen, and the limited edition at 6k. The movie itself is only 80 minutes and the bonus footage is likely to be on the short side too, but for many people in Japan and abroad this will be the only way to actually see this movie, so it's definitely worth keeping an eye on. No self-respecting Maaist should be without, I think. 

The DVDs will both go on sale at the start of March next year.

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So intense!

Some of the latest stirrings in the Berryz world have come by the way of the second Alo-Hello!, due for release this Wednesday. The DVD hopefully promises to be as awesome as the first one, but with the added bikinis that were unfortunately missed out. With the way the 2011 calanders turned out, most notably the bikini-clad July/August page of the Berryz one, things looked pretty hopeful for a sexy AH2.

Then they released the covers for the PB and the DVD which only served to confirm the belief.

I must admit, I haven't yet decided which cover I prefer. The DVD has a much more eye-catching colourset, but I do find the poses and the deep blue look of the sky and ocean to be very appealing too.

Anyway, cue the entry of popular rag FRIDAY, courtesy of whom we are treated to a whole Smörgåsbord of delicious preview pics to choose from.

Of course, arguably the most important piece of news to come from this is in the form of Captain who we finally find in a bikini, putting all of the nay-sayers speculating that her parents wouldn't let her do a bikini photobook, or that she herself didn't want to, to shame.

But, of course, this is the Church of Maasa. So, in spite of L'Entente Cordiale, I'm going to leave it there and talk about Maasa.

And one thing I notice about Maasa's pic is that once again she can be seen wearing one of those skirt-type bikinis. I have no idea what the technical name for these is. I guess my teachers in school never imagined it would come up. But, and maybe it's just me, but I've noticed that Maasa seems to favour these. One simply has to look at her solo PB to note that most of the times she wore bikinis, it tended to be the same style.

Curiously, and maybe it's just because of how much time I've spent these last couple of months familiarising myself with it, the picture of herself on her own reminds me an awful lot of the character Yabusame Tsurugi from Light Novel no Tanoshii Kakikata - the same character which Maasa herself plays. There was a certain cover to one of the volumes of the light novel featuring Tsurugi at the beach in a swimsuit and, while Maasa isn't as well-endowed, shall we say, as her character's original light novel counterpart, the long black hair and dark bikini, everything, it all makes me flash back to that same image. I guess over the last couple of months especially I've found it increasingly easy to imagine Maasa in this role.

Anyway, I've got my pre-orders in. Have you?

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