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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Maasa (and Berryz) conquering the USA

It has now been announced by Shimizu Saki that Berryz Koubou will perform in Seattle. There, the Sakuracon will be held in April 22-24th, where hANGRY&ANGRY performed last year.

Even though I will not be present, I wish everyone in the USA and everyone going there to see them the most amazing performance (until they come to Europe, which is a dream of mine that will never die)! Let's wish for Berryz to have success in Seattle, and that they will be able become more known all over the world.

Mimi

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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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The word of Maa

Some of the biggest news to sweep the world recently is the revelation of the Berryz Koubou temporary blogs. Slated to only be around for the duration of the upcoming concert tour, these Serend blogs have been propelled to great following in just a few short days. Of course, the C-ute blogs were started much the same way, and have gone on past the originally intended activity period to become shining beacons for the fans involved. So it's wholly possible that such longevity might also be enjoyed by these Berryz blogs.

The first person to utilize this great tool of communication (not counting a few entries equating to little more than "testing 1-2-3") was the holy mother herself. A glorious step forward by our great pioneering holy one in the face of progress, allowing for never-before-seen level of communication, not just with or honourable brothers and sisters of the Church in God's own country, Japan, but also for the equally-honourable brothers and sisters abroad.

Maasa's new blog, as well as those pertaining to the other Berryz members, can all be found here.

I know, I know. Not all of us are capable of reading Japanese. It's a terrible state to be in when one can't even understand one's own god, but we all, in our own humble way, try our best to make sense of what we can and happily feast upon the interpretation of others. And, though my own skills in the holy leid are slight and my vocabulary limited by the small capacity of the various dictionaries I keep on hand at all times, I work hard to bring you as delicious a feast as I can muster. Applying the same skills I have used in translating the official Light Novel no Tanoshii Kakikata movie blog, I will endeavour to provide translations of the much more difficult (due to their slightly more colloquial nature) word of Maa.

I probably shan't post them here on the Church of Maasa proper, and for now they are all located in the Hello!Online Maasa thread, which I shall link at the end of this entry. Perhaps I shall find a more conveniant place to put them (where I won't be limited by the number of images allowed in a single post and Maasa's apparentl love for those same emoticons) but for now, they shall be located in that thread.

And thus she spake.

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