Updates and Stuff

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Hello! Long time no talk (not really). Because of my wonderful cramming skills, I managed to meet my work deadline so I'll be more active here again. With that, here are some updates/old news/changes.

• First, do not forget the Nico Sports Fest happening tomorrow (Sunday) at 13:00 Japan time. Gate is here. Very important to see Mi-chan, Yuge, Sekihan, Yamadan, So-ma, Gero, Pokota and Kettaro in action. ...Oh yeah, Dasoku, too. Slightly in action :P. We MIGHT have a skype chat then so please message me if you want in and won't mind crack spam.

(Seriously, we should have a pimp-my-crack week so all those Clear Moka Shampoo and Clearfairy and Treesoku shoops will not be a waste...)

• You can find the links to the monthly news pool as well as the utaran and vocaran links in the sidebar for easy access. The news pool is where all the news for the month will be placed so please check back there often or subscribe to the post.

• You might notice the new feature we had a few weeks back: the musician spotlight. I plan on continuing it but it won't be regularly per week. I wanted to add an odottemita one, too, but I realize I have no more time XD. Still, there's another feature I'd like to write about, at least once a month. Wait for it :).

• Nico Nico Douga has changed its layout and features AGAIN for the nth time. That means my nico namahousou guide is outdated. Please wait while I try to update it with as much info as I can. :(

• I have revamped Kaichou, Clear's unofficial fansite with some stuff and hopefully better organization. I also added a "Messages" page where you can write your messages to Clear. After a couple of months, I'll write to Clear and send him the link to the post, so please feel free to write there your thoughs (in English and Japanese) :). Read this for more information! :)

• Talking about revamp, you might notice that Kaichou is imageless, because I don't want to use fanart without permission ;_;. Because of that, I'd like to ask if people are willing to donate a banner/link banners for the site:
- the header (motif dark blue, sky blue, white) is 591x84 px long, like the one on the site.
- the banners can be 200x73 or so.
Of course I'll credit you and everything ;_;.


To end this, have some awesome dancing utaite fanart stuff linked by frothed_up in twitter ;).



And I'm tempted to make an El Shaddai post, just sayin'.... So what's your favorite Enoch Pokemon, guys? /random

Producer Spotlight: Pantanz

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PANTANZ

mylist | community | website

Pantanz is actually a group of people who you might have known because of their boyband songs/videos. Pantanz is made up of (currently) four people: PantanP, support and video maker; PantanC (Rai), producer and composer-lyricist; PantanD (Meroko), tuner and illustrator; and Pantanё, chibi character illustrator and flash artist. As far as I know, PantanC also composes songs for games like Melty Blood and talk CDs like Danna Catalogue.

Pantanz mostly compose and upload pop songs, usually cliche in themes and cutified to suit your shoujo hearts. They used Miku as their earliest Vocaloid, giving her sweet shoujo vibes in their videos. Later on, they used what had made them popular: Genso Aerie, or the "boyband" composed of KAITO, Gakupo, Len and Kiyoteru. The type of music is still the same, although this time the theme is more otome-game-ish and the art is better and vivid. Aside from them, they have also used other vocaloids like MEIKO, Luka, GUMI, miki...technically almost everyone ^^;. Their tuning is, while not impeccable, is impressive enough (with four Vocaloids singing at the same time, it is kind of awesome). The videos, well, let's say they're enough to make people go "kyaa~", very effective ;).

sample songs:
• Kaze ni Yureru Sakura, Kimi Iro no Mirai (Hatsune Miku)
• Battle Royale Valentine! (MEIKO, Miku, Rin, Luka, GUMI, miki)
• Your Highness ☆ My Princess (Genso Aerie)
• Fukutsu Chikara!! (Genso Aerie)
• Hitorijime! Summer ☆ Girl (Genso Aerie)

nikki says

I first saw Pantanz in Your Highness My Princess and was impressed at how they managed to make it seem like an otome game -- from the cheesy lyrics to the Johnny's-like music to the eyecandyful art. I also like how they kind of gave each of the guys a personality very obvious in their voices/lines and expressions in the art. Lately, I've also been following their namahousou because it's interesting to know how these concepts came about, like how Meroko even went to the beach to take videos and pictures for "Hitorijime! Summer Girl", etc.

Producer Spotlight: HachioujiP

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Double spotlight because I can't choose who to feature XD;

八王子P / 8#Prince / HachioujiP

mylist | website | blog

HachioujiP started uploading songs in Nico Nico Douga on the latter part of 2009 and has uploaded five songs to date. His genre is mostly electronic dance music or at least electro-pop, with very catchy beats and drilling synthesizer music. His songs are always upbeat and His Vocaloid is Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka and while he doesn't tune them to perfection, he has a different approach in making already robotic Miku/Luka sound even more like so (autotune?). Still, that is very much one of the things that make his songs hits.

songs
• Electric Love
• Sweet Devil
• Sakura Saku
• Keep Only One Love
• Mad Lovers

nikki says

I knew of 8#Prince as late as his Sweet Devil, which is very catchy (with saucy lyrics, if I might add). I'm not a big fan of techno or electronica, so I don't really keep up with his works although I have a couple of favorites, Sweet Devil and Keep Only One Love.