In my country, the Philippines, we celebrate Christmas by going to midnight Mass, eating a huge feast afterwards and then exchanging gifts. We also adopted some western traditions like hanging stockings (even if we don’t have chimneys), candy canes, and Santa Claus. Every country in my opinion has a unique way of celebrating Christmas.
Have you ever wondered what the Japanese people do during Christmas eve and Christmas day? Only about 1.5% of Japanese are Christians. However, their present lifestyles have enabled them to adopt the common customs of celebrating Christmas.
December 24 and 25 are not considered holidays in Japan. December 23, though, is a holiday (Emperor’s birthday). Still, the Japanese are still fond of the celebration. They decorate their homes and shops with Christmas trees, mistletoe and fairy lights. Santa Clauses, beautiful illuminations and other Christmas decorations are all over public places, adding cheer and excitement.
Note: The featured article will be stickied to the top of the web page for two weeks at a time. To read the latest, proceed to the second post of the blog.
Have you ever watched an idol DVD? An idol DVD is usually an hour to an hour and a half long documentary-like film featuring a certain idol doing different things or tasks. Originally meant for the male audience, an idol DVD features the female idol (ranging from 10 to 20+ year-olds) doing various sports, posing in different swimsuits, cosplaying and basically posing around.
A few years back Marvelous Entertainment, the one behind the successful stage production The Musical Prince of Tennis, started a trend in producing idol DVDs starring male actors, specifically actors who had starred in Tenimyu at one point. The DVDs were widely accepted by Tenimyu fans everywhere and had now become a trend. DVDs starring male actors were started to be fondly called Men’s DVD. Some actors like Katou Keisuke were also starred in such DVDs even though they have not starred in Tenimyu or any stage productions. (left: Katou Keisuke’s Pieces of Dream DVD)
Exactly what can one expect when watching a man’s DVD anyway? What eyecandy are stored in such a fangirl’s treasure?
(To ensure understanding of the text with the pictures, I have incuded the actor and the title of the DVD in the pictures.)
The first time they were released, men’s DVD were sold as is: containing the main documentary clip, a short making-of video, and a digital photo gallery. The recent ones though, now come with photobooks with shots from the DVD. They are sold separately so you can enjoy both the printed and digital versions of shots from the video.
A male idol DVD contains slightly different parts from a female idol DVD. Usually, the movie is shot in a place outside Japan, commonly in other Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The actor is usually depicted as someone who is exploring the place he ended up in. All throughout the film, a voice-over done by the actor himself would be narrating, telling his thoughts of his adventures and on certain things. The movie is usually divided into categories, all of which are, more often than not, common in all men’s DVD.
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One confusing issue in the J-Music world is the categorization of releases. Releases dubbed a “Maxi-Single” may well seem exactly like a “Single”. One artist’s “Album” may have less songs on it than anothers “Minialbum”. Add to this the differences between First or Second pressings, Limited or Regular editions, DVD versus CD releases, or Japan versus Overseas versions, and you may wonder how anyone can choose what to buy!
This guide is written mostly from personal experience and observations, so it can’t be taken as How It Is, Always And Forever. I do hope it will help clarify for the most part what things are called what, and why. Just remember, there are always exceptions to every rule!
Some of this is basic information is from wiki.thePPN, with modifications here and there based, again, on my own experience and observations (and really, wiki, I have never seen or heard of an “album” with only 2 songs. Wait, I have… they’re called singles! ~_^)
Album vs. Mini-Album:
Full-length albums are typically 10-20 songs, depending on the track time, but can range from 5 songs to 30 or more. But the length of an album is actually more accurate than the number of songs: on an 80 minute CD, you can normally expect about an hour of listening time.
A mini-album is just like an album except smaller in size. Whereas a typical album will average around 15 tracks, a typical mini-album has 6-8 tracks. Like an album, however, Mini-albums are more often than not entirely unique songs; that is, no remixes or instrumentals.
A good example of an artist who utilizes both formats is Olivia Lufkin (OLIVIA). Some may recognize her as one of the artists connected to the Nana anime series. She has released 4 albums, each with 10-14 tracks, and 5 mini-albums, each with 5-8 tracks.
OLIVIA’s Synchronicity album versus The Cloudy Dreamer mini-album:
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