‹ Legendary Nana, Curry Drama, and Etsuraku Camellia live in MUSIC JAPAN •
I swear I was writing a non-Nana post but kiseki gurl finally posted her Nana-going-mainstream draft… which is a really good read.. before I know it my “comment” was tenfold longer than my IELTS writing test this morning orz so I post this. My brain is farting atm so I put sum pix too, to cover the incoherent crap.
Quoted texts are wat kiseki gurl said.
First of all, just letting you know that my opinion stays: I don’t think she should make a major change now. She actually is going mainstream, slowly, without ditching the otawota fans watsoevar.. it’s a fact that she can be where she is now thanks to the “otawota songs” few years ago when Nanoha debuted. And no it wasn’t POWER GATE, as good as it is now, nobody bought it in 2002.
Mainstream vs Otawota
Then again, this position indicates that some regular people should be buying the album-the people who’ve been keeping up with MUSIC JAPAN and WEDNESDAY JPOP perhaps.
As weird as it might sound, I love Shibuya just as much as Akihabara, so I did visit some “normal-music-stores” like Tsutaya or HMV. Nana got a decent advertisement for Shin Ai, with exclusive tokuten bonuses and obvious placement.. tho it was nothing like the pix above. A certain bitter oyaji will say that 11s just love to discriminate people, especially those coming from the otawota industry. Sad to say it’s closer to the truth, she only got 2 songs for Wednesday Jpop while the mainstream less-selling pillows got 4, both having the same circumstances of promoting new albums.
..lots of people don’t want any changes musically. I don’t stalk 2ch or anything, but I imagine even now that some of Nana’s older fans may feel abandoned because of her evolving style. Some of her antis and haters may even be former Nana fans, Nana fans that feel “betrayed” that she’s “selling out” to go mainstream. This is all speculation on my part but I’m pretty sure this is the case for some.
..lol are you confusing Nana’s fans with Hirano Aya’s? XD but yeah, not only I fail to imagine Nana singing hip hop whilst shaking her (non-existent) booty, most otawota fans (yes those who buys 2 or 7 or 77 copies, .. are you sure you weren’t mocking me *kicks*) won’t even stand 5 seconds of those songs. I’ve tested it with some people I know. ^^; And those who do like these, have other artists in mind (rite?).
Actually this brings us back to ground zero: what’s the point on “going mainstream”? Really, she’s already making much more money than any seiyuu-singer combined and even pwned Burakku Aido Piizu, gettin’ bigger live venues each year, gettin’ slots on normal-hours music TV shows, and more normal-people recognising her.. but in the end I must quote Omo’s comment here: Nana is Nana, her “successful” music style are in the safe area.. good luck trying to convince Mishi-P otherwise.
Dancing, Costumes, yada.
Then again, what if Nana still wants to dance no matter what? Here’s my solution: fire the coreographers, fire the useless backup dancers, replace them with compotent people, practice like hell, and watch good examples of singer-dancers like Namie Amuro and BoA.
By mainstream standard, yes I agree the dance is laughable. But as I’ve told kiseki gurl before, kimowota fans know the dancers (Mika~~~<3), so she can’t just kick ‘em out. That’s how disgusting otawota are, having this weird sense of belonging. Can’t help the old songs either, her choreography doesn’t expire: the dance for “Freestyle” in Live Formula 2008 was exactly the same with Live Attraction 2002. And please name a Nana song you can really dance to without looking like a dork? Unless she starts doing R&B / hip hop / dance songs, no, she can’t turn Dancing in the velvet moon to Do tha do tha.
At the moment, Nana’s embarassing herself if any rational person picks up her live DVDs.
I gotta disagree with this, I was pretty rational (if I ever was) before I watched her live DVD online and look! I have a fucking shrine now. So yeah my point is, ignoring the wooden dance, the lady sings live better than CD quality (and partly cos King Records’ sound engineers are retarded).
There’s one perfect word to describe them-tacky. Her concert costumes are mostly big, overdone, and flashy.
Can’t beat the HK mainstream singers! ..lol yeah fire the fashion designer. I like her everyday style, like the zettai ryouiki she always wears during practice *runs* Anyway this actually brings up another point. I’ve always thought Nana needs to value herself more: she’s like accepting watever crap people throw to her, like these crap costumes or crap Yabuki songs. Boosting up her confidence would probably solve her nervousness on TV too.
…tldr.
Nana will still get a lot of flack for being a seiyuu and for going mainstream, but I suspect she’ll trudge on like she usually does. And you know what, she just might succeed.
Exactly. Cos you know what, I’ll keep on buying her whatever. 
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June 14, 2009 at 6:03 am
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NKDS » Nana, anison, and mainstream.
June 13, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Omfg, I can’t remember the last time seeing Sammi or Aaron - and now I realize for good reason too XD
It’s interesting that the people I’ve met here who hadn’t a clue who Nana was a year ago are now telling me “Hey, you know that whatshername that you like so much that you crazily put yourself in internet cafes for 5 straight days just to see in Saitama last summer?? - I saw her in the papers/on TV the other day!” XD In that simple sense of getting more public recognition, Nana going (slowly) mainstream does seem a step in the right direction
(But srsly, someone do something about her stage costumes. I know stage costumes do belong in the realm of tacky, BUT STILL… I still have those neon orange gloves dancing before my eyes right now :S)
June 13, 2009 at 9:33 pm
hmm, i don’t really get the flow here, but as long as nana-chan doesn’t go 180-degrees-into-a-weirdo like aya hirano, especially her songs, i’ll stick with her
June 13, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I’m a major lurker but I had to post when I read this cause I loled HARD
“Unless she starts doing R&B / hip hop / dance songs, no, she can’t turn Dancing in the velvet moon to Do tha do tha.”
This is exactly what I was thinking about the other day cause I’m a big fan of dance and I love dancing (breaking, hip hop, pop n lock etc etc) and I was actually trying to think up choreo for Dancing in the Velvet Moon that would be more hiphop. Let’s just say my mind almost broke cause I was thinking so hard and nothing was working. Nana’s songs really aren’t meant to be danced the way Boa’s songs are. Honestly if she did, it would look like she was trying WAY too hard to be hip and cool.
P.S- Funny thing, I actually fell in love with Nana when I watched her Animelo 08 performance of velvet moon, yes complete with stiff dancing. That was when I first started to really take notice of her. Before I didn’t really think much “oh the seiyuu for Hinata and Fate” and now I’m like “NEED NANA 24/7″ *foams at mouth* So yay her bad dancing + incredible voice totally converted me to her religion. XDD
June 13, 2009 at 10:27 pm
As much as I want Nana to be successful, I don’t want her to go mainstream. Her songs are already shifting towards there and I find I’m liking them less and less each time.
June 13, 2009 at 10:30 pm
I will continue buying as long as the changes isn’t too big. I listen to her ever since “Innocent Starter” and it’s not going to stop in the near future.
June 14, 2009 at 1:20 am
LOL, wow, I wouldn’t think I’d see HK stars in a blog like yours XD
Speaking of that, I went to Sammi’s concert when she came to Toronto, I was quite shocked seeing some of her costumes…but that’s another story. Thought I’d throw that out there. I still love Sammi, she’ll forever be my HK Diva
And Nana is Nana, I like her the way she is, and she should just do what she feels she needs to do. Either way, I’m a lonely fan all the way across the world that’ll support her
June 14, 2009 at 9:29 am
“yes those who buys 2 or 7 or 77 copies, .. are you sure you weren’t mocking me *kicks*”
Yes I was mocking you all the way. I’m glad you saw it.
“And please name a Nana song you can really dance to without looking like a dork? Unless she starts doing R&B / hip hop / dance songs, no, she can’t turn Dancing in the velvet moon to Do tha do tha.”
Just addressed this but I’ll paraphrase what I said before-some Nana songs are pop enough to have POP routines. Hip hop and R&B are obvious no-nos but if Nana had a creative enough coreographer, he/she/it could think of a good routine that rest of us couldn’t picture right away (isn’t this a point of coreographer anyways?). None of us are professional coreographers so the fact that we all draw blanks doesn’t mean shit IMHO. Dancing in the velvet moon doesn’t have to turn to Do tha’ do tha’ (thanks for using the video I showed you btw) but a smart coreographer probably would’ve incorportated some salsa/Latin dance influences and a whole lot of things none of us may have imagined. There’s millions of options possible.
And a good deal of blame is on Nana herself too. She looks incredibly stiff and awkward-there’s no going around that. If you put on a headset, people will raise their expectations on dancing. Nana should at least perform a pop routine competently for her more dancey/pop songs (and should just sick a mike in hand for non-dancey songs like Pray).
Also the rational person was 1/2 of me being mean (I forgot to edit it out) and 1/2 being somewhat truthful since every IRL person that ‘v shown Live Fighter to mentions the dancing. It MAY turn off some people but it won’t turn off everybody-I for one replay LIVE FIGHTER BD over and over and balance my Nana fandom with BoA. I love Nana for her amazing vocals too or I would’ve dropped her long ago.
[what’s the point on “going mainstream”?]
I think the Julius_Firefocht summed it up well so I’ll steal from him.
“I personally want to see Nana spearhead the on-going effort to gain wide-spread recognition for the anison industry, by being so awesome that the mainstream guys simply cannot help but take notice of her brilliance. I look forward to the day when the average non-otaku customer in a Japanese music store can walk pass shelves packed full of Nana’s latest single and pick up a copy because he knows that Nana is a good singer, and then give Haruka Tomatsu’s character song a sample hearing simply because he knows anison produces more good songs than bad songs, just like the mainstream genre.”
Also as I’ve said before she may not be so “frontloaded” and have a longer chart life. MUSIC JAPAN and WEDNESDAY JPOP are not cream of the crop shows (MUSIC JAPAN is aired near midnight I think)- Kohaku and Music Station are THE TOP. BEP had consistent sales because of MS. If Nana can get onto MS and Kohaku, she’ll get bucketloads more exposure, sales, prestige, and etc.
….And I don’t know why I’m trying to think coherently after I walked out of a bloody 4 hour test. And why am I writing TWO bloody comments anyways? *sighs*.
June 14, 2009 at 1:37 pm
“At the moment, Nana’s embarassing herself if any rational person picks up her live DVDs.”
I agree with danie at this, i always have the habit of downloading some random albums to listen to new artists, so when i first randomly downloaded nana’s stuff, thanks god(cuz it wasn’t intentionally), i downloaded all her discography. So i kept listening to her as a “normal listener”. But another habit of mine is when i have nothing to is to check some lives at youtube and… When i watched the entire museum’s live there i changed myself into a nana’s fanboy. Now i’m buying every of her releases.
“hmm, i don’t really get the flow here, but as long as nana-chan doesn’t go 180-degrees-into-a-weirdo like aya hirano, especially her songs, i’ll stick with her”
+1, personally, i don’t really care if she goes mainstream(if trickster is considered mainstream i will just say “YAY!!!”). But still i gonna miss her old style for sure(im already missing). Ok, when i saw the dancing parts of the live i thought “wtf!” but overall, its one of the best lives i have ever seen.
I’m just a “daily reader” of your blog, it’s an interesting post so i’m posting my shitty opinion.
June 14, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I don’t think it matters either way, to be honest. Nana is still Nana, if we love Nana we will still buy her stuff.
Btw…What’s otawota and kimowota?
June 14, 2009 at 11:19 pm
“anison produces more good songs than bad songs, just like the mainstream genre”
> lol both produce more bad songs than good ones, actually. :-/
@nana’s-mainstream-songs: I dunno who’s with me on this, but I don’t think of Etsuraku / Trickster / MARIA&JOKER as being “mainstream”, tho they don’t have the anison feel.. if I must choose from UD, It would be PERFECT SMILE or ray of change. And yeah I miss something like innocent starter or replay machine.
@Nis: otawota (otaku/wotaku) + kimo (disgusting) = disgusting obsessed freak?
June 15, 2009 at 1:14 am
@Danie
I guess I have been insanely lucky then, since I mostly enjoyed the songs that I heard. Either that or your tastes differ from mine, which should be the case.
June 15, 2009 at 8:02 am
@danie: i have the same opinion as yours, i even think that trickster would fit as an anime opening theme.
Having innocent starter, new sensation, crystal letter and even onna ni na as ones of my favorites songs from nana. I’m missing something like then since starcamp ep. Perfect smile, mr. bunny, shounen, brand new tops and chinmoku no kajitsu couldn’t fill my needs. But in the other hand, the UD tracks are irreplaceable. So i don’t know which way should nana go, at least, i know which she shouldn’t go(i can’t imagine nana singing and dancing hip-hop or something like this, it just doesn’t fit her, lol).
June 15, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Nana is already considered mainstream , whether her fans like it or not; the moment that her album hit #1. Her otawota fans cannot churn out that much sales by themselves, so obviously the mainstream crowd still contributes a considerable amount.
June 15, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Nana got Face !
Go to Mainstream, soon or Later ~
Next , Aya-Chan ~
The First , Shoco-Tan ~
Who Fourth ? xD
July 3, 2009 at 3:32 am
Just because Nana sings anime music doesn’t mean she doesn’t have dance songs. To list a few where you CAN dance too.
-White Lie (It’s a rock song, but watch finger eleven’s Paralyzer for something)
-keep your hands in the air
-through the night
-transmigration
All of these are old songs. But worth checking. And yes, make your own choreography.