Tenipuri Hyotei Clear File

Title: Tenipuri Hyotei Clear File
Total number of patterns: 2
A: Atobe, Mukahi, Kabaji & Hiyoshi
B: Oshitari, Shishido, Akutagawa & Ootori
Price: 368 yen (inclusive of tax)
Date of release: Late May 2009

Tenipuri Metal Sticker Set

Title: Tenipuri Metal Sticker Set
Total number of patterns: 4
A: Atobe & Kabaji / B: Oshitari & Ootori / C: Mukahi & Shishido / D: Akutagawa & Hiyoshi
Price: 368 yen (inclusive of tax)
Date of release: Late May 2009
Description: 2 pieces in each set with a shining metallic background

Tenipuri Hyotei Tapestry

Title: Tenipuri Hyotei Tapestry
Price: 1,575 yen (inclusive of tax)
Date of release: End May 2009
Description: 515mm x 364mm / Made of cloth

Tenipuri Mini Mirror (Hyotei)

Title: Tenipuri Mini Mirror
Price: 788 yen (inclusive of tax)
Date of release: Late May 2009
Description: Illustration can be inserted into the interior part of the mirror and displayed when it is opened. 2 illustrations included.

Tenipuri Panel Clock (Hyotei)

Title: Tenipuri Panel Clock (Hyotei)
Price: 2,730 yen (inclusive of tax)
Date of release: Early June 2009
Description: Comes with the string to hang the clock on the wall

Tenipuri Fragrance Sachet

Title: Tenipuri Fragrance Sachet
Total patterns: 2
A: Atobe Keigo (Rose flavour) / B: Hyotei members (Lavender flavour)
Price: 368 yen (inclusive of tax)
Date of release: Early June 09

Tennis no Oujisama OVA ANOTHER STORY DVD

Title: Tennis no Oujisama OVA ANOTHER STORY DVD ~ Kako to Mirai no Message Vol.1
Date of release: 26 May 2009
Price: 5,250 yen (inclusive of tax)
Catalog number: BCBA-3468
Total run time: 48 minutes
Contains: "Naniwa no Oujisama Part 1" & "Fuun Shounen Atobe"
First press premium: Special design storage box + ANOTHER STORY's lucky coupon
Special footage: Chibi-character flash animation "A day in Oshitari's life"
Produced by: Tennis no Oujisama Project & Bandai Visual
Distributed by: Bandai Visual

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Ueda Yuuji-san!

Today is the 39th birthday of Ueda Yuuji-san who plays Akutagawa Jirou in Tenipuri! Ueda-san comes from Fukuoka Prefecture and graduated from Tamagawa University. Previously, he was in Arts Vision and left it on 1 July 2004 to manage his career personally. As a result of this change, he started to use his name in the hiragana form instead of the original kanji characters. Subsequently, he joined Osawa Jimusho on 1 Apr 2005 where fellow Tenipuri seiyuu Kosugi Juurouta (Sakaki) is also from the same agency. Sakaki and Jirou in the same agency? Isn't this such a coincidence? ^__^ Ueda-san's blood group is A and he is rumoured to be married to seiyuu Minami Omi although both of them have never confirmed this. According to the information from Animedia's 2006 Voice Actor and Actresses Perfect Guide which I have scanned here, his hobbies/special talents include playing the violin, photography and music.

Besides Tenipuri, Ueda-san's voice can be heard in animes like Hachimitsu to Clover (Morita Shinobu), Jigoku Shoujo (Shibata Hajime), Mushishi (Adashino-sensei), Hagane no Renkin Jutsushi (Kimbly), Ouran Koukou Host Club (Nekozawa Umehito), Love Hina (Urashima Keitarou) and Emma (Hakim) which I have watched or still watching. Other animes where he can be heard include ARIA THE ANIMATION, Inuyasha, Ichigo 100%, Juunikokuki, Tantei Gakuen Q, BLEACH, ONE PIECE, Meitantei Conan and Rurounin Kenshin.

Covers for 3 Guava Trio & Seigaku Trio CDs

Finally managed to get a glimpse of the other 2 New Year CDs which I did not buy. Wow, the 3 Guava Trio cover is so nice and it's obvious that they are wearing the hakata in tune with the New Year Day release date. It seems like there is no talk segment for them thus the CD is cheaper than the Meganes' single. As such, there's only one track i.e. Brand New Day and the karaoke version. No wonder the price was so different from the rest when I first saw details of this CD. Anyway, it is rare to see Jirou with his eyes wide open since he's usually in the sleeping mode unless he's playing in a match and he looks quite good on the cover. Marui is so cute as he munches on snacks like usual. I have to say that I find Aoi quite out-of-place when he stands beside these two guys. Maybe Gakuto might be a better choice to form 3 Guava Trio since they share common characteristics in height, play style and the cutesy appearance.

With regards to the Seigaku Trio, I really do not think the sales of this title would do well based on the popularity of these 3 guys especially Horio. As such, this seems to explain why there is a need for so many guests in this CD i.e. Echizen Ryoma, Tezuka Kunimitsu, Inui Sadaharu, Atobe Keigo, Ibu Shinji, Kuki Kiichi, Karupin and even Principal Ishikawa from Seigaku. A reason why this costs more than the other 2 releases is due to it having 3 versions of the title track and a bonus recording "Tennis no Oujisama Off The Radio" which should involve the guests named above. Well, I don't see myself buying this CD just to listen to the bonus track though so it's highly likely that I'll buy this single. The cover picture looks kind of plain too so I really wonder if this is a last-minute production from Interchannel.

New Year CDs & Calendar

Took a look at the CD Japan pre-order anime CD charts and the New Year CDs and Ryoma's mini album are all there. Seems like a lot of people are ordering them. Meganes' single is at No.1, Ryoma's album at No.3, 3 Guava Trio (Jiro, Marui and Aoi) at No.6 and the Seigaku Trio at No.10. Well, I expected that the Meganes' single will do very well since the three of them are very popular. According to the website, there are two guests who will appear on the Seigaku Trio CD but details are not announced yet. The NEC Interchannel website has no information on that too.

The calendar from Try-X will be released this Saturday and if it follows past instances, the earliest I can expect to get it will be next Monday. The problem is that it is too big to fit into my scanner so I don't think I can get any pictures to be put up here. I can't wait to see how the calendar looks like and what combinations will be shown on the various months.

New Tenipuri CDs in 2006 & Echizen's mini-album

More details on Echizen's mini album and three CD singles coming our way on 1 Jan 2006!

First of all, Echizen's mini album, "PROGRESS" consists of 4 songs and will be released on his birthday i.e. Christmas Eve. Konomi-sensei will appear as a special guest and sing together in one of the titles. As for the first press premium, it is a picture disc of Echizen so I guess there won't be any normal press versions since this is a limited release.

As for 2006, there are 3 singles sung by trios to be released on 1 Jan 2006. First of all, the group named 3 Guava Trio made up of Aoi Kentarou, Akutagawa Jirou and Marui Bunta will sing a song, "Brand New Day" and their single is the cheapest at 555 yen. I can't see the link between Aoi and Jirou and Marui though and don't have any idea why they have this name. Anyway, I feel that Jirou and Marui might be more suitable to release a single under the name of the "serve-and-volley tensais".

Next is the one which I'm definitely going to buy! Meganes (Spectacles) is made up of the three characters who wear spectacles i.e. Oshitari Yuushi, Tezuka Kunimitsu and Inui Sadaharu. Their single's title is undecided yet and the cost is 800 yen. Actually, there's also Yagyuu Hiroshi who wears spectacles too but I guess since the trio is already well-known as the main Tenipuri megane-kyara, that could be why Yagyuu was left out. This is such a mouth-watering combination of three guys who have deep voices...

Last but not least, the Seigaku Ichinen Trio made up by Horio, Katsuo and Kachiro and their single turns out to be the most expensive at 1300 yen. Title is undecided yet too.

Besides the CD releases, the 30.5 illustration book is expected to be out on 2 Dec which costs 2200 yen and has 128 pages. Amazon Japan has not listed this item yet and Vol 31 of the manga is still not available for ordering too. I'll continue to check the website for the updates and place my order once I see them.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Jiro!

Today (5th May) is the birthday of Jiro, the sleeping bishonen from Hyotei. Is this a wrong word to describe the kawaii Jiro? Well, he doesn't appear a lot in the anime and he was easily beaten by Fuji. Even though he seems such a dangerous fellow in the beginning when Atobe called Sakaki to get Jiro to take part in the consolation match for the Tokyo round, his play style and character doesn't fit that description. Although he seems to be rather casual about playing, he derives great joy from playing with strong people like Atobe, Fuji and his source of inspiration is Marui who is also a volley specialist. Too bad he was not in the Senbatsu arc but then if he was in, he would have ended up sleeping his way through. ^__^ One of the funniest scenes I remembered from Jiro was when he poked fun at Kaidou for being rude to him at Karuizawa even though Jiro is older by one year. Kaidou was pissed off by Jiro's nonchalant attitude towards the practice match. Apparently, he was sleeping right to the final moment before that match and didn't seem to have done any warming up. That's why, to a player like Kaidou who takes tennis seriously, he would be happy with Jiro's way of doing things. Anyway, Jiro got knocked out by Kaidou with his boomerang snake so it was hillarious to see such an end to that match.

Now that Hyotei is through to the Nationals, I hope to see Jiro again in the manga and hopefully, he can play against Marui to see who's the better volley specialist. ^__^ I doubt so since Marui seems to be doing doubles most of the time but I'm still hopeful.