Piano sheet music release and new musical role for 2012

I’m not sure I would really call it news as I had noticed it up on CDJapan and other online retailer sites, but Maaya’s official homepage updated with the news that the piano sheet music collection for ‘Driving in the Silence’ is now available. It also contains the sheet music for both ‘Buddy’ and ‘Okaerinasai’ singles, which is a nice bonus.

 Learning to play piano is still on my to-do list. Click here for the CDJapan order page.

Regarding the Osaka fan club live, the song pulled out of the box was ‘Purachina’ which sent up a big round of applause! My friend and I had sung it earlier in the day at karaoke not really expecting to be able to hear the real thing later!

Again, the acoustic arrangements of all the songs from ‘Driving in the Silence’ were lovely. I’d like to express once again how much I admire the percussionist; the range of sounds she produced from her array of instruments was amazing. I wonder how one gets into that field? Regular drums then on to more esoteric instruments?

Secondly, it might have been picked up elsewhere but from September Maaya will be starring in the Japanese production of the musical ‘Daddy Long Legs’ and from what she said on Saturday it seems like rehearsals are starting soon. One to look forward to! It is from John Caird, of Les Miserables fame.

She will be playing Jerusha Abbot (click here for an English summary.)

For more information on both of these click here to go Maaya’s official homepage.

Maaya Sakamoto First and Last Photobook - You Can't Catch Me Tour 2011

It seems there are some people who need convincing that this photobook is worth the money. It is. Not only are the photos all beautiful, but there is a lot of reading material about each of the concerts, the effects of the earthquake on the tour and interviews with Maaya and Maaya's blog entries during the tour's duration.

While I realise that a lack of Japanese comprehension will put the text off limits, there are more than enough photos to satisfy even fans who can't read Japanese ^^ If you needed any more convincing, here are some preview photos!

Now, what are you waiting for?

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Yes, that is my right hand. Woo!

Photobook gets no.1 on Oricon book ranking and 'Okaerinasai' ranks no.7 on the daily chart

Maaya's newest single came out on Wednesday and ranked in at no.7 on the Oricon daily singles chart, just as 'Buddy' did the week before. It's interesting that despite two different tie-ups the rankings didn't reflect the more popular anime. Maybe the weekly ranking on Wednesday will show a bigger difference.

I guess for now all we can say is that the hardcore Maaya fans (myself included) must have all pre-ordered both singles and got them to no.7 on the first day!!

The second piece of ranking news is that Maaya's photobook of the You Can't Catch Me 2011 Tour got no.1 on the Oricon book chart last week! Apparently it sold 5,000 copies in its first week. I hope that people who didn't know who Maaya was saw the book in the shops at no.1 and picked it up for a browse. It'd be nice if Maaya could be more widely known. This is her second no.1 this year after all (after the album got no.1 at the start of 2011...I know books and CD's aren't quite the same thing but still!)

Moving on, one of this blog's faithful commenters pointed me in the direction of this news over at Anime News Network about a new book/recital that Maaya is involved in from the people who brought you the Full Moon Recital Hall project and the Type-Moon series. It's in a similar vein to the previous works and I had seen it mentioned on Japanese Maaya fan sites but wasn't sure exactly what it was so it is nice to see it explained in so much detail in English!!

Aaannd finally! I know, right? But I've been sick = lack of updates!

On the 18th of November Maaya's radio show Vitamin-M will be broadcasting LIVE at 12:30 at night, Japanese time (that's 24:30!) on the radio and through U-Stream to celebrate it's 500th show! See the official announcement over at her info page. This is rather exciting! I wonder if she'll sing any of her songs live...anyway, so please send in your emails to Maaya at Vitamin-M with how her radio show has connected with you etc. Anyway, as it is on U-stream all you Maaya fans around the world can also tune in and enjoy the show for free! Just remember to factor in your time zone ^^

Phew! Hope you're all well, I can't believe it's November the day after tomorrow.

News updates: cover art and bonus goods

Is it just me or has someone on Maaya’s official website gotten so excited about the releases that they forgot all about that whole ‘every Friday we will announce something’ theme and just got hyper-active with the upload button? They are certainly very upload trigger-happy at the moment.

So! News roll. Maaya’s official site unveiled the covers for the okaerinasai single – and very nice they are too! I think we can now safely say all the covers were shot on her trip to Ireland. Very pretty! I really like the limited edition covers for both singles. Really nice!

It’s also just a few days until the concert at the Tomioka Silk Factory in Gunma Prefecture (lucky Megumi from Maaya’s has a ticket!) and on Twitter it was announced that both the re-issue of I.D. and from everywhere would be on sale along with some CD’s – I assume the new singles. 

The latest volume of the Full Moon Recital Hall Bedtime Story is on sale from today and Sai-zen-sen is re-broadcasting it tonight at 10pm (Japanese time.) They also released information about the final volume, it will be spread over two discs with full illustrations etc. and a bit more expensive because of the extra disc and massive illustration book. Looks like a nice volume!

A lot of special gifts at different stores were announced as bonus’ for the new releases as well. Driving in the silence will have a message card at Animate online, the…er…Broccoli(?) Online store will have a special postcard with a message on it as well. Nice one!

Buddy has also been leaked in full on the internet for those of you who are internet savvy.

I also managed to get a ticket for Maaya's performance in Recita Calda which is rather exciting. Apparently it's not a musical, a play or a simple recital but a NEW KIND OF THEATRE EXPERIENCE! Going from the PR material at least, haha. Will let you know how it goes!

Yumin cover and Vitamin-M airs the new songs

Last night's Vitamin-M aired both of Maaya's new songs to the public for the first time. It's a pity that they don't include the songs on the podcast as I think staying up till 1.30am is a bit of a push! Still, rather cool.

One of the editor's of the Sai-zen-sen blog also posted up a picture of the CD that will be included in the next release of 'Full Moon Recital Hall' here as a preview. This was my favourite of all four stories so I will definitely be buying this one. In case you haven't been following it, deltafour has been posting a week by week bi-lingual version on his site here. Highly reccomended!

Have a nice weekend!

EDIT: By the way, Luminaire over at Jpopmusic informed me that the coupling song to one of the new singles 'A HAPPY NEW YEAR' is a Yumi Matsutoya cover. You can listen to the original on Youtube. Here's a rough translation of the lyrics ^^

Lyrics: MATSUTOUYA Yumi
Music: MATSUTOUYA Yumi
Arrangement: MATSUTOUYA Masataka
Romanization: Per M JENSEN

"Happy New Year!"
Let's hurry through the frozen avenues
To the room of my beloved you
Faster, faster, so that this year too
you will be the first person I see

"Happy New Year!"
Please give me a brand new kiss
And then the street will be overflowing with the sound of bells
I pray that this year too
You will be blessed with good fortune, always, always

"Happy New Year!"
Ah, where will today come from?
I lose myself in the cheerful crowds
Just like this I want to grow one year older
Loving you, forever, forever

I pray that this year too
You will be blessed with good fortune, always, always

Photobook page count increased and a tentative cover image revealed

If you had cruised past Maaya's official website today you would have seen that they put up the tentative cover of her 'first and last' photobook.

Originally announced as having 112 pages, they've actually increased that number to 128 pages. Amazing! I don't think I've seen something like that happen before, I really think Maaya's management are amazing. They've said the cover might change though...I do like it how it is though ^^

Anyhoo! The cover is out, you can also pre-order the book on Amazon.co.jp now!

By the way, I picked up the re-issue of 'I.D.' today and the differences in size at least are astonishing. The new edition is about a quarter of the size of the original and is more or less standard book sized. They've cut all of the photos except three at the beginning but kept Maaya's illustrations (they are key to the essays I suppose!) so I'd say this is more of a BOOK book, rather than the original which was advertised as a 'photo and essay book'. It's nice and compact though.

Woo!

Charity PC wallpaper on sale, I.D. essay re-issue ready to go on sale and more Kono Shin photos

Just a general round up. Firstly, Kono Shin's blog has been updated again with some more photos of the recording of Maaya's upcoming concept album here. Just some pictures of goofing around on bongos and the set of stringed instruments they have in the studio. I bet they sound beautiful all together.

Next, I think I mentioned this a few months ago but the charity wallpaper is now being sold on Maaya's IDS shopping site here. For 500 yen you get two different photos to put on your PC's background. The photos are all from the recent 'You Can't Catch Me Tour'. You can click the photos to see a close up of each photo - the money will be donated to the relief of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami.

I can't believe it's already been five months since the disaster...we had a couple of earthquakes in Tokyo at the beginning of the week but apparently they're still having fairly strong aftershocks in the region. Please take the time to buy a wallpaper and give your 500 yen to people who really need it.

Finally, the re-issue of 'I.D' is finally out this week! And the Sai-zen-sen blog has been updated not once, but twice with pictures of the finished product! It's certainly a lot more compact than the original.

Ah..it's so hot ^^;;;

News roundup for a Wednesday afternoon

Maaya in Pirahna 3D dub
Yes, you heard correctly, Maaya has been cast in the Japanese dub of the horror-comedy film Pirahna (in 3D!)...well, if you enjoy shoals of fish eating people with Maaya voicing over the action then it's good news. Source: Hollywood Channel.

Season two of Glee DVD's announced
Maaya will be continuing her role as Rachel in the Japanese dub of Glee for the new season, as announced by HMV Japan. The DVD's will be coming out in December, just in time for Christmas!

'Sangetsuki' - 3rd 'Full Moon Recital Hall' cover unveiled
The editor's blog on Sai-zen-sen has revealed the cover design for the next volume of the Full Moon Recital Hall series. 'Tis very nice. I prefer the first volume and 'Bedtime Story' illustrations but the the story itself was interesting.

Larger cover and pre-order link for 'I.D' re-issue!

The Sai-zen-sen editor's blog has been updated again with a high-def photo of I.D's new cover and blurb. The entry also has another photo of the proofs on someone's desk, I guess they're working on it as we speak.

I shouldn't be this excited about a re-issue...

EDIT:

Pre-order link for Amazon JP. Doth mine eyes decieve me? That's a bargain at 620yen!

'I.D.' essay book re-issue cover revealed

That's it, I'm sold on buying 'I.D.' again. The new cover has been unveiled by the online bookstore JBook this morning and it's really pretty. It's actually one of the photos from the original book formatted for the cover. Pretty though. The book will be re-released on August 10th 2011.

Originally the book was only available through her fanclub website or at her fanclub concerts, then the second edition came out and was available through HMV. This is going to be the first widely available edition. So you might even see it in bookshops if you visit Japan from August! I hope so.

Awesome. As I said in my previous post on this re-issue, my old copy is getting damaged by holding it open to translate for long periods, the spine is cracking. I think I'll leave it here and then pick up the new version in Japan to use in future.

On sale 10/08/2011

I've come a long way but,
Just like how I felt when I saw the horizon that time,
Everything is connected.

From a children's theatre troupe, through first love, music, acting on stage - this is the record of a solitary journey leading to 'from everywhere'. In this gem of a book each and every word sparkles with life.

This is the paperback edition of Maaya Sakamoto's first essay book published in 2005. There is also an afterword about what happened 'afterwards' in this paperback edition.

EDIT: Sai-zen-sen's editor's blog also posted up a little entry with a picture of the proofs on someone's desk here.

You can also see inside of the first volume of 'Full Moon Recital Hall' on this entry. I think 'lush' is the word I'd use to describe it. Really, really nicely done.

Thinking of buying the first volume of 'Full Moon Recital Hall'?

Here is why you should. Look how pretty it is (*_*)

Full Moon Recital Hall website updates with book release info and re-streaming of 3/4 stories

The first volume of Maaya's Full Moon Recital Hall goes on sale next week for four months, and Sai-zen-sen have updated the official website where they will be unveiling the covers as they go along. There's also a nice graphic at the top giving a good idea of how the story and the CD will look with the packaging.

They've also listed the on sale dates for the other books too (I really, really want Bedtime Story.)

They will also be restreaming three out of four of last autumn's full moon recitals this month, starting on the same day as the book's release (14t July). So you can all enjoy the final chapter of the 'Galatic Railroad' with Maaya once again for free at 10pm Japanese time!

Enjoy!

First photo book to be released

Goodness, what a day to be a Maaya fan. Her official site has announced the release of Maaya's first photo book! Well, they say photobook but it's not in the idol-vein of photobook at all; a collection of photos, text and reports about her latest tour!

The book will be released on the 19th of October 2011. The title is 'Sakamoto Maaya 1st & Last Photobook “You can't catch me”‐ document 2011.3.5-6.15' and it will be 112 pages, according to the official announcement. Photos of back stage, on stage, in the studio as well as interviews and messages from Maaya will be amongst the content included.

Well, that was a surprise. I can't help but smile at the title though, 'first and last' i.e. don't expect any more XD

Official announcement

'Full Moon Recital Hall' first volume on sale July, second in August 2011

Weird that the moment I find this news I discover that the ever-wonderful deltafour has posted the first part of his Bedtime Story translation (although, I think the word 'project' might be better as it's more of an interactive experience) on his website sakamotomaaya.com today. Coincidence! So while you are enjoying that you might also like to know that...

Sai-zen-sen's editorial blog has been updated with the news that the first volume of Maaya's 'Full Moon Recital Hall' will be released at the end of July. The first full moon featured the final chapter of Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa. And! The cover is out!

Click here for the larger, more beautiful version on their website - you know you want to...

© Star Seas Company

As you can see from the little logo on the cover, it's a CD and a book packaged together, Maaya on the CD and the illustrations from the streaming channel broadcast in the book. It looks beautiful...But it will only be on sale for four months after it has been published. So you'll have to get those orders in quick.

The second volume of the series will be released in mid-August. The second full moon featured the Atushi Nakajima's Sangetsuki.

Source: Sai-zen-sen and Sai-zen-sen again.

EDIT 15/6/2011: they have also posted up a preview of the books designs and illustrations here