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…And causes a storm for that matter. A few days ago, Nakajima Megumi (中島 愛) of Macross Fronter/Ranka Lee fame got the attention of a lot of Nico Nico Douga viewers with the release of the video above — a choreographed dance to her new “Be MYSELF” song. While my initial reaction was that Megumi is coming off more and more like a real-life Ranka with her “cuteness appeal” (moe?), evidently that’s not the case with people who love trolling anything and everything in cyberspace. Mixed in with the supportive comments on Nico Nico were a lot of slanderous ones, which got out of hand to the point that Nico Nico’s management intervened and started removing comments themselves. This (ridiculous) incident even made headlines on some Japanese sites. The original video found here (account required) now has over 285,000 views and 28,000 comments, which probably makes it one of the fastest videos to achieve such popularity. As for the song itself, I heard it earlier from her Akihabara performance and didn’t think too much of it then, but it’s grown on me after listening to it for a while. Megumi also has another new song, “Tenshi ni Naritai” 「天使になりたい」 (lit. “I want to become an angel”), and both are available for sale on the iTunes store (Japan only). ~Kira*
-divine
…is still hoping to get a hold of some May’n and Nakajima Megumi duet performance videos.
Nice song!
Cute.
I think it’s a nice and cute song.
There’s a lot of losers that just get jealous I bet.
You don’t have to like it but slandering is just going overboard.
same hope with divine…
I don’t know why, but it seems that you (divine) is working over time lurking on the web finding video clips and stuff. Please don’t burn out again.
And good luck trying to find the duet video cos i can’t seem to find it myself.
She really has a nice, soothing voice.
I like the song, but the dancing makes it look like she’s trying too hard.
i dont get why people are making a big deal outa it. she made a cute moe video, and i guess some people started getting a moe overload and then started shit. i dunno about these people but leave the rankanator alone! she needs to make a sequel to macross f first! before the criticizing
Cherubium:
I’m sure there are lots of things out there that I’m not covering, but some of this stuff has come my way via Omni, so I’m not actually doing any extra “work” scouring the Internet.
As for burning out in the past, it was more of a matter of looking at how much time I was spending blogging and realizing that I had to change my priorities. It was fun being on top of all the new shows and conveying that to everyone (something I still have the urge to do after watching the latest episode of something), but it didn’t leave much time for anything else. With these sporadic type of posts, I can post when I have time and not post when I don’t (like yesterday when I was exhausted from work).
In any case, I do appreciate the concern though!
she is a Proudly Filipina… even she’s Half Japanese, she’ll be more popular than Charice Pempengco
Goood Goood!
Now THIS is what I’ve been waiting for — I was thinking of what Megumi was going to do next after seing May’n go live in Singapore. In comparison, Megumi’s been pretty silent so far.
The song’s style definitely gives of that “IDOL!” flair, the choreography does that too. I’m also slightly puzzled on why she’s going to keep singing in her Ranka voice, since it appears that she’s more comfortable singing at a lower octave (during one of the earlier LION live performances). I guess it’s because she’s identified by it now?
Best wishes to her for great success~!
(I also want her hat. ^-^””)
yey! it’s megumi-chan! i hope someday she’ll visit the Philippines!
i really like the song and having her dancing and signing looks cute.
Ranka FTW
Cute, simply put. Trolls can die! Ranka= <3
megumi is just too limited to find a original style for herself
kawaii ##
oh my, she’s trying too hard….
Divine YaY!
For the song i can’t see what’s wrong with trying to have a cute performance. I mean that’s the whole point of doing a performance, i find it pretty fun to see a real live ranka.
I don’t understand what they have to bitch about? Nothing disastrous here…. ~_~
Waii waii~ not bad =D me likes
Why do J-Pop choreographies always suck so much?
http://worldofanimemusic.blogspot.com
wow shes really hot xD
To be honest, the song does not sound that unique. Without Yoko Kanno, she seems, well too odinary. There is nothing to differentiate her with the many other upcoming and new J-pop singers. While majority of people outside Japan never really listened to the WHOLE J-pop scene, the ones that does are the ones that were ticking her off.
Remember the other Yoko Kanno product? Yes, Sakamoto Maaya. It took her ages before she decided to branch out on her own without her songs been done by Kanno. By that time she already has garnered enough fans to have a good breakout effort.
Nakajima meanwhile was only scouted for Ranka’s role recently. So she’s still kinda too new, too unknown in the J-Pop scene. Comparing her to the other singer in the series, May’n also makes it interesting. May’n was already an established singer, altho not very well known. But the songs in Frontier suits her style perfectly. Serious, and sometimes upbeat. Nakajima meanwhile was given more of a cheerful songs (Seikan Hikou) which might seem too childish in the J-Pop industry right now. I would prefer if she would sing more songs like Aimo, where her vocal powers are more prominent.
And the video is crap. That’s my honest opinion. Yeah she’s cute and all, but it’s still crap
I cant help but think that Ranka > Nakajima megumi….
Each time i hear her sing…im always thinking something like “She’s lipsinging on ranka’s song”
Her voice isn’t bad, the song is okay too. But the dance gives me a “cheap” feeling, I switch to other tabs while playing the song. I think that she will use her real voice to sing her song, but she is still using her Ranka voice… Or they edited her voice a lot?
Nah, I think she’s used to singing that way. Kinda different from Sakamoto Maaya. Because she was never attributed to a “character” in Escaflowne as Nakajima with Ranka, people attributed her voice with herself. Nakajima needs to do another series before people can start to take her seriously
She will never do another series, I think they are promoting her like Mari Iijima. She only voices Ranka to gain attention. After her Ranka role, she will work full-time as a singer.
Well, one way or another she caused a storm. That’s all that matters if she wants her album to get noticed LOL I’m a sucker for this bloody cutesy song. They should use it for an anime title or something.
Ranka can pull it off…not Megumi though…dances like that is just weird in real life.Ew.
The attempt to dance is a joke, but then again this is what we’ve come to expect from the J-Pop scene.
The signing on the other hand is great. Her voice just grows and grows on you. Obviously she’s still riding on her success with Ranka and MF, but none the less, at least she has more going for her than your typical J-Pop singer…
wow this song is pretty catchy!
@blinx01: I can name you many upcoming J-Pop singers that DON’T rely on crappy dance scene like that to get attention. They just turn up, and get attention with a REALLY good song, to which this is not.
Yes, J-Pop singers don’t do cheap dance like this, if they can’t dance, they just let a dance group dance for them. Just watch Koda Kumi or Amuro Namie PVs/lives to see how J-Pop singers dance.
I think she and the song are adorable but the dance is silly and I never like her outfits. but I still love her and I hope she’s not too upset about all those mean comments. Do they just hate her because she voiced a character they hate?
The song is good, she’s pretty but i strongly recommend that she changes the dance :6
“Do they just hate her because she voiced a character they hate?”
@hirahira
heh, i guess so. Well apparently, i don’t like ranka but not her seiyuu though =P
I really don’t find a problem with this video, besides the lighting… lol but that’s not the singers fault and I also doubt she came up with that dance. I just can’t understand why even Japanese people would write mean comments on it considering this is quite similar to something Morning Musume (and all the other female idol groups that company comes up with) would do in their songs. Actually, most of these dance moves I’ve seen in the the PVs.