Lazy bum. We can’t open presents until he’s up and moving. *grumble*

• So Ken Hirai– my favorite Jpop artist, for the record –is going to sing the theme for the new Honey and Clover drama, says TokyoGraph. Damn, now I’ll have to actually watch it. (Yes, I’m a heathen and I could never really get into H&C.)
• About.com manga lists Mushishi as 2007’s Best New Manga, and I’m inclined to agree with that assessment. ♥ Good pick Deb!
• For us perverts who want to see what Kodomo no Jikan is like without all that nasty censorship, Japanator spotted a video on Moetron that provides a batch of the previously-censored scenes uncut from the DVD. Some of the scenes seem silly to censor, but a few I have a hard time being upset over.
• ComiPress Backstage has a feature on Anime News Service, a long-running but often-on-sabbatical news site. (It hasn’t updated since September at the moment, but in all likelihood it’ll pop back into constant updates for a few months in the near future before dropping back out.)

That’s it! Happy holidays, everyone. ♥

So one of my favorite Jpop artists ever is Ken Hirai, O He of the Amazing Voice. So imagine my excitement when Japan Probe posted an interview with him found on YouTube!

And I was left only SLIGHTLY disappointed (the English-language voice over dude? SO stiff). But they keep talking about him as an R&B singer, when really he’s about as much an R&B singer as, say, Justin Timberlake– he’s pop, but there’s a lot of R&B and soul influence. The poor guy had to tell the interviewer this TWICE. -_- And then they still keep calling him a “Japanese R&B star.”

But there’s some really interesting info– like, Hirai doesn’t read or write musical notation; he writes his music via (for example) huming. Hope for the rest of us, perhaps? Also: Ken and Stevie Wonder, plus those notoriously “un-Japanese” facial features.

Anyway, good stuff. I love that man. Check out the interview after the jump. For fun, I’ve also included his most recent(?) PV, “Bye My Melody.” And now I’ve added two of his other big singles, “Pop Star” and “Aika (Elegy)” (a fave of mine), because I’m trying to spread the Ken love. ♥ Read more…