Smile-Gang #527 & 528

First, let me say thanks for all the “take care”, “get well” messages! They meant a lot to me. The wound has closed and it’s not hurting as much anymore. 🙂 I don’t know why I keep injuring myself in stupid ways. XD;;

Anyway, as promised, double coverage of Smile-Gang 527 and 528. They’re must-listens. So I suggest loading both up and setting aside some time to actually listen to both of them.

水樹奈々 スマイルギャング 第527回

Smile-Gang 527 starts off with Nana asking where Misato’s hometown is. Misato replies that both her and her parents live in Tokyo, but if she must trace it back, then it’d be Saga-ken. With that answer, Nana starts questioning why there is no Saga Channel on Smile-Gang.

Nana: Because you are not showing enough love for the place!
Misato: *intimidated and mumbles in the background* But it’s not really my hometown…
Nana: It’s important not to forget your parents’ heritage!
Misato: R-right.

Lol. Rare to hear Misato being under fire from Nana. XD Anyway, we can all guess where this conversation is heading. We have the Ehime Channel coming up! Before that though, we have the title call with small trivia. Nana says the times she remembers she’s from Ehime is when she eats tangerines (mikan). For Misato, she says that the times she is reminded that she is from Tokyo is when she feels uneasy when surrounded by mountains… resulting in the following reaction from Nana:

Nana: You city girl!

Lol.

After that, Nana asks where Misato would like to live if she was in Ehime. Misato, being unfamiliar with the place, says she doesn’t know. Nana says she’d pick Niihama herself, so Misato ends up picking Niihama as well. XD

And that leads into the Head Nanau corner.

With all this talk about Ehime, it’s natural that Nana would talk about her being appointed as the Tourism Ambassador of Iyo. And if you saw her blog post from April 17, you will notice the orange mascot… That looks like a cross between a mikan and a dog. As it turns out, it really is a dog. It was born just last year on November 11, 2011, thus “one one one one” = “wan wan wan wan” (generic dog bark in Japanese).

As the tourism ambassador, Nana’s job is to promote the entire area. Apparently, she said in an interview that an Ehime Channel has been established on Smile-Gang and she will be spreading information about Iyo/Ehime there.
My reaction was the same as Misato’s when I heard that part.
Is that really a good idea? No way. Smile-Gang is never known to do anything seriously… ^^;;
Somewhere between all of this, Nana takes out her new business cards and hands one to Misato.

Anyway, whether it’s a good idea or not, we’ll find out soon enough.

Ehime Channel – START!

Uhm… I’m not really sure how to describe this section. Chaos? Hilarity? I-don’t-know-what. XD You have to listen to this. Really. The contents don’t compare to what you will hear… Because Smile-Gang-created-character Imabari Mikan (voiced by Mizuki Nana) enters the scene.

Bascially, before much can happen, Imabari Mikan launches into a rant about how there’s a lot of people in Ehime, it’s not a village, loads of delicious food, THERE’S A STARBUCKS (why this is emphasized, I don’t know XD), etc. until Misato calms Imabari Mikan down.

Once “calmed down”, we hear the E-H-I-M-E chant/song. Now this is a must-listen. XDD

After that, the channel proceeds in a quiz show of sorts where Imabari Mikan is the host and Misato is the guest/challenger. Wow, for once, Nana is doing the questioning and Misato the answering. xD

Mikan (Nana): What do you like about Ehime?
Misato: Mikan.
Mikan: And?
Misato: Udon.
Mikan: And?
Misato: Onsen.
Mikan: And?
Misato: That’s it.
Mikan: Hey, come over here for second.
SFX: punching sound
Misato: Ow.

Hahaha. It’s nice to hear this role reversal once in a while. XDDD

Following this part is really a trivia quiz corner involving questions such as what Ehime’s tunnel is known for (answer: being the first toll-free tunnel), what the high school baseball teams are known for, and which store Mizuki Nana ate out at often when she was young.

With regards to the last question, it’s a store that Nana’s father took her to every once in a while when she was young. It’s a yakiniku place that has now unfortunately closed down.

After all the questions are done (Misato didn’t get a single one correct XD) and Nana is released from her role as Imabari Mikan, she is regretting the fact that she told the interviewers about this Ehime Channel on Smile-Gang. XDD

Following that is the letter reading corner to take up some time. A listener sent in a mail talking about common phrases that come and go with time. This topic arose from playing Memories Off. Misato and Nana remembers certain words and phrases being extremely common at one point in time but eventually faded out. In fact the excessive use of “super” is starting to fade out too (hm, it’s true now that they mention it). Misato then says that she is well aware of these type of things because she often has to be careful when doing adlib for high school girl roles. Heh.

Finally, we get to the Marathon corner. Not much to say here, so I’ll just post the results.

Total for the week: 1058.6km
Total overall: 5046.1km
Amount Left: 1152.9km

That’s pretty much all for Smile-Gang 527. The Marathon Project is a good lead-in to Smile-Gang 528…

——

水樹奈々 スマイルギャング 第528回

Smile-Gang 528 aired on Mother’s Day. Unsurprisingly, they begin with talk about what Nana did for Mother’s Day. She sent flowers to her mom as her mother loves “cute” flowers. Speaking of flowers, Misato then thanks Nana for the flowers she sent her (for the Stage Play most likely). She said it was the most amazing (most attention catching) one at the entire entrance hall… which probably means Nana sent her something very big or very sparkly (or maybe both). XDD

Anyway, breaking the usual proceeding of things, they decide to start with the Marathon Project. Why? Because the total kilometres accumulated throughout that week was 1146.8km, bringing overall total to 6193.9km. That leaves only 6.1km. The Smile-Gang staff did some running that week too — totalling 4.8km (neither Misato nor Nana ran that week though XD). That means the overall total becomes 6198.7km, leaving 1.3km.

With only 1.3km, what should be done? Misato says the Head should take responsibility for the last 1.3km in which case Nana readily agrees. Then Misato tells her to get out and run the last 1.3km immediately. As Nana gets kicked out of the studio (actually she just needs to take the taxi to somewhere that is 1.3km away from the studio), they play Metro Baroque. In a brief talk before Nana leaves, it is revealed that the composer is very young. In fact, he’s a recent graduate. When he first sent in the demo tape, he was still in university. Misato then points out that, judging from the information, he was only in elementary school when Smile-Gang first began. To that Nana only had one thing to say: Osoroshii! >< (That roughly translates to "Scary" XD).

After the song and CM, Nana has arrived at her starting point. It is slightly different that her previous starting point (of when she ran her first kilometre 6 or 7 weeks ago). When Misato asks how Nana is feeling, she says that she's glad not many people is around. Somewhere during the talk, a "real" runner passes by her which gets her all nervous and embarassed.

Misato: Don't worry. You're a "real" runner too.

As Nana begins to run, she passes by many more of these "real" runners. Nana says that these people seem like they're all trying to distance themselves when they saw her.

Misato: They probably think you're weird.

LOL.

Suddenly, Nana says that talking while running is extra tiring. Randomly, Misato asks if Nana will pass by a Convenience store any time soon. If yes, she wants her to go buy a magazine. Nana refuses and then asks why. Misato explains that in one of the magazines, Fukuen Misato is ranked 3rd in some seiyuu ranking. In fact, she has the magazine in front of her right now, which gets Nana asking why she'd want her to go buy the magazine if she already has one. XD A little bit of free talk as Misato wonders how this 3rd place came to be. Also, in her profile, Smile-Gang and Mizuki Nana is mentioned. XD (Misato's solo free talk is still awkward XD).

Then Misato asks where Nana is at that moment, in which case the answer was a "I'm not sure." Nana explains that the route is different from last time, which got the attention of everyone in the studio. That was not supposed to be case. XD

More free talk from Misato follows after that. She says that she wants to go overseas (specifically, she says that she wants Nana to take her overseas). Where? Hawaii. Nana at first agrees, and only hesitates when she realizes that Misato means going to Hawaii as Smile-Gang (all staff included) instead of just the two of them. XD

Misato suddenly asks Nana to go buy gyoudon (like she asked her to last time too). Nana says she already passed it so no. Not giving up on causing trouble, Misato asks Nana to sing while running then. Of course, the idea is met with a firm refusal. XDD

After the CM, Nana says that she is very close to the studio already. Misato takes this chance to explain the amount of letters they received from everyone for this Marathon project. The "thump" sound you hear is the throwing down of the stack of papers in an attempt to show just how thick the amount of letters have accumulated to. Then Misato mentions that she actually finds this whole idea of throwing Nana-san out of the studio to be a very fun idea. She'd like something like this to happen again. XDD And as this talk is happening, Nana-san reaches the GOAL~~~!!!!

Touching moment. Well, sort of. XDD

CM again, followed by the announcement of new song revelation of Smile-Gang!!! Song name is 'ONE' and it is the ending theme for the show Animaru "Wan"da~ (Animal Wonder). The lyrics carry the image and meaning of the importance of all life – how it connects to the future.

I have to say — I quite like this song. More so than Metro Baroque (though that has its own charm). I admit that 'ONE' doesn't leave much of an impression, but I feel like it's been a while since Nana has sang a soft yet upbeat song like this. It's nostalgic yet fresh at the same time. 🙂

After the song, Misato points out that Nana is covered in sweat. She suggests that she go shower/change before she catches a cold.

And that pretty much brings us to an end for Smile-Gang 528. =D

Smile-Gang 529 summary will be coming soon.