This blog focuses on my current research in Tokyo regarding social media, video games, and the leading edge of mobile media (apps, networking, civic engagement, and entertainment). You can also follow me on Twitter at @iancondry
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I tutor high school students in Spanish and French. On more than one occasion, a student has expressed an interest in learning Japanese because of their exposure to popular music like the Naruto themes, Morning Musume, etc. I am interested in finding out if there are any J-pop artists who record in Spanish or French; I am aware that some are known to record in English.
Robbie, one of my Spanish I students, might also be motivated to ask other questions related to J-pop. He adores Kago, formerly of M. Musume and Minimoni. He is also a fan of Halkali. It is a real challenge trying to keep his attention focused on Spanish, as I am sure you can imagine. We have found Youtube videos of J-pop performances with Spanish sub-titles, but not for any artists who interest him.
I have also noticed that the Naruto themes have limited English translation. I wonder if this has something to do with copyright restrictions. Perhaps the English-speaking audience is not as extensive as my Naruto-loving student, John, would have me believe. (edited for privacy)
I just wanted to chime in here – as a super avid Morning Musume fan myself, I’ve always found it interesting to connect my language studies to my love of J-pop. (I used to translate lyrics into French for practice, haha.) Surprisingly, a ton of Morning Musume fans live in Mexico, so there are a ton of fansubs of the Morning Musume PVs in Spanish (here’s an example of a song in which Kago is one of the centers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd3iEfIkDpQ). The amazing thing about Morning Musume songs is that they are both amazingly catchy and have super easy lyrics, so that makes it the perfect target for translation practice
And here’s HALCALI’s Long Kiss Good Bye (which was used in Naruto) with Spanish subs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGdoAVz7QRI
Another thing you could look into is Mangaku Musume, which is a semi-professional cover group based in Spain. They sing Spanish versions of a ton of popular Morning Musume songs, some of which are available to download on their site here: http://mangakumusume.tatakae.com/discografia/
Dear Dr. Ian Condry,
Thank you for your nice article and organizing the VOCALOID/Miku event at MIT cool Japan Research Project.
I tried to read your article “miku: Japans virtual idol and media platform “.
http://civic.mit.edu/blog/condry/miku-japans-virtual-idol-and-media-platform
It was very difficult to understand your article since I don’t know about the field of media studies. However, It seems interesting point of view.
What is “fro-ducers“? Did you try to produce a new word?
>[Miku works because of the commitments of a distributed group of fan-producers.
>Perhaps it's the end of pro-sumers and the rise of fro-ducers.]
Pro-sumer =Professional + consumer, producer + consumer (from dictionary)
About your vocaloid event at MIT cool Japan Research Project:
http://web.mit.edu/cooljapan/
Your homepage contains some mis-writings.
correct: CRYPTON FUTURE MEDIA, INC
wrong: Crypton Future Entertainment
If possible, could you able to record the event/meeting of Oct.17-19 at MIT using cellular phone or digital camera? Then, upload the (digested edition of) video to YouTube or Niconico-doga please.
Thus, everyone can able to view from oversea.
If possible, could you able to upload the video or photographs of the demonstration or live by using prototype Amido-screen at MIT?
Example: video of hand-maid Live concert of Vocaloid/Miku by Prima-Project at Takarazuka-Univ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ffTd76X0Mc
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15403849
Prima-Project web site:
http://prima-project.net/index.html
There is some comment of your event in Japanese Vocaloid Blog News.
http://vocaloid.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-9806.html
Are you interested to know the inventor of the Live System of MIKUNOPOLIS?
What kind of songs do you like?
What kind of anime do you like?
We found that your homepages of the Miku event at MIT are introduced sometimes in 2ch.
By the way, are you interested in following 2ch in Japan?
As you may already know, 2ch may be not good site.
Channel 2 , Mikunopolice site, thread 50.
http://hibari.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/streaming/1317643484/