Last night, while idly browsing through the blogroll on Aibublog, I came across Ruki’s multi-part trip report of his pilgrimage to Venice. It took me a bit, but I eventually realized that the primary reason he went to Venice was to visit the same sites as his favorite anime, Aria. I thought to myself “What lovely inspiration!” and planned on writing a post today explaining how going to Budokan and possibly Comic Market would be a pilgrimage of my own, even though I highly doubt I’d be able to make my own anime pilgrimage to the sites where Onegai Teacher was based off of.
But sleep took over, and after work today, I took another nap because I knew I’d need it, and when I woke up, the mail had come:
I can’t make this stuff up. For those who don’t know, the cover of the RightStuf catalog on the right is, in fact, Aria. There is no way that could be a coincidence. Talk about beating a point home, the point being, you really do want/need to go to Japan. And for the record, Marimite was on the back cover.
For further reinforcement, there are the two live DVDs I bought off ebay a couple weeks ago which I’ll probably end up watching tonight. I passed on getting the Starlight Symphony DVD for a while because I knew that there was no way I would get the full $70 worth out of it, and I wouldn’t settle for the regular edition, either. Then I saw the price of it go up past $40 on Yahoo Japan, and the auctions on ebay that were at $25 evaporated. Then I actually watched my downloaded copy and realized “wait a sec, this is WAY cooler than I had imagined” and knew I had to snatch it up next time it showed. It finally did for $35 (it’s still up there, by the way). I also got Mami’s live DVD because, hey, Mami’s been great recently and it was $25. The case of that DVD is a little beat-up (thank you Taiwan resellers :/), however it has the mini-pamphlet which was out of stock at CDJapan. So wins all around.
And as I look in the mini-pamphlet, I find under the heading “LIFE” the following:
アーティスト
(artist)
川田まみの誕生
(Mami Kawada’s birth)
忘れられない大切な日ー
I’ve in BUDOKAN
(The important day I am unable to forget – I’ve in Budokan)
川田まみ X 北海道
(Mami Kawada X Hokkaido)
川田まみ X 横浜BLITZ
(Mami Kawada X Yokohama Blitz)
川田まみ X I’VEの仲間達
(Mami Kawada X I’ve partners)
The I’ve in Budokan part is what hit me. Wasurerarenai taisetsuna hi is so much more poetic than the translation, but the message is clear. Budokan was a big, BIG part of her career, as well as everyone else who performed there that night. I should not underestimate the effect it will have on a poor gaijin fan the second time around.
