#the three of them also happen to be high up in my oshi list

[bergeronprocess]

To celebrate Morning Musume's 25th anniversary, someone posted a bunch of fun questions about your fandom on Twitter and since I'm locked over there and I want to get wordy, I'm gonna answer them here lol

1. Who's your ultimate oshi?

It used to be Hitomi, but, uh... yeah, ever since she was arrested and jailed for drunk driving, she's been pretty much erased by Up-Front Group 😬 All that happened while I was not actively following MM. So I think Risa has taken her place for me.

2. Who are your other favorite members?

Kaori, Yuko, Kei, Sayaka, Ai K, Reina, Eri, Miki, Junjun, Linlin, Masaki, Sakura, Kaede

3. Who was your first oshi?

Hitomi

4. What's your favorite subgroup or unit related to Morning Musume?

Tanpopo, Melon Kinenbi, Coconuts Musume, Otome Gumi, Def. Diva, Viyuden, Country Musume, the themed shuffle groups

5. What song did you listen to first?

Renai Revolution 21

6. What MV did you watch first?

Same as above - that's how I discovered the group - I remember it was a small low quality RealPlayer video (I'm Old, Yusuke Dot Gif)

7. What concert did you watch first?

Live Revolution 21 Haru - Yuko's graduation - I bought a definitely not at all bootleg VCD of it off YesAsia way way back in the day lol

8. What song made you like Morning Musume?

Renai Revolution 21!

9. What are your favorite songs?

Oh Jesus, way too many to list them all out here lol. I will put Do It! Now and Love Machine as maybe the like top faves. I have those memorized. I want to sing them at karaoke someday.

10. What are your favorite MVs?

Renai Revolution 21 for obvious reasons and Do It! Now. Also I remember they used to be called PVs! And I tied an onion to my belt, which was the fashion at the time.

11. What are your favorite singles?

Pls I cannot possibly list them all out haha. I will give some more recent stuff some love though - love Brand New Morning, Jinsei Blues and Teenage Solution.

12. What are your favorite albums?

Old shit lol like. 4th Ikimasshoi. No. 5. Rainbow 7. Sexy 8 Beat. Fantasy Juuichi.

13. What are your favorite concerts?

Live Revolution Haru 21, was able to watch that one again during the pandemic. I also watched a bunch of others thanks to YouTube during that time - mainly stuff from the Golden era - and that was very nice.

14. What's your favorite group era?

From about like 2005 to 2007 I really remember following each new release closely! I definitely remember learning about Koharu and Aika joining, hearing their debut singles, etc. (I first heard Egao Yes Nude from a radio rip mp3 lol it had a few seconds of the DJ introducing the song. AGAIN, I'm old Yusuke dot gif. Things have changed so much now and now their music is way more accessible, which is awesome!) This era was the second half of my high school career as well, so there are just nice nostalgic feelings all around.

15. A stage outfit you like

Nothing immediately comes to mind, but when I watched those old concerts it was very fun to be like oh God the early 2000s fashion. Like. Wearing a skirt and jeans at the same time. I did that.

16. A single or album outfit you like

Brand New Morning (thank you Comrade Morning Musume), One Two Three, Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game, Kimagure Princess, Kanashimi Twilight, Osaka Koi no Uta, The Peace, Renai Revolution 21, Love Machine, Summer Night Town, Fantasy Juuichi

17. Lyrics that made a mark on you

I often get emotional in like a happy way at 平凡な私にだって出来るはず (heibon na watashi ni datte dekiru hazu, "even plain old me can do it, of course") from Souda! We're Alive. It's just so encouraging!

18. A performance that made a mark on you

There was this one concert I watched and it featured what I think was the last appearance of Tanpopo before they broke up. It might have been at Kaori's graduation concert? Anyway, they're trying to sing and they're just so emotional at this being the last time that they just can't stop crying 💔

19. A song that you hated at first but like now

I don't think I have any of these lol I tend to like things at first or just not give them a second thought at all. Though I have come around a bit on Namida ga Tomaranai Houkago

20. Which concert do you like the most?

Probably Live Revolution 21 lol

21. Who are your favorite OG members?

Kaori, Yuko, Kei, Sayaka, Ai K, Reina, Eri, Miki

22. Which graduation made you cry the most?

All of them always get me misty!

23. Which OG members do you want to see perform with the current group?

Kei! I love her voice!

24. This asks for a favorite picture of my oshi but I don't have any on hand lol

25. Have you ever participated in an event or concert?

No but I love that that's possible from abroad now!

This was fun!!!

#morning musume

[hajimariwaquartet]

y1 17-year-olds hcs!

"Put Settsu and Hyodo on shopping duty," Sakyo said one day, and Izumi paused. Her marker hovered over the whiteboard over the clean spot next to Kazunari's creative marker work of the words "Grocery Duty." She glanced between Sakyo and the whiteboard. She had already planned for Tsuzuru and Muku for shopping duty this month.

"...Excuse me?"

"It's good practice for Stranger since the two are on the same team," Sakyo replied, not looking up from the receipts he was recording. Other receipts laid across the table, and Izumi spotted the receipt that made her cringe outwardly.

"Is... this about the wall in the second training room that Banri and Juza broke a few days ago?"

"Yes." Sakyo scoffed, writing down on the ledger with more force than necessary. He scowled. "Tell those brats they're on shopping duty for the next two months for the damn wall. If they complain about it, tell them that it's from me."

Izumi looked between the fuming Sakyo and the whiteboard. Though things were certainly better now, she was still worried about the collateral damage from their fights. The hole in the second training room's wall was more than enough proof that their relationship needed... a bit more work. Internally praying to the gods, Izumi put her marker on the whiteboard.

"Okay, but I'm putting in Sakuya for.... insurance."

"Sakuma?" Sakyo echoed, looking up from his ledger. "And what do you mean by "insurance?""

"Ah... you see..."

Sakuya is absolutely thrilled to hang out with Banri and Juza after school since he looks up to them for being so cool and looking so grown-up (Clockwork Heartbeat Sakuya 2nd Flair Mini-chat)!

Of course, Banri immediately knows it's about the hole in the wall so he gets a bit irritated at being stuck on grocery duty for two months. Juza, on the other hand, is quite surprised and timider than usual. He never really hung out with Sakuya because they're not in the same troupe nor do they meet each other that often.

Shopping is way calmer than usual and the market vendors and supermarket staff are absolutely grateful for this sunshine boy who is able to easily diffuse the situation (perhaps even unknowingly!).

Even Banri is surprised that he didn't outright argue with Juza and how they even got the lowest prices available! Sakuya got some haggling tips from Citron and Citron tells the aunties at the shopping district about his dear roommate, so that's that!

They got crepes while going home (Banri doesn't know how he agreed to that).

Now, for actual hcs!

Banri (begrudgingly) tutors Juza and Sakuya for school stuff since Sakuya asked him for help nicely. It doesn't help his snide comments towards Juza, but at the end of the little tutoring session, the two actually understand the lesson!

Juza brings the two leaders a script to ask for help, and the three of them somehow spend an entire hour discussing that specific line. They also watch plays and street acts together!

Banri isn't particularly fond of sweets (out of spite), but he doesn't mind getting crepes/other bearable sweets when the three of them happen to go home together.

Even though Hana High was on the other side of town, Sakuya insisted that the three of them should take a picture together during graduation (since their graduations were on the same day!). People from Ouka were mildly surprised at the two Hana High kids taking a picture with the most intimidating guy in school, but they just let it slide out of fear. Omi printed out four pics later, one for each of the new graduates and one for the Mankai lounge! Juza and Sakuya treasure the picture so much, and though Banri won't admit it, he thinks the picture is pretty nice.

There was one time they ran into one of Sakuya's relatives that obviously didn't like him and was an ass about it. Banri and Juza teamed up to scare them away without letting Sakuya notice, and they grabbed Sakuya's favorite snack before going home.

You thought only Sakuya influenced them? Wrong. Aside from getting tips for action scenes and the like, Sakuya also got some of their mischievousness! He once joined Citron in a light prank against Hisoka, and Hisoka didn't even suspect Sakuya at all. Though Sakuya isn't too fond of casually making fun of others, Banri encouraging him (Juza just rolled his eyes) to be a bit more tricky was pretty effective and it always catches the unsuspecting victim off guard.

I also like to think that Sakuya's hairstyles in Clockwork and KniRoun were influenced by Banri and Juza respectively!

Though it might seem that their dynamic from the outside is like two delinquents and an innocent kid, Banri and Juza actually respect Sakuya! I think Sakuya might have mentioned his old family situation while the three of them were out, so the two understand his determination and cheerfulness. Sakuya also looks up to them!

Aside from the drinking party with the adults once they turned 20, the three of them also went out on their own to drink!

#a3! #a3! act! addict! actors! #a3! actor training game #a3! sakuya #a3! banri #a3! juza #sakuya sakuma #banri settsu #juza hyodo #a3! headcanons #this post was written once i realized that they didn't have a graduation event 0(-( #the three of them also happen to be high up in my oshi list

[darkspellmaster]

Some Random thoughts on the Shitennou x Senshi story that’s been brewing in my head....

So For things I have so far in regard to the story that I’m working on : Gathering notes and plot since it’s going to have to fit into the main story...ugh why do I do this to myself. 

This is what I have so far: 

The bad guys in this story aren’t going after Usagi and co, but rather they are focused on Mamoru and the desire to keep the Moon princess away from him at all costs. 

Said team consists of One lead, Four Generals under her, and each of them has two to three lieutenants under them. These Lieutenants each create their own monsters to go after the re born Shitennou that they need to kill so that Mamoru doesn’t have any defense against the main four Generals and the Lead bad guy. 

Said Bad guy has a very gray area she’s in. Unlike Beryl this isn’t coming out of a desire to take him for herself. Rather the feelings stem from a family bond, and the desire to protect him from what she perceives as the reason why he could die (or did in reality previously). She also has a Cassandra like situation where she sees things that are coming but can’t fully comprehend them, and because of that her choices allowed her to be a pawn of an aspect of Chaos. 

Her generals all seem to have a desire to serve her above all else, and they are split even as two males and two females. All four wear uniforms that denotes their position. At least one of the females has yellow ribbons in her red hair, which she keeps up in a Chun Lei like set of buns. 

As a side note, I did have names for them, but the list of their names got lost, so now I’m trying to find the right types of stones or minerals for them. 

What I know about the lead baddie is that she’s less of a show off than most other villains have been. More in line with Kamen Rider like baddies than strictly Sentai villains. Her views actually make sense when paired with her past and what she’s seen for the future. Up in the air right now if I’m going to allow them to be saved or outright killed off. Since they’re not out to wreck the earth or anything like that. They just want the Golden Kingdom back up and running. 

At least one of the Lieutenants falls in love with Minako which brings in some dramatic results for the group later on. Not sure if he remains a foe or becomes a friend...all I have to say for him is Poor Minako. 

As for the Shitennou and their history that I have going so far...

Jadeite:  (Last name first, first name second) 

Human name: Yasuhara Kazuhiko -also known by his stage name Oshi Kazu aka the idol NU. 

What I have for his story so far: 

So Kazuhiko is the most well known of the bunch. His father and mother are both actors and work for the movie studios. So, since this is being based more around Crystal’s Dark Kingdom arc, after his death in the frozen North, Kazuhiko woke up to find himself in the hospital forgetting everything that had happened to him previously with Beryl and the others. By the end of the Dream Arc, he’s gotten to the point that he’s back to normal and has been on tour, however he’s gotten sick of being a star and wants something normal. His parents as a deal agree to let him sign up for the former high school that Mamoru went to, while he agrees that, as NU, he would continue his acting and singing career. 

Of course nothing is as easy as it seems, and the Bad guys (who have been tracking the boys since they’ve come to Tokyo again) have decided to make Kazuhiko the first target. 

Jadeite is the only one of the boys that is pure Japanese, though his hair and eyes show that his family has had international blood in their genes. 

He first meets Rei when, during a rain storm, to avoid being chased down by fan girls who were stalking him. Kazuhiko wound up in the shrine, and Rei’s grandfather allowed him to stay inside where he could be warmed up. 

Rei doesn’t trust him very much. 

Usagi and Minako are the second to meet him and they wind up working with him when one of the Monsters of the week attacks his high school. 

Jadeite is also the first to be woken up after he puts himself in the way of danger to protect Tuxedo Mask, once he sees he’s Mamoru who’s become a friend to him. 

I decided that since the girls got planets, the boys should get flowers. I’m not sure why, it just was a sort of “Yeah, this makes sense okay” moment, for their first transformation. 

So Jadeite’s is a Lotus, connecting to his harmonious rank. 

Also he uses ice attacks and has a frozen sword. 

Jadeite can pair up with Rei for a fire/ ice attack, and there are levels that the attacks can go at as their power ups come directly from Mamoru and Usagi. He’s the first also to ask forgiveness of Usagi when his memories return, and the stone comes to him after he shows he’s willing to put his life on the line for his prince. 

As with the other boys he can pair up with the different senshi and create new attacks, and do the same with the boys and Mamoru. 

With Usagi he gives her heart attack a frozen boost. Minako’s chains can freeze someone in place, Paired with Makoto her flower wind becomes like mini frozen knives. Mamoru gets a frozen upgrade when he pairs up with him, allowing him to create an icy flash that can freeze people for a moment or two of time, allowing them to get away or blind them with cold. 

With the other shitennou he tends to cause different results to their attacks. Kunzite’s energy blast can, and does set off an ice barrier when paired with Jadeite. Nephrite’s shadows create portals that let him throw the ice shards in different locations allowing his ice to act as a targeted attack moving where the enemy moves. With Zosite it’s an icy electric attack, or a crystal like bomb that goes off showering ice everywhere. 

Not sure how he and the outer senshi work yet as pairings in regard to their powers. 

He’s also the first one to come help the girls when need be and also is trying with Mamoru to figure out why he and the others are now being allowed to come back after their actions in the recent past. 

Straight up, he is the first to admit having any feelings for Rei, and decides to work at the Shrine as a means of getting closer to her and gaining her trust and friendship. Also funny note, he and Nephrite later get into a selling competition over who can sell the most charms for the Shrine. 

He also tries to help Minako get auditions due to his connections. 

Nephrite: Gakuhara Satoshi -No relation to Kazuhiko

Story I have so far: Satoshi or Toshi for short, is from Hawaii and is North American Japanese and several other mixes -he doesn’t know what his mother’s side fully is, except that they have some Irish in there. His father’s family moved to the states pre-ww2 and they run a restaurant on the main Island.  Toshi is actually in college, and came to Japan to learn more about his dad’s side of the family. 

He works at a catering/restaurant business for his Uncle, and is going to college for business in running a restaurant so he can either start his own or take over his grandparents. 

Toshi rides a motor cycle and is also the most open and energetic of the bunch.

After events of the Dark Kingdom, his Uncle and Aunt found him in a motor cycle crash and, as with Kazuhiko, he couldn’t remember anything that happened. He’s since started up classes again at the same college where Mamoru is studying. Though he’s a year above him. The two actually met during lunch and Nephrite connected to Mamoru right away. 

He met Makoto by chance outside the local flower shop as he needed additional flowers for center pieces for an event that the family business was catering. 

Earlier on Toshi actually gives advice to the girls as they are dealing with the weird goings on with Jadeite but doesn’t get involved until he’s targeted. 

Jadeite is always trying to figure out if he remembers or not, and eventually Nephrite get’s targeted fully, and nearly eaten by a plant. Let’s just say the shadows that he controls don’t like it. 

Unlike Jadeite he’s a bit more brutal when it comes to destroying those that would hurt him and those that he cares for. He’s also the most compassionate of the four, seeing himself as a big brother sort to the girls and even Mamoru and later the other boys. 

He’s 19, unlike Jadeite who’s 17 going on 18. 

The interesting thing with Makoto is while his feelings for her do come back he’s struggling with the fact that she’s younger than him, and also that there’s another guy that likes her who’s closer to her age. So he’s constantly having to check his flirting and jealous streak. 

He and Jadeite can team up to create a dark ice attack using his shadows as a portal of sorts for an ice blast. When teaming up with Kunzite the shadows act as an attack around a shielded bubble or at times are used as a distraction or attack, depending on what Kunzite is doing with his energy orbs. Zosite can use the shadows as a means of carrying hidden crystals that can be flung out from them. 

With Makoto, he can do an shadow and wind/electrical attack on the baddies, allowing them to be held in place while she zaps them. With Usagi it’s boosting her tiara attack or allowing her to make everything go dark if they need to escape. Rei’s fire and his shadows cause a ripple affect with the fire doubling the streght of the shadows allowing them to consume monsters that can be taken down that way. Minako is a tricky one, as it seems to give boosts to the speed of her boomerang. Mamoru has it where he, like with Jadeite, upgrades, and the shadows are part of a smoking La bomber, or give him a shadow sword that can cut through a shadow and allow him to pass through an entry that wasn’t there before. 

He’s also the first to want to jump into action, which can be a bad thing at times. 

Also he likes to tease Usagi about Mamo-chan and the others sometimes have to tell him to knock it off. 

When he’s working his hair is pulled back into a pony tail. 

Also the flower for his transformation is a Rose, for obvious reasons. (I think I picked Rose -this may change later. ) 

Zoisite: Real name -Haruki Jun

Story for him: Okay so Jun’s story is a bit different than the others. While his father is a Quarter Japanese, he’s mostly Swiss and lives with his Mother’s sister who is the Ambassador to Japan. Jun is extremely bright, being right up there with Ami in intelligence. Like Rei he has issues with his father and lost his mother at a young age. Un-like Rei this doesn’t stem from his father being too busy, but rather that Jun is a very anti-social person who was treated badly due to his family lineage (IE: How can you be Japanese when you look so damn white?) by his former classmates. 

After the events where he was killed in the Dark Kingdom, He woke up in the hospital in Tokyo under the watchful eye of his Aunt. He was said to have gotten very sick and had a high fever. 

I’m still trying to figure out if he should be in school later with the girls, or if he’d be in a more expensive school. 

Jun is the youngest at age 15 going on 16, and is in the same year as the Senshi 

Anyway, the first one to meet Jun is Ami and Jun get’s annoyed because she’s in his seat, or so he thinks, at a cram school that he went to with his friends. 

Jun gains an obsession with Sailor Mercury after she saves him from a kidnapping by the bad guys. 

He actually wants to become a fashion designer due to his mother being a costume maker for the theater, and for a while goes out of his way to stage things to make the scouts come to him so he can find out who’s Sailor Mercury. 

Jun has a desire to be the most logical of the group of four, and is also the most serious. 

He has a hard time with his transformation because he feels that he was the one that let Beryl back into their lives as he was the first one to get changed into his Dark Kingdom form. 

Jun’s flower is the lily for transformation (don’t ask me why it’s what came up, still trying to figure if that’s the best for him.) 

Like Jadeite, Zoisite pledges loyalty right away to Mamoru, though he does see Usagi as a bit of a ditz. Over time he learns to love her for who she is and respect her as his future queen. 

I should note he can’t dance a lick and has two left feet. 

He also gets flustered over the fact that he can look more like a girl than some girls, but is okay with doing so for missions to help the girls out. IE, he can be the bait from time to time. 

He’s actually below Nephrite in leader order, but he’s the strategy guy, so Nephrite tends to defer to him. 

The only person that can get him to at all react in any way other then his normally aloof self is Ami, and she doesn’t know she’s doing that to him. 

Jun speaks at least 4 languages fluently. He’s also the shortest of the bunch. 

When it comes to attacks he uses up to three that seem to be the main mix. 

With Ami he has his electricity connect with her water, and creates a devastating steam like attack that blinds people. With Usagi he can create a force-field that is stronger with her moon power, Rei has it where the crystals channel heat around her and allow her fire attacks more power, Minako has those crystals act as a reflective nature that bounce her light attacks around if need be. Makoto gets a force field around her that grants her a higher charge for her oak lighting attack that won’t bounce back on her. 

Mamoru get’s an upgrade with a mirror like attack that allows him to see and hear things from different tech devices and he can use it to get people’s attention about breaking spells and the like. 

Kunzite with Zosite becomes a very strong and possibly overpowering energy attack that blocks out sight and hearing for a while when hit with it. Jadeite as I said above does the whole freeze bomb with him and Nephrite does the whole shadow thing. 

Kunzite: Aikeizawa Noritaka

Story so far: Noritaka’s got a lot going on for him. His mother is from a royal family in Arabia, making him a prince. His father was a Journalist that was covering there. He actually came to Japan to teach, as he wanted to get away from his family back home. He’s the only one that is out of College and is working at Jubaan High as a Exchange Teacher/Student Teacher in History (Or Japanese Classics, or Geography -still haven’t figured that out yet). 

After the situation with the Dark Kingdom, he actually woke up in his apartment in the same building as Mamoru. That’s how he gets to meet him by chance when Chibi Usa runs into him, literally, on her way to visit Mamoru. 

I should note he’s the oldest of the group at age 25. He’s also got the most complex situation with the girls to date. 

Unlike the others who are single, Kunzite is dating Minako and Usagi’s home room teacher and is engaged to her. This throws in a rather rough kink for Venus and him when he starts to recoginze her and his feelings come back. 

Kunzite is the only one that rejects the offer to join the Shitennou and his guilt is eating at him. 

His feelings of loyalty for Mamoru expand to his family (Usagi and chibi Usa). 

He gets jealous of guys around Minako and has to deal with that.

Flower for Kunzite is an orchid, at least for now.  

I can’t say a lot about what I’m planning with him because of the fact that it could spoil things that I want to have as surprises. Though I can say that as a teacher he’s very strict about the girls getting their work done for school even when he’s got his memory back. 

Kunzite does flirt with Venus when they’re in costume, which keeps driving him back and forth about his feelings for her and his girlfriend. 

His attacks with the boys as per above, Jadeite has the ice barrier attack with him. Nephrite can cause the shadows to act as a distraction or attack depending on what Kunzite needs, and overpowering energy blast that removes sight and hearing with Zosite. 

Mamoru get’s a very large upgrade with Kunzite, allowing his sword to change it’s manifestation into something that can draw out the gravity of the earth and use that to hold someone down. 

Usagi gets an upgrade in a similar vain, only it’s reverse and makes them float with her attack. 

Minako and Kunzite have a chain attack where the orbs circle around the heart and pin the person in place while the heart hits them. Rei gains a energy blast in her fire attack, Ami has a force field around her when she’s doing some tech stuff, Makoto get’s some gravity pull on her throwing attack. 

That’s what I got so far. 

#senshi x shitennou #shitennou x senshi #shitennou #jadeite x rei #jadeite #kunzite #rei x jadeite #kunzite x minako #mars x jadeite #minako x kunzite #venus x kunzite #jupiter x nephrite #nephrite #nephrite x makoto #zoisite #zoisite x ami #mercury x zoisite #sailor moon #sailor moon crystal

[arbitrarygreay]

Angerme in Paris: the AG account, pre-concert

So by most reasonings, Americans shouldn't have gone all the way to Paris just for a single concert, when that money could be equally spent on a Japan trip, instead. Nonetheless, I managed to get two friends to join me for this concert, so long as we had Premium tickets. I'm still very peeved that American Airline shenanigans on the day the flight tanked my schedule, so that we might have been able to meet the girls on Saturday at the Eiffel, except that I ended up arriving late. Ugh. Pre-concert camping: morning At any rate, we decided against hitting up the La Cigale area on Saturday. The policy set out by 33Degrees, the agency arranging the concert, was that fans would received a numbered bracelet by staff at 10:30, so that they wouldn't need to camp afterwards. So we arrived around 7AM on Sunday, only to find that there were already 70+ people in line. One of the women towards the start of the line, a local fan, had started an informal "sharpie on hand" numbering system, and the count had begun with fans that showed up the previous night. Later, we would learn some of those that had gotten sharpie numbers the night before didn't actually camp overnight, but left and came back way later, which is kind of bullshit. As more people showed up and received sharpie numbers, there was more mingling between the people in line. There were french fans, Japanese fans, Korean fans, (there was a group behind us of Japanese and Korean people that got into a Kpop discussion lol), and relevant to us English-speaking Yanks, UK fans, who we eventually hung out with the most. Of the three of us, two were based on the JPHIP forum, while the other was based on MM-BBS, so at one point we also hung out with a local MM-BBSer. Local fans also handed out sheets with the lyrics to Taiki Bansei and Tomo Yo's choruses on them, for us to sing along with during the concerts, as well as offering pink glowsticks for us to use during Kananan's intro MC for her birthday. Very sadly, I did not manage to snag a TTZZ CD that one of the J-fen were handing out. But we did all sign the Kananan birthday banner. I wrote that since Kananan was now 21, she should come to America to drink alcohol. One of the great incidents was that people had brought some signs of their oshi loyalty, which include the dual-member towels Angerme recently sold, so at one point a Kassa-oshi with the Kassa-Moe towel found 3 other people, including my friend, with the same towel, and there was much "YASS KASSA OSHIS" (except one of them was a Moe oshi lol). There's nothing like sharing fandom terminology to bridge the language gap, as I made a joke that my friend was a DD and we were all like "OOOOOOH DD LOL" together. Another funny bit was that when the Angerme Paris concert goods list came out, we were all pretty aghast at how shit the T-shirt design was: just a white T-shirt that said "Angerme at Paris La Cigale June 3rd 2018" or something in a hideous red font that might actually be worse than Comic Sans. Some fans reacted by printing "Angerme at Paris Bonjour Baguette Croissant Or Something" on paper and taping it to their own T-shirts as a parody, hah. Still better than the actual design. A member of Amaitsuki, the cover dance troupe that would be the opening act for the concert, served at the staff member who relayed instructions for passing out the bracelets in both French and Japanese. Inevitably, there were assholes cutting the line when the bracelets were actually handed out. Ours were about 10-13 numbers behind what sharpie numbers we had received. Honestly, this is still about 1000x more orderly than the bullshit that always happens at idol concerts in America, but the UK fans kept griping about how UK queuing is so much more orderly and that this kind of thing always happens in France, hah. One UK lady in particular with a sharpie number in the 100s used that to justify getting her bracelet in the 80s along with us, lol. I believe there were 250 or more Premium attendees. As we were finishing up receiving our bracelets, a Japanese fan came up to the local MM-BBSer and asked her how to say "Kekkon shite kudasai" in French, so he could tell his oshi that in the handshake, LOL. She had to write it for him in katakana. It was awesome. And then we went off to do our own thing. Pre-concert camping: afternoon The concert was scheduled for 8PM, the time for when the doors wouldn't open was never announced, but both in the document explaining the bracelet system, and at the tiem of handing them out, we were told to come back and line up at 4:30PM. As we got back close to that time, my group just missed the girls entering the side entrance of the theater. (There are Youtube clips of it, though) But, other than as a time for when the girls would arrive, telling us to line up at 4:30 was really bullshit, because they didn't let Premium in until 7:00, so that's over two hours wasted camping when we didn't need to, since we had bracelet numbers, especially when the temperature outside was the in the high 20s°C/mid-80s°F. Yeah, we were all pretty gross and sweaty when the time rolled around. So once they moved the Premium line from the avenue island to actually against the theater exterior wall, we still waited for probably another half hour. At this time, we three Americans (possibly the only three Americans there) were all in line with this one UK fan, and a group of Japanese fans behind us. I think we freaked the J-fen out with the depth of our knowledge, with all of the memes and terminology we were spouting that they could understand amongst the english. This included ranting about Ichioka Factory and much joking about and stressing out over what we would say to the girls at the handshake, such as doing the viral Satoyama Murodance for Murotan, busting out the Happy Summer Wedding CONGRATULATIONS to Dawa about her graduation, and such. I could hear the Japanese fans reacting to what we were saying, especially when at one point I snarked about how Dawa was leaving, that bitch, and they were like "Kowai!!!"

#angerme #angerme in paris #category: idols #category: fandom

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Updates on Palat, Schenn, Boeser; Malkin; Zuccarello; Assist Rates – November 9

  There is a lot, and I mean a lot, to get to so let’s not waste time. 

  Tampa Bay, and fantasy owners, will be without the services of Ondrej Palat for about a month as an update was given on his lower-body injury. The second line is humming along just fine without him but it does hit their thin LW depth.

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Evgeni Malkin will not face any supplemental discipline for the incident with TJ Oshie Wednesday night.

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The New York Rangers said that Mats Zuccarello is considered day-to-day with a groin strain. We’ll see if it’s day to day because some Ondrej Palat owners likely thought the same thing and now he’ll miss about six weeks total.

Brett Howden was back on the ice for New York, though, so there’s some silver lining here.

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A quick update on Brock Boeser:

  Boeser (groin) flying back to Vancouver to see a specialist. #Canucks

— Ben Kuzma (@benkuzma) November 8, 2018

  Not great.

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Some news from the Blues.

Brayden Schenn is questionable for their next game.

Patrick Maroon will be a healthy scratch.

Robert Thomas is expected to play their next game. That would be his 10th and a good indication he’ll be around the rest of the year.

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Normally when it’s my night to do Ramblings I like to go game by game to review the significant fantasy performances. Thursday night was, in a word, insane. I’m going to have to just go through the major performances on a macro level rather than game by game.

  Vancouver went into Boston, without Brock Boeser, and put up an eight spot on the Bruins. Jaroslav Halak started for Boston and was pulled. Tuukka Rask then allowed three more goals.

Jake DeBrusk had two goals and an assist, David Krejci had three assists, and Matt Grzelcyk had one each.

Vancouver’s production probably works best in bullet form and these are just the guys with multi-point games:

Bo Horvat – 2 goals, 2 assists

Loui Eriksson – 2 goals, 1 assist

Nikolay Goldobin – 2 asssists

Markus Granlund – 2 assists

Erik Gudbranson – 1 goal (seriously), 1 assist

Ben Hutton – 1 goal, 1 assist

Burn this game tape, Boston, and banish the ashes to the pits of hell.

We did get a good quote from Rask, though:

Tuukka Rask: “I was just trying to keep it under 10.”

— Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) November 9, 2018

  Philadelphia overcame a two-goal, third period deficit to defeat Arizona 5-4 in overtime. Scott Laughton had a pair of goals, Claude Giroux had a pair of assists, and both Dale Weise and Shayne Gostisbehere had one of each, the latter the game-winner in extra time.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson had 1 and 1 in the loss and is now up to 10 points on the year.

  Mike Hoffman had a pair of assists in Florida’s 4-1 win over Edmonton, bringing his point streak to 10 games and 11 points. Roberto Luongo only faced 27 shots but had a few absolute 10-bell saves and was the reason Florida was able to stay ahead all game long.

  Tampa, for the most part, did not look great against the Islanders but talent won out and they skated away with a 4-2 win. Andrei Vasilevskiy faced 37 shots from a bad offensive team, to point out how awful the Lightning were for the most part. They got a late goal from Tyler Johnson to go ahead 3-2 and an empty-netter from Steven Stamkos.

  Ottawa managed to tie their game with Vegas 3-3 after being down in a 3-0 hole but the Golden Knights got a couple of late goals to seal it. Hopefully a sign of things to come, Colin Miller had a pair of assists, doubling his point total on the year. He is still without a goal on the year with 35 shots and counting. Add two more points to Thomas Chabot’s season total, adding a goal and an assist. Seriously, this is the sell-high window in one-year leagues.

  Buffalo won a wild (get it?) game in Montreal 6-5 in overtime. Jeff Skinner and Vladimir Sobotka each had a pair of goals, the former now up to 11 on the year. Max Domi had three assists in this one, bringing him to 19 points on the year. Jonathan Drouin had 1 and 1 with four shots on goal. Linus Ullmark was pulled after the second period, allowing 5 goals on 32 shots.

  Updates on the late games in the morning.

  *

A few days ago, I talked about the secondary assist rate of Thomas Chabot. His was (and is) so high that, at this pace, he’d be among the points leaders for defencemen through secondary assists alone; he has 13 secondary assists, which would tie him for sixth in points among d-men with John Klingberg and Ryan Suter. Obviously, he can’t sustain anywhere close to that.

It got me thinking, which other players are relying on unreliable secondary assists for production? Let’s take a look. Data is from Natural Stat Trick and this is at five-on-five only (minimum of 100 minutes).

  Charlie McAvoy

He’s only played seven games and is still looking to return from injury, but McAvoy leads the NHL in secondary assist rate, having put up four total in those seven games. That’s going to pull back when he returns to the lineup, obviously.

Researching this, though, pointed me to something else for McAvoy: his shot rate is horrific. Through those seven games and 522 players with at least 100 minutes at 5v5, he ranked 473rd in shot rate. Among defencemen only he’s 156th out of 188. That’s bad.

Again, it’s only seven games and we’re still waiting for him to return from injury, so maybe things will change. This is more something to keep an eye on than something to be worried about at the moment, though some extremely handsome Dobber Associate Editor warned over the summer that he was being over-drafted.

  Mikko Rantanen

To this point, Rantanen’s secondary assist rate (1.53 per 60 minutes) is more than double last year’s mark (0.73). For reference on that 1.53, of all players with 1000 5v5 minutes in 2017-18, no one was above 0.90. At this rate, he’ll surpass last season’s secondary assist total (14) before Christmas. That obviously won’t happen.

The thing is, even if we take a few assists off his current point total, Rantanen would still have 21 points in 15 games. He also has yet to score at 5v5 this year, blanking on 20 shots to date. If that were to normalize and he has two or three goals, that makes for the drop in second assist rate.

Long story short, there are reasons to believe Rantanen’s point rate will decline (no, he won’t put up 125 points or whatever) but the secondary assist rate at 5v5 should drop in somewhat similar proportions to the increase in 5v5 goal scoring. I wouldn’t worry about those two things specifically.

  Evgeni Malkin

If you’re a Malkin owner, and you have a significant hole on your team (say, in goal or on the blue line), now would be the time to trade him. His secondary assist rate per 60 minutes (1.22) is currently by far a career-high, having not been above 0.30 since 2014-15 and never cracking 0.80 in his career. He has as many secondary 5v5 assists this year (4) as he did in 2016-17. That’s the entire 2016-17 season, mind you. He’s one away from last year’s total of five.

Beyond that, Malkin is currently sporting his highest primary assists per 60 minutes of his career at 1.53. He hasn’t been above 1.20 since 2011-12 and is about 50 percent higher than last year’s number. His Individual Points Percentage (IPP), or the rate at which he garners a point when he’s on the ice, is 100%. He just came off three consecutive seasons under 80 percent.

There isn’t just a red flag with secondary assists here, though that will surely regress. There are giant flashing red lights all over the place that indicate Malkin will regress significantly over the balance of the season. He can likely be traded for almost any player in the fantasy game in a straight-up situation. The injury factor is always lurking, too. If you are an owner and need an impact name at a different position, now is the time to make that trade.

  Matthew Tkachuk

I just realized that Tkachuk has 19 points this year. That’s a lot of points for the second week of November!

Anyway, as you can imagine, Tkachuk is on this list because of a high secondary assist rate. His total of 5v5 assists (4) has him just behind last year’s total (6) in about a quarter of the games played. You could knock a few points off his total for expected production but that would still leave him roughly as a point-per-game player.

At 5v5, Tkachuk’s IPP is also an even 90 percent, something that will come down either by a little or by a lot. It’s just another reason to think he won’t sustain close to this pace.

Despite all this, I’m not sure I’d be looking to trade Tkachuk in roto leagues. He’s still well over two shots per game, he’s over one PIM per game, he’s over a hit per game, and seems to be locked on the top PP unit. Even if (when) his points pull back a little, there will be more than enough in peripherals to keep him as a top-end fantasy option.

In points-only leagues, though, it might be worth exploring what you can get for him. He won’t be a point-per-game player but maybe he can be traded as one. It never hurts to go fishing.

  Anze Kopitar

At the other end of the spectrum, I thought it’d be worth pointing out Kopitar’s start. If only that same extremely handsome Dobber Associate Editor wrote that Kopitar, too, was being greatly over-drafted…

Anyway, hopefully the pendulum has swung the other way. He’s been on the ice for 10 goals scored by LA at 5v5 and he has yet to assist on any of them, be them primary or secondary assists. He won’t put up 90-plus points again but he won’t put up 35, either. I would be checking to see if the Kopitar owner is panicking at this point. If he can be had as a top-125 player rather than a top-25 player, it’s probably a trade worth making.  

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-updates-on-palat-schenn-boeser-malkin-zuccarello-assist-rates-november-9/

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: FanDuel Partnership; Senators; Updates on Arvidsson, Schenn, JvR; Shot Rates – November 6

  A week after the MGM partnership announcement, the NHL has announced another partnership, this one with FanDuel, the daily fantasy sports site. Beyond advertising, the partnership will include things like contests for ‘experiences’ like the Winter Classic.

From someone who plays a lot of DFS, all I have to say is, “lol.” FanDuel is horrific for NHL contests. No site is perfect, but their problems over the years have run from things like egregious mis-pricing of players, incorrect positions for players, players missing from the player pool for games on end, and there was one night they listed Jamie Benn as his brother Jordie and vice versa. This isn’t ancient history, either, as this happened on Sunday night for the Columbus/Anaheim game:

  They literally priced everyone on Columbus last night at min price in their single game contest. High quality right there too.

— Troy Rapson (@TRap1680) November 5, 2018

  Maybe an official partnership will force to get FanDuel to fix their myriad problems with the NHL offerings. Then again, we’re talking about the NHL, and accurate numbers is not something we’ve grown accustomed to from them, either.  

Good on the NHL for realizing they need to get into the DFS and gambling spheres but choosing FanDuel as an official partner is like deciding to go on a diet and getting all your salads from Wendy’s.

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Washington moved Jakub Vrana to the fourth line and Dmitrij Jaskin to the top line for their game Monday night. The Tom Wilson Shuffle continues.

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The Flyers are going to have Brian Elliott examined to see exactly what is wrong with him when they return from the road trip. For now, it’s Calvin Pickard or bust, I guess.

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The Rangers have called up prospect Lias Andersson:

  Here at Barclays, but I see #NYR recalled Lias Andersson from @WolfPackAHL

Brett Howden got dinged up last night.

— Jim Cerny (@JimCerny) November 5, 2018

  Where he slots remains to be seen, or if he even gets in the lineup. We shall see.

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It looks like James van Riemsdyk should be back in the next couple weeks.

*

Viktor Arvidsson was placed on the injured reserve by the Predators on Monday afternoon with a lower-body injury. We have nothing further right now. Kevin Fiala remained on the top line for most of the last game with Calle Jarnkrok taking Arvidsson’s spot on the top PP unit.

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Brayden Schenn is dealing with what Mike Yeo called “soreness” but that “soreness” caused him to miss the end of St. Louis’s last game and practice on Monday. Something tells me that’s more than just soreness. Here were the lines without him:

  #STLBlues lines today without Schenn: Schwartz-O'Reilly-Tarasenko Fabbri-Thomas-Perron Sanford-Bozak-Steen Maroon-Barbashev-Sundqvist extra: Soshnikov

— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) November 5, 2018

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Just as a small aside here: if you’re a Thomas Chabot owner in a one-year league, now would be the time to explore a trade. He’s currently sitting with 11 secondary assists, which is three more than any player in the league. His pace for the season is 64.4 secondary assists. For a reference on how absurd that is, Claude Giroux led the league in this regard last year with 35 and Shayne Gostisbehere led all defencemen with 27. If you can trade Chabot as if he’s a top-10 or top-15 defenceman, do it.

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Speaking of the Senators, this is easily the funniest thing I’ve seen in the NHL this year. Probably in the last couple years:

  ‘I haven’t paid attention in three weeks’: Sens players caught knocking coaches, laughing about team on video https://t.co/rNNSNjDjsd pic.twitter.com/toWFPhw5fx

— Ottawa Citizen (@OttawaCitizen) November 6, 2018

  There’s going to be some fallout from this one.

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Tim Thompson (@b0undless on Twitter) made a wonderful homage to the Montreal Canadiens. Tim used to do the opening montages for Hockey Night in Canada (you remember how good those used to be? That’s who did them). It’s as good as anything he’s done, and that’s saying a lot considering the person who made it.

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Sometimes, things work out perfectly.

New Jersey was in Pittsburgh for a Monday night tilt and it was Pittsburgh’s ‘Hockey Fights Cancer’ night. Not only did Brian Boyle score, he scored twice… and then a third time. Brian Boyle, cancer survivor, scored a natural hat trick on that night in Pittsburgh. Truly a special moment for a genuinely good man.

Will Butcher scored his first of the season and added a pair of assists helping the Devils to a 5-1 win. Keith Kinkaid started this one, stopping 34 of 35 shots, so it looks like Cory Schneider will go on Tuesday in Ottawa.

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The fourth line did most of the damage for Washington in their 4-2 win over Edmonton as Jakub Vrana and Devante Smith-Pelly both scored in the first six minutes of the game. TJ Oshie and Alex Ovechkin added the others.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl replied for the Oilers.

Not for nothing, but the Oilers third line of Lucic-Strome-Puljujarvi looked pretty good. If they had a left winger who could score, it’d probably be a dangerous line.

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Max Domi continued his solid start for the Canadiens, posting a goal and an assist in the team’s 4-3 shootout win over the Islanders. He now has 8 goals and 15 points in 14 games in the Bleu, Rouge, et Blanc. Jonathan Drouin had the same stat line and now has 10 points on the year.

Drouin had six shots on goal as well, only the third time he’s managed that many in a game in a Habs uniform. He’s now averaging nearly 2.5 shots per game, which is about where he should be.

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Boston skated away with a 2-1 overtime win against Dallas. The first two goals of the game came on the same power play as Radek Faksa scored short handed while David Pastrnak tallied with the man advantage. More on Pastrnak later.

Brad Marchand scored the overtime goal, his fifth goal of the year.

Jake DeBrusk, by the way, is now on the top PP unit for Boston. He assisted on Pastrnak’s goal. My dreams are coming true!

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Update on the late game in the morning. 

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We’re a little over a month into the NHL season. As this point, fantasy owners should be looking at year-to-date stats to help us with our roster decisions. Everything from trades to waiver claims to which player to drop should now be informed, at least in part, by stats accumulated this year.

For these Ramblings specifically, we will be looking at changes in shot rates. Remember that last week I wrote in a Ramblings that the overall shot rate league-wide had changed very little from last year to this year. Any changes to a specific player, then, should not be attributed to some sort of league-wide increase. That is just not the case.

Let’s start at the top of the spectrum. Here are the top-20 shot rate increase from last year to this year. The cut off for this season is 125 minutes played and the rates are expressed at all strengths, not just five-on-five.

Data from Natural Stat Trick.

    Micheal Ferland

The former Calgary Flame has been skating almost all year on the top line with the Hurricanes. In fact, he’s only played about 35 of his 232 minutes of ice time away from Sebastian Aho. But that doesn’t really explain the entire reason his shots per game have nearly doubled from last year despite just over 90 extra seconds of ice time per game. The Hurricanes are an absolute buzzsaw offensively.

As of Monday afternoon, Ferland is on pace for 65 points this year, which would be by far a career high. Most people would assume there’s something unsustainable going on. About that…

On the season, Ferland’s all-strengths shooting percentage is just under 13 percent after posting consecutive seasons over 14 percent, so that’s in a normal range for him. His individual points percentage (IPP) is 61.1 percent, posting 59.4 percent last year and 67.6 percent the year before, so his IPP is also normal. His on-ice shooting percentage (the rate at which the team scores with him on the ice) is 9.8 percent, a year after a 10 percent season and two years after 8.8 percent. Again, that’s well within his norms. Given that his personal shooting percentage, on-ice shooting percentage, and IPP are all completely normal, this 65-point pace is for real.

Of course, “for real” assumes constant line mates and role. Were the Hurricanes to hit a skid and he’s moved down to the third line or something, this would change. As long as he’s skating with Aho and is getting power play time, I wouldn’t expect much to change. Ferland is a true 60-point potential player.

  David Pastrnak

I won’t dig into this too much. He’s just worth a mention because he was a guy whose shot rate declined a fair amount last year compared to 2016-17 and it was difficult to gauge exactly where he would land this year. Well, that question has been answered as he’s among the leaders in shot rate (fifth in the league) and his shots per game are well over 4.00. Consider all shot concerns squashed.

  Alexander Kerfoot

The now-24-year old Kerfoot had a solid rookie campaign, posting 19 goals and 43 points in 79 games. The problem was he managed just 81 shots in those 79 games. That’s very poor and really hurt his value in roto leagues. He’s managed to turn that around a bit with 25 shots in 14 games this year. Not where we’d want a top-end fantasy option to be, but an improvement nonetheless.

What makes hit shots/game mark look a little better is that he’s still earning just over 14 minutes per game. His shot attempt rate (12.39) isn’t very far off from teammate Gabriel Landeskog (12.37) to give you an idea of how much more he’s shooting this year compared to last.

There is one area of concern with Kerfoot and that is his IPP. Not that it’s outlandish, but it sits just under 77 percent right now. Last year it was 71.7 percent. The question is what his true talent level for involvement is. Elite players are always involved in scoring and guys between 75 and 80 percent in 2017-18 are mostly elite players like Benn, Stamkos, Kuznetsov, Giroux, Duchene, Marner, Pastrnak, Gaudreau, and Malkin. Kerfoot could be having a one-off year or establishing himself as a top-tier playmaker.

I suspect that Kerfoot’s assist rate will slow down. Don’t expect a 45-50 assist season. On the other hand, Kerfoot’s zone entry/exit numbers in 2017-18 were excellent:

That graphic from CJ Turtoro's viz site. 

Fantasy owners shouldn’t dismiss out of hand that Kerfoot can’t have a season similar to what Ryan Johansen did in 2017-18 – somewhere around 15 goals and 40 assists. But there won’t be much for peripherals and fantasy owners need to decide what their specific team needs are.

  Filip Forsberg

Forsberg, like Pastrnak, will only get a brief mention here because of his shot rate decline last year. In fact, he had declined in consecutive seasons going into 2018-19. He’s seen a huge ice time boost, though, as he’s clocking in at 19:17 per game, a career high and nearly two full minutes more than last year (17:28, but to be fair, about half that increase has come on the penalty kill). But he’s also taking a career-high in shots per 60 minutes, landing a career-high in shots per 60 minutes, and that, in conjunction with the added ice time, has led to his 10-goal start to the season. I mean, shooting 20.8 percent doesn’t hurt either, but even if that declines to his career norms around 13-14 percent, he’d still be on a 40-goal pace for the year. As long as the ice time doesn’t decline, and he keeps shooting as he is, he is a true threat for 40 goals this year. Let’s just hope he stays healthy.

    from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-fanduel-partnership-senators-updates-on-arvidsson-schenn-jvr-shot-rates-november-6/