LoVendoЯ no LV-Я #67 (2015.01.06)

How do the members of LoVendoЯ spend their New Year’s? Nee-san doesn’t do anything: she simply stays indoors, doesn’t watch Kouhaku and doesn’t even eat the traditional New Year’s soba which the others say is a waste — the soba is the funnest part of New Year’s.

For Reina, her way of spending the New Year’s is very different now that she doesn’t appear on Kouhaku every year. She remembers being really happy the first year she got to spend the holiday at home with her family and not have to perform. One year she even got together with Mitsui Aika and Umeda Erika at her house and visited a shrine together with them. Nowadays, though, she’s once again busy performing at the Countdown Live every year.

Meikyoku Shiritori
Theme of the week: songs whose titles start with “ru”
Nee-san and Marin introduce two great songs; Reina and Okamari decide which is better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiLL2vwZfPg

Nee-san’s pick: Terao Akira – Ruby no Yubiwa

Reina says she likes this song. Nee-san explains that it’s a tune most people have probably heard at least once in their lives, and it always does well in the kayoukyoku rankings. This was the first time Marin had heard it, however.

Nee-san highlights the guitar player on this song, Kon Tsuyoshi. She explains that he’s a great guitarist: his playing is provocative, and yet, tasteful (plus, he looks like a total badass). She fell in love with his playing the first she heard him. Reina is impressed by her band mate’s wide knowledge of different guitarists — to her it seems like Nee-san is always doing research on guitar players she doesn’t know yet, and Nee-san does admit to often looking up all kinds of guitarists on Wikipedia. Reina, in contrast, will just enjoy the songs without bothering to find out who’s actually playing on them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUtWHPZk7Es

Marin’s pick: Mötley Crüe – Looks That Kill

Marin asks what the others thought of this song, and after a brief silence, Reina answers that it was very “Marin.” Reina asks Marin if she’s played songs from this band on the show before, and she has. Reina remembers hearing something like this before — she admits that it all sounds the same to her because she doesn’t listen to much Western music.

This song is off Mötley Crüe’s “Shout at the Devil” which Marin says is quite high up there on her favorite albums list of all time. She inherited her uncle’s copy of it after he passed away, and she remembers how it always made her get into a “hard rock mood” when it was playing in the car. Marin highly recommends “Shout at the Devil” and says the other members ought to listen to it, too.

And the winner is…
Nee-san!

Marin dryly says she knew she was going to lose. She no longer wants them to choose the better song; she’s fine with Nee-san being automatically considered the winner every time. Nee-san tries to console the broken-hearted Marin, but Reina suggests the two leave this conversation for after the show.

Song: LoVendoЯ no LV-Я – Kono Yo ni Shinjitsu no Ai ga Hitotsu dake Aru no Nara

LoVendoЯ no LV-Я #68 (2015.01.13)

Reina loves the TV show Moya Moya Summers and she often thinks she’d like to become an announcer for that show — so much so that she sometimes wishes she’d become an announcer instead of an idol. She asks if the other members have any jobs they’d like to try doing.

Okamari wants to appear on a TV show where she gets to go fishing. The members quickly point out that she did appear on a show like that once, but Okamari says it wasn’t enough. Marin calls her greedy.

Nee-san loves voice actors/actresses, so she’d like to appear with some on a radio or TV show, whereas Marin wants to appear on a Pokemon or other gaming-related show, or alternatively, a kids’ show — she’d love to appear on some show where children make fun of her. The members laugh and quickly point out that no such TV show exists. Still, that doesn’t stop Marin from daydreaming about being called an idiot on TV by little kids.

Situation Music
Theme of the week: “songs that seriously make you cry“
LoVendoЯ introduce songs that fit the theme

Nee-san’s pick: GLAY – Bokutachi no Shouhai

Nee-san is moved by the lyrics that deal with war. It makes her feel thankful and lucky to have been born in Japan, and think about how if she had been born in a country that was at war, there might be days where she could not honestly hope to even be alive tomorrow. “War really is no good,” she sums up, and wonders if one day the world will be completely at peace. “Let us all stop fighting,” Marin adds.

Marin’s pick: Bon Jovi – These Days

“Well? Doesn’t it make you cry?“, Marin asks. She thinks it’s a really pretty song, and it’s one that definitely makes her teary-eyed. Nee-san points out how much Japanese people like Bon Jovi — there’s something very familiar about their melodies to the Japanese ear. The guitar solos, too, are ones you can sing along to, and they really stick in your mind. Marin warmly recommends Bon Jovi.

Song: LoVendoЯ – Stonez!!

LoVendoЯ no LV-Я #69 (2015.01.20)

“Hey, doesn’t it feel like LoVendoЯ has become a bit more flashy as of late?“, Nee-san asks, referring to her hair that she partly dyed green just yesterday. The others, slightly annoyed, say that it’s just her that’s become flashier, and Nee-san acts surprised to hear this. The members discuss the troubles of making hair dyes “stick” for long periods of time, and Reina sums up their thoughts: “being fashionable is hard work.“

Situation Music
Theme of the week: “songs that can blow away your tired New Year’s mood“
LoVendoЯ introduce songs that fit the theme

Nee-san’s pick: Morishige Juichi – GOOD OLD TIME ROCK’N’ROLL

“Blew away your tired mood, didn’t it?!” Reina and Okamari make an insincere-sounding claim that it did, but Nee-san doubts their truthfulness. Okamari insists that it really did — she liked the beginning especially. Nee-san doesn’t believe the two even listened to the song properly.

Marin’s pick: Metallica – Master of Puppets

This strikes Okamari as exactly the kind of song Marin would like, and she asks her if she can play it on guitar. While Marin hasn’t learned it all the way through, Nee-san actually performed a cover of it with a full band back in high school — while she thinks the quality of it probably wasn’t very good, they nevertheless played it in its entirety to an audience. “Did you headbang?“, Okamari asks, but she actually didn’t — it took all of Nee-san’s concentration just to be able to play it properly. “Metallica is so fun to play,” Marin says.

Song: LoVendoЯ – Shounen

LoVendoЯ no LV-Я #70 (2015.01.27)

Meikyoku Shiritori
Theme of the week: songs whose titles start with “wa”
Nee-san and Marin introduce two great songs; Reina and Okamari decide which is better

Nee-san’s pick: LiSA – WiLD CANDY

“This is so cuuute!“, Nee-san says. She likes all of LiSA’s songs, and this isn’t the first time she’s played her songs on this show either. She appreciates how her music has a proper band sound, both live and on the recorded versions, and she hopes to attend her upcoming live tour if she can.

Marin’s pick: Supercell feat. Hatsune Miku – World is Mine

Okamari is amazed by what you can do with technology these days, obviously referring to the vocaloid technology employed on the track. “It’s a revolution,” Nee-san exclaims. The feedback to this song seems largely positive, and so…

The winner is…
Marin!
…
No, wait…

The members notice a problem with Marin’s song choice: written in Japanese, the title ends with the letter “n” which is against the rules of shiritori. In other words, Marin has disqualified herself. She tries to make an excuse about this having been on purpose: she doesn’t even want to go head-to-head with Nee-san anymore since she always seems to lose. Reina insists she really was going to pick Marin’s song today — had the song title conformed to the rules — but this knowledge does nothing to improve Marin’s state of mind.

And the real winner is…
Nee-san!

Song: LoVendoЯ – Ai no Gishiki