Hi, it's me, Muramatsu, and I'm sorry for sounding like such a greedy glutton.

Speaking of ramen, though, the other day, the new issue of "LaLa" went on sale. Tencho and Hiramatsu went to a ramen shop, and as they were slurping away, a woman sitting next to them calmly opened a magazine, namely, the April issue of "LaLa". And apparently she was reading the new installment of KareKano. Talk about synchronicity.
We don't know, of course, if she's been watching the KareKano anime, but still... she probably had no idea that the person she was sitting right next to, eating ramen, was the artist who drew the animated versions of Yukino, Arima, and the rest. You've got to be on your toes in this world.

It seems like all I've done in this installment is talk about food (maybe I'm just hungry?), but that's all for now. Love Love Happy.

(Muramatsu)

Today I happened to come to work wearing a pullover sweater, and as the afternoon wore on, the weather turned bad, eventually raining--with occasional snow mixed in. I spent the whole day wearing my coat in the office. For someone who dislikes cold as much as I do, it was rough.
Anyway, as I'm sure most of you reading this already know, people in the anime industry work mainly at night. In case you're wondering why that is, it's because they can't get up in the morning, which is irrelevant... In all events, they come to work in the afternoon, and slave away until the middle of the night. Or so say most of the people who do this kind of work, and it is true that the nighttime population density is pretty high.
One night, however, when I went to take a peek at the second floor, all of the animators were gone. Now this was unusual. So unusual, in fact, that I got one of the girls from publicity, and we goofed around on the otherwise uninhabited second floor (when we really should have been working). Later, I learned that the staff had had a rather serious discussion about the series finale. They're really hanging in there, and so should be.

That's all for now. Love Love Happy.

(Muramatsu)

And... I'm following the ongoing trend: last week, I caught a cold, and it's still with me. I wake up, I sleep, and that's all. I'm normally sensitive to trends, but this is one time I wish I wasn't...
And this year, I'm taking longer to recover than usual. Is it because this year's colds are nastier than usual, or a sign of my age (I sure hope it's not the latter)?

Now then, last week saw the introduction of Junami. In tonight's episode, he had a lot of dialogue (and had his voice change along the way). Sasaki Nozomu, who played the voice of Junami, was chosen like this: Hiramatsu, the character designer, cocked his head, offering Sasaki as a candidate, saying that he would bring the right flavor to the character. When Tencho asked what sorts of voices he'd done, I promptly answered that he'd played Robo Takk (the hero of a recent Sunday Morning kids' tokusatsu (SFX) TV series). From the outset, we'd wanted someone who could do both adult and child voices, and this settled the matter.
Anno just now came up to talk with Tencho, and wouldn't you know it? The topic is the voice of Junami. Heh heh heh. They both come from the land of people of tokusatsu fans, after all. I'm personally looking forward to the showdown between Robo Takk and Kabu Takk, though I wonder if such a time will ever come.

As an aside, it was Hiramatsu who also suggested Tobita Norio as Fukada, head of F-Group.

That's all for now. Watch out for colds this season. Love Love

(Muramatsu)

Today I received the good news that Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo is very popular among housewives in certain regions. More specifically, they say that
"That sight-gag anime is fun to watch."
But wait, that's not quite right. I mean, sure, it's got a joke a minute, but it's ostensibly being promoted as based on a romantic, love story kind of manga, ladies. So I hope that you will also pay attention to this aspect of the series (though to be honest, I laugh out loud when watching the show, so I should probably keep my mouth shut).

Anyway, as far as this week's episode goes some pretty intense things are happening. I wonder what those housewives who think it's all for laughs will say now. It's full of gags that only my big friends will understand. As the show started, I was worried about how many viewers would laugh out loud at it. Oh, everything seems nostalgic now... doesn't it?

That's all for now. Love Love Happy.

(Muramatsu)