Mao Birthday video and New forum channel

I decided to create a new topic so that more of you would know about how our message videos are doing on Youtube, and also about the MaoAsadaFanForum channel ( https://www.youtube.com/user/MaoAsadaFanForum?feature=mhum ) which I've created there.

First about how our videos are doing...

This is only for the sports category in Japan, but our videos have been ranked highly for the day:


top favorited ranked 3,4,5th place


most discussed ranked 10th place


toprated ranked 2,3,4th place

It's only 7:30 in the evening here, so I'm sure the views will go up much more from around 8:00 to midnight since it's a Saturday here! Maybe not all, but some of our videos will make the weekly and monthly rankings in the near future also.

I found quite a few other Mao birthday videos, and these are the ones which are of messages like ours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJwie_h7Ves
Happy birthday messages for Mao collected from Yahoo!Japan BBS members

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeTUDDMUo7E
Happy birthday messages for Mao collected from a wide group of fans on the net

Other Mao birthday related videos worth seeing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93ygI2g1Rs

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8f1dJWU7GE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WocY-OU7o-M

There are lot's more, but I only picked some which I thought were good. I knew some people would be making Birthday videos for Mao, but there are really lots of them. And by the end of the day or by tomorrow, I assume there will be more.

I thought this is really something, because...I um, searched for Yuna's birthday videos, since her's was on the 5th of this month. But there were only about 3 or 4 of them, and they weren't anything newly made for her birthday except 1. The others were just her performance videos, with 'happy birthday' added in the title or explanations. I was a bit surprised because I thought she had more fans. Btw, if you want to search for Yuna's birthday videos, don't forget to add 'Kim' after Yuna. If you don't, all you get is a bunch of happy birthday videos for the character called Yuna in the game Final Fantasy (she's got tons of birthday vids!).

So, our videos are doing well on the net guys! Be sure to comment something nice, cause that'll push up our rankings in the most discussed list. And click 'Like' at the thumbs up ratings, and that'll push us up in rating ranks, too!

Here are the links again! PLEASE BE SURE TO WATCH THEM IN 480P!!!!!

English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGlGBiMqG2g

Japanese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08o7tMCUgEY

Introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd3UWDbhgTQ

Don't forget to click 'Like' and leave a nice comment!

I've advertised it in Yahoo!Japan FS related bbs, and in our Japanese FS forum. I also personally mailed Kazumi Yamazaki who did the title page illustration and thanked her. She's a member of the Japanese FS forum, and was delighted to have her picture of Mao used. I thought her illustration of Mao was most appropriate for the title picture because Mao is wearing her newest costume in it.

I'll introduce our videos in my blog later on, too.

Btw, we already have 30 subscribers for our MaoAsadaFanForum channel! That's pretty cool for a channel that's been there for only a day! https://www.youtube.com/user/MaoAsadaFanForum?feature=mhum If you have a Youtube account, please subscribe. The fan forumchannel will subscribe to your channel in return, so we can create a whole network of our forum in Youtube. Go ahead and use the fan forum channel for a place to advertise your channels and videos related to Mao.

Those who do not have Youtube channels but are a member of this forum can have their Mao videos uploaded in the fan forum channel. Those who already have their own channels but would like their videos in the fan forum channel too are also welcome. Let's show what us forum members are capable of here in the forum channel! Just PM me and tell me the links to the videos you want me to upload! You can each send me one of your best videos, and in the explanation, you can write the URL to your channels. In that way, the people who see it will go to your channel to see more from our forum channel.

I've re designed the MaoAsadaFanForum Youtube channel page:



And also, our message videos and intro video have made 1-3rd place in top rated videos in sports Japan category today! Although it's only for today, and also only within videos uploaded from Japan, this is great since there were lots of Mao birthday related videos uploaded from Japan today.



Btw, roma has let me upload her niece's video in the forum channel too. Since we already have about 40 subscribed viewers, I have written roma's channel URL and the URL to the same video uploaded there, so to encourage people to visit her channel too. I am not accepting comments in the forum channel for forum member videos, so people can post them in the member's channels instead.

I will do the same for anyone in the forum who'd like to use the forum channel to introduce their videos of Mao. Do PM me without hesitating if you're interested!

YOU GO GENERAL POTATO!



BRB SUBSCRIBING!

I subscribed 59 subscribers now!

The English version also has these honors:
#4 - Most Discussed (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#23 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#46 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Japan
#59 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Sports
#5 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#9 - Top Rated (Today)) - Japan
#26 - Top Rated (Today)) - Sports
#2 - Top Rated (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#87 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Japan
#6 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Sports - Japan

The Japanese version:
#6 - Most Discussed (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#26 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#12 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Japan
#24 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Sports
#2 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#7 - Top Rated (Today)) - Japan
#21 - Top Rated (Today)) - Sports
#1 - Top Rated (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#76 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Japan
#4 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Sports - Japan

So great to hear that our videos are doing well!

Thanks for creating the channel, PPotanko, and the links for the other birthday videos. I shall enjoy them over breakfast .

I feel that, although the gift is primarily for Mao, in a sense it's also a present for the fans. Thank you to everyone for making this possible!

bellarina wrote:

I subscribed 59 subscribers now!

The English version also has these honors:
#4 - Most Discussed (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#23 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#46 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Japan
#59 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Sports
#5 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#9 - Top Rated (Today)) - Japan
#26 - Top Rated (Today)) - Sports
#2 - Top Rated (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#87 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Japan
#6 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Sports - Japan

The Japanese version:
#6 - Most Discussed (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#26 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#12 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Japan
#24 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Sports
#2 - Top Favorited (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#7 - Top Rated (Today)) - Japan
#21 - Top Rated (Today)) - Sports
#1 - Top Rated (Today)) - Sports - Japan
#76 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Japan
#4 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Sports - Japan

Amazing! And to think that this all started out as a little project... Who knew that it would attract so much publicity?

Also, PochinkoPotanko, when you made the youtube account so we'll have a place to upload the public versions of our birthday video, I can't help thinking that as a forum, we are also growing and improving bit by bit. Here are the reasons why:

1.) The creation of our official youtube channel is a great new addition because it gives us a little space in the net to upload our creations for Mao. It can also be used to promote some of the member's wonderful videos/montages to the world. So kudos to you Pochinko!

2.) Our birthday project, which is a success, led to a better sense of camaraderie in this community. We were all united because of our unwavering support for Mao and the video which displayed that Mao has fans all over the world only proved that. So I think we can get a little bolder on our next fan projects in the future, if there will be any (I hope!).

Sorry if I'm rambling again. I just wonder if Mao received our gift and if she watched it already. I would like to think that our messages touched and encouraged her.

We have 70 subscribers for our forum channel now!
And also our channel is in #34 - Most Viewed (Today) - within Japan!
This is a big accomplishment for only 2 days in Youtube with just 3 videos basically.

It all shows that alot of people were touched by our videos, and are interested in who we are. I've seen the statistics, and it seems there are loads of blogs and sites which are either linking or embedding our videos, too. (Even one of my haters; well she likes my videos, but doesn't like the fact that I do not accuse Yuna of bribing the judges in my blog, so she wrote something like I was a Yuna supporter and not a real Mao fan in somebody else's blog comment...anyway, she even introduced our videos! Maybe she had no idea I created them...poor girl! )

chineseteacup, I think yours, maxi's and inskate's messages had the best balance in all features. They had artwork, face-photo and audio in the original, alot of the other participators told me later on that they should've included audio messages like you guys did, even if they couldn't make a video message. Maybe next time we do something like this again (after Sochi?), if not for video messages, your set of features should be the basic form.

And klarification, next time we make a video, you should send in your collages and artworks of Mao too! Your new signature is really good!

Wow, that's pretty amazing that the videos are doing so well! But then again, maybe not. They are really good!...

I'm a bit surprised to see so many other bday videos. Even more surprised at the great quality of them too! I knew Mao had lots of fans outside of this forum, but I guess I've been ignorant in believing that this is the most popular Mao forum, and many of her biggest fans are here, and had probably participated in our video. I do wonder why they aren't on here though?! This is by far the best Mao forum I've found. Although I don't know if there is a great Japanese forum. The text in untranslated Japanese pages just comes up as a bunch of zeros, so I'm really out of the loop when it comes to Japanese sites.

Although there's some other very impressive videos, ours is the best imo

Wow, the video IS beautiful!! Love the editing, love the pretty voice of Star88, love polosatik and everyone else's artwork, and love every message in the video! PochiPota, how could I ever thank you for your hard work! You are geneus! I also enjoyed each and every montage. They are great!! And thank you, bellarina, for organizing the project!!

I uploaded the Japanese public version in Niconico Douga too. The video made 5th place in the most viewed videos of the day in the sports genre the other day, and seems still popular as it's getting more comments everyday. Niconico Douga is mostly for Japanese viewers, and what seems to surprise them the most is the wide variety of fans which Mao has in countries all over the world. They seem surprised that Mao has fans in the Philippines and Columbia esp, because it's hard for them to image ice-rinks in those countries, I suppose. Anyway, they seem really happy, and many have written thank you comments to those who've participated in the video. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12233035 That's the link to the video page in Nico-dou, but you neet to subscribe first to see it.

I have something else to report to you all...we got a postcard from...well, I'd say IMG!



It says 'Thank you for supporting me' in Japanese in the right.



The card is being sent from Mao, as her name is above the IMG address. The card was addressed to MAO ASADA FAN FORUM c/o Kimura (my last name). From that I think that you'd all notice that I sent Mao the DVD in our forum's name, not my own. But I had to write a return address just in case, so I wrote mine. Btw, in the upper photo, I erased my address, and just left the c/o Kimura part for security reasons.



I enlarged Mao's seal(?) in the postcard cause I thought it was kind of cool the way they printed it where usually stamps are supposed to be pasted. It seems the postcard didn't need a stamp because IMG pays the post office for it afterwards. Guess they must be sending millions of these to all the fans who send her something!

So, I'd say this card is like a notice to ensure that IMG has recieved our gift to Mao, and that they have safely passed it on to her. So it's not really a postcard sent to us directly from Mao, and I very much doubt that she's the one who wrote my address.

But anyway, I wanted to share it with all of you, so you'd know that our dvd has been sent to Mao properly. But of course, IMG probabaly opened the package and maybe read the letter mingming wrote for us...they might've even saw our dvd, too. Of course all for security reasons, and I wouldn't blame them if they did. Esp since our gift was a dvd, they'd have to check to see if there weren't any viruses inside and stuff.

I'm not sure if we'd be getting anything more personal from Mao, as a response to our dvd...I can easily imagine her getting tons of birthday presents, and it would be impossible for her to write thank you cards to each of them. I even imagine that maybe some fans might have sent her extremely expensive gifts, and maybe in such cases she'd have to write a personal thank you letter to them.

But I am very very confident that our gift will touch her heart the minute she sees it. And Mao will remember our dvd, amongst the thousands, maybe even millions of birthday gifts she recieved this year. I'm sure that she will read the list of URLs I have sent with it, so she'll be accessing this forum as well as bibi and Batsuchan's sites. She will know that we exist, and will feel our presence whenever she uses the internet. Everytime she skates in front of an audience, she will imagine that some of us may be there. And she will probabaly feel much more relaxed when she skates overseas from now on, since she knows from our dvd that she has lots of supporters in countries besides Japan, too.

Mao has always said that she does feel more relaxed when skating in competitions within Japan, but maybe our little gift has helped her to feel the same way in competitions abroad. If so, we have also participated for her performances in the future, too. And I think, that's really something! Great job guys! I'm honored to have been able to work with you all!

Ahhhh!!! PochiPota, that's such cool news for all of us!!!
I love postcards! To think that there really is a MAO postcard... hehe.

I guess it's really hard to imagine there'd be any ice rinks in a tropical country like ours. We do have... just a few of them with one olympic-sized rink but only in the capital.

Wow! I love postcards! What a nice gift! I'm very glad that our present reached Mao and I'm sure she loves it! Pochi and everyone, great job!

I am so happy to know that Mao has received our gift, and the postcard is lovely. I'm sure that when she sees our video, she'll be touched by all of our messages. Thanks Pochi for the update!

Yay!! I'm glad to hear the DVD was passed on to Mao! That's really considerate of IMG to send a postcard confirming they received it. Thanks Pochi for posting it! And Pochi, I agree with everything you said - I wanted Mao more than anything to realize she's inspired people all over the world. I'm sure she'll be so happy to see just so how many different people are supporting her in so many different countries.

So glad to hear we heard back from IMG! What a pretty post card! I especially like the seal. That should be Mao's logo. lol. Hope you don't mind if I save those images on my photobucket Mao group? I won't post the backside one though.

I was thinking the same thing as you were when you said this video will probably encourage Mao. When she is feeling nervous, or unsure, maybe she will think about this video, and how her fans are very loyal, and supportive, and love her. There were some pretty goo Mao bday videos I saw, but none were quite as good as ours, or included as many fans. Out of all the videos Mao actually sees, I'm sure ours will be one of the most memorable ones, and something she will always treasure. I'm not holding my breath, but I wouldn't be too surprised if we heard back from Mao personally in some way (fingers crossed!).

Hey guys, I recieved PMs from Batsuchan and Sofia, and they said that it would've been okay for us to include their messages in the public video as long as their avatars were changed and real name too in Batsuchans' case. So I uploaded another public version both Eng and Japanese with their messages included. It's been some time after Mao's birthday, so unfortunately we may not get as much viewers for these revised versions as the first public ones. But still, I wanted them to be in it, and since I made it clear in the title that 2 new massages from Hungary and the USA have been added, so people who are interested will probabaly take a look.

So Batsuchan, I'd appreciate it when you introduce your message to Mao in your blog, you'd include a link to the Eng version video, which your messages is in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4B3a8fQ-oc

And sofia, thank your for letting me include your messages in the new version! It's really nice to have a member from Hungary in the video. Btw, sorry about your new avatar. The rabbit doesn't look so cute, does it? But I heard that the person who drew this is a very famous children's book writer in your country. So I thought it might be suitable...

Btw, the Japanese version with Batsuchan and Sofia in it are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7XZ5nFGVnU

And Star85, feel free to save any images in my posts. Esp since this postcard from IMG really belongs to all of you, not just me.

oh! The postcard is very cute !! That's so cool Nice job guyss !

Thanks PochiPota for showing us the postcard!
Every time I send letters or gifts to Mao, I receive this kind of postcards. But it's not so soon like this. I always receive them about 1 month later or so. So I think IMG wanted to imform us that they certainly got and passed them to Mao.

It's great to know that she got to see it. I hope it brought a smile to her face.

Thanks again for reposting the video, PochiPota!

I posted the links on my blog, as well as the text from my original messages! (See link below.)

OMG I just saw the postcard, it's sooo awesome!
Thank you so much Pochi

Glad to know that she received it! Great work everyone! It's nice of them to send a postcard