Category Archives: Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

May 21, 2012

A Week of Many Cons and Ds

By omo

Just another post of random notes.

That “Girls und Panzer” anime so reminds me of this:

What a surprise! Takaaki Suzuki is behind this thing. By surprise I mean OMG OPPOSITE MEANING. The man is a bro though, so I’d like to support his efforts.

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Sayonara Ponytail is the weird kind of band with a weird presence. Weird because they were an indie cartoon band and now a major-label cartoon band. It’s just three girls, but it seems one of them is responsible for most of the creative direction of the group.  They debuted for the major label last year, but I read about it back when j1m0ne was just starting to post about indie stuff she found. You can hear them cover Spitz’s Sora mo Taberu Hazu in Tsuritama at the usual places. (Scroll to the bottom of the tag listing to see j1m0ne’s post lol.) Well, if she found it in Tower Record, just how indie was it??

Anyway, you know me and 2.5D, and Sayonara Ponytail are very much so. Think of it as the pickup of the week, as their Tsuritama single comes out this week. There are three versions of this crap:

The double-sided poster that comes with the single features the Tsuritama boys on one side and the witches on the other. The LE version and the Anime version come with a bonus CD. But I guess you might have to shop elsewhere to get that poster as CDJ is out of it.

Actually I have sort of an opinion on Sayonara Ponytail, and it’s mostly made of ambivalence. That said I haven’t listened to their album from last year, which probably means my opinion doesn’t count. I sure don’t count it myself. Anyway, there’s a lot of stuff to be unsure about, but you can read about some of that here.

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In the US, Memorial Day Weekend marks not only the start of Anime Con season, but also of Summer vacationing among people who have PTOs, rather than mandatory school closures (though the period largely overlap). This year’s lineup are the three usual familiars: Anime North (most notable for English-language-tweeting Asakawa Yuu along with Sasanuma, also a p. cool DJ), FanimeCon (Aizawa Mai, the usual Yamaga crew, Kia Asamiya, Koyama Shigeto), and Animazement.

I’m going to Animazement. See you there? And if I make it to Kotoko’s concert alive that would make her one of my most-attended Anison artists at 3 concerts! Well, not counting Yoko Kanno. The three big Memorial Day weekend cons have pretty good guests as usual, but I think Fanime had some problems this year so all their announcements were pretty late. On the other hand Animazement called it out, well, when Mr. Ishiguro was still with us. Besides that, the usual old crew of voice actors and directors and producers will be there, specifically Itano (the circus man), Nagahama (director of Mushishi), Orikasa Fumiko, Kaikan Phrase mangaka, and lots of others.

I wonder if any of the cons are going to move their dates next year… Please peruse the links to the respective sites for the detail guest list!

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There’s that anime power ranking thing and I guess I’m suppose to vote for shows every week–makes sense if/when I am able to watch that week’s anime that week–just wanted to point out Tsuritama was great this past week. It’s a good week for the show too this week come to think of it…

I thought Sencolle, too, was quality this week. Tho I’m a sucker.

What’s more I didn’t even vote this week, because I was too busy partying! Perhaps fortunately this non-voting doesn’t happen all the time (translation: it happens way too often). If I had my way with Kevo, I’d retool it with a lag period–you rank the shows from Saturday to Friday, but make the ballot due like, Monday or something. Also if he’s good with spreadsheets, explore the wonders of Google Docs to automate polling and results? A resounding yes.

4 comments | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

May 9, 2012

CD Shopping List: May 2012

By omo

It has been forever since I did one of these. So, just a list of things to talk about–some I ordered, some I physically have, some I am thinking about of ordering. Some links with CDJ affiliated codes.

Third Planet – One thing that I like a lot about Sphere is their ability to put out an okay-sounding album despite being a gaggle of seiyuu idols that on paper didn’t seem like that they could. The two previous releases were so-so on average but they do grow on you, as opposed to a lot of the idol stuff that I just find outright repulsive and at best indifferent. I haven’t been excited about any Sphere singles since Now Loading Sky, so I’m going into it with a lot of caution. Hazy is probably the only bright spot for me. And just like last time, I’m going for the middle-tier instead of those crazy expensive sets.

The iDOLM@STER crap – Speaking of repulsive… I’m probably equally repulsed at my desire to purchase them and the quality of the music itself. I am able to keep my spending at bay largely because the two forces balance out each other. It’s not like there aren’t any iM@S music that is worth listening to, it’s just by and large this is not the case. If broducers out there think otherwise, I apologize, but I have no illusions. That said, comparatively speaking, the iM@S stuff at least have good production value. Between the DLCs and the sparse amount of music for purchase (often packaged in that low-value, suck-you-dry methods) I’ll probably buy very little. Also, I’m not really hooked into the marketing train for this and I don’t really keep track what is coming out besides the G4U discs and the DLCs.

Sakamichi no Apollon OST – I love the soundtrack. This is like what I wished Bebop would have been. White people jazz, man. The real question is, given how Watanabe and Kanno obviously know they can make good scratch from the music (and half of it are just improvs of existing songs!), how will they do it? A splashy web site just for the soundtracks? It’s really telling when they barely have that info in the “music” tab, leaving you to ponder if it’s worth buying Yuki’s single, more because of the trumpet solo and being penned by Kanno, instead of her signature screech. At least they’re giving some props to the drummer and pianist responsible for the in-anime pieces, which is great. I think the breakdown is that Kanno plays the keys for her compositions and Matsunaga Takashi plays the jazz standards. And what is up with that outtakes thing?

Red Planet – So from earth we go to mars, and Akino Arai is always a trustworthy source of moody stuff. This one reaches way back to Aria S3? I was never a fan of hers but I always thought highly of her music, so this is like, the one opportunity for purchase I probably shouldn’t pass up.

Owari no Wakusei no Love Song – Anyone like this? On paper this sounds like audio gold, but when I tried out the PVs none of them were particularly interesting. Seemed pretty much a waste of Nagi’s big guns. Nonetheless I am still kind of interested.

IA/01 – BIRTH – Speaking of weird things, I picked up that IA album. I mean, just in general: LIA in a can? That’s like, a chicken that lays golden goose eggs. And now you get this 4-disc set with a set of 2-disc IA mixes (half of it is just like your average vocaloid dance pump), a demo of IA, and then a disc of data from that delicious PV from Hosogane Takuya? This is good bang for the buck.

Birthday – ClariS’s first real album is just mostly a singles collection. Out of the new tracks there was one that I liked. But overall this is pretty solid dancy pop stuff that I can listen to for a long time. I like to think of tiny hats, partly because of this man, but more because it sums up the feeling when you listen to this crap. I think this album marks a precious moment in time in which this perfectly 2.5D mystery 2-person group captures the imagination of a bunch of people despite being nothing really extraordinary in themselves. Things can only go downhill from here, I think.

Aquarion EVOL OST – This is on the horizon, and it reads like the same Macross Frontier nonsense that Kanno and Kawamori cooked up back then–a bunch of vocal songs along with background tracks here and there. BLESS4 should provide eerie equivalence in terms of the approach to vocals as Mamegu and May’n–the FULL POWER TO ENGINES approach–except that there are dudes in the group, and that would be pretty cool for a change.

Petit Pas – This is more like a semi-mini-album with its play time, but it’s surprisingly good. I guess I went into it expecting the abyss, and it ended up being okay. It’s still a case where the voice is holding back the music more often than it is helping the music, I’m afraid. Maybe next time Aoi-chan. Actually this is kind of how I feel about both Hoshizora Destination and Sinfonia Sinfonia, except the former has pretty decent sounds thanks to Round Table-ness, working well with that sweet moe koe.

That Tell Your World single? It’s actually pretty good, which would explain how well it sold, Google ad not withstanding.

The two Chihayafuru OSTs are terrific. On one hand the tracks run the range necessary for a show that is quite exaggerated with both comedy and tension, on the other hand there’s this classy feel that the sound tries to maintain, making you feel all… 100 poets and what not the whole time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s still pretty good. It’s definitely one of the best, among solid, traditionally themed anime soundtrack available that I liked, in recent years.

Perhaps the most disappointed thing I heard lately is Artery Vein. In a way I didn’t expected much about it going in, as someone who never was quite wowed by Mingosu’s vocals; I didn’t come out with a better impression. I think KitaEri did admirably but the two together did not scratch any kind of itch. To put it in perspective though, it is still quite good for “seiyuu music.” I think the potential is there, they just need to get someone to write something good.

That’s it for now. There are probably some stuff that I left out, but oh well.

5 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

May 2, 2012

Seiyuu Senryaku

By omo

About 2 years ago I begin to follow some people, either via tumblr or twitter or soup or some such, who post pictures of seiyuu. As more and more radio shows and events get broadcasted via Nico or Ustream or whatever, more images have been popping up beyond the usual semi-pin-up scans from the various seiyuu magazines, blogs, and what have you. Actually with things like twitter and iPhone proliferating in Japan, there has been a lot more images floating out there just because. There are even more seiyuu mags nowadays compared to 2 years ago.

I’m not sure why this is the case, but as I alluded previously there is a distinct 2.5D advantage for seiyuu. The recent seiyuu boom, at any rate, coincides with me trying to learn the names of all the “popular” voice actresses via following image blogs. You know, the average blog might label the people in the photos, and half the time it’d be written the way it is. And it’s as good of a time to learn it as any.

It was somewhat of a learning curve since as far as recognizing kanji it is not a big deal for me. What was the big deal is remembering what the name is suppose to spell out as. Names are tricky after all because they don’t always say what you think they say. I still remember when I first started I probably recognize only 20% or so of what’s out there. Now?

Here is a list of popular voice actresses that I saw this morning (sorted by the # of roles they had in 2011 I believe). And I can recognize them all now! This is notable because for the longest time I have followed the seiyuu scene (albeit from afar) but it isn’t until recently that I started recognizing their names in Japanese.

I might still make fun of people learning Japanese through anime, but I don’t doubt its impact (which seems to be proportional only to how much effort you put in learning and working with the foreign language). Perhaps, this is more a demonstration of the power of mokkori in the educational context. I think.

 

3 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

April 18, 2012

The Future Is 2.5D

By omo

Remembering Anime Boston, I thought about 2.5D. I think the context the term was used in was for Momoi’s Afilia Saga East–she’s a producer for them–a group of Akiba idols associated with the similarly named maid cafe chain. The term came up during a question at Momoi’s fan panel related to the subgenrification [btw, google result of this made-up word makes a good list of wank blogs] of otaku in Japan–I think they would have it way worse than oversea otaku, and they probably are. There are idol otaku and there are anime otaku, very different groups of people who like very different things even when from afar, they are not really that different. Among others.

Thinking about some of the fans I personally know, to put stress on the term fan (I think it best describes most of these people), it really is the case where people are fans of a lot of the same things, but for different reasons. I’m not sure if that is because of the media mix case or what, but this sludge of … things that are attractive do bridge both 2D and 3D fans, otaku, scholars, shopkeepers, other sub-genres, what have you.

I think what is more interesting about 2.5D is that there is a distinct expression for it. Seiyuu. Hatsune Miku. ClariS. AKB0048. All of these things are examples of 2.5D.

To take a big step back, the term 2.5D really comes about when we look at the otaku who likes their 2D–slang for anime/manga/game characters. Those moe figures and hugpillows, that’s a stable expression of 2D. You can shout “ore no yome” for both 2D and 3D characters, but the latter will get you more weird looks than the former, I think. As for 3D, it generally refers to real life persons, or specifically idols for idol otaku–people who like AKB48 or one of the many. They have their own code and things to do, depending on which agency they (idols and fan alike) are slaved to. Of course 3D fandom has been in development for a much longer period than 2D, so it’s a convoluted thing to sort through so I won’t really try to here. It’s when 2D collides with 3D that you get this strange 2.5D effect.

In other words, when 2D wants to do 3D, it’s 2.5D. When 3D tries to be 2D, it’s 2.5D.

Like every other otaku term that’s been around, it’s not exactly easy to define or even pin down. I think 2.5D is most akin to a feeling where there’s some kind of gap that is being broached. It’s probably vaguely related to concepts like “uncanny valley” and “AI” and “meme” and things like that, because undead Tupac is a very apt expression of 2.5D. On the other hand when you have physical manifestation of 2D (hug pillows, figures, etc) or when the 2D slots into a perfectly 3D role (eg., a virtual idol), that’s 2.5D. Actually anime is inherently 2.5D.

The bigger generalization I want to state is that 2D is limited to ideas, where as 3D is manifestation thereof. Most Japanese idols are pretty much just girls who are produced to project some kind of persona, an image. As mentioned before it is no less artificial than Hatsune Miku in a lot of ways, certainly in the ways fans interact with idols. On the other hand when your average Precure kigurumi stage show happens at an amusement park, well, that’s a real-life manifestation of cartoons.

Somehow we are infatuated when this crossover behavior happens. I don’t really know why, but I can make a few guesses. And by we I mean people like myself.

There are many other advantages too. 2.5D naturally lends itself to better marketing. It’s easy to photocopy some ads or post on facebook an idea, and image, a persona; to win fans with your 3D personality require the person being all over the place, or expensive TV broadcasting. Neither replaces the other but you need to leverage both the 2D or 3D along with the 2.5. It’s great to have a manga with a good story and great art and an eye for what makes for great manga material, but it probably will always be more popular if the anime adaptation turned out to be a blockbuster. The examples of 2.5D’s benefits are countless.

The best example, to go back to Tupac, is that ideas live forever, theoretically. Much longer than life + 70 years. Even if the 3D component is six feet under, 2D and 2.5D will live on as long as there’s enough interests in it. That alone almost guarantees that the future is 2.5D. Wait until hologram technology breaks the gates of Hades wide open–big enough for Biggie to join the chorus!

5 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

April 6, 2012

Anime Boston 2012: Day 0, 1

By omo

Oysters? Check. Little-neck clams? Sure. Shrimp? Why not. Crab? Ok. No lobster though. Squid? Definitely.

Yes to hamburgers, Momoi-ist Hardcore-ist, cheap vacation suites made out of converted historic apartment buildings.

Say hello.

Say hello to sad songs, and happy songs.

And friends. (By the way if you know I took pictures of you and want the full size copy, leave me a comment using your email address or just uh, email/twitter me).

Pretty laid back otherwise. Meeting new friends and old alike.

Having PAX in town did drastically lower the population at the con, too, so life’s not as congested even compared to 2010.

Got content for my obligations. Good stuff.

Good times.

1 comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop