Category Archives: Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

January 15, 2007

Anime Composers

By omo

I don’t know why I write about this; perhaps because Anime News Network had that casual poll, or maybe I read a few blogs that talked about it. Perhaps it’s just that I’ve hit a dry spell and I always have a lot to say when the topic rolls to anime music. But perhaps more than usual what I have to say is a lot, and disproportionately a lot of that is baseless, subjective observations, unschooled in the normative language of the relevant arts. It doesn’t stop me.

I think everyone has to make some kind of decision, conscious or not, to make music a part of their lives. It’s not that you become a fan or anything, but much like drinking tea in the afternoon or taking a nap, it’s just something that has long been with human beings for a long time.

Let’s start with Joe. Joe Hisaishi is one of Japan’s most celebrated composers, not so much because of his Studio Ghibli works, but his soundtracks for live action films. It also helped that Beat Takeshi is one of those very liberated film types? Nonetheless, I enjoy his work in a very casual capacity. I think my favorite theme from him is Summer, from Kikujiro. I think Laputa‘s main theme (track 2 on the OST, or this image album) comes next, and I especially like this re-arranged version.

Friends and I call him by an endearing term, “Hesushi.” To mock yet another friend who’s a Hesushi fanatic, of course.

I think the first soundtrack musician in anime that I endorsed with money is Hayato Matsuo. I bet most of you have never heard of him, and his anime soundtrack career is a long but spotty one. I still really like some of his works, like Magic Knight Rayearth and Rescue Wings, but it’s fairly casual involvement here too.

One more before Yoko Kanno…I think Toshihiko Sahashi is the second person I gave money to as an anime soundtrack person. The instrumentals in Rayearth OAV was dark and dreary, but alone on disc it sounded actually thoughtful and it flowed well, and that’s what I bought. I think because he actually have a long list of shows that he wrote for–Tsukikage Ran, Smash Hit, Simoun, Gundam Seed, Gunslinger Girls and Full Metal Panic are just a few–I saw his name pop up here and there. It’s fresh in the mind. He kept up, too, with a lot of good stuff.

But of course, there’s always Yoko Kanno. I think it was love at first (few) listen; somewhere between Macross Plus and Escaflowne I was sold for good. But somehow I never figured out what was so great about Bebop’s soundtrack, aside from showing her diversity. I thought Macross Plus was already pretty darn good, even, at showing diversity. Yet nonetheless I bought a ton of Cowboy Bebop crap. It was the thing to do back then. I think I even got that one DVD with Seatbelts live. They put on a good show.

But we all know about Yoko Kanno, and Yuki Kajiura as well. I think I took a liking to her once I realized I was playing Aquarian Age TV OST over and over again, yet somehow this was before she got huge from doing .hack and what not. I think at some point I listened to her Shin KOR soundtrack, and found that while unremarkable, very solid and charming.

I think however Kajiura has that whole pop-synth aspect to her music which made it very enjoyable. To me the two YKs are most distinct between repeated listenings. I think I still can stand .hack OSTs and Aquarian Age OST repeatedly today, but OTOH I run through all of Kanno without any irritation. I’m not sure if that says anything objective… Maybe that is why I spend more money on Kanno?

That and Kajiura’s stuff is domestically available!

I think if you look at my collection you’ll also realize I’m somewhat a big Taku Iwasaki person. It’s actually not so true. I do enjoy his works but I’m fairly casual about it. Although, I think I like his Witch Hunter Robin works the best. The second OST is oozing with goodness… Any of you Oban Star Racer fans enjoy the music?

At any rate, I think I can continue on for some time, so I’m going to call it for now. People like Kunihiko Ryo deserves more than a terse blurb at the end of a random anime blog, but I hope at the least that gets you curious. I remember seeing him playing the piano during a demo reel for Emma @ AX2005. That was sweet. Studio Pierrot retained him for the project because they love his music so?

6 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Popular Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

January 3, 2007

Animelo 2006 on DVD = Animelol

By omo

So these babies came in the mail. LOL only means that it reminded me I already downloaded the DVD ISOs before new years. Time to watch!

Just for your information, if you didn’t know: I am a HUGE Masami Okui fan. I’m not even going to say why because I can’t bear to see my fanboy inner flesh sprawled out for no reason. By extension, I really dig JAM Project as well as some of Makkun’s (her fan nickname) collaborations. Makkun is also a very prolific anime musician, and over time she worked with a lot of different other musicians who have attachments with the anime scene. Chihiro Yonekura (and ROR/S), Minami Kuribayashi and Yoko Ishida are just a few.

But 2005-06 mark the years of Nana Mizuki’s biggest splash yet. She’s a pop cultural flag for the Densha Otoko generation, so it’s not a surprise to see her headlining this giant concert that is Animelo 2006. Animelo is this annual thing, for a couple years now, that the JAM Project folks have been throwing. It’s a lot of fun. And 2006 is their biggest show yet with the first time release of the show on DVD.

If you want to know how the show was, this is a much better read. For the sake of not reinventing the wheel I’ll just get the nitpickery regarding the DVD release out of the way and put in my two cents.

The DVDs, released by King Record (volume I) and Victor (volume II) are produced pretty much together. The design, art, the poster insert that you can put together for a full-size poster, and video production sync so they’re likely to be from the same production team. The release, however, are from two different labels. It’s no surprise because there are a bunch of different labels represented by the artists themselves, not even including our Suzumiya Haruhi trio: Aya Hirano, Yuko Goto and Minori Chihara. Their sole performance, Hare Hare Yukai, didn’t make the cut. Boo.

Other than that, all the acts seems to be on the discs. The DVDs also come with a behind the scene snippet, showing the day when all the performers arrived early in the morning, snippets of the rehearsal, people relaxing in the back room, people getting pumped before heading out to the stage, and stuff behind the scene during the massive roll call at the end. The featurette ends with individual post-concert interviews, each group telling us how Animelo 2006 was for them. The behind the scene bonus is on both DVD, and it’s exactly the same!

The DVDs divide the show up by gender, sort of. Naozumi Takahashi‘s two songs went with the male medley on Victor’s disc (along with JAM Project’s songs, and Ali Project). Kuribayashi’s taunting outfit along with the very cute Aiko Kayo landed with the female medley on King Record’s disc. The division is begging someone to come along and rearrange it to the concert’s proper order.

Ah well, onward with the impressions.

I’m honestly shocked: this would be my first time watching ALI PROJECT live, and she (Arika Takarano)’s definitely a looker. And I mean it in a high class model kind of way–she’s got the built and she takes care of her face. I suppose that’s a must if you’re going to look good on camera prancing around in that hardcore gothloli getup. The goth drag queens as backup dancer was neat, and I have a hard time saying no to Rozen Maiden Traumend OP.

And it took me years to realize Chiaki Ishikawa is the other half of See-Saw. Or rather, it just didn’t stick when I read her name back when Kajiura was hitting the popular waves here. I even have a copy their old CD…well, she does have curly hair now. I like her songs, naturally–they’re crowd pleasers as See-Saw’s new stuff tend to be.

But I should’ve known, Ishikawa actually wrote and compose entirely the OP to Simoun, which she performed on stage. When I first read of Animelo’s content, this didn’t even register. Who would’ve known what that meant six months later? Savage Genius also performed Simoun’s ED at Animelo 2006, and … yeap.

I think I said Aiko Kayo is cute. She really is. And it’s not the frail kind of cute that the SOS-Dan trio seem to be. I think Kageyama cracked a joke on Matsumoto over it.

Minami Kuribayashi definitely wins the provocative dress award, even giving Takarano’s oddish gothloli thigh+cat-o-nine-whip a good run. Her white dress during the medley part is very nice.

Nana Mizuki has legs. But I am always happy with that Eternal Blaze going.

I think the real highlight of the show for me is the 9-man raid full of SKILL! You got the JAM Project folks plus Yoko Ishida, Chihiro Yonekura, and Minami Kuribayashi. I think Fukuyama spent more time on the DVD screaming than saying decipherable words. It doesn’t help that I’ve done group karaoke over that stuff before. It really is hella fun.

Runner up would be Kuribayashi and Makkun’s duet for Mask. I always like that song.

It’s a ton of fun. The DVD reproduction is just a fraction of its total energy, but even then it’s one (or two) of the most enjoyable concert DVDs I’ve had the chance to watch. If you’re a person into anime pop, this is hard to pass up. At 4800 yen a piece I snagged both during the holiday season when it was 20% off from Amazon Japan (ftw!). Even with fast shipping I spent less than $85, overall.

Totally worth it, worth beyond its impressive song list and guests.

Continue reading

Leave a comment | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Rozen Maiden, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Simoun

December 29, 2006

Animenano Idol 2006 – A Primer

By omo

Hung’s karaoke contest is pretty rocking. I never would imagine that about half of the entries posted are female vocals. That’s just awesome.

OTOH, I think there is a serious lack of gag entries. It would’ve been pretty fun to stand shoulder to shoulder with TJ and bring some real laughs, but I’ve been having problems recording–basically somehow my vocal recording would always be out of sync with the karaoke track, even when I recorded using it. I’m not sure it’s because my playback is out of whack or because my instrumental mp3/cdda import method is out of whack or what. In the end that entry of Grand Blue is just this old recording I did when the single first came out God-knows-when ago.

I might have to pull a Jal and get this Skill recording mixed later. Sigh.

By the way, I voted for that uncanny rendition of Daichi no la-li-la. It’s freaking good. I suppose whoever was singing Yasashii Gogo was just as good, but that’s an easy song that I can even do (in fact, I can prolly do a nice butchery of that once sufficiently intoxicated); or I should say, Daichi no la-li-la is hard to sing. Yubiwa is another song with some difficult parts in it. But, man, singing your own harmony is hard enough, let alone in Oranges & Lemons style and then taking the time to record it like that? Just wow.

But, yes, the point here is that there are so many great entries. I already mentioned Yubiwa and Yasashii Gogo, but whoever is doing that Star Ocean EX song should go sing something that’s got more bite to it; such a waste of talent ;). Ten is scary; or rather I mean she needs to get some friends who can mix her voices right, because it can sound a lot better than how it sounds like from the karaoke page.

And … uh, a girl singing LoveLoveLove no Sei na no yo! That’s so unreal…in a “Can I have your babies” kind of way. That song is so set up for butchery, yet there’s this sweet and honest entry! I’m moved.

I suppose that’s what always happens. In an exhibition it takes a certain level of insanity, self-confidence, talent and courage. I’m all for “everybody let’s sing” but it’s just unavoidable that the rest are put to shame by these great performances. Sometimes it helps to be a penguin, I suppose.

4 comments | posted in Blogging, Modern Visual Culture, Popular Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

December 23, 2006

She Is Hawt, Attack Run, Merry Christmas

By omo

Adult Swim's Manhattan Billboard off 7th

That fuzzy road sign to the right corner says “West 34th St.”

If you’re familiar with American traditions, you’d know that New York City is a special place to be this time of the year. To me most of that magic is nonexistent, or rather, disassociated with the holiday season as much as just what happens. The city is lit up with lights, new store displays, multitudes of shoppers and tourists, and there’s the brisk, biting Arctic air. I think if any one of those is missing, it’s just isn’t the same. Because this happens every year, and pretty much I make at least one run during the holiday season, it is just a matter of course.

But this time there was no biting Arctic air. I really missed that.

Walking around midtown hot and bothered, I turned to the thought of Patricia Jaa Lee and her Haruhi “LOL I am playing Haruhi” job in the viral promotional video. And yes, she is actually pretty hot. I thought she was just a typical young actress back during her Power Ranger days (about 8 years ago, so in her early 20s). If you know me well, you’ll know I almost never make these kinds of comments, out of some kind of progressive notion of feminism respect and that I just don’t feel comfortable sizing up real life girls that way. And to be honest, she isn’t THAT hot. But compare her to Aya Hirano is really comparing a typical voice actress with a typical Hollywood actress…and that’s who they are. In other words, no comparison, sirs. I think the candid camera aspect of the video also helped, but it’s a whole different class.

Now that I’ve returned with various loot (like Kanon 2002 OST 2…and a first print copy of Heaven’s Kitchen…and some Shiina Ringo CD…and a calendar and a gift). I’ll put my mind towards the effect of aging and improving a person’s skill in the useful arts. A lot of people may think ill of the lolicons especially with all this Hongfire talk. Why? It’s not that we just want to protect kids–that’s fine and all, but these people just have it wrong. It’s like suddenly there’s a group of people telling the world, for them, 2 plus 2 is 733.61. Sure, it doesn’t hurt anyone, and on their job application and exams they very well can pretend that they can add 2 to 2, but it’s all besides the point. Some amount of aging is good! People are like wine, sometimes, y’know? They get good, then turn sour.

Well, to be fair, let’s give Aya Hirano a few years. I think there’s still some promise there.

1 comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Suzumiya Haruhi no Uuutsu

December 2, 2006

Lament – Motto Motto

By omo

Life got in the way, so I’m to apologize for missing out on the Animesuki karaoke shoutcast even in its entirety (it’s like 7 hours long). What’s equally worse is that I didn’t get to submit a song as various real-life things got in the way of that, too. I really should post “we demand re-airing!” or some nonsense.

But at least I can return Jal a favor by doing a request from someone else. (Did that make sense?) You hear that? I managed to record something a few days ago, but it didn’t come out well so I didn’t mix it (it sort of desynch’ed). Alas, it also means I didn’t get a chance to do so until right now, really. And even then I didn’t arse around with the entire clip. Enjoy the terror.

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