Soundtrack Slice

August 29th, 2008

What’s this? Sort of like what Darry’s Derailment does, just a little bit of counting down on anime-related musical notes the past few months. Links for the actual products are going to be affiliated links :x

6. I dig Momoi’s Cover Best Live DVD. It’s always a happy event when the complimentary CD to the live concert DVD is a hybrid with all the audio already in mp3 format. And while she didn’t do every song I wanted to hear (or more like, they just weren’t on the DVD), enough of them were.

5. Aira Yuuki released a CD just a month or two ago, and it’s still quite pleasant overall. I think, like Eufonius’s Riya, her voice is quite suited for certain kinds of arrangement and compositions. And for some reason, luck or otherwise, that kind of music works well with shows like Sola or True Tears, shows she was tied with. Perhaps another half-decent anisong singer in the making?

4. Suara’s full album. It captures this nice stretch the past year and a half where she worked on some shows that I actually bothered to watch! It would be higher on the list if the tracks that weren’t in any anime were better. As it stands, tracks like Wasurenaide, BLUE and Hikari no Kisetsu kick the crap out of the others, because of the anime tie-ins. But how many people bothered to watch Kimikiss, Blue Drops anime, and Asatte no Houkou anyways?

3. Kurenai’s soundtrack is kind of simple, almost crude. Still, it is fundamentally sound and very much a no-nonsense Japanese jazz style. The 2-CD package gives you twice the punch for less than twice the price. The piano quintet organization on the first disc makes me think of Eminence, but it is the piano solos that serve up most of the enjoyment for me. Both discs score high but I think the first one worked out better overall, even if the memorable tracks are mostly on the second.

2. Macross Frontier sounds are still awesome. I’m not bowled over like other folks are with Sheryl’s new song although it is quite alright, and I’m even more indifferent about Lion. Still, I like this stuff. It’s back to Nyan Furo for me still. And already got the second disc preordered.

1. JAM Project No Borders tour is on DVD now, with the Taiwan backstage stuff as omake. I guess it is only #1 because I am fortunate enough to be able to go see them. If you didn’t, you can get a taste now! Now just hope that the American leg of the tour gets on a DVD later…


Posted by omo in Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Modern Visual Culture with 3 comments.

Crying Lesbians

August 27th, 2008

The Island of Lesbos is full of Lesbians. And they are crying foul because of the homosexual agenda.

Originally I just wanted to make a point that Author was misleading about the episode/disc count on the DVD you can’t buy Marimite as singles, so only Netflix tards care about how many episodes are on each DVD. And to be honest why the hell are you not buying it? I boughtpreordered it as soon as it came up for preorders, it must be good! [As a note, yes, Marimite does have a female audience (scroll down to the comments to realize the girls are the fans; the dad is just the gateway)]

Joking aside, I am going to address the greater problem Author casually referenced. There are actually very few anime out there that explores the whole homosexual thing, and somehow the few good ones that even dabble in that grey, ambiguous area of interpersonal drama get trumped up to be some dogmatic gospel for yuri or yaoi people. For better or worse, it causes an undesirable effect for other folks who do not want to associate themselves with it, or worse, become mislead.

I’m looking at you, Simoun. (Don’t I always?) For what it is worth, you ought to watch it regardless how you feel about yuri, if you are an anime fan with a knack for drama. Because that’s what is good about it. In fact, by the end of the series people generally wouldn’t care about who pairs up with who at all. And it’s a tragedy (although in this case not the fault of anyone else but the show’s creators) that most people will not be able to see past the yurilicious covers and the squad of pretty girls going to war in throes of angst and lust?

I don’t think the same can be said of Marimite exactly, but it’s the same microscopic interpersonal drama + moe elements with a yuri shell that is the core driving force behind its plot, charm, and popularity. I remember an interview (or was at a con?) with Ikuhara about Utena years ago, and he pretty much used the whole homosexual angle to illustrate the deeper theme about conforming to societal norms and not to make a comment about homosexuality. That attitude is still quite prevalent in the mainstream, and that includes far majority (99%?) of anime out there. It’s just a hook, guys.

Still, for fans I think that’s fair game. And just about everything is fair game for fans, I concede. But I don’t think everything is fair game in marketing and reviews. I’m tired of this sort of panning. The whole “judge a book by its cover” nonsense. Actually I take that back–it’s worse: “judge a book by its genre.” Or is it even genre? More like what tropes it reminds you of?

The silver lining is that we’re not at the “judge a person by her sexual preferences” level yet. Seiyuu maniacs excluded.


Posted by omo in Maria-sama ga Miteru, Simoun, Popular Culture, Modern Visual Culture with 4 comments.

Xam’d Episode 7 - She’s Climbing the Wrong Tower

August 27th, 2008

You could say this is another build-up episode, where they are working hard to bring Haru and Akiyuki back to each other. The next episode previews as much, but will they find each other at the ends of a gun? ..More


Posted by omo in Xam'd, Modern Visual Culture with 2 comments.

A Kodak Moment

August 25th, 2008

(Click on the links to get full size imageLOLZ; I hosted them instead at their original locations.)

<Zepy> http://[edited]/up37929.jpg
<Zepy> face
<Momotato> lol
<Zepy> http://[takeaguess]/up37935.jpg
<Zepy> face
<Momotato> :(
<Zepy> http://[easyone]/vl2_041768.jpg
<Zepy> face
* Momotato slaps Zepy around a bit with a large trout


Posted by omo in Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Modern Visual Culture with 9 comments.

Digital Distribution?

August 23rd, 2008

This may be tl;dr, but the short of it is simply put by two observations, and two predicted fan reactions.

  1. If you want to see the latest and greatest anime legitimately distributed in your local region, you need to show them the money. In other words, don’t expect things to be any cheaper than buying it on DVDs.
  2. It becomes a catch-22 because collectors are the only ones who would pony up, and they’re already buying the stuff anyways. Worse case scenario in this situation would be the average fansub-viewing, DVD-buying fan and not your nothing-buying fans.

..More


Posted by omo in English-Language Modern Visual Fandom, Modern Visual Culture with 13 comments.

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