She Is Otaku, So I Write about It
I really like Halko Momoi’s cover albums, because she knows where it is at. This is notable personally because I feel mildly indifferent to much of her post UNDER17 works. And writing about her just reminds me, damn, U17 was good. Okay, enough of that.
Anyways, this is just a head’s up to you and me, about Himeka’s “first” album. It’s a cover album! If you don’t know her story, she’s just this anison wota from Canada who somehow got a break and got signed in Japan under Aniplex. She’s got like, 4 songs under her belt that could be called hers, but obviously you know she’s just dying to do a duet with Nana Mizuki, on the inside.
You can read about it from Mai’s or from the source. I’ll try to follow up when web retailers start to list this. In a way, Himeka is a tad like Susan Boyle, who has not a whole lot to go on besides her voice and that out-of-the-ordinary appeal, with the unlikely background weaving together an appealing package. To some. I have no doubt this girl knows these songs though. I mean, look at the selection (thus far):
- Yuzurenai Negai - Everyone who can range it does it. Would be a surprise if it wasn’t included!
- VOICES - Not a surprise either!
- Last regrets - I see trouble ahead!
- Sore ga, Ai desho - I always thought this is one of Shimokawa’s best.
- Hitomi no naka ni Meikyu - Another eroge adaptation! YamiBou no less. This is quite telling.
- DREAMS - Gundam X, throwback stuff! Probably chosen by committee? Fits her range I guess.
- BLAZE - From Tsubasa Chronicles. Egh.
- Tamashi no Rufuran - Another popular choice.
Totally not quite related, I just started to go through MOVE’s cover album (aff. link). Wow. Some tracks are really interesting, but there were some less-than-pleasant by-products. So you know, even if it seems like easy money, not every cover album works out. As for Himeka, hopefully we’ll get something more orthodox and less remix-y, because we know the girl can karaoke at least!
Year In Review: N-Squared List
Just like last year, I guess some things have not changed. This could be a reference.
Year In Review: Track List 2009 from #MALKeionbu
One thing I did recently was compile eighteen tracks cherry-picked anime music, and it results in a bunch of files that you can download (at your own peril). It represents a successful and experimental 26 weeks worth of activity for zzeroparticle’s MyAnimeList club, in which the participants discuss anime music. As I write, the club is on its merry way to week 33.
If you know me well enough you’d know music is my favorite niche within the fandom that is related to anime. Some cosplay, others fap to games, I attend Yoko Kanno’s concerts. In fact this may very well be why I am not big on manga: no music! And I go beyond that J-Pop or J-Rock stuff–I care also about anime songs and BGM.
The actual name that #MALKeionbu stands for is “Anime Music Piece of the Week club.” As you can see it isn’t really all that of a name, so the nickname is preferable IMO. It’s also no surprise it coincided with K-ON’s airing. I’ve already talked at some length about K-ON’s appeal from the strength of its source material, so I will not repeat it here. From another perspective, what we do at #MALKeionbu is precisely what Yui and the girls do at their club meets. It’s not serious business.
Still, it is like joining a club. I have to check the club site on a regular basis and listen to the entries when they are posted. I also opt to write and post my opinion each week, but that is optional. It’s another social circle, except these people shares this anisong fetish, and that’s always fun just being able to chat about things nobody pay attention to while watching anime.
Short of turning this into yet another recruit post, I will just tell you about the “best of” collection. Methodologically it is composed of the winning entries we’ve had from weeks 1 to 26. Members then can opt to rank the list, and I compile everyone’s preferences into a finalized track list by trimming it down to less than 80 minutes and arranging the ordering of the tracks. The gang helped put together a liner note file with the track names and credits, plus some notes.
Not bad for 3 weeks’ worth of work. I hope you enjoy it; it might very well be the weirdest set of 18 anisongs that you only know ~30-70% of. And I mean everybody would know 30-70% of it, regardless how unfamiliar or how expert you are with anisong! It’s the oddest thing. If you care to give it a spin, make sure you read the liner notes for some randomness!
Year In Review: A New Light on Otagei
Wotagei or otagei, which is when you got a bunch of fans (or wotas, if you wanna be all weeaboo) jumping around in semi-pre-coordinated fashion, is something unique to Japan’s music scene. I think. It might even be particular to the Akiba-kei scenesters. It’s not new. It’s also kind of both casual and serious. It’s also something that has largely seeped into the foundation of seiyuu/geek idol fandom in Japan.
I was never a big fan of wotagei; the American in me is too cool (for school kind of cool) when you go rock out. Just moving to the music uninhibited is all you really need to do at a show, as long as you observe some protocols appropriate for the type of show you are attending. Understanding the elements that may appear at a live is just a good safety tip, at any rate.
What 2009 did for me was wisp me to Japan, and inside Nana Mizuki’s largest concert to date. Sold out as NHK’s Akiba-kei headliner/promooooootion girl, she brings a professional announcer’s voice to Kohaku’s online campaign against falling viewership over the years. Still, this is the same Nana Mizuki that voiced in Tsuyokiss, after all, so to many of us she is still on the home team no matter where she is going on that Friday night. At any rate, as a bright spot in an otherwise dim media economy, Japan’s Akiba-kei culture (lack of a better term) is something to be cheered on for its international fans and cherished by the locals. I think that’s why Nana Mizuki gets something she probably deserves, being the hottest musical artist on that bandwagon.
But what I saw in that Seibu Dome live was something truly unique to Japan, when loosely organized fans whipped out their Ultra Oranges and turned the Eternal Blaze into a visual metaphor, even if by the end of the song some sticks were already dimming! Is this a mono no aware moment laced with irony, or what? The sight was as amazing as it was massive. The dimmed stadium was lit brighter by the countless light sticks than its natural backlight through the overcast sky and what little stage lighting did for a venue as vast as a 35,000+ baseball stadium. (I think only 28,000 seats were available with the particular staging configuration at the show). I didn’t think all those little orange sticks could overcome even an overcast sky, but it was near dusk and, well, Seibu Dome is a dome.
It’s one thing to look back from the front row seats during a particularly heated moment of a great live and check out what everyone else are doing. I’ve seen just a range, and am in no way an veteran–just various amount of moshing and surfing, the waving of glowing items (candles, lighters, cell phones, etc), and some of the stuff stuff in between. Otagei on the level of this Nana Mizuki performance is something else entirely. Maybe it’s that they’re using Ultra Oranges, which are military-grade light sticks that are as brilliant as a hundred burning suns (I exaggerate), but it lasts only for a few minutes. Maybe a baseball stadium spreads the crowd much better than something like the Saitama Super Arena, not to mention Seibu Dome is architecturally unusual for a baseball stadium. I don’t know. Maybe it was my vantage point, somewhere high up enough to see most of the crowd, but low enough to feel that I’m still in the middle of it. Maybe I was just excited about hearing one of my favorite Nana Mizuki songs playing live, by the real deal herself.
The term herd mentality comes to mind. I suppose when I am in Rome, I ought to do what the Romans do; once you have a clue what otagei is, the act felt natural. It’s a mentality, a way to look at how to approach a concert or an event like this. It’s not just something like a weird set of dance moves that makes me feel disgusting (well, that’s a separate thing), but it certainly is a mentality that isn’t so far apart from other shared geek behaviors like elitism or knowing where to line up at your favorite home convention, laughing at noobs doing otherwise. This is about what moves are for what part of the song where and when and with what color light sticks you break out. The difference is the end result–nine of ten concert goers will prefer this over other random fandumb, I imagine.
I’m hoping they caught that on the DVD/BD being released later this year.
On that note, Americans don’t otagei. This is a country that finds its individuality through freedom of worship, so that kind of mass-coordinated thing seems unlikely. Although I might still pull out some Ultra Oranges (because they’re freaking awesome), and although some people will still do the deed (as in, freedom of worship), I think when they’re in Rome, they should do what the Romans do!
[edit] Check out this digest clip…for a visual clue how crazy the fans could be…
Year in Review 2009:
Animelo Tradition 2009
Like last year, Animelo 2009’s home video isn’t slated for release until early 2010. They’ve finally released the details, and it is similar to last year’s setup–a DVD/BD 2-SKU set.
I wonder if Lantis Fest will ever do something like this… I actually wanted to see that more than Animelo this year.
I might have mentioned this before but I’d like to get my Animelo discs by the Winter holidays because they are like, 4+ hours each, and you get two of them. It takes a while to go through all that concert footage even fast forwarding half the time. Then again it isn’t like I have nothing else to watch… (If all goes well I can instead watch Nana Mizuki’s Seibu Dome live…)
The February release date makes February even deadlier from a”buy more media” perspective. There’s already that Final Fantasy 13 thing but even if I was immune to that, Level 5’s White Knight Chronicles is coming out weeks earlier. Plus, there are a bunch of other stuff coming out that month that aren’t video games…
You have to ask yourself–if watching these shows at home is such a hassle, how does it feel doing it in person? Add in the line con for getting merch and the standing-for-hours and what have you. And back-to-back for some of these folks at the Anisama Live… Sounds fun.
