Whats in Store?!

I know what you're going to say, It has beena while, now that the move to Uni is complete, and I've adjusted all I've needed to, its about time I get down to reviewing the latest and great animes and other geektastic things that come my way. Now, although I've been away I haven't been takign a break. One of my friends over here happens to be quipt witha terrabyte external hardrive and all the anime/ manga I could ever ask for, besides that I've got some new bands that you ma find wicked awesome, to top it all off, I'll be back reding american comics/ canadian (thanks to the illustrious Scott Pilgrim, of which the next volume I eagerly await).

Things to look forward too:

Anime Reviews-
Baccano!: Easily the best anime I've seen in years, and probably my in my top 3 favorite anime openings.

Detroit Metal City: I went through this one basically at the speed of "11 rapes per second" (watch the anime to get the joke/quote), this is the 13 episode anime ova for the movie, and its one of the funniest things I've ever seen, I've got to hand it to the manager for being the best character in the series.

Higurashi: Ok, Higurashi made me scared to be alone in my dorm room, honestly I don't know if I'll ever look at preteen girls without a shiver of fear for the rest of my life. Something about the lighthearted animation mixed with a story (season 1) that can only be described as a mind#@$!, it's another one that I highly recommend if you're able to deal with torture, brutal murder, and a chilling story (all involving children, so dad sit this one out).

Nana Movies 1&2: I've wanted to watch Nana for a long time, but never got aroudn to it, thanks to Johnson, a friend, and academic brother from Hong Kong a group of us were able to go through both of them. I have to say that half the reason I wanted to watch the second one was because I fell in love with Mika Nakashima, but if you get a chance check them out, romantic/comedic/drama will definitely ensue. :D

Code Geass: How could I forget about the anime that made my summer/ made leaving for uni so painful. Clamp designs with fun mech fights and Lelouch's godlike "strategery", makes this series one thats hard to put down.

Music Reviews-

Go!Go!7188: Don't ask me about thier name, but these girls know what it means to make music, the song I have linked to them on my sidebar is my favorite. I've been listening to them for over half a year now and they don't get old the way many japanese girl bands do (although this one has a guy drummer!).

Flow: I admit I started listening to them because of their first (they have more) Naruto opening even so, after I downloaded their "best of" album I really started to like them, that and a mix of the ultra addicting Code Geass opening.

Tokio: This is a band I got in my huge music dvd from the Kuretakes, They were on my iPod Shuffle for about a week, they're one of the bands that never makes it big in the US but seems to be (or has been) popular in Japan. Most of thier stuff has a ridiculous 90's feel.

American Comic & other shenanigans-

Scott Pilgrim: Probably the best comic I picked up during the summer, this is one for the whole family and especially if you're a nerd in any way shape or form. Scott Pilgrim takes place in the far and distant land of Toronto Canada and everything about it makes it hard to put down, let it be the anime/game references, the humor, or just the fact that Scott, our hero, has to fight Ramona's 7 evil ex's. If you want to read anything in the way of comics within the next year, I'd suggest finding the first copy of this.

Queen & Country: My freind over at Yeahbuhwhat? got me this before my trip to the old country, I have to say I started reading it on the plane and didn't stop until I finsihed the thing. It was a great to start off my long stay over here, if you're interested in spies, current events (now passed), or Her Magesty's Secret Service I'd suggest giving this a run through. Yet another great title by Oni Press.

Generation X: Yes Kiddies the moment you've all been waiting for has arrived, I'll finally get aroudn ot reviewing one of my favorite X comics (and comics in general) of all time Generation X. From my URL alone you should be able to tell this one meant a lot to me, you can't really beat a highschool environment (drama and comedy sure to follow), with mutants, a dash of everyones favorite Irishman, Banshee, and a sprinkle of that Hellion Leader we all know and love, Emma Frost. It's getting hard to find theswe days, but if you can start at the beginning, then do it, you won't be let down. PS- this may be one of Jubilee's biggest roles in a comic, so if you're a fan check it out.

Love Oni? The watch this!

Well thats all for now, I'm going to finish some work over here, keep checking back, I'll try to update whenever I have a free moment (the ones not devoted to Higurashi that is).

Don't forget to check out my graceful Super Smash playing skillz right here! My tag in all videos is Vin.

My Favorite J-Pop group Review: Mihimaru GT

Hey there Otakus of all ages, I'm fairly shameless in what I listen to and what I watch. I mean if I get teary eyed by 5 Cm/Sec you can only imagine that my music choices are not exaclty what the kids wold call hip. . . unless possibly if you're from Japan. Basicaly what happened was my host family gave me their computers entire music library, which turned out to be 4 and a half days of japanese music for me to go through. Thas how I discvered Mihimaru GT, I had learned and preformed a class dance to one of thier songs and completely forgot about it until I got my hands on their "Best of" CD. So lets break down exactly how I feel about this band.

There are few if any songs besides 気分上々↑↑ that will give me sucha a strong mixture of joy and nostalgia, this was the song my class danced to for the sports festival day, and as a result it has a permanent place in my heart. Coincidentally the song is also considered their major break that took the band from average success to Stardom. The band is a duet of Miyake and Hiroko, who came from mildly successful singing backgrounds until 2003 when the two got together to form their band. They use the name a a reminder of the joint effort by "Mihi" being a combination of the first two letters (in japanese this would probably be the first hiragana) of each of thier names and "Maru"meaning perfection. I found Miyake infinitely cooler when I learned the GT stood for Gran Turismo, her favorite game.

The actual music is mostly composed by Miyake, since shes credited as being a composer. Their music has a J-Pop/Hip-Hop sound, you may think this standard practice in Japanese music now a days, as is the trend in the US too, but Mihi is a bit different. Most would expect Hiroko to do most of the rapping, which does happen often, but it's not unusual for Miyake to step up to the plate and break it down on her own, her voice takes on a slightly harsher tone when she does, but its not necessarily a bad sound, its appropriate for what she has to do, it's just a strong difference from her singing voice, if anything its closer her natural voice. Nevertheless the two work well together because of the effect the two produce, with their stylistic and tonal differnces, its a unique combo not generally found in J-Pop today.

The instrumental aspect is, as you'd expect, mostly either DJ'd or run with unnammed band members, since most of the music would be hard to reproduce in any other way but technological. This doesn't give them a fake sound like you might expect, it just allows them more liberty with changign their style form song to song, much in the same way RIP Slyme plays with music genres so does Mihi. I can't honestly review this group because no matter what they end up creating I'll probably still listen to it, becasue they're associated with such a monumental and surreal experience for me. Whatever the cas, they wouldn't be popular if peopel didn't like them, so I suggest you give thema try. If you lke them enough I'll burn you some music. ;)



The Song that started it all for me:
気分上々↑↑

A bit slower paced, like an afternoon bike ride through a city feeling:
Love is. . .

Really bringing out stylistic differences (this is another of my favorites):
ツヨクツヨク

This one is just sort of happy:
願 ～negai～

Miyake shows us her rapping skillz:
H.P.S.J. (mihimaru Ball MIX)

Hipper Music Reviews: RIP Slyme

Alright, I'm newer to these guys than most that I review. I first encountered Rip Slyme in the opening of Gantz. No joke, I don't even think I was watching the anime, I just stumbled upon it and fell in love with the music, the anime for as much criticism as it gets chose a fantastic opening to sell the series. The music to Gantz is called Super Shooter, and its highg energy in the same way that MCAT is for Tenjhou Tenge, except its the "on crack" version as far as beats and rhythem goes.

So as for the actual band, their a small group of 4 guy, Ryo-Z, Ilmari, Pes & Su, and 1 DJ, Fumiya. Their pretty well balanced interms of sound and voicing, what I mean is that the range for each meshes well with thte others, you have a couple guys that can get intot he higher range for guys when needed, the beauty of it is thoguh, that becasue of the music they put out, they really only have to stay in their comfortable range and the pitch jsut adds pace to the music. That may sound confusing but if you listen to Super Shooter, or Nettaiya you'll understand that when Masatsugu Chiba comes on to rap his solo part, the intonation of his voice jsut naturally picks uup the pce of the muci, depsite the rythem staying the same. Watch the vid's and youll understand, hopefully.

The actual rythem and music is more on the techno and digital side than most Hip-Hop bands. Althgouh this is a giant depature from what we expect when we listen to american hip-hop, the japanese are much less inclined to have a song with a dinky music maker, with a drum and cymbal backing it up. This started to become evident when I listened to a lot of Orange Range, the closest I can get to finding an american or western band would be the Gorillaz, wher ethe music streches from rap to rock. Regardless both Orange Range and J-pop stars like M-Flo have serious electronic influences in all the music. Orange Range Review to come soon.

Anyways, the videos are generally fun to watch and some fo them you'd rather not be around people while watchign (take Nettaiya for example). As for the music in general, I'm a fan of their faster paced stuff, not sayign their jazz influence (Hot Chocolate) or slower songs aren't as good, but after Super Shooter I just adore their fast rap style. Enjoy.

Funtastic Links:

Fast and Furious (listen for the player 1-4 solos at the end)
Super Shooter

I really like this one a lot now
Blow

Jazzish
Hot Chocolate

Slower now
Dandelion

Probably the best visuals and nice relaxation ;)
Nettaiya

Vacation?
Rakuen Baby

Just for good measure
Speed King

The Place Promised in Our Early Days

In an alternate timeline, Japan was divided after losing World War II: Hokkaido was annexed by "Union" while Honshu and other southern islands were under US sovereignty. A gigantic yet mysterious tower was constructed at Hokkaido and could be seen clearly from Aomori (the northernmost prefecture of Honshu) across Tsugaru Strait. In the summer of 1996, three 9th-graders had made a promise that one day they'll build an aircraft and unravel the tower's mystery, but their project was abandoned after the girl, Sayuri Sawatari, began experiencing sleeping sickness and transferred to Tokyo for better treatment. Three years later, Hiroki Fujisawa accidentally found out that Sayuri had been in coma since then, and he asked Takuya Shirakawa to help him finding a way to revive her. What they don't know yet is that Sayuri's unconsciousness is somehow linked with secrets of the tower and the world.
~Anime News Network

It finally happened, I got up the nerve to watch another Makoto Shinkai Anime. Now most people would scoff at me for being wary of an anime title, but Shinkai takes the experience to a whole new level, honestly this is the man behind " 5 Centimeters per Second" a movie I was enticed to see by my uncle during the Otakon, to my everlasting shame I'm probably still feeling the effects of watching it. The song, "One More Time, One More Chance" by Masayoshi Yamazaki, still beings me close to tears if im not feeling my 100% evil genuis attitude. Honestly though I did have to listen to it about a dozen+ times to get over the songs effect on my personal well being ;) . But I listen to a lot of music, this song would have just been a nice vocal acoustic piece if it hadn't been for the anime sequence that accompained it. Which brings us to just what makes Shinkai s good at what he does, he;s really able to bring out emotion from any situation that he wants, I mean, "5 cm/ second" wasn't anything more than two freinds falling out of touch after one moves away, and the occasional thoughts they have of eachother. Luckily for us, he's not so cruel as to just make us want to commit sepukku everytime we flip on the TV, and being the good and gracious creative God that he is, has given us a movie that doesn't make us wish we had stopped watchign half way through.

On to the actual anime now, I have to say I really enjoyed watching this more than most movies of the genre. As with most of Shinkai creations, we're guarenteed beautiful animation coupled with a compelling story that doesn't go to far trying to explain back sotry or history in the short amount of time alloted. He has a really good sense of timing and how far to take certain issues before it becomes boring history that doesn't develop the character relationships or progress the story. Now I'm stressing this fact because "Early Days" deals builds ona a complicated back story of japanese civil war and international involvement mixed with scientific concepts that may be slightly unfamilar to those not in school or in physics, in spite fo this Shinkai more than competantly explains everything bit by bit so that it's clear how Sayuri's condition and astrophysics coincide or how the imminent japanese civil war will affect the goals of Hiroki and Takuya.

After a certain point in the movie, we really only communicate with Sayuri through dream sequences slightly reminiscent of Shinji's annoyingly long mental breakdown moments, Shinkai doesn't let these run rampant and tear us away from the current story line that holds us so entranced. For 90 minutes of movie, the veiwers get to know the charaters as people, instead of the general types that we generally find in most anime. What I mean to say is that Takuya comes off more as a complicated individual torn between whatever may be conflicting in him than "the really smart cool guy who gets all the girls but never seems interested/ loner".

Like I said earlier, the animation is gorgeous like all of Shinkai's other works, he's behind the stroy boards and animation for the most part, so you can expect to see the same quality and features tht you've seen in "Voices of a Distant Star" or "5 Cm/Sec". The animation actually brought memories or hopes of what the summer would be like for me, in a strange way the whole ethreal glow of the animation really got me excited for the summer, it's like the scenery seemed surreal but not far off from soemthing you could find yourself admiring about your local small town city on a warm saturday night.

The music was well done and was never inappropriate for the mood set by the movie. If anything the music wasn't exactly noticable or too important, becasue the anime was generally in a tone of low tension and realtive peace. The violin solo was pretty to listen to, and what I liked more was that you could tell it was very important to Shinkai that the animation be timed to fit the one or two scenes that the solo was performed for us. One of the worst things that always takes away from any anime or movie is having a musical moment not match up in any way with the instrument, it ruins the illusion cast by the movie; "Evangelion: Death and Rebirth" has a series of beautiful scenes where the characters play cellos, violins, ect., and what made it work was the fact that the characters weren't just moving the bows across the strings without cooridination or sense of timing.

Finally, the most rewarding this about this movie, at least for me, was it was one of the few animes I get to watch that everything actually works out in the end, without spoiling anything, "Early Days" finishes without you crying your eyes out for days after or going to bed emotionally scarred. It's not as though I didn't have my doubts, especially approaching the end, but really, this is such a nice switch from the usual emotional masochism thats come to be characterist of Shinkai's work. If you have some time on a weekend and want to get away from the actioned packed world outside I'd highly recommend picking this up.

Music Review: Asian Kung-Fu Generation

Alright Fellas, this is my first music review, so cut me some slack, I promise I'll come back to these guys after I get better at rating.

I've been listening to Asian Kung-Fu Generation since I heard them open for Naruto or Full Metal Alchemist back in the day. Since then they've done a couple anime openings, the most recent and well known being Bleach's 8th Opening "After Dark". The Band's been around since 1996 but never recieved much attention until the 2000's. Their music stays pretty consistent in terms of sound and distinct Rock flavor, although this should in no way shine a bad or repetitive light on them, it's easy to tell when your listening to an Asian Kung-Fu song, but the same can be said about Trent Reznor, but we all love listening to NIN, right?

Alright on to the actual music, I picked up my first real album by them when i was in Japan and we were renting music. I searched out some Kung-Fu Generation and found Kimi Tsunagi Five M, one of thier earlier albums from 2003. I really enjoyed the album because it got me away from the massively popular Haraka Katana & Re:Write, that was posted all over the intenet. Much of the music tunes in to the same vibe you get when listening to the other two, the lead singer Masafumi Goto has a nice range in vocals, but he does tend to, eventually, get up to that stressed scream/yell we know ever so well from Re:Write. While talking about Goto, it should be known that he's also the bands rhythm guitarist, which lends us a reason why the music portion of thier work stays relatively consistent, its difficult to play mean riffs and shout your lungs out simultaneously, if you've ever tried it. The music is all about the rhythm guitar though,the lead seems to be there just to bring some fast and eloquent variation to the hard chords being played by Goto.

I'd definitely reccomend this band to any fan of harder, faster paced rock, especailly if your not put off by the fact that their screaming japanese lyrics at you. If you are a rocker, I feel this band has a pretty good staying power in terms of replay value, the only thing you'd want to avoid is listen to a song like "Shindou Satoshi" when your down, because you won't be able to seperate the song from the feeling. This does work in reverse though, whenever I listen to "Haruka Katana" I feel like I need to go running. As for music videos. you just have to watch the one for Kimi to iu Hana to get the quarky kind of band they are, or Haruka Katana for thier more garage band apperance. How ever see them they tend to be pretty cool looking no matter what thier wearing (suits and wings in After Dark :) ).

Check them out here:

Kimi to iu Hana: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=1CUqWDL2Sn0&feature=related

Haraka Katana: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=HnvsJDD2CV0&feature=related

After Dark: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=8ko0zp2aFew&feature=related