#I know the quality is bad but I love this PV and this song so much it hurts

[villapaitapeli]

Some lesser known idol/music franchises

A list of some lesser known music franchises I follow. Not really a proper recommendation/introduction post rather than just some personal thoughts. Also I haven’t properly ‘gotten into’ many of these, just listened to the songs... maybe one day when I have time 💪😔

Akroglam

A neat little audio drama project with a futuristic setting and chill music. Finished in early 2022 and no longer releasing new content. Found out about it thanks to the collab with Denonbu, which is funny since roughly half a year later one had died a hero and the other lived long enough to become a villain (eneftees). I only followed it for the ~6 months before it ended, but it’ll stick with me for a long time thanks to the story, aesthetics, girls and especially the music being so good. I listen to every single one of the original songs (yes, the have covers too which are good as well) regularly, and my most listened ones are Angraecum, Ilusion and True Colors. I honestly can’t recommend this project enough, the whole story and (almost) all of the songs are on their yt channel in full length so do check it out if you’re even a little bit interested. The early chapters have English subtitles too.

Burns Skool

I found out about this one thanks to Taichi You (Chacha in t7s and also has a role in Akroglam!) tweeting about it. I honestly haven’t delved too deep into the story or characters, but from what I’ve gathered it’s elementary school boys making hype music. It’s really nice to listen to boyish female vocals every once in a while, and I was happy to find Fairouz Ai in the cast in addition to aforementioned Taichi. My favorite song so far is probably Gradation Age.

Junketsu Surfinia

A girls love idol project that I found out about thanks to none other than Akina. Currently a very modest sized project and you can kind of hear it in the production of some of the songs, but I really hope it finds its audience and has a chance to grow. The songs are available for purchase on their Booth store even for overseas customers, which was a nice surprise for someone who’s used to jumping through hoops to buy JP releases. The song (Lide On, Akina’s solo of course) even came with a pdf with English translated lyrics.

Charms!!

Another project that releases its story on their yt channel, this time in a more VN/social game -ish form. I’ve read/watched/listened to the earliest chapters and found the setting interesting and the characters very wholesome and cute, so I was a bit disappointed to see they had chosen a pretty safe direction with the songs when they began releasing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that or that the songs are bad or anything, in fact I think the production values are good and have found a handful to listen to (Kesshite karenu hana and  Goodnight Honey for example). Most of it so far just isn’t my cup of tea, but I’ll keep following the project as I really like the format and do think the quality is good.

Idol Bu Show

My most recent discovery. Haven’t really had time to check out the characters or story and all I know it’s apparently about Sengoku-era warlords producing their own idol units, which sounds just the right amount of wacky. I skimmed through the discography and somehow it felt very 00′s overall, in a good sense. The songs also have a lot of traditional Japanese elements as can be expected from the setting. The one song stuck in my head is however eurobeat (Brave Call ! ~& Just Now We come!~). There’s apparently an anime movie/PV of some sort floating around, so maybe I should check that out first if I plan to delve deeper.

LiveRevolt

Apparently this project ended after a lot of drama and setbacks, which is very unfortunate since the early songs especially are really good (my favorites are Aoku Nare and Set Fire). I regret not being able to follow the project when it was still active, since I do like its wilder take on idols. Maybe I’ll check out the manga which apparently has scanlations to ease my pain.

Denonbu

First of all, pirate eveything dnnb until scamco has pulled back the shady eneftee business it’s still attempting with this franchise. Now I obviously wouldn’t be this mad if this hadn’t been such an extremely promising project. During its first year it singlehandedly killed all my hype for a certain other dj girl project just by doing everything from music to character design to interacting with the fanbase better. The second year started off well with consistently good releases and promising lore, until they dropped the ball by jumping on a dying money laundering scam and now I really don’t know how to feel about this project. Guess I’m following the releases but refuse to give them any money and hope they’ll eventually snap out of it. Anyways, if I started listing every dnnb track I like it’d give me a carpal tunnel syndrome due to the discography being all around fantastic, so just go listen to Akina kill it on Itadaki Babel.

8 Beat Story

People always wonder how t7s has lasted so long despite not being profitable but for me 8bs will always be the real miracle. The game itself was outdated even at the time of the release (imagine the earliest version of llsif you can but somehow even clunkier), and nowadays it’s half dead with only a handful of events per year, but somehow still running. However, they keep releasing music, holding lives and continuing the story, which are the most crucial parts of the project, so I’m not worried for its future for now. Being such a small project gives it freedom to do basically whatever they want with the content, which has resulted in pretty ambitious or even crazy stories, and refreshing discography. I also can’t help but respect its occasional unapologetic edginess, mostly carried by the rival unit 2_wEI (Despair is a banger). The main idols also have a nice variety of songs, and I like the gimmick of mixing the 8 girls in different units depending on the song, with no set sub-units. Some of my favorites are BoyFriend, Count It Down and Genjimonogatari.

#mryyy #I was a bit hesistant to add dnnb since it's pretty well known already but at least I got to blow off some steam lol #also I kinda wanted to talk about IP and selepro but since they have TV anime and all they're popular enough in my book #also sorry for d*dj slander I don't hate it or anything I just happen to prefer the direction dnnb took

[shishikusas]

ok so idk if you already know this but puppy lover on yt recently left their masa channel. truly the end of an era. but in their last video they asked for honest opinions on masa so I’m throwing my two cents to like the only other active masa blog on here hope you don’t mind👉👈 (if you don’t wanna read it just skip) what’s your opinion on mass’s songs lately??

So I really really love the onibi, sister and secret series. And ya I agree with a lot of the comments there— masa’s songs are lacking nowadays. He’s still a great guy, but all his songs sound the exact same (I believe it’s edm??) His old content was more original and actually had better pv’s.

But more than that for me they had better storyline. The onibi series had really deep lore, the sister series had a lot, the secret series had a bit too, and maha was full of it. That being said nowadays all of his songs share the same three themes of dr1nks, dr*gs and s3x. There’s no originality which made onibi such a hit. They’re all parodying off each other.

Also is it just me or is the anatomy on the newer videos a bit…off?? It seems like he’s emphasizing certain parts more than others and it makes the whole thing look a bit disproportionate. Idk if it’s just me, I’m not an expert by any means.

That being said, it’s not like his new content is bad by any means, it’s cool to listen to. And it’s nice. For a couple of times. It’s kinda insipid after that.

tldr masa’s old stuff was better than his new for me, and I miss it a lot. He’s still a good guy and the new music is cool but the onibi, sister and secret series will always have a place in my heart.

i just posted a comment on the video on puppy's channel, so i will copy it here:

i'll be completely honest in my opinion here. masa's stuff has not gotten worse, it has just changed and i still love it and listen to it, and it really disheartens me when people leave bc i feel like im just wandering around in a desert. like where did all the people go :( the community was so bustling in 2016-2019 and it just feels abandoned now.

there are some things i can agree on though. there was a time in 2019-2020 ish where i thought he wasn't living up to his full potential, or he was trying to create new stuff and hadn't gotten it completely down yet. and yes, it's easy to look through the lenses of nostalgia and miss all the lore stuff he used to do - i mean i fucking love the onibi series and all its lore but we probably aren't going to get another blog update for a loooong time.

but the reality is that masa is a different person now than he was in the early 2010s. he started creating music when he was 20 years old, and he's 32 now - that's a huge difference, he's a fully fledged adult now and probably has a lot more things to do and work on than what he used to. that's not even talking about the money aspect! obviously we know next to nothing about his personal life but he either has another job outside of making music or he relies on making these songs to support himself, and neither are conducive to making elaborate PVs or complicated lore (both which i know people revere him for and miss the most). instead he focuses on making the music he wants and PVs that fit his time, which by the way include MUCH higher quality art than in the past. idc what anyone says his anatomy was WAY wonkier back then than it is now.

im rambling, but ig my point is masa's changed, and it's an okay thing. his new EP, INSOMNIA, is really an amazing piece of work and feels kind of like the 'old' masa and i've listened to it many times on repeat, but it's not the same as the masa people became fans of him for. it's okay if you don't like it but i do, and i probably always will. unless he starts making country music or smth ;)

TLDR: i love masa's music even now and understand that his style has become much different than before, and there's many reasons for that.. he holds such a big place in my heart and i will support him thru his endeavors!

#long post #masa works design #vocaloid #ask #IT MAKES ME SO SAD I MISS THE COMMUNITY BUT ALL THE PEOPLE FROM WHEN IT WAS SO LARGE ARE GONE NOW #SOBS #COME BAAAACK

[chibimyumi]

🍵Japanese Reactions☕ Kuromyu 2021

Dear everyone, I received overwhelmingly many questions about Japanese audience reactions, so here you go!

Methodology:

For this post I logged out from Twitter to avoid any bias because of my own user algorithm, and just simply searched the term “kuromyu” (生執事) , and selected “latest tweets”. As you can see, all posts have the word 生執事 in bold, meaning that was my search term.  There are a LOT of reactions, I can’t possibly discuss them all. What I did was just search at any random point of time, and take every other comment. I censored the usernames of the commenter to protect some (ceremonial) level of privacy.

I watched the Kuromyu costume rehearsal and cried, this is not it，，I think it might be better to go to Osaka [performance] without expecting too much I shouldn’t expect the Kuromyu of until last time

Honestly no matter how often I watch [the musical] this time’s Kuromyu is fantastic... as someone who knows the energy of the original comics, I really enjoyed it...

In Kuromyu Violet and Chesslock were the real thing

Like Violet’s way of walking being so slothful it was like the real thing, and the rapping of Chesslock in the cricket scene was cool

The reception of this time’s Kuromyu is entirely polarised, and indeed [this production] has a very different taste than the ones until now so I also understand the people who criticise it, but I think that’s fine.

Click “keep reading” for (a LOT) more reactions. Don’t lie to yourself and not click it, I know you all want the tea. Here’s the tea (ÒvÓ)ノ☕

There’s so much thought going on now I have seen the PV of Kuromyu. Eh? Because he [probably Konishi (Ciel)] has roots in Tennis [Probably prince of Tennis] once he holds the cricket it just looks like he’s swinging a tennis racket.

Bocchan is just too big, I’m not sure about that.

I only watched until half way ー

Calling it the Prince of Cricket is too befitting😂 Such singing and dancing, the youthfulness is exploding. They sure have stamina. #Kuromyu

Ah ーSomehow a lot of memories just popped up tears really are welling up... even though my deep-seated grudge has now passed, my obsession for Kuromyu surfaced, and it felt like it got beaten to a pulp by its big brother...

My heart is recovering through the Kuromyu DVD but the big brother is still the big brother... sob...sob (the dirty wailing of an otaku)

TLN: Big brother here means something’s superiour or better.

It became this production that made me think: Never mind the actors but is it the problem of the makers? Erm. I think it’s a waste. Is it because it’s the footage of the first day performance?

I don’t have the feeling that it’s not that, but that it somehow became cheaper? Is a really strong thought I got from this performance. With this line-up [of cast/staff] it should have been able to create the high quality of Kuromyu, but the impression is that it was a mess.

I finished watching kuromyu. Erm... somehow... it was a theatre production that strongly reminded me of the first Lycoris (the cheapness of the set), felt like they tried to create the feeling of🎾but failed, and tried to do something trendy (🎤) but then the production lost the sense of unity.

Well Mr. Tate’s [Tateishi] Sebas was good, and Undertaker’s acting was good (make up...)

I’ve watched the stream of Kuromyu countless times and gotten used to the songs, and even though I miss the old Kuromyu, maybe it’s not so bad that somebody who can’t let go is rewatching something countless times. If next time they will do the Cult Arc or the Witch Arc I’d be pursuing it. Honestly I want them to stage Lycoris again ←

Kuromyu was this place where I got stimulated by Yuta’s TOHO quality, Ms. AKANE [Madam Red] and Ms. Son [Akisono, Frances]’s Takarazuka quality. The synergy of everything, the original manga’s story, actors, music, directing all were so perfectly done in the past three productions they sure have become a tremendous bar. Once again Yuta, thank you for playing Sebas for us for three times 🥺✨

Kuromyu really was too fun, I’m in trouble

Honestly ------------- Kuromyu was so fun !!!!!!!!! Yasue-kun, you also go watch soon!! Ah, you going tomorrow???

It might be quite unsatisfying for people who only watch Kuromyus that are like Imperial Theatre grand musicals, but I think it’s good that it’s a bit like the Kuromyus of the beginning of before when they adapted the manga arcs

I watched Kuromyu and had fun 😊

I cried, I laughed, it was amazing anyway!

It was the first time watching a musical for me but I think I’ve been sucked into it...

Shall I buy the DVD, I’m indecisive 🌀🤔💭

Now I’ve seen the PV of Kuromyu I don’t think it’s worth going at all... Even in the PV the vibe of 2.5D was ridiculously strong...

My friend went to watch Kuromyu and gave me the review: “I’ve seen all sorts of 2.5, why did they do this for Black Butler. It’s trivial.” I’ve only seen the PV so I won’t say anything, and I really get what I’m refraining from saying. But Mr. Kuma once tweeted the descriptions of Black Butler, I guess it’s fine that the Boarding School Arc feels like this 🤔

Click here for the translation of this tweet. The description of the Weston Arc is as such:

(To the people who will be going to see it I’m sorry)

They did say that the staff along [with the cast] would entirely be renewed, but I feel like they’re actively trying to shake off the fans of Kuromyu until now   I’m a bit sad but I guess I won’t be watching [Kuromyus] anymore... I feel like      But I am buying the stream    I’ll think about it after I’ve bought it...

Anyway about Kuromyu, my mom said she wanted to watch it too so I watched it again with her yesterday, and she sure had a lot to say 😶 My father pulled this weird face of “what is this even” and I had to see him off halfway 😑 I thought about buying the stream of the final performance, but I guess I don’t need a second viewing. I don’t feel like watching the archive either. I really liked the Kuromyu of until now, my shock is too big.

At the beginning [of the musical] we looked back on Lycoris, Circus and Luxury Liner... kinda like some sort of recap, but I thought “huh?”... now I just want to watch that. I used to like Kuromyu, I really have trouble accepting it this time it’s painful.

But honestly when talking about Kuromyu it’s the Sebas with the superb voice who sung about the dynamic with the little lord full of emotion and built the world view, and for better or for worse the world view of Kuroshitsuji is maintained through Sebaciel, the songs, the directing of Sebaciel, but what happened there. Whether you should watch it or not. The past 3 productions were masterpieces、、、

But Sebas is not Mr. Furukawa, Ciel is not Reo-kun and even Mr. Izumi’s [role] of Undertaker was unfortunately changed, this is the new Kuromyu huh...

I watched the stream of the first performance.

I liked the songs so I checked, and I knew it.

This time has a lot of laughing factors, and I thought it was good it had a fresh cast.

I didn’t expect the cricket scene to be taken that far. I thought it was Tenimyu.

Kuromyu, this time be it the story, script, directing or casting, I thought: “it’s more enjoyable to take up this [musical] while temporarily erasing the memories of until now ～🎶”, and I watched the theatre piece without looking back to the past productions, and that was the right decision   To the people who came to love Kuromyu of until now, it’s safer to watch it while temporarily erasing the memories.

Did Kuromyu turn into Tenimyu half way?! I thought,

and the Elite Musical → 2.5D Musical transformation I also felt

Konishibocchan being cutesy was cute, and the P4′s desperate faces resonated all went by in a flash

Above was the report from the theatre ☺️

I went to Kuromyu

I went into it knowing it’d surely be something different from the past productions so it indeed turned out to be so

There were parts that made me go “erm the script....” and also this part that made me go “was it really necessary to make Undertaker descend into that dream in Act 1 just because you wanted to give him stage time??”

I went into 2 shocks gradually

Sebas doesn’t sing He only sings properly at the very beginning of the beginning Even though he’s Sebas There’s no ending solo Even though he’s Sebas

You’re the ♪ah~a~a~ number-one main character though!! That’s why this one!!! Is the N・E・W production--!!!!

I am in shock

I   A M  I  N   S  H  O  C  K  ANGER!!!

I watched the Kuromyu stream!

It was TOTALLY 2.5D~❕❕😁It was also a school setting and the Tenimyu vibes were strong (laughs)

It’s a bit of a shame that Ciel isn’t played by a child actor anymore, but because he has more stage time than Sebas has this time I caccept it.

Sebas and Ciel’s visuals are also good ~ ☺️ 

It’d be even cooler if they increased the fight scenes with Sebas though.

@ivvy_toshiki [Tateishi Toshiki (Sebastian)’s Twitter account]

Thanks for the hard work in the performance.

Today I saw the “first viewing of Kuromyu” of my dreams 🥀😆 Regardless of what I could say Sebastian’s beauty is from beginning to end spellbinding ☺️  My eyes were very happy. moreover, the songs and the killing were also AMAZING 😍 my eyes were nailed to Sebastian. I want to watch it again 💕☺️  I wish that the performances will go without a hitch until the final performance ❕

I was so happy to see the recap of the past productions

I really liked the Circus Arc (original comics), and even though it was comedy it really dived into the darkness! That was the story I also didn’t expect to see the Luxury Liner Arc So Undertaker, for real... for

Up to the last time there weren’t that many songs in total, but there were songs like I shall become your pawn and sword and the contract that made me go BATHUMP--- I have to rewatch this number!!! It’s a shame that this time there were no songs like that.

#Kuromyu

Calling it the Prince of Cricket is too accurate 😂 They sang and danced so much, the youthfulness was bouncing off it. What stamina they have. #Kuromyu

What’s different from the last time is the strong 2.5D vibe...... Until now the ages [of the characters] were fairly faithful [to canon] and in a good way there was no 2.5D-ness and I could just enjoy it as a proper theatre piece This time both the casting including the music had a strong 2.5D vibe for better or for worse #Kuromyu

Very personally! Matsushita’s Sebas was “heavy as the evil of evil and beautiful”, and Furukawa’s Sebas was  “evil, strong and unapproachable and beautiful and gorgeous”, and Tateishi’s was “light hearted and beautiful and a florid kind of evil”!! (My vocabulary is failing me) All Sebastians have a different aura about them it’s fantastic!!! #Kuromyu

The new Sebas is good

Overall

It’s this arc so that it’d get a chit-chat idol? vibe was within the expectation The cricket of the second half had a bad vibe and I was sick of it It might have been different had I watched it live I don’t like the Boarding School and Green Witch arc that much to begin with I am looking forward to the appearance of the real Ciel That's it for now

I don’t know why I’m mentally dead but it must be that, I watched the Kuromyu stream and I am thoroughly dead, mentally dead, but as I managed to say this I’ve reached a level that I recovered a bit??? I am too tired but I don’t feel like sleeping, but if I doze a bit then I realise my fatigue and feel like sleeping unnecessarily

This time’s kuromyu... erm I guess I’ll quit 🤔

I’ll be rant-puking for a bit

I’ve seen a lot of Tenimyu and A-stage [Mankai A3] but it’s not like I wanted to see that in Kuromyu... What I wanted to see was Kuromyu...

I watched the video of the Kuromyu PV? but it’s impossible. Watching the PV [I thought] children should be played by children... and as I watched their interaction it’s not the character building I had in mind... and there’s no wound on the vice principal’s forehead. I planned to watch the stream of the final performance, but I’m hesitant about spending more money to watch that... If I can’t accept Ciel and Sebastian I can’t watch this, that’s just me...

Now I’ve read the reviews of Kuromyu all are saying it went back to 2.5D, and I think that it’s not worth going after all. It’s probably because the Kuromyus until now far surpassed the quality of 2.5D... I guess it’s fine if one were to go for the cast, but I really loved the Kuromyu of until now.

#Kuromyu #Kuromyu 2021 #Japanese Fandom #reaction #Secret of the Boarding School #My god that's a LOT and not even NEAR all of them #Maybe 5% at best? #I PROMISE you this was a random selection - I did NOT handpick them #I've never seen this level of outspoken negativity before in JP public spaces #Like it or not - ppl just hate it THAT much I guess!!!

[putschki1969]

Hikaru Tsumugu ~ Live Report

Notes: Got a 2-hour train ride ahead of me so I thought I’d use the opportunity to write up a little report. Please note that I was very exhausted during the live so I wasn’t able to pay as much attention as I usually would. Also, I didn’t know 7 out of the 17 performed songs so I had a hard time appreciating them properly. I didn’t cry which kinda surprised me. Maybe I was too tired. Hikaru did get a little teary eyed during the Kalafina section but aside from that, she was mostly happy and excited. Overall I think this live was much more powerful and cheerful in comparison to Hikaru’s birthday event from last year. Maybe that’s why it wasn’t as tearful. Then again, I know quite a lot of people who were sobbing like crazy. Anyways, let’s get this thing started:

Goods: I didn’t buy much tbh. The pamphlet, the tapioca set, the pen and the badges. The other stuff looked a little cheap if I am being honest. A little disappointed with the quality of the pamphlet. Quite expensive but very thin and it’s made up of some sort of rough paper material. Some pages have ugly printing marks (;_;)

Stage production: Pretty simple I’d say. The musicians were lined up on either side of a small staircase. There were some walls in the back and curtains/fabrics on top. They played the PVs of Hikaru’s songs during each H-el-ical// performance, it was nice to have the lyrics on screen to sing along. and for the other songs they mostly used elaborate lighting.

Hikaru’s look: As you can see from the pictures, she had her hair down for most of the live. It was styled very nicely with big curls. She wore a bold red lipstick. The live started with her wearing the white gown/coat. Pretending to take a drink, she went to her little table and all of a sudden she started stripping XD (it was like the Blue Day “signal” performance). She quickly dropped the coat during her MC before “Fili” and revealed a sexy red dress which was very reminiscent of the old Kalafina days (laces, corset style). After the instrumental she returned with a long blue dress that kinda reminded me of Kalafina’s 9+ONE denim style outfits due to the colour scheme. For her anisong section she surprised us once again by dropping the dress and revealing the sexiest outfit ever!!! Black high waisted leather pants and a black leather bralette. *nosebleed* During the encore she wore a black denim skirt and a long sleeved H-el-ical// shirt. Her hair was up. I wish they would have sold that shirt too since it looked much nicer than the normal t-shirts she was selling. As for shoes, she wore shiny black pumps with white laces. Speaking of laces, laces were definitely the main theme of her outfits that night. The coat, the dresses, her leather outfit and even her pumps had laces everywhere. Guess it all boils down to Tsumugu = Spinning. In her pamphlet you can see all the threads spinning around so I guess she was trying to go for the same vibe regarding her fashion. So glad Hikaru was kind enough to provide pictures of everything!!

Musicians: Everyone was in such a good mood!!! Gussy (Hikaru’s composer and one of the guitarists) was particularly hyped, he seemed to be really into it. Was a lot of fun to watch them perform.

Overall sound: I think for the most part, the live sounded great. Hikaru was in good shape and sang her songs well. If you don’t like the studio version though you won’t like the live version either. Hikaru pretty much used the same singing style which she used for the recording. The backing vocals were playing in the background to create a little more harmony. I think Hikaru was far more concerned about having fun rather than delivering a technically perfect performance! Hence, she ended up sounding a little off key or frail at times. Nothing that took away from the performance though. With someone as engaging as Hikaru I really don’t mind if the singing is less than flawless. Just seeing her having a blast was making up for any missed notes XD Wasn’t a particularly big fan of her anisong section because I didn’t know the songs and she got quite shouty there but I guess that was on purpose. Apart from some slightly screechy shouts she also did some very powerful shouts!

Random observations: The live was completely sold out! BANZAI!! The goods were also sold out (including the H-el-ical// CD). So happy for Hikaru’s “major debut“. I hope many people will watch the anime so she can have a lot of success as H-el-ical//. As has already been established, Keiko and LiSA were there to support Hikaru. They sat in the first row of the second floor (at the very left). Akihiro Tomita was also there. I think he might have taken up the role of producer. Masayuki Ohashi was also there. He was the one taking the picture of Keiko and LiSA. Then we have Takeshi Kato of course. I am expecting a SPICE live report very soon. When Hikaru did her infamous goods corner she also introduced her CD. Once again she mixed up Kalafina and H-el-ical// when she said that there were eight tracks by Kalafina included (during the SPICE broadcast she also mixed up the two if you can remember). It was super cute. Old habits die hard.

Amanhecer: Great start for the live, I LOVE this song. She sat on top of the stairs and sang it beautifully. It almost seemed like she was sparkling in her white coat. Like an angel.

Splendore: The pace really picked up here. Hikaru was running around on stage, jumping up and down. It was amazing to see her so happy. You can tell she was born to be a solo performer (something that cannot be said about Wakana XD).

粉雪 (Cover: Remioromen): Didn’t know the song but it was quite beautiful. Hikaru did a great job. Definitely one of the more memorable performances of the night.

WINTER SONG (Cover: Dreams Come True): Another song I didn’t know, unfortunately I didn’t particularly like it. Can’t really remember any details.

Fili:The first unreleased song from the CD. I loved it. Hikaru said it made her think of the earth. Too bad I can’t listen to my CD while I am in Japan.

Avaricia: Probably my second favourite H-el-ical// song. Awesome performance. Her dress was perfect for the more mature and jazz-y vibe of the verses. But of course my favourite part of the song is the chorus!

yolcu: Hands down the best H-el-ical// performance of the night (and my favourite song so far). This is such a good song!! Can’t believe how much I loved it! The way she was pushing her arm in the air, I literally felt power surging through me. Also, damn, Hikaru was so sexy moving to the exotic rhythm in her red dress.

Instrumental: That was kinda all over the place, didn’t really like it. It started with some sort of extension of “yolcu” and then it became very slow with just Hirotaka Sakurada and the violinist. Then the pace suddenly picked up again and everyone was playing. No idea if it was a special song or them just playing random stuff. I didn’t recognise it.

ARIA & blaze & sprinter: The Kalafina section was super special as expected. Hikaru said that she consulted Yuki Kajiura on the matter, about whether or not it would be a good idea to sing Kalafina songs. Everyone agreed that she should sing them if she wanted to, after all, they made these songs together (as long as the songs aren’t released on DVD/BD I am guessing Hikaru is free to sinf as many Kalafina songs as she wants). Only fitting that she should sing them. Also, her live is called “Tsumugu” which means spinning. It’s about the future of H-el-ical// which she is spinning right now but also about everything that has been spun so far and of course that includes Kalafina. It was just Hikaru, Saku-chan and the violinist. They used the acoustic arrangements from past performances. “ARIA” sounded different from her Birthday Event performance though. It was even slower and more dramatic. I LOVED it. Every time I hear a new version of “ARIA” I fall a little more in love with the song and Hikaru. If you have seen that short snippet of “blaze” in the 10th Anniversary Film then you get an idea of what it sounded like. “sprinter” was super emotional. Not as tear-inducing as during the Arena Live or during Hi’s B-Day Event but still, incredibly powerful. I definitely teared up and so did Hikaru!! “ARIA and sprinter” were shortened considerably since Hikaru didn’t sing any Kajiura-go parts. For the most part she also didn’t sing the Wa/Kei lines. I think she sang“blaze” in its entirety though (except for the bridge).

History Maker & Paradise Lost & 青空のナミダ: I have a hard time saying anything about these songs. I knew “History Maker” from the Birthday Event but the other two songs were completely new to me. No idea how the originals sound like but Hikaru certainly knew how to make the songs her own. I just wish she would have chosen songs better suited for her voice. Occasionally her singing sounded quite off. Or maybe I am wrong and the original songs simply sound like that. Most popular anisongs sound quite noisy to my ears. Whenever I am in Akihabara I have to cringe due to the loud not very pleasant sounding music playing in the background (I feel like it’s always something by Ao Eir or LiSA...no idea)...Hikaru was sexy as hell with her leather outfit so I mostly focused on that. Thank God I brought my binoculars. She was really bad-ass during the anime secret so it was a joy to watch.

Existence: I don’t remember anything about this song tbh, except that it had a very rock-ish vibe. I actually thought it was another anisong at first but then I kinda recognised Gussy’s trademark style and concluded that it must be the other unreleased H-el-ical// song. I probably won‘t be relistening to this a lot.

pulsation: Nice powerful ending! Nothing else to say about it.

EN

This is me: I had heard that song before but I couldn’t really place it. Either way, it was a very engaging performance! There are a lot of ooohhh parts in the song, Hikaru would sing one part and the audience would sing the other part. Everyone had a blast!! This was probably the most active song of the night in terms of audience interaction. Otherwise the audience was pretty tame I would say. Everyone remained seated during the entire live.

TSUMUGU: Not as emotional as I had expected, however, the lalala at the end killed me. We didn’t really sing along properly (neither were we asked to) but it was nice to have everyone waving. More teary eyes but no proper tears.

#hikaru #long text post #no read more because I have no idea howto add it #kalafina #report #hikaru solo live tsumugu #I am writing this while half dead #sorry for the weird formatting

[clairekatswritingcorner]

Peaceful Sounds and Flower Crowns

Word Count: 1,494

Summary: Felix and Bridgette agree to spend a summer afternoon studying together, but Bridgette gets a little distracted.

*Author’s Note*: I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, it’s a sweet little one shot based on this picture by @edorazzi. In my version of the PV, Bridgette lives with her grandparents above their bakery (which I don’t know if that was ever an actual show idea but at some point I came up with it). Happy summer and I hope you enjoy.

(Also available on my Ao3, found on my blog links)

Even though they had been dating for a few months now, considering Bridgette Cheng as his legitimate girlfriend still felt slightly strange to Felix. Not in a bad way, of course. He certainly didn’t harbor any lingering resentment for her or her bubbly and persistent personality; on the contrary, he had actually grown quite fond of those parts of her he used to find annoying. He’d seen such behavior as a nuisance when all he wanted was for her to take the hint to stay away from him, considering his aura of bad luck would run amok on anyone and anything that got too close to him. Felix was used to being prickly, unsociable, alone…keeping people at a distant was nothing new to him even before that coal black ring of bad luck sealed to his finger. But Bridgette, she practically made it her job to make it difficult for him to keep his distance.

Now, a few months after the truth of their superhero identities had been revealed to one another, Felix had to admit that being close to Bridgette was one of the most comforting things in his life. He loved seeing her smile, hearing her laugh, feeling her arm wrap around his as the two of them wandered the city on their days off—both from being students and defenders of justice. The sound of her feet pattering up to meet him, the brush of her hair against his chin when she hugged him, and the peck of her lips leaving a warm spot on his cheek that flooded with blush before he even knew what was happening all made his heart swell with identifiable emotions.  In short, he had never been happier.

This afternoon the two had the pleasure of getting together in a local park to study. While Bridgette’s grandparent’s bakery was their go-to study location, Felix had suggested they take advantage of the mild summer weather and appreciate a nice change of scenery while they were on break. Studying wasn’t Bridgette’s first idea of a fun date, but Felix was so insistent on getting a head start on their coursework for the coming semester she didn’t have the heart to not indulge him. The weather was warm, but not overbearingly so thanks to the periodic breeze.

Bridgette laid out a blanket for them to lounge on, trying not to grimace at the stack of books Felix removed from his backpack after setting it down. She put her chin on her knees and watched as he methodically unloaded them, tapping a finger against her leg as her eyes shifted from the books, to his face, to the flowers in the grass and bushes around them. Their aroma filled the area, surrounding them in a sweet, calming mixture of scents that brought a drowsiness over her.

“Hey, are you sure you want to do this today?” Felix’s voice startled her, and Bridgette snapped her eyes open, adjusting her sitting position and nodding earnestly.

“Of course! It’s just so nice out, I got a little caught up in all the sounds and smells.”

“You pay attention to that stuff?” Felix inquired, disbelief displayed on his face and in his voice. “The city is the same today as it always is.”

Bridgette giggled, and her laughter only deepened the crease in Felix’s forehead. “Am I missing something?”

She shook her head, scooting closer to him so she could rest her head on his shoulder. “You and I just see the world differently. Vastly different. It isn’t a bad thing, though. Hopefully it means we’ll be able to open each other’s eyes to things we can’t see on our own.”

“The only thing I’m going to be opening your eyes to today is this textbook,” Felix retorted, tossing the final book down with a punctuating thump.

“Aw, but your beautiful face has already opened my eyes plenty. It’s like getting a glimpse of the sun without actually being blinded.”

Felix couldn’t help but blush at Bridgette’s offhand comment. Now that he had taken the time to get to know her, and was aware of the fact that she was so much more than the clingy classmate with an overbearing crush on him, she got under his skin so easily. All she had to do was bat her eyes a certain way, or come at him out of the blue with a compliment like that, and it was like she was holding his heartstrings hostage. Felix did his best to inconspicuously hide his inflamed face behind a book under the guise of research, but knowing that she had embarrassed him only made Bridgette flush the same shade.

“Ahem, well, what subjects did you bring?” she asked, hoping to clear the air.

“I was thinking we could take a look at some of the literature selections, since those tend to be easier to tackle,” he explained, setting his book down once his blush subsided. “I also brought some science, math, and history books, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to get to all of them this afternoon.”

“I sincerely hope not…” Bridgette muttered, sifting through some of the volumes and doing her best not to outwardly cringe at the prospect of doing preemptive summer reading. “Why don’t you go through some of them and decide where you want to start?”

Felix shrugged and picked up one of the literary texts, flipping through the pages absently as he followed the table of contents to draw samples from the various sections. While he continued his inventory, Bridgette passed the time by plucking a few of the nearby flowers, weaving them into small strings, crowns, bracelets, and various other accessories. It was times like this that her abundance of hair came in handy, and she got to work braiding some of the longer stemmed flowers into her hair after plopping one of the finished crowns on her head.

Their sweet smell became more apparent to Felix, but he was too busy keeping himself busy to see what had triggered the change, hoping to avoid any more embarrassing distractions. Bridgette was all too focused on him, though, mostly just intent to take in all the quality time with him she could before it was ruined. She knew it was unlikely that Felix would purposefully hurt her, especially now, but with the threats that came with their line of work and the unknown future, she wanted to savor every precious moment she got with him.

A breeze drifted by, tousling Felix’s flowing locks in the process. Bridgette had idly started watching him as she braided, and the sudden sparkling strands before her gave her an idea. As she finished her braids, she nabbed some of the flowers she had set aside and scooted closer to Felix, weaving a flower into the edge of his mane. He perked up at the sudden feel of fingers in his hair, peeking to the side to see Bridgette intently concentrated on lacing his hair with an array of rainbow flowers. He blushed again, but it was more mellow, more content than the startled heat that had overwhelmed him a few minutes before.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Bridgette froze, realizing she probably should have asked before she started assaulting his hair with vibrant plant buds. “Uh, I’m sorry, I just…”

A small, very cute, very unexpected chuckle passed from Felix’s lips. “You don’t have to apologize. Your hair looks very beautiful, all done up like that.”

Now it was Bridgette’s turn to be starstruck. She swore if she could see herself now, her whole body would be the same rosy shade as some of the buds in her hair, or her signature superhero suit. Felix turned, pecking her sweetly on the lips before returning to his book. Bridgette’s heart beat so hard it hurt, and her fingers trembled with a force that rendered them unusable. Felix sensed her anxiety, patting her hand a bit and giving her a rare but reassuring smile before he returned to his book.

“It feels really nice, when you play with my hair like that,” he encouraged as he relocated the page he was on. “Would you mind doing it a little more?”

Without another word, Bridgette returned to her playful plaiting. She unconsciously began humming, and although Felix didn’t recognize the song, he appreciated the ambiance. Before he knew it he found his eyelids growing heavy, his desire to get lost in the peace of the moment overriding his desire to finish reading the passage he was on. Bridgette could hear his breathing slow to a calm rhythm, and she smiled, adding more flowers and continuing to hum along. Right now they weren’t Ladybug and Chat Noir, nor were they the Cheng bakery girl and the prestigious Agreste son. No, right now they were simply Bridgette and Felix, enjoying each other’s company and the tranquility of their shared summer afternoon. Studying had never been so enjoyable.

#miraculous ladybug #bridgette cheng #felix agreste #lucky charm #felinette #ladybug #chat noir #my writing #claire writes #one shot #edorazzi

[funkaliciousfrog]

I’m bored, so I’m temporarily turning into a seasonal anime blog for a single extremely long post. 

I’m checking out more new anime than usual this season, and I’ve been in the mood to write lately. So, I thought it’d be fun to record my expectations for each show and my impressions of their first episodes. Even if no one but me ever reads it. 

Joran the Princess of Snow and Blood

That one show I’m watching partially just cause Aoi Shouta is there. I’m interested to see if he can pull off a female character who dresses as a man, which as he put it himself is the “gyakku-pattern” compared to his usual roles. Tbh watching shows just cause Shouta is in them hasn’t worked out super great for me in the past (I didn’t really like 2.43 or Kimi to Boku, and Hamefura was just alright), so we’ll see what happens here. It’s an anime original so who knows how the story will end up. But going off the trailer, at the very least we’ll get some cool aesthetics and sick fight animation.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the plot of this show is gonna involve some politics, since it takes place in an alternate 1930s where the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate hasn’t ended yet. Yeah, you might need to skim a Wikipedia article or two on Japanese history for this one. The main characters are assassins, working undercover for the shogunate and fighting some group of superpowered shapeshifting animal people. The protagonist works in a bookshop by day and lives with her very young sister who does all the housework. She also has some kind of crow-related powers that haven’t been explained yet. In fact, there’s a lot of things about the setting that were only touched upon and I guess will be elaborated on later. 

The character designs and background art are very nice, but something feels off with the actual animation. Things move in weird stiff ways, some of the special effects are kinda ugly, and the fight scenes in particular are disjointed at points. Although I think that disjointedness came more from the storyboarding than the animation itself? I can’t say for sure since I’m not one of those sakuga expert people. But, I can still tell the production value here isn’t quite as high as it appeared from the PV. The premise has potential, but as the story unfolds we’ll see if it’s good enough to carry the less than stellar animation. 

And as for Shouta, all he really got to do this episode was be dapper and talk in cryptic insect-themed metaphors. Oh, and randomly pull out a lightsaber, since I guess they have those in this show? I’m mostly curious to see how the people who don’t pay any attention to voice actors will react when his character’s actual gender is revealed. 

Mashiro no Oto

Hibike Euphonium was one of my first anime and remains one of my faves. So,  I’m always interested in shows about classical music and/or playing instruments. The manga has won multiple awards so it should be a good story, and hopefully this adaptation is just as good. As another show about a traditional Japanese instrument, the Kono Oto Tomare comparisons will be inevitable. But honestly, I’d be happy just learn some stuff about the shamisen cause I think it's cool. 

This was quite the whirlwind first episode. Our main character Setsu has been playing shamisen with his grandpa since he was a little kid. But, turns out his grandpa is displeased with his grandson’s sound, so he makes it his dying wish that Setsu stop playing shamisen. Once his grandpa does die, Setsu feels distraught, impulsively gets on a bus to Tokyo, ends up living with a random gravure idol for a week, picks fights with her no-good wanna-be rockstar boyfriend, at the very end a SWAT team shows up... it’s a lot. 

And I don’t really know how it will proceed from here either. After speeding through this escapade in Tokyo, I think (or hope) that the pace will settle down starting next week. And going off the poster we’ll eventually end up in a high school shamisen club, somehow.

I really enjoyed the bits and pieces of shamisen music in this episode, it just sounds so cool! I hope to eventually get more specific information about the instrument and its repertoire. All I really want from these shows about extremely specific topics is to be educated! They also played either the OP or ED at the end, and it sounded pretty neat. Unlike Kono Oto Tomare they actually put the instrument of question into the song, which I appreciate (though I still like all the Kono Oto OPs and EDs). 

The art in the PV didn’t seem like anything that special, but the episode itself actually looked very nice in the important moments. I especially liked the snowy background art from the beginning. They also took an interesting direction with the character designs: everyone is drawn with very thin lines and most of the time without cel shading. Sometimes it looks like an aesthetic choice, and other times it just looks kinda cheap. The animation itself is nothing crazy, but at least from my uneducated perspective the shamisen playing looks pretty believable. 

After 2.43's Fukui-ben from last season, I guess this show will be my new source of Japanese regional dialects. Apparently Setsu’s accent is so strong that the girl he’s staying with asks him if he’s a foreigner, which I thought was funny. They don’t mention where he’s from, but he and his family use the same “-be” ending as the main character from the Great Pretender. Which isn’t helpful cause I can’t remember where he was from either. But anyway, for some reason it just amuses me every time someone says “dabe”. 

(A footnote about Setsu’s accent: I’ve done a bit of research, or rather literally just typed “be” into jisho.com, which I can’t believe actually worked, and it seems to be some type of Touhoku dialect. His voice actor, Nobunaga Shimazaki, is from that area so I guess that checks out? Although according to the Wikipedia page it’s used as a generic rural accent in media, so maybe they don’t care about the specific region as long as he sounds like a country boy.)

Farewell, My Dear Cramer

Finally, an all-girls sports anime! There are a few out there already, but I haven’t seen any of them yet (except maybe Chihayafuru, which has a mixed gender cast but an awesome female lead). As far as I’ve read, most have mixed reviews and tend to lean into other genres and/or have a lot of fanservice. So, I’d really like this show to be the female version of a straightforward realistic sports show like Haikyuu that is missing from all our lives. But it looks like it might be a drama about sports instead, which potentially could be just as good. It did come from the Your Lie in April mangaka after all, if you couldn’t tell from the weird lips. Besides that, the art in the trailer looks really nice. 

So apparently soccer, especially women’s soccer, is an unpopular sport in Japan? The protagonist Nozomi thinks she’s too good for girl’s soccer after playing with the boys for all of middle school, but is convinced to join the girl’s team in high school anyway. Then we meet a couple of her new teammates who were similar prodigies in middle school, and jump right into a scrimmage between the first and second years? 

It’s kind of a weird first episode. While it does technically establish the setting and characters, after the first few minutes it kind of feels like we’ve just been thrown into the mix of things. There’s also a noticeable lack of music in a lot of scenes which makes it feel even weirder.

The character designs are less of a problem than I thought they’d be, although the lips and sometimes the eyes still do look a bit strange. The simple, almost graphic quality is actually kind of interesting. It’s also very refreshing to see a variety of female characters that just look and act like normal high schoolers. They’re really just here to play soccer, not to be sexy or cute or really attractive to the viewer in any way. 

Although we do get some nice soccer playing in the ED, the animation in the episode itself definitely isn’t at Haikyuu levels or anything. They avoid actually animating a lot of the action with speed-line backgrounds and barely-moving shots where only the hair and clothes flap in the wind. 

Nozomi has the same voice actress as Kaede from Gal and Dino, and her performance there was one of my favorite parts of that show so I’m looking forward to more from her. Aoi Yuki and Tomoyo Kurosawa, definitely a couple of notable names, also show up in this episode. 

Fruits Basket Final

More Fruits Basket, lets gooo! Second season was awesome so I have high expectations. I’ve already been slightly spoiled on a few things about the ending, but I’m still looking forward to seeing the specifics of the mystery of the Soma family curse wraps up. 

We pick up right where we left off last season with Kureno dropping the ~big reveal~ about Akito’s gender on Tohru. Turns out she’s a girl, but raised as a boy by her mother from birth for yet unknown reasons. Then he talks more about her parents: her dad Akira seems to be dead (yet another mysterious white-haired Akira Ishida character for the books), and her relationship with her mother Ren is messy to say the least. 

Finally, best girl Saki shows up and saves the day! She brings Tohru back to her house, and along with Arisa gives her the reality check we’ve all been waiting for: she is going to burn herself out if she keeps on putting others’ needs before her own. 

Interestingly, even though she seems to be a pretty bad mom, Ren is in the right here about the unhealthy relationship between Akito and the zodiacs. Is she really being kept inside because of physical and mental illness, or is that just Akito’s excuse for locking her mother away? I suspect it’s the latter. Akito loves a good power trip, and if Ren were allowed to talk to the zodiacs she could possibly undermine the hold Akito maintains over them. It could also be a combination of both reasons, so I’ll just have to wait and see.

The OP is awesome! The photo backgrounds incorporate the 2D characters well and it just looks very nice. The song’s R&B-ish sound also stood out instantly from the pop ballads Fruits Basket usually gives us. Once it comes out on Spotify, I will be adding it to my playlist along with Chime and Eden. Btw, if you haven’t heard the full version of Eden I recommend you check it out cause it really goes some places you don’t even get to hear in the TV-sized version.

On a side note, this show has some real fashionistas. Rin, Haruhatsu, Saki, and this episode Arisa have great outfits. That cropped shearling jacket with the skinny scarf? 👌 It’s also adorable how Saki and her little goth brother coordinate their looks. I will never forget that time they casually rolled up to an okonomiyaki restaurant rocking black opera gloves. 

Zombieland Saga Revenge

More Zombieland Saga! The best part of the first season imo was the comedy, but I’m guessing we’ll get more into the mystery/drama part of the show here: more information about Kotaro and his motives/methods, Tae’s identity, etc. We’ll see how it goes. I’m also hoping for more bops like Adabana Necromancy and Saga Jihen. 

Oh how I missed this show’s manic energy...

Since the end of the last season, it seems Kotaro got overzealous and booked an arena for a concert that only sold 300 tickets, putting the group into a whole bunch of debt. So now the girls are all working part-time to pay it off, and they’re not nice jobs either: factory worker, farmhand, construction worker... milk-deliverer? Do they even have those in Japan? Now there’s some #commentary on showbiz. 

As for Kotaro, the whole thing has left him in such a haggard state that he’s managed to grow his hair down to his collar bones in a month flat. Now he spends his days bar hopping and rambling even less coherently than usual (although Mamoru Miyano is clearly having as much fun as ever). Franchuchu are left to prepare all by themselves for their anniversary concert at the tiny venue where they made their debut. But, they decide they’ll use it as a chance to sing the unperformed encore song from the arena concert for Kotaro, thinking it might relight his spark. 

We do get a drop of new information about the plot: turns out there’s a strict deadline on the Zombieland Saga Project, which is the real reason why Kotaro so upset. Maybe whatever necromancy he used on the girls will wear off after a certain amount of time and turn them back into corpses? The bartender at his favorite spot is apparently in on the whole zombie thing, and he’s the one who finally snaps Kotaro out of it. He sprints over to the anniversary concert and literally starts throwing hands with the unreceptive metalhead audience. To finish out the episode we get a glorious slow motion brawl sequence as Franchuchu sing the encore song. 

I don’t know if that encore will be the OP or ED, or if it’s just a insert song. It was alright I guess. To be honest I liked Iron Frill’s songs more than Franchuchu’s in the first season, and I feel like that will continue to be the case this season. I’m excited to see the new OP tho, even if it’ll be hard to beat the iconic Adabana Necromancy. And on a vaguely related note, it was cool to see the real Zombieland Saga ost album, Franchuchu The Best pop up in the episode.

Pretty Boy Detective Club

This one has people intrigued because it’s written by the author of the Monogatari series (which I haven’t seen yet) and animated by Shaft. There’s also the extremely Ouran-esque setup, with Maaya Sakamoto even voicing the cross-dressing main girl. Also I just think the title is funny. Honestly I don’t really know what to expect from this one besides the usual Shaft aesthetic, so we’ll see what happens. 

Mayumi wears glasses to keep attention away from her pretty eyes, but while stargazing on the roof she gets caught without them by Ayumu Murase in a detective hat. He ropes her into the Pretty Boy Detective Club, a shady secret organization at her middle school. We enter the clubroom and meet the members, a bunch of over-the-top eccentric tropey characters that wouldn’t be found in any non-anime middle school in a million years. Shoutout to that one guy in the hot pants. Then Mayumi reveals that she’s been looking for a star she saw once on a family vacation, and the boys decide to take up her case. 

I knew I was really in for something when I was hit with musings about Voltaire right out of the gate. Although from what I’ve heard about the Monogatari series, this kind of ~intellectual~ monologuing is totally on brand. And I don’t know if anyone else picked up on the subtle hints they were dropping in those monologues, but I sense that, maybe, perhaps, beauty is going to be a theme in this show...? Maybe it’s going to be some kind of #meta #commentary on pretty boys anime? That could be interesting, although there’s also a chance they’ll just play it straight. They even have an idol-anime-esque ED sung by the the main cast, so honestly it could go either way. 

As expected from Shaft, the visuals are all on point. I love both celestial and geometric imagery so this show’s aesthetic feels made just for me. The shifts in art style are also pretty neat. As for the character designs, my favorite part is probably the snazzy school uniform with the galaxy printed ties and striped pants and skirts. Although Murase’s character momentarily sprouted one of those flesh-fangs that I HATE they look so NASTY. 

I has a pretty fun time with this episode, it was just so absurdly Anime. I liked hot pants guy and his poses (tho I don’t love that he’s 12), and delinquent guy who was just tired of everyone else’s nonsense and casually ate food off the ground. They were at the beach too, so it probably got all sandy? And when this popped up I died laughing; truly words to take to heart.  

(A footnote about the ED: I thought I had spotted an Elements Garden member in the songwriting credits, and then of course I had to find out if they actually made it or not. The lyrics were written by RUCCA, who isn’t actually in the group but collaborates with them frequently according to the Google Translated version of his Japanese Wikipedia page. He’s written for quite a few Elements Garden produced Aoi Shouta songs, which is where I recognized his name from. The composer is Masatoma Ohta, who as far as I can find isn’t associated with Elements Garden but did a pretty good job emulating their sound. Both of them have done a lot of work for seiyuu, idols, and seiyuu-idols, so I guess that’s why I instantly understood what this song was going for lol.)

#i'm also planning on watching yasuke and way of the househusband #but those are both netflix short series so not counting them with the ~seasonals~ #ALSO this post is about the first episodes #but by now the second eps of joran and mashiro no oto have both aired and they were both pretty big improvements #especially mashiro no oto: if you watch only one of these shows i say go with that one #original

[cha-ra-nui]

So, 2018 is over and I´ve been wanting to do something like this for a while. Besides, my internet connection is dead and I don´t have anything else to kill time with. Anyway, here are my favorite things of 2018:

Warning: Giant wall of text incoming, proceed with caution

Part 2: Japanese Music

2017 had me losing interest in quite a few groups for different reasons to a point where it´s more appropriate to say I lost interest in the genre of Visual Kei altogether. But while I all but stopped looking for new groups, 2018 has made a point in proving my decision to keep up with those I didn’t drop. SID has been conspicuously quiet but I´m probably used to it by now. Still sucks though. In the end, apart from Kiryus singles Harushigure and Muku, which I liked quite enough and Royz who released two singles and a full album, all of which shut up my doubts about the group, it´s been rather uneventful. That said, Kiryus new album Tenshou Rinne is the only competition VIXX got for album of the year. But in contrast to Eau de VIXX, I was fully expecting this album to be great. Kiryu has a history of improving with every album and ever since Hyakkiyakou in 2016 they´ve been capable of taking the top spot. Tenshou Rinne has everything, built around some of their best singles it is a showcase of both their skills as musicians and the variety possible within the very unique style of their songs. Kiryu will never be for everyone, but if it´s for you, they´ll be responsible for some of your all-time favorites.

What I did pay more attention to was, surprisingly, Jpop. Probably stirred by VIXXs Lalala Ai wo Arigatou EP (terrible name I´m aware) in fall 2017, I started looking into the gerne a bit further for the first time in years. It´s no surprise an international fanbase is barely existent because content is very hard to find, especially if you´re interested in Jonnys groups. For those who don´t know, Jonnys Entertainment has been on the verge of holding monopole over Jpop Boy-groups in a similar fashion to AKB48 and their sister groups dominating the female counterpart of the game. Imagine SM buying up JYP and YG, or actually, imagine Disney solely producing Boy-groups. That´s Jonnys. They know what they´re doing and they´re doing it well but they keep a very close eye on their copyrighted material. That said, I liked a fair share of the releases I was able to find and it´s safe to say they have good quality control so money spent on buying their music is rarely wasted. I´d recommend checking out NEWS for they´re my personal favorite among Jonnys abundance of groups. That said, I did find two real standouts almost by accident. Keyakizaka46 and Bullet Train. Keyakizaka46 being a girl group tackling a lot of Japanese society issues especially relevant to our generation by using a rock-ish sound and very intense choreography. Recent stand-out songs include Glass no Ware!! and Mou mori he kaerou ka?. Bullet Train meanwhile is a Boy-group which can only be described as “absurd”. They´re the kind to make a JRPG themed MV with comically bad effects and intentionally exaggerated costumes while keeping a straight face throughout. Their songs tend towards being fun and cheerful all while being straight-up insane at the same time. Their concept is that every member is a wagon of a train and this is the level of absurd genius to expect. Their choreographies mirror this by being equal parts funny and impressive. Kai being a big fan of VIXX doesn´t hurt my enjoyment of them either. As if to stop me from talking about them in this context I didn´t like their 2018 releases as much, though Jesus (yes, Jesus. I dare you to watch the MV without laughing), a kind of love and need you are all decent.

I´ll post this in 4 parts. You´ll find the songs and events I talk about in this playlist. For the shows I mentioned I either went with PVs or a song if any stood out.

#bullet train #choutokkyuu #news #the jpop group not actual news #that name is so stupid #keyakizaka46 #kiryu #royz #I talk about them so #vixx #kinda #jonnys entertainment #2018 #year in review