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ystk-archive · 3 years

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First of all, big apologies to the six people above who asked me about this song over a month ago when it came out. I understand what Nakata meant when he said he only knows a song is finished when he hits his deadline – I could’ve easily let this sit another week and came back and messed with it more lmao.

If you want the short and simple of it: it’s nice, with all that piano it’s sort of reminiscent of jelly (aside from the WOF thing which I’ll, uh, get into below), it’s great to see Toshiko in one of their MVs again (and Nakata directing which hasn’t happened since ’07) though I’m not wild about the video per se. I guess in a broad sense I would say I like it, it’s a return to form for him and infinitely more enjoyable than anything he’s done with his “officially solo” material, but I could also fully understand if someone thought it was boring.

For my actual thoughts on it...

Hikari no Disco (ひかりのディスコ; Light Disco) as a whole package is sort of unusually mired in nostalgia. It’s got all that densely layered, classic style Nakata’s best known for which has been largely absent from his other projects over the past six years of CAPSULE (god I still don’t like the all-uppercase stylization) being in live-shows-only mode. As a piece of music it has an endearing sense of comfort and awe; it amuses the listener with odd little vocal modulations (my favorite is at 2:02), pointed percussive moments, and a strong piano backbone that work in tandem to give it character and charm. It even eschews the club-ready rinse-and-repeat of Nakata’s past compositions for capsule in favor of something very traditionally pop: an actual, proper break right before the song’s climax. Maybe it’s not a stretch to say all the tiny flourishes and embellishments in Hikari are a pure reflection of Nakata finally finding some kind of reason to go back to capsule – the overly bombastic (and loud) way the track opens feels like a curtain unveiling, like somebody pointing to capsule and going “hey, look at this!”

Though there is a bit of an elephant in the room here and that would be the recurrence of the motif from WORLD OF FANTASY (the repeating pattern of twelve-ish notes) which defined that track ten years ago. For the person who mentioned him recycling material, he did say in his Real Sound interview that he deliberately sampled it, but despite my agreeing with him in that it’s a good motif I have a few issues with its reappearance in Hikari. It’s such a specific and memorable facet of a previous track in their discography that its inclusion here feels like a sister song has been created rather than an entirely new work. Not only that, but Nakata went one step further with this callback and basically reimagined the entire music video for WOF as well. He’s definitely not a stranger to self-reference within his music but it normally seems to occur under incidental circumstances, and since historically capsule isn’t a music unit that does a lot of looking back, it comes across strangely for longtime listeners. Nostalgia and sampling oneself aren’t inherently bad, the problem here is that it doesn’t do enough to transform its inspiration point into a solidly new work. I spend both the song and music video just thinking about WORLD OF FANTASY and comparing the two in my mind.

Which, speaking of new works, you probably don’t need me to tell you this brings absolutely nothing new to the table for Nakata’s standard. I’m mixed on whether or not I could call this a detraction, because on one hand I’ve believed for years that he could stand to break out of his comfort zone musically and really try wholly different things (CAPS LOCK is an example), but on the other hand I recognize that capsule’s first new track in six years may not be the place to expect that. I think my concerns right now are for an album that’ll be too self-referential and maybe too focused on being something people remember liking from over a decade ago. (I mean, even their new artist photo is a goofy MORE! MORE! MORE! reference. Love the gloves, though.)

Lyrically Hikari is even more nostalgic, verging on the same type of sweetness present in past capsule songs like FRUITS CLiPPER’s dreamin dreamin and FLASH BACK’s Eternity. I often find myself fixating on the line “この身体にまだ / 慣れてないけど” (“Though I’m still not used to this body”); it strikes me as a strange thing to say in a song that’s otherwise teeming with sentimentality and familiar words (disco, stars, sparkling, landing, lights). Is the speaker meant to be an alien that got turned into a human? Are they now a 41-year-old grappling with age? Am I reading into things here? To answer the person who asked what the song “means,” it’s really up to your interpretation and how you relate to it. For me it’s a song about the lights of the city at dusk, the lights of the club and, just maybe, the lights inside all of our hearts. (That was awful. I’m kidding.)

The music video is an anomaly in that it is apparently Nakata’s return to the director’s seat after a fourteen-year absence from helming this aspect of capsule. While video direction isn’t exactly his forté, nor has it ever seemed like a passion of his, I’ve always enjoyed the outside-the-box approach that yielded visual works like Retro Memory’s stylish, static angle lounge singer concept and Glider’s quirky portrayal of the afterlife, or something. Despite what I said earlier, Hikari is equally helped by the immediate parallel the viewer will draw between it and the music video for WORLD OF FANTASY – it’s almost as if (note: he did not say this! I’m speculating!) Nakata revisited WOF and felt dissatisfied by director Tani Atsushi’s “night drive through Tokyo but make it Blade Runner on a budget.” As someone who never particularly cared for that MV, I have to praise what Hikari does differently with the same basic premise. Here, Toshiko is shown through a neutral lens that chooses not to highlight her body as she gets into a Honda Prelude, an older car almost utterly devoid of the cool points earned by WOF’s Lamborghini. The core of Hikari’s intrigue is in anachronism: the car is from the 1980s, but the road Toshiko is driving on didn’t exist at that time, so when does the music video take place? They carefully include a shot of Tokyo Tower, a symbol of pre-2010s Tokyo, and exclude the much newer Skytree. There’s also the appearance of the cassette tape from which the single’s cover art and central nostalgic ethos are derived. Where WOF followed expectations of an ultra-sleek futuristic cityscape, Hikari is subversive in only the way something with Nakata’s direct involvement could be. It does it all with an unsteadily amateurish camera, a fixation on the unfocused glittering lights of the city, and an intense 3D-effect filter that brings to mind Sugarless GiRL, his last directorial work.

Though as charmingly set up as Hikari is, the video – and Toshiko – ultimately go nowhere. Not that capsule’s music videos were ever particularly story-driven (the animated sci-fi trilogy notwithstanding), nor do they need to be, but there’s a one-note sameness that permeates Hikari and leaves me wanting more. This is especially glaring in the way the video ends with in-car audio and prolonged silence, suggesting something is about to happen, but nothing does. As the music itself ended I found myself desperately hoping for a visual conclusion to go with it: maybe she’d answer a phone call, or arrive at her destination and get out, but the MV just sort of...stops. Legend has it she’s still driving to this day.

Overall the music video does its job better than any other capsule MV between 2010 and now, and the musical nostalgia here is a fun diversion even if it isn’t exactly introducing new ideas. I’m presently just confused about the status of the album (and whether something as jarringly old-school as Utsusemi will get tacked on there) but capsule’s not really followed consistent scheduling since they moved to Warner/ASOBISYSTEM. Maybe next time they drop something I’ll be more conscientious of the timing of answering questions about it though, lol.

#messages #capsule #Hikari no Disco #i really wrote ~1000 words about this...#and i didn't even say everything i could've said #oh well

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atopearth · 6 years

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Shall We Date? Love Tangle Part 9 - Ike Barnes and Moses Jackson Routes

Ooh so Moses transferred to Kaleido for a bit aye~ it's nice that he's considerate and pretty chill. As for Ike, I still don't get what his job is, since I'm not sure if he watches over the impartiality of the court or the lawyers but anyway, Nolan doesn't like him and that's all I need to know I guess lol.

Lmao that Moses' colleagues made a tracking system for him before because he gets easily distracted and lost, and work is reliant on him so they needed that to locate him lolll. Honestly, I agree with Timo that it's way too risky to isolate the pregnant leopard from the others because of her pregnancy. I feel like it's rather counter productive if the leopard is only able to procreate under certain situations, temperatures and circumstances that are so fixed. They weren't extinct once upon a time so I'm sure they're accustomed living with each other and I feel like the stress of being isolated would be pretty great. But whatever, Moses supports the heroine on isolation and I doubt she'll fail so my opinion is irrelevant~

Ike is nice but I don't feel like he makes much of an impact tbh. My heart goes to Moses for this one, he's very considerate, understanding and all encompassing? When the heroine collapsed from overwork and exhaustion, he lectured her for not listening to her body, but he also self reflected, understanding that he pushed a great burden on the heroine. I don't know why they're getting her to write a paper with a strict deadline when she literally just fainted from overwork... And the chief steals her work too, great! Not sure why the chief would do such a thing though since everyone knows that she did that paper... Not sure if it's really enough to instigate a lawsuit with winning prospects but I guess we'll see.

I definitely agree with Moses' perspective more, especially considering how niche her respective specialised field is where reputation would be very important. By arbitrarily filing a lawsuit, things won't necessarily go well for her, especially if she doesn't end up winning, this could really affect her reliability as a researcher since she's suing someone above her level too. Sure, she and a few know that she's in the right, but when rumours spread and if she loses the case, nothing else will matter anymore because if she loses, it will automatically mean to others that she's lying. It's way too risky of a medium to go for. But whatever, this is a happy otome game so it'll go well. Also, it could be seen as unprofessional of the heroine to take this route instead of trying to deal with it internally first. She's going to be causing a lot of disruption to the lab, their research and affecting the reputation of their company by resorting to a lawsuit. It'll be difficult for others to trust her if she's choosing to handle things like this.

Also, technically, even if the people in the lab know that she did it, why would they want to get on the bad side of the chief? That's risking their career for her, I honestly doubt they'd be very willing to be a witness for this. I also find Ike to be very dodgy, he didn't even explain to her the advantages and disadvantages of suing, he's also not really giving advice, he's more pushing her into going for a lawsuit without even informing her of the practicalities of it and the dangers. I'm on Nolan's side for this and I honestly think Ike is extremely unprofessional to even suggest that there's no way that he'd lose. There's nothing in law that is absolute and Ike is just constantly neglecting the best interests of the heroine, his client. I really feel like the heroine didn't think this through at all.

The heroine isn't in it to win but to have her voice heard that researchers shouldn't be doing something like what the chief did, but really, if she doesn't win, it won't serve to prove or show anything like that, because if she loses, people could just think she's a liar. Probably unlikely to get through but maybe she could somehow get Nolan to stop acting as the chief's lawyer by raising a conflict of interest since she lives in the same complex and knows people related to her and that she may have told the matter to etc. Constantly rolling my eyes at Ike for thinking that Moses is useless. He's so arrogant and annoying like wtf. Who does he think he is. Really, the heroine is in this situation because of him, don't make it sound like it's not your problem Ike when you pushed her into getting a lawsuit and thus affecting her stress levels and work life.

Anyway, the court trial, if I complain anymore, this will be way too long so I won't bother and will just accept it as it is even though it's rather... ludicrous imo. Like the content is okay but the way it's done is just...😓😓 And things fall into place so easily with the heroine witnessing the Chief and Nolan's father being dodgy and Celina overhearing a dodgy party happening, and Earl having the secret guest list for the dodgy party. Anyway, I legit feel like this route is more Ike vs Nolan and nothing else. There's no real romantic connection between Ike and the heroine so when they get together, it's like ??? The only thing that happened was Ike flirting with her lol. The case took over the whole route and it ended in such an anticlimactic way too.. Basically, didn't like the guy or the story. Since it seems like it's going to be the same story for Moses, I hope I'll at least like the guy this time around.

That reminds me though (as I'm going through the common route again), don't feel like Ike really does anything different from a normal lawyer lol. Anyway, can't pinpoint what makes me feel like Moses is like. I guess he's a very positive people pleaser? Like he would always have a smile on his face and never let anyone get past his barrier. He's kind but it's not anything deep. Which I guess is also why he's intent on wanting the heroine to make her own decision on the matter with the chief. He can give her advice and his opinion but the one to make the choice is her.

Although some parts can be rather dull, I really do like how both Moses and the heroine respect each other as scientists and admire each other for thinking about theories and possibilities that the other hadn't thought about. They're like such a good fit as work buddies haha, so I'm not sure I'm feeling the romance aside from the heroine's clear admiration. I also don't like how Timo liking the heroine was used for drama since she hasn't even interacted with Timo much in this route. It was also uncharacteristically weird of him to take emotions, especially about love into the workplace, very unprofessional and it hinders work, which I think is something he wouldn't do as someone who is so serious about taking care of the animals and research. But whatever, basically, I don't like how things were done in this route.

Moses is a very respectable and admirable guy. He's very understanding of the chief's position and his reasons for doing what he did, and instead of shouting at him for plagiarism of the heroine's work, he tries to convince him in his own way to understand that what he did was wrong. The research and work environment should be forward thinking, constantly thinking about theories, seeing if they work etc and it seems like the chief had forgotten that after he got to the top position, where most would rely on him and look to him for advice. He was scared of stagnation and lost his researcher heart.

Like it's good that it ended happily but really, I felt like the story was rather shallow in terms of the problem with the chief, especially the way it was resolved, but the romance was rather shallow too. Just couldn't feel it with Moses even though I did like him lol, I just felt like the story was all over the place I guess. It had a little of everything and so focused on nothing, so I didn't establish any feelings for anything.

Anyway, overall, didn't like Ike or Moses' routes and the common story with the chief and theft of the thesis was boring, shallow and just not expressed well. Very disappointed tbh. I think this was my least favourite pair out of all the guys, and that's quite bad because I don't like Nolan's story with a passion but these two were worse. Hopefully Earl's story will be better.

#shall we date love tangle

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sevlies-blog · 7 years

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hey babes !! i'm kat and i forgot.. that today was thursday, hence my acct being so late, work's rly playing mind games with me kjdlsfj. anyways, i'd make this super long and unnecessary like i normally do but im at work atm so i'm gonna make this quick. if you wanna plot, im me and feel free to ask for my discord, i prefer that over tumblr tbh ! so here's my rly.. weird bio for yeseul, hopefully you don't cringe like i still do but no promises lmao

{ aphrodite – park chaeyoung } did you see NAM YESEUL walk into the sorority house ? i heard the TWENTY-TWO year old SENIOR is known to be EBULLIENT & METICULOUS. but in the hallways, SHE is infamous for their TEMERARIOUS & DECADENT behaviour. one thing is sure, the SOCIOLOGY major is perfect for pennbrooke.

yeseul was born to her securities analyst father and secretary mother on the twenty-fourth of july, 1995. the youngest of two with an older brother two years her senior, she would live a fairly normal childhood in their three bedroom apartment in a high-rise uptown — taking on an admiration for the colour blue and puppies with luscious white fur long before plants, butter cream frosting and egyptian cotton sheets were to stand alongside them.

a maternal aunt had been the kids’ guardian while their parents worked during the day and early evening, suppers and bedtimes perhaps the most time they’d spend together on a given day, though that did not take away from seulie’s idolization of her eomma and appa. because efforts were always made to connect with their children, the occasional weekend outing an apology for their late hours and almost constant exhaustion.

she began her years of education in a uniform with a black sweater and skirt and a periwinkle button-up, a ribbon tying her bangs back subsequently matching the latter. eager to learn and meet new people, her first day of school was invigorating for her five year old self, which would remain constant as the years went by.

her parents had a happy marriage, which continues now, and are the source of seulie’s dreams for a relationship in the future. in fact, it was due to their strong relationship that upon her husband being offered a higher position in the korean-based company he worked for at their branch in san francisco’s financial district, her mother was the first to suggest moving - completely ecstatic in the matter - which led to the nams leaving ulsan for america when she was thirteen years old.

luckily, her parents enrolled both her and her brother in a school with a program for international students with little knowledge of english. while they understood the language quite well all things considered — perhaps from watching popular american shows while growing up — yeseul and taeil spoke it minimally.

thus the younger would end up spending an extra year in the program at her own accord, wishing to become more knowledgeable before being thrown into high school, entering at fifteen years old as opposed to fourteen.

she found the institution to be more complex than she would have preferred; while courses such as biology and pre-calculus were not troubling, she faltered in english and american history, albeit due to circumstance. so she was quiet and focused, it felt as though it was all that she really could be in this situation and it soon became her high school persona.

her brother often played protector when she was a child, from the rude upperclassman who shoved her off of their swing to the boy next door who laughed at her sobs upon falling off of her bike and skinning her knee on the sidewalk. she never asked that of him, he never made a vow to do so; it was merely an unspoken dynamic that remained even when her first girlfriend broke her heart by stringing her and her best friend along in junior year, remembering vividly taeil’s venomous words being spewed in the hallway of an acquaintance’s house party.

a girl as plush as the throw pillows on her double sized mattress, a slight evolution took charge as she transitioned into adulthood. with her kindness not being thwarted, she felt as though the dissolution of her naiveté, of her careful approach to much of the world around her, was necessary. these things do not happen overnight, as she had come to realize while standing in the middle of a friend’s older brother’s house party. any boldness that she had while standing on the doorstep dissipated at the sight of college kids all but forced to press against one another in the living room that reeked of pot, unintentionally listening to barely audible moans beneath the loud music that came from an unguarded upstairs bedroom. thus, after a couple of months of pushing her own boundaries — frequenting keggers with friends and the like — even seulie noticed that she had eased into a more outgoing and adventurous persona. she allowed most of her inhibitions to crumble and her confidence to grow, seemingly proud of the shift and rightfully so.

commencing her four year attendance at pennbrooke — far from the familiar alleyways of san francisco — she was determined to be one of the few who sail through university without the burden of uncertainty weighing them down. from a young age, she had an interest in both the humanities and science, a curious child endlessly fascinated by fiction and fact, the reasons for human behaviour and for life itself. thus this led to her proficiency in such subjects, in combination with being a high achiever it resulted in obtaining excellent grades in those courses.

this would edge her in the direction of longing to understand society and those suffering within it. uncovering varying family and sexual dynamics in, as well as values specific to, all cultures intrigued her, so much so that she often found herself reading journals about such topics when her homework for the next morning had since been completed.

she eventually came to the conclusion that garnering a knowledge in the differences of individuals and society’s effect on and reaction to them was something she wished to endure, especially if it helped people like her; perhaps she wasn’t an immigrant in the way that many others were, with her father having moved to america — and the family following — for an already acquired position in his company, however she still reaped the benefits of some narrow-minded individuals mocking her slight accent or much worse. her identity was split in two to accommodate her past in ulsan and her present and future in san francisco, and yet she felt a disconnect on both ends — knowing she’d be rejected by some of her beloved elders in her hometown for not following a more traditional and exclusive set of values, while either not being enough of or being too much of a stereotype to fellow classmates. it was for those reasons primarily that she wanted to study sociology, specifically social inequalities, and to hopefully pursue a career in such.

college was what she would consider her sexual liberation, much like other students. where high school was pivotal for first loves and long lasting friendships, post-secondary was a hub for flings and fleeting emotional attachments. of course, this was ideal for a girl who wished to invest in a relationship when it felt right, as though it would not simply be for someone’s thrill of the chase or in conjunction with half-assed efforts in building upon a connection. and with her ability to separate sex from love — unless the latter arose somewhere down the line organically — it didn’t take her long to dive into the realm of meaningless hookups in the winter semester of freshman year and subsequently deal with their aftermath. she had never intended to sink her proverbial claws into the soft skin of her lovers and lead them along, however such would often be the outcome and by the end of her sophomore year, she’d come to accept that — even embrace it. now her reputation is more than confusing to some, the laidback and seemingly kind-hearted girl seducing others only to lead them astray being a little farfetched. maybe it was the new role to assume that lessened the guilt over time, an unexplored dynamic that made her more than comfortable with the slight burden she had to bare to continue her escapades.

currently she embodies a charisma chocked full of sincerity and gentle bluntness, while teasing friends and hookups alike in various ways. she’s able to remain calm and collected in conflict, though she may become defensive if it involves her loved ones or if it’s courtesy of someone who disrespects her or another’s boundaries. in moments of stress, she is actively trying to stay calm if it warrants such a response, in her eyes; for instance, a short deadline for a research paper or the disappearance of her mother’s engagement ring would lead to those attempts.

she considers the temptress within to be an alter ego as opposed to a variation of herself; where she normally attempts to think decisions through, she is impulsive and tactless under these circumstances, prioritizing her own pleasure and desires above all else.

she loves love, hence why she wishes to pursue such a thing after college, when people tend to take it more seriously. it doesn’t hinder her from helping her friends, more than willing to find suitable partners for them, however she’s quick to talk them out of it if it seems like a mistake that will only hurt them in the end.

seulie enjoys compliments, giving and receiving them, however she is often quick to deflect most of the latter. she doesn’t seek praise only to respond in a false humble manner, but simply to know if she’s doing something correctly or if it’s appreciated by others; thus if one compliments her on perhaps her beauty, she tends to insist otherwise — at least initially.

she despises individuals who don’t respect boundaries, and due to fragments of her sex life spilling from the lips of some past lovers, she often attracts such people and has no qualms about putting them in their place. she also dislikes avocados, soap operas and birkenstocks - she simply doesn’t understand their appeal - as well as dismissive, argumentative and/or obnoxious people.

#╳┊: — just to feel it in my fingers. •「 ooc. 」#thegreeksooc

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