Well, I was going to make a best of 2011 thing, like every other blog or podcast out there, but I came to the conclusion that no, I don't actually want to. It forces me to come up with interesting things to say about things that I don't really have anything interesting to say about. What's more, I don't know what sort of best of list I would or even could make. I don't watch enough anime, film, or read enough books, or play enough videogames, or really do anything that would warrant me making any sort of list, and as we all know, lists are a way of saying concretely and with finality exactly and precisely how much better one thing is than another in a quantifiable way. Oh, how civilization as we know it would crumble if we hadn't any lists. So instead, I guess I'll just talk about stuff...which is kinda what I already do, but I normally only talk about things that I only happened to do or see or experience since my last post. Since this is an end of the year post, I thought I'd broaden my scope a bit to include the whole year's worth of crap. Don't worry guys, I still have a doujin album review at the end of this.
To start things off on completely the wrong foot, I just recently saw three very good films: David Fincher's version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Each are good in their own way, but I have no hesitation in saying that the film I enjoyed the most and I thought was probably the better overall was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. See, I could talk about how great the screenplay, direction, and acting were, and it'd all be true, but the heart of the matter is, it panders almost uniquely to me: it's atmospheric, it's about broken people, and it has a strong female lead. The characters and atmosphere worked so well that it could have just been about Lisbeth going about her everyday life and I still would have loved it. This is a good thing, since the first act actually does have a bit of a problem with failing to explain things, but I have a tendency to overlook such things, since that's a very common problem in anime as well. I would also be remiss not to mention the awesome cover of the Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor used in the opening credits: a fitting thematic introduction to the film set in the land of the ice and snow.
On the other hand, Hugo. Which is a rather different film. On one hand, Martin Scorsese uses 3D absolutely beautifully in the service of some truly spectacular imagery. Were the screenplay only better, this would have been an instant classic on that alone. As it is, the screenplay is the wrong kind of sentimental, and the wrong kind of sweet, and all kinds of badly structured and cliched. I think Georges Milies' story is very interesting, and there's probably a lot that could have been said about that, but even though it did end up being mostly about that in the end, it still felt empty. Were it not for the imagery, and were it not for the performances of the actors, this would have been a far, far lesser film. It does give me hope though. Asa Butterfield, who plays Hugo in the film, will be playing Ender in the Ender's Game film. From what I've seen, he is definitely up to the task. Were only Martin Scorsese directing that as well.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is another film that really didn't have any right to be as good as it was. It starred Tom Cruise, was written by two rather blasé TV writers, and was about a Professor Moriarty archetype trying to launch a Russian SRBM at the US to start World War III. What went right? Brad Bird. The guy who directed The Incredibles and Ratatoullie. This was his first live action film, and looking back on it, it has a lot of qualities associated mostly with animation, but it does not feel like the product of someone inexperienced with the medium. It's really fun.
Speaking of animation directors trying live action, I just found out that the director of that John Carter movie is the same guy who directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E. I was totally uninterested before, but now I'm slightly curious. It's probably still going to be dreadful, but perhaps it'll be an interesting dreadful. That can happen from time to time.
It was awesome seeing The Hobbit trailer in the theatre. I think that may be one movie I'll be seeing opening night, if I can get anyone else to go with me (it'll almost definitely be during exam week next semester). One must have priorities, I suppose.
Speaking of up and coming films, there's a certain film coming in early 2013 about enormous, god-like robots piloted by neural link, defending against huge, relentless monsters.
It's not the first of the live action Evangelion films.
Pacific Rim is, more or less, Evangelion without the intimate character study, as written by the writer of Clash of the Titans (which, believe it or not, is getting a sequel). What's more, it's actually being directed by Guillermo del Toro, a reportedly brilliant director whose films I've never seen, but who seems like a good choice for directing a giant robot film. If nothing else, I expect it to be visually interesting, and not descend to the same level of banality as the Transformers films. I haven't read the screenplay, of course, so I can't really judge it, but why does it seem like so many bad scripts nowadays are getting really good directors attached to them? From what I've read, it seems like Del Toro has a very good idea in his head about how he wants to do this, so who knows where this'll lead.
Anyway, ADV/Section 23 is still bickering with Gainax over the rights to the live action Evangelion films, and at this point, I doubt the studio and director they were reportedly "with" and were exited about are still attached to the project. It's probably just plain not a good idea to begin with, but I still want to see what'll happen. The themes would be just as poignant to a present day America as they would be to a 1996 Japan.
Gainax and ADV/Section 23: one of the most dysfunctional studios of Japan and one of the most dysfunctional publishers of America, arguing over copyright law. Levels of BS have never been higher.
I have a twitter account now, but I only use it to follow people and ask questions. I'm sure many people would rather I didn't. I'm surprised poor KafkaFuura hasn't blocked me yet for all the stuff I've asked him about Japanese.
I also now have Xbox Live Gold with the gamertag Daitenshi. Cool stuff.
Anyway, here's some stuff I found in 2011 that I thought was cool.
- London.
- Virgin Atlantic first class.
- Being firmly in the first world.
- Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica
- Ghost in the Shell
- Eden of the East
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
- Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0
- Daicon IV Opening Animation
- The Touhou Project
- Alstroemeria Records
- Syrup Comfiture
- Röyskopp
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Demetori
- TAMusic
- Kkcwkoh
- Manpuku Jinja
- Mass Effect 2 DLC
- Garzey's Wing
- Red Storm Rising
- The Fountainhead
- Portal 2
- C&C Generals: Cold War Crisis
- Dungeons & Dragons: Pathfinder
- Moon
- Yuki Kajiura
- (re-discovered) Ace Combat Skies
- A curious ring of invisibility
- Starcraft 2
- ForceStrategyGaming
- Stuff
Evaluating music is itself problematic. Evaluating Touhou music, given its context as a fandom phenomenon, is also difficult. It seems silly to hold Touhou doujinshi to different standards than everything else, and yet, a Touhou doujinshi can also be enjoyable for referential qualities, and so can be evaluated based on that as well. This does not make it good music, but it may make it good Touhou doujinshi. For instance, Convictor Yamaxanadu is only a decent arrangement of The Fate of 60 Years, but it's absolutely hilarious, and therefore good as a piece of doujinshi. Some songs, like Cool&Create's ridiculously cute version of Locked Girl are both good pieces of music and good as pieces related to Touhou itself, and can be called good in both contexts.
Others, however, are simply excellent pieces of music in general. These are albums that you could feel confident showing someone who has never head of Touhou, and reasonably expecting them to call it brilliant. Albums like these are what bring many into Touhou fandom.
Nada Upasana Pundarika
Heck, Byakuren already looks metal.
Demetori's album from C77 is one of them. The more I listen to this, the more I realize how awesome it actually is. Demetori, like TAMusic or Alstroemeria Records, is one of those bands that would easily be notable if they produced entirely original material, and Nada Upasana Pundarika is arguably their best album.
It's rather remarkable how very fitting the names of Touhou songs are to metal. Heian Alien ~ Crazy Xenomorph is the first track of the album, opening with an eery, atmospheric power guitar section, into an increasingly melodic take on Nue Hojuu's suitably alien theme. It introduces the Demetori brothers' style of using atypical rhythm and (as far as I can tell) achromatic harmonies for an effect that still retains power and melody. Flowering City in the Sky ~ Bridge of the Lotus is a much more traditional, slower piece based on PCB's stage 4 theme. It reminds me, oddly enough, of the Terran music in Starcraft 2. Young Girl Satori ~ Innumerable Eyes is a slightly faster, more powerful sort of track, with increased synth keyboard backing, and in which Tokunan shows off his considerable guitar skills more. Now it's Chernobyl-tan's turn! Contemplate in awe Wiz-Garage's incredible artwork and listen to Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom ~ Nuclear Fusion, an incredible interpretation of Utsuho Reiuji's theme. Context for the non-Touhou fans: Utsuho Reiuji is a hell-raven who obtained the power to control nuclear power. She throws goddam miniature suns at you. The Landscape of Japan the Girl Saw ~ Dance of puNDarika is a downshift in power, but not in quality, into a rather groovy take on Mountain of Faith's stage 5 theme. It quotes the intro to Heian Alien, as if to signify a transition in the album, and I suppose you could probably divide the album into two parts this way, both equally awesome. Their version of Emotional Skyscraper ~ World's End begins with a soft synth intro, then transitions into a very rapid, speed metal-y main corpus. While I generally don't go for quite this speed-centric a style, Demetori still makes it an awesome seven minutes. Somehow, I didn't imagine Youkai Jesus's Byakuren's theme quite this way, but musically, it works. At the Spring Harbor ~ Silent Voyage to Eternity is also speedy, though more along the lines of the previous Innumerable Eyes in it's use of the synth almost as a basso continuo, emphasizing the lead guitar part. Day of the North Sea ~ Flame for Puja is a very downbeat, atmospheric sort of metal. It's hard to make overdriven guitars sound calm or atmospheric, but Demetori does it. It leads into Higan Climate ~ View of the River Styx, also a very easy going sort of metal, despite the syncopated drum and guitar harmonies that form the core of Demetori's sound...or perhaps because of it. Since it's based on Komachi's theme, perhaps it mirrors her ridiculously lazy easy going nature. Perhaps she and Reimu slack off and listen to Demetori together on a boombox Yukari let slip in from beyond the barrier. I've already looked, and surprisingly, there's no fanart of this yet, like there is for everything else you can possibly imagine. I should probably make it myself.
Anyway, if you like metal or hard rock, or really, if you like good music in general, listen to this album. It's great. If you like it, I have good news: Demetori, after a several year gap, is coming out with a new album this Comiket (which will start December 29). Called Begirde des Zauberer (Longing of the Magician in German, referring to Marisa Kirisame on the cover art), based on the short crossfade sample, this new album looks to be potentially just as awesome.
There's a lot of awesome stuff coming out this winter's Comiket. Manpuku Jinja is putting out a new PV, Alstroemeria Records has a very interesting sounding new album, TAMusic will have some stuff, EastNewSound has an original album...all cool stuff.
Anyway, just 'cause, here's a day in the life of the Dovahkiin.
Been a while. I guess I could say I've had stuff to do, and that would probably be true, but it would also be an equivocation. Go figure. Real life has been good and all. Well, I say that, and I've not actually been doing much that I can really feel accomplished about. I translated something for Japanese, I wrote stuff for playwriting, which I'm going to do a staged reading of, once I can find some available people in the drama department, or just people that seem like they can act with some proper guidance which I am in no way qualified to give. It seems to me that the ideal scenario is finding someone who can not only understand the characters (*starts cracking up at the idea that there's anything to understand about them*), but actually likes them at a fundamental level and can get into the dialog. See, my play's strength is in its dialog, not in its story, and I'd like to do all I can to make up for that. Then again, that's the same thing hollywood studios do with special effect shots to cover up for insipid-ass screenplays and questionable directorial choices and editing. The difference here is, special effects shots don't themselves constitute any sort of desirable quality: for a special effect shot to be effective, it has to be well conceived and storyboarded. This is the problem with Transformers. It has all these special effects shots, but you can't really storyboard any of them effectively, because they're just kinda thrown together in a way that isn't even very cool to watch. There is an occasional well planned shot that works (I genuinely liked some of the scenes with that gunship in T3), but otherwise...
...Wait a second, I'm already starting to talk about film in my supposedly humanizing introduction?
Eh, don't care.
Ender's Game...The Motion Picture
Speaking of films, apparently it slipped by without my noticing that not only is the Ender's Game film going ahead, but that there's already been a casting call based on a script by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. The film is still set to be directed by Sir. Gavin of the Hood, director of such well renown films as...X-Men Origins Wolverine. Yeah, I'm a bit worried too, but apparently he's also director of a film called Tsotsi, a lowly-character's-life-gets-changed-by-a-humanizing-event movie that apparently won an Academy award for best foreign language film, so if one trusts in the Academy's judgement (which is questionable, but only within a certain tolerance), he's at the very least capable of making a good film. I'm remembering Wolverine though, and I'm remembering some pretty not-so-great stuff, but I can't quite remember how much of it seemed like the director's fault. So many problems are caused at a screenplay level that it increasingly seems to me that you have to be a pretty awful director to make a film genuinely bad solely on your own. It seems to me a bad director can make a mediocre movie, but it takes a truly good director to bring something up to the level of masterpiece. In that case, it seems that this movie will at the very least be decent, because the scriptwriters almost certainly know what they're doing. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were the scribes behind Star Trek, a film that may not have made much sense, but still had a good sense of its characters and some great pacing and momentum. I can't say that anybody in Star Trek had the same emotional depth or level of drama as Ender's Game, but at the very least, I think we can count on a screenplay that at least attempts to do justice to the book. Actually, I know we can count on that, because io9 was allowed to see the casting calls and some relevant excerpts from the script, and they posted about it here...in September. Yeah, I'm late for the party, I know, but I might as well. From what io9 and I can tell, the script nails it pretty darn well, so the fact that the analysis to follow is going to sound suspiciously like nerdly nitpicking is unfortunate, especially since I fully realize I'm going off a summary of something the editor probably wasn't allowed to take notes on.
Ender Wiggin
So they seem to have the main character's character down pretty well. He's 10 now, but that's pretty reasonable - any younger and you wouldn't have a prayer of finding someone who could effectively portray him. I think this is a pretty good idea.
Just like in the book, he dishes out a rough treatment to Bonzo Madrid, his former platoon leader, when Bonzo tries to bully him too much. And then he feels bad about it.
Ender doesn't dish out rough treatment to Bonzo. He murders him. Brutally. He doesn't realize it except in the back of his mind, but everyone else does. And it tears him up inside. But then again, I think that's the editor, not the script, so eh.
The screenplay also includes some scenes where Ender has weird nightmares about the buggers — and he tries to understand where the buggers are coming from, and what their children are like.
That's gonna be pretty hard to film without unconsciously falling back on well-worn and ineffective formalistic clichés, but it's not a bad idea. It's important as a tangent to the main theme, but I think it's still probably a good idea to at least try and handle them.
Ender is pissed at Graff because he keeps changing the rules in the war "exercises."
I know it's just the editor, and technically this is very true, but man does this sound like Ender is being anal-retentive.
The scene where Ender finds out that his final victory was not, in fact, a game is pretty intense, and features Ender and Graff both trying to talk at the same time. Ender is saying "They came to establish a colony, we chased them away... in fifty years they have never returned," while Graff is saying, "It makes no difference now," and then Ender is saying "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds," at the same time as Graff is saying "What are you talking about?" Finally, Ender is saying "I will bear the shame of this xenocide forever," at the same moment as Graff is saying, "You will be remembered as a hero." It ends with Ender getting an injection, knocking him out.
I'm actually really exited to hear this. I don't think the scene in the book was anywhere near to its most effective moment, but the way they describe it being written here sounds pretty much exactly how the scene should unfold. I can imagine exactly how this would be lit and shot, and the image is pretty stark. The dialog itself though...it sounds a bit stiff. This is one of those scenes that I think might be improved immensely with some well-played improvisation. It's hard to write scenes like that, but I think they have exactly the right idea. However, that's a misuse of the quote "now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds." Lord Shiva says this to Arjuna, revealing his many armed form and showing him his true power, urging him on to fulfill his dharma as a soldier. It occurred to Oppenheimer because of the power that mankind had just discovered it possessed filled him with awe and fear. It does not have even the slightest to do with Ender's situation, and this isn't something that Ender would ever get wrong in a million years. Also, that "I will bear the shame of this xenocide forever" is only going to sound not awkward with some really great acting and directing. But like I said, this sounds pretty awesome, especially the description of Ender as "He's depicted as smart and sensitive, but also incredibly ruthless." A more perfect three-adjective description could not be written.
Julian Delphiki / Bean
Not much is said outright about Bean in the article, but...I'm a bit worried, even though at the same time I really shouldn't be. This is an adaptation of Ender's Game, and just Ender's Game. Nothing of Bean's development in Shadow is being brought over. While what io9 says about Bean is not necessarily inconsistent with the book...I read this and I feel...slighted.
We get to see Bean watching a heavily edited video of Mazer Rackham's famous victory over the formics, in which Mazer fires his nuclear warhead into the formics' exhaust system. And Bean is so thrilled he throws his hands in the air and shouts with joy — until Ender bursts his bubble, explaining that the video is edited so we don't see Mazer die.
Bean does not throw his hands up in the air and shout for joy while watching battle footage. He just doesn't. He doesn't watch the footage in the first place, because he knows it's edited and likely useless, and he wonders why Ender is always so intrigued by it. He himself is more intrigued by Ender as a person. I can't really complain though, because if handled right, this could still be a pretty interesting scene.
In another scene, Graff shows Bean and Ender to the famous zero-gravity training room, where they float around with a bunch of other kids. Ender explains to Bean that there's no "up or down" in zero-G, and then they discover their weapons actually freeze anyone they shoot at, by causing the spacesuits to swell up.
Okay, if Ender tried to explain that "there's no up or down in zero-G," everyone would laugh at him. There is not a person on that station who didn't realize that the second they learned what zero-G means. "There is no up or down in zero-G" is not only a lame response, it's directly in contradiction to Ender's doctrine. See, Ender's revelation about combat in this non-orientable space isn't that "there is no up or down," it's that because there's no up or down, you need to give your troops an arbitrary set of directions to give orders properly, and you can make those directions any way you like. Ender says that "the enemy's gate is down" because that way his own troops don't present a large profile, and if they get hit, it's only their legs they lose.
Peter Wiggin
The film's version of Peter seems pretty consistent with how he's characterized in the book. In other words, more as a concept than as an actual character, but that's how it should be.
Valentine Wiggin
She also seems pretty consistent with how she is in the book. When you look at her boiled down like that though, she does come off very much as "the girl," but then again, even I have to admit that basically is her role in the books as well. That doesn't make her not an interesting character, after all.
Bonzo Madrid
Just like in the book, he's a swaggering idiot whose platoon has won most of its most recent battles, and he resents being saddled with a useless, untrained snot like Ender.
Bonzo is swaggering, but nobody in battle school is anything even like an idiot. No, nobody on the whole station is anything even like an idiot. Col. Graff himself might have been a battle-school student if he were born any later. The characterization sounds right though, so I'm thinking this is just the editor again.
Rose the Nose, Dink Meeker, Petra Arkanian
All of them seem pretty solid. It might be hard to develop Ender's relationship with all of them within the span of a 2 hour film, but I think if they focused enough, they could pull off what they need to in order to make it work.
Mick
Who is he again? *looks up on ansiblewiki* Ah yeah, that guy. Wait, he's an important character? Really?
He's a heavyset boy who just wants to make it through this school in one piece and get home — and he's happy to help himself to other people's desserts.
He sounds like an extra in one of the Christopher Columbus directed Harry Potter films. I hope to be proven very wrong.
Anyway, the release date is supposed to be some time in 2013, so that's not too-too far off, production speaking. It sounds like it's going to be an interesting ride. It also sounds like they're not shying away from the inevitable R-rating that'll come with Ender's murder of the bully and later murder of Bonzo, which is pretty gutsy for a studio trying to sell a movie about a bunch of smart kids who are going to save the earth from the bug-aliens by training with laser tag despite the adults who are trying to ruin their lives. I'm thinking its the name recognition alone that ever got what sounds like "whacky sci-fi adventure with children...who are also slowly succumbing to stress and depression and kill each other in the showers" greenlit.
Come to think of it, Ender's Game sounds like a natural to be done as a 12 episode animated series. If this were being made in Japan, I can tell you exactly who should write an direct it: Gen Urobuchi writer, Mamoru Oshii director (and animated by Studio IG, but that comes with the territory). Urobuchi sensei can write very intelligently and isn't afraid to make his characters suffer, and I guess Oshii has someexperience with action films with undercurrents of navel-gazing (though admittedly Ghost in the Shell, despite being an incredible film, is not in any way, shape, or form a character study).
Actually, it's plausible someone may make a deal to do shorts based on the side characters like that. It happened with The Matrix, and with Halo, and now (supposedly) it'll happen with Mass Effect, so maybe a Gen Urobuchi / Mamoru Oshii short isn't entirely out of the question. Hmm...
More Touhou Music
Yep. You guessed it. I actually have five albums, each of them worth talking about, but to save us all a lot of time I'm only going to talk about two of them: Metallic Vampire by SOUND HOLIC, and オトメキュート(Otome Cute) by ShibayanRecords. The other three are 東方バイオリン３ (Touhou Violin 3)、東方バイオリン７(Touhou Violin 7)、and ｢Scarlet｣, all by TAMusic. They're all very interesting albums by some very talented people, and in fact it'd make sense for me to talk about them, because that's really the only sort of music I really have a background to talk intelligently about. But no, this night, we're leaving the string septette and blasting some metal and electronica!
Metallic Vampire
Flandre must be going through one
of those phases.
I don't actually listen to much metal, but I love the idea of it. Good metal is full of soul and melody: it paints broad strokes like the best of the romantic composers of yore. People say that Beethoven would be a video game composer if he were alive today, but I prefer to think he'd be leading a symphonic metal band. This album is not by Beethoven. It's by 8-Style, playing songs based on compositions by the enigmatic man known only as ZUN, but you know, I'm cool with that too.
The first two songs are non vocal tracks, and solely consist of 8-Style doing his versions of the menu and stage 1 themes of Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil. The first track, R.E.D, is pretty much straight up the menu theme, arranged in the style of the album, giving a very good first impression that leads into the second track, Mystic Mistiness. Neither track is particularly ambitious with being anything more than how 8-Style thinks the tracks from the game should sound like, metal style, but luckily this is in itself pretty awesome. Metallic Vampire continues almost like a concept album based on EoSD, going onto Snedronnigen, a track based on the stage 2 theme, Lunate Elf, with vocals by Cordelia (eureka). Generally, the tracks with Cordelia doing the vocals are the safer bets, and while Snedronnigen isn't her best song on the album, it's well conceived with its nice pacing and refreshingly creative drum section. It seems SOUND HOLIC has some rather talented people on board, and the drummer isn't even credited. Now that's a real shame. Unfortunately, the next track, 荒野の黙示録 (Apocalypse of the Red Night), is a rather questionably conceived adaptation of U.N. Owen Was Her, with vocals also by Cordelia. There are two things that keep this track from being awesome. First, the drummer who was so awesome in Snedronnigen kinda loses it here. More fundamentally though, U.N. Owen Was Her has several time shifts that the song tries to follow...and does not do well. It opens with a rather atemporal chorus, before shifting uncomfortably to Cordelia's admittedly rather strong and suitably creepy vocals. The refrain sections show what the song could have been, with its tightly timed and resounding melody that could have saved the song. As it is though, it remains only a seldom-played curiosity. The next track continues on concept-album mode to a very vocal-centric song sampling both the stage 4 and Patchy Patchouli's theme, Native Sage. The track consists mostly of CALEN's vocals backed by pretty normal metal style drums and instrumentation. As this is an aesthetic I don't find particularly interesting, I don't really have much to say here other than that this proves even more my theory that metal bands are stealing away all the best singers. We come then to Scarlet Calling. Screams. With Engrish lyrics. I cannot listen to this song without laughing. For what it's worth, it's still 8-Style's arrangement, so it's not a bad song, but again, it's not an aesthetic I can really take seriously. We're moving right along though, to Septour de Éclarte, which uses a German chorus interchanging at a down-tempo beat with Cordelia in a pretty straight, calm tempered version of Remilia's theme. It's a change of pace from the rest of the album, and it works pretty well thanks to some nice instrumental accenting and Cordelia's excellent voice. KafkaFuura has the lyrics translated except for the German choruses. I might have to refer him to my German major friend and see if she can make anything of them. We shift up in force a bit with an instrumental based on EoSD's extra stage theme: Lævateinn. 8-Style's instrumental tracks have a sort of western feel to them that I can't quite define theory-wise. Fun stuff though, if not as interesting as some of the other tracks, like the one that comes next. Sweet Dear Vampress is probably my favorite song on the album. It features vocals by Nana Takahashi, tightly harmonized with the minor-key (I think), wide range baroque guitar and instrumentation backing, with very well timed out lyrics. The lyrics themselves (as translated again by KafkaFuura) are based on a popular fan theory on the first meeting of Sakuya and Remilia: that Sakuya was a vampire hunter from some other plane that tracked down Remilia and despite her power was defeated handily, but in that defeat found friendship (or something more, as the song and I would think). The next song is probably my second favorite on the album, A.D. 1884, a song with Cordelia vocals based on (and in fact directly sampling the in-game music) Shanghai Alice of Meiji Era Year 17. Again, the lyrics and vocals are very well timed and harmonized, with the always interesting baroque stylings of ZUN's original. The album comes to a close with Les Miserábles: an instrumental, sort of down-tempo, smooth rock version of Eastern Dream, the credit roll theme to EoSD. It brings everything to a very nice and atmospheric close.
Anyway, it's inconsistent in its greatness, but I really like the album, and if you like a hard rock or metal, I'd say you should probably give it a listen. Cool stuff. What's also cool is that this write-up is actually somewhat timely: Metallic Vampire was only just released at the latest Reitaisai. Hey, Comiket is just around the corner, so maybe I'll actually have some stuff up as it gets released. I haven't read on either Syrufit's or Minoshima's sites about any new albums (well, Minoshima wouldn't, since he just released Haunted Dancefloor last August), but maybe there'll be something new by TAMusic or Shibayan or something.
Speaking of Shibayan,
オトメキュート (Otome Cute)
Marisa lost a bet...badly. I have a feeling there's a love-colored master spark to the face in someone's future.
I'm not really sure how to translate the album title. Otome means a young maiden (generally a virgin), and "kyuuto" is gratuitous English for cute, but does that make it Cute Young Maiden, Otome Cute, or Kawaii Young Maiden? I kinda want to use gratuitous Japanese to match the gratuitous English and call it Kawaii Young Maiden, but something inside me cringes at that.
Anyway, the actual album. Yeah. The first track is Colorful Mellow Melody...which is a perfect name, because despite Shibayan being an electronica group, this is very much a mellow sort of track with Chie Fukami's vocals and trumpet and piano backings. It's actually pretty bland stuff, but it's pleasant with its cute mellowness. It's also not on youtube. Guess what though, the next track - A Conversation Between Him, Her, and Myself - is more mellowness, this time with electric keyboard and the quiet, aspirated vocals of the one who goes by "yana." Again, it's...pleasant. And there's really not much there besides melody, which you can't really talk about. For the next track - Dear Miss Daydreamer, we've gone up-tempo a bit, but we're still fully in easy listening mode, this time with even more cutesy lyrics. At this point, I'm running out of things to say besides "it's pleasant," because it's all very competent but traditional electronic era easy listening instrumentation (which seems to include a Hammond B3, which I'll admit is kind of interesting). We get to something that sounds slightly more like what Shibayan is known for with Cyclic March, an odd organ, synth, and piano arrangement of Immortal Smoke. I don't really care for it, but it's an interesting idea at least. Ah, but here! Here's what Shibayan actually does best! MyonMyonMyonMyon! (Japanese for MeowMeowMeowMeow!) is an electronica track based on Ancient Temple. It does some really nice funky rhythms and progressions with feedback noises. It progresses quite nicely to some nice synth harmonies that all contribute to the general sound of the track. There's a vocal version out there with 3L vocals (one of the few singers who can do high-and-cute and not make me cringe). It's not as well paced out, but the "myon" chorus makes up for it. The next track is FlipFlop, more electronica, this time with a more industrial, 90s sort of sound. It's got a more consistent melody to it than perhaps Myon(4), but it's in a segmented, kinda funky structure. Next is Interstice of Gams among other English words pulled out of a dictionary that make sense in context only to Shibayan (I dunno, it's Yukari's theme, so is Yukari supposed to have nice legs or something?) It's got a nice, atmospheric sort of arrangement with a prominent synth accent underneath the combination of more naturalistic sounding synth instrumentation with more creative, feedback-y punctuation. It works pretty well. The final track, Dead Body's Voyage (which I can't find on youtube), is much more trance like, reminding me a bit more of Sound Online than Shibayan's normal sound. The melody is that of Orin's often abused theme Be of Good Cheer, but this isn't a bad use of it, I don't suppose. Not one of Shibayan's shining moments, maybe, but not a bad note to end the album on either.
Anyway, that's it for now. I guess I'll just leave this here for you.
Less than a month. This has to be a new record for me.
But, I'm sitting here in the dark, earbuds in, on my bed, blocking out the world around me. Perfect hikikomori mode. I am the ghost without a shell, a construct of the internet, existing in the real world as only a server.
Someone should really tell Major Kusanagi about this.
Anyway, I've been doing quite a lot since my last entry here, but I don't have nearly the time and will to go into all of it, and I doubt that'd be interesting at all to read anyway. Ace Combat Assault Horizon was cool, but if you want my full opinion, you can read it here. I still haven't really had the time or will to play it much more, but I definitely will be. I never did get that month of XBL like I intended to. I've been watching online gameplay videos though, and it looks like it'd be pretty fun. From the looks of it, my predictions about the piloting skills of the average player were spot on. PositronCannon - a guy from ACS who seems to be about my skill level (at least, he seems to make the same mistakes as I do) - recently posted this rather...interesting...footage of him dealing handily with a bunch of Raptor and Pak-FA fodder in an orange and black F-14. He's Spanish too, and his team-mates opponents seem to be American, so that's even with the lag disadvantage. Full of lulz all around.
But really now, what am I doing?
You know what, screw the format.
Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil (Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb)
The last few posts I've made have talked a lot about Touhou fandom, but I had never actually gotten around to playing any of the Touhou games. I never really even bothered to describe what they were actually like. This was mainly because the games are a) for Windows and b) not available in America. The latter turned out to be more of a problem, since coming across a download of the games from a not totally sketchy source turned out to be pretty difficult.
Then I came across this site. Mac ports of almost all the Windows era Touhou games. I'm tempted to embellish and say within an instant, I was simultaneously downloading all that was available, but no. I figure I'll beat each one in sequence.
So, I downloaded the first of the Windows era Touhou games: Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil. Here is told the story of how Remilia Scarlet - the 500 year old vampire - decides one day that she's tired of having to walk around everywhere with a parasol. The obvious solution to her is to cover Gensokyo in red mist. She sees no problem with this. Reimu Hakurei - the incredibly lazy shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine - and Marisa Kirisame - the tomboyish ordinary human magician and kleptomaniac - both do.
And that's about all I can get, because the port is not exactly perfect: the dialog boxes are illegible. As Touhou is known among other things for its witty dialog, this is a bit unfortunate, and I'm currently searching for a patch, and failing that, for the documentation so I can try and fix the problem myself. It seems this is a common problem with WINE based ports (haha, port wines), so I'm guessing I'm not the only one. At least it's translated, however dubiously; I certainly wasn't going to be able to try and figure out kanji while trying to walk through rain without getting wet.
Still, I don't mind too much: just playing the game is fun enough, and it is a very fun game. See, you control your character - either Reimu or Marisa - as she flies through the wards and lesser beings blocking her way, investigating the cause of this rather disagreeable red mist, and encountering and challenging the denizens of Gensokyo who get in her way. While lesser opponents and wards will just throw large quantities of magical "bullets" at you in vague patterns, the attacks of Gensokyo's more dangerous denizens are elaborate and beautiful patterns that must be studied and learned to reliably survive. As you knock out or survive opponents (you are not fighting to kill, nor are your opponents), you collect power-ups to slowly improve the spread and power of your attack. If you are on the verge of getting hit, you can use a sort of spell referred to as a "bomb" (also known as the "fuck-no-I'm-not-dealing-with-this button") to clear the screen of bullets and hurt any opponents in your way. Marisa's signature master sparkis one of many such moves (Reimu's counterpart being the less flashy but equally effective fantasy seal).
I'm not sure it's obvious from what I just said why one would need something like a bomb. Well, when I said "large quantities of magical bullets" I did not mean merely "a bunch" or even "lots." What I meant was this: Yeah, it's not a game for people who haven't already developed the dexterity from playing games over the years to maneuver through the curtains of arcane power that descend down upon you on a regular basis. Or patience. If you're doing it right, you will be seeing patterns of glowing dots when you close your eyes. I'm not even kidding. This would have been totally the shit during the late 60s and early 70s.
Anyway, I'm good at seeing patterns, and I'm pretty good with delicate maneuvering, but even then, I'm still trying to beat EoSD on normal. As of now, I can get through the first few levels (up to and through Patchouli) on normal, only losing a life or two, no continues. Sakuya and Remilia, however, freaking wipe the floor with me. Still, I did manage to clear Sakuya at least once (albeit using all of my continues), so I have her stage unlocked for practice. Once I learn her patterns, I'm guessing it'll be much easier. How does one fight against someone who can freaking stop time though? Not even the power of Marisa's love colored master spark can deal with that.
My default excuse for getting hit by a really easy-to-avoid attack is "I got distracted by the music." Of course, this only actually happened once, fighting Patchy Patchouli, enjoying her theme - locked girl - and drifting carelessly into a spoke. It's said that ZUN makes these games in part just as an excuse for him to compose music, and I believe it. The music is amazing (that's how I got introduced in the first place), but it's also your biggest enemy.
Well, Sakuya's theme in EoSD isn't actually that great, but her other theme - Flowering Night - makes up for it completely. Can't remember which game it's from, though. I guess I'll just have to beat them all until I get to the right one.
Anyway, here are some things I've picked up about playing Touhou:
- It may look random, but they actually are trying to hit you, so skirting the edges will never work. Stop trying.
- I don't know why Cirno gets all the credit for being an idiot: Rumia's spell cards are even derpier. This does not mean you get to try it pacifist style on your first run-through.
- Just because you've already memorized the pattern doesn't mean you don't have to look where you're going.
- Hong Meiling: the force is weak in this one. No, you're still not allowed to blink, blinking is for the transient people weak.
- The small fry are often more dangerous than the bosses, if only because their attacks are more random. At least the bosses bother to make theirs pretty.
- ZUN really does suck at drawing. Great fashion sense though.
- And yet, Patchy's Patchouli's sprite appears to be wearing pajamas. Actually, that makes sense, her being the shut in librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and all.
- Potentially insane walls of doom can be pretty easily defeated just by quickly aiming for the load bearing enemy. So stop bombing the small fry just because it looks scary.
- Reimu may be canonically the more powerful one, but Marisa is easier to play, if only because she doesn't blend in with the backgrounds as much.
- Speaking of which, attack power-ups tend to look a lot like bullets. One will hurt a lot more than the other. Do yourself a favor and don't try to pick up bullets or dodge power-ups.
- When in doubt, MASTAAAAA SPAAAAAAAKU! *BWAOOOOOOOOOOOM*
Another Day, Another Doujin Album
Well, I took a break writing this entry, and I've come back to it the next day. Apparently, it snowed overnight. I should not have implied Cirno was an idiot. Even though she totally i-*icicle comes crashing through window*
Did you know how brilliant Cirno is? It's incredible, really. From now on, all my math is on a nonadecimal base, in honor of the ⑨. 2+2=4.44 now. A centimeter is 9 millimeters. The ten commandments are now nine. All will be ⑨.
Anyway, since my last post, I've downloaded and listened to way too many doujin albums to talk about every single one, and the problem is, some of them aren't really interesting enough to warrant talking about in full anyway. I'll go ahead and mention the ones I didn't get to though:
Album: Ace Combat Assault Horizon OST
Composer: Keiki Kobayashi
Remarks: I forgot to mention this: I also found the OST for ACAH. It's probably one of Kobayashi-san's better soundtracks, but so much of the album (all four disks worth) is filler that I haven't even listened to all of it yet. The only ones you absolutely must listen to are White Devil, and especially Naval Warfare (for which it's officially mandated you turn up the volume for).
Album: Blue Constellations
Circle: Sound Online
Remarks: It's actually a pretty interesting pure electro sort of album. It reminds me of the soundtrack to WipEout Pure. Neither is it brilliant in the same ways as some other albums. Tsukasa has a very direct, very pure sort of sound, and it comes through well here.
Album: The Garnet Star
Circle: Alstroemeria Records
Remarks: Minoshima at his least remarkable. He goes for a different, almost trance sort of sound here, and it doesn't quite work. It's nice and atmospheric, but really, besides for the afterwards often remixed Maple Wizen, I can't think of a single truly memorable track.
Album: Double Counterpoint
Circle: Alstroemeria Records
Remarks: It seems to lack the cohesive and pervasive soul an Alstroemeria Records album usually has. There are some interesting ideas here, but none of them work, and none of it really feels right. Ironically, none of the tracks even seem to use double counterpoint, at least not that I noticed. Also, it has one of the most QUALITY looking covers on an Alstroemeria album I've yet seen.
Album: Trois Bleu
Circle: Sound Online
Remarks: More hard edged Tsukasa electro, this time with a fair bit more Minoshima and REDALiCE mixed in. I compared Tsukasa's tracks to the sort of thing found in WipEout Pure earlier without realizing that the first track in Trois Bleu was named the same as the first track on the WipEout Pure OST. Compare the style of the two for yourself. Boot Up (Tsukasa)Boot Up (Paul Hartnoll)
Album: Where Is Love
Circle: Syrup Comfiture (Syrufit)
Remarks: This album is never not interesting. I'm not in love with it the same way I am with show me your love, but it's got a lot of really interesting ideas. More so than show me your love, this is not a pure Syrufit album: there's a very wide variety of styles on here, and if I had more time, I'd like to go into some of the more stand out tracks. Putting it shortly, it's an album with this, this, and this all at the same time. That last one is really different even for REDALiCE. Not all of it works, but it's kinda neat, even if I don't find myself listening to it as often.
Anyway, I guess I should stop wasting you guy's time and get to the main points.
Flowering ERINNNNNN!!
Pictured: Kaguya Houraisan, Erin doll,
stuffed rabbit. Believe it or not, this
will kinda make sense to fans.
Oh boy, this is going to be an interesting one to talk about. Everything else that's come before may be based on Touhou music, but none of it is inextricably tied to Touhou fandom. For COOL&CREATE, this is not the case. Almost all of the songs on this album are referential to things in Touhou and Touhou fandom, and though you need not understand these things to appreciate the music, talking about the music sort of requires it.
To start with, I guess I should say that COOL&CREATE is a band created by its main singer, BeatMario (ビートまりお). I'd call them, if I had to, something like indie rock, but that's a very, very general sort of rule.
This album in particular starts out with two live recordings. BeatMario asks the audience (in Japanese) "Say, do you guys like Marisa?" The answer is a resounding "HAI," and the band goes into a live version of LaserMari is not difficult, a song released under the IOSYS label, based on Marisa Kirisame's theme Love Colored Master Spark, and in reference to ZUN's infamous instructions on how to perform Marisa's master spark. Next is a live performance of their version of Locked Girl, a song about the eponymous locked girl herself, Patchy Patchouli Knowledge. This is not the only song on this album about her, so expect to hear this pretty often. Hey, she's a cool character, and her theme song is awesome, so I really can't blame him. The video I linked to is not the version on the album, btw, but it does include a short clip of BeatMario interacting with the audience, which is always funny, if you're one of those weird people like me who for some reason thought it'd be a good idea to study Japanese.
Anyway, next up is drizzly rain, or rather a studio, more traditional rock arrangement of COOL&CREATE's own drizzly rain. Also about Patchy Patchouli. Like I said. All I could visualize when I first heard this song was a Pokemon game encounter:
-A wild PATCHOULI appears-
The "ooooooooaaaaaaaaaaa-PATCHOULI!" sounds for all the world like pokéspeak. I'm imagining throwing a pokeball and this amiable asthmatic bibliophile who looks like she's wearing pajamas coming out.
-PATCHOULI uses Fire Sign: Agni Shine High Level-
*everything within half a mile is razed*
There are about a hundred different version of drizzly rain out there, if simply because it's a fun song to do karaoke style. BeatMario himself has a vocal version, and it's hilariously awesome. It's amusing what notes he can actually hit when he's trying. Then, just to be totally inconsistent, a smooth jazzy version of Library Sounds, based on Voile, The Magic Library. Yet another theme tangentially related to our favorite shut-in librarian. Oh well, it's actually pretty cool.
Next is probably one of COOL&CREATE's more well known tracks, Help me, ERINNNNNN! This is one of those lucky few songs where I can actually sorta kinda understand the lyrics, which are about the eponymous put-upon lunarian archer and pharmacist Eirin Yagokoro and her fellow denizens in Eientei. It's got a catchy structure, based upon, actually, not Eirin's theme, but Kaguya Houraisan's. The live versions of this song deserve special mention for being the only place you'll ever see a crowd of Japanese people shouting "oppai, oppai" (boobs, boobs).
What can follow something like that? Of course, a version of UN Owen Was Her featuring BeatMario doing what many do while listening to UN Owen Was Her: going radadadaraaaradararada-raradaradadaradararadarada~ Why does this need to exist? I dunno, but it's cool I guess. Anyway, it's followed by a fusion sort of track called Re: The Title Lies In...You. Not sure what it's from, but it's kinda nice. After that is a bunch of bonus tracks, including a conversation among the band that my Japanese is not nearly good enough to understand, a Touhou parody of the Lucky Star theme, and a version of drizzly rain being sung at karaoke drunkenly by one of the non singing (for obvious reasons) band members.
Komachi Onozuka: slacker god,
boatwoman of the Sanzu River, and
now, really creepy pin-up model.
Fragment Reactions
Alstroemeria Records does not have a perfect track record. Double Counterpoint is mostly a waste of disk space, as is The Garnet Star. But, when Minoshima-san gets it right, he gets it very right. For Fragment Reactions, he got it very right.
We get the traditional Alstroemeria opening with the short intro leading into the first track, and both have a heck of a lot to be said of them. Riverside View/End of Daylight opens with the sampled loop "909, 009, 009, 003." Oddly intense, actually. The Riverside View part is based on Komachi's theme, which I actually didn't realize for the longest time: it sounds like Minoshima-san through and through. It's cool and all, and it leads into the longish house track End of Daylight, a very atmospheric and yet melodic track with vocals from Nachi Sakagami. It's very laid back despite its strong melody...but appearances are decieving. Take a gander at them lyrics. That's right, this is a song about the end of the world, and how hope at this point would only bring sorrow, so you should just embrace the end...set to a snappy dance beat (lyrics courtesy of kafkafuura: always a reliable source). The thing is, almost all Alstroemeria Records songs are like this. It's kinda funny, actually.
Anyway, then comes the more upbeat Syrufit track lure to me, in which Mei Ayakura proves yet again why she's the strongest singer in Alstroemeria (and Syrufit proves yet again why he's better at arranging vocals). Minoshima-san takes it again for Scarlet Fogbound, a house track done in Minoshima-san's traditional high-range atmospheric style, and done quite well, with an interesting minor key segment leading in. Eternal Dream is very similar in that way, though it's a ROSVIO track (not too familiar with his work). Following that is Stitch'step, an (EastNewSound) track. I haven't actually downloaded any of (EastNewSound)'s independent albums, but what I've heard of them has been good. Stitch'step is a strong and melodic track, with some rather interesting things going on with harmony and instrumentation. And they also know how to arrange for vocals. Lunatic Princess, taking its name and being based (surprisingly loosely) on Kaguya's theme: Lunatic Princess. It's pretty normal downbeat Minoshima, but quite pleasant. Lotus Road is another sort of downbeat Minoshima track, this time with vocals by *mican. Tsukasa makes an appearance in his customary style with Booster (just by the name itself, its sounds like a Tsukasa track), a non-vocal track with an interesting, modulated synth centered sound. Volcano in CHINA is probably the closest you'll ever hear Minoshima come to dubstep. It's different for him, and it works pretty well, even if it does take just a few too many direct cues from China's Hong Meiling's theme. Fragment Reaction, the next to last and eponymous track, is another pleasant arragement by Minoshima-san, though really at this point, as good as he is, his work in between Plastik World and Haunted Dancehall kinda runs together. The last track is a Syrufit arrangement: Saint. Actually, it sounds quite a bit more like Minoshima than it does Syrufit, for some reason, but it brings the album to a nice close.
In all, I'd probably call this album at least as good as Plastik World, if not better in some ways. I can't quite decide which I like better: they're different in tone and style. Perhaps Plastik World has the benefit of being slightly more focused: less time to get bored of the bland vocals and more focus on the things that make Alstroemeria tracks actually special.
REBIRTH
Wait, what?
METAL AND TOUHOU GO TOGETHER QUITE WELL, ACTUALLY. A testament to this fact is the band Unlucky Morpheus (I assume this is a reference to Greek mythology and not The Matrix, but I could be wrong), and their album, REBIRTH, is as well. Specifically, I'd have to call them a power metal band, akin very much to Powerglove.
Ironically, their album starts out in a manner very similar to an Alstroemeria album: an original intro into a longer song. Specifically, the intro, REBIRTH, leads into their version of Faith is for the Transient People. Which, you know, is actually kinda already metal-ish. Anyway, it's totally awesome. The next track, Missing Girl, is another fairly straight forward adaptation of The Primal Scene of Japan the Girl Saw. It too is awesome, but at this point, it becomes clear that their drummer really doesn't have any ideas. Really, good and creative drummers are harder to come across than people seem to realize. So, once Unlucky Morpheus had a Missing Girl, they needed an Unknown Child: Unlucky Morpheus' version of UN Owen Was Her. Few other Touhou songs save Lunatic Eyes have cried out for a metal version more than Flandre's theme, and though this is not the way I would have done it, it's still pretty awesome. The one truly great feature of this song is how it handles the bridge section, with the call-and-response structure. It does due credit to Flandre's mix of total creepiness and badassery. This is followed by Kero⑨Destiny a short arrangement of Native Faith (which I cannot find, so enjoy that other, more well known, very much not metal arrangement), leading into their version of Autumn Waterfall. It's pretty straight forward, but it's competent, and cool. It also seems like even though good metal drummers are hard to come by, all the good singers flock to metal bands like iron to magnets. Then again, having a powerful voice is a requirement if you're doing metal, just so the voice doesn't get overpowered. Anyway, the next song is Heaped Heart, an arrangement of Mysterious Mountain. The structure of this one feels different: there seem to be subtle time shifts here and there, and it works. No Grudge Anymore feels different too: slightly more melody focused, and...is that Pachelbel's canon? No...no not quite. Thank god. It's an adaptation of Mima's theme, an important character in the early PC-98 Touhou games who kinda disappeared in the Windows era. The final track is The Gensokyo the Gods Loved. This is the name of the track in the Touhou games too: the name already has a perfect metal vibe, I think. ZUN said that he wrote the original to be very melodic, and so is Unlucky Morpheus' version. It's a good note to end on. Unfortunately, I cannot find it on youtube, but I did find a version by Sonic Hybrid Orchestra. With pretty clear English vocals, strangely enough. I'm going to have to check these guys out later: they're pretty darn good.
Anyway, personally, I was hoping for something a little more like Wishmaster than Power Rangers. Then again, what can you expect? Nightwish not only has the awesome singers (both, none of this Tarja vs Anette stuff), but also the drummer, the guitarist, and the everything. It's still a really fun album, and I'll be looking to see what else they've done.
Incidentally, I just noticed something in the Power Ranger's theme song: the lines "They know the fate of the world is lying in their hands. They know to only use their weapon in defense." To be honest, if the fate of the world is lying in their hands, I'd really hope they know that they may have to use their weapons for something other than defense. Like saving the world. But that's totally off topic.
show me your love
Not gonna lie: I want to be that
timepiece.
i gotta admit, i'm kinda in love with this album. I love Syrufit's style, I love the album cover, and hey, Syrufit himself seems like a pretty nice guy. He responded to my post on his FB page's wall, and in very good English too. Could use some work naming his albums and finding the shift key though, but hey.
So on topic, the first track, Your Love, starts off sounding a bit like something on the Weather Channel. And, really, stays that way through half of the song before growing into a stronger sort of vocal centered track. For setting the atmosphere, it works well. Of course, following it is the very un-Weather Channel like Wheel, an interesting, more traditional sort of danceable house track, with a strong central aesthetic and progression to it. After this comes recollection, an interesting track with complex rhythms and vocal parts, creating a very nice overall feel. It should probably be noted that both of these songs' vocals are performed by Mei Ayakura. Syrufit understands vocalists and vocal arrangement quite well, I think. The next track, Sweet sigh, is slightly less impressive by virtue of being a bit more of a straight forward house dance number, but it's still quite nice. It's also not on youtube anywhere. TAK-sk did the next track, liberate me, a very nice, aesthetic centered track with a nice progression. Very good, and again, not on youtube, for whatever reason. Syrufit returns for perhaps my favorite track, Hitokata (untranslated Japanese for "forms of people," or, alternatively, "humanoid"). It's got some interesting, almost modal sort of harmonies and aesthetics to it. It flows extraordinarily well, and the vocal performance - by one SHIKI - is very genuinely done. Something oddly ephemeral about it. It's hiro.na's turn for the next track: The world of noise, which, unlike what you'd expect, isn't all that noisy at all. In fact, it's quite laid back, moreso even than most of Syrufit's generally laid back tracks. Which I can't find on youtube either. Uy. I'd upload some of these myself, but then I'd feel ethically obliged to ask Syrufit himself for permission since I know he'll probably respond, and that would be really awkward. Then again, it's technically not his track, so... But anyway, speaking of which, Syrufit comes back again for Power of Wind, which sounds almost like an Alstroemeria track with the instrumentation, but still retains Syrufit's sensibilities in a higher sense. By which I mean, the vocals - performed by this rather talented SHIKI girl again - actually work. Which is odd, because it's not only not an arrangement of a Touhou song, it's a pretty direct remix of Power of Sound by Ace. I don't really hold it against him: we already have plenty of proof he can come up with his own material too, and that it's pretty awesome. It undeniably sounds like Syrufit anyway, so hey. Of course, it's also hilarious that Power of Sound's lyrics are about finding love, and Power of Wind's lyrics are about the sorrow of being unable to realize the visions of the ego. Existential ennui to a snappy dance beat. Is Japan really that depressing? Anyway, it's back to hiro.na for AraHitoGami (untranslated Japanese for Living God), another really laid back sort of track, like The world of noise. And, like The world of noise, not on youtube. The well named outro side brings the album to a nice not-quite-close with a rhythm and pad centered aesthetic. And yes, that was the only video I could find. I say not-quite-close, because that's actually not the last track. The last track is ren (I guess like the Confucian concept or something), another hiro.na track with a very singular percussion arrangement, which really does bring the album to quite the nice conclusion.
Like I said, it's quite the album. Syrufit also has a few other albums, most in cooperation with *poplica. I hesitate to go ahead and download them only because even though *poplica is good, and there are a lot of tracks that are just *poplica or just Syrufit, there are also a lot of collaborative tracks, and the only people I know of who consistently do collaborative tracks well are Thomas Bangalter and Guy Homem de Saint Cristo of Daft Punk, and they can pull it off only because they more or less learned music composition together in the first place. The result of collaboration in music is almost always a lesser result than if either of them had created a track on their own. I'll still look into it though.
Other Stuff
I don't want to write full sections about any of this, because I don't think it'd be too interesting, and I don't really feel like it, so I'll just talk quickly.
I joined a D&D Pathfinder campaign last monday as a female human wizard of the evocation school known as Arase Kisama. Me and my fellow adventurers are to explore the island we're all on, and it seems like a dangerous but profitable venture. Arase doesn't much like the whole danger thing, but it does seem like a good way to pick up some arcane knowledge (not to mention books and valuables), so she's pretty exited. She and the half undead sorcerer Ackbar met up with the rest of the party in the light of a giant beacon at the top of an enormous Ziggurat. The monolingual ranger was frustrated with the trilingual conversation going on in common, draconic, and tengugo simultaneously. Arase saw this and threw in a clause or two in primordial just to screw with everybody. The sorcerer also nearly got mauled by the Kobold when he tried to hug her, but everything got sorted out with only minor injuries.
As they meet, just what precisely the giant light is for worries Arase, but she and the party had other things to worry about. For instance, the other wizard had run off into the woods never to return, and he had all the rope. When the party had to climb the cliff to get back up - and eventually back to camp - there was no way of doing so. Arase was the only one with rope, and she only had 50'. So, the Tengu - Tetsuo - had to scale the cliff to find some vines to drop down. Tetsuo nearly fell to his death, in fact, and it's possible that had it not been for Arase's feather-fall cantrip, he might not have made it. As it was, he climbed back up, this time successfully, and dropped down some vines and Arase's 50' rope. Arase herself had to try a couple of times to get started, but she managed to pretend to be all cool and stuff back at the top.
As they walked back, the ranger, sorcerer, and Arase noticed bear-like footprints. Confused as to why a bear would be in a jungle, and wanting to kill it so they could sell its skull to the goblins, they began to track them. It was the sorcerer who realized that these were likely not the tracks of a bear but of an owlbear. Still, they continued on to the owlbear's lair. As the party drew near, there was a sound from the cave, and it became apparent that the owlbear knew they were there. Tetsuo quickly darted to the flank. Arase, pumped up on adrenaline and wanting to make a good first impression, raises her arcane bonded gauntlet and cries STELLAR RAINBOW as she casts evoke light, and a rainbow colored laser bursts from her palm. Arase feels the power flowing through her, and for a moment, she almost grasps a power she had thought was unattainable, but it was not so. The owlbear does not like this one bit, but he likes even less the half-orc smashing her giant hammer into its side. The owlbear swipes with its giant left hand at the half-orc, who deflects the blow with her hammer. She does not see the right hand as it rips into her side. With this, the battle begins in earnest, the half-orc continuing to fight for a good minute before realizing how much stuff that should be inside her was now on the outside and fainting. The ranger and tengu gunslinger pile on as well, dealing blows at close range. Meanwhile Arase continues casting evoke lights and evoke force spells, as the sorcerer beside her casts evoke death. Arase is impressed by the sorcerer's skill, but at the same time, "what's the point of magic if it's not flashy," she reasons, and evoke death is an ugly looking spell. The owlbear continues to fight on, even after having most of its brain blasted away by guns and rainbow colored laser blasts, until in a last desperate effort to kill the ranger riding on its back, it digs its own claws into its spinal column and finally dies. Nobody gets XP, not even the badass ranger. The Kobold rushes forward to see what's in the cave. Arase blows the faint smoke from off her gauntlet, straightens her hat, and follows.
I talked a few posts about Maikaze studio's A Summer Day's Dream, one of the two big doujin anime projects. I mentioned that it was by far the lesser of the two, but I also said that I would be interested to see where it was going, if there was to ever be a second episode. Well, as it turns out, a trailer for the next episode got released back late 2010. With a promised release date for the next installment in late 2011. Should be interesting. If the trailer is any indication, the animation quality has improved, including, at least slightly, the facial animations and body language. This is encouraging, but then again, this is only the trailer. If it's still got the same questionable director attached to it, and the same questionable writer, then prettier is probably all it'll be. But hey, for us Americans, it's pretty much free anyway, so I can't really complain about something I'm not actually paying for. It's my choice whether I let something waste my time or not.
I gotta say though, as a trailer, this is actually pretty good. So many trailers for both American movies and anime follow the same formula that to see a trailer do something even slightly different is pretty cool. The last trailer I saw for a movie that I was genuinely impressed with was the one for David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Okay, those sync up way better than they have any right to.
But anyway, I do wanna see a sequel to Memories of Phantasm too...
Speaking of anime, I'm still not quite done with Super Dimension Fortress Macross, but looking back on what I wrote earlier, I think I was way too harsh on it. Yeah, it can get wicked cheesy sometimes, but for every bit of cheese, there actually is something of substance there too. It's got some genuinely very interesting things to say about culture and war, about how culture is, in the end, a more powerful way to end war than military might, but yet how even in culture there will always exist war. It's a nuanced view, and it's when the show explores these things that it becomes obvious that this is in fact the same executive director as Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
If I may touch on Touhou music one last time (I promise), I found a surprisingly cool German vocal version of Bad Apple!! The lyrics flow very well (to the non-german speaker), and the singer is...well...actually better than nomico. If she had been recorded in the same studio conditions, I'm thinking I'd actually prefer this version. At least it's better than that really dire English version by Christina Vee. I'm not even going to bother linking to that one.
Anyway, I really should be finishing this up now.
So now, for something completely different:
I don't have anything new, but I needed something here. Sorry.
So yeah, remember how I promised an update by the Thursday before last? Yeah, didn't happen, and now I actually have some more Alstroemeria Records albums to talk about (but that'll be the last part). No more Touhou otherwise though, I promise. I still haven't found a not sketchy way to play any of the games anyway, and I figure I'd better at least beat one on medium, just so that it doesn't seem too ridiculous that I've read and watched so much about characters that I haven't even seen the original versions of.
Speaking of which, I went on amazon.jp out of curiosity, and browsed through some of their stuff, and man is everything expensive. I don't know if it's just the dollar being weak against the yen or something, but wow. I'm definitely not buying anything from there anytime soon, especially not with US shipping expenses, which I imagine must be enormous too. Also, kanji, kanji everywhere. There's a joke that four years of Spanish lets you read a novel comfortably, and four years of Japanese lets you barely stumble your way through a comic. Except it's not a joke, it's probably just a fact. How does anything ever get done over there? Oh wait, it doesn't, their government is at least as inefficient as ours is right now.
What Have I Been Playing?
Next Tuesday, the answer is going to be Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. I downloaded the demo last Thursday and I've been playing it, getting used to the new physics and mechanics. Planes handle more or less the same as in previous Ace Combat games. The yaw and roll and pitch are pretty heavy when compared to something like Ace Combat 5 or Zero, but it actually reminds me a bit of Ace Combat 04's more floaty sort of handling. What doesn't handle like any other console Ace Combat game is acceleration. Tap the right trigger, and all of a sudden you're going 1500 knots and about to overshoot the Flanker F you've been chasing. On the other hand, tap the left trigger and you're falling out of the sky. It's very weird to get used to, but once I do, I imagine it'll just make maneuvering into position all the more precise and swift. Still, I'll often try to merge with too much energy, or start a series of high alpha maneuvers with too little, and end up dangerously out of position in a way that would cause me a lot of trouble if I were playing against a human opponent.
Maneuvering into position is at the same time more important and less important in Ace Combat Assault Horizon. With DFM - dogfight mode - you can tap the bumpers and enter this sort of chase scene thing where the enemy is trying to shake your pursuit and you have to try and follow and get off missile shots. It's the only way to efficiently take down some enemies, and it's actually very cool, but on the other hand, reliance on the new feature means that Project Aces has made taking out aircraft outside of DFM rather more difficult. Missiles do not track very well at all outside of DFM, requiring very good timing, judgement of energy, and positioning to get hits on the more difficult enemies. Normal aircraft in ACAH have very passive AIs that seem content to take it in the rudder while you sit behind them and shoot 20mm cannon rounds in their general direction. This is probably for the better, since the cannon in ACAH does not compensate for lead outside of DFM, so getting a gun track on the target at anything except point blank range is very hard, and is not helped by the fact that it takes a lot more to take down enemy planes in this game than in any other Ace Combat game before it. Missiles work just fine though, and I can take normal enemies out without any more difficulty than in any other Ace Combat game.
There are also so called "target leads" though, that are much more difficult to engage outside of DFM because the designers did not intend for players to engage them outside of DFM. Their AI is pretty lackluster - about the same as a normal aircraft in any other Ace Combat game - but man, does the computer ever cheat. Most of them are scripted to be invincible outside of DFM, even though you can still score missile and gun hits, and I always forget which ones are which until I'll be chasing one, maneuver into position, watch the plane disappear behind a wall of smoke and flame, only to emerge unhurt from the other side. They also tend to spam flares if you get too trigger happy with the missiles, which can be very difficult to deal with, and will defeat even the most well positioned missile shot. They're very much like the Yellow squadron planes in AC04's Lifeline mission, and like them, I can still score enough missile hits on any given target lead that I'm pretty sure it'd be dead if it weren't protected by plot armor without much of an issue. On the other hand, they're very good for training, just scoring missile hit after missile hit in preparation for dealing with the AIs in the real game, and potentially for other humans.
See, my colleagues at Ace Combat Skies have come up with a master plan. There's a game mode in ACAH multiplayer called world domination, where the player chooses a city to join, and compete to take control of all the other cities of the world by flying combat sorties on the offense to new territories and in defense of their own. Most of the best and experienced Ace Combat pilots in the western world (my humble self included) are on ACS, so this is what we're planning: everybody on the forums joins a really unpopular city, like Dubai, so that it's mostly just us and whatever other people that region manages to get, and together we take the rest of the online community by surprise and conquer the world with our hundred-or-so player army. First, we would take Tokyo for the sake of the Japanophiles, then we'd take Hawai'i to take control of the world's hula girl stockpile, and then, the world. They will come to know and fear the ACS clan tag. Or we'll start in Honolulu and work the other way around, but in either case, it'll be hilarious, this faction that has such a small percent of the online community taking over the world.
Or so we hope. It's actually more feasible than it sounds. From what I've seen, most people, even experienced gamers who play flight games on occasion, really don't fly very well at all. Heck, the professionals that play for the previews, who you'd think would be pretty experienced with this sort of game, fly horribly. What with the influx of new people drawn to the steel carnage of Assault Horizon, the average opponent probably won't be much harder than the average AI.
Of course, if I wanted to take part in this glorious battle, I'd have to get Xbox Live Gold. Which sucks. Maybe if I pay my parents back, I can get a one month subscription, so I can help my comrades for the majority of the fighting.
Life? What is this life you speak of?
What Am I Watching?
Drunk people outside my window, but that's not important right now.
No, but really, I've been watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Super Dimension Fortress Macross, but as I've already talked about both on here, and I don't really have anything more substantial to say about them, I'll leave it at that. It did occur to me, however, that Legend of the Galactic Heroes isn't a space opera after all. What it really is, is a historical epic that happens to be set in the future. As the show's tagline says: Zu jeder Zeit, an jedem Ort, bleibt das Tun der Menschen das gleiche - in any age, in any place, the acts of men remain the same. Holy crap is this show awesome, all the politics and history and personalities, and stuff, but of course, that's exactly why it'll never see the light of day stateside. So ist das Leben.
how do i facial proportions plz k thanks
SDF Macross is still pretty good, like a slightly less stupid version of the original Battlestar Galactica, but that's really not saying much. The characters aren't great, and the plot is kinda stupid at times, but it does have some genuinely great moments in it, and it's still something cool to put on during dinner. It's also kind of funny just watching to find animation errors...which isn't that hard, because if I had a penny for every time someone goes off model or crosseyed or there's a sea of elementary school drawings in the background cells, then I'd be able to pay my own way through college.
On the Theoretical Basis Of Anime Clubs
I've thought about it a lot, and I've decided that I'm going to consider thinking about trying to start an anime club next year. I've never run anything like a club before, and I'm not sure how one goes about starting one, but with all things, one must start with a purpose, and for something like an anime club, which you'd think would be more or less straight forward, there are some odd anomalies and contradictions that have to be solved to form a solid operating principle. Here is how I see it.
Premise 1) Anime as a blanket concept has fans because there are things going on in Japanese animation that simply are not seen anywhere else.
- Anime itself covers a very wide range of formats and topics. This results in many subfandoms; many people attracted to the same blanket concept of anime with very divergent tastes.
- Animation has certain inherent filmic qualities to it that are present across subgenres that nevertheless lend it to certain types of stories (mainly those dealing with subjects impractical or impossible to do in live action).
- Animation has certain inherent filmic qualities to it that make certain types of storytelling, character development, and atmosphere possible, whereas in live action it would be impossible.
- Anime undeniably has elements highly influenced by Japanese culture that inherently cannot be found anywhere else.
- Interest in Japanese culture is not endemic with interest in anime.
Premise 2) Anime fandom itself is very diverse.
- There are many ways to be introduced to anime that each have their own canon of anime titles the fan is likely to be familiar with, and each attracting a different sort of taste.
- Those introduced from Toonami/Cartoon Network will likely know things like Trigun, Cowboy BeBop, and Gundam Wing. If they stayed around long enough, maybe FMA, FLCL, and Death Note.
- Those introduced from the internet will have a very wide range, but will likely at least include Suzumiya Haruhi, and may also include things like Fate/Stay Night and Azumanga Daioh. Madoka Magica may be on the list too.
- Those introduced from film theory or a preexisting interest in Japan will likely know things like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and at least a few Studio Ghibli films.
- There are likely many fans who haven't seen much beyond Shonen Jump shows, like Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece, but are still undeniably part of anime fandom.
Premise 3) Anime fandom shares the uniting factor of being a fairly small community.
- Anime is largely accessible only through the internet.
- Anime fans are accessible and common only on the internet.
- Common interest in something uncommon is a uniting factor. Anime fandom is quite uncommon.
Premise 4) Anime fandom is largely self sustaining.
- Anime fandom has its own reference pool, and therefore its own set of in jokes and memes.
- Anime fandom also has the big three sub-fandoms: Vocaloid, Hetalia, and Touhou.
- Anime fandom is largely self-contained.
- Such a blanket sort of fandom inherently cannot be defined by a singular source material and therefore must be defined by the conception of its own fans.
Therefore An anime club must serve two separate imperatives. 1) An anime club must promote the concept of anime. 2) An anime club must promote anime fandom.
Things therefore entailed that an anime club must do.
- Meet.
- Watch anime.
- Ideally, anime that exemplifies something inherently good about anime that all who appreciate anime can potentially enjoy regardless of what they're already familiar with.
- Discuss anime.
- Consume secondary media concerning anime.
Things therefore not entailed that an anime club do, but might be commendable.
- Hold events outside of itself.
- Attend events outside of itself.
- Collaborate with the Japanese club.
- Anime as an interest is innately filmic rather than related to Japanese culture, but as the two are nonetheless interrelated, it might be in both our interests to occasionally work together.
Things therefore entailed that an anime club should never do.
- Promote ideals that are inherent to a specific subset of anime fandom but not applicable to a whole. (in-joke focused shows like Lucky Star or any moe-for-the-sake-of-moe sort of shows fall under this category)
- Neglect moderation and leadership. - Crossplay.
Practical concerns.
- We should probably not try to watch shows and OVAs longer than 15 episodes (so that they may be watched in three weeks or less).
- Unless it's unlicensed in the states, or unreasonably hard to obtain, we should only watch legal streams or DVDs, if for quality reasons alone.
- Meetings should probably be on Saturday so as not to conflict with homework or other clubs.
- Hentai would probably be a very bad idea.
First Three Things I've Unilaterally Decided We Should Watch
- Daicon IV Opening Animation (would make a good introduction on the first day)
- Ghost in the Shell (it's a truly great film with broad appeal that's not Ghibli)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica (has things to offer to pretty much all types of anime fans, would introduce old school fans to what the new school has to offer, and fits perfectly into four episode arcs)
More Alstroemeria Records Yep, there's more of them, and since y'all must have been so entertained by them last time, I've decided to do it again (don't worry, there's only two this time).
Harmony
"Yeah yeah, talk to the butterfly; I'm
gonna go to the ghost disco, but
not before I strike an elegant pose."
Well, it's probably not the best Alstroemeria Records album out there, but it's probably got the most awesome cover art, or if not the most awesome, the most descriptive. I'll give you a hint: it's not power metal.
Alright, first off we have...wait...this is the right album, right? Did I just accidentally turn on some mid 80s synth rock? I dunno, but whatever it is, Cheek Colors has a pretty epic, 80s-tastic opening section. It's pretty sweet...right up until the vocals start. As much as I may complain about Nomico, at least she's accurate and has an interesting voice. Haruna, the vocalist for Cheek Colors, very nearly ruins it, with one of the least charismatic, barely on key performances on an Alstroemeria track yet. Anyway, still pretty cool, even if it's pretty pop-like for Minoshima. I just wish the idea were done better justice. After this are three songs I've already talked about because they were on Exserens (the compilation album): Dark Road, Alice Maestra, and Voile, The Magic Library. After those three is Wind's Believer, a pretty good down-beat song in the same vein as the previous three, though also a bit more groovy with its baseline and percussion. Misato also proves again why she's probably the best of the vocalists who contributes to Alstroemeria Records with a surprisingly effective performance. The eponymous Harmony follows. I gotta say, the grooviness of the track goes so well with the cover art that it's not even funny. I get the feeling that this exactly the song the artist had in mind when he created it. Following it up is Interlude, a Minoshima original and by far the most interesting track on the album, with its variable tempo, unconventional, almost tape-loop like vocal sampling, and general contrast with the rest of the album. The next track is Maple Wizen (2007AW Re-Master), a very good example of Minoshima in laid back house dance mode, which is good, because it's seven minutes. The last track is Suwa Foughten [sic] Field, and holy crap, did Minoshima san just figure out how to use nomico? I mean, I call her helium voice, but she's actually pretty good when used right, like on this track. Actually, I'm not sure YukiKajiura might not have had something to do with it. Hmm...
Trois Noir
The god of nuclear fusion still
has yet to discover the secret
of how to sit in a chair.
Alstroemeria Records is not the only Doujin circle that composes tracks based on Touhou compositions. Two of the most prominent DJs besides Minoshima san to do so are Sound Online (Tsukasa) and ALiCE'S_EMOTiON (also known as REDALiCE), and fortunately for us, they all seem like pretty good friends. In fact, they decided one day to do a project together: a three part album called Trois, that would be composed of Trois Rouge (ALiCE'S_EMOTiON), Trois Noir (Alstroemeria Records), and Trois Bleu (Sound Online). So far, I've only heard Alstroemeria's third of the project, but maybe later tonight even, I'll check out Tsukasa san's. I've heard one or two of his tracks, and they're pretty good, and much more trance like in style. Should be interesting.
Anyway, just like most Alstroemeria albums, Trois Noir starts with an original Minoshima composition that leads into the first track. This time, the opening is Showdown/For Lovers Not Fighters, which in true Alstroemeria tradition, features an English phrase (telling us, apparently, to "eat it") looped to a very deep electronic organ like synth riff. It's an interesting track for its instrumentation, even if compositionally it's very much traditional PlastiQ World Plastik World era Minoshima, and it still features the trademark bland Alstroemeria vocals, though thankfully within a reasonable octave this ti...HOLY CRAP, DID MISATO JUST TRY TO HIT F7? I would have forgiven Minoshima if he had decided to autotune that, but I guess he has standards too. This is followed by Flight on Tears, which reminds me very much of something that might have been on Lovelight, with the synth strings and upbeat melody, and a this time quite good vocal performance by Misato san. Next is 光の都 (City of Light), which...wait a second, this is adapted from the same composition as the opening to Memories of Phantasm. This one is a lot less normal-anime-OP-style, which makes sense, since it's not from an anime OP. Also, it's actually a Sound Online track, which would explain why it...well...doesn't sound like Minoshima. After this is...wait...this is WAY the hell not a Minoshima or Tsukasa track. Underground Bridge, REDALiCE's main contribution to Noir, is far more like something you'd hear at a rave than anything else on any other Alstroemeria Records, but for what it is, it's a very good track, and it definitely still has a place on the album. Well, I say that, and the next track, Nuclear Fusion couldn't be any more different if Minoshima had been trying. Nuclear Fusion is much more like alternative rock than anything else I've ever head from Alstroemeria Records, and it works quite well. Following is Last Remote, a...the hell do you call this? It's not house, it's not alternative, it's not tanzmetall, it's...really heavy alternative synth rock? The vocals are by Ayumi Nomiya, and are actually excellent for an Alstroemeria track. Why don't we hear her more often? Then comes REDALiCE'S remix of everyone's favorite, Bad Apple!!. Or should I say, Rave Apple? It's not incredible, but it's pretty hard to mess up Bad Apple. Anyway, Gallardo (I haven't the faintest), a pretty typical Minoshima original, comes next. Fortunately, typically Minoshima original tracks are pretty awesome. Finally, the last track is a Sound Online remix of For Lovers Not Fighters, which, well, sounds like Tsukasa's version of For Lovers Not Fighters. Which happens to be pretty awesome, actually. A very atypical album for Alstroemeria Records, but a pretty good one nonetheless.
And now, remember that thing called the conservation of energy? Screw that, physics is for dorks! This is what a world where car tires can have a negative coefficient of friction looks like.
