sai

Kyo is a mediocre vocalist with constantly poor execution.

This is going to go as well as that Dragonball: Evolution movie nobody talks about where Goku was white and went to school and met Chi-Chi. Or that time Avatar: The Last Airbender got a movie and all the good Asians were white, all of the bad Asians are black, and 90% of the budget went to the CGI. Or that time they were in talks to butcher the classic Akira and the only people they considered for the roles of Tetsuo and Kaneda were white people. You know what all three of these had in common? Some white guy in America saw that something un-American actually had fans, and then they co-opted the name and cannibalized the source material so much there's no connection between the original and the final product. Even Speed Racer wasn't a straight adaptation and they still whitewashed the main character.
 
This isn't a race thing, but it's totally a race thing. We're talking about an anime that takes place in near-future Japan after the advent of mechanization and nobody gets the bright idea that it would be a good idea to hire an Asian actor to play an Asian character? She doesn't even have to be Japanese if they can't find a suitable actress in that nationality. The fact that they're changing the character so much before things even get started is proof that nobody is taking the source material seriously and that the movie is going to become a generic Die Hard clone. If someone cares enough to keep the philosophical motif of what makes humans human in the final script I might choke on my coffee.
 
I propose we get purple hair dye and cast Arithmetica as Motoko Kusanagi. This is the only deal I will accept.
 
And that director? No. Ghost in the Shell is a dark, gritty franchise. Sanders' last attempt at adaptation started well and ended up disintegrating before the movie got anywhere. Absolute junk and the editing was terrible too. If you want to stay true to the thematic feel of the original, hire Christopher Nolan instead. He would have been my first option. Or get the Wachovski brothers to do it. The Matrix took a ton of influence from Ghost in the Shell and they'd get the gritty cyberpunk feel right. I'd even take James Cameron or Ridley Scott before this guy. Why anyone thought to give an unknown director creative freedom over a movie adaptation of one of the most - if not the most - influential anime of the last two decades blows my fucking mind.

It's as if no one takes anime as an entertainment vector seriously. This is going to be dead on arrival to all five dollar discount bins everywhere. I don't see how this is going to be in the movies longer than a week.

They were going to white-wash Akira so I won't be surprised if they try to do it here too. I already don't like this lead actress. I do however like the director and Snow White and The Huntsman (I just suffered from the same problem of hating his lead actress, maybe he can try to keep his hands off this one?). So I guess I'll wait to see who the rest of the line up is and if they're trying to move the setting out of Japan, ect. If they do I won't even bother with this. GitS is my favorite Anime series ever and any live action would scare me but seeing Margot Robbie as the lead where there are like 100 better options makes me disappointed already.

So apparently it's really happening this time, Ghost in the Shell is getting a US live-action movie. DreamWorks is still the one developing it and Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) is going to be the lead director (urgh).
 
It's also pretty certain actress Margot Robbie is going to take the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi.
 
Source: http://collider.com/ghost-in-the-shell-margot-robbie/
 
Idk how to feel about these choices. Snow White and the Huntsman was terrible and I was hoping they'd cast an older actress (in their 30s) for the role instead of a 24-year old. Literally America has never done adaption of an anime right so I'm fearful for this is going to turn out.
 
I'm also curious what they're going to do if they decide to cast white people for all the main roles. Do they keep the original names, or will they localize them? It'd be kind of odd to have so many white people with Japanese names running around, lmao.

So apparently it's really happening this time, Ghost in the Shell is getting a US live-action movie. DreamWorks is still the one developing it and Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) is going to be the lead director (urgh).
 
It's also pretty certain actress Margot Robbie is going to take the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi.
 
Source: http://collider.com/ghost-in-the-shell-margot-robbie/
 
Idk how to feel about these choices. Snow White and the Huntsman was terrible and I was hoping they'd cast an older actress (in their 30s) for the role instead of a 24-year old. Literally America has never done adaption of an anime right so I'm fearful for this is going to turn out.
 
I'm also curious what they're going to do if they decide to cast white people for all the main roles. Do they keep the original names, or will they localize them? It'd be kind of odd to have so many white people with Japanese names running around, lmao.

I really don't care whether my favourite band uses the small amount of money they make from CDs (which isn't quite a lot, considering a lot of the album sales money is used to pay other people involved in the process of making a CD, as someone already stated before me) to take their kids to the zoo or sniff coke from a prostitute's behind. The money they make because I spend it on them is theirs and they can do whatever they want with it, unless they're using it to support neo-nazi's or smth like that lol (then obviously I wouldn't put money into people who support that sort of thing). They put effort and time into making the music so I shouldn't feel entitled just because I bought that CD that they should do what I want them to do.
 
Just buy what you enjoy from a band. They released an album you didn't like? Too bad, then don't buy it. But don't start whining that you spent so much money on them and now they're "doing this to you and you feel so betrayed". A band does whatever they want musically (unless in specific cases with awful contracts or whatever but then again it's still up the band itself to decide to go major and in the process lose some of their individuality) and if you don't enjoy it you should just not support it.

D - 7th Rose [2010]

 



 

fuck why am I doing this to myself

 

Okay so the first installation in this trainwreck series will be the one album I wasn't able to shut up about for approximately 2 years and I hereby want to apologize to all of you. I had to listen to this at nighttime and stay up until 4AM because it's goddamn hot outside and people are actually being hospitalized. I couldn't move a fucking muscle without sweating from all possible locations. FUCKING GLOBAL WARMING KIDS.

 

I'm listening to my own Lossless rip, fully formatted for the best torture listening experience. ANYWAY, HERE WE FUCKING GO. ALSO LOL WHAT IS FORMATTING.

 

1. 7th Rose ~Return to Zero~

Okay so basically just an interlude leading up to the actual title track of this album. Not sure if this is a build up to hype you up or to have the holy spirit protect you from the monstrosity following this interlude. Pope Francis/10

 

2. 7th Rose

Jesus fuck. Asagi's either suffering from sincere bronchitis or the main avex guy was ill and hired Maria Cross to do the retake on the harsh vocals, who probably just was like "well at least it sounds better than whatever I do" and gave it the thumbs up. The harsh vocals are atrocious and I have absolutely no idea why anyone in D thought this was a good idea. This entire fucking song is a mess because literally NOTHING adds up and everyone's just heavily ramming around on their instruments while Asagi sounds like he just shat a lego garage. The good thing about this song is that the chorus is actually good and it isn't poppy, which has been a trend lately. Then again this album was released before MEJIBRAY even formed so idfk. But whatever, I fucking love this song anyway. Holy shit why do I still like this, probably nostalgia/10

 

3. 花摘みの乙女 ～Rozova Dolina～

A wild studio formatted synth string appeared! Always love me some of those. D, you were major at this point in time, couldn't you hire a guy to do the actual recording of these strings I mean holy shit. Apart from that this song is actually pretty fucking cool. Asagi's dramatic vocals are actually placed really well, the accoustic work is perfectly executed and everything just sounds fantastic. If only it weren't for the synth strings/10

 

4. Tightrope

This song somehow relates to some other D or ASAGI solo song but all I remember from this was that PV that included dogs and Asagi being chained to a wall with ropes and singing about freedom.

 



 

Tightrope was actually the song I expected to really hate by now but fuck it's really catchy. Since I'm more of an individual song kind of person I'm sort of glad I gave this one a fair relisten. Everything else that somehow slightly sounds like this sucks. I actually really enjoy something for once/10

 

5. Crimson Fish

This is the song with the most individual plays according to iTunes. Then again, "according to iTunes" my most played track is a song that I haven't even played like 10 times so yeah iTunes fucking sucks. Apart from the fucking horrible synth strings and the misplaced echo-y intro, this song is actually still really good? Holy shit. This song still fucking rules/10

 



 

6. Independent Queen

Obligatory heavier middle song comes in right at the middle point of this album and it's really not that surprising. Welcome to fucking VK, kids. OBLIGATORY GUITAR SOLO RUINS EVERYTHING. Does D have a fucking contract that obliges them to put a fucking guitar solo in every song even if it doesn't need one. Obligatory Engrish as well, lovely. Eh this song is whatever, I can't even be bothered to make semi-decent comments about it. I'M INDEPENDENT QUEEN/10

 

7. 13月の夢見丘

The year doesn't have 13 months, that's fucking silly. What are they teaching kids in schools these days.

 



 

Folky song of the album that I actually really like because it's so overly fucking cheesy. The synth strings don't really sound that horrendous here so who fucking cares. My review, my opinion. Sort of want to skip through a field now/10

 

8. Day by Day

Day by Day is, I don't know what it is. It's an okay poppy song I guess but why the fuck is it on this album. It's placed at the worst fucking place too, right in the middle of where this album is starting to bloom. It's like someone finally being able to buy that car they always wanted and then accidently setting it on fire. This is leaving aside that Toki no Koe is going to fucking kill anything good going on until this part though. Why was this necessary/10

 

9. 絡繰り絵巻

Could've done without the heavy bits. Starts of good, then gets progressively worse. It's like eating a Subway sandwich when halfway through the lettuce starts to get gross and sulky because the fucktard who made your sandwich put three fucking bottles of ranch sauce on your sandwich. That's how this song feels to me. Overall it's still good, I just wish I could take some bits out. Subway needs to use less ranch sauce/10

 

10. 鬨の声

This is where I can unleash all my inner fury because this album was actually going really well up until this monstrosity. I HONESTLY THOUGHT THE ALBUM FLOW WAS GOING TO BE PICKED UP AGAIN AFTER DAY BY DAY AND THEN THIS FUCKING HAPPENS.

 



 

Who the fuck approved this. These 5 guys sat around a table and thought "well this sounds good enough to print on disc". Multiple avex guys could've fucking approved this. The harsh vocals are once again fucking atrocious. The instrumentals are awful, this song is too long for the kind of song it tries to be. The obligatory guitar solo is actually the best part here, for the rest it's as big a train wreck as this current review. Hope burned before my eyes/10

 



 

11. Sleeping Beautiful Beast

Thank fucking god for a decent ballad. This is what I'm talking about. Is there software that deletes certain tracks from discs because that's what I'd like to do to Toki no Koe. Sleeping Beautiful Beast would be even better placed after Karakuri Emaki (or whatever the fuck it's called). This review could've been called "Toki no Koe ruins everything". Pretty fucking good/10

 

12. 三日月揺籃歌

Outro sort of thing? Idk sounds pretty good to me though it would've been better to end with Sleeping Beautiful Beast because this sounds more of an intro than an outro to me. UNLESS IT'S LIKE AN INTRO TO 7TH ROSE. BUT DIDN'T THAT ONE ALREADY HAVE AN INTRO THOUGH.

 



 

Actually sort of yes. Depends on which version of the album you have. If you have type A and B it's pretty neat. If you have type C this one doesn't make any fucking sense. GOOD OLD VK STRIKES AGAIN. Depends on which version you have/10

 

13. 風がめくる頁

BONUS TRACK DESU. Okay this song is nice and it works as an outro but not this sort of outro. It's a goddamn single on an album that's nothing similar to it, why the fuck is it even on here. Like I know this one's at least optional but jesus. Liking it more when it's not a fucking closer/10

 

---------

 

FINAL VERDICT TIME

 

VERDICT OF 16-YEAR OLD ME:

VERDICT OF 21-YEAR OLD ME:

 

For the amount of hate this album gets by fans of the band, it's actually really good. I still consider it their best major album, because it really just is a good record. Toki no Koe is like the only thing that really makes you cringe on here, that's basically it.

 

DO I WANT TO PUNCH MY YOUNGER SELF IN THE THROAT FOR LOVING THIS?

 

NO

 

Alright, that's it I'm fucking done. I'll be keeping how many times i want to punch myself in the throat for liking what I did. So far that score's on zero, HA.

 



 

NEXT TIME ON BLAST FROM THE PAST [PROBABLY, IDK]:

 

NIGHTMARE - majestical parade

Black Flag lacked what I expected from an AC game, both gameplay-wise as story-wise. While AC3 had the same problem when it came to gameplay (not much opportunities to explore as in AC2, ACB and ACR), I preferred AC3 for having a story I could enjoy more. Connor is actually my favourite assassin next to Ezio, because despite the world he lives in and the cruel fate he's been dealt with, he never ever stops showing kindness and in my opinion that's what makes Connor so brave and such an interesting character. Tis' unfortunate he came after Ezio (which left many Ezio fanboys in true rage because Ezio as a character was way more extroverted and charasmatic than the silent Connor. Basically I understand preferences but I'm sick of people hating Connor because "HE'S NOT EZIO BOO"). I didn't find Edward very likeable for some reason. He lacked character, in my opinion.
 
I don't have a next-gen console yet so I can't get Unity (though I probably wouldn't on the day of release if I did, Black Flag killed my entire interest in the series LOL).
 
WHAT I'M ACTUALLY REALLY HYPED ABOUT THOUGH:
 

 
I love how far they've come since Origins. I'm so glad Leliana, Alistair, Sten and Morrigan are returning, I missed them so much ;w;

Dragon Age: Origins
 
All I need to say:
 

 
/holy shit morrigan is so cool

Dragon Age: Origins
 
All I need to say:
 

 
/holy shit morrigan is so cool

Fascinating, isn't it? You can't win nowadays with how you want your band to sound. You either get shit for not "evolving" or get shit for entirely changing your sound.
 
The big difference here, though, is that unlike Dir en grey, Sadie has not shown any level of competency when it comes to writing music with this new change in sound. At least a band like Dir en grey, though a mixed bag and lacking as of late, puts effort into their compositions and shows a level of growth which each album that is the antithesis of Missa. With Sadie, you can not find ONE quality of their songwriting and proclaim it to be progress from their previous sound. The merits of their compositions fall apart when in consideration of a path that people dread the most, cultural accessibility in music. They are playing it safe by treading the same ground that countless bands have done before to make their sound more accessible to a wider audience.
 
Bands who play it safe almost never get remembered a few years after they disband. Instead, those that do, offer something new to music that can be remembered for better or for worse. Sadie has yet to do anything like this other than come up with a shitty album title.
 
 
Not that I want them to go back to their "heavier" roots; but to regress so much with nothing to show for it? In this one instance, I can understand why people are bothered.
 
 
(this is based off of different expectations in music though. and I doubt a band like Sadie worries themselves too much about compositional integrity)

Nothing of importance or value was displayed in that PV. If you're going to buy this album, donate the money to our hosting fees instead. It will go much farther.

Always thought they were crap, but then I was recommended Nega to Poji, and I turned out LOVING that album. Love Mirai Iro as well. Can't wait for the new album!

Hatin' on the new 3DS model for splitting the userbase :< I really hope those exclusive games don't become a thing, because I really don't want to have to drop another $150+ for a second 3DS :/

I hope it does have enough new tracks though, since their last album they released 2 mini-albums and 6 singles (not counting about 3-4 live-limited ones). So yeah, hope it isn't like a 10-track album with about 2 new songs.

I hope it does have enough new tracks though, since their last album they released 2 mini-albums and 6 singles (not counting about 3-4 live-limited ones). So yeah, hope it isn't like a 10-track album with about 2 new songs.

I can't believe he's going nigga now??
 
offt - 
 
I don't have exact numbers, but here's his oricon outline - 
http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/263818/ranking/cd_single/
his single sales were declining steadily all the way since going major past-miyavizm, but his recent two albums actually got the sales back.
I'm not sure if that's his returning fans, or people got into collaboration album bc of other artists, and into s-t bc. it's been marketed better, though.

aka "we're updating our website without knowing if it can even handle the updates we've planned and now we're stuck in this fucking mess". A+ professionalism there.

I can now send Mana that picture I drew of him directly. This is my moment!

thank god.
 
sort of hoping they'll leave universal too and move back to king records but that's probably not going to happen, lmao. a girl can dream tho.

Before I tell you and Gaz to unbunch your panties and take it to PM, I want to address the part I've bolded. I want to do this because there's a misconception I want to clear up and it's something that's been proven to work on this forum.
Sharing your music with people who actually care involves three things: music, sharing, and people. The problem with it when restricted solely to visual kei is that the sharing is inconsistent. Some people hoard the rare music and it eventually becomes lost and no one can ever hear or find it again. Some people share everything freely. If you want to find other people who like the same music you do, you have to make it freely available. But even more than that, there has to be discussion about this music. There are two very underutilized forums in the Artist and Review sections whose purpose is to facilitate discussion. If you wonder why the type of visual kei you like seems to get no attention, go look for all the topics people have started about it and look at the last time someone uploaded an album by one of those artists and wrote a review for one of those artists. It's probably been a while hasn't it? Now switch gears and look at a lot of the K-Pop fans (a good majority of which came from visual kei) and estimate the size of the fandom in comparison to VK. It seems so much bigger because they all talk about it!
The key here is "out of sight, out of mind". I'll touch on that later.
But first, let's jump into some MH history. The year was 2010. Overseas attention for visual kei was on it's way out, as Champ touched on earlier. Activity was declining on MH because a lot of fans were jumping ship to the next fad, but there wasn't any musical spheres here to keep them interested. Thus, people spent less time here as they spent more time exploring new music. CAT5 and I had a problem with this. There is an entire musical scene outside of visual kei in Japan that was getting the shaft and we wanted to fix that. We started by first uploading a lot of new music to the download section. That had limited success. The turnover rate was so fast that by the it hit page two or three no one checked it out anymore. Out of sight, out of mind. So to fix that shortcoming, we tried something new.
This was an effort on the part of a lot of people, many of which went uncredited and who I will thank now because I don't think I ever formally did this at one point. CAT5, Aion, lukrecia, and I started "The Non-Visual Recommendation Thread" which grew to be a 30 page behemoth of a topic filled with sample releases by different bands in Japan that were all non-visual. The idea was that if it was always at the top of the forum and being constantly updated, people would check it out from time to time and find things they liked. There were some issues with it (disappearing posts, MU dying, etc.) but it had it's intended effect of people finding new artists that they wouldn't know that they liked. Because we made a place for it and occasionally wrote reviews in the section, we got all three components we needed: music, sharing, and people.
We expanded this base by starting the end of year lists at the end of 2011. CAT5 and I devised this as an idea to talk about really great albums we liked that didn't get the attention they deserved, got a lot of attention and deserved to be talked about more, or weren't even Japanese but was just great music overall. We got a lot of great feedback from lots of users because it was a combination of visual and not visual artists. There was something for everyone. The topics got hundreds, if not thousands of views and even attracted the attention of some artists we praised. This got more people listening, and more people talking.
Then the staff decided to do something really crazy and split the download forum about a year back. There was always talk about splitting it between visual and non visual music because of reasons, but we were hesitant to do it because we always felt the visual forum would just eclipse the non-visual forum and the latter would die off. By mid 2013, there were enough people here that enjoyed the latter for us to give it a trial run and see how it went. It was only supposed to last for two months. But because there was a clean separation between the two, non-visual music would no longer be buried in the unified download section as it once was. Visual kei music also benefited from this as well. Now that both were easily available for view, people began checking out more non visual kei music. Instead of failing, it's grown and now there's more of a balance here than there has ever been before.
So the moral of the story here is that if CAT5 and I had never decided to do something about the lack of attention non visual music was getting here that fateful day in 2011, MH wouldn't be the way it is today. If you want to promote your preferred style of visual kei, you have to discuss it. And continue discussing it and generate interest in it. Talking about how it's dying is a start but actually talking about the music is better. Music doesn't ever die until people stop listening to it, and the fastest way for that to happen is to have no one be able to hear it and have no place for anyone to talk about it.
Now I know this isn't directly on topic but I feel that it addresses the point being made in this topic accurately enough to belong here. Now you two go play nice.

I agree with nekkichi when I say that we're not digging into his private life, but his professional life. If this WERE digging into his private life without his consent, then I too would not appreciate it out of a lack of respect, but it's honestly not. Kisaki basically created tapes made up of other bands' music to expand his personal discography and thought he could get away with it. Kisaki also did many other things in his professional life that he really shouldn't be proud of (Google pictures-scandal, Phantasmagoriagate, tax fraud, and I won't be surprised if we'll be adding stuff to this list in the future). I also agree with Yuugi; if this had been any other semi-popular VK guy I doubt he would've gone under the radar.
 
In all honesty, Kisaki just desperately wants attention and apparently his music/actual band isn't succesful enough to do that for him. And sorry if this sounds too harsh, but nobody is forcing you to visit or read this thread. Saying how everyone participating in it is just out to get Kisaki is not going to make the thread less active, in fact, it'll most probably have the opposite effect. Like I said before, if it involved digging into his private life I would heavily disapprove as well, but it's not.

What if he's done this all purposely and the first person to confront him about it wins a UCP special bag + official bootleg DVDs and (another) copy of Phantasmagoria's Dejavu??
 
This is my moment