PIZAZ

I'll reserve judgement on the tracklist until I see how well it flows, but I agree, five is way too many singles. That is some really sick artwork though, easily my favorite they've done so far.

they've yet to disappoint so far and the look is on point

I'm loving everything about this release so far, album artwork even looks promising and well thought out.

Sweet, I hope we get a chance to hear it. I really like the promo pic too, reminds me of flipping through the back of old vk magazines.

2 hours ago, Bear said:

Because I have never watched it with an English dub. Why would I even consider watching it with en English dub?

It was rhetorical, I was more just trying to add to what you said about it. Also, it's one of the most notable things about Angel Cop?

Cool! Still getting into them but I liked what I've listened to a lot so far.

On 5/23/2018 at 9:25 PM, Bear said:

Enzeru koppu aka Angel Cop was very good. The plot is awfully silly, but it does get more and more interesting and over the top as it goes, and that's something I can really enjoy. Starts off as a fairly traditional cyberpunk series, but as the series goes on it just gets crazier and crazier. Lots of violence, weirdness, good soundtrack and nice visual style and animation. I liked it a lot!

How can you bring up Angel Cop and not mention the absolutely batshit plot and hilarious english dub?? Anti-semitic conspiracy theories, 80's esp'ers and nihilistic hyper violence are a bizarre combo on their own, but then you add in lines like the infamous, "if this is justice then I'm a banana"... Angel Cop is pulpy garbage anime perfection lol

I got really nostalgic for them a couple of months ago, nice to see that they're still active

I misread track 3 as cuck in the dark and got unreasonably excited tbh

The listing of tracks as "cases" is reminding me of chemical pictures' amazing string of singles from years ago. I doubt they're taking inspiration from that though.

On 10/25/2018 at 12:50 PM, Ro plz said:

Whoever you heard this from straight up lied to you. I saw them in NY and Ruki was quite pleased, surprised at how "crazy" the crowd was and mentioned it several times during the performance lol. Even in the interviews there's clear interest that they want to come back. 

 

I missed DIR EN GREY the last time they were in the states due to financial reasons and probably not being able to get the time off of work. I can't really remember anyone else VK related. There's quite  few american bands i regret not seeing for more or less of the same reasons. 

That's a relief, I'm glad to hear it wasn't a negative time for them! Hopefully they'll tour the states again in the near future

Oh, cool! Thank you for following up  I'm going to have a try at getting my fluent friend to give a listen and see if we can come up with something that makes sense.

I'm following too many ongoing series. A lot of them are total guilty pleasures with not much substance or spinning their wheels due to the reality of weekly/monthly serialization, so not much to discuss.

I read through all of Orange in a couple of sittings. I appreciated that the author attempted to explore suicide in a thoughtful way. A lot the problems the characters faced and the way they reacted felt realistic. I really disliked the forced romance though. It became such a focus at times and some well written characters were reduced to shojo tropes.

Finished up Princess Jellyfish finally. Sadly, the anime stopped adapting the manga at the best point. The author must have gotten bored halfway through or something, the art became so lazy and most of the conflicts/themes that drew me to the series aren't explored any further. An overall unsatisfying experience that I can't recommend unless you're invested in the characters and just want to spend more time with them. Started to read Tokyo Tareba Girls by the same author and I'm enjoying that much more, it's got a mean sense of humor yet doesn't come across as being overly judgmental.

I'm almost done with Octopath Traveler. It's been an overall positive experience, just uneven. The Bravely Default spin off feel to the combat, each character having their own separate story/action paths like the SaGa games and the hd 2d visuals were nice touches that elevated the mostly uninspired writing. Too many reused assets as well. Hopefully when the inevitable sequel comes they can spend some time focusing on fixing those issues and expanding on the stellar combat.

I'm only watching banana fish atm and I'm really behind. The relationship between Ash and Eiji is what I find most fascinating, it feels like genuine chemistry which is so rare in anime, especially bl adjacent anime. The combo of ott action/plot and themes of surviving trauma feel at war with each other often, I try to take it as a byproduct of being written in the 80s/90s. However, the constant use of rape as a threat to the characters feels outdated and cheap. If only they had chosen to cut some of that out, it happens too often and takes me out of the show. I read at least five volumes of the manga waaaay back when Viz originally released it, it didn't hook me then. I think I was a bit too young to appreciate it's best qualities, so I'm glad it's being given such a nice adaptation now.

I've heard good things about Bloom Into You, I'm just not in the mood for a slow romance rn.

I love it, excessive crushed velvet floral patterns with a spiderweb accent- early 2000s hot topic goth fantasy. I wish more of their stuff was shared online, they've been around for quite a while now and I think I've only ever found a handful of singles, the first album and a mini or two.

I haven't given any of this a listen, but how impressive that they actually followed through with the 20 releases lol

I'm hoping it's just kyo making gross kissing sounds over sparse, dissonant, droning guitars for 7 minutes. That's a bargain at 2000 yen.

12 minutes ago, Gesu said:

I think I heard something about them having to cancel lives because of fans being too rowdy. It happens a lot in the VK/J-rock fandom, for some reason. I remember reading about Yo-ka from DIAURA having to tell his fans to at least act like civilised adults if they weren't going to get along.

Do you see bands in Japan a lot? I'd love to go someday, but I've never left England.

I don't, I've only been once and it was recently(May of this year), but I plan on going back asap because it was an amazing experience.

I missed out on the gazette when they did an american tour, I wasn't paying attention to vk at the time. I regret it even if I was unaware though, it doesn't seem to have gone over too well, I heard the band was unhappy with the conduct of overseas fans and as a result I guess they're unlikely to come back. Seeing them next time I visit Japan is always an option, but I'd prefer to see a smaller band/s.

I really enjoy the album, although  I'm finding it hard to pin down what's going on thematically sometimes and it results in a disjointed listening experience if I'm not in the right mood. First couple of listens felt very direct and easily digestible, not something I'm used to with modern deg. The first half of the album was exciting and refreshing at first, but I end up tuning out a lot of it out after repeat listening. Most of the standout tracks are on the latter half. Aka is my favorite by far, that chorus and solo are so nostalgic and placed perfectly. It's nothing new for them, but executed perfectly for me. If they spent the rest of their career stagnating and it sounded like this I wouldn't be complaining too loudly. Echoing the above regarding Zetsuentai. It's a bloated track that recycles too much and feels largely unnecessary. 

I don't have too much to add that wasn't covered by other fans/reviews. One thing I've noticed, and this is a compliment, is that Kyo sounds old now and he's owning it. Some bands don't age well and I've worried that deg might not. Their aggressive and nihilistic music are hard to pull off after a certain age without inducing cringe, but they sound mature and it's impressive.

Any band that attracts a large, usually teenage, fanbase tends to have "crazy" fans. Overzealous fans are fine with me, sometimes their enthusiasm is infectious and can elevate a live. Most of my experience has been with american fans and I've noticed that X Japan fans here are a little too much; Going on and on about them at lives that have no relation to X when everyone is clearly uninterested, talking poorly about the band we're in line to see, etc.  It's obnoxious but it's only been a handful of people, so I wouldn't characterize the whole fanbase as being crazy.

Guniw tools sound wasn't always incredibly unique(plagiarism accusations), but certainly unusual and experimental  for vk. Full's voice is an acquired taste and the songs range from folk inspired pop to industrial, so I've noticed that they tend to be pretty polarizing when I try to introduce people to them.

That's some really bad photoshop on the red haired one, lmao

On 10/8/2018 at 3:39 PM, Tokage said:

kinda sad to say that Clarence Clarity's Think: Peace and mewithoutYou's untitled album have both already bumped TIW off my playlist. . . . they're both just THAT good

Same with the Clarence Clarity album. Tru (e) Love is on obsessive replay especially.