colorful人生

Luigi is a Frank Zappa fan confirmed.

BONUS:

the actual fuck is this album. this gen-z meme energy might be a bit too experimental for me o_o...

On 6/15/2019 at 4:57 PM, lichtlune said:

Just finished watching Kanon (2006). Not a perfect show by any means since it was adapted from a visual novel but still had me in tears at many points. Also the opening song is probably one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time. 

Kanon is such a mood, and LIA did an excellent job with the opening theme. To be honest, all visual novels with snow environments have some of the best OSTs regardless of how good they are plot-wise (SNOW, Hatsuyuki Sakura, Mashiro-iro Symphony, etc.)  I'm likely just a sucker for winter themes, lol.

Visual novel adaptations are actually a guilty pleasure of mine b/c I find them really relaxing (usu mindless fun.) It's unfortunate that we aren't getting solid adaptations anymore. (Now it's just ultra-budget ones of otome games :/)

I miss 2006~2008 MapleStory. For an MMO it has excellent music, which made it particularly nice for solo grinding. I don't dare play MMO's anymore, too much of a time sink.

Recently watched the CDTV countdown, which I haven't seen in probably 8 years. If you took out the Western artists and K-pop and just showed me the rest of the countdown with no context, I would be convinced into thinking it was from 8~10 years ago. I haven't kept up with mainstream J-pop in a looooong time, but Nogizaka46 being all over the place (like AKB48 was at the time), the saccharine male idol groups, idol anisongs, and sprinkling of folk hits still feels very familiar.

I wonder why the Japanese music industry has been so stagnant over the last decade...or everyone else is going really fast.

So good.

I thought I had my fill of BTS for a while, but this and "Dream Glow" I actually prefer over Persona. They did a lovely job w/ the instrumental, and it elevates the song a lot more.

*hears "Come to Brazil!" echo from the distance*

Here are the series I'm familiar with that'll be airing this summer (I'm covered for the next 5~10 years in adaptations, lmao):

Rating System:

• Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka II
  • Danmachi gets a second season. It'll be halfway decent, perhaps? Certainly the material is there, it's just the execution w/ the pacing that's on the line here. I'm a bit shaky with J.C. Staff b/c they can be pretty bad.
• Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou
  • It's an isekai series that starts out really edgy & angsty but quickly simmers down and becomes overwhelmingly fanservice-y. I have the manga stalled at the moment, simply b/c there are other series that do this concept better. The LN doesn't indicate that the story gets better either.
• Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator
  • To Aru Majutsu no Index III was pretty underwhelming since it was all pretty rushed. This is a spinoff that covers the Accelerator + Last Order duo, and is NOT CANON to the main series. There's a stylistic change that makes me slightly optimistic, and it seems like the alt. stories (like Railgun) seem to fare better. 
• Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 2
  • Season 2 of Takagi-san. It's all good fun/banter, but I personally prefer the manga format.
• Enen no Shouboutai
  • This will probably be pretty good. Same author as Soul Eater's, but it's a unique enough concept where it stands out on its own. The shounen tropes are def. there, but I don't this this one will disappoint. 
• Isekai Cheat Magician
  • Eh, expect this to go the way of Kenja no Mago... BAD. You have a really OP protag pair that basically mows through opponents like swiss cheese.  If you're looking for good story writing, most isekai aren't it. 
• Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?
  • Girls & Dumbbells... It's a bunch of japes and exercise instructionals. This will have as much substance as that one "push-up" anime that aired a few years ago with some added comedy.
• Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de Ni-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki Desu ka?
  • Isekai setting with an overbearing mother "concept", lol... Will likely fare better than "Cheat Magician", but I don't think J.C Staff will do Pochi's artwork justice (the only other redeeming factor in the series aside from the brief comedy bits.)
• Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka?
  • Harem antics. Not "great", but it has its audience.
• Tejina-senpai
  • More japes... It's cute and funny, but gets kinda fanservice-y. It'll be a 15 min. short, which is appropriate b/c it's similar to Senryuu Shoujo in pacing.
• Sounan desu ka?
  • I read the first chapter of this. It's not really a stand-out series, so I wouldn't expect much other than japes. 
• Uchi no Musume
  •  This is actually a really cute series that might do pretty well. I typically tell people to avoid spoilers, but this one might be helpful in your decision making:
    • Spoiler

      This goes the way of Usagi Drop in the light novel ("musume" becomes"kanojo" in an age-gap romance.) I don't think the series will be adapted that far, but, like Usagi Drop, the romance weirded me out. If you pretend the LN doesn't exist, this series is pretty good.

Stuff I'll check out:

• Cop Craft
• Lord El-Melloi II Sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note
  • These two look REALLY up my alley. I need to watch the OVA of the latter that aired in 2018.

• Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.

  • I don't know if i'll stick with this, but I'll try out the manga.

• Machikado Mazoku

  • J.C Staff... It looks cute, so I'll bite.

• Maou-sama, Retry!

• Granbelm

Also going to mention that Isekai series aren't going away. As someone who picks up new manga on the daily, half of the new series I run into are all isekai plots. They're easy to crank out and publish b/c they don't require backstories (memory loss trope) and character development = "leveling". This is seemingly the best way for newbie mangaka to make bank on a series (it's low risk.) If I'm running into all of them now in manga form, expect more adaptations down the line. (I feel like one of those "doomsday" guys w/ the signs)

Admittedly, they're fun mindless reads, but they're generally pretty bad. Adaptations make them ten times worse.

Infantilism in vk needs to die. Otherwise, I'm glad Reiya is back since I really liked all the bands he was in. 

Sounding really BMTH-y on the latter half of that. Sounds nice, overall.

1 hour ago, GreatNorthernVK said:

Eventually, they’ll have to adapt. CD stores are going out of business, even though they held on decently compared to the West.

 

The bands will always have their core gya that throw money at them. Physical releases are only one of the ways that they do this. With the CD format becoming less popular, i wouldn’t be surprised if many of these lay untouched, as collectibles more than anything.

 

I can’t predict the popularity of vinyl in Japan. Luna Sea’s LP re-releases all come with English translation booklets, so i’m pretty sure they knew their audience here.

 

One thing I forgot to mention was a recent article I read (which kind of spawned off the whole iTunes removal "debacle" prior to WWDC) that said CDs had vastly less sentimentality attached to them in the West because they're really just plastic vessels (using that word a lot tonight) for digital files. Hence, why CD interest is falling out at a rapid rate. It kind of makes sense considering how sterile/uninspired CD releases can be where I'm at v. the attention to detail when it comes to Japanese CDs. I wonder if it's the art, but I'm not sure because I have plenty of American CDs that are pretty decent. I haven't bought a CD recently to know if it's gotten worse, though.

TL;DR: CDs themselves really become "untouched collectibles" at a certain point, but the attention to detail in the rest of the case makes a difference. I feel like that detail is becoming more uninspired with the information/art more available online.

Another thing I didn't mention on my main post was the impending rollout of 5G network infrastructure, which would increase the viability in offering more lossless streaming/downloading services for mobile (though not necessarily a magic solution.)  I didn't really mention this, because for most people, Apple Music's 256kbps is enough. Also, the conversation starts to segue into dealing with other parts of the world & other areas with low internet speeds where they don't have the infrastructure to benefit from this. 

CDs have just recently faced a downturn last year, but they still make up a huge chunk of music sales. There are lot of factors at play here, but Japan in particular has this "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality with a lot of things (fueled in part by gerontocracy.)

I can't speak for the Japanese (there's likely an MH topic on this as well), but to my knowledge, Japan has this unique fixation with old physical media (and cultures outside their own.*) It's to the point where I'd doubt interest will fade away without the physical media literally degrading first. Also, it's kind of imbued in Japanese culture to dislike illegal downloading to the point where it's largely avoided (also the fact that said sites are mainly in English.) I certainly think Japan will follow suit with with the West in streaming adoption, but it will be a staggered one. I think Japan's larger music industry will fight tooth-and-nail to keep "piracy-proof" solutions around, whether they use "m-cards" or some other physical vessels to distribute digital downloads (like those weird micro-sd solutions.)

It's really hard to imagine a post physical-media world, not only in Japan, but everywhere else as well. There is definitely concern that if we went all digital, these providers like Spotify could "poof" artists/music out of existence and no one would be able to do anything. Hell, even Apple has been guilty of zapping (really obfuscating, the files were still there) mp3s "out" of user's libraries if they had an iTunes/Apple Music equivalent.

TL;DR, I don't really know what will happen. I can't approach this topic from an "audiophile" point of view, because audio quality is not the main impetus for most people when it comes to purchasing music/services. But just having music just be "accessible", which is certainly great, kind of makes me feel dead inside... It's this weird dilemma we'll all have that newer generations might barely think about in the future... Or maybe there's a longing for it, a revival of sorts born out of interest and sentimentality like the vinyl boom.

* Just noticed this was kind of a blurb. I'm really just alluding to the rampant "collector culture"  in Japan. Someone more familiar with this could expand the topic.

** To my knowledge, rather than having a "vinyl boom", Japan has had a sustained interest that's recently spiked. 

*** Forgot to mention the "handshake economy" which fuels a lot of CD sales in the idol industry. That could easily be substituted by a "digital lottery" of sorts.

****

Oddly timed update, but I found a good way to summarize this: Many of the Japanese indie bands I follow are actually going the way of digital + streaming nowadays to spread their music. Streaming also pays without having to initially invest in CDs and physical goods, which is ideal for smaller bands who just want their SOUND out there (YouTube is also included in this.) CDs however, are a no-brainer for IDOLS as they generate revenue off of some sort of imagery and personality. Idols include Visual Kei musicians, K-pop + J-pop idols, Anime musicians + seiyuu, etc.  All of these genres/scenes are reliant on CD sales because they are extensions of their image.

Only changes at the top of the Japanese CD industry (AKB's, Johnny's, major anime) can change the ones below it, like Visual Kei. Until there is some foolproof medium that generates as much revenue as CDs do when it comes to image and advertising potential, they won't "move on". 

They went full-on CHON in that solo bit. But seriously, this is pretty great listen. I'm a sucker for any and all prog rock, but the track was really playful without giving up a lot in the "heavy" department. Easily my favorite of theirs by far. 

Found the "Yukari Telepath" album ages ago via one of the /wsg/ Japanese Music threads. I've been sorting through my hard drive again and decided to revisit them. I feel like I could pick out a couple of consistent MH members on the threads, but I could be mistaken, lol.

Girugamesh - GO

It's definitely the poppiest and least memorable of their albums, but I personally enjoyed it a lot. Given the rest of their discography, I can understand why this one in particular was disappointing at the time.

Sorting through my meme folder, found this OC gem of mine. This is from a school talent show that was uploaded on YT years ago, where this band in particular was covering a We Came As Romans song. Not long after I gif'd it, they coincidentally took down the video (after a few years of it being up.)

Underwhelming. In many of the songs he's trying to force more gruff in his vocals in an effort to be edgier/more "vk", which really doesn't lend to his voice. They sound enough like a classic Jrock band to where they might as well go all the way in (which doesn't bode well b/c that's what the LADYBIRD is.) I have a feeling if they try more visual kei concepts, they'll continue sounding like a cover band.

On the other hand, Tokiha sounds a lot like Kou (ex-CLOWD), so if they work out the kinks they might have something.

Shoutouts to my cousin who's a nurse at one of the Sentara hospitals. The collective hospitals (mainly the general one) just took in all the victims/injured (to my knowledge) of the latest U.S. mass shooting in Virginia Beach. I'm not sure if it was on her shift, but they were certainly busy today.

Fucking hell, can people not suck for once and NOT kill people over their disgruntled asses.

馬鹿外人