Ito

For those who are incredibly curious:


United States - 11,139 Japan - 5,231 Germany - 4,878 France - 3,571 Brazil - 2,807 Russia - 2,520 Finland - 2,165 Netherlands - 1,878 Italy - 1,771 Canada - 1,618

I know that this would be different if I could get the stats of the actual MH site, but here are the analytics of the MH facebook page.

Artist: la la larks Album: ego-izm Score: A pleasure to listen to from start to finish.
It's bad enough that I have a difficult time treating school food punishment and la la larks as two different bands, but la la larks isn't trying too hard to make that distinction themselves. Yumi Uchimura must be abiding by the adage of "If it's not broke, don't fix it". school food punishment wasn't broken - it just found itself in a position where it couldn't continue down the path Yumi envisioned. It seems natural to me then that la la larks' first single is so impressive, even amidst the almost devoid hype.

It's also come to my attention that I unconsciously gravitate towards mentioning the production before getting into the content of the review. In this case however, the production is what makes la la larks such a pleasure to listen to. The label must have blessed la la larks with a budget that would make Dir en grey envious. The sound that producer Ryo Eguchi achieved here is the perfect blend between the organic and the artificial. There's a lot going on in both ego-izm and end of refrain and yet the instruments aren't competing with one another for the listener's attention. That's a large achievement and is something most bands never get quite right. la la larks nails it on their first release. Ponder that for a moment.
ego-izm was used as the ending theme of M3〜ソノ黒キ鋼〜. In my humble opinion, this song was too different from the show thematically, sonically, and lyrically to fit. It's a disappointment that the anime was too much of a confused and introspective Evangelion-stanning brainfart mecha that went nowhere to get any type of real hype, as I'm sure that's what the record company was shooting for. It's not much of a setback, since it sounds like Yumi has finally reconciled making anime pop fodder with experimenting as an artist. I expect them to do another theme very soon. ego-izm is best described as the spiritual successor to How to go, resembling more of the former band's indie period than major period. This is a Very Good ThingTM. If you require an explanation, imagine swelling violin guitars, boisterious piano and bass runs, and the vocals of an angel so sweet you might fall in love on first listen. I've had this single on repeat since I've gotten my hands on it and I haven't grown tired of the title track yet.

The B-sides are where things get a lot more interesting, and by more interesting I mean "sound even more like indie-era school food punishment". end of refrain sounds like it could come straight out of riff-rain, what with the acoustic guitar that pans from left to right just like egoist from said mini-album. Part of me wonders if that was an intentional nod or not. The guitar tapping during the chorus is also memorable, maybe a little too memorable. earworm starts out like it could be an alternate take of transient but halfway through it shifts enough in mood and song progression to stand out as it's own track. Both are wonderful tracks that contrast well with the more direct pop effort of the A-side.

There are also instrumental versions of the first two tracks. If you want to more fully enjoy the effort that went into producing the music, or if you want to sing karaoke, they're there. Yumi's dynamic vocals are one of the greatest appeals to listening to her music, so naturally the vocalless versions aren't as appealing as their completed counterparts. Still, they're worth a mention for their inclusion.

In most cases, a new band sounding exactly like the old one is taken as a point of criticism. But just this once I don't mind. J-Pop has missed the unique blend of electronic and pop music that Uchimura is known for. The fact that it sounds like a redux of riff-rain only makes it better. This is what many school food punishment fans have wanted and thought they would never get since riff-rain. I'm just really glad that she's back and hasn't missed a beat, and has also found band members willing and capable to execute her vision to the fullest.

If you were a school food punishment fan, you're already all over this. If you missed that boat, this is a perfect opportunity to get acquainted with some refreshing and unique pop music.

I'm just happy to see that they aren't afraid to pull music from earlier in their career...I would have expected the set to be all Monsters and Redeemer stuff.

It was a short set but Hizumi sounded pretty well, probably better than he did last time I saw them in 2009. I think the short setlist was just trying to play it safe for the moment being, but as far as I understand it they're not ruling out further performances completely.
 
Hizumi also participated in the encore of Angelo singing one of their songs together with Hazuki from lynch. and the vocalist of RIZE.

SET-LIST at 2014/07/29:
 
01.GARNET
02.DEATH POINT
03.DEVIL'S PARADE
04.MIRROR

First off, I'd like to say thank you all at Monochrome Heaven for all the kindness you've shown to me, even though I haven't been here long. It's been loads of fun here, but I must go for personal reasons. Alot of things have changed drastically for me,so i'd like to say Goodbye. I'm not sure if I am coming back or not. It depends on where ever I end up I guess. I'll miss you all, especially you Tetora.


Sincerely , Aferni.

Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? - The Guardian

This article touched on something that really scares me about Japan...when people start thinking that relationships are too much work and they "can't be bothered." 
 
Just read the article if you want to be scared about Japan as well XD

Thoughts?

Most of the females in the show have the model on a runway walk. I think it has to do with Poser and the other tools they use to animate the show. I'd like to know more about the motivations of Emerald and the other person she was with (already forgot his name, heh). I also am not surprised to find out that Roman is a little bitch whenever Cinder is around. I'm pretty sure she has his balls in a cup somewhere.

I would also like to know how Glenda Goodwitch reset the entire cafeteria in fifteen seconds. That's some impressive magic skill.

Also Yang Chickenboxer is now a thing. She's gotten more development in this one episode than she has all last season. That makes me happy, since she has the best trailer and she's my favorite character but she's the one member of the gang we know the least about thus far.

Plane tickets to Japan.

Hold your orgams, here you have their new look!!!

source official twitter: https://twitter.com/despairsrayinfo

My first thought was that you remind me of Faith from Mirror's Edge.

Welcome to MH! Glad to have you here!
 
If you have any questions, feel free to ask anyone with a red or blue name.

I figure since 2014 is more than halfway done, I should post my 2013 list! XD
I have been sitting on this list for a while and I was figuring I would never post it since it is so late and this point, but hey, what the hell...here it is anyways.

I originally was going to write up a little something for each album, but if I did that, I just would never find the time to actually finish this (and was a huge reason I never got it up in January).

This list will be separated in to 4 tiers. Think of it as this:
Tier 4 - Stuff that took me by surprise or was pretty solid. Good music but not necessarily something that stuck with me for that long after listen to it. These albums might also suffer from having some great songs but then also a lot of filler
 
Tier 3 - These are albums that I really enjoyed but still lacked the spark to take them further up the list. These usually felt more complete albums than in tier 4 but could still end up feeling a bit same-y as a whole. Also, I usually ended up spinning these albums more that those in tier 4.
 
Tier 2 - The great stuff of 2013. These albums don't have a heck of a lot of faults and I listened to them a lot. One of the key factors to making it this high up on the list is being very memorable.
 
Tier 1 - The closest albums to perfection...the stuff that I played over and over and over and when I talk about them I just gush about how amazing they are. Essentially I have a hard on for these albums.

Just finished Attack on Titan....not as good as everyone makes it out to be...

where is my trade-off review > : ( i demand validation
 
AROUND CHILDREN is totally boss tho so i'll forgive you

Welcome to the forum! We're happy to have you here
If you have any questions feel free to ask anyone with a red or blue name.

Phantom is in my top 10 anime for sure. It blows my mind as to how many people haven't even heard of it.

I really liked Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom... I should rewatch it some time actually. You should totally watch Claymore though if you haven't seen it before, and then go read the manga afterwards

Just had to post because of how stoked I am.  I actually beat the blitzball tournament in FFX against the Luca Goers!  First time ever, and I won 5-1

MAYBE BUT JUST BEACAUSE ALL ANIMES ARE SHIT NOWADAYS. i mean come on, all these male characters who are losers but gather around themselves harems of girls are such a cliché. and that dora girl too, ew. in my anime days i watched tons of animes like this one just with slightly different plot. also it's soooo predictable! knowledge about what happens next is really pisses me off, ugh. sissy parts are even worse! how many times did we hear this pathetical bullshit like "I BELIEVE IN HUMANITY BLAH BLAH"? 7 episodes so far but the more i watch the worse it gets. 

Why not use PS3 Media Server? That way you don't have to worry about converting.
http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/

Just got a Wii U with Mario Kart 8.  Its nice to have something light and playful, and mario karts are always fun!

So I wasn't exactly sure where to post this. But I barely saw this today and it made me really excited. 
Like i think I'd be kinda okay if he did a solo or something. I'm also surprised with his vocal skills..... like dang boi
 

Why not use PS3 Media Server? That way you don't have to worry about converting.
http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/