enyx

^Yep, it seems very likely (basically a given at this point) that Kojima is leaving Konami after TPP. Konami are already hiring new devs to work on a 'new' Metal Gear series. Here's the Gamespot article that explains a lot more about the situation, and here's more info on Konami's search for new Metal Gear developers. EDIT: This also means that Silent Hills is either dead or, at the very least, going to need a new director.

Well, Hideo Kojima appears to have either departed from or had a major falling out with Konami and it looks like Kojima Productions as a brand name is dead. There's a summary of everything here, but here's some of the key points: Hideo Kojima has been removed from Konami's list of executives effective April 1st. The Kojima Productions website has been taken down and it now redirects to an MGS portal. All of the "A Hideo Kojima Game" taglines and Kojima Productions logos have been removed from Konami's websites, and even the games' boxarts. Konami's job listing webpage has renamed Kojima Productions Los Angeles to Konami Los Angeles Studio. I guess this is technically more than just an MGSV story, but since the Kojima name is pretty much synonymous with Metal Gear I decided to post it here. He's always been known for crazy PR stunts but this seems pretty excessive to just be a marketing trick. EDIT: As Eurogamer has pointed out, Konami has recently enacted a new company restructuring centred around making 'Konami' the focus of all of branding and production efforts.

I feel like I'm in the minority here but I feel as though Psycho-Pass (the first season, at least, I haven't seen the second) is okay but vastly overrated nevertheless. A lot of the people that I know tend to consider it to be an extremely intelligent dystopian anime but I've never been able to quite understand why. It tends to be one of those shows that has all the dystopian aesthetics down to a T but lacks the subtle philosophical & socio-political undertones that makes for a great dystopia. I was never able to fully believe that the world that it presents could ever realistically come to be, which tends to be a prerequisite for a really great dystopian work in my opinion. It's kind of like the anime equivalent of The Hunger Games; decent for a piece of light entertainment with dystopian overtones and some social commentary, but dumbed down to the level that a 13 year old could understand and it suffers as a result. At one point it actually compares itself to the works of Orwell, Gibson, and Dick (seriously), and that really rubbed me the wrong way. Aside from that, the animation, visual style, music, and the like are all pretty solid, and it's not like the story is bad per se, I just don't think that it's anywhere near as great as a lot of people that I know seem to insist. It's still worth watching, though.

I kinda feel as though both eiheartx and beni totally deserve some appreciation of their own for keeping this thread going in the way that they have.

I actually quite liked her clean vocals. Wasn't feeling the harsh ones so much but it wasn't enough to completely ruin the song for me or anything. I think this band could have potential so I'll keep an eye on them.

Yep, that's basically what I was trying to get at in my post as well. So far their attempts at incorporating electronic elements into their sound seem to have mostly taken the form of writing generic archetypical GazettE songs and then throwing random electronic sounds over the top of them in a rather superficial way. If they're going to continue with the electronic stuff on DOGMA, then I really hope they change their approach somewhat.

I was digging that spot until 1:11. I don't have any issue with electronic music per se but I don't think the GazettE have done anything particularly interesting with it in their last three albums either. I was hoping they'd have moved on from it but that teaser suggests otherwise. Live song snippet sounds okay but its way too short and in too low quality to make any judgements.

I don't know whether to be excited or sceptical when it comes to this band nowadays. They have the talent to write good music but chronically under-deliver. I'll keep an eye on this but I wont get my hopes up just yet.

I just got 95% on a test for a subject that I've never been to a single class for, and hadn't studied whatsoever before taking the test. I am a god.

Oh god, the ensuing shitstorm in this thread isn't going to be pretty. On a more serious note, whilst Lycaon wasn't really for me, they did seem to be one of the more interesting VK bands as of late. A shame for their fans.

Phoenix has its moments where it dips a bit too much into 'typical repetitive Alice Nine song' territory for me, most notably in the chorus, but on the whole there's a lot more interesting songwriting going on here than in any of the stuff they released with PSC post-Gemini. I've always had a love-hate relationship with A9; I think, without a doubt, that they're talented enough to write fantastic music and they've proven that in flashes in the past, but at the same time they've repeatedly under-delivered by producing repetitive, dull and generic drivel for large portions of their career. Nevertheless, they seem to have some sort of fire lit under them since this whole PSC split happened and I respect their decision as well as their potential songwriting ability enough that I'm going to keep an eye on them for the immediate future. As for DIAWOLF, it doesn't sound too far removed from the A9 track, but it's nice enough for what it is. I feel like I need to hear more before I can say how I feel about the project as a whole, though. Also, I can't be the only person who thought "What the hell is kenji03 doing in this PV?" at 0:21 xD

It's times like this when I get amused that some people still think that Dir en grey have completely shed any Visual Kei influences. Anyway, I'm normally not the type of person to care too much for a band's 'look', but I quite like this one.

Just watched Enter the Void and now I'm trying to unscramble my brain.

I have a love-meh relationship with this band. They've shown brief flashes of fantastic songwriting and great potential, but have also pushed out a lot of mediocre stuff and seem to chronically under-deliver overall in that regard. Their stylistic direction as of late hasn't done much to fill me with optimism either. I'll give this a shot though.

The second track totally reminded me of their first two EPs (in a good way). The third track in particular sounds really interesting. The video description also contains the full DVD tracklist. It's cool to see the zanyko record compilation track was included. 1. reflection 2. 都市の記憶 3. in motion 4. 変声期 5. ハッピーエンド

Here's hoping that the sudden change of look is a reflection of some new found stylistic inspiration. Their sound has barely changed for the last 5 years so it's about time we got something different from them.

I tend to enjoy the more atmospheric/slower songs live for some reason, so out of all of the ARCHE tracks I think 濤声 and 空谷の跫音 are the two that I'd like to hear live the most. I get the impression that 懐春 would be particularly enjoyable as well.

Quick question: What are everybody's thoughts on the original/extended version of moment A rhythm compared to the album/short version? Personally I find it a real shame that the original version seems to have been lost in obscurity with both just A moment and Best of Tornado featuring the short version, combined with the fact that the original single is out of print. It might seem a little out of place amongst the rest of Sigure's work due to it being much more experimental, but I really think that the second half of the original version of the song is one of the most notable moments in their discography.

Brilliant band. They're one of the very few artists that I can say that I genuinely think get 'better' with everything that they release. I don't mean that in the sense that I always prefer whatever stylistic or thematic direction they choose take over those in their previous efforts, but that I feel as though they seem to be continually getting better at expressing whatever themes they choose to explore. They've progressed from a band playing decent but rather generic indie rock, to a band that seems to constantly develop fresh new ideas for exploring whatever type of sound(s) they're going for despite the fact that they release new music at a ridiculous rate; and, perhaps more importantly, it always comes across in an organic, natural way, rather than feeling forced for the sake of doing something different. Their output last year was fantastic and I have no reason to expect that they wont deliver on whatever they release next.

ハイスイノナサ (haisuinonasa) have announced that their second single 「変身」("Makeover") will be released on 2015.3.11. The single will also come with a DVD containing live recordings of 5 previous songs. CD 1. 変身 ("Makeover") 2. 地図に無い街 ("The town with no map") 3. ブラインド ("Blind") DVD AFTER FLAT TOKYO Live Recording (5 tracks) Artwork This is one of my absolute favourite bands so I'm really happy about this. I'd have preferred a new album over a single, but beggars can't be choosers

Plug is love, plug is life.