Sunday, 24 January 2010
at
13:56
| Posted by
GekkaMeron
The third panel is so true for me orz (Read left to right)
OK so like the comic suggests, I don't want to turn this into another "I'm sorry I haven't posted much" post. So I'll just continue to post what's been happening lately in terms of music, anime, eroge and so on.
Anime
OK so it's been Winter season in anime, I said I was going to post about them but I never did. Maybe I can still do episode updates if it's not too late, here is what I think of series so far:
Ladies vs Butlers
I thought this was going to be really good but I watched it and I think the fanservice is too much. It seemed really predictable and I didn't like it. I heard the manga is really good but I think that the anime does not live up to it.
Following? No
Durarara
This is the new anime made by the creators of Baccano! and it's pretty good. When you think about it, the plot is really basic; boy moves into the city, meets his friend from a long time ago who tells him about the city and about an urban legend. It's really simple but it's pulled off very effectively.
Following? Yes
Chu-Bra!!
This is probably my favorite anime this season! The plot is really silly and should be even worse than Ladies vs Butlers but for some reason it's really adorable! Nayu is SO cute I just can't bear it any longer! I need to spam pictures right now:
I need Nayu doujinshi!!!
Following?: YES
Dance in the Vampire Bund
The first episode of this seemed really slow but it's a very accurate depiction of Japanese reality TV. Sometimes it seems very depressingly staged and fake. I think that's the same anywhere though. I had high hopes about this but I don't think it's going to deliver.
Following?: Maybe
Ookamikakushi
This was based on a Visual Novel but I never played it before. It actually looks really interesting and thrilling, I just hope that they don't mess it up.
Following?: Yes
Seikon no Qwasar
I think this is really bad. I watched the first episode and it just seems silly, I don't get it at all. It seems like a parody of so many series but there's no jokes.
Following?: No
Aki-Sora
OK it's not a series but I just had to add it anyway. This is a really good eroanime! It seems strange to say that but I haven't seen anything with a mildly interesting storyline since a few years ago. I want to read the manga now.
Following?: N/A
Baka-Test
This is really funny, one of the funnier series I've seen lately. It's amusing but slightly strange, also the fact that it's set almost entirely in class so far is a bit off-putting. Maybe I'm too used to slice of life.
Following?: Yes
Heartcatch Precure
Precure!! That's all I have to say there.
Following?: Yes
Sora no Woto
Do you like K-ON! ? Do you like the military? I don't really like either so this wasn't for me. It just didn't catch my interest.
Omamori Himari
I couldn't watch this, it looked like it might of had promise but it's a bit like ice cream and curry: I love them both, but I would never eat them together. In this case, everyone loves swords, fanservice, school life, childhood friends and cleavage, but putting them together just doesn't work. I think this is why we have variety.
Kaito Reinya
Food commercial or anime? It's not really an anime because it's so short. Maybe I'll watch it if I see it.
Music
I just realised it's 2010 and I didn't say it already in this post. Happy New Year! Music this year has been really good. I'm a big trance fan but I've also been getting into House and Electro House a lot more. There is also some interesting stuff from EXIT TRANCE this year too...
New From Anjunabeats this year is "Moon Dust" by Nitrous Oxide & Adam Nickey. It was the first 2010 trance track I brought from beatport. I like how fresh and clean it feels:
Speaking of Trance, EXIT TUNES have announced a number of CDs. I've lost a lot of faith in them, because since EXIT TRANCE BEST ANIME 6 the quality has really dropped I think. UmaUma series has stayed consistant, which is good. BGM is also really good too.
I really like 電波 music and I love trance, so could EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS DENPA TRANCE be a match made in heaven? I personally don't think so, but I'll still get it just to see what it sounds like.
ANIME MOVIE TRANCE 2 just got released recently too, it's just OK, but I think that there is only so much you can squeeze out of anime movie soundtracks.
Onto something completely different, I've really been liking house music lately and particularly the House Nation series.
Moving away from electronic music, Larc~En~Ciel have a new single that will be released on the 27th of January; it's called "BLESS" and I really like it, I prefer their slower songs.
You want something darker? Gothic? OK...
Visual-Kei/Symphonic Metal band Versailles have a new album out titled "JUBILEE" and it sounds pretty good so far, I haven't got it though yet.
I really like the sound of 愛と哀しみのノクターン, Reminiscence and Catharsis.
Binghave been doing a promotion for system voices for both Vista and Windows 7. Currently I'm using Nana and she panicks whenever something doesn't compile in Visual C#. The voices are free to download! Go crazy with them!
She doesn't know much about computers but she keeps me company. DON~!
2010 is apparently the year of augmented reality. I guess I should get a better mobile device to get the most from it. But I can't help be reminded of something...
Goods
In dakimakura news, here's what I have my eyes on at the moment:
Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku
Yuuki from Saki
Nagi from ANGEL MAGISTER
Not as many as I thought actually. Oh well.
I still haven't played eroge in such a long time. Remember Angel Magister? I never did finish the review. Nothing has really grabbed my attention lately, only a couple of fandisks. Oh and Cross Days still hasn't been released. Will it ever come out?
There is so much hype over the new Nanoha movie. I will watch it for sure.
Blog
OK so I haven't been very active lately, that's true. However I am wondering if I should change blogging platform to FC2, Wordpress or livedoor or something. Simply, the blogger interface is horrible. If you want to put any kind of formatting or anything in your post, you will get more span tags and so on in the HTML code than ever before. Which means that nothing is nested correctly and I have to use Notepad++ to check which span tag matches up where (Syntax Highlighting) and it's too much work. Does anyone have any bloggin platforms to recommend? Wordpress has the feature to import posts from blogger so maybe we don't have to lose everything, which is good. But maybe a fresh start is preferable?
Sunday, 29 November 2009
at
16:09
| Posted by
GekkaMeron
I am really pleased to make this my comeback post, and from my point of view, it's an honour to review this. It's been on my playlist for weeks and I always enjoy listening to it. The album is by Wintermute and it's called "Stray Light". Recently I have been really tired of hearing Hatsune Miku. I like her voice, but she is being overkilled on nico nico douga videos. This album has given me a new love for her voice all over again.
Artist: Wintermute feat. 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku)
Title: Stray Light
Tracks: 16
Genre: Pop/Rock/Ambient
Jupiter Pop
Sleeping in the Red
Mint Tea
Postscript
秋の空 (Virtual)
記憶の錆色
Song of Pixie
スニーカ
Reality
Fury, Melancholy And Joy
Mint Tea (Mango Roots mix)
Postscript (Mango Magic mix)
スニーカ (Mango Leaf Mix)
Song of Pixie (Bossa Study)
秋の空 (Real)
Mint Tea (Prototype)
In case you were wondering, Wintermute's name and the title of the album are both a homage to my favorite cyberpunk book by William Gibson named "Neuromancer". In the book, Wintermute is an Artificial Intelligence who ordered a man named Armitage to conduct the "Straylight Run" with Molly Millions and Case. They must travel to the Villa Straylight located in an anti-gravity city named 'Freeside' and merge the two AIs Wintermute and Neuromancer to change Cyberspace forever.
If you like anime and manga such as Ghost in the Shell, Akira and Appleseed then you will certainly love the book and the rest of the trilogy.
I am a big lover of Trance music and other forms of electronic music, so along with the Cyberpunk themes on the album cover I thought this would be an aural depiction of the Neuromancer world with hints of Miku's signature vocals (Which is a very cyberpunk concept I think). The album was incredibly different from my predictions. Let me explain.
Imagine a city of the future. Gone are the dirty glass buildings and smoggy streets as conveyed in many Cyberpunk novels, no more underground trading and black companies. Our world just got intelligent.
In a unique genre I would like to dub as 'Intelligent Rock' Stray Light shows us Wintermute's view of the future; a world of clean-white terminal screens and abstract concepts born entirely of an artificial mind where the software meets the soul. If AI was to produce music it would sound like this; bright, clear riffs with a raw yet perfectly timed beat, giving the album a real 'Advanced Analogue' vibe.
Tracks like Reality, Fury, Melancholy and Joy, Song of Pixie and スニーカ are thought provoking, mind-clearing works of excellence that have helped me through many a coding session and ignited my brain to think of new ways to approach problems.
This is the kind of world I can't help but imagine when I listen to Stray Light. Something very similar to net animation Eve no Jikan (イヴの時間)
The album is divided in two. With Mint Tea (Mango Roots Mix) kicking off the largely-electronically-dominated side of the album; an ambient trip into standby mode compiled of chilled out remixes of the previous tracks.
バイバイ そう眠りに落ちて 聞こえない
Stray Light is a Yin and a Yang of luminant, thought-provoking soft rock and a cool flow of ambient beats and melodies with Hatsune Miku providing colourless, crystaline vocals that produce a facade of emotional feelings inaugrated as a result of compliance to thousands of lines of self-composed code dictating all of her synthetic thoughts and curiosities.
All in All, Stray Light is a real masterpiece and I can't wait to hear more of Wintermute's music. There is no doubt in my mind that this will ever truely leave my collection.
You can listen to some tracks from this album plus more of Wintermute's music on his youtube channel:
Saturday, 5 September 2009
at
22:23
| Posted by
GekkaMeron
So this post is going to be about the latest CD from IOSYS, the 'ANIME HOUSE PROJECT'. That was released just over a week ago now, and priced at a reasonable 1905円. As ever, click 'Read More' full the full review.
If you're not familiar with IOSYS, they've been producing animations and music mainly for 東方 related items and apparently did the ending animation for the second ED of Penguin Musume Heart which I didn't really notice was IOSYS, but then the whole series did feel a little bit patchwork. IOSYS are also connected with 電波 Supergroup Albatrosicks. You can read more about them [Albatrosicks] here.
Anyway, IOSYS's latest endevour has been the 'Anime House Project' which is basically anime themes remixed into 'House classics'. Okay so they weren't dubbed as 'House Classics', but it felt like the right thing to add. So let's see the lineup:
01. “K-On!” ~ Don’t say “lazy” / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Anporin 02. “Tales of Phantasia” ~ Yume wa Owaranai ~Kobore Ochiru Toki no Shizuku~ / Tetsushi (Red Hot house) feat. Anporin 03. “Shin Seiki Evangelion” ~ Zankoku na Tenshi no These / Sound Holic feat. A~Ya 04. “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann” ~ Sorairo Days / Dr. Arm (Albatrosicks) feat. miko+Resurrection (Albatrosicks) 05. “Sousei no Aquarion” ~ Sousei no Aquarion / Boido (IOSYS) feat. ichigo (Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets) 06. “Fushigi no Umi no Nadia” ~ Blue Water / fishtone (TTB Studio) feat. Beat Mario (Cool & Create) 07. “Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha A’s” ~ Eternal Blaze / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Asana (IOSYS) 08. “Digimon Adventure” ~ Butter-Fly / AVSS feat. nyanyannya (Team. Nekokan) 09. “One Piece” ~ Believe / Redalice (Alice’s Emotion) feat. Ayumi Nomiya 10. “Dragon Quest” ~ Yume o Shinjete / D.watt (IOSYS) feat. witch (Sound Cyclone) 11. “Air” ~ Tori no Uta / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Rekka Katakiri 12. “Shoujo Kakumei Utena” ~ -Rondo- revolution / D.watt (IOSYS) feat. Yuuko Meguro
thanks to dancemania-ex.com for saving me time of having to type the tracklist :P
I'm not much of a house fan. I pick up the 'HOUSE NATION' series of CDs, but I would never go much further than that. So remixes of famous anime tunes sits well with me and I don't mind giving it a listen.
Before I go much further, beware; if you've ever listened to an anime remix CD, prepare for the same tracks to come up again. As you can see, we've got the compulsory Tori no Uta mix, a nanoha remix, Sousei no Aquarion mix and so on. So watch out for the same old hats coming up again and again.
I have some serious doubts about the CD being house. Like I said, I'm not a house expert, but I know when I am and am not hearing house, and a lot of tracks on this CD could be summed up as 'Ambigious electro'. 「Dont Say Lazy」 is far too fast for house, and despite most tracks hovering at about 130BPM, many shift into technopop (Sorairo Days) or just really plain electromixes.
But with all credit to IOSYS on this one, it doesn't sound cheaply made, it just seems like they've really beaten around the bush as far as house goes. Some of them are most definitley house though, I found the Dragon Quest ED 「Yume o Shinjete」 to be a really good midnight blend of Jpop and House without going into Technopop territory.
Okay, so at times it's a bit random and not as house-y as it could be, and unless you like dropping slow tracks (I wouldn't recommend it for the pacing of many of the tracks) it's not really good for mixing, but it isn't all that bad. If you want to wind down after some more frantic music, this CD really isn't a bad way to do it. Just watch out for a few odd tracks that might ruin your peace.
Overall, I'd give this about a 7/10. Doesn't really do what it says on the tin, but the production quality isn't bad at all and it's enjoyable. If you click the image of the album art above, you'll be directed to the official CD website, where you can listen to previews and make your mind up from there.
Favorite tracks:
「Sorairo Days」 by Dr. Arm feat. miko+Resurrection (From Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). 「Yume o Shinjete」 by D.Watt feat. Witch (From Dragon Quest)
Tomorrow I'll be playing and hopefully previewing a demo of a game featured in the most recent calendar. But what will it be?! You'll have to find out tomorrow!
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
at
11:07
| Posted by
GekkaMeron
As you may know from about a month ago when I reviewed EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS BEST エクスタシー ~Second Season~I am a big fan of the EXIT TRANCE series. There are many CDs in the series, some of which contain anime related tracks, and others are just J-Trance mixes. For the sake of this blog I decided I would only review the BEST エクスタシー (Best Ecstasy) and the アニメトランス (Anime Trance) series.
Anyway, as much as I hate to admit it, I think that gradually the Anime Trance series has gotten worse over time. 1-4 was excellent, there wasn't a track I disliked. 5 was amazing, but there was maybe 1 or 2 tracks I didn't like (not a problem though) then there was 6. 6 had some good tracks, but I think there were more I didn't care for than there were those that I really liked. Not to mention while I love Toradora (トラどら) and the remixes were great, I think that it was overkill to have more than one song from a small series. Anyway, I'll get on with the review.
Track List
01) Cagayake!GIRLS (K-ON! OP) / Helvetia(DJ Sa9+Hommarju) feat.CAMRY 02) キミシニタモウナカレ (Shangri-la OP) / MK feat.R.Cena 03) Wonder Wind (Hayate no Gotoku Second Season OP1) / Hommarju feat. YURiE 04) 経験値速上々↑↑ (Minami-ke ~Okaeri~ OP) / DJ Sa9 feat. MAKI 05) Spiral (Asura Cryin' OP) / MK feat. YURiE 06) SHUT UP AND EXPLODE (Bounen no Xamdou OP) / B.U.S feat.YUKI 07) RIDEBACK (Rideback OP) / Icon feat. Latte 08) silky heart (Toradora OP2) / MK feat. MAKI 09) Prototype (Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season ED2) / Icon feat. PECO 10) What 'bout my star? (Macross Frontier IN) / B.U.S feat. MAKI + R.Cena 11) 天使のゆびきり (His & Her Circumstance OP) / Dizzi Mystica feat. YAH 12) プリズム (Dennou Coil OP) / Starving trancer feat. R.Cena 13) being (Shakugan no Shana OP2) / DJ Sa9 vs. Judas feat. PECO 14) masterpiece (To Aru Majutsu no Index OP2) / Hommarju feat. Latte 15) 笑顔の理由 (Asu no Yoichi OP) / CAMRY 16) HANAJI (Maria+Holic OP) / Hommarju feat. MAKI 17) ？でわっしょい (Hidamari Sketch × 365 OP) / Ryu* feat. MAKI + Ma15 + CAMRY 18) JAP(Sengoku Basara OP) / Acid=Stone Valley feat. YUKI 19) Don't say "lazy" (K-ON! ED) / Helvetia (DJ Sa9 + Hommarju) feat. Latte 20) ずっとみつめていて (Ryu* Remix) / DJ UTO vs. Starving Trancer feat. 森永真由美
I don't want to launch into attack right away, but with the exception of some nice suprises there, I think that they have tried to cram in as many OPs, EDs and INs from the newest series possible, and I think that K-ON! has gotten the Toradora treatment this time around. There are some suprises in there too, Prism (Dennou Coil OP) and HANAJI (Maria+Holic OP).
Cagayake!Girls does work well as a remix, but I think it drags on a little, they could have cut it down by one chorus. But then I think that with the popularity of K-ON! This and 'Dont Say Lazy' were the intended highlights of the album, so it is to be expected. I'll also cut in quickly with this comment: it is actually well mixed. Not that the others were poorly mixed, but most tracks have really good transitions with each other.
I think that the length of tracks on the album was slightly irritating and made some tracks that could have been really good just a little bit boring. I was let down by Wonder Wind (ハヤテのごとく OP) because I expected it to be much bouncier, plus it suffered from length problems as well.
I feel I might be being too picky here, but many tracks were either too long (No I wasn't listening to the extended track version), simply not interesting or for some reason had crossed over in genre. SHUT UP AND EXPLODE for example sounded more like electro-house and HANAJI was like a speedcore/Gabber crossover. I'm not going to mince words here; it was horrible. I was really looking forward to a trance mix of it too.
But there are some nice things to say about the album too, prism (dennou coil OP) was a completely unexpected choice but wasn't bad at all, and being (Shakugan no Shana OP2) was a really perfect track, perfect length and sounded really good. You could have slipped it into one of the older albums and it would have fitted perfectly.
I thought Macross F music was impossible to sound bad in the EXIT TRANCE series, but What 'bout My Star? Was just...disappointing I think. Really, it is not nice to have to say, but I think that there were many tracks that I really didn't like. being was good, Prism was nice, Hidamari Sketch OP (？でわっしょい) was upbeat and nice, Dont Say Lazy was...pretty bad really. The final track ずっとみつめていて (Ryu* Remix) (I'm sorry, I don't know where this is from either). Was just Okay, I thought with DJ Uto himself involved, it may have been outstanding, but it was just listenable and not much more.
Overall, I'm disappointed. It really wasn't a very good album at all and I think the genre crossovers were a very bad idea. I sincerely hope this isn't the destiny of EXIT TRANCE. I'm not saying 'Don't buy this' but instead, take great caution before doing so.
Favorite track: being (Shakugan no Shana OP2)
--
I don't want to write a review about it because I don't feel it really fits in here, but Perfume have released their new album: ⊿ (Triangle) and it is not bad at all, there are some great tracks on there!
In other EXIT TRANCE news, if you're quick to buy the ウマウマできるトランスを作ってみた COMPLETE BEST box set, you'll get a figure of the mascot character of the series! Sorry I couldn't find a bigger picture:
Friday, 5 June 2009
at
14:40
| Posted by
GekkaMeron
A few days ago, EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS CODE SPEED アニメトランス BEST エクスタシー Second Season was released by EXIT TUNES under the QUAKE HOLDINGS label. I've always loved EXIT TRANCE and I especially love the エクスタシー (Ecstasy) series they do, which are OPs, EDs and other music from Eroge/Bishoujo Games.
Tracklist 1. 深愛 (White Album) 2. 夢想歌 (Utawaremono) 3. YOU (Shuffle) 4. Hello (ToHeart2) 5. SHINING STARS BLESS☆ (Nanatsuiro Drops) 6. 前奏曲(プレリュード)-We are not alone- (Crescent Love) 7. マジカルちょーだいっ (Magical Canan) 8. 大好きだよ(Into Your Heart) (ToHeart - Remember my Memories) 9. プラスチックスマイル (Canvas2) 10. Fly (Comic Party Revolution) 11. トモシビ (ToHeart2) 12. amulet (Hani Hani: Operation Sanctuary) 13. 舞い落ちる雪のように (White Album) 14. AGAIN (Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru) 15. 素直になれない (Tsuyokiss: Cool x Sweet) 16. ぽぽたん畑でつかまえて (Popotan) 17. 跪くまで5秒だけ! (They are my noble masters) 18. LOVE POWER (Otome wa boku ni koi shiteru) 19. 片翼のイカロス (H2O - Footprints in the Sand) 20. きらめく涙は星に (Fate/Stay Night)
ToHeart and Otome wa boku ni koi shiteru sure got alot of attention this time around, but they were both great and both were very good in the last album, so I'm not complaining. I'm glad to see Nanatsuiro Drops get some attention as I'm currently watching it right now and absolutely love it. I can't say that I feel a bit ripped off in the sense that YOU, 片翼のイカロス and きらめく涙は星に were all on other EXIT TRANCE albums, and are virtually remixed the same too. But they're still welcome as far as I'm concerned, seeing as EXIT TRANCE アニメ 4 and 5 were some of my favorite CDs released under EXIT TUNES.
The whole thing was a joy listen to the whole way through, on the first BEST エクスタシー CD, things got a little dry and uninteresting for a phase around tracks 13-17 but picked up toward the end. Here however, there was none of that, and kept interest throughout.
The typical EXIT TRANCE familiar faces are there too; MAKI, MK, Icon, Ma15, DJ Sa9, Acid=Stone Valley, Starving Trancer, B.U.S etc. and of course Ryu* giving parts of the album a bouncy J-core feel. If you've ever listened to any EXIT TRANCE album, you're bound to notice at least one of these names.
One thing I've noticed with the EXIT TRANCE series is that albums with alot of diversity (Like アニメ 4) tend to be poorly mixed, but albums with not as much variety in sound are very well mixed, but I think that cannot be helped. However, I think that エクスタシー Second Season has done a really good job of keeping the album interesting and being well mixed too. However I am not a DJ so I can't really say much.
Overall, the album is more of a solid, interesting listen than the previous CD, but lacks the number of memorable tracks. Next, lookout for my review of EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS SPEED アニメトランス BEST THE MOVIE. The first in the series of EXIT TRANCE CDs dedicated to themes from Anime MOVIES. Then look out for EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS SPEED アニメトランス 7, the 7th installment of the anime series. Due on the 1st of July. Favorite tracks (Excluding the repeated 3): SHINING STARS BLESS☆, マジカルちょーだいっ, 大好きだよ(Into Your Heart)
Thursday, 4 June 2009
at
15:16
| Posted by
GekkaMeron
To commemorate their latest album "Superluminal Ж AKIBA-POP" (One of their best albums yet, may I add.) Akiba-pop innovators MOSAIC.WAV have kicked off their latest tour of 2009 dubbed "SuperluminalЖMOSAIC.LIVE". At the moment, the schedule of the next shows look like so:
When: 2009/06/06 Where: Nagoya (名古屋) Venue: Bottom Line(ボトムライン)
The third panel is so true for me orz (Read left to right)
New From Anjunabeats this year is "Moon Dust" by Nitrous Oxide & Adam Nickey. It was the first 2010 trance track I brought from beatport. I like how fresh and clean it feels:
She doesn't know much about computers but she keeps me company. DON~! 
Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku
Yuuki from Saki
Nagi from ANGEL MAGISTER
