The J-Music Lovers' International Assembly

[Ryusenkai]

SAS or Mr.Children album announcement?

 

 

Oh no...

 

 

Aye - SAS have been teasing something on Twitter these past few days about the 25th (tomorrow in Japan).  Most on 2ch are expecting an album or a single and an album.  Mr.Children confirmed last month that they're working on an album, but I don't expect that until Fall (every 2 years, no matter what).  But yeah, first SAS album in 9 years would be a big deal and I'm excited.

[Ryusenkai]

That's true. I think we've talked about the whole takeshima/dokdo thing before. We have a lot of people who take on Korean mentality and hate Japan over this issue and others even though they are no way involved so I really shouldn't be surprised.

 

I've seen that too I think the longer they've been submerged in Kpop the worse their dislike of Western things becomes.

If I were a sociologist I would love to study music and the realms of fans and they're thinking/logic.

 

 

People still say it now, but the music is really similar. Only main difference is the presence of Asians and singing in Korean. Oh and the heavy focus on groups. I've never seen an industry so focused on groups before.

 

This reminds me when I got called out on JPOPCentral for saying being Asian works against artist debuting in the US  :lol:

 

Well, all I'll say is this - the word "fan" is derived from the word "fanatic", so in a sense, there's really not that much surprise to be had, even though you might genuinely hope that things like what you've described wouldn't happen.  It's still a very interesting area of study though, and one that I'd like to see furthered in the years to come, since it might teach us some interesting (and disturbing) things about human nature.

[Ryusenkai]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdCWgBpfePo[/media]

 

 

So good  :rlytearpls:

 

I like the original more, but Chris did a really nice job covering Oda's biggest hit.  He really brought out the 80s vibe in "Love Story wa Totsuzen ni" and added just a little bit of jazz to the mix.

[Ryusenkai]

ayaka's studio lives are just beautiful (she posted a new batch this past week).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5zNmK9UCwg

[Ryusenkai]

Oh right, this is going to be the fun week for the album charts.  This'll be interesting to watch play out, though I already have my own guesses for how the week is going to go.  :3

[Ryusenkai]

1. Kis-My-Ft2

2. UVERworld

 

 

 

____________________________

 

Anyway, the new Arama is opening and I'm already seeing a change: http://aramajapan.com/

 

There's a YUKI post, a SHUN post, a Summer Sonic post...

 

Let's see if they can keep that up, since if so, that might be worth adding to my list of news sites (though these days I primarily just use natalie and the Rockin' on Japan website).  And yeah, those will almost certainly be the two at the top (I've my suspicions that UVERworld might break triple digits in their first week for the first time since '09) and beneath we have Kazumasa Oda, Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi (Best album), Ayu, and Tomomi Itano all squabbling.  I'm most interested to see if Oda's album charts as oddly as his release back in 2011 did.

 

Oh, and off-topic to that, but one of the groups in the Music Japan post, "Tesla Doesn't Know How to Cry" are actually pretty darn good.  They do jazz piano influenced rock, which is ... kind of a rarity xD

[Ryusenkai]

To those of you who like (or occasionally have a taste for) more laid-back music, I recommend Kazumasa Oda's new album.  "Oda Biyori" is beautifully composed with some really nice vocals to go along with it, but it's undeniably a slower album.  Still, some really interesting uses of harp and bells show up, often accompanying some very ... lyrical guitar, I might call it.  If your tastes tend that way, even a little, it's worth checking out.

[Ryusenkai]

I have some good new y'all: I'm now a staff member of AramaJapan! 

 

Congrats!  Now cover all of the acts that most wouldn't even think to bring up.  :3

 

 

Congrats Nanana.

 

Oh, and since I remember you being interested, have you listened to UVERworld's new album yet?  I've been looking to hear someone else's opinion on it, and that's been surprisingly hard to find.  xD

Edited July 5, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

I've yet to listen to it, but I will tomorrow. That being said, the singles this era are not the best I've heard from the band.

 

I'd agree with you - this wasn't their strongest singles era, but I'd say that everything comes together remarkably well in this album.  In having slightly weaker singles, they've actually ended up with one of their most cohesive albums in a while.

 

I liked it. It was very them with some new added sounds. It was a nice change and something to experiment with. I also liked that with having a permanent sax player they utilized it a lot. It enhanced their songs imo

 

Aye - this album felt like a transition album to me, but not one where they didn't know where they're going.  The band knows where they're headed and are starting to do more than just hint at their future direction(s).  I also agree that having SEIKA on-board permanently has actually done some pretty great things for them, and encouraged them to use the sax more creatively than just having it feature on songs.  I'd say that's one of the biggest differences between this album and "Life 6 Sense" and "THE ONE" - it feels like they've finally figured out how best to use SEIKA.  On the whole, I'd probably pick this "0 Choir" as my favorite album out of their last three, since it just ... actually feels like a complete body of work that complements itself.  Oh, and did you catch the callback to their earlier anime themes in "Arubeki Katachi"?

Edited July 6, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

late congrats!  :ohbi:  :ohla:

Spread the TK love on there for us. 

 

Oh - I'm assuming you've heard the full version of "unravel", right?

[Ryusenkai]

Okay, so who here is watching anime with me here. I'm specifically talking about ghoul, zankyou, and aldnoah but if you watch any others, you can discuss them with me as well. Was it only hemlock and ryusenkai?

What are your first impressions? For aldnoah I got gundam + valvrave hybrid. Zankyou isn't out and I'm watching ghoul right now. Might check out space dandy if its first episode for s2 gets me

 

Aldnoah reminded me of Gundam+Suisei no Gargantia and the premiere was solid - I think it did what it needed to, but the second half of the episode was clearly stronger than the first.  I understand the importance of exposition, but I feel that there are better ways that it could have been done.  Even so, Aoki Ei did a pretty stellar job with the material he was given and I'm glad that he's directing this show.  Oh, and great character designs.

 

Tokyo Ghoul I also liked a fair bit, since I got everything I wanted from the premiere.  What's going to matter most here is the next set of episodes, since that's where they're going to have to expand and lock people into the concept (weird phrasing, but you likely know what I mean).  My primary worry with this show right now is the apparently breakneck pace they're adapting it at, since according to a friend I have who's read the source material, they went through like 5-6 chapters in this first episode.  They said there really weren't any noticeable issues in this episode, but they're worried that they won't be able to keep that up.  I'm optimistic though, so we'll see.  (I don't know what they were reading, since I just checked myself and it was like 2-3 chapters, so yeah, considerably more optimistic now.)  

 

Space Dandy S2's first ep. was REALLY creative and I really liked it, so I'd recommend at least giving that a shot.  Barakamon was GREAT and I really enjoyed it for what it is - sometimes I need a show like that with the rest of the stuff that I'm watching.  Zankyou is still my pick for best show of the season though, since everything from the staff, to the concept (reminds me of Eden of the East, which for all of its flaws, I loved), to the art looks remarkably solid.  We'll see though.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

To anyone who liked early YUI, I recommend trying Niiyama Shiori.  She's a bit more acoustic, but her sound is similar-ish to that.

[Ryusenkai]

LOL @ 18:40:

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x210c8g_%E3%81%97%E3%82%83%E3%81%B9%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8A007-007%E3%81%A8%E6%AD%8C%E3%81%AE%E5%A5%B3%E7%8E%8B%E6%A7%982%E6%99%82%E9%96%93sp-2-3_creation

 

 

 

 

There are so many mini-YUIs popping up...

 

I'm not really surprised, given the fact that the artist she was effectively no longer exists.  Still, the reason I recommend Shiori is because she's reminiscent of that sound without being an outright copy.  That and she's only 17 and clearly has time to grow as an artist, but her work at such a young age is solid. 

 

For example:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKrxl2R8d10

Edited July 8, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

Whatever happened to YUI? I know she took a break but then I never heard anything about her. 

 

__

Randomly missing BRIGHT lately.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a7to3ji8Co

 

*sigh* my poor (literally) former fave Jpop girl group. Flower is great and does so many things well, but they just don't have the vocals of Bright unfortunately. 

 

YUI formed a band named FLOWER FLOWER, who've released a couple digital singles and have been recording songs.  However, she was diagnosed with a panic disorder a few months ago, and so any physical releases and lives have been postponed until she recovers.

[Ryusenkai]

OMG it's so weird trying to explain how the physical and digital markets differ to people on Arama.

 

Eeesh - that guy in the Digital Chart post wasn't really listening to you at all.  Yes, the statistics say that there are a lot more physical than digital sales in Japan, and I'm sure to a certain degree there still are, but that's including all the gimmick-driven sales that currently exist in the industry.  If you were to say, remove those, I've a feeling that the percentage of physical to digital sales might be somewhat closer than most people would guess.  That and there's actual data to support that less young people are buying physical singles because they're ... very expensive for what they are (we've beaten this to death already, so I won't dwell on it).  I still say Oricon's album chart is probably the most accurate resource for judging album popularity that we have right now, though I do look at the digital album charts just to see how they skew.  But yeah ... things aren't nearly as simple as "a sale is a sale" as the guy was trying to claim.  No, a sale is money, not popularity, which is admittedly a weird concept to grasp at first.  But eh, you can only hope people catch on and understand.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

So Kyary's having handshake events for her album?

 

I took a look at the descriptions for the album on both Amazon.jp and HMV and didn't see anything to that effect.  If there are, it's been done retroactively (HMV was running a pre-order promotion where you could end up in the PV for her last single if you pre-ordered early and entered, but that's the only thing I could find).

[Ryusenkai]

[quote name="DocumentaLy" post="4244919" timestamp="1405039933"]

I saw some of her tweets: [url="http://mbmelodies.tumblr.com/post/91316403753"]http://mbmelodies.tumblr.com/post/91316403753[/url][/quote]

Based on the first tweet, it looks like tickets were being sold separately, so the handshake stuff was just randomly attached to the concert. Plus those tweets and the event were from before the album even released.

[quote name="IceHism" post="4242884" timestamp="1405028208"]

Zankyou no Terror was so good :ilove:
the only complaint i have is the character art. everything else was great. the characters were interesting. The plot is interesting. The psychological development is good. the voice acting. The opening and ending. Yoko Kanno's ost. the animation.
Yep, living up to its expectation and rn it's equal to aldnoah for me as fav of the season[/quote]

That was everything I wanted out of Zankyou no Terror's first episode - they now have my attention. I find the character art to be okay (not my favorite, but not bad). Still, when it comes to the whole package, this was nothing short of stellar. Now they just need to delve more into what the show's continuing plot is going to be, and if that remains anywhere near as consistent as this ep. did, then we have quite a winner on our hands. Also really love the opening.

For the new shows this season, I think my rankings are: Zankyou no Terror >= Barakamon > Space Dandy = Aldnoah > Tokyo Ghoul (and this is NOT saying that Tokyo Ghoul is bad, but is more a testament to the strength of this season). Edited July 13, 2014 by MomoMoon115

[Ryusenkai]

I'm surprised you put barakamon above space dandy tbh.  It came off as an extremely typical slice of life for me.  I mean, when people are commenting that a best part of the series is that the little girl is voiced by a kid or that it had good animation, then i already know how interesting the rest of the show will be for me.  When i saw the first episode, i didn't really see a semblance of a plot, just character development.

 

It comes off of me knowing a bit of the source material (i.e. that there is an actual point to this show and it's not going to meander forever just because it can).  My opinion of the adaptation might fall in the coming weeks, but this is where it stands right now.  Really, I also need second and third episodes from a couple of series like Aldnoah and Ghoul (haven't watched Ghoul's second yet) to get a more concrete idea of what they're intending to do and what their general benchmark for quality in all areas is going to be.  In addition ... while other factors obviously matter, sheer quality of writing and attention to detail are the two things I pay attention for first, and if you consider that, it might make a bit of sense (it's also why I fully expect Space Dandy to climb up to second on my list before too long).

Edited July 11, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

Honestly, my problem with dmn wasn't so much what he said as how he said it.  You can have discussions with people you disagree with just fine so long as you're both open to listen and understand the other's viewpoint.  He just ... disparaged almost anyone who thought differently or disagreed with him and communicated with people in an extremely negative manner.  The few more neutral conversations I had with the guy were actually fine, but those were few and far between.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Ryusenkai

[Ryusenkai]

Pretty much.

 

I'm doing a trade-off on another forum and here are some tunes I like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx2quDkZLhE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylKv5rqaej0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-_wtkM_l9M

 

Not going quite like I hoped but not in a bad way. They operate differently from here so I'll take the feedback into consideration for next time.

 

I'd recommend trying out illion's album from last year, "UBU".  I think I listed it as my #5 album for the year when it comes to Japanese stuff (even though the album is mostly English).  It's a very good, varied release that shows that Noda can do more than you might expect from him if you've heard RADWIMPS' stuff.

[Ryusenkai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8O4kIo7OKQ

 

^I like this - MV's a bit weird, but jazz mixed with pop and just a touch of hip-hop apparently works surprisingly well.

[Ryusenkai]

This is really nice. Idk why, but I'm getting ska vibes from it. Maybe because the mixture of genres used

 

Yeah, I can see a little bit of that in there.  Based on that song and the song they performed live on Music Station ("Hibi"), I've been looking to see if I can't find a download of their new self-titled album (Yoshida Yamada), but I've had no luck thus far.  I'm hoping that with their new boom of notice that someone might upload it somewhere, but we'll see.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J9AcO6LrfM

[Ryusenkai]

I like it too. Instrumental is ear candy. Not a fan of the blonde guy's voice but the guitarist's singing is nice. He's hot too.

 

I like the contrast between both singers' voices, since I think it gives the song an extra ... texture of sorts.  Plus, I've always had a soft spot for unusual vocals.  Agreed on the instrumental though, since that's really quite nice.

[Ryusenkai]

Because the Avex acts are kinda blah now. And there's a lot of KPop involved now. They have these little nights the week before but I'm generally blah about that now too. I don't know, I'd rather watch Rock In Japan now.

 

A bit off-topic (since I think that you'll get a kick out of this), but do you remember how people were thinking that KANA-BOON had something to do with Kana Nishino?  Well, here's a solo singer with an even more misleading name - since it's a compound of the names of two existing artists.  Meet ayU tokiO:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF5heB0Rczo

[Ryusenkai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy1-nMEiI58

 

Well, hadn't expected Yuzu to release this song as a digital single (I like the version on their last album slightly better, but this is still quite good) or make an MV for it.  I'm oddly glad that they did though, since this song is anything but conventional and sounds great.