NHK 58 Kouhaku Utagassen

It's aired. Expect full coverage soon!
(and the Music Station super live too!)

RT: CDTV 12/23/07

-Perhaps this time I can cut back on random thoughts. But it's an hour long program so I won't make any promises.
-Nice, SMAP and Takasugi Satomi are the guest lives!
- Oh no the 3D characters are dressed in christmas outfits!
-How come there's always enka at the bottom of the countdown but never the top? lol
- High and Mighty Color's Amazing PV looks....amazing!
- Whoa this girl looks like she jumped straight out of the I"s manga.


- This might seem like a stupid question but since I know next to nothing about christmas in Japan, they say Happy Christmas instead of Merry in Japan?
- Man I love the song Bokura no Machi de.
- Sambomaster with a new song!? Man it's been ages since I saw them on a music program, or Japanese television for that matter.
- Fuckin exile has been all over this episode. I counted them like 5 times just in the middle of the program. I CANT ESCAPE THEM!
- Ooh another new Brilliant Green song. I liked stand by me a lot so i'll give this one a chance.
- lol I saw a commercial of Aiuchi Rina's single + PV where she's crying. Hilarious, I must get.

A bit on music...

Definitely the most anticipated single for me this year was, without a doubt, AKG's (Asian Kung-Fu Generation) After Dark. After a long absence and not releasing a single since 2006, After Dark filled that hungry need I had for a new ubber single. Ubber for me anyways XD Its upbeat and has a great rhythm and they finally seemed to have come back from the style they worked on Fanclub, which was good but I didn't like that album as much as Kimi Tsunagi 5 M or Sol-fa. I was a bit let down with the second track on the single, since its usually just as good as the
1st one.

Next up would be an anime theme from this season. The more noticeable one for me -besides After Dark, which I learned about before I knew it was going to be Bleach's new op- is D gray man's Doubt & Trust, which goes amazingly well with the new opening animation and above anything, it goes well with the sudden turn the story has taken, so much drama and action ><;; High & Mighty Color's Amazing was also a nice addition for the holiday season, being both catchy and with a nice rock beat. The 3rd track called Parade also got my attention, especially cause it somehow reminded me of a Morning Musume song, don't ask.

Last but not least is Erika Sawajiri or ERIKA or Kaoru Amane XD I first saw this girl in the dorama 1 litre of tears. Really, you either want to suicide yourself once you see that show or you want to live life to the fullest, I chose the latter. Anyways it was Uska that told me that she started a singing career. I didn't look her up for music until I saw the drama Taiyou no uta. Which I liked a lot ^_^ and it wasn't as depressing. I kinda liked the songs she sang in the drama and that's where I began to check out her music. I've now listened to all her singles and I can say she has the potential and the songs are nice, still room for improvement but otherwise Destination nowhere and Taiyou no uta have been stuck on me for some time now.

A quick roundup on what I saw in a recent musicstation:

1. Ayumi Hamasaki talks freaky, as if I didn't already know that.
2. I think I've only seen like 2 musicstations where Ayumi isn't a guest.
3. BOA sounded pretty good, but above everything she's v-pretty and dances pretty damn good.
4. Cocco took me by surprised despite her weirdness, hell I'm weird too. She sang beautifully though.
5. Boy band boy bands... They never seem to get my attention.
6. Remioromen was nice, got the mp3
7. Morning Musume wasn't in the Musicstation super live, poor souls, they're on their way to death.

On a side note, haromoni@ sucks bad, as if I didn't already know that, but really... its bad...

Random Thoughts: CDTV 121607

This is a new section I like to call random thoughts. This is the stuff I think about when watching shows and PVs and other stuff that I don't feel merit a full review or editorial on.That being said, sometimes I will include random thoughts into my reviews. Generally they're apart because they're personal opinions and just that; random thoughts. Hope you find it at all interesting!

- The opening theme is by INFINITY 15 welcomez SHOCK EYE from Shonanokaze, MUNEHIRO. It's called Itsumademo Merry Christmas. Very catchy tune.
- Seems it will be a good show.
- God, I like the show cause of the guest lives and showingm e a ton of different music I get interested in and some news from artists, but it has the absolute worst CG animation I've ever seen.
- Last week's Top 10 was pretty good, wonder how this week will top that.
- The section has kanji I can't identify, but I think it was this year's best 20 karaoke songs. I agree with most of them, as I know them by memory myself and sing them often. lol
- Johnny's dominated this section, as usual. At least Momusu was on it! Love Machine will nevar die!
- Most songs in 40-31 sucked ass.
- Sen no kaaaaaaaaaaazeeeeeeeee niiiiiiiiii sen no kaaaazeeeee niiii natteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
- I was surprised with Cocco's Juugon no Mieru, I usually don't like her songs but she nailed this one!
- Oshirikajiri is like the most annoying song on the face of the earth.
- I have to remember to pick up the m-flo and ellegarden DVDs some time, they look good.
- Man I hate EXILE. lol They're asians trying to be black, what more can I say.
- I really liked GLAY's 100mankai no Kiss
- YUI's DVD also seems good. I have to remember to write about her soon, I have criticism. :P
- OMG I was obsessed with Mr.Children not too long ago, with the op of 14sai no Haha too.
- A NEW KAT-TUN CONCERT TOUR DVD! WITH THEIR SECOND ALBUM SONGS! MUST GET!
- Except for NEWS and ACID BLACK CHERRY, and a few others, 30-21 wasn't great.
- Didn't now Ayase Haruka did a new song, it's pretty good.
- UGh EXILE. Look at these guys, with the exception of the guy talking in the middle they're all almost kako(puerto rican rapper).*fastfowards*
- It's wierd to see the kid from Tantei Gakuen Q be a little boy band group member. He's a good actor, convinced me that he was all sulky and broody. lol
- iei Ongaku Gatas!
- who's the girl in the pig tails? She's ubar cute, I gotta find out!
- Good to see Rika with long hair again, though that awful hairstyle is back.
- I couldn't help but crack up at The Birthday's PV(#12) for some reason. Bahahahahahaha
- I always like CDTV Library. w00t for SMAP's Lionheart!
- Upon seeing some PVs from early 2000 and 90s, I feel that Japan is like stuck i nthe 80s. That Christmas Eve song but the dude who's name I can't read gives me that vibe.
- It's too bad ZARD died. She was talented and very pretty. Rest in piece.
- Crystal Kay is stunning. I forgot to say this.
- Why doesn't any of my friends beleive that Hirai Ken is actually Japanese? hahahaha
- That Ketsumeishi PV looks really romantic. o.o
- Why does the AIDS Charity Project PV make me so emo? It's really depressing for some reason(No, I haven't looked up the lyrics).
- Keep the Faith just fuckin owns. KAT-TUN rules.
- YUS! Boa's the guest live! She's super beautiful, can dance really really well, and sing just as good. I lurve her.
- Seems like her pasts songs more or less, but it's her style by now I guess. It's a pretty solid song, the choreography is great and BOA's HOT. I say this means we have winnar.
- This week's top three are KOH+(with Kiss Shite), abingdon boys school(with BLADE CHORD), and Kuwata Keisuke(with Darling).
- abongdon's new single was too much TM Revolution like for me, so it doesn't cut it. I thought the whole point of the project was to not be TM Revolution, and I know he'll put his style into that music but the past songs weren't like that. It fails.
- Sorry if this gets on anyone's nerves but I couldn't care less about hte second guest live. The song's not great.
- It's that time of year again, those music specials that will take me an eternity to download are coming. CDTV's seems to be real good too.

What I'll be watching this season!

Well this is a list of what I(and likely Rubi too) will be watching in the following drama season! Right now, we're watching a few dramas. I still have Liar Game to watch, Bambino and Hanayome to Papa to finish, and Hotaru no Hikari to continue. Not to mention the other dramas from 2 seasons ago I was watching that I have to re get due to my data loss, these include Yamada Tarou Monogatari, Stand Up!, Tantei Gakuen Q, HanaKimi, and Proposal Daisakusen. This time I will watch them weekly and try not to wait up on anyone to slow me down, see I hate seeing series by myself, but the downfall is that the only way to watch it entirely without takin 5 years is to watch it alone. Rubi or my friend Jojo will probably see at least one series with me, so we'll see. Here's what I will be watching and some thoughts of it:

Sasaki Fusai no Jingi Naki Tatakai : This drama sounds fun because of the way it's different from what I usually watch. It's either high school kids, or adults around 25 to 30. And it's either in a high school, or a neighborhood, or an office. This time it's likely to be in a court room a lot, and knowing next to nothing of how Japanese courts work, it should be interesting. Sure it's not gonna be a 100% real depiction, but it's a start.

One Pound Gospel : Usually I watch dramas for actors of whom I'm a fan of. When I saw this title I thought "Oh cool, I've heard of an anime of this buy never saw it, although people have told me it was good." But then I saw that Kazuya Kamenashi was in it, so now I HAVE to watch it. I first saw Kamenashi in Nobuta, and his dramas are always good, and he's a great actor. So I can't wait to see this. I bet KAT-TUN's new single will also be the op, which makes for total win, too bad Yukan Club was a total piece of crap.

Mirai Koshi Meguru : Like above, I saw the lead, Fukuda Kyoko, in Yama Onna Kabe Onna, so I think I'll give this one a shot. The plot sounds ok, and the drama seems like it'll be average, but it could also turn out to be good.

Edison no Haha : Itoh Misaki. Nuff said. The plot sounds ok too.

4 Shimai Tantei Dan : Bunch of cute girls, including(but not limited to), Ichikawa Yui and Kato Natsuki. <3~ href="http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Daisuki%21%21">Daisuki!! : This one I'm thinking about, but might leave for later. I am also seeing Taiyou no Uta and 1 Liter of Tears, and I probably can't take another fucking tragedy. But it seems good so I'll give it a try.

Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi : Doesn't seem too great from what I read, but Ayase Haruka's in it, so I'll give it a shot anyway.

Koshonin : As much as I love a good detective drama, this one sounds average. Who knows, though, it might turn out to be good so a shot is in store. It has a pretty good all star cast too. Yonekura Ryoko is the lead, I last(and first) saw her in Katagoshi no Koibito, which I recently finished(and was excellent). Also is Tantei Gakuen Q and 1 Liter of Tears' Jinnai Takanori, HanaKimi's Shirota Yu, and veteran Takahashi Katsumi.

Aoi Yu x Yottsu no Uso : The format is different and interesting and the feeling I get is that it will be fresh all the time, and most importantly cute little Aoi Yu will be in it!

Saito-san : I'm giving this a skeptical shot. I don't know any of the actors and the plot doesn't seem that good. We'll see.

Binbo Danshi : Oguri Shun? Yamada Yu? A theme song by Bennie K? WHAT MORE DO I WANT!? The story seems like it'll be fun and I love these people. Definitely watching this one!

Ashita no Kita Yoshio : Holy crap, this shit is serious. Sounds good too.

Bara no nai Hanaya : Ok so the plot doesn't reall convince me, but the lead guy is from SMAP, the lead chick is cute, the hawt teacher from Stand Up!!, and Jirou from Hana Yori Dango are all there, the cast seems real good so I'll be giving it a shot.

Honey and Clover : This is my number one pick for the season. I've seen the movie and both anime, and I absolutely LOVE this story. I can relate to every character, but Takemoto the lead guy is the one I most identify with. This story has left a huge mark on me, and I really can't wait to see what they do with a drama series. While the movie was kinda dissapointing, it wasn't really so bad. Narumi Riko plays Hagu, I loved her in 1 Liter and in Juuken no Kamisama(even though the drama itself was crap), but I just don't see her as Hagu or some reason. Ikuta Toma is in it and I really like him, but I really don't see him as Takemoto. Narimiya Hiroki plays Morita... He was in Stand Up!! And I think I know who he is(I forget their names since I don't watch it often due to subs not being out), so if it's who I think it is, I LOVE this guy for Morita. Fits perfectly! Yamada and Mayama's actors I've seen in other dramas but don't remember them at all. The rest of the cast I actually don't know either, same as the rest above. It's all good though, I just hope they don't ruin the characters' personalities.

I'll post detailed reviews about them once I see them. Till next post!

The digital loss & PCs in an online social world

Losing your PC can be a really painful experience... Similar to losing precious data like Uska did, losing a PC due to hardware being either broken or burnt can bu equally painful. My PC died around October, it was quite random too. Good news is that only the processor seems to have died and the data and other hardware is intact. Still, I've suffered from PC withdrawal for the last 3 months. Something that didn't happen since I had my own PC 4 years ago, so now I'm back to the sharing days. Right now I can say that it hasn't been as hard as I thought, due to my lack of online social life which is nothing compared to how it was in my teens.

My dead PC

Online social life is an important aspect in a world where the internet is everywhere, and so it was for me, especially in such years where one tends to be so emo and lame but still in need of social acceptance never the less. Whether it is online games or forums or IRC, I experienced all 3 of them, each with its own 'Golden Age'. The first one was PSO. Though I started with EQ and played other MMOs like DAoC, AO, AC2, Lineage2, etc; PSO stood as the pinnacle of online gameplay in a highly social environment. I, who was an outcast pretty much throughout all my junior high and high school life, found a lot of comfort, support and fun in such game. Then there'd be the forum and Sunday meetings which increased my interaction with new people. It also served as a means or me and Uska to spend time together when we sometimes couldn't meet up to hang out. PSO also stands out as the only constant online game that I played for around 5 years.

Now those were the days.

Forums and IRC came next, where I would spend there hours either being idle or chatting about nothing. Still it probably filled the gap in the more lonely years of high school, and overall, I had some good laughs in #Noated ^^; Plus there were the staff channels in Uska's fansub groups. I'd always be on standby for many projects but I had bad luck D: I timed two episodes, one having its release cancelled and the other being released even though they forgot to put my name in the credits -lol-.

Some of the conversations really were pointless.

Anyways after that came a sudden fallout of anything related to social interaction through online means. College had a lot to do with this, probably because it consumed more time and the drastic change of environment had its consequences, in a extremely positive way. So the need for social interaction lowered and after passing through so many experiences, I've come to a point where I lurk some forums sometimes, play some online games here and there and I sometimes chat with some old online friends.

Still thinking of myself today without such a techy based background in my teens and childhood is pretty hard. It's also interesting to note how I was able to experience the birth of the internet, online games and communities first hand one by one. Starting with the Sega Genesis and our first Packard Bell PC to having the courage to build my own computer and being fully inmersed in an online world. PCs and technology are in that way really amazing. It gave me the ability to socialize in many ways with people around the world in times where social anxiety used to pretty much dictate my life -hehe- Today though, I'm still a loner and I dislike being in big groups but not in terms of fear but in terms of taste really. I'm picky with who I hang out with but I enjoy having a conversation with strangers. The online social life helped me in acquiring confidence when it came to who I was and gave me the chance to have a social life that wasn't ruled by the same standards of the majority. If I were to lose my PC in those days, I'd be suffering a lot ^^; So yeah, technology is a big deal today, and its implications in the development of a person's personality and psyche are significant, for bad or for worse.

A real badass phone.

Oddly enough, nobody has reported on the sexiest phone I've seen to date, so I guess I will. I'm not talking about the iPhone, oh no this comes from Japan. Japan has always made the best phones, but lately it seems our market has been catching up and even matching what the Japanese market has to offer. Since I haven't checked out new Japanese models I decided to search the Softbank site thinking "Surely they have some awesome stuff in store for us for 2008!!" Afterwards, I got on the site and I was thoroughly sexed up.

On the main site I saw the Softbank 913SH G Type-Char, Char Aznables Custom Mobile. Now being a big fan of slider phones, the 913SH was already sexy on it's own, but this takes the cake. On the surface it has Char's logo, the Zeon logo, Mobile Suit ranking insignias, and of course is red. But while that itself sold me the product, it was teh Zaku head charger that made me covet it. IT'S A FREAKING ZAKU HEAD THAT CHARGES THE PHONE! How sexy is that!?

Besides the great aesthetic features, it has everything you(and by you I mean me) would want in a phone: 2MP camera, broadband speed browser, video conference, chaku-uta, e comics, media player + microsd expansion, and Bluetooth. Overall this is a great phone, it's only too bad we can't get it over here...

For pictures of the cellphone visit Softbank's site here.

Fansubs, downloading, and the industry

If you're up and about the anime scene, you most likely download fansubs. And if you also read AnimeNewsNetwork, you've probably read Justin Sevakis's open letter to the industry. If you haven't click here. Since he wrote so much I'm only gonna offer a small opinion.

Being from both the fansub scene and the world of production(not necesarily anime), I can see how much a fansub can help and hurt an anime. I agree with pretty much everything that Justin said, the industry does need a dramatic change. Let me tell yo what a wonderful thing it is to be able to download anime. I can watch a series entirely and then decide if I wanna buy it or not. I don't have much money so I am left drooling sometimes for DVDs. The new Death Note vol1 brings a very cool Ryuk figure, and the Suzumiya limited set was just awesome, so it's not like buying them is not worth it. The problem is that I am selective with what I watch and what I decide to buy in the end, I sometimes want to only watch a series, which would be like only watching the TV airing in Japan, and then not buying the DVDs. Therefore I agree the market needs to be more niche, the few people that like to go out and buy DVDs are likely as selective to buy stuff as I am.

Another thing is that we want our anime now. The industry needs to look for new ways to keep up. I know a ton of people who watch stuff on streaming sites, why not make a _good_ streaming site for the stuff you license, viewable in high speed and decent(not high) quality, and charge a small monthly fee for it? Maybe even ofer it next day from the original airing. I'd pay for that, and then buy the DVDs if I liked it, which is another alternative. Make DVDs limited editions.

People who download and never buy weren't going to buy the product even if he didn't have the download alternative, so it's not really a loss when those people only download and don't buy. Shrink up the market a little, and make DVDs more limited. The industry isn't dead and it's an industry we love, so for now let's buy the DVDs of shows we like and support them while they change. In due time they'll see that they have to change, Bandai has even noticed, so let's see what they have in store for us these following years.

Kouhaku Uta Gassen

It's that time of year again, the Kouhaku is back and just in time for my wanting to see a big concert. I've always loved Kouhakus, ever since I started watching it three years ago. This year I hope to see it live as we get NHK here, although I don't know if we actually get the live feed, or if it's another NHK programming all together. Either way, I'll find a way to get it. I wrote a very nice article about it, but I lost it in the hdd so I'll just point you to the Wikipedia post.

I've been between teams in the years, but this year I'm 100% red team. The team list is out, and here it is:

Red Team: (Girls' Team)
aiko (6)
Amin (2)
ayaka (2)*
Angela Aki (2) -hate-
Ishikawa Sayuri (30)
AKB48 (1) *
Otsuka Ai (4)*
Kawanaka Miyuki (20)
Kouzai Kaori (15)
Koda Kumi (3)*
Godai Natsuko (14)
Kobayashi Sachiko (29)
Sakamoto Fuyumi (19)
Tendou Yoshimi (12)
DREAMS COME TRUE (12)*
Nakagawa Shoko (1)
Nakashima Mika (4)
Nakamura Ataru (1)
Nakamura Mitsuko (12)
Nagayama Youko (14)
Hamasaki Ayumi (9)
Morning Musume (10)***
Berryz Koubou (1)*
C-ute (1) *
Hitoto Yo (4)
Hirahara Ayaka (4)
BoA (6)*
Mizumori Kaori (5)
mihimaru GT (2)*
Leah Dizon (1) *
Wada Akiko (31)


White Team (Men's Team):
Akikawa Masafumi (2)
Itsuki Hiroshi (37)
w-inds. (6)
EXILE (3)
Gackt (5)*
Kitajima Saburou (44)
Kitayama Takeshi (3)
Kobukuro (3)
Kome Kome Club (5)
Sada Masashi (19)
Sukima Switch (3)
Sugimoto Masato (1)
SMAP (15)*
Terao Akira (2)
TOKIO (14)*
Tokunaga Hideaki (2)
Toba Ichiro (20)
Baba Toshihide (1)
Hikawa Kiyoshi (8)
Hirai Ken (5)*
Fuse Akira (23)
Porno Graffiti (6)*
Maekawa Kiyoshi (17)
Makihara Noriyuki (2)
Mikawa Kenichi (24)
Mori Shinichi (40)
WaT (3)

NOTE- Big thanks to Hello! Online, from who I lifted this list of. Next to the names are a parenthesis with a number, which is the number of times that they've appeared on Kouhaku. And next to those numbers is a * sign, which means I am a fan.


As you can see, the number of people I am a fan of on the red team exceeds white team greatly, so go Red team!

I am really looking forward to hearing the live version of "SEN NO KAAAAAAZE NIIIIIIIIIIIIII" lol I hated that song at first but I loved it later. The dude can really sing. I also really look forward to some new comers, people who I've talked about in this blog. That's Leah Dizon(which apparently they're handling her career a lot better than I thought. I still say she needs stronger singles though), C-ute, Berryz, and AKB48(gogo pedo!). As usual, Morning Musume appears, although their appearance was kinda doubtful for me because of their decline. Hopefully this new appearance will further push them, and bring a lot more exposure to C-ute and Berryz, who really need it in order to become the success that they're capable of. Oh and get this, SMAP and Utaban's Masahiro Nakai is gonna be hosting for red team. That's a major breakthrough, he's the first male host for team red since like the 6th Kouhaku. Bahahahaha that's more reason to wanna cheer for team red, Nakai is with us either way!

This year should be really interesting for Kouhaku and I will fully cover it, so stay tuned!

Bad news

my hard drive with all the shit I planned to review died. So instead i'll review other stuff soon. Until then~

New reviews from my leave of absence

I'll be writing lots of these during the week, since I'm getting a new DVD-R, so I can empty out my hdd and get new things, probably including weekly Music Station reports. Anyway, some of my future plans are to order the new stuff coming out and review it top to bottom, whereas right now I have problems because I can only download stuff. I also plan to do some of it by video, so we'll see.

Today's topic is AKB48.
I'm really looking forward to their new album, which I heard contained the singles that have been released so far, which is good because I haven't bought any of them and that'll save me a lot of money. So far, I've gotten four of their singles. Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru, BINGO!, Boku no Taiyou, and Yuuhi Mite Iru ka?, and all of them have been solid singles. I've seen PVs for all of them, and also of Skirt Hirari, Aitakatta, and Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou. The songs are pure and utter win, and they're all worth buying because I seem to always load at least one of them to my phone to listen to where ever I go. Oddly enough, there's nothing like a huge group of under aged Japanese schoolgirls to brighten your day. I'll be getting this album, most likely, so keep posted for a full review of it.

Next time on Rubuska:
Leah Dizon's Destiny Line and KAT-TUN's KEEP THE FAITH!

New season!

A couple of new series have begun this fall and I'll be giving a run down on some of them...

First, let's start with Gundam 00

Ok, so after Gundam Seed ended, most of us felt like we wanted more, even though GS Destiny was not that good when compared to the original series. So now comes the new Gundam along with a whole new story. Its set in the same calendar we use only 300 years in the future. The Earth is divided in 3 factions and since fossil energy resources have been depleted, the world has organised itself around three giant pillars that serve as a means to solve the energy crisis by obtaining solar energy from space and bringing it down to Earth. Though I appreaciate the fact they added the use of solar energy into a Gundam series, its still kinda unrealistic that they had to make giant pillars to be able to bring enough energy when there are already houses that are solar powered in the 21st century... Anyways that's really minor and the concept of power through control of the pillars is a good idea. The first episode leaves you in awe since the series boasts amazing quality. To top it, the series is being broadcasted in HD so good luck playing it in a not so new PC and also enjoy if you can ^^;. I'll be honest, though I liked a lot of things about it, the story has been moving slow, and I mean SLOW. The first episode was really... toned down (with the exception of the 1st scene) and the following episodes 2 and 3 followed the same pace, even though there was a little action. But in episode 4 and 5 you finally see the story going somewhere as they start to present the classic mysteries you'll be trying to solve till the very end. The character design is nice and the mecha design is something I liked a lot, especially the FLAGS which are used by the A.E.U. . The main character's gundam, Exxia looks a bit too ordinary for me and the other ones seem to shadow him in a lot of ways, still all the gundams have really nice designs. If you haven't started the series already, I suggest you do it now so you can watch 5 episodes in a row instead of the first slow ones only.

Now for a crappy series: Myself Yourself

It follows the same line as any clichéd 'japanimation' (word used intentionally) that follows the formula waaay too closely, presenting stereotype characters that you usually don't mind but it here it seems SO forced that its annoying. Unless you're a weeaboo or wapanese... The story is about this group of kids who were childhood friends and how one of them had to move from his hometown. He comes back a couple of years later but while he was away, he didn't contact any of his old friends... Like always there's the bait for the lolikons with your avarage childhood friend/next door neighboor who grew up but looks just the same, only taller and with big breasts but with the squeeky voice. Now I'm generally not too severe with these clichés, I've seen a lot of series that all share similar elements but here its done too much and really bad. So point no.1, the series has really bad voice acting. In fact, perhaps if it were dub I could at least laugh a bit but the jpn voices are just too bad. Then there's this other gy who was his childhood friend who looks like a 16 year old but has the voice of a 28 year old man, really creepy. Then him having a twin sister makes it even creepier. Point no.2, bad quality and pretty much bad storyboarding. And finally there's this hinted fated love theme as the main character didn't recognize or remember the girl he liked when he was little, and naturally, she got mad and slapped him. By the beginning of the second episode I couldn't stand it and stopped, deleting the episodes shortly afterwards.

Another good one: Ghost Hound

Ah! Finally, I've been waiting for a series that would give me the same feeling Serial Experiments Lain did, and its here. If you see the opening theme alone, you'd think its something a bit kiddy and aimed for kids. Wrong... this series is quite creepy, and eerie... It has nice quality and above anything, a nice concept. The main character seems to be experiencing weird out of body phenomenon after the death of his younger sister a couple of years ago. They were both kidnapped and apparently, only he survived. Every once in a while when he falls asleep, he is able to exit his body and travel different places. Though these 'trips' he goes on ressemble more dreams than anything and its too early to try to decipher them. The series reminds me a lot of Zettai shounen, only not even close is creepiness. It probably reminded me of it because its set in the countryside. ^^; Anyways I really recommend.

So there you go, I'll be adding more previews afterwards, that is, if finals don't ruin it haha.

What's next

Well my PC broke down so I haven't been able to watch everything I'd like to to get the reviews in. So for now I'll let you know what I'm planning on writing next:


Concert Tour DVD Reviews:


Morning Musume Sexy 8 Beat Tour(Hitomi's graduation concert)
KAT-TUN Live of Real Face



PV/Single/album reviews:


Aya Kamiki's new single
Melon Kinenbi's Onegai Miwaku no Target(PV)
Maeda Yuki's Ai Ai Daiko(PV)
B-U-DEN's Jaja Uma Paradise(PV)
B'z - SUPER LOVE SONG(Single)
Otsuka Ai with LOVE PiECE(Album)
Leah Dizon's Destiny Line

Looking forward to:

AKB48's new album
Mr. Children's Tabidachi no Uta

Idols should be managed better

What started out as a simple thought from a weak single release has turned into a big rant about the management of idols in Japan. Read on, it's good.

Leah Dizon's newest single, L.O.V.E. U is out. It's been out for awhile actually, about a month. The song is about as generic as it gets. While generic songs sometimes don't bother me I find this one annoying because Leah Dizon isn't a great singer, but she has a fan following and has potential. When she's on stage she seems pretty confident, and she's giving a real effort to learn Japanese, so I feel they're wasting her. Like I said she's not a great singer, so they need to make up for it in other areas. They seem to think this means "let's release a photobook!". She has as many photobooks as singles, so that tells us the real reason she's here is because she's hot. Don't get me wrong, she's hot and makes an AWESOME photobook, but my problem is that it's not the only thing she can do. She's suppposed to release a new album, Destiny Line, which is due in a few days. Since all her songs have been pretty generic, with Koi Shiyou being the best of all(having a nice PV too), the rest of the album feels like it's gonna be boresville, and it's really only too bad because if Leah gets strong singles, she'll be on top. She has the looks, confidense, talent, and she's already in the oricon charts. All she needs is a BIT more exposure, showing her fans and others who aren't yet that she's giving a real effort to learn their language and trying to appeal to them, and a really strong single. PBs, they'll come and sell anyway, but Leah doesn't deserve to be just that.

While we're on that note it seems like the only idol management group that aren't doing what they're doing to Leah are the people behind AKB48. Hello! Project seems to be relying mostly on what they used to do, which is feed the wota with concert tours and PBs. That's good and all, but due to scandals Morning Musume lost a very valueable member, Fujimoto Miki. Their singles are great to me, but they're weak to the general public. The mismanagement of the idols isn't limited to just Momusu though. There's a great idol group with C-ute, which is growing up and in my opinion is a lot better than BerryZ Koubou, which have also been harshly mismanaged with extremely weak singles. Then we have GAM. Fujimoto is out of Momusu, but she had GAM which was a gold mine. Aya and Miki couldn't loose. All of their songs were great, they had an excellent album release, and even did their own concert tour. GAM was telling me Hello! Project and UFA were ready to start doing things right, but then GAM hasn't announced anything concrete for new things, which is completely dissapointing. The only thing that would've been better for GAM would've been having Goto Maki join them to remake Gomattou, which would've been win. Speaking of Maki, I think she's probably the biggest victim of mismanagement in the whole of UFA/H!P. She has it all. Looks, singing talent, charisma, dancing talent, she's probably the best thing H!P has in their roster. But her last singles were either really whoreish(which I actually liked the songs), or a really weak balad. She's not getting the exposure she deserves, and she's ahd plenty of exposure to prove that she can be on top. Let;s take for example joining Momusu and making her debut single #1. Or how about a successful solo career(back when her singles were good), successful releases for the subunits and shuffle groups she was in, photobooks that sold through the roof, and concert tours that sold out. What more do they want?She's literally a money maker and has the capacity to out shine any of Johnny's boys in the charts.

I wish they would stop trying to sell their bodies, and started selling talent. Don't get me wrong, I love bodies as much as the next guy, but that's not all they should do. Look at Koda Kumi. Everyone complains because she goes out and does the slut thing. News flash: EVERY OTHER IDOL OUT THERE DOES THE SLUT THING! The difference between them and Kumi is that she has talent with singing, dancing, and confidense, and they mix it up. How many photobooks has Koda made and sold? How many singles and albums has she made and took them to the top of the oricon charts? Ask yourself that, and then replace it with other idols who are doing the slut thing with photobooks and stuff. Koda sells just as much talent as she does body, and come to think of it so is Tamaki Nami(from my previous post), so idol managers, PLEASE, sell me talent. I wanna see my favorite idols going to the top!

Holy crap! She's on fire!

Tamaki Nami dances around in a hawt amazonian outfit in the middle of a hell fire in her latest PV for the song Brightdown. Now this is interesting, her newest single takes on a brand new image that I hope keeps. She's now a little rocker with a matching outfit, and the song is pretty rock, which offers a great tune. The image change however didn't usher to Tamaki leaving her pop roots, far from it. She still has choreography, and she really proves in this PV that she has moves. I seem to like this fusion a lot.

The song, which is also the second opening for the anime D.Gray-man, shows that she and her production staff can pull off a great rock song, the lyrics are still a bit popish but that doesn't stop the song from being good. I mentioned before, she can move, and man can she move! Not only was it hawt hip swinging dancing, the PV showed what was hands down the best choreography that Tamaki has shown.

The single is available in both a normal edition and a limited edition, which comes with the PV and a card and some other stuff. Usually the limited edition marking is a marketing gimmick, but this single along with Koda Kumi's Freaky and Morning Musume's Onna ni Sachi Are(B Edition) are limited edition singles that are actually worth buying because they bring something nice.

The overall release was quite impressive for me, because the last few things Tamaki has done were pretty unimpressive(I blame her production staff. And Canada.), but it's definitely worth buying.

Weeaboos and stuff that matter more than them

Weeaboos, probably one of the most annoying existences on Earth. Quite honestly I can’t stand them much, they get on my nerves. Most think they know it all and think they have everything figured out, which infuriates me even more since they’re just little kids who haven’t grown up… Weeaboos aside, time to talk about the series I’m currently watching. Uska mainly covers the dramas since he is (and he also acknowledges) a drama-whore. So I’ll cover some of the anime series I’ve been watching in the following entries.

First of all, the superb series “Seirei no moribito” Quite honestly, this series is an instant classic once you see it. It terms of animation quality, it reminded me of the feeling I got when I saw “Le chevalier d’Eon” (another great series). Besides the really good fight scenes and awesome animation what surprises me just as much is the effort that’s put in giving the world so much life through the elaborate backgrounds they make. First of all, the person that’s in charge of the scenery is simply amazing at it. The sky and mountain ranges seem so beautifully drawn that it sucks you into the series leaving you (or maybe just me) with your mouth wide open in awe. The character designs are also noteworthy and they somehow remind me a bit of Blood +’s. The music is also quite nice and the story, though a bit slow for some at first, is really well written. I recommend this series to just about anyone and it’s probably tied in my top favorites of the animes I’m currently watching with Dennou Coil, which I’ll cover on the next entry.

In other news there’s the Red Garden OVA that was released last August. From what I’ve read the story and animation took a drastic change but in a way it seems to be a possible continuation of the excellent series that came before it. Here’s hoping Uska subs it since I don’t think anyone will.

Another thing, I NEED to get Persona 3, the game is totally win D:

I'm in ur school, changin mah gendar

So far I've only seen two episodes of the drama series Hanazakari no Kimitachi e -Ikemen Paradise-, but it's enough to give some good thoughts on the drama. The story is based on a manga in which a girl named Ashiya Mizuki idolizes a jumper named Sano Izumi, and when said jumper stops jumping she disguises herself as a boy to infiltrate the school and make him jump again.

Besides all the plot holes in this initial storyline, it becomes really nice to watch. As a matter of fact, the show itself at the beginning excuses itself for silliness. The all-boys Osaka High is a school that chooses it's boys not based academic achievements but on good looks, which makes you wonder if the mastermind behind it all is Johnny Kitagawa. The story and plot movement is absolutely crazy, but you get used to it quickly cause you know it's nothing too serious, and the drama was made for you to just have fun.

We see a lot of familiar faces in this drama too. To name a few, there's Oguri Shun(Stand Up!, Hana Yori Dango, Densha Otoko...), Horikita Maki(Nobuta wo Produce), Ikuta Toma(Random dude from Hana Yori Dango 2 ep1), and Iwasa Mayuko(I haven't seen any other of her dramas except LIAR GAME, which I haven't gotten to her part yet. I just seen a lot of hawt idol pics). Everyone who acts doesn't act too bad in this drama, I must admit(at least for what it's worth anyway).

The music score is very fitting to the situations and it's surroundings, so that's a plus. The opening song is Ikenai Taiyou from Orange Range, and Peach from Otsuka Ai, which is a great combination.

The drama's not bad so far, it's nothing too serious and made me laugh a few times, so it's worth checking out if you're in between the more serious dramas.

AKB48's concert tour was a big pile of loli fodder...

...and I loved it. I've recently acquired a copy of the AKB48 concert tour, entitled Haru no Chotto Dake Zengoku Tour Mada mada Daze! and let me tell you, I loved it. I started really getting into jpop back in 04 when I discovered Morning Musume and Hello! Project, but I discovered AKB48 some time last year when I got an Oricon pack and they featured the song Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru. The song's name means "My uniform gets in the way", and yes it gets in the way of what you're probably thinking because everyone's thoughts are innately perverted, and yes the song is the most pervy song evar. One thing I will say however is that AKB48 is so idolrific that it's an immediate win on my book. The songs range from adult-ish in Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru, to controversial like Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou, which deals with teen suicide, and upbeat cute songs like Bingo!, Aitakatta, and Today Only.

The Concert tour I must say was quite awesome. I saw all the girls of all teams, and thankfully the ones I like are all legal, which makes me SO not a pedo. Their live performance was pretty high quality, the girls all dance and sing very well for being a live performance, a feat not many idol groups can do. Downside is that the concert didn't feel so well because the crowd was off. They didn't really cheer that much or anything and kept pretty quiet. One thing I love about Hello! Project concerts is that the wota give the concerts so much energy that it complements the on stage performance of the groups. Other than that, they did a really great show that I only wish I could've been there to witness live.

The DVD brought an extra behind the scenes feature that showed them rehearsing for the concert, which was pretty cool because you get to see some of the girl's personality when they're not performing. They seem like your regular run of the mill Japanese girls, giggling and exchanging mail on their cellphones. Then came this evil woman who's name I'm not so sure of yet, but she's their dance instructor. She also is the dance instructor for Morning Musume, and she drives the girls so hard they cry. I always laugh when this happens, and as cruel as it may sound I get a certain satisfaction from seeing them cry because the dance instructor scolded them. xD]

Anyhoo, checking out AKB48 is definitely worth it, and getting the concert DVD is a great buy. I do however suggest that if you can see them live if you happen to be in Japan, they put on a really nice show. Next time I'll review either the drama Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, aka HanaKimi, or the Morning Musume Sexy8 Beat Concert Tour which I haven't had the chance to see yet. See you soon!

Coming Down

I recently found out that the newest (well, almost newest) firmware for the PSP has been hacked and enables the owner to downgrade his PSP to the homebrew haven of firmware 1.5. Taking out all the 'legal' disputes out of the way and obviously taking out the use of such methods to download and play pirated games, what would downgrading really have to offer?
Well, it actually seems like you can do quite a lot of cool stuff. Emulators being one of them. Not to mention other media players in which you can play a variety of formats by just dragging and dropping anywhere in the memory stick. Now let's be honest here, all that sounds nice and cool but really, I'm not out with my PSP THAT often, and quite honestly I'd bring my DS if I wanted to play something 2D-ish so why go through all the hazard of risking bricking your PSP, losing some features(though quite honestly I wouldn't really miss most of them -lol- I mean: the browser sucks and the only 'cool' thing they've added is visualizations which are really not that big a deal either O_o), and then if you want to play more recent games you need to either get custom firmware or use something like devhook to 'emulate' firmware. The ones in the know of PSP and homebrewing don't see this as much of a big deal, and it probably isn't but I'm just not THAT much interested in going through all that to use some homebrew stuff like text editors and emulators (I know I'm cutting a lot of progz out of the equation -lol). Now what does seem interesting ;) is making a backup of your game and putting it in your memory stick. The advantages of such is faster loading times and longer battery life. After all I bought a PSP to play PSP games... Even if it doesn't have such a good library. Plus at least I can import without worrying about compatibility. I've never been the one to pirate. I end up buying the game if I like it. In fact I've bought games BECAUSE I gave it a little test drive. Plus the PSP is so full of cool looking games that scare the shit out of you when you play or read their reviews. Though Tokobot didn't do that to me, it did get boring... While re-browsing the PSP library I did find some interesting games that, from what I read too, seem to be sure bets. One of the older (and hopefully cheaper) ones that got my attention was Infected. J'eanne d'Arc and Monster Hunter also got my attention. If Uska gets a PSP, I'd love to get Monster Hunter since it has multiplayer and is very similar to PSO/PSU XD One that really caught my eye was Brave Story: New traveler. After reading a good review of it and finding out it has the option to switch to the Japanese voices, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get it.

Still in times of financial woes, it's a bit hard to dream and look at new games, so I'll mainly focus on finishing Final Fantasy 3, which I finally took a step forward in this morning. I just love that game, and I can't wait for the FFIV remake for DS which looks really similar to FFIII's style. Pokemon is there... and sadly nothing is motivating me to beat the elite four. I guess the same thing happened again. It first happened with Gold & Silver (which Uska proudly finished) I was really into the game and suddenly I lost interest at one point. It was the version where I less progressed. It didn't help me that I played a bit the import version and the hype kinda went down. Now Ruby was a similar story (and for some strange reason, me and Uska don't know WHY he didn't get it too O_o I mean, he had a GBA before me lol) but I did get to beat it completely somehow, I admit that I liked it a lot, and it seems that since I kinda skipped a generation, it helped the game look fresh. Now Pearl I got just to the part before the elite four, after finishing the ALWAYS annoying Victory Road. Some things happened, but mainly I was discouraged cause I gave3 the Elite Four a try, just to see how hard it was and well, the first one beated me. Then thinking of all the grinding I needed to do kept on discouraging me to the point that I just don't want to play it. And quite honestly the game is great and all, but I expected an actual upgrade from Ruby/Sapphire but I mainly realized and admitted it when the fuss went down. Who knows, maybe I'll need to wait a year to have the urge to finish it. See you around.

THE DRAMAS

Well, I'm gonna use the blog to post my thoughts about stuff of pop culture that i'm involved with. Right now I'm seeing a bunch of Japanese dramas. Man oh man, there's too many to name. Let's start with a review of the one of the ones I'm following regularly right now.

I just finished 14sai no haha. In my myspace not too long back I wrote this:
"This was a drama that actually surprised me. I'm half way through it, and it's been real good so far. It's(as the title suggests) about a 14 year old girl that becomes pregnant, and how her life around her changes quickly. It's really down to earth, even though the circumstances of the two kids having sex was a little unrealistic. The acting also surprised me, since usually Japanese actors don't deliver really impressive performances, I gotta say all the characters in this drama really seemed beleiveable, especially the father."

This till stands. I thought the drama played out the situation really well. Whether you agree with the fact that she gave birth and didn't have an abortion or not, what's important about this drama is that they gave a real importance to life, and that even though it will be hard, living up to the consequences of your actions, at least in my opinion, is the right way to go. But I think apart from that, the actual point of the drama was to show that sex DOES have consequences, at least if you don't use the rubber. This is something that apparently a lot of teens, and teens in Japan(since this is where the drama comes from) apparently aren't so knowledgeable about. They need to give kids more sex ed and we'd probably have a lot less teenage moms. I guess the problem runs a bit deeper than that, because sometimes the teens know but they don't take the precautions anyway. Kudos to 14sai no haha for trying to bring up awareness about this subject matter.
Well that's it for now, ill review a new one tomorow. See you then!

Angelic Layer Heaven

I will dedicate the first entry to... Angelic Layer. Yes it's old, yeah it's clamp, no we aren't gay for watching it -lol- We finished it yesterday and quite honestly, we both greatly enjoyed it. I even became quite attached to it in a strange way without knowing. The weird things that happen when you start watching something with a friend XD We do criticize it due to too many battles with the main character, in other words, we surprisingly wanted more filler episodes which were really quite entertaining ^_^

Wasted all of my writing creativity on an entry on my blog so sorry, it ends here haha. Pray that uska actually gets around to updating this blog hehe.

Decided to leave this image as the first entry. Down with Aika, Uska you're free to add other images to this compelling first entry D: