Weekly OP: re-subliminity

Rampant lesbianism needs no excuse.

2004 was another good year for anime. Not as good as the annus miribilis of 2003, but still darn good, and this series, Kannazuki no Miko, came out toward its end. Coincidentially, about the same time a little show called Lyrical Nanoha came out. One is still busting out cash, and the other is not, which speaks a good bit to Kannazuki no Miko's quality. It's not really a good show, with an awful mismash of shoujo-ai themes and giant robots. Though the shoujo-ai was really, really good, and so this show still has a place in my heart.

The song has a bigger one, though, which is why I picked it out. Re-subliminity is by KOTOKO, that venerable veteran of I've Sound who's done a number of series, though perhaps she's most recognized for the opening for Onegai Teacher. At the least, that's where I recognize her from first. This, though, is KOTOKO at her very best.

The intro is deceptively simple. A little synthesizer, than a few piano chords, repeated again and again, with a bit of a hint of more synthesizer. Then, at thirty seconds, you get the bass beat. Still in the introduction, rumbling of something about to happen, and then a forty-five seconds, you have the full instrumental, giving you the underpinnings of the song.

And then you get the singing, at a minute twelve seconds. And ah, what singing.

KOTOKO has two modes of singing: low and sultry, and ultra high-pitched. This is low and sultry, and it fits. Very high paced, though. This is not a song I would be comfortable karaokeing. Especially the chorus, which races along. Fitting, for a somewhat mecha-based series. Not a lot of chord variation, but with a somewhat techno-ish song, that shouldn't much of a surprise.

The bridge is fairly unremarkable, in comparison. Just more of the same driving dance beat. Which isn't really a bad thing; a guitar solo would be highly out of place in this song, and in fact there's almost nothing in here that couldn't come out of a beat box. This is fairly typical of I've Sound, and does lead to an interesting feel.

If there is a knock on the song, it's that while innovative, it does tend to repeat that, over and over again. The song doesn't develop, really, and so it has to be filed in the category of anime openings which simply recapitulate the TV-sized version. Still, since that version is patently awesome, I approve.

Five of five stars, and what would have been the best opening of 2004, if not for a little thing called Innocent Starter.

I have to try this drunken blogging thing sometime...

Pajamas Media » Drunkblogging Obama’s Libya Speech

Suckers

Funny, how we become what we most despise.

"Rights Are Curtailed for Terror Suspects" - ProfessorBainbridge.com

Weekly OP: Groovin' Magic

ah ah-ah ah, ah ah-ah ah

Fifteen years after the original Gunbuster came Diebuster, which is technically a sequel, but in my opinion exists enough on its own to be taken apart from it. Besides, aside from one memorable scene (which still makes me tear up just to think about), the latter makes little reference to the former.

The choice of ROUND Table (as always, featuring Nino) was perhaps an odd one. They don't have too much to their credit, and arguably, given the distinct disco feel to most of their songs, they're even more retro than Noriko Sakai would be. I like the overall effect, but then, I like disco. It's hard to be a jpop aficionado if you don't.

This is immediately a more complex song than Active Heart. In fact, it's one of the more complex opening songs you'll find, with three or four different lines all competing for attention. In some ways it might actually be considered distracting, but things settle down for the first verse.

The chorus is a repeat of the introduction, and perhaps the strength of the song overall, as short as it is. There isn't a lot of sadness to this song, not at all. It stays happy and perky throughout.

Vocals? Pretty good, with the words somewhat sandwiched, register-wise, between the disco drum and bass beat, and the portmanteau (but not quite) of the strings. A slight syncopation to the chords, just enough to keep one guessing, and the strings come in more toward the ends of the verses.

I adore the bridge. It's disco at its best, with the strings dancing up and down the range. Very dance worthy, really. Almost, shall we say, groovy? But no, that's a different song, and a different review. In any event, the use of the wah-wah pedal is really evident here, and to good use. The song nearly veers off into funk territory, but then swings back to disco, and a hauntingly quiet, still repeated chorus before we launch into the coda.

All in all, I love this song. The backbeat gives you almost no breaks, and so you're left bopping your head for the full 4 minute 24 second length. Five of five stars, for one of the best songs of 2004.

Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power - News - Mail & Guardian Online

Putting things in a bit of perspective.

Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power - News - Mail & Guardian Online

iowahawk: Feed Your Family on $10 Billion a Day

Erasing the deficit, made easy:

iowahawk: Feed Your Family on $10 Billion a Day

Weekly OP: Active Heart

The theme for the next few weeks: remakes. But you can't have a remake without an original, and here's one of the classics.

Gunbuster hopefully requires no introduction. If it does, I weep for you, and wonder just how you managed to read all the preceding posts. In any event, perhaps one of the seminal giant robot anime, its opening is quintessentially 1980s, yet has aged rather well. Perhaps better than the woman who sang it; Noriko Sakai, of course, made headlines in 2009 with her involvement in a drug scandal. Japan is extremely intolerant of such things, and so this fairly well marked the end of her career.

In 1988, though, all that was far in the future. The present was full of lots and lots of synthesizers.

Active Heart is a song that would not look out of place in the discography of A-Ha or WHAM! Yes, it's that... perky? The introduction is definitely very bouncy, and would make a good workout track, if you have the proper tight pants and leg warmers. It's also not very long, with the drum beat to establish things, and the familiar chords from the keyboard.

Noriko's voice is rather light and airy, and not as obsessively cute as jpop has gotten, later on. This was long before the moe boom, and while having a woman sing the opening song for a proper, manly robot show might be a little off, well, the fact that the manly robot show had primarily female protagonists might have altered things a bit.

In any event, her voice mostly carries the song. There is the drum and bass underlying it, in a fairly intense beat, but that's almost all for the instrumentals during the actual singing; there's little to get in the way of her voice, aside from the occasional backing vocals.

As such, though, the song feels a bit thin in places. Part of this is its length; at 3 minutes 22 seconds, it's fairly short for a song. Part of this is that it's not an especially complex song; there are no instrumental heroics in this piece, as it has a very straightforward chord progression. The bridge is almost an afterthought, and it took me a few listenings to remember just where it fell. So no guitar solos.

For all that, it's not a bad song. It's just not a very good song. Written, as it was, at a time when anime openings were just those, openings, and not necessarily made to sell singles, that isn't so surprising. Still, it does pale a bit, when compared to later songs. On its own merits, though, it does what an anime song is intended to do, which is catch the ear. It just happens that the overall effect of this song is to sound as if the album length version is just something they had to come up with because they already had the OVA-length version laying around.

Three of five stars, mostly from nostalgia.

Weekly OP: 明日へのbrilliant road

Well. It had to happen sometime. Finally, a Japanese anime opening song whose title involves actual Japanese.

Stellvia was one of many anime in the "annus mirabalis" of 2003, which saw so many other quality titles as Scrapped Princess, Planetes, Last Exile, and others. It's a lovely series, as the others were, and one I even rewatched a couple years ago, without disappointment. Well, too much; it's hard to remember that 4:3 was the standard aspect ratio for programming back then. How high definition has changed the scene.

Asu e no Brilliant Road is the opening for the series, and as such was also a gamechanger for its group, angela, who have gone on to a number of other anime openings and endings, as well as a general boost in their career. And it is also just about everything you would want in an anime opening.

There are little hints of synthesizer and drum in the vocal intro, before we jump with the full band compliment. They calm down again, though, as the first verse starts. The bass is almost in a call and response, with a bit of bells as well, before jumping into the first chorus.

This is, without, the wheelhouse of the song. atsuko's vocals work perfectly with a string ostinanto, and driving bass and guitar beats. atsuko, the vocal half of angela, has impressive vocal range, and she uses it in the lead in to the bridge. The bridge itself is, surprisingly, dominated by strings. Lovely, lovely touch.

Second verse much the same as the first, of course. The chorus comes again, and I do like how the voice just marches up and down the scale, giving the impression of walking. Into adversity? Of course. And then a second bridge, again dominated by strings. This might be the best part of the song altogether.

The end of the song is almost an afterthought, with another iteration of the chorus. All three parts of the band drive together, and finally fade into a last few, demanding notes of verse... and then an instrumental finale. We're left to drift away, with a few parting words of the drum, fading strings, and a last guitar riff.

This is a very good song. And like all good songs, the more you listen to it, and begin to pick it apart, the better it gets. This was for awhile on the CD I'd mixed together for running, and with good reason; it's quite motivational, though its pace is a bit too fast for using for running cadence. Five of five stars, and what would have been the best opening song of 2003... if it weren't for a little ditty called Dive in the Sky.

Weekly OP: metamorphose

It's the end of the world as we know it, and we feel... huh?

Believe it or not, Yoko Takahashi has done other songs than her signature Cruel Angel's Thesis, the bane of anime convention karaoke the world over, and also one of the best opening songs of all time. Certainly the most recognizable, and enough has been written about it, elsewhere, that anything I tried to say about it here could not do it justice.

So, I'll go back to something a bit newer, if that makes sense, and metamorphose. Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai, or This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, aired in 2004, and was noted at the time for being a somewhat transparent retelling of Gainax's previous Mahoromatic. I don't intend to rehash those differences here, but it is useful as a starting point for the series, which concerns two cute girls who are intended to bring about the eradication of Earth. Cheerful, and yet it managed to wrap up in thirteen episodes.

The song itself is... well. I'd say it's about what one would expect from Yoko. She has a very distinctive voice, and she uses it to best advantage. I think, if there was a single knock against this song, it would be that it sounds too similar to Cruel Angel's Thesis. Both start with vocal solos, then jump into a driving rock beat. The first verses are similar in pacing and instrumentation. The refrains are are a bit different; here we lean on the strings, where in Thesis it's all about the backing vocals. The bridge in this case is a violin solo, where of course in Thesis you have the infamous guitar solo.

It's striking, actually, the similarities, and yet those similarities mean that metamorphose succeeds, in many of the same ways that Thesis succeeds. Yoko's low, sexy voice holds your attention, and she works well with the bass and strings, neither competing nor overpowering them. This song has a slightly less frenetic pace, but only slightly. There is something of the inevitable about this song. That the end of the world is already a given, and there's nothing for it but to march on, to even hasten its coming.

Instrumentally, it's somewhat interesting. The guitars are played in a way almost reminiscent of a harp arpeggio, which is neat. Lots of short, repeated notes in the guitar riffs, as well, and a bit of synthesizer thrown in for fun. I like the very subtle tapping of the cymbal in the bridge; it's very much like a ticking clock.

Four of five stars for this song, which for me put Yoko back on the map, after very few appearances after Evangelion.