Weekly OP: Baptize

For being an all-around awful anime, Seikon no Qwaser had some great OPs and EDs. This is in particular the second opening, and as I've pretty well hashed the actual abysmal (but very bouncy) content of the series earlier, I won't waste too much time on that, except to note that, in keeping with a general trend of second opening songs, this one is a bit darker than the one which preceded it.

Baptize is done by the group Yousei Teikoku. They've a number of other anime to their credit, as well as two albums that I'm aware of. This song is fairly representative of their work; very fast paced, with a bit of symphonic rock feel to it. They fairly brazenly market to the gothic lolita market, and you can hear a good bit of that in their music too. In that respect, they're kind of like Ali Project, but with a harder feel.

Normally, I find it pretty easy to overdose on Yousei Teikoku. Or for that matter, on Ali Project. This is a pretty good one, too, mostly I think because they don't try to be cute. It's a very driving, intense song, that barely gives you a time to catch a breath. This includes the vocals; one of the things I like about this song is the way it really tests the vocal chords. It's a very tough song to karaoke; the words come rapid fire, hopping up and down the scale with wild abandon. The presence of a backup chorus and tolling bells in the background help, as well. They give a somewhat religious feel to it. Or perhaps, sacrilegious is a better term.

One somewhat ignored aspect to this song, and I think overlooked in a lot of anisongs, is the drumming. I don't know who the kid is behind the drum set in this song, but he's a beast. My luck, it's probably a drum machine. The bridge, on the other hand, is a somewhat lackluster, almost perfunctory guitar solo, as if they had to have one because that's what anime opening songs have. I'd have preferred if they went back to lyrics and rocking.

In any event, I think this is one of Yousei's better songs, and definitely worth a 4/5. Which is probably more than I would have given it on first listening, but it's grown on me.

Ryoko Kaminagi,or how to videotape without being as creepy as Tomoyo

Zegapain was one of those anime which, I think, flew under a lot of radars. In terms of story, it was quite similar to the Matrix series of films. But then, I didn't like the Matrix series of films, and I did like Zegapain. Two dimensionality might have had something about that. Another notable thing about Zegapain was its animation; for the time it was quite well done, and thus it probably translates rather well to bluray. Not that I'll ever see it, since bluray anime in general is somewhat rare in the US, and the chances of seeing a BD for a series which is near impossible to find now even in ordinary DVD form are effectively zero.

The third thing that I liked about it, though, were the characters. For typical school/mecha fare, they were oddly compelling, and one of them was one Ryoko Kaminagi.

This is, I think, one of the more interesting figures in my collection. Not because it's a particularly good one. It's not a bad one, mind, and I like it, but because it was just about the only PVC done of any character in the series. In 1/8th scale, by Alter, I picked it up more or less on a lark from jlist, around 2008. It was, I think, somewhere around $70, which I thought was on the high end. Now, one finds it listed on ebay for between $300 and $500, if it's still mint and in the box. Not too shabby.

Unfortunately, my particular Ryoko is substantially less than mint. As one of my very first figures, I was still somewhat of a newcomer to the game, and I simply didn't know anything about proper care. I would dust her occasionally, perhaps, but I definitely didn't have a proper case. I think for some time I left her on the windowsill, in fact, and of course one should minimize the exposure of a PVC figure to direct sunlight. My figures are in front of a window, now, but that window is screened by windowblinds and a heavy duty blackout curtain. It's fun to work nights, sometimes.

Anyway, on to the piece of plastic. I think Ryoko is actually somewhat large, for 1/8th standards. She's in the rather stylish uniform of Maihara's high school, which I've always rated rather highly. Not quite in the standard sailor fuku mode, but the bow is a nice touch. As the more girl-next-door, down-to-earth foil in the series, her pose is rather cute and playful, hands behind her back. I don't really like her smile, as it's somewhat brackety (i.e. :] ish), and her hair isn't quite puffy enough, I suppose, but as far as her face goes, it could be worse.

The base is somewhat unremarkable green plastic, with two foot pegs holding her in place. I think that she may actually have developed a bit of a lean to one side, which would be notable as none of my other figures have fallen prey to this malady. It might just be a natural consequence of a walking pose. In any event, looked at in profile, I like how up and down her pose is. It's quite natural looking. Strange to consider that sort of thing, in a figure, but these are the things I come up with when I really think about it.

The bunching of her sweater vest is rather well done, and I like the shading that was done with it. Sadly, not all of the paint job is that good; the Maihara logo on her breast has some small irregularities, and there's a little break in the V of her neck. I'm a fan of the pleated skirt, though, especially with the white stripe on the hem. I should use this outfit for a MUSH character, in fact.

How can I do a figure session without a panty shot? I hate the flash in this picture; I took a lot more pictures for this one, both with and without flash, and I couldn't really get either to work properly. Next week I experimented with natural sunlight, and you can decide for yourself how it turned out. Plain white, in this case; I wonder who was the first anime character to sport shimapan?

Ryoko is pretty well done, and from a time when Alter was really waxing in popularity. I'm pretty happy with her, though I wish I'd taken better care of her. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and now it's mostly a shame that other characters from the series didn't receive the same treatment.

As a small aside, after I finished this post and was moving on to the next, I found I'd taken some more daylight pictures. I'll append them here without commentary, for comparison purposes.

Weekly OP: No Buts!

It has become somewhat of a tradition for me to pick my favorite anime opening of the year. It's somewhat of a compromise; I doubt anyone really wants to hear another maundering discussion about how the year went, and everything that happened in it. Besides, it's hard to remember all that crap. A year is a long time. Well, in some ways it's a long time, in others it can pass with disturbing swiftness. And in a third way, it passes without one being able to remember just what things were like when it started.

Thus, the biggest challenge for me in picking the best anime opening is remembering what belongs to this year. It's not a trivial task; there are plenty of anime released ever year. Some, I will never hear of. Most, I'll never watch. Only a few actually have openings I'll list to; I try to grab whatever I can, but since I'm in effect doing so illegally, I can't pretend that I have a representative sample. With all those caveats, though, I still managed to compile a fairly good list of all the anime openings I'd listened to this year, and was ready to crown the winner.

Then I remembered To Aru Majutsu no Index II.

A Certain Magical Index is a series of light novels, which in turn have spawned at least three anime series so far. Index isn't really my favorite; I prefer Railgun, and even there, it suffers from a few flaws. Nearly every opening and ending, though, is top notch. In future weeks I intend to go over "masterpiece," which is quite possibly my favorite Mami Kawada song ever, and it is not a coincidence that she does most of the series' opening songs.

So, why pick this over some of the other candidates, like Angel Beats!, Asobi ni Iku Yo, and Ore no Imouto? Well, when I listen to opening songs, I really listen most of all to the beat. Beautiful singing is nice, and that's why Angel Beats! was actually in the lead until I remembered this song. But this is... most in the way of what an anime opening should be. It grabs your attention, and it doesn't let go. You know, just by listening to it, that exciting things are going to happen in this series. Not that Angel Beats is devoid of action, but it's Key. And you know what that means.

No Buts! is somewhat typical of Mami Kawada. A hint of industrial flavor, a strong bass, and some synth thrown in for fun. And yet, just melodic enough to keep from being straight techno. Or, put in other words, it's not a KOTOKO song. Actually, I think it's the guitars that really carry this song. Most of the time, they're carrying with the drums, but there are a couple instances where they break, starting and stopping with a rather sudden intensity that reminds me a bit of Bela Bartok and the Concerto for Orchestra.

I also like the chord progressions in this song. Not being musically trained, I've no idea what they are, or why I like them, but I do like the added sort of urgency. And urgency is a word I use a lot with Mami Kawada. It's... almost, I think, a European power metal vibe. Which would I suppose go along with the industrial flavor I mentioned earlier.

The lyrics are, as always, secondary, but there's little whining in this one. Much as the title suggests, this is a song about saying to hell to what stands between you and what you want. It's a very motivational opening, one that lately has become somewhat rare. Five our of five stars, and in my opinion, the best anime opening of the year.

Here's to a bumper crop of new, kick-ass openings in 2011.

not so much to say

No politics today. Have a Merry Christmas.

Weekly OP: Now Loading... SKY!!

There are few things I love quite so much as an anime OP with a disco beat. I suspect that's why Moonlight Densetsu, even after so many years, still rates with my favorite opening songs of all time. Though perhaps the fact that I liked the show so much helped, too. In any case, many of the better anime songs have a definite disco influence, and it's difficult to fail to be catchy under such conditions. It was, in fact, one of the things that immediately caught my ear when this show aired.

Then again, it has extraterrestrial catgirls in tight outfits. That helps a lot too, believe you me. Plus, trigger discipline!

This is one of a number of songs by the group sphere, which is comprised of the voice actresses Haruka Tomatsu, Minako Kotobuki, Ayahi Takagaki, and Aki Toyosaki. It's far from the first rodeo for them; they've been together almost two years, and have done the opening songs for a number of anime in which they also starred, hence the link. I'm somewhat hit or miss on them, as I am on most of the Japanese supergroups, so to speak; they sing okay together, but on the whole I do prefer songs where each singer can express herself without distraction. A notable exception to this is Moon Revenge, by the Peach Hips group.

On to the song, perhaps? A lot of the visuals in the series are beach-related, as it takes place on an island. And it does have a bit of a party atmosphere. Very bouncy, and if you look at the lyrics, very... not dark? Some anime openings can be surprisingly dark, but this is a fairly optimistic little ditty, with a bit of an avionic bent to it; the singer is quite happy about comparing her love to the feeling of taking off, and her determination to cheer her love up, even when feeling down.

There are some neat little vocal parts in this; I love how they cry out "Mou!" and there's also a little almost-rap portion, as well. Actually, it's just two lines sung in a quick, staccato rhythm, but it's still striking, adding a bit of urgency to the song, which manages to strike a nice balance between slow ballad, and superpaced techno. And to be fair, when they do sing in unison, it's fairly well, with a somewhat pleasing harmony. Not a perfect one, mind; there isn't, I think, enough of a spread between their registers to really, well, register.

Instrumentally, it's nothing too remarkable. I would complain that the bridge is a bit long, perhaps. And the guitar solo is very... twangy. Not bad, but nothing to impress me with the fingering, either. There's a good bit of synth brass in this, and at times it sounds almost like they were going to a ska feel to it, but mostly it lends a jazzy feel, to balance out the disco beat.

This, as it happens, gets five of five stars from me, and is a contender for best anime opening of the year... which will be decided next week, in fact. I promise to put no more thought into it than I have in previous years.

oh what a lovely tea party

K-ON! is probably KyoAni's biggest hit since Haruhi. Bigger, yes, than Lucky Star. Well... okay, that might be debatable, but in terms of figures K-ON! definitely has Lucky Star beat. And the gold standard for K-ON! figures has been, predictably, Alter's. They've been making 1/8th scale figures of all the members of the band, and the penultimate one is one Tsumugi Kotobuki, who is probably one of my favorite characters. Or at least, was, before I gave up watching the series halfway through the second season, when it just got plain boring. I'm toying with getting it when it comes out in the US, but anyway. I like Tsumugi, and not just for her representation in various doujinshi of questionable character.

For whatever reason, though, Tsumugi's figure release was rather underwhelming. Very few picture reviews. Perhaps K-ON! fans prefer guitars? And they are very nice guitars, at that, but I think the keyboard here is much more interesting.

The amount of detail lavished on her keyboard is nothing short of incredible. They did everything short of slap a Korg label on the thing. My pictures don't really do it justice. That, and I've never met an electronic keyboard this high end, so I don't know what half the inputs and such on it do. The only thing I can knock it for? There's a socket for an AC power cord to be connected, but no power cord. Of course, if there was a cord, there wouldn't be a wall outlet to put it into, but hey. I have to find some fault with it.

They might, I suppose, have set Mugi's hands closer to the keyboard. And while we're on the subject of the keyboard, nothing at all links it to its stand. It's free to slide off at will, which I was rather afraid it would at first. At writing the figure and stand are on my desk, and it jiggles a little just from my typing. So it's not the most sturdy thing in the world. A couple pegs would have been nice, especially since in added verisimilitude, they included the rubber risers that a musician would use if the keyboard was set on a table or counter.

Not too happy with this shot. It could have done better, but then the problem becomes trying to capture something as long and thin as a keyboard. This definitely isn't the Casio that I had back in elementary school, though.

One thing I didn't notice until I took the pictures, but Mugi is actually canted a bit to the side. It's a surprising and subtle way to throw a bit of action into what would ordinarily be a static position. Mio and Yui are on one foot, and Azu-nyan is jumping with both feet in the air. While both of Mugi's feet are planted, she's caught in the midst of swaying to her right, which makes her hair and skirt whip to the side. I do like the subtle things in a figure.

A slightly lower view, capturing the way her skirt moves against her hips. The sculpting of the hair, of course, is something I only expect as a standard from Alter, but it's still quite well done.

And how am I going to get away without a panty shot? While I'm on the subject, I'll complain that Mio's scupt did not have shimapan. Come on, it's well nigh canonical at this point. How could they have left it out? Also, this was probably the most doctored picture. I really need to figure out a good solution for lighting, and preferably an inexpensive one as well. Maybe I might have an old desk lamp laying about.

All the Alter K-ON! bases are like this, and I think it's a rather cute, modern looking design. The iconography of K-ON! is one of the little details I like most about it. It's much better, I think, than the somewhat chaotic blends that Haruhi and Lucky Star had, and probably why I like it more than those other two series. Note that the keyboard stand itself doesn't connect to the base, either; it's free to slide about. Or topple, but that hasn't happened yet.

Not the most flattering shot of her face. Or her eyebrows, for that matter. But eh, I think she's cute anyway.

237 years after the original Tea Party...

CHANGE: Harry Reid pulls $1.1 trillion spending bill from floor.

As a fiscal conservative, this warms my heart. Though, mind, it is only the beginning; remember that it was the Republican congress, during the Bush years and right up until the Democratic takeover in 2006, that was just as irresponsible with the budget as anyone could ask for (at which point, of course, the Democrats continued their irresponsible ways). It remains to be seen whether this is truly an attempt to rein in the pork, and not simply the GOP looking to score points as the Party of No. Which, to be fair, has been paying dividends so far... unfortunately, I'm more concerned with the nation's long term success than any one political party's.

It is a nice touch, though, that it happened on that particular date. Doubtless a conspiracy is afoot....