j1m0ne's blog

In terms of releases June was a lot more sedate compared to the flurry in May, which I was somewhat thankful for. Man, it seems I’m always complaining about work recently – sorry, quarter-life crisis.

Hitpile
Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou. Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

I think it’s a testament to just how good this CD is that I would rather listen to it than go through an episode of the new Haruhi season (or maybe that’s cos it’s kinda turning shit), Hirano Aya-screeching included. Honestly, that version of Koi no Mikuru Densetsu is just gobsmackingly EPIC . Even Saikyou Pare Parade, a song I so abhorred in vocal version, sounds a 1000 times better in the able hands (and strings) of an orchestra. God how I wish Bouken Desho Desho? and God knows had gotten the same treatment to spare us from Hirano.

Shinkokyu. SUPER BEAVER (Naruto Shippuuden ED8)

Theme songs are the only thing about Naruto I pay attention to these days, since they’re a very useful way to discover Sony’s new, young rock bands – and they usually deliver the goods. SUPER BEAVER (shit name, guys) show plenty of promise with debut single Shinkokyu with all the prerequisite hooks and melodies thrown in across the four tracks. The challenge (and the problem) is how to distinguish themselves from the few dozen other similar-sounding Sony acts – groups like ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, redballoon and Snowkel all cover the same sort of ground that I won’t really be surprised if SUPER BEAVER sink into a sea of mediocrity after this.

A LA MODE 2 (CHUU*). ave;new Project

To expect anything new or different from an ave;new release is like wishing for a snowstorm in the Sahara so anything going into this will know what they’re going to get – sugary sweet, cutesy songs sung in an sugary sweet, cutesy manner. Sukissu STEADY Kiss!! (collaboration with Sakakibara Yui) was a song I was seriously obsessed with 2 years ago, but I’ve swapped that for Yuzuki Ryoka’s even more brain-melting Fuwaffuwahho Maple Magic!! – it’s a great song to annoy the shit out of your neighbours with.

Honjitsu, Mankai Watashi iro!. Ito Shizuka with Asano Masumi, Yahagi Sayuri & Nakao Eri (Hayate no Gotoku!! ED)

I guess I can call this my guilty pleasure favourite theme song from the spring season. Honjitsu… certainly doesn’t attempt to take itself too seriously with all the silly H-I-N-A cheers, but they accompany a song that’s ridiculously infectious and a melody that clings to your memory like a leech. There’s a couple of alternate versions featuring other characters (Yukiji and Ayumu) instead of the three idiot student council members but they’re not quite as fun. Still, a very enjoyable single.

Kimi o Mamotte, Kimi o Aishite. Sambomaster (BLEACH ED19)

Thankfully this is one of the rare occasions where Sambomaster’s vocalist Yamaguchi Takashi manages to resist his inherent urge to scream the lyrics at the top of his lungs, making Kimi o Mamotte one of the catchiest anime themes from June.

Maze. savage genius feat. Ohmi Tomoe (PandoraHearts ED)

Maze has got ‘anison’ written all over the tin, though there’s nothing wrong with that at all. The song is typical of their usual upbeat style… not a lot I can say except that if you liked all their stuff in the past you won’t go wrong with this. Oh and it’s written by Okui Masami and features her beloved protege Ohmi Tomoe. What you should really be paying attention to however, is Yuugure, Hatsukoi. -it’s one of savage genius’s best ever ballads and suits Aa’s sweet, sharp voice perfectly.

So-so
dear-dear DREAM. Takagaki Ayahi (Battle Spirits Shonen Toppa Bashin ED2)

Discounting Ayahime’s nondescript singing, dear-dear DREAM is actually a pretty fun song – it features background vocals by the rest of her Sphere groupmates and has plenty of sing-a-long-ability. Can’t say the same for Bouken Kiroku, which is incredibly nasal and annoying and best listened to on mute.

Shoujo S. SCANDAL (BLEACH OP10)

SCANDAL’s brand of energetic girl rock (think a poppier GO!GO!7188/Chatmonchy) probably won’t appeal to everyone. There is a lot to like though – Shoujo S is immediate and in-yer-face, piling on a torrent of hooks and riffs in its compact 3 minutes 15 seconds. Less impressive are the two coupling tracks, which both crank the cheese notch up to 11 with predictably disastrous results.

Prism. Kagamine Rin/Len feat. Shimoda Asami

I’ve only tried a few Rin/Len songs randomly and was never impressed by what I heard, so it’s no wonder the material chosen for this album largely drifts in my right ear and out the other quickly. There are a couple of tracks worth holding on to – Ganbarou yo and soundless voice are both lovely slices of pop, but sadly the rest consisted of mostly joke songs (Otenba-hime no Uta) or horrible attempts at mainstream r’n'b (Rival). No amount of good singing can help if the songs are shit in the first place, which is sadly the case for much of Prism.

adamant faith. Suara (Utawarerumono OVA OP)

adamant faith sounds like it’s trying too hard to recapture the magic of Musouka and I can’t really say it pulls it off successfully, there are some common denominators – the lilting melody, the instrumentation etc but something about the song just doesn’t click like it did the first time I heard Musouka. Better is the c/w song Mugen no Oka, the melancholic song’s slow tempo allows the single best thing about Suara (her voice, obviously) to shine through easily. Not her best single, but still worth a look at.

Running On. Eclipse (Basquash Insert song)

God. Tomatsu’s singing is seriously making my brain hemorrhage. It’s really hard to not concentrate on just how bad it is when Running On opens with a line that is shakier than a jello on a moving carousel. She unfortunately gets handed the lead vocal reins on the song, but though her horrible screech does kinda distract from the fact that it’s actually a pretty fine song in a cheesy ’90s idol group kinda way.

Odd then, that Tomatsu’s sounds perfectly fine on her solo version of nO limiT – in fact I venture that hers is the most enjoyable out of the trio’s. I think it’s got something to do with her (edgy? haphazard?) diction/pronunciation, which makes the torrential chorus sound just that bit more exciting than Nakajima’s or Hayami’s. I really wouldn’t have bought the single based solely on Running On, but the three nO limiT’s probably sealed the deal for me.

Shinkyoku Sokai Polyphonica Crimson S Character Song Vol.2 – Corti & Eufinley. Tomatsu Haruka & Kawasumi Ayako

Again Tomatsu also needs lessons in vocal subtlety, overdoing the earnestness on promise melody – otherwise, it’s a fine, inoffensive upbeat pop song that’s easy on the ears. And I am normally a huge hater of Kawasumi’s attempts at singing, but she’s aided by a decent song with a melody and pace that suits her limited range (she actually sounds good here). I rather enjoyed this CD – much like the first one (Kamiya Hiroshi & Konishi Katsuyuki), the song quality is enough to make me forgive the grating vocals.

Super scription of data. Shimamiya Eiko (Higurashi Rei OVA OP)

Ehhhhhh. Super scription of data started off so well, incorporating the bits of I’ve I love so much – the heavy beats, the sonic guitar, the thumping bass. Then they go insert a gay happy, happy chorus that ruins the whole thing. Thankfully the slow-burning, ethereal electric universe is awesome enough to make up for it.

Crimson Star. Tomita Maho (Growlanser OP2/ED)

This is touted as being Tomita’s ‘major debut’ – she had a couple of singles and an album a few years back on Broccoli, but she’s now signed to King Records. There’s no huge change of direction musically, since all the songs on this CD are written by members of Elements Garden, who she’s worked with before. It’s a bit of a mixed bag though – the trance-pop of Crimson Star while catchy, sounds like it belongs to some techno soundtrack from the mid-90s. The c/w Link Think is quite brilliant though, I almost thought I’ve Sound for a minute – definitely one of my fave songs from June. I’m however, not so pleased with how they mucked up Wing of Destiny, which used to be epic but now gets reduced to some gay trance remix (please seek out the original).

RE:BRIDGE -Return to oneself-. AniSama performers

There has been plenty of criticism leveled at the song and it’s perhaps justified. Being written by Kuribayashi Minami means it sounds exactly the same as all her other songs which wouldn’t be as horrible if it wasn’t for the fact that it sounds like all the worst bits taken from her worst songs.

RE:BRIDGE is split roughly into four parts (verse + bridge + chorus + solo/bridge 2), and the annoying part is that hardly any of those components fit with each other. First verse + Bridge 1 is still palatable, but the (non) segue into the (hideous) chorus is very jarring and the solo/bridge bit sounds equally uncomfortable. I didn’t have any concerns over the singing… actually, the song was so meh for me I can’t say that it really matters how good they sing. Hmmph.

Yume mite Sora. Aizawa Mai (Tenjoubito to Akutobito Saigo no Tatakai Theme Song)

This was floating between ‘Shit’ and ‘So-so’ for a while, but I’ve had the songs on repeat for a few weeks now and though the melody is at its essence something terribly generic, I’ve (shamefully) allowed it to bore a hole in my head.

Manazashi. anNina (Higurashi Rei OVA ED)

I guess I have to be really be in the mood to sit through a play of this – on the surface it’s really not bad listening, but it is slow and it does meander a lot and it sends me to sleep… but I still like it.

Ao-iconoclast. KOTOKO (BLAZBLUE theme)

For every great KOTOKO single (Shooting Star, Re-sublimity, BLAZE) there are ten stinking ones and Ao-iconoclast just about succeeds at not falling into the latter category. I’m more fond of PIGEON-the green-ey’d monster- (lol rubbish name), which is a lot funkier than what you’ll normally hear her take on.

Shitpile
Shinkyoku Sokai Polyphonica Crimson S Character Song Vol.3 – Prinesca & Perserte. Mizuki Nana & Sato Rina
I actually set my expectations for this higher than the first two, I thought they couldn’t possibly go wrong by putting the two most established singers out of the cast on the same disc… right? Obviously I was wrong since both songs are pretty damned dreadful, I swear there was pus flowing out of my ears with every note being sung. And what the hell was Rina’s sorry excuse of a song, no wonder she sounded like she was floating between life and death on it.

Hayate no Gotoku!! LIVE 2009 Hina Matsuri Matsuri!!. Ito Shizuka etc
I’m sure I would’ve had a pretty decent opinion of this if I had moving images to accompany the music, but as it stands it’s a horrible live recording which I really wouldn’t bother with if not for the Hayate connections. Shizuka’s not a great singer by any stretch of the imagination even if she has made leaps and bounds in recent years, she does alright on some of the slower material (Ashita no Watashi, Heart of Flower) but if it was anybody else I probably would’ve slated them something hard…. well OK, the singing sucks, the song sucks, there’s no reason to buy this unless you like off-key vocals to accompany your fapping vision of a blushing Hinagiku singing or something.

K-ON! Character Image Song Series – Akiyama Mio. Hikasa Yoko
I did have real high hopes for the series of chara CDs but was left deflated by how awful the Mio one was, that I never pushed myself to try out the Yui one. Ughughuhgh rock music wasn’t supposed to be this bad.

K-ON! Original Soundtrack. Hajime Hyakkoku
Largely forgettable but for the ’80s electrodance inspired stuff like Virtual love… actually that’s the only track I like. The rest of it’s just shitty incidental music that sounds like all the incidental music in a kazillion other anime.

Again. YUI (FMA: Brotherhood OP)
Heard one YUI song, heard them all. I stopped getting excited about her songs about 3 years ago, I think.