Project Levolution: Electronic Remixes Straight from Japan
Monday, April 30. 2007
I must admit, I've been remiss for not posting this sooner. But until recently, I had sort of misplaced the link. Anyway, for anyone who's interested in arrangements of anime music, LevoLution is a must-visit. The "Sound" page has several remixes by a guy named "Lix", who is a very skilled electronic artist. Titles remixed include a lot of games, several of which have been made into anime, including Tsukihime (月姫) and AIR, plus anime-style games like Imperishable Night (which has amazing music of its own), and the Final Fantasy series. They are seriously hot stuff, especially if you like trance, dance, and similar stuff. There has been some talk on Anime Remix lately about anime remixers outside of the United States, and most of us have been hard-pressed to actually find any. The game remix scene also seems to be very biased towards the English-speaking part of the world. If you know of any other cool Japanese remixers - so far all we know of are CROW'S CLAW and Lix - then please let us know!
...And Here Come the NES Covers
Tuesday, April 24. 2007
Lucky Star OP
Friday, April 13. 2007
Emma - A Victorian Romance Second Act Coming Soon!
Saturday, April 7. 2007
Cool huh? The site tells me the season premier is on the 16th! Or at least, I think that's what I read.
I saw the first season of Emma way back in 2005, and I really enjoyed it. It's a nice love story coupled with a unique, pleasant art style and... *GASP*! Good music! Looking at the trailer, you'll hear the theme song from the first season redone with a more ethnic feel, which gives off the impression that there should be more attention to Hakim this time around... but where is he in the trailer? See, this is why the music is so important! Anyway, I'm looking forward to the second season, though I don't particularly remember any 3D stuff from the first season so it seems a bit different. The core people working on it are still the same though, so fans of the first season need not worry! It also looks like it starts where the last episode left off, so I'm recommending the IIChan Translation Group's fansubs for any new viewers. I dunno how active those torrents are but you're welcome to try. They might be elsewhere too. No, I won't help you find them. Not here （　´_ã‚`）
Hayate the Combat Butler Episode 1
Thursday, April 5. 2007
Oh, how I love the season of new anime starting. And that means this month. Expect a stream of good stuff, since this season looks like it's going to be amazing. After El Cazador, next on my list is Hayate no Gokuto, also known as Hayate the Combat Butler. It's animated in high definition in a style that matches the manga almost too closely: seeing such simple character designs in such detail is kind of off-putting. It's easy enough to get used to the art style, though, because the plot of the series is so absurdly hilarious.
The idea is that Hayate, a 16-year-old with the most irresponsible parents ever, has been abandoned with a debt and the yakuza are coming after him. Following in the vein of GAINAX's maid-comedy "He Is My Master", Hayate comes upon a rich young girl who is in need of a butler. After saving her life from kidnappers, she offers to protect him with the resources of her family, in exchange for his protecting her... from giant robots!
In terms of music (we like to forget it sometimes, but that's what this blog is really about), there's a great opening theme by KOTOKO, the singer you may recall from the excellent OP to Please Teacher! (and its sequel, but let's just forget that existed, ok?) as well as one of my favorite opening themes of all time, "Re-Sublimity" from Kannazuki no Miko. The ending theme is a surprisingly mellow song by the same group that did the Black Lagoon OP - only, this time they aren't trying really hard to speak Engrish and sound badass, so it works alright. It's still more or less your standard ED fare, though. The background music is provided by Kotaro Nakagawa, who's not exactly a newcomer (he did 1998's Geobreeders) but he hasn't worked on a lot of big series in the past, GunXSword and Code Geass being the recent exceptions. The sound he creates is average, so it's decent for scene-setting but nothing special on its own. At least it doesn't actually detract from the anime. (Black Lagoon for example had some moments where the songs being played were just... not appropriate to the mood. No problems like that here, so far.)
One of the weirdest and most distracting parts of this anime is that the "Voice of Heaven" is by Norio Wakamoto, the seiyuu of Onsokumaru from 2x2=Shinobuden ("Ninja Nonsense" in the States), in the exact same voice. I mean, this show is hardly more serious than that one, but having it be narrated by a perverted yellow spherical shapeshifter is a little odd nonetheless. The main voices, for Hayate and Nagi, are by Ryoko Shiraishi (Kaede, the ninja girl, from Negima) and Rie Kugimiya (Alphonse from FMA) respectively, but neither of them sounds very much like past roles I've heard them in. Apparently they were chosen on the recommendation of the manga artist, who named them and one other in an interview before the anime was made.
Overall, this is a pretty silly show, and it knows it, so it's pretty funny. Neither the music nor the animation is remarkable, but at least it's in high-definition, so it's probably worth watching more of. The concept alone is worth bearing out a little longer.
