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Opinion: Angel Beats and K-ON!!, the Day and Night Differences of the Bands

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It's the Battle of the Bands!

It has been nearly two months since Angel Beats have ended and after listening to the whole Angel Beats OST, I was impressed by how surprisingly well ANANT-GARDE EYES and Jun Maeda songs sounded. I mentioned this since there was a discussion about the composition of the soundtrack a while back on Twitter between me, zzeroparticle and Aorii that happened last week over how long it took to compose the music for Angel Beats, which was rumored to be 3 days. Because of the discussion, I brought up the fictional school band, Girls Dead Monster since it could explain why the songs sounded so lackluster because of the composition and the vocals. The responses I got is that the songs would sound better in the Anime opposed to just listening it as a lone track and that Jun Maeda isn’t exactly cut out to make pop songs that involves guitars.

After watching the last performance of HO-KAGO TEA TIME at the School Festival in Episode 20, it have gave me some thoughts about Angel Beats’s Girls Dead Monster and if they really can compare to K-ON’s HO-KAGO TEA TIME in regards to vocals, composition and its message, which will be discussed in this opinion piece.
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Kanon – Mai’s Arc and Fighting her Demons

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You might be wondering, what exactly is she doing?

Continuing with the analyzing of the arcs I played in Kanon, the next girl’s arc I am going to focus on is Mai Kawasumi. She is viewed by everyone as an anti-social, quiet girl who seems to have this urge to go to the school at night with a long, sharp sword. There could be a reason why she is like this because of the events that happened in her childhood she couldn’t get over.

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Kanon – Shiori’s Arc – The Drama of the Two Sisters

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It kind of irked me that Kaori didn't get along with her younger sister, Shiori. There is a reason...

Back in 2009, I wrote an informal post about Shiori’s Arc after I had finished it. I was disappointed that I haven’t gone deep enough in analyzing and adding my thoughts about her arc, so I decided to go through and redo the review as I attended. No, I’m not going to cover what was different in the Anime adaptation, but analyze the story and give my own thoughts along with it.

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The Observation of Music from Key’s Visual Novels

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After listening to the Angel Beats Original Soundtrack, I wondered about the other Original Soundtracks from other previous Key works like Kanon, Air and Clannad. After extensively listening to them, the three soundtracks had different styles between them and obviously completely different from the synth dominated tracks in Angel Beats.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by さとPON
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Kanon – Makoto’s Arc – Final Impressions

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She started as a fox... and... yeah.

Makoto’s arc was one of those arcs that I couldn’t watch in one sitting. The drama was so tense that I skipped her arc during my first time of watching the Kanon remake. Its not until the middle of July that I finished her arc off. After I wrote the whole review on the Kanon Anime, I decided to continue with the visual novel and finish Makoto’s arc. The feeling of the visual novel arc was just as emotional as the Anime adaption, but it was more spread out instead.

For those who watched the Anime, there was hardly any content that was left out so you don’t have to worry about spoilers.
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Angel Beats Original Soundtrack – Final Thoughts

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Since zzeroparticle and ETERNAL reviewed the Original Soundtrack very nicely, I don’t feel the need to review the whole soundtrack over again. However, I do feel that I need to share my overall “too long, don’t read” thoughts about the whole soundtrack because it sounded so good.

I do have to admit, even though the plot of Angel Beats and Girl’s Dead Monster’s songs are a big mess, the Angel Beats Orginal Soundtrack does not disappoint. The big surprise that everyone doesn’t seem to notice is that the synth songs. Although they have the Jun Maeda style, they are actually composed and performed by a synth group called “ANANT-GARDE EYES.” Most of these synth songs primarily sound like video game music, primarily music from role playing games like Final Fantasy for example. The video game style music fits pretty well with the overall setting of Angel Beats since it’s a virtual reality purgitory afterall.

From the whole soundtrack, my heart, my most precious treasure, kanade, Ichiban no Takaramono (Orig. Version) and theme of SSS stands out the most. I will pretty much discuss the mentioned songs on why  they sound better than the other songs in the soundtrack and my overall thoughts about the soundtrack as a whole.

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Kanon (2006 Remake) – Final Review

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Well, it's not hard to like the girls of Kanon...

Kanon, released on June 4, 1999 was a visual novel that changed the bishoujo game industry forever. It featured deep melodramatic story lines for each girl that gave a sense of sympathy and sadness (along with the optional eroge scenes). The one that was behind this masterpiece is Key/VisualArts. They continued to create other masterpieces like Air and Clannad that released several years later.
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Angel Beats! – Final Review

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Angel Beats is a very odd Anime. It’s a anime original that was hyped not only because Key was producing it, but PA Works who worked on “True Tears” and “Canaan” was going to animate the show. What we got is the Tsundere of Anime with inconsistent storyline and out of place drama and comedy. Even though I enjoyed Angel Beats, it felt like an experiment.
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Clannad – Kotomi’s Arc – Final Impressions

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Watch out for her violin playing! Its nasty...

Since I still have a shortage of quality subs and I have watched Kotomi’s arc over again in the first season, why not finish her arc in the Visual Novel? The anime adaptation of Kotomi’s Arc is done the same way Mai’s arc was done in the Kanon (2006 remake) Anime. However, there was a few differences in the visual novel material, so I will explain them along with my overall thoughts. (Contain VN spoilers)
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Clannad – Dub Impressions Episodes 1-3

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Another excuse to watch Clannad again...

This is an unbiased review on the new dub. Since I have watched the whole season back in 2009 when it was only in fansubs, why not take advantage of viewing it in English? It seems fun, right?

The dub wasn’t all that bad. I’m pretty lenient and don’t complain why it doesn’t sound like the original because it’s difficult to imitate the pitch since it’s a different language. As long it’s not 4Kids, we are fine.

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Angel Beats – Epsode 8-9 – Some Thoughts

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Oh noes... They going to work together!

A lot had happen since I last watched Angel Beats. Episode 8 is the battle to save the real Tenshi with the reprogrammed cloning ability by Yuri. In Episode 9, Tenshi looked like she is in an eternal sleep while they have others rewrite the program. Meanwhile, we get more of Otonashi’s memories after the train crash. Otonashi I have to say is a pretty strong character that doesn’t seem to give up and give others hope, but at the same time didn’t survived after the help crew came. The whole 7 days was like you see in Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 where people are left without food and supplies and some dying on the streets. Same case scenario here, but in a train wreck and both ends are covered with rocks.

Retouching on why people end up in this “purgatory,” people come here because they couldn’t live out their youthful days, as Tenshi put it. Life can be unfair and good people might pass away even if they didn’t want to. Life has many variables that it’s nearly impossible to get an accurate meaning of life. People need to live life to the fullest and not end up with a life full of regrets. That way, people can remain optimistic and strive for their goals.

Otonashi and Tenshi seem to want to help others, even though it means that the person disappears. However, Angel Beats seems to have so many unknowns because we don’t know exactly what happens when the person disappears. Does the person get reborn as someone else or reincarnated? Perhaps humans who are in this “purgatory” don’t want to disappear because they are afraid of the unknown. We won’t know exactly until the next few episodes.

This ultimately means that Tenshi gets back her student council position and the rest of the season focusing on clearing people’s regrets? I won’t know until I watch, so stay tuned and remember to have a box of tissues beside you… It’s going to be an emotional roller coaster ride!

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Review: Little Braver Single

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General Information

Album Title: Little Braver

Artist: Girls Dead Monster (Singer: LiSA)

Catalog Number: KSLA-0055

Release Date: June 6, 2010

Tracks

  1. Little Braver
  2. Shine Days
  3. Answer Song

General Thoughts

If you haven’t heard enough of the rather mediocre music from Girls Dead Monster, there is more! A few weeks back, there was a promotional video on Little Braver, but I didn’t take a look at it because I don’t want to go and spoil it. Several weeks later, the single is released. Have LiSA improved her rather mediocre and rather forgetful performance of the “Thousand Enemies” single? It’s only slightly better, but I am still not convinced if it’s good enough. LiSA seems to sound good on the lower notes, but she still goes slightly out of tune in some areas. Not as bad as Thousand Enemies, but that is saying too much about it. The songs are still pretty forgettable and made me wish that they had better singers singing these songs…

Little Braver is the song that was shown in the promotional video. It starts off with a calm intro and when LiSA enters. This is where the good composition gets drown out by the mediocre vocals. It does sound slightly better than Thousand Enemies, but it’s slowly goes downhill from there. The songs feel pretty dull and the higher pitches like with the previous album sounds slightly ever out of tune. Not only that, Little Braver is pretty forgettable several minutes after. Little Braver is an okay song, but it doesn’t try to go beyond the mediocrity of Girls Dead Monster.

The intro of Shine Days sounds pretty well like the intro to Alchemy and it’s a pretty upbeat song. This is probably the best song out of the whole single, but it’s hardly perfect. It still have several flaws like the slightly out of tune pitches on the higher octaves and it’s slightly dull. It’s an okay song, but still forgettable like the rest of the songs LiSA has sung. It’s worth mentioning that at 4:30, her vocals are barely audible…

Lastly, we have Answer Song, which is probably the most disappointing song out of the whole album. The performance of the song felt a bit messy and somewhat dull. I don’t feel any energy in this song, except mediocre singing that could put me to sleep. Probably the worst song I heard from LiSA.

I don’t know what they are getting at by not letting the seiyuu sing! I’m pretty sure Eri Kitamura and Miyuki Sawashiro are fully capable of singing, but no! Lets pick two amateur singers that doesn’t necessarily represent Japanese Indie scene and fuck up all 9 songs! Thats how I feel about the whole Girls Dead Monster thing and it’s a big disgrace. Jun Maeda does a wonderful job in composing these songs and these singers go out and ruin the work he worked hard for. It’s just like making a good game with good game play, story and graphics and the orchestra go and fuck the music up. Like I mentioned in my rant in the last paragraph of my Pure Pure Heart single review, they choose singers that can’t sing properly and resulted in the mediocre and disappointing performance of these songs. Girls Dead Monster will never reach the appeal of Houkago Tea Time because their songs continue to have flaws with the vocals, which make them rather forgettable. Houkago Tea Time is simply more polished, sounds better and the vocals don’t go out of tune so many times that it makes me cringe.

Not only that, there is more Girls Dead Monster singles that is coming out and what can you expect out of them after hearing the first 9 songs? More disappointment. They are making a mockery out of Girls Dead Monster and milking it what its worth from the hype. Believe me, My Soul, Your Beats!/Brave Song sounds like heaven compared to the mediocrity of all the Girls Dead Monsters songs combined.

Verdict

7.0/10

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Review: My Soul, Your Beats / Brave Song Single

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General Information

Album Title: My Soul, Your Beats! / Brave Song
Artist: Lia, Toda Aoi, Maeda Jun
Catalog Number: KSLA-0054
Release Date: May 26, 2010

General Thoughts

When something gets animated, the theme song will get referred to as the national anthem.
– Ken from Seitokai no Ichizon

Typically, all the Key Anime Adaptations always had great opening and Eeding Themes (Tori no Uta, Last regrets, Megumeru, Toki wo Kizamu Uta, Light colors and others). Angel Beats is no exception to this, except the insert album songs from Girls Dead Monster since the vocals sound like they were amateurs. From hearing the songs over and over again, I think this is a pretty solid album overall with some tiny flaws (some minor screeches in a few areas in My Soul, Your Beats! and vocals being soft in Brave Song), but nothing that serious. Both songs have strong instrumentals and sound really beautiful, especially with Brave Song.

My Soul, Your Beats!

The intro of My Soul, Your Beats! has a simular feel to Toki wo Kizamu Uta (A Song Engraved in Time) from Clannad After Story… Heck, the vocals sound similar. From the song, I like how the piano and the guitar is played in the background as it gives this feeling of being blown away because of how powerful it is. Since it’s Lia, the vocals are solid. Nothing else to say about My Soul, Your Beats! as its a very good song. No need to recommend as most people will like this off the bat.

It’s worth noting that while I was listening to My Soul, Your Beats, I was comparing this song with Lia’s past opening themes with Key (Tori no Uta, Light colors, Toki wo Kizamu Uta). While My Soul, Your Beats is a good song, it lacks the emotional feel from these three songs. However, Brave Song conveys that feeling, which is the next song in the review.

Brave Song

Honestly, it took several listens for Brave Song to click in, but it has the feel of Chiisana Tenohira. It pretty much fits in with the whole premise of the show. The vocals from Toda Aoi seem to be a bit soft at first. After listening it a few times, it fits in well with the song although not as good as Lia. The strength of this song is the lyrics that can compare to Toki wo Kizamu Uta as it has emotions that’s not present in My Soul, Your Beats. Although most won’t get Brave Song from listening it to the first time, but after a few listens, it will click in. Maybe not like Go Go Maniac since I still can’t get over the screechy vocals from Toyosaki Aki.

By the way, Brave Song is the song that is played when the rocket goes off, which I found really strange.

Conclusion

From listening to both of these tracks, Jun Maeda should be proud that his Opening and Ending Themes are not ruined by mediocre vocals from marina and LiSA, but with more established singers. Lia delivered just like she alway do from all of her tracks I had listen to. Toda Aoi on the other hand isn’t as refined as Lia, but her performance of Brave Song turned out pretty good. Nevertheless, this is a solid single and is a recommended listen if you are watching Angel Beats or like Jun Maeda’s compositions.

Verdict

8.9/10, A-/B+, Outstanding

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Game Review: CLANNAD SPELUNKER

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Just don't ask why the hell I'm playing this…

On Wednesday during the week of finals, someone on Twitter was playing this game called CLANNAD spelunker, which is essentially a Clannad themed version of the original Spelunker on the Atari. If it has Clannad characters, it must not be that bad… you will be mistaken when I show how hard this game really is.

Warning: There is a lot of swearing when I made the post.

It is pretty odd to have a game such as spelunker and slap Clannad characters in it… Well, yes… it’s so out of place… Now to the gameplay:

Character Selection Screen

Although I can’t read Japanese, it doesn’t really matter since its pretty obvious. In Clannad Spelunker, you can play as Nagisa, Kotomi, Tomoyo and Yukine. I’n guessing that each character has different abilities… I don’t know… but whatever.

The Gameplay

The goal of this game is to explore caves, collect treasures and defeat enemies… Sound easy, right? You will find out sooner…

What? I just died from that jump? WHAT????!!!!!

That is fucking bullshit! I died from that fall? Yep, I did and it wasn’t that high… Note that when you lose a life, you go back to a place in the level… Note that when you hit a checkpoint, you will get sent back there when you lose a life

The game fools you in thinking the game is easy. Compared to the original spelunker which is one hit and game over, Clannad Spelunker gives you 4 tries and you can replenish them by collecting the hearts. Not only that, its pretty hard to get on the damn ropes that you will end up falling when I realized that I need to use the double jump. You are going to use the double jump a lot to get to these places. However, the controls feels like shit that you will end up doing a single jump and lose a life because of the fall. That is fucking horseshit!

In Super Mario Bros, you can jump further without dying even if you fall from a high platform, but in Clannad Spelunker you die from a high jump. The developers made the game feel so hard that nobody can beat it in one sitting or without saving. Believe me, you are going to die a lot in this game. And yeah, if you lose all your lives, there are NO continues…

Forgot to mention, there is a save function, but I have no idea how to use it.

Seriously, this enemy looks stock…

It seems that the makers of Clannad Spelunker are not creative. We get stock characters like ghosts, bats, blobs and witches. Can’t the developers be a bit more creative? They should have added dangos or starfish… but whatever… Not only that, they have insane amount of hit points. It takes 6 hits just to defeat that ghost. Not only that, if you don’t hit them fast enough, they get you and you die… and you know thats bullshit!

Fuck! That is not fair! I just respawned there and I died just like that… Thats bullshit!

An enemy right near the checkpoint. When you respawn, you get hit again and lose a life. That is just fucked up.

What is a wedding head dress doing in a cave? Also, it looks cropped out of somewhere.

After dying so many times in getting to that treasure chest, I finally get to it and what I found? A head dress? What the hell is a wedding head dress doing in a treasure chest? I would have thought there would be something like gold, but no. I think they had done this since it’s Clannad themed. This wedding head dress from what I recalled is from Kouko Ibuki from Fuuko’s Arc. I grabbed the key and bullshit…

Fuuuuuuck! I fell and now its game over… I was so close, but now I have to do that over again? F that!

I died… I gave up afterwards since I couldn’t even beat the first level!

What is this game intended for? Certainly not Clannad fans or fan of Key…. It disappoints everyone just because the game is too fucking difficult! Even with the four lives compared to the original, it’s still too fucking hard. It even compare to the difficulty to Transformers: Convoy no Nazo, which is known to be the most difficult Transformers game out there. Clannad Spelunker is on the same level difficulty as the latter. Clannad Spelunker just redefines the definition of Nintendo Hard, a game that is very difficult and gives no mercy.

What would be my suggestion? Stay the hell away from this game, unless you like dying every time you fall or hit an enemy… This game is basically trial and error. Every time you play, you will get better until you get stuck again… and believe me… you will die a lot and I mean it!

Overall Picture

Pros: It’s a Clannad themed Spelunker game!

Cons: Intense difficulty, poor controls, stock enemies, unfair respawning, no continues (without saving).

Verdict

6.2/10, D-, Below Average

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Midseason Impressions: Angel Beats!

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Been really slow on Angel Beats! since it first aired because I want to watch it with the best subs, but now I am caught up with the 7 episodes, it’s time for my midseason impressions on it.

Angel Beats! is the Sora no Woto of this season. Sora no Woto was unpredictable because it was an Anime Original that led people to do a lot of speculation on what will happen next. We get the same with Angel Beats! since it is also an Anime Original. I can’t say if this is a good thing or not, but it makes things pretty fresh.

Angel Beats features drama and comedy stuffed into random places. Unlike previous Key Anime adaptations like Kanon, Air and Clannad, they were pretty consistent with comedy in some episodes and then drama placed in a few episodes. The pacing was consistent since they focus on each character’s arc separately. We don’t get that in Angel Beats because the comedy is jumbled up with the serious sections. This could be the small flaw of the show as a whole as it makes things feel slightly out of place, especially with Episodes 2, 3, 4, and 7. For some people, it can make people feel that they can’t take the serious scenes seriously. If only Angel Beats had 24 episodes, I would think this pacing issue would ease a bit.

The animation for the whole show is pretty good, but there are some instances that the animation looks a bit quirky as shown in the following:

Just don't ask what the animators were smoking when they made such an ugly scene like this…

Not nearly as bad, but still… mehhhh….

Well, I don’t know what the Animators were thinking when they made these scenes…

The story is pretty much up in the air. In some episodes, they focus on a character’s memory that I found pretty melodramatic and tragic, but not nearly the level seen in Clannad After Story. Since the story is unpredictable, I can’t really comment on it as a whole until the end of the season, but it remains interesting.

As for the music, they have done a very good job with the instrumentals and the opening and closing songs. The only problems I have are the singers of the insert songs as I mentioned in my reviews of the Crow Song and Thousand Enemies single reviews. The singing from marina and LiSA felt amateurish and doesn’t sound professional as they go out of tune in some instances, ruining the whole premise of the song. What they should have done is let the voice actor do the singing… but meh…

Overall, Angel Beats is pretty good, but not a masterpiece. There are flaws like pacing issues, animation quirkiness, and amateur singers for insert songs that prevents it from being perfect. If PA Works pulls through with Angel Beats, they may become a viable candidate against Kyoto Animation if Key plans to do an Anime adaptation of Little Busters!

Attribution Information

Fanart used in this post is made by 逢鍵ゆう

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Angel Beats – Episode 6 – Naoi’s Family Affair

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It only took Otonashi grabbing him to convince him.

The SSS finally know that Naoi is behind the massacre, but how about Otonashi convincing him to stop this madness?

The highlight of the story is Naoi’s past. The first half of the episode didn’t matter as much compared to the second half.

Being locked up alone really sucks.

Naoi being locked up to play while his other brother does the more important stuff is very typical. This seems to happen frequently to younger siblings. Usually, the older brother/sister gets more attention than the youngest sibling. I never had that problem in my life, but I’m sure others had trying to get more attention from their parents.

This is a very important quote that will pretty much change Naoi’s life and holds some significance towards the end of his story:

You’re the one who died.

A lot of work ahead of you now…

Parents always want their children to succeed in life. Probably, the only way for a younger sibling to do gain more attention is from hard work and succeeding. However, some people aren’t cut out at some things even they put their full efforts. In this instance, Naoi swaps places with his brother so he can have an important meaning to his life, but sacrificing his previous life. Naoi faced a lot of difficulties because he was simply not good at pottery like his father and his brother. Eventually he got it with an award, but he did not do nearly as well.

Tragedy strikes and…

It makes you wonder… What Naoi achieved in his life since his father can no longer train him? Nothing. He considers himself as a failure because he does not have the skills and he have to take care of his father for rest of his life. He failed because he was trying to be more like his brother instead of being himself, which is why the quote “you’re the one who died” holds true. Being yourself and hard work is the only path to success.

Besides from Naoi’s story, the episode is a rather a good one. The joke seems to be somewhat out of place. It kind of reminded me of the previous Key Anime adaptations that had a period of comedy and then turning into a melodrama. With the pacing in Angel Beats being slightly fast, it gets out of place. Now with Tenshi on their side, will Naoi join in as well after Otonashi bringing back to his senses? We will find out next episode.

Verdict

8.8/10

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Review – Girls Dead Monster – Thousand Enemies

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General Information

Album Title: Thousand Enemies
Artist: Girls Dead Monster (Singer: LiSA)
Catalog Number: KSLA-0052
Release Date: May 12, 2010

General Thoughts

The Crow Song Album and marina’s singing has proven to be mediocre because something was missing from the vocals… expression! As a result, the vocals sounded so dull and flat that it lessened the playing of these songs. If I were Jun Maeda, I would be crying in my sleep because the vocals ruined my music composition. With the new singer for Yui-nyan, do you expect a fangirl of Girls Dead Monster to sound better than the predecessor? I have to say that the vocals in this album sounds marginally better than the previous, but it is not perfect.

Thousand Enemies

If we compare the instrumentals from Crow Song and Thousand Enemies, there are some obvious differences. Crow Song had more energy, but not so good vocals. In Thousand Enemies, we have better vocals, but lacks that energy shown in Crow Song. So, there is a tradeoff here: more energy but not so good vocals or good vocals but lack of energy. Pick your poison! Also, I found something wacky with the vocals midway of the song (around 3 minutes in) in the following:

Mayotta toki ni ha kokoro no chizu wo atashi ni misete hoshii
Sore nara yukisaki sugu wakaru kara
Jibun ja wakaranai dake

Something doesn’t sound right with these lines. It seems that LiSA’s vocals for those phases went out of tune or something… Overall, it is a good sounding song, but not nearly as rememberable as Crow Song, despite the not so good vocals.

Rain Song

Rain Song sounds like a JPop Rock song. Comparison to Alchemy, this song seems to be more polished since we don’t have stuff like vocals going out of range. Like with Listen!!, they seem to play it safe after the big disaster they have with the vocals on the first single. Not perfect, but a good listen.

Highest Life

I can’t say that the albums aren’t consistent as it follows the pattern from the last single. Highest Life is a ballad but unlike My Song, this song is not an acrostic. Highest Life is a good song, but has flaws. In some instances, LiSA seems to go out of range for a few seconds, but not like marina, which seems to get the worse of the out of range vocals.

Overall, LiSA’s vocals seem to be a big improvement over marina’s mediocre vocals, but that is saying too much about the album. Comparing the instrumentals to Crow Song, the former had a lot more energy and excitement, but if we had better vocals, it would have given a better result. That excitement was simply not present in Thousand Enemies, but in return, we had better sounding vocals for the most part.

Lastly, I don’t get this… Why assign dedicated singers to these insert songs instead of using the voice actors? I’m guessing they want a professional to do it, but come on… you have to give them a chance!

Verdict

7.7/10, Good

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Angel Beats – What was the purpose of bullying Tachibana Kanade?

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wpid-angelbeats-ep5-scr1-300x168-2010-05-4-12-54.jpg
All she wanted to do afterwards is eat Mapo Doufu...

Finally got caught up and from these three episodes, Yuri goal is to eliminate Tenshi (real name: Tachibana Kanade) because Yuri thought Tenshi was the god… The only problem is that she isn’t and couldn’t rebel because she is the student council president.

Yuri is a big bully and the SSS is becoming a gruesome bullying group. She intended of making Kanade loose in the baseball game just to make her cry? Also, what about the breaking into her room just to get information on her? Now, Yuri executed her plan to make Kanade fail all her exams just to ruin her reputation and have her kicked out of student council? Well, yes… and that was the result of it after the exams were over. Like with Haruhi, Yuri has no morals or even proof that Kanade is actually god or not… Just go ahead and go along with the Anti-Tenshi plans without knowing damn well that Tenshi is a human like all of them meant to be.

In contrast to Yuri’s bullying… it’s just as gruesome as real life bullying. Bullies have no morals and just doing it because they have no self esteem and think that by bulling a student or a person that is weaker than them, it will make them more powerful… What would that do to help the victim? With bystanders not doing to protect the victim from the bully… what would that do to the victim with all the pain and suffering like with Kanade is suffering after losing her position in student council after the SSS tried to sabotage her tests?

Tachibana Kanade needs a warm hug… I feel sorry for her on how she is mistreated by Yuri’s outrageous plans to get rid of her.

Thoughts

Away from the Kanade bullying by Yuri… I felt that the 4th and 5th episodes being very enjoyable and funny. However, the 3rd episode was filled with melodrama. Iwasawa’s story was very sad and I sympathize with her since she never got to finish her goals because the injury caused by one of the parents fighting. The music is exactly what I have said in my review of Crow Song single, so no need for the explanation…

This also brings up a new point after watching Episode 5, even good people who rebel even get eliminated… and also, Tenshi didn’t get eliminated after she was removed from student council, so I don’t really know what is Yuri’s reasoning that if you obey Tenshi, you will get eliminated. That is simply not true at all.

With the 4th Opening done by Yui’s singer, LiSA (don’t know why, but they probably don’t want the voice actor for Yui to sing) which was pretty decent, but I still perfer the Piano version.

Overall, although the comedy scenes are out of place, I think it is still a very good series so far. The animation has been really good so far compared to the first episode. Perhaps, they will animate Little Busters! next? Who knows…

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Review – Girls Dead Monster – Crow Song Single

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If the artist name doesn’t ring a bell, well don’t worry. This single obviously contains the insert songs in the Spring Anime, Angel Beats! that is currently airing. It surprised me on how early in the season it was released, but then again, the K-ON!! singles just released recently as well… Sorry if I’m not good at music reviewing. Probably Anime Instrumentality Blog will do it better?

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General Information

Album Title: Crow Song
Artist: Girls Dead Monster (Singers: Marina and LiSA)
Catalog Number: KSLA-0051
Release Date: April 23, 2010

Tracks

  • Crow Song
  • Alchemy
  • My Song

General Thoughts

The Album sounded fairly good, but it is not without flaws… Like with the music oriented K-ON! which had the characters playing with some rather good music, this is the same effect, but not perfect… Overall, the vocals were good for all the three song, except that the feeling in the vocals was somewhat missing or something as they sound a bit flat. I noticed this on all three tracks. If I compared this to Fuwa Fuwa Time or even Houkago Tea Time back in 2009, I think they done pretty close, except the flaws I mentioned.

Crow Song

This song is the insert song played in Episode 1. The overall song sounded really good and really like the instrumentals and had a lot of energy.

Alchemy

Alchemy is an album insert song. Although this song sounded good, but not as good as Crow Song as the energy wasn’t there that would make this song a bit forgettable. I think it would have sound better Live or something. It is sad that this one hasn’t been used in the Anime let.

My Song

This song is an insert song played in Episode 3 and it is a ballad. I haven’t watched Episode 3 yet, but it is a ballad. The song itself is powerful, and liked the acoustics. A bit better, but the vocals are still a little flat…

Overall, I think the instrumentals sounded really good because they are obviously composed by Jun Maeda which have made some really good music in past works. The only problem is with the vocals I mentioned earlier. While it is almost damn close to the K-ON! songs released last season, I think the flatness of the vocals is the problem I see here. If it wasn’t that flat, I think it would have done better…

Verdict

7.6/10, Good

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Angel Beats! – Episode 2 Thoughts and Impressions

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Time for our next big plan...

Nevertheless… this remains really interesting…

In continuation of this episode, the mission is to restock on weapons from the Guild underground. To get there, they need to get through the traps that are meant to repel Tenshi. Besides the “it’s a TRAP!” (not with boys crossdressing as a girl, but actual traps) moments that includes but not limited to a hammer, a laser trap that cuts your body (don’t worry, it doesn’t actually harm them after all), pitfall trap, big rolling bolder, falling ceiling, you name it! It is quite funny how some of these characters fell for these traps that I laughed… Well since they are immortal after all and only causes a lot of pain. Of course, our main character sees some, well you know for the first time and Yuri going all tsundere… well, dere with the blushing…

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Nice and happy family... Too bad something bad happened to them. 🙁

And then, there is this flashback which is on the verge of tearjerking sad…. The robbers decide to break into her house and nearly wiped out the whole family. Yuri tries to find something they would want, but fails to bring down the large pot since she slipped down stairs and started to bleed. Along with that, she is the leader simply because she rebelled against Tenshi first. Soon, they arrive at the guild and she decides to shut it down since Tenshi already found out and wanted to destroy all the knowledge and then rebuild the guild elsewhere. The workers start with preparation to demolish the guild and Tenshi got there. Otonashi and Yuri stand Tenshi off until the workers finally donated the TNT to blow up the guild, although the cannon was a complete failure.

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BOOM! The whole thing will be gone within minutes.

Overall, this episode still made me rather interested in the show. Although the pacing is a little off, I think it will get better in the later episodes. Except for some scenes in the flashback, the animation was a improvement over the last episode and looked more appealing. It seems that they finally got the OP and the ED done with song and animation, which looked and sound amazing. About the OP, of course it sounded a little different compared to other songs that Lia sung (yes, I listen to alot of her songs, not only her Anime songs as seen on Last.fm), but it’s is rather mature… The ED sounded rather peaceful and yes, this is what I got from it. It is obvious that P.A. Works is trying to push to become like Kyoto Animation as always. Anyways, I can’t wait for the next episode…
Verdict

8.4/10

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Angel Beats! – Episode 1 Thoughts and Impressions

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Imagine yourself in a virtual reality… this what it is, except that anything that is out to kill you won’t actually kill you, although it will hurt a hell alot. This was obviously an introduction episode and from the look of it, the show is probably something that isn’t like the previous works. Nevertheless, it’s still pretty good so far. Animation is pretty good, especially on the second half, but the glass was half empty… Animation on the first half was meh until the second part where it got better. As with people are in the afterlife, they do not age and also the so called NPCs (Non-Player Character) don’t either… Damn, is this some kind of RPG or what?

Well, Yuri, wants to get rid of Tenshi, who is the chairperson of the student council and she tries to target her in the beginning of the episode… Obviously Otonashi doesn’t believe her and had Tenshi attack him. Afterwards, he agrees to join the SSS and plan this operation where they use the concert as a diversion and attack Tenshi. He takes a shot at her, but it hit her the first time, but the second time failed. Everyone else starts targeting her with their weapons and firing at her, but in the end… it didn’t turn out well as planned.

Anyways, that was pretty much the whole gist of the whole episode. It was interesting, but then again, it’s obviously different than before… Intense battle scenes with gore and stuff… As long it turns out interesting… then I’ll keep watching… 🙂

Verdict

8.3/10

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