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The thoughts, reviews and analysis of Comedy, Romance, Drama and Slice of Life Anime of a College Student

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Guest Review: MM! OP Single Help – Review

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When you have an Anime that has masochism written all over it, you can expect that the songs would be a masochistic experience…

From listening to the songs, Taketatsu Ayana is a really bad singer. This makes Hirano Aya’s and Toyosaki Aki’s singing sound 2x better! It’s like mixing two of the horrible pop singers (Lady Gaga and Katy Perry) and have a song that is a pile of crap.

Then again, it was not horrible enough to make the song unlistenable. It had some redeeming factors if you take out the vocals. I think this single could be considered as “So Bad Its Good.” Yes, the singing from Ayana is horrible and the electronica is out of place in the second track, but it was slightly enjoyable as receiving pleasure from masochism. I just can’t take my eyes off of it unlike Sae’s Ending from Amagami SS, which had nothing redeemable whatsoever.

So, enjoy this masochistic review of this single… and it’s just in time for Halloween! I will probably make another review on “Moon Signal” in a few weeks.

MM OP Review at Anime Instrumentality Blog (Make your comments over there, not here.)
Original Image Source

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K-ON!! – Extra Episodes Part 1 and 2 Final Thoughts

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Azu-nyan is working hard on making the promotional video successful.

After the final performance from the four girls that left Azu-nyan in tears, we are now left with the Extra Episodes.

The extras are what you expect if you watched the last season; they are fun and enjoyable stories to look at. The first extra involves the Light Music Club producing another promotional video since the last one is shoddily done. The second involves a visit to Sawako’s apartment to get her approval on the final copy of the yearbook. In addition to visiting her, they made dinner and done the laundry while she recovers from the cold.
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Guest Review: K-ON2! Character Image Songs – Hirasawa Yui

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Azunyan~

Since the girls in K-ON!! finally graduated from their high school, I decided it would be fun to review the most popular girls’ character sing, Hirasawa Yui sung by Toyosaki Aki.

This review was a bit different experience compared to my previous reviews. Reviewing music singles are not easy as it looks since you have to convey what you heard into words. Even though I have a musical background, it took me some time to get it right. So, if you are interested, you can read the review by following the link below.

Read it at Anime Instrumentality > (Discussion about this single is done in this post only)

For those who are wondering, I will be contributing more reviews in the future (as in the coming months). These may include:

  • Misoji Misaki – For more bile fascination
  • Additional K-ON singles

I will not review any more Girls Dead Monster singles/albums since they really suck and I don’t want my ears bleed more.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by ぽにし。

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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 24 (END, Main Story) – Final Thoughts

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You forgot to sign it, Yui!

I have to admit, it was a pretty emotional episode as the four girls are finally graduate and leaves their school behind for college. In addition, it was quite funny for Yui to hide the gift from Sawako to give for appreciation. This pretty much makes her worry about Yui a lot during the graduation ceremony. In the end, it seems that she loves the gift she receives from her students a lot.

As for Azusa, she has not gotten over the graduation anxiety and she broke down towards the end. Yui gives her some mementos (the four girls freshman picture and a five petal flower) to her. Afterwards, the four girls played a “thank you” song to Azusa with the four girls singing. It was one of the best songs in addition to U&I. It was emotional and a happy song that pretty much marks the happy continuation of the friendship even though Azusa still has a year left in high school. After they played the song, they do an encore and it sends happily ever after.

I have to admit; K-ON is probably the most emotionally happy comedy slice of life ever. Forget the haters, I enjoyed and liked it since it brought nostalgia when I was having fun with my friends in high school. It even surpasses Lucky Star over its random comedy. K-ON in my opinion shows the good and simplest things in life, friendship and living life to the fullest. It’s also fully evident in another familiar slice of life show. I’ll keep that a secret. :p

Next Episode: Time for Azusa to get some new recruits… Final Review will be written after I watched the second Extra Episode.

Verdict

10/10

Overall Rating

9.45/10, A, Masterpiece.

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Amagami SS – Double Ending Singles Review – Kimi no Hitomi ni Koishiteru & Kitto Ashita ha…

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General Information – Kimi no Hitomi ni Koishiteru

Spoiler InsideSelectShow

General Information – Kitto Ashita ha…

Spoiler InsideSelectShow

Two singles, two times the trouble. The question is, will well they fare against the last Amagami SS single I reviewed? Let’s find out!
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Amagami SS – Anata Shika Mie nai (Sae’s Ending Theme, ED3) Review

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General Information

Album: Anata Shika Mie nai (Literal Translation: You’re the Only One I Can See)
Artist: Konno Hiromi,Oomori Toshiyuki
Release Date: September 15, 2010
Catalog Number: PCCG-70093

Track List

Disc 1

  1. Anata Shika Mie nai
  2. KEEPING SMILE
  3. Anata Shika Mia nai (Instrumental)
  4. KEEPING SMILE (Instrumental)

Disc 2

  1. A little bird on my hand
  2. Walking along, shining along
  3. Character Monologue

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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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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 20 Brief Thoughts

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It ended just like that...

Surprisingly, time goes by very quickly when you are having fun with friends. After all, four of the girls are seniors and they had to perform their greatest to make the memory last forever. From the three festival performances, this is probably the best out of three and was pretty heartwarming. Some observations:

  • Sawako worked overnight to get the HTT t-shirts out to everyone. That is pretty nice.
  • The audience seems to be excited.
  • The first song was very light-hearted, but the last one seems to be heartwarming.
  • And of course, we got some stage comedy that took a chunk out of the time including Mio and Ritsu reciting lines from the play.

The sad realization is that it’s their last year they would be performing in front of the crowd. We know that good things have to come to the end, but never let go of the fond memories they had with each other. As we let the festival go away in the sunset, we should realize that K-ON is not all about girls doing cute things or eating cake and drinking tea. Its all about friendships, which is one of the simple things in life. Most people might have even gone through this feeling after graduating from High School or College and leaving old friends behind. In the end, as the girls did in this episode, we should remember the times we had fun with our old friends and never let them fade away…

Next Episode: Time for the Yearbook pictures!

Rating

9.5/10

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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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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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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 17 – No Clubroom?!

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I think Ui would make a fine lyricist.

Imagine that your club room, gym or field became unusable because of some accident or rare occurrence. You have an important event happening in a few day and need to practice or you won’t perform well. You soon find out that the other rooms are being occupied by other club activities that are preparing for the same event… Then what? The same exact occurrence happens to the Light Music Club and they really need to practice to prepare for the festival.

Since when the Light Music Club ever practiced? Every time I see them, they are drinking tea and eating cake… They will do fine, except in this instance…

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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 10 – Sawako’s Dilemma

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Sawa-chan is scared if her wild past was revealed to others.

Sawako is under pressure because she wants to keep her pure image around the freshmen. However, the former members of “Death Devil” want her to participate in playing music at a wedding reception since the bride thats getting married used to be part of the band. Sawako refuses and the Light Music Club devises a plan to eventually force her to play.

You might be wondering how well they will perform without Sawako. We will find out soon enough.

We know you used to be like this in high school too, Sawa-chan!

In the last season, Sawako revealed that she had a wild past because the boy she wanted liked wild girls. However that pretty much backfired as she went too far and he rejected her. If she was so talented, why she stopped now? It’s because purity and hardcore death metal does not mix.

Time to play detective here...

Wait… Haven’t I seen something like this before?

I guessed it...

When I saw the girls in K-ON spying on Sawako, I thought about Nogizaka Haruka Episode 4 when they were spying on Hazuki. In the the first half of the episode is focus on following this one person. It was the same, except it was a lot shorter and the girls got caught as you will find out.

Oh crap... We got noticed!

The funniest thing that happen when the girls were spying on Sawako? The short, light brown hair woman noticed them all along.

In the end, Yui cries because she spent the most amount of money. It happens because sometimes, we want the best and the greatest that we sometimes spend too much money.

By the way, that girl… isn’t she…

Oh crap! That scared the crap out of me...

Actually, she is a nice person. Her name is Norimi and she finally tells them what is going on. She wanted Sawako to play with the former members of Death Devil at a wedding, but Sawako declines. It’s pretty difficult since Sawa-chan had image problems.

I never knew passing notes could be so much fun.

This scene is probably the funniest scene in the whole episode. Passing notes during class is somewhat typical when students are up to no good. Mugi passed notes to Mio. then to Yui and Ritsu. The reactions from Yui and Ritsu is hilarious. Yui says that Mio’s handwriting is cute and Ritsu draws some scary shit that would make Mio laugh. The response is pretty obvious. Sawako catches them and they get time out in the hallway as Mugi had wished for…

Mugi's wish was granted...

Usually, standing in the hallway is a punishment like shitting in a corner… It’s so elementary, yet the girls make standing in the hallway a fun punishment. I highly doubt it will happen in real life, but it was pretty funny.

Now that they were unable to get Sawako to participate, they help Norimi and dress outlandishly…

Unfortunately, moe and metal does not mix.

Whose idea was this? Well, of course, Norimi’s!! You know when something doesn’t feel right, but you don’t want to blow your image, but you have to do something… Sawako flips, went on stage and started to play. She blew everyone’s expectations away on Death Devil. After performing, she realizes that she had done it and her image is completely ruined!

In the end, I knew that the girls couldn’t pull it off because it’s not their type of music. It seems that they do better with fluffy J-pop music instead of metal and I don’t blame them. Some people are simply better at a niche than others.

Ironically, Sawako remains popular.

Well, I guess Sawako would be popular either way, so it’s no use of holding what you like most back. Sawako shouldn’t be so worried about the past because she is so talented. People change and grow up once they graduate in high school. The students aren’t going to make fun of her just because her past. Heck, they might even be amazed about it. Lastly, people look up to others who are talented, so she take advantage of that. If she does, she will remain a good role model.

Next Episode: It’s so freaking hot… can’t move… Yep, summer is in full force and you might be wondering… Where is the Air Conditioning?

Verdict

8.9/10

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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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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 9 – Final Exams Dilemma

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She got distracted…

Final Exams… Does this remind you of something?

Final Exams seems to be the period of time towards the end of the school year or semester where stress levels goes to the max. Last minute studying and/or the pressure that if you don’t do well on the finals, your final grade will tank adds more to the already high stress…

As finals approach, Yui forgot about it and panics. Yes, I to admit that I was goofing off on the internet when I was studying for various subjects. The end result is that most of the grades turn out great, except one that I won’t go into since its embarassing. It’s somewhat difficult to focus on studying the material when you have several distractions like your mobile phone, laptop, television, etc. Believe me, I don’t have the study habits of Yui…

Study Groups are usually helpful, unless they goof off…

Note taking is probably the most boring thing to do. In most of my classes, teachers usually teach out of the book, which makes little sense of taking any notes and just study from the textbook. Sometimes, I record the lecture, but I forget to listen to them after I recorded them. However, there is an advantage of note taking because you study what the teacher covers so you don’t have to study the whole textbook. Also, there could be things that the teacher covers in class that isn’t in the textbook.

Going back to the show, there are funny differences on how these girls take notes in class. Mugi seems to take the neatest notes (Yui gets a copy of them), Mio draws cute things on hers and Ritsu sleeps in class like with Yui… Guess who seems to have the higher grades? No need to guess… While they are studying, Yui fools around with a crossword puzzle and distracting the whole study group. What was the purpose of having a study group if they are going to fool around?

Hyper Ultra Sadistic Mint… I don't want to know the taste or feeling of it…

Yui rans into the grandmother and she gives some snack… Yui also introduces her to Gitah.

They were so cute….

I have remembered my grandmother on my mother side taking care of me and my sister. She use to do stuff like taking us to places and doing stuff when my mom isn’t around… until 3rd grade when she got a stroke and unable to look after us anymore. By then, we are a bit grown up. She is still around living by herself in senior housing that is a few miles away from I live.

I’m guessing that Yui had a great childhood by looking at the flashbacks. Also, you see Nodoka in the last scene of the flashback. Lastly, this is the second time I saw Ui as a child which she looks really cute.

When Yui got home, she doesn’t study and practices guitar instead. Great study habits since it won’t get you very far.  So, she studies more at school, but like aways seem to drift way when something distracts her.

Oh dear lord… No normal person would mix up soy sauce with sugar.

Like Azusa says, no normal person would mix up soy sauce with sugar…

Yui decides to do the talent show for Grandma as solo because she didn’t want to distract the others from studying for finals… Azusa agrees to help, but on one condition…

Azusa forces Yui to study on a schedule…. No breaks whatsoever.

And the result…

Yui still goofs off… drawing Azusa as nekomimi… Does this signify anything? Absolutely Nothing…

They practice and Grandma comes over when she notices Yui. Yui introduces Azusa to her and the Grandmother leaves. They decide on the duo name, which is YuiAzu. Next day after Yui studied all night, she finishes her exams and a day after, the talent show.

They look cute, but this is just funny…

After cracking up some jokes from Yui, they started to play a song. This pretty much reminded me of slap-stick comedies like Angel Beats… oh wait…

They play a different version of Fude Pen, which is a song played last season and also in the Houkago Tea Time single. Overall, their version of the song sounded okay. Half-way through, they ran out of time and they got the concession prize. I find the whole thing funny, but if Yui hadn’t acted so funny, we could have heard more of the song. Anyways, Grandmother was happy even though they didn’t win and they had dinner with Ui.

Surprisingly, Yui passed the finals with high scores, even though she was goofing off!

This was a rather enjoyable episode. It simply proves that there are people out there that are a lot smarter than they act. Yui is one of these characters, which seems to be this childish genki girl and manages to pull through even with the talent show. However, don’t do this in real life, especially in college because every grade counts in the end.

Next Episode: Sawako and hopeless love? Oh, this is going to be interesting!

Verdict

8.8/10

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Review: Pure Pure Heart Insert Song Single

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General Information

Album Title: Pure Pure Heart
Artist: Houkago Tea Time (Toyosaki Aki, Hikasa Youko, Satou Satomi, Kotobuki Minako, Taketatsu Ayana)
Catalog Number: PCCG-70075
Release Date: June 2nd, 2010

Tracks

1. Pure Pure Heart
2. Sakuragaoka Joshi Koutougakkou Kouka [Rock Ver.]
3. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental)
4. Sakuragaoka Joshi Koutougakkou Kouka [Rock Ver.] (Instrumental)
5. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Guitar1])
6. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Guitar2])
7. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Keyboard])
8. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Bass])
9. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Drums])
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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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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 7 – The Mio Fanclub Legacy

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Beware, this episode has a lot of MugiVision…

I bet all those Mio fanboys are raving this after they had a tea party commemorating Mio.

Fangirls are fascinating creatures…

Fanboys and Fangirls are facinating creatures that seems to love and be so passionate what they like way too much. In real life however, these Fanboys and Fangirls can get so annoying to fan haters that the fan haters and the fanboys/fangirls go out on an all out war. In K-ON!!, they seem to not show that negative aspect. No matter how much those Mio fanboys want to be at the tea party, they can’t go since it’s an all-girls school.

Considering how popular Mio is after that pantsu Nice Bowl incident doesn’t help the fact that she is shy. Not only that, she generated a lot of fans that she thought they were stalkers…

Caught Red Handed!

In a past incident, the former student council president, Sokabe Megumi is actually behind the Mio Fanclub! No wonder she knows how to make tea! Also, Ritsu tried to add some Mugivision while Mio was telling about what happened with the Mio Fanclub which I found rather funny. Not only that, the whole club plays for Megumi before she graduates… and the club gets handed down to Nodoka although she doesn’t want to…

Megumi is the biggest Mio fangirl out there that she could surpass all those Mio Fanboys in real life. Not only that, she wants an autograph from Mio signed as Mio-tan… I laughed.

Now onward to the party:

Holy crap! Mio themed items!

The speech isn’t much of a speech with Mio biting her tongue, lips and also with someone saying Shish kabob that makes Mio laugh. Fangirls love it when they see her quirkiness.

Azu-nyan and Mio cutting the cake with embarrassment.

Fangirls are still squealing…. Not only that, the cake looks nice.

Ritsu and Yui is having a field day with this…

Although Mio doesn’t like Ritsu and Yui asking about scary stories…

The fangirls are… They will be satisfied with anything…

Not only, they take advantage of this by asking Mio embarrassing questions. Also, do I smell some Mugivision going around here

They look so cute… Also, why Ritsu is in every picture? It's her pictures, obviously…

When the fangirls look at the sideshow…

They are liking it.

Mio afterwards share a very strange poem that sounds like a love poem… ouch… Next, they play “Pure Pure Heart” which sounds really good, on the same level as Fuwa Fuwa Time from the last season. At least its better than the mediocre music I had listen from Girls Dead Monster…. Ugh… Not only that, the insert single is releasing in another week, so I will probably get a chance to review the full song. Will it be better than Fuwa Fuwa Time? We will find out soon.

When they take group pictures with Mio and the fangirls, Azusa sends a group picture to Megumi who can’t come to the party. Look at how much she grew in the last scene:

Oh look how much she changed after she graduated…

Girls grow more mature and beautiful once they graduate and enter their adult/college life. Also, the last scene as pretty heartwarming indeed… especially when she is the #1 fan of Mio… Take that Fanboys~

Even though I am not a Mio fanboy, I found this episode rather enjoyable… This episode pretty much done it for me along with Episode 4 and others. It makes me wonder… What will happen to the Mio Fanclub once Mio graduates? That will leave us speculating about it until the end of the season.

Verdict

8.9/10

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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 6 – Rain Worries and Naming Instruments

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I think I got a nosebleed here…

Yes, it’s rainy season and it sucks badly… April seems to be the month where it rains so much that you need to wear a raincoat or use an umbrella. Not only that, outdoor after school activities get canceled or put indoors because it is so wet out. There was a few occasions in my life where I stood out in the heavy rain for an hour. After going inside, I was all soaking wet, even when I have an umbrella and jacket on. Yui is the same way, trying to protect her Gitah. Getting wet by cars splashing water, puddles, a dog and falling down to the ground. This is a reason why Yui is wearing this maid outfit. I wished she kept it on since it looked so cute, but oh well…

Is this some kind of ritual?

This is a funny thing since hardly anyone would dry their clothes in the dark music room. Well, you have to put it somewhere so it could dry. However, Ui never broke the news that it was Yui’s and it left hilarious reactions on Azusa’s and Jun’s part.

You wonder where Azusa got this?

Azusa discovers online shopping where she bought various things for cheap such as a guitar raincoat that comes with a guitar desiccant, a wall mounting guitar hangar, finger trainer and a training CD. Azusa really loves to buy random things online. Buying online is usually beneficial as it costs less and you can buy items that is normally not sold in stores in the comfort of your home, but some might get too overboard and then have their place filled with unnecessary things lying around the house or apartment.

When Yui starts replacing the strings in her Guitar, the funniest scene happen when Azusa said that Yui shouldn’t talk so dearly to her Gitah every time. This makes everyone else think that Azusa is jealous of Yui and saying it is a love triangle. I laughed.

How she is going to take this off when inside?

Musical Instruments are very delicate and very sensitive to temperature and moisture. I know this because my Clarinet is made out of wood. However, I won’t go so far and wrap it with plastic and tape. It is pretty foolish because it’s hard to take off. This is why all the members decided to leave the instruments at school, but…

Yui misses Gitah.

There are some people that are emotionally attached to their musical instruments like with Yui. This is because Yui brings it home every day so that she can practice on it and even sleep with it! Normal people won’t do that with their instruments, unless they are like Yui…

Oh my! Mio is also naming her instrument.

There is some things in life that some people give names to… Computers, cell phones, instruments, Weighted Companion Cubes (no, I’m just kidding about the cube part)… you name it! I even name my computers and my iPhones after my favorite anime characters such as Fujibayashi Kyou on my Unibody Macbook Pro. Laugh of me if you want, but I am proud of it.

Yui suggests naming her bass “Elizabeth” which Mio refuses to call it by. However, Mio calls it “Elizabeth” by  the end of the episode, with the others peeking at her and giggling. Azusa also calls her guitar “Muttan.”

In the end, this was a pretty fun episode with the girls doing some funny stuff… To my surprise, what will Ritsu and Mugi name their instruments?

Verdict

8.7/10

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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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Second Anime Audiosurf Competition – Spring 2010

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With a good response to the last Audiosurf contest, I decided to hold another Audiosurf Competition since Spring Semester will be complete in a few days and now leaving time for more activities with the blogosphere.

Audiosurf, if you don’t know what it is, Audiosurf as the name describes is a music adapting puzzle game where you match blocks according to what music you are playing. There are different modes you can play with such as Mono where you collect only the colored blocks and avoid greys and Eraser where you match blocks, erase a certain color block and restore them later. This competition where we pick a few songs that all participants play on separate leader boards to see who have the highest score. With the last competition, we decide on what songs we should play in the competition. Now, I will up that to 4 songs. You don’t have to play all 4 songs, but it is best to play all 4 songs to have a better chance of winning. This time, I will allow the playing of the Elite level, but only with the puzzle characters. If you don’t own the game, Audiosurf is very affordable and can be get off Steam for $10… Sometimes it is on sale, so yeah.

In the Casual Tier, Mono only with Ironmode on because most casual players won’t know how to play the puzzle characters. Pro and Elite levels are Puzzle only, but I’m sure you will get the hang of them easily with Eraser being the easiest character.

In this competition, we will choose 4 songs either from Winter and Spring 2010 seasons. They can be insert or open/ending songs. No other songs outside from these seasons may be used. The voting process will end on May 20th and the competition will start on May 21st and last two weeks from that date. To avoid confusion on artists, make a copy of the song and rename the Artist to Spring 2010 Anime Audiosurf Competition so that we won’t have any conflicts with different artist names and such.

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Review – K-ON – Listen!!

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This is the last of the Anime Music reviews for a while… until the Angel Beats! OP/ED comes out or some Insert Song Album shows up. Further ado, now onward to the K-ON!! ED Single Review, Listen!!

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General Information

Album Title: Listen!!
Artist: Houkago Tea Time (Toyosaki Aki, Hikasa Youko, Satou Satomi, Kotobuki Minako, Taketatsu Ayana)
Catalog Number: PCCG-70073
Release Date: April 28, 2010
Tracks

1. Listen!!
2. Our MAGIC
3. Listen!! (Instrumental)
4. Our MAGIC (Instrumental)
General Thoughts

It has been proven that Hikasa Youko is a better singer overall compared to Toyosaki Aki. Proven with the single, “Dont’ say lazy” that was released last year. Not only that, she managed to pull off Fuwa Fuwa Time pretty well and bring out a very fluffy and catchy song that brought out her character’s “cute” side. Does Listen!! delivers on that consistent quality the last two single albums have done after the disaster called “GO! GO! MANIAC.” We will find out soon enough.
Listen!!

Listen!! has energy, but not as much as the predecessor, “Don’t say lazy.” They seem to play it safe after the big disaster they had experimenting with GO! GO! MANIAC. The vocals are more present, similar to the style in “Don’t say lazy” and also, very catchy. Some may find the longer version better than the TV version… It is obvious that Hikasa Youko is a lot better than what I have seen with GO! GO! MANIAC.

Nevertheless, it was pretty damn close, but only a bit off of being just as good as the predecessor and is still a good addition for this season.
Our MAGIC

A bit slower than the last side and is more of a pop song that has a 60/70s feel as some people say. In contrast to the B-side from the “Don’t say lazy,” it is very different as it doesn’t have the rock feel. Our MAGIC is a very catchy song. As they say, this song sort of didn’t suit Mio’s character just like “Hello Little Girl” from Mio’s Character Album that released last year. Perhaps it could of suit Kotobuki Minako better, which had a pretty good singing voice from my experience… but I don’t know… Despite that, Hikasa Youko has done a pretty good job with this song.

Overall, Listen!! is definitely a better single album than GO! GO! MANIAC and a decent addition to K-ON!. It may not be on the same level as the predecesor, but it was pretty damn close. This pretty much proves Hikasa Youko is simply a better singer than Toyosaki Aki… As always, the animation of Listen!! is top notch just like “Don’t say lazy” from the first season.

And wait… Didn’t Hikasa Youko sing songs for Chu-Bra!! a long with Kotobuki Minako? Well, yes… of course. Although I didn’t heard any songs from that Anime since I have no interest in it, I’m positive that it is probably around the same level from my assumptions. I may be wrong, but oh well.
Verdict

8.5/10, Outstanding, but barely.

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Review – K-ON – GO! GO! MANIAC

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General Information

Album Title: GO! GO! MANIAC
Artist: Houkago Tea Time (Toyosaki Aki, Hikasa Youko, Satou Satomi, Kotobuki Minako, Taketatsu Ayana)
Catalog Number: PCCG-70071
Release Date: April 28, 2010
Tracks

1. GO! GO! MANIAC
2. Genius…!?
3. GO! GO! MANIAC (Instrumental)
4. Genius…!? (Instrumental)
General Thoughts

K-ON! in the first music had a very good amount of good pop music that sounded very good and very catchy. Did Go! Go! Maniac fulfill the promise to be better than the opening of the first season? Far from it since from first time listening to the TV version, it was a complete mess. However, does this album fixes that messiness. Not a chance… and you will find out soon enough.
GO! GO! MANIAC

Well, in comparison to Cagayake! GIRLS from the first season, GO! GO! MANIAC is two leaps backwards. The problem? The vocals are sadly a big mess. Toyosaki Aki’s vocals were a big mess compared to her first single, love your life, which sounded a lot better than this… The problem is that the messiness comes from the lyrics being sung way too fast and causing some squeakiness. I think the trend of Kyoto Animation providing not so good opening themes is becoming a reality since Suzumiya Haruhi S2’s opening theme, Super Driver, was also considered a disaster because of the not so good singing from Hirano Aya.

Oddly enough, taking the vocals away makes the song less cringing… but it doesn’t change the fact that the song was ruined by the vocals.
Genius…!?

Genius…!? sounds better than the former and Toyosaki Aki’s voice not nearly as bad, but fits in and pretty catchy. However, as with the overall horribleness of the opening song, this song simply doesn’t have the energy and sounds pretty simplistic.

From Toyosaki’s performance of these songs, the overall performance of the songs in the album was average. The problem is the opening song is obviously a big mess to make the song slightly unlistenable. I have heard a a lot better from Toyosaki Aki from the Houkago Tea Time Album and also Yui’s character Album. GO! GO! MANIAC did not deliver at all and was actually worse than the former OP in the first season. Even Toyosaki’s version of Fuwa Fuwa Time sounded better than this… Way better. From my impressions, it is clear that Hikasa Youko will perform better on the ending theme, Listen!! which I will review next time.
Verdict

7.2/10, Average

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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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