AKB's 2013 Budokan Live

Almost 3 hours of staying up too late for the Budokan concert streamed on Youtube Music Week. Please kindly disregard any errors from this old and long post. This was largely compiled live, with a bit of resources to back up and correct any points I missed. (stuff in brackets are comments/corrections after the fact)

Also, as you may have noticed it is quite informal and leaves out a lot of details/events that you can find everywhere else.

AKB48 Budokan/Youtube 2013

Jane Doe start (Interesting...)

Skirt Hirari by HKT or NMB? (nope not even close)

Robo dancing with Mayuyu and Rena + two others (Tashima Meru, Tomonaga Mio)

Sayanee center w/ Takamina + Yuuko singing "Cross". (Wonderful.)

Kojiharu in lingerie... (singing that Garter song.)

JKT48 River (Quite a surprising to see them here, but they were quite good.)

Yukirin Flying Get Center. (Nice!)

Sayaka Center w/ Sae(!) and Mariko and Maria and... Ami.

Moeno graduating (A sad day indeed...)

MC session with Sasshi (teary over Moeno), Sayanee, Rema and Yukirin. Most likely talking about cutest members of HKT48. (hauu I wanna take you home~)

(Then starts the "battles")

JKT vs HKT .
HKT vs NMB.
NMB vs SKE.

Akarin being flexible.

AKB... 48!! (by all of the 48 family)
And Mayuyu being a DJ.

Then that charity song for the Earthquake relief.

ENCORE

Starting off with two new songs and Sayonara Crawl.

Then a huge Shoujotachi + First Rabbit for everyone. Chaotic fun ensues.

Announcement (and Shuffles) Time

5 domes tour was announced.

Hirari promoted to Team K! Yes, very good for her!

Kirarie, Yuihan and co are back to AKB with their concurrent roles canceled... (except for the Double Matsui pair). SKE48 was confused and quite pissed at Kitarie's transfer, especially with the error in announcments too.

Sae is back from SDN... however she's not looking very pleased.

Sasshi is now Double HKT48 Team Manger. I'm not sure what to feel.


In the end it was a great concert with some awesome announcements, but also a huge amount of sad and confusing announcements.

Ocean and Light Concerts

I felt quite Light today about the Ocean.


One about a big blue wave.

And the other about and essential element of life (and electronics).

Not that great mixing in general. Bass was too much, feedback galore during the wave, plus the lack of compensation for the unplugged instruments (like the great flute). Though in the end it was quite good with all the shakers and tambourines.

The electronics were interesting, though somehow I was more interested in the lighting halfway through. It did indeed evoke some great feelings at the end. I guess that's the concert feeling when you're having fun with a ton of people.

Hastily Edited with Easy Music

Today was very much a day for me to slack off and then subsequently edit a video for a class. I learned that it is simply not a good idea to that anymore, as the rendering time is too long, and the editing ended up being shoddy. Next time I'll just do it the night before no matter how tired I am.

But at the very least, I had a very easy time picking out my choice of music. The K-on! OST served as a very good basis, as it makes for nice and easy listening. Perhaps I'll try to have a listen to other "easy" OSTs out there so I'll have a wider variety for music.

Also, Still Alive radio version is great for random background radios in stores.

Why Can't I watch Ebichu MVs?

Also known as "Why are there regions locks for music?"

Seriously, why does DefStar and/or Sony Music of Japan decide to block their Youtube videos? I mean, sure there's some legal lining involved somewhere, but I still have to question their decisions.

This all came about when I was going through Ebichu's (aka Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku) music videos on the Stardust Digital Youtube page.

Of course I was partially interested in this group not only because of them being "little sisters" of Momoiro Clover. Not even because of Hyadain's crazy compositions for them. But partially because these girl's voices and randomness in their videos really hits me somehow. I don't know why, perhaps it's the sudden low voices of some of the girls. Or perhaps it's the screechy annoying voice of that one girl (not likely). Or maybe it's just that cute girl with the braces who looks and sounds slightly out there, but is rather fun to watch and hear. I just don't no.

Anyways back to the rant about region locking. I found out that they were actually signed to DefStar Records, so that was the reason why there were no more new music videos on Stardust's page. So I sought them out, going through Wikipedia of all places. Although not the best source for new info, I found out that Wikipedia usually had links to the music videos of various group's singles. Of course, this usually only happened if the group's song was popular enough to have its own wiki page.

I sought it out and bam, I was hit with the old "The uploader has not made this video available in your country".

Why?

Then I decided to try other measures to try to watch it, but I just couldn't do it. How sad, even trying to watch it through official channels is too painful. I assume this a Sony thing, but who knows it could just be DefStar. If I cared enough I'd do some research into the politics of this silly thing, which I know probably affects other non-North American countries more, but I just don't feel up to it right now. I just wanted to complain, cause it's such a shame that these great videos aren't published for one reason or another.

I know I might not have been as eager to try out AKB48 if it wasn't for the huge catalogue of PV/MVs on their Youtube channel. I remember when I went back to find Aitakatta, there wasn't any official video page. Lo and behold, it was DefStar who held them before. Of course they launched into super fame with their signing of King Records now, and maybe the whole open to all Youtube thing helped a bit.

And that's it. If anyone (hello there sole reader) would like to enlighten me about this situation, that would be great. Either way, I'm still going through other channels to get more enlightenment about Ebichu and other videos that don't make it across the oceans.

(Also, the reason for these super long posts is partially due to the writing style influence of a certain other blog that I read recently. Who knew that writing long rant-esque posts could be so therapeutic?)

Enter into... the 5th Dimension

Through the Neo Stargate, these 5 girls will enter the 5th Dimension after 3 phases.


5TH DIMENSION is the new album by Momoiro Clover Z that is set to be released on April 10, 2013.

Check out the site at http://5thdimension.jp/

There was a time when this site was interactive, and the stages (and tracklist) were being unlocked.

Comfy Phones and Wacky Canadian Western.

So today I got some nice and comfy (and cheap!) headphones! Sony ones too, so now I'm using a full set of Sony's for my music listening.

And I got to watch a Canadian Western! It's a bit old, but it was quite fun and charming. Good to see some good old western with a twist.

Many Lyrics from a MiniLyrics program

Sorry for the incredibly cheesy post title, but I've got to say that I'm liking the "MiniLyrics" program that was randomly recommended across the web on some forum.

First thing is... the inclusion of almost all the Momoiro Clover songs I tried! It even had the slightly obscure "Dream Wave" single! The only disappointment was the lack of "fall into me" by Akarin, but that can easily be fixed since anyone can upload the lyrics.

The second thing? Scrolling lyrics synced up with the song. I've already gotten used to this with the various Android programs I tried before, but this is still pretty neat. You can even edit the timings if it's slightly off. Or you could upload a slightly different version with more line spacing and whatnot.

And the third? Choose your own lyrics. Don't like this one user's version? Well there might just be a different one from some other guy. Want to make your own? Sure. Need romaji instead of kanji (or vice-versa)? Ok, most Japanese songs I've come across have both. Except for Momoiro Clover, but that's understandable.

And the best thing about it? It hooks to almost any media player you have, like foobar! I'm sure the other programs can't do that (yet).

Now to test drive the android app to see if it's just as good. Although I'll most likely be sticking with the nice TTPod app for the meantime due to how clean yet stylish it looks.

Here's the link to the MiniLyrics website. Grab it for an awesome free program!

Karaoke and Ear Wax

So today was another fun day of Android app finding.

The theme? Lyrics and music.

The result? After sifting through many (about 6) apps, I came across this Chinese one called "TTPod". How did I find it? Simply clicking on "People also viewed" apps starting from the great musixmatch to the Chinese Kugou, then stumbling across this.

At first I was a bit turned off due to the shockingly low (but not really) rating of 4 stars compared to the constant 4.5s of all the other similar music lyrics apps. The completely Chinese screenshots were also a bit of a bother. But then I saw about 2 recommendations on a certain forum for this app so I was curious.

What I came to find was a wonderous app filled with almost all the things I was looking. And then some.

TTPod has quite an extensive lyrics database that is karaoke-esque, in that it follows the song timing. You can even adjust the timing yourself if you feel that it is slightly off. Another neat thing is that you can specifically search for the lyrics for a song in case it wasn't properly tagged (such as romanized Japanese songs). If it's there, it'll show up and be connected to that song. Quite neat.

Another feature that I recently came across was the extensive online steaming database that they have. Just pop in some artist or song names and out come the song(s). Then you can stream them like normal songs and they'll also have lyrics if there are any to begin with.

Also, it has an equalizer plus some silly ambient effects like "theatre" or "concert". It even has a digitizer! Make all those songs robotic!

There's probably plenty of features it's still missing like playlist management and proper album art, but so far it has the most extensive lyrics database (at least for Japanese), and quite a few other features. Perhaps I'll play around with the themes later.


Also, the "ear wax" in the post title is in reference to the annoying amounts of ear wax I've been having problems with. Such a pain.

End of 2012; Uta de Aitai

So today is the end isn't it? What are great year it has been, and I'm forever hopeful of whatever comes next...

But this post isn't going to be a general "year end" post. No, it's going to be about the huge musical event that happened on the NHK General channel in Japan before the next year.

This event is the Kouhaku Uta Gassen 2012.

And it was spectacular.


[post to be edited, sorry I must recompile my images and texts]

The Beginnings of a Momoiro Clover Fan 2

So yesterday I started a post explaining the small and slow beginnings of my growing interest in the idol group "Momoiro Clover Z". Today will be the post where I explain how I really got into them these past few days.

Akarin! Aarin! Momoka! Kanako↑! Shiorin! Renichan!

Introduction

Walking through

These past few days were what I would call the true beginning of my long journey into MomoClo fandom. How did I start? By simple checking the Wikipedia article for a bit and then getting their first (and only) album "Battle and Romance".

Down the MomoClo tunnel I go.

This album greeted me with something both expected and unexpected. The first track "Z Densetsu Owarinaki Kakumei" was like something straight out of a Super Sentai show, or at least it felt like it. With a typical Super Sentai announcer guy plus all those colour statements.

"RED" "YELLOW" "PINK" "GREEN" "PURPLE"... "BLUE" (ah...)

Then I blasted through the whole album and was still on the edge whether or not these girls were that great. Most of these songs were quite random with moments of rap interspersed with somewhat more tame choruses. "Kimi no Ato" stood out to me as the one song that didn't quite fit with the rest of the songs, but I thought it was a nice change of pace after all this crazy.

The problem with going through all these songs like this was that it was a bit too much to handle so none really stuck as much as the first track. However, after finishing up the first disk, I went straight for the solo disk with the 6 girls. Only two stood out to me: Akari's "fall into me" and Reni's "Koi wa Abare Ondekoza". Akari's was because of how strong her vocals were and how different her sound was compared to the others. Reni's was because of the enka-style singing and music.

Then I went out to seek more information on these girls all over the web starting from some forums and going from there. By starting at the beginning, I felt like I could follow the work in order and learn about them as they grew.

One of the first things I had to find out more about was Akari Hayami and how much of a difference it made when she left Momoiro Clover. And that's the reason why I was bouncing back between Momoiro Clover and Momoiro Clover Z, since they are the same yet quite different without Akari. The "Z" was added to the name after she left and they kind of shifted their image. Plus I found out all their songs in the "Battle and Romance" did not include her, as they went so far as to rerecord the tracks she was in originally. So I had to seek out the originals to hear her.

After I wandered around carelessly listening to some random live videos on youtube, I decided to start from the beginning. I went through the first few PVs on Youtube officially uploaded by Star Dust Digital. First up was their debut single "Momoiro Punch" (PV here) and "Mirai e Susume" (PV here). I could feel that there was something a bit different about these first two, but I didn't realize until a bit later that it was probably due to the style of the instruments and the fact that their were barely any of the solos that really defined the individuals.

Then I came across the next in line : "Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo".


The image at the top of this post is one of the covers for this single.

Now this was closer to what I'd expect from MomoClo. And this was also the first song where I could really feel the difference between Pre-Z and Z MomoClo. The part that stood out to me was the fast talking by the husky (or something) voice of Akari, a voice completely different from everyone else. Then the song went on with some solo parts which was really good since I was still learning everyone's names and voices at this point (I had been referring to them by colour before all this). But interspersed between all that was what I'd say would be the most memorable part of this song for me: Akari's "Neraiuchi" as she points and shots the camera. Her voice just blew me away again and I could not imagine this song without her anymore. So much so that I'm kind of avoiding the Z Ikuze at the moment.

After that song was a song that sounded strangely familiar to me. The song was "Hashire" and it was one of those songs I found in a live video. Although a bit generic sounding it was just the type of song that would get stuck in my head and put a smile on my face.


This is one long post right now and I'm really getting tired. I'll continue on tomorrow if I'm not stuck studying for my final final exam.

To be continued...

The Beginnings of a Momoiro Clover Fan 1

Today (and parts of yesterday) was the day I started to actually delve into Momoiro Clover Z's vast musical library. Little did I know that was in for a crazy ride.

This post will be a brief history of how I very recently got engulfed in the great fires of fandom of Momoiro Clover Z (shortened to MomoClo in this pos).

Momoiro Clover Z plus Idolm@ster style? Awesome. | Source

 Prologue

I actually first knew about MomoClo for about a year and a half already. I started with a random song I found on youtube called "Kono Uta" (I'll put embed videos after my long blocks of text). Or was is that one Pokemon song? I'm not quite sure but they were probably my first dip into the world of MomoClo. I thought the songs were catchy and the PVs (or MVs?) were quite nice. I especially like the whole Super Sentai styled colour schemes going on. After this little taste of MomoClo, I decided that they were a pretty neat group, but I guess I was a bit too intimidated by these so-called "Idol" groups with large amounts of singles and albums. It was "too much" for me even though these girls' numbers don't even compared to the biggies like AKB48 or Morning Musume. So I set them aside for another day, hoping to one day come back.

Kono Uta PV

The next encounter with MomoClo was a very neat "ah ha!" moment for me. It was during my viewing of Mouretsu Space Pirates opening and ending. I was absolutely blown away by such a great opening theme that I wondered right away who sung it. Turns out it was Momoiro Clover Z! A familiar yet unfamiliar name to me at that moment in time. They also sung the pretty nice though not quite as great ending theme as well. At this time I was dead set on acquiring the single... after I had finished the series. I didn't want the greatness to wear off and I wanted to listen to that song every single episode! But as fate (and laziness) would have it, I put the series on hold for a long period of time, having only watched the first episode for probably 3 or 4 seasons.

Moretsu Uchu Kokyokyoku Dai 7 Gakusho 'Mugen no Ai', the opening of Mouretsu Uchuu Kyodai (Bodacious Space Pirates)

Then came the past summer. I had time and my brother who I usually watched with was also quite free. So I went and got a whole bunch of episodes because "WhyNot?" (forgive the silly pun). The opening was still as fresh and great as ever and my interest was still high for MomoClo. Still I was reluctant to walk down the path of real idoldom, partly because of my large interest in Idolm@ster at the time (though I still am). Then as we watched through a few arcs we stopped right at the end of the Golden Ship arc, which landed on episode 13. Why did we stop? Perhaps it was due to more laziness to continue. Or maybe it was because we wanted to savour "high point" and not wring out all the goodness of the series too early. Or maybe it was just because the last episode wasn't released by that particular fansubber yet so we couldn't properly marathon to the end if we wanted to.

So that was it... we stopped halfway and it's been on hold ever since. I still hadn't gotten around to getting my hands on that great song. I still hadn't gotten around to giving MomoClo a proper listening.

Until today/yesterday that is...


To be continued....

Yanagi Nagi - Packaged

Found this a while back looking for F9/Kiyono songs. Then I came across this from -PF Audio- who actually have albums with various artists including F9 and Nagi. This album "a blue." in particular has some original songs along with some rearranges of kz (livetune) songs with Nagi on vocals. It's pretty nice.

Deco*27 Feat. Shoko Nakagawa

Nico | Youtube

"DECO*27 - TAKING SWEET SHELTER feat. Shoko Nakagawa / 甘宿り feat. 中川翔子" from Deco*27's 3rd major album "LOVE CALENDAR".

It's really nice that Deco*27 actually gets to go do a song with Shoko Nakagawa. I don't really know much of Shoko's songs other than the Gurren Lagann opening, but I know her singing is very solid. I have high hopes for this album, and hopefully the mixing won't drown out the vocals like it did for the last album. I want to hear marina's strong vocals!

-New Game- Live 2012

SUPER GAMESONG LIVE 2012. Today, early in the morning in the west, there was quite a big concert going on. This one had singers from various beloved video games, mostly from visual novels.

I'll update this with thoughts later, but on niconico, there were sound problems galore. Fun.

http://supage.jp/

相対性理論 (Soutaisei Riron) - Miss Parallel World

Randomly stumbled across this interesting song by the band 相対性理論 (Soutaisei Riron), aka Theory of Relativity. They have an interesting still that is strangely addicting and satisfying. I hope to hear more of their songs since they seem alright.

Asami Shimoda - Kokoro Live

Nico

Wow, she has such a strong voice. Asami Shimoda is going higher and higher in terms my list of favorite seiyuu singers. This is partially influenced by watching all those Idolm@ster concerts and hearing her "true voice" instead of the sometimes annoying Ami/Mami voice. Also, I can hear the origins of her voice that she lent to the Vocaloids Rin/Len Kagamine. Much better live.

This is video is from the concert "Animelo Summer Live 2009 -RE:BRIDGE-". I'd like to watch the dvds of these Animelo lives someday. For now, I'll stick with the few Idolm@ster concerts that I have backed up.

Nico Nico Chokaigi Day 2: Live and Idols

Just some random watching again. Mostly watch this, which was mostly a concert featuring the Yuru Yuri girls, Hyadain, some Idolm@ster idols, Nagareda Project, may'n, AeLL (some idol group), Faylan, and probably some others too.
It was quite fun indeed, although I sadly missed part of the Idolm@ster part. They did live voice overs for some fan submitted Novelm@sters (skits sort of visual novel style, unvoiced originally). Then they ended with "READY!!". The Yuru Yuri girls were pretty good. Too bad the stream sound quality wasn't that good, cause most the instruments sounded weird.

Then there's an Aniplex idol event happening. Some about Weiss Scharz, the card game. And also Lawson, the convenience store chain, with Idolm@ster.

Tokyo Brass Style - Sorairo Days

Recently heard this and wow Sorairo Days sounds quite good with all this jazzy, big band style. Also discovered the very nice Tokyo Brass Style and their assortment of covers.

Go the Distance to a Whole New World Under The Sea

Found this old CD while I was cleaning up my room. Includes plenty of very nice nostalgic Disney songs including "Go the Distance" from Hercules, "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, "Under The Sea" from the Little Mermaid, and other classics.

Also, remember when McDonald's had CDs?

oath sign - Nagareda Project style

Fate/Zero opening done by Nagareda Project (流田Project). These guys are always awesome.