Mikunopolis: Christmas in July and World Conquest

I returned from Los Angeles and Anime Expo 2011 a few days ago and I have to say that the highlight of my trip, other than the soon to be regretted level of purchases I made in the dealer’s room, was anything dealing with Hatsune Miku. While the high point of all things Miku was obviously Mikunopolis, it was fun to learn a lot more about Miku over the course of the weekend through all of the panels. Before heading to Los Angeles, I was definitely a fan of the virtual idol, but going into the weekend I didn’t really know what to expect. After leaving, it struck me that being a fan of Miku was really a lot like believing in Santa for a few reasons.

First, like the meaning of Christmas, Miku can really be whoever you want her to be depending on what you like to do, and I’m not talking about her seemingly endless wardrobe for all the perverts out there. Well, I suppose that might be part of it. Still, fans can create new songs, animations, or character designs of and about Miku and send them out there for others to enjoy through the use of the internet. But just as Christmas isn’t just about candy canes and sleigh bells, Miku isn’t just about the music. One thing that became perfectly clear to me almost immediately this weekend is that Miku could very easily be a synonym for Commercialism, and in a lot of ways this is a good thing. It is because of this entrepreneurial spirit fan designs for Miku show up in games or on figures. It is because of this entrepreneurial spirit that allows companies to make money off of Miku’s products, even through the use of a decentralized business model. And in the truest of sense of all things commercialism, Miku is often depicted in pictures that are less than pure.

Supercell’s Perfect Day is Darn Near Perfect

So the the anime-based music video for Perfect Day the top track to their latest album Today is a Beautiful Day was released a few weeks ago, and it’s pretty phenomenal. Telling the story of two girl friends who somehow grew apart, I couldn’t help but be reminded of another anime work based on a Supercell song. And it simply puts Black Rock Shooter to shame.

12 Days of Christmas – Day 7 – Utada Hikaru

Wednesday, December 8.  3:45 AM.  My cell phone goes off.  I groggily turn over to flip it off and try to go back to sleep.

3:46 AM.  My cell phone goes off again.  I resist the urge to throw it across the room.  I set the alarm.  I should probably heed it.  I somehow manage to roll out of bed and walk over to turn on my computer.  After a few restless minutes waiting for it to login, I navigate my way over to Ustream.  Why on earth am I up at this ungodly hour?  Well, Utada Hikaru announced her intention to go on hiatus at the end of this year.  She decided she would go all out on her professional career before that happened.  While it’s morning here, it’s night over there, and the powers that be have decided to stream her farewell concert over the Internet and to theatres all over Japan.  What, you think I would miss this?

12 Days of Christmas – Day 2 – Supercell

I first came across Supercell the same way I’m sure many people have: the ending theme to 2009′s hit Bakemonogatari, Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (The Story You Didn’t Know). I remember being captured immediately by the opening guitar melody, then Nagi’s gorgeous singing about 10 seconds in. It was one of those songs that I fell in love with immediately. It was only natural that I immediately looked up just who this “ryo” and “nagi” as mentioned in the ED sequence were. Since then, Suprecell has quickly become one of my favorite bands, and 2010 was a fine year for the band. We’ll look back at some of my favorite songs that it released this year.

“Hero” English Translation

So I’ve stated a few times before that I’m a big fan of supercell. In the anime world, the band is most famous for Black Rock Shooter, a (rather disappointing) OVA that was spawned from its song of the same title, as well as The Story You Didn’t Know (Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari), the ending theme to Bakemonogatari. Of course, originally being a Vocaloid band, supercell has ties to plenty in otakudom, including having the opening song to the PSP game Project Diva 2nd (Come Over Here Baby (Kocchi Muite Baby)) and the ending song to Type-Moon’s delayed (first non-eroge) visual novel, Witch on the Holy Night (This Star Sparkling Night).

Well, wouldn’t you know it, supercell has now added a manga to the list, with the online release of Hero (ヒーロー), the theme song to a manga called AOHARU.

Here’s the short 45 second preview video that’s on AOHARU‘s official site:

Telling Stories with Rhythm

You could say I’m a pretty big rhythm game fan.  I have a custom build Dance Dance Revolution pad and can pass some 10s on a regular basis.  I play Expert guitar on Rock Band with little difficulty, for the most part.  I even bought the rhythm indie-game pack on Steam today.  The rhythm genre has come a long way over the years, and now a variety of gameplay mechanics have risen from using music as a base.  When I first got into the genre, I never though something like Rock Band would end up becoming mainstream.  However, I’ve recently determined developers have left a little something out of the equation: the story.

 

Please, sir, may I have some more?

 

“Hoshi ga matataku konna yoru ni” English Translation

Well, supercell’s 3rd CD single, Utakata Hanabi (Literally Water Bubble Fireworks, though kumoriha translates it as Ephemeral Fireworks in his translation. I prefer Bubble-Like Fireworks, personally), was released last week on August 25. The title track, predictably enough, leaked about a month back, so that was nothing new, but also in the release was a second track, titled 星が瞬くこんな夜に (Hoshi ga matataku konna yoru ni), or This Star Sparkling Night in English. Below is a YouTube video of the song in full.

Since I haven’t been able to find an English translation for its lyrics, I thought that I would take a crack at it.

Nino Under the Bridge and Emptying Our Pockets

I’ve made it no secret I’m a fan of Maaya Sakamoto, especially her music. Let me quote myself from the spring 2010 preview post:

I could listen to Maaya’s voice all day (in fact, I sometimes do, putting her music on my playlist).

I was listening to her recent compilation album Everywhere, when 1 song caught my attention. The song is called Pocket o Kara ni Shite or, translated, Emptying Our Pockets (below is a YouTube video of a live performance).

Cowboy Bebop – Tribute

Back in April 2009, my friend, AMV producer nsomniacartist, and one of her friends went through their CD collections to find some good material for new AMVs.  After a few months of initial development, she approached me with one of the projects that spawned from that session.  She had been working on combining Cowboy Bebop with the song Tribute by Tenacious D.  I think both of these things are awesome, so I immediately agreed to help in any way I could.  I don’t have the artistic skills to really produce anything, outside of my ability to write, but I do have an eye for quality.  Fortunately, she had all the video and sound editing skills more than covered; that’s why she’s the artist and I’m the guy writing this post.  After watching the original, very rough draft, we started kicking around ideas, clips, and effects.  It took us six long months, working around computer meltdowns and finagling with Adobe’s silly software.  She showed me her final release candidate, I gave it my seal of approval, and she submitted the video for this past Ohayocon.  The result?  She took home the award for Best Comedy, and there was much rejoicing!

Enough about the story, I’m sure you’d much rather have entertainment.  I know that Youtube embedding doesn’t play always play well with browsers, so click after the break to see the final product.

[12 Days of Christmas] Day 8 – Do As Infinity

Today, we’re going to talk about music for a bit.  No, this has nothing to do with K-ON!, which is a show that is pretty much entirely about music.  This is about a band that is very near and dear to my heart, and part of the reason that I am even here writing today, Do As Infinity.