30 January 2012

lyrics translation. 'watashi to waltz o' by Chihiro Onitsuka

私とワルツを (watashi to waltz o) by 鬼束 ちひろ (Onitsuka Chihiro)


lyrics

時計は動くのをやめ
奇妙な晩餐は静かに続く
何かを脱がすように
もうそろそろ口を閉じて
分かり合えてるかどうかの答えは
たぶんどこにもない
それなら体を寄せ合うだけでも

優しいものはとても怖いから
泣いてしまうあなたは優しいから
誰にも傷が付かないようにと一人でなんて踊らないで
どうかあたしとワルツを

この冬が終わるごろには
凍った鳥たちも溶けずに落ちる
不安で飛べないまま
後どれだけ歩けるのだろう
きっとあなたは世界の果てへでも
ゆくというのだろう
すべての温度を振り払いながら

失うときがいつか来ることも
知っているのあなたは悲しいほど
それでもなぜ生きようとするの何も信じられないくせに
そんな寂しい期待で

優しいものはとても怖いから
泣いてしまうあなたは優しいから
誰にも傷が付かないようにと一人でなんて踊らないで
不思議な炎に焼かれているのなら

声を上げて名前を呼んで
一度だけでも、それが最後でも
誰にも傷が付かないようにと一人でなんて踊らないで
そしてあたしとワルツを
どうかあたしとワルツを

Romaji

tokei wa ugoku no o yame
kimyou na bansan wa shizuka ni tsuzuku
nani ka o nugasu you ni

mou sorosoro kuchi o tojite
wakariaeteru ka dou ka no kotae wa
tanun doko ni mo nai
sore nara karada o yoseau dake de mo

yasashii mono wa totemo kowai kara
naite shimau anata wa yasashii kara
dare ni mo kizu ga tsukanai you ni to hitori de nante odoranaide
dou ka atashi to warutsu o

kono fuyu ga owaru goro ni wa
kootta toritachi mo tokezu ni ochiru
fuan de tobenai mama
ato dore dake arukeru no darou
kitto anata wa sekai no hate e de mo
yuku to iu no darou
subete no ondo o furiharainagara
 

ushinau toki ga itsu ka kuru koto mo
shitte iru no anata wa kanashii hodo
sore demo naze ikiyou to suru no nani mo shinjirarenai kuse ni
sonna sabishii kitai de

yasashii mono wa totemo kowai kara
naite shimau anata wa yasashii kara
dare nimo kizu ga tsukanai you ni to hitori de nante odoranaide
fushigi na honoo ni yakarete iru no nara

koe o agete namae o yonde
ichido dake de mo sore ga saigo de mo
dare ni mo kizu ga tsukanai you ni to hitori de nante odoranaide
soshite atashi to warutsu o
douka atashi to warutsu o

translation

The clock has stopped
A strange dinner goes on in silence
As if stripping something
Shut your mouth now
The answer to whether we understand each other or not
Probably is not anywhere
If so, we only huddle the bodies together, but…

What is tender is very frightening,
So I cry, as you are tender
Do not dance alone so that you do not hurt anyone
Somehow, a waltz with me…

When this winter is about to end
Frozen birds die without thawing
Unable to fly because of anxiety
I wonder how long we will be able to walk on
Surely that to the ends of the earth
You will walk, you will say
While shaking off all the temperature

That the time to lose will also come
You know, and you are sad
Why do you still choose to live, though believing nothing,
With such lonesome hopes?

What is tender is very frightening,
So I cry, as you are tender
Do not dance alone so that you do not hurt anyone,
If you are burnt by a mysterious flame

Raise your voice, call by the name,
Even just once, even if it is the last time
Do not dance alone so that you do not hurt anyone,
And then, a waltz with me…
Somehow, a waltz with me…

lyrics translation. 'The Cross' by Honda Minako - my humble attempts to share the meaning of the songs I like

previously I was sharing this kind of stuff in Google+, but I somehow started to feel 'tis wrong
the matter is, providing only the lyrics I wrote down is not enough - what the use? those who speak Japanese can do it themselves, those who do not are doomed to be unable to understand. translations are obviously necessary. however, the ultimate purpose of the translation is to make others like the song I happen to like - and what's the use, again, if they are still unable to read the lyrics? therefore, romaji version is also necessary
however, posting the Japanese lyrics, the Romaji lyrics and the translation seems to be a bit unwieldy for a Google+ post. and I embarked on searching if sharing Blogger posts is not possible in Google+
yaay, 'tis!
and I beg your pardon for such an introduction. let me sum up the work I have done so far

The cross ~ 愛の十字架 (ai no juujika) by 本田 美奈子 (Honda Minako)
lyrics

あなたと初めて会ったその日から
普通の自分を失った
何か特別な不思議な力に
心を奪われ引かれていたわ
Cross in the shadow
あなた以外は見えなくて
Cross in the shadow
瞳の中に愛の十字架

知らないどこかで生まれたときから
二人の星座は決まってた
いつか見たような予感に気付いて
どうにもならない別れにおびえた

Cross in the shadow
あなた以外は愛せない
Cross in the shadow
遠い記憶に眠る十字架

マリアになれない マリアになれない
この胸の悲しみをどうぞ許して

Cross in the shadow
あなた以外は愛せない
Cross in the shadow
あれほど誰か愛せない

Cross in the shadow
あなた以外は愛せない
Cross in the shadow
遠い記憶に眠る十字架

Cross in the shadow
Cross in the shadow
Cross in the shadow

translation

Since the day I met you for the first time
I have lost my usual self
By a special mysterious force
My heart was stolen and charmed

Cross in the shadow
Unable to see anything but you
Cross in the shadow
The cross of love in the eyes

Since the birth somewhere in an unknown place
There appeared a constellation of the two of us
I noticed the premonition that was just like one I have already seen
And I became afraid of the parting which I could not possibly prevent

Cross in the shadow
I do not love anyone but you
Cross in the shadow
The cross sleeping in distant memories

I cannot become Mary, I cannot become Mary
Please forgive me the sadness in my heart

Cross in the shadow
I do not love anyone but you
Cross in the shadow
I do not love anyone as much as you

Cross in the shadow
I do not love anyone but you
Cross in the shadow
The cross sleeping in distant memories


Cross in the shadow
Cross in the shadow
Cross in the shadow

and still, I am pathetic

to start, I should once more say that my utmost desire is to get to Tokyo performance of 'Edward VIII / Misty Station'. oh, stop... is it?
pitying myself, crying almost aloud while listening to heartbreaking songs, tearing apart my pillow and biting my lower lip - that is all that I managed to do during this month
what makes my sorrow even more bitter is the fact that I realize the current state of the situation, and still do nothing. my inner self is obviously hoping that I finally give up and do without what I feel I want more than anything in my life. this sentence itself sounds odd, does it not? oh yes, I am odd to the extent I am surprised at myself. my other side goes on whispering me I should be content with what I have already seen, as many overseas fans have never watched even a single performance in Japan themselves, and I have seen two. this side also adds that I have really made everything I could and this world does not exist to grant our wishes every time we state them. however, no matter how much those thoughts try to creep into my mind, I shall never believe that side and my consciousness will never acknowledge them, letting me lie to myself
what is true is that without a single attempt to find something currently beyond my reach I was killing time every day while I should be striving to do just something. all that I could was to ask two people to do a favour for me, almost sure they would do this, though they obviously owe nothing to me. oh, I even tried to get a low-payed job twice, it was very brave of me, eh? BTW, both proved to be an epic fail
oh, and there is another fact that makes me even more pathetic. the fact that I do realize that I have no right to complain about all this according to the genereal logic, common sense, society expectations and - the most important - my personal convictions
in the end, I should make the only possible conclusion - if I am this uncapable of doing anything, it means, I am not that willing to go there. if I were, I would have already provided myself with a hundred of chances and opportunities. therefore, I need not cry this much, I need not listen to those sad songs, I need not hug myself in hysteria and dream that I am the most unhappy person in the world
I need not do all this. and what I do is feel as if I wanted to disappear, vanish, fade away. I have experienced many kinds of depression, including sadness, despair, tire, the state when nothing makes you look into the fiture with hope and smile... and now it is all wrong, I am alive, I have appetite, I watch films and read book, I sleep and get up, I think of what I should present my friends on their birthdays and how to pack their presents, I read articles about politics and funny quotations, I check recent photos and news of the world around me as if I were concerned and involved, and everything seems usual and normal. but then I go to bed in the evening and I feel that I want to disappear right now, right here, which is completely not the same as wanting to die, or feeling sad, or unsatisfied, or depressed. 'tis not when you want some bad event not to happen, or something unpleasant to finish, 'tis not when you ask for strength or patience to go through an ordeal of which you are already tired, 'tis not when you want to reconceal with somebody, nor that you wait for someone to come and comfort you. 'tis even not that you want nothing and feel empty. that emptiness is endurable and completely curable, it only needs some inspiration and some refreshment in your life
and what I feel is a complete hopelessness and horror, because unlike the previous cases you do not know what to do at all... and thus you became unable not only to feel happy or at least comfortable, but to choose anything at all - life or death, cry or laugh, give up or go on
perhaps, this is called どうにもならない

28 January 2012

my humble opinion on 'Anna Karenina' by Snow Troupe (2001)

this time I deliberately chose a play 'I have nothing to do with'. I mean, there were no siennas I knew well (except for Ouki-san who played a minor role so that I did not see her very much), and the plot did not appeal to me at all

the plot
I do not like Tolstoy and I am not for a minute ashamed I have never read the book itself. the main plot seems to be the type I dislike - something is happening and a lot of things are happening but there is no general line and no comprehensive conclusion, which makes me think in the end if there was any sense in the plot itself. on the other hand, 'tis not the slice of life one can enjoy slowly by admiring every single moment of what one sees. in such cases there is only one thing for me to do...
the story of the main characters did not move me at all, as I could never understand where the love came from and how it happened, and when the characters only keep repeating that they felt some unknown force or that the feeling was so strange they could not understand themselves themselves (how do I put it clearly? when a person cannot understand his own self, that is what I was trying to say...) - I cannot help disbelieving them. the same disbelief followed me through the developments, considering all the further milestones which only made me like 'eh?' and nothing else. nobody could actually decide what he feels, and I could not see where those feeling came from. confessions, quarrels, refusals and making up, deliberate partings and meetings... all in a mess, and I wonder if a mess should impress me that much? what made my impression even more bitter was the fact my lovely Aono-sama portrayed the same woman... my heart was only crying 'nooooo' all the time...
in such a case when the main story presents no interest for me, all that is left for me is to find a 'supporting' character, a minor one who seems to be interesting/attractive/touching/... and follow his story, sympathizing with him and worrying for him every time he is on stage, literally or figuratively

characters and playing
this time 'twas Levin-san. both the character himself and Tatsuki-san were very touching and cute, though I may suppose 'twas Tatsuki-san who made him THAT cute...
BTW, what made me ROFL was the moment when Levin was told by the ladies at the ball that he was sexy. yes, 'twas the way I said and I am not mistaken ^.^
the problem is, loan words in Japanese are apt to go far from their origin, and those ladies using the 'sekushii' word were not impolite, and it did not sound unacceptable in Japanese, but if the word is a loan word, what other translation can be given for it in a dictionary, except for the original one? of couse, if you check Jap-Eng dictionary, it will tell you those ladies told Levin he was sexy, and the moment you imagine the real ball in the real Russia of the 19th century and noble ladies telling a noble young aristo that he is sexy........ you ROFL, do you not?
surprisingly, Asami-san was not for a moment as great as I expected her to be. well, I am not telling all the truth by saying I expected her to be only great. there was something in her image that made me think she might turn out to be the type I do not like, but I hoped - yes, 'tis the proper word, I believe - hoped that she would still be great. and what a disappointment, she was not
of course, 'tis my humble opinion that she was not, as she might be quite enough for someone, but I prefer when an actor/ress can show everything that he/she feels with all the means he/she has. and Asami-san was only doing it with her voice, but nothing was written on her face, nothing was ever exposed by her gestures or movements, to say nothing of look
perhaps, I am even wrong in saying about her voice. no, she was not doing anything special, she was simply singing as usual, and it turned out that her singing ability is great, but I could not see she put her feelings into singing. it sounded as if her voice was separate from herself, judging by the way she looked while singing. and that made me feel awkward... and that is not good >___<
there were, though, some interesting moments which literally opened a new way to enjoy Zuka performances for me. the dance which was to create an impression that the guys were riding horses was a real creation of a genius, so beautifully the obstacles jumping and high speed riding were intertwined with usual dancing movements. another interesting invention was the following scene where Karenin is singing about his wife and all the other characters are moving as if they were shown in a slow speed motion, but then both the speed of movements goes faster and the music tempo also increases. that was a marvellous trick which was marvellously performed
we are possibly used to seeing the Top Musumeyaku cry in the end for her lost love/killed husband/... but here is another case - we have, well, not the Top Star literally, but the main otokoyaku crying. that was unusual for me... though I cannot say 'twas a successful attempt...
what was also unsuccessful is the duet of Asami-san and Konno-san. while playing was so-so, their dancing together never looked like a pair dancing, they were always so separate, so obviously trying to escape each other... o_O well, that is not their fault, is it? of course, actors/resses should play together with whoever they are told to, but it might be that those two were not meant to be a combi, eh?
as for the future Yuki Top, Otozuki-san was not very impressing, though she did her job and that might be ok... well, that should be... and of course, seeing her this much (I mean, in such a minor role) is not enough to spot her outstanding qualities that led her to the top...

music
another dance which impressed me was the pair dance of Anna and Vronsky when in Italy, but the reason was not the way of dancing, but a rare arrangement of the melody which was done for harp as a leading instrument. this half-silent half-present piece was an outstanding one, really
however, this calmness and slowness of the music irritated me, coupled with the dark mood and plain repeated parts

the ending
was of course done in the Zukish way, or in a Japanese way, I daresay. though a tragedy, the last words that were emphasized were Anna's thoughts from the diary about how wonderful 'tis to love, etc etc. of course, the common sense and general morale is also present in the last words of the other characters, and we have a typical 'wiseman' - wisewoman, to be precise, who tells us that we must live on and that the ball will start this evening again, implying that the circle of life is unstoppable
well, those kinds of consolating words before closing the curtain never impressed me much, and this time I only said my sceptical 'fie'. no use to try to make me put up with such a story by ending it with some high-flown talk

in general
'tis a great performance, with every element present necessary in a performance to make it great. and I did not like it at all. well, I am in no way regretful about the last 2 hours, but watching performances like this never make me any happier, never inspire me or give me any energy to move in my own life. and you might have noticed that I cannot enjoy something that has no such effect. however, being objective as I am, I should admit this performance is destined for theatre lovers, who care for another things than I do

26 January 2012

shall I ever be able to watch western musicals again?

being so impressed with SP I became eager to listen to the songs in the original. some of them were good, some of them were not, but the only conclusion I have made - I have no wish to listen to the original songs from the Broadway
the next musical I compared was 'Romeo and Juliette'. 'twas not deliberate comparison, I just wanted to check what musical is the sourse of the beautiful 'aimer' sung by Honda-san in her 'kokoro o komete' album
my surprise was indefinite when I realized I do not like the original 'aimer' even a bit. just no moment, no single moment in the song impressed me. then I remembered of the Zuka version and was surprised again that I do not remember the Zuka's version of 'aimer'. well, of course I could not, as the first act was cut severely by someone who glued together the first and the second act, and all that was left in the second was an instrumental variation with some two lines sung by the characters
then I remembered of another song I loved when I first heard it in the Russian version - 'les rois du monde'. I checked the original version and >___< again
what is wonderful - or strange, perhaps - though I did not like the Zuka's 'Romeo and Juliette' in the whole, I cannot still enjoy the western originals of the musicals I watched by Zuka. if I take the singing separately - I cannot blame the actors for singing badly, if I speak of the costumes or decorations - oh, they might seem awkward, but are they not awkward in Zuka? well, I wanted to name the manner of playing as the primary reason, but when I tried to look closely at the actors, I saw they are doing their best and portraying all the feelings with all their might
the problem is, everything is ok when taken separately. and when 'tis put together it makes nonsense. I do not believe in the feelings of the characters, I do not hear those feelings in what they sing, I do not see those feelings in the way they behave on stage, I just cannot enjoy the performance at all, as 'tis a performance, a simple performance where everyone is pretending to be what they are supposed to be
when I heard Zuka fans saying they could really forget they are watching a play and they felt themselves a part of the performance, I sometimes could not help thinking it was a nice phrase and nothing else. and I heard it a lot - from my friend whom I thank for taking me to Zuka twice, from the fans in the web, and from the hosts of 'Tokyo eye' which I mentioned in my post yesterday. however, I can not help joining those who say that after I compared some of the musicals scenes. Zuka offers us a chance to see a story of real lives, even though I might dislike the performance in the whole. in those lives people act and feel, and we feel that they do. moreover, they interact and 'interfeel'. now that I noticed this I can state there is a significant lack of interaction in all the western musicals I have seen so far, not just the two I mentioned. there is an unchangeable fact that I noticed how Takarasiennes look at each other on stage - that is, every single word of theirs is supported by their eyes and the lines of their face, how minor roles players look when something important is happening - concerned and affected, though they could do nothing considering themselves as unimportant actresses who are not obliged to act when they are not in the 'center spot'. I did notice holding hands, looking back when being called by name, arm graspings, hugs and kisses, simply walking side by side or dancing in a passionate rhythm. I did notice that Takarasiennes are always present on stage and conscious of what they do, though they might have to move and sing and act simultaneously. this is what the Western actors cannot do that brilliantly, as far as I can judge now
Takarasiennes are living on stage, and we, those who watch, are living together with them
_____
p. s. what is even more strange... I like the Russian version of the 'les rois...' much more than the original. how can it be???

and now I am VERY angry

I could not expect it would affect me that badly... the process of mediaservers being shut down

oh yes, there are dozens of servers which are still alive, etc. will ye be so kind to explain that to the owners and uploaders of websites whose links are already dead so they need to reupload all the files again?
what pisses me off is that the files I wanted to download - the albums of Tane-san - were uploaded only a month ago, a single month ago, and I have been so spare all this month and I could download those files thousands of times if I only knew... yes, the most important thing is that my intuition, my ability to envisage and predict failed me, and I am the only one to blame that I am a loser
oh yes, a sore loser who longed so much for particular albumes and spent so many hours in disc shops in Osaka vainly trying to find a trace of my favourite Japanese musicians...
oh yes, there are some albums available on amazon and other sites which sell disks. have ye tried to check the price? the lowest one is 30 dollars, to say nothing of shipping
oh yes, I hate this world which maketh it impossible to obtain a thing ye love with all your heart
oh yes, impossible, because there are so many things that require your attention, but the price of every item is so high that ye need to choose which one ye can afford, and which one can wait, and the most bitter part of it is the moment when ye understand that ye cannot afford even a tenth part of what ye love, and what ye cannot afford will not wait for you much longer, so that ye will be perhaps never ever able to obtain it, even if ye struggle hard to be able to afford it once
if I could only be that heartless lawer who is opposing piracy. he is obviously ok with buying the latest album of Beyonce once in a year. I believe he is, otherwise he would be able to see beyond his nose and realize there are people wishing for something more, something rare, something of quality, and those people are not living in a megapolis with thousands of discs available at every corner
I hate ye, who force mediaservers to shut down
I hate ye, who make our lives deprived of the artworks we need so badly
some time in the future... if only I could avenge...

25 January 2012

Moon Top Combi retirement - translations from the official web-site

somehow I have forgotten to translate the main part of the info considering my beloved Top Combi retirement. I wonder why... I can only suppose it took me a long time to finish the translations from the web-newspapers, so when I finished, I was so happy that I did not check what was ready and what was no
this time I would like to translate the articles which obviously provide the best imformation. well, I daresay they do, as they are from the official web-site...
let me start with Aono-sama




On November, 11th (Tuesday), there was held a press-conference dedicated to the announcement of Moon Troupe Top Female-role Player Aono Yuki retiring after the musical 'Edward VIII' ~The Love that Cost Him the Crown~, and brilliant stage 'Misty Station' (Takarazuka Grand Theatre: from February, 3rd, till March, 5th, 2012, Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre: from March, 23rd, till April, 22nd)

Kobayashi Kouichi (board chairman of Takarazuka Revue)
'After she was transferred to the Moon Troupe to become the Top Female-role player, the true strength she cultivated before blossomed at once, so I think she became a magnificent Top Female-player for us. The Top Combi with Kiriya Hiromu was extraordinately perfect and splendid, so I think, she is an outstanding talent who supported the Moon Troupe and Takarazuka Revue. Until she, whom I described now, graduates on April, 22nd, next year, on the closing day of the Tokyo performance, I humbly beg you to bestow her with your support, so that she shines even more'

Aono Yuki
'On April, 22nd, next year I shall have your permission to graduate from Takarazuka. I want to keep doing my best on the stage until the closing day of the performance, so I humbly beg your support till the end'

Some details which led to the decision to retire? 
'After I was granted with the position of Top Female-role player, I was thinking about the time to retire vaguely, and when I heard of mrs Kiriya retiring, I decided I would like to retire the same time'

something from Kiriya?
'She said to me 'Let us keep training until the last performance the way we did before, in our style''

Any plans after the graduation? 
'I am absolutely not thinking of anything particular. I am absorbed in training with all my might, so when I settle down [after the graduation], I think it would be good if somewhen the time comes when I am able to think over'

The greatest reminiscence about the life in Takarazuka?
'After I was enrolled, I did not have any big dream, but I had a lot of smaller ones, like that I wanted to try this kind of thing. Among them, I was wishing I could participate in a performance abroad, and I remember distinctively the fact that on the 2nd year (the performance in Korea in 2005) I had the permission to participate in such performance'

The role which became a turning point?
'Performing 'Anna Karenina' was the time when I changed as a performer, and as a person, and I am grateful from my very heart that I was bestowed with the role of Anna in that period and timing'
_____
well, I believe this translation to be a little better than the previous ones as I have gained some experience (is it not?), but its content frustrates me. does she really consider her trip abroad and Anna's part the greatest achievements? I am a bit disappointed

interesting links again, and my humble opinion - Iwasaki Yoshimi

while listening to her early songs I could feel the same lightness and sweetness of the music of the 70s and early 80s. that seemed to be a disadvantage to me at first, but the next day I thought it might prove to be a good point if used for other purposes - as a background for reading, for example. I gave it a try and I was very happy to have done that. excellent accompaniment!
the thing which puzzled me was the song called 'graduation photo' - I was constantly aware of the fact I had already heard it somewhere. searching for a file named 'sotsugyou shashin' with Google Desktop led to nothing, searching the same phrase in the web only revealed that only a lazy Japanese singer did not produce a song with such a name. therefore, I had to 'strain my brain' and try to recall the song itself one more time. this attempt proved to be successful and finally I found the source of my problem - the song by Yumi Matsutoya, of the same name. the reason why Google Desktop did not help me consisted in the fact the file was named in Japanese, not in Romaji. needless to say, I was quite happy after my unpleasant puzzlement was gone
in general, Hiromi is the type of singers who mature with time, and whose early songs savour of the first steps in the music world and constant searching for the perfect style, thus being unable to distinguish what is really worth singing and what would better be refused. the later albums of hers are much better, a little more serious and sophisticated, or how shall I call it...
the truth is, the same was with Yamaguchi-san, as the first albums of hers I literally skipped, and started somewhere from the middle of her discography
and the later ones sound differently so that I hardly recognize the same singer in them
therefore, I cannot say I love Hiromi's work wholeheartedly, but I would certainly recommend her songs to lovers of this kind of retro, that is - 70s and 80s

trying to remember... ~ I saw a fragment of 'Dance Romanesque' unintentionally

I have already described my first Takarazuka experience to some of my friends, which had the interesting coincidence, that the performance I got to watch was exactly that of the Moon Troupe, whose Top Combi seemed to be the most interesting judging by their photos on the English version of the official website
therefore, I can not say I do not remember my meeting with the Takarazuka world or something like this. however, while remembering it quite distinctively I did not recall anything apart from the facts. namely, I did not try to remember the feelings I had as of July-August, 2011
by chance I happened to see the same official photos recently, and by chance the Tokyo Eye hosts were visiting 'The Man from Algiers' in their recent programme, and both encounters were not deliberate ones
the feelings I have now that I've seen excerpts from the performance which was my first one are tearing my heart apart. even scenes from 'Dance Romanesque' do not arise the same feelings, as I watched it twice, and the second time I was watching it, I was already much more '詳しい', that is - I was already lovesick with Takarazuka and knew some basic things about it
watching other performances and TV programmes is nothing equal, as I see exactly what I see and what is even more important - I am prepared to see what I see. watching 'The Man...' was so different...
what is the most interesting, is that seeing the scenes from 'The Man...' hath a double effect. not only I see the faces and costumes and the stuff clearly, but also I see the performance with the eyes of a 詳しい person, a person who is into Zuka and knows quite a few things about what it tastes like
these two effects made me remember my first visit to Takarazuka so distinctively. knowing nothing about the whole concept, having seen no stage photos, having heard no songs, and nevertheless calmly accepting the fact that Zuka is an all-female theatre - I wonder what I looked like...
nothing of the show shocked me or surprised me. no decorations, no costumes, no manner of acting or singing. I was feeling as if everything was on its place, and everything was as I expected it to be. of course, I noticed that the decorations were splendid, and the dresses were richly embroidered, etc. still, 'twas the beauty which was surely to be there, and however hard I try to remember, I cannot say I was feeling that the performance exceeded my expectations
oh no, I have already told a lie. of course it exceeded myy expectations in a positive way, it impressed me and delighted me greatly. I can prove it with both my feelings after the performance ended - those were feeling of sadness with the time having passed by so quickly, and with the facts - could I become a Zuka fan if my first experience was unsuccessful?
what I meant to say is... I feel like there was something within me, something in my souls that led me to going to Zuka, perhaps, that something was already pushing me towards this wonderful world before I realized it. I mean, my strong wish to watch the performance was the very signal that I am ready to start my Zuka journey. now that I tried to remember the developments of last summer, I can vaguely remember me noticing the opportunity of going to Zuka a little ahead of seeing the poster on Hankyu station. that 'little' seems to have been enough for me to become quite determined, but not enough to provide myself with a significant background
why? well, I did not have a lot of free time, and I was occupied with 'kaichou wa maid-sama', and I did not think I would be able to visit Takarazuka as my first friend did not response to my mentioning my wish to go there, and the other one I did not expect to have any interest as well
in the end, 'twas the sudden crush and its consequences that led me to watching the programme I named, and the only fact I am wondering about right now is - why now, why half a year after...
oh, now there is another thing to ponder on. is everyone the same as me when they see some scenes from the performance that was their first?

24 January 2012

my humble opinion on 'Bartender' anime OST

I have mentioned already that I liked the music in the anime a lot. however, 'tis worthy of a better explanation
the first merit of the OST is its diversity. while the 'theme' of the OST is obviously jazz, there are melodies of  all possible types in the collection. we have energetic pieces, as well as sleepy ones, we have ones created as manifestations of bliss, some remind us of waltz or march, some create vivid images, and what not
moreover, though the piano is present in every piece, there are a lot of other instruments participating, and this fact maketh the compositions different, and still united
another trend which I like very much whenever I come across such a phenomenon is creation of similar pieces by the author. f. e. 'highball' and 'bartender (piano session)' are variations on the OP theme, the 'hajimari no hito (piano session)' speaketh for itself, and 'Kir Royal' is a kind of a slower and sad version of 'million dollar'. meseems I could find some more, but there are a lot of them, so it probably taketh time
as a conclusion, I should simply say thanks to Ohtani-san and all the performers who brought the beautiful album to soothe my soul

Kiriya Hiromu, Aono Yuki memorial - a thing I shall never be able to see

after the performances on the closing day and the previous one, there will be held the so-called 'sayonara shows', the performances to say goodbye to Kiriya-sama and Aono-sama
I do not believe in the stereotypes to the utmos, so I shall not say that 'tis my 'european logic' that led me to the false conclusion, but this is precilesy what happened: I counted the amount of seets in Takarazuka Grand Theatre plus Tokyo Theatre, multiplied it by two - as there will be two 'sayonara' performances in each of them, and the result proved to be close to 9 thousand. not for a moment I was imagining that fan clubs of Kiriya-sama and Aono-sama can reach 9000 people, and all of them should be present on the exact days of the 'farewell shows'. however, my friend nipped in the bud my attempts to dream of watching one of that shows in the audience, telling me that a usual procedure of buying a ticket on those days should be impossible. I could not believe her at first, but then I read about the lottery and understood that oh yeah, we are having some troubles with obtaining a ticket to the 'sayonara shows'. ye can judge yourselves, is it all right when B-seats and standing tickets, and also approximately 500 seats in !Bow Hall! are sold only to those who received lucky lottery tickets after standing in a queue from 8 AM? why Bow Hall? oh, I can tell you. the amount of people willing to watch the performance exceeds the amount of seats in the main theatre, so that the rest should go to Bow Hall and watch the performance on a large screen there
well, as for me... I could watch it even with a standing ticket. 'tis all right, completely...
the link I would like to share today is the link to the 'Kiriya Hiromu, Aono Yuki memorial'. as for now it only lists th previous performances of our lovely couple, but it is to be filled with photos and 'scenes introduction' - what exactly there will be, we can only guess

23 January 2012

I ADORE GOOGLE

some years ago we were discussing with that Google should exceed simple text search and upgrade so that it could search for any kind of media among any kind of media. this happened upon hearing the news that Google is going to enable searching for a particular phrase which is present in a video on youtube, be it a part of some speech or a line from a song's lyrics
'twas approximately the same period when I was an active forums and web-sites explorer in search for animes to watch and music to listen. as it always happeneth, while looking for something particular, one can find a lot of irrelevant but interesting stuff. thus, two or three years ago I found several pictures which successfully arosed my curiosity and left me with nothing, as I had no clue what fandom they were related to. I tried asking friends and looking through the websites of their origin, but having found nothing that could lead me to the way how to obtain something close or similar, I gave up the idea, calming myself with the thought that my brilliant intuition would someday lead me to encountering those fandoms again, if only there were something worthy of being found by me in them
so I paid no heed to the .jpg files on my desktop for a long period of time until the present day
it happened quite accidentally, though it hath great consequences
I was searching for pictures of a certain animal named 'momonga' and I had to copy the name of the image I already received from my friend to the searchbox. instead of pressing the usual ctrl+c, ctrl+v, I tried to drag the text into the window. to the great surprise of mine I saw the searchbox change its shape and invite me friendly to insert a picture there, not text. my eyes wide open, I tried to do as it said, and I received an unexpected result. the result was me realizing that Google hath already enabled the search by images, not only text. when and how it happened is left for me to guess, and the strongest irritation of mine is that me, who loveth Google deeply and who hath written a report on this company just three month ago, never heard of this function to be introduced. that is a pity >_____<
apart from that disappointment of myself with myself, I have nothing to complain of. and I am sincerely happy that the function I have longed for since the very first time I failed to know about the image I was interested in, is finally at work
hey, Google may have a lot of shortcomings, but it fascinateth us as well, eh?

17 January 2012

my humble opinion - 'Bartender'

I shall speak of the anime now, as I decided to watch the dorama after anime in order to be acquainted with the 'original' spirit of 'Bartender'. well, of course the most original one is the manga, but I do feel the anime is even more beautiful

seiyuus
are perfect. the low and tender voice of the narrator, the pleasant intonations of the bartender, the sweet and expressive voices of the girls and slow, calm ones of the older bartenders, they impressed me so much that I would be happy if there were twice as much episodes in 'Bartender', just to listen to their dialogues, discussions and commentaries a little longer. sometimes I realized I was not reading the subtitles, as the speech was quite slow, the words were so comprehensible, and the manner of speaking so warm that I simply lost myself in the depth of the series

the music
was perfect as well. the jazzy feeling followed every episode, and do ye know how many kinds of jazzy melodies can a talented composer come up with? energetic opening, calm background melodies contributing to the atmosphere of the 'Eden hall', sad motives encompassing the flashbacks of a hard past, a gentle but strong ending... a lot of piano alone and a lot of piano coupled with other instruments, a lot of inprovisations and variations, not too plain to go unnoticed, but never sounding odd

the story
to be precise, there are a lot of stories, those of every customer who came to 'Eden hall'. we also get to know Ryu's story a little. every of them quite sad and revealing the cruelty of the world we live in, but every of them ending in a bartender finding a way to support his guest with a nice beverage, giving hope and strength to move on again. I was constantly wondering if there are at least one such person in the world who cares for his customers, unknown to him people, strangers... finally I came to the conclusion that the world of anime is cruel, giving us an impression that the world is full of such tender nice people who put their souls into what they do to bring happiness to other people. 'tis a fairytale, is it not?

graphics
while having obvious problems with people, their faces and sometimes clothes, the studio is great in other details which totally redeem for the mistakes they have made
first, the bottles. they are so vivd and beautiful that I was doubting if they were not simply cut out from photos of the real ones. of course they were painted ones, even if the photos were used on the initial stages, but the result was impressing - no, 'twas shocking
all the other kitchen stuff, glasses, spoons, shackers, whatever was the same. perfect and beautiful, I could watch them for ages
another things that went well were the static pictures in the beginning of every episode, apparently created to resemble art-nouveau, as well as pictures shown while some of the bartenders were speaking of some beverage background, or the narrator was telling some story. the ones I remember especially well are the 'Old Man and the Sea' and the story about some monastery in France

'osusume'
that is how I would call this anime. a great, unique piece, so calm and soothing, so very bright by its mood while so subdued the light was in the bar. well, of course 'tis not for fanservice lovers unable to enjoy a sophisticated alcohol drink slowly sipping it to taste all its beauty... I mean, this anime is not for those who cannot appreciate the slow narration of a 'slice of life' story

15 January 2012

a big shock... or something like this

checking the roles of Takano Urara-sama I suddenly noticed her having voiced Monkey D., Luffy from a pilot episode. I sighed with relief when I saw she was not voicing him anymore after the pilot, but then...
the seiyuu of Monkey turned out to be Tanaka Mayumi-sama... >____<
moreover, the company responsible for that stuff is Toei...
well... everybody maketh mistakes, haha *awkward laugh*

14 January 2012

my humble opinion on 'Tamayura ~hitotose~'

would be strange if I did not say anything about the TV series, though they are simply the continuation of the OAV

everything is precisely the same, so I would like to mention only the things that changed

the music
changed, but what did not change is my feeling of being bored and a strong desire to skip OPEDS or play them on a 3x speed. well, Maaya's singing improved a bit, that is laudable, but not enough to make me love the songs. the background music is also not very impressive
though 'tis not mentioned in WA which I use to refer, the song 'yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara' in 'Hitotose' was not by Maaya, but by marble, both the voice and the arrangement

the food
no, it did not change very much, but it became a nice habit of them to show a new dessert every time the girls go to the Tamayura Cafe. they really do aim to kill me by the means of my own appetite...

the characters
probably 'tis wrong to say they changed, but I changed my perception of them. in comparison with Akari, Fuu seemeth to be much more shy and introverted, and Sayomi is vice versa more open and free to do anything she liketh, though she is the same gentle and caring girl as Alicia. I wonder if their TIMs are also different...

the funny elements
increased a bit. what I love especially is the puns on the famous phrase about the sponsors
'kono bangumi wa goran no sponsaa no teikyou de ookuri itashiMOUshita' or 'itashiMOSSHA~' while there is nothing written on the screen
'kono bangumi wa *whistle*'
what I have forgotten to mention while writing about the OAV is the Norie's obsession with Kou. though some may thing she is into something dirty, that doth not seem to be that way. I do admit Japanese children are cute, though I hate children usually
and though I am not able to fully appreciate the jokes of Dougo, I was a kind of sympathizing with him, wishing him a happy end concerning Hoboro owner line
the comments of Maon were also very cute, as I could recognize my own silly fantasies in Maon's absurdish suggestions

the points I dislike
'twas the he episode 6 when I understood that 'twas a little bit too much. the exaggerated feeling of awkwardness, crying and laughing when there is nothing really sad or cool, unnatural behaviour and false emotions - sometimes I was noticing them and that spoilt me the impression of the anime in the whole
taking the 6th episode as an example:
Fuu sayeth Maon that her story seemed interesting - a mere beginning of a fairy-tale. is it only me who cannot appreciate the splendidness of it?
a girl trying to whistle when seeing some girls crying - not only trying but doing it with all her might. that doth not seem quite appropriate to me
girls stopped crying and applause to a girl who just learnt how to whistle. is it such a great achievement when a person can whistle? or is it so difficult to learn?
the silly moments which are supposed to have a deep meaning and impress me greatly but fail to do that are spread throughout the series, instead they make me feel awkward. moreover, some characters piss me off while they were created to be cute and lively. I speak of Komachi, for example. an anime in general and this one in particular is not supposed to be like that, am I wrong?
again, comparing it with 'Aria' doth not make it seem better. Akari was clumsy - but never too clumsy to make someone of her surroundings feel uncomfortable, and of course we, the admirers of 'Aria', were not bothered by it anyway. Aika was an overly active girl, but she never causing too much trouble to the others. Alice was a shy and really introverted person, but put her near Maon - never that shy
though I thought the characters to be portrayed very distinctively, looking closer revealed that they are a little bit messed up and strange. while the types of everyone in 'Aria' were clear and understandable, thus creating a feeling of their adequacy, girls in 'Tamayura' are somewhat blurred. Fuu is a more introverted and being clumsy as Akari, her attitude towards her clumsiness seemeth to be much deeper. Aika's type seemeth to be divided between Kaoru and Norie, though they both are quite different from Aika, taken separately. and Maon is not alike Alice, as I've said. Alicia's features are only seen in Sayomi sometimes, mostly she is not that composed and serious. that is what I think of the main ones
in general the characters in 'Tamayura' seem to be less self-confident and simply weaker. as if they all need protection and soothing. actually, I cannot blame them for it - are there many of us who are not weak and waiting for someone to appear or something to occur? however, watching 'Aria' made me calm, and watching 'Tamayura' made me worry. that is why I could not simply relax and enjoy

the points I like
though too 'drawled', the series give us something to think of. the idea I like the most is the ticket with no destination which remindeth us that we decide the future ourselves and are free to change everything we want any time we want. 'tis truth and we should not let it to slip away
the same freedom is felt in minor moments, such as Norie's excitement when she heard about the plans of the girl in the photo studio to be the first to confess
I also loved those moments when the girls were freely saying what they feel, like that in case with Maon's parents when the girls were worried about Maon being made inherit the ryokan
another free expression of feelings was when they told how much they like/love each other, discussed their friendship or relations of other people like that of Komachi and Kou, Shihomi and Chimo, Chimo and her sempai. and no trace of dirty thoughts or unnecessary accents on the relationship. is it not great?

conclusion
there are a lot of simple but important things conveyed by this anime to us, however thee method of conveying may be sometimes a little messy and silly, slow and boring - so, be ready
refraining myself from being so carping, I cannot deny the obvious merit of the very fact that this anime exists, moreover, 'twas created in 2011, in the era of commercial hollow fluff which I believe is taking place now

I HATE GOOGLE

'tis the first time in my life that I say such cruel words, but 'tis the way I feel after learning that Google Desktop hath been discontinued since September. well, the installed one I have worketh as usual, but the development ceased to be, and we cannot even download the application from the official blog
one can never imagine how much I loved Desktop for its quiet work in the background that allowed me to find the necessary files on the computer at an instant. I even dreamt of creation of an OS based on the same principle - and that was the time when no one was thinking of it
what I wanted to emphasize is that the argument why Desktop project was stopped sound like a complete nonsense
'moving to web-based applications' - what is it??? I do not give a damn if someone moved to a web-based application, but I do store tons of my favourite music and videos on my computer. oh, shall I move a terrabyte of media files to the web?
'shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing' - I am sorry, wha? where do I find that cloud-based computing??? I only dream of it, as I already mentioned above, as it appeared but 'tis not imbuing our computing right now!
'integration of Google Desktop functionality ... into most modern operating systems' - oh, really? should someone point me where 'tis integrated in my Win7, I shall be grateful

conclusion
I hate Google for discontinuing the project from the very bottom of my heart - unless they DO create a nice substitute. well, I imagine they do, but I strongly doubt it will reach me personally very soon. in this global world I am still living as an outcast in terms of new technologies

12 January 2012

my humble opinion on 'Tamayura' OAV

though I was going to watch this in December, I ended up having no free time in the end of the semester, and somehow I did not feel like watching it during the New Year holidays. 'twas yesterday when I realized I want to watch exactly this anime, slow and soothing

the first thing to be surprised
the episodes are so short that to make a usual OAV one we need to couple 1-2 and 3-4 ones

a 'disclaimer'
do not take this as a prejudice, but I am going to compare this anime with 'Aria'. constantly

seiyuus
though Hazuki-san and Oohara-san are present, they take supporting roles this times, and the main ones are given to young girls whom I simply hear for the first time. well, to be precise I know the names of Iguchi Yuka-chan and Asumi Kana-chan, as I heard one role of each of them, but those doth not count as serious ones, as they did not leave a lot of impression
and those young girls were pretty good, better than I could expect. they had their style and expressed quite the necessary image, I should say, they did understand what they were meant to do, and they were not boring to listen to
I should also mention Ogata-sama - she was unrecognizable >____< I mean, 'twas so unusual to hear her in the role of a middle-aged woman and a mother...
Matsuki Miyu-san and Nakata Jouji-san were also great. both of them had interesting voices and intonation, and the accent which their characters used was contributing to their overwhole cuteness
as for Hazuki-san, she was great. someone who doth not know her voice might notice no difference between the voices of the main company of cute girls and Shihomi's one, but I, who was waiting impatiently for Hazuki-san to appear, was very delighted. if we think of Fuu from 'Tamayura' and Akari from 'Aria', they are supposed to be of the same type - clumsy young girls, but friendly and cheerful. Shihomi therefore seemed to be the same as Alicia, something like a 'preceptor'. however, both the personality of Shihomi and her voice make her equal with Fuu, though older
and Oohara-san voiced a character of the same type as her 'Aria' one, as well. though 'tis a little strange to understand that Shihomi is if not older, than at least of the same age as Sayomi
the music
the OPED is awful. well, 'tis quite nice and 'tis nothing wrong when we have them framing such a calm anime, but hey, every OPED of 'Aria' was a masterpiece, and this two songs sound like there is nothing instead of them. no feeling, even the peaceful bliss or bright joy, which could be expected. btw, 'yasashisa' is a song by Matsutoya Yumi-san, and I would kill the person who gave it th Maaya as she doth not only sing worse than she did in 'Wolf's Rain', but she even soundeth like a very, VERY cheap pop girl
as for the background melodies, they are not much better. I cannot say they are bad, and they follow the general mood of the story, but Choro Club created a real compilation of masterpieces, while I can name no outstanding piece in 'Tamayura'

the plot, or the concept, better to say
is very good, no wars with aliens, no drama, no tension, nothing to disturb thy mind with a feeling of uneasiness
the views of a small Japanese town, the everyday trifles, the friendship of the girls and the help of every other person around them - 'tis very nice to see. however, 'tis all we have. though 'tis very good to relax, 'Aria' was also intriguing and surprising. sometimes I miss it

kawaii element detected!
Momoneko....... incredibly cute and cheering up even a 3-month-depressed person like me. again, Momoneko's role here is the same as that of cats in 'Aria'

food
is a big love of HAL and Sato-san. food is portrayed for us to go crazy every time 'tis shown. food in Tamayura is killing me the same way it did in 'Aria'...

the graphics
HAL is HAL. HAL is full of specialists both in moving and static objects with a perfect knowledge of composition and colouring fully applied in creation of the photos frequently shown in the episodes, as well as drawing of funny elements, such as Momoneko or girls' SD (superdeformed, if someone doth not know) faces. and the style is lovely, too, the shapes and the outline and whatever is simply superb

conclusion
though the music is a little too plain, the anime is a great example of a slice of life series which is not dull and doth not leave that usual impression that thou simply killed some time watching the piece
I am looking forward to watching the TV

11 January 2012

another big pic - Ryuu Masaki personal book 2010 cover

I am very slow but I finished another pic from Amazon, which can be previewed, but not in the full size
this one was very difficult to make, as the background is white and the suit is beige, and there are a lot of places where the colour almost doth not change, so I had nothing to make my 'landmark', therefore I had to place a  new square, then check the left one, the right one and the upper one, then I moved one of them and all the others began to seem to be on the wrong place, and the same problem with every new square (and there were almost 30 of them as far as I remember)
well, I am complainig too much about the work I volunteered to do...
here ye art


my humble opinion on 'The Glow of Sunset in Asuka' by Moon Troupe (2004)

Zuka can heal us. I was already aware that I can easily be consoled by watching an anime, but Zuka's performances have even a greater effect on depressions

the most important fact
yaaay! I watched a show without Kiriya-sama in it!
'tis a big achievement for me, who is alsmost unable to tear off Kiriya-sama's performances and watch something different
actually, 'twas my initial intention, to watch the first performance I find in my Zuka folder, and accidentally I clicked on 'The Glow'. when I realized 'twas a Moon performance I thought 'twas my fate, to see Kiriya-sama again, but she did not turn up in the cast. I still wonder why... was she too busy with her dinner show? o.O

singing
a surprise. though not a good one, not a bad one, simply I was surprised with Ayaki-sama's voice, as I supposed her to have another kind of voice
Emi-san's voice was also a nice one to listen to. a 'warm' one, but also a sweet one, not too soft and not too piercing, which is good. not an outstanding one, which is not really bad, but not an advantage, too

acting
I chose Sena-sama's version to watch, as Oozora-sama is obviously not my preference, and Takashiro-san is simply unknown for me (and I have no will to get acquainted with her). now I even regret about it, as Sena-sama in the beginning was too cute for an 'evil' character
another important thing I realized, I love young siennas playing children. it began when I saw Reika-chan playing prince Louis Charles in SP. I was fond of young prince by Mira-chan in 'Prince of the Land of Roses'. I enjoyed the children version of Holly and Becky in 'Studio 54', and also those chidren in the orphanage. each time of that I did not realize I like the whole concept, I thought I liked that particular scene. now I can firmly state I love scenes envolving children characters. and this time we had Mirio playing the main character in his childhood. ohhhh, Mirio, thou wert a cute little girl once... I do not mean, she is not cute anymore, I mean she grew up, and her ken already exceedeth the 'junior' 7 level, and the young boys and girls are played by the next generation now
actually, I cannot name anything interesting about acting this time. 'twas not bad, but 'twas not outstanding. what I can remember from the performance is only the cry of Emi-san in the end and her following monologue about the happiness of a peaceful life with Karatsukuri that was already lost for her - that was impressing. I do think that siennas are great in showing the deep despair, which can consist in both loud sobbing and quiet shedding tears
as for the others, 'twas credible enough, but nothing special about them. I cannot even praise Sena-sana or Oozora-sama, as they showed nothing interesting during the play. everything was of high quality, but average at the same time. as for me, I prefer when people exceed themselves and do something out of their range every time. as Kiriya-sama said, 'tis no show if there is no challenge for a sienna

summary
the biggest advantge of the show is that, 'tis a Japanese one, with a story about Japan, with music, dance and songs being very close to the ancient Japanese ones. I would be happy to watch something Japanese sitting in the audience sometime. however, I cannot name any other attractive points of this particular performance. oh, I forgot, there are masochists among us (no offence guys, in my point of veiw ye art masochists...) who like tragedies - 'tis obviously a story for them, as it proveth one more time how cruel people can be out of jealosy - but let me be honest, 'tis no surprise, is it? and the way 'twas showed presenteth nothing unique to catch my eye
well, a nice thing to broaden our minds and kill some time

09 January 2012

impressions of the FNS 2011

the complete concert can be easily found in the web, so providing the vid/link doth not seem necessary for me

actually, it might seem to be a big contradiction to what I said yesterday. me watching the recent music festival full of pop(ular) performers??? have I not just claimed to have no interest in them?
however, this is a completely different case. yep, 'tis not a justification or attempt to convince myself I am sinless. 'tis the truth, and there are some reasons to explain this fact
 I was not told by anyone that there exists such a festival, and I did not hear any discussions etc (where could I? I never check anything connected with the Japanese pop scene life), so I was not for a moment tempted to watch it
what led me to watching the show was Zuka. I was so naive to think that there is nothing except for a short song by Ayaka and two stars. how can a Top Star miss such an event? no way! however, the Ayaka's part was cut out and free for downloading as a separate vid, and the next two songs were not. that is why I had to download the whole concert
while I had to download it I did not have to watch it. and I did not. however, I felt there might me something interesting, so I looked through it (playing the performances of those whom I was indifferent for in a 3.00x speed), since I have already downloaded it
and there turned out to be a few interesting things

Ashida Mana-chan
when I see such kids I wonder what would happen with them in the future. she is a real star right now, but what next? she might get tired very soon, or she might turn out to be a bad actress when she groweth up... that is the worst scenario that can happen, and though I wish it never doth, I am simply afraid it might
three girls and one man
the girls are Nakagawa Shouko and miwa and Aikawa Nanase-san. the man is the director/creator/idk who - but he let them stand on one stage - not simply stand but sing together. even if I am biased with my hatred for Shouko for her previous performances, this time her 'lack of talent' was simply obvious. when we, the audience, hear a line sung by Shouko/miwa and a line sung by Aikawa-san we can compare the true uniqueness and the miserable 'imitators' the same moment - and there is only one conclusion we can make, and that conclusion is not in favour of those two. why should they cover such great songs? I wonder. I wonder how they dare to cover famous masterpieces, and even more, dare to do this together with the original performer. they are both cute enough so they might enjoy a good career like that of Horie-chan, etc. they might sing nice songs made for themselves - and be quite happy. 'tis for sure, none of their fans careth for their voice, as they have none - oh, 'twas rude. they have some semblance of a voice, the same as several hundred millions other Japanese average girls scoring 80% at the nearby karaoke club. I mean, whatever they sing, there would be people to love them simply for their images, their styles - a cute almost-loli and a schooler with a guitar is what we see this time. compare even the styles of the two songs, as thou hast a good chance, they follow one another very quickly. do they think they understand the 90s rock style? the song of a former bosouzoku idol? the hymn of a free youth crying with all their might? or maybe I am wrong in my impression of Aikawa-san and these features are not describing her? however that may be, every time Aikawa-san was singing I was admiring, and every time she did not I was closing my ears not to hear what was happening. even looking on her was a pleasure, so cool she was in her 'shorts suite' and so musical her movements were, showing both a stylish approach and the level of her feeling what she doth on stage
WaT and some unknown guys
yeah, idk them. and have no intention to get to know them. and btw, I care nothing about this particular song of those two sweet guys, as I simply almost hate most part of their discography
Iwasaki Hiromi-san
I wondered why her voice sounded a little familiar to me, and then I checked her name in Google - to understand I have already listened to some songs by her younger sister, Yoshimi-san. both of them worth of respect, and their singing should be an example to guide by the younger generation. and Ayaka-chan was quite a good choice to become a duet with Hiromi-san
Tokunaga Hideaki-san
I saw him for the first time, and I was able to listen to the 'kowarekake no radio' in the 'original', as I only heard the cover on the '14 covers - Takarazuka otokouta' album. that was nice. shall I mention ATSUSHI spoiling the whole song making it sound too pop?
SPEED and AKB48
heey, I somehow happened to listen to AKB girls singing line by line. 'twas awful, even more disgusting than I expected. they simply were unable to reach the high notes of the songs, while the SPEED girls were singing it as something quite usual ROFL
'maru maru mori mori'
was cute again (of course) - and very indicative, as the kids were obviously unable to sing in such smooth voices while doing very swift movements. heeey, they are doing a lip-synch!
btw, SKE&AKB
were doing the same, were they not? both as their movements were also unsuitable for singing, and as their voices were too pure in comparison with the live singing together with SPEED
'donna toki mo'
was the same as 'radio' - I heard the Zuka cover first, and now I heard another cover by Koichi Domoto and ... which was ugly, btw, as both of them did not sing the right notes at all..... >___<
Hirai Ken-san
at first I disliked him, but when he was singing with Yakushimaru Hiroko, I really appreciated his high and flexible voice
finally I arrive at Zuka's part
while 'ohisama' is already described by me as a very unsuccessful piece of Ayaka-chan (both for her own voice and Zuka's girls), the other songs are also worthy of mentioning
Oozora-sama was enjoying herself of the opposite stage with Masayuki Suzuki-san. actually both the song and the state of Oozora-sama's voice did not impress me... the only interesting moment in the whole show was when 'guys' from Ayaka's stage somehow managed to run round the hall and come to the back part of Oozora-sama's stage
the song with Makihara Noriyuki was again very plain and boring. it made me even more sleepy that I was at half past four in the morning
of course, a gentleman should not leave his better half when he leaveth for a party. or, should I say - a gentleotokoyaku? well, Nono was also present, though her part was to shine with her white dress on the stage and raise her hand in the end together with everybody else. oh, she had one line to sing - how generous of the show directors. hmmmm, doth that mean she singeth so badly no one was willing to give her any longer musical phrase? just joking, no offense. to tell the truth, I was unable to judge about her singing this time (yep, even I was - whom it usually taketh very little to judge about anything)
Condors dancing with Go Hiromi-san
'tis nice to see adult guys in school uniform fooling around on the stage
Arashi's
performance was poor. much worse than one could expect. while KAT-TUN and NEWS are also boys-band of the same kind, they can sing at least, am I wrong? at the same time, we have Hakase Tarou-san performing with them...
T. M. Revolution
was nice to hear, despite him being no young boy. Asakura Daisuke was really cool both for his playing piano and for his white hair. and Gekidan Suzaku was also a very entertaining thing, and I feel sorry for them being so infamous outside Japan, as I could not spot any info in English on them in the web
w-inds
performance was bad. a pop song might be ok, but a pop voice of the soloist is no good, as 'twas meant to be different... or so I thought when hearing their 'paradox' several years ago (oh... not several... almost 7 years ago >___<)
SMAP
another bad discovery. how could I listen to their single 'dangan fighter' and even enjoy it? such a great company of awful voices

summary
a lot of great musicians and singers on the same stage as untalented and boring idols. a complete waste of time in general,


_____
somehow after checking the info about those performing on FNS, I ended up checking other singers as well. one of them was Honda Minako-san. never knew her life was so short, as I never noticed there were two dates describing her, not only the birth one. after a failed attempt to recall where I have heard her name I checked world-art.ru to understand she was the brilliant performer of 'lullaby' from Rayearth. though 'lullaby' itself seemed nothing great, the b-side 'kono uta o for you' is one of my favourite songs ever, and Minako-san's voice is showing all its might in the last chorus of that song. meseems, I have found the next performer to get acquainted with! ^.^

08 January 2012

my litthe thoughts - a discourse with myself aloud

is it me growing to an adult, or hath Takarazuka really changed my life?

the reason why I am thinking over that stuff right now is that, while looking through an anime-dedicated website I suddenly felt myself BORED. in other words, I felt precisely NO interest to the topics discussed and issues risen
the difference between the former me and the me as I am now was traced very simply
after I looked at some cosplay photos I was for no moment interested in what the cosplayed fandom is, or who the characters are
after I looked at huge collections of pics I was not excited by their diversity and did not urge myself to download and watch/read something because of them
after I encountered some names of Japanese bands or performers I was not even surprised I do not know them
after I saw some handsome guys I had not a trace of a will to get to know them
after I saw some cute girls I was never thinking of their possible life background
...and the list could be prolonged considerably, but I feel this is enough

though I was never the type which falleth for the outer appearance of things, I can admit now, that I was subject to the cheap tricks of anime/manga creators, the thing which is called FANSERVICE. I was even thinking I could be able to watch/read something only because of the fanservice elements presence. was I really able? 
of course, not. I felt no satisfaction after following the friendly inviting sweet covers, and finding nothing inside. however, the invitation was so strong... the invitation consisting partially of the bright appearance of those 'pieces of art', and partially of the fact that everyone knoweth/watcheth/readeth that damn thing and I do not...
in general, 'tis not as if I was a fanservice-lover and suddenly I change everything to the opposite. 'tis just that I was feeling a particular interest for that, and now I am not
in other words, the former me was suppressing the will to respond to those fanservice things - as me knew it would lead to no good and I would be eventually disappointed with it. and the me now hath no need to suppress anything - as if I accepted the inevitable and realized I do not have to follow the others and be aware of everything and be an expert even in the things I dislike

that is how I ended up indifferent for the things I was feeling bothered with for quite a long time

and the answer on the question above is - BOTH
the process of rejecting my former line of behaviour might be considered a natural one but I am pretty sure Takarazuka helped me in it. Takarazuka showed up in my life exactly when I needed it, needed something new to compare, something adorable to feel passionate for, and something very sophisticated to 'upgrade' my own tastes
moreover, Takarazuka taught me to admire different things. I can enjoy the things that I simply disliked before, I can listen to songs and look at pictures and watch videos that were 'not my type', and though I cannot love them even now, I can find their own good points, their 魅力, their charm, and I do acknowledge their value, even if they still do not inspire me
of course, Takarazuka itself is not the reason, but after I was so obsessed with it for half a year, paying no attention to the former objects of interest of mine, I became able to feel the difference between the two worlds much keener
though the fanservice elements will certainly stay a significant part of my reasoning when I choose what to watch/read, the only fanservice I shall pay attention to from now on will be my own system of preferences
after all, becoming an adult is such a good thing, whatever they say. instead of adopting the social norms, I only gain the courage to ignore them. instead of obtaining a burden, I only learn to become free. finally, I am aiming to become the true me
doth it sound strange? I fear it doth... the truth is, a child is much more subject to copying others and also he feeleth obliged to do what he is awaited to - for the reason, he is a tabula rasa (did I spell it right?) where no one misseth a chance to write something
and my 20th birthday was so great. the moment I was sitting with my teacher preparing for the speech contest I suddenly realized how free I am. obliged to no one, bound by nothing
suddenly felt that for the first time in my life I really do not give a damn about the others, not just pretending to do that
was it a coincidence, that I became an adult in one moment, and that was precisely my 20th birthday?

...of course 'twas. I do not believe in any superstitious things or prophecies

my humble opinion: Bakemonogatari

there is a good way to describe something applying analyses and without boring explanations. 'tis naming good points and bad points one after another. shall I try to use it?

the animation itself
will anyone argue that SHAFT is great in terms of animation? I doubt...
a good point - both the moving parts and the static views were created for us to enjoy. the colours are vivid, and the scenes are psychedelic enough to make us stare with all our might. white silhouettes instead of furniture or some everyday life objects, strange shapes and angles, just everything one may need to get lost in an artificial word
a bad point - someone might get tired with such a concept. 'tis obviously not for admirers of nature, pastel colours etc (I am not one of them, so I was never tired though)

the music
a bad point - the theme songs are utterly boring. hearing them for the first time I thought they were pretty good, but the key point is - first time. first time is good, but the second time I heard the melody I was already fed up with it. moreover, 'twas such a waste of seiyuus' voices... we have brilliant Saitou-san, Sawashiro-chan, Horie-chan, and others whom I do not happen to have heard earlier, but the voices are pretty good. what spoileth them is the music itself - spoileth by giving them no chance to show their beauty, or cuteness - better to say. the only one that had an interesting part was the theme song of Nadeko ('de mo sore ja dame' line was good). I should say I was especially disappointed in supercell - why so plain? both the melody and the girl's voice. a free indie band should have something more than that...
a good point - the back melodies were great, again - psychedelic, but very nice, always following the mood of the psychedelic images, and sometimes even making the anime more psychedelic than it could be. however, 'tis not the kind of ost I would listen to as a separate piece

the seiyuus' work
a good point - as I already mentioned, we have a whole company of good girls this time
a bad point - they would not consider voicing these characters as one of their best works. obviously... nothing special, nothing memorable, and I even did not recognize them at once - I speak of Horie-chan, Saitou-san and Sawashiro-chan, though I have heard them already in other works
a good point - there were nice lines in the script which were quite funny and the intonation was also contributing to the impression of those parts
a bad point - apart from those funny lines, most of other seiyuus were quite plain and some of the main characters were a kind of epic fail... Araragi and Oshino, for example, were created as quite distinguishing characters, but their seiyuus spoiled everything, especially Oshino's one. but that' already the next paragraph

the characters
so, a good point - Oshino was really meant to be a 'cool, and he knows he is cool' guy type. the same as Sanosuke from RK or Onizuka, for example.
a bad point - what a disappointment, his seiyuu sounded as if he was chosen out of a crowd of amateurs because his former seiyuu's heel was itching and he could not come to work... I want to say, the seiyuu completely ruined the image, though he did his best, obviously
a good or a bad point, I cannot even decide, but Araragi is that typical UJS - usual Japanese schooler, as we call them. of course, he is a vampire partially, so he could not be a UJS precisely, but his behaviour and his 'type' is certainly the UJS one. and that is not my type, so I was simpy enjoying him shouting funny things from time to time. as for his striving to help everyone - that was cool, but I could not appreciate it very much actually... somehow I just did not. I would prescribe it to the manner of the storytelling
the good point - the girls were much more interesting. a harem, but not the usual one, though the types are quite usual. all of them are cute and have their own nice/funny/adorable points
the bad point - none of them was the one I could really like from the very bottom of my heart. at first, Hitagi seemed to be the one, as I loved her swiftness and determination, but to my surprise I got tired with her very soon, and I was not amused very much with her teasing Araragi. I also liked Tsubasa at the beginning of the first episode, as I tend to like calm 'supporting' characters - supporting in terms of their importance in the story, as opposed to the main ones. however, she turned up to be more important than a supporting one, and less attractive than I expected her to be. 'twas not that I was disappointed with her 'problem' in the Tsubasa Cat chapter, but I simply lost the impressing point of hers. finally the one whom I sympathized the most turned out to be Kambaru, though come to think of it - and there is nothing special about her I could take as an advantage

the plot itself
as I plan to end in a good point, I shall start with the bad one - the plot itself is not the plot at all, too illogical and separated - in terms of separation not only into chapters, but also separation of the events. somehow it feeleth as if a lot of things are omitted and we never understand how the things developed while we were 'absent'. moreover, the overall impression is somewhat mixed, so stating that the plot is gorgeous would be a big lie
but the good point - though I have much to complain of, I did not drop the series, and moreover, while my 初心 (I have learnt the word two days ago and I have just recalled of it unintentionally) - my initial intention was to watch 5 episodes a day in order to while away the time before the 2nd episode of Sherlock is aired - as I had precisely three days to wait - I ended up watching 13 episodes in one day. the first ones were passing like an instant. several times the episode ended I was thinking 'tis the break for commercial which is usually dividing the episode in two parts. this meaneth, I was waiting for the episode to last two times longer. no, I am wrong, I was waiting for the episode to develop two times slower - better to say, two times less absorbing. even taking into account I was absolutely bored and I have not watched anything since July, a bad anime just doth not do that, doth not have that effect of making thou stare at the screen without noticing time pass

therefore, the conclusion is
a stylish thing with every element possible being unique - maybe excluding seiyuus only. a nice thing, though not a masterpiece, entertaining and interesting. at least, 'tis good to have such a thing in 2009, where almost all the animes have already become the 'conveyor' type
_____
forgot to mention... beware of ecchi - nothing harmful (even I could endure it), but there is some