Anoice

This feels nice.

Junji Ito - Lovesick Dead

Undying love or Lovesick Dead, whatever you want to call it is a pretty much overlooked work by Junji Ito. I think it's overlooked because most people who eventually find this somewhere they have already read the popular ones and are thus let down by this one. Is it bad? No. It's definitely not horrible or bad. Ok, maybe the scanning could be better but that does not mean you can't enjoy the story. I'd say it's good, not as great as is Uzumaki but still good.

In this work Junji Ito explores the urban legends and superstition. The story takes place in a small port town in Japan. Nothing special about it, ordinary people, ordinary happenings but the teenagers in this town have their own special little game. The game goes something like this: you wait on a foggy day on a street, cover your face with something so that people can't recognize you and ask the first person who goes by to tell you your future and then leave. Childish little game but soon events start to take off in an interesting way because it is rumored that a handsome young boy goes around town telling future to other teens but those futures aren't so bright and they die in *seven dayssssss*. Ok not seven days, but they die; a hideous death. :D

That would be a somehow crude explanation of the plot. Of course there are also main protagonists and much more in depth plot twists but everything seems to focus on that game and that mysterious boy. How will it all end? Well it's up to you to find out. ;P

Art like in many other Junji Itos mangas is amazing. Especially the facial features. There are good scares in every chapter of the story and it won't let you down in that department. The only real downside is that this isn't scanned very well. By this I mean that the scans aren't in a large or medium sized resolution which sometimes damages the overall enjoyment of the reading but it's not that terrible so that it should be avoided. The resolution is usually 500x700 (give or take smaller changes). If you can get pass that minus I'm sure you'll love it as much as you loved his other works.

Download.

I cought a deer...

... with my camera today during my usual walk through the woods. :P

Click the image to superenlarge it.

Toshio Maeda - Ogre Hunting

Ah here's something that does not require a brain to read. :D This is just some pure old school beast smashing fun. It has women with big boobies, tough guys, bad beasts and lots of action. Just what a no brainer needs. They are all put together nicely so you won't get bored (assuming you didn't get this for the sake of story). It's kinda like those thrash horror movies from the nineties. Except this one has huge ogres that eat people and rip them apart among other things.

The art is pretty much the same as is in his other work that previously posted.
Download.

Bill Evans Trio - Moon Beams

You know those lonely nights when you sit in a bar, staring down in an empty glass? Then a few steps away you barely see from all the cigar smoke three people playing. One sits on a piano, one on a bass and one on drums. They play a sad melody as if it came right out of some noir film and you relax with deep introspection.

Yeah, this album is pretty much like that. The legendary Bill Evans trio! It was formed by one of the most influential pianists of our time. Evans’ focus in this trio was jazz standards and original compositions, with an emphasis on interplay among the band members that often bordered on collective improvisation and blurred the line between soloist and accompanist. A truly marvelous work of art. Sometimes it's smooth and cool and sometimes it's fiery and non melodic. Just what jazz needs. Just what I need for my hangover. :P

Tracklist:

01. Re: Person I Knew
02. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
03. I Fall in Love Too Easily
04. Stairway to the Stars
05. If You Could See Me Now
06. It Might as Well Be Spring
07. In Love in Vain
08. Very Early

Get.

My Little Airport - because i was too nervous at that time

A recent band that's hip among the in (indie) crowd.

The music is very simple, not much instruments. Some broken down synths, guitar and drum machine (me thinks) followed by a gentle female voice. It actually sounds very nice in that little simple form. Surprisingly they come from China. I never thought the Peoples party allows such capitalist western music to influence their people. :P But oh well, capitalist or not it sounds good. They also sing mostly in English, which is kinda cool.

Tracklist:

01. Gi Gi Leung is dead
02. I don't know how to download good av like Iris does
03. I was too nervous at that time
04. Song of depression
05. Take me as Rucheng Zhang
06. Bai Tian shopping center
07. Leo, are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?
08. Your smile is like a flower
09. Spring is in carriage
10. My little fish
On monday, I don't want to go to schooooooolllll.

You can get their other album here.

Kanno Yoshihiro - Angel's Egg Soundtrack

Wow. When I first saw this anime I wasn't sure what I just watched all I knew is that something like this will not happen again very soon in anime world. Sometimes you just make something for your own well being and for your own soul. It is ones view on religion and his relation with it. To me that is the most accurate description of this anime. Naturally the screenwriter never made any public explanations of this anime. Written by Mamoru Oshii and coupled with Yoshitaka Amanos superb animation and amazing architecture and background drawings this little deviant child that was made in 1985 is perhaps my most favorite anime of all times along with Cowboy Bebop.

Just like the anime the soundtrack is also amazingly done. It sounds like a huge mechanical god that screams in orchestral and choir music. Chilling and eerie which fits perfectly with the scenery of the anime. It sounds so surreal that it feels like a dream, especially when you listen it at night, like myself. :D Therefore I offer you to listen this wondrous sounds of somehow sad beauty. Perhaps you'll like it as much as I do.


Download. (flac)

It amazes me.

Whoa. :O

Uploading some more stuff. It will be ready tomorrow. ^_^

Fun facts!

I was browsing through my mediafire accounts and here are some fun facts that I noticed.

Hiroaki Samura - Hitodenashi no Koi was downloaded 2276 times.
Hell Season, guro compilation was downloaded 1470 times.
Uziga Waita - Modern Stories of the Bizarre was downloaded 1186 times.

Someone is leaking my links. >:D

Actually there isn't a guro story that has been downloaded less than a hundred times.

For comparison here are music downloads:

Howl's Moving Caste soundtrack was downloaded 894 times.
Tonari No Totoro soundtrack was downloaded 554 times.
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See was downloaded 532 times.

In conclusion: THIS BLOG IS FULL OF WEEABOOS

Benkyo Tamaoki - Tokyo Akazukin (Tokyo Red Hood)

Once upon a time there was a loli in Tokyo. This loli was known only by the name Red Hood. This little loli had only one goal, to be eaten by a wolf.

That's pretty much the basic story of this manga. :S

In a more detailed fashion of explaining this isn't full frontal guro, sadly. Yes - there is explicit violence and yes there is nudity but it is not grotesque. It lacks that disgusting part. I don't know; maybe I'm getting too much used to guro but to me everything here looks pretty and stylish. Kinda childish really. Nevertheless this is still an fully enjoyable read. Packed with violence, action and weird characters this 4 volume story rides you through Tokyo underground filled with cannibalistic desires, butchers, demons and stuff like that. The story is pretty much straightforward once you realize what is it about. Personally I think it's brought to the end quite abruptly, I guess deadline did its thing to the author so he left some things half finished. The art is fairly normal for a manga. Not too little and not too much details, a little big eyes, lots of blood etc. If you went through one shonen manga you should know what to expect from the art.

Get.

Escape the Day - Ghostless

Escape the Day was a post-rock band from Berlin, Germany formed in 2003, which took influence from acoustic and ambient music. Its unreleased album “Ghostless” (2005) was put on hold due to the suicide of band member Christoph Florian Rehse (1979-2005). In 2005 Escape the Day has stopped its activity and is forever dedicated to the love and memory of Florian. Escape the Day’s work was described as “Great music for lonely walks, hangovers or just falling asleep.”

Well that's what last.fm says anyway. The album somehow got leaked and it surely is a lovely post rock experience. Nothing grand or genre defining but it's pretty and sad. Mostly sad. There's also singing and it fits in; surprisingly.

Tracklist:

01. Hallways
02. Ghostless
03. Days
04. The Hour Undone
05. If I Told You
06. Still
07. This Wave's Length
08. Last Words
Download.

Visit semi-official site for lyrics etc.

Anzai Mizumaru - A Train at the End of Summer

I wouldn't really call this a manga. It has nothing to with the standard japanese comics. The art, the characters, the dialogue, everything. It's so different from the usual stuff that I wouldn't really call this a manga if I didn't know the name of the artist. This more like a visual poetry than a story. It's beautiful yet sad and the drawing is minimalistic. There’s a touch of the sadness that comes at the end of summer, the transition into cold and quiet. It feels heavy with undertones. Every word seems deliberate and filled with meaning.
Download.

asobi seksu - acoustic at olympic studios

Hoho here's something really pretty. I'm not sure if this is legit or bootleg but the sound quality despite being a live album is superb. The crowd sounds (I think) have been cut out so it pretty much sounds like a studio album which is great because people would ruin the atmosphere of this wonderful album.

This is basically most catchy songs by Asobi Seksu played with an acoustic arrangement. So it's just guitar, voice and some other instruments here and there. Sounds lovely and relaxing, so if o you can't sleep or something, get this. :D

Tracklist:

01. Breathe Into Glass
02. Walk On The Moon
03. Meh No Mae
04. New Years
05. Blind Little Rain
06. Urusai Tori
07. Suzanne
08. Gliss
09. Familiar Light
10. Thursday
Download.

Leonard Bernstein - What Is Jazz?

Leonard Bernstein is a popular music composer and a music conductor. This isn't actually music that I'm going to post. What Is Jazz? is sort of an album that explores the world of jazz. Basically Leonard explains how jazz became, the song structures of jazz and what makes jazz, jazz. I personally find this very interesting because it's not the usual run of the mill introductions etc. It's also more focused on early hot jazz and swing which is especially interesting to listen because it's not mentioned a lot these days.

In any case, if you like jazz give this a listen. You might learn something new, or not. >:|
Download.

Observation on certain anime trends

This post will be a rant, of sort, kinda like what normal bloggers do. It does not contain any links so skip this if you came here for downloading; you strange person. It's also about anime so you might as well skip it if you aren't into it or if you hate it then read it because it will supply you munition for insulting nerds like me.

During my short summer break I did some experimenting. My anime taste (yes this is relevant to the subject) is somewhat centered to shows that are usually focused on adult audience or so called seinen series. So for that reason I tried to watch just the opposite of the usual things that would interest me. I started watching series that are more focused on younger ages and ones that are more light hearted. In short I watched comedy/slice of life type of things. From what I observed this seems to be the mainstream flow of series currently in USA and Japan (I'm a bit oblivious about the rest of the anime fan world outside the netsphere so excuse my bold statements). Watching these, to me new, shows made me notice one interesting thing. They all have the same female characters.

Now let us observe this statement. For starters let us take one of the paragons of mainstream anime which is of course Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya. The plot is focused around several high school students who are a part of an SOS club. For the purposes of the discussion I will not dig deep in the plot because I'm here more interested in the behavior of characters.

The have the following three main female characters:

Haruhi
Mikuru
Yuki

Now these three characters have distinct personalities.

Haruhi is a tomboy character that is not exactly the brightest of the three but not completely idiotic either. Always energetic, molests other characters and has a fiery personality packed with a stubborn attitude.

Mikuru is what I usually call "let's be friends" slut. An innocent and shy person that will always accept everything that is thrown at her. Usually in hentai they are the ones that do all the weird shit. She is also insecure of her abilities, always apologizes and is always voice acted by someone who has a high pitched voice. She also blushes a lot.

Yuki (which means snow if I remember right) is a cold and calm person. Doesn't talk a lot and usually acts very rational and is the common sense of the group. She isn't very social but is dragged along by her friends which she met mostly by accident.

So these three characters along with Kyon and that other guy that I always forget the name have adventures and they have their own club etc. I took this anime as the main example because I believe that by now pretty much everyone who visit the net more than three times a week have heard of this show.

Now let us take another anime of similar if not the same genre if we exclude the supernatural. It's not as popular as is Haruhi but it's something along those lines.

It's called Minami-Ke. The story is focused on three sisters who live in one apartment alone. They are all in schools. One is in elementary, one in middle school and one in high school.



The three characters are:

Kana
Haruka
Chiaki

Kana is a tomboy character that is not exactly the brightest of the three but not completely idiotic either. Always energetic, molests other characters and has a fiery personality packed with a stubborn attitude.

Haruka is an innocent and shy person that will always accept everything that is thrown at her. She is also insecure of her abilities, always apologizes and she also blushes a lot.

Chiaki is a cold and calm person. Doesn't talk a lot and usually acts very rational and is the common sense of the group. She isn't very social but is dragged along by her friends which she met mostly by accident.

As you can see I pretty much did a copy paste job and if you watched these shows I'm positive you would agree with me that these character are similar and perhaps even the same. They have, very similar patterns of behavior. These three also have adventures along with some other random characters but let's face it they are the ones who drive the story just like in Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya with the exception of Kyon and supernatural elements. But I don't see Kyon that much on the net compared to the female characters from the show so I guess fans don't really drool about him.

So is minami-ke just a ripoff? Well let's take another show, K-ON!.

K-ON! is a story focused on four high school girls that have a band and lead some sort of music club.



The characters are:

Ritsu
Yui
Mio
Tsumugi

Ritsu is a tomboy character that is not exactly the brightest of the three but not completely idiotic either. Always energetic, molests other characters and has a fiery personality packed with a stubborn attitude.

Yui is an innocent and shy person that will always accept everything that is thrown at her. She is also insecure of her abilities, always apologizes and she blushes a lot.

Mio is a cold and calm person. Doesn't talk a lot and usually acts very rational and is the common sense of the group. She isn't very social but is dragged along by her friends which she met mostly by accident.

Tsumugi is the fourth part and it seems like she's some sort of Lucky Star mutation of multiple side characters from what I saw from watching both of the shows.

Restate my assumptions: One, Mathematics is the language of nature. Two, Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. Three: If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature. ;D

I think three examples are enough to state my point. These three types of characters seem to appear in so far all the animes that I watched from this genre (comedy/slice of life). I'm not mentioning Lucky Star because I haven't watched it except for only a couple of episodes but I have a feeling that I'll recognize such characters there as well. I also believe Kannagi has such character patterns as well. It seems to me that every time they make an anime such as this they make one fetish object for each type of fan. You can clearly see this when browsing anime and related forums. Every one of these characters will have a fan because those three types of females are the most common types that attract the masses. Some like calm ones, some like naive and innocent ones and some like the ones that are in control. To cater such needs people make animes like these. All this is great but the fact is people like these characters in reality can't nor do not exist.

It would be ok if the stories are good and everything but the more I watch such shows the more I have the feeling is that stories only serve as something like "HEY LOOK AT YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER IN THIS SITUATION. LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS AT WHAT SHE DOES. MOEMOEMOE". This reason is possibly why I like Azumanga Daioh the most from this bunch. It has all the mentioned above characters. Sasaki the calm one, Chiyo the cute and innocent and Tomo the wild one. There are more characters which are fractured into more smaller personalities. Osaka the confused one, Kagura the more serious version of Tomo and Koyomi the childish version of Sasaki. But there isn't any fanservice, the characters provide neat little fun and aren't portrayed as some fetish objects. They just are; dumb and plain for your entertainment. If you would combine all Azumanga Daioh characters into one you would get a normal whole person. :S It's like they take each personality that one person has and then make a character out of it.

In seinen shows things are a bit different. Observe:

Teenager in K-On!:

Teenager in Legend Of The Galactic Heroes:

Now which one of these two look like a 10 year old child? :D

Do you see the difference? Katerose von Kreutzer has all the personalities a person has AND SHE ALSO HAPPENS TO HAVE A FUCKING NOSE. She is calm and rational but at the same time she is also shy and playful when the situation for such emotions arise. She isn't cold and she isn't playful all the time, there is a balance. Something which characters from K-On, Minami Ke and so on seem to lack, for me they are not complete persons and I'm unable to understand nor relate to them. Another good example of a proper female complete character would be Faye from Cowboy Bebop. She is the femme fatale of the show but she also has her cold and playful side. There's a balance, she isn't always the same which helps people to relate with the character and make her more real and not just a fetish object.

So in conclusion I find characters from such comedy shows very shallow and I'm under the impression that they are made with the same formula. It seems like they only serve to fill in the imagination of the fans. I don't like that. It's not cute at all. ;( Or am I just watching the wrong shows?

In any case:

YOUR INSURANCES; SELL THEM TO ME. SELL ME YOUR INSURANCE

MURDER MY HUSBAND AND TAKE ME YOU BEAST

...

I'm bored. :S