Things Change

When I started this blog all that time ago, my fandom for AKB48 was likely at its highest point. At that time, I had been a fan for about a year or so I believe, and really, I felt like that I would be a huge fan for as long as the group was around.

Oh, how things change.

I now find myself and a point where, to put it bluntly, I just don’t give a frak about AKB48 anymore. Why you ask? Well, its a myriad of reasons really.

First up is the fact that the groups management seem unwilling to change whatsoever. The PV for the most recent single, Namida Suprise, was released recently, and while I haven’t watched it (and have no plans to whatsoever), I have seen some screens of it and read what fans have had to say about it. Its the same as every other AKB PV over the last little while, in that it focuses pretty much entirely on Maeda Atsuko, and is just plain uninteresting overall. This is one reason why I can no longer stand being a fan of AKB48, and its this constant need to feather Maeda in frakking EVERYTHING. Seriously, if this is the way every future PV is going to be, than that shows a complete unwillingness to change or even have some frakking variety in their group. Whats the point of having around 48 girls if your only ever going to prominently feature 1 of them? Its bullshit, thats what it is. And its not fair to the fans of other members as well. Also, I will never understand whats so damn interesting about Maeda Atusko. She’s not the best singer, she has a negative stage presence (not one where she stands out because of her abilities, but where she stands out because she always looks so fake and uninterested on stage) and its just not fair that those with far more talent that she is always pushed to the front while they are pushed far into the back. But it comes back to the whole variety thing. AKB48 would be a whole lot more interesting if they just focused on more girls, or switched it up for every PV or something. I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is that until this changes, it doesn’t matter if they sell massive amounts of CD’s or whatever, I won’t be coming back.

This also brings me to my second point; AKB48’s merchandising. Just a little while before I became a fan, pretty much everything AKb had to offer was released as normally as it should have been. You could buy their singles and DVD’s on the internet or in stores in Japan, just as you would expect. After the release of the H1 DVD, things changed for the worst. Now, the only thing AKb related you can buy regularily are their singles. The DVD’s are now really only released at the theater itself. Thats just bad marketing if you ask me. Now, only those who actually go to the theater can buy the DVD’s. It’s Not fair to those of us not in Japan, or even those in Japan who may not be able to get to the theater on a regular basis. The other thing that irks me is the fact that it now seems we’ll never get proper audio CD releases of AKB’s stages. Awhile back, they released the CD’s for Team A and K’s first 3 stages, and thats all we’ve gotten so far. Between then and now, we’ve gotten A4 and A5, K4 and K5, and B3 and B4, along with H1 and H2. So where the frak are the audio CD’s for these stages? Hell if I know. All I do know is, I don’t think they are ever going to be released.

The final reason would be that I am simply not liking much of their music much anymore. I just find their music lacking a certain something nowadays. Its just all getting kind of bland. I think I realized this after the dissapointment that was K5.

And don’t get me started on SKE48 or any of the other groups they may form int he future. They are a waste of time, and are getting WAY to much attention. I also don’t care for SKE invading AKb singles. Its about time they get their own so we don’t have to see that annoying little Jurina Matsui freaking everywhere AKB48 is. Seriously, I can’t stand her.

So that pretty much sums it up. As far as I am concerned, AKB48 is dead to me. Unless they come out with something that is just utterly fantastic, or they ditch Team’s A and K and just use Team B for everything, then I am officially done with them.

This does not mean the end of this blog though. Not by a longshot. I recent;y rekindled my love for the various Hello Project groups, especially Morning Musume. Their recent stuff has absolutely blown me away, especially their latest album. I’d like to do a review of that, so look forward to that. And of course there will likely be some new Gundam model reviews (and maybe some non-gundam models as well). Heck, I also might do some posts about my other addiction/pastime; World of Warcraft. There’s always some good stories to be told playing that game.

So I’m back, and I’m taking this blog in a new direction…sort of.

AKB48 Team K 5th Stage – Saka Agari

The other day, Team K began its anticipated 5th stage, and I say anticipated because everyone in the AKB48 fandom seemed to have this insane liking for K4 and was thinking that K5 could only continue the supposed awesomeness this stage began(not me in particular though, I personally thought K4 had far too many dud songs to be great overall), and I have to admit, I got sucked into the hype this time around. I mean, its a new AKB stage, how could I not get excited? But I did figure it couldn’t possibly compare to B4 in terms of awesomeness. I’ll always love Team B more than K or A, but K is far from average. They are awesome on so many levels, and I figured this stage would have to be better than K5.

Boy was I wrong.

However, before I get to the meat of my review, here’s the setlist for K5:

M1. tenohira
M2. saka agari
M3. hitei no REQUIEM
M4. sono ase wa uso wo tsukanai

M5. END ROLL (matsubara natsumi, umeda ayaka, oshima yuko, noro kayo)
M6. wagamama na nagareboshi (kobayashi kana, ono erena)
M7. ai no iro (miyazawa sae, masuda yuka, ohori megumi, ishida haruka, oku manami , chikano rina)
M8. dakishimeraretara (kuramochi asuka, kasai tomomi, satou natsuki)
M9. mushi no BALLAD (akimoto sayaka)

M10. furishite maneshite
M11. umi wo watare!
M12. machikado no PARTY

M13. FAN LETTER

EC1. fugiri
EC2. hanpa na ikemen

EC3.To be continued

For me, there is no easier way to describe this stage that this: Its boring. Plain and simple. While I didn’t completely enjoy K4 as a whole, it had a couple of really awesome rock songs. They were high energy songs that would really pump you up when you listened to them. It really gave Team K an upbeat, tough, rocker image.

Well, that feel is gone with K5, and a more mellow, yet boring and uninteresting image has been shifted into place for Team K. Most songs of this stage are generic, and uninspired. The energy that was present in a number of songs in previous K stages is gone, and replaced with what we see in this stage; something that is really just not that interesting overall.

That’s not to say I didn’t like any songs in K5. There were a couple of standouts with I thought were pretty good, and one I actually thought was particularly awesome.

The first song I found that was pretty good was Hitei no REQUIEM. Of all the songs in this stage, this was the only one that truly felt like a Team K song. Its got a great rock style. However, what makes this song particularly unique is what they do with the chorus. One group will start singing one part of the chorus, then afterward the other group will sing that same part while the lead group continues on. It makes for a really cool effect.

The next song I enjoyed was END ROLL. Its got a very slow temp to it, however it has a very latin-style dance feel to it. It truly is a unique song in comparison to other AKB48 songs.

I also really enjoyed Ai no Iro. Its one of the larger unit songs in AKB history, and it has a really great sound to it. I don’t really care for the fact that the unit is comprised of 6 members though, as that means not everyone gets their fair share of lines and are just relagated to being backdancers and whatnot.  However, the fact that my favorite Team K member Chikano RIna is in this unit automatically means this song is win…and it doesn’t help that the song by itself is just great.

The last song I enjoyed from this stage would be Sayaka’s solo song, Mushi no BALLAD. The whole prospect of Sayaka getting her own solo song was really exciting for me, however, I was initially turned away by the title.  I didn’t want another boring ballad, and Sayaka’s stellar vocals would be put to much better use in a very rock-style song. Thankfully, this song is no ordinary ballad. In fact, I would equate it to more of an 80’s style power ballad, like something akin to a Bon Jovi song or something like that. This is without a doubt my favorite song of the stage (and really, it had absolutely NO competition, considering the dribble it was up against in this stage). Sayaka really puts her best into this song, and just the whole song itself is awesome. The vocals, the beat, the pace of the song all combine to form one hell of a tune.

So yeah, out of 16 songs, those 4 were the only ones I thought worth mentioning. All in all, this stage is a bust for me overall. While it has a couple of exceptional standouts, the fact that the majority of songs are either boring or just plain generic really brings this stage down in my opinion. It doesn’t compare to its predecessor, and doesn’t even hold a candle to B4, which remains my dominant favourite of the current running stages.

So would I recommend checking out this stage. Not really. I would really recommend only checking out the ones I mentioned, but who knows, you might like some of the others. In my opinion, check out B4, A5 or even just keep listening to K4 instead. They are the superior stages.

Games and Gunpla

So first up for today are some recently announced Gunpla kits, ones I’ve been eagerly awaiting for awhile now:

- HG Arche Gundam – May release, 1,680 Yen (inclusive of tax).
- HG O Gundam – Release date & price TBA.
- HG Susanoo – July release, 1,260 Yen (inclusive of tax).

- HGUC Schuzrum Dias – May release
- MG G Armor – June release
- HGUC Hi-Nu – Release date TBA

(info from Ngee Khiong blog)

Of these new kits, All 3 of the OO ones and HGUC Hi Nu are the ones I’m very excited for. I”m defenitly glad they decided to release Susanoo over Masurao, as the Susanoo just looks better overall. I also wonder what colors the HG O Gundam will be in. I’m hoping for its RX-78-2  color scheme, though I honestly wouldn’t be disappointed if its in its Roll-out colors. HG Arche should also be pretty awesome as well, and it would go great alongside my HG Throne Zwei.

Now HGUC Hi-Nu has me very excited. Its been one of my favorite UC Gundams ever since I laid my eyes on it, and it will be nice to have a kit of it that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg like the fantastic looking MG. I also hope the HGUC retains the MG’s slimmer build. While I do like the original, I like the less bulky style of the MG better.

Now on to some other Gundam news, this time about video games. In a disappointing move, it seems the 0081 series I posted on earlier will not in fact be a series, but will in fact be a new Gundam video game for the PS3, called MS Gundam Battlefield Record U.C 0081. While I am disappointed that we won’t be getting a new UC series, the game does actually look pretty good. And its supposedly a game in the vein of Gundam Lost War Chronicles, which I’ve been told is a very well designed game. The reason I mention this is that Gundam games are not usually of the highest caliber, so hopefully this game turns out great.

In other Gundam game news, the sequel to Dynasty Warriors Gundam has been pushed back to next month. This sucks as it was supposed to be released in North American this weekend. Hopefully this is the last time they push it back.

Gundam 00 S2 Episodes 21, 22, 23.

Episode 21

In regards to deaths, this episode was full of them, Wang Liu Mei and Hong Long both meet their ends at the hands of Nena, though Nena meets her end thanks to Louise. I personally thought it was about time Nena suffered for what she did to Louise. And really, Nena deserved to die. There were no redeeming qualities about her, as she was just an evil person. However, Louise has finally realized that killing the person who murdered her parents isn’t going to magically bring them back, and its hit her quite hard. Saji is going to have his work cut out for him if he’s going to try and bring Louise back. This episode also starts another exciting battle between Graham and Setsuna. I say Graham because he’s seemingly returned to being Graham. Its also nice to see the Susanoo (formerly the Masurao) looking more like an Overflag.  However, the most interesting part about this episode is the revelation that Setsuna is becoming the first natural Innovator. You can almost draw a parallel between him and Louise, who is essentially an artificial Innovator. Because of that, she’s messed up quite a bit, yet Setsuna is perfectly normal. It will be interesting to see what happens in regards to this in the coming episodes.

Episode 22

A truly epic episode. This episodes contained one of OO’s best battles to date, with A-LAWS using an anti-beam field to severly restrict CB’s fighting potential. However, in the end they are saved by the combined might of Kataron, who really shine, and the Federation coup forces under the leadership of Kati. Because of this, A-LAWS is dealt a fatal blow, and is essentially all but defeated by the end. The only thing I didn’t care for was how quickly the battle between Setsuna and Graham was. Graham has been defeated, but I think he’s been shown the light, if you will. I defenitly think we’ll see him again as a changed man before the end. I did think it was fitting how the Susanoo was truly an Overflag, seeing as its head was simply an Overflag head with a mask over it (somewhat befitting Graham. He’s somewhat been unmasked by the end here, and the same happened to his MS) Of course, the bit shocker at the end is Ribbons being killed by Regine (who seems to truly have plans of his own), but we’ll have to wait and see.

Episode 23

As I expected, Ribbons was not truly dead. The Ribbons Regine shot was simply a clone or something, and now Regine is dead, thanks to Ali Al Sachez. The battle also continues as A-LAWS is essentially finished and the fight for VEDA has begun. Ribbons unveils his ship, the Celestial Being, and his army of clones and attacks the CB/Kataron/Coup forces relentlessly. The Gundams have also truly lost any advantage they had previously, as all of Ribbons forces have Trans-Am at their disposal. The final battle is going to be like nothing CB has ever experienced.  Some interesting matchups begin here. Ali and Lockon have engaged in battle, and really I think its fitting. Though Setsuna has his quams with Ali, he did kill Lyle’s brother, so Lyle has every reason to want him dead. Also, Setsuna/Saji countinue to fight against Louise and her seemingly unstoppable Regnant, while Tieria goes after Ribbons himself. The endgame has officially begun, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

J-Pop and K-Pop – A difference in Quality Control

This post is about something I’ve mulled about for some time know.

Now, everyone who visits here will know how much I love AKB48, and J-Pop in general, but most people don’t know that I have an equally strong like of K-Pop as well. That started about a little over a year ago, when I found out about the K-Pop group Girls Generation, which has now become quite the phenomenon. When I was getting into K-Pop was also around the time I was getting into AKB48, so I’ve liked both for an equal amount of time. Now, I love both J and K Pop just as equally, but I have begun to notice just how much more goes into making music in Korea.

Lets take a look into how groups are formed. AKB48, for instance has occasional auditions to find new Research Students, who will eventually have a chance at being put into one of the teams. Now, as far as I know, these auditions are open to anyone in Japan (as long as your a girl, obviously) and essentially if your chosen, you begin performing almost immediately, though obviously not on the same level as actual members. The RS’s backdance and do fill in for other members on occasion. Now, one thing I am unsure of is what training comes with being an RS, or even a full member, but as is apparent, you don’t have to have any formal training to audition. I expect they get some pretty lousy people audition, which brings to mind all those hilarious auditions you see every season in American Idol.

Now, what I’ve seen in the Korean music industry is quite different. Auditions are still present, but the training seems to be far more intense, almost to the point where it seems like a boot camp for the music industry. Lets take a look at SNSD (Girls Generation), before any of those girls actually debuted, they went through YEARS of training. Years. Some more so than others, but the one thing that is for sure is that these girls didn’t audition and then immediately start performing or pumping out singles and what not. For example, one of SNSD’s lead singers, Jessica, trained for over 7 years before debuting with the group. That’s devotion if you ask me. I don’t think any of the girls of AKB48 or Morning Musume can attest to that.

Now, of course, I still love AKB48, regardless of whether these girls had proper musical training. One thing that seems to seperate these 2 groups is simply why they were made in the first place. AKB48 is an idol group, and more of its focus is on the girls themselves, not actual talent. That’s not to say AKB48 doesn’t have its share of tremendous talent. It does for sure. It just seems to me that K-Pop groups seems to have a better focus on the musical talent of its performers.In SNSD’s case, not one of them are a bad singer in any way. They all have fantastic voices.

There are times when listening to AKB48 when I wonder how some members actually passed their audtions, and it becomes obvious image is the key factor here. All I am saying is why can’t the idol world of J-Pop be more like the Korean music industry, where image AND musical talent are both valued just as equally.

Gundam 00 S2 Episodes 19 and 20

Sorry, only reviews and screencaps again. Might have to do this for the next couple of weeks, seeing as University is keeping me quite busy.

Episode 19

This was a highly exciting episode. It had some great action, yet the most interesting parts came around the end. Anew has been activated as an innovator, and has essentially betrayed the crew. The way it cut out as she shot at Lasse was one hell of a cliffhangar, and it really makes you feel for Lasse. The poor guy never catches a break. The other big thing is that Nena finally betrays Wang Liu Mei. I was also happy to see the Gundam Throne Drei return. I always did figure there was more to Nena’s little shuttle, and it wouldn’t have made sense if she just ditched it, seeing as it was in near perfect condition at the end of the first series (I believe it was only missing an arm from the battle between it and Throne Zwei) It was also nice to see Louise and Saji finally talk to each other, though again Andrei ruins it. Seriously, someone needs to kill that guy already.

Episode 20

This was perhaps the best episode to date. It had everything. Intense action, great character interactions, romance, and great drama. Suprisingly, Lasse survives, but is wounded quite badly. The battle this episode was one of the best we’ve had in awhile. Anew pilots a new GNZ unit, this one based around GN Fangs. It was very cool to see it go against Cherudim, seeing as both use remote weaponry. It was also quite sad when Anew died. Throughout the entire episode, you could see that perhaps some part of her regretted what she was doing, and Lyle did manage to get through to her near the end, only to have Ribbons screw it up and make her continue fighting, forcing Setsuna to kill her to save Lyle. Setsuna defenitly did the right thing, though Lyle doesn’t seem to agree.

This episode is also the debut of Louise’s new Mobile Armor, the Regnant, and it is a beast. It managed to totally negate Seravee’s Hyper Burst attack, and has a beam cannon which fires a beam that can be bent to change direction. Pretty awesome if you ask me. Louise is defenitly going to be a major threat for the Meisters in the future. Its funny, I would never have thought that during the first season.

Team B’s 4th stage – Perhaps the naughtiest to date

So you remember my review of Team B’s fourth stage from a few weeks ago. You’ll also remember I had nothing but praise for it, seeing as its just that awesome. Well, we finally got the lyrics for the songs, which is pretty sweet, as we can finally see what these songs are about.

And lets just say, one of my personal favorites, Kuchi Utsushi no Chocolate (which stars my favorite AKB48 girl Yuki Kashiwagi) is without a doubt AKB48’s raunchiest, perverse song to date. Check out the lyrics for yourself:

(ALL credit for this translation goes to Youkokurama over at Stage48 forums)

feeding you chocolate mouth-to-mouth, and not just the usual boring kiss
チョコレート　口移しして, いつものキスじゃつまんないよ
thrusting it, forcing it in…
強引にねじ込んで…
as the chocolate melts in your tongue, I want to lick your love
チョコレート　舌で溶かして, あなたの愛を舐めたいの
with lips protruding…
唇をはみ出して…
with moans and groans
ヤラシイ音を立てる

I don’t care if people see us. it’s our freedom, right?
人目を気にしないで, 私たちの自由でしょ？
being seen by others only makes me wilder
誰かに見られてると もっと大胆になれる
in the middle of an open cafe
オープンカフェの真ん中
as I climb on your lap just like that cute girl betty blue
あなたの膝によじ登って「ベティーブルー」みたいに可愛い女の子よ

loving each other under the blue sky
青空の下で愛し合えるのは
this feels even better than being naked
裸になるよりも気持ちいい

feeding you chocolate mouth-to-mouth,
チョコレート　口移しして
hugging you across and going for a deep kiss
ディープなキスをするように, 斜めから抱きしめて…
a bitter-sweet chocolate, your poison is so delicious
チョコレート　甘くビターな, あなたの毒がおいしいの
no need to close your eyes
目を閉じちゃもったいない
wanting to get into a lot of trouble
いっぱい困らせたいの

I just want to be honest with this feeling I have
自分のその気持ちに, 正直でいたいだけよ
people can after all become the animals they are
人間は誰だって　ただの動物になれる
spilling a cup of cocoa, spreading thru-out my uniform
カップのココアこぼして, 制服に染み広がっても
who cares about that
そんなのどうでもいい
all that matters is what’s going on right now
大事なのは今だけ

flying so high into the sky
上空　飛んでる
no longer able to hear the sound of a helicopter
ヘリコプターの音も
no longer able to hear anything, that’s what love is
何も聞こえない　愛とはそういうもの

feeding you chocolate mouth-to-mouth, and not just the usual boring kiss
チョコレート　口移しして, いつものキスじゃつまんないよ
thrusting it, forcing it in…
強引にねじ込んで…
as the chocolate melts in your tongue, I want to lick your love
チョコレート　舌で溶かして, あなたの愛を舐めたいの
with lips protruding…
唇をはみ出して…
with moans and groans
ヤラシイ音を立てる

feeding you mouth-to-mouth
口移しして,
hugging you across and going for a deep kiss
ディープなキスをするように, 斜めから抱きしめて…
a bitter-sweet chocolate, your poison is so delicious
チョコレート　甘くビターな, あなたの毒がおいしいの
no need to close your eyes
目を閉じちゃもったいない
loving your panic stricken face
困った顔も素敵よ
See what I mean?

I think the only AKB48 song that even comes close to this is Seifuku ga jama wo suru, and even I don’t think its as nasty as this.

Doesn’t lessen my opinion of the song though…hell if anything it makes me love it even more…though, one has to wonder if it was a good idea putting a young member like Oota Aika in this song.

Yet another AKB48 Graduation

Yeah…it happened again.

It what seems to be shaping up as the seemingly genocide of AKB48’s original members, Team K member Hayano Kaoru announced her graduation today.

This is an interesting one as she recently moved to a bigger talent agency, and some people saw that as preparation for an upcoming graduation. Guess they were right.

Its also the first Team K graduation in some time.

Now, I’m all for AKB48 members leaving to move on to bigger, more awesome things, but these graduations are getting out of hand. I mean, its not even 3 months into the year and we’ve had 3 graduations announced in the last month or so. I’m starting to think the management is perhaps getting rid of the old and bringing in the new…if you will.

More Gundam 30th Anniversary news – New Universal Century Series

So some new info has surfaced since I posted the scan of the Rx-78-7 Gundam. Seems it is indeed the MS of a new Universal Century series. Here’s all the info we know abotu at the moment:

(info courtesy of Gundam|News)

Title: Unknown

Mechanic Design: Katoki Hajime
Character Design: Suzuki Tatsuya

Mobile Suit: Phantom Gundam Unit No.7

EARTH FEDERATION PHANTOM SWEEP TEAM

Hughes Curro: Male. Age 32. A veteran officer who leads the Phantom Sweep special forces unit charged with hunting for Zeon remnants. He has a bitter experience in which his unit was annihilated in the past.

Sherry Allison: Female. Age 24. She was serving as a test pilot but was assigned to the special forces unit as a replacement.

ZEON FORCES INVINCIBLE KNIGHTS

Erik Blanque (Blank): Male. Age 20. A young officer whose family is a distinguished family in the Principality of Zeon. He takes command of the “Invincible Knights” in order to execute a counterattack operation against the Earth Federation Forces.

Story: The time is Universal Century 0081. It’s been one year has passed since the war. Although the world was regaining order, small-scale battles continued in various places by the Zeon remnants who still continued to resist. During the situation, an veteran soldier of the Earth Federation Forces is appointed to a cleanup operation of the Zeon remnant forces. Feelings mix on the battlefield as the young Zeon officers promote the top-secret strategy for the revival of Zeon…

Am I excited…damn right I am. Its about time a new UC series started. And it will be interesting because the time period between 0079 and Zeta is a time period not fully explored in depth yet (aside from the Advance of Zeta manga/photobook series)

I’ll bring you more news as it surfaces.

New project for Gundams 30th Anniversary

A big event is coming up soon; the big 30th Anniversary of everyones favorite mecha anime; Gundam. There’s been a lot of speculation on what the new series will be for this big event. One speculation common amongst fans is an animated version of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn…something I’d personally love to see.

We haven’t gotten much info on what the big project for the anniversary will be, but today, a new scan related to the 30th Ani was revealed today:

Now at first, I thought this was a redesigned RX-78 Gundam, but I’ve come to learn that it in in fact the RX-78 7th Gundam, redone by Hajime Katoki. The original, shown below, was of course designed by Kunio Okawara:

The RX-78-7 also has two variations, a full armor variant and a heavy full armor version:

It will be interesting to see if these two versions get redesigns along with the base model.

So what does this all mean? We don’t know yet. I guess we will have to wait and see if this redesigned RX-78-7 is put into a new series, or if its just a new model or figure or something. Fortunately, we should learn of the new series when Gundam OO ends, which is very soon.