New AKB48 single songs, New WoW Dungeons and possibly a new J-Pop addiction.

So I’ve got a few things to get to today, so I’ll get right to it.

Last Tuesday saw the release of World of Warcraft’s 3.3 update patch, and boy, is it one of the best yet. First of all, let me say what a great addition the Dungeon Finder is. Essentially, you choose what role you want to play (DPS, Tank, healer) and then you can choose to queue up for either a random heroic or normal dungeon, or select from a list of all the instances which one you want to do. When you’ve queued up, all you have to do is wait till your put into a group, and your off to the dungeon. The nice things is that once your group is formed, your automatically teleported to the dungeon, so you can queue from ANYWHERE, which is awesome because you can go and do things while queuing, especially if you might have to wait a bit, but the wait times are normally not that bad. Another nice thing is that when your done and you either select to teleport out or just leave the group, you’ll be back to the spot you were at when your group was formed. Another nice thing is that if someone leaves, you’ll be put back into the Dungeon finder queue, and normally within seconds, a replacement will be found. Needless to say, as a DPS, this whole system makes getting into dungeons a WHOLE lot easier.

Now, lets move on to the new 5 man instances themselves, The Frozen Halls. There are 3 parts to this; The Forge of Souls, The Pit of Saron and the Halls of Reflection. In the Forge of Souls, you’ll face to bosses; Bronjahm, The Godfather of Souls (a humorous homage to James Brown, the Godfather of Soul) and The Devourer of Souls. The fight against Bronjahm is a fairly simple tank and spank until he starts casting Corrupt Soul on a party member. A soul orb will come out of that member and move towards Bronjahm, and if it touches him, he’ll be healed quite significantly. The best thing to do is to destroy the soul orb as quickly as possible, though he only does this a couple of times before casting Soul Storm, in which you have to move right near him to avoid taking damage. Normally when he does this, he’s done. Just keep damaging him and he’ll be down. The Devourer of Souls is a little harder. I always find this fight somewhat chaotic, but its still pretty simple. The best thing to remember is to stop attacking it when it casts Mirrored Soul on you. You’ll take damage when you deal damage to it as long as this debuff is up. It also has a nasty leaping attack, the Phantom Soul attack which you HAVE to avoid or its pretty much instant death, and an attack where he summons souls which you pretty much have to just run from. He also has a sweeping beam attack which can be pretty nasty. As long as you have decent healing and DPS, this fight is pretty easy.

The next dungeon is the Pit of Saron. Its the largest of the 3 dungeons, but in my opinion the easiest. Depending on which route you take at the beginning, the first boss you’ll fight is either Forgemaster Garfrost or Ick and Krick. The third and final boss is always Scourgelord Tyrannus. Garfrost is simple, yet throughout the fight he is always hitting you with a damage over time debuff, which can be weakened by standing behind one of the saronite boulders he throws. Other than that, its tank and spank until he’s down. Ick and Grick is a little more complicated, but still easy for a good group. In essence, you only actually fight Ick, though Krick does his own attacks from Icks back (Ick is a large zombie and Krick is a Gnome) Ick will constantly throw down patches of toxic waste, so you have to avoid those. He also will occasionally start running after one of your party members, so that person has to run away from him. Also, Ick will occasionally use a nasty poison nova attack, so make sure to get out of range of that. Kricks main attack is when he starts conjuring arcane bombs all over the place. You can continue to attack during this, just make sure to stay out of the bombs. This is one fight where you are always moving around.
Tyrannus is the final boss, and it too is fairly simple. He will occasionally cast the Overlords mark. If you do damage or healing while this is on you, Tyrannus will be healed instead, so you have to wait till its done to do anything. You also have to watch out for Tyrannus’s frost worm Rimefang, which will launch attacks from above, but you only need to kill Tyrannus.

The Final of the 3 instances is the Halls of Relection , and is, in my opinion, the best and hardest of the 3. It can be either the shortest or the longest depending on your group. The first room has you fighting 10 waves of spirits, as well as Arthas’ two right hand men, Falric and Marwyn. After the first 4 waves are down, you’ll fight Falric, and when the 9th wave is down, Marwyn will come out. Both are normally simple fights, though they can hit pretty hard. One bit of advice for the Spirt waves; fight them in one of the two alcoves of the room (where Falric and Marwyn stand) Just bunch up in one of those and it will make fighting the spirits a lot easier. Now, the 3rd and final fight is without a doubt the hardest 5 man encounter at the moment. Essentially, you have to get through 4 waves of enemies, all the while your being chased by the Lich King himself. While running to escape, Arthas will create a barrier blocking your progress and summon enemies to stop you. You have to kill the enemies as fast as possible in order to bring down the barrier, and this happens 4 times, with each consecutive wave consisting of more enemies. There are essentially 2 ways to screw this up; the Lich King as a damaging aura around him, so if you stand in that too long, you’ll die. Also, if Arthas reaches the barrier and your faction hero (Sylvannas for horde and Jaina for Alliance) he’ll do an attack which instantly kills your entire party. This is essentially a DPS race; you need lots of DPS, and you need it FAST. When you get to the end, your factions Airship (Skybreaker or Orgrims Hammer) will rise up from below and stop the Lich Kings advance. This scene is awesome and is something straight from a Hollywood movie.

Needless to say, these new instances are a blast, and I’m pretty much running them daily, in hopes that the elusive Battered Hilt will FINALLY drop…and of course to score some of the new gear that drops.

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Alright on to the next new thing; the new AKB48 single…or more accurately, the 2 new songs being included in the single. Recently, a number of the girls were split into two groups, Team YJ and Team PB. Each group has their own song being included in the new single (and I think there are different versions of the single with one of them on it, if I remember correctly. So in short, if you want both songs, you need to buy two versions of the single) and both songs are, in my opinion, equally awesome. The two songs are:

Team PB – Enkyori Poster
Team YJ – Choose Me!

Both songs are very upbeat, with Choose Me! being a fast paced rock song (like straight up rock, not to many hints of pop in it) and Enkyori is more a combination of pop/rock. Most of the fandom seems to be favouring Choose Me! over Enkyori, but I found both equally appealing, with both sounding distinctive. Though, I have to say I favor Enkyori a little bit more, because Yukirin is in Team PB, and she seems to be the main vocalist for the song (which is awesome!)

Needless to say, with these 2 songs being so good, I can’t wait to hear the A and B sides; hopefully they can live up to these 2 songs.

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So now, on to the last bit of new stuff, at least for me.

If you have been over to either International Wota or CK’s Blogs, you’ll have seen everyone raving over a…somewhat…new idol group, Momoiro Clover.

(In order from top left to bottom right)
Sasaki, Hayami, Takagi
Tamai, Momota, Ariyasu

I say somewhat new because they’ve been around since sometime last year, but have only started releasing singles this year. They also had about 5 members graduate (including Takai Tsukina who not to long ago graduated from SKE48) before they started doing singles. I have to give credit to CK for getting me into this group as without his initial post on them, I likely would never have heard of them, let along form some interest in them, so thanks!

It seems this group (which consists of 5 girls, Takagi Reni, Momota Kanako, Ariyasu Momoka, Hayami Akari, Tamai Shiori and Sasaki Ayaka) is taking the world (of Idol fandom) by storm, and after listening to their singles, I understand why. Their awesome! One thing that I noticed everyone seems to like about Momoiro is their traditional Japanese sound, and I have to agree. It is very present in their songs (and more so in their first single) and if anything it really separates this group from the others out there. They have one of the most distinctive sounds I have heard in quite some time.Their songs so far are not generic pop tunes. They are in a whole other bracket. I can’t do their songs justice just by talking about them, you really have to give them a listen for yourselves. So far though, I would have to say that their debut song, Momoiro Punch, is my favorite so far.

So I think its safe to say I will be following this group, for sure.

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So that’s it for today. Now its back to the Frozen Halls for me….

The “Best of” and “Worst of” – 2009 Edition

Sure, 2009 was, in all fairness, a pretty crappy year, primarily due to all that bad economic crap that went down, however, there were actually a lot of great things about this 2009, lets take a look shall we?

AKB48/SKE48
Best of:

Team B’s 4th Stage “Idol no Yoake”

Team B once again proved they are the best team in AKB48 (who says I’m biased ) with their 2nd original Stage, Idol no Yoake. This stage has a bit of everything in it, rock, pop, nice ballads, and that’s why I think it stands as one of AKB48’s best stages yet. Its also the last stage for the original Team B, so its a bit bittersweet as well. Kinda sad that the original Team B only got TWO original stages, whereas A and K got 5. That’s hardly fair.

Iwake Maybe

Iwake Maybe was a breath of Fresh air in regards to AKB singles. The previous single, Namida Suprise, ranks up there with crappy singles like Baby!Baby!Baby! and Aitakatta (sorry, I just CANNOT stand that song), so Iwake was a nice followup. I think for me, having a similar sound to Oogoe Diamond really is what makes it a favorite of mine. You all know how much I love OD, so Iwake having a similar sound and feel just works for me. The other thing that makes this a great single is the fact that for once, the B-side is actually…good. I haven’t been a fan of too many of AKB’s b-sides (a majority of them being familiar stage songs and nothing really new) so an equally awesome original b-side song was also nice. This single has also introduced the concept of having separate groups for both songs, something I see them sticking with for future singles (just PLEASE ditch that whole Undergirls name)

RIVER

River is, without a doubt, the best AKB48 single at the moment. Its got just a badass rock sound to it, and is defenitly a unique single compared to past singles. The whole military theme is also pretty awesome. Nice to see its not just another school-girl themed single. The only downside to this single would be that they used Hikoukigumo as an accompanying song. Its just not that good, nor is it an original song. But that aside, everything else about RIVER is awesome, and it is defenitly AKB48’s best single of the year, and the sales will back up that statement.

Team S’s 2nd Stage “Te wo Tsunaginagara”

I originally didn’t like this stage, but that’s what you get when you listen to crappy previews of only a few of the songs. After listening to this stage in full, I came to one conclusion. SKE48 Team S fucking kicks ass! For their first original stage, Team S debuted with a bang. This stage has a mix of everything, which for me is great, as it means your not sticking to one style of song all the way through, which gets tedious and boring FAST (much like A1, A2 and A3 did, and is the reason I don’t care for those stages much). This stage also has a very different feel to it than AKB48 stages. I can’t pin-point it exactly, but I really like SKE’s style so far. Its just…different, and it works.

Team S’s 3rd Stage “Seifuku no Me”

While I haven’t heard all the songs for this stage as of yet, I can already tell this stage is going to be even better than S2. It seems to be carrying on with that distinctive SKE sound, and it also seems to be expanding on it as well. I will obviously have more on this stage once we have more of it (like an LoD performance…please?) So stay tuned. So far, though, its looking awesome!

SKE48’s Debut single “Tsuyokimono yo”

Let me get this out of the way first; AKB48 had 2 horrible debut singles. Their indie release, Sakura no Hanabiritachi, is just outright boring, and not my thing. Their official debut single, Aitakatta, is just plain bad and horribly annoying. One of the few AKB songs I REFUSE to listen too. SKE48 fared a whole lot better. Tsuyokimono yo is an outright baddass, awesome song. Now this is what I call a debut. If this is what we can expect from SKE48 regarding their singles, we are in for some awesome songs.

Worst of:

Team K’s 5th Stage “Saka Agari”
Yeah, I really don’t care for Team K’s latest stage. Its got a couple of gems, but overall, its lackluster and a complete disappointment. I can’t really say anything else about this stage. Its just not my cup of tea I guess. Though I seem to be in the minority about K5. Everyone else seems to love it (or it could be that Team K fans just can’t stop talking about it…I don’t know…), but I just can’t get over how bland it is.

Team Shuffling
This is likely the biggest news in regards to AKB48 this year, and likely in the groups entire 4 year history. At the time of the announcement was when I was taking my little break from the group, and even then it hit pretty hard. Now, the fandom has begun to cool off about the news and is slowly coming around to accepting it (face it, its happening) and I for one am excited to see the new stages with the new teams. However, one thing I am not looking forward too is more new girls getting pushed to the front because of this shuffle. A lot of former research students have been promoted to full team members, and already people are talking about them being front girls.

No thank you, not until some of the less popular girls (especially ones who have the talent and DESERVE to be in front) have their time to shine. And even then, these new girls shouldn’t be put to the front because their new and fresh. That unfair to the girls who have been there far longer and have yet to have their chance in the spotlight. Heck, I’m already pissed about a certain new Team B member being promoted at all, when she obviously has a lack of talent and stage presence, and she seems to be promoted a lot lately.

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World of Warcraft
Best of:

Secrets of Ulduar, Call of the Crusade and Fall of the Lich King

This year along, we have had treated to the 3 main content patches of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Patch 3.1, Secrets of Ulduar brought us the awesomeness that is the Ulduar Raid. I myself have never fully completed the raid, but I have experienced a bit of it, and of what I did go through, I loved ever minute of it. The beginning vehicular battle through the gauntlet is very fun to play through, and having a boss ( The Flame Leviathan) you fight while in said vehicles is actually a rather intense, yet enjoyable and manageable fight. The lore behind the raid is deep and exciting, especially when you finally come face to face with the man himself (or rather the mouth himself), the old god Yogg-Saron. Call of the Crusade was somewhat of a letdown when compared to Ulduar ( in regards to the raid instance), but it did introduce some great things; new five man instance, new daily quests and corresponding rewards, new loot, etc. The final WOTLK patch, Fall of the Lich King, is due out anyway day now and is bringing even more big things, among them a totally revamped Dungeon Finder system, which will make it much easier to find groups for raids and dungeons. Also coming, of course are new instances; a new 3-part 5 man dungeon and of course, the Icecrown Citadel raid, which will culminate in the final showdown with Arthas. A ton of other small but useful changes are coming as well. Of all the 3 patches for this expansion, this one has me excited the most.

Worst of:
Constant whiners and complainers – Every single day it seems like more and more people come out and complain about SOMETHING about WoW. Its something new everyday; “its too easy to get gear now”. “my class keeps getting nerfed”..blah blah blah…its annoying. Seriously, can these people not realize that its a game? If you don’t like what Blizzard is doing, stop playing the game. That way those of us who enjoy it can be rid of you and your constant bitching. It gets infuriating to read some of the various WoW forums and see nothing but complaint after complaint after complaint. I think Blizzard is doing a phenomenal job with WoW, but I guess there are those people who will never be satisfied until the game is exactly the way THEY want it. Again, all I can say is that if you don’t like it, don’t play it, its that freaking simple.

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Gundam
Best of:

Announcements of the Gundam 00 Movie and Gundam Unicorn OVA series

So yes, while these are not technically “out” yet, they were announced this year, and its the hot topic of the Gundam community at the moment. 2010 is not only giving us the hotly anticipated Gundam Unicorn OVA, its also giving us a Gundam 00 movie. How awesome is that? I’m highly anticipating both of these. Gundam Unicorn will be the first animated UC series of any form in quite some time, and its nice to return to the Gundam universe that started it all, and its nice to finally see the immediate aftermath of Char’s Counterattack. And a Gundam 00 movie is just the icing on the cake. 00 is likely my favorite AU series and one of my top fav series of all time, and I’m curious to see where the movie will take it.

Worst of:

Too much merchandise, not enough money
Yup, thats my only complaint about Gundam this year. So many awesome new model kits, DVD’s figures, etc have been released this year, and its too much for my poor wallet to handle. Ease up on the merchandise Bandai…please?

Top 15 AKB48/SKE48 Song List

So I’ve done the whole member ranking thing, now its time for the songs. I am going to include some of my favorite S2 songs in this list because quite frankly, their too good to leave out.

One thing I should point out is that the order or position of these songs is really not a factor. In reality, all these songs are pretty much my top favorite songs. I don’t really like one over the other. This was originally going to be a Top 10, but when I was writing this up, I realized I had way more than 10 favorite AKB/SKE songs, so I upgraded it to a top 15, though I could have easily gone to 20.

15. Itoshiki Natasha (B4)
How can you not love this song? Its the closest AKB48 is going to come to a heavy metal performance in my opinion.

14. Kaiyuugyo no Capacity (K4)
The main reason I love this song is because of its intro piece; its a sped up version of the non-vocal section of Van Halen’s hit song Jump. Seriously, listen to the first few seconds of this song, then go listen to Jump. Its the same thing.

13. Saishuu Bell ga naru (K4)
Probably the strongest song of K4. Its got a rocking beat, and for me, its the kind of song I think of when I think Team K (the old Team K at least).

12. Zannen Shoujo (B4)
Its this song that made me start liking Watanabe Mayu a whole lot more. She’s great in this, and really makes this song.

11. Yokosuka Curve (B4)
This song has a weird into, but then dives right into one of the best rock/pop songs AKB48 has had to date.

10. Rope no Yuujou (S2)
Probably one of the best songs in S2. Its a great rock-style song, and just more proof about how awesome and talented Team S is.

9. B-Stars (B4)
I don’t think this song is too popular with AKB48 fans, but I just love it. Then again, I love high energy songs. And this is about as high-energy as you can get.

8. Choco no Yukue (S2)
This is another song that I don’t think is too popular with fans of S2, but I’ve come to adore it, and it does help that this is Oya Masana’s unit song, and she is quickly becoming my favorite Team S member. She’s awesome!

7. AKB Sanjou (A5)
This is likely the only anthem style song team A has, and its a damn good one. If anything, this should be AKB48’s anthem, and not that crap of a song Hikouki Gumo.

6. Innocence (S2)
Another strong offering from S2, and I do mean strong. They bring out all the best singers in Team S for this song, and it makes this song freaking fantastic.

5. Kuroi Tenshi (A5)
I’m actually surprised I like this song so much, considering its Acchan’s unit song, but Reina Fujie is also in this unit, and she is defenitly the best singer in the song, so it makes up for it. But in all fairness, its an awesome song. The best version of this song for me is the shuffle version from the Budokan concert, where Haachan, Yukirin and Nakayan were put into this unit. Now that’s a strong combination.

4. Oogoe Diamond (Single, A5)
You know how much I love this song. I’ve raved about it about a dozen times on this blog alone. Need I say more?

3. Romance Rocket (S2)
This was one of the first songs I absolutely loved in S2. Its just a fun song to listen too, and it has a cool sci-fi feel to it.

2. Junjou shugi (B3)
How can anyone not like this song? Seriously. Its Haachan’s B3 unit song. You HAVE to like it….seriously.

1. RIVER (single)
I think this song has set a new standard for future singles. Its a big departure from previous AKB songs, and the sales of this single prove that it works…well.

AKB48 (And SKE48 Team S!) Member Ranker Mark II

So, before I start, I’ll mention that the review of the Team A Fukuoka concert IS coming, however it will likely be some time before I get around to it.

So the last time I did one of these member rankers was quite some time ago, and looking back on it, my ranking has changed DRASTICALLY since last time. I figured now would be as good a time as any to do an updated version. Now, this one is going to be a lot less detailed than the last one, seeing as I don’t have near enough time to write up a full member ranker like last time, and I’m adding in SKE48 into this one as well. So lets see how the members rank up for me now!

AKB48
1. Kashiwagi Yuki
2. Katayama Haruka
3. Sato Amina
4. Chikano Rina
5. Fujie Reina
6. Sato Natsuki
7. Yonezawa Rumi
8. Nito Moeno
9. Tanabe Miku
10. Yuko Oshima
11. Akimoto Sayaka
12. Matsubara Natsumi
13. Watanabe Mayu
14. Iwasa Misaki
15. Sashihara Rino
16. Masuda Yuka
17. Takajo Aki
18. Sato Sumire
19. Miyazaki Miho
20. Miyazawa Sae
21. Takahashi Minami
22. Kojima Haruna
23. Kikuchi Ayaka
24. Kasai Tomomi
25. Umeda Ayaka
26. Itano Tomomi
27. Hirajima Natsumi
28. Ono Erena
29. Uchida Mayumi
30. Minegishi Minami
31. Nakata Chisato
32. Oota Aika
33. Nakatsuka Tomomi
34. Nakaya Sayaka
35. Nakagawa Haruka
36. Nonaka Misato
37. Kitahara Rie
38. Suzuki Mariya
39. Maeda Ami
40. Ooya Shizuka
41. Ishida Haruka
42. Matsui Sakiko
43. Kobayashi Kana
44. Oku Manami
45. Kuramochi Asuka
46. Shinoda Mariko
47. Komori Mika
48. Maeda Atsuko

One of the biggest changes I made to my ranking is defenitly the positions of Fujie Reina and Watanabe Mayu. Mayu is still not top 10 material, but I like her a ton more lately. B4 really helped in changing my opinion towards her. And I recently found out just how damn talented Reina is. Defenitly one of the most talented in AKB48. Oh, and sorry Komori Mika fans, but she is just not doing it for me. After watching her in the Team B Nagoya concert, I am saddened that she is going to be in the new Team B. She needs to VASTLY improve her abilities on stage (Like not moving like a stick and actually showing some emotion), otherwise she’s going to be second to last on my ranking list.

SKE48 Team S (The reason I’m not doing Team KII is because I know NOTHING about them, and they have yet to get their own original stage. I’ll likely check them out them they do)
1. Matsushita Yui
2. Matsui Rena
3. Oya Masana
4. Matsui Jurina
5. Hirata Rikako
6. Takada Shiori
7. Nakanishi Yuka
8. Yamashita Moe
9. Hiramatsu Kanako
10. Yagami Kumi
11. Shinkai Rina
12. Ono Haruka
13. Mori Sayuki
14. Deguchi Aki
15. Kuwabara Mizuki

To be honest, I still don’t know a lot about most of the Team S girls either, but I’m getting there, and I’m sure after I check out their latest stage in more detail, this ranking will be subject to some change, but for now, there it is!

AKB48 Bunshin no Jutsu Tour – Team K’s Nanba Hatch Concert

Next up in my set of concert reviews is Team K’s Nanba Hatch concert. I’ll mention ahead of time that this review will be significantly shorter than my Team B concert review.

Korogaru Ishi ni Nare is the first song of the concert, and a perfect way to start a Team K show. Like Team B’s Shonichi, this is Team K’s signature song, and really is a good show opener. This is one of the few Team K songs that, in my opinion, ages quite well. It is a somewhat “old” song in regards to Team K stage shows, however, it holds up well against the more recent stage songs. When this song first debuted, the A and K stages of the time were a lot more…subdued…if you will. They were actually quite boring, however this song stood out due to its heavy rock style.

Saishuu Bell ga Naru is next on the list. This is my favourite Team K song…of all time, and likely will remain as such. Its just so awesome. This is the kind of K song I like; songs that almost breach into the category of heavy metal. Heck, B and A need songs like this. The more heavy-metalish songs in AKB48 Stages…the better.

The next songs on the set list are Saka Agari and Ki ni Naru Tenkousei. Not my favourite Team K song by far, but they’re not terrible..I guess. The performances here are still pretty good though. I always thought these songs were just way to generic, and I was disappointed that Saka Agari is the title song of K5. I doesn’t really deserve to be.

Blue Rose is another K song that “ages well” in my opinion. As always, we get a stellar performance from Sayaka, Sae, Yuka and Ohori, as they go all out. This is defenitly one performance to check out.

The next set of songs is essentially the unit song group from K5: Endroll, Wagamama na Nagareboshi, Dakishimeraretara, and Mushi no Ballad. While all these songs are great, and the performances are equally great (especially Wagamama, but I’ll get to that in a sec)..where the hell is Ai no Iro? That is likely the BEST song out of K5, and its not here? What the hell? I did enjoy the performance of Wagamama na Nagareboshi quite a bit though, because right near the end of the song, Erena just goes right over to Kana and kicks her, right out of the blue, then they go back to singing like nothing happened. It seems kind of tacked on, but its so freaking funny. Now, it likely has something to do with the lyrics, but still, its just funny to watch.

Ame no Doubutsuen and Kimi wa Pegasus are next. Ame is a fairly decent song, and the performance is cute, especially with all the animal costumes. Surprisingly, Nonti is the cutest in this performance, then again it helps that she’s in the Panda costume, and Panda’s are always cute. Of course, Pegasus kicks ass as always, but I liked this performance over any other because of the inclusion of Yuko. She can make any performance better IMO.

(Insert SKE48 songs here)

Nounai Paradise and Shamu Neko are up now, and while Nounai is a fairly decent song (though, not one of my favs), I have to admit I do not like Shamu Neko at all. Everyone else seems to love it, but..I just can’t bring myself to like it. I kinda find it a bit of an annoying song to be perfectly honest. Guess its just not my cup of tea.

Hitei no Requiem, Melos no Michi, Tenohira are the last 3 songs before the encore set. Hiten no Requiem is a song that puzzles me nowadays. Reading the lyrics, it is obvious that the song is about a suicide, however, the beat and sounds of the overall song just do not fit the lyrics. Doesn’t matter though, the song is great, as is this performance. Melos is great as well, a really strong son to pump you up and get you going (and the girls performance reflects this in a way). I’ve also come to love Tenohira as of late. I always thought it was an odd song to use to begin K5 (to me, ballads should really be at the end, but hey…) but I really think it might be AKB’s best ballad yet. Its just really soothing and just puts you into a good mood listening to it. The performance here isn’t too special, but its a ballad, so its all about the singing, and nothing else.

The first encore song and the last in the review (the next 3 songs are just the singles, but I already went over them in the B concert review, and there’s nothing new here) is Hana to Chire!. To be honest, they kinda ruined it by doing a shortened version. Its screws up the pacing of the song and just makes it sound odd in a way. But, its still cool song anyway.

It became very apparent while watching this concert that, as of now, the current Team K is my least favorite team. However, it has nothing to do with the girls. I actually have quite a few favourites in Team K. What is it then? Its the songs. Team K just doesn’t have a lot of great songs. Or at least not a lot that I am overly fond of. There’s a couple here and there that I truly love, but its really hit and miss…just like this concert. So overall, its a decent show, but not nearly as enjoyable as Team B’s concert.

Ok, so thats Team K done. Hopefully, I’ll have a review of Team A’s concert up soon. Then its on to the Budokan concert and the shuffles.

AKB48 Bunshin no Jutsu Concert Tour – Team B Zepp Nagoya Concert

So this past week the latest AKB concert tour was released on DVD. I myself have never been able to justify buying one of these INCREDIBLY overpriced concert box-sets AKB releases on what seems like a regular basis now. Yeah sure, this set has the 3 separate Team concerts, plus the one huge Budokan concert, but $340 is a little much. Hell, I have the boxset for Stargate SG-1, which includes all 10 seasons (which encompasses well over 200 episodes) and from what I remember, that was only a little over $100. Then again, Japanese media being overpriced for what you get shouldn’t come as a surprise to me. I do buy music singles after all…

But anyway, I’m getting off topic. I figured that for my next big set of posts, I’d review the concerts myself (or at least my favorite shuffle groups in regards to the massive Budokan concert) First up will be the Team B concert (obviously…) at Zepp Nagoya.

First up, I will mention that SKE48 Team S performs in both Team B’s and Team K’s concerts (strange how they don’t perform in Team A’s…seems like more Team A favoritism there, they don’t have to share their concert). However, in Team K’s concert, 8 members from Team KII are also present. In both concerts, they perform the same 3 songs, so I will only be including my thoughts on these songs during this review of Team B’s concert, if only because I don’t care to review the same 3 songs twice. That would be kind of redundant.

Of course, Team B’s concert starts out with their iconic song, Shonichi. I think this is a given when doing a Team B show, its THEIR song. This song is just so full of energy and really puts a smile on your face while watching. While I myself am a bit of a metal head when it comes to music, I do like these kind of songs from time to time, especially when your not in a good mood. The message Shonichi’s lycircs put across is really good at giving you a happy feeling, and don’t we all need that from time to time? Anyway, this is a great way to start the show.

Joshikousei wa Yamerarenai is next, and I’ve always loved this song. Its damn catchy (though that might have something to do with how much it sounds like Morning Musume’s Love Machine, which is also damn catchy) and the performance is really cute. All the girls dancing around with those little stuffed teady bears is just adorable. This is defenitly one of the best songs from B4, so I’m glad they put it in this concert.

Minasanmo go Isshoni is defenitly an interesting song, and one of my favorite B4 songs. However, I’ve always felt that the opening instrumental goes on for a little too long, but that might just be me. If their’s one song that showcases just how high energy Team B is, its this one. This song is an example of someone taking a regular song and speeding it up about 5 times its normal speed.

‘ll be honest, prior to this concert, I hadn’t listened to Wasshoi B! all that much. It just wasn’t really my type of song. However, after seeing it in this concert, I have a great appreciation for it. This is another song that is undoubtedly Team B’s song (I’m sure they could remix it for the other Teams, but it just wouldn’t be the same). Its a cut song, there’s no doubt about that, but the fact that its a song about Team B just makes it a joy to listen to, especially to a hardcore B fan like myself.

We next start the unit song set of the concert, starting with kuchiutsushi no chocolate. This one’s a strong favourite of mine. It features Yukirin as the lead, so that’s one plus. Second, its just a great sounding song overall, plus, its likely one of AKB48’s naughtiest songs to date, though this makes me question the choice of Lovetan and Naachan in this song, considering their a little too young for a song like this. The thing I like about this song the most is how it showcases just how great and variable Yukirin’s vocals are. Normally, she has a very strong, clear singing voice, but here, she has higher, almost desperate sounding vocals. The fact that she can change her singing pitch to fit the songs mood and style is really a testament to just how damn good a singer she is.

My other favorite B4 song, Itoshiki Natasha, is next. This song, and the trio who perform it, are just the embodiment of awesome. Haachans vocals are beyond amazing as usual, and she really makes this song for me. I also love just how powerful this song is. The dance routine with the stand mikes is just so Rock/Metal, and this performance actually seemed to have more power behind it than when I saw it on the LOD performance. It sucks though that they performed a shortened version of this song during the concert (as they did with quite a few songs actually) but still, defenitly one of the top songs of the concert.

Tenshi no Shippo is next. What can I say about this song. Its an overload of cute. I have always liked this song. The vocals are quite good despite the girls not being the best singers in Team B(well, except for Tomomi Nakatsuka, who has a surprisingly strong controlled voice). However, this is such a peppy tune I can’t help but love it to death.

Kataomoi no taikakusen is a strong favorite of mine from B4, however, this particular performance is a bit conflicting for me. Rumi and Moeno are fantastic as they always are in this song. Both look damn good doing it as well. In this performance, Komori Mika is the third girl, and I’m not sure about her yet. She seems like a decent enough singer, however, her stage presence really needs some work. She shows almost no emotion at all for a good portion of this concert, and her movements are VERY stiff. She almost seems like she doesn’t care…sort of like a certain Team A frontgirl….But anyway, I really hope she improves by the time the new Stages start, as I believe she’s part of the new Team B. Her participation in this unit kinda brought it down a bit for me, but it was still a great performance. I especially liked how much they focused on the back dancers, especially Yukirin in red. Hell, I think she might have had more screen time than the leads during this performance.

pajama drive is a song I’ve always liked, though I think it could benefit from stronger vocals. It features who are in reality the worst singers of Team B (Harugon, Naachan and Mayu) however, I guess in the context of the song they fit perfectly in it. Not much to say about this performance other than that It’s pretty good.

Junjou Shugi is without a doubt my favorite song from B3. It’s an awesome sounding song, and Haachan is in the lead. Thats a win win right there. Moeno and Nakayan are in this particular performance, and while Moeno does a fantastic job, as usual, I still don’t think Nakayan fits in this much. She is a great performer, but her vocals just don’t fit with Haachan’s or Moeno’s. Yukirin would have been a perfect fit here in my opinion. Nonetheless, its still a fantastic performance, but again, its shortened, so that makes me sad.

Kagami no naka no jean d’arc is such an awesome song, excluding it from this concert would have been heresy in the eyes of any Team B fan. This is one of the few (if not the only) Unit songs in this concert to feature Kohara in it, and I really enjoyed seeing her in this concert. She just seems to enjoy everything she does. Too bad she’s now part of SDN48, and not even one of the main team members either. She was great in this song, and so was everyone else in it as well. I love just how rock this song is.

We know move on to SKE48’s little portion of the concert. Now, I am a recent SKE48 convert, so I enjoyed their little part of the show. The first song they perform is the title track of their 2nd Stage, Te wo Tsunaginagara. I remember reading a review on this stage over at CK’s AKB48 blog, and he mentioned how this song was “so K4″, however, I just don’t see that. Its a great song, don’t get me wrong, however, I don’t think it has a Team K feel to it. Still, a great song, and I really enjoyed the performance here. Next, they perform SKE48, which is really just a remixed version of AKB48. I actually like SKE’s version better, to be honest. IT just seems to flow better for some reason. I would have preferred them to perform another stage song from S2, maybe even a unit song, but this is ok I guess. To finish off their little set, Team S performs their debut single song, Tsuyokimono yo. Now, if any SKE song has a Team K feel to it, its this one. This is one damn awesome debut song. This performance is great as well, and really shows off how powerful this song is. Overall, SKE’s performances are great, and they are really taking off as a great Idol group. I’m also really warming up to the fact that Jurina Matsui as one of the front girls of this group. For someone so young, she has great potential, and in all honesty, she a fantastic performer even know. The thing that gets me is just how happy she seems when she is on stage. That goes a long way for me. The only thing I have to complain about here is the lack of Yui Matsushita. I don’t remember seeing her once. I wish they would have shown her a little more (seeing as she’s my fav SKE member) Ah well…

Team B returns to the stage now with Two years later from B3. Another strong performance here. Nothing too special to say here. Great performance overall. Same with the next few songs, yokosuka curve, kobushi no seigi (which is always a fav of mine, I love the outfits, so badass), suifu wa arashi ni yume wo miru and arigatou. All these songs are great, but I really don’t want to go over most of them again, considering I talked about most of them in my B4 review, and the performances here are just as good.

The First of the encore songs is my favourite from B4, B Stars. Now, most people always complain that this song says B way too many times, but I don’t care. I love it. Its so high energy and just damn fun to listen too. It really gets you going. The performance here is awesome. Did I mention I love this song? Can’t say that enough…

The last 3 songs are the last 3 singles at the time, Namida Surprise!, Oogoe Diamond and Iiwake Maybe. I still don’t like Namida, so I won’t even bother talking about it. I always love hearing Oogoe. Its one AKB song that never gets old for me. Team B puts on a great performance of it here. Team B’s rendition of it is very unique in how its sounds compared to when the other teams perform it, likely due to the range of vocal ability Team B has. The Iiwake performance is also great, though I wonder if its a good way to end the concert. I kinda like it when they do ballads to end off a stage/concert. Their the perfect ending songs. But oh well, Iiwake kicks ass, so I guess its pretty good to use as an ending song.

And so ends Team B’s Nagoya concert. All in all, it was fantastic. Team B is always a joy to watch perform, and this concert is no exception.

One thing that really hit home with me while I was watching this was the fact that I’m really going to miss the current Team B. It hit me that this was likely one of the last times in concert that they were going to perform together as Team B. While the new Team B has definite promise, it will NEVER reach the level the current lineup did. So to that, I say goodbye to the current Team B lineup. You guys kicked ass on so many levels, and no one could compare to you.

Original Team B, you will be missed, dearly.

AKB48’s Latest single – RIVER

First of all, I wanted to share this with everybody. I finally downed a particular rare enemy in World of Warcraft the other day, the ever elusive Time Lost Proto Drake!:

This is likely one of the rarest of WOW’s rare spawns, and its especially coveted because it always drops…well, itself, as a flyable mount, making it one of the rarest mounts in the game at the moment. Its especially tricky to get because there are normally a dozen or so people just camping its flight paths hunting it. How did I come across it you ask? Purely by accident to be honest. I was doing the daily quest in Brunnhildar Village to see if that was the day I would finally get the Polar Bear mount (it wasn’t…again. I’m beginning to think it doesn’t even exist. I’ve likely done the quest almost 100 times now). That days daily was to go back and fight in the pit. Now, I was just starting to attack my first opponent, and what do I see? My NPC scan addon alerting me to the Drakes presence, that’s what. And where was it? Right directly above me. Awesome! I quickly got off my war bear, summon my flying mount and flew towards my prey. I took it down within a few seconds, and the mount was mine at last! That defenitly made my day!

Anyway, today I’m going to do a bit of raving over the latest AKB single, RIVER. I don’t know what else I can say about this single other than that it is BEYOND EPIC! This single is a radical departure from practically everything AKB48 has done to date, and in my opinion, its the best song they’ve released. Its edgy, up tempo and just so damn addictive. I also like how its edgy, yet its not dark or depressing, its just badass.

Now, I haven’t seen the PV yet (decided to wait for my copy of the single to arrive so I can watch the PV from the included DVD) but from what I have heard about it (and seen in screen shots) its pretty kick ass. It features the girls as soldiers, which alone sounds awesome. I have a feeling it will be my favorite AKB48 PV to date.

The accompanying tracks are also pretty good. The B-side, Kimi no Koto ga Suki Dakara is awesome. Again, this song really stands out among other AKB tunes, and of course it features the awesome Undergirls group (again, I HATE that name) so its of the same caliber as the A-side. Its a little more cutesy than RIVER, but it still manages to be an addicitve song, and is just as good as RIVER.

Now, the single does include a third song, Hikoki Gumo. Now, I will say this about the song; meh. I don’t care for it. Its generic, boring, and does not stand well against the likes of RIVER and Kimi no Koto. Its also old, in a sense. Its a song from A5, so its nothing even remotely new, and that’s my problem with it. ITS NOTHING NEW. This seems to be a new trend in AKB singles; include a song from the stages. Now, while this is not bad in anyway, I do like singles to give us something new. I also just don’t like Hikoki Gumo, so I am a little peeved at this choice. Everyone else in the fandom seems to like it though…don’t know why. So yeah, I just give this song a meh.

I’m hoping we can get more singles of this caliber in the future. RIVER is an awesome song, and I hope we get more singles like this one. This song is not like the cutesy, happy songs of the past. Its edgy, its badass, and its the idol song I have truly been waiting for. Bring on more singles like this one!

I should really think before I post something….

In the future, if I fall out of a certain fandom, I will not likely bring it up here, or even count on not being a fan for very long, because something will come around that will pull me right back in and never let me go ever again. I’ve found out I’m pretty weak when it comes to fandoms of varying kind.

if you can’t guess already, I’ve rejoined the AKB48 fandom.

You may remember that in one of my earlier posts, I pretty much denounced them. However, since that post was made, 2 epic singles have been released and a crap load of other stuff has happened. And to be honest, I’ve been drawn back. And I thought it back over, and in reality, I’ve figured I just have to learn to live with some of the things I don’t like abotu AKB48, which are really minimal to the things I do like.

One thing that really helped being me back were the release of studio albums for B4, K5 and A5. I love A5 and B5, so having some nice, clean versions of the songs to listen to was exactly what I have wanted since those stages came out. Now they just need to work on getting the albums for B3, A4, H1, H2 and K4, released. If they do that, then I’ll be a happy camper. Though all that crap in regards to their previous record label may hamper those stages getting releases for quite sometime. Gotta love the music industry.

The other thing that helped bring me back is the fact that SKE48’s first original stage done by Team S is actually quite good. You’ll remember a while back I didn’t like what I heard from that preview of S2. Well, having all the songs to listen to in full really makes a difference. I also found 2 members of SKE who I would call my favs: Matsui Rena and Matsushita Yui. Both are phenomenal performers and both are in my favorite of S2’s unit songs, Ame no Pianist. Romance Rocket, Innocence and Glory Days would be my other top favorite songs of the stage, though out of all those songs, Romance Rocket is without a doubt my favorite song of the stage. Its just so damn catchy. So yeah, I consider me a fan of SKE48 now. And with Team S’s 3rd Stage starting soon (boy, that was fast) we’ll be seeing more of them in the near future.

I’ve also been thinking alot about AKB’s recent single releases. I’m still adamant about my opinion that Namida Suprise sucks. However, since then, we’ve gotten two new singles; Iwake Maybe and RIVER. Both kick ass on whole new levels and are a welcome departure from the awfulness Namida was. Iwake and RIVER are especially awesome due to the fact that their B-Sides are equally as good as the A-Side, something I find rarely happens. Its normally one or the other thats good, with the other being somewhat mediocre. Both singles have introduced a new factor for future singles; multiple member lineups. Iwake has the Senbatsu members (those who were chosen via some voting thing from Namida Suprise) who perform the A-Side and the Undergirls (I hate that name, it makes it seem as if they aren’t as good as the Senbatsu members, though in Iwake’s case, I think their better, as the B-side is just a tad more awesome than the A-side, though both are good). Essentially, the Senbatsu members were the ones who got the highest votes ( I think they went up to 16 members) and everyone else who got below that (the number of members for this wasn’t 16, so it was really the next group of members who got voted high, but not as high as the first 16) were put into the Undergirls group. All the other members who weren’t in either of these groups got left out essentially. RIVER took this to the next level and has pretty much included every AKB48 member (and Rena and Jurina from SKE48) into the songs. The Senbatsu members again do the A-Side, the Undergirls do the B-side, and the Theatre Girls (which is the name given to the rest of the girls) gets the short end of the stick by having to do one ofm my least favorite A5 songs, Hikoukigumo. Seriously, they couldn’t have let them do a new song, or at least one that thats as good as the A/B side songs? Ah well, at least all 3 songs get a PV of their own, that’s pretty awesome.

The biggest news of course as of late is the reshuffling of the Teams. Team B was hit the hardest, with only 3 original members remaining (thank god Yukirin is one of them, and she’s the new captain of Team B to boot!). At first, I hated this news, but now as time passes, I’m excited about it. I can’t wait to see the new teams i action, and with some of my Team B favs spread out amongst A and K, I have more reason to pay attention to those teams now.

So yeah, I’m back in the AKB fandom, and loving it.

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.