Otakuism

So you’re an anime director and it’s the climax of the show. The big bad has revealed himself, every thing’s blowing up, the hero got his final power upgrade, punches are flying, everyone’s yelling, but some thing’s missing. It all needs just one more element to kick it up to eleven. Clearly, it needs Antonin Dvorak’s New World Symphony, specifically the climax of the fourth movent, cause nothing says epic action quite like a string section. Yes, Dvorak does show up rather commonly in anime, or at least I’ve found him in three different shows so I’m going to say he’s common.

I first heard it in One Piece during Luffy’s final fight with Crocodile. The Alabasta arc had already been going on for like a hundred episodes. All of the Baroque Works had been defeated, Pell had just sacrificed himself, and all of the Straw Hat Pirates were trying fruitlessly to stop the mindless bloodshed. And during it all Luffy’s stuck in an underground tomb fighting Crocodile for the third time, with the tomb collapsing around them of course. As soon as the New World started playing I knew it was all over. The scene also sinked well, as the happier, lighter movement started after Crocodile had been launched into the air. Just to note, One Piece isn’t that shy to other classical music. Chopper’s flashback arc makes brilliant use of Mozart’s Requiem, making the scene truly heartbreaking when it didn’t need to try that hard to make you cry even without music.

The New World Symphony is also used as the theme for Proist, the psychotic bitch main villain of Gaiking. Ironically enough she’s trying to destroy Earth and thinks that the New World Symphony is the only good thing humanity as ever produced, so much so that she even names her main mech, a giant self-replicating dragon made of nanomachines, Chou Maryu Dborak. Of course, Dborak eventually falls to the musical might of Gaiking the Great. It’s hard to beat Akira Kushida’s Sono Mei ha Gaiking the Great when it comes to hotblooded music.

And you can’t leave Legend of the Galactic Heroes out when it comes to classical music, since that’s what it’s whole soundtrack consists of. The New World symphony is used here as background for the Battle of Amlitzer, where the Alliance forces are completely crushed by Lohengramm. Rather ironic, since Dvorak composed the New World Symphony after traveling in America, and here it’s being used for a battle where the “democratic” forces are beaten. Then again, it’s better than being the main theme for a psychotic bitch.

Are there any other anime out there that use Dvorak that I haven’t seen? I’d love to know and get a real collection started.

Please someone tell me there’s a version of this song that doesn’t fade out at the end. It’s just too cruel for it to end that way.

Sadly Youtube does not have the full single of Alsatia up yet, so here’s my other favorite Galneryus song, Silent Revelation.

I may enjoy Mnemosyne for its pulpy ultra-violence, but there’s one thing I love it for: introducing me to the awesomeness that is Galneryus. I don’t really talk about my music preferences much, but I absolutely love power metal, speed metal, and whatever derivative genre one can think of. It’s always great when I can find a new band that I can actually enjoy every song they write in some way, and Galneryus is like this.

They’re the only power metal band I’ve discovered from Japan, I’m sure there’s more, and are oddly like most metal bands in that they sing in English rather than their native tongue, though they have been working Japanese into their recent stuff. Just listening to the full single for Mnemosyne’s OP, Alsatia, is sublime to me. If I only discover a new band every so often, at least I’m glad I can discover one as good as Galneryus to tide me over. Speaking of tiding me over, this month long wait for Mnemosyne is still killer. I’ll just have to loop Alsatia a few more times to pass the time.

The Fate/Zero Original Soundtrack Return to Zero is by far the thing I’ve been looking forward to most from C73. Took surprisingly long to get online for a popular studio. Most of the music is done by ZIZZ Studio, so of course it’s all awesome. The “OP” song is done by Watanabe Kazuhiro, all in english and a very good song. And surprisingly the “ED” is done by Itou Kanako, whose work I’ve loved since I played Phantom of Inferno. Predictably my favorite song is the one used in the promo, Yakusoku Sareta Shouri no Ken ZIZZ ver. So dramatic and epic. A great accompanying soundtrack for the epic Fate/Zero overall.

So in the last couple of days as I was searching my massive itunes list for something to listen to I decided on IOSYS, a group I hadn’t really listened to at all for the past few months. This mainly had to do with their last album Touhou Suisuisuusuu released at C72. On my first listening of it I thought it was complete garbage. Nothing really stood out to me as catchy or even really good. However, as I’ve been listening to the album again I’ve discovered there are actually quite a few good tracks on, particularly the epic duet 二つの翼 which has quickly become one of my favorite songs from IOSYS. Overall I find the album to be weaker from past albums but still featuring some quite good songs.

Renewed of my faith in IOSYS I downloaded their latest album from C73, tōhō kasokusōchi. Lo and behold I find this album to be even more lacking. There’s only a couple of tracks, 讃えよ我を、祀れ奇跡を and Power of dream, that I really like at all. Maybe I need to listen to it when next comiket comes around to really enjoy it. Overall IOSYS seems to get weaker and less original with every album. Tōhō otomebayashi, my first IOSYS album, is still my favorite, not just for Marisa Stole the Precious Thing but the other excellent vocal and instrumental tracks. Tōhō tsukitōrō is also a very strong album for being all vocal tracks, though it lacks the beautiful instrumentals of the former album. I enjoyed tōhō eijanho less than the other two though it still contains a few very good tracks, like the insanely catchy neko mimi Reimu. IOSYS is a good group who can compose some wonderful remixes and great vocal tracks, though with their later albums it seems like they lean on the vocal tracks too much, leading to mostly hit or miss affairs. I look forward to their next album, hoping I enjoy it more than their latest (though maybe not hoping much).

Since there’s literally hundreds of Touhou remix groups out there, way more than my poor computer can handle, who’s your favorite group, or who you think does the best remixes?

One awesome person translated the drama CD that came with DVD 5. The story is basically Gurren-Lagann translated to the crazy days of the Japanese eighties where school gangs, yakuza, and giant robots run rampant. It’s basically campus lagann and is incredibly AWESOME! Here’s the links:

Otoko Ippiki Gurren-Lagann Part 1

Otoko Ippiki Gurren-Lagann Part 2

Otoko Ippiki Gurren-Lagann Part 3

Favorite quotes:

Gimbley: Do not worry. This building belongs to the Gimbu-kai. And this is the 10th floor of the building. No matter who it is, they can’t come in here so easily.
*CRASH!*
Gimbley: …And now someone’s just come in!!

Yoko: I’ll show you the skill of the Dai-Gurren High Air Rifle Club President!
Kamina: You….how many clubs are you in charge of?

Kamina: What inhabits the chests of men is a blazing heart and unyielding will! I’ll lend fallen men a sword, but not money because I’m flat broke! This world’s number one roughneck! That’s me, Kamina-sama!

Kamina: Good! Let’s go! GATTAI!!!
*SMASH*
Simon: ……..A…Aniki? …..Ani..ki…?
Kamina: …….bwaugh! I-I’m okay! My dead old man was saying “It’s still too early” from the other side of the river!
Simon: You’re on the verge of death!
Kamina: I’m okay! The tip of the drill that came in through the ceiling just stabbed me a little!
Simon: It stabbed you?!
Kamina: The skin on my head got cut, that’s all! Thanks to that, now I’m WIDE AWAKE!!!!

Kamina: Spending all day doing nothing but fighting, what lies in the chest of this Banchou punk is hot blood and huge ambition!
Simon: Spending all day doing nothing but repairing, the oath of men repairs this world!
Kamina: The giant robot is revealed! I lay my life in this guy’s hands!
Kamina+Simon: BROTHERLY COMBINATION! GURREN-LAGANN! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!

Yoko: I can’t just let Kamina fight by himself! Please trust the skills of the Dai-Gurren High Long-Range Bombarding Club President!
Kittan: There’s a club for that?

Viral: Hahahahahaha! Do you see, Kamina?! This is my Hundred Enki Force! The one with two arms is Enkidu! Four arms is Enkidudu! Six arms is Enkidududu! Eight arms is Enkidudududu! The rooster’s cry is cock-a-doodle-do! To stop a horse you say “dou dou”…WHAT THE HELL?!

Kamina: Next time on OTOKO IPPIKI GURREN LAGANN! Conclusion Chapter! “Gurren-Lagann is in a great pinch! Rossiu’s forehead glimmers with killing intent!”

God I miss Gurren-Lagann.

JAM Project will be doing their own version of Motekke! Sailor Fuku. The Masters of all that is MANLY and HOTBLOODED in music will be singing that moe-pop crap. Something is dreadfully wrong with this. Yet I will still listen to it, but weep at the loss of all that is good in the world. Originally read about here from Anime Banzai.

And sorry for not posting anything in five days. It’s the longest unplanned break for me in a long time. Blame a bad mix of personal responsibilities, school, and just a lack of enthusiasm for blogging in general. I’ll try to get back into a normal pattern this week.