For anyone who's waiting for the next Madoka summary (are there any of you?) I apologize -- it's been a busy week. I'll include my thoughts for episode 7 when I do my write-up for episode 8.

For now, here's some sporadic coverage on J-music, which includes only stuff that I'm interested in because I am egocentric like that:



Pop duo angela, who've churned out some amazing songs for Soukyuu no Fafner, Stellvia of the Universe and Asura Cryin', will be in Singapore for Jplex, along with FLOW (who did OPs for Code Geass). I've gone and blown SGD98 (I am so broke now) for tickets to angela's live, and I really hope it'll be worth it, although the 70 minutes performance time sounds a bit short. But it includes a meet-and-greet session, so that'll sweeten the deal a bit. They were amazing when I saw them at Anime Festival Asia, and I'm counting on them to deliver once again.




Onitsuka Chihiro's announced a new single (Aoi Tori) and album (Ken to Kaede) for release on the 6th and 20th of April respectively. Something to look forward to, certainly -- she's an amazing singer and songwriter, and one of few solo J-pop singers I truly admire. She's also releasing an autobiography on the same day as the album release. I would be very interested in reading that, although I doubt it'd get translated. I can't help wondering about the woman behind those beautiful, painful songs, with their depressing outlook on love. And from what I've picked up she's seen some really rough days, especially during her hiatus. And just last year she was the victim of an assault, by a guy she was dating, no less. Ouch.

She also seems to have switched record labels again, from Universal to For Life Music Entertainment...well, as long as it won't impede her ability to put out great music, what label she's with shouldn't matter.



Versailles Philharmonic Quintet's (or just Versailles) new PV Philia came out a few days back. The single for the song itself will be out only on March 15.

It's...a decent song, I suppose. Listenable enough, but I'm not terribly impressed. Might grow on me. It actually sounds more like something I'd expect from Galneryus, more straight-up metal rather than romantic visual rock. But we get the usual guitar harmony between Hizaki and Teru, and I am always a sucker for dual harmonizing guitars.

Loving the black costumes, though. I don't usually pay much attention to costumes (pretty weird for a Visual Kei fan) other than to appreciate the fact that they're in something more interesting to look at than T-shirts and jeans. But those black outfits caught my eye -- they're pretty low-key, by Versailles's standards, but sleek and classy.


He's been around too long to be a young man. But he still looks pretty hot


I can only dream of looking as cute in that dress. Damn, Hizaki

Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll try to get that Madoka entry up within the next couple of days. Stay tuned!

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I swear, I'm capable of talking about subjects other than Madoka and Kalafina...I'll prove it at some point. I'm aware that right now this blog does little more than betray the depth of my obsessions with Madoka and Kalafina.

*coughhere!cough*

I've always thought that Kajiura (and whoever else was responsible for their image) took some cues from Visual Kei when creating the Kalafina project, consciously or otherwise. The dramatic nature of their songs was no more than what I had expected from Kajiura, but the elaborate costumes...I doubt this would be a popular theory (so many VK haters these days) and it doesn't really matter anyway. But it's just what I feel.

Anyway, when the 40-second preview for Magia PV came out, one of the first things I thought was "Visual Rock Kalafina!!!!111!!"

But after the full PV hit YouTube, and the focus on Hikaru became more apparent, another image began to take form in my mind. A commanding Hikaru with her smoldering gaze, in the forefront, flanked by the other two --




Dominatrix queen Hikaru and her handmaidens.

I know, I know, me and my crazy ideas.

I told myself I wouldn't do another Kalafina entry till Magia came out (if I didn't control myself this blog would be overflowing with entries of every little thing they did, and Canta-per-me.net does a far better job anyway). But when one of the lovely denizens on the aforementioned site's forums linked to this video, well...I couldn't help myself.


Courtesy of Kawaii Girl Japan, a site I wish I'd heard of earlier

One of the few subtitled video interviews/comments available of Kalafina! While I appreciate the translated transcripts of other videos that fellow fans have kindly provided, it's nice to know what they're saying as they say it.

Suffice to say this is not helping my obsession in the least. Wakana is charmingly talkative as usual, Keiko surprisingly comes across as a little subdued -- an impression broken by that silly healing spell moment at about 7:06 -- and Hikaru can be pretty eloquent when talking about their songs.

Overall, they are adorable.

They also seem pretty serious about taking care of their singing voices (then again, this isn't something I know much about).

It's clear that the subs are kind of paraphrased, but that's fine. I did catch what I thought was a rather glaring mistake though. Where Keiko says "Peter no nii-chan" (as in, Nathan Petrelli, and yes, they're talking about Heroes) the subs just say "Peter". But I can forgive the subber(s) for that, certainly.

Oh look it's something actually related to the blog's title!

I've been listening to a lot of Kalafina and Kajiura lately (well, more so than usual). But sometimes I set my iTunes on shuffle and get reminders of how there's actually a whole bunch of other music that I adore

Like old school Visual Kei. Oh how I adore old school Visual Kei.



Gram∞Maria seem pretty obscure even by indie VK standards...I think I picked this song up at an MP3 rotation. It's so deliciously OTT.

Now here's something even more obscure - 80's Japanese progressive rock:



I found this song completely by accident on YouTube -- I was actually looking for another Japanese song called Leanhaun Shee. I was so fascinated by this song I went and to look for a copy of their album(apparently they still have quite a number of fans).

I don't think a lot of people will share my taste in music. But I don't think it matters either. The important this, I love what I'm listening to.

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I really haven't been this excited over an anime for a while. Okay, that's actually a lie, I was absolutely crazy about Shiki...Oh, fine. If we discount Shiki, it really has been years since I've been so impressed by an anime series. I normally don't watch more than a few series for each new season, and I'm glad I managed to pick a good one from the get-go.

...I'll admit, the only reasons I picked Madoka in the first place were because Kajiura Yuki was composing its soundtrack and Kalafina was providing the ED. The title of the series alone didn't sound too exciting. And the CMs...Seriously, go watch them, and you'll understand. I'm not really a fan of moe or magical girls, and they seemed eager to emphasize the fact that there was little more to Madoka than both of those things.

As it turns out, there was a very good reason those CMs were gave that impression. And no, not because Madoka was what it was made out to be.

A lot of people called it. They said, with Shinbo, and Urobochi, there was no way this would be any ordinary mahou shoujo anime. I didn't know Urobochi, but I had some familiarity with Shinbo's work. And he certainly didn't seem like the type to be working on something with such a fluffy premise. I wanted to believe it, I really did.

The first two episodes were a visual feast -- that creepy, surrealistic world within the witches' barriers was gorgeously rendered, and Mami's Unlimited Musket Works mode of attack was delightful in its badassery. If you were searching, you could find what might be construed as hints that Madoka would take a darker tone. But the expected tropes of a magical anime still seemed to be firmly in place. I found myself thinking, "Maybe it really will be just another magical girl anime."

It took just 3 episodes to disabuse me of that notion.

Ohboyohboyohboy.

Hit the jump for more.

...or not, if you're really broke. Ugh, wait, I am really broke. I may have to rethink this.

Guess buying that Magia single will have to wait a while. Well, it's not out for a couple of weeks, anyway. I'm planning on raving about it after its release. For now, I'm enjoying the PV preview and the TV-size ED for Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Now that's a show is going to get its own raving, gushing entry...

And there's still plenty of Kalafina to be enjoyed, regardless of whether you have to cash to blow (well, at least until Youtube decides to delete it). I nearly went crazy trying to find some way to watch this after it aired in Japan, especially after hearing that Kalafina would be covering a certain Gundam SEED theme... But finally, clips of Animax Musix Fall 2010 have hit Youtube, after an eon (okay, more like 8 days) after the airing date.

As biased as I am towards them, I have to admit that Kalafina has a history of not doing so well for non-oneman lives. Although it's a bit unfair to say they suck live -- I mean, it's quite a stretch to expect them to sound as perfect live as they do on recordings. This time round, though, the performance was mind-blowingly awesome. You could attribute that to post-production wizardry (it probably helped, to some degree) , but I prefer to think the credit's due to a combination of them making use of ear monitors for the first time (have they been sticking with those?) and the ladies just finally getting the hang of it.

Watched three clips so far. There was Hikari no Senritsu. Wasn't particularly excited over this one, since there's already been a few recordings of them performing it, but I think this may be their best rendition of it so far. Hikaru sounds steadier on the opening verse than usual -- that's usually the weakest part of the song in lives. As for Keiko and Wakana, well, as far as I'm concerned, they were as close to perfect as they could get.

I'm also really liking Hikaru's falsetto range -- it was a lovely touch at the chorus.


I'm also still coveting Hikaru's dress


And Wakana's gloves


And here is a picture of Keiko, who never needs a reason to have me post her picture