Jumping in Headfirst

Wow. Its all late and everything, and here I am typing this update. I should be sleeping, but I noticed other sites were actually getting their Anime Picks things up first, and that's just embarrassing since normally as soon as Chartfag gets his chart up I'm working on the list. You all will really have to excuse me. The updates have slowed down since I moved, and I apologize. I've been getting used to my new place and its taking some time to mesh the old routines with the new. Anyway. Winter 2010...first, the chart. You can find the chart here . Its kinda light on series. ...Even lighter on watchable series. Seikon no Quasar What It's About: The St. Mikhailov Academy student Oribe Mafuyu comes across a mysterious silver haired boy. He is called a Qwsaer, a being that draws power from Soma and is able to manipulate a specific element. And now, in the 21st century, the mystery revolving around an Icon turns the academy into the battlegrounds for the fight between ...

So a couple months ago basically I said pretty much everything in music was either boring or not at the level I normally expected from certain artists. Like Andre 3000 would say: Kinda sour, 'cause my favorite group ain't coming with it But I'm witcha 'cause ya prolly going through it anyway But anyhow, when in doubt, went on out and bought it 'cause I thought it would be jamming But examined all the flawsky-wawsky Awfully, sad and its costly But here at the close of 2009, a couple of noteworthy releases have come out to change the game up a bit. The good folks over at TheSmokingSection put me on to the new mixtape from Cash Money boy Li'l Wayne (Weezy F. Baby himself) , No Ceilings. While a mixtape from Weezy is as common as a sports star cheating on their spouse or a politician soliciting a prostitute (people were shocked about the Tiger thing. Really? He's a rich dude. Rich dudes cheat. Which is why I laugh when women say they want to marry rich--H...

Okay, so a long time ago someone told me that I hated movies. There could be some truth in that. After all, it was true that I hated Death Note. But I'm not so sure there was much truth in the rumor I hate rock since More Than A Feeling is on my mental mp3 player as we speak. I digress. I'm writing this because while I'm normally not one for movies, there are a few coming out in Japan soon that I'm pretty excited for. Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Double & Decade: Movie War 2010 The last little bit of Kamen Rider Decade, which I've gone in-depth about but my opinion has since changed since watching the full series. Kamen Rider Double & Decade: Movie War 2010 is one giant mega movie that will be split into three different parts: Kamen Rider Decade: Final Chapter is the true ending to the 775 minute commercial that was Kamen Rider Decade. Hopefully picking up where the series left off, we'll get to see Tsukasa throw down against Super-Shocker, headed ...

So it was something like, a few weeks ago that I claimed that I wasn't really digging the R&B scene and everybody I knew had pretty much fallen off. Well as it so happens I was checking out the Foxxhole just a few minutes ago and got introduced to a relatively new artist by the name of Melanie Fiona . Coming out of Toronto, Canada (catch up America...first Drake--who's a whole lot better than some of the dudes we've been coming up with, now Melanie Fiona...Canada is kicking your butt right now), Melanie brings a style that manages to hearken back to the old-school of R&B (everything from the Jackson 5/Motown heyday to the early/mid-90's where R&B was king) without being a slave to it. ...Y'know, there was a time when I didn't know what that meant exactly, but then one day I turned on the "oldie" station and they had on some really uninspired music that sounded like it was from the 60's or so...and then I noticed they were mentioning ...

The RPG genre has been in dire straits since about halfway through last gen. While AAA titles still sell a great deal without any trouble, and even non-AAA title are still profitable enough for us to see multiple RPGs each year, conversation between both reviewing critics and fans concerning RPGs continues to wander back to the state of one of gaming's oldest genres: Where RPGs are going, are they in trouble, can they remain relevant in the future? I doubt I have the answer to any of these, but a creativity bunny attacked me so I figured I'd do a post about it anyways. For years, RPGs have been the primary source for lovers of story in video games (along with SRPGs/RTS, which to me is all one big mega-genre anyway). This has been true dating all the way back to the original Nintendo Entertainment System, with Dragon Warrior and the original Final Fantasy games, and then going forward into the Super Nintendo with Final Fantasy III (VI) and Chrono Trigger, even up to the game t...

I don't talk about it very often, but one of my favorite movies is Ocean's Eleven. (Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen I've never really seen and never will unless poked.) For those who haven't seen it, its a surprisingly entertaining heist film starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts. I have a way of describing every detail of a movie when I summarize, so I'll try to keep this one alarmingly simple. George Clooney plays Danny Ocean, a brilliant con-artist/thief who rips off his ex-wife Tess Ocean's (Julia Roberts) boyfriend, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). He recruits the movie's remaining important characters (all specialists in the craft of ripping people off) including his long-time friend Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) to help him rob Benedict's casino, and in the process wins his girlfriend back. What is it Dane Cook said? Yeah yeah, I know the entire internet hates him but he was right about this: Every guy wants to ...

By now, you've surely figured out I'm a huge fan of Tokusatsu. Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Ultraman, Henshin Hero, I love it all. (Though, oddly enough, its most popular sub-genre, Kaiju, NEVER struck any kind of chords with me...) The standards, of course, are Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. They're the most famous, and unlike most other series, tend to come out every year. I love them both (lean towards Riders a bit more though), but its always nice when an independent company will release a brand-new series, even if it only lasts a year. The most recent "independent" Tokusatsu series to be announced (but not released yet) is SFX Fantasy Rayforce (Shigong Chongi Rayforce), from South Korea. I'd rather keep the introduction short so you can get right to the trailer, then I'll talk about it afterwards, so with no further yakking on my part... ....Freaking awesome. Right? Right? The suits were very well-done, which of course is always the first step. If...

Little more R&B for you. This one's for anyone dealing with a heartbreak right now. Personally, I think he (or she) wasn't really worth it (I don't necessarily know them, but--that's usually how it goes), but until you figure that out, vibe to the smooth, cool sounds of Jamie Foxx. ...Who, to me, is STILL the only nigga who's released a decent R&B album all this year. ...And his shit came out last December! Even Joe's album was only average, and All The Things was my song back in the day. Case too! Happily Ever After is STILL the ultimate wedding song, and all these years later, Faded Pictures is still my favorite R&B song of all time, but the only track off his new CD that was any good was Lovely, which: A.) Is the SECOND track on the album, so its all downhill from there, and B.) Sounds almost EXACTLY like Happily Ever After. They tell me Avant's album is cold, but I don't know...I'm losing faith. People wouldn't shut up abou...

I'm on CPT (Colored People Time) with this update, but between moving in and sleeping, I hadn't really thought about the Music and Song updates. Sorry folks. Truth be told, this update is kind of a surprise to me. I had no intentions of coming here today, but while I was listening to Foxxhole from a few weeks ago, they brought on Marques Houston. Now the last time I seen this dude, he was in the R&B group IMX (because when you get in your twenties you can't just run around calling yourself "Immature"--you can't just invite folks to clown on you like that) singing 'bout his First Time. Had all the kids in my seventh grade History class (somehow I got stuck with all the niggas) singing that shit. But that was a good six or seven years ago--personally I thought since then dude had fell off like a loose Halloween mask. ...But I guess not, 'cause at the end they played this song here, called A Case of You. I've been known to post a lot of R...

*blinks, checks the date* Its been THAT long since I updated JiH? Whoa. I apologize, folks. But, for once, something actually HAPPENED in my life. 'Course, stuff happens in people's lives all the time, but rarely is it worth really talking about--unless you're one of those Twitter-addicts who has to tell everyone when you bleed the lizard. (I kinda hate Twitter, but I HAVE found use for it. If you're a fan of "...That is SO wrong." humor? Check out @TheCoreyHolcomb and thank me later.) Anyhow. I thought about giving this place an update several times, but honestly I just did not feel up to it. I apologize for that, as I like to keep this thing up to date, at least for the Song and Music Video of the Day. (Retroactive updates are coming, but they're not the same.) The reason for my absence, is that, basically, I've moved. Quite the coincedence, since I went through such a hassle to move earlier this year with my girlfriend, but that didn'...

Another of my brief rants. I'll be adding these periodically as they come up, and do my best to keep them short 'cause I hate it when people go on and on in cases like this. We get it. You're angry. Go shoot something in a video game and calm the fck down. Anyhow. You know what really grinds my gears? The complaints about superheroes dominating the comic book industry. Don't get me wrong, its definitely true, but to hear these people talk, they sound like they'd be happy if superheroes were wiped out from comics entirely. ...Word, son? So then comics can be a respectable medium of storytelling like the others? And on top of that, exactly the same, too. Filled with the exact same genres except with nowhere near as interesting stories. Brilliant. Don't get me wrong--I don't hate ALL indy comics. Vertigo frequently comes out with some gems, and I really enjoy a lot of the licensed comics coming out of BOOM! and IDW, and I'm giving thought to che...

Here we are again. Its been awhile since I've done one of these, or it seems like its been awhile. Troubles with my connection have been making me pull back on anime a bit. Hopefully that won't last for much longer. As always, the giant chart is posted above. (Click it to get the full image.) Or go here . (More HQ version.) I actually haven't read it yet, so this will be a new experience for all of us! Queen's Blade: Heir to the Throne Brief Summary: The super fanservice-y show from this Spring returns with a sequel! (...Scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't we?) You know the deal: There's a competition to decide the next Queen, where the winner will be allowed to rule, while the contestants need only be older than 12. They can be from any race, or country. Why I'm Interested: Well...why not? The first one, as I understand it, was full of complete insanity, so the second should be the same, if not crank it up a notch. After all at this poi...

Whew. All this young person stuff is starting to get to me. Let's go for something from a little further back than this decade to finish out this week. And here we are, with The Queen of Music (I could've stuffed this entire week with her stuff...seriously) and one of her really early songs from her very first album, Gyuu. That places this song at about...1994, or so? Back when NGE was just another giant robot series. Back before people knew what a "digisub" was. And, in a way, back when anime was almost...magical to us folks over here in the West. Kind of a golden age, really. Heh, 'course, all that's quite before my time. Really when this song first came out I was still watching Power Rangers and Spider-Man: The Animated Series. But, a few years later, right around the time the anime boom was really hitting America (1999-2000), I started watching one of my favorite series, Sorcerer Hunters. Lovely show I'll talk about more later, but, much li...

Koihime Musou is one of those series that can ONLY come from Japan, with all of its harems and cute schoolgirls with infinite hammerspace capabilities. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms characters...all reimagined either as busty warrior girls or lolicons, and all of them in skimpy outfits. This would drive your average "artsy" anime fan a bit batty, but if you have a sense of humor, this is JUST amusing enough to be addicting. And this incredibly upbeat song by fripSide is the perfect opening.

Of course, sweet as Cosmic Love is (literally, it seems, according to the video), it doesn't come close to the face-burning off pwnery that is Dancing in the Velvet Moon. R+V's end theme, Nana dumps all the cutesy stuff and earns her Sage-bestowed Princess of Music title and shows us her vocal range with what is almost a complete 180 of Cosmic Love. Dancing in the Velvet Moon's epic, almost symphony-like music, paired with Mizuki's voice comes very close to being one of my favorite anime-related songs of all time. Enjoy. ....Gotta give the girl her props. She knows when and where to put the drama. Love her dress, too. (That is probably the most metrosexual thing I've ever said. ...Hopefully, I can keep it that way.)

I feel my Princess of Music hasn't gotten enough attention on here. Its impossible to unseat Masami-chan , but Nana Mizuki would be the one to do it if anyone were to, and because of that she's earned the title of Princess of Music from me. My first introduction to Mizuki-chan was the fanservice (and panties)-laden Rosario to Vampire, where she voiced the main love interest, Akashiya Moka. I've never been the type to pay much attention to seiyuu, but when I noticed she also did the peppy opening song to the series, Cosmic Love, that's when I sat up and took notice.

Sousei! Gattai! GO! AQUARION!!! Haha, I really don't get tired of that. Just such a great sync phrase. Aquarion is one of the few ACTUAL Super Robot series left. Everybody's too busy looking at shit like Code Geass or Macross or Gundam (NONE OF WHICH HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH SUPER ROBOTS...aside from G) and calling that Super Robot lately. Oh well. Akino's second OP for Aquarion is just as awesome as the first, so enjoy folks!s

...Freaking Hyde. You suck, dude. No joke. Hyde never has to do another good song for the rest of his life (though he has), and the sheer, nuts-shattering AWESOMENESS of Driver's High will STILL provide him with cool points. Even the freaking video is top quality. *sighs* Carry on, you obnoxiously talented bastard. Carry on.

Another case of a seiyuu singing. This one's the character song for Sonsaku Hakufu, protagonist of Ikki Tousen. Another case of harmonization reeling me in, but...do you not hear that guitar riff? Its the PERFECT song to play while you're kicking the crap out of someone in your favorite fighting game. (Incidentally, Sonsaku Hakufu has got to be one of the most ridiculous protagonists in a shounen-type series ever.)

Code Geass' first opening. FLOW is a very interesting rock band, to me. Much like L~Arc, normally I can take them or leave them. But every now and again, they'll get on the right anime OP and rip it. You gotta admire that, on some levels. Granted, Code Geass sucks, but we'll get into that later.

Ah, Japan. This whole thing totally threw me at first. I'm used to them bringing in either nameless singers or big-name guys (see: Phil Collins) for songs in animation series or movies, but in Japan they usually try to get the actual stars of the series to do at least ONE song for the series, often times either doing a song specifically related to their character, or doing the opening or the ending song of the series. Occasionally, they'll even drag all the seiyuus together into a room and make them do the opening/ending song as a group. Bamboo Blade's Star Rise is one such case. You'd think this would be awful, as carrying a tune is not a skill all humans possess. Generally though, they seem to know when and where to do this, though either way I usually bail on these things. However, I AM a sucker for good harmonization, something these girls have in spades. So, enjoy!