Category — Japanese Media

Has anybody played the PSP game, Yuusha 30? It’s a fun game, and can easily be done in small doses. Not that it’s a super easy game either, but I digress. If you haven’t picked up the soundtrack, now would be a good time to do so, because I’ve just added the romaji to VGMdb! Now you can name the tracks if you happen to like using romaji like I do. Unfortunately, UTF-8 isn’t used in my Alpine deck, so for now, my iPod needs the romaji names for the tracks. So, to clarify, click here to access VGMdb and click on the Romaji tab next to the Tracklist heading.

Details, review, and download inside. Read or Gackt will become unpretty!

ANNA TSUCHIYA inspi’ NANA (BLACK STONES) – LUCY (CD+DVD)

Another week, another J-Media post. This time around, I have Tsuchiya ANNA’s latest single, LUCY. It’s not a bad single, but not as good as her previous single, Kuroi Namida. I still liked it enough to buy it, though. Some of her songs have a style that I normally don’t like, but her melodies are catchy, which keeps me coming back for more.

The title track, LUCY, is pretty standard fare – hard, rocking, and in your face. The second track, better day, could have been… umm… better. Hahaha, the pun was totally intended. But anyway, it’s not bad – kind of a slow rock track with a twinge of country in there. However, the last track, Dance with me, was a sleek and sexy track (with a wanka-wanka, crybaby wah guitar riff to boot!) that really shows Tsuchiya’s talent through. The PV for LUCY is pretty standard rock video fare – the cover is exactly what’s in the video. Tsuchiya is as punk as they come, and you sometimes forget that she’s a model. The anime version PV is just a collage of clips from the NANA anime. The clips are cute and the song matches the anime (unlike Nakashima’s Hitoiro for NANA 2). Overall, I give this single a 7/10.

以上。。。であります。

Amuro Namie – Baby Don’t Cry (CD+DVD)

This is actually the second part of my two-part Japanese Media release for this week. I missed posting last week’s, so I’m posting them both today, but in separate entries to make them easier to search for in the future. So, if you’re only viewing my entries one at a time, there’s one more before this with OLIVIA’s The Cloudy Dreamer.

People may not realize this, but all the scans I include with my releases are done by me. I’m getting a little better at scanning and retouching images, so I hope they’re satisfactory for people who like high quality scans. For those who are curious, yes, my scanner is still broken, but CD covers and booklets are small enough to avoid the broken area, so I can get away with it. Just don’t expect me to get magazine scans going unless I find a way (ie. a plugin) around this issue.

Baby Don’t Cry is a good single for Amuro’s first 2007 release, but it’s not as catchy as her previous single, CAN’T SLEEP, CAN’T EAT, I’M SICK. However, the b-side of this single, Nobody, is a better b-side than Ningyo was for the last single (I personally don’t like covers, though). The PV for Baby Don’t Cry was a neat concept, showing Amuro walking through Tokyo from day until night, but it really didn’t make sense with the overall theme of the song. To anybody who’s considering buying this single, I only recommend it to those who either love the song or are hardcore Amuro otaku like I am.

以上。。。であります。

OLIVIA – The Cloudy Dreamer (CD+DVD)

Welcome to another Japanese Media post! Now that I have a MacBook, I decided to be a little Mac OS X friendly, so I changed the archive type to ZIP format instead of RAR. So, the only change is that you can either use the native Windows/Mac OS X tool to unzip the file, or a third-party program such as WinRAR. I’ll be updating the FAQ accordingly to reflect this change.

So, specific details about this release – it’s the latest mini-album from OLIVIA, otherwise known as Olivia Lufkin, the half-Japanese/American goth-loli princess of trashy pop/rock. I love her music, and while this was a solid release that echoes her newfound success for the first time in her career, I’m still more of a fan of the genre she made with her second album, The Lost Lolli. Nevertheless, this mini-album is kick-ass, and has more than enough rock to… umm… rock your socks off. She also veered away from her electronica tendencies in this mini-album, adopting the musical style of TRAPNEST from the anime, NANA, for which these songs were written, with the exception of the wonderful power ballad, Dream Catcher, the ED theme for the Jigoku Shoujo dorama. My recommendation on this album is Stars shining out (the PV is included in the DVD), though my most favorite song is Wish (English ver.). I actually like this version more than the original Japanese version – a first for me – but OLIVIA’s vocals really match in either language.

The second video clip is actually live footage that contains songs from The Lost Lolli and her single, a little pain. Her live performance, vocal-wise, wasn’t as accurate as they should be, but her vibrant energy during the performance was exuberating. That, and she’s just cute as a button!

I didn’t get a chance to post this last week, so I’m posting this today, along with Amuro Namie’s Baby Don’t Cry, which is the next post. Hope you enjoy them both, and feel free to leave comments!

以上。。。であります。

ANNA TSUCHIYA inspi’ NANA (BLACK STONES) – 黒い涙

You are looking at the very first official Japanese Media post with direct download! Mind you, I’m cheating a little bit and using MegaUpload to host my files, but you get the idea.

So, the concept is very simple. The link is above – click on it and it will take you to Megaupload where you can download the file (no registration or payment necessary, unless you feel like supporting Megaupload). Once the file is finished, use WinRAR to extract the file – it will automatically create its own folder. The music and the PV have been prepared specially for iTunes (and subsequently, iPod) and PSP. These are just the quick instructions for now, I will be writing a full FAQ under the Pages section on the left, so if you’re having problems, leave a comment for now and I’ll answer as promptly as I can.

This single is awesome – the title track is awesome, and the deep sadness version puts a little twist on it. JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH happens to be a cover of the classic Depeche Mode song, and I’m addicted to you rounds the rest of the single out perfectly. While rose was good, I liked Kuroi Namida better. Also, a little bit of trivia – Kuroi Namida is Tsuchiya’s first song that has a Japanese title.

I actually posted this one for Jennie because she said she didn’t have the entire single.

以上。。。であります。

Yes, it’s that time once again. I’m really surprised by the popularity of my sabra DVD uploads on YouTube. I mean, seriously, I get a handful of new subscribers everyday! Sex really does sell. But nobody cares about my blog anyway. *sigh* U_U

Anyway, I didn’t like the way YouTube handled the AC3 audio in the videos I uploaded, so I demuxed the AC3 audio tracks, converted them to stereo mixes, and then re-encoded them in MP3, muxing them back together with the videos. It’s a little bit more extra work, but I don’t mind (it just delays my posting). Speaking of delays, sorry for the lateness of this post. For some strange reason, YouTube’s default uploader was being stupid and wouldn’t transmit, so I reverted back to the plain uploader. Unfortunately, I was seeding torrents (I’m ALWAYS seeding torrents) so my upload speed was crap. Work was also busy, so I couldn’t do it then. Such is life.

There’s a blooper in this DVD. In the NEW FACE video of Nanase Ai (who is very kawaii!), her name appears as Sakura Mio halfway through. Disregard it – sabra frakked up.

Bad news, as well. I went to scan the magazine so I can actually start posting some pictures of the gravure photoshoots, when I found out that my scanner has an almost invisible line that runs down the middle of the glass. As a result, all scans have this line, and I don’t have the time to be photoshopping this issue when encoding the videos takes me long enough. I’m currently shopping for a new scanner, which is a shame – this one served me quite well for a while, and it’s super thin! In fact, it’s so thin that I shoved it under my desk, piled a 200-CD binder full of discs on top, and used it as a footrest. I think I might have a clue as to why my scanner is broken… X_x

You know the drill. Click the NSFW link to view the videos.

Before you start to ask, yes, I did receive the previous issue with DVD 45. The problem was, instead of including their usual content, they filled it with full-hair nudes and simulated sex clips of the amazing Handa Sasa. Handa Sasa was a chaku-ero idol who, to the sudden shock of all her fans, made the move to AV. When she released her first nude photobook, guess who added it to cart the same day?

Me, of course, in case you couldn’t guess.

Anyway, since the content is quite inappropriate, I couldn’t post it on YouTube. I tried looking for some alternatives, but alas, it’s not meant to be. Maybe I’ll post a torrent someday (because of my crappy upload speed, I could never properly seed a torrent).

Ahem. Anyway, on with the show. As usual, I’ve posted all the videos from the GIRLS section of the DVD. However, I’ve also decided to start posting all the other sections of the DVD, except for the clip of the PEUGEOT Coupe 407. You can see that anywhere. Hot Japanese girls are exclusive! ^^

Click the NSFW link to continue.

Another issue of sabra came in the mail today – that means four more gravure videos for my lucky readers (and once the new Mitake is up and running, I can post my favorite scans from the magazine).

Got the latest sabra in the mail today. Ripped the four featured girls on the DVD, and I’ll be posting pics of the magazine later, because the sexy race queen, Matsumoto Sayuki, makes a gravure appearance.