Uematsu and Abe.

Featured Girl

KAORI

Got a flu this week. Sick with a cold on Tuesday, fever by the afternoon. I had to leave slightly early or I would’ve made myself more sick. Dosed up on meds, watched Friends. I miss that crazy show. Joey is an interesting enough spin-off, but it’s not the same without the whole gang! Anyway, the fever went down by the next morning, but the cold is still killing me. Oh well, at least I get to spread the love to those government employees. Muahaha.

Got a chance to listen to the FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN soundtrack on Wednesday. It’s the first time I ever just sat down and listened to music without doing anything else. It brought back all the memories of the game and the movie. Uematsu really did a number on his composition and arrangement. Light and airy for the first half of the soundtrack. Edgy and rock-inspired for the second half (ie. the action sequences).

Spanning Wednesday and last night, I finally got a chance to watch all of Haibane Renmei. It’s so stereotypical Japanese – the anime focuses more on the underlying human elements rather than the unexplained plotline. Why do I say stereotypical? Well, the Japanese have a tendency to create stories where they introduce a unique situation without any explanation, only to use it as background to fuel the underlying issues of everyday life – be it loneliness, happiness, sadness, guilt, redemption, trust, fear, death, etc. As a result, you tend to feel more human when you finish watching. Although I haven’t watched it yet, I’m sure that TECHNOLYZE follows this trend. Abe is very notorious for this. He likes to focus on issues based on human nature and philosophy. I’m not saying I hate it, but I wish he wouldn’t use background plotlines that just beg for explanations! This is unrelated, but CASSHERN did the same thing with the whole lightning bolt fiasco. In a way, though, these types of shows make you think after they’re over, which is very conducive to popularity and replayability. Who wants to worry about a show that resolved everything? I’ve seen SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN (my all-time favorite) four times or so, read all the materials I could about the show, and even got into a Lain phase for a while there, and I still don’t know what the heck Abe was trying to do in some parts. It’s great. A storyline with some mystery is as interesting as a person who’s an enigma, wouldn’t you agree?

Current Music: Uematsu Nobuo – Tatakau Mono Tachi (Piano Version)

The arrangement for this is… breathtaking! Although some parts had to be cut out or revised, the main melody of the song is intact, and played masterfully. As a composer, Uematsu should be included in the ranks of Beethoven and Mozart. Well, with as many game otaku as there are in this world, he might as well be.