We at MIT Anime would like to thank any of you who have visited this humble blog to read about our experiences in anime and our club activities. Seven months ago, we envisioned miteiru! as a space on the Internet for students and fans in Cambridge, MA [...]]]> This will be the final post on miteiru!.

We at MIT Anime would like to thank any of you who have visited this humble blog to read about our experiences in anime and our club activities. Seven months ago, we envisioned miteiru! as a space on the Internet for students and fans in Cambridge, MA to discuss in depth about a beloved medium from the other side of the planet. We’ve since enjoyed sharing how we’ve seen anime makes its mark on the Institute and how it’s affected our own adventures. However, throughout this time, it became increasingly clear that this blog was unable to develop enough interest– among both readers and the bloggers– to facilitate the kind of discussion we had hoped for, and as its purpose has not been served, we will be shutting down.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear them; please send messages to anime-inquiry@mit.edu

Cover of Animerca 1

However, Japan has a music scene beyond the idols and [...]]]> For most connoisseurs of Japanese animation, their sole exposure to Japanese music lies within the openings, endings and various insert songs for whatever anime they watch. Higher level nerds sometimes go the extra mile and partake of music by idols aimed at otaku, or mainstream J-Rock.

However, Japan has a music scene beyond the idols and visual-kei. A music scene filled with individuals who make music solely for the sake of music. And honestly? I don’t feel I’m qualified to really talk about it. However, there are a few groups that I really like, so I figure I can drop some words on them to drum up a bit of interest on this side of the Pacific.

I’ve included links to sample songs for each band, along with a link to CDJapan in case someone gets an itch to listen to more….

Cymbals

Emerging from the flames towards the end of the Shibuya-kei movement, Cymbals continued on in the fine tradition of their Shibuya-kei forefathers of drawing heavily on Western influences. According to Nippop, Cymbals draw heavily on the sound of ’60s-era British pop-rock. But for those who don’t know what means (Like me!), let me break it down.

Cymbals are arguably a rock band, but they touch upon a variety of styles. Their best-of disc, Anthology, probably does the best job of touching upon all the different genres they’ve covered. That said, most of their music is straight up rock characterized by heavy guitar use, brisk pacing, and a very light and fluid sound. However, there is a strong jazz element present throughout a lot of their music. They don’t shy away from horns when they want to, and often times match their guitar riffs to lush piano backing. A number of their songs are simply not rock at all–Love Thing is 100% big band, and their album Sine is completely keyboard driven and atmospheric.

As you could probably tell from that Love Thing video, Cymbals’ fetish for the West goes so far as to affect the language a lot of their songs are sung in. Okii–the band leader– has some English knowledge under his belt, and specializes in writing bizarre lyrics such as, “Can you tell that feeling, flying high deep in my brain?” These lyrics are then delivered to varying degrees of proficiency by vocalist Toki Asako, but her beautiful voice really shines when singing in her native tongue. Toki’s delivery is soft, warm and honestly rather cute, but naturally cute, unlike that of produced idols.

Cymbals had a lot of output in their short time of activity between 1997 and 2003, and a lot of it is rather good. A lot of it very amateur as well, but in a way that’s part of their charm. In the end, they’re really just a bunch of nerdy college kids who were into Western music, and their output reflects that fairly accurately.

Sample Tracks

• Rally
• My Brave Face
• Gozen Hachi-ji no Dassou Keikaku

Capsule

While Cymbals simply followed in the footsteps of the Shibuya-kei tradition, Capsule is actually branded as Neo-Shibuya-kei. This time drawing from the vast knowledge of Wikipedia, Capsule is apparently influenced by bossa nova, lounge, breakbeat and electro house. But once again, I don’t know what that means!

At its core, Capsule is simply another vessel for hot ‘n’ hip music producer Nakata Yasutaka to mess around with dials and knobs creating all manner of electronic music. Nakata is all about mixing up styles, and as a result Capsule’s sound has shifted greatly over their near 10 years of activity. Their sound has gone from being a straight up pastiche of Shibuya-kei (which is ironic, since Shibuya-kei is mostly pastiche of Western music); to playful and lighthearted (almost otaku-ish) electronic pop; to heavy electronica. What remains consistent, however, is Nakata’s  ability to create very complex and engaging electronic arrangements that are rarely ever boring.

Vocals are handled by Koshijima Toshiko, and as one progresses through the duo’s discography, her voice becomes more and more vocoded to the point where she sounds completely different. Her vocals are wispy, airy and at times seductive, with hint of cuteness where necessary.

While Nakata has fallen into the habit of producing albums that all more or less sound the same, there’s a lot of variety across Capsule’s back catalog, and a lot if it is very good.

Sample Tracks

• Tokyo Kissa
• Starry Sky
• Love or Lies

Omokage Lucky Hole

• Ore no Sei de Koushien ni Ikenaktta- Because of me we Couldn’t go to Koushien
• Pachinko Yatteru Aida ni Umareta Mamonai Musume wo Kuruma no Naka de Shinaseta… Natsu- That Summer When I Let my Baby Daughter Die in The Car While I Was Playing Pachinko
• Ano Otoko no Ryou ga Ookatta- That Man Blew a Huge Load
• Gojuuyon Hiai, Machibou- Waiting in Vain For 54 Days

If you hadn’t already gathered, those are a few song titles by Omokage Lucky Hole. Their subject-matter ranges from the absurd, the pathetic, to the downright dirty. They mostly focus on that last one.

According to Japanese Wikipedia, Omokage Lucky Hole is a “Japanese funk band”, but that isn’t terribly accurate. While a lot of their songs certainly are funky, they often times fall into the category of R&B, with lots of smooth, slow jams and a few no-nonsense hip-hop pieces. They also have a good number of fast-paced, upbeat pieces that jive more with the funk side of things than with R&B. Their compositions are primarily driven by loud, commanding, and energetic horns; backed by solid bass and percussion; with an electric guitar added in when needed. How they structure their songs fluctuates between very standard and by the book structures, to more interesting and organic ones.

Their distinct funky sound is only part of what sets them apart from a lot of Japanese musical acts. As I mentioned in the opening, a lot of their strength lies in their lyric writing. The topics covered are oftentimes sordid, and usually focus on the the pathetic nature of Japanese middle-class life. Lead vocalist Acky’s delivery of each and everyone sordid lyric oozes with soul, and he will often times sing from the point of view of a woman, using the feminine Japanese pronoun “atashi”. These lyrics, matched with Acky’s singing and the band’s funky instrumental backing, makes for some of the most ironic, and at times downright hilarious music I’ve ever heard. It’s very dry humour–and at times very dark–but it hits the part of me that laughs at suicide jokes in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

If you can’t understand Japanese, the instrumental portion of Omokage’s music should be enough to engage you if you’re a fan of funk and R&B. However, just a hint of Japanese knowledge adds a completely new dimension to these songs, and you’ll start listening to them for the lyrics. Which is rare in Japanese music, I find.

Sample Tracks

• Chisana Mama Ni
• Kanarazu Onaji Tokoro De
• Pachinko Yatteru Aida ni Umareta Mamonai Musume wo Kuruma no Naka de Shinaseta… Natsu

This year, J, Alexandra, our friend Lushan, and I got a table at the [...]]]>
Just got back from AnimeBoston, our big local annual anime convention! This was my third year at the con, and it was the same huge, energetic event as before, with a final attendance count of 17,236, up 2K from last year.

This year, J, Alexandra, our friend Lushan, and I got a table at the Artists’ Alley to promote our new Vocaloid doujinshi anthology, Medley (which I’ll be making a separate post about). We were a little disappointed that American fans aren’t really that into doujinshi, but we still got people who took a look at our book, so that was cool.

Alexandra, me, Lushan and J at our Artists' Alley table.

J and I were also a cosplay duo– China and Hong Kong, respectively, from Axis Powers Hetalia. (Actually, I also brought back my Makinami Mari cosplay for Friday.) It was J’s first real cosplay (being mistaken for Harry Potter doesn’t count), and it was really the first cosplay that I’ve ever done of a character who isn’t completely obscure.

Some of the highlights of the con included Nobuo Uematsu– the composer for the Final Fantasy series– and the Video Game Orchestra concert (they also performed at PAX East, the gaming convention the week before). AniBos chooses a theme for each year’s convention, and this year’s was “Mad Science,” so there were a lot of panels that were science-related (great for MIT students!). I myself ran a panel on the children’s anime Doraemon (which is science-fiction in its own way) called “How a Little Gadget Cat Could Change the World,” as a semi-academic presentation on Japanese views of technology and anime’s role in international diplomacy. Meanwhile, wah gave an excellent and informative talk called “The Life and Times of Akiyuki Shinbo” about said prolific director, his signature cinematographic style, and his work with SHAFT animation studio.

Some sweet pics cosplays from the con– and some MIT students!:

Echan (MIT) and OZ (Harvard) as Hikaru and Wizard from Angelic Layer.

Brian Chan, MIT alum, at his artists' alley table http://www.etsy.com/shop/chosetec

Dark (MIT) and Ven as Zalera and Adrammelech, two Final Fantasy XII summons. They are insane.

J and me as China and Hong Kong, posing with Brian's amazing hand-crafted erhu! (Axis Powers Hetalia)

The most adorable Ed Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, and his father, Hohenheim!

A Kasane Teto Vocaloid cosplayer, quite a rarity

Danbo, from Yotsuba&!

Gumi, another somewhat rare Vocaloid cosplay

A very clever Gekokujou x Aku no Musume Vocaloid cosplay

Uiharu, from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. We'd gotten excited about Railgun from Anime Club, so it was great to see a cosplayer!

A pretty sweet Kuroshitsuji trio-- Madame Red, Ciel, Sebastian

Nanami Madobe, the best OS-tan

Adorable Prussia + Austria in a dress! from Axis Powers Hetalia

A Gekokujou quartet-- Rin, Len, Kaito, Meiko from Vocaloid

Lucy Heartphilia from Fairy Tail

Yellow from Pokemon Special

Overall, great con; if you didn’t go, you missed out! By the way, if you’re an MIT student who went and I didn’t get your photo, please send me a pic so I can include it here!

Not quite anime-related, but this certainly might be relevant to some of your interests.

Here’s one item I recently crossed off my List of Things To Do Before I Die: to see Utada Hikaru live in concert! As part of her first US tour, the beloved Japanese pop diva stopped by Paradise Rock [...]]]>

Not quite anime-related, but this certainly might be relevant to some of your interests.

Here’s one item I recently crossed off my List of Things To Do Before I Die: to see Utada Hikaru live in concert! As part of her first US tour, the beloved Japanese pop diva stopped by Paradise Rock Club in Boston, right next to Boston University, on February 5, 2010. Of course, since she’s not nearly as famous in the States, the event was much smaller than anything she would normally have back in Japan– Paradise only holds about three hundred (with maybe one hundred at the foot of the stage), and tickets started at a mere $26.50USD (but easily multiplied ten times in price through arbitrage!).

Although none of us knew it at the time, apparently Hikki was around Boston for quite a bit more than just the concert! Matt McGann, Associate Director of Admissions, wrote the following on the MIT Admissions Blog:
“J-pop fans: I’ve been reading MIT applications long enough to know that some of you will be super-excited to learn that Hikaru Utada was hanging around MIT, getting ice cream with Prof. Ian Condry. (If you are among those who are excited, you wil probably enjoy Prof. Condry’s course Japanese Popular Culture, being taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays this term)”

You have no idea how much jealousy is coursing through my veins right now, Professor Condry.

On to the concert report!

The line outside the club was really long– and probably the biggest gathering of Japanese people I’ve ever seen in Boston. Although there were plenty of non-Japanese anime and J-Pop fans in attendance, the line was really a mass of black-haired heads and a chorus of Japanese voices.

The opening act was DJ Rizzle, someone who apparently mixed tracks for Hikki’s albums, but I’m not terribly familiar with him. He played a lot of recent American music (which, as an otaku, I was embarrassingly unfamiliar with), and unfortunately, it didn’t seem terribly appropriate. During his stint and the sound check that felt like an eternity that followed, it was obvious that the crowd was really waiting impatiently for Utada Hikaru.

But she entered, and it was awesome! Hikki came in with the intro from Exodus, in a wild, sexy getup that I’m not quite used to seeing her in– frizzy brown hair, a dark violet off-shoulder dress, hot pink leggings, and these really cute sparkling heels.

I have to admit, this was actually my first live ever, so I was not expecting the huge amount of crazy energy in the club– and I really had nothing to compare it against. Definitely no passive crowd though– tons of screaming “Utada!” “Hikki!” “Aishiteru!” “Marry me!” etc.

Song list, with some notes:
Opening
On & On
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI
Poppin’
This One – Crying Like A Child

After all of these English-heavy songs, a lot of concertgoers seemed to really want to hear her speak and perform in Japanese. In fact, throughout the concert, there was a lot of that going on. Someone called out “aishiteru!” and Hikki good-naturedly responded “We’ll talk about that later.” (Did she? hahaha). She would sometimes break out into Japanese during her MCing. Later on, some people yelled “kawaii!” repeatedly, though it was clear that they were just crazy anime fans and not real Japanese speakers… it was a bit embarrassing, to be honest.
At any rate, at this point, someone in the audience called out “nihongo no uta!” or “A Japanese song!” Hikki went along with it, singing Passion (her famous song from Kingdom Hearts II), which broke into the English version Sanctuary halfway through. As many in the audience were more familiar with her hits in the West, the crowd really went wild.

Passion/Sanctuary

After this, they set up a keyboard in the front, and Hikki played two songs! She said “Ikimasu– that means I’m going to play” beforehand. It was very cute! Both songs were absolutely gorgeous.

Sakura Drops (keyboard)
Stay Gold (keyboard)

So, it turns out Hikki’s great at MCing– she’s very quiet and sweet, but still wonderfully warm. At this point, she talked about how she liked the student culture in Boston–the idea that everyone’s full of creative (and sexual) life energy– and that it reminded her of her time at Columbia University, which she had to drop out of to continue her music career. Apparently, she actually really loved studying, and, in a line sure to warm any MIT student’s heart out there, she called out, “Any nerds out there?” and started a great chant of “Books, books, books, books!” She even said that she was considering going back to college “if this whole music thing stops working out,” and tons of students in the audience started shouted out colleges she should go to– BU, Suffolk, and of course, MIT! (By the way, if you were one of the MIT students who yelled that out at Hikki’s concert, you are awesome; I want to know who you are!) That was the only one she really responded to, with “MIT? But I’m not an engineer…” Hikki, just so you know, there are plenty of great non-engineering and even non-science majors at MIT, so we’d love to have you!

Devil Inside
Kremlin Dusk

You Make Me Want to Be a Man really got the audience pumped– it’s a very fun song!

You Make Me Want To Be A Man
The Bitter End
Apple & Cinnamon
Come Back To Me

When the first notes of First Love sounded, there were some gasps and real excitement. I have to admit that it was really emotional for me– I’m sure that for a lot of the audience, Utada and this song were their first loves.

First Love
Can You Keep A Secret?
Automatic

Hikki kind of started taking requests at this point; I called out my recent favorite, Prisoner of Love, but the winner was someone who, probably jokingly, shouted “Boku wa Kuma!” really loud. It was a good choice though, the performance was sooo cute– especially the spoken parts!

Boku wa Kuma
Dirty Desire

Could not believe the concert was over at this point. It all happened incredibly fast, before I even knew it. Of course, I and the other concertgoers really couldn’t be appeased at this point; as Utada left, we all started screaming “HIKKI!” and “ANKORE!” and a chant of “U-TA-DA!” with stomping and clapping until, maybe 10 minutes later, Hikki reappeared on the stage! Apparently, the stomping was so loud that it was shaking her dressing room, so as tired as my feet were, it was totally worth it (sorry for the trouble!). She gave us two last songs– another Kingdom Hearts favorite, and Me Muero, which she explained was on the radio now and asked us to request it– “but if you don’t like it, please don’t request it.” So modest.

Encore:
Simple & Clean
Me Muero

At the end, she introduced her band– apparently her guitarist went to Berklee College of Music! And then they retired again, this time for good.

Of course, as an obsessive fan, I snuck to the back of the venue with a friend later, and we got to see her car go by– that was it though. Some other fans gave a present to her manager (who’s apparently also her father?) as he was leaving– since they would soon depart for her next concert in New York!

Overall, a very cool experience. It would be amazing if she came back!

I was unable to take any pictures, but some fellow Bostonians got some. For pics of the event, check out azyxa’s Flickr, and for videos, DigitalJunkie0′s YouTube.

As an anime viewer or Japanese culture enthusiast, you’re likely to have learned a bit about the games Go and Mahjong, and maybe even Shogi.  However, I think the game of hanafuda is not [...]]]> Hello!  I’m yomikoma, a non-MIT-affiliated MIT Anime Club member.  I have a (relatively new) review blog at yomikoma.dreamwidth.org. Nice to meet you.

As an anime viewer or Japanese culture enthusiast, you’re likely to have learned a bit about the games Go and Mahjong, and maybe even Shogi.  However, I think the game of hanafuda is not very well-known among American anime fandom – probably because it’s not as popular these days and is often seen as a bit old-fashioned.  Since hanafuda plays a major part in Summer Wars (showing in 26-100 at 7pm on March 1, don’t miss it!) I thought this would be a good opportunity to provide a quick introduction to the game.

Lum keeps Ataru up late doing what? (Read left to right! It's old-school!)

A hanafuda deck, meaning “flower cards”, is a set of 48 cards.  From a western perspective, the deck is arranged sideways – instead of 4 suits of 13 cards each, like a poker deck, a hanafuda deck has 12 suits of 4 cards each.  Each suit corresponds to a month of the year and also to a flower, tree, or plant that is commonly seen in that month.  The images on the cards are ornate and also very standardized.  (Learning the hanafuda cards is one way to learn some of the seasonal references required by classical Japanese poetry such as haiku, by the way.)  Each month-suit has a different combination of cards – 1-point normal or “trash” cards showing just the flower, 5-point scroll cards showing a red or purple scroll, 10-point picture cards depicting an animal or other object, and the five 10-point “light” or “bright” cards: January/Pine’s crane, March/Cherry’s curtain, August/Grass’s full moon, November/Willow’s poet, and December/Paulownia ‘s phoenix.

All 48 cards. January/Pine is on the far right, December/Paulownia on the left.

There are multiple games played with the hanafuda deck, but the basic gameplay is almost universal.  There’s a set of cards face up in the middle of the table.  Players play a card from their hand and then a card from a face-down draw deck.  Played cards that match a face-up table card go to the player’s hand along with the matched card.  Played cards that don’t match are added to the table.  While play goes along with the seasons, scoring goes across them, since various combinations are worth points.  Example combinations are the three purple scrolls, “moon-viewing” (the full moon plus September/Chrysanthemum’s sake cup) , or “Boar-Deer-Butterflies” (the picture cards from July/Clover, October/Maple, and June/Peony).  Each kind of card also can go into a default combination with others of its kind, so any 10 trash cards or any 5 scrolls count for points.  The precise definitions of the scoring combinations vary from country to country (in addition to Japan, hanafuda is popular in Korea and Hawaii) and from game to game.

Once one player has made a scoring combination, they have a decision to make.  They can end the round and gain the points they already have, or they can continue play.  If they continue, they need to make another scoring combination before their opponent does but get points from both combinations if they succeed.  There are various game-specific rules about situations which double the score of the round, allowing extremely high-scoring hands, and about how many points to play to.  If you want more detailed information about the game, I’m confident you can find all the information you want online.

The actual game of hanafuda doesn’t appear very often in anime or manga, as far as I’ve seen – I don’t know of any hanafuda series like Hikaru No Go or Saki – but the images from the hanafuda deck are seen now and then.

Mako-chan models "her" new kimono in front of the February/Plum uguisu card

The hanafuda card images can evoke traditional Japanese culture, as in this scene from Minami-ke where the uguisu card from February/Plum is used as a background.  (In the same scene, Touma is shown posing in a traditional masculine outfit in front of a card from March/Cherry.)  They also serve as a seasonal reference for this winter episode.

Of course Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei wouldn't miss the chance to make an obscure reference to old-fashioned Japanese culture

Keep an eye out for other appearances of hanafuda in anime, or in auxiliary materials like this promo for Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei based on the August/Grass full moon card.  (It did appear in the anime as well, near the end of the season.)  And if you’re at one of our showings, I’d be happy to play a game at intermission!