Anime
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Anime, Featured, Game Music
Matron Maestras – Michiru Ōshima (spotlight)
The current climate of the video game world has been speckled with a fair bit of controversy over the role of women in the industry, both in-game and outside of games. No doubt, women have been involved with video games since the beginning, and one particular facet of the gaming industry that hasn’t gotten a lot of focus in regards to its diversity is video game music. Due to the fact that video game music is not as easily identifiable as being male or female-influenced, it’s sometimes very easy to go by without knowing just how much an impact female composers have had in gaming through its entire lifespan. Indeed, it in essence makes little difference what gender, race or creed a composer is, as their musical ability is what makes the games they compose for and creates their legacy with video game fans.
Thus, I decided I wanted to make a small series of spotlight features over the next couple of weeks, highlighting some of those female composers whose works are either well known or obscure, but nonetheless important to the history of gaming.
The first composer I wanted to focus on briefly doesn’t have a huge repertoire of game compositions under her belt, but the quality more than makes up for the quantity when it comes to Japanese composer Michiru Ōshima.
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Anime, Game Music, Japanese, Reviews
Remakes eXceed Expections – eXceed 2nd & 3rd OSTs (Review)
Back in 2005, the Japanese doujin game group FLAT created a bullet-hell game called eXceed: Gun Bullet Children in the same vein as Touhou Project. It covered a lot of the typical bases – cute girls, vampires vs. the church, and lots and lots of shooting and bright colors. While primarily underground, the game spawned two sequels that became much more popular – eXceed 2nd – VAMPIRE in 2006 and eXceed 3rd – JADE PENETRATE in 2007. However FLAT eventually decided to pass the torch and handed its copyrights over to Tennen-Sozai.
Now you’re up to date with exactly what the eXceed series is and where it came from. However, that’s just one portion of the tale. Tennen-Sozai eventually made remakes of both eXceed 2nd and 3rd, making improvements and expanding the lengths of the original games. Thus were rebirthed the titles eXceed 2nd – VAMPIRE REX and eXceed 3rd – JADE PENETRATE – BLACK PACKAGE, and with these re-released and updated games came recomposed soundtracks that featured re-tooled tunes taken from their original version.
Find out more about the soundtracks after the jump! (more…)
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Anime, Game Music, Japanese, Reviews
Getting to Know Vocalist KOKIA: outwork collection “pieces” (Review)
I really missed the boat on this one. I was turned on to KOKIA through her work on our 2011 soundtrack of the year, Final Fantasy XIII-2. She was responsible for singing “Noel’s Theme,” and when I saw that she had recently put out a collection of music featuring her work from other games and anime titles, I wanted to check it out.
As it turns out, KOKIA has been around for awhile, singing on one of my favorite arrangement albums, Genso Suikoden II ~Orrizonte~, Demon’s Souls, and other titles over the years that I already knew and loved. Are her various contributions collected here as impressive?
Find out after the jump. (more…)
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Anime, Featured, Japanese
L’Arc~en~Ciel at Madison Square Garden: 20 Years and Still Steady
It was early this January that I stood pressed between a kind security guard and countless dedicated fans, pausing from my photographic duties to really take in the Earthbound Papas performance at MAGFest X. Fans and musicians alike had gathered across great distances to witness beloved anthems from gaming classics performed, transforming themes that had been shrilly sung by sound chips into guitar solos and rock ballads. It was an extremely emotional performance for many of the audience members, and yet despite the uniqueness of the experience I found myself feeling a very surprising sensation: nostalgia. I remembered another important musical event from years past, when I had made a similar trek from New York to Baltimore to see a different Japanese rock act perform, one by the name of L’Arc~en~Ciel.
Hit the jump for impressions and photos from their recent appearance in New York City.
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Anime, Japanese
Anime Expo 2011: Hatsune Miku Mikunopolis Impressions and Gallery
Although it has been a few days since Anime Expo has concluded, it is clear what impact a certain virtual idol has had on the West. Hatsune Miku, a Vocaloid software developed by Crypton has risen to the levels of super-stardom with a multitude of artists utilizing her mesmerizing voice, figure lines, and concerts in Japan which thus brings her to Los Angeles for her first international experience.
With concert tickets sold out in 4 days, it was a packed house of leek-shaped glowsticks at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles as everyone anticipated this groundbreaking concert. I had the opportunity to attend this concert and not being a fan I was certainly curious to know if this concert would change my opinion of Hatsune Miku and her virtual diva friends.
Did the concert deliver? Am I now a convert? Hit the jump and find out! (more…)
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Anime, Japanese
Anime Expo 2011: Kalafina in Concert
It’s been awhile since we covered the work of Kalafina. For those who don’t remember, the group is a trio of vocalists with none other than Yuki Kajiura as their music producer, and their beautiful harmonies and Gothic musical styling have made them a favorite of anime fans, as they’ve recording some very high profile opening and closing themes.
We were fortunate enough the see them perform live at the 20th Anime Expo this past weekend. They performed a small set at the intimate Club Nokia in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Our last look at Kalafina was at Anime Boston a couple years back, so join us as we get reacquainted. (more…)
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Anime, Featured
Soundtrack of the Month 06/2011: La Folia – Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess
While I still have a large list of soundtracks I have in mind for Soundtrack of the Month, I wanted to take the special occasion of OSV’s third birthday to once again visit the work of the legendary Joe Hisaishi. Yes, it’s been three years to the day since we featured Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (my personal favorite Ghibli film) as our introductory Soundtrack of the Month.
Just what is La Folia: Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess, and why haven’t you heard of it? As it turns out, the Ghibli Museum in Japan is home to a small theater where shorts by the studio are shown exclusively to guests. Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess is one such short that started airing in November 2010 that I had the pleasure of seeing on a recent visit to Japan, and I was immediately impressed not only by the film, but by its classical soundtrack.
Find out why I think it deserves to be Soundtrack of the Month after the jump! (more…)
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