Hendy's Blog
Supergroup Skin
On May 2007 (old news, yeah I know), Yoshiki (formerly in X Japan), Gackt (formerly in Malice Mizer), Sugizo (formerly in LUNA SEA), and Miyavi (formerly in Dué le quartz) announced that they're forming a band called Skin.
Here is the lineup.
* Gackt – vocals, piano
* Miyavi – guitar, shamisen
* Sugizo – guitar, violin
* Yoshiki – drums, piano
Gackt on vocals. Need I say more? On piano, I don't know on which song he played piano. But one of the songs in Mizerable has nice piano segments.
Sugizo on guitar and violin. Oh that feeling of LUNA SEA's violin and guitar.
Yoshiki. Speed drumming is back? Crazy piano again? Piano duet with Gackt?
It's so cool except for Miyavi. Why is that guy there? Good thing he doesn't sing or else I'll be knocking my head on a wall. And it's even better that he also plays the shamisen. Whatever it sounds like, it will be interesting.
I wish Tetsu from L'Arc~en~Ciel is there to cover the bass. Then it will rock big time. Or is this band only reserved for ex big band member? Whatever, I'm in.
Labels: japan, music
GARO is so cool
I watched
GARO this weekend. It's a dark and mature tokusatsu aimed for adults and young adults (18+).
What I love about this series are the actions and characters. The actions are totally over the top. It's almost like
Ryuhei Kitamura is behind it. The fight choreography is so good that I repeat the fight often just to see what cool moves they're doing. I also like how Kouga (the main character) do a somersault just to jump over walls and other obstacles. Unlike Kamen Rider, most of the actions in GARO are done in human form, not henshin form. So we can see lot of nice martial arts moves, which people in costume will probably have difficulty doing. The actions are also provided in generous amount. I don't know how they do it, they must have a great stunt team.
In the horror department, episode 5 managed to freak me out with the ghostly woman. It was 2 or 3 AM, I was alone, and suddenly the ghost woman just appears, in close up, for a few seconds. Then the Ju-on style head sliding from below, holding head from behind.. Damn..
The characters are interesting. Kouga is a super cool guy with a unique voice. I think he speaks a bit like a kid, unlike some cool other hero's heavy voice (
Tendou Souji, anyone?). Kaoru is cute, funny, and innocent looking. Rei is a cool, strange guy with sweet tooth. His motive is still not known as of episode 8.
Up to episode 8, there is not much storyline yet other than the weekly monsters. But who cares? The actions more than make up for it and the major storyline is definitely there, developing slowly.
To draw comparison with Kamen Rider, although Kamen Rider has interesting and mysterious story, I find that there are a lot of plot holes and the action could have been better. Kabuto is not too bad in action (Kabuto has a cool fighting style), but the plot hole is annoying. I hope this one doesn't have that problem. So far it's still consistent.
The ending song is also nice and lastly, Kouga really looks like
Shinomori Aoshi with the white coat.
Labels: japan, tv
Akiba Kanpe, the funny otaku
I stumble upon Akiba Kanpe from
JapanSugoi.com.
The first article I read is about
Waka Inoue. I've seen her before in the mokkori video. It's very funny and the way she laughed made it even funnier. Then I watched the Akiba Kanpe one. It's really really funny and I just wanted more and more of it.
If you watched Densha Otoko, you know him as "Amuro", the long haired weird otaku guy with eye on his hand. What he does in the show is "helping" (distracting) cute idols on interview. For example, he wrote silly answers to the interview question and it's supposed to "help" the idols answer the question. He also does silly thing, like falling from chair at an unexpected moment. But the best part is the hidden image show. Just
watch it to find out what it is.
Next in the comedy line, how about Razor Ramon HG? Who is he? Find out next. Fuuuuuu!
Labels: funny, japan, tv
