So, I recently decided to go and cut my hair short. I didn't realize until afterwards that there were already several people at my school with a similar haircut...

...and that there were actually anime characters that had that kind of haircut too. My parents joked that I looked like someone out of an anime right after I got the haircut. I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not, because I certainly don't want to imitate anime characters (well, except for if I ever cosplay, but I'm not going to be cosplaying everyday, now am I? :\ ). As much of an otaku as I am, I don't expect to ever come near to the awesomeness of an anime character. But it has been kind of funny having a different haircut. I've been told by two people already that I look "KAWAII DESUUU", both of whom said it in a very bad accent on purpose.

Anyways, although Miku Hatsune is not an anime character, she seems to have gotten a haircut as well. Check out the song "Fleeting Reality":



I like this song pretty well, actually. And it kind of gives me a Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica vibe at times (starting around 2:32, when she whips out the sword...Miki Sayaka anyone?) And speaking of which, I just heard that all the Madoka girls have had recent victories in the Saimoe competition...Well, except for Akemi Homura. Sadly she was eliminated early on because she faced off against Misaka Mikoto.

Back to the Vocaloid songs. Here's a Gakupo song that snagged the #10 spot on the most recent Vocaran. Miku always dominates the Vocaran, but it's nice to see the other Vocaloids getting some attention too. (VY1's song "Cyber Thunder Cider" just popped up again on the Vocaran. I think it's because the song was revealed to be the demo for VY1 in Vocaloid3)



And here's a Luka song. How could I resist? I've always been a fan of Luka voice-wise :p



I should not neglect to mention two Vocaloid songs that have been very popular recently. The puny amount of Japanese I know has unfortunately grown rusty from disuse, so I'm afraid I don't know the English name of this song. All that I do know is that I don't like it very much. Sorry to those of you do, but I can't manage to love this song. :\



What I do like is this song: "Senbonzakura" or "Thousand Cherry Trees" or whatever you want to call it. And there was a big surge of Nico Nico utaite singing it a while back (mostly guys, even those this is a Miku song... o_o;; ).



Well, let's end with the last, but definitely not least: #1 on the vocaran! This is what I believe would be called "Talkloids": having the Vocaloids "speak" rather than sing. I can't understand that much of what they are saying (blame it on my lack of Japanese knowledge again) but it looks amusing anyhow.

Labels: 211, fleeting reality, gakupo, hatsune miku, luka megurine, music, ranking, senbon zakura, songs, talkloid, vocaloid, vocaran, カゲロウデイズ, 千本桜, 御手繋ぎ

I'll start off by wishing Gakupo a happy 3rd birthday! For those who haven't heard of him, Gakupo (or Gackpoid, as he is otherwise called) is a Vocaloid from Internet Co. His voice was provided by the singer Gackt. Gakupo doesn't get anywhere near the amount of attention that Miku does, which is a mighty shame. Doesn't seem like that's going to change anytime soon, though. D:


Image by もち＠マイピクｵﾅｼｬｽ on Pixiv

Anyways, to the topic I've been meaning to write about. These days I've gotten into jpop/jrock again... It's mostly because I've been watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (which is the 2009 FMA anime; unlike the 2003 one, it follows the manga's plotline, I believe). I was reluctant to watch it because it was long (64 episodes drives me insane if the anime isn't really good) and because I wasn't sure whether I'd like it, but nowadays I'm finding that I do enjoy shounen anime (a little unexpected considering that I only read shoujo manga). Then again, I am a big fan of the Ao no Exorcist anime, and now I've discovered that FMA:B may soon become one of my favorite animes too. I actually watched sixteen episodes of FMA:B without stopping at one point, which for me is really rare behavior. Now I understand why the FMA animes got such high ratings on MyAnimeList.

Anyhow, though, I do like some of the music in this anime - more specifically, the first and second endings.

"Uso" by the band SID:



"Let it All Out" by Miho Fukuhara:



I started seeking out some of the other Japanese bands and singers I like, and managed to find my favorite version of the song "Hemisphere", which is the opening to the anime RahXephon (which I've never actually watched, but if you have, let me know what you think of it). I used to have MAKI's version on my playlist, but it got removed by whoever put it up, so I don't have it anymore.

"Hemisphere" by MAKI:



The more famous version, "Hemisphere" by Maaya Sakamoto (I like this one too, but I'm more used to hearing the MAKI one because I heard it first)



I've also gotten really into Yuki Kajiura's projects lately. Yuki Kajiura is a composer who is in charge of the singing groups FictionJunction and Kalafina. (FictionJunction did the song "Parallel Hearts" for Pandora Hearts, if that rings a bell. And Kalafina sang songs for Kuroshitsuji, Kara no Kyoukai, and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica)

"Magia" by Kalafina:



This came out more than a month ago and I kept forgetting to mention it, but I saw some artist called Nem's Garden had released an album called Moratorium on the Oricon charts one time (Generasia's wiki has the Oricon rankings on it). I decided to look it up on Youtube and discovered that Nem's Garden is actually comprised of many of the singers on Nico Nico Douga, such as Dasoku, Clear, Nero, Miichan, Amu, Gero, Faneru, Jack, and Asamaru. Here's a video that includes a preview of each song. You can probably find most of the full versions of the songs on Youtube.



And just a few days ago, Clear sang another song.



Nowadays, though, my favorite NND singer has got to be Hanatan. (I'm still a big fan of Valshe, of course, and Nero as well, but Hanatan is just amazing.) Back in June she released an album. Here's a PV of a song she sang.

"Bamboo Leaf Boat" by Hanatan:



That isn't my favorite song of hers, though. I love her cover of Imitation, which is originally one of Miku Hatsune's songs:



And also her cover of Aitai, which is originally a GUMI song:



I gotta say, no matter how much I like Vocaloids, they can't compare to real voices. This is the original version of Aitai by GUMI. It's not bad, but I definitely prefer Hanatan's cover.



She has sung other songs, like "Palette", "Cendrillon", and "Romeo and Cinderella", which you can find on Youtube.

Labels: birthday, cover, fma, fullmetal alchemist, fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood, gackpoid, gakupo, hanatan, japanese, music, nico nico douga, vocaloid, yuki kajiura

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." - Thomas Edison

True indeed, because nowadays it seems like everything looks like something else. I was browsing images on Zerochan today and noticed a picture of Ruko, a character from a game called Tartaros Online. She looks remarkably like Gumi, a Vocaloid.

RUKO


GUMI


Also, there are three characters, but male instead, who look alike: the Vocaloid Gakupo, Kanda Yu (from D Grayman), and Alto Saotome (from Macross Frontier).

KAMUI GAKUPO


KANDA YU


ALTO SAOTOME


And Scout from the game Pangya looks like Ciel Phantomhive from Kuroshitsuji...

SCOUT


CIEL PHANTOMHIVE


I'm sure I could find more if I just thought about it. I don't know if it's just a wacky coincidence, but it does seem that there are plenty of characters existing out there that look like each other. It's been annoying for me because I'm trying to develop some characters of my own. I created them a lot earlier, more than half a year ago, but now I'm really honing in to determine their appearances, personalities, and such. Problem is, I don't want them to resemble characters that already exist, which is a much more difficult task than I bargained for.

For one thing, there's naming: I'd originally picked the names Hinako and Raymond for the main characters of the sort-of-story I was coming up with. I wasn't sure what to put as Hinako's last name and spent quite a while looking for one, finally settling on Sakaguchi. It was while I was Googling (to see if there are actual people with the names that I've come up with) that I found out that there's actually a yaoi mangaka called Hinako Takanaga... o_o;;

Anyways, though, about the character Hinako that I am coming up with. Her name, and that of her father (which I haven't come up with yet), are the oddball names in the "story". Those two are the only Japanese names. The rest of them sound European or American. (I would've renamed Hinako to fit the rest of the names, but I've gotten so used to calling her that...)

As for Raymond's name, I really like the name Raymond and it just felt like it fit. But then I saw that there's a DeviantArt user who has a character called Raymond, and I didn't want the names to get confused. I can't come up with another name that feels right, so I think I will just spell it differently - Reymond instead.

Well, it's been quite a long time indeed, but at last the characters are coming into their own and I am quite pleased. I just have to figure out how I am going to draw them...I'm not good enough at drawing to make them look the way they ought to, in various aspects, like hair, eyes, and outfits; it only comes out well once in a blue moon. I've really got to practice drawing more. -_-;;

Labels: alto saotome, characters, ciel phantomhive, design, drawing, gakupo, genius, gumi, hinako, kanda yu, name, OC, original character, originality, quote, raymond, reymond, ruko, scout, vocaloid

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