www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThmUt7fXX6U

I was starting to think Perfume had disappeared off the face of the earth after their disappointing 紅白 (kouhaku) performance. (Side note: it was a fine performance as Perfume performances go, but I still think the red team did lost partially because they had a lip-syncing group on the SINGING performance show.)

But they are back! If I had been paying attention to sites like Perfume City, I’d have known they were working on something new! Their new single, scheduled for release on March 25th (1 day before my birthday; what a nice present). It’s a cute little song called ワンルーム・ディスコ (wanruumu disuko) about the trials and tribulations of living on your own.

Anyway, it’s cute and technopop and I’m already hooked.

What’s that? Where did I find out about it? Um… nowhere in particular. What? No, of course I wasn’t because of Danny Choo entry a dannychoo.com news entry. He’s my mortal enemy! I would never be caught dead anywhere near his site. Not even if he linked one of my entries. No, sir, that’s definitely not where I found it.

Update: lol, I’m 馬鹿 (baka). It wasn’t the guy himself, it was just a forum user on dannychoo.com posting his own topic. So yes, that is where I got it.

Update2: There’s a new video that is a remix of the song done with none of the original track and the voices are all vocaloid! Nice!

【ニコニコ動画】【初音ミク・巡音ルカ・MEIKO】 ワンルーム・ディスコ (yks remix)

Technorati Tags: ワンルーム・ディスコ, cute, Danny Choo, idol, Idol Master, Japanese girls, music, music video, nicovideo, One Room Disco, perfume, techno, technopop, ystk

13.
【ニコニコ動画】【手書き】初音ミクの消失-DEAD END-【PV】

This 初音ミク song was one of my personal favorites. It’s so sad, but just so well done.

12.
【ニコニコ動画】「手書き」　ゆっくりでいいさ

The ゆっくり (Yukkuri) boom seems to have peaked and passed, but 2008 was fairly dominated by ゆっくり videos. Check out how many there are.

11.
【ニコニコ動画】☆ゲッダン☆

ゲッダン came up late in the game, but I have to say, I still can’t believe it. And I love it.

10.
【ニコニコ動画】初音ミク　が　オリジナル曲を歌ってくれたよ「ワールドイズマイン」

ワールドイズマイン was almost the best 初音ミク song of the year, if not for メルト kicking ass and taking names all over the world. Some of the ワールドイズマイン original drawing versions are pretty amazing, but that’s probably just cause the song is so good.

9.
【ニコニコ動画】さんぽ

This version of さんぽ (Sampo) from となりのトトロ (Tonari no Totoro) has so many Ghibli characters and crazy instruments, you can’t help but just feel warm and fuzzy while watching it.

8.
【ニコニコ動画】メルト-Band Edition-女性キーVer-歌ってみました。by歌和サクラ

メルト and ティッシュ姫 really rocked the charts this year. It is only fitting to have the fusion of the two. メルト technically came along in Dec. of 2007… Actually, so did ティッシュ姫. But, since they both had their heyday in 2008, I’ll forgive ‘em.

7.
【ニコニコ動画】[修造]ホットリックス　リローデッド[MAD]

When I saw this scene in the theaters, I remember hyperventilating over how amazing it was. So when they added the 松岡修造 voice overs, I almost died. Good show!

6.
【ニコニコ動画】チルノのパーフェクトさんすう教室(高画質・高音質版)H264

チルノのパーフェクトさんすう教室 (Chiruno no Paafekuto Sansuu Kyoushitsu) was the star of IOSYS for 2008. The remixes are fantastic and so is the original. Good job guys!

5.
【ニコニコ動画】ソフト・オブ・バンク

Various ナイト・オブ・ナイツ remixes ruled the end of this year. This is my favorite by far.

4.
【ニコニコ動画】特訓するぬこ（滑り込むぬこⅡ）

This cat. Brilliant to teach their cat to do that. When it gets stuck in the box, I died. I am but a ghost now. Heard the previous one of the series was pretty big on YouTube as well. (Series?!)

3.
【ニコニコ動画】M.C.ドナルドはダンスに夢中なのか？最終鬼畜道化師ドナルド・Ｍ
This video is fantastic for a lot of reasons. Now that I’m more into the 東方 Project, this makes way more sense than the first time I saw it on BoingBoing. This is definitely the world’s favorite nicovideo.

2.
【ニコニコ動画】VOCALOIDでニコニコ動画流星群【完成版】

This video introduced me to the ニコニコ動画流星群, and kept me coming back to ニコ動 for a long time. I listened to it so much, when I hear the original songs, I expect the next song to come up. I had to even stop listening to it, I was so obsessed. So this wins #2 hands down. Too bad it isn’t…

1.　
【ニコニコ動画】吉幾三×Capsule×DaftPunk×BeastieBoys　StarrySky – IKZOLOGIC Remix -

This song singlehandedly changed my life. It made me go to ニコ動 to listen to it. I got the “logic” for the end of Yamatologic from it. I still believe this is the pinnacle of human evolution. So, there is no question that it is the top of my 2008 list.

Happy New Year everyone! I can’t wait to see what 2009 has to bring!

Technorati Tags: 2008, さんぽ, ゆっくり, らんらんる～, ゲッダン, ティッシュ姫, ナイト・オブ・ナイツ, ニコニコ動画, メルト, ワールドイズマイン, BeastieBoys, capsule, cats, Daft Punk, funny animals, gaming, Get down, Ghibli, Hatsune Miku, IKZO, iosys, mario, Matsuoka Shuzo, music, New Year's, New Year's List, NicoNicoDouga, nicovideo, Night of Knights, Night of Nights, Ronald McDonald, Ryuseigun, Sampo, Sanpo, Tissue Hime, Tonari no Totoro, Top 10, Top 12, Totoro, touhou, World is Mine, Year In Review, ystk, yukkuri, 初音ミク, 初音ミクの消失-DEAD END-, 東方, 松岡修造, 流星群

For those unfamiliar with 紅白歌合戦 (Kouhaku utagassen), it is a yearly show on New Year’s Eve where the red team (mostly female music artists) goes up against the white team (mostly male music artists) to put on the best performance. Really, it is just a giant music show with a meaningless contest, but it is fun nonetheless.

I haven’t rooted for the red team in a long time due to the overabundance of Hello! Project shit that has been clogging it, but with しょこたん performing last year, I had to take pause and think about my priorities. (Speaking of しょこたん, she doesn’t seem to be on the list this year, despite 中日スポーツ quoting her as wanting to go really bad…)

Now, with Perfume on the red team, coupled with the fact that no team has won more than three in a row ever, I’m putting my money on red this time.

But the white team has quite the lineup this year… Mr. Children, Porno Graffiti, EXILE… It’s going to be a good show.

Technorati Tags: しょこたん, ポルノグラフィティ, 紅白, 紅白歌合戦, electronic music, electropop, exile, girls, Japanese girls, kohaku, mr. children, perfume, porno graffiti, shokotan, ystk, 中川翔子

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYeZ1A_5fv0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhzm22rfvt4

As we speak, YouTube and ニコ動 are probably taking these down, but the new perfume single, Dream Fighter, AND the new capsule album, More More More!, are both coming out on November 11th! The music video for Dream Fighter is already showing up on the video sites, but it is also being taken down with incredible speed, so if the above videos are broken, give me a line and I’ll try to find some obscure copies. Or, you could just go download Dream Fighter.

Both of these songs took a few listens to get into, but now I have them on constant loop into my brain. I wonder what it is about 中田ヤスタカ (Nakata Yasutaka) music that makes it so addictive. And with both of these coming out, he is apparently keeping busy these days! Keep it up mang!

Technorati Tags: capsule, dream fighter, electronic music, jpop, jumper, more more more, music, nicovideo, perfume, techno, video, ystk

The song is precious, sung by MEG, music by 中田ヤスタカ (Nakata Yasutaka), the DJ behind capsule and perfume. The video is directed by the late 野田さん.

Her works feel like Michel Gondry, utilizing amazing tricks that are totally mundane in nature. Another video to check out is Yuki’s Sentimental Journey for more of 野田さん’s work.

In the MEG video, we have the people in black doing the magic. It blows my mind, because the first time I saw this effect was in 文楽 (bunraku), which is a Japanese puppet theatre where one pupper is operated by 3 people. When I first saw it, I thought it was a real person… and then the camera zoomed in on the puppet.

So this video has it all. Music by 中田ヤスタカ, PV directed by 野田凪, and MEG, of course. Bravo, simple amazing.

Technorati Tags: bunraku, meg, music, nagi noda, pop culture, traditional culture, video, ystk

Perfume, from your wife

Well, looks like perfume are so popular, they are starting to break up marriages.

The story comes from
a thread on the message boards over at Yahoo!知恵袋 (Yahoo!chiebukuro). My translation of the initial post is as follows:

My wife is pressing the “perfume” question.

Hello. I’m a 29 year old married man. I don’t have any children.

It’s not like I’m really big into music, but I download and listen to a lot of different kinds of music. It doesn’t matter if it is Western or Japanese and I enjoy music from any genre.

The other day, a friend of mine recommended I give perfume a listen, but although it was music that was fairly off my particular radar, I gave them a listen and really liked it. The music videos are also quite spectacular, so I really started to get into them and started to buy DVDs on Yahoo! Auctions and collect all the CDs I could.

When I recommended them to my wife, she quietly listened and said “This is some interesting music, huh?” But then, one day, I asked her over dinner, “Who is your favorite out of the three perfume girls?” She responded angrily, 『殺すぞ』 (korosu zo, “I’ll kill you.”)

“Who gets these girly DVDs and CDs at this age?! You are always listening to it everyday! You pervert!” Among the verbal abuse, she overturned the table. Since then, my wife has started to curse the very thought of perfume. If they show up on TV, she will change the channel. If their music is the background of a commercial, she will mute it just for that commercial. She does this all with a blank face. It’s scary.

One day, when I came home from work, I found that almost all the pictures on perfume CD covers had labels put over the faces of かしゆか (Kashiyuka) and のっち (Nocchi). Somehow, あーちゃん (A~chan) made it unscathed. When I asked my wife what she was doing, she replied with the question “Which is more important, our life together or perfume?”

We aren’t very wealthy nor affluent. It seems my hobby of trying to buy CDs and DVDs had ticked her off. In the end, she hit me with these conditions. “Put all of your perfume stuff on Yahoo! Auctions, and stop listening to perfume completely. If you can’t do this, I want a divorce.”

Up until now, I had a lot of CDs of young girl bands/singers in pretty heavy rotation, and I bought some DVDs, but my wife had never said anything before… And how come あーちゃん was the only one to make it out without being covered in stickers? But I’m not in any position to be asking these questions right now. I have to get rid of the CDs and DVDs by the end of the month. This is really harsh…

To the wives and women out there, is there some way that I can peacefully end this thing? My wife is the same age as myself.

Thank you for reading.

On a side note, my real name is Yasutaka.

(Translator’s note: That last thing about Yasutaka, the DJ who produces and makes perfume’s music is Nakata Yasutaka.)

Poor guy. But, I gotta say, if is wife is that upset about it, he must be totally otaku-ing out on perfume.

But that is a good question… why perfume? And why not A~chan? Maybe it is just her cryptic way of saying which one is her favorite?!

Technorati Tags: A-chan, bbs, cd, divorce, dvd, electropop, Japanese girls, Kashiyuka, marriage, music, Nocchi, perfume, society, Yahoo, Yahoo Auctions, yasutaka, ystk

A new remix video from the guy who brought us IKZOLOGIC… Tunak vs. Capsule. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: capsule, music, nicovideo, remix, video, ystk

There is this odd phenomenon where when you don’t live in Japan, but are interested in it, it takes a while before something reaches critical mass and starts to leak out to other country’s Japanese-speaking populations. perfume archived this a few weeks ago.

perfume (generally not capitalized [like right after I said this, I suddenly saw it in regular caps everywhere...]) is a three girl group from Hiroshima. The members are あ～ちゃん (A~chan), かしゆか (Kashiyuka, sometimes ksyk in ローマ字), and のっち (Nocchi). They struggled for many years, apparently since elementary school, to make hit songs, but until Yasutaka Nakata, a fairly popular DJ, picked them up, they didn’t really succeed.

My personal history with perfume started when I saw the IKZOLOGIC video a while back. From that video, I started to get into capsule. Yasutaka Nakata is the DJ for capsule, so when I went looking for more music by him, I ended up hearing a lot of perfume.

But I didn’t think much of them. And then they took off and started showing up on TV and now I am on-board… they are a girl group… they don’t make their own music, but Yasutaka-san is awesome, so at least it is good music. They are just there to look pretty and dance. All their live performances are lip-synced to allow them to dance in their very unique way.

Funny thing is most people have a favorite. They are made to all look different, mainly with wardrobe and hair styles differing. I must admit that のっち is my favorite. She’s the short haired one… (-.-;)

Their blog is here. Sorry, it’s in Japanese… for now…

I leave you with their music video/commercial for Pino brand bonbons. Enjoy!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvC0TcBCpQM

Technorati Tags: blogs, electropop, girls, Japanese girls, music, perfume, pop culture, video, ystk

For those without a NicoVideo account, here is the YouTube link. For those who don’t get it, you should first get familiar with 吉幾三’s song 俺ら東京さ行くだ.

Basically, since April or so of this year, there has been this crazy fad of mixing 俺ら東京さ行くだ in to all sorts of other songs. From the Jackson 5, to the Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop themes, to Nirvana, to Philharmonic Symphony Orchestras.

It’s kinda like the Japanese version of mixing Cosby with everything on YTMND.

Anyway, so in the mix I am posting about, they mixed 俺ら東京さ行くだ with capsule, Daft Punk, and the Beastie Boys… It blows my mind clean off my shoulders. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Also, since it is the pinnacle of human achievement, I think we can all pretty much give up since it is all down hill from here until the end of the world in 2012.

Technorati Tags: capsule, IKZO, music, nicovideo, remix, video, ystk