Spring Fever
March 22, 2007 | Miscellaneous, Music | Aria
I really adore Maaya Sakamoto, but I haven’t been terribly impressed with her work ever since she stopped collaborating with Yoko Kanno. Her previous studio album, Yunagi Loop, is decent enough, but… well, it’s just kind of pedestrian. Unfortunately, the best thing about her new studio album, 30 Minutes Night Flight, is the title track. That one song alone is amazing. The rest of it? Meh.
Anyway, with Kanon over and done with and the Spring anime season still a couple of weeks away, I’m not watching much for the time being. Manabi Straight (which has turned out to be a great show), Hidamari Sketch, and Nodame Cantabile are pretty much it. I’ve been trying to supplement my anime diet by rewatching old favorites, but I’ve been having trouble finishing what I start. I think I’m rewatching three different shows at the moment, and I’m not entirely certain I’ll finish any of them.
Spring Fever, I guess.
Oh, and in case you haven’t heard, there was some good news for Aria fans this morning. Time to break out the provisions!
I hope they would have another Athena song in this OVA. It would even be better if they mix in a real Italian song and some Monteverdi works in as well. Why Monteverdi? He is the one of most important composer to be appointed conductor at San Marco in Venice, to such degree that one of the latter episode in Aria: The Animation paid tribute to him by playing one of festival music, composed in his fashion, in one of the festival scenes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monteverdi
Even without music, I plan to fully enjoy the coming OVA and I pray that they release either English or Korean dubbed DVD of it so I can buy it for my son. Only DVDs my wife allow me to buy is for those rated G while containing no violence nor revealing much skin, with English or Korean dubs since my son can’t read well, nor knows any Japanese. Aria is one of the rare anime that passed my wife’s censorship, since Korean dubbed version has aired in Korean TV.
As for the provisions, I plan to cook some spaghetti and make one of my special sauce and meatballs. For drinks, I will make some Italian Soda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_soda
Sorry, but change ‘those rated G ‘ to those rated TV-Y’.
What surprises me is the amount of fanfare over the announcement. Less than a year ago, I was lamenting over the lack of ARIA-related discussion. Perhaps the word has finally spread around? ^^;
Heh.
If you build it, they will come…
Isn’t it why the CD sales fall generally? I don’t even know what singer can do masterpieces day in and day out? Rie Tanaka can churn out highly professional and polished records just by virtue of her iron will, but then the soul of the song suffers anyway. BTW, I bought a KOTOKO’s CD the other day, the result is, guess what, one track which I find acceptable. This is how Apple’s iTunes store became a success, despite hideously restrictive DRM, idiotic interface, and poor collection. The value proposition of buying just what is worth buying instead of eating CDs worth of crap made it a success, and nothing else.
I confidently predict that Manabi Straight wins over Hidamari Sketch in final reckoning. And that’s without seeng endings of either of them. I wasn’t so moved by a show since Azumanga.
I so hate when they play with kanji like Aria kita! I mean really, does anyone remember all of them? Grr grr grr.
Just out of curiosity, which KOTOKO album did you buy? Unless you’re a big KOTOKO fan, I’ve found her releases can be hit or miss. That, and I’ve Sound can’t produce a full length single to save their life.
I thought the Re-Sublimity single contained three solid tracks (and instrumentals). Uzu-Maki demonstrates her penchant for darker atmospheres but most other tracks weren’t very memorable.
If you are a relly big fan and if its your kind of music, all the tracks sounds lovely and memorables. I have some OST from anime series, like for Example Last Exile or CCS, and i like the most part of it, not all, but i heard them time to time.
^_^
I hope Kozue Amano takes her royalties and uses them to make many more trips to Venice.
Though… it might be nice to read a story about neo-Barcelona on Venus, too, sometime.
LOL, what’s funny is that those are the same list of shows I watch this season while waiting for Spring ‘07. Conincidence, huh?
Re. the CD: I gave in to the instant gratification and got “hane” in a SunCoast in the mall near SFSU. The track I liked is “hitorigoto”.
Hrm… I haven’t been paying much attention then to the music scene lately. I thought Yunagi Loop was pretty meh, but who knows? Maybe 30 Minutes Night Flight will rock my socks off, though with what you’ve said, I worry a bit.
And yay for more ARIA. More people need to attempt to talk about the show itself? :D
thats the problem with maaya’s recent stuff… the first song is great (hello… awesome song) but then it just drops off as if the other songs are just meant to be padding to put out a full album rather than just a single. oh well, less to sort through on my mp3 player.
pete - you go to SFSU? i’m going there right now!
I’d say 30minutes night flight is a damn sight better than Yuunagi Loop, but it’s still not as good as the Kanno stuff. It’s a bit too “normal”, I guess; this is both good and bad, in that the album is quite middle-of-the-road. Whilst this means we don’t get any of the shite that Kanno produced like Hero, we also don’t get the amazing stuff like 03.
She’s still remarkably versatile for someone predominantly thought of as a seiyuu; I recently had the chance to hear her Les Mis recording, and the girl can certainly act when she sings (she might be a ham for all I know, but it sounds good on the album, and Les Mis isn’t exactly a show that demands subtlety) and Ouran proves she has a better acting range than I thought she might have done (how was her miniscule role in Kanon?). It would be nice if her albums reached a bit further out of her comfort zone, I guess.
30minutes night flight was disappointing after one listen. I couldn’t get into any of the songs on the album, which was surprising.