音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Here, I'm going to crack some nuts I've been keeping for these days.

[Nut No.1]
Thursday, regularly, we had a lab meeting this afternoon, began at 2PM.

Went into the room, our boss and a few others were already in there. Instead of having a seat, he was like doing something with the tables.

The table in the room was not the common one which is just one big thick board, it had an irregular shape and actually contains several pieces – more accurately, 4 pieces in center and another 4 pieces were beside the two ends of it.

Seemed our boss was not comfortable with the arrangement of the sided 4 pieces. I mean, the central 4 pieces could fit perfectly with others and thus the 4 pieces formed a large table surface, but the other sided 4 pieces could not. They were putting there, seemed to be fine, but they did not look being in harmony with the central ones.

"Maybe these two pieces" – our boss looked at the 2 beside him – "are actually fitting with the other side." So he moved one of the 2 pieces to the other side.

But the piece was just not fitting.

"Maybe you can try to rotate it by 90 degrees." said one.

Still did not work.

"Well…" he moved that piece back. Meanwhile, we were going to ignore the table pieces and to have our seats. Yet, our boss was still figuring out how to arrange them.

We had to follow his enthusiasm – to figure out arranging the pieces!!

Yet, eventually, our conclusion was, the 4 side pieces did not fit the central table actually and thus can only form another separate table.

[Nut No.2]
Continuing to where I stopped for [No.1], it was about today's 2 hours and 30 minutes long lab meeting!

2 hours and 30 minutes!!!
It was the second time we had such a long meeting since I came in this lab.

In today's meeting, one was talking about her project. If it was in a seminar-like way, she could have finished within 40 minutes. Sadly, I have to say, our boss was asking all the time, and that was why it lasted so long.

During it, I was even drooping off, lol

When she finally finished the main part, it was 10 to 4. However, she did have something new and our boss would like to see them, orz.

What I remembered clearly was that, our boss looked at his watch and said, "heck, maybe I could just have to shut up."

Yes, YOU COULD HAVE… -___-

I also remember once when it was another one's turn to show the lab a published research paper, he printed out the copies and handed out to each of us.

"Nice paper!" immediately got the paper, one exclaimed.

Indeed, that paper contained only 3 pages, including the reference!

See, lab meetings are absolutely rubbish! :P

[Nut No.3]
I was on strike in the last week.

I was in berserk mode to translate KOKIA's blog posts for her 2010 Europe tour.

Ohh, she wrote too much!!!

But there were a lot of beautiful photos, I was very, very satisfied!

Until October 18, I had a seminar, so I was busy preparing for that, and did not do too much for the translation work. When I finally ended the seminar, and checked my rss reader again…

Man, she posted around 10 new posts!!!

Thus, I was in berserk mode. XD

To be honest, I did this translation work JUST FOR FUN…

When I finished those new posts, and took a free weekend, I found there were another 8 new posts waiting for me…

Hmm, okay, I'll just be in berserk mode again, and here came her end of this year's Europe tour, so I would not face more posts from this series. Yet, I was really willing to do the work, superb~

[Nut No.4]
It was snowing on Monday!!! And I saw a pair of hare, fatties! I love winter!! :3

[Nut No.5]
I was talking about the song "Afezeria HARVESTASYA." and its context with a friend till 1:30AM and we had not finished yet. So we continued our discussion in the next morning, for another 3 hours…

During that, I read the lyrics and the story again and again… had never been so crazy before!! XD

[Nut No.6]
I registered on a website called "National Novel Writing Month", and was going to do it in November. Ohh, but my current planning novel should be longer than that, as far as I know…

But I will just try. Good chance to push my pending-yearly novel a little bit!

And now, with the last a few days of October, I gotta get rid off all other trivia!!!!!

[Nut No.7]
As what I said in last post, my google talk was dead. I could log in with a green dot beside my name, but I could not see anyone in my list. I could not search for any of my contacts either. More weird, if I log in with another account, it worked fine, but I could see my dead account online!!!! orz

I know it must be because the plugin I used for foobar to display track information into google talk; every time such thing happens, the plugin was in use. I had deleted that and promised not use it anymore.

My google talk revived 2 days later… bad luck, do not want to mention this anymore… x__x

[Nut No.8]
I think I have been nuts for a long time, and I will see how nuts I can be in future.

Moreover, this blog post itself is nuts enough already. X3

Some nonsense first…

MY GOOGLE TALK IS DEAD!!!! orz
It happened for a few times before, though I solved that by logging in with another g-account. But this time, it just didn't work. I have completely no idea what's going on. I can login, but I can't see anyone there. I can't search for any of my contacts either. Even weird, since its death, I logged in with another account and I could see my dead account is online – with the status keeping changing!!!

The problem must be caused by the foobar plugin to display your current track in gtalk. I've deleted that plugin, never use it again.

So, PLZ GIVE MY GOOGLE TALK BACK!!!!! T__T

Back to my topic…

I received my copy of Akiko Shikata's newest mini-album "Utau oka ~Ar=Ciel Ar=Dor~". In the very beginning, this mini-album was a bypass stuff together with KOKIA's "Musique a la Carte", because to buy two albums, I can save the shipment fee… lol However, I do love Akiko's music, and I was very satisfied by my pre-ordering of this mini-album.

This album is an image album for legends come from the world of Ar Tonelico. To be honest, I've never played the game, and I've never got much of interest to read more about the game itself. What I know about A.T. are all from Akiko and others' Hymmnos albums. Actually, it was also Akiko got me close to the A.T. world, through her "Utau oka ~ EXEC_HARVESTASYA/.~" At that time, I was even looking for the world "Harvestasya" without knowing that's a name… ^^;

Anyway, I love this new mini-album, even though I'm still confused by the world and other settings. I just love the music and the stories. But… well, just see the stories as regular legend without the effect of A.T…. ^^; Although the basic story line can be get from the lyrics, there are much more details in each story…

So…
You know what I'm gonna do~ :P

↑ "Afezeria HARVESTASYA." my favorite

謳う丘 ～Ar=Ciel Ar=Dor～
A perfect opening song, describing the birth of the world. The cover image is about "the creation of the world" in praise of the gods. Every living beings are blessed equally, and being in the heavenly light. Then, pieces of grounds are created, gathering, and finally form in a planet. In the song, the sound effects are very nice. There are the sound of thunder, and the noise of life, with the familiar "utau oka" motif, Shikata's telling of A.T. stories begins.

This song is the most powerful song out of all others. The entire feeling is a well done, but for me, this song just lacks the typical Shikata element. I mean, it does not sound like other Shikata songs in terms of melody and arrangement, which you may recognize immediately. However, this song is good, and I love the chorus very much.

The story was about Sieryek, the son of God Listea, was born in EL=NEMESYS, under the task to help the emperor of EL=DUEL to erase EL=NEMESYS. But until 15, he did not realized his fate and fell in love with Liarsha, the third princess of EL=NEMESYS. Sieryek became the chancellor afterwards, and he found a chance to kill the emperor of EL=NEMESYS. The country was thus taken by EL=DUEL, but Sieryek was killed by Liarsha, who he did not erase on that night. Liarsha holded Sieryek's body, and jump out of their place of memory, an octagon-building. The two could finally stay together, in an ever peace.

This song used to be my favorite before I changed my mind. I like melody, which is very Shikata-like. Just from the introduction, I could feel something similar to her other non-A.T.-related albums. Very folksy, full of the happiness of being alive.

The story is very warm too: In a forest, there was a grandma used to take care of all plants, and she especially loved a dianthus. But the grandma passed away during a forest-fire, because she was protecting the dianthus. Shelanoir, the goddess of forest, was touched and thus decided to protect that dianthus. Under her care, the dianthus grew so well that people thought the flowers could give them the ever-life. For preventing people ruin the flower, Shelanoir grew a large area of thorns around the flower. One day, a young man called Ryugg overcame the thorns, and saw Shelanoir. They began a peaceful period to take care of the forest together. However, people finally burned the forest. Shelanoir thus lost her energy. Ryugg was taking care of her firstly, but one day, he said he was going to find something and never being back again. Shelanoir's worry grew another area of thorns again, until the day of Ryugg's back, with another dianthus in his hands.

Here, eventually I can recognize that I know a similar story! In this song, there are lots of familiar motifs from other hymmnos albums, and the entire song has a good atmosphere about the end of the world – which is what I like to see, to feel… ^^; There are different versions about Rhaplanca's story, and this song is the final one, a sad one.

Rhaplanca was always born at the time when the world is toward the end, trying to do something helping people. In her last life, she was forced to marry to Maoh, but she was still keeping her activity to help others. She never smiled to Maoh until one day Maoh tried to go with her and help the poor people. Maoh was surprised and wanted to help those poor people more, but he eventually did not keep because he wanted Rhaplanca to smile only toward himself. Rhaplanca thus was limited to go outside and got the message from heaven that the world was going to the end. Rhaplanca needed to introduce people who were chosen by heaven to the new world. But she could not receive it; she wanted to help more people. The world began to collapse, the only connection between the ground and the floating ground – the new world – was the huge tree of life, Implanta. People were in a rush to go to the tree, struggling to climb toward the floating ground, but the tree was already nearly dead, and could not supporting itself and people on it anymore. By praying to heaven, Rhaplanca became a huge store to support the tree. Just before her last second being alive, she told Maoh to help more people, if he really loved her.

Now, my FAVORITE song! From the beginning to the end, I love every note of this song. It is so happy and blessed, and the arrangement enforces this feeling. The melody is also extremely beautiful, so as Shikata's singing and chorus. The prettiest part is the melody since 2:15. I can't describe it exactly, but this kind of melody is just in my favorite list. About the story, before I read it, I just thought this might be another version of Harvestasya's story only from the lyrics. But … I think this one must be a continued story of the one in "RAKA". In RAKA version, Harvestasya went to west to find a way to heal Myu's eyes, and this was mentioned in the story!!! So it must be a continued story of the RAKA version! Ahh, finally I felt how excellent it is to encounter the same legend from different albums!!!!!

(After Harvestasya's success of healing Myu's eyes, and Myu finally chose her and they were in the wedding. But it was broken by the goddess of love. The goddess took Myu to her palace, which was in east. To save Myu, Harvestasya went again. There, she finally broke the curse of the goddess, and got the blessing from God Lere. The black goddess disappeared, and with the wings from Lere, Harvestasya and Myu were back to their home.

I have no more to say, but this is a good conclusion song… ^^;

Not be lazy anymore, I have to write something about the game I am currently addicted to!!!

- Preface -
As you might have known, I have been playing the Korean online game "Dragon Nest" for several weeks. I do love it. Actually, it is my first large game – before, I only play minesweeper, FeedingFrenzy, dx-ball, and some other GAL games, orz…

Anyway, for the reason, hmmm… I have no idea how many times I should thank KOKIA for her EPIC song "Road to Glory~for Dragon Nest". For the first time, I knew the existence of this game. However, I would not know more if I did not read KOKIA's blog. She wrote a lot there about her game playing: her character is a warrior called "kokio", which is more like a male name, etc, etc… I had no hesitance to order her mini-album "long journey" when I realized the online-store can ship items world-widely (for free!!). I need to emphasis that, at that time, I know little about the game itself.

And then, I got my copy, limited version, with a trail version of Dragon Nest, Japanese version. I tried to play it for several times, and thought I would love to play it. So I followed the link that redirected you to the Japanese official website of DN. Then… tragically, I could not play that game because my IP was outside of Japan!!! orz…

I browsed online, and found that the Chinese version is not blocking people from outside of China. Oh, superb! I installed the CN version happily and thus began my own long journey.

- Luminora -
Luminora, my first character, a sorceress.

To be honest, I was thinking on if I should use names of characters from my own snail-paced writing story. Maybe I should not. But I was not willing to think a new name, and just used this one. I love this name. You may see something from this name: luminous – light.

It may just be my fate to be a sorceress – I chose the sorceress when playing the Japanese trail version too! I love fantasy stories, and I love people with magic power. I also read about the skill of sorceress online, and knew that she can get an advanced job being either an element lord or a force user – force user… after reading the skills, ohh, that's pretty cool! I chose this class without any other thinking.

Following the story line, I made her became a force user. Yet, I did not know much about the sp, and sadly I mis-used lots of sp so my sorceress could not learn enough new skills for being a good force user…

After a lot of thinking, I deleted this character on last Sunday, when she was at level 22…

Bye-bye, Luminora.

- Wanna Live Longer? -
Before I deleted my first sorceress, I created all other classes cause I wanted to see what kind of skills they have, and play another story line (there are two towns for beginners [lv1-9], archer and warrior are from the same town, whereas sorceress and cleric are from the other). For warrior, I would have to say I have no sense about this character (I KNOW KOKIA IS PLAYING THIS CHARACTER!!! PLZ FORGIVE ME!!!!! orz)… for archer, no much of sense either, but the character design of archer is very cute!

Now, I will introduce my new dear child: Elefseja, a cleric.

There was a side story for me to name my cleric like this. In the story line for sorceress and cleric, there is a NPC-cleric who has the same name as a friend of mine, which gave me much of fun. When I created the cleric character, I could not stop thinking using his name for mine as well. But it would be way too weird if I did so. As a result, I used his last.fm account name, which was taken from a SH story character. xDD

When played a bit with the cleric, I realized how powerful/strong this class is. As my previous experience, a sorceress can lose her blood faster and thus can be killed if your playing skill is not very good. But, oh man, my cleric can not be killed that easily! His first death was at lv13, when we were playing in abyss (the hardest) mode. Cool, cleric! (also, seriously, cleric is the most handsome character among all four classes lol)

I have changed my last.fm profile avatar to my cleric, after he got his advanced job for being a priest. And my friend (who has the same name as the NPC I mentioned before) said, it's so strange to see a GUY on your avatar!

It may be strange, but I just love my cleric!!! :3

My new last.fm profile avatar: my handsome cleric :P

- Revive -
I have mentioned that I created all four classes after the deletion of my first character. I paused my playing with the warrior because no much of interest. I also paused my playing with the archer, because the job-changing was soooo difficult. Someone wrote that he/she passed it at the first time, but I just could not. I do not know why. I think I am just not good for being an archer. So, see you later (maybe), Erika (the name of my archer) and Akiko (the name of my warrior).

So I could pay more attention to build my brand new sorceress. I still called her "Luminora", but differently, I used Katakana instead of using the Latin letters. The same name and the same design, my sorceress was revived! I had known how to use the sp better, so this time, I must make a good force user!

I think she is, really. She had less times of death than the previous one. Oh, go go, my sorceress! :D

- Let's Dance!!!-
When you get leveled up, extra emotions will be added. Two of them are dances. For each class, they have a unique dance, and for all of them, they have the same dance #2. I guess the system wants players to dance together, thus they gave the same dance for all classes. For the first kind of dance, I have to say I like three of them but not the archer's. I tried to let my archer dance and forced her to stop because I was laughing to death!!

If you want to watch, you may youtube them, I don't wanna record mine. XD

However, the second dance is a bit funny, but still fine. Yet, the funniest experience of this dance was a few days ago, we (two warriors and another priest and I) were playing in abyss mode. Before we transferred to beat the final boss, one warrior asked us to wait for a while, because he needed to add some power. Ohh, fine, we stopped at the transfer gate and waited. But then, the other priest switched to "peace mode". Firstly I thought he might just want to sit down, like some other players usually do when they are waiting. Unexpectedly, he was dancing!!! Just before our facing of the final boss!!!!! orz… I was like "…" but it was so… LOOL

Here I must introduce you a fan-made dance. This is just awesome!
Source link: http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-08-13/fan_made_dragon_nest_rainism_mv,1.shtml

- Back to the origin, music, music, oh dear! -
As what I said, no KOKIA's "Road to Glory", no my playing of Dragon Nest. Her "Daybreak" is also a very excellent song. For me, no matter what game I play, I just mute all system sounds and listen to my own music instead. It is the same for Dragon Nest. At first, I was looping KOKIA's "Road to Glory" and "Daybreak" while playing, but later, I switched to play classical music like mad (I have my long, long term goals on last.fm!). I actually do not mind what kind of music I listen to while playing, but it was REALLY not that matching to play such a RPG with Mozart's sweet melodies…. Oh, well… ^^;

Okay… now, I think I should probably stop. On next Monday the third chapter of the game will be available. However, I cannot enjoy it yet because it is all about over Lv32. I will just play my sorceress and cleric now, and I will probably record some battles I join and post them. Just for fun, my skill is not good at all! XD

I guess it was just in last week, we talked about sushi during lunch, and one mentioned that he had a friend used to work in a sushi restaurant – making sushi is not like what you thought: cook the rice and roll it into nori. No no no! You need to mix sugar, and some sauce with the rice, or you cannot get the unique taste of the sushi you eat in restaurants.

Ahh, I think I got the key to make sushi. Before, I used to make rice balls as well as rice rolls – well,now I have to call them rice rolls, though they were supposed to be called sushi…

But they just could not. I did not add the sauce that can make them become real sushi.

And finally I knew how to use the sushi-zu (Sushi vinegar) I bought in Asian market. Okay, why not try to make some sushi?

Thus, in this afternoon, I started my first challenge of making sushi – I would like to call it as a fighting – it really was!

Basically, you just need to cook the rice, and mix with sushi-zu. Since I had completely no idea on what to put inside the sushi – I did cook some salmon but that was not for sushi, I thought up my crab meat and fried eggs. Anyway, I believe, no matter what you put into, the most important thing was to try if the way of mixing rice and vinegar works and if I can roll with nori well. Thus I used crab meat and fried eggs.

Then it came the problem: it was my first time to roll the sushi, and… how could I put rice onto the sushi roller first instead of onto a sheet of nori? orz … So I got the roller very sticky – oh, by the way, I do not know if it is the reason, that the rice became rather stickier before I mixed it with sushi-zu. I was almost got stuck with the sticker rice; it was so hard to put them onto the nori evenly! Also, the position of putting the integrant was hard too. The nori, yes, another problem, it was too thin to remain unbroken after I rolled it… eventually, I ended up with adding another layer of nori, which was not that easy to stick onto the inside layer… However, that was not all: to cut the sushi was hard. I did not get how come the nori became that sticky to be cut easily. I firstly tried to cut one long roll into eight pieces, but if I did so, the pieces were like to be collapsed. I had to cut them into six pieces instead, which made my sushi looked very fatty! Just with it can get better in my future fighting! XD

Well, the trophy of today's fighting for making sushi!

Rainy soul, I wrote this phrase into my blog subtitle a few days ago. I just suddenly realized this word fits myself perfectly… and thus, I remembered the song by GARNET CROW.

Rainy Soul.

It happened recently when I paid more attention to this song, since I began my super crazy listening to GC's music. The album which "Rainy Soul" belongs to was released in last year, but at that time, I only loved "ON THE WAY" like mad… (gosh, I'm a bit off topic…).

I love rainy days, I like to stay alone, and my soul is always calm and quiet. I like to imagine being in a weekend afternoon, with the soft sound of raindrops falling down to the ground; there is the scent of grass outside, gentle breeze blows into the room where I am; people in other houses turn on the light in turn, the sky turns darker and darker. The world is in an endless serenity, with me being its very centre…

Way too fantastic, no? ^^;

Not only my imagination, the aura of the song fits my soul. I believe it very much. The melody, the lyrics, the calm tempo, the intense vocal, the rich arrangement… plus, GARNET CROW is one of Japanese artists I knew when I just entered into the Jpop world!

-The music-
I like the darkish and depressing ambience of the song. Piano and bass introduce a soft tempo by drums. Yuri's voice is just as low as that in other typical GC songs. Yet, in the middle, her voice is getting more intense, and so is the tempo. In the second phrase, what I like best is the sound of piano hovering over Yuri's vocal (when she sings "warabe uta kasukani"). In the climax part, from the lyrics, I think the real conception of the song is coming out, and soon, this song ends in the same darkish and depressing ambience, just like the beginning.

-The Words-
I spent some time on understanding the lyrics, and I love it. Azuki Nana tends to use some "special" words in her lyrics – in this lyrics, she made "ningen (human)" as "hito (person)", "Mirai (future)" as "Shiawase (happiness)", "hankyou (echo)" as "naru (echo)", and so on. Although some words have basically the same meaning under the two different ways of reading them, some do not. This feature makes them unique and thus gives GC the reputation out of those mediocre Jpop artists.

I'm so glad that I found the song fits my soul that well.

I tried to translate the lyrics… using my careless translation power again :D

* Parts in parentheses have the literal meaning, which is according to what I mentioned about Azuki Nana's unique way of writing.

月夜に響き出した 狂った旋律のピアノ
The crazy melody of piano rushes out of the moonlit night,
眠りを誘う
Enticing me in sleep.
意味もなく 不安にさせる
With no meaning yet making me anxious,
冷たい視線はもう私を見てない
Your cold eyes are on me anymore.

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
明日の気持ちなんて
Don't think about how you feel tomorrow,
人間は約束など出来ぬもの
This is human, which not be able to make promise.

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
時に君がみせる
Sometimes, I am attracted by your life,
孤独にさえすがる生き方魅せられた
Which is depending on even loneliness.

物音ひとつない午後 童歌 微かに
In a silent afternoon, I hear a folksong echoing slightly,
“トオリャンセ…” さぁ、さぁ…
"Tohryanse…" come on, come on…

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
あなたが生きてるならば
If you are there,
私まだ未来を祈れる
I can still pray for the happiness (future).

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
何も欲しがらぬ その瞳で
Your eyes are telling you need nothing,
何を恐れているというのか…
Yet I know you fear something…
教えて…
Tell me…

誰も知らない 誰も見えない戦場をゆくのね
You're going to the battlefield that is not known by anyone, and cannot been seen by anyone,
そして人知れず勝利願う
And you pray for your victory that no one can realize.
君の世間が
Your world
また反響しだした
Is reflecting your soul again.

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
魅き合う時もあるでしょう
I believe it exists when we're attracted by each other,
人はただ人であると知るなら
If we know people are just people.

Rainy Soul
Rainy Soul
傷ついた時だけでも
Even only when you're hurt,
愛が必要だと思うなら
If you believe you need love,
存在して
I am there (It exists).
HUMAN LOST
HUMAN LOST

Ohhh, double post today! ^^;

Continue to where I stopped in last post, I am going to talk about the ORB series now. (I said I was going to play Dragon Nest, but I did not. Instead, I changed my blog template. I was thinking on changing its theme colour as well, but, since I was lazy to modify all colour codes, I modified the hue of the picture I chose for the new template, and got my new blue template! XDD)

ORBITAL MANEUVER, I have never tried this series before. I only saw information that was linked by amazon.co.jp in its related items. This series has the motif about stories of people who leave their hometown and fly to the outer space, sounds like a SF – according to the official webpage. No matter what the story is, ohhh, look at the staff! Hiroyuki Ooshima featuring the three doujin singers again!!! Im my own imagination, I did not get too much sense of his music, but I loved his "Why, or Why not" sung by Rekka Katakiri. His music gives me a unique feeling, which has much of electronic instruments yet not too similar to the flooding abuse (?) of them by some other composers. Thank God, I got this series in last month finally!

-Haruka Shimotsuki: geotaxis-


-Chata: anemotaxis-


-Rekka Katakiri: phototaxis-
↑Nice covers! Just look like the cover for a SF novel <3

In the first track of the first album, the introduction is very splendid, like a symphony. The electronic instruments used in this song give it such a perfect ambience of the vast universe. It was the first time I hear Haruka sing a full English song (so was the case of Chata). Ohhh, how fantastic her voice is!! I have never loved Haruka's voice that much! There is a specific power in all songs in this series, and I can specifically feel the intensity from the first Haruka song, "geotaxis". However, I love her second song, "Silver Lining", the most. Yet I cannot tell more of my feeling of the song. I like its ambience, calm with a bit of loneliness; also like its medium rhythm and catchy melody. I especially love the background hovering piano!The lyrics, oh yes, I have to say all the lyrics sound like extracts from a SF novel as well! Sweet! I think I have got some writing ideas…!!! I may use "geotaxis" as the opening theme song, and use "Silver Lining" as the ending theme song. Now, her third track, "カナタ/Kanata/The Other Side", can be used as an insert song (must stop my reverie immediately, lol)!! Here, Haruka finally sounds like Haruka. LOL!! This is a gentle song; it is nice but a bit too close to an average doujin song.

Volume two, featuring Chata, gives me less sense comparing with Haruka's. Chata's voice does fit the melody, but I failed to feel much enough. Maybe I have been over-impressed by Haruka's performance… orz… Volume three, featuring Rekka Katakiri, did not give me much of impression either. However, I paid extra attention to this album, because the second track of this album is called "Chisato", hey, I am using this name for my own writing story! Should I thus use this song as her theme song? :P

In all, except the two Haruka songs I extremely love, I do love the whole ORB series. I am picky on music I listen to, and this is true that I do not like some other works by bermei.inazawa or Hiroyuki Ooshima (Hiroyuki's new work featuring Noriko Mitose did not fell into my favored range, I personally think Noriko's voice does not fit his composing melody, -__-|| ), but the two series, ACI and ORB, are really awesome. Being a doujin music lover, you cannot miss it!!

-bonus image-
My addiction to the two Haruka songs mentioned above~ =w=

Image got from my last.fm page :3

Recently, I am addicted to two series of doujin music works: "Ancient Colours Infinity" and "ORBITAL MANEUVER", featured by composers Hiroyuki Ooshima and bermei.inazawa, lyricist interface, and the most famous three doujin singers, Haruka Shimotsuki, Chata, and Rekka Katakiri.

The first series, "Ancient Colours Infinity", is focusing on using elements giving people the feeling of the distant past, the time we do not know yet. Songs in this series are mostly sung in ancient Japanese, which fits the sense of "ancient" very well. Each CD cover is mainly based on one single colour: green, blue and red. Oh, that's the ancient colours! XDD

I remember I have ever tried some pieces from Haruka's album, and said, "oh, no, that's not my favoured type." Yet now, I love it so much… orz. I think my taste got changed a lot during these years since I began to listen to tons of Japanese pop/doujin music. :P

-霜月はるか：泰東ノ翠霞 - Haruka Shimotsuki: Taitou no Suika/Emerald of the Great East-

My favourite album from this series. From the first song "泰東ノ翠霞/Taitou no Suika/Emerald of the Great East (my careless translating, applicable to all translation below!)", You can feel typical bermei.inazawa-styled noise. The background noise and the percussion are such a well-done. This song really sounds like the very music used in a ritual, a mystic ceremony to praying for the eternal peace. Track 2, "さよなら/Sayonara/Farewell" is my favourite song. I love its medium tempo introduced by a rather slow solo. This song has even more elements from traditional Japanese ballad. In the middle of it, percussions make out a calm yet intense rhythm. Haruka's multi-layered chorus is another point that attracts me. Ohh, also, do not forget to notice her whisper-like chanting in the late part!!! Track 3, "森羅/Shinra/The Universe" is another of my favourites among the whole series. This song has a fast tempo, and a more complicated arrangement as well as chorus, which indicate the intriguing true nature of the universe. I love it also because its melody is so catchy!! Track 4 and 5 are remixed versions of track 1 and 2, and they are also very nice, in which track 4 is more rich in arrangement comparing with track 1, whereas track 5 is simpler and cleaner than the original version.

One-sentence summary: Haruka does not sound like Haruka… lol

-茶太：蒼昊ノ恋歌 - Chata: Soukou no Renka/Love Song of the Endless Indigo-

To be honest, I am not a bit fan of Chata – I more care on the melody itself than how the singer's voice is, and the melodies from most of Chata's songs do not attract me – they sound just average (I am serious!). However, songs from this album all have beautiful melodies, and thus I love it! Except the typical bermei.inazawa-noise, many Chinese traditional instruments are used in this album. Then, look at the cover of this album again, hey, does not this album have a perfect ambience of the ancient South China (maybe Soshu according to the jacket)? I have never thought Chata could sing that amazingly in Track 1, "古街/Furumachi/Old Town"!! Hmm, here, Chata does not sound like that Chata either! LOL Comparing with track 1, track 2 "蒼昊ノ恋歌/Soukou no Renka/Love Song of the Endless Indigo" is much calmer, like a serenade and might be perfect if listen during the night. Track 3, "いささめの花/Isasame no Hana/A Small Flower", is my favourite of this album. The melody is like the flowing water, and Chata's sweet voice fits it so well. Track 4 and 5 have more noise but they sound similar in terms of the ambience for me…

One-sentence summary: My favorite Chata album is this!

-片霧烈火：饗旺ノ烈火 - Rekka Katakiri: Kyouou no Rekka/Mighty Blaze-

Rekka Katakiri, since the time I knew her she gave me a feeling of craziness and darkness; she is the queen of the darkest abyss, the owner of the most powerful voice (for me, though she HAS peaceful and calm songs… ^^;). The last volume from the ACI series is featured by such a sense of darkness. I cannot say how good the melody is, but I do love the album! Here, the melody is not that important for me anymore – I love the final assembly of the noise, arrangement, metal-like background effects, and the intense voice. I lost the feeling of each single song; I recommend listen to this album without any break. Songs in this album have to be listened constantly to achieve the most ancient feeling of the unknown force – yes, it is "force", not "power", which fits the feeling of the crimson CD jacked, which was rather scary for me, orz. If I say Haruka's album is like a developed ancient civilization, and Chata's album is like a not-that-ancient town, Rekka's album is describing the most original universe, in which everything was in chaos. Track 1, "饗旺ノ烈火/Kyouou no Rekka/Mighty Blaze", is the first sign of life in the world, which is rather calm but full of energy. Track 2, "纏/Matoi/Entangling", is the vast chaos before any civilization; track 3, "贈火/Zouka/The Fire has been Controlled", described the very beginning of civilization (I guess!). The world was tending to have rules and well-organized, in which the melody is much calmer. Ahhhh, by the way, the two remix versions are much crazier!! Enjoy! :P

One-sentence summary: anyone who can sing songs in this album must be a singing god of chaos! ;)

Writing a review is exhausting! I will talk more about the other series, which is "ORBITAL MANEUVER" later… flees away to play "Dragon Nest" now!!! XDD