Saturday, May 22nd - 6:55 am
Update
- Jay
Navok
Live
Action update (Act 32 HICBC preview, diaries, and the Venus single CD)
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Filmed
on location in little London, Tokyo. |
I know for a fact that Hoshiko and Kenji are hard at work on this week's
synopsis for what is being called the best episode (period), so stay tuned.
Although the episode has already aired and the synopsis is getting fine
tuned, those brilliant fellows running the official
Live Action page updated with this week's preview just yesterday, so I've
translated it here for the archives.
They've also put up three of the week's senshi diaries, which must make
them feel downright exhausted from all the work they haven't been doing.
Thanks to Kenji for assistance!
Chiba Mamoru, having left to London, has gone missing! Usagi cannot forget him, and is restless. Despite the fact that her friends have
told her that their love is cursed, she wants to go to London desperately. This
[desire] has caught the eye of her classmate-slash-idol Kuroki Mio. She proposes that Usagi accompany the idol Yuuto as his attendant. Willing to do anything
to go to London, Usagi jumps at the chance and is more than happy to become his assistant. Yet having heard about all this, Aino Minako senses something ominous...
A tad more liberal translation than usual but it gets the job done.
Sailor Mars (5/18)
While shopping with a friend, I by-chance happened upon some curtain and lace and purchased it on the impulse of the moment; of course I completely ignored the length and size. (laughs) I was wrong to believe what my friend said. (laughs) When I returned and installed it I found that... I was lucky, as the width was just right, but it was quite long. Since I had bought it I thought that it shouldn't go to waste, so I tried to hem it on my own!
..and the time it took was some two hours. I cut and sewed until considerably late at night. (laughs) From now on I definitely want to avoid these kinds of mistakes. (laughs)
You and your friend sure do have wacky adventures over at the fabric shop.
Please tell us more fascinating sewing stories.
Sailor Jupiter (5/20)
*My recommended way to eat curry*
That is, Natto curry. (laughs) I'm sure everyone's saying "Whaaat?!" but it's delicious! Take my word for it and try it!
ぜひ。。。お断りします。
Sailor Venus (5/21)
Well then, this week is "things Ayaka likes." Recently I've been tired and for some reason have felt like eating Umiboshi [dried plums]. There are a variety of ways to eat it but my preferred method is a Plum
kombucha with Kishu plums put in. After that with
Ochazuke... SUPPAIMAN
(their dried plums) are also a favourite of mine. Since it's the best thing for fatigue recovery, please try it everyone.
After the suggestion of natto curry, even this sounds edible.
I figured it's time I put up my review of the Venus single CD released last
March.
30 second samples (thanks to Bill
Heineman for media hosting!):
Track One
Track Two
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That's
terrific. Now stop doing this.
Honestly, it's not cool. |
Romance
What happens when someone writes lyrics to a rejected Megaman stage theme
and has Britney from the Chipettes
sing it? Why that'd be the Venus single song Romance. This completely
uninteresting pop song is reminiscent of the Venus Stars single CD Ai
no Megami no How To Love insofar as it's fast uberpop, but whereas the
gimmick in the latter song was to insert various sound effects and attack
phrases, it at least managed to have a cohesive melody of sorts that actually
sounds quite good in the instrumental version included in the SM Music Box.
Romance lacks that cohesion utterly and instead replaces it with pop riffs
that don't seem to go anywhere. I found myself almost wishing for them good
old helicopter noises to return, as they'd have provided some relief from
the monotony.
When Komatsu said she couldn't sing very well she wasn't kidding. Rather
than singing she appears to be speaking while moving her voice at different
tones depending on whether the words on the music sheet said to bob her head
up, or weave her head down. Furthermore, it always remains in the same awkward
'I've been sucking a little helium' pitch. She's got a nice voice, it just
doesn't "sing" in this song; it seems to reverberate a far higher
tone than microphones should pick up. For someone who was hired to play a
music idol, they didn't train her for the part much.
If I had to pick one thing about the song that I liked it's the way she
says "baby baby" because the way she pronounces the word as "beibi"
for some reason is actually entertaining. That's in contrast to the
lyrics like "embrace me darling/the sky is colored like a
ribbon" What?? Of course that's not her fault, it's the fault of Sugiura
Atsushi for not giving the results his "random song maker" software
spat out a once over. I'd go as far as to say that Traditional
the Grace, with its lyrics of "Loving so Impact" and
"Thinking so Easy" not only is better, but make more sense. At least
in that case the author had to have been intentionally parodying...
Katagoshi ni Kinsei (Venus Over My Shoulder)
If Romance is the live action equivalent of Ai no Megami,
then Katagoshi ni Kinsei is the live action's Route Venus. This
is not because both have Venus in the title; my first inclination is actually
to draw parallels between this song and the R single Setsunakute
Ii as Setsunakute is slow while Route Venus is fast. But
both this song and Route Venus were written by Takeuchi, and because
both are about similar themes (break ups/lost loves), it's fitting. While I
like Ai no Megami more than Setsunakute, I think Katagoshi ni
Kinsei is far and away better than Romance. It has a nice guitar rhythm
slightly reminiscent of the Myu song Kaze no Shijin, but also a nice
piano accompaniment and an actual melody. (I think it'd also do well as the
theme song to the next Final Fantasy as it's quite reminiscent of those in
VIII and IX, and that of Chrono Cross.) Komatsu's singing is actually a lot
better in this song, and I think slower songs in general suit her more than
fast-paced ones, as she just doesn't seem capable of keeping up with the
latter.
As is expected for a song written by Takeuchi, the lyrics themselves are
quite good. She may not be the world's most masterful lyricist, but she puts a
lot of effort into songs when they're related to her favourite characters, and
I think it shows in the quality of Senshi Team no Theme and others.
Takeuchi seems to have a penchant for associated Venus with broken hearts, and
this song is no different. I think the real question is what motivated her to
write it, as Route Venus had an interesting story related to it, and perhaps
Katagoshi does as well.
I'd say that even the effects in this song (the echos), while not
completely necessary, are tasteful. The pick up of the song about a minute in,
when it starts getting stronger, is also well done. It's almost too bad they
didn't make the whole CD with just this song and do two versions, one
completely like the stronger middle, and one completely like the slower
beginning. (Reminds me, strangely, of the debacle with the Stars closing
theme, Kaze mo Sora mo. Until the Starlights showed up, it was a slow
theme. When they came on stage, it was a much faster rock theme. Unfortunately
the former has never seen release.) That'd have been excellent.
Overall it's not bad. Despite Romance's flaws, it's okay; it's just
not memorable. I still can't recall the way Chisaki's single songs go because
they seem to be lacking a melody, and Romance is the same way. Takeuchi's
involvement with Katagoshi, however, makes it all worth it.
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