SIM Anime and Gaming Club

 random Q and A about pretty much anything

this episode: "Jpop shit"

"Anthony, how long have you been listening to Japanese music?"

Well, I can't remember the first time I tuned in to a Japanese song, but most likely, it's around primary 4 and 5.
My first exposure to Jpop was JAM Project's "Hagane no Messiah". That's the themesong for the Japanese PS game Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden. I played that game in primary 5, good times.


"Why do you prefer Japanese music over western, or any other type of music?"

I uh.... don't really prefer J-music over any kind of music. It's more like your musical tastes, I enjoy anything that I found to be nice. For example, Pitbull's "Calle Ocho" is a wonderful song for partaying, LP's "Bleed it Out" is probably my most favorite modern western rock song, and Bieber's "Baby" is really nice when you are high or suicidal.
It just happens that most of the Japanese music has this melody that is just right for me. So... yeah you can say that I prefer Japanese music in a way lol


"Which Japanese artist/group hooked you into Jpop?"

That would be Laruku and Utada. I think it's the same for everyone around the same age as me, we got into Jpop through L'arc en Ciel and Utada Hikaru.
Utada's "First Love" practically hooked teenagers at 2003-2005 into mainstream Jpop. First Love was real huge man, real huge.

I still remember my secondary school days, I always sleep with my CD player running and earphones on my ear, listening to Utada's single collection.
Before that, I have Laruku's best 94-98 in my walkman and it's like I abused it over and over lmao.


"What are your favorite songs from those artistes?"

For Utada, it has to be "Traveling" and "Movin' on Without You". I love to listen to them for night time driving.
As for Laruku..... I like their pre-hiatus works better than their newer ones. "NEXUS4" is my most favorite from their post-hiatus works.


"When it comes to Japanese music, what is your favorite kind of song?"

Mmmm... for Japanese music, I love any kind of songs if I feel that it's good lol.
Rock, hip-hop, blues, jazz, anything really.

from epically energetic anime songs like Kuribayashi Minami's "Crystal Energy", Hayashibara Megumi's "Northern Lights", and Kimeru's "OVERLAP"
easy to listen songs like CHEMISTRY's "Kagayaku Yoru", JAM Project's "Little Wing", and FLOW's "Nagareboshi"
hard rock and metal songs like MUCC's "Kokoro no nai Machi", Maximum the Hormone's "Rolling1000toon", and Galneryus's "Shining Moments"
catchy rock songs and pop-rock like ELLEGARDEN's "Kaze no Hi", GLAY's "Verb", and UVERworld's "Sora"
bright and cheerful songs like AAA's "Music!!!", Nami Tamaki's "Distance", and MihimaruGT's "Girigiri Hero"
to chill songs like EXILE's "Fireworks", Sowelu's "Finally", and Lisa's "SWITCH"

My favorite depends on my mood at that moment. If I feel tired and shit, then my favorite song would be a feel good song Home Made Kazoku style haha.


"Are there any particular genre or songs that you dislike?"

Um for genre.... not really. I even like Enka and the much dreaded VK screamo and Angura Kei genre haha. I have all of the hardcore Dir en Grey works before DOZING GREEN, most of Kagerou stuffs, GHOST, SeikimaII, et cetera.

As for songs that I dislike..... Currently, I can't think of anything other than the Dog Days OP, "Scarlet Knight" lol.
You need to listen to the full version dozens of times to feel and appreciate the song, else you can only see this song as Nana trying too hard and messed up hilariously.
You see, it's like she hums and mumbles the melody quickly, suddenly jumping over the riffs and stuffs throughout the whole song, and finally wrapped things up with "... aaa..... Scarlet Knight!"
Hahaha! I was like, "What the fuck is this shit?" when I first listened to it. It was hilarious really.


"So who is your favorite artist/gr..."

B'z! hahaha! I'm addicted to B'z for 5 years now.
First song I've heard from them was "Bad Communication (000-18)". I'm a sucker for these kind of sexy ass rock-blues with blues harp lol.
I really like to sing along most of their songs but Inaba's voice is just too damn high I can feel my vocal cord shredding to pieces.

And Home Made Kazoku came in second.
I really love their feel good kind of hip-hop, it just fits in to your mood you know. When I'm down, I listen to HMKu. When I'm happy, I listen to HMKu.
I listened to "Home Sweet Home: Reborn" and "Shounen Heart" hundreds of thousands of times back in my highscool days I can easily rap them lol.


"What got you into B'z and HMKu?"

Well, I always liked Kageyama Hironobu's pumping and rockish vocal, so somewhere during my highschool days, my friend recommended B'z to me. And then I was..... blown, when I first listened to their song lol.
I found Inaba Koshi's high pitched vocal to be totally electrifying, it has that something that words can't describe. His voice is really rich, and it is suitable for any genre of song. Yeap, it was love at first... um, listen.

My first HMKu song was BLEACH's "Thank You!!" and it really captivated my heart. I was like, god, this song is so catchy and it just feels damn good to listen to it!

Then I digged up their stuffs in the net and ended up with their whole discography in my music library haha.
Yeah, B'z have around 500++ songs, pretty gigantic stuff lol.


"So how about telling us your all time top 10 Japanese songs?"

Haha it depends on my mood really. Sometimes my top 10 is full of hip-hop songs and sometimes I feel like listening to some wild rock stuffs or maybe some power ballads. Another time when I feel like dancing my top 10 is full of euro and breakbeat stuffs lol.
Anyways, most of the time my list have multiple entries of B'z and HMKu stuffs lol.


"How about making an all time top 10 list from different artistes?"

Different artists huh. It still depends on my mood and yes, still difficult for me lol.
Well, it would probably look like this:


10. "Hana" - ORANGE RANGE
 

9. "Hysteric Moon" - Janne Da Arc


8. "Skill" - JAM Project


7. "BUMP BUMP!" - BoA feat. Verbal


6. "Dis" - Arisaka Mika


5. "Laughmaker" - Bump of Chicken


4. "Passing By" - MintJam


3. "Home Sweet Home: Reform" - Home Made Kazoku


2. "Believer" - BACK-ON


1. "DANGAN" - B'z 


Well, it's a pretty mashed up list with songs from various genre. I'll try to come up with a video review for this list lol


"That's all for today. See you in the next episode of Anthony's Corner"

The next episode would be..... eroge perhaps? lol idk just wait and see


Anthony, peace and out.