10-29-17 Hearses

@2many2no I’m just curious as to what you think? The visual kei bands that have been coming out are definitely an interesting thing. I just wish I spoke Japanese so I could understand it. I’ve watched a lot of subtitled anime so at least it doesn’t sound weird in my head.

There are a lot of women that cosplay as male anime characters, and many times, they pull the character off better than some men do.

@RiotDemon I started watching anime on Adult Swim weekends before it became Toonami. Now I watch when I can on Netflix and Crunchyroll. A lot of the stuff on Crunchyroll is English subtitled, so you get a feel for the sound of the Japanese, but I don’t speak or understand it. My all time favorites are Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell.

That’s why I started listening to Japanese music. On the streaming services you can pause the credits to get the names of the bands and look them up. Many have tremendous talent and stage presence, they’re just fun to watch and listen to, and every style of music is represented, pop, rock, jazz, metal. My current go to listen is Scandal. They have several anime credits, including Bleach and One Piece. I also like Yoko Kanno who writes several styles of music and sometimes performs in the bands.

If you want a more western style introduction to Japanese music, you can’t go wrong with Puffy Amiyumi. They did the Teen Titans theme and actually had their own kids show on TV, but have some real good songs in their catalog, pretty much a pop-rock sound.

And Japan is a stronghold of metal. Nobody can understand the words to metal anyway, but it’s the sound and style that’s so great. Sigh is world class awesome, but curiously, Japanese girls really rock the metal. (Destrose, Cyntia, Aldious, Band Maid) And of course, there’s the curious phenomenon of kawaii metal, best known from Babymetal. Almost all the bands make videos in costume, and some of the stage shows are too. Pretty much anything that adds to the impact of the music is good for me.

Last time I saw Avenged Sevenfold they burned more gas than it takes to heat my house all winter and they hung a guy and let him sway in the noose for a couple of songs (poor roadies will do anything.) So visual kei may be the Japanese twist on it, but all the best bands are visual.

Oh shit, TLDR; I’ll shut up now.

@2many2no

Nobody can understand the words to metal anyway

I hate this stereotype about metal. I’m honestly a little surprised that someone that enjoys metal would say it. Most of the metal I listen to, you can definitely understand it. That’s the type of metal I prefer. I like to sing along. I can’t sing along to growls.

I have crunchy roll and Funimation downloaded on the PS3. I don’t pay for either because I just don’t have enough time to watch a bunch of stuff.

Bleach was one of my favorites. I started watching anime back in the days of DBZ and Sailor Moon, which is probably most American’s introductions to anime. I would set my vhs to record DBZ every day.

I definitely need to watch more. There’s so many shows I’ve never even heard of that are popular. I’m so behind on everything.

Last series I watched was Tokyo Ghoul. I wanted to really like it… But it was honestly a little boring. The main character could of been so much more.

Movie wise, I really loved Akira. I bought it on eBay on vhs. When I bought the remastered DVD, I was a little surprised as to how much of the dialogue was changed for the original dubbing.

@RiotDemon Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t begin to hear the words to most songs until listening to them more than several times. I seem to hear the music as a whole and the interplay of instruments and voice, melody and harmony, before any lyrics penetrate, then I’ll look up the lyrics or watch the lyric video to tie it together. I like instrumental pieces and admire bands that are willing to put “naked” music out there. I guess it is kind of weird, but it is what it is.

I haven’t watched any of the anime feature length movies, they’re hard to find, unless you want to buy them. I guess there’s so much stuff you can stream for free that I haven’t gone beyond that yet. Akira sounds pretty interesting, I did notice there have been several versions dubbed since the 1989 original English version. Another one that I’ve had recommended is Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, I think it is on Hulu. Maybe I’ll sign up one of these days.

@2many2no does that mean you haven’t seen the Ghost In The Shell movie?

Definitely catch the 2000s remastered version of Akira. The original dubbing was tamed down from the Japanese script. Just one example:

A character shakes his fist at another character running away:

The original: Well you could at least tell me your name…

Remastered: You could at least tell me your name you cold bitch!

If you watch it subtitled, it doesn’t matter of course.

@RiotDemon The ScarJo movie? Yes, I saw that, but it’s not real anime when it’s live action. Of course with CGI the special effects are as good as anything you can draw. It was OK.

Thanks for the recommendation. Sometimes the version you see makes a big difference.

@2many2no noooo, I’m talking about the movie that came before the series.
The live action was ok… But the original anime movie is great!

@RiotDemon Just the series and the live action movie. Whenever I try to watch an anime movie, I get interrupted by people complaining about how weird I am it is and I end up losing track of the story. I have to find I time when I can run off everyone else. Some day, though…

@2many2no you have to watch the original movie! The live action pulled several things from the original movie which I appreciated.

The scene with Major on the tank trying to pull it open… Occasionally when I’d be working out my back muscles, that scene would pop into my head.

@cinoclav that was my mistake. I was actually searching for the hearse version of the Miller meteor, because it’s essentially the same thing with the back window being covered. That’s why made the comment on the Ghostbusters picture saying what’s the difference.

@steve149 Jesus, that’s hideous.

@steve149 @RiotDemon or the 2017 Chevy Suburban

@msklzannie that one just needs the little ~ thing on the back windows, lol.

@RiotDemon I initially saw pictures of the redesigns in Consumer Reports. First thought that popped into my head was that both the Suburbans and Denalis looked like hearses.