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Episode 6 There was this perpetual sense of discomfort that I felt hanging around throughout the whole episode, like watching a movie about some kid who's gonna snap one day and you're increasingly getting frantic and anxious as to when that's gonna happen. And that kid was Saya. After watching the first 2 episodes, I thought the series was really good. After watching the next 2, I experienced abject despair and then a come-from-behind victory where the series actually won me back with some good character relationships. Now, having watched 2 more, I find myself without much to say. Or, rather, there are things I could say, but I don't feel like mustering up the energy to say them. Starting to understand how someone could fall off this series. The rest of this series will be watched on a plane to Japan, and a review will come up after I've come back from Japan, so don't, uh, expect me to remember most of it by the time I get back.
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Jul 31, 2019 16:40
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| # ? May 16, 2024 19:29 |
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ZepiaEltnamOberon posted:Why are we back to this poo poo again??? Are they doing the thing where they swap the lyrics between English and Japanese every episode, in some weird effort to please both sides? Just stick to English if you have it imo, people can look up the Japanese if they really want it.
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Jul 31, 2019 17:29
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Polsy posted:Are they doing the thing where they swap the lyrics between English and Japanese every episode, in some weird effort to please both sides? Just stick to English if you have it imo, people can look up the Japanese if they really want it. Episode 1: No OP, no lyrics for ED (which is actually the OP). Episode 2: No lyrics for OP and ED. Episode 3: No OP, English lyrics for ED. Episode 4: Romaji lyrics for OP and ED. Episode 5: English lyrics for OP and ED. Episode 6: Romaji lyrics for OP and ED.
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Jul 31, 2019 17:37
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ZepiaEltnamOberon posted:There was this perpetual sense of discomfort that I felt hanging around throughout the whole episode, like watching a movie about some kid who's gonna snap one day and you're increasingly getting frantic and anxious as to when that's gonna happen. And that kid was Saya. Yeah, there's a whole lot of meaningful shots of Saya but no payoff, or rather not in this episode, so it's kind of weird.
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Jul 31, 2019 19:20
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Consider supporting i☆Ris, if you're interested and able! https://twitter.com/iRisAWAFlowerS/status/1156633182910988290 They're the voices for the main six of Pripara, and they're very good idols!
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Jul 31, 2019 20:33
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ZepiaEltnamOberon posted:Episode 1: No OP, no lyrics for ED (which is actually the OP). Welcome to Sentai Filmworks
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Jul 31, 2019 23:07
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Bkub did some Bandori stuff https://twitter.com/bushi_creative/status/1156761469226299392?s=19
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Aug 1, 2019 05:44
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Episode 7 was possibly worse than episode 3, since episode 3 at least had that hilariously bad trainwreck-osity to it, while episode 7 is just a feel-bad episode all around. I was really not a big fan of Saya's arc, which spans from 6 to 8, due to its execution (oh hey, how familiar). The perpetual sense of discomfort I mentioned in episode 6 is incredibly annoying in episode 7, mainly because I kept reading into it and seeing so many options as to what Saya's issue was until the episode finally gets off its rear end and tells you. Like, one of my early theories was that she was tired of being relied on by everyone else (having everything pushed on her), because the arc kept showing people coming up to Saya and then showing her with the typical anime expression you get when you're in an awkward situation. I dunno, maybe that's deliberate, to keep viewers trynna guess the root of her reason for not banding with PoPiPa, to mirror Kasumi's frustration with the lack of information. Speaking of Kasumi, oh my God, I found her so frustrating in episode 7. Like, she's only known Saya for like, a few months now, and she's trying to pry into her family affairs and poo poo? And the whole spiel with her saying that she'd be around to help Saya to make sure that Saya could do band activities was incredibly infuriating. And doesn't even address Saya's root problem of feeling like poo poo whenever people have to adjust to her due to her mother's health issues. In fact, that's exactly WHY Saya left her first band - because she felt like her presence was forcing them to go out of their way for her and ultimately resulting in her feeling like a burden. Then again, maybe Saya talks about hating that AFTER Kasumi offers? I really don't remember, and I really don't care, because even disregarding that, it's like, where does Kasumi get off saying that poo poo? How can Saya take those words for granted? It just comes off as super desperate (admittedly probably intended) and inconsiderate of Saya's feelings. And Kasumi has the gall to be angry that Saya didn't tell her why she didn't want to be in a bad or whatever that whole poo poo was about? Like I stated, they've only known each other for less than half a year. Family poo poo is super personal. Why does Saya have to tell her why???? Why is Kasumi utterly incapable of taking no for an answer? Like I said, I really hate the execution because the basic framework and details are solid. Saya's motivations are incredibly reasonable. The resolution (Saya should be more open and honest about herself and what she wants, and trust her family more) is very heartwarming. But how am I supposed to take that resolution seriously when her mom's getting anemic every 5 minutes (exaggerated cause I'm annoyed) an episode? Plus, the entire loving thing is so dramatized to high hell. I mean, it's not like I'm a stranger to this stuff (see: Snow Halation episode of Love Live where the gang must face a snowstorm that miraculously ends and it turns out that their fellow students were shoveling a path like 5 feet in front of them, or the timely nationally televised intervention in OGM@S, etc. etc.), but it the execution of Saya running all the way just in time for the last song felt dumb as poo poo. This post is all over the place and not properly thought out or worded because my anger is clouding my capability to reason and remember, and also because I was metaphorically rolling my eyes for all of episode 8. I'm really irrationally angry about 72 minutes of anime.
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Aug 6, 2019 08:11
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Ugh, the official Funi subs were kinda terrible. Like, it totally made the post credits scene make no sense. Also, no song lyric translations either. Also, why did you only send NY 30 shikishis? I missed out on one because I got to the theater minutes before the movie started, and a Discord buddy who had arrived at 6:15 (movie started at 7) wound up as number 32 in line, another Discord acquaintance was 29th. We thought they had enough for everyone, like the postcards that they hand out at DVs, but once Discord people started lining up, they relayed to us that the theater staff said that Funi only sent them 30 despite there probably being over 100 people in that screening. Got people so pissed that they booed the Funi logo before the movie started. Probably have the same problem with the Aqours passports at the screening tomorrow, which I won’t be able to make...
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Aug 6, 2019 08:25
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Man that sounds all sorts of terrible. Are the Funi subs different from the subs that were on the official English subs for the BR release?
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Aug 6, 2019 08:57
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ZepiaEltnamOberon posted:Man that sounds all sorts of terrible. According to people who have seen both, the two were virtually the same.
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Aug 6, 2019 11:27
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Can't believe Zep hates the enthusiastic main character that makes their friends join their band/idol group/whatever no matter what. but yeah I appreciate there's a line to be drawn somewhere.
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Aug 6, 2019 11:30
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GhostStalker posted:According to people who have seen both, the two were virtually the same. Tragic.
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Aug 6, 2019 11:44
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I remember reading this a week back about the BR subs.
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Aug 6, 2019 12:28
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ZepiaEltnamOberon posted:I remember reading this a week back about the BR subs. Yeah, that. The end credits scene makes it seem like it’s Aqours talking about itself instead of some rando school girls inspired by them to form their own school idol club. It’s particularly confusing because you don’t see who’s talking, and there’s a shot of someone, likely Chika, carving Aqours into the Uchiura beach while they talk, but you can tell those voices don’t belong to any of the Aqours girls. A Discord friend put together a kludged together sub file despite not knowing all that much Japanese by borrowing translations from fansubs and then adding song lyrics from LL Wikia. Some Onibe people took offense despite him not doing any translating himself. GhostStalker fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Aug 6, 2019 |
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Aug 6, 2019 13:00
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I have acquired the i☆Ris 4th Anniversary Live BD, and so sometime in the coming weeks expect a Saturday idolw@tch for it.
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Aug 8, 2019 19:36
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I pursued Lu Bu: Starira counts for this thread, doesn’t it?
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Aug 9, 2019 13:11
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They're not idols and it's not a rhythm game though But it's bushi It feels like it fits sorta, but maybe in a strict sense it could go in general mobage/gacha chat. Can't remember if those are (still) a thing thread wise.
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Aug 9, 2019 18:13
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the 45 minutes of idol performance at the end of performances of the stage musicals strongly suggests they're idols
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Aug 24, 2019 04:24
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Revue Starlight sd anime has the Ace of the Universe Hiroshi Tanahashi in it so of course it counts as Idol anime
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Aug 24, 2019 04:27
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Yes_Cantaloupe posted:Idols!
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Aug 30, 2019 00:11
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Sep 8, 2019 11:01
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One of the downsides of having gone to so many lives this year, if you can even call it a downside, is that I haven't really been to many live viewings. There's been the Bandori 7th Live and, uh, pretty much that. I guess I also watched LVs of Aqours 5th Live (Day 1) and Roselia (Day 1) but those were in Japan with much more composed audiences (not that I'm complaining, trying to converse with the nice old Hanamaru oishi who noticed that I was a Riko oishi in my broken and incomprehensible Japanese was a memorable experience). So I'd forgotten how loving insane Korean LVers could be. The reason why I felt like making a post about this LV was because it was probably the best produced LVs I've ever been to. The camera work was really good at capturing the singers from really good angles and lighting, and the backdrop screen was used superbly. Incidentally, both are parts where Aqours LVs sorta felt lacking in for me, at least for the first 2 lives. It got better after, but I remember going to a CG LV and thinking that it was way better than Aqours LVs at capturing moments and emotions. And, of course, the backdrop almost never sees much great use in Aqours. Usually it's just the official MV playing interspliced with live footage of the members singing/dancing. It's the practical approach, I suppose, since it allows people who are far back to actually see what's going on, and I appreciate it when I'm at the actual live (  Koreans not getting Arena seats!), but from a LV perspective the only time I've actually felt the backdrop was memorable was in Mirai Ticket and a few Azaela songs. Anyways let's break it down piece by piece.Camera/Lighting: Well, I pretty much already said it in the previous paragraph and it's not something that I can really put into words any better than that, so, uh, yeah. Backdrop: The backdrops were used pretty similar to what I remember of CG, but it felt less, extreme? Like, Fate of the World had a setup very similar to one of Nana's songs in a CG live where there's a big baddie that the singer has to defeat in their song, though unlike Nana's song where she gets everyone to chant with her to built up the Usamin meter or whatever, it's just the group singing and interacting with the bad guy. Less audience interaction, but at least the villain actually had a character and spoke. Also the two members of D/zeal came out during that song, more on that later. The best thing was the one after that, though, in Tomorrow Program, where the screen was set up like a credits scene, with white letters scrolling up on a pitch-black background like you'd see at the end of a movie or a game or whatever. But instead of actual credits it would be like DIRECTOR and below it would be the lyrics for the current portion of the song, and at the end it said PRODUCER: キミだよ (final lyrics) which even me with my lackluster understanding of Japanese could get, and it was just really neat how they died it in like that. At the halfway point it even did the thing where the credits were moved to half of the screen while the other half had the live footage, sorta like what you can see here if you get my drift. It even had a screen with a gigantic 完 plastered over the screen, and also did a pan to the mini prompter showing the lyrics. Anyways that was one of the best use of the backdrop I've ever seen, and it was so goddamn clever that it was one of the most memorable things in the live. Incidentally, this is probably the coolest stage + backdrop thing I've ever seen, and especially fitting given the context of the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPKai-i1pa4 Like I stated above, Love Live has consistently seemed less innovative and daring when it comes to using the backdrops. Again, it's practical, but I remember being wowed super hard at the Final Muse Live during the Psychic Fire song. It was my first ever live viewing (and pretty much my first ever concert viewing), and it was always a shame that I never really got to see something akin to that in an Aqours live. And even then that concept was done with even more audience engagement by the aforementioned Nana song. Stage/Transitions: I vaguely remember talking about really good stage use after a particular CG live (I can't really remember which one) about how well I thought they used the stage itself. Which isn't to say that LL is bad, but more a matter of how songs are performed / number of cast members / production style. Since there are exactly 9 members in a group (with guest appearance by Saint Snow), the only real time you get rapid transitions is when you have subunits (no longer a thing in main lives since the 3rd live) or year-based / animation-based songs. Otherwise it's group comes out, group performs, talks, performs, goes out, intermission plays for costume changes. Whereas iM@S lives don't really do costume changes (except for encores I guess), so they don't really need to extend the intervals between songs except to let the audience get some rest. That, plus the sheer number of idols means that there are literally billions of subunits that you can instantly switch between, and this actually makes entrances and exits more noticeable, and you pay attention to where the idols are coming from, as opposed to LL where you're just like, oh hey, they're on stage now, time to go wild. So in retrospect, maybe it's less how they use the stage, and more how I perceive the stage. iM@S also doesn't really do as many of those carts being wheeled around thing that LL lives just loving love. Don't get me wrong, I love them in lives, and I loving wept when Rikako came near me that one time in Tokyo Dome, but from a purely visual perspective that disregards fan satisfaction, I've never really enjoyed most songs that make use of them because they're so, I dunno, bland? Like, you can't really dance on those things so you just end up waving to the audience or doing cute poo poo that gets fans excited. Only real exception is the encore songs (anime EDs) cause they got the singalong portion to go with that too. This sorta ties into the backdrop thing, because the thing that really got me to thinking about this was the Cleasky portion, which had the two members on opposite sides of the stage, with a classroom backdrop behind them, doing different things before coming to meet each other. It sorta reminded me of the Love Letter performance from CG, but far superior atmospherically. Though the fact that it got used back-to-back for 2 of their songs sorta killed the impact of it, even if the second one had a really good setup. People/Props: One thing that iM@S has that LL doesn't is background dancers, and the ML live had not just the usual background dancers but also guest tap dancers and taiko drummers, which was dope as gently caress though the tap dancing part threw me off my clapping rhythm. Besides that, the ML live also had units cameo in the songs of other units, not to sing along but just be there. Like Getsuyoubi no Cream Soda had another unit (I don't remember which) sit on the stairs and drink cream soda while simulating conversation with one another, which was funny + cute + good use of props. It got really funny during the MC part cause one of the unit members did the talking and gave her cream soda to another member who began dual wielding and drinking from both straws (I remember one of the Jelly Pops saying the word nitoryu). Another great cameo was D/zeal coming out during the Fate of the World song as minions of the villain (some play on the word Paparazzi), equipped with cameras to take shots of Twinkle Rhythm before being defeated. The Twinkle Rhythm portion was probs my favorite because of its use of props (they pick up weapons to fight against the baddy in Fate of the World) + cast use + backdrop (already talked about Tomorrow Program, but the defeat animation for the baddy is neat too) + Fate of the World. In Aqours, one of my favorite performances was the G Senjou no Cinderella from the 2nd Live (they performed it alive on the 4th live but without the black dresses) because of this precise use of other cast members. When the 1st and 2nd years come out dressed in smart black dresses and acted as accompanying dancers, I went loving wild cause holy poo poo that was so cool????? But they don't really do this for any of the other songs, the one (arguable) exception being Omoi Yo HItotsu ni Nare where Rikako plays the piano, but is now more famous for a very different reason. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv7qykC5p2A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2-QF6OTXBU Prop-wise, the ML game (and iM@S in general) is sorta weaker, mainly because a good portion of the songs are done with the idols holding mics, which puts a limit on what they can hold + what they can do on stage (choreography). Which isn't to say that mics can't be props - the D/zeal songs had them use the type of mics you see in their card illustrations, which was really cool and fit the rocker aesthetic.  Meanwhile Love Live is busting out gigantic flowers and boats and pianos and chairs and parasols and cars and all sorts of poo poo, it's crazy, yo. Choreography: Like I noted above, the presence of handheld mics really puts a damper on the dancing that you can do and props you can hold, which probably necessitates the presence of backup dancers. So the one part I felt that iM@S lives lack in comparison to LL is in the choreography, dancing and whatnot. I talked about how iM@S using the stage itself better, but when it comes to moving around the stage and using the breadth of the stage, LL is vastly more my style. If you consider the aforementioned restrictions placed on the iM@S idols in performance, it makes sense that they don't really go all out on bigass stages and mainly choose to use just the main stage, I suppose? So perhaps a better way to phrase it would be to say that iM@S has a far more efficient use of a minimal stage, whereas LL has an active use of the sheer scale of their stages? Like, just look at this performance from the Final Muse Live. All these props, all that moving around, and even mid-performance costume changes! Holy poo poo this is so good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f06Tp9GInp0 I feel like the Aqours choreography gives them so much depth and personality. Kimi no Hitomi o Meguru Bouken during the 5th live (also performed in 3rd and 4th lives but less impressive there) was amazing because of how Rikako walked around like she owned the stage, and I was just so happy for her. I remember And it doesn't even need to be lots of moving. Like, half of Yoshiko's solo is just her sitting on a chair but that's so goddamn imposing and awesome and powerful. Intermissions/Editing/Assets: A thing that really impressed me about the live was how everything was presented, from the use of the existing high-quality 3D assets in the game, such as having 3D Nanto announce the next unit or the unit announcement thing incorporating the MVs from the game to emphasize the next unit, to the great editing of the live as a whole. Like, after the encore, before the encore performance began they played a video showing highlights from each unit performance, which was pretty wow, cause they were making a loving montage while the live itself was going on????? That was insanely fast and up on the take of the staff, like Jesus Christ. Because of the rapid transitions between songs (no long intermission skits like in LL lives or the 1st Shiny Colors live), each announcement video was quick and snappy (think Hakodate Live). And Yet...: Starting from this point, things are gonna get super subjective. I mean, everything here is my personal opinion, but this from here now on it's my personal opinion as someone who's not really into Million Live or even iM@S as a whole outside of select CGs and OGM@S. 4+ loving Hours????: You'd think a long live would mean more bang for my buck (at KRW 40,000 a LV, I got 1 hour per KRW 10,000 spent, which is way more than I'd get at a Bandori or Aqours live), but I don't want that much bang! This was the first time I ever actually turned my phone back on during a LV to do something else, and that's cause I was so loving tired and done with it by the time it came for the encore. It's the first time my arm has hurt from a LV in a while, and I wasn't even going in hard with the exception of a few songs. Which leads to another issue - I wasn't going in that hard because I'm not all too familiar with Million Live and its cast and songs. How Many People?: The thing about iM@S lives beyond OGM@S is that there's just too many loving people. And even OGM@S has a ton, and it's mostly mitigated by the fact that 1) they always seem to be missing one or two members at each performance and 2) the twins are played by a single person, which cuts down the cast size. This is something I've felt since my first CG live. Having 20+ people is way too loving much for me. I’m not totally sure I’d feel this way if I was an actual fan of iM@S ML/CG who knew all the characters and their VAs, since clearly everyone else in the audience was well-acquainted and very hyped and very aware of everything that was going on, but I’m not, and I likely never will be, so I’m often beset by this notion of “what the heck is happening?????” The large cast contributes to the lengthy runtime. Can’t pointed out that LL lives are very MC-heavy, and that’s true, but the benefit of LL is that you get it in short bursts. There’s a vast difference in having 9 people introduce themselves and a billion people introduce themselves, and it gets even worse when you get to the end where everyone talks for at least a minute. I will give ML this – they dealt with the cast problem far better than CG lives do by splitting everyone into units. Admittedly, this comes at the cost of not giving anyone a solo song like CG does, but this way you can at least group the idols because of their unit uniforms, and it gets a lot easier to know who’s who – the only problem is that I didn’t know who the who was in the first place. Which is sorta linked to one of my biggest problems with iM@S lives – group songs. Unity Not Always Good: You know what happens when you have 20+ people singing together all throughout the song? You don’t really hear any individual voices. I’ve never cared for the opening and ending sections of iM@S lives because these groups songs are just noise to me. Not even pleasant-sounding noise. Like, I’m already unfamiliar with the idols. I don’t know their names, I don’t know their characters, and I can’t pick out any of their voices. And now they’re all singing at the same time which just sorta removes my interest in the song. Aqours/Muse do have a ton of songs where they sing as the entire group, but they usually give each member their own lines, and each song usually has a center (often stolen by Chika) that places additional focus on them. And hell, even then I sometimes have issues picking out some voices cause within the context of a song they sorta overlap for me. This doesn’t apply to unit songs, obviously, since they have a more manageable number of people + people get solo parts within the songs. Not a Fan: I’m not really into ML, and unfamiliarity tends to affect how into a song I am. But even considering that, the music didn’t really grab me. Contrast that with Roselia – I got hooked into Bandori after watching the Roselia section of the 5th Bandori Live. I wasn’t intimately familiar with the series at the time since I pretty much didn’t play the story, but Roselia music was just extremely my poo poo even without that. iM@S ML didn’t really do that for me, and the only two times I got really hyped were during Twinkle Rhythm and D/zeal, at other times it was just “oh, this is neat” or “eh.” Which is sorta inevitable I guess cause of the sheer number of idols means that even when you eschew the CG way and put them into units, each unit still does have its own unique style, and if that style isn’t to your liking, then that entire section is just a meh session for you. Which I’m personally not used to. When I watch Walkure or Aqours or Muse or Roselia I go in expecting to love every moment of it. PoPiPa is sorta touch and go. RAS was mostly great though I wasn’t too into some of the guest parts. Macross Crossover was like 80% amazing with 20% what it this bizarre segment that has virtually no lyrics. ML and CG though, I end up getting hyped for like less than half the performance. Which isn’t ideal, for me. The only way to make that worth it is if it’s iM@S and Imai Asami is performing because she makes everything #WorthIt. Ultimately: The ML live was a superbly-produced LV, it just wasn’t personally for me due to my disconnect with the franchise. The other 99.9% of the LV audience sure loved the gently caress out of it though.
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Sep 22, 2019 08:29
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I also haven't really talked about Bandori lives. I think I might have made a post about it a long time ago, or merely just thought about making a post and never did? Either way, Bandori is a lot less there in terms of choreography or stage/backdrop use but then again, that's an understandable limitation given the entire concept. Cause you have at least 2 members in each of the 3 bands (RAS, PoPiPa, Roselia) who can't move even from their spots. Also some of the lives don't really even have much of a backdrop (Budokan had those screens on the top but no backdrop at all cause it was in the center). Roselia/PoPiPa - Keyboard and Drum RAS - DJ and Drum (Keyboard can transform into a Keytar for RAS) Plus, both RAS and PoPiPa have the vocalist double as a guitarist, which further puts a limit on movement, so the only one with a full breadth of movement in a Bandori live is AiAi, since she's purely a vocalist. Either way, when it comes to Bandori LVs, I don't really notice much about camera work or production or whatever, so the thing you really pay attention to is the music itself and the very act of the performance (singing/playing). Intermissions are, well. RAS doesn't really have intermissions (and pretty much no breaks at all, they're loving hardcore) as far as I know. Roselia intermissions are always loving hilarious cause they turn into quizzes / stay in character games and it's hilarious to watch everyone break. I've only ever been to one PoPiPa live and I remember very little of the intermissions. PoPiPa had a really neat acoustic segment though that I really appreciated. PoPiPa songs are't always my style (love stuff like Light Delight and Time Lapse though), but the acoustic approach is always neat to me and helps PoPiPa stand apart from Roselia and RAS.
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Sep 22, 2019 08:43
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I think a lot of my personal opinions come from the fact that I'm someone who's willing to devote money into idols, but not my time and passion. Like, I'll shell out money to buy BRs and go to lives, but I don't really bother learning lyrics or chants or reading up translations or even official materials past the very basics, and sometimes not even then.
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Sep 22, 2019 08:58
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I tried recording some Re:Stage gameplay as a test, I'm considering making a more proper review/LP hybrid thing with it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMrsmNtgTV4 Also I'm not that great at this game, the two songs shown in this video is pretty much the limit of my skill.
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Sep 22, 2019 14:57
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ZepiaEltnamOberon posted:Prop-wise, the ML game (and iM@S in general) is sorta weaker, mainly because a good portion of the songs are done with the idols holding mics, which puts a limit on what they can hold + what they can do on stage (choreography). Which isn't to say that mics can't be props - the D/zeal songs had them use the type of mics you see in their card illustrations, which was really cool and fit the rocker aesthetic. I still wonder why they still do this - you can see in any of the games that the songs are choreographed for them to have two free hands but they always have to do it one-handed in the live performances. Maybe partly because it's the established thing for them now. That lamppost barely survived, though. quote:Having 20+ people is way too loving much for me. I’m not totally sure I’d feel this way if I was an actual fan of iM@S ML/CG who knew all the characters and their VAs, since clearly everyone else in the audience was well-acquainted and very hyped and very aware of everything that was going on, but I’m not, and I likely never will be, so I’m often beset by this notion of “what the heck is happening?????” I feel like there has to be less of an expectation that you should care deeply about every idol - with LL there's only 9 in the first place so if you don't like one of them that's pretty significant, but if you don't like 2 or 3 out of 52 that's not really anything (even more so for CG). Like I'm sure nobody is sitting down and reading a book while their less-favourites are on but maybe just doing the minimum. quote:Unity Not Always Good: You know what happens when you have 20+ people singing together all throughout the song? You don’t really hear any individual voices. I’ve never cared for the opening and ending sections of iM@S lives because these groups songs are just noise to me. Not even pleasant-sounding noise. Like, I’m already unfamiliar with the idols. I don’t know their names, I don’t know their characters, and I can’t pick out any of their voices. And now they’re all singing at the same time which just sorta removes my interest in the song. Aqours/Muse do have a ton of songs where they sing as the entire group, but they usually give each member their own lines, and each song usually has a center (often stolen by Chika) that places additional focus on them. And hell, even then I sometimes have issues picking out some voices cause within the context of a song they sorta overlap for me. This is kind of interesting because in the game all the 'everyone' songs have individually recorded parts which are then put together from the unit you pick and by default this tops out at 5 people and even minus the periodic solo lines you can pick individual people out. My suspicion would be they write the line assignment around the 5 people and then double up as necessary because when the same songs have the 13-person option suddenly all the solos are 2-3 people instead. So yeah I can imagine there's a lot of overlap when you have 20+ people there. While you can sometimes pick out voices even when the whole group is singing, in the game, I suspect this is an effect of careful volume boosting which you probably couldn't practically reproduce in a live performance. Though, that doesn't help if you don't recognise most of the voices in the first place, anyway. Even more so if you don't acually like the song. quote:Not a Fan: I’m not really into ML, and unfamiliarity tends to affect how into a song I am. But even considering that, the music didn’t really grab me. Contrast that with Roselia – I got hooked into Bandori after watching the Roselia section of the 5th Bandori Live. I wasn’t intimately familiar with the series at the time since I pretty much didn’t play the story, but Roselia music was just extremely my poo poo even without that. It's really not generally the Roselia type of music at all, yeah. Except maybe Fate of the World (as you already mentioned, which they swiped from OGM@S anyway) and Zettai x Break.
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Sep 22, 2019 18:47
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nielsm posted:I tried recording some Re:Stage gameplay as a test, I'm considering making a more proper review/LP hybrid thing with it. I'm not sure I could break my mental conditioning that I have to tap the circle when it gets to the bottom of the screen, and I'd end up missing the wrong one while trying to tap them all. Every commu system should have a 'page X of Y' indicator, though.
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Sep 22, 2019 19:28
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Nice write up zep, thanks. I was gonna call you out for starting the background dancer segment with dismissing LL, but you brought up G no Senjou, so we're good.
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Sep 23, 2019 04:29
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Polsy posted:I'm not sure I could break my mental conditioning that I have to tap the circle when it gets to the bottom of the screen, and I'd end up missing the wrong one while trying to tap them all. There are def. some mental barriers to cross. Up until around 5★ it's stupid trivial, then up to 10★ you need to pay some attention, and further up to 15★ you are required to think. And at 16★ is where the game stops being nice: https://0x0.st/ztIs.webm
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Sep 23, 2019 18:45
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Slides where you have to move the spot the notes are going to land on instead of just following the notes with your finger is neat to watch but yeah, I wouldn't want to have to figure it out on the fly myself.
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Sep 24, 2019 01:50
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quote:I feel like there has to be less of an expectation that you should care deeply about every idol - with LL there's only 9 in the first place so if you don't like one of them that's pretty significant, but if you don't like 2 or 3 out of 52 that's not really anything (even more so for CG). Like I'm sure nobody is sitting down and reading a book while their less-favourites are on but maybe just doing the minimum. Back when the Arisha (VA for Dia) had to step out of several overseas lives (AX, Aqours in Seoul, etc.) due to her condition, I read about people wanting refunds on their tickets because she wasn't gonna be there, and I was like, wait, they're going there solely for Arisha????? and didn't understand that train of thought at all, but upon reflection on my experiences with iM@S lives, I guess it makes more sense to me now - after all, would I have gone to the 2018 OGM@S live if Imai Asami hadn't been there? Probably not, cause she's the core reason I retain a connection with iM@S in the first place! That said, I personally don't think not liking a single character really impacts my enjoyment of a live. Like, I ain't a major Hanayo fan but it's not like there are large swathes of segments in a Muse Live where it's just Hanayo. At most you have a single solo and then a buncha subunit songs and group songs, but in those cases there are other people around her. I guess you could expand the concept and have subunits you're not too big on, but even then that's still like 2 - 3 songs per subunit. Context matters a lot to me when enjoying a live / LV. astro said this in Discord, which is something I agree with, and something that I can use to build up why it does.  One of the biggest draws of a LV or a live (besides being able to see groups you love perform in real-time) is the fact that you're surrounded by a bunch of people who love the same thing as you. There's this sense of connectivity among the audience. Lacking context, then, really fucks me over because I don't really understand why people are getting so excited. A prime example was during Day 1 of the Cinderella Girls SS3A live from last year. Girls in the Frontier was playing, and at certain points everyone would go loving wild and start screaming and shouting. I had no idea why, and just had questions at the back of my mind every time in happened. I couldn't even chant or shout alongside them because I didn't know the rhyme or reason, when to start or when to stop. It was only after the live was over and that I'd gone home to look up the song that I realized that it was (probably) because of the MV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JbO7-_e2DQ Without this knowledge, confusion just overtook hype and I just spent a bunch of time waving my glowstick and trynna loving analyze how everybody but me seemed to know this. Of course, if I'd bothered to play CG SS, I probably would have played that song, and I would have totally comprehended and shouted out alongside everyone. But I didn't, so I couldn't bring myself to because I have brain problems that cause me to be self-conscious in a loving LV of all places. This brings up another reason why I consider context and knowledge important - chants and glowstick waving. I'll admit, I don't even bother learning the chants for even Aqours song, so I can't sing along to, say, Thrilling One Way. Which is a shame, because that's a really good and hype song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlt7hFl3CFA So despite being such a great song, I end up being unable to sing along with the crowd. But when it comes to standard chanting and glowstick waving, I really have no problem with catching onto what the crowd is doing and following along, and then the (muscle) memory stays with me for future lives. The only song where it isn't the case is AOZORA JUMPING HEART where I keep on forgetting that I'm supposed to slowly bring my arm down (see the end of the video) and just do the standard slow lift, which I have to relearn every live cause I'm an idiot. So it's easy for me to shout out and cheer in Aqours and Roselia lives, but it's for the same reason that I can't really bring myself to do so for iM@S stuff. I have an all-or-nothing mentality regarding this stuff (other than the part where I feel like I'm playing favorites) - if I'm not cheering for one song, then should I really cheer for another, when everyone else around me is doing their best to cheer and shout for each and every song? I mean sure, there are some people who'll sit down during some songs and stand up and cheer for others, but that's not a thing I personally can bring myself to do for anything other than Imai Asami, and even then Chihaya songs don't really have any chanting or stuff (who the gently caress is gonna yell out when she's performing Aoi Tori or Saihyou or Yakusoku?????) so it wasn't an issue during OGM@S either. So I feel bad when I yell out USAMIN USAMIN during Nana's part and then stay quite for another song that doesn't have telegraphed chanting or whatever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp-17fkS1Es Which leads to an interesting offside in that foreknowledge of some manner actually helps me stay hyped. Because foreknowledge and context are, in a way, linked. For instance, if I was the type of person who could be motivated enough to learn lyrics, then having a inkling of what songs are going to be played would make my job a whole lot easier. And expectation - which is just assumptive foreknowledge - was a major reason for why I wanted to go to the 5th live so badly to begin with in the first place - because I was so certain that the Love Live Sunshine Movie songs would be played in the 5th live, and I wanted nothing more than to see them. And when they did (obviously) get performed, that made it just all the more amazing. When the 3rd Live was upcoming, everyone was wondering whether Anchan would perform the Miracle Wave jump. And she did, and it was moving, and I cried because it was so wonderful to see her succeed (5/6 times is pretty much a 100% success rate in my books), to see the results of her hard work and training bear fruit, and assuage my fears that she might hurt herself. I remember when 2018 AX was happening and peeps in Discord were holding onto a slim hope that Saint Snow might show up to perform (sigh) Awaken the Power. If they had shown up and performed, then I'm certain the Microsoft Theater would have imploded or some poo poo. Expectations, context, foreknowledge, and hype are are intrinsically linked in this manner, from my viewpoints. Omoi yo HItotsu ni Nare from the 4th Live was also especially moving because of the context of the 1st Live. The video already goes into why that means so much, and the fact that I got to see it live means so much to me. I'd always thought that the song would never be played at a live again, so when I saw the piano again I was totally astounded, and then when she stopped played to come down to sing and dance with the rest of the crew, for a song that has, for me, defined real-life Aqours and converted me into an active LVer/liver, meant so much to me, especially since Riko has always been my favorite Aqours character. If this had been my first Aqours live, though, or if I was completely new to Aqours, would these moments have touched me this much, or at all? quote:This is kind of interesting because in the game all the 'everyone' songs have individually recorded parts which are then put together from the unit you pick and by default this tops out at 5 people and even minus the periodic solo lines you can pick individual people out. My suspicion would be they write the line assignment around the 5 people and then double up as necessary because when the same songs have the 13-person option suddenly all the solos are 2-3 people instead. So yeah I can imagine there's a lot of overlap when you have 20+ people there. To be more precise, it's not like I can pick out a single voice when everyone is singing at one. What I meant was more akin to how LL members generally get a line or two to themselves amidst the simultaneous singing. And even then without video I sometimes get confused, even after all the Muse music I've listened to. Like I sometimes blank on Umi or Eli or even Maki in Start Dash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwqvrGaGXDI LL group songs are more akin to unit songs in CG in that regard. Like, the reason I love stuff like Saitei Jewel isn't just cause it's a Cool song, but also because of how each singer's individual voice adds to the atmosphere of the song. Like, the two starting solo parts with Fumika and Arisa are what really make the song for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoIVD-1G3RM Plus, even without considering that, a song with 9 people singing is still a lot more harmonious and a lot less cacophonous than a song with 20+ people singing. quote:It's really not generally the Roselia type of music at all, yeah. Except maybe Fate of the World (as you already mentioned, which they swiped from OGM@S anyway) and Zettai x Break. I don't really mean that in the "I wish ML music was Roselia type of music", but rather that, in the case with Roselia, it was easier for me to enjoy a LV even with a minimal knowledge of Roselia and its cast because I found its music so good and personally appealing. Anyways the conclusion to the reason I feel this way about LVs is because I tend to overthink unimportant things and can't get into the heat of things because of random thoughts, and also because of self-consciousness and anxiety.
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Sep 24, 2019 04:31
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Yes_Cantaloupe posted:Nice write up zep, thanks. Like I'd forget G no Senjou. When I bought the 2nd Live BR I played it and took a picture of the loving song and posted it on Discord, remember?
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Sep 24, 2019 04:34
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Sep 24, 2019 04:36
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Also, with regards to context, I think the reason I was able to fall in love with Roselia's cast was quickly was because of the intermissions on the 5th Bandori Live. Even with a broken understanding of Japanese, I could still tell that it was a O/X quiz, and since there were only 5 members I could easily tell who was playing who, and then the sheer hilarity of the cast being completely at odds with the serious image I had of Roselia really warmed me up to them. Finding out that AiAi, the leader, was actually the one with the worst memory + the worst at staying in character (I didn't know they were being scored on that at first but when they unveiled the final score, I could infer that from the context) was just so hilarious to me and made me want more of their antics. The only context I had going into the thing was knowing that Lisa's VA was leaving, which is probably why I found it easier to adjust to the new Lisa and Rinko - because I never really had the chance to know the originals. But again, that's where context helps out - realizing that the new bassist walking out during Black Shout was the new Lisa made a far larger impact on me than not knowing the context would've. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaonNsYHgsQ Contrast that with the PoPiPa intermissions during the 7th Live, which was more like individual interviews of each of the cast or something? Which I couldn't understand at all except that Light Delight made Rimirin cry? I barely remember the intermissions and it's one of the reasons why I considered the PoPiPa performance the weakest of the 3 bands (Roselia/RAS/PoPiPa) in the 7th Live. RAS had no intermissions but they had guest singers (including MIMORIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and RAS's music is more my style that most of PoPiPa's, and RAS as a band is way more skilled than Roselia and PoPiPa (still like AiAi better as a singer thought!) so their performance was a lot more, uh, how to put it, powerful in that sense? Not like emotionally, but like, you could clearly tell that they were far more used to playing the instruments. That sad, I watched Stop stream the PoPiPa day of the 5th Live, which had much more interesting intermissions, though I wouldn't have understood parts of them without having them explained to me in Twitch chat.
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Sep 24, 2019 04:52
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This is the intermission I'm talking about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2G6yEDQ5d8&t=300s
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Sep 24, 2019 05:00
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ZepiaEltnamOberon posted:Which leads to an interesting offside in that foreknowledge of some manner actually helps me stay hyped. I totally get this. I read up a bit, and watched some videos and such, was maybe a bit prepared for the i☆Ris live Chubbs and I went to this summer, and it was fun, but I definitely felt the lack of knowledge. I'm gonna be loving prepared for AWA. Tangential thought from this: the institutional knowledge of the fanbase as a whole is also really really important for a good live. If you kinda know what you're doing, but everyone around you knows and is hype, you can figure it out and kinda get into the mood, and the crowd as a whole does its part. This has been the case for Aqours at AX, where, despite some portion of the crowd not knowing what's what, taken in its entirety, the audience is hype af and on point. Contrast this with the crowd for the UtaPri movie at AX, where, though they might have been enthusiastic, few in the crowd knew calls, or chants, or anything, due to never having attended such a thing for the franchise before. Like, there were pockets of folks that knew exactly what they were doing (and I was lucky enough to be seating next to a couple such folks), but there just wasn't the base to build off of, and lots of the crowd had nothing to offer but screams. quote:Omoi yo HItotsu ni Nare from the 4th Live was also especially moving because of the context of the 1st Live. God. quote:Anyways the conclusion to the reason I feel this way about LVs is because I tend to overthink unimportant things and can't get into the heat of things because of random thoughts, and also because of self-consciousness and anxiety. This is why I used to always get tipsy and/or sneak in booze to lives/LVs. Nowadays, I'm past the need, but I used to definitely feel like I needed a bit of help to let go of unnecessary inhibitions. Still gonna try to sneak booze into lives when I can, though, just for fun.
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Sep 24, 2019 05:30
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I want to go to a live/delayed viewing sometime. I assume people bring light sticks and nesos to the events and I'd love to take pics. Do people bring nesos to the actual live concerts too?
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Sep 24, 2019 14:38
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Chill la Chill posted:I want to go to a live/delayed viewing sometime. I assume people bring light sticks and nesos to the events and I'd love to take pics. Some do, yes.
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Sep 24, 2019 14:57
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Chill la Chill posted:I want to go to a live/delayed viewing sometime. I assume people bring light sticks and nesos to the events and I'd love to take pics. Yeah, we usually get a couple of Teras as well. Enormu almost always brings a fraction of his collection as well to NY, which is fun. NY is known for having yakkai DVs in many circles, and that rep is fair. We def have a Tiger pit, and while the main theater they usually give us wasn’t available to us for 5th Live (because of Toy Story and a Film Festival), a bunch of my friends went out of their way to keep the show pretty wild in a fun way (they broke out a UO parasol ala Maware for Marine Border Parasol, threw balloons, paper airplanes, and bubbles during Next Sparkling, etc). NY DVs are always a fun time, and our UO graveyards are always massive.
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Sep 24, 2019 15:09
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