Born On The Bayou

Been watching some anime series recently. It started with Samurai Champloo, I actually watched it before, i had a DVD set, but it had totally crap subtitles and I didn't know what was going on most of the time. So I managed to find it online and watched it again. Hip-hop elements in feudal japan - totally hilarious, especially the beat boxing dude and the rapping group carrying planks of woods over their shoulders in place of a boom box haha.

And then I re-watched Witch Hunter Robin too. I think I had the DVD also with totally crap subs - welcome to the sad sad world of buying anime DVDs in Malaysia. Found it online too. And you imagine the huge contrast between these 2 animes. Samurai Champloo action packed, fast paced and a little bit of humour. WHR was more like a detective story very few action scenes, and very lifeless in comparison to Samurai Champloo.

And then I watched Mushishi's anime series. The anime series doesn't deviate much from the original manga, some scenes look like they were just copied right out of the manga. It's like they treated the manga like the story board for the anime. There are only 26 episodes, almost unrelated just like the manga. So it covers until volume 5 of the manga and still not all of the stories. The only novelty of watching the anime is seeing the mushi come to life in the animation. To see they way they move, their colour, the sound they make - its just hard to communicate that in a still black and white picture. One interesting thing to note in the anime is that I realize is that there are a lot of children involved and you can tell through the voice acting that it really is children voicing children characters in the anime and not adults putting on a child's voice. I didn't realize that there were so many children in the story while reading the manga. The pace of the anime is slow, which suits the poetic feel of the story.

Now I'm watching Ayakashi Ayashi... very hard anime name to remember. Couldn't remember if it was Ayashi Ayakashi or the other way round - which is the correct one. This one is more recent and like the ones I've watched so far it only has 26 episodes. It has quite an eclectic mix this anime. Cause it has a period/ historical setting, and also some of the events that take place coincide with real Japanese history. It is a ghost/demon slaying anime, but it is told like a detective story, and most of the youi (thats what demons are named in the anime) are huge and I'm talking Ultraman / Godzilla monster huge huge. So imagine Bleach minus funny dressed people, plus more IQ. The series gimmick or novelty is the main character, Ryuudo Yukiatsu's, ability to extract the power behind the etymology and the meaning of a word. And since Japanese also use Chinese characters in their language, so Chinese characters are essentially pictographs. So sometimes he can extract a weapon from a word which he uses to fight the youi.


Been listening to The Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Title of the blog is the name of one of CCR's songs. It's quite a thing to call yourselves "The Band", a bit of vanity involved I think, but heck they have reasons to be. The Band is from Canada, while CCR's American. But both of their genre are blues/folk rock.

I remember reading 20th Century Boys and there were a few 1970's bands mentioned in it. One of them was Creedence Clearwater Revival so I just thought I give it a try.

I've been listening to a lot of post-rock and sometimes it can get very sickening. SO! I've discovered how to listen to post-rock without getting sick and feeling disgusted by its noise and tuneless droning. First, listen to a lot of retro stuff - catchy lively tunes that demand your attention, and make you... happy. Until you get tired of it. Then listen to post-rock, somehow they just sound better like that.

Somehow listening to artist like Chuck Berry, Bealtes and Bobby Day make you tired. I think it's because their songs were essentially dance music, and it tends to be able to grab you attention and somehow make you "dance" even though you're just sitting down doing work while listening to them. Quite useful when its late and I need to go on working. I notice this same effect when it comes to disco and ska too. Because like I said they were essentially dance music. And then post-rock seem to be on the other end of the spectrum, quite depressing and meditative. Attention is paid in a different manner - which is spent on listening to the layers and details of sounds and noise in the song.