I was a little surprised that Meisa Kuroki’s lead comeback jdrama was only five episodes long, but I somewhat enjoyed it. I was immediately taken by the music? Especially this track from episode 5 (near the last 10 minutes of the episode), but I couldn’t identify it.
The main theme of the show, played during the ending credits, is Breathe by NAQT VANE, but that was obviously not it. And the music on the show is credited to WILD LAW ORCHESTRA, a music project by Nobuaki Kaneko, Senri Tai/Chisao Tai and vocalist Emma (? as listed on the Yagami Eiko credits).
This is a second (it was the first) capture of the song which was featured in the last three minutes of the first episode, right before the ending credits.
Identifiable English lyrics: Pull me under, let me out of this tomb.
I see myself, but I’m not there.
something about divine despair
And as a bonus song to identify- This one played in the first five minutes of the first episode.
Over two years ago, I wrote about my television catch-up journey. I did finish watching Jubilee with some gusto, and though I loved the first season of Pachinko (and have The Grass Roots’ Live for Today [1] on music rotation), I have yet to catch up with the second season because of reading that a third (and maybe a fourth) season are planned. My distaste for multiple seasons in American television never diminishes.
Nine Perfect Strangers was fine (seeing Nicole Kidman in her 2nd Russian evolution from Birthday Girl was something), and just reminds me that with the many shows Kidman is doing, I’ll have a lot to sit through in my retirement years— I suppose that I owe a proper watch to Faraway Downs (I didn’t hate Australia), and I still owe Expats a watch. Then there’s Special Ops: Lioness and Scarpetta, none of which are currently on the watchlist.
The Underground Railroad is still on the pending list, and I only went through half of Trigun, as well as only going halfway through Magic Knight Rayearth. I also made the mistake of “wanting to re-watch” Inuyasha, only to realize that’s over 150 episodes (of the original series). I’ll be in my 80s when I finish that.
I started the year by watching WOWOW’s (ever one of my favorites) Sai, and I would’ve watched the miniseries version of After the Quake as well, if Netflix had chosen to carry that instead of the film cut. Which reminds me of the announcement that Netflix made a deal to carry NHK shows— including Taiga dramas, Asadoras and titles on there Drama 10 lineup. Starting with Mampuku, which is kinda long, but I did immediately (less than a week ago) go through Tokyo Salad Bowl, which I enjoyed. In the end, Japanese short miniseries lasting less than 13 episodes for only one season is my desired format.
After much waiting (I had seen a couple of episodes as a teen), I sat through the first season of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack. It will obviously be an Inuyasha-type of watching, in which I’ll be much older when I get through those shows. I honestly don’t think I would even be able to sit through seasons and seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Battlestar Galactica in this day and age, and I adore those shows.
Other anime one-shots that I sat through (or had hoped they had been one-shots) were Dandelion, with the best ending theme song and vibe. As well as Mad Bull 34, The Darwin Incident (WHAT WAS THAT ENDING), went through the second season of Dorohedoro, and I’m about to start Lazarus.
On the non-Japanese more Western-centric side, I saw Rise of the Raven, the Hungarian series about Janos Hunyadi in the 1450s, which I loved. I also watched the miniseries version on Franz Kafka’s life, titled Kafka, which is a total different project to Agnieszka Holland’s Franz movie, which I must admit enjoyed more. Alas, I’m a movie watcher.
I also did end up peaking at The Amazing Digital Circus.
Promotion season has just started for this dream collaboration that all quality J-Film fandom had wished for— a Koreeda series starring Rie Miyazawa, Machiko Ono, Yu Aoi and Suzu Hirose. Loads of crossover fandoms. Even if expectations are too high and are not fully met, it will still be good.
Specially good for Yu-chan and Suzu-chan fans who have been wanting a collaboration since we saw Suzu-chan in Shunji Iwai-verse.
Yu-chan fans are also being fed well with a quick comeback since Yu-chan became a mom and did her quick appearance on NHK’s asadora. Netflix’s Asura (阿修羅のごとく) re-adaptation is also a milestone for Yu-chan because longtime fans know Like Asura is one of Yu-chan’s favorite projects.
The +30min press conference is super fun, and YouTube auto captioning Japanese to English immediate translation is decent enough, even though translate features in browsers don’t seem to be doing well translating Yu’s name for some odd reason.
Netflix only has a 1min clip of the opening (of the show?). I would love love love the name of the song featured, though. I wasn’t able to find any info on that other than it being by Takeshi Yoshida (吉田武史) and Katsura Uehara (上原桂). The show is supposed to be available in early January 2025 (though Netflix has been known to make stuff disappear in different regions).
I had no idea that Lee Hyori was doing a brand new variety reuniting with Fin.K.L after all these years! I’m almost offended no one in the timeline talked about it. UNbelievable.
Now all I have to do is find the time to sit through several episodes, but I’ve already spoiled myself with all the clips posted on the JTBC channel. Of course, feelings were had.
Also, Lee Hyori, Queen of the Innocent concept xD~
After years [1][2][3] of data; Yes, it’s Mamamoo’s fault. The positives, though, I have registered 31 more hours than I did last year with an extra 18 movies. My movie-watching in general got better because I managed to watch 132 brand new 2018 movies (compared to the 103 in 2017).
This year, I didn’t make any particular movie goal. Though, some of my favorite movies this year were Indian, as reflected by my latest highest ratings. No one has been able to surpass my love for Rene Liu’s Us and Them so far, though. It’s been an incredible year for… not movies made by Netflix, but they have expanded their distribution library enough to make it interesting.
My goal for this year is to increase the titles I watch; seeing that from this interview at Film Independent, the guy from IMDb states that “You should feel disappointed if you haven’t seen 700 movies in a particular year [laughs].” O.o I don’t feel half bad about registering half the amount of movies the guy from IMDb watches. Just saying.
Damn, I missed ya, Gaji~ I still miss Seju and all her drama, but Pet Aesthetics (애완의 미학) is as close as it’s gonna get for a while (at least), and I did see what you did there *wink wink nudge nudge* Also, I missed those *badump badump* The art, the aesthetic. Damn it.
So I finally read the official translation of Chapter 91 of What Does the Fox Say, and I’m still a f*cking mess when I read it. It wasn’t as bad as when I read the fan-translated version a week early, when I literally ugly-cried for seven pages straight.
I’ve been so emotional this weekend, and got more Emo for the anniversary xD
This helped:
I always give a special shout out to all the people involved in MamamooTrans, who do an incredible job at keeping all non-Korean-speaking iMoomoos up to date. Without them, getting to know Mamamoo would be a thousand times more difficult and not such an amazing ride as it had been so far. VLives, clips, interviews, and most of all, fan meetings. Thank you guys for spoiling us as much as Mamamoo does.
As Mamamoo prepares for their comeback this week [Praise the L0rd! But let them succeed!], I’ve been getting my fix with Moonbyul on IDOT. I’ve been loving the girls in IDOT, but specially Somi and Seulgi and D.ANA. And now their Immortal Song performance, their most recent VLive [Did you guys stay up or woke up earlier for it?]. I am ready for the 22nd.
I already pre-ordered Purple — the double album version, I don’t even know why — so I am ready for it to be released.
