Arashi - The Digitalian Review

I guess before I start this review I should say I'm not a huge fan of like.. digitalized sounding music? Things like autotune, dubstep, techno etc. so even when I first heard the title of the album I guess I wasn't all that excited. It's not like I dislike it - it's just not my preferred genre. Although - as with the usual case I may grow to eventually really love the album like what happened with LOVE - or it could just fade in to the background and be "alright" like Beautiful World. We'll only be able to see that within the next half year. 

For this review though, tis is going to be more like a live review - I'm literally just gonna be typing as I listen, and then when I'm done I'll add some concluding thoughts at the end of each song, and then obviously a sum up of the whole album.

So - without further ado… Arashi's 13th Album: The Digitalian - let's go

Let's Talk Merlin S1 (BBC)

Hello, it's been a while and as predicted, I haven't actually posted any of the posts I said I would talk about. Like my huge rant on Shitsuren Chocolatier. Which I will probably write up because the DVD was released... yesterday? Two days ago? And well - that huge mess of a drama was just so ridiculous there is no way I can't NOT talk about it. But first of all, let's talk about another show I've started to watch.

Merlin.

And this show is also a huge mess.

I started this show thinking it'd be very interesting. I love Arthurian Legend and seeing it played out in a full length BBC drama seemed awesome to me. I saw .gifs all over tumblr and the cast seemed awesome and amazing. Freakin GILES is King Uther Pendragon. I was excited. And I'll be honest, I am enjoying this show so much. But, I'm not going to say that it's totally awesome. This show is a mess. And I only just finished season 1.

This post isn't going to be long, I just want to point a few things out about season 1,

Starting from episode 1 the show seemed a bit cliche, but it had promise. I found the interaction between Merlin and Arthur amusing. Also King Giles - come on. And the voice of the dragon! One thing I noticed right away though was..... super bad CGI, but this show is from 2008 so all is forgiven. Another thing that I can't forgive is why the hell does Arthur (and everyone else) constantly swing their sword around in such a dramatic fashion whenever they're fighting? Like, really - I would've just stabbed the guy if I was fighting them and they kept swinging their sword around. Honestly.

Also Merlin x Gwen is so cute. But I realize that Gwen is going to end up with Arthur, but still - Gwen and Merlin are so cute. And up until the second last episode I loved Morgana too, but then she did this weird face-heel-turn thing (TV Tropes) and like... what. I mean, I get it, because let's be real - Uther Pendragon is an asshole. I would gladly kill him. He's so irrational and such a tyrant. Like, by the time it hit the second last episode and he killed Thom I was just... yeah - go kill Uther, Please. BUT Morgana's sudden like.. "YO I WANT UTHER DEAD" and then her sudden "Oh nvm, he apologized, aw, love you!" was just... it was just so sudden. All of it. Where is the build up?

And now I'm on to the last episode (still watching it) and it doesn't feel like a season finale at all. It's also just.. ridiculously overly dramatic? Like Arthur's "death" in which Uther carries him and collapses in the courtyard. Merlin yelling at the dragon. It's just.. like, all the episodes before this had been relatively light in comparison and there's honestly been no... real continuation of story? And then we get this. I don't even know what to call this episode because it's hardly emotional. It's just... dramatic. But not in a way in which I really feel anything. I mean, I guess maybe because I know there are 4 other seasons and thus everyone lives, and everything "turns out okay".

Actually - yeah, the thing that probably bugs me the most is the lack of continuation in this series. I wouldn't say each episode is... entirely episodic, because you can slowly see character growth and I would argue that is the story of Merlin. Growth. Arthur and Merlin's growth. BUT at the same time, there doesn't seem to be a real central storyline throughout the season. So it's just.. like yay, enjoyable, light-hearted, amusing drama that is a retake on the Arthurian legends, but at the same time it's like "you have go to be kidding me".

I guess I just need to continue taking this show with a grain of salt and not invest myself too deeply in hoping it will eventually make sense. I've heard that Morgana's "storyline" into evil kind of.. just happens, which will disappoint me so much. I cannot wait until Uther dies though - although he is Giles so that's going to make me sad anyway. Giles :( Annnndddddd.... what else? I can't really think of anything. The last two episodes have just made me think about how much Uther should die, how silly Merlin is and how he honestly makes terrible decisions (and how has NO ONE FIGURED OUT HE HAS MAGIC YET LIKE REALLY?!).

But anyway, enough of that. I just really wanted to talk about this show because... honestly, what a mess. *snort*

Onto season 2!

誰も知らない Review [single + performance]

You know, people actually visit my blog apparently. Or they click on it - somehow, and it surprises me because I don't advertise this blog, I don't get comments... like, where do these views come from? Where have these 3000 page views come from - and most people seem to have clicked on my review/semi-translation of Aiba's guesting on kuwazugirai (maybe I should keep doing stuff like that?). Actually I just re-read that post and I said I would also do the same thing for Jun's guesting on kuwazugirai which never happened.

ANYWAY - I'm getting off topic because for this post I wanted to talk about Arashi's latest single Daremo Shiranai. So, on with the review then yes?

My Thoughts of MaotsuJun

So, this is a little late to the game I guess since the Friday article and subsequent Shukan Josei article came out weeks ago already - although there was the latest one about picking fish bones out of Jun's meal - BUT, I figured I might as well say something. To be honest I wasn't ever planning on saying anything until something really concrete came up, because what's the point? I mean yeah, I can fangirl and be all "OMG TOTES DATING GUYS!!" but at the same time those are tabloids and unless we get an official presscon and statement I'm not about to go open the wine bottles. Although Mao and Jun being just friends is totally cool too - if you couldn't tell from my previous post.

MaoJun randomness

I had this random thought about Mao's response to the Shukan Josei reporters about her getting married to Jun.

Her response is:  

Hahaha, if I say anything it will cause a ruckus so, I'm sorry, even after you came all this way.

Like. I can imagine the way Mao gave this reply and the thing is - what if Mao and Jun really are just friends and her thought process is something like "LOLWTF Me and Jun? Married? *dying*" and then she just texts Jun right after this happens and is like:

"Yo, some reporters just stalked me outside my place and asked me when I was going to marry you"

Jun's reply

"WTFLOL" and both of them just find it hilarious. 

Arafes 2013 Review

Arafes 2013 has come out and I realized I haven't really talked about their concerts in a while (not surprising considering how much I post here in general), but I actually have quite a few things to say about both Arafes and I wanted to do a little comparison of the two and what they changed/added etc.

What's Arashi been up to? (Singles, TV Shows... they're still busy as hell)

It's been a while since I've mentioned Arashi at all and it's mostly because I haven't been keeping up with them as much as I used too - which does not mean I love them any less, but with school and other hobbies it's kind of hard to always stay on track you know? With that being said it's not like Arashi has been lacking in the 'activity' department lately - if anything they're still going as strong as ever and boy has it been hard for me to keep up. Honestly without tumblr I would've been lost.

On to topic though - the big things that have occurred and that I remember and actually checked up on were Jun's drama, new singles Bittersweet, GUTS, and the other song for Ohno's drama (daremo shiranai? - my guess was correct!). Also some random VSA and AnS episodes I've caught up on... so, pretty much a lot to talk about within the first half year of Arashi activities - let's get started shall we?