K-ON! Sound Bite features in Try, Try, Try by Jason Mraz

A teeny-weeny sound clip from K-ON! has sneaked it's way into the new Jason Mraz's single called Try, Try, Try at 0:12 and 1:09 minutes. Is it a troll? I've checked plenty of versions out on the net and they all seem to be the same. It is entirely possible that it was fan-made and got passed on. For the sake of discussion, I'm going to assume it's not...

I've always been a fan of Jason Mraz's work from Geek in the Pink to Wordplay to I'm Yours and now perhaps to Try, Try, Try. I wouldn't have heard of this song if it weren't for my sister who practically worships Jason Mraz. Anyhow, she had me listen to it and I immediately spotted the K-ON! sound bite. Her, being a non-anime-geek, didn't realize that it was actually a sound bite related to anime and thought it said "Hey-Yo" instead. How she mustered up that lame word from K-ON! is still beyond my understanding, but I reckon that the western societies' obliviousness to anime in general is how this little sound bite managed to go by unnoticed.

But why did Jason Mraz do this?

Personally, I love the K-ON! sound bite being in the song, it's extremely amusing to listen to but it just doesn't quite fit with the vibe of the song. From his previous work though, we all know that Jason Mraz is an extremely talented musician/artist and loves to experiment with sound. None of his songs sound the same and they range from him singing opera (in Mr. Curiosity) to his rapid wordplay (in Worldplay). Perhaps this is just another experiment? Or is there another motive?

It could very well be that his decision to put this sound bite in was due to commercial reasons. Perhaps, he's trying to broaden his target market and get some random otakus and other anime-watchers, be it addicted or casual watchers, from all corners of the earth interested in his music! In which case I might actually be helping him out... For now though, we can only speculate until Jason Mraz either tells us or perhaps he'll just leave us to wallow in our conspiracy theories until the hype dies down!

Or maybe, just maybe, Jason Mraz is just another otaku?

Spice and Wolf Season 2 - Episode 1

Spice and Wolf - Brief Summary to get you interested!

"Spice and Wolf" as some of you may or may not know is a show which deals with medieval economics. Boring? Not quite, as the first season proves. At the very beginning, we were introduced to two characters Lawrence, the trader, and Horo, the Wolf Deity who wishes to return back to her hometown, Yoitsu, up north. Currently, Horo is hitch-hiking with Lawrence who is always journeying from town to town for trades. On their journey together, Horo picks up trading skills and learns about currencies from Lawrence while Lawrence benefits from Horo’s charm on other merchants, easing his trades.

Reading over it, it really does sound like a bore. But wait. The entire story is neatly threaded with the ever-growing affection Lawrence and Horo have for each other. Though not exactly a typical tsundere, Horo does have her whacky character traits which is guaranteed to hook you to the show even if you absolutely bitch-hate the whole idea of economics and trading.

It’s not just romance and economics by the way, the show succeeded in keeping me on my toes several times as they introduce in the Church! Dum-dum, Dum-dum, dumdum, dumdum! *Plays the Jaws theme tune* You see, Horo is pagan deity and as soon as the Church finds out about her being on the loose slowly starts to drive away from money shabam and starts to have a little more action. Overall, I’m not sure if I made it seem as great as it actually is but if you’re even vaguely interested you should check out the first season as the second season pretty much directly continues from the first season without any recaps.

How am I planning to blog about this then? Well, for starters, I’m not writing out a summary for each episode again because I’m just too lazy for that plus people check AFTER they watch to confirm some facts, don’t they? So I just plan to write about the general vibe of the episode and write about Lawrence and his trades, should there be any, because I know from experience, it’s tough to get your head around it sometimes since it’s not exactly as straight forward as it seems.

So this is what happened in the first episode:

Don't lie to yourself... This reason we all watch anime. No other form of entertainment is going to give you a naked wolf deity!

Just to explain this bit, Lawrence basically asks Horo to put her tail in the blanket on his lap... Yes, I "Um..."-ed too. Haha, Tail-Job? Anyone?

This adds to my point in the first screencap!

Horo with her full charm on...

-->

... This new guy falls straight for it. Actually, I'm quite glad this happened as in season one the romance seemed to be focused around Lawrence...

The Trading Part as I understood it to be - Simplified:

1. Lawrence tries to sell nails to his friend (guy on the left)

2. The guy is interested despite the fact that his store is a wheat store and offers 10.5 rumiones for the lot.

3. Lawrence thinks it's too cheap. Nails are required goods for the approaching winter.

4. The guy says that the crash in battle equipement due to the cancellation of the Northern military expedition has caused the market for nails to fall as well.

5. Lawrence says that only affects the southern regions. He says that melting metal to create nails during winter would cause the price of firewood to rise. No industry would be willing to do that since it would anger the townspeople. Thus the price of nails shouldn't be affected. He resets the price to 16 rumiones.

6. They bargain for a bit and settle with 14 and 2/3 rumiones.

It felt like a direct continuation of season one which is awesome. The whole feel of the show feels that same and Horo is as cute as ever. Now, with a person interested in Horo things are promising to get exciting. Perhaps, the boy will find out she's not human and the Church will be on their backs again. Anything can happen right now...

Current Status: Summer Break

I sure have been inactive for a long, long time. If you've read some posts you'd know that it's been due to exams and such and it's been pretty hectic for all of us lately. However, summer break has arrived! Actually, I've been on holiday since precisely a week ago but haven't been bothered to do anything about the site.

With the new Summer Anime shows rolling in, it's really hard to pick which one I'm going to go with. It's a comprimise between my enjoyment and YOU readers getting lured in! Another factor, I have to consider is that I'm really just another fresh, amateur blogger and thus we are not extremely popular in contrast to Random Curiosity's bloggers (my heroes) and such. Therefore for shows like Canaan, I'll avoid since they will definitely be taken by some other awesome blogger out there which will rank up much higher in the google search. So if I want to actually get YOU in I'll have to take one baby step at a time, so they say...

One small change to the site is that all bloggers apart from TK and myself will be laid off since they are simply dead weight. No real impact on the actual site there though.

Ah, and yes, what shows will I be blogging? I've discussed a bit with TK, and I'm pretty certain we're going to take up Needless, Spice and Wolf II, and perhaps one more... I will be blogging the two mentioned for the first couple of episode as TK is currently away on holiday with his family and hopefully if he isn't lazy, he'd pick it up from me!

Phew, that was a long one.

/rant

Summer 2009 Preview

This reliable fella, whoever he is, has done it again! Here's a picture of the Summer Anime 2009 I've picked up randomly in 4chan.

(Click picture to enlarge it)

I've posted up a couple of subbed PVs (well 2 to be exact) already on my YouTube Channel.

The 2 English Subbed Promotional Videos I have currently are:

1. Sora no manimani

2. Taisho Baseball Girls

Current Status: Study Leave

I'm on "Study Leave" when you're given "time off" to "study".

So far... Well...

Lets just say my days are spent much like Nagi's.

New Forum

Hey Guys,
I have created a forum for you guys out there to chat with us and others about what you think of shows and other general discussion.
The Website is:
http://tkandganimeforum.darkbb.com/google6289808c9222a418.html

Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 - Episode 1 (Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody)

"Lies". you say. "Lies".

Heck, that's what I said too, until my eyes were wrenched open this morning by the sweet words that wrote:

"The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 Episode 1"

Posted by CrownedClown on Thursday May 21st, 2009 "

on the front page of http://www.animetake.com/ which provides direct downloads and torrents for most, if not all, the recent animes.

[Technically season 2 should be named "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" in accordance with the light novel]

Episode title: "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody"

It's true. Believe it.

I might post on some pictures and a summary later but I just really wanted to write down my thoughts first. By the way, I'm still on a break from blogging, exams are still edging closer by the second. This is just one of those special occasions that I just can't afford to miss out blogging on.

Anyone who watched the first season would know that the show was not broadcasted chronologically which meant the story leapt around here and there and it allso made sense in the end. Basically what they're doing this time is rerunning season 1 chronologically while filling in some missing links with some episodes of season 2 and adding on to the story. Here's how it works out:

Melancholy I (S1)

Melancholy II (S1)

Melancholy III (S1)

Melancholy IV (S1)

Melancholy V (S1)

Melancholy VI (S1)

Boredom (S1)

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody (S2)

Mysterique Sign (S1)

Lone Island Syndrome I (S1)

Lone Island Syndrome II (S1)

Endless Eight (S2)

Sighs I (S2)

Sighs II (S2)

Sighs III (S2)

Sighs IV (S2)

Episode 00 (S1)

Live Alive (S1)

Day of Sagittarius (S1)

Someday in the Rain (S1)

Disappearance I (S2)

Disappearance II (S2)

Disappearance III (S2)

Disappearance IV (S2)

Disappearance V (S2)

Charmed at First Sight LOVER (S2)

Snow Mountain Syndrome (S2)

Where Did the Cat Go? (S2)

[This list comes from an unverified source]

It was an awesome episode that literally yanked out and revived the supressed obsession and craze I always had for the show during season. It was the perfet episode to get back into Haruhi again. I haven't been watching te reruns so this episode just felt like a floater to me. It really didn't have anything to do with anything but paradoxically it had everything to do with everything in the story. You know what I mean? I'll probably rewatched the season one in the order posted above sometime soon.

Over the net there have been some whiney bitches whining about the quality of the art. I only just realized the teeny-weeny drop in quality when I looked over again and really tried to look out for it. The bottom line is, really, it doesn't matter. The general vibe, the jokes, and Hirano Aya's voice is still the same which fundamentally is what this series is all about!

Sure, it could've been slightly better in terms of the art quality. But don't let those whiney cynics get you down. Their cynicism is contagious.

There's one slight problem here though and it concerns K-ON!... As soon as Mio-ism starts to prosper, what does KyoAni do? They make Haruhi come back on stage diverting the spotlight from K-ON! and pushing everyone aside. Once again allowing the countless Haruhist to bathe in her sheer radiance.

Let's be honest, K-ON! is different from Haruhi. But no matter how good it is in it's own little sub-genre, it can't beat Haruhi, even with the moe blob. Haruhi is, and always will be, superior.

That's the problem here. KyoAni isn't really letting K-ON! shine. It deserves the spotlight and the past few weeks with K-ON! doujins have been sprouting up everywhere across the world wide web.With Mio's sheer moe power, K-ON!, without the influence of Haruhi and with the undivided attention of the fans, would easily rise in bloom in the anime world.

"Even with Mio's Moe Beam, it's not quite enough to take down Haruhi."

Haruhi is just in a different league from everyone else.