SOUND HORIZON PIMP POST (and a bit of life.)
For the past month or so, I have been plagued with this voice in my head telling me to actually post something. But, honestly, I cannot help but find my everyday life to be extremely normal. So normal that I think it'd be a waste to even bother writing about it. Like, cool story bro, boring. I figure this is due to two reasons:
1) It's winter break and all I want to do is sleep at unreasonable times in the morning and wake up for my one meal of the day (read: dinner).
2) I am a failure of a college student for not partying at all and sitting in the room like a lamer.
In truth, those two reasons wrap up to reveal a not-so-secret fact about me: I need a life.
Oh! New Years, the time where I tell myself that I will change the same things about myself and that I regret the same things that I will inevitably repeat this year! Great. (Last year, I wanted to take better care of my body and become more social. Guess what didn't happen and guess what I resolved this year.)
But I'll just bury that sad lack of life in fandom... thus, I am hijacking this entry into a
SOUND HORIZON PIMP POST.
exciting I know. By no means am I a hardcore, or even good sound horizon fan. More like a casual listener but with more "trying to figure out the plot" and "pixiv you spoil me with good fanarts." But I cannot tell you anything about singers or the more intricate plot discussions. I was introduced to sound horizon about the same time as I got into niconico, so somewhere around early 2008 through Re:'s version of Asa to Yoru no Monogatari from the Roman ablum. (I just went back and listened to it, and I definitely don't like it as much as I used to. Weird.) However, Asa to Yoru no Monogatari is still one of my favorite songs as is the entire Roman album.
I am terrible at describing songs to people, so I'll just say they are kind of rock opera? Have a tvtropes page.
What I enjoy the most about Sound Horizon is the thought behind weaving an interesting story within the songs and albums. The Roman album, while lacking any sort of large overarching story, is filled with individual self-contained stories with a constant theme of cycles of life. The Moira album is fashioned to be like a Greek Epic and focuses on telling one long story through all of its songs. The latest album, which I have been looping non-stop since its release, Marchen, tells stories of revenge using fairytales and the seven deadly sins as a base.
Even without knowing the lyrics, the music is still enjoyable, but following the stories really elevates the experience. I basically read along, line-by-line, while listening to the Marchen album and it really elevated my love for this album. (If I had to rank albums that I know well enough, it'd probably go: Marchen, Roman, Elysion, Moira. Something about Moira doesn't click as well for me as the others. The story is epic, but the entire album just blends together because of it. I can't pick out any particularly favorite songs from Moira.)
And a little side-note about Marchen. One character in Marchen is Elize, a talking doll. There was some controversy over the use of Miku for her singing voice, but I didn't see any problem with it what-so-ever. She's a doll, so she sounds like a doll, is it that weird? And Revo used Miku rather skillfully. It didn't accidentally slip into Haku territory either. So I approved.
Sound Horizon's fandom in the U.S. is still pretty small, but it seems to be growing. I don't expect an explosive fandom emerging Vocaloid-style, anytime soon, but the Japanese fandom is rather healthy. Any time a new album is released, pixiv gets flooded with art and comics.
So, if you feel up to it, give Sound Horizon a try. Some resources to get started: wiki fansite pixiv tag
1) It's winter break and all I want to do is sleep at unreasonable times in the morning and wake up for my one meal of the day (read: dinner).
2) I am a failure of a college student for not partying at all and sitting in the room like a lamer.
In truth, those two reasons wrap up to reveal a not-so-secret fact about me: I need a life.
Oh! New Years, the time where I tell myself that I will change the same things about myself and that I regret the same things that I will inevitably repeat this year! Great. (Last year, I wanted to take better care of my body and become more social. Guess what didn't happen and guess what I resolved this year.)
But I'll just bury that sad lack of life in fandom... thus, I am hijacking this entry into a
SOUND HORIZON PIMP POST.
exciting I know. By no means am I a hardcore, or even good sound horizon fan. More like a casual listener but with more "trying to figure out the plot" and "pixiv you spoil me with good fanarts." But I cannot tell you anything about singers or the more intricate plot discussions. I was introduced to sound horizon about the same time as I got into niconico, so somewhere around early 2008 through Re:'s version of Asa to Yoru no Monogatari from the Roman ablum. (I just went back and listened to it, and I definitely don't like it as much as I used to. Weird.) However, Asa to Yoru no Monogatari is still one of my favorite songs as is the entire Roman album.
I am terrible at describing songs to people, so I'll just say they are kind of rock opera? Have a tvtropes page.
What I enjoy the most about Sound Horizon is the thought behind weaving an interesting story within the songs and albums. The Roman album, while lacking any sort of large overarching story, is filled with individual self-contained stories with a constant theme of cycles of life. The Moira album is fashioned to be like a Greek Epic and focuses on telling one long story through all of its songs. The latest album, which I have been looping non-stop since its release, Marchen, tells stories of revenge using fairytales and the seven deadly sins as a base.
Even without knowing the lyrics, the music is still enjoyable, but following the stories really elevates the experience. I basically read along, line-by-line, while listening to the Marchen album and it really elevated my love for this album. (If I had to rank albums that I know well enough, it'd probably go: Marchen, Roman, Elysion, Moira. Something about Moira doesn't click as well for me as the others. The story is epic, but the entire album just blends together because of it. I can't pick out any particularly favorite songs from Moira.)
And a little side-note about Marchen. One character in Marchen is Elize, a talking doll. There was some controversy over the use of Miku for her singing voice, but I didn't see any problem with it what-so-ever. She's a doll, so she sounds like a doll, is it that weird? And Revo used Miku rather skillfully. It didn't accidentally slip into Haku territory either. So I approved.
Sound Horizon's fandom in the U.S. is still pretty small, but it seems to be growing. I don't expect an explosive fandom emerging Vocaloid-style, anytime soon, but the Japanese fandom is rather healthy. Any time a new album is released, pixiv gets flooded with art and comics.
So, if you feel up to it, give Sound Horizon a try. Some resources to get started: wiki fansite pixiv tag