Twitter, and Jrock artists, and anime ~ oh my!
Twitter has given me a new sense of awe and respect for Gackt (strange as that may initially sound). His work ethic and his dedication to his fans are truly staggering; I was just looking over the posts he made this morning (evening, in Japan) and though I can't read all of them completely, the gist is that he was taking a break in between planning sessions for his HEART TO HEART project (a fundraiser he's conducting with various other musicians on behalf of the Earthquake/Tsunami disaster relief efforts), and using that time to respond to tweets from his fans. Nothing seems too trivial for his attention and his honest response; someone asked him if he'd seen the sakura this week, because they were quite beautiful -- he responded that he had, but only from the window of a friend's house during a meeting yesterday.
The man's clearly very busy, and has a track record of running himself ragged (he's a self-admitted perfectionist and a workaholic, which is never a happy combination; he's been in the hospital for over-exhaustion at least twice), yet he squeezes in what time he can for his fans. I often wonder what kind of private, social life he has -- if he has one at all. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day for all he manages to accomplish, even by crazy Japanese work ethic standards.
I worked up the courage to tag him in a tweet this morning (something I'll probably regret once I'm fully awake, seeing as how I attempted to do it in kanji *bricked*) thanking him for all his hard work and expressing excitement over the HEART TO HEART project; I may just freak out if he responds, but even if he doesn't, I hope he knows how much everyone appreciates his efforts. ♥
On a semi-related note which I found highly amusing, someone asked Miyavi earlier this week what's going on with SKIN. His basic response was, 'I don't know - go harass Yoshiki, Gackt, and Sugizo about it!' and he tagged all three of them in the post. XD (He was asked the same question in an interview around the time he left PSC, I remember, with a very similar reply. XD) Personally, given Sugizo's apparent easy-going nature, Gackt's insane work ethic, and Miyavi's general enthusiasm ... I blame Yoshiki for the failure of the project. XDD
It also pleased me that the members of MUCC and SID talk back-and-forth quite a bit (after a weekend's worth of looking at his Twitter posts, I've decided Shinji might be the most adorable human being alive. Though Mao's not far behind him.) And I'm endlessly fascinated by which artists use fairly sophisticated kanji in their posts, and which barely use any kanji at all ... definitely an age signifier, and probably an education one as well. (Yuki, for example, is super kanji lite. Though that makes me happy, since his posts are easier to read. XD For anyone who's wondering, the band's in the recording studio this weekend ~ Yuki keeps posting every time it's his turn to go back in. XD)
So, to sum up: I'm half-asleep and Jrockers, as always, are adorable.
Also, all Gackt-haters can suck it.
And on an entirely unrelated note (since LJ was down again last night and I couldn't post about it then), I finally got around to watching the last three episodes of Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. Why it took me four months to finish the series is anyone's guess, especially since I genuinely enjoyed it, but whatever. The ending was horrifically rushed and largely unsatisfactory -- did Hijikata die? Historically, yes, he was supposed to die at that battle from the gun wound (as soon as he yelled, "Someone get my horse!" I thought, 'oh crap, this is the end ...') buuut Chizuru was with him with all her magic oni blood, sooo .... ??? And it might have been nice for them to throw in something about Saitou, since he was the only main character who did outlive the war; having him in that montage at the end along with everyone who died was a bit misleading, and I wonder if that was on purpose.
(I'm not putting all these spoilers behind a cut, by the way, because a) no one watches the show *woe* and b) it's all historical; if you know anything about the Shinsengumi, you know what happens anyway.)
I really wish one of you would watch the series, though. D: Animation's gorgeous, characters are very gripping and engaging (even Chizuru won me over eventually, and she's like the biggest anime Mary Sue character EVER), and even though the oni plot is a bit weird and far-fetched (and falls painfully flat at the end), the show is still the most impressive, comprehensive treatment of the war I've ever seen in pop culture. There's obviously a huge Shinsengumi bias, but the writers make no scruples about the fact that they were ambitious young men willing to kill their way to fame and fortune, and I respect that. I would have been happier had they thrown in Sakamoto Ryoma or something to offset the whole thing, but ah well, you can't have it all (and it was technically an AU, I suppose.)
Also, I realized why my understanding of the war was so skewed and wrong for so long; I've been watching Rurouni Kenshin again while exercising this week (reading subtitles distracts me from being tired. XD) and the English translations of all war information are horrible. Calling Kenshin an 'imperialist', for example, is extremely misleading. Granted, there's no easy way to render some of those words in English, and the very complicated politics of the time aren't the main agenda of the show, but still ... no wonder I was so confused.
Am I babbling? I suspect I'm babbling. Okay; Loki's finally asleep again, so I think I'm going to go back to bed, too.
Ultimate summary: Gackt is cooler than everyone, Jrockers are (adorable) dorks, RuroKen is politically incorrect, and the Shinsengumi PWN everyone IN THE UNIVERSE.
The end.
The man's clearly very busy, and has a track record of running himself ragged (he's a self-admitted perfectionist and a workaholic, which is never a happy combination; he's been in the hospital for over-exhaustion at least twice), yet he squeezes in what time he can for his fans. I often wonder what kind of private, social life he has -- if he has one at all. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day for all he manages to accomplish, even by crazy Japanese work ethic standards.
I worked up the courage to tag him in a tweet this morning (something I'll probably regret once I'm fully awake, seeing as how I attempted to do it in kanji *bricked*) thanking him for all his hard work and expressing excitement over the HEART TO HEART project; I may just freak out if he responds, but even if he doesn't, I hope he knows how much everyone appreciates his efforts. ♥
On a semi-related note which I found highly amusing, someone asked Miyavi earlier this week what's going on with SKIN. His basic response was, 'I don't know - go harass Yoshiki, Gackt, and Sugizo about it!' and he tagged all three of them in the post. XD (He was asked the same question in an interview around the time he left PSC, I remember, with a very similar reply. XD) Personally, given Sugizo's apparent easy-going nature, Gackt's insane work ethic, and Miyavi's general enthusiasm ... I blame Yoshiki for the failure of the project. XDD
It also pleased me that the members of MUCC and SID talk back-and-forth quite a bit (after a weekend's worth of looking at his Twitter posts, I've decided Shinji might be the most adorable human being alive. Though Mao's not far behind him.) And I'm endlessly fascinated by which artists use fairly sophisticated kanji in their posts, and which barely use any kanji at all ... definitely an age signifier, and probably an education one as well. (Yuki, for example, is super kanji lite. Though that makes me happy, since his posts are easier to read. XD For anyone who's wondering, the band's in the recording studio this weekend ~ Yuki keeps posting every time it's his turn to go back in. XD)
So, to sum up: I'm half-asleep and Jrockers, as always, are adorable.
Also, all Gackt-haters can suck it.
And on an entirely unrelated note (since LJ was down again last night and I couldn't post about it then), I finally got around to watching the last three episodes of Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. Why it took me four months to finish the series is anyone's guess, especially since I genuinely enjoyed it, but whatever. The ending was horrifically rushed and largely unsatisfactory -- did Hijikata die? Historically, yes, he was supposed to die at that battle from the gun wound (as soon as he yelled, "Someone get my horse!" I thought, 'oh crap, this is the end ...') buuut Chizuru was with him with all her magic oni blood, sooo .... ??? And it might have been nice for them to throw in something about Saitou, since he was the only main character who did outlive the war; having him in that montage at the end along with everyone who died was a bit misleading, and I wonder if that was on purpose.
(I'm not putting all these spoilers behind a cut, by the way, because a) no one watches the show *woe* and b) it's all historical; if you know anything about the Shinsengumi, you know what happens anyway.)
I really wish one of you would watch the series, though. D: Animation's gorgeous, characters are very gripping and engaging (even Chizuru won me over eventually, and she's like the biggest anime Mary Sue character EVER), and even though the oni plot is a bit weird and far-fetched (and falls painfully flat at the end), the show is still the most impressive, comprehensive treatment of the war I've ever seen in pop culture. There's obviously a huge Shinsengumi bias, but the writers make no scruples about the fact that they were ambitious young men willing to kill their way to fame and fortune, and I respect that. I would have been happier had they thrown in Sakamoto Ryoma or something to offset the whole thing, but ah well, you can't have it all (and it was technically an AU, I suppose.)
Also, I realized why my understanding of the war was so skewed and wrong for so long; I've been watching Rurouni Kenshin again while exercising this week (reading subtitles distracts me from being tired. XD) and the English translations of all war information are horrible. Calling Kenshin an 'imperialist', for example, is extremely misleading. Granted, there's no easy way to render some of those words in English, and the very complicated politics of the time aren't the main agenda of the show, but still ... no wonder I was so confused.
Am I babbling? I suspect I'm babbling. Okay; Loki's finally asleep again, so I think I'm going to go back to bed, too.
Ultimate summary: Gackt is cooler than everyone, Jrockers are (adorable) dorks, RuroKen is politically incorrect, and the Shinsengumi PWN everyone IN THE UNIVERSE.
The end.