Hindsight

The latest soundtrack release for the “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” series is a pricey, 6-disc package that should also have an equally long acronym: GITS SAC LE CD Box. I purchased mine from Amazon.com Japan.

For Kanno collectors, all previous soundtracks from Stand Alone Complex are included: OST Volumes 1, 2, 3, “be human” and the Solid State Society movie soundtrack. The sixth disc is really what you’re trying to get if you already bought the previous discs.

What do I do with my previous CDs? Do I keep them as a collector or sell them off now that I’ve gotten this box set? I’m still holding onto the former since all the individual discs have great art and inserts.

The sixth disc in the Box Set is authored as a single audio track and carries the title of “OST 4-” along with “Smooth in the Shell”. There aren’t any breaks to skip to automatically but I’ve seen fans online mention making their own .cue files to make a CD with 16 tracks (seen in a comment stream over at the fantastic GabrielaRobin.com blog).

It’s a great disc… mostly instrumental and ambient, but an excellent selection that was previously unavailable. Around the 40 minute mark, one of my favorite compositions played - I felt I got my money’s worth right there. I love the disc - I can let the entire soundtrack play on the train to work and back home.

Included in the package is a USB flash drive. It’s got a 256MB capacity and has a Tachikoma design to it, very cute. Wallpapers, sound files and some incidental music snippets are included in the drive.

If you haven’t purchased any of the previous GITS SAC soundtracks, this is a must-buy since it contains all of her work for the series. It can be purchased at CDJapan (www.cdjapan.co.jp) or Amazon Japan (www.amazon.co.jp).

I haven’t had a chance to organize the experiences that I’ve had traveling here in Japan. Nor have I had a chance to properly present the many pictures that I’ve taken. The above were shot yesterday in the world famous electronics district known as Akihabara (aka Electric Town). For personal reasons, this is my favorite place to window shop, reminisce and observe.

Thus far I’ve been to Kyoto, Nagoya, Kitakyushu, Oita and Tokyo. I have met everyone that I wanted to see this time around and still have a few more friends to catch up with. On the 31st, I will return home and continue life as it was. I’ll be able to talk about my time here more when that time comes.

Last week I received my order from CDJapan. Some of you may not know that CDs in Japan can be pretty expensive: a full album might be, say, 2900 yen.. that’s over $20 for one CD. Thankfully I chose wisely. I’ve been wanting the middle two albums for quite sometime. The first and last albums were icing on the cake…

Joze to Tora to Sakana-tachi (Original Soundtrack)

Artist: Quruli

Although I’ve not seen the film, the soundtrack stands on it’s own. With bits of what are probably dialogues/monologues from the film, the soundtrack to “Joze…” is very relaxed. There is a piano solo which reminded me of solitude. A few of their vocal tracks brought a “road trip”-esque feeling. It’s a wonderful piece of work, easily playable on loop. Highly recommended.

All About Lily Chou-Chou
Original Soundtracks “Arabesque”

Artist: Takeshi Kobayashi

I thought “All About Lily Chou-Chou” (Lily Shou-Shou no Subete) was a raw, amazing film. The tracks on this disc are original compositions for the film as well as a spattering of DeBussy tracks as well. Feelings to best describe this album: despair, exploration, reflection, helplessness, hope, deviancy. Not in that particular order, though. It’s certainly not upbeat - I think of it as something for introspection.

Lily Chou-Chou “Kokyu (Breathe)”

Artist: Takeshi Kobayashi

This is the other soundtrack to the film. However, this features all the vocal tracks that feature the fictional “Lily Chou-Chou” that is portrayed in the film. The first song “Arabesque”, is also the first song that plays as the film begins. This is some very soft but haunting stuff.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex O.S.T.2

Artist: Yoko Kanno, et. al.

I’ve been following Yoko Kanno’s work for quite sometime now. She is probably the only artist whose music is something I’ll actually buy on impulse. I’ve done this for awhile now, and I’ve never really been disappointed. Stand Alone Complex is a science fiction, cyberpunk series of sorts that’s airing in Japan pay per view. So my favorite musician and my favorite subject make for good music. There’s a little bit of everything here: an opening song that injects energy, some edgy electronic songs, ambient music and vocal tracks that almost seem like they don’t belong into the science-fiction theme/mold. I didn’t think too much about this album at first. But I’ve listened to it the most out of the above CDs.

I suppose my iPod is happy. And the four albums above are really quite good, so that makes me happy, too.

Masamune Shirow’s “Ghost in the Shell” was produced as a feature film about 9 years ago. I’ve since lost my DVD copy, most likely to a friend who forgot to return in. Nevertheless, there were a lot of images from the film that remain in my mind to this day.

Two years ago, the “Ghost…” property was made for [Japanese] television in the form of a 26-episode season. It was titled “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex“.

Fansubs (or fan-subtitled videos) were quickly released into the net. For those who craved the series, they didn’t have to wait if they had a broadband connection and some free time.

Over the last year I was fortunate enough to catch a few episodes here and there. Yesterday, Saturday, I finally watched the latter 11 episodes. Back to back.

I never watch TV, or DVDs, in a marathon fashion. But today was a good day for it and I was able to be pulled in by Stand Alone Complex to its season’s end. I even had fansubs of the second season of GITS SAC, known as “2nd Gig” (nice double meaning). The fourth episode was fantastic.

Recently, work [unfortunately] took up my entire life… any free time I had was gone. I worked one hundred and fifty four hours in two weeks, recently. I insist that you avoid this at all costs. I certainly don’t ever want to do that again. I actually got sick because of the stress caused by work about a month ago. And not having any medical insurance made my medication the equivalent of buying an X-Box.

I think (and hope) the worst of work is over, and regular hours should be coming in. I’m looking forward to the coming weeks.

I’ll be frank. I’ve had a hard time concentrating on anything: I have three games that I bought… that I can’t sit down with for more than half an hour. I don’t even plan on going to this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. The only time I am interested in something now is by sitting and watching a DVD. Otherwise I am preoccupied, pensive or blue. The recent [financial] family situation does not help either.

Fucking genius. After everyone and their mother asked me if I’ve joined Friendster I told them this:

“Yes. I joined a month before the fever hit and cancelled because it was pointless.”

So why did I join again? Because people won’t shut up - my friends just keep asking. So there I am. I’m on it. Enjoy. Now I can connect to twelve thousand people. I feel special, really. Call it another social experiment, or if I will suddenly be re united with my high school crush. I really don’t know and I honestly still don’t care. But I am still open to some hopes of the internet.

I already know that Friendster will start charging in a few months. Maybe not the current users but possibly future users. How else is a company going to manage a database of millions. For free? You have got to be kidding me. Once they ask me to pay up, you can kiss my userID goodbye. Until then, I’ll sit idle on the network.

Yesterday I watched all four episodes to the first DVD of “Please Teacher” (Onegai Teacher in Japan).

It’s easy to tell that PT is something of a male, adolescent fantasy come true. Everyone at school think’s Kei is 15 when he’s ctually 18 years old. A “standstill” causes him to sleep in a coma state for three years. So while his body hasn’t matured three years, his mentality somehow has.

Now, a new teacher has started in his small town. And she just so happens to be very sexy. Can I talk about animated characters that way?

Call it the best way to get around a teacher/jailbait scandal, but there you have it. While some scenes are clearly targeted towards a male audience, there is a bit that can lend itself to both male and female viewers alike. It is not adult anime but isn’t for younger viewers either. The supporting characters are very, very entertaining.

I’m interested in catching the rest of the series and plan to pick up the other DVDs (4 in total with the first 3 currently in release) as time and money permits.

So that is what I watched yesterday afternoon. There is finally some time now to do a few other things to relax (PlayStation 2, many DVDs to catch up). Everything in moderation I suppose.

***

The day is not over, but I did spend a few hours out. I had to drive to Anaheim to visit a branch of my credit union. Pension refund and all that goodness from my work as an ALT in Japan. It was comfortable even though it the temperature was high. Relaxing despite the horrid traffic. I’m pretty sure that will all change once I find work. For now, though, I am optimistic.

I feel as though when I’m out, or talking to people, my peripheral vision has somehow narrowed. My focus has increased some. Somewhat difficult to explain with words, but something very assuring and comforting in execution. You’d just have to be there.

Oh, and Kristen of mediatinker.com posted my contribution to Yamanote29. My caption to the image?
Businessmen as usual.

Yesterday was Gran Turismo 3 day. I spent several hours playing and really got into the game. Definitely worth $50 if you’re a car enthusiast and like racing games even remotely.

Back to Anime Expo. I staffed one of the Live Programming (LP) rooms along with some friends. They had me working in one larger LP room for two days and a smaller one that seated around 150 (?) the last two (AX ran for four days, from July 5-8). The last time I staffed expo was in ‘99, but I was in a video room (which usually meant sitting down and tape switching and crowd control if the room got full - that only happened when Cowboy Bebop hit the domestic VHS market and everyone wanted to see it for the first time).

I didn’t get too much of a chance to go around, but that was sort of a personal decision. For the first two days in LP4 I stayed in the staffing room with an hour break. The AX dealers’ hall / artists’ alley at the Long Beach Convention Center was bigger than previous years, naturally.

I usually hate situations where events haven’t been pre planned. I’m the type who needs some assurance. When staffing the LP room, I noticed that people coming in to host panel discussions were usually late or just working with us on the fly. I tend to worry more than most people, but usually because I just want things to go smoothly.

Among the various events in the LP’s, I got to catch voice acting auditions and tryouts, a panel discussion on Cosplay (as taboo as “Otaku” in Japan, apparently - not looked well upon there) and a panel discussion on “serial experments Lain” (one of my favorite anime series I have ever seen).

Looking back, I actually enjoyed myself. I was often nervous right before the next scheduled event in the room because I didn’t know what the panelists would need in terms of equipment for presentations. Other than that, it was a decent experience.

The autograph sessions at the expo (Toshihiro Kawamoto, character designer for Cowboy Bebop was one of the Guests of Honor signing) were mangled. I swore that under ten people got sketches or autographs, and the hour for Kawamoto’s signing was up, leaving the 2nd floor of the convention center with a line of very disgruntled people. That was an hour of our time for one person. For nothing? And we were raffle winners.

(Yeah, spend more money, James. Good job.)

One of the things that popped up this year at AX (and I’m sure they’ve been around before) were Konami’s line of Bemani machines… Para Para Paradise, Dance Dance Revolution (5th Mix was one of them) and DrumMania. Sunday night, when expo was over, the machines were set on free play. So naturally, this was my chance to try these games out. Mike, always obsessed with the DDR craze, got me to try out DDR 5th Mix. I really enjoyed it. Playing two “easy” songs on DrumMania felt like I was living out the little dream of playing drums. I’m already looking for the import PS2 game w/ the ‘controller’ (a one-piece set of drum pads with a stand that is about 3 feet tall).

Basically, Mike has gotten me interested in these dance & music games. You are an evil man, Mike.

Nothing is really letting up right now. There is work, I have a wedding to attend this Saturday and on Sunday I’m helping my friend in LA fix his computer. I’m still looking into editing jobs/internships, but I’ll be able to search even more two weeks from now, when I think I’ll just stay home and catch up on a few net things.