Bromide Scans

Recently I acquired 2 packs of the 2002 Bromide trading cards. These cards are huge! Approximately 3″x5″, and very nicely made. The printing is really clear and sharp.

Here are scans of the cards for you! The actual scans are more than twice the size of the image or Mari above.

Click here to download. Approx. 3 megs.

Enjoy!

PS – I scrapped the review of the Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! Bomb concert as I was actually severely underwhelmed by it. Most of the song selection and placement was really kind of lackluster. Plus why the hell did Biyuden get so much stage time?!

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Public Service Announcement

I have a post in the works reviewing the Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! Bomb concert DVD which I just received yesterday in the mail. But I had to take a break and bring up something that has really become a pet peeve lately and bothers me to no end.

 This would be the use of the word “yens” by several people online when referring to plural use of japanese currency.

There is no such word as “yens”. The Japanese do not say “yens”.

Yen is a singular and plural word at the same time, much like moose, deer and sheep. You can have 1 yen and you can have 100 yen.

 Please stop saying yens.

Holy Hell it’s Resonant Blue!

Hello!Online has the PV up right now, via DohhhUP! My reaction after the first viewing is something along the lines of O_o

 Holy shit!

First the positive things:
– The outfits are really stellar looking, they make the girls all look way more mature. I feel like I should take them a hell of a lot more seriously when dressed like that.
– The dancing is FIERCE! Definitely one of the most complicated and awesome choreographies pulled off in a Momusu video to date.
– The setting of the video, concrete floor and huge puddle of water, gives the video a nice edge to it, while reflecting the girls movements and adding to the overall effect
– The cool wave effect thing they do in the middle of the instrumental = FREAKING AWESOME
– I cannot WAIT to see this performed in concert.

Now the not so positive things:
– I love all 3 girls, but when did this become the Ai, Reina and Koharu show?
– Aika, Junjun and Linlin looked freaking AWESOME in the 2 second opening shot they got, they definitely needed more screentime (Aika in particular)
– I’m hoping will end up being the dance shot version, close up shots would be appreciated
– The jump cuts off Risa and Eri when they are singing their parts are too abrupt!

I honestly can’t think of another Momusu video like this, save possibly the dark room dance shots in Shabondama. Overall, I think this is a wicked awesome START to the video. Add in some close up shots and it could be AMAZING.

You are now a Rock Star ~ CHALLENGE!

You are now a famous rock musician. You’ve taken the world by storm with your awesome vocals and kick ass style. You and your band are just about to wrap up your stellar World Tour with a final concert in Tokyo. As a tribute to your love for japanese music, you’re going to do a set of 5 Japanese rock and/or pop song covers. Which songs do you choose by which artists and why?

☆☆☆☆☆

Utada Hikaru – Beautiful World
Holy crap I love this song. I love how passionate it is, I love the piano, I love the marching quality of it, I love/hate that I identify with the lyrics much too easily. It might not be strong enough to be an opening song to the set, but it would be instantly recognizable by the audience not only as a Hikki song, but as the theme for the first new Evangelion movie that recently premiered there. It would definitely let the audience know where I was headed for the next couple songs.

Buck Tick – Gensou hana
How could I not? I really had a hard time picking a Buck Tick song I would cover. I was thinking Jupiter which is a beautiful song, but way too personal to Atsushi. Gensou hana is a better fit. It’s an absolutely gorgeous song, yet still manages to rock. It’s one of those songs that I carry around with me, and can’t imagine that I wouldn’t get emotional with it if I was performing it live. (It’s like a lullaby though, sitting here listening to it still suffering from daylight savings lag, I’m being lulled to sleep by Atsushi’s voice. Ah, heaven.)

Aikawa Nanase – Seven Seas
More than any other artist I was torn in trying to pick a Nanase song. I finally settled on Seven Seas for 5 main reasons; Purana is one of the greatest rock pop albums EVER, I love how upbeat the song is, I was thinking of NO FUTURE but didn’t want to do another song tied to an anime series, Dandelion was a little too mellow for what I had in mind, and finally Seven Seas has some fantastic guitar work in it too, gotta let the rest of the band get their kicks in as well!

Yuki – Hadaka no Taiyo
While Nagai Yume introdiced me to Yuki and made me a fan, it was this 4th track on her album WAVE that made me a devoted fan. I love this song to death, if I had a soundtrack for my life, this song would definitely be on it. I would have to learn some of Yuki’s apparently signature dance moves for the stage for this one (LOL!) I really thought about using this song as the closer to my set list of covers, but wanted to finish with a bang and Hadaka no Taiyo fades into a sort of trance state as it finishes, so for the Slam! Bang! finish I choose……..

Morning Musume – Osaka Koi no Uta
You know, I seriously thought about putting Love Machine here as it would be instantly recognizable by the Japanese public, it’s a fun song and would be a good closer. Problem is it’s been done to death by H!P itself, and I’d want to identify myself as a fan by doing a song that might be recognizable, but not as much as LM. I just adore Osaka Koi no Uta so here it is. Even though the lyrics are kind of sad, the song is sung with undeniable attitude. As an added bonus for myself I would totally dress in one of the white poofy dresses with the huge bow in back and sing into a jeweled microphone, but probably with a goth loli-esque twist.

BONUS ENCORE:
Masami Okui – Rinbu Revolution
I’m going to cheat and put in one more song, and I’m also going to pull a Shokotan here and cover an anime theme song. Honestly, Utena’s first theme song is one of the best anime theme songs ever. It fits anyway as anime was my gateway to Jpop and idoldom, I’m only paying homage to my roots. Plus it freaking ROCKS. For those of you who have never been gifted enough to hear it, here it is. (Abridged TV version).

————————–
Narrowing yourself to only 5 songs to represent and cover the extent of your fandom is pretty damn hard. It took me close to 2 weeks to finalize my picks and get the post written and published. I kept thinking, maybe this song would be better, or maybe going with a more obscure artist would somehow be more appropriate. Maybe I care too much about this kind of thing. LOL! But it definitely wasn’t as easy a post as I sought out to create. In the end I’m satisfied with my choices…. and wish now I really was in a rock band so I could pull this off!

I’m shocked! ~ Resonant Blue Radio Preview

I’ve got three other posts sitting in draft form that I just can’t seem to pull together coherently. The release of Momusu’s newest single just doesn’t help my thoughts align on anything other than there is a new Momusu single release.

I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I’m kind of stunned. In ways it seems they are paying homage to the first Momusu singles, with the harmonies, heavy synthesized drum beats and over all style. However it also feels really different, from everything they’ve done lately….. I see touches of the old, but a lot of new.

I don’t want to be dramatic here, but this just might be the song that rebirths Momusu. It’s like their previous singles after the departure of Hitomi were looking for something solid to stand on, on which they could plant their flag and say “This is the new Momusu!” Even though I hailed Mikan as the unifying song for the new Momusu (for myself) I’ve really largely forgotten it in the hustle of everyday life. (Such a shame!) I won’t however be forgetting Resonant Blue anytime soon.

The songs has some great hooks, anyone know if Danceman had anything to do with this?

I’m really kind of speechless at the moment. I think I’m in shock, this song is really good! If this is any kind of indicator as to the direction of Momusu’s 9th album and their sound for 2008 I am really stoked to see what’s going to come.

Now pardon me while I go pre-order the single!