the Fair Grounds Discussion

Some of you have been wondering why I’ve been so busy lately. This is because I’ve been working my butt off to get my new project online. Since J-Pop has become one of the main focusses of Millennial Fair, I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to capitalize on its exploding popularity. So here it is, my brand new J-Pop Lyrics Site!

To start off with this project, I first moved all the J-Pop Lyrics I had on Millennial Fair to this site. This was more trouble than I thought because of all the changes in design that I have made. In fact, the layout for the Cherryblossom Garden is completely table-free and uses only DIVs. This means that there will be scaling and measuring problems with different browsers (thank god!) and that the site is extremely easy to update. Anyways, after doing some extra work, I ended up with exactly 250 lyrics the day before the opening.

Not a bad start I would say. Of course, I have a lot of work still left to do, but I’m really enjoying the work so far, so I’m not complaining at all. I hope everyone else can enjoy it as well!

Based on the 1973 anime of the same name,Casshern is a story about a man made to save the world. The film is the first by Kazuaki Kiriya (Utada Hikaru’s husband) and he has done a fantastic job with it. The visuals were absolutly stunning with great contrasts and lighting, along with dull and dry colors for scenes involving run-down parts of town.
Yusuke Iseya plays Tetsuya Azuma and Casshern for the film as seen below:

He was also in Akaitsuki last year (2004), a film by the famous director Yasuo Furuhata .

About the film
Although much of the story that made the anime Casshern so great has been cut out, we are left with what we need to still enjoy a separate movie. Casshern is about a man named Tetsuya who is revived after becoming a casualty of war and given invincible armor. He is forced to fight a new breed of human accidently created by his father known as neo-sapiens. These neo-sapien only have one goal, however; to desroy all humans.

I thought the film was fantasic and it is one of my new favorites. The acting was realistic and the visuals just might make you cry from happiness. I did, however, deduct points because of some of the 3D CGI. The only time it is really an annoyance is the beginning. There are parts where I could flat out tell where the real stopped and the fake began. Specifically was the rat in the beginning of the movie. A rat…with an eyeball on its back. When you see the movie, you’ll understand. The rest of the movie was gorgeous though.

Also, many have said that this movie is just glam and glitter with no real storyline. I don’t think that’s the case though. I found the story to be enthralling while also confusing. I had to watch it 3 times before I really got it ^_^; I was happy to find out that it is coming to the UK Februrary 25, 2005 and to the US later this year(2005).

My Rating: 9/10

J-Urban star Crystal Kay is releasing her 5th Album entitled “Crystal Style” on March 2nd of 2005. Not a lot of information is available at the time, but her new album will inlcude her last few singles Kiss, Bye My Darling! and Candy. There will be a CD+DVD version as well as a normal CD version.

Mika Nakashima Appreciation Month

Mika Nakashima is one today’s hottest Japanese artists. Since her debut in 2002, Mika has been in the limelight constantly. For me, the love for Mika’s music did not happen untill November of 2004 when I stumbled upon her then latest single “LEGEND".

I first made the mistake of playing it on low volume on my laptop, and I didn’t like it too much. When I tried it on high volume on my stereo I was completely blown away. No, not by the shear force created by the thundering speakers, but by the unique blend of techno and Opera.
Opera? Yes, when I listen to Mika’s voice, it reminds me very much of the Opera singers that I used to listen to when I was young. Mika has a good, powerful voice, but more importantly, she has this distortion in her voice that makes it so unique. When Mika hits the high notes, her voice changes, and that’s when you take notice of her.
After listening to LEGEND for a couple of hours, I switched to the other songs on the single. “FAKE” really surprised me, as I did not know that Mika had a thing for Jazz music. Mika’s soulful voice is perfect for the slow, yet emotionally Jazz that I have come to love over the years. The final song, Carrot & Whip is a mature Pop-ish Jazz song. I didn’t like it as much as LEGEND or FAKE, but it certainly had something unique. After a day of listening to this single, I was hooked on Mika stuff.

Mika’s Albums

Both of Mika’s albums LOVE and TRUE have been Nr.1 bestsellers in the charts. I saw them while passing by several stores in San Francisco’s Japan Town, as well as the stores in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. But I didn’t want to buy an album before hearing it first. I started with her LOVE album, and I wasn’t disappointed at all. My favourite song has to he “FIND THE WAY", the Gundam Seed theme. The lyrics are very sweet, and Mika just seemed to take me away with her beautiful voice. A few days later I saw her perform that song on Hey! Hey! Hey!, and it didn’t surprise me at all that Mika is as good live as she is on recording. “Love Addict", another song from LOVE, is surprisingly long (+7 minutes!), but is definitely a great Jazz number, and it’s always on my Winamp playlist. “TRUE” was rather disappointing when compared to “LOVE", but artists usually need time to find their own style of music. The only song I always play from that album is the 80ties-style disco song “ONE SURVIVE". I generally have a strong disliking towards disco music, but I actually found myself singing along with “ONE SURVIVE” every time I heard it.

The Videos

I generally don’t watch a lot of music videos. In fact, the only ones I like watching are those of Crystal Kay (for the dancing) and Sowelu (because she’s just pretty). But the most interesting videos I have ever seen have to be those by Mika Nakashima. Videos like “Hi no Tori", “LEGEND", “Seppun", “Yuki no Hana", “FIND THE WAY” and “FAKE” are very creative, and Mika always seems to make even the simplest things look interesting. Mika might seem very extravagant at times, but that doesn’t matter since her singing isn’t being downplayed. Mika is now my favourite artist to watch on TV and DVD, and I hope she continues this unique style of expression.

Yesterday, Mika released her newest single, Sakurairo Maukoro, and in the beginning of March she will be releasing her third album entitled MUSIC. Keep an eye on this young star, you’t won’t regret it!