In my opinion consumerism in Japan is much more prolific and ridiculous than here in the US. I've never seen a TV show title in the US come out with figurines, trading cards, posters, games, manga, novels, multiple soundtracks, radio shows, drama CDs, events, movies and a rock musical as well as all the toys, key chains, plushies, messenger bags and other innumerable items of merchandise. Part of me laughs at the silly consumerist Japanese otaku and part of me burns with massive amounts of jealousy and greed for all the cool items that will never traverse the ocean into my hot grasping little hands.
So imagine my shock and delight when I found a way to get my hands on the Bleach Soundtracks and Bleach Beat Collection.
I immediately jumped on the chance like a starving fat kid jumps on cake. The soundtracks were as cool as expected, loaded with all the awesome background music throughout Bleach as well as some of the openings and endings. But what really caught my attention were the Beat Collections.
Now for those of you who've never heard of the Bleach Beat Collections, they aren't the typical soundtracks you'd expect. They are very short, containing at most 5 or 6 songs each and they are each named after a character or group of characters. In order to further complicate things they come in ‘Sessions’ of 5. For example: you have Bleach Beat Collection 1: Ichigo Kurosaki through Bleach Beat Collection 5: Ichimaru Gin and then starts Bleach Beat Collection Second Session 1: Ichigo Kurosaki and Zangetsu. They are coming out with more as new characters appear and the story moves on. Bleach Beat Collection Third Session 3: Sousuke Aizen will be released on August 1st in Japan. Currently I've gotten 12 of them for about 4 hours of listening.
At first I wasn't sure if the collections were concept songs for the characters, music inspired by the characters or music that the characters would likely listen to. After listening for a bit, I realized that the true answer wasn’t any of the above. The songs were actually sung by the Seiyū (voice actors) of the characters. So as I listened to Renji, Zangetsu and Ulquiorra belting out the lyrics I really got into it. Unfortunately with my limited Japanese I would be thrown out of enjoying the music whenever I heard a word I recognized/understood such as shinigami, quincy, nakama, sensei or a character's name. In my experience it's better to listen and either understand all of it or none of it, and whatever you do never ever chase down a translated version. Poor Rammstein has been bastardized beyond recognition every time someone gets the "brilliant" idea to translate it.
Collection 1: Ichigo Kurosaki- Of all the voice actors Masakazu Morita got to sing the most songs, but I don’t know if he should have been allowed to. He picked up a song on the Uryu disk and dominated the Ichigo/Zangetsu disk as well. He wasn’t anywhere near the best singer of the group, but at least he wasn’t the worst. The biggest issue I had with his singing is that he seemed to use only his own voice and rarely sounded at all like Ichigo. Many of the other Seiyu managed to stay at least partially, if not entirely within character. Since poor Mochizuki Hisayo managed to sing without once loosing the Yachiru voice I’d think keeping Ichigo’s voice going wouldn’t be that much of a problem.
Collection 2: Renji Abarai- As much as I love Renji (Kentaro Ito) and his funny eyebrow tatts, the boy can’t sing. His voice is far too rough and throaty which forced him to sing the angriest sounding songs of any in the collection. He couldn’t harmonize at all and ended up chanting or growling most of the words rather than keeping any sort of harmony with the song. Yet somehow, he was also the only one who was nearly drowned out by heavy background vocals.
Collection 3: Uryuu Ishida – Ishida’s (Noriaki Sugiyama) songs were some of my favorites. One had heavy techno beats and was saturated with synthesizer effects; another was slower and backed by guitar. Surprisingly I can easily imagine Ishida having a wild side and regularly appearing as a Techno DJ at raves. He has that slick cool factor that I’d think would be oh so important to DJs. His voice is just the same as his image. It was smooth and flowed nicely. Noriaki was able to keep nicely within Uryu’s range and made him seem more awesome and appealing than I ever found him in the series.
Collection 4: Hanataro Yamada and Kon – A selection of ridiculously upbeat and potentially silly songs with titles like Shimpainai Oneesan (Worry-free Big Sis) and Lions Never Surrender. I didn’t think it was possible but Hanataro (Kouki Miyata) sounds even younger and Kon (Mitsuaki Madono) sounds like he’s whining even more than usual. It was very difficult to listen to them singing together and not smile, imagining them fighting over the microphone. Well, more like Hanataro holding the mike and getting beaten by Kon for possession of it. Lions Never Surrender was sung by Mitsuaki Madono without using his Kon voice and it sounded alright, but I couldn’t take it seriously imagining the wussy little stuffed lion acting all serious to sing it.
Collection 5: Gin Ichimaru – Although Koji Yusa doesn’t have one of the more recognizable voices in the series, he is an impressive singer. Not much of Gin’s personality comes through the songs but if you think about it not much of his personality has been shown in the story. These songs are less like a cool Bleach special and more like stand alone songs that are cool in their own right. Several of the other songs I like, I may only have feelings for because they are sung by Bleach characters. I don’t feel that these songs have any of those connotations. If I didn’t know that it was sung by the voice actor of Ichimaru Gin, I would never recognize his voice.
Second Session 1: Ichigo Kurosaki and Zangetsu – Zangetsu (Takayuki Sugo) was the dark horse of the group. I was tempted to not even listen to his songs because I couldn’t imagine them being anything spectacular. The rock/techno styles I’d heard so far wouldn’t fit with his voice and I wasn’t about to submit myself to something that was painful to listen to. In his solo song Rain, I was pleasantly surprised to hear his deep voice crooning in my ear like a sensual lover. I actually got the shivers at one point, apparently I have a thing for guys with low voices. The other songs Sky High and Zan returned to a fast moving style and didn’t really utilize Zangetsu/Takayuki’s voice as anything other than the occasional backup.
Second Session 2: Toshiro Hitsugaya, Rangiku Matsumoto and Momo Hinamori – The moment Toshiro started singing it was really obvious that he was a she. Regardless of how great a voice actress Romi Paku is, she couldn’t make her voice sound like a boy while she sang, which was a bit of a shame, but there’s only so much human voices can do. Another bit of a let down was the lack of compilation songs. Each character/voice actor had a song, but there wasn’t a single song done together. Hinamori’s (Kumi Sakuma) song was cute and innocent and Matsumoto’s (Kaya Matsutani) was breathy and sensual as could be predicted, neither was anything super amazing.
Second Session 3: Zaraki Kenpachi, Yachiru Kusajishi, Ikkaku Madarame and Yamichika Ayasegawa – When ‘We’ started playing I had a very strong vision hit me. I had intruded upon a clandestine meeting of the 11th Squad. I had walked in on them having a sleepover, Yumichika was giving Kenpachi a make-over (he had a mud mask on and curlers in) and Yachiru had put a long blonde wig on Ikkaku and was braiding his hair. This scene hit me so vividly that I started laughing hard enough that I had trouble breathing and ended up missing most of the song. I had to restart it to listen to it. ‘We’ had a tune that no Squad 11 member would be caught dead listening to and they definitely would never have sung along so cheerfully together. Visions of them skipping along arm in arm or sitting together singing Kum Ba Yah pervaded my thoughts every time I tried to listen to it. I mean where else will you hear Kenpachi say things like “Come on, Come on Yeah Yeah Yeah Baby.” Luckily for my aching gut Yachiru was the only one singing ‘Funny Days’ and ‘COME to LIKE it. This FIGHT Now.’ was much more in the spirit of 11.
Second Session 4: Jin Kariya, Ririn, Claude, Nova – I wouldn’t know Nova’s talking or singing voice even if Tomokazu Sugita walked up to me and gave a full introduction of himself before he started singing. Mostly they didn’t try to adjust his character to make him sing, he just added a few words here and there as backup, while Claude (Nobuo Tobita) more energetically backed Ririn (Yumi Kakazu) up. However he did have to sing a few verses of ‘Faiteingusouru.’ It made me wish he talked more. He’s got a great voice. Another thing I was a bit wary of was that they’d try to trade on the hokey and stereotypical ‘vampire’ music for Kariya’s (Toru Ohkawa) songs. I didn’t need to be concerned. The songs were all upbeat, which was almost worse to hear Kariya sing than some Japanese version of Thriller.
Second Session 5: Rukia Kuchiki and Orihime Inoue – Seeing as most of the other songs are sung by men I thought I’d enjoy this collection more. It’s not that I don’t like the songs Rukia (Fumiko Orikasa) and Orihime (Yuki Matsuoka) sing, but I don’t particularly love them either. Rukia has a surprisingly mature singing voice. She sounds much older when she sings. ‘Wind’, ‘La La La’ and ‘Holy Fight’ are some of the most melodic songs from any of the collections and they were pretty enough, but I had some problems with each song. ‘Holy Fight’ should be renamed ‘Holly Fight’ because you can hear what sounds like Christmas bells constantly ringing in the background. ‘La La La’, I mean the title tells you everything. The lyrics and even the title of the song were repetitive and unimaginative; I don’t need to know Japanese to know La La La is a pathetic attempt at filling dead air.
Third Session 1: Ulquiorra Schiffer – Unfortunately it seems that every Session that comes out has fewer and fewer songs. Ulquiorra (Namikawa Daisuke) only had 2 songs and a Voice Message. Not understanding more than a few words of Japanese hindered my understanding of the voice message, but it seemed to be a general shout out to fans and a bit of discussion about the character. It was really interesting to hear him switching between his normal voice and his Ulquiorra voice
Third Session 2: Grimmjow Jaegerjaques – Just like Ulquirra, Grimmjow only got 2 songs and a shout out. I was expecting angsty angry teenager type music from Suwabe Junichi but was a little disappointed to get something considerably more upbeat. I will readily admit that I love emo teenager music. Despite my initial misgivings I ended up really enjoying both of Grimmjow’s songs.
Now I’ve said again and again that I have no idea what the lyrics are and I haven’t a clue what everybody was singing about. So, when I say a song is upbeat I’m generally guessing about the song from the tone of voice and the sound of the music. So, if someone is really singing about kicking puppies and stealing candy from children please don’t assume that I think that is an upbeat and happy image.
There are 56 songs in total and I think that there is probably something for everyone, or at least all Bleach fans. Interestingly enough I’ve noticed that most Bleach fans are into ‘The Rocks’ just like me. They seem to enjoy Alternative Rock, Pop Rock, Hard Rock, Soft Rock, Classic Rock, Emo Rock.. etc. Most of the songs can be classified as rock of one sort or another and there is enough of a variety that you’ll be sure to find at least one song you like or even love.
My Favorite Songs-
Aesthetics and Identity - Collection 3: Uryu Ishida
BrEaK - Third Session 2: Grimmjow JaegerJaques
GAME!GAME!GAME! - Second Session 4: Jin Kariya, Ririn, Claude, Nova
Hyo-ri [Two Sides] - Collection 5: Gin Ichimaru
My Blade, As My Pride - Collection 1: Ichigo Kurosaki
Quincy no Hokori ni Kakete - Collection 3: Uryu Ishida
RAIN - Second Session 1: Ichigo Kurosaki and Zangetsu
Sekai wa Sude ni Azamuki no Ue no [The World Has Already Been Decieved] - Collection 5: Gin Ichimaru
Shimpainai Oneesan [Worry-free Big Sis] - Collection 4: Hanataro Yamada and Kon
Suigintou no Yoru - Collection 3: Uryu Ishida
We - Second Session 3: Zaraki Kenpachi, Yachiru Kusajishi, Ikkaku Madarame and Yamichika Ayasegawa
So all in all I highly suggest you pick up at least a few of these collections.
Labels: Bleach, MagicMysticGrl, Music, Soundtrack
Finish what you start...
Last week I was woo'd by the MTV Games/Harmonix title The Beatles: Rock Band. This week, Activision's DJ Hero has my direct attention.
Oh baby, am I glad about this! The first time I played a Tap song in Guitar Hero I kept praying that someone would add more stuff from Spinal Tap to their line up, and evidently the group over at Harmonix heard my silent cries. 
Michael was an inspiration to me personally. He made me believe it was ok to be whatever you wanted to be. Here was this black kid in the music business which at that time should have meant he was strictly an R&B performer and yet he was not. He was a pop artist, blending R&B with Rock creating his own unique brand of pop that crossed over the lines of race and the boundaries of geography. To watch TV and see this black man wearing tight jeans and not baggy ones, and I swear he was the first black artist I saw wearing punk clothes. Michael made me believe it was cool to wear that stuff. While I never had a white glove or red jacket, I do like sporting chains and have an affinity for Hot Topic that I can draw a direct correlation between Michael's style and his impression on me as a kid and my "it feels go to me" attitude. 
The autumn of 2008 is going to be all about the new Rock Band and Guitar Hero games around the household of Ninjasistah -- anyone who has ever listened to a few ESH podcasts already knows that. But while she's banging away at her drums or shredding guitar, her mind is going to be on something else entirely.
I became incensed earlier today when I read a headline from a music industry analyst that proclaimed that digital downloads have "killed music." Believe me, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Word came out yesterday that 
Gwen Stefani is a Tomoko Kawase wannabe. That's right, I said it.
Rockstar Games has announced its follow-up to last year's Bully, called Bully II: RIAA Edition. Unlike the original, the new game has a single bad guy: the Record Industry Association of America. 
