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You don't need to apologize! This gave me an excuse to rewatch it as well, so that was nice.

Anyways, looking at the actual "death" scene, as well as the scene with Mimiru afterwards, I still find it really funny, but pretty much solely because of the music. The scenes by themselves are fine. The writing even highlights the comedic potential when the original owner storms in and throws a hissyfit over her neopet dying. Then the following scene reveals that Tsukasa had a visceral reaction to the warmth (implying their touch-starved state, that they had never touched Mimiru's hand before, either). Nice quiet introspection.

Except that it wasn't quiet. When you put the sheer hysterics of Emily Bindiger's wailing over that, and not just over one scene, the same song is repeated for both, it tips over the edge into really funny dissonance. It's the stuff of Linkin Park/How Could This Happen To Me memes.

(Although, I would say another reason I didn't buy in as much to the "Tsukasa FEEEEEELS things" take is that the show doesn't really follow up on this angle either? SAO does more with that "the joys of touching virtual grass" theme.)

"Tsukasa kills the MMO Tamagotchi pig" is HILARIOUS, can't believe the show tried to wring it for pathos Now I'm thinking about a live action version where only the actor for Tsukasa gets to move and talk normally, while everyone else is doing like those TikToks where they imitate Skyrim/GTA/Yakuza/etc.

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Uuuuuuuugh I don't WANT to make mashups where both songs are western pop but there are a couple of combos now where I checked and either the mashup just doesn't exist or the existing versions are all inferior

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I can't say that "Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In The Countryside" has good writing by any means, but season 2 actually had an interesting portrayal of deradicalization. Their idea is to establish common ground upon which your radicalized opponent will nonetheless respect you on. Invite them to work with you on that common ground. Then, demonstrate the ways in which their radical views/ways are counterproductive to them achieving their own goals within the context of that common ground. Be SUBTLE in hinting at how that counterproductivity extends beyond that common ground to their other goals. Then, downplay how your proposed alternative is destructive to things they still care about, because what you really want is for them to figure out for themselves that the tradeoff is worth it. Point them towards cases proving that they've wrongly coupled a fear and a consequence, showing that though the middle step fear came to pass, the consequence did not.

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For potential link rot purposes, this is the Yurushite Nyan Taisou perf at the Momochi 2014 Bday event.

The notable thing I was laughing at was that halfway through, she pulls out a pink guitar and PAINSTAKINGLY plays a couple of chords for the song.

Snrrrrf. LAWL.

She’s the best. This is how you know she has more recent mainstream penetration than anyone else in H!P short of Sayu.

All hail the peach overlord.

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Thing that also makes me laugh: Alder (and possibly Lyne?) going "no I will not wear a T-shirt, unlike my Biddies or the other soldiers with me. For Reasons. High Commando General of the US Military"

I was taking Biddy screencaps but this one makes me laugh a lot.

It has the vibes of that Xena Brunnhilda set:

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So the US Witch Military is both racially diverse and yet still strongly lensed through Anglo Colonial aesthetics, particularly in the names and surnames of all of the characters. Both of those details are obviously for extra-diegetic reasons. The latter because unified aesthetic gives the world a stronger personality, it's just fun to do that, and it centers everything around that Salem and Alder origin (basically, the same as "why is everything in Naruto lensed through Japanese ninja"). The former is both diegetic and extra-diegetic. The production itself obviously wants to champion diverse casting, and the writing even makes a thematic diegetic point of it, how the witches' lower levels of racism relative to civilians incentivized the recruitment of POC from the early days on. That diegetic reason is why it seemed like a deliberate world-building choice (diegetic reason) to exclude Latine from that racial diversity, rather than just an oversight (extra-diegetic happenstance). So then, it seems that there would be diegetic fallout to that first paragraph: that the US Witch Military is both racially diverse but still unified in its Anglo Colonial aesthetics, particularly in the names and surnames of everyone in it. Racially diverse, but not culturally diverse. Which is to say, the US Witch Military is an institution of enforced cultural assimilation, rather than integration. On the Black side of things, this obviously manifests as a continued severance of African Americans from their African heritage. The show touched on that in a couple of lines in Season 3. But this post is really about the Asians. I've mused on that in a couple of previous posts, how the likes of Nessa Clary and Gregorio Shellbark stand in stark contrast to the Hague Generals Izuka and Sharma retaining their ethnic surnames. And how do those non-US Asians feel about seeing Asian Americans so separated from their Asian heritage? I wondered in the past if that played a role in Sharma's more openly antagonistic stance and China's absence entirely from the Hague. But something more occurred to me today, which is that India has colonial history/context that would inform their antipathy even more than East Asia. In our world, British rule of India persisted until the 1940s, after WW2. As I mused in the St. Dominique-inspired posts, an aspect to Alder taking down the Camarilla in the past would imply a taking down of the UK and Spain in the process (as the Camarilla in the past were not a separate entity from their national governments). In that case, we therefore wondered if Haiti would have remained a French colony or even become a US territory a la Puerto Rico. The fate of the British colonial empire, especially in India, begs this question even more. The strong culturally assimilated Asian presence in the US Witch Military suddenly gains many more potential implications from this. And so does Sharma's disdain for Alder.

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For potential link rot purposes, this Momochi's acoustic cover of Anata Nashi from her 2014 Bday event

Speaking of Tsunku writing songs with ridiculous ranges, THIS MOTHERFUCKER. The chorus jumps a full octave up from the verse and prechorus. The melody spans from G-flat to E-flat, a 13-step range. Anybody above a certain age pretty much has to sing those high notes in falsetto. Even H!P’s best vocals over the ages have had a hard time squeezing that chorus out, short of, I dunno, Ruru or Maeda Yuuki. It’s a beast. And baby Risako made it sound so effortless on the original 2004 recording. Of note here, of course are lol Nee-san and Marin from Lovendor on guitar. Nothing special, but it does also highlight how Tsunku tends to avoid the straight-forward chord progressions, and how Jpop likes to pull little variants so repetitions are over 8 beats, instead of the regular 4-beat repeats in western melodies.

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For potential link rot purposes, this is Momochi's solo cover of DDLM during H!P Summer 2011 tour. It was never released to DVD, so this is fan-recorded audio.

Lots of people try to cover this song. Lots of indie idols, in particular, try to cover this song. Most of them suck at it. Not Tsugunaga “best vocal control of the HPK bar Airi” Momoko. She sounds better in lo-fi rips than in the cleaned up recordings, sometimes. Amazing. This song is really difficult in a stealthy way. It goes from a B-flat to the E-flat, and 11-note range. If you don’t pick your optimum key to access your own personal fullest range, you’ll probably get screwed over in karaoke from one or the other end of it. The composition itself is pretty brilliant, too, with lots of key changes and switches between minor and major that Cole Porter himself couldn’t integrate as seamlessly.

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FF6 Remix MFS AU

Most people treat Celes and Terra to be about the same age because that's how the character designs are, but of course ideas change when one is in the throes of Talder brainrot (Background: I don't know much about FFs beyond 6, 7, pieces of 10, and 13, so any similarities outside of 6 are coincidence, particularly anything to do with FF4 and Rydia) General Alder of the Empire (don't @ me about the problematic, MFS Alder had to conquer the continent in order to cede any of it back to the indigenous in the first place), Magitek knight, whose powers are drawn from the Biddies, the group of espers imprisoned at the Magitek research facility. I mean, honestly, it makes more sense for an older woman to pass as a well-established opera star lol. Hearst is Kefka, of course. Which makes Witchfather General Leo. This points to Silver being Gestahl, but we could go with Brandt instead for funsies. Actually, for REAL good funsies Brandt could be Kefka instead. There's no good match for Wade. But yeah, so Tally is a great match for Terra here, what with the redhead and fire magic and if the Biddies are espers, then Tally being a half-esper is a good nod. With this setup, Tally also would have been raised by Silver alongside Penelope, which could be interesting. Unfortunately, this setup does lose all of the "Alder first witch to fight back" and the conscription element that defines the series, particularly Tally's dispensation that partially defines her backstory. That's why I considered a much more divergent remix where Alder is either a full esper or half-esper that negotiated the Accords with the emperor centuries ago, and then Tally volunteered to become a Magitek knight. Either way, there are some interesting twists of motivation. For example, in FF6 everyone desires and pursues magic, so there's no meaningful Camarilla faction. Kefka and Gestahl aren't driven by bigotry at all, just lust for power. Meanwhile, the Bellweathers mostly match to Figaro. At the beginning of the game, Figaro is publicly allied with the Empire. Petra's scheming here does become actually seditious, though, rather than a power play of ambition, which is a bit of an awkward match. Making Petra General Leo would be sad, though. Meanwhile, Abigail fits elements of both Edgar and Sabin. She has that sense of duty and that lusty streak like Edgar, but goes rogue and forges her own path more like Sabin. Scylla is Locke. Nicte is Banon. As I said before, the lack of the conscription element means that a lot of characters lose their defining features. For example, there's no room for anyone like Shadow in MFS. Raelle is a major case, losing that Willa backstory and her initial arc in one fell swoop. Relm lol? SETZER LOLL? Unless we embrace the remix and make Raelle Locke, but with Willa as Rachel/Phoenix. In such a setup, Scylla would probably be the pre-Shadow Clyde, with Porter as Baram. Anacostia is an even harder match. Her being General Leo would be EVEN SADDER. We could remix Cyan extra hard, where Doma was actually an Empire-allied state that Kefka sacrificed to take out Returners or something. Either way we lose out on all of her great relationships and dynamics with the unit, Scylla, and Alder, which is really sad.

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#most mid-tempo ballads are garbage

For potential link rot purposes, this is Momochi's solo cover of Hare Ame Nochi Suki. Video description says this is from her 3rd solo event, and you can see that watermark pegging it to April 2009.

I know this isn’t a bossa nova, but holy shit why has no one ever done a proper bossa nova arrangement for Hare Ame Nochi Suki before? That would be amazing. It would take the song from soppy mid-tempo ballad to actual good territory.

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The world revolves around my tastes and the girlies are digging through my blog archive (specifically, my mini bossa-nova spam)

First Sakura does Chinmoku (following her Sexy Otonajan last year), now Hirai does Attakai Ude de Tsutsunde. What's next, Kero does Jikan yo Tomare and SakuRio does FuwaFuwaFuu?

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For potential link rot purposes, this is Momochi's solo cover of Anshinkan from the 2011 Spring Berryz Tour

This is basically Momoko desecrating the original with all of the cutesy affectations. A tour de force of them.

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For potential link rot purposes, this is Momochi's solo cover of ONLY YOU (the BOOWY cover song by Zoku V-u-den, not the MM song). The video description says this is from her 4th solo event, and was uploaded in June 2012, but the wiki stubbornly refuses to list that this event existed, so I can't verify that.

The composition of this song is a fucking mess. It’s a miracle anyone can make that pre-chorus ever sound good, and the chorus is a disaster and the destruction of any goodwill that amazing intro/verse creates. Dat intro, though. Even better than Nakimushi Shounen’s.

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I cannot fucking believe Oda Sakura panders to me personally.

Oh shit it’s like if WHY was bossa nova that’s just plain unfair This song is from their first album

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THE WORLD REVOLVES AROUND MY TASTES AND ODA SAKURA PANDERS TO ME PERSONALLY

T&C CHINMOKU PERFORMANCE

AND ALSO MATENAI AFTER FIVE

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apparently christmas in Korea plays a similar role as valentines day and is an occasion for young lovers to find a motel away from family and get fuckin’?

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This is about Cendrillon

Kathleen Kim playing a rather exasperated Fairy Godmother is pretty great Major kudos to the director for this blocking, where the FG is working pretty hard to make everything look seamless and effortless to Cinderella, but clearly things aren’t happening up to the FG’s perfect standards, and this is all entirely in the blocking and not drawn from the libretto at all.