Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts

Friday, December 10, 2010

† Disney Music: Rapunzel OST Download †

I've received a few messages and e-mails requesting for the soundtracks of Rapunzel. So here's the songs I've uploaded as requested. Enjoy!

The story begins, Rapunzel doing her chores everyday.
1. Rapunzel OST - When Will My Life Begin [listen/download here]

Having fun with the gangsters with dreams.
2. Rapunzel OST - I've Got A Dream [listen/download here]

Discovering Rapunzel's healing power.
3. Rapunzel OST - Healing Incantation [listen/download here]

Having fun in the city.
4. Rapunzel OST - Kingdom Dance [listen/download here]

Lake view, waiting for the lantern.
5. Rapunzel OST - Waiting For The Lights [listen/download here]

The most romantic scene.
6. Rapunzel OST - I See The Lights [listen/download here]

And of course, rosewell that ends well.
7. Rapunzel OST - Kingdom Celebration [listen/download here]

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

† What Does Chibi Means †

 
When I was checking what are the popular keywords that lead the readers into my blog via Nuffnang, the word 'chibi' caught my attention because it was the top 5 words being searched in Google and lead into my blog post. So what does 'chibi' means?


Chibi (ちび in Japanese) is a Japanese word meaning 'short' or 'little' and this word is very popular among the manga or anime fans. Chibi is also considered a style of drawing a character with distinguishable patterns such as big head, big eyes, short limbs and small body. When a cartoon character has been 'chibi-tized', it will always look cute even if it was super scary or super uninteresting in its original form.

Examples:

Devil Jin taken from a popular game known as Tekken. It may look scary in its original form but once chibi-tized, its too cute to be killed by the opponent.


L from Death Note, a dull looking character often behaves in a weird manner. When it is converted into a chibi version, it looks awesomely cheerful.


Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is a well-known villain of all time. His cool appearance has made him being idolized by many fans. The chibi version of Sephiroth surprisingly look cute and I think many female fans are crazy over the chibi rather than the original Sephiroth.


Ulquiorra is a popular villain taken from the cartoon Bleach. Cool and often refuse to spend much time talking, Ulquiorra has become one of the best villain being voted in Bleach by the fans. As expected, the chibi version of Ulquiorra overtakes the original one.

Monday, August 23, 2010

† I Love Domo Kun †


Not many people around me know that I'm actually attracted to certain types of soft toys. Domo Kun is one of my all time favorite soft toys. Domo Kun (どーもくん in Japanese) is a small brown open-mouthed monster hatched from an egg who lives with a wise old rabbit underground. He can't speak and the only sound he produced is a low pitch kind of sound similar to 'do~mo~'.

Domo Kun is the official mascot of Japan's NHK television station, appearing in several 30 seconds stop-motion interstitial sketches shown as station identification during shows. You may watch the first episode of Domo Kun's origin here. Also pay a visit to the official website.


Domo Kun 30 seconds episodes was then upgraded to 3 minutes short episodes in English due to many requests made by the crowds and fans. Here's a few funny ones to watch. After watching a few episodes, I guarantee you that the Domo theme song will be stucked in your brain for some times.

Foot Print

Domo Kun discovered several dinosaur foot prints that scared him off.

Spoon
Domo Kun thought he's just an ordinary being who couldn't bend a spoon.

The Pianist

Domo Kun is inspired by the television show and would like to perform.

Rock N Roll

Domo Kun loves Rock N Roll. He performs even better after a lightning strike.

Two Domos
Domo Kun in two. It causes catastrophic mess in Domo's house.

Well, I'm a Domo Kun huge fan that I even get its wallpaper. Here's a nice 1280 x 800 JPEG Domo Kun wallpaper.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

† How To Train Your Dragon: Music Review †


You can call me a 'caveman' or a 'frog under the coconut shell' and the truth is that, this is the first time I come across John Powell's name. I didn't know his popularity as a film score composer is equally famous as Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson Williams. In fact I'm so impressed with the music he has composed in the animated movie 'How To Train Your Dragon'. This soundtrack is available through Varèse Sarabande Records.
01.This Is Berk (04:12)
02.Dragon Battle (01:55)
03.The Downed Dragon (04:16)
04.Dragon Training (03:10)
05.Wounded (01:25)
06.The Dragon Book (02:22)
07.Focus, Hiccup! (02:05)
08.Forbidden Friendship (04:10)
09.New Tail (02:47)
10.See You Tomorrow (03:52)
11.Test Drive (02:35)
12.Not So Fireproof (01:11)
13.This Time For Sure (00:47)
14.Astrid Goes For A Spin (00:45)
15.Romantic Flight (01:55)
16.Dragon’s Den (02:28)
17.The Cove (01:10)
18.The Kill Ring (04:27)
19.Ready The Ships (05:13)
20.Battling The Green Death (06:18)
21.Counter Attack (03:02)
22.Where’s Hiccup? (02:43)
23.Coming Back Around (02:49)
24.Sticks & Stones (04:08)
25.The Vikings Have Their Tea (02:04)
In case you have the OST CD, these are the two songs that I recommend you not to miss: track 11 and track 23. I absolutely love the strong melodies and consistently reoccurring themes that Powell uses especially his variations and the way he strips them down and builds them back up (with bag pipes in this case).

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

† Futurama's Zap Brannigan †

There are many crazy and funny characters exist in Futurama series produced by Matt Groening. I find Zap Branningan is one of the funniest characters that makes me laugh a lot whenever I watch Futurama.

Zap is the captain of the military of Democratic Order Of Planet, also known as D.O.O.P. The funny thing about this crazy captain is his forever thick-skinned cocky attitude. The one standing beside Zap is his military assistant, a gentle and polite alien known as Kiff.

Zap envisions himself as the lady-man and always think that all girls are attracted to him. One of his biggest failure was his attempt to get Leela but ended up got beaten up badly by Leela.

Many approaches and attempts had been made by Zap in order to win Leela's heart. This is one of Zap's funniest moment, singing his self-composed song with the title 'LEELA' in order to show off his talent.


The lyrics are funny and if you read it properly, it doesn't make any sense at all. The lyric goes like this:
I met her in a club down in Soho,
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-cola,
C-O-L-A... Cola...
She walked up to me and she asked me to dance,
I ask her her name and in a dark brown voice she said,
Leela!! L-E-E-L-A... Leela!! Ba da ba ba ba... Ba da ba ba ba...
LEEEEEEEEEEELAAAAAA... Ba da ba ba bum!

Monday, November 16, 2009

† Futurama: Bender's Game †

I bet everyone knows Futurama. I've always been a Futurama fan and I enjoy watching every single episodes of Futurama in the past. A few of the worth watching classic episodes were 'Roswell That Ends Well', 'Iron Chef', 'Big Piece of Garbage' and etc.

Recently I've finished watching 'Futurama - Bender's Game', one of the new long episodes produced in late year 2008. The author of this episode is of course, always the full time Simpsons and Futurama author Matt Groening.

This animated movie features Bender the robot, who has always been a friend to the human race, even if he won't admit it as many people who follow previous episodes of Futurama. However, he still takes great pride in believing that he's better than everyone on the planet.

In this particular episode, Bender's pride was in danger when he feared that he can't have the imaginative ability like human. As Bender joined the kids playing Dungeons & Dragons, his ability of imagination expanded and eventually his brain waves were amplified...

... by some 'chrono-quantum physic' kind of wave emission emitted from a crystal that it eventually affected Fry and the others, pulling them into Bender's world of imaginary. In the other world of imaginary, Bender was a noble knight named Titanus. And interestingly, Fry was named Frydo (Frodo?) while Leila was named Leigola (Legolas?).


In fact, plenty of the imaginary world storyline mimics Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but of course, Matt Groening has twisted it in a funny manner. As an example of one of the typical Matt's jokes found in this movie: "Fear not Titanus for we still have one hope! The Cave of Hopelessness!"

Well, I wouldn't say this is a great show but I'm sure many Futurama fans enjoy how Matt Groening create ridiculous in the episodes of Futurama, but I would recommend this show to those who love to watch silly show just for the sake of some inside jokes.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

† Musically Impressive: Nodame Cantabile Anime †


Nodame Cantabile is truly a worth watching anime associated with classical music. I've watched this anime for at least twice and I never get bored of it. The drawing is not as good as many other animes, but the storyline is in fact heart-touching and most importantly, the author really knows a lot about classical music which I really much appreciated.


This is a hilarious animated comedy love story between a handsome-good looking guy who came from a musically talented family and has been selected to be the conductor of the orchestra named Shinichi Chiaki and a kiddie-looking lady with no habits, who can't cook at all, live in a forever messy room and doesn't shower for days named Megumi Noda, a.k.a Nodame.


This is one of the scenes showing how messy Nodame's room can be. Chiaki was one of the the first to see such 'God-like' dirtiness with his own eyes when he first met Nodame.


Even under such messy and dirty environment, Nodame still enjoys every moment of her piano playing.


The romance between Chiaki and Nodame is really funny. There are a few parts where Nodame trying hard to impress Chiaki by making many attempts such as baking cake or preparing bento for Chiaki but ended up got scolded by Chiaki.


For example, Nodame trying to attract Chiaki through making up but her make up skill was so bad that she ended up looked like a Japanese ghost.


The most important element presence is the classical music. There are so many classical music pieces being performed by the music orchestra in this anime and some of these pieces are really popular. Other than orchestra pieces, piano pieces are also frequently played in the anime.


My dad has always been a classical music fan since young and he often listen to many classical music when he's resting at home. A rock music person like me would never take the initiative to learn about classical music but the tune of those music has been crafted into my memory. That is why every time when I watch this anime, I tend to give "Ohhhh!! So this is the song!!!" or "I see!! So Mozart was the composer!!!" kind of shout outs.


Many funny scenes can be seen in the anime. What is shown in the picture above is my favourite: the violinists trying to be stylish by doing such move but they ended up got scolded by Chiaki.


This anime is truly worth watching as it teaches many people to appreciate classical music. But most important of all, it provides knowledge about classical music as well as remembrance of many talented musicians from the past.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

† Whisper Of The Heart: Country Road †

This is a Studio Ghibli's classical production from the master film maker Hayao Miyazaki, the director of the Academy Award winning "Spirited Away" and also the well-known "Howl's Moving Castle".


This cartoon film is titled "Whisper of the Heart" and was created in year 1989. Looking back at the film, it really touches my heart especially the duet where Shizuku sings while Seiji plays his violin.

Keat's advice: Its better to pause the background music if you're planning to watch the video below.

Seiji & Shizuku's Duet


Shizuku seems a little bit stiffed initially but she sings better once her voice has warmed up. The whole song become so attractive when Seiji's grandpa and friends join them in the singing by playing with their own instruments. If the video is not working, you can try the YouTube version here.

Hayao Miyazaki is truly a good film maker and I think it is worth keeping every single piece of his production.