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WOW WAR TONIGHT — D4DJ First Impressions

Published on November 7, 2020Leave a comment

Whether you would like D4DJ first Mix depends entirely on how much you like the song in this cut from the first episode:

D4DJ first Mix is basically Bang Dream, a computer animed series tied to a mobile rhytmn game, but instead of high school girls in bands it’s high school girls DJ-ing. CG anime can be hit or miss, but this series is one of the better ones. You can see it in the dance scenes.. Idol and idol adjecent series have long used CG for dance sequences of course, in frex Love Live or Aikatsu. what you usually see is that these use stock facial expressions that never quite match the actual dancing. Not here. Rinku, the blonde girl dancing at the end reacts to the music, her expressions matching her dancing. A small detail perhaps, but noticable.

It’s been a long time since I have been as obsessed with a song from anime as I am with this one. It’s been stuck in my head ever since the first episode and all through the second I was anxiously waiting for its return. Turns out WOW WAR Tonight us actually an old pop/house song from 1995, a number one hit in Japan for H Jungle with t, orginally a sort of synthesizer electropop ska beat with an unironic “jungle is massive” shoutout in the middle. Apparantly it has remained popular enough to get a cover version by Korean girl group AOA a few years ago. (That cover is very different from the version used in the anime, but worth watching because AOA sure is pretty.)

D4DJ first Mix‘s plot is simple. Blonde girl Rinku is new to DJ-ing and electronic music but has a natural sense for it and Maho, the girl through which eyes we saw Rinku dance, is the veteran who teaches her the ropes. So we get a bit of DJ 101 as Maho explains various things to Rinku, while the latter’s enthusiasm fires up Maho into taking a chance on her. It’s a well trodden formula but executed well. The series doesn’t pretend Rinku can just pick up DJ-ing and respects the craft that Maho puts in it. A bit of a Pet Shop Boys/Erasure situation: the serious musician supporting the flamboyant lead. They form a good pair, though we know from various clues in these first two episodes they won’t stay a pair for long. In all this has been excellent and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. My own quibble, and it’s a big one, is that none of the songs used had been subtitled, something that always annoys me with music anime. Get it sorted.

Happy birthday Macross 7

Published on October 16, 2020Leave a comment

Today is the 26th anniversary of the first broadcast of Macross 7.

I first watched it a decade later, in late 2003 or early 2004, when If irst got bandwidth and downloaded dubious sourced avi files or worse and burned video cds from them to play on my first dvd player, not having a dvd burner yet. (I only finished the series in 2016, having found much better sources since.) Every time I hear that opening, I get an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia, remembering that first time watching it and the sense of wonder it exhuded.

I really need to rewatch it.

“I don’t want to have to constantly prove and re-prove myself”

Published on October 9, 2020Leave a comment

It’s not surprising that the always up with the trends Barbie latest incarnation would be as a vlogger, but to see her use her platform to address racism? In a way that’s a lot better than most of the companies that paid lip service to BLM earlier this year?

You could argue that all this is a bit simplistic or question the motives of the company and people behind Barbie doing this, but to have a generation of kids watch and absorb this would be a good thing regardless.

Eddie van Halen — Rocking Ramona

Published on October 7, 2020Leave a comment

With the news today that Eddie van Halen has passed away and it apparantly being news that he was Asian-American by way of his mother, I was reminded of the 1991 Rockin’ Ramona documentary. As you know Bob, Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony until 1948 and marriages between Dutch and Indonesian people were not uncommon. After independence a lot of these people came to the Netherlands, where they were usually called “Indo”, both used as a slur and a name some people of mixed Dutch/Indonesian background adopted for themselves. The post-war Netherlands was fairly …whitebread until long into the sixties and when rock ‘n roll hit in the mid-fifties it was mostly second generation Indo people who started the first generation of Dutch rock bands. Eddie van Halen’s rockstar career fits right in, though he was slightly more successful than most. Slightly.

Hans Heijnen’s documentary is sadly only available in Dutch, but if you speak the language it’s a great overview of that first generation of Indo rock bands, who popularised the music both in the Netherlands as abroad, especially West-Germany. As is often the case with people of colour, they were mostly ignored once white bands took over and never quite got the success or critical acclaim they deserved. But with Eddie and Alex van Halen finding worldwide success in their own band on a scale any regular Dutch band can only dream about, some justice has been served…

Goin’ Back to China

Published on August 20, 2020Leave a comment

Dutch Cock rock group Diesel had a minor hit over here with “Goin’ Back to China”. One of those songs you know from hearing it on the radio occassionally. A decent enough rock song, with a little oriental(ist) flavour thrown over it, but nothing special.

Imagine my surprise when listening to an anthology of Japanese pop singers from the eighties and hearing a familiar melody, somewhat sped up and with a sax rather than a guitar solo:

No clue why a Dutch rock song would turn up a year later at the other side of the world in a disco version, but I’m glad it did. Yoko Katori’s version is rather nice as well.