Bach Logic. If you’re a die-hard fan of Japanese Hip-Hop, or Hip-Hop in general, then you’ll probably recognize the name, however casual fans may not know of this mega producer. He has produced, mixed, and remixed for the best, and now he’s working with R&B superstars Exile. The combination can only lead to great things.
Bach Logic is sort of a Hip-Hop renaissance man. He is responsible for the creation of Doberman Inc and arguably the recent highly anticipated major debut of Seeda, who’s previous album was produced entirely by BL. He has produced tracks for everybody from Anarchy to Zeebra, and is one of the single most influential individuals in the Osaka Hip-Hop industry. He has even done remixes of some of America’s Hip-Hop and R&B greats, including Jay-Z and Akon. He not only produces, he has recently started to spit his own rhymes on tracks side by side with high caliber emcees, including Seeda, Bay4K, and Doberman Inc. Yet, producers remain the unsung heroes of the music industry; their songs are forever immortalized on albums without others even knowing it is their personal work of art.
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Title : D. Gray-man
Genre : drama, comedy, horror, shounen, supernatural
Production : TMS Entertainment
Episodes : 65+
Vintage : 2006 - ongoing
I first came across this series when I was in Japan last November. I saw only the sixth episode on TV Tokyo because I was visiting for a short time. I loved the series from that one episode, so when I returned home I looked for the whole series. I must say that it ranks as No. 2 on my favourite anime list. It’s a great series with a very profound story and unique characters. Throughout the whole series you experience different emotions; the storyline is serious and deep but there are some comical scenes that break the drama overload that makes most anime of this genre unbearable.
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I said last week I’d stop putting this off, so even if it isn’t quite the end of the year yet, I’d like to go ahead and do a big Yearly Recommendation Post! I left a lot of stuff out, so these were just the top releases for me. I had a lot more favorites overall, but I couldn’t stick everything on here! It is also a bit heavy on the JPop as that is what I normally listen to, but a few JRock releases are thrown in there as well.
Cooking doramas has become a fad in Japanese television this year. All of them both tell stories about a certain person’s journey to reach mastery of his or her craft. Delicious Gakuin (Delicious Academy) or DeliGaku for short, shown in early June 2007, is one of these doramas. The only difference? It’s not really ‘drama’. If you want to have a slice of the cracky side of cooking, this is probably your thing.
AAA members Nishijima Takahiro and Atae Shinjirou star in this drama as 2 of the main characters, Kitasaka Rouma and Katsuragi Shugo respectively. With them as the main characters are stage and drama actor Miura Ryousuke as Matthew Perrier, stage actor and dancer Aiba Hiroki as Takasugi Rin, and D-BOYS member/sentai actor Nakamura Yuichi as Nangou Ryouji. Other actors worth mentioning are drama actor Shirosaki Jin as Tokudaira , singer/actor Hironari Amano, stage actor/singer Nagayama Takashi and actor Kawai Ryunosuke, all of whom acted as teachers in the so called “Delicious Gakuin”.
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Fashion Designing star Yamamoto Yohji and Adidas have teamed up to make Y-3, a brand of clothing that combines Adidas’ street sensiblility with Yamamoto’s elegance and style. The project was started in 2003, but it coming to full fruition now, as celebrities worldwide are supporting it.
Yamamoto Yohji was born in Yokohama in 1943. 25 years later he graduated from Bunka Fashion college and started his own fashion line. In the mid-80s, Yamamoto, Kawakubo Rei, and Miyake Issei made Tokyo into the fashion capital of Asia, as it is today. Yamamoto has long been a star in the international fashion world, but if you’re as out of touch with that as I am, you may know him for his costume designs in Kitano Takeshi’s Brother, Dolls, and Zatoichi. He often works with Kitano, along with many other directors, both Japanese and not. His latest costume work was on Kitano Takeshi’s “Takeshis’” in 2005. His Y’s line has outlets all over the world, including Belgium, France, Italy, Hong Kong, and the USA.
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What could be better than watching someone change into a bikini within one minute? Japanese TV at its finest. LOL.
Source: TV in Japan
Yamanbas move over, here come the Kegadoru girls. What can old mountain hags do against vulnerable, injured girls?
Indeed, Japanese fashion doesn’t fail to amuse me. The diversity in taste and genre simply blows my mind away. To those who don’t have a predilection for heavy make-up, if you think the Ganguro trend is over the top, then you’ve got to see the Yamanba girls. Considered a spin-off of the ganguro trend yet a statement in itself, the eponym of the trend is the “yama-uba” — a character in old Japanese ghost stories.
Yamanba’s primary fashion monikers are 4-6 inch platform boots, micro-mini skirts and tops in vivid hues of yellow, pink, purple, blue, green and orange. Their unique style of make-up and hair, however, is what really sets them apart from the crowd. Deep, artificial-looking tanned faces are offset with white eye shadow, white lipstick and bleached white hair. (Imagine a negative image on a roll of film.)
Quoted from AsiaWeek
Title : Gravitation
Genre : drama, comedy, romance, shounen-ai
Production : Studio DEEN
Episodes : 13
Vintage : 2000 - 2001
This was my first BL anime. At first, I didn’t know that it had a BL theme and when I saw the first episode, I was speechless. I found myself liking it so I decided to see the whole series. It’s a funny series, with a lot of fluff elements but at the same time you find there is a lot of drama and mystery. Well, the truth is I was completely drawn to this anime by the bishies, but the whole story was quite interesting too.
The story follows the young energetic singer, Shindou Shuichi, and his band, Bad Luck, on their journey to success as the best band in Japan. Along the way, Shindou falls in love with the famous romance novelist Yuki Eiri. Yuki is a very distant and mysterious person and Shindou finds himself attracted by his personality. Shindou fights to make his relationship with Yuki work but the blond has secrets from his past which continue to haunt him and is a person unwilling to open up.
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Almost everyone has probably seen a Maneki Neko, even if they don’t know what it’s called or what it means. They’re those cats that are often seen in Asian stores, sitting with one paw raised. “Maneki Neko” literally means “beckoning cat”; in Japan, waving with your palm facing outwards is a beckoning motion.
As with most legends, the Maneki Neko’s has many versions, but all are basically the same. A cat appears before some figure, appearing to beckon, saving them from some unfortunate occurrence. The story first popped in the late Edo period (late 1800’s), and is accredited to various emperors and samurai depending on who tells it. The “original” story is that a nobleman saw the cat on the side of the road, beckoning, and went towards it. Doing this saved him from a trap that had been laid for him ahead, and cats became a sign of luck.
Maneki Neko is often seen in shops, partly because it is “beckoning” customers into the shop, but also because the cat is believed to bring in customers, and therefore wealth, because it is lucky. Thus, Maneki Neko can often be seen holding a coin, or as a piggy-bank.
The “Maneki Neko Cult” has even evolved into different colours of cats. The most popular is a white cat with brown spots, which is considered the most lucky, but there are also pure white cats for purity, black cats for dispelling evil, red for good health, gold for wealth, and green for academic achievements. There are even pink cats (though they are not traditional) which are associated with love.
The Maneki Neko are often seen in Anime, either in their actual form, or as a reference (one of the most known is Meowth from Pokemon).
For all of you writing University Exams soon, this Maneki Neko is for good luck!
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